dayes of their feasting were gone about Secondly Iob sent to sanctifie his children though they were in their own houses though they were at their own disposing for it appeares they had families and housholds of their owne though they were men and women growen Yet Iob sent to sanctifie them Observe hence That Parents must not cast off the care of their children though they are growen up though they are men and women Some thinke that if they looke to their children at Schoole and breed them up a while and have given them some instructions in their youth they need not then trouble themselves any further Whereas the care of parents ought to live as long as they and their children live together Iobs care went after his children to their houses He sent to them to bid them prepare themselves Thirdly Though these were as we say men and women growne yet as soone as their Father sends the message to them they all submit and all obey then Observe That Children that are growen up or have houses and families of their owne ought yet to yeeld all reverence and submission to the lawfull commands counsells and directions of their Parents Doe not thinke you have outgrowen obedience and honour to Parents when you are growen in yeares still we see these thought themselves under their Fathers command and counsell there is not one of them replies what need my Father trouble himselfe about us No but all willingly prepared themselves and came for he offred burnt offerings aocording to the number of them all therfore certainely they all came Fourthly From the matter of this Act what it was that Iob did the text saith he sent and sanctified them after their feasting he did not send a messenger to them to aske them how they were in health whether they had not surfeted themselves or had got any distemper he did not send to know how the accounts went in their families whether they had not spent too much but the matter that he had his eye and his heart upon was that they might be sanctified and fitted for holy duties From hence observe That A Parents maine and speciall care should be for the soules of his children The care of many Parents is onely to inrich their children to make them great and Honourable to leave them full portions and estates to provide matches for them but for sanctifying their children there is no thought of that Nay many are afraid their children should be sanctified some Parents cannot abide their children because they suspect them sanctifyed Such Parents are the Devills children Iobs greatest care was that his children should be sanctified And every Parent ought to say of his naturall children as the Apostle Iohn doth of his spirituall children Ep. 3. v. 4. I have no greater joy then to heare that my children walke in the truth Fifthly Iob was a holy person and you see which way his care lies that his children may be holy then take this Note in the generall Hee that is a holy person himselfe desires to make others holy too Holy Iob would have all his children holy As it is with the wicked a wicked man would faine have all wicked with him he would faine scatter his wickednesse and diffuse his poison unto others The drunkard would faine have companions with him in his drunkennesse c. And so the man that is truly godly would make others godly too As Paul said to K. Agrippa I would to God that not only thou but also all that heare me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am Grace is attractive It desires to draw others into fellowship A good man would not be happy alone Sixthly Sanctification you see here is ascribed unto Iob he sent and sanctified them and all that he did was but to give them counsell and warning to sanctifie themselves As if he should have said goe to my children and bid them prepare themselves warne them that they may be ready against the sacrifice that they fit themselves for it yet the text saith that Job sanctified them Then we may observe from this That The good which others doe by our advice and counsell is reckoned as done by our selves While we provoke others to goodnesse that good which they doe is set upon our account as if we had done it As the wickednesse the sin which another commiâ—s by the advice and counsell of any man is set upon the score of that man If another doe ill by thy advice the ill is reckoned to thee if one should come and say as Absolom said to his servants Marke ye now when Amnons heart is merry with wine and when I say unto you smite Amnon then kill him feare not have not I commanded you Not only did the servants kill Amnon but Absolom killed Amnon because he commanded them to kill him You know what is said of David he did but send a Letter concerning the death of Vriah and the charge cometh Thou hast slaine Uriah with the Sword of the children of Ammon All the evill others commit by thy counsell direction advice command or consent is as done by thy selfe So on the other side all the good others doe by our counsell advice promotion admonition instruction and the like that good shall all be reckoned to us If another be holy by thy advise it will be said thou hast made him holy thou hast sanctified him Lastly Observe That Holy duties call for holy preparation We must not touch holy things with unholy hands or with unholy hearts I will wash my hands in innocency and so will I compasse thine Altar O Lord was Davids resolution Psalm 26.6 therefore Job intending a solemne duty a sacrifice which did containe the summe of all Religion concerning the externall worship of God sends solemnely to his children to prepare themselves O come not to the sacrifice except you be sanctified It is a point so cleare that I shall need but only to name it to you How and wherein they should sanctifie themselves and what course they took for the sanctifying and preparing of themselves for that duty doth not appeare in this place but afterwards when God gave them the Law he prescribed them a rule what they must doe that they might be sanctified the Jewes had speciall directions for their preparations Some things were outward and some inward I will but touch For the outward they were commanded to wash their cloathes Exod. 19. that place before quoted Sanctifie them to day and to morrow and let them wash their cloathes Not that God regarded cloathes but he aymed at somewhat further if the cloathes must be washed certainely then the heart must be washed he pointed at that in the washing of their cloathes In Leviticus and Numbers other outward preparations are commanded as the abstaining from all things that were uncleane they must not touch any thing that was uncleane and then sometimes they were not only to wash their cloathes
that prayer For sitting we have 2 Sam. 2.18 When Nathan brought that message unto David concerning the building of the house of God that it should be deferred till his sonnes time the Text saith That David went in and sate before the Lord and said who am I O Lord And in the end he saith Therefore have I found in my heart to pray this prayer unto thee We also find walking in prayer Gen. 24.63 Isaac went out into the field to pray He walked and pray'd we translate it to meditate but in the margin of your bookes you find it to pray as being nearer the Hebrew So that walking and sitting and standing are likewise praying gestures or postures of holy worship But chiefly that posture of bowing downe the body or bending the knee is the worship posture so it followes in the Text. He fell upon the ground and worshipped And worshipped To vvorship is to give to any one the honour due unto him So the rendering unto God that love that feare that service that honour vvhich is due unto him is the worshipping of God that 's the Scripture definition Psal 29.2 Give unto the Lord the honour due unto his name then followes by vvay of exposition Worship the Lord in the beauty of holinesse that is in his holy Temple in his beautifull Sanctuary or in the comely honour of his Sanctuary So that worship is the tendering of honour to the Lord in a vvay honourable to him namely according to his own vvill and Lawes of vvorship vvhich is intimated by comming to worship him in his beautifull Sanctuary where all things about the service of God vvere exactly prescribed by God And then there was beauty or comely honour in the Sanctuary vvhen all things vvere ordered there by the rule of his prescription varying and departing from vvhich vvould have filled that holy place vvith darknesse and deformity notwithstanding all the outward lustre and beauty had bin preserved The worship of God is two-fold there is internall worship and there is externall worship Internall worship is to love God to feare God and to trust upon him these are acts of inward worship these are the summe of our duty and Gods honour contained in the first Commandement And so you may understand vvorship in the Text. Iob fell downe and worshipped that is presently upon those reports hee put forth an act of love and holy feare acts of dependance and holy trust upon God in his Spirit saying to this effect within himselfe Lord though all this be come upon me yet I will not depart from thee or deale falsly in thy Covenant I know thou art still the same Jehovah true holy gracious faithfull All-sufficient and therefore behold me prostrate before thee and resolving still to love thee still to feare thee still to trust thee thou art my God still and my portion for ever Though I had nothing left in the world that I could call mine yet thou Lord alone art enough yet thou alone art All. Such doubtlesse vvas the language of Iobs heart and these were mighty actings of inward worship Then likewise there is externall worship which is the summe of the second Commandement and it is nothing else but the serving of the Lord according to his owne Ordinances and institution in those severall wayes wherein God will be honoured and served this is outward vvorship and as we apply our selves unto them so we are reckon'd to worship God Job worshipped God outwardly by falling to the ground by powring out supplications and by speaking good words of God as we reade afterward words tending to his owne abasement and the honour of God clearely and fully acquitting and justifying the Lord in all those works of his providence and dispensations towards him This is worship both internall and externall Internall worship is the chiefe but God requireth both and there is a necessity of joyning both together that God may have honour in the world Internall worship is compleat in it selfe and pleasing unto God without the externall The externall may be compleat in it selfe but is never pleasing to God without the internall Internall worship pleases God most but externall honours God most for by this God is knowne and his glory held forth in the world Externall worship is Gods name Hence the Temple was called the place where God put his Name sc his worship by which God is knowne as a man by his name They that worship God must worship him in Sprit and in Truth In Spirit that is with inward love and feare reverence and sincerity In Truth that is according to the true rule prescribed in his word Spirit respects the inward power Truth the outward forme The former strikes at hypocrisie the latter strikes at Idolatry The one opposes the inventions of our heads the other the loosenesse of our hearts in worship Observe further that it is only said Job fell downe and worshipped nothing is said of the object to whom he did direct his worship or whom he did worship The object is not exprest but understood or presupposed And indeed worship is a thing so proper and peculiar to God that when we name worship we must needs understand God For nothing but God or that which we make a god is or can be worshipped Either he is God whom we worship or as much as in us lies we make him one What creature so ever shares in this honour this honour ipso facto sets it up above and makes it more then a creature The very Heathens thought every thing below a God below worship therefore there needed not an expression of the object when the Text saith Job worshipped that implyes his worship was directed unto God yet there is a kind of worship which is due to creatures There is a civill worship mentioned in Scripture as well as divine worship Civill worship may be given to men And there is a two-fold civill worship spoken of in Scripture There is a civill worship of duty and there is a civill worship of courtesie That of duty is from inferiours to their superiours from children to their Parents from servants to their Masters from Subjects to Kings and Magistrates These gods must have civill worship As Gen. 48.11 vvhen Joseph came into the presence of Jacob his father he bowed downe to the ground this vvas a civill vvorship and a vvorship of duty from an inferiour to a superiour And it is said of the brethren of Judah Gen. 49.8 when Jacob on his death-bed blessed the 12. Tribes Thy brethren shall worship thee or bow downe to thee It is the same vvord used here in this Text. Judahs honour vvas to vvield the Scepter the government was laid upon his shoulders now he being the chiefe Magistrate all the rest of the Tribes all his brethren must vvorship him or give civill honour unto him Secondly There is likewise a worship of courtesie vvhich is from equals when one equall vvill bow to another or vvhen a
man saith he that hath his quiver full of them that hath many such arrowes such are children of the youth verse 4. There are some rich and covetous men that are in this point beyond others rich in folly You shall heare them pride themselves that they have no children or but few this they conceive sets them off in the opinion of the world for the richer men whereas one child is more riches then all the things that are in the world And we know it is an ordinary thing though indeed it is a very sinfull thing to say 't is true such an one is a rich man he hath a faire estate but he hath a great charge a great many children as if that did take-off from his riches or make him lesse happy as if he were the poorer because he hath a larger share of that ancient first blessing upon man Be fruitfull and multiply and replenish the Earth 4. Note this To have many sons to have most sons amongst our children is the greater outward blessing Iob is described here in the most exact method of outward blessings he had sonnes and his sonnes out-number his daughters he had 7. sonnes and but three daughters And the reason why most sonnes among children are the greater blessing is cleare because sonnes beare up the name and are a greater support unto the family 5. To have many sonnes and daughters too is yet a compleater blessing For by daughters the family is increast and other families are joyned and knit and united to that family And to have sons and daughters both is the perfection of that naturall blessing because man was so made at the first he was made male and female As it is with the soule and the body though the soule be more excellent than the body yet the soule alone is not so perfect as when soule and body are together because though the body be not so strong in constitution and noble in condition as the soule yet body and soule in creation were joyned together therefore their greatest perfection consists in their union So likewise it is in a family though sonnes in nature are more perfect yet because it was the first institution of a family male and female therefore the fullnes and compleatnesse of the blessing is in the union of both Iob had many sons and daughters likewise this made the blessing more compleat And then lastly observe this Children many children in the family are in themselves no impediments either of piety towards God or iustice toward man As soone as ever Iob was described in all his perfections it is added he had so many sonnes and so many daughters though he had so many children to looke to and provide for yet he omitted neither duty toward God nor duty toward man There are many who thinke it some excuse if not excuse enough for their neglect for their sleighting holy duties or sleightnesse in the holy duties of hearing praying and the like oh they have a great many children and they must rise early and they must worke late they can spare no time or but little for the publike or private or secret worship of God specially for any thing that is extraordinary so that these cares steale away not onely those times that might be bestowed in an extraordinary manner upon their soules but even the ordinary times are stolen away by them also Further some thinke themselves by this in part excused for their injustice toward men they have a great family and if they deale somewhat hardly and sticke as close as they can in all businesses they may be borne with for they have a great many children and they must looke to provide for them they else were worse then Infidels and hence they take liberty to doe what honest Infidels were asham'd of Iob you see was upright though he had so many sonnes and so many daughters to provide for It is ill with those whose gaine for their children is any losse to their souls but woe when any to gaine for their children loose their souls doing like those in Na. 2.12 The Lyon did teare in peeces enough for his whelpes and strangled for his lionesses and filled his holes with prey and his dens with rapine By the Lyon there is meant those oppressours that lived in Nineveh and by their whelpes are meant their children and by Lionesses their wives they had wives and children and they must have meanes and estates for them Iob as I may say had whelpes and a lionesse wife and children yet he doth not teare for them Nay though hee had so many to provide for yet hee rather giveth out to others What hungry belly was not filled with his meat And what naked backe was not cloathed with his wooll He did not say I have children to feed and to cloath and therefore you can have nothing You see though he had many children and a great charge yet how compleate he was in his duty to God and in his duty to man he failed not either in the duties of worship and holinesse nor in the duties of justice and uprightnesse JOB 1.3 4 5. His substance also was seven thousand Sheepe and three thousand Camels and five hundred Yoke of Oxen and five hundred shee Asses and a very great houshold so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the East And his Sonnes went and feasted in their houses every one his day and sent and called for their three Sisters to eat and to drinke with them And it was so when the dayes of their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all c. THE Holy Ghost having shewed us the qualities of Jobs person in the first verse the Olive-plants round about his Table being the first outward blessing in the second Now proceeds â—o shew also his outward estate his stock of Cattell His substance was seven thousand Sheepe c. Concerning the outward Estate of Job we may note in this â—hird verse 1. The severall kinds of his stocke Sheepe Camels Oxen and Asses 2. The severall numbers of each of these kinds Seven thouâ—â—nd Sheep three thousand Camels c. It is said His substance was seven thousand Sheepe c. We 〈◊〉 our language call the estate of a man his substance and a rich â—an we call him a substantiall man though indeed riches are but â—ternall and accidentall yet they are called the substance of a man 〈◊〉 cause they make him subsist and stand by himselfe he needs not the â—op and helpe of others The word here in the Hebrew which we translate substance is indifferent to signifie any possession but especially it signifies possession or substance by Cattell Therefore in those times wherein the estates of the great men of the earth were most in Cattell this expression was chiefly used The Septuagint renders it And
single thred All his outward estate was kept without not a shred not a thread got into his spirit Take this for a third reason why the Holy Ghost doth thus exactly set forth the estate of Iob sc that he might appeare to be an exact holy man From the whole take these Observations First We see here Job a holy man very full of riches Then Observe That riches are the good blessings of God God would never have bestowed them upon his Job else Least we should thinke riches evill they are given to those who are good And least riches should be thought the chiefest good they are given to those that are evill It is a certaine truth that God never gives any thing in it selfe evill to those that are good nor doth he ever give the chiefest good to those that are evill Therefore it shewes that riches are good because the godly have them and it shewes that they are not the chiefest good because the wicked have them When the Gospell calls us to renounce the world to cast off the world it calls us to cast the world out of our affections not out of our possession To hold and possesse great riches is not evill it is evill to set our hearts upon them Secondly Iob was described before A just man an upright man that is a man just in his dealing a man that gave every one his owne He did not decline no not a haires bredth if possibly he could from the line of Justice Commutative or Distributive yet this Iob is exceeding rich Hence observe That Plaine and honest dealing is no hinderance to the gaining or preserving of an estate Honest dealing is no stop no barre to getting There is a cursed Proverbe amongst us which some use and it is to be feared some walke by it That he which useth plaine dealing shall die a Beggar You see Job that was a plaine man a just dealing man yet is full of riches the nighest and the safest way to riches is the way of justice Woe to those who by getting riches get a wound in their owne consciences What will it advantage any one to gather many goods when in the meane time his heart tells him that all have a bad Master What will it advantage any to load to fraight his Ship by trading on forbidden Coasts when by doing this he splits and makes shipwracke of his soul If you would goe the ready way to attaine the things of this life walke in the wayes of God Honesty and Justice Uprightnesse and truth will leade you to the highest and greatest estate with Gods blessing All other riches are poverty all other gaine is losse There is a fire in an estate ill gotten which will at last consume it A man builds with timber that hath a fire in it that layes the foundation of his estate by sinne he layes up iniquity for his children And so doth God Job 21.19 It is commonly said likewise Dives aut iniquus aut iniqui haeres A rich man is either an unjust man or the heyre of an unjust man In Psal 82. the wicked are put for the rich How long will you iudge uniustly and accept the persons of the wicked That is the persons Divitum aut Potentum of rich or great men so it is to be understood for Judges would never accept the persons of wicked men if they were poore if they be in equall ballance with others in regard of outward things and then the opposition that is made in the next words Defend the poore and fatherlesse shewes that the rich are there meant These great ones are called wicked because saith the Glosse they usually get and uphold their greatnesse by wickednesse Such is the course of the world and it is the shame of the world much more of Christians We see in Jobs practise that riches may be attained and maintained too by righteousnesse Job was rich and iust Thirdly In that Iob a man fearing God was thus rich thus great See here the truth of the promises God will make good his promise concerning outward things to his people Godlinesse hath the promises of this life as well as of that which is to come As it hath promises made to it so it hath promises performed to it Iob a man fearing God a godly man is very rich Indeed not many rich not many mighty not many honourable not many great ones are called and so not many of those that are called are mighty and rich and great and noble yet some such are that the truth of the promises may appeare somtime in the very letter to the eye of sence as it alwayes doth to the eye of faith Doe not feare that you shall be poore if you turne godly for godlinesse hath the promises of this life and there was a rich Iob a rich Abraham a rich Isaac a rich David and many other godly rich God will performe when it is good for them the promises of outward good things to his children outwardly Fourthly Here is another Observation from this place Iob was frequent in holy duties he was a man fearing God that is as we explained it in the first verse he was much verst in the wayes of holy worship he did not serve God by fits or at his leasure but continually yet he was very rich Note hence Time spent in holy duties is no losse no hinderance to our ordinary callings or to our thriving in them Iob serves God so frequently that it is called continually yet he grows in wealth abundantly The time that he spent in the service of God did not rob his purse impoverish his family or hinder him in his dealings and businesses of the world Iob maintained both his callings he maintained his generall calling in the wayes and service of God and his speciall or particular calling in his relations unto men both went on together and they were no hinderance one to another but a furtherance rather The time we spend in spirituall duties is time gain'd for secular The paines we take in prayer c. whets our tools and oyls our wheels promotes all we go about and getteth a blessing upon all This meets with another blasphemy very frequent in the world If a man professing godlinesse goe backward in his estate especially a man that is taken notice of for his extraordinary zeale and constancy in holy duties Then the clamour is O you see what hearing of Sermons hath brought him unto you see what comes of his praying and fasting he ha's followed these things you see till he is undone I say two things unto these men First Many are thought to goe backward in their outward estate because they doe so much in spirituall duties when indeed they are so farre from doing too much that they doe too little and that rather is the reason why they thrive not The body may be exercis'd often when the spirit workes but seldome if at all in holy things and this