commune with thee There was a gracious manifestation of the presence of God above the Mercy-seat because that typified Jesus Christ the true Propitiatory or ransome covering and hiding out of the sight of God for ever all our defections iniquities and transgressions And hence the same word which signifies expiation or redemption signifieth also the procuring cause of our Redemption here called as also in the New Testament A Ransome I have found a Ransome A ransome is properly a price demanded for release out of bondage And when the Captive is released the price is paid To be redeemed and to be ransomed is the same thing Isa 35.9 10. The redeemed shall passe there and the ransomed of the Lord shall returne and come to Sion and everlasting joy upon their heads they shall obtaine joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away Graeci dicunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod non est aliud quam sanguis Christi in quem et vetores crediderunt Merc Thus here Deliver him saith the Lord from going downe to the pit I am satisfied I have found a price a ransome Both Law and Gospel meet in this here is the Law by which the man being humbled confesseth his own sin and the wrath of God due to it Here is also the Gospel by which he hath been taught to beleeve that his sins are pardoned and the wrath of God turned away from him for the ransome which Christ hath paid So then 't is not as popish Expositers tell us I have found a ransome that is I have found the mans good workes I have found his repentance I have found his tears his prayers his almes I now see that in him for which I may be propicious to him and deliver him from the sickness under which he is detained Apparet in homine aliquid aequitatis ex quo ei misererâ— possum quam quaerebam Aquin thus they generally make somewhat in man or done by man his ransome at least to have a share in it The heart as was shewed before is prepared for deliverance by the workings of faith and repentance But the ransome upon which deliverance is given is nothing at all wrought in us or by us Woe to us notwithstanding our prayers and repentance our reformations and humiliations To put these in place of a ransome or to hope for deliverance from the pit upon their account is to pervert the whole Gospel Others give a better sence yet not clear enough thus He hath humbled himself and I am as well satisfied as if I had received a ransome but I lay that by also For when God saith I have found a ransome we are to understand it of a reall ransome of full pay or satisfaction not of a ransome by favour and acceptation This satisfaction to the justice of God is only and wholly made by Jesus Christ without any the least contribution from man The perfect ransome which the Lord finds is the blood of his own Son which is called the blood of the Covenant because thereby the Covenant is confirmed and all Covenant mercies assured to us Upon this price or ransome God restores the sick sinner and pardons him he heales both his body and his soul And that Job had knowledge of this ransome as the only meanes of deliverance appeares Chap. 17.3.19.25 Deliver him for I have found a ransome Hence Observe First The redemption or deliverance of man by a ransome is the invention of God and the invention of God only If all men on earth yea if all the Angells in Heaven had sat from the foundation of the world to this day in counsell beating their braines and debating this question How man sinfull man might be delivered out of the hand of the Law or from that condemnatory sentence under which the Law had cast and detained him with satisfaction or without dammage to the Justice and righteousness of God they could never have found it out nor any thing like it This is Gods own invention or if God had said to fallen man I see thou art in a lost pitifull condition but sit down and consider how I may doe thee good and not wrong my selfe how I may relieve thee and not dishonour my selfe I will freely doe it If God I say had given man a blank to write downe what he would have done to bring this about he could never have found it out but must have perished for ever in his sin The thought of a ransome in this way had never entred into the heart either of men or Angells if God himself had not revealed it Therefore the Apostle Peter having spoken of the great diligence of the old Prophets searching into and inquiring about that great mystery the way and means of mans salvation câ—ncludes 1 Epist 1.12 Which things the Angells desire to look into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word there used notes a curious prying into that which hath some veyled or secret rarity in it We may conceive the Apostle in that word alluding to the Cherubims which by Gods command to Moses were made with their eyes looking downe to the Mercy-seat or propitiatory in the Holy of holyes Exod. 25.20 figuring the ransome in the Text yea and expressed by the same Hebrew word The living Angells doe that which those representative Angells seemed to doe they look earnestly at the mystery of our redemption made or ransome given by Jesus Christ There is such an exquisiteness in this invention the deliverance of man by Christ that the Angells desire to look into it even as men desire to see rare inventions And this exceedingly commends the wisdome of God in our redemption that it was a secret to the very glorious Angells They did not know it but as it was made knowne to them nor did God as it seemes make it knowne to them firstly or immediately but it was revealed to them occasionally by the revelation of it first to the Church as the Apostle doth more then intimate Eph. 3.10 To the intent that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places that is the holy Angells might be known by the Church the manifold wisdome of God As if had it not been for the light given to and spread abroad in the Church the Angells had been in the dark to this day about that matter And doubtless if the Angells did not gather up their knowledge of that mystery by the ministery of the Apostles preaching it to the world in a way of information yet by their contemplation of what was done in the Church of the goodness of God to the Church they saw as in a glasse that manifold wisdome of God which before they saw not or were ignorant of Now if the holy Angells knew not this mystery but as it was revealed much lesse could man We saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 2.6 7 8 9. speake wisdome among them that are perfect yet not the wisdome of this world nor of the
charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem which is in Judah who is there among you of all his people The Lord his God be with him and let him goe up God hath charged me saith Cyrus or he hath made that my businesse a businesse incumbent upon me to build him a house in Jerusalem that is to further the worke to give the Jewes leave to build the Temple of Jerusalem God hath charged me with this great trust and I am willing to answer it The same thing is recorded almost in the same words Ezra 1.2 Thus saith Cyrus King of Persia the Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he hath Charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah God giveth Princes their Charge supreame soveraigne Princes yea he giveth inferiour Princes and Magistrates their Charge but saith Elihu Who hath given him a Charge Certainly no man There is yet a twofold reading of this former part of the verse both considerable First Thus Who for him hath visited the earth As if it had been sayd Hath God set any to visit or to look to the earth for him as if himselfe stood by and did nothing God useth the power of man he sets up Magistrates to worke for him but he never puts the worke out of his owne hand nor doth he need any hand to helpe him in that worke though he useth many and though he saith By me yea for me Kings reigne yet we may say with Elihu in the notion now exprest Who for him hath visited the earth that 's a good reading Secondly Who over him doth visit the earth Is God any mans Vicegerent is he a Lord Deputy or a Viceroy No there is no man visits the earth over him for as we render clearely Who hath given him a Charge over the earth As if he had sayd If God be an unjust Judge is there any superiour Judge to whom we may appeale for remedy or redresse of our injuries Who over him visiteth or who hath given him a charge over the earth That is over the inhabitants of the earth or over the affayres of the earth The Earth by a Synecdoche of the Continent for the matter contained is here put for all persons and transactions over the face of the whole earth Who hath layd that great Charge the disposall of all things and people in the earth upon God surely no man on earth no Angel in heaven nor all of them put together How should God derive a governing power from them who derive their very power of being from him He governes in his owne right not by commission or deputation We have the same poynt affirmed at the 36th Chapter of this Booke v. 23d Who hath enjoyned him his way God knoweth and taketh his owne way no man sheweth much lesse commandeth him his way Who hath given him a Charge over the earth Or who hath disposed the whole world This Question as the former containes a Negation no Creature none besides God hath disposed of the whole world or of all of the world Mr Broughton renders Who hath setled all the dwelt land The word which we translate disposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 posuit arto cura et ordine quod est disposuit signifies to place with a kind of art exactly orderly carefully Who hath thus disposed the whole world There is a double disposition of the world First In Creation who hath disposed joynted and put the whole world in frame who hath marshall'd the severall parts of the world as they now stand like the Host of God The world as created is expressed in the Greek by beauty and order before God perfected the creation all was a confused heape without forme and voyd But that rude indigested matter was drawne forth in the severall works of that six-dayes Creation into a most beautifull forme and order Thus God once disposed all the world by Creation Secondly God dayly disposeth the world by providence And that 's the disposure which this text especially speakes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 orbù habitabilis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocant i. e. hâ—mines degentes in orbe habitabili Pisc Who hath disposed in a providentiall way the whole world The word rendred world properly signifies the habitable world we find it opposed to the wildernesse or desert Isa 14.17 where few or none inhabite That word is very significantly used here for the world because the habitable part of the world or where men inhabite are the stages on which the providences of God appear and act most eminently convincingly Who hath disposed of the habitable world which the Greekes call The house of abiding Mr Broughton The dwelt land that is the land wherein men dwell Againe As the earth before is put for the inhabitants and occurrences of the earth so whatsoever passeth or is brought to passe in the world is here called the world Who hath disposed the whole world He that made the whole world disposeth of the whole world providence followeth Creation But some may say Is this a good Argument to prove that God is just because he hath the supreame power over all the world Will it follow that he administreth all things rightly because he hath a right to administer all things There seemes but little of Argument in this may some say many have a great deale of power who abuse it and they that have most power usually abuse it most and make it but a servant to their lusts and passions therefore how is it a proofe that the Lord is righteous and will doe no iniquity because he hath the power of all things in his hand or is Lord over all I answer This is a strong argument and as I remember a good Author calls it a peremptory argument which can have no deniall The Lord is righteous because he is Lord over all he is not King of some corner of the World he is not King of the whole World by election or vote of the World he is not chosen at all much lesse as many have been by evill means and wicked combinations God is the supreame governer of all the world by naturall right not choyce yet not as some Princes are by naturall right of succession inheriting after a mortall father but by the naturall right of creation himself being the father of that world over which he is a governour The Originall of Gods power is stated in himself The eternall being of God and his supreame authority are inseparable Yea God is not only thus supreame in administring Justice but he is the summe or fullnesse of Law and Justice and therefore cannot pervert it He whose power and goodnesse gave the world its being how should he act any thing which is not good in the exercise of his power over the World Jnjustice is the breach of a Law but how can God break a Law who is the source and fountaine of all
a man of understanding every man is not a man of understanding in naturall and civill things much lesse in things divine and spirituall As some men have so much will or rather wilfulnesse that they are nothing but will and some have so much passion that they are nothing but passion so others have such riches and treasures of understanding as if they were nothing but understanding Now it is the speciall inspiration of the Almighty which giveth such an understanding that is an enlarged and an enriched understanding We say the inspiration of the Almighty g veth understanding The Hebrew is but one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intellectificat eos Brent which we may expresse as some doe It Intellectifieth So then the scope and meaning of this verse is plainly this That howsoever every man the meanest of men hath a reasonable soule yet the furniture of the understanding or mans fulness of wisdome and knowledge is by gift or inspiration of the Almighty and therefore some read the verse thus Surely there is a spirit in man but the inspiration of the Almighty maketh them to understand Thus Elihu would gâ—ine credit and authority to what he had to deliver as being by the teachings and dictates of the Spirit of God Est spiritus in hominibus spiratio autem omnipotentis docet Sept The Seventy comply fully with this rendering There is a spirit in men but the inspiration of the Almighty teacheth As if Elihu had said Though man be endewed with naturall knowledge and reason which can doe somewhat yet untill light shines from above till the spirit of God comes in and enlargeth the naturall spirit it cannot see farre nor doe any great matter Or take the sence of the whole verse thus in connection with what went before Though old age hath odds of youth yet one man as well as another hath a spirit of reason and judgement in him whereby through supply of speciall inspiration from God who can doe all things he may be able to know that which want of yeares denieth him From the words thus opened Observe First Wisdome or understanding is the gift of the Spirit of God We have a like assertion by way of question in the 38th Chapter of this booke ver 36. Who hath put wisdome into the inward parts or who hath given understanding to the heart who hath hath man put wisdome into himselfe or hath he made his own heart to understand the Question denies no man hath not done it Wisdome is an Influence or an Inspiration from the Almighty knowledge to order common things is of the Lord Isa 28.26 29. His God doth instruct him the husbandman he meanes to discretion in ordering the ground and doth teach him how much more in spirituall things and the mysteries of the kingdome of heaven Prov. 16.1 The preparation of the heart in man and the Answer of the tongue that is The fitting of the heart for any right answer of the tongue is from the Lord both the generall preparation of the heart for service or use and the speciall preparation of it to this or that service use is of the Lord so is the Answer of the tongue for the discharge of it Eccles 2.26 God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdome and knowledge and joy As God giveth man the knowledge of things so wisdome to know how to order and manage the things that he knoweth Some have more knowledge then they know how to manage their knowledge masters them they are not masters of their knowledge they have more knowledge then wisdome Now God gives to him that is good in his sight that is to the man whom he chooseth and is pleased with knowledge and wisdome and then he gives him joy that is Comfort in the exercise of that knowledge wherewith he is endued this is a notable and a noble gift of God We read Isa 11.2 The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the spirâ—t of wisdome and understanding It is a prophesie of Christ who being made in all things like to man had a naturall spirit or a reasonable faculty and he had that furnished by the spirit without measure the spirit of the Lord rested upon him the spirit of wisdome and understanding the spirit of Counsell and might the spirit of knowledge and of the feare of the Lord even Christ as man received an unction or inspiration from the Almighty for the fullfilling of his Mediatoriall office much more doe meere men for the fullfilling of any office they are called unto 2 Cor 3.5 We are not sufficient of our selves so much as to thinke a good thought Our sufficiency is by the Inspiration of the Almighty James 1.17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above It is not a vapour that riseth out of the earth but an Influence which distills and drops downe from heaven it is from above that is from God who though he be every where filling both heaven and earth with his essentiall presence yet according to Scripture language his most glorious and manifestative presence is above and therefore to say every good gift is from above is all one as to say it is from God Daniel and those other three Noble youths of the Jewish race exceeded all the wise men of Chaldea in rare abilities and the Scripture tells us whence it was that they did so Dan. 1.17 As for these foure Children God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdome and the assertion is layd downe in General Dan. 2.21 He that is God changeth times and seasons he removeth Kings and setteth up Kings he giveth wisdome to the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding All these Scriptures speak with one Consent the language of this Text It is the Inspiration of the Almighty that giveth understanding And if we compare 1 Sam 10.1 with the 6th 9th 11th and 12th verses of the same Chapter we have a most remarkable passage to this purpose Where Saul having received the unction from Samuel both as an assurance of and a preparation for the exercise of his kingly office over Israel Samuel tells him ver 6. The Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee and thou shalt prophecy with them that is with the company of Prophets spoken of in the former verse and shalt be turned into another man And the holy text adds ver 9. God gave or as we put in the margin turned him another heart There is a twofold turning or changing of the heart or of a man into another man First by gifts of Illumination Secondly by the grace of Sanctification the great change of the heart is that change of Conversion by the grace of Sanctification Saul was not turned into another man nor had he another heart as changed by Grace for he shewed still his old heart in his new kingly state but he had another heart or he was another man as changed by gifts
Others give their meaning thus rigidly We think it our wisdome to say no more but to remit or give him up to God as a man that is obstinate and will not be convinced Elihu told them a little before that none had convinced Job and here they are represented saying we indeed have left him to God as unconvincible by us and therefore God must thrust him downe not man there is a truth in this Some men are so obstinate in their wayes though evill and stiâ—fe in their opinions though grossest errors that there is no more dealing with them such as these are past mans skill to recall or reclaime Ista animi obfirmatio omne amplius loquendi desiderium adimit cum eo homine quum nemo homo poterit sed deus solus de ista animi pertinacia depellere Iun they must be left to God As in extreame dangerous cases of travel in child-birth the good women sigh and give over saying This is not womans worke we must leave her to the man So in dealing with some men after long labour and no successe we must even say This is not mans worke he must be left to God who alone can thrust him downe man cannot Thirdly That which is I conceive chiefly intended take thus I saith Elihu have undertaken after long waiting and expectance to shew mine opinion Lest ye should say we have found out wisdome That is an argument so strongly concluding Job a wicked man Cum Job affligatur inusitato modo affligatur idque adeo justo qui nec fallere nec falli potest in suo judicio consequitur planè Jobum esse improbuÌ„ Aquin Drus Merc that no wise man can object against it But what was that irreftagable argument by which Jobs friends hoped to conclude him and stop his mouth for ever Surely that which followeth in this verse God thrusteth him downe not man That Jobs friends layd the maine ground-worke of their hard opinion concerning him in the dealings of God with him is evident by what hath been shewed from many passages quite through the Booke All which may be resolved into the sence now given of this one God thrusteth him downe not man and therefore he is a wicked man Hence observe First The afflictions and thrustings downe of some men are ominently from the hand of God Every affliction is from God but some are more from God As God is more visibly seene in the lifting up of some men so in the casting downe of others Every man that is lifted up is lifted up by the hand of God 'T is the most High who one way or other setteth any man on high but in setting up some men on high his workings are so high that every man may see them and say The finger of God is there the hand of God hath done it 'T is thus also in thrusting men downe every affliction every thrusting downe is from God there is a hand of God in it for as Eliphaz spake Chap. 5.6 Affliction comes not forth of the dust nor doth trouble spring out of the ground Whence then are troubles Surely they drop downe from heaven they are from the earth as to the contracting of them but from heaven as to the contriving of them Yet there are some troubles which fall from heaven more apparently then others doe That is there is more of God more of the hand of God in such a dispensation then there is in others though there be a hand of God in every one therefore say Jobs friends God thrusts him downe and not man this mans afflictions are mighty stroakes from heaven For though God hath raised up and used instruments against him yet himselfe hath appeared most against him Secondly Observe Those afflictions wherein God doth eminently appeare against a man seâ—â—â— to beare the greatest witnesse against him of his sinfulnesse or wickednesse That was the scope of Jobs friends This is say they an undeniable argument that the man is wicked because there is such an eminent hand of God upon him This was the foundation upon which they built all their severall censures of him yea their hardest sentences against him And there is a faire probability in this way of arguing upon soure Considerations First It may be urged thus God is just men indeed are often unjust and unrighteous in the evill which they bring upon others but God is just and therefore he would not lay his hand upon any man in this manner unlesse he were a wicked man Surely his iniquity hath found him out whom the hand of God hath thus found out Secondly God is mercifull he is gracious Lament 3.33 He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of men Now if God hath declared himselfe so unwilling to grieve the Children of men surely when we see him so willingly grieve a man as he hath grieved this or that man may we not say he is a wicked man Judgement is called Gods strange worke but in judging some he acteth as if judgement were his proper worke as if he were in his Element when he is laying heavie stroaks on their backs therefore may we not conclude such among the wicked Thirdly God is wise he cannot be deceived concerning any man therefore there is some great reason why he afflicts and what reason can more probably be given of a great affliction then some great sin As God is so true that he will not deceive any man so he is so wise that he cannot be deceived in any man He cannot misse his mark nor fall upon a wrong subject in his dispensations therefore we have faire warrant to say that a man against whom God appeares so much appeares very foule to him what ever faire appearances he may have among men Fourthly Take this Consideration also when men afflict their brethren they often do it either out of resolved malice or in heat of revenge but God cannot do it with such a spirit nor from such principles The highest acts of revenge in God are but the awards of Justice Againe Men will afflict others out of envie or to ease themselves as the Apostle speaks of parents chastning their children Heb 12.9 10. We have had fathers of our flesh which have corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much more be in subjection to the father of spirits and live For they verily for a few dayes chastned us after their owne pleasure or as that text may more clearely be rendred out of the original Greek as it seemed good to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro ut ipsis videbatur Bezâ— or as they thought good As if he had said They will doe it upon their naturall prerogative or the right of paternity without giving any account Yea a father will afflict and chasten his child sometimes in another sence for his pleasure That is to vent his passion and ease himselfe but God never chastneth us in passion noâ— ever purely upon
because we doe that which in it selfe is not right nor according to the mind of God Secondly in the issue consequence or effects of it because by respecting persons we are endangered to many other sins While Solomon only saith Prov 28.21 To have respect of persons is not good his meaning is 't is very evill 't is starke naught And the reason which he gives of the evill of it is not only because the act in it selfe is evill but because the issue and consequence of it is worse For saith that Scripture for a piece of bread that man will transgresse That is he that respects persons will turn aside from Justice for his owne advantage though it be very small even for a piece of bread The Prophet complaines of those Amos 2.6 who sold the righteous for silver and the poore for a paire of shoes They who have sold or given up themselves to this crooked Spirit of respecting persons will not sticke to sell both the persons of the righteous and the most righteous causes not only as the Prophet saith for a paire of shoes but as we say for a paire of shoe-buckles They will soone judge amisse of things who have respect to persons and they alwayes looke beside the cause who looke too much upon the face nothing should weigh with us in judgement but truth or right and that in a five-fold opposition First Truth and right must weigh with us in opposition to relation When a Brother or a neere kinsman be in the cause we must not decline nor be biassed from the truth yea though it be on his side to whom we have no relation but that of man Secondly We must keep to the truth and doe justice in opposition to friendship Though he be my friend my old friend and my fathers friend I must not respect him if truth stand upon the other side upon the side of the meerest stranger It was anciently sayd Socrates is my friend and Plato is my friend Amicus Socrates Amicus Plato sed magis amica veritas but truth is more my friend and therefore I will stick to that Thirdly We must hold to truth in opposition to or notwithstanding the hatred of men suppose a man beares us ill will yea in other things hath wronged us yet if his present cause be righteous we must doe him right We may not bring in our particular wrongs or quarrells upon any cause but that about which the wrong or quarrel riseth They shew the purest love to righteousnesse who act righteously towards those that hate them and will not wrong those who have attempted to oppresse and ruine them A true lover of Justice will do to others as himselfe would have others doe to him yea though they have not done to him as they would be done to Fourthly We must stand to truth in opposition to riches and worldly aboundance riches usually find more friends and favourers then righteousnesse doth And 't is usuall to favour the rich more then the righteous How often is truth on the poore mans side over-ballanced by his adversaries purse But O how poore are they in spiritualls and morals who thus respect the persons of the rich Fifthly We must judge for truth in opposition to worldly greatness and power and that in a two-fold consideration First Though men have a power to reward and preferre us to doe great things for us yet this should not draw us aside woe to those who respect the greatnesse of the person instead of the goodnesse of the cause yet how many are there who care not how bad a great mans cause is if he will but engage to do them good yea some great men look upon themselves as much undervalued if they be not favoured in their cause how bad soever it be because they are able to doe them good who favour it Balak tooke it very ill at Balaams hands when he seemed unmoved by his ability to advance and reward him Did not I earnestly send for thee to call thee Wherefore camest thou not to me am I not able indeed to promote thee to honour Numb 22.37 And wilt not thou serve my interest when I have such a power to advance thine Thus also Saul thought all must cleave to him and forsake the cause of David because he was great and could preferre them 1 Sam 22.7 Will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards and make you all Captains of thousands and Captains of hundreds Hath he any great places to bestow and honours to give Why then doe ye seeme to adhere to him and his party Hope of reward makes a great bias upon some mens spirits and carrieth them quite off from truth There is a second consideration prevailing much with many in this matter for though they are unmoved by rewards and will not bite at the bayte of selfe-advancement yet say they O he is a great man and hath great power he may do me a shrewd turne he may vex me and undoe me he may sit upon my skirts hereafter and ruine me Thus where hope doth not feare may carry a man from respect to right to the respect of persons But know That be a man never so great and able to doe me a mischiefe yet truth must be maintained and Justice be done though we should be quite undone by appearing for it It hath been sayd of old Let justice be done though heaven fall much more should it be done though we for doing and abetting it fall to the earth Moses gave that charge more then once Levit. 19.15 Deut. 1.16 17. Thou shalt not respect the person of the poore nor honour the mighty but in righteousnesse shalt thou judge thy neighbour Againe Ye shall not respect persons in Judgement but ye shall heare the small as well as the great you shall not be afraid of the face of man for the judgement is Gods neither undue pity to the poore nor carnal feare of the great which two often doe ought to put any check or stop to the execution of Justice So in that excellent model of instructions which Jehoshaphat gave his Judges 2 Chron 19.7 Wherefore now let the feare of the Lord be upon you take heed and doe it for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God nor respect of persons nor taking of gifts As if he had said Do not you respect persons for God respects no persons he is no gift-taker therefore be ye no gift-takers your duty is to give every one his due That which is right to one man is right to another either in the same or in any paralel case That which is the rich mans right in his cause is the right of the poore man in his cause Quod uni aequum est non debet alteri in eodem casu esse iniquum yea it is as sinfull not to have a due respect to the rich man in his case as not to have respect to the poore man
therefore though he know well enough how to doe evill yet he is truely sayd not to know how to doe it Thirdly Not to know a thing is not to be accustomed or practised in it Thus when Elihu saith I know not to give flattering titles he seemes to say It is not my manner I have not been used to flatter As use doth not only make fitnesse but encreaseth our knowledge so disuse doth at once unfit us to doe a thing and diminisheth our knowledge how to doe it And therefore what we use not to doe we are rightly sayd not to know to doe I know not to give flattering titles Hence note The spirit of a good man is set against all that is evill he cannot close nor comply with it His understanding assenteth not to it his will chuseth it not his conscience cannot swallow it though not a camel but a gnat the least of sin-evils much lesse doth he give himselfe up to the free and customary practise of great sins A good man may well be sayd not to know to sin because though he knoweth the nature of all sins yet he knowingly declines the doing of every sin I know not to give flattering titles In so doing my Maker would soone take me away Those words in so doing are not expressed in the Originall but supplyed to make up the sence and yet we may very well read the text without them I know not to give flattering titles my Maker would soone take me away or as Mr Broughton renders my Maker would be my taker away My Maker Elihu expresseth God by the work of creation or by his relation to God as a creator Elihu doth but include himselfe in the number of those whom God hath made he doth not exclude others from being made by God as much as himselfe while he saith My Maker God is the maker of every man and is so in a three-fold consideration First He is the maker of every man in his naturall constitution as he is a man consisting of a reasonable soule and body I am fearefully and wonderfully made sayd David with respect to both Psal 119.14 Secondly God is every mans maker in his civill state as well as in his naturall he formeth us up into such and such a condition as rich or as poore as high or as low as Governours or as governed according to the pleasure of his owne will Prov. 22.2 The rich and the poore meete together the Lord is the maker of them both he meaneth it not only if at all in that place that the Lord hath made them both as men but he hath made the one a rich man and the other a poore man Thus the Lord is the maker of them both And as the Lord makes men rich so Great and honorable Psal 75.6 Promotion cometh not from the East nor from the West nor from the South It cometh from none of these parts or points of earth or heaven it cometh from nothing under heaven but from the God of heaven God is the Judge he putteth downe one and setteth up another Thirdly The Lord is the maker of every man in his spirituall state as good and holy and gracious Ephes 2.10 We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works till we are wrought by God we can doe none of Gods worke nor have we any mind to doe it Now when Elihu saith My Maker would soone take me away we may understand it in all these three sences he that made me this body and soule when I came into the world he that ordered my way and state all this while that I have been in this world he that formed me up into a new life the life of Grace and hath made me a new man in this and for another world This my Maker would soone take me away Hence note It is good to remember God as our maker Man would not make such ill worke in the world if he remembred God his maker or that himselfe is the work of God We should remember God our maker First as to our being as from him we receive life and breath Secondly as to our well-being as from him we receive all good things both for this life and a better Eccles 12.1 Remember now thy creator not only that God is a creator but thy creator remember this in the dayes of thy youth And surely if thou remembrest him well thou wilt not forget thy selfe so much as to forget the duty which thou owest him Thinke often upon thy maker and then this thought will be upon thee alwayes If I owe my selfe wholly unto God for making me in nature how much more doe I owe my selfe unto God for making me a new creature We ought to live wholly to him from whom we have received our lives He that hath made us should have the use of us He hath made all things for himselfe Prov 16.4 chiefely man who is the chiefe of all visibles which he hath made Those two memento's That we are made by the power of God and that the price by which we are redeemed is the blood of God should constraine us at all times and in all things to be at the call and command of God My Maker Would soone take me away Invoce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tolleret me alludit ad praecedens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q d. Si capiam faciem me capiet Coc We had the same word in the former verse there 't is used for accepting a person here for taking away a person The Learned Hebricians take notice of an elegant flower of Rhetorick in this expression If I take persons God will take away my person so we may translate the Text If I take men my God will take me away Yea my maker would not only take me away at last or as we say first or last but he would make dispatch and be quicke with me My maker would Soone take me away Some render He would take me away as a little thing But the mind of our translation is he would take me away in a little time The originall word beares either signification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so may the scope of the text My Maker would take me away as a little thing he would blow me away as a feather or as dust and crush me as a moth and he would doe it in a moment in a little time all the men of the world yea the whole world is but a little thing before God and he can quickly take both away Isa 40.15 Behold the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the Ballance Behold he taketh up the Islands as a very little thing Now if Whole Islands if all nations are such little things as drops and dusts then what is any one particular man how big soever he be And how soone can God take him away Little things are taken away in a little time So the word is
our encrease 'T is the breath of the Almighty that teacheth us and if we can but humbly enough that is heattily acknowledge it we shall be taught and learne enough So much of these words as they are a direct assertion I shall consider them a little in their connection and reference both to what went before and to that which follows after which was the second consideration of this verse at first proposed First This verse may be connected with the three former verses and then the sence appeareth thus As if Elihu had sayd O Job I have moved thee to heare me patiently and attentively and let it not seeme grievous to thee to doe soe For though I am thy inferiour in age and degree yet I am a man as well as thou and I have a soule and body like thine yea the Spirit of God that made me hath also furnished me I have rceeived ability from God as thou hast I stand upon even ground or equall termes with thee as to creation and I am not altogether voyd of instruction and therefore as a man I have a possibility to understand reason and as a man indowed by the Spirit of God I have a capability to direct thee about the wayes of God or how to understand and comport with his providences towards thee Thou hast been long under the hand of God and long in the hands of men who have rather entangled and troubled thy mind then eased it who knowes but that I who all this while have been but a looker on may see somewhat in thy case which hath hitherto been hid from thy former undertakers Therefore pray favour me it may prove in the issue a favour to thy selfe with an houre or two of patient attention Take this note from it The consideration of our common originall that we have all one maker or are all come out of the hand of God should make us willing to heare and learne of one another Thus Elihu argueth Heare me why Because the Spirit of God hath made me as well as thee doe not despise what I have to say as if you were a man of another mould or pedigree the same God out of the same matter by the same Word and Spirit hath form'd us both Some pictures are more highly prized then others of the same person because drawne by a better hand by An Apelles or A Michael Angelo The fame of the Artist or workman puts a value upon the worke And the title of the Authour doth sometimes commend a piece more then in truth either the forme or matter But come among the sons of men all their faces and features are drawne by one hand The same most exact hand of God hath wrought and fashioned them all both as to their outside and inside both as to the forme of these houses of clay and as to all the ornaments and beautifyings of them As we all walke upon the same earth drinke out of the same water breath in the same ayre as we are all covered with the same Canopy of heaven and lighted with the same Sun so we are all made with the same hand The Spirit of God hath made one as well as another This man hath not had a better pencill nor a more skilfull Limner then that Thus we may argue from the common condition of man in nature to a mutuall condiscension among men Indeed Christians who have higher principles have also higher topicks arguments then that why they should condescend one to another and as the Apostle directs Eph 4.4 5 6. Keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Saints should be lowly and meeke with long-suffering forbearing one another in love as the Apostle there exhorts not only because one hand hath made all their bodyes but because they are one body though they are many naturall bodyes yet one mysticall body There is one body and one spirit As one Spirit hath made them so they are made one spirit There is also as it followeth one hope one Lord one faith one Baptisme one God and father of all who is above all and through all and in you all How should all Saints be one who are comprehended and united under this seven-fold oneness That we have all one maker in nature is a very moving argument to meekness love and unity but that all believers are made one by Grace is a much more moving argument Againe We may consider these words in connexion with the three following verses and then as in connection with the former they are a prevention of Job's pride so in this they are a prevention of his feare or an encouragement of him to a chearfull hearing of what Elihu had to say Job had been dealt severely with by his three friends and the terror of God was upon him he was under much dispondency of spirit Now saith Elihu Answer me if thou canst stand up set thy words in order before me for the Spirit of God hath made me and given me life I am a creature and I am but a creature I am no more then thou art I am made of God and thou art made of God as well as I I was made out of the dust as thou art I am not God to terrifie thee but I am sent of God to counsel and comfort thee my hand shall not be heavie upon thee I promise to deale tenderly with thee I am such a one as thy selfe as I am not worse so I am not better we stand alike together in this dispute therefore thou mayest freely come forth and answer me who am but a poore creature as thy selfe is Thus Elihu bespeakes Job in the sixth and seventh verses If thou canst answer me set thy words in order before me stand up Behold I am according to thy wish Speake freely and cleare thy selfe if thou art able thou hast free leave for me Vers 5. If thou canst answer me set thy words in order before me stand up This verse may have a four-fold respect First To the insufficiency or incompetency of Job's parts and intellectuals to deale with Elihu in this matter as if they were a daring challenge Answer me if thou canst doe thy worst And hence some of the Ancients charge Elihu as if he came upon Job boastingly and spake thus in the pride of his owne spirit and in the disdaine of Job at once to shew and slight his weaknesse If thou canst answer me As if like some irrefragable Doctor he had said I shall speak such reason as I know thou canst not answer doe what thou canst set all thy wits aworke and beate thy braines as much as thou wilt thou wilt but loose thy labour and weary thy selfe in vaine Thus the meaning of Answer me if thou canst is Thou canst not answer But I suppose Elihu though hot spirited enough was yet of a better spirit temper then to speak either thus proudly of himselfe or despisingly of so worthy a man as he
commanded a deep sleep to fall on Adam when he tooke the rib out of his side and formed the woman We read also Gen 15.12 that a deep sleep fell on Abraham when God revealed to him what should become of his posterity and how they should be in Egypt and there much oppressed foure hundred yeares c. It is said also 1 Sam 26.12 A deep sleep from the Lord was fallen upon them that is upon Saul and his guards who lay round about him And that might be called a sleep from the Lord both because it was a sleep which the Lord sent and because it was an extream deep sleep Secondly there are dreams in ordinary sleep or in very slumbrings or noddings upon the bed we may call them waking dreames Thus Elihu sheweth God taking severall times or seasons for the revealing of himselfe in dreams sometimes in deep sleep and often in the least and slightest sleeps called slumbrings I shall not here insist upon or discourse the way of Gods manifesting himselfe to the Ancienrs by dreams visions but referre the Reader to what hath already been done upon the 4th Chapter at the 12th and 13th verses where Eliphaz speaks almost in the same manner as Elihu here about visions And indeed there is a very great Consent between their two parts in this booke that of Eliphaz and this of Elihu They were both holy and propheticall men both of them had the same designe in speaking about dreams and visions namely to convince and humble Job and both of them expresse themselves in terms of a very neere Cognation So that if the reader please to consult that place Job 4.12 13. he will find these words farther cleared as to the nature and severall kinds of visions And if he turne to what hath been done upon the 14th verse of the 7th Chapter he may find the doctrine of dreams further opened Only let me adde here a note or two First It hath been the use of God to reveale his mind by dreams And I may give you five reasons why God used to apply himself to man in dreams First because in sleep man is as I may say at best leisure for God to deal with him he is not distracted with businesse nor hurried with the labours of this life but is at rest Secondly when we are awake we are very ready to debate and discusse what we receive by our own reason we are ready to Logick it with God but in sleep we take things barely as offered without discussions or disputes Thirdly in sleepe when all is quiet that which God represents takes and leaves a deeper impression upon the mind of man Common experience teacheth us how dreams stick and how those apprehensions which we have in our sleep dwell abide with us when awake Fourthly I conceive the Lord doth this chiefly that he may shew his divine skill in teaching instructing man or that he hath a peculiar art in teaching he teaches so as none of the masters of learning were ever able to teach and instruct their Schollars There was never any man could teach another when he was asleep they that are taught must at lest be awake yea they must not only be awake but watchfull but now God is such a teacher such an instructor that when we are asleep he can convay instruction and teach us his lessons this I say doth wonderfully magnifie the divine skill and power of God who is able to make us heare and understand doctrine even when we are asleep and cannot heare There may be also a fifth consideration moving God to this Possibly God would hereby assure us that the soul is a distinct essence and hath its distinct operations from the body and that even death it self cannot deprive the soul of man of its working For what is sleep but a kind of death sleep is a short death and death is along sleepe Now when the body is upon the matter laid aside the soul can goe to work when the body lyes like a block and stirs not the soul can bestir it self about many matters and run its thoughts to the utmost ends of the earth yea and raise them up to the highest heavens in blessed intercourses with God himself There 's no need to prove the matter of fact that 't is so what night with reference to some or other doth not utter this poynt of knowledg nor need I stay to prove that this is if not a demonstrative yet a very probable argument of the distinct substantiallity of the soul from the body namely its operations when the body with all its proper and peculiar faculties and powers is a sleepe and contributes nothing to those operations For though it be granted that some irrationall creatures who have no immortall part nor any thing substantiall in them distinct from their bodies though it be granted I say that these may have dreames yet their dreams differ as much from those of men as themselves doe Secondly Note The revelation of the mind of God by dreams and visions was much yea most used in those ancient times When God had not so fully revealed his mind by Scripture or his mind in the Scripture then he spake often in dreams and visions and hence the old Prophets were called seers The Apostle reports God speaking at sundry times and in divers manners in times past unto the fathers by the Prophets Heb. 1.1 The Greek text hath two very significant words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the former most properly implying how God gave out his mind in divers measures or how he parcelled it out the other implying the severall wayes in which he gave it out As the measures were various sometimes more sometimes lesse of his mind about divine matters and mysteries being dispersed so the wayes manners and formes of this dispensation were very various yet the most usuall way was by dreams and visions Numb 12.6 If there be a Prophet among you saith the Lord I the Lord will make my self known unto him in a vision and speak to him in a dreame Yea we find that in the first dayes of the Gospel dreames and visions were frequent The Apostle falling into a trance had a vision Acts 10.10 He saw heaven opened and a certain vessell descend c. And when Christ would have the Apostle Paul carry the Gospell into Macedonia a vision appeared to him in the night Acts 16.9 There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying come over to Macedonia and help us The same Apostle saith 2 Cor. 12.1 2. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord whether in the body I cannot tell or out of the body I cannot tell Pauls soul was wrapt up in such high and intimate converses with God that he even forgot how it was with his body or had little to doe with it Which suites well with that description which the Apostle John gave of himself when he had the whole mind of God
proud but much to be thankfull He can raise Children to Abraham out of the stones of the street therefore the Jewes must not be proud or thinke that God is beholding to them for being his people He can ordaine strength and his owne praise out of the mouthes of babes and sucklings Psal 8.2 Math 21 16. therefore the wise and prudent have no reason to be proud but much to be thankfull O remember It is of Gods vouchsafement not of our desert that we are admitted to his service Lastly Pride must needs be an odious thing and that which God greatly abhorr's because it quite crosseth the designe of God in the Gospel which is to keep the creature humble and low that he himselfe alone may be exalted He will not beare it that any flesh should glory in his presence He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord 1 Cor 1.29 31. God will have his end upon all flesh and therefore he will dreadfully glorifie himselfe upon those who proudly glory in themselves Further The word by which man is expressed from whom God hides pride signifying as was shewed a strong mighty man the most accomplished and best furnished man Observe Thirdly Great men wise men rich men are very subject to and often carried away by pride God therefore hides pride from them because they lie so open to the assaults of pride our rising is oftentimes an occasion of our falling And that which God gives man for his good proves by reason of this corruption mostly his snare One of the Ancients speaking of Pride saith 't is the greatest sin for foure reasons First In the antiquity of it because it was the first sin the Devill 's sin before man sinned that sin which he first dropt into man to make him fall was the sin by which himselfe fell he would be higher and more then he was and he provoked man to be so too 'T is disputed what was the original of original sin and the doubt lyeth between two whether unbeliefe or pride had the precedency in mans fall a question much like that whether faith or repentance hath the precedency in his rising I shall only state it thus that which appear'd first was unbeliefe the woman put a peradventure upon the threatning of God in case of eating the forbidden fruit But certainly pride was Contemporary with unbeliefe man would needs lift up himselfe beyond the state he had and so fell from and lost that estate Secondly Saith he Pride is productive of many other sins 't is a fountaine sin a root sin it nourisheth nurseth and bringeth up many other sins no man knoweth what sin may be next when pride is first Thirdly The greatness of the sin of pride may be argued from the over-spreading of it pride hath infected many mortally and who can say his heart is free from this plague though possibly it be not the plague or speciall master sin of his heart Pride is an Epidemicall disease all labour under this sicknesse and this sicknesse hath got the mastery over many His fourth reason is that of the text and poynt Pride is a great wickednesse because usually it infects great men They that are great in power great in gifts great in learning great in any thing are sure to be assaulted if not blemished and blasted with this sin insomuch that it had been better for many to have been fools then learned low then high meane then great poore then rich in this world There is a temptation in power in greatness in riches in knowledge in gifts in the best things to make the mind swell and the man that is stored with them proud Pride is as I may say of a very high extraction it was conceived in and borne by the now Apostate Angels whose place first estate or principality as we put in the Margin of the Epistle of Jude v. 6. was aloft in heaven Angels were the neerest servants and attendants upon God himselfe who calleth heaven the habitation of his holinesse and of his glory And surely the habitation which the Apostle Jude in the same verse saith the Angels left and he calls it their owne that is that which was allotted and allowed them by God as their portion this habitation I say must needs be a very high and excellent one as themselves by nature were in the highest classis or forme of creatures Now as pride began from and had its birth in these high and noble spirits which gave one occasion though it be as hellish a lust as any in hell to call it Heavenly by Nation so the higher men are who at highest are but dust the more doth pride haunt them and insinuate it selfe to get a dwelling of seate in them Quia natione coelestis sublimâ—um animos inhabitat Hugo as the most proper and congeniall subjects which it can find here on earth it selfe with those of whom it first tooke possession and whom it made its first habitation being for ever cast downe from heaven Pride having once dwell in those who were so high loves still to dwell or take up its lodging at least in those who upon any reference whether to naturall civill or spirituall things are called and reputed Highest Observe Fourthly God by various meanes even by all sorts of meanes gives check to the pride of man he speaketh once yea twice to man in a dreame in a vision of the night that he may hide pride from man Pride is a sin which God prosecutes both night and day if speaking by day doth not mortifie it speaking in the night by dreams shall Nebuchadnezzar was full of pride and God humbled him by a dream and brought downe the haughtinesse of his heart by a vision of the night This great Monarch of the world was so full of pride that he boasted it out Dan 4.30 Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdome and by the might of my power and for the honour of my Majesty Now while he spake thus walking in the Palace of the kingdome of Babylon there fell a voyce from heaven saying O King Nebuchadnezzar to thee it is spoken The kingdome is departed from thee c. And they shall drive thee from among men And thy dwelling who hast thought thy selfe more then man shall be with the beasts of the field The effect of this voyce Nebuchadnezzar had in a dreame as appeares by Daniels interpretation of it in the former part of the Chapter God shewed him in that dreame what his condition should be and he executed it upon him to the full to pull downe his pride That he at last might know that the most High ruleth the Kingdomes of men and giveth them to whomsoever he will Whereas then he thought that he alone ruled the world and could give kingdomes to whom he would How wonderfully did God oppose the pride of Pauls spirit he could not favour pride no not in that eminent Apostle Lest
others judge what the Word of God no! but whether they speake according to the word of God or no In this sense every one must judg sor himselfe we must not take all for granted but try what we heare by the eare as we doe what we eat by the mouth Thirdly Note A spiritually judicious and considerate man will take time to judge of things that are spoken as the pallate doth of meates that are eaten The eare tryeth words as the mouth tasteth meat God hath given man a faculty for that end and he is to use his faculty We commonly fay Look before you leape Surely then we should tast before we eate and prove all things whether they are good or no before we electively hold that which is good 1 Thes 5.21 The noble Bereans received the word with all readinesse of mind yet they would make no more hast then good speed to receive it for as the Text saith Acts 17.11 They searched the Scriptures dayly whether those things were so Fourthly Here are two Organs of sense spoken of the ear and the mouth both are of great use to man but one of them the eare is of a more frequent and noble use Beasts have both mouths and eares but because theirs is only a sensitive life they make more use of their mouths then of their eares Whereas man whose life is rationall yea and spirituall too must or ought to make more use of his eares then of his mouth How doth this reprove all those who are more in trying meats then in trying words or more for tasting then they are for hearing It was a complaint of some in the former age that they made themselves like bruit beasts which having both those powers of hearing and tasting have yet no regard to hearing but are all for feeding and eating They carry it like beasts and are more bruitish then a beast who employ their mouths more then their eares A beast is made in that low forme to live to eat and worke and so to dye man is of a higher forme next to that of Angells and for him to spend his time in eating and drinking as if his worke lay at his mouth not at his ear is to degrade himself and lead a bruitish life The Apostle brings in such bruits speaking thus 1 Cor. 15.32 Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall dye not a word of using their eares they say not come let us hear the word of God let us seek bread for our soules but come let us eat and drink now for a man to be so much in eating as to neglect hearing and meditating what doth he but make himselfe like a beast of the earth who should be like the Angels in Heaven dayly rising up to a spirituall and heavenly life God lifts us up to Heaven as I may say by the eares Our eares were not given us only to heare delightfull sounds or to commune one with another about the affaires of this life the use of the eare is yet more noble even to helpe us in the receiving of all saving and sanctifying knowledge Faith comes by hearing Rom. 15.17 and so doth every grace both as to the implantation and growth of it till we come to glory Therefore consider how you use this excellent sense of hearing and how you improve in spirituals by what you have heard We were made after the Image of God in knowledge and righteousnesse and it should be the great designe of our lives to get this image renewed and that is done at the eare 't is wrought by hearing faith repentance and every grace come in and are wrought at the eare Some scoffe at this latter age calling it a hearing age not a working age we say they are much for ear-work little for hand-work all for Preaching nothing for doing nor can this reproach be quite wiped off seeing with our plenty of Preaching there is so little practising as if men had turned all the members of their body into eares and were nothing but hearing To doe nothing but heare or to heare and doe nothing to heare much and act little is a high provocation To have a swel'd head and a feeble hand is the disease of Religion Yet let not voluptuous Epicures who are all for the palate and belly-cheere think to excuse themselves for not hearing or for seldome hearing because some who hear much are found doing little or seldome do what they hear for as these shall be condemned by the word which they have heard and not done so shall these for not hearing the word which would have shewed them what to doe It hath been anciently said The belly hath no eares nor will they either mind hearing or mind what they hear who mind their bellyes not for hunger and the support of nature that is as Solomon speaks Eccles 10.17 for strength but for drunkennesse or surfet Cum eo vivere non possum cui palatum magis sapiat quam cor Plutarchus in vita Catonis When a voluptuous person desired Cato that he might live with him No said Cato I like not your society I doe not love to converse with a man who useth his mouth more then his eares who is busied more to please his tast in eating and drinking then to enrich his understanding by hearing and discoursing The Apostle Tit. 1.12 referring them to one of their own Poets calleth the Cretians evill beasts slow bellies They were not slow to fill their bellyes but their full bellyes their belly being their God as he told some among the Philippians Chap. 3.19 made them slow yea reprobate to every good word and worke Solomon gives man a great charge when he saith Prov. 23.23 Buy truth and sell it not The mart for those most precious commodities grace and truth is kept not at the belly but at the eare there we buy without money and without price both grace and truth to get these is to be wise merchants The best market we can make the best trade we can drive is with and at our eares The eare tryeth words as the mouth tasteth meat And from this Elihu infers Vers 4. Let us chuse to our selves judgment let us know among our selves what is good This verse containes the second request which Elihu made to Jobs friends The summe of it is that they might proceed judiciously and fairly in the cause before them As if he had said Seeing it is the office of the eare to try words as the mouth tasteth meat let us see what we can do with our eares towards the determination of this matter Job hath often wished to find one with whom he might debate and try this cause in judgment let us give him his wish and having throughly weighed the matter and merits of his cause let us see what justice will award him Let us chuse to our selves judgment c. Let us chuse To elect or chuse is the worke of the will And to chuse
used as flaggs of pride and vanity nor doth pride appeare so much in praising our selves though there it appeareth much as it doth in scorning others Proud scorner is his name And as the scorner is a proud despiser of others so a quarrelsome contender with others and till he is separated from men there is nothing but separation no peace among men Prov 22.10 Cast out the scorner and contention shall goe out yea strife and reproach shall cease which plainly intimateth that strife cannot goe out till the scorner be cast out And therefore Solomon Pro 24.9 calleth the scorner an abomination to man Thus the Scripture sets the scorner among sinners of the chiefest rank and first forme I may say he is of the first three if not the first of that three Therefore take heed how ye drinke scorning especially take heed it be not your mornings draught for as it comes from the heart so it will fly up into your head and unfit you for any good worke at least that day Againe from the similitude here used to drink up scorning like water which as hath been shewed holds out the readiness and connaturallness of an action unto him that is charged with it Note The more easily any one sinneth the greater is his sin It is best to come hardly off in sinning and when it goeth hardly downe Many sin as easily as they eat or drink They eat up my people as bread saith God Psal 14.4 that is as we say they make no bones of it there 's nothing stickes in their throats nor troubles their conscience Where sin lives altogether unmortiâ—â—ed in any man it doth so in every meere naturall or unregenerate man 't is no more to him to sin then it is either to live or to eate and drink for the maintaining of life But they shall feele sorest paines for sinning who have sinned with greatest ease they shall drinke dammage by scorning like Gall and Wormewood who have drunke scorning like water Elihu having thus taxed Job with scorning at good men proceeds to tax him with overmuch freedome and familiarity with evill men Vers 8. Which goeth in company with the worâ—â—â—s of iniquity and walketh with wicked men Noscitur ex comite c. As if he had sayd you may know what he is by the company he keepes He goeth in company with the workers of iniquity or he associates and puts himselfe into the society of the workers of iniquity Elihu doth not say he dwelleth among the workers of iniquity The best man in the world may dwell among bad men Let dwelt in Sodome We must goe out of the world if we will not be among the wicked the world is every where full of the workers of iniquity But saith he he goeth in company with them Which intimates the activenes of his spirit with them yea the election of his spirit or that he chose their company Though a good man may be in the company of the wicked yet he doth not choose their company He is not of their body of their society or gang A wicked man doth not content himselfe to be among the ordinary sort of sinners he is for and best likes the worst of sinners workers of iniquity All are sinners naturally but some are sinners artificially they study sin they contrive and plot mischiefe They devise iniquity upon their beds saith one Scripture They weave the spiders webb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith another Here 's artificiall sinning The Greekes call such sin-workers and crafts-men in evill I have had occasion to speake of these from other passages of this Booke Here Elihu to highten the charge against Job saith He goeth in company with such or chooseth such kind of company the workers of iniquity And walketh with wicked men As our holinesse is expressed by walking with God so our sinfullnesse by walking with wicked men To walk with God is all the commendation of Enoch who was so holy on earth that God tooke him up to Heaven Gen. 5.22 He had this testimony faith the Apostle Heb. 11.15 before his translation that he pleased God To walk with God is to please God or to give up our selves wholly to God Can two walk together except they be agreed is the Prophets question Amos 3.3 They who walke together are supposed to have one will as they are seen to have one way What God willeth they will and what God willeth not they will not who walk with him To walk with wicked men implyeth an agreement with them and a conformity to them as being of their fraternity company and livery They that walk with wicked men declare their familiarity with them or that their mind and manners are the same The Apostle tells the Corinthians 1 Cor. 3.2 Whereas there is among you envying strife and divisions are ye not carnall and walk as men that is as men in their naturall and sinfull condition walke Though ye are spirituall in your state yet ye act as carnall men Now as it is sinfull for a godly man to walke as a man or according to man as our Margin hath it for he should walk as God so it is much more sinfull to walk with wicked men or according to the worst of men Thus the Apostle describes the conversation of the Ephesians before conversion Eph. 22. And you hath he quickened who were dead in sins and trespasses in which sometime ye walked according to the course of this World That is according to the tide current and streame of the times and places wherein ye lived Qua itur non qua â—undum Man naturally doth not walk where he ought to goe but where he seeth the most goe He is led by the worst of examples such are the examples of the most or of the many rather then by the best of rules It is our duty and it should be our delight to walk with those who delight in the Law and in the way of God David saith of his deceitfull friend but reall enemy Psal 55.14 We walked unto the house of God in company As if he had said time was when he and I were as if he had been I both of us but one in that one thing necessary the worship and service of God It is a good argument that man hath an heart for God who walks with good men in the wayes of God To converse much with or to be much in the company of good men is a probable signe of goodnesse but when we walke with them to the house and worship of God or converse with them in the dutyes of holinesse this is a great though no infallible argument of goodnesse And to be sure to walk with evill men especially to joyne with them in doing evill is an argument that the man is evill Therefore Elihu may seeme to bring a demonstration against Jobs godlinesse that he intended it not so I shall shew afterwards but I say he seemes to say so while he saith
he will not doe wickedly for so it may be sayd of every honest man He will not do wickedly but seeing in this Negative commendation given by man to God as in all the Negative commandements given by God to man all affirmatives are to be understood what can be sayd more to or more sound out his praise and glory then this God will not doe wickedly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est aliquando impium pronunciare condemnare aliquando vero impiè agere vel iniquè quippiam facere Merc The word here used for doing wickedly signifies two things First to pronounce any person wicked and Secondly to doe any thing which is wicked both these often meete together For in many cases to pronounce a person wicked is to doe a wicked thing he that condemneth a just person pronounceth him wicked and what thing can be done more wickedly then that Some take the word in that sence here as a deniall that God either hath done or ever will condemne the innocent There are two things wherein men doe very wickedly with respect to the persons of men both which the Lord abhorres First when they condemne the innocent Secondly when they acquit or cleare the guilty The former way of doing wickedly is chiefly removed from God here by Elihu as the latter is directly and expressly by himselfe Exod 34.7 The Lord the Lord c. that will by no meanes cleare the guilty To pronounce a guilty person innocent or an innocent person guilty if ignorantly done is a great piece of weaknesse and if knowingly done is a great piece of wickednesse Yet because the latter part of the verse speakes particularly to cleare God from wrong Judgement therefore I conceive we may better expound this former part of it more largely as a generall deniall of any evill act whatsoever done by God Surely God will not doe wickedly Neither will the Almighty pervert Judgement The Almighty who hath power to doe what he will hath no will to doe this evill He will not pervert Judgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 detorquobit curvabit The word signifies both to pervert and subvert as also to bow wrest or put out of order to mingle or blend those things together which should be for ever separated or as we say to mingle heaven and earth yea heaven and hell together so doe they who mingle good and ill right and wrong together To pervert Judgement is to doe all this for then which Abraham assured himselfe was farre from God Gen 18.25 The righteous are as the wicked that is the righteous fare as ill as the wicked or the wicked fare as well as the righteous But the Almighty will not pervert Judgement that is the right which belongs to any man and therefore he will-doe every man right We had the same position in termes Chap 8. 3d and we have had this whole verse equivalenâ—ly in the 10th of this Chapter where Elihu sayd Far be it from God that he should doe wickednesse and from the Almighty that he should commit iniquity Here only one verse intervening Elâ—hu reports and repeats the same matter againe but it is no needlesse or vaine repetition for which Christ reproved the prayer of the Heathens Math 6.7 there are many repetitions in Scripture but not one vaine one how often soever the same truth is repeated there it hath its weight and use not only as it is still a truth but as it is a truth repeated And therefore I shall give a threefold reason why this truth is here againe repeated which will also lead us to a fuller improvement of it First Because this truth is as it were the hinge upon which the whole controversie between Job and Elihu is turned Job was unsatisfied because he was so ill handled and therefore Elihu tells him often that God is righteous and that he will not wrong any man Hereby giving Job to understand that God had done him nothing or done nothing to him but right Such grand swaying controling truths should be often and can scarce be too often repeated Secondly Elihu repeated this againe because 't is such a truth as no man can too much no nor enough weigh and consider the value and worth of it Now that which cannot be too often nor too much thought of cannot if rules of prudence be observed be too much or too often spoken of There is scarce any man who hath not sometimes at least indirectly and obliquely some hard thoughts of the proceedings of God either in reference to himselfe or to others Nor is there any thing that we have more temptations about then that surely we are not in all things rightly dealt with and that the dispensations of God are not so even as they might These sinfull suspicions are dayly moving and fluctuating in the heart of man and therefore this opposite principle ought to be fastened and fixed there to the utmost that the will and workes of God are all just and righteous yea that his will is the rule of all righteous workings or that as whatsoever is done in this world is done by the disposure of God so God though the thing be evill and unjust is just and good in the disposure of it Therefore unlesse we resist or contradict the will of God we must say whatsoever comes to passe comes righteously to passe because it comes to passe by the determinate will and counsell of God Thirdly Elihu repeates this assertion that he might the more commodiously make his transition or passage to the matter following and prosecute it with greater successe And therefore I shall not stay longer upon those words only Note First This great truth that God will not doe wickedly neither will the Almighty pervert Judgement convinceth those not only of injudiciousnesse but of wickednesse who though they are ready to acknowledge in generall God is just yet as to those particular providences which concerne them or wherewith themselves are pincht doe not cannot acquiesce and rest in the will of God with freedome and satisfaction That which is just should not displease us though in it selfe it be very bitter and unpleasant to us Secondly This truth is a ground of comfort to all the people of God who are under heavy pressures from this evill world or who receive little reward or incouragement as to sense from the good hand of God Such are apt to say with the kingly Prophet Psal 73.13 14. Verily in vaine have we cleansed our heart and washed our hands in innocency for all the day long have we been plagued and chastened every morning David was under a temptation when he was under hatches he could hardly perceive it worth the while to take paines in cleansing and washing either heart or hand while God was so constant and frequent in correcting and chastening him with so heavy a hand Yet David soone after recovered out of this temptation and concluded the Psalme with this particular assurance v. 28. It is
good for me to draw neere to God as he had begun it v. 1. with a generall assurance Truely God is good to Israel even to such as are of a cleane heart God is good to those who have a cleane heart even when they are in the greatest sufferance of evill and therefore they who are cleane hearted have no reason at any time to say nor shall they long say they have cleansed their heart in vaine Though now they smart yet in due season they shall be well rewarded for their washing The Judgements of God are such Judicia dei plenè nemo comprehendit justè nemo reprehendit August lib 2. de Civ ◠Dei cap 23. as no man can fully comprehend such as no man can justly reprehend The Almighty will not pervert Judgement Those foure things which cause men to pervert Judgement are at the furthest distance or remove from God whereof the first is envie at the good condition of others The second is groundlesse and unreasonable love or hatred of their persons The third is feare of frownes from those that are great or feare of after-claps Many are deterr'd from giving but a just measure either of reward to good men or punishment to evill men lest themselves should receive hard measure from those who like neither The fourth is hope of gaine or their private advantage For as some pervert Judgement for bribes already received so others for bribes promised or upon expectation of some future favours Now God I say is infinitely above these foure and all other imaginable by-respects upon which Judgement is perverted every day by the sons of men God is above all envy yea above all that hatred or love which perverts Judgement he is above all feare of evill and hope of good God hath nothing to feare seeing none can reach him much lesse hurt him neither hath he any thing at all to hope for seeing he is in the full possession of all happinesse and blessednesse that is of himselfe Why then or upon what account should the Almighty pervert Judgement so that if at any time we have any unbecoming thoughts of the Justice of God either that he afflicts the good without reason or prospers the wicked against it all this ariseth from our ignorance or the shortnesse of our sight We have not a full or perfect prospect of things we see but a little way backward we are not wise to compare what 's past with what 's present nor can we at all infallibly foresee any thing future or discerne what shall be Whereas God at once hath all things before him he seeth what is past as well as what is present and what shall be hereafter as well as what hath been and so the compleatnesse and indefectibility of his owne Justice in all And when we in the great day shall see all the workes of God in the world brought and presented together as in one view we shall then say from the evidence of sight as now we ought from the evidence of faith that the Almighty hath not in any one thing perverted Judgement And therefore the Apostle doth most excellently and appositely call that day The day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God Rom 2.5 Elihu having strongly asserted with a yea surely that the Almighty will not pervert Judgement yet stayeth not in a bare though so strong an assertion which he might but gives us the proofe and confirmation of it as he hath denied that God will so he proveth by undeniable arguments that God will not doe wickedly that the Almighty will not pervert Judgement And this he doth in the next or 13th verse and the two that follow Vers 13. Who hath given him a charge over the earth or who hath disposed the whole world These words as was intimated before are an argument proving that God neither hath nor can doe wrong That as to the case in hand he had not done Job wrong yea that as to all cases he can wrong no man This argument is grounded upon the soveraignty supremacy or absolute authority of God over all men The summe and force of it may be gathered up into this forme He cannot doe injustice to any who of right hath an absolute power arising from and residing in himselfe to doe what he will with or towards all men But God hath such a power Therefore he cannot doe any injustice That God hath such an absolute power arising from and residing in himselfe Elihu proves by a kind of Challenge Who hath given him a Charge over the earth Produce the man let him shew his face if he dareth It is an expression of the same importance with that of the Apostle Rom 8.33 Who shall lay any thing to the Charge of Gods Elect let us see the man let us see the devill that shall so lay any thing to the Charge of Gods Elect as to prevaile in his Charge 't is also like that other triumphant query in the same Chapter v. 31. If God be with us who can be against us That is who can be so against us as to hurt us or carry the day against us Thus here Who hath given him a Charge over the world let us see who As if he had sayd Are there any above God from whom he deriveth his power Or have any committed the Government of the earth to him as his trust and charge for the mannagement whereof he is to be accountable unto them Surely no. And if no then either God is just or all the world must be in confusion or under oppression without any redresse or remedy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sequento 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sumitur pro Jubere juxta morem Syriacū hinc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praefecti Merc Mr Broughton renders Who before him looked to the earth We say Who hath given him a Charge over the earth The ordinary signification of the word is to visit and that First In a way of favour to see what others want so we visit the poore or how they doe so we usually visit the sick and sometimes those that are well in health Secondly It signifieth to visit in a way of judgement or to punish those that have done amisse Thus the Lord threatens to visit that is to punish the iniquity of the fathers upon the children Exod 20.5 Thirdly The word signifieth to command to issue out orders to give a charge This signification of the word is very frequent both in Scripture and in dayly use Visiters we know have power of Government yea they have power over Governours to order and give them a charge that they doe or to examine whether they have done the duty of their place In this latter sence we render it here Who hath given him a Charge over the earth And so we read it 2 Chron 36.23 Thus saith Cyrus King of Persia all the kingdomes of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me And he hath
righteous Lawes who then shall dare to suspect God of injustice or require a reason why he doth this or that in the world which himself hath made yea who hath not reason to admire and proclaime infinite goodnesse mixt with absolute power as in his making so in his ruling the world For whose sake or for fear of whom should he pervert Justice who hath all men alike under his power Earthly Judges may erre in judgment but the Judge of all the earth cannot God cannot doe injustice through ignorance or mistake for he is omniscient and knoweth all things nor can he have a will to doe unjustly seeing his will is altogether just and the rule or measure of all things that are just As therefore he is not an idle Idol-god but most active in governing the World so he is infinitely above the least failer in the government of it The Sun shall sooner be turned into a cloud and the morning light darken the earth then any unrighteousnesse proceed from God yea when clouds and darknesse are round about him that is when we by reason either of the obscurenesse or afflictivenesse of his dispensations can give no account of them yet even then righteousnesse and judgment are the habitation of his Throne that is his governing power abides unmoveably or constantly as in a habitation within that blessed line and glorious spheare of righteousnesse So then Ipse quam potens est conditor tam pius est moderator Hieron the reasoning of Elihu from the universality and independency of the governing power of God to the righteousnesse and equity of his government is not only probable but demonstrative and unanswerable He is alike mighty as the sole creator and just as the supreame moderator of the World If any man will presume to charge God with perverting judgment in governing the earth that man saith in effect that he hath given God a charge over the earth And if any man be so impiously and impudently presumptuous as to say that let him come forth and answer this as peremptorily as truly denying question of Elihu Who hath given him a charge over the earth Hence Observe The power of God is a primitive or underived power His power is of himselfe yea his power is himself God doth not rule by Commission or Deputation all ruling power is fundamentally in him as also the rule of that power both which in God are one Jesus Christ as Mediatour rules by Commission All things saith he Math 11.27 are delivered to me of my Father And againe the Baptist gave this testimony of him John 3.35 The father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand Jesus Christ as Mediator receives his Charge from the Father and he hath received a Charge over the whole earth as Mediator But consider him as God so the government of the world is fundamentally and essentially in him also It is the highest honour of an earthly Prince when as it is sayd of the Chaldeans Hab 1.7 their Judgement and their dignity proceedeth of themselves that is when they rule in their owne right not in the right or by the designement of any other How high then is the honour of God who ruleth not only over all the people but over all the Princes of the earth his Judgement and dignity proceeding purely from himselfe Secondly As the power of God is underived or proceeds only from himselfe so the power of God is absolute and unlimited His is in the strictest sense imaginable supreame power Heathenish Nebuchadnezzar confessed this truth Dan 4.35 Before him that is before God all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing and he doth according to his will in the Armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand and say to him what dost thou There 's absolute power none can say that is none may presume to say to him What doest thou no man ought to question much lesse to quarrell at the determinations of God whether concerning persons or nations 't is his right or prerogative to doe what he will and how much soever he acts by prerogative he will doe only that which is right we may consider the absolute supremacy of God in a five-fold exercise of power First In commanding He commandeth what he pleaseth to be done nor may his commands be disputed they must be obeyed because his Secondly In prohibiting he forbiddeth whatsoever displeaseth him to be done And how pleasing how right soever any thing is in our eyes yet if he forbiddeth it we must for ever forbeare it We all know by our owne smart how dangerous it is to eate of a forbidden Tree Thirdly In suffering I meane it not of any suffering evill in himselfe God is infinitely above that but of his suffering others to doe evill or of his suffering any evill to be done God may and doth permit that which is nought wicked and unrighteous to be done in the world and yet himselfe remaines altogether holy righteous just and good This is a great part of the transcendency of his power Fourthly In rewarding God hath absolute power to reward First whom he will Secondly for what he will Thirdly in what kind he will Fourthly in what degree or measure he will Fifthly for how long he will he can give which none of the Princes of the earth can everlasting rewards Fifthly In punishing God hath absolute power to punish and the absoluteness of his power in punishing may be exemplified in those five particulars wherein his power of rewarding in the former paragraph was In all these things we see the unlimitedness of the power of God Who hath given him a Charge over the earth or who hath disposed the whole world Himselfe alone doth it and he doth it of himselfe And for as much as there is such a supremacy such an absoluteness of power in God take these three inferences from it First How freely should we yeild our selves to the commands of God not questioning this as unequall nor saying that is hard we are more apt to find fault with the work which God requires us to doe then to remember that it is a great fault not to doe it The heart of man naturally riseth against the will of God It is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Rom 8.7 the wisdome of the flesh thinks there is some unrighteousnesse at least some unreasonablenesse or rigour in the commands of God and therefore such wise men hope they have reason on their side if they omit them or act against them Any man will at least he cannot but confesse he ought to be subject unto that which is equall and right Man hath no colour to disobey till he hath put some blot upon the command And seeing the commands of him who hath the charge over all the earth in himselfe and from himselfe cannot possibly have any blot or defect in them let us take
heed we be not found disobeying Secondly Seeing God hath the Charge of all the earth we should as readily submit to his dispensations works and dealings as to his commands The Jewes of old complained Ezek 18.29 The way of the Lord is not equall They did even tell him to his face his wayes were not equall and therefore they would not submit The Church in captivity spake well Lam 3.28 Out of the mouth of the most high proceedeth not evill and good that is whatsoever the Lord hath pronounced to doe or hath done concerning us is morally good and not evill though it be penally evill and not good Eli spake wel also to this poynt 1 Sam 3.18 It is the Lord let him doe what seemes good in his owne eyes yet the thing which God was about to doe was such v. 11. as at which both the eares of every one that heard it should tingle To have the heart quiet while the eares tingle is pure submission And any unquietness or murmurings at the dealings of God whether respecting our persons or our familyes Churches or Nations are in some degree rebellions against the soveraigne power of God Thirdly If the Lord be supreame and have the charge over all the earth then let us set him up as supreame in all things let his ends be above our ends let us designe God in all we doe He who is over all ought to be honoured by all All our actions as so many lines ought to center in his honour who is the Center of power Of him and through him and to him are all things saith the Apostle Rom 11.36 Because all things are of him creating them and through him governing them therefore all things should be to him that is all persons should in all things they doe yea in all things that are done ayme at and designe his glory as the Apostle expressely concludeth the verse before cited To whom be glory for ever Thirdly Whereas it is sayd Who hath given him a Charge over the earth or who hath disposed not a part or parcell or canton or corner of but the whole world Observe The power of God is an universall power It is extended throughout the world to every patch and inch of it What David saith of the Sun Psal 19.6 His going forth is from the end of heaven and his circuit unto the ends of it and there is nothing hid from the heate thereof The same may we say of the circuit of Gods power there is nothing hid from nor set beyond it There is a four-fold universality of the power of God First In regard of persons Psal 97.9 Thou Lord art high above all the earth thou art exalted farre above all Gods that is above the Kings and powers of the earth whom the Scripture calleth Gods If God hath a power over the Kings of the earth then surely over the people of the earth yea God is not only exalted and farre exalted above this or that God or King but above them all This is a supremacy with utmost universality Secondly His power is universall as to places and nations some places claime priviledge and are exempt from the jurisdiction of Princes if obnoxious persons get thither they are free from the course of the Law There were Cities of refuge among the Jewes and Sanctuaries in the dayes of old among us where evill-doers could not be toucht But the power of the Lord reacheth all places even to the hornes of the Altar Psal 83.18 Thou whose name alone is Jehovah art most high over all the earth Thirdly His power is universall as in all places so over all things it extends to the starrs of heaven and to the fowles of the ayre to the beasts of the earth and to the fishes of the Sea to whatsoever moves in this world they are all at the command of God if he doth but speake they run and execute his will Fourthly His power is universall in reference to time 't is never out nor shall ever end he is King immortall and King eternall his Kingdome is an everlasting Kingdome The power of God is an universall power in all these considerations His power of Governing is of the same extent as his power of creating was that which he created at once he governes alwayes He did not set up the fabrick of this world and then leave it to it selfe but he preserveth and ordereth all things in it The wel-being the orderly being of the creature is as much of God as the being of it Some say God made the world at first and set all the wheeles of it a-going but now things goe on by chance by fortune or by accident at least particular events are not under his government but come to passe as the wisdome or folly of men is most active in the production of them I answer to set up blind fortune and chance yea or the wit and policy of man as governing the world is to set up other Gods in the world if chance and fortune or the wit of man governe any part of the world then they had a part in making the world If you divide one power you divide the other For those invisible things of God his eternal power and God-head are as much or as evidently seene in the things which are done as in the things which are made 'T is true indeed God useth many hands in governing ordering and disposing the things of this world The Princes of this world are eminently his hand but God doth not use any power in governing this world Non eget alienis adjutorijs ad regendum mundum qui non eguit ad fatiendum Greg Lib 24. Moral ca. 26. to diminish his owne nor doth he withdraw his owne power what power soever he useth 't is his power that acts effectually and gives successe in the acting of all power It was sayd to that King who prided himselfe in what he had done in the world Shall the Axe boast it selfe against him that heweth therewith or shall the saw magnifie it selfe against him that shaketh it Isa 10.15 As if the Lord had sayd to that proud Assyrian Prince Dost thou looke upon thy selfe as if thou didst all and governedst all thou art no more in the governing the world though the chiefe earthly Governour of all the world then an Axe is in the hand of him that useth it And though the artificer cannot doe his worke without an Axe though he cannot divide his Timber without a saw yet I the Lord am able to doe my worke without thee At best and most men are but instruments in the hand of God and he serves his owne turne by men not to signifie that he cannot worke without them nor that his worke is done either with more ease to himselfe or more successe as to it selfe by their helpe he is not so weake as to need helpe nor is at all strengthned by the helpe he useth but only to shew that as he
turnest man to destruction and sayest Return ye children of men Here 's man turning and returning upon the saying of God man turneth to death he returneth to dust and shall at last return from the dust and all this when God saith he must Our life is a very frail thing and it is in the hand of God to continue or take it away to let us hold it or gather it home to himself Thirdly From the manner of speaking If he gather to himself his spirit and his breath Note When man dieth he is gathered to God When as Solomon allegorizeth the death of man Eccl. 12.6 7. The silver cord is loosed and the golden bowl broken c. Then shall the dust that is the body return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to God who gave it that is each part of man when he departeth this world shall go its proper way and return to that which is most congenial to it his body to the earth from whence it is his soul to God of whom it is God is a Spirit the creating Spirit and our created spirits are gathered to God when they are separated from the body yet remember there is a two-fold gathering or returning of the spirit to God First To abide and be blessed with him for ever thus the spirits of believers or saints only are gathered to God when they depart out of this world Secondly There is a gathering of the spirit to God to be judged and disposed of by him to receive a sentence of life or death from him And thus the spirit of every man or woman that dieth is gathered to God be they good or bad believers or unbelievers Heb. 9.27 It is appointed for men once to die but after this the judgement 'T is the Statute Law of God man must die and the sound of Judgement is at the heels of death That Text saith but after this the Judgement The general day of judgement shall not be till the resurrection of man from the dead But there is a personal judgement or a determining of every mans state when he dieth and for that end every mans spirit is gathered to God to receive his sentence The spirits of wicked men are gathered to him and condemned the spirits of the righteous are gathered to him and acquitted We are come saith the Apostle Heb. 12.23 to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect David knew he must be gathered to God but he earnestly deprecated such a gathering as most shall have Psal 26.9 Gather not my soul with sinners nor my life with bloody men It is this word when sinners die they are gathered but David would not be gathered as they are gathered They are gathered to God but it is that they may be for ever separated from him they are gathered to a day of vengeance and wrath Therefore David prayed Gather not my soul with sinners Death is called a gathering in a threefold reference First A gathering to our people Thus it is said of Aaron Num. 20.24 Aaron shall be gathered unto his people for he shall not enter into the land c. Death separates the people of God from their people that is from those that are like them on earth but it will be a means of bringing them into the society of their people or fellow believers who are gone before them into heaven Secondly Death is called a gathering to our Fathers 2 Chron. 34 28. Behold I will gather thee to thy Fathers and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace There 's a gathering to a more special company and that with other like Scriptures are an argument that we shall know our relations in heaven For to be gathered to our Fathers spoken of in the first part of the verse is more then to be gathered to the grave spoken of in the latter and by our fathers we are to understand more of our fathers then the grave hath in its keeping which is but their bodies even their souls which are kept in heaven Thirdly According to the phrase of this Text death is called a gathering to God If he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath Whence Note Fourthly The spirit or soul of man hath its original from God It is of him to whom it returneth The soul or spirit of man is of God in a more special way then his body is for though God giveth both yet the Scripture in the place before named speaks of the soul as the gift of God but passeth by the body Eccles 12.7 The dust shall return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to God who gave it 'T is God not man alone who hath given us these bodies but 't is not man but God alone who hath given us these spirits therefore men are called the fathers of our flesh that is of the body in way of distinction from God who is the father of spirits Heb. 12.9 We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live that is shall we not rather be subject to God then to man Father of spirits is an Attribute or Title too high and honourable for any but God One of the Ancients in his gracious breathing after God brake out into this holy Passion My soul O God came from thee and my heart is unquiet or restless until it return to thee again God is our center and our rest He gathereth to himself mans spirit and when he doth so what then what 's the issue of it Elihu tells us what in the next verse Vers 15. All flesh shall perish together and man shall turn again to his dust As if he had said As soon as ever the spirit is gathered the flesh is consumed or as we render perisheth All flesh may be taken in the largest sence not only for all men that live but for all living creatures Thus largely Moses extendeth it Gen. 6.17 Behold saith the Lord I will bring a flood of water to destroy all flesh that is all the Beasts of the earth and Fowls of the ayre together with Mankinde except a few of each in the Ark so Psal 136.25 Who giveth food to all flesh that is to man and beast for his mercy endureth for ever Yet some understand this first part more narrowly for all flesh except man because he addeth in the latter part of the verse and man shall return again to his dust But I conceive we are to take all flesh here for all men and only for men it being usual in Scripture to put the same thing twice under different expressions So then All flesh that is every man be he who he will shall perish Thus as all flesh is restrained to man so it extendeth over all men yea over all things of man Isa 40.6 All flesh is grass and all the
sense for death is a passing away a passing out of this world Psal 37.36 Transire intelligo non pro migrare aliò sed pro abire in sepulchrum Merc Loe he passed away and was gone that is he died And that which is as death to the heavens and the earth their great change when ever it shall be is called a passing away Math 5.18 Till heaven and earth passe away one jot or one tittle shall in no wise passe away from the Law till all be fullfilled that is the Law shall stand in force as long as the world stands Thus to passe away is to die But I conceive we are to expound this third branch of the Judgement distinctly from the former two and therefore for as much as we have death in the first words it will not be proper to take in death here againe or to expound passing away by dying The third notion of they shall passe away is they shall run or flee for it they know not whether they shall flee for their lives from the danger impending over them As some shall die and all be troubled so not a few shall endeavour to save their lives by flight Christ in the Gospel foretold the great troubles and afflictions which should come upon Jerusalem and in them there was a sad concurrence or meeting of these three Judgments in the text For when after forty yeares the Romans invaded and ruin'd their City many dyed were destroyed by sword and famine all the people were troubled Oh in what a hurry were they to see the Romane Eagle displayed before their Gates and then they passed away that is as many as could withdrew and got out of the danger It is reported in history that before the Seidge of that City a voyce was heard in Jerusalem saying Migremus hinc let us passe from hence they who believed that warning departed soone after And as some passed away before the Judgement came so when it was come many were striving to be gone or to passe away Therefore Christ admonished them Math 24.20 Pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabath day I conceive we are to understand this text distinctly of such a passing away In a moment shall they die and the people shall be troubled at midnight and passe away they shall doe what they can to secure themselves by out-running the danger Note from it First God hath variety of meanes to humble a sinfull people Into how many wayes doe the Judgements of God divide themselves severall persons beare severall parts here is death to many trouble to all flight to some That in the Prophet answers it fully Jer 15.1 where the Lord protesting that nothing no not the intercession of Moses and Samuel should take him off from his resolve against that people saith Such as are for death to death and such as are for the sword to the sword and such as are for the famine to the famine and such as are for the captivity to the captivity There 's pestilence and sword and famine and captivity ready at the call of God to take away a provoking people Secondly Note To passe away or to be put to our flight is a grievous Judgement To flee from the face of the pursuer to run for our lives who knows the trouble and terror of it but they that have been in it what a mercy is it that our dwellings are continued to us that we abide in our places that we neither die in a moment are not surpriz'd by midnight-feares but rest quietly in our beds though feares at midnight have been ready to surprize us What a mercy is it that we are not passing away running fleeing into the wildernesse as the poore Churches of God have done in severall ages So much of Judgement upon the people in that three-fold notion of it We have here also Judgement upon Princes And the mighty shall be taken away without hand Not only the many but the mighty shall feele the Judgements of God For as 't is sayd in the former verse He accepteth not the persons of Princes nor regardeth the rich more then the poore The mighty and the meanest of men are alike to God when they are alike in sinning against God If they doe evill alike they shall suffer evill alike God accepteth no mans person The mighty shall be taken away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fortis robustus excellens fortitudine pluraliter Abirim in genere forte significat The word rendred mighty taken plurally is used in Scripture to denote not only mighty men but any creature that excells in might And therefore according to the exigence of the place it signifies sometimes Angells who being spirits exceed all flesh in might The people of Israel in the wilderness did eat Angells food Psal 78.5 the food of the Abirims of the mighty or strong ones And as it is applyed to Angells who exceed the strongest men in strength so it is applyed to any sort of strong beasts to the horse Jer 47.3 to Bulls Isa 34.7 Jer 50.11 Psal 22.13 Psal 68.31 Thus the word riseth above man to Angells and falls below man to the beasts of the earth here 't is applyable only to strong and mighty men of whom yet there are three sorts First Some are men of a mighty arme Secondly Others are mighty in Armes Thirdly There are men mighty in Authority The first of these is a natural mighty man he hath a mighty arme a strong body or he excells in bodily strength The second is a marshall mighty man a souldier a man of warre The third is the Magistratical mighty man he is cloathed with power both to punish and reward Possibly he may have no bodily might yea possibly he is no souldier yet a man of such power he is that he commands whole Nations Now take the word Mighty in any of these three senses and it is a truth the mighty shall be taken away the mighty in strength of the Arme the mighty in strength of Armyes the mighty in power and dignity are by the hand of the Almighty God taken away They shall take them away saith the Hebrew text that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 et amovent potentem impersonaliter Pisc say some according to the first translation mentioned the people shall violently take away the mighty But by an usuall Hebraisme we may read it Impersonally the mighty shall be taken away concealing or leaving it to be understood by whom Like that speech to the rich man Luke 12.25 This night doe they require thy soule of thee so we put in the Margin that is as the text hath it this night thy soule shall be required of thee they shall take thy soule that is it shall be taken away so here they shall take away the mighty that is the mighty shall be taken away or removed We may take notice of a two-fold remove or taking away First There is a
mighty God Isa 9.6 called himselfe a worme and no man in his humiliations for the redemption of lost man Psal 22.6 What are the mightiest men but wormes to God who is so mighty that if he say the word wormes become their Masters The mighty Giants are before God but pigmy's punyes or children The Prophet gives a good warning Jer 9.23 Let not the mighty man glory in his might Let him not glory in the might of his arme Let him not glory in the might of his armes or Armies though man have an Army of mighty men about him yet let him not glory in them no nor in the might of his power or authority If any man useth his might against God what is his might unto God Psal 58.1 Why boastest thou O mighty man that thou canst doe mischiefe If a man be mighty and have a mind to doe mischiefe with his might especially if he boasteth in his might because he can doe mischiefe with it he is not only sinfull but weake and foolish There is no greater morall weakness then to boast either of naturall martiall or civill strength Could any of the mighty men of this world stand before the might of God they had somewhat to boast of Read the word of the Lord against the mighty Isa 2.10 Behold the Kings and Captaines of the earth trembling before the presence of the Lambe Rev 6.15 and then judge how weake the strongest are before the Lord All ages are full of teaching examples that there is no might to his who is Almighty Secondly Note What ever God will doe he can easily doe it He can effect it with a looke with a cast of his eye he can doe it with a breath of his mouth he can doe it with a word It is said Exod 14.24 God looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and through the cloud and troubled the host of the Egyptians and tooke off their Chariot wheeles that they drave them heavily To looke upon them was an easie thing God did not give them a stroake with his hand but only a looke with his eye and that overthrew them Thirdly Note God can do the greatest things alone He can subdue the mighty though none come forth to his help against the mighty they are cursed who do not help the Lord against the mighty when they set their might against the Lord Judg. 5.23 Curse ye Mero◠saith the angel of the Lord curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not forth to the help of the Lord to the help of the Lord against the mighty But though it be the sin of man not to help the Lord against the mighty yet the withdrawing of their help doth not hinder the Lord in his purpose against the mighty For He taketh away the mighty without hands Though men stir not though angels should not stir to his help yet his own arm can bring either salvation or destruction It is said of the Lord Isa 44.24 He stretched out the heavens alone there was none to help him to unfold that vast canopy of heaven he stretcht out the heavens alone As in the Creation he made all alone so in Providence he can act and effect all alone It is a great glory to God that he hath many instruments to help him many tongues to speak for him many hands to work for him but it is a greater glory to God that he needs none to help him none to speak or work for him In this the glory of the Lord infinitely outshines the glory of all the mighty Kings and Princes of the earth They have done and can do mighty things but not without hands and therefore they have the hands of thousands at command for them 't is not their place to put their hand to the work 't is enough that they give commands and orders 't is the duty of others to execute all their righteous commands and fulfil their orders But the Lord hath not only a commanding power but an executing power too in himself though no hand move yet his affairs stand not still God and all creatures put together are no more then God alone without any creature Many are useful but none are necessary unto God Take two inferences from it First This is matter of terror to wicked men though they see no hand in the world against them much less any able to match them least of all to check them yea though they see all hands for them yet this is no security to them this is no assurance of one hours safety seeing the Lord taketh away the mighty without hand and he usually doth it when they see not which way any hand can reach them It is the conclusion of one of the Ancients upon this place in reference to a mighty oppressour He is invisibly pull'd down Invisibilitèr rapitur qui visibiliter rapiebat Gregor who did visibly pull down He ruined others with hands but himself shall be ruin'd without hand he saw him whom he took away but he shall not see him who takes him away Let them who live without fear of any hand remember the Apostles admonition Heb. 10.31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God who takes away the mighty without hand Secondly This is matter of wonderful comfort to all that fear God and trust upon him whether Princes or people whether mighty men or mean men What though ye see no hand for you yet 't is enough if he be for you who saves you without hand The protecting and saving power of God is as great and as effectual as his destroying power is yea he oftner saves without hand then he destroyes without hand As the Kings of the earth so the great King of heaven and earth loves to deal his favours and bestow his rewards immediately with his own hand but usually afflicts and punisheth by the hands of others That 's a most pregnant Scripture to this purpose Hos 1.7 where the Lord promiseth to save Judah But Judah might say I am in a very low condition and no help appears Therefore he addeth I will save them by the Lord their God and will not save them by Bowe nor by Sword nor by Battel nor by Horses nor Horsemen Judah shall be saved though there be no hand to save them I will save them saith the Lord by the Lord their God I will do it immediately And the Lord doth not only say in the affirmative he will save them without hand but he saith also in the Negative that he will not save them with hands But I will not save them by Bowe nor Sword nor Battel nor Horses nor Horsemen there shall be no appearance of these helps I have heretofore destroyed you by Sword and Bowe by Horses and Horsemen but I will have all the honour and thanks of your salvation to my self Though the Lords people have neither horses nor horsemen though they are as
though weake yet humble and teachable thou hast opened them and opened their eyes and hearts to see and receive them This speech holds out not only this truth that when God doth not reveale himselfe no man can know him or any thing of his minde or that neither his nature or his will are knowne but by some way of revelation but this forme of speaking Who can behold him plainly tells us that if God hideth his favour he is so terrible that none can have the boldness or courage to behold him For the hiding of his face implyeth an appearance of anger and displeasure and when he is angry who can behold him If the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance as the Apostle speakes 2 Cor 3.7 surely then no man can stedfastly behold the face of God when his countenance is filled with wrath Some said to Christ John 14.8 Shew us the Father and it sufficeth that is reveale to us the love and good will of the Father and that will satisfie us that will fill up all the desires and longings of our soules we shall have nothing more to wish for nothing more to look after if thou wilt but shew us the father Now on the other side if the Father will not shew himselfe if the Father will hide himselfe from the soule what then can suffice what can comfort where is our refuge or rest Tranquillus deus tranquillat omnia As when God is quiet and favourable to us he can make all things favourable and quiet to us So if God be displeased nothing can be pleasing to a soule that is sensible of his displeasure A believer looses not only the joy and triumph of his faith but his very peace he is not only in a dark but in a disturb'd condition not knowing where to repose himselfe or rest his head when God hideth his face Take this inference from it If the hiding of Gods face be so terrible then take heed of provoking him to hide his face For though we are not tenants at will for our peace in reference unto the world in reference to men in reference to devills yet we are only tenants at will for our peace in reference unto God He can take away our peace and he doth usually continue our peace only so long as we behave our selves well As some have Letters Patents for great offices which run in that tenour They shall enjoy them quam diu se bene gesserint as long as they carry themselves well but upon default or male-administration they may be turned out of all so I say though we are not at the will of the world nor of any creature for the holding of our peace yet we are at the will of God for it And as he sometimes meerly out of prerogative hideth his face as was shewed Job 13.24 that he may try what a soule will doe in a dark condition and that he may declare what the strength of his invisible grace can doe when nothing is visible no not any the least ray or shine of favour from himselfe to support and comfort the soule I say though God doth thus in a prerogative way sometimes hide his face yet usually he doth it not but upon some default in us especially our neglect of him when we regard not the face of God and grow slight as to our valuations of his presence then he withdraweth his presence and vayles his face towards us and when we fall into any grosse sin such was the case of David Psal 51. God takes us upon default and leaves us in a sad condition as he did David who complained that even his bones were broken and that he had lost the joy of his salvation which upon the renewing of his faith and repentance he begg'd earnestly might be restored to him and it was Therefore if you would keepe the light of Gods Countenance keepe close to the light of Gods Commandement No marvaile if we be under the hidings of the face of God when we are turning our backes uâ—on God! Sin is a turning from God a turning our backs 〈◊〉 Gâ—d and is it any wonder if God turne his face from sinners To turne our backe upon God is the worst of a sinfull condition and to find God turning his backe upon us or hiding his face from us is the worst of a miserable condition What can comfort us when the God of all consolation will not look upon us unlesse in displeasure What pleasure but the pleasure of sin for a season which ends without repentance in endlesse torment what pleasure I say can that soule take in whom God taketh no pleasure or with whom he is not pleased It is very sad with the soule when we loose the sight of our owne graces sometimes a gracious heart cannot see any worke of grace nor perceive any workings of grace in him but thinks he hath no faith in God no love to God no sorrow for sin this is sad but it is much more sad to loose the sight of the face of God to have the favour of God withdrawne from us This made Jonah complaine Chap 2.4 I am cast out of the sight of thine eyes he lookt upon himselfe as an outcast and then Jonah thought himselfe as cast into the belly of hell v. 2. When God hides his face from us or will not vouchsafe us a sight of his pleased face we are as in the belly of hell as Jonah bemoaned himselfe What is the glory and happinesse of heaven Is it not the sight of the face of God is it not the cleare vision and manifestation of God Glory is that estate wherein God will never once hide his face nor look off from his glorified Saints no not one moment to all eternity Now the happinesse which we have here the heaven which we have upon earth consists in this also when we live neere God by believing and behold his face by faith when God lifts up the light of his countenance upon us we are as it were lifted up from earth to heaven As vision in heaven will make us happy for ever so hidings on earth make us miserable for the time And that which is the very hell of a godly man upon earth the worst hell he can or shall have is this when God hideth his face from him Therefore take heed you doe not put the Lord upon withdrawing from you through your default This favour the shine or light of Gods face is continued or denied to us usually upon these termes as we behave our selves well or ill towards him JOB Chap. 34. Vers 30. That the hypocrite reigne not lest the people be ensnared THese words are the conclusion of Elihu's discourse about the executions of divine Justice upon the sons of men And in them we have two things First the power Secondly the impartiality of divine Justice God is so powerfull that he can pull downe