how much more If it be rendred how much lesse then it referres to the first clause of the former verse Thus if he Patricula 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro qua est simpliciter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc loco â—â—rumque desig nat sc vel quanto minus vel quanto magis Drus puts no trust in his Angels then much lesse doth he put trust in men who dwell in houses of clay If it be rendred how much more then it referres to the latter clause of that verse Thus If he charged his Angels with folly then how much more may he charge them with folly who dwell in houses of clay Which words are a description of man either in his civill condition or in his naturall constitution Some take these words in the very letter The house for that which we ordinarily call a house the house wherein man ordinarily inhabits as if Eliphaz had thus said Angels dwell in Heaven they have everlasting mansions but man dwels in a house of clay the best and goodliest houses are but clay and dust a little refined and sublimated by art or nature brick and stone all these materials or but dirt concocted by the heate of fire and Sunne so that if the allusion were to the very houses in which man-kind dwels in oppsition to the habitation of Angels these set them farre inferiour to and below the Angels As these take it for the house wherein man lives so some understand it of the house where man lyes being dead namely the grave The Chaldee is expresse paraphrasing thus How much more the wicked who dwell in a sepulcher of clay That the grave is called a house the Prophet helps us Isa 14. 18 19. All the Kings of the Nations even all of them lie in glory every one in his own house that is in the grave as the next words prove But thou art cast out of thy grave c. But I rather take it as was before intimated to be an expression of mans naturall constitution He dwels in a house of clay whose foundation is in the dust And so the Apostle is expresse 2 Cor. 5. 1. If our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved the earthly house is the body and 2 Cor. 4. 7. the body is called an earthen vessel We have this treasure namely the precious Promises 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Turbidus lututentus mixtus ut cum aquae turbantur in eis lutum itae commevetur ut confundantur luto miscentur ut in cementum degenerent and truths of God in the dispensation of the Gospel in earthen vessels We dying men preach eternall life we have death in our faces while the word of life is in our mouths The word here used signifies clay either wrought or unwrought either naturall slimy dirt or dirt made up for use by art So Gen. 11. 3. when they attempted the building of that Tower it is said They had slime for morter it is the word of the Text which is used for both slime and morter they had slime which is natural for morter that is by Art and industry they made morter of slime The body of man is a house of clay but not of rude naturall clay the power and if I may so speak the art of God hath wrought it beyond it self and refined it for this goodly building the body of man The body of man is called a house or building in two respects First because of the comely fabrick it is set up by line or by rule there is admirable architecture admirable skill in building and raising up of the body of man story after story room after room and contrivance after contrivance in all so compact and set together that the most curious piles in the world are but rude heaps compared to it so then in respect of the frame and structure it is fitly called a house Secondly * Hoc corpus luteum domus animae dicitur quia anima humana quantum ad aliquid est in corpore sicut homo in domo vel sicut nanta in navi in quaÌ„tum scilicet est motor corporis anima a utem non unitur corpori accidentaliter sed formaliter ut forma materiae dicitur enim materia fundamentum formae eò quod est prima pars in generatione sunt fundamenâ—um in constitutione domus Aquin. the frame of the body is called a house in respect of the soul the soul dwels in or inhabits the body as the whole man inhabits or dwels in a house the soule guides and orders the body as the inhabitant orders the affairs of the house or as the Mariner and Pilot steer and direct the motions of the ship Not that the soul is in the body accidentally we must not strain the similitude so far as a man is in a house or a Mariner is in a ship there is a formall union between the body and the soul only the soul is said to dwell in the body and the body or the matter is after called a foundation because there is the beginning Man was begun at his body as the house is at the foundation first God formed man that is the body out of the dust of the earth and then he breathed into him the breath of life and man became a living soule Thus the body is a house and it is a house of clay or a house of Coâ—pus humanum lutum digitur quod ex teâ—ra aqua gravioribus clementis abundantius constat Aquin. earth so called chiefly in two respects First because of the matter of it it is made of earth Though all Elements as Naturalists teach meet in mixt bodies yet earth is predominant in grosse or heavie bodies Secondly because of the continuance of it or the means by which it is supported for as it was at the first framed out of the earth so it is still supported and maintained by earth earthly creatures meat and drink with such like accomodations continue and repair this house from day to day untill at last it be laid down in the dust and returne to earth again So then it is called an earthly house not only from the matter of which it is made but also from the means by which it is kept in repair earth and earthy all Whose foundation is in the dust These words aggravate the weakness of mans condition Suppose man were formed out of the dust and were but clay yet had he a strong foundation that would support and strengthen him The strength of a building is in the foundation and that building whose wals are but weak may stand long being firmely founded The Church of Christ is weak of it self but because the Church hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pulvis propâ—ie rarior tenuinat qualis in superfiâ—ie terrae Meâ— in Gen. Significaâ— non simpliciâ—ur pulverem sed pulveâ—eÌ„ canosum â—â— lâ—mosum Fapius in Gen. 2. 7 Pulvis levissimus ex quo
In the 1 Sam. 3. 1. we have the ground of the distinction In those dayes there was no open vision Open is opposed to private or secret the word imports a vision appearing in publique and the meaning of the text is this there were no Prophets sent openly and as it were In State invested with commission and furnished with messages Fuerantquidem singulares privatae visiones cum pijs communicatae ut cum Manoah Judic 13 Sed publiâ—è Prophetarum oâ—ne munus jacebat Jun. in loc from Heaven unto the people there was no open vision yet at that time there were private visions as to Manoah Judg. 13. God revealed himselfe in those darke times to some of his speciall servants And so he hath and will at all times While he hath a Church upon the earth he never shuts himselfe quite in Heaven Open vision may faile but all visions shall not faile So open profession may faile in the raigne of Antichrist in his houre and in the power of darknesse as it did in the time of Eliah yet all profession of the truth shall never faile The Lord hath alwayes his thousands in secret who never bowed their knee to Baal In many places since Christ came in the flesh there hath been no open vision no holding forth of the truth of Christ and yet even in those places there have been private visions and a remnant reserved to whom God hath made known the mysteries of the Kingdome of Christ When darknesse covers all in appearance there may be light which appeares not and candles under a bushell when there are none in the Candlesticks A Goshen hath light while Egypt is plagued with darknesse and when the Prophets are benighted it may be day with many of the people Thirdly Some visions were without any trance or ravishment Gen. 15. 1. The word of God came in a vision to Abraham speaking to his eare and bidding him look up to Heaven with his eyes ver 5. But often we finde that visions were accompanied with trances 'T was so with Balaam the false Prophet Num. 24. 16. He hath said which saw the visions rf the Almighty falling into a trance but having his eyes open And it was so with some of the true Prophets Daniel saw a vision and when he heard the voice Then saith he was I in a deepe sleepe upon my face Dan. 10. 9. Peter was in a trance when he had the vision of a sheete let downe from Heaven Act. 10. And the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 12. 1. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord whether in the body I cannot tell or whether out of the body I cannot tell God knoweth His soule had so much acquaintance with God that he became a stranger to his own body his soule was so busied in receiving knowledge from God that he was faine to put off the knowledge and care of his body wholly to God What the state of my body was I know not God knoweth Fourthly Some visions were presented only in bare naked words others were cloathed in types and figures in the shapes of beasts of the earth and soules of the ayre of trees and stones c. As to Ezekiel and Daniel in their Prophesies and to John in the book of Revelations These figures were as an Alphabet of sacred Letters which put together and spel'd made the minde of God legible to his servants Lastly The Scripture in hand hints us a fifth difference about visions In thoughts from the visions of the night that 's considerable There were visions of the day and visions of the night thus it is said Dan. 2. 19. when Daniel expounded Nebuchadnezzars dreame that God made it known to him in visions of the night opposing it to visions of the day Usually the night was the time for visions hence Numb 22. 18 19. Balaam the false Prophet when the messengers of Balack came to him saith Tarry this night and I will shew you in the morning he thought to have a vision in the night So it is observable that when Saul and his servant came to Samuel 1 Sam. 9. 19. to enquire about the straid Asses he tells him ye shall eate bread with me to day and to morow I will let thee goe and will tell thee all that is in thine heart he desired a night intimating that God used to reveale secrets unto him in the night So much concerning visions with the kindes and differences of them From this doctrine of visions we may take notice of our priviledge under the Gospel The Apostle saith at sundry times and in divers manners God spake unto our fathers by the Prophets but he hath spoken unto us one way which exceeds them all Even by his Sonne who is the brightnesse of his glory and the expresse image of his person Heb. 1. 2 3. We have a vision which outshines all the visions that ever the Prophets or Patriarchs had from the beginning of the world Their light was darknesse at most but a shadow their visions were obscurities and their revelations concealments compared with ours Our vision is Christ God manifested in the flesh Mine eyes have seen thy salvation saith old Simeon he had a vision of Christ in person The land of Judah was call'd the valley of vision because God revealed himselfe to that people more frequently and clearly than to all the world beside Where ever the Gospel is preached that Land is a valley of vision a valley of vision farre more lightsome and glorious than the land of Judah was the very darknesse of the Gospel is clearer than the light of the Law That which was made glorious had no glory by reason of that glory which excelleth 1 Cor. 3. 10. Only remember that as our priviledge is greater than theirs so is our duty A cleare light should be answered with a holier life And we who have more evidence of what God would have done should make more conscience to do it Now we are not taught by dreams and visions of the night We ought to walk as children of the day Not onely is darknesse gone but the shadows are fled away The true light now shines even he who enlightens every one that comes into the warld We need not dreams or visions now Why should we call for Candles when the Sunne is up We need not Starre-light when we have day-light or when the promised Day-starre is risen in our hearts 2 Pet. 1. 19. Here is one circumstance more in the Text about this vision very Sopor est somnus profundior somnus est plus quam do miâ—aâ—io sopor plus quam somnus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat gravem somnum imo plus quâ—m somnuÌ„ profundum somnuÌ„ quasi letharguÌ„â— remarkeable it was not only in the night but in the night when deepe sleepe falleth on men or on sorrowfull man man wearied with labour and travell This is a more distinct description of the time than the former
nihil firmum aut diuturnum ompingi potest such a mighty foundation CHRIST the Rock a living and an unmoveable Rock That confession of Peter Thou art Christ the Sonne of the living God is the Churches foundation Rock therefore the gates of Hell shall not prevaile against it But when the building is weak and the foundation weak too in how tottering a condition is such a building Mans foundation is but sand or dust and the word signifies flying light unstable moveable dust such as lies on the surface of the earth and is plaid about with every puffe of winde though some I confesse take the word not strictly for this flying dust but for slimy dust or dust moistned which is slime This was the matter out of which God created man Gen. 2. 7. dust out of the earth or out of the dust of the earth That dust which can hardly be collected or kept together to make a subsistence that is laid together as the foundation of man His foundation is in the dust Hence we may observe first what the pedigree and originall of man is what treasure soever he carries about him yet he is an earthen vessell or as the Apostle speaks of the first man 1. Cor. 15. 47. he is of the earth earthy Earth is the Originall of man and man himself is no better Earthy yea the Earth is call'd his earth as if he had propriety in nothing but earth Psal 1â— 6. 4. speaking of the greatest Princes Trust ye not in Princes nor in the sonne of man his breath goeth forth and he returneth to his earth Our bodies can challenge no alliance with or propriety in any thing but earth it is our earth The wise man Eccles 12. 7. cals the body not only an Allie to the dust or a-kin to dust but plain dust Then speaking of Death shall the dust returne to the earth as it was it came from the earth and in death it returnes to the same point from whence it set out A second thing we may take notice of from mans originall which exceedingly advances the infinite wisdome and the Almighty power of God Dust and Earth are the matter out of which we are formed But doth the countenance of man represent dust and earth Could any one say who had nothing to judge by but the eye that man was made of such mean materials What characters of Beauty and Majesty sit in his visage how unlike is he to his own parent the Earth Man hath received from God not only an excellent fabrick or composure of body but if you consider it the very matter of which the body is composed is farre more excellent then earth or dust Take a piece of earth or a handfull of dust and compare them with the flesh of man that flesh is earth indeed but that flesh is farre better then meer earth This shewes the power of the Creator infinitely exceeding the power of a creature A Goldsmith can make you a goodly Jewel but then you must give him gold and precious stones of which to make it he can put the matter into a hetter form but he cannot make the matter better The Engraver can make a curious Statue exactly limb'd and proportion'd to the life out of a ruff piece but the matter must be the same you put into his hands if you give him Marble it will be a Marble Statue but he cannot mend the matter Mans work Materiam superabat opus often exceeds his matter but mans work cannot make the matter exceed it self Now God took up a rude lumpe of earth or subtile dust and he not only put that into an excellent form but he mended the matter also Man is earth but he is earth sublimated and refined Not only doth the forme exceed the matter but the matter formed exceeds the matter unformed Thirdly as this lifts up the wisdome and power of God so it should humble and lay man low Eliphaz improves this principle as an Argument to take down the spirit of Job from his supposed heights and self-conceits Surely thou art great in thy owne thoughts when thou presumest to enter a contest with God But look to thy Originall such towring lofty and ascending thoughts would quickly be abated if thou wouldest remember tha thou art but a clod of earth a little refined clay moving slime enlivened dust breathing ashes did we spiritually look upon the matter of our bodies it would take down the swelling of our spirits when our spirits are like Jordan in the time of harvest overflowing all the banks of humility and moderation this thought spiritualiz'd will bring us into our channels again and recall us to our owne bounds and banks Some Naturalists observe of the Bees that when they are up and angry do but throw a little dust upon them they are quiet and hive again Certainly when our imaginations are buzzing and humming in the aire when thy are flying and mounting up to Heaven not in holy aspirings to God which we ever ought but in bold aspirings against God which we should never dare in such a distemper of our spirits if we could but cast this dust upon them it would quiet and bring them in again Hath not man cause to lye as low in his thoughts as that from whence he was extracted should not he be humbled to the dust who is dust Especially this earth should be abased in all addresses to Heaven in all our approaches unto God as Abraham Genesis 18. 27. I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord who am but dust and ashes We should never be so low in our own thoughts as when we make use of our highest priviledges and the nearer we are admitted to come to Heaven the more should we for the magnifying of Free-grace which makes this admission remember that we are but Earth Fourthly if the body be but clay and hath but a foundation of dust then doe not bestow too much care and cost upon your clay upon your dust How many are there who bestow much paines to trim up a vile body and neglect a precious soule Most usually they who bestow most paines upon this mortall house of clay bestow least about that immortal inhabitant In an over cared for body there ever dwels a neglected soul You shall have a body cleanly washed and a soule all filth a body neatly clothed and drest with a soule all naked and unready a body fed and a soule starved a body full of the creature and a soule empty of Christ these are poor soules indeed That complaint of the Moralist against Heathens may be renewed against some Christians they are busied most between the combe and the glasse and troubled more at a disorder in their haire then at a disorder in the Common-wealth Inter ' pectinem speculum occupari Sen. he said I say then at a disorder in the Church or in their owne hearts It is a sad thing that any who bear the name of a
gale of love breathing through the covenant of Grace And as the life of man is compared by Job to a cloud so to that which is the matter of the cloud by the Apostle James Chap. 4. verse 14. where he puts the question what 's the life of man Is it not saith he even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away A vapour is exhaled from the earth by the heat of the Sunne and is the matter out of which the cloud is made Mans life is not only like a cloud which is more condense and strong but like those thin vapours sometimes observed arising from moorish grounds which are the original of clouds and more vanishing then clouds Even these are but vanishing enough to shadow the vanishing decaying quickly dis-appearing life of man As the cloud consumes and vanishes the next words speak out the mind of the comparison So he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more The grave is a descent And the word which is here used for the grave is Sheol about which many disputes are raised among the learned The root of it signifies to desire or to crave with earnestness and the reason given is because the grave is always craving and asking Though the grave hath devoured the bodies of millions of men yet it is as hungry as it was the first morsel still it is asking and craving The grave is numbred among those things which are not satisfied Prov. 30. 16. In the Greeke of the new Testament it is translated Hades which by change of letters some form out of the Hebrew Adam and Adamah the earth unto which God condemned fallen man to returne Gen. 3. 19. We find this word Sheol taken five wayes in Scripture 1. Strictly and properly for the place of the damned Prov. 15. II. Hell and destruction are before the Lord how much more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then all the hearts of the children of men God looks through the darkness of hell which is utter darkness Tam infernus quam sepulchrum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. Status mortuorum vel sepalchrum nam ut anima de corpore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de sepulchro usurpatur Ps 16. Drus 2. It is put Metaphorically for great and extream dangers or miseries which seem irrecoverable and remediless these are figuratively called hell because hell properly taken is a place from whence there is no recovery There 's no release from the chaines of darknesse all changes are on earth Heaven and hell know none When David praises the Lord Psalm 86. 13. for delivering his soul from the lowest hell he meaneth an estate on earth of the lowest and deepest danger imaginable Mercy helpt him at the worst To be as low as hell is to be at the lowest 3. The word signifies the lower parts of the earth without relation to punishment Psal 139. 8. If I go down into hell thou art there He had said before if I ascend up into Heaven thou art there by Heaven he meanes the upper Region of the world without any respect to the estate of blessednesse and hell is the most opposite and remote in distance without respect to misery As is he had said let me go whither I will thy presence finds me out 4. It is taken for the state of the dead whether those dead are in the grave or no Psal 30. 3. Isa 38. 18 19. Gen. 37. 35. In all which places to go out of the world is to go to Sheol Jacob in the text alledged Gen. 37. 35. said he would go down into the grave to his son mourning yet Jacob thought his Son was devoured by a wild beast he could not goe down into the grave to his son for the bowels of a wild beast was his supposed grave but he meaneth only this I wil even die as he is dead So Numb 16. 33. where that dreadful judgement of God upon Korah Dathan and Abiram is storied it is said that they their sheep and their oxen and their tents and all went down into Sheol that is they were all devoured and swallowed up But 5. Sheol signifies the place where the body is layed after death namely the grave Prov. 30. 16. Man hath a demension of earth fitted to the dimensions of his body this portion or allotment is his Sheol Yet it signifies the grave only in generall as it is natural to man-kind not that grave which is artificial and proper to any particular man this the Hebrew expresses by another * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word He that goeth down to the grave goes to his long home to a house out of which he is never able to see or make his way and Ainsw in Gen. 37. therefore it followes He shall come up no more No that 's sad news indeed to go down to the grave and come up no more Are all the hopes of man shut up in the grave and is there an utter end of him when his life ends Shall he come up no more Many of the Greek writers tax Job as not acquainted with the doctrine of the Resurrection as if he either knew not that mystery or doubted at this time of it And some of the Rabbins say plainly Hic abnegat Iob resuscitationem mortuorum Rab. Sol. Non negatur resurrectio ad vitam sed ad similem vitam Pined he denied it But he is so cleare in the 19th Chapter that we need not think him so much as cloudy here And if we look a little farther himself will give us the comment of this text When he saith he shall come up no more it is not a denyal of a dying mans resurrection to life but of his restitution to the same life or to such a life as he parted with at the graves mouth They who die a natural death shall not live a natural life again therefore he addeth in the next verse Verse 10. He shall return no more to his house He doth not say absolutely he shall return no more but he shall return no more to his house he shall have no more to do with this world with worldly businesses or contentments with the labour or comforts of the creature or of his Family He shall return no more to his house But some may say how doth this answer the comparison That as the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more for we find another description of clouds Eccles 12. 2. where the text saith that the clouds return after raine So that it seems though clouds vanish and are consumed yet they returne and come againe The clouds are like bottles full of raine or spunges full of water God crushes these spunges or unstops these bottles and they are emptied and in emptying vanish away but yet Solomon affirms the clouds return after raine how then doth Job say that as the cloud vanisheth so man goeth to the grave
of the goodnesse of God to man When I behold the heavens the work of thy fingers the Moone and the Starres which thou hast made Lord what is man God in the work of creation made all these things serviceable and instrumentall for the good of man What is man that he should have a Sun a Moon and Stars planted in the firmament for him what creature is this when great preparations are made in any place much provisions layed in and the house adorned with richest furnitures We say what is this man that comes to such a house when such a goodly fabrique was raised up the goodly house of the world adorned and furnished we have reason admiring to say what is this man that must be the tenant or inhabitant of this house There is yet a higher exaltation of man in the creation man was magnified with the stampe of Gods image one part whereof the Psalmist describes at the fift verse Thou hast given him to have dominion over the works of thy hands Thou hast put all things under his feet all sheepe and oxen yea and the beasts of the field the fowle of the aire and the fish of the sea c. Thus man was magnified in creation What was man that he should have the rule of the world given him that he should be the Lord over the fish of the sea over the beasts of the field and over the foules of the ayr Again man was magnified in creation in that God set him in the next degree to the Angels Thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels there is the first part of the answer to this question man was magnified in being made so excellent a creature and in having so many excellent creatures made for him All which may be understood of man as created in Gods image and Lord of the world but since the transgression it is peculiar to Christ As the Apostle applies it Heb. 2. 6. and to those who have their bloud and dignity restored by the work of redemption which is the next part of mans exaltation Secondly Man is magnified or made great by the work of redemption That exalts man indeed Man was laid low and his honour in the dust notwithstanding all that greatnesse which he received in creation Though Sun and Moone and Stars the fish of the Sea and the fowles of the ayre c. were made his servants and himselfe a companion of Angels yet by sin he fell below all these priviledges and was made a companion for Devils a citizen of hell Therefore the second magnifying of man was by the work of redemption And what was man that thou shouldest redeeme him when he was a captive raise him when he was downe build and repaire him when he was ruin'd when he was lost seeke him and when he was bankrupt and undone give him a better stock and set him up againe What was man that thou shouldest doe all this for him How did the mercy of God magnifie his servants when he gave his Son to pay their debt to his own justice If man was magnified when the Sun and Moone and heavens were made for him how was he magnifyed when God was made man for him how was he exalted when the Son of God was humbled for him Thirdly Man is magnified or made great in the work of regeneration wherein God re-stamps his Image upon him in those shining characters of holinesse and knowledge The first creation being spoiled occasion'd redemption and redemption purchased a second creation Every one that is in Christ is a new creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. Our dignity is far greater in being new creatures then in being creatures Lastly Man is magnified by those severall acts of favour and grace which God casts upon him every day smiling upon him embracing him in his armes admitting him to neere communion with himselfe watching over him tending him guarding him with Angels directing him counselling him comforting him upholding him by his spirit till he bring him unto glory which is the highest step of preferment that mans nature is capable of What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him in all these things Observe hence first That All the worth and dignity of man is out of himselfe What is man As if he had said man hath nothing of his own to commend him to or to ingratiate himself with God God hath put something upon him he hath magnified man and given him a reall worth because he would Free grace exalts man Hence Psal 90. 20. the Psalmist prayes Let the heathen know themselves to be but men As if he had said man who is high in his own esteeme conceits himselfe to be somewhat above man he judges of himselfe beyound his own sphere and border Therefore Lord bring their thoughts within the compasse of their own condition let them know that they are but men A man that is acquainted with himselfe will be humble enough A meere man is but meere earth The Prophet tells him so thrice over with one breath Jer. 22. 29. O earth earth earth heare the word of the Lord. Man is earth in the constitution of his body that was framed out of the earth he is earthly in the corruption of his mind that muds in the earth The Apostles stile is earthly minded men And he will be earth in his dissolution when he dies he returnes to his earth A naturall man is earth all over earth in his making earthly in his mind his spirit earthly earth gets into this heaven his upper regions and the body his lower region shall moulder to earth againe Then what is man Hence I say it is that when man at any time would exalt and lift himself up he thinks himselfe above man he hath some notion or apprehension of an excellency beyound the line of a creature He conceits he hath or is a peece of a deity The first ground of hope upon which man raised himselfe against God was that he might be a god he was not satisfied in being made like unto God he would be which was the highest robbery Gods equall and stand by himselfe this thought was his fall There is such a principle of pride in the hearts of all men by nature They are not contented in the spheare of a creature they would be somewhat beyound that The truth is all the true worth and dignity of man is in what he hath beyound himselfe his excellency is in Christ and his glory in being made partaker of the divine nature It abased man when he aspired to take a divine nature to himselfe but it exalts man when God inspires him with a participation of the divine nature What is man that thou doest thus magnifie him Christ makes us very great and glorious by the dignity which he puts upon us as he tells the Church Ezek. 16. 14. Thy beauty was perfect through my comelinesse which I had put upon thee thou hadst no comelinesse no beauty of thine own
is applyed to the preaching of the Gospel to the scattering of the Word in at the eares and into the hearts of men Luke 8. 5. A sower went out to sow Thirdly sowing is applyed unto the buriall of the dead 1 Cor. 15. 42. that which is sowne in weaknesse the bodies of men are as seed in the earth they shall spring up againe Fourthly sowing is applyed to repenting teares they that sow Psal 126. 5. in teares that is they that goe on repenting and mourning shall reape in joy they shall have sheaves of comfort And fifthly it is applyed generally unto any action good or bad Gal. 6. 8. He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reape corruption and he that soweth to the spirit c. Sowing as ploughing is used in regard of doing good and evill sow to your selves in righteousnesse saith the Prophet and here on the other side They that plough iniquity and sow wickednesse Here is the progresse of sinne sinne goeth on gradually there is not onely a ploughing but a sowing sinne is the seed and there is a seminall vertue in every sin it will spring up againe and bring forth an hundred fold more in misery to the whole man flesh and spirit then ever it gave in delights unto the flesh The word which we translate wickednesse signifies wearinesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seminant dolo res Vulg. labour perversenesse because wicked persons weary and toile themselves in serving and satisfying their lusts Numb 23. 21. I have seen no perversenesse in Israel God did not finde them laboriously and industriously wicked at that time To do wickedly is a wearisome imployment a hard labour The vulgar Latine renders it by sorrow and sow sorrowes Reape the same The Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 37. telleth us That the Husbandman soweth not the same body that shall be how then is it said they sow wickednesse and reape the same when they come to the harvest what shall they have The same saith Eliphaz It is true A man that soweth doth not reape the same individually or numerically that is the very same particular seed but he reaps the same specifically the same in kinde that 's the meaning here their crop or harvest shall be like their seed time Gal. 6. 7 Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reape the same in kinde not the same in number Prov. 22. 8. He that soweth iniquity shall reape vanity It is not the sinne it selfe which is reaped but the fruit the product of that sinne that they shall reape the punishment of sin is the fruit of sin and it is called the same Punishment is a visible sinne Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee this is thy wickednesse Jer. 4. 18. The bitter things procured by wickednesse are called wickednesse As the sweet fruits of our good workes are called our works Rev. 14. 14. Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their workes follow them their workes follow them how Not their workes in kinde the very same individuall workes which they have done here follow them not for they are transient acts and have no subsistency but the fruits of those workes and the blessings which lie in the promise for such as doe those workes these fruits these blessings follow them the blessings annexed to faith obedience and holinesse these follow them So now when it is said of a wicked man what he ploweth and soweth he reapeth the same it is to be understood of the same thing in the issue and consequents of it those curses those treasures that harvest of wrath which lie in the threatnings against him these are rained downe upon him and are made the portion of his cup. Againe the same that is the same in degree if he have sowne much he shall reape much if he have sowne but little he shall reape but little he shall have his due proportion The justice of God doth neither commute nor compound penalties with wicked men as it will not wrong or overcharge so neither will it favour or spare them in their sinnes God spared not his Sonne when he was in the place of sinners Rom. 8. 32. much lesse will he spare any sinner who is not in his Sonne So much for the opening of these words We shall now observe some things from them Even as I have seen they that plough iniquity Hence we learne first That to be a wicked man is no easie taske he must goe to plough for it It is plowing and you know plowing is laborious Beliâ—l de luci potest à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q. e Non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q. e. lugam ut significatur impatienâ—ia Jugâ— Hieâ—on yea it is hard labour Wicked men in Scripture are called Sonnes of Belial that is such as will not endure the yoke they will not endure Gods yoke or the yoke of Christ though it be an easie yoke but they are content slavishly to yeeld their otherwise proud and delicate necks to Satans yoke to tugge and sweat at his plough all their dayes There is a promise in the Prophet of a time when Swords shall be turned into plough-shares and speares into pruning-hooks that is men shall leave fighting and goe to working they shall have peace and it is but too too discernable that many would break their swords into these mysticall plough-shares and their spears into sinning-hooks they would have peace why that they might leave fighting and goe to sinning that they might worke wickednesse more quietly and keep close to their trade the plowing of iniquity without disturbance Secondly observe That there is an art in wickednesse it is Plowing or as the word imports an artificiall working Some are curious and exact in shaping polishing and setting off their sin so the Holy Ghost intimates Rev. 21. 27. Whosoever worketh abomination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and maketh a lye there is but one Verbe in the Greek and so we may reade it fully enough in our language Whosoever worketh abomination and a lye to worke an abomination or a lye is more then to doe an abomination or tell a lye As when we say such a man is a Clockmaker it notes art as well as action So to say such a man is an Abomination-worker or a Lye-maker notes him not only industrious but crafty or as the Prophet speaks wise to doe evill Thirdly note from these metaphors of plowing and sowing That wicked men expect benefit in wayes of sinne and look to be gainers by being evill doers They make iniquity their plough and a mans plough is so much his profit that it is growne into a Proverbe to call that whatsoever it is by which a man makes his living or his profit His plough And when we say there are many candles burning and never a plough going It is to tax unthriftinesse or carelesse spending without honest care of getting Every man tils
Mem Genitivum indâ—cet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thoughts which I had after the visions of the night So Hos 6. 2. From two dayes Heb. After two dayes or in thoughts which I had in the visions of the night or in thoughts of the visions of the night The Originall beares any of these readings In thoughts The Hebrew word signifies properly the boughes of a tree and so some translate In the bougbes sprigs or branches of the visions of the night but we render it well in the thoughts And thoughts are called boughes or branches First because thoughts grow from the mind sprout and shoote up from the minde as branches from the stock of a tree From the root or stock of a mans understanding a branch of thoughts growes up sometimes like a tall Cedar of Libanus as high as Heaven Secondly the boughes and branches of a tree are many thick interwoven and crossing one another such are the thoughts of a man he hath many even multitudes of them In the multitude of my thoughts saith David The mind puts forth many branches and twiggs they sprout and shoote forth every way thousands of various thoughts are moving upon various objects and to various ends some are earthly some heavenly The branches of some minds are but bryars and thornes others bear the Lilly and the Rose their roote is in Heaven and they grow heavenward Thirdly thoughts are called branches because the branch or the bough brings forth and beares the fruit the stock or the body of a tree brings forth fruit at the branches So all the fruit of our soules is borne upon or from our thoughts our actions are the fruits of our thinkings Thoughts are possible actions looke what a man thinketh that he doth or would doe And such as our thoughts are such our actions are or would be Thoughts are the first-borne the blossomes bloomes of the soule the beginnings of our strength whether for good or evill therefore the Hebrew word is elegantly translated from a bough or a beanch to a thought The Hebrew word for speech prayer and meditation springs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stirps fâ—uâ—ex quia Sermo è corde ut arbor è terra nascitur Shind Elegans metaphâ—â—a sumpta à super eminentibus arboâ—um ramusculis est pâ—imogenta hujus voâ—is significatio ad phantasmatum extremitates ac velut teneras cogitationum summitates notionem suam extendit Bold Quousque claudicatis inter duas prominentias Merc. Quasi Elias audueret populum quod duas eminentias sibi constituerent Deum Baalem quasi aequales inter quas nulla est comparatio 2 Cor. 6. 15. Bold from a roote of the same signification because speech prayer and meditation spring up from the Spirit as a stalke or branches from the stock of a tree There is one thing further to be observed from this word for it is a very elegant word and therefore I spend a little the more time upon it In thoughts from the visions of the night The word signifies not onely a bough but the highest bough the top-bough of a tree A tree hath some under-boughs and some top-boughes as the Prophet speakes Isa 17. 6. Two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough it is the same word which here in the text we translate thoughts as if Eliphaz should say in my very uppermost or highest thoughts in those very top-branches of my budding phancie which I had from the visions of the night The highest the top-branches which grow from the soule of a godly man are for or about the highest mercies top-mercies for Heaven and heavenly things A wicked mans highest and uppermost thoughts are for the earth his thoughts for the earth out-grow all his other thoughts But a godly mans thoughts for Heaven and spirituals outgrow all his other thoughts his thoughts for Heaven are the highest and uppermost branches of his soule We have this word used in the 1 Kings 18. 21. How long saith Elijah will you halt between two opinions That word which we there translate opinions is here translated thoughts hence some render that in the Kings thus How long doe ye halt between two top-thoughts or high thoughts As if this were the thing which Elijah reproved in that people that they had high thoughts both of God and of Baal top-thoughts of both and they as it were set Baal a dumb Idol as high in their thoughts estimations and opinions as they did the living God Why do ye halt between two uppermost opinions highest thoughts or thoughts of equall height concerning God and Baal Your thoughts of your Idol are as high as of God himselfe What! will you make an Idoll equall with God An Idoll is a base thing a low thing a thing below upon the dung-hill therefore called a dunghill god The true God is on high he is in the highest Heavens he is higher than the Heaven of Heavens and doe you debase him thus by halting between two thoughts of equall height concerning Him and Baal They who set up an Idol make it equall unto God All false worship is a setting of our posts by Gods posts and of our threshold by his threshold a making both of equall height and worth And to cleere it yet further Psal 119. 13. the same word is used by David when he professes I hate vaine thoughts or as some reade it I hate vaine things He calls Idolatrous thoughts vaine thoughts because they are wavering inconstant or unsetled thoughts in further allusion to the boughes of a tree as the top-most and highest boughes of a tree are shaken with every puffe of wind and waver too and fro with every blast so are the thoughts Quasi dicat Idolatriam odio habui quae plura eminentia supremo cultu reveretur cum sit unum of Idolaters or because as before Idolatry sets up Too high Thoughts adoring an Idoll as much or in competition and rivality with the everliving God The higher our thoughts are of God the more excellent they are but the higher our thoughts are of false worship the vainer they are and to have as high thoughts of an Idoll as of the living and true God are the vainest thoughts of all those high thoughts are low thoughts the lowest thoughts thoughts most hatefull I hate vaine thoughts From the visions of the night As I have opened that word about the thoughts somewhat largely so this of the visions requires more enlargement yet I shall doe it as briefely as I may Visions were a speciall way of divine revelation Heb. 1. 1. God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake to our Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Prophets saith the Apostle God spake at sundry times and he spake in divers manners Now amongst those divers manners of speaking speaking by or in visions was one The Jewish Doctors observe foure degrees of divine revelation The first they Paulus Fagius in Exod. 28.
judiciary hardning of their hearts and a hard heart is the greatest judgment on this side Hell As there is a naturally inbred and sinfully acquired hard heart so there is a judicially hardned or a divinely inflicted hard heart When to a naturall hard heart and an acquired hard heart which men get by many repeated acts of sin the Lord adds a judicially hardned or inflicted hard heart then wrath is heated to the hottest and judgment is within one step of Hell Especially if we consider that every houre of such prosperous impenitence and hardnesse of heart encreases punishment and adds to the treasury of that wrath which is stored up against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God Who thinks that man happy who is let alone only to gather a mighty pile of wood and other fuell of flames to burne himselfe while ungodly men saem to the world to be gathering riches honour and pleasure hey are but gathering a heap of wrath and a pile of fire which at the last will flame so bright that it will make a revelation of the formerly secret but ever righteous judgement of God Lastly To shew that God is just in all his dealings both the righteous and the wicked learne from the end of both That we may fully discover the Justice of God we must looke upon all his works together while we looke only upon some particular peece of Gods dealings with a godly man he may seeme to deale very hardly with him or if we looke but upon some particular peece of his dealings with a wicked man God may seeme very gentle and kind towards him but take all together and the result is exact justice It was a good speech of a moderne writer We must Non est judicandum de operibus Dei ante quintum actum Per. Mart. not judge of the works of God before the fifth act that is the last act or conclusion of all This and that part may seeme dissonant and confused but lay them all together and they are most harmonious and methodicall Hence David Psal 37. after he had a great dispute with himselfe about the troubles of the righteous and the prosperity of the wicked and was put hard to it how to make out the Justice of God resolves all in the close with this advice ver 37. Marke the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace Though a righteous man die in warre yet his end is peace whereas though a wicked man die in peace yet his end is warre It is said Deut. 8. 16. that all which God did to his people in the wildernesse was that he might doe them good at the latter end Come to the end therefore and there you shall find justice visible We often loose the sight of justice in our travailes and passage through the world mountaines and hils interpose which we cannot see over or through but when we come home and arrive at the end of our travailes Justice will appeare in all her state and glory rendring to every man according to his deedes To them who hy patient continuance in well doing seeke for glory and honour and immortality eternall life but unto them that are contentious and doe not obey the truth but obey unrighteousnesse indignation and wrath Joshua concludes the story of the people of Israel in their passage to Canaan with the highest testimonies of Gods justice and faithfulnesse though God dealt with them so variously in the wildernes that they often murmured in their tents as if he had done them wrong yet in the close you shall find how exact and punctuall the Lord was with them Josh 21. 45. There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel all came to passe And in that other text Josh 23. 14 Behold this day I am going the way of all the earth and you know in all your hearts and in all your soules that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you all are come to passe unto you and not one thing hath failed thereof How admirably just was God in his word If a man promise many things we take it well if he performe some of the chiefe and them in the chiefe though some what may faile God promised many things and performed all and which is more all of every one of those many things promised The texts compared make this out the one saying That not one thing failed of all the good things which God spake concerning them And the other That not ought of any good thing failed So then they had every good thing in kind with each particular part and degree of every good thing And for the truth of all this Joshua makes his appeale to themselves and to that in themselves which was best able to determine it All their hearts and all their soules which words doe not only referre to every person as if the meaning were The hearts and soules of you all but rather to all that is in every person All their hearts and all their soules that is understandings memories consciences affections yea sences their eyes and eares their hands and mouthes could bring in witnesse from their severall operations to this great truth And surely God in the end will deale as well with every Israelite as he did with all Israel A time will come it will come shortly when every Saint shall say in all their hearts and in all their soules that not one thing nor ought of any one good thing which the Lord hath said concerning them hath failed I shut up this in the words of Christ to his Disciples when they were amused about that act of his the washing of their feet John 13. 7. What I doe ye know not now but ye shall know hereafter Stay but a while and all those mysteries and riddles of providence shall be unfolded Though clouds and darknesse are round about him yet Judgement and Justice are the habitation of his Throne Psal 97. Mortall man never had and at last shall see he had no reason to complaine of God mortall man shall not be more just than God nor shall man be more pure than his maker And so much for the fifth Conclusion That God neither doth nor can doe any injustice to the creature he is just in his nature just and holy in all his wayes The sixth or last Conclusion is this That to complaine of Gods Iustior sit oportet qui immeriâ—ò affligitur quâ qui immerio affligit dealing with us is to make our selves more just and pure than Gods or when any person or people complaine of Gods dispensations toward them they though not formally yet by way of interpretation make themselves more just and pure than God This was the point wherein Eliphaz labours much to convince Job supposing that he had thus exalted himselfe
when God formed man out of the dust of the earth and had breathed into him the breath of life the result of all is and man became a living soule it is not said man became a living body though life was breathed into the body and the body stood up and lived yet the best part is named for all the dust and the clay are as it were quite forgotten in the story man became a living soule And that may be a reason why the fear of God and keeping 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Commandements Eccles 12. ult is called all man because these things chiefely concerne that part of man which upon the matter is all man The feare of God and keeping his Commandements are soule worke and tend to the eternall welfare of the soule and though the body shares in all the blessings and assists in most labours of the soule yet the soule labours most for and is the chiefest seate of blessednesse How strangely have some departed from this point of truth which the Scripture every where writes as with a Sun-beame who instead of making the soule to be the chiefe part of man deny that man hath any such part And whereas some toucht at before err'd on the right hand saying that Man was nothing but a soule These goe astray more and more dangerously on the left hand saying that Man hath no soule at all An opinion howsoever lately drest in some finenesse of wit and subtilties of Philosophy yet in it self so grosse so dishonourable to man so contrary to this Text and the whole tenour of the word of God that I hope it is very mortal and will shortly find a grave in every heart but theirs who have more reason to wish it then to maintain it I intend no dispute about it beyond the Argument before me which if it be not demonstrative as many others from Scripture are yet it carries at least a faire probability and an ingenuous ground for how can man be said to dwell in a house of clay if he himself be nothing else but a house of clay or how can the inhabitant and the house be in all but one and the same But I shall dwell too long upon these houses of clay in which man cannot dwell long for it followes Which are crushed before the moth What strength is there in houses which are crushed before the moth or as others read it Which shall be consumed after the manner of a moth Master Broughton thus Beaten to powder as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad facies tineae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in medum tineae Sept. Velut à tinea Vulg. Pagnine moth be they That is They are crushed as soon or as speedily as a moth Another They are consumed as it were with a moth A fifth translates differently from all these Which are crushed and consumed before Arcturus Arcturus is a Constellation in Heaven about the North Pole we read of it in the 9th of this Book of Job verse 9. Which makes Arcturus Orion and the Pleiades c. The same word here signifies a moth and sometimes a Constellation a knot or company of Stars The sense of this reading is made out thus They are crushed before the face of Arcturus That is they are crushed as long or whilst Arcturus doth continue in plain English as long as there is a Star in Heaven man will be a mortall man or man will never change this condition of mortality while the world stands We may thus expound it by that Psal 72. 17. where the Prophet describing the Kingdome of Christ in the extent both of place and time saith His name shall be continued as long as the Sun the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad facies solu His name shall continue before the face of the Sun to continue before the face of the Sun is to run in a line of equall continuance with the Sun so here They are crushed before the fate of those Starres that is they shall be in such a crushing perishing condition as long as those Starres continue which is as long as the course of this world continues Our owne translation which comes cleer to the letter of the Originall is further to be looked into They are crushed before the moth It may have a three-fold interpretation First before the moth that is before in time or sooner then the moth How quickly is a moth crushed man may be crushed before it sooner then it is crusht Secondly Before the moth may be as much as in the presence of the moth as if he should say man thinks he is able to stand it out against a potent Adversary yea against God himselfe but alasse poore creature he is not able to stand before a moth or contend with a flye if God arme any of them against him Thirdly They are crushed before the moth that is man is crusht and torne vext and worne out by a thousand miseries and troubles which attend his life before ever the moth has to doe with him before ever he lyes downe in the bed of death before the moth that is for the moth to fret on or as a companion for the wormes All these renderings though they differ in words come neer and meet in the same generall sense namely An illustration of mans frailty Take them first by way of similitude Man is crushed as it were with a moth it notes thus much to us That death consumes us without noise secretly and silently To doe a thing as a moth is to doe it silently and without noise Hos 5. 12. God himselfe saith that he will be as a moth unto Ephraim and as a Lion ver 14. when he saith he will be as a Lion it implieth open judgements which come violently and visibly which come in like thunder roaring as a Lion upon them But when he saith I will be as a moth unto Ephraim the meaning is I will send silent and secret judgements upon you which shall eate out your strength corrode your power and blemish the beauty of your garments and you shall not perceive it Ye shall be undone consumed and as we speak Proverbially ye shall never know who hurt you The open enemies of the Church are threatned with secret judgements under this notion of a moth Isa 50. 9. Loe they shall wax old as doth a garment the moth shall consume them Againe Chap. 51. 6 7. Feare ye not the reproach of men neither be ye afraid of their revilings For the moth shall eate them up like a garment and the worme shall eate them like wool that is whereas your enemies have made a great noise and clamour with their revilings against you I will come against them without noise they shall perish with as little clamour as a garment doth that is eaten with moths And thus the life of man is ordinarily consumed as it were by a moth sicknesses and diseases enter secretly into his house of
and there shall be no herd in the stalls Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation He was feasting upon God while he imagines the world starving he sees all things in God though the world should afford him nothing That soule is well fed and taught which can be rejoycing while it 's own body is starving And in war from the power of the Sword War is the second evill Famine and war goe often together yea they two seldome goe without a third the Pestilence 2 Sam. 24. Jer. 18. 22. And though in the order of the words famine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bellum à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vesci edere per Metaphorà pugnare quia gâ—adius in bello devoraâ— hominum corpora In bello se mutuò homines devorant obsumunt be set before war yet usually war is the fore-runner of famine The sword cuts off provision and when it selfe hath devoured much flesh it leaves no bread for those who survive It is observable that the originall word for war here used comes from a root signifying to eat or to devoure and so by a Metaphor it signifies to fight or strike with the sword And the reason why the same word which signifies war signifies to eat is because the Sword is such an Eater or rather a Devourer and it eats two ways First the Sword eats up the bodies of men drinks up their bloud dispeoples a Land And then Secondly It eates up and consumes the fruits of the earth and hence War is the mother of Famine Therefore we find that when the great peace and so the plenty of the Church of Christ is prophecied of and described Isa 2. 4. and in Micah it is thus expressed They shall beat their swords into plow shares and their speares into pruning-hookes As if he should say while the sword is abroad in the field the plow shares will do little there For the most part Justice is silent in time of war the sound of the trumpet Inter arma silent leges and drum is too loud for the Law and when the Law stands still the plongh stands still Therefore when the sword is in motion both are at a stand Hence the promise that Swords shall be beaten into plow-shares and speares into pruning-hookes that is with peace you shall have bread and wine which note the abundance of all other things The ancients embleam'd peace by Eares of corne and Concord by a Cornu-copia a horne of plenty riches are the fruit of peace And safety is the priviledge of the Saints in time of war In war they shall be delivered from the power of the sword The Hebrew is They shall be delivred from or out of the hand of the sword Sometime in Scripture we read of the face of the sword which notes the sword coming and approaching to a people And sometimes we read of the mouth of the sword which notes the sword come devouring and eating up a people And here we have the hand of the sword they shall be delivered out of the Gladius manu apprehensus elevatus symbolum est extremi discriminis praesentis hostis Quasi diceret etiam in ipsa pugna vel inter tot manus gladios agitantes contra te vibantes salvaberis hand of the sword which notes as we translate the power of the sword Or that forme of speaking may be understood by an Hypallage From the hand of the sword that is from the sword in the hand which phrase imports present danger when the sword is unsheathed and drawn out when it is in the hand ready to strike then the enemy is ready to charge and then the Lord delivers He shall deliver from the sword in the hand or out of the hand of the sword So Psal 127. 4. Children of the youth are as arrowes in the hand of the mighty that is as arrowes ready to be shot And Psal 149. 6. Let the high praises of God be in their mouthes and a two edged sword in their hands noting actuall revenges taken on the enemies of God and actuall praises given to the name of God at the same time So then the meaning of these words He shall deliver thee from the power of the sword or out of the hand of the sword is this suppose thou art in such a condition that the swords are drawn about thy eares and thou art in the midst of a thousand deaths and dangers in the very heat of a battell yet then the Lord God can and will deliver thee And this likewise is a comfortable promise for us to lay hold on in these times It is a time of war to us all and there are many of our friends and brethren as it were in the very hand of the sword Desires are often sent to the Congregation by one for a husband by another for a brother by a third for a servant by many for their friends gone forth to meet a sword in the hand of an enemy skilfull to destroy Here is a promise to comfort and support such The Lord in time of war can deliver out of the very hand of the sword or when swords are in hand when thousands of swords are drawn together preparing for or smiting in the day of battell know then God is a deliverer In the most present dangers God shews the most present help Psal 23. 5. Thou shalt spread my table and cause my cup to overflow before the face of my enemy even then when my enemy is nearest and looketh on As when the sword is in the hand of the Angel so when it is in the hand of man A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand but it shall not come nigh thee Psal 91. 7. Not nigh thee what when they die on this side and one that side on every hand of a man doth it it not come nigh him Yes nigh him but not so nigh as to hurt him The power of God can bring us nigh to danger and yet keep us far from harme As good may be locally near us and yet vertually far from us so may evill The multitude throng'd Christ in the Gospel and yet but one toucht him so as to receive good so Christ can keep us in a throng of dangers that not one shall touch us to our hurt Yet we are not to take this or the like holy writs of protection as if God would deliver all his people from famine and from the sword we know many precious servants of his have fallen by these common calamities The Lord knows how to distinguish his when sword and famine doe not Neither doth this word fall though they doe If the servants of Christ are not delivered from these troubles they are delivered by them and while they are overcome by one trouble they conquer all Vers 21. Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue neither shalt
company of speare-men or archers are called a company with reeds The word by us rendred company is the beasts of the reeds those men that are like beasts savage cruell and bloody these are as bruits and beasts of the earth so they are descipher'd in the next verse The multitude of the buls with the calves of the people And we find the word signifying a company of wicked ones and a company of Saints in the same verse Ps 74. 19. O deliver not the soule of thy turtle dove unto the multitude of the wicked The Hebrew is unto the company of the beasts Forget not the Congregation or the beasts of thy poore for ever there the same word is taken as in Psal 68. 10 for a company of Saints or the poor people of God In the Scripture of the new Testament it is frequent to shadow wicked men under the names of beasts beasts of the earth so that of Paul hath been taken 1 Cor. 15. 32. If I have fought with beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men with beastly men cruell men men like unto beasts in their qualities and dispositions though others understand it of his being cast unto the beasts to fight with them which was a cruelty those persecuting times exercised against the Christians So 1 Tim. 4. 16. Paul saith he was delivered out of the mouth of the Lion Nero that cruell tyrant is supposed to be the Lion the beast of the earth he aimeth at And the Apostle Tit. 1. 1. gives this character of the Cretians they are evill beasts If we take it here in this sence it is a truth and a very comfortable truth that godly men shall be delivered from the fear of beastly and cruell men or as the Apostle calls them unreasonable or absurd men who have not faith But rather understand here beasts of the earth properly for those fierce and cruell creatures hurtfull to man Once man had power and dominion over all the creatures the wildest beasts were tame to him in his state of innocency till he rose up and rebelled against God the creatures were subject unto him but man rebelling against God the creatures rebelled against man hence it is that man naturally is surprised with fear at the approach and sight of strong and cruell beasts and therefore it is here spoken as a speciall mercy and priviledge of the godly that they shall not be afraid of the beasts of the earth The beast of the earth are hurtfull to us three ways First naturally many beasts by nature are very dreadfull to man as the Lion the Bear the Wolfe and such other fierce strong and bloody beasts Scondly Tame beasts such as we daily use and subdue to our service are often by accident hurtful to us The Horse and the Ox have many times been destructive to their owners Thirdly which I conceive is the thing chiefly aimed at here beasts hurt judicially in a way of wrath from God There are divers places in the book of God wherein God threatens to arme the creatures against those who sin against him and that when his people should forget their duties the beasts should forget their subjection Deut. 32. 24. I will send the teeth of beasts upon them And Jer. 15. 3. I will appoint over them foure kinds saith the Lord the sword to slay and the dogs to teare and the fowles of the heaven and the beasts of the earth to devoure and destroy You see God can have an army any where if he pleaseth an army of dogs to destroy an army of fowles of the aire an army of the beasts of the earth to subdue a rebellious people And Ezek. 14. 21. This is one of the four sore judgements that God denounceth against Jerusalem The sword and the famine and noysome beasts and the pestilence Thus in a judiciall manner they were very terrible and dreadfull and so were numbred among the sorest evills or judgements which God sent upon a Nation for their wickednesse To all or any of these wayes this promise may be inlarged Thou shalt not be afraid of the naturall cruelty the casuall hurtfulnesse or the judiciary rage of beasts when sent by God with commission to punish the beastlinesse of men How this cometh to passe that beasts of the earth hurt not godly men is said down in the next verse which I shall a while open and then give you some Notes and Observations from both together Vers 23. For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee This verse containes the reason why he should not be afraid of the beasts of the field and here is somewhat more got into the reason than was before in the promise the ground of the promise is higher and carried farther than the promise it selfe The promise was to be delivered from the fear of beasts and that thou mayest be certaine of it know God will not suffer so much as a stone to do thee hurt thou shalt be at league not onely with the beasts of the earth but with the stones of the field Thou shalt be in league The word is frequently used in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—â—legii quia elegamur personae inter quas res conditioâ—es propter qâ—as foedâ—s initur Buxt old Testament to signifie that solemne gracious covenant of reconciliation between God and man established in the blood of Christ A league or covenant is a very solemne act an act of reason and of the highest reason an act of judgement and deepest deliberation therefore it may be doubted how a league can be entred with stones which have no life or with beasts which have no reason We read Gen. 31. 41. of a league or covenant made at or upon an heap of stones between Jacob and Laban but this is very strange and unheard of to make a league with a heape of stones For the claring of this we must enquire into two things 1. What these stones are 2. What this league with stones doth import First For the Stones There are divers opinions about them and many Interpreters have exceedingly stumbled at these stones Some change these stones into men strong men or the strongest of men That of Job in the next Chapter hath some allusion to it ver 12. Is my strength the strength of stones A strong man is strong as a stone The Chaldee Paraphrast understands by stones the Law which was written in stones Thou shalt be in league with the stones that is the Law written in tables of stone shall never hurt thee But that as to this text is a meare conceit though in it selfe a great truth and our greatest comfort that believers are at league with those Law-stones which left in power and hostility would have broken all man-kind to pieces and ground them to power Christ hath made peace for us with the Law The Law
to live when he dies or he is at the end of his naturall race before he hath set one step in his spiritual Gray haires are the shame and should be the sorrow of old-age when they are not found in the way of righteousnesse From the former branch of this verse observe First To have a comely buriall to come to the grave with honour is a great blessing It was threatned upon Jehojakim the sonne of Josiah as a curse That he should have the buriall of an Asse and be drag'd and cast out beyond the gates of the City Jer. 22. 19. That man surely had lived like a beast whom God threatn'd by name that when he died he should be used as a beast though we know the bodies of many of the servants of God have been scattered and may be scattered upon the face of the earth like dung The dead bodies as the complaint is Psal 79. 2. of thy servants have they given to be meat to the fowles of the heaven the flesh of thy Saints to the beasts of the earth Yet to them even then there is this blessing reserved beyond the blessing of a buriall they are ever laid up in the heart of God he takes care of them he embalmes them for immortality when the remains of their mortality are troden under foot or rot upon a dunghill Secondly observe A godly man is a volunteer in his death He commeth to the grave A wicked man never dies willingly Though he sometime die by his own hand yet he never dies with his own will Miserable man is sometimes so over-prest with terrours and horrours of conscience so worne out with the trouble of living that he hastens his own death Yet he Comes not to his grave willingly but is drag'd by necessity He thrusts his life out of doores with a violent hand but it never goes out with a cheerfull mind He is often unwilling to live but he is never willing to die Death is welcome to him because life is a burden to him Only they come to the grave who by faith have seene Christ lying in the grave and perfuming that house of corruption with his owne most precious body which saw no corruption Observe thirdly To live long and to die in a full age is a great blessing Old Eli had this curse pronounced upon his family 1 Sam. 2. 31. There shall not be an old man in thy house Gray haires are a crown of honour when they are found in the way of righteousnesse It is indeed infinitely better to be full of grace than to be full of daies but to be full of daies and full of grace too what a venerable spectacle is that To be full of years and full of faith full of good workes full of the fruits of righteousnesse which are by Christ How comely and beautifull beyond all the beauty and comelinesse of youth is that Such are truly said to have filled their daies Those daies are fill'd indeed which are full of goodnesse When a wicked man dies he ever dies emptie and hungrie he dies empty of goodnesse and he dies hungry after daies That place before mentioned of Abraham Gen. 25. 8. is most worthy our second thoughts He dies in a good old-age an old man and full so the Hebrew we reade full of years As a man that hath eaten and drunke plentifully is full and desires no more So he dyed an old-man and full that is he had lived as much as he desired to live he had his fill of living when he died And therefore also it may be called a full age because a godly man hath his fill of living but a wicked man let him live never so long is never full of daies never full of living he is as hungry and as thirsty as a man may speake after more time and daies when he is old as he was when he was a child faine he would live hill He must needs thinke it is good being here who knowes of no better being or hath Impij quamvis diu vivant tamen non implent dies suos quia spem in rehus temporarijs collocantes perpetua vita in hoc mundo peâ—frui vellent no hopes of a better It is a certaine truth He that hath not a tast of eternity can never be satisfied with time He that hath not some hold of everlasting life is never pleased to let goe this life therefore he is never full of this life It is a most sad thing to see an old man who hath no strength of body to live yet have a strong mind to live Abraham was old and full he desired not a day or an houre longer His soul had never an empty corner for time when he died He had enough of all but of which he could never have enough and yet had enough and all as soon as he had any of it eternity In that great restitution promised Isa 65. 20. this is one priviledge There shall be no more there an infant of daies nor an old man that hath not fil'd his daies There is much controversie about the meaning of those words The digression would be too long to insist upon them Only to the present point thus much that there is such a thing as an Infant of daies and an old man that hath not fill'd his daies An infant of daies may be taken for an old child that is an old man childish or a man of many years but few abilities A man whose hoary head ann wrinkled face speak fourscoure yet his foolish actions and simple carriage speake under fourteene An old man that hath not fill'd his daies is conceived to be the same man in a different character An old man fils not his dayes First When he fulfils not the duty nor reaches the end for which he lived to old-age That man who hath lived long and done little hath left empty daies upon the record of his life And when you have writ downe the daies the months and yeares of his life his storie 's done the rest of the book is but a continued Blanke nothing to be remembred that he hath done or nothing worth the remembrance Now as an old man fils not his daies when he satisfies not the expectation of others so in the second place his daies are not fill'd when his own expectations are not satisfied that is when he having lived to be old hath yet young fresh desires to live when he finds his mind empty though his body be so full of daies that it can hold no longer nor no more He that is in this sense an infant of dayes and an old man not having filled his dayes though he be an hundred yeares old when he dies yet he dies as the Prophet concludes in that place accursed he comes not to his grave under the blessing of this promise in the text in a full age Lastly observe Every thing is beautifull in its season He shall come to his grave like a
of man in whom there is no help why not For his breath goeth forth that 's one reason he must die he must return to the earth therefore trust him not But besides that we may say trust not in Princes c. while their breath tarrieth in them for it is possible their help and faithfulness may goe forth though their breath doth not Therefore trust â—eâ—ly in the living God he will never leave us though men doe God only is unchangeable he only hath preserved this honour without touch or stain never to forsake those who trusted him how forlorn and forsaken soever their condition was JOB Chap. 6. Vers 22 23 24 25. Did I say bring unto me or give a reward for me of your substance Or deliver me from the Enemies hand or redeem me from the hand of the mighty Teach me and I will hold my tongue and cause me to understand wherein I have erred How forcible are right words but what doth your arguing reprove JOB Having shadowed out his friends unfaithfulnesse by an elegant similitude in the context fore-going now aggravates their unfaithfulness to him in his wants by his own modesty in seeking to them for supplies Did I say bring unto me or give a revvard for me of your substance As if he had said I have not been burthensome or troublesome to you I have not called for your contributions and benevolences or sought to have my estate made up out of your purses Why do ye charge me with impatience at my loss as if that were it which pinches and presses me did I ever charge you for my reparation or redemption That in deed might have been either burdensome or dangerous to you All that I expected from you was your comfort and your counsell these would not have put you to much expence or if you could not have reacht so far as to comfort me yet you might have forborn to contribute so largely to my sorrows by overtaxing me with impatience and charging me with hypocrisie Did I say I was not clamorous or importunate no I did not so much as open my mouth to move you in that point I have been so far from begging that ye have not heard me saying bring to me Bring unto me The word is Give unto me Hos 4. 18. Their Princes love Give ye or bring ye so saith Job I did not say bring ye or give ye my spirit was not set upon money or the repair of my losses out of your estates I did not either write or send for your charity you were not invited to visit me that you might contribute to my necessity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proprie munus quod datur ad corrumpendum Iudicem a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uuus quod unum facit dantem scilicet occipientem The word here used for a reward properly taken signifies that which is given to a Judge to corrupt or turn him aside in judgement One of the Rabbins gives this reason why it notes a bribing reward because it is compounded of a word signifying One and a bribe makes the giver and the receiver the Judge and party One or of one mind A Judge should ever stand indifferent between both parties till the cause be heard but a bribe makes him One of them Yet ordinarily this word is put for any gift or help subsidy or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Humor nativus in quo vigor corporis consistit opes nam in opibus Consistit potentia hominum supply of anothers wants Of your substance The word implies the native naturall strength which supplies the wants or supports the weaknesses of the body As also the strength of the earth by which it puts forth fruit Lev. 26. 20. And because riches are a mans civil strength therefore the same word expresses both Verse 23. Or did I say deliver me from the enemies hand The enemies Or the hand of those that have brought me into straights For the original imports the shutting a man up in a narrow compass so that he knows not how to get out he that is in the hand of an enemy is in a straight hand Ahab commands 1 Kings 22. 29. Goe carry Micaiah back and feed him with the bread of affliction or with the bread of straights such bread as an enemy provides The Greek word used by the Apostle 1 Cor. 4. 8. reaches this fully We are troubled but not distressed or straightned Now saith Job did I say deliver me out of the hand or power of mine enemies who have brought me into these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 straights alluding as is conceived to those Chaldeans and Sabeans who had spoiled his estate and slain his servants Or redeem me out of the hand of the mighty Redeem me That is my goods which they have carried away captive To redeem signifies the fetching back of a thing by price or force Christ is a Redeemer in both sences he redeemed or fetch'd back captivated man by compact and by price in respect of God his father We are bought with a price 1 Cor. 6. 20. that is bought with a full prize Christ did not compound with the justice of his father but satisfied it to redeem us and he redeemed us by force out of the hands of Satan Spoiling principalities and powers and making a shew of them openly Col. 2. 15. As in Triumphs the Romans used to doe with their spoiled captivated enemies Job had not begged redemption of his friends from the power of his enemies either way did I desire you by compact and by price to ransome me Or did I desire you to levy an Army with power and force to recover my estate out of the hands of those mighty oppressours The word Mighty signifies also terrible the hand of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Terribilis sua potentia formidabilis terrible one It is often applied to God when he shewes himself in terrour to wicked men Psal 89. 7. God is greatly to be feared Isa 2 19. He shakes terribly the earth But most commonly to cruel powerful men who make no other use of their strength but to be a terrour to innocents The Apostle Phil. 1. 28. explaines this word while he saith and in nothing be ye terrified by your adversities that word in the Greek answers this in the Hebrew your adversities are terrible men men who think to beat down all with their great looks but be not ye terrified by these terrible ones So here Did I call unto you to redeem me out of the hand of the mighty the terrible out of the hand of those cruel plunderers the Sabeans and Chaldeans De manu Tribulationis Vatab Puto cum Allegoricè tam graves vehementes calamitates intelligere Merc. Further Some understand by the hand of the mighty not the persons afflicting him but the affliction it self which was upon him Trouble is sometimes compared to a mighty enemy Prov. 6. 11. So shall thy poverty come
to David and made him flie and wander and sometime go astray in his speeches and actions upon a sudden gust of temptation And so a Psalm of that subject may well bear this stile either from his corporal or spiritual errours There is a third apprehension upon Siggaion taking it for delight and ravishments of mind and so the Psalm is superscribed Davids delight or solace That is the Psalm which he composed and sung to the Lord to comfort himself in all his troubles with Saul his soul wandred heaven-ward in holy ravishments and delights in God while his body wandred about the earth in astonishment and sorrows caused by a bloody-minded man The very same title is given to the prayer of Habakkuk chap. 3. 1. A prayer of Habakkuk upon Sigionoth which some interpret to be so called because of the strange variety or variableness of the song and tune the Prophet being in a holy rapture ravished in spirit and swallowed up in the contemplation of Gods power and majesty soars up and wanders like Paul in another case he knowes not whither or how But the vulgar renders it a prayer for ignorance or a prayer for Oratio pro ignorantijs errour which translation is surely an errour if not an ignorance as to the scope of that prayer Though the letter of the Original word as in the former instances and in the text before us bears that sence When Job saith Cause me to understand my errour his meaning is that his errours whatsoever they were in that business were secret to him he had not gone against the light of his own conscience nor as yet had they brought any light to convince his conscience he had been charged with errours extravagancies and wandrings But he understood not what they were and therefore desires them to cause him to understand his errour Observe hence first Man is subject to errour To errour in speech to errour in practise to errour in judgement Man by nature can do nothing else but erre all his goings are goings astray and all his knowledge is bottomed upon a heap of false principles All his works by nature are errata's and the whole edition of his life a continued mistake Secondly observe That man is in a fair way to truth who acknowledgeth he may erre Cause me to understand wherein I have erred saith Job He thought he had not erred but he grants it was possible for him to erre That which hath fastened so many errous to the Popes chaire and from thence scattered them over all the world is an opinion that he in his chair cannot erre his supposed spirit of infallibility hath made him the great Deceiver and deceived him He that thinks he cannot erre errs in thinking so and seldome thinks or speaks or doth any thing but it is an errour He is most secured from errour who suspects he hath erred and humbly acknowledges that he may Thirdly We may here observe what an errour is An errour strictly and properly taken is that which we hold or doe out of bare ignorance of the Truth It is an errour in practice when we are ignorant of what is better to be done An errour in opinion is when we are ignorant of what is better for us to believe or hold Heresie is an errour and more for heresie hath these three things in it 1. In regard of the matter it must be in some great and fundamental truths The word Heresie is by some derived from choosing by others from taking away because it takes us off from Christ or from the foundations of saving knowledge 2. Heresie is accompanied with pertinacy and obstinacy after clear light offered It is possible one may have an errour about things which are fundamental and yet be no heretick An heretick is condemned of himself Tit. 3. 10. But he will not be convinced by another Not that he doth formally and in terms give sentence against or condemn himself but equivalently he doth as the Apostle Acts. 13. 46. speakes to the unbeleeving Jews seeing ye put the word from you and judge your selves unworthy of everlasting life c. These men did not judge themselves such formally they came not to the Apostle and said we willingly submit our selves to hell and wrath No they thought very well of themselves and judged themselves worthy of eternal life But their practice judged them and gave a real sentance against them while they acquitted themselves Thus also a heretick who ever hath a very high opinion of himself and his opinions is condemned of himself 3. In heresie there is taken of pleasure and delight therefore heresie is numbred among the lusts of the flesh adultery and fornication c. Gal. 5 20. Hereticks desire to disperse and vend their opinions A man onely in an errour will weep over his opinions and it grieves him that he dissents and goes contrary unto others But he that stiffely maintains an errour insults over others and delights to maintain his opposition he triumphs and boasts of his war though he can never obtain victory Truth onely is victorious And some learned Criticks observe as much from the form of the Haereticus est cui voluptas est falsas tueri opiniones ea enim est nominum Graecorum in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 definentium proprietas ut ad qualitatem designandam non adhibeantur modo sed etiam ad innuendam delectationem quam in ea capit cui illa qualitas in est Camer Myroth Evang. in cap. 3. Epist ad Titum Greek word Tit. 3. 11. So then heresie is not only an errour in judgment but a pertinacy in the will and it takes in delight at the affections Fourthly observe from these words Cause me understand wherein I have erred That An erring brother or friend must not be importuned barely to leave his errour but he must be made to understand his errour Errour should not be left nor truth received blind-fold a man may sin in leaving an errour they do without question who lay it down thinking it to be a truth and there is little question but they do who leave it before they understand it to be an errour It is much alike to reject an opinion as an errour which we doe not understand and to practice an opinion for a truth which we doe not understand If a man practice or beleeve a truth not convinced that it is or not conceiving it to be a truth that truth is but as an errour to him because he doth not beleeve or practice it under the notion of a truth and so if he leave an errour which he is not convinced to be an errour his leaving it is not much better and in some cases it may be worse then his holding it because he leaves it not under the notion of an errour We must not dance after other mens pipes or see with other mens eyes Except we know it is good we do and evil which we leave und on our not
are vanity all goe to one place all are of the dust and all turn to the dust again And whereas the Atheist heard some speake of the ascent of mans spirit after this life he puts it off as but talke and guessing ver 21. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth That is who can tell that there is such a difference between the spirit of a man and of a beast who ever saw the one ascending or the other descending or from what Anatomie was this learned Thus the Atheist derides the doctrine of the soul and will therefore laugh and be merry with his body while it lasts that 's his portion For who shall bring him to sâ—e what shall be after him ver 22. Is it not strange that any who are called sober Christians should plant their opinions in this soyle of Atheisme and make that a proofe of their faith which Solomon brings only as a proofe of some mens infidelity The Preacher in this Book personated those whom he abhor'd and sometimes speakes the practises of other men not his own opinion There is no more reason to ground this Tenet of the Soules Mortality upon those texts then there is of encouragement to intemperancie in that chap. 11. 9. Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheare thee in the dayes of thy youth and walke in the wayes of thine own heart Or in that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 32. Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die If any would learne Solomons own sence about this point let him reade it as plaine as words can make it Eccl. 12. 7. Then namely when man dies shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it So then to the next before us the soule is not a wind but the Hujusmodi sententiâ— regressum animarum in corpora minin è negant sed necessitatem moriendi confirmant celeri atem life And all those Scriptures where life is compared to wind and dying to the passing of it without returning deny the regresse or returning of the soule to a naturall not to an eternall life and imply the short stay of the soule in the body and certaine departure from it not a not being when it parts These two must part and so part as never to returne to that estate againe Thus Iob expounds himselfe in the words following Mine eye shall no more see good Or as the Hebrew I shall not return to see good answerable to the metaphor of a wind it passeth away and returnes no more To see In this place as often elsewhere is to enjoy I shall not Videre bonum pro frui nota locutio est enjoy good Psal 4. 6. Who will shew or who will cause us to see any good It was not the bare sight of good which they desired but the enjoyment of it So Ier. 17. 6. The man whose heart departeth from God is threatned that he shall not see when good cometh that is he shall not enjoy good when it comes For though to see good be a mercy yet to see it and not to tast it is a curse Therefore at the last day they who thought themselves high in Gods favour but were indeed under his wrath are told that they shall Lam. 13. 26. see Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdome of God and themselves shut out they shall see what they cannot enjoy and that sight shall adde to their sorrow The Prophet cries out Lament 3. 1. I am the man that hath seen affliction that is I am the man that hath felt and had experience of afflictions And Psalm 16. 10. the great promise to Christ is that though he took a corruptible body upon him yet he should not see corruption that is partake of corruption corruption should have no communion with much lesse power over him And we have the same use of the word in this book chap. 20. ver 17. where Zophar tells the hypocrite that God will deprive and strip him of every good thing He shall not see the rivers the floods the brookes of honey and butter It is a rhetoricall expresson comparing the affluence of outward things to floods and rivers and brooks which send forth their streames plentifully as if he had said though there be great store of honey and butter those two are specified for the rest though there be rivers brooks and streames of these commodities yet he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall see none of them that is he shall not enjoy or tast a drop of Sicut Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latini bonum aliquando pro pulchro commodo utili usurpant Isa subinde Hebraei vocabudum Tob Fagius in Gen. 2. 18 them That unbeleeving Lord is told by Elisha that he should see plenty in Samaria the next day but should not eate thereof 2 King 7. 2. Not to see is not to eat and he that sees but eates not is not releeved but troubled at the sight Mine eye shall not see good What good when a man dies shall he see no more good we see but little good while we live and the greatest good is to be seen when we die or rather while we live what doe we see but evill and when the Saints die what have they to see but good how is it then that Iob saith when I die mine eye shall not see good what miserable creatures were we if there were no good to be seen beyond the line of this life our richest stock of comfort lyes in the good we shall see hereafter which is therefore called the blessed-making vision And Iob knew well enough that his eyes should see good after death for he saith chap. 19. 27. with these eyes shall I see God he knew also his soule had an eye to see good and a better good then ever he saw in the world while his body lay in the grave Then his meaning of Mine eye shall no more see good is no more worldly good none of †these good things which I have seen I shall be above the smart of earthly sorrows and above the sence of earthly joyes Good is either natural or civill or spirituall When God created the world he looked upon all that he bad made and he saw that all was very good Civill good is the order peace and prosperity of the world death stops the sight of all this good As for eternall or spirituall good death cannot close or dimme the eye against those objects Then here is no plea for Atheists against the resurrection nor any against the soules Being or being awake till the resurrection Iob speakes only about the speare and course of nature when man dies naturally and is in the state of the dead he enjoyes nothing he acts nothing according to the estate of the living * In his
though sin cannot be more pardoned in respect of God at one time than at another yet in regard of man it may He apprehends the pardon of his sin more now than before and may hereafter apprehend it more than now And it is worth the while to bestow pains in prayer for pardon to have the pardon a little more inlightned The degrees of any grace or favour as well as the matter and substance of them are worthy all our seekings and most serious enquiries at the throne of Grace Fourthly He that hath assurance of the pardon of sin is to pray for the pardon of sin because he continueth still to sin And though it be a truth that sin uncommitted is pardoned in the decree and purpose of God yet we must not walk by the decrees of God but by his commandements and rules His decree pardons sin from all eternity but his rule is that we should pray for pardon every day as we pray for the bread we eat every day Matth. 6. 11 12. We must not say God hath pardoned all sin at once therefore no matter to ask it again or I have once had the sight of pardon and therefore the sight of sin shall never trouble me seeing we are directed to search our hearts for sin and to seek to God for pardon continually So long as we sin it becomes us to be suitors for the pardon of sin He that hath ceased to sin may cease to ask the forgiveness of sin till then I know neither rule nor promise that gives a dispensation for this duty To close this point there are two Cases wherein believers are especially to renew their suits about the pardon of sin First which though it be lamentable yet it is possible in the case of falling into scandalous and gross sins These not only weaken assurance and be-night the soul but exceedingly dishonour God and grieve the holy Ghost This caused David to pray and cry for the pardon and purging of his sin as freshly and as strongly as if he had never received a pardon or any evidence of Gods love of which yet he had great store before that day Ps 51. Secondly In times of great troubles and trials whether personal or National the Saints re-inforce prayer about pardon This was Jobs case his personal afflictions occasion'd him to begg the remission of sins and not only remission for sins then committed but for all the sins he had committed either before or after Conversion Even our formerly pardon'd sins need pardon when we loose the sight of pardon and when the soul hath no visions but visions of terrour it must seek visions of peace in the free-grace of God renewing and sealing pardon in the bloud of Jesus Christ Job having thus breathed his spirit in arguings complaints and prayers moves the Lord for a speedy end and gracious answer otherwise he sees no way but he must breath back his spirit into the hands of the Lord who gave it and lay his body in the dust from whence it was taken For now shall I sleep in the dust and thou shalt seek me in the morning but I shall not be Now shall I sleep in the dust What he means by this sleep hath been handled Chap. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Propriè est cubare hinc mortui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocantur ut etiam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 13. where it was shewed that death is called a sleep why and in what manner death is a sleep The word here translated to sleep signifies properly to lie down but the sence is the same because men lie down when they compose and fit themselves to sleep And the dead are called down-lyers as well as sleepers in the Hebrew The Septuagint reads it now shall I go to the earth David speaks near this language Psal 22. 15. Thou hast brought me to the dust of death Observe hence whether we are travelling and where we must take up a lodging for our bodies ere long They whose heads are highest they who lie in beds of Ivory must lie down in a bed of earth and rest their heads upon a pillow of dust Most sleep in the dust while they live but all must sleep in the dust when they die Earthly men have earthly minds and they cannot rest but in earth for it is their Center Onely he who hath laid up his heart in Heaven can comfortably think of laying down his head in the dust Further it is remarkable in how pleasing a notion Job speaks of death when his life was most unpleasant to him He complained of restless nights in the third fourth thirteenth and fourteenth verses of this Chapter yet he could think of a time when he should lie quietly in his bed and not have so much as a waking moment or a distracting dream And when he was once gone to this bed the curtains of darkness being close drawn about him he should open his eyes no more till the eye-lids of that eternity-morning opened therefore he concludes Thou shalt seek me in the morning sc of time but I shall not be In the Hebrew Thou shalt seek me in the morning is but one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si dilucula veris me ficto verbo word And some cut out a latine word fit to serve it We may English it strictly to the letter If thou morning me that is if thou commest to seek me as the force of this word hath been formerly given with never so much diligence and care I shall not be found thou wilt not have Job alive upon the earth to bestow thy mercies upon For I shall not be The Hebrew is And not I that is I shall not be alive I shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non ego subaudi sum vel ero Cum jam in isto not be to be had he means a non-existence not a non-essence a being he should have but he should not appear to be It is as if he had said Lord I shall not be a Subject capable of outward deliverances and bodily comforts unless they come speedily Lord if thou wilt give me any help give it for death hastens upon me as if it hoped to be too nimble for or to out-run thy succours Mr. Broughtons translation seems to intend another sence pulvere decumbam aut quid non tempesti ivè requisivisti me ut non essem Jun. which others of the learned Hebricians favour too He renders the latter part of the verse thus Whereas I lie now in the dust referring it to his present condition I am now lying in the dust to be pitied of the keeper of men so he himself expounds Lord I lie in the dust a pitiful object then Why doest thou not quickly seek me out that I should no more be which he interprets I would by a quick death be rid from these pains As if in these words Job had again renewed his former desire of death concerning which many
Christian should spend much time betweene the combe and the glasse and but little betweene Ordinance and Ordinance betweene the Bible and the Pulpit betweene reading and hearing betweene both and holy meditation the body is but a house of clay it is but dust therefore be not so industrious for it We usually laugh at children when they are making Houses of Clay and Pies of Dirt. They whose care is thus over active for the body are but children of a greater stature and shew they have so much more folly in their hearts then they by how much they have more years over their heads and are foolish about more serious matters then they There is no child to the old child Fifthly seeing this house of clay is founded also in dust observe that man is a very fraile an unsteady and an unstable creature every puffe must needs subject him to ruine Look upon his foundation it is nothing but dust When CHRIST Math. 7. ult had finished his Sermon upon the Mount he compares his hearers to such as build either upon the Rock or upon the Sand they that heare and doe not are like a house built upon the sand and what becomes of that house when the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew that house fell and the fall thereof was great A foundation of dust or sand cannot stand out one storme The house of mans body is walled and roofed with clay and bottom'd upon no better then dust the strength of the Church as was toucht before is described by the matter of its foundation A Rock Matth. 16. And the new Jerusalem which as it is conceived to be the most pure state of the Church here on earth so it must be the strongest is set forth having twelve foundations and they all of stone and all those stones most precious and therefore most durable Rev. 21. 19. The strength and stability of that estate which the Saints shall inherit when these houses of earth are by death levelled to the earth the stability I say of that estate is described under the notion of a City which hath foundations Heb. 11. 10. He namely Abraham looked for a City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God When the Holy Ghost saith foundations who can tell how many they may be we can easily tell the fewest they can be two is the lowest number so that at least this City hath a foundation upon a foundation The foundation of Christs perfect righteousnesse is laid upon the foundation of Gods eternall free love here is foundation upon foundation The City above hath these foundations and therefore we receive a City that cannot be shaken I note these things to shew by consent of Scripture that the stability of any condition in allusion to a building is exprest by the strength of its foundation Now all our outward glory and excellency our life and all the pompe of it hath scarce so much as deserves to be called a foundation a foundation of dust hath only the name of a foundation That Image in Daniel which typed out all the descents of worldly greatnesse had a head of gold the breast and armes of Silver the thighes of Brasse and the legs of Iron but the feet were part of Iron and part of Clay The feet are the foundation and the feet of this Image speak thus much to all the world that all worldly pompe greatnesse all worldly power and majesty must fall for the image stands upon clay and though it have a mixture of iron in the feet which is strong yet it shall not stand by the iron which is strong but fall and be broken by the clay which is weak As it was in those great Monarchies into which the outward power of Nations and Kingdomes was contracted so if you look upon any particular man though you may conceive him to have a head of gold armes and breast of silver thighes of brasse and legs of iron yet when you come to the feet the foundation of the whole body it is but dust which a small storm will dissipate and blow away The body of man hath so weak a foundation that it is sometime compared to that which hath no foundation a Tabernacle 1 Cor. 5. If the earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved saith the Apostle Now a Tabernacle hath a roofe or a covering but no foundation The Tabernacle of Tectum habet fundamentum non habet the body hath a covering but hardly any foundation only a foundation in the dust Lastly Consider the forme of speaking in this Scripture How much lesse on them who dwell in houses of clay He speakes of the whole man as dwelling in a house of clay Now we know that a body cannot properly be said to dwell in abody the house doth not dwell in a house yet he speakes as of a compleat person dwelling in a house of clay which yet is to be understood of one part of the person The soule that dwels in a house of clay that is it acts and officiates in a body composed of clay Hence observe seeing the whole man commeth under the notion of the soule That the soule of man is The man The soule goes away with the Non qued anima siâ— bono ut quidam posuerunt dicentes hominem nihil aliud esse quà m animam indutam corpore sed quia anima est principatior pars hominis unum quodque autem consuevit appellari id quâ—d est in eo principalius Aquin. in loc name of the whole person The soule is not the man in a naturall consideration as some have philosophiz'd asserting that man is nothing but a soule cloathed with a body for man is man by the union of soule and body and the perfection of man as man consists in that union but the soule is the man in a morall consideration because it is the more noble and excellent part of man and it is usuall to denominate the whole from that part which is more excellent The body is but as the Cabinet the soule is the Jewell the body is but as the sheath or the scabbard the soule is as the knife or the sword You know when a man buyeth a sword he buyes a scabbard too or when he buyes a knife he buyes the sheath too yet he saith this knife cost me so much or I gave so much for this sword he makes no mention of the scabbard or of the sheath now the body is the sheath or scabbard of the soule Dan. 7. 15. you have it exprest so I was grieved saith the Prophet in my spirit in the middest of my body so we translate it but the Chaldee is and so we have it in some Margents in the middest of my sheath The soule is the blade a blade of admirable mettle and temper the body how beautifull soever by nature or gay by art is but a velvet or an embossed sheath and scabbard therefore at first