that God is not sayd to forme man of the water or ayre or fire but of the dust of the ground Gen 2.7 though all those as well as earth were ingredients in the composition and formation of mans body As man with respect to his spiritualls and moralls is denominated from that which is chief in him so with respect to his naturalls Every man hath the seeds and principles of all sin in him yet many men are knowne and expressed by some speciall sin Thus one is called a covetous man another a malicious man c. because covetousnesse and malice are their predominant sins in practice though the principles of all other sins are in them So for grace one is sayd to be a patient man and another an humble man and a third a self-denying man Though where any grace is all graces are yet a godly man is knowne by that grace which acts most eminently and vigorously in him In this notion man is sayd to be of the dust and to returne to dust as if he were nothing but dust because dust is the predominant Element in the naturall constitution of man And if so then this is an humbling consideration Some walke as if they thought the ground or earth not good enough for them to goe upon Moses setting forth the dreadfullness of famine as a punishment threatned the Jewish nation in case of disobedience tells us it shall fall on all sorts both of men and women Deut 28.56 The tender and delicate woman among you which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness c. Some are loth to put their feet to the ground whereas the best foote that ever trod upon the ground is dust as wel as the ground trodden on and 't is but dust to dust when they are in the dust and dirt to dirt if they fall into the dirt The Apostle among other reasons for this also calleth the body of man a vile body Phil 3.21 Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body Our bodies are vile chiefly from the contagion of sin that hath made them most vile But they are comparatively vile with respect to the very matter out of which they were all representatively made when the first man was made without the least taint or touch of sin Man at best as to the body is but a little breathing dust or moving clay And did we spiritually look upon the matter of our bodyes it would exceedingly humble our spirits and keep them low even when like Jordan they are ready to over-flow all the banks of modesty and moderation We heare of a bird who priding himselfe in spreading and perusing his fine feathers is presently as it were ashamed by looking down upon his owne black feete Surely did man often consider that his whole body is of the earth it would be an excellent meanes to keepe his heart in a lowly frame how highly soever himselfe is exalted in the earth And as man while he lives is from the dust so when he dyeth that 's another humbling consideration his body not only returneth unto dust but turneth into dust David as the figure of Christ cryed out Psal 22.15 Thou hast brought me into the dust of death Dust and death are neere acquaintance and all that dy grow quickly into neerer acquaintance with the dust It is sayd Psal 103.14 The Lord knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are but dust But what advantage is that to us that the Lord knoweth the one and remembreth the other I may answer as the Apostle doth to another question Rom 3.2 much every way chiefly because he will pitty us and spare us and deale tenderly with us as considering how frayle we are Now as it may be our comfort that God remembreth we are but dust so 't is our duty to remember that we are but dust and that we must to the dust Shall God remember that we are dust and shall not we remember it our selves Did we more remember that we are dust we should more prepare for our return to the dust Yea I may say we should be more in heaven if we were more in our dust that is the gracious and serious meditation of our naturall vilenes and infirmities would provoke us to looke heaven-wards and prepare for heaven where these our naturall bodyes shall become spirituall 1 Cor 15.44 that is they shall be like spirits though not turned into spirits living without food or sleep living free from weariness and sickness from paines and languishments yea free from the remotest feare of ever dying or returning againe into dust Such as these and many more would be our soules advantages did we often as becomes us remember that our bodyes are of the earth and must shortly be earth againe Thus to be earthly minded is the way to be heavenly minded Many are earthly minded that is they mind earthly things but few mind that themselves are earth In what holy heights and elevations of spirit should we be if we could spiritually remember how low we once were and how low as to our bodyes we within a few dayes shall be Lastly This truth should take us off from all creature-confidence from trusting in man Cursed is the man saith the Lord Jer 17.5 that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme 'T is a cursed thing for man to trust in man becausâ— trust is an honour proper to God he alone is to be trusted And as it is a cursed so it is also a foolish thing to trust in man David a Great Prince giveth us this counsel from God Psal 146.3 4. Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help his breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth or to his dust in that day all his thoughts perish happy is the man that hath the God of Jacob for his help What can dust do for dust what can dust get by dust that which is weake may become strong by trusting to or leaning upon that which is strong the weakest man is strong enough while he trusteth upon the strong God but if weake trust upon weake how shall it be made strong Therefore let all flesh hearken to the words of the holy Prophet Isa 2.21 Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrills for wherein is he to be accounted of Man himselfe is a soone-ceasing creature David useth the noune of this verbe to expresse himselfe so Psal 39.4 and therefore we have reason to cease from man to cease from any high estimation of the highest men much more from any confidence in them What can we assure our selves of from any man living seeing he hath no assurance of his owne life The Prophet would have us understand that while he saith his breath is in his nostrills Mans life is gone as soone as his breath is gone and how soone may that be
men but the blasphemy against the holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men As if he had said Though you sin against the Father and the Son it shall be forgiven you but if you sin against the holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven either in this world or in the world to come that is it shall never be forgiven Seeing then there is more in sinning against the holy Ghost then against the Father or the Son who are God the holy Ghost must needs be God For though there is no degree or graduall difference in the deity each person being coeternall coequall and consubstantiall yet the Scripture attributes more in that case as to the poynt of sinning against the holy Ghost then to sinning against the Father or the Son therefore certainly the holy Ghost is God Lastly The holy Ghost is the object of divine worship are not we baptized in the Name of the Father Son and holy Ghost Is the Father and the Son God and the holy Ghost not God who is joyned with them in the same honour Shall a creature come in competition with God And doth not the Scripture or word of God direct us to pray for grace from the Spirit as well as from the Father or the Son 2 Cor 13.13 Rev 1.4 Thus we see how full the Scripture is in giving the glory of the same workes upon us and of the same worship from us to the Spirit as to the Father and the Son And therefore from all these premises we may conclude That the Holy-Ghost with the Father and the Son is God blessed and to be glorified for evermore The Spirit of God hath made me And the breath of the Almighty hath given me life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritus ex ore egregiens halitus flatus anima proprie significat halitem pâ—r metonymiam effecti animam per synechdoâ—hen membri animal Pisc in Deut 10.16 The words carry an allusion as Interpreters generally agree to that of Moses describing the creation of man Gen 2.7 And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrills the breath of life and man became a living soule Elihu speakes neere in the same forme fully to the same effect The breath of the Almighty hath given me life or enlivened me As if he had sayd That soule which the Lord hath breathed into me hath made me live The soule of man may be called the breath of the Almighty because the Almighty is expressed infusing it into man at first by breathing And therefore the word Neshamah which properly signifies the breath doth also by a Metonymie of the effect signifie the soule it selfe which causeth breathing Thus our translaters render it Isa 57.16 I saith the Lord will not contend for ever neither will I be alwayes wroth for the spirit should faile before me and the soules which I have made As the soule of man was breathed in by God so the soule is that by which man breathes Breath and soule come and goe together Some comparing the originall word Shamaijm for the heavens with this word Neshamah which here we translate breath take notice of their neere affinity intimating that the soule of man is of a heavenly pedegree or comes from heaven yea the latine word mens signifying the mind is of the same consonant letters with the Hebrew Neshamah and as some conceive is derived from it So then I take these words The breath of the Almighty as a description of that part of man which is opposed to his body The Spirit of God hath made me that is hath set me up as a man in humane shape And the breath of the Almighty hath given me life that is this soule which the Almighty hath breathed into me hath made me a living man ready for any humane act or as Moses speakes God breathing into my nostrills the breath of life I became a living soule Hence observe First The soule of man floweth immediately from God 'T is the breath of God not that God liveth by breathing the way of his life is infinitely above our apprehension But 't is cleare in Scripture That the Almighty breathed into man the powers of life And therefore he is called by way of Eminence The father of spirits Heb 12.9 For though the Almighty is rightly entituled the Father of the whole man though both body and soule are the worke of God yet he is in a further sence the father of our spirits or soules then of our bodyes And here Solomon shewing how man is disposed of when these two are separated by death saith Eccl 12.7 Then shall the dust that is the body returne to the earth as it was and the spirit that is the soule shall returne to God who gave it The body is the gift of God but the body is not the breath of God it is not such an immediate gift of God as the soule is when the body of man was made at first God tooke the dust of the earth and formed his body out of it but when he gave him a soule he breathed that from himselfe it was an immediate effect of Gods power not dealing with nor working upon any prae-existing matter The spirit or soule of man is purely of God solely of God And hence we may inferre First Then the soule is not a vapour arising from the crasis or temperament of the body as the life of a beast is Secondly Then the soule of man is not traduced from the parents in generation as many learned men affirme especially to ease themselves of those difficulties about the conveyance of originall sin or defilement into the soule Thirdly We may hence also inferre then the soule is not corruptible it is an immortall substance How can that be corruptible or mortall which hath its rise as I may say immediately from God or is breathed in by the Almighty who is altogether incorruptible and immortal And whereas there is a twofold incorruptibility First by divine ordination that is God appoynts such a thing shall not corrupt and therefore it doth not so the body of man in it's first creation was incorruptible for though it were in it selfe corruptible being made out of the earth yet by the appoyntment of God if man had continued in his integrity he had not dyed And therefore it is said By sin came death yea doubtlesse if God should command and appoynt the meanest worme that moves upon the earth to live for ever or the most fading flower that groweth out of the earth to flourish for ever both the one and the other would doe so Secondly there is an incorruptibility in some things not meerely by a law or appoyntment of God but as from that intrinsecall nature which God hath bestowed upon them and implanted in them Thus the Angels are immortall they have an incorruptible nature and likewise the soule of man being breathed from the Almighty is in it's owne nature
that food which how sick soever we are our stomacks will never loath yea the sicker we are our soules will the more like hunger after and feed the more heartily upon The flesh of Christ is meat indeed Joh 6.55 Feed upon him by faith in health and in sicknesse ye will never loath him His flesh is the true meat of desires such meat as will fill and fatten us but never cloy us A hungry craving appetite after Christ and sweet satisfaction in him are inseparable and still the stronger is our appetite the greater is our satisfaction And which is yet a greater happiness our soules will have the strongest appetite the most sharp-set stomacke after Christ when through bodily sickness our stomacks cannot take down but loath the very scent and sight of the most pleasant perishing meate and delicious earthly dainties Looke that ye provide somewhat to eat that will goe downe upon a sick-bed your sick bed meat is Christ all other dainty food may be an abhorring to you Further Not only are we to consider the sickness of the body as the cause of this tastlesness and listlesness after bread But we are to consider the sick man abhorring dainty meate under the hideings of Gods face or in feares about his spirituall state as appeares by that which followeth If there be a messenger with him an interpreter one of a thousand to shew unto man his uprightnessâ— or to set him right in his spirituall state c. The sick man for want of that as well as for want of health can taste no sweetness in the rarest dainties Hence note A sense of divine displeasure or the hideing of divine favour from the soule renders all outward comforts comfortlesse to us If a man have never so much health yet the appearances of divine displeasure will make him sick of his most pleasant things Carnall men can eat and drink and live upon pleasures yea upon the pleasures of sin and goe on merrily with them a while because they know not the meaning of the displeasure of God nor doe they know what the favour of God meaneth they understand not what they want yea they flatter themselves that they have enough and are well enough though they have nothing and are nothing that is of any worth But if God once awaken them out of this dreame and shew them their cursed condition all will be gall and wormwood to their taste or as gravel between their teeth As the sense of divine favour makes bitter things sweet and sorrowfull things comfortable to us the soure herbs of affliction dainties to us So not only common but dainty meat all the cates and viands of this world will be not only tastless but bitter to us when God frownes upon us An earnest in the love and favour of God is the good of all good things For the close of all take these two Counsells upon the occasion of these words First Receive your bread and dainty meate with prayer and thankesgiving you may quickly else come to abhorre your bread yea and your dainties The word and prayer both sanctifie and sweeten all creature-enjoyments Secondly Take heed of abusing your meate ye may quickly be brought to a loathing of it When they who have given themselves up to luxury and intemperance lye upon their sick-beds and find their stomacke turned from all their dainties it will be most grievous to them to consider how they have abused their dainties to feed their lusts As some who abuse the creatures are punished with the want of them so others with an abhorrence and loathing of them So much for this second symptome of sickness His life abhorreth bread and his soul dainty meat The third followeth and appeareth in the generall decay and languishment of the sick mans body Vers 21. His flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seene and his bones that were not seene stick out In this verse and the next Elihu still insists upon his description of the sick mans condition and in them he gives us two other sad effects or symptomes of his sickness First The generall wast and consumption of the body vers 21. Secondly The utmost perill of life v. 22. Elihu describes the first effect of sicknesse the first here but the third in order by two things First By the disappearing of that which used to be seene and appeare very faire and beautifull the visible part grows as it were invisible his flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seene Secondly By the appearing of that which used not to be seene his invisible parts not so in their own nature but as to their place I say his invisible parts grow visible His bones which were not seen stick out Thus with much elegancy he sets forth the sorrowfull and deplorable estate of the sick man His flesh is consumed away As if he had sayd Before his sicknesse he was full of flesh fat and faire but falling into sickness he falls away and is worne as we say to skin and bones his flesh is consumed Flesh in Scripture is taken two wayes First Improperly and Tropically Secondly Literally or Properly In a Tropicall and Improper sense flesh signifieth our sinfull corruption Gal 5.17 The flesh evermore lusteth against the spirit that is the unregenerate part in man against the regenerate These two are always contending and combating with one another in all those whom Christ hath conquered to himselfe Happy are they that finde their flesh in this sense consuming away and 't is that which every man is studying who knows what godlinesse meanes the consumption of this flesh even the mortification of his lusts of pride and earthliness of wrath envie and unbeliefe Secondly flesh by a figure is put for the whole naturall body consisting of many parts dissimilar to flesh Thus the Psalmist complained in prayer that the Lord had given the flesh of his Saints to the beasts of the earth Psal 79.2 that is he had exposed their bodies through the rage and cruelty of their enemies to the teeth and bowells of savage and ravenous beasts Thirdly flesh is also put for the whole man consisting both of soul and body Gen. 6.12 13. The Lord saw that all flesh had corrupted their wayes That is all men who are made up of a body and soul had corrupted their wayes by letting loose and acting their sinfull corruptions Fourthly flesh is sometimes put for that which is bâ—st in man his greatest naturall perfections whatsoever in him is lesse then grace whatsoever is highest in him below the spirit is called flesh in Scripture When Peter Math. 16.17 had made that blessed confession which is the rock upon which the Church is built thou art Christ the Son of the living God presently Christ tells him flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee that is the highest and the most perfect piece of nature hath not taught thee this lesson the Evangelist saith of all true beleevers who have received
the land of the living Secondly From the way of expressing this in allusion to a childe or a youth Note God he can quickly make the greatest changes in nature either for the better or for the worse He can turne youth into old age and old age into youth That is he can make a young or a healthy man weake as an old man and an old or sickly man strong as a young man and as it is with naturall so with politicall bodyes as with persons so with nations A nation that is flourishing in its youth heate strength and glory rich and full of peace and plenty God can bring an oldness upon it and cause it to decline every day The Prophet spake of the state of Israel in this notion Hos 7.9 Gray haires are here and there upon them and they perceive it not they thought ttemselves to be in a very youthfull flourishing condition as a state but the Lord brought gray haires that is they were decaying withering weakning and became a decrepid nation And when a nation is gray-hayred old and withered he can make it youthfull he can recover the honour and power of it and cause the dread of it to fall upon the neighbouring nations round about He turnes a land into a wilderness which before was as the Garden of God And he can change that land into a Garden of God which now is a desolate wildernes The unchangeable Lord is visible and glorious in all these changes The health and strength both of the body politick and naturall are at his dispose He can bring a decay upon what is built and repaire what is decayed whether in nations or persons When the earthly house of this Tabernacle is ready to drop downe into the grave and crumble into dust God by a word speaking repayreth it to as much beauty and strength as when the first stone being layd the top-stone was set up When Naaman had once submitted to and obeyed the Prophets counsell which at first he despised washed in Jorden His flesh saith the text 2 Kings 5.14 came againe like unto the flesh of a little childe The holy Psalmist charged his owne soule to praise the Lord and all that was within him to blesse his holy name Psal 103.1 5. Who had satisfied his mouth with good things so that his youth was renewed as the Eagle This renovation of his youth may be understood three wayes First as to his naturall state or bodyly strength Secondly as to his civill state or worldly successes as to his honour and kingly renowne Thirdly as to his spirituall state or the hightning of his gifts graces and comforts 'T is probable David had found a declension in all these and at last through the goodness of God and his blessing upon him the renewing of them all from that oldness to a youthfullness againe like that of Eagles We find the same allusion in the Prophet Isa 40.31 They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up as with Eagles wings Some Naturalists say the Eagle reneweth her strength by sucking blood when her stomack is so weake that shee cannot seed upon the flesh of her prey Saints indeed renew their strength as the Eagle while by faith they sucke the blood of Jesus Christ and they get cure of their owne weaknesses while they believingly lay hold upon his strength Thirdly We heard in the former verse of a divine warrant issued out for this mans recovery Then he is gracious to him and saith deliver him Here we have the warrant executed His flesh shall be fresher then a childes Hence observe The commands and warrants of God are effectuall they shall be obeyed and made good to man If God say deliver him from a sick bed he shall be delivered I will worke saith the Lord Isa 43.13 14. and who shall let it for your sake I have sent to Babylon and have brought downe all their Nobles or barrs as the margin reads it I will have it done I will breake all those Nobles who are as barrs in the way of my peoples deliverance So when the Lord sends his warrant for the delivering of a sick man he will break all those barrs and bands by which diseases and sicknesses hold him as a prisoner in his bed Nothing can stand against the word of God as by a word speaking he gave the creature a being when it had none The Lord only spake the word Let there be light let there be a firmament c. and it was so Thus also the word or warrant of God reneweth a wel-being to those with whom it is worst or a comfortable life to those who are compassed about with the sorrowes of death The word of God prevailes over all or is effectuall to every purpose Psal 33.9 He spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast Further In this restoring of the sick we have a shadow of the resurrection The raysing of a dying man from his bed is like the raysing of the dead from the grave The spring of the yeare is a shadow of the resurrection because then the earth returnes to her youth and is fresh as a child In winter all things are dead and desolate their glosse and beauty is gone but then cometh the spring and all revives againe the face of the earth looks fresh corne and grasse trees and plants flourish and put forth their buds and blossomes Now what the spring of the yeare is to the body of the earth the same is the returne of health to the body of man In both we have an exemplar of the resurrection as also in the regeneration or new birth of the soule by the power of the holy Ghost For till then we are like old sickly men in the old man yea we are dead But no sooner doth the Spirit bring us forth by a second creation into the life of the new man but we become in spirit fresh like Children our youth returnes to us againe that is we returne to that state wherein we were first created and set up by God in righteousness and true holiness yea into a better and surer state then that Man through grace is not only as he was in the first day of his creation but better He returnes to the day of his youth and receives such a youth as shall never decay into old age yea the older he is in nature the younger that is the stronger and more beautifull he shall be in grace He shall according to that promise Psal 92.14 still bring forth fruit in old age he shall be fat and flourishing This renewed youthfullness and flourishing condition of the restored sick man in spiritualls is specially and fully set forth in the next verse For Elihu having shewed the recovery of the sick mans body he proceeds to the recovery of his soule which eminently returnes to the dayes of its youth both in the puttings forth of or exercising the grace of God
turnest man to destruction and sayest Return ye children of men Here 's man turning and returning upon the saying of God man turneth to death he returneth to dust and shall at last return from the dust and all this when God saith he must Our life is a very frail thing and it is in the hand of God to continue or take it away to let us hold it or gather it home to himself Thirdly From the manner of speaking If he gather to himself his spirit and his breath Note When man dieth he is gathered to God When as Solomon allegorizeth the death of man Eccl. 12.6 7. The silver cord is loosed and the golden bowl broken c. Then shall the dust that is the body return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to God who gave it that is each part of man when he departeth this world shall go its proper way and return to that which is most congenial to it his body to the earth from whence it is his soul to God of whom it is God is a Spirit the creating Spirit and our created spirits are gathered to God when they are separated from the body yet remember there is a two-fold gathering or returning of the spirit to God First To abide and be blessed with him for ever thus the spirits of believers or saints only are gathered to God when they depart out of this world Secondly There is a gathering of the spirit to God to be judged and disposed of by him to receive a sentence of life or death from him And thus the spirit of every man or woman that dieth is gathered to God be they good or bad believers or unbelievers Heb. 9.27 It is appointed for men once to die but after this the judgement 'T is the Statute Law of God man must die and the sound of Judgement is at the heels of death That Text saith but after this the Judgement The general day of judgement shall not be till the resurrection of man from the dead But there is a personal judgement or a determining of every mans state when he dieth and for that end every mans spirit is gathered to God to receive his sentence The spirits of wicked men are gathered to him and condemned the spirits of the righteous are gathered to him and acquitted We are come saith the Apostle Heb. 12.23 to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect David knew he must be gathered to God but he earnestly deprecated such a gathering as most shall have Psal 26.9 Gather not my soul with sinners nor my life with bloody men It is this word when sinners die they are gathered but David would not be gathered as they are gathered They are gathered to God but it is that they may be for ever separated from him they are gathered to a day of vengeance and wrath Therefore David prayed Gather not my soul with sinners Death is called a gathering in a threefold reference First A gathering to our people Thus it is said of Aaron Num. 20.24 Aaron shall be gathered unto his people for he shall not enter into the land c. Death separates the people of God from their people that is from those that are like them on earth but it will be a means of bringing them into the society of their people or fellow believers who are gone before them into heaven Secondly Death is called a gathering to our Fathers 2 Chron. 34 28. Behold I will gather thee to thy Fathers and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace There 's a gathering to a more special company and that with other like Scriptures are an argument that we shall know our relations in heaven For to be gathered to our Fathers spoken of in the first part of the verse is more then to be gathered to the grave spoken of in the latter and by our fathers we are to understand more of our fathers then the grave hath in its keeping which is but their bodies even their souls which are kept in heaven Thirdly According to the phrase of this Text death is called a gathering to God If he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath Whence Note Fourthly The spirit or soul of man hath its original from God It is of him to whom it returneth The soul or spirit of man is of God in a more special way then his body is for though God giveth both yet the Scripture in the place before named speaks of the soul as the gift of God but passeth by the body Eccles 12.7 The dust shall return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to God who gave it 'T is God not man alone who hath given us these bodies but 't is not man but God alone who hath given us these spirits therefore men are called the fathers of our flesh that is of the body in way of distinction from God who is the father of spirits Heb. 12.9 We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live that is shall we not rather be subject to God then to man Father of spirits is an Attribute or Title too high and honourable for any but God One of the Ancients in his gracious breathing after God brake out into this holy Passion My soul O God came from thee and my heart is unquiet or restless until it return to thee again God is our center and our rest He gathereth to himself mans spirit and when he doth so what then what 's the issue of it Elihu tells us what in the next verse Vers 15. All flesh shall perish together and man shall turn again to his dust As if he had said As soon as ever the spirit is gathered the flesh is consumed or as we render perisheth All flesh may be taken in the largest sence not only for all men that live but for all living creatures Thus largely Moses extendeth it Gen. 6.17 Behold saith the Lord I will bring a flood of water to destroy all flesh that is all the Beasts of the earth and Fowls of the ayre together with Mankinde except a few of each in the Ark so Psal 136.25 Who giveth food to all flesh that is to man and beast for his mercy endureth for ever Yet some understand this first part more narrowly for all flesh except man because he addeth in the latter part of the verse and man shall return again to his dust But I conceive we are to take all flesh here for all men and only for men it being usual in Scripture to put the same thing twice under different expressions So then All flesh that is every man be he who he will shall perish Thus as all flesh is restrained to man so it extendeth over all men yea over all things of man Isa 40.6 All flesh is grass and all the
goodliness thereof as the flower of the field that is all men are perishing and all that man hath meerly as a man is as fading and perishing as himself is Some take notice that man was not called flesh till after his fall It 's said before when God set him up in that primitive purity of his Creation Man became a living soul He was not spoken of at first as flesh but as a living soul Gen. 2.7 but as soon as man had sinned he was called flesh as if he had no soul There may two other reasons be given why man is called flesh both following from the former First Because man since his fall doth most for his flesh and neglects his soul altogether till being planted into the second Adam he is brought out of that wretched condition into which he fell by and with the first Adam Secondly He is called flesh because since the fall man is become weak and frail both as to Naturals and Morals Gen. 6.3 My spirit shall not alwaies strive with man for that he also is flesh As if the Lord had said Now man declareth himself to be flesh indeed he acts like an impotent sorry creature he acts as if he scarce had a soul in him as if he were no more then the beasts of the earth My spirit shall not alwaies strive with man for that he also is flesh and therefore v. 30. God told Noah The end of all flesh is come before me that is Man and all his worldly glory shall all be swept away with a deluge of water as here All flesh shall perish together There is a two-fold perishing First By way of annihilation Secondly By way of transmutation When Elihu saith all flesh shall perish we are not to understand it of annihilating all flesh God can do that he can turn man back into that nothing out of which he was made but the perishing in the Text importeth only a change Death is called a change a change to perishing as that good great woman said I will go in unto the King and if I perish I perish Hest 4.16 that is If I die I die The Prophet laments Isa 57.1 The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart All flesh shall perish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Together That is without exception one as well as another rich and poor high and low strong and weak all are alike in the hand of God Psal 33.13.15 The Lord looketh from heaven he beholdeth all the sons of men c. he fashioneth their hearts alike or together that is he fashioneth the hearts of all men God doth not so fashion mens hearts alike as to make them all alike faces do not differ so much as hearts but as he fashions one mans heart so anothers he fashions the heart of a King as well as the heart of a begger All flesh shall perish together none either by power or policy can stand against a displeased God Again We may take the word together for all at once God can make a total devastation in the earth and sweep all away as filth with the besome of destruction He can destroy all the world of all men who are the chiefe part of the world together or at one blow so that as the Prophet Nahum speaks Chap 1.9 Affliction shall not rise up a second time All flesh shall perish together And man shall returne againe unto dust Or he shall goe backe unto dust that is he shall dye that 's the sentence which God gave upon man when he had sinned Gen 3.19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou returne unto the ground for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou returne Man was dust before he sinned yet he had not returned to dust if he had not turned from God by sin Sin brought in death and death brings us to the dust All flesh shall perish together and man shall returne againe unto dust Hence observe There is no one man hath more priviledge then another against the sentence of death The Greatest Prince dyeth as soone as the meanest peasant Death can as soone and as easily breake into the strongest fort or tower of stone as into the meanest cottage of reeds High and low shall perish together Let none hope to secure themselves by any thing of this world from going out of this world Riches availe not in the day of death Pro 11.4 High Titles and honours availe not strength availeth not beauty availeth not none of these can be a protection if God send out a writ or summons to the grave Happy are they who get an assurance of life after death for none have an assurance of life against death Againe In that death is here expressed under this notion of perishing Observe Man is but in a perishing condition while he is in this world As all the things of the world are so is man while he abideth if I may say he abideth in this world Christ earnestly exhorts John 6.27 Labour not for the meat that perisheth Why should we labour that is set our selves with our whole strength and might to pursue perishing things seeing we our selves are perishing The more perishing we are the more reason we have to looke after and labour for those things which doe not which cannot perish When the Apostle saith 1 Pet 1.18 We are not redeemed with corruptible things from our vaine conversation c. He doth not instance in flowers or fruits of the earth which quickly rot but in gold and silver which are the most durable and lasting metalls even these are corruptible but we our selves as to this bodyly life are corruptible not only as gold and silver but as the most fading flowers and summer fruits of the earth Further From that other description of death as 't is called a returning againe unto dust We learne Man is of the dust Unlesse man as to his body were of the dust when he began to live he could not be sayd to returne unto dust when he dyeth or departs this life Many men pore upon their pedegree and heir minds swel with pride because they are of such or such a noble descent but let them remember man is of the dust The soule or spirit of man is indeed from above as was shewed before and the body of man is I grant a compound of all the foure Elements Our bodyly spirits say Naturalists are of the fire our breath of the ayre our blood of the water and our flesh and bones are most properly of the dust of the earth yet the whole body of man is denominated dust or earth or as the Apostle stileth it 2 Cor 5.1 'T is an earthly house If our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved For though we may truely say there is water and ayre and fire in this house yet because earth is the predominant Element the whole body beares the denomination of
wicked Princes til at last they were carried into captivity by the common enemy These the like are the woful effects of Gods hiding his face from a Nation from all which we may well conclude with Elihu in the Text who then can behold him who can bear his wrathful presence when his face or favourable presence is hidden from us To shut up this point I shall only adde that because these hidings of Gods face are gradual as was shewed before therefore they are little taken notice of as the Prophet complained Hos 7.9 Gray hairs are here and there upon them and they know it not that is they are in a declining condition gray hairs are the signes of old age Eorum mihi videtur idoneus sensus omnino Gormanus qui hanc libertatem dei sive pacem concedendi sive condemnandi vel turbandi ad tyrannos tantum coardat eos qui impiè vivunt Sanct. which is the declension of mans life he alludes from the body Natural to the body Civil or Politick they are I say in a declining weakning spending condition yet they lay it not to heart And that 's a sore if not the chiefest judgement of God upon a Nation when hiding his face he hides his judgements from them and gives them up to hardness of heart to blindness of minde and a spirit of stupidity that they see not nor take notice of their own danger nor the departure of God from them which is the cause of it And still the more God hideth his face from a Nation the more miserable they are and withal the more insensible of their misery So much from that consideration of the Text as to a Nation When he giveth quietness who can make trouble and when he hideth his face who then can behold him Whether it be against a Nation Or against a man only As this verse respects a man only or a single person it is expounded two or three wayes First Of Oppressors and wicked men as if he had said When God will give a wicked man quietness or prosperity in his sinful way who can make his estate troublous or trouble him in his estate He shall be quiet while the will of God is to suffer him to be so and if God once hide his face from him that is Si deus pacem tribuat impiis quis illius providentiam arcana iudicia coâ—d mnare aud bit Gregor Philip. declareth displeasure against him who can behold him that is who among the mightiest of wicked oppressors can lift himself up against or stand before God Secondly The words are expounded of the oppressed or of godly men as if he had said when God is minded or resolved to give peace and quietness to any of his faithful servants who can hinder him or trouble them and when he is pleased for reason best known to himself to leave any of his faithful servants in darkness and withdraw the light of his countenance from them who among them can behold him that is bear or endure his angry appearances Quum ipse tranquillat sc miseros afflictos quis inquietabit cum abscondit faciem sc ab improbis quis contemplabitur eum i. e. quis improborum aversanti Deo ausit obsistere Jun. A third expounds the former part of the verse according to the second Exposition of the whole verse concerning the oppressed or afflicted godly if God will give them quietness who can give them trouble And the latter part of the verse of Oppressors if he hideth his face from wicked and unjust men who can behold him Further Some who take this sence do not understand it as an act of God hiding his own face but as an act of God hiding the face of the wicked Oppressor as if it had been said When God hideth a wicked mans face and wraps him up as a condemned man or when by the command of the Magistrate after his legal tryal his face is covered being ready to seal the warrant for his execution Hamans face was covered as soon as the Kings word went out against him then who can behold him Some insist much upon this interpretation in allusion to the custome of those times when condemned malefactors had their faces covered and indeed when God wraps up the oppressors face as a condemned man who can behold him that is who can hold up his face against God or resist him in this work of justice But I intend not to prosecute the personal consideration of the Text under these distinct notions but shall only take up the general sence When he giveth quietness to a man who can make trouble and when he hideth his face from a man who can behold him I shall only adde Master Broughton's gloss upon the whole verse when for the poor he kills the mighty none can stay him and when he hideth his favour none can finde it Hence Observe First The quietness or peace of any man of every man is of the Lord. If God will have a wicked man live in quietness to it shall be and God hath given and doth often give them quietness I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green Bay tree Psal 37.35 David spake this from a good witness the sight of his eye I saith he have seen the wicked in much outward pomp and splendour and as the outward peace and quietness pomp and splendour of the wicked is from God so also is both the outward and inward peace of any godly man First The outward peace or the peace of a godly man in his outward estate is of the Lord Psal 4.8 I will both lay me down in peace and sleep for thou only makest me to dwell in safety that is thou O Lord wilt watch over me in the night and not suffer me to be surprized by any sudden danger and therefore I will quietly repose my self upon thy gracious promises and throw off those cares and fears which as thorns in the pillow would not suffer me to rest when I lye down in my bed the Lord is my safety even the rest of my body In the 5th chapter of this book ver 23 24. Eliphaz telleth us how the Lord secures the outward condition of a good man and gives him such quietness that even the very beasts of the earth shall be in league and the stones of the field at peace with him and he shall know or be assured that his tabernacle shall be in peace Secondly The inward peace the soul peace the spiritual peace of a godly man is much more from the Lord John 14.27 Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you not as the world giveth so give I unto you as if Christ had said I will not deal with you after the rate of the world that is either deceitfully and falsly or rigorously and unjustly I will not give you such measure as the world gives you nor in
commanded a deep sleep to fall on Adam when he tooke the rib out of his side and formed the woman We read also Gen 15.12 that a deep sleep fell on Abraham when God revealed to him what should become of his posterity and how they should be in Egypt and there much oppressed foure hundred yeares c. It is said also 1 Sam 26.12 A deep sleep from the Lord was fallen upon them that is upon Saul and his guards who lay round about him And that might be called a sleep from the Lord both because it was a sleep which the Lord sent and because it was an extream deep sleep Secondly there are dreams in ordinary sleep or in very slumbrings or noddings upon the bed we may call them waking dreames Thus Elihu sheweth God taking severall times or seasons for the revealing of himselfe in dreams sometimes in deep sleep and often in the least and slightest sleeps called slumbrings I shall not here insist upon or discourse the way of Gods manifesting himselfe to the Ancienrs by dreams visions but referre the Reader to what hath already been done upon the 4th Chapter at the 12th and 13th verses where Eliphaz speaks almost in the same manner as Elihu here about visions And indeed there is a very great Consent between their two parts in this booke that of Eliphaz and this of Elihu They were both holy and propheticall men both of them had the same designe in speaking about dreams and visions namely to convince and humble Job and both of them expresse themselves in terms of a very neere Cognation So that if the reader please to consult that place Job 4.12 13. he will find these words farther cleared as to the nature and severall kinds of visions And if he turne to what hath been done upon the 14th verse of the 7th Chapter he may find the doctrine of dreams further opened Only let me adde here a note or two First It hath been the use of God to reveale his mind by dreams And I may give you five reasons why God used to apply himself to man in dreams First because in sleep man is as I may say at best leisure for God to deal with him he is not distracted with businesse nor hurried with the labours of this life but is at rest Secondly when we are awake we are very ready to debate and discusse what we receive by our own reason we are ready to Logick it with God but in sleep we take things barely as offered without discussions or disputes Thirdly in sleepe when all is quiet that which God represents takes and leaves a deeper impression upon the mind of man Common experience teacheth us how dreams stick and how those apprehensions which we have in our sleep dwell abide with us when awake Fourthly I conceive the Lord doth this chiefly that he may shew his divine skill in teaching instructing man or that he hath a peculiar art in teaching he teaches so as none of the masters of learning were ever able to teach and instruct their Schollars There was never any man could teach another when he was asleep they that are taught must at lest be awake yea they must not only be awake but watchfull but now God is such a teacher such an instructor that when we are asleep he can convay instruction and teach us his lessons this I say doth wonderfully magnifie the divine skill and power of God who is able to make us heare and understand doctrine even when we are asleep and cannot heare There may be also a fifth consideration moving God to this Possibly God would hereby assure us that the soul is a distinct essence and hath its distinct operations from the body and that even death it self cannot deprive the soul of man of its working For what is sleep but a kind of death sleep is a short death and death is along sleepe Now when the body is upon the matter laid aside the soul can goe to work when the body lyes like a block and stirs not the soul can bestir it self about many matters and run its thoughts to the utmost ends of the earth yea and raise them up to the highest heavens in blessed intercourses with God himself There 's no need to prove the matter of fact that 't is so what night with reference to some or other doth not utter this poynt of knowledg nor need I stay to prove that this is if not a demonstrative yet a very probable argument of the distinct substantiallity of the soul from the body namely its operations when the body with all its proper and peculiar faculties and powers is a sleepe and contributes nothing to those operations For though it be granted that some irrationall creatures who have no immortall part nor any thing substantiall in them distinct from their bodies though it be granted I say that these may have dreames yet their dreams differ as much from those of men as themselves doe Secondly Note The revelation of the mind of God by dreams and visions was much yea most used in those ancient times When God had not so fully revealed his mind by Scripture or his mind in the Scripture then he spake often in dreams and visions and hence the old Prophets were called seers The Apostle reports God speaking at sundry times and in divers manners in times past unto the fathers by the Prophets Heb. 1.1 The Greek text hath two very significant words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the former most properly implying how God gave out his mind in divers measures or how he parcelled it out the other implying the severall wayes in which he gave it out As the measures were various sometimes more sometimes lesse of his mind about divine matters and mysteries being dispersed so the wayes manners and formes of this dispensation were very various yet the most usuall way was by dreams and visions Numb 12.6 If there be a Prophet among you saith the Lord I the Lord will make my self known unto him in a vision and speak to him in a dreame Yea we find that in the first dayes of the Gospel dreames and visions were frequent The Apostle falling into a trance had a vision Acts 10.10 He saw heaven opened and a certain vessell descend c. And when Christ would have the Apostle Paul carry the Gospell into Macedonia a vision appeared to him in the night Acts 16.9 There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying come over to Macedonia and help us The same Apostle saith 2 Cor. 12.1 2. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord whether in the body I cannot tell or out of the body I cannot tell Pauls soul was wrapt up in such high and intimate converses with God that he even forgot how it was with his body or had little to doe with it Which suites well with that description which the Apostle John gave of himself when he had the whole mind of God
wise If we would compare our selves with other men who are above us it would mightily keep down the pride of our spirits for who is there but might see more in some yea in many others then in himselfe Now as it is an excellent means to keep the soule from murmuring and discontent to consider that many others are below us so it is an excellent means to keep us from pride to consider that many others are above us so much above us that our knowledge is but ignorance to their knowledge our strength weaknesse our faith unbeliefe our patience unquitenesse of spirit our very fruitfullnesse barrennesse compared with theirs or to speak allusively that our fat kine are but leane to the fat ones of others and our full ears but withered looked upon with their full eares And as it is a good meanes to keepe the soule humble or to cure it of pride to compare our selves with men who are much above us so especially if we would but remember how much God is above us in comparison of whom all our fullness is indeed emptiness our strength weaknesse our riches poverty and our light darkness And therefore when Job Chap 42. began to compare himselfe with God and to set God before him then he was in the dust presently though he spake over-valuingly of himselfe sometime yet when once he came to set himselfe before God then saith he I have spoken once but I will speak no more I abhorre my selfe and repent in dust and ashes And when the Prophet Isaiah saw the Lord in his Glory and compared himselfe with him he cryed out I am undone I am a man of poluted lips all his graces and all his gifts vanished into nothing when he considered the Lord before whom he stood Thus we may keepe downe pride by considering our deficiencies and comparing our selves with others who are above us especially by comparing our selves with God to whom we are not so much as a drop of the bucket to the whole Ocean nor the dust of the ballance to the body of the whole earth Sixthly For the hideing and keeping downe of pride often reflect upon your own sinfulnesse our defects in good may keepe our hearts low but our abundance of sinfull evills may keepe them much lower While we consider sin in a two-fold notion how should it humble us First as dwelling or abiding in us Secondly as acted and brought forth by us in either of these wayes look on sin and the heart must needs come downe thus poyson may expell poyson the remembrance of sin abiding in us and acted by us may be a stop to the further acting as of all other sins so especially of this sin pride Seventhly Let us be much in the meditation of Christ humbling and abasing himselfe for us What can kill pride if the humblings of Christ doe not O how may we schoole and catechise our proud soules with the remembrances of Christ in his abasements What! an humble Christ and a proud Christian an humble Master and a proud Disciple did Christ empty himselfe and make himselfe of no reputation and shall we who are but emptinesse be lifted up with a reputation of our selves or with the reputation which others have of us did he abase himselfe to the forme of a servant and shall we lift up our selves as if we reigned as Kings he humbled himselfe and became obedient to death even the death of the Crosse and what have we to glory in but the Crosse of our Lord Jesus Christ Gal 6.14 if we have any thing to be proud of 't is the Crosse of Christ God forbid saith Paul that I should glory or rejoyce and triumph save in the Crosse of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby I am crucified to the world and the world to me Think often and much of the humblings of Christ and then you will think of your selves as meere nothings This is the most effectuall means through the Spirit to bring downe the swellings of our hearts and to hide pride from man Thus much of the second designe of Christ in speaking to man in dreames and visions of the night the third followeth Vers 18. He keepeth back his soule from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword This verse holds out another gracious intendment of God in revealing himselfe to man by dreames and visions of the night He doth it thereby to give man warning and wisdome to prevent and escape that destruction which is ready to fall upon him He keepeth back his soule from the pit Some referre this He to man himselfe that is when God hideth pride from man then man keepeth his soule from the pit that is thereby man is both admonished and instructed how to keep his soule from the pit They who avoyde the mountains and precipices of pride are most assured of escaping a downe-fall into perdition Solomon tells us Prov 16.18 Pride goeth before destruction and a high mind before a fall such a fall as Elihu here speakes of falling into the pit therefore turning from pride is the escaping of the pit But rather as most Interpreters the relative He referrs to God himselfe who both begins and perfects this great worke of Grace As he speaketh with a purpose to withdraw man from his purpose c. so he having effectually withdrawne him from it and hid pride from him he thereby humbleth him in the dust of repentance and so keepeth back his soule from the pit The word rendred keepeth back notes a threefold keeping back First by force as a man holds another from falling into a pit or running into danger he holds him whether he will or no. Secondly there is a holding or keeping back by perswasion or entreaties by seasonable advice and counsel so Abigail kept David from shedding blood 1 Sam 25. Thirdly there is a holding or keeping back by authority when a Command or an injunction forbids a man from going on and so stops his proceeding Thus we see there is a keeping back 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ita prohibere significat ut cum do initio dicitur prohibetur no quid omnino à principio fiat quod propriè inhibere dicitur hic autem non ad initium refertur sed ad jam caeptum quasi jam esset homo in via ad exitium nisi deus eum monuisset Coc either by outward force or by counsel or by command And there is a keeping back according to any of these three notions two ways First such a keeping back as hinders the very attempt such a keeping back as stops the first motions or step into an undertaking Secondly there is a keeping back when a man is deeply engaged in an undertaking when he is gone on and is neere the journeys end of his owne purpose Thus David was kept back from destroying Nabal when he was far advanced in that enterprise and Abimeleck was kept back from taking Sarah Abrahams wife when the matter had made a
very great progress in his spirit Both these wayes we may understand it here though chieflly I conceive in the latter Sometimes God keepeth man either by his power or by perswasions and commands sent to him from setting so much as one foot forward in any sinfull way leading to the pit yet often he suffers him to goe on a great way and when he is advanced far towards yea is near very neer to the pits brink even ready to drop into it then then the Lord graciously keeps his soule from falling into it This word is used â—in the negative twice to set forth the high commendation of Abraham Gen. 22.12.16 When God had commanded Abraham to offer his Son and he was so ready to doe it that presently God tells him Now I know thou fearest God seeing thou hast not withheld or kept back thy son thine only son from me Abraham might have had many reasonings within himselfe to keep back and withhold his Son from being a Sacrifice but saith the Lord thou hast not withheld or kept him back There the word is used in the negative as also upon the same occasion at the 16 verse of the same Chapter And so by Job Chap. 7.11 Therefore I will not refraine or keep back my mouth It is as hard a matter to keep back or hold the mouth in as it is to keep back a head-strong horse with a bridle Therefore the Holy Ghost useth that Metaphor Psal 39.1 But saith Job I will not refraine my mouth I will not keep it back let it take its course I will speak in the bitternesse of my spirit The word imports powerfull acting take it either in the negative or affirmative When the tongue is kept back 't is done by a mighty power of grace and O how great as well as gracious is that power which the Lord putteth forth to keep back a poor soul that is going going apace too from falling into the pit He keepeth back His soul from the pit But doth the soul fall into the pit I answer first The soul is often in Scripture by a Synecdoche put for the whole man He keepeth back his soul that is he keepeth him from the pit secondly possibly 't is said he keepeth his soul from the pit to teach us that man by running on in sin ruines his best part it is not only his body and his skin that he destroyeth by sin but his very soul 'T is a mercy that God telleth us aforehand the worst of that danger and the greatnesse of the hazard or how great a matter we venture upon evill wayes and workes He keepeth back his soul from the pit What pit The word is rendred variously First thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foveat corruptio mors he keeps back his soul from corruption Eruens animam ejus a corruptione Vulg. The word is used for corrupting by sin Gen. 6.12 And God locked-upon the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth that is all men were grown wicked and stark naught In the very next verse vers 13. The same word is used to denote corrupting by punishment due to sin Behold I will destroy or corrupt them with the earth that is I will destroy the face of the earth or deface the beauty of the earth and I will also destroy all men from off the face of the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. Prohibebit animam ejus a fovea Targ. Secondly the Septuagint render He spares his soul from death Thirdly the Caldee Paraphrase as we He prohibits his soul from the pit these three corruption death and the pit are of neer aliance and the same word in the Hebrew tongue signifieth corruption the pit and death The pit or grave is the place of corruption and the seat or house of death We find the pit and destruction put together Psal 55.23 they shall goe to the pit of destruction So then the same word may well serve to signifie a pit corruption and death because in the pit dead bodies or carkasses putrifie and corrupt Yet David prophecying of Christ speaks his assurance of escaping corruption Videre foveam est amplius quaÌ„ sepeliri nimiruÌ„ ut is demum perfectè dicatur videre foveam non qui ad tempus est in fovea sed qui ejus vim corruptricem experitur sive videt corruptionem in ea videre enim est sentire sive pati aliquid Coc. though not the pit or grave Psal 16.10 Thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption or the pit It is this word that is thou wilt not suffer him to corrupt in the pit of the grave though being dead was buried and laid in the pit yet he did not see corruption in the pit That is corruption had no power no mastery over him for he loosed the bonds of death it being impossible that he should be held by them the third day yea with the first of that day or as soon as it might be truly said that it was the third day Christ was buryed in the latter part of the sixth day of the week and arose early the first day of the week even when it did but begin to dawn towards the first day of the week Math. 28.1 And therefore seeing as naturalists according to Scripture evidence Joh. 11.39 testifie corruption doth not naturally take hold of the body till the fourth day after death The dead body of Christ was altogether free from corruption or Christ as was fore-shewed by David in the Psalme saw no corruption Further this word pit is taken not only for death the grave and corruption but for those contrivances and plots which are made and laid for any mans death or distruction Thus David said of his malicious and subtle enemies Ps 7.5 Fovea denotat omnia vitae discrimina Pin. Into the pit which they have digged themselves are fallen that is they are taken in their own plots Those words of the Psalmist are an allusion to Hunters or Fowlers who make pits to ensnare birds or beasts we must not imagine that there were pits literally made for David but the pit was a plot or a contrivance to doe him mischief and he blessed God that as himself had escaped that mischief so that the mischief-plotters and contrivers were taken with it themselves We have David speaking againe under the same metaphor Ps 9.15 The Heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made And Psal 35.7 Without cause they have hid for me their net in a pit which without cause have they digged for my soul that is they have laid a plot to undoe and destroy me And if we take pit in this sence it may hold well enough with the scope of the Text for what is the pit into which pride and evill purposes thrust sinfull man but that mischief and misery which Satan is continually plotting against him And from this mischievous plot
deus omnium judicio est in justitiae damnare sustines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 potest exponi validū num justum et potentē eum qui simul et justus et potens est damnare audes sed malo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exponere per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multum valde q.d. eum qui summe justus est audes damnare de eo queri quasi tibi sit iniquior Rab Sel Merc as the word imports Wilt thou condemne him that is most just Here are two words in the Hebrew we put them together and so render them by a superlative most just Some translate Wilt thou condemne him that is strong and just that is strongly just mightily just God is full of strength and might so full that he and he only is Almighty yet his might never exceedeth right nor his strength his justice Strength and justice are commensurate in God And while he is so strong that he can doe what he will he is so just that he will doe nothing but what is righteous Further I find others joyning the word strong with the word condemne As if Elihu had sayd Wilt thou so confidently and pertinaciously condemne the just God To condemne God though but a little to passe the easiest sentence of condemnation upon him is bad enough but wilt thou strongly condemne him We render clearely to the scope of the place Wilt thou condemne him that is most just Hence note First God is most just or altogether just He is strongly just mightily just as he is strongly mercifull putting forth a power in pardoning sin and shewing mercy so he is strongly just or altogether just The rule given to Judges by Moses speakes thus Deut 16.20 That which is altogether just shalt thou follow We put in the margin justice justice shalt thou doe that is thou shalt doe pure Justice nothing but Justice or justice without the least mixture tincture or if it be possible without the least shadow of injustice I may say justice justice is God that is he is altogether just strongly just everlastingly and unchangeably just God is just under a three-fold notion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phavor First As to be just is taken largely importing a person accomplished with concurrence of all perfections and vertuous qualities In that sence I suppose the Apostle useth the word 1 Tim 1.9 The law is not given for that is to terrifie or condemne a just man that is for a man who is holy and good Thus God is altogether just for he hath all the lines of perfection of holinesse and goodnesse centring in him he is not only just and vertuous but justice and vertue it selfe Secondly To be just imports the keeping of promises and the performance of our word He is a just man who when he hath spoken you may know what to have of him and where to have him Some give words and you can get nothing of them but words that 's injustice because our words binde us and should be as lawes to us A man may chuse whether he will make promises but when he hath promised it is not in his choice whether he will performe or no his word bindes him In this sence God is altogether just Whatsoever word you have had from God and he hath given us many comfortable words for every condition God is a just God and will performe it to a tittle That Glorious and everlasting witnesse is borne to him by dying Joshua Josh 23.14 And behold this day I am going the way of all the earth and ye 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 In this sence God is sayd to be not only mercifull but just in forgiving our sins 1 John 1.9 If we confesse our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse If we confesse our sins spiritually and believingly deeply humbly and affectionately if we confesse thus he is just to forgive why because he hath given a promise to forgive those who make such confessions of sin And thus 't is in any other promise he keepes his word he keepes touch with man he will not fayle nor come short in the least therefore he is altogether just Thirdly He is just in the strictest acception of justice giving every one his due It is possible for a man to be just in neither of the two former notions he may neither be vertuous in his actions nor a keeper of his word as a man yet he may be just as a Magistrate just as in a cause committed to his determination But God is just in all these three considerations of a just man and therefore he is eminently or altogether just And I conceive the latter of the three is chiefely intended here God is most just that is he never did nor ever will give an undue or an undeserved sentence upon any man I might shew distinctly that God is just and how just he is First in rewarding those that doe well Secondly in punishing those that doe ill And that because he doth it First by a law Secondly by a law published Thirdly by a law possible our inability of keeping the law is consequentiall to the giving of it man hath drawne it upon himselfe though now he cannot performe it at all yet God is just in punishing because he sins against a law that he had a power in his head or representative to have fullfilled Fourthly God is just because the penalties which he inflicteth slow from a right and just law as the Apostle speaks Rom 7.12 The law is holy and just and good and therefore all the awards that are grounded upon it must needs be just too Fifthly he punisheth justly because he never punisheth but upon proofe and evidence yea he will make every mans Conscience a witness against himself or condemne him out of his own mouth Sixthly he punisheth justly because he punisheth impartially neither feare nor hope nor favour can divert him Isa 27.11 Jer 22.24 Seventhly he doth not only punish in a proportion to the law but often in a proportion to the sin and that not only to the measure of the sin but to the manner of the sin as that cruel king Adonibezek confessed when himselfe was cruelly dealt with his thumbs and great toes being cut off Judg 1.7 As I have done so God hath requited me As if he had sayd God is just not only because he hath punished me in measure according to my sin but after the very same manner in which I sinned he hath as it were hit my sin in the eye of all beholders what I have done may be seene by what I suffer Note Secondly To condemne God who is most just is the highest poynt of injustice Wilt thou
thee As if the Lord had said I will take no long time for it I can quickly dispatch you how many soever there are of you I will do it in a moment We have a like description of the sudden and quick dispatch of men at the Lord's word of Command Psal 73.19 How are they brought into desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors The final ruine of Babylon was thus prophesied Isa 47.9 These two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day the loss of children and widdowhood they shall come upon thee in their perfection Thou shalt utterly be destroyed and perish at once for ever The Prophet Jeremiah Lam. 4.6 bewayled the destruction of Jerusalem whose calamity was greater then that of Sodome and Gomorrah which God destroyed in a moment Sodome and Gomorrah were great Cities yet how soon consumed In some sense there is a greater evil in a lingring destruction then in a speedy one so the Prophet aggravates death by famine beyond death by fire because to die by famine is a lingring death Caesar being warned that some lay in wait to destroy him suddenly slighted it and said unexpected death is most desireable And that 's the lot of many great men to which some conceive the Psalmist had respect when he said Psal 82.7 Ye shall die liâ—e men and fall like one of the Princes that is suddenly But though in some sence a speedy death is more eligible then a lingring one yet in many respects to die suddenly or in a moment may be concluded a far greater judgement then to see death coming by degrees and destruction walking towards us step by step Solomon Prov. 1.27 speaks of swift destruction of destruction coming like a whirlwind swift destruction overtakes them who are slow paced to receive and obey instruction Thus the Lord can deal both with persons and with Nations he needs not make any delays nor take time to do it their destruction shall come if he will send it in a day in an hour yea in a moment shall they die And the people shall be troubled at midnight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Populus consociatio hominum That is the body or generality of the people the many shall be troubled they shall be as men amazed or as the Metaphor imports they shall be disjoynted Men associated under due Laws of Government are as so many members of a well compacted Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 videtur significare laxationem compagum but when broken and scattered they are like a body whose members are dislocated or out of joynt unfit for any use or service And as there is a laxation of the members of the body a disjoynting of the bones so there is a disjoynting of the faculties of the minde In times of great trouble not only is the body Politick which consists of many men but the minde of every body or of every single man is much out of joynt The word is applyed to those great concussions of the world Psal 18.17 The earth shook and trembled the foundations also of the hills were moved and were shaken at the presence of the Lord because he was wroth which we may interpret of the Princes and Powers of the earth who are as hills and mountains if the Lord do but touch them in anger they move yea tremble The word is applyed also to the waves of the Sea Jer. 5.22 which roar and toss themselves we commonly say as in the Text the Sea is troubled or 't is a troubled Sea a tossing Sea That expression is also common among us when we see a man much disquieted he is we say in a great toss even as a ship at Sea upon the proud waves Thus saith Elihu the people shall be in a toss they shall feel a storm in their mindes sudden gusts of fear and sorrow shall carry them they know not whither or they shall be lifted up to heaven in vain confidences and then fall down to hell in despairing thoughts as the tempest at Sea is described in the 107th Psalm There is yet another rendring of the Text in allusion to Drunkards who are overcome with wine Jer. 25.16 And they shall drink and be moved and be mad the word which we translate move is that in the Text now we know drunkenness moves men and puts all into disorder and disquietment Thus the people through the fierce anger of God and the wine of astonishment which he gives them to drink shall be moved they shall reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man Great troubles and afflictions are called in Scripture the wine of astonishment because they make many say and do they scarce know what great troubles bereave men not only of their comforts but of their reason they do not only straiten them but astonish them They who have drowned their wits in cups of worldly pleasure may soon have them drowned in full and overflowing cups of worldly sorrow Besides this Exposition of the peoples being troubled with perplexity fear and doubt with anxiety and uncertainty of spirit what to do I say besides this there is another way of being troubled upon which some Expositors specially insist The people shall be troubled that is shall be in a tumult they shall rise up seditiously and as we say make a commotion they shall gather together as many waters with a roaring noise Many people are compared to many Waters and there is somtimes a confluence a great confluence or flood of them tumbling together The Poet tells us elegantly what rude work a people make when they rise up like a flood of troubled waters Ac veluti magno in populo cum saepe coorta est Seditio saevitque animis ignobile vulgus Jamque faces saxa volant furor arma ministrat Virg. Aeneid 1. Their rage saith he findes out weapons one throws stones another throws firebrands till all 's in a sad combustion These waters if let alone may quickly put all into a flame The Psalmist ascribes the quieting of the Sea and the quieting of the people to God in one verse yea I conceive the one is but the explication of the other Psal 65.7 Which stilleth the noise of the Seas the noise of their waves and the tumult of their people Thus saith Elihu the people shall be in a tumult this suits with that exposition first given ready to destroy whomsoever they meet next or those especially who never did nor meant them any other hurt but to keep the peace or bridle their headstrong fury Yet I rather adhere to the former Interpretation The people shall be troubled that is they shall be in a great consternation of spirit neither being able which they seldome are to advise themselves what to do nor fit to receive which they seldome will advice from others And as Elihu adds they shall be thus troubled At midnight Or In the half
and practices as procured them that ruine Thus the righteous rejoyce when they see the vengeance yea they wash their feere in the blood of the ungodly that is they get comfort and encouragement by seeing the Lord avenge their cause against their adversaries It is sayd Exod 14.30 31. that God having overwhelmed the Egyptians in the red Sea the Israelites saw the Egyptians dead upon the shoar God did not suffer the carcasses of the Egyptians to sink to the bottom of the Sea but caused them to lie upon the shoar that the Israelites might see them And when Israel saw that dreadfull stroak of the Lord upon the Egyptians It is sayd The people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses Thus they were confirmed in their faith by Gods open Judgements upon the Egyptians They were smitten in the place of beholders or in the open sight of others There are yet two other interpretations of these words which I shall touch He striketh them in the place of beholders In loco videntium i. e. exiflentes in statu in quo videre poterant tum per naturalem rationem tum per sacram doctrinam quid esset faciendum et quid esset vitandum Aquin that is saith my Author in such an estate or condition wherein themselves might see both by that natural light which every man hath especially by the light of doctrine and instruction what they ought to doe and what to shun or avoyd In this sense to be smitten in the place of Seers is to see and behold to have light and understanding what to doe or forbeare doing and yet to act against that light and so provoke the Lord to strike us which is a great aggravation both of the sin and punishment of man A second gives it thus He striketh them in the place of seers or where they saw that is he striketh them in the eye of their understanding or in their Judgement he striketh them with spirituall blindness as the Sodomites were with corporall so that they are not able to see their way or what becomes them to doe This is a most severe stroake There are many who when they have abused the light and would not doe what they saw they ought God hath struck them with such blindness that they should not see what they ought to doe Both these are rather tropologicall Expositions then literall yet they may have their use and improvement by way of allusion In this place Elihu having thus held out the openness and exemplariness of the judgements of God upon wicked men proceeds in the following words to shew the equity and righteousnesse of them Vers 27. Because they have turned back from him and would not Consider any of his wayes Here I say lest any should surmise that God takes vengeance without cause the cause is named and assigned why God takes vengeance 't is because they turned back from him they in the pride and stoutnesse of their hearts which great men especially are much subject to refused to obey and follow God and therefore his wrath followed and brake them They turned back from him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verbum è verbo de post eum sic alibi scortati sunt de post dominum i. e. deserto domino There is a two-fold turning back First Corporall Secondly Morall or spirituall none can corporally turn back from God though some attempt it to what hiding place soever we turn our selves we cannot be hid from him who filleth every place But there are many who morally turn back and depart from the living God Sinners would turn their persons back from God and hide their heads they would get quite out of his sight and reach though they cannot but all of them turn back from God in their hearts In two respects sinners in generall may be sayd to turne back from God First when he commands and they will not obey him or withdraw their obedience from his commandements Secondly when he entreates and invites them and they will not come to him nor accept his tendered respects and favours Thus the Lord complained of his owne people Psal 81.11 Israel would none of me God wooed them but they had other lovers and after them they would goe even Israel lightly regarded the God of Israel yea they made a defection from him More distinctly There is a three-fold turning back from God or they who turne back from God are of three sorts First There is a turning back from God by those who have openly followed him or made profession of his name Thus hypocrites and formalists turne back from God This the Scripture calls back-sliding revolting and going a whoring from God Such as these are like perfidious Souldiers who enter and list themselves in an Army marching with them for a while taking their pay yet soon after forsake their colours and turn to the enemy Thus many apostatize from God to the Devill and to the creature or as Paul sayd of Demas they forsake Christ and embrace this present world Luther was charged by his enemies that he was an Apostate and he acknowledged he was but he thanked God for it he indeed turned back from what he did once professe but it was to a better profession he did not turne from God to the world but he turned from the world to God and that 's a blessed Apostacy he did not turn from truth to error but from error to truth he did not turn from pure worship to Idolatry and superstition but from Idolatry and superstition to pure worship How wretched is their condition who are indeed Apostates who turn from God to the world from truth to error from pure worship to Idolatry and superstition from a holy conversation to prophaness loosness and libertenisme to a complyance with the world and a symbolizing with them in their lusts and wickednesse This abominable apostacy is a fruit of hypocrisie Hypocrites turne only their faces to God and Apostates turne their backes upon him or turn back from him And all they who turn only their faces unto God will for their owne advantage or to save themselves turn their backs upon him Hypocrites when put to it when the storme comes ever prove Apostates Secondly There is a turning from God found even in the best followers of God who is there among the Saints on earth that keepes constant un-interrupted communion with God The least degree of inordinate letting downe or turning the heart to the creature is a degree of turning back from God As holiness is our motion toward God and to act holyly is to keep the eye of the soule alwayes upon God so unholiness is an aversion from God David did not say nor could he say though as holy a man as lived that he had never turned from God he could only say that he had not wickedly departed from God Psal 18.21 Thirdly There is a turning back from God proper to all unregenerate
and messengers of his word with his Spirit he will impower them from on high and so we shall learn his Statutes and understand his wayes David ascribes even his skill in Military affairs to Gods teaching Psal 144.1 Blessed be the Lord my strength who teacheth my hand◠to war and my fingers to fight God only teacheth a man powerfully to be a good Souldier Surely then it is God only who teacheth us to be good Christians to be Believers to be holy He hath his seat in heaven who teacheth hearts on earth Secondly As these words hold out to us the temper of an humble sinner Note A gracious humble soul is teachable or is willing to be taught As it is the duty of the Ministers of the Gospel to be apt to teach that 's their special gift or characteristical property so 't is the peoples duty and grace to be apt to be taught to be willing to be led and instructed naturally we are unteachable and untractable As we know nothing of God savingly by nature so we are not willing to know we would sit down in our ignorance or at most in a form of knowledge To be willing to learn is the first or rather the second step to learning The first is a sight of our ignorance and the second a readiness to be taught and entertain the means of knowledge Thirdly The words being the form of a Prayer Note It is our duty to entreat the Lord earnestly that he would teach us what we know not It is a great favour and a mercy that God will teach us that he will be our master our Tutor Now as we are to ask and pray for every mercy so for this that God would vouchsafe to be our Teacher Psal 25.4 5. Shew me thy wayes O Lord teach me thy paths Lead me in thy truth and teach me David spake it twice in prayer Lead me and Teach me Lead me on in the truth which I know and teach me the truths which I know not So he prayeth again Psal 119.26 Teach me thy Statutes make me to understand the way of thy precepts David was convinced that he could not understand the Statutes of God unless God would be his Teacher though he could read the Statutes of God and understand the language of them yet he did not understand the Spirit of them till he was taught and taught of God and therefore he prayed so earnestly once and again for his teaching When Philip put that question to the Eunuch Acts 8.30 Vnderstandest thou what thou readest He said how can I except some man should guide me Or unless I am taught Though we read the Statutes of God and read them every day yet we shall know little unless the Lord teach us Solomon made it his request for all Israel at the solemn Dedication of the Temple 1 Kings 8.37 Teach them the good way wherein they should walk God who is our Commander is also our Counseller Fourthly From the special matter wherein this penitent person would be taught which is plain from part of the latter verse If I have done iniquity Note A gracious heart is willing to know and see the worst of himself He would have God teach him what iniquity he hath done David was often upon that prayer Psal 139.24 Search me O God and know my heart and see if there be any wicked way in me Lord shew me my sin as I would not conceal my sin from thee so I would not have my sin concealed from my self A carnal man who lives in sin though possibly he may pray for knowledge in some things and would be a knowing man yet he hath no minde that either God or man should shew him his sin He loves not to see the worst of himself his dark part he as little loves to see his sin as to have it seen But a godly man never thinks he seeth his sin enough how little soever he sins he thinks he sins too much that 's the general bent of a gracious mans heart and how much soever he sees his sin he thinks he sees it too little And therefore as he tells God what he knows of his sin so he would have God tell him that of his sin which he doth not know That which I know not teach thou me If I have done iniquity I will do no more There are two special parts of repentance First Confession of sin whether known or unknown This we have in the former part of the verse That which I see not teach thou me There is the confession of sin even of unknown sin The second part of repentance is reformation or amendment a turning from sin a forsaking of that iniquity which we desire God would shew us we have this second part of repentance in this latter part of the verse If I have done iniquity I will do no more But why doth he say If I have c. Had he any any doubt whether he had done iniquity or no every man must confess down right that he hath sinned and done iniquity without ifs or an's Solomon having made such a supposition in his prayer at the Dedication of the Temple 1 Kings 8.46 If they sin against thee presently puts it into this position for there is no man that sinneth not The Apostle concludes 1 John 1.8 If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us Therefore this If I have done iniquity is not to be understood as if this or that man as if he or any man might be without sin but when the penitent is brought in saying If I have done iniquity h◠meaning is First What ever iniquity I have done I am willing to leave it to abandon it I will do so no more Secondly Thus If I have done iniquity that is if I have done any great iniquity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perverse agere if I have acted perverseness or perversly as the word signifieth I will do so no more to do iniquity is more then barely to sin As if he had said though I cannot promise that I will sin no more yet Lord if thou dost discover to me any iniquity any gross sin or perversenesse I will do that no more I will engage my self against that sin with all my might and to the utmost of my power by grace received I will keep my self pure from every sin If I have done iniquity Hence Note First A godly man hath a gracious suspition of himself that he hath done evil yea some great evil that he hath done amiss yea greatly amiss though he be not able to charge himself with this or that particular iniquity He knoweth he hath sinned done evil though he knoweth not every evil he hath done nor how sinfully he may have sinned he doubts it may be worse with him then he seeth Possibly he hath done iniquity Job in reference to his children chap. 1.5 had an holy suspition that in their feasting
Psal 38.3 Legendo vocem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 et lis ossium ejus vehemens est i. e. dolor ossium ejus per quem cum ipso velut litigat Pisc Sunt ex Hebraeis qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multitudo quia per י scribatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etsi legatur per ו exponunt pro contentione quasi deus cumossibus ejus contendat Merc As if Elihu had sayd the paine and anguish by which God doth contend with all his bones is strong or God hath a strong controversie with his bones upon his sicke bed Lastly The vulgar translates He maketh all his bones to wither decay and rott When there is a consumption or a withering among the bones how intolerable is the paine Broken bones cause the acutest paines but decaying bones the most constant paine Withering bones are opposed to fatned bones in that promise made to him that fasts spiritually not carnally only in abstaining from flesh Isa 58.11 The Lord will make fat thy bones As if he had sayd Doe not feare that thou shalt pine by spirituall fasting I will make fat thy bones Which is true even in regard of that which is naturall the Lord reneweth bodily strength to those who humble themselves soule and body The body shall not suffer in this service of the Lord if the soule be truly afflicted in it Yet when he saith he will make fat thy bones it respects especially their spirituall strength that thrives best in a day of holy abstinence and fasting Here when 't is sayd their bones shall wither through paine it notes the declining of the whole body because as the bones are strong in themselves so they are the strength and support of the whole outward man When God smites the bones then he shakes the pillars and rafters of our earthly house and threatens the downfall of it He is chastened with paine upon his bed and the multitude of his bones with strong pain Taking these words in connection with the former where Elihu spake of those dreames and visions by which God speakes to man and supposing as there he doth that because the man is not well awakened by those dreames and visions from his security therefore the Lord sendeth pain and sickness upon him as a second meanes to humble him and make him understand himselfe Observe They that will not be instructed by dreames that is by gentler meanes shall be instructed by paines They who will not take instruction even in their sleep shall be taught by that which will keep them awake Severall Scriptures tell us of the Lords proceeding with man from words to blowes And if the Lord proceeds from dreames which are warnings in sleepe to blowes if when he hath spoken to us in a dreame we hearken not he will chasten us with paine even the multitude of our bones with strong paine And then much more will he proceed from words to blows with them that are warned to awake if they heare not and take warning That 's an awakening word to those who sleepe waking Psal 7.12 13. If he turn not he will whet his sword He bath bent his bowe and made it ready If men will not returne upon word-admonition and reproofe the Lord hath his arrowes and his sword to reprove them with Turne ye at my reproofe saith the Lord Pro 1.23 I give you warning to turne but if you doe not then as presently it followeth I will laugh at your calamity and mock when your feare cometh As you have seemed to mock at my counsels so I will mock at your calamities that is I will shew you no pity as you have shewed me no respect Thus the Lord deales with proud rebellious man who casts off his yoake yea sometimes he deales very severely with his owne people for they may put him to it if words will not serve their turne words in sleepe and words when awake they may expect blowes next and be made to feele the hand of God because they have not understood or not obeyed his will Secondly From the manner of expression He is chastened with paine upon his bed The Spirit of God useth a word referring to instruction both by smiting and speaking to shew that there is a voyce in the rod. Hence note The chastisements of God upon us are our documents When God sends sicknesse and grievous paines he reproves sinners from Heaven and chides them for the errours of their lives The chastenings of the Lord are speakings He speaketh by his rods beyond all the eloquence of words Mic. 6.9 Hear ye the rod. The voyce of God is in his rod that speaks so loud from Heaven in many stroaks that the prophanest sinners on earth are sometimes forced to heare and acknowledge it As those Magicians were forced by the plaine evidence of the fact to say Ez. 8.19 This is the finger of God So they must say This is the voyce of God He speaks to us and speaks to purpose in these afflictions The voyce of God in affliction exceeds all the rhetorick and perswasions of mortall-men The crosse is a schoole in which they who are dull at hearing what God speaks to them in his word are wonderfully quickened up by his rod. The words of the wise saith Solomon are goads And surely these goads of affliction are pricking piercing words for the promoting and putting on of a lazy soul in Gods worke Job had desired God to speak with him Elihu answers Why dost thou desire more answers or directions from God Hath not God spoken to thee in these soares and sicknesses in these chastisements with pain upon thy bed Is God wanting to thy instruction hath he not clearly told thee his mind and thy duty hath he not written yea engraven his will upon thy diseased flesh What are the paines the corruption the consumption the strange deformity and sad transfiguration of thy body but as so many voyces of God speaking and speaking aloud to thee repent and humble thy selfe Therefore attend hearken to and meditate upon the answers which he hath impressed or printed legibly upon thy head face and wrinkled forehead Thou hast his answer his own way therefore be satisfied and doe not stand defiring that God would answer thee after thy way nor complaining because he doth not And we may reply not only to obstinate sinners but to many of the people of God when they enquire what the mind of God is or what he intends towards them His providences give you many items and memorandums which if you can spell out and read you may know his meaning This lesson the signification of the word offereth us as the connection of the words offered in the former Thirdly learne hence Man is a poor crazy creature subject to all diseases and infirmities Yea he is not only subject to them but he is the subject of them His body is as it were a vessell of naturall corruption as his soul is a vessell of morall
corruption Man is called not only Adam noting the matter of which he was made earth red earth but he is called Enosh that is sorrowfull sighing groaning man he is a pined and a pining man He is also called Abel vanity a poor vain man which two latter Titles have befallen man since man fell from God Fourthly which may check the grosse Atheisme of many Observe Pain and sicknesse come not by chance nor are we to stay in nature for the cause of their coming They come not at all by chance nor doe they come altogether from naturall causes Nature hath somewhat to doe in their coming but somewhat else much more even so much more that in respect of that naturall considerations may be quite shut out and the whole cause ascribed to that But what is that surely nothing else but and nothing lesse then the will of God He is pleased to give commission to pains and sicknesses and then they come Elihu would teach Job what he owned before that God was the sender and orderer of all his afflictions as of the losses he had in his estate and children so of the pains and sicknesses which he felt in his body Moses tells the children of Israel not only that sword and captivity but the Pestilence Consumptions Feavers and burning Agues are sent by God himself Deut. 28.21 22. What are diseases but the Lords Messengers When he pleaseth he can trouble the temper and cause the humours of the body to corrupt He can make them contend with one another to the death let Physitians doe what they can to quiet and pacifie them Yea though some skillfull Physitians have kept their own bodies in so due a temper and to so exact a diet that they could not see which way a disease could take hold of them or have any advantage against them yet sicknesse hath come upon them like an armed man and carryed them away to the grave Further When Elihu saith of the sick man the multitude of his bones are chastened with strong paine Note No man is so strong but the Lord is able to bring him down by pain and sicknesse He that is strong as an Oake and hath as it were a body of brasse and sinews of iron yet the Lord can make him as weak as water The Lord hath strong pains for strong men and can quickly turne our strength into weaknesse Thus Hezekiah lamented in his sicknesse Isa 38.13 I reckoned till morning that as a Lion so will he break all my bones God can arme diseases with the strength of a Lion who not only teareth the flesh but breaketh the bones with his teeth David saith Psal 39.11 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth surely every man is vanity The word there rendred beauty signifieth desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Desiderabile bene sanum et bene curatum corpus denotat thou makest his desire or that which is most desireable in him to fade away we well translate beauty because beauty draweth the desires of man after it and is so much desired yea lusted after by man Now as when the Lord doth but touch the body he can make the beauty so also the strength of it to consume away as a moth Sixtly whereas it is said He is chastened with pain upon his bed We learne The Lord can make those things easelesse and restless to us which use to give us most ease and rest He that being up is weary weary with walking riding or labouring hopeth to find ease in his bed yet then doth pain deny him rest there and filleth him as Job complained Chap. 7.4 with tossings too and fro unto the dawning of the day The Lord can make the Stocks or a Rack easie to us and our beds as uneasie to us as the Stocks or a Rack usually are Lastly observe The purpose of God in chastening man with sickness is to teach and instruct him not vex and destroy him The Lord hath many designes upon man when he afflicts him about all which he instructs him by affliction He designes First To humble and breake the stoutness of mans spirit hence sicknesses and afflictions are called humiliations and the same word signifies both to be afflicted and humbled Secondly To make men taste how bitter a thing sin is This is thy wickâ—dness saith the Lord of his sore Judgements brought upon his people Israel Jer 4.18 Because it is bitter Ye would not taste the evill or bitterness of sin by instruction therefore I will teach you by affliction Thirdly To put sorrowfull sinfull man upon the search of his owne heart and the finding out of the errour of his wayes While men are strong and healthfull they seldome find leisure for that worke And therefore they are confined by sickness to their houses to their chambers yea to their beds that they may attend it and read over the whole book of their lives Lam 3.39 40. Wherefore doth the living man complain a man for the punishment of his sin Let us search and try our wayes and turne to the Lord. That 's mans worke upon his bed and 't is Gods aime in binding him to his bed that he may have liberty for that worke Fourthly Afflictions are design'd by God to bring man out of love with sin yea to stirre up a holy hatred and revenge in him against it as upon many other accounts so upon this because it rewardeth him so ill and he finds such unsavoury fruits of it A little digging will discover sin to be the roote of all those evill and bitter fruits which we at any time are fed with in this world Sin is the gall in our cup and the gravel in our bread and we are made to taste bitterness and finde trouble that we may both know and acknowledge it to be so Fifthly The purpose of God in afflicting us is to set us a praying to and seeking after him We seldome know our need of him till we feele it Hos 5.15 In their affliction they will seek me early affliction puts man upon supplication yet every man who is afflicted doth not presently seek God many in their affliction mind not God they seek to men not to God a crosse without a Christ never made any seek God but affliction through the workings of the Spirit of Christ is a meanes to bring the soule to God and we see the effect of it at the beginning of the next Chapter in the same Prophet Hos 6.1 Come let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heale us c. Sixthly God is pleased to exercise us with crosses for the exercise of our Graces or to set grace aworke Grace hath most businesse to doe when we are taken off from all worldly business and are layd upon our bed our sick-bed Some worke is not done so well any where else as there And many graces worke best when 't is worst