it is well with the righteous vvhen they are in the deeps of affliction for it is but to bring them off their Mountaines of pride that they may be exalted in the strength and love of God even upon the Mountain of his Holinesse and their glory for ever Thirdly Afflictions bring the Saints nearer to God Troubles abroad cause the soule to looke inwards and homewards Is there any hurt in being brought neerer to God It is good for me to draw neer unto God says David and it is good for us to be drawn neer unto God if vve vvill not come of our selves It is a desireable violence vvhich compels us heaven-ward Heaven is but our nearest being unto God and by how much vve are nearer God on earth so much the more vve have of Heaven upon earth Afflictions as in the Prodigals example put us upon thoughts of returing to God and the more vve returne the nearer vve are unto him returning thoughts vvill not rest but under our fathers roofe yea returning thoughts vvill not rest till vve are got into our fathers armes or under the shadow of his wing and this a happy condition indeed As it vvas vvith Noahs Dove Gen. 8. 9. vvhen she vvas sent forth of the Ark she could finde no place for the soal of her foot to rest on she knew not vvhether to go for the vvaters vvere on the face of the whole earth therefore she returneth back and comes hovering about the Ark as desiring to be taken in but after the vvaters vvere asswaged he sent out a Dove vvhich returned to him no more So when it is faire weather in the world calme and serene even Doves keepe off from God and though they goe not quite away from him yet they are not so desirous of comming to him but when we finde a deluge in the world such stormes and tempests of trouble that we know not where to fix our souls for a day then we come as the Dove fluttering about the Ark and cry to our Eternall Noah that we may be near him yea within with him Wicked men like the Raven which Noah sent out first Verse 7. and returned not againe care not for the Ark of Gods presence in the greatest troubles to be neare God is more troublesome to them then all their troubles But Believers like the Dove will look home at least in foul weather God is their chiefe friend at all times and their onely friend in sad times Is there any harme in this Christ sends a storme but to draw his back to the Ark That at the last where he is there they may be also Lastly we may say it is well with the righteous in their worst condition of outward trouble because God is with them It can never be ill with that man with whom God is It is infinitely more to say I will be with thee then to say peace is with thee health is with thee credit is with thee honour is with thee To say God is with thee is all these and infinitely more For in these you have but a particular good in God you have all good when God sayes I will be with you you may make what you will out of it sit down and imagine with your selves whatsoever good you can desire and it is all comprehended in this one word I will be with thee Now God who is with the righteous at all times is most with them in worst times then he saith in a speciall sense I will be with thee When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee When thou walkest thhough the fire thou shalt not be burnt c. Isa 43. 2. When a mighty winde passed before Eliah it is said That God was 1 Kings 19. not in the winde and when the Earthquake shook the Hils and a consuming fire appeared it is said God was not in the Earthquake not in the fire God joynes not with outward troubles for the terror of his people but he joynes with outward troubles for the comfort of his people So he is in the fire and in the winde and in the Earthquake and his presence makes the fire but as a warme Sunne the stormy winde a refreshing gale and the Earthquake hut a pleasant dance So much for the removing of this objection and clearing up the justice of God respecting the afflictions of the righteous If any shall look on the other hand upon wicked men as if God came not home in his justice vvhile he suffers them to prosper First I answer their prosperity serves the providence of God and therefore it doth not crosse his justice That vvas Nebuchadnezars case Isa 10. 6. I will send him saith God against an hypocriticall nation so then he must prosper vvhile he goes upon Gods errand but mark vvhat followes Verse 12. It shall come to passe that when the Lord hath performed his whole worke upon Mount Zion sc by Nebuchadnezars power vvho vvas but doing the just vvork of God vvhile he thought ambitiously of doing his own novv it is no injustice for God to give an instrument power to do his work and vvhen his bloody lust hath performed the holy vvork of God you shall see the Lord will take an order vvith him speedily For then saith the Lord I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria and the glory of his high looks God let him alone to doe the work he had set him about and it was a righteous work of God upon his people though Nebuchadnezzar went about it wlth a proud and malicious spirit against his people Secondly the prosperity of wicked men serveth them but as an opportunity to shew how wicked and vile they are to act and publish the seven abominations of their own hearts Now as it is one of the greatest mercies under Heaven for a man to have his lusts quite mortified so it is a very great mercy for a man to have his lusts but restrained It is a mercy for a man to have that fuell taken away from his corruptions upon which they feed therefore it must needs be wrath and judgement upon wicked men when God in stead of restraining their lusts giveth them opportunity to inlarge their lusts and layes the reines on their neck to run whether and which way they please without stop or controule This is wrath and high wrath a sore judgement the sorest judgement that can fall upon them wherefore when vve thinke they are in a most prosperous condition they are in the most dreadfull condition they are but filling themselves with sin and fitting themselves for destruction Many a mans lusts are altogether unmortified which yet are chill'd and overawed by judgements And there is more judgement in having liberty to commit one sinne then in being shut up under the iron barres and adamantine necessities of a thousand judgements He that is Satans treasury for sin shall be Gods treasury for wrath Thirdly Their prosperity is the
thou shalt find but few in the troubles which thou hast borne even those thou wilt find altogether unlike thee in bearing those troubles Scarce any of the godly ever suffered such things as thou hast done but none of the godly ever did such things in their sufferings As he argues him in the first verse of hypocrisie by his unlikenesse to the Saints so in the next words he argues him of hypocrisie by his likenesse to the wicked His first argument for this lyes in the second verse and in the three following verses there lyes a second argument to confirme the same point He attempts to prove Job like a foole or a wicked man two wayes 1. In his manner of suffering 2. In the matter of his suffering First saith he thou art like a foole or like a foolish man like the worst of men in the manner of thy carriage under sufferings The argument may be framed thus He that behaveth himselfe like a foole or like a wicked man while he is in trouble is a man either openly wicked or grossely hypocriticall But Job thou behavest thy selfe like a foolish or a wicked man in thy troubles Therefore thou art wicked c. The Assumption or Minor Proposition is in the second verse Wrath killeth the foolish and envy slayeth the silly one As if he should say Thou pinest ragest and vexest thy selfe under they sufferings after the rate of foolish and silly ones that is sinfull and wicked ones Secondly He would prove Job to be a hypocrite because his sufferings for the matter of them were like the judgements which God uses to powre forth upon wicked und ungodly men and that argument may be thus framed Wicked men flourish a while and then sudden destruction commeth upon them they and their children and their whole estates are swallowed up in a moment But Job thou having flourished a little while wast suddenly surprised and swallowed up by judgements thou thy estate thy children all devoured and consumed Therefore thou art a wicked man a very hypocrite God hath dealt with thee as he uses to deale with his enemies and therefore thou art not his friend This is the Logicke of the context or the reasons couched in them whereby Eliphaz would convince Job of sinne By this a generall light is let into the whole Context Now we will consider the words and open their sense distinctly Call now if there be any that will answer thee and to which of the Saints wilt thou turne Interpreters vary much about the meaning of these words First Some of the Jewish Writers looke upon these words as proceeding from hight and pride of spirit in Eliphaz as if he disdained to talke with Job any longer about the businesse as if he looking upon Job as no match for him in point of argument bids him looke out an Angel or a Saint to grapple with him in these disputes and see if he could find any one of those who would undertake for him as an Advocate or be his Second forasmuch as himselfe was so unable to defend his cause or justifie what he had done Call now if there be any that will answer thee that is answer for thee or to which of the Saints wilt thou turne for help to patronize or plead thy cause But I shall passe that Secondly Others of the Jewish writers make the sense out thus as if Eliphaz had said with Paul in the point of the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11. 24. That which I have delivered unto you I have received of the Lord so that which I delivered unto thee in my former argument I received from the Lord in a vision it was revealed unto me from Heaven now doe thou try whether thou canst learne any thing from Heaven or from the Saints upon the earth who are instructed to and for the Kingdome of Heaven which may answer my arguments or confute the reasons which I have broughc against thee I had a vision from Heaven now call thou to Heaven and see if thou canst have any answer from thence Turne also to the Saints to any Saint upon the earth and see what they will answer thee I believe thou wilt not find one amongst them all differing in judgement from me or from that Oracle with Nemo tibi pravè corrupteq de his rebus iudicanti patronus aderit nemo qui tibi respondeat tibi acâ—inat tuam sententiam â—ueatur which I have now acquainted thee They will all agree with me in these great principles about the providence power and justice of God about the sufferings sinfullnesse and weaknesse of man That 's a second sense Thirdly Others take the words as an Ironie as a derision or scorne put upon Job by Eliphaz As if Eliphaz had mocked him thus Thou hast handled the matter well thou hast carried thy selfe so in the dayes of thy peace and prosperity that now when thou art in trouble thou mayest call long enough and cry till thy throat akes and thy spirits be spent and yet have none to answer thee none to speake a word to thee or to doe thee any good though thou cry to all the Saints and send to all thy friends round about thee yet in this day none will heare or regard thee Thou wilt find thy selfe forsaken of all no man will give thee any assistance or take any care of thy condition Just as Elijah brake forth in holy scorne against the Prophets of Baal 1 King 18. 27. when they were crying out to their Idol for helpe and a signe by fire Cry aloud saith he cry aloud he bad them cry aloud yet he knew the Idol was deafe and dumbe and could neither heare their cry nor give them answer So Eliphaz seemes to speake to Job Cry aloud now to this to that Saint with whom thou art acquainted here on earth or cry to Heaven cry to God himselfe call this way call that if any will answer thee either God above or Saint below thou shalt not find here or there any to assist any to releeve thee And so he seems to allude to that just retaliation of God who usually turnes his eare from their cry in a day of trouble who have turned their eares from his counsels in the dayes of comfort As Prov 1. Wisedome threatens They shall call but I will Vox in tribulatione eum non invenit quem mens in â—ranquilitate contempsit Greg. in loc not answer they shall cry but I will not heare Why because they have refused instruction and have not chosen the feare of the Lord. In the fourth place Most of the Popish writers busie themselves much to ground invocation of Saints the intercession of Saints for us upon this text As if Eliphaz had directed Job to cry to the Saints departed Call now if there be any that will answer and to which of the Saints wilt thou turne what Saint wilt thou choose for thy patron or helper in this sad condition So they
from safety c. He flourisheth but he withers quickly he takes root but he is soon puld up by the roots I have seene Experience is the mistresse of truth Truth is called the daughter of time because experience bringeth forth many truths and the word of God is made visible in the works of God I have seen saith he This truth hath run into my eye In experiences the promises of God stand forth and in experiences the threatnings of God stand forth and shew themselves all the experiences that we have in the world are onely so many exemplifications of the truths contained in the promises or threatnings of the word The foolish I shall not stay to open that terme for we met 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Levem homineÌ„ notat qui sine consilio agit vulâ— facit nullamque facti rationum habet nisi quia ita venâ—â— in mentem Goc with it in the former verse wrath slayeth the foolish one Onely in a word this foolish man is one who acts without counsell and whose will is too hard for his understanding He hath no reason for what he doth but because he hath a mind to doe it A foolish man is a wicked man and here the foolish man is a wicked man at ease a wicked man in his fulnesse and aboundance of outward comforts A foole is ever worst when he is at ease And as he more abounds in comforts so he abounds more in sin All mercies are to him but fuell for his folly and meat and drink for his madnesse That rich man who pleased himselfe so in his worldly successes is cal'd a foole Thou foole this night shall thy soule be taken from thee and then whose shall all these things be which thou possessest Luke 12. 20 All wicked men are foolish and wicked rich men have ever the greatest stock of folly And they are therefore more foolish then others because they think themselves wiser then all If a man can get riches if his root be well setled in the earth and his branches spread fairely out he accounteth himselfe very wise and so doe many others account him too A thriving sinner is a foolish and an unprosperous man but he that plots how to thrive by sin is the most foolish man in the world and therefore in all his prosperity most unprosperous As the foolish take roote so that by which they take root is often times their folly Taking root Wicked men under the outward curse are compared to trees not taking root Isa 40. 24. He bringeth the Princes to nothing yea they shall not be planted yea they shall not be sowne yea their stocke shall not take root in the earth And Psalme 129. 6. Let them be as the grasse upon the house having no earth to take root in which withereth afore it groweth up whereof the mower filleth not his hand nor he that bindeth up the sheaves his bosome Wicked men prospering are compared to a tree well rooted I have seen the foolish taking root that is confirmed and setled in their outward prosperity A root is to the tree as a foundation is to the house the establishment of it when a tree is well rooted it takes in the moisture of the earth freely then the body or trunk growes big the branches spread forth the leaves are green and it abounds with fruit So that with the welrooting we must take in all that concernes the flourishing of a tree Hence other Scriptures expresse the men of the world by trees not onely secretly taking root in the earth but putting themselves forth and appearing in their visible beauty and verdure Ps 37. 35. David produceth his experience I have seen the wicked in great power how taking root yea spreading himselfe like a greene bay-tree They are described by their boughs branches and leaves And in Isa 2. 11. The day of the Lord shall be upon the Cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up not onely upon the Cedars of Lebanon that are deeply rooted but upon the Cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up and upon all the Oakes of Bashan In the 14. of Hosea v. 5. The prosperous estate of the Church under the dew and influence of heavenly blessings is held forth to us under the notion of a tree taking root I will be as the dew to Israel he shall grow as the Lilly and cast his roots as Lebanon that is as the trees in Lebanon his branches shall spread and his beauty shall be as the Olive tree and his smell as Lebanon In the fourth of Daniel the state glory and magnificence of the kingdomes of this world are shadowed by a tree Nebuchadnezzar in a vision hath a tree presented before him he knew not what to make of it and therefore calls for the Wise-men to expound the vision which he thus relates ver 4. I saw and behold a tree in the middest of the earth the height thereof was great and the tree grew and was strong and the height thereof reached unto heaven and the sight thereof to the ends of the earth and the leaves thereof were faire When Daniel comes to interpret it ver 22. he sayes to the King Thou art this tree c. Nebuchadnezzar in all his worldly pomp is set forth by a goodly tree In the 53. of Isa v. 2. Where the birth of Christ is prophecied it is said That he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground As a very flourishing estate whether in spirituals or temporalls is exprest by a tree planted by the water side So a mean low estate is signified by a tree in a dry ground Our Lord Jesus in regard of any outward glory was like a tree in a dry ground as the words following expound it He hath no forme nor comelinesse and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him His kingdome was not like the kingdome of those great Monarchs strong and high and beautifull with any created lustre Hence observe First That wicked men may flourish in great outward prosperity I have seen the foolish taking root The Prophet Jeremiah in the twelfth of his Prophecy a Scripture touched before Chap. 4. v. 7. to this purpose being somewhat scandalized at the prosperity of treacherous dealers describes them thus ver 2. Thou hast planted them yea they have taken root they grow yea they bring forth fruit Here are four degrees first they are planted there is many a tree planted that takes not root but saith he thou hast planted them yea they have taken root There are some trees which are both planted and have taken root yet they doe not grow especially not to any height or greatnesse though they live yet they doe not thrive These are planted and they take root and they grow but there are many trees planted rooted and growing which yet are fruitlesse these have all they are planted they take root
of the imagination of mans heart it is evill and onely evill and that continually the Hebrew is every figment or every creature in the heart of man whatsoever a man moulds and fashions within himself naturally is evill and nothing but evill and it is alwayes so The naturall births of mans heart have all one common face and feature They are all of one common constitution Evill all Secondly We may observe That The meritorious cause of mans suffering is from his sinne Iniquity springeth not from the ground neither doth trouble come out of the dust As iniquity springs from our selves so we may resolve it that misery springs from our sinne It is a truth as hath been touched upon the second Chapter that God in many afflictions laid upon his dear children and servants respects not their sin as the cause procuring and drawing on these afflictions And very many are afflicted by the world not for sinnes sake but for righteousness sake As Christ so some Christians may say in their spheare We have done many good works for which of them doe ye stone us Yet this is as cleare a truth that the sinne of any man is in it selfe a sufficient meritorious cause of any yea of all afflictions A creature cannot beare a greater punishment then the least of his sinnes deserves Man weaves a spiders webb of sinne out of his owne bowels and then he is intangled in the same webb the troubles which insnare and wrappe about him are twisted with his own fingers Thirdly observe Naturally every man seekes the reason of his sorrows and afflictions out of himselfe When man is afflicted he is not willing to owne himself as the cause of his afflictions or acknowledge that they spring from his sinne and that may be the reason why Eliphaz speaks thus to Job as if he had said thy thoughts are wandring abroad thou little thinkst that thy afflictions were bred in thy owne bosome Thou art fastning the cause of then upon this and t'other thing Thou art complaining of the day wherein thou wast borne but thou shouldest rather complain of the sin wherein thou wast born Thâ— birth-day hath not hurt thee but thy birth-sin Thy birth-sin hath given conception to all the sorrows of thy life The Jewes in the Prophet Isa's time were in great distresse and could get no deliverance The ports and passages of mercy were all obstructed Now whether went their thoughts And what did they looke upon as the reason of those abiding lingring evils we may reade their thoughts in the refutation of them we may see what the disease of their hearts was by the medicine which the Prophet applies unto them he labours to purge them from that conceit as if either want of power or want of love in the Lord were the stop of their deliverance The Lords hand is not shortned that he cannot save neither his eare heavy that he cannot heare Isa 59. 1 2. as if he had said I know what your apprehensions are in these affliction you thinke the reason is in God that either he cannot or he will not save you You think the hand of Gods power is shrunke up or the eare of his mercy shut up but you reflect not upon your selves nor consider that Your iniquities have separated between you and your God Your sinne does you hurt and you touch not that with a little finger but lay the weight of your charge upon God himselfe So Hos 13. 9. Thy destruction is from thy self in me is thy help God is forced to tel them so that their destruction was from themselves they would not believe it they supposed it was from the cruelty or malice of the creature from the wrath and rage of enemies from some oversight or neglect of their friends therefore the Lord speaks out in expresse termes Thy destruction is from thy self It springs not forth of the dust neither is thy destruction from me In me is thy help in both the heart of man failes equally we are ready to say that the good we have comes from our selves that our help and comforts are from our own power and wisdom and so offer sacrifice to our own nets as if by them our portion were fat but for evil and destruction we assigne it wholly over somtime to men and so are angry sometime to God and so blaspheme We naturally decline what reflects shame upon our selves or speaks us guilty From our translation Although affliction c Observe First Every affliction hath a cause The Proverbe carries that sense in every common understanding Our afflictions have a cause a certaine cause they come not by hap hazzard or by accident Many things are casuall but nothing is without a cause Many things are not fore seene by man but all things are fore-ordained by God The Prophet Amos Ch. 3. 6. sets forth this by an elegant similitude Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no ginne is for him As if he should say is a bird taken in a snare by chance where none have prepared set or industriously laid a snare or a ginne to take him The bird saw not the snare but the snare was set for the Bird. Snaresfall not on the ground at adventure they grow not out of the earth of themselves but the fowler by his art and industry invents and frames them a purpose to catch the bird Thus the calamity and troubles in which men are caught and lime-twig'd insnared and shackled in the world come not out of the ground They are not acts of chance but of providence The wise and holy God sets such snares to take and hold foolish unruly men like silly birds gaping after the baits of worldy pleasures Which meaning is cleare from the scope and tendency of the whole Chapter but the next question resolves it in the letter Is there any evill in a City and the Lord hath not done it Those words are both the conclusion and explication of the former similitude Secondly observe Affliction is not from the power of any creature As it comes not by chance or without a cause so not by the power of creatures they are not the cause dust and the ground are opposed to Heaven or to a divine power Creatures in this sense can neither doe good nor doe evill The world would be as full of trouble as it is of sin if sinfull men could make trouble It is not in the compasse of a creature no not of all the creatures in Heaven or earth to forme or to make out one affliction without the concurrence and allowance of God himselfe Men alone can neither make staves of comfort nor rods of affliction Whence thirdly A consectary from both may be That Afflictions are from the Lord as from the efficient cause the directer and orderer of them These evils are from a creating not from a created strength I saith the Lord forme the light and create darknesse Isa 45. 7. Naturall darknesse hath
assault This the Greeke seemes to favour rendring it thus Though we have laine between the inheritances or the lots sc our own and the enemies either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. Ainsworth way the sense reaches this point fully Though Beleevers lye among the pots or ncarest dangers yet they are assured that they shall have wings as the wings of a Dove which are covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold There is gold and silver in the eye of faith while there is nothing but blacknesse and death in the eye of sense yea faith assures them that they shall be white as snow in Salmon as it follows in that Psalme that is they shall have whitenesse after blacknesse or light in the midst of darknesse Salmon signifies darke duskish or obscure for it was a hill full of pits holes and glins very darke and dangerous for passengers but when the snow was upon it it was white and glistering now saith he they shal be like Salmon in the snow though black in themselves yet white lightsome and glorions either through pardon of sin or victory over their enemies to both which whitenesse hath reference in Scripture Againe In that it is said At destruction and famine thou shalt Non solum singulas arumnas superabit sed omnium illarum in unum coeuntiam agmen Integrum ex omnibus exâ—rcitum fâ—gabiâ— laugh as from that word laughing we see what spirits the Saints have in troublesome times So inasmuch as he gathers together and rally's all the scattered troopes of afflictions to charge at once upon a beleever and yet concludes At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh Observe That A godly man laughs at or is above all evils though brought against him at once It hath been said That Hercules could not match two here are two Destruction and famine overmatcht by one bring whole legions and armies of troubles to encounter a Saint he overcomes them all He famishes famine and destroyes destruction it selfe The Apostle Rom. 8. 35. musters up as it were all evils together into a body and dares any or all to battell with a beleever Who shall separate us from the love of God shall tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednesse or perrill or sword which of these shall undertake the challenge or will you bring any more then come life or death Angels or principalities or powers things present or things to come height or depth or any other creature none of these single nor all of these joyned shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Every heightned Saint is a spirituall Goliah who in the name of the living God bids defiance to this huge host and they all run and tremble before him Rejoyce saith the Apostle James 1. 2. when you fall into divers tempatations A beleever hath joy not only when he grapleth with a single temptation but let there come many divers temptations variety of temptations variety for kind and multitude for number yet he rejoyceth in the middest of all Neither shalt thou be affraid of the beasts of the earth Having thus lifted a godly man above the afflicting reach of those two great evils famine and destruction want of good things and spoiling of their goods he proceeds to instance another great evill wherein a godly man is exempt from and set above fear Neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth Beasts of the earoh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vita vivents bestia fera The root of that word signifies life and so any living creature especially a wild beast because they are so active and full of life therefore they are named from life And these are called the beasts of the earth First Because beasts are produced from the earth and the earth received a charge to produce them Gen. 1. 24 25. And God said let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind and God made the Beast of the earth after his kind Or secondly Because Beasts have nothing but earth to live upon as men whose portion is only in creatures are called men of the world or men of the earth The word for * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Complectitur totum terrarum orbeÌ„ tum habitabilem tum qui non est habitabliis deductum volunt a verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 curraâ—e vel quia coelum perpetuo rotatu circa terram currit vel quâ—d omnia animalia currant super faciem terrae earth signifies the whole earth habitable or inhabitable And though the earth stand still yet this word is derived say some from running either because the heavens runne round aboui the earth with a continuall rotation or motion or because all creatures men and beasts move or run upon the face of the earth Though others deduce it from a word which signifies to desire Alii à verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. voluiâ— conâ—upiviâ— deductum voluat eo quod terra jugiter appetat afferre wish or will a thing because the earth is perpetually desirous of bringing forth fruit for the use and helpe of man But it is not agreed on what we are to understand by the beasts of the earth First Some take the words improperly and so the beasts of the earth are interpreted men A company or society of men and these in a double sense For the word notes sometimes a company of men in a good sense and sometimes a company of men in an ill sense I shall give you an instance of both for the clearing of this text It signifies men or a company of men in a good sense Psal 68. 10. where speaking of that raine of liberalities that is blessings of all sorts which God sent upon his inheritance to confirme and refresh it he saith Thy Congregation hath dwelt therein Thy camp or leagure thy host or troop dwelt there so 2 Sam. 23. 13. which the vulgar translates Thy beasts and the Greeke Thy living Animalia tua habitabunt in ijs Vulg. Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 creatures dwelt therein The same word is used and some apprehend in allusion to this Psalme Rev. 4. 6. Chap. 5. 8 9 in those mysticall descriptions of Christ and his Church In this sense it suites not at all with the promise of the text These beasts are not to be feared but honoured and loved mans greatest spirituall comforts on earth are found in the society of these beasts But commonly this word referred unto men signifies an association of wicked men men of the earth worse many of them then the beasts of the earth These are spoken of in the same Psalme ver 30. Rebuke the company of speare men or Archers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The rout or crue of the Cane that is men that beare reeds or canes whereof speares and arrowes were wont to be made therefore the
to live when he dies or he is at the end of his naturall race before he hath set one step in his spiritual Gray haires are the shame and should be the sorrow of old-age when they are not found in the way of righteousnesse From the former branch of this verse observe First To have a comely buriall to come to the grave with honour is a great blessing It was threatned upon Jehojakim the sonne of Josiah as a curse That he should have the buriall of an Asse and be drag'd and cast out beyond the gates of the City Jer. 22. 19. That man surely had lived like a beast whom God threatn'd by name that when he died he should be used as a beast though we know the bodies of many of the servants of God have been scattered and may be scattered upon the face of the earth like dung The dead bodies as the complaint is Psal 79. 2. of thy servants have they given to be meat to the fowles of the heaven the flesh of thy Saints to the beasts of the earth Yet to them even then there is this blessing reserved beyond the blessing of a buriall they are ever laid up in the heart of God he takes care of them he embalmes them for immortality when the remains of their mortality are troden under foot or rot upon a dunghill Secondly observe A godly man is a volunteer in his death He commeth to the grave A wicked man never dies willingly Though he sometime die by his own hand yet he never dies with his own will Miserable man is sometimes so over-prest with terrours and horrours of conscience so worne out with the trouble of living that he hastens his own death Yet he Comes not to his grave willingly but is drag'd by necessity He thrusts his life out of doores with a violent hand but it never goes out with a cheerfull mind He is often unwilling to live but he is never willing to die Death is welcome to him because life is a burden to him Only they come to the grave who by faith have seene Christ lying in the grave and perfuming that house of corruption with his owne most precious body which saw no corruption Observe thirdly To live long and to die in a full age is a great blessing Old Eli had this curse pronounced upon his family 1 Sam. 2. 31. There shall not be an old man in thy house Gray haires are a crown of honour when they are found in the way of righteousnesse It is indeed infinitely better to be full of grace than to be full of daies but to be full of daies and full of grace too what a venerable spectacle is that To be full of years and full of faith full of good workes full of the fruits of righteousnesse which are by Christ How comely and beautifull beyond all the beauty and comelinesse of youth is that Such are truly said to have filled their daies Those daies are fill'd indeed which are full of goodnesse When a wicked man dies he ever dies emptie and hungrie he dies empty of goodnesse and he dies hungry after daies That place before mentioned of Abraham Gen. 25. 8. is most worthy our second thoughts He dies in a good old-age an old man and full so the Hebrew we reade full of years As a man that hath eaten and drunke plentifully is full and desires no more So he dyed an old-man and full that is he had lived as much as he desired to live he had his fill of living when he died And therefore also it may be called a full age because a godly man hath his fill of living but a wicked man let him live never so long is never full of daies never full of living he is as hungry and as thirsty as a man may speake after more time and daies when he is old as he was when he was a child faine he would live hill He must needs thinke it is good being here who knowes of no better being or hath Impij quamvis diu vivant tamen non implent dies suos quia spem in rehus temporarijs collocantes perpetua vita in hoc mundo peâ—frui vellent no hopes of a better It is a certaine truth He that hath not a tast of eternity can never be satisfied with time He that hath not some hold of everlasting life is never pleased to let goe this life therefore he is never full of this life It is a most sad thing to see an old man who hath no strength of body to live yet have a strong mind to live Abraham was old and full he desired not a day or an houre longer His soul had never an empty corner for time when he died He had enough of all but of which he could never have enough and yet had enough and all as soon as he had any of it eternity In that great restitution promised Isa 65. 20. this is one priviledge There shall be no more there an infant of daies nor an old man that hath not fil'd his daies There is much controversie about the meaning of those words The digression would be too long to insist upon them Only to the present point thus much that there is such a thing as an Infant of daies and an old man that hath not fill'd his daies An infant of daies may be taken for an old child that is an old man childish or a man of many years but few abilities A man whose hoary head ann wrinkled face speak fourscoure yet his foolish actions and simple carriage speake under fourteene An old man that hath not fill'd his daies is conceived to be the same man in a different character An old man fils not his dayes First When he fulfils not the duty nor reaches the end for which he lived to old-age That man who hath lived long and done little hath left empty daies upon the record of his life And when you have writ downe the daies the months and yeares of his life his storie 's done the rest of the book is but a continued Blanke nothing to be remembred that he hath done or nothing worth the remembrance Now as an old man fils not his daies when he satisfies not the expectation of others so in the second place his daies are not fill'd when his own expectations are not satisfied that is when he having lived to be old hath yet young fresh desires to live when he finds his mind empty though his body be so full of daies that it can hold no longer nor no more He that is in this sense an infant of dayes and an old man not having filled his dayes though he be an hundred yeares old when he dies yet he dies as the Prophet concludes in that place accursed he comes not to his grave under the blessing of this promise in the text in a full age Lastly observe Every thing is beautifull in its season He shall come to his grave like a
cursing whose end is to be burned A people well instructed are like that ground which is under continual showers and dews And doctrine is fitly compared to rain and teaching to raining First because all true holy doctrine comes from God as the rain doth The rain is Gods proper gift Jer. 14. 22. Can any of the vanities of the Gentiles give rain All the men in the world are not able to make one drop of rain So we may say of this figurative rain of truth and holy doctrine Can any of the vanities of the Gentiles yea can any of the most learned among the sons of men give this rain Can any man make any one truth which hath not first been made above Truth like rain comes from Heaven it drops from beyond the clouds Art not thou He O Lord our God therefore we will wait upon Thee say they of the natural rain Jer. 14. 22. and so we must in regard of the spiritual Hence the word which Moses uses Deut. 32. 2 for Accipere est discipuli ficut dare praeceptoris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doctrine dropping as the rain signifies a received learning Holy Truths are so called in that language because the doctrine of Religion is received from God not devised by men So the Apostle phrases it 1 Cor. 11. 23. I received of the Lord that which I delivered unto you And Christ himself As my Father hath taught me so I speak these things John 8. 28. That which Nicodemus said of Christ is true of every one that teacheth truth Joh. 3. 2. Thou art a Teacher come from God As truth it self so the teachers of it are from God as a lye and the tellers of it are from the Devil John 1. 44. Secondly Like rain as in regard of the original whence it comes so in regard of the effect rain refresheth the earth when the earth is weary and faint when the earth gaspes and is parched how doth a showre of rain revive it When the Psalmist had spoken of the rain coming down upon the earth he presently adds this effect The little hills rejoyce on every side they shout for joy they also sing Thus also a people wearied and languishing and fainting in ignorance when they receive truths and holy instructions how do their hearts rejoyce how do they laugh and sing In the Parable Mat 13. Some are said to receive the word with joy Even they who are but formalists and hypocrites for it is spoken of them rejoyce and are refreshed for a season with the word Truth is such a gracious showre that they sometimes receive it with joy who have no grace And if truth refresh men who are but nature or move in spiritual workes but upon natural principles how will it refresh those who have grace and spiritual principles sutable to it Thou O God saith David Psal 68. 9 10. didst send a plentiful rain whereby thou didst refresh thine inheritance when it was weary That is a truth in the letter and some understand it of natural rain but others interpret that plentiful rain in a figure for the rain of doctrine which God sent down upon his people when he gave the Law and dropt those heavenly Oracles from Mount Sinai upon his people Israel that showre of the Law came indeed in a storm Thunder and lightning and a terrible tempest accompanied it But though the thunder terrified yet the showre refreshed and the Saints have ever delighted in the matter of those instructions and holy counsels given there though Moses a chief amongst the Saints seared and quaked exceedingly at the manner of giving them Thirdly as rain so teaching makes fruitful The Prophet Isaiah makes out this part of the similitude expressly Chap. 55. 10 11. As the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and returns not thither but waters the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater So shall my word be that goeth out of my mouth c. Hence also the people of God are compared Deut. 32. 2. to grasse and tender herbs which grow and flourish which are fed and bring forth fruit when watered with the rain It cannot be denied though it be much to be lamented that many souls upon whom much of this rain falls are altogether barren and unfruitful But Oh! How barren are those souls upon whom not a droop of this rain ever fell They that are deprived of these showres are under a grievous curse even such a curse as David imprecates upon the mountains of Gilboa 2 Sam. 1. 21. Ye mountains of Gilboa let there be no dew neither let there be rain upon you c. When God saith unto a people let there be no dew no raine upon you no Moses to drop doctrine upon you no Paul to plant no Appollo's to water you with the word this is the saddest showre of curses that can fall upon a people as without rain so without the word ordinarily there can be no fruitfulnesse You see at this time how upon a little with-holding of the natural raine we presently fear barrennesse and famine the want of spiritual rain brings in a This was preacht in a time of drought worse barrennesse though there are not many who fear it or are sensible of it Fourthly the word taught is like rain in regard of the dispensing of it The rain comes not down alike at all times showres are very various sometimes it raines softly then we call it a still soaking rain sometimes we have a strong mighty rain at another time rain is accompanied with thunder and lightning while the showres descend the great Ordnance of heaven discharge from the clouds and fill the air with terrour Thus also it is or should be in teaching Many soules require a still soft quiet rain Others must have stronger showres mighty raine you must powre down upon them A third sort must have thunder joyned with rain they need a Boanerges a sonne of thunder a mixture of terrour with instruction to bore their eares and break their hearts Those teachers mistake their work who in stead of raining are alwayes thundering and lightning As if their pulpit were set upon Mount Sinai And I believe it is as great a mistake to think Teachers need never thunder The word of God in all parts of it and in all manner of dispensations of it is exceeding useful A Minister without teaching is as Iude speakes a cloud without water And he shall doe but little good upon some if he have nothing but water in his cloud Fire sometime must mingle with the rain and a Tempest come after or before the dewing distilling still voice The word of God is compared to fire as well as unto water Only it must be the wisdome and it is the duty of every Teacher to know how to give every one his portion or as the Apostle Jude counsels ver 22 23. Of some to have
In Heaven our time knows no bounds there are no termes or distinctions in eternity Seasons and variety of times vanish and shall not be heard of in Heaven Eterenity is time fixt But there is an appointed time To man upon earth The word is Enosh miserable weake fraile man is there not an appointed time to this man upon earth that is while he walks in this lower region of the world and lives on mould The summe of all may be thus conceived as if Job had said Singulis dichâ—â— sua certaminae praesto sunt adeo non nisi cum ipso vitae terminautor labores vitae ac proinde se cuâ—dum naturam finem vitae expeto Jun. Every day hath evill annexed some affliction or other waites upon every houre so that there is no period of mans sorrow but the period of his life and therefore I walk by the rule of sound reason when that I might see an end of my trouble I call for the end of my daies Observe hence first The life of man is measured out by the will of God Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth There is As God hath set out bounds and limits to the sea Hitherto thou shalt come and no further by a perpetuall decree so he hath also set out bounds and limits to the life of man his life it is an appointed time Thus far the line of thy life shall reach and no further We live not at adventures neither can our care lengthen out our own dayes As all our care cannot adde one cubit to our stature so not one minute to our glasse or houre And as we cannot lengthen so we cannot shorten our own dayes in respect of this appointed time They who die in a time when God forbids yet die when God appoints And they live â—ut all Gods time who wickedly shorten their owne They cut their thread of life but they cannot cut the thread of Gods decree we live not at our own will but at the will of God we are tenants at his will in these houses of clay He is the maker of time and the measurer of our dayes he gives us the lease of our lives for what yeares he pleases and it is most fit that he who created time should dispose of time God is the Lord of time and farmes it out as and to whom he thinks good Christ might doe what he pleased upon the Sabbath for saith he the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath God is the Lord of time and therefore hath power to appoint to one more to another lesse My times saith David are in thy hand Psal 31. 15. Thou mayest lengthen or shorten continue or break them off as thy pleasure is Some live as if they were masters of time and could appoint out their own term as if they lived at their own discretion and could make a covenant with the grave and agree with death when to come for them They article with it for this yeare and the next rhey say to the grave thou shalt not take me yet thou shalt spare me yet I have such ends to drive such pleasures to take before I would die They Isa 56. 12. speak as if their tongues and their time were their own and they knew no Lord of either To morrow shall be as this day and much more aboundant they speak of the next day as if they could command it and bid it come to serve their lusts That wretched rich man Lu. 12. could say soul take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many yeares see how liberall he is to his soule out of anothers right and because he had got a great stock of riches he gives himself a rich stock of time many yeares He resolved to make his life larger as he had done his barns and because they were full of corne he also will be full of dayes whereas the word came Thou foole this night shall thy soule be taken from thee And he could not live till next morning who resolved upon many yeares to live Secondly observe That the decrees of God concerning our lives must not lessen our care to preserve our lives Is their not an appointed time to Non in absurdum trabenda est haec Iobi sententia ut temere se quispiam periculis objiciat quia spatium vitae definitum est man upon earth Yes that there is man lives at Gods appointment but he must not live upon that appointment that is withdraw himself from meanes of his preservation and say God hath appointed how long I shall live therefore what need I take care how to live or what need I take care for the preserving of my life As it is in spirituals so also in temporals God hath determined and appointed the portion of every man all comes under a decree under an everlasting and unmoveable decree yet the decree which is past concerning us must not take us from our care about our selves Though only the elect are saved yet none are saved by their election Infants who attaine not the use of reason much lesse the actings of grace yet are not saved barely by election what they cannot doe is done for them they are saved as elect in Christ not precisely as elect how they are united to Christ we know not but we know they must be united or else they could not be saved But they who grow in yeares must also grow in the graces of sanctification otherwise they are not saved by the grace of election The decree of God appoints us to salvation but the decree of God doth not save us we must runne through all the second causes and wayes which the word of God hath chalked out to eternal life and glory Thus also our temporall life passeth under a decree it is by appointment but woe unto those that shall say God hath appointed how long I shall live therefore what need I take care about my life This is to walk contrary to one part of the decree while we seeme to submit unto the other For God who appoints life appoints all the means which concerne the preservation of life It hath no shadow of a warrant for any man to cast himself upon needlesse dangers or to forbear necessary helps for the sustaining of his life because he heares his time is appointed and that his dayes one earth are all reckoned and numbred to him from Heaven Thirdly for as much as there is an appointed time we should learne patience and wait quietly upon God It is not in creatures be they never so angry to prolong the time of our sorrows The same word which shews us that our life is a warfare shews us also that it is an appointed time Men cannot appoint you one moments trouble or lengthen this warre when God will shorten it Our haires are numbred much more our daies Honour God and have good thoughts of him for whether your times be faire or foule calme or
similibus locis Scriptura in telligenda est de statu mortuorum in morte quis consitebitur tibi post resurrectâ—onem pii laudabunt Deum sed ante illam quamdiuerunt in sepulchro nemo confitebitur ei anima corpore simul Drus Iuxta raturae cursum hic loquitur regans rediturum â—ominem ubi hine excessit Reâ—urrectio mortuorum divinum supra naturam opus est quo hic non respicit nutuâ—e tantum consuctum ordinem afferens quomodo intellïgendâ— sunt qâ—aecunque talia in hoc libro in Psalmis alijs Scripturae libris occurrunt Psal 115. 17. The dead praise the not c. there is no work device or businesse at all in the grave Eccl. 9. 10. The hand works not the tongue speakes not The eye shall no more see this good Iob expresses himself by an act of the eye which carries the greatest strength for refreshing to the whole man All the joy and pleasure we shall have in Heaven comes in by sight we shall see him as â—e is The heholding of God in Christ is the beatificall vision much of the good which we have in this world comes in by the sense of seeing and all the good of the next is placed in seeing therefore he doth not say I shall no more taste good or no more feele good but no more see good * Per Analogiâ— ad summi boni possessionem quae in visione consistit aliorum honorum possessio rectè dicitur videre bona because the chiefest good eternal good consists in vision therefore proportionably our present good doth so likewise Sick Hezekiah speaks in the language of sick Job I said I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world Isa 38. 11. When Hezekiah thought he should die he describes the state of the dead by a deprivation of all those comforts which are taken in by the sight of the eye But you wil say how saith he I shal not see the Lord He doth not say absolutely I shall not see the Lord But with a modification thus I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living But did Hezekiah see the Lord in the land of the living or while he lived Yes as Moses saw him that was invisible so did Hezekiah God makes himself visible to the Saints in this life Though God cannot be seen in his essence in Heaven much lesse on earth yet he is seen in his works in the acts of his providence and in his ordinances we may see the goings of God in the Sanctuary and behold the beauty of the Lord while we enquire in his Temple Psalm 27. 4. So that when Hezekiah saith I shall not see the Lord in the land of the living his meaning is I shall not behold God in his great works and in the ordinances of his holy worship and in the Congregations of his holy people In all these God is visible and most in the last and therefore he saith I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world God is visible in all creatures but most in man and among men most in his Saints and among his Saints most when they meet in the comely order of his house and worship The ignorant and unlearned coming into such a sacred throng sees so much of God that he is convinced and goes away reporting that God is in them of a truth In Christ is seen the brightnesse of his Fathers glory and in the Saints much of the beauty of it is seen Christ is the express image of his person and in the Saints so meeting much of his image is expressed First in that Job betakes himself to God O remember that my life is wind c. Observe That In our distresses it is better to cry to God then to complaine to creatures God is usually the last but he is alwayes the best refuge when we have told over the story of our sorrowes and sad condition and powr'd our wants into the bosomes of our most faithfull friends yet this Apostrophe is sweetest to the soul when we can turn unto God O remember me It is said of Hezekiah in his sicknesse that he turned himself unto the wall and prayed he turned from the people from those that were about his bed unto the wall why what was the wall to him Or what could the wall doe for him surely nothing As good turne to an Idol for helpe or ease as to a wall yea such a turn to the wall turnes the wall into an idol Good Hezekiah had no thought of the wall nor had he any message to any image hanging there But as 't is probable many of his loving Subjects and servants were weeping about the bed of their sicke King and he had been discoursing of his disease and telling them of his sicknesse but at last he turns to the wall that is he leaves speaking to the company and turnes away from them that he might have communion with God and his first word of prayer is the same with Jobs Remember now O Lord Isa 38. 3. Creatures are but creatures and when they have done their best for us it may be they can doe no good for us when they have tried all their skill and all their strength and stirred the utmost of their abilities to give us counsell and ease we must say to them all stand by and come to Iobs Turne O Lord remember That man is most to be bemoaned who can make his moane to man only He who knows not how to complaine to God or to speake out his sorrowes and his griefes in the eare of Christ shall gaine little though he receive much by complaining to the creature But so long as we have a God to turne to and spread our cause before though men turne from us yea though they turne against us and forget us yet it is enough that we have said O Lord remember Secondly from the matter which Iob puts God in mind of namely his naturall frailty and fleeting condition that he was a passing wind Observe It is an argument moving the Lord to compassion to mind him of the frailty of our condition There is no argument from our selves so effectuall to draw out the bowels of Gods compassions toward us either in regard of our spirituall or temporall estate as this to tell him how fraile we are The Psalmist shewes this the motive of mercy often to that ancient people the Jewes Psal 78. 38. He being full of compassion forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not yea many a time turned he his anger away and did not stirre up all his wrath But what moved the Lord to deale thus with his people What was it out of himselfe We know the inward moving cause was his own free-grace but what did he look upon abroad in the creature He remembred that they were but flesh
should see none of it when he died so because when he died others should see him no more all his beauty riches and good things must be buried with him There is an elegancy in putting these two together to see and be seen Death stops both it takes us from seeing and it takes us from being seen As all the good we have will be hid from our eyes so all our glory and excellency will be obscured from the eyes of others in the dark chambers of the grave Thine eyes are upon me and I am not Job speaks of a three-fold eye 1. Of his own eye Mine eye shall see no more good Verse 7. 2. Of the eye of men The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more 3. Of the eye of God Thine eyes are upon me and I am not He doth not say Thine eyes are upon me and thou shalt not see me Gods eye looks into the grave and can see there when we are out of the eyes of men we are in the eye of God therefore he saith Thine eyes are upon me and I am not as if he had said Lord if thou shalt defer a little to help me and then shouldest come to look for thy Job I shall be dead I shall be laid in the grave I shall not be capable of remedy if my remedy be deferr'd it is too late to give a man a cordial when he is dead Thou shalt Tuornm beneficiorum si forte cupias humanitus loquitur cum occulto questu neglectus sui uon ero capax Cocc not have a Job to helpe if thou dost not help him quickly Some understand it in a spiritual sence Thine eyes are upon me as if he should say Lord thine eyes are upon me to search me and try out my wayes and alas I am not I am not able to stand before thy justice before thy pure eyes which can behold none iniquity But rather take it as an appeal to God whether or no he were not near death Thou Lord seest I am as a dead man as a man not to be numbred among the living Therefore if thou wilt deliver me let thy loving-kindnesse speedily prevent me for I am brought very low As a sick man in some acute disease hastens his Physitian Sir give me somewhat presently or I am gone you cannot but see I am a borderer upon death Thine eyes are upon me and I am not That is I am not alive I am not among the children of men Not to be doth not import a not-being but a not appearing I am not as I was nor can I long be at all Rachel wept for her children because they were not Josephs brethren said to their Father Joseph is not and Job himself in the 21. of this Chapter explains this to be his sence Thou shalt seek me in the morning and I shall not be Death is a great devourer it sweeps all that appears of man into the grave The world shall no more enjoy him nor he the world this is mans not being when he dies as the two following verses further explain by an elegant similitude Verse 9. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth downe to the grave shall come up no more 10. He shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more Job having moved the Lord to take notice of and compassionate his transitory condition his life being but like the hastening wind He gives us another comparison to the same sence and purpose There his life was but a wind and here it is but a cloud As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more c. The cloud in a naturall notion is a thick and moist vapour drawn up from the earth by the heat of the Sunne to the middle region of the aire and by the coldnesse of that heavenly country where snow and haile c. are made and stor'd up is further condens'd congeal'd and thickn'd and so hangs or moves partly from natural causes the Sunne and wind but especially by supernatural the mighty power and appointment of God like an huge mountain in the aire To this cloud Job compares the vanishing estate of this life As the cloud such a cloud as you see hanging in the aire is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consumed or spent The same word is used at the 6. Verse My life is spent without hope A cloud comes to it's height and then 't is quickly disperst and vanisheth away The letter of the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ambulavit ivit per metalepsin de rebus evanescentibus intereunti bus c. is It goeth or walketh away The walke of the clouds is according to the walk of the winds we cal it the Rack of the clouds When the Heavens are as it were all masked with clouds and a black vail or curtain drawn between us and the Sun the winds in a little time dissipate and scatter them It is usual in Scripture to compare those things which are vanishing suddenly consumed to clouds In which sence Isai 44. 22. the sins of the Saints are compared to a cloud and the pardoning of their sins to this consuming and scattering of the cloud I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins A cloud is but a kind of a blot in the pure parchment-roll of the skies I am sure a cloud of sinne is a foule blot in the roll of our lives Blot a fair writing and you cannot read it but blot out the blots and then 't is legible again yet the blotting out of sinne intimates it fair written as an evidence or a record against us till a pardon blots it out In which sence Christ is said to have blotted out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us Col. 2. 14. Thy sins O Israel so the Lord seems to speak in the Prophet are as a cloud to hinder the shining of the light of my countenance upon thee like blots they hinder thee from reading the evidences of my favour or they stand like evidences of guilt against thee But I have blotted out this cloud that is I have pardon'd thy sins and by the breath of my favour and free grace scatter'd thy transgressions with all the evils and sequels which they naturally bring forth So that now the light shines fair and warm upon thee the evidences which were against thee cannot be read and thou mayest read the evidences of my love and mercy towards thee The sins of the Saints are but vanishing clouds whereas sin in it selfe and the sins of all those who are out of Christ are an abiding cloud they are a cloud firme and immoveable like a mountain of brass or a rock of stone Sins make such a cloud as no power in Heaven or earth is able to consume but the power of mercy and a
gale of love breathing through the covenant of Grace And as the life of man is compared by Job to a cloud so to that which is the matter of the cloud by the Apostle James Chap. 4. verse 14. where he puts the question what 's the life of man Is it not saith he even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away A vapour is exhaled from the earth by the heat of the Sunne and is the matter out of which the cloud is made Mans life is not only like a cloud which is more condense and strong but like those thin vapours sometimes observed arising from moorish grounds which are the original of clouds and more vanishing then clouds Even these are but vanishing enough to shadow the vanishing decaying quickly dis-appearing life of man As the cloud consumes and vanishes the next words speak out the mind of the comparison So he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more The grave is a descent And the word which is here used for the grave is Sheol about which many disputes are raised among the learned The root of it signifies to desire or to crave with earnestness and the reason given is because the grave is always craving and asking Though the grave hath devoured the bodies of millions of men yet it is as hungry as it was the first morsel still it is asking and craving The grave is numbred among those things which are not satisfied Prov. 30. 16. In the Greeke of the new Testament it is translated Hades which by change of letters some form out of the Hebrew Adam and Adamah the earth unto which God condemned fallen man to returne Gen. 3. 19. We find this word Sheol taken five wayes in Scripture 1. Strictly and properly for the place of the damned Prov. 15. II. Hell and destruction are before the Lord how much more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then all the hearts of the children of men God looks through the darkness of hell which is utter darkness Tam infernus quam sepulchrum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. Status mortuorum vel sepalchrum nam ut anima de corpore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de sepulchro usurpatur Ps 16. Drus 2. It is put Metaphorically for great and extream dangers or miseries which seem irrecoverable and remediless these are figuratively called hell because hell properly taken is a place from whence there is no recovery There 's no release from the chaines of darknesse all changes are on earth Heaven and hell know none When David praises the Lord Psalm 86. 13. for delivering his soul from the lowest hell he meaneth an estate on earth of the lowest and deepest danger imaginable Mercy helpt him at the worst To be as low as hell is to be at the lowest 3. The word signifies the lower parts of the earth without relation to punishment Psal 139. 8. If I go down into hell thou art there He had said before if I ascend up into Heaven thou art there by Heaven he meanes the upper Region of the world without any respect to the estate of blessednesse and hell is the most opposite and remote in distance without respect to misery As is he had said let me go whither I will thy presence finds me out 4. It is taken for the state of the dead whether those dead are in the grave or no Psal 30. 3. Isa 38. 18 19. Gen. 37. 35. In all which places to go out of the world is to go to Sheol Jacob in the text alledged Gen. 37. 35. said he would go down into the grave to his son mourning yet Jacob thought his Son was devoured by a wild beast he could not goe down into the grave to his son for the bowels of a wild beast was his supposed grave but he meaneth only this I wil even die as he is dead So Numb 16. 33. where that dreadful judgement of God upon Korah Dathan and Abiram is storied it is said that they their sheep and their oxen and their tents and all went down into Sheol that is they were all devoured and swallowed up But 5. Sheol signifies the place where the body is layed after death namely the grave Prov. 30. 16. Man hath a demension of earth fitted to the dimensions of his body this portion or allotment is his Sheol Yet it signifies the grave only in generall as it is natural to man-kind not that grave which is artificial and proper to any particular man this the Hebrew expresses by another * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word He that goeth down to the grave goes to his long home to a house out of which he is never able to see or make his way and Ainsw in Gen. 37. therefore it followes He shall come up no more No that 's sad news indeed to go down to the grave and come up no more Are all the hopes of man shut up in the grave and is there an utter end of him when his life ends Shall he come up no more Many of the Greek writers tax Job as not acquainted with the doctrine of the Resurrection as if he either knew not that mystery or doubted at this time of it And some of the Rabbins say plainly Hic abnegat Iob resuscitationem mortuorum Rab. Sol. Non negatur resurrectio ad vitam sed ad similem vitam Pined he denied it But he is so cleare in the 19th Chapter that we need not think him so much as cloudy here And if we look a little farther himself will give us the comment of this text When he saith he shall come up no more it is not a denyal of a dying mans resurrection to life but of his restitution to the same life or to such a life as he parted with at the graves mouth They who die a natural death shall not live a natural life again therefore he addeth in the next verse Verse 10. He shall return no more to his house He doth not say absolutely he shall return no more but he shall return no more to his house he shall have no more to do with this world with worldly businesses or contentments with the labour or comforts of the creature or of his Family He shall return no more to his house But some may say how doth this answer the comparison That as the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more for we find another description of clouds Eccles 12. 2. where the text saith that the clouds return after raine So that it seems though clouds vanish and are consumed yet they returne and come againe The clouds are like bottles full of raine or spunges full of water God crushes these spunges or unstops these bottles and they are emptied and in emptying vanish away but yet Solomon affirms the clouds return after raine how then doth Job say that as the cloud vanisheth so man goeth to the grave
Mem Genitivum indâ—cet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thoughts which I had after the visions of the night So Hos 6. 2. From two dayes Heb. After two dayes or in thoughts which I had in the visions of the night or in thoughts of the visions of the night The Originall beares any of these readings In thoughts The Hebrew word signifies properly the boughes of a tree and so some translate In the bougbes sprigs or branches of the visions of the night but we render it well in the thoughts And thoughts are called boughes or branches First because thoughts grow from the mind sprout and shoote up from the minde as branches from the stock of a tree From the root or stock of a mans understanding a branch of thoughts growes up sometimes like a tall Cedar of Libanus as high as Heaven Secondly the boughes and branches of a tree are many thick interwoven and crossing one another such are the thoughts of a man he hath many even multitudes of them In the multitude of my thoughts saith David The mind puts forth many branches and twiggs they sprout and shoote forth every way thousands of various thoughts are moving upon various objects and to various ends some are earthly some heavenly The branches of some minds are but bryars and thornes others bear the Lilly and the Rose their roote is in Heaven and they grow heavenward Thirdly thoughts are called branches because the branch or the bough brings forth and beares the fruit the stock or the body of a tree brings forth fruit at the branches So all the fruit of our soules is borne upon or from our thoughts our actions are the fruits of our thinkings Thoughts are possible actions looke what a man thinketh that he doth or would doe And such as our thoughts are such our actions are or would be Thoughts are the first-borne the blossomes bloomes of the soule the beginnings of our strength whether for good or evill therefore the Hebrew word is elegantly translated from a bough or a beanch to a thought The Hebrew word for speech prayer and meditation springs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stirps fâ—uâ—ex quia Sermo è corde ut arbor è terra nascitur Shind Elegans metaphâ—â—a sumpta à super eminentibus arboâ—um ramusculis est pâ—imogenta hujus voâ—is significatio ad phantasmatum extremitates ac velut teneras cogitationum summitates notionem suam extendit Bold Quousque claudicatis inter duas prominentias Merc. Quasi Elias audueret populum quod duas eminentias sibi constituerent Deum Baalem quasi aequales inter quas nulla est comparatio 2 Cor. 6. 15. Bold from a roote of the same signification because speech prayer and meditation spring up from the Spirit as a stalke or branches from the stock of a tree There is one thing further to be observed from this word for it is a very elegant word and therefore I spend a little the more time upon it In thoughts from the visions of the night The word signifies not onely a bough but the highest bough the top-bough of a tree A tree hath some under-boughs and some top-boughes as the Prophet speakes Isa 17. 6. Two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough it is the same word which here in the text we translate thoughts as if Eliphaz should say in my very uppermost or highest thoughts in those very top-branches of my budding phancie which I had from the visions of the night The highest the top-branches which grow from the soule of a godly man are for or about the highest mercies top-mercies for Heaven and heavenly things A wicked mans highest and uppermost thoughts are for the earth his thoughts for the earth out-grow all his other thoughts But a godly mans thoughts for Heaven and spirituals outgrow all his other thoughts his thoughts for Heaven are the highest and uppermost branches of his soule We have this word used in the 1 Kings 18. 21. How long saith Elijah will you halt between two opinions That word which we there translate opinions is here translated thoughts hence some render that in the Kings thus How long doe ye halt between two top-thoughts or high thoughts As if this were the thing which Elijah reproved in that people that they had high thoughts both of God and of Baal top-thoughts of both and they as it were set Baal a dumb Idol as high in their thoughts estimations and opinions as they did the living God Why do ye halt between two uppermost opinions highest thoughts or thoughts of equall height concerning God and Baal Your thoughts of your Idol are as high as of God himselfe What! will you make an Idoll equall with God An Idoll is a base thing a low thing a thing below upon the dung-hill therefore called a dunghill god The true God is on high he is in the highest Heavens he is higher than the Heaven of Heavens and doe you debase him thus by halting between two thoughts of equall height concerning Him and Baal They who set up an Idol make it equall unto God All false worship is a setting of our posts by Gods posts and of our threshold by his threshold a making both of equall height and worth And to cleere it yet further Psal 119. 13. the same word is used by David when he professes I hate vaine thoughts or as some reade it I hate vaine things He calls Idolatrous thoughts vaine thoughts because they are wavering inconstant or unsetled thoughts in further allusion to the boughes of a tree as the top-most and highest boughes of a tree are shaken with every puffe of wind and waver too and fro with every blast so are the thoughts Quasi dicat Idolatriam odio habui quae plura eminentia supremo cultu reveretur cum sit unum of Idolaters or because as before Idolatry sets up Too high Thoughts adoring an Idoll as much or in competition and rivality with the everliving God The higher our thoughts are of God the more excellent they are but the higher our thoughts are of false worship the vainer they are and to have as high thoughts of an Idoll as of the living and true God are the vainest thoughts of all those high thoughts are low thoughts the lowest thoughts thoughts most hatefull I hate vaine thoughts From the visions of the night As I have opened that word about the thoughts somewhat largely so this of the visions requires more enlargement yet I shall doe it as briefely as I may Visions were a speciall way of divine revelation Heb. 1. 1. God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake to our Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Prophets saith the Apostle God spake at sundry times and he spake in divers manners Now amongst those divers manners of speaking speaking by or in visions was one The Jewish Doctors observe foure degrees of divine revelation The first they Paulus Fagius in Exod. 28.
called Prophecie which included vision and any apparition whereby the will of God was made known They had a second way of Goodw. Hebr. Antiq. divine revelation which they called The inspiration of the Holy Ghost whereby the party was inabled without vision or apparition to prophesie either as prophesying is taken for the foretelling of things to come or for the resolving of things in doubt The Rabbins give us the difference between these two prophecie and inspiration In prophecie though it was from the Holy Ghost a man was cast into a trance or brought into an extasie his senses being taken away but speaking by inspiration of the Holy Ghost was without any such change in or impressions upon the body So David and other Pen-men of the Scriptures wrote by the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost yet without visible apparitions to them or visible change upon them Thirdly God revealed himselfe by Vrim and Thummim which was an answer given by the Ephod or by the stones that were on the breast-plate of the high Priest These three wayes of divine revelation as they observe ceased in the second Temple The Jewish writers having this tradition That after the latter Prophets Haggai Zechariah and Malachy the Holy Ghost departed from Israel meaning the Holy Ghost not in the ordinarie work of sanctification but in those extraordinary wayes of prophecy inspiration and of Vrim and Thummim went up and departed from them There was yet a fourth way of divine revelation which they call Bathcoll the daughter of a voice or eccho declaring the will of God immediately from Heaven such some conceive to be the voice heard from Heaven Math. 3. 1. proclaiming the testimonie of God concerning Christ a voice was heard from Heaven saying this is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased But to passe from these traditions of the Jewes we shall give you the doctrine of divine revelations more distinctly from the Scriptures We finde Numb 12. 6 7 8. three distinct wayes in which the Lord revealed himselfe of old unto his people If there be a Prophet among you I the Lord will make my selfe known unto him in a vision and will speake unto him in a dreame My servant Moses is not so who is faithfull in all mine house with him will I speake mouth to mouth even apparently and not in darke speeches and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold This is an illustrious text describing three distinct wayes or degrees of holy revelation First by vision which we have here in Job Secondly by a Dreame which was when God presented somewhat to them sleeping This kinde of revelation God vouchsafed not only to his own people and Prophets but to Heathens also and strangers from his Covenant Pharaoh had a revelation by a dreame Gen. 41. concerning the seven yeares of famine and Nebuchadnezzar had a wonderfull revelation by a dreame Dan. 2. concerning the state of the foure Monarchies The wise men of the East were warned in a dreame to returne into their Countrey another way Math. 2. But with the Saints these revelations by dreames were very frequent Jacob Gen. 28. in a dreame as he slept upon a stone saw a ladder c. Joseph Jacobs son had so many dreames that his brethren jeered him with it and called him the Captaine-dreamer The dreamer a Master of dreames Gen. 37. 19. Joseph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the husband of Mary was twice warned in a dreame first that he should not forsake his wife Mat. 1. and then that he should goe into Egypt Mat. 3. Many other the like revelations by dreames might be instanced in but I forbeare There is a third way spoken of in this text and that is speaking mouth to mouth my servant Moses is not so with him will I speake mouth to mouth even apparently This is a more eminent way of heavenly manifestations than the former Moses had a priviledge above the ordinary Prophets For to speake mouth to mouth is expounded by Apparently I will speake plainely or apparently not in a vision or in a dreame When a man speakes mouth to mouth to his friend or as the Scripture phrases our communion with God in Heaven face to face This is opposed to a more remote or obscure communion As our seeing God face to face in Heaven so his speaking to us mouth to mouth on earth notes the clearest and fullest revelation It is to give us his minde nakedly without any figure or shadow or as Christ is said once in the Gospel to speake plainely and not in Parables And these speakings mouth to mouth were of two sorts Either immediate as himselfe did unto Moses or as to others by the ministry of Angels God often employed Angels in this service to declare his minde and bring messages to his people This was a kinde of speaking mouth to mouth but Moses had an honour beyond this with him will I speake mouth to mouth I by my selfe not I by a created Angell Visions to keep to the terme in hand were you see a principall meanes by which God broke his minde and unlockt the secrets of his counsels If there be a Prophet among you I the Lord will make my selfe known unto him in a vision And to cleere this point about visions yet more fully We may distinguish of divers sorts of visions First A vision is sometime put for any ordinary dispensation of the will of God to his Prophets or Ministers who as from God dispense it to his people Prov. 29. 18. Where vision faileth the people perish that is where there are none to publish and declare the minde of God no not in an ordinary way to a people that people are in the ready way to perdition Without the visions of grace there is no ordinary way to the visions of glory Secondly By a vision we understand an extraordinary work of God manifesting his minde to his Prophets either to assure future successes or to resolve doubtfull Quaeries And these were called Visio est omnis doctâ—ina dâ—viniâ—ùs revelata quia Deus quibuscunque vsum est revelare res ipsas quodamâ—do videndas spectandas oculis servorum suo um exhibet ad obsignandam earum certitudinem Jun. in 1 cap. Isa visions because by them things were made so manifest as if they had been seene before their eyes and in some of these revelations a visible representation was made to the eye visions were often attended with apparitions In reference to both these sorts of visions that is appliable 1 Sam. 9. 9. Before time in Israel when a man went to enquire of God thus he spake Come let us goe to the Seer for he that is now called a Prophet was before time called a Seer Prophets were called Seers because in visions they had either an ocular or an intellectuall sight of the minde of God Secondly Visions may undergoe this division There was an open vision and there was a private vision
It was in the night and in that part of the night when deepe sleepe falleth on men that is in the former part or beginning of the night for the first sleepe is the deepe sleepe and we use to say that a man especially a weary hard-wrought man is in a dead sleepe when hee is in his first sleepe The word signifies an extraordinary sleepe It is used Gen. 2. 21. where it is said that God caused a deepe sleepe to fall upon Adam when he took out his rib and formed the woman The Seventy translate it extasie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some compare it to a Lethargie a man in a Lethargie can hardly be awakened Such a sleepe as Saul was in 1 Sam. 26. 12 when David came into the trench and took away the Speare and the Cruse of water from his bolster Such an one as Jonas was in while the ship was almost sunke with the tempest Jonah 1. 5. In both places we have this originall word At the time when such sleepe sals on wearied man Eliphaz had this vision And be speaks very Tempus erat quo prima quies morâ—alibus aegris Incipiâ— dono Divum gratissima seâ—pâ—t In somnis ecce ante occulos maestissimus Hector Visus adesse mihi Vâ—â—g 20. Aeniad elegantly that this deepe sleepe falleth on men because such sleepe seems to oppresse the spirits as a heavie weight the body it fals as heavie as Lead upon all a mans senses and overcomes them we say ordinarily a man fals asleepe and it is as true of sleep that it fals upon a man and fals with such a weight that man is not able to stand under it We say also a men is heavie to sleep for sleep like a heavie thing comes down upon him and then down comes he Heathen Poets tell us that at this time they had visions or delusions rather Satan imitates God in what he can that he may deceive with better successe We may abserve from hence First Seeing Eliphaz had this vision when deep sleep falleth upon men that the power of Gods Spirit works through all naturall impediments when tired nature is willing to fall or cannot stay it selfe from falling into a deep sleep then God can awaken us with his visions and make us see when we cannot hold open our eyes When God will reveale his minde to the soule he overcomes the imperfections of the body Sleepinesse is an imperfection if a man be sleepy he is unfit to hear While the eye is thus shut the eare cannot be open That sleeper in the Acts fell down dead while Paul was preaching Yet when God comes by his mighty power and Spirit though a mans eare be shut he can break through and get into his heart The Word hath taken some napping and nodding Yea God breaks in by his Almighty power in the revelations of his will not only when men are in a dead naturall sleep but when they are in a sleep of spirituall death The Word breaks open the barres of the grave and loosens John 5. 25. the bands of death Secondly for as much as Eliphaz had this vision when deep sleep falleth on men himselfe being kept awake or waking Observe That when we are most retired from the world then we are most fit to have and usually have most communion with God If a man would but abridge himselfe of sleep and wake with holy thoughts when deep sleep falleth upon sorrowful labouring men he might be entertained with visions from God though not such visions as Eliphaz and others of the Saints have had yet visions he might have Every time God communicates himself to the soul there is a vision of love or mercy or power somwhat of God in his nature or in his will is shewed unto us David shewes us divine work when we goe to rest The bed is not all for sleep Commune with your owne heart upon your bed and be still Psal 4. Be still or quiet and then commune with your hearts and if you will commune with your hearts God will come and commune with your hearts too his Spirit will give you a loving visite and visions of his love When Jacob fearing the rage of his brother had put himselfe into the best posture of defence he could and had sent his wives and children his servants and his flocks over the River the Text saith Gen. 32. 24. that Jacob was left alone which is not to be understood as if his company had left or deserted him Jacobs solitarinesse was not passive but elective He having disposed of all his family withdrew himself and stayed alone and what then then he had a vision indeed Then there wrestled a man with him untill the breaking of the day he spent not the night in carking and caring what should become of him the morrow No he retires to pray for a blessing upon his former cares and a blessing he obtains It is observable also concerning Isaac Gen. 24. 36. that he went out into the fields to meditate or as others read it to pray Some foolishly glosse upon it that Isaac being delighted in Astronomy went out to contemplate on the Stars But I believe the walk of Isaac's spirit was above the Stars It is a sweet O sancta anima sola esto ut soli omnium serves reipsam quem ex omnibus tibi elâ—gisti An nescis â—e verecunduni hâ—â—ere spoâ—â—um c. Bernard expression of Bernard If thou wouldest meet Christ in speciall communion doe thou of tentimes retire thy selfe Oh chast and lovely soule doest thou not know thou hast a modest Spouse that will not come to thee in the throng of worldly company and employment Come my beloved saith the Spouse Cant. 7. 11. let us goe forth into the fields and lodge in the villages Let us get from the tumult of the Creature He loves to find his Spouse alone retired into a Chamber or into a Closet or in the fields and Groves in the Gardens and shady walks or in thoughts upon thy bed having ihe Curtains drawn and all the world shut out Some have visions in the night when deep sleep falleth upon men but what are their visions surely they are visions of darknes not of light visions of Hell rather then visions of Heaven The Proplet complains of such who devise evill upon their beds they plot and contrive mischief upon their beds or they have visions of uncleannesse visions of covetousnesse visions of oppression black infernall visions How much better is it to be blind then to have such visions to be asleep then have such waking thoughts But to lye awake in our beds with thoughts of Christ is far more sweet then the sweetest sleep And in the day could we make more vacations from the world we should have more businesse in Heaven Most men are mudding in the earth all day and if they wake in the night earthly care keeps them awake There are many thousands whom
because guilty tremble and fall before it yet it was not barely the matter of the Law revealed which caused this trembling that was written in the heart oâ— man before and was now published to the Jewes with gracious with Gospell intentions but it was the manner and circumstances wherein the Law was revealed which were so terrible And this terror had this great use even the humbling of their soules to a willing subjection and obedience to the will of God When God revealed the Gospell to Paul as well as when he revealed the Law to Moses he made Paul tremble Act. 9. Paul was smitten down to the ground God layed him along unhors'd him when he came to manifest his Christ to or as himselfe speaks Gal. 1. 16. to reveale his Son in him And this was to abase him to breake his heart that he might be made up a chosen vessel to carry the Name of God unto the Gentiles And howsoever such Acts 9. 15. humiliations are not of absolute necessity yet they have been very usuall and very usefull When the Lord hath layd the will and wisdome of man in the dust when he hath made the strongest and stoutest to become as a childe or a babe to quake before him then he takes him into his Schoole of Instruction and shewes him such things as none of the wise men or Princes of this world ever knew even such things as eye hath not seen eare hath not heard neither have they entred into the heart of man This made our Lord Jesus break out into that mixt rapture of gratulation and admiration Mat. 11. 25. I thanke thee O Father Lord of Heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to babes Be as babes before God and he will give you the wisedome of men yea of Angels They who are high built and pâ—â—acl'd in their own conceits seldome have the foundation or first principles of saving knowledge laid in them savingly Thirdly From this effect of the vision observe That feare is a strong and powerfull passion Feare comes upon a man like a Giant Feare saith Eliphaz came upon me it came upon me violently A man were as good meete a beare rob'd of her whelps as this feare The strongest man in the world cannot shake your bones as feare alone will if that take hold of you Some of the Greeks had such amazing thoughts of Feare it was so terrible to them that to appease it they worshipped it for a god as some worshipped sorrow among the Romanes for a goddesse under the name of Dea Angerona The true God is called feare in Scripture And Aug de Civ Dei l. 5. c. 8. feare was made an Idol God among the Heathens And if we consider these effects in the Text trembling of the flesh shaking of the bones standing up of the haire all which this suddaine surprise of feare wrought upon Eliphaz we must needs acknowledge and conclude it to be a very potent passion In the first of Proverbs the Lord threatens those who would not feare him thus I will Prov. 1. 27. laugh when your feare commeth Then he shewes the manner how such feare commeth When your feare commeth as desolation We cannot well take feare in this place for the object of feare for that is desolation it selfe and therefore cannot be said to come as desolation Then taking it properly for the passion of fear We see that the feare of trouble is like the trouble we feare Feare is even as bad as desolation Feare puls all downe within and makes a man like a desolate place before his place is made desolate And therefore in these times we had need take care that we put not strength to our feares These are fearing times we should pray much that the power of naturall feare may be subdued especially that our naturall feare may be turned into godly feare godly feare is the proper cure of naturall feare Sanctifie the Lord God in your hearts and make him your feare or else the feare of man will quickly Lord it over your hearts Such a feare is more dangerous then all our dangers Our enemies shall need no weapons to fight against us with but our own feares Trembling joints and shaking bones will make small resistance and while naturall feare is strong naturall strength is but weake or uselesse When from the onset or assault of this feare a mans haire stands himselfe will run Fourthly Consider this by way of consequence That if a time when God commeth to reveale his will to man be so dreadfull what will that time be and that time is comming when God commeth to reckon with man for the disobeying of that will Here a truth was but shewed Eliphaz in an extraordinary manner and behold him shaking fearing trembling Now when God shall come to require an account of man for resisting or imprisoning the truth when he shall come 2 Thes 1. 8. to take vengeance on all those that have not obeyed the Gospell of truth what terror fear and trembling will fall upon the stoutest of sinfull men There must be an appearing of all but there can be no standing for such before the dreadfull throne of Christ The ungodly of vvhat sort of size soever shall not stand in judgement Psal 1. 5. impenitent unbeleevers shall not be able to hold up their heads in that day Captaines and mighty men who have often conversed vvith dangers and knew not what it was to be afraid Men who like the Horse described Job 39. 22. used to mock at feare and would not turne backe for drawne swords or the glittering of shield or speare shall at that day shake with feare and hide themselves like little children So much for the effects of the vision Now follows a further description of the vision Verse 16. It stood still but I could not discerne the forme thereof an image was before mine eyes there was silence and I heard a voice saying This verse containeth a second gesture of this spirits appearing in the vision to Eliphaz The spirit was passing before here standing as if he would present himselfe more fully to his view and observation It stood still an image was before mine eyes but though the spirit gave Eliphaz this faire advantage yet he made little use of it for he saith I could not discerne the forme of it that is I could make nothing of it directly But when his eye gave him no helpe his eare did though he could not discerne or distinguish the forme of the spirit appearing yet he could distinguish the voice of the spirit speaking there was silence and I heard a voice saying It stood still To stand in Scripture imports not alwayes a setled posture of the body but it is taken sometime in a larger sense to note our presence in any place whether it be sitting standing or walking as Mat. 16. 28. Christ saith There be some standing here which
as the Schooles determine with a naturall blessednesse not with a supernaturall which consists in the vision of God for if they had been created in a supernaturall blessednesse then they had never fallen they were created only in a naturall blessednesse and from that they might fall and did Now indeed the good Angels have obtained by Christ a supernaturall blessednesse from which they cannot fall and so by grace are become immutable which by creation they were not Though Christ be not a Redeemer as was toucht before yet he is a confirmer a supporter of the holy Angels In reference whereunto Christ is called the head of all things Eph. 1. 22. And of him the whole family in Heaven and in earth is named Ephes 3. 15. And by him Col. 1. 20. God hath reconciled all things unto himselfe by him I say whether they be things in earth or things in Heaven Some understand that place in the Colossians of men only because of the word reconciling yet we may well take in Angels also because that place takes in all things both in Heaven and earth And howsoever Angels needed not such a reconciliation as supposes a breach of peace or a falling out before yet they needed such a reconciliation as consists in the continuance and strengthning of that peace which was before Further We learne by way of Corollary from the former point That there is no stability in any estate out of Christ The Angels themselves could not be trusted out of Christ folly is in them not considered in Christ how much more in man When Adam fell if God should have repaired him againe and set him up in statu quo in the same condition wherein he was yea in a better if a better could be had without a Mediator and so have tried his obedience once more or should every particular man have stood for himselfe and not one for all certainly as we fell at first in a lump all together so we should have all fallen single as it were by retaile one after another There is no assurance in any estate on this side Christ Nor man nor Angel can hold out without a Surety Christ is called the Surety of the Covenant Heb. 7. 22. because he undertakes for us that we shall doe our parts that we shall be faithfull and beleeving that we shall be holy and humble that we shall doe what God expects from those whom free grace shall save Christ undertakes for all the grace and holinesse and faithfullnesse which is required in beleevers He gives no command but what himselfe helps us to fulfill nor calls he for any duty but what himselfe works in us and for us Fourthly observe That God sees imperfection in creatures whose natures are most perfect Man looking upon the Angelicall nature or upon mans nature in innocency could see no fault or folly in either but God saw both possibly faulty though not actually faulty And as it is with the nature of men and Angels so with their works when we can see nothing amisse in a work God can as the Apostle acknowledges 1 Cor. 4. 4. I know nothing by my selfe I professe when I looke into the course of my ministery for he speakes to that particular when I looke how I have discharged my Apostleship my conscience beares me witnesse I know of no unfaithfulnesse or neglect but yet though I know nothing by my selfe I am not hereby justified but he that judgeth me is the Lord as if he should say wheu God comes to looke over my worke he may find faults many faults in it there is no standing for creatures before God in any creature-purity Angelicall perfection is imperfect in his sight Angels have not the least spot or tincture of sin in their nature yet the nature of Angels is potentially sinfull The best creature in regard of pure naturalls may be wrought to evill one God cannot And the reason is because every one may erre who hath not the rule of righteousnesse within him and therefore it is impossible God should erre because his own will is the rule of his own actions He is every way a law unto himselfe The Apostle speaking of the Gentiles Rom. 2. 14. saith These having not the law are a law unto themselves Not that their nature is a law which is the transcendent priviledge of God but that they have the law of nature or the law printed in their nature though not published to their eare They have the law written in their hearts but the heart of God is his law both written and unwritten Creatures how perfect soever in their nature have the will of God for their rule and law which though it be within them yet it is not Them and so they may act beside it The hand of the Artificer often failes in cutting or fashioning the work he is about because his hand is not the rule by which he workes his hand workes by a rule or line his hand is not that rule or line therefore he sometimes strikes right and sometimes he strikes wrong but if the hand of a man were the rule by which he works then it were impossible that ever he should worke amisse Thus it is with God the very will of God which acts is the rule by which he acts hence Solum illum actum à rectitudine declina re non contingit cujus regula est ipsa virtus agentis Aquin par 1. q. â—3 art 1. it is impossible for God to faile Angels and men act by a rule prescribed their will is one thing and the rule is another the power by which they worke is one thing and the direction by which they worke is another and therefore to shut up this point the most perfect creature may possibly swerve and erre in acting Only he cannot erre in any thing he doth whose will is the perfect rule of all be doth Fifthly Forasmuch as God beholding Angels sees folly in them learne That God hath no need of any creature no not of Aagels The reason is clearely this because Angels themselves in themselves are unfaithfull Angels themselves in themselves are foolish therefore what need hath God of such as these As King Achish said 1 King 21. 15. when David changed his behaviour before him studiously acting the foole mad man scrabling on the doores of the gate and letting his spittle fall downe upon his beard What saith Achish unto his servants have I need of madmen that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence So God may say when he lookes upon the best of creatures Angels or men have I any need of mad-men any need of fooles or of their folly Forasmuch then as there is nothing in any creature barely as a crearure but what may be reduced to folly and unfaithfullnesse and would certainely end there therefore God hath no need at all of any creature Men will say we need not the helpe of disloyall or untrusty
nihil firmum aut diuturnum ompingi potest such a mighty foundation CHRIST the Rock a living and an unmoveable Rock That confession of Peter Thou art Christ the Sonne of the living God is the Churches foundation Rock therefore the gates of Hell shall not prevaile against it But when the building is weak and the foundation weak too in how tottering a condition is such a building Mans foundation is but sand or dust and the word signifies flying light unstable moveable dust such as lies on the surface of the earth and is plaid about with every puffe of winde though some I confesse take the word not strictly for this flying dust but for slimy dust or dust moistned which is slime This was the matter out of which God created man Gen. 2. 7. dust out of the earth or out of the dust of the earth That dust which can hardly be collected or kept together to make a subsistence that is laid together as the foundation of man His foundation is in the dust Hence we may observe first what the pedigree and originall of man is what treasure soever he carries about him yet he is an earthen vessell or as the Apostle speaks of the first man 1. Cor. 15. 47. he is of the earth earthy Earth is the Originall of man and man himself is no better Earthy yea the Earth is call'd his earth as if he had propriety in nothing but earth Psal 1â— 6. 4. speaking of the greatest Princes Trust ye not in Princes nor in the sonne of man his breath goeth forth and he returneth to his earth Our bodies can challenge no alliance with or propriety in any thing but earth it is our earth The wise man Eccles 12. 7. cals the body not only an Allie to the dust or a-kin to dust but plain dust Then speaking of Death shall the dust returne to the earth as it was it came from the earth and in death it returnes to the same point from whence it set out A second thing we may take notice of from mans originall which exceedingly advances the infinite wisdome and the Almighty power of God Dust and Earth are the matter out of which we are formed But doth the countenance of man represent dust and earth Could any one say who had nothing to judge by but the eye that man was made of such mean materials What characters of Beauty and Majesty sit in his visage how unlike is he to his own parent the Earth Man hath received from God not only an excellent fabrick or composure of body but if you consider it the very matter of which the body is composed is farre more excellent then earth or dust Take a piece of earth or a handfull of dust and compare them with the flesh of man that flesh is earth indeed but that flesh is farre better then meer earth This shewes the power of the Creator infinitely exceeding the power of a creature A Goldsmith can make you a goodly Jewel but then you must give him gold and precious stones of which to make it he can put the matter into a hetter form but he cannot make the matter better The Engraver can make a curious Statue exactly limb'd and proportion'd to the life out of a ruff piece but the matter must be the same you put into his hands if you give him Marble it will be a Marble Statue but he cannot mend the matter Mans work Materiam superabat opus often exceeds his matter but mans work cannot make the matter exceed it self Now God took up a rude lumpe of earth or subtile dust and he not only put that into an excellent form but he mended the matter also Man is earth but he is earth sublimated and refined Not only doth the forme exceed the matter but the matter formed exceeds the matter unformed Thirdly as this lifts up the wisdome and power of God so it should humble and lay man low Eliphaz improves this principle as an Argument to take down the spirit of Job from his supposed heights and self-conceits Surely thou art great in thy owne thoughts when thou presumest to enter a contest with God But look to thy Originall such towring lofty and ascending thoughts would quickly be abated if thou wouldest remember tha thou art but a clod of earth a little refined clay moving slime enlivened dust breathing ashes did we spiritually look upon the matter of our bodies it would take down the swelling of our spirits when our spirits are like Jordan in the time of harvest overflowing all the banks of humility and moderation this thought spiritualiz'd will bring us into our channels again and recall us to our owne bounds and banks Some Naturalists observe of the Bees that when they are up and angry do but throw a little dust upon them they are quiet and hive again Certainly when our imaginations are buzzing and humming in the aire when thy are flying and mounting up to Heaven not in holy aspirings to God which we ever ought but in bold aspirings against God which we should never dare in such a distemper of our spirits if we could but cast this dust upon them it would quiet and bring them in again Hath not man cause to lye as low in his thoughts as that from whence he was extracted should not he be humbled to the dust who is dust Especially this earth should be abased in all addresses to Heaven in all our approaches unto God as Abraham Genesis 18. 27. I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord who am but dust and ashes We should never be so low in our own thoughts as when we make use of our highest priviledges and the nearer we are admitted to come to Heaven the more should we for the magnifying of Free-grace which makes this admission remember that we are but Earth Fourthly if the body be but clay and hath but a foundation of dust then doe not bestow too much care and cost upon your clay upon your dust How many are there who bestow much paines to trim up a vile body and neglect a precious soule Most usually they who bestow most paines upon this mortall house of clay bestow least about that immortal inhabitant In an over cared for body there ever dwels a neglected soul You shall have a body cleanly washed and a soule all filth a body neatly clothed and drest with a soule all naked and unready a body fed and a soule starved a body full of the creature and a soule empty of Christ these are poor soules indeed That complaint of the Moralist against Heathens may be renewed against some Christians they are busied most between the combe and the glasse and troubled more at a disorder in their haire then at a disorder in the Common-wealth Inter ' pectinem speculum occupari Sen. he said I say then at a disorder in the Church or in their owne hearts It is a sad thing that any who bear the name of a
stile and falls to counsell and exhortation directing and advising Job what becomes him what he ought to doe in his condition His exhortation consists of two distinct branches The former whereof begins at this sixth and is continued to the seventeenth verse of the Chapter The summe of this exhortation is That for as much as he had found him so distempered in his speech and carriage he now earnestly beseeches and intreats him that he would seek unto God beg favour and believingly commit himselfe and his cause unto God The second branch of exhortation begins at the 17 verse and is continued to the end of the Chapter The Scope whereof is That Job would humbly and patiently submit himselfe unto and under the correcting hand of God quietly waiting the time of his deliverance The matter of the former exhortation lies in the words of the 8 verse I would seek unto God and unto God would I commit my cause He strengthneth this exhortation by two arguments whereof The first is taken from the cause of his afflictions and that either the efficient or the meritorious cause of his afflictions both which we find in the 6 and 7 verses The second argument by which he strengthneth his first exhortation is contained in the 9 10 11 and 12 verses following and it is grounded upon the power wisdome and goodness of God As if he should say Who would not seek unto God who is of infinite power able to deliver Who would not seek unto a God and commit his cause unto him who is gracious and pittifull mercifull and ready to deliver Who would not seeke unto a God and commit his cause unto him who is of infinite wisdome to find out wayes and means for the contriving of deliverance though mans condition to the eye of sence or humane reason seem altogether desperate and remedilesse These three verses containe the first exhortation together with the first argument And we may forme it thus both respecting the efficient and the meritorious cause of his afflictions First respecting the efficient cause the argument seemes to lie thus He is to be sought unto in our afflictions who is the principall efficient cause or sender of our afflictions But God is the principall efficient cause and sender of our afflictions Therefore he is to be sought unto and to him our cause is to be committed The Major or first Proposition is not expresly in this text but it is plainly supposed and logically to be understood The Minor or the Assumption lies in the 6 and 7 verses where he proves that God is the efficient cause or sender of afflictions And his proof is grounded upon a deniall or a removall of all other efficient causes As if he should say there must be some efficient cause of affliction but no efficient cause can be assigned or named except God therefore God is the efficient cause the sender and orderer of afflictions That no other efficient cause can be assigned he proveth plainly in the sixth verse thus Affliction cometh not forth of the dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground yet man is borne to trouble c. As if he should say our eyes teach us we see plainly man is full of trouble man is no sooner borne but he is afflicted these afflictions must have some efficient cause some hand or other doth frame forme and fashion them they come not alone and if they come not alone then we must find out this cause either in earth or in heaven we must find it either in the Creatour or among the creatures but from the earth or from creatures they come not Affliction cometh not forth of the dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground that is it rises not by or from the creatures in themselves and alone considered and if so it must needs come from heaven from the hand of God who dwelleth above and disposeth all things according to the pleasure of his own will It is such a kind of speech as often falls from us when a thing is lost we say some body must have it Sure it is not gone into the gound You or You must have it for there were none else in the place So Eliphaz seems here to argue about the afflictions which he saw upon Job here are heavy afflictions upon thee these afflictions must come some way upon thee They come not out forth of the dust neither doe they spring out of the ground they come not up alone Either then they must come from God or man and from man they come not they spring not out of the earth therefore he leaves it as a clear inference that God is the efficient cause or sender of affliction Againe if we consider this argument as it strengthneth the exhortation from the meritorious cause of his afflictions It may be formed thus If the sin of man be from himselfe and the sufferings of man be for his sin then in his sufferings for sin he ought to seek unto God and to commit his cause unto him But the sin of man is from himselfe and the sufferings of man are for his sin Therefore he ought in such a condition to seeke unto God and commit his cause unto him For remedy is no where else to be had This second argument is grounded rather upon the exposition then the letter of the text as shall be further cleared in pursuance of the words Thus you see how the Minor or second Proposition is confirmed both as it respects the efficient cause and the meritorious cause of mans affliction The conclusion lies in the 8 verse which Eliphaz Conclusi enunciata in persona Eliphazi quod modestum cohortationis genus magnam vim habet est usitatissimum Merl. pronounces in his own person I would seeke unto God therefore seek thou unto God he speakes it in his own person thereby more freely to insinuate his counsell and make way for his exhortation As if he had said Were I in thy case I would doe so therefore doe thou so likewise Seeke unto God and commit thy cause unto him So much of this context and the Logick of it as it contains an exhortation with an argument to strengthen and back that exhortation Now for the clearing of the words Although afflictions come not forth of the dust The Hebrew particle which we translate Although may be taken three wayes and so I find it rendred upon this place First which is its most proper sence it is taken causally and then the text is read For affliction commeth not forth of the dust So Mr. Broughton for sorrow issueth not from the dust Secondly It may be taken Adversatively as we reade it Although affliction or sorrow comes not forth of the dust Thirdly it may be taken Affirmatively according to which acception the text is thus carried Certainly Affliction cometh not out of the dust or Surely affliction commeth not out of the dust Either of these wayes the sense is
good yet to me our translation by the Adversative Although doth a little obscure the sense And to say Surely or certainly affliction comes not forth of the dust seemes to carry it more clearly Surely affliction cometh not out of the dust It is considerable that the word by which affliction is here exprest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iniquitas vanitas molestia bibor quia iniquitas laborem afflictionemq parturit Sept. vertunt per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sclund beares a double signification in Scripture and I conceive it may also in this text properly it signifies sinne iniquity iniquity of all sorts but especially That sinne of Idolatry As Hos 4. 15. when the house of God Bethel was polluted with idolatry the name is changed and it is called Bethaven the house of an Idoll or the house of iniquity or of that speciall iniquity namely of idolatry Sinne alters the nature of man no marvell then if it alter the names of things Hos 10. 15. and often in the old testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ascendit Eliphaz ad comunem naturalem sortem hominis quod omnes â—n peccato et ad miseriam nascimur damnati in Adamo Coc we find this word added to set out the worst of men the workers of iniquity Psal 5. 5. c. Iniquity comes not out of the dust the soyle where it grows or the shop where it is wrought and formed is mans heart Eliphaz would carry us to the wel-head our sinfull natures or our birth-sin Secondly the word signifies affliction or sorrow calamity or misery because sinne is the cause of affliction the mother of sorrow And therefore by a Metonimie of the effect for the cause which is frequent in Scripture The same word notes both sinne and sorrow The mother and the daughter are called by the same name We translate by the effect Surely affliction commeth not out of the dust Many by the cause Surely iniquity comes not out of the dust And for the full understanding of the text we must take in both where the effect only is mentioned the cause is supposed Affliction springs not out of the dust because sin springs not out of the dust Now this forme of speaking Iniquity or affliction springs or commeth not forth of the dust is proverbiall and no doubt was Pâ—oveâ—bialis quaedam sententia est qua tollat casum asseratque divinam eâ—ga res humanas imâ—â—â—ruâ— supplicâ—um providentiam Pâ—nâ—d Sanct. well knowne and often used in those times When they would remove chance or fortune as we say or deny any event to be without a certaine directive power They spake in this language This came not from the ground thereupon the vulgar translates it so in termes * Nihil in terra sine causa sit Vulg. Quasi dicerit non casu ma â— nabis accidunt neque ex terra germinant ut solent herbae nullo jacto semine There is nothing in the world without cause alluding it is probable to the Proverbe Hence a man obscurely borne whose parents and originall are unknowne is called †Terrae filius A sonnne of the earth Which imports that no man can tell whence he is or how descended They whose originall cannot be assigned are usually assigned to the common originall ‖ Mogna parens terra est or parent of us all the earth and as in regard of persons so of things when no man can tell how or which way they come they are said to come out of the ground We speak also in the other extreame affirmatively Such a thing comes out of the clouds that is we know not but God knows how it comes So then here is a deniall of chance or fortune As if Eliphaz should say reason may be found and assigned for these things they come not out of the dust Further for the clearing of this The dust and the ground stand in a two-fold opposition First unto God and secondly unto our selves First in opposition to God thus Affliction springeth not from the ground that is it comes from the wisdome power and disposition of God as the efficient cause Secondly in opposition to our selves and then the sense may be thus conceived that the materiall and meritorious cause of our affliction is not without us Nâ—n exi◠è pulvere iniquitas q. d. ab hominibus est non eter na vol pulvere nam terra non profert iniquitatem sed homines ea est natura eoâ—um coâ—rupta proin proclives aâ— eaÌ„ jucuntur D. us it is not in the ground or in other creatures but it is in our selves Every man in himselfe hath the ground which beares the source or fountain which bubbles out his sorrowes and his sufferings Man hath no reason to accuse or charge heaven or earth as the authors of his sorrow he carries the reason about with him The sinfullnes or sinke of his owne polluted nature And therefore to allude to that of the Apostle in the point of Justification Rom. 10. 6 7. Say not in thy heart who shall ascend into heaven that is to bring thy troubles downe from above or who shall decend into the deepe that is to bring up thy troubles from below for the cause is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is The corruption of nature which we preach The latter branch of this verse Neither doth trouble spring out of the ground is of the very same importance with the former therefore I shall not need to stay upon it The word which we translate Trouble signifies properly toylesome labour or any laborious toyl 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accidentall to man in this life as a fruit of sinne This doth not spring out of the ground It is an allusion to plants or herbs which grow in the open field without the worke or care of man and so are opposed to plants or herbes in a garden As if he should say Terrâ nata dicuntur illa quibus nulla ab agricolis impensa est opera ut suÌ„â— herbae quas â—â—tro terra fund â— in pratis locis incuâ—â—is Saâ—ct thy troubles are not like those herbes that grow wild in the fields without the labour and paines the care or art of man There is some hand or other that both plants and waters them We may ground some observations as the text is read Iniquity comes not forth of the dust And then as it is read Affliction comes not forth of the dust And it is necessary to give it this latitude the word equally bearing both senses As it is read Iniquity comes not c. We learn First The materiall cause of sin is in our selves We bring forth the fruit at our tongues or fingers ends and the root is in our hearts Our sinnes spring not out of the dust but out of the dirt and filth of our owne corruptions Gen. 6. 5. Every thought
hath every affliction all sorrowes in him and the justice of God may forme the most dreadfull shapt afflictions out of his sins And as the sparke lyes closely in the fire or the flint till you smite or blow them up so sin lyes secretly in our hearts till some temptation or occasion smites and brings it out Againe we may observe That Man can sin without a teacher You need not instruct him or teach him to doe evill He doth that by a naturall instinct since his nature was corrupted He sins as the sparks fly upwards or as a bird flyes in the ayre whom no man directs how to use her wings Nature is her rute There needs much teaching against sin and it is the businesse of all the Ordinances to bridle us from acting our corruptions But man walkes in the ways of wickedness without guide or precept It was the ancient error of the Pelagians that the sin of man came only by imitation they denied that man had a stock of corruption in his nature or that his nature was corrupted but seeing others sin he sinned an opinion which carries its condemnation in its own face as wel as in our hearts And though similitudes are no proofs yet the reason of a similitude is mans sinning is therefore compared to a sparks flying to shew how naturally he sins A spark flyes upward without any to lead it the way and a bird would flye though she should never see another bird flye And if a man could live so as never to see any one example of sin all his dayes yet that man out of his own heart might bring forth every sin every day Example quickens and encourages the principles of sin within us but we can sin without any extrinsick motion or provocation without pattern or president from without Lastly observe To sin is no burden or labour to a natural man For it is his nature It is no paines to the sparke to flye upwards what we doe naturally we doe easily Holy duties are no burdens to a godly man because through grace he doth them naturally he hath an inward principle which dictates the law of holines to him though he should want outward teaching He hath an unction from the holy Ghost and knoweth all things 1 Joh. 2. 20. Not that a godly man becomes like God Omniscient or knowing all for at most we know here but in part but he knows all things necessary and so farre as necessary his new birth teaches him He lives not meerely upon the outward teaching he hath both light liberty in himself and so hath a tendency to these things in his own spirit as there is a tendency in fire to ascend We should wonder and rejoyce to see how grace conquers the course of sinful nature The new man is born to mercy and holinesse to grace and glory as the sparks fly upward Hence it is said He that is born of God cannot commit sin for the seed of God remaineth in him As the sparke cannot flye downward because the heate of fire remaines in it The Apostle affirmes it of himselfe and his Fellow-labourers in the Gospell we can doe nothing against the truth but for the truth 2 Cor 13. 8. The possibilities and impossibilities of a regenerate man are directly opposite to those of a naturall man The one cannot sin the other cannot but sin the one can doe nothing against the truth the other can doe nothing for the truth gracious acts become as naturall as sinfull when nature is changed from sin to grace What a blessed change is this that man should doe good as readily as once he did evill that he who was borne free to iniquity should be re-borne free to righteousness as the sparke flye upward A godly man is a heavenly sparke He hath a fire in his nature which carries him upward for ever Thus having opened these two verses being the grounds of the following exhortation let us now examine the matter of the exhortation it selfe contained in the 8th verse Verse 8. I would seeke unto God and unto God would I commit my cause Our Translation omits one word in the beginning of this sentence which though it may be understood in our reading yet the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expression of it betters the sense Surely or truly I would seeke c. There are two opinions about the meaning of these words Some conceive that Eliphaz speaks in high contempt of Job and I may give you their sense by that proud schooling which the Pharisee gave the poor Publican Luke 18. As that Pharisee insulted over the publican thus I thank God I am not such a one as thou art c. but I fast and I pray c. So they represent Eliphaz here insulting over Job I thank God I am not such an impatient person as thou art no such rude curser of my day or complainer of my trouble I am not I thank God so distracted and so distempered as thou art and if I had been in thy case I should have shewed more wit and grace too then to do as thou hast done I should never have been so vaine and foolish so forgetfull of my own duty or the Lords Soveraignty as to cry out against and accuse his providence and dealings with me to lay about me like a mad man as thou hast done no I would have songht unto God and committed my cause unto him this should have been my course such and such the frame and temper of my spirit But I rather take these words in a good sense implying much sweetnesse and meeknesse of spirit in Eliphaz And so this verse is as an application of the Doctrine contained in the former two As if Eliphaz had said Seeing matters stand thus in themselves and these are undoubted truths that afflictions come from our selves and that our sinnes are our own and seeing thy case stands thus that now thou art under great afflictions and troubles I doe assure thee my loving friend Job were I in thy condition I will give thee faithfull counsell and tell thee my heart what I would doe I would no longer stay complaining against my day cursing creatures distempering my head and disquieting my heart with these passions but I would even goe and addresse my selfe unto God I would apply my selfe to Heaven I would seeke for remedy there earth affords it not I have ever found this the way to ease my heart when burdened to asswage my sorrowes when encreased to compose my spirit when distracted to strengthen my resolutions when unsetled I can give thee this rule with A Probatum est an assurance from mine own experience in the use of it and with clearnesse of conscience that it is my purpose in such cases to use it ever I would seeke unto God The word signifies a very diligent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat quaerere diligenter cuâ— curâ— sed interregatione veâ—biâ— ut plurimum search I would
seeke exactly and enquire laboriously unto God It signifies to seek by asking questions or by interrogating And it imports seeking with much wisedome and skill a curious or a criticall enquirie So Eccles 1. 13. I gave my heart saith Solomon to seeke and search out by wisedome And this seeking implies foure things First A supposition and a sense of our wants no man seekes that which he hath already or but thinks he hath it He that is full loathes a hony-combe Secondly A strong desire to find that which we want it notes not a bare desire only or woulding but a kind of unquietnesse or restlessenesse till we find such a desire tooke hold of David Psal 132. 4. I will not give rest to mine eyes nor slumber to mine eye-lids untill I find out a place for the Lord or untill I find the Lord. Thirdly A care to be directed about the meanes which may facilitate the finding or recovery of what we want and thus earnestly desire A seeking spirit is a carefull spirit after light and counsell Fourthly A diligent and faithfull endeavour in or about the use those meanes to which counsell directs us Through desire a man having separated himselfe seeketh and intermedleth with all wisdome Prov. 18. 1. That is he is very industrious in pursuing those advices which wisdome shews him or which are shewed him as the wayes of wisdome A lazy spirit is unfit to seeke I would seek unto God and unto God would I commit my cause In the former clause the word for God is El and in the latrer Elohim both names note the power of God El notes power or strength to act and execute Elohim power or authority to judge and determine I would seek unto El The strong God I would commit my cause to Elohim the Mighty God As if he had said Thou art in a weake and low condition now therefore seeke unto God the strong God the mighty God who is able to deliver thee Thou wantest the help of such a friend as he The Hebrew word for word is thus rendred Vnto God would I put my words or turne my speech We reach the meaning fully rendring Vnto God I would commit my cause or put my case The terme which we translate cause signifies any businesse or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat verâ—um vel negotium res meas ei committeâ—eÌ„ cause but most properly a word Explicite prayer is the turning of our thoughts into words or the putting of our case to God It is a speaking to or a pleading with the Lord. The Septuagint is clear in this sense I would deprecate the Lord I would call upon the Lord the governor of all things Both these significations of the word are profitable for us and congruous with the scope of the text I would turne my speech and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. prayer or I would commit my cause unto God The committing of our cause to God notes a resignation of our selves and of our condition into the hands of God It is as much as to say Let God doe what he will or determine what he pleaseth concerning me I will not strive or contend about question or dispute his decision or judgement of my cause I will lay my selfe down at his feet and tell him how she case stands with me then let him doe with me what seems good in his eyes This is the committing of our cause and condition unto God And the Originall word here used for God doth very well suite and correspond with this sense I will commit my cause unto God unto Elohim the great and impartiall Judge of Heaven and earth the God who loves Judgement and the habitation of whose Throne is righteousnes The God who knowes how to discern exactly between cause and cause person and person and will undoubtedly give a righteous sentence concerning every cause and person that comes before him Unto this Elohim would I commit my cause and refer my self to his arbitration Observe first in the general Eliphaz having reproved Job turnes himself to counsell and exhortation From which we may learne That As it is our duty to reprove a fault in our brother so it is our duty to advise and counsell him how to amend or come out of that fault for which we reprove him It is not enough to espy an error but we must labour to rectifie it or to tell another that he is out of the way but we must endeavour to reduce him Many can espy faults and failings in others who either know not how or care not to reforme and helpe them out Secondly observe That It is a duty to exhort and excite our bretheren to those duties wherein we find them flack or negligent Eliphaz conceived that Job was much behind in the duty of prayer and self-resignation unto God and therefore he quickens him up to it The Apostle calls us to this Christian inspection Heb. 3. 13. Exhort one another daily lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulnesse of sinne sin growing and getting strength hardens the heart it is best to oppose it betimes and therefore he bids them doe it at all times exhort one another daily Though the Apostle Peter 2 Pet. 1. 12. was perswaded of the Saints establishment in the present truth yet saith he I will not cease to put you alwayes in remembrance of these things It is a dangerous error which some hold that the Saints in this life may out grow counsell and exhortation as if there were no need to bid a godly man pray seek unto God no need to bid a godly man repent or humble himself or believe he cannot but do these things say they these are connaturall to him They are indeed to the new man within him But let them withall remember that the neglect of all these duties is as connaturall to the old man within him While there are two men within us we had need every man to look not only to one but to one another It may goe ill with the better part the new man if while he hath an enemy within to oppose him he hath not a friend without to help him On this ground besides the command of Christ the holiest man on earth may be exhorted to look to his holinesse none are in more danger then they who think they are past danger And as it is a certaine argument that a man was never good if he desires not to be better so it is a great argument that a man was never good who feares not that he may be worse They who are truly assured they cannot fall from grace are assured also that they may fall in grace and fall into sin The foundation of God stands sure but the footing of man doth not and therefore Let him that stands take heed least he fall And let them who see their brethren heedlesly falling lend them the right hand of exhortation to raise them up againe and when
of presumption against God We may commit a doubtfull cause to God desiring that he would try and examine whether it be good or bad But we must not commit a doubtfull cause to God desiring him to protect it or us in it whether it be good or bad And if in this sence we may not commit a doubtfull cause to God What shall we thinke of those who shall dare to commit an openly unjust and wicked cause to God A wicked mans prayer is alwayes sinfull but how abominable is it when he prayes to be prospered or directed in acting his sin or to be strengthned in suffering impenitently for his sin There is no gracious act but a wicked man at one time or other will imitate He will pray and repent and forgive and commit his cause to God and when he dyes commit his soule to God There is no trusting to a mouth full of good words while the heart will not empty it selfe of wickednesse It is good alwayes to commit our cause and our soules to God but a cause or a soule are not therefore good because committed unto God The language of Israel is often spoken by the men of Ashdod And many who never had the least part of holinesse in them can yet set themselves when there is no remedie to act a part in it The Apostle Peter gives us this rule 1 Epist 4. 19. Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their soules to him in well-doing as unto a faithfull Creatour Except we suffer according to the will or from the hand of God and also doe well in our sufferings Christ will not admit this Feofement though we commit our selves to him he will not accept the trust But he that suffers according to or by the will of God and doth well in suffering that is hath a good cause and a good conscience He I say may commit all to God and in the mercy of the most High he shall not miscarry Lastly Whereas Eliphaz saith I would seeke unto God were I in thy case observe That It is a wise course in advising others to shew our selves readie to follow the same advise It wins exceedingly upon others to take our counsell when it appeares we are ready to follow the same counsell our selves We ought to doe nothing unto others but what we would have done unto our selves and we should advise nothing to others but what we our selves would doe It puts strength into a rule when he that gives it is ready to enliven it by his owne practice As a Physitian for the encouragement of his patient to take a nauseous medicine will say to him Sir you seeme unwilling to drinke it but if I were sicke and distempered as you are I would drinke it readily and that you may see there is no hurt in it I will tast a little my selfe His tasting sweetens it and the patient likes it well Thus when either Minister or private friend offers advise or counsell and shall say thus I would doe this I would follow This takes upon the heart whereas it disparages prayer or any duty to say to another Seeke unto God put your case unto him fast and pray When he that gives the counsell neglects all these duties and is carelesse of communion with God Christ saith of the Pharisees that they bound heavy burthens upon the shoulders of others These burdens were counsels and directions rules and canons they would have men doe thus and thus in the manner of Gods worship or daily converse with men But They themselves would not touch them with one of their fingers Mat. 23. 4. That is they would not practise them in the least degree As to do evil with both hands Mic. 7. 3. notes the highest degree both of desire endeavour in doing evill So not to touch that which is good with a finger notes a total neglect of doing good A finger is the least member and a Touch is the least act then these Pharisees not touching with a finger imports they did not act at all It is good to act a rule privately by way of experiment before we put it upon others but it is most necessary to act it by way of example when we have published it to and press'd it upon others It was a speech of one of the Ancients I never taught my people any thing but what I had first practised and experimented my selfe Doctrine is sooner followed by the eye then by the eare He that like the Scribes and pharisees Mat. 23. 3. saith and doth not shall find but few to doe what he saith No man ought to teach any thing which he is not willing as he is call'd to doe and observe himselfe It is very sinfull to give counsell which we will not take Our works ought to be the practise of our words and as practicable as our words Woe unto those of whom it may be said as Christ of the Pharisees Mat. 23. 3. Whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and doe but doe not ye after their works JOB Chap. 5. Vers 9. Which doth great things and unsearchable marvellous things without number c. THis context unto the 17 verse containes the second argument by which Eliphaz strengthneth his former Exhortation To seeke unto God and to commit his cause unto him The argument may be thus formed He is to be sought unto both in duty and in wisdome and unto him our cause is to be committed who is of absolute infinite power wisdome and goodnesse But God is of absolute infinite power wisdome and goodnesse Therefore it is our duty and our wisdome to seeke unto God and unto God to commit our cause That God is infinite in power wisdome and goodnesse Eliphaz proves by an enumeration or induction of divers effects and works which call for infinite power wisdome and goodnesse to produce and actuate them These effects are laid down first in generall v. 9. Who doth great things and unsearchable marvellous things without number Then these works or effects are given in particulars and the first particular instance of Gods mighty power is in naturall things or his preservation of the world at the 10 verse Who giveth raine upon the earth and sendeth waters upon the fields The second instance is given in civill things or his administrations in the world at the 12 13 14. verses And that we may consider two wayes 1. In destroying the counsels and plots of the wicked in the 12 13 and 14. verses He disappointeth the devices of the crafty so that their hands cannot performe their enterprise c. 2. In delivering those who are in trouble at the 15. verse He saveth the poore from the Sword c. These are works of Power Further the goodnesse of God shines forth in two things 1. By the present intendment or end aimed at in these mighty works ver 11. To set up on high those that be low that those which mourne may
I have not only given him a being and a shape but I have put upon him all the perfections of nature yea and the perfections of grace the impressions of my speciall love and favour I have lifted him up to the top of all and so some render the word I have magnified or made him great I have exalted and set him upon the highest pinnacles of perfections and mountaines of holinesse Hence observe When God begins a worke he compleats and carries it through He doth not only Create and give a being Forme and give proportion but He doth or he makes giving beauty and exactnesse to his works Whether we consider the works of God as naturall civill or spirituall in this sense God doth them Deut. 32. 4. Moses speakes in generall concerning all the works of God He is a rock and his worke is perfect The works of Creation are admirable to the eye the works of Providence how often doe they fill the heart with admiration That which he spake to Samuel concerning the house of Ely is appliable both to his works of Mercy and of judgement When I begin I will also make an end 1 Sam. 3. 12. that is I will doe it fully there is nothing shall take me off or stay me in the mid-way I will not worke to halves I will also make an end And so it is in spirituals when once God hath begun he carries on his work of grace when once he hath laid the foundation stone of mercy he never leaves untill he hath set up the the top stone the highest stone of glory Hence the Apostles Heb. 12. entitles Christ The author and finisher of our faith that is the beginner and ender Alpha and Omega first and last about our faith It shall never be said of any work of God as Luk. 14. That he began to build but could not finish it And as he finishes so he beautifies all his works are full of order and comelinesse He doth his work exquisitely or as we say artificially yea those works that we look upon as full of confusion are full of order and those works in which we see no form or nothing but deformity even these will one day appear now they are admirable in beauty and comelinesse That which the Apostle speaks in his exhortation to Timothy 2 Tim. 2. 15. bidding him doe the work of an Evangelist bidding him shew himselfe a workman that needeth not to be ashamed is most true concerning the great God of Heaven and earth He shewes himselfe a workman or a worker that needeth not to be ashamed When he works he doth the work of a God He works like himselfe Man cannot so much as be suspected to have done such things The Name that is the wisdome power and goodness of God is written upon them in so faire and clear a letter that it must be said by way of assertion This hath God wrought And by way of admiration what hath God wrought Numb 23. 23. A man sc a meer naturall man beholding these things shall say verily he is a God that judgeth the earth Psal 58. 11. Man cannot judge or doe like this The Lord needs not engrave or subscribe his Name to his works His words like so many Capitall letters spell and like so many Heraulds proclaime his Name Which doth great things To passe from the act or manner of doing we will consider the object He doth great things Some men with a great deal of paines doe nothing and others with a great deal of art doe a thing of nothing a trifle a toy a meere fancy at least some mean or inferiour work takes up their time skill and study But when God goes to work we may expect a noble work He doth great things The works of GOD answer the stile or Attributes of God He is a great God and His are great works The works of God speak a God And here are foure things spoken in this one verse of the works of God which speak aloud This is the finger of God I will first bundle them together and then both take and weigh them asunder He doth First Great things Secondly Vnsearchable Thirdly Wonderfull Fourthly Innumerable or without number No works of man or Angel are capable of such a foure-fold stampe as this no nor any one work of all the creatures put together could ever be stamped with any one of these characters in any comparison with the works of God Some in a sense have done great things but none have done things unsearchable Man may fathome the works of man his closest wayes are not past finding out As there was never any thing made so strong by the strength of man but there was some other strength in man that could match yea overthrow it so there was never any thing so wisely so artificially or mysteriously contrived by the skill knowledge and deepest understanding of a man but that the skill knowledge and understanding of another man hath or might have ridled and searcht it out The works of most men are wrought above ground and their intentions flote and swimme upon the face of their actions And although some as the Prophet speakes Isa 29. worke deepe to hide their counsels as they hope not only from men but from God yet God gives other men a light to discover the very lowest hell of those counsels even all the depths of Satan The master-Engineere of those mines and subterranean contrivances Further Though some men doe that which makes other men especialy fooles or men weake in knowledge wonder yet no Thaumaturgas or wonder-worker ever did that which makes all men wonder Or if it should be granted that any have done things great unsearchable wonderfull yet I am sure none have done these things without number one great unsearchable wonderfull work is taske enough for one mans life And a little skill in numbers will serve the turne to cast up and give us the totall summe and number of all the works of all men which deservedly beare as mans may the title and superscription of great unsearchable wonderfull More distinctly First He doth great things There is a greatnes upon every thing God doth The great God leaves as it were the print of his own greatnesse even upon those things which we accont little little works of nature have a greatnesse in them considered as done by God and little works of providence have a greatnesse in them considered as done by God If the thing which God doth be not great in it selfe yet it is great because he doth it As there is no sin of man little in it selfe though comparatively it be because committed against a great God So there is no work of God little though comparitively it be because acted by the great God Further if God doth a thing which in it selfe considered or considered according to the line and rule of the creature is unjust yet because God doth it or commands it to be done his very doing
or commanding stamps justice upon it as is clear in the case of Abrahams call to sacrifice his son and the Israelites carrying away the jewels of the Aegyptians If then the act of God whose will is the supream law makes that lawfull which according to the common rule is unlawfull how much more doth the act of God make that great which in ordinary proportion is accounted small Againe When it is said God doth great things we must not understand it as if God dealt not about little things or as if he let the small matters of the world passe and did not meddle with them Great in this place is not exclusive of Little for he doth not onely great but small even the smallest things The Heathens said their Jupiter had no leisure to be present at the doing of small Non vacat exignis rebus adesse Jovi things or it did not become him to attend them God attendeth the doing of small things and it is his honour to doe so the falling of a Sparrow to the ground is one of the smallest things that is yet that is not without the providence of God the haires of our head are small things yet as not too many so not too small for the great God to take notice of Christ assures us this The very haires of your head are all numbred Mat. 10. 29 30. We ought highly to adore and reverence the power and inspection of God about the lowest the meanest things and actions Is it not with the great God as with great men or as it was with that great man Moses who had such a burthen of businesse in the government of that people upon his shoulders that he could not bear it therefore his Father in law adviseth him to call in the aide of others and divide the work But how The great matters the weighty and knotty controversies must be brought to Moses but the petty differences and lesser causes are transmitted and handed over to inferiour judges And it shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee but every small matter they shall judge Exod. 18. 22. But God the great Judge of Heaven and earth hath not onely the great and weighty but small matters brought unto him the least motions of the creature are heard and resolved disposed and guided by his wisdome and power You will say What is this greatnesse and what are these great things I shall hint an answer to both for the clearing of the words There is a two-fold greatnesse upon the works of God There is so we may distinguish First the greatnesse of quantity Secondly the greatnesse of quality or vertue That work of God which is greatest in the bulk or quantity of it is the work of Creation How spacious huge and mighty a fabrique is Heaven and earth with all things compacted and comprehended in their circumference And in this work so vast for quantity what admirable qualities are every where intermixt Matter and forme power and order quantity and quality are so equally ballanced that no eye can discerne or judgement of man determine which weighes most in this mighty work Yet among these works of God some are called great in regard of quality rather then of quantity As it is said Gen. 1. 16. That God made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night Sunne and Moone these are great lights not that there are no lights great but these or that both these are greater then all other heavenly lights for many Stars are greater then the Moon as the doctrine and observation of Astronomers assures us but the lesser of these is great in regard of light and influence excellency and usefulnesse to the world And as to these works of creation so the works of providence are great works When God destroyes great enemies the greatnesse of his work is proclaimed When great Babylon or Babylon the great shall be destroyed the Saints song of triumph shall be Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy wayes thou King of Saints Rev. 15. 3. Great and marvellous works why Because thou hast destroyed great Babylon and hast executed great judgement and powred out great wrath So great works of mercy and deliverance to his people are cryed up with admiration And hath given us such a deliverance as this saith Ezra Chap. 9. 13. when the Jewes returned from their captivity out of Babylon That mercy was a kind of miracle that deliverance a wonder and therefore he mentions it in termes of admiration Such deliverance as this How great So great that he had neither words to express nor example to paralell it but lets it stand nakedly by it selfe in its native glory Such deliverance as this The Spirituall works of God are yet far greater the work of redemption is called a great salvation the conversion and justification of a sinner the pardon of our sinnes and the purifying of our nature are works as high above creation and providence as the Heavens are in comparison of the earth Take two or three Corolaries or Deductions from hence As first It is the property of God to doe great things And because it is his property he can as easily doe great things as small things Among men Great spirits count nothing great A great spirit swallowes and overcomes all difficulties Much more is it so with the great God who is a Spirit all Spirit and the father of spirits To the great God there is nothing great He can as easily doe the greatest as the least 1 Sam 14. 6. 2 Chron. 14. There Animo magâ—â— nihil magnum is no restraint to the Lord to save with few or by many or it is nothing with thee to help whether with many or with them that have no power It is not so much as the dust of the ballance with God to turne the scale of victory in battell whether there be more or lesse Seeing all Nations before him are but as the dust of the ballance as nothing yea lesse then nothing So that whether you put him upon any great work or small work you put the Lord to no more stresse to no more paines in the one then in the other for he doth great things and to doe them is his property not his study his nature not his labour He needs not make provisions or preparations for what he would have done the same act by which he wills the doing of a thing doth it if he wills What great things hath the Lord done in our dayes We may say as the Virgin Luke 1. 49. He that is Mighty hath done to us great things and Holy is his Name and as they Acts 2. 11. We have both heard and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Magnalia Dei seen the great things of God done amongst us and I believe greater things are yet to be done It was a great work at the beginning
of time to make Heaven and earth and will it not be a great work to shake Heaven and earth That God hath said he will doe before the end of time Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the Heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land Hag. 2. 6. The words following seem to interpret this earthquake and Heaven-quake I will shake all Nations Againe It was a great work to make the old Heaven and earth and will it not be a great work to make a new Heaven and a new earth That is the businesse which God is about in these letter days as he promised Isa 65. 17. Behold I create a new heaven and a new earth what is that Jerusalem a praise and her people a joy When God reformeth the face of his Church and settles the affaires of Kingdomes and Common-wealths he makes new Heavens and a new Earth And if it be the property of God to doe great things then it is a duty in us to expect great things We ought to look for such things as come up to and answer the power and greatness of God we dishonour and as it were humble God when we look onely for low and meane things Great expectations from God honour the greatnesse of God As the Lord expects to receive the greatest services from us because he is a great King Mal. 1. 14. So we ought to expect that we shall receive the greatest mercies from the Lord because he is a great King It dishonours God as much and more when we believe little as when we doe little A great King thinks himselfe dishonoured if you aske him a petty suite he looks more what becomes him to give or doe in bounty then the petitioner to aske in necessity The Great Alexander could tell his suiter whom he had more astonisht then relieved with his favour That though the thing might be too great for him to receive yet it was not too great for Alexander to give If dust and ashes can speake and think at this rate O how large is the heart of God! Then it is not onely our priviledge but our duty to aske and believe great things we ought to have a great faith because God doth great things Is it becomming to have a great God and a little faith To have a God that doth great things and we to be a people his people that cannot believe great things nay To have a God who can easily doe great things and we a people that can hardly believe small things How unbecoming if some small thing be to be done then usually faith is upon the wing but if it be a great thing then faith is clogg'd her wings are clipt and we at a stand why should it be said unto us as Christ said unto his Disciples O ye of little faith It may be as dangerous to us if not as sinfull not to believe the day of great things as to despise the â—ay of small things Why should not our faith in a holy scorne baffle the greatest difficulties in that language of the Prophet Zech. 4. 7. Who art thou O great Mountaine before Zerubbabell thou shalt become a plaine There is another usefull consequence from this truth He that doth great works ought to have great praises As we ought to have great faith that he will doe great things so he ought to have great acknowledgments when he hath done great things Shall God doe great things for us and shall we give him some poor leane starven sacrifices of praise It is very observable that as soon as the Prophet had described the Lord in his greatnesse Isa 40. 15. he adds in the very next verse And Lebanon is not sufficient to burne nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt Offering That is no services are great enough for this great God Lebanon abounded in spices for Incense and perfume it abounded with cattell for Sacrifice and burnt offerings To say that Lebanon had not spice enough to burne for incense nor beasts enough to burne for Sacrifice shews the Lord far exalted in greatnesse above all the praises and holy services of his people Lastly seeing God doth great works for us let us shew great zeale for great love unto the Lord. We should aime at the doing of great things for God seeing God indeed doth great things for us So much of the first Attribute of the works of God Who doth great things And unsearchable The Hebrew is and no search The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports the search of those things which are most abstruce and secret As the heart which the Lord onely can search Jer. 17. 15. The heart lies too low not onely for the eye but for the understanding of man Hence it is used Psal 95. 4. to note the Foundations or deep places of the earth because they cannot be known but by deep searchings or rather because they are beyond the deepest Penetralia terrae ut Aben Ezra explicat quae sciâ—i nequeunt nisi exquisita per scrutatione vel potiùs quòd homini minimè sunt perscutabilia Deo autuÌ„ in prepatulo Buxtorf search of man And the same phrase we find Psal 145. 3. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his greatnesse is unsearchable or according to the letter of his greatnesse no search as when the Psalmist speaks of the greatnesse of God in his nature and essence presently he adds and of his greatnesse there is no search so here when Eliphaz speaks of the greatnesse of God in his works the next word is they are unsearchable As God in himselfe is great and of his greatnesse there is no search so many of the works of God are so great that of their greatnes there is no search that is you cannot find out their greatnesse by any search God is in working and so are men the hand cannot act beyond the head as he is in understanding There is no searching of his understanding Isa 40. 28. Therefore there is none of his working This unsearchablenesse of the works of God may be considered two wayes 1. As that which cannot be found by enquirie 2. As that which ought not to be found or enquired There are some works of God which are not to be searched into Arcana imperij they are to be adored by believing not to be pryed into by searching and in that sence they are called unsearchable Rom. 11. 33. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdome of and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements Many of his judgements that is his works of judgement are so unsearchable that it is not industry or duty but presumption to search into them As those unspeakable words which Paul heard in the third heavens were such as 2 Cor. 12. 4. is not lawfull for a man to utter so unsearchable judgements may be interpreted such as is not lawfull for a man to search Great Princes will
thus Hath not the Potter power over his clay Some think they could doe things better then God hath done or at least that God might have done better if they had the power in their hands things should not goe thus and thus What an insufferable indignity is this to the wisdome and power of God that He whose works are unsearchable should be made accountable for his works That of Augustine when he was in a deep meditation about the nature of God may well be applied to the works of God who walking by the sea side in deepe thoughts of God either heard this voyce or was filled with this thought That he might as soone empty the sea with or comprehend the Ocean in one of those little cockle-shels which lay on the shore as with the narrow vessell of his Spirit comprehend the infinite greatnesse of the God of Spirits Marvellous things * Inscrutabile mirabile differunt inscrutabile est qued laâ—et perquiri non potest Miâ—abile est quod ipsum qâ—idem apparet sed causa ejus perquiri non potest Aquin. in loc Unsearchable things and marvellous differ thus Those things are unsearchable which lie hid and cannot be found that is a marvell whose cause cannot be found though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it selfe be not hid This is the third adjunct or attribute of the works of God The word is derived from a root which signifies Seperated Disjoyned or Divided And marvellous things are exprest by that word because marvels or wonders are seperated or Separatus disjunctus Hinc significat mirabâ—lia quia talia sunt à nobis separata captum su erant ita ut ratione quis asse qui aut re praestare â—equeat removed from us three degrees at least They are seperated First from our knowledge or reason Secondly from our sense not that marvels are invisible marvels and miracles are wrought to be seen and the use of them lies in this from the sence to confirme faith or to convince of unbeliefe Which by the way quite overthrowes the Popish refuge of a miracle in their supposed transubstantiation of the bread at the Eucharist who tell us of a miracle but can shew us none But though in all miracles and marvails the thing wrought is plain to the sences yet both the power and manner of doing it are removed from the sences The marvell wrought is seene but the working of the marvell is not seen Thirdly Marvels are seperated or removed from our imitation we cannot doe such things The Lord stands alone working wonders They are seperated part and portion for God himself The Egyptian Sorcerers seemed to doe by their devillish inchantments what Moses did by the command and power of God But at the best they did but seeme to doe like Moses and presently they could not so much as seeme Exod. 8. 18. And the Magicians did so that is they attempted to doe so but they could not They that worke by the devils art or power cannot worke long They will quickly be at A Could not Both their religions and their miraculous workes are at best but in appearance at last they will not so much as appeare In these three respects marvels are rightly called separate Further the word also signifies sometimes A hard or a difficult thing because those things that are very hard and difficult have somewhat of wonder in them and cause us to wonder at them Deut. 17. 8. If a matter come which is too hard the word is which is too marvellous and wonderfull for thee c. And Gen. 18. 14. Is any thing too hard for me saith God the word is Is any thing wonderfull to me Nothing is wonderfull to us but that which is too hard for us There is nothing wonderfull to God who doth all wonders and is himselfe all Wonder It hath beene said concerning those lovers of and searchers after secret wisedome called Philosophers that it doth not become a Philosopher to wonder For admiration is usually the daughter of ignorance we marvell at most things because we know the causes of few things It was therefore a shame for a Philosopher to wonder because it betrayed his ignorance who would be thought studied in yea a master of all causes and able to give a reason of all things in nature But it is most certaine the great God never marvelleth at any thing For is any thing too hard for me saith the Lord. Wonders are things too hard for us and the same word signifies a wonder and a thing too hard There are three words of neare alliancec in the Hebrew Signes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Miracles and Mervails And they may be distinguisht thus A Signe is the representation of a thing present or before us A Miracle or Portentum as contra-distinct from the former shews forth somewhat future or that is to come A Mervaile as differing from both is any act of providence secret or separate from us in the manner of doing or producing it a thing to us unsearchable so Exod. 33. 16. Wherein shall it be knowne that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight saith Moses Is it not in that thou goest with us So shall we be separated I and thy people So we translate it or made wonderfull that is if thou goest along with us thou wilt doe such marvails for us as will make a difference betweene us and all the people in the world we shall be a people marvell'd at all the world over or a spectacle to the world Angels and Men. The presence of God with a people is their difference or will make them differ from all people with whom God is not under the Notion of Favour and Protection present Againe Marvels are taken sometimes for Miracles which are meerely and purely supernaturall For in ordinary acceptation of the word a Marvell is only the heightning and sublimating of nature or acting in the highest Spheare of nature but a Miracle is a crossing or a contradicting of nature A worke altogether above yea against Nature Now we are not to take marvels here in that strict sense for miracles for the great works of God are call'd marvels or wonders which yet are but either the ordinary constitutions of Nature or the extraordinary motions of nature as Psal 136. 4. O give thanks to the Lord to him who alone doth great wonders What are these In the 5 6 and 7. verses instances are given in naturall things as making the heavens and stretching out the earth above the waters The making of those great lights the Sun and Moon * Mirabilior est grani in terra multiplâ—catio quam illa quinque Panum August Tâ—act 24 in Joh in Quicquid mirabile fit in mundo profectò minus est quà m totus hic mundus Qua â—vis ilaque miracula visibiliuÌ„ naturaâ—um videndi assiduitate vile scunt tamen cum ea sapienter intuemur
inusitatissimis raâ—â—ssimisque majora sunt August l. 5. de Civ Dei cap 12. One of the Ancients discoursing upon that miracle in the Gospell The multiplying the loaves observeth that in naturall things there are very great wonders though we lightly passe them by They were astonished to see the loaves multiplying while they were eating To see bread grow upon the Table or between their Teeth made all wonder but there is as great a miracle wrought every yeare and no man takes notice of it That is when Corne cast into the ground multiplies thirty sixty a hundred-fold It is saith he a greater miracle for corne to multiply in the earth then for loaves to multiply on the Table And he makes a like Conclusion in his Booke of the City of God Whatsoever is wonderfull in the world is not so great a wonder as the world Yet men rarely wonder at the making of the world the Earth the Heavens the Sea the Aire every creature in them exceed in wonders the things we wonder at Ordinary works of Nature are marvellous First because they proceed from a divine power 2. Because man is posed to give a reason of most of them Canst thou tell how the bones grow in her that is with child saith the Preacher The bringing of an Infant alive from the Wombe is a wonder as well as the raising of a man from the dead And the budding of a Tree as well as the budding of Aarons Rod †Per multa sunt quae admirari nonsolemus propterea quod vulgo quotidieque fiunt Renova in solita commovetur animus The usualnesse of the one and the rarenesse of the other is though not the only yet the greatest difference And as the ordinary workes of Creation in making so of Providence in governing the world are full of wonders though they passe unobserved Such Eliphaz takes notice of in the words following The disappointing of craftie oppressors and the deliverance of the poore When God shall destroy Babylon the Song prepared is Great and wonderfull are thy works and Exod. 15. 11. from whence that is taken Who is like unto thee O God! Who is like unto thee glorious in holinesse fearefull in praises doing wonders The wonder was a deliverance the wonderfull deliverance of his people from Egypt and through the red Sea Works of judgement are often called works of wonder Deut 28. 59. I will make thy plagues wonderfull and Isa 28. 21. The Lord shall rise up as in Meunt Perazim he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon that he may doe his worke his strange worke and bring to passe his act bis strange act What act was this An act of judgement upon his and his peoples enemies as is clear 2 Sa. 5. 20. and Josh 10. 12. where we may reade what God did in Mount Perazim and in the valley of Gibeon strange works indeed And these works of God are called marvellous not onely when God is in them alone and acts without the intervention of the creature but when he act with the creature above the strength of a creature so that little of the creature appeares in the act this also is a marvell What God doth more by a man then man can doe whether in strength or wisdome ordinarily assisted so much of a wonder shewes it selfe in what man doth And therefore no man is ordinarily to attempt any thing beyond his strength for that is to tempt God and call him to worke a miracle at least a wonder for us Lord saith David Psal 131. 1. Mine heart is not Non mae exâ—uli ad ea quae maeas vires aut ingenium suâ—eraret Eleganter Thâ—odoretus Meipsum meâ—â—ebaâ— quae me excedunt non aggrossus sum haughty nor mine eyes loftie neither doe I exercise my selfe in great matters or in things too high for me The word is in things too wonderfull for me that is I doe not ordinarily put my selfe upon things which are extraordinary or beyond my strength and parts I measure-my undertakings and my abilities together and would keepe them even I doe not put God upon doing wonders every day therefore I set my selfe to those things which are according to the line of man If God call us to it we may expect a miracle but we must not call God to worke miracles for us or with us I doe not exercise my selfe in matters too high for me Miracles or marvels are not every dayes exercise We ought rather to be above our worke or any of our designes then below them but we must be sure they are not above us It is the safest and holiest way for man in all his actions to be upon a levell We cannot but displease God and hurt our selves by clambering It is but sometimes that rhe Lord will work wonders to releeve our necessities and help our faith but he will never unlesse in wrath work wonders to please our humors or comply with our ambition Hence observe First When we see marvels done we must acknowledgc the hand of God Marvels are proper unto God Psal 75. 1. In that thy Name is neere thy wonderous works declare Wonderous works are an argument that God is neere When wonders are among us we may know who is among us and if so then this is a time wherein God is seene among us We may well apply that of the Psalmist to our selves Marvellous things hath the Lord done in our sight in Ireland and in the Fields of England Psal 78. 12. Mervails are rare things things seldome done or seene We have things amongst us which were never done or seene before in our Nation A Parliament which cannot be legally dissolved but by its own Vote An Assembly where neither Diocesan Bishops nor Deane as such can Vote The three Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland entred into a solemn Covenant approved by the Assemblies and authorized by the Parliaments of two Kingdomes May we not conclude of these in the language of the Prophet Who hath heard such a thing who hath seen such things Isay 66. 8 Surely we may say as Moses to Israel Deut. 4. 34. Hath God assayed to goe and take him a Nation from the middest of another Nation by temptation by signes and by wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by a stretched out arme and by great terrors according to all that the Lord our God doth for us in England before our eyes To take a Nation out of the midst of a Nation is our case If England finding as now it doth her children strugling in her wombe should goe enquire of the Lord as Rebecca did Gen. 25. 22. why is it thus The Lord may answere as he did to her Two Nations are in thy wombe and two manner of people shall be separated frem thee A Nation fearing God and a Nation blaspheming God a Nation seeking Reformation and a Nation opposing Reformation Secondly If God work mervailes and we believe him not
sound to our english water that some think it a derivative from it By the Rain we are to understand not the showres only which fall from Heaven but all those blessings and benefits for the support of our naurall life which are the fruits of raine He sendeth raine as it were on his errand to bring or carry the blessings of plenty and to drop fatnes on the earth He giveth rain to the earth and then the earth giveth her encrease The Rabbins have a saying that raine is the husband of the earth because those showers foecundate the earth and make that great mother of plenty Imber maritus terrae fruitfull in bringing forth all things usefull and comfortable for the life of man He giveth raine upon the face of the earth so the letter of the Originall that is upon the earth as the face of Heaven and the face of the sea so the face of the earth is an Hebraisme for the earth it selfe It is sayed in the latter clause of the verse that he sendeth waters upon the fields We must distinguish these waters from the raine taking them for rivers and streams of water as the Psalmist speaks He causeth the rivers to runne among the hils and the Prophet Habaccuk Thou cleavest the earth with the rivers The word is of the Dual number it the Hebrew and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Forma duali significantur aquae duplices superiores in coelo ut nubes inferiores in terra ut mare fonâ—es flumina by some applied to those two sorts of waters or to the waters above and to the waters that are beneath So the waters are distinguished Psal 104. v. 3. we reade of the upper waters Who layeth the beames of his chambers in the waters who maketh the clouds his chariot and of the inferior or lower waters Gen. 1. 9. The Lord said let the waters under the earth be gathered into one place and both are put together ver 7. God made the firmament and divided the waters that were under the firmament from the waters that were above the firmament So that the waters above and the waters below may both here be understood It is added further He sendeth waters upon the fields The word we traslate fiolds signifies any place that is without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nomen proprâ—è est sed juniâ—tur saepe adverbialiter pro fortis in universuÌ„ pro loco exteriori Merc. Deserta horrida loca mortali bu inaccessa doores as streets and high-wayes and because fields are without sub dio covered only with the canopie of the heavens therefore we translare he sendeth waters upon the fields And it takes in all sorts of fields whether till'd or untill'd though som conceive that here Eliphaz meanes those fields especially which are untilled unsowne or unmanured fields where men come not namely desarts and wildernesses as if he should say there is no place but God sends waters to it Hence the vulgar reade in stead of fields all places He moistens all places with waters Here first Forasmuch as an instance of Gods greatnesse power Irrigat aquis universa Vulg. and insearchable wisedom is given in the raine a naturall thing we may note That The common blessings of God are not dispensed without a speciall providence Nature workes not without the God of nature He doth great things and what He sendeth raine The whole course of nature moves as it is turned by the hand of God and directed by his connsell It is not in the frame of nature as in many artificiall frames which being once set up will stand or goe alone When the Artificer hath made a clock and put it in frame and hung on the weights let him goe whether he will the clock will goe and if there were roome for the weights to descend the clock continuing in frame would goe perpetually though no hand helped or toucht it But it is not so in the frame and workings of naturall things God hath set all creatures in a frame and curiously ordered them one within another but there is no motion of the least wheele much lesse of the whole fabrique without the speciall hand of God when raine comes God saith goe raine is his gift not the clouds the cloud receives a commission from God to distill and dissolve upon man The most full spongy clouds Cum plenae sunt nubes effundunt pluviam non tamen absque Dei jussis Drus distill no more then the rock did in the wildernesse till the Lord speaks to them As When he uttereth his voice there is a multitude of waters in the Heavens and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth Jer. 10. 13. So till he uttereth his voice not one single drop of all that multitude of waters fals from heaven nor will those vapours descend and returne againe to the earth except he bid them He giveth raine upon the earth Raine is the speciall gift of God Speciall not in that sense as grace is a speciall gift for raine is a common gift but speciall because it is that of which and about which God takes speciall notice as we reade Amos 4. 8. I caused it to raine saith God upon one place or upon one City and not upon another There is a speciall discriminating worke about the raine it raines by appointment not accident upon one place rather then another And Isa 5. 6. when God expresses displeasure against his vineyard he saith I will command the clouds that they shall raine upon it The clouds are as vast bottles full of raine but they cannot unstop themselves or let out one drop untill God himselfe commands them He melteth the clouds as it is in Job and then the raine falleth downe Thou O God didst send a plentifull raine whereby thou didst confirme thine inheritance when it was weary Psal 68. 9. How wearie or drie soever the Earth is unlesse God by a word broach those vessels of raine the very inheritance of God cannot have a draught no nor a drop to quench its thirst Therefore though raine be a common blessing in respect of all places and persons yet we ought to acknowledge a speciall hand in giving it And this checks that naturall Atheisme which reigns in their hearts who thinke that they are beholding only to the motion of the winds or change of the Moon for rain and hence in times of drought they looke most when the wind will turne or when the Moone will change To confute this the Prophet tels us by the way of question That as Idols cannot so neither can the Heavens give raine Jer. 14. 22. Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause raine Or can the Heavens give showres They cannot Indeed the holy Prophet Elias speakes such language as if he had carried the keyes of the clouds at his girdle or had been master of the raine 1 King 17. 1.
As the Lord liveth there shall not be dew nor raine these yeares but according to my word But the Apostle James shews us what word this was namely a word of prayer not of command Chap. 5. 17. Elias prayed and it rained not againe he prayed and it rained All the power of man cannot prevaile with the heavens to raine but the prayer of faith can prevaile with the God of heaven To send raine was the worke of God though it were at the word of a man They who denie God in one worke will quickly denie him in another And if we deny him in lesser yea the least of his works in a drop of raine we are in danger to deny him in the greater And they who denie God in his working have but an easie step to the deniall of his being This should teach us to walke in dependance upon God for all naturall comforts He giveth raine All creatures drinke from Heaven that they may have their eyes and their hearts in Heaven And if we must walk in dependance upon God for naturall comforts how much more for spirituall if for the rain of the clouds how much more for the dews of his Spirit and the rain of grace upon our hearts Further observe It is a great wonderfull and unsearchable worke of God to send raine For we must put the stampe of those foure characters upon all these workes And so raine is a great a wonderfull and an unsearchable worke of God so great and wonderfull that as hath bin proved no creature can communicate with God or share in the honour of this worke The Rabbins have a saying that upon every apex or Tittle of the Law their hangs a mountaine of sence and holy Doctrine We may say that in every drop of raine there is an ocean of wisedome of power of goodnes and of bounty If we study the ordinary In ea mira Dei in suas creaturas spectaâ—ur benignitas clemenâ—iae simul potentia undè passim Propheâ—e praesertim in hoc libâ—o quandò socij Job aut Job ipse admiranda Dei opera prâ—ponunt pluviam inter ea primo loâ—o ponunt Merc. workes of God we shall learne somewhat extraordinary in them common things are ful of wonder and among all common things none fuller of wonders then the raine To illustrate this a little in some particular considerations First There is marvellous power seen in causing and giving raine Is it not marvellous power which raises the vapours and holds as we may so speake A sea of water above the earth That such mighty seas and floods of water hang in the ayre and thence are distill'd and sprinkled downe as Job speakes in small drops are acts and arguments of the wonderfull power of God Secondly Behold in the raine the wonderfull goodnes of God who by this meanes cooles and refreshes nourishes and suckles all earthly living creatures When the ground is enapt and gapes as it were with open mouth the Lord opens these bottles and gives it drinke And a miracle of goodnes is seene in this forasmuch as when his very enemyes hunger he thus feeds them when they are naked he thus cloaths them when they thirst he thus gives them drinke Mat. 5. 45. He sendeth raine upon the just and upon the unjust They are maintained in life by the goodnesse of God whose lives maintaine a continuall warr against his justice And as there is a wonder of goodnesse in giving rain for the use of evill men So there is a wonder of bounty in sending raine upon those places which are not of use to any man he sendeth waters upon the fields that is all over the world Hence when Elihu would set forth the marvellous power and bounty of God he exemplifies it in this Job 38. 25. Who hath devided a water course for the overstowing of waters to cause it to raine on the earth whereno man is and on the wildernes where there is no man Such an open and bountifull house doth the Lord of Heaven and earth keep that rather then any shall want he will in a sence let the water runne wast God will not have so much as an herbe or a plant to want though there be no man to come there yet the grasse and shrubs shall have drinke and tast of his bounty And so legible is that goodnes of God which is written with drops of rain so wonderfull his power and bounty in giving rain that the Prophet wonders at the stupidity of those men who are not convinced of and taught obedience by it They have not said let us fear the Lord that giveth the first and the latter raine in his season Jer. 5. 24. As if he should say what a strange thing is it that sweet showers of raine have not softened the hearts of men into the feare of God and made them blossome with and bring forth abundantly the fruits of holines Hereupon it is very remarkeable how Moses makes this a motive to perswade the children of Israel to obedience in Canaan because that country stood in much need of raine which Egypt from whence they came did not Deut. 11. Therefore shall ye keepe all the Commandements which I command you this day ver 8. For the land whither thou goest in to possesse it is not like the land of Egypt from whence ye came out where thou sowest thy seed and wateredst it with thy foot like a garden of herbes That is Egypt being a flat plaine country all upon a levell when the Land wanted moysture thou didst not stay for or depend upon the raine to moisten it but with thy foot thou diggedst draines and madest sluces or water-courses from the river side meaning Nilus that famous river which ran quite through Egypt and that refreshed thy lands and made them fruitfull But Canaan is another kind of Country vers 11 12. the Land whether thou goest in to possesse it is a Land of hils and valleyes and drinketh water of the raine of Heaven A land which the Lord thy God careth for his eyes are upon it c. As if he had said Canaan is not a country capable of being water'd by the foot it is so mountanous and uneven All the labour of hand or foot cannot bring the streams upwards to give thy thirstie land drinke it must drinke from heaven or be burnt up and parcht with thirst and if so then that must be the Lords care his eye must observe when tbou wantest raine his hand must make water-courses in the heavens and open the sluces and cataracts of the clouds for thee And wilt thou not serve this God in duty who in bounty thus serveth thee and gives thee such a sensible evidence of his care over thee The Apostle Paul preaches this to the Gentiles as Naturall Theologie to leave them inexcusable Though he suffered all Nations to walke in their owne wayes in that he gave them not either the light or restraint of
defence is dismayed That word which is common to all places of safety being supposed by our translators as the proper name of some one place of more eminent safety Further although this word Exalted implies safety yet in the Originall we have two words They are exalted to safetie He that is exalted according to the sence of that word is safe But to shew the compleatnesse of their safety safety or salvation is expressed He is exalted to safety with salvation or he is safely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Endyadis exalted in safety It is a full and a perfect safety to which God exalts his mourners and oppressed servants They are as safe as salvation it selfe can make them That 's the force of the Hebraisme From the former clause of the verse we may observe First That advancement is the gift of God He setteth on high those that are low Psal 75. 6 7. Promotion commeth neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South neither this way nor that way nor any way of man but God putteth downe one and setteth up another When a man is advanced by the favour of a Prince it is God that setteth him up If a man be advanced by the vote of the people yet it is God that setteth him up Though a man be advanced by that which may seeme to have most contingency in it by a lot yet it is God that setteth him up Prov. 16. 33. The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. The Lord gives speciall direction to mans peradventure and certainly determines what we call contingent Secondly observe They that are low and mourning are nearest to exaltation and safety To be very low it is to be as it were in a due posture and readinesse to be exalted very high He setteth the low on high Luk. 1. 51. He hath put downe the mighty from their seate and hath exalted the humble and meeke or hath exalted the lowly and the meeke We are not to understand it onely of those who are low that is lowly in minde that frame of heart which is wrought above in the highest heavens is in this sense lowest upon the earth but we may understand it likewise of those who are low in their estates many that are low in mind may be high in place a man may have aboundance of humility in the height of outward eminency Therefore I say we must take in both Before honour goes humility as a high mind before a fall Prov. 15. 33. And Psal 113. 6 7. He raiseth up the poore out of the dust and listeth the needy out of the dunghill that he may set him with Princes c. And as it is in reference to particular persons so to the Church and people of God in generall when they are low then look for their raising up The Scripture is frequent in this Deut. 32. 36. Psal 12. 6. Psal 102. 13. And in that notable place Isa 33. 9 10. The Ambassadours of peace weepe bitterly the earth mourneth and Lebanon languisheth and Carmel shakes off her fruit c. All places every creature is brought in mourning with that mourning people When it was thus with them Now will I arise saith the Lord now will I be exalted now will I lift up my selfe There are three Nowes for it to note That the speciall Now of their exaltation But the text saith God would then be exalted Was he brought low God is alwayes alike exalted in himselfe but he is not alwayes alike exalted in his people therefore when he saith now will I be exalted the meaning is I will exalt this people who are low that my name may be exalted and lifted up in the sight of all people Therefore our low estate should be so farre from sinking that it should lift up our faith in beleeving deliverance and exaltation A low estate is a great advantage for faith faith hath surest footing when we lye prostrate upon the ground There faith stands firmest because there faith meets with most promises Promises are the foundation of faith The people of God have never so much of the word about them as when they have least of the world about them The covenant sits closest to us when we are divested of the creature When the river is at the lowest ebbe we are sure the tide is comming in The night is darkest a little before day breakes When the dayes are shortest and the winter sharpest then the spring of mercy is at hand As the highest flourish of ungodly ones is the immediate forerunner of their downfall Psal 92. 7. When the wicked spring as the grasse what then would you know the meaning of it The next words are a comment upon the former It is that they shall be destroyed for ever So the lowest downfall of the godly is usually the immediate forerunner of their advancement When the godly wither as the grasse the interpretation of it is That they shall flourish for ever Observe in the third place from that word exalted to safety That God can set his people on high beyond the reach of all their enemies Beyond the reach of their heads or counsels and beyond the reach of their hands and swords Isa 33. 16. The munitions of rockes shall be their place of defence He setteth them on high that no ladders can be found long enough to scale these rocks nor any Artillery or engine strong enough to batter them downe And least any should say but we will hold the siege till we starve them out it followes in the text Bread shall be given him his waters shall be sure I remember a story in Alexanders warres that when he came to besiege the Sogdians a people who dwelt upon a rock or had the literall munition of rocks for their defence they jeered him and asked him whether his Souldiers had wings or no Unlesse your Souldiers can fly in the ayre we feare you not It is a most certaine truth when God exalts a people he can set them upon a rock so high that unlesse their adversaries have wings and those more then Eagles wings to soare higher then God himselfe they are beyond annoyance He carries his owne upon Eagles wings what wings then must they have who get above his people There are these two things about which the thoughts of men are most conversant The one is to be set on high the other is to be set in safety They both meet in the mercy here promised He setteth on high those that are low that 's their honour He exalts them to safety that 's their comfort The first thoughts of men are spent to get a great estate but their next thoughts are to keep and protect it Experience hath often shewed us the men of the world rolling riches and Titles together into a mountaine but it hath been a mountain of snow one hot day hath melted all down The mountain of outward blessings upon
they not perceive when they see The Prophet tels us because the Lord had said Shut their eyes least they see The work of a Prophet is to open eys but when men wilfuly shut their eys then God shuts them judicially and blinds them with light The Apostle quoting this text Acts 28. 27 expounds it so Their eyes have they closed least they should see for this God closed them that they could not see Paul was preaching and he preached Christ the true light The Sun of righteousnesse Behold the misery spoken of in this text They met with darknes in the day time This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darknes rather than light Why love they darknesse Because they see not the light And because they see not the light therefore they cannot love it It is impossible to see the light the beautifull face of the truth as it is revealed in Christ and not to love it A Heathen said if vertue much more if Gospell truth were seen every eye would be taken and every heart led captive by it A great part of the world hath not this light to see and the greatest part of those who have this light see it not They must needs meet with darknesse who are darknesse in the day-time And they must grope at noon day as in the night who are night If men heare the law and the testimony and neither speake nor doe according to that word it is as the Prophet gives the reason because there is no light in them or as the Hebrew No Morning in them Isa 8. 20. Till the day starr arises in our hearts the day before our eyes is night Secondly observe Plain things are often obscure to the wisest and most knowing men They grope at noon day as in the night That which a man may see with halfe an eye as we say these men who thinke themselves All eye cannot see Men of acute and sagacious understandings men quick-sighted like Eagles prove as dull as Beetles Owles and Bats see in the darke better then in the light And in a sense it is true of these they can see about the works of darknesse but the light of holinesse and justice they cannot see The reason is given in that of Christ The light that is in them is darknesse no wonder then if the light without them be darknes if the inward light the light that iâ— in them be darknesse how great is that darknesse so great that it quite darkens the outward light Inward darkness is to outward light as a great outward light is to a small one in regard of our use or benefit it extinguishes and overcomes it Hence these men cannot see the plainest object in the clearest light Light shineth in darknes and the darknes comprehendeth it not Joh. 1. 5. Christ breaks forth into a vehement gratulation to his Father Mat. 11. 25. I thanke thee O Father Lord of heaven nnd earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes The wise and prudent could not see so much as children They were so wise in their own conceits that they could not conceive the things of God As it is in spirituals so likewise in regard of civill counsels God hides wisedome from the wise and understanding from the prudent They shall not be able to doe or see what a child might have done or seen they shall doe such things and so absurdly that a child would not do them Mysteries are plain when the Lord opens and plainest things are mysterious when he shuts the eyes of our understanding Thus farre Eliphaz hath set forth the power and justice of God against subtill crafty counsellours Now he shews the opposite effect of his power and goodnesse Vers 15. But he saveth the poore from the Sword from their mouth and from the hand of the mighty But he saveth the poor It is very observeable in Scripture that usually if not alwayes after the mention of judgement and wrath upon the wicked the mercy goodnesse and love of God unto his own people are represented least any should thinke that judgement is a worke wherein God delighteth he quickly passeth from it and concludes in what he delighteth Mercy As he retains not his anger for ever towards his own people so he stay â—s not long upon the description of his anger against his enemies because he delighteth in mercy Mich. 7. 18 A subject of mercy is most pleasant both to the hand and pen of the Lord. He wishes rather to write in hony than in gall and to draw golden lines of love then bloudy lines of wrath Satan is a Destroyer and he doth nothing but destroy and pull down The Lord destroyeth and he pulleth down he defeats and disappointeth but he hath another worke besides he saves and delivers he builds up and revives the hopes of his people He saveth the poore These poore are Gods poore Some may be called the Devils poore for they have done his worke and he hath given them poverty for their wages Satan will give all his hirelings full pay when they die The wages of sin is death while they live many of them receive only the earnest of it poverty and trouble All that are poore stand not under the rich influences of this promise He saveth the poore Wicked poore are no more under Gods protection then wicked oppressouâ—s or wicked rich men are This poore man cryed and the Lord heard Ps 34. 6. Not every or any poore man Some poor men may cry and the Lord heare them no more then he did the cry of Dives the rich man in hell Luk. 16. Forget not the Congregation of thy poore Psal 74. 19 Thy poore by way of discrimination There may be a greater distance between poore and poore then there is between poore and rich There are many ragged regiments Congregations of poore whom the Lord will forget for ever But his poore shall be saved And these poore are of two sorts either poore in regard of wealth and outward substance or poor in regard of friends or outward assistance A rich man especially a godly rich man may be in a poore case destitute and forsaken wanting patronage and protection God saveth his poore in both notions both those that have no friends and those that have no estates The Hebrew word for Poor springs from a root signifying desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a radiâ—e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod est desiderare quasi pauper omnia deâ—ideret cum nihil habeat inde Ebion haerâ—tiâ—us quasi mentis inteligentiae inops Schiud Quia omnibus indiget omnia cupit gâ—ata habeâ— Rab. Da. and the reason is because poore men are commonly rich in desires They that are full of sensible wants are full of earnest wishings They that are emptiâ—st of enjoyments are fullest of hopes and longings And the reason why poverty of spirit in our spirituall
estate is pronounced a blessing is because the poore in spirit are full of desires after spirituall riches They are ever craving and seeking to be filled with that fulnesse which is in Christ with grace for grace they would have every image of every grace in Christ engraven upon their souls Or in a holy covetuousnesse they would be as rich in grace as Christ is Grace for grace as a covetous man would have penny for penny pound for pound with his richest neighbour or as an ambitious man would have honour for honour title for title with his greatest neighbour That Christian who sees his estate lowest usually set his desires highest his affections are ever upon the wing for supplies from Christ Both the civill poor man and the spirituall poor soul would fain be enriched He saveth the poor from the Sword from their mouth and from the hand of the mighty Some reade this by apposition he saveth the poore from the Sword their mouth making the latter to be but an exposition of the former From the Sword their mouth that is their mouth is the Sword from which God saveth his poore So taken it is a truth for the mouth is a sharpe Sword as killing as any instrument or engine of warre Hence others who keepe this sence reade it thus A gladio orâ—â—â—orum Vulg. Ab oâ—â—isione oris eorum Chas Vt 〈◊〉 gennâ—ivum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gâ—adâ—â— oris est ipsa lingua mala i. e. calumnia falsa quâ— homo tanquam gâ—adio neâ—aâ—ur Sed meâ—ius a gladio qui â—x ore ipsoâ—um i. e. a falsis Testimoniis Drus He saveth the poore from the Sword of their mouth or from the killing stroake of their mouth making the particle Mem in the Originall to governe the genitive case The Sword of their mouth or the Sword comming out of the mouth There are two Swords of the mouth two comming out of the mouth or one double edged 1. Slander 2. False-witnesse by which often the reputation and sometime the person of a man is murthered But I conceive that the clearest meaning of the Originall though both are good is to reade these as distinct evils from which He saveth the poore namely 1. From the Sword And 2 From their mouth 3. From the hand of the mighty That is From Nimrods mighty hunters oppressours of the poore or from the violent man I returned saith the Preacher Eccles 4. 1. and considered all the oppressions that are done under the Sunne and behold the teares of such as were oppressed and they had no comforter and one the side of their oppressours there was power but they had no comforter Oppressours are alwaies cloathed with power and the oppressed seldome find so much pity from men as to be their comforters Therefore for the oppression of the poore and the cry of the needy the Lord arises and he saves his poor From the slaying Sword slandering tongue oppressing hand These three wayes crafty powerfull men seeke to destroy the poore First by the Sword to cut off their lives Secondly by slander to blemish and blot out their good names Thirdly by strong hand to captivate their persons or oppresse their estates and liberties To be saved from all these destructions is compleate salvation Let the wicked attempt as many wayes as they will or can to destroy the Lord both will and can find out as many wayes to save The malice of man shall never out act or over-match the mercy of God He saveth the poore from the sword c. I should here more distinctly open these great evils The Sword The mouth and the hand of the mighty with the goodnesse of God in saving his poore from them But these particulars occurre againe v. 20 21. Where you may find a more distinct explication of them From these words thus farre opened Observe First to what all the devices and crafty counsels of ungodly Politicians tend Here we have the issue or English of their counsels the meaning of their State mysteries is interpreted Oppression Their craft concludes in cruelty and their witty devices in drawn Swords slandering tongues or the hands of violence We may say of them as Jacob of his sonnes Simeon and Levi Gen. 49. 5 6. Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations O my soule come not thou in their secret for in their anger they will slay men and in their selfe will digge down a wall Secondly observe their method First here is the bloudy Sword they will cut them off and rid their hands of them if they can They could wish as that bloudy Roman Emperor that the heads of their smpposed enemies possibly their best friends were set upon one shoulder and that they might cut them all off at one blow But if God save his poore from the mouth of the Sword then the next weapon is the Sword of their mouths Slanders and defamations lyes and false accusations shall reach them whom iron and steele pike and shot cannot The tongue is a little member but it is a world of iniquity and beasteth often acteth great things Jam. 3. 5 6. But if God saves his poore from both mouth and Sword so that their enemies cannot prevaile at sharpes Then they try at blunts by a heavy hand to over-loade oppresse and keepe them down in their estates liberties and priviledges Observe thirdly That Salvation is of the Lord. The faith of David grasped this as his richest treasure Psal 68. 20. He that is our God he is the God of salvation The Lord is called the God of salvation as the God of comfort both affirmatively and negatively Salvation is to be had in him and there is no salvation to be had without him Truly in vaine is salvation hoped for from the hils and from the multitude of mountains from Armies or from counsels from the power and polices of men In the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel Jer. 3. 23. Fourthly it is observeable against whom these crafty cruell men muster up and levie the united forces of sword tongue and hand They are the poore He saveth the poore Why will not God save the rich will he not save the mighty the Princes of the earth Yes God will save all that feare him both high and low rich and poore Why then is it said He saveth the poore As it were determining Salvation upon them The reason is because as the poore are most easily opprest so usually they are most opprest where the hedge is lowest men goe over fastest And because for the most part Gods people are poore comparatively to others they are the vallies the lower parts of the earth and wickednesse is commonly advanced upon the mountaines of wealth honour and greatnesse therefore the denomination is taken from them He saveth the poore They whom God loves most the world loves least and they have least of the world The world gives most to its own And God hath given his own so much beyond the
shall carry a justification of God and of his people in their own hearts Their conviction shall be so strong and their light so cleare that iniquity it selfe shall not be able to gain-say but must stop it's mouth for ever JOB Chap. 5. Vers 17 18. Behold happy is the man whom God correcteth therefore despise not thou the chastning of the Almighty For he maketh sore and bindeth up he woundeth and his hands make whole c. VVE have finished the first branch of exhortation begun ver 8. wherein Eliphaz moves Job To seek to God and unto God to commit his cause with the severall arguments and reasons strengthning that Exhortation At this 17. vers Eliphaz begins a second branch of exhortation and it is continued to the end of the Chapter We have the exhortation or dehortation rather for it is exprest in the negative in the latter clause of the 17. vers Despise not thou the chastning of the Almighty The first argument by which he quickens Job to receive this counsel lyes in the former part of the same verse Behold happy is the man whom God câ—rrecteth The argument may be framed thus That condition is not to be despised wherein a man is truly happy But under the correcting hand of God a man is truly happy Therefore that condition is not to be despised Behold saith he happy is the man whom God correcteth therefore despise not thou the chastning of the Almighty Behold happy is the man To behold cals here both for attention and admiration For here is a strange sight An afflicted man a blessed man Nâ—â—â—â—ll sence and reason cannot agree about this conjunction They know not how happinesse and correction should meet and kisse the same person Therefore raise up thy attention saith Eliphaz to consider this wonder When the Angell of the Lord appeared unto Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush he looked and behold the bush burned with fire and the bush was not consumed And Moses said I will now turne aside and see this great sight why the bush is not burnt Exod. 3. 2 3. Such a great sight this text shewes us A bush burning and not consuming yea a bush burning and yet flourishing a bush on fire and yet a fruit-bearing bush a bush blooming and blossoming with the pleasantest and sweetest fruit on earth or rather with the fruit of heaven fruit upon which we shall feed for ever in heaven Fruit the tasts of which make a heaven here on earth Happines Well then is this strange sight presented to us with A Behold Happy is the man whom God correcteth c. Happinesse is the enjoyment of good commeasurate to all our desires That 's perfect happinesse Happinesse is the summe of all our desires and the aime of all our endeavours And when we have attained perfect happinesse we shall be at a full point both of our desires and endeavours But though all men have happinesse in their eye to be happy is their end and this happinesse is but one Yet the wayes which men have chalked out as leading to happinesse have been not only various but almost infinite Some of the learned have reckoned up two or three Centuries or hundreds of opinions concerning this one point And it is well observed that men varied thus in opinion about happinesse because they thought the enjoyment of that wherein any of them was defective would make them happy He that was poore said I should be happy if I had riches and thence grew his opinion that happinesse consisted in riches The sick man said I should be happy if I had my health and thence grew his opinion that happinesse consisted in health Another was obscure meane and low O said he how happy were I if I were honourable and thence grew a third opinion that happinesse consisted in honour Thus they varied according to their particular necessities and interests But amongst all those Opinionists we meet not with any one who pitcht upon this in the Text. This is a Paradox to them all A naturall man cannot place happinesse in correction No Philosopher or pure Moralist ever said happy is the man that is sore happy is the man that is sicke happy is the man that is disgraced or happy is the man that is in prison These are riddles such as nature is not able to expound or make out the Philosopher would as soon place light in darknesse the Sunne in a cloud heat in coldnesse the element of fire in the water as blessednesse in sufferings Therefore no marvell if Eliphaz usher it in with a Behold Behold happy is the man whom God correcteth The word Happy is of the Plurall number or rather of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beatudines constat indeclinabile esse formam habere nâ—n tam pluralis quam dualis Duall in the Hebrew Some translate it in the Abstract Behold the blessednesses of that man whom God corrects But it is fully rendred by the Adjective as we Behold happy is the man c. There is much contention among the Grammarians about the word whether it be abstract or concrete a Nown or an Adverb But I will not stay on those only consider a little what account is given why the word is used plurally or dually First it is to increase the signification and heighten the sense as noting the confluence of many good things in happinesse Happines Beati beatitu do in multis bonitatibus consistitâ— Rab. D. is not a single good happinesse consists in the concurrence or meeting together of many good things God who is infinitely happy infinitely blessed in himselfe and an infinite blessing all blessing to his people is not a single good or a particular good but he is all good both to himselfe and to his people A godly man is happy in the largest sence in all sences because his is not this or that particular good but all good And he is not happy only at this or that particular time but at all times He is as happy when he is suffering under the hand of God as when he is serving God as happy in his passive as in his active obedience And therefore the same word expresses his condition both in the one and in the other Secondly because there is a two-fold happinesse First the happinesse of this life And secondly the happinesse of the next Temporall happines and eternall happines Corporall happines and spirituall happines To note a complication of all these the word may be given in the Duall or Plurall number He that is thus corrected looses not temporall happines and he gains in spirituall and toward eternall happines The present and future happines of the Saints the happinesse of grace and of glory differ but in degrees It is the same state in a higher stature The same book in a more correct edition and fairer letter These differ as a child from a man or as the morning light from the
my people and thy people That is those Armies of flies which invade thy people shall not meddle with my people To see one perish with and our selves saved from the sword is redemption in war To see others hunger-starved and our selves still fed is redemption from famine though our selves were never in the hands or between the teeth of famine A people devided from the troubles of others are redeemed from those troubles Such redemption our Saviour speaks of Mat. 24. 40 41. Two shall be in the field the one shall be taken the other left two women shall be grinding in the Mill the one taken the other left In Famine Famine is the want of bread and bread is the stay and staffe of life Lev. 26. 26. Isa 3. 1. Psal 105. 16. when this stay is gone our lives fall quickly or slip away When this staffe is broken the thread of life breaks too Man goes by the bread in his belly more than by the staffe in his hand Except bread hold us by the arme and stay us up down we fall Famine is so like or so near or so certaine a harbinger of death that the text puts them together In famine he shall redeem thee from death Famine is numbred among the sore judgements of God if it be not the sorest judgement Ezek. 6. 11. Jer. 24. 10. And therefore redemption from it is one of his choicest outward mercies We may collect how sore a judgement famine is by the effects of it First It causeth faintnesse and madnesse Gen. 47. 13. Secondly Hunger burneth Deut. 32. 24. That word is not used in the Hebrew except here Famine kindles a fire in the bowels When the naturall heat hath no fewell put to it to feed upon it feeds upon nature Sutable to this is the description of lamenting Jeremiah in the famine of Jerusalem Their faces are blacker then a cole Lam. 4. 8. and Chap. 5. 10. Our skin was black like an Oven because of the terrible famine Both the coal and the oven contract their blacknesse from burning heat Thirdly It causeth pining and languishment Lam. 4. 9. Fourthly Shame and howling Joel 1. 11. Fifthly Rage and cursing Isa 8. 21. Lastly It breaks all the bonds of nature and eats up all relations Read that dreâ—dfull threatning Deut. 25. 53 54. and that dreadfull example Lam. 4. 10. Tender mothers eating their children Famine eats up our bowells of compassion and then it eats our bowells by relation And which comes yet nearer Famine is such a devourer that it causeth man to devoure himself The Prophet describes a man in a fit of Famine snatching on the right hand and yet hungry eating on the left and yet unsatisfied when he cannot fill his belly abroad he comes home to himself and makes bold with his own flesh for food Every man eating the flesh of his own arme Isa 9. 20. We read of many great Famines in Scripture and withall of Gods care to redeem his people from them Abraham Gen. 12. who at the call of God denied himself and came out of his own into a strange Land was presently entertained with Famine One would have thought God should have made him good chear and have spread a plentifull table for him causing his cup to over-flow while he was in a strange Land and a meer stranger there yet he met with a famine but the Lord redeemed him from that famine by directing him to Aegypt that famous store house for his people Jacob and his sons were redeemed from famine in the same Egypt afterward their house of Bondage It is a precious comfort to have bread in such a promise as this when there is none upon the Board God takes care for the bodies of his people as well as for their souls he is the father of both and the provider for both And while we remember what sore afflictions have bin upon many Nations and people by famine While we remember Samaria's Famin 2 Kings 6. Jerusalems Famin Lam. 4. and that storied by Josephus in the Roman siege of that City While we remember the late famins in Germany and the present one in many parts of Ireland While we consider that the Sword threatens this Nation with famine Surely we should labour to get under such a promise as this is that we may plead with God in the midst of all scarcity and wants Lord thou hast promised to redeem Thine in famin from death There is no dearth in Heaven And whatsoever dearth is on Earth the plenty that is in Heaven can supply it How sad would it be if your poor children should come about you crying for bread and you have none to give them How much sadder would it be if your poor children should be made your bread and ground to pieces between your teeth as in the famin of Jerusalem In such a time to look up to God in the strength of this promise will be a feast to us though we should perish in the famin But how doth God redeem from famin First The Lord can make the barrell of meal and the oyle that is in the cruze though but little yet to hold out and last while the time of famine lasts Such a miracle redeemed the poor widdow from death in that great famin 1 Kings 17. Secondly He can redeem by lengthning one meal to many days Elijah went forty dayes in the strength of one dinner Man liveth not by bread without God but man may live by God without bread Thirdly Not onely are the stores of the creatures his and the fruitfulnesse of the earth at his command but if he please he can open the windows of Heaven he can bring bread out of the clouds he can make the winds his Caterers to bring in Quails and abundance of provision for his people Thus also he can redeem his from death in the time of famine Or fourthly He can doe it in a way of ordinary providence by making the land yeeld it's naturall increase and by giving strength to the Earth to bring forth plentifully for the use of man Fifthly While the common judgement lasts he can make some speciall provision for his And make a redemption of division as he did in another case for his people Exod. 8. 22. And lastly We may improve this promise not only for redemption from death in famine but for plenty of consolation though we should die in famine When the bread is quite taken away from your Table your hearts may feed upon such a word as this as upon marrow and fatnesse Christ can feast your soules when your bodies are ready to starve he can fill your spirits with joy and sweetnesse when there is nothing but leannesse in your cheeks Thus the Prophet Habakkuk triumphs in God Habak 3. 17. Though the Fig-tree shall not blessom neither shall fruit be in the Vines the labour of the Olive shall faile and the fields shall yeeld no meat The flock shall be cut off from the fold
thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh This verse contains a second paire of evills First The scourge of the tongue Secondly Destruction Two things are here to be enquired into about the former 1. What is meant by the scourge of the tongue 2. What it is to be hid from it The scourge of the tongue Mr Broughton reades it thus Quo tempore lingua flâ—gallabit homines Drus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In piel est detrahare vel nocere lingua Thou shalt be delivered or thou shalt be hid when the tongue whippeth And another to the same serce At what time the tongue shall be scourging of men thou shalt be secured from it And that word Leshon the tongue in Piel signifies to detract to traduce or slander the same word is used both for the instrument of the tongue and one of the worst acts of the tongue calumination or we may render it according to the exact lettter of the Hebrew elegancy to Betongue a man We use such a kind of speaking in our language as to strike a man with a cudgell or a Cane-staffe is to cudgel or cane a man and if a man be shot with a pistol we say he was pistol'd so a man smitten with anothers tongue is said in the Hebrew to be Betongu'd or such an one hath betongu'd him We leave the Verbe and translate by the Nowne From the scourge of the tongue In construction Beth In is often rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saepe redditur per Min 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Min From as Grammarians know Thou shalt love the Lord thy God in all thy heart or from thy whole heart or from the heart-root So here Thou shalt be hid in the scourge that is thou shalt be hid from the scourge when the tongue is lashing and whipping thou shalt be hid from the lash and scourge of tongues But what may we understand by this scourge of the tongue First Some take it for publique accusations before a Judge or Magistrate Many scourge their brethren at the Tribunal of Princes Rev. 12. That accuser of the brethren that traducer the Devill is conceived to make those accusations by his agents in those times before the heathen Emperours against the Christians The Christians in that age were extreamly scourged by malignant and malevolent tongues tongues set on fire of hell as the Apostle James speaks Chap. 3. 6. And so the scourge of the tongue may be that punishment which they by false accusations obtained against the innocent their tongues got judgement against them sometimes to be scourged or whipt therefore also that very work of the tongue is well called scourging Our Lord Jesus was crucified upon the tongues of the Jewes before he was crucified upon the crosse by the Romans The Jewes cryed out first crucifie him crucifie him here was the crosse of the tongue The conspirators against Jeremiah advise thus Chap. 18. 18. Let us smite him with the tongue that is let us accuse him to the King that he may Accusemus eum apud regem omni industria ratione efficiamus ut publica sententia vapuleâ— Flagellum linguae est poena in judcio constituâ—a postulata fieri à calumniatoribus be smitten by a publick sentence In this sence a man is imprisoned by the tongue banished by the tongue hang'd and burn'd by the tongue that is the tongue doth all these virtually or vitiously rather by false accusations causing these things to be done actually and formally Secondly Others interpret the scourge of the tongue to be those terrible and dreadfull reports which amaze lash and afflict the spirit about the approach of dangers As when a report is rung in the eare that an invading enemy spoylers and plunderers arm'd with power and malice are at hand to take away estates liberties and lives How many have bin beaten about the ears and scourg'd with such Alarums Jer. 50. 43. it is said The King of Babylon hath heard the report of them what report was it and of whom A spie rides in and kills the King with his tongue strikes him thorough with his tongue before he was toucht with the sword of the Medes and Persians How He brought him a sad report that the enemy was upon his march then it follows The King of Babylon hath heard the report of them and his hands waxed feeble anguish took hold of him and pangs as of a woman in travell We find the like expression Isa 28. 18 19. They who had slighted the judgements of God and said when the overflowing scourge shall passe thorough it should not come neare them even these saith God shall be vext when they doe but heare of a scourge coming neare I will send a report and it shall passe over morning by morning and it shall travell by day and by night and what shall be the effect of it It shall be a vexation saith the Lord onely to understand the report You shall not onely be vexed when the enemy is come and thrusts a sword into your bowells and fire into your houses but you shall be vext at the noise of his coming it shall be a vexation to you to heare the report It is a great mercy to be delivered and hid from this scourge of the tongue and this is promised him who feares God Psal 112. 7. No evill tydings shall make him afraid A heart which hath trembled at the voice of God instructing him shall not tremble at the voice of men reporting evill to him Many a man is more afraid than hurt and more perplexed with the hearing of evill tydings then others are with seeing or feeling the evill The Lord threatens Ely to doe such a thing in Israel and against his house that both the eares of him that hears shall tingle 1 Sam. 3. 11. But Thirdly Some translate thus He shall be hidde when the Quidam cum vâ—gâ—bitur Imguae ut sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Drus Merc. tongue wandreth or walketh about for the same word which signifies a scourge by the alteration of a point in the Hebrew signifies to run to and fro It is the word used in the first Chapter where Satan reports himselfe A Goer to and fro about the earth There is an expression Psalm 73. 9. sutable to this sense though the Originall word be not the same They set their mouth a-against the Heavens and their tongue walketh thorow the earth The tongues of many take long journeyes while themselves sit still Kings are said to have long hands but many of their subjects have long tongues and strike their brethren with them many hundreds of miles off the tongue travels from towne to towne from City to City and scourgeth one here and there another And while these men send their tongues about a wandring to wound here and there this and that mans credit He is a happy man that can be hid from them
or birth of his sonne especially at the promise of His birth who was to be the joy and desire of Nations the Lord Jesus Christ who referring to this act of Abraham tels the Jewes Joh. 8. 56. Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day he saw it and was glad To laugh in Scripture is taken two waies Sometimes in a good sense and Sometimes in an ill sense In a good sense and so To laugh is an outward expression of sound inward joy and true comfort To laugh is an act proper to man There cannot be true and solid joy and so not this effect of it laughing where there is not true solid reason Even passion strictly taken is founded in reason In the 29. of this book ver 24. Job describing the great prosperity of his former daies saith If I laughed on them they believed it not Job was a man of that esteem and veneration that though he expressed in his gesture or countenance a kind of familiarity and how well he was pleased yet the people did so much reverence him and his piety and unspotted justice did so over-awe them that they suspected still he might observe somewhat amisse in them Secondly to laugh is used for scorning and deriding In the 39 of this book v 7. Laughter is ascribed unto the wild Asse improperly He sc the wild Asse scornes or laughs at the multitude of the City And Psal 2. 4. when the Princes and the people gather themselves together to take counsell against the Lord and against his Christ He that sitteth in heaven shall laugh and the Lord shall have them in derision That is the Lord in a most holy manner scornes or derides the counsels and practises of wicked men Man is never in so sad a condition as when God laughs at him Again Laughter proper to man is either sinfull and reprooveable or holy and commendable Sinfull laughter is that which arises First from unbeliefe or weaknesse of faith Such was the laughter of Sarah Gen. 18. 12. when the Angel brought his message that Sarah should have a sonne Sarah heard it as she was in the Tent doore and the Text saith Sarah laughed The ground of her laughter was unbeliefe she thought it an impossible thing for her to have a son as a man will laugh at a thing you tell him when he thinks it impossible to be done That her laughter was from unbeliefe is plaine from the Angels reproving question in the next words Wherefore did Sarah laugh saying shall I of a Jurety beare a child which am old Is any thing too hard for the Lord As if he had said surely Sarah thinkes the Lord hath out promis'd his own power to performe Secondly Sinfull laughter ariseth from contempt or slighting of counsell and carnall security in times of danger 2 Chron. 30. 10. when Hezekiah sent messengers to Ephraim and Manasseh to warn them to come up to the house of the Lord to keepe the Passeover it is said That they laughed the messengers to scorn and mocked them they laughed slighting and contemning this admonition thinking themselves safe and well enough though they came not up to that solemne Passeover Thirdly Sinfull laughter arises from pride and selfe-confidence Hab. 1. 10. The Prophet describes the proud Chaldeans invading Judah thus They shall scâ—ffe at the Kings and Princes shall be a scorn unto them and they shall deride every strong-hold They shall come up with such an army with such an arm of flesh as all flesh must fall downe and yeeld unto Lastly There is a sinfull laughter springing from sensuality and excesse of creature contentments Such laughter Christ threatens Luk. 6. 25. Woe to you that are full woe to you that laugh now That is woe to you that laugh because of your creature-fulnesse Laughter which is good and commendable hath such roots as these First it springs up from faith such was the laughter of Abraham Gen. 17. 17. when he heard the promise that he should have a sonne the text saith Abraham fell upon his face and laughed That the laughter of Abraham was from faith is cleare from the Apostle Rom. 4. 19. affirming that He not being weak in faith considered not his own body now dead when he was about an hundred years old neither yet the deadnes of Sarahs wombe he staggered not at the promise of God through unbeliefe c. Abraham laughed out his faith not as Sarah his unbelief Therfore also Christ saith as was toucht before Abraham rejoyced to see my day he saw it and was glad In the promise of his sonne he saw the Promised seâ—d in whom all the Nations of the earth should be blessed This sight of the day of Christ in that prospective of the promise drew it â—eare to the old-mans heart though it were farre off and made him glad Secondly Commendable laughter comes from holy courage and well grounded confidence well temper'd magnanimity and Christian heroicalnesse of spirit lifts us so farre above dangers and fears that we laugh at them And then there is a laughter in dangers grounded upon assurance of deliverance from or support in dangers A man that sees a great Ridehis ventos hoc munere tectus imbres Mart. storme coming laughs at it knowing where to goe to shelter presently where to get a warme house over his head The Pilot knowing he hath a strong Ship and good Tackling laughs at the windes In that sense not to feare is used Prov. 31. 21. where it is said of the wise woman She is not afraid of the snow for her houshold If the snow and cold weather come she doth not feare it she can laugh at the snow Why For all her houshold are cloathed with scarlet or double cloth she hath made such provision against cold weather that she feares neither frost nor snow Now the text when it is said At famine thou shalt laugh is not meant of laughter springing either from unbeliefe or pride or self-confidence or sensuality or senslesnesse as if he should not care what God did in the world let God doe what he would he would laugh As that proud Emperour said not only as one before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him when I am dead but while I live let heaven and earth be mingled together I care not scorning and contemning what could come But this laughter comes from strength of faith from holy courage and well grounded confidence from an assurance of shelter safeguard and protection from or support in the greatest dangers even in famine and destruction He fixes on such a promise In vastitate ita eris munitus ac de tua salute securus ut ridere possis etiam sâ— famescas non te enecabit fames verum Deus sue te consolationiâ— papulo ita reficiet ut ridere possis Ipsa te fames redâ—et saturum caÌ„â—abis non secus ac si tibi plenus esset venter Pined as this Psal 37. 19. They shall not
company of speare-men or archers are called a company with reeds The word by us rendred company is the beasts of the reeds those men that are like beasts savage cruell and bloody these are as bruits and beasts of the earth so they are descipher'd in the next verse The multitude of the buls with the calves of the people And we find the word signifying a company of wicked ones and a company of Saints in the same verse Ps 74. 19. O deliver not the soule of thy turtle dove unto the multitude of the wicked The Hebrew is unto the company of the beasts Forget not the Congregation or the beasts of thy poore for ever there the same word is taken as in Psal 68. 10 for a company of Saints or the poor people of God In the Scripture of the new Testament it is frequent to shadow wicked men under the names of beasts beasts of the earth so that of Paul hath been taken 1 Cor. 15. 32. If I have fought with beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men with beastly men cruell men men like unto beasts in their qualities and dispositions though others understand it of his being cast unto the beasts to fight with them which was a cruelty those persecuting times exercised against the Christians So 1 Tim. 4. 16. Paul saith he was delivered out of the mouth of the Lion Nero that cruell tyrant is supposed to be the Lion the beast of the earth he aimeth at And the Apostle Tit. 1. 1. gives this character of the Cretians they are evill beasts If we take it here in this sence it is a truth and a very comfortable truth that godly men shall be delivered from the fear of beastly and cruell men or as the Apostle calls them unreasonable or absurd men who have not faith But rather understand here beasts of the earth properly for those fierce and cruell creatures hurtfull to man Once man had power and dominion over all the creatures the wildest beasts were tame to him in his state of innocency till he rose up and rebelled against God the creatures were subject unto him but man rebelling against God the creatures rebelled against man hence it is that man naturally is surprised with fear at the approach and sight of strong and cruell beasts and therefore it is here spoken as a speciall mercy and priviledge of the godly that they shall not be afraid of the beasts of the earth The beast of the earth are hurtfull to us three ways First naturally many beasts by nature are very dreadfull to man as the Lion the Bear the Wolfe and such other fierce strong and bloody beasts Scondly Tame beasts such as we daily use and subdue to our service are often by accident hurtful to us The Horse and the Ox have many times been destructive to their owners Thirdly which I conceive is the thing chiefly aimed at here beasts hurt judicially in a way of wrath from God There are divers places in the book of God wherein God threatens to arme the creatures against those who sin against him and that when his people should forget their duties the beasts should forget their subjection Deut. 32. 24. I will send the teeth of beasts upon them And Jer. 15. 3. I will appoint over them foure kinds saith the Lord the sword to slay and the dogs to teare and the fowles of the heaven and the beasts of the earth to devoure and destroy You see God can have an army any where if he pleaseth an army of dogs to destroy an army of fowles of the aire an army of the beasts of the earth to subdue a rebellious people And Ezek. 14. 21. This is one of the four sore judgements that God denounceth against Jerusalem The sword and the famine and noysome beasts and the pestilence Thus in a judiciall manner they were very terrible and dreadfull and so were numbred among the sorest evills or judgements which God sent upon a Nation for their wickednesse To all or any of these wayes this promise may be inlarged Thou shalt not be afraid of the naturall cruelty the casuall hurtfulnesse or the judiciary rage of beasts when sent by God with commission to punish the beastlinesse of men How this cometh to passe that beasts of the earth hurt not godly men is said down in the next verse which I shall a while open and then give you some Notes and Observations from both together Vers 23. For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee This verse containes the reason why he should not be afraid of the beasts of the field and here is somewhat more got into the reason than was before in the promise the ground of the promise is higher and carried farther than the promise it selfe The promise was to be delivered from the fear of beasts and that thou mayest be certaine of it know God will not suffer so much as a stone to do thee hurt thou shalt be at league not onely with the beasts of the earth but with the stones of the field Thou shalt be in league The word is frequently used in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—â—legii quia elegamur personae inter quas res conditioâ—es propter qâ—as foedâ—s initur Buxt old Testament to signifie that solemne gracious covenant of reconciliation between God and man established in the blood of Christ A league or covenant is a very solemne act an act of reason and of the highest reason an act of judgement and deepest deliberation therefore it may be doubted how a league can be entred with stones which have no life or with beasts which have no reason We read Gen. 31. 41. of a league or covenant made at or upon an heap of stones between Jacob and Laban but this is very strange and unheard of to make a league with a heape of stones For the claring of this we must enquire into two things 1. What these stones are 2. What this league with stones doth import First For the Stones There are divers opinions about them and many Interpreters have exceedingly stumbled at these stones Some change these stones into men strong men or the strongest of men That of Job in the next Chapter hath some allusion to it ver 12. Is my strength the strength of stones A strong man is strong as a stone The Chaldee Paraphrast understands by stones the Law which was written in stones Thou shalt be in league with the stones that is the Law written in tables of stone shall never hurt thee But that as to this text is a meare conceit though in it selfe a great truth and our greatest comfort that believers are at league with those Law-stones which left in power and hostility would have broken all man-kind to pieces and ground them to power Christ hath made peace for us with the Law The Law
fearles amongst wild beasts we may wonder where the spring of this courage lies This promise sheweth you the spring-head He is at peace with them It is not conceit and fancy or desperatenesse of spirit that causeth him to deride and slight danger but he hath a solid ground there is a peace and league ratified in heaven for him even with the Stones and Beasts of the earth As a godly man can give a reason of the hope that is in him so he can give a reason of the courage that is in him he knowes why he is so stout and venturous Secondly Observe from both in that man is here said to be in league with the stones and at peace with the Beasts That Every creature by sin is made dangerous and hurtfull unto man For in that there is a league and peace made with these it notes that they were in a state of hostility ready to rise up against us and annoy us As the creature by reason of mans sin is subject unto vanity so man is subject unto feare by reason of the creature Sin hath made the creature vanitie in it selfe and sinne hath made the creature vexation unto us When the Beasts rebell against us we should remember how we have rebelled against God And that untill God renewes a league and makes peace for us with the creatures there is not a creature upon the earth but may quickly be destructive to us If God speakes the word and gives a call or a commission to a fly against the strongest the swiftest man flight shall perish from the swift and power from the strong neither of them shall escape Thirdly Thou shalt be in league with the Stones and with the Beasts he reckons up all those wayes by which evills may come in upon us And assures a man to whom God is reconciled that these evills shall not come Hence observe That When God is once a friend to us he can quickly make all other things friendly to us also Every godly man of such Eliphaz here speaks is at peace and Qui Dominum habet adjutoreÌ„ habebit omnes creaturas adjutrices ille si favet favent omnes ait aiunt negat negant Qui Dominum babet custodeÌ„ habebit lapides campi custodes Brent in loc Tranquillus Deus Tranquillat omnia in league with God therefore God makes all creatures at peace and league with him Though usually they who are in nearest league and covenant with God are most warred with and opposed by the world yet this stands sure that when God is our friend he can make our enemies our friends or their enmity shall be-friend us Stones and savage beasts shall be helpfull to us When God is at peace with us he makes all things at peace with us Daniel was at peace with God and he was at peace among the Lions The Apostle Rom. 8. gives it in generall If God be with us who can be against us No creature hath power in it selfe to maintaine warre and emnity against those on whose side God appeares If God loves us All things worke together for good to us He that hath helpe from God shall not want helpe from any creature for all creatures are at the call and command of God If he saith go they must goe if he saith come they must come if he saith to a stone doe such a man good the Stone must doe it if he saith to a Raven goe carry Elijah his dinner the Raven will hasten if he saith to a wild Beast save such a man deliver such a man spare such a man he must goe of Gods errand In our friendship and league with God we have a vertuall league of friendship with the most unfriendly creatures And if God please he can make men who have as little sense as Stones and lesse reason than Beasts to be helpfull and usefull and peaceable to his people There is a generation amongst us a stony generation a hard-hearted generation of men you may as well move a stone as move them with what you say a beastly generation of men when you deale with them you deale with Beasts yet the great God if he please can make a league for us with these stones he can make these Beasts of the earth brutish and unreasonable men To be at peace with us Further observe It is from speciall providence that the Stones and the Beasts of the earth doe not hurt nor destroy us but specially that they helpe and doe us good There is providence towards all but a speciall providence to the people of God that the creatures hurt them not If God did not bridle the rage and restraine the power of Beasts man could not comfortably subsist with them The reason is given Deut. 7. 22. why God destroyed the Canaanites by little and little before his people namely Least the Beasts of the earth should increase upon them Here was a speciall providence as all leagues and peacemakings are All the leagues and peace which beleevers have are branches of that great league of that grand Covenant which God hath made with Christ on our behalfe And therefore Hos 2. 18. this promise is made in speciall to the Church And in that day I will make a Covenant for them with the Beasts of the field Fifthly note A godly man enjoyes common comforts from speciall favour Wicked men are seldome hurt by the beasts of the field but they are never at peace with them Lastly observe Peace is a great mercy By how much God makes more peace upon earth by so much man hath more of Heaven upon Earth Man should desire peace with Beasts much more with men most of all with God JOB Chap. 5. Vers 24 25 26 27. And thou shalt know that thy Tabernacle shall be in peace and thou shalt visit thy habitation and shalt not sin Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great and thine off spring as the grasse of the earth Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age like as a shock of corne commeth in in his season Loe this we have searched it so it is heare it and know thou it for thy good AT the 19th verse of this Chapter we had a promise of deliverance from evill in six troubles and in seaven In the verses following we had a specification of six or seaven troubles from which deliverance is promised In these words we have the result of all A well grounded security in assurance of a fourfold blessing First of a quiet and happy life Secondly of many prosperous children v. 25. Thirdly of a long life Fourthly of a sweet and comfortable death v. 26. every one confirmed and ratified as a truth in it selfe aâ—â— by way of application brought home to Job in the 27th or last verse of the Chapter Vers 24. And thou shalt know that thy Tabernacle shall be in peace Thou shalt know it Knowledge is sometime put for present sense He that keepes the
afflictions He is said to be afflicted in all our afflictions He doth not only intuitively consider or contemplate them but he is though above enduring as actually enduring them He is afflicted in all our afflictions that is he considers our afflictions as his owne and is affected with them as if himselfe were pained with all our paines and therefore it is said that himselfe tooke our infirmities and bare our sicknesses Mat. 8. 17. the meaning is he weighed the griefe of his people fully In these two points this holy art of weighing griefe consists consideration of circumstances and simpathy of the smart Meere speculation moves little We have no feeling of anothers suffering till we have a fellow-feeling The bare Theory of affliction affects no more then the bare Theory of fire heates Secondly When Job saith O that my griefe were throughly weiged we may observe That it is an addition to a mans affliction when others are not sensible of his affliction For it is as if Job had said This makes me cry out so much of the weight of my sorrows because my friends weigh them so little The Church Lam. 1. 12. complaines thus Is it nothing to you all ye that passe by behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow Is it nothing to you as if the Church had said My affliction is something to me and this aflicts me above all my affliction that passengers and beholders slight my calamities and think my affliction no affliction that is not so great as indeed it is Or it is nothing to them they are not toucht with it how great soever they see it is to me That which wounds and breakes my heart doth not prick their little fingers And because man is so ready to afflict his brother with this negative affliction a not being sensible of his afflictions therefore the Apostle assures us Heb. 4. 15. That we have not an High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are This is spoken to comfort the Saints in their extreamest sufferings what though men will not take notice and be sensible of your condition what though men will not weigh your griefe yet Christ will our High Priest is none of your senselesse Priests who care not what weather the People endure so they be warme and at ease Thirdly observe We can never rightly judge till we throughly weigh the condition of an afflicted brother For Job conceiv'd that Eliphaz proceeded to judgement before he had been in consideration This is the reason why thou hast judged me uncharitably because thou hast not weighed me seriously To shew that consideration must goe before judgement God himselfe is exprest to us in Scripture considering the state of things before himselfe judges So Gen. 11th in the case of the builders of Babel and Gen. 18 â—h in the case of the men of Sodome it is said that the Lord came downe to see whether they had done altogether according to that cry which was come up unto him Not as if the Lord moves from one place to another from Heaven to earth for he filleth all places not that the Lord needs come down to receive information or to examine his own intelligence to see whether things are as they are reported but it is only an allusion to the manner of men or to shew that he doth not censure or judge any man or men or Nations till he hath taken a full cognisance of their condition Now if God who is infinite in knowledge and wisdome represents himselfe coming downe and by degrees deliberating about and weighing the estates of men before he censures them what need then have blindfold men ignorant men men who at best have much darknesse mixed with their light what need I say have they to examine weigh and try every mans estate before they sentence or determine it Fourthly observe A man who hath not been or is not afflicted himselfe can hardly apprehend what another endures who is under affliction As there are comforts especially spirituall comforts which no man knows or can know but by the enjoying of them The white stone promised Rev. 2. 17. hath a new name written in it which no man knowes saving he that receiveth it A man that is a stranger to Christ and his wayes is not able to make any judgement what the comforts and refreshings of a Christian are He admires to heare men speak of spirituall comforts and consolations he knowes not the meaning of those things The naturall man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. It is so proportionably in all sorrowes and afflictions especially in spirituall sorrowes and afflictions which lye off from sence yea which lye quite beyond the reach and borders of reason spirituall sorrowes the hidings of Gods face the withdrawing of assistance few pity in others because few have had experience of these things in themselves They think men are mad when they complaine of such afflictions when they cry out of their sins of the want of the favour of God and the shining of his love of deadnesse and coldnesse in duty of unbeleefe and hardnesse of heart c. And therefore our Lord Jesus to assure our hearts that he hath a full sence of all our sorrows tasted himselfe of our sorrowes There is not any sorrow that can be upon any soul or any affliction that can be upon the body but our Lord Jesus hath had some way or other an experience of it This makes him to our apprehensions most fit to judg and compassionate the distresses of his people As all the sins of his people were laid upon him so all their sorrowes were laid upon him too therefore the Prophet Isaiah describes him thus Ch. 53. 3. A man of sorrowes and acquainted with griefe Griefe and he were no strangers while he was here upon the earth griefe was his acquaintance and Familiar as it were that went up and down with him all the while he travelled here below Therefore seeing it is so the whole church and every particular believer have strong consolation in their sorrows that the Lord Jesus Christ doth throughly weigh their condition and knoweth fully what it is We have not as was toucht before an High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities why what assurance have we of this it followes He was tempted in all things like unto us yet without sin Christ had temptations unto sin yet without sin therefore he knowes how to succour us when we are tempted unto sin Christ was tempted by manifold sorrowes therefore he knowes how to succour us when we are under manifold sorrowfull temptations If we had a Mediatour in Heaven that had not been tempted on earth we might doubt whether he would be toucht with the feeling of our infirmities whether sinning infirmities or sorrowing infirmities And were it
not that some of the Saints have been tempted and tryed they who are under tryals and temptations would find none on earth to succour them As God doth comfort some in all their tribulations that they may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble with the same comforts wherewith they themselves are comforted of God 2 Cor. 1. 4. So he afflicts them that they might pity and helpe others as being under the same troubles with which themselves have been afflicted A man that hath only traveld in Geographicall books and Maps is not able to give you such lively descriptions of or directions about forreigne Countries as he that hath traveld to and been upon the places so they who have read and studied much about afflictions can never give such enlivening strengthening heartning counsell as they who have been afflicted and have dwelt sometime upon the Land of sorrowes To passe on For now it would be heavier than the sand of the Sea That is it would be most heavy Who can tell how heavy that is which is heavier then the heaviest If my calamity saith Job were weighed it would have been found heavier than the sand of the Sea that account would be given of it though you my friend Eliphaz seeme to account it as light as a feather The sand of the Sea is applied three wayes in Scripture First to set forth an exceeding great number Gen. 22. 17. I will multiply thy seed as the Starres of the Heaven and as the sand which is upon the Sea shore That is I will exceedingly multiply thy seed thy children shall be not only numerous but numberlesse Though a book of Numbers be written concerning Abrahams posterity yet their totall number is not written So Psal 78. 27. He rained flesh upon them as dust and feathered fowles like as the sand of the Sea that is he rained aboundance of feathered fowles Secondly The sand of the Sea is used to expresse the largnesse the mighty extent or capacity of a thing The sand of the Sea is of a vaster extent then the Sea it self as being the outward line or bound of it therefore Jer. 33. 22. it is spoken of as a thing impossible for the sand of the sea to be measured As the host of Heaven sc the Starres cannot be numbred neither the sand of the Sea measured so will I multiply the seed of my servant David Measure is taken both of the content and extent of things The sand of the Sea is immeasurable both wayes it cannot as we speak of humane impossibles be measured by the pole or by the vessell And in 1 King 4. 29. it is said God gave Salomon wisdome and understanding exceeding much and largenesse of heart as the sand of the Sea that is as the sand incompasses and takes the Sea in its armes so Salomon had a heart comprehending all the depths and oceans of knowledge he had the compasse of all learning in his understanding Hence when a man attempts a thing impossible we say to him proverbially Thou measurest the sand Areâ—am metiris Thirdly The sand of the Sea is applied in Scripture to note the exceeding weight and heavinesse of a thing that instance is pregnant for it Prov. 23. 7. A stone is heavy and the sand is weighty but a fooles wrath is heavier than both when Salomon would Stulti mores â—ntolerabiles shew us how intollerably burthensome the manners of a wicked man are he compares them to a stone and to the sand The wrath of a wicked man is very weighty but by the way the wrath of God is incomparably more weighty Wrath proceeding from extreame folly is weighty but wrath proceeding from infinite wisdome is infinitely weighty The wrath of a foole upon his brother is heavier then a stone or then the sand How heavy then will the wrath of the most wise God be upon that foole It is further considerable that he saith not barely heavier than Triplex est aâ—enae genus fossâ—â—ia flavialis Marina Plin. lib. 3 naâ— hist cap. 23. the sand any sand is very heavy but heavier than the sand of the Sea Rivers have sand and dry pits have sand but sea-sand is the vastest and the heaviest sand Againe He speakes not in the singular number Heavier then the sand of the Sea but the Hebrew is plurall heavier than the sand of the Seas as if Job had said if thou shouldest shovell up all the sand that is upon the shores of all the seas together on a heap it would not be so heavy as my calamity In such Hyperbolies or high strains of eloquence Job rhetoricates about his sad condition as if he resolved to put more weight into his expressions as he found more weight put into his afflictions Hence observe Afflictions are heavy burthens The judgements of God upon wicked men are frequently in Scripture called burthens and they are heavy burthens Isa 15. 1. we read of the burthen of Moab that is the judgement and calamity that should fall upon Moab And Isa 17. 1. The burden of Damascus And Isa 19. 1. The burden of Egypt And Isa 21. 1. The burden of the desert of the Sea And afterwards The burden of the valley of vision that is of Jerusalem And 2 King 9. 25. when Jehu had killed Jehoram he said to Bidkar his Captaine Take up and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite for remember how that when I and thou rode together after Ahab his father the Lord laid this burden upon him That is that he should be slaine and throwne out in this manner As afflictions upon wicked men are burdens So afflictions upon the godly are burdens too they are also heavy burdens Their sinnes are burdens upon them My sinnes saith David are gone over my head they are a burthen too heavy for me to beare Psal 38. 4. Their sins are burdens and their sorrowes are burdens Sin doth not only burden man but it burthens God I am pressed under your sinnes as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves saith God Amos 2. 13. As man by sin burthens God so God by affliction burthens man But of all afflictions inward afflictions are the greatest burthens As the spirit of a man is stronger then his flesh so the afflictions which are upon his spirit are weightier then those that are upon his flesh The spirit hath wonderfull strength all spirits are strong Angells are mighty in strength One good Angel is an over-match for all men And the devils who are spirits are called not not only Principalities but powers because of their strength Proportionably the spirit of man hath a mighty strength in it and so the afflictions which are upon the spirit may have a greater weight in them The affliction which Job complains of as heavier then the sand was not so much the calamity that pressed his flesh or the paine that tormented his body as is plaine in the next
passe out against him A if he had said Let not God spare me let him write â—s bitter a sentence against me as he pleaseth for my part I would not conceale the word of the most High but I would publish his judgement and sentence against me yea I would praise him and extoll him for it The vulgar Latine to this sence I would not contradict the word of the holy One Let him not spare me for as for my part whatsoever God shall determine and resolve whatsoever word God shall speake concerning me I will never withstand or open my mouth against it This is a truth and carries in it a high frame of holinesse when we can bring our hearts to this that let God write as bitter things against us as he pleaseth we will never contradict his word or decree but our minds and spirits shall submit wholly and fully to his dispositions of us and dispensations towards us It is as clear an evidence of grace to be passive under as to be active in the word of God Not to contradict his writ for our sufferings as not to conceale what he speaks for our practise But I rather stick to the former interpretation Job giving this as a reason of his great confidence in pursuing his petition for death because he had been so sincere holding forth the word of God both in doctrine and in life And so we may observe from it First That the testimony of a good conscience is the best ground of our willingnesse to die That man speakes enough for his willingnesse to die who hath lived speaking and doing the will of God and he is in a very miserable case who hath no other reason why he desireth death but onely because he is in misery This was one but not the only reason why Job desired death he had a reason transcending this I have not concealed the words of the holy One and I know if I have not concealed the word of God God will not conceal his mercy and loving kindness from me David bottoms his hopes of comfort in sad times upon this Psal 40. 9 10. I have preached righteousness in the great Congregation I have not refrained my lips O Lord thou knowest he was not actively or politickly silent I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart if lay there but it was imprisoned or stifl'd there I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvations I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great Congregation Upon this he fals a praying with a mighty spirit of beleeving vers 11. Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me O Lord let thy loving-kindness and thy truth continually preserve me for innumerable evils have compassed me about The remembrance of our active faithfulness to the truth of God will bear up our hearts in hoping for the mercy of God He that in Davids and in Jobs sence can say I have not concealed the words of the most high may triumph over innumerable evils and shall be more then a conquerer over the last and worst of temporal evils death God cannot long conceal his love from them who have not concealed his truth Secondly observe positively That the counsels of God his truths must be revealed God hath secrets which belong not to us but then he puts them not forth in a word nor writes them in his book he keeps his secrets close in the cabinet of his decrees and counsels but what he reveals either in his word or by his works man ought to reveal too It is as dangerous if not more to conceal what God hath made known as to be inquisitive to know what God hath concealed Yea it is as dangerous to hide the word of God as it is to hide our own sins And we equally give glory to God by the profession of the one as by the confession of the other Paul with much earnestnesse professes his integrity about this as was even now toucht Act. 20. Fourthly observe That the study of a godly man is to make the word of God visible I have not concealed that is I have made plain I have revealed or I have published the words of the holy One Much of Jobs mind is concealed under that word I have not concealed For in this negative there is an affirmative as if he had said this hath been my labour and my businesse my work in the world to make known so much of the will of God as I know This was the work of Christ here below Father I have glorified thee upon earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do Joh. 17. 4. What this work was he shewes vers 6th I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world Lasty observe That it is a dangerous thing for any man to conceale the word of God either in his opinion or in his practice For it is as if Job had said if I had ever concealed the words of God I had bin but in an ill case at this time God might now justly reveale his wrath against me if I had concealed his word from others or God might justly hide his mercies from me if I had hid his word from men Smothered truths will one time or other set the conscience in a flame and that which Jeremiah spake once concerning his resolution to conceale the word of God and the effect of it will be a truth upon every one who shall set himselfe under a resolution to doe what he under a temptation did Jer. 20. 9. Then I said I will not make mention of him nor speake any more in his name what followes Then his word was in my breast as a burning fire shut up in my bones and I was weary with forbearing If a gracious heart hath taken up such a sodaine resolution to conceale the word of God he quickly repents of it or smarts under it He findes that word as a burning fire in his bones he is not able to bear it I was weary with forbearing saith the prophet Nothing in the world will burthen the conscience so much as concealed truth and they who have taken a meditated resolution that they will not reveale the word of God may be sure that word will one time or other reveale it selfe to them in the Light and heat of a burning fire seeding upon their consciences I have not concealed the words whose words The words of the Holy One Who is that The Holy One is a periphrasis for God When you hear that Title The holy One you may know who is meant This is a Title too bigge for any but a God All holinesse is in God and God is so holy that properly he onely is Holy Hence the Scripture sets God forth under this as a peculiar attribute The Holy One The Prophets often use this addition or stile The Holy One of Israel The Holy One Is One separate or set apart from all filthinesse
God and prayer all this while God hath put his everlasting armes under me otherwise I had fallen before this day hid I not prayed in ayd from heaven I had not lived thus long upon the earth for what is my strength compared to these burthens which are upon me This is a good sence For as the Apostle speakes Gal 2. 10. The life which I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God So Job seems to say the life which I have lived ever since these afflictions have encompass'd me I have lived by the power of God and the strength of faith in him What iâ— my strength that I should bear We have this treasure saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 4. 7. in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be from God and not from us As he speakes there respecting the burthen of the Ministry So we may in respect of any burthen of trouble or weight of affliction We have these afflictions laid upon our earthen vessels and one would wonder that an earthen vessel should not cracke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moratus praestolatus Vel significat anxia spe potiendi voto rem aliquam expectare aegrè ferre protractionem rei expectatae Chemnit Spes est cum praeparatio ad boni futuri promissi susceptionem tum patientia morae ex intuitu illius boni Coc. and shatter to pieccs under them but it is that the excellency of the power might be from God and not from us when we are weak then we are strong strong in God and in the power of his might God loves to shew the world what his strength can doe in a weak creature as well as what his grace and mercy can do for a sinful creature This I say is a good sence but the word rather signifies to hope and yet these two are not at any great odds for hope is the strength the bearing-strength of the soul What is my strength that I should hope That I should wait and tarry that I should expect or stay for such and such changes as thou hast promised Psalm 130 5. we have these words put together I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait and in his word do I hope The soul which is in a hoping condition is also in a waiting condition waiting and hoping ever attend the same thing No man will wait at all for that of which he hath no hope and he who hath hope will wait always He gives not over waiting till he gives over hoping The object of hope is some future good but the act of hoping is a present good and that is present pay to bear our charges in waiting So then the word implies both a patient writing and a hopefull trusting So Christ expoundes it Mat. 12. 21. rendring that of the prophet Isa 42. 4. The isles shall wait for his Law thus In his name shall the Gentiles trust Noah after the strength of the deluge was spent Gen 8. 10 12. opened the window of the Arke and sent forth the Dove and she returned then saith the text He waited seven daies and again he waited yet other seven daies hoping at last the floud would be dried up and the waters return into their ancient channels Now saith Job what is my strength that I should hope or expect deliverance and therefore why should I wait for it The waters of my afflictions are so deepe and swolne so high that I have no hope to see dry ground againe And in this passage he seemes to answer what Eliphaz speak in the 5th Chapter vers 16. and 25. for doubtlesse Job applies himselfe exactly to what Eliphaz had spoken and the truest interpretation of his answer will be in finding out and suiting the references to what the other Propounded Eliphaz in the 16. verse of the fifth Chapter where he makes a report of the wonderfull workes of God had said So the poore hath hope and iniquity stoppeth her mouth And at the 25 verse he tels Job that a godly man notwithstanding all his afflictions may know that his tabernacle shall be in peace and that his seed shall be very great Job in answer to those words replies What is my strength that I should hope As if he had said Eliphaz you speake of great hopes that the poore may have and you speak of a peaceable Tabernacle of a flourishing off-spring Alas my condition is such I am so worne out with paine with sicknesses with diseases with distempers with griefes that I have no hope left in regard of any strength in me ever to enjoy such promises What is my strength Quae fortitudo mea ut sperem liberos Vatab. Quid in longiorem spem me adducitis quum sperando non fim jam propè◠mortuus videat Hoc à lobo dicitur ut consilâ—j importunitatem expresso sensitivae partis affectu retunderet non quod de divina potentia diffideret that I should hope What is my strength that I should expect to live to see such good daies as you speak of that my Tabernacle should be in peace that I should have plenty that I should have a numerous issue Alas my strength is gone what is my strength that I should looke after these things Not that Job measured all his hope by his owne strength but here he expresses the griefe and paine which was in his sensitive part or upon his outward man thereby to answer the sowre reproofs and sweet promises of Eliphaz For we find Job himself in the thirteenth Chapter vers 13. resolving thus Though he kill me yet will I trust or hope in him he would trust and hope in God though he died therefore he did hope while he lived And it is the property of that grace and where it is in strength it shâ—wes as much to hope against hope Rom. 4. 18. Who against hope beleeved in hope When there was no strength in Abraham no possibility in nature yet against hope he beleeved in hope So at this time there was such a grace in Job he had a hope by which he could hope against hope but when he looked into his own stock of strength What is my strength that I should hope I know the strength of God is a rock sure enough for my hope to anchor in Abraham said in effect what is my strength that I should hope to have a childe for he looked upon himself as a dead man but saith he there is power in God he knew his own weakness but he considered it not waxing strong in faith and giving glory to God So here while Job saith What is my strength that I should hope my strength is dried up and withered and so is my hope in my own strength The strength of God is vigorous and green and in him my hope also is green and vigorous Though all the earth about us be like a dry heath and barren wilderness yet our hope buds and blossoms like a
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some Criticks observe that the Hebrew word for a brother is of near brother-hood or alliance with two other words whereof the first signifies One and the other Alike or Together to shew that brethren ought to be as One and Alike or Together which latter is by an elegant Paranomatia joyned with it Psal 133. 1. Behold how good and pleasant is it for brethren to dwell together in unity or as we put in the Margin To dwell even together So then the very word whereby brethren are expressed notes that there ought to be a nearness a similitude yea an Onenesse if I may so speak between them in their affections and actions Yet saith Job these men whose relation thus obliges them have laid themselves out to my greatest disadvantage My brethren have dealt deceitfully with me The word imports dealing perfidiously or treacherously in any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Persidus fuit perfide egit violavit sidem vel foedus kind Isa 21. 3. The treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously And it is applyed to that treachery or prefidiousnesse which is the highest in civil relations the treachery of the wife to the husband Jer. 3. 20. Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband so you have departed from me Idolatry is the violation of our faith to Christ And therefore often called adultery This word to note that by the way as it signifies to deal perfidiously in the Verbe and perfidiousnesse and treachery in the Nown so also a garment or vesture made up of any kind of matter Forte quod vestimentum sit primae hominis contra Deum perfidiae tegumētum testimonium cum antea homo nudui fuerit Bux or stuffe And the reason is thus given by the learned Hebrician Because a garment is both the cover and the witnesse of mans first perfidiousnesse and treachery against God Our first parents in innocency had no garment but innocency they were without cloathing and wanted no cloathing they were naked and did not perceive their nakedness but assoon as they departed from God treacherously their sin told them that is made them feel that they were naked therefore they put themselves on Aprons of leaves but God cloathed them with the skins and cloathing he vested in a word of that language which should ever mind man of the reason why cloaths were first put upon him namely his perfidious and treacherous dealing with God That take it in passage which now so many make a matter of their pride is a witnesse of their shame their shamefull rebellion and falling away from God Put these together My brethren have dealt deceitfully with me Job meaneth it of his three visiting friends these if not bethren of his bloud yet were of great familiarity and correspondency with him therefore he at once titles and reproves them thus My brethren have dealt deceitfully with me Hence observe First That there is no obligation so near but an evil heart will break through it My brethren have dealt deceitfully Though I suppose Job here charged his brethren too deeply if so deep as their hearts who notwithstanding they failed in the businesse they came about yet I beleeve had no intention to wrong or to deceive him Yet many have been intentionally deceived by brethren and it is a truth in position That brethren will deceive Secondly whereas he puts such an Emphasis upon it My brethren have dealt deceitfully with me As if he had said you are not enemies you are not strangers that speak these things but my brethren Note from it That as it is ill for any to deal deceitfully so worst of all for brethren It is a trouble to be deceived by any and a sin for any to deceive but it is worse to be deceived by those we trust And when a brother deceives the sinne of the deceit is doubled whether he be a brother in the flesh or a brother in friendship or a brother in the profesion of the faith Deceit from a brother is exceeding bad in all but worst of all in the last Deceit from a brother in the faith is more then double unfaithfulnesse David complains Psal 55. 12. of the wrong he had received from such a brother It was not an enemy that reproached me for then I could have born it the reproach had not been half so heavy or grievous unto me if an enemy had reproached me the wound had not been half so wounding if an enemy had smitten me But it was thou a man mine equal my guide and my acquaintance we took sweet counsel together and we walked to the house of God in company to be reproached and wronged by thee this is the thing that lies heavy upon my spirit God himself complaines most when they deal perfidiously with him who are neere him his own people He cannot expect any other of Heathens and strangers but when his children deal deceitfully with him he complaines of this as much with admiration as with anger I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me Isa 1. 2. He calls Heaven and Earth to bear witness of this unfaithfulnesse Men are wicked beyond all reason not that there is reason in any wickedness but so we speak of all excesses men I say are wicked beyond all reason when God appeals against them to things without all sence David satisfyed himself in the evil measure he received from a stranger because he had received evil from a Sonne As greater benefits and favours swollow up the thought of lesser so do greater afflictions and unkindnesses A man hath no leisure to think of his discurtesie who gives him ill language when another assaults him to cut his throat When Shimei railed on David 2 Sam. 16. 10 11. Abishai heats his spirit to revenge What saith David My sonne which came forth of my bowels seeketh my life how much more now may this Benjamite doe it This stranger one of another Tribe and Family As if he had said I have no reason to be much troubled to hear a stranger speak hard words against me when my sonne is up in arms against me to hear the one curse me when the other would kill me Moses uses this argument to umpire between the two Hebrews Sirs ye are brethren why do ye wrong one to another Acts 7. 26. It will be a mighty aggravation of sin when God shall say My children have dealt deceitfully with me or man my bowels my brethren have dealt deceitfully with me My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook Here is the shadow of their deceit Job explains himself by a similitude They have dealt deceitfully but how I will tell you how they have dealt deceitfully as a brook and as the streame of a brook they pass away I can go to the streams and to the brooks and shew my friends the face of their hearts to me I am sure of their dealings with me in those waters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
as one that travelleth and thy want as an armed man Want strips us but is it selfe not only cloathed but armed Evils have so much life and strength in them that they are compared to the strongest who live armed men Hence observe first It is an aggravation of unkindnesse to those who are in want not to be kind to them when they are modest in asking a supply of their wants Love ought to prevent asking and should be moved to give most to them who being in need complain least Again He speakes this to wipe off that aspersion as if the losse of his estate were the thing which grieved and pinched him so sore Did I say unto you bring me a reward c. It is an argument that a man overloves that which he hath lost when he is over-importunate to have his losses repaired If you had seen me call out unto you for an estate then you had reason to think that the losse of my estate was the losse of my patience Thirdly Observe the temper of a gracious heart under losses and afflictions A gracious heart under losses is not forward to complain to creatures or to ask help of men Did I say bring unto me or give me a reward of your substance He complaines to God and sheweth him his trouble he openes his want to God and asketh supplies of him but he is very modest and slow in complaining to or in suing for help at the hand of creatures It is not unlawful for those that are in want to make their losses and wants known to men It is a duty rather so to doe onely it must be done with caution least when we ask of creatures too importunately we give an argument against our selves that we are too much in love with creatures As it is reproved in those Rulers before spoken of Hos 4. 18. that they did love give ye It is a crime in the rich to love give ye And certainly it is a sin at least an infirmity in those that are poor and in want to love give ye or to say as Iob here had not bring to me Solomon speakes of the daughters of the horsleach that they are alwayes crying give give noting their insatiable thirst after blood Some poor are alwayes crying give give which notes a very inordinate desire after riches Iob is very careful to take off the suspition of such a blemish from himself I did not say bring ye or give ye me of your substance It is the duty of those that are full to give to their empty brethren it is their sin if they give not and it is their shame if they are not most free in giving to those who are most modest in asking But when God hath emptied us we should not be eager in filling our selves When God takes creatures from us we should take heed of pursuing them we should not doe any thing which may argue our hearts glued to them when the Lord hath loosen'd them out of our hands It is an honour to a poor Christian when in his greatest straights he can approve himself to God and men and can say as the Apostle Acts 20. 33. I have coveted no mans silver or gold or apparel It is as sinful to covet in our wants as it is in our abundance And it is as bad if not worse to be greedy of the creature when we are empty as when we are full A poor man oppressing the poor Prov 28. 3. and covering from the rich are sights of equal abomination Vers 24. Teach me and I will hold my tongue and cause me to understand wherein I have erred c. This and the next verse contain the fourth branch of Jobs reply and the general sence of them is a submission of himself to his friends if yet they should speak reason or discover his error Teach me and I will hold my peace as if he had said Though I have to the best of my understanding thus far acquitted my self and cleared mine own innocency though I have as I think with truth and justice laid this charge of uncharitablenesse and unfriendly dealing with me upon you yet you shall see I am ready to hear you I am teachable if you can yet teach me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iecit projecit per metaphoram 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rigavit quando transfertur ad pluviam quae lapidum sagitarum instar ex coelo decidit in terram eamque ferit rigat foecundat Hinc per Metathoram significat etiam docere Quod doctrina veluti instiletur animis dicentium ininutatim indatur eosque impuat I will keep silence and if you cause me to understand wherein I have erred I shall doe so no more Teach me The Original word notes in strict sence to cast a thing forth to throw a thing as a dart or a stone is thrown either downward or upward or in a direct motion forward Hence by a Metaphor it signifies raine because raine is as it were darted forth from the clouds and cast down upon the earth And from hence yet one remove further the Metaphor is carried to signifie teaching Hence the holy Prophet is commanded to drop his word Ezek. 20. 46. 21. 2. Sonne of man set thy face toward the south and drop thy word towards the south Sonne of man set thy face toward Jerusalem and droop thy word toward the holy places And the reason is this because Doctrines Truths and wholesome Instructions are instilled and cast down among the people or dropt into their spirits as rain is cast or dropp'd from heaven upon the earth And so we may read the word◠out of the metaphor thus rain down upon me doe ye O my friends like clouds full of water dissolve and showre down instructions upon me and see if I doe not receive and drink them in And from this word all doctrine and instruction in the Hebrew is called Torah Prov. 13. 1. and Psal 1. 1. And the Jewes by way of eminency call the five books of Moses as also all the books of the old Testament the Torah that is the Law or rule of holy doctrine which God rained down from Heaven and distilled graciously upon his people for their growth in knowledge and in holiness And so a Teacher from the same root is called Moreh Job 36. 22 Who teacheth like Him who raineth like him there is no man can distill truths as God doth Moses Deut. 32. 2. elegantly sets forth his preaching by an allegory of rain and dew My doctrine shall drop as the rain my speech shall distil as the dew as the small rain upon the tender herb and as the showres upon the grasse And the Apostle Paul Heb. 6 7 8. compares a taught people to ground that is well watered with rain For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it and bringeth forth fruit is blessed but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected and is nigh unto
shall not read either fear or falsenesse written in my forehead the lines and characters of my countenance shall shew you nothing but the soundnesse and integrity of my conscience For it is evident unto you if I lie you will anon read the lie in my face if there be a lie in my heart therefore break not off with me turn not away in discontent let us discourse a little more about this businesse and the truth will appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is evident unto you if I lie The Hebrew is it is before your face if I lie that is as we translate it will quickly be evident and appear unto you by a little sober debate of this businesse whether I am right or no. Et in faciem vestrum si mentior sc despeream vel moriar vel non sit mihi propitius Deus vel tale quippiam Mer. Some think there is a kind of secret imprecation in this speech It will be evident unto you if I lie As if he had said Let not the Lord be mercifull or gracious unto me let not the Lord pity or spare me If I am false hearted and lie unto you It is frequent and familiar in the Hebrew to give such expressions of an oath As in that oath of God Psalm 95. 11. quoted Heb. 3. 11. Vnto whom I sware in my wrath If they shall enter into my rest which we translate by a plain negative in both places They shall not enter into my rest And Psal 89 39. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David or if I lie unto David then let not my word be taken any more So Job here it will he evident to you if I lie and if I doe let me not have help or strength or support from God any more To lie may be taken two wayes either strictly as to lye is to Mentire est contramentem ite speak that which is false with an intent to deceive To speak against clear knowledge is the proper strict sence of a lie Or to lie signifies to fail or to come short in that which is expected from us by others To frustrate any of their hopes is to lie to them and so it is applied often times to the fruites of the earth Hab. 3. 17. Though the labour of the Olive shall fail the word is though the labour of the Olive should lie that is though you coming to find fruit of the Olive should find none there The Olive whose fair leaves promise and speak you fair as if you should have fruit if when you come it yeelds none this Olive lies to you So Hos 9. 2. The new wine shall lie we translate it The new wine shall fail that is the vines which speake thus much that you shall have new wine shortly if when you come there is none the vines lie In either of these sences we may understand it Spem mentita seges Hor. If I lie that is if I speak any thing against my mind wittingly or willingly or if I fail in this business if I am like the vine or like the olive when they give no fruit according to expectation it will be evident unto you you shall see if we discusse this controversie a little further the truth will out whether I shall fail or belie your expectation or no. That place Chap. 24. 25 will expound it so who will make me a lyar saith Job and make my speech nothing worth as if he had said my words shall be made good and I will not fail in that which I have undertaken or taken upon me There is a further apprehension about these words Look upon Totus hic versus eleganter insinuat rem sorensem nempe judic is strict issimum examen cosentes testes interrogat non solum verbis sed etiam nutibus oculorum intuitu Bold me it is evident unto you if I lie as iâ— they were an allusion to the carriage of Judges and Magistrates towards offenders in publick judiciary tryals when an offender or one accused for any offence is brought before a judge and stands at the bar to be arraigned the judge looks upon him eyes him sets his eye upon him and he bids the offender look up in his face look upon me saith the judge and speak up guiltiness usually clouds the forehead and cloaths the brâ—w The weight of guilt holds down the head The evil doer hath an ill look or dares not look up how glad is he if the judge look off him We have such an expression Psal 11. 4. speaking of the Lord the great Judge of Heaven and earth His eye-lids try the children of men as a Judge tries a guilty person with his eye and reades the characters of his wickednesse printed in his face Hence we have a common speech in our language such an one looks suspiciously or he hath a guilty looke At that great Goale-delivery described Rev. 6. 16. all the prisoners cry out to be hid from the face of him that sate upon the throne They could not looke upon Christ and they could not endure Christ should looke on them The eye-lids of Christ try the children of men That of Solomon may help this sence Pro. 20. 8. A King that sitteth in the throne of judgement scattereth away all evill with his eyes Wickednesse cannot endure to be under the observation of any eye much lesse of the eye of Justice Hence the actors of it say Who seeth us It is very hard not to shew Heu quam difficile est crimen non prodere vultu Ovid. secund Metam the guilt of the heart in the face and it is as hard to have it seen there Job seemes to offer himself to the view of the severest Judge Be content look upon me if I am guilty it will quickly appeare unto you my hypocrisie will breake out in my face and you may reade my conscience in my countenance It is noted of Paul Acts 13. 59. that when he had to deal witb Elymas the Sorcerer he set his eyes upon him and said O full of all subtilty The Apostle beate him downe as it were with a cast of his eye Job bids his friends looke upon him as long and as critically as they pleased he was not afraid of there lookes Lastly thus looke to me that is attend well what I say for I will explaine my minde so fully and clearely to you that it will quickly be evident to you whether I am right or wrong We may observe from this passage first That uprightnesse hath much boldnesse He that hath a good cause and a good conscience is not afraid to be searched to the bottome he cares not who lookes upon him or who lookes into him David in regard of the uprightnesse of his heart calls unto God himself Search me and try me it there be any way of wickednesse in me Psal 139. 23. David was so assured at his
Prayer Meditation and the whole course of holy obedience The life of man is a continued temptation and that 's a spiritual warfare a continual bickering with a world of enemies And though they without stand still yet a soul can scarce passe one hour but he shall have many fights and bouts with his own heart In this sence Is there not an appointed time of warfare or temptation to man upon earth Our life is a warfare in divers respects First it is a warfare because Christians do or ought to live under the greatest command of any in the world they ought to stand armed at a call A Souldier is under absolute command he must not dispute the Orders of his General but obey them The Centurian in the Gospel saith I have Souldiers under me and I say to one go and he goeth to another come and he cometh and to a third do this and he doth it which he speaks not as commending the special vertue and good disposition of his own Souldiers but as describing the duty of all Souldiers therefore Souldiary is well defined To be the obedience of a stout and valiant mind Militia est obedientia quadam fortis invicti animi arbitrio carentis suo out of his own dispose A Souldier moves upon direction so must a Christian he is in a warfaring condition he must have a charge or a word from his Commander for every step he treads or action he undertakes Secondly it is a warfare in regard of perpetuall motions and travels A Souldiers life is an unsetled life while he is in actuall service he hath no rest he is either marching or charging and when he comes in his quarters his stay is but little he cannot build him a house he can but pitch him down a tent for a night or two he must away againe Mans life hath no stop we have here no abiding City we dwell in tents and tabernacles waifaring and warfaring out our dayes Thirdly a warfare because of continual watching It is the watch-word which Christ gave his followers I say unto you watch that 's the souldiers word and work too warring and watching goe together The Souldier stands Centinel fearing the enemies surprise A Christian should stand upon his guard and his watch at all hours is not that a warfare Fourthly a warfare because Christians ought to keep their rank and file that is the places and relations wherein God hath set them A Souldier commanded to stand such a ground must not stirre though he die for it and if he stirs by Martial law he shall die There is so much keeping of order in warre and Battels that whatsoever keeps order is said to fight or warre The Sarres are said to have fought against Sisera in their courses Judg. 5. 20. The Stars are embattaild or encampt in their sphears out of which they move not and are therefore often called the Militia or host of Heaven Fifthly a warfare because so full of hazzards troubles and labours or because so much hardship is to be endured A Souldier converses with dangers and dwels in the territories of death continually This caused Deborah to begin her Triumphant Song with praise to the Lord because the people offered themselves willingly Many are forc'd and press'd to the warrs and most who are not press'd by the Authority of others are press'd by their own hopes of gaine or desire of vain-glory and renown A true Voluntiere in warre is a rare man There is so much danger in it that there is seldome much of the will in it The whole life of man is full either of visible or invisible dangers he passes the pikes every day The Apostle reckons eight distinct perlis in one verse which met him which way soever he turned 2 Cor. 11. 26. He was in deaths often And though there are but few such Heroes as he yet 't is seldome but any of us are in deaths Especially while we remember the mighty spirituall enemies and oppositions which encompasse and beset us every day We wrastle not with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers c. And are therefore advised to take to us the whole armour of God never to stir without our sword Sixthly a warfare in regard of the issue victory and triumph or slavery and death is the issue of our lives Either we overcome and are more then conquerours that 's the Apostles language Rom. 8. or else we are conquered and more then captives that 's the Apostles sence too both in allusion They are taken captive by the Devill at his will To be led captive by the Devill is the lowest captivity lower then any captivity unto men In reference to 2. Tim. 2. 26. the spirituall part of our warfare there 's no comming off upon equall rermes We must be victors or slaves conquer or die Only this is the Saints assurance that as the Captaine of their salvation was made perfect by sufferings and conquer'd by dying so at the worst shall they spirituall death as sinners hath no power over them at all and when they die as men naturall or by men violently they shall receive fuller power Thus our life is a warfare upon earth But take the word as we translate for an appointed time Is there not an appointed time to man upon the earth And the reason why it beares that sence is grounded upon these two things 1. Because there is a speciall season of the yeare most fit and Non significat tempus simpliciter sed tempus certum ac constitutum ea analogia quod determinato anni tempore exerceri solet militia Militia ideo tempus determinatum dicitur quia non quae vis aetas bello apta est sed determinata certa sutable for warre 2 Sam. 11. 1. And it came to passe at the return of the yeare when Kings go forth to battell The time for war is such a known appointed season that the same word signifies warfare and any appointed season 2. Because men go out to war at a speciall time of their age There is an appointed setled time of mans life wherein he is fit to beare arms Every age is not fit for arms Old men and children are not fit for the field Hence we finde Numbers the first throughout that the muster of the children of Israel is thus made ver 3 20 22 c. From twenty yeares old and upward all that are able to goe forth to warre The Roman and Greek histories are distinct in this In some Common-wealths from Fifteen to Fifty in others from Twenty to Sixty and in ours the appointed time is between Sixteen Sixty so men are press'd and listed for war And because there is such an appointed or a set time of life in all States to goe out to war therefore that word is elegantly applied to signifie a set or an appointed time for any businesse Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth Vpon earth
stormy they are appointed times The whole life of man on earth is ordered in heaven Fourthly if our lives are for an appointed time we should be willing to die when God cals All the time we would live beyond that is of our own appointment and we should be willing to live till God cals for all that 's appointed time As it is sinfull not to be willing to do though it be burdensom what God appoints so is it likewise not to be willing to live what time God appoints though it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mercendarius a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coÌ„duxit Mercenarius est qui in certum tempus conduâ—itur saepe in die quem ideo Graeci vocant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sicut in unico die operario quamdiu lucet sol noâ— est ulla requies mercenario constituâ—aÌ„ ita dum luce hujus vitae fruimur nulla nobis requies expectauda est be painfull and troublesome And are not his daies like the daies of an hireling An hireling is he who works a set time for a set reward And so this latter clause of the verse is the same in sence with the former Is there not an appointed time to man and are not his daies like the daies of an hireling That is are not his daies set as an hireling with whome we agree for so many daies or for such a day An hireling We may take him either for a hired souldier a mercenary in warre or for an hired servant a mercenary in work An hireling in either notion is called to labour sorrow and sweat Such is the common condition of man His daies are as the daies of an bireling God threatneth Moab by the Prophet in this language Isa 16. 14. Within three yeares as the years of an hireling and the glory of Moab shall be contemned that is within three years which shall be like the years of an hireling troublesome years laborious years vexatious yeares wearisome yeares and then the glory of Moab shall be contemned and utterly despised As if he had said Moab is now in great glory but near great desolation You shall see three years trouble will staine all the glory of Moab and wither all her beauty we feele this truth England was a Nation of great glory you see how two or three years like the years of an hireling troublesome years years of affliction years of hard labour and travell have almost spoil'd the glory of it And yet here Job makes a generall description of the life of man It is not the lot only of some poore afflicted hard-wrought servants that their daies are as the daies of an hireling he speakes of man-kind of the master as well as of the servant His daies are like the daies of an hireling We may note from it First That Except we labour we ought not to eat For the dayes of man are as the daies of an hireling the hireling shall not have his meat except he worke for it neither ought he that hires or sets him a worke The master is in this sence an hireling The Saints are in this sence Hirelings The Apostle speakes to believers and reproves them 2 Thess 3. 12. There are some which walke among you inordinately working not at all now them that are such we command that they work and eat their own bread and ver 10. If any man work not let him not eat even they whom Christ hath made free are to account themselves as hired servants that is they must not eat the bread of idlenesse we steale all the bread which one way or other we labour not for and therefore the Apostle bids the Thessalonians work that they might eat their own bread It is not our own bread which we buy with our mony unlesse we pay in what we can and are called to labour for it also As we eat that bread pleasantly so we come by it honestly which is dipt in our owne sweat Secondly we are hence taught That We ought to take our travels well we must not murmur at our labours or complain over our work and say what a wearinesse is it As the Lord cannot bear it that any should murmur at spirituall worke or say with them in the Prophet What a wearinesse is it so it is very displeasing to him to say of our callings and the burdens of them What a wearinesse are they Why It is the common condition of man Why then should we quarrel with that law of labour which is become the portion of our mortality The corruption of our nature hath led us into this condition and made us all as hirelings Mans innocency had businesse but sin hath brought him to sweat and changed his labour into toile Man was put into the garden as Lord of it to dresse and till it but now he is put there as an hireling to sweat and toyle at it There is a stampe of servility and drudgery upon all the labours which the children of men take under the Sun That argument which the Apostle uses to support us in the bitternesse of affliction hath alike strength in it to comfort us in the toile somenesse of our labours As there is no temptation hath taken hold of us but that which is common to man 1 Cor. 10. 13. So there is no labour laid upon any of us in our lawfull callings but that which is common to man Even the Saints whom Christ hath made free and separated from the world are not freed from service while they are in the world And while Christ would not have them carefull in any thing he would have them industrious in every thing That Canon of the Apostle is clear for it 1 Cor. 7. 20. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called that is your spirituall calling doth not void your civill When you have learned to drive a trade for heaven you must still drive your trade on earth While there is any thing of sin in us there must be somewhat of the hireling in us There is not the most ingenious no nor the most spirituall labour we goe about but there is somewhat of the hireling in it in the duty of prayer in the duty of preaching there is somewhat of the hireling that is there is bodily paine and wearinesse a waste upon our strength and expence of our spirits Though in these things the Saints worke not for wages but their very works is their wages and their labour their reward though there be nothing mercenary in their spirits yet they feel the effects of a mercenary worke upon their bodies even wearinesse and waste of naturall strength and spirits Thirdly Seeing the daies of a man are as the daies of an hireling Observe There is a reward or wages somewhat followes the labour and travell of this life The hireling labours all day but at night he hath his reward Mat. 20. Christ compares beleevers even in their spirituall capacity unto labourers in
relief of himself and family take heed saith the Lord that thou detain not his wages for the poor man lifteth up his soul to it as a thing he reacheth upward for It is very dangerous to take that out of the hands of man which he is taking as it were out of the hand of God But a rich man who hath aboundance lets his heart down he croucheth and broodeth upon the creature A godly poor man looks up to his reward and fetches his bread from Heaven A covetous rich man looks down to his reward and takes his bread from the earth A godly man is above all earthly things and yet he lifts up his mind to receive them A meer natural man is below earthly things and yet he descends that he may receive them The things which both receive are the same but the conveyance and derivation differ alwayes as much as Heaven and earth sometimes as much as Heaven and hell But to the text Lastly observe That it is the property of an hireling take it strictly to eye his reward This is the description of an hireling he is one who looks to his reward whatsoever be doth to his work Christ John 10. 13. confirms this character The hireling fleeth because he is an hireling and careth not for the sheep he cares much for the fleece and for the flesh but he cares little if at all for the sheep that is how or whether the sheep be fed and prosper He that works for Christ finds his reward in his work and his eye is upon his work as a reward as well as upon the reward of his work he is pleased as much yea far more with his business then he is with his wages Did he not take content and pay himself in this that he is in a work acceptable to Christ he could take no content he could not be pleased at all that he is in a work profitable to himself Now Job applies this general about the nature of a servant and an hireling to his own condition So I am made to possess months of vanity and wearisome nights are appointed to me So am I made It looks like a strange and a very unlikely similitude As a servant desireth the shadow so am I made to possess months of vanity Therefore to clear it we must remember that this is a similitude with a dissimilitude The similitude is conceald the dissimilitude is exprest we may make it out thus As a servant desireth the shadow and an hireling looketh for the reward Similitudo dissimilis of his work so I who am labouring in the heat of these afflictions do earnestly desire a shadow and I who am at work as an hireling would have a reward that is I would see the end and issue of these troubles But here 's the dissimilitude I am made to possesse months of vanity and wearisome nights are appointed to me As if Job had said When the servant hath wrought all day and is weary he can lie down at night quietly rest himself but alas the night is as troublesome and as laborious to me as the day When the hireling hath laboured and taken pains he receives his reward at evening but my wages are months of vanity and my rewards are nights of trouble I am paid in ill coyne months of vanity wearisome nights are appointed for the reward of weary dayes Thus the sence is plain I am made to possess The word signifies possessing by inheritance and descent Two things are implied in that phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est jure baereditario aliquid acquirâ—re possidere First that troubles and afflictions belong to us by right they are possest as an inheritance which we receive from our parents and progenitors I am made to possesse And Secondly it notes the continuance of troubles upon us We have not onely an ill lodging for a while or we stay not with trouble as travellers for a night but we possess and inherit them as our own Jobs troubles were not to him as an hired house or a lodging but as an inheritance wherein he was setled and estated I am made to possesse months of vanity as if he had said you see what the patrimony and inheritance is which descends to me I have waited for comfort and have been in expectation of good dayes but I possess months of vanity that 's all I have found and felt as the issue of my labours Months of vanity Some read Empty Moons the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beares that sence as if Jobs Moon were alwayes in the wane or ever in the ecclipse The word signifies any kind of vanity whether in word or in deed personal vanity or real vanity falshood or deceit any thing that is trivial or light Such months have I appointed to me But some may say Months of vanity Why doth Job complain of this Hath any man in the world any other than months of vanity Why then doth Job take it so ill that he possesseth months of vanity when no other fall to the lot or possession of any man David Psal 39. vers 5. affirms that man at his best estate is altogether vanity What reason then hath Job to complain of months of vanity in his worst estate It was with him as well as with any of his neighbours we know not who hath any other than months of vanity The Preacher makes this the preface of his Sermon Eccles 1. 2. Vanity of vanities saith the Preacher vanity of vanities all is vanity I answer it is true our whole life is a life of vanity but yet there is more vanity in some mans life or in some part of the same mans life than in another Vanity is gradual There is a vain and a rainer vanity and there is the vainest vanity Months of vanity may be understood two waies First Months of vanity that is months empty of comfort fruitlesse months months bringing me no refreshing or content Inanis vacua quia erat vacua hominibus jumentis plantis As Gen. 1. 2. it is said the earth was without form and void void that is it had neither man nor beast nor plant upon it there was nothing but emptinesse upon the face of the earth as it lay in that rude masse So Job saith here mine are months of vanity void months that is months not filled up with any comfort with any refreshing with any joy with any light or content all these which are as the filling up of our months and the beauty of time are taken away from me mine are empty months my dayes are all Dogg-dayes or at best the dayes in the kalender of my life are blanks Secondly Months of vanity because he had not what he expected or the issue which he waited for Job expresses himself in a Vacuum tempus est quon nullam nobis offert utilitatem posture of waiting by the former similitudes The hireling looks for his wages
againe according to which the web was woven on for fifteen yeares more But this speech of Hezekiah as a weaver I have cut off my life is like that of the Apostle I have finished my course He compares the passing of his life to a shuttle and the conclusion of it to the cutting off of the thread Nights and dayes passe this shuttle forward and backward to and againe the night casts it to the day and the day to the night beween these two time quickly weares off the thred of life The heathen Poets had a fiction answering this allusion of the holy Ghost they tell us a story or a fiction rather of three sisters whereof the one held the wheele or the distaffe the Tres Parcae elotho Lachesis Atropos second drew out the thred and a third cut it off In this they shadow the state of mans life our ordinary phrase for living long is spinning a long thred and for dying the cutting off the thred of life And they are spent without hope Some translate they are spent so as that there is no hope left The word which here we 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 english spent signifies both consumption and consummation or sometimes in a good sense the end or perfecting of a thing and sometime in an ill sense the end or consuming of a thing Gen. 2. 1. So the Heavens and the earth were finished It is this word they were ended God ended his works by way of perfection and consummation he made his work compleate But here and often in Scripture it notes ending by way of consumption or as we translate the spending of a thing Jer. 14. 12. I will consume or make an end of them by the sword And Exod. 33. 3. God commands Moses to goe with the people into the wildernesse for saith he I will not goe up in the midst of them lest I consume them in the way And to shew how deep an expence and consumption of time was upon him Job tells us it had devoured and eaten up all his hope It is worse to have our hope spent then to have our dayes spent now saith he my dayes are spent and that is not all my hope is spent Some translate so my dayes are spent and I have Cum inopia spei vel defectu spei sc longioris vitae want or penury of hope as I have spent my dayes so I have spent my hope And his hopelessenesse may refer two wayes I have no hope or my hope is spent First in regard of long life I see I am so afflicted with this disease that there is no hope I should hold out under it Secondly without hope that is without hope of being in a better condition that is of having my estate restored unto me again if I should have health restored and a longer life continued In both these sences as he saw the thred of his dayes cut off so he saw the thred of his hope cut off he was near death and his hope was dead My dayes are spent without hope or there is no hope remaining This also is a negative to both parts of Eliphaz his promise either of longer life or of a better We may observe hence first a common truth which I shall not insist upon about that pretious commodity a commodity more pretious then the gold of Ophir Time All time is short and we have a very short estate in time Man is not master of one day and a servant but of few dayes The holy Ghost gives us very many remembrances of this which is an argument that we are very apt to forget it Man is slow to take notice of the swiftnesse of time and very dull in apprehending the speed of his dayes It is a wonder that such a plaine common doctrine should be handled so often and that the Holy Ghost should as it were labour for similitudes and fetch in all things that are more then ordinarily transitory in nature to teach us the transitorinesse of our condition We meete with many in this booke all hinting at the sudden invisible motion of time This is a point easie to be known but very hard to be beleeved every man assents to it but few live it And surely the holy Ghost would not spend so many words about it nor gather up so many illustrations of it from sence if it were not of much importance to our faith We usually slight the hearing of common principles â—nd a Sermon preacht upon this subject the shortnesse of our lives and the speed of time is judg'd a needlesse shortning of time and the houre seemes very long which runs out upon the speed of time we think it an easie doctrine and a Theame for boyes But the truth is if the heart did well disgest how few our dayes are we should have better dayes and men would live holier if they knew indeed their lives were no longer Therefore though I only touch this subject yet doe ye dwell upon it and stay long in your thoughts upon the shortnesse of your lives Common truths neglected cause a neglect of every truth Had we more serious thoughts of Heaven and hell that these are and what these are that there is a God and who he is that there will be a judgement and what it will be we should more profitably improve and trade our time and talents Secondly note Time passeth irrecoverably When the weavers shuttle is once out of his hand 't is gone presently there is no hope time past should be recalled or time in motion stopt To consider time under that notion should make us very good husbands of our time or as the Apostle advises to redeeme the time Redemptions are made by purchase to redeem a thing is to buy it with a price the price we redeeme time with is our labourand faithfull travell It is matter of mourning to consider that so little care is taken in spending that which when it is gone we have no hope it can be restored to us again Thirdly In that Iob complained before that his life was so long and now complaineth of the shortnesse or swiftnesse of his life we may note That Man thinks good daies end too soone and that evill dayes stay too long or will never have an end We love the company of good dayes and are therefore sorry when they depart When the Disciples were upon the Mount and had such a good day of it how desirous were they to have continued there and sorry they were the day was at an end Master saith Peter it is good for us to be here The sudden passing of our comforts is our trouble Time is alwayes of the same pace no creature keeps his pace more evenly then time doth it alwayes moves at the same rate neither faster nor slower but man thinks this time short and that time long this time speedy and that time slow according to the severall objects he meets with and to the conditions
and returns no more In that place of Ecclesiastes Solomon is only giving us a description of old age and the sad condition of man in it he calleth it the evil day and wisheth men would be wise to consider their latter end remembring their Creatour and laying up a good foundation before those evil dayes overtake them before the light of the Sun and Moon and Stars be darkened and the clouds return after the raine In old age the clouds returne after the raine thus as in some very wet time when we think it hath rained so much as might have spent and quite exhausted the clouds or drawn those bottles dry yet you shall see them return again it wil rain day after day as fast as ever so in old age when rheumes distil so freely that you would think an old man had emptied himselfe of all yet the clouds will return again and flouds of watery humours overflow Thus the clouds of old age returne And in this sence the clouds of the ayre returne after they are consumed and spent into raine But how doth a cloud return not the same cloud numerically that cloud which was dissolved doth not return the same Sunne goes down and vanisheth out of our sight in the Evening and returneth again the same individual and numerical Sun in the morning but that numerical cloud which vanished comes not again Thus man vanisheth and returns as the clouds return after the raine that is after one generation Si id quod nunquam fuiâ— nunc est quomodo quod nunc est post interritum dcnuo fore negatur Nam si hoc mirum illud magis mirum videtur of men are dead they return again in their children another generation springs up other return to life there is none till all shal return at the general judgement of quick and dead As now we are who never were so all shal return who were but are not It was a witty answer of a learned Jew disputing with a heathen Philosopher who opposed the Resurrection If that saith he which never was in the world now is is it strange that that which now is should be again after it is not in the world If this be a wonder the other is much more wonderful Neither shall his place know him any more His place may be taken three wayes First For the calling and condition of a man in this life that 's the place of a man a mans Calling is his place Or secondly Locally for his house or inheritance where he dwelt he shall come to that place no more Or thirdly Place is taken for dignity magistracy for the eminency of a mans calling therefore we say of a Magistrate or a man in honour he hath a Great place or he is a man of place and Rank in all these senses his place shall know him no more His place shall not know him That 's an elegancy of the holy language Places are without life and without sense much more without knowledge knowing is an act of reason how is it then said his place shall know him no more Did it ever know him Ther 's a double figure in it Some understand it by an Hypallage or transmutation of the words his place shall know him no more that is he shall know his place no more So that is expounded Psal 103. 16. The place thereof shall know it no more speaking of man passing away like a wind So Psal 37. 10. Thou shalt diligently consider his place and it shall not be his place shall not be places continue while the world continues Then his place shal not be is he shall not be in his place Or secondly understand it by a Prosopopeia frequent in Scripture which is the imitation of life by things without life when a place takes upon it the person of a man or when a place acts or imitates the speech of a man sence and reason are often ascribed to things without life and so the meaning of his place shall know him no more may be Quosi diceret ipsae res inanima quae serviura parent ad nutum mortalibus mortuis tamen null usui sunt Illos non agnoscunt dominos Ea enim est vis verbi cognoscendi non cognoscendi conceived thus When a man lives and comes home to his house his house as it were welcomes him home and his place is glad to entertain him as in the Psalme the little hils are said to rejoyce at the showers so when a man comes home his house and all he hath have as it were a tongue to bid him welcome and open armes to receive and embrace him but when he dies he shall return no more and then his place shall know him that is receive him no more Observe from this briefly because it is a similitude of the same importance with that opened in the former words first That death is the conclusion of all worldly comforts and relations As the cloud vanisheth and returneth not so in that sence there is an utter conclusion of man he is gone and there is no returning God by his almighty power hath fetched back some and the vanishing clouds have been brought again so Lazarus and others at the death of Christ was raised from the grave but in a natural way death seizeth all fast for ever your places your relations your credits your Friends shall know you no more or give you farther entertainment Secondly observe That God hath given us not only the book of Scripture but the book of the creature therein to learn and read our own frailty and mortality The creatures preach what man is and that is a reason why the holy Ghost spends so much time and is so frequent in giving us the measure of our selves by creatures these are every houre in our eye we meet with and see and handle and feel them continually The wind the vapours the clouds set forth what we are When I consider said David Psal 8. 3. 4. the Heavens the work of thy fingers the Moone and the Starres which thou hast ordained what is man that thou art mindfull of him To consider the greatnesse of the works of God should abase man it should amaze us to remember that God hath made such things for our use who are our selves so uselesse in comparison of what we ought to God And when man considers the Heavens and the earth and weighs how many things there are in them which set forth his frailty he hath reason to cry out O Lord what is man Man is but a wind a cloud a vapour even such a thing as I see most perishing and vanishing in the whole compasse of the creation Psalm 19. 1. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work The heavens are excellent creatures and full of glorious wonders they speake the power and wisdome of God they shew forth his handy work they can be the work of none but
the sick man or to him who hath been a comforter of the sick The Lord will make all his bed in his sicknesse that is God will make his bed easie and comfortable in his sicknesse When we cannot sleepe we use to complaine of our servants and say sure this bed was not made to night or it was ill made no man complains his bed was ill made when he hath slept well That his people in such a case may be sure of rest the Lord condescends to that low office the making of their beds Therefore we are to receive sleep as a matter of speciall blessing coming from the hand of God he makes the bed in sicknes and in health too then blesse God for rest and not your beds Though we know sleep is the portion of mankind and many times the worst of men have quiet and refreshing sleepe yet no wicked man ever slept upon the pillow of this promise nor will God make the bed of the greatest Prince in the world as such which yet he is ready to doe for his meanest servant common comforts are to some speciall mercies As some enjoy riches and honour by common providence while others enjoy them by vertue of a special promise so it is with sleep He giveth his beloved sleep But what found Job upon his bed Instead of sleep and rest he found skaring dreames and terrifying visions as it follows Verse 14. Thou skarest me with dreames and terrifiest me with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stratus prostratus contritus per metaphoram territus consternatus mente jacuit Et velut animi deliqrium importat visions As if he had said I find my selfe altogether disappointed and deceived instead of being comforted I am skared instead of being eased I am terrified my bed is to me as a very rack and my couch my torment or a little-ease Thou skarost me The word signifies to be cast down prostrate to the ground with feare or to be ground to powder with feare And it is often rendred by that word contrite which notes breaking of the heart by godly sorrow such a breaking is upon me thorough the dreames which fall upon me in and breake my sleepe If I have any sleepe it is terrifying and not refreshing sleepe Thou skarest me with dreames That word springs from a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spissus crassus per Metalepsin somniavit quia ex voporibus crassis provenit somnus queÌ„ somnia conjequuntur roote signifying thick vapours because sleepe is caused by thick vapours ascending from the stomach to the braine and closing up the sences dreames usually come in that sleepe and the stronger and thicker the vapour is procuring sleepe the more we are subject to dreame And terrifyest me thorough visions In the fourth Chapter I had occasion to speake at large concerning visions therefore I shall not here insist upon that point but referre the reader thither I shall only say thus much that these were not †visions as those before treated of for the revelation of any divine secrets to enlighten the mind of man but only visions of hellish horrour to darken and vex the mind of man The Hebrew word signifies to see whence the ancient Prophets were called Chozim * Visiones istae quibus percellebatur Iob erant terriculamenta lemures species umbrae spectra manes simulacra alia hujusmodi a daemone procurata quamvis ipse Iob sibi á Deo inferri asserit Cassia Col. 7. c. 32. Seers Our english word Gaze hath neere affinity with it And we call Star-prophets who pretend skill in predictions from the visions of the Heavens Star-gazers Job had both dreames and visions for in every dreame there is somewhat of a vision There are many visions without a dreame but there cannot be a dreame without a vision An image or similitude is alwayes represented to or formed in the fancy or else * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hinc prophetâ—e cbozim videntes dicti there can be no dreame Jacob dreamed Gen. 28. 12. and behold a ladder set upon the earth and the top of it reached to Heaven The vision here spoken of was I conceive the vision of his dreame though some understand it of day or waking vision There is a two-fold cause of dreames There is an inward cause and an outward cause And The inward cause of dreames is two-fold 1. The accidentall motions of the fancie of which a man can give no reason from any precedent agitation of mind or body 2. The setled naturall temperament and constitution of the body The externall or outward causes are usually according to the objects with which or about which we are conversant in the day time the impressions of these kept in the fancie are formed into dreames at night such as the desires or distempers of the mind are such often are our dreames Or take it thus Dreames may have a five fold cause First The natural temper of the body and so from the variety of constitutions variety of dreames are shaped Cholerick or Melancholy or Flegmatique or Sanguin produce their speciall dreames Secondly Dreames are caused by the distempers of the body either from intemperate drinking or eating any kind of meate or from the very eating though moderately of some meates or from the diseases and sicknesses of the body from this latter Jobs dreames were much encreased and Satan took the advantage to raise fumes and stirre the pudled humours of his body up into his braine out of which his fancie formed terrible representations to his mind As Melancholy is said to be the Devils bath so are other diseased sickly humours in them he sports himself and vexes man Thirdly There is a morall cause of dreames such as the studies and businesses labours and imployments cares and disquietments Quaecunque men t is agitat infestus vigorea per qâ—ietem sacer arcanus refert veloxque sensus Sen. in Octa. of a man are in the day such often are his dreamings As he works in the day his fancie works in the night Fourthly Dreames have a divine cause and are immediately from God The Scripture is full of instances I need not stay upon them Jacob had such a dreame Gen. 28. 16. and Jospeh had many dreames from God Hence his brethren called him in scorne The dreamer or a Captaine Dreamer Gen. 37. 19. And not only have godly men dreames from God but heathens also Pharaoh and Nebuchnazzar men of the earth received dreames from Heaven of high concernment revealing the counsels of God concerning their own Kingdoms and the latter about the state of all Kingdoms and Monarchies till all the Kingdomes of the earth shall become the Kingdoms of that One sole Supreame Monarch the Lord Jesus Christ Fifthly There are diabolicall dreames dreames which are from the Devill Not that the Devill of himselfe is able to cause a dreame he cannot stirre the fancie in the night or
man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death When a man delights in sinne he would sinne alway he thinkes he can never have enough of sinning it is so in any other instance where once affection is alienated we would be estranged and taken off from conversation We care not to be with that from which our hearts are departed Assoone as ever Amnon had defiled he loathes his sister and assoone as he loathed her he turned her out of doores And Amnon said unto her arise and be gone 2 Sam. 13. 15. He that loathes his life is glad when a doore opens for it's departure I loath it I would not live alway Secondly observe Trouble makes a little time seeme long He had said before that his life was swifter then a Weavers shuttle now I would not live alway O how long is my life how tedious He lookes upon it as if it were a kind of eternity as if his life would never have an end never be done I would not live alway Paine makes every houre a day and every day a moneth and every moneth a yeare yea an age He thinks his life will never end whose affliction doth not he thinkes he shall never die because his troubles live Every man is ready to say he lives too long when he lives not as he would The soules under the Altar cried out Revel 6. 10. How long Lord how long Lord wilt thou cease to avenge c. of our good dayes we complaine How short Lord how short And of our evill daies we cry out How long Lord how long This is a long day and this a long night indeed this is a long fit this a lasting affliction As the eternity which we shall have in heaven is the longest so it is the shortest Eternity is longest in regard of duration but it is shortest in regard of apprehension The eternity of heaven shall be to us no more tedious than a minut or a moment Eternity is so full of pleasure and satisfaction that it breeds no fullnesse of it selfe living at the well head of comfort in immediate communion with God by Jesus Christ our comforts renew as much as they continue whence freshnesse of appetite and fullnesse of satisfaction are perpetually interchangeable The joyes of that estate are so many that the yeares seeme but few Eternall joy makes eternity but as a moment as eternall pain will make every moment an eternity Thirdly Observe forasmuch as Job saith I would not live alwaies he intimates that there is such a desire in some men for he speaks of a life in this world There is a principle in man drawing out his heart in desires to live alway in the world I saith Job would not live alway let others make that their choice if they will I will not Most are very greedy of that commodity and would not part with it upon any termes and no wonder for as the Psalmist describes them They have their portion in this life He that hath his portion in this life would ever have this life he that hath nothing beyond this world would never goe heyond the world Such must needs be all for life all for the world because these are their all You shall never come to a worldly man and find him in a mind to die Let orhers take heaven he is contented with his earth let others make their best of the next life the present shall serve his turne From the reason of this request My dayes are vanity Observe The life of man is a vain life Vanity hath two things in it whereof the one may seem quite contrary to the other it hath emptinesse in it and it hath fulnesse in it it hath emptinesse of comfort and fulnesse of vexation that 's the right vanity Vanity with vexation of spirit My daies are vanity they are empty of good and full of evill Foure waies the vanitie of mans dayes may be demonstrated First they are vaine comparatively So our daies are more then vaine or lesse then vanity for they are nothing Psal 39. 5. Mine age is nothing before thee As in comparison of God Isa 40. 15. 17 The Nations are as the drop of a bucket c. they are vanity yea they are nothing yea they are counted to him lesse then nothing So our daies are vaine they are nothing but vanity they are lesse than vanity or nothing Nothingnesse is the substance of vanity and all troublesomenesse is the accident of it We cannot forme up an apprehension of our life so little as it is we cannot reach so low in our thoughts as the bottome of mans vanity in either notion As we are not able to raise our hearts so high as the excellency of that estate which we have by Christ no mans thoughts are bigg enough or can be to comprehend or to take in that So we cannot little our thoughts enough to consider the estate sinne hath brought us into therefore it is said to be as nothing and lesse than nothing and how little that is which is lesse then nothing no man can proportion Secondly our dayes are vanity because they are so unconstant and changeable so subject to motion and alteration That 's a vaine thing which is ever upon it's change That which sets the glory of God highest in opposition to the vanity of the creature is That with him there is no variablenesse nor shaddow of turning Jam. 1. 17. or shaddow by turning some translate it so no shadow by turning because the Tropique or turning of the Sunne makes the shaddow while the Sun is in the Zenith that is directly over our heads in the highest point of the heavens we cast no shadows Now the Lord never turneth he is ever fixed at a point and so makes no shaddow or thus as we render it no shaddow of turning that is not only is there no turning in God but there is not so much as a shaddow of it not so much as the least imagination of a shaddow This sets up the glory of God highest And in opposition to this point of highest perfection in God lies the lowest point of the creature vanity that in them there is nothing but turning in them there is nothing but variableness and the substance of turning The fashion of the world passeth away it is ever passing never standing at a stay It is more then passing it is posting from stage to stage night and day As the nature of Sicut bomo omnes in scipso res velut mundus quidam ita omnium mutationum seminae continct man containes the seeds and principles of all things in the world and is therefore called a little world So his nature contains the seeds and principles of all the changes in the world Therefore his daies are vain Thirdly the vanity of these daies appeares in this because they are unsatisfying dayes That 's a vaine thing which doth not satisfie for vanity is emptinesse and emptinesse can
of the goodnesse of God to man When I behold the heavens the work of thy fingers the Moone and the Starres which thou hast made Lord what is man God in the work of creation made all these things serviceable and instrumentall for the good of man What is man that he should have a Sun a Moon and Stars planted in the firmament for him what creature is this when great preparations are made in any place much provisions layed in and the house adorned with richest furnitures We say what is this man that comes to such a house when such a goodly fabrique was raised up the goodly house of the world adorned and furnished we have reason admiring to say what is this man that must be the tenant or inhabitant of this house There is yet a higher exaltation of man in the creation man was magnified with the stampe of Gods image one part whereof the Psalmist describes at the fift verse Thou hast given him to have dominion over the works of thy hands Thou hast put all things under his feet all sheepe and oxen yea and the beasts of the field the fowle of the aire and the fish of the sea c. Thus man was magnified in creation What was man that he should have the rule of the world given him that he should be the Lord over the fish of the sea over the beasts of the field and over the foules of the ayr Again man was magnified in creation in that God set him in the next degree to the Angels Thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels there is the first part of the answer to this question man was magnified in being made so excellent a creature and in having so many excellent creatures made for him All which may be understood of man as created in Gods image and Lord of the world but since the transgression it is peculiar to Christ As the Apostle applies it Heb. 2. 6. and to those who have their bloud and dignity restored by the work of redemption which is the next part of mans exaltation Secondly Man is magnified or made great by the work of redemption That exalts man indeed Man was laid low and his honour in the dust notwithstanding all that greatnesse which he received in creation Though Sun and Moone and Stars the fish of the Sea and the fowles of the ayre c. were made his servants and himselfe a companion of Angels yet by sin he fell below all these priviledges and was made a companion for Devils a citizen of hell Therefore the second magnifying of man was by the work of redemption And what was man that thou shouldest redeeme him when he was a captive raise him when he was downe build and repaire him when he was ruin'd when he was lost seeke him and when he was bankrupt and undone give him a better stock and set him up againe What was man that thou shouldest doe all this for him How did the mercy of God magnifie his servants when he gave his Son to pay their debt to his own justice If man was magnified when the Sun and Moone and heavens were made for him how was he magnifyed when God was made man for him how was he exalted when the Son of God was humbled for him Thirdly Man is magnified or made great in the work of regeneration wherein God re-stamps his Image upon him in those shining characters of holinesse and knowledge The first creation being spoiled occasion'd redemption and redemption purchased a second creation Every one that is in Christ is a new creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. Our dignity is far greater in being new creatures then in being creatures Lastly Man is magnified by those severall acts of favour and grace which God casts upon him every day smiling upon him embracing him in his armes admitting him to neere communion with himselfe watching over him tending him guarding him with Angels directing him counselling him comforting him upholding him by his spirit till he bring him unto glory which is the highest step of preferment that mans nature is capable of What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him in all these things Observe hence first That All the worth and dignity of man is out of himselfe What is man As if he had said man hath nothing of his own to commend him to or to ingratiate himself with God God hath put something upon him he hath magnified man and given him a reall worth because he would Free grace exalts man Hence Psal 90. 20. the Psalmist prayes Let the heathen know themselves to be but men As if he had said man who is high in his own esteeme conceits himselfe to be somewhat above man he judges of himselfe beyound his own sphere and border Therefore Lord bring their thoughts within the compasse of their own condition let them know that they are but men A man that is acquainted with himselfe will be humble enough A meere man is but meere earth The Prophet tells him so thrice over with one breath Jer. 22. 29. O earth earth earth heare the word of the Lord. Man is earth in the constitution of his body that was framed out of the earth he is earthly in the corruption of his mind that muds in the earth The Apostles stile is earthly minded men And he will be earth in his dissolution when he dies he returnes to his earth A naturall man is earth all over earth in his making earthly in his mind his spirit earthly earth gets into this heaven his upper regions and the body his lower region shall moulder to earth againe Then what is man Hence I say it is that when man at any time would exalt and lift himself up he thinks himselfe above man he hath some notion or apprehension of an excellency beyound the line of a creature He conceits he hath or is a peece of a deity The first ground of hope upon which man raised himselfe against God was that he might be a god he was not satisfied in being made like unto God he would be which was the highest robbery Gods equall and stand by himselfe this thought was his fall There is such a principle of pride in the hearts of all men by nature They are not contented in the spheare of a creature they would be somewhat beyound that The truth is all the true worth and dignity of man is in what he hath beyound himselfe his excellency is in Christ and his glory in being made partaker of the divine nature It abased man when he aspired to take a divine nature to himselfe but it exalts man when God inspires him with a participation of the divine nature What is man that thou doest thus magnifie him Christ makes us very great and glorious by the dignity which he puts upon us as he tells the Church Ezek. 16. 14. Thy beauty was perfect through my comelinesse which I had put upon thee thou hadst no comelinesse no beauty of thine own
what is man that thou shouldest magnifie him If God magnifie man one man should not vilifie and debase another one man should not contemne and slight another Who art thou that centemnest thy brother Thou canst not really magnifie thy brother and wilt thou debase him It is a most dangerous attempt to abase those whom God magnifies to despise those whom God honours That on whom God sets his heart against him man should set his heart or tongue or pen. God seekes occasion to magnifie us though we give him advantages every day to cast dishonour upon us Let man takc heed how he dishonours those whom the great God now doth and intends to honour more When Pharoah magnified Joseph he caused the people to cry Abrech that is bow the knee before him Gen. 41. 43. And when Ahasuerus intended to advance Mordecai He commanded him to be arrayed in royall aparrell c. and proclamation to be made Thus shall it be done to the man whom the King delighteth to honour Esth 6. 11. Princes expect that al should favour and honour those whom they honour and make their favourites Surely then the great God will not beare it that they should be despised whom he delights in and casts honour upon But here a Question arises How this is appliable unto Job why doth Job who lay upon a dung-hill and was cast into so low a condition speake of magnifying Was Job magnified Doth Job wonder at his preferment and exaltation when he was brought downe to the dust Poore Job Thou wast almost nullified and made no body and dost thou speake as if thy honour were too big for thee What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him We may answer First By connecting this word magnifie with the words that follow What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him As if he had said What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him by setting thine heart upon him And so setting the heart upon man is an explication of what is meant by magnifying man And that 's a cleare truth when God sets his heart upon a man he magnifies him sure enough that act of God is the exaltation of the creature Man needs no greater honour then this that God sets his heart upon him he that knows that knows himself high enough Whatsoever man sets his heart upon he as man can exalts and magnifies it If a man sets his heart upon another man he magnifies that man Yea if a man sets his heart upon a beast or a stoue he in a sence deifies that beast that stone If he sets his heart upon any creature he makes that creature a god to him for nothing should have the heart but God alone And the reason is because setting the heart upon any thing is the highest exaltation we can give it Therefore nothing ought to have the heart set upon it but God for he is Lord over all And the Lord cals us to set our hearts upon him because that is the highest honour creatures can give him Now as our setting our hearts on God magnifies him so the setting of his heart on us doth wonderfully magnifie us And he therefore sets his heart upon us that we might at once see and admire how much he honours us If a King set his heart upon a man that man is greatly magnified he is magnified in the opinion of others and not only in the bare opinion of others but there is a real dignity put upon that man on whom a King puts his heart How much more if God sets his heart upon man is man really magnified That God sets his eye upon a man is a magnifying of him It was the priviledge of Solomons Temple that the Lord promised his eye would be upon that place and it was a high honour to the Temple that God would looke upon it continually 1 King 8. 29. If it be a condescension for God to eye the creature He humbleth himselfe to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth Psa 113. 6. How great is his condescention in setting his heart upon the creature So there is a truth in this sence and we may make a comfortable improvement of it What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him by setting thine heart upon him Secondly Job may have respect to his former greatnesse when God magnified him and made him the greatest man in the East and is now be-moaning his owne change in the changeablenesse of mans condition who when he is lifted up to the highest fairly built and adorned yet in a moment may be cast downe and Quorsum in me loâ—â—pletando tuam operam pâ—suisti tuam providentiam ostendisti quare me ad cum statum evexisti in qua parsistere non poteram ruin'd Therefore Job comes with his wonder Lord what is man What is the ordinary state of man that thou shouldest take care to make him great As if he had said why didst thou magnifie me to make me the greatest man in the East Why didst thou set thine heart upon me to blesse my family and provide for me as if thou hadst none else to provide for Thou seest mans beauty is blasted in the twinckling of an eye and then all thy worke is lost It is not worth the while to doe that which may be undone so soone Would any one be at cost to build a house to bestow a great deale of charge pains upon it and it may be spend some yeares about the adorning and furnishing of it and when all 's done it is such a house that the next breath of wind may levell with the ground What is such a house that a man should build it When man is raised up and built a puffe of wind a blast of affliction blowes him downe and brings him to the dust what is this man that he should be magnified This is a good sence of the words that Job reflecting upon his former greatnesse and honour now defaced and overthrowne breakes out into this expostulation what is man Why should God in his providence lay out so much to magnifie and set a man up who may be so quickly down as you see I am at this day But thirdly rather take it thus What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him Namely by dealing with him thus in chastnings and afflictions by disciplining and tutoring him with the rods of thy correction But you will say Is it a magnifying of a man to afflict a man Yes it is a magnifying of man man is magnified two wayes by affliction First in that God who is so great will discend to chastise and correct or to order the Chastisements and corrections of man Man is magnified when God deales or contends with him That Indignus sum quem vel percutias contemptior sum quam ut adversus me manum extendas God wrastles and strives with man is an honour to man David 1 Sam. 24. 14.
the Angel is sent now to conduct them to Canaan That was told them Chap. 23. 20. and they well satisfied with it Behold I send an Angel before thee to keepe thee in the way and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared I answer The Angel in the 23. Chapter is by all that I meet with agreed to be the Lord Jesus Christ the great Angel of the Covenant but the Angel chap. 33. appeares to be a created Angel and rather threatned them then promised them And though the Lord is pleased to signifie a reason of sending this Angel in favour to them namely least he himselfe consume them in the way for their stubbornesse Yet the people are not satisfied with this tidings surely they thought if the Lord was not able to bear their provocations much lesse could an Angel and therefore if he should send an Angel and withdraw his own presence from them they must perish A meere Angel could not have borne their manners as the Lord did receiving provocations from them and continuing preservations over them those forty yeares It is yet further observeable that the Hebrew is not only singular but a particular The preserver of Adam or of that man which hath some speciality in it We translate in generall the preserver of men but the preserver of man or of that man is more emphaticall God preserveth all but he hath a speciall eye of preservation upon some Thou preservest man and beast saith the Psalmist the beasts of the earth are preserved but man is preserved more And among men some are more preserved It is a truth the great God preserveth his greatest enemies a wicked man were not able to lift up a hand or a tongue against him if God did not uphold him but God is the speciall preserver of that man that is the preserver of a godly man or of godly men As Christ is the Saviour of all men but especially of those that beleeve so the preserver of all men but especially of those that beleeve he hath a care of them beyound the care he hath of the world The care which God hath of the rest of the world compared with that towards his own is but carelessenesse and he as it were neglects the whole world to looke to his own people As it was said of Constantine that for the love he bare to Constatinople he undress'd and unadorn'd al the other Cities of the Empire to beautifie and adorn that God seems to take off from al men in the world to lay it on upon his people The very gleanings of those mercies which his people have are better then the whole vintage of the world And the Lord is therefore a special Saviour to his people because First They are more precious than the rest of the world and that cals for most care which hath most worth A man takes more care of his jewels then of the lumber in his house These are my Jewels saith God Mal. 3. A man carries his jewels about him or keeps them in a safe cabinet Secondly Neerenesse of relation calls for that care will not a man perserve his wife his spouse The Church is the spouse of Christ Will not a man preserve his children if his house be on fire bring my children out saith he The heart of God is towards his children he must provide them a porton Yea they are his portion he makes a revenew of them Deut. 32. 9. A man will preserve his revenew that wherein his estate lies All that God hath on earth though he hath such a fulnesse in himselfe that he needs nothing from his Church yet al that he hath he is pleased to say he hath it from his Church and therefore God is said to be great in Zion He is the same great God all the world over but it appeares not so what he is to the men of the world as to the Saints in Zion it doth yea he is little in the eye of the world in comparison of what he is in Zion therefore he takes great care to preserve his Zion Lastly observe The preserving care of God over man especially over that man over his own people is a perpetuall care Preservation is a continued act if God should leave us one moment and stop providence creation would be dissolved This continuance of his care is eminent towards his Church Isa 27. 3. Least any hurt it I will keep it night and day Night and day divide all time between them to do a thing night and day is to do it continually Psa 121. 4. He that keepeth Israel neither slumbreth no◠sleepeth A slumber is lesse than sleepe but God will not so much as slumber in his thoughts towards us all his are waking thoughts Futher his love is without intermission that knowes no stops nor breaches therfore his care is so too His peoples dangers are without intermission therefore his preservation is so too Enemies oppose his people without intermission therefore he protects them so too The Devill goeth about like a roaring lion he is ever in motion he goeth about as an Abaddon or Apollyon the destroyer and devourer of men The care of Christ prompts him to a like vigilancy He goeth about preserving his act of preservation runs parralell with that of the enemies opposition God watches that his people may have some quiet rest and sleep As the story reports of Alexander the great that he told his Souldiers I watch more Certo scio me plus vigilare quam vos ut ipsi somnos quietos capere possitis Arian l. 8. than any of you all that you may sometimes have quiet sleepe his care dispensed with some of their carelessnesse It is most true of God he wakes for ever and he watches for ever to preserve us that we may sleepe in quietnesse and confidence Solomon reprooves some secure ones who are as they who sleep on the top of the mast Pro. 23. But the Saints may sleep in regard of fear though not of endeavour on the top of the mast while they remember that both the helm and the winds are in Gods hands As our spiritual estates so our temporal are kept as with a garrison in their degree by the power of God through faith unto salvation So much for the title O thou preserver of men Why hast thou set me as a marke against thee so that I am a burden to my selfe Why hast thou set me as a marke against thee The word signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Occurrit obviam factus fuit Quare posuistime contraium tibi Vulg. In occursum tibi Pagn Objectum tibi Tygur Offendiculum in quem semper impingas Vatab. to meete one to come the opposite way Hence some translate this why hast thou set me contrary to thy selfe because he that meets another comes the contrary way the way opposite to him Why hast thou put me as an object against thee or as an enemy to thee the
love unto the world keeps awake but how few are there whom love to Christ keeps awake It was an harsh and in one sense an ignorant speech of a wise man amongst the Heathens who said There is no man who may not more holily be in any company than with himselfe alone And Nemo est cui non sanctius sit â—â—m quolibet esse quam secum Sen. yet there is a truth in it For if a man be by himself alone and deale only with his own heart probably he might be as profitably with any company as with himself One mans heart in it self is as bad as anothers and usually it is worst when it is by it selfe Some like Nebuchadnezzar being secluded from men converse only with beasts those most beastly beasts lusts in their own bosomes Dan. 4. 3. But to be alone from men to converse with God to be alone from men to converse with Christ is infinitely better then all the society of men The reason why many receive but little of Christ little of Heaven is because they are so much in the croud of the Pietas periclitatur in negoâ—iis world so long upon the Rack of earthly care they seldome let their hearts settle The Ballances must stand at an even poize before you can weigh aright If you desire to know which beares most weight in your hearts Earth or Heaven Christ or the Creature let your hearts stand still That in Psalm 4. 4. reaches this sense fully Commune with your owne hearts upon your beds and be still Our hearts will not be spoken with unlesse we be quiet And as the Picture-drawer cannot take the features of the face to the life so neither can we of our hearts or lives unlesse we have the patience to sit for it JOB Chap. 4. Vers 14 15 16. Feare came upon me and trembling which made all my bones to shake Then a Spirit passed before my face the haire of my flesh stood up It stood still but I could not discern the form thereof an Image was before mine eyes there was silence and I heard a voyce saying WE have already given the Logicall dependance of this whole Context from the 12 Verse unto the end of the Chapter and therein shewed how Eliphaz confirmes the principall Proposition lying in the 17 Verse by Divine Authority a Vision received from Heaven A thing saith he was secretly brought to me and mine eare received a little thereof in thoughts from visions of the night when deep sleep falleth on men Thus the manner of the vision is described in generall The effects of the vision upon Eliphaz and the particular manner how the vision appeared are now further described and set forth This 14 Verse contains one eminent effect of the vision with the consequents of it assoon saith he as I was in that heavenly rapture and extasie Fear came upon me and trembling which made all my bones to shake It was very usuall for Prophets and Holy men to be surprized with fear at the appearance of Jehovah in his messages by Angels or other visions It is naturall unto man to fear at the sight of an Angel and it is a received opinion among the Jews that whether God or an Angel did appear it was present death which they collect from divers Scriptures Ex. 33. 20. when Moses desired to see the face of God the Lord answered there is no man can see my face and live Those words of Gideon import as much Judg 6. 22. When Gideon perceived that he was an Angel of the Lord he said Alas O Lord God for because I have seen an Angell of the Lord face to face as if he had said alas woe is me I shall certainly dye And Judg. 13. 21. Manoah concludes it We shall surely dye because we have seene God when an Angel appeared to them Hence also Jacob Gen. 32. 30. after his wrastling with the Angel which was Christ called the name of the place Penuel which is The face of God for saith he I have seen God face to face and my life is preserv'd as noting that it was a wonderfull priviledge not to dye at such a sight the very appearance of God is death to the Creature And that which Hagar spake Gen. 16 13. may well be interpreted to this sense when flying from her Mistris God came to her in the Wildernesse she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her Thou God seest me the reason is added by way of admiration for she said Have I also here looked after him that seeth me Which words may well be translated Do I live after him sc God that seeth me for here one act of life is put for the whole looking or seeing for living Have I seen or Ex Habraeâ— ita reddi potest Etiamnè jam â—â—deo sâ—u lucem hanâ— espicio vivo post videntem me Parens have I beheld the light after God hath seen me that is Am I alive after God hath seen me How wonderfull The effect of this vision upon Eliphaz was not death but fear yet no ordinary fear but fear which looked almost as pale as death it was fear joyned with trembling and no ordinary trembling but such a fit of trembling as shook his very bones We have often spoken of fear both in this and in the former Chapters but such a fear as met Eliphaz we have not met with before That before was the grace of fear spirituall fear but this is the passion of fear naturall fear And it is naturall to man as some of Est homini naturale conspecto angelo etiam bono timere Bold ex Beda Origen Chrysostome the Ancients have observed to fear thus at the appearance of God by Angels Fear is caused by the apprehension of some evil imminent or at hand that 's the definition of naturall fear Now when God manifests himself though the greatest good be at hand yet the soul hath some misgivings and apprehensions of evil hence comes fear the foundation of this fear is laid in guilt sin is in the soul and guilt may be upon the soul thence naturall fear works when God who is all holy manifests himself And in special there is much unbelief remaining in the heart this fear is strengthned by unbelief Wherefore do ye fear saith Christ O ye of little faith Where there is little faith there is much fear and as unbelief prevails so fear prevails too Thirdly this fear arises from the suddennesse and unexpectednesse of the thing God as you may observe in all those Revelations of himself comes suddenly that which comes before we see it causeth fear when we see it sudden motions without us work strange commotions within And fourthly the over-powring Majesty and super-excelling excellency of God in any such revelation causeth astonishments of spirit a little appearance of God makes the creature disappear One drop of the Divine Ocean swallowes up all man and one
but a day long Jonahs Gourd came up in a night and perished in a night and man commeth up in the morning and perisheth in the evening The Naturalists speake of a Fly they call Ephemeron a creature of one day which comes forth in the morning is very active about noone but when the Sunne declineth it declines too and sets with the setting of the Sunne Man is an Ephemeron a creature of one day for howsoever his life consisteth of many dayes is often lengthened out to many yeares yet betweene morning and evening or from morning to evening he is destroyed The first step he sets upon the stage of the world is a going out of the world his ascending to the height of his natural perfection hath in it a decent One part of his life compared with another is an increase but the whole in reference to his end is a decrease his life is but a breathing death life shortning as fast as it lengthns his life is death hastning upon him continually A hand breadth is quickly measured Behold saith David Psal 29. 5. thou hast made my dayes an hand breadth nothing needs no time to passe it in mans age in it self is but little and comparatively it is nothing it fals under no calculation before the face of Eternity Mine age is nothing before thee But though the life of man be thus short and himself be destroyed between a morning and an evening yet death lasts long they perish for ever without any regarding They perish for ever Death it seemes is everlasting They perish the word is often used in this book for the dissolution of soule and body not for the annihilation of either as perishing properly imports to perish is here but to dye for thus even the righteous perish and no man layes it to heart Isay 57. 1. But doth man perish thus dyes he for ever shall there not be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 returne a resurrection shall not soule and body be reunited how is it said then they perish or dye for ever For ever is some time put for an infinite time and some time for an indefinite time 1 Chron. 23. 25 The Lord God of Israel hath given rest unto his people that they may dwell in Jerusalem for ever And yet the Jewes are now so farre from dwelling in Jerusalem that they have scarce rest or dwelling among any people The like sense of for ever reade 1 Kings 2. 33. Psal 132. 12 14. Yet further for ever is put for the finite time of one mans life 1 Sam. 27. 12. He shall be my servant for ever that is as long as he lives Psal 23. 6. I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever that is as long as I live In the text before us for ever is as long as this world lasts it notes the utmost terme of time not which is without terme eternity They perish for ever that is they shall not live in this world any more as Job 14. 14. If a man dye shall he live again As if he had said man can dye but once he cannot live againe that is in this world shall he any more return to his house to his wife and children to his riches or honours and shall he here againe enjoy such an estate as he had before That Psal 103. 16. explains it so As for man his days are as grass as a flower of the field so he flourisheth for the winde passeth over it and it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more that is he shall never returne to that locall place or civill place in which he lived he shall not return to that place of magistracy or ministrey to that place of merchandizing or trading of husbandry or handicraft where he convers'd before Thus his place will know him no more Man dyes but once and therefore when he dies he is said to dye for ever There is a second death but it is only a second condition of life Some shall so live for ever that they shall be dying for ever The misery of all men here is that they are dying while they live the misery of the damned hereafter will be that they are living while they dye We see then that as life is a continuall going out of the world so from death there is no returning to the world they perish for ever when once you die you are dead for good and all as we say there 's an end in respect of any work proper to this world whether naturall civill or spirituall A dying man perishes for ever from eating and drinking from any outward content or pleasure When Barzillai was as it were but upon the borders of death and confines of the grave 2 Sam. 19. 25. he bespeaks David thus who had invited him to Court Can I taste what I eat and what I drink and it followes Can I any more heare the voice of singing-men and singing-women Can I any more as if he had said I am now nigh unto death these delights are gone they are perished for ever I can hardly taste any thing I eat or drink the pleasant Voice or musicall Instrument can I any more hear much more then in death it self are all these outward comforts perished and will perish for ever Againe in respect of civill works he that dyes perishes for ever no more buying or selling or trading or de aling all these things are past and past for ever Yea death puts an end to all spirituall workes such as were the Saints exercise and duty upon the earth at the grave there 's an end of them also a dying man perishes for ever in respect of repenting or believing in respect of praying or hearing the word These are heavenly works but the time for these is while you are upon the earth none of these labours are in Heaven or Hell no nor in the grave whether thou goest as the Preacher concludes Ecclesiastes 9. 10. Therefore Isay 38. 18. Hezekiah in his sickness makes it one part of his suit to God that he might be spared for saith he the grave cannot praise thee they that go downe into the pit cannot hope for thy truth the living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day To praise God shall be the work of Saints for ever and yet the Saints dying are truly said perish for ever from praising God All that praise shall cease in death which belong to the wayes of grace and then such praise begins as suits with glory which is our end That Hezekiah means it of such praise and not of all praise is cleare from his own words Verse 20. We will sing my song to the stringed instruments all the dayes of my life in the house of the Lord that is in the ordinances of thy publick worship They that are in the house of the grave cannot praise the Lord in his house And though the praises of the Lord in Heaven are transcendent
and more perfect then those in his house on Earth yet it is a higher act of grace to desire to live to praise God then to be willing to dye that we may praise him because in this we deny our selves most Praysing God on earth is a work as well as a reward but praising God in Heaven is a reward rather then a work And we put forth the most spirituall acts of grace when we cheerfully goe on with a work which we know stands betweene us and the best part of our reward But I returne to the Text. They perish for ever without any regarding or without any laying it to heart The word heart is not in the mouth but it is in the heart of this Scripture For the sense is paralell with that Esay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Absque apponente Pereunt eoquòd nemo opponat eis medicinam 57. The righteous perish and no man layes it to heart The Chaldee gives a strange glosse They perish or dye because no man giveth them medicine as if he had said there is no Physitian can give an Antidote against death or by any medicines prolong mans life It is a truth that the decayes and ruines of Nature will at last exceed the repairs of Art but this glosse hath little regard to the text which we translate well They perish without any regarding it that is none or very few regarding it The negative is not absolutely universall excluding all as if there were none in the world who take notice of the shortnesse and frailty of mans life or of his for ever perishing condition So in that place of Isaiah the righteous perish and no man layes it to heart that is there are very few scarce any to be found who lay to heart in comparison of the number which neglect the death of righteous men Observe hence Few of the living regard how suddenly others do or themselves may dye Till we see a friend gasping and dying till we see him bedewed with cold sweats and rackt with Convulsions till our eye thus affects our hearts our hearts are seldome affected with the sense of our mortality It is one reason why Solomon advises to go to the house of mourning Eccles 7. It is better to goe to the house of mourning then to the house of mirth for saith he that is the way of all men all must dye and the living will lay it to heart or the living will regard it As if he had said the living seldom lay death to heart till they come to the house of death He seems to promise for the living that then they wil yet his undertaking is not so strict as if every man that goes to the house of mourning did certainly lay it to heart but he speaks probably that if living man will at any time lay death to heart then surely he will when he goes to the house of mourning When will a man think of death if not when he sees death and looks into that dark chamber of the grave There are many who lay it to heart only then for a fit at a Funerall they have a passion of the heart about mortality And very many have gone so often to the house of mourning that they are growne familiar with death and the frequency of those meetings take off all impressions of mortality from their hearts As we say of those Birds that build roost in steeples being used to the continuall ringing of the bels the sound disquiets them not or as those that dwel near the fall of the river Nylus the noise of the water deafens them so that they minde it not Many have been so often at the grave that now the grave is worn out of their hearts they look upon it as a matter of custome and formality for men to dye and be buried and when the solemnity of death is over the thoughts of death are over as soone as the grave is out of their sight preparations for the grave are out of mind It is storied 2 Sam. 20. 12. that when Amasa was slain by Joab and lay wallowing in his blood in the midst of the high way every one that came by him stood still but anon Amasa is removed out of the high way into the field a cloth cast upon him then the text saith all the people went on after Joab It is so still we make a stop at one that lyes gasping and groaning at one that lyes bleeding and dying but let a cloth be throwne over him and he draw aside put into the grave and covered with earth then we goe to our businesse to trading and dealing yea to coveting and sinning as if the last man that ever should be were buried Thus men perish for ever without any regarding If this kinde of perishing were more regarded or regarded by more fewer would perish Thoughts of death spiritualliz'd have life in them thoughts of death laid to the heart are a good medicine for an evil heart It followes Verse 21. Doth not their excellency which is in them go away they dye even without wisdome This Verse as I noted in the begining prevents an objection which might be made as if man had wrong done him and that it were too great a diminution to his honour whom God made the chief creature in the inferiour world and but little inferiour to Angels themselves that he should be looked upon only as a heape of dust or a lumpe of clay as a mortall momentany perishing creature therefore he grants that man hath an excellency but all the excellency that he hath whether naturall or artificiall bred in him or acquired by him as a man when he goes goes too Doth not their excellency which is in them go away or journieth not their excellency with them as Mr. Broughton translates alluding to our passing out of the world as in a journey when a man dies he takes a journey out of the world he goes out for ever and saith he doth not his excellency journey along with him yes the question affirmes it when man goes his excellency goes too The word Jether which we translate excellency signifies primarily a residue or a remaine and that two ways First a residue of persons Judges 7. 6. But all the rest of the people bowed downe on their knees to drink water So the vulgar understands it here They who are left after them shall be taken away from them namely their heirs or posterity Secondly it signifies a residue of things Ps 17. 14. where describing worldly men who have their portion in this life he saith their bellies are fill'd with hid treasure they are also full of children and leave the rest of their substance to their babes Thus others take it here Doth not the wealth and riches which men leave when they dye dye also and go away as their persons are mortall so are their estates there is a moth will eat both And Iather quod est