often doth Job in this Booke breath forth patience humility faith love and stedfast trust in God whatsoever he should doe with him these ballance his complainings yea indeed they over-ballance them so much for the setling of our judgements about Jobs patience that they leave not so much as an opinion of the contrary Fifthly Take this into consideration that though he did complaine and complaine bitterly yet he recovered out of these complainings he was not overcome by impatience though some impatient speeches came from him he recalls what he had spoken and repents for what he had done See how he submitteth himself Cap. 42. how low he lies before God even in the dust and saith I will speake no more If I have been impatient I will use no more impatient speeches If I have been impatient I repent of it I repent of it in dust and ashes To repent of impatience takes away the imputation of impatience and to say I will doe evill no more gaines through the mercy of God in Christ an acceptance of us as if we had done no evill A man is a conquerour though in the battell he suffers many foiles and receiveth many wounds and looseth much blood though for a great while in the day a man be worsted yea though a whole Army be worsted yet if in the evening in the close of the day he and they keep the field and foile the enemy the day is wonne and victory goes on this side Job was in a great battell in a sore fight of afflictions though it be granted that he received some wounds and had some foyles and sometimes lookes as if he had been beaten and speakes as if he had been overcome yet in the close in the evening in the making up of all he went away a conquerour the conclusion was victory and glory Iob had the victory and God had the glory Therefore as the Apostle Iames Chap. 5.11 when he speakes of enduring with joy referres us to the end of Iobs day of trouble to the end which the Lord made yee have heard saith he of the patience of Job and have seene the end of the Lord. So looke to the end of Iob to the end which through the strength of the Lord Job made and there you shall see patience having a perfect worke or the perfect worke of patience Looke not alone upon all the actings of Iob when he was in the height and heate of the battell looke to the onset he was so very patient in the beginning though vehemently stirred that Satan had not a word to say looke to the end and you cannot say but Iob was a patient man full of patience a mirrour of patience if not a miracle of patience a man whose face shined with the glory of that grace above all the children of men So much for that Question I shall now adde two or three points of Observation The first thing then that we may observe from hence is this If we compare Iob in the two former Chapters with Iob in the third we shall find that the case is altered with him he scarce speakes like the same man Hence observe in the generall That the holiest person in this life doth not alwayes keepe in the same frame of holinesse There is a great deale of difference betweene what he spake in the former chapters when he heard of and felt these things first and what he speakes now The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evill This was the language we lately heard but now cursing certainely his spirit had been in a more holy frame more sedate and quiet then now it was At the best in this life we are but imperfect yet at some time we are more imperfect then we are at an other Faith is never very strong yet at some time faith is weaker then at an other Our love to Christ is never very hot but yet at some time it is colder then at another we cannot keepe it in the same degrees of heate A man at one time can both doe and suffer and a while after he can neither doe nor suffer as he could at that time he is out of frame and bungles in both Take the life of a Christian all together it is a progresse it is a continuall growing yet take his life apart consider him in every circumstance and stage of his life then there are many stops and stands in his life yea many declinings As it is with a child Take a child and his life from his birth to his full age is in a growing condition yet consider him at some particular time and the child may abate the child may not only not be stronger but much weaker then he was a yeare or a moneth before So it is with us from the first houre of our spirituall life till we attaine full stature of it in Christ Onely this is our comfort that in Heaven our soules shall be set up in such a frame of holinesse as shall never be moved nor abated in the least degree Looke in what frame the hand of God sets us up in that day we shall continue so to all eternity and that will be the highest and most exquisite frame both of holinesse and of delight But now wee are up and downe one day patient and another day impatient now beleeving and another day distrusting now the heart melts and is very tender anon it is very hard and relentlesse How meeke a man was Moses not such a man for meekenesse upon the face of the whole earth and yet at one time passionate and at another so angry that he spake unadvisedly with his lips How full of faith was Peter at one time how resolv'd to stick close to Christ yet shortly after how full of feare and for feare denying Christ We who receive good gifts and perfect guifts are subject to turnes and variations onely he from whom every good and perfect guift comes is without variablenesse or shadow of turning Secondly observe That great sufferings may fill the mouthes of holiest persons with great complainings Job was not only afflicted but afflicted greatly Job did not only complaine but he complained greatly You see what complainings David made in his great troubles Psal 77.2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord my sore ran in the night and ceased not my soule refused to be comforted So Heman Psal 88.3 My soule is full of troubles and my life draweth nigh unto the grave and verse 15. I am afflicted and ready to dye from my youth up while I suffer thy terrours I am distracted Hezekiah under the greatnesse of his affliction Isa 38.14 saith Like a Crane or Swallow so did I chatter I did mourne as a Dove c. Jeremie a holy Prophet speakes if not out-speakes Job in his complaint Chap. 20.14 Cursed be the day wherein I
unto the father When they told Christ of some whose bloud Pilate had mingled with their Sacrifices Thinke not saith he that either these or those upon whom the Tower of Shiloe fell and slew them were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem I tell you except yee repent yee shall all likewise perish As there is no judging of the sinnes of men by such kind of exigents and events so neither of the wrath of God yet how many by such appearances judge unrighteous judgements being as barbarous as those Barbarians of Malta who seeing a Viper comming out of the heat and fastning on Pauls hand they concluding he must die presently censured him to be a murtherer whom though he had escaped the Sea yet vengeance followed on shore and would not suffer to live Wee must not ground our judgement upon the workes of God but upon his word In externals there is the same event to all Eccles 9. Men cannot be distinguish'd for eternity by what they suffer but by what they doe not by the manner of their death but by the tenour of their lives This is a certaine truth That man can never die an evill death who hath led a good life There is nothing makes death evill but the evill which followeth death or the evill that goes before death Thirdly Here was death a strange and sudden death surpriz'd the children of Job and this when they were feasting when they were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brothers house Wee may observe from that also by way of admonition Christians had need to take heed and be holy in feasting While we are eating and drinking we may be dying therefore eating and drinking we had need be holy Take heed to your selves saith Christ lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkennesse take heed lest at any time because at any time the day may come upon you unawares That day whether it be a day of generall calamity or personall may come upon you unawares It becomes us to be holy in all manner of conversation though we had an Assurance of our lives But seeing in what manner of conversing so ever we be death may surprize us and we have no assurance of our lives in our greatest joyes how holy should we be Whether you eate or drinke saith the Apostle or whatsoever you doe doe all to the glory of God Have God in your eye let him be your aime It is prophecied concerning the latter times That every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holinesse unto the Lord. The very pots in Jerusalem shall be holy that is men at their pots shall be holy to note that they should be holy in their eatings in their drinkings not holy onely when they were praying and holy when they were hearing but holy in those ordinary naturall actions of eating and drinking holy at their Tables and in all their refreshings with the creature Then indeed there is holinesse in the heart when there is holinesse in the pot and 't is but need there should be holinesse in the pot when there my bedeath in the pot We may observe somewhat more generally from all these foure sore afflictions considered together As first We see how quickly the beauty of all worldly blessings may be blasted Job in the morning had an estate as great and as good as his heart could desire in worldly things there was luster and strength in and upon all he had but before night he had nothing but sorrow to sup upon He had no retinue of servants left but foure reserved only to report his losses In one day all 's gone It is added as an aggravation of Babylons down-fall that her judgements shall come upon her in one day Revel 18.8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day death and mourning and famine and she shall be utterly burnt with fire for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her In one day all the beauty of Babylon shall be blasted We need not now trouble our selves to thinke Babylon is in a great deale of strength and beauty and glory surely there must be a long time spent in contriving and acting the destruction of Babylon no the Lord can blast her beauty and destroy her power in a day and the Text saith he will doe so in one day all her plagues shall come upon her That which Babylon hath beene gathering many yeares shall be scattered in a moment She thinkes that by her wisdome and policy she hath laid such a foundation of her owne greatnesse as shall never be shaken And therefore concludes I sit a Queene and am no widow and shall see no sorrow Yet all her strength shall not hold out one day when God in his displeasure shall lay siege against her walls So when yee looke upon other great and mighty prosperous and flourishing enemies such as flourish like greene bay trees remember the Lord in one day can wither their branches and kill their roots yee root them up Certainly the strength of the Lord is as mighty for the destroying of his enemies as it is for the afflicting of his owne people If he sometimes gives commission to take away all their comforts in a day when their estates are highest and strongest built Surely he will at last give Commissions for as speedy a dispatch against the estates of his greatest enemies And this may be unto us all matter of Admonition to prepare for changes to esteeme creatures as they are perishing substance Who ever had an estate better gotten better bottom'd or better managed then Job yet all was overthrowne and swept away in a moment We can never expect too much from God nor too little from the creature Lastly We may learne from the fore-going story of these afflictions considering that Satan was the contriver and engeneere who set all a worke That Satan is mighty both in power and policy for the effecting of his designes if God give him liberty and leave You see he doth not faile or misse in the least he brings every affliction upon Job in the perfection of it and he doth not bungle at it or doe his worke by halves but he is quicke and speedy both in laying the plot and executing it There is nothing in this inferiour world able to stand before him no creature no man if God let him alone The good Angels can match yea and master devils there is no doubt of that but if God stop his Angels and with-draw his hand the devill would quickly over-runne all the world We wrestle not with flesh and bloud but with principalities and powers Evill spirits are called powers in the abstract they have not onely a power they are not only powerfull hence called principalities such as have great authority and soveraignty as it were over others but they are called Powers It is not an empty title or a naked name that is given them but they are filled and
cloathed with strength proportionable Satan is a mighty Prince commanding in the spirits of wicked men ther 's his Throne he can kindle their lusts and â—â—flame their spirits set them on fire from hell and then cause them to goe on with a rage in doing mischiefe as high as Heaven He can leade men captive at his will though not against their owne will Yet to shew the efficacy of his actings he is said to lead them captive at his will to doe his will and execute his devillships designes It is admirable what Satan can doe upon wicked men who are his willing vassals and bond-slaves if he speake the word they goe if he suggest they submit if he move they obey And likewise we see what a mighty Prince he is in the aire all the elements and the meteors stoope to his direction He cannot onely command men who have reason but he can command the fire the water the winds the thunders therefore he is called the Prince of the power of the ayre those powers that are in the aire he can command For though it be a truth that Satan of himselfe cannot make one sparke of fire or so much as one breath of wind yet if hee be let loose and unchain'd hee can goe to Gods Store-house of wind and fire hee can goe to Gods Magazin of thunder stormes and tempests he can fetch out such store of all these and so enrage them that no man is able to withstand their violence The Apostle taxes all naturall men that they live without God in the world that is they live without a sensible apprehension of the Majesty of the power and holinesse of God they are not affected with God in the world I may say in a sense unto many godly men and it may be a reproofe unto them that they live without the devill in the world that is they have not such apprehensions of the power and policy and sleights of Satan as they ought to have We doe not know or apprehend as we ought and as we might who the devill is or what his power is I doe not speake this as if I would have any meditate and pore upon the power of Satan so as to be afraid of him that 's no part of my intent but it is for this end that our hearts might be raised up to blesse God who doth binde up such an enemy and bound such a power who if hee were let alone would doe us mischiefe an hundred times in a day Nay he would unquiet and unsettle the whole world This is the reason why we should consider the power and policy of Satan to blesse God who stops the mouth of this Lyon so that he cannot stirre to doe that mischiefe unto which his nature doth at once encline and inable him Verse 20. Then Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell downe upon the ground and worshipped Verse 21. And said Naked came I out of my mothers wombe and naked shall I returne thither the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. Verse 22. In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly These three verses containe the third Division of the Chapter as we shewed in the Analysis of it We have seene in the first the character of Job in his prosperous estate and the description of his prosperity We have seen his afflictions in the causes in the time in the instruments in the matter and in the manner of inflicting them In this third part we have the carriage of Job how Job tooke it how he behaved himselfe in this sad condition And likewise how God tooke it that Job did so behave himself So then We may note two things in the generall out of these 3 verses 1. We have the carriage of Job his behaviour 2. We have the testimony of God concerning his carriage and behaviour The carriage and behaviour of Job is laid downe verse 20 21. And concerning his carriage the Text gives us to consider 1. What Job did 2. What Job said 1. What he did and that is in the 20th verse and there we find mentioned five distinct actions of Job upon the receiving of the relation of his affliction 1. He arose 2. He rent his mantle 3. He shaved his head 4. He fell downe upon the ground 5. He worshipped 2. What he said and that is in the 21. verse And he said Naked came I out of my mothers wombe and naked c. His sayings containe two strong and undeniable argumentall Propositions and one cleare Conclusion flowing naturally from them both or from either of them by which he doth acquit the Lord in his afflicting of him and also support and strengthen his own soule under those afflictions The testimony of God concerning Jobs carriage is in the 22. ver The Lord comes in as it were like an umpire to determine who got the day which is resolved when he saith In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly These words expressely set the Laurell of victory upon the head of Job Satan undertooke that Job if touched would curse God now saith God looke upon him touch'd see what he hath done examine all his actions that are past observe what he hath spoken weigh every word that hath come out of his mouth in the ballance of truth and reason and when thou hast done both tell me whether he hath yet cursed me I pronounce that in all he hath done in all he hath said Job hath not charged God foolishly That in the generall for the sum of the Context and for the parts of it To begin first with what Job did his actions Then Job arose and rent his mantle c. Then Job stood out the three former assaults unmoveably but when he had received the fourth then his bowels were moved And then c. Job arose This was his first action to arise is properly an act of one that sitteth he is said to arise that before did sit or lie But yet in Scripture to arise is not alwayes taken so strictly neither is it in this place To arise in the Scripture language notes two things First the speedinesse of doing a thing when a man doth a thing instantly or presently he is said to arise to doe it to arise and doe it though he were standing or walking before This is an Hebraisme He arose and rent his mantle that is He presently rent his mantle upon the hearing of these messages especially the last And so you have the word in divers places as Judg. 20.18 The children of Israel arose and went to the house of the Lord that is they went presently up to the house of the Lord 2 Sam. 14.31 Then Joab arose and went to Absolom the meaning is only this that upon the receiving of that message he went with speed he made no delayes And Nehem. 2.18 when Nehemiah exhorted them to the great worke of building
another and it is an abatement of our troubles to see those whom we love in peace Two are better then one saith Solomon for if one fall the other may helpe him up but if both fall who shall helpe And if every member suffer there is passion in all but compassion in none much lesse support or helpe Thirdly observe Job in this condition was left of all Doe not thinke it strange if you be brought into such straights as to be left alone when you have most need of assistance Job was as a man friendlesse Physitianlesse wifelesse servantlesse all forsooke him It is the comfort of the people of God that they know how to be alone and yet can never be alone though they be left of all visible friends yet they have an invisible friend who will visit them stay with them by day and watch with them by night for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee In the Greeke there are five negatives to affirme this that God will not leave his Heb. 13.5 And he that hath him alone hath infinitely more then all the world in one When friends and Physitians will not come neere when wife and children take their leave or stand afarre off when servants hold their noses being not able to beare the stinch and ill savour that cometh from the body yea when a man comes to be an abhorring to himselfe yet at that time God delights in him Christ at that time imbraceth him and takes him in his armes and kisseth him with the kisses of his lips which are better then wine yea better then life Job was never so neer God so in the bosome of God as when no creature in the world would so much as touch him Job was never so beautifull in the eye of God as when he had nothing but boiles upon him Fourthly I may present you with Job as he was upon his Ashhill in want of all things from thence be admonished That the children of God his dearest servants may come to uttermost outward extremities When a man is among the ashes then he is at the lowest what can a man be lesse then that The Apostles were made as the filth of the world as the off-scouring of all things as sweepings and off all which are cast out upon the dunghill So was Job in the sense of many interpreters They who are of most worth may be used as if they were worth nothing Job was a pearle though upon a dunghill They who were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghils saith Jeremie in his Lamentation for Jerusalem chap. 4.5 We may say They who are brought up and clothed in better then scarlet even in the robes of righteousnesse and in the Garments of Salvation may yet be brought to embrace a dunghill There is no judging by Appearance No man knowes love or hatred by all that is before him or upon him Eccles 9. Lastly looke upon Job sitting in the ashes as a voluntary act and then observe which is of much concernement and use for us now in regard of the present condition we are in That as the afflicting hand of God doth increase upon a people or upon a person so ought the humiliation and repentance of that person or people to increase When the hand of God was upon Job before he rent his Mantle he shaved his head these were acts of great humiliation but now Job having a neerer and a deeper affliction upon him humbleth himselfe yet more Then he fell upon the ground but now he sitteth among the ashes Greater afflictions call to greater humiliation We ought not only to be humbled when God afflicteth but to be humbled in a proportion to the affliction As it is in regard of sin committed Great sins call for great sorrow And as it is in regard of mercies received Great mercies call for great praises so Great troubles call us to great humiliations and still the greater troubles are the greater our humiliation ought to be This is one way of accepting the punishment of our iniquities and of improving present evils for our everlasting good Consider whether this be not the work of this day We have had the hand of God upon the Nation in lesser judgements heretofore we have had warning-peeces shot of amongst us but now we heare the report of murthering-peeces every day Divers yeeres God made warre upon us with the sword of the Angel by which thousands have fallen in our streets but now God hath put a sword into the hands of men The former sword was a favour compared with this Those wounds a kisse compared with this Both David and experience resolve it thus Many of our dear brethren are slain and fallen by the sword their bloud hath been spilt like water and their bones have been scattered as when one cleaveth or cutteth wood upon the earth The spoyled cry to us for bread the sicke and wounded for helpe and healing Many towns have been plundered many Matrons and Virgins have been ravished many families have been scattered many wives and children deprived of their husbands and parents many parishes bereft of faithfull Pastours some of our dwellings turned to ashes And is it not time for us not only to rent our garments but to sit in ashes do not these things call us to eat ashes like bread and mingle our drink with weeping Is it not time for us not only to write but to act a Lamentation and to say For these things I weepe mine eye mine eye runneth down with water There is one thing yet which may and ought to be a Lamentation to us beyond all our own sufferings namely this God is dishonoured his name is blasphemed his people are reproched The enemies strike this sword in their bones A scornfull enquirie Where is now your God Psal 42.10 Should not teares be our meat day and night as they were Davids while they say continually Where is now your God Psal 42.3 our not sitting in the ashes for such things as these will bring us unto ashes and if we will not sit upon the dunghill of our sins in humiliation our sins will bring us and our land unto a dunghill of desolation In this day as of old by his faithfull Prophet Isai 22.12 doth the Lord God of hosts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldnesse and to girding with sackcloth And not only to these but to Jobs posture of sorrow sitting in ashes the voyce of the rod calleth to this the voyce of the trumpet heard daily in our streets cals to this We have cause to cry out as the Prophet Jeremie in his fourth chapter ver 19. My bowels my bowels I am pained at the very heart my heart maketh a noise in me I cannot hold my peace because thou hast heard O my soul the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war And because the sound of the trumpet among us like that on mount Sinai Exod. 19.19 doth not only sound long