Peter Their speech bewrayeth them and you may smell the filth of their hearts by their breath Secondly observe from these words Is there iniquity in my tongue He whose heart is upright may know that he is upright When Job questions Is there iniquity in my tongue He resolves There is no iniquity in my tongue None of that iniquity which you charge me with I grant a believer hath not alwaies a sight of his own integrity and uprightness many a soule bears false witness against himself and oppresses his owne innocency yet for the most part sincerity hath a witness in it self and holiness carries a light by which it is seen to him that hath it An upright heart may know his own uprightness Thirdly in that Job is thus stiff in maintaining his own uprightness and in denying any iniquity to be in his tongue Observe It is a duty to maintain our own integrity and uprightness Job was upon it before and is now upon it again and he will be upon it afterward he never gives over justifying of himself against man though he had not a word to plead for himself against God Fourthly from the latter clause Cannot my taste discern perverse things Observe Reason distinguishes truth from falshood as the pallate distinguishes bitter from sweet Reason it is the souls-taster Princes have their tasters before they eat least there should be poison in the dish God hath given unto man a taster for his spiritual meat The Pope will not suffer the meat he provides and cooks to be tasted but will have it swallowed whole or else he will thrust it whole down their throats It is alike spiritual tyranny to starve souls and to cram them It is our duty when meat is set before us we are at a full table of knowledg where variety of doctrins and opinions are served in then to call for our taster We may be surfetted else if not poison'd There may be a wild guord among good hearbs in the pot and so death in the pot too therefore first taste then eat and digest A Christian hath a taste to discern error from truth why then should he be denied the use of it A woe is pronounced against those who offer unwholsome doctrin Isa 5. 20 Wo to those that call evil good good evil that put light for darkness and darkness for light that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter A like wo is due to them who will not give others leave to discern for themselves what is good or evil light or darkness bitter or sweet as good let another live for us as another taste for us And their misery will be little less then the woes of these men who cannot or will not take pains to distinguish when evill is called good and good evil when light is put for darkness and darkness for light when bitter is put for sweet and sweet for bitter or as Job speaks here whose taste cannot discern perverse things There are some whose taste is so far from discerning perverse things that it is easie to discern their taste is perverse for bring them wholesome true and savoury doctrine they say it is bitter or false doctrine Bring them false doctrin a lie a dream a fancie a meer humane invention dish out such provision before them that 's excellent chear This was the heaviest curse which God sent upon the Gentiles Rom. 1. 28. God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient that is to a mind void of judgement a mind that could not taste or distinguish things therfore the issue or effect was They did things which were not convenient as if a man not being able to judge of meats eats poyson or meats most contrary to his health and constitution It is a fearful judgement to be given up to an unapproving mind to a mind that cannot discern truth from false-hood the Oracles of God from the forgeries of men superstition from holy worship It is a sad thing to loose our spiritual senses Such as play the wantons with the word of God and walk below the truths they know are at last given up to a reprobate mind to a mind not able to know the word of truth and then they swallow down error for truth and suck in deadly poison like sweet pleasant wine The Apostle speaking of the difference of doctrins under the metaphor of meats saith Milk is for babes but strong meat is for them of full age even for those that by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil That is their spiritual senses exercised to taste this from that doctrin and not to swallow every doctrin alike It is a great blessing when a people have senses exercised And it is a blessing we have much cause to pray for in these times That many pallats are out of taste is too apparent by the multitude of heterodox opinions which go down without disrelish Some which would even make a man tremble to name them are entertained with delight Some which dissolve our comforts and breaks us off from comfortable communion with Christ Some which shake if not overthrow the very foundations of faith are swallowed as pleasant morsels Doth not this convince that there 's a want of Jobs taste among us to discern perverse things Therefore get your senses exercised be established in the present truth that ye as this holy man in the middest of all bodily distempers and outward troubles which usually put the natural pallate out of taste may yet even then as he have your inward senses exquisite and your spiritual pallate exact to discern right from perverse things Lastly note False doctrine or true doctrine falsely applied is a perverse thing False doctrin perverts First Reason Secondly Scripture Thirdly the souls of men The Apostle Acts 20. 30. prophecies to the Church of Ephesus and with them to all Churches That out of themselves men should arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them Holy doctrin draws men to God and false doctrine draws men to man As itching ears heap teachers to themselves 2 Tim. 4. 3. So false tongues heap disciples to themselves That which is perverse in it's nature is perverting in its effect JOB Chap. 7. Vers 1 2 3 4. Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth are not his dayes also like the dayes of an hireling As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work So am I made to possess moneths of vanity and wearisome nights are appointed to me When I lie down I say When shall I arise and the night be gone and I 'am full of tossings too and fro unto the dawning of the day WHere the knot of connection between this and the former Chapter lyeth is not so discernable which hath given occasion for much diversity of conjecture about it First It may be conceived that Job in
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
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