upon as evill doers when we have done nothing for the matter but our duty and that in the manner according to rule Thus when Paul had justified himselfe by denying the evill which Tertullus accused him of Acts 24.12 13. he presently justified himselfe also in what he had done well though his enemies judged it evill ver 14. But this I confesse that after the way which they call heresie so worship I the God of my fathers beleeving all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets This selfe-justification is often very needfull For as there are some who call evill good so there are others who call good evill and make that a mans fault which is his commendation It was accounted a crime by some of old to be lesse vitious then others and it is accounted a crime by some at this day to be more vertuous then others to be more holy more exact more wisely precise and circumspect in our wayes then others many interpret folly and stamp with madnesse 2 Corinth 5.13 Paul was thought beside himselfe a meere Fanatick in his high actings for Jesus Christ when our actions are thus mis-represented and put under such disguises every good man is obliged to doe himselfe right For as we may honestly accuse others and declare the evill that we know they have done when called to it so we may speak out and declare the good we have done maintaine that to be good if it be good which we have done though many call it evill when called to it Thus a man may stand upon his termes with all men and yet be humble and deeply sensible of his owne sinfullnesse and vilenesse before God Paul saw nothing upon the matter but sin in himselfe Rom. 7.14 24. When I would doe good evill is present with me O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death That is of sin as 't is called Rom. 6.6 Thus he spake when he had to doe with God But when he had to doe with men when he saw himselfe called to answer the accusations and wipe off the aspersions which the enemies of the Gospel cast upon him 1 Corinth 4.4 then he saith I know nothing that is no evill by my selfe Paul was very conscious of his naturall infirmity yet very confident of his spirituall integrity And therefore when he saw the Glory of God was like to be obscured through his abasement and to be ecclipsed by the shadowes and darknesse which men cast upon his Ministery then he tooke due honour to himselfe and made the most of himselfe according to truth in the eyes of all the world Thus I have shewed what justifying of our selves is lawfull and I have done it that we may more clearely discerne what I am to shew next or Secondly Namely what that justifying of our selves is which indeed is unlawfull reprovable and blame-worthy I shall instance it in a few particulars First They justifie themselves sinfully who doe good with a desire to be seene and applauded of men for it thus Christ charged the Pharisees Math 6.5 They pray standing in the Synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seene of men and ver 16. They disfigure their faces that they may appeare unto men to fast It is not a sin to be seene of men in doing good but to doe good to be seene of men is sinfull and the patching up of a selfe-justification Secondly They justifie themselves sinfully who would pretend or seeme to have done that good which indeed they have not There is as much of this hypocrisie lodging and working now in the hearts of the children of men as was of old in the heart of Saul 1 Sam 15.13 14. to the 22d verse who professed highly to have fulfilled the will of God to a haires breadth Blessed be thou of the Lord said he to Samuel I have performed the commandment of the Lord Thus he insisted upon his integrity and justified himselfe to the face of Samuel who quickly convinced him that he had done the Lords worke to halves Thirdly They justifie themselves sinfully who either totally deny or extenuate and lessen the evill that they have done this kinde of sinfull selfe-justification was opened largely at the 33d verse of the former Chapter upon that imprecation made by Job If I covered my transgression as Adam by hiding mine iniquity in my bosome I referre the Reader thither for a fuller discovery of it Fourthly They justifie themselves sinfully who mingle their owne workes with the workes or righteousnesse of Jesus Christ for justification for though such pretend to Christ and say they take up Christ and his righteousnesse for justification yet it will be found a selfe-justification only seeing unlesse Christ justifie us wholly he justifieth us not at all As the Apostle concludes Galat 5.4 Christ is become of no effect unto you whosoever of you are justified by the Law ye are fallen from grace That is yee who mingle your workes with Grace are not justified by Grace but which will be unlesse repented of your condemnation by your workes Lastly They justifie themselves sinfully who say they are justified by Christ from their sins while they continue in their sins and hold fast their iniquities For as they that mingle their owne good workes with the righteousnesse of Christ are selfe-justifiers so also are they that take hold of the righteousnesse of Christ while they will not let goe nor part with their evill workes To looke for justification while we continue in the love and practise of any knowne sin and unrighteousnesse is as sinfull as to expect justification by our owne righteousnesse Object But doth not the Scripture say that God justifieth the ungodly Rom. 4.5 I answer Though God justifieth the ungodly yet the justified are not ungodly God justifieth the ungodly and makes them holy by the grace of sanctification as well as righteous by the grace of justification righteousnesse of life is alwayes the fruit of righteousnesse by faith Therefore if any man continuing in any knowne sin saith he is justified he hath justified himselfe for none doe so who are justified of God O how deeply are they condemned by God who thus justifie themselves Nothing is more desirable then to be justified by God and nothing is more dangerous then to justifie our selves either by our owne righteousnesse or in our unrighteousnesse Now as to justifie our selves any of these wayes is exceeding sinfull before God so to justifie our selves any way layeth us open or obnoxious to the censures of men And that 's the reason why this holy man Job was so deeply censured For though he justified not himselfe in any of those sences which are are sinfull yet he did some way justifie himselfe and while he justified himselfe only as he might he was condemned as having justified himselfe in a way which he might not We had need be very cautious how we any way or
what is good what is right is a gracious work of a renewed will as Gods Election of us from Eternity so our Election of God and the things of God at any time is a very gracious worke This affirmative act To chuse to us judgement seemes to imply a negative the rejecting or laying aside of whatsoever is contrary to or a hindrance of Judgement that is the laying aside First of all animosities or undue heates of spirit Secondly of all prejudices and undue prepossessions Thirdly of all groundlesse suspitions and jealousies of the person we have to deale with we can never chuse judgement till we are cleare of all these The original word rendred to chuse signifies in the noune a young man a man in the flower of his age in the best of his life when his breasts as Job spake at the twentieth Chapter are full of milke and his bones of marrow and the reason is given because our younger time is our chusing time as to our way in this world it should be so much more for heaven or the things of another world Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth saith Solomon Eccl 12.1 Some render those words expressely In the dayes of thy elections or chusings As if he had sayd Remember to chuse God in thy chusing dayes when thou chusest thy calling in which to live when thou chusest a wife In diebus electionum tuarum Mont with whom to spend thy life then be sure and remember above all things to chuse God When Moses was a young man he was famous for this Choice Heb 11.25 26. He chose the reproach of Christ rather then the riches of Egypt when he had all the riches and honours of Egypt presented to him and courting him on the one side and the reproach of Christ affliction poverty disgrace threatning him on the other side he chose these rather who would thinke that man wise who should chuse the reproach of Christ in appearance nothing but dirt and dross before the riches of Egypt yet Moses never shewed his wisdome and learning so much in all the learning of the Egyptians as he did in that Choice Let us chuse Judgement Judgement may be taken two wayes First Judicium est causae inquisitio Judicium pro aequo Merc. for the act of enquiry let us discourse and debate this matter to find out what is just Judgement is the result or sentence given upon hearing and debate And most properly a right sentence is Judgement and that by Judgement Elihu meanes a right sentence appeares clearely from the next words And let us know among our selves what is good Communis hic sit nobis propositus scopus ut accurata judicij lance quae hactenus in hac causa dicta sunt probemus quod optimum est approbemus Scult Let us know that is let us so try by the ear what shall be spoken that we may come to a right knowledge to a right gust or tast of what is good There is a two-fold knowledge First of simple intelligence when we know any thing as it is precisely in its owne nature true or false good or evill Secondly of approbation when we conclude what we know to be true or good We may take in both here especially the latter It being doubtlesse the desire of Elihu to find truth and goodness if it were to be found on Jobs side And when he saith That we may know what is good we may understand it either Comparatively or Positively that we may know what is good is first that we may know good from evill Secondly that we may know among good things what is better yea what is best let us not only distinguish between good and bad but between good and better better and best The reason of man is able to put a difference not only between wheat and tares but if you bring him severall samples of wheat or other graine he is able to judge which is the better which is best a knowing man will judge to two pence in a bushell which is best so in all other commodities we not only judge between that which is good and that which is stark nought but when we have many parcels and particulars of any kinde before us good and usefull we judge which is the best which the principall Thus in spiritualls we are not only to judge of things so farre as to know good from evill which yet is a very good piece of knowledge for many put darkness for light and light for darkness bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter as the Prophet complained Isa 5.20 that is they huddle all things together in a Chaos of confusion but it should be our care to know good from good yea to know what excells among things that are excellent 'T is well when we know truth from falshood but we should labour to know which among truths is the most precious truth Paul having spoken of what was good yea of the best gifts saith Yet I will shew you a more excellent way 1 Cor 12.31 As if he had sayd sayd This is a good way you are in the exercise of the best gifts but here 's a more excellent way the exercise of grace Thus here I take good not so much Positively as Comparatively Let us know what is good that is what is best and what is best of all Let us chuse to our selves Judgement and know among our selves that which is good First In that he saith Let us chuse to our selves Judgement Observe We must consider deliberately and maturely before we pass Judgement Judgement is a choice thing and must be made upon choyce it is not to be snatched up hastily but duely chosen They that are upon the choyce either of things or persons should be much in Consideration How uncomely besides unrighteous is it to judge men or matters rashly to be hurried on to election with passion or to judge upon heare-sayes and Conjectures This is not to chuse Judgement but to snatch it up to chuse Judgement is to doe it with mature deliberation there must be much weighing else properly no judging rash judgement is usually wrong judgement and that layeth us open to another judgement Judge not that ye be not judged is Christs warning Math 7.1 that is doe not judge hastily or harshly doe not judge rashly nor rigidly much lesse falsely for if you do you shall be judged righteouâ—â—y indeed as to your case but not comfortably as to your condition They who will not chuse Judgement doe in the issue chuse Judgement that is not using deliberation in Judgement they draw deservedly upon themselves a judgement of condemnation Secondly Taking it more generally Let us chuse to our selves Judgement or that which is right Note It is not enough for us to doe Judgement or that which is right but we must chuse it 'T is a worke of no acceptation with God to doe that which is just unlesse
will not thinke any time or labour lost if they may but gaine that precious commodity by it called true knowledge or the knowledge of the truth And that expression of running too and fro may wel be expounded they shall by discourse and arguing beare out the truth In discoursing the mind runs too and fro faster then the feete can in travelling In discourse we run from poynt to poynt from reason to reason from objection to objection from question to question till we come to solid answers and conclusions and so knowledge is increased The Lord is surely a God of knowledge whose eyes run too and fro without motion and see the bottome of all things without discourse or argumentation Secondly Note The Lords knowledge of man never abateth he is alwayes observing and alike observing what men doe and what men are The best the most waking men have their slumbrings and sleepings but the Lord neither slumbreth nor sleepeth his eyes are upon the wayes of man And when the Scripture saith The Lord doth neither slumber nor sleepe we may understand it in a twofold reference First as to the protection of his people Psal 121.4 Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep that is he watcheth over them so uncessantly so unweariedly that no danger can approach them without his knowledge Secondly he never slumbereth nor sleepeth as to the observation and consideration of all people he never takes his eye off from the wayes of man Thirdly Note The Lords knowledge or sight of mans wayes is universall and everlasting The All-seeing God seeth all our wayes and he seeth them alwayes And he seeth them all alwayes by one act The Lords view or prospect of things is not successive one after another but conjunctive all at once The Lord hath a large eye and an everlasting eye yea is all eye He knows all things First past or that have been Secondly present or that are Thirdly future possible or that shall be Thus saith the Lord in the Prophet Isa 46.10 I am God and there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done And upon this read the Lords challenge of all the Idolls in the world Isa 41.21 22 23. Let them shew the former things what they be that we may consider them and know the latter end of them or declare us things to come Shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are gods As if the Lord had sayd if ye can tell us all that 's past or any thing that is to come as I can then ye may take the honour of God otherwise ye are but lyes and vanities Againe the Lord knows all things First without distraction and secondly he knows all things with clearest distinction it is no more trouble to the Lord to see all things then to see one and he seeth all things as if he had but one thing to see From the consideration of this knowledge of God let me give foure or five inferences for instruction First which is most naturall to the text if the Lords eyes be upon the wayes of man if he seeth all his goings then all the Lords Judgements are right The Judges of this world may have a principle of righteousnesse in them and we may call them just and righteous Judges yet all their Judgements are not alwayes right For as some men are so ignorant that they know nothing at all so there are none so knowing as to know all things the clearest sighted Judges doe not see all that may concerne them in giving Judgement even among them some may be blinde and many blinded some are blinde and cannot see much others are blinded and will not see all that they see they are blinded possibly with bribes and gifts with hopes or feares with passions and prejudices And how cleare-sighted and honest-hearted soever any are yet they cannot see all somewhat may lye out of their sight Hence it cometh to passe that a just Judge may doe that which is unjust he cannot see quite through every matter though he set himselfe to search the matter before he giveth Judgement But as the Lord is all righteousnesse in his principle and beares an everlasting love to righteousnesse so he hath a cleare sight of all things and persons and therefore he must needs give a righteous Judgement concerning all things actions and persons Though he overthrow nations he is righteous though he overthrow Princes he is righteous because he seeth into all things and proceedeth upon certain knowledge of every mans case and condition He cannot erre in Judgement who hath no error in his Judgement nor any deviation in his will Secondly If the Lords eyes are upon all the wayes of men then certainly sinners whose wayes are evill shall never goe unpunished For if he have a principle of righteousnesse in him and an eye to see all their unrighteous wayes they cannot escape his justice Say to the wicked woe to him for he shall eate the fruit of his doings Isa 3.11 The righteous God knoweth the unrighteousnesse of man and therefore woe to the unrighteous man Thirdly Take this conclusion Then no godly man no good man shall goe unrewarded or loose the reward of that good which he hath done The Lord is righteous and he seeth every one that doth right or the righteousnesse of every mans way and it is his promise to reward the righteous therefore they shall be rewarded This is matter of strong consolation and great encouragement to all that are righteous If the Lord seeth all they doe nothing which they have well done shall be lost in the dark or lie in the dust God will bring forth their righteousnesse as the light and their just dealing as the noone day And as the knowledge which God hath of their wayes assureth the righteous that they shall be rewarded for so that they shall be assisted and protected in their doing righteousnesse The Prophet makes that inference in the place before-cited 2 Chron 16.9 The eyes of the Lord run too and fro through the earth what followeth to shew himselfe strong in the behalfe of them or as we put in the Margin strongly to hold with them whose heart is perfect towards him The Lord is alwayes strong and alike in strength his hand is not shortned at any time that he cannot save yet he doth not alwayes shew his strength but as he is strong so he will shew himselfe strong for the perfect or upright in heart that is he will act his strength to the utmost for the safety and assistance of those whose hearts are perfect with him So then as they that are good and doe good shall be rewarded for the good they have done so they shall be protected in the dangers and evills they incurre while they are doing good Another Prophet speakes both these inferences from this principle of the knowledge or
to flow in upon us Christ said to the sick man Matth. 9.2 Be of good cheer thy sins are forgiven thee Fourthly It is a precious mercy because it stops and keeps off all evils and judgements strictly so called I forgive I will not destroy Our comforts cannot stand before the guilt of sin and our troubles cannot stand long before the pardon of sin Isa 33.24 The highest wtath of God appears in this when he will not pardon and it argues the greatest displeasure of man against man when he prayeth that he may not be pardoned That was a most dreadful prayer of the Prophet Isa 2.9 The mean man is bowed down and the mighty man humbles himself therefore forgive them not here was a prayer that they might not be forgiven and the ground why he prayed so seems to be as strange as the matter of it was dreadful Is it a sin to be excepted from pardon to see a mean man bow down and a mighty man humble himself The meaning is they bowed themselves not to God but to idols all bowing and humbling our selves either to worship an idol or in idol worship is rebelling against God We have a like prayer Jer. 18.23 the Prophet having spoken of the plots and devisings of the people against him turns himself thus to God Thou knowest all their counsel to slay me forgive not their iniquity neither blot their sin from thy sight Nothing can be wisht worse to any man then this that his sin may never be pardoned And here it may be questioned how the Prophet could make such a prayer which seems to have the height of all uncharitableness in it I answer first The Prophet was led by an extraordinary Spirit to do this Secondly We are not to conceive that the Prophet prayed for their eternal condemnation but that God would call them to a reckoning and make them feel the evil of their own doings There is a sin unto death for the pardon of which we are not to pray 1 John 5.16 yet there is no sin about which we are to pray that it may never be pardoned The worst prayer that can be made against any man is that he may not be pardoned and there is nothing better to be prayed for then pardon It shewed the height of Christs love when hanging on the Cross he prayed thus for his enemies Luke 23.34 Father forgive them they know not what they do And the Protomartyr Stephen breathed out a like spirit of charity while he was breathing out his life in a shower of stones powred upon him from more stony hearts Acts 7.60 with this prayer Lord lay not this sin to their charge Thus I have finished this 31th verse both according to our own Translation and that other insisted upon by many of the learned only from the connexion of this verse with the next according to the latter reading To God who saith I pardon I will not destroy it should be said that which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more Observe The very consideration that God is ready to pardon sin should make us resolved against the committing of sin The sin-pardoning mercy of God is one of the highest and most spiritual arguments by which the soul is kept from sin There is forgiveness with thee saith David Psal 130.4 that thou mayst be feared that is because thou art so merciful as to forgive sinners therefore they ought to fear thee in doing what thy will is and in avoiding whatsoever is contrary to thy will 'T is prophesied that frame of spirit shall dwell upon the people of God in the latter dayes Hos 3.5 They shall fear the Lord and his goodness that is Si scirem homines ignoraturos Deos ignoscituros tamen non facerem Sen◠they shall fear to offend the Lord because he is so good and ready to pardon It was said by a Heathen and it may shame many who profess themselves Christians that a heathen said so if I did know that men should never know the evil which I do and that the gods so he speaks in their language would pardon and forgive the evil which I do yet I would not do it Surely the spirit of a true believer must needs rise thus high and higher upon the clear grounds of Gospel grace and discoveries of the free love of God Cannot a true believer say though I know that God will pardon my sin though he hath declared that my sin is pardoned and though I could be assured that men should never know of this sin if I commit it yet I will not do it To God who saith I pardon it should be said I will sin no more I shall now proceed to the 32d verse which stands fair to either reading Vers 32. That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more Some carry the general sence of these words as if spoken by God himself to Job and spoken by an irony or in scorn as if he had thus bespoken him If I have afflicted thee beyond thy desert or have overthrown thy judgement that Job had more then once complained of Si quid me fugit in te affligendo vel si quid errarem tu me doceas Si te venando perperam egi vel injustè me habui non ultra id fecero 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Merc. if I have not kept to the true rules of reason and righteousness in chastening thee if in my dealings with thee I have done amiss or have not done thee right Shew me wherein O Job and I will afflict thee so no more I shall not stay upon this but take the words according to our Translation as the whole verse intends a further description of a person deeply humbled under and sensible of the hand the chastening the afflicting hand of God who having said with respect to all known sins in the former verse I will offend no more saith here in this verse concerning all unknown sins That which I see not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do no more That which I see not There is a two-sold sight First Corporal the sight of the bodily eye Secondly Intellectual the sight of the eye of the minde or of the understanding when Elihu represents the penitent afflicted person speaking thus What I see not c. he intends not a corporal sight but an intellectual Seeing is here as often elsewhere in Scripture put for knowing the understanding is the eye of the soul How blinde and dark are those men who have no understanding in the things of God! Eph. 4.18 When Christ had sayd For judgement am I come into the world that they which see not might see and that they which see might be made blinde some of the Pharisees said unto him John 9.41 are we blinde also have we no eyes Jesus said unto them If ye were blinde ye should have
to afflict us with evill It is our duty to accept that is to take well at Gods hand the punishment of our iniquity Lev 26.41 how much more to welcome the sorest and heaviest crosse which he is pleased to lay upon us either for the chastisement of our faylings and falls or for the tryall and exercise of our graces It is said 2 Sam 3.36 Whatsoever the king meaning David did pleased all the people There was a wonderfull consent and harmony between the peoples spirit and Davids actions Surely whatsoever God doth should please all his people what ever he dispenseth be it sweet or sowre hard or soft light or darknesse it should please all his people and please them highly and so farre as we come short of this frame of heart so farre doe we justifie our selves rather then God Secondly It is a fault not only if we are not satisfied and pleased with what God doth but if we doe not praise and glorifie God in and for what he doth and that not only in his justice that he hath done us no wrong but in his goodnesse that he hath done all for our profit That which turnes to mans profit should also turne to the praise of God But as the holy Apostle assureth us Heb 12.10 God chastneth his children for their profit and that the best and noblest profit that they might be partakers of his holiness therefore we ought to praise and glorifie him or to glorifie him with our praises while he is chastning us Truly God is good to Israel Psal 73.1 He is so not only when he gives Israel outward good things or things good to fense but when he afflicts when he writes bitter things against his Israel and shewes them only visions of sorrow and matter of amazement Till our soules are wrought up to this Justification of God in his goodnesse when things are worst with us we in some degree justifie our selves rather then God Againe for as much as Job who cannot in all things be acquitted from this charge of justifying himselfe rather then God was yet of another spirit and principle then indeed or professedly to justifie himselfe rather then God Observe We may speake amisse and wrong God when we doe not intend it nor have the least thought to doe so David prayeth for the pardon of unknowne sins Psal 19.12 13. Cleanse thou me from secret faults keepe backe thy servant also from presumptuous sins let them not have dominion over me To justifie our selves rather then God knowingly is a presumptuous sin to lay any blame upon God directly is blasphemy David prayed not only to be kept from such grosse sins but to be cleansed from secret sins that is from those sins which he did not know that he had committed them and which he never had any intent to commit We may so mis-place words and mis-guide actions when we thinke not of it that we may quickly sin against God yea and justifie our selves rather then God That which we doe or speake is to be judged by a rule whether it be good or evill not meerely by our intentions though good nor by our not intending of evill We may be judged to have done or said evill though we meant no evill in doing or in saying so Words and actions well meant may sometimes justly undergoe an ill construction They that heare should interpret every word in the most favorable sence but if we speake unwarily and unsafely or as Moses once unadvisedly with our lips we may thanke our selves if we fall under reproofe for what we have spoken Therefore begge of God to set a watch over your mouth and to keepe the doore of your lips let nothing passe unexamined 'T is our wisdome to read every word over and over before we speake it Many heare ill who have spoken well how much more may they who speake doubtfully or dangerously We have seene the cauâ—â— why Elihu was so angry with Job the next verse will tell us why he was so angry with Jobs three friends Vers 3. Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled because they had found no answer and yet had condemned Job We find Elihu angry on all hands angry with Job and angry with his three friends some querie upon this renewing of his anger as God did Jonah whether he did well to be thus angry or thus to appeare in passion and breake out afresh in wrath and whether the reasons of his anger will beare him out to have been angry with Reason anger prevailes most in those in whom reason prevailes least and they have usually the strongest passions who have the weakest judgements children and aged persons the sicke and pained are apt to be angry with others and hard to be pleased themselves And 't is a generall axâ—om InvaliduÌ„ omne natura querulum est The weake and impotent are naturally angry and passionate Therefore we had need looke to our passions that they grow not strong for they will soone proclaime us weake he is a wise man indeed that can be at once wise and angry Proverbs 19.11 The discretion of a man deferreth his anger and it is his glory to passe over a transgression And as there Solomon teacheth us that discretion mastereth anger so he assureth us that angry persons are more then indiscreete foolish Eccles 7.9 Anger resteth in the bosome of fooles Anger often assaults the prudent but if it abides and takes up its lodging in any bosome 't is in the bosome of a foole at least in that poynt he doth foolishly who lendeth his bosome though but one night for anger to lodge in And as at all times so then especially we should narrowly watch and severely bridle our passions when as Elihu here did we undertake to advise those who are mistaken or to reduce those that are out of the way when we give counsel to others we should be sedate and quiet our selves A Physician must not be angry with his patient nor is it proper to apply medicinall healing counsel to the mind of another with an exulcerated minde Much might be said concerning this anger of Elihu but I have spoken to that before in opening the former verse therefore I shall not stay here upon it but proceed to consider the reason why he was so Because they had found no answer and yet had condemned Job Not to find an answer may proceed First From a defect of paines and industry in seeking it An answer must be sought and digg'd for it must be studied and prayed for else it will not be found Secondly The not finding of an answer may arise from the defect of ability not of industry many labour hard but can make nothing of it 'T is probable Jobs three friends laboured much yet found no answer And then it was no defect of industry but of ability they found no answer because they could not They as we commonly speake did even beate their braines and bite their nayles
the abused patience of man will turn to greater anger and he groweth the more passionate by how much he hath been the more and the oftner deceived Thus Elihu is still described acting angerly yet in the very next verse we shall find him speaking soberly plainly and to purpose Vers 6. And Elihu the son of Barachell the Buzite answered and said When Elihu saw these three men gravel'd and that after all the outcry they made against Job they were forced to leave him as they found him unconvinced of those crimes of that hypocrisie which they had layd to his charge he hereupon saw himselfe engaged to undertake the matter and offer his opinion Concerning Elihu his name his fathers name Barachel his tribe or stock a Buzite I have spoken at the 2d verse and shall not adde any thing of it here only take notice That here Elihu begins his own preface The former part of the Chapter contained the report of the divine historian concerning Elihu but these are the words of Elihu himselfe here he begins like an Orator to gaine favour with and attention of his hearers or to prepare the minds of his hearers to receive what he had to say And upon this subject or piece of Rhetoricke making Prefaces he spends the whole that remaines of this Chapter And Elihu c. answered and said I am young and ye are very old that is it which he said therefore I was afraid and durst not shew mine opinion As if he had said I am conscious to my selfe of the weaknesse which accompanieth youth I very well know my own incompetency for such a worke I am young Parvus secundum dies Heb The Hebrew is I am few of dayes or little according to dayes if you should reckon or measure me by dayes I am very little And is not every man so If you measure any man by dayes is not he very little Thou hast made my age a span long said David Psal 39.7 that 's quickly measured Job spake thus Chap. 14.1 Man that is borne of a woman is of few dayes and full of trouble He saith not this or that man but man take old men the Elders take all men the oldest men are but few of dayes in themselves considered and comparatively to the age or rather the eternity of God their utmost age is but as a drop to the ocean Thus all men even ancient men are few of dayes which is here the description of a young man I am young saith Elihu or few of dayes but compare one man with another so some have few dayes and others many dayes young men have few dayes and old men have many dayes compared with one another I am young and ye are very old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decrepitus The word notes decrepid old age the very dregs of age the utmost line of life old age like a heavy burden bowes the back and criples the limbes of the strongest and stoutest sons of Adam See more of this word Chap. 15.10 Hominis aetates in septem partitur Hippocrates 1 Parvulus ad annum 7 mum 2 Puer ad An 14. 3 Adolescens ad An 21. 4 Juvenis ad An 28. 5 Vir ad An 50. 6 Senex ad An 56. 7 Decrepitus post quamdiu vivit There are severall divisions of the life of man some cast it into foure parts sutable to the foure seasons of the yeare some into five alluding to the Acts of an Interlude or play others into seven in allusion to the Planets now what ever division you make of the life of man this decrepid old age is the last I am young and ye are very old wherefore I was afraid and durst not shew mine opinion What effect that sence which Elihu had of his youth or fewnesse of dayes produced in him is set forth in these words 't was feare I saith he was afraid c. There is as to this poynt a twofold feare First a cowardly feare Secondly a modest feare when Elihu saith he was afraid he doth not meane the feare of a coward but of a modest man it is not not cowardize to be afraid of doing many things to feare to doe those things which are unlawfull or which are uncomely is no part of cowardize This latter feare surprized or rather composed Elihu he was a man bold spirited enough but modesty made him afraid to shew his opinion There is a great elegancy in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est serpere denotat timorem serpentum latebras quaerentium videri metuentium Aben Ezra I durst not shew mine opinion They imply he hid his speech as Serpents hide themselves when men approach Micah 7.17 Serpents which are a terrour to men and make them afraid are also afraid of men their appearance causeth them to run and hide their heads The Rabbins take much paines in their Criticismes about this word to expresse a vertuous modesty As it is a duty to be as Christ exhorts his Disciples to be especially in times of persecution Math 10.10 wise as Serpents so it is a vertue to be fearefull as Serpents even to feare as much to be heard by some men as Serpents feare to be seene by any man Reptilium more dimisi me unde vulgatus reddit Demisso capite veritus sum Drus Thus Elihu held downe his head he was afraid and durst not shew his opinion suddenly nor declare his judgement in the case for the reverence he bare to those graver and elder heads Note hence First Young men are apt to run into mistakes their heat usually exceeds their light Youth drives furiously and commonly carrieth presumption with it or is it selfe hurried by presumption Though God hath given a young man a good understanding quick parts and a ready tongue yet he wants much because he hath not seene much and so is very liable to miscarriage He cannot look through nor see to the end of things for as it is the great and sole priviledge of God to cast an eye quite through all intermediate both actions and revolutions and to see the end from the beginning so it is more peculiar to those that are aged and long experienced to see much of the end of things in their beginnings or to see what is like to be as well as what is 'T is the part of a wise man to consider what may come and whether things tend there is much weakness and deficiency in young men as to this As most young men want sences exercised as the Apostle speakes of all un-improved Christians of what age soever Heb 5.19 as I say most young men want sences exercised to discerne what is good or evill so they want sences exercised to discerne what good or evill is like to be they rarely see effects in their causes or events in their prognosticks Therefore Elihu might well say I am young therefore I durst not venture to shew mine opinion Paul giveth Timothy
many long answers but Elihu the Moderator was forced to tell them ye have not answered sufficiently Lastly Elihu having heard all their answers and finding that they did not reach a proofe against Job nor answer his reasonings and replyes he speaks himselfe Hence note When we have weighed all duely and find that others have not done the deed we must not dissemble our judgements nor flatter them in their faulty answers Elihu would not doe so and the reason why he would not is layd downe in the next words Vers 13. Lest ye should say we have found out wisdome God thrusteth him downe not man In the former verse Elihu shewed his owne disappoyntment while he waited upon others I attended unto you saith he to Jobs three friends and behold there was none of you that convinced Job or that answered his words Then followes Lest ye should say we have found out wisdome c. In which words Elihu proceeds with his Preface that he might the more fairely fall into discourse with Job for having told Jobs friends that he had waited in vaine for satisfaction from their answers or replyes they having not convinced him either by solid reason or by Authentick Authority and testimony that he was so bad as they judged him to be He adds this I affirme Lost ye should say we have found out wisdome That is lest ye should say it boastingly and cry victory against his afflicted man The word is often used in Scripture to signifie saying with boasting or speaking in pride of spirit The Baptist Math. 3.9 tells the Pharisees Thinke not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our father his meaning is doe not speake of your pedegree boastingly nor proudly that ye are Abrahams children will doe you no good unlesse ye are good like your father Abraham and doe as he did So here Rem acu tetimuâ— ipsum cardinum in quo tota controversia vertitur de Jobo Drus Lest ye should proudly say we have found out wisdome we have found the mystery of the whole matter we have found out the key which unlocks this secret or as Mr Calvins translater wittily as well as truly expresseth We have found out the beane in the Cake we say Lest ye should say we have found out wisdome That is that which will surely prove us wise men and gaine us the reputation of wisdome among all wise and knowing men What their speciall resolve was which they counted widome followes in the close of the verse according to our reading God thrusteth him downe not man But before I deale with that conclusion I shall briefly note two things from those words Lest ye should say we have found out wisdome First Man is very apt to speake boastingly to have high thoughts and then to utter great words of himselfe Man is a proud piece of flesh and a small matter will make him shew his pride and spread his plumes like that naturally-painted bird if not explicitely in words yet his spirit will swell and be puft up with towring conceits of himselfe The Prophet Habakkuk describes this temper Chap. 2.4 He that is lifted up his spirit is not upright in him A proud spirit is alwayes a false spirit They who thinke highly of themselves thinke themselves higher then they are And 't is a great argument that man is naturally very proud because God hath given so many stops and checks to his pride or hath made so many provisions against it The very contrivance of the work of Redemption in that way by the hand of Jesus Christ had this great designe in it For as the chiefe designe in reference to man was his salvation that was the ultimate end as to man so there was another designe in it why God would save man that way which the Apostle layeth downe 1 Cor 1.29 That no flesh should glory in his sight While God intended to give man glory he took a course to cut off all glorying from man God would not set up man againe to worke is owne salvation lest he should be proud of his workes Though we are now called to work out our owne salvation Phil. 2.12 yet it is wholly wrought by another and we are there commanded to work out our owne salvation with feare and trembling not with presumption and boasting Againe How apt is man to boast of any good he doth seeing he is not ashamed to boast sometimes when he doth evill and of that which is evill even of the lusts and lustings of his evill heart Psal 10.3 The wicked boasteth of his hearts desire And what good is there in the desire of a wicked mans heart He as such can desire nothing but what is worse then nothing sin or vanity and yet he boasts of it Yea man is ready to boast not only of evill done but of his ability to doe evill They in the Prophet boasted that they were mighty to drinke wine and men of strength to mingle strong drinke Isa 5.22 How doe some please themselves that they are in power only because that gives them an advantage to oppresse whom they please or all those with whom they are displeased David saw that spirit ruling and raging in spirefull Doeg whom he therefore checks Psal 52.1 Why boastest thou thy selfe in mischiefe O mighty man The Apostle found those Phil. 3.19 who gloried in their shame That is in sinfull practices even making their belly their God whereof they ought to be ashamed The Prophet spake of their like long before Isa 3.9 They declare their sin as Sodome they hide it not As if it had been their ornament and their honour their beauty and bravery to be wicked But especially if bad men doe that which is good they boast of it A carnal man may for the matter doe good yea he may have a zeale for God Jehu said Come see my zeale for the Lord 2 Kings 10.16 But Jehu desired more to have his zeale for the Lord seene then to be zealous for the Lord. And so his was indeed zeale for himselfe not for the Lord. The Pharisees did many good things but they could not foâ—beare boasting in the good they did They doe all saith Christ who knew not only what they did but with what heart to be seene of men or to have prayse with men Yea not only are evill men ready to boast of the good they doe but the temptation lies hard also upon godly men to doe so their hearts are often unduely transported as with the thoughts of their gifts parts and graces so with what they doe through the gift of grace Our very graces much more our outward priviledges may be an occasion of boasting Pride and boasting are weeds which grow up from the best and richest soyle 'T is rare to see any man rich in gifts and graces and poore in spirit poverty of spirit is the purest and truest riches of grace Secondly As to the particular here spoken of Lest ye should say we
have found but wisdome Note Man is very prone to make boast of or glory in that which he calleth wisdome When he hath found out though but supposed wisdome he cannot containe he must cry it up Archimedes It is said of the old Mathematician when after long study and beating his braines he had found out a Conclusion in Geometry he ran about the Citie as if transported or ravished with this loud out-cry I have found it I have found it and thus Jobs friends were ready to cry out they had found they had found out wisdome There is indeed a very great temptation in the finding out or attaining of wisdome to puff man up and to make him vaine-glorious We have great cause to be humbled that we have so little wisdome and they that have any store as they thinke more then their neighbours are in great danger of being proud of it Knowledge puffeth up 1 Cor 8.1 When the head is full the heart grows high Yet this is to be understood of literall knowledge not of spirituall or of knowledge when and where it is alone without grace not of gracious knowledge The more a gracious man knowes the more humblâ— he is because his knowledge shewes him his own vileness and emptiness but the more a carnall man knowes the more proud he is became while such whatsoever or how much soever he knoweth he knoweth not himselfe nor doth he know any thing as he ought to know it as the Apostle speakes there at the second verse And as meere naturall men so they who are but smatterers or beginners in the wayes of godliness are also very ready to be transported with an opinion of their parts and knowledge And therefore the same Apostle gives it in charge to Timothy 1 Tim. 3.6 that he who is called and received unto Office in the Church should not be a novice he means it not so much of one that is young in yeares as of one that is young in the faith a new plant in the Church or one newly converted And he gives this as a reason Lest being puft up with pride he meanes by being in such a function or by having such reputation for wisdome and knowledge as is requisite to a Goâ—pel Minister he which is a sad fall if not a down-fall into utter ruine fall into the condemnation of the devill Not that the devill will condemne him for his pride no the more proud men are the more the devill approves of them nor is it the devills office to condemne it is his office to execute he is the executioner not the Judge and what ever he condemneth any man for he will not condemne him for pride no nor for any sin So that when the Apostle saith Lest he fall into the condemnation of the devill it is as if he had said Lest he be condemned for the same sin that the devill was condemned for which was pride And it was pride for he is the right father of the Gnosticks arising out of a high opinion or conceit of his owne wisdome and knowledge Zophar sayd Job 11.12 Vaine man would be wise But is it an argument of a mans vanity that he would be wise it is a mans duty to be wise that 's a good desire why then doth he say Vaine man would be wise The meaning is Vaine man would be in account for wisdome he would be reckoned among wise men or he desires more to be thought wise then to be wise A vaine man indeed cannot desire any good but in reference to some evill that cleaves to it and upon that account he may desire to be wise The first sin came into the world by an attempt to get wisdome or by a proud thought in the hopes of attaining farther wisdome The wisdome which our first parents sought for was not wisdome to know God for that is the most excellent wisdom It is eternall life to know God So then it was not wisdome to know God but it was wisdome to be knowing as God which they affected they would be high and lifted up above the rate of a creature in knowledge and that was their ruine And I shall shew in two things why there is such a temptation in wisdome or the reason why when we have found out that which hath a shew of wisdome in it we are so forward to applaud our selves boast in it First 'T is so because wisdome is no common Commodity as I may say wisdome is but in few hands if you consider the multitude of men in the world Now that which few have all who have it are ready to be proud of No man is proud of that which is every mans no man is proud that he is a man or proud that he hath reason because that is common to all men but all men are not wise all men are not learned all men have not an improved wisdome reason and understanding that hath a peculiarity in it and therefore of that many are proud Secondly Wisdome is not only rare but very usefull and which reacheth this poynt more fully very ornamentall and how apt are we to be proud of our ornaments A man is not proud of his ordinary Clothes nor a woman of her every-day dresse but when a man or woman have their ornaments and Jewells on their Gay-cloathing and rich apparel on then they are apt to be proud and lifted up so it is in this case Wisdome is like Gay-cloathing it is a Jewell an ornament and therefore man is under a temptation when he hath any thing of wisdome especially any eminency of wisdome about him to be lifted up and despise others yea to arrogate great things to himselfe and to presume that he can doe no small matters with his braine or the engine of his understanding It is a great attainment to be full of knowledge and full of humility high in parts and lowly in spirit Lest ye should say we have found out wisdome God thrusteth him downe not man or as others read God hath cast him downe not man The Omnipotent doth Toss him not man saith Mr. Broughton The word signifies to toss a man as it were in a blanket That is to toss him as we please farre enough from his pleasure or to toss him in open view As if they had sayd see how the omnipotent tosseth this man The Omnipotent tosseth him not man There are two references of these words given by Expositers First Some expound them as the words of Elihu Secondly Others as the words of Jobs three friends First Lest ye should say we have found out wisdome I saith Elihu say God shall thrust him downe not man That 's the principle by which I will deale with Job and so thrust him downe from that opinion which he hath of himselfe and humble him that 's the sence of the words thrust him downe according to this interpretation God shall doe it and not man Some of the learned insist much upon this
prerogative but with a respect also to our spirituall which is the best profit and for our good Now among the good things which God aymeth at in afflicting any man this is nor the least the purging out of his evills And therefore when we cannot ascribe the chastisement of man to man but to God alone 't is a witness against him at least it drawes a suspition upon him of some great sinfulness lodged in him or sinfull wayes walked in by him Thirdly Observe It is no Concluding argument against any man that he is wicked because God afflicts him immediately or how much soever the hand of God appeares in an affliction 't is no concluding argument against the afflicted 'T is one principall scope intended by Elihu in this discourse to shew that there were other causes reasons of Gods afflicting Job or any man else besides him And that we should not make Conclusions that the greatest sufferers are the greatest sinners For first though indeed God threatneth to punish the wicked who wilfully transgresse his Law yet he afflicts many without respect to wickednesse Secondly though God threatens the wicked only or chiefely at least yet he reserves a liberty to try the innocent yea as Job saith in the 9th Chapter He laughs at the triall of the innocent And therefore the most innocent are most tryed I have had occasion more then once to shew why they are most or so much tryed First for the exercise of their faith Secondly for the improvement of their patience thirdly to humble them Fourthly sometimes to set them up for examples to others as the Apostle James speaks Chap. 5.10 Take my Brethren the Prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering affliction and of patience The Prophets have suffered affliction and God hath let them suffer that they might be patternes of suffering and 't is so in many other instances Fifthly God doth it to mortifie their corruptions Sixthly to prevent future transgressions he hedgeth up their way with thornes Seventhly to discover or gaine a testimony of their sincerity They serve Christ to purpose who can suffer while they serve and bleed under his crosse while they sweat under his yoke Surely then there is no concluding against any man that he is a son of Behal or hath cast off the yoke of Christ because Christ burdeneth him with his crosse Yet this was the great Maxime which Jobs friends insisted upon He must needs be a wicked man because the Lord had thrust him downe not man But when we see good men thrust downe by the hand of God there is a better use to be made of it then to judge them and that is to be watchfull over our selves lest we put a rod into the hand of God to chasten us or a sword into his hand to wound us For as Christ spake Luke 23.33 If it be thus done to the greene tree what shall be done to the dry If Christ suffered so much who was a greene flourishing fruit-bearing tree what may we who are dry and barren trees Or take the meere sons of men some of them comparatively to others are as greene trees flourishing in grace and holinesse who yet are under sore affliction and if this be done to a greene tree what shall be done to those who are but dry barren fruitless trees yea trees that bring forth evill fruit The Apostle 1 Pet. 4.17 gives a sutable caution If Judgement begin at the house of God he does not say at the Temple of Idolls But if it begin at the house of God what will the end be of those that obey not the Gospel Let others looke to it when they see God afflicting his people when they see God bringing such troubles into his owne house what troubles may they expect who are indeed but a den of theeves and whose houses are yea who themselves are as a Cage of uncleane birds Thus we see the great argument disproved which Jobs friends used to prove him wicked because God did thrust him downe not man And saith Elihu this is it you say and boast of as your wisdome but indeed you have not convinced Job no not by this What you have taken for a demonstration is but a fallacy And though I might wave mine owne trouble in shewing that it is so because I am not the man but ye are the men to whom Job hath shaped his whole discourse yet I cannot forbeare to doe it only I promise you I will not tread in your steps nor take up your method in doing it That 's the summe of the words which follow Vers 14. Now he hath not directed his words against me nei-neither will I answer him with your speeches In this verse Elihu speakes Negatively in two things First He tells us that Job had not spoken professedly nor directly to him Secondly he tells us how he would not deale with Job that is not as his friends before had done Now he hath not directed his words against me As if Elihu had said I confesse I have not been at all spoken to all this while unlesse in common with all the Auditory and therefore might well enough looke upon my selfe as unconcern'd in this matter The word here used to direct hath a great elegancy in it and may be an allusion First to an Archer who aymes at or directs his arrow to the marke Secondly to a Warrier especially a Commander in warre who sets his men in battel array against the enemy As if Elihu had said Job hath not aymed at me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 digessit disposint ordinavit verbum bellicum de acie ordinanda dicitur Merc nor hath he ordered or set his words in order to opprsse me Job hath not drawne up his forces nor set himselfe in array against me but against you And so perhaps that hate and bitterness of spirit which you have contracted by this long-continued debate with Job hath given you occasion prudently to withdraw and forbeare the entertainment of any further discourse with him Yea possibly ye are now fallen into a deep contempt of him as a man forsaken of God and therefore to be no more dealt with by man But there is not the like reason for me to forbeare speaking with him seeing as he hath not at all opposed me so I am not at all disturb'd in my owne thoughts about him nor is my spirit imbittered with any unidictive motions against him and shall therefore enter the lists of this disputation with a peaceable and quiet minde or rather I shall being a person every way unprejudic'd doe my best endeavour to moderate and compose this great difference between you Now he hath not directed his words against me c. Hence note First Our words should be well ordered They should be drawne up like a wel disciplin'd Army in ranke and file Confusion in words is as bad as confusion in things Some heape up words but they
and under-value their most prayse-worthy deeds Ill will never spake well either of persons or actions Secondly whom we love not as friends especially whom we hate as enemies we are prone to highten their faults and double their faylings we mostly look on the evill deeds of an enemy in a multiplying or in a magnifying glass we make one fault many and a little one great A true friend will speak the most of what is well done and the least he can with truth of what is ill He is so farre from seeking occasions against whom he loves that he will hardly see them when findes them unsought A noble enemy will not seeke occasions against a man much lesse will a cordiall friend It is no wonder when Job is taxed with saying God sought occasions against him that he should also say He counteth me for his enemy From the matter of these words He counteth me for his enemy take these two notes First Even good men when they are sorely grieved under the afflicting hand of God are tempted to have hard apprehensions of God at least to suspect and feare that God is no friend to them And this comes to passe upon a double consideration First Nature when pinched will shew it selfe Now man naturally hath not only hard thoughts of God but an enmity against him And when nature is pinched all the corruptions working in man worke this way unless over-power'd and checkt by grace Secondly when 't is hard with us from the hand of God then Satan takes his time to prompt us with hard thoughts of God and to foment that enmity to the uttermost of which our corrupt nature hath such store What will Satan say Doth God love thee and starve thee What Doth God pretend kindness to thee and deale thus with thee is God thy friend who takes away thy friends is God thy friend who leaves thee in the hand of enemies doth he pitty thee and yet keepe thee in these paines is this his kindness to his friend How can he say he loves thee And hast not thou cause enough yet to say He counteth thee for his enemy Thus Satan takes his time to provoke nature which is forward enough of it selfe to thinke and speake hardly of God if at any time he is pleased and sees it fit to deale hardly with us And how great a combate hath many a gracious soule both with Satan and his owne heart to get and keepe up good and honorable thoughts of God in a suffering condition or under darke and to sense dismal dispensations Secondly Note Whatsoever God doth to or with a godly man he should maintaine good thoughts and speak well of God or when God deales most strictly and severely with his people they should not look upon it as an argument of any enmity or ill will against them or that he counteth them his enemies Let us take heed of such thoughts David professed Psal 73.1 Truly God is good to Israel even to them that are of a cleane heart He is good to them that 's Davids intent there not only when he doth them good as to outward things I meane and to sencible appearances for all is good in the issue to the Israel of God now I say God is good to his people not only when he in that sence doth them good but when he afflicts them and layeth many outward evills upon them When as it is said after in that Psalme v. 14. He plagueth them that word imports sorest troubles all the day long and chasteneth them every morning when he gives them their breakfast in sowre herbes or with severest whippings yet then even then he is good to them and meanes them no harme at all Therefore how hardly soever God deals with us let us not thinke he counts us enemies The Temptation was strong upon David to take up hard thoughts of God in that case yea it prevailed so farre upon him that he concluded v. 13. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vaine and washed my hands in innocency As if he had sayd A man hath little priviledge from the worst of outward evills by his godliness But the Temptation did not prevaile long he soone recovered himselfe v 15. If I say I will speak thus that is that I have cleansed my heart in vaine Behold I should offend against the generation of thy children that is I should wrong the whole kind or race of godly men throughout the world as if hypocrites or as if God did not love them or were not good to them for who is there among all thy children whom either thou hast not or mayest not chasten as much as thou hast chastned me As no man can know the love of God by that which is before him how prosperous soever it is so it is most unsutable for any of the children of God to thinke that God is not good to them or doth not love them because of the evill that is before them how adverse or disasterous soever it is For God having loved his people in Christ he loves them for ever when once he hath broken the enmity in our hearts towards himselfe there is nothing shall ever be done by him towards us which may speak us his enemies or him our enemy though a Job in great affliction may say He counteth me for his enemy And handles me like one too as it followeth Vers 11. He putteth my feet in the stockes he marketh all my paths We had these words expressely Chap 13.27 there they have been opened already Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks and lookest narrowly unto all my pathes That which hath been said as to the Generall sence and scope of that text may serve for this And therefore I referre the reader thither I shall only adde two or three notes from the metaphor He put my feet in the stocks that is he presseth me with very close and sore afflictions Hence Observe First To be in affliction is to be in a painfull condition there is little ease in the stocks No chastning for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous Heb 12.11 To be under a crosse is be under a burden Secondly Afflictions keepe us under restraint He hath little liberty as well as little ease that is in the stocks afflictions hold us in they are as a prison to us Afflictions are a restraint two wayes First to our corruptions yea through the grace of God afflictions are more then restraints to corruption they become the death of corruption they are appoynted among other services for the mortifying of corruption that it may not live in us much more are they a restraint to corruption that it may not get out nor worke in us as before Many times when a good man hath the world at will his corruptions thinke to have their will too and when he is at liberty lusts would grow licentious Therefore God seeth it necessary to put his servants in the stocks that their
affliction which appeared to admiration at the beginning of it The state of grace abideth alwayes 't is not as some affirme loseable 't is not like the best things of this world perishing But though a state of Grace abideth alwayes yet every mans grace if any mans doth not alwayes abide in the same state A true frame of grace shall never be destroyed but the heart of a gracious man doth not alwayes continue in the same frame The heate of grace may be cooled the hight of it abated the strength of it weakned and the beauty of it faded He that a while agoe walked and acted very humbly may upon another temptation act very proudly and walke as if he were above all his brethren He that one while hath acted very self-denyingly may at another time act very self-seekingly He that hath acted very lovingly the very law of love being stamped upon his words and workes may at another time act very unlovely and lovelesly and doe things which are very much beside and below yea contrary to the fulfilling of that royall Law He may be so far from bearing his brothers burden which is the fulfilling of that law of Christ Gal 6.2 that he may be a burden to his brother And while at one time you might have done and spoken almost what you would to him and he could beare it at another time doe what you can or speake what you can he is offended Such changes and varieties are found upon the most gracious frames of spirit which the best of Saints have in this world We have only this to hold to the state of grace is unchangeable and we are waiting for such a frame of grace as shall never change That gracious frame in which the hand of God will set us up in the day of our resurrection to glory shall never change nor decline a haires breadth to all eternity We shall be as pure and as holy and as spirituall and as heavenly and as meeke and as full of the praise of God for ever as ever As full to eternity as in the very first moment in which that glorious frame shall be set up But in this life to how great a degree of grace soever we attaine we seldome retaine the same degree but are flowing and ebbing like the water waxing and waining like the Moone Job was sound striving with God who a little before had so humbly submitted and was so fully resigned unto him Secondly Observe There is a spirit in man very apt to strive with God Doe ye thinke saith the Apostle Jam 4.5 that the Scripture saith in vaine The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envie or as the margin hath it enviously surely no the Scripture doth not speake this in vaine and if any thinke it doth their thoughts are vaine Now as there are lustings in men to envie against their brethren because of the gifts and good things of God which they enjoy so there are lustings in men to discontent against God because of the evills which themselves suffer When God seemes to contend with us we really fall to contending with God The waters of Meribah will be an everlasting winess of this of which Moses sayd Numb 20.13 This is the water of Meribah because the children of Israel strove with the Lord and he was sanctified in them The Apostle doth more then intimate this readiness of man to strive with God while by a vehement expostulation he checks it and reproves all men for it 1 Cor 10.22 Doe we provoke the Lord to jealousie are we stronger then he They presume much upon their strength who are forward to strive they especially who provoke and challenge others to strive with them There is a spirit in man which stouts it with God even to a provocation of strife with him But you will say When may we be sayd to strive with God I answer we doe it these foure wayes First Man striveth with God by disobeying his commands that 's a strife with his holiness The lawes of God beare the image or stampe of his holiness All disobedience is an unanswerableness to the Law wilfull disobedience is a making voyd the Law He that is resolved to sin wisheth there were no Law to stop him from sinning or to punish him when he hath sinned What greater strife can be raised against the Law-giver then to wish he had given no such Law Secondly Men strive with God by not believing or distrusting his promises That 's a strife with his faithfulness or with his power Unbeliefe is one of the worst wayes if not the worst of all the wayes of striving with God The reason why that place at the rock in Horeb was called Meribah Exod 17.7 was because the people did not believe They thought they must dye with thirst in the wilderness when they saw no water They fell to this sin againe a second time upon the like occasion while they abode in Kadesh Numb 20.1 2 3. And as the people strove there with God by their rebellious unbeliefe so also did Moses and Aaron by their unbeliefe that God would give water to such rebells as it follows in the same Chapter v. 10 11 12. There is no sin so often or so properly called a provocation as unbeliefe is Yea by unbeliefe we strive so much with God that we are sayd to weary him Isa 7.13 O how doe they weary God who either thinke him so weake that he cannot or so unfaithfull that he will not make good his word or performe his promises The first of these is alwayes in unbeliefe the latter often Thirdly We strive with God by not bearing his hand or by our impatience under the cross which his hand layeth upon us while we quarrell with the rod we quarrell with God who chasteneth us with it This was the most speciall way in which Job strove with God and the sinfulness of it hath been severall times toucht upon in this booke Fourthly any murmuring word about yea any discōtented thought with our owne condition though not vented by words though it be kept in and lye close in the bosome is a striving with God And so likewise is any tumultuating thought about his providences towards others and his stating of affaires in the world Now as there is such a sinfull principle in man to strive with God so considering as hath been shewed how many wayes it workes and many more wayes of its working might be shewed this I say being considered we may be found striving with God before we thinke of it yea while we oppose the very thought of it Therefore as Gamaliel warned the Jewes saying Acts 5.39 Take heed what ye doe lest haply ye be found even to fight against God Those Jewes did not thinke their opposing the Messengers and Ministers of Christ was a fighting against God But Gamaliel told them plainely it was So in many other cases we may do say that which brings us under the same
charge of striving with or against God though we have no purpose as Job had not to strive with him Againe As this text sheweth us Job striving with God so it sheweth us Elihu striving with or questioning Job about it This question or expostulation Why dost thou strive with him was a chideing severe reproofe of him for doing so Hence note For man to strive with God is most uncomely Doth it suite the condition or become the state of man to doe so it doth not become man as a creature to strive with God much lesse as a new creature as a professed servant of God as a Saint as a Christian We never act so unlike either creatures or new creatures Saints and Christians as when we strive with God 'T is a shame for a childe to strive with his father or for a servant to strive with his Master how much more for a creature to strive with his Creator man with God Fourthly The rebuke which Elihu gave Job did not only import the uncomelinesse of his striving with God but the sinfulnesse of it Hence note To strive with God in any of those wayes before described is a sin exceeding sinfull How extreamly sinfull it is for man to strive with God appeares by all the relative duties of man to God Every servant and son of God is bound first to submit to God is it not exceeding sinfull to strive where we ought to submit Secondly Every godly man by these relations to God is bound to be content with which is more then barely to submit to all his dealings Doe not they sin who in stead of being content strive with God because he deales so with them Thirdly Man ought not only to be content but to be well-pleased with what God doth How farre are they departed from a well-pleasednesse with God who strive against him which is an act of high displeasure It is sayd of David 2 Sam 3.36 Whatsoever the King did pleased all the people The people did not say to David their King doe what you will we will be pleased with it But David was so gracious a Prince so good a King that he did nothing that was justly displeasing to the people 'T is more then comes to the share of a man though a King to say Let him doe what he will we will be pleased with it but 't is certainly our duty to say to God Doe what you will doe your pleasure with us and to us we will through grace be pleased with it Is it not very sinfull to strive with him about any thing he doth in and with all whose doing we ought to acquiesse and be well pleased Fifthly These words Why dost thou strive with him import a high presumption in those who doe so Hence observe Striving with God is a presumptuous sin The Prophet saith Isa 45.9 Woe unto him that striveth with his maker Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it what makest thou or thy work he hath no hands When the Prophet saith Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth his meaning is let man strive with man but let not any man presume to strive with his maker for then the potsherd striveth with the potter In all which he doth not encourage man to strive with man though his match but sheweth how insufferable a boldness it is for any man how matchlesse soever among men to strive with God The King of Judah having sent a challenge to the King of Israel He returned this answer 2 Kings 14.9 The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the Cedar that was in Lebanon c. As if he had sayd What a presumption is it for a thistle to equall it selfe with a Cedar and therefore he adviseth v. 10. Thou hast indeed smitten Edom and thy heart hath lifted thee up glory of this and tarry at home for why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt that thou shouldest fall thou and Judah with thee As if he had sayd thou canst get nothing by medling with me but blowes and most probably thine owne ruine to boote Now if an earthly King shall look upon it as a presumption for another King his equall in dignity to contend with him how much more may the God of heaven who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords count it an high presumption for any man though the greatest King on earth to strive with him Sixthly We use to say to those who act foolishly Why doe you thus And therefore when Elihu saith to Job Why dost thou strive against him We learne Striving with God is a foolish and a most irrationall thing Sinners are fooles all sin is folly irrationallity is stampt upon every sin Striving with God is a sin so eminently foolish as may carry away the bell for foolishnesse from all other sins I will give you three things to shew why it must needs be so First We cannot helpe our selves by striving with God Christ argues the folly of inordinate cares from this ground Math 6.27 Which of you by taking thought can adde one cubit unto his stature It is not mans care but the presence and blessing of God which encreaseth both the stature of man and his estate Cares may breake our sleepe yea breake our hearts but they cannot fill our purses nor heighten our persons either in a naturall or in a civill notion Is it not then a foolish thing to take inordinate care is it not greater folly to strive with God Seeing as by caring you cannot get any of the good things of the world so by striving with God you cannot get off any of those evills which he layeth upon you Secondly Is it not a very foolish thing to strive with God seeing we are so farre from helping our selves out of trouble by it that we doe but increase our trouble and the more entangle our selves by it What doe we by strugling but straiten the bonds of our affliction and get wearinesse in stead of expected ease till we are quiet with God how can we hope that he should send us quietness Thirdly It is a foolish thing to strive with God because by striving with him in reference to any misery that is upon us we hinder our selves from taking comfort in any remaining mercy Though God takes away many mercies yet while life remaineth there is somewhat of mercy remaining When Job was stripped to his skin yet he had somewhat left which was a ground of his blessing God The greatest loosers have somewhat left they escape at least as Job sayd he did at worst Chap 19.20 with the skin of their teeth But while we strive with God about the mercies we have lost we loose the comfort of all the mercies we still enjoy And is it not extreame folly to deprive our selves of what we have by complaining about what we have not Why dost thou strive Thus much from the emphasis of the former part
Thirdly Such strivings with God are the exercisings of our lusts and corruptions Then is the time for anger and discontent or any evill affection to come forth and act their part Fourthly Striving with God is an argument that sin hath much strength in us and that corruption hath got a mighty hand over us Fifthly Striving with God layeth us open to all the temptations of Satan to all the fiery darts of the Devill Our shield is gone when once we strive with God who is our shield in all Satans strivings and assaults against us And then we stand naked before that armed enemy Sixthly Striving with God doth at once unfit us for every good duty and putteth us further off from every desired mercy Seventhly and lastly Striving against God makes man most like the Devill who is the most unquiet and discontented creature in the world and is alwayes both striving with God and vexing at his owne condition The devill 's sin at first was striving with God and 't is the summe of all his actings and workings against man ever since None resemble the devill more lively then male-contents and who are they but such as strive and struggle against the afflictive providences of God Now for the preserving and keeping of our hearts from this great this complicated sin a sin containing many sins in it and disposing us to all sin Lay these things to heart First let us consider our own nothingness in comparison of God God is all and what are we we are nothing and shall we strive with God shall folly strive against wisdome and weaknesse against strength When the Prophet would comfort the people of God against the strivings of the nations with them he doth it upon this consideration Isa 40 17. All nations before him are as nothing and they are counted to him lesse then nothing and vanity To whom will ye compare him And surely we may by the same argument much more deterre all men from striving with God Shall single persons strive against him to whom not only they but whole nations are nothing yea and lesse then nothing Secondly Doe we find our selves under a crosse or in a hard condition remember we have deserved no better As we are nothing so we have deserved nothing Jacob to keepe his spirit quiet in a time of great distresse confessed Gen 32.10 Lord I am unworthy of the least of thy mercies As if he had sayd I have no reason to complaine or be angry to fret or vex at this dispensation yea though thou shouldst let the cloud of my brothers wrath breake upon me and swallow me up for what am I If we consider we have deserved no good we shall never strive with God about any evill that befalls us especially if we consider Thirdly That we are ill-deserving or such as deserve the greatest evills None of us suffer but what our owne sin hath procured yea sin might have procured us soarer sufferings Every sin hath a crosse in the belly of it And shall we strive with God because of our crosses when our sins have made them Fourthly Why should we strive with God about these things are they worth the striving with God about surely they are not wotth the striving with men about much lesse with God If we were in the best outward estate that ever any man enjoyed in this world yet we were not then got a step beyond vanity Psal 39.5 Every man in his best estate is altogether vanity Suppose God should give you a blank and bid you sit downe and write what you would have as to your outward state and then bestow it upon you yet in this best estate you and your all are altogether vanity And will ye strive with God for taking a vaine thing from you Will you be so much dissatisfied for the taking away or want of that which could not satisfie you when you had it nor can when you have it againe If a man had all these comforts which he strives for they could not make him happy why then should he strive because they are removed from him But as they are vanity because unable to satisfie when we have them so they are vanity because of our uncertainty to hold them Yea suppose we hold them as long as we can have them it is but a while And shall we strive with God about loosing that which at longest we cannot keepe long To be sure these things are not necessary for us Christ sayd to Martha There is one thing necessary Luke 10.42 But a worldly comfort of any kind is not the neceâ—â—â—â—y thing which Christ there intends And shall we strive with God about unnecessaries Fifthly Know afflictions are the portion of the people of God in this life They are the corrections of a father and there is no son but hath his correction or may have it And shall we strive with God for sending us our portion our son-like child-like portion Sixthly I would say this to believers Why will ye strive with God about any of your afflictions they are for your good and benefit And will ye strive with God because he is doing you good let your afflictions be never so sad never so sore and to sence never so bad yet God is doing you good by them be not angry with your owne good Lastly Why doe we strive with God under our afflictions He loveth us as much under affliction as in a prosperous condition God is tender to his in their troubles and shall they be harsh to him when he is so tender towards them A parent that hath but nature will tender his child most when sick and weak and will not God Let us take heed we be not found striving with or having hard thoughts of God while the bowels of his most tender compassions are moving towards us To shut up this whole poynt As Christ when he saw his Disciples in danger to be carried away with the feare of man saith to them Luke 12.4 5. Be not afraid of them that can kill the body and after that have no more that they can doe But I will forewarne you whom you shall feare feare him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you feare him Now as because men are apt to feare yea mostly to feare that which they should not Christ sheweth them whom to feare So as hath been shewed because men are very apt to strive but they commonly strive with those and about those things which they should not Therefore I will tell you with whom and with what ye should strive If ye will needs be striving pray First Strive with the sin in your owne bosomes strive with your owne lusts and corruptions One of the great Gospel duties which we are called to is to mortifie our earthly members To strive with all inordinate affections with pride with envie with love of the world and with uncharitablenesse to the death is our duty if ye will
Sure enough man hath a will not to come he hath not only an inabillity but an enmity and an opposition in his will against Christ he will not come to Christ that he may be saved but would take up his salvation somewhere else he would be his own Saviour or let any one save him rather then be saved by Christ all things considered especially this that he must deny himself and neither be found trusting to his own righteousnesse nor acting any unrighteousnesse if he desires to be saved by Christ And as there is a resistance in the will of man against the true dispensation of Gospell grace so against any other dispensation whereby God speaketh to him The unchanged will of man riseth up against the will of God manifested in his works as much as against his will manifested in his word Isa 26.11 Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see If his hand be lifted up in publick judgments they will not see it if in family or personall judgments and afflictions they will not see it but shut their eyes and hoodwink their own understandings Yea they are oftentimes so wilfully or rather so madly blind that they had rather say it is the hand of blind Fortune then the hand of the Allmighty and All-seeing God Now who is so blind as they that will not see Till this rebellion against the holy will of God with which the will of man is filled be cast out and subdued let him speake once yea twice let him speake by word or works by promises or by threatnings by good or evill yet man will not mark it Thus much in generall of Gods revealing himself to man In the next words we have the distinct wayes set downe by and in which he revealeth himself In a dreame c. JOB Chap. 33. Vers 15 16 17 18. In a dream in a vision of the night when deep sleep falleth upon men in slumberings upon the bed Then he openeth the ears of men and sealeth their instruction That he may withdraw man from his purpose and hide pride from man He keepeth back his soule from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword ELihu having said in the former verse that God speaketh once yea twice yet man perceiveth it not proceeds to give instance of those severall wayes by which God speaketh to man His first Instance is given v. 15. where he brings in God speaking to man in dreams and visions And as he shews us God speaking in dreams and visions so he sets downe his aymes or ends in doing so and they are three-fold First God aimes at mans instruction v. 16. Then he openeth the ears of men and sealeth their instruction The second aime of God in such dispensations is repentance and humiliation v. 17. That he may withdraw man from his purpose and hide pride from man The third and last end here exprest why God speaks by dreams and visions is mans salvation v. 18. He keepeth back his soule from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword These are the parts and specialties considerable in this context Vers 15. In a dream in a vision of the might c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pinguis grossus ex vaporibus crassis provenit somnus quem somnia consequunâ—ur The roote of the word rendred a dreame signifieth that which is thick grosse or fat and by a metaphor a dreame because dreams are naturally caused by gross and thick vapours arising from the stomack fuming up into the head Sleep is caused immediately by vapours and dreams are our work in sleep A dream is an Imagination which the minde frames and formes or which is formed and framed in the minde while we sleepe or A dream is the worke of the soule while the body is asleep Sleepe is the binding up of the outward sences hearing seeing feeling c. yet then the inward sences phantasie and memory are at liberty and free to worke The phantasie is very quick and nimble when the body lieth as a logge and stirres not The phantasie as we say builds Castles in the ayre and makes strange Chimera's in the braine by day much more by night In Dreams there is an image of things or persons represented to us When Pharoah dreamed he saw seven leane kine and seven thin ears as also seven fat kine and seven full ears of corne Jacob saw a ladder in his dreame reaching up to heaven and the Angels of God ascending and descending Joseph saw his brethrens sheaves doing obeysance to his sheafe he saw also the Sun and Moone and eleven Starrs doing obeysance to him Nebuchadnezzar dreaming saw an Image with the head of gold with shoulders and breast of silver with belly and thighs of brass and leggs of Iron c. These dreamers had images as clearely represented to their mindes as any thing can be to the most waking and wakefull eye of the body And though in many dreams there are no such formall similitudes presented to the mind but only a voyce heard speaking yet nothing can be declared to us in a dreame without forming in our mind some kind of likenesse When it is sayd that God came to Abimelech Gen 20. and to Laban Gen 31. and an Angel of the Lord to Joseph Math 1. speaking to them in dreames they had such things exhibited to and impressed upon them as gave the former two assurance that God spake to them and the third that he was spoken to by an Angel of God Further We may distinguish of dreames First some are meere naturall dreames and they arise foure wayes First from the temperature of the body Melancholly and flegmaticke persons have their speciall dreames and so have men of a sanguine and of a cholericke complection The first encline to dreame of sad the second of sottish the third of pleasant things and the last of wrathfull wranglings and contendings Secondly Naturall dreames are caused by the diet or food which we eate speciall meate inclining to speciall thoughts and imaginations Thirdly Meere naturall dreams flow from the buisiness or speciall worke wherein we have been ingaged in the day as Solomon speakes Eccles 5.3 a dreame cometh thorow the multitude of buisiness that is a man dreams at night of what he hath been doing in the day Fourthly Naturall dreames arise from vehement affections to or desires of what we want and would have Thus Isa 29.7 The hungry man dreams he eats and the thirsty man dreams he drinks For being pincht with hunger and parcht with thirst his appetite is not only strong but fierce and violent after meat and drinke These and such like are naturall dreams I call them so because the rise or reason of them is seated in nature and they are such as have no other cause but what is common and naturall to man Nature let alone or left under such outward accidents will produce such dreames Seconldy There are diabolicall dreams the devill knows
wise If we would compare our selves with other men who are above us it would mightily keep down the pride of our spirits for who is there but might see more in some yea in many others then in himselfe Now as it is an excellent means to keep the soule from murmuring and discontent to consider that many others are below us so it is an excellent means to keep us from pride to consider that many others are above us so much above us that our knowledge is but ignorance to their knowledge our strength weaknesse our faith unbeliefe our patience unquitenesse of spirit our very fruitfullnesse barrennesse compared with theirs or to speak allusively that our fat kine are but leane to the fat ones of others and our full ears but withered looked upon with their full eares And as it is a good meanes to keepe the soule humble or to cure it of pride to compare our selves with men who are much above us so especially if we would but remember how much God is above us in comparison of whom all our fullness is indeed emptiness our strength weaknesse our riches poverty and our light darkness And therefore when Job Chap 42. began to compare himselfe with God and to set God before him then he was in the dust presently though he spake over-valuingly of himselfe sometime yet when once he came to set himselfe before God then saith he I have spoken once but I will speak no more I abhorre my selfe and repent in dust and ashes And when the Prophet Isaiah saw the Lord in his Glory and compared himselfe with him he cryed out I am undone I am a man of poluted lips all his graces and all his gifts vanished into nothing when he considered the Lord before whom he stood Thus we may keepe downe pride by considering our deficiencies and comparing our selves with others who are above us especially by comparing our selves with God to whom we are not so much as a drop of the bucket to the whole Ocean nor the dust of the ballance to the body of the whole earth Sixthly For the hideing and keeping downe of pride often reflect upon your own sinfulnesse our defects in good may keepe our hearts low but our abundance of sinfull evills may keepe them much lower While we consider sin in a two-fold notion how should it humble us First as dwelling or abiding in us Secondly as acted and brought forth by us in either of these wayes look on sin and the heart must needs come downe thus poyson may expell poyson the remembrance of sin abiding in us and acted by us may be a stop to the further acting as of all other sins so especially of this sin pride Seventhly Let us be much in the meditation of Christ humbling and abasing himselfe for us What can kill pride if the humblings of Christ doe not O how may we schoole and catechise our proud soules with the remembrances of Christ in his abasements What! an humble Christ and a proud Christian an humble Master and a proud Disciple did Christ empty himselfe and make himselfe of no reputation and shall we who are but emptinesse be lifted up with a reputation of our selves or with the reputation which others have of us did he abase himselfe to the forme of a servant and shall we lift up our selves as if we reigned as Kings he humbled himselfe and became obedient to death even the death of the Crosse and what have we to glory in but the Crosse of our Lord Jesus Christ Gal 6.14 if we have any thing to be proud of 't is the Crosse of Christ God forbid saith Paul that I should glory or rejoyce and triumph save in the Crosse of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby I am crucified to the world and the world to me Think often and much of the humblings of Christ and then you will think of your selves as meere nothings This is the most effectuall means through the Spirit to bring downe the swellings of our hearts and to hide pride from man Thus much of the second designe of Christ in speaking to man in dreames and visions of the night the third followeth Vers 18. He keepeth back his soule from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword This verse holds out another gracious intendment of God in revealing himselfe to man by dreames and visions of the night He doth it thereby to give man warning and wisdome to prevent and escape that destruction which is ready to fall upon him He keepeth back his soule from the pit Some referre this He to man himselfe that is when God hideth pride from man then man keepeth his soule from the pit that is thereby man is both admonished and instructed how to keep his soule from the pit They who avoyde the mountains and precipices of pride are most assured of escaping a downe-fall into perdition Solomon tells us Prov 16.18 Pride goeth before destruction and a high mind before a fall such a fall as Elihu here speakes of falling into the pit therefore turning from pride is the escaping of the pit But rather as most Interpreters the relative He referrs to God himselfe who both begins and perfects this great worke of Grace As he speaketh with a purpose to withdraw man from his purpose c. so he having effectually withdrawne him from it and hid pride from him he thereby humbleth him in the dust of repentance and so keepeth back his soule from the pit The word rendred keepeth back notes a threefold keeping back First by force as a man holds another from falling into a pit or running into danger he holds him whether he will or no. Secondly there is a holding or keeping back by perswasion or entreaties by seasonable advice and counsel so Abigail kept David from shedding blood 1 Sam 25. Thirdly there is a holding or keeping back by authority when a Command or an injunction forbids a man from going on and so stops his proceeding Thus we see there is a keeping back 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ita prohibere significat ut cum do initio dicitur prohibetur no quid omnino à principio fiat quod propriè inhibere dicitur hic autem non ad initium refertur sed ad jam caeptum quasi jam esset homo in via ad exitium nisi deus eum monuisset Coc either by outward force or by counsel or by command And there is a keeping back according to any of these three notions two ways First such a keeping back as hinders the very attempt such a keeping back as stops the first motions or step into an undertaking Secondly there is a keeping back when a man is deeply engaged in an undertaking when he is gone on and is neere the journeys end of his owne purpose Thus David was kept back from destroying Nabal when he was far advanced in that enterprise and Abimeleck was kept back from taking Sarah Abrahams wife when the matter had made a
Gospel and to prepare the way for Christ by whom grace and truth came The Baptist was as it were the loop and button between the legall and the Gospel dispensation therefore his name might well be called John And there is frequent use in Scripture of the Adverb which comes from this Verb to signifie injuries received without desert or undeservedly Ps 7.4 Yea I have delivered him that without cause was mine enemy or that was mine enemy gratis And again Psal 35.7 For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit which without cause have they digged for my soul Yet more as the word signifies the doing of good gratis or when there is no desert so any injury done gratis or when no provocation hath been given the party so to doe Now as all the mischief which the wicked plot against or doe to the people of God is undeserved and floweth meerly from their malice so all the good which God doth for his people is undeserved and floweth purely from the fountaine of his free grace or from his compassions which faile not And surely the Lord deserveth highest praises from man for any good he doth him seeing what he doth is gratis or undeserved Further This Hebrew word Chinnam answers the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred freely Rom. 3.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gratis i. e. ejus gratia Bez We are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ How can unjust men deserve justification Therefore Mr Beza translates We are justified gratis that is by his grace Againe When it is said then he or the Lord is gracious it may be taken two wayes First as to be gracious implyeth the intrinsecall graciousness of his nature or that mercifullness and kindness which dwells in the heart of God and which indeed is God for the graciousnesse of God is the gracious God thus God is alwayes and altogether gracious he is infinitely and uncessantly gracious Secondly when it is said he is gracious it may note only the graciousness of his acts and dispensations thus as I may say the Lord is gracious ad hinc et nunc as he sees cause at this time he is gracious and not at that time that is he puts forth acts of grace now and not then The Lord puts forth acts of grace both according to the pleasure of his own will without respect to any thing in man as also without respecting what man is or doth according to his pleasure And thus we are chiefly to understand it here then he is gracious God is gracious in his nature alwayes and alwayes alike gracious but he is not alwayes alike gracious in his dispensations or in giving forth acts of grace he is gracious to man according to his secret will as he pleaseth but he is gracious according to his revealed will as man pleaseth him Hence Observe first The first cause and spring of all our mercies is the graciousnesse of God Or All our mercyes flow out from the grace of God That 's the fountaine yea that 's the Ocean which seeds and fills all the Channels of mercy which stream to us as our happiness in this world and for our everlasting happiness in the world which is to come All is of grace fundamentally or because the Lord is and will be for ever gracious Thus the Lord spake to Moses Exod. 33.19 I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious My mercy shall flow our when and to whom and where I please And the proclamation which he made of himselfe in all his royall Titles runs in the same straine Exod. 34.6 The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long-suffering and aboundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity If we consider God first in doing us good Secondly in forgiving us the evill which we doe Thirdly in delivering us from the evills which we now suffer Fourthly in delivering us from the feare of future sufferings all is from grace and from free grace He doth us good though we are undeserving any good that 's grace yea he doth us good though we are ill deserving and that 's more grace He doth all for us through grace First in spiritualls and Secondly in temporalls not only doe the good things of eternall life but the good things of this present life flow from grace unto his own people Not only the health of their souls but the health of their bodyes not only deliverance from hell but deliverance from sickness also flow from his free grace in Jesus Christ Therefore of all their mercies and salvations both as to the foundation and top-stone of them the people of God must cry as the Prophet Zachery Chap. 4.7 foretells the people of God should say of that longed for deliverance when that great mountaine should become a plain before Zerubbabell grace grace unto them That is grace hath begun them and grace alone will maintaine continue and perfect what it hath begun As there is nothing in us except our misery which moves the Lord to begin so there is nothing in us but our inability which moves the Lord to perfect what he hath begun He seeth we cannot and therefore he will perfect what he hath begun and all this he doth that he may exalt his own name and perfect the praise of his free grace towards us More distinctly that all comes from grace or from the graciousness of God may note these five things to us First not only that God doth all for his people freely or without desert But Secondly that he doth all things willingly or without constraint for his people Thirdly that he doth all things forwardly for his people He doth very much unaskt and unsought and he is not much askt or hardly drawne to doe any thing for his people Though he hath said of some things I will be sought unto or inquired after that I may doe them for you Ezek. 36.37 yet his mercies are never forced nor wrested from him by intreaties but flow from a principle of love naturally as water out of a fountain Fourthly he doth all rejoycingly even with his whole heart and with his whole soul Mercy pleaseth him and he is pleased with occasions of shewing mercy 't is no burden to him to doe us good mercy proceeds from his nature and therefore he delighteth in mercy Mic 7.18 yea to be mercifull is his nature and therefore he cannot but delight in it Fifthly graciousness being the very nature of God implyeth that he will do us good liberally and constantly or that as the Apostle James speaks he giveth liberally and upbraideth not he doth not upbraid us with our poverty who receive nor doâ—h he upbraid us with the riches of the gifts which himself bestoweth And because they flow from his nature therefore he doth not in the least empty himself how much soever he fills the creature with his gifts or goodness Some men
a strict inquisition for my sin My iniquity is not charged upon me to the utmost I have sinned grievously but God hath dealt graciously with me and hath not measured out to the full of mine iniquity 'T is an argument of true repentance to justifie God in afflicting us This is a pious and a profitable rendring of the text Whence observe First The punishment of sin in this life is not equall to sin As all the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory of the next life Rom 1.18 so neither are they comparable with the sins of this life When a man is under very sore affliction chastened with paine upon his bed and the multitude of his bones with strong paine So that his life abhorreth bread and his soul dainty meat yet he must confesse his sufferings are less then his sin The Church of the Jewes acknowledged this as to that great affliction their captivity in Babylon Ezra 9.13 After all that is come upon us for our evill deeds and for our great trespasse seeing that our God hath punished us lesse then our iniquities deserve c. It was no little punishment which that people endured yet they confessed it was lesse then their iniquity The least sin is so great that no punishment which man is capable of in this life can equall it nor can that in the life to come equall it as to present degree but only by the everlastingness of its duration Secondly Note A soule truly humbled is ready to confess to the glory of God that his punishment and suffering is less then his sin As a godly man doth not thinke any sin little so he doth not thinke any affliction great compared with his sin Cain sayd My punishment is greater then I can beare but he did not say it was greater then his sin How hot soever the furnace of divine wrath is heated yet sinners must acknowledge there is sparing mercy in it and that God might have made it seven times hotter and therefore hath afflicted them less then their sin As a godly man is ready to acknowledge his mercy more then he hath deserved Gen 32.10 I sayd Jacob am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant as if he had sayd I am less in my good actings then any of thy actings towards me for good have been so he is ready to say his greatest afflictions or evills which he suffereth are less then his sins or then the evills which he hath done Secondly The word signifieth to profit so we translate Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expono profuit non fuit mihi conducibilo quod peccaram Merc And it profiteth me not Other Scriptures comply with this sence Hester 3.8 Haman in his malicious and envious suggestions against the Jews tells the King It is not for the Kings profit to suffer them to continue He useth the same word againe Hest 5.13 where after he had reported all the great things that he enjoyed he concludes What doth all this profit me or all this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the Kings gate Thus here saith the sick man I have sinned And it profited me not or I have got nothing by it And when he saith it profited me not we are to expound it by a usuall figure in Scripture whereby more is intended then is expressed so that it profiteth me not is it had been very detrimentall dangerous and deadly to me I feel and smart under the sad issues of my sin my perverting that which was right hath done me though I have had but my right much wrong I have sinned and it profited me not Hence note First Sin pretends profit and advantage to a sinner There is no temptation comes without a bait Though some sin purely for sins sake yet it is rare that sin cometh without the offer of a bribe and profit is one of the greatest both baits and bribes that the Devill puts upon the hook of temptation when he fisheth for soules You shall get by it saith that deceiver But the repenting soule can truly say it profited me not I had thought to have gotten by my sin it promised me very faire but I have got nothing but blows The temptation with which the Devill assaulted our first parents was of this kinde He told the woman of profit she and her husband should gaine knowledge by it that 's a noble gaine They should be as Gods knowing good and evill there 's all profit imaginable in such a knowledge Christ himselfe who was God and perfectly knew good and evill was also tempted with profit Math 4.8 9. The devill shewed him all the kingdomes of the world and those not with bare walls but ready hung and furnished and the glory of them and sayd unto him all these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall downe and worship me If our head and the heire of all things was tempted with profit how much more poor we No marvaile if Satan provide him Agents to say to us as they are represented Pro 1.13 Come cast in your lot among us we will all have one purse or a joynt stock in this wicked trade What they hoped to get by it is told us in the next words We shall find all precious substance and fill our houses with spoyle We shall get enough and you shall share with us if you will but come and goe with us We see what sin promiseth But what doth the sinner find himselfe answers It profited me not Hence learne There is nothing gotten by sin no good is gotten by it The Apostle puts the question to sinners Rom 6.21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed Cast up your account and tell us what you find at the foot of it Possibly some may say we have gotten hundreds and thousands we have gotten houses and lands our barnes are full of corne our fields of cattel and our bags are full of treasure But is it profit to have house and land gold and silver come in by sin Let that Scripture answer Math 16.26 What is a man profited if he shall gaine the whole world and loose his own soule But some may say they that are in Christ cannot loose their soules by sin I answer First though they that are in Christ cannot be such sinfull soules as to sin away their soules though they cannot sin at such a rate nor in such a height as to loose their soules who have indeed found Christ or rather who are found of him and planted in him yet the dammage which every sin unrepented of and unpardoned puts man to is the losse of his soule Secondly suppose a sinner repenteth what hath he got by sin but the sorrows of repentance And though no man shall have cause to repent of true repentance for sin yet no man shall
againe Gen 12.11 It came to passe when he was come neere to enter into Egypt that he said unto Sarah his wife Behold now I know that thou art a faire woman to look upon Read Psal 132.6 Ezek 30.9 Luke 1.32 In the present text it may have all these intendments for is it not a wonderfull thing that God should be gracious to poore creatures is it not strange that he should take so much paines with and exercise so much patience towards them Secondly Lo God worketh all these things He is ready to doe them he waiteth to be gracious or to magnifie his grace in doing them Thirdly Lo God worketh all these things is not this a matter of great consideration ought we not to sit downe and weigh it well Fourthly Lo all these things worketh God certainly God hath and will work all these things this is a truth out of all question a truth of which there is no doubt to be made As the Apostle saith 1 Tim 3.16 Without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh So I may say without controversie great is this mystery of Gods manifesting himselfe to frayle flesh and doing all these things here spoken of awakening the consciences of men by dreames and working upon them by grievous sicknesses sending an interpreter one of a thousand to declare unto man his uprightness and at last delivering his soule from going downe into the pit Lo all these things worketh God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 operatus est egit perfecit usurpatur etiam pro gubernatione rerum creatarum There is somewhat peculiar in that expression he worketh The native sence of the word implyeth First a willing worke not forced or constrained Secondly a full and compleat worke not an essay or offer not a worke begun only but carried on to perfection The wicked are called workers of iniquity Psal 5.5 because they are free and ready to sin they have a strong tyde and bent of spirit to doe evill and they doe it not to halves but throughly they doe not only begin or nibble at the baite a little as a good man often doth but greedily swallow it downe hooke and all they are fully in it and doe it fully they make a worke of it and so are workers of iniquity The Lord doth good as the wicked doe evill All these things worketh God He worketh them willingly he worketh them compleatly Isa 26.12 Lord thou wilt ordaine peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our workes in us Thou art the Author and finisher of them We are invited Psal 46.8 to come and behold the workes of the Lord what desolations he hath made in the earth The building workes and the desolating workes of God whether respecting persons or nations are perfect workes Lo all these things worketh God Hence note What ever good we see wrought among or for the children of men God is the worker of it As he over-ruleth the evill which is done and both sendeth and ordereth the evill which is suffered so he is the worker of all the good that is done God worketh it all either immediately by himselfe or mediately by second causes and what instrument soever is set a worke yet the worke as to the matter and manner of it as also to the result and issue of it is the Lords He was the worker of all that hath been spoken of in the former context though we reade of a messenger of an interpreter yet the work was Gods 'T is sayd Gen 39.22 The keeper of the prison committed to Josephs hand all the prisoners that were in the prison and whatsoever they did there he was the doer of it Not that he did every thing with his own hand in the prison but he gave the rule and ordered all that was done Much more may I say of the Lord whatsoever is done in the world especially among his people God is the doer of it All goes through his hand Lo all these things worketh God Further From the prefix Lo. Observe The workes and dealings of God with men are wonderfull those especially which he worketh for the humbling of a sinner and for the delivering of a soule from going downe to the pit The breaking of the heart the raysing of it by faith the renewing of its peace and comfort are wonderfull works of God And the reason why we wonder no more at them is because we consider so little of them Hence againe from the word Lo. Note The workes of God are to be deeply considered to be stayed upon We must not passe them by lightly whether they be towards our selves or others God hath made his wonderfull workes to be remembred saith David Psal 111.4 or to be considered that 's the designe of God in his works he hath made them for that end that they should be remembred and attended to or they are such as cannot but be remembred they leave their markes and memorialls behind them God sets such a stamp of his power wisdome justice and goodness upon his workes that they will not be forgotten And as his outward providential workes are such so his spirituall workes are much more such The godly-wise understand them so they have a criticall eye in discerning those invisible workes of God with a poore soule in reducing him from sin and bringing him to himselfe David calleth all the godly to the consideration of those workes in his owne case Psal 66.16 Come and heare all ye that feare God and I will declare what he hath done for my soule What God doth for our bodyes is very considerable but what he hath done for our soules can never be enough considered nor admired Lo all these things worketh God oftentimes with man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The originall is twice thrice so we put in the margin and render it often-times in the text Some expound it of those three distinct wayes in which God dealeth with man before described The Septuagint are expresse for that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schol. All these things worketh the strong God three wayes with man Which the Scholiast exemplifies in the three wayes here noted by Elihu First awakning him by dreames and visions Secondly troubling him by sicknesses and afflictions Thirdly teaching him by Prophets and Interpreters Yet I conceive the text doth not strictly recapitulate those three severall wayes before spoken of in these words twice thrice but only shewes us that God useth all these wayes or any other as his wisdome shall thinke fit many times or oftentimes for the producing of those blessed effects Lo all these things worketh God oftentimes with man Twice thrice is a double certain number put for any single uncertain number And it only teacheth or assureth us that God debateth with the sons of men in all or any of these wayes oftentimes or more then once If they doe not answer his call or purpose which they
is distorted by giving the same or a-like award to those who are unlike or in their acts or deserts whether good or bad not the same To doe any of these perverse or crooked things is the doing of iniquity or the perverting of Justice All these Elihu removeth farre from God while he saith Farre be it from the Almighty that he should commit iniquity God will not cannot commit iniquity either by denying or delaying justice either by not punishing or rewarding where there is cause or by dealing out alike to those in whose doing and dispositions there is an utter unlikeness Farre be it from the Almighty that he should commit any of these iniquities Hence note First To doe any act of injustice is wickednesse Elihu taxed Job for complaining of Gods Justice v. 9. And here he saith Far be it from God that he should doe wickednesse Injustice is wickednesse against God who commandeth us to be just and it is wickednesse against man who is alwayes wronged by injustice Secondly As to that particular which Elihu chargeth Job with Note If the Lord should not reward those that serve him and delight in him he were uxrighteous Heb 6.10 God is not unrighteous to forget your labour of love He is not unrighteous to forget it that is not to recompence it by forgetting it he doth not meane the letting of it slip out of his mind but the not making a due returne to it or the not giving it a just reward It is unrighteousnesse in God not to reward those who serve him because he hath promised to reward them Say to the righteous it shall be well with him Isa 3.10 The promises run to it all the Scripture over and as it would be unrighteousnesse in God not to reward those that do well so not to pardon them that have done ill when they confesse their evill deeds because he hath promised to pardon them and therefore the Scripture saith 1 John 1.9 If we confesse our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins The Scripture doth not say he is mercifull to forgive us our sins though mercy act to the highest in the forgiveness of sin but he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins and the reason why the Scripture saith so is because forgiveness of sin in case of confession is under a promise To come short of our promises is to be unrighteous promises are bonds upon the promiser and oblige to performance Thirdly Note The strong God the mighty God neither doth nor can doe any unrighteousnesse or iniquity I say he neither doth nor can doe iniquity God can doe no iniquity because in him there is none He is my rocke saith David Psal 92.15 and there is no unrighteousnesse in him As none can doe righteousnesse but they that are righteous so he that neither is nor can be unrighteous cannot doe any unrighteousnesse That in the Psalme is very considerable that while he saith There is no unrighteousnesse in God he immediately before said He is my rocke implying that God can no more be moved or removed from doing righteously then a rocke can be removed out of its place We find Moses also giving God the same attribute when he spake of his indeclinableness in justice Deut 32.4 He is a rocke his worke is perfect all his wayes are Judgement The wayes of God are not all judgement as Judgement is opposed to mercy some of his wayes are mercy and others of them are Judgement but all his wayes are judgement as Judgement is opposed to injustice or unrighteousnesse that 's the signification of Judgement when Moses saith All his wayes are Judgement he is a God of truth and without iniquity just and right is he The Apostle puts this denying question with much vehemency Rom 9.14 What shall we say then is there unrighteousnesse with God God forbid And 't is very considerable that the Apostle put this question with so much abhorrence presently after he had spoken of that Act of God which is so much quarrelled at by the sons of men as unrighteous and unjust Esau have I hated and Jacob have I loved and that when they had done neither good nor evill v. 11. What say some will God doe thus will he hate or love before ever men doe good or evill yeas such acts of love and hatred of election and rejection are gone out from God And because Paul foresaw that men according to their narrow apprehension would be ready to say surely God is not right in this therefore he subjoynes What shall we say then is there unrighteousnesse in God As if he had sayd I know some men will be ready enough to say so and thinke they have reason enough to say so They all must needs say so who measure God by their shallow braines such are the deepest braines compared with God and therefore Arminius with his followers that they may avoyd this difficulty carry the interpretation of this Scripture to another poynt as if it had nothing to doe with the eternall purpose of God concerning man but only respected his dealings with them about temporalls or his dealing out temporalls to them I urge that text because it hath occasion'd through mans corruption great contending and quarrelling about the righteousness of God yea some have presumed there can be no maintaining that opinion of the absolute decree without fastening unrighteousnesse upon God But the Apostle by the Spirit foreseeing this fleshly objection hath forelayed and prevented it concluding O man who art thou that replyest against God shall the clay contend with the potter c. Now as in this act of eternal Election so in all providentiall acts the Lord is infinitely unmoveably and unspottedly just and righteous he not only doth righteous things but he cannot doe any thing that is unrighteous And this seeming impotency is the reall power of God and his most glorious perfection For as 't is from the weaknesse of man that he can doe iniquity so 't is from the power of God that he cannot That God cannot lye that he cannot doe any unworthy thing is an argument of his omnipotence God can no more doe iniquity then he can cease to be God his righteousnesse his justice is himselfe the Justice of God is the just God the righteousnesse of God is the righteous God he hath not only a principle of righteousnesse in him as man may have and every Godly man truely hath but he is righteousnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer A Heathen Poet had this apprehension of his Idol Gods They love not unrighteousnesse but honour Justice But Jehovah the true the living God doth more then affectionately love and honour Justice He is is essentially Just That man who is in a state of righteousnesse loves to be doing and will doe righteous acts things and persons are in their working as they are in their being He that doth righteousnesse is righteous 1 John 3.7 God is righteous
be answered for whether good or bad Math. 12.36 37. For every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment for by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned that is it shall be rendered to thee according to thy words or as thy words have been so it shall be with thee Nor secondly are we to take the works of a man exclusively or in opposition to his thoughts as if God would render to man what he hath acted outwardly but not what he hath acted inwardly or would passe by his thoughts We must give an account of our thoughts which are the spring of our works as well as of our words which are the publishers and proclaimers of them God shall bring every work saith Solomon Eccl. 12.14 to judgment and every secret thing the most secret whispers of the tongue and the most secret plottings contrivings devisings designings yea the simple and single thinkings of the heart These are not only the moulds and principles of every work but every one of these is a work and all of them the whole work of the inner man whose work or what is wrought there is chiefly as well as only under the inspection and eye of God Againe The work of a man shall he render unto him c. He doth not say the works of another man shall he render to any man but the work of a man shall he render to him he that doth the work shall have the reward the works of one man shall not be rendered to another but every mans own works shall As the faith of another man shall not help us if we have no faith Abrahams faith who had a mighty faith will doe us no good if we have no faith of our own so the good works of another man shall doe us no good if we have none of our own And as not the good works so the evill works of others shall not be rendered to us The hurtfull works of others shall not hurt us if we doe no hurt I grant we may partake of the evill works of others yea we may make other mens works our own either by consenting to them before they are done or by approving them after they are done or by not reproving them when we have opportunity In these and many other cases we may make other mens evill works our own and so farre as other mens works are our own God shall render them also unto us Hence that caution given by the Apostle to Timothy 1 Tim. 5.22 Lay hands suddainly on no man neither be partaker of other mens sins keep thy self pure They that partake in any of those wayes mentioned before or in any other way of any mans sins may also quickly partake of his punishment Thus John heard a voyce from Heaven Rev. 18.4 saying come out of her that is out of Babylon my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues Not only is that work ours which we doe but that also may be ours by participation which others do And by what title soever a work becomes any mans the worke of the man shall God render unto him And he will cause every man to find according to his wayes This latter part of the verse containes the same thing with the former in another cloathing of words In semita virt inveniet eum Some read the Text thus and he will find every man in his way let man goe in what way he will God will meet with him That 's a truth God will meet or find a man in a good way to incourage guide assist and reward him And God will meet or find a man in an evill way to stop oppose and punish him God will find every man in his way and man shall find God to him according as the way is wherein he findeth him We render very well and fully to the sence he will cause every man to find according to his way I find an Interpreter over-curiously distinguishing between a mans work and his way which doubtlesse here in effect Cajetanus are the same yet there may be a graduall difference 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 via actiones significat quatenus ad finem diriguntur Quemadmodum via initur metae et termini causa Emphaticè via dicuntur actiones ad certum finem directa Coc work being taken for this or that particular act and way for a continued course either good or evill Againe The way of a man may be considered in association with his ends Every man goeth such or such a way for some speciall end no man takes a step in any way without a purpose nor doth any wise or good man take a step in any way without a good purpose Yet there is finis operis an end or issue of the work as also finis operantis an end proposed by the worker And oftentimes that proves to be the end of a work which was not the end purposed by the worker The end of a mans work or way proves sometimes better and sometimes worser then he proposed Possibly a man may not find according to that end of his way and work which he intended not whether good or evill But assuredly whatsoever good or evill end a man proposeth to himself when he enters upon his work or way God will cause him to find accordingly So that when Elihu saith God will cause every man to find according to his way he intimates that God will not only render to man according to the matter of his work or outward path of his way but well considereth every mans scope and intendment or what he would have his work issue in and causeth him to find as he findeth that to be As the end which man proposeth to himselfe hath a great influence upon his way so upon his account with God about it This is a good sence God will cause every man to find according to his way both as his way is taken for the matter or course of his actions as also sor the scope and design of them Hence Observe First Every man shall have according to what he hath done Our receivings will be according to our layings out whether good or evill God is so farre from doing any man wrong that every man shall have his due reward Psal 62.12 Also to thee O Lord belongeth mercy for thou renderest to every man according to his work And lest any should hope to escape the evill which at least some of their evill works deserve by the secrecy of them that hope is quite dashed because God is the searcher and seer not only of our works but of our hearts Prov. 24.12 Doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it and he that keepeth the soul doth not he know it what followes and shall not he render to every man according to his works Solomon speaks in that place
of such as make excuses to shift themselves off from acts of charity they will say we know not whether it be so with him or no possibly he may not be in such want as he pretendeth Take heed of these cloaks of covetousnesse and pitifull pleas to save your purses from shewing pity to the poor for saith Solomon Will not God search it out and render to every man according to his worke The holy Scripture abounds in this poynt Read Jer. 32.19 Ezek. 33.10 Rom. 2.6 2 Cor. 5.10 1 Pet. 1.17 Rev. 22.12 But some may say how doth God render to every man his work Is it not said He justifieth the ungodly Rom. 4.5 Are the works of an ungodly man rendred to him when he is justified I answer it is one thing what God will do through free grace and another what he will deale out in strictnesse of Justice The Apostle speaks in that place of the free grace of God to sinners not of his Justice against sinners Secondly though God justifieth the ungodly yet he never justifieth ungodlinesse or though he justifieth a man who hath done many evill works yea all whose works are evill yet he never justifieth nor rewardeth the work of an evill man Thirdly God acts according to justice and righteousness where he justifieth the ungodly he doth not shew favour to the ungodly in his own wrong Acts of grace from God are not opposite to his Justice much lesse doe they contradict or overthrow it He doth not justifie an ungodly man in himselfe or meerly considered in his ungodlinesse but he justifieth him in the righteousness of another even of Jesus Christ who hath given full satisfaction to the Justice of God with respect to the ungodly whom he justifieth Lastly we may say that God renders the work of an ungodly man to him when he justifieth him for though then he hath not done nor ever can doe any works which deserve the justification of his person yet God doth render to him according to that present work of faith in closing with the promise and the work of Christs righteousnesse therein tendered to him and applyed by him for his justification Further that other Scripture seems to lye in the way of this observation Psal 103.10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins or rewarded us according to our iniquities How then doth God render every man his work I answer as before Acts of mercy do not cross acts of justice When the Lord doth not deal with any man according to his sins it is because he hath freely pardoned his sins and he doth not reward a man according to his iniquity because his iniquities are done away thus he deals with all his own people who are received to favour through Jesus Christ but no wicked man no impenitent person in the world shall have cause to say that God hath not dealt with him according to his sin or hath not rewarded him according to his iniquity There may be some present stops of Justice through the patience of God to wicked men their works are not alwayes presently rendered into their bosomes but they shall God will render to every man according to his work one way or other one time or other The full rendering to all men according to their works will be at the great day in this world the godly doe not somtimes receive according to their good works nor doe the wicked according to their evill works Good men are often rewarded with shame and reproach with want and poverty with banishment and imprisonment with tortures and with death in this present world but the Lord will have a time to render to them according to their workes though at no time for their works so look upon wicked men and their workes they goe often unpunished at the present yea many of them prosper greatly as I have had occasion to shew more then once in opening this Book they have their good things many good things in this life but the time will come when God will render to the wicked their work and they shall be forced to say that he hath caused them to find according to their wayes Take two or three inferences from this generall truth If God will render the work of a man to him Then First Godly men have great encouragement to doe good yea to abound in doing good workes That 's the Apostles argument 1 Cor 15.58 Be ye stedfast and unmoveable in the worke of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vaine in the Lord that is the Lord will render to every man his labour Hence also that of Solomon Eccl 11.1 Cast thy bread upon the waters for thou shalt find it after many dayes Charities done in faith as an holy offering to God produce a sure encrease To give with a right heart to the poore is the best way of growing rich For God will render to man according to that work And as it may incourage to doe good so to doe it against all discouragements We must not only doe good when the Sun shines when it is faire weather with us and all men applaud us but though men frowne and scorne though which Solomon reports as one of the great vanities of this world Eccl 4.4 For a right worke a man be envied of his neighbour let us not hold our hand from doing good though we are opposed and checkt though we are traduced and slandred though we are mis-interpreted and have the foulest glosses put upon our fairest workes though men call our zeale madness and our circumspect walking hypocrisie yea though we are persecuted and suffer the worst of evills though men cast stones at us as they did at Christ for his good workes yet let us not be deterred from doing good For howsoever men deale with us or what rendrings soever we find from the world yet God will render to us both according to the rightnesse of our worke done and according to the uprightnesse of our hearts in doing it Let this provoke us not only to doe the Lords worke but to doe it with much patience and perseverance for in due time we shall reape if we faint not where there hath been sowing there will be reaping and where the seed time hath been with teares the harvest or reaping time shall be with joy Secondly This is a dreadfull doctrine to evill workers Some as the Apostle calls the Cretians out of their owne Prophet are evill beasts slow bellyes and as they are slothfull or slow bellyes at doing good so they are very free and forward very quicke lively and nimble beasts in doing evill O how should evill workers tremble at this Scripture To every man will God render according to his worke as a cup of cold water given to a disciple in the name of a disciple shall not be lost but have a reward and the giver fully payd for it Math 10.42 so not any the least evill worke impenitently continued
out to use ill words to Magistrates though as Paul's case was we are ill used by them Shimei taking the advantage of David's affliction rose up to this height of impudence against him mentioned with indignation by Elihu in the Text he openly and to his face called him Belial 2 Sam. 16.5.7 Come out thou bloody man and thou man of Belial But we know what the issue was he paid dear for it at last though David forgave him at present and did not suffer Abishai to take a sudden revenge yet upon his death-bed he delivered him over to his son Solomon to deal with him as he should see good And so great is the offensiveness and unfitness of speaking thus unto a King that the Jewes joyned it with blasphemy against God himself We read 1 Kings 21.13 how two false Witnesses came against Naboth saying Naboth blaspemed God and the King as much as to say we heard Naboth say of the King Belial And as soon as these two had brought in their evidence against him that he had blasphemed God and the King they drew him out and stoned him Blasphemy against God was death by the express letter of the Law Lev. 24.15 16. It was also death by the same Law for any man to curse his Father or his Mother Exod. 21.17 And because the King is Pater Patriae the father of his Country it seems the cursing or blaspheming of him was also punishable by death The Apostle Jude useth an equivalent word in the Greek Ep. of Jude v. 8. reproving a wicked Sect in those times They fear not to blaspheme or speak evil of Dignities There is blasphemy against Princes who are titular Gods as well as against the only true God Kings are to be feared to be submitted to they are to be prayed for therefore not to be reviled Is it fit to say unto a King Belial Yet this doth not stop the mouths of all men from telling Kings and Princes their faults nor doth it justifie a silent dissembling of them much less doth it open the mouthes of any to dawb Kings and Princes with the untempered morter of flatteries Kings are no more to be flattered then they are to be reproached Dignities must not be spoken evil of yet they may be prudently and humbly told of their evils and informed of their failings plainly When Eliah met Ahab who said Art thou he that troubleth Israel Eliah answered 1 Kings 18.18 I have not troubled Israel but thou and thy fathers house in that ye have forsaken the Commandments of the Lord and thou hast followed Baal And we read how boldly Elisha carried it to the King of Israel 2 Kings 3.13 14. What have I to do with thee Get thee to the Prophets of thy father and to the Prophets of thy mother And Elisha said as the Lord of Hosts liveth before whom I stand Surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the King of Judah I would not look toward thee nor see thee Thus the Prophets dealt with much gracious severity towards mighty Princes The Prophet Isaiah feared not to say Isa 1.10 Hear the word of the Lord ye Rulers of Sodome Give ear unto the Law of our God ye people of Gomorrah implying that the Rulers of Jerusalem were then but such as the Rulers of Sodome once were and that the people were no better then the people of Gomorrah and it is conceived that for this plainness and liberty of speech which the Prophet Isaiah used toward the Princes and Rulers of Judah he was put to death being cut or mangled asunder with a wooden Sawe One might think that Ezekiel did much forget himself when he gave those opprobrious terms to Zedekiah King of Judah Ezek. 21.25 And thou prophane wicked Prince of Israel whose day is come when iniquity shall have an end yet he sinned not in this harsh reproof of his sin because commanded of God to do it and specially directed by the holy Spirit The Prophets might not diminish a word but must give out what God gave in John the Baptist reproved Herod for Herodias his brother Philips wife and for all the evils which he had done Luke 3.19 And Jesus Christ himself called Herod Fox Luke 13.32 The Prophets were often Instructed and Commissioned to prophesie against the mountains that is against the Princes and Powers of the world and therefore take the state of the point and of our duty about it in these few conclusions that we may not run upon the rocks either way neither upon the rock of blasphemy against Kings and Princes on the one side nor upon the rock of flattery on the other First The Power or State of Princes must never be reviled nor evill spoken of kingly Power and Authority is alwayes to be reverenced and honoured though the Prince be wicked yet his Power is to be reverenced and that 's the purest reverence Regia per se dignitas nunquam non est colenda etiam cum princeps iniquus est For to reverence the power of Princes only because or when they are good and do us good and rule every way according to our mind this is but a piece of selfishness but when Princes are evill and bring evills upon us yet to bear respect to the Power and Authority which they Exercise this is to honour God and to give true submission to his ordinance Whatsoever the person is the power must be reverentially submitted to Secondly It is high wickednesse to speak evill of the persons of just and righteous Princes that every man will acknowledge Thirdly Kings and Princes must not be reproved for personall or private faults publickly To doe so is against the rule in any mans case much more in the case of Kings and Princes Fourthly Kings are not to be reproved for any of their faults but by those who have a Call to it that was the reason of the liberty which the old Prophets used towards Kings they were specially commanded and Commissioned by God for it and the peril was upon their own heads if they did it not it is not for every one to reprove Princes but for those that are called to it Lastly Even those that are called to it must doe it with much submission though they must not doe it to halves and deceitfully yet they are to doe it respectfully It is not fit to say to a King Belial such rough and unhewne language is not for Princes their faults must only be insinuated if that may serve as Nathan dealt with David who though he knew what his sin was yet he did not say to him Thou murtherer thou Adulterer but intimated the matter by a parable and made him covertly or in a third person charge himselfe before he charged him or applyed the parable personally to him with Thou art the man When Miriam the Sister and Aaron the Brother of Moses spake against him because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married
man Thus if we take the wayes in that distinction of internal and external the eyes of God are upon them Secondly Take the wayes of man as differenced in their kinds as they are either good or evil the eyes of the Lord are upon both They are saith Solomon Prov. 15.3 in every place beholding the evil and the good that is the evil wayes and the good wayes of men But saith not the Prophet Habbak 1.14 Thou art of purer eyes then to behold evil Which may seem at first reading to imply that God doth not behold the evil wayes or actings of men I answer if we distinguish the word behold we shall soon reconcile these Scriptures To behold is either to discerne what is before us or to behold is to approve what is before us There is a seeing of knowledge and there is a seeing of contentment now when the Prophet saith the Lord is of purer eyes then to behold evil his meaning is he doth not he cannot behold evil with contentment or approbation otherwise the Lord beholds evil even all the evil in the world both good and evil are before him who is himself only and altogether good His eyes are upon the ways of Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not only upon the wayes of this or that man but of every man let man be what he will for a man let him be a great man or a mean man let him be a rich man or a poor man let him be a wise man or a fool let him be an ignorant or a knowing man let him be a holy or a prophane man let him be a subtle or a simple man his eyes are upon him Those things which difference men among themselves make no difference at all among them as to the eye of God His eyes are upon the wayes of whomsoever you can câ—ll man And he seeth all his goings This latter clause of the verse is of the same sence with the former therefore I shall not stay upon the opening of it The Scripture often useth Synonoma's and repeats the same thing in other terms to shew the truth and certainty of it and surely the Spirit gives a double stroke here to strike this truth home into our hearts and fasten it in our mindes He beholdeth the wayes and he seeth alâ— the goings of man The word translated seeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth a very curious or critical sight as was opened before Again these latter words say he seeth All his goings Where we have the universal particle exprest which was only understood in the forme And though these two words wayes and goings may be expounded for the same thing yet in this conjunction we may distinguish them by understanding the word wayes for the constant course of a man's life and the word goings for his particular and renewed motions in those wayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incedore cum pompa propriè deambulare The Original word rendred goings signifies somtimes going with much caution yea with a kinde of state or pomp yet frequently any ordinary going Now when Elihu asserts The Lord seeth all his goings we may sum up the matter under these five considerations He seeth First Where he goeth what his path is Secondly He seeth whether he is going what he makes the end of his journey or travel Thirdly when he goeth or sets out what time he takes for every undertaking Fourthly how far he goeth the Lord takes notice of everystep what progress he makes in any business good or bad Fifthly he seeth in what manner he goeth with what heart with what mind or frame of soule he goeth Thus distinct and exact is the Lord in beholding the wayes and in seeing all the goings of man Hence note First Surely the Lord is a God of knowledge If we could conceive a man to have his eyes in all places and upon all persons an eye upon all hearts and an eye in all hearts as wel as an eye upon all hands you would say this man must needs be a knowing man especially if he have such an eye as the eye of God is a discerning eye a distinguishing eye a trying eye an eye which seeth to the bottome of whatsoever it seeth Hannah sayd this in her song 1 Sam. 2.3 Speak not so proudly let not arrogancy come out of your lips for the Lord is a God of knowledge and by him actions are weighed 'T is not a slight superficial knowledge which God hath of things or persons by him actions are weighed and so are the Actors God puts all into an even ballance and he will weigh both persons and actions to a graine yea every word and thought shall goe into the ballance It was said to that great Monarch Belteshazer by a hand-writing upon the wall Thou art weighed in the ballances The Lord weighed that great King he weighed all his power and the exercise of it and he that weigheth Kings will not leave the meanest subject unweighed by him actions are weighed We many times passe over our actions without consideration and never take the weight of them at least we never weigh them in the Sanctuary ballance If they will beare weight in the ballance of the world we presume they will in Gods ballance also But as the Lord is a God of knowledge otherwise then man is so by him actions are weighed otherwise then by man It is said of Idolls Psal 115.15 They have eyes and see not but we may say of the Lord Jehovah the true God the living God he hath properly no eyes yet he seeth and his faculty of seeing is infinitely above that which himselfe hath planted in man The Atheist while he is about the worst work in the world the breaking in pieces of the people of God and afflicting his heritage while he is slaying the widow and the stranger and murdering the fatherlesse while he is I say at such kind of worke as this he saith Psal 94.7 The Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard it But what saith the Psalmist to him and such as he v. 8 9. Vnderstand ye brutish among the people he that formed the eye shall not he see Those words of the Prophet to King Asa 2 Chron 16.9 The eyes of the Lord run too and fro through the whole earth are an allusion to a man who having a desire to know much or to see all in the world runs up and down travels from place to place from Country to Country for information The Lord would have us know that he knoweth every thing as exactly as they who run from place to place to see what 's done in every place It is prophecyed of the latter times Dan 12.4 Many shall run too and fro and knowledge shall be increased that is many shall be so graciously greedy of knowledge that they will refuse no labour nor travel to attaine it They will run too and fro to inquire and search for it they
spiritual state may be under great spiritual evils great soul afflictions and troubles may fall upon him which I conceive David intended while he shewed such high confidence Psal 23.4 Though I walk through the valley of the shaddow of death I will fear none evil as if he had said Though I were in the worst of soul-afflictions having no light of the favour of God shining upon me nor any comfort in my spirit though as Heman bemoans his deserted condition Psal 88.3 My soul is full of troubles and my life draweth nigh unto the grave though I am laid in the lowest pit in darkness in the deep yet I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staffe they comfort me Again the shaddow of death is often put in Scripture for the worst of outward worldly evils Jer. 13.16 Give glory to the Lord your God before he cause darkness c. and while ye look for light he turn it into the shaddow of death that is while ye expect good times and things ye fall into the worst or the worst befal you Now as these words the shaddow of death signifie the worst of both in spirituals and temporals so here they signifie the closest concealment of moral evils some sinners think themselves as much out of sight as a buried carcass and they vail their wickedness with such darkness as is like the very shaddow of death Sin is it self a shaddow of death yea death it self and they who are dead in sins and trespasses will do their best that their sins may be no more seen then the dead are But there is no darkness nor shaddow of death Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves What it is to be a worker of iniquity was opened at the 8th verse of this chapter and thither I refer the reader Only in general know Workers of iniquity are more then ordinary sinners they are cunning at the committing and cunning at the hiding of sin Some are but bunglers at sin they cannot sin with such an hellish skill as others do and when they have sinned they have not the art of hiding it but others are as we say their crafts-masters both wayes and they are properly called workers of iniquity Yet saith Elihu the very workers of iniquity they that make it their profession their study and their business to do evil and to hide the evil they have done to work mischief in the dark and to keep their works in the dark even they cannot be hid in any darkness And when the Text saith there is no darkness c. wherein the workers of iniquity may hide themselves the meaning of it is they stand naked and in the open light before the eyes of God For though Elihu doth not say from what they cannot hide themselves yet we may take it two wayes they cannot hide themselves first from the sight of God he will discern them The Prophet saith of God Isa 45.15 Thou art a God that hidest thy self it is the word of the Text in another construction that is as I conceive it may be expounded Thou art an invisible God God hides himself naturally or in his own nature for that is invisible likewise God somtimes hideth himself voluntarily as somtimes he manifesteth or sheweth himself voluntarily but he is a God alwayes hid as to his nature because he is invisible and so he is called a God that hideth himself in opposition to Idols or false gods who are obvious to the eyes of men Idols have eyes and see not but themselves are seen by every eye Jehovah the true God seeth but hath no eye neither can any eye see him Thus he is a God hiding himself in the spirituality of his own being which gross Idols cannot the following words in that Text in the Prophet seem to make out this sence vers 16. They shall be ashamed and confounded all of them that is all Idol-makers and Idol-worshippers shall be ashamed and confounded they shall go to confusion together that are makers of Idols Now as God hideth himself both these wayes somtimes voluntarily or in his will he resolves to hide himself from his people as David complain'd Psal 13.1 How long wilt thou hide thy face from me alwayes in the spirituality of his own nature so sinful men would be hidden too though they cannot be hidden as to their nature that being corporeal yet they would hide themselves in their will their wits are bent upon it to make covers and shaddows for themselves that they may keep out of the sight of God or that they may not be seen of him who cannot be seen but is in that sence a God that hideth himself And as men cannot hide themselves from the sight of God so not secondly from the revenging power of God This followeth the former for he that would keep out of the sight of another doth it usually that he may be hid from that danger and evil which he fears that other might bring upon him Thus it is with the sinner he hath his hiding places he would withdraw himself from the revenging power of God like a malefactor who is unwilling to appear and come to the Bar before his Judge but all in vain Meer natural or unregenerate men are much hidden from themselves that is they see little what themselves are they know not their own condition nor upon what terms they stand even a godly man is much hidden from himself his life is hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 his life is not only hidden from the world but in a great measure from himself the excellency of his spiritual state surpasseth his present sight but a wicked man is much more hid from himself he doth not see the wickedness of his own heart nor the danger the desperate danger he is in he seeth not that he is within a step of the pit or that there is as it were but a wainscot between him and hell fire he seeth none of these things Thus a wicked man is hidden from himself and 't is his work to prepare darkness and shaddows of death to cover his dead works from God But there is no darkness will serve his purpose nor shaddow of death wherein he may hide himself Hence Note First It is usual for and natural to sinners to seek hiding places When Elihu saith There is no darkness c. he plainly intimates that it is the designe and business of sinners to make darkness to hide themselves it is as much their business to hide themselves when they have done evil as it is their business to do evil while the workers of iniquity confess in general the eyes of God behold their ways they deny not in word that God is All-seeing yet as they often blear the eye of man so they are not out of hope to put darkness and raise a mist between themselves and the eye of God Or if they rise not to this vain thought that they can
that man is apt to nourish himself in those vain hopes that he can hide himself from God or that he shall be hid from God I may cast the foolish presumptions of men about this thing into four sorts First Some hope to be hid in the croud or that they shall not be taken notice of among so many Secondly The eyes of others are so darkned that their sins are hid from themselves yea they take their vices for vertues their evil acts for good and because they see no evil in what they do they are perswaded or presume God doth not Thirdly Many are never so well pleased as when they are flattered or when others not only hide the sinfulness of their wayes from them but commend and extol them as vertuous and praise worthy And because their evil ways appear good to some men they cannot be convinced that there is any evil in them appearing to God Lastly As all impenitent sinners put their sins out of their own sight so nothing pleaseth them more then this imagination that they shall never come into the sight of God Surely the Lord would never urge this matter so often upon the children of men if it were not so But let sinners consider what they will do and what will become of them seeing as it is impossible that they should be hid so it will be most intollerable for them them to appear and stand before God in the day of judgement Psal 1.5 All must come to judgment and appear at the Bar but it will be an inexpressible grief to appear and not be approved or to appear and then be condemned Therefore be wise and hide your selves where you may be hid do not attempt to hide your selves which is the attempt of most sinners where you cannot be hid They who will needs hide themselves in that darkness and shaddow of death here spoken of shall be cast into utter darkness and abide for ever in that infernal valley of the shaddow of death in which there is no ease to be had and from which there is no release to be got Darkness and death will be the portion of those sinners in the next world who have studied to shaddow their sins with any kinde of darkness in this JOB Chap. 34. Vers 23 24 25. For he will not lay upon man more then right that he should enter into judgement with God He shall break in pieces mighty men without number and set others in their stead Therefore he knoweth their workes and he over-turneth them in the night so that they are destroyed IN the 23d verse being the first of this context Elihu further justifyeth the severest proceedings of God with man He that layeth upon man no more then is right may be justified in whatsoever he layeth upon him But God layeth upon man no more then is right Therefore c. The Assumption is expresse in the text Vers 23. For he will not lay upon man more then is right The text strictly rendred is He will not lay upon man more Our translaters supply the words then is right to determine what that more is which God will not lay upon man The words have a two-fold sence First Some interpreters render them as a direct deniall of any power seated in or liberty given unto man to plead capitulate or to come in judgement with God Elihu charging it upon Job that he had not done well in taking or using such a liberty to complaine about his condition addeth here according to this interpretation God neither hath nor will indulge man a liberty as he hath not given him a just cause to complain as if he had don him wrong Quia non ultra unquam ponet deus super virum i. e. potestatem homini nunquam faciet ut de se ille queri possir Merc Neque enim ultra in hominis potestate est ut veniat cum deo in Judicio Vulg And if man when God hath once declared his mind and published his sentence should make his defence or offer to produce his reasonings against it the Lord will not suffer it he will not permit man to proceed in such a way seeing the sentence of God and what he doth upon it is alwayes just and the right stands ever on his side as well as the soveraignty is ever vested in him Master Broughton translates the whole verse to this sense Therefore it is not for man ever to purpose to enter into judgement before the Omnipotent there is no appeale from God nor will he admit sinners by any artifices or delayes to interrupt the progresse of his justice Secondly The words as we render them carry both an assertion that God is just and a demonstration of it For he will not lay upon man more then is right that he should enter into judgement with God that is man hath no cause to enter into judgement with God if God should give him leave and let him be at his liberty in that poynt for God will not lay upon man more then is right There is another supply of a word which also beareth a good sense and suites wel with this exposition thus Non imponet ei amplius quam ferro possit Drus God will not lay upon man more then he can beare or hath strength to beare that he should enter into judgement with him if we reade the text so then that of the Apostle 1 Cor 10.13 is a cleare exposition of it There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man but God is faithfull who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to beare it A temptation or affliction common to man is but such as man may beare God will not overburden his people he knoweth what flesh and blood as also what Grace can beare As a man would not lay such a weight upon a childe as would burthen a man we lay a childs burthen upon a child and a mans burthen upon a man so the Lord measures and weighs out his judgements in proportion to every mans strength he will not lay upon him more then he is able to beare That 's a good sense and hath a cleare reason in it why man should not complaine of what God layeth upon him it being only proportionate to his strength But I shall rather prosecute the text according to the supply given in our translation which makes the reason why all such complaints should be forborne and silenced to be this because the sufferings of man are never proportion'd beyond his desert He will not lay upon man more then right That is more then he hath deserved or is equitable in his case whatsoever is layd or imposed upon man beyond right he hath cause to complaine of and may traverse the Judgement or desire another hearing yea he may appeale to some higher Judge if there be any
confusion in his temporal punishments upon others Thus he threatned his owne people for their confidence in Egypt and contempt of his holy word Isa 30.13 This iniquity shall be unto you as a breach ready to fall swelling out in a high wall whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant And he shall breake it as the breaking of a potters vessel that is broken in pieces he shall not spare so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth or to take water withall out of the pit that is ye shall be made utterly uselesse and unserviceable That piece of a vessel is of no use which will not serve for either of those little uses the taking of a little fire from the hearth or a little water out of the pit And if God sometime breake his owne professing people thus small for their sins how small will he breake his professed enemies read for this the last breaking and down-fall of Babylon Rev 18.21 22 23. Therefore take heed how you fall into the Lords hand for he can not only break you in pieces but break you to powder he can break you to destruction The Lords purposes and the effects of them his works are never without effect for good or evil for the better or for the worse JOB Chap. 34. Vers 26 27 28. He striketh them as wicked men in the open sight of others Because they turned back from him and would not Consider any of his wayes So that they cause the cry of the poor to come unto him and he heareth the cry of the afflicted ELihu having in the former words shewed the impartiall vengeance of God upon the wicked proceedeth to shew two things further about it in these words First The manner of it v. 26. He striketh them as wicked men in the open sight of others Secondly The causes grounds or reasons of it in the 27th and 28th verses why doth God strike them it is because they turned back from him and would not Consider any of his wayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 percussâ—t volam ad volam adversas manus collisit Significat aliquid cum sono deijcere vel coÌ„plodere unde aliqui de ejectione ignominiosa cum sibilis exponunt Alij volunt peti metaphoram à vesica vento turgente quae pede compressa cum sonitu rumpitur Scult Pro improbis complosit eos Tharg In loco improborum complodit eos Jun So that they cause the Cry of the poore to come unto him their impiety in turning from God and their iniquity in oppressing the poor provoked the Lord to strike them as wicked men in the open sight of others Vers 26. He striketh them as wicked men The word which we render strike specially notes the striking of one hand against the other our hands clasht or struck together make a sound or noise Thus some Interpret the word here He strikes them with an Ignominious sound Many rejoyce and clap their hands when they fall They are destroyed with shouting Others take the metaphor from a bladder filled with winde which being cast on the ground and stampt upon with the foot breaks with a noise or gives a crack in the breaking Wicked men in all they thinke and purpose and doe are but wind and when they break they break like bladders which have nothing of solidity only breath and fume in them Such an Elegancy there is in this word hitting the vanity and vacuity or emptiness of wicked men all their filling being but like that of a bladder which puffes them up but never makes them wise or solid men Further I find this word used for striking in a three-fold sense First For striking with sorrow and shame such was that of repenting Ephraim Jer 31.19 Who when he thought on his wayes was ashamed and smote upon his thigh Secondly For striking with scorne and derision Lam 2.15 All that passe by clap their hands at thee they hisse and wagge their head at the daughter of Jerusalem Thirdly There is also a striking with anger and indignation Thus Balak being vext because he could not have his purpose to bribe Balaam to curse the people of God Smote his hands together Numb 24.10 and the Lord himselfe is exprest expressing his angry indignation against his owne people the Jewes by this gesture Ezek. 22.13 Behold therefore I have smitten my hands at thy dishonest gaine c. There is then a speciall Emphasis in the smitting or striking here intended besides the generall meaning of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Extinâ—it autem impios Sept Pro impijs strinxit eos Bold i. e. vinculis funibusque ligare fecit eos tanquam impios atqueâ—â—a spectandos palam deduci et proponi Bold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 causalis est propterea quod impij sunt illud quasi saepe non similitudinem sed veritatem significat et idem valet quod utpote c. The Lord destroyes wicked men in such a manner that all who behold it are filled with the admiration of his righteousnesse and with a detestation of their lewdnesse The Septuagint say He hath Extinguished wicked men As if they were but smoaking firebrands or the stinking snuffe of a candle Another renders it He binds them the word signifying also to bind or straightenâ— The Lord brings forth evill men as it were bound hand and foot to Judgement We say clearely He striketh them and that in no ordinary way but As wicked men So we translate yet the particle which we render as may here according to its frequent use else-where carry in it a reason He strikes them because they are wicked so some read the text not as we by way of similitude how God striketh them but as giving an account why God striketh them even because they are wicked men Mr Broughton saith For the wicked he maketh plentifull riddance of them which hath a good sense in it but takes somewhat too great a liberty with the original text And because the reason of this striking is held forth in the verses following it is more distinct to say he strikes them not because they are wicked men but as wicked men that is as wicked men use to be strucken or as they use to be proceeded against in a way of Justice God striketh the mighty men of whom he spake before as common offenders or malefactors Though they are great on earth yea though they are in title Gods upon earth yet God strikes them as the basest of wicked men they shall not only dye as 't is sayd Psal 82.7 or fall like one of the Princes but they shall dye like the worst of men like wicked men Hence note First They that doe like the wicked shall be dealt with by God as the wicked how high or mighty soever they are in this world And as they who are openly wicked shall be dealt with as wicked men though they be high in the world so
persons whether they be such as are civilly honest and possibly such as doe not decline the outside of that religion wherein they were borne and bred or such as are flagitious in their lives and wayes scorning to own religion and being even ashamed of the wayes of God These may be sayd to turn back from God because they have many calls to God and are invited to come unto him which yet they either neglect and mind not at all or refuse and reject and so thrust away God from them and when the light comes they love darkness rather then light because their deeds are evill Joh 3.19 Such were they of whom Job spake Chap 21.14 They say to God depart from us he doth not intend it of Apostates in a strict notion who once made profession of godliness but he speakes of common and prophane persons who have no mind at all to obey or walk with God but mind only the fullfilling of their lusts or the affayres of this present life and so their whole life is nothing else but a turning from God Qui quasi â—d industria recesserunt ab eo vulg sc a deo peccantes ex certa malitia Aquin Thus the vulgar translation renders the text with a good significancy though not with a clearness to the Hebrew who have purposely turned from God distinguishing them from those who through dayly Infirmity turn from God as the best of his people do whereas these sin willingly yea wilfully and resolvedly against God I conceive the words of Elihu in this text are to be understood of turning from God in this third sence For he is not here speaking of those who were eminent professors before and did Apostatize much less of those that turn from God by dayly failings in duty or some neglect of duty but he is speaking of such whose whole course of life is as a continued turning from God themselves never having been wrought upon by the grace of conversion or savingly turned to him This third sort of turners back from God are most proper to the present text though such also are within the reach and compasse of it who doe wickedly after they have made faire pretensions to the best things This is the reason why God striketh the mighty to destruction They have turned back from God The reason being thus explicite and expresse teacheth us First God never punisheth any man without cause God doth not alwayes shew the cause why he punisheth this or that man but he never punisheth any man without cause if he striketh 't is because men turn back from him either by a plain apostacy from what they once professed or by a notorious course of impiety refusing so much as to own his wayes or make profession God electeth some and passeth by others without respect to any thing in them Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated God hath mercy on whom he will have mercy Rom 9.13 15. thus I say God electeth us without respect to any good in us but God never striketh or punisheth us but with respect to some evill in us or done by us Secondly Note It is the duty of all men to follow after God To follow God in his way and to propose God as our end containe the summe of all duty That God hath made man and given him a being that he placed man in the highest forme of his visible creation should draw man after him We ought to follow God because we are his creatures because we have our all from him or because in him we live and move and have our being as the Apostle speakes of mankind in generall even of the heathens Acts 17.28 And forasmuch as we are his off-spring v. 29. our hearts should spring or rise up to him in love and thankfullness as the rivers because they come from the Sea goe back thither so we being the off-spring of God and derived from him should be alwayes returning to him This nature tells us And therefore the Apostle saith Acts 17.27 God hath made of one blood all nations of men that they should seek after him c. The light of nature though dim and dark shews that a man should feele after God as a man in the dark doth after his way And if all men ought to follow God because they have their naturall life and breath from him much more should believers who have a new a spirituall life breathed into them and bestowed upon them be alwayes following after God And the truth is where true faith or the life of grace is that soule cannot live without dayly returnings back to and breathings after God even as meere carnal men who are alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them are dayly turning back from him Hence thirdly Note The whole life of every unconverted soule and notorious sinner is a turning from God They who set their faces sin-ward turn their backs God-ward They who pursue their lusts their covetous their ambitious purposes they who gratifie the flesh their pride their luxury their wantonness their malice what doe any of them what doe all of them but turn back from God The best of Saints have their turnings from God but they doe not make it their business to turn from him their business is to draw near to keep close to God to keep as it were in his eye but as for the naturall man and gross sinner his business is a departing from God Heb 3.12 Take heed saith the Apostle lest there be in any of you an evill heart of unbelief in departing from the living God He gives Caution to the Church search your selves lest there be found in any of you an evill heart of unbelief c. Where unbelief remaines in any measure unmortified it may quickly doe a great deale of mischiefe And where it remaines in full power or altogether unmortified it doth all manner of mischiefe All which is wrapt up in that one word a departure from the living God Unbelief is the root of Apostacy The reason why sinners turn from God is because they give no Credit to the word of God they are not perswaded God is such a one as he hath declared himselfe to be and will either doe that for the obedient which he hath promised or that against the rebellious which he hath threatned They who believe not in God cannot but depart from God And therefore the life of an unbeliever is a continuall departure from God He sets out with his back upon God the very first step he takes into the world is from God As soon as we are borne we naturally goe astray speaking lyes we are ever out of our way till we look toward God and ayme at him which we never doe till he by his mighty power changeth our hearts turneth our course and bringeth us home to himselfe Further Consider how did these mighty men turn back from God they might say where did we see
Psalmes The 32d Psalme as also the 42d Psalme is called Maschil as much as to say a teaching or an instructing Psalme a Psalme giving understanding and requiring deep and serious consideration Thus in the text they would not consider nor understand nor know nor contemplate any of his wayes The Hebrew is all his wayes that is none at all of them The wayes of God in Scripture are taken in a two-fold notion First for those wherein he would have us walk such are the wayes of his commandements they are called the wayes of God because he directs us to walke in them A holy life consists in our walking with God and we cannot walke with God any further or any longer then we keep in the wayes of his commandements It is sayd of the children of Israel after the death of Joshua Judg 2.17 they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in obeying the commandements of the Lord but they did not so To obey the commandements is to walke in the way of them Taking the wayes of God in this sence when Elihu saith They would not consider any of his wayes his meaning is they did not intend nor had any heart to set themselves to learne the mind of God revealed in his word concerning their duty or what they ought to doe they know not the wayes of God practically The word properly denotes the wisdome and prudence which stayeth not in notion but proceeds to action These men lived as if they had never heard of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad prudentiam sapientiam practicam rerum agendarum pertinet at least never understood the Law of God which is the rule of life They considered not the wayes of God to walke in them as Moses exhorted the people of Israel Deut 29.9 Keep therefore the words of this covenant to doe them Secondly The wayes of God are those wherein himself walketh the works of God are the wayes of God the works of his providence either in mercy or in judgement either in doing good or in doing evil that is poenal evil these are the wayes of God in these God shewes himself as in a way in these he goeth forth in his power and goodness in his mercy and justice All these divine glories and perfections are discovered in the works of God Thus David is to be understood when he saith Psal 25.10 All the wayes of God are mercy and truth to them that fear him and keep his Covenant that is all the providential works of God are mercy and truth though all of them are not mercy in the matter or precisely taken as works done though none of them are mercy respecting some persons to whom they are done for many of them are materially chastisements afflictions and crosses to good men and all of them are wrath and judgement to evil and impenitently wicked men yet they are all mercy in the issue or result of them to good men or to those who fear God and keep his covenants For whether he do good or whether he do evil whether he wounds or whether he heals all these providential wayes of God are as truth in themselves so mercy to his people or as the Apostle concludes Rom. 8.28 They work together for good to them that love God and are the called according to his purpose In both these sences we may expound this Text They would not consider any of his wayes that is they would neither consider the Lawes of God which were the way wherein they should walk towards him nor would they consider the works of God which are the wayes wherein himself walketh towards them This was the spirit of that evil generation intended in this Scripture they had not much understanding in and less consideration of the wayes of God Hence first we may take notice Elihu doth not say they did not consider his wayes but they would not It was not so much an act of carelesness and negligence as of contempt and rebellious resolution Hence Observe Evil men have no will to consider or understand the good wayes of God yea their will is against such an understanding A natural man liketh not to retain God in his knowledge Rom. 1.28 Now he that doth not like to retain God in his knowledge or had rather think of any thing then of God he can never while such like to retain the wayes of God in his knowledge he that layeth God out of his thoughts will much more lay the law of God out of his thoughts The natural man hath not only a blindness in his minde which hinders him from discerning the things of God they being discernable only by a spiritual eye but he hath an obstinacy in his Will or he hath not only an inability to know but an enmity against the knowledge of that which is spiritual He shuts his eyes and draws a curtain between himself and the light which is ready to dart in upon him away with this light saith he Thus he rebelleth against the light and as his understanding is dark so his affections are corrupt Solomon gives us all this in the expostulations of wisdome with wicked men Prov. 1.20 21 22. Wisdome cryeth c. How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge That which a man hateth he hath no will no minde to know An impotency or inability unto God argues a very sad condition but a rebellion a frowardness a wilfulness against it demonstrates a condition much more sad not to know because we have no means of knowledge will make us miserable enough but not to know because unwilling to receive or because wilfully set against the means of knowledge renders any mans condition most miserable Such were these in the Text They would not consider any of his wayes Secondly Elihu saith not they did not know any of his wayes or they knew not which way to go but they would not consider them There is no man but knowes some yea many of the ways of God that is of those wayes wherein God would have him to walk these wayes of God are written in the heart by nature there is an impression of the Will of God upon every soul though not such an impression or writing as grace maketh there that 's another kinde or manner of work for when once through grace the Law of God is written in and impressed upon the heart then the heart is suited to the Law yea the heart is not only conformed unto but transformed into the Law of God whereas by nature the Law is written only so far as to give us the knowledge of the Law and a conviction of that duty or conformity which we owe to it The men here intended by Elihu knew the Law or wayes of God by the light of a natural conscience but not by the light of a renewed conscience and therefore they would not consider any of his wayes
hide his pleased face or withdraw his favour who can behold him confidently or come to him with hopes to speed Fierce Abner sayd to Asael 2 Sam 2.22 Turne thee aside from following me wherefore should I smite thee to the ground I could easily doe it and he did it presently how then should I hold up my face to Joab thy brother As if he had sayd I can have no confidence to come to Joab thy Generall if I should kill thee Guilt of evill done to others drawes a jealousie that others will do evill to us especially they who are neerely concern'd in the evill which we have done we cannot hold up our face to or behold them with expectation of acceptance and favour to whose neere relations we have been unkind or injurious Thus if God hide his face who can behold him either with confidence or with comfort Some referre the relative him who can behold him to man not to God as if the meaning of Elihu were this if God hide his face from any man all men will hide their faces from him too no man will looke kindly upon such a deserted person Quis favorem ei exhibebit a quo deus vultum averterit Drus or give him a good look he shall have but frownes from men from whom God withdraweth his favour that 's a truth He that is out with God cannot keep in long with men Usually all sorts disowne him that is forlorne and forsaken of God As when a mans wayes please God because then God is pleased with him his enemies shall be at peace with him Pro 16.7 so when God is displeased with a man his very best friends shall turne enemies to him Yet I conceive the text carrieth it rather the other way referring to God himselfe If God hide his face who can behold him that is who can confidently behold God or draw neere to him with comfort And so it generally comes to passe or thus it is Whether it be done against a nation or against a man only As if Elihu had sayd What I have affirmed that when God giveth quietness no man can make trouble or when he hideth his face no man can behold him is appliable to whole nations as well as to particular persons This is an extensive truth a truth of large concernment and therefore a truth of necessary and important consideration That which may be any mans or all mens case should be studyed by every man Whether it be done against a nation c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The particle which we render against signifieth also for We find it so translated Psal 32.6 and at the 36th verse of this Chapter Now to doe a thing for a nation or for a person notes the doing of it with respect to or in favour of either Thus we commonly speake in our language pray doe such or such a thing for me To this sense some render here whether it be done for a nation or for a man only So Mr Broughton whether it be done for a nation or for an earthly man alone But whether we read for or against the generall truth is the same The word and power of God in sending good or evill upon nations or persons in acting for or against them is uncontrouleable and irresistible Further to cleare the text that word in the close of the verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trio significat simul pariter solum rendred only signifieth sometimes together Ezra 4.3 sometimes alike Psal 34.15 and sometimes as we understand it alone or only whether it be done against a nation or a man together or against a man only or alone the matter is alike or the same to God Many or one make a great difference among men in any matter but they make no difference with God he can deale with whole nations in wayes of Judgement or mercy as well as with single persons yet because of the opposition which the text makes between one man and a nation it is most sutable to translate it either only or alike not together Thus we see how the Spirit of God by Elihu hath made a double application of the fo mer part of the text when he giveth quietness who can make trouble c. in this latter first to a nation secondly to a person If the text were not thus exprest it might be thus expounded and improved without any streine at all to it But forasmuch as the Spirit of God hath told us distinctly that this great truth concernes nations as well as persons This Lecture was preached upon the Fifth of November 1658. therefore we have a cleare ground besides the great usefullness of it to speake to the words in both their references And this present memorable day as also their native order leades me specially to speake of them first under a National consideration When he giveth quietness to a nation who can make trouble or disturbe the peace of it And the text may well respect that national blessing peace because the word translated giveth quietness signifies such quietness primarily as is opposite unto warre sedition and tumult in a nation Josh 11.23 And the land rested from warre it is this word so Judg 3.11 The land had rest forty yeares Judg 3.30 And the land had rest fourscore yeares 2 Chron 14.1 In his dayes the land was quiet ten yeares Zech 1.11 And behold all the earth sitteth still and is at rest in all these places we have the word here rendred quietness in opposition to warre who knows not how great an unquietness warre makes wheresoever it comes and by a like analogie the word is sometimes rendred to be silent Warre is full of clamour Isa 9.5 Every battell of the warrier is with confused noise Not only is it so in some battells but saith that Scripture 't is so in all battels Every battel of the warrier is with confused noise What a noise is there in an Army especially when joyning battell with another Army what beating of drums what sounding of trumpets what neighing of horses what clashing of armour what groanings of the wounded When God gives quietness or peace there is none of this noise none of this confused noise of the warrier Hannah saith in her song 1. Sam 2.9 The wicked shall be silent in darkness that is either they shall be destroyed and thrust into their graves where there 's nothing but rottenness and stench darkness and silence or they shall be so affrighted confounded with the horror and darkness of those miseries which shall come upon them while they live that they shall not have a word to say the mouth of iniquity shall be stopt In this manner the wicked are silent in darkness but the Lord can make his people silent in light that is he can give such quietness as shall at once silence the noise of warre and all their own complaints When he giveth quietness this blessed silence to nations who then can
is hated of God I shall shew first the nature of an hypocrite secondly give the distinctions of hypocrites thirdly make some discoveries who is an hypocrite To the First An hypocrite in his general state or nature is as I may say a wicked man in a godly mans clothes he hath an appearance of holiness when there 's nothing but wickedness at the bottome There are two great parts of the hypocrites work first to shew himself good which he is not this is properly the work of simulation or feigning secondly to cover that real evil which he is or doth this is properly the work of dissimulation or cloaking The hypocrite strives as much to appear what he is not as not to appear what he is he makes a semblance of that purity which he loves not and he dissembleth that impurity which he loves and lives in Secondly We may consider hypocrites under this distinction First there is a simple hypocrite who hath not the good which he thinks and believes he hath thus every one that professeth or nameth the name of Christ and is not really converted is an hypocrite because he hath not that which he seems to have yea which possibly he verily believes he hath I may call such a one though it may seem a very strange expression a sincere hypocrite he doth not intend to deceive others but is deceived himself because he hath not the root of the matter in him nor the power of godliness though he brings forth some seeming fruits of godliness and is much in the form of it Such we may conceive shaddowed out to us by the foolish Virgins they made a profession they had their lamps yea they had oyl in their lamps they did somwhat which was considerable in the outward duties of Christian Religion and they hoped to be accepted with Christ but they had no oyl in their vessels with their lamps as the wise Virgins had Matth. 25.4 that is they had no grace in their hearts nor did they minde the getting of that till it was too late v. 10. but satisfied themselves with that little oyle in their lamps to make the blaze of an external profession Such as these are simple hypocrites being pleased with a shell instead of a kernel and with a shaddow neglecting the substance These hypocrites are in a very deplorable condition yet these are not the hypocrites which I intend in this point or have here to do with There are a second sort of hypocrites commonly called gross hypocrites such as hold that out which they know they have not such as know they have nothing in or of Religion but the shew of it such as work by art or with a kinde of force upon themselves in all the good they do and duties they perform towards God and about the things of God They do nothing as the Apostle saith Timothy did Phil. 2.20 naturally I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state The word naturally is not there opposed to spiritually but to artificially or to forcedly What a sincere heart doth in the things of God he doth it naturally that is it floweth from an inward principle it is not forced from him but the hypocrite doth all as it were by a kinde of art or force upon himself The Lord chargeth the Jews with this kinde of hypocrisie Isa 58.2 They seek me daylie and delight to know my wayes as a Nation that did righteousness that is they acted with an appearing forwardness like those who truly delight to know my wayes yet all this was but as a piece of art for as the Lord upbraided them vers 3 4. they really kept their sins and walkt in their own wayes of oppression strife and debate yea they made all that noise aboâ—t humbling themselves that they might the more undiscernedly smite others with the fist of wickedness and therefore saith the Lord v. 5. Is it such a fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his soul c. and then for many dayes to afflict both the souls and bodies of his brethren or to abstain a day from meat and glut himself with sin That 's the strain of the hypocrite he as I may say maintains and drives two trades he hath a trade for God and the wayes of God and he hath a trade for sin and the wayes of wickedness this is his course Jer. 12.2 Thou art neer in their mouth but far from their reins they speak of thee but they have no desires to thee no affections for thee thou art far enough from their reins they act a part in Religion but they neither partake of Religion nor with it Thirdly There are others who besides that they are gross hypocrites may also be called designing or plotting hypocrites for they that serve God with a reserve as to any sin or by-way usually serve him with a designe or for an end of their own Christ Matth. 23.14 speaking of gross hypocrites such as the Pharisees were saith they devour widdows houses and in a pretence make long prayers they pray long in a pretence or under a pretence that is they have a plot or a designe in prayer they pray not purely to enjoy communion with God nor purely to honour God but they make use of prayer and under pretence of that do other work Christ doth not there speak against nor disparage long prayers as some do to the great reproach of the Spirit and grace of God but he chargeth them with praying long in a pretence pray heartily and then pray as long as you will other due circumstances being observed the more you pray the more is God pleased But whether prayers are long or short if done in a pretence or with a designe to do mischief to others or only to get some worldly profit and advantage to our selves as those Pharisees prayed they are an abomination to the Lord. 'T is not the length of prayer but the end of prayer which discovers hypocrisie The prophet Isaiah chap. 32.6 gives us a description of this gross designing hypocrite The vile person will speak villany and his heart will work iniquity to practice hypocrisie and to utter errour before the Lord while the hypocrites heart worketh iniquity his tongue speaks villany not that all his words are villanous words for then he were not an hypocrite but a profest prophane person but he is said to speak villany because how pious and specious and godly soever his discourse is yet he hath a villanous intent in speaking and his heart at the same time is working iniquity to practice hypocrisie Now that I may a little more unmask this plotting hypocrite I will shew you a fourfold plot or designe which such hypocrites have in their most zealous professions of and pretendings to Religion First They designe their own praise or estimation among men Christ makes this discovery in his Sermon upon the Mount Matth. 6.2.5 Do not as the hypocrites for all
have performed the commandement of the Lord he was his owne trumpeter and would needs tell the story of his doings himselfe though he had done his businesse to halves Come thou blessed of the Lord I have performed the commandement of the Lord as if it would not serve him to doe his duty unlesse Samuel had seene and taken notice of him Abraham gave proofe of the highest act of faith that ever was in the world yet did Abraham say Come see my faith Moses led the people of Israel forty yeares in the wildernesse through a series of wonderfull tryalls and temptations to the very borders of Canaan which was one of the highest services that ever man undertook and was faithfull in all his house Heb 4.2 yet did he say Come see my fidelity Joshua victoriously expelled the Cananites and divided their land by lot among the tribes of Israel yet did he say Come see my fortitude We heare not a word of any of their doings from those who were sincere When we see men forward to invite the approbation of others by making reports of their good deeds it gives a strong argument of suspicion that they have done what they have done with a bad heart or that as it is sayd of Jehu they have not sought God with all their hearts But some may object Did not Samuel proclaime his own integrity before all the people 1 Sam 12.3 Whose oxe have I taken or whose asse have I taken or whom have I defrauded whom have I oppressed or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith I answer Samuel spake this to upbraid their ingratitude and discontent not to extoll his owne justice yea some conceive that he made this challenge to give Saul a patterne how he ought to governe rather then to commend his owne government I find the Apostle Paul making large reports of his owne both doings and sufferings 2 Cor 11. But if we peruse that Chapter we shall find him hovering in a suspence of doubts and feares whether or no it were convenient or comely for him to doe so How many preambles and Apologyes did he make before he fell directly upon that unpleasing subject Would to God ye could beare with me in my folly saith he and indeed beare with me And againe I speake as it were foolishly in this confidence of boasting And yet all that he spake was not to make a boast of himselfe but to vindicate his Apostleship from unjust and envious calumniations 'T is most certaine He that is sincere desires not to be open but silently satisfieth his soule with the conscience of doing his duty and takes more content in knowing his own integrity then in knowing that others know it Vertue looseth nothing of her value in his esteeme no nor of her lustre in his eye because she is hidden from the eyes of men Like the earth in this poynt he keepes his richest mineralls and most precious gems of grace and goodness below in his bowells or at the center of his heart and will not let them be seene till a kind of necessity diggs them out When Moses after his forty dayes neere accesse to and communion with God in the Mount perceived that his face did shine Exod 34.33 he put a vayle upon it every true Moses whose acquaintance and fiduciall familiarity with God hath stampt upon him the impressions of divine light is so farre from affecting to dazzle the eyes of others with it that he rather puts a vayle of gracious modesty upon it and will not let so much as the light of his good workes be seene but as thereby in which case Christ commands it Math 5.16 He may glorifie his father which is in heaven And herein a Christian followeth the example of Christ in whom though the Godhead dwelt bodily yet he rarely shewed his divine power And when once by a miracle he had made the blind see he also by command made them dumbe concerning that miracle Math 9.30 See that no man know it It was our Saviours counsel to all his followers Mat 6.5 Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth and it was his consolation to them in the next words Your father which seeth in secret himselfe shall reward you openly yea which is a higher consolation then that Himselfe will be your reward Secondly As the designing hypocrite desires to be seene in doing good or to have the good which he hath done seene so he is exceeding censorious and rigid towards those whom he sees falling into evill Christ gives this discovery also Math 7.3 Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brothers eye but considerest not the beame that is in thine owne eye concluding at the 5th verse Thou hypocrite why doth Christ call him hypocrite surely because he was so quick-sighted to see a mote that is a smaller fault in his brothers eye but tooke no notice of the beame that was in his owne eye a spot upon his brothers coate was censured more by him then his owne wallowing in the mire I doe not say that the Patriarke Judah was an hypocrite but as those two other Patriacks so he acted one very grosse part of hypocrisie Gen. 38.24 For he no sooner heard that Tamor was with childe but he censured yea condemn'd her presently to death Bring her forth sayd he and let her be burnt and yet himselfe was more faulty then she How hard a Judge was he of that crime in another which was principally his owne Saul had sinned greatly 1 Sam 13.9 in offering sacrifice before Samuel came which was an usurpation of the Priests office and so great a sin that Samuel told him presently God would therefore rend the Kingdome from him yet he thought to put it off with a slight excuse But in the 14th Chapter when Jonathan only offended against a rash command of his putting a Curse upon that people if any did eate before the going downe of the Sun he sentenced him to death for it In the 8th of John How severe were the Pharisees to the woman taken in Adultery they haled her before Christ and pressed the Law that she should be stoned to death yet when Christ sayd v. 7. He that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her they being convicted by their owne conscience went out one by one We ought to reprove and not flatter sin in others yet they who are extreamely severe against a sin in others usually favour either the same or a worse in themselves He that is sincere piâ—tieth others as much as reproves them and he reproves them though wiâ—h sharpness yet with meekness at once considering himselfe lest he also be tempted Gal 6.1 and blessing God who hath kept him in or from these temptations Thirdly The designing hypocrite discovers himselfe by laying downe or departing from the profession of religion when his worldly ends are attained Feined zeale cooles or abates is lesse and
it is from the negligence of this man or from the malice of that other man All this while there is no acknowledgement of the hand of God They say not with Eli 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord nor with David Psal 39.9 10. I was dumb I opened not my mouth because thou didst it Remove thy stroke away from me I am consumed by the blow of thine hand It is as much our duty and for the glory of God to confess that our afflictions are of God as our mercies and favours Thirdly Observe The chastenings of God must be born they must be endured Many are chastised who cannot say they have born chastisements It 's an ordinary thing to be under chastisement but it s a great thing and requires much holy skill and spiritualness to bear a chastisement the duty of a Christian lies most in two points First in doing or in active obedience Secondly in suffering or in passive obedience and there is as much of God as much of grace as much of holiness yea I may say much more held out in bearing and in suffering then there is in acting or in doing But you will say what is it to bear that you make it so difficult a matter to bear chastisements How must chastisements be born or what is it to bear them I will answer the question under two heads First Negatively To bear chastisement is not First meerly to finde or feel it upon our shoulders as a burthen which pincheth or presseth us so a beast may bear Secondly it is not a bearing meerly because we cannot help it or be rid of our burden for so the worst of men may bear they bear the greatest burthens that God layeth upon them because they cannot avoid them nor ease themselves of them Thirdly It is not a bearing stoutly or slightingly to make nothing of it so proud men bear men of unsubdued spirits unto God and his word regard not what they bear nor what God doth to them Fourthly It is not a bearing them sowrly or sullenly for so discontented persons bear yea so the devil beareth the burthen which the hand of God hath laid upon him Fifthly Nor is it a bearing chastisement faintly or dispondingly so weak believers bear To bear and faint is not the bearing of faith Neither of these are the bearing of chastisement which Elihu intends in this counsel when he saith It is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisment Thus ye see the Negative what the bearing of it is not Secondly I answer affirmatively To bear a chastisement as an act or work of grace is First to bear it sensibly that is feeling the weight of the hand of God and tasting the bitterness of that cup of sorrow which he giveth us to drink Secondly 'T is a bearing of it submittingly humbly patiently laying our selves down at the foot of God and saying as Eli did Let him do what seemeth him good or as David 2 Sam. 15.26 Behold here I am let him do to me as seemeth good unto him We never bear any evil of affliction well till we can say with a sweet resignation of our selves to God do with us what seemeth to thee good And for our encouragement I may say nothing can hurt a godly man which seemeth good to God Thirdly 'T is a contentful bearing or a bearing contentedly Thus Christ spake Psal 40. and 't is cited by the Apostle Heb. 10. Lo I come to do thy will I am content to do it what was that It was to bear or suffer the greatest part of what Christ was to do was to bear or suffer the chastisement of our peace Isa 53.5 and in suffering to be made a sacrifice for us his contentment to do the will of God was a contentment to suffer Of such a spirit should the people of God be bearing chastisement not only patiently but contentedly this is hard but this cannot be left out in the full exercise of that grace Fourthly 'T is to bear it more then contentedly willingly how free was Christ to bear when he said John 18.11 The cup which my father hath given me shall I not drink it Surely I will I am willing to drink it though it be a bitter cup. We are not to will our sufferings but to suffer them willingly there is a vast difference between these two I do not say we are to will our sufferings but we are to suffer them willingly we must suffer what and how and when and how long God will and when God willeth our sufferings we must suffer with our wills or be willing to suffer Fifthly To bear chastisement in the sence here intended is not only to bear it with our will but with our affections not only willingly but acceptably and embracingly 't is to say welcome cross because it is the will of God There is no chastisement that we can rejoyce in or have any affection to considered in it self but to bear chastisement in contemplation of the will of God should work our hearts to an accepting to an embracing to a welcoming of it we should say to all our sufferings welcome by the will of God Sixthly 'T is to bear it prayerfully we must bear silently in opposition to complaining but we must not bear silently in opposition to praying While chastisement is upon our backs supplications must be in our mouths and we must pray first That we may see the reason why or for what cause God chasteneth us Secondly We must pray that we may answer the ends which God aimeth at in chastening us Thirdly That we may have fresh power to bear his chastenings Fourthly That God would be pleased to remove our chastenings While we bear chastenings we may pray and pray hard that God would take them away David had no sooner said I opened not my mouth that is complainingly because thou didst it Psal 39.9 but presently he opened his mouth in prayer vers 10. Remove thy stroke away from me While we bear our cross patiently and willingly it would be our sin not to pray for deliverance from it To say I am under a chastisement and let the Lord keep it upon me as long as he will I will never ask him to take it off were a most unbecoming frame of spirit They that bear affliction most cheerfully should pray most earnestly to be eased of it we must be willing to bear them alwayes yet we must pray that we may not bear them long If a childe under the rod of a parent should not say pray father stay your hand it is enough but let him go on striking and never intimate a desire of his forbearance this were a signe of stubbornness not of patience and submission 'T is as bad not to ask release from our troubles as to murmure at them or to be unquiet under them Remember then you must be as much in the exercise of prayer as of patience under the cross and that in these four
they might sin against God he knew no sin they had run into nor could charge them with any excess but he was jealous they had sinned nor did Job speak thus as if his meaning were that possibly in their feasting some corruption might work in them he knew there is no man in the best duties of his life wholly freed from the workings of sin but he had this jealousie that they might have fallen into some great sin and so provoked God greatly against them therefore he did as it were way-lay such guilt and early sought reconciliation with God As Job was thus jealous of his children so a gracious heart though he cannot charge himselfe with this or that evill yet he is apt to suspect his owne heart and feares it may be worse with him then possibly it is Secondly When he saith If I have done iniquity This humble man though he doth suppose that he might have done iniquity yet he doth but suppose it Hence note A godly man may live free from the doing of any grosse sin He doth not put an if upon it whether he had sinned or no but whether he had done iniquity Zachariah and Elizabeth were not without sin but they did no iniquity for saith the text Luke 1.6 They were both righteous before God walking in all the commandements and ordinances of the Lord blamelesse It cannot be imagined but that the people of Israel sinned yet Num 23.21 God saw no iniquity in Jacob nor perversenesse in Israel There may be such a time in the Church when the people of God have no iniquity no provocation to be seene or found among them Though a Godly man cannot deny but he hath sinned yet he can affirme that he hath not indulged himselfe in any sin If I have done iniquity I will doe no more The Hebrew is I will not adde We render I will doe no more As if he had sayd If upon tryall it be found that I have done iniquity yet I will not adde iniquity to iniquity I will not goe on I will not persist nor proceed in iniquity I will not take a step more in any way which God shall discover to me to be an evill way If I am out of the way I will not goe on in my way Hence observe First A godly penitent person is resolute against sin His will is set against it I will doe no more I shewed in opening the former verse It is meere to be sayd unto God I have borne chastisement I will offend no more in what sence a godly man may make such a promise or say I will sin no more here I say A godly man is resolute against sin especially against great sins As a carnall man hath but very weake resolves for the doing of good he hath as some expresse it but a velleity somewhat like a will to doe that which is good so a carnall man makes but weake resolves against evill he hath not a setled will but a kind of noleity against it He makes some flourishes of profession against it but he is not resolvedly ingaged against it whereas a godly man is resolute both as to the doing of good and the not doing of evill If a godly man might have his will he would never sin more And as a Godly man waiteth joyfully for that state of glory wherein he shall sin no more so a resolution to sin no more hath as I may say somewhat of glory in it In glory we shall sin no more and where grace is in truth that soule would gladly be rid of sin and sin no more A godly man is resolved against all ungodlinesse and this is a kind of entrance into glory Againe Whereas the penitent man saith I will doe no more Note Continuance in any knowne sin for saith he what I know not teach thou me or in that which is made knowne to us to be sinfull is inconsistent with true repentance Repentance for and continuance in sin cannot consist in the same subject This is the voyce of every gracious soule I would not sin any more or I would not continue any longer in sin To sin is common to man but to continue in sin is proper to a wicked man To erre and faile that 's humane but to persevere in error is diabolicall Sin will continue in us while we continue in this world but they that are not of the world doe not will not continue in sin how long so ever they are in the world Sin may be considered three wayes First as remaining in us Secondly as reserved Thirdly as preserved by us There is sin remaining in the best of Saints on this side heaven Rom 7.20 21 22 23 24. Sin is reserved only in carnall men they save their sins and would be saved not from but in their sins Sin is preserved or maintained and defended in the worst of wicked men Sin is heightned to the utmost where 't is not only retained but maintained and preserved The Apostle having closed the fifth Chapter of his Epistle to the Romanes in the triumph of Gospel grace That as sin hath reigned unto death so grace might reigne through righteousnesse unto eternall life by Jesus Christ our Lord begins the next with a prevention of the abuse of this Grace What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein How can we continue in sin that are partakers of Gospel grace Sin will continue in us but we cannot continue in it The question implyeth a kind of impossibility We were once dead in sin but now we are dead to sin how then can we live or continue in it Perseverance is either our best or our worst To persevere is best when we persevere in good and to persevere is worst when we persevere in evill It is bad to be or doe evill but it is worse to abide in evill The first best is not to sin the next best is not to continue nor lodge in sin no not for an houre Paul sayd in another case Gal 2.5 To whom we gave place by subjection no not for an houre We should not give place to sin no not for a minute but resist it to the utmost and totally displace it if we can Lastly From the Hebrew elegancy which saith I will not adde Note A godly man may commit sin after sin but he doth not adde sin to sin When he hath committed any one sin he breaks it off and dedestroyeth it by repentance He doth not adde sin to sin because the sin formerly committed is destroyed by repentance His former sin is taken off the file before he acts a second who heartily repenteth of the first and as heartily resolveth not to commit a second Such a man doth not run a round of sinning and repenting though he sinneth after â—he hath repented Daniel gave that advice to Nebuchadnezzar Dan 4.27 Break off thy sins by
destruction Every mouth must be stopped and all the world become guilty before God upon that account Rom. 3.19 yet God doth not destroy And that he hath no content in destroying he bindes it with an Oath Ezek. 33.11 As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked c. as if he had said I am not bent upon your destruction I had rather be taken off and save you I pardon I will not destroy If any shall say Hath God no pleasure in destruction Hath he not a will to destroy as well as to save I answer God hath pleasure in destroying but it is in the destruction of those who obstinately resist his Will who refuse both his counsel and his Covenant to such indeed he saith Prov. 1.26 I will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear that is the thing you feared cometh as desolation c. That the men in whose calamity God laugheth are such is evident by the character given of them at the 25th verse Ye have set at nought all my counsel and would none of my reproof As if God had said you have laughed at my counsel therefore I will laugh at your calamity The Lord will declare himself delighted in their destruction who have despised instruction and he will glorifie himself in the actings of his Justice upon them who have slighted and put by the tenders and entreaties of his mercy Yet still God declareth himself more pleased in acting and putting forth his saving power then his destroying power The Prophet Hos 11.8 9. most pathetically represents as it were a debate in the breast of God himself between his Justice and his Mercy How shall I give thee up Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah How shall I set thee as Zeboim Mine heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together v. 9. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger I will not return to destroy Ephraim We see after the debate the Lord determines for sparing not for destroying So then though he can and will not only destroy but laugh at the destruction of obstinate sinners yet he loves to spare rather then to destroy Thirdly From the connexion of these two pardoning and sparing mercy God saith first I pardon and then secondly I will not destroy who are they whom God will not destroy they are are such as he pardons Hence Note Pardoned persons shall never be destroyed As soon as Nathan had said to David the Lord hath put away thy sin the very next word is this thou shalt not dye 2 Sam. 12.13 if Davids sin had not been pardoned Daved must have dyed for it 'T is a Logical Maxime When the Cause is taken away Sublata causa collitur effectus the Effect is taken away Sin is the cause of destruction therefore when God takes away sin which is the cause destruction the effect must needs be taken away too pardon destroyeth sin therefore how can they that are pardoned be destroyed Pardon swallows up sin As the Apostle speaks of life 2 Cor. 5.4 That mortality might be swallowed up of life Here mortality swallows up our lives by degrees but hereafter mortality shall be swallowed up at once of life Now as life shall then swallow up mortality so pardon at present swalloweth up sin for as in our glorified state there shall never any thing of mortality appear so in a pardon'd estate nothing of sin shall appear as to hurt us Sin pardoned cannot be found Jer. 50.20 In those dayes and in that time saith the Lord the iniquity of Jacob shall be sought for and there shall be none and the sins of Judah and they shall not be found why not The Lord answers for I will pardon them whom I reserve And if their sins shall not be found surely they shall not be found guilty and therefore not destroyed God may chasten them whom he hath pardoned but he will not destroy those whom he hath pardon'd pardoned persons may smart and smart greatly for sin but they shall not dye eternally for it they shall not be destroyed for it David was pardoned yet God told him the sword shall never depart from thy house and the Lord told him particularly of a sore destruction upon a part of his house presently because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme thou being a Professor hast opened the mouths of the wicked against profession therefore though thou shalt not dye yet the childe also that is born unto thee shall surely dye There are two things which the pardon of sin takes away First the power or reigne of sin where-ever sin is pardoned the strength of it is subdued God doth not pardon sin as Princes do they may pardon an evil doer and yet he still remain as evil and as ready to do evil as ever they may pardon a thief and yet he continue to be a thief still but if God pardons a drunkard an adulterer or a thief he doth not remain a drunkard or an adulterer or a thief still God takes away the power of that sin which he pardoneth Secondly The pardon of sin takes away the punishment of sin it may leave some chastisement but it wholly takes away the punishment The Popish doctrine saith the fault is taken away by pardon but there is a commutation of the punishment eternal punishment is changed into temporal either in this life or that to come hence their doctrines of Purgatory and of Prayer for the dead c. all which stuffe comes in upon this account They cast all men into three sorts some are Apostles and Martyrs men very eminently godly and they go immediately to heaven there are another sort and these are Apostates from or persecuters of the faith notorious sinners these go immediately to hell there are a third or middle sort of ordinary sinners and they go immediately after death neither to heaven nor hell but to Purgatory where they must bear the punishment of their sins till they can be prayed out Christ hath only got so much favour for them say they to change their eternal punishment into a temporal The grace of the Gospel knows nothing of this Doctrine that tells us when sin is pardoned all is pardoned both guilt and punishment both temporal and eternal nothing remains but only chastisement how sorely soever a believer suffers in this life yet strictly taken it is but a chastisement and there remaineth nothing for him to suffer in the life which is to come And if so then Pardon of sin is a precious mercy 'T is so First Because it proceeds from the precious mercies of God Secondly Because it comes thorow the precious blood of Christ Col. 1.14 Thirdly Because it opens a door to all precious mercies as sin unpardoned with-holds all good things from us Jer. 5.25 so sin pardoned opens the door for all mercy