to creeple justice to make it lame and halt This word is translated to overthrow Job 19.6 Know now that God hath overthrown me and hath compast me in with his net Iob speaks in a great passion as if God had come upon him violently in judgement and cast him We say a man is overthrown or cast in his sute God overthrows men and Nations but he never overthrows justice A man who overthrowes his adversary may settle justice Iob looked upon himself as one against whom God had entred his action and overthrown him in the sute Lamenting Ieremy cries out Lam. 3.59 O Lord thou hast seen my wrong it is this word Thou hast seen how I am vexed and wrested by the hard dealings of men judge thou my cause Thou wilt judge me aright and set me straight again Judgement is perverted two waies 1. By subtilty 2. By power First Some pervert judgement by subtilty They are wise to do evil The Lord hath infinite wisdome and so is able to go beyond and over-reach all creatures he is wise enough to be-fool all the world but he is not wise to doe evil His wisedome is not a trap or a snare to others but an unerring guide and light to himself 2. Some pervert judgement by violence and force if they cannot untie the knot by craft they will cut it asunder by power and if they have not law for it they have will for it and an arm for it and it shall be done The Lord can doe what he will but he hath no will to doe what is evil He can put forth as much strength as he desires but he hath no desire to pervert justice or to act his power to over-aw and master it Further To pervert judgement and justice hath these two things in it 1. To darken and obscure the rule of judgement 2. To torture or mis-interpret the rule of judgement 1. Judgement is perverted by darkning and obscuring the law or rule of justice God doth not doe so He never casts a mist before his Word or a vail over it that he may act against it 2. Neither doth he mis-interpret his law A good law ill expounded is made the warrant of an evil judgement A glosse corrupting the text of the Law corrupts justice Where tongue and conscience are set to sale the wit must finde out somewhat to help the market The words opened invite these Observations First That God is most exact in judgement God is a just God It is a high truth and we should adore it that whatsoever God doth he is just in doing it When reason cannot reach or make it out yet faith must and we must honour God in what we cannot understand The Lord is righteous in all his waies though his waies are past finding out For 1. He hears every cause before he judges He doth not judge one side before he knows the other or judge any man before he hath heard him fully out We see both Gen. 11. and Gen. 18. in those two great acts of justice when God confounded the builders of Babel and when he destroyed Sodome I will goe down and see whether it be altogether according to the report that is come up unto me God needs no intelligence to be brought him unto heaven neither doth he that fils all places goe to any place to enform himself but he speaks thus to note how exact he is in point of justice To shew that he deals with the children of men as a man who hearing a report of such a thing done saith I will not judge of it by what I hear but I will goe see whether it be so or no. Without evidence of the fact the sentence cannot be just though it may be right 2. He examineth and takes confession which is another point of justice So he proceeded with our first parents Gen. 3. proposing interrogatories unto them and then the judgement is pronounced according unto what was confest he judgeth them out of their own mouths ver 17. Because thou hast done this and hearkened unto the voice of thy wife therefore c. 3. God proceeds by the evidence of the Law as well as by the evidence of the fact and this also sets forth the exactnesse of his judgement These two things make judgement perfect you must not only have the evidence of the fact that such a thing is done but you must have the evidence of the Law condemning such a deed Though God himself be an everlasting Law and he may judge all from his own breast yet he hath given out a Law which gives the knowledge of sinne It is said Rom. 2. They that have sinned without the Law shall perish without the Law as if some should be judged without Law but he means without a Law formally published not materially enacted For he speaks of the Gentiles who were not within the hearing of Mount Sinai and had not seen that formality of a Law written in tables of stone yet they had a Law written in their hearts They that have not heard the Law published or seen it written in a book shall be judged by the Law written in their hearts their conscience bearing them witnesse and their thoughts accusing or else excusing one another 4. God is impartiall in giving judgement He doth not strike one and spare another who is under the same condemnation nothing can sway or bias him nothing can preponderate the balance of justice in his hand you cannot put in any consideration to sway his beam beside the right There are three things which usually cause men to pervert justice The Lord is free from them all 1. Fear of greatnesse Some would doe justice but they dare not the businesse concerns a great man and to doe justice upon such is To take a Bear by the tooth as we say or to play with the paw of a Lion Now the Lord is not turned away for fear nor deferrs he justice for any mans big looks The day of the Lord saith the Prophet Isa 2. shall be against the high Oaks He is El-Shaddai the All-mighty the all-powerfull God and therefore cares not for the might or power of man 2. Hope of reward that 's another thing which causeth many to pervert judgement With some their hope is stronger then their fear They care not for the greatnesse of men but they hope for gain A bribe taken or promised clogs and obstructs the course of justice Hos 4.14 Her Rulers with shame doe love Give ye the Hebrew is Her shields Magistrates should be as shields to the people to protect them but what did they They love Give ye that word pleased them They were more pleased with receiving rewards then with doing right The Lord is above all gifts he is Shaddai he hath all in himself and needs not that any should give unto him and he tels them expressely Ezek. 7.19 That their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of
David hid the Commandments of God in his heart Mary laid up the words of Christ there To have the word only swimming in our brains is to as little purpose as to have it only in our Note-books To have truth only in our brains or in our books will do us as little good as water in our shoes It is a sad thing to consider how many thousand Sermons are written almost word for word in books and scarce a letter of them written in the heart The promise of the new Covenant is that God will write his law in our hearts Let not any rest satisfied in having the word written in their books Observe further Holy men of old did highly esteem the word and truths of God You may know the esteem they had of these by the place where they laid these the heart is the best place the fairest room in man To put a thing into the heart notes highest esteem and approbation When we say a thing is in our hearts we cannot say more to expresse our esteem of it When the Apostle Phil. 1.7 professes to the Philippians I have you in my heart his meaning is you are most dear and precious to me When vve see a man preparing a speciall place a safe place a convenient place to lay a thing in we conclude that the thing he vvould lay up is of value and account vvith him vvhen vve are preparing and fitting our hearts to put the vvord and truths of God in hereby we give a real testimony that we honour the word of God For the most part the truths of God as we say of things we neglect are cast at mens heels rather then laid up in their hearts We may know the esteem a Queen of England had of the City of Calice when she said It was in her heart and there they should finde it if they opened her So much concerning these three verses containing an argument from antiquity and the testimony of the first ages by which Bildad confirms his former position That God is just JOB Chap. 8. Vers 11 12 13 14 15. Can the rush grow up without mire Can the flag grow up without water Whilest it is yet in his greennesse and not cut down it withereth before any other herb So are the paths of all that forget God and the hypocrites hope shall perish Whose hope shall be cut off and whose trust shall be a spiders web He shall lean upon his house but it shall not stand he shall hold it fast but it shall not endure THis context from the 11th to the 20th verse contains an illustration for so are similitudes of the former argument and it is taken from a three-fold similitude First of a rush which is explained vers 11 12. and applied in the 13th verse The second is of a Spiders web explained and applied vers 14 15. The third of a luxuriant flourishing tree explained verse 16 17 18. applied verse nineteenth Behold this is the joy of his way c. The summe of all may be given in this brief That it is as equall and ordinary in the course of divine justice to destroy wicked men as it is in the course of nature for a rush to wither when it wants water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iuncus à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bibit ingurgi tavit quia juncus est aquae immersus eam semper imhibens Consâ—ritur hibula Memphytis cymba papyro Luc. l. 4. Perque papyriferi septemflua flumina Nili or for a spiders web to break when it is leaned upon or for a tree to be hewen down when it either undergrows or overgrows its owners house when casting it's roots under the foundation it loosens the stones and weakens the ground-work or when it spreads its boughs and grows so high that it drops upon the roof or darkens the windows of it Ver. 11. Can the rush grow without mire It cannot The originall word for a rush speaks its nature the root signifying to suck and drink in or alwaies to be guzling down The rush lives in liquour and is alwaies drinking These abounded neer the banks of Nilus in Aegypt There Moses was put into an Ark or skiff made of bulrushes Exod. 2.3 The Prophet Isa 18.1 2. tels us of a land sending Ambassadours by the sea even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elatus eminuit est mediae significationis sumitur pro vitiosa elatione quae est superbia etiam pro magnificentia decore Rivet in Hos 5.5 Limosuâ— juncus palustres juncâ— Amphibia Can the rush grow In strength lustre and beauty The word implies growing with a kinde of pride so plants doe in a rich or proper soyl they lift up their heads and carry it highly Can the rush grow without mire Which is as much as to say can a man live without food Mire is the rushes meat and drink It loves and delights in a moorish soyl and by the rivers side A rush upon the dry land is like a fish upon the dry land At most the rush among vegetables and plants is like those fowls and beasts among sensitives which live part upon the water and part upon the land Can the flag grow without water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Locus graminis ubi pascuntur pecora forsan ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frater quod ex una stirpe velute multifratres gignantur quasi herbarum quaedam fraternitas The word signifies any fertile place for grasse a medow Gen. 41.2 Pharaoh saw in his dream seven welfavoured kine and fat-fleshed and they fed in a medow Some render it so here Can the medow grow without water Both flags and medows are such drinkers that they quickly wither if they want water which Bildad gives us plainly in the next verse Verse 12. Whilest it is yet in his greennesse and not cut down it withereth before any other herb Whilest it is yet in his greennesse Or shooting up in his stemme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abib est spica maturescens veâ—spica cum calamo inde Ibbo virgultuÌ„ aut lignum virens in eo sc tempore quo est parens novarum frugum froâ—dium Vel ob 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pater q. d. in paternitate sua Some derive the Hebrew word from Ab Father and so it may be rendered from the letter of the Hebrew though the expression be somewhat uncouth While it is yet in it's paternity or fatherhood that is while it is flourishing and procreative Others derive it from Abib which signifies an ear of corn or the ear with the stalk Hence the moneth Abib among the Jews had its name because in those climates corn was then eared and began to be ripe it was the first moneth to the Israelites because of their coming out of Aegypt and answered to part of our March and part of April Exod. 13.4 Chap. 23.15 This day came ye out in the moneth
not that is doe not thinke of this and so be proud of it Be not lifted up upon an outward priviledge which will stand you in no stead at all if you stand upon it Except you be changed and born again of the Spirit it will not avail you that you are born of Abrahams flesh If Abrahams faith be not in your hearts it shall be no advantage to you that Abrahams bloud runs in your veins The word is so used again Phil. 3.4 If any one thinketh he may be confident I much more If any one may have an opinion of himself in regard of outward priviledges surely I may but I will not So then an opinion or a conceitednesse of our knowledge blasts all our knowledge such a man knoweth nothing as he ought to know he knoweth somewhat by rote but he doth not know any thing as a Christian ought by heart By how much we have the more true knowledge of the highest objects by so much we have the lower thoughts of our knowledge It is best to know as much as we can of the best things and to thinke as little as we can of our selves Our daies upon earth are a shadow But were not the daies of all the fathers a shadow Yes the longest life is but a long shadow he means comparatively our lives are shorter by much then theirs were and therefore but a shadow There are three sorts of shadows 1. Naturall 2. Civill 3. Spirituall First A naturall shadow is a dark light caused by the comming of some thick body between us and the Sunne This is a shadow in a proper and strict acception Secondly Besides the naturall there is a civill shadow Protection is a shadow and to be under a shadow is to be protected We translate Numb 14 9. Their defence is departed from them the Hebrew is Their shadow So Isa 4.5 25.4 Thirdly A shadow is taken for a dark or imperfect representation of things spirituall so all the Ceremonies of the old Law are called shadows Heb. 8.5 10.1 9.9 Col. 2.17 Ceremonial vvorship is expressed by a shadow because it was but an obscure representation of the truth The Ceremonies were interposed between Christ the true light and us and so cast a shadow of him Or as a Painter vvho is to draw the lively figure or shape of a man at first makes an obscure draught or some imperfect lines of the body but afterwards gives it beauty and lustre to the life The Mosaicall rites were such a shadow of heavenly things Yet further a shadow vvhich comes nearest the meaning of this text notes the least imaginable sign or semblance of a thing So Jam. 1.17 when the Apostle saith That with God the Father of lights there is not so much as a shadow of turning he means there is not the least sign or token of turning with God When Bildad saith Our daies upon earth are but as a shadow vve may understand it either of the time past and so our life is but as a shadow that is gone Or it may be meant of the whole life of man taken together The life of man take it from the beginning to the ending from the Alpha to the Omega from the first to the last of it is a shadow The comparison is frequent in Scripture I shall not need to stay upon it See two or three particulars of the resemblance 1. The life of man is as a shadow Vmbra est quid tnane nihil habens solidae substantiae because it hath little in it that is substantiall a shadow is opposed to a substance our life rather seems to be then is it is so quickly gone 2. A shadow though sometimes it be put for protection and safety yet implies unsetlednesse and uncertainty Vmbra denotat malefidam stationem protectionem fugacem nam qui sub umbra dormit proditur statiâ— atque traditur radiis soâ—is Pined if a man stands or rests under a shadow the shadow will leave him 't will be gone from him and betray him to the scorching Sunne-beams a shadow never keeps long in one place but varies with the motion of the Sunne and vvhen it is high noon the shadow goes quite up and is not There is such an uncertainty in the life of man it holds not one tenour it staies not in any state there is a deceitfulnesse in it changes are upon it The greatest certainty of our lives is that they are uncertain In generall the life of man being compared to a shadow teaches us that it is short moveable and unconstant there is no hold or tack in it Psal 102.11 My daies are like a shadow that declineth The encrease of our daies hath a declension in it 1 Chron. 29.15 We are strangers before thee and sojourners as were all our fathers our daies on the earth are as the shadow How doth he explain that There is none abiding in our daies as there is no abiding in a shadow Homo vocatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pin. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aesch Many of the Ancients have represented the life of man not only as a shadow but lesse then a shadow A dream of a shadow a shadow of a shâ—dow an Idol of a shâ—dow which is the lowest expression that can be as much as to say a nothing of nothing An Idol is nothing in the world God made no such thing in the world And though our daies be made by God in the world yet they are no such thing as God made or as the world makes them We have met with points about the shortnes and transitorines of mans life often in this book I shall therefore only adde a word here It is our wisdome forasmuch as our life on earth is as a shadow that we improve this shadow to gain assurance of eternall light Life here is but a fleeting shadow that to come is an abiding substance Shall we for the pleasures and comforts of a life which is no more enduring then a shadow hazard the pleasures and comforts of a life which endures for ever A man hath not a shadow of reason Attendat igitur homo in diebus umbrae suae ut faciat aliquid dignum defide ratae lâ—cis suae Aug in Ps 143. not a shadow of true wisdome and understanding who will spend out a shadowish life in those things which are but a shadow neglecting that which is the true light and will bring us to eternall light Bildad having put in this parenthesis as a reason why he sends Job to the fathers gives him an encouragement at the tenth verse to make this enquiry he tels him what he shall get for his pains in consulting with those former ages and with the fathers Verse 10. Shall not they teach thee and tell thee and utter words out of their heart As if he had said Thou shalt not lose thy labour by enquiring into those ancient times shall not
God is to forget what God requires this Forgetfulnesse of these three sorts is productive of any of every sin Lastly Observe They that forget God shall quickly wither how great and flourishing soever they are The reason is this because the forgetting of God is a departing from God and he that departs from God departs from the fountain of life If the rush go out of the water it quickly withers and if men will depart from God they shall quickly decay neither grace nor comforts can hold out separated from Christ Why is the godly man compared to a tree planted by the river side which brings forth fruit in his season whose leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doth shall prosper Why is the man that trusts in the Lord compared to a Tree planted by the waters that spreads out her roots by the river and shall not see when heat commeth Jer. 17.7 8. is it not because the Saints alwaies keep close to God by Jesus Christ who is as an everliving fountain of water to them refreshing and moistening them so with continuall supplies of the Spirit that they shall not see when heat commeth that is they shall not be afflicted with those evil effects of heat drought and barrennesse They who keep Covenant with God may possibly feel some decaies but die they shall not they shall revive and sprout up again They shall again put forth their leaves as a plant and their fruit as the garden of Eden They shall bring forth fruit in old age they shall be fat and flourishing And the hypocrites hope shall perish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Similavit dissimulavit ce ulte peccavit per Metaphoram pollutus contaminatus The word which we translate hypocrite comes from a root that signifies close and covered and by a Metaphor polluted defiled contaminated because an hypocrite though he be outwardly covered and beautifully painted over yet his paint is a spot upon him All painting is but a spot in comparison of naturall beauty An hypocrite is not so much painted as polluted Hence he is called a vile person Isa 32.6 The vile person will speak villany and his heart will work iniquity to practise hypocrisie and to utter errour against the Lord. We have the character of hypocrites Isa 58.3 They daily call upon my Name as a people that would know the Lord As a people an hypocrite doth but play a part in religion he doth but personate another like an actour upon a stage who puts forth the severall postures and gestures of a King when as himself is some mean fellow An hypocrite is described acting a double part the one is similation he labours to appear what he is not he would seem to have some good which he hath not Externasaâ—ie internam sanctitatem mentitur And the other is dissimulation he labours not to appear what he is he would hide and cover the evil that he hath An hypocrite is one who seems to be what he is not and would not seem what he is He is a Jew outwardly and his religion circumcision outward in the flesh Rom. 1.18 He seems to be religious Jam. 1.26 He is a whited sepulchre Mat. 23.27 stately on the out-side within nothing but rottennesse and dead bones The hypocrite hath a divided heart Hos 10.3 and a double minde Jam. 1.8 He is not half enough for God and too much for himself Hypocrites are of two sorts some in a large others in a strict sense Most wicked men are hypocrites in a large sense though some are above hypocrisie they are arrived at impudence The Prophet speaks of such Isa 3.9 The shew of their countenance doth witnesse against them and they declare their sin as Sodome they hide it not They declare it not as the mourners in Zion declare their sinne who are ashamed of it but they declare it as Sodome her sin that they may delight in it But though there are some such as these yet the greatest number of wicked men fall under the notion of hypocrisie in a large sense because they keep their sins close and hide them Hence the works of sinne are called works of darknesse Wicked men usually hide their wickednesse and shew that which hath but a shew their goodnesse But in a strict sense he is an hypocrite that seems to be very religious who hath nothing but God and Christ and heaven in his mouth but in his heart and secret practices nothing but earth and hell The hypocrite is like the Onyx-stone of which Naturalists write that it is clear and bright in the superficies but the center is dark and earthy This generation is pure not only in their own eyes Prov. 30.12 but in the eyes of many men possibly in the eyes of all men yet are they not cleansed from their wickednesse The hypocrites hope shall perish That is the time shall come when he shall give over the hope which he hath hoped or the thing shall fail him wherein he hoped First the object of his hope shall fail him that is those benefits blessings accommodations and comforts which he looked for in the profession of religion these shall fail him and prove false hopes Hypocrites Mat. 7. plead with Christ for heaven Lord we have prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name cast out devils c. but their hopes perished Depart from me saith Christ I know you not His hope perisheth when he cannot have the things he hoped for Secondly The act of his hope shall fail his hope shall be so long deferred that his hope shall die he never had any true ground of hope and at the last he shall not have a shew of hope His hope shall perish Observe from the name given hypocrites First That hypocrites are filthy and polluted persons None are so ugly in the eye of God as they who paint for spirituall beauty Pretended holines is more unlovely then professed unholines to them that can discern it As it is said of Nabal 1 Sam. 20. Nabal is his name and folly is with him So we may say of an hypocrite filthinesse is his name and filth is in him Nabal had his name from folly and hypocrites have theirs from filthines Observe secondly Hypocrites may be full of hope for a time They have somewhat though it be unsound upon which they build they think what they do and are will serve turn and go for currant with God This raises up their spirits Some hypocrites will be full of hope even while they are descending to the pit of despair Some hypocrites are not convinced of their hypocrisie to the very last such die in peace while they are going down to eternall warre They go away as we use to say like lambs when their souls are among lions and they are tumbling into the place of dragons Observe thirdly The hope of hypocrites will deceive and fail them God rejects their confidences they shall not prosper in them Jer. 2.37 Lastly
but I have not set them for Prophets If any presume to declare or resolve what shall be done I resolve to punish their presumption I take delight to frustrate men who delight in this and to befool them who would be thus wise This is my name The God that stretcheth out the heavens alone and that maketh diviners mad Great disappointments enrage and some men lose their reason when they lose the credit of doing things above reason Because they cannot be as Gods to fore-tell good or evil they will not be so much as men He makes the diviners mad The Law was peremptory and severe against them Deut. 18.9 There shall not be found amongst you any one that useth divination or is an observer of times why not an observer of times may we not observe times and seasons May we not look up to the heavens and consider their motions Yes we may observe times holily but not superstitiously as if some times were good others bad some lucky others unlucky as if the power of God were shut up in or over-ruled by his own instruments and inferiour causes this is dishonourable unto God and thus the Jews were forbidden to use any divination or to observe times The heavens and stars are for signs but they are not infallible signs They are ordinary signs of the change of weather Mat. 16.2 3. They are ordinary signs of the seasons of the year Spring and Summer and harvest and winter they are ordinary signs of a fit time to till and manure the ground to plow sowe and reap The earth is fitted and prepared for culture by the motion of the heavens The heavens are at once the Alphabet of the power and wisdom of God and of our works we may read there when to do many businesses Gen. 8.22 While the earth remaineth seed-time and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease Those seasons shall continually return according to the time of the year measured by the Sun Moon and Stars Thus they are signs of ordinary events And God sometimes puts the sign of an extraordinary event in them Mat. 24.29 Immediately after the tribulation of those daies shall the Sunne be darkned and the Moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken which some understand allegorically others literally of strange apparitions and impressions in heaven either before the destruction of Jerusalem or the day of judgement So Act. 2.19 20 c. Thus God puts a sign in them of extraordinary events But shall man from them prognosticate and fore-tell extraordinary events as when there shall be famine and pestilence war and trouble in Nations This the Lord abhorreth The counsels of God about these things are written in his own heart what is man that he should transcribe them from the heavens But if men will say they are written there God will blot out what they say and prove theirs to be but humane divinations yea that they were received from hell not written in heaven Isa 47.13 I will destroy the signs of them that divine let now the Astrologers the star-gazers the monethly Prognosticatours stand up and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee Behold they shall be as stubble they shall not be able to deliver themselves It is good to be a starre-beholder but a wicked thing to be a starre-gazer that is to look upon the stars so as if we could spell out the secret providences of God and read future events in the book of those creatures It is our duty to look upon the heavens as they declare the glory of God but it is a sin to look upon the heavens as if they could declare the destinies fates and fortunes of men All which vanities are largely and learnedly confuted by M Perkins in his book called The resolution of the Countrey-man about Prognostications Now that the successe of every creature is in God not in the stars we may see first in the order of the creation God created the earth and commanded it to bring forth fruit upon the third day but the lights in the firmament were made the fourth day The earth can bring forth without the midwifery or help of the heavens God himself made the earth fruitfull without yea before the stars were made Philo Judaers de opificio munâ—i Upon which one of the Ancients gives this observation Surely saith he the Lord in his providence made the earth fruitfull in all its glory before he put the stars in the heavens to the intent to make men see that the fruitfulnesse of the earth doth not depend upon the heavens or stars God needs neither the rain of the clouds nor the warmth of the Sun to produce these effects He that made all second causes to work in their ranks can work without the intervention of any second cause And because the Lord fore-saw men would dote much upon second causes and venture to prognosticate by the heavens the fates of men and the fruitfulnesse of the earth therefore he made the earth fruitfull before he made Arcturus or placed those constellations in the heavens Secondly The providence of God works under the decree of God His providence is the execution of his decree Therefore we must not bring the decrees down to providence but we must raise providence up to the decrees Thirdly The heavens and those heavenly bodies Arcturus c. are but generall causes there are speciall causes besides of the earths barrennesse or fruitfulnesse of tempests at sea and troubles at land and the Lord is able to invert all causes to work beyond causes without causes and against causes So that nothing can be infallibly fore-told from the positions conjunctions or revolutions of those heavenly bodies Lastly Observe That it is our duty to study the heavens and be acquainted with the stars In them the wonderfull works of God are seen and a sober knowledge in nature may be an advantage unto grace Holy David was such a student Psal 8.3 When I consider thy heavens the work of thy fingers the Moon and the Stars which thou hast ordained Consideration is not a transient or accidental but a resolved and a deliberate act Shall we think that God hath made those mighty bodies the stars to be past by without consideration Shall men only pore upon a lump of earth and not have their hearts lifted up to consider those lamps of light Shall man make no more use of the stars then the beasts of the earth do namely to see by them When I consider thy heavens saith David Heaven is the most considerable of all inanimate creatures and more considerable then most of the animate and Davids when when I consider the heavens notes not only a certainty that he did it but frequency in doing it Some of the Rabbins tell us that when Isaac went out into the field to meditate Gen.
The superiour may ask the inferiour and call him to an account Every inferâ—our Judge and Court is accountable to those above that is the highest Court and he the highest Judge to whom no man can say What doest thou The Parliament of England is therefore the highest Judicatory in this Kingdom because their actions are not questionable in any other Court one Parliament may say to another What hast thou done This Parliament hath said to Parliaments that have gone before What have ye done in making such and such Laws No power of man besides their own can question some men much lesse can any man question God and say to him What doest thou He is supreme there is no appeal to any other higher Judge or higher Court. Hence observe Whatsoever God resolveth and determineth concerning us we must bear it and quietly submit No man may say unto him What doest thou Quicquid de nobis Deus statuit libenter ferendum est Why doe ye sit still saith the Prophet Jer. 8.14 Assemble your selves and let us enter into the defenced Cities and let us be silent there for the Lord hath put us to silence and given us waters of gall to drinke because we have sinned against him The Lord hath put us to silence that is the Lord hath done these things and we are not to question him about them or to ask him what he hath done or why he hath done thus Therefore let us be silent say they Let us not murmure at and complain over our own sufferings much lesse tax and charge God for his doings It becomes us to obey Gods suspension to be silent when he puts us to silence The Lord never silences any unlesse in wrath to those who would not hear from speaking in his name and publishing his vvord But he hath silenced all from speaking against his works and it will be ill with us if our passions how much soever God seems to act against us shall take off this suspension The Lord is uncontrollable in all his works When Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 4.35 came to himself and began to think and speak like a man after he had been among the beasts see what an humble acknowledgement he makes concerning God All the inhabitants of the earth saith he are reputed as nothing and he doth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him What doest thou Here we have both parts of Jobs speech none can stay his hand which is the former and none can say unto him What doest thou which is the later That great Monarch acknowledged he had no power to question God though he at that time had power to question all the men upon the earth Nebuchadnezzar speaks like Job A wicked man may make a true report of God Many speak right of the Lord whose hearts are not right with him Nebuchadnezzar was converted from beastlinesse but I finde not that he was converted to holinesse He came home to his own Court but I see no proof that he came home to the Church of God yet see how divinely he speaks and how humbly he walks not so much as offering to ask God who had chang'd him from a Commander of men to a companion of beasts What doest thou We may ask the Lord in one sense what he doth Yea the Lord doth nothing in the world but his Saints and servants are enquiring of him about it He invites them to petition for what they would have Ask of me things to come concerning my sons and concerning the work of my hands command ye me Isa 45.11 Though man cannot order or enjoyn the least thing upon God yet at the entreaty of his people he is as ready to doe as if he were at their command And as we are thus envited to ask things to come so we are not totally denied to ask about things already done We may ask him in an humble way for information not in a bold way of contradiction We may in zeal to his glory not in discontent with our own condition expostulate with him about what he hath done So Joshua Chap. 7.7 8. Alas O Lord God wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us Would to God we had been content and dwelt on the other side Jordan c. but how durst Joshua speak thus What if God vvould destroy them vvas it not his dury to bear it and let God alone Yes doubtlesse and such I doubt not vvas the frame of Joshuas spirit If Israel only had been to suffer Joshua had held his peace at least from such language but he saw a further matter in it the glory of God vvas like to suffer in their sufferings the close of his praier betraies this holy disposition of his heart vers 9. And what wilt thou doe unto thy great name As if he had said Lord the matter were not much though the name of Israel were blotted out from under heaven so thy Name were written in fairer characters But I fear a blow to Israel will be a blot to thy name and therefore I have taken upon me to pray this praier unto thee and I have praied rather for thee than to thee All praiers are made to God and yet some are made for him Not that he hath any want or is in any the remotest possibility of any danger but only for the promoting of his glory and that the world may not have occasion of a dishonourable thought of him whose honour never abates in it self or in the eyes of his own people Thus we may ask him what he hath done and why he hath brought such desolations upon his people But we may not ask him what he hath done either to question his right to doe it or to question his righteousnesse in doing of it No creature may put the question upon either of these terms What hast thou done much lesse conclude Thou hast done that which thou hast no right to do or thou hast been unrighteous in doing it Either of these is highest blasphemy for whatsoever the Lord doth he hath right to doe and whatsoever the Lord doth he is righteous in doing it Hence it followeth by way of corollary That The Lord is of absolute power He is the Soveraign Lord Lord over all there is no appeal from him no questioning of him Solomon speaketh of the power of a King in this language Eccles 8.4 Where the word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him What doest thou But is there nothing which a King doth about which it may be said unto him What dost thou And what is this word of a King The word of a King is the Law of his Kingdom all that a King doth or speaks besides the Law he speaks as a man not as a King and that 's the meaning of Solomons
which hath got him this knowledge his knowledge is in him and with him and from himself he fetches not his knowledge from sence nor doth he take it up by information He learns it not by demonstration raised from the things themselves nor by the collation of one thing with another He doth not know this to be so because that is so but all things are so because he knows them He knows all 1. Fully not to halves 2. Certainly not probably 3. Actually not possibly 4. At once not successively as not one thing by another so not one thing after another Such are the eminencies and transcendencies of the knowledge of God The Scripture speaks sometimes as if God derived his knowledge from report or as if he did not know whether a people were vvicked or no till he had enquired When the new world vvas building their Babel the Lord said Let us go down to see the City Gen. 11.5 And when Sodom was burning in lust the Lord resolved I will go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which is come unto me and if not I will know Gen. 18.21 In both those places of Scripture God comes down to our capacity but he comes not down to any place in the vvorld He needs not come any vvhether who is every vvhere God speaks after the manner of men but he acts not after the manner of men God gives us an example what we should do he doth not work after our example Lest we should judge before we see God saith I vvill go down and see before I judge lest we should censure one another upon fames and common cries without further enquiry whether it be so or no therefore the Lord saith I will go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry that is come unto me God knew Sodom vvas vvicked before he came down but he came down to make it known that he knew it As those Scriptures seem to import that God knew not how vvicked the builders of Babel were or the dwellers in Sodome till he took pains to enquire so another Scripture imports that he did not know Abraham vvas a godly man till he made an experiment of it by putting him upon that hard piece of obedience the offering up of his son Now I know thou fearest me Gen. 22.12 as if the Lord had collected his knowledge of vvhat Abraham vvas from vvhat Abraham did But that testimony of God Now I know is but now I have made it known or now I know that in the fruit vvhich I knew before in the root now I see my fear in thy works as before I saw it in thy faith That place Deut. 8.2 bears a like sense where Moses bespeaks Israel thus Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these fourty years in the wildernesse to humble thee and to prove thee to know what was in thine heart whether thou wouldest keep his Commandments or no. The Lord needed not fourty years no nor one minutes experience to make up his thoughts concerning that people he knew vvhat they vvere at first sight and vvhat they vvould prove even a stubborn an unbelieving and a back-sliding people before they vvere God proved them not to know vvhat vvas in their hearts but that we might know it that vvhat he knew by his internall immediate inspection others also might know by externall observation It vvould not have been believed that they vvere so bad if God had not drawn it out by that fourty years variety of his dispensations towards them Or Moses describes God after the manner of men vvho prove things that they may know them vvhereas indeed God knows and then proves them Thirdly Considering how Job comes in vvith this assurance Thou knowest that I am not wicked to relieve himself in his distresse vve may observe That it is matter of highest consolation to the Saints to know and remember that God knows them That God knows their hearts and lives is the joy of their hearts and lives How rejoycingly doth David speak Psal 139.1 2. O Lord thou hast searched me and known me thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising c. He seems to be as glad that God knew him as that God vvould save him My witnesse is in heaven and my record is on high vvas Iobs resort again vvhen his friends scorned him chap. 16.19 There are no mistakes in God he vvill give right evidence as a vvitnes and a righteous sentence as a Judge Again That God knows us assures us First That vvhat vve have done shall not be forgotten God is not unrighteous to forget our work and labour of love c. Heb. 6.10 It assures us Secondly That vve shall not be mis-interpreted for vvhat vve have done The reason vvhy many men have so ill an opinion of others is because they have so little knowledge of them Ignorance makes as corrupt glosses as unsound decisions upon persons and actions as it doth upon texts or questions Some pervert knowingly and against light but most pervert ignorantly and for vvant of light God knows us perfectly and he never acts against his knowledge It assures us Thirdly That vve shall be well accepted and rewarded Though men make ill requitals and pay in bad yea in base coyn yet every man shall receive of God according to vvhat he is and vvhat his vvorks are Gen. 4.7 If thou dost well Shalt thou not be accepted Lastly It is a comfort to us vvhile vve are uncertain about our own estates to know that God knoweth us God hath a better opinion of some men then they have of themselves Some do not only think but judge and conclude themselves vvicked vvhen God knoweth that they are not vvicked The foundation of God standeth sure having this seal The Lord knoweth who are his Fourthly Thou knowest that I am not wicked Then observe To do wickedly or to be wicked is inconsistent with grace If Job had been a vvicked man he had been a lost man Sin is not inconsistent vvith grace but vvickednes is But you vvill say What is vvickednesse And vvhen is a man so sinfull that he is to be numbred among the vvicked To clear that because Job ventures all upon it I answer first In every vvicked man sin reigneth that is sin hath not only a being in him but dominion over him he yeeldeth ready and free obedience to it as to his naturall Lord not a forced and involuntary obedience only as to a tyrant Our committing of sin gives not the rule to sinne but our submitting to it As a man may do many good things and yet grace not raign and rule in his heart so it is possible for a man to do many evil things and yet not have sin rule in his heart A man may lay by the actings of a sin and yet that be a raigning sinne and a man may fall into the act of sin
and that God means us no good when we doe not enjoy good But the strong faith speaketh on this wise Lord I know there is mercy in thine heart towards me though I see nothing in thy face but frowns and feel nothing from thy hand but blows Let God do what he pleaseth with me I will not have a jealous thought of him or suspect his intentions towards me whatsoever his actions be Secondly observe We may gather arguments of support in our greatest sufferings from the apprehension of concealed mercies The skill and holy subtilty of faith can winde it self in Gods bosome and from what it findes lying secretly there for us encourages us to bear what is openly laid upon us Lastly Observe A believer looks upon all his receits as coming out of the heart of God As he can look into his own heart and see all the Commandments and revealed counsels of God hidden there so he can look into the heart of God and see all the comforts he wanteth hidden there Men of the world take their comforts only from the hand of God Saints take theirs from the heart of God It putteth the price upon every blessing when we can look upon speciall love as the spring of it Look how much of the heart of our friend we can see in a courtesie so much true value there is in it Hence it is usuall with man when he would expresse his freenesse to those who desire a favour at his hands to say Yes Take it with heart and good will you have it with all my heart We reade of one who complained he had received but a golden cup when he saw another receive a kisse from a noble Prince A kisse is a better gift then a cup of gold Love is the richest present How happy then are they who have the golden cup and a kisse too much from the hand and all from the heart from the love of God Job having thus revised and read over the particular of his former mercies received from the bounty and free love of God revives his complaint about and renews his desire of deliverance from present sorrows in his next addresse to God JOB Chap. 10. Vers 14 15 16 17. If I sinne then thou markest me and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity If I be wicked woe unto me if I be righteous yet will I not lift up my head I am full of confusion therefore see thou mine affliction For it encreaseth Thou huntest me as a fierce lion and again thou shewest thy self marvellous upon me Thou renewest thy witnesses against me and encreasest thine indignation upon me changes and war are against me THe connection of these words lieth somewhat in the dark and this inevidence hath caused divers conjectures about it 1. Some make the connection with the 13. verse I know said Job that this is with thee and here he declareth what was with him namely that If I sinne then thou markest me and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity 2. The connection is made by others with the 12. verse Thou hast granted me life and favour and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit yet if I sin thou markest me c. As if Job had said Though thou hast been pleased to make so many grants of favour and hast done all those things for me which were hidden in thine heart yet I know thou wilt not bear with or connive at me If I sinne against thee Thou hast not given me these mercies that I should be imboldened to transgresse the rule of thy justice no though thou hast done much for me Yet if I sin thou markest me and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity 3. A third goeth higher and makes these words depend upon the third verse where Job puts three Queries to God the last of which is Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest shine upon the counsel of the wicked I know it is not for 't is like I might escape as well as another yet If I sinne thou markest me and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity If I be wicked woe unto me Mine own experience proves thee farre enough from shining upon the counsell of the wicked Behold clouds and darknesse are upon me There is a fair sense in any of these connections which to determine is not easie I shall leave all three before the Reader Verse 14. If I sin then thou markest me If I sinne Sin standeth here in opposition to wickednesse Thou wilt not shine upon the counsel of the wicked And vers 15. If I be wicked then woe unto me for if I sinne then thou markest me Sin is any transgression against or deviation though but an hairs bredth from the rule if I fail be it never so little Then thou markest me The Originall hath four significations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which occasion as many different interpretations of the text First To preserve and that two wales first by protecting from those evils which others would bring upon us Psal 141.9 Keep me from the snare which they have laid That is Protect me from the danger which their snares threaten me with So at the 12th verse of this Chapter Thy visitation doth preserve my spirit Secondly It is rendered to preserve by sparing or not bringing those evils upon us which our own sins have deserved So the Vulgar here who to make out his sense Si peccavi ad horam pepercisti mihi c. Vulg. puts the later part into the form of an interrogation If I have sinned and thou hast spared me for a time Wherefore then dost thou not acquit me from mine iniquity As if the meaning of Job were this When in former times I sinned against thee thou wast pleased to remit of thy severity and deal gently with me Thou didst spare me as a father spareth a sonne that serveth him Why is the tenour of thy dispensations so much changed from what it was seeing thou art a God that changest not and I am but what I was a weak and changeable man Why am I now charged with sinne and not set free as sometimes I have been from sorrow the fruit of it Wilt thou deal with me who sinne out of infirmity or against my will as with those who are wicked and have a will to sin Secondly To prevent others from doing what they desire or our selves from what we fear Psal 18.23 I was upright before him and I kept my self from mine iniquity As if he had said I have maintained such a strict watch over my own heart that I have prevented my self from falling into that sin which I was most subject to and in danger of both in regard of my constitution and temptation Taking this meaning of the word the whole verse is rendered thus If or when I am ready to sinne thou stoppest or preventest me Why then dost thou not acquit me from mine iniquity As if he had said Lord wilt