called Prophecie which included vision and any apparition whereby the will of God was made known They had a second way of Goodw. Hebr. Antiq. divine revelation which they called The inspiration of the Holy Ghost whereby the party was inabled without vision or apparition to prophesie either as prophesying is taken for the foretelling of things to come or for the resolving of things in doubt The Rabbins give us the difference between these two prophecie and inspiration In prophecie though it was from the Holy Ghost a man was cast into a trance or brought into an extasie his senses being taken away but speaking by inspiration of the Holy Ghost was without any such change in or impressions upon the body So David and other Pen-men of the Scriptures wrote by the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost yet without visible apparitions to them or visible change upon them Thirdly God revealed himselfe by Vrim and Thummim which was an answer given by the Ephod or by the stones that were on the breast-plate of the high Priest These three wayes of divine revelation as they observe ceased in the second Temple The Jewish writers having this tradition That after the latter Prophets Haggai Zechariah and Malachy the Holy Ghost departed from Israel meaning the Holy Ghost not in the ordinarie work of sanctification but in those extraordinary wayes of prophecy inspiration and of Vrim and Thummim went up and departed from them There was yet a fourth way of divine revelation which they call Bathcoll the daughter of a voice or eccho declaring the will of God immediately from Heaven such some conceive to be the voice heard from Heaven Math. 3. 1. proclaiming the testimonie of God concerning Christ a voice was heard from Heaven saying this is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased But to passe from these traditions of the Jewes we shall give you the doctrine of divine revelations more distinctly from the Scriptures We finde Numb 12. 6 7 8. three distinct wayes in which the Lord revealed himselfe of old unto his people If there be a Prophet among you I the Lord will make my selfe known unto him in a vision and will speake unto him in a dreame My servant Moses is not so who is faithfull in all mine house with him will I speake mouth to mouth even apparently and not in darke speeches and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold This is an illustrious text describing three distinct wayes or degrees of holy revelation First by vision which we have here in Job Secondly by a Dreame which was when God presented somewhat to them sleeping This kinde of revelation God vouchsafed not only to his own people and Prophets but to Heathens also and strangers from his Covenant Pharaoh had a revelation by a dreame Gen. 41. concerning the seven yeares of famine and Nebuchadnezzar had a wonderfull revelation by a dreame Dan. 2. concerning the state of the foure Monarchies The wise men of the East were warned in a dreame to returne into their Countrey another way Math. 2. But with the Saints these revelations by dreames were very frequent Jacob Gen. 28. in a dreame as he slept upon a stone saw a ladder c. Joseph Jacobs son had so many dreames that his brethren jeered him with it and called him the Captaine-dreamer The dreamer a Master of dreames Gen. 37. 19. Joseph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the husband of Mary was twice warned in a dreame first that he should not forsake his wife Mat. 1. and then that he should goe into Egypt Mat. 3. Many other the like revelations by dreames might be instanced in but I forbeare There is a third way spoken of in this text and that is speaking mouth to mouth my servant Moses is not so with him will I speake mouth to mouth even apparently This is a more eminent way of heavenly manifestations than the former Moses had a priviledge above the ordinary Prophets For to speake mouth to mouth is expounded by Apparently I will speake plainely or apparently not in a vision or in a dreame When a man speakes mouth to mouth to his friend or as the Scripture phrases our communion with God in Heaven face to face This is opposed to a more remote or obscure communion As our seeing God face to face in Heaven so his speaking to us mouth to mouth on earth notes the clearest and fullest revelation It is to give us his minde nakedly without any figure or shadow or as Christ is said once in the Gospel to speake plainely and not in Parables And these speakings mouth to mouth were of two sorts Either immediate as himselfe did unto Moses or as to others by the ministry of Angels God often employed Angels in this service to declare his minde and bring messages to his people This was a kinde of speaking mouth to mouth but Moses had an honour beyond this with him will I speake mouth to mouth I by my selfe not I by a created Angell Visions to keep to the terme in hand were you see a principall meanes by which God broke his minde and unlockt the secrets of his counsels If there be a Prophet among you I the Lord will make my selfe known unto him in a vision And to cleere this point about visions yet more fully We may distinguish of divers sorts of visions First A vision is sometime put for any ordinary dispensation of the will of God to his Prophets or Ministers who as from God dispense it to his people Prov. 29. 18. Where vision faileth the people perish that is where there are none to publish and declare the minde of God no not in an ordinary way to a people that people are in the ready way to perdition Without the visions of grace there is no ordinary way to the visions of glory Secondly By a vision we understand an extraordinary work of God manifesting his minde to his Prophets either to assure future successes or to resolve doubtfull Quaeries And these were called Visio est omnis doctâ—ina dâ—viniâ—ùs revelata quia Deus quibuscunque vsum est revelare res ipsas quodamâ—do videndas spectandas oculis servorum suo um exhibet ad obsignandam earum certitudinem Jun. in 1 cap. Isa visions because by them things were made so manifest as if they had been seene before their eyes and in some of these revelations a visible representation was made to the eye visions were often attended with apparitions In reference to both these sorts of visions that is appliable 1 Sam. 9. 9. Before time in Israel when a man went to enquire of God thus he spake Come let us goe to the Seer for he that is now called a Prophet was before time called a Seer Prophets were called Seers because in visions they had either an ocular or an intellectuall sight of the minde of God Secondly Visions may undergoe this division There was an open vision and there was a private vision
thou shalt find but few in the troubles which thou hast borne even those thou wilt find altogether unlike thee in bearing those troubles Scarce any of the godly ever suffered such things as thou hast done but none of the godly ever did such things in their sufferings As he argues him in the first verse of hypocrisie by his unlikenesse to the Saints so in the next words he argues him of hypocrisie by his likenesse to the wicked His first argument for this lyes in the second verse and in the three following verses there lyes a second argument to confirme the same point He attempts to prove Job like a foole or a wicked man two wayes 1. In his manner of suffering 2. In the matter of his suffering First saith he thou art like a foole or like a foolish man like the worst of men in the manner of thy carriage under sufferings The argument may be framed thus He that behaveth himselfe like a foole or like a wicked man while he is in trouble is a man either openly wicked or grossely hypocriticall But Job thou behavest thy selfe like a foolish or a wicked man in thy troubles Therefore thou art wicked c. The Assumption or Minor Proposition is in the second verse Wrath killeth the foolish and envy slayeth the silly one As if he should say Thou pinest ragest and vexest thy selfe under they sufferings after the rate of foolish and silly ones that is sinfull and wicked ones Secondly He would prove Job to be a hypocrite because his sufferings for the matter of them were like the judgements which God uses to powre forth upon wicked und ungodly men and that argument may be thus framed Wicked men flourish a while and then sudden destruction commeth upon them they and their children and their whole estates are swallowed up in a moment But Job thou having flourished a little while wast suddenly surprised and swallowed up by judgements thou thy estate thy children all devoured and consumed Therefore thou art a wicked man a very hypocrite God hath dealt with thee as he uses to deale with his enemies and therefore thou art not his friend This is the Logicke of the context or the reasons couched in them whereby Eliphaz would convince Job of sinne By this a generall light is let into the whole Context Now we will consider the words and open their sense distinctly Call now if there be any that will answer thee and to which of the Saints wilt thou turne Interpreters vary much about the meaning of these words First Some of the Jewish Writers looke upon these words as proceeding from hight and pride of spirit in Eliphaz as if he disdained to talke with Job any longer about the businesse as if he looking upon Job as no match for him in point of argument bids him looke out an Angel or a Saint to grapple with him in these disputes and see if he could find any one of those who would undertake for him as an Advocate or be his Second forasmuch as himselfe was so unable to defend his cause or justifie what he had done Call now if there be any that will answer thee that is answer for thee or to which of the Saints wilt thou turne for help to patronize or plead thy cause But I shall passe that Secondly Others of the Jewish writers make the sense out thus as if Eliphaz had said with Paul in the point of the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11. 24. That which I have delivered unto you I have received of the Lord so that which I delivered unto thee in my former argument I received from the Lord in a vision it was revealed unto me from Heaven now doe thou try whether thou canst learne any thing from Heaven or from the Saints upon the earth who are instructed to and for the Kingdome of Heaven which may answer my arguments or confute the reasons which I have broughc against thee I had a vision from Heaven now call thou to Heaven and see if thou canst have any answer from thence Turne also to the Saints to any Saint upon the earth and see what they will answer thee I believe thou wilt not find one amongst them all differing in judgement from me or from that Oracle with Nemo tibi pravè corrupteq de his rebus iudicanti patronus aderit nemo qui tibi respondeat tibi acâ—inat tuam sententiam â—ueatur which I have now acquainted thee They will all agree with me in these great principles about the providence power and justice of God about the sufferings sinfullnesse and weaknesse of man That 's a second sense Thirdly Others take the words as an Ironie as a derision or scorne put upon Job by Eliphaz As if Eliphaz had mocked him thus Thou hast handled the matter well thou hast carried thy selfe so in the dayes of thy peace and prosperity that now when thou art in trouble thou mayest call long enough and cry till thy throat akes and thy spirits be spent and yet have none to answer thee none to speake a word to thee or to doe thee any good though thou cry to all the Saints and send to all thy friends round about thee yet in this day none will heare or regard thee Thou wilt find thy selfe forsaken of all no man will give thee any assistance or take any care of thy condition Just as Elijah brake forth in holy scorne against the Prophets of Baal 1 King 18. 27. when they were crying out to their Idol for helpe and a signe by fire Cry aloud saith he cry aloud he bad them cry aloud yet he knew the Idol was deafe and dumbe and could neither heare their cry nor give them answer So Eliphaz seemes to speake to Job Cry aloud now to this to that Saint with whom thou art acquainted here on earth or cry to Heaven cry to God himselfe call this way call that if any will answer thee either God above or Saint below thou shalt not find here or there any to assist any to releeve thee And so he seems to allude to that just retaliation of God who usually turnes his eare from their cry in a day of trouble who have turned their eares from his counsels in the dayes of comfort As Prov 1. Wisedome threatens They shall call but I will Vox in tribulatione eum non invenit quem mens in â—ranquilitate contempsit Greg. in loc not answer they shall cry but I will not heare Why because they have refused instruction and have not chosen the feare of the Lord. In the fourth place Most of the Popish writers busie themselves much to ground invocation of Saints the intercession of Saints for us upon this text As if Eliphaz had directed Job to cry to the Saints departed Call now if there be any that will answer and to which of the Saints wilt thou turne what Saint wilt thou choose for thy patron or helper in this sad condition So they
they not perceive when they see The Prophet tels us because the Lord had said Shut their eyes least they see The work of a Prophet is to open eys but when men wilfuly shut their eys then God shuts them judicially and blinds them with light The Apostle quoting this text Acts 28. 27 expounds it so Their eyes have they closed least they should see for this God closed them that they could not see Paul was preaching and he preached Christ the true light The Sun of righteousnesse Behold the misery spoken of in this text They met with darknes in the day time This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darknes rather than light Why love they darknesse Because they see not the light And because they see not the light therefore they cannot love it It is impossible to see the light the beautifull face of the truth as it is revealed in Christ and not to love it A Heathen said if vertue much more if Gospell truth were seen every eye would be taken and every heart led captive by it A great part of the world hath not this light to see and the greatest part of those who have this light see it not They must needs meet with darknesse who are darknesse in the day-time And they must grope at noon day as in the night who are night If men heare the law and the testimony and neither speake nor doe according to that word it is as the Prophet gives the reason because there is no light in them or as the Hebrew No Morning in them Isa 8. 20. Till the day starr arises in our hearts the day before our eyes is night Secondly observe Plain things are often obscure to the wisest and most knowing men They grope at noon day as in the night That which a man may see with halfe an eye as we say these men who thinke themselves All eye cannot see Men of acute and sagacious understandings men quick-sighted like Eagles prove as dull as Beetles Owles and Bats see in the darke better then in the light And in a sense it is true of these they can see about the works of darknesse but the light of holinesse and justice they cannot see The reason is given in that of Christ The light that is in them is darknesse no wonder then if the light without them be darknes if the inward light the light that iâ— in them be darknesse how great is that darknesse so great that it quite darkens the outward light Inward darkness is to outward light as a great outward light is to a small one in regard of our use or benefit it extinguishes and overcomes it Hence these men cannot see the plainest object in the clearest light Light shineth in darknes and the darknes comprehendeth it not Joh. 1. 5. Christ breaks forth into a vehement gratulation to his Father Mat. 11. 25. I thanke thee O Father Lord of heaven nnd earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes The wise and prudent could not see so much as children They were so wise in their own conceits that they could not conceive the things of God As it is in spirituals so likewise in regard of civill counsels God hides wisedome from the wise and understanding from the prudent They shall not be able to doe or see what a child might have done or seen they shall doe such things and so absurdly that a child would not do them Mysteries are plain when the Lord opens and plainest things are mysterious when he shuts the eyes of our understanding Thus farre Eliphaz hath set forth the power and justice of God against subtill crafty counsellours Now he shews the opposite effect of his power and goodnesse Vers 15. But he saveth the poore from the Sword from their mouth and from the hand of the mighty But he saveth the poor It is very observeable in Scripture that usually if not alwayes after the mention of judgement and wrath upon the wicked the mercy goodnesse and love of God unto his own people are represented least any should thinke that judgement is a worke wherein God delighteth he quickly passeth from it and concludes in what he delighteth Mercy As he retains not his anger for ever towards his own people so he stay â—s not long upon the description of his anger against his enemies because he delighteth in mercy Mich. 7. 18 A subject of mercy is most pleasant both to the hand and pen of the Lord. He wishes rather to write in hony than in gall and to draw golden lines of love then bloudy lines of wrath Satan is a Destroyer and he doth nothing but destroy and pull down The Lord destroyeth and he pulleth down he defeats and disappointeth but he hath another worke besides he saves and delivers he builds up and revives the hopes of his people He saveth the poore These poore are Gods poore Some may be called the Devils poore for they have done his worke and he hath given them poverty for their wages Satan will give all his hirelings full pay when they die The wages of sin is death while they live many of them receive only the earnest of it poverty and trouble All that are poore stand not under the rich influences of this promise He saveth the poore Wicked poore are no more under Gods protection then wicked oppressouâ—s or wicked rich men are This poore man cryed and the Lord heard Ps 34. 6. Not every or any poore man Some poor men may cry and the Lord heare them no more then he did the cry of Dives the rich man in hell Luk. 16. Forget not the Congregation of thy poore Psal 74. 19 Thy poore by way of discrimination There may be a greater distance between poore and poore then there is between poore and rich There are many ragged regiments Congregations of poore whom the Lord will forget for ever But his poore shall be saved And these poore are of two sorts either poore in regard of wealth and outward substance or poor in regard of friends or outward assistance A rich man especially a godly rich man may be in a poore case destitute and forsaken wanting patronage and protection God saveth his poore in both notions both those that have no friends and those that have no estates The Hebrew word for Poor springs from a root signifying desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a radiâ—e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod est desiderare quasi pauper omnia deâ—ideret cum nihil habeat inde Ebion haerâ—tiâ—us quasi mentis inteligentiae inops Schiud Quia omnibus indiget omnia cupit gâ—ata habeâ— Rab. Da. and the reason is because poore men are commonly rich in desires They that are full of sensible wants are full of earnest wishings They that are emptiâ—st of enjoyments are fullest of hopes and longings And the reason why poverty of spirit in our spirituall
company of speare-men or archers are called a company with reeds The word by us rendred company is the beasts of the reeds those men that are like beasts savage cruell and bloody these are as bruits and beasts of the earth so they are descipher'd in the next verse The multitude of the buls with the calves of the people And we find the word signifying a company of wicked ones and a company of Saints in the same verse Ps 74. 19. O deliver not the soule of thy turtle dove unto the multitude of the wicked The Hebrew is unto the company of the beasts Forget not the Congregation or the beasts of thy poore for ever there the same word is taken as in Psal 68. 10 for a company of Saints or the poor people of God In the Scripture of the new Testament it is frequent to shadow wicked men under the names of beasts beasts of the earth so that of Paul hath been taken 1 Cor. 15. 32. If I have fought with beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men with beastly men cruell men men like unto beasts in their qualities and dispositions though others understand it of his being cast unto the beasts to fight with them which was a cruelty those persecuting times exercised against the Christians So 1 Tim. 4. 16. Paul saith he was delivered out of the mouth of the Lion Nero that cruell tyrant is supposed to be the Lion the beast of the earth he aimeth at And the Apostle Tit. 1. 1. gives this character of the Cretians they are evill beasts If we take it here in this sence it is a truth and a very comfortable truth that godly men shall be delivered from the fear of beastly and cruell men or as the Apostle calls them unreasonable or absurd men who have not faith But rather understand here beasts of the earth properly for those fierce and cruell creatures hurtfull to man Once man had power and dominion over all the creatures the wildest beasts were tame to him in his state of innocency till he rose up and rebelled against God the creatures were subject unto him but man rebelling against God the creatures rebelled against man hence it is that man naturally is surprised with fear at the approach and sight of strong and cruell beasts and therefore it is here spoken as a speciall mercy and priviledge of the godly that they shall not be afraid of the beasts of the earth The beast of the earth are hurtfull to us three ways First naturally many beasts by nature are very dreadfull to man as the Lion the Bear the Wolfe and such other fierce strong and bloody beasts Scondly Tame beasts such as we daily use and subdue to our service are often by accident hurtful to us The Horse and the Ox have many times been destructive to their owners Thirdly which I conceive is the thing chiefly aimed at here beasts hurt judicially in a way of wrath from God There are divers places in the book of God wherein God threatens to arme the creatures against those who sin against him and that when his people should forget their duties the beasts should forget their subjection Deut. 32. 24. I will send the teeth of beasts upon them And Jer. 15. 3. I will appoint over them foure kinds saith the Lord the sword to slay and the dogs to teare and the fowles of the heaven and the beasts of the earth to devoure and destroy You see God can have an army any where if he pleaseth an army of dogs to destroy an army of fowles of the aire an army of the beasts of the earth to subdue a rebellious people And Ezek. 14. 21. This is one of the four sore judgements that God denounceth against Jerusalem The sword and the famine and noysome beasts and the pestilence Thus in a judiciall manner they were very terrible and dreadfull and so were numbred among the sorest evills or judgements which God sent upon a Nation for their wickednesse To all or any of these wayes this promise may be inlarged Thou shalt not be afraid of the naturall cruelty the casuall hurtfulnesse or the judiciary rage of beasts when sent by God with commission to punish the beastlinesse of men How this cometh to passe that beasts of the earth hurt not godly men is said down in the next verse which I shall a while open and then give you some Notes and Observations from both together Vers 23. For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee This verse containes the reason why he should not be afraid of the beasts of the field and here is somewhat more got into the reason than was before in the promise the ground of the promise is higher and carried farther than the promise it selfe The promise was to be delivered from the fear of beasts and that thou mayest be certaine of it know God will not suffer so much as a stone to do thee hurt thou shalt be at league not onely with the beasts of the earth but with the stones of the field Thou shalt be in league The word is frequently used in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—â—legii quia elegamur personae inter quas res conditioâ—es propter qâ—as foedâ—s initur Buxt old Testament to signifie that solemne gracious covenant of reconciliation between God and man established in the blood of Christ A league or covenant is a very solemne act an act of reason and of the highest reason an act of judgement and deepest deliberation therefore it may be doubted how a league can be entred with stones which have no life or with beasts which have no reason We read Gen. 31. 41. of a league or covenant made at or upon an heap of stones between Jacob and Laban but this is very strange and unheard of to make a league with a heape of stones For the claring of this we must enquire into two things 1. What these stones are 2. What this league with stones doth import First For the Stones There are divers opinions about them and many Interpreters have exceedingly stumbled at these stones Some change these stones into men strong men or the strongest of men That of Job in the next Chapter hath some allusion to it ver 12. Is my strength the strength of stones A strong man is strong as a stone The Chaldee Paraphrast understands by stones the Law which was written in stones Thou shalt be in league with the stones that is the Law written in tables of stone shall never hurt thee But that as to this text is a meare conceit though in it selfe a great truth and our greatest comfort that believers are at league with those Law-stones which left in power and hostility would have broken all man-kind to pieces and ground them to power Christ hath made peace for us with the Law The Law
to live when he dies or he is at the end of his naturall race before he hath set one step in his spiritual Gray haires are the shame and should be the sorrow of old-age when they are not found in the way of righteousnesse From the former branch of this verse observe First To have a comely buriall to come to the grave with honour is a great blessing It was threatned upon Jehojakim the sonne of Josiah as a curse That he should have the buriall of an Asse and be drag'd and cast out beyond the gates of the City Jer. 22. 19. That man surely had lived like a beast whom God threatn'd by name that when he died he should be used as a beast though we know the bodies of many of the servants of God have been scattered and may be scattered upon the face of the earth like dung The dead bodies as the complaint is Psal 79. 2. of thy servants have they given to be meat to the fowles of the heaven the flesh of thy Saints to the beasts of the earth Yet to them even then there is this blessing reserved beyond the blessing of a buriall they are ever laid up in the heart of God he takes care of them he embalmes them for immortality when the remains of their mortality are troden under foot or rot upon a dunghill Secondly observe A godly man is a volunteer in his death He commeth to the grave A wicked man never dies willingly Though he sometime die by his own hand yet he never dies with his own will Miserable man is sometimes so over-prest with terrours and horrours of conscience so worne out with the trouble of living that he hastens his own death Yet he Comes not to his grave willingly but is drag'd by necessity He thrusts his life out of doores with a violent hand but it never goes out with a cheerfull mind He is often unwilling to live but he is never willing to die Death is welcome to him because life is a burden to him Only they come to the grave who by faith have seene Christ lying in the grave and perfuming that house of corruption with his owne most precious body which saw no corruption Observe thirdly To live long and to die in a full age is a great blessing Old Eli had this curse pronounced upon his family 1 Sam. 2. 31. There shall not be an old man in thy house Gray haires are a crown of honour when they are found in the way of righteousnesse It is indeed infinitely better to be full of grace than to be full of daies but to be full of daies and full of grace too what a venerable spectacle is that To be full of years and full of faith full of good workes full of the fruits of righteousnesse which are by Christ How comely and beautifull beyond all the beauty and comelinesse of youth is that Such are truly said to have filled their daies Those daies are fill'd indeed which are full of goodnesse When a wicked man dies he ever dies emptie and hungrie he dies empty of goodnesse and he dies hungry after daies That place before mentioned of Abraham Gen. 25. 8. is most worthy our second thoughts He dies in a good old-age an old man and full so the Hebrew we reade full of years As a man that hath eaten and drunke plentifully is full and desires no more So he dyed an old-man and full that is he had lived as much as he desired to live he had his fill of living when he died And therefore also it may be called a full age because a godly man hath his fill of living but a wicked man let him live never so long is never full of daies never full of living he is as hungry and as thirsty as a man may speake after more time and daies when he is old as he was when he was a child faine he would live hill He must needs thinke it is good being here who knowes of no better being or hath Impij quamvis diu vivant tamen non implent dies suos quia spem in rehus temporarijs collocantes perpetua vita in hoc mundo peâ—frui vellent no hopes of a better It is a certaine truth He that hath not a tast of eternity can never be satisfied with time He that hath not some hold of everlasting life is never pleased to let goe this life therefore he is never full of this life It is a most sad thing to see an old man who hath no strength of body to live yet have a strong mind to live Abraham was old and full he desired not a day or an houre longer His soul had never an empty corner for time when he died He had enough of all but of which he could never have enough and yet had enough and all as soon as he had any of it eternity In that great restitution promised Isa 65. 20. this is one priviledge There shall be no more there an infant of daies nor an old man that hath not fil'd his daies There is much controversie about the meaning of those words The digression would be too long to insist upon them Only to the present point thus much that there is such a thing as an Infant of daies and an old man that hath not fill'd his daies An infant of daies may be taken for an old child that is an old man childish or a man of many years but few abilities A man whose hoary head ann wrinkled face speak fourscoure yet his foolish actions and simple carriage speake under fourteene An old man that hath not fill'd his daies is conceived to be the same man in a different character An old man fils not his dayes First When he fulfils not the duty nor reaches the end for which he lived to old-age That man who hath lived long and done little hath left empty daies upon the record of his life And when you have writ downe the daies the months and yeares of his life his storie 's done the rest of the book is but a continued Blanke nothing to be remembred that he hath done or nothing worth the remembrance Now as an old man fils not his daies when he satisfies not the expectation of others so in the second place his daies are not fill'd when his own expectations are not satisfied that is when he having lived to be old hath yet young fresh desires to live when he finds his mind empty though his body be so full of daies that it can hold no longer nor no more He that is in this sense an infant of dayes and an old man not having filled his dayes though he be an hundred yeares old when he dies yet he dies as the Prophet concludes in that place accursed he comes not to his grave under the blessing of this promise in the text in a full age Lastly observe Every thing is beautifull in its season He shall come to his grave like a
afflictions He is said to be afflicted in all our afflictions He doth not only intuitively consider or contemplate them but he is though above enduring as actually enduring them He is afflicted in all our afflictions that is he considers our afflictions as his owne and is affected with them as if himselfe were pained with all our paines and therefore it is said that himselfe tooke our infirmities and bare our sicknesses Mat. 8. 17. the meaning is he weighed the griefe of his people fully In these two points this holy art of weighing griefe consists consideration of circumstances and simpathy of the smart Meere speculation moves little We have no feeling of anothers suffering till we have a fellow-feeling The bare Theory of affliction affects no more then the bare Theory of fire heates Secondly When Job saith O that my griefe were throughly weiged we may observe That it is an addition to a mans affliction when others are not sensible of his affliction For it is as if Job had said This makes me cry out so much of the weight of my sorrows because my friends weigh them so little The Church Lam. 1. 12. complaines thus Is it nothing to you all ye that passe by behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow Is it nothing to you as if the Church had said My affliction is something to me and this aflicts me above all my affliction that passengers and beholders slight my calamities and think my affliction no affliction that is not so great as indeed it is Or it is nothing to them they are not toucht with it how great soever they see it is to me That which wounds and breakes my heart doth not prick their little fingers And because man is so ready to afflict his brother with this negative affliction a not being sensible of his afflictions therefore the Apostle assures us Heb. 4. 15. That we have not an High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are This is spoken to comfort the Saints in their extreamest sufferings what though men will not take notice and be sensible of your condition what though men will not weigh your griefe yet Christ will our High Priest is none of your senselesse Priests who care not what weather the People endure so they be warme and at ease Thirdly observe We can never rightly judge till we throughly weigh the condition of an afflicted brother For Job conceiv'd that Eliphaz proceeded to judgement before he had been in consideration This is the reason why thou hast judged me uncharitably because thou hast not weighed me seriously To shew that consideration must goe before judgement God himselfe is exprest to us in Scripture considering the state of things before himselfe judges So Gen. 11th in the case of the builders of Babel and Gen. 18 â—h in the case of the men of Sodome it is said that the Lord came downe to see whether they had done altogether according to that cry which was come up unto him Not as if the Lord moves from one place to another from Heaven to earth for he filleth all places not that the Lord needs come down to receive information or to examine his own intelligence to see whether things are as they are reported but it is only an allusion to the manner of men or to shew that he doth not censure or judge any man or men or Nations till he hath taken a full cognisance of their condition Now if God who is infinite in knowledge and wisdome represents himselfe coming downe and by degrees deliberating about and weighing the estates of men before he censures them what need then have blindfold men ignorant men men who at best have much darknesse mixed with their light what need I say have they to examine weigh and try every mans estate before they sentence or determine it Fourthly observe A man who hath not been or is not afflicted himselfe can hardly apprehend what another endures who is under affliction As there are comforts especially spirituall comforts which no man knows or can know but by the enjoying of them The white stone promised Rev. 2. 17. hath a new name written in it which no man knowes saving he that receiveth it A man that is a stranger to Christ and his wayes is not able to make any judgement what the comforts and refreshings of a Christian are He admires to heare men speak of spirituall comforts and consolations he knowes not the meaning of those things The naturall man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. It is so proportionably in all sorrowes and afflictions especially in spirituall sorrowes and afflictions which lye off from sence yea which lye quite beyond the reach and borders of reason spirituall sorrowes the hidings of Gods face the withdrawing of assistance few pity in others because few have had experience of these things in themselves They think men are mad when they complaine of such afflictions when they cry out of their sins of the want of the favour of God and the shining of his love of deadnesse and coldnesse in duty of unbeleefe and hardnesse of heart c. And therefore our Lord Jesus to assure our hearts that he hath a full sence of all our sorrows tasted himselfe of our sorrowes There is not any sorrow that can be upon any soul or any affliction that can be upon the body but our Lord Jesus hath had some way or other an experience of it This makes him to our apprehensions most fit to judg and compassionate the distresses of his people As all the sins of his people were laid upon him so all their sorrowes were laid upon him too therefore the Prophet Isaiah describes him thus Ch. 53. 3. A man of sorrowes and acquainted with griefe Griefe and he were no strangers while he was here upon the earth griefe was his acquaintance and Familiar as it were that went up and down with him all the while he travelled here below Therefore seeing it is so the whole church and every particular believer have strong consolation in their sorrows that the Lord Jesus Christ doth throughly weigh their condition and knoweth fully what it is We have not as was toucht before an High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities why what assurance have we of this it followes He was tempted in all things like unto us yet without sin Christ had temptations unto sin yet without sin therefore he knowes how to succour us when we are tempted unto sin Christ was tempted by manifold sorrowes therefore he knowes how to succour us when we are under manifold sorrowfull temptations If we had a Mediatour in Heaven that had not been tempted on earth we might doubt whether he would be toucht with the feeling of our infirmities whether sinning infirmities or sorrowing infirmities And were it
as one that travelleth and thy want as an armed man Want strips us but is it selfe not only cloathed but armed Evils have so much life and strength in them that they are compared to the strongest who live armed men Hence observe first It is an aggravation of unkindnesse to those who are in want not to be kind to them when they are modest in asking a supply of their wants Love ought to prevent asking and should be moved to give most to them who being in need complain least Again He speakes this to wipe off that aspersion as if the losse of his estate were the thing which grieved and pinched him so sore Did I say unto you bring me a reward c. It is an argument that a man overloves that which he hath lost when he is over-importunate to have his losses repaired If you had seen me call out unto you for an estate then you had reason to think that the losse of my estate was the losse of my patience Thirdly Observe the temper of a gracious heart under losses and afflictions A gracious heart under losses is not forward to complain to creatures or to ask help of men Did I say bring unto me or give me a reward of your substance He complaines to God and sheweth him his trouble he openes his want to God and asketh supplies of him but he is very modest and slow in complaining to or in suing for help at the hand of creatures It is not unlawful for those that are in want to make their losses and wants known to men It is a duty rather so to doe onely it must be done with caution least when we ask of creatures too importunately we give an argument against our selves that we are too much in love with creatures As it is reproved in those Rulers before spoken of Hos 4. 18. that they did love give ye It is a crime in the rich to love give ye And certainly it is a sin at least an infirmity in those that are poor and in want to love give ye or to say as Iob here had not bring to me Solomon speakes of the daughters of the horsleach that they are alwayes crying give give noting their insatiable thirst after blood Some poor are alwayes crying give give which notes a very inordinate desire after riches Iob is very careful to take off the suspition of such a blemish from himself I did not say bring ye or give ye me of your substance It is the duty of those that are full to give to their empty brethren it is their sin if they give not and it is their shame if they are not most free in giving to those who are most modest in asking But when God hath emptied us we should not be eager in filling our selves When God takes creatures from us we should take heed of pursuing them we should not doe any thing which may argue our hearts glued to them when the Lord hath loosen'd them out of our hands It is an honour to a poor Christian when in his greatest straights he can approve himself to God and men and can say as the Apostle Acts 20. 33. I have coveted no mans silver or gold or apparel It is as sinful to covet in our wants as it is in our abundance And it is as bad if not worse to be greedy of the creature when we are empty as when we are full A poor man oppressing the poor Prov 28. 3. and covering from the rich are sights of equal abomination Vers 24. Teach me and I will hold my tongue and cause me to understand wherein I have erred c. This and the next verse contain the fourth branch of Jobs reply and the general sence of them is a submission of himself to his friends if yet they should speak reason or discover his error Teach me and I will hold my peace as if he had said Though I have to the best of my understanding thus far acquitted my self and cleared mine own innocency though I have as I think with truth and justice laid this charge of uncharitablenesse and unfriendly dealing with me upon you yet you shall see I am ready to hear you I am teachable if you can yet teach me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iecit projecit per metaphoram 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rigavit quando transfertur ad pluviam quae lapidum sagitarum instar ex coelo decidit in terram eamque ferit rigat foecundat Hinc per Metathoram significat etiam docere Quod doctrina veluti instiletur animis dicentium ininutatim indatur eosque impuat I will keep silence and if you cause me to understand wherein I have erred I shall doe so no more Teach me The Original word notes in strict sence to cast a thing forth to throw a thing as a dart or a stone is thrown either downward or upward or in a direct motion forward Hence by a Metaphor it signifies raine because raine is as it were darted forth from the clouds and cast down upon the earth And from hence yet one remove further the Metaphor is carried to signifie teaching Hence the holy Prophet is commanded to drop his word Ezek. 20. 46. 21. 2. Sonne of man set thy face toward the south and drop thy word towards the south Sonne of man set thy face toward Jerusalem and droop thy word toward the holy places And the reason is this because Doctrines Truths and wholesome Instructions are instilled and cast down among the people or dropt into their spirits as rain is cast or dropp'd from heaven upon the earth And so we may read the word◠out of the metaphor thus rain down upon me doe ye O my friends like clouds full of water dissolve and showre down instructions upon me and see if I doe not receive and drink them in And from this word all doctrine and instruction in the Hebrew is called Torah Prov. 13. 1. and Psal 1. 1. And the Jewes by way of eminency call the five books of Moses as also all the books of the old Testament the Torah that is the Law or rule of holy doctrine which God rained down from Heaven and distilled graciously upon his people for their growth in knowledge and in holiness And so a Teacher from the same root is called Moreh Job 36. 22 Who teacheth like Him who raineth like him there is no man can distill truths as God doth Moses Deut. 32. 2. elegantly sets forth his preaching by an allegory of rain and dew My doctrine shall drop as the rain my speech shall distil as the dew as the small rain upon the tender herb and as the showres upon the grasse And the Apostle Paul Heb. 6 7 8. compares a taught people to ground that is well watered with rain For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it and bringeth forth fruit is blessed but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected and is nigh unto
similibus locis Scriptura in telligenda est de statu mortuorum in morte quis consitebitur tibi post resurrectâ—onem pii laudabunt Deum sed ante illam quamdiuerunt in sepulchro nemo confitebitur ei anima corpore simul Drus Iuxta raturae cursum hic loquitur regans rediturum â—ominem ubi hine excessit Reâ—urrectio mortuorum divinum supra naturam opus est quo hic non respicit nutuâ—e tantum consuctum ordinem afferens quomodo intellïgendâ— sunt qâ—aecunque talia in hoc libro in Psalmis alijs Scripturae libris occurrunt Psal 115. 17. The dead praise the not c. there is no work device or businesse at all in the grave Eccl. 9. 10. The hand works not the tongue speakes not The eye shall no more see this good Iob expresses himself by an act of the eye which carries the greatest strength for refreshing to the whole man All the joy and pleasure we shall have in Heaven comes in by sight we shall see him as â—e is The heholding of God in Christ is the beatificall vision much of the good which we have in this world comes in by the sense of seeing and all the good of the next is placed in seeing therefore he doth not say I shall no more taste good or no more feele good but no more see good * Per Analogiâ— ad summi boni possessionem quae in visione consistit aliorum honorum possessio rectè dicitur videre bona because the chiefest good eternal good consists in vision therefore proportionably our present good doth so likewise Sick Hezekiah speaks in the language of sick Job I said I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world Isa 38. 11. When Hezekiah thought he should die he describes the state of the dead by a deprivation of all those comforts which are taken in by the sight of the eye But you wil say how saith he I shal not see the Lord He doth not say absolutely I shall not see the Lord But with a modification thus I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living But did Hezekiah see the Lord in the land of the living or while he lived Yes as Moses saw him that was invisible so did Hezekiah God makes himself visible to the Saints in this life Though God cannot be seen in his essence in Heaven much lesse on earth yet he is seen in his works in the acts of his providence and in his ordinances we may see the goings of God in the Sanctuary and behold the beauty of the Lord while we enquire in his Temple Psalm 27. 4. So that when Hezekiah saith I shall not see the Lord in the land of the living his meaning is I shall not behold God in his great works and in the ordinances of his holy worship and in the Congregations of his holy people In all these God is visible and most in the last and therefore he saith I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world God is visible in all creatures but most in man and among men most in his Saints and among his Saints most when they meet in the comely order of his house and worship The ignorant and unlearned coming into such a sacred throng sees so much of God that he is convinced and goes away reporting that God is in them of a truth In Christ is seen the brightnesse of his Fathers glory and in the Saints much of the beauty of it is seen Christ is the express image of his person and in the Saints so meeting much of his image is expressed First in that Job betakes himself to God O remember that my life is wind c. Observe That In our distresses it is better to cry to God then to complaine to creatures God is usually the last but he is alwayes the best refuge when we have told over the story of our sorrowes and sad condition and powr'd our wants into the bosomes of our most faithfull friends yet this Apostrophe is sweetest to the soul when we can turn unto God O remember me It is said of Hezekiah in his sicknesse that he turned himself unto the wall and prayed he turned from the people from those that were about his bed unto the wall why what was the wall to him Or what could the wall doe for him surely nothing As good turne to an Idol for helpe or ease as to a wall yea such a turn to the wall turnes the wall into an idol Good Hezekiah had no thought of the wall nor had he any message to any image hanging there But as 't is probable many of his loving Subjects and servants were weeping about the bed of their sicke King and he had been discoursing of his disease and telling them of his sicknesse but at last he turns to the wall that is he leaves speaking to the company and turnes away from them that he might have communion with God and his first word of prayer is the same with Jobs Remember now O Lord Isa 38. 3. Creatures are but creatures and when they have done their best for us it may be they can doe no good for us when they have tried all their skill and all their strength and stirred the utmost of their abilities to give us counsell and ease we must say to them all stand by and come to Iobs Turne O Lord remember That man is most to be bemoaned who can make his moane to man only He who knows not how to complaine to God or to speake out his sorrowes and his griefes in the eare of Christ shall gaine little though he receive much by complaining to the creature But so long as we have a God to turne to and spread our cause before though men turne from us yea though they turne against us and forget us yet it is enough that we have said O Lord remember Secondly from the matter which Iob puts God in mind of namely his naturall frailty and fleeting condition that he was a passing wind Observe It is an argument moving the Lord to compassion to mind him of the frailty of our condition There is no argument from our selves so effectuall to draw out the bowels of Gods compassions toward us either in regard of our spirituall or temporall estate as this to tell him how fraile we are The Psalmist shewes this the motive of mercy often to that ancient people the Jewes Psal 78. 38. He being full of compassion forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not yea many a time turned he his anger away and did not stirre up all his wrath But what moved the Lord to deale thus with his people What was it out of himselfe We know the inward moving cause was his own free-grace but what did he look upon abroad in the creature He remembred that they were but flesh
and returns no more In that place of Ecclesiastes Solomon is only giving us a description of old age and the sad condition of man in it he calleth it the evil day and wisheth men would be wise to consider their latter end remembring their Creatour and laying up a good foundation before those evil dayes overtake them before the light of the Sun and Moon and Stars be darkened and the clouds return after the raine In old age the clouds returne after the raine thus as in some very wet time when we think it hath rained so much as might have spent and quite exhausted the clouds or drawn those bottles dry yet you shall see them return again it wil rain day after day as fast as ever so in old age when rheumes distil so freely that you would think an old man had emptied himselfe of all yet the clouds will return again and flouds of watery humours overflow Thus the clouds of old age returne And in this sence the clouds of the ayre returne after they are consumed and spent into raine But how doth a cloud return not the same cloud numerically that cloud which was dissolved doth not return the same Sunne goes down and vanisheth out of our sight in the Evening and returneth again the same individual and numerical Sun in the morning but that numerical cloud which vanished comes not again Thus man vanisheth and returns as the clouds return after the raine that is after one generation Si id quod nunquam fuiâ— nunc est quomodo quod nunc est post interritum dcnuo fore negatur Nam si hoc mirum illud magis mirum videtur of men are dead they return again in their children another generation springs up other return to life there is none till all shal return at the general judgement of quick and dead As now we are who never were so all shal return who were but are not It was a witty answer of a learned Jew disputing with a heathen Philosopher who opposed the Resurrection If that saith he which never was in the world now is is it strange that that which now is should be again after it is not in the world If this be a wonder the other is much more wonderful Neither shall his place know him any more His place may be taken three wayes First For the calling and condition of a man in this life that 's the place of a man a mans Calling is his place Or secondly Locally for his house or inheritance where he dwelt he shall come to that place no more Or thirdly Place is taken for dignity magistracy for the eminency of a mans calling therefore we say of a Magistrate or a man in honour he hath a Great place or he is a man of place and Rank in all these senses his place shall know him no more His place shall not know him That 's an elegancy of the holy language Places are without life and without sense much more without knowledge knowing is an act of reason how is it then said his place shall know him no more Did it ever know him Ther 's a double figure in it Some understand it by an Hypallage or transmutation of the words his place shall know him no more that is he shall know his place no more So that is expounded Psal 103. 16. The place thereof shall know it no more speaking of man passing away like a wind So Psal 37. 10. Thou shalt diligently consider his place and it shall not be his place shall not be places continue while the world continues Then his place shal not be is he shall not be in his place Or secondly understand it by a Prosopopeia frequent in Scripture which is the imitation of life by things without life when a place takes upon it the person of a man or when a place acts or imitates the speech of a man sence and reason are often ascribed to things without life and so the meaning of his place shall know him no more may be Quosi diceret ipsae res inanima quae serviura parent ad nutum mortalibus mortuis tamen null usui sunt Illos non agnoscunt dominos Ea enim est vis verbi cognoscendi non cognoscendi conceived thus When a man lives and comes home to his house his house as it were welcomes him home and his place is glad to entertain him as in the Psalme the little hils are said to rejoyce at the showers so when a man comes home his house and all he hath have as it were a tongue to bid him welcome and open armes to receive and embrace him but when he dies he shall return no more and then his place shall know him that is receive him no more Observe from this briefly because it is a similitude of the same importance with that opened in the former words first That death is the conclusion of all worldly comforts and relations As the cloud vanisheth and returneth not so in that sence there is an utter conclusion of man he is gone and there is no returning God by his almighty power hath fetched back some and the vanishing clouds have been brought again so Lazarus and others at the death of Christ was raised from the grave but in a natural way death seizeth all fast for ever your places your relations your credits your Friends shall know you no more or give you farther entertainment Secondly observe That God hath given us not only the book of Scripture but the book of the creature therein to learn and read our own frailty and mortality The creatures preach what man is and that is a reason why the holy Ghost spends so much time and is so frequent in giving us the measure of our selves by creatures these are every houre in our eye we meet with and see and handle and feel them continually The wind the vapours the clouds set forth what we are When I consider said David Psal 8. 3. 4. the Heavens the work of thy fingers the Moone and the Starres which thou hast ordained what is man that thou art mindfull of him To consider the greatnesse of the works of God should abase man it should amaze us to remember that God hath made such things for our use who are our selves so uselesse in comparison of what we ought to God And when man considers the Heavens and the earth and weighs how many things there are in them which set forth his frailty he hath reason to cry out O Lord what is man Man is but a wind a cloud a vapour even such a thing as I see most perishing and vanishing in the whole compasse of the creation Psalm 19. 1. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work The heavens are excellent creatures and full of glorious wonders they speake the power and wisdome of God they shew forth his handy work they can be the work of none but
of the goodnesse of God to man When I behold the heavens the work of thy fingers the Moone and the Starres which thou hast made Lord what is man God in the work of creation made all these things serviceable and instrumentall for the good of man What is man that he should have a Sun a Moon and Stars planted in the firmament for him what creature is this when great preparations are made in any place much provisions layed in and the house adorned with richest furnitures We say what is this man that comes to such a house when such a goodly fabrique was raised up the goodly house of the world adorned and furnished we have reason admiring to say what is this man that must be the tenant or inhabitant of this house There is yet a higher exaltation of man in the creation man was magnified with the stampe of Gods image one part whereof the Psalmist describes at the fift verse Thou hast given him to have dominion over the works of thy hands Thou hast put all things under his feet all sheepe and oxen yea and the beasts of the field the fowle of the aire and the fish of the sea c. Thus man was magnified in creation What was man that he should have the rule of the world given him that he should be the Lord over the fish of the sea over the beasts of the field and over the foules of the ayr Again man was magnified in creation in that God set him in the next degree to the Angels Thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels there is the first part of the answer to this question man was magnified in being made so excellent a creature and in having so many excellent creatures made for him All which may be understood of man as created in Gods image and Lord of the world but since the transgression it is peculiar to Christ As the Apostle applies it Heb. 2. 6. and to those who have their bloud and dignity restored by the work of redemption which is the next part of mans exaltation Secondly Man is magnified or made great by the work of redemption That exalts man indeed Man was laid low and his honour in the dust notwithstanding all that greatnesse which he received in creation Though Sun and Moone and Stars the fish of the Sea and the fowles of the ayre c. were made his servants and himselfe a companion of Angels yet by sin he fell below all these priviledges and was made a companion for Devils a citizen of hell Therefore the second magnifying of man was by the work of redemption And what was man that thou shouldest redeeme him when he was a captive raise him when he was downe build and repaire him when he was ruin'd when he was lost seeke him and when he was bankrupt and undone give him a better stock and set him up againe What was man that thou shouldest doe all this for him How did the mercy of God magnifie his servants when he gave his Son to pay their debt to his own justice If man was magnified when the Sun and Moone and heavens were made for him how was he magnifyed when God was made man for him how was he exalted when the Son of God was humbled for him Thirdly Man is magnified or made great in the work of regeneration wherein God re-stamps his Image upon him in those shining characters of holinesse and knowledge The first creation being spoiled occasion'd redemption and redemption purchased a second creation Every one that is in Christ is a new creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. Our dignity is far greater in being new creatures then in being creatures Lastly Man is magnified by those severall acts of favour and grace which God casts upon him every day smiling upon him embracing him in his armes admitting him to neere communion with himselfe watching over him tending him guarding him with Angels directing him counselling him comforting him upholding him by his spirit till he bring him unto glory which is the highest step of preferment that mans nature is capable of What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him in all these things Observe hence first That All the worth and dignity of man is out of himselfe What is man As if he had said man hath nothing of his own to commend him to or to ingratiate himself with God God hath put something upon him he hath magnified man and given him a reall worth because he would Free grace exalts man Hence Psal 90. 20. the Psalmist prayes Let the heathen know themselves to be but men As if he had said man who is high in his own esteeme conceits himselfe to be somewhat above man he judges of himselfe beyound his own sphere and border Therefore Lord bring their thoughts within the compasse of their own condition let them know that they are but men A man that is acquainted with himselfe will be humble enough A meere man is but meere earth The Prophet tells him so thrice over with one breath Jer. 22. 29. O earth earth earth heare the word of the Lord. Man is earth in the constitution of his body that was framed out of the earth he is earthly in the corruption of his mind that muds in the earth The Apostles stile is earthly minded men And he will be earth in his dissolution when he dies he returnes to his earth A naturall man is earth all over earth in his making earthly in his mind his spirit earthly earth gets into this heaven his upper regions and the body his lower region shall moulder to earth againe Then what is man Hence I say it is that when man at any time would exalt and lift himself up he thinks himselfe above man he hath some notion or apprehension of an excellency beyound the line of a creature He conceits he hath or is a peece of a deity The first ground of hope upon which man raised himselfe against God was that he might be a god he was not satisfied in being made like unto God he would be which was the highest robbery Gods equall and stand by himselfe this thought was his fall There is such a principle of pride in the hearts of all men by nature They are not contented in the spheare of a creature they would be somewhat beyound that The truth is all the true worth and dignity of man is in what he hath beyound himselfe his excellency is in Christ and his glory in being made partaker of the divine nature It abased man when he aspired to take a divine nature to himselfe but it exalts man when God inspires him with a participation of the divine nature What is man that thou doest thus magnifie him Christ makes us very great and glorious by the dignity which he puts upon us as he tells the Church Ezek. 16. 14. Thy beauty was perfect through my comelinesse which I had put upon thee thou hadst no comelinesse no beauty of thine own
built as well and might have stood as long as the other upon the rock but when the raine fell and the floods came when the windes blew and beate upon the house then it fell the foundation failed and all the faire superstructions came downe into the dust Where is the hypocrite with all his faith and feare in a wet windy day is he not like a house founded on the sand Or is not he and his goodly outside of holy feare and hope like the Apples of Sodome reported in Historie which are faire to the eye but touch them and they crumble to ashes in your hand so is the faith and the feare the hope and confidence of hypocrites Where are these they are no where for they never were Take the words in a second construction and so they are thus rendred Is not thy feare thy confidence and the uprightnesse of thy wayes thy hope So Mr Broughton Is not thy Religion thy hope and thy right wayes thy confidence and then the sense is as if Eliphaz had thus spoken unto Job Doth it not now plainely appeare that Satan charged thee rightly that thou servest God for ends of profit and outward comforts seeing thou art thus impatient and unquiet when the hand of God takes away thy profit and outward comforts Is it not a cleare argument that thou heretofore didst obey God only to gaine by him or because thou wast confident he would protect and save thee harmlesse he would blesse and prosper thee with encrease Was not the uprightnesse of thy wayes this hope that is diddest thou not looke to thrive by upright dealing with men and faire carriage in all thy actions thou hadst no love to Religion none to Justice thy love was to thy purse thy profit and thou didst beleeve at least hope that profit would come in at the doore of the Sanctuary or else thou hadst never gone so often thither This is the second sense praedicating the first terme of the second Is not thy feare thy confidence and is not thy uprightnesse thy hope surely ' t is This is a faire exposition of the words and from it we may observe That A hypocrites profession of Religion is grounded on his confidence to gaine by it Is not thy feare thy confidence thy Religion was nothing else but a hope to be rich It was Satans objection and now Eliphaz resuming and managing Satans argument makes it his conviction And it is a truth in the generall thesis that the Religion or the feare of hypocrites is nothing but their confidence they consider the word of promise which God hath given to those that serve him they in their thoughts surveigh the land of promise and tast the milke and honey of it they reade that God will give both grace and glory and no good thing will he withhold from them that walke uprightly therefore that they may be under the influence of these promises or upon a confidence that they shall receive golden showers out of these pretious promises and digge aboundant treasure out of these heavenly mines they feare and worship God they are upright in their wayes and honest in their dealings among men Christ found it was love to the loaves not to his doctrine which brought so many after him Joh. 6. They liked a miracle to feed them more than a Sermon to instruct them And were affected with the meate which endures to everlasting life onely in subordination to the meate which perisheth How many say at least in their hearts at this day if I cast my selfe into such and such courses of holinesse shall I not have credit and custome good acquaintance and profitable correspondence In many men their wickednesse is their confidence that is the very reason why they are so wicked is because they are confident they shall get by their wickednesse So those entisers said to the young man Prov. 1. 11. Come let us lay waite for blood Ego furtum facere volui nulla compuisus ege state sed fastidio justitiae nec ea re srui volebam quam furto appetebam sed ipso furto peccato Aug. l. 3. Confess c. 1. paulo post Eram gratis malus amavi defectum meum non illud ad quod deficiebam there was their wickednesse now at the twefth verse you shall finde that the rise of their wickednesse was this confidence we shall finde all precious treasure we shall fill our houses with spoile Some I confesse have such a spirit of wickednesse that they are wicked for wickednesse sake and they love the very sinne it selfe more than the ends of profit or pleasure which may possibly follow the sinne but others act the sinne out of confidence they shalll advance themselves by it And so there are many so refined in their aymes and hightned in the wayes of holinesse that they are holy for holinesse sake and religious for religions sake yet there is a generation whose Religion is nothing but this confidence I will cast in my lot with the godly I will take their way shall I not fill my house with treasure and raise an estate by it The Apostle speakes of such 1 Tim. 6. 5. Men supposing that gaine is godlinesse and they are godly only that they may gaine by it Whereas they whose hearts are perfect with God love godlinesse for Gods sake and they are holy not out of confidence of gaining by it but out of a delight in acting of it there is a beauty an excellency in holinesse which takes their hearts And they are above not only this poore confidence to be enriched by it but also above that rich that heavenly confidence to be saved by it to get Heaven by it The feare of some who are above the former is yet but equall to this confidence they see there is no other way to be saved to goe to Heaven but this Now I say holinesse in the height and purity of it keepes under the respect of Heaven it selfe it is so much above these things below that it is above those things above That is a second sense Thirdly The words are understood by divers of the Hebrew writers for a direct and simple assertion and they give it thus Will not or would not thy feare be thy confidence and the uprightnesse of thy wayes thy hope As if Eliphaz had thus said unto him Job thou hast pretended much holinesse and Religion feare and uprightnesse why art thou so disquieted now that the hand of God is upon thee why art thou so amazed under these sufferings would not that feare be thy confidence and would not that uprightnesse of thy wayes be thy hope surely it would if thou hadst any such feare as thou pretendest this feare would be thy confidence and this uprightnesse thy hope thou wouldest be very bold and by hope cast Anchor upon the goodnesse and faithfulnesse of God in the middest of all this storme thy heart would be poised setled and established
exprest the righteous perish that is they dye as it is explained afterward they are taken away from the evill to come they rest in their beds sc in their graves so Matth. 8. 25. Master save us we perish say the Disciples when they thought they should all be drowned Lord helpe us or else we all dye presently and so we translate Job 34. 15. where Elihu speaking of the power of God thus describes it If he should but shew himselfe all flesh saith he shall perish together that is all flesh shall dye they are not able to stand before Gods power and greatnesse the word which he useth there strictly taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to expire or give up the ghost yet we translate it all flesh shall perish together that is they shall all give up the ghost and dye if God should appear in his power and greatnesse Thirdly by perishing we may understand outward afflictions and troubles falling upon either godly or wicked these are called a perishing Josh 23. 13. Joshua tels the people If you will not obey and walk according to the Commandements of God ye shall quickly perish from off this good Land that is ye shall be removed by outward afflictions from your Land you shall goe into captivity And so if I perish I perish saith Esther Chap. 4. 17. that is if I bring trouble and affliction upon my selfe let it be so I will venture it A Syrian ready to perish was my father Deut. 26. It is meant of Jacob a man much verst in trouble as he himselfe acknowledgeth Few and evill have been the dayes of my pilgrimage Fourthly to perish notes eternall misery as it is put for the miseries of this life so for the life of misery for that life which is an everlasting death John 3. 16. God so loved the world that he gave Omnimodam rei perditionem significat oâ—pâ—â—niâ—uâ— enim generationi his onely begotten Sonne that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life perishing is opposed to everlasting life and therefore implyes everlasting death Fifthly to perish notes utter desolation and totall ruine A cutting off or a destroying the very name and remembrance of a person or of a people He that speaks lyes shall perish Pro. 19. 9. that is he shall be utterly destroyed In this sense the word is used for the Devill because he is a destroyer to the utmost as Christ is a Saviour to the utmost He is called Abaddon from Abad the word here used Rev. 9. 12. and Apollyon his businesse is to destroy totally and eternally Thus also Antichrist The first-borne of the Devill 2 Thess 2. 3. is called the sonne of perdition take it actively he is a destroying sonne one that destroyeth bodies and soules as in Scripture a bloody man is called Ish dammim a man of blood and passively he is a sonne of perdition that is a man to be destroyed both body and soule These two latter senses namely eternall destruction in Hell and utter destruction in this life are joyned together Prov. 15. 11. Hell and destruction or Hell and perishing are before the Lord and Chap. 27. 20. we have the same words againe Hell and perdition or Hell and destruction are never full So that to perish in a strict sense notes even in this life an utter extirpation so some render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abscondit ne amplius auditur vel videatur per metonymiam sublatuâ— doletus succisus Sublata enim è medio non apparent amplius sed absconduntu◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it here Who ever saw the righteous plucked up by the roots so as there should be no remembrance no remainder of them The other word which is joyned in the Text cut off carries the same sense though it signifies properly to hide a thing yet it is so to hide it as it appeareth no more or so to hide it that it can neither be heard of nor seen any more Hence by a Metonymie it signifies to take away or to cut off because things that are taken away and cut off are as things hidden and seen no more Here then is the height of the sense either to take it for perishing in Hell or for such a perishing in this life as is joyned with totall desolation and desertion Then for the termes innocent and righteous The word we translate innocent signifieth empty And it is therefore applyed to an innocent person because innocent persons are emptied of malice and wickednesse their hearts are swept and cleansed purged and washed there is in some sense a vacuum a holy vacuum in the hearts of holy persons they are freed from that fulnesse of evill which lyes in their hearts by nature that filth is cast out Every mans heart by nature is brim full top full of wickednesse as the Apostle describes the Gentiles Rom. 1. 29. being filled with all unrighteousnesse and it is a truth of every mans heart it is a Cage full of uncleane Birds a stable full of filthy dung he hath in him a throng of sinfull thoughts a multitude of prophane ghests lodging in him Now a person converted is emptied of these these ghests are turned out of their lodgings the roomes are swept and emptied therefore an holy person is called an empty person Emptied not absolutely emptied of all sinne but comparatively there is abundance cast out so that considering how full of sin he was he may be said to be emptied of sinne and that his malice is cast out In the fourth of Amos the Prophet threatens cleannesse of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 teeth it is a suitable judgement that uncleane hearts and lives should be punished with cleane teeth or innocency of teeth for it is the word of the Text. Famine is elegantly so called Want of bread makes empty or cleane teeth And where were the righteous that 's the other terme cut off One may put the question where were the righteous surely Job had very good eyes if he could finde any righteous man upon the earth he might seem to have clearer eyes then the Lord himselfe if he could finde any righteous God looked downe from heaven and he saw none righteous no not one Psal 53. 3 4. Yet here Eliphaz bids Job enquire about the righteous where they were cut off To clear that By righteous here we are to understand not righteous persons in a strict and legall sense but in a Gospel mollified sense righteous with an allay righteous by way of interpretation and not in the strictnesse of the letter And so men are called righteous first in reference to the work of regeneration There are none righteous in the root or originall in their first setting and plantation in the soyle of the world but there are righteous persons as regenerate and transplanted into the body of Christ as wrought and fashioned by the Spirit of Christ Secondly there are none righteous that is none exactly perfectly compleatly
tremble The Naturalists observe that though many creatures are swifter of foot then the Lion yet when he roareth they fall downe and he overtakes them with his astonishing voyce so tyrannicall men with their roaring words their loud threatnings often affright and daunt the poor 7. They resemble Lions in the sowrenesse and sternenesse of their countenance and cloudinesse of their browes Much of mans heart is seene in his face frownes are as blowes hence we call it brow-beating The love of God is expressed by the pleasantnesse of his face and the light of his countenance So also is the love of man and we may see what the intent of another is in his very lookes Many are in this respect Lion-like men they have as Aristotle saith of the naturall Lion clouds and stormes hanging about their eye-browes It was a threatning against the Jewes in case of disobedience that God would send against them a Nation of a fierce countenance which should not regard the person of the old c. Deut. 28. 50. Lastly they are like Lions in regard of their greedinesse after prey They have set their eyes bowing downe to the earth like as a Lyon that is greedy of his prey Psal 17. 11 12. Thus you see both who are here meant by Lions and likewise how the resemblance or picture of a wicked man may be taken from a Lion Now when it is said that the teeth of the Lions are broken that the old Lions perish and the young Lions are scattered abroad By all these expressions of scattering perishing and being broken to peeces the Holy Ghost shewes us the utter full and finall consumption of wicked men they are not only touched troubled and roused up out of their dens but these Lions old and young are scattered and consumed They perish There is an opinion currant among the Jewish writers that this verse is to be understood as a description of the means or instruments by which God destroyes wicked men and not as we of wicked men themselves whom God will destroy Junius agrees with this interpretation of the Jewes translating the two verses in this sence By the blast of God they perish and by the breath of his nostrils they are consumed by the roariag of the Lion and by the voyce of the fierce Lion and by the teeth of young Lions they are consumed As if when wicked men so he giveth the glosse are not destroyed immediately by the breath and by the blast of God then God stirres up the creatures against them and will destroy them by Lions We know it was a speciall judgement threatned in the Law against the disobedient Levit. 26. 22. that God would send evill beasts among them The Prophet numbers this among Gods sore judgements Sword famine pestilence and evill beasts are put together In the history of the Kings we have a famous 2 King 17. â—â— record how the Lord sent Lions who slew some of those Idolaters whom the King of Bahylon had transplanted into the Cities of Samaria But I rather conceive the former exposition of the words to be the truth and most sutable to the context and there is this reason to be given because it agrees best with the purpose of Eliphaz whose worke was so to describe the destruction of wicked men in generall that he might particularly intimate the destruction fallen upon Job and his family with the reason of it Job was a great man in his time he was among men as the Lion among beasts a chiefe His friends thought him a cruell Lion too and so he is told to his face afterward by one of them that he like a greedy Lion had taken away the pledge and the garment from the poore This Eliphaz would hint at least to Job and that God had found him out in his Lion-like qualities that he being a Magistrate and a man in authority having dealt hardly and cruelly with others now the Lord had measured to him the same measure he had given others He the Lion and she the fierce Lion or Lionesse his wife they the young Lions his children were all broken and either perished or perishing So much for the cleering of the words I shall now adde some observations from them First Wicked men how powerfull how strong soever shall fall before the wrath and indignation of God The day of the Lord shall be against every one that is high and that is lifted up God desires in a speciall manner to be dealing with these for they in the pride of their spirits think themselves a match for God though indeed their strength be but weaknesse and their wisdome foolishnesse yet in their own conceits they are stronger and wiser then God himselfe Hence like Pharaoh they send defiance to Heaven and say Who is the Lord Exod. 5. 1. When God sees the hearts of men swolne to this height of insolent madnesse he delights to shew himselfe and graple with them that the pride of man may be abased and every one that is exalted may be laid low that he only may be exalted and his Name set up in that day David was much troubled at that murther of Abner yet he could not take vengeance presently upon the fierce Lion that had suckt his blood Why his power did not reach it ye sonnes of Zerviah saith he are too hard for me 2 Sam. 23. 3. But there are no sonnes of Zerviah too hard for God no Lions so strong but he can teare them with infinitely more ease then a Lion can the tender kid This should comfort us when we see great and potent enemies rising up against the Church what are these before the great Lion the Lion of the Tribe of Judah If the Lord doe but roare if the Lion of the Tribe of Judah come against these Lions they will run like a heard of fearfull deare The Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chiefe Captaines and the mighty men are described trembling at the presence of Christ when he appeared but as a Lambe Rev. 6. 15 16. They cry to the mountaines and the rockes to fall upon them and to hide them from his face If when Christ appeares like an angry Lambe the greatest in the world fall before him what then will these doe when Christ shall appeare as a roaring Lion Secondly observe how gradually the Holy Ghost expresses the destruction of wicked tyrants All is not done at once First the roaring of the Lion doth perish then their voice then their teeth are pulled out next their prey is taken away lastly their whelps are scattered Note hence That usually God destroyes wicked men by degrees Here are five steps or degrees of Gods justice against these Lions First He stops the roaring of the Lions they shall not be able to make such a dreadfull noise as heretofore their roaring may be stopt when their voice is not though they can speake yet they shall not yell In the second
In the 1 Sam. 3. 1. we have the ground of the distinction In those dayes there was no open vision Open is opposed to private or secret the word imports a vision appearing in publique and the meaning of the text is this there were no Prophets sent openly and as it were In State invested with commission and furnished with messages Fuerantquidem singulares privatae visiones cum pijs communicatae ut cum Manoah Judic 13 Sed publiâ—è Prophetarum oâ—ne munus jacebat Jun. in loc from Heaven unto the people there was no open vision yet at that time there were private visions as to Manoah Judg. 13. God revealed himselfe in those darke times to some of his speciall servants And so he hath and will at all times While he hath a Church upon the earth he never shuts himselfe quite in Heaven Open vision may faile but all visions shall not faile So open profession may faile in the raigne of Antichrist in his houre and in the power of darknesse as it did in the time of Eliah yet all profession of the truth shall never faile The Lord hath alwayes his thousands in secret who never bowed their knee to Baal In many places since Christ came in the flesh there hath been no open vision no holding forth of the truth of Christ and yet even in those places there have been private visions and a remnant reserved to whom God hath made known the mysteries of the Kingdome of Christ When darknesse covers all in appearance there may be light which appeares not and candles under a bushell when there are none in the Candlesticks A Goshen hath light while Egypt is plagued with darknesse and when the Prophets are benighted it may be day with many of the people Thirdly Some visions were without any trance or ravishment Gen. 15. 1. The word of God came in a vision to Abraham speaking to his eare and bidding him look up to Heaven with his eyes ver 5. But often we finde that visions were accompanied with trances 'T was so with Balaam the false Prophet Num. 24. 16. He hath said which saw the visions rf the Almighty falling into a trance but having his eyes open And it was so with some of the true Prophets Daniel saw a vision and when he heard the voice Then saith he was I in a deepe sleepe upon my face Dan. 10. 9. Peter was in a trance when he had the vision of a sheete let downe from Heaven Act. 10. And the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 12. 1. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord whether in the body I cannot tell or whether out of the body I cannot tell God knoweth His soule had so much acquaintance with God that he became a stranger to his own body his soule was so busied in receiving knowledge from God that he was faine to put off the knowledge and care of his body wholly to God What the state of my body was I know not God knoweth Fourthly Some visions were presented only in bare naked words others were cloathed in types and figures in the shapes of beasts of the earth and soules of the ayre of trees and stones c. As to Ezekiel and Daniel in their Prophesies and to John in the book of Revelations These figures were as an Alphabet of sacred Letters which put together and spel'd made the minde of God legible to his servants Lastly The Scripture in hand hints us a fifth difference about visions In thoughts from the visions of the night that 's considerable There were visions of the day and visions of the night thus it is said Dan. 2. 19. when Daniel expounded Nebuchadnezzars dreame that God made it known to him in visions of the night opposing it to visions of the day Usually the night was the time for visions hence Numb 22. 18 19. Balaam the false Prophet when the messengers of Balack came to him saith Tarry this night and I will shew you in the morning he thought to have a vision in the night So it is observable that when Saul and his servant came to Samuel 1 Sam. 9. 19. to enquire about the straid Asses he tells him ye shall eate bread with me to day and to morow I will let thee goe and will tell thee all that is in thine heart he desired a night intimating that God used to reveale secrets unto him in the night So much concerning visions with the kindes and differences of them From this doctrine of visions we may take notice of our priviledge under the Gospel The Apostle saith at sundry times and in divers manners God spake unto our fathers by the Prophets but he hath spoken unto us one way which exceeds them all Even by his Sonne who is the brightnesse of his glory and the expresse image of his person Heb. 1. 2 3. We have a vision which outshines all the visions that ever the Prophets or Patriarchs had from the beginning of the world Their light was darknesse at most but a shadow their visions were obscurities and their revelations concealments compared with ours Our vision is Christ God manifested in the flesh Mine eyes have seen thy salvation saith old Simeon he had a vision of Christ in person The land of Judah was call'd the valley of vision because God revealed himselfe to that people more frequently and clearly than to all the world beside Where ever the Gospel is preached that Land is a valley of vision a valley of vision farre more lightsome and glorious than the land of Judah was the very darknesse of the Gospel is clearer than the light of the Law That which was made glorious had no glory by reason of that glory which excelleth 1 Cor. 3. 10. Only remember that as our priviledge is greater than theirs so is our duty A cleare light should be answered with a holier life And we who have more evidence of what God would have done should make more conscience to do it Now we are not taught by dreams and visions of the night We ought to walk as children of the day Not onely is darknesse gone but the shadows are fled away The true light now shines even he who enlightens every one that comes into the warld We need not dreams or visions now Why should we call for Candles when the Sunne is up We need not Starre-light when we have day-light or when the promised Day-starre is risen in our hearts 2 Pet. 1. 19. Here is one circumstance more in the Text about this vision very Sopor est somnus profundior somnus est plus quam do miâ—aâ—io sopor plus quam somnus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat gravem somnum imo plus quâ—m somnuÌ„ profundum somnuÌ„ quasi letharguÌ„â— remarkeable it was not only in the night but in the night when deepe sleepe falleth on men or on sorrowfull man man wearied with labour and travell This is a more distinct description of the time than the former
2. 24. They two shall be one flesh That is as it were one body speaking of man and wife and Psal 119. 120. My flesh trembleth for fear of thee saith David it is the same word as if Eliphaz had said I am so much affected with thoughts of God that the very hair of my flesh as in extraordinary fear it useth to do stood up The naturall reason why the haire stands up in time of fear is this when suddain fear falleth upon us the blood goes or â—astens rather to the heart and so the outward members wax cold and the skin in which the haire is rooted is prest more together which causeth the haire to stand up though of it selfe it be a weak and unstable excrement So we see the generall effect of the vision which was fear and those three concomitants or symptomes of fear The trembling of his flesh The shaking of his bones And the standing up of the haire of his flesh From all take these Observations First Forasmuch as Eliphaz falleth into such a fit of fear and amazement at this manifestation of God to him we learn That man is not able to bear the presence of God Weak and fraile man falls before the greatnesse power and majesty of God Dust and ashes crumbleth away if the glory of the great God doe but shine forth even in those lesser manifestations of himself Hence it was that Job seems to capitulate with God that he would speak with him upon two Articles or conditions granted Chap. 13. 21 22 First Withdraw thy hand far from me Secondly Let not thy dread make me afraid Then call thou and I will answer or let me speake and answer thou me As if he had said so dreadfull is thy presence that unlesse thou be pleased to sweeten it to me fear will presently seize upon me and disable me to speak Moses who was a favourite of heaven and one who shortly after had communion with God above all that ever lived yet when Jehovah appeared in that flaming Bush the text saith Exod. 3. 6. That Moses hid his face for he was afraid to looke upen God holy Moses could not bear that glory Daniel a man greatly beloved of God and honoured with glorious visions was yet greatly astonished at those visions Chap. 10. 8. There remained no strength in me for my comelinesse was turned into corruption and I retained no strength and vers 16. O my lord by the vision my sorrowes are turned upon me and I have retained no strength Vers 17. Neither is there any breath left in me I am ready to dye I am not able to bear thy majesty in these mysteries of thy will made known to me How doth Habakkuk cry out in the place afore quoted of his trembling belly quivering lips and of rottennesse entring into his bones We find in the New Testament the Saints swallowed up with the like amazements Zechariah of whom the Holy Ghost had given such an excellent testimony a little before for a man that had walked blamelesse in all the Ordinances of God yet as soon as the Angel appeared the Text saith He was â—â—ubled and fear fell upon him Luke 1. 12. Yea the blessed Virgin v. 29. of that Chap. when she saw him that is the Angel she was troubled in her mind Lastly John the beloved Disciple seeing Christ walking in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks c. Fell at his feet as dead Rev. 1. 17. How should this humble and abase us in our selves we that are not able to stand before the gracious manifestations of God when he comes to reveale himself to us in mercy how shall we be able to stand before the wrathfull manifestations of God The Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 15. 50. Flesh and blood cannot enter into the Kingdome of Heaven by flesh and blood we are not to understand the sinfull nature of man as flesh and blood often signifie in Scripture being opposed to spirit but the constitution of nature or that estate wherein we stand as men this flesh and blood is not able to enter into the Kingdome of Heaven that is it cannot bear the majesty glory and excellency of Heaven where God clearly manifests himself unto his Saints and where we shall see God face to face and therefore the Apostle argueth all along as by divers other Arguments so by this to prove the necessity of a resurrection a raising and a new moulding of the body into a spirituall condition Why because our naturall bodies are not able to stand under such a weight of glory as is prepared for the Saints in that Kingdome Corruption nature subject to corruption cannot inherit incorruption hence it was that when but a little of God broke forth the holiest and best of men in the world fell a shaking and trembling as not being able to beare that transcendent majesty shiningout in those weaker refracted beames of glory Secondly Seeing God comming at this time to instruct Eliphaz and reveale a great truth to him was pleased to deale thus with him to make him shake and tremble we may note That God usually humbles a man and layes him very low before he exalts him in the manifestations of his truth or power Humiliations prepare and posture the heart for revelations The reason is because God delights to have a man humbled before he be instructed Paul though as humble a soule as lived was in danger to be exalted above measure through the aboundance of revelations 2 Gor 12. Even divine knowledge through our corruption is apt to puffe up and therefore we had need to have the bladder prickt and our spirits laid flat for the receiving of know ledge Onely humble ones are fit to be Gods schollars he will teach none else he resisteth a proud man then surely he will never teach a proud man The meeâ—e will he teach his way Ye breakes Psal 25. 9. our will before he trusts us with the secrets of his will When the spirits of men lie in the â—ust when they tremble and shake when all their bones are afraid and rottennesse enters into them then they are prepared vessels to receive and take in the dew and influences of divine revelation When â—od made that most memorable manifestation of himselfe to the ancient Church in giving the Law we reade how he terrified them how he humbled and abased them How dreadfull was the preparation to the giving of the Law The Apostle describes it Heb. 12. 18 20 21. by blacknesse and darknesse and tempest so that they could not endure that which was commanded and so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly feare and quake I confesse the Law in it selfe was a terrible a killing letter and that which might well make the world shake and men to tremble If as Luther saith but one precept or sentence of the Law should be left in its full power and strength mans sinne it would destroy mankinde and make all the world
good I answer first God charged them with folly comparatively respecting himself As 1 Tim. 6. 16. the Apostle saith of God that he only hath immortality that speech is exclusive shutting out all other creatures from a participation of Gods immortality Yet we know Angels are immortall Angels dye not therefore also they are opposed to men in the next Verse to the Text who live in houses of clay whose foundations are in the dust and are crushed before the moth Angels are not crushed they dye not yet God only is immortall because the immortality of Angels compared with the immortality of God is but mortality And the reason is this because Angels are not immortall in themselves or of themselves they have not originall or absolute immortality their immortality is dependent and derivative God only is independently In comparatione justitiae Dei sinec sancti in coelis Angeli justi essedicantur non mihi videtur importuna sententia non quia ut hoc essentà justitia lapsi sunt sed quia facti sunt Deus non sunt August cont Prisc and originally immortall and hence he only is said to have immortality As it is in the point of life so also of righteousnesse wisdome and faithfulnesse God only is faithfull he only is wise that 's the Apostles phrase To God only wise Men yea Angels are unfaithfull unwise foolish compared with God He is wise of himself and in himself in his own compasse creatures have only what they borrow or receive from him To this sense on of the Ancients speaks fully In comparison of the justice of God if the holy Angels in heaven be called unjust I see no hurt in the assertion not because they have fallen from justice but because they are creatures and not God All is resolved into this they are creatures that 's enough to prove their folly and unfaithfulnesse And if a man that hath not only some smattering of learning and knowledge but is a professed Scholer be looked upon as ignorant compared with the Ben-clerks and great Scholers of the world is it any wonder that Angels should be called fools in reference to the infinite wisdome of God The foolishnesse of God is wiser then men and the weaknesse of God is stronger then men And it is as true of Angels the foolishnesse of God is wiser then Angels and the weaknesse of God is stronger then Angels Angels are called Principalities and powers but yet it is only because they act in the power of God and go forth in his strength that 's the first answer The whole nature of Angels is unfaithfull and foolish weighed with God Secondly I answer although in the Angels there is no actuall unfaithfulnesse or folly yet there is possible folly unfaithfulnesse in Angels and this potentiality is the thing here meant or aimed at Cuicunque câ—eaturae hoc convenit ut peccare non possit hoc habet ex dono gratiae non ex conditione naturae Aqin p 1 quesâ— 63. Art 1. The Holy Angels that now stand are wise and faithfull altogether yet considered in themselves not as confirmed by Christ they may fall their condition is altered but their constitution is the same It is otherwise with man which makes a wide difference between Angels and men Man not only hath a potentiality to be foolish unfaithfull but man is actuall foolish and unfaithfull yea man in himself is nothing else but a bundle of folly and unfaithfulnesse Whereas Angels in themselves or considered in their naturall constitution have no folly actually in them at all The nature of man is nothing but sinne and Angels have no sinne at all in their nature they only have a potentiality a possibility in their nature to sinne So then we must understand this charge of folly with two cautions concerning Angels First there was not any folly concreated with them their nature is purely pure Secondly they have not contracted any folly into their nature The folly of the good Angels is but like the folly of man in the state of innocency when he had only a power to sin which possibility of Angels to sin is by the mediation of Christ wherein these Angels have a share though not to redeem or raise them from their Fall as man yet to confirme and keep them from falling I say by the mediation of Christ that possibility is removed Christ hath changed their possibility to sin into an impossibility of sinning This is a glorious priviledge indeed and that which all the Saints shall have in glory Redemption hath not only bettered the condition of man but the condition of Angels Now they all excell in strength doing the commandements of God and harkning to the voice of his word for ever Psal 103. 20. We may hence learne first What the sin of Angels was God charged his Angels with folly The possible sin which God saw and still sees in the nature of Angels was the actuall sin of Angels Pride selfe confidence were the sins of Angels and these are the most proper sins of Angels Angels cannot fall into every sin The Schooleman questions Whether the first sin of Angels was pride He argues and concludes that howsoever in regard of guilt the Devils Aquin paâ— 1. q. 63. art 1. or fallen Angels have all sins upon them because they tempt man to every sin For he that tempts another to a sin which himselfe commits not or is incapeable to commit is as guilty as if he had committed it yet in regard of the act it selfe evill angels can only commit those sins which are sutable to a spirituall nature Now a spirituall nature is not affected with those sins which belong to a corporall or sensitive nature Devils are not adulterers they are not drunkards theirs are spirituall sins and their chiefe spirituall sin was pride Their first sin consisted in not submitting themselves to that condition wherein God placed them and whereunto they were appointed All agree it was pride though there be different opinions about what this pride shewed if selfe whether in affecting a higher degree then God created them in refusing the work and office God set them about which some conceive was the ministration to or the guardianship of man which trust they deserted or scorned or whether it were in affecting a further condition upon their own strength not looking to the strength and grace of God whatsoever the particular was the generall is plaine they abode not in the truth they kept not their station Pride and ambition swel'd them till they brake and fell Secondly observe Angels as creatures are mutable creatures Aâ—geli fâ—erum à Deo creati beati â—eatitudine nâ—turaâ— non auâ—em beatituâ—iâ—◠〈…〉 quae in 〈…〉 though they are the best of creatures yet they are changeable creatures though they are the most perfect creatures yet there is somewhat in them of imperfection Looke upon Angels in their creation they were created blessed Blessed
enterprise 'T is so all along therefore Psal 2. 1. it is said Why doe the Heathen imagine a vaine thing a vaine thing because a thing successelesse their hands could not performe it It was vaine not only because there was not true ground of reason why they should imagine or doe such a thing but vaine also because they laboured in vaine they could not doe it And therefore it followes v. 4. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh the Lord hath them in derision The Lord sees what fooles they are and men yea themselves shall see it The Prophet gives us an elegant description to this purpose Isa 59. 9. They weave the spiders web but their webs shall not become garments neither shall they cover themselves with their workes As if he had said they have beene devising and setting things in a goodly frame to catch flies they have been spinning a fine thread out of their braines as the Spider doth out of her bowels such is their web but when they have this web They cannot cut it out or make it up into a garment They shall go naked and cold notwithstanding all their spinning and weaving all their plotting and devising The next broome that comes will sweepe away all their webs and the Spiders too except they creepe apace God loves and delights to crosse worldly proverbs and worldly crase How many visible demonstrations have we of this in our times How many cunning but ruining devices lie by the wals at this day unacted They went through the Head-worke but they could not get through their Hand-worke We may say as in the Psalme 76. 5. None of the men of might have found their hands The men of craft sound their heads but the men of might blessed be God have not yet found their hands to execute up to the height of the divisers either wit or malice In this we see the glorious prerogative of God How many thousand thousand thousand thoughts do men loose The thoughts of many yeares are lost in a moment God never lost nor never shall loose one thought And therefore David puts these two together in a breath Having said Psal 33. 10 The Lord bringeth the counsell of the Heathen to nought he maketh the devices of the people of none effect In the next verse he subjoynes The counsell of the Lord standeth for ever the thoughts of his heart to all Generations And as the counsel of the Lord stands so he causeth the counsell of those to stand who consult for him He confirmeth the word of his servants and performeth the counsell of his Messengers Isa 44. 26. So that their hands shall performe their enterprise as the Lord encourageth the ancient people Zac. 4. 9 The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house his hands shall also finish it And againe Chap. 8. 13. Fear not let your hands be strong As if he had said Feare not goe on with your worke For your hands shall performe their enterprise you shall not beaten from your worke neither shall ye work in vain The Lord himselfe hath no barren counsels and he makes all the counsels which are for him bring forth in their due time desired fruit the longed for and beloved issue Lastly observe That It is a great and wonderfull worke of God to disappoint the devices and stop the enterprises of crafty men Eliphaz puts this among the wonders of God This is reported in a way of admiration concerning God Isa 44. 25. He frustrateth the tokens of the liars and maketh diviners mad he turneth wise men backwards and maketh their knowledge foolish The wisdome of God is most seen in defeating the wise as the power of God is most seene in overthrowing the strong While we consider that Theirs are secret devices and that they are subtill devices that they have many devices and that they have many wayes to bring these devices to passe it cannot fall below a wonder in our thoughts that their thoughts or devices are not accomplished Therefore the Psalmist concludes Psal 124. Vnlesse it had bin the Lord who was on our side c. we had bin swallowed up quick and taken in their snare As if he had said if we should have had any lesse then God to helpe us we had been gone all the world could not save us To passe through a place full of gins and snares and pits set and made on purpose to take a man and that man not taken is marvellous in our eyes Thus it is with the people of God they walk among snares and traps The trade of most wicked men is to be Trap-makers Snare makers if not Sword makers against the Saints of the most high They meet with devices upon devices and plots upon plots now that God shall disappoint all these and exalt his people to safety in the very face of death and dangers how admirable But some may object Yet we see that at least some of these plots are not disappointed at least some of these devices take and we have seen bloudy hands performing their enterprise I answer in a word First this text and the observation bottom'd upon it are to be understoood of what is often done not strictly of what is alwaies done The Lord very frequently disappoints the devices of the crafty But secondly their very successe is a disappointment and their prosperity is their curse For their cause is under a curse and so are their persons when both seeme most succesfull If outward judgements slay not wicked men Their prosperitie shall Pro. 1. 32. Thirdly all the successe which the devices of wicked craftie ones have tends to the fulfilling of Gods counsels more then their own So that though it be to the eye or in the letter success to them yet in truth and upon the matter it is success to the cause of God Craft prevailes no further no longer on earth then serves to accomplish the counsels of heaven and fulfill what infinite wisdom hath devised Therefore when you see any devices of the craftie thrive know that God is serving himselfe upon them and that they are but acting What his hand and counsell hath determined before to be done Act. 4 28. As Christ himselfe overcame by dying so doe they who are Christs they have successe in all their disappointments and these are disappointed in all their successes and die while they overcome No sinfull device of man ever did or ever shall prevaile beyond a contribution to the just and holy purpose of God All their prevailings are disappointments who intentionally oppose though they really accomplish the good pleasure and purpose of God JOB Chap. 5. Vers 13 14 15. 16. He taketh the wise in their own craftines and the counsell of the froward is carried headlong They meet with darknes in the day time and grope in the noon day as in the night But he saveth the poor from the Sword from their mouth and from the hand of the mighty So
protections which are laid up for the Saints in promises are more than all the deliverances and protections received and enjoyed There is no enjoyment but that in Heaven where we shall enjoy all that ever was promised so good as hope for what is promised Alexander an Heathen had such a notion about an earthly hope which had no ground neither but the great things his own ambition promised him for when one seeing him give away all his present inheritances Perspâ—ctâ hac Dei providentia erga pauperes humiles maligni nocendi studiosi retrahent sese neque inter se amplias ineant prava iniqua adversus pios consilia Aquin. said what Sir will you make your selfe a beggar no saith he I will reserve hope for my selfe And iniquity stoppeth her mouth Here is the opposite effect iniquity the abstract is put for the concrete iniquity for men of iniquity wicked men these stop their mouthes And it is observeable that as before God made them active in their own destruction so here he makes them active in their own silence he saith not God stoppeth their mouthes but they stop their own mouthes that is the wicked seeing those wonderfull works of God have not a word to say nor a counsell to give more against the godly they are as mute as fishes as dumbe as dogs they know not how to slander or of whom to complaine and therefore they suspend and enjoyne silence upon themselves As that word of Christ Friend how camest thou in hither not having on a wedding garment Mat. 22. 12. so these works of Christ shall make his enemies speechlesse Iniquity stoppeth her mouth This stopping their mouthes is caused two wayes First from shame A man is sometime silent because he is asham'd to speake disappointments especially such as theirs before noted produce shame naturally and shame makes silent A man that blushes much speakes little and he that dayes not lift up his head will not be forward to lift up his voice Mich. 7. 16. I will shew marvellous things saith the Lord and what then The Nations shall see and be confounded they shall lay their hand upon their mouth their eares shall be deafe They shall see it and be confounded that is they shall be greatly ashamed confusion of face is but shame heightned and the Holy Ghost puts shame and confusion of face together in divers places Now this great shame layes their hands upon their mouthes and puts their fingers in their eares they are resolvedly both dumb and deafe at the sight of those marvellous things Secondly Admiration and amazement silence them The works of God being marvellous they shall stand admiring and wondring at them till they cannot speake Reade the like Isa 52. 15. and Psal 107. 42. where when the Prophet had reckoned up many wonderfull works of God he concludes as in the Text ver 42. He setteth the poore on high c. the righteous shall see it and rejoyce and all iniquity shall stop her mouth while the Lord seemes to doe nothing or to doe but little iniquity will doe nothing but talke or it talkes very much it is very talkative but if once God begin working iniquity has done speaking you shall heare no more of them till the next successe on their side Then observe First Wicked men will never cease slandering and censuring bragging and boasting till some eminent judgement stops their mouthes So iniquity stoppeth her mouth they will never stop their mouthes before Isa 26. 11. Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed for the envy at thy people I will make the judgement bigger and greater write my wrath in fairer or rather in bloodier characters that they may see them As small judgements will not open the eyes of wicked men so small judgments wil not stop their mouths but when God begins to work wonders they are dumb they have done Secondly observe That God will doe such things for his people as shall put the crafty to silence The Saints ought to live so holily that by well doing they may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men 1 Pet. 2. 15. The Lord will do so justly and gloriously as shall put to silence the malice of the wisest men These two the holinesse of the Saints and the Justice of God are stopples in the mouthes or the stop-mouthes of ungodly men As they by unrighteous acts have stopped other mens mouthes and silenced them so God by terrible things in righteousnesse will stop their mouthes and silence them for ever They shall have nothing to say at last either against the justice of God or a gainst the innocency of his people against both these their mouthes chiefly open They impute and fasten unrighteousnesse on God you talk of God and boast of his promises where is he where are they The Prophet brings them in belching out such blasphemies Isa 5. 19. They say let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it and let the councell of the holy One of Israel draw nigh and come that we may know it Words filled with as high a sense of spirituall wickednesse as wit and malice can infuse They jeere the patience of God as slacknesse and as if Justice it selfe were tired or too slow pac'd they spurre it on to ruine themselves You have often told us of the Holy One of Israel and what he would doe but threatned men live long we see You are nimbler of your tongues then your Holy One of Israel is of his hands Therefore let him make speed if he can and hasten his work that we may see it Will not the jealousie of the Lord awake at the noise of this hellish blasphemy will he not stop the mouth of this iniquity surely he will And the Prophet assures us he will at the 24th verse Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble and as the flame consumeth the chaffe so their root shall be rottennesse and their blossomes shall goe up as dust But how doth the fire devour the stubble how doth the flame consume the chaffe even in a moment fire needs no blowing to make it take hold of dry stubble Stubble is at once flame and ashes So speedy shall the consumption of these men be who called the Lord to make speed Then I believe they 'l no more bid him make haste The mouth of this iniquity will be stopt for ever Our God shall come and shall not keepe silence A fire shall devoure before him Psal 50. 3. And then the wicked shall be silent in darknesse 1 Sam. 2. 9. The fire of wrath is all heate no light Lastly all their slanders against the innocency of the Saints shall be so confuted that the adversary shall have nothing to say against them Their innocency shall be made as cleare as the light and their justice as the noon-day Yea God will so order it that these crafty oppressours
your selves despise it It is most just with God that they who loath his will should at last loath their own desires And that the creatures should not long please them who take no heed to please the Creator The least mixture of Gods displeasure sowres our sweetest contents and makes our very pleasures loathsome Where also by the way we may observe the great difference between earthly and spirituall things The best of earthly things used too much or too often grow loathsome Angels food Manna or Quailes will not goe down long with us But Christ the spirituall Manna and all heavenly things the more we have of them and the longer we are dieted with them the more we shall delight in them These will not loath us after two or five or ten or twenty dayes or after a whole months feeding on them No we shall feed on them dayes without number or the whole day of eternity without any loathings use and delight shall never cease or abate appetite shall renew every moment though our enjoyment be but one and the same Yea the Saints shall be so farr from loathing the pleasant cup of glory that they ought not to loath and Christ strengthning them they shall not loath the bitter cup of sorrow Their stomachs shall not turne though dieted more then two or five or ten or twenty dayes with the bread of adversity and the water of affliction That is the first sense of the word in allusion to nauseating at the sight or long use of meate Loath not the chastning of the Lord. Or the word may seeme to carry a reference to physick or medicines as well as meate which you know is many times given in a better pill or in a distastfull potion The sick man is apt to loath the potion brought him and turne his head away from it what he take it no not he He had rather die then drink such a draught he is ready to through it against the wall and spil it one the ground rather then drinke it But then his friends or the Pbysitian perswade with him Be not angry though it â—e loathsome to your stomach yet it is wholesome for your body It is an enemy only to your disease therefore loath it not So here Eliphaz as it were brings in God standing like a Physitian or a father or a tender mother at the beds-side where a sick child oâ— friend lies using many entreaties and perswasive reasons to take a bitter potion my child or my friend doe not loath doe not dispise no nor distast this medicine doe not cast it away though it â—e bitter in your mouth yet take it downe and the effects of it will be sweet to your whole body We find in Scripture afflictions compared to a cup Our Lord Jesus calls all his sufferings for our salvation a cup and it was a cup tempered with the venome and poison with the gall and wormewood of all our sinnes it was a loathsome potion indeed and such as would have turned the stomachs of all men and Angels to have drunke it So much of the first sense of the word as it signifies loathing whether in respect of meates or medicines Now forasmuch as here is a charge given under this notion not to loath chastnings We may observe There is or possibly may be an aversnesse in the best of Gods children for a time from the due entertainement of chastnings He speakes as if most were loth to take them downe and therefore he exhorts not to loath them Even the Lord Jesus Christ so farre as he was partaker of our nature seemed to loath the bitter cup of sufferings Hence he prayed hard once and againe ye a third time Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me Mat. 26. 39. Yet at another time he speakes as if he had been a thirst for that cup and angry with Peter who would have hindred his draught The cup which my Father giveth me shall I not drinke it Joh. 18. 11. and shortly after he indeed drunke it up to the bottome Affliction is also a bitter cup to the Saints and they as Christ pray again and again yea thrice against it because to sense no chastning seemeth joyous but grievous Heb. 12. 11. through grace perswades them to drinke it and faith gives them a tast of much sweetnesse when they have drunke it As a sick man is backward to take a distastfull medicine till his reason hath overcome his sense so a godly man is unwilling to beare afflictions till his faith hath overcome his reason Nor can he quietly endure the troublesome smart of the rod till he is assured of the peaceable fruits of righteousnesse which grow from it to those who are exercised by it When the Apostle is carryed up on those Eagles wings of assurance to see a house not made with hands eternall in the Heavens then he groanes earnestly under the burden of his earthly Tabernacle and desires to die yet looking upon death he saw no forme or comelinesse in that why he should desire it and therefore he seemes to correct himselfe at least to draw his mind plainer with the next drop of his pen Not for that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that mortality may be swallowed up of life He speakes somewhat like a man who in a time of heate hastily strips himselfe to goe into the water but putting a foot in and finding it cold calls for his cloathes againe The Apostle in a true holy heate of spirit had in his desires almost stript himselfe of his body but putting a foot into the grave he found that so cold that he had no great mind to it and therefore had rather keepe on the cloathing of his body and have a suite of glory over it then lay it downe The Saints desire to live with Christ but in it selfe they desire not to die They had rather their mortality should be swallowed up of eternall life then their temporall life should be swallowed up of mortality They that have grace like not the disunions of nature Now as it is in the case of death which iâ— to the Saints the last and greatest affliction so likewise in the case of all afflictions which are as renewed and lesser deaths Though they embrace and kisse them both in a holy submission to the will of God and in an assured expectation of their own good yet they have nothing pleasing in them much which creates so much loathing that the best doe but need counsell and encouragement to take and digest them And then if there be some aversnesse even in the best from these potions of affliction tempered with the mercy and goodnesse of God no wonder if there be an abhorrence in wicked men from those deadly potions mixt only with his wrath and justice The Psalmist presents the Lord to us with a cup in his hand Psal 75. 8. In the hand of the Lord there is a cup the wine thereof
of them together Sometimes we see a duell or single combate one man matcht with one trouble Bellum atque virum Here a man and an affliction there a man and an affliction but another time we may see a man and an army as he spake in the story when one made good a passe against a whole host of the enemy in the spirituall war one soul grapples with a multitude of troubls and conflicts with a thousand temptations As there are legions of evill spirits so legions of spirituall evils assaulting at once Secondly Observe God sometimes appeares as an enemy to his own servants The terrours of God and the arrowes of God saith Job God shootes the arrowes and sets the terrours in array Job expected favour and succor from God but he finds terrours and arrowes Those wounds make our hearts bleed most which we apprehend given us from his anger whom we have chosen as our only friend The Church had that apprehension of God Lam. 3. 3. Surely against me is he turned he turneth his hand against me all the day The Church speakes as if God were quite changed as if he having been her friend were now turn'd enemy So Job I that was wont to have showers of sweet mercies shot and darted into my soule now feele deadly arrowes there shot from the same hand my spirit was wont to drinke in the pleasant influences of Heaven but now poison drinks up my spirits I was wont to walk safe under the guard of divine favours but now divine terrours assault me on every side Thirdly observe When God appeareth an enemy man is not able to hold out any longer See how Job poor soul cries out as soon as he found that these were Gods arrowes and Gods terrours Job was a man at armes a man of valour and of an undaunted courage A man that had been in many skiâ— mishes with Satan and had often through the power of God foiled him and come off with victory Chaldeans and Sabeans were indeed too hard for his servants and conquer'd his cattell yet the spirit of Job beate those bands of robbers and triumphed over them but he was never in battell with God before and perceiving now God himselfe to appeare as an enemy in the field he cries out O the terrours of God O the arrowes of the Almighty When God is angry no man can abide it 2 Cor. 5. 11. Knowing the terrour of the Lord we perswade men We saith the Apostle who have felt by experience or by faith have understood the terrour of the Lord we knowing it experimentally or knowing it beleevingly we being fully perswaded that the terrour of the Lord is most terrible perswade men O take heed you put not your selves under the terrour of the Lord or provoke the terrour of the Lord against your selves Those terrours of the Lord which come from pure wrath are altogether intollerable And those which come from love and are set in array by the infinite wisdome and gratious providence of God ordering all things for good to his in the issue even those are very dreadfull no man not the holiest of men and they are the strongest in this warre are able to stand before them Psal 38. 2. Thine arrowes stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore there is no soundnesse in my flesh by reason of thine anger that is I am as a man who hath not a whole peece of skin all his body over all is a wound or I am as one whose flesh is all rotten by reason of his wounds As Ely speakes to his sonnes 1 Sam. 2. 25. If one man sin against another the Judge shall judge him but if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreate for him So we may say on the other side if man contend with man some one may helpe him he may have a Second to releeve him but if once a man be contending with God who will be his Second who will undertake for him who can come in to the rescue when God is fighting and contending with us We wrastle not against flesh and blood saith the Apostle Ephes 6. 12. when he would shew what a terrible thing it is to wrastle with the Devill but against principalities and powers against spirituall wickednesses in high places Flesh and blood is no match for a spirit though a created spirit though an uncleane spirit a Devill how then shall flesh and blood be able to wrastle with the creating Spirit with him who is a most holy Spirit with God who is The Principality The Power The High the Srong The Almighty Shaddai In other battels it is man with man or at worst man with Devils but here it is man with God weaknesse and frailty contending with omnipotency and therefore when once God appeares against the soul the soul can hold out no longer His anger who is The Spirit quickly drinks up our spiirts Fourthly observe Inward wounds and terrrours are most terrible Doe not think that the soares upon Jobs body fetcht all these complaint from him He shewes you now what it was that made him complaine indeed The arrows of the Almighty are within Tanto poena intolerabilior quanâ—o spiritus corpore subtilior me the terrours of God set themselves in array against me As the joyes and exultations of the spirit doe infinitely exceed all the pleasures which come in from the senses all bodily pleasures so the troubles and afflictions which are upon the spirit infinitly exceed all the troubles and afflictions which fall upon the body As God hath such comforts such joyes to bestow upon his people as the world can neither give nor take away so likewise he hath terrours and troubles which all the world is not able to remove or mitigate There are no medicines in the whole circuite of nature that can heale a wounded spirit All your friends all your relations all your riches yea all your naturall wisdome will be but as the white of an egge to your tast in the day when God smites the heart with these terrours These arrowes and terrours are often preparatorie to conversion when some men are overcome to receive Christ an Army of terrours is sent out to take them captive and bring them in There are many I grant whom God wounds with love he shootes an arrow of favour into their hearts and overcomes them with Troopes of mercies Againe An army of terrours is sent out to try the holy courage of those who are converted as well as to conquer the unholy enmity of person unconverted That was Jobs case here and these second armies may be as terrible to the soule as the first and often are more terrible And we have such cases a man that was converted without an army of terrours may have an army of terrour sent against him after conversion The dispensations and methods of God are various though both his rule and end be ever the same But whether this army of terrour comes
hardnesse or bear evil As if he had said thou dost not know what hardship thou shalt be put unto in thy ministry I who am a veterane 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an old beaten though never conquered souldier in this warfare of Christ have been put to much hardship in my time and from my owne experience I advise thee to inure thy selfe to hardship to lie hard to fare hard to work hard to hear hard words and receive hard usage A tender spirit and a delicate body which must have warme and soft and fine and sweet continually is unfit for the warfare of the Gospel Such a sence is here I know I must endure more than now I doe but I would harden my selfe against that time and resolve to endure it let come what could come I am resolved and have fore-thought the worst Further for the clearing of these words it is considerable that some learned Interpreters put the two middle expressions into a parenthesis and read the whole thus I should have comfort though I should scorch with paine and though God should not spare me for I have not concealed the words of the holy One. One thus This yet is my comfort even while I scorch with pain Iunius and God doth not spare me that I have not concealed the words of the holy One Mr. Broughton as I touched before comes near this sence and translation So I should yet find comfort though I parch in paine when he would not spare For I kept not close the words of the most Holy That is when the long expected houre of my death shall come though God to take away my life should heat the fornace of my affliction seven times hotter then hitherto so that I must parch in paine yet I should have comfort Or take it in Master Broughtons owne glosse in all these pangs if God would make an end of me it should be my comfort and I would take courage in my sicknesse to beare it by my joy that I should die because I professed the Religion of God So that the strength of Job to bear the hand of God was from the conscience of his former integrity in doing the will and maintaining the truth of God Let him not spare Job having taken up his hope that he should have comfort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pepercit clementia usus fuerit and this resolution that he would harden himselfe in sorrow speaks now as if he were at a point let God doe what he pleaseth let him not spare as if he had said what course soever the Lord shall see good to take for the cutting me off I am content he should goe on with it Let him not spare The word signifies to indulge or shew mercy to him whom by all right a man might justly destroy Ezek. 5. 11. Because thou hast done thus and thus saith God therefore will I also diminish thee neither shall mine eye spare neither will I have any pity Job seemes to invite what God threatens others Let him not spare let him not have any pity let him take his full swing in destroying of me In this sence it is said Rom. 8. 32. That God spared not his own sonne That is he abated not any thing which justice could inflict Christ therefore saves to the uttermost because he suffered to the uttermost He was not spared one blow one drop one sigh one sorrow one shame one circumstance of all or any one of these which justice could demand as a satisfaction for mans sinne Yea though in a sence he cryed to his father that he might be spared yet he was not There is a three-fold mercy in God There is a preventing mercy mercy that steps between us and trouble And there is a delivering mercy mercy that takes us out of the hand of trouble There is a third kinde of mercy coming in the middle of these two and that is called sparing mercy and that is two-fold First sparing for the time when God delaies and staies long ere he strike Secondly sparing for the degree when the Lord moderates and mitigates abates and qualifies our sufferings not letting them fall so heavie upon us as they might This sparing mercy stands I say in the middle of the two former it is not so much as preventing mercy stopping trouble that it come not neither is it so much as delivering mercy removing it when it is come Now Job did not only not aske delivering mercy that he asked not sparing mercie Let him not spare me in the time let him not delay or loose time let him come as soone as he will And let him not spare me in the degree and measure let him strike me as hard and lay his hand as heavily upon me as he will David Psal 39. 13. makes this his request O spare me that I may recover strength before I goe hence and be no more That is abate and mitigate my sufferings that I die not but Job desireth not to be spared at all He rather saith take away all my strength that I may goe hence and be seen no more Observe hence That the hope troubles will end comforteth yea hardneth in bearing present troubles Then will I comfort my selfe then will I harden my selfe let him not spare if I may have my request and die The sharpest sting of trouble is that it is endless and it is next to that when we can not looke to the end of it nor see any issue or way out of it That which discourages the damned in bearing their sorrowes and softens both their flesh and spirits to receive home to the head every arrow of wrath and dart of vengeance is they see no end and are assured there will be none They know they cannot be cut off and therefore they cannot harden themselves in sorrow no that very consideration makes their hearts which have been hardned to commit sin tender to receive punishment and exactly sencible of their pains could they see that at last they should be cut off even they would be hardned to bear the torments of Hell in the meane time though that time should be very long yea as long as time can be onely not endlesse The pain it selfe doth not afflict so much as the thought that they shall be afflicted for ever As the assurance that the glory of Heaven shall never end infinitely sweetnes it so the assurance that the paines of hell shall never end infinitely sharpens them And not to see the ending of worldly troubles neer puts us further off from comfort then the bearing of those troubles Therefore saith Job if I might be assured that God would cut me off I would harden my selfe in sorrow and let not God spare I would not desire him to hold his hand to mitigate or abate my paines * Eâ— haec mihi merces esset ejus seu pro eo quod nâ—n occultavi unquam sed diligentisâ— simè observavi quam commendatissima habui
faithful true-loving as God is These are the image of God in us and by these God becomes as it were visible in man As those invisible things of God even his eternal power and God-head are seen in the things which are created so those other invisible things of God even his eternal holinesse and purity are seen in those who are sanctified And in the same sence that God speaks of Magistrates in regard of his power deposited in their hands I have said ye are gods we also may say of all the faithfull in regard of his holinesse infused into their hearts ye are gods and as to live or doe sinfully is as the Apostle phraseth it to walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as men so to live and doe holily is in our sphear to walke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as God And as this holinesse arises from a resemblance of God in his Attributes so in his Affections when we love what God loves when we hate what God hates when what pleases God pleaseth us also when what provokes his Spirit provokes ours This is holinesse Secondly Holinesse is our conformity to the will of God That is to whatsoever God wils us either to doe or not to doe The will of God is the rule of holinesse as his nature is the patterne of it His internall will called by the Schoole-men The will of his good Voluntas beneplaâ—iti Voluntas signi pleasure is the firstly-first rule as they speake His externall will or his will expressed and signified by his word is the secondly-first rule of holinesse Every action of man is holy or unholy according to it's conformity with or variation from this will There is no more holinesse in any worke then there is of the will of God in any work to doe holily and to doe the will of God are the same David a holy man is described by both these Act. 13. 22. I have found David the sonne of Jesse A man after mine owne heart ther 's conformity to the will of God which shall fulfill all my will there 's conformity to the will of God the result of both is holinesse Sicut impuritas nascitur ex nonactu inferiorum ut cum facies aut vestis luto aspergitur vel cum anima per affectus inferioribus inordinatè inhaeret I a puritas oritur ex contactu superiorum cum affectus ad sublimiora nobilicra assurgit ijs inhaerit Less de perfect Div. lib. 8. c. 8. Unholinesse and impurity arise from our conformity or adhesion to those things which are unclean and unholy In externals and corporals if a mans hand or his garment touch an uncleane thing he hath the marke or impression of that uncleanesse upon his hand or upon his garment and this likenesse to an unclean thing makes his hand or garment uncleane So for inward uncleannesse or defilment when the soule inordinately cleaves and the minde drenches it selfe in filthy things or drinkes in filthy objects when our thoughts are steeped in puddle waters this defiles the minde and makes our thoughts uncleane Our thoughts are such as the things they are familiar with If they converse with filthy and uncleane things with wordly and base things the image and impression of such things is sealed upon our thoughts and the spring of them our spirits On the other side by our conversing and reverend familiarity with Christ in holy Ordinances we receive stamps and impressions of holinesse from him When our hearts and affections are raised up and pitcht upon God this makes them holy Summa puritas consistit in adhaesione cum Deo nam Deus est ratio objectiva mensura sanctitatis Less ubi ante God is the Objective cause of holinesse looking upon him we become holy 2 Cor. 3. 18. We saith the Apostle all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord that is we looking upon that glory holinesse and excellencie which is in the Lord are changed into the same image That is we are made conformable unto him we receive as it were the engravings of holinesse upon our soules by beholding the Holy One. The eye of faith as well yea more then the eye of sence affects the hearts Labans sheepe conceived according to the colour of the rods which lay before them in the water troughes Vision assimilates both in nature and in grace yea and in glory too In heaven we shall be perfectly holy because we shall perfectly in Christ who is the expresse image of his person see God and so be like him that 's the Apostles argument 1 Joh. 3 1. We shall he like him for we shall see him as he is And proportionably here such as our visions of God are such is our likenesse unto God Secondly observe They who want holinesse must goe to God for it for he is the holy One. Are any of your hearts unholy Whither will you goe To what Coast will you trade for holinesse Or where shall you finde the merchandize of it Goe whither you will goe to what holy Ordinance to what holy duty to what holy Minister you will your vessels will returne unfraight and emptie of holinesse if you tread not to the holy God We must deale with Ordinances and by Ordinances but if we onely have to doe with them neglecting to meet with God we shall make nothing of them we shall not traffick in them to any spirituall enriching or advantage Ordinances have a relative holinesse or a holinesse passing through them but they have no inherent holinesse or holinesse passed by them They are Conduit-pipes not springs or the well-head Therefore as when you would have mercy you goe to the mercifull God As when you would have pardon of sin you goe to the sinne pardoning God As when you would have wisdome and light to direct your way you goe to the wise God and the Father of lights So when you would have holinesse and be made pure whither will ye goe but to the pure and holy God Be diligent in holy duties and holy Ordinances but stay not in them passe through them and never rest till you come to God in Christ who is The holy One and he onely can and he hath said he will make you holy Observe thirdly All sin and unholiness are contrary to the very name and nature of God Contrary to the name of God He is called holy and contrary to the nature of God He is the holy One. And in this we see the reason why God hates sin with a perfect hatred man hates that which is contrary to his nature and contrary to his name And in this also we see the reason why God is such a severe avenger of sin He is the holy One Can he think you take part with or spare that which is contrary to himself Sin as much as in it lieth puts God out of the world therefore sin is called God-murther as being that which would murther
of God only The clouds also shew forth the handy work and power of God Psal 147. 8. Who covereth the heavens with clouds The hand of God drawes those curtaines and puts that maske upon the face of Heaven But as the heavens declare the glory of God so they publish and declare the weaknesse of man the vapours and the winds shew forth how fraile he is As the invisible things of God to wit his eternall power and Godhead are seen in the things which are made God is as it were visible in the creatures so likewise the frailty and mutability the weaknesse and inconstancy of man is visible in the things which are created we may reade a lecture of our own transitorinesse in the most transitory texts of nature And that is an admirable contrivance and complication of things that out of the very same text of the creature where the infinite wisdom power of God may be learned man also may learn his own frailty He that studies the creature much shall find much of God and of himselfe Some conceive when Isaac Gen 24. 63. went forth into the field to meditate that he studied the booke of the creatures probably the holy man did so but we are sure he might How will it shame those men at last who know not God not themselves when they have or might have had without cost or travell so many tutors and instructers JOB Chap. 7. Vers 11 12 13 14 15 16. Therefore I will not refraine my mouth I will speake in the anguish of my spirit I will complaine in the bitternesse of my soule Am I a sea or a whale that thou settest a watch over me When I say my bed shall comfort me my couch shall ease my complaint Then thou skarest me with dreames and terrifiest me through visions So that my soul chuseth strangling and death rather then life I loath it I would not live alwayes let me alone for my dayes are vanity IN the context of these six verses we may take notice of foure things 1. Jobs violent resolution to complaine ver 11. 2. His vehement complaint ver 12. 3. An amplification of his sorrowes ver 13 14. 4. A renovation of his often repeated desires to die and the tediousnesse of his life ver 15. 16. Therefore Job having in an apostrophe to God shewed his weake condition takes up a fresh resolution of complaining to God Therefore I will not refraine my mouth c. as if he had said The consideration of these things is so farre from putting me to silence that it doth rather enlarge my heart and open my mouth to speake and complaine once more seeing death is by Gods appointment the certain end of all outward troubles and perceiving my self upon the very borders or brink of death my body past cure my estate irrecoverable and remedilesse therefore I will complaine yet againe I will yet farther lay open my misery before the Lord and presse him to hasten me thorough the confines of this land of sorrow that I may accomplish my dayes and see an end of these troubles for my soule is in great bitternesse I will not refraine my mouth The word signifies to stop inhibit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proprie est continere probibere cum ad liuguam orationem refertur â—ffert suppressionem quandam cohibitionem eluctantis spiritus sermonis conantis se aperto ore effundere or prohibit Those writs which stay the processe of inferiour Courts are called Prohibitions and then no man may open his mouth more in that businesse untill the Prohibition be dissolved or taken off I saith Job will not give my self a prohibition I will not silence or suppresse my sorrowes I will give my heart full liberty to meditate and my tongue to speake out my sufferings Being emptied of all my comforts I will surely take my fill of complainings It will be some ease to me to make known how I am pained I will not refraine my mouth That word is used Isa 58. 1. Cry aloud spare not when the Prophet is commanded to tell the people of their sins the Lord sets his tongue at liberty spare not thou art not silenced or limited therefore cry aloud Theirs were crying sins and crying sins must have crying reproofs loud sinners must not be whispered to therefore Cry aloud spare not I will not spare my mouth saith Job or refraine as we translate But I will speake in the anguish of my spirit or in the straightnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ie in angustiis spiritus mei coarctat me spiritus pectore inclusus patefaciam liberum illi aditum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proprie meditari vel ex meditatione interius animo concepta aliquid exterius agere loqui orari conqueri Vocem edam querulam musfitando meditandi Merc. of my spirit I am in a straight I am pent in my spirit and unlesse I let my spirit out my heart will breake I must give it vent and ayre I will speake in the anguish of my spirit I will complaine in the bitternesse of my soule The word render'd complaine signifies to meditate and so to speake upon meditation or to speake deliberately It implies first a forming and fashioning of what we would say in our thoughts Thoughts are the moulds of our words Job intends not rash speaking what he intended to speake should be moulded shapt and wrought in his heart before brought forth by his tongue Prayer is exprest by this word because prayer ought first to be formed in the heart Prayer is the manifestation of our desires to God If the tongue speakes before the heart before the heart makes up our requests we take Gods name in vaine Hannah takes up this word 1 Sam. 1. 16. Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial for out of the aboundance of my complaint or meditation so the word is rendered and greife have I spoken Hunnah was praying her voice was not heard only her lips moved which caused Eli to suspect and censure her for drunk or distracted but she answers in words of turth and sobernesse O my Lord count not thine handmaid a daughter of Belial for though my voice hath not been heard yet I have been speaking out of the aboundance of my complaint that is out of the aboundance of my meditation my complaints are not the work of my tongue but of my heart and my lips moved not untill my heart moved my complaint is my meditation Hence likewise that phrase of powring out prayer Psal 142. 2. I powred out my complaint before him He that powres out must have somewhat yea much within where there is a constant stream there also is a fountain I powred out my complaint or my complaining prayer it is the same word here I have gathered the bitter waters of sorrow into my own heart and now I powre them forth in complainings I will complain