sister and I have prevailed and she called his name Napthali The Hebrew is with wrastlings of God that is divine and vehement wrastlings As if she had said I have used great and earnest endeavours both with God in prayer and all other meanes as a wrastler by might and flight to obtaine these blessings given before to my sister and now I have prevailed And it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No â—â—ne liteâ—â—sâ— gâ—minatis uâ— insignis vafricies quâ—si duplicaâ—a caâ—â—ditâ—s signifâ—â—etur Conâ—oâ—tuplâ—catus is observeable that the Hebrews call an extraordinary cunning wrastler Pethalthol which is this word doubled in the latter syllable because he is a man of a double or extraordinary skill in wrastling the word is doubled and so it expresses one that is double witted or that hath craft enough for two or three though not honesty enough for one And this word is applied to the Lord himself Psal 18. 26. * Vâ—iur hoc veâ—bo ut indicetur maxima quaedam invicta Dei quasi distorâ—io implâ—â—atio sacra caliditas adversus pravos calidos distortos q. d. adversus Cretensès cretiz at Deus cum vafro luctatorevare luctatur Deus supplantatores supplantaâ— with the froward thou wilt shew thy selfe froward that is If men will be winding and turning and thinking to catch others or over-reach the Lord himselfe with tricks and turnings of wit the Lord will meet and answer them in their own kind he can turne as fast as they he can put himselfe into such intricate labyrinths of infinite wisdome and sacred craft as shall entangle and ensuare the most cunning wrastâ—er or tumbler of them all He will Cretize the Cretians supplant the supplaâ—tâ—rs of his people Some of the Greekes * Olymprodorus vertit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hominâ—s varios nodosoâ— imâ—licitos intricatos interpret this elegantly by a word in that language noting a thing that hath many knots folds or twists wreathes or plaits in it as plaited haire or a folded garment thereby shadowing out men like a serpent of knotted twisted enfolded spirits men who wreath and plaite their actions so closely and artificially that few can understand or tell what to make of them or where to find them The counsels of these cunning intricate froward men Are carried headlong It is very observeable Isa 44. 25. how the Prophet threatneth that the counsels of the wise shall be turned backward And here their counsels shall be carried headlong that is froward God hath wayes of all sorts to crosse ungodly policies he turns them sometime backward and sometime forward by both or either they are disappointed Counsels are turned backward when the event is quite crosse to the designe or the motion of things to the resolutions of the mind As if a man purposing to goe Eastward should be turned about he knowes not how with his face into the West Counsels are carried headlong when Omne consilium aâ—ta um in seâ—â—â—naâ—â—one est stultitia Rab. Sol. they goâ— too fast forward and make so much haste on in their way that they tire and are out of breath or stumble and breake themselves before they can attaine their journies end The Originall word signifâ—â—s to hasten and thence to be precipitate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a radiâ—e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Accelâ—rare festinare aâ—q inde praecipitem esse impruden tem stultum tam prudentia tranquilâ—â—aâ—e deliberatione gaudet Eruto impeturuunt in suâ—m pestem Coc. rash or foolish in counsell Prudence uses to goe softly wisdome keeps a kind of state in her pace and loves to goe step by step not headlong A prudent man sets his head before his feet his head goes before his feet in consultation but he loves to goe upon his feet not upon his head in action It is the curse of the froward their councels are carried headlong when they should go steddily upon their feet they run upon their heads or run their heads against the next wall The meaning in a word is They shall make more hast then good speed or they shall go so fast to their ends that their end shall be their undoing As the Lord in mercy makes the rash understand so in judgement he makes the understanding rash As this is here threatned so the former is graciously promised Isa 32. 4. The heart of the rash shall understand knowledge and the tongue of the stammerer shall speake plainly When the Prophet would shew how great a blessing God powres out upon his people by Christ he thus expresses it Christ who is the wisdome of the Father causeth the heart of the rash to understand knowledge it is the word of the text the heart of those who naturally run headlong upon businesses who have no steadiness nor stableness in their understandings shall be stayed and ballanced with wisdome and gravity from above Christ will take them off their hurrying pace and teach them to goe and doe to advise and act with sobriety and deliberation The letter clause of the promise joints fitly with this And the tongue of the Vt bâ—â—sit do lâ—â—gâ—ae accelerationem habet cum fitan haesiâ—ia ut nihil experite pronunciare possit quo magis propeâ—at eo minus proficit citata illa lingâ—a votubilitate Ita qui intelligentia festinus est nullum profert utilâ— integrum consilium sed manca omnia 〈…〉 Bold Bold stammerer shall speake plainly such as stammering is to speech the same is rashnesse to counsell A man that stammers huddles his words he that hath an impediment in speech speakes fastest and because he cannot speake one word well he speakes many words at once This hast is his hinderance in making so much hast to speak he cannot speak at all therefore we usually advise stammerers to take heed of speaking hastily that they may speak plainly The Prophet joynes these sweetly to note the complete abilities of a Cstristian The rash shall understand the stammerer shall speake plainly that is he shall advise judiciously and speake elegantly depth of wisedome and sweetnesse of elocution shall meet in him though before rude and rustick But the counsels of the froward though men of great parts and filed speech shall be crried headlong Observe hence Hasty counsels are successelesse counsels Hast in counselling alwaies makes waste and so doth hastinesse in acting Hast in either may hurt as much as sloth though usually we may divide the miscarriages that are in the world between hastiness in counsell and slownesse in action I know not which is the greater prejudice to an honest designe to be quick in concluding or to be dull in executing They who will not take time to consult about what they aâ— may have time enough to repent of what they have done And they who will not take the time for doing what they consult loose all the time they took for consultation Note Secondly That God disappoints evill counsels
the beasts of the field so Kings and Magistrates are chiefe the most eminent among the sons of men Christ is called the Lion of the Tribe of Judah from the prerogative of his power and the excellency of his Kingly condition above all others his name being King of Kings and Lord of Lords Secondly the Devil is compared to a Lion he is called a roaring Lion because of his cruelty and devouring nature He goeth about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devoure And the Lions here in the Text how old soever they be are whelps of this old Lion the Devil not great men in general but wicked great men men mighty in power and mighty in sin mighty sinners It is frequent in Scripture to shadow out powerfull wicked tyrannicall men by the name of Lions and the reason is because they imitate the qualities and conditions of the Lion A man acts by reason and a beast acts by sence or passion reason is the difference between a man and a beast therefore when man either acts against reason or without reason the name of a beast is justly put upon him and the name of that beast most fitly whose qualities passions he most resembles man in regard of his headstrong unrulinesse is compared unto a Horse and to a Mule Psal 32. 9. Be not as the Horse or as the Mule which have no understanding whose mouth must be held in wit with bit and bridle Be not unruly For subtilty man is called a Fox for flattery or filthinesse a Dog or a Swine and here for rapine and cruelty a Lion Thus the Prophet Nahum elegantly Chap. 2. 11 12. Where is the dwelling place of the Lions and the feeding place of the young Lions that is where is the dwelling place of oppressors and cruell tyrants And Ezek. 19. 1 2. Take up a lamentation for the Princes of Israel and say what is thy mother a Lionesse she lay down among Lions she nourished her whelps among young Lions the tyrannicall Princes in Israel were thus described And so is tyrannicall Pharaoh Ezek. 32. 2. Take up a lamentation for Pharaoh King of Egypt and say unto him thou art like a young Lion of the Nations In generall Solomon Prov. 28. 15. telleth us That as a roaring Lion and a ranging Beare so is a wicked Ruler over the poore people And the Apostle Paul speaking of his escape from the jawes of that persecuting Emperour saith 2 Tim. 4. 17. I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lion that is out of the mouth of Nero who was ready with open mouth to devoure and destroy me or as some taking it for a proverbiall speech noting any eminent danger I was delivered from the extreamest hazard of death even as a man rescued out of a Lions mouth and pull'd from between his teeth And it will not be amisse for the clearing of this a little further to give you some speciall things wherein the resemblance may be taken between the Tyrant the oppressing Ruler or any oppressing great one and the Lion we may draw the picture of a Tyrant by a Lions face in these respects 1. In regard of his pride statelinesse and distance which he affects to hold towards others The Lyon is a proud and stately creature 2. Tyrants resemble Lions in regard of courage and animosity Couragiousnesse in any noble or good way in which sence Prov. 28. 1. the righteous are bold as a Lion is the courage of Saints But to be valient and couragious in doing mischiefe in wronging and oppressing the weak or innocent is the courage of a Beast Courage out of the way of truth and justice is Lionlike cruelty 3. They are Lions in regard of their strength Lions are the strongest of creatures what is stronger then a Lion say they in resolving Sampsons Riddle and Prov. 30. 30. a Lion which is strongest among beasts tyranny must have strength to back it Hence they who meane to oppresse fortifie themselves with titles and priviledges with honours and relations Solomon considering the oppressions that were under the Sun observes tears on the one side and strength on the other On the side of the oppressors there was power Eccles 4. 1. 4. They are Lions too in regard of their subtilty The Lion is a subtle creature as well as a strong creature he hath a great stock of policy as well as power though we usually oppose the Lions skin and the Foxes skin yet many times they both meete in one Some are double skin'd as well as double cloath'd Hence we have that phrase Psal 10. 9. comparing a wicked man to a Lion he lieth in waite secretly as a Lion in his den which teacheth us that the Lion waites and watches for his prey And so doe these wicked men Psal 17. 12. Like as a Lion that is greedy of his prey and as it were a young Lion lurking in secret places 5. They are like Lions especially in their cruelty in blood-sucking cruelty the Lion is a devouring beast therefore when the Devill is called a Lion it is said he goeth about to devoure And God himselfe when he would be exprest in his resolutions of judgement so as he will not have mercy upon a man or upon a nation is pleased to take upon him this name too Hos 5. 14. I will be unto Ephraim as a Lion and as a young Lion to the house of Judah I even I will teare and goe away and none shall rescue him that is I am resolved to execute judgement to the uttermost upon him So Chap. 6. 1. The Lord hath torne which is properly the act of a Lion And Job Chap. 10. 16. complaines thus to God Thoa huntest me like a fierce Lion And Isa 38. 13. Hezekiah fearing that God would not shew him that mercy to raise him from sicknesse cries out as a Lion so will he break all my bones So that when the Lord would expresse himselfe in ways of judgement and resolvednesse to goe on in judgement he takes upon him the name of a Lion But such is the very nature of wicked men Such the Prophet Micha bespeaks Chap. 3. 2. Heare this O heads of Jacob and ye Princes of the house of Israel it is not for you to know judgement who hate the good and love the evill who pluck off their skins from off them and their flesh from off their bones noting Lion-like cruelty in those who should have been as sheapheards to feed and protect the people 6. They are compared to Lions in regard of their terrible roaring the Lyon roareth terribly so terribly that when the Lyon Animalia fortia vocem edunt gravem ut Leo Taurus Arist Tanta illi vâ—cis eliciendae natura praestitit instrumenta ut animalia lon gè ipso celeriora solo saepe rugitu capiantur Basil Hexam Homil 9. Leo aliquid nubu habet circa super cilia sc aspectum minimè serenum Arist roareth the beasts of the forrest
the highest elevation both in parts gifts and graces shall he be more pure than his Maker Christ as incarnate or made man is called the Mighty God Isa 9. 6. God made a Mighty man or man becomming the Mighty God The Chaldee calls all Giants Gibbaraja and Nimrod the first of the Giants was called by this name a Mighty hunter before the Lord Gen. 10. 8. So then Let man be never so excellent his excellency is basenesse let him be never so strong so wise so holy he is but weake foolish filthy compared with him who made him Leave your Enosh your weakeling your poore sick creatures bring forth your Gibers your best they are as nothing yea lesse than nothing before the Lord. Shall mortall man be more just than God shall man the best of men be more pure than his Maker We are to marke the double opposition of the Text. Here is first mortall weake sick man set in opposition to the strong the mighty the all-powerfull God And then in the second place the opposition is between the strongest the best the holiest the wisest of men and the maker of all men Shall mortall man or shall the best of men be more just more pure than God their Maker There is a three-fold sense which we may give of the words joyntly First They are a deniall of all comparison between God and man No man may compare himselfe with God Shall mortall man that is mortall man ought not to be so bold and daring as to venture upon such a thing as this to stand upon termes of equality with the mighty the great the glorious God the Maker of all as the Apostle resolves in his own case 1 Cor. 4. 4. Though I know nothing by my selfe yet am I not hereby justified at all much lesse though a man know nothing by himselfe will this justifie him in this comparison that he is just as God is just But secondly Shall mortall man be more just than God It is as if he had said God who is infinite in justice would never doe that which a just man will not doe God who is infinite in power would never doe that which a weake man would not doe shall weake man be more just than God And so we may forme the argument thus No man no Judge is more just or incorrupt than God who is the supreame and Lord chiefe Justice of all men But there is no just Judge amongst men who will punish an innocent man therefore God doth not punish any one that is innocent The consequence or inference is plaine and cleare for God himselfe should either be unjust or he should be lesse just than man is if he should doe that which a just man upon true grounds would refuse to doe Therefore in Gen. 18. Abraham pleades with God under that title of a just Judge shall not the Judge of all the world doe right As if he should say faithfull Judges upon the earth will doe right therefore surely he that is the Judge of all the earth will doe right so Eliphaz here to Job Never complaine as if God had done thee wrong for certainly the just God will not doe that which a just man would not doe The word whereby God is exprest Eloha Eloha denotot judicem â—quissimum rerum arbitâ—um doth well comply with and answer this sense it being properly attributed to God as a Judge the great arbitrator and determiner of all the causes and cases of all men in the world Shall mortall man be more just than God Thirdly The sense may be taken thus If any man should come to impleade God or to pleade with God if any should dare to tax the Justice of God or be so hardy to put in a bill of complaint against him shall this man this weake man be found more just in his complaining than God hath been in sentencing shall his bill of complaint be better grounded than the Lords award of Judgement It is an allusion to those who supposing they have wrong complaine against the Judge and say that he hath erred in or perverted Judgement That word Justified here used shall man be justified before God is a Judiciarie word a Court or Law terme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Veâ—bum forense spectans ad innocentis absolutionem The same word which the Holy Ghost uses in that great work of Free Grace the justification of a sinner before God And that imports the declaring and setting forth of a man to be righteous and his cause good in Jesus Christ whereupon he is cleered and acquitted When Satan accuses or pleads against us laying such and such sinnes to our charge thus and thus this man hath offended then God is said to justifie a man that is to declare him to be just his sinnes being covered and himselfe accepted in Jesus Christ Hence that divine challenge to all accusers Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is God that justifieth Rom. 8. 33. So now if man should accuse and complaine against God he hath done thus and thus in the world afflicted a Job troubled a righteous person shall mortall man be more just than God Shall this man in his complaint be justified shall not God rather be justified against whom he complains Certainly he shall God shall be declared just yea he shall be declared just by man A man un-ingaged and rightly principled Such a man shall say verily there is a God that judgeth the earth In the judgement of man that judgment shall speak a God and all shall be forced to Daniels mourning acknowledgement O Lord righteousnesse belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face Dan. 97. 9 We may enlighten it further by that of David Ps 51. 4. where he professes thus I will confesse my sins c. that thou maiest be justified when thou speakest and be cleare when thou judgest as if he should say if hereafter thou shalt afflict me and lay thy rod upon me I know many will be ready to complaine and say why doth God thus why doth he afflict David David a holy man a man after his own heart a man of whom he hath given such large testimony of whom he hath said I have found a man after my own heart Now to the intent all these may be cast in their suits and answered in their complainings I here acknowledge before all the world that I have sinned greatly therefore though thou hast pardoned my sinne and so wilt never charge it upon me to condemnation nor punish me for it in a way of satisfaction yet hereafter thou maiest in thy fatherly wisdome see it needfull to chastise me to prevent and purge out sin or to help me against the weaknesse of my nature and the strength of temptation for the time to come So here in the Text Shall man be justified before God If Job or any of his friends for him should complaine against God why he being
and will not the Lord doe so Isa 3. 10 11. Say ye to the righteous it shall be well with him for they shall eate the fruit of their doings woe unto the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him But how doe the dispensations of God answer this direction to man when his providence seemes to huddle up all together to make the same portion serve both the righteous and the wicked I answer it first in the generall and then in some particulars In the generall the troubles of the righteous are good for them and therefore they have that which is promised God saith say to the righteous it shall be well with him when a righteous man is troubled it is vvell with him therefore he hath that which God promiseth him and when a wicked man prospereth it is ill with him therefore he hath that vvhich God thratneth against him Outward mercy is judgement to wicked men and their prosperity is their undoing therefore do not think that God varies a tittle from the tenour of his word when he saith it shall be ill with wicked men and yet you see them prosper for it is never worse with them then when they prosper then when they think it is best and when the world thinks so too the prosperity of fools shall destroy Prov. 1. them and what prosperity is there in destruction The meat in their mouthes is as a sword in their bowels If you saw the Lord formally sending a Sword to devoure wicked men you would think it justice the prosperity of wicked men is as sharpe as a Sword that can but destroy and so doth this It is their judgement that they are without judgements and not to be smitten is their scourge Now more particularly to answer this objection about the justice of God And it will be but needfull considering the times we live in threaten us with a common deluge or an overflowing scourge vvhich may sweep away both good and bad together First in reference to the godly Are they in a sad estate outwardly are they in great afflictions I answer though they are afflicted yet they prosper When they are impoverished they are enriched when they are as having nothing they possesse all things What is there vvhat can there be even in their saddest estate which doth not conduce to their good vvhich will not be a benefit unto them For first their troubles are but trials now is there any hurt in a triall or perturbation in a probation Troubles try their graces and their corruptions too Trouble tryes grace that it may be honour'd and corruption that it may be mortified there is no hurt in all this rather it is a most happy condition which makes grace conspicuous whereby a mans best side his inside wherein his glory lies The Kings Daughter is glorious within is turned outward That Scripture Dan. 11. 33 34 35. is very pregnant to the point in hand where the Prophet foretelling troublesome times saith They that understand amongst the people shall instrust many yet they shall fall by the sword and by flame by captivity and by spoyle many dayes They that understand that is godly men shall fall by these judgements some of them by the sword they shall utterly be cut off some by flame they shall be burnt to ashes others by captivity and by spoile their estates shall be plundered their persons imprisoned How doth this answer the justice of God will carnall reason object that it shall be thus ill with the righteous to whom the Lord promiseth it shall be well Yes well enough For it followeth Now when they shall fall they shall be holpen with a little helpe and some of them of understanding shall fall that is by captivity and by spoile to try them and to purge them and to make them white Here are two remarkable ends why They of understanding fall into these evils First for probation to try them Secondly for cleansing and purgation to purge them and make them white Gold is never wrong'd by being tryed A spotted garment a distempered body are not damnified by washing or by purging To be freed from filth without and bad humours within the body is more then a common favour How high an act of favour then is it to have ill humours and filthy spots washed purged out of the soule Such base humours a good man may have as call for these strong working pils Spoyling and Captivity to cast them out Now those men of understanding have no more hurt intended them by God when they fall into spoilers hands then when a diseased body fals into a Physitians hand or when a defiled garment fals into a Fullers hand sc to purge and make them white Affliction is a cleanser Christ is the onely lavatory and his blood the onely Fountaine to wash away the guilt of sinne yet God hath other Fountains and Lavatories to wash away the pollution of sin That blood cleanses in this sense also principally and all the waters or fires of affliction have no efficacy at all to refine or cleanse but in vertue of that blood A Crosse without a Christ never made any man better But with Christ all are made better by the Crosse We may then say at least that it is well with the righteous in affliction forasmuch as through the blessing of God they are bettered by affliction When you see a godly man cast out in the open aire and having the waters of sorrow powred continually upon him know that he is only laid out a whitening and will appeare shortly more resplendant then ever Secondly afflictions are sent to humble Pride is such a weed as often growes in the best soyle Now that which humbleth us cannot hurt us we lose nothing by the abatements of our pride no the more pride loses the more we gain And we seldome or never lose any thing but by pride Now saith God Deut. 8. 1. If you would have an account vvhy I brought my people about in the wildernesse through so many difficulties know this vvas my designe it was to humble them God resists pride wheresoever he findes it they in vvhom pride totally prevailes are Gods enemies and he resists them they in vvhom pride hath some yea great prevalency may be Gods friends and God will resist pride in them the difference is observable betvveen resisting of pride and resisting the proud the resisting of the person and the resisting of the sin The great resistance vvhich God makes against the pride of mans heart is by the rods of affliction he vvhips them into humility and by taking away carnall comforts takes them off from carnall confidence And O blessed affliction which makes us lesse to our selves and all creatures lesse to us We are never so much in Gods eye as vvhen vve are least in our own nor have vve ever so much of God as vvhen vve expect little or least from man say therefore
upon his estate upon the branches and the fruit of that goodly tree much like that in the vision Dan. 4. 13 14. I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed and behold a watcher and a holy One came downe from Heaven He cryed aloud and said thus Hew downe the tree and cut off his branches shake off his leaves and scatter his fruit c. This Allegory may be rendred in the plaine words of Eliphaz I cursed his habitation his children are far from safety The Master of the Family is the tree His children are either fruit or branches His leaves are riches and honour the beauty and pleasantnesse of his habitation Some things in the letter of the text are to be opened but I shall first observe one thing in the generall from the connection of this fourth verse with the third I suddenly cursed his habitation verse 3. Then follows his children are far from safety Observe from it That Creatures cannot stand before the curse of God How strongly soever they are rooted the blast of the breath of Gods displeasure will either blow them downe or wither them standing The curse comes powerfully suddenly and secretly it is often an invisible stroake When we see neither axe nor spade at the roote nor strome at rhe top yet downe it comes or stands without leafe or fruit When Christ in the Gospell curst the fruitlesse figg-tree his Disciples passing by that way wondred saying how quickly is this figg-tree whithered it was but onely a word from Christ Never beare fruit more and the fig-tree which had no fruit lost its life Some are such tall Cedars such mighty Oakes that men conclude there is no stirring of them no Axe can fell them or blast loosen them yet a word from the Lord will turne them up side downe or if he doe but say to them never fruit grow upon your actions or out of your counsels presently they wither The curse causlesse shall not come but when there is a cause and God speaks the word the curse will come Neither power nor policies neither threatnings or entreaties can hinder or block it up It is said of the water of jealousie in the booke of Numbers that when the woman dranke that water if there were cause of her husbands suspition presently her belly swel'd and her thighes did rot the effect was inevitable So if God bid judgement take hold of a man family or Nation it will obey A word made the world and a word is able to destroy it There is no armour of proofe against the shot or stroake of a curse Suddenly I cursed his habitation and the next news is His children are far from safety If God speake the word it is done as soone as spoken as that mysterious Letter said of the Gun-pouder plot As soone as the paper is burnt the thing is done Surely God can cause his judgements to passe upon his implacable enemies such horrid conspiratours against Churches and Common-wealths truth and peace with as much speed as a paper burns with a blaze and a blast they are consumed That in the generall from the connexion of these two verses Assoone as he was cursed his children and his estate all that he had went to wrack and ruine I shall now open the words distinctly His children are far from safety Some reade Were far from safety and so the whole passage in the time past because he speaks of a particular example which he himself had observeâ— in those daies as is cleare v. 2. Having shewed the curse upon the eoot he now shews the withering of the brauches Some of the Rabbins understand by Children the Followers or Imitators of wicked men such as assisted them or such as were like them These are morall children but take it rather in the letter for naturall children such as were borne to them or adopted by them these come under their fathers unhappinesse They are far from safety The Hebrew word is commonly rendred salvation His children are farre from salvation But then we must understand it for temporall salvation which our translation expresses clearely by safety His children are farre from safety It is possible that the children of a wicked man may be neare unto eternall salvation Though godly parents have a promise for their seed yet grace doth not runne in a bloud neither is the love of God tied or entayl'd upon any linage of men Election sometimes crosses the line and steps into the family of a reprobate father Therefore it is not said His children are farre from salvation in a strict but in a large sence We find the word salvation frequently used for safetie 2 Kings 13. 17. when Elisha bad Joash the King of Israel shot the arrow he called it the arrow of the Lords salvation which we render the arrow of the Lords deliverance So Moses bespeakes the trembling Israelites aâ— the red Sea Stand still and behold the salvation of the Lord that is behold what safety the Lord will give you from all these dangers what deliverance from the hand of Pharaoh The Prophet represents the Jewes thus bemoaning their outward judgements We roare all like Beares and mourne sore like Doves we looke for judgement but there is none for salvation but it is farre off Isa 59. 11. They are far from safety To be far from safety is a phrase importing extreame danger As when a man is said to be far from light he is in extreame darknesse and when a man is said to be far from health he is in extreame sicknesse and when a man is said to be far from riches he is in extreame poverty So here His children are far from safety that is they are in extreame danger and perill they walk as it were in the regions of trouble in the valley of the shadow of death continually That phrase is used also respecting the spirituall estate of unbeleevers They are far off from God far off from the Covenant Isa 57. 19. Ephes 12. 13. that is they have no benefit by the Covenant no interest in no favour at all or mercy from the Lord. To be far off from mercy is to be neare wrath and to be far from safety is to dwell upon the borders of danger And they are crushed in the gate In the forth Chapter Eliphaz describes man as crushed before the moth to shew how suddenly how easily man is destroyed This mans children are crushed in the gate as a man would crush a flie or a moth between his fingers They are crushed in the gate That notes two things First the publikenesse of their destruction they shall be destroyed in the sight of all men for the gate was a publike place Pro 31. 31. her workes praise her in the gates that is she is publikely knowne by her good works To doe a thing in the gate is opposed to the doing of a thing secretly To suffer in the gate is to suffer publikely Secondly to be crushed in the gate
is to be crushed or cast in judgement for The gate was the place of old where justice was Inportis judicia exercebantur Merc. administred and judgement given and for a man to be crushed in the gate is as much as for a man to be overthrowne in his sure when he hath any controversie or tryall before a Judge whether for his estate or for his life So this phrase They are crushed in the gate implies that all businesses shall goe against them if they have any controversie in law or if they be charged with any crime they shall certainly be condemned I need not stay to prove that judgement was given in the gate onely take a few texts First in this booke Chap. 29. 7. Job describes his owne prosperity thus When I went out to the gate that is to sit in judgement And Chap. 31. v. 21. the word is used in the like sense So Gen. 23. 17. Chap. 34. 20. Ruth 4. 1. Isa 29. 11. Those words of the curse Psal 109. 7. when he is judged let him be condemned are the full Exposition of this They are crushed in the gate Ne agricola litis causa veniens civitatis frequentia novo terreretur conspectu nec uâ—bi habitator longè ab urbi properaret subvectionem quaereret jumen torum Jerom in Amos c. 5. v. 10. And the reason given by one of the Ancients why justice was usually administred in the gate is the accommodation and convenience both of strangers and Citizens For strangers who lived far off in the country that they might have justice before they entred into the city whose pompe and throngs of people might possibly occasion either some terrour or diversion in the minds of poore country-men And then likewise that the Inhabitants of the City might not be either charged or tired with long journies into the country To which we may adde that judgement was therefore administred in the gate because gates are places through which all passe in and out and therefore the declaring of judgement there was the making of it more publike that all might take notice of what passed in such and such cases as the sentence and resolution of the Judges Neither is there any to deliver them This is the third degree of evill falling upon the foolish mans children Though a man be brought to and cast in judgement yet An summis malis reminem habebunt asseâ—toâ—è Ve injusti conâ—unâ—ibuntur contundebuntur in judi iopubâ—iâ—e coâ—am tribunaâ—ibus he may have a friend to help and deliver him but these shall have no help none to speak a good word for them none to mediate either for reprieve or pardon Some give the sense thus His children shall neither finde a Judge to give a favourable sentence nor an Advocate to pleade for them and make the best of their cause This also answers another part of the curse Psa 109. 12. Let there be none to extend mercy to him neither let there be any to favour his fatherlesse children None shall be found either able or willing to rescue or pluck them out of the hand of danger Hence observe first That a wicked man and his children are often wrapt up in the same destruction I cursed his habitation and his children are far from safety they are crushed in the gate A godly man is a defence for his children Liberi parenâ—uÌ„ poenis saepe implicantur It is a great blessing to be born of holy parents and it is a curse to be borne of oppressing wicked parents As the blessing of God descends from the father upon the children so the curse of God many times descends from the father upon the children and they inherit their judgements as well as their lands Though the justice and goodnesse of God will make that Proverbe cease in all the families of the world for ever which was once taken up by the Jews Ezek. 18. 2. The Fathers have eaten sowre grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge The Naturalists observe and experience teacheth that when a man eats very sowre grapes and so makes a sowre face another standing by is affected with a sympathy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicatur a philosophis Aristot Sect â— prob quest 5. and his teeth are set an edge or pained with the very sight or grating of anothers teeth though himselfe taste not the grape The present Jewes thought themselves but bare lookers on upon their fathers sin and yet they suffered But the Lord found the sowre grapes in their mouths also or them risen up in their fathers stead an increase of sinfull men to fill up the fierce wrath of the Lord against them Now I say though the Lord will make that proverbe cease in their sence For no child is punished meerely in contemplation of his fathers sin Yet when a sonne is wicked the wickednesse of a father whether immediate or further off may come in remembrance against him and at once aggravate his sin and encrease his sorrow Secondly note this from it Whom God will destroy no creature shall be found able to deliver out of his hands God can take away the help and stop up the pity of all creatures None shall deliver them And though themselves should endeavour to escape they shall not escape Amos 9. 1. They that flie shall not flie away and they that escape shall not be delivered that is by endeavouring to escape they shall not be delivered they shall attempt it in vaine If God will not deliver none can If a Lot be taken prisoner He bids Abraham arme and rescue him If a Paul be in the mouth of a Lyon the Lord will deliver him It needs not trouble us who is our enemy if God will be our deliverer nor can it availe what friends so ever we have if God saith ye shall not be delivered A wicked man when the Lord appeares against him either hath none to deliver him or none shall Salvation is farre from the wicked for they keep not thy statutes Ps 119. 155. From the children judgement proceeds to the estate of this wicked man Verse 5. Whose harvest the hungry eateth up and fetcheth it even out of the thornes and the robber spoyleth all his substance Whose harvest the hungry eateth up By his Harvest we are to understand not only the return of that which he hath sown as corn and other fruits of the earth but all the goods or provisions which he hath gathered or laid up for his Messis nomine parata bona omnia toâ—elligitur condenda reponenda in annos plurimot support and accommodation A mans harvest is the improvement of his whole estate And this mans harvest is all he hath gotten by right or wrong by industry or by injury by sweat or by deceit by secret practises or open violences To eat up a harvest is as much as to devoure a house with which Christ charges the hungry Scribes and Pharisees
world that the losse of a world is not discerned in their estate and worldly gaines are not often discerneable in their estates therefore though in Christ they are heires of all things and all is theirs yet their ranke and titles are among the poore Fifthly observe They are poore ones yet what devising and plotting is here against them Crafty counsels drawne swords envenom'd tongues strong hands lifted up Against whom are all these Against the poore Note thence That Wicked men plot against the people of God how poore and low soever they be As David said unto Saul 1 Sam. 24. 14. After whom is the Facis quod est tanto rege indignum dum me tenuissimum tanto comiâ—atu persequeris Jun. in loc King of Israel come out after a dead dog after a flea As if he had said whom dost thou pursue thou doest that which is unworthy and much below so great a King wilt thou set thy strength against my weaknesse Why dost thou arme against him by whose conquest thou canst get no honour Alas I am but a poore man a meane subject no match for thee I wonder you trouble your selfe so much in following or opposing me I am in comparison but as a dead-dog or as a flea A dead dog cannot bite or if I bite it is but a flea-bite A dead dog can doe no hurt and a living flea can doe but little The people of God as such never have any will to doe wrong and it is seldome that they have any power to doe wrong and yet the world is all up in pursuit against them What 's the reason of it what 's the matter The truth is how poore and low soever they are yet there is an eye of jealousie awake upon them The world looks upon them as a suspected party the world hath secret misgivings that one time or other they must rise upon their ruines and therefore they will keepe them downe yes that they will as long as they can What a distance was there between Haman and Mordecai the one sate in the gate and the other stood at the Kings elbow and had his eare yea and his signet upon the matter at his command yet this Haman must needs oppresse Mordecai because he would not bow Haman had a jealous eye upon him he was a suspected person Though he could not reach Haman yet Haman fear'd he might undermine him Againe there is a continuall Antipathy between the two seeds and Antipathy is incureable To oppose the godly is not so much the disease as the nature of wicked men And we know antipathies are against the whole kind revenge against this or that individuall is no ease to it Antipathy is not spent but in the consumption of the whole kind It is not this or that sheepe which the wolfe hates but every sheepe fat or leane shorn or unshorne that 's all one to the wolfe he will suck the blood of a sheepe that hath not a lâ—ck of wool upon his back as greedily as if that sheepe had a golden fleece Let a godly man be poore or rich low or high their sword shall be unsheath'd and their mouth open'd against him the old hatred and quarrell is against all Haman thought scorne to lay hands on Mordecay alone wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jewes Hest 3. 6. He hated those whom he never saw those who had never wrong'd him haply had bowed unto him yet because Jewes dye they must Sixthly observe But he saveth the poore God delights to help the poore He loves to take part with the best though the weakest side Contrary to the course of most who when a controversie arises use to stand in a kind of indifferency or neutrality till they see which part is strongest not which is justest Now if there be any consideration besides the cause that draws or engages God it is the weaknesse of the side He joynes with many because they are weake not with any because they are strong therefore Psa 10. 14. 18 Hos 14. 3. he is called the helper of the friendlesse and with him the fatherlesse the orphans finde mercy By fatherlesse we are not to understand such only whose parents are dead but any one that iâ— in distresse as Christ promiseth his Disciples Joh. 14. 18. I will not leave you orphans that is helplesse and as we translate comfortlesse though ye are as children without a father yet I will be a father to you Men are often like those clouds which dissolve into the sea they send presents to the rich and assist the strong but God sends his raine upon the dry land and lends his strength to those who are weake This poore man cryed and the Psal 34 6. Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles Forget not the Congregation of thy poore for ever The truth is he never Psal 7. 4. 19. firgets them They are graven upon the palmes of his hands such poore are his treasure his Jewels as the signet upon his right hand Therefore alwayes in his eye yea alwayes in his heart though they lye in the dirt or be trodden under foot like mire in the streets The Prophet makes this report to God of himselfe Isa 25. 4. Thou hast been a strength to the poore a strength to the needy in his distresse a refuge from the storme c. Thus farre Eliphaz hath given instance of the great marvellous and unsearchable works of God in a double reference First to wicked crafty oppressors Secondly to poore helplesse innocents He shuts up this narration with a double effect of these works upon those two sorts of men First shewing what effect they produce in the poore namely hope Secondly what in the wicked namely shame and confusion of face Vers 16. So the poore hath hope and iniquity stoppeth her mouth Here is the conclusion or result of all the Epiphonema or exulting close in which Eliphaz perfects the story of those admirable works of judgement and of mercy So the poore hath hope c. This Originall word for poore varies from the former though a radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exhaustus de humo repropriè per metaphoruÌ„ de viâ—ibus corporis opibus attenuatus tenuis fortunae homo the persons and their estate be the same That word noted them full of desire and this which is the cause of it empty of comforts Properly it signifies one that is exhausted or drawn dry Poore persons are exhausted persons exhausted of their strength exhausted of their estates exhausted of friends and credit in the world It is a metaphor taken from rivers ponds or pooles that are drawn dry when we would take the fish or take away the defence which they give to forts or Cities Isa 19. 6. And they shall turne the rivers farre away and the Brookes of defence shall be emptied and dried up which also enlightens that text Isa 33. 21. Where the righteous Lord will be
necessary practise in Chyrurgery and to that the holy Ghost may allude in this place When they perceive a wound or a sore to which medicines Illa est vox Domini percutiam ego sanabo hoc faciunt medici Ferrum gestant câ—rare veniunt Clamat secandus secaâ—ur saevitur in vulnus ut homo sanetur Aug in Ps 50. Chyrurgus saepe vulnus infligit ferro sibi spatium ad commodam curationem aperit cannot well be appied and so unfit for healing either to make a new wound in the whole flesh or to make the first bigger The murderer wounds to kill and the Physitian wounds to cure He comes as it were arm'd with instruments of cruelty The patient whose flesh is to be launced cryes out but yet he launces him The patient whose flesh is to be seared cryes out but yet he sears him He is cruell to the wound while he is most kind to the wounded An ignorant man would wonder to see a Chyrurgion when he comes for healing make the wound wider yet so he must do and he doth it upon urgent reasons As when the orifice is not wide enough to let in the medicine or to let out the corruption or cannot admit his searching instruments to the bottome In such cases he saith Vnlesse I increase your wound I cannot cure it Thus often times the Lord is compelled to wound that he may heale or fit our wounds for healing Our wound is not wide enough to let out the sinfull corruptions of our hearts to let in the searching instruments and corrasives of the Law or the blame and comfortable applications of the Gospel We may observe from the sence of the words That The woundings and smitings of God are preparatories for our cure and healing It is said Isa 53. 5. of Christ that with his stripes we are healed and it is in this sence a truth that we are healed with our own stripes We are healed with the stripes of Christ meritoriously and we are healed by our own stripes preparatorily the stripes of Christ heale us naturally our own stripes heale us occasionally or his in the act ours in the event Prov. 27. 6. Faithfull are the wounds of a friend his wounds are faithfull because he wounds in faithfulnesse The healings of many are unfaithfull They heale the hurt of the daughter of my people deceitfully is the Lords complaint by the Prophet they skin over the wound but they doe not cure it Let the righteous smite me it shall be a kindnesse and let him reprove me it shall be an excellent oyle which shall not break my head Psal 141. 5. Much more may we say Let the righteous Lord smite me and it shall be a kindnes to me let the righteous Lord reprove and correct me it shall be as an excellent oyle which shall not breake mine head it shall heale my heart How healing then are his salves whose very sores are a salve Secondly Take the words in the plaine rendring of them noting onely thus much that God makes sore and bindeth up So we have two distinct acts often ascribed to God in a figure to set forth judgement and mercy the afflictions and deliverances of his people Hos 6. 2. Let us return unto the Lord for he hath torne and he will heale us he hath smitten and he will bind us up 1 Sam. 2. 6. The Lord killeth and maketh alive Deut. 32. 39. See now that I even I am he and there is no God with me I kill and I make alive I wound and I heale Hence observe It is the property of God to take care of all the sicknesses sores or evils of his peopls As God is the great correcter and instructer of his people so he is the great Physitian of his people If he make a wound he will take care for the healing of it He doth not make sores and leave others to bind up Mighty men wound but they take no care for healing they can impoverish and spoyle but they care not to repaire they can pull down and root up let who so will build and plant Shaddai the Almighty God doth both If he break thy head come to him humble thy selfe before him and he will surely give thee a plaister which shall cost thee nothing but the asking And whereas he doth not willingly afflict or grieve he doth most willingly comfort and heale the children of men Lam. 3. 33. He speaks of it as a paine to himselfe to make us sore but to make us sound is his delight and pleasure Satan is the Abaddon the destroyer and he only destroys he makes wounds but he heals none he kills but he makes none alive The second branch of the verse He woundeth and his hands make whole is but a repetition of the same thing yet with some addition to or heightning of the sence To make sore and bind up are not so deep either in judgement or in mercy as to wound and make whole The word used for wounding imports a dangerous and a deadly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Transfodit transfixit vel cruentavit wound or to make a man all gore blood It signifies to strike quite thorough and it is divers times applied to note that stroke which God gives his worst enemies Psal 68. 21. But God shall wound the head of his enemies or he shall strike them quite through the head Verse 23. He shall dip his foot or make it red in the blood of the ungodly And Psal 110. 5. The Lord shall strike through Kings in the day of his wrath Hence observe That God sometimes makes very deep and great wounds in his own servants Such wounds as by the sight of the eye you cannot distinguish them from the wounds of his mortall enemies He strikes thorough both heads and hearts of his own people Or as Simeon said to the blessed Virgin Mary Luke 2. 35. A sword pierceth through their soule also But then lastly note God never makes a wound too great for his own cure The power of God to save is as great as his power to destroy his healing power and his wounding power are of the same extent His justice cannot out-act his mercy both are infinite And not onely doth he heale the wounds which himselfe makes but he can heale the wounds which men make even all the wounds which the utmost power and malice of man can make He is able to doe more good to shew more mercy than all creatures are able to doe hurt or mischiefe We finde the state and condition of a people sometimes so wounded and sick that men have despaired of recovery Being consulted they may answer your sore cannot be bound up and your wound cannot be healed your estate is gangren'd and past cure So he said as was toucht before Isa 3 8. In that day shall a man sweare saying I will not be an healer for in my house is neither bread nor cloathing Alas I heale you
on both sides with moderation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and be cautious inclining neither one way nor other but as the merit of the cause fully heard shall sway her judgement à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Job desires that his calamity might be layed thus in the ballances Levavit sustulit nam qui appendit ali quid tollit lances in altum Drus before his sentence Laid The word is O that my calamity might ascend in the ballances And that manner of speaking is used either because in weighing the lighter scale of the ballances doth ascend or because when things are weighed the ballances ascend or are lifted up A man takes up the ballances in his hand to weigh So it is as if he had said O that these might be poised together and lifted up to see which way the scales will turne Together There is some difference in opinion about that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pariter vel potius similiter Nulla ejus parte praeter missa Together whether he meaneth thus O that all my griefe and calamity were weighed you consider things to halves and leave out those points which are most weighty and material you should take in all together Or whether his desire be that his griefe and calamity both together might be put into one ballance and the sand of the sea into another and so an experiment be made whether his griefe and calamity or the sand of the sea were heavier Or thirdly Whether thus that his griefe should be put into one ballance and his calamity into another and then triall be made which of those two were heavier his griefe and sorrow or his calamity and trouble A learned interpreter conceives that Iob Mercerus wishes his griefe and calamity might both together be put into one ballance and all the sand of the sea if it were possible in the other supposing that his griefe and calamity would out-weigh that vast ponderous aggregated body His opinion is chiefely strengthned by some difficulties in the Gramatical construction unlesse this be admitted and yet if it be a greater difficulty is shewed by a second and therefore I rather take it thus O that Bolduc my griefe and calamity were laid in the ballances together that is O that my griefe were put one into one ballance and my calamity into another or O that my griefe might be weighed with my calamity and it would appeare notwithstanding your judgement of me that yet there is nothing so much weight in my greife as there is in my calamity that is I have not yet grieved or complained up to the height or weight of those calamities which are upon me So that if my sorrow were laid in one ballance and my affliction in another my affliction would outweigh my sorrow and it would appeare that I have complained not only not without a cause but not so much as I had cause And to prove that his calamity was heavier then his griefe he adds in the next words It namely his calamity thus weighed would be heavier then the sand of the sea As if he had said it is possible that in trying all heavy things somewhat might be found heavier then my griefe or my complaint hath been but I am sure nothing can be found of equal weight with my calamity for my calamity which is the immediate antecedent would be heavier than the sand of the sea then which nothing can be found more heavy That of David Psal 62. 9. is paralell to this expression in Job Surely men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are a lye To be laid in the ballances they are altogether lighter then vanity The meaning is That if men of all degrees high and low were put in one scale and vanity in the other vanity it selfe would be weightier then the gravest and most weighty men Hence some reade They together are lighter then vanity Others to this sence Men and vanity being weighed together vanity will not be so light as vaine man As David to shew mans lightnesse makes him lighter then the lightest thing vanity So Iob to shew the heavinesse of his calamity makes it heavier then the heaviest thing the fand of the sea Observe hence first That it is a duty to weigh the sad estate and afflicted condition of our brethren thoroughly But you will say what is it to weigh them throughly I answer It is not only to weigh the matter of an affliction to see what it is which aman suffers but to weigh an affliction in every circumstance and aggravation of it The circumstance of an affliction is often more considerable then the matter of the affliction If a man would confesse his sins and confesse them throughly he is to confesse not only the matter of them as sins are the transgressions of the Law and errors against the rule but he must eye the manner in which sin hath been committed the circumstances with which it is cloathed these render his sin out of measure and out of weight sinful Likewise would a man consider the mercies and favours received from God would he know them throughly and see how much they weigh let him look not only what but how and when and where and by whom he hath received them There may be and often is a great wickedness in a little evil committed and a great mercy in a little good received As relations so circumstances have the least entitie but they have the greatest efficacie Now as there is often more in the circumstances than in the matter of a sin or of a mercy so there is often more in the circumstance than there is in the matter of an affliction therefore he that would thoroughly weigh the afflictions of another must consider all these accidents as wel as the substance of it As namely the time when sent the time how long endured whether a single affliction or in conjucture with other afflictions the strength of the patient and the dependencies that are upon him Secondly He that would weigh an affliction throughly must put himselfe in the case of the afflicted and as it were make anothers griefe his owne He must act the passions of his brother and a while personate the poore the sick the afflicted man He must get atast of the wormwood and of the gall upon which his brother feedeth In a word He must lay such a condition to heart The Prophet Malachy threatens a curse upon those who laid not the word and works of God to heart Chap. 2. 2 I will curse your blessings saith the Lord because ye doe not lay it to heart that is ye doe not consider what I say or doe throughly God cursed them throughly because they would not throughly consider His Laws and judgements So then to weigh the affliction of another throughly is to put our soules as it were in their soules stead Hence that we may be assured Christ hath throughly weighed all our
8. 17. where the first prophecie of Isaiah is quoted is very emphatical when Christ had heal'd many of their outward distempers this reason is added That it might be fufilled which is written sc Isa 53. 9. himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses Now Christ took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses when he took and bare our sins when he took sin he took that which was the necessary fruit of sin our sicknesses and our sorrows For as in Scripture Christ is said to be made sin for us that is with the sin he bare those affiictions and sorrows which are the consequents of sin so here when it is said He bare our sorrows and our sicknesses it takes in the bearing of those sins which procured and produced those sorrows The Greek words used by the Evangelist are ful with this sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assumpsit sccum atque recepit quasi ad se transtulit He took them to him he received them upon himself he as it were translated them from poor sinful man to his owne body The word also imports his taking our sins and sicknesses upon him as a vesture or a garment and so wrapping himself in them We know our sins by nature cloath us as a garment ours is not only a burden but a cloathing of sin and filthiness Take away his filthy garments saith the Lord concerning Joshua the high-Priest then follows and unto him I said I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee and I will cloath thee with change of raiment Man saw not his own nakedness till he was cloathed with sinne Gen. 2. Christ to answer that cloaths and wraps himself with our sins as we our selves were wrapped about and cloathed with them he cloaths himself with our sorrows as we our selves were cloathed with sorrow In which sence among others Christ may be called a man of sorrows as we may call a man cloathed with raggs a man of raggs and a man cloathed with silke a man of silkes The second word of the Evangelist Mat. 18. 17. signifies to bear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Porter bears a great burthen Christ took up that burthen onder which all the Angels in heaven would have sunk he took it up like a mighty Sampson and carried it out for us The scape-Goate was a type of this Levit. 6. 22. And the Goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities into a land not inhabited or a land cut off and separated from other lands and people figuring hereby the total abolishing of our sins which being carried into a land where no man dwels shall be as lost and gone for ever not to be found when they shall be sought for who can find that which is where no man ever was pardon'd sin is carried and as it were hid out of the sight both of God and man for it is not and that which is not is not according to man to be seen In allusion to all which Christ Jo. 1. 29. is pointed at by the Baptist with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold the Lumb of God that takes away the sins of the world he takes sin off from the world upon himself and carries it away no man knows whither That for the first word pardon why doest thou not pardon my sin The second word is rendred by our Translatours Take away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est 1. simpliciter praeterire 2. interire perire evanescere mori why doest thou not take away mine iniquity Others thus Why doest thou not cause mine iniquity to pass away Or Why doest thou not put away mine iniquity So we rranslate 2 Sam. 12. 13. where assoon as David confest his sin saying I have sinned Nathan answers and the Lord hath put away thy sin he hath made it to pass away The word signifies first simply to pass away or to pass by Secondly to die perish or vanish away that which passes by us is vanished as to us So the word is taken Psal 37. 36. where David speaking of the flourishing estate of wicked men saith I have seen the wicked in great prosperity flourishing as a greene bay tree yet he past away and loe he was not A man unpardoned sees or should see his sins growing up as a mighty tree sin unpardoned flourishes like a green bay-tree it roots in the soul and guilt nourishes it but when pardon comes sin passes away and it is not because that which gave it sap is not Further this word which is very considerable is applied to Quando dicitur de mandato pacto juramento significat transgredi violare peecare the committing of sin as well as to the pardoning of sin For when it is joyned with those words The Commandements of God the Statutes of God the Word of God or the like it signifies to violate to break the bounds to transgress for in sinning a man passes by the Word and Commandement of God the precepts which God hath given and the charge God hath laid upon him he goeth away from all when man sins he passeth by the Commandment of God and when God pardons he passeth by the sin of man or he causeth his sins to pass away So that this word Take away put away or cause to passe Transire facis e. i. impunitum retir quis condonas notes the removing of sin both in the guilt and punishment When sin is past by all the punishments due to sin are passed by the sinner shall never be toucht or feel the weight of Gods little finger in judgement when God comes with his revenges he passes such by as in that plague of Egypt the slaying of the first born which was therefore called the Lords Passeover in memorial whereof that great ordinance was appointed the Jews of keeping the Passeover and eating the Pascal Lambe Exod. 12. 13 14. In this sense the word is used Amos 7. 8. when God was resolved to punish and charge the sins of that people upon them he saith Behold I will set a plumbe-line in the middest of my people Israel and what follows I will not again pass by them any more God came before once and again armed to destroy them but when he came he past by them he put up his sword he unbent his bow he stopped up the vials of his wrath when a cloud of blood and judgements hung over their heads he sent a breath of mercy and caused it to pass over them but now saith he I will not again pass by them any more that is I will surely punish them so the next words interpret the high places of Isaac shall be dissolate and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid wast Some translate that in Amos I will not any more dissemble Verbum Ebraicum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quoties in scripturis sanctis ex persona Dei ponitur pro poena accipiendum est ut ncquâ—quam apud eos maneat sed pertranseat Hieron in
ever perished nor were the righteous ever cut off And Eliphaz conceiveth this to be so clear a truth that he challengeth Job to give one instance to the contrary out of his own experience he appeals to experience which is a strong way of arguing Remember I pray thee who ever perished being innocent shew me the man and withall he professeth that he could give many instances or examples out of his own experience that wicked men have perished and were cut off this he doth in the eighth Verse Even as I have seen they that plough iniquity and sow wickednesse reap the same which he inlarges in the three following Verses by the blast of God they perish and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed c. This in generall for the summe and substance of the Argument We will now consider the words and examine the strength of it in particulars Remember I pray thee He handleth Job tenderly in words he speaks gently and winningly to him Remember I pray thee To remember noteth often in Scripture a serious consideration of things present and before us Eccles 12. 1. Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth that is seriously bethink thy selfe at the present of God and his wayes and how thou oughtest to walk holily before him But properly to remember is the calling to minde of things which are past and so Eliphaz in this place directs Job to search the Records Goe and inquire into all the Monuments of Antiquity look the Registers and Histories of the Ages past and see if thou canst finde any such thing as this A righteous man perishing Memory is the soules store-house there we lay up Observations and from thence fetch them out as occasions invite Hence Christ Matth. 12. 57. compareth every Scribe which is instructed for the kingdome of Heaven to a house-holder which bringeth forth out of his treasury things both new and old This treasury is the memory there holy truths and profitable examples are stored and reserved Remember I pray thee In that Eliphaz sendeth Job back to former experiences we may note That it is our duty to lay up and record the dealings of God whether publick or personall whether with the godly or with the wicked It is our duty to observe what God doth Psal 111. 4. He hath made his wonderfull works to be remembred as if the Psalmist had said God hath not wrought such great things in the world whether respecting persons or Nations that we should write them upon the water or in the sand which the next puffe of winde defaces and blowes out but he hath made his wonderfull workes to be remembred hee will have them written in brasse with a pen of Iron and with the point of a Diamond that all ages may heare the judgements and loving kindnesses of the Lord he hath made his wonderfull workes to be remembred or he hath made them so as that they are most worthy to be remembred David was a great observer of experiences Psal 31. 35. he telleth us that he had as it were collected notes concerning Gods dealings all his dayes and it is to the very point in hand I have been young and now am old yet never saw I the righteous forsaken himselfe carefully observed the dealing of God in this Psalme and in the next Psal 37 35 36. he gives the like direction to others thus I have done doe you take the same course too I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himselfe like a green Bay-tree then he goes on Mark the perfect man and behold the upright I have considered the estate of wicked men let all observe the estate of the godly Mark the perfect man and behold the upright The works of God expound his Word in his works his Word is often made visible That 's an excellent expression Psal 111. 7. The works of his hands are verity and judgement The acts of God are verity that is God acts his own truths As the works of our hands ought to be the verity and judgements of God every action of a Christian should be one of Christs truths so it is exactly with God himselfe the works of his hands are his owne verity and judgements When we cannot finde the meaning of God in his Word we may finde it out in his works his works are a Comment an infallible Comment upon his Word Yet we must take this Caution the dealings of God in the surface and outward part of them appear sometimes contrary to his Word contrary unto his promise but they only appear so they are never so When a man reads a promise and finds much good stor'd up in it for the righteous and then looks upon the state of the righteous and seeth it full of evill here is a seeming contrariety between the Word and the Works of God but it is onely a seeming contrariety as we shall see somewhat further anon Therefore in that Psalme 111. 2. where he saith The works of God are verity and judgement he addes The works of God are sought out if you will have the verity or judgement that is in the works of God you must not only look upon the outside of them but you must seek them out studie them studie them as you studie the Scriptures and then you will finde out the meaning of them and see how exactly they square with every part of the Word Why doth Eliphaz send Job to experience the ground is this the works of God are like the Word of God therefore if thou canst not make it out by experience from his works thou canst hardly make it out as a Position from his Word that righteous persons are cut off Remember now I pray thee who ever perished being innocent or where were the righteous cut off Here are foure termes to be opened perished cut off innocent righteous We will consider first what we are to understand by perishing and by cutting off Secondly whom we are to understand by innocent and righteus persons And then apply the whole sentence by shewing wherein the truth of this proposition stands that a righteous man or an innocent person cannot perish or be cut off The word which we translate perished hath divers significations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First a returning to nothing an utter consumption which is to perish as a beast Psal 49. 20. the Holy Ghost describing a man who is not acquainted with God in his great estate compares him thus Man being in honour and not understanding sc the things of God becommeth like the beasts that perish not that he perisheth as a beast doth but he is like a perishing beast the similitude is not in perishing but in his qualities who perisheth he hath but such qualities he is upon the matter even of as grosse a temper as a perishing beast Secondly to perish signifies to dye The dissolution of man or the dis-union of soule and body Isay 57. 1. is thus
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
double according to her works it may seeme that her harvest of punishment must exceed in Rev. 18. 6. double proportion her seed time of sinning The Psalmist speakes yet higher Render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosome their reproach wherewith they have reproached thee O Lord. Render Psal 79. 12. sevenfold that is manifold That number in Scripture multiplies the sense into any number To render sevenfold may be rendred the greatest number I answer Babylons punishment shall be double respecting what Babylon shall have acted but not double respecting what Babylon shall have deserved Give to her double if it be possible let her have as much blood more to drinke as she hath spilt for she deserveth to drinke an hundred times more The blood of Saints is precious blood one drop of the blood of Sion is more worth than a whole ocean of the blood of Babylon therefore give her double though it be more in quantity it is not so much in value And so reward our neighbours that have reproached thee sevenfold it is not sevenfold beyond their deserts for one scorne that a wicked man powreth upon a childe of God and so upon God for that 's the meaning of the Psalme cannot be recompensed with ten thousand reproaches powred upon wicked men Reproach is the due of ungodly men here and everlasting reproach shall be their portion hereafter But the least reproach cast upon God is an infinite wrong and the reproach of his people is so much his that he reckons it as his own And will therefore take away all reproach from his people and render to their unkinde neighbours their reproach sevenfold and that 's but equall into their bosomes Lastly When it is said They shall reape the same We are taught That the punishment of sinne shall be like the sinne in kinde It shall be the same not only in degree but also in likenesse Punishment often beares the image and superscription of sin upon it You may see the fathers face and feature in the childe Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reape saith the Apostle Gal. 6. 7. If a man sowe wheate he shall reape wheate the harvest tells you what kinde of graine was sowed in every feild if a man sowes wheate he shall not reape tares and if a man sowe tares he shall not reape wheate Thus God often returnes the sin of man upon him sin comes to him in its own likenesse and he may reade the name of it stampt upon the affliction or by the judgement inflicted interpret the wickednesse committed This was openly confess'd by Adonibezek Judg. 1. 7. As I have done so God hath requited me just so and what was that He speakes out in the former words Threescore and ten Kings having their thumbes and their great tooes cut off gathered their meate under my Table there was his sowing his reaping was the same They caught him saith the Text and cut off his thumbes and his great toes The very first Law that was formally made and published after the fall was a Law of retaliation or of counterpassion Gen. 6. 9. Whosoever sheddeth mans blood what shall he reape by man shall his blood be shed he must reape the same The Judicials of Moses are plaine for this Exod. 21. 24. Eye for eye and tooth for tooth c. They have moved me to jealousie saith the Lord by that Deut. 32. 21. which is not God and I will move them to jealousie by those who are not a people Like as ye have forsaken me and served strange Gods in your Land so shall ye serve strangers in a Land which is not yours Jer. 5. 19. God payeth them in their owne coine Who so stoppeth his eares at the cry of the poore he also shall cry himselfe but shall not be heard Prov. 21. 13. And so concerning the preaching of the word contemned Zech. 7. 13. Therefore it is come to passe that as he cryed and they would not heare so they cryed and I would not heare saith the Lord of Hosts They reape as they sowed they would not heare that was their sin they shall not be heard that 's the punishment they shall see how good it is to be wilfully deafe when God commands by his being judicially deafe when they complaine The Sodomites had a fire of unnaturall lust among them and God sent a showre of fire unnature to destroy them The Egyptians killed the Israelitish children that was the seed they sowed they reape the same God slew their children even all their first-borne in one night Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire there was their wickednesse they reaped the same God by fire from Heaven in a strange manner slew them in a moment Yea we find the Lord sometimes dealing thus with his own deare servants he will cause them to reape that which they have sowen in kind David had defiled his neighbours wife therefore saith the Lord I will take thy wives from before thine eyes 2 Sam. 12. 11. and give them to thy neighbour and he shall lye with thy wives in the sight of this Sunne Againe The Lord tells him Thou hast slaine Vriah with the sword of the children of Ammon therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house You see here was sword for sword and defilement for defilement even holy David reaped the same which he had sowed It is very remarkeable which is reported in the history of the Church by Socrates concerning Valens the Emperour who was a great persecuter Socrat Histor Eccl. l. 4. c. 3. of the orthodox Christians and a maintainer of Arianisme The story tells us that in his warres against the Gothes he was overthrowne and hiding himselfe in a little cottage the enemy came by burnt it and him together Now see how God in this gave him to reape what he had sowen for when fourscore of the orthodox sayled from Constantinople to Nicomedia to treate with him about the points of Arrianisme and to settle the matter by way of dispute the Emperour hearing of their approach while they were in the haven and before they could come on shore caused the Ships to be fired wherein they were and so consumed them all here was burntng for burning And it is observed in the French Historie that Charles the ninth of France who was the Anno 15 72. contriver of that great Massachre in Paris wherein so many thousand Protestants were forced through a Red sea a sea of blood to their rest in Canaan this bloody King at last dyed himselfe by a strange eruption of blood from all the passages of his body thus he also reaped what he had sowne he had powred out blood and his blood was powred out It were easie to give you plenty of instances bearing witnesse of this accurate justice of God Examples were frequent in Jobs time you see Eliphaz had store of these in his note-booke Even as I have seene they that plow iniquity and
judiciary hardning of their hearts and a hard heart is the greatest judgment on this side Hell As there is a naturally inbred and sinfully acquired hard heart so there is a judicially hardned or a divinely inflicted hard heart When to a naturall hard heart and an acquired hard heart which men get by many repeated acts of sin the Lord adds a judicially hardned or inflicted hard heart then wrath is heated to the hottest and judgment is within one step of Hell Especially if we consider that every houre of such prosperous impenitence and hardnesse of heart encreases punishment and adds to the treasury of that wrath which is stored up against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God Who thinks that man happy who is let alone only to gather a mighty pile of wood and other fuell of flames to burne himselfe while ungodly men saem to the world to be gathering riches honour and pleasure hey are but gathering a heap of wrath and a pile of fire which at the last will flame so bright that it will make a revelation of the formerly secret but ever righteous judgement of God Lastly To shew that God is just in all his dealings both the righteous and the wicked learne from the end of both That we may fully discover the Justice of God we must looke upon all his works together while we looke only upon some particular peece of Gods dealings with a godly man he may seeme to deale very hardly with him or if we looke but upon some particular peece of his dealings with a wicked man God may seeme very gentle and kind towards him but take all together and the result is exact justice It was a good speech of a moderne writer We must Non est judicandum de operibus Dei ante quintum actum Per. Mart. not judge of the works of God before the fifth act that is the last act or conclusion of all This and that part may seeme dissonant and confused but lay them all together and they are most harmonious and methodicall Hence David Psal 37. after he had a great dispute with himselfe about the troubles of the righteous and the prosperity of the wicked and was put hard to it how to make out the Justice of God resolves all in the close with this advice ver 37. Marke the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace Though a righteous man die in warre yet his end is peace whereas though a wicked man die in peace yet his end is warre It is said Deut. 8. 16. that all which God did to his people in the wildernesse was that he might doe them good at the latter end Come to the end therefore and there you shall find justice visible We often loose the sight of justice in our travailes and passage through the world mountaines and hils interpose which we cannot see over or through but when we come home and arrive at the end of our travailes Justice will appeare in all her state and glory rendring to every man according to his deedes To them who hy patient continuance in well doing seeke for glory and honour and immortality eternall life but unto them that are contentious and doe not obey the truth but obey unrighteousnesse indignation and wrath Joshua concludes the story of the people of Israel in their passage to Canaan with the highest testimonies of Gods justice and faithfulnesse though God dealt with them so variously in the wildernes that they often murmured in their tents as if he had done them wrong yet in the close you shall find how exact and punctuall the Lord was with them Josh 21. 45. There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel all came to passe And in that other text Josh 23. 14 Behold this day I am going the way of all the earth and you know in all your hearts and in all your soules that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you all are come to passe unto you and not one thing hath failed thereof How admirably just was God in his word If a man promise many things we take it well if he performe some of the chiefe and them in the chiefe though some what may faile God promised many things and performed all and which is more all of every one of those many things promised The texts compared make this out the one saying That not one thing failed of all the good things which God spake concerning them And the other That not ought of any good thing failed So then they had every good thing in kind with each particular part and degree of every good thing And for the truth of all this Joshua makes his appeale to themselves and to that in themselves which was best able to determine it All their hearts and all their soules which words doe not only referre to every person as if the meaning were The hearts and soules of you all but rather to all that is in every person All their hearts and all their soules that is understandings memories consciences affections yea sences their eyes and eares their hands and mouthes could bring in witnesse from their severall operations to this great truth And surely God in the end will deale as well with every Israelite as he did with all Israel A time will come it will come shortly when every Saint shall say in all their hearts and in all their soules that not one thing nor ought of any one good thing which the Lord hath said concerning them hath failed I shut up this in the words of Christ to his Disciples when they were amused about that act of his the washing of their feet John 13. 7. What I doe ye know not now but ye shall know hereafter Stay but a while and all those mysteries and riddles of providence shall be unfolded Though clouds and darknesse are round about him yet Judgement and Justice are the habitation of his Throne Psal 97. Mortall man never had and at last shall see he had no reason to complaine of God mortall man shall not be more just than God nor shall man be more pure than his maker And so much for the fifth Conclusion That God neither doth nor can doe any injustice to the creature he is just in his nature just and holy in all his wayes The sixth or last Conclusion is this That to complaine of Gods Iustior sit oportet qui immeriâ—ò affligitur quâ qui immerio affligit dealing with us is to make our selves more just and pure than Gods or when any person or people complaine of Gods dispensations toward them they though not formally yet by way of interpretation make themselves more just and pure than God This was the point wherein Eliphaz labours much to convince Job supposing that he had thus exalted himselfe
Hoast of Senacherib an Angel smote bloody persecuting Herod Angels by name if not by nature powre out the seven vials of Gods wrath in the Revelation And at the last day Angels shall hurry the wicked to Christs Tribunall they are heavenly Pursivants and they shall bundle the Tares up together as fuell to be throwne into everlasting burnings Matth. 13. 41 42. And it may be a great comfort to us that God hath such servants When visible dangers are round about us we should remember God hath invisible servants round about us There are more with us then against us as Elisha told his fearfull servant 2 Kings 6. And in that low estate of the Church Zech. 1. 8. the Prophet is shewed Christ in a vision standing among the Mirtle trees in the bottome the Mirtle trees in the bortome noted the Church in a low estate and behinde him there were red Horses speckled and white that is horsemen speckled and white These diverse coloured Horses were Angels appointed for severall offices as the learned Junius with others interprets it The red horses being appointed for judgement the white for mercy and the speckled as he conjectures for mixt actions being sent out at once to protect and help the people of God and to execute wrath and judgement upon the adversary Thus we see the services of the Angels they are servants yet such as the most wise God put no trust in therefore we have an Angel better then Angels even the Angel of the Covenant the Lord Jesus into whose hands our safety is committed to whose care the Church is left in whom God puts the whole trust knowing that this great Angel is and for ever will be faithfull in and over his house to his highest delight and the Churches compleatest welfare And his Angels he charged with folly Nec in Angelis suis ponet lumen Tagn Nec in Angelis suis posuit lucem exactissimam Vatab. Angelis suis posuit vesaniam Tygur In Angelis suis ponet glorationem Bibl. Reg. In Angelis suis reperit vanitatem Sym. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Splenduit luxit claruit Metaphoricè in piel spiendidum illustrem claâ—uÌ„ reddidit laudavit praedicavit Per Antiph rasin inglorius insanus furore actus fuit insanivit There are very different readings of this part of the Verse Some as M. Beza read it thus He trusted not in his servants though he had put light into those his messengers Others reade it with a negation in both parts He put no trust in his servants neither hath he put light in his Angels Another thus neither hath he put perfect light in his Angels Mr. Broughton differs from all these Behold he holdeth not perfection to be in his own servants and in his Angels he judged no clear light to be Another sort read it to these senses He charged or put madnesse in or upon his Angels he put or charged vaine boasting in or upon his Angels he found vanity in or amongst his Angels he observed some evill amongst his Angels Now that which hath given occasion to this variety of translatings is the different senses which the Originall yields us The Hebrew word is very fruitfull of significations and hath as the Oracle told Rebecca concerning two contrary Nations two contrary meanings in the wombe of it and that makes the strugling amongst Interpreters The word in its proper sense signifies to shine forth with a resplendent brightnesse so Chap. 29. 3. Job wisheth O that I were as in moneths past when the candle of God shined upon my head it is a Verbe of which the word folly in this text of Job is a derivative And Isay 14. 12. Hielel signifies the Morning star whose shining brightnesse hath obtained the name Lucifer Light-bringer or Light-bearer How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer sonne of the Morning How art thou fallen from Heaven Hielel thou shining day-star Thus the word properly signifies shining or brightnesse or to shine and be bright and hence by a Metaphor to be Famous or renowned or to make one renowned or famous or to paint out a man with praises because a man is as it were decked with light and hath rayes of brightnesse cast upon him when he is honoured and adorned with praises Due commendations are to a man as a robe or vesture of light which makes him shine to all about him And hence the word Halelujah is derived praise ye Jah or the Lord used frequently both in the beginning and end of the Psalmes in the beginning of the Psalmes by way of exhortation and in the end by way of acclamation crying up the honour and glory of God And to note that in passage it is well observed that this word Hallelujah is first used in the old Testament Psal 104. 35. where the utter consumption of sinners is mentioned and in the New Testament it is first used Rev. 19. 3 6. where the utter consumption of Antichrist is prophesied Judgement on the wicked is matter of high praise to God Thirdly the word signifies by the figure Antiphrasis or contrary speaking to boast and brag vainly foolishly or vaine foolish boasting To commend or extoll our selves is pride running mad and arrogance distracted It is the highest dotage to be in love with our owne wisdome and folly to publish our own works There may be wisdom though oftentimes there is a great deale of folly in commending others but in commending our selves there can be nothing but folly therefore the very same word which signifies to boast and commend our selves signifies both the concrete to be mad vaine or foolish and the abstract madnesse and folly thus in Eccles 2. 2 12. the word is used I said of laughter thou art mad I turned my selfe to behold wisdome and folly and madnesse and Psal 75. 4. I said unto the fooles deale not foolishly or to the mad-men do not play the mad-men that is do not exalt your selves for so he clears his meaning in the fifth Verse Lift not up your hornes on high speak not with a stiffe neck that is a neck stifned with pride and a horne lifted up with vaine-glory or self-confidence From this variety of significations the variety of translations before toucht ariseth First they who read it He put light into those his messengers take the word in a proper strict sense making out the meaning thus that God having put the light of excellent knowledge into the Angels could not yet trust them all their speculative knowledge and high raised illuminations were not enough to make them steadily and steadfastly holy that is the intent of Mr. Beza's interpretation He trusted not to his servants though he had put light into those his messengers For those who retaining the word light translate negatively neither hath he put light in his Angels or neither hath he put perfect light into his Angels or as Mr. Broughton In his Angels
he judgeth no cleare light to be putting a negative particle in both branches of the Verse whereas in the Hebrew there is no expresse negation in the latter These I say are led by this reason or rule It is frequent in Scripture when there is a negative in the former clause of a Verse then to understand a negative also in the latter clause though none be exprest For instance Psal 9. 18. The needy shall not alway be forgotten the expectation of the poore shall not perish for ever so we read but in the Hebrew the latter clause is the expectation of the poore shall perish for ever there is no Negative in the Originall but our Transtators and not only they but all that I have seen upon the place render it so supplying the Negative particle of the former in the latter clause of that sentence And without that negative the sentence is not only imperfect but untrue Thus The needy shall not alwayes be forgotten the expectation of the poore shall perish for ever this were a contradiction but reading it the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever makes the whole a truth and congruous in it self Againe Pro. 17. 26. To punish the just is not good to strike Princes for equity so the letter of the Hebrew but we reade it thus To punish the just is not good nor to stricke Princes for equity I might give ynu other examples but a tast may suffice Thus in the Text before us when it is said in the first clause he put no trust in his servants we take up the negative and say in the second neither hath he put light into his Angels or he did not put light in his Angels or he put no perfect light in his Angels or he judged not cleare light to be in his Angels Secondly they who according to our Translation render it madnesse or solly vain boasting or vanity these take the Originall in that figurative sence before given When a man from a reflection upon his own worth boasts out his own praises which because it is a point of extreame vanity and folly therefore the word is elegantly applyed to signifie folly c. He charged his Angels with folly He put or laid folly upon or to his Angels He put for so the Hebrew word bears Not that the vanity which is in Angels is of Gods putting but the folly that is in them he puts to them or charâ—eth it upon them or layeth it to their charge As we say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such a one put it home upon him that is he charged him soundly or fully with such a crime or offence To charge is a judiciall or Law-term implying that the Lord sitting in judgement to examine the state of Angels charged them by way of accusation and upon triall found them in a sense guilty of that which though they had not formed into any one sin yet might be formed and shap'd into any sin Folly or vaine-glory Having given some account of those tearms Charging and Folly He charged his Angels with folly it growes to a great doubt what Angels we are here to understand what Angels did God thus charge with folly The quere or doubt lies whether we shall lay this charge at the doore of the good Angels or of the bad or of both Many of the Ancients restrain it to the evill Angels to the Apostate Angels God put no trust in them he saw folly in them taking it for confessed that the Angels which stood the good Angels are trusty servants discreet and wise farre from either unfaithfulnesse or folly such as God hath put trust in and they never deceiv'd his trust such whose obedience is made the pattern of ours by Christ himself in his patterne of prayer Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven And would the Lord regulare us by them who are themselves irregular or make them our copy in doing his will whose folly renders them unfit to be trusted with the doing of his will Therefore say these such a charge suits not the state and condition of the good Angels Others cast it upon the good Angels that God put no trust no not in them I conceive from either there may be a good sense though I incline to the latter For in the Apostate Angels take it in the broadest sense God saw no light no goodnesse no faithfulnesse at all they have plainly discovered themselves and shewed not only weaknesse and unfaithfulnesse but wickednesse and utmost folly But to confine it to the evill Angels or to understand it chiefly of them is too narrow for the Text especially seeing Angeli boni exse nihil habent nisi insantam negativè i. e. nullam exse sapâ—entiam nullam veritatem bonitatem nullam this is but a light a too easie charge for those Apostate Spirits to say onle thus that God found unfaithfulnesse in them and charged them with folly for in them rebellion was found and they stand charged to this day with High Treason against the Crowne and dignity of the King of Heaven and are therefore committed to prison and reserved in chaines of darknesse to the judgement of the great day As for the good Angels God may be said to charge them with folly without any wrong either to the holinesse of their nature or the stedfastnes of their obedience For upon examination or intuition rather he finds they have no wisdome or stability but by Divine bounty and establishment As the apostate Angels were positively full of folly and unfaithfulnes so the good Angels might be charged with folly negatively namely that they had no faithfullnesse but as assisted and propt up But we may take the Angels in a third or middle consideration neither for the fallen or apostate Angels nor for the good and confirmed Angels as distinct or since this distinction But by Angels we may understand the Angelicall nature the whole complex nature of Angels in their creation and constitution was such as God could not trust fully unto such as he saw folly in We may demonstrate this plainly because a great part of the Angels and it is questioned whether or no the geater part but it is clear that a great part of the Angels a whole Regiment at least proved disloyall and fell together therefore the Angelicall nature in that abstracted notion is subject to folly and unfaithfulnes as well as man although they are of a more excellent make and constitution then man God looking upon Angels in generall saw they were not to be trusted the event also shewing many of them who were as good by nature as they who stand falling from him discovering their folly and nakednesse to all the world But it may be questioned yet how there could be folly in the Angelicall nature for as much as God viewing and reviewing all the works which he had made saw every thing which he had made and behold it was very
he sees some good he hath above himselfe This passion is a murderer also it begins at the eyes but it rots down into the bones Envy slayeth the silly one There is not much difference between the nature of these two the foolish man and the silly one But the Originall words by which they are expressed are very different The roote signifies to perswade to intice or allure And it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sua sus per sua sus dâ—â—eptus seductus fuit hâ—nc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sua deo apud Grecos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Japheth le Jaâ—heâ—h is taken sometime in a good sense as in Gen. 9. 27. where the Holy Ghost speakes with admirable elegancy God will perswade the perswadable we translate it God will perswade Japhet Japhet had his name from being perswaded or perswadable God shall intice or perswade Japhet which was a prophecie of the calling of the Gentiles who are descendants from Japhet as the Jewes are from Shem. So that word is applied to Gods drawing or alluring men by the sweet promises and winning enticements of the Gospell God doth let it be taken in holy reverence tole men on by promises and deceive them graciously into the Gospell Hos 2. 14. I will allure her and bring her into the wildernesse And because by perswasions men are often deceived and seduced to evill therefore the word signifies also to deceive and beguile as well as to perswade and in the passive to be beguiled and deceived Hence the word in the text is derived which we translate a simple one or a man that will easily be perswaded led by another a sequatious or easie man whom you may carry with a mouth full of good words and faire promises whether you will Yet we finde this word Psal 116. 6. used in a good sense for a man without sinfull guile and craft a simple honest plaine-hearted man The Lord preserveth the simple But here and often else-where it is taken in an ill sence for a man without sence and reason without heart and spirit a man that cannot in any competency judge of things or make out his way but is meerly led and lives upon the opinion and judgement of another To such wisdome cryeth without and uttereth her voyce in the streets how long yee simple ones will ye love simplicity Prov. 1. 20 22. This silly one envie slayeth Exiguo animo abjecto spiritu He is out of his wits already and a little matter will put him out of his life Envy slayeth him that is a simple man looking upon the prosperity and blessings of God upon his neighbour will needs afflict himselfe he lookes upon himselfe as having lost all if that man gaine he fals if his brother stands and can with more ease die miserably then see another live happily In this sense it is That envie kils the silly one Now the reason why Eliphaz speakes of these two the foolish and the simple one and characters them as dying by the hand of these two lusts wrath and envie is because he conceived all Jobs troubled and as he thought muddy complaints in the third Chapter arose from these two impure and filthy springs wrath and envie from proud wrath and impotent envie he looked upon him as angry and displeased yea as enraged because God had dealt so ill with him and he supposed he saw him pale and wanne eaten up and pined with envie because others were so well because his friends enjoyed health lived in prosperity round about him As if he had said Thou art wroth at thy owne povertie sicknesse and sores and thou art envious at our plentie health and ease And may not folly and simplicitie challenge that man for Theirs whose spirit thus resents either his own evils or his neighbours good Observe hence First Every wicked man is a foolish a silly man Sinne is pure folly In the Proverbs all along wickednesse is the Interpretation of foolishnesse It is folly to take brasse Counters for gold and to be pleased with Bugles more then with Diamonds When an heyre is impleaded for an Ideot the Judge commands an apple or a counter with a peece of gold to be set before him to try which he will take if he takes the apple or the counter and leaves the gold he is then cast for a foole and unable to mannage his estate for he knows not the value of things or how to make a true election Wicked men are thus foolish and more for when bugles and diamonds counters and gold are before them they leave the diamonds and the gold and please themselves with those toyes and bables when which is infinitely more sottish Heaven and hell life and death are set before them they chuse hell rather then Heaven and death rather then life they take the meane transitory trifling things of the world before the favour of God the pardon of finne a part in Jesus Christ and an inheritance among the Saints in light All the wisdome of wicked men is wisdome in their owne conceits And Solomon assures us that there is more hope of a foole then of such that is of those who are sensible of their owne failings and are willing as the Apostle directs to become fooles that they may be wise 1 Cor. 3. 18. Opinion in it selfe is weake but self-opinion is very strong even the strongest of those strong-holds and the highest of those high Towers which the spirituall warre by those weapons which are mightie through God is to oppose and cast down which till they are cast down these fooles are impregnable and will not be led captive unto Christ Secondly observe That to vex and to be angerie at the troubles that fall upon us or at the hand which sends them is a high point of folly and of ignorance Wrath and discontent slay the foolish such are at once twice slain slain with the wrath of God and with their own To die thus is to die like a foole indeed For first this wrath of man springs from his ignorance of God Man would not be angry at what the Lord doth if he knew he were the Lord and may doe what himselfe pleases The ground of anger is a supposition of wrong Secondly This wrath of man springs from ignorance of himselfe He cannot be angry with any crosse who rightly knows himselfe First to be a creature This notion of our selves teaches us that lesson of humility to be subject to the will of our Creatour The law of our creation cals us to all passive obedience as well as unto active as much and as quietly to suffer as to doe the will of God But especially if a man did fully know himselfe to be a sinfull creature he would not be angry yea he would lay a charge upon his mouth not to utter a word and a charge upon his heart not to utter a thought against what the Lord doth with him I will beare the
aliquo dicitur in Scriptura quod faciendum denunciatur be or fore-tell that it shall be As to give an instance or two Levit. 13. in the case of the Leper the text saith that when the Priest makes up his judgement concerning the Leper having found the tokens of Leprosie upon him he shall defile him ver 3. and ver 8. or make him uncleane so the Originall gives it which we translate The Priest shall pronounce him uncleane In that sence the Ministers of the Gospell whose businesse is to cleanse defile many yea one way to cleanse men is thus to defile and pronounce them Lepers So Isa 6. 8. the Lord sends the Prophet against that people and saith to him Make the heart of this people fat and make their eares heavy and shut their eyes Praedic excaeeanaos oâ—ulos aures aggravandas Now the Prophet did not act this himselfe he did not deafen their eares or blind their eyes but onely fore-told or denounced that this judgement should fall upon them because they had so long stopped their eares at last their eares should be stopt and made heavy enough and because they had so long winked and shut their eyes at last they should be blind and their eyes shut fast enough How fast are those eyes and eares lockt up which are thus double lockt Once more Jer. 1. 10. The Lord gives the Prophet a strange commission See saith he I have this day set thee over the Nations and over Kingdomes to roote out and to pull downe and to destroy and to throw downe and to build and to plant One would think this commission more fitting for a Caesar or an Alexander for great Commanders attended with numerous Armies than for an unarmed Prophet what could he doe could he roote out Kingdomes and destroy Nations Yes by denouncing the destroying judgements and consuming wrath of God due unto them for their rebellions and provocations Thus a poor weak Prophet can overturne a whole Kingdome and roote up the strongest Nations And the truth is that never was any Nation or Kingdome rooted up by the sword but it was first rooted up by the word first God hewed them to pieces and slew them by his Prophets and then let in Armies of cruell enemies to doe it So here in the text I have seen the foolish taking root but suddenly I cursed his habitation The clear meaning is I foretold a curse I knew what would shortly become of his habitation It Non per invidiam iram dira imprecacarer sed animus pâ—aesagiret male ipsi fore Coc. was not anger against his person or envy at his estate that moved me to curse him but it was an eye of faith which shewed me him markt with a curse in the just threatnings of God I saw a curse hanging over his family and dwelling over his riches and honours And though he then flourished that yet he should quickly wither and be destroyed root and branch The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked Prov. 3. 33. Man doth but see it there the Lord sent it there The word is considerable which we traslate Habitation It signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a quiet a setled a peaceable a beautifull habitation And so carries an aggravation of the judgement upon this foolish man his judgement is the worse upon him because he thought himselfe so well so well seated so well setled so secured and accommodated that he should never be removed They are most troubled with removings who thought themselves setled troubles afflict them deepest who supposed themselves beyond trouble When David thought God had made his mountaine so strong that it could not be moved how was he troubled as soon as God hid his face Ps 30. 6 7. And if they are so troubled with shakings who look upon their estates as setled by the favour of God how will they be troubled to meet with totterings and shakings much more with ruinings and destructions whose estates at best are bottom'd onely upon their policies often upon their sins We may observe from hence First The estate of some wicked men is out of the prayers of Gods people When they goe by their dwellings they cannot say The blessing of the Lord be upon you we blesse you in the name of the Lord Psal 129. 8. It is a great mercy to stand under the influences of prayer and for a man to have his estate land dwellings watered with showers of blessings and hearty good wishes from the mouths of Saints Their blessings or their cursings are next to the blessings and cursings of Christ nay they are his It is an argument that Christ hath blessed or cursed a man when the spirits of his people generally are carried to either It is one of the saddest presages in the world for a man to be cast out of the prayers of the Saints or to be cast by their prayers that is when their prayers are against him and he presented naked to the displeasure of Christ It shewes that the sin of a man is a sin unto death when the faithfull cease praying for him 1 Joh. 5. 16. What can it prognosticate then but approaching ruine and destruction when they bend the strength of prayer against him There was never any habitation of wickednes so firmly founded or strongly fortified but that Great and Holy Ordinance hath or may shake and batter it to the dust The fair Towers and walls of Babylon the seate and state of Antichrist have long been under this curse All the Saints whose eyes God hath unscaled and brought out from Egyptian darkness have seene That foolish man taking roote and have cursed his habitation Secondly observe A wicked man in prosperity is under the curse of God He is often under the curse of man but ever under the curse of God Esau have I hated saith God Rom. 9. 13. yet even at that time the fatnesse of the earth was his dwelling and of the dew of Heaven from above Gen. 27. 39. While the meate was in the mouthes of the murmuring Israelites the wrath of God was upon them They did at once eate their lust and their death wrath was mingled with their meate and while he gave them their request he sent leanenesse into their soules Psal 106. 15. This is the most dreadfull curse of all To have a fate estate a well fed body with a leane starven soule Thirdly Observe a vast difference between godly and wicked men between the foolish and the wise When a godly man withers in his outward estate and is pluckt up by the rootes yet God loves him when a godly man is poore God loves him when he is sick God loves him when he is in prison God loves him when he is in disgrace God loves him and when the world hates him most then God usually shewes that he loves him most The world cannot cast a godly man into any condition but he meets with the love
swallow them downe They have been kept so short that like empty and sharpe set stomackes they waste all when they come where they may have their fill That estate which is got by the oppression and kept by the base covetousnesse of parents is usually spent out in riot and luxurie A hungry heire devours the harvest Thirdly The hungry may be taken for those poore oppressed ones whose estates those Nimrods of the world had unjustly and cruelly ravisht from them They whom wicked men make hungry and leane by their exactions and cruell dealings come at last though unbidden and unwelcome guests to eat the bread from their Tables And these poore Hungry-ones are conceived by some to be Wisedomes children the people of God whom those wicked fooles had stript of their estates and would have eaten them too like bread Psal 14. So the Septuagint renders it The just or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the godly shall eat up or devoure the harvest of this rich worldling Put both these together and this may be the sense The hungry eateth up his harvest that is the godly poore whom this man had unjustly opprest and even put to starving God by his just judgement shall send in to take free Quarter to eat their fill of his harvest and never reckon with their host From that sence take this note That God doth sometimes give the riches of wicked men to poore godly men whom they have opprest Job himselfe Chap. 27. v. 16. gives us this truth in expresse termes where speaking of a wicked man he saith Though he heap up silver as the dust and prepare raiment as the clay he may prepare it let him prepare it let him scrape it together as fast as he can but the just shall put it on and the innocent shall divide the silver that is those just and innocent persons whom he had wronged shall by a divine retaliation enter upon his estate The wicked grind the faces of the poor to make themselves bread but at last the poore shall make bread of their corn and griest We may see the tract and foot-steps of this judgement in our dayes How many sons of violence who have made many persons yea families hungry naked and desolate are now made desolate and naked God hath so wrought and answered us by terrible things in righteousnesse that Oppressed Innocents have been put into the houses and have fed upon the fatnesse of Vnrighteous Oppressours Must we not say verily there is a God that judgeth the earth when we see this vengeance And for the rest may we not say as those searchers of Canaan Caleb and Joshua made their report when the rest complained of impossibilities Numb 14. 9. Let us not feare them for they are bread for us that is we shall easily get in amongst them and live upon their estates Let us not feare those giantly sons of Anak who have fleec'd the poore of Gods flock and knaw'd their bones for by the power and justice of God they are bread for us they have made hungry ones enow to eate up their own harvest Fourthly We may take the hungry yet more largely for any In communi quicunque raptor depraedator famelicus appellatur Pined that are low and poore whom God stirres up and sends in judgement as his teeth to consume and eate up to devoure and destroy the portion of such fat ones Every spoiler is a hungry one spoilers devoure as if they had never eaten in their lives they sweep all away The word which we translate to eate up signifies the most fierce kind of eating when a man eates as if he could never have enough And therefore it is applied to the eating of fire which we know is the most hungry thing in the world nothing will satisfie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est acrius quam nostrum comedere significat enim coÌ„edeÌ„â—o consumere Ingentem aviditatem comedentis prae sesert adeo ut de igne quae omnia avidè depascit utatur the appetite of that hungry element the more it eates the more hungry and devouring it is Hence that adjunct of fire Isa 29. 6. A flame of a devouring fire or the flame it is the word of the text of an eating fire a fire whose stomack is able to digest all the materiall creatures in the world So Job 1. it is said that the fire of God or a great fire did eate up the sheepe the fire came hungry and consumed them such is the force of the word here used and secondly it is applied in Scripture to the eating of the sword which alas we know is very hungry too My sword shall devoure flesh Deut. 32. 42. Thirdly it is applied to savage beasts Gen. 37. 33. when Jacob bewaileth the losse of his sonne Joseph he saith an evill beast hath devoured him Fourthly the cruelty of persecutors in whom wild beasts and sword and fire are all met if not swallowed up The cruelty I say of persecutors is expressed by this word They eate up my people like bread Psal 14. 4. Wild beasts and sword and fire and above all the persecuting spirits of men are the most hungry and speedy devourers such a devouring shall consume the harvest of these foolish men The hungry shall eate it up Here we may observe That They who consume others shall at last be consumed themselves Such as have raised themselves upon the ruines of others shall raise others by their own ruine God will send devourers to eate up the estate of those who have devoured the estates of their brethren especially if they have devoured the estates of his own people The Apostle Gal. 6. 7. gives this generall law Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reape He that sowes oppression or makes his seed-time to be the reaping of his neighbours harvest may find reapers which he hired not in his field at harvest The Prophet Isaiah denounceth a woe against those that joyne house to house by oppression and what is the woe their houses shall be made desolate So Zeph. 3. 19. I will undoe all that afflict there And Jer. 30. 16. They that devoure thee shall be devoured and they that spoile thee shall be a spoile and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey It is just with God 2 Thes 1. 6. to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you The rich man who hoards up that for himselfe and for his children which he hath pulled out of the bellies of others shall have his meate devoured from his table and pul'd from between his teeth The hungry eate up his harvest but where doth he find it He takes it even out of the thornes There is some difficulty in that expression Mr Broughton reades it The hungry shall eate up his harvest which he had gotten thorough the thornes And others thus he shall fetch it out from among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spinae aliqui deducunt a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
seeke exactly and enquire laboriously unto God It signifies to seek by asking questions or by interrogating And it imports seeking with much wisedome and skill a curious or a criticall enquirie So Eccles 1. 13. I gave my heart saith Solomon to seeke and search out by wisedome And this seeking implies foure things First A supposition and a sense of our wants no man seekes that which he hath already or but thinks he hath it He that is full loathes a hony-combe Secondly A strong desire to find that which we want it notes not a bare desire only or woulding but a kind of unquietnesse or restlessenesse till we find such a desire tooke hold of David Psal 132. 4. I will not give rest to mine eyes nor slumber to mine eye-lids untill I find out a place for the Lord or untill I find the Lord. Thirdly A care to be directed about the meanes which may facilitate the finding or recovery of what we want and thus earnestly desire A seeking spirit is a carefull spirit after light and counsell Fourthly A diligent and faithfull endeavour in or about the use those meanes to which counsell directs us Through desire a man having separated himselfe seeketh and intermedleth with all wisdome Prov. 18. 1. That is he is very industrious in pursuing those advices which wisdome shews him or which are shewed him as the wayes of wisdome A lazy spirit is unfit to seeke I would seek unto God and unto God would I commit my cause In the former clause the word for God is El and in the latrer Elohim both names note the power of God El notes power or strength to act and execute Elohim power or authority to judge and determine I would seek unto El The strong God I would commit my cause to Elohim the Mighty God As if he had said Thou art in a weake and low condition now therefore seeke unto God the strong God the mighty God who is able to deliver thee Thou wantest the help of such a friend as he The Hebrew word for word is thus rendred Vnto God would I put my words or turne my speech We reach the meaning fully rendring Vnto God I would commit my cause or put my case The terme which we translate cause signifies any businesse or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat verâ—um vel negotium res meas ei committeâ—eÌ„ cause but most properly a word Explicite prayer is the turning of our thoughts into words or the putting of our case to God It is a speaking to or a pleading with the Lord. The Septuagint is clear in this sense I would deprecate the Lord I would call upon the Lord the governor of all things Both these significations of the word are profitable for us and congruous with the scope of the text I would turne my speech and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. prayer or I would commit my cause unto God The committing of our cause to God notes a resignation of our selves and of our condition into the hands of God It is as much as to say Let God doe what he will or determine what he pleaseth concerning me I will not strive or contend about question or dispute his decision or judgement of my cause I will lay my selfe down at his feet and tell him how she case stands with me then let him doe with me what seems good in his eyes This is the committing of our cause and condition unto God And the Originall word here used for God doth very well suite and correspond with this sense I will commit my cause unto God unto Elohim the great and impartiall Judge of Heaven and earth the God who loves Judgement and the habitation of whose Throne is righteousnes The God who knowes how to discern exactly between cause and cause person and person and will undoubtedly give a righteous sentence concerning every cause and person that comes before him Unto this Elohim would I commit my cause and refer my self to his arbitration Observe first in the general Eliphaz having reproved Job turnes himself to counsell and exhortation From which we may learne That As it is our duty to reprove a fault in our brother so it is our duty to advise and counsell him how to amend or come out of that fault for which we reprove him It is not enough to espy an error but we must labour to rectifie it or to tell another that he is out of the way but we must endeavour to reduce him Many can espy faults and failings in others who either know not how or care not to reforme and helpe them out Secondly observe That It is a duty to exhort and excite our bretheren to those duties wherein we find them flack or negligent Eliphaz conceived that Job was much behind in the duty of prayer and self-resignation unto God and therefore he quickens him up to it The Apostle calls us to this Christian inspection Heb. 3. 13. Exhort one another daily lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulnesse of sinne sin growing and getting strength hardens the heart it is best to oppose it betimes and therefore he bids them doe it at all times exhort one another daily Though the Apostle Peter 2 Pet. 1. 12. was perswaded of the Saints establishment in the present truth yet saith he I will not cease to put you alwayes in remembrance of these things It is a dangerous error which some hold that the Saints in this life may out grow counsell and exhortation as if there were no need to bid a godly man pray seek unto God no need to bid a godly man repent or humble himself or believe he cannot but do these things say they these are connaturall to him They are indeed to the new man within him But let them withall remember that the neglect of all these duties is as connaturall to the old man within him While there are two men within us we had need every man to look not only to one but to one another It may goe ill with the better part the new man if while he hath an enemy within to oppose him he hath not a friend without to help him On this ground besides the command of Christ the holiest man on earth may be exhorted to look to his holinesse none are in more danger then they who think they are past danger And as it is a certaine argument that a man was never good if he desires not to be better so it is a great argument that a man was never good who feares not that he may be worse They who are truly assured they cannot fall from grace are assured also that they may fall in grace and fall into sin The foundation of God stands sure but the footing of man doth not and therefore Let him that stands take heed least he fall And let them who see their brethren heedlesly falling lend them the right hand of exhortation to raise them up againe and when
or commanding stamps justice upon it as is clear in the case of Abrahams call to sacrifice his son and the Israelites carrying away the jewels of the Aegyptians If then the act of God whose will is the supream law makes that lawfull which according to the common rule is unlawfull how much more doth the act of God make that great which in ordinary proportion is accounted small Againe When it is said God doth great things we must not understand it as if God dealt not about little things or as if he let the small matters of the world passe and did not meddle with them Great in this place is not exclusive of Little for he doth not onely great but small even the smallest things The Heathens said their Jupiter had no leisure to be present at the doing of small Non vacat exignis rebus adesse Jovi things or it did not become him to attend them God attendeth the doing of small things and it is his honour to doe so the falling of a Sparrow to the ground is one of the smallest things that is yet that is not without the providence of God the haires of our head are small things yet as not too many so not too small for the great God to take notice of Christ assures us this The very haires of your head are all numbred Mat. 10. 29 30. We ought highly to adore and reverence the power and inspection of God about the lowest the meanest things and actions Is it not with the great God as with great men or as it was with that great man Moses who had such a burthen of businesse in the government of that people upon his shoulders that he could not bear it therefore his Father in law adviseth him to call in the aide of others and divide the work But how The great matters the weighty and knotty controversies must be brought to Moses but the petty differences and lesser causes are transmitted and handed over to inferiour judges And it shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee but every small matter they shall judge Exod. 18. 22. But God the great Judge of Heaven and earth hath not onely the great and weighty but small matters brought unto him the least motions of the creature are heard and resolved disposed and guided by his wisdome and power You will say What is this greatnesse and what are these great things I shall hint an answer to both for the clearing of the words There is a two-fold greatnesse upon the works of God There is so we may distinguish First the greatnesse of quantity Secondly the greatnesse of quality or vertue That work of God which is greatest in the bulk or quantity of it is the work of Creation How spacious huge and mighty a fabrique is Heaven and earth with all things compacted and comprehended in their circumference And in this work so vast for quantity what admirable qualities are every where intermixt Matter and forme power and order quantity and quality are so equally ballanced that no eye can discerne or judgement of man determine which weighes most in this mighty work Yet among these works of God some are called great in regard of quality rather then of quantity As it is said Gen. 1. 16. That God made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night Sunne and Moone these are great lights not that there are no lights great but these or that both these are greater then all other heavenly lights for many Stars are greater then the Moon as the doctrine and observation of Astronomers assures us but the lesser of these is great in regard of light and influence excellency and usefulnesse to the world And as to these works of creation so the works of providence are great works When God destroyes great enemies the greatnesse of his work is proclaimed When great Babylon or Babylon the great shall be destroyed the Saints song of triumph shall be Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy wayes thou King of Saints Rev. 15. 3. Great and marvellous works why Because thou hast destroyed great Babylon and hast executed great judgement and powred out great wrath So great works of mercy and deliverance to his people are cryed up with admiration And hath given us such a deliverance as this saith Ezra Chap. 9. 13. when the Jewes returned from their captivity out of Babylon That mercy was a kind of miracle that deliverance a wonder and therefore he mentions it in termes of admiration Such deliverance as this How great So great that he had neither words to express nor example to paralell it but lets it stand nakedly by it selfe in its native glory Such deliverance as this The Spirituall works of God are yet far greater the work of redemption is called a great salvation the conversion and justification of a sinner the pardon of our sinnes and the purifying of our nature are works as high above creation and providence as the Heavens are in comparison of the earth Take two or three Corolaries or Deductions from hence As first It is the property of God to doe great things And because it is his property he can as easily doe great things as small things Among men Great spirits count nothing great A great spirit swallowes and overcomes all difficulties Much more is it so with the great God who is a Spirit all Spirit and the father of spirits To the great God there is nothing great He can as easily doe the greatest as the least 1 Sam 14. 6. 2 Chron. 14. There Animo magâ—â— nihil magnum is no restraint to the Lord to save with few or by many or it is nothing with thee to help whether with many or with them that have no power It is not so much as the dust of the ballance with God to turne the scale of victory in battell whether there be more or lesse Seeing all Nations before him are but as the dust of the ballance as nothing yea lesse then nothing So that whether you put him upon any great work or small work you put the Lord to no more stresse to no more paines in the one then in the other for he doth great things and to doe them is his property not his study his nature not his labour He needs not make provisions or preparations for what he would have done the same act by which he wills the doing of a thing doth it if he wills What great things hath the Lord done in our dayes We may say as the Virgin Luke 1. 49. He that is Mighty hath done to us great things and Holy is his Name and as they Acts 2. 11. We have both heard and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Magnalia Dei seen the great things of God done amongst us and I believe greater things are yet to be done It was a great work at the beginning
of time to make Heaven and earth and will it not be a great work to shake Heaven and earth That God hath said he will doe before the end of time Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the Heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land Hag. 2. 6. The words following seem to interpret this earthquake and Heaven-quake I will shake all Nations Againe It was a great work to make the old Heaven and earth and will it not be a great work to make a new Heaven and a new earth That is the businesse which God is about in these letter days as he promised Isa 65. 17. Behold I create a new heaven and a new earth what is that Jerusalem a praise and her people a joy When God reformeth the face of his Church and settles the affaires of Kingdomes and Common-wealths he makes new Heavens and a new Earth And if it be the property of God to doe great things then it is a duty in us to expect great things We ought to look for such things as come up to and answer the power and greatness of God we dishonour and as it were humble God when we look onely for low and meane things Great expectations from God honour the greatnesse of God As the Lord expects to receive the greatest services from us because he is a great King Mal. 1. 14. So we ought to expect that we shall receive the greatest mercies from the Lord because he is a great King It dishonours God as much and more when we believe little as when we doe little A great King thinks himselfe dishonoured if you aske him a petty suite he looks more what becomes him to give or doe in bounty then the petitioner to aske in necessity The Great Alexander could tell his suiter whom he had more astonisht then relieved with his favour That though the thing might be too great for him to receive yet it was not too great for Alexander to give If dust and ashes can speake and think at this rate O how large is the heart of God! Then it is not onely our priviledge but our duty to aske and believe great things we ought to have a great faith because God doth great things Is it becomming to have a great God and a little faith To have a God that doth great things and we to be a people his people that cannot believe great things nay To have a God who can easily doe great things and we a people that can hardly believe small things How unbecoming if some small thing be to be done then usually faith is upon the wing but if it be a great thing then faith is clogg'd her wings are clipt and we at a stand why should it be said unto us as Christ said unto his Disciples O ye of little faith It may be as dangerous to us if not as sinfull not to believe the day of great things as to despise the â—ay of small things Why should not our faith in a holy scorne baffle the greatest difficulties in that language of the Prophet Zech. 4. 7. Who art thou O great Mountaine before Zerubbabell thou shalt become a plaine There is another usefull consequence from this truth He that doth great works ought to have great praises As we ought to have great faith that he will doe great things so he ought to have great acknowledgments when he hath done great things Shall God doe great things for us and shall we give him some poor leane starven sacrifices of praise It is very observable that as soon as the Prophet had described the Lord in his greatnesse Isa 40. 15. he adds in the very next verse And Lebanon is not sufficient to burne nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt Offering That is no services are great enough for this great God Lebanon abounded in spices for Incense and perfume it abounded with cattell for Sacrifice and burnt offerings To say that Lebanon had not spice enough to burne for incense nor beasts enough to burne for Sacrifice shews the Lord far exalted in greatnesse above all the praises and holy services of his people Lastly seeing God doth great works for us let us shew great zeale for great love unto the Lord. We should aime at the doing of great things for God seeing God indeed doth great things for us So much of the first Attribute of the works of God Who doth great things And unsearchable The Hebrew is and no search The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports the search of those things which are most abstruce and secret As the heart which the Lord onely can search Jer. 17. 15. The heart lies too low not onely for the eye but for the understanding of man Hence it is used Psal 95. 4. to note the Foundations or deep places of the earth because they cannot be known but by deep searchings or rather because they are beyond the deepest Penetralia terrae ut Aben Ezra explicat quae sciâ—i nequeunt nisi exquisita per scrutatione vel potiùs quòd homini minimè sunt perscutabilia Deo autuÌ„ in prepatulo Buxtorf search of man And the same phrase we find Psal 145. 3. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his greatnesse is unsearchable or according to the letter of his greatnesse no search as when the Psalmist speaks of the greatnesse of God in his nature and essence presently he adds and of his greatnesse there is no search so here when Eliphaz speaks of the greatnesse of God in his works the next word is they are unsearchable As God in himselfe is great and of his greatnesse there is no search so many of the works of God are so great that of their greatnes there is no search that is you cannot find out their greatnesse by any search God is in working and so are men the hand cannot act beyond the head as he is in understanding There is no searching of his understanding Isa 40. 28. Therefore there is none of his working This unsearchablenesse of the works of God may be considered two wayes 1. As that which cannot be found by enquirie 2. As that which ought not to be found or enquired There are some works of God which are not to be searched into Arcana imperij they are to be adored by believing not to be pryed into by searching and in that sence they are called unsearchable Rom. 11. 33. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdome of and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements Many of his judgements that is his works of judgement are so unsearchable that it is not industry or duty but presumption to search into them As those unspeakable words which Paul heard in the third heavens were such as 2 Cor. 12. 4. is not lawfull for a man to utter so unsearchable judgements may be interpreted such as is not lawfull for a man to search Great Princes will
inusitatissimis raâ—â—ssimisque majora sunt August l. 5. de Civ Dei cap 12. One of the Ancients discoursing upon that miracle in the Gospell The multiplying the loaves observeth that in naturall things there are very great wonders though we lightly passe them by They were astonished to see the loaves multiplying while they were eating To see bread grow upon the Table or between their Teeth made all wonder but there is as great a miracle wrought every yeare and no man takes notice of it That is when Corne cast into the ground multiplies thirty sixty a hundred-fold It is saith he a greater miracle for corne to multiply in the earth then for loaves to multiply on the Table And he makes a like Conclusion in his Booke of the City of God Whatsoever is wonderfull in the world is not so great a wonder as the world Yet men rarely wonder at the making of the world the Earth the Heavens the Sea the Aire every creature in them exceed in wonders the things we wonder at Ordinary works of Nature are marvellous First because they proceed from a divine power 2. Because man is posed to give a reason of most of them Canst thou tell how the bones grow in her that is with child saith the Preacher The bringing of an Infant alive from the Wombe is a wonder as well as the raising of a man from the dead And the budding of a Tree as well as the budding of Aarons Rod †Per multa sunt quae admirari nonsolemus propterea quod vulgo quotidieque fiunt Renova in solita commovetur animus The usualnesse of the one and the rarenesse of the other is though not the only yet the greatest difference And as the ordinary workes of Creation in making so of Providence in governing the world are full of wonders though they passe unobserved Such Eliphaz takes notice of in the words following The disappointing of craftie oppressors and the deliverance of the poore When God shall destroy Babylon the Song prepared is Great and wonderfull are thy works and Exod. 15. 11. from whence that is taken Who is like unto thee O God! Who is like unto thee glorious in holinesse fearefull in praises doing wonders The wonder was a deliverance the wonderfull deliverance of his people from Egypt and through the red Sea Works of judgement are often called works of wonder Deut 28. 59. I will make thy plagues wonderfull and Isa 28. 21. The Lord shall rise up as in Meunt Perazim he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon that he may doe his worke his strange worke and bring to passe his act bis strange act What act was this An act of judgement upon his and his peoples enemies as is clear 2 Sa. 5. 20. and Josh 10. 12. where we may reade what God did in Mount Perazim and in the valley of Gibeon strange works indeed And these works of God are called marvellous not onely when God is in them alone and acts without the intervention of the creature but when he act with the creature above the strength of a creature so that little of the creature appeares in the act this also is a marvell What God doth more by a man then man can doe whether in strength or wisdome ordinarily assisted so much of a wonder shewes it selfe in what man doth And therefore no man is ordinarily to attempt any thing beyond his strength for that is to tempt God and call him to worke a miracle at least a wonder for us Lord saith David Psal 131. 1. Mine heart is not Non mae exâ—uli ad ea quae maeas vires aut ingenium suâ—eraret Eleganter Thâ—odoretus Meipsum meâ—â—ebaâ— quae me excedunt non aggrossus sum haughty nor mine eyes loftie neither doe I exercise my selfe in great matters or in things too high for me The word is in things too wonderfull for me that is I doe not ordinarily put my selfe upon things which are extraordinary or beyond my strength and parts I measure-my undertakings and my abilities together and would keepe them even I doe not put God upon doing wonders every day therefore I set my selfe to those things which are according to the line of man If God call us to it we may expect a miracle but we must not call God to worke miracles for us or with us I doe not exercise my selfe in matters too high for me Miracles or marvels are not every dayes exercise We ought rather to be above our worke or any of our designes then below them but we must be sure they are not above us It is the safest and holiest way for man in all his actions to be upon a levell We cannot but displease God and hurt our selves by clambering It is but sometimes that rhe Lord will work wonders to releeve our necessities and help our faith but he will never unlesse in wrath work wonders to please our humors or comply with our ambition Hence observe First When we see marvels done we must acknowledgc the hand of God Marvels are proper unto God Psal 75. 1. In that thy Name is neere thy wonderous works declare Wonderous works are an argument that God is neere When wonders are among us we may know who is among us and if so then this is a time wherein God is seene among us We may well apply that of the Psalmist to our selves Marvellous things hath the Lord done in our sight in Ireland and in the Fields of England Psal 78. 12. Mervails are rare things things seldome done or seene We have things amongst us which were never done or seene before in our Nation A Parliament which cannot be legally dissolved but by its own Vote An Assembly where neither Diocesan Bishops nor Deane as such can Vote The three Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland entred into a solemn Covenant approved by the Assemblies and authorized by the Parliaments of two Kingdomes May we not conclude of these in the language of the Prophet Who hath heard such a thing who hath seen such things Isay 66. 8 Surely we may say as Moses to Israel Deut. 4. 34. Hath God assayed to goe and take him a Nation from the middest of another Nation by temptation by signes and by wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by a stretched out arme and by great terrors according to all that the Lord our God doth for us in England before our eyes To take a Nation out of the midst of a Nation is our case If England finding as now it doth her children strugling in her wombe should goe enquire of the Lord as Rebecca did Gen. 25. 22. why is it thus The Lord may answere as he did to her Two Nations are in thy wombe and two manner of people shall be separated frem thee A Nation fearing God and a Nation blaspheming God a Nation seeking Reformation and a Nation opposing Reformation Secondly If God work mervailes and we believe him not
hath he not reason to marvell at our unbeliefe Christ having wrought miracles to gaine the beliefe of his country men marvailed at their unbeliefe Mark 6. 2 6. Unbeliefe is a great sin at all times but in a time when mervailes are wrought for the cure and healing of it unbeleefe is a marvellous sin Will not Christ think you marvell at our unbeleefe if we beleeve not after all these marvels Ye will not beleeve saith Christ and he rebukes the Jewes for it Joh. 4. except you see signes and wonders Surely if they were so charged because they would not beleeve except they saw signes and wonders how shall they be charged who will not beleeve when they see signes and wonders especially when God seemes to work a wonder a purpose that they might beleeve God loves and prizes the faith of man so highly that sometimes he bids a miracle for it rather then goe without it And surely now as God hath wrought marvels to abate the marvellous pride of the Adversary so to overcome the marvellous unbeleef of his own people As hath been observed concerning the Lords swearing As I live I desire not the death of a sinner c. O happy man for whose sake the Lord sweares but O most unhappy who doest not beleeve the Lord when he sweares So we may say of the Lords-wonder-workings O happy people for whom the Lord works wonders but O most unhappy people who beleeve not the Lord when he works wonders Thirdly Seeing God works extraordinary things for us let not us stay in ordinary duties Let our works have somewhat of a marvell in them too Let our repentance and the change of our lives be marvelous let our zeal courage for Christ be marvelous like that of the Apostles who carried themseves with such heroical magnanimity in the work of the Gospel that when the High-priest and Councel who had convented and threatned them saw their boldnesse They marvelled saith the text Acts 4. 13. Let our love and thankfullnesse be marvellous let us pray marvellously and believe marvellously marvels don by God should ever work faith in man And faith in man doth sometime work marvelling in God Christ speakes with a kind of admiration to the woman of Canaan O woman great is thy faith Mat. 15. 28. O that his people in this Nation would set Him thus a wondring once more O England great is the faith in me O England great is thy love to me O England great is thy zeale for me O England great is thy repentance exceeding glorious thy Reformation I will close this point with this one word God hath begun to doe so many marvels amongst us that I verily believe the work he is about will end in a marvel too and we in the close shall be made either a wonder of mercy or a wonder of judgement to all the Nation 's round about The fourth Attribute of the works of God raises the glory of them all They are innumerable He doth marvellous things without number The Hebrew word for word is Vntill there be no number Without number may be taken three wayes First Strictly and absolutely for that which is without number and thus there is no number innumerable Things absolutely without number would be infinite but there cannot be two Infinits As God is so One and without number that he is Infinite so whatsoever could be so many that it were without number would be infinite too Secondly Without number is that which man cannot reckon or cast up the summe of it Rev. 7. 9. John speakes of a great multitude which no man could number As a small number is said to be such as a child may write Isa 10. 19. So such a multitude as a man cannot write notes the greatest number And Heb. 12. 22. there is mention made of an innumerable company of Angels So God calleth Abraham out and saith Look now towards Heaven and tell the Starres if thou be able to number them Gen. 12. The Starrs are innumerable that is beyond mans Arithmetique Thirdly Things are said to be without number or innumerable in a more common sense when they are a very great number and so we find it frequent in Scripture As that which is very high is said to be as high as heaven Thus the discouraging Spies describe the Cities of the Canaanites to be Cities walled up to Heaven Deut. 1. 28. And when Sea-men or Marriners are tossed upon the waves and billowes of the Sea they are said to mount up to the Heaven and to goe downe againe to the depths Psal 107. 26. So here a very great number is said to be innumerable or without number In this third and in that second sense the great works of God are innumerable God hath done so many marvellous things as are inpossible for man to reckon His mighty works are not only beyond the writing of a child but of the wisest men The man who numbers most dayes cannot number the wonders of God I shall note but one or two Instructions from this That the works of God are innumerable First Then what God hath done he can doe it againe a second time yea a third a fourth time ten times yea ten thousand times over if our necessity and his good pleasure meet together for his works are innumerable Eliphaz speakes not only of what God had done but of what he can doe yea of what he is a doing he doth innumerable marvels Some men can doe great things many have done great things but they cannot doe them without number even a child may write all that any man can doe and at most it needs but a man to reckon all the great things which all men have done The hand of God shortens not in an eternity but the hand of man shortens every day sometimes in a day and therefore he cannot doe things innumerable Man cannot doe that to day which he could yesterday whether we respect his civill abilities or his naturall As old Barzillai said unto David 2 Sam. 19. when the King invited him home with him and offered him all the pleasures of the Court Can I any more heare the voice of singing men and singing women or can I any more tast what I eate and what I drinke As if he should say It is true Sir I have known the time when I could have made use of this royall favor and have taken in the pleasures of your Court I once delighted in musick and my eare could tast a sweet voice I once delighted in rich fare and my pall at could tast meate and drinke but can I any more doe thus my naturall strength is gone my senses cannot renew innumerable acts of pleasure if grace doth not weane us from the abuse yet nature will tire in the use of worldly comforts But the civill abilities of man wither sooner then his naturall you may see a man that hath done great things in a State or Common-wealth come to him a while
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
Israel in their wicked counsels and bring to light their stoln wedges of gold and their Babylonish garments There is one thing further considerable from the sense of that Greeke word which the Apostle uses 1 Cor. 3. 19. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Manu capio firmiter teneo fugientem in cursu deprehendere â—anuque injecta capere quicquam ut nâ—n elebatur unde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 manipulus pugillus Erasm He taketh the wise c The Apostles word signifies properly to take or a taking with the hand a laying hold upon one that is flying As in a battell when the enemy flies and runnes the pursuer takes hold of him and will not let him escape And so the sense is that though these crafty ones think to make an escape when they have done mischiefe to out run the justice of men yea to get out of the reach of God yet he taketh them as flying enemies or malefactors that would make an escape he catcheth them by the back takes them by the shoulder layes fast hold on them so that they shall not be able to get away He takes the wise in their owne craftinesse Lastly It is observeable that the Preposition in he takes them in their craftinesse may be understood instrumentally Plerosque astus illorum facit Deus instrumentum ad arcendum ab ijs quod cogitant Rab. Levi. and so it as much as the Preposition by He takes them in that is he takes them by their devices That preposition is often put instrumentally Gen. 32. 10. Jacob saith In my staffe I passed over this Jordan we translate with my staffe or by my staffe I passed over this Jordan And so Heb. 1. 1. God who at sundry times spake in time past to the fathers in the Prophets so the Greek we translate by the Prophets because they were the meanes or the instruments which God employed to speak by Thus here He takes the wicked in their craftinesse or by their craftinesse their craftiness is the very meanes and instrument by which God apprehends and takes them So much for the opening of the first clause We may note hence first That No wisdome or craftinesse of man can stand before the wisdome and power of God He not only takes them in their foolishnesse but in their craftinesse He stayes not till they begin to dote and doe weakely before he takes them but when they are in their height of wit and in the depths of worldly wisdome and policie when they put forth the quintessence of craft and give counsell like the Oracle of God 2 Sam. 16. 23. then God takes them He takes them in their craftinesse Pro. 21. 30. There is no wisdome nor understanding nor counsell against the Lord. No counsel against the Lord. How is it then said in the second Psalme The Kings of the earth set themselves and the Rulers take counsell together against the Lord and against his anointed There are many counsells opposed against the Lord but there are none prevailing against the Lord. The meaning of that holy Proverbe is That no wisdome not the most sublime and refined wisdome no counsell not the most machivilian or Achitophelian counsell can prevaile against the Lord. Men usually catch others when they are at a fault or take them upon some advantage and error in their counsels Most successes of men are made out of the slips and defects of their adversaries They take upon mistakes either in advising or acting but after the most deliberate and grave debates the choicest and best grounded resolves the Lord takes them For 1 Cor. 1. 25 The foolishnesse of God is wiser than man And if the wisdom of man cannot match the foolishnesse of God how shall it contend with the wisdome of God As the Prophet Jeremiah speakes in another case If I have runne with footmen and they have wearied me how can I contend with horses so if these men are not able to deale with the foolishnesse of God how shall the deale with his wisdom Not that there is any the least imaginable foolishnesse in God for as God is light and in him there is no darknesse at all so God is wisdome and in him there is no foolishnesse at all but the holy Ghost speakes thus to put God as low as the foolishest thoughts of man can put him which is to think there is foolishnesse in God yet in that or then he is wiser than they Secondly observe That God turneth the counsels of wicked men against themselves He taketh the wise not only in but by their craftinesse He beates their own weapon against their heads He wrests their weapons out of their hands and with them wounds their hearts Those counsels and contrivements by which they thought to secure themselves are their destruction He destroyes them in their counsels and by their counsels This wonderfully magnifies and commends the wisdome of Qui scipserunt de arte militari di unt summum genus demicandi quoties calcato uâ—bâ—me adversarij se in hostilem clyâ—eum eâ—igâ—t mâ—les â—a contra stanâ—is vulnerat teâ—ga Sâ—â—v in Vâ—rg Aen. 1 â— God He doth not trouble himselfe to devise some new way or stratagem to take these men but he makes use only of that which they have devised It is the noblest way of conquering to conquer our enemy with his own weapon such was that victory of David over Goliah and that was a type of Christs victory over the Devill and all spirituall wickednesses And such will his victory be over all the wickednesses of this world The Lord is and shall â—ver be known by the judgement which he executeth the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands Higgaion Selah * Rem meditâ—â—dam sumâ—è Jun. in loc Marke and meditate Psal 9 16. It was the plot of Satan to tempt man who was made in the image of God for the doing of good and avoiding evill to desire to be as God knowing good and evill he tempts man to affect a Ditty or a God ship and his plot was to ruine man below the beasts by aspiring to an equality with God or to make man less then he was made by seeking to be as much as his maker Now the Lord takes as it were this weapon out of Satans hands and destroyes him by it Satan would have man aspire to be a God that he might be ruined and God becomes man to ruine Satan This was the greatest counterplot that ever was God took the Devill in and by his own craftinesse As if God had said Satan thou shalt see what a fine device thou hast devised I will meete thee in thy owne way and turne it upon thee Thou wouldst have man become God so to ruine him now God shall become man and by that I will at once ruine thy counsels and repaire the broken condition of man Josephs brethren had a device to hinder his prophecies make his dreames but
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
keepe a feast to me in the yeare Exod. 23. 14. Three times in a yeare all thy males shall appeare before the Lord ver 17. The candlestick had three branches Exod. 25. 32. and three cubits was the height of the Altar Exod. 27. 1. Three Cities of refuge were appontinted for the manslayer Deut. 19. 7. and the addition made is of another three ver 9. Three witnesses gave the compleatest evidence requireable as Two the least admittable in the law Deut. 17. 6. That besides a rule there was a mystery in most of these I think no man doubts though what the mystery was may be presumption in any man to determine Of this we are sure that the highest mystery and perfection of all numbers and things is found in One Three That Three in One The sacred Trinity And in the common speech of most if not of all languages Thrice happy Thrice great Thrice honourable note a man advanced to the very pinnacle of Happinesse Greatnesse and Honour The number Three or the Numeral Thrice imply a compleatnesse in all numbers That the number six notes perfection may be seene in the work of Creation The Lord could as easily have made the world in six or in one moment as in six dayes but the Lord saw it good to take a compleate number of dayes for so compleate a worke God threatens Gog his perfect and compleate enemy with a compleate punishment or with judgement in perfection The justice of God can be as compleate in punishing as the malice of man can be in sinning Ezek. 39. 2. I am against thee O God the chiefe Prince of Meshech and Tubal I will turne thee backe and leave but the sixth part of thee so we translate yet in the margin of our books we find the Hebrew thus I will strike thee with six plagues or I will draw thee back with a hooke of six teeth Seven is a famous number implying First multitude Secondly perfection The barren hath borne seven saith Hannah in her song 1 Sam. 2. 5. that is many she is a compleate mother she hath a flourishing family many children And in opposition to this Jer. 15. 9. She that hath born seven languisheth that is she that had many children now hath none Seven devils were cast out of the woman Luk. 8. 2. that is a multitude of devils So the seven Spirits the seven Churches the seven Trumpets the seven Seales the seven Vials c. in the Revelation speake the compleatnesse and perfection of each in their kind whether good or evill and that is appliable to the particular sense of the text Prov. 24. 16. The just falleth seven times a day that is he falleth often almost continually into trouble and yet he rises againe God delivers him The Hebrew word Shebange is neere in sound to our English seven and to note that seven is a compleate full number the same Hebrew word signifies seven and full seven and satisfied or compleate And the word to swear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Septem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saturatus impletus abundavit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Juravit inde juramentem a Septenario numero ut quidam patant quod juramenta fieri debeant multis adhibitis idoneis multumque confirmatis testibus et causis is of the same extraction in that language with the word seven the reason is added because in or about an oath many and important causes and grounds are required But to passe from single numbers I shall consider them in construction or conjunction as here six and seven He shall deliver thee in six troubles yea in seven there shall no evill touch thee Some understand this strictly and precisely of those two numbers six and seven And expound the text by the enumeration of those six or seven particular evils made by Eliphaz in the following verses For having said in generall that God will deliver his in six troubles and in seven he reckoneth up severall troubles and gives us as it were a catologue or a particular of those evils by name amounting to six or seven As 1. Famine 2. Warre 3. Scourge of the tongue 4. Destruction 5. Evill beasts 6. Hurtfull stones here are six and if a seventh evill come upon thee in seven no evill shall touch thee But I rather take this expression six yea seven to be a fixed number put for an unfixed a certaine number for an uncertaine and that uncertaine number to be a great number the greatest number any number imaginable We find this kind of speaking frequently in Scripture In the thirty third of this booke of Job v. 29. Loe these things God workes twice and thrice which we translate these things God workes often-times when numbers are doubled with an increase in the latter it notes a mighty growth of the whole number Twice and twice we know is but foure times but twice and thrice may be more then five times twice and thrice is oftentimes no man knowes how often We find the number next above this in the same signification Three and foure are put for many very many Amos 1. 3. For three transgressions of Damascus and for foure Some understand it of three or foure speciall sins of which Damascus was chiefely guilty namely 1. Idolatry 2. Incest 3. Luxurie 4. Oppression Or Three may be taken for a Cardinal number and Foure for an Ordinal for the Fourth as if some fourth sin were so sinfull and had such a malignity in it as the Lord would not pardon Thus Foure is put for the fourth Prov. 30. 15 18 21 29. Three things are never satisfied yea foure things say not it is enough That is a fourth thing sc fire being the most insatiable of all the rest saith not it is enough The copulative particle and is often in Scripture taken comparatively for much more Psal 125. The mountaines are round about Jerusalem and the Lord is about his people So the Hebrew we translate by a comparative of similitude As So. But more emphatically to the scope of the place by a comparative of excesse Thus As the mountaines are about Jerusalem sc to fortifie and defend it so much more is the Lord about his people fortifie and defend them In this sense we may take the copulative And in Amos. For three transgressions the Lord would not turne c. but much more for a fourth would he not turne away the punishment thereof The former three were enough to provoke the Lord to destroy you but for this fourth he is resolved to be irreconcileable and will destroy you Others adde Three to Foure which make seven as if the Holy Ghost had said for seven that is manifold transgressions of Damascus I will not turne away c. But rather take the numbers distinct for Three and Foure that is for the many for the multitude of transgressions committed in Damascus I will not turne away the punishment thereof Not that the mercies of God are exceeded by any number
my people and thy people That is those Armies of flies which invade thy people shall not meddle with my people To see one perish with and our selves saved from the sword is redemption in war To see others hunger-starved and our selves still fed is redemption from famine though our selves were never in the hands or between the teeth of famine A people devided from the troubles of others are redeemed from those troubles Such redemption our Saviour speaks of Mat. 24. 40 41. Two shall be in the field the one shall be taken the other left two women shall be grinding in the Mill the one taken the other left In Famine Famine is the want of bread and bread is the stay and staffe of life Lev. 26. 26. Isa 3. 1. Psal 105. 16. when this stay is gone our lives fall quickly or slip away When this staffe is broken the thread of life breaks too Man goes by the bread in his belly more than by the staffe in his hand Except bread hold us by the arme and stay us up down we fall Famine is so like or so near or so certaine a harbinger of death that the text puts them together In famine he shall redeem thee from death Famine is numbred among the sore judgements of God if it be not the sorest judgement Ezek. 6. 11. Jer. 24. 10. And therefore redemption from it is one of his choicest outward mercies We may collect how sore a judgement famine is by the effects of it First It causeth faintnesse and madnesse Gen. 47. 13. Secondly Hunger burneth Deut. 32. 24. That word is not used in the Hebrew except here Famine kindles a fire in the bowels When the naturall heat hath no fewell put to it to feed upon it feeds upon nature Sutable to this is the description of lamenting Jeremiah in the famine of Jerusalem Their faces are blacker then a cole Lam. 4. 8. and Chap. 5. 10. Our skin was black like an Oven because of the terrible famine Both the coal and the oven contract their blacknesse from burning heat Thirdly It causeth pining and languishment Lam. 4. 9. Fourthly Shame and howling Joel 1. 11. Fifthly Rage and cursing Isa 8. 21. Lastly It breaks all the bonds of nature and eats up all relations Read that dreâ—dfull threatning Deut. 25. 53 54. and that dreadfull example Lam. 4. 10. Tender mothers eating their children Famine eats up our bowells of compassion and then it eats our bowells by relation And which comes yet nearer Famine is such a devourer that it causeth man to devoure himself The Prophet describes a man in a fit of Famine snatching on the right hand and yet hungry eating on the left and yet unsatisfied when he cannot fill his belly abroad he comes home to himself and makes bold with his own flesh for food Every man eating the flesh of his own arme Isa 9. 20. We read of many great Famines in Scripture and withall of Gods care to redeem his people from them Abraham Gen. 12. who at the call of God denied himself and came out of his own into a strange Land was presently entertained with Famine One would have thought God should have made him good chear and have spread a plentifull table for him causing his cup to over-flow while he was in a strange Land and a meer stranger there yet he met with a famine but the Lord redeemed him from that famine by directing him to Aegypt that famous store house for his people Jacob and his sons were redeemed from famine in the same Egypt afterward their house of Bondage It is a precious comfort to have bread in such a promise as this when there is none upon the Board God takes care for the bodies of his people as well as for their souls he is the father of both and the provider for both And while we remember what sore afflictions have bin upon many Nations and people by famine While we remember Samaria's Famin 2 Kings 6. Jerusalems Famin Lam. 4. and that storied by Josephus in the Roman siege of that City While we remember the late famins in Germany and the present one in many parts of Ireland While we consider that the Sword threatens this Nation with famine Surely we should labour to get under such a promise as this is that we may plead with God in the midst of all scarcity and wants Lord thou hast promised to redeem Thine in famin from death There is no dearth in Heaven And whatsoever dearth is on Earth the plenty that is in Heaven can supply it How sad would it be if your poor children should come about you crying for bread and you have none to give them How much sadder would it be if your poor children should be made your bread and ground to pieces between your teeth as in the famin of Jerusalem In such a time to look up to God in the strength of this promise will be a feast to us though we should perish in the famin But how doth God redeem from famin First The Lord can make the barrell of meal and the oyle that is in the cruze though but little yet to hold out and last while the time of famine lasts Such a miracle redeemed the poor widdow from death in that great famin 1 Kings 17. Secondly He can redeem by lengthning one meal to many days Elijah went forty dayes in the strength of one dinner Man liveth not by bread without God but man may live by God without bread Thirdly Not onely are the stores of the creatures his and the fruitfulnesse of the earth at his command but if he please he can open the windows of Heaven he can bring bread out of the clouds he can make the winds his Caterers to bring in Quails and abundance of provision for his people Thus also he can redeem his from death in the time of famine Or fourthly He can doe it in a way of ordinary providence by making the land yeeld it's naturall increase and by giving strength to the Earth to bring forth plentifully for the use of man Fifthly While the common judgement lasts he can make some speciall provision for his And make a redemption of division as he did in another case for his people Exod. 8. 22. And lastly We may improve this promise not only for redemption from death in famine but for plenty of consolation though we should die in famine When the bread is quite taken away from your Table your hearts may feed upon such a word as this as upon marrow and fatnesse Christ can feast your soules when your bodies are ready to starve he can fill your spirits with joy and sweetnesse when there is nothing but leannesse in your cheeks Thus the Prophet Habakkuk triumphs in God Habak 3. 17. Though the Fig-tree shall not blessom neither shall fruit be in the Vines the labour of the Olive shall faile and the fields shall yeeld no meat The flock shall be cut off from the fold
pavillion a secret hiding place for his Favourites where he preserves their credit and reputation untoucht against all the blots and causelesse blemishes of malignant spirits Thus they are hid from the strife of tongues Hence his Saints and people are called His stored or his hidden ones Psal 83. 3. Observe first The tongue is a scourge The tongue is a terrible engine The Scripture gives us variety of comparisons to set forth the evill of an ill tongue It is here called a scourge and it is a scourge of many lashes or knotted cords or rather stinging scorpions scoffing is one slander a second false accusations a third The former strictly taken is a lye told any neighbour and the latter is a lye told the Magistrate The tongue Psal 52 2. is called a sharpe rasor Psal 57. 4. it is compared to speares and arrowes and a sharpe Sword and if at any time with much using this Sword be blunted in the edge or point the Scripture speakes of whetting the tongue Psal 64. 3. It is as the sharpe arrowes of the mighty man and coales of juniper Psal 120. 4. They bend their tongues like a bow Jer. 9. 3. Their tongue is as an arrow shot out ver 8. In a word It is a fire and a world of mischiefe Jam. 3. 6. Jer. 18. 18. we reade of smiting with the tongue and of devouring words Psal 52. 4. As there are devouring opinions opinions which not only hurt the judgements of men but devoure their consciences and eat up truth as it were at a bit so there are devouring words words that eat up a mans reputation and devour his good name as bread Slanderous mouthes lâ—ve the whitest bread the finest of the wheate A mans credit which hath not a branne in it how sweet a morsell is it to such mouthes Though the truth is every name by how much the more pure and spotlesse it is by so much the more deadly will it be in the stomacks of these devourers A good name swallowed by an ill man will as Jonas did the Whale make him one time or other Stomach-sick if not conscience-sick and he shall be forced to vomit it out safe againe It is a sad thing when thus the people of God are wounded and scourged by the tongues of wicked men but I will tell you of a sadder scourging that is when the people and servants of God scourge one another with their tongues I beseech you leave this work to wicked men take not the scourge of the tongue out of their hands let us not only not slander but not speake hardly one of another The ancient Christians in the Primitive times were deepely wounded by the scourge of the tongue what strange things did ungodly men feigne and then fasten on them They reported them as black as hell as if their holy meetings were not to worship God but to defile themselves with incest and uncleannesse but among Christians themselves we reade not of this scourge at that time No Christians loved one another to the amazement of Heathens They were so farre from this scourging or wounding of one another that they were ready to be scourged to be wounded to be burned to die one for another This caused their Pagan persecuters to cry out Behold how the Christians love one another We are scourged by wicked ones as They O that we could love one another as They. Sons of Belial have revived the ancient reproaches and accusations against the brethren O that we could revive the ancient imbraces and most endeared affections of the Brethren Observe secondly It is a great mercy to be delivered from the Scourge of the tongue The Apostle speaks of it as a wonderfull mercy that he was delivered out of the Mouth of the Lion 2 Tim. 4. 17. Surely it is no ordinary mercy though lying be very ordinary to be delivered out of the Mouth of a lyar This is joyned in one promise with deliverance from the most deadly instrumenrs of warre Isa 54. 17. No weapon formed against thee shall prosper that is no weapon of warre neither Sword nor Speare shall hurt thee Then followes And every tongue that shall rise up against thee in judgement thou shalt condemne This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. The tongue of a Ziba or of a Tertullus will devour and destroy as bad as the Sword of a Caesar or a Pompey The holy story tels us what woefull work the tongue had made upon Joseph and Mephibosheth if the good providenee of God had not spoken a good word for them Lastly Let me add one seasonable word of admonition to these tongue scourgers As the word is They that smite with the sword shall perish with the sword so they that smite with the tongue shall perish with the tongue The tongues of the Saints are in some sence sharper and sorer scourges then the tongues of wicked men The word of God in their mouths is a Two-edged Sword yea sharper then any Two-edged Sword A Prophet or a Minister of Christ can strike as hard with his tongue as and infinitely harder then any Prophane wretch or railing Rabshakeb in the world Truth well set home will wound deeper than slander can I saith the Lord Hos 6. 5. have hewed them by my Prophets and slaine them by the words of my mouth In the 11th of the Revelation it is prophecied That fire shall goe out of the mouths of the two Witnesses and devour their enemies vers 5. That is the word of their mouths shall be as a fire to scorch and consume the gain saying world and with this instrument their tongue for that only is sutable for the work of Witnesses they are said to have tormented those that dwell upon the earth ver 10. Some indeed are Sermon-proofe and Word-proofe They at present doe even laugh at all our spirituall Artillery Let whole volleyes of threats be discharg'd upon them let them be hackt and hewed all day long with the Sword of the Word they feele it not it may be they jeer at it at least they regard it not As they Jer. 18. 18. conspiring against the Prophet Come let us devise devices c. let us smite him with the tongue And least any should say if we smite him with the tongue he will smite us againe For these Prophets are notable at that weapon To secure themselves they resolve thus Let us not give heed to any of his words As if they had said we know he will speake bigge words and threaten us terribly with Sword and pestilence and famine and hell c. But let 's arme our selves against him and make no more of all then of a Squibb or a pot-gun then of a stabbe with a wooden dagger or a charge with a Bull rush Let us not give heed to any of his words But let these know though now they are hardned against the spirituall scourge and sword in the mouth of Christs Ministers yet at the last
thy selfe or friends thou shalt die as some translate in a good old-age or as Mr. Broughton thou shalt die in lusty old-age Time shall not wither thee nor drinke up thy blood and spirits Thou shalt have a spring in the Autumne and a Summer in the winter of thy life As it was with Moses Deut. 34. 7. who died when he was an hundred and twenty yeares old yet saith the text His eye was not dimme nor his naturall force abated This is to die in a full old-age full of daies yet full of strength and health It is a great blessing when a man is in this sense youthfull in old-age when others see with foure eyes and goe with three leggs he uses neither staff nor spectacles but renews his strength like the Eagle Or we may take the sense more generally for any one that liveth long and liveth comfortably as it was said of Abraham Gen. 25. 8. That he died in a good old-age an old man and full of yeares He died in a good old-age The young-man is counsel'd To remember his Creator in the dayes of his youth before the evill daies come Eccles 12. 1. What are those Those evill daies are the daies of old-age The words following being an Allegoricall elegant description of old age Old-age in it selfe is the evill day The lives of many old-men are a continuall death They live as it were upon the racke of extreame paines or strong infirmities therefore it is a speciall blessing for man to be old and yet to have a good old-age that is a florid comfortable old-age To have many yeares and few infirmities is a rare thing In some old-age flourishes and in others old-age perishes Job gives us this difference in the use of this word Chap. 30. 2. Yea whereto might the strength of their hands profit me in whom Chelad old-age was perished As if he had said some old-men are active and strong but these who were faded and flatted in all their abilities in what stead could they stand me They were a trouble to themselves and therefore could be no comfort unto others This full old-age is explained further by way of similitude He shall die in a full age lie as a shock of corne commeth in in his season When a young man dye he is as greene corne The Psalmist imprecates that some may be like the grasse or corne on the house-top that withereth before it is cut downe whereof the mower Psal 129. 6 7. filleth not his hand nor he that bindeth up the sheaves his bosome The life of a man sometimes is like corn growing upon the house top that withereth Or as it is in the parable of the sower Mat. 13. like the corne that fell on the high-way side or among stones and thornes which came not in in it's season it never staid the ripening or reaping but was eaten up or dried or choaked before the harvest Now here man is compared unto corne sowed in good ground well rooted and continuing out it's season and is brought in ripe at harvest Old-age is the harvest of nature Some divide mans life into seven parts comparing it to the seven planets Some into five comparing it to the five acts of an interlude but commonly the life of man is divided into foure parts and so it is compared to the foure seasons of the yeare And in that division old-age is the winter-quarter cold and cloudy full of rheumes and catarrhs of diseases and distellations But here old-age is the harvest though thou art a very old-man thou shalt not die as in winter but thou shalt die as it were in harvest when thou art full ripe and readie as a shock of corne that is laid up in the barne The generall judgement of the world is compared to a harvest and death which is a particular day of judgement is a harvest too Those words He shall come to his grave as a shock of corne are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ascendere significat â—vanescere velut in auras tolli velè medio tolli further considerable the Hebrew is He shall ascend as a shock of corre and that referring to death is sometimes translated by cutting off or taking away Psal 102. 25. Cut me not off in the midst of my daies The letter is Let me not ascend in the midst of my daies Whether it have any allusion to that hope or faith of the Saints in their death that they doe but ascend when they die or to their disappearing to the eye of sence when they die because things which ascend vanish out of sight and are not seene In either sence when the Saints are cut downe by death they ascend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Propriè significat acervum frugum qui in And they are elegantly said To ascend as a shock of corne because that is taken from the earth and reored or stackt up and so by a Metaphor it signisies a Tombe or a monument errected or high-built over a dead corpse much after the manner of a shock of corn area erigitur Metaphoricè tumultum ceu currulum teâ—rae vel monumentuÌ„ sepulcro imposiâ—um So the word is used He shall remaine in the tombe or Heape Job 22. 32. So then the sum of this verse is a promise of comfort and honour in death He shall die in a full age when he is readie and ripe for death Yet this is not to be taken strictly that every godly man dies in such a full old age in an age full of daies or full of comforts Many of Gods best servants have had evill daies in their old age their old age hath had many daies of trouble and sickness of paine and perplexity But thus it is with many in old age and this is especially to be look't upon as an Old Testament promise when the Lord dealt more with his people invisible externall mercies Yet in one sense it is an universall truth and ever fulfilled to his people for whensoever they die they die in a good age yea though they die in the spring and flower of youth they die in a good old age that is they are ripe for death when ever they die when ever a godly man dies it is harvest time with him though in a naturall capacity he be cut down while he is green and cropt in the bud or blossome yet in his spirituall capacity he never dies before he is ripe God ripens his speedily when he intends to take them out of the world speedily He can let out such warme rayes and beams of his Spirit upon them as shall soone maturate the seeds of grace into a preparednesse for glory whereas a wicked man living an hundred yeaers hath no full old-age much lesse a good old-age he is ripe indeed for destruction but he is never ripe for death he is as unreadie and unripe for death when he is an hundred years old as when he was but a day old He hath not begun
friends from the 13 unto the 24 verse To him that is afflicted saith he pity should be shewed from his friend my brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brooke c. Fourthly He yet submits himself to their judgement and direction if they would speak reason to him at last and come home to his case indeed or if they could fully and candidly discover to him any errour he was willing to be rectified This he professes and it is a most ingenious profession in the 24. and 25. verses Teach me saith he and I will hold my tongue and cause me to understand wherein I have erred c. As if he had said All that you have spoken hitherto doth not reach my condition ye have quite mistook my case yet you shall see I doe not stand out against you because I will stand out it is not my will that opposes what you have spoken but my understanding therefore if you can shew me better reason I lay down the bucklers and yield my selfe a prisoner to your selves and unto truth I delight not to lengthen out contentions nor am I resolved to have the last word Teach me and I will hold my tongue Fifthly He adds an expostulation mixed with an aggravation An expostulation about and an aggravation of their high jealousie and low opinion of him in the 26. and 27. verses Doe ye imagine to reprove words and the speeches of one that is desperate which are â—â— wind As if he had said Doe you think that you have had to deale with a man that onely makes a noyse or speaks a great many words which have more sound then sence doe ye think I am out of my wits and in stead of arguing with you doe onely rave like a mad man at you Ye have not had vaine windy words from me but words full of weight and matter words of truth and sobernesse wherefore then doe you speak thus Doe ye imagine to reprove words and the speeches of one that is desperate Doe ye think I speak like one who knows not what he speaks Or that I have at once lost my hope and my understanding Sixthly He gives them advice and admonition to take better heed to what they should after say if they intended to to say any more or to continue their counsell and discourse with him in the three last verses of this sixth Chapter Now therefore be content looke upon me for it is evident to you if I lie returne I pray you c. In the 7th which concludes his speech he offers three things especially to be observed First A renewing of many arguments and considerations by which he confirmes the equity of his request to have his life cut off upon which sad subject he insists from the beginning of the Chapter to the end of the 17th verse Is there not an appointed time to man upon the earth Are not his dayes like the dayes of an Hireling c. Secondly After all his high straines of contest with man we have an abasement of himselfe as unworthy that God should take notice of him either by mercies or judgements in the 18. and 19. verses What is man that thou shouldst magnifie him and that thou shouldest visit him every morning c. A godly man will stand when he sees cause upon his termes with men but he ever falls low before and hath not a word to reply against God He is sometime angry when men vilifie him but he ever admires why God should magnifie him What is man c. Thirdly He concludes his speech with an humble acknowledgement of his own sinfulnesse and with an earnest request for the pardon of his sin Lord saith he I have sinned what shall I doe unto thee O thou preserver of men vers 20 c. After all this heat and passion after all these complainings Jobs heart lay levell before the Lord yea he abases himselfe to exalt and give glory to God with humble confession and an earnest supplication for the pardon of his sin Thus we have the generall parts and substance of his answer to that charge of Eliphaz in the two former Chapters But Job answered and said c. In these words and the three following verses Job gives us the refutation or rejection of that reproof given him by Eliphaz And he refutes it by shewing the reason why Eliphaz as he supposed was so sharpe and bitter in reproving him And further he shews cause why he rejects his counsell or consolation The reason upon Amicos taxat quod antequam ipsum reprehender ent non expendissent suam miseriam Coc. which he puts off those reproofs is this because Eliphaz had not duly considered his sorrowes or was not so sensible of them as a man should be that undertakes a friend in his condition The sum of his argument against what Eliphaz had spoken may be thus formed He cannot duly reprove or convince another of impatience in complaining who hath not fully weighed those calamities which are the cause and ground of those complaints But Eliph z thou hast not fully weighed and considered my case and condition my troubles and calamities which are the ground and cause of my complaints Therefore thou canst not duly reprove or convince me of impatience The Assumption or second Proposition of this argument is couched in the second verse O that my griefe were throughly weighed and that my calamity were laid in the ballances together As if he had said I had never received such harsh censures such a judgement or reproofe if thou hadst duly weighed my sorrows if thou hadst faithfully studied my case thou hadst never rebuked me thus The weight of his calamity himselfe expresseth two ways First Comparatively at the third verse by putting it into the ballance with the sand of the sea For now saith he it would be heavier than the sand of the sea Secondly He sets forth the greatness of his calamity demonstratively by declaring in what manner he had been afflicted My affliction is not an ordinary affliction I am wounded with the arrows of the Almighty and those poisoned arrows and those arrows drinking up my spirits I have not onely some single great affliction or many small ones upon me but I have terrour and terrours yea I have an army of terrours yea an army of terrours always incamping about me and charging me continually why Eliphaz thou didst never clearly consider these things much lesse hast thou had a sympathy or fellow-feeling of them Thou hast not bin afflicted in my afflictions Thou hast not sorrowed my sorrowes nor wept my tears Therefore it is that thou hast so sharply reproved me and put so much gall and wormwood into thy discourse So then the summe of this first part may be thus given taking it out of those high and hyperbolicall straines in which his passion was carried as if Job had thus answered Eliphaz It is an easie matter to slight that which a man doth not know and to thinke
originall beare such a translation when our sins are put into the ballance with our sufferings all our sufferings the heaviest we can feele or goe under in this life are but as a feather to a talent of lead As all the afflictions of this life are light in comparison of that exceeding weight of glory prepared for us in the next life So all the suffering of this life are light in comparison of the exceeding weight of one sin commited by us Therefore Job makes no such comparison here as if he had bin afflicted more than he deserved That of Ezra concerning the Church of the Jewes Chap. 9. 13. Thou our God hast punished us lesse then our iniquities deserve is true of every punishment put any punishment of this world spiritual or temporall in one scale and the least sin in another that lightest sin out-weighs our heaviest punishment Only in hell sins and sufferings shall be of equall poyse God will then powre and measure our punishments which shall come up to the proportion and demension of our sins and what the creature cannot bear at once in weight shall be weighed to him in eternity But to passe that rendring as unsafe O that my griefe were throughly weighed Our English word scale which is the instrument by which we 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Libravit ponderavit olim moneta libraebatur ex pondere habebatur summa pecuniae ut mini ex numero nummoruÌ„ Ulpian weigh is well conceived to come from the Hebrew word here used Shakal signifying to weigh any thing but especially to weigh coyne or mony to weigh gold and silver As Gen. 23. 16. Abraham upon the purchace of that field which he bought of the children of Heth for a burying place weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named It was the custom of those times in stead of telling to weigh their mony and that was the most exact and ready way of paiment And from that word Shakal signifying to weigh money comes the Hebrew word for one speciall sort of mony the Shekel because they weighed by the shekel that being as their standard or a special coyne of such a known weight and value that all their coyne was weighed and valued by it So in Siclus moneta certi ponderis omnium ponderum reguâ—a the Latin and likewise in our English we call one speciall summe of mony A pound which is a weight and by which mony is commonly accounted and paid And hence by a Metaphor this word signifies to judge or to consider of a thing exactly and fully because of all matters that men weigh they will weigh gold and silver most exactly if a man weigh gold he weigheth it to a graine if gold want but the turning of the scale more then due weight or allowance it will not passe Isa 33. 18. Where is the Scribe where Vil begis verba ponderant Sanc. Quaestor praefectus aeratio militari Jun. is the Receiver The Hebrew is Where is the weigher that is either the spirituall weigher He that uses to be so exact in weighing every tittle of the law Or the Civill weigher because they used to weigh all the mony they received So then O that my griefe were throughly weighed is as if he had said O that my grief were weighed as gold and silver is weighed weighed exactly to the least to the utmost that you might fully know what it is The word single by it selfe notes an exact examination by weighing but when as here the word is doubled or by an Hebraisme repeated O that my griefe in weighing were weighed it heightens and increases the sense exceedingly Hence we translate O that my griefe were throughly weighed weighed so as that there might be a cleare discovery how much my sorrows weigh The doubling of a word to this sence is very frequent in Scripture I shall not need to instance Take only that Gen. 2. 17. Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evill thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof in dying thou shalt die that is thou shalt surely die So here O that in weighing it were weighed that is O that it were throughly and exactly weighed Lay all together and it imports thus much as if Job had said I would not have my sorrows weighed at a vulgar beame or in ordinary ballances I would not have the sound or letter only of what I have spoken considered but I desire that you would take my complaints together the words and the matter and that you would weigh all impartially that you may come to a full understanding what my condition is and then surely you would give up a better judgement and make a fairer interpretation of my words then as yet you have put forth Thus he speaks also Chapter 31 6. Let me be weighed in an even ballance that God may know my integrity Uneven ballances will not make a perfect discovery That which is false cannot give a true report Things and persons act as they are therefore Job desireth to be weighed in an even ballance such a beame will speake the truth of my estate both to God and man God needs no meanes to make him know he knowes all immediately and he weighes by his eye not one thing by another but all things in themselves Job speakes of God after the manner of men And my calamity laid in the ballances together My griefe and my calamity Griefe caused by my calamity and calamity the cause of that griefe My calamity The word signifies any troublesome evil sad event 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or accident vulgularly called a mis-fortune O that this sad à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 estate and condition wherein I am were put into the ballance The Originall for ballances is very observeable As there is fuit eventus malus infortunium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Trutina statera quod duas sc habeat lances velvt aures Pagn much elegancy in the word by which the action so in this by which the instrument of weighing is express'd It is found only in the plurall or duall number as many of that nature are The same word in Hebrew signifies also the eares which are the organ of hearing and the reason of it is thus given because as the tongue of the ballance stands like a judge between the two scales inclining to neither till the weight be laid in so should the eare of a Judge by office or of any man by deputation called to heare and determine of things in difference stand indifferent to both parties till he heare the matter debated and the reasons brought forth on either side The Moralists embleme this by the place of that Signe in the Zodiacke which they call the Virgin standing according to the doctrine of Astronomers between the Lion and the Bellances The Lion bids Virgin Justice be stout and fearelesse The Ballances advise her to weigh the matter
nice delicate dames of Jerusalem with such things as their proud spirits and naughty soules refused to touch Isa 3. 24. It shall come to passe that instead of sweet smell there shall be a stinke and instead of a girdle a rent and in stead of well set haire baldnesse and instead of a stomacher a girding with sackcloath and burning instead of beauty Take heed of coynesse and curiosity many a dainty tooth hath been taught by hunger to knaw bones and water for a crust of bread Observe secondly That which makes afflictions most grievous to us is the unsuitablenesse of our spirits to afflictions Delight and content consist in suitablenesse of the object to our affections and desires God offers spirituall food to the naturall man but his soule refuses to touch it he loathes Angels food and is weary of the manna of the word The precious Gospel the bread of life is an affliction to him because his heart is unsutable to it how will such be afflicted at the last when they find That as their sorrowfull meate for ever which their souls will for ever refuse to touch They who loath Christ and his wayes shall find nothing in the end to feed upon but what is most contrary to their appetite even fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest these shall be the portion of their cups and the meate in their dish for ever How sorrowfull will that meale be But we may rather apply all to the words of Eliphaz in the two former Chapters And Jobs ready submission in the first and second Chapters to the afflicting hand of God argues for him that afflictions how grievous soever were not the things which his soule refused to touch And the apprehension of a learned interpreter atisfies me in it This sense saith he is too low for a man Sensus humilior est quam hominem deceat gravioribm malis exagtiatum Pined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afflicted with troubles farre above these which concern'd his outward man The Septuagint are expressely for this opinion who translate those words Is there any tast in the white of an egge thus Is there any tast in vain words they are so farre off the judgement that these unsavoury things the things which Jobs soule refused to touch and the white of the egge in the Text are all meant of vain words that they put it into the very text It is a usuall boldnes with them and a very unwarrantable one to vary so from the words of the Originall and make their glosse the text but it shews us how strongly they were engaged to that sence Most of the Greek writers concurre with them in it viz. that Joh aimes at the counsels and speeches of Eliphaz which wanted the seasoning of wisedome and prudence yea of truth and soundnesse as applied to the spirit of so sick a man as Job was And besides many moderne writers are cleare in the same apprehension giving the summe of all plainly to this effect as the mind of Job in those fore going passages I would not have complained of the things which ye have spoken if they had been meate for me but I assure you your counsels are not nourishing I can find no food much lesse any sweetnesse or fatnesse in them Your counsels want the due seasoning of wisdome and the right temperament of holy zeale They are either unsavory or tastlesse Taneum abest ut sermonibus vestris recreet aut corum condimento reficiatur vita mea uté contrà â—â—bum ipsum mihi amarioreÌ„ vitamque injucundiorem reddâ—t Jun. Absit ut vir sâ—nctu aliquando amicorum suorum dicta despexerit qui humilio servut fueris Greg. saplesse stuffe Such as I am so farre from being refreshed with that indeed they are a burden to me and the remedy you prescribe me is worse then my disease How can you expect that I should submit or subscribe to what you have spoken or that I should rest and acquiesse in your reproofes or advices seeing I assure you they are not for me they hit my state or spirit no more then unsavoury meate doth my palate or that which I abhorre to touch can please my tast And therefore with my soule I refuse and reject what you have spoken And you have not only not satisfied me all this while but you have vext or tired me and instead of mitigating my sorrowes have added to them But an objection arises against this and one of the Ancients is very angry with those who make this application to the counsels of Eliphaz as if Job had rejected them as unfit food and unsavoury meate Let no man saith he think that this holy man despised the counsell of his friend who himselfe was humble as a fervant To which I answer That the counsels of Eliphaz are to be considered either in the doctrine or in the use His counsels in the doctrine of them were good and savoury he spake wholesome food but as to Jobs case he was quite mistaken in their use and so instead of easing troubled him A Physitian may give his sick patient that which is good in it selfe very cordiall and soveraigne and yet it may kill him instead of curing him if it be not proper for his body and his disease Thus it is also in giving counsell what we speake must be fitted to the person and to the season There are many good counsels of which we may say as Hushai did of Achitophels ill ones 2 Sa. 17. 7. They are not good at this time That which is good counsell to a man at one time may be or might have been ill to the same man at another I have many things to say saith Christ but ye cannot beare them now Joh. 16. 12. And that which one man can beare another cannot at the same time And therefore the Apostle was made all things to all men 1 Cor. 9. 2. And accounted himselfe debtor both to the wise and to the foolish to the learned and unlearned to the weake and to the strong that is he looked upon it as his duty to speake truths suiting the state of every degree and sort of men which is the meaning of his rule to all the dispencers of holy mysteries that they divide the word aright The rightnesse respects not only or not so much the subject or word divided as the object or persons â— Tim. 2. 15. to whom the division is to be made in giving every one his portion or foode convenient for him One man may surfet with that which another digests kindly what fattens a second may sicken or starve a third This plainly is the meaneing of Job what Eliphaz had said was not savoury foode for him nor drest for one in his condition His soule did even refuse to touch what he spake because his soule was not of that temper for which Eliphaz had fitted his speech He was a Physitian of no value to him because he brought a wrong
passe out against him A if he had said Let not God spare me let him write â—s bitter a sentence against me as he pleaseth for my part I would not conceale the word of the most High but I would publish his judgement and sentence against me yea I would praise him and extoll him for it The vulgar Latine to this sence I would not contradict the word of the holy One Let him not spare me for as for my part whatsoever God shall determine and resolve whatsoever word God shall speake concerning me I will never withstand or open my mouth against it This is a truth and carries in it a high frame of holinesse when we can bring our hearts to this that let God write as bitter things against us as he pleaseth we will never contradict his word or decree but our minds and spirits shall submit wholly and fully to his dispositions of us and dispensations towards us It is as clear an evidence of grace to be passive under as to be active in the word of God Not to contradict his writ for our sufferings as not to conceale what he speaks for our practise But I rather stick to the former interpretation Job giving this as a reason of his great confidence in pursuing his petition for death because he had been so sincere holding forth the word of God both in doctrine and in life And so we may observe from it First That the testimony of a good conscience is the best ground of our willingnesse to die That man speakes enough for his willingnesse to die who hath lived speaking and doing the will of God and he is in a very miserable case who hath no other reason why he desireth death but onely because he is in misery This was one but not the only reason why Job desired death he had a reason transcending this I have not concealed the words of the holy One and I know if I have not concealed the word of God God will not conceal his mercy and loving kindness from me David bottoms his hopes of comfort in sad times upon this Psal 40. 9 10. I have preached righteousness in the great Congregation I have not refrained my lips O Lord thou knowest he was not actively or politickly silent I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart if lay there but it was imprisoned or stifl'd there I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvations I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great Congregation Upon this he fals a praying with a mighty spirit of beleeving vers 11. Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me O Lord let thy loving-kindness and thy truth continually preserve me for innumerable evils have compassed me about The remembrance of our active faithfulness to the truth of God will bear up our hearts in hoping for the mercy of God He that in Davids and in Jobs sence can say I have not concealed the words of the most high may triumph over innumerable evils and shall be more then a conquerer over the last and worst of temporal evils death God cannot long conceal his love from them who have not concealed his truth Secondly observe positively That the counsels of God his truths must be revealed God hath secrets which belong not to us but then he puts them not forth in a word nor writes them in his book he keeps his secrets close in the cabinet of his decrees and counsels but what he reveals either in his word or by his works man ought to reveal too It is as dangerous if not more to conceal what God hath made known as to be inquisitive to know what God hath concealed Yea it is as dangerous to hide the word of God as it is to hide our own sins And we equally give glory to God by the profession of the one as by the confession of the other Paul with much earnestnesse professes his integrity about this as was even now toucht Act. 20. Fourthly observe That the study of a godly man is to make the word of God visible I have not concealed that is I have made plain I have revealed or I have published the words of the holy One Much of Jobs mind is concealed under that word I have not concealed For in this negative there is an affirmative as if he had said this hath been my labour and my businesse my work in the world to make known so much of the will of God as I know This was the work of Christ here below Father I have glorified thee upon earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do Joh. 17. 4. What this work was he shewes vers 6th I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world Lasty observe That it is a dangerous thing for any man to conceale the word of God either in his opinion or in his practice For it is as if Job had said if I had ever concealed the words of God I had bin but in an ill case at this time God might now justly reveale his wrath against me if I had concealed his word from others or God might justly hide his mercies from me if I had hid his word from men Smothered truths will one time or other set the conscience in a flame and that which Jeremiah spake once concerning his resolution to conceale the word of God and the effect of it will be a truth upon every one who shall set himselfe under a resolution to doe what he under a temptation did Jer. 20. 9. Then I said I will not make mention of him nor speake any more in his name what followes Then his word was in my breast as a burning fire shut up in my bones and I was weary with forbearing If a gracious heart hath taken up such a sodaine resolution to conceale the word of God he quickly repents of it or smarts under it He findes that word as a burning fire in his bones he is not able to bear it I was weary with forbearing saith the prophet Nothing in the world will burthen the conscience so much as concealed truth and they who have taken a meditated resolution that they will not reveale the word of God may be sure that word will one time or other reveale it selfe to them in the Light and heat of a burning fire seeding upon their consciences I have not concealed the words whose words The words of the Holy One Who is that The Holy One is a periphrasis for God When you hear that Title The holy One you may know who is meant This is a Title too bigge for any but a God All holinesse is in God and God is so holy that properly he onely is Holy Hence the Scripture sets God forth under this as a peculiar attribute The Holy One The Prophets often use this addition or stile The Holy One of Israel The Holy One Is One separate or set apart from all filthinesse
of man in whom there is no help why not For his breath goeth forth that 's one reason he must die he must return to the earth therefore trust him not But besides that we may say trust not in Princes c. while their breath tarrieth in them for it is possible their help and faithfulness may goe forth though their breath doth not Therefore trust â—eâ—ly in the living God he will never leave us though men doe God only is unchangeable he only hath preserved this honour without touch or stain never to forsake those who trusted him how forlorn and forsaken soever their condition was JOB Chap. 6. Vers 22 23 24 25. Did I say bring unto me or give a reward for me of your substance Or deliver me from the Enemies hand or redeem me from the hand of the mighty Teach me and I will hold my tongue and cause me to understand wherein I have erred How forcible are right words but what doth your arguing reprove JOB Having shadowed out his friends unfaithfulnesse by an elegant similitude in the context fore-going now aggravates their unfaithfulness to him in his wants by his own modesty in seeking to them for supplies Did I say bring unto me or give a revvard for me of your substance As if he had said I have not been burthensome or troublesome to you I have not called for your contributions and benevolences or sought to have my estate made up out of your purses Why do ye charge me with impatience at my loss as if that were it which pinches and presses me did I ever charge you for my reparation or redemption That in deed might have been either burdensome or dangerous to you All that I expected from you was your comfort and your counsell these would not have put you to much expence or if you could not have reacht so far as to comfort me yet you might have forborn to contribute so largely to my sorrows by overtaxing me with impatience and charging me with hypocrisie Did I say I was not clamorous or importunate no I did not so much as open my mouth to move you in that point I have been so far from begging that ye have not heard me saying bring to me Bring unto me The word is Give unto me Hos 4. 18. Their Princes love Give ye or bring ye so saith Job I did not say bring ye or give ye my spirit was not set upon money or the repair of my losses out of your estates I did not either write or send for your charity you were not invited to visit me that you might contribute to my necessity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proprie munus quod datur ad corrumpendum Iudicem a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uuus quod unum facit dantem scilicet occipientem The word here used for a reward properly taken signifies that which is given to a Judge to corrupt or turn him aside in judgement One of the Rabbins gives this reason why it notes a bribing reward because it is compounded of a word signifying One and a bribe makes the giver and the receiver the Judge and party One or of one mind A Judge should ever stand indifferent between both parties till the cause be heard but a bribe makes him One of them Yet ordinarily this word is put for any gift or help subsidy or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Humor nativus in quo vigor corporis consistit opes nam in opibus Consistit potentia hominum supply of anothers wants Of your substance The word implies the native naturall strength which supplies the wants or supports the weaknesses of the body As also the strength of the earth by which it puts forth fruit Lev. 26. 20. And because riches are a mans civil strength therefore the same word expresses both Verse 23. Or did I say deliver me from the enemies hand The enemies Or the hand of those that have brought me into straights For the original imports the shutting a man up in a narrow compass so that he knows not how to get out he that is in the hand of an enemy is in a straight hand Ahab commands 1 Kings 22. 29. Goe carry Micaiah back and feed him with the bread of affliction or with the bread of straights such bread as an enemy provides The Greek word used by the Apostle 1 Cor. 4. 8. reaches this fully We are troubled but not distressed or straightned Now saith Job did I say deliver me out of the hand or power of mine enemies who have brought me into these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 straights alluding as is conceived to those Chaldeans and Sabeans who had spoiled his estate and slain his servants Or redeem me out of the hand of the mighty Redeem me That is my goods which they have carried away captive To redeem signifies the fetching back of a thing by price or force Christ is a Redeemer in both sences he redeemed or fetch'd back captivated man by compact and by price in respect of God his father We are bought with a price 1 Cor. 6. 20. that is bought with a full prize Christ did not compound with the justice of his father but satisfied it to redeem us and he redeemed us by force out of the hands of Satan Spoiling principalities and powers and making a shew of them openly Col. 2. 15. As in Triumphs the Romans used to doe with their spoiled captivated enemies Job had not begged redemption of his friends from the power of his enemies either way did I desire you by compact and by price to ransome me Or did I desire you to levy an Army with power and force to recover my estate out of the hands of those mighty oppressours The word Mighty signifies also terrible the hand of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Terribilis sua potentia formidabilis terrible one It is often applied to God when he shewes himself in terrour to wicked men Psal 89. 7. God is greatly to be feared Isa 2 19. He shakes terribly the earth But most commonly to cruel powerful men who make no other use of their strength but to be a terrour to innocents The Apostle Phil. 1. 28. explaines this word while he saith and in nothing be ye terrified by your adversities that word in the Greek answers this in the Hebrew your adversities are terrible men men who think to beat down all with their great looks but be not ye terrified by these terrible ones So here Did I call unto you to redeem me out of the hand of the mighty the terrible out of the hand of those cruel plunderers the Sabeans and Chaldeans De manu Tribulationis Vatab Puto cum Allegoricè tam graves vehementes calamitates intelligere Merc. Further Some understand by the hand of the mighty not the persons afflicting him but the affliction it self which was upon him Trouble is sometimes compared to a mighty enemy Prov. 6. 11. So shall thy poverty come
Organ of discipline Hearing is the sence of learning and the seasonable stopping of our own mouths a ready means to open our understandings To be swift to hear and flow to speak James 1. 19. is the speediest way to attain wisdom Fourthly observe He that is shewed his errour should speak no more but sit down convinced Teach me saith Job and I will hold my tongue That is I will reply no more upon you I will never stand up in maintaining an errour I wil be no pattern of evil though my self am in the fault Errour shall not be excused or a mistake apologized for by me Some wits are able to make a fair cover for and put a glosse upon the most deformed and grossest errours There was never any opinion in the world but some have seconded it and undertaken it's protection When conscience hath never a word to say wit will be very talkative and when they have ended reasoning some can wrangle everlastingly When wit and learning undertake a cause and leave conscience out of the Commission there must either be a very ill end of it or no end A subtil Sophister will despute any thing and bring probable arguments where reason alone sits judge against the most undoubted truths It is an ill office to be an Oratour for our own or others errous for our own or others sinful practises Prov. 30. 32. If thou hast done evil in lifting up thy selfe or if thou hast thought evil or maintained evil lay thine hand upon thy mouth speake no more never be an advocate in a bad cause though it be thine own when our faults are shewed us we should not open our mouths unlesse it be to renounce and disclaim them A sad account will be given of that time and of those parts which have been laid out in the patronage of our failings and mistakes It is as sinful to few figg-leaves or make fair pretexts to cover the nakednesse of our opinions as of our practises And cause me to understand wherein I have erred As if Job had said when once you bring me to see clearly that I am in an errour and cast light into my conscience you shall find me readily submitting to you A question arises here in the general whether Job doubted his Concessio est quam Quintilianus dicit esse cum aliquid iniquum videmur causae fiducia pati Apud eum dicitur confessio nihil nocitura Quin. lib. 3 cap. 2. Non submittit se errasse sed humiliter se submittit amicorum censure Bold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Hiphil intelligentem secit erudii◠cause or whether or no there were an hesitancy in his spirit about what he had done or spoken I answer this speech implies not that he had any doubt of himself or an admission that he had erred Job speaks like Oratours or Disputants who when they are sure of a point will yet grant a little doubtfulness or raise doubts about what they are able to maintain and confident to carry It is ordinary to put things by way of supposition of which we make no question When Job saith Cause me to understand wherein I have erred it is not an acknowledgement that he had a erred but a submission in case he had or a concession that he might Job was not lifted up with an opinion of his own infallibility he knew to erre was common to man and therefore he speaks of himself under the common notion of all men Not from any consciousnesse of his own errour Cause me to understand It is but one word in the Original and it signifies to convince by reason or argument Cause me to understand that is doe not think to force my opinion or to offer violence to my judgement doe not think to club me down with great words and clomorous threats but doe it by solid Arguments by evident demonstration of reason Doe it by savourie advices and counsel not by bitter reproaches and invectives Deal with my understanding not barely with my affections Cause me to understand My errour It signifies local corporal wandrings and errours and bodily erring or wandring and sometimes it signifies the wandrings of the mind judgement and affections Prov. 5. 19 20. Solomon bids the husband Rejoyce in the wife of his youth let her be as a loving Hind and pleasant Roe let her breasts satisfie thee at all times and be thou ravished alwayes with her love The Hebrew as our Translatours put in the margin is erre thou alwaies in her love that is let all thy wandring erring thoughts and affections be reduced and brought home to the wife whom God hath given thee the next words seeme to interpret so for why my sonne wilt thou be ravished with a strange woman and imbrace the bosome of a stranger That 's dangerous erring in love Therefore saith he let all thine errings and wandrings all thy delights and ravishments be chast and conjugal towards the wife of thy youth Further it signifies erring or wandring out of meer ignorance This word is often used in Leviticus for the sin of ignorance Chap. 4. 2. and Chap. 5. 18. and Chap. 22. 14. If any man hath sinned through ignorance or committed an errour then he shall offer these and these sacrifices and oblations So Psal 19. 12. who can understand his errours That is those sinnes which he commits out of ignorance and inadvertency Hence he concludes with this prayer Cleanse thou me from secret faults He doth not mean faults which he committed privately and so were secrets to others but faults which he had committed ignorantly and so were Secrets to himselfe That is they were sinnes of ignorance And I conceive he means not only such sins as he had committed ignorantly but then knew they were sins but even such sins as he was ignorant whether ever he had committed them or no That is he prayes for the pardon of all those sins which possible he might have committed though to him as yet altogether unknown and undiscovered The title of the 7th Psalm is Shiggaion of David it is the same Original word we have in the text and some translate it awandring song And the reason for it is either because of the Cantio erratica variable and wandring poetry or because of the variable or wandring tune in which that Psalm was sung and to which it was set for greater delight others makes the title sutable to the translation of the word here the Psalm of Davids errours because sets forth his fears and dangers which made him wonder in body and sometime also to go a little astray in mind this Psalm was sung to the Lord concerning the words or the business of Cush the Benjamite that is of Saul who was of Kish and of Jemini 1 Sam. 9. 1. called here Cush that is Ethiopian or Blackmore figuratively from his black and ill conditions his heart not being changed as the Blackmore changeth not his skin Saul was a bitter enemy
to David and made him flie and wander and sometime go astray in his speeches and actions upon a sudden gust of temptation And so a Psalm of that subject may well bear this stile either from his corporal or spiritual errours There is a third apprehension upon Siggaion taking it for delight and ravishments of mind and so the Psalm is superscribed Davids delight or solace That is the Psalm which he composed and sung to the Lord to comfort himself in all his troubles with Saul his soul wandred heaven-ward in holy ravishments and delights in God while his body wandred about the earth in astonishment and sorrows caused by a bloody-minded man The very same title is given to the prayer of Habakkuk chap. 3. 1. A prayer of Habakkuk upon Sigionoth which some interpret to be so called because of the strange variety or variableness of the song and tune the Prophet being in a holy rapture ravished in spirit and swallowed up in the contemplation of Gods power and majesty soars up and wanders like Paul in another case he knowes not whither or how But the vulgar renders it a prayer for ignorance or a prayer for Oratio pro ignorantijs errour which translation is surely an errour if not an ignorance as to the scope of that prayer Though the letter of the Original word as in the former instances and in the text before us bears that sence When Job saith Cause me to understand my errour his meaning is that his errours whatsoever they were in that business were secret to him he had not gone against the light of his own conscience nor as yet had they brought any light to convince his conscience he had been charged with errours extravagancies and wandrings But he understood not what they were and therefore desires them to cause him to understand his errour Observe hence first Man is subject to errour To errour in speech to errour in practise to errour in judgement Man by nature can do nothing else but erre all his goings are goings astray and all his knowledge is bottomed upon a heap of false principles All his works by nature are errata's and the whole edition of his life a continued mistake Secondly observe That man is in a fair way to truth who acknowledgeth he may erre Cause me to understand wherein I have erred saith Job He thought he had not erred but he grants it was possible for him to erre That which hath fastened so many errous to the Popes chaire and from thence scattered them over all the world is an opinion that he in his chair cannot erre his supposed spirit of infallibility hath made him the great Deceiver and deceived him He that thinks he cannot erre errs in thinking so and seldome thinks or speaks or doth any thing but it is an errour He is most secured from errour who suspects he hath erred and humbly acknowledges that he may Thirdly We may here observe what an errour is An errour strictly and properly taken is that which we hold or doe out of bare ignorance of the Truth It is an errour in practice when we are ignorant of what is better to be done An errour in opinion is when we are ignorant of what is better for us to believe or hold Heresie is an errour and more for heresie hath these three things in it 1. In regard of the matter it must be in some great and fundamental truths The word Heresie is by some derived from choosing by others from taking away because it takes us off from Christ or from the foundations of saving knowledge 2. Heresie is accompanied with pertinacy and obstinacy after clear light offered It is possible one may have an errour about things which are fundamental and yet be no heretick An heretick is condemned of himself Tit. 3. 10. But he will not be convinced by another Not that he doth formally and in terms give sentence against or condemn himself but equivalently he doth as the Apostle Acts. 13. 46. speakes to the unbeleeving Jews seeing ye put the word from you and judge your selves unworthy of everlasting life c. These men did not judge themselves such formally they came not to the Apostle and said we willingly submit our selves to hell and wrath No they thought very well of themselves and judged themselves worthy of eternal life But their practice judged them and gave a real sentance against them while they acquitted themselves Thus also a heretick who ever hath a very high opinion of himself and his opinions is condemned of himself 3. In heresie there is taken of pleasure and delight therefore heresie is numbred among the lusts of the flesh adultery and fornication c. Gal. 5 20. Hereticks desire to disperse and vend their opinions A man onely in an errour will weep over his opinions and it grieves him that he dissents and goes contrary unto others But he that stiffely maintains an errour insults over others and delights to maintain his opposition he triumphs and boasts of his war though he can never obtain victory Truth onely is victorious And some learned Criticks observe as much from the form of the Haereticus est cui voluptas est falsas tueri opiniones ea enim est nominum Graecorum in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 definentium proprietas ut ad qualitatem designandam non adhibeantur modo sed etiam ad innuendam delectationem quam in ea capit cui illa qualitas in est Camer Myroth Evang. in cap. 3. Epist ad Titum Greek word Tit. 3. 11. So then heresie is not only an errour in judgment but a pertinacy in the will and it takes in delight at the affections Fourthly observe from these words Cause me understand wherein I have erred That An erring brother or friend must not be importuned barely to leave his errour but he must be made to understand his errour Errour should not be left nor truth received blind-fold a man may sin in leaving an errour they do without question who lay it down thinking it to be a truth and there is little question but they do who leave it before they understand it to be an errour It is much alike to reject an opinion as an errour which we doe not understand and to practice an opinion for a truth which we doe not understand If a man practice or beleeve a truth not convinced that it is or not conceiving it to be a truth that truth is but as an errour to him because he doth not beleeve or practice it under the notion of a truth and so if he leave an errour which he is not convinced to be an errour his leaving it is not much better and in some cases it may be worse then his holding it because he leaves it not under the notion of an errour We must not dance after other mens pipes or see with other mens eyes Except we know it is good we do and evil which we leave und on our not
doing evil is not good to us and our doing good is to us no better then evil Verse 25. How forcible are right words but what doth your arguing reprove Job speakes by way of admiration How forcible I cannot In Haebreo Admirativum est elegans patheticum Bold tell how forcible It is an elegant way of expressing the highness of our thoughts As Psal 84. 1. How aimable are thy dwelling places O Lord of hosts He admires in stead of speaking they are so aimable as I cannot tell how aimable they are Put your thoughts to their utmost conceptions of beauty and that beauty is in the dwellings of the Lord So saith Job here How forcible are right words they are so forcible as I cannot tell how forcible they are I must admire and be silent How forcible are right words The Chaldee Paraphrase reads it how sweet are right words interpreting it by that Psal 119. 103. Oh how sweet are thy Commandements unto me they are sweeter than the honey and the honey comb But the Originals differ though that be a good sense We read How forcible The word signifies any thing that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acrimoniae notionem habet strong potent or mighty It notes also acrimony sharpnesse or smartnesse and so it is often applyed to words either good or bad 1 King 2. 8. when David lay upon his death bead giving his last advices to Solomon Thou saith he hast Shimei with thee who cursed me with a grievous curse In the Hebrew it is this word who cursed me with a sharp strong forcible curse he cursed me with all his heart with all his might he laid load upon me Evil words are strong right words are strongest Job had before at the 6th verse of this Chapter called the discourses of Eliphaz unsavoury in this he taxes them for flat or weak right words have a pleasing acrimony upon the palate of the soul and a power upon the judgement to sway and carry it but yours are dull and feeble Some render it after the letter of the Hebrew words of right or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eloquia rectitudinis Mont. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aquil. truth Others in the Concret how forcible are the words of a right or upright man But take it as we translate How forcible are right words Words are right three wayes 1. In the matter when they are true 2. In the manner when they are plain direct and perspicuous 3. In their use when they are duely and properly applied when the arrow is carried home to the white then they are right words or words of righteousnesse When this three-fold rightnesse meets in words how forcible how strong are such words But what doth your arguing reprove I confess there is great strength in right words and in the words of the upright but you have been long disputing the matter with me and what have you got where are your gains The word signifies to rebuke with conviction and argument to shew what is right and to refute that which is contrary Job 13. 3. the word is so used Surely I would speak to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arguit redarguit praeparavit verba contra aliquem disputando ostendendo jus the Almighty and I desire to reason with God to reason it out as it were by force of Argument with God The word is answerable in sence to that in the Greek used by the Apostle Heb. 11. 1. Faith is a conviction or the evidence of things not seen that is an evident conviction faith gives a stronger evidence then any reason yea then sence therefore though faith be of things that fall not under sence and are above reason yet faith is an evidence or a conviction fuller then any Logical conviction or demonstration The Argument from such authority as faith grounds upon is stronger and more convincing then any or then all the reason in the world What doth your arguing reprove Word for ward what doth Quid disceptando conficiet disceptatio vestra q. d. quod vos reâ—â—â—guitis redarguendi verbo non est donandum your disputation dispute Or what doe your arguments argue as if he had said your arguing is no arguing your reasons are no reasons that which you have been arguing all this while with me doth not so much as deserve the name of an argument in my case it hath no power or strength in it Job laies a charge upon his friends by this opposition Right words are forcible but your arguments are not right or you are not right who argue therefore what force what power is there in what you have spoken I can blow it all off as easily as a man can blow off a feather Mr. Broughtton varies somewhat from this sence And what can your blame soundly blame that is you shall finde nothing blame worthy or reprovable in me Observe hence first Words rightly spoken are very forcible Take it in the general What mighty things have words words duly spoken done Abigail a weak woman by a few right words overcame the strength and wrath of mighty David and turned his whole army back David with all his men were in the heat of resolution and upon a hot march to destroy Nabal yet she stops them And that woman speaking to Johab when Sheba fled to the City with a few right words prevailed to save the City and stay the fury of war Take the point more strictly The words of truth are full of power full of strength Naked truth is too hard for armed errour Truth hath the strength of God in it therefore that must needs prevail The Apostle professes 2 Cor. 1. 3. We can doe nothing against the truth He means it in regard of the bent of his spirit his heart could not move against truth but we may use it in another sence We can doe nothing against the truth that is let us put out the uttermost of our power we can never prevail against the truth Look upon truth in the promises that will conquer all Look upon truth in the threatnings that 's forcible to overcome all Jer. 1. 10. God gives the Prophet a commission I have set thee over the Nations and over the Kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down to build and to plant Here is a strange commission for a Prophet How could Jeremiah plant or root up build or pull down Nations He never drew sword yet he performed this commission fully by his word he pulled them down and rooted them up by the word of threatning and he planted them and built them with the word of promise Zech. 1. 10. Your fathers are dead they are gone but my words saith the Lord which I spake by my servants the Prophets did not they take hold of your fathers Your fathers are dead and the Prophets are dead but my words live still and did not they hold
Peter Their speech bewrayeth them and you may smell the filth of their hearts by their breath Secondly observe from these words Is there iniquity in my tongue He whose heart is upright may know that he is upright When Job questions Is there iniquity in my tongue He resolves There is no iniquity in my tongue None of that iniquity which you charge me with I grant a believer hath not alwaies a sight of his own integrity and uprightness many a soule bears false witness against himself and oppresses his owne innocency yet for the most part sincerity hath a witness in it self and holiness carries a light by which it is seen to him that hath it An upright heart may know his own uprightness Thirdly in that Job is thus stiff in maintaining his own uprightness and in denying any iniquity to be in his tongue Observe It is a duty to maintain our own integrity and uprightness Job was upon it before and is now upon it again and he will be upon it afterward he never gives over justifying of himself against man though he had not a word to plead for himself against God Fourthly from the latter clause Cannot my taste discern perverse things Observe Reason distinguishes truth from falshood as the pallate distinguishes bitter from sweet Reason it is the souls-taster Princes have their tasters before they eat least there should be poison in the dish God hath given unto man a taster for his spiritual meat The Pope will not suffer the meat he provides and cooks to be tasted but will have it swallowed whole or else he will thrust it whole down their throats It is alike spiritual tyranny to starve souls and to cram them It is our duty when meat is set before us we are at a full table of knowledg where variety of doctrins and opinions are served in then to call for our taster We may be surfetted else if not poison'd There may be a wild guord among good hearbs in the pot and so death in the pot too therefore first taste then eat and digest A Christian hath a taste to discern error from truth why then should he be denied the use of it A woe is pronounced against those who offer unwholsome doctrin Isa 5. 20 Wo to those that call evil good good evil that put light for darkness and darkness for light that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter A like wo is due to them who will not give others leave to discern for themselves what is good or evil light or darkness bitter or sweet as good let another live for us as another taste for us And their misery will be little less then the woes of these men who cannot or will not take pains to distinguish when evill is called good and good evil when light is put for darkness and darkness for light when bitter is put for sweet and sweet for bitter or as Job speaks here whose taste cannot discern perverse things There are some whose taste is so far from discerning perverse things that it is easie to discern their taste is perverse for bring them wholesome true and savoury doctrine they say it is bitter or false doctrine Bring them false doctrin a lie a dream a fancie a meer humane invention dish out such provision before them that 's excellent chear This was the heaviest curse which God sent upon the Gentiles Rom. 1. 28. God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient that is to a mind void of judgement a mind that could not taste or distinguish things therfore the issue or effect was They did things which were not convenient as if a man not being able to judge of meats eats poyson or meats most contrary to his health and constitution It is a fearful judgement to be given up to an unapproving mind to a mind that cannot discern truth from false-hood the Oracles of God from the forgeries of men superstition from holy worship It is a sad thing to loose our spiritual senses Such as play the wantons with the word of God and walk below the truths they know are at last given up to a reprobate mind to a mind not able to know the word of truth and then they swallow down error for truth and suck in deadly poison like sweet pleasant wine The Apostle speaking of the difference of doctrins under the metaphor of meats saith Milk is for babes but strong meat is for them of full age even for those that by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil That is their spiritual senses exercised to taste this from that doctrin and not to swallow every doctrin alike It is a great blessing when a people have senses exercised And it is a blessing we have much cause to pray for in these times That many pallats are out of taste is too apparent by the multitude of heterodox opinions which go down without disrelish Some which would even make a man tremble to name them are entertained with delight Some which dissolve our comforts and breaks us off from comfortable communion with Christ Some which shake if not overthrow the very foundations of faith are swallowed as pleasant morsels Doth not this convince that there 's a want of Jobs taste among us to discern perverse things Therefore get your senses exercised be established in the present truth that ye as this holy man in the middest of all bodily distempers and outward troubles which usually put the natural pallate out of taste may yet even then as he have your inward senses exquisite and your spiritual pallate exact to discern right from perverse things Lastly note False doctrine or true doctrine falsely applied is a perverse thing False doctrin perverts First Reason Secondly Scripture Thirdly the souls of men The Apostle Acts 20. 30. prophecies to the Church of Ephesus and with them to all Churches That out of themselves men should arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them Holy doctrin draws men to God and false doctrine draws men to man As itching ears heap teachers to themselves 2 Tim. 4. 3. So false tongues heap disciples to themselves That which is perverse in it's nature is perverting in its effect JOB Chap. 7. Vers 1 2 3 4. Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth are not his dayes also like the dayes of an hireling As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work So am I made to possess moneths of vanity and wearisome nights are appointed to me When I lie down I say When shall I arise and the night be gone and I 'am full of tossings too and fro unto the dawning of the day WHere the knot of connection between this and the former Chapter lyeth is not so discernable which hath given occasion for much diversity of conjecture about it First It may be conceived that Job in
he is afflicted many a good soule would not beleeve that they had such an unbeleeving heart such a proud heart till God tried him and then corruption discovered it self The reason why God brought his people such a way about in the wildernesse was Deut. 8. 2. to prove them to try them to know what was in their heart God knowes what is in the heart of man intuitively and he needs not goe about he can goe the neerest way into every mans heart he proves it only to make it known to others and to make a man know himselfe They could not thinke their hearts were so rebellious so ful of murmuring and unbeleefe if God had not taken them about to prove and try them those forty yeares Prosperity and comforts are trials too whatsoever God doth with a man he some way or other tries him Looke not only upon your afflictions as trials your mercies also are tryals God gives you them to see what you will doe with them he gives riches and honour and credit to see how men will use and improve them as by afflictions so by outward comforts he tries both what grace and what corruption is in our hearts He gives comforts to see how we can live upon God in Christ when we have the creature and that we may shew how much we make of him without whom we cannot live when we have all things besides him Prosperity tries corruption then pride and creature-confidence breake forth which before were undiscerned We say Magistracy shewes a man nature when it is exalted shewes it selfe as much as when it is vext He trieth every moment A moment is the least part and division 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad momenta of time To try every moment is to try not only frequently but continually Hence observe The temper and state of mans heart is so various that there needs new experiments of him every moment Why doth God try us every moment Because we are one moment in one temper and the next moment in another The acting frame of a mans heart this houre cannot be collected from the frame it was in an houre before therefore there is a continuall triall Some things if they be tried once they are tried for ever if we try gold it will ever be as good as we found it unlesse we alter it as we try it to be so it continues to be But try the heart of man this day and come againe the next and you may find it in a different condition to day beleeving to morrow unbeleeving to day humble to morrow proud to day meeke to morrow passionate to day lively and enlarged to morrow dead and straightned pure gold to day and to morrow exceeding drossie As it is with the pulse of a sick man it varieth every quarter of an houre therefore the Physitian tries his pulse every time he comes because his disease alters the state of his body so it is with the distempered condition of mans spirit God having tried our pulse the state of our spirit by crosses or by mercies this day next day he tryes us too and the third day he tryes us againe and so keepe us in continuall trials because we are in continuall variations That sicknesse and disease within us alters the state and condition of the soule every moment Our comfort is that God hath a time wherein he will set our souls up in such a frame as he shall need to try us but that once Having set us up in a frame of glory he shall not need to try our hearts for us or to put us to the triall of our selvs any more we shall stand as he sets us up to all eternity I must yet come downe from the thoughts of this blessed eternity and shew you Job tried out with his time and earnestly calling but for a minutes respire from his paines and sorrows in the voice of the nineteenth vers Verse 19. How long wilt thou not depart from me nor let me alone till I may swallow down my spittle In this verse Job makes application of the two former to himselfe as if he had said seeing man is a creature so weake and unworthy in himselfe and I am such among the rest why doest thou visit me and try me every moment How long shall it be ere thou depart from me or how long wilt thou not looke away from me The word under another construction signifies to looke upon a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quando construitur cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat aspicere respicere cum detectatione Gen. 4. 5. sed cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat avertere recedere man with respect and complacency So Gen. 4. 5. The Lord had respect unto or he looked graciously upon Abel and his offering But here to looke away and so Isa 22. 4. Looke away from me I will weepe bitterly And because they who withdraw their eyes from us are ready also to withdraw their presence from us therefore it signifies to depart How long wilt thou not depart from me c. But is this the voice of Job Is he burthen'd with the presence of God Or doth he thinke the time long till God be gone from him The wicked say unto God depart from us Chap. 21. 14. And the Lord threatens this as the sorest judgement against his owne people Jer. 6. 8. Be instructed O Jerusalem lest my soule depart from thee And by the Prophet Hosea Chap. 9. 12. Woe also unto them when I depart from them The promise of strongest consolation to the Saints is this I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13. 5. And the very offer of a departure did so afflict Moses that he was ready to throw up all Lord if thy presence goe not along with us carry us no further Exod. 33. 15. How earnestly doe the servants of God deprecate the hiding of his face how bitterly have they complained upon those hidings how importunately have they praied that he would returne looke on them behold them cause his face to shine and lift up the light of his countenance upon them And is Job so weary of Gods company that he beggs of him to depart Is the voice of Job Will a man that is in darknesse bid the Sunne goe from him Or will a man that is thirstie say to a fountaine turne away from me I answer the Lords presence may be considered two waies First as his pleased comforting presence Secondly as his angry afflicting presence When Job saith How long wilt thou not depart from me his meaning is How long wilt thou not with-draw thine afflicting hand from me We may expound it by that of David Psal 39. 10. Remove thy stroke Usquoque non parcis mihi Vulg. Iram alio converte Jun. away from me I am consumed by the blow of thine hand Hence some translate How long doest thou not spare me And another glosses Turne thine anger away from me Or
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
is red which notes fierce wrath and it is full of mixture This mixture is of judgements plagues and punishments this is the portion of their cup Psal 11. ult But what will the Lord doe with this mixed cup who shall sip at the top of the cup he tels us not but he is expresse whose the bottome is He powreth out of the same some drops are spilt here and there but the dreggs thereof all the ungodly of the earth shall wring them out and drinke them Alas they loath it their stomacks turne at it They have not been brought up to drink dreggs they have had their wine well refined and sparkeling with spirits in Christall glasses and how can they get this down They who have drunke so willingly and freely of the cup of sin shall be forced whether they will or no to drink the cup of judgement And it is not a sip or two shall serve their turnes they must drinke all dreggs and all they shall drinke it to the bottome and yet they shall never come to the bottome they have loved long draughts and now they shall have one long enough there is eternity to the bottom If a cup of affliction which in the effect is a cup of salvation be sometime or for a time nauseous to the godly how deadly sick will the ungodly be who must for ever drinke a cup of wrath and death Secondly The word which we translate despise notes the rejecting of a thing as unprfitable or unusefull That which a man despiseth he thinkes he shall have no good by it Things which are unprofitable are despicable So the word is used Psal 118. 22. The stone which the builders refused or despised is become the head stone of the corner There were master builders in the Church who when they surveighed all sorts of materials or stones for their fabrique of faith looking upon the person of Christ thought him fit only to cast out among the rubbish as altogether unusefull They layed him by as a refuse-stone who is the head corner-stone both the strength and beauty of the whole building Thus the word is very appliable to the present Text refuse not corrections as unprofitable and uselesse Say not as the Jewes of Christ Can any good come out of Nazareth so can any good come out of chastnings Despise not the chastning of the Almighty And from this Notion of the word we may observe a second prejudice against the rod Even the Saints are ready to conceive afflictions to be unusefull and that they could well enough spare and be without their troubles A naturall eye never sees nor finds any thing but dammage by affliction and a spirituall eye doth not alwayes see the advantage that comes by them Yea he may sometime say of an affliction it will be my undoing and the ruine of my house and yet afterwards find it as a corner stone the choicest outward meanes which through the blessing of God hath united the walls both of his spirituall and civill building the frame both of grace within and comforts without The Apostle Peter hath a strange Parenthesis 1 Pet. 1. 6. For having told them of their rejoycing in the safety of their spirituall estate being kept or secured as with a Garrison from Heaven by the power of God through faith unto salvation Though now for a season if need be ye are in heavinesse through manifold Temptations or afflictions Observe how he puts an If need be or a supposition of necessity upon the afflictions of believers As if he had said ye who are the Candidates of eternity and heirs of salvation may judge your selves past the rod or the ferula and thinke now ye have need of nothing but comfort or rejoycing in the hope of that salvation ready to be revealed but I tell you you may have need of heavinesse yet before you come to Heaven and of manifold temptations for the removing or subduing the corruptions of your hearts before you enter upon your incorruptible inheritance We are apt to conceive chastnings to be of no use when they are as necessary as our daily bread Therefore despise not chastnings as uselesse or unprofitable Thirdly the word is applied often to the rejecting of a thing or person as low dishonourable and disgracefull In this sense also it is appliable here Despise not chestnings That is doe not thinke thy selfe disgrac'd when thou art chastised the heart of man is naturally full of pride Man is a proud peece of flesh Nor doth he resent any thing more then his own dishonour many can beare the paine of the crosse better then the shame of the crosse It is very observable to this purpose how the Apostle describes the Lord Christ in his sufferings Heb. 12. 2. He endureth the crosse despising the shame as noting that his being above the shame of the crosse bore up his spirit under the crosse To despise shame is to looke upon that which the world counts shamefull not only as despicable in it selfe but as not hurtfull to us When a man despises an enemy as Goliah disdained David 1 Sam 17. 42. he presumes himselfe above his enemies power to hurt him So to despise shame is to make nothing of it or to thinke our selves no whit the worse for it yea rather to thinke our selves honoured by it And untill in this sense we can despise shame we shall despise correction and the crosse Who is it almost that finds not this the hardest text in all the chapter of afflictions Zedekiah was more afraid to be mocked by the sugitive Jewes then to be a prisoner to the King of Babylon Jer. 38. 19. If a man be poore presently he thinks he is disgraced If he be weake he doubts he shall be contemned If he loose his estate he fears he shall loose his credit in the world he was a man of place some body among his neighbours but now he shall be slighted Suffering for well doing is our crowne suffering for evill doing is our shame but it is our shame to suffer Fourthly To despise a thing notes the slighting of it as if we did not think it worth while to take any notice of it and so this will be the sense Despise not thou the chastnings of the Lord that is doe not slight the chastnings do not lightly passe them by do not look upon them as inconsiderable as not caring what God doth with thee or thine When God layes his hand upon us he would have us lay it to our hearts As it is our duty to be affected with mercies so likewise with chastnings If a malefactor should say to the Judge do what you will with me I care not or a child to the parent correct me as long as you will I care not how unnaturall were this This is properly to despise afflictions Some are like Leviathan in this sense Job 41. 27. They esteeme iron as straw and brasse as rotten wood They make nothing of the acts or