verbis multum pollicetur re nihil praestat Bez. Blandiebantudum externa bona illi pollicebantur Merc. they made him large promises of a restauration that his estate should be like the morning that he should outshine the very Sun and be a great man againe Thus they spake Chap. 5.19 20. Chap. 8.5 Chap. 11.15 16 c. hee looked on all these fayre promises as flatteries because in his owne thoughts he was a dead man and his calamities past all hope of recovery in this World As if hee had sayd Why doe you feed me with such vaine hopes and prophesie to me of Wine and of strong drinke of earthly honour and riches of length of dayes and of a multitude of yeares yet behinde in the race of this present life I cannot but call this flattery and a departure from the laws of freindship For alas My dayes are extinct my breath is corrupt and yet you are telling me of long life and good dayes in this World And indeed this is at once the custome and the fault of many who visit their Freinds upon the borders of death they thinke they are not freindly unlesse they labour to give them hopes of life and deliver their opinion peremptorily We doubt not but you will doe well enough you will recover from this sicknesse and getting over this brunt and see many dayes This is flattery it is our duty to speake comfortably to our dying Freinds to set forth the love of God and his readinesse to pardon to prepare them for a better life and to make their passage out of this more easie But when wee see them at the Graves mouth when death is ready to seize on them then to tell them of long life is rather the office of a Flatterer then of a Freind We shew more love to our dying Freinds by offering our counsels and tendering up our prayers for their fitnesse to depart out of this life then by shewing our desire that they should live and our loathnesse to part with them Secondly Jobs Freinds may be sayd to speake flattery to God and then the words are an Argument from the greater to the lesse as if he had sayd If he who speakes flattery to his freind a man like himselfe shall be punished then much more shall he who speakes flattery to God But you will say How can God be flattered There are two wayes of flattering men First By promising them more then we intend Secondly By applauding them more then they deserve When we cry up those for wise men who are little guilty of wisedome or commend those as good who are very guilty of evill both these are straines of flattery It is impossible to flatter God in this latter sense for we cannot speake of God higher then he is his glory wisedome and goodnesse are above not onely our words but our thoughts But we may flatter God in the first sense by promising him more then we intend they on their sick beds doe but flatter God who tell him how good and holy they will be when their hearts are not right with him Yet neyther is this the flattery of God which Job may be supposed to suggest against his freinds The flattery here suggested is their justifying the proceedings of God in afflicting Job by condemning Job as if there had been no way left to cleare up the righteousnesse of God but by concluding that Job was unrighteous This manner of arguing Job calls Speaking wickedly for God and talking deceitfully for him This he also calls The accepting of his person Ch. 13.7 8. As if they had been the Patrons and Promoters of Gods cause and honour while they thus pleaded against Job and layd his honour and innocency in the dust That there is a sinfull flattery of God in such a procedure against man was shewed more largely in the place last mentioned to which I referr the Reader for his further satisfaction He that speakes flattery to his freind What of him The next words tell us what The eyes of his Children shall faile But shall he himselfe escape Shall not hee smart for it Saith not the Scripture Whatsoever a man sowes that shall hee reap the sower shall be the reaper This is not spoken to free the Flatterer from punishment but to shew that more then he shall be punished for his flattery as he himselfe shall not escape so he may bring others also into danger with him As sin spreads it selfe in the pollution of it so in the punishments of it When but one sins many may be defiled and when but one acts a sin many may be endangered a man knowes not upon how many he may bring evill when he doth ill himselfe The eyes of his Children shall faile What is meant by the failing of the eyes was shewed Ch. 11.20 where Zophar saith The eyes of the wicked shall faile and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost In generall 't is this They shall be disappointed of their hopes or they shall expect so long and nothing come that their eyes shall faile with expectation The eyes of his Children shall faile Some by Children understand not his naturall Children or the Children of his body but his Children in a figure Morum atque vitae imitatores Aquin. such as imitate and follow him who take his course and tread in his pathes for as they are called the Children of the Devill who are like him and doe his workes and as we are called the Children of God not onely in reference to our new birth and spirituall generation but also in reference to our new obedience and holy actions Mat. 5.44 45. So they may be called a mans Children who resemble him in his manners as well as they who issued from his loynes Hence Note First The punishment of sin doth not alway rest or determine in him that committed the sin The bitter fruits of sin are often transmitted and handed over to those who had no present hand in them when they were committed The whole Familie and Posterity of sinners may smart many a day after and inherit the sins of their Progenitors as well as their Lands when the Father purchaseth or provides an Inheritance for his Childe by flattery or any other indirect way the eyes of his children may faile for it I have met with this point before Cha. 15.33 34. and elsewhere therefore I onely touch and passe from it Secondly Consider the particular sin against which this judgement is pronounced It is the speaking of flattery Hence Observe The sin of flattery is a very provoking sin That sin which shall be punished in posterity is no ordinary sin Those good actions which the Lord promiseth to reward in posterity or in after times have a speciall excellency in them It shewed that the deed of Jehu in destroying Ahabs House and rooting out his Idolatry though Jehu himselfe was a very bad man and did it with a bad heart yet I
the words abstractly they yeeld us this usefull observation That it is an argument of an evill heart to shorten Hic proponitur tanquam ingens piaculum quod homo afflictus remittat orandi studium or restraine to lessen or to give off Prayer in times of trouble That King spake to the height of prophanenesse when he said 2 Kings 6. This evill is of the Lord and why should I waite on the Lord any longer When we have done waiting we have done praying No man will aske for that which he doth not expect to receive How long so ever affliction lasteth so long prayer-season lasteth if the Winter day of our trouble be a Summer day in length if it be continued many dayes yea many moneths and yeares prayer should continue Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will heare and thou shalt glorifie me Let the day of trouble be short or long God lookes to heare of us all that day Is any afflicted let him pray saith the Apostle James it is a duty to pray when we are not afflicted when we prosper in the World But is any man afflicted then is a speciall season for prayer A sincere heart prayes alwayes or continues in prayer an hypocrite never loves to pray and at two seasons he will restraine or lay aside prayer First when he is got out or thinks he hath prayed himselfe out of affliction Prosperity and worldly fulnesse stop the mouth of prayer and he hath no more to say to God when he hath received much from God Secondly a Hypocrite restraines prayer when he perceives he hath got nothing by prayer he sees he cannot or feares he shall not get out of trouble and therefore he will pray no more in trouble his spirit failes because his afflictions hold out Upon which soever of these two grounds the Hypocrite restraines prayer he shewes the wickednesse of his heart If from the former he shewes that he beares no true love to God if from the latter he shewes that he hath no true faith in God or dares not trust him Further to cast off prayer is to cast off God and he that lives without prayer in the World lives without God in the World Hence the Heathen who know not God and the Families that call not upon his Name are joyned together or rather are the same Jer. 10.25 Further to restraine prayer is worse then not to pray The latter notes onely a neglect of the duty the fromer a distast of the duty To give over any holy exercise is more dangerous then not to begin or take it up The one is the prophane mans sin the other is the Hypocrites Thou restrainest prayer and hee that doth not utter prayer with his mouth will soone utter wickednesse with his mouth as it follows Vers 5. For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity and thou chusest the tongue of the crafty Here Eliphaz explaines and proves what he said before that Job had cast off the feare of God and restrained prayer as if he had said If thou hadst kept in holy feare that would have kept in thine iniquity Hadst thou not restrained prayer that would have restrained and bridled downe thy sin but thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity and that sheweth that prayer is restrained and that feare is cast off here is a demonstration of it If you should come to a Princes Court and see a great croud about the doore you would say the Porter is there he stops and examines them if at another time you see all going in as fast as they please you will say the Porter is out of the way Thus while the feare of the Lord stands like a Porter at the doore of the soule we keep our thoughts and actions in compasse we examine what goes in and what comes out but when once that 's gone Non opus est ut te doceam in quo pecces cum ipse tuus sermo doceat te iniquum esse Vatab Reus verbis oris tui Sept order is gone Any thing may be sayd any thing may be done by him who feares not who prayes not Thou hast cast off feare and restrained prayer for thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity out it comes as fast as it can I need not tell thee wherein thou hast offended thy mouth powres it out Hence Note That the evill which is in the heart will out at the mouth unlesse prayer and the feare of God restraine it As the good that is in the heart will come out of the mouth especially when prayer unlocks the mouth David prayes Lord open thou my lips and then he undertakes for his mouth that it shall shew forth the praise of God Psal 51.1 My heart is inditing a good matter the heart doth this in prayer or meditation what follows My tongue is as the Pen of a ready Writer Heavenly thoughts in the heart shoot out at the tongue in heavenly words When the heart is devising of a good matter the tongue will be swift to speake and set all to a good tune Thus also while the heart is inditing an evill matter the tongue runs to evill Such a man needs not learne from others he hath a root of bitternesse in himselfe Hence our Saviour concludes Matth. 12.37 By thy words thou shalt be condemned and by thy words thou shalt be justified Why shall we be condemned by our words Qualis vir talis oratio Mens mala linguam movet vos fingit ad improbos sensus neque aliud os loquitur quam quod interior suggerit atque imperat sensus The Prophet complaines of those who made a man an offender for a word I answer our words shew what we are they declare our hearts as a man may be discovered of what Country he is when he speakes so of what spirit he is The tongue is the scholler of the heart and speakes what that dictates A man is justly condemned by evill words because they testifie that he is evill Thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity Observe Secondly There are some iniquities which are more properly ours then some others are Thine iniquity Job had as Eliphaz seemes to suggest a kind of peculiarity in it As God ownes some people in a speciall manner though all the people of the earth be his yet they are his beloved people So man ownes some sin in a speciall manner though a corrupt heart hath a relation to all the sins in the World yet some one is his beloved sin and may be called by way of emminency his iniquity 'T is his as his Houses and Lands as the Money in his Purse and the Garments on his backe are his Observe thirdly Every man is most ready to act and utter his speciall iniquity Thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity There are some sins in a mans heart which possibly he may never utter all his dayes but he must be talking of or acting his beloved one Hence David speakes it as a high worke
as a man not as his enemy but as a wicked man and as an enemy to God The foundation of this holy Warr was layd in that word of God Gen. 3.15 I will put enmity betweene thee and the Woman between her seed and thy seed As there is an enmity de facto in wicked men against the righteous they will ever be opposing them So there is an enmity de jure of right and duty in the righteous against the wicked they ought ever to oppose them that quarrell those feudes must not be layd downe and therefore the Apostle John who though he was the beloved Desciple and was most pressing and perswasive to love among Saints and Brethren yet he forbids the love of wicked men Love not the World 1 Epist 2.15 which referrs as well to worldly persons as worldly things And the Apostle James is direct Chap. 4.4 The freindship of the World is enmity against God Our peicing in or making peace with the World is a proclaimed Warr against God himselfe It is our duty and it is our spirituall safety to stirr up our selves spiritually against the wicked As we deny not civill peace with Hypocrites and the worst of men so there is a spirituall warfare which wee are bound to continue how chargeable soever it may prove to us against all Hypocrites and vvicked men And if they say of this Sword as Jer. 47.6 O thou Sword of the Lord how long will it be ere thou be quiet We must answer as the Sword doth there How can I be quiet seeing the Lord hath given me a charge against Askelon The Sword of that Warr receives its Commission from God and is designed now to one coast anon to another The Sword of this Warr hath long since received its Commission from God against all the coasts of sin and powers of darknesse nor can it be quiet or put it selfe up in its Scabbard while there is an Hypocrite appearing upon the face of the Earth Gods quarrell must be perpetuated it can never be taken up Let them returne to thee but returne not thou to them was the Prophets charge Jer. 15.19 There 's no compounding of this difference they must returne and give themselves up to God and his wayes else we cannot give them an inch of ground or make truce with them for an houre much lesse may we make peace with them or give them the right hand of fellowship Secondly Here we have the Hypocrite in his flourish and the innocent in his affliction the Hypocrite aloft and the innocent below yet when it is thus even then the innocent is described stirring up himselfe against the Hypocrite Hence Observe A godly man afflicted doth not at all approve or applaud the Hypocrite but opposeth him in his greatest pompe and worldly splendour When the wicked are at the highest even as happy as the World can make them yet a godly man will not change states with them or as we say turne Tables with them he would not have his outward prosperity with his heart if it were worth ten thousand Worlds He sees and knowes there is more excellency and worth in afflicted grace then in the most prosperous wickednesse The love of God is better then life and if so what are all the things of this life compared to it Hence a godly man hath no better opinion of the wicked in riches then in poverty and hee hath no worse opinion of himselfe when he is poore then when he was rich Hee doth not account grace the lesse glorious because it hath so little of outward glory upon it And seeing he will not change states with him he cannot envy him We envy those only whom we judge in a better condition then our selves David under a temptation was envious at the foolish when he saw the prosperity of the wicked Pâ—al 73.2 3. and his feet were almost gone his steps had well-nigh slipt but when he recollected himselfe and went to the Sanctuary such thoughts were quickly downe and envy was extinct he saw much matter enough to pitty wicked men but none to envy them they stand in slippery places and are suddenly cast downe How are they brought into desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrours And as he doth not envy them so thirdly much lesse doth he imitate them he is so farr from imitating them that hee sets himselfe to oppose them and he opposeth them all those ways and with all those weapons that God hath put into his hand He opposeth ever him by counsell and conviction by reproofes and prayers And as he fights against the Hypocrite by prayer so by prayer he fortifies himselfe against all sinfull complyances with him Thus David prayed Psal 141.4 Incline not my heart to any evill thing to practice wicked workes with men that worke iniquity and let me not eate of their dainties As if hee had sayd Though wicked men be fine-fed and dyet upon dainties every day though they devoure the fatt and drinke the sweet and have all things that their hearts can desire yet Lord ever keep me from the practice of wicked workes with men that worke iniquity and let me not eate of their dainties who finde a sweetnesse in sin and take pleasure in unrighteousnesse It is the counsell of the wise man Prov. 1.10 11. My Son if sinners entice thee consent thou not Doe not associate with them they will tell thee of great matters they will say Come let us lay wait for blood we shall fill our houses with spoyle cast in thy lot among us let us all have one purse My Son walke not thou in the way with them refraine thy foot from their paths for their feet run to evill c. He that would refraine his foot from walking in must first refraine his heart from approving of the paths of wickednesse This the innocent doth and more while he stirreth up himselfe against the Hypocrite And as he sets himselfe against the way of the Hypocrites so he labours to set forward with all his might in the way of holinesse for that 's his way as appeares in the next Verse Vers 9. The righteous shall hold on his way and he that hath cleane hands shall wax stronger and stronger The righteous Ex tanti viri exemplo atque memoria incrementum accipient singulare Sanct. Tenebit mordicus Merc. Apprehensam tenebit firmiter non discedet ne latum quidem unguem sed haereâ—it firmior in suo vivendi instituto pietatem audentius colet It is the same man still who should be encouraged by Jobs example to a vigorous progresse He the righteous man Shall hold on The word signifies to hold with strength to hold toughly to hold as with the teeth resolving never to let goe but ever to goe onn In his way What way It may be taken eyther particularly for that way of opposition which hee maintained against the Hypocrite or secondly for the way of
out against God three wayes 128. That it is a foolish as well as a sinfull thing to oppose God shewed three wayes 138. God is in Heaven in a speciall manner 369. God should not onely be our refuge but our choice 380. Gods false Gods how they are famished 258. Grace is of an increasing nature 484. It increaseth in times of trouble 484 485. Grave in what sense no returning from it 396 397. We had need see all our worke done and well done before we goe thither 399. Discourses of the Grave very suitable for sicke men 407. Some as ready for the Grave as the Grave is for them 408. Why the Grave is called a House 515. The Grave called darknesse in a double respect 516. Greennesse what it signifies in Scripture 190. H. Hand how taâ—en in Scripture 125. Stretching out the hand imports foure things 126 127. The hand of a good man how it is sayd to be greene 189. Cleane hands what it imports 482. They who have cleane hearts will have cleane hands too 483. Hands striking of hands what it signifies 421. Heart an evill heart is a bad tutor 43. The heart is too hard for the whole man 43 44. How the heart carries the man away 44. The heart strengthens and hardens it selfe against God and how 135 136. The heart very deceitfull in a threefold reference 173. Heart as a Shop where sin is framed 205. The opening and shutting of the heart is the worke of God 431. The vanity of such as say they have good hearts when their wayes are evill 483. Heavens how they are uncleane 64. Heaven is not every where 369. Three heavens spoken of in Scripture 371. Heaven is highest in Scripture foure deductions from the highnesse of Heaven 372 373. Hiding of two sorts 80. Hills from the beginning 23. It is usuall in Scripture to set that forth by the Hills which is of greatest antiquity 24. Holinesse no created holinesse stable and perfect in it selfe 62. In what holinesse consists 333. Hope puts men on to action though they have been often disappointed 208. A good Man may give up all his worldly hopes 525. Hope considered two wayes 531. A twofold object of hope 532. Horne it imports two things in Scripture 317. Why strength is signified by the Horne 318. Humiliation outward humiliation is a duty when the hand of God is upon us 322. Husbands bitternesse to their Wives how unbecomming 415. Hypocrite he is under a curse 193. The fashion of an Hypocrite 413. I. Idols how called new or neere Gods 510. Jewes how God brought the curse which they wished upon their owne heads 355 356. Imprecations of two sorts 352. We may in some cases use imprecations ibid. Two grounds of them ibid. Foure rules limiting the use of Imprecations 354. Diverse dreadfull examples of such as have used Imprecations rashly and falsly 355 356. Infidelity a wicked man full of infidelity that his state is bad 184. Infirmities of two sorts 330. Injustice two sorts of it 328. Innocency feares no discovery 358. Integrity makes a man strong in bearing troubles 330. Judge it is a great honour to judge another mans cause 435. Judgement considered under a threefold opposition 520. Julian the Apostate his blasphemy 126 the opinion of Athanasius concerning him 159. K. Know to know how taken in Scripture 116. Knowledge there is a vanity in some kinde of knowledge 6. Sinnes against the light of knowledge most dangerous 132. L. Law how he that breakes one Commandement of the Law may be sayd to breake all 333. Leannesse of two sorts 259. Lye every sin is a lye 89. Life the number of the yeares of our life is a secret to all 93. That is a secret is an affliction to a wicked man 93 94. It is best for us that this is a secret and why 94. Life of man like a peice of Cloath in the Loome 423. Light a twofold light denyed to some 429. Three reasons why God denyes light 430. Limitting God what the sinfulnesse of it 521. Love the spring of all action whether good or evill 207. What we over-love we are in danger to lose 299. M. Manutenentia Dei 480. Mediatour the Doctrine of a Mediatour betweene God and Man known and beleeved before Christ came into the World 391. The twofold nature of the Mediatour knowne in all Ages of the Church 392. Mercy of God how not to be pleaded 136. There is a fivefold mercy of God 301. Foure degrees of sparing mercy 301 302. Moloch the Idol why so called how formed and worshipped 455. N. Neck stiffe neck what it imports in Scripture 141. Running upon the neck the meaning of it 142. Nero his miserable end 153. The clemency of Nero how shewed 304. his speech when he made his Grave 315. Noahs three Sons how stiled 82. O. Oaths of two sorts 352 364. Rules about Oaths 364 365. Omnipotency of God what 134. Oppression wise men most affected with it why 248. Oppression called blood 350. Oppressors are speedily out off 92. Ordeal used superstitiously by the old Saxons foure sorts of it 354. P. Passions when violent are the disguise of a wise man 8. Passions breake out into unprofitable words 9. Patience a threefold patience 517. The perfect worke of patience consists in two things 519. Patience ascends by three steps to her perfection ibid. Patience gives us possession of our selves 519. Peace of wicked men what it is and whence it ariseth 99. People of God dangerous to touch them 129. Perfection of a thing what 158. All the perfection of earthly things is vanishing 159. Perseverance both the duty and priviledge of Saints 478. Pleasure two sorts of it which every man should abhorr 276. Poverty some poverty is a note of Gods displeasure 112. Oppressors often brought to poverty 112. What it is which makes poverty so great an evill to any man 113 Imaginary poverty or feare of want makes us more miserable then want 114. Power they who have much power are tempted to oppresse 91. A godly man hath a naturall and civill power to doe evill but he hath not a morall power to doe it 231 232. Practice of duty the best answer to slander in any kinde 314. Proverbs what they are 446. Providence of God how exercised towards his people when he puts them into the hand of wicked men shewed diverse wayes 281. Some providences of God put the wisest to a stand 469. Five miscarriages of carnall men at the unusuall dealings and providences of God 471. Wise men often out in expounding the providences of God 498. Prayer the sinfulnesse of forbearing or abating prayer in times of trouble 15. Hypocrites never love prayer and in two seasons they lay it by 16. To restraine prayer is worse then not to pray 16. Prayer taken two wayes 328. Onely pure prayer is acceptable prayer 335. The requisites to pure prayer shewed 336 337. The general end of prayer what 344. Prayer why expressed by a cry 351. Not to have