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
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
say it shewed that the deed was very good because the Lord promised to reward his Children for it with the possession of the Throne of Israel to the fourth generation 2 Kings 10.30 Now as those acts have a great deale of excellency in them for which God rewards and blesseth to posterity so those sins have a speciall malignity in them which are threatened and pursued with revenges to Posterity Such sins have a touch of the first sin in them The punishment of Adams first sin is hereditary to the last man all have smarted for that sin and the eyes of his Children have failed because he looked upon and eate the forbidden fruit Now every sin which is thus spoken of in Scripture as Idolatry in the second Commandement and here flattery hath a speciall stampe of the first sin upon it not onely as being a sin and so a derivative from it but as having much of the sinfulnesse of that sin in it The evils of which did not dye with those who gave it life And as all flattery is very sinfull so spirituall flattery or flattery about spirituall things is most sinfull both because about them we ought to be most plaine-hearted and because a deceit about them doth most hurt Any kinde of flattery is bad enough but this is worst such was that of the falfe Prophets who daubed with untempered morter and cryed Peace peace when there was no peaee Who set themselves to please not to instruct the people and were therefore busie in sewing pillowes under every elbow A flatterer would make all men leane soft sit easie and be well perswaded of themselves though their case be starke naught He that thus speakes flattery to his Freind doth indeed speake misery yea and death to his Freind The flatterer is the greatest hater and no man speakes worse of another then hee who speakes better of him then he deserves or then his state will beare It is dangerous to speake all the good of a man that is true but to speake good of him which is not true may be his utter undoing And though it hath beene sayd and often experienced that flattery gaines Freinds and Truth-speaking hatred yet none have run into so much hatred as flatterers For as it is sayd of Treason That many love the Treason but all hate the Taytor so many love to heare themselves flattered but all hate flatterers And though true reproofes are bitter Pills and very distastfull to most in the taking downe yet wise Solomon hath assured us That he that rebuketh a man afterwards shall finde more favour even with that man then he that flattereth with his lips Prov. 28.23 There are many who as the Psalmist speakes Psal 36.2 Flatter themselves they are their owne Parasites But as they who flatter others doe most commonly fall under their displeasure so all they sooner or latter shall fall under their owne displeasure and that 's worse then the displeasure of any yea then of all men who have flattered themselves It is our wisedome and our peace to be plaine with our selves and with all men how much present disquiet so ever we get by it Paul speakes it out to the Thessalonians 1 Epist 2.3 4 5. Our exhortation was not of deceit neyther at any time used we flattering words But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel even so we speake not as pleasing men but God Further these words may be expounded not as a threat against his Freinds for their flattering of him but as a threat against himselfe in case he should have flattered them And so they carry also the weight of a reason why hee used so much freedome in reproving them and shewing them the danger that hung over their heads As if he had sayd You my Freinds may perhaps wonder at my boldnesse and plainenesse of speech while I tell you that God hath hid your hearts from understanding and that he will not exalt you But you must pardon me I had rather incurr your frownes by my downeright dealing with you then Gods by flattering you I had rather make your eares tingle by reproving you then make the eyes of my Children ake by my applauding you for this I have learned as a certaine truth that hee who speakes flattery to his Freind the eyes of his Children shall faile Hence Observe That even a godly man doth and ought to strengthen himselfe in doing his duty by the remembrance of those evills which are threatned against the neglect of it A Beleever makes use of the threatnings as well as of the promises to keep his heart close in obedience That is the best obedience which springs from the feare of the Lord and his goodnesse but that may be a good and a pure act of obedience which springs from the feare of the Lord and his wrath Christ exhorts and forewarnes his freinds to feare him who after hee hath killed hath power to cast into Hell Luke 12.5 'T is noblest and most spirituall to obey God for himselfe without respect eyther to Heaven or Hell yet wee may have respect both to Heaven and Hell to reward and punishment in our obedience Joseph resisted temptation by the highest argument when he sayd How can I doe this great evill and sinne against God Gen. 39.9 He resists temptation by a good argument who saith How can I sin against God which will doe so much evill to my selfe or draw many evils upon mine And thus Job argued according to this interpretation when he sayd He that speakes flattery to his freind the eyes of his Children shall faile Or as Master Broughton renders The eyes of the given that way that is to flattery shall be consumed Vox Ban in non filios sed intelligentes vel considerantes significat a Verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod est intelligere hinc sic conficitur textus Et ooculi considerantium eum deficient Bold There is another reading of the latter clause and so of the whole Verse The eyes of those that consider observe or attend him shall faile and so they derive the word Bamin not from Ben a Son or a Childe but from Bin which signifies to understand or consider The eyes of those that consider him shall faile Then the meaning is my freinds are so exact and accute in flattery in composing and uttering fauning speeches that they who heare them are wrapt into an extasie and their very eyes doe faile with their intentnesse in beholding them They are such powerfull Orators that they can draw the mindes and eyes of their Auditors whither they please and cause their eyes to ake with looking so wistly on them having as the Apostle speakes in a like case their persons in admiration Job having thus complained against and taxed his Freinds of flattery goes on to aggravate the sadnesse of his condition and upon the whole to move the Lord to hasten an end of his miseries or to hasten