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
A wind that passeth away and commeth not againe Jobs argument to a letter He considered how easily and quickly they might be destroyed and therefore he destroyed them not Psal 103. 14. Like as a father pittieth his children so doth the Lord c. Why what stirr's up this pity For he knoweth our frame and he remembreth that we are but dust Now that which God himself makes the argument all the argument in us of his turning to us in mercy that we should mannage especially as our argument when we turn to him in prayer Should we plead before God our perfections and say Lord remember our holinesse our zeale our prayers our teares our fastings and humiliations could any of this move God or be any attractive of his compassions toward us If we will plead our perfections God will despise our prayer Our strongest argument is to say we are weake and to tell God we are sinfull prevailes more then to tell him we are righteous We shall gaine most by saying we are unprofitable servants But did not Hezekiah entreat the Lord to remember that he had walked before him in truth and with a perfect heart and done that which was good in his sight Isa 38. 3. And doth not Nehemiah use the like plea Chap. 13. 14 22. I answer first that these were the best most the spirituall and powerfull pleadings with God is not proved because used by good men Grace doth not act alwaies at the height nor bring out choisest it's treasures at all times Secondly they move the Lord to remember what good they had done but they doe not move the Lord by that remembrance to doe them good Hezekiah was so far from rejoycing in his own righteousnes that the text saith He wept sore And Nehemiah with the same breath desires the Lord to remember what he had done and to spare him according to the greatnesse or multitude of mercy He that when he hath done best beggs a multitude of mercies to spare him is farre enough from challenging justice to reward him Men that are but ingenuous will be moved most with a sight or report of anothers weaknesse The beggar speaks most effectually by his rages and sores The Woman 2 Sam. 14. 14. who was hired to move David for the bringing back of Absolom useth this argument For we must needs die and are as water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up again As if she had said Sir if you will contend with your Sonne thus alas his life is but water and he will dye for this is the common condition of mankind therefore be compassionate and pittifull to him fetch home your banished This motive takes much upon the heart of God as in regard of particular persons so of a people in generall Deut. 32. 36. The Lord shall repent himself for his servants But when will he repent himself When he seeth that their power is gone and there is none shut up or left When they have no power and strength and there is none shut up that is when they have no fort no strong places to defend themselves in but even lie open to the rage and malice of the adversary and are ready to sinke utterly then the Lord takes this both as an argument and a season for him to repent of the affliction of his people that is to change the way of his administrations towards them This promise was in part made good to Israel in the dayes of Jeroboam Sonne of Joash 2 King 14. 26. The Lord saw the affliction of Israel that it was very bitter for there was not any shut up nor any left nor any helper in Israel Thirdly speaking of the world he saith Mine eye shall no more see good Observe then That worldly things are good things In their sphear and proportion they are good Abraham minds the rich man Luke 16. Sonne remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things Therefore we are to use the world and all the creatures in it as the good things of God and the goodnesse we see in creatures should raise us up to admire the goodnesse of the Creatour if goodnesse be stamped upon present and temporary things how good are things eternal Fourthly Mine eyes shall no more see good Observe After this life there is no more use or enjoyment of worldly things The things of the world are but for the world Mine eyes shall no more see I shall no more enjoy or use these good things Consider what it is you lay up when you lay up the things of this life you lay up those things which after a while your eyes shall see no more you lay up those things which after a few daies you shal have no more use of you shal have no use at all of your gold no use at all of your silver no use at all of your apparel no use at all of your goodly houses no use at all of your rich furniture no use at all of your lands you shall have no use of all these good things Consider then what it is you lay up a time is coming when you shall say of them all I shall no more see I shall no more use and enjoy any of these good things Therefore be so wise as to improve this time which passes like a Weavers shuttle and a blast of wind to lay up such good things as your eyes shall see when you are laid down in the grave lay up spiritual good things lay up your portion in Christ make him yours and then when you die and lie down in the grave you may say we have good things yet to see our best sight is to come even such a sight as eye hath not seen Such a sight as to which the glory of all the Princes of the world is a meer Pagean tree And so much of Jobs Apostrophe to God The next verse is a further description of the state of the dead Verse 8. The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more thine eyes are upon me and I am not In the former verse Job had said his own eyes should see no more good now he saith that the eyes of others shall see him no more The eye of him that hath seene me shall see me no more It is a great part of the glory and comfort which men take in the world to be seen of men As we take in our comfort by seeing so Ponit bic duo ut significet quod non revertetur ad conversationem humanam quae maximè consist it in videre videri Visus cum sit subtilior sensuum principatum tenet in vita sensibili Aquin. Me quaereâ—t quem aspiciant bumanitus dictum by being seen No man would put himself into goodly cloathing were it not that he goes abroad in company to be seen and knows others will be looking upon him Now as Job sets forth the vanity of the creature and of this life because he
gale of love breathing through the covenant of Grace And as the life of man is compared by Job to a cloud so to that which is the matter of the cloud by the Apostle James Chap. 4. verse 14. where he puts the question what 's the life of man Is it not saith he even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away A vapour is exhaled from the earth by the heat of the Sunne and is the matter out of which the cloud is made Mans life is not only like a cloud which is more condense and strong but like those thin vapours sometimes observed arising from moorish grounds which are the original of clouds and more vanishing then clouds Even these are but vanishing enough to shadow the vanishing decaying quickly dis-appearing life of man As the cloud consumes and vanishes the next words speak out the mind of the comparison So he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more The grave is a descent And the word which is here used for the grave is Sheol about which many disputes are raised among the learned The root of it signifies to desire or to crave with earnestness and the reason given is because the grave is always craving and asking Though the grave hath devoured the bodies of millions of men yet it is as hungry as it was the first morsel still it is asking and craving The grave is numbred among those things which are not satisfied Prov. 30. 16. In the Greeke of the new Testament it is translated Hades which by change of letters some form out of the Hebrew Adam and Adamah the earth unto which God condemned fallen man to returne Gen. 3. 19. We find this word Sheol taken five wayes in Scripture 1. Strictly and properly for the place of the damned Prov. 15. II. Hell and destruction are before the Lord how much more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then all the hearts of the children of men God looks through the darkness of hell which is utter darkness Tam infernus quam sepulchrum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. Status mortuorum vel sepalchrum nam ut anima de corpore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de sepulchro usurpatur Ps 16. Drus 2. It is put Metaphorically for great and extream dangers or miseries which seem irrecoverable and remediless these are figuratively called hell because hell properly taken is a place from whence there is no recovery There 's no release from the chaines of darknesse all changes are on earth Heaven and hell know none When David praises the Lord Psalm 86. 13. for delivering his soul from the lowest hell he meaneth an estate on earth of the lowest and deepest danger imaginable Mercy helpt him at the worst To be as low as hell is to be at the lowest 3. The word signifies the lower parts of the earth without relation to punishment Psal 139. 8. If I go down into hell thou art there He had said before if I ascend up into Heaven thou art there by Heaven he meanes the upper Region of the world without any respect to the estate of blessednesse and hell is the most opposite and remote in distance without respect to misery As is he had said let me go whither I will thy presence finds me out 4. It is taken for the state of the dead whether those dead are in the grave or no Psal 30. 3. Isa 38. 18 19. Gen. 37. 35. In all which places to go out of the world is to go to Sheol Jacob in the text alledged Gen. 37. 35. said he would go down into the grave to his son mourning yet Jacob thought his Son was devoured by a wild beast he could not goe down into the grave to his son for the bowels of a wild beast was his supposed grave but he meaneth only this I wil even die as he is dead So Numb 16. 33. where that dreadful judgement of God upon Korah Dathan and Abiram is storied it is said that they their sheep and their oxen and their tents and all went down into Sheol that is they were all devoured and swallowed up But 5. Sheol signifies the place where the body is layed after death namely the grave Prov. 30. 16. Man hath a demension of earth fitted to the dimensions of his body this portion or allotment is his Sheol Yet it signifies the grave only in generall as it is natural to man-kind not that grave which is artificial and proper to any particular man this the Hebrew expresses by another * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word He that goeth down to the grave goes to his long home to a house out of which he is never able to see or make his way and Ainsw in Gen. 37. therefore it followes He shall come up no more No that 's sad news indeed to go down to the grave and come up no more Are all the hopes of man shut up in the grave and is there an utter end of him when his life ends Shall he come up no more Many of the Greek writers tax Job as not acquainted with the doctrine of the Resurrection as if he either knew not that mystery or doubted at this time of it And some of the Rabbins say plainly Hic abnegat Iob resuscitationem mortuorum Rab. Sol. Non negatur resurrectio ad vitam sed ad similem vitam Pined he denied it But he is so cleare in the 19th Chapter that we need not think him so much as cloudy here And if we look a little farther himself will give us the comment of this text When he saith he shall come up no more it is not a denyal of a dying mans resurrection to life but of his restitution to the same life or to such a life as he parted with at the graves mouth They who die a natural death shall not live a natural life again therefore he addeth in the next verse Verse 10. He shall return no more to his house He doth not say absolutely he shall return no more but he shall return no more to his house he shall have no more to do with this world with worldly businesses or contentments with the labour or comforts of the creature or of his Family He shall return no more to his house But some may say how doth this answer the comparison That as the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more for we find another description of clouds Eccles 12. 2. where the text saith that the clouds return after raine So that it seems though clouds vanish and are consumed yet they returne and come againe The clouds are like bottles full of raine or spunges full of water God crushes these spunges or unstops these bottles and they are emptied and in emptying vanish away but yet Solomon affirms the clouds return after raine how then doth Job say that as the cloud vanisheth so man goeth to the grave
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Levavit evexit sustu li◠signifies to ease or to lift up or to ease by lifting up if a man have a burthen upon him the way to ease him is to lift it off from him so Job here I lye down upon my couch with a burthen of heavy sorrows upon me God knows hoping my couch will be a means to take off that burthen a while that I may have a little breathing but to my grief I find it doth not The use of sleep is to unburthen the spirit and take off the load of cares The word is used in that sense Magnum est peccatum meum prae tollendo vel majus quam ut tolli possit Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quam ut remittatur mihi quam ut sustinere possim Jun. Gen. 4. 13. about the sin of Cain which lay upon him as a heavy burthen My sin saith he is greater than can be forgiven so some translations or greater than I can beare word for word thus my sin is greater than can be taken off Forgivenesse is the taking sin off from us it is the word here used for easing my sin is greater than I can be eased of as if Cain thought his sin a burthen which the arme of mercy could not lift from his shoulders Pardon is the easing of the conscience sin the burthening of it sin is a burthen and so is sorrow My couch saith he shall ease my complaint by taking off or at least intermitting the troubles which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In retractatione five meditatione miseriae apud animum Loquen mecum cause me to complaine or my couch shall ease me in my conplaint when I am meditating revolving and rowling my troubles up and down in my thoughts then my couch and I am discoursing together and reasoning out the matter but no ease comes We may observe from hence first That a man in paine expects ease from every change My bed saith Job shall comfort me my couch shall ease my complaint every thing he sees raises his hope every man that comes to him he lookes upon as a messenger of good newes I said this shall help me and that shall help me surely if I had such a thing saith a sick man it would do me good if I had such meat I could eate if I had such drink my pallat would relish it if I were in such an ayre it would restore my health and I should get up againe As a Bee goes from flower to flower to suck out somewhat so man from instrument to instrument from meanes to meanes from bed to couch still hoping to find reliefe or mitigation at least for his troubled mind or pained body Secondly observe hence That the most probable or proper meanes are unable of themselves to give us any ease or comfort What is fitter to give a man rest than a bed what is more proper to give one refreshing than a couch but Job goes to his bed in vaine and goes to his couch in vaine nor this nor that nor tother administred him any help Creatures are not able of themseves to give out the comforts committed to them Their common nature must be assisted with a speciall word of blessing or else they doe us no good If God will command a bed to comfort us it shall comfort us if he will say to a couch ease such a mans complaint it shall ease his complaint Job saith it and his saying could not effect it Nay if God will say to a hard stone give such a man rest he shall rest and sleepe sweetly upon it when another shall not get a wink of sleep upon a downe pillow If God say to a prison give such a man rest he shall find rest there if God speake to bonds and fetters give such a man content and pleasure he shall find not only contentment but pleasure in bonds and fetters if God say to flames of fire refresh such as are cast into your armes the fire will obey him and refresh them The most probable meanes cannot help us of themselves and a word from God will make the most improbable meanes helpfull to us yea that which is destructive shall save us For as God can create that good for us which is absent so he can as it were uncreate the evill that is present Providence can take away or suspend that hurting and destroying power which creation gave no creature is able to help or to hurt if God forbid and lay his restraint upon it Bread cannot nourish or cloathes warme us if he say they shall not poison shall not kill or fire burne us if he say they shall not Mans saying is but saying Gods saying is doing Man may say to his bed comfort me to his riches and honours content me to his wife and children please me to wine and musick make me merry he may lay his command or send his desires to all creatures and yet remaine comfortlesse contentlesse mirthlesse Pleasure it selfe will not please him nor the having of his will satisfie his mind at his own saying or biding Observe in the fourth place That rest and sleepe are from the especiall blessing of God When I said to my bed do it the bed could not sleepe is not from a soft bed or from an easie couch Psal 127. 2. For so he giveth his beloved sleepe that is sleepe with quietnesse or extraordinary quiet refreshing sleepe which some have noted in the Grammar of the text The Hebrew word Shena for sleepe being with Aleph a quiet or resting letter otherwise than is usuall in that language He giveth sleepe to his Jedidiaths as the word is there alluding to one of the names of Solomon The Lord gives sleepe sometimes as a love token to his beloved The connection is somewhat obscure the words before run thus It is in vaine for you to rise up early to sit up late to eat the bread of sorrow for so he giveth his beloved sleep how is sleepe a consequent of fruitlesse labour and eating the bread of sorrow these rather hinder sleepe Some referre it to the words of the first verse Except the Lord build the house they labour in vaine that build it except the Lord keep the City the watchman waketh but in vaine for so he giveth his beloved sleepe the Lord watches and takes a care of a City and family and thus gives his people rest and quiet sleep they are not awakened with alarms or surprizes of the enemy Others reade it thus for surely he will give his c. that is notwithstanding the ungodly are eaten up with cares to provide bread for themselves and families to eate yet without faile the Lord of his meere mercy will give food convenient to his people by their labours and quiet sleepe which includes all inward contentments with it So Prov. 3. 24. Thou shall lie downe and thy sleep shall be sweet And Psal 41. 3. there is a speciall promise made to
that plow iniquity and sow wickednesse reape the same which he applies parsonally to Job Chap. 22. v. 5 6. Is not thy wickednesse great and thine iniquities infinite Thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought and and stripped the naked of their cloathing c. The whole scope of his speech bends the same way and is as if he had said to Job Though thy carriage hath been so plausible among us that we are not able to accuse thee of sin yet these judgements accuse thee and are sufficient witnesses against thee These cry out with a loud voyce that thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought c. Though we have not seen thee act these sins yet in these effects we see thou hast acted them The snares which are round about thee tell us thou hast laid snares for others he that runs may read how terrible how troublesome thou hast been to the poore in the terrours which have seaz'd thy spirit and in the troubles which have spoyl'd thee of thy riches Bildad the Shuite speaks second His opinion is not so rigid as that of Eliphaz He grants that afflictions may fall upon a righteous person yet so that if God send not deliverance speedily if he restore him not quickly to his former estate and honour then upon the second ground of the fourth princple such a man may be censured cast and condemned as unrighteous That such was Bildads judgement in this case is cleare Chap. 8. 5 6. If thou wert pure and upright surely now he would awake for thee and make the habitation of thy righteousnesse prosperous Though thy beginning was small yet thy latter end shall greatly increase And vers 20 21. Behold God will not cast away a perfect man c. till he fill thy mouth with laughing and thy lips with rejoycing As if he had said I connot assent to my brother Eliphaz affirming That every man afflicted is afflicted for his wickednesse I for my part believe and am perswaded that a godly man may be afflicted for the tryall exercise of his graces c. but then I am assured that God never lets him lie in his afflictions for as soon as he cries and cals the Lord awakes presently makes his habitation prosperous again and increases him more then ever I grant the Lord may cast down a perfect man but he will not in this life cast him away no he will speedily fill his mouth with laughing and his lips with rejoycing Zophar the third Opponent differs from the two former in this great controversie affirming That the reason of all those afflictions which presse the children of men is to be resolved into the absolute will and pleasure of God that we are not further to enquire about his wisdome justice or mercy in dispencing them his counsels being unsearchable and his wayes past finding out Thus he delivers his mind Ch. 11. 7 8. Canst thou by searching find out God Canst thou by searching find him out to perfection It is as high as heaven what canst thou do Deeper then hell what canst thou know vers 12. Vaine man would be wise though man be borne like a wild Asses colt In the rest of his speech he comes nearest the opinion of Bildad vers 14 15 16. and gives out â—s hard thoughts of Job as either of his brethren numbring him among the wicked assigning him the reward of an hypocrite Chap. 10. 29. This is the portion of a wicked man from God and the heritage appointed unto him by God These I conceive are the Characteristicall opinions of Jobs three friends about his case All consistent with those four principles which they hold in common all equally closing in the censure and condemnation of Job though in some things dissenting and falling off from one another But what thinks Job or how doth he acquit or extricate himself from these difficulties very well His sentence is plainly this That The providence of God dispences outward prosperity and affliction so indifferently to good and bad to the righteous the wicked that no unerring judgement can possibly be made up of any mans spirituall estate by the face upon the view of his temporall He declares this as his opinion in cleare resolute and Categoricall termes Ch. 9. v. 22 23. This is one thing therefore I said it He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked if the scourge slay suddenly he will laugh at the triall of the innocent Which opinion hath no quarrell at all with any of those three principles held by Job joyntly and in consort with his three friends but only with their fourth which he throughout refutes as heterodox unsound in it self as uncomfortable to the Spirits and inconsistent with experiences of the Saints In the Strong hold and Fort-royal of this holy truth Job secures himself against all the assaults and scatters all the Objections of his Opponents resolving to maintain it to the very death he will lay his bones by this position say his unkind friends what they can against him let the most wise God doe what he pleases with him That he was a sinner he readily grants that he was an hypocrite he flatly denies That the Lord was righteous in all his dealings with him he readily grants That himself was righteous because the Lord had dealt so with him he statly denies How perfect soever he was he confesses that he needed the free-grace and mercies of the Lord to justifie him but withall asserts that he was perfect enough to justifie himselfe against all the challenges of man In these acknowledgements of his sinfullnesse and denials of insincerity In these humblings of himself before God and acquittings of himself before men in these implorings of mercy from the Lord and complainings of the unkindnesse of his brethren the strength of Jobs answer consists and the specialties of it may be summ'd up 'T is true that through the extremity of his pain the anguish of his spirit and the provocation of his friends some unwary speeches slipt from him For which Elihu reproved him gravely and sharply of which himselfe repented sorrowfully and heartily all which the most gracious God passed by and pardon'd freely not imputing sin unto him Thus Christian reader I have endeavoured as heretofore of the whole Book so now to give a brief account concerning the Argumentative part of it And to represent how far in this great Controversie the Answerer and his Objectors agree in judgement and where they part If this discovery administer any help as a Threed to lead your meditations through the many secret turnings and intricacies of this dispute the labor in drawing it out is abundantly satisfied And if any further light subservient to this end shall be given in from the Father of lights that also in it's season may be held forth and set upon a Candle-stick What is now received together with the textuall Expositions upon this first Undertaking between
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
It was in the night and in that part of the night when deepe sleepe falleth on men that is in the former part or beginning of the night for the first sleepe is the deepe sleepe and we use to say that a man especially a weary hard-wrought man is in a dead sleepe when hee is in his first sleepe The word signifies an extraordinary sleepe It is used Gen. 2. 21. where it is said that God caused a deepe sleepe to fall upon Adam when he took out his rib and formed the woman The Seventy translate it extasie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some compare it to a Lethargie a man in a Lethargie can hardly be awakened Such a sleepe as Saul was in 1 Sam. 26. 12 when David came into the trench and took away the Speare and the Cruse of water from his bolster Such an one as Jonas was in while the ship was almost sunke with the tempest Jonah 1. 5. In both places we have this originall word At the time when such sleepe sals on wearied man Eliphaz had this vision And be speaks very Tempus erat quo prima quies morâ—alibus aegris Incipiâ— dono Divum gratissima seâ—pâ—t In somnis ecce ante occulos maestissimus Hector Visus adesse mihi Vâ—â—g 20. Aeniad elegantly that this deepe sleepe falleth on men because such sleepe seems to oppresse the spirits as a heavie weight the body it fals as heavie as Lead upon all a mans senses and overcomes them we say ordinarily a man fals asleepe and it is as true of sleep that it fals upon a man and fals with such a weight that man is not able to stand under it We say also a men is heavie to sleep for sleep like a heavie thing comes down upon him and then down comes he Heathen Poets tell us that at this time they had visions or delusions rather Satan imitates God in what he can that he may deceive with better successe We may abserve from hence First Seeing Eliphaz had this vision when deep sleep falleth upon men that the power of Gods Spirit works through all naturall impediments when tired nature is willing to fall or cannot stay it selfe from falling into a deep sleep then God can awaken us with his visions and make us see when we cannot hold open our eyes When God will reveale his minde to the soule he overcomes the imperfections of the body Sleepinesse is an imperfection if a man be sleepy he is unfit to hear While the eye is thus shut the eare cannot be open That sleeper in the Acts fell down dead while Paul was preaching Yet when God comes by his mighty power and Spirit though a mans eare be shut he can break through and get into his heart The Word hath taken some napping and nodding Yea God breaks in by his Almighty power in the revelations of his will not only when men are in a dead naturall sleep but when they are in a sleep of spirituall death The Word breaks open the barres of the grave and loosens John 5. 25. the bands of death Secondly for as much as Eliphaz had this vision when deep sleep falleth on men himselfe being kept awake or waking Observe That when we are most retired from the world then we are most fit to have and usually have most communion with God If a man would but abridge himselfe of sleep and wake with holy thoughts when deep sleep falleth upon sorrowful labouring men he might be entertained with visions from God though not such visions as Eliphaz and others of the Saints have had yet visions he might have Every time God communicates himself to the soul there is a vision of love or mercy or power somwhat of God in his nature or in his will is shewed unto us David shewes us divine work when we goe to rest The bed is not all for sleep Commune with your owne heart upon your bed and be still Psal 4. Be still or quiet and then commune with your hearts and if you will commune with your hearts God will come and commune with your hearts too his Spirit will give you a loving visite and visions of his love When Jacob fearing the rage of his brother had put himselfe into the best posture of defence he could and had sent his wives and children his servants and his flocks over the River the Text saith Gen. 32. 24. that Jacob was left alone which is not to be understood as if his company had left or deserted him Jacobs solitarinesse was not passive but elective He having disposed of all his family withdrew himself and stayed alone and what then then he had a vision indeed Then there wrestled a man with him untill the breaking of the day he spent not the night in carking and caring what should become of him the morrow No he retires to pray for a blessing upon his former cares and a blessing he obtains It is observable also concerning Isaac Gen. 24. 36. that he went out into the fields to meditate or as others read it to pray Some foolishly glosse upon it that Isaac being delighted in Astronomy went out to contemplate on the Stars But I believe the walk of Isaac's spirit was above the Stars It is a sweet O sancta anima sola esto ut soli omnium serves reipsam quem ex omnibus tibi elâ—gisti An nescis â—e verecunduni hâ—â—ere spoâ—â—um c. Bernard expression of Bernard If thou wouldest meet Christ in speciall communion doe thou of tentimes retire thy selfe Oh chast and lovely soule doest thou not know thou hast a modest Spouse that will not come to thee in the throng of worldly company and employment Come my beloved saith the Spouse Cant. 7. 11. let us goe forth into the fields and lodge in the villages Let us get from the tumult of the Creature He loves to find his Spouse alone retired into a Chamber or into a Closet or in the fields and Groves in the Gardens and shady walks or in thoughts upon thy bed having ihe Curtains drawn and all the world shut out Some have visions in the night when deep sleep falleth upon men but what are their visions surely they are visions of darknes not of light visions of Hell rather then visions of Heaven The Proplet complains of such who devise evill upon their beds they plot and contrive mischief upon their beds or they have visions of uncleannesse visions of covetousnesse visions of oppression black infernall visions How much better is it to be blind then to have such visions to be asleep then have such waking thoughts But to lye awake in our beds with thoughts of Christ is far more sweet then the sweetest sleep And in the day could we make more vacations from the world we should have more businesse in Heaven Most men are mudding in the earth all day and if they wake in the night earthly care keeps them awake There are many thousands whom
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
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
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
defence is dismayed That word which is common to all places of safety being supposed by our translators as the proper name of some one place of more eminent safety Further although this word Exalted implies safety yet in the Originall we have two words They are exalted to safetie He that is exalted according to the sence of that word is safe But to shew the compleatnesse of their safety safety or salvation is expressed He is exalted to safety with salvation or he is safely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Endyadis exalted in safety It is a full and a perfect safety to which God exalts his mourners and oppressed servants They are as safe as salvation it selfe can make them That 's the force of the Hebraisme From the former clause of the verse we may observe First That advancement is the gift of God He setteth on high those that are low Psal 75. 6 7. Promotion commeth neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South neither this way nor that way nor any way of man but God putteth downe one and setteth up another When a man is advanced by the favour of a Prince it is God that setteth him up If a man be advanced by the vote of the people yet it is God that setteth him up Though a man be advanced by that which may seeme to have most contingency in it by a lot yet it is God that setteth him up Prov. 16. 33. The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. The Lord gives speciall direction to mans peradventure and certainly determines what we call contingent Secondly observe They that are low and mourning are nearest to exaltation and safety To be very low it is to be as it were in a due posture and readinesse to be exalted very high He setteth the low on high Luk. 1. 51. He hath put downe the mighty from their seate and hath exalted the humble and meeke or hath exalted the lowly and the meeke We are not to understand it onely of those who are low that is lowly in minde that frame of heart which is wrought above in the highest heavens is in this sense lowest upon the earth but we may understand it likewise of those who are low in their estates many that are low in mind may be high in place a man may have aboundance of humility in the height of outward eminency Therefore I say we must take in both Before honour goes humility as a high mind before a fall Prov. 15. 33. And Psal 113. 6 7. He raiseth up the poore out of the dust and listeth the needy out of the dunghill that he may set him with Princes c. And as it is in reference to particular persons so to the Church and people of God in generall when they are low then look for their raising up The Scripture is frequent in this Deut. 32. 36. Psal 12. 6. Psal 102. 13. And in that notable place Isa 33. 9 10. The Ambassadours of peace weepe bitterly the earth mourneth and Lebanon languisheth and Carmel shakes off her fruit c. All places every creature is brought in mourning with that mourning people When it was thus with them Now will I arise saith the Lord now will I be exalted now will I lift up my selfe There are three Nowes for it to note That the speciall Now of their exaltation But the text saith God would then be exalted Was he brought low God is alwayes alike exalted in himselfe but he is not alwayes alike exalted in his people therefore when he saith now will I be exalted the meaning is I will exalt this people who are low that my name may be exalted and lifted up in the sight of all people Therefore our low estate should be so farre from sinking that it should lift up our faith in beleeving deliverance and exaltation A low estate is a great advantage for faith faith hath surest footing when we lye prostrate upon the ground There faith stands firmest because there faith meets with most promises Promises are the foundation of faith The people of God have never so much of the word about them as when they have least of the world about them The covenant sits closest to us when we are divested of the creature When the river is at the lowest ebbe we are sure the tide is comming in The night is darkest a little before day breakes When the dayes are shortest and the winter sharpest then the spring of mercy is at hand As the highest flourish of ungodly ones is the immediate forerunner of their downfall Psal 92. 7. When the wicked spring as the grasse what then would you know the meaning of it The next words are a comment upon the former It is that they shall be destroyed for ever So the lowest downfall of the godly is usually the immediate forerunner of their advancement When the godly wither as the grasse the interpretation of it is That they shall flourish for ever Observe in the third place from that word exalted to safety That God can set his people on high beyond the reach of all their enemies Beyond the reach of their heads or counsels and beyond the reach of their hands and swords Isa 33. 16. The munitions of rockes shall be their place of defence He setteth them on high that no ladders can be found long enough to scale these rocks nor any Artillery or engine strong enough to batter them downe And least any should say but we will hold the siege till we starve them out it followes in the text Bread shall be given him his waters shall be sure I remember a story in Alexanders warres that when he came to besiege the Sogdians a people who dwelt upon a rock or had the literall munition of rocks for their defence they jeered him and asked him whether his Souldiers had wings or no Unlesse your Souldiers can fly in the ayre we feare you not It is a most certaine truth when God exalts a people he can set them upon a rock so high that unlesse their adversaries have wings and those more then Eagles wings to soare higher then God himselfe they are beyond annoyance He carries his owne upon Eagles wings what wings then must they have who get above his people There are these two things about which the thoughts of men are most conversant The one is to be set on high the other is to be set in safety They both meet in the mercy here promised He setteth on high those that are low that 's their honour He exalts them to safety that 's their comfort The first thoughts of men are spent to get a great estate but their next thoughts are to keep and protect it Experience hath often shewed us the men of the world rolling riches and Titles together into a mountaine but it hath been a mountain of snow one hot day hath melted all down The mountain of outward blessings upon
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
estate is pronounced a blessing is because the poore in spirit are full of desires after spirituall riches They are ever craving and seeking to be filled with that fulnesse which is in Christ with grace for grace they would have every image of every grace in Christ engraven upon their souls Or in a holy covetuousnesse they would be as rich in grace as Christ is Grace for grace as a covetous man would have penny for penny pound for pound with his richest neighbour or as an ambitious man would have honour for honour title for title with his greatest neighbour That Christian who sees his estate lowest usually set his desires highest his affections are ever upon the wing for supplies from Christ Both the civill poor man and the spirituall poor soul would fain be enriched He saveth the poor from the Sword from their mouth and from the hand of the mighty Some reade this by apposition he saveth the poore from the Sword their mouth making the latter to be but an exposition of the former From the Sword their mouth that is their mouth is the Sword from which God saveth his poore So taken it is a truth for the mouth is a sharpe Sword as killing as any instrument or engine of warre Hence others who keepe this sence reade it thus A gladio orâ—â—â—orum Vulg. Ab oâ—â—isione oris eorum Chas Vt 〈◊〉 gennâ—ivum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gâ—adâ—â— oris est ipsa lingua mala i. e. calumnia falsa quâ— homo tanquam gâ—adio neâ—aâ—ur Sed meâ—ius a gladio qui â—x ore ipsoâ—um i. e. a falsis Testimoniis Drus He saveth the poore from the Sword of their mouth or from the killing stroake of their mouth making the particle Mem in the Originall to governe the genitive case The Sword of their mouth or the Sword comming out of the mouth There are two Swords of the mouth two comming out of the mouth or one double edged 1. Slander 2. False-witnesse by which often the reputation and sometime the person of a man is murthered But I conceive that the clearest meaning of the Originall though both are good is to reade these as distinct evils from which He saveth the poore namely 1. From the Sword And 2 From their mouth 3. From the hand of the mighty That is From Nimrods mighty hunters oppressours of the poore or from the violent man I returned saith the Preacher Eccles 4. 1. and considered all the oppressions that are done under the Sunne and behold the teares of such as were oppressed and they had no comforter and one the side of their oppressours there was power but they had no comforter Oppressours are alwaies cloathed with power and the oppressed seldome find so much pity from men as to be their comforters Therefore for the oppression of the poore and the cry of the needy the Lord arises and he saves his poor From the slaying Sword slandering tongue oppressing hand These three wayes crafty powerfull men seeke to destroy the poore First by the Sword to cut off their lives Secondly by slander to blemish and blot out their good names Thirdly by strong hand to captivate their persons or oppresse their estates and liberties To be saved from all these destructions is compleate salvation Let the wicked attempt as many wayes as they will or can to destroy the Lord both will and can find out as many wayes to save The malice of man shall never out act or over-match the mercy of God He saveth the poore from the sword c. I should here more distinctly open these great evils The Sword The mouth and the hand of the mighty with the goodnesse of God in saving his poore from them But these particulars occurre againe v. 20 21. Where you may find a more distinct explication of them From these words thus farre opened Observe First to what all the devices and crafty counsels of ungodly Politicians tend Here we have the issue or English of their counsels the meaning of their State mysteries is interpreted Oppression Their craft concludes in cruelty and their witty devices in drawn Swords slandering tongues or the hands of violence We may say of them as Jacob of his sonnes Simeon and Levi Gen. 49. 5 6. Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations O my soule come not thou in their secret for in their anger they will slay men and in their selfe will digge down a wall Secondly observe their method First here is the bloudy Sword they will cut them off and rid their hands of them if they can They could wish as that bloudy Roman Emperor that the heads of their smpposed enemies possibly their best friends were set upon one shoulder and that they might cut them all off at one blow But if God save his poore from the mouth of the Sword then the next weapon is the Sword of their mouths Slanders and defamations lyes and false accusations shall reach them whom iron and steele pike and shot cannot The tongue is a little member but it is a world of iniquity and beasteth often acteth great things Jam. 3. 5 6. But if God saves his poore from both mouth and Sword so that their enemies cannot prevaile at sharpes Then they try at blunts by a heavy hand to over-loade oppresse and keepe them down in their estates liberties and priviledges Observe thirdly That Salvation is of the Lord. The faith of David grasped this as his richest treasure Psal 68. 20. He that is our God he is the God of salvation The Lord is called the God of salvation as the God of comfort both affirmatively and negatively Salvation is to be had in him and there is no salvation to be had without him Truly in vaine is salvation hoped for from the hils and from the multitude of mountains from Armies or from counsels from the power and polices of men In the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel Jer. 3. 23. Fourthly it is observeable against whom these crafty cruell men muster up and levie the united forces of sword tongue and hand They are the poore He saveth the poore Why will not God save the rich will he not save the mighty the Princes of the earth Yes God will save all that feare him both high and low rich and poore Why then is it said He saveth the poore As it were determining Salvation upon them The reason is because as the poore are most easily opprest so usually they are most opprest where the hedge is lowest men goe over fastest And because for the most part Gods people are poore comparatively to others they are the vallies the lower parts of the earth and wickednesse is commonly advanced upon the mountaines of wealth honour and greatnesse therefore the denomination is taken from them He saveth the poore They whom God loves most the world loves least and they have least of the world The world gives most to its own And God hath given his own so much beyond the
unto us a place of broad rivers A river that shall not be drawn dry or sluced out as Euphrates was by Cyrus when he took Babylon but shall sill its bankes and shoares perpetually that is the Lord will be there a perpetual defence A river that shall never be impoverish'd but shall keep a full stock and treasure of streames and waters Dalilah had her name from this root and it carries an elegant allusion to the qualities of all Dalilahs or insinuating lascivious women they drayne the strength exhaust the purses dry up the credit wast the All of the mightiest Sampsons whose hearts are entangled by their flatteries or ensnared by their beauties The poore have hope The word hath been opened at the 6th verse of this Chapter to note strong and earnest expectation The poore man observing the wonders which God doth in the world cannot be out of hope though he be out of possession And though his own strength be gone yet he lives upon the strength of Christ he hopes strongly that 's the force of the word when he feeles no strength When I am weake saith the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 12. 10. then am I strong that is I am strongest through hope in Christ when I am weakest through sense in my selfe More distinctly this hope may be taken two wayes 1. For the object or thing hoped for 2. For the act or grace of hope In the former notion of hope the sense runnes thus God having taken the wise in their own craftinesse and disappointed the device of the crafty having delivered the poore from the sword from their mouth and from the hand of the mighty now the poor hath the thing he looked for the thing he prayed for the thing for which he hath been seeking and waiting upon God So the poore hath hope that is he hath the mercy he expected salvation from the sword c. he is made partaker of his hope by those glorious administrations of the justice and mercy of God Hence observe First Gods poore hope for good in the worst times When deliverance comes these poore have but that which they looked for they looked for light when they were in the darkest condition When they were exhausted they knew God was not exhausted and when they were drawn dry they knew the Lord was not though their treasure was spent yet they were assured the treasury of Heaven was full When strength is gone and money is gone and friends are gone yet God is not gone and therefore they know the good may come which they hope for Turne ye to the strong holds ye priseners of hope saith the Prophet Zech. 9. 12. The people of God though prisoners are yet prisoners of hope that is they have hope of deliverance and enlargement in their greatest streights The power of God is never imprison'd and while his people can make this out their spirits are not Secondly observe It is no vain thing to hope in God The poore hath his hope The Prophet brings in the Jewes thus trumphing in God Isa 25. 9. And it shall be said in that day What day was that The former verse points it out A day wherein death shall be swallowed up in victory wherein teares shall be wiped away from off all faces c. And in that day the people of God shall thus boast of God and as it were shewing him to the world shall say Loe this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us This is the Lord we have waited for him we will be glad and rejoyce in his salvation vaine hopes fill our face with shame but hopes fulfilled fill our hearts with rejoycing The poore hath his hope he can shew his hope 't is visible As Hannah when she came to present her Son unto Eli For this child I prayed as if she should say Sir here is my prayer you could not heare my prayer when I was in the Temple you thought I was drunken but now you may see my prayer here it is for this child I prayed and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asâ—ed of him 1 Sam. 1. 27. So the soule saith In such a time of trouble personall or nationall I was praying and seeking God I was beleeving and hoping men knew not understood not the workings of my soule toward Christ yet now they may see them here is the thing I prayed for here is that I hoped for So first the poore hath hope Secondly The poore hath hope that is the grace of hope or the gracious actings of hope and taking it so the sense rises thus So that is God having done such great things in disappointing the devices of the crafty and in saving his poore by this meanes the poore come to have hope the grace of hope strengthned and confirmed in them Hence observe That The experience we have of Gods power and mercy in saving us out of former troubles breeds and nourishes hope against future times of trouble So the poore hath hope Though the poore man was in a hopelesse condition before yet now seeing the works of God he hath hope laid up for ever Psal 64. 9 10. All men shall feare and declare the workes of God for they shall wisely consider of this thing And what followes The righteous shall be glad in the Lord and trust in him that is if they have fail'd in their trust hâ—â—etofore and not given God honour by confiding in him yet these wonderfull works of God of which he speakes in that Psalme worke this hope Rom. 5. 4. Tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope Graces have a generation one from another though all have but one generation from Christ at once We have here the genealogy of hope in three descents Experience is the next or immediate parent of hope So the poore hath hope Thus it is begotten 2 Cor. 1. 10. God who hath delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in him we trust that he will yet deliver us An armed daring Goliah should be looked upon as vanquisht already when we can but remember a vanquisht Lion and a Beare Againe The poore hath hope He doth not say God having thus destroyed the ungodly and saved his own people from the sword c. now they have liberty now they have peace now they have aboundance of riches and prosperity but he makes this the issue now they have hope Whence note That Hope is a greater and better possession unto the people of God here than all the great and good things which they possesse Put as much into their hands us you can there is more than that put in their hearts by hope The poore hath hope he lookes over all his possessions and pitcheth upon expectation as his portion The estate which a beleever hath in the promises is more than the estate he hath in possession Riches in the promise is better than riches in the chest And so the deliverances and
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
or that because they had gone on to sin three and foure times that is very often times therefore the mercy of God was at a stand and could goe on no further but these numbers three and foure note the boundlesse impenitency of those Syrians or their malicious persecutions of the people of God dayes and times without number They turne not from their transgressions theirs are three and foure they will never have done therefore I will begin to punish or I will never have done punishing I will not turne away the punishment thereof Such formes of speech are frequent in Heathen a O terque quaterque beati Virg. lib. 1. Aenead Terque quaterque manu pectus percussa Deo rum Id. l 4. Authors when they would enlarge or multiply the sense Againe b Vbiseptenario numero â—ctonarius adai ur ingentem exprimit pro pè infinitam multitudinem The numbers seven and eight have a greater emphasis in Scripture Eccles 11. 8. Give a portion to seven and also unto eight That is give much and give to many give yet discreetly to all commers We must not stint nor bound our charity Give a portion to seven give to many and if there come more give to more give also unto eight Charity preferres some but she refuses none who are meet objects of charity And when the Lord would shew what choice and store of able men both for counsell and action his people should have in times of dangers and invasions He prophecies by Micah that the people shall speake thus Chap. 5. 5. When he sc the Assyrian shall tread in our palaces then shall we raise against him seven Shepheards and eight principall men that is we shall muster multitudes of wise valiant faithfull men every one of which may be fit to command or direct in chiefe Seven Shepheards and eight principall men So then He shall deliver thee in six troubles yea in seven c. is as if the Holy Ghost had said by Eliphaz O Job The Almighty Shaddai of whom I have spoken to thee is of such power and hath such an unwearied arme that he is able to deliver thee not only in one or two or three or many troubles but he can deliver thee in six yea in seven in all thy troubles let the number of thy afflictions be as great as thou canst imagine The power and malice of men cannot multiply thy troubles faster than the power and goodnesse of God can multiply thy deliverances yea if he pleases he could perfect seven deliverances for thee before they can lay the plot of one trouble against thee Observe hence in brief first Deliverance it is of the Lord. He shall deliver thee Whatsoever the instruments are by which deliverance is brought to you or in whose hand soever deliverance is put Know that the worke and procurement of it is from above It is the priviledge of God and of God alone to be a Deliverer And he hath deliverance at his command Psal 44. 4. Command deliverances for Jacob. Man must humbly petition for and beg deliverance But God stands not intreating the creature or debating the matter with Kings and Princes with the strongest and most hard-hearted Pharoahs to deliver his people but he sends forth a writ of deliverance and Authoritatively commands deliverance when it is his pleasure a person or a people shall be delivered Secondly obseve The Lord can deliver as often as we need deliverance In six troubles yea in seven This should beare up our hearts in the returnes the multiplied returnes of troubles Though as Rheumatick old age is described Eccles 12. 2. The clouds returne after raine That is though one evill follows upon or treads on the heele of another though as soone as one blacke cloud is dissolved and we begin to say as in nature this was a rainie day but sure the next will be faire yet the next proves more over-cast and lowring then that even in such a case know God hath a wind in his first which he can let out to scatter those clouds before they dissolve or if they dissolve he hath a Sun at command to dry up the fallen raine The Lord hath a succession of mercies for our succession of sorrows Say not then we have got off this trouble but what if another come If another come you have the same God and he can give you another deliverance Have not our later experiences taught us this truth Have we not been delivered in six troubles yea in seven Our straits have not been single we may say as she in Genesis at the birth of her son Behold a Troope Enemies have not given over conspiring and acting against us and we ought to speake it to his glory our God hath not given our delivering and doing for us Not once only but many a time may our Israel now say If it had not bin the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us they had swallowed us up quicke when their wrath was kindled against us The waves and bilowes of our Seas The rocks and clifts of our Shores the foundations and the pinacles of our Parliament houses the wals and gates of our Fenced Cities the swords and bucklers of our Mighty men in the high-places of the Field may all beare this inscription Shaddai delivers in six troubles yea in seven The Lord spake once to his people as if he were weary of delivering or would not deliver Judg. 10. 10. There we reade the people of Israel in a great strait crying to the Lord for deliverance but he answers ver 11. Did not I deliver you from the Aegyptians and from the Amorites and from the children of Ammon and from the Philistines The Zidonians also and the Amalekites and the Moabites did oppresse you and ye cryed unto me and I delivered you out of their hand Here are seven troubles in which they found deliverance But as if six or seven deliverances which we have expounded for boundlesse deliverances were now the utmost bound of deliverance he resolves v. 13. I will deliver you no more And at the 14. he turnes them off to their Idols for helpe Goe saith he and cry unto the gods which you have chosen and let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation But what was the reason of this refusall The reason was this not because God was weary of delivering that people but because that people were weary of their God Ye have forsaken me and chosen other gods ver 13. If we choose our selves another god then we choose our selves another deliverer so long as we looke upon God as our God so long we may looke upon God as our deliverer God would never have turned them off for deliverance to any thing below what was in their conceit a God How sad will it be now that we are in great troubles and crying daily Lord deliver us out of these straights for thou art he whose name is The
Deliverer in six troubles yea in seven How sad I say will it be if we have put God to reade the Chronicle and repeate the historie of his deliverances given us as he did to Israel and say I delivered you in 88 from the Spaniard I delivered you in 1605. from the Gun-powder-Treason I delivered your Parliament I delivered your City I have often delivered your Armies and sometimes crown them with glorious victories now I will deliver you no more Will not such speakings from providence be a plaine conviction that we have forsaken the Lord and chosen other gods God hath sometime what a miracle of mercy chosen those who forsook him but he never so stedfast is he in faithfullnes forsook any who chose him to be their God If he keepe not such from yet he will certainly preserve all such in trouble as it follows Yea in seven there shall no evill touch thee He saith not He shall deliver thee from six troubles and from Non dicit â sexsed in sex non quod ab illis non possit sed quod cum acciderint ab illis liberet ut in illis non succumbat seven As if troubles should only threaten but never come upon us or as if all our deliverances should be preventions but he shall deliver thee in six troubles yea in seven there shall no evill touch thee Evill signifies sometimes the evill of sin and sometimes the evill of punishment We may here take it either way The Lord will so keep up thy spirit and direct thy way in trouble that thou shalt not defile thy selfe with the evill of sin thy troubles shall purge not pollute thee And he wil so keep thee that thou shalt not be annoyed by any evill of punishment If fatherly displeasure should appeare against thee wrath shall not Love shall be mixed with thy correction with thy wormwood and gall as the Church speaks in the Lamentations thou shalt have a temperament of hony and of sweetnesse Ita eripiet ut nullum malum attingat eâ—tiaÌ„si tentari conflictari sâ—naâ— ad tempus nocumentum tamen non capies Coc. in loc though troubles presse thee yet evill shall not Touch thee Not touch thee This notes exact deliverance we think ourselves well many times if we can come off from dangers with a scratch face with a wound or with the losse of a limbe but to come off without the losse of a haire or which is lesse without a touch speakes a compleate deliverance It astonisht Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 3. 27. to see the three children come out of the fiery fornace without a haire of their heads singed without any change of their coats or the smell of fire So much this imports thou shalt passe the pikes through six yea seven a whole army of troubles and no evill shall touch thee When the woman told the tempting Serpent God hath said ye shall not eate of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden nor touch it Gen. 3. 3. She implyed a charge of totall abstinence And when the Lord salth No evill shall touch thee it implies a promise of totall deliverance In the first and second chapters of this book and it is the same originall word Satan begs leave of God that he might touch Job and touch all that he had Now here Eliphaz seemes to touch that string No evill shall touch thee as if he had said God will not let his servants be overwhelm'd as thou art with evils no evill shall so much as touch them And the truth is though Satan obtained leave of God to afflict the body of Job with paines and he made it all over as one wound yet no evill touched him in the sence here intended Though Job was all over evill sores yet there was not so much as the least scarre of an evill upon him Troubles touch't him but evils did not And troubles may touch the servants of God but evill shall not Hence observe God saves and delivers his people from all evill even while they are in the midst of trouble He delivers as well in trouble as from trouble while trouble is continued good may be enjoyed While his are in the water and in the fire God is with them and his presence is more then deliverance Isa 43. 2. If God be with us though all evils are upon us yet no evill touches us The presence of the chiefe good is banishment to every evill As a wicked man may be loaded with good things and yet none of them touch him that is doe him any good So a godly man may be loaded with evils and yet none of them touch him that is doe him any hurt And thus we may understand that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 14. God is faithfull who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make away to escape that ye may be able to beare it Temptation you shall have but with temptation even while temptation is upon you or while you are in temptation The Lord will make a way for you to escape the evill of that temptation Thus with or in trouble we have deliverance To be kept from the evill of trouble is a deliverance from trouble while we are in trouble Thus far of the generall promise Now Eliphaz goes on to particulars in the 20 verse c. As if he had said Least thou shouldst think I deale onely in generall notions that I may more easily elude and deceive thee Therefore Dolosus versatur in universalibus I will now give instance in the point and name what troubles I meane I will ascend with thee to particulars and reckon up the greatest outward evills the most pinching straits that befall the sons of men or the children of God and out of all these I affirme The Lord will deliver thee Vers 20. In famine he shall redeem thee from death and in war from the power of the sword Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue c. Famine Redimere est lucrari ex alterus potestate interposito precio velpotentia conâ—ravim detinenâ—ium ad faciendum liberuÌ„ aut suum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Redemit liberavit ex augustia servitute c. leads the Vanne of this great Army of Evills here mustered up He shall redeem But what is it to redeem from Famine To redeem properly is to take a man out of the power of another by price or by greater power Redemption is an act of speciall favour and it notes a speciall distinction by favour When God threatned Pharaoh and his people with swarmes of flies and promised that his own people should be free I will sever in that day the Land of Goshen in which my people dwell that no swarms of Flies shall be there vers 22. This act of divine discrimination is called Redemption in the next verse And I will put a division Heb. a Redemption between
thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh This verse contains a second paire of evills First The scourge of the tongue Secondly Destruction Two things are here to be enquired into about the former 1. What is meant by the scourge of the tongue 2. What it is to be hid from it The scourge of the tongue Mr Broughton reades it thus Quo tempore lingua flâ—gallabit homines Drus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In piel est detrahare vel nocere lingua Thou shalt be delivered or thou shalt be hid when the tongue whippeth And another to the same serce At what time the tongue shall be scourging of men thou shalt be secured from it And that word Leshon the tongue in Piel signifies to detract to traduce or slander the same word is used both for the instrument of the tongue and one of the worst acts of the tongue calumination or we may render it according to the exact lettter of the Hebrew elegancy to Betongue a man We use such a kind of speaking in our language as to strike a man with a cudgell or a Cane-staffe is to cudgel or cane a man and if a man be shot with a pistol we say he was pistol'd so a man smitten with anothers tongue is said in the Hebrew to be Betongu'd or such an one hath betongu'd him We leave the Verbe and translate by the Nowne From the scourge of the tongue In construction Beth In is often rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saepe redditur per Min 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Min From as Grammarians know Thou shalt love the Lord thy God in all thy heart or from thy whole heart or from the heart-root So here Thou shalt be hid in the scourge that is thou shalt be hid from the scourge when the tongue is lashing and whipping thou shalt be hid from the lash and scourge of tongues But what may we understand by this scourge of the tongue First Some take it for publique accusations before a Judge or Magistrate Many scourge their brethren at the Tribunal of Princes Rev. 12. That accuser of the brethren that traducer the Devill is conceived to make those accusations by his agents in those times before the heathen Emperours against the Christians The Christians in that age were extreamly scourged by malignant and malevolent tongues tongues set on fire of hell as the Apostle James speaks Chap. 3. 6. And so the scourge of the tongue may be that punishment which they by false accusations obtained against the innocent their tongues got judgement against them sometimes to be scourged or whipt therefore also that very work of the tongue is well called scourging Our Lord Jesus was crucified upon the tongues of the Jewes before he was crucified upon the crosse by the Romans The Jewes cryed out first crucifie him crucifie him here was the crosse of the tongue The conspirators against Jeremiah advise thus Chap. 18. 18. Let us smite him with the tongue that is let us accuse him to the King that he may Accusemus eum apud regem omni industria ratione efficiamus ut publica sententia vapuleâ— Flagellum linguae est poena in judcio constituâ—a postulata fieri à calumniatoribus be smitten by a publick sentence In this sence a man is imprisoned by the tongue banished by the tongue hang'd and burn'd by the tongue that is the tongue doth all these virtually or vitiously rather by false accusations causing these things to be done actually and formally Secondly Others interpret the scourge of the tongue to be those terrible and dreadfull reports which amaze lash and afflict the spirit about the approach of dangers As when a report is rung in the eare that an invading enemy spoylers and plunderers arm'd with power and malice are at hand to take away estates liberties and lives How many have bin beaten about the ears and scourg'd with such Alarums Jer. 50. 43. it is said The King of Babylon hath heard the report of them what report was it and of whom A spie rides in and kills the King with his tongue strikes him thorough with his tongue before he was toucht with the sword of the Medes and Persians How He brought him a sad report that the enemy was upon his march then it follows The King of Babylon hath heard the report of them and his hands waxed feeble anguish took hold of him and pangs as of a woman in travell We find the like expression Isa 28. 18 19. They who had slighted the judgements of God and said when the overflowing scourge shall passe thorough it should not come neare them even these saith God shall be vext when they doe but heare of a scourge coming neare I will send a report and it shall passe over morning by morning and it shall travell by day and by night and what shall be the effect of it It shall be a vexation saith the Lord onely to understand the report You shall not onely be vexed when the enemy is come and thrusts a sword into your bowells and fire into your houses but you shall be vext at the noise of his coming it shall be a vexation to you to heare the report It is a great mercy to be delivered and hid from this scourge of the tongue and this is promised him who feares God Psal 112. 7. No evill tydings shall make him afraid A heart which hath trembled at the voice of God instructing him shall not tremble at the voice of men reporting evill to him Many a man is more afraid than hurt and more perplexed with the hearing of evill tydings then others are with seeing or feeling the evill The Lord threatens Ely to doe such a thing in Israel and against his house that both the eares of him that hears shall tingle 1 Sam. 3. 11. But Thirdly Some translate thus He shall be hidde when the Quidam cum vâ—gâ—bitur Imguae ut sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Drus Merc. tongue wandreth or walketh about for the same word which signifies a scourge by the alteration of a point in the Hebrew signifies to run to and fro It is the word used in the first Chapter where Satan reports himselfe A Goer to and fro about the earth There is an expression Psalm 73. 9. sutable to this sense though the Originall word be not the same They set their mouth a-against the Heavens and their tongue walketh thorow the earth The tongues of many take long journeyes while themselves sit still Kings are said to have long hands but many of their subjects have long tongues and strike their brethren with them many hundreds of miles off the tongue travels from towne to towne from City to City and scourgeth one here and there another And while these men send their tongues about a wandring to wound here and there this and that mans credit He is a happy man that can be hid from them
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
and when he wills he can reach the life Secondly observe If God put out his power no creature can stand before it If God doe but let loose his hand man is cut off presently It is but as a little twigge or as grasse before the sith or before a sword there is no more in it As when God openeth the hand of his mercy he satisfieth the desire of every living thing Psal 145. 2. So when God looseth the hand of his judgements he takes away the life and comforts of every living thing God hath a hand full of blessings and mercies if he please but to open that hand all things are filled with comfort God hath another hand full of judgments and afflictions if he open or loosen that all creatures fall before him like a withered leafe The reason why the enemies of God live and are mighty is because God doth not fully loosen his hand against them if he would but unprison his power and let out his hand he can with ease destroy and cut them off in a moment Therefore the prophet prayes but for this one thing Psalm 74. 11. That God would pluck his hand out of his bosome why with drawest thou thy hand even thy right hand pluck it out of thy bosome Lord saith he this is the reason why enemies yet prevail thy hand is tyed up that is Thine owe act hath tyed up thy hand thy will stayes thy power or thy power is hid in thy will Gods power kept in by his will is his hand in his bosome Among men a hand in the bosome is the embleme of sloth Prov 19 24. Man hides his hand in his bosome because he will not be at the paines to worke God is said to hide his hand in his bosome when it is not his will and pleasure to work therefore he saith Lord if thou wouldest but let loose and put out thy hand all mine enemies shall be consumed And that 's the reason why there are such various dispensations of providence in these times when the enemy prevailes God with draweth his hand he keepeth his hand in his bosome And when at any time his servants have victorie it is because his hand hath liberty If God holds his hand men stretch forth theirs in vain Observe Thirdly Assurance of a better life will carry the soule with joy through the sorrows and bitterest pains of death It was not any Stoical apathy or ignorant regardlessenesse of life which raised the heart of Job to these desires He did not invite his end like a Roman or a philosopher or by the height and gallantry of naturall courage set the world at nought and bid defiance to destruction But he had laid up a good foundation against this day upon this he builds his confidence He knew as Paul that he had Christ while he lived and should have gaine when he dyed The joy which was set before him made him over-look the crosse which was before him So much of his request now he tels us the consequence or effect it would have upon him in case it were granted Vers 10. Then should I yet have comfort yet I would harden my selfe in sorrow Let him not spare for I have not concealed the words of the holy One Then should I yet have comfort If I had but this suit granted I were refreshed notwithstanding all my sorrows the very hope of death would revive me Nothing doth so much refresh the soule as the hearing of a Prayer and the grant of a desire when desire cometh it is as a tree of life saith Solomon therefore Job might well say when my longing comes I shall have comfort and lest any should think that as David would not drinke the water he so longed for when it was brought unto him So when the cup of death should be brought to Job he might put it off somewhat upon those termes which David did and say I will not drinke it for it is my bloud my death therefore he adds Yea I would harden my self in sorrow As if he had said though some call hastily for death and repent with as much haste when death comes yet not I I would harden my selfe c. The Hebrew to harden hath a three-fold signification among the Jewish writers though it be used but this once onely in all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat 1. Solidare roborare 2. Calefarere urere 3 Orare suppliciter praecari Scripture And hence there is a three-fold interpretation of these words I would harden my selfe in sorrow It signifies 1 To Pray or to beseech 2 To heat or to Warm yea to scorch and to burn 3 To harden or to strengthen strengthning is hardning in a metaphor According to the first sense the text is rendred thus Then should I yet have comfort yea I would pray in my sorrow that is I would pray yet more for an increase of my sorrow that I might be cut off If I had any hope that my request should be granted this hope would quicken my desire and I would pray yet more that I might obtain it Secondly as the word signifies to warm or to heat the sense is given thus Then should I have comfort yea I would warm my selfe in my sorrow And so it refers it to those refreshings which his languishing soul his soul chilled as it were with sicknesse and sorrows should receive upon the news of his approaching death This newes saith he would be as warm cloaths to me it Hac spe certissin â moriendi incalescerem refocillarer would fetch me again out of my fainting to heart of dying But besides a warming or a refreshing heat the word also notes scorching burning heat Mr. Broughton takes that signification of the word I shall touch that and his sence upon it by and by We translate according to the third usage of the word I would harden my self and so the construction is very fair I should yet have comfort yea I would harden my self in sorrow that is I would now set my selfe to endure the greatest sorrowes and afflictions which could come upon me for the destroying and cutting off the threed of my life And so he seems in these words to prevent an objection before hinted Why Job dost thou desire to be cut off and to be destroyed thou hast more pain upon thee already then thou art able to bear thou cryest out of what thou hast thou must think when death comes thy wound will be deeper and thy pain sharper Iob seemes to answer I have considered that before I know there will be a hard brunt at parting I prepare for it and am thus resolved I would harden my self in sorrow that is I would set my selfe to bear the pangs and agonies of death if I had but this hope that my miserie were near expiring The Apostle useth that phrase 2 Tim. 2. 3. in his advices to young Timothy Thou as a good souldier of Jesus Christ endure
hardnesse or bear evil As if he had said thou dost not know what hardship thou shalt be put unto in thy ministry I who am a veterane 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an old beaten though never conquered souldier in this warfare of Christ have been put to much hardship in my time and from my owne experience I advise thee to inure thy selfe to hardship to lie hard to fare hard to work hard to hear hard words and receive hard usage A tender spirit and a delicate body which must have warme and soft and fine and sweet continually is unfit for the warfare of the Gospel Such a sence is here I know I must endure more than now I doe but I would harden my selfe against that time and resolve to endure it let come what could come I am resolved and have fore-thought the worst Further for the clearing of these words it is considerable that some learned Interpreters put the two middle expressions into a parenthesis and read the whole thus I should have comfort though I should scorch with paine and though God should not spare me for I have not concealed the words of the holy One. One thus This yet is my comfort even while I scorch with pain Iunius and God doth not spare me that I have not concealed the words of the holy One Mr. Broughton as I touched before comes near this sence and translation So I should yet find comfort though I parch in paine when he would not spare For I kept not close the words of the most Holy That is when the long expected houre of my death shall come though God to take away my life should heat the fornace of my affliction seven times hotter then hitherto so that I must parch in paine yet I should have comfort Or take it in Master Broughtons owne glosse in all these pangs if God would make an end of me it should be my comfort and I would take courage in my sicknesse to beare it by my joy that I should die because I professed the Religion of God So that the strength of Job to bear the hand of God was from the conscience of his former integrity in doing the will and maintaining the truth of God Let him not spare Job having taken up his hope that he should have comfort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pepercit clementia usus fuerit and this resolution that he would harden himselfe in sorrow speaks now as if he were at a point let God doe what he pleaseth let him not spare as if he had said what course soever the Lord shall see good to take for the cutting me off I am content he should goe on with it Let him not spare The word signifies to indulge or shew mercy to him whom by all right a man might justly destroy Ezek. 5. 11. Because thou hast done thus and thus saith God therefore will I also diminish thee neither shall mine eye spare neither will I have any pity Job seemes to invite what God threatens others Let him not spare let him not have any pity let him take his full swing in destroying of me In this sence it is said Rom. 8. 32. That God spared not his own sonne That is he abated not any thing which justice could inflict Christ therefore saves to the uttermost because he suffered to the uttermost He was not spared one blow one drop one sigh one sorrow one shame one circumstance of all or any one of these which justice could demand as a satisfaction for mans sinne Yea though in a sence he cryed to his father that he might be spared yet he was not There is a three-fold mercy in God There is a preventing mercy mercy that steps between us and trouble And there is a delivering mercy mercy that takes us out of the hand of trouble There is a third kinde of mercy coming in the middle of these two and that is called sparing mercy and that is two-fold First sparing for the time when God delaies and staies long ere he strike Secondly sparing for the degree when the Lord moderates and mitigates abates and qualifies our sufferings not letting them fall so heavie upon us as they might This sparing mercy stands I say in the middle of the two former it is not so much as preventing mercy stopping trouble that it come not neither is it so much as delivering mercy removing it when it is come Now Job did not only not aske delivering mercy that he asked not sparing mercie Let him not spare me in the time let him not delay or loose time let him come as soone as he will And let him not spare me in the degree and measure let him strike me as hard and lay his hand as heavily upon me as he will David Psal 39. 13. makes this his request O spare me that I may recover strength before I goe hence and be no more That is abate and mitigate my sufferings that I die not but Job desireth not to be spared at all He rather saith take away all my strength that I may goe hence and be seen no more Observe hence That the hope troubles will end comforteth yea hardneth in bearing present troubles Then will I comfort my selfe then will I harden my selfe let him not spare if I may have my request and die The sharpest sting of trouble is that it is endless and it is next to that when we can not looke to the end of it nor see any issue or way out of it That which discourages the damned in bearing their sorrowes and softens both their flesh and spirits to receive home to the head every arrow of wrath and dart of vengeance is they see no end and are assured there will be none They know they cannot be cut off and therefore they cannot harden themselves in sorrow no that very consideration makes their hearts which have been hardned to commit sin tender to receive punishment and exactly sencible of their pains could they see that at last they should be cut off even they would be hardned to bear the torments of Hell in the meane time though that time should be very long yea as long as time can be onely not endlesse The pain it selfe doth not afflict so much as the thought that they shall be afflicted for ever As the assurance that the glory of Heaven shall never end infinitely sweetnes it so the assurance that the paines of hell shall never end infinitely sharpens them And not to see the ending of worldly troubles neer puts us further off from comfort then the bearing of those troubles Therefore saith Job if I might be assured that God would cut me off I would harden my selfe in sorrow and let not God spare I would not desire him to hold his hand to mitigate or abate my paines * Eâ— haec mihi merces esset ejus seu pro eo quod nâ—n occultavi unquam sed diligentisâ— simè observavi quam commendatissima habui
similibus locis Scriptura in telligenda est de statu mortuorum in morte quis consitebitur tibi post resurrectâ—onem pii laudabunt Deum sed ante illam quamdiuerunt in sepulchro nemo confitebitur ei anima corpore simul Drus Iuxta raturae cursum hic loquitur regans rediturum â—ominem ubi hine excessit Reâ—urrectio mortuorum divinum supra naturam opus est quo hic non respicit nutuâ—e tantum consuctum ordinem afferens quomodo intellïgendâ— sunt qâ—aecunque talia in hoc libro in Psalmis alijs Scripturae libris occurrunt Psal 115. 17. The dead praise the not c. there is no work device or businesse at all in the grave Eccl. 9. 10. The hand works not the tongue speakes not The eye shall no more see this good Iob expresses himself by an act of the eye which carries the greatest strength for refreshing to the whole man All the joy and pleasure we shall have in Heaven comes in by sight we shall see him as â—e is The heholding of God in Christ is the beatificall vision much of the good which we have in this world comes in by the sense of seeing and all the good of the next is placed in seeing therefore he doth not say I shall no more taste good or no more feele good but no more see good * Per Analogiâ— ad summi boni possessionem quae in visione consistit aliorum honorum possessio rectè dicitur videre bona because the chiefest good eternal good consists in vision therefore proportionably our present good doth so likewise Sick Hezekiah speaks in the language of sick Job I said I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world Isa 38. 11. When Hezekiah thought he should die he describes the state of the dead by a deprivation of all those comforts which are taken in by the sight of the eye But you wil say how saith he I shal not see the Lord He doth not say absolutely I shall not see the Lord But with a modification thus I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living But did Hezekiah see the Lord in the land of the living or while he lived Yes as Moses saw him that was invisible so did Hezekiah God makes himself visible to the Saints in this life Though God cannot be seen in his essence in Heaven much lesse on earth yet he is seen in his works in the acts of his providence and in his ordinances we may see the goings of God in the Sanctuary and behold the beauty of the Lord while we enquire in his Temple Psalm 27. 4. So that when Hezekiah saith I shall not see the Lord in the land of the living his meaning is I shall not behold God in his great works and in the ordinances of his holy worship and in the Congregations of his holy people In all these God is visible and most in the last and therefore he saith I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world God is visible in all creatures but most in man and among men most in his Saints and among his Saints most when they meet in the comely order of his house and worship The ignorant and unlearned coming into such a sacred throng sees so much of God that he is convinced and goes away reporting that God is in them of a truth In Christ is seen the brightnesse of his Fathers glory and in the Saints much of the beauty of it is seen Christ is the express image of his person and in the Saints so meeting much of his image is expressed First in that Job betakes himself to God O remember that my life is wind c. Observe That In our distresses it is better to cry to God then to complaine to creatures God is usually the last but he is alwayes the best refuge when we have told over the story of our sorrowes and sad condition and powr'd our wants into the bosomes of our most faithfull friends yet this Apostrophe is sweetest to the soul when we can turn unto God O remember me It is said of Hezekiah in his sicknesse that he turned himself unto the wall and prayed he turned from the people from those that were about his bed unto the wall why what was the wall to him Or what could the wall doe for him surely nothing As good turne to an Idol for helpe or ease as to a wall yea such a turn to the wall turnes the wall into an idol Good Hezekiah had no thought of the wall nor had he any message to any image hanging there But as 't is probable many of his loving Subjects and servants were weeping about the bed of their sicke King and he had been discoursing of his disease and telling them of his sicknesse but at last he turns to the wall that is he leaves speaking to the company and turnes away from them that he might have communion with God and his first word of prayer is the same with Jobs Remember now O Lord Isa 38. 3. Creatures are but creatures and when they have done their best for us it may be they can doe no good for us when they have tried all their skill and all their strength and stirred the utmost of their abilities to give us counsell and ease we must say to them all stand by and come to Iobs Turne O Lord remember That man is most to be bemoaned who can make his moane to man only He who knows not how to complaine to God or to speake out his sorrowes and his griefes in the eare of Christ shall gaine little though he receive much by complaining to the creature But so long as we have a God to turne to and spread our cause before though men turne from us yea though they turne against us and forget us yet it is enough that we have said O Lord remember Secondly from the matter which Iob puts God in mind of namely his naturall frailty and fleeting condition that he was a passing wind Observe It is an argument moving the Lord to compassion to mind him of the frailty of our condition There is no argument from our selves so effectuall to draw out the bowels of Gods compassions toward us either in regard of our spirituall or temporall estate as this to tell him how fraile we are The Psalmist shewes this the motive of mercy often to that ancient people the Jewes Psal 78. 38. He being full of compassion forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not yea many a time turned he his anger away and did not stirre up all his wrath But what moved the Lord to deale thus with his people What was it out of himselfe We know the inward moving cause was his own free-grace but what did he look upon abroad in the creature He remembred that they were but flesh
but thorough my comelinesse thou art very beautifull The worth of man is out of himselfe the Church shines by those rayes by that lustre which Christ casts upon her Secondly observe from this question What is man c. Man hath layed himselfe so low that he is not worthy of one thought from God What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him and set thy heart upon him It is a wonder that God should vouchsafe a gracious looke upon such a creature as man it is wonderfull considering the distance between God and man as man is a creature and God the creatour What is man that God should take notice of him is he not a clod of earth a peece of clay but consider him as a sinfull and an uncleane creature and we may wonder to amazement what is an uncleane creature that God should magnifie him will the Lord indeed put value upon filthines and fix his approving eye upon an impure thing One step further what is rebellious man man an enemy to God that God should magnifie him what admiration can answer this question will God prefer his enemies and magnifie those who would cast him downe Will a Prince exalt a traytor or give him honour who attempts to take away his life The sinfull nature of man is an enemy to the nature of God and would pull God out of Heaven yet God even at that time is raising man to Heaven Sinne would lessen the great God and yet God greatens sinfull man Thirdly observe Though man be low in himselfe yet God bestows many thoughts and cares upon him Though there be no reason at all in man why God should magnifie him yet God doth and will Free grace overlooks all the distance that is between God and us as we are creatures and it overlooks that greater and vaster distance which is between God and us as we are sinfull creatures Many a man is ready to think himselfe so good and so great that his brother is not worthy one of his thoughts or a cast of his eye he thinks it too much to looke towards a man that is of the same make with himselfe because he is a little lower statur'd in estate or degree A great rich man thinks he doth a poore man a very great favour if he turns about and speaks to him We may well cry out with admiration O the pride of man to man and O the love of God to man one man hath scarce humility enough to speake to another who in nature is equall to him and yet God who is infinitely above us hath love enough to magnifie and set his heart upon him The language of the holy Ghost is very graduall about this point Eirst What is man that thou art mindfull of him and the sonne of man that thou visitest him Psal 8. 4. To be mindfull of a man is not so much as to visit him we may be mindfull of those whom we goe not to see or to whom we send no helpe Secondly What is man that thou takest knowledge of him or the sonne of man that thou makest an account of him Psal 144. 3. It is much that God will take knowledge of a man or cast an eye upon him but it is a great deale more that God will make account of him but the third and highest step of favour is this of the text that the Lord will magnifie man and set his heart upon him as if he could not be without him Observe Fourthly The true apprehension of the greatnesse of Gods mercy and goodnesse to us makes us little in our owne eyes I ground it thus when Job had considered how the Lord exalts and greatens man he then abases and diminishes man what is man that thou shouldest magnifie him Nothing should draw man so low in himself as to thinke how high God doth and how much higher yet God intends to raise him In the 1 Chron. 17. 16. When David enquired of God by Nathan whether he should build him an house God answered no he should not but his sonne after him should But though the Lord would not have David build him an house yet the Messenger who was to carry this report must tell David That the Lord would build him an house and establish his sonne upon the throne after him vers 10. 11. Assoon as David had this answer brought him of Gods wonderfull goodnesse toward him and of those large promises to his family he breaks out into this diminutive admiration Who am I O Lord God and what is mine house that thou hast brought me hitherto And yet this is a small thing in thine eyes O God for thou hast also spoke of thy servants house for a great while to come and hast regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree O Lord God We hear not of such an humble speech falling from Davids lips till Gon sent him that message of advancement And so 2 Sam. 9. 8. when David out of that aboundant love he bare to Jonathan enquired Is there any that is left of the house of Saul that I may shew him kindnesse for Jonathans sake Mephibosheth was found And when David told him I will take care for thee Thou shalt eat bread at my table continually This favour astonisheth Mephibosheth what is thy sevant that thou shouldest looke upon such a dead dogg as I am He spake of himselfe below men when he heard David speake so highly of him A living dogg is better then a dead Lion but what is worse then a dead dogg The like impression Davids excessive kindnesse made upon the spirit of Abigail 1 Sam. 25. 41. when he sent messengers to her after the death of her husband Nabal to assure her that he would be her husband This honour that David annointed King over Israel should desire her to be his wife abases Abigail in her own eyes Let me saith she be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord. Davids wife said she it is too much preferment for me to be Davids servant I shall be honour'd enough to be his servants servant and that in the lowest service to wash their feet As ingenuous spirits when they heare messages of great favours tender'd them fall low in their own thoughts So much more will gracious spirits Those magnifying offers of Christ and pardon of sin by him of a crowne of life and an exceeding weight of glory purchas'd by him these magnifying promises I say bring the soule upon the knee upon the meditation and acknowledgement of it's owne meannesse and vilenesse What am I that the Lord should respect me that the Lord should redeeme me that he should regenerate me than he should set his love upon me prepare heaven and glory a crowne and a kingdome for me what am I There is nothing doth more emptie us of self-conceit and high thoughts than duly to consider what high thoughts God hath of us Note one thing further from these words
care for Oxen God doth care for Oxen The Apostle having shewed the goodnesse of God to beasts providing by a law that they should not be muzled presently he questions Doth God take care for Oxen As if he had said surely there is some what more in it or saith he it altogether for our sakes Not altogether doubtlesse God had regard to Oxen But for our sakes no doubt it was written that is chiefly for our sakes That he which ploweth should plow in hope and he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope So when Christ speaks of the Lillies Mat. 6. If God so cloath the Lillies of the field how much more will he cloath you You shall have the strength of his care to provide for you to feed and cloath you thus God sets his heart upon man he lookes to his people as to his houshold to his charge he will see they shall have all things needfull for them And so not laying to heart which is the contrary signifies carelesnesse Isa 47. 7. It is reported of Babylon Thou saidst I shall be a Ladie for ever so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart that is thou didst not regard these things to take care about them And Ezek. 40. 4. the expression is very full where God cals the Prophet to attention and he calleth him all over Behold saith he with thine eyes and heare with thine eares and set thine heart on all that I shall shew thee He wakens the whole man See and see with thine eyes Heare and heare with thine eares and set thine heart upon it the sum of all is be thou very intentive and diligent about this businesse to the utmost Secondly To set the heart notes an act of the affections and desires A man sets his love upon what he sets his heart that 's the meaning of Psalm 62. 10. If riches increase set not your heart upon them That is let not your love your affections your desires close with these things when riches abound let not your desires abound too It is an admirable frame of heart to have narrow scant affections in a large plentifull estate He is the true rich man who loves his riches poorly Set your affections on things that are above Col. 3. 2. Thirdly To set the heart notes high esteeme and account this is more than bare love and affection 2 Sam. 18. 3. when a counsell of warre was held by Davids Commanders about going out to battell against Absolom they all vote against Davids person all undertaking upon this ground they will not care for us they will not set their hearts upon us or value us their hearts are set upon thee thou art the prize they looke for and therefore the heate of the battell will be against thee Againe 1 Sam. 4. 20. When the wife of Phineas was delivered of a son a son is the womans joy and glory yet the text saith when the women that stood by told her that a son was borne she answered not neither did she regard it she did not set her heart upon it because the glory was departed from Israel In either of these sences the Lord sets his heart upon man he greatly loves man The love of God to man is the spring of mercy to man yea love is the spring of love love acted springs from a decree of love Deut. 7. 7. The Lord thy God did not set his love upon you c. because ye were more in number then any other people but because the Lord loved you Love also led in that highest work of mercy the giving of Christ God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son Josh 3. 16. As love is the spring and root of all the reall duty which mans performes to God and is therefore called the fulfilling of the law Our love fulfilleth the will of God so the love of God is the root of all that good we receive his love fulfilleth our will that is whatsoever we will or ask according to the will of God the love of God fulfills it for us Our love fulfills the law of Gods command and Gods love fulfills the law of our wants and lawfull desires His heart is set upon us and then his hand is open to us Further God doth not only love man but his love is great and his esteeme of man very high and he reallizes the greatest love by bestowing the greatest mercy How did God set his heart upon us when he gave his Son who lay in his bosome for us He set his bosome upon us when he gave us his Sonne who came out of his bosome Hence let us see our duty Should not we set our heart upon God when God sets his heart upon us the soveraignty of God cals for our hearts He as Lord may use al that we have or are And there is more than a law of soveraignty why we should give God our hearts God hath given us his heart first he who calleth for our hearts hath first given us his What are our hearts to his heart The love of God infinitely exceeds the love and affection of the creature What were it to God if he had none of our hearts But woe to us if we had not the heart of God This phrase shews us the reason why God calls for our hearts he gves us his own it is but equall among men to love where we are loved to give a heart where we have received one how much more should we love God and give him our hearts when we heare he loves us and sets his heart upon us whose love heart alone is infinitely better then all the loves and hearts of all men and Angels There is yet a fourth consideration about this expression the setting of the heart Setting the heart is applied to the anger and displeasure of God so the phrase is used Job 34. 14. If he set his heart upon man all flesh shall perish together that is if God be resolved to chastise man to bring judgements upon him all flesh shall perish together none shall be able to oppose it As it is the hightest favour to have God set his heart upon us in mercy and love so it is the highest judgement to have God set his heart upon a man in anger and in wrath to set his heart to afflict and punish The Lord answers his own people Jer. 15. 1 2 3. that notwithstanding all the prayers and motions of his beloved favourites in their behalfe his heart could not be towards them Then his heart was strongly set against them or upon them in extreame anger therefore he concludes they that are for the sword to the sword and they that are for destruction to destruction c. If God set his heart to afflict he will afflict and he can doe it And there may be such a sense of the text here What is man that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him that thou shouldest come
so resolved to contest and contend with man who is but dust and ashes The words following though I adhere rather to the former interpretation carry somewhat toward it Verse 18. That thou shouldest visit him every morning and try him every moment Here are two acts more about which the question is put What is man that thou shouldest visit him every morning And what is man that thou shouldest try him every moment That thou shouldest visit him every morning To visit is taken three wayes and they may all be applied to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Visitavit in bonum in malum text To visit is first to afflict to chasten yea to punish the highest judgements in Scripture come under the notion of visitations Exod. 34. 7. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children that is punishing them And in the Prophet Jer. 5. 9. Shall not I visit for this shall not my soule be avenged on such a Nation as this Jer. 48. 44. when God came against Moab with those terrible judgements it is called the yeere of their visitation I will bring upon it even upon Moab the yeere of their visitation And it is a common speech with us when a house hath the plague which is one of the highest stroakes of temporall affliction we use to say such a house is visited Then observe Afflictions are visitations They are called so because then God comes to search our hearts and lives afflictions are Gods searchers and examiners Jerusalem is threatned to be scearcht with candles and that was the time of Jerusalems visitation To search with a candle notes the most accurate searching as the woman when she had lost her groate lighted a candle and sought diligently till she found it she visited every hole to find it out When you see the Lord afflicting then he is visiting he lights a candle to search every corner of your lives And if afflictions be Gods visitations it is time for man to visit himselfe when he is afflicted We should visit our soules when God visits our bodies our estates our families or the Kingdome where we live Woe to those who doe not visit themselves when God visits them The Prophet calls to this duty in a time of saddest visitation Let us search and try our wayes Lam. 3. Yet further If God in affliction visit us let us visit God let us answer his visitation of us with our visitation of him Lord in trouble have they visited thee they powred out a prayer when thy chastning was upon them Isa 26. 16. Would you know what the visiting of God is It is praying unto him They visited thee they powred out a prayer when thy chastning was on them We visit Heaven in our afflictions when we pray much in our afflictions When God visiteth us let us visit him never give over visiting him til he remove his visitation from or sanctifie it to us That 's the first sense Secondly To visit in a good sence signifies to shew mercy and to refresh to deliver and to blesse Ruth 1. 6. Naomi heard how the Lord had visited his people and given them bread Gen. 21. 2. The Lord visited Sarah and she conceived c. Exod. 3. 16. The Lord hath surely visited his people when they were upon dawnings of deliverance out of Egypt That greatest mercy and deliverance that ever the children of men had is thus expressed Luke 1. 68. The Lord hath visited and redeemed his people Mercies are visitations when God comes in kindness and love to do us good he visiteth us And these mercies are called visitations in two respects 1. Because God comes neer to us when he doth us good Mercy is a drawing neere to a soule a drawing neere to a place As when God sends a judgement or afflicts he is said to depart and go away from that place so when he doth us good he comes neere and as it were applies himself in favour to our persons and habitations 2. They are called a visitation because of the freenesse of them A visit is one of the freest things in the world There is no obligation but that of love to make a visit because such a man is my friend and I love him therefore I visit him Hence I say that greatest act of free-grace in redeeming the world is called a visitation because it was as freely done as ever any friend made a visit to see his friend and with infinite more freedome there was no obligation on mans side at all many unkindnesses and neglects there were God in love came to redeeme man Thirdly To visit imports an act of care inspection of tutorage Idiotismus est elegans apud Hebeaeos pro eo quod est diligentissime exactissime rem investigare Bold and direction The Pastors office over the flock is expressed by this act Zech. 10. 3. Acts 15. 36. And the care we ought to have of the fatherlesse and widdows is exprest by visiting of them Pure Religion saith the Apostle James is this to visit the fatherlesse and widdowes in their affliction Jam. 1. 27. and Mat. 26. 34. Christ pronounceth the blessing on them who when he was in prison visited him which was not a bare seeing or asking how do you but it was care of Christ in his imprisonment and helpfullnesse and provision for him in his afflicted members That sence also agrees well with this place What is man that thou shouldest visit him that is that thou shouldest take care have such an inspection over him look so narrowly to and provide for him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Singulis mane quotidie mane mane autem fieri dicitur quod quotidie fit ac diligenter seduloque Drus That thou shouldest visit him every morning Fvery morning The Hebrew is in the mornings And the word here used for morning is considerable There is a two-fold morning which the Jewes distinguished exactly by their watch One morning was that which they accounted from an hour before Sun rising from the very first breaking of the day till the Sun appeared above the Horizon which is about the space of an hour And the word which they use for it is Shachar which signifies to be darkish or blackish because that first morning is somewhat darke And so the a Latini vocant dilucuium quasi diei lucula i. e. parva lux latine word diluculum which is for the first morning is by Crittiques called a little of the day But their other morning was the space of an houre after Sun-rising and the root of that word signifies to seeke or to enquire to enquire diligently And the reason why they expresse the second morning so is because when the Sun is up we may seeke and search about our businesse or go on in our callings and affairs The height of the day they call the b Reliquum diei tempus quasi ob majorem lucis intensionem vocant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ghetsem
Hajom i. e. corpus sive robur dici Bold body or strength we the heat of the day either morning may be here meant though the word bears the later properly Thou doest visit him every morning that is as soone as the Sun is up yea as soone as day breakes or there is any light thou art visiting Mans visits are usually in the afternoone it is an extraordinary thing to visit one in the forenoone more extraordinary to visit in a morning and most early in a morning Gods visits are extraordinary visits they are visitings in the morning and visitings every morning as often as the morning returnes so often doth God come to visit not a morning that we misse him To doe a thing every morning notes first the doing of it alwayes or secondly the certaine doing of it Thou doest visit every morning that is as surely and as certain as the Sun riseth and the morning cometh so certainly doth God visit man Or thirdly it notes the speed the hast that God makes to visit He visits in the morning that is betimes God delayes not untill noone much lesse stayes till it be night but he cometh in the morning Psal 46. 5. God shall heare her and that right early the Hebrew is God shall heare her in the morning betimes speedily The late coming in to work in the vineyard is exprest by coming at the eleventh houre they came speedily who came in the morning at the first houre And to shew that we ought not to continue in wrath and keepe up our anger it is said let not the Sunne goe downe upon your wrath that is do not continue all day angry let your anger goe down speedily even before the Sunne In this sence Job saith that God visits man every morning as a Hic ad conservationem generalem providentiam pertinet Metaphora a pastoribus singulis matutinis oves suas recensenntibus Coc shepheard his flock least any should be hurt or straied we may apply it as before in the several sences of visitation either to Gods visiting of us in afflictions or in mercies he afflicts if he pleases continually speedily certainly And as sure as the Sun riseth and the morning cometh so sure God visiteth his with mercies therefore his mercies are said to be renewed every morning Lam. 3. 23. or fresh every morning Unlesse God bring new mercies every day the old would not serve we cannot bring the mercies of one day over to another The mercies of a former day will not support us the next therefore they must come every morning sufficient for the day is the evill thereof Mat. 6. and but sufficient for the day is the good thereof As we are therefore commanded to pray every day for our daily bread the bread you had the last day will not serve this day you must pray for the bread of this day and for a blessing upon it that God would visit your bread and your store in mercy So if need require God afflicts every day And the hearts of some men want as much the rod every day as bread every day they could not be without affliction every day to keep them in order God will be as carefull to correct his children as to feed them If a man be watchfull over his own wayes and the dealings of God with him there is seldome a day but he may find some rod of affliction upon him But as through want of care and watchfullnesse we loose the sight of many mercies so we doe of many afflictions Though God doth not every day bring a man to his bed and breake his bones yet we seldome if at all passe a day without some rebuke and chastning Psal 73. 14. I have been chastned every morning saith he Psalmist Our lives are full of afflictions and it is as great a part of a Christians skil to know afflictions as to know mercies to know when God smites as to know when he girds us and it is our sin to overlook afflictions as well as to overlooke mercies Secondly Take the word as it imports care and inspection Then observe The care of God is renewed every morning The eye of God is alway upon us He visiteth so as he telleth all our steps he tels our very wandrings He visiteth us so that we can turne no way but he is with us his eye of inspection as a Tutour as a guide is ever upon us he lookes to his people as a shepheard to his flock who knowes their wandrings And try him every moment It is of the same sence with the former Try him The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Periculum fecit expertus est tentavit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. signifies an exact and through triall Some take it to be an allusion to the practise of those who set the watch in Armies or Garrison Townes who least their Centinels or Watchmen should sleepe use to come suddenly upon them possibly divers times in a night to try whether they are faithfull and wakefull The Prophet Isaiah hints at such a custome chap. 21. The watchman is set v. 6th Goe set a watchman let him declare what he seeth The watchman is tried v. 11. He calleth to me out of Seir watchman what of the night watchman what of the night And it is observed in forraigne parts that their watchmen in Frontier Towns are tried every houre of the night the token being their giving so many tolls with the Bell hanging in their Watch-tower as the great City-clock strikes This is a good sence of the place the Lord visits ns every morning and tries us every moment that is very very often as often as may be to see whether we keep our watches and stand duely upon our guard But secondly it may note a triall as a Schollar is tried by examination We call it Probation day when the proficiency of Schollars is examined God cometh to examine and make probation of mens proficiencie what have you gotten how have you improved such times such opportunities for the gaining of spirituall knowledge what have you learned what know you more of your selves what more of God and Jesus Christ whom to know is eternall life Thirdly It may note triall by affliction There are three words 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie the troubles which God brings upon man They are First strictly Judgements which he sends in wrath upon enemies Secondly Chastisments and corrections Thirdly Temptations or trials these are proper to his children Hence observe Afflictions are trials The Lord proves what grace there is in the heart he tries what corruption there is in the heart by affliction There are many graces in the heart of man untried and there are some that cannot be tried till God bring him to an houre of trouble There are many corruptions in the heart of man which he taks no notice of nor can till
is stronger then they were So I may say be yee not strivers or strugglers with God for your bands are made strong It is said Exod. 4. 25 26. That the Lord met Moses in the Inne and sought to kill him The Lord is never to seeke to doe what he pleases but thus he speakes after the manner of men who offer or assay at any businesse They seeke to do it But Zipporah having circumcised her sonne He let Moses goe It is this word He slacked or loosened having before as it were arrested and attached him or clapt him in prison for making that great default the neglect of Circumcision Sometimes we find the Lord himself speaking as if he were at the mercy or under the power of man and therefore calling in this word to be loosened or let alone Deut. 9. 14. Let me alone that I may destroy them The prayer of faith is as a band upon Gods hand holding him so fast that he seems as one that cannot strike or destroy till a Moses will give him leave by ceasing to pray unto him To be sure we are at Gods mercy and under his power so that nothing but the prayer of faith can loosen us And therefore Job doth not attempt to break the cords or cut them asunder nor seeks he to untie their knots but desires God himself to do it let me alone loosen me I will be a prisoner till thou openest the door for my deliverance As Jephtahs daughter said to him Judg. 11. 37. when he had bound himself and her in the bands of a rash vow Let me alone for two months or loosen me from the ingagement of my vow for two months as if she had said I will not loose my self by a wilful refusal but doe thou give me a willing dispensation So a godly man bespeaks the Lord in his straights Loosen me Lord. Unlesse God be pleased to loosen him he will be contented and when in a good frame of heart and freeness of spirit well-pleased with his bands In some sence he speakes as Paul and Silas when they were in prison Acts 16. 37. Let the Lord himself come and fetch us out That is let us see such means of our inlargement and freedome from trouble as may assure us that the Lord hath loosened and enlarged us A godly man had a thousand times rather be put into a prison by God than put himself into a paradice He had rather be bound by Gods hand than loosened by his own That place toucht before may reach this sence Prov. 24. 10. if thou faintest so we or loosnest thy self in the day of adversity Thy strength is small that is the strengh of thy faith and patience is small There is nothing discovers our weakness more than striving to break the cords of our afflictions The stronger we are in faith in love in humility the more quietly we lie bound Faith seeks ease and release onely in God to say Lord loosen me is a duty to loosen our selves is both our sin and our punishment Till I may swallow down my spittle Some conceive that from this Hebrew word Rak which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saliva undè quidam deducunt Raca Mat. 5. 22. quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interpretantur i. e. conspuendum vel dignum qui conspuatur Alii a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vacum quasi cerebro vacuus judicio carens Drus we translate spittle Raca is derived Mat. 5. 22. as if to call a man Raca were as much as to say he is worthy to be spit upon or that one should spit in his face though others spring that word from Rik which signifies empty as if it were as much as to call a man an empty fellow without wit or brains or within one degree of a foole which is the next word in Matthew But what is Iobs intendment in desiring God to let him alone Till he might swallow down his spittle First Some refer it to a bodily distemper as if Iob were troubled with a (a) Inter caetera mala Synanchen habuisse se perhibet Hieron squinsie or sore throat which hindered the swallowing of his spittle (b) Dimitta me ut gustum aliqâ—em hujus vitae capiam Albert. Another takes it in a Philosophical notion as if Iob had said Lord let me have some ease that I may at least tast once more what it is to live or how sweet life is For that sence of tast works by the salival humour or spittle in the mouth which mixing with the juice or sap that is in meats affects and delights the pallate Thirdly these words are taken as the discription of a man ready to die who is disabl'd either to swallow his spittle or to void it As if he had said I am now even at the point of death let me alone a little Davids prayer comes near this sense Psal 39. 13. O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more Fourthly It may be taken proverbially and that two waies First To note the shortest time even so much as may serve a Serno proverbialis talis est neque ad scalpendas aures mihi otium est man to spit As if he had said O let me have a little intermission a little respit such is the sence of that phrase Chap. 9. 18. He will not suffer me to take my breath And the like are those used in some countries I have not leisure or time to scratch my ear or to pare my nails My sorrows know no interim my feaver is one continued fit I have no well daies no nor a good hour Ne tantillum quidem temporis est quoÌ„ non tenter aâ—te Coc. therefore let me at least have so much time of ease as I may swallow my spittle let me have the shortest time That I may once more know though but for a moment what it is to be without pain To whlch interpretation that also subscribes which makes these words to be a circumlocution for silence For while a man is swallowing his spittle his speech stops he cannot bring up his words and let down the spittle at the same time so his meaning is I am forced to complain continually I would be silent and forbear speaking but my grief will not suffer me The second proverbial understanding of the word is that they Elegans proverbialis loquutio ad denotandum diligentem in alium intuitum quo minim as in alio discernet actiones Saliva ferè imperceptibiliter obsorvetur import a very strict watch held upon another in all his motions so that he cannot stir a finger or move his tongue silently in his mouth unobserved If I do but stir my tongue to swallow my spittle which is one of the most unperceivable acts of man thou takest notice O do not hold so strict a hand and so curious an eye upon me Let me have a little liberty do not examine every failing do
it is our duty to confesse sinne aboundantly that grace may abound Lastly Though we need not confesse sin at all to informe God he knowes our sins though we will not make them known and hath an eye to see though we should not have a tongue to confes Though I say we confesse not to informe God what we are or what we have done yet we must confesse to glorifie God While we shame our selves we honour him My sonne saith Joshua to Achan c. 7. v. 19 give I pray thee glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession unto him Every attribute of God receives this gift of glory by mans confession Justice is glorified and mercy is glorified patience is glorified and holinesse is glorified Holinesse is glorified in opposing sin and patience in sparing the sinner mercy is glorified in pardoning sin and justice in receiving satisfaction at the hand of Christ for the pardon of it Fourthly observe Holy confession of sin leades the way to gratious pardoning of sin Job begins the next verse with a vehement prayer for pardon And why doest thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquity Sin concealed and kept close growes upon us And it growes three wayes First in the strength of it Secondly in the guilt of it Thirdly in the terrour and vexation of it Psal 32. 3 4. When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long Confession is a meanes to obtaine the abatement of sin in all three The strength of it is weakened the guilt removed and the terrour overcome Then heare the counsell of the Prophet Isa 43. 26. declare that thou mayest be justified Thus farre of the words as they are a confession of sin I shall now handle them as they are a concession or a grant that he had sinned and so the sence may be given thus I have sinned what shall I doe unto thee As if he had said Let it be granted or subpose that I have sinned and sinned as deepely as my friends have charged me supâ—â—â—e I have been as wicked as they imagin what thâ—n if this were my case what shall I doe unto thee O thou preserver of men The later words plainly import a question What shall I doe unto thee But the sence of the question is not so plaine The question may be taken two wayes Either affirmatively or negatively Take it affirmatively and so the sence is what shall I doe that is Lord direct me councell me order me teach me what becomes me to doe in such a case in such a sinfull condition as I either confesse my selfe to be in or am supposed to be in That 's the affirmative sence What shall I doe The word which we translate do signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a radice pagnal respondet Graeco 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est agere cum energia effectu Piscat working or doing under a two fold qualification 1. Working with great willingnesse and readinesse of mind and hence it is applied to the workings of sin in naturall men who work with the greatest freedome that can be Man sins naturally and therefore freely he is carried on with a full swing with tide and wind he sins nothing in himself contradicting or giving a contrary vote He is a true worker of iniquity Psal 5. 5. 2. Working with energie and successe and the doing of a thing not only effectually but willingly Numb 23. 23. What hath God wrought When God works he works thoroughly he doth not his busines to halves So Isa 26. 12. Thou hast wrought all our works in us that is thou hast brought them to passe they have succeeded through thy help and the influences of thy blessing The word being taken in this height of sence the question for an affirmation What shall I doe that is shew me direct me what to do we may observe from it First That What to do in case of sin is a point of the highest consideration I have sinned what shall I do If ever we have need to go and aske counsell to sit down and debate the mater with our sevles or others it is when we have sinned Such is the nature of sin and such the consequences that it calls us to highest consideration what to do about it Matters of great consequence are matters of great consultation Sin hath an influence upon an eternity If any thing be more worthy your thoughts then that let it have them Secondly Look upon the question as following Jobs confession Observe thence That sincere confession of sin makes the soule very active and inquisitive about the remedies of sin I have sinned the very next word is What shall I doe Many make confession of sin who are never troubled about the cure and redresse of sin Lord what shall I doe is not the next question to Lord I have sinned Nay it may be the next action is to sin over the same sin they have confest As soon as those Jewes heard of the foulenesse of their sin in crucifying Christ and of the sadnesse of their condition their question is like this of Job what shall we doe what shall we doe that we may be saved As Christ speakes to the woman of Samaria Job 4. 10. when he offered her the water of life If thou didst know the gift of God and who it is that speakes unto thee thou wouldest have asked c. That is if thou wert sensible of the excellency and vertue of this water and thy need of it thou wouldest be very inquisitive how to get it how to have a tast of it As in regard of Christ and the benefits we have by him so of sin and the evils which come by it When a man hath confest and acknowledged his sin we may say to him if thou didst but know what thou hast confest if thou didst but know what thou hast acknowleged thou wouldest presently be asking how shall I get free how shall I get clear of these sins which are so deadly poisonous destroying condemning He that is but sensible what the wound of sin is wil never be at rest never give over enquiring til he hath found a plaister or a medicine for it He that knowes what he saith when he saith I have sinned will resolve as David in another case that his eyes shall not have a winke of sleep till he sees where to have helpe against it Thirdly In that he saith what shall I doe Observe That a soule truly sensible of sin is ready to submit to any termes which God shall put upon him What shall I doe unto thee O thou preserver of men Put what termes thou wilt upon me I am ready to accept them That was the sence of their question Acts 2. 32. what shall we do shew us the way let it be what it will we will not stand making of conditions we will not pick and choose this we will doe and that we will not doe
Amos 5. Non ultra dissimulabo ei scelera tua Pang Merc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your wickedness or your sin and that carries a fair sense for when a man pardons or will not punish an offence he seemes to take no notice of it for that properly is to dissemble a thing as simulation is to pretend that which is not so dissimulation is to take no notice or not to hold forth that which is God passeth by and dissembles the sins of men in a gracious way when he will not observe or look upon them to question or punish them The Greek word Matth. 26. 39. answereth this Hebrew where our Lord Christ ptayeth earnestly about the removal of the cup Father saith he if it be possible let this cup pass away from me In the same sense that sin is said to pass away the cup of Gods displeasure and wrath passes also away when sin is pardoned therefore Christ prayed thrice that the cup might pass away from him that he might not be dealt with as a sinner but that there might be a course found out to spare him and save the glory of his fathers justice Yet he submits not my will but thy will be done if it must not passe away I am contented it should not passe Thus far we have seen what is meant by pardoning and taking away A word upon those two terms transgression and iniquity which are the objects on which pardoning mercy workes Why doest thou not pardon my transgression and put away mine iniquity Trangression and iniquity are words of great significancy for in them all manner of sins especially sins of a greater stature are comprehended The former transgression notes a violation of the Commands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Propriè rebellio peccatum ex superbia Non simplex qualiscunque sed malitiosa temeraria transgressio of God with a high hand or a rebellion of the mind when pride of spirit shews it self very much There is a spice of pride in every sin Because of pride saith Solomon cometh contention all the contentions we maintain against the word and will of God rise from the pride of our own hearts because we cannot submit to the will of God but in some sins pride holds up her head more proudly Such sins this word notes it is not simply any sin but sin very proudly and rebelliously committed The latter word Iniquity imports the crookedness and inequality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Incurvationem declinationem à recta via ad animum translata significat per versitatem melitiam Curvi mores of a thing when it turns this way or that way and extends not in a straite and right line Hence it is applyed to the vitiosity and perverseness to the crookedness and inequality of mans nature Our nature is a crooked peece and that makes all the crookedness in our lives The Latines speak so in a moral sence they call ill manners and ill manner'd men crooked men and crooked manners David Psal 51. 5. bewaileth his birth sin under this notion I was born in iniquity And he that was first borne in the world applied this word to himself saying my iniquity the Peccata denotat quae fiunt ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 destinata malitia seu proposito cum sc mens videt quod aequū est tamen indulgens cupiditatibus sequitur deteriora Moller in Psal 106 6. perverseness the crookedness of my waies is greater than can be forgiven or made straight Gen. 4. 13. So that this word also take it strictly implies more than a bare act of sin arising from infirmity weakness or inanimad vertency it rather notes those sins which are committed from a crooked purpose from an ill or false bent of the heart when the mind sees that which is right and good just and straite and yet turns to crooked paths and follows that which is perverse and worse Take one thing further This word in Scripture signifies not only the act of such sins but secondly the punishment of them Psal 31. 10. Gen. 19. 15. And thirdly it is put for the means of expiation or pardon Hos 4. 8. They eat up the sin of my people and they set their heart on their iniquity But how did the Priests eat up the sin and set their hearts on the iniquity of the people Sin can make us but a hungry banquet The text bears variety of interpretations But to the point in hand sin is here put for the sacrifices offered up for sin out of divers of which the Priests had a portion for themselves to eat so that the Prophet here describes the horrible prophaneness of those degenerate Priests who set their hearts upon the sacrifices because themselves were fed by them not because the people came to seek the favour of God and make their peace by them when they had sinned As Physitians may be said to eat the diseases of the people and set their hearts upon their sicknesses when they because their own gain is in it are pleased to hear of spreading sicknesses c. Or as Lawyers eat the contentions and quarrels of the people when they are glad to hear of Suits c. because they grow rich by it So those base-spirited Priests were said to eat the sins of the People and set their hearts on their iniquities because they were glad to have of a multitude of sacrifices their provisions being inlarg'd by them So that then iniquity is the sacrifice for iniquity in which sense also Christ is said to be made sin for us namely a sacrifice for sin 1 Cor. 5. 21. From the words thus opened we may observe First to whom Job addresseth himself for pardon is it not unto God And why doest not thou pardon my transgression God onely can pardon sin Pardon is his act his proper and peculiar act he can do it and none can but he We read it among his royal Titles Exod. 34. 7. the Name of God is proclaimed in this stile The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gratious long suffering and abundant in goodness and in truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression an sin Pardoning sin is put the last of those seven attributes in which the Lord manifested himself to Moses as being that wherein all the former are summ'd up and into which they conveigh their several blessings to make man compleatly blessed or to shew that none can be a pardoner of sin but he who is vested with all those foregoing glorious titles and therefore none but God alone Hence the Prophet Micah chap. 7. ver 18. puts the question and challenges all the world Who is a God like unto thee pardoning iniquity Shew me one if you can there is no sin-pardoning God besides thee Who is a God like unto thee pardoning As if the Prophet had said some will be or have been offering at this work but they all have been or will be found
atque in summa aqua extaret Herod l. 1. b Montanus ex iib. Mifna cap. de phase was anciently the Emblem of everlasting forgetfulness or of a resolution never to recal that which was resolved †A learned Hebrician observes that it was a custome among the Jewes to take those things which they abominated as filthy and unclean and cast them into the sea which act noted either the purging of them or the overwhelming them out of sight for ever And a like usage is noted by * Iosephus Aeosta l. 5. de Historia Natur Moral Novi orbis a reporter of the manners of the Americans that those barbarous people either desciphering some wicked thing upon a stone or making a symbole or sign of it used to throw it into a river which should carry it down into the sea never to be remembred Thirdly Pardon of sin is noted by washing and purging to shew that the filthiness of it is removed from us Psal 51. 2. Fourthly By covering Psal 32. 1. and by not imputing ver 2. Fifthly By blotting out Isa 43. 25. and blotting out as a thick cloud Isa 44. 22. All these notions of pardon concurre in this one that sin passes away is lifted up and taken off from the Conscience of the sinner when it is pardoned The summe of all which is read in that one text Jer. 50. 20. In those daies and in that time saith the Lord the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none c. why For I will pardon them whom I reserve So that pardoned sin in God's account is no sin and the pardoned sinner is as if he had never sinned Forgiveness destroys sin as forgiving a debt destroyes the debt and cancelling a Bond destroyes the Bond. Thirdly observe When sin is pardoned the punishment of sin is pardoned Both words signifie both the punishment and the sin and Job having complain'd that he was set up as a mark and wounded by sharp afflictions now seeks ease in the surest and speediest way the pardon of sin why doest not thou pardon my transgression c. There are three things in sin The inward matter the foul evil the stock the root of sin which is natural corruption dwelling in us and flowing out by actions Secondly The defilement and pollution of sin Thirdly The guilt when we say sin is pardoned or taken away it is not in the former though in pardoned persons corruption is mortified and the actings of it abated but in the latter the guilt is taken away which is the Obligation to punishment and so the punishment is taken away too nothing vindictive or satisfactory to the justice of God shall ever be laid upon that soul whose sin is pardoned Hence Isa 33. 24. the Prophet fore-shewing how happy a pardoned people shall be assures them The inhabitant shall nâ—â— say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall he forgiven their iniqâ—â—ty When iniquity is forgiven our infirmity is cured When the soul is healed the body shall be recovered Both the body natural and the body politick Plague and sword and famine and death all these evils go away when sin goes Judgments are nothing else but unpardoned sins sin unpardoned is the root which giveth sap and life to all the Troubles which are upon man or Nation And as sin committed is every judgment radically that is there is a fitness in sin to produce and bring forth any evil upon man so pardon of sin is every Mercy radically when you have pardon from thence every other particular Mercy springs you may cut out any blessing any comfort out of the pardon of sin particular Mercies are but pardon of sin specificated or individuated brought into this or that particular Mercy of all blessings you may say this is pardon of sin that 's pardon of sin and t'other is pardon of sin Forgiveness destroyeth that wherein the strength of sin lies it destroyeth our guilt and to us abolisheth the condemning power of the Law in these the strength of sin lies Hence when the people of Israel had committed that great sin in making the golden Calf the first thing Moses did was to pray for the pardon of sin and he did it with a strange kind of Rhetoricke Exod. 32. 32. Oh this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of Gold And now if thou wilt forgive their sin what then Moses There 's no more said Moses is silent in the rest it is an imperfect speech a pause made by holy passion not the fulness of the Sentence Such are often used in Scripture as Luk. 13. 9. And if it bear fruit what then Our own thoughts are left to supply the event Our translaters add well The Greek translators supply that in Exodus thus If thou wilt forgive them their sin forgive them We may supply it with the word in Luke If thou wilt forgive them well As if Moses had said Lord forgive them and then though they have done very ill yet I know it will be very well with them God cannot with-hold any mercy where he hath granted pardon for that with the antecedents and requisites of it is every mercy Moses knew what would follow well enough if they were pardoned and what if they were not therefore he adds And if not blot me I pray thee out of thy book which thou hast written If their sins must stand upon record Moses would not he knew if they were an unpardoned people they were an undone people all miseries would quickly break in upon yea overwhelm them and he desired not to out-live the prosperity of that people If Israel must bear their sins they must also bear the wrath of God and if their sin be but taken off then his love is settled on them God gives quailes sometime but he never gives pardons in anger Fourthly observe The greatest sins fall within the compass of Gods pardoning mercy The words in the text are of the highest signification Job speaks not in a diminutive language he is willing to lay load upon himself they whose hearts are upright will not stand mincing the matter and say they have sins but theirs are small ones sins not grown to the stature of other mens As the sins of a godly man may be very great sins so when they are he acknowledges that they are I know not where to set the bounds in regard of the nature or quantity of sin what sin is there which a wicked man commits but a godly man possibly may commit it excepting that against the holy Ghost These Job did and the Saints may put to God in confession and as he did not so they need not be discouraged to ask pardon for them because they are great The grace of the Gospel is as large as any evil of sin the Law can charge us with The grace of the Gospel is as large as the curse of the Law whatsoever the Law can call or