we labour as much for the favour of God as ever any of the sons of ambition laboured for the favour of Princes or regard with the Kings of this world No man ever plotted or flatter'd and crouched so much to the Kings of the earth for favour as we doe to God for favour herein we labour We make it our business to be accepted with him if God once accept a man you may turne him loose he will shift for one How compleately happy the condition of such a favourite is will appeare yet furtber in opening the next clause of this verse And he shall see his face with joy When once God is favourable to a poor sinner then he shall be used or dealt with like a favourite Great Favourites stand in the presence of Princes and frequently see their faces Whomsoever any man favours he freely admits to his presence and takes delight in his company Thus Elihu speaks of Gods Favourite He shall see his face with joy There is a twofold interpretation of these words tending both to the same spirituall sence Videbit deus faciem ejus cum laetitia i. e. hilaritèr cum intuebitur vultu laeto et facili eum respiciet cum ante vultum iratus avertebat Merc First Some by the Antecedent He understand God himselfe and by his face the face of the humbled sick man and so the sence of this assertion he shall see his face with joy is plainly this God will look cheerfully and smilingly upon the face of this poor suppliant God will look upon him as we doe upon friends whom we favour and have much respect for Friends may see content and joy shining in or stampt upon our faces when we look them in the face The content which we take in seeing the face of another is visible in the smiles and joyes of our own faces As when we look sowrely angryly sorrowfully sullenly upon a man when darkness is seen in our faces and clouds gather in our brows ready to dissolve into a storme this speaks we beare him no good will or rather that we bear him much displeasure So when we looke pleasantly upon a man doth it not say that we are highly pleased with him To be sure when God is at peace with a repenting sinner he no longer frownes upon him nor turns his face from him as an enemy but entertaines and welcomes him as a friend which is directly opposite to Jobs apprehension of God at the 10th verse of this Chapter Behold he findeth occasions against me he counteth me for his enemy This is a sweet soul-reviving and ravishing truth God beholds the face of his people with joy he beholds them smileingly cheerfully delightfully David calls it The light of Gods countenance Psal 4.6 Et videbit homo faciem dei cum jubilo Merc Secondly and I rather conceive that to be the meaning of the place most relate the He to the sick man who having been upon his knees humbling himself before God and finding God favourable to him he then seeth his face that is the face of God with joy God fills his soule with a great deale of peace comfort and sweetness in his approaches to him Before possibly if he did but think upon God he was troubled as Asaph found Psal 77.3 I remembred God and was troubled To a man in great trouble especially in trouble of mind the very thoughts of God who is our only help in trouble may be troublesom but when he is set right and restored to the favour of God or God being again favourable unto him he beholds his face with abundance of joy Here are yet two things to be opened or two Queries may be made and answered for the clearing of these words First What is meant by the face of God Secondly what is meant by seeing his face To the former query I answer First the face of God is the essentiall being or perfect Majesty of God of which himself saith to Moses Exod. 33.23 My face shall not be seen Secondly the good will and favour of God is his face Ps 80.3 Cause thy face to shine that is be good to us and we shall be saved Thirdly the face of God in Scripture is put for any manifestations of God to man God manifesteth himself in wrath to some men Psal 34.16 The face of the Lord is against them that doe evill Facies dei iram quandoque favorem notat Drus That is he is angry and greatly displeased with them He manifesteth himself in love to others and all such are said either as in the Text to see his face or as other Texts express it to have his face shining upon them God is a spirit he hath no face properly but as the face of a man is that by which he is knowne if a man hide his face we know not who he is though we see all the other parts of his body he is a concealed man so that whatsoever it is by which God is clearly knowne that in Scripture language is called his face And hence Thirdly the worship and holy ordinances of God are called the face of God Gen. 4.14 because they are great manifestations of God or because God is manifested in his Ordinances in his word and worship who and what he is After a sick man through the help of God is recovered he goes into the congregation to give thanks and then he may be said to see the face of God because there be exhibits the signs of his presence doth as it were shew his face There as in a glass we behold the face of God that is the discoveries of his holiness of his love goodness The face of God is seen in his works as the Apostle teacâ—eth us Rom. 1.20 The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternall power and godhead much more in his word and Ordinances and above all in Jesus Christ is God seen and manifested Jesus Christ is the face of God the brightnesse of his glory the expresse image of his person Heb. 1.3 The light of the knowledge of the glory of God shineth to us in the face of Christ Thus the face of God is beheld in the face of Christ There we may see how holy how just how good and mercifull God is all this glory of God appeareth to us in the face of Christ who is the highest manifestation of God Here in the Text by the face of God we are to understand any demonstration of Gods favourable presence in which sence of the word Aaron was to blesse the children of Israel Numb 6.25 The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon thee and give thee peace That is the Lord manifest himself to thee in wayes of grace and peace in favour and in mercy David prayed in the same
scelus est veritatem palliare Merc But it is a farre greater sin to commend the sins of others or to commend others in their sin And we may take the measure of this sin by the punishment of it When we heare the Lord threatning flatterers with suddaine destruction doth it not proclaime to all the world that their sin is full of provocation The Lord beares long with many sorts of sinners but not with sinners of this sort My maker would soone take me away Whence note Secondly God can make quicke dispatch with sinners As the grace of God towards sinners Nescit tarda molimina spiritus sancti gratia so his wrath needs no long time in preparations When we designe great actions we must take time to fit our selves Princes must have time to set out an Army or a Navy when they would either defend themselves against or revenge themselves upon their enemies But God can presently proceed to action yea to execution He that made all with a word speaking can destroy the wicked as soone as speake the word he can doe it in the twinkling of an eye with the turning of a hand My Maker would soone take me away Thirdly Because Elihu being about to speake in that great cause sets God before him and God in his judgements in case he should speake or doe amisse Note Thirdly They that doe or speake evill have reason to expect evill at the hand of God If I should flatter saith Elihu my Maker would soone take me away I have reason to feare he will not that God takes away every sinner as soone as he sins God rarely useth Martiall Law or executes men upon the place we should live and walke more by sence then by faith if he should doe so but any sinner may expect it God I say is very patient and long-suffering he doth not often take sinners away either in the act or immediately after the act of sin Yet there is no sinner but hath cause to feare lest as soone as he hath done any evill God should make him feele evill and instantly take him away David prayeth Psal 28.3 Draw me not away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity There is a two-fold drawing away with the workers of iniquity First to doe as they doe that is wickedly Thus many are drawne away with the workers of iniquity and 't is a good and most necessary part of prayer to beg that God would not thus draw us away with the workers of iniquity that is that he would not suffer the workers of iniquity to draw us away into their lewd and sinfull courses Secondly there is a drawing away to punishment and execution In that sence I conceive David prayed Lord draw me not away with the workers of iniquity who are taken away by some sudden stroake of judgement though I may have provoked thee yet let not forth thy wrath upon me as thou sometimes doest upon the workers of iniquity doe not draw me out as cattell out of the pasture where they have been fed and fatted for the slaughter Every worker of iniquity is in danger of present death and may looke that God will be a swift witness against him though most are reprieved yet no man is sure of that Againe In that Elihu represents God to himselfe ready to take him away in case of flattery and prevarication in that cause Note Fourthly It is good for us to over-awe our soules with the remembrance of the judgements and terrours of God 'T is profitable sometimes to converse with the threatnings as well as with the promises 't is profitable to remember what God is able to do against us as well as to remember what God is able to do for us Even believers should goe into the dreadfull treasuries of wrath into the thunders lightnings of divine displeasure as well as into the delightfull treasuries of mercy of love compassion it is good for a good man to thinke God may take me away as well as to thinke God will save and deliver me we need even these meditations of God to keepe downe our corruptions and to fright our lusts Though it be the more Gospel way to make use of love yet the Gospel it selfe teacheth us to make use of wrath 2 Cor 5.11 Knowing the terrour of the Lord we perswade men Lastly Note When we goe about any great worke when we are either to speak or doe in any weighty matter it is good for us to set God before our eyes to thinke of and remember our Maker As in great undertakings we should remember our Maker waiting for and depending upon his assistance strength and blessing in what we doe or goe about so we should remember him to keepe our hearts right And to remember seriously believingly and spiritually that God beholds and seeth us in all our wayes and workes and that according to the frame of our hearts and the way that we take in every action such will the reward and the issue be cannot but have a mighty command and an answerable effect upon us We can hardly doe amisse with â—od in our eye And therefore as it is sayd of a wicked man Psal 10.4 that through the pride of his countenance he will not seeke after God God is not in all his thoughts So David said of himselfe though in that Psalme he speakes chiefely as a type of Christ and so in proportion or as to sincerity every godly man saith like David Psal 16.8 I have set the Lord alwayes before me because he is at my right hand therefore I shall not be moved that is as I shall not be utterly overthrowne by any evill of trouble so I shall not be overcome by any evill of temptation or I shall not be moved either in a way of discouragement by the troubles I meete with or in a way of enticement by the temptations I meete with How stedfast how unmoveable are they in the worke of the Lord how doe they keepe off from every evill worke who set the Lord alwayes before them and have him at their right hand Could we but set the Lord before us either in his mercies or in his terrors we should not be moved from doing our duty in whatsoever we are called to doe Thus farre Elihu hath drawne out his speech in a way of preface preparing himselfe for his great undertaking with Job He hath now fully shewed the grounds why he undertooke to deale with him and what method he would use in that undertaking In the next Chapter and so forward to the end of the 37th we have what he sayd and how he managed the whole matter JOB Chap. 33. Vers 1 2 3. Wherefore Job I pray thee heare my speeches and hearken to all my words Behold now I have opened my mouth my tongue hath spoken in my mouth My words shall be of the uprightnesse of my heart and my lips shall utter knowledge clearely ELihu having spent the whole
himselfe And as these charges so Job's answers have been opened heretofore upon those former passages and therefore I shall not stay much upon the poynt here Yet because Elihu reassumes this argument yea makes it his strongest argument against Job I shall a little consider whether he did rightly or no in this thing To cleare which we must remember that Job's innocency had received a three-fold testimony in this booke First He received a testimony from God himselfe and that a very notable and glorious one Chap 1. 8. Hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth a perfect and an upright man Secondly He received a further testimony from the pen-man of this book who having recorded the severall afflictions of Job and his behaviour under them repeats it twice Chap 1. 21. Chap 2. 10. In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly The testimony which God gave him referred to his former actions or conversation before his affliction The testimony which the writer gave him referred specially to his latter words or speeches under his affliction Besides these testimonies which are not at all questioned nor can be we find a third testimony and that he gives of himselfe Now though Elihu did highly reverence the testimony which God had given if we may suppose he had notice of it and would also the testimony of the pen-man of the booke had it then been written yet he questioned the testimony which Job gave of himselfe Now that there was some severity in this charge upon that suspition may appeare by considering it in a few particulars First It must be sayd on Job's part or in favour of him according to truth that he never affirmed he was not a sinner Nay we shall find him more then once twice or thrice confessing the sinfulness of his nature and the sins of his life We find him also confessing that notwithstanding all the righteousness and integrity in him yet he would owne none of it before God and that if he should justifie himselfe his owne cloaths would abhorre him Therefore Job was far from saying he had no sin in him in a strict sence Secondly Most of those passages wherein he speakes of himselfe as cleane and righteous may be understood of his imputative cleanness and righteousness as a person justified in the redeemer of whom he spake with such a Gospel spirit and full assurance of faith that he might well assert this of himselfe I know that being justified I am cleane and without sin It is no fault for a believer to say I am cleane without transgression through free Grace in the righteousness of Jesus Christ Much of what Job spake in this matter is to be taken that way Thirdly When Job affirmes these things of himselfe we may say this in favour of him he meanes it of great transgressions The words in the text note defection and wilfull swerving from the right way His friends charged him with hypocrisie with oppression with taking the pledge for nought with stripping the naked of their clothing Thine iniquity is great said Eliphaz and thy sin is infinite Now saith Job I am cleane I have no such transgressions And he might well answer his friends charge of impiety against God and iniquity towards men with a flat deniall yea with an affirmation of the contrary There is no such iniquity in me prove it if you can He was unblameable in the sight of man Fourthly In favour of Job this may be sayd what he spake of himselfe and of his owne righteousness was upon much provocation of when his spirit was heated by his friends who so constantly urged these crimes against him In these heats he spake highly of himselfe and though it doth not excuse any mans sin when he hath spoken sinfully to say I was provoked yet it doth abate the greatness of the sin Good Moses who was the meekest man upon the earth when through provocation he spake unadvisedly with his lips felt the smart of it and God reckoned sorely with him for it Yet to speake amisse upon provocation is not so much amisse as to speake so in cold blood or unprovoked Fifthly Elihu might have put a fairer interpretation and construction upon these sayings of Job He might have taken them in the best sence as Job meant them that he was righteous cleane and innocent in all his transactions with men and had not wickedly at any time departed from God And then ther had not been such matter of fault in what he said as was broughe against him Yet in vindication of Elihu it must be granted Job gave him occasion to rebuke and blame what he had said and that chiefly upon these three accounts First Because he spake many things of himselfe which had an appearance of boasting and so of vaine speaking A little truly sayd of our selves or in our owne commendation may be thought too much how much more when we say much Secondly He spake such things as carri'd a shew of over-boldness with God He did not observe his distance as he ought when he so earnestly pressed for a hearing to plead his cause before God especially when he so often complained of the severity of Gods proceedure with him with which Elihu taxeth him directly in the two verses following Upon both these grounds Elihu thought and was no doubt guided in it by the Spirit of God to cut him to the quick that Job might learne to speake more humbly of himselfe and more temperately to God And therefore Thirdly The Lord did righteously yea and graciously let out the spirit of Elihu upon him in another way then his friends before had done He did not charge him with wickedness in fact but dealt with him about the unwariness of his words Job could not say he had never spoken such words for such words he did speake though he did not speake them as Elihu tooke them When words are out they must stand to the mercy of the hearers and abide such a judgement as may with truth be made of them though possibly besides the purpose of the speaker A man in that case is not wronged he should learne to speak more warily and not give occasion of offence Doubtlesse the Lord had a gracious intent upon Job in stirring the spirit of Elihu to represent his words in the hardest sence that he might humble him Job's spirit was yet too high and not broken enough as it was afterwards Nor doth Job reply or retort upon Elihu for this And when the Lord himselfe began to deal with him he saith Who is this that darkeneth councell by words without knowledge Chap 38. 2. and Job himselfe being brought upon his knees confesseth Chap 42. 3. I have uttered that I understood not things too wonderfull for me which I knew not I have been too bold I confesse Though it was not Jobs purpose or meaning to speake so he had integrity in what he spake yet his words
common consent of all reasonable men doth infinitely surpasse all men both in greatnesse and in righteousnesse both in Justice and in goodnesse When the greatnesse of God appeares in all these things what can be more unreasonable then for man to insinuate any thing complainingly concerning God From the consideration of this scope which Elihu had in arguing from the greatnesse of God Note We may speake and believe aright that God is great and that he is greater then man and yet not answer it in our practise nor be duly affected with it Elihu did not at all question whether Job thought God greater then himselfe that was not the poynt in controversie but he saw this principle was not answered in Jobs practise or that he did not demeane himselfe sutably to the Greatnesse of God which he had proclaimed to others and professed himselfe to believe And thus it is with many most of all with those under great temptations and pressing afflictions How apt are they to speake and act below yea beside those principles which they believe and hold forth in their profession It is an easie matter to say and in words to acknowledge what God hath revealed himselfe to be but O how hard is it to live and walke up to such sayings and acknowledgements Many tell us God is greater then man yet while they doe not fully subject themselves to God they in effect deny that God is greater then man Many acknowledge fully that God is righteous yet when they rest not in his dealings with them they imply some unrighteousnesse in God Many say God is wise only wise yet while they will be their owne carvers and are unsatisfied with Gods allowances and providences they make themselves wiser then God or at least imagine things might be ordered with Greater wisdome then they are Many say God is great in mercy greater infinitely then man yet when they should act faith about the pardon of their sins they act it as if God had but the mercy of a man or as if his thoughts were as our thoughts and his wayes in dispencing favours like our wayes and so they bring God downe to their owne size and scantlings If these had been asked the question whether God hath not greater mercy then man they would have answered doubtlesse he hath and yet they are no more in believing then if the mercy of God were of the same measure with the mercies of narrow-hearted man Thus we modle the Great God and our Idea's or apprehensions of him according to what we see in our selves not according to what he is and hath said of himselfe And what are our rightest notions of God but hoverings in the ayre till we bring them downe into practise or live up to them till every thing we doe be an exposition of what we speake and believe of God And when we believe indeed that God is greater then man we make our selves just nothing before God if we are any thing to our selves or glory in any thing of our owne be it little or great before God we do not give God the glory of his greatnesse The Lord speaking of his owne greatnesse by the Prophet saith All nations are but as the drop of the bucket to him yea they are as a little thing as nothing lesse then nothing if therefore you make not every thing little yea nothing before God you detract from the glory of his greatnesse Againe they only acknowledge God in his greatnesse who both agree to all he doth as just and receive it as good yea as best how bad soever it be to nature or bitter to their sence Once more they only acknowledge God fully in his greatnesse who though God changeth and varieth his dispensations every day with them though he empty them never so often from vessell to vessell yet sit downe and say God is unchangeable to them It is because the Lord changeth not that we are not consumed Mal 3.6 therefore what changes soever his people meete with his heart and thoughts towards them are not changed Secondly Note The very reason why we doe not stoop to God in silence why we doe not suffer him quietly to doe with us and dispose of us how he will is because we doe not lay to heart as we ought the greatnesse of God Did we remember that the great God is great in goodnesse and great in wisdome as well as great in power in a word did we when we say God is great and greater then any man know what we say it would presently stop our mouthes and for ever silence all our discontents complainings whether in reference to our personall or the publick concernments We may pray that God would remove any affliction or evill that is upon us to doe is so not only our liberty but our duty but we may not complaine of any affliction as an evill to us nor would we ever make such a complaint if our hearts were taken up with this thought that God is great in Goodnesse Why doe we say at any time Surely we have suffered enough or too much already Why doe we demand so curiously wherefore God should use such severity against us What is the reason of all this even this we doe not consider enough of his greatnesse All our inward troubles at our outward troubles arise from this because we doe not enough believe or not remember who God is We by our ignorance and unbeliefe divest God as much as in us lyeth of his great goodnesse and wisdome when we feare especially when we conclude things are not ordered for our good And though every man is ready to say he loathes yea trembles at such thoughts yet we may lodge many such guests befoâ—e we are aware Whensoever we are over-grieved at any affliction our owne or others or would without much free submiâ—sion to the will of God have things goe otherwise then they doe we upon the matter make our selves greater and wiser then God And though this be farre from our purpose yet we cannot avoyd the imputation of it That which is not as some distinguiâ—h the aime scope and intendment of the speaker or actor may yet be the aime and scope of his action worke or speech no doubt Job was very farre from the least thought of diminishing much more of denying the greatnesse of God either in his power wisdome or goodnesse yea as was granted before he spake very highly of him in all these his glorious and divine perfections It was not his end when he spake so impatiently and complainingly Finis operis licet non operantis to rob God of that honour of his greatnesse yet Elihu did him no wrong when he sayd his impatience and complainings did it And if any shall be found complaining like Job though they doe not formally deny that God is greater rhen man yet that interpretation and construction may justly be put upon their complaints But some may here object and
ears to receive the word and then sealeth instruction upon them The Apostle speaking of some persons converted who were the fruit of his ministry saith Ye are the seale of mine Apostleship 1 Cor 9.2 3. that is ye confirme and ratifie my ministry that it is of God and that God is in it Now as the conversion of sinners and the building up of Saints is the seale of our ministry so the sealing of instruction upon the soule is the conversion of sinners and the edification of Saints When a sinner is converted his instruction is sealed upon him and when a Saint is built up and edified and increaseth in the things of God then instruction is sealed upon him also And untill we thus profit by the word we have the word as I may say without a seale nothing fastens upon us Thus much of the first designe of God in sending dreams and visions in those times it was to open the ears of men and to seale their Instruction This being only a generall benefit aymed at by those meanes we have those which are more speciall set downe in the words which follow Vers 17. That he may withdraw man from his purpose and hide pride from man This 17th verse containes two of those blessed ends or designes of God in revealing himselfe to man by dreams and visions or by visions in a dream of which Elihu spake in the two former verses as then he takes an opportunity to open the ears of men and seale their Instruction to fasten and fix his word upon them to make it stick and stay by them so in all this his purpose is That he may withdraw man from his purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 auferre erit vel mutare in melius The word rendred to withdraw signifies to take off or put away to remove or change for the better Isa 1.16 Put away the evill of your doings that is doe no more evill or as the Lord speakes by another Prophet Jer 44.4 O doe not this abominable thing that I hate we render the word in the other sense Job 27.2 He hath removed my Judgement farre from me There is in man a kind of settledness and resolvedness upon his purpose he will on but saith Elihu the Lord withdrawes him he stretcheth forth his hand and pull's him back He withdraweth Man Adam the earthly man The proper name of the first man is the common name of all men Man is earthly by nature and so are all his naturall purposes To draw an earthly man from that which is earthly is no easie matter only the power of God can doe it He withdraweth man From his purpose The word which we render purpose properly signifies a worke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fecit and so it is translated not only elsewhere but here by severall Interpreters Mr. Broughton is expresse That the earthly man leave off to work and then by work he means an evill work as by purpose an evill purpose The word work set alone usually signifies an evill work as the word wife put alone is taken for a good wife Prov. 8.22 He that findeth a wife findeth good every one that findeth a wife doth not find good there are many bad wives only he that findeth a good wife findeth good Vt a mâ—vâ—aâ— homo opus scâ— suum et animuâ— malum Iun So on the contrary the word worke standing here alone implyeth a bad work And to withdraw man from his work or from his purpose is to withdraw him from his evill work or purpose The Septuagint gives it clearly so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept that he may withdraw man from unrighteousnesse And Mr. Broughton glossing his own translation saith that he leave off mans work and do the work of God Againe This terme work seemes opposed to the thought or concupiscence of the inner man he withdraweth man from his work that his hand may not effect what his heart hath contrived that the bitter root may not bring forth evill and bitter fruit Or if we follow our translation the sence will be the same He withdraweth man from his purpose that is he checks and stops the inward motions and workings of mans heart and so keeps him from bringing it to perfection by an outward evill work Jam. 1.15 Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished brings forth death God in great mercy takes man off from his purpose when he finds him upon an evill device or purpose he crusheth the Cockatrice's egge that it may not be hatched and destroyeth the conception of those Babylonish brats that they may never come to the birth Mic. 2.1 Woe to them that devise mischief on their beds when the morning is light they practice it because it is in the power of their hand The work begins at the heart there 't is plotted and contrived the heart is the work house of sin now the Lord withdraws man from his purpose and will not suffer the inward work to be accomplished by the outward work Further we may refer these words either to what is past or to what is to come some translate referring it to what is past that he may turn Vt avertat hominem ab iis quâ— fecit Vulg. or withdraw man from those things which he hath done that is from those evills to which he hath already set his hand this is done by giving man repentance which is our being humbled for and turning away from any evill already committed Our translation refers it to what is intended to be done for that 's a purpose So the meaning is God doth these things that he may keep man from doing that evill or mischief which he hath resolved upon or at least is forming and hammering in his thoughts Abimelech had an evill purpose for the matter though possibly the purpose of his heart was not evill for he said to God and God said he spake true in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this Gen. 20.5 6. he was I say about an evill purpose for the matter when he thought to take Abrams wife from him but the Lord came to him in a dream and withdrew him from the evill of his purpose Laban intended evill or hard dealing to Jacob but the Lord met him also in a dreame and withdrew him from his purpose saying Gen. 31.24 Take heed thou speak not to Jacob neither good nor bad that is hinder him not in his journey either by threathings or by promises Thus man is taken off or withdrawn from evill purposes by preventing grace and from evill workes by repenting grace I shall prosecute the words according to our reading only which imports that when man hath some evill purpose upon his heart the Lord visits him in dreames and visions of the night to withdraw him from that purpose Hence observe First Man is very forward and eager upon
it is that God delivereth man while 't is said by Elihu he keepeth back His soul from the pit Some expound the word soul in this former part of the verse in opposition to life in the latter part of it and his life from perishing by the sword Soul and life are sometimes taken promiscuously or indifferently for the same thing yet there is a very great difference between soul and life the life is nothing else but the union between soul and body but the soul is a spirituall substance distinct from the body while remaining in it and subsisting it self alone when separate from it That bond or knot which ties soul and body together is properly that which Elihu speaks of in the next words And his life As God keeps back his soul from everlasting destruction so his life from temporall destruction Though the soul be most precioua yet life is very precious skin for skin yea all that a man hath will he give for his life Chap. 2.5 'T is therefore no small mercy for God to keep back a mans life From perishing by the sword The sword is put sometime for warre that being the principal instrument of warre some insist much on that sence here as if the words contained a promise of being kept from perishing by the sword of an open enemy But the sword is here rather put for any kind or for all kinds of hurtfull evills what ever doth afflict vex or destroy may be called the sword Nomen gladii hoc in loco generalitèr denotare puto quicquid pungit percutit torquet cruciat vel affilgit Bold The text strictly in the letter is thus rendred and his life from passing by or through the sword we say from perishing by the sword which passing by the sword is not to escape the sword but to fall by the sword Thus 't is said of that idolatrous King Ahaz 2 Kings 16.3 He caused his sons to passe through the fire the meaning is not that he delivered them out of the fire but consumed them in the fire for he made them passe through the fire to Molech which was a sacrificing of them to that abominable idoll It is also said 2 Sam. â—2 31 when David took Rabba and destroyed the Ammonites he made them passe through the brick-kilne not to save them but to consume them Some conceive that this brick-kilne through which David made those captive Ammonites to passe was the fire or furnace of Molech that infamous Idoll of the Ammonites with whose bloody and most cruell devotions the apostatizing Jewes or people of God were in after times ensnared And if so then they might see God turning their sin into their punishment and declaring his fiery wrath against them in that by which they had declared their foolish and abominable zeale But that which I quote their punishment for is only the forme of its expression He made them pass through the brick-kilne Transire in gladium est idem quod incidere in manus et tela hostium et cadere in bello Gladius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocatur quasi missite telum Drus that is perish in it Thus here and his soul from passing by the sword is rightly translated from perishing by the sword The word rendred sword signifies also any missive weapon or weapon cast with the hand especially a dart so Mr. Broughton translates and his life from going on the dart The generall sence of this verse is plainly this The Lord withdraweth man from his purpose and hides pride from man that so he may in mercy preserve him from perishing both in body and soul or that he may keep him not only from the first but from the second death which is the separation of the whole man from the blessed presence of God for ever 'T is a great favour to be kept from the pit where the body corrupts or from the sword that wounds the flesh but to be kept from that everlasting woe which shall overwhelme the wicked in that bottomlesse pit or lake of fire and brimstone this is the highest favour of God to lost man This is the pit this the perishing from which saith Elihu the Lord keepeth back the soul and life of man First from the emphasis of the word he keepeth back importing that God as it were by strong hand or absolute authority and command keepeth the soul of man from the pit Note Man is very forward to run upon his own ruine even to run upon eternall ruine if the Lord did not hold stay and stop him Man would tumble into the pit at the very next step if God did not keep him The way of man naturally is downe to the pit and all that he doth of his own self is for his own undoing And as he is kept back from the pit so as the Apostle Peter hath it 1 Epist 1.5 he is kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation Secondly considering the season signified in the former verse that when man is going upon an evill work or walking in the pride of his heart God is keeping him from the pit Note While man hath sinfull purposes and pride in his heart all that while he is going on to destruction both temporall and eternall Every step in sin is a step to misery and the further any man proceedeth on in sin the further he wanders from God and the further he wanders from God the neerer he comes to misery As the further we goe from the Sun the neerer we are to the cold and the further we go from the fountaine the nearer we are to drought so they that hast to sin hast to sorrow yea to hell Solomon saith of such they love death There is no man loves death under the notion of death there is no beauty no amiableness in death but all they may be said to love death who love sin and live in it Every motion towards sin is a hasting into the armes and embraces of death sinners wooe and invite death and the grave yea hell and destruction Thirdly note The warnings and admonitions which God gives to sinfull man whether waking or sleeping are to keep him from perishing to keep him from temporall to keep him from eternall perishing This is the great end of preaching the Gospel the end also of pressing the terrors of the Law both have this aime to keep man from perishing When man is prest to holinesse and when he is represt from the wayes of sin 't is that he may not perish for ever God hath set up many ordinances he hath imployed many instruments to administer them many thousands goe up and downe preaching to the world and crying out to the sons of men repent and beleeve beleeve and repent and why all this cry but to keep souls from the pit and their life from perishing by the sword The Apostle Jude exhorts to save some with fear and of others to have compassion that is terrifie some that
have a good assurance that while we are trading with God for the gaine and encrease of our soules our bodyes shall not waste nor be loosers yet we should be ready to waste and weare off the flesh from our bodyes for the gaine and encrease of our soules Sixthly Why should we be unwilling to offer our flesh to be consumed by the fury of men or by the rage of flames in the cause of God seeing it may ere long consume by sickness and not be seene why should we be afraid to let our flesh consume or rot in prisons or by tortures for Christ seeing a disease will doe it and hath often done it Thousands of the blassed Martyrs and suffering Saints have rejoyced they had flesh to consume when God called them to it So some interpret that Scripture before mentioned 2 Cor 12.14 where the Apostle professed I am willing to be spent for you how spent as an offering or sacrifice by fire in the service of your faith and in bearing my witness to those truths of the Gospel which I have preached to you And indeed he in that sense spent his flesh at the last he suffered death and let his flesh fall in holding up and holding out the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ It is better that our flesh should be thus consumed if God call us to it then that we leave it to be consumed by age or sickness by wormes or rottenness How freely should we offer up this flesh to so noble a consumption seeing we cannot keepe it long from so meane a consumption doe what we can Secondly Note Sickness is a consumer sickness is a consumer of all that will consume It consumes the body and it consumes the purse yea it consumes all our worldly comforts and concernments it consumes every thing but grace We say A time of sickness is a spending time the usuall reference of that expression is to spiritualls In health we gather grace and lay up truths which we spend in sickness But though sickness be a spending time yet it is not I am sure it ought not to be a wasting time to grace and spiritualls A spending time it is that is a time wherein a godly man may lay out a great deale of his spirituall stock and heavenly treasure a great deale of faith and patience a great deale of sweet contentation and selfe-submission to God But sickness is not a wasting time to any of these graces or heavenly treasures yea where grace is reall and active it is not only not wasted or consumed but encreased and improved occasionally by sickness God having promised that all things shall worke together for good to them that love him Rom 8.28 will not suffer the best things of those that love him their graces to take hurt by the worst of bodyly sicknesses Sickness doth only dammage the body and deface the beauty of the flesh and it quickly doth as Elihu affirme of his sick man in the text His flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seene yea as it followeth And his bones that were not seene stick out Flesh and bones are the two eminent materialls of this faire and most regular building The Body of man The Bones of a healthy and strong man are not seene because they are covered with flesh they are only felt or perceived through their clothing skin and flesh God hath put these very comely and beautifull garments as a covering upon our bones but sickness pulls away these coverings it pulls away the cloaths from our bones and makes them appeare as it were naked When the fat is dript away and the flesh is spent the bones seeme to start out We commonly say of a man that hath been consumed by a lingring sickness He is a very Skelleton he lookes like an Anatomy which is nothing else but a pack of bones the flesh is gone Thus David mourned Psal 31.10 My life is spent with griefe my yeares with sighing my strength faileth because of mine iniquity and my bones are consumed The sin-sickness of a sencible soule consumes the bones more then any bodyly sickness This was not only the consuming but the breaking of Davids bones Psal 51.8 And as his sorrow for his owne transgressions so his sorrow for the afflictions of Sion had the like effect in him Psal 102.3 4 5. My dayes are consumed like smoake or into smoake they vanish like smoake and my bones are burnt as a hearth My heart is smitten and withereth like grasse so that I forget to eate my bread By reason of the voyce of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin Et comminuentur ossa ejus non videntur interpretantes vocem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in significatione Syriaca Pisc SignificationeÌ„ Syriacam malo quam omnes penè hebraei sequuntur Merc Some read this Text His bones are diminished lessened wasted or broken in pieces as if the consumption reached not only his flesh but his bones too That 's a fierce disease which at once invadeth and wasteth the bones The word which we render to stick out signifieth in the Syriack Idiom the abating lessening or breaking of any thing into lesser parts or pieces And so those words are not seen in the text which according to our translation refer to the time of health when a man is so fat and full fleshed that his bones cannot be seen scarcely felt those words I say are referred according to this translation to the time of sickness which is supposed so to diminish and wast the bones that by an ordinary straine of Rhetorick they are said not to be seen His bâ—â—â—â— are diminished they are not seen We also render this word◠〈◊〉 that first propheticall word concerning our restoring by Christ Gen. 3.15 by bruising It that is the womans seed shall bruise thy head that is the Devills and thou shalt bruise his heele When bones are bruised and as it were shuffled together they cannot be seen in their proper places or as once they were fixt by nature This various reading doth not vary the generall sence of the Text but only heighten and encrease it We render fully and significantly his bones that were not seen stick out Hence note There is no man so strong there is nothing in man so strong that can stand out against the strength of sickness Our bones are not made of brasse sickness will diminish them and pain master them Secondly Whereas 't is said His flesh that was seen is not seen and his bones that were not seen stick out or are seen Observe Sicknesse makes a wonderfull change in man It puts that out of sight which was seen and it brings that in sight which was not seen This holds true not only as to that which is naturall in man his flesh and bones of which this text treats in the letter but 't is true also as to that which is morall and spirituall in man his virtues and his vices his graces and his lusts
not to look for much or not to doe their worke for filthy lucre but of a ready mind 1 Pet. 5.2 Thirdly As the reward is small so the opposition is great Ministers are often persecuted and reproacht and the more faithfull and dilligent they are the more they are opposed and reproached To preach the Gospel fully as it should be preacht is to provoke thousands and bring the World about our eares No marvell then iâ— rhe messengers and interpreters of it be not many if they be but as one among a thousand Thus you see what hinders the generallity of men from medling with that work 'T is but one among a thousand that will engage in a work upon these hard termes or that prae-apprehending them hath faith and self-denyal enough to swallow and overcome them Againe Consider those that outwardly bear the name and Title of the Ministers of Christ and you will find that among them they who are true and faithfull to their trust are upon the matter but one among a thousand As there are but few Ministers among many men so there are but few Ministers among many that are true and right interpreters Doe but take out or sever these five sorts from among them who pretend to be Ministers and then it will soone appear that the interpreters in truth are but few among many of those that are so in Title First Take away all those who thrust themselves boldly or are admitted carelesly or by mistake into the Ministery who yet are ignorant blind ungifted and so unable for the worke Secondly Take away those who though they have gifts and abilities yet are lazie and sloathfull such as will not take paines nor worke in the worke Thirdly Take away those who have gifts and are industrious yet are unsound at least in many poynts and erronious in their judgements and so mis-lead and mis-guide those whose guides and leaders they are Fourthly Take away those who though they are not unsound and erronious yet are prophane and scandalous pulling downe that truth with one hand which they have set up with another or building againe those sins by their practise which they have destroyed by preaching and so make themselves as the Apostle speakes in a like case Gal 2.18 transgressours for as God justly calls such transgressours because they have sinned against his word so they make themselves transgressours because they sin against their owne even against the doctrine by which they have condemned those sins which themselves live in Fifthly Take away those who though they are neither of these neither ignorant nor idle nor unsound nor scandalous yet are but meere formall preachers such as only speake words deliver the out-side and skin of the Gospel but have no acquaintance with the marrow and power of it Take away these five sorts from among Ministers and surely this expression of Elihu will be but too much verified The interpreter is but one among a thousand Abstract all that are ignorant idle unsound scandalous formall dispencers of the word from those who are commonly called Ministers and then they who remaine will be very few so few that every one of them may be reckoned one among a thousand And we shall be forced to say that Elihu hath not sayd without cause whether we respect their excellency or their scarsity that any faithfull messenger or interpreter is one among a thousand This is not spoken by Elihu here nor ought it to be taken up by any of the most faithfull Ministers of Christ to draw honour and respect upon themselves or that their persons may be had in admiration who are faithfull this were a pittifull designe of holding out such a truth but it serves for this end that the people of God may see they have a blessing where any are faithfull and may learne how they ought to prize those faithfull messengers whom the Lord sends among them yea how readily they should receive the grace of God which is tendred in their ministry These are not only each of them one messenger or interpreter but each one of them is one of a thousand A soule-convincing converting quickning comforting Minister of the Gospel is worth thousands and one among a thousand The Prophet saith Isa 52.7 How beautifull are the feet of them that bring glad tideings c. By their feet he meaneth their coming feete being the instruments of their coming to bring this glad tideings yet when he saith their feete are beautifull it may have a greater emphasis for the feete being the lowest part of the structure of mans body it may intend thus much that even that which is lowest and meanest in a messenger of the Gospel his feete wearied and wet yea foule and dirty with travel have a beauty upon them how much more his face and countenance for if the very feete of such news-bringers of such messengers and interpreters should be acceptable and lovely so beauty is to all men how much more should their persons and most of all their message and tideings be And doubtlesse if men did but understand it they would acknowledge that God hath committed such a treasury to them as is better and more beautifull then all the gold and precious things of this world and would cry out O what a mercy is it to have such a News-bringer and what Greedy News-mongers would they be The one among a thousand would be more desirable then many thousands of Gold and Silver Elihu having described the person whom the Lord often makes instrumentall for the restoring and comforting of the sick sinner calling him A messenger an interpreter one of a thousand which latter may be applicable to both the former proceeds to shew the business of this messenger or interpreter who is one of a thousand more expressely or to set out what his worke is surely excellent and glorious worke even this To shew unto man his uprightness We are not to understand this shewing for a bare report of the thing in which sense the Prophet complain'd Lord who hath believed our report Isa 53.1 that is we have shewed good things to the world but who hath believed us The shewing spoken of by Elihu is not a bare declaration of the matter to the eare but an effectuall and powerfull impression of it upon the heart Such a shewing as is spoken of at the 16th verse of this Chapter then he openeth the eares of men The Lord speakes so by his messengers and interpreters that he not only makes the eare heare but the heart too The heart heares when we have a sense and are under the power of what is heard As before we had a spirituall interpreter so here we have a spirituall shewing of his interpretation Here 's a heavenly messenger and a heavenly message to the earthly man To tell the earthly his rightfullness saith Mr Broughton Now because of the pronoune his his uprightness It may be demanded whose uprightness he meanes or what this
Christ to declare to man this righteousness for his uprightness And that hence it is as Elihu proceeds in the next verse to assure the sick man that God is and will be gracious to him Vers 24. Then he is gracious unto him and saith Deliver him from going downe into the pit I have found a ransome These words hold out the generall issue and fruit of the labours and good counsell of that messenger or Interpreter dealing with the sick man and shewing him his uprightness There are three distinct interpretations which run quite through this verse and they arise from a different apprehension about the antecedent in this pronoune He then he is gracious unto him He who is that All the Popish interpreters refer it to the Guardian-Angel sent to attend on this sick man Then he the Angel will be gracious and he will say deliver him But as I then layd by that opinion that the messenger was an Angel properly taken so I shall not stay upon that which is a consequent of it here Secondly Severall of our Protestant interpreters referre this he to the Messenger or Interpreter to the Prophet or any spiritually wise and holy man sent of God to assist and help the sick man in his distresse Some are so positive in this opinion that they deny the text any other reference Hoc de nuncio dicitur non de deo aptè enim tribuitur nuncio etinterpreti voluntatis dei ut miscreatur hominis in summo vitae discrimine constituti Merl Et de gratia eum alloquutus dixerit redime cum nec desceÌ„dat in soveam expiatione quam inveni Jun Summa orationis quae apud deum pro afflictis habenda est Jun This is to be understood of the Messenger saith one and not of God And I grant 't is sutable to the business of the messenger who comes to comfort and instruct the sick man that he should pitty and compassionate him in that disconsolate condition and likewise pray for him according to the tenour of these words in the text or to the same effect O Lord God be gracious to him and deliver him let him not goe downe to the pit for the ransome sake which I have found As if Elihu had sayd When that faithfull messenger shall have declared the benefits and grace of God to the afflicted man then pittying his afflicted soule he shall pray for him O God deliver him from death and condemnation from the pit and from destruction for I have found and shewed him a ransome by which his soule may be delivered and his sins pardoned In the 19th Chapter of this Booke at the 27th verse Job useth this word in his application to his friends for their pitty to him and more favourable dealing with him Have pitty upon me have pitty upon me O my friends for the hand of God hath touched me As if he had sayd The hand of God presseth me sore O let not your hand be heavie upon me too This exposition carrieth a great truth in it and is not at all inconsistent with the letter of the text yet I shall not insist upon it but adhere rather to a third which makes the antecedent to this He to be God himselfe Then he is gracious That is when the messenger hath dealt with the sick man when he hath opened his condition to him and shewed him his uprightness or how he may stand upright before God or what his righteousnesse is before God and hath brought his heart to an unfeigned sorrow for his sin and to the actings of faith upon the promise then God is gracious and then he gives out the word for his restoring and orders it to be presently dispatcht away to him saying deliver him unloose him unbind him let him not goe downe into the pit I have found a ransome Taking this for the generall sence of the Text I shall proceed to open the particulars Then he will be gracious or then he will have mercy upon him as Mr Broughton translates Then and not before till then the Lord lets his bones ake and his heart tremble till then he suffers him to be brought so low that he is reckoned among the dead but then though not before he sheweth himself gracious unto him When a poor man is reduced to the utmost extreamity then is Gods opportunity then is the season of mercy and the Lord therefore lets us be at the lowest that we may be the more sencible of his goodness in raising and lifting us up The Lord suffers many as Paul spake of himself 2 Cor. 1.9 to have the sentence of death in themselves that they may learn not to trust in themselves but in him who raiseth the dead We seldome give God either the glory of his power by trusting him or of his goodnesse by thanking him for our deliverances till we are brought to the last cast as we say or to such an exigent as leaves no visible meanes in probabillity no nor of possibility to escape And when 't is thus with us then he is gracious Secondly Then he is gracious that is when the man is doubly humbled when the mans heart is graciously broken when the man is growne into an abhorrence of himself and of his sin or loathes himself for his sin as much as he loathed his meat as 't is said in the former verse when his heart is thus taken quire off from all that is below in the world and gathered up beleevingly to Jesus Christ in the word of promise Then he is gracious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Misertus gratificatus gratia prosecutus fuit ex gratia donavit benesecit The Originall word hath many comfortable significations in it yet all resolvable into this one he is gracious It signifies to pity to have compassion tenderly to regard to bestow grace to doe good there is enough in the bowells of this word to bear up the spirit of the sickest body or of the most troubled soul It is said Gen. 6.8 Noah found grace or favour in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was the only man that held out the grace of God in that age him only did God find perfect or upright in his Generations Gen. 6.9 and Noah only was the man that found grace or favour in the eyes of the Lord in that generation Gen. 6.8 God was gracious to him and his when the whole world periâ—hed by water That proper name John is derived from this word when God gave Zachary and Elizabeth a Son in their old age he also directed how he would have him called ye shall call his name John which name as we may well conceive was assigned him either because God did very graciously and favourably bestow that gift upon his Parents in their old age and so shewed them much favour a child at any time is a great favour from God especially in old age or secondly because John was to open the Kingdome of Grace to preach the
received and in receiving more grace favour and comfort from God as will appeare in opening the words Vers 26. He shall pray to God and he will be favourable to him and he shall see his face with joy for he will render to man his righteousness Elâ—hu gave us before one meanes of the sick sinfull mans recovery from his bodyly and soule sickness that was the counsell and instruction given in by the messenger the interpreter one of a thousand And here he sets downe another meanes by which he is restored to both especially to the sweetness of both He shall pray unto God The word here used to pray signifieth not barely to pray 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multiplicavit propriè verba fortia et magnacopia fudit in oratione inde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supplices Zeph. 3.10 or put up requests to God 'T is a word with an emphasis implying the Multiplying of prayer and that not the multiplying of prayer so much by number as by weight the powring forth or multiplying of strong prayers or as it is sayd of Christ In the dayes of his flesh Heb. 5.7 the offering up prayers and supplications with strong crying and teares There may be a multiplying of weak insignificant words in the eares of God by prayer But the faithfull people of God through the Spirit powre out many strong words in prayer as Christ did in the dayes of his flesh to him who is able to save them from death or danger and give them life When Elihu saith He shall pray he intends such prayers even the urgency importunity or vehemency of the soule in prayer When Isaac saw his wife Rebecca was long barren he was forty yeares old before he married and many yeares being elapsed in marriage there was no appearance of Children Then saith the Text Gen 25.21 Isaac intreated the Lord for his wife because shee was barren and the Lord was entreated of him and Rebecca his wife conceived It cannot be imagined that Isaac being so holy and gracious a man had not prayed for that mercy before Doubtless he prayed that God would fullfill the promise to his father Abraham in giving him a childe but when he saw the promise so long delayed or stick so long in the birth then he intreated the Lord 't is this word he powred out many and strong prayers The word is used againe concerning Manoah after his wife had received a promise from the Lord of hearing a Son afterwards called Sampson Judg 13.8 Then Manoah entreated the Lord and sayd O my Lord let the man of God which thou didst send come againe unto us c. Fearing they might not fully follow the instructions given his wife for the education of their son he earnestly begged of the Lord further direction in that matter That prophecy either of the Gentiles to be converted or of the returne of the dispersed Jewes expresseth them by this word Zeph 3.10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants shall come even the daughter of my dispersed shall bring mine offerings As if the Prophet had sayd They shall spend themselves in supplications at their returne they shall come with strong petitions with mighty prayers as making prayer their business They shall not come with frozen affections and cold requests but with hearts flaming up in the ardency of their desires and urgency of their supplications to the Lord. That 's the force of the word He shall pray As if Elihu had sayd He shall not come with dead-hearted prayers and petitions as many doe in their sicknesses and sorrowes nor with a formal Lord have mercy upon me and helpe me but he shall make a business of it he shall pray to purpose he shall pray with his whole strength In which sence the Lord bid Ananias goe to Saul afterwards Paul Acts 9.11 For behold he prayeth intimating that he had never prayed all his dayes before nor indeed had he though being brought up a strict Pharisee he was much in the forme of prayer ever prayed in power before He shall pray Some understand this He relating to the messenger praying for the sick man He shall pray and God will be favourable to him That 's a truth 't is the worke and duty of the messenger to pray for as well as advise the sick man But I conceive rather the person here intended praying is the sick man for himselfe who after he hath been counselled directed and advised by the messenger what to doe applyeth himselfe to the doing of it Further Some who agree that the sick man is the person praying yet understand it of prayer after his recovery who finding himself healed and strengthened prayeth unto God for grace or for a right use of his health strength But I rather understand it of his prayer unto God in the time of his affliction who when his sins and transgressions have been laid before him by the messenger and his soul-soars searched to the bottome and faithfully dealt with and so brought to a sight of himselfe and of his sin with the sad effects of it visible upon this pained and consumptive body is then stirred to seek the Lord and entreat his favour He shall pray unto God Hence Note Sicknesse is a prayer season Prayer is a duty never out of season yet at some times more in season and most in season in times of affliction Is any man afflicted let him pray James 5.13 And among all afflictions the affliction of sickness seemes to be a speciall season calling for this duty Therefore in the 14. verse of the same Chapter assoon as he had said is any man afflicted let him pray it followeth is any sick among you let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him 'T is high time for us when sick to look about us to call in prayer-aide or helpe from others in prayer yet 't is not enough fot the afflicted or the sick to get others to pray for them they must pray for themselves some put off the duty of prayer to others and think it sufficeth if they send bills to ministers or move friends to pray for them I know sickness indisposeth to prayer bodily paine and weakness hinder continuance and abiding in the duty but that doth not excuse the sick from praying for themselves To desire others to pray for us in bodyly sickness and neglect it our selves is an ill symptome of a sick soul yea to desire others in that case to pray for us when we have no heart to pray for our selves is too cleare a prognostick that their prayers will not profit us nor be prevailing for us Pharoah when under those dreadfull plagues could send for Moses and Aaron more then once and said unto them entreat the Lord for me Exod. 9.27 28. Chap. 10.16 17. But we read not that he entreated the Lord for himself Simon Magus when struck with the terrible threatnings of Peter said Pray ye to the
is sayd he will render unto man his righteousness we are not to understand it of righteousness in kinde but of the reward or fruit of his righteousness For here Elihu speaks of a person already righteous or at least of him who had repented of and turned from his unrighteousness So that to returne or render unto man his righteousness is to returne the mercy promised to those that are righteous Reddet justitiam i. e. praemium justitiae Drus For as iniquity or unrighteousness is often put for the punishment of unrighteousness so equity or righteousness is often put for the reward of righteousness or for that which God according to his righteous promise returnes unto a righteous person Thus we may understand Elihu here As if he had sayd God dealt with this man before as with a sinner or he afflicted him for his sin But now he will deale kindly with him as with a righteous person and removing his affliction and taking his hand off from him he will render his righteousness to him he will not reckon with him for any former unrighteousness From this notion of the word Observe God usually deals with men as they are and according to what they doe If a godly man sin he shall smart for it and if a sinner return and repent God will shew him kindness Though the mercy and kindness which God shews to a returning sinner be not for his returnings or repentings yet 't is according to them The favour which God sheweth any man is for Christs sake or for what Christ hath done and suffered but it is according to what himselfe hath done or suffered David experienced this himselfe Psal 18.20 The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousnes c. That is as I have been a righteous and just person so the Lord hath dealt with me And he gives the rule with respect to all others v. 25. With the upright thou wilt shew thy selfe upright with the pure thou wilt shew thy selfe pure c. That is Thou wilt be such to men in thy dispensations as they are in their conversations and dispositions in the frame and bent of their hearts and lives And as it followeth v. 27. Thou wilt save the afflicted or humble people but wilt bring downe high lookes that is those that are proud and high-minded The Prophet holds out the same truth in way of direction Isa 3.10 Say ye to the righteous it shall be well with him for they shall eat of the fruit of their doings that is they shall have good for the good they have done or according to the good which they have done Rom 2.10 Glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile If any object But may it not be ill with men that doe good and are good doth the Lord alwayes render to man according to his righteousness I answer It is well at present with most that doe well look over all the sons of men and generally ye shall find that usually the better they are the better they live Secondly I answer It shall be well with all that doe well in the issue and for ever This truth will abide to eternity God will render unto man according to his righteousness Secondly We may take the word righteousness Justiam quam ei confert in Christo reputans eum pro justo Jun for the righteousness of justification Mr Broughton inclines to that sence He will restore unto man his justice And presently adds by way of glosse Justice is Christ It is Christs Justice or righteousness that is restored to man Christ is indeed The Lord our righteousness Jer 23.6 And thus severall others of the learned expound these words He will render unto man his righteousness That is he will bestow upon him or restore to him righteousness in Christ he will account him righteous though he hath no righteousness of his owne which will hold in Gods account Elihu I grant calleth it Mans righteousness his righteousness yet we may well understand him calling it so not because it is wrought by but because it is imputed to or bestowed upon man as his righteousness That is ours which is freely given us so is righteousness in justification by faith in Christ We have no righteousness wrought in us or by us for that purpose but we have a righteousness wrought for us and freely bestowed upon us for that purpose which is therefore truely called mans righteousness But some may question how can it be sayd that God doth render or return to man this righteousness that is the righteousness of justification Can this righteousness be lost can a person justified fall out of a justified state I answer The righteousness of justification which is true also of the righteousness of sanctification as to the substance and being of it cannot be lost But it may be lost as to the comfortable enjoyments and fruits of it or as to our apprehension of it And the Lord is sayd to returne to man the righteousness of his justification not as if the grace it selfe were lost or taken away from him but because the sight and sence of it the sweetness and joy of it Non enim ablata justitia redditur sed ablatae justitiae sensus Coc the workings and effects of it having been lost are now restored to him againe When the Lord by his Spirit gives the soule a cleare and fresh evidence of it or reneweth the testimony of his Spirit with our spirits that our sins are forgiven and that we are justified beloved and accepted in Christ then the Lord is sayd to render unto man his righteousness otherwise neither the faith by which this righteousness is applyed nor the righteousness it selfe which is applyed to us by faith is at any time lost or removed Only in this sence as in many other Scriptures so in this the Lord is sayd to render unto man his righteousness both of sanctification and justification For when a beleever through sin hath blotted his own evidences and God hath left him under the darkness of his own spirit for his negligent unwatchfull unworthy walking or when the Lord hideth his face to try him what he will doe whether he will trust in his name while he walketh in darkness and seeth no light when I say after withdrawings for either of these reasons or for any other the Lord gives him in a renewed evidence of his love then he is sayd to render unto man his righteousness It is in this case as with a man that labours under some strong and dangerous disease which taketh away his sences and leaves him halfe dead we say the man is gone yet he recovers his speech returnes and his spirits revive and then we say his life is rendred to him or he is brought back from the grave we have fetched him againe not that his life was quite taken away for he was not a carkasse in
O that my people had hearkned unto me and Israel had walked in my wayes I should soone have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves but their time should have endured for ever I should have fed them also with the finest of the wheate c. As if the Lord had sayd How glad should I have been if my people had been but fitly qualified to give me occasion of removing all evill from them and of doing them all manner of good The holy Prophet speakes the heart of God in the same readiness Isa 30.18 Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you As if he had sayd The Lord expects your reformation that he may not proceed in rigour against you or as some conceive rather he only delayeth his putting an end to your troubles till ye are humbled expecting a seasonable time to shew you that mercy in bestowing of which he will exalt and advance his owne name and honour when once he seeth you fitted and duely prepared to receive it The Lord saith David Psal 14.2 looked downe from heaven upon all the children of men to see if there were any did understand and seek God There he is represented looking downe from heaven to see if any did understand as here he looketh upon men to see if any doe repent saying I have sinned c. The Lord often yea alwayes looketh downe upon Nations Cities and people to see if any have a right understanding of him or a will with upright affections to him The Lord at this day is looking upon the sick and looking upon the sound to see if there are any who are going on faithfully in a right way or repenting that they have gone wrong He looketh upon men And if any say I have sinned c. In this latter part of the verse we have the matter expressed which the Lord looketh upon men for 't is repentance and godly sorrow for sin If any say I have sinned That is if any repent When the Lord saith If any say I have sinned he doth not meane it of a bare saying so but if any say so laying his sin to heart if any say so from a true sence of the evill of sin if any say so burden'd with sin and tasting the bitterness of it if any shall say I have sinned and say it thus then c. The word which we translate sinned notes a mistake of our ayme or way As if it had been sayd If any man say I have gone besides the line and done besides the rule Sin is in all men a missing of the mark and a stepping out of the right path it is also in very many as 't is expressed in the next clause a perverting of that which is right If any say I have sinned and perverted that which is right 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 curvus obliquus contortus perversus Latini dicunt curvos mores The word implyeth more then ordinary sinning more then sins of infirmity which arise from ignorance and mistake even those which are committed with a resolvedness of spirit and purpose of heart or they imply not those sins which a man falls into unadvisedly and unawares but those which he commits upon deliberation and in the eye of the Law that shewing him plainly what is right and that he ought not to pervert it So then in strictness of sence to pervert that which is right is to be willingly yea wilfully unrighteous The Church making a graduall confession of her sin by three steps puts this word in the midst Psal 106.6 We have sinned with our fathers we have committed iniquity 't is this word or done that which is crooked and perverse we have done wickedly Cain the first man born sinned thus Gen 4.13 My punishment is greater then I can beare so we render or as we put in the margin mine iniquity is greater then can be forgiven Cains sin was a perversness he knew he perverted that which was right in slaying his brother So that here we have the confession of sin with the aggravation of it a notorious sin The penitent person doth not only say I have sinned but I have sinned greatly or I have perverted that which was right To sin and to pervert that which is right are materially the same only the latter intimates the manner how a sin is committed namely when we would not be ruled by the Law but accommodate the Law as if it were a leaden or lesbian rule to serve our lusts so perverting that which was right that we might countenance and embolden our selves in doing wrong If any aske What is right Surely right is First The Law Secondly that which is done according to Law The statutes of God are right rejoycing the heart Psal 19.8 The word of God is right and the rule of right yea it is a ruling right To pervert that which is right or to pervert the law of righteousness is to act against the light and convictions of conscience which will be our Judge One of the latine interpreters useth a harsh and course word to presse this by yet full and proper to the scope Peccavi et rectum torrificavi Cajet Praevaricatus sum à probitate Tygur I have tâ—rtified or writhed and bended that which was right Another renders it I have prevaricated from that which was right Our word gives the sence fully enough I have sinned and perverted that which was right Hence note First Sin must be confessed The Lord looks for it He looketh upon men to see whether any will say I have sinned He will have their sin out of their own mouths When Nathan brought the parable home to David and sayd Thou art the man he presently fell into confession I have sinned 2 Sam 12.13 But some may say Is this confession of sin sufficient to say I have sinned I answer First a generall confession of sin or that we have sinned is not sufficient unlesse we are also willing and ready to confesse before the Lord all our particular sins Some are ready enough to say they have sinned who yet will scarse be brought to acknowledge any particular sin yea many say Peccatores se esse plerique confitentur etiam qui se vel peccasse non credunt Greg l. 24. Moral c 12. they are great sinners who know not how or in what they have sinned not what it is to sin Therefore barely to say I have sinned is not a Gospel confession of sin I answer Secondly Though a generall confession is only expressed in this and many other Scriptures yet a speciall confession is intended The prodigal Son Luke 15.19 sayd I will returne to my father and I will say to my father I have sinned against heaven and against thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son He did not
enumerate the particular evill acts he had committed and was guilty of yet doubtlesse he had them as a burden upon his heart and was willing to unburden himselfe of them one by one in a hearty and heart-afflicting confession The publican Luke 18.13 stood a far off and durst not lift up his eyes to heaven but only sayd God be mercifull to me a sinner He struck at all his sins though he did not by name touch any one of them He that saith knowing what he saith I have sinned will not hide any one of his sins And he that indeed and truth confesseth any one will cover none of his sins Those sins may be pardoned which are not expressely confessed but if we conceale or hide any sin and will not bring it forth in confession we cannot in faith expect the pardon of it Againe Consider the time or season when the Lord looked for this confession It was a time of trouble and affliction of paine and sorrow the man was sick or but in a way of recovery out of his sickness Hence note Times of affliction are speciall times of confession and repentance Confession of sin must not be omitted especially not neglected in our most comfortable dayes much lesse in a day of trouble A sad and troubled state calls us aloud to a gracious sadness of heart to the search of our hearts and lives which are preparatory to repentance and Godly sorrow Usually in prosperity men will not be at leisure to search their hearts and take notice of their sins Therefore the Lord draweth them to confession by drawing them from the world by laying them upon their sick beds or by bringing them into straites And as when affliction is upon persons or families then is a speciall time to confesse personall and family sins so to confesse national sins is most seasonable when affliction hath seized upon kingdomes and nations The want and neglect of that publicke confession and sorrow in such a day is mightily aggravated and most severely threatned Isa 22.12 13 14. God looketh and loveth to heare every man saying and a whole nation as one man saying in a day of sorrow and trouble I have sinned and perverted that which was right From the latter words I have perverted that which was right or the Law Note First The law of God is the rule of righteousness a right rule All rightness and righteousness is comprehended in it and measured by it Secondly Learne Sin is a perverting of that which is right Every the least sin is so in some degree though here possibly sins are intended of any even of the highest degree The Apostle defining sin calleth it 1 John 3.4 A transgression of the Law and if so it must needs be a perverting of that which is right For what is or can be right if the rule of righteousness be not What the Apostle spake to Elymas Acts 13.10 Wilt thou not cease to pervert the right wayes of the Lord shewes the nature and effect of every sin and the more sinfull any sin is by so much the more doth it pervert that which is right Some sinners are sayd to make voyd the law of God to pervert it as if they would quite subvert and disanull it David remembers God of such and desires him to look to them betimes Psal 119.126 It is time for thee to work for they have made voyd thy law That is they have done their best or worst rather their utmost to make it voyd and of no force 'T is not in the power of all the powers of the world to vacat rescind or null one tittle of the law of God heaven and earth shall passe away before that yet many attempt it yea some doe that which will be found and interpreted a making voyd of the law of God who thinke themselves great zelotes for or very zealous of the law That will be the case of many especially of all will-worshippers Againe Consider though the person here spoken of had not only sinned but perverted that which was right that is sinned perversly yet upon confession the Lord deales graciously with him Hence Note The free grace of God extends to the pardon of the greatest sins even sins of perversness Where sin aboundeth Grace aboundeth much more Rom 5.20 whether the abounding of sin be taken in the number of it or in the weight of it that is in the greatness and aggravations of it Grace hath its sutable super-abounding Num 23.21 When Balaam would shew that the people of Israel were a people impenetrable by his curses he saith The Lord hath seen no iniquity in Jacob nor perversness in Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word there used is of a different root from this in the text but the sence is the same implying if the Lord had seen perversness in Israel it would have layd them open to a curse yet sins made up of perversness are within the compass of a pardon There is no sin excepted from pardon but that which at once refuseth and despiseth it the sin against the holy Ghost Math◠12.31 This should not incourage any to sin perversly only it is a comfort to those who have They who have sinned perversly or who have perversness mingled with their sin should not cast off the hope of pardon but woe to those who sin perversly that is against the light of their owne consciences upon hopes of pardon Such persons have no true hope they may have much presumption that they shall be pardoned They who having sinned perversly confesse it have good ground to pray for pardon but they who goe on sinning perversly have no ground while they doe so to hope for it This text speakes of a person confessing and bewayling that he hath sinned perversely not of a person purposing to sin so as appeares further in the last clause of the verse If any say I have sinned and perverted that which is right And it profiteth me not Here 's another poynt of confession we must not only confesse that we have sinned but the fruitlessness of sin or that sin profiteth not There are two rendrings and so two severall expositions of these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 potest esse verbum potest esse et nomen faemininum Vnde sensus est non accepi tantundem non reposita est mihi par paena pro peccato meo Coc Non dignè in me inquisivit pro his quae poccavi Sept The word signifieth most properly that which is equall And hence some give the sence thus which carrieth in it an eminent work of repentance I have sinned and perverted that which was right and have not that which is equall That is Though I am greatly afflicted and my sorrows lye heavie upon me yet they are not equall to my sinning or perverse dealings with the Lord. I have not received as I was worthy or according to my ill deservings The Septuagint speak thus God hath not made
have cause to boast of the penny-worth he hath had by sin which hath occasion'd the sorrows of that repentance One houres communion with God in wayes of holiness is better then all the profits and pleasures which any man hath got while he was committing that sin or running any course of sin whereof he now repenteth At the best sin dishonours God troubles our consciences and breakes our peace at the best nothing is got by sin which is worth the having at worst the soule is lost by it which of all things we have is most worth the having Thirdly Note Sin is exceeding dangerous and destructive to man Some would sin for the pleasures and carnal contentments which are found in sin though they knew they should make no earnings or get no profit by it yea though they knew they should be and dye beggers by it Once more if this were all that they should loose heaven by it or if the meaning of loosing their soules were only this that their soules should be no more they would easily venture it But there is an affirmative in the negative and when 't is sayd sin profiteth not the meaning is it brings trouble and renders us miserable for ever Fooles that is all sinfull men saith the Spirit of God Psal 107.17 because of their transgression and because of their iniquities are afflicted and all such among these fooles as dye in their sin are damned and who is able to summe up the dammage of damnation Fourthly Learne Sinners shall be forced at last to confesse that there is no profit in sin True penitents confesse it willingly now and impenitents shall confesse it at last whether they will or no they shall have such a conviction of the evill of sin by their sufferings as will make them say what hath pride profited me and what hath envy profited me what hath malice and wrath profited me And what hath the fraudulent deceiving of my neighbour profited me this will be the cry of sinners to all eternity Oh what hath sin profited us That which is the willing confession of a gracious repentant here will be the forced confession of damned impenitents for ever hereafter This will be a bitter repentance Hell is and will be full of the words of repentance but no fruit of repentance shall be found there The damned shall not find either amendment in themselves or mercy from God This will be the confession of all sinners at last as of those that repent and are saved so of those who repent when damned we have sinned and perverted that which was right and it hath not profited us And when once man hath made this hearty confession to God of his sin and folly then God maketh him a gracious promise of deliverance and mercy as appeares in the tenour of the next verse Vers 28. He will deliver his soule from going into the pit and his life shall see the light There is a two-fold reading of this 28th verse as was shewed in opening the former For whereas that 27th verse is understood by some as the humble confession of the sick man recovered and so read in this forme He looketh upon men and saith I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited me not then this 28th verse is rendred to make up that sence as a thankfull acknowledgement of his recovery He hath delivered my soule from going into the pit and my life seeth the light Thus as we had his confession of repentance in the verse fore-going I have sinned Juâ—ta hanc loctionem erit etiamnuÌ„ hic versus ex coÌ„fessione restituti aegri dei in se summam beneficentiam agnoscâ—ntis Merc c. so here we have his confession of praise and thankfulness He hath delivered my soule from going into the pit Mr Broughton translates to this sence He saved my soule from going into the pit that my life doth see the light Thus the sick man being restored breakes out into thanksgiving The Lord in mercy hath freed me from death hell and the grave I need not feare Satans accusations my body enjoyes the light of the world and my soule the light of Gods countenance shining upon me which is better then life But because our owne reading is cleare in the originall text and holds out the scope of the context fully enough therefore I shall prosecute that only He will deliver his soule from going into the pit The words are an assertion of the favour and goodnesse of God to the penitent sick man He that is God looketh upon men and if he heare any saying I have sinned and perverted that which is right and it profiteth me not if he make such an humble and gracious confession this will be the issue the Lord will deliver his soule from going into the pit At the 18th verse we had words of the same import He keepeth back his soule from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword And againe at the 24th verse Deliver him from going downe to the pit To be delivered from the pit as was there shewed is to be delivered from death And the word soule as was then likewise expounded is put for the person As if it were sayd He will deliver him the penitent man from death and that both from temporall death the death of the body and from eternall death the destruction of body and soule or he will deliver him first from the pit of the grave and secondly from the pit of hell He will deliver his soule from the pit And his life shall see the light Videre lucem periphrasis est vitae sicut è contrario tenebrae sunt symbolum mortis Pined That is he shall live to see the light To see the light is a circumlocution of life As if it had been sayd He shall recover out of his deadly sickness and behold the light of the Sun as living men doe Thus David prayed Psal 56.13 That he might walke before God in the light of the living And thus the wicked man is threatned with eternall death Psal 49.19 He shall goe to the generation of his fathers they shall never see light That is they shall never enjoy life but be shut up in a perpetuall night of death or in the night of perpetuall death Secondly When 't is sayd his life shall see the light we may understand it not only for a bare returne to life or that he shall live but that he shall live comfortably and prosperously he shall lead a happy life To see the light is to live and rejoyce light is pleasant it is comfortable to behold the Sun as Solomon speakes To see light comprehends all the comforts of this life and of that to come which is called the inheritance of the Saints in light Col 1.12 For as darkness is put not only for death but for all the troubles of this life and the torments of the next so light is put both for life and
in vengeance Psal 7.11 12 13. God is angry with the wicked every day if he turne not he will whet his sword he hath bent his bow and made it ready he hath also prepared for him the instruments of death he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutours Secondly Note The wounds which God makes cannot be healed by any medicines but his owne Jobs wound was incurable there was no balme for him in the Gilead of this world no Physician there And therefore the Lord bids Egypt in scorne seeke healing there Jer 46.11 Goe up into Gilead and take balme O virgin the daughter of Egypt in vaine shalt thou use many medicines for thou shalt not be cured Who can heale where God will wound Psal 38.2 3. Thine arrows stick fast in me there is no soundness in my flesh even David complained that the wounds which the arrows of God had made in him were incurable Why is my paine perpetuall said the Prophet Jer 15.18 and my wound incurable which refuseth to be healed When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound then went Ephraim to the Assyrian and sent to king Jareb to help him yet could he not heale you nor cure you of your wounds Hos 5.13 God gives states or bodyes politick such wounds as all the medicines and meanes in the world cannot helpe They may goe to the Assyrian and send to king Jareb to this and that power They may call a whole colledge of State-Physicians or deepest politicians for counsel and advise yet neither one nor other can be a healer to them Therefore in the next Chapter v. 1. the Church concluded upon another course and a better addresse then either to the Assyrian or to king Jareb Come let us returne unto the Lord for he hath torne and he will heale us only the Lord who gives the wound can heale the wound the same hand which smites us must cure us else our wound is incurable Thirdly Note To complaine of our wounds as incurable or past cure is an argument of our unbeliefe 'T is good for us even to despaire of help from creatures and to say the least wound if but the scratch of a pin is incurable by all the art meanes and medicines which this world can administer but to say our wound though never so deep dangerous and deadly is absolutely incurable is our sin While we ruine our selves that is while we provoke God to ruine us yet there is hope in God O Israel thou hast destroyed thy selfe but in me is thine helpe Hos 13.9 despaire as much as you will of creatures helpe but still hope in God Thirdly In that he saith My wound is incurable without transgression Note The Lord may and doth take liberty to afflict those grievously who have not sinned greatly There is no man liveth and sinneth not yet every man is not in strict sense a sinner that is a great sinner a rebell a worker of iniquity yet the Lord when 't is needfull giveth them great wounds who have not comparatively sinned greatly Though no sin should be little in our eye yet there are degrees of sin and some are lesse then others in the eye both of God and man Elihu chargeth Job not as saying he had no sin but because he complained his wounds were great though his sins were not or that there was not a due proportion between his offence and his punishment his sins and his sufferings Hence note Fourthly Though the Lord taketh liberty to afflict those greatly that have not sinned greatly yet they must not take liberty to complaine of the greatness of their afflictions how little soever their sins have been A gracious heart lookes upon the least of his mercies as greater then the greatest of his good deservings and upon the greatest of his sufferings as lesse then the least of his ill deservings or demerits And surely besides that liberty which God hath as he is supreame and soveraigne to afflict whom he will and in what degree he will we must know that the least sin deserves the greatest wound An evill thought deserves all the evill that can be heaped upon us Whatsoever we suffer on this side hell is less then the least of our sins And therefore if we have reason to confesse our little sins great and our greatest wounds little compared with our little sins how much more should we confesse our great sufferings little compared with our great sins as the Church did Ezra 9.13 After all that is come upon us our long and hard bondage in Babylon for our evill deeds and for our great trespasse thou O Lord hast punished us lesse then our iniquities deserve Further from the whole verse in that Elihu chargeth Job with these severall sayings Observe First A good mans sayings are often worse then his meanings Elihu rebuketh his speeches not his spirits his words though in some respect true yet were dangerous and because not well explained by himselfe scandalous to others But his heart was not trecherous not the bent of his mind wrong set in uttering them Evill men may speake good words but 't is with a bad heart Good men sometimes speake bad and offensive words yet with honest hearts and when their mindes are serene and they cleared from those clouds of perturbation which have darkned them they as Job are ready to recant them and repent of them Secondly Note It is an high offence to intimate any thing which doth in the least intrench upon the Justice and righteousness of God To say God hath taken away our judgement may call downe judgements To say we are wounded without transgression is a great transgression and the reason why it is so is plaine because such sayings tell the world that we suffer if not quite without desert yet more then we deserve and what is this but to justifie our selves and lay blame upon God then which as was shewed at the 2d verse of the 32d Chapter nothing is more derogatory to God or more blame-worthy in man Thirdly Note If we speak amisse or indiscreetly about the dealings of God with us we may thank our selves if we are hardly censured and soundly chidden for it Though Jobs heart was honest yet his tongue was intemperate and he too bold with God and you see how God stir'd up the spirit of Elihu to lay it home to him and bring him upon his knees for it They who vent unwarrantable speeches must not thinke much if they meet with sharpe reproofes and cutting censures Tongue-faults seldome escape without tongue-lashes And 't is a mercy to meete with them from a faithfull friend Their lashing and cutting tongues prove healing tongues Psal 141.5 Fourthly Note Every speaker is at the mercy of his hearers No man knows what glosse his words may have put upon them when once uttered Here are foure sayings brought against Job yet Job never spoke any of them expressely or in so many words but such collections were made indeed they
he will not doe wickedly for so it may be sayd of every honest man He will not do wickedly but seeing in this Negative commendation given by man to God as in all the Negative commandements given by God to man all affirmatives are to be understood what can be sayd more to or more sound out his praise and glory then this God will not doe wickedly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est aliquando impium pronunciare condemnare aliquando vero impiè agere vel iniquè quippiam facere Merc The word here used for doing wickedly signifies two things First to pronounce any person wicked and Secondly to doe any thing which is wicked both these often meete together For in many cases to pronounce a person wicked is to doe a wicked thing he that condemneth a just person pronounceth him wicked and what thing can be done more wickedly then that Some take the word in that sence here as a deniall that God either hath done or ever will condemne the innocent There are two things wherein men doe very wickedly with respect to the persons of men both which the Lord abhorres First when they condemne the innocent Secondly when they acquit or cleare the guilty The former way of doing wickedly is chiefly removed from God here by Elihu as the latter is directly and expressly by himselfe Exod 34.7 The Lord the Lord c. that will by no meanes cleare the guilty To pronounce a guilty person innocent or an innocent person guilty if ignorantly done is a great piece of weaknesse and if knowingly done is a great piece of wickednesse Yet because the latter part of the verse speakes particularly to cleare God from wrong Judgement therefore I conceive we may better expound this former part of it more largely as a generall deniall of any evill act whatsoever done by God Surely God will not doe wickedly Neither will the Almighty pervert Judgement The Almighty who hath power to doe what he will hath no will to doe this evill He will not pervert Judgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 detorquobit curvabit The word signifies both to pervert and subvert as also to bow wrest or put out of order to mingle or blend those things together which should be for ever separated or as we say to mingle heaven and earth yea heaven and hell together so doe they who mingle good and ill right and wrong together To pervert Judgement is to doe all this for then which Abraham assured himselfe was farre from God Gen 18.25 The righteous are as the wicked that is the righteous fare as ill as the wicked or the wicked fare as well as the righteous But the Almighty will not pervert Judgement that is the right which belongs to any man and therefore he will-doe every man right We had the same position in termes Chap 8. 3d and we have had this whole verse equivalenâ—ly in the 10th of this Chapter where Elihu sayd Far be it from God that he should doe wickednesse and from the Almighty that he should commit iniquity Here only one verse intervening Elâ—hu reports and repeats the same matter againe but it is no needlesse or vaine repetition for which Christ reproved the prayer of the Heathens Math 6.7 there are many repetitions in Scripture but not one vaine one how often soever the same truth is repeated there it hath its weight and use not only as it is still a truth but as it is a truth repeated And therefore I shall give a threefold reason why this truth is here againe repeated which will also lead us to a fuller improvement of it First Because this truth is as it were the hinge upon which the whole controversie between Job and Elihu is turned Job was unsatisfied because he was so ill handled and therefore Elihu tells him often that God is righteous and that he will not wrong any man Hereby giving Job to understand that God had done him nothing or done nothing to him but right Such grand swaying controling truths should be often and can scarce be too often repeated Secondly Elihu repeated this againe because 't is such a truth as no man can too much no nor enough weigh and consider the value and worth of it Now that which cannot be too often nor too much thought of cannot if rules of prudence be observed be too much or too often spoken of There is scarce any man who hath not sometimes at least indirectly and obliquely some hard thoughts of the proceedings of God either in reference to himselfe or to others Nor is there any thing that we have more temptations about then that surely we are not in all things rightly dealt with and that the dispensations of God are not so even as they might These sinfull suspicions are dayly moving and fluctuating in the heart of man and therefore this opposite principle ought to be fastened and fixed there to the utmost that the will and workes of God are all just and righteous yea that his will is the rule of all righteous workings or that as whatsoever is done in this world is done by the disposure of God so God though the thing be evill and unjust is just and good in the disposure of it Therefore unlesse we resist or contradict the will of God we must say whatsoever comes to passe comes righteously to passe because it comes to passe by the determinate will and counsell of God Thirdly Elihu repeates this assertion that he might the more commodiously make his transition or passage to the matter following and prosecute it with greater successe And therefore I shall not stay longer upon those words only Note First This great truth that God will not doe wickedly neither will the Almighty pervert Judgement convinceth those not only of injudiciousnesse but of wickednesse who though they are ready to acknowledge in generall God is just yet as to those particular providences which concerne them or wherewith themselves are pincht doe not cannot acquiesce and rest in the will of God with freedome and satisfaction That which is just should not displease us though in it selfe it be very bitter and unpleasant to us Secondly This truth is a ground of comfort to all the people of God who are under heavy pressures from this evill world or who receive little reward or incouragement as to sense from the good hand of God Such are apt to say with the kingly Prophet Psal 73.13 14. Verily in vaine have we cleansed our heart and washed our hands in innocency for all the day long have we been plagued and chastened every morning David was under a temptation when he was under hatches he could hardly perceive it worth the while to take paines in cleansing and washing either heart or hand while God was so constant and frequent in correcting and chastening him with so heavy a hand Yet David soone after recovered out of this temptation and concluded the Psalme with this particular assurance v. 28. It is
good for me to draw neere to God as he had begun it v. 1. with a generall assurance Truely God is good to Israel even to such as are of a cleane heart God is good to those who have a cleane heart even when they are in the greatest sufferance of evill and therefore they who are cleane hearted have no reason at any time to say nor shall they long say they have cleansed their heart in vaine Though now they smart yet in due season they shall be well rewarded for their washing The Judgements of God are such Judicia dei plenè nemo comprehendit justè nemo reprehendit August lib 2. de Civ ◠Dei cap 23. as no man can fully comprehend such as no man can justly reprehend The Almighty will not pervert Judgement Those foure things which cause men to pervert Judgement are at the furthest distance or remove from God whereof the first is envie at the good condition of others The second is groundlesse and unreasonable love or hatred of their persons The third is feare of frownes from those that are great or feare of after-claps Many are deterr'd from giving but a just measure either of reward to good men or punishment to evill men lest themselves should receive hard measure from those who like neither The fourth is hope of gaine or their private advantage For as some pervert Judgement for bribes already received so others for bribes promised or upon expectation of some future favours Now God I say is infinitely above these foure and all other imaginable by-respects upon which Judgement is perverted every day by the sons of men God is above all envy yea above all that hatred or love which perverts Judgement he is above all feare of evill and hope of good God hath nothing to feare seeing none can reach him much lesse hurt him neither hath he any thing at all to hope for seeing he is in the full possession of all happinesse and blessednesse that is of himselfe Why then or upon what account should the Almighty pervert Judgement so that if at any time we have any unbecoming thoughts of the Justice of God either that he afflicts the good without reason or prospers the wicked against it all this ariseth from our ignorance or the shortnesse of our sight We have not a full or perfect prospect of things we see but a little way backward we are not wise to compare what 's past with what 's present nor can we at all infallibly foresee any thing future or discerne what shall be Whereas God at once hath all things before him he seeth what is past as well as what is present and what shall be hereafter as well as what hath been and so the compleatnesse and indefectibility of his owne Justice in all And when we in the great day shall see all the workes of God in the world brought and presented together as in one view we shall then say from the evidence of sight as now we ought from the evidence of faith that the Almighty hath not in any one thing perverted Judgement And therefore the Apostle doth most excellently and appositely call that day The day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God Rom 2.5 Elihu having strongly asserted with a yea surely that the Almighty will not pervert Judgement yet stayeth not in a bare though so strong an assertion which he might but gives us the proofe and confirmation of it as he hath denied that God will so he proveth by undeniable arguments that God will not doe wickedly that the Almighty will not pervert Judgement And this he doth in the next or 13th verse and the two that follow Vers 13. Who hath given him a charge over the earth or who hath disposed the whole world These words as was intimated before are an argument proving that God neither hath nor can doe wrong That as to the case in hand he had not done Job wrong yea that as to all cases he can wrong no man This argument is grounded upon the soveraignty supremacy or absolute authority of God over all men The summe and force of it may be gathered up into this forme He cannot doe injustice to any who of right hath an absolute power arising from and residing in himselfe to doe what he will with or towards all men But God hath such a power Therefore he cannot doe any injustice That God hath such an absolute power arising from and residing in himselfe Elihu proves by a kind of Challenge Who hath given him a Charge over the earth Produce the man let him shew his face if he dareth It is an expression of the same importance with that of the Apostle Rom 8.33 Who shall lay any thing to the Charge of Gods Elect let us see the man let us see the devill that shall so lay any thing to the Charge of Gods Elect as to prevaile in his Charge 't is also like that other triumphant query in the same Chapter v. 31. If God be with us who can be against us That is who can be so against us as to hurt us or carry the day against us Thus here Who hath given him a Charge over the world let us see who As if he had sayd Are there any above God from whom he deriveth his power Or have any committed the Government of the earth to him as his trust and charge for the mannagement whereof he is to be accountable unto them Surely no. And if no then either God is just or all the world must be in confusion or under oppression without any redresse or remedy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sequento 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sumitur pro Jubere juxta morem Syriacū hinc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praefecti Merc Mr Broughton renders Who before him looked to the earth We say Who hath given him a Charge over the earth The ordinary signification of the word is to visit and that First In a way of favour to see what others want so we visit the poore or how they doe so we usually visit the sick and sometimes those that are well in health Secondly It signifieth to visit in a way of judgement or to punish those that have done amisse Thus the Lord threatens to visit that is to punish the iniquity of the fathers upon the children Exod 20.5 Thirdly The word signifieth to command to issue out orders to give a charge This signification of the word is very frequent both in Scripture and in dayly use Visiters we know have power of Government yea they have power over Governours to order and give them a charge that they doe or to examine whether they have done the duty of their place In this latter sence we render it here Who hath given him a Charge over the earth And so we read it 2 Chron 36.23 Thus saith Cyrus King of Persia all the kingdomes of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me And he hath
he doth not thus put out his power We live and live comfortably we enjoy not only our lives but many mercies of this life and therefore surely God doth not deale rigorously much lesse unrighteously with man He that doth all men good beyond their deserts will not punish any man beyond his demerits He that doth not exercise his power alwayes where he might will not exercise it all where he ought not That 's the summe and scope of Elihu in the context under hand Vers 14. If he set his heart upon man To set the heart upon any thing or person is a Scripture expression often used noting more then barely to think upon or mind both or either It signifieth to have deep and serious thoughts to think with consideration and attention yea with some height and heat of affection And all this whether that thing which the heart and affections are set upon please or displease be comfortable or grievous for both love and hatred hope and feare are thoughtfull of and sollicitous about their severall objects Hence that caution Psal 62.10 If riches encrease set not your heart upon them we naturally love riches and therefore as naturally spend many thoughts both how to get and how to keepe them If a man have riches or an encrease of riches it is not unlawfull for him to thinke or them yet we should be as sparing of our thoughts that way as can be our thoughts and the bent of our soules should alwayes be upon God but that which the Psalmist forbids is the setling of our hearts As if he had sayd Let not your thoughts stay or dwell there Riches are themselves transient things therefore they should have but our transient thoughts Set not your hearts upon them for they may quickly be unsetled Samuel bespake Saul in the same language about a worldly concernment when he went out to seek his fathers Asses 1 Sam 9.20 Set not thy mind on them 'T is like Saul was over-burdened with this thought What 's become of or what shall I doe for my fathers Asses Be not sollicitous about them saith Samuel greater things are towards thee Abigail useth the same forme of speaking to David concerning Naball 1 Sam 25.23 Let not my Lord regard this man of Belial lay not to heart what Nabal hath sayd or done Thus Jonadab took off Davids feare that in one day he had been deprived of all his Sons 2 Sam 13.33 Now therefore let not my Lord the King take the thing to heart to think that all the Kings sons are dead for Amnon only is dead We are as apt to set our heart upon our losses as upon our enjoyments And to shew how little Pharoah regarded the heavy hand of God upon him it is sayd after Moses had turned all the waters that were in the river to blood Exod 7.23 And Pharoah turned and went into his house neither did set his heart to this also That is he slighted what God had done Let God speak and strike once and againe Apponere cor est vello decernere constituere q. d. Si ei suus animus suggererit Vatabl yea a third time yet hard-hearted men doe not lay it to heart nor set their heart upon it Thus here in the Affirmative it is sayd of God If he set his heart upon man that is if he doe but intend and mind this matter he can quickly bring it about even the perishing of all flesh If he set his heart upon man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Valet contra Si poneret concra eum cor suum i. e. si sibi proponeret hostiliter eum aggredi Pisc The text is rendered also If he set his heart against man The Hebrew particle signifieth not only upon but against Amos 7.16 Prophesie not against Israel c. And the generall sence of that reading may be given two wayes First If he set his heart against man to enquire strictly into his life and wayes if he should critically mark all his errours or faults and so resolve to proceed against him he might soon make an end of him as it followeth in the next verse As the strongest so the best and holyest of men are not able to stand before him Thus the words are an answer given by Elihu to that frequent request of Job that God would let him come near to judgement and hear his cause argued and debated before him even at his Bar but saith Elihu according to this sence If God set his heart against man if he doth but strictly enquire into his condition course and conversation it would be sad with him All men must perish Those two places in the Psalmes answer this interpretation fully Psal 130.3 If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquities O Lord who should stand That is No man shall We cannot stand in our righteousness before God how then shall we stand in our iniquities And therefore the second Text deprecates the Lord 's severe enquiry into our purest and most perfect services Psal 143.2 Enter not into judgement with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Secondly If he set his heart against man that is If he have a general purpose to destroy and ruine him by his absolute Soveraignty he can easily do it what God hath a minde to do or only willeth it to be done he hath power enough to do it He can make any man miserable and not only strip him of the comforts of this life but of his life too And as he hath power enough if he would use it so he hath soveraign unquestionable authority enough to bear him out in the use of his power Now seeing God who is cloathed with this absolute power yet doth not exercise such a power but having given man a being continues to very many men a comfortable being in this world and doth not willingly grieve or afflict any of the children of men nor execute any vengeance upon them without their desert surely then God is righteous he will not do wickedly Thus we have the importance of the Translation If he set his heart against man We say which also beareth fairly enough the same sence If he set his heart upon man Si direxerit ad eum cor suum spiritum illius flatum ad so trahet Vulg. If he gathereth unto himself his Spirit and his breath Some render it thus If he set his heart upon or against man he will gather unto him his spirit and his breath and then as it followeth All flesh shall perish together We repeat the supposition according to the Hebrew Text If he set his heart upon man If he gather to himself his spirit and his breath then c. Take either reading the general sense is the same and in brief 't is this If God have a minde to it he can quickly thrust all men out of the world He that gave man his spirit and his breath can at pleasure recal both and then
turnest man to destruction and sayest Return ye children of men Here 's man turning and returning upon the saying of God man turneth to death he returneth to dust and shall at last return from the dust and all this when God saith he must Our life is a very frail thing and it is in the hand of God to continue or take it away to let us hold it or gather it home to himself Thirdly From the manner of speaking If he gather to himself his spirit and his breath Note When man dieth he is gathered to God When as Solomon allegorizeth the death of man Eccl. 12.6 7. The silver cord is loosed and the golden bowl broken c. Then shall the dust that is the body return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to God who gave it that is each part of man when he departeth this world shall go its proper way and return to that which is most congenial to it his body to the earth from whence it is his soul to God of whom it is God is a Spirit the creating Spirit and our created spirits are gathered to God when they are separated from the body yet remember there is a two-fold gathering or returning of the spirit to God First To abide and be blessed with him for ever thus the spirits of believers or saints only are gathered to God when they depart out of this world Secondly There is a gathering of the spirit to God to be judged and disposed of by him to receive a sentence of life or death from him And thus the spirit of every man or woman that dieth is gathered to God be they good or bad believers or unbelievers Heb. 9.27 It is appointed for men once to die but after this the judgement 'T is the Statute Law of God man must die and the sound of Judgement is at the heels of death That Text saith but after this the Judgement The general day of judgement shall not be till the resurrection of man from the dead But there is a personal judgement or a determining of every mans state when he dieth and for that end every mans spirit is gathered to God to receive his sentence The spirits of wicked men are gathered to him and condemned the spirits of the righteous are gathered to him and acquitted We are come saith the Apostle Heb. 12.23 to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect David knew he must be gathered to God but he earnestly deprecated such a gathering as most shall have Psal 26.9 Gather not my soul with sinners nor my life with bloody men It is this word when sinners die they are gathered but David would not be gathered as they are gathered They are gathered to God but it is that they may be for ever separated from him they are gathered to a day of vengeance and wrath Therefore David prayed Gather not my soul with sinners Death is called a gathering in a threefold reference First A gathering to our people Thus it is said of Aaron Num. 20.24 Aaron shall be gathered unto his people for he shall not enter into the land c. Death separates the people of God from their people that is from those that are like them on earth but it will be a means of bringing them into the society of their people or fellow believers who are gone before them into heaven Secondly Death is called a gathering to our Fathers 2 Chron. 34 28. Behold I will gather thee to thy Fathers and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace There 's a gathering to a more special company and that with other like Scriptures are an argument that we shall know our relations in heaven For to be gathered to our Fathers spoken of in the first part of the verse is more then to be gathered to the grave spoken of in the latter and by our fathers we are to understand more of our fathers then the grave hath in its keeping which is but their bodies even their souls which are kept in heaven Thirdly According to the phrase of this Text death is called a gathering to God If he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath Whence Note Fourthly The spirit or soul of man hath its original from God It is of him to whom it returneth The soul or spirit of man is of God in a more special way then his body is for though God giveth both yet the Scripture in the place before named speaks of the soul as the gift of God but passeth by the body Eccles 12.7 The dust shall return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to God who gave it 'T is God not man alone who hath given us these bodies but 't is not man but God alone who hath given us these spirits therefore men are called the fathers of our flesh that is of the body in way of distinction from God who is the father of spirits Heb. 12.9 We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live that is shall we not rather be subject to God then to man Father of spirits is an Attribute or Title too high and honourable for any but God One of the Ancients in his gracious breathing after God brake out into this holy Passion My soul O God came from thee and my heart is unquiet or restless until it return to thee again God is our center and our rest He gathereth to himself mans spirit and when he doth so what then what 's the issue of it Elihu tells us what in the next verse Vers 15. All flesh shall perish together and man shall turn again to his dust As if he had said As soon as ever the spirit is gathered the flesh is consumed or as we render perisheth All flesh may be taken in the largest sence not only for all men that live but for all living creatures Thus largely Moses extendeth it Gen. 6.17 Behold saith the Lord I will bring a flood of water to destroy all flesh that is all the Beasts of the earth and Fowls of the ayre together with Mankinde except a few of each in the Ark so Psal 136.25 Who giveth food to all flesh that is to man and beast for his mercy endureth for ever Yet some understand this first part more narrowly for all flesh except man because he addeth in the latter part of the verse and man shall return again to his dust But I conceive we are to take all flesh here for all men and only for men it being usual in Scripture to put the same thing twice under different expressions So then All flesh that is every man be he who he will shall perish Thus as all flesh is restrained to man so it extendeth over all men yea over all things of man Isa 40.6 All flesh is grass and all the
mighty men that all may know his judgements are deserved by their works he makes their works known Secondly Others render He maketh them know or acknowledge their works The Lord at last by sore and severe judgements will extort confessions from the worst of them he will make the mighty acknowledge that their works have been nought and their wayes perverse In Scripture the same word signifies to know or to confess and acknowledg Thus here he makes them to know or to acknowledge what their works have been Thirdly Rather take it as we render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non significat notum facio quod sciam sed tantum cognosco ideo transtuli cognoscit Drus of Gods act in taking notice of all they had done Therefore he knoweth their works As if Elihu had said these mighty men of the earth thought themselves under covert or that the Lord took no notice of them nor of their works their works were done in the dark and they supposed the Lord could not pierce into them but he will make it appear that he knew their works when he maketh his justice appear in punishing them for their works Hence Note We have an assurance that God knoweth the works of all mon because he punisheth all wicked works or the works of the wicked so punctually and exactly He punisheth many of them here and will punish them all hereafter when we see him breaking the mighty men of the world 't is a proof that God was in their Cabinet counsels and saw what was done there we may conclude he knew their works though men knew them not he could never lay his judgements so exactly upon them as he doth if he did not know their works That God knows the works of all men is a point I have met with before and therefore pass from it here And he overturneth them in the night There are several readings of this clause First Some thus Therefore the Lord knoweth their works and turneth into night that is he turneth their prosperity into adversity he bringeth trouble and affliction upon them they lived before in a day of prosperity in a day of power and worldly greatness but he turneth them into night Secondly Or as others thus He turneth the night that is he changeth the night into day Simul atque mutavit noctum c. Jun. i. e. Lucem protulit qua revelantur omnia in judicio ejus Id. he takes away the dark and close covers of their sins and makes them as manifest as the light Now as the Apostle saith Eph. 5.13 That which maketh manifest is light If God were not light he could not bring to light the hidden things of darkness nor manifest the counsels of the heart Thirdly thus Therefore he knoweth their works and when the night is turned he destroyeth them that is they are destroyed and perish as soon and as easily as the day takes place of the night or as soon as the night is turned into day so soon doth the Lord destroy them he can quickly make an end of them he can destroy them with the morning light We render and I judge that best He overturneth them their persons in the night and so Elihu points at the season or time of Gods breaking and overthrowing them he doth it in the night We may take it strictly as in the case of Pharaoh and the Egyptians Exod. 12.29 as also in that of Belshazzer Dan. 5.30 or in the night that is suddenly unexpectedly Though a man be destroyed in the day yet if it be done suddenly he looking for no such matter we may say it was done in the night because then men are most secure This way of expressing an unlookt for evil the coming of in the night was opened at the twentieth verse therefore I shall not stay upon it He overturneth them in the night So that they are destroyed Elihu said before He shall break in pieces mighty men Here he saith they are destroyed that is they shall be broken to purpose or throughly God doth not break them in pieces for correction but for destruction there are great breakings upon the persons and estates of some men and yet it is but for correction others the Lord breaketh for utter ruine as here so that they are destroyed The Original word signifieth to destroy as it were by pounding in a Morter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contrivit atirivit contudit and the same word is used to signifie a contrite heart a heart broken by godly sorrow under the sense of sin They are destroyed or as it were ground to powder you may break a thing into many pieces yet not grinde it to powder or dust as corn in a Mill or spice in a Morter but these saith Elihu are not only broken to pieces but beaten to dust that 's the strength of the word which we render they are destroyed Hence Note What God hath a mind to do he can do it certainly and will do it throughly He breaks men in pieces so that they are destroyed and brought to dust When the Prophet declares the breaking of the four Monarchies it is said Dan. 2.35 They shall be as the chaffe of the Summer threshing upon the Mountains if the Lord will destroy the mightiest they shall certainly be destroyed as Balak said to Balaam I wo◠that whom thou cursest are cursed as if he had said thou canst curse effectually if thou wilt set thy self to it 't is not in the power of all the Balaams in the world to effect a curse though they pronounce a curse 't is only in the power of the Lord to curse effectually he can bless whom he pleaseth and they are blessed he can curse whom he pleaseth and they are cursed Thus as Ephraim lamenting his sin and sorrow confessed Jer. 31.18 Lord thou hast chastised me and I was chastised God paid him home as we speak if we chastise a childe he is chastised but when Ephraim saith thou hast chastised me and I was chastised his meaning is I was greatly and effectually chastised that is first In a literal sence I found thy hand heavie upon me it was a sore affliction that I was under Secondly In a spiritual sence Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised that is my heart was humbled and broken under thy chastisements in either notion we see the effectualness of the Lords work Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised And therefore Ephraim invited the Lord to another work Turn me O Lord and I shall be turned if thou wilt but turn thy Spirit upon this hard heart of mine it will be effectually turned it will be not only broken for sin but from sin As if he had said I have received reproofs and counsels from men and they have not turned me but Lord if thou wilt reprove and counsel me I shall be turned thus the Lord carrieth his work home to conversion in his spiritual dealings with some and to
they that are really wicked shall be dealt with as wicked men though they make a high profession of godliness in the Church even them will God strike also as wicked men Christ speakes of some Math 7.22 who made a lâ—â—d profession of religion with whom yet he dealt as with wicked men Depart from me saith he I know ye not ye workers of iniquity Though God doth not deal alike with all wicked men yet he deales with them all like wicked men There is not one wicked man in the world but he shall be dealt with according to his kind that is as a wicked man and shall have that for his portion which is the portion of their Cup who are wicked As the Godly so the wicked whether prophane or false and hypocriticall shall be esteemed and handled by God like themselves or as they are Secondly From the first word as it is taken causally upon which many insist Note The reason why wicked men â—ne stricken is because they are wicked Were not men wicked they should never feele such stroakes from the hand or rather iron rod of God If any smart and are ruin'd they may thank themselves for it that is their sins for it their sufferings are the fruits of their sin The Prophet told the sinfull Jewes so Jer 4.18 they had an affliction upon them which did reach even to the heart God made their hearts ake he struck them to the heart but why did he so the answer is Thy sin and thy doings have procured those things to thee c. He striketh them as wicked men In the open sight of others Locus videntium locus patens frequens celebris omnium oculis expositus Par Importat visionem paradigmaticam et exemplarem Merc These words are a further description of the manner how God strikes the wicked he doth it openly or as we put in the margin In the place of beholders that is in such a place and in such a manner that all may behold it we say He strikes them in the open sight of others that is he punisheth them in an exemplary way or that they may be an example of warning unto others For The place of seers or of beholders is some open and eminent place oppos'd to a Corner as Paul sayd pleading his cause before king Agrippa Acts 26.26 This thing was not done in a Corner no it was done as upon the house-top even in the place of beholders The Lord will not have to doe with wicked men only in a Corner He will have witnesses of his doings with them There shall be enow to take notice how he handles them therefore he often takes open vengeance on them in the frequent assembly and concourse of many beholders both approving and reverencing yea adoring the impartiall equity of the supreame Judge and his care of humane affaires So then the words are an allusion to the execution of Common malefactors who dye by the Judgement of the Magistrate such being condemned and sentenced by the Judge are not put to death in the prison or in a hole but are taken out and carried to some noted place of execution or a Scaffold is purposely erected where a multitude of spectators are admitted to come and behold the Tragedy When our Lord Jesus Christ who to deliver us from our transgressions was numbred with transgressors when he I say was crucified The Evangelist saith Luke 23.35 The people stood beholding and the Rulers also with them derided him Christ himselfe was strucken as a wicked man in the place of Beholders And so have many thousands of his faithfull witnesses The wicked deale with them often as the Lord dealeth sometimes with wicked men they are brought forth from prison to death and executed in the open sight of others All things in this world come alike to all no man knoweth love or hatred by all that is before them Eccl 9.1 2. The Apostle Paul speaking of himselfe and his fellow-Apostles to shew the publick disgrace which they were put to saith We are made a spectacle to the world to Angels and to men 1 Cor 4 9. The Greeke is we are a Theater to the world c. As if he had sayd all see how we are used And as bloody persecuters make the faithfull servants of Christ a spectacle so Christ will at last make wicked men a spectacle to the world to Angels and to men Thus it is prophecied Isa 66.24 that all flesh who come to worship before the Lord shall goe forth and looke upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against him c. They shall be stricken in the place of Beholders or Seers Some expound that word Seers Videre saepe significat cum voluptate aliquid spectare Scult as implying more then ordinary seers or more then barely such as see what is done namely such as are delighted and pleased with what is done yet not as it is a suffering of paine by man but as it is an act of Justice from God Hence note God oftentimes doth Justice upon sinners openly The Judgements of God are of two sorts Some are secret others are manifest he can doe execution upon men when none see it nay he doth the severest executions upon some men when they themselves doe not see it that 's the sting and severity of the Judgement that they have not so much as any sence of the wrath of God when the full vialls of his wrath are powring out upon them But many of the Judgements of God are open As he striketh some so secretly that none can see it so others so visibly that all may see it Thus the Lord commanded Moses Numb 25.4 when Israel had joyned themselves unto Baal-peor Take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord against the Sun By the heads of the people we may understand either the capitall offenders those who were most active and ready in that wickednesse or their principall Rulers who in stead of stopping them from or punishing them for those offences gave way to them or at least wincked at them These must be hanged against the Sun that is as Elihu speakes here in the open sight of others or in the place of seers Thus they were made an example of caution that all might see and feare and doe no more presumptuously Read the like executions of divine Judgement threatned 2 Sam 12.11 12. Isa 26.11 John in the Revelation Chap 15.4 prophecyeth of the Saints triumphing at the fall of Babylon and singing the song of Moses and the song of the Lambe saying Great and marvellous are thy workes c. for thy Judgements are made manifest God hath now stricken Babylon his great enemy in the open sight of others his Judgements were right before they are alwayes right but till then not manifest David saith Psal 9.16 The Lord is knowne by the Judgement which he executeth now if the Lord be knowne by the Judgement which
and practices as procured them that ruine Thus the righteous rejoyce when they see the vengeance yea they wash their feere in the blood of the ungodly that is they get comfort and encouragement by seeing the Lord avenge their cause against their adversaries It is sayd Exod 14.30 31. that God having overwhelmed the Egyptians in the red Sea the Israelites saw the Egyptians dead upon the shoar God did not suffer the carcasses of the Egyptians to sink to the bottom of the Sea but caused them to lie upon the shoar that the Israelites might see them And when Israel saw that dreadfull stroak of the Lord upon the Egyptians It is sayd The people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses Thus they were confirmed in their faith by Gods open Judgements upon the Egyptians They were smitten in the place of beholders or in the open sight of others There are yet two other interpretations of these words which I shall touch He striketh them in the place of beholders In loco videntium i. e. exiflentes in statu in quo videre poterant tum per naturalem rationem tum per sacram doctrinam quid esset faciendum et quid esset vitandum Aquin that is saith my Author in such an estate or condition wherein themselves might see both by that natural light which every man hath especially by the light of doctrine and instruction what they ought to doe and what to shun or avoyd In this sense to be smitten in the place of Seers is to see and behold to have light and understanding what to doe or forbeare doing and yet to act against that light and so provoke the Lord to strike us which is a great aggravation both of the sin and punishment of man A second gives it thus He striketh them in the place of seers or where they saw that is he striketh them in the eye of their understanding or in their Judgement he striketh them with spirituall blindness as the Sodomites were with corporall so that they are not able to see their way or what becomes them to doe This is a most severe stroake There are many who when they have abused the light and would not doe what they saw they ought God hath struck them with such blindness that they should not see what they ought to doe Both these are rather tropologicall Expositions then literall yet they may have their use and improvement by way of allusion In this place Elihu having thus held out the openness and exemplariness of the judgements of God upon wicked men proceeds in the following words to shew the equity and righteousnesse of them Vers 27. Because they have turned back from him and would not Consider any of his wayes Here I say lest any should surmise that God takes vengeance without cause the cause is named and assigned why God takes vengeance 't is because they turned back from him they in the pride and stoutnesse of their hearts which great men especially are much subject to refused to obey and follow God and therefore his wrath followed and brake them They turned back from him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verbum è verbo de post eum sic alibi scortati sunt de post dominum i. e. deserto domino There is a two-fold turning back First Corporall Secondly Morall or spirituall none can corporally turn back from God though some attempt it to what hiding place soever we turn our selves we cannot be hid from him who filleth every place But there are many who morally turn back and depart from the living God Sinners would turn their persons back from God and hide their heads they would get quite out of his sight and reach though they cannot but all of them turn back from God in their hearts In two respects sinners in generall may be sayd to turne back from God First when he commands and they will not obey him or withdraw their obedience from his commandements Secondly when he entreates and invites them and they will not come to him nor accept his tendered respects and favours Thus the Lord complained of his owne people Psal 81.11 Israel would none of me God wooed them but they had other lovers and after them they would goe even Israel lightly regarded the God of Israel yea they made a defection from him More distinctly There is a three-fold turning back from God or they who turne back from God are of three sorts First There is a turning back from God by those who have openly followed him or made profession of his name Thus hypocrites and formalists turne back from God This the Scripture calls back-sliding revolting and going a whoring from God Such as these are like perfidious Souldiers who enter and list themselves in an Army marching with them for a while taking their pay yet soon after forsake their colours and turn to the enemy Thus many apostatize from God to the Devill and to the creature or as Paul sayd of Demas they forsake Christ and embrace this present world Luther was charged by his enemies that he was an Apostate and he acknowledged he was but he thanked God for it he indeed turned back from what he did once professe but it was to a better profession he did not turne from God to the world but he turned from the world to God and that 's a blessed Apostacy he did not turn from truth to error but from error to truth he did not turn from pure worship to Idolatry and superstition but from Idolatry and superstition to pure worship How wretched is their condition who are indeed Apostates who turn from God to the world from truth to error from pure worship to Idolatry and superstition from a holy conversation to prophaness loosness and libertenisme to a complyance with the world and a symbolizing with them in their lusts and wickednesse This abominable apostacy is a fruit of hypocrisie Hypocrites turne only their faces to God and Apostates turne their backes upon him or turn back from him And all they who turn only their faces unto God will for their owne advantage or to save themselves turn their backs upon him Hypocrites when put to it when the storme comes ever prove Apostates Secondly There is a turning from God found even in the best followers of God who is there among the Saints on earth that keepes constant un-interrupted communion with God The least degree of inordinate letting downe or turning the heart to the creature is a degree of turning back from God As holiness is our motion toward God and to act holyly is to keep the eye of the soule alwayes upon God so unholiness is an aversion from God David did not say nor could he say though as holy a man as lived that he had never turned from God he could only say that he had not wickedly departed from God Psal 18.21 Thirdly There is a turning back from God proper to all unregenerate
which is a farther description of the heart of man in a state of Nature Hence Note That which a natural man knoweth of the will of God he will not consider unless it be to reject and turn from it I saith Wisdome Prov. 1.24 25. have stretched out my hand as a Teacher doth to his hearers or disciples and no man that is no meer natural man regarded they set at nought my counsel and would none of my reproof Let me say what I would they would at most but give me the hearing they would not consider it though the light shined in upon them and they could not chuse but see somthing yet they would not sit down and rowl it in their thoughts and work it upon their hearts to finde out the excellency of what they saw It is a very great measure of sinfulnes not to know the wayes of God but not to consider what we know but lightly to pass it by that is a greater measure of sinfulness Thirdly comparing this assertion concerning wicked men they would not consider any of his wayes with their practice in the former part of the verse they turned back from God and with the effect of it in the verse following they made the cry of the poor to come up to him c. Observe The reason why men are so wicked and act so wickedly is because they minde not the Word of God They who consider not the rule of the Word are far both from righteousness towards man and holiness towards God If once a man throw aside the Word of God where will he stay He will neither abide in any wayes of holiness nor will he abide in any wayes of righteousness they cannot make conscience of the wayes of God who will not consider the wayes of God We have this clear character of a wicked man Psal 50. he is one that will possibly take the covenant of God in his mouth he will be talking of it his tongue may be tipt with it but vers 17. he hateth instruction and casteth the words of God behinde his back He that would consider a thing holds it before his eye and keeps it as much as he can in sight therefore the Lord when he would assure Zion how much he did consider her case though she had said a little before God hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me yet presently the Lord saith Isa 49.15 16. Can a woman forget her sucking childe that she should not have compassion on the son of her wombe Yea they may yet will not I forget thee what follows Behold I have graven thee upon the Palms of my hands thy walls are continually before me As if the Lord had said you may be sure I will consider your case for I have you here pourtrayed upon the palms of my hands and am alwayes viewing your walls either as ruin'd and demolished to move me to pity or in that strong beautiful model according to which I purpose to raise them up again or re-build them Thus I say both God and man intending to consider any thing have it alwayes before them but what a man hath no minde to consider he casts it behinde his back thou castest my words behinde thy back saith God to the hypocrite and when once the hypocrite hath got the word behinde him then he is ready for any wickedness vers 18 19 20. When thou sawest a thief thou consentedst with him and hast been partaker with the adulterer c. Whence was all this he had cast the word behinde his back It is David's question Psal 119.6 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way The answer is By taking heed thereto according to thy word that is by continual eying of the word and of his way and by comparing them together They that will make right work must be alwayes eying the rule if once you lay by the rule you will make but crooked or bungling work When the rule of righteousness is laid by righteousness is laid by too These mighty men of whom Elihu speaketh would not consider any the holy wayes of God and you see what ill favour'd work they made what soul wayes they walked in Fourthly The Text doth not say they would not consider some or such and such of his wayes but any of his wayes Hence Note A wicked man liketh delighteth in or loveth no one way of God better or more then another He is as much out with all as with any they are all alike to him that is he likes none of them they would not consider any of his wayes He that hateth one truth of God hateth all truth though possibly his hatred is not called out or acted against some truths and he that hateth one law of God hateth all his laws though possibly his lusts are not drawn out against some of them The reason why the Apostle James saith chap. 2.10 Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all is because if a man hath a minde to sin against one branch of the law that evil principle will carry him to sin against any branch of it If he be not stopt from without he findes no stop within against the worst of sins as it is a sin Fifthly We translate any the Original word is all his ways which imports a refusing of every one of his wayes there are several Scriptures of a like sence Psal 103.1 2. O praise the Lord and forget not all his benefits that is forget not any one of his benefits not that a man shall be excused though he forget many of the benefits of God or half his benefits if so be he forget not all or remember some but when that Scripture saith forget not all his benefits the meaning is forget not any one at all Thus here they considered not all his wayes that 's the letter of the Text and so Mr Broughton translates that is none of them Taking that reading and the Scripture sence given of it it gives us this useful Observation That unless all the wayes of God be considered and obeyed there is not any one of them considered or obeyed God will not be obeyed by halves he must have entire obedience universal obedience or he owneth none there is a band or tye between all the commandments of God and unless you keep them all you break them all they that submit not to all submit to none of his laws It is not enough for a man to say he is no adulterer if he be a thief or to say he is not a murderer if he bears false witness He that doth the one in act doth the other in his heart nothing hinders him but the absence of a temptation or of an opportunity the Law doth not Further they would not consider any of his wayes Who were they No fools I dare say either in their own opinion or in the opinion of men Doubtless those mighty men spoken of by Elihu were
upon that two-fold manifestation of the goodnesse of God as a God that willingly pardoneth sin and as a God that is unwilling to destroy sinners Or we may give the summe of these two verses according unto this second translation thus 1 Condono in quo est remissio culpae 2 Non destruam in quo est remissio paenae We have first an Exhortation to repentance from the most mercifull nature of God both as ready to forgive and as loth to destroy his creatures The former act importing the taking away of the guilt of sin the latter the remittal and removall of the punishment Secondly We have here a direction about repentance or to the penitent shewing how an humbled soule should behave himselfe toward God He ought to say thus What I see not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will doe no more Where we see the humbled soule in the exercise of a fourefold duty First He confesseth what sins he knoweth Secondly He confesseth or supposeth that he hath many sins which he doth not know Thirdly He entreateth the Lord to shew him every sin whether of heart or life which he knoweth not of Fourthly He engageth that he will not continue in any sin which the Lord shall discover to him or give him the knowledge of You have thus the generall scope of these two verses according to this second reading I shall now a little open the words and give Notes from them according to this translation But unto God who saith I forgive It may here be justly questioned how the Original can be render'd into such variety one translation saith It is meete to be sayd to God I have borne chastisemen this other saiâ—h â—o God who saith I forgive I will not destroy It ought to be said c. The first reading makes the words to be spoken by man this second reading gives the words as spoken both by God and man Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 latissimè patet si quid aliud Hebraicum inter alios tolerandi parcendi condonandi remittendi signifiâ—atum habet etiam solitariè positum ut hic or they are a direction given by the Spirit of God to man what to say to God Who saith I forgive I will not destroy I answer for the clearing of that doubt the difference of the readings ariseth from the copious significaâ—ion of one Hebrew word which is rendred many wayes in Scripture especially two First To bear in which sense we translate I have born chastisement The word chastisement as was shewed before is not expresly in the text but supplyed to make out the sense by our translaters I have born what thy hand thy chastisement Secondly It signifies also to pardon or to forgive I shall referre you to one Scripture in which that word is used in both these senses Gen 4.13 And Cain said unto the Lord my punishment is greater then I can bear that 's the text but if you read the margin of our larger Bibles that saith My iniquity is greater then that it may be forgiven or pardoned the text saith my punishment the margin saith my iniquity the same word signifieth both sin the cause and punishment the fruit Againe there the text saith My punishment is greater then I can bear and the margin saith my iniquity is greater then that it can be forgiven So that according to the text the words are Cains complaint against the justice of God that he dealt over-rigorously with him My punishment is greater then I can bear And according to the margin they are a description of his despair of the mercy of God my sin is greater then that it may be forgiven And as we find the word used in that place both for bearing and for pardoning So in severall other places it is translated by pardoning take but one Instance in the Psalms where we find it translated twice in the space of a few verses to forgive or pardon Psal 32.1 Blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven And againe v. 5th I said I will confesse my iniquity and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin So that though there be a different version and translation of the word in this text of Scripture yet it is such as is consonant to the use of the word in other Scriptures and also to the truth of the whole Scripture Yea we know that in our English tongue to bear with a man signifies to forgive him his present fault or not to punish him and use extremity against him for it And therefore according to the exigence of any place the word may be translated either way and here it may be safely taken in both But to God who saith I forgive I will not destroy it ought or it is meete to be said what I see not teach thou me Elihu according to the reading now before us brings in God thus speaking yea even boasting thus of himselfe I forgive or I pardon Hence note First It is Gods owne profession of his owne selfe that he is a sin-pardoning God And God doth so much say or professe this of himselfe that when he was entreated by Moses to shew him his glory this was the chiefe thing which he sayd of himselfe Exod 34.6 7. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin Here 's my name saith God if you would know how I am called or what I would call my selfe this is it I am a God forgiving iniquity c. And as God pardoneth sin so there is none in heaven or in earth that pardoneth like him that hath such a name for pardon as God hath Mic 7.18 Who is a God like unto thee pardoning iniquity c. The gods of the Earth that is Kings and Princes give pardons and to doe so is the sweetest and choycest flower in the Crowne of Princes and they usually shew their Greatness by this act of grace when they come first to their Crowne and exercise of their soveraigne power The Princes or gods of the Earth can pardon but 't is no disparagement to put that question Can they pardon like God no their pardon is no pardon in comparison of Gods pardon yea their pardoning is a kinde of condemning compared with the pardoning grace of God The pardons which Kings give are but the shadow of his pardon who is King of kings Isa 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgression As if he had said I am he and there is none else this glory is proper to me and none can partake with me in it nor will I give this glory to another All sins are committed against God and in a sense against him only therefore only to be pardoned by him Who can remit the debt but the Creditor Psal 51.1 Against thee thee only have I sinned What debt soever we
going into the pit and his life shall see the light Lo all these things worketh God oftentimes with man To bring back his soule from the pit and to be enlightned with the light of the living WE had the blessed issue of the Lords dealing with the sick sinner in the former verse Now in the two first verses of this context we have the same case and issue put in generall with reference to any man And in the two latter Elihu recapitulates or summes up the whole matter and then applyeth it to Job personally and particularly in the three last verses of the Chapter He looketh upon men c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inspexit intentis et fixis oculis intuitus est The word notes a strict beholding and fixing both of the outward and inward eye that of the mind with that of the body T is here after the manner of men attributed to God He marks and animadverts upon men how it is with them or how they stand disposed and affected Yet there is a difference among interpreters who is the antecedent to the word He. He looketh upon men The doubt or question is to whom this relative pronowne He hath respect whether to God or to the sick man lately spoken of Some understand it chiefly of the sick man recovered He looketh upon men That is the sick man looketh upon those about him Qui hoc modo afflictus fuit resipiscens intuetur homines et diciter Drus and saith I have sinned and perverted that which is right As if being raised from his sick bed he should raise himselfe up to give glory to God by confessing and acknowledging before men that he had sinned in perverting the rule of righteousness given him to walke by and had found by dear-bought experience that it profited him not The Italian translater saith He afterwards shall turne himselfe toward man and say c. That is Fructum alium miserecordiae domini in afflictum subjungit quod ille liberatus et culpam suam coram caeteris hominibus agnoscet et dei miserecordiam in se confitebitur ut alios aedificet c. Merc he shall preach Gods grace to sinfull man and propose himselfe an example of it magnifying the grace of God to him and acknowledging his owne vileness They who insist upon this exposition render the 28th verse as the continued speech of the sick man making it out to this effect I have sinned and perverted that which â—as right yet he hath delivered or will deliver my soule from going into the pit and my life shall see the light It must be granted that to look upon or behold man is in Scripture a descriptive periphrasis or circumlocution expressing a man recovered from some dangerous deadly sickness And therefore when Hezekiah thought his sickness was to death and his case desperate He thus bemoaned himselfe Isa 38.11 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 But saith Elihu the sick man being perfectly recovered talkes with and looks upon men And the first discourse he issueth is a confession of repentance for his iniquity I have sinned I have perverted that which was right and it profiteth not And his next is a confession of praise for his recovery He hath delivered or I am assured he will deliver my soule from going downe to the pit and my life shall see the light This is a profitable exposition and much insisted upon by some very learned interpreters and therefore I shall make a little improvement of it by this briefe observation It is our duty being recovered from sickness to confess and make knowne the goodness of God and our sinfulness to those that are about us There is a three-fold confession First of faith that we believe what God hath revealed and promised to doe for us Secondly of prayse that we thankfully acknowledge what God hath done for us according to his promise Thirdly of repentance that we are heartily sorrowfull for and bewayle what we have done against the command of God We should be ashamed to sin before men but let us not be ashamed to confesse our sinfullness and in some cases our speciall sins before men Though we neither impose nor extort particular confessions from men as the Papists doe yet it is good for men who have been under the afflicting hand of God and have had great experience of his mercy in raising them up to declare what God hath done both for soule and body that others may be bettered by their experiences But I shall not stay upon this because our translation which is cleare and safe runs another way making the antecedent to this he to be God He that is God looketh upon men and saith If any say I have sinned and have perverted that which is right and it profited me not Then as it followeth He will deliver him from going downe to the pit and his life shall see the light The sence of the context in Generall is plaine God looketh upon men and if he seeth them penitent he will have mercy upon them and deliver them or give them that which is better then bodily deliverance More distinctly He looketh upon men It is the work of God at all times to look upon men and he looketh so upon all men as if he had but one man to look upon His look upon men is not a bare look but a considering and an observing look He so looks upon men that he looks through them He looks upon them and takes notice what they are how it is with them what they are doing and at what they are driving He looks upon them to consider both the frame of their hearts and the course of their lives yea his looking is an expecting he so looketh upon man as looking for somewhat from man or as desiring to see somewhat in him Though God hath no need of us nor of any thing we can doe yet he looketh waiteth or hath an expectation of somewhat to be done by us He looketh upon sick men to see how they take it with what patience they beare affliction what the workings of their hearts are what their repentings what the actings of their faith such things as these the Lord looketh for from most men mostly from men under the rod under sad sorrowfull dispensations And the words following shew what it is expressely which the Lord looketh for Yet before I open them note in generall God loves to see occasion of doing good to man What we love to doe we love the opportunities of doing it The Lord is good and he loveth to doe good and therefore he is expressed as one troubled when he wants as one pleased when he hath the occasions of doing it We may take up that sence eminently from that most patheticall wish Psal 81.13 14 15 16.