The greatest wonders of creation are unseen God hath packt many rarities mysteries yea miracles together in mans chest All the vitall instruments and wheels whereby the watch of our life is perpetually moved from the first hour to the last are locked up in a curious internall cabinet where God himself prepared the pulleys hung on the weights and wound up the chime by the hand of his infinite power without opening of any part As our own learned Anatomist elegantly teacheth us in the Preface to his sixth book Fourthly The dimensions proportions and poise of mans body are so exact and due that they are made the model of all structures and artificials Castles Houses Ships yea the Ark of Noah was framed after the measure and plot of mans body In him is found a circulate figure and a perfect quadrat yea the true quadrature of a circle whose imaginary lines have so much troubled the Mathematicians of many ages Fifthly In every part usefulnesse and commodiousnesse comelinesse and convenience meet together What beauty is stampt upon the face What majesty in the eye What strength is put into the arms What activity into the hands What musick and melody in the tongue Nothing in this whole fabrique could be well left out or better placed either for ornament or for use Some men make great houses which have many spare rooms or rooms seldom used but as in this house there is not any one room wanting so every room is of continuall use Was ever clay thus honoured thus fashioned Galen gave Epicurus an hundred years to imagine a more commodious scituation configuration or composition of any one part of the body And surely if all the Angels in heaven had studied to this day they could not have cast man into a more curious mould or have given a fairer and more correct edition of him This clay cannot say to him that fashioneth it What makest thou Or this work he hath no hands Isa 45.9 The Lord hath made man so well that man cannot tell which way to be made better This work cannot say He that wrought me had no hands that is I am ill wrought as to say you have no eyes you have no ears are reproofs of negligence and inadvertency both in hearing and seeing So when we say to a man Surely you have no hands our meaning is he hath done his work either slothfully or unskilfully But this work of mans body shall not need to say unto God he hath no hands he hath given proof enough that hands and head too were imploied about this work Let us make it appear that we have hands and tongues and hearts for him that we have skin and flesh bones and sinews for him that we have strength and health and life and all for him seeing all these are also derived from him as appears in the next words Thou hast granted me life and favour Job having thus described the naturall conception and formation of his body descendeth to his quickning and preservation When God had formed man out of the dust of the earth he then breathed into him the breath of life and man became a living soul and thus when God hath formed man in the womb given him skin and flesh bones and sinews then he gives life and breath and all things necessary to the continuation of what he hath wrought up to such excellent perfections Our divine Philosopher teacheth us this doctrine Verse 12. Thou hast granted me life and favour and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit This verse holds out to us the great Charter of God to man consisting of three royall grants First Life Secondly Favour Thirdly Visitation The bounty of God appears much in granting life more in granting favour most of all in his grant of gracious visitations Thou hast granted me life c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vitas fecisti Mont. Vitam disposuisti mihi Sep. Quasi debito loco ordine The letter of the Hebrew is Thou hast made or fitted for me life and favour The soul is the ornament of the body life the lustre of our clay Thou hast not thrown or hudled my life into my body Thou hast put it in exquisitely and orderly The frame of the body is an exquisite frame but the frame the faculties and powers the actings and motions of the soul are farre more exquisite The inhabitant is more noble then the house and the jewell then the cabinet As the life is better then meat and the body then artificiall raiment Mat. 6.25 So the life is better then the body which is to it a naturall raiment Thou hast granted me life c. Life is here put metonymically for the soul of which it is an effect as the soul is often put for the life whereof it is a cause We translate in the singular number life the Hebrew is plurall Thou hast granted me lives But hath a man more lives then one Some understand Job speaking not only of corporall but spirituall life as our naturall life is the salt of the body to keep that from corrupting so spirituall life or the life of grace is the salt of the soul to keep that from corrupting Secondly Thou hast granted me lives that is say others temporall life and eternall life Thirdly Lives may be taken for the three great powers of life Man hath one life consisting of three distinct lives For whereas there is a life of vegetation and growth such as is in trees and plants and a life of sense and motion such as is in beasts of the earth fowls of the air and fishes of the sea And a life of reason such as is in Angels whereby they understand and discourse these three lives which are divided and shared among all other living creatures are brought together and compacted into the life of man Whole man is the epitome or summe of the whole Creation being enriched and dignified with the powers of the invisible world and of the visible put together under which notion we may expound this Text Thou hast granted me lives a three-fold life or a three-fold acting and exercise of the same life Thou hast granted me lives Observe hence Life is the gift of God With thee is the fountain of lives the well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vena vitarum or the vein of lives Psal 36.9 The Psalmist alludes either first to waters which flow from a fountain and so doth life from God Or secondly To metals With thee is the vein of lives as all minerall veins the veins of gold and silver of lead and iron c. lie as it were in bank in the bosom and bowels of the earth so doth life in God There is not the lest vein of this quick-silver in all the world but comes from him Or thirdly The Psalmist alludeth to the veins of the body which as so many rivers and rivolets derive their bloud from tha◠red-sea the liver God hath a sea of life in himself
out of order or in danger Achish promiseth David I will make thee the keeper of my head for ever 1 Sam. 28.2 His meaning was he should be Captain of his guard Great Princes have their guards they have keepers of their heads The great King of heaven and earth is a guard to the meanest man and the keeper of his head God enquires of Cain for his brother Abel Gen. 4. Where is Abel thy brother What is become of him Cain was angry at the question Am I saith he my brothers keeper We ought to be one anothers keepers our mutuall visitations should preserve one anothers spirits Some are apt to think themselves too good for the work others that the work is too hard for them It is our comfort and it may be our assurance that God hath neither of these thoughts The Lord is thy keeper the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand The Sunne shall not smite thee by day nor the Moon by night The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil He shall preserve thy soul The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and for evermore Psal 121.5 How large a writ or patent of protection is granted here No time shall be hurtfull neither day nor night which include all times Nothing shall hurt neither Sunne nor Moon nor heat nor cold These include all annoiances Nothing shall be hurt Thy soul shall be preserved thy out-goings and thy comings in shall be preserved These include the whole person of man and him in all his just affairs and actions Nothing of man is safe without a guard and nothing of man can be unsafe which is thus guarded They shall be kept who can say The Lord is our keeper And they cannot be kept no not by legions of Angels who have not the Lord for their keeper None can keep us but he and he hath promised to keep us for evermore Some men are weary of their offices and some are put out of office Praefecturam ejus accipiat alter id est omnia quae in ejus cura sunt quae sub sua potestate habet God is neither In that Prophetical curse against Iudas t is said Let another take his office Ps 109.8 What office It is this word and notes there the office of looking to or of preserving the souls of others we commonly call it The cure of souls Such is the office of all the Ministers of Christ That 's Episcopacy by divine right this in the text is divine Episcopacy That word which here in Job we translate visitation and in the Psalm now cited office is called Episcopacy by the Apostle Act. 1.21 Christ is the great Bishop or visitour both of our souls and bodies He is the oecumenicall Bishop The whole world is his Diocesse He preserveth man and beast See more of this point Chapter 7.20 Again For as much as this visitation which extendeth to the whole man is here in the letter determined upon the spirit We may observe First Taking spirit for life That as our well-being so our being in the world is at the daily dispose of God The living God not only giveth but maintaineth our lives We live not by bread while we are healthy nor by medicines when we are sick but by the Word of God His visitation doth all Secondly Take spirit for the soul then we are taught That our souls are not independently immortall or incorruptible As the life of the whole man is not so neither is the life of the soul of or in it self without support from God The Angelicall spirits who were never married to bodies of earth stand not meerly by Creation but by Providence The visitation of God preserveth those spirits how much more the spirits of men which are espoused to dust and clay Thirdly As spirit signifieth the soul not only in it's naturall but in it's spirituall state or in the state of grace We learn That our spirituall stook and treasure are in danger and would decay if the power and care of God did not preserve our spirits Grace cannot keep it self if left to its self We should loose not only degrees of grace but all grace were it left in our own hands But because it is grace therefore it is not left in our own hands and because grace is not left in our own hands therefore it cannot be lost So the Apostle clearly 1 Pet. 1.4 We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation The word signifies to keep as a City beleaguered without by a strong enemy is kept by a Garison within Man at the first had an excellent estate in spirituals though it cannot be said properly that he had grace for that is in the hand of a Mediator yet he had the image of God and perfect innocency but because God did not visit his spirit by fresh assistances he was stript of all and fell from the throne of his created glory As God visits our souls by preventing grace to give us what we had not so he visits us by his preserving and persevering grace to continue what he hath given Lastly Forasmuch as though God createth and careth for the whole man yet the visitation of God is expressed only as to the spirit We may observe That God doth chiefly take care of and provide for the spirit or soul of man When God formed the body of man at first out of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life it is not said he became a living body or a living man But man became a living soul So here the work of providence is not enlarged to the whole man but restrained to his spirit As if the Lord did scarce thinke our bodies either worth or needing a visit in comparison of our spirits And seeing God cares for nothing in us so much as for our spirits should not our care be chiefly for our spirits The soul is upon the matter all man ought not man to be most of all for his soul Shall the thoughts of God be most busied his care and inspection most fixed upon our spirits and shall not ours While Christ in a manner dischargeth us of our outward man Mat. 6.25 Take no thought for your life what ye shall ear or what ye shall drink nor yet for your body what ye shall put on His meaning was to charge us more deeply with the inward man yet how many are there whose outward man stands them in more cost and care in more thoughts and visitations for one day then their spirits or inward man doth for a whole year yea for their whole lives Visitations are frequent and serious for the preserving of the body but where shall we finde serious thoughts of visiting the soul Take this word further If it be the visitation of God which preserveth our spirits we should often visit God with praier intreating him to continue these visitations Praier is
will stop this sword from going on If he speak to the sword the sword shall wound no more We may entreat the sword to wound no more as they Jer. 47.6 cried out O thou sword of the Lord how long will it be ere thou be quiet put thy self into thy scabbard rest and be still The answer was How can it be quiet seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Askelon c. Our answer might be changing place the same How can it be quiet seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against England A word from God draws and a word from God sheaths the sword He that commands the Sunne and it riseth not can command the sword and it smiteth not the fire and it burns not the water and it drowns not the Lions and they devour not How happy are they who serve the Lord over all Observe fourthly seeing He commandeth the Sunne and it riseth not That The daily rising of the Sunne is an act of grace and favour to the world The Sunne doth not rise alone of it self it is the Lord as we may say that helps it up every morning Therefore it is said Mat. 5.45 He makes his Sunne to rise His Sunne mark how Christ speaks of the Sunne as Gods own that Sunne which he can either cause to rise or not to rise cause to rise upon one people and not upon another He makes his Sunne to rise there is an act of common grace in making it to rise upon any especially in making it to rise upon all upon the evil and upon the good Mat. 5.41 That God makes the Sunne rise to give them light who use their eyes onely to rebell against the light how admirable is it Lastly As to the speciall aim of Job we see what a proof we have of the omnipotency of God He is great in power and mighty in strength Why because he can stop the Sunne He that can stay the Sunne what can he not doe We say to men that attempt impossibilities Climb up to the Moon it is more to stay the Sun than to climb the moon And if the Lord be able to overcome this difficulty what difficulty can he not overcome Here 's a clear proof of the infinite power and wisdome of God Qui efficit noctem diem nam donec oritur sol est nox adveniente die quasi obsignatae occultantur stellae Juâ— He speaks to the Sunne and it riseth not And He sealeth up the stars The Sunne is the light of the day the stars the light of the night He sealeth up the stars Some take it to be a Periphrasis or a description of night and day because till the Sunne riseth it is night and when day appears the stars are sealed up or disappear The Sun riseth and the stars are obscured we see them not So the former clause He commandeth the Sun and it riseth not is a description of the night and this later he sealeth up the stars is a description of the day The plain sense of both being this He maketh both night and day Secondly say others This seal is set upon the Sunne in behalf of the stars He sealeth up the Sunne for the stars that is Pro stellis signavit â—â—solem signaculo quasi in favorem stellarum Deus continet solis splendorem in altero Haemispherto Cajet in favour of the starres that the starres might sometime appear in their lustre and glory to the world he keepeth the Sunne from appearing But as we translate we may better keep the seal upon the stars He sealeth up the stars And so sealing may import either of those two things First The safe custody of the stars He sealeth up the stars that is he preserveth the stars in their orbs in the places where he hath set them they shall never drop out Sealing is often used for assurance and safe-keeping Darius Dan. 6. Anrulos non tam oâ—natus quam custodiae gratia olim inventos diâ—it Macrobius l. 7. Saturn c. 3. sealed the stone upon the den of Lions that so Daniel might not be rescued or fetcht out from the danger The Jews that they might keep Christ fast enough seal'd the stone of the sepulchre wherein his body was laid Mat. 27. And in a spirituall sense the sealing of the Spirit is to make the soul safe in the love and favour of God A soul that is sealed by the Spirit of God is secured of the love of God and shall never drop out of his heart So He sealeth up the stars is He makes the stars firm and fast in their Sphears But rather Secondly Sealing is for secrecie or for the hiding of a thing from the sight of others So in the sealing of letters that they be not seen and of treasures that they be not stoln or taken away Deut. 32.34 Job 14.17 Thus the Lord seals up the stars Clausae videntur cum non videntur Stellae omnia coeli lumina vetur characteres quidam efficiunt librum Pined when he clouds or obscures the stars and will not let them be seen Some make it an allusion to a book The heavens are a great volume wherein many truths of God are written his name is there and the stars are as so many characters or letters of his Name He often seals up this great volume and so blots these letters that no man can read or distinguish them Thirdly The meaning of He sealeth up the stars may be taken thus He keeps in and closes up the vertue and influences of the stars he stops those treasures which usually come down from the stars upon the earth Naturall Philosophy teaches us that all the fatnesse and fruitfulnesse of the earth is convaied from the heavens Heaven nurses and suckles the earth and if the Lord please he can dry up those brests seal up those influences stop those secret workings which the heavenly bodies have upon the earth Observe hence That the influences of the heavens are in the hand of God to let them out or stay them as he pleaseth As he can seal up the spirituall treasures of heaven that the soul shall receive no light comfort or refreshing from them in ordinances so he seals up the naturall influences of the heavens that the earth and the fruits of it here below shall receive no quickning no refreshing from them And the earth languishes when the Lord suspendeth and sealeth up the naturall influences of heaven as the soul languisheth when the Lord stops up the spirituall influences of heaven when he seals up that star of Jacob that day-star from on high Jesus Christ What we hear of God in naturall things should keep us in continuall dependance upon him for spirituals he seals with the comforts of his own Spirit and he seales up all comforts from our spirits Verse 8. Which alone spreadeth out the heavens and treadeth upon the waves of the sea This verse gives us a further argument
thus in the excesses of spirituall joy and consolation so sometâ—mes in the excesses of anguish and sorrow a man scarce knows vvhether he be alive or dead vvhat his state is vvhether in the body or out of the body he regards neither hot nor cold friend or foe wife or children he forgets to eat his bread A third expounds the words as an admiration I am perfect and doe ye thinke I know not my own soul Do ye think I am not acquainted with my self Am I a stranger at home Have I so despised my life think ye that I take no notice of it and am either carelesse or insensible how things go with me As if he had said I am perfect and this is the work of a man whose waies are perfect before the Lord he knows and considers his own soul and grows assured how matters are with him Ye my friends charge me with these and these failings and will force them upon me whether I will or no though I deny your charge yet ye re-joyn and re-affirm it upon me as though I knew not my own soul or as if ye knew me better then me self But I am perfect in heart and I know my own soul I doe not so despise my lifâ— as if it were not worth the looking after or as if I were not worth the ground I goe upon Lastly Integer sum rec s cio animam meam i. e. quicquam perversi in anima mea Others understand it thus which appears the fairest and most sutable interpretation of these later ones I am perfect neither do I know my own soul that is I am not conscious of any evil in my soul I know of no secret guilt or corruption hidden there and so science is put for conscience I know not is I am not privy to any evil that my soul delights in and keeps close either against God or man yet such evils are upon me that I despise my life The spirit of a man saith Solomon will bear his infirmity Then what a load of infirmity presses that man whose life is a burthen to him though no sin burthen his spirit Troubles of conscience doe often make the most peaceable outward estate of this life troublesome And troubles in the outward estate may make those who have great peace of conscience weary of their lives What it is to despise life and that afflictions make this life burdensome hath been shewed in the third and sixth Chapters and will come more fully to be considered at the first verse of the tenth Chapter whither I referre the Reader and forbear to insist upon it here I shall only adde that Job makes these words as a transition to the second part of his answer to the charge of Bildad Ingreditur in alteram suae respoâ—sionis parteÌ„ qua justitiam suam defendit à gravi libera integritatis suae animi beâ—e conscij assertione Merl. For having before given glory to God by acknowledging his justice wisdome power and soveraignty in all his actings he passes to an apology for himself or a defence of his own integrity against the insultations suspitions and accusations of his friends As if he had said I have desired to save the honour of God from the least touch of an uncomely thought much more then doe I abhorre proud and rude contendings with him But as for you my friends ye must give me leave to be plain with you I am not the man ye take me for I have none of that basenesse of spirit with which ye charge me I am no hypocrite I am perfect in heart with God and upright in my dealings with men And yet I cannot but complain of my sad afflictions and renew my desires that the Lord would give me ease by death and acquit me from the bands of these calamities by cutting the threed of my life I know ye judge these outward evils as the brand of a wicked man of a man hated by God But I 'll maintain a proposition contradictory to that your opinion ye shall never prove me wicked because afflicted for thus I hold and I will hold it against you all as long as I am able to speak that the Lord destroieth the perfect and the wicked The argument may be formed up thus That cannot be made a clear proof of mans impiety which falleth alike upon the good and bad But great and destroying outward afflictions fall equally upon good and bad Therefore great and destroying afflictions cannot be made a clear proof of mans impiety The proof of the minor proposition or assumption is contained in the three verses immediately following The discussion and opening of which will give both light and strength to this argument JOB Chap. 9. Vers 22 23 24. This is one thing therefore I said it he destroieth the perfect and the wicked If the scourge slay suddenly he will laugh at the triall of the innocent The earth is given into the hand of the wicked he covereth the faces of the Iudges thereof if not where and who is he Videtur hic locâ— impictatem inâ—ludere quasi apud Iob unum idem sit piorum improboruâ— judiciuÌ„ quoâ—que Deus haec inferiora non curet Isid Claâ— THis speech of Iob caused a learned interpreter to tremble when he read it conceiving that it savoured strongly of impiety and blasphemy as if Iob had mingled the state of the wicked and of the righteous in one or as if his minde were that the Lord did not distinctively order the affairs of the world by the dictates of his wife providence but left them to be hudled together by inexorable fate or blinde fortune therefore he concludes that Iob rather personates a man void of the true knowledge and fear of God than speaks his own opinion Thus he censures but let Job be well weighed and his discourse will appear full of truth and holinesse This is one thing therefore I said it This is one thing As if he had said You have spoken many things to me about the power greatnesse justice and wisdome of God in all which I agree with you ye and I have no difference about those points I have alwaies thought highly of God and I desire to think humbly of my self but here is one thing wherein I must for ever disagree from you here we must part So that this verse is as the limit-stone between Iobs opinion Hoc unaÌ„ est meae assertionis caput and that of his friends Here he speaks out the speciall tenet which he holds in opposition to them As if he had said I yeeld and subscribe to your judgement in all but this one and in this one thing I must be your adversary though I will not be your enemy I say it and say it again He destroieth both the righteous and the wicked This is one thing This is uniform So Mr Broughton reads it and in this thing I am uniform or of
becomes us to have patience till the harvest though it be a late one Lastly There is an opinion which gives this verse connexion with the first of the next Chapter Quia non ita est sc quia à me terrorem suum non eximit ego mecum sc Loquar mecum ipse querar omnem aserbitatem animi effundam apud me ut facit in sequenti capite As if Job had thus resolved upon the Lords not answering his petition Had the Lord condescended to take away his rod and remove his terrour as I requested then I had somewhat to say and I would have spoken it out unto him but because it is not so or because I am not answered therfore I with my self The word Speak is not in the text but such supplies of a word are frequent not only in the Hebrew but also in other languages Seeing I have not liberty to speak to the Lord I will pour my complaints into mine own bosome and commune with my own heart He pursues this tacite resolution in the tenth Chapter which begins thus My soul is weary of my life I will leave my complaint upon my self JOB Chap. 10. Vers 1. My soul is weary of my life I will leave my complaint upon my self I will speak in the bitternesse of my soul JOB having in the former Chapter justified God in afflicting him and maintained his own integrity notwithstanding those afflictions now returneth to that work about which he had been too busie before yet that Afflicti saepe se exonerari putaÌ„t si laxis habenis de suo dolore querantur suas enumerent calamitates uberrima oratione Merc. wherein it seems he only found as the case stood with him some little ease and refreshing The breathing out of his afflicted spirit in sad complainings He resumes his former lamentation and renews afresh what he had been more then large enough in at the 3d 6th and 7th Chapters of this book Here as there he shews how ill it was with him and what cause he had to be in heavinesse under the pressure of so many evils And here more then there Argumentis utitur à natura Dei ante-acceptis ipsius beneficijs quibus mala haec quae immifit Deus magnopere repugnare videantur Merl. he remonstrates that he conceived himself more hardly dealt with then stood not only with the goodnesse of God in his nature but with that goodnesse which he had formerly acted both towards others and himself This encouraged him about the close of the Chapter vers 20 and 22. to petition again that he might have a little refreshing before he lay down in his grave and that God would after these storms return him some of those fair daies he had enjoyed before he returned to the earth and should be seen no more His complaint is very rhetoricall and high Vehemens quideÌ„ partibus omnibus gravis est querimonia â—ed medesta fi unum â—â—â—ud optatum exceperis ver 18 19. Merl. yet with an allay or mixture of modesty Indeed his spirit brake out and passion got head at the 18 and 19 verses where he expostulates with God in the language of the third Chapter Wherefore host thou brought me forth out of the womb c But abating that excesse of his tongue and spirit his complaints are knit up with solid arguments and his Queries put the point resolutely yet humbly home to God himself that he would be pleased to shew the reason of his present dealings and why he varied so much from what he had done in former times The first verse gives us a generall ground of this and of all his sorrowfull complaints The wearisomenesse of his life My soul is weary of my life I will leave my complaint upon my self The argument may be formed thus He hath reason to complain of his afflictions whose afflictions are so heavy upon him and so bitter that he hath reason to be weary of his very life But thus my case stands my afflictions are so bitter to and heavy upon me that I am weary of my life Therefore I have reason to complain The assumption of this syllogisme is contained in the first words of the verse My soul is weary of my life And the conclusion in the latter Therefore I will leave my complaint upon my self I will speak in the bitternesse of my soul My soul is weary of my life Life and soul are often in Scripture put promiscuously for the same but here they differ The soul may be taken two waies First Strictly as it is opposed to the body Secondly In a more large sense by a Synecdoche of the part for the whole for the whole man consisting of body and soul If so here then the meaning of Job in saying My soul is weary of my life is no more but this I Job am weary of my life that is of the marriage or union of my soul and body O that this band which I though most are grieved at the weaknesse of theirs finde too strong were broken or a bill of divorce granted for their separation Life is the band or tie by which soul and body subsist together And when that band is broken or cut asunder by the stroke of death the body goes to the grave and the soul or spirit returns to God who gave it Again When Job saith My soul is weary of my life Life may be taken either for the act of life and so the sense is I am weary of living or it may be taken for the manner of life and so the sense is I am weary of that course or state of life wherein I am Life is often put not strictly for the act of living but for the state or condition in which a man lives or with which life is cloathed The circumstances and concomitants of life are called life Thus in our common speech when a man is in misery another saith I would not have his life or what a life hath he The Apostles character of all naturall men is that they are alienated from the life of God Ephes 4.18 that is they cannot endure to live such a life as God lives or as he commands them to live they cannot endure to be holy as he is holy or holy as he cals them to be holy in all manner of conversation Thus Job was alienated from his own life I saith he am weary of my life that is of a life thus imbittered thus afflicted My soul is weary The word which we translate weary varies the understanding of this sentence It signifies properly to be weakned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Debilitatus languefactus per metapheram taeedio affectus offensus fuit as also to be melted or molten with heat because a man that is extremely heated or melted by heat is weakned his spirits and strength being drawn forth and dissipated But it is most commonly applied to that wearinesse which arises from
the displeasednesse or irksomnesse of our mindes All burdens upon the body are light compared with those which reach the soul Three things weary and load the soul First The filth and guilt of our own sins I will sprinkle you saith the Lord Ezek. 36.31 with clean water c. What 's the effect of this It follows Then shall you remember your own evil waies and loath or be weary of your selves it is this word because of all your abominations As if the Lord had said before I change your hearts ye sinne and are not wearâ—â— of your sins nay ye make a sport of and dally with them But when I shall work that great change upon your hearts your opinion and apprehensions of sin will change too nothing will be so bitter or burdensome so unpleasant or wearisome to your souls as sinne Fools make a mock of sin they who are truly wise mourn and groan under the sense and weight of it Secondly The unsutablenesse and perversenesse of other mens manners or dispositions weary the soul The righteous soul of Lot was vexed from day to day in seeing and hearing the unrighteous deeds of the debauched Sodomites 2 Pet. 2.8 The soul of God is said to be wearied by such courses of the sons of men Psal 95.10 Fourty years long was I grieved or wearied with that generation The Lord as we may speak with reverence was even weary of his life he had such a troublesome people to deal with they grieved him at the heart as the old world did Gen. 6.6 and were a heavy burden to his Spirit That 's the Apostles language in his description of that peoples frowardnesse and of Gods patience towards them Act. 13.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He suffered their manners fourty years in the wildernesse which some render He bare them as a burthen the continuall murmurings and unbelief of that people were to the Lord who is yet above all passion as a heavy weight is to a man or as the peevishnesse and unquietnesse of a sucking childe is to the nurse as our translatours conceive the Greek word should rather be Thus also he reproves the same people by the Prophet Isa 43.24 Thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities And Christ though by another word speaks the same thing of his own Disciples Mark 9.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tolero 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 autem dâ—â—untur translatitiè qui volentes onus subeunt sub eo perdurant when the man possest with an unclean spirit being brought to them they could not cast him out How long shall I be with you How long shall I suffer you I am wearied with your unbelief O ye of little faith The Disciples were still so slow of heart and came so short of a Gospel-spirit that Christ professeth He was burthened even with them How long shall I suffer you The il manners of all are a wearinesse to the good but theirs most who are neerest to them Which is also the reason why a godly man is wearied most of all with the corruption of his own heart for that is nearest to him of all Now as our own sins and the il manners of others weary the soul so Thirdly The pains and troubles which are upon the body often cause such grief of minde as is an extream wearinesse to the soul That 's the meaning of this text My soul is weary of my life That is my life is filled with such outward troubles as fill my inward man with trouble and weary my very soul Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exsententia R. David R. Mardoc significat excidere aut succidere Excisa est anima meaâ—n me Pag. Vatao c. Aâ—um est de vita mea en mar or vel perinde ac si mortuâ—s pâ—are sum Secondly The word is translated by divers of the learned Rabbies To cut yea to cut off as with a sword or any other edged instrument These render Jobs minde thus My soul is cut off in me or My soul is cut off from my life As if he had said My daies are at an end I am ready to die the threed of my life is cut I am but a dead man While life continues soul and body are as it were one peece but death divides them or the recourse of night and day runs the threed of time thorow our lives till our web longer or shorter be finished and then the threed is cut To which similitude Hezekiah alludes in his mourning death-bed song as he supposed Isa 38.10 12. I said in the cutting off of my daies c. Mine age is removed from me as a shepherds tent I have cut off like a Weaver my life he will cut me off with pining sicknesse or from the thrum which being woond about the beam the Weaver having finished his work cuts the web off from it The same word in the Hebrew signifies pining sicknesse and a thrum because of the thinnesse and weaknesse of it My life saith Hezekiah is spent I am at the very last cast the yern of time is all wrought off therefore my life is ready to be cut off I am a borderer upon death and to be numbred among the dead rather then among the living Such a sense this reading gives the text of Job My soul is cut off from my life Denotat displicentiam qua homo interius tabescit prae doloru sensu Propriè significat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. remputidaÌ„ quae nauseaÌ„ parit aversari Thirdly The word signifies a reluctance or displicency of spirit arising from the sight and sense of that which is very loathsome filthy and of an evil savour It answers the Greek work rendered Abomination Matth. 24.15 The abomination of desolation he means the Romans who being Idolaters their worship was abominable and who being Lords of the world their power was formidable and laid all countries waste and desolate which opposed them or which they had a minde to oppose And so when Job saith My soul is weary of my life his meaning is represented thus My soul refuses to inhabit or to act so filthy a body as mine My soul loaths to dwell or stay any longer in this nasty lodging As David Psal 120.5 speaks of his wearinesse in dwelling amongst wicked men because of their morall filthinesse or the pollution of their mindes and waies Woe is me that I sojourn in Meshec that I dwell in the tâ—nts of Kedar So Job seems to speak in reference to the naturall pollution and filthinesse of his own body Woe is me that I sojourn in such a diseased body and dwell which yet will not die in such a dying carease The noble tenant my soul is wearie of staying in such a stinking and filthy habitation and I perceive for I have moved him hitherto in vain the great land-lord will neither repair it nor as yet let it fall As then a man who lives in an ill or incommodious
examples must not teach us to sinne but they teach us how unable we alone are to keep our selves from sinne they teach us also what need we have to depend upon and look up to Christ that we may be kept from sin if he leave us but a little unto our selves the flesh will discover much of it self and we shall quickly shew what our natures are though we are renewed by grace We must trust to the supplies not to the receipts of grace Secondly When Job saith My soul is weary of my life We learn That Soul and life in man are two distinct things For howsoever as was toucht in explication the soul is often put for the whole man and so the sense of my soul is weary may be but this I am weary of my life yet the holy Ghost would never denominate all man by that which is 〈◊〉 not a part of man That 's a brutish opinion which makes the soul nothing or nothing else but life and this life no more in entity then the life of a beast which vanisheth when it dieth That these opinionists tell us they believe the body shall rise again by the power of God cannot satisfie for this fall which their opinion gives the soul neither doth the immortality of the soul at all contradict which was threatned for and is the wages of sin the death of the whole man For death consists not if we may say a privation doth consist in the annihilation but in the separation of those parts of man soul and body which by life are united and kept close together Thirdly When Job saith My soul is weary of my life we learn That the life of man may grow to be a burthen to him In the third Chapter Job wished for death his wish was examined there about the lawfulnesse of it I shall now only examine a touch about which was given lately whence this wearinesse of life causing wishes to be rid of life doth arise There is a wearinesse of life incident only and proper to wicked men And there is a wearinesse of life which may grow upon the best of men Take a brief account of the usuall grounds of both First Carnall men are often sick with discontent and die of a humour If the Lord will not give them their lusts they bid him take their lives Necessaries and competencies will not satisfie them they must have superfluities they languish if they have not quails to their Manna as Israel once desired and had Was it any thing but this which made Ahab goe home sullen and sad Sullen sadnesse is a degree of this wearinesse Ahab had a Kingdom and yet he could not live without a vineyard He that takes away another mans life to obtain what he desires thinkes his own life searee desirable unlesse he may obtain it There was a spice of this distemper in Jonah though a good man and a Prophet Jonah 4.8 because the Lord did but kill his gourd kill me too saith Ionah He wished himself to die and said his gourd being dead It is better for me to die then to live It is an excesse of desire when we desire any outward thing much more when we desire things unnecessary things not to supply our wants but to serve our lusts As Rachel did children who are the best and noblest of outward things Give me them or else I die Gen. 30.1 Secondly Some wicked men are wearied of their lives by the horrour of their consciences A hell within makes the world without a hell too They who have a sight of eternall death as the wages of sin without the sight of a remedy may soon be weary of a temporall life As much peace of conscience and soul joy in believing makes some of the Saints wish themselves out of the body so also doth trouble of conscience and grief of soul make many of the wicked A man who is not at all weary of committing sin may be weary of his life because he hath committed it And he who was never troubled that his wickednesse is as an offence against God may feel his wickednesse extremely offensive against himself To such a soul the evil of sinne is so great an evil of punishment that he is ready to cry out with Cain My punishment is greater then I can bear Yea what his guilty conscience feared comes to be the desire of many under the same guilt That every one that findeth them would slay them And some are so weary of their lives at the sight of sinne that they make away their lives themselves hoping to get out of the sight of sin There are sins which cry to God for vengeance and some cry to the sinner himself for vengeance This cry was so loud and forcible in the ears of Judas that it caused him to go away and hang himself And what made Ahithophel weary of his life but his wickednesse The rejecting of his counsel was not so much the reason of it as the sinfulnesse of his counsel A good man may be troubled at others when his good counsel is not accepted but he grows not unacceptable to himself nay he is well-pleased that he hath given honest counsel though none will take it though all are displeased at it But they who aim not at the pleasing of God in what they doe thinke themselves undone and die they will if they please not men Thirdly Inordinate cares for the things of this life make others weary of their lives He that cannot cast his care upon God may soon be cast down himself Christ Luk. 21.34 cautions his Disciples Take heed lest your hearts be over-charged with the cares of this life That which Christ would prevent in the Saints fals often upon carnall men their hearts are over-charged with cares cares are compared to a burden and they are compared to thorns they doe not only presse but vex and wound Their weight presses some to death their sharpnesse wounds others to death And not a few would go out of the world because they cannot get so much of it as they would These things among others make wicked men weary of their lives There are other things which make godly men weary of their lives such are these First The violence of Satans and the worlds temptations The soul would gladly be rid of the body that it might be beyond the reach and assaults of the devil and his assistants There 's a serpent every where but in the heavenly paradise Only they complain not of temptation who are willing slaves to the tempter The Apostle 1 Cor. 10.13 assures the Corinthians There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man but God is faithfull who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it as if he had said Temptations are sore burdens and although yours hitherto have been but ordinary temptations such
as usually befall the Saints though yours be moderate afflictions and 〈◊〉 common stature such as in the eye of reason any man may 〈◊〉 with by a common assistance of grace yet there are temptations which if God the faithfull God should not come in with greater assistances then usuall you are not able to bear They who wrestle with more then flesh and bloud alwaies need more then the strength of flesh and bloud to help them in their wrestlings And because they are often assaulted with greater strength therefore they are assisted with greater strength For if God doe either with-draw his help from the Saints or leave them to wrestle with Satan alone and to fight single with his Armies or if he doe not proportion the aid he sends to the temptation he permits they are sadly over-charged though they can never be totally overcome and 't is possible to grow weary of the battell though we are assured of the victory It is the honour of the Saints to conquer when they are tempted but it is their happinesse to be above or without temptation How many poor souls put up bils of complaint and beg praiers against temptations Paul praid thrice that is often and much when the messenger of Satan buffeted him whether his were an inward or an outward temptation is doubted but without doubt that temptation made his life burdensome to him till he received that answer from God My grace is sufficient for thee Secondly The Saints are wearied with the weight of their sinfull hearts Inward corruption burdens more then outward temptation and were it not for corruption within temptation without could not be very burdensome The devil tempted Christ but because he found nothing at all in him complying with or sutable to his temptations therefore Christ threw them off with ease That enemy without could doe us no hurt he might put us to some trouble if he found no correspondence within The traitour in our own bowels opens our ports and lets in the adversary His sparks could never enflame us if he found no tindar in us The basenesse and unbelief the lusts and vanities of our mindes are apt to take fire at every injection A gracious soul cannot live here without sinne and yet can easier die then sinne Paul Rom. 7.24 cries out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death or from this body of death That is from my body which is subject to death by reason of these remains of carnall corruption or from my carnall corruptions which are the remains of my spirituall death and are worse to me then any death All the afflictions of his 〈◊〉 and the pains of his body were but a play and a kinde of so 〈◊〉 compared with the trouble which this body of death put him to He rejoyced in tribulation but he could not but mourn under corruption Many poor souls are so vexed with these mysticall Canaanites that their spirituall Canaan the state of grace is to them like Egypt the land of their captivity And when they are commanded to rejoyce they answer if we could not sin we could rejoyce How shall we sing the Lords song in a strange land O that we might goe home Thirdly The Saints grow weary of their lives through the wickednesse of other mens lives not only doe their own corruptions burthen them but which shews the holinesse of their hearts more the corruptions of others The sinfulnesse and pollutions of the times and places wherein they live especially of persons they are related to makes their lives grievous and imbitters all their comforts Rebekah that good woman tels her husband Isaac Gen. 27.46 I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth for if Iacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth such as these which are of the daughters of the land What good shall my life doe me The sweetnesse of my life is gone if this son miscarry as his brother hath done before him The Prophet Jeremy cries out O that I had in the wildernesse a lodging place of waifaring men that I might leave my people and go from them What made him so weary of living among them and that was but a step on this side being weary of his life The next words shew us They be all adulterers an assembly of treacherous men Jer. 9.2 Better be in a waste wildernesse among vvilde beasts then in a populous City among beastly men 'T is a part of our compleat happinesse in heaven that vve shall have no ill neighbours there They vvho are evil can take pleasure in those who do evil But the more holinesse any one hath the more is he burthened with the unholinesse of others And that 's the reason why God himself is exprest to be so exceedingly burdened with the sins of men to be wearied and broken with them to be laden with them as a Cart with sheaves He is infinitely holy Grieve not the holy Spirit of God Ephes 4.30 The Spirit is so holy that sin which is unholinesse grieves him presently And in proportion look how much any man is more holy then others by so much is he more afflicted with the impurity of others As the holy Spirit of God who is all holy so the spirits of holy men who yet have a mixture of sin cannot but be afflicted with the sins of men Fourthly Some of the Saints would part with this life because they have got such assurance and evidence of a better life When much of eternall life appears to a godly man he is weary of a temporall life Naturall things are but burdensome trifles to those who are stored with spirituall Christ saith Luk. 5.39 No man having drunke old wine straight way desireth new for he saith the old is better He that tastes what is better then he enjoyes is unsatisfied with all he enjoyes We can hardly be perswaded what we have is good when we see better of the same kinde How much more hardly is this perswasion wrought in us that earthly things which differ in kinde from heavenly are any great good when heavenly things are open before us When the Disciples at the transfiguration had but a glimpse of glory They say It is good to be here Let us build three tabernacles They do not speak comparatively as if now they had met with somewhat better then ever they had before but positively as if they had never met with any good before When the Spirit carries the Saints into his wine-cellar and gives them a draught of everlasting consolations the wine of worldly comforts will not down they begin to disrelish the dainties and delicacies of the creature A true sight of heaven makes the earth scarce worth the looking after or the living in Such live because God will have them live to doe him service not because they desire to live to serve their own ends Paul was in a great straight betwixt two Phil. 1.23 whether he
should depart or abide in the flesh but the straight was not in reference to himself he was assured dying would be to him but a travelling to Christ and therefore death was to him an easie election His straight was only this whether he should not abide still in the flesh to to supply the needs of the Church and forbear glory a while that he might prepare others for glory The same Apostle 2 Cor. 5.4 saith in the first verse We know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God an house made without hands eternall in the heavens When their faith was thus upon the wing soaring up to the assurance of an house made without hands they grew weary of their smoaky cottages presently they could not endure to live in those poor lodges corruptible bodies having a view of such glorious pallaces therefore he adds In this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is from heaven The word signifies groaning as a man that hath a weighty burden lying upon him which makes him fetch his winde even from his bowels The body is the burden rather then the house or the clothing of the soul when once the soul knows it shall be clothed with an house which is from heaven As I said before much of hell in this life makes wicked men vveary of this life so also doth much of heaven Cic. in Tuscul Quest de Cleombroto The Roman Oratour tels us that a young man who lived in great prosperity having read Plato about the immortality of the soul was so affected that he threw himself violently from a high wall into the sea that he might have a proof of that immortality by his experience of it The Gospel forbids such haste and knows no such vvaies to happinesse As Christ not vve hath purchased that estate so Christ must lead us we must not thrust our selves into the possession of it but yet the earnests the fore-tastes and first-fruits of heaven which the Saints finde in this life though they be such as eat the marrow and fatnesse such as may have the very cream and spirits of the creature to live upon make them groan often and earnestly for the next life This is good but heaven is better Lastly Which is the case of this text the Saints may grow vveary of their lives from the outward afflictions and troubles of this life Sicknesse and pains upon the body poverty and vvant in the estate reproaches and unkindenesses put upon our persons vvith a thousand evils to vvhich this life is subject every day cause many to vvish and long for an end of their daies And though they are ready to submit to the vvill of God if he have appointed them to a longer conflict vvith these evils yet they cannot but shew their vvillignesse yea their gladnesse to part vvith their lives that they may part vvith such troubles accompaning their lives And as the afflictions of the body naturall so of the body politike may make them vveary of their lives How many in Germany and Ireland have been so vvearied vvith hearing the voice of the oppressour that they have vvished themselves in their graves only to get out of their hearing And vvith us since these troubles began have not many been tired with living Have they not cried after death and wooed the grave as being weary of the world The Prophet Isa 32.2 speaks of a weary land A man meaning Christ shall be as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land The land it self being insensible could not be weary but he cals it a weary land because the inhabitants living in the land were wearied with the troubles and continuall vexations which they found there In these cases the soul of a believer stands like Abraham when the Angels passed by at the tent door of his body ready to come forth looking when God will but call yea he cries out that he may be called in the language of Job My soul is weary of my life I will leave my complaint upon my self I will speak in the bitternesse of my soul I will leave c. That is I will carry my complaint no further it shall trouble none but my self The originall signifies also to strengthen or fortifie Nehem. 3.8 They fortified Jerusalem unto the broad wall we put in the Margin They left Jerusalem to the broad wall So the sense of Job may be this My pains do not abate but increase why then should I remit or abate my complaint I will strengthen my complaint as long as my sorrows are strengthened My complaint That word hath been explained before it signifies an inward as well as an outward complaint and that most properly Some translate it so here I will groan in silence with my self Per mittam mihi mussitationē Tygur Silentio egomet ingemiscam Philosophabor Polychron Deponam à me querimoniam meam Jun. But the text requires rather that we interpret it of an externall complaint formed up into words The Septuagint are expresse and so is Austin I will leave my words upon my self both interpreting it of a vocall declaration of his minde and meaning The greatest difficulty lies in those words upon my self One renders I will leave my complaint off or lay it aside from my self As if Iob meant to give over this work of complaining and to compose his heart to quietnesse how unquiet soever his estate continued But his following practice seems to confute this interpretation and to deny any such intention Others give this sense I will speak at my own peril and if any danger or inconvenience come of it I will bear it my self I will run that venture Job uses such language chap. 13.13 Hold your peace let me alone that I may speak and let come on me what will We may glosse it with that heroicall resolution of Queen Esther Esth 4.16 So will I go in unto the King which is not according to the Law and if I perish I perish The Hebrew preposition hath various acceptions Praepositio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frequenter per super nonnunquam per cum aliquando per adversus redditur Nihil contra Deum in me tantum desaeviam Pined First As we It is translated Vpon Secondly With. Thirdly Against Fourthly Concerning or about We may take in any of or all these translations And from all the meaning of Job seems to rise thus I intend not to speak a word against God I will not charge the Almighty with injustice or with rigour to doe which were highest wickednesse I purpose indeed to complain but I will complain only upon or with my self concerning or against my self I will not utter a word against the wisdome of God or accuse his providence I will not shoot an arrow against heaven or send out a murmur against the most high There are two waies of leaving our complaints
flower of the field Some read goodnesse for goodlinesse the sense holds if we take it so the naturall the morall goodnes of man is but a flower As no goodlines so no goodnes of man except spiritual lasteth long and that lasteth long and long even for ever Grace is not as the flower of the field that is durable substance that as the Prophet speaks there of the Word of God in v. 8. shall stand for ever The grace of God is as lasting as the Word of God for his Word is the externall seed or principle of grace But all other goodnesse and goodlinesse of man how good how goodly soever his other beauty how beautifull soever his strength how strong his favour how well favoured so ever is but as the flower of the field which is either cut down while it is green or soon fades while it stands Take favour in this sense and the sense of the whole verse is harmonious and sound Thou hast granted me life my body is formed and quickned and more then so Thou hast given me favour my body is full of beauty and comelinesse The comelinesse of the body is a favour received and many receive favour because they are comely From either of which considerations we may call the comelinesse of the body favour and it is no common favour God denies this to many he grants them the life of nature but not favour yea he grants many the life of grace but not favour Beautifull souls are often ill-housed and filthy souls clearly housed 't is admirable when both beauties meet in the same man Moses was a goodly childe Exod. 2.2 and a good man As grace in the inward man is the best favour so favour is gracefull to the outward man Thou hast granted me life and favour And thy visitation hath preserved my spirit Here is the third benefit of this Royall grant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inspectio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. The visitation of God One reads Thy presence A second Thy assistance A third Thy inspection thy over-looking or super intendency hath preserved my spirit The Hebrew word signifies The visitation of a superiour over an inferiour as when masters enquire into their families or governours into their Colledges and Hospitals Visitatio est Dominorum superiorum cum ad Deum refertur denotat providentiam Pined to see whether the statutes and orders appointed by the founders and benefactours be observed There is a three-fold visitation of God held forth in Scripture 1. A visitation of condemnation God visits to take vengeance by destructive punishments when warning is not taken nor repentance shewed after corrective punishments Shall not I visit for these things saith the Lord Shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this Jer. 5.9 2. A visitation of correction Psal 89.32 If thy children forsake my law c. then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes Neverthelesse my loving kindenesse will I not utterly take from him c Though they break my laws yet I will not break my Covenant they shall smart for it but they shall not perish for it This is a fatherly visitation 3. A visitation of consolation And this two-fold 1. For deliverance out of an evil estate and that either temporall the Lord is said to visit his people Israel when he delivered them out of Aegypt Exod. 4.31 or spirituall and eternall God hath visited and redeemed his people saith the blessed Virgin Luk. 1.68 that is he hath visited his people to redeem them from sin and Satan death and hell by Jesus Christ Secondly Which is most proper to this Text there is a visitation for protection in a good estate When God having caused our line to fall in a fair place draws his line of providentiall communication round about us So M. Broughton translates Life and loving kindenesse hast thou dealt to me and thy providence preserveth my spirit As if Iob had said Thou didst not only give me life and favour but thou didst protect me for many years in the enjoyment of those favours Providence was the hedge not only of his outward but of his inward estate Thy visitation hath preserved my spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The verb which we translate hath preserved signifieth to preserve Summa solertia atque diligentia prospexit cavit oberravit ut solent custodiae excubiae nocturnae vel gregum custodes both by strength and watchfulnesse The Noun expresseth a Watch-tower in Hebrew because a watch-man standeth upon his Tower and looks round about him to espy and give notice of approaching dangers The Lord preserveth both waies by his watchfulnes and by his strength his eie is wakefull enough and his arm is powerfull enough to preserve us He that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep Psal 121.1 the creatour of the ends of the earth fainteth not neither is weary Isa 40.28 He that is thus wakefull can easily visit and he that is thus powerfull can easily preserve those whom he visiteth Thy visitation hath preserved my spirit But how did the visitation of God preserve the spirit of Iob Or what are we to understand by his spirit which was thus preserved The spirit of a man is taken three waies First For life Thus God keepeth us from death while he preserves our spirits Secondly For the soul Thus God preserveth our spirits while he keeps us from falling into or from falling in temptation while he keeps our corruptions from prevailing and our graces from decaying Thirdly The spirit of man is taken for his courage Thus God preserveth our spirits while he keeps us from needlesse fears and cowardly despondencies Doubtlesse Iob had experience of the visitation of God preserving his spirit in all these senses yet here he seems chiefly to intend the preservation of his life which God had granted him with favour or of those comforts which were granted him with his life Hence observe First in generall That what God granteth he preserveth It is a part of his grant that he will preserve Should the Lord bestow the greatest stock of mercy upon us and leave us to the wide world we should quickly loose all God is not like the Carpenter or the Mason who buildeth up a house and then leaveth it to it self or to the care of others The Lord surveys what he builds and keeps up what he sets up all would come down else Providence succeedeth Creation or Providence is a continued Creation Assoon as ever the Lord had made man and a garden He took the man and put him into the Garden which he had made to dresse it and to keep it Gen. 2.15 God putteth the creatures under mans charge yet he keepeth all creatures in his own charge and especially man A Garden without a man to visit it would soon be a wildernesse And man without God to visit him would soon be or be in a wildernesse either
thou deal with me as with a wicked man Thou knowest that I am not wicked for by thy preventing grace thou hast kept me from all wickednes and stopt me from many sins Whence note That the remembrance of the power of God in keeping us pure from greater sins is an argument that he will spare us though we have through infirmity fallen into sin He that holds us from iniquity will not destroy us for iniquity Some are stopt from sinne and storm when they are stopt these have no reason to think God will spare them because he hath stopt them Thousands are stopt from sin who neither know what it is to sinne nor that they have been stopt from sinne These cannot plead this point As it is no vertue to endure what is not grievous to us so no grace not to do what is not joyous to us when we do it But to know we are stopt from a pleasing sin and rejoyce at it to see how our corruptions have been prevented and to blesse God for it this is a great degree of grace As there is a preventing grace which beginneth with us while we are strangers from God and are walking on in the waies of sin so there is a preventing grace watching over us after we are turned to God lest we fall into sin Experience of this may be a sweet support unto the soul under the saddest afflictions and in the darkest night of spirituall desertions Thirdly The word signifieth to keep in prison or in safe custody The Noun is a prison in Hebrew And thus the sense is given three waies as an Assertion as an Interrogation as an Imprecation First as an Assertion If I have sinned thou wilt or thou maiest imprison me and not acquit me from mine iniquity Whence note That the best and dearest of Gods servants may look for straits if they walk loosly The Lord will shut them up if they presume and take undue liberty or grow licentious They shall be either humbled or destroyed who turn the grace of God that is the manifestation of his grace either by his word or by his works into wantonnesse God will not cocker his own children and dandle them so as to forget to correct them if they forget him and their own duty If Israel sin Israel shall smart for it and if Iob sinne Iob must look to be laid in prison for it Thus he speaks acquitting God from shining upon the counsels of wicked men seeing he will not spare no not his own children if they sinne against him Secondly The sense is given by an Interrogation If I sinne Valde durum videtur ut si quid peccaverim perpetuò me in carcere custodiaque arctissima dotineas neque unquam peccati paenas remâ—ttere velis â—ined An simulac pecco observas me c. Jun. Verba jurantis contestantis suam innocentiam si peccavi imprecor mihi durissimam custodiam Bold Wilt thou therefore shut me up in prison Wilt thou not acquit me from mine iniquity And so he pleadeth with God as using too much severity and harshnesse against him What shall I be laid by the heels for every fault Shall I be arrested and clapt up in irons for every sinne Wilt thou imprison me and not acquit me from mine iniquity They who are most wicked deserve no worse then this and shall I if I do but sin receive such measure Where are thy compassions and the sounding of thy bowels are they restrained It should seem so else thou wouldest not thus restrain and imprison me Thirdly As an Imprecation If I have sinned according as I am charged imprison me as long as thou wilt and do not acquit me from mine iniquity If I am such a man as my friends judge me to be I expect no favour let me be poor and sick still torture me rack me do what thou wilt with me Like that of David Psal 7.4 5. If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me c. Let the enemy persecute my soul and take it yea let him tread down my life upon the earth and lay mine honour in the dust I ask no favour if I am such a man as mine enemies have represented me or if I have done that for which they challenge me Fourthly To observe and mark and it importeth a criticall a curious observation to mark exactly Psal 130.3 If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquity who shall stand But doth not the Lord mark iniquity Doth not he take notice of every sin acted by any of the children of men especially by his own children Why then doth the Psalmist put it upon an If If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquity 'T is true the Lord marks all iniquity to know it but he doth not mark any iniquity in his children to condemn them for it So the meaning of the Psalm is That if the Lord should mark sinne with a strict and severe eye as a Judge to charge it upon the person sinning no man could bear it Master Broughton translates When I sinne thou dost watch me watching is more then marking Refertur ad exquisitam Dei observationem universarum humanae vitae actionum Rab. Abrah Tygur Reg 70. Observas me ne unquam lateant peccata August Quoties peccavi id diligentissimè notasti Merc. as if the Lord had taken up a stand upon a high place and did there compose himself to see what 's done or to make annotations upon the whole text of mens lives all the world over Whence observe That God takes notice of the sinnes and failings of his owne people If I sin then thou markest me and in the 14th Chapter verse 16. Thou numbrest my steps dost thou not watch over my sin Thou numbrest my steps What steps He meaneth not the steps of his outward but of his inward man or the steps of his outward man in order to the inward There is a morall walking Walk before me and be upright walking is conversing or acting so Thou numbrest my steps thou tellest my morall motions the actings of my soul and body what I do and what I think Dost thou not watch over my sinne And again Chap. 31.4 Doth not he see my waies and count all my steps That is how my conversation is ordered both toward himself and toward my neighbour Thus the Lord counteth all our steps we cannot step aside or tread awry but he observes us There are two that keep a record of our lives First God he followeth us up and down as with pen ink and paper to write our actings Secondly Our own consciences which are as God within us keep a record too they write our lives and count our steps Many cannot read the book of conscience and so know little that is in it But a time will come if conscience be not purged by the bloud of Christ when they shall perfectly read all their sins in the book of conscience And if conscience which is Gods deputy
seek unto God betimes and make thy supplication unto the Almighty c He would awake for thee There are two parts of Bildads counsell 1. To humble himself in prayer ver 5. 2. To purge himself by repentance ver 6. Or we may look upon this counsell as a patern of repentance and turning to God in three things 1. To seek unto God 2. To acknowledge our own unworthinesse to receive any mercy from God 3. To be sincere and upright-hearted with God in both If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est quafi aurorare aut diluculare DeuÌ„ Diâ—igenter sedulo magno studio quaerere Qui mare surgit precandi causa dicitur manicare DeuÌ„ Dâ—us We have met with the word more then once before and in strictnesse of translation it sounds thus much If thou wouldest seek unto God in the morning or If thou wouldest morning God be with him early in the morning that is If thou wouldest seek unto him diligently they that come in the morning about businesse are diligent in their businesse The Apostles rule is Heb. 3. To day harden not your hearts but here Bildad adviseth Whilest it is morning which is the first part or beginning of the day pour out thy heart to God So then it may be taken for seeking God either at the first of the day the morning or for any earnest diligent and fervent seeking unto God in any part of the day To seek God diligently though in the night is according to this Hebraisme a seeking him in the morning It was an ancient custome to seek God in the morning take it in the letter early in the morning David professes this Psal 5.3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up And Heathens by the light of nature took this course in their profane and superstitious worship Herodot l 10. Plin Ep. 57. ad Trâ—jâ—â— Tertul. Apol. to p. 2. Herodotus in his tenth book tels us of the Persian Magi who addressed themselves early in the morning to seek their false gods And the Primitive Christians were wondered at for their early devotions Pliny in an Epistle to Trajan and Tertullian in his Apologeticks for the Christians report their assemblies before day-break to pray and call upon God And there hath been and still is a superstitious abuse of this among the Papists who call their morning prayers their Mattins because they begin early in the morning Hence observe First Prayer is our seeking unto God That 's the generall description of prayer When we pray our work is to get neer to God to finde God every soul that praies indeed feeles it selfe at a losse for somewhat that God only can bestow In God all that we want is to be found and therefore he invites us to seek him In this life the Saints are a generation of seekers in the next they shall be a generation of enjoyers when God is fully found there 's nothing more to be sought Having him we have all The work of heaven is to blesse God for what we have found not to seek him for what we want Secondly God must be sought unto without delay As it is with vows so with prayers Deferre not to pay them deferre not to pray Isa 5.5 Seek him whilest he may be found Matth. 6.33 Seek first the Kingdom of God first in time not only chiefly but early put not God behinde in the later end of the day or in the later end of your businesses It is best to begin with him who is best Thirdly God must be sought unto with diligence We must lay our strength and spirits out in seeking God It is not a sleight enquiry which findes out God We read that he is found of some who seek him not at all but that he is found of any who seek him negligently we read not Free-grace prevents those who have no ability to seek him but it meets not those who will not lay out their abilities in seeking him If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes And make thy supplication to the Almighty The word which we translate Make thy supplication is very significant of the manner how we should seek unto God namely Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotat gratuitaÌ„ illaÌ„ commiserationem quae sine ullo merito impenditur bottoming our selves upon free-grace alone A thought of our own worth is inconsistent with a supplication Call upon the Almighty for pity saith M. Broughton when we supplicate we desire that to be done for us for which there is no reason in us why it should be done To make supplication is to seek help and relief freely or gratis acknowledging there is nothing in us worthy love That adverb used in the first and repeated in the second Chapter where the devil objects Doth Job serve God for nought that is without respect of good pay for his pains from God that adverb I say comes from this verb. As we ought to serve God in this sense for nought and not like mercenaries for our hire So God helps us for nought without looking to any thing in us or from us as an hire of his help The Baptist had his name John from this word either because he preached the free-grace of God in Christ then exhibited or because God bestowed him upon his parents in their old-age as a speciall grace and favour The poor saith Solomon Prov. 18.23 useth intreaties some render it thus The poor maketh or speaketh supplications a poor man hath nothing of desert to plead why he should receive your charity but he lies at your feet and begs somewhat because he is in want because misery hath arrested and taken hold upon him The poor useth intreaties he doth not call for any thing of right and he will not wrest any thing from you by force he only supplicates your favour We in our drawing nigh unto God should pray for grace and favour as a poor man begging an alms who makes this his plea that he is poor So then Bildads counsell to Job is this Stand not upon thy tearms with God plead not thine own integrity and good works but cast thy self at his feet for mercy Make thy supplication unto him The word is used by Moses Deut. 3.23 when he describeth his own unbelief for which God said he should not goe into Canaan And I besought the Lord at that time saying c. When Moses perceived God was angry he did not reckon his former good services to balance this failing but he sought unto God for mercy as one that had never done him any service at all And as man expresses his desires of free-grace by this word so doth the Lord his highest actings of it Exod. 33.19 I will be gracious unto whom I will be gracious To shew that to make supplication is to desire the Lord to be gracious and that to be
seemed to depart farre from the Church of the Jews with how much fervency do they cry after him Isa 51.9 Awake awake put on strength O arm of the Lord awake as in the ancient daies c They double and treble it upon him and cry with an out-stretched voice Art not thou he that hath cut Rahab and wounded the dragon What a clamour what a holy stirre was here to awaken God God himself sometimes seems as it were willing to take his rest as when he said to Moses Let me alone he spake like a man that is in bed or very sleepy Doe not trouble me let me alone as he in the Gospel Luk. 11.7 when he was awakened in the night to come and give bread unto his neighbour Doe not trouble me saith he the doors are shut and I am in bed with my children I cannot rise and give thee let me alone Thus in some sense the Lord expresses himself to his people I am now in bed doe not trouble me Let me alone What must we do in this case We must knock harder at the door as he in the Gospel did For whom though his neighbour would not rise and give him because he was his friend yet because of his importunity he rises and gives him as many loaves as he needed We must be the more importunate to awake God by how much he seems more unwilling to hear us our modesty in this case pleases him not we must call and call again He will take it well at our hands if we doe so We must give our selves no rest and let him take none so the Prophet resolves Isa 62.1 For Jerusalems sake I will take no rest I will never give over praying and at the sixth verse I have set watchmen upon thy wals O Jerusalem which shall never hold their peace day nor night you that make mention of the Lord keep not silence and give him no rest till he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth If the Lord should carry it in the present answers of his providence as if he were willing to rest and desired not to be troubled in this businesse be not you so put off but with a holy boldnesse and confidence come to him and awaken him take no answer till ye have an answer He is best pleased and most at ease when in prayer we give him no rest Lastly Observe If God doe but awake for us all is presently well with us If the eye of God be upon us for good that brings us in all good therefore Zech. 2. ult when the Church was in her return from Babylon the Prophet concludes with an exultation of spirit Be silent O all flesh before the Lord for he is raised up out of his holy habitation it is this word He is awaked out of his holy habitation now be silent O all flesh before the Lord All flesh ye that are the wicked of the world ye that are enemies be ye silent leave your boasting your reproaching and blaspheming for the Lord is awaked now he begins to stirre for his people he will stop your mouths shortly All flesh takes in the Church and people of God too O be ye silent in regard of your fears and doubtings murmurings and distracted complainings silence all these why The Lord is awaked he is raised up out of his holy habitation that is he that seemed before to confine himself to those higher regions and as the Atheist speaks in Job to walk in the circle of the heavens not intermedling with the earth This God is now awaked he is raised out of his holy habitation and now ye shall know that he orders all things here below therefore be silent O all flesh When Christ was asleep Matth. 8.25 A grievous tempest arose saith the text insomuch as the Ship was covered with waves When storms and tempests are upon the Church God is then asleep though even then he directs the storms and gives law to the proud waves But what did the Disciples in this storm They awoke Christ Master save us we perish and assoon as ever Christ was awakened He rebuked the storme and there was a great calm Thus when we are tost up and down with contrary windes and in danger to be split and sunke if God once awake all is calm How quietly may they sleep for whom God wakes I doe not say they should sleep carelesly but confidently they may God doth not wake for us to the intent we should sleep in security but we may sleepe quietly when He shewes himselfe awake for us who indeed never slumbereth nor sleepeth And if God awake not for us all our watchfulnesse is as uselesse to us as our sleepinesse The watchman waketh but in vain except the Lord keep the City Except he awake our watching can doe no good and if he awake good will come though we be asleep It is our duty to be carefull and it is our comfort that the care of God is enough for us The eye of divine providence helps us in many humane improvidences What their happinesse is for whom God awakes see in the next words He will make the habitation of thy righteousnesse prosperous This is the second degree or step of mercy promised when the Lord awakes he vvill awake to purpose We say of some men Early up and never the near They awake and doe little work but if God awakes see what he doth He will make the habitation of thy righteousnesse prosperous Some of the Rabbins understand these words as a description of the soul The habitation of thy righteousnesse that is Anima est justitiae omniū virtutum domicilium Aben. Ezr. thy soul shall prosper because the soul is the proper seat of righteousnesse and holinesse Righteousnesse belongeth to the inward man Righteousnesse being a spirituall thing is housed and lodged in the spirit that 's the habitation of it There are others of the Jews who take this habitation of righteousnes for the body because the body is the habitation of the soul in which righteousnesse is seated and so the habitation of righteousnesse by a second remove is the outward man The Lord shall blesse thy body which now lieth in a wofull plight distemper'd and disfigured with sores and sicknesses But rather take the word habitation in those two ordinary Scripture-senses either strictly for the place where Job dwelt or more largely for all that did belong unto him The habitation of a man is all his estate and all that appertains to his estate He will make thy habitation that is thy children thy servants thy fields thy cattell thy stock thy all to be prosperous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Chaldee Paraphrase readeth Significat domū vel speciem pul chritudinem justitiae tuae Tar. He will make thy beautifull place to be prosperous The word signifies beauty as well as an habitation as was shewed upon Chap. 5. ver 3. thither I referre the Reader
exoâ—nat Pined Assoon as Job hears a truth he falleth down before it He hath not a word to speak against the truth of God though it come from erroneous men He will be a friend to truth though brought by them who seemed his enemies If this law of disputation were well observed many disputes would be sooner ended As some out of love to men are apt to entertain their very errours so some out of hatred to men reject their truths Errours cannot be really adorned nor truths soiled by those who hold them Our judgement about both must be carried by reason not swaied by affection Willingly to embrace and receive a truth from those whose errours we most zealously oppose is the due temper of a champion for the truth Secondly I know it to be so of a truth saith Job Observe A godly man is a knowing man He is established in truths especially in great and necessary truths in the vitals and fundamentals of religion Job had been long acquainted with this principle that God is just and that every man must abase himself before him how just soever any man is Light is the first thing which God makes in the new Creation of Grace as it was in the old creation of nature He casts in a beam a ray into the soul whereby we may discern of things that differ There may be darknesse in a godly man but he dwels not in darknesse bring a truth to him and as there is somewhat in his heart that answers and is a kin to it so that apprehends and makes out his acquaintance with it often at first light alwaies after consideration unlesse he be under clouds and temptations In those cases we may bring truths to holy men which they doe not know to be so of a truth yea which they may refuse for errours But usually a good man knows truth having learnt it before or as having a likenesse to other truths he knew before Thirdly I know this to be so of a truth saith Job in the midst of his pains in the greatest troubles of his flesh he forgets not to honour God Hence observe A gracious heart gives testimony to the righteousnesse of God though severely chastened under the hand of God When God deals most hardly with the soul or with the body or with soul and body a holy heart hath not a hard thought of God I know it to be so of a truth He doth not only acknowledge that God was just when he punished others but when he afflicted him The common argument which the friends of Job took up to prove God to be just was this God is righteous for he deals with men according to their deserts but Job argues thus God is righteous however he deals with men and whatsoever those men are let men be wicked or upright holy or prophane When we see God breaking the wicked and making gall and worm-wood fire and brimstone the portion of their cup this argues his justice because he hath threatned such with wrath and vengeance But the Saints go further they proceed upon purer and sublimer principles maintaining that God is just though he afflict the justest and holiest man upon the earth The righteousnesse of God shines forth to them thorow the darkest sufferings of righteous men The righteousnes of God is not grounded upon the object about which he dealeth whether righteous or unrighteous but upon the act of his own will yea upon the pleasure of his own will His righteousnesse proceedeth from himself and his is a righteous act whatever the object be upon which he acts We need not say God is just because he punishes the guilty for God is just though he afflict the innocent We may at once maintain our own innocency and the justice of God while we bleed under his hand or smart under his severest scourges I know it to be so of a truth But how shall man be just with God Mr Broughton reads And how can man be just before the Omnipotent and so the sense runs more clear Illud cum Deo vel ante Deuma erit aliquid sorense judiciale taking the first particle for a pure copulative whereas we read it as a discretive but how shall man be just before God Namely in your sense as if he had said you discourse of justice under such a notion as renders it impossible for any man to be just before God in one sense a man may be righteous before God but in yours no man can Would you not have a man know himself to be just unlesse he know himself to be without sinne If you take just to be the same as without in-dwelling sinne then it is impossible for any man to appear just before God but man may be just and righteous before God though he have sinne dwelling in him and that 's my notion of justice in this dispute Justice is either inherent or imputed By inherent justice no man is just before God according to imputed justice man may be just and is before God So these two propositions are reconciled No man is just before God every believer is just before God Our translation using the discretive But seems to carry this intendment that no man can be just before God by inherent justice which the next verse implies For if he contend with him he cannot answer him one of a thousand The words taken in this sense are the same with the seventeenth verse of the fourth Chapter Shall mortall man be more just then God There Eliphaz speaks comparatively in a way of excesse more just or just rather then God He cannot exceed God in any thing Here Job speaks comparatively in a way of equality How should man be just with God Quisquis se authori bonorum coÌ„parat bono se quod acâ—eperat privat ea ipsa ratione qua quis se componit Deo justus esse de sinit quamvis justus suerit Greg. He cannot compare with God at all Yet the sense is the same and the deniall of mans perfect inherent righteousnesse is the subject of both A just man comparing with God deprives himself of all his justice He is not so much as man may be by aspiring to be what God is But I need not stay in any further clearing how man is not just before God or in any observations from it but shall referre the Reader back to the fourth Chapter Onely take this from it How shall man be just with God With God that is looking upon or comparing himself unto God as if he had said It will take down all the proud and high thoughts of man in regard of his own justice and righteousnesse if he will but cast his eye upon God and duly consider how just and righteous God is Hence observe The way for us to humble our selves for our own sinfulnesse is to look up and to consider the purity and holinesse of God If we set our selves before him we shall see
When Job was yet brought nearer to God he was more humbled Ch. 42.5 6. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eie seeth thee that is I have a clearer and more glorious manifestation of thee to my soul then ever I now perceive thy power thy holinesse thy wisdom thy faithfulnesse thy goodnesse as if they were corporeall objects as if I saw them with mine eye Wherefore I abhor my self in dust and ashes he could not goe lower in his thoughts of himself then this expression laid him Abhorrence is a perturbation of the minde arising from vehement dislike or extreamest dis-esteem Abhorrence strictly taken is hatred wound up to the height As exulting is the highest act of joy and delighting the highest act of love so abhorring is the deepest act of hatred and to abhorre repenting in dust and ashes is the deepest act of abhorrence Thus low Job goes not only to a dislike but to the furthest degree of it abhorrence of himself when he saw the Lord. So Isaiah in the 6th of his Prophecy when God came neer him and he saw so much of God cries out I am undone for I am a man of polluted lips but did not Isaiah know he was a sinfull man a man of polluted lips till then Yes but he was never so sensible of it as then He saw his own pollution more then ever by the light of the glory of God that shone round about him He never saw himself so clearly as when the majesty of God dazel'd his eyes When the Sun shines bright into a room we may see the least mote in the air so when the glory of God irradiates the soul we see all the motes and atoms of sinne the least spot and unevennesse of our hearts or lives this brings the soul low and will keep it so The more we know of God the more we honour him and our selves the lesse These two are eminent effects of knowing God As God rises in our thoughts so we fall Paul who had been wrapt up into the third heavens and had a multitude of divine revelations cals himself The least of the Apostles 1 Cor. 15.9 and lesse then the least of all Saints Ephes 3.8 not that any thing can be lesse then the least The Apostles holy rhetorick doth not crosse Aristotles philosophy But the originall being a double diminutive his meaning is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was as little as could be therefore he puts himself down so little as could not be lesse then the least Job speaks neer him How much lesse shall I answer him The Question imports an inability in him for resolution He thought himself so much lesse able to answer then they that he could not tell how much lesse And therefore leaves others to cast it up and take the account how short he was of that businesse he knew it was much but how much it was he knew not How much lesse shall I answer him And choose out my words to reason with him The word signifies choice upon exact triall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elegit LXX vertunt per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 17.9 cap. 18.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—ob 34 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deut. 7. â— Hinc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 juvenis aâ— militiam negâ—â—ia electus idoneus Loqui selectis verbis ornataâ— composita oratione It is used in that sense Exod. 17.9 Moses biddeth Joshua choose out men to go and fight with Amalek he did not take them as they came to hand or lay his hand violently upon them to presse them but he advisedly took his choice he had pickt men for that service David gathered all the children of Israel he had a select company to fetch up the Ark 2 Sam. 6.1 and when he undertook the duell with Goliah the Text saith he went to the brook and chose him out five smooth stones they were choice stones fittest for his sling As it is among persons and things so among words there are choice words some are but rubbish refuse words others are precious wise sutable words How should I choose out my words to reason with him Shall I think by setting words in a curious frame to prevail with God or shall I by speaking rhetorically and elegantly overcome him There is much power in oratory in choice of words and therefore the holy Ghost forbids the Ministers of the Gospel to speak with choice words in that sense namely with rhetoricall and artificiall strained eloquence which naturally pleaseth the ear and takes the heart which kinde of speech is called wisdome of words 1 Cor. 2.17 and the enticing words of mans wisdome Chap. 2.4 They having an aptnesse in them to entice or perswade are called enticing or perswasive words And because he would have little or nothing of the creature seen in winning souls therefore the Apostle professes he used not such eloquence of words Great Oratours have carried whole Assemblies by the ears And lest it should be thought that the Ministers of the Gospel convert men with oratory therefore they must not use such choice words It becomes them not like Rhetoricians and Orators to polish their stile with an affected curiosity and exactnesse of language But as affected language is sinfull so neglect or rudenesse of speech is not without blame We should labour to speak properly and weightily so it becomes us to choose our words and not to speak till we have heard what our selves would say And thus Job knew he ought to chuse his words when he spake to God but he knew also he could not make any such choice either of rhetoricall and perswasive words or of logicall and argumentative words as might fit him to answer God or reason with him He was assured that neither the eloquence of his stile could perswade him nor the strength of his arguments convince him How shall I choose out words to reason with God In the Originall the word reason is not found only thus Shall I choose out words with him To choose out words with another bears this elegancy as if Job had said If I should set my self to choose words with God he would choose better words then I more forcible words then I he is more able infinitely to make choice of words and matter to convince me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then I to convince him Significat causam aut ratio nem sic eligere verba est novas in veâ—re rationes vel argumenta ad suaÌ„ causam suâ—ciendam For the word which we translate words may signifie not only words with which matter is cloathed but the matter it self cloathed with those words The summe of all is I can neither choose matter nor words to discourse and argue with God his invention and judgement about both infinitely exceeds mine M. Broughton refers the word choosing to Job and not to words thus Shall I choose to word it with God
ye think God would yeeld to me if I should contend with him He multiplieth or He hath multiplied my wounds without cause that is His verbis evidenter exponit quae supra occultè dixerat si venerit adme non video Hoc enim ubique fere in dictis Jobi observanaum quod obscurè dicta per aliqua consequentia exponuntur Aquin. without giving me any account hitherto and do you think that now I shall have liberty to call him to an account or that he will give me one He wounds without cause is * Sine causa manifesta et ab homine afflâ—cto perceptibili Aquin. without cause manifested God hath not told me the reason of his chastenings And I doe not perceive the reason I know not why he contendeth with me And so he expounds what he spake at the 12th verse Loe he passeth by me and I see him not There are mysteries in providence Mans eye is not clear enough to see all that God doth before his eyes Job is his own Expositour This later expression gives us a comment upon the former And it is observable that both in this book and in the whole body of the Scripture easier texts may be found to interpret the harder and clear ones to enlighten those which are darker and more obscure The Word of God is not only a light and a rule to us but to it self Or He multiplieth my wounds without cause is Haec à Job dicta sunt quod intell gat se non tam flagellari quam probari as if Job had said I know the Lord deals not with me as with a guilty person nor doth he judge me as a malefactour mine is a probation not a punishment God doth only try me to see what is in my heart and how I can stand in an evil day He multiplieth my wounds without cause that is without the cause which you have so often objected against me namely that I am an hypocrite and wicked I know God looks upon me as a childe Animus in DeuÌ„ praeclare affectus sed tamen affectus doloribus Sanct. or a friend not as an enemy Therefore I have no cause to multiply words with God though God go on to multiply my wounds without cause To multiply wounds notes numerous and manifold afflictions many in number and many in kinde Iobs were deep deadly wounds and he had many of them he was all over wound body and soul were wounds he was smitten within and without as to multiply to pardon is to pardon abundantly Isa 55.7 So to multiply wounds or to multiply to wound is to wound abundantly Here a Question would be resolved How the justice of God may be acquitted in laying on and multiplying afflictions without cause I shall referre the Reader for further light about this point to the third verse of the second Chapter where those words are opened Thou movedst me against him to destroy him without cause yet take here three considerations more by way of answer to the doubt First Whatsoever the Lord wounds and takes from any man he wounds and takes his own He is Lord over all Our health and strength are his our riches are his The world is his and the fulnesse of it Psal 50. If he be hungry he needs not tell us he can goe to his own store It is no wrong to dispose what is our own wheresoever we finde it That rule is as true in revocations as distributions Friend I doe thee no wrong Mat. 20.15 Is it not lawfull for me to doe what I will with mine own Though there were no sinne in man yet there were no injustice in God because he takes nothing from us but what he gave us and hath full power to recall and take away Secondly Suppose man could say that what he had were his own that his riches were his own that health and strength of body were his own yet God may take them away and doe no wrong It is so among men Kings and States call out their Subjects to warre and in that warre their wounds are multiplied without any cause given by them They gave no occasion vvhy they should be appointed to such hazards of life and limb to such hardships of hunger and cold yet there is no injustice in this When God casts man into trouble he cals him out to his service he hath a vvarre some noble enterprize and design to send him upon To you it is given to suffer for his sake saith the Apostle Phil. 1.29 he puts it among the speciall priviledges vvhich some Saints are graced vvith not only above the vvorld but above many of the Saints To whom it is given and that 's a royall gift only to believe Now if in prosecuting this suffering task whether for Christ or from Christ a believer laies out his estate credit liberty or life he is so farre from being wronged that he is honoured Thousands are slain in publike imploiments who have given no cause to be so slain If according to the line of men this be no injustice much lesse is it injustice in God who is without line himself being the only line and rule to himself and to all besides himself Thirdly I may answer it thus Though the Lord multiply wounds without cause yet he doth it without wrong to the wounded because he wounds with an intent to heal and takes away with a purpose to give more as in the present case God made Iob an amends for all the wounds whether of his body or goods good name or spirit Now though it be a truth in respect of man that we may not break anothers head and say vve vvill give him a plaister or take away from a man his possession and say vve vvill give it him again yet God may Man must not be so bold vvith man because he hath no right to take away and vvound nor is he sure that he can restore and heal but it is no boldnesse but a due right in God to doe thus for he as Lord hath power to take away and ability to restore And he restores sometimes in temporals as to Iob but alwaies to his people in spirituals and eternals Hence the Apostle argueth 2 Cor. 4.17 Our light afflictions which are but for a moment work for us an eternall weight of glory Afflictions vvork glory for us not in a vvay of meriting glory but in a tendency to the receiving of glory and in preparations for it There is no wrong in those losses by which we are made gainers Those losses being sent that we may gain and the sender of the losse being able effectually to make us gainers He multiplieth my wounds without cause Hence observe First Afflictions are no argument that God doth not love us As the Lord hath a multitude of mercies in his heart so a multitude of afflictions in his hand and a multitude of afflictions may consist vvith a multitude of mercies At the same time
he drank up that cup of his fathers wrath to the very bottom though he drank up all the gall and wormwood of sinne for the salvation of men yet when he had tasted thereof He would not drink Mat. 27.34 If it be grievous to taste but a little of a bitter cup then judge how grievous Iobs sufferings were who was filled with bitternes he had his belly full of trouble his belly full of Gall and Wormwood his stomack could hold no more bitternesse was both his meat and drink Note First Afflictions may come uncessantly Not so much as a breathing time between then while thou art assaulted prepare for fresh assaults Observe Secondly The Lord sometimes mixes a very bitter cup for his own people Yea they have not only a bitter cup but bitternesse is their cup and they have not only a taste of it but are filled with it The Psalmist shews us a bitter cup which is the proper portion of wicked men There is a cup in the hand of the Lord and it is full of mixture the wine is red and the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them Psal 75.8 The Lord hath a cup of red wine that is a cup filled with wrath fury and indignation Wicked men how much soever their stomacks loath it and turn against it shall drink it up to the bottom or he will pour it down their throats whether they will or no. They shall be filled with bitternesse after all their sweet morsels and pleasant draughts The Saints are filled with bitternesse from God but not with the wrath of God many sorrows may be mingled in their cup but everlasting love is ever mingled in it Saints never drink pure wrath as wicked men never taste pure love To conclude we may observe here a Climax or gradation of four steps First Vers 14. Iob acknowledged that he was unable to answer the Lord. And secondly He professed that if he could he would not no he would humble himself vers 15. Thirdly If in mercy God should answer his petition yet he would not be confident at all in regard of himself that God had heard him or hearkned unto his voice Lastly He acknowledged that God might go on to afflict him still for some read this text in the future tense He will multiply my wounds and afflict me without cause He will fill me with bitternesse A godly man reckons up his afflictions as well as his comforts to the praise and honour of God And the more God afflicts him the more he abases himself though he doth not thinke the worse of himselfe because God doth afflict him JOB Chap. 9. Vers 19 20 21. If I speak of strength loe he is strong and if of judgement Who shall set me a time to plead If I justifie my self mine own mouth shall condemn me If I say I am perfect it shall also prove me perverse Though I were perfect yet would I not know my own soul I would despise my life JOB goeth on to lay himself yet lower before God and having in the three former verses proved that weak man is not able to contend with the Almighty he giveth an additionall proof in this 19th verse from the consideration of a two-fold adjunct in God First his strength And secondly his justice From both he concludeth according to the former argument given upon the whole matter in the 10th verse seeing God is so strong and just Surely if I justifie my self my own mouth shall condemn me and if I say I am perfect it shall also prove me perverse If I speak of strength loe he is strong There are two waies whereby a man makes his part good against another man First By the strength of his arm and dint of his sword Secondly By the equity of his cause and the goodnesse of his conscience Iob declareth his inability to deal with God in either If I speak of strength loe he is strong c. M. Broughton translates thus As for force he is valiant if I think to carry it by force with God He is a God of valour or as Moses in his Song Exod. 15.3 describeth him The Lord is a man of warre I cannot deal with him upon that point In originali indifferens est naÌ„ tantum habetur si ad potentiam ut suppleri possit venero aut respexero vel aliquid simile The originall speaks only thus much If of strength he strong we supply the word speak If men talk of strength or boast of strength or shew forth their strength we may supply it with any of those words Loe he is strong As it is usuall with us when we would set a man up in the perfections of any quality we say What doe ye speak of knowledge why There 's a learned man What doe ye speak of riches why there 's a rich man c. Such an emphasis is carried in this expression If I speak of strength why here 's one that is strong indeed There are five words in the Hebrew which signifie strength 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first notes strength in generall The second Prevalens vincens invicto quodam obfirmato animo praeditus dici solet de eo qui viribus superior est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vis generaliâ—er 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 connotat proportionem ad efficentiam vel conteÌ„t onem virium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est durabilitas in agenti actione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strength to endure labour The third efficacy The fourth vigour the fifth which is that of the text superiority of strength or prevailing strength It is one thing to be strong and another thing to prevail The Lord is not only strong but strongest he hath a strength above all strength he is strong overcommingly strong prevailingly Christ in the Gospel speaks of a strong man he means the devil that kept the house but he was not strong prevailingly for there came a stronger then he that spoil'd him and took away all his armour from him wherein he trusted Luk. 11.22 but when the holy Ghost saith That the Lord is strong the meaning is that he is stronger then all and so generally the positive is expounded by the superlative If we speak of strength loe he is strong that is he is most strong Thus we finde the word used 2 Sam. 22.18 He delivered me from my strong enemy and from them that hated me for they were too strong for me Efficaciam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vigorem significat Coc. they were prevailingly strong for me and therefore unlesse I had found a supply of help unlesse some auxiliaries had come from heaven to take my part they had hâ—â—â— too hard for me I had been overmatâ—ht they were prevailingly strong or too strong for me We have the word in the same sense Gen. 25.23 in that resolution which the unerring oracle of heaven gave Rebekah enquiring about the children
speak well of himself to God Let God report him perfect to men he will not report himselfe perfect before God Though Job had a free and a full certificate of his innocency not one bought begged or got with flattery yet he forbears in this case to bring it forth and read it to his friends They who have most reall worth and holinesse in them are least in their own eyes and lowest in their own thoughts they of whom God gives the fairest testimony give the meanest of themselves he cares not much to appear to be what God assures him he is God was positive without Ifs or And 's in his opinion of him Thou art perfect but he puts it into a supposition and concludes with an if If I were perfect c. In the 21. verse Job carries on the same businesse and bewraies a more humble and self denying frame of minde then before Though I were perfect yet c. There is a contention among Interpreters to which part of the Chapter this 21. verse belongs whether to that which went before or to that which follows after I shall open it first as the sense of it may be connected with the matter preceding Verse 21. Though I were perfect yet would I not know my own soul I would despise my life Though I were perfect Observe the gradation He had said before If I plead with God and justifie my self I shall be condemned and proved perverse But put my case at the best that I justifying my self the Lord should accept my justification and should concurre with my vote that I am perfect yet I could take no joy in this If the Lord should condescend to know me under that notion I would not adventure to know my own soul under the notion of my perfections The thing is an abhorring to me I would not know my soul Why not There are two senses given first thus If I were perfect that is if upon debate and pleading with God I should come off perfect in my own judgement certainly then I did not know my own soul That 's one sense and so it fals in well with the former words If I should justifie my self my mouth would prove me perverse And so the point that I shall note from it is That ignorance of our selves is the cause of proud and high thoughts of our selves He that knows himself must know himself to be imperfect seeing our greatest perfection in this life is to know our own imperfections When we see any standing upon their own bottoms and crying up themselves poor souls how are they benighted How little doe they know of their own hearts or lives How little doe they know of God! They are in darknesse therefore they see not their own spots If a man whose face is foul or deformed should boast of his beauty would you not say this man knows not his own face Or surely he hath not look'd in a glasse to day May we not much rather say to him who justifies himself and saith He is perfect Sure you never saw your face in the glasse in that pure Crystall glasse of the Word He that is in Gospel-light sees himself and as light encreaseth so doth his sight of himself And the more he sees himself the more evil he sees in himself In a cloudy day we think the air is clear but the shining of the Sun shews us millions of motes in the air if a man sees no motes in his life some see not beams there it is because he walks in darknesse and hath not the light He doth not know his own soul That 's a usefull interpretation of the words and the first sense Secondly If I were perfect Talem de me cogitationem non admittam sed omnino contemnam de monte mea penitus excutiam Quantum vis bene recteque vixerim hac penitus despiciam Bold Admirabili omni acceptatione dignissima doctrina ac si essâ—t ex purissimis evangelij fontibus hausta E coelo descendit Nosce teipsum Noverim me noverim te August If it should be told me I were perfect I would not know my own soul that is I would not take notice of my self as perfect I would be a stranger to my self under that title I would shake the thoughts of such a perfection out of my minde as much as I would shake the thoughts of sinfull corruption out of my minde It is as dangerous to lodge or nourish thoughts of our own perfection as to lodge thoughts of the most sinfull corruptions A holy heart loves good thoughts but it loves not thoughts of its own goodnesse So then I would not know my soul imports not affected ignorance but elected knowledge Job was no stranger to his own soul he had studied himself and was well verst in his own bosom Self-knowledge is a duty And self-knowledge may be a sinne Christians should read themselves more then books and yet they may pore too much upon themselves Heathens gave us this lesson and they say it came from heaven Know thy self Augustine is quick upon it Lord I know ME and I know THEE To know God and our selves is the summe of all knowledge God doth not know him who knows not himself There is a double knowledge of our selves First Of sinfull self or of our sins and failings Secondly Of renewed self or of our vertues and graces Not to know how frail we are how sinfull we are to what corruptions and temptations we are most subject is a sinfull and corrupt ignorance To know our imperfections is a part of our perfection Secondly Not to know our graces and vertues Talis ignorans a Deo ignoratur what the work of the Spirit and the new nature within us is this also is a sinfull ignorance It is no honour to be what we doe not know our selves to be it is to be in the state of a beast not to reflect upon our own estate The new creature is light and carries a light for it's own discovery The reprovable knowledge of our own souls is not the knowledge of intuition whereby we apprehend what we are but the knowledge of ostentation whereby we are proud of or trust upon what we are Non noscere animam phrasis est Hebraea quae tantum rei despectum prae se fert ut illam etiam respicere aut aliquo modo noscere quis renuat We have an ordinary saying amongst us which reaches this sense fully Such a woman is beautifull and she knows it Such a one is a proper man and he knows it Such a one hath many good parts a very fine wit and he knows it that is such persons pride and lift themselves up in their perfections You shall have a soul that will know it self into I know not how much pride many stand reflecting upon their own perfections either externall how proper strong and beautifull they are or internall how vvitty and eloquent they are vvhat excellent parts
and gifts vvhat a nimble tongue vvhat sound judgements they have till they lose Christ in this croud of themselves This is a dangerous knowledge a knowledge worse then ignorance Better be without knowledge then know our knowledge thus As to reflect upon sinne to know our selves in our unbelief vanity and passions c. humble us And a soul in confessing of sinne before God looks long upon his dark part upon his wants and failings for this end that he may be humbled So to reflect upon our good deeds or graces to know our selves in those adornings of love patience humility faith c. hazards us upon pride and some stand gazing so long upon these excellencies that they are lifted up and become very proud Thus all men who are proud in spirituals Know their own souls So Job would not know his own soul Hence observe That A gracious heart rejoyceth in nothing but in the righteousnesse of Christ alone He will not know his soul in his own perfections A godly man vvould have God know him in the worst but he will not know himself in the best He vvould not have a sinne hid from God but he vvould hide all his goodnesse from himself He will know every good thing before he doth it but vvhen 't is done he cares not to know it any more So the Apostle Phil. 3.8 9 I account all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things and doe count them but dung that I may winne Christ and may be found in him not having mine own righteousnesse which is of the law c. Paul the Apostle would not know Paul the Pharisee Legall righteousnesse was losse to him vvhen he had found Christ Legall righteousnesse vvas dung to him vvhen he had a sight of righteousnesse by Christ The Pharisee Luk. 18. had all upon account and he hoped to make good gain upon his accounts he knew how many alms he had given how well he paid his tithes and how often he had fasted He made a stock of those things and put them among his treasures which Paul made his losse and put among the dung He that thus knows his own soul hath no true knowledge of Jesus Christ So much of this 21th verse as it is a supposition and hath connexion with the vvords fore-going As it refers to what follows The words are rendered in the form of a position I am perfect I know not my soul I despise my life And so divers interpretations are given of it First Thus I am perfect c. that is my heart is upright and I have ever prized and valued mine own integrity at such a rate Non novi animam prae integritate mea i. e. ea integritate sum ut nunquā animae aut vitae meae ratione abduci potue rim ab integritate mea that in comparison thereof I have not at all regarded or prized my own life or soul that is the greatest comforts and sweetest enjoyments of my life My life is but a trifle to my conscience And so the meaning is like that Deut. 33.9 where the vvord know is used in this sense concerning Levi Who said to his father and mother I have not seen him neither did he acknowledge his brethren nor know his own children Levi sleighted all relations when they stood in competition vvith the discharge of that duty vvhich the Lord called him to he knew neither father nor mother nor brother nor childe one nor other he had no regard at all to them so he might doe the vvill of God This vvas the commendation of Levi and the priviledge of the Priest-hood vvas assigned to that Tribe upon this service Grace vvill not hearken to the cry of nature vvhen it hears the call of God Job is conceived to speak here at the same rate as Levi did or higher I am upright and perfect in heart toward God and such hath my perfection and uprightnesse been that I have not known my own soul I have not regarded any self-interests which have stood in the way of my obedience unto God or justice toward man His friends charged him as if he had been a corrupt Judge or an oppressour of the poor I saith he am so far from valuing vvorldly goods or riches beyond my own integrity that I doe not value my life to my integrity The Apostle Paul makes a like profession Act. 20.24 His spirit was never so free and royall as vvhen he was going bound in spirit to Jerusalem The Spirit witnessing to him that bonds and afflictions did abide him in every City None of these things saith he move me neither count I my life dear I will not know my life let it go vvhich vvay it vvill so I may finish my course with joy and the ministery which I have received of the Lord Jesus Paul vvas none of your poor merchants who are afraid of their skins Pauls life was cheap in his thoughts vvhen he vvas to make an adventure for Christ he as Job here would not know his life for the omission of a necessary known duty or the commission of a known sin This first sense yeelds this profitable meditation He whose heart is upright prefers his uprightnesse before all worldly commodities and before his own life Christ cals his Disciples to this height of resolution Luk. 14.26 If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and children yea and his own life he cannot be my Disciple That is the service of Christ and his life being put into the balance life must be a light thing vveighed vvith the service of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Absumor dolore sic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aliter sumetur quam priore versiculo Nescio animam i. e. meipsum prae dolore ideo aversor vitam meam Rab. Levi. A second interpretation gives this sense I am perfect yet I know not my own soul that is I am so pressed and overwhelmed with these afflictions that I cannot feel my self I scarce know vvhether I am alive or dead I know not where I am my soul doth not act it's offices my soul is as it vvere benum'd in me or asleep there is not that vigour or activity in my spirit vvhich I have found heretofore I despise such a life as this is vvho vvould live a life vvhich is a continued death There is a truth in this For as extream and excessive joyes carry a man so farre beyond himself that he scarce knows vvhether he be alive or no some have had experience of such raptures and extasies of joy in commuion vvith God T' was so vvith Paul in a case somewhat like 2 Cor. 12. Whether in the body I cannot tell or whether out of the body I cannot tell saith he for my part I could not tell vvhat to make of my self or vvhat became of my body As I say it is
iniquity who thinke they can put all their iniquity out of his sight And such shall be made so vile that not only God but their own clothes shall abhorre them as Job expresses himself in the next words Mine own clothes will abhorre me We have the word at the eighth Chapter verse 14. Whose hope shall loath him which we render Whose hope shall be cut off Clothes may be taken either properly or figuratively Taken properly the words may import first his degradation from all former dignities I shall be deprived of all honour and estimation and so the clothes which I wore in the daies of my prosperity will so much unbecome me that they will abhorre me Or secondly Taken properly they are conceived to be a circumlocution of death Thou wilt plunge me in the pit that is I shall die and mine own clothes will abhor me The dead are stript garments doe not become a dead carcase M. Broughtons paraphrase upon his own translation intimates this Mine own clothes shall loath me namely saith he When I go naked to the grave as though my clothes did loath me Others understand it figuratively Mine own clothes shall abhor me that is First Those that are my dearest friends shall abhor me Thou wilt make them flee from me who are as near to me as the clothes on my back Or secondly In a figure Mine own clothes that is mine own works shall abhorre me Hypocrites are said to come in sheeps-clothing Mat. 7. that is doing the works of those who are sincere appearing like them in practice And when we are warned to keep our garments Revel 16.15 the meaning is that we must keep faith and a good conscience in every act of our lives Thirdly It may have respect to lepers whose clothes did abhor them because they wore some mark of difference upon their garments shewing that they were to be shunned and their company avoided But rather in generall Mine own clothes shall abhor me notes extreme pollution If I justifie my self before God Tam squalidus ero ut ea quibus nullus est seâ—suâ— tantum squalorem sentiri abominari videantur I shall be so unclean that my clothes will be loth to touch me We say of one that is very filthy A man would not touch him with a pair of tongs And it is usuall in Scripture to give you that rule for the understanding of this and other the like forms of speaking when a matter is spoken of in a way of excesse that things insensible have sense yea reason and understanding ascribed to them abhorring Vbi aliquarum rerum exâ—essus est dicuntur aliquando in Scripturis sentire insensibilia Sanct. is an act beyond sense it hath a mixture of reason and understanding now to note his exceeding lothsomenesse to God and man who attempts to justifie himself before God the text saith His clothes which have neither life nor sense shall abhor him When the Pharisees envying the acclamations which the multitude of Christs Disciples gave him at his entrance into Jerusalem desired that he would rebuke and silence them Christ answered I tell you if these should hold their peace the stones would immediately cry out importing how just an occasion there was why his Name and glory should be lifted up Do ye think much that reasonable men speak If these should hold their peace the stones that have neither life nor sense would speak Thus Gen. 4.10 to note the foulnesse of Cains sinne and his cruelty toward his brother God saith The earth hath opened her mouth to receive thy brothers bloud from thy hand as if the earth had been sensibly affected with the cruelty of Cain towards his brother thou wouldst not let his bloud stay in his body therefore the earth in kindnesse opened her mouth and took in his bloud from thy hand and that cries up unto me So here I shall be so foul that if my clothes had sense life and reason and could dispose of their own actings and set themselves upon what body and limbs they pleased Iob summam foeditatem animae per summaÌ„ foeditatem corporis indigitat Tam foedus à judicio tuo discederem ut is corpore est sordidus quem vestes suae horrent Coc. Quamvis ego mundus sum à culpa tamen paenis atque dolorum aegritudinum sordibus squalore obsolescam surely they would put themselves off from my body and never come on again they would abhor me I should be as filthy before God in soul as he is in body who must be washed before he is fit to have his clothes put on him As to be clothed with shame so to have our clothes ashamed of us notes the greatest dishonour Lastly This casting into the ditch and the abhorring of his clothes may referre to the continuance of his afflictions though I should make my self never so pure yet the Lord would cast me again into the ditch of affliction he will put me into the pit of trouble till like a man drawn out of the mire Mine own clothes abhorre me or make me an abhorring to all that see me I know the Lord will make further triall of me Hence note God casts his servants again and again into the miery ditch as refiners cast gold again and again into the fiery furnace to make them more pure That which defiles the outward man may be cleansing to the inward And the abominable clothing of the body may be a means to put the soul into the most handsome dresse Secondly Observe That After purgings and cleansings the Lord often goes on with further chastenings Though I wash my self c. yet thou wilt cast me in the ditch and mine own clothes will abhor me Yea our purgings and cleansings are sometimes so far from causing God to take off our afflictions that they doe but fit us for more affliction For the Lord will not trust an impure spirit or an heart defiled under many corruptions under great afflictions He therefore cleanses many and makes them more holy that they may be more fit to bear afflictions No certain argument can be grounded upon this that a man shall come out of affliction because he is cleansed for God chuses in some cases to afflict such most ☞ who are most cleansed The Lord hath as much service from us while we suffer as while we doe his will passive obedience is higher and harder service then active and an unclean heart is of the two though it be fit for neither more unfit for suffering then for doing Therefore Jobs friends could not groundedly affirm that he should be delivered if he were cleansed Indeed if Gods thoughts were like mans thoughts or if he were tied by such rules as we we might make such conclusions but Job concludes He is not a man as we are JOB Chap. 9. Vers 32 33 c. For he is not a man as I am that I should answer him and we should come
house saith I am weary of dwelling in it or as a man that hath a filthy garment saith R Moyses cum alijs Hebraeis doctoribus existimat propriam vocis significationem esse litigare aut contendere Litigavit anima mea in vita mea I am weary of wearing it So saith Job here My soul is weary of my life were I well rid of it I should be well Fourthly Many of the Jewish Doctors tell us that the most strict and proper signification of this word is To contend or strive to chide or wrangle we may give it in that homely language As if the meaning of Job were My soul doth even contend chide and wrangle with my life my soul contests and disputes the matter with my life why it will not end that I may get out from this body of mine and goe beyond the reach of these afflictions The 95. Psalm vers 10. is so translated Litigavi Pag Fourty years long did I contend chide or contest angerly with that generation The Lord did often chide with the people of Israel and they used to chide with Moses whence one place was called Meribah yea through their unbelief they did chide with God himself and there is no reason dust and ashes should have the last word God also gave them their chidings and told them plainly their own more then once Thus the soul of Job chid his life what 's the reason that I am held in this condition why wilt not thou be gone that I may be at rest Carnall men chide with their lives for hastening so fast away because they know of no rest or have hope of none hereafter A godly man may be brought to chide with his life for making no more haste away because he findes none or so little rest here Elihu Ch. 33.19 describing in the method which God uses to humble proud man ads He is chastened also with pain upon his bed and the multitude of his bones with strong pains He is chastened the word signifies also reproving or convincing by arguments and that in a quick and passionate as well as in a rationall and solid way Now while afflictions chidingly smite us we are apt to chide them and give them at least a word for a blow Job did not only chide with his afflictions but with his life because it would not depart and be gone being so unkindly used and imbittered by afflictions His soul did even chide his life out a doors Crudelis effecta est anima mea Chald. Homo qui sibi ipsi mortem precatur adversum se saevire videtur The Chaldee paraphrast gives the meaning yet higher My soul is grown cruell against my life As if he had said I am so exceedingly afflicted and pained that my soul begins to rage against my life I can hardly hold my own hands off from my life and I would not have God hold his Let not my life be spared how glad should I be to see it poured out Anguish is come upon me as the Amalekite reports of Saul 2 Sam. 1.9 because my life is whole in me O that God would stand upon me and slay me my soul is hardned against my life like the Ostrich against her young ones Chap. 39.16 as if it were not mine Let me die and that shall be a favour smite me and that will be to me as a precious ointment though it break my head and let out my troubled spirits Then we are cruell to our lives when we care not what 's done to us or how we are used so we may be rid of our lives But to passe this our translation is clear and significant My soul is weary of my life I am so weary of the pains wherein I live that I had rather my life should end then my pains should continue Job complained in the third Chapter he complained at the sixth and seventh Chapters he erred twice yea thrice upon this point before yet now we hear him complaining as if he had not complained at all This was Jobs infirmity though somewhat hath and more may be said to take off those aspersions which his friends cast upon him for complaining yet no doubt it was his sinne to complain especially to break out so often and in such bitter complainings Hence observe A godly man may possibly fall often into the same sin Where grace taketh hold of the heart it breaks the custom and spoils the trade of sinne yet a godly man may sinne over the same sinne and renew the same transgression The trade of sinne is spoiled when the soul leaves devising plotting contriving sinne which acts denominate a worker of iniquity The custom of sinne is broken when though the same sinne be committed again yet the soul puts in it's plea and complaint against it 'T is here as in civil things if we make our challenge or demand the custom is gone though the acts be renewed by the power and prevalency of the opposite party yet when I say a godly man may fall into sinne often I mean not of grosse and scandalous sins God doth not let his people fall often into the mire Noah was not often drunk nor did David commit adultery often or more then once The grace of God which bringeth salvation teacheth us to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts And if a godly man fall often into any the least sin yet he lies not in sinne because he renews repentance as often as he sins and rises as often as he fals he resolves through the strength of Christ never to sinne when through his own weaknesse and the violence of temptation he is soon after over-taken or surpriz'd with sinne David professeth Psal 119.30 I have chosen the way of truth His election was truth truth of heart which is opposed to hypocrisie truth of judgement which is opposed to errour and truth of speech which is opposed to lying yet he slipt with his tongue more then once and told an untruth more then one He cannot be acquitted from this failing when he answered Ahimelech the Priest The King hath commanded me a businesse and hath said unto me Let not any man know any thing of the businesse whereabout I send thee and what I have commanded thee and I have appointed my servants to such a place 1 Sam. 21.2 He again faulters with his tongue and speaks either falsly or doubtfully when the King of the Philistines asked him Whether have ye made a rode to day And David said against the South of Iudah c. 1 Sam. 27.10 when as his invasion was against the Geshurites and the Geâ—rites and the Amalekites vers 8. He that overcame the Bear the Lion and Goliah the Giant is overcome by fear and the mother of it unbelief Davids example should be no encouragement shall be no excuse to those who willingly fall often into the same sinne A good man is not priviledg'd from doing it but no man is priviledg'd to doe it Such
in himself so condemnation is the adjudging pronouncing and declaring of a man to be wicked who in himself is wicked That 's Jobs first request I will say unto God Do not condemn me As if he had said Seeing thou art the God and Father of all who call upon thee in faith and fear thy Name therefore in faith and filiall reverence I beseech thee to acquit me of my sinne yea because I know thou hast acquitted me therefore deal not with me as if I were condemned for sinne Make it appear that thou art my God either by removing these strokes which represent me to the world as thy enemy rather then thy sonne or by removing the dread and terrour of them that they may appear as exercises of my grace not as revenges upon or punishments of my sinne that while my body is pained with thy rod my soul may rejoyce in thy love and that while I am under this crosse I may triumph over it Or if thou art resolved still to detain me at this rate of suffering then I have another humble sute Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me That 's his second request Shew me The word signifies to make a matter intelligible or plain to the understanding If I must still feel these pains 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Facscire me then make me to understand them also Let not the whole weight of my sorrows lie upon my sense manifest them to my reason the more I know of them the better I shall manage and endure them Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Partium est non judicis partes litigant non condemnant judex condemnat non litâ—gat Drus The word which we translate to contend signifies properly contention between party and party not the sentence of the Judge The parties to a sute contend but do not condemn The Judge condemns the Delinquent party but he doth not contend His office is to hear the cause and upon full evidence on both sides to passe his sentence Job speaks in the stile of both desiring the Lord not to condemn him as a Judge and to shew him why he contended with him as a party Thus the Lord is said in Hosea to have a controversie with the inhabitants of Israel Hos 4.1 and it seems by another Prophet that he had continued a long one with them and therefore promised I will not contend for ever Isa 57.16 Further Cause me to know or Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me is as if Job had said Lord my troubles and sorrows are very well known they run into every eye they are apparent enough to the world all see that thy hand is lifted up and I feel it Oportet omnibus notam fieri causam mearum aegriâ—udinum nequis ex re manifesta ad occultiorem aliaÌ„ causam investigandam temere dilaberetur Pined but the reason of it I do not understand much lesse doe they there is a curtain drawn between the world and the reason why I am troubled yea there is a curtain drawn between me and the reason of my troubles Now therefore Lord draw back the curtain or unvail my eyes let me see clearly and let the world see why I am thus afflâ—cted for though I know I am a sinner and have many failings yet I know nothing my self I am not conscious of any wickednesse or close hypocrisie much lesse of any prophanenesse or apostacie which should cause thee to pour out such full viols of thy indignation upon me Then Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me This Wherefore may have a three-fold reference 1. Shew me whether it be for sin or no 2. If it be for sin Shew me for what sin it is 3. If it be not for sin Shew me for what else it is What is the thing thou aimest at and intendest What 's the end thou proposest to thy self in these my unheard of afflictions But is it lawfull to put such queries or to desire such resolutions from the Lord Ought not Job to have praied for wisdomâ— how to bear his crosse rather then have asked knowledge why it was laid upon him Job desired a reason First Not to satisfie his curiosity but his conscience not that he would be prying into Gods secrets or unlocking the cabinet of his counsel to see what was there but that the secrets of his own heart might be opened and a discovery made to him of what was hid there He desired a reason not doubting the justice of goodnesse of God but as suspecting some evil in himself as yet unseen Or secondly He desired a reason not so much to satisfie himself as that the world might be satisfied that they who judged and condemned him as an hypocrite might have their rash judgement confuted and answered by a determination from heaven As if he had further said Lord if thou wouldest but shew me this thing it would either stop the mouthes of those who have been so forward to censure me or stop my mouth from any further complainings to thee I cannot rescue my self out of thy hand nor dare I accuse thy wisdome in laying thy hand upon me But Lord deal not with me by the strict rule of thy soveraignty which is to act above all rules and to do what thou wilt because thou wilâ— without giving a reason to thy creature I cannot charge thee with injustice if thou shouldst resolve to keep me still unresolved I know thou art not obliged to give me an account of any of thy matters but Lord condescend so farre to dust and ashes Show me wherefore thou contendest with me If it be for sinne a sight of that through thy grace will humble me for it and cause me to return to thee from it If it be for triall I shall undergoe it with more patience and my friends will behold me under it with more charity Let all or some of these considerations prevail with thy majesty to open this secret to me and expound the mysterâ—e of my afflictions Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me Observe hence First An afflicted soul is very solicitous about the reason of his affliction He that knows what it is to be in the dark loves not to be in the dark As naturall so morall light is sweet and spirituall light is sweetest of all Man would not be under concealments or have all about him mysteries and riddles Evil men love not that light which shews them a rule against their sins but any man would have light to shew him the reason of his sufferings To be troubled we know not why is an aggravation of our troubles That is more then felt which is only felt As to know the cause of a disease leads and lets us into the way of a perfect cure so to know it is half a cure Job as here he doth so heretofore he had complained that his way was hidden Chap. 3.23 and here as before he solicites that his
instrument of work Philosophers call it The Organ of Organs man is called The work of Gods hands because the hand is mans instrument in working Now whereas man is called The work of Gods hands it imports three things First An immediety in the work or an immediate work God made man himself without any help Secondly An exactnesse in the work the work proclaims an accurate authour The work of thy hands a speciall piece of work No hand but thine could make such a piece Thirdly It notes the fulnesse and compleatnesse of the work a work consummate and perfect having the last hand put to it Man is the work of Gods hands in all and each of these senses Heaven is called a building of God an house not made with hand 2 Cor. 5.1 Man is a building of God and he is the work of Gods hands yet God made man without hands as much as he made heaven without hands The hand of God implies two things 1. The power of God 2. The wisdom of God Man is the work of both For 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 God head Now if the beams and beauty of the divine nature be visible in all that was created then much more in man who is the epitome or sum of all that was created When Job puts the question Is it good unto thee to despise the work of thy hands he alludes to artificers Alio argumento injustitiam a Deo ansert quòd artifices sua opera amare soleant Merc. who having made an excellent piece will not destroy or break it in pieces no they are very tender of their work yea they are apt to boast and grow proud of it The instinct of nature teaches us to love not only that which is our own by naturall production but that also which is our own by artificiall conception or operation Indeed if a man make a mean or an unworthy piece he despises it such work discommends the workman and he will break or burn it rather then let it be made publike to the publishing of his own weaknesse or unskilfulnesse Man was the master-piece of the whole visible Creation Man was made not as other creatures to have a being only but that he might be in the likenesse of God Hoc corpus meū quod in utero matris meae tam concianè aptè formasti destrues and bear his image The Lord needs not be ashamed of neither doth he despise any part of his work much lesse this which is the best and noblest part of his work Hence observe in generall Man is the work of God All of man man throughout is the work of God The fabrique of his body is Gods work I am fearfully and wonderfully made saith David marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well my substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret c. In thy book all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them Psal 139.14 15. A skilfull architect before he builds draws a model or gives a draught of the building in his book or upon a Table there he will shew you every room and contrivance in his book are all the parts of the building written while as yet there are none of them or before any of them are framed and set up In allusion to Architects and other Artisans David speaks of God In thy book were all my members written that is Thou hast made me as exactly as if thou hadst drawn my severall members and my whole proportion with a pen or pensil in a booke before thou wouldest adventure to form me up The Lord uses no book no pen to decipher his work He had the perfect Idaea of all things in himself from everlasting But He may well be said to work as by patern whose work is the most perfect patern As the body so the soul of man is the work of Gods hand too His power and wisdom wrought it and work mightily in it In regard of bodily substance the most inferiour creatures claim kindred of man and he may be compared to the beast that perisheth But in regard of the soul man transcends them all and may challenge a neernesse if not an equality with the Angels The body is to the soul but as a mud wall which imprisons some pretious treasure at best but like a gold ring to a sparkling diamond If the more unworthy part of man be a work worthy of God how much more is his more worthy part There is yet somewhat in man of Gods making which is better then either of these parts and is indeed all man There is somewhat in man more excellent then man The qualities of a man are superiour to his nature man by his nature differs only from a beast but some men by their qualities differ from other men one man hath better qualities then another but no man hath a better nature then another As the soul is more excellent then the body and reason then sense so inward gifts are more excellent then the soul and grace then reason These are the beauty the gildings and engravings of the inner man The Assyrians are called the work of Gods hands not only in reference to creation but regeneration in Christ Isa 19.25 Blessed be Aegypt my people and Assyria the work of my hands and Israel mine inheritance 'T is a promise of the calling of the Gentiles when they who were not a people should receive Christ and be made the spirituall Israel by the mighty work of God This also is the work which David intends when he invites all lands to serve the Lord with gladnesse because it is he that hath made us and not we our selves Psal 100.3 Hence the Apostle cals all believers emphatically The work of God Ephes 2.10 We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Man is the workmanship of God as he is fitted for naturall and civil works but he is most of all the workmanship of God as he is fitted for spirituall and holy works All is the work of God but this is curious work workmanship indeed From the whole take three cautions First Be not proud of what ye are all 's the work of God How beautifull or comely how wise or holy soever ye are 't is not of your selves What hath any man either in naturals or supernaturals which he hath not received Secondly Despise not what others are or have though they are not such exact pieces though they have not such excellent endowments as your selves yet they are what the hand of God hath wrought them and they have what the hand of God hath wrought in them Be more thankfull if ye are better framed and have more workmanship bestowed upon you sleight not those upon whom God hath bestowed lesse Thirdly Despise
not what your selves are To doe so is a sin and a sinne in respect of the body very common Many are ashamed to be seen as God hath made them few are ashamed to be seen what the devil hath made them Many are troubled at small defects in the outward man Few are troubled at the greatest deformities of their inner man they call for no repairs for no fresh colours to be laid on there many buy artificiall beauty to supply the defects of naturall who never had a thought of buying without money spirituall beauty to supply the defects of supernaturall The crookednesse and distortions the blacknesse and uncomelinesse of the soul are most deplorable yet are they little deplored we are called every day to mend and cure them we are told where and how we may have all set right and made fair again and yet the most stirre not or not to purpose God will not know any body at the last day unlesse his souls be mended by grace and some do so mend their bodies by art that God will not know their souls at that day Depart from me I know you not will be all their entertainment ye have mended your bodies till ye have mar'd your souls Besides What can the man do that cometh after the King saith Solomon Eccles 2.12 The work of the wisest among men is beyond the correction of an ordinary man Much more may we say What can the man doe that cometh after God The work of the most wise God is beyond the correction of the wisest among men They who thus come after God to mend his work lest they should be despised will but make themselves more despicable There is more worth in the very defects of Gods work then in the perfection of mans We may use means to help many bodily infirmities but they who are discontent with Gods work are quickly proud of their own and will one day be ashamed of their own Secondly Consider how Job argues Is it good that thou shouldest despise the work of thy hands Hence observe It is an argument moving the Lord to much compassion to tell him that we are his work as we are creatures and his work especially as we are new creatures When we are under such afflictions as threaten to ruine us 't is seasonable to tell the Lord he made us David strengthens prayer upon this argument Psal 138.8 Forsake not the work of thy own hands All men love their own works many dote upon them Shall we think God will forsake his See how the people of God plead with God in greatest distresse Isa 64.8 But now O Lord thou art our Father we are the clay and thou our Potter and we all are the work of thine hand Be not wroth very sore O Lord. Wilt thou be angry with thy work Lord be angry with the works of wicked men and destroy the work of Satan Doe not destroy the work of thine own hands thy people are thy work Hast thou not formed them for thy self They will shew forth thy praise That invitation to prayer Isa 45.11 seems to intimate that this plea hath a kinde of command upon God Thus saith the Lord the holy One of Israel and his maker Ask me of things to come concerning my sonnes and concerning the work of my hands command ye me while ye come to me under that notion that these are the work of my hands I cannot deny you Doe but name this and it is a law upon me ye may have any thing of me or doe any thing with me while ye speak for the work of mine hands Hence when the Prophet had put the Jews from that plea they were a lost people and their case was desperate This is a people of no understanding therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will shew them no favour Isa 27.11 As if he had said Ye were wont I know to come to God with this motive of mercy when he afflicted you Lord thou didst make and forme us therefore have mercy upon us but this shall prevail no more He that made you will not have mercy on you He that formed you will shew you no favour There is but one argument stronger then this among all the Topicks of prayer and that never fails namely that God hath redeemed us or that we are his redeemed ones God bestowed much cost upon us in the work of Creation and therefore under that title he can hardly cast us off but he hath bestowed so much cost upon us in the work of redemption that he will never cast us off Further The Scripture makes frequent use of this argument to represse the pride and presumption of man and to stop his mouth when he begins to question and call God to account about any of his dealings with why is it thus Or why am I thus Thus the Prophet silences the murmurings both of mans heart and tongue Isa 45.9 10. Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker shall the clay say to him that fashioned it Why hast thou made me thus And when the Apostle found unquiet and bold spirits busied in contesting with God about his eternall counsels in chusing some and rejecting others in shewing mercy to some and hardening others he stops them with Who art thou O man that repliest against God Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made me thus Remember thou art the clay and he is the Potter That we are the work of Gods hand moveth his compassion towards us and represseth our presumption against him We must not proudly dispute it out with him for we are the vvork of his hands and we may humbly plead with him not to despise the work of his hands or to Shine upon the counsel of the wicked God is light and he hath light but he hath none for wicked men or for their counsels To shine upon the counsel of the wicked notes three things Impiorum consitia illustrare idem est quod juvare illorum caeptis ac conatibus favere First To favour or delight in them Secondly To succour or assist them Thirdly To make them prosperous and successefull David praying against his enemies saith Let their way be dark and slippery Psal 35.6 And when the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwinde he questions Who is this that darkneth counsel by words without knowledge Job 38.2 As to darken waies and to darken counsel is to hinder and trouble them so to shine upon waies and counsels is to help and favour them The Sunne is the candle of the world and Sunshine is the comfort of the world The Psalmist praies in this language Thou that dwellest between the Cherubims shine forth that is help and favour us so it is expounded in the next verse Before Ephraim Benjamin and Manasses stir up thy strength and come and save us Psal 80.1 2. Thou wilt light my candle was Davids confidence
with me Why am I brought to such a triall I am sure it is not with thee as with mortall Judges who having eyes of flesh can see no further then the out-side of things and know no more then is told them and therefore must fetch out what lies in the heart of man by examination and if examination will not do it they must do it by torture Lord there is no need thou shouldest take this course Thou canst enform thy self fully how it is with me though I should not speak a word though I am silent yet thine ear hears the voice and understands the language of my spirit Though I hide or cover my self yet the eye of thy omniscience looks quite thorow me seeing then thou hast not eyes like the eyes of men wherefore is it that thou enquirest by these afflictions after mine iniquity and searchest as men use to do after my sin Hast thou eyes of flesh or seest thou as man seeth God hath no eyes much lesse eyes of flesh God is a Spirit and therefore he cannot have eyes of flesh He is all eye and therefore properly he hath no eyes The eye is that speciall organ or member of the body into which the power of seeing is contracted but God is all over a power of seeing The body of man hath severall parts and severall honours and offices are bestowed upon every part The eye hath the great office and honour of seeing committed to it The eye is the light of the whole body and knowledge is the eye of the soul The eye of God is the knowledge of God Ipsum nomen Dei Graecum hanc videndi efficacit atem prae sesert 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nimirum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spectare contemplari dicitur Nihil est in intellectu quod noÌ„ priâ— suit in sensu The Greeks expresse God by a word which signifies to see and he is therefore said to have eyes and to see because the eye is a principall instrument and seeing a principall means by which man receives knowledge Naturalists tell us there is nothing in the understanding but that which is first in the sence The sences are doors to the minde the furniture and riches of that are conveyed in by the eyes or ears These bring informations to the understanding Naturall knowledge cannot have an immediate accesse to man and 't is but seldom that spirituall hath Both are commonly let in by sence The superiour powers must traffick with the inferiour otherwise they make no gain Though God hath no need of any help to bring in or improve his knowledge yet that is ascribed to him by which knowledge is improved He hath eyes but not of flesh he seeth but not as man Hast thou eyes of flesh Flesh by a Synechdoche is put for the whole nature of man The Word was made flesh Joh. 1.14 not body or soul but Flesh that is man consisting of soul and body Thus here eyes of flâ—sh that is mans eyes And so the later clause of the verse is an exposition of the former Oculi carnei sunt secundum carnem judicantes When he saith Hast thou eyes of flesh It is no more then this Dost thou see as man seeth To have an eie of flesh is to judge according to the flesh and to see as man seeth is to see no more then man When Samuel was sent to anoint a King over Israel in the place of Saul 1 Sam. 16.7 the Lord said concerning the first-born of Jesse Look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature because I have refused him The reason added is this For the Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart There we have Jobs doctrine of Gods seeing delivered by God himself Samuel thought he who made the fairest shew to the eie of man must needs be the man who was fairest in the eye of God but the Lord seeth what is not seen and often findes most reality in the least appearance he who hath not eyes of flesh sees beyond the flesh There are seven differences between the eye of flesh or mans eye and the eye of God 1. Mans eye is but a means or an instrument of knowledge Gods eye is his knowledge The act and the faculty are not distinct in God All in God is act Neither is God another thing from his act whatsoever is ascribed to him is himself The eye of God is God seeing The knowledge of God is God knowing The love of God is God loving 2 Man must have a two-fold light to see by an inward light the light of the eye and an outward light the light in the air without both he cannot see man doth not see as Naturalists speak by sending forth a beam or a ray from his eye to the object but by receaving or taking in a beam or a ray from the object into his eie The object issues it's species to the eye which being joyned with the visive power of the eye man seeth But God seeth in himself of himself and from himself he needs no outward light Christ is described having a fiery eye His eyes were as a flame of fire Revel 1.14 Revel 2.18 Even nature teacheth us that those creatures which have fiery eyes see in the dark and see best when it is darkest because they see by sending forth a beam or a flame from their eyes which at once apprehends the object and enlightens the passage to it God who commanded light to come out of darknesse for the use of man commands light in darknesse for his own The darknesse hideth not from thee saith David but the night shineth as the day The darknesse and the light are both alike to thee There is no darknesse nor shadow of death where any of the workers of iniquity can hide themselves Job 34.22 Thus God hath not eyes of flesh he seeth not as man seeth 3. Man seeth one thing after another his eye is not able to take in all objects at once he views now one and then another to make his judgement of them But God seeth all things together he beholdeth all at one view his eye takes and gathers in all objects and all that is in every object by one act The Lord looketh from heaven and beholdeth all the sonnes of men from the place of his habitation he looks upon all the inhabitants of the earth Psal 33.13 14. 4. An eye of flesh seeth at a distance and at such a distance Naturalists tell us there must be a due distance between the eye and the object If you put the object too neer the eye Sensibile positum super sensuÌ„ tollet sensationem the eye cannot see it That which is sensible put upon the sense takes away sensation Again if the object be very remote the eye cannot make any discovery of it The eye cannot see farre and it cannot discern so farre as it
knowledge of us beyond ours though he know us better then we know our selves yet no man can tell the Lord Thou knowest that I am not wicked but he who knows that he is not The excellency of our condition consists in being godly the comfort of it consists in knowing that we are godly When David offers himself to the triall Psal 139.24 Search me O Lord and see if there be any way of wickednesse in me He speaks not as doubting whether he were wicked or no but as being assured that he was not As if he had said There are many weaknesses in me I know but I know not of any wickednesse He that offers himself to Gods search for his wickednesse gives a strong argument of his own uprightnesse The best of the Saints may be at a losse sometimes for their assurances and not know they are good They may stand sometimes hovering between heaven and earth yea between heaven and hell as uncertain to which they shall be accounted Yet many of the Saints are fully perswaded they are Saints and sit with Christ in heavenly places while they are wâ—ndering here upon on the earth A godly man may know this two vvaies First By the vvorkings of grace in his heart Secondly By the testimony of the Spirit with his heart First By the vvorkings of grace in his heart 1 Joh. 2.3 Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments and chap. 3.14 We know that we are passed from death to life because we love the brethren There may be such workings of grace in the heart as may amount to an evidence of grace What our being is is discernable in our workings The word is as clear as light that our justification may have a light or evidence in our sanctification though no cause or foundation there Grace is the image of Christ stamped upon the soul and they who reflecting upon their souls see the image of Christ there may be sure that Christ is theirs Christ hath given all himself to those to whom he hath given this part of himself Secondly This may be known by the testimony of the Spirit with the heart 2 Cor. 5.5 He that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God God sets up a frame of holinesse in every believer He hath wrought us and how are we assured that he hath Who also hath given us the earnest of his Spirit The graces of the Spirit are a reall earnest of the Spirit yet they are not alwaies an evidentiall earnest therefore an earnest is often superadded to our graces There is a three-fold work of the Spirit First To conveigh and plant grace in the soul Secondly To act and help us to exercise the graces which are planted there Thirdly To shine upon and enlighten those graces or to give an earnest of those graces This last work the Spirit fullfils two waies First By arguments and inferences which is a mediate work Secondly By presence and influence which is an immediate work This the Apostle cals witnesse-bearing 1 Joh. 5.8 There are three that bear witnesse in earth The Spirit and the water and the bloud The Spirit brings in the witnesse of the water and of the bloud which is his mediate work but besides and above these he gives a distinct witnesse of his own which is his immediate work and is in a way of peculiarity and transcendency called the witnesse of the Spirit Hence that of the Apostle Paul We have not received the spirit of the world but we have received the Spirit which is of Christ that we may know the things that are freely given us of God 1 Cor. 2.12 The things freely given may be received by us and yet the receit of them not known to us therefore we receive the Spirit that we may know what is given us and what we have received The Spirit doth as it were put his hand to our receits and his seal also whence he is said To seal us up to the day of redemption Ephes 4.30 Sixthly Observe A godly man dares appeal to God himself that he is not wicked He dares stand before God to justifie his sincerity though he dares not stand to justifie himself before God Job had often laid all thoughts of his own righteousnesse in the dust but he alwaies stands up for his own uprightnesse God is my witnesse saith the Apostle Paul Rom 9.1 whom I serve in my spirit in the Gospel of his Sonne I serve God in my spirit and God knows that I do so I dare appeal unto him that it is so God is my witnesse When Christ put that question and drove it home upon Peter thrice Simon Lovest thou me Lord saith he Thou knowest all things Thou knowest that I love thee Joh. 21. As if he had said I will not give testimony of my self thou shalt not have it upon my word but upon thine own knowledge It were easie for me to say Master I love thee with all my heart with all my soul but I refer my self to thy own bosome Thou knowest I love thee So when Hezekiah lay as he thought upon his death-bed he turned himself to the wall desiring God to look upon the integrity of his life Lord remember how I have walked before thee in truth Isa 38.3 I do not go to the world for their good word of me I rest not in what my Subjects or neighbour Princes say of me Lord it is enough for me that what I have been and what I am is laid up safe in the treasury of thy thoughts This brings strong consolation when we take not up the testimony of men nor rest in the good opinion of our brethren but can have God himself to make affidavit or bear witnesse with us and for us That such a man will say I am an honest man that such a man will give his word for me is cold comfort but when the soul can say God will give his word for me The Lord knows that I am not wicked here 's enough to warm our hearts when the love of the world is waxen so cold and their tongues so frozen with uncharitablenesse that they will not speak a good word of us how much good soever they know by us Seventhly Consider the condition wherein Job was when he spake this he was upon the rack and as it were under an inquisition God laid his hand extream hard upon him yet at that time even then he saith Lord thou knowest that I am not wicked Hence observe A man of an upright heart and good conscience will not be brought to think that God hath ill thoughts of him how much evil so ever God brings upon him The actings of God toward us are often full of changes and turnings but the thoughts of God never change A soul may be afflicted till he is weary of himself yet he knows God is not weary of him Whomsoever he hath once made good he cannot but for ever esteem good
manibus utitur Deus ad producendas res sublunares Aquin. All hands work for God they work for him while they are set a work against him and so may be called The hands of God Mans making since the Creation is not an immediate work the Creation of the first man was Yet it is so much the work of God still that every man is the work of his hands as well as the first man All inferiour causes concurring to the making of man are the hands by which God maketh man Fourthly The hands of God are generally taken for the power and wisdom of God The hand of power acts what the hand of wisdom doth contrive As the hand is often put for power so to put any thing into the hand of another is to put it into his power That grant which was made to Satan at the beginning of this book runs in this strain Behold be meaning Job is in thine hand that is Thou maist do with him what thou wilt only save his life Chap. 2.6 The Schoolmen determine the hands of God to be the understanding and will of God which they call The executive power of God by these he determines what shall be done and doth what he predetermines The very decree and purpose of God is called the hand of God Act. 4.28 Of a truth against thy holy childe Iesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to doe whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done Gods hand was the soveraign power of God over-ruling those evil instruments to fulfill his holy counsels while they intended only to fulfill their own wicked counsels We may best interpret Iob in the fourth sense Thine hands have made me and fashioned me Tu pro tua potestate tuoque jure Bez. that is I am made and fashioned by thy power and wisdom I am a piece of thy forming None but the only wise and all-powerfull God could produce such an effect as I am Have made me and fashioned me Here are two words which some distinguish by referring the one to the body the other to the soul We need not be so accurate about these words But thus much is plainly noted in them that the Lord was exceeding accurate about this work the fashioning of man Both words have their speciall elegancies The first which we translate made signifies more then to make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In sua prima significatione denotat dolore afficere it signifies to make exactly and curiously It is a word proper to Artificers who work or should work with an equall mixture of diligence and knowledge of pains and skill Artificers mingle their heads and their hands in every thing they undertake and bestow more study then toil upon their works This word is translated also to grieve vex or to put one to trouble The perverse carriage of the people of Israel toward the Spirit of God is expressed by it Isa 63.10 Panis anxietate magna labore partus They rebellid and vexed his holy Spirit And that bread of sorrows that is bread gotten by sorrowfull or hard labour is delivered in this term Ps 127.2 See a further explication of the word Chap. 9. vers 27. pag. 352. God is not put to any pain at all in making man Deus nō se fatigavit in homine condendo Sed de Deo Scriptura hominis more loquitur quasi summa cura anxietate ad eū formandum usus esset Deus ut nihil ad ejus perfectionem deesset Merc. Manus tuae dolore afficiunt me quae secerunt me Jun. he doth all his works with infinite delight and ease Nothing is hard to him who can doe all things Omnipotency never meets with any difficulty But God is exprest in making man by a word signifying solicitousnesse and painfull care implying That man is made as those things are upon which man bestows greatest pains and care Man doth not look like a piece of work slubbered over slightly or clapt up in haste The most wise God who shewed his manifold wisdom in the work of redemption shewed much of his wisdom in the work of creation He made man as we speak in print A learned translatour renders Thy hands put me to pain which have made me as if Iob had complained here of the pain vvhich God put him to after he had made him rather then exalted God for the pains he seemed to have taken when he made him But we may better keep to our rendering Thine hands have made me and Fashioned me The making of man importeth his being The fashioning of him the outward formality of his being Man receives not only his nature but his figure from God The vvord signifies to trim or polish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est aliquid facere sed ornate polite rem omnibus modis perfectam efficere to do a thing curiously and compleatly Gen. 1.31 God saw all that he had made and behold it was very good He saw all vvith delight and highest content for he had put all into a composure of most exquisite comelinesse and perfect beauty A due and proper fashion to the essence of comelinesse Thine hands have not only made but fashioned me and that not in part only but as it followeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alludere videtur ad figuli rotam Pined Artifices opus pene absolutum curiose circumspiciunt ut si quid oculis ingratum deprehendant corrigant Sanct Together round about This is no pleonasme or superfluity of speech for though when a thing is made and fashioned it is supposed to be made round about yet here to shew the exactnesse of God in making man Iob speaks as if God had resolved to have all of his own doing and vvould not trust the least part of this vvork into the hand of any other Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about Which vvords are say some First An allusion to the art of a potter who formeth and fashioneth earthen vessels turning them often about and about upon his wheel Or it may be an allusion to a Statuary or to a painter vvho having a curious costly piece in hand goes about it and views it round on every side That if any thing sute not his eye his fancy or the rule of art he may correct it Secondly a Dicit in circuitu quod corpus videtur animae esse in circuitu sicut vestimentum vest ito aut sicut domu habitatori Aquin. Others conceive that this round about is only a circumlocution for the body because the body encompasseth the soul round about as a garment doth the body or a house the inhabitant Thirdly b Totum dicit ut ad singula corporis membra referatur Idem est quod latinus dicit intus extra intus in cate à capite ad pedes
Quantus quantus sum magna Dei cura artificio elaboratus sum Pined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Together round about is as vvas touched before me in every part or all me When some took offence at Christs healing of a sick man upon the Sabbath-day he answers Are ye angry at me because I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day Joh. 7.23 or that I have made the whole man vvhole not leaving any unsound limb about him There is a like phrase Luk. 11.40 vvhich may illustrate this Ye fools Did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also That is Did not he that made man make him together round about Did not he make vvhatsoever is man So Iobs together round about is as if he had said Thou hast made me within and without from head to foot thou hast made me all that I am how great how good how strong how beautifull soever I am I am made by thee Thou as David speaks Psal 139.5 hast beset or formed me so the Hebrew behinde and before and laid thine hand upon me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Formasti me Fourthly By together round about vve may understand all vvithout man vvhich man hath about him Thou hast made and fashioned not only my body but my estate my honour my friends my children children round about the Table Psal 128.2 Per circuitam omnia etiam illa intelligamus quae hominem cingunt sc facultates liberos familiam universam Thou hast given me all that I have about me Whatsoever I am I am made and fashioned by thine hands So the phrase is used Chap. 19.9 10. He hath stript me of my glory and taken the crown from my head he hath destroied me on every side or he hath destroied me round about that is All that he hath made round about me he hath taken away from me he hath stript me of all he once clothed me vvith Mr Broughton translates much to that sense Thou hast fashioned me and made me in every point that is Look vvhatsoever I am considerable in under vvhat notion so ever I may be taken Thou hast made me and fashioned me in all Observe First The making of man now is the work of God as well as the making of the first man was Iob doth not say The Lord did once make and fashion man but thine hands have made me He ascribeth his own making to God as vvell as Adams The structure and frame of nature is the vvork of God not of nature Nature and naturall causes are nothing but the order in vvhich God vvorketh God turneth or changeth stops or sets them forward as he pleaseth Natura nihil aliud est quam divinorum operumordo Brent Second causes vvork purely at the vvill of God though means be used by man yet the effect is Gods Corn groweth in the field by the hand of God You vvill say What then doth the hushandman What doth the earth What do the Sunne and rain Doe not all these vvork All those are nothing but the order vvherein and by vvhich the hand of God makes the corn to grow for let all those second causes vvork as hard as they can yet the corn grows not unlesse God speak the word His steps not the husbandmans drop fatnesse It is he not the Sunne or the rain which makes the valleys stand thick with corn to laugh and sing As in spirituals so in naturals he that planteth and he that vvatereth is nothing but God that giveth the increase The Psalmist speaks exclusively of man as to the point of mans making and he putteth an emphasis upon it as if man did not take notice enough if a◠all of this that in this man is nothing Know ye that the Lord he is God Psal 100.3 it is he that hath made us and not we our selves There may be a great deal of grace acted in acknowledging God to be the authour of nature yet I conceive the Psalmist speaks there rather of Gods making us in grace then in nature Secondly Observe Iob recounting what God had done for him brings in Thy hands have made me and fashioned me then Our making and naturall constitution are to be reckoned amongst the great benefits received from God Psal 139.14 I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made The making of a man is a wonder though the frequency of it makes the wonder little observed yet the wonder is not in it self the lesse David who had serious and holy thoughts about naturall things confesseth I am fearfully and wonderfully made A Heathen had three reasons for which he used especially to thank God One of them was this because he had made him a man If men who have but the light of nature can see so much of God in nature How much of God should we see in nature who have the light of grace to see it by Thirdly From the words put together Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about Observe The whole fashion and fabrick of man is from God From which generall take these consectaries See more of this point before at the third verse of this Chapter pag. 443. First Then do not undervalue the body it is the work of God He hath fashioned it round about We alwaies look upon and value our bodies too much when we are proud of them but we can never look upon or value our bodies too much while we are thankfull for them and that we may be so we ought to view every room of this house of clay from story to story from the garret to the cellar from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot that we seeing the wonderfull works of God may have our hearts enlarged in his praises Some have put ignoble titles upon the body of man calling it a prison or a shackle The body is not a prison it is a palace it is not a shackle it is an organ a fit instrument for the soul to use and act by If at any time the body be unusefull to the soul that proceeds from sinfull corruption not from its naturall constitution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Apostle Phil. 3.21 calleth our body a vile body or the body of our vilenesse Mans body is not vile as God made it so it is a stately structure but as sin hath made it The Apostle cals it vile not absolutely and in it self but relatively The body clothed with mortality is vile compared with the body when it shall be clothed with glory and that glory like the glory of the body of Christ as is assured us Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body The words carry an allusion to those who changing old and broken vessels desire to have them wrought in the best and newest fashion The body of Christ is the richest piece of Gods work and this
shall be the patern of ours as here upon earth the spirits of believers are of the same fashion with Christs the same minde is in the Saints which was in Christ there is but one draft of grace in the main upon the souls of all holy men and that is a copy of Christs his being the originall So in heaven the bodies of all believers shall be of the same fashion with Christs There shall be but one draft of glory in the main for degrees do not vary the kinde upon the body of Christ and the bodies of all his members In reference to this future change of the body the body in its present state is vile Secondly Hence it follows That as we must not undervalue the frame of mans body in generall as imperfect so we may not despise any for their speciall bodily imperfections It is God who hath made and fashioned them round about It is said 2 Sam. 5.8 that the blinde and the lame were hated of Davids soul Yet to hate any for defects in the body is a very great defect in the soul and to contemn any for naturall blemishes is a spirituall blemish How then could David hate the blinde and the lame and not sin or are we to number this among his sins There are two expositions of those words upon either of which we may clear the difficulty First That when David sent to summon that fort the Iebusites who were the defendants trusting in the strength of the place told David in scorn that he must first conquer the blinde and the lame As implying that blinde and lame souldiers were garison good enough to deal with his great Army upon the advantage of such a fortresse Secondly The blinde and the lame may rather be the Idols and strange Gods which the Iebusites worshipped of whose protection they were not the lesse confident because the Jews counted them but blinde and lame As if they had said even these gods which you call blinde and lame see well enough what ye are doing and will come fast enough and too fast for your ease to our aid and succour These blinde and lame gods were justly hated of Davids soul but he had learned better then to hate men who were made lame or blinde by God Thirdly Seeing all men are fashioned round about by the hands of God then as we must not despise any for their bodily imperfections so not envy any for their bodily perfections Some are as much troubled to see another have a better body or a more beautifull face as many are alike sinfully both to see another have a better purse or a more plentifull estate then themselves Fourthly Let not the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made me thus If thy earthly Tabernacle be not so highly so strongly built if the materials of it be not so pure or not so exactly tempered if thou hast not so good a constitution so elegant a composition if thou art not so adorn'd and polish'd as some others are yet be not discontented the hands of God have made and fashioned thee round about It is a great honour to a vessel that he made it though he have made it in this sense a vessel of dishonour Fiftly If God hath fashioned our bodies then we must not put them out of fashion It is dangerous to deface the work of God to undo that which God hath done to unmake that which God hath made How sad is it that any should pull down a building of Gods own setting up without warrant from God! Self-murder or the murder of another is an high affront to God and should have a severe revenge from man He that sheds his own bloud takes revenge upon himself And who so sheddeth mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed for in the image of God made he man Gen. 9.6 As what God hath joyned by a civil so by a naturall band Let no man put asunder Lastly If thou art made and fashioned by God then let God have the use of all thou art Let God dwell in the house which he hath set up Let thy body be imploied for God he that made it hath most right to it Every thing in man shews forth the wisdom and goodnesse of God towards man let every thing in man shew forth obedience and submission unto God This was the ground of Davids praier Psal 119.73 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me give me understanding that I may learn thy commandments as if he had said Lord I would use this body this soul this all which thou hast made for thy glory therefore give me understanding that I may learn thy will I would not do the will of another while I dwell in thy house and am thy tenant at will I would not imploy those members which thou hast given me to fulfill the Law of sin or the commands of Satan The Apostle is clear upon this argument in reference to redemption 1 Cor. 6.19 Ye are not your own ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God with your bodies and in your spirits which are Gods Now as in the work of redemption we are of God by grace so in the work of creation we are of God by nature The reason holds in both glorifie God with your bodies which are not your own but Gods It is usuall in letting out of houses to put a clause in the lease that the house shall not be imploied to such and such uses but only to such as are expressed in the indenture Surely the Lord who hath built and furnished these houses hath taught us how to imploy them and what trade to exercise in them even the trade of holines Take heed you do not let out any room or corner of a room in this house for sin to trade in or for the work of iniquity This is to let out a house of Gods making to the devils using Yet thou dost destroy me The word signifies to swallow up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Absorbere est morsicatim destruere Coc. Deglutio significat omnimodā exterminationē resumque omnium profundissimum exitium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to swallow up with greedinesse Psal 52.4 Thou lovest all devouring or swallowing words words which swallow down thy neighbours credit and devour his good name as one morsel The holy Ghost expresseth our finall victory over death by a word which reacheth this sense 1 Cor. 15.54 Death is swallowed up or drunk down in victory death is drunk up at a draught Christ called his sufferings by which he got this victory a cup. The Apostle uses the same word again 2 Cor. 5.4 That mortality might be swallowed up of life When this mortall shall have put on immortality death shall be swallowed up in victory that is there shall be a compleat victory over death and not only so but mortality shall be swallowed up of life In heaven there shall be no death nor any thing like
of the dust of the ground Gen. 2.7 here Job saith Thou hast made me as the clay or Thou hast made me of the clay the sense is near the same whether we take clay for the matter out of which man was made or for the similitude according to which man was made Job speaks of himself with respect to creation for In memoriam revoca ut me è luto primùm i. e. primum hominē unde orti caeteri formaris figuli more Merc. according to the ordinary course of generation man is not made of clay The first man was made of clay and of him all men are We derive our pedigree from the dirt and are a kin to clay Job might say and so may any man Thou hast made me of the clay However Job was and man now is made as the clay that is frail brittle and weak We are composed of materials which will quickly crack and break When the holy Ghost would describe how easily Christ can shatter to pieces all the opposites of his Kingdom it is said He shall dash them in pieces like a potters vessel A potters vessel will not bear blows especially not the blows of such an instrument as is there spoken of an iron rod He shall break them with a rod of iron Psal 2.9 we may break a potters vessel with a little wand or a weak reed how then should it endure the weight and hardnesse of an iron rod The Spirit of God seems to delight in this allusion and therefore takes it up often Read Isa 45.9 Isa 64.8 Rom. 9.21 We have the state of the Jews described under this notion Jer. 18.4 The Lord bids Jeremy go down to the potters house he obeys and found the potter working a work on the wheel And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter so he made it again another vessel as seemed good to the potter to make it Then the Word of the Lord came to him saying Cannot I do to you as this potter saith the Lord Behold as the clay is in the hand of the potter so are ye in my hand O house of Israel I can form you and I can break you I can put you into what condition I please and ye ought not to be displeased at it A potters vessel is an embleme of the strongest Kingdoms How much more of the strongest men That we are made of clay intimates three things at all which Job seemeth to aim when he saith Thou hast made me as the clay First The excellency of mans frame He is not thrust together like a rude lump or masse of earth but curiously wrought Psal 139.15 To make a vessel of clay is an artificiall work not a naturall It requireth much pains but more skill Whence Job argueth Thou hast made me as the clay Thou hast shewed thy heavenly wisdome in shaping and contriving me as a vessel of honour for thy use And wilt thou bring me into dust again The remembrance of that love and care which God hath laid out upon us in our constitution is an argument moving him to pity and compassion as was shewed at the third verse Secondly That God hath made us of clay shews our utter inability to contend with God and to stand against his stroaks It is as if Job had said Lord Surely thou forgettest of what mettall I am made thou thinkest I am made of a hard rock or of invincible Adamant that I am compounded of iron and other the strongest materials Alas Lord there is no such matter I am made but as the clay A great deal of power and wisdome appeared in making me but a little power will serve to ruine me I am no sooner toucht but crackt Why then dost thou plant all thy Ordnance and discharge so many volleys of shot against me Lord What am I Am I a wall of brasse or a bulwark of stone Thou knowest I am but a wall of clay a paper wall a potters vessel a little moistened earth Will any man prepare Cannon to batter a cottage or a beetle to kill a flie Thy providence needs not make such provision against me or handle me so roughly that which is weak cals for tender usage and that which is weak may last long if tenderly used a glasse with care will continue many ages Deal gently with thy servant Remember I beseech thee thou hast made me as the clay Thirdly That we are made as the clay shews our easinesse to be overcome by temptation and our obnoxiousnesse to sin Sin is in its kinde as spirituall as grace is yet our sinfull corruption is figuratively called the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad circumagendum proclivis Metaphora ducta à laciniotis talaribus vestibus quae currentibus in stadio non sunt aptae One reason I conceive of which may be this because flesh taken properly is an occasion of sin As the sensitive part is a servant so a snare to the rationall much more to the spirituall The flesh is at once the organ and the burthen of the spirit The Apostle calling Saints to run the race of holinesse with patience gives a very sutable advice Let us lay aside every weight that is all carnall comber he that would shew himself light of foot will not take a burden upon his back he casts off his very garments to which the next words of the Apostle seem to allude Cast off every weight and the sinne which doth so easily beset us So a garment doth especially a long garment which in running daggles and folds about our heels The reason why our sinfull corruption is compared to such a garment is because it is so much assisted by this body of clay the flesh which is as a long garment to the soul hanging about it and besetting it on every side From which sense Iob seems thus to move the Lord Suppose I have sinned he had said vers 7. Thou knowest I am not wicked but suppose I have sinned and have had my failings yet Lord Remember thou hast made me as the clay I am not a pure spirit as Angels are I have a body of earth about me which clogs and hinders me in every duty which many waies endangers me unto every sinne God himself takes up this as an argument to spare sinfull man Psal 78.39 when the people of Israel rebelled against him He many a time turned his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath What staid him The next words give a reason for he remembred that they were but flesh that is weak and very subject unto sin This argument prevails again Psal 103.14 Like as a father spareth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him Why For he knoweth their frame he remembreth that they are dust As if the very matter out of which man was first made though without sin were some disadvantage to him in the resisting of sin It was a disadvantage
nulla mihi illaâ—o injuria Bol. Take the words as a direct assertion Thou wilt bring me into the dust again So they may have reference to the decree of God concerning man as those before had to the creation of man As if he had said By creation and naturall constitution I am frail and weak made of the clay by thy purpose and decree I am appointed unto death Thou wilt bring me into the dust again therefore spare me for the short time I have to live Some change the conjunction And into the adverb of likenesse so to note a right power or priviledge and the text runs in this form Remember that as thou hast made me of or as the clay so thou maist it is thy priviledge none can contradict thee in it and thou doest me no wrong in it thou maiest as thou hast purposed bring me to the dust again Though it be common and naturall to all creatures mixt of elements to be resolved and turned back into that out of which they were made that is to die yet to man it is more then naturall there is a decree upon it besides the naturality of it Man dieth by a statute-law of heaven To die is a penalty inflicted upon man for sinne for he had not been under a necessity of dying if he had not sinned And therefore though God formed man as the holy story informs us Gen. 2.7 out of the dust of the earth yet so long as man stood he never said to him To dust thou shalt return God only put a supposition that in case man did fall he should surely die But when man had fallen by sin then he hears what he was and what he must be For dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return Gen. 3.19 As if God had thus bespoken sinfull man Thy body was framed out of dust and now I charge this burden upon thee thou shalt return to the dust again It is a Question and I shall touch upon it Whether death were naturall to man or no Whether man were made mortall or whether he made himself mortall Some affirm That death was naturall not accidentall or occasionall to man-kinde They argue for this opinion First thus Adam died not the death of the body or a naturall death when he had sinned therefore the death of the body was not inflicted for sin upon his person and his posterity but was seated in or a consequent of his nature I answer Though Adam died not presently a naturall death yet he was presently made subject or liable unto death the sentence was past upon him though the sentence was not executed upon him A malefactour who is cast at the barre is a dead man in law though he be reprieved from the present stroke of death Again Though death it self did not instantly seize upon him yet the symptoms of death and tokens of mortality did Fear and shame pains and distempers sweat and wearinesse quickly shewed themselves as so many harbingers or forerunners of his approaching dissolution we see and feel death in these before we see or feel death it self These bid us prepare our bodies for the grave and our souls for heaven Secondly Others reason thus Christ hath delivered his people the elect from all that punishment which the sin of Adam did contract and deserve but Christ hath not delivered his elect his own people from turning to the dust Godly men die as well as the ungodly believers as well as infidels therefore say they the death of the body was not procured by sin I answer Whatsoever is an evil in death Christ hath delivered his people from he hath taken away all that from death which is punishment or annoiance though death be not taken away Christ hath freed us from the effects of sin as he hath freed us from sin it self that is from their prevalence and dominion over us not from their presence or being in and upon us Hence the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. triumpheth over death O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory As if he had said Death once had a power over man to sting him to death death once had a victorious power and would have bin the great conquerour riding in triumph over all the posterity of Adam but now death hath neither sting nor sword to use against believers it hath nothing of victory over the Saints It is now but a sleep a sleep in Christ a rest from labour a putting off the rags the worn rags of mortality that we may be dress'd in the robes of glory The evil of death is removed and that which remains of death the separation of soul and body proves the greatest good to both it being but a preparatory to their everlasting union Thirdly It is argued That death and corruption were naturall to man because the matter out of which man was made was dying and corruptible Omne principiatum sequitur naturam principiorum for that which is made must follow the nature of that principle out of which it is made The effect cannot be say they more noble then the cause nor the subject constituted more durable then that which goes into its constitution To clear up an answer to this we must distinguish of a three-fold immortality 1. A primitive simple independent essentiall immortality this is proper and peculiar to God in which sense the Apostle affirmeth He only hath immortality 1 Tim. 6.16 2. There is a derivative dependant essentiall immortality Some substances have no seed of corruptibility nor of death in them Being either separate from all matter which is the seat and root of corruption as the Angels or united to matter yet so as not being produced from it or having any affinity with it such are the souls of men Whole man in his creation was not immortall either of these waies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graec. Int. a part of man was but man was not created immortall Man was of a middle state and condition neither altogether so mortall nor altogether immortall but capable of either 3. There is an immortality by the power or gift by the mercy or justice of God The power and justice of God shall give an immortality to the bodies of the damned in hell they shall ever live a dying life who were dead all while they lived They who have slighted the mercy of God shall be upheld by his power to endure his justice to all eternity wicked men would have sinned with delight for ever upon the earth if they could have lived for ever upon the earth and they shall live for ever with pain in hell to suffer for their sinne The power goodnesse and mercy of God shall much more give immortality to the bodies of the Saints in glory they who have had a will to delight in obeying God that short time they lived on earth shall have a power to live for ever in delight praising God in heaven The body of man
being firm and stiff in themselves are moveable by the sinews There are other parts of the body which concur to the making up of this armour gristles muscles ligaments membranes all which serve for motion fastning and defence as well as bones and sinews but these being the principall and most known are here expressed for all the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hippocr Bones give the body stability straitnesse and form They are as the carcase of a ship whereto the rest of the parts are fastned and by which they are sustained They are as the posts pillars beams and rafters of a house by whose knittings and contignations the whole building is both proportioned and supported And though the bones are for number very many and in their forms exceeding various some thick some thin some plain some hollow some of a greater others of a lesser bore yet are they so connected and fitted together by articulation or by coalition by contiguity or continuity as the Anatomists speak that they all appear as one bone or pack of bones Sinews or nerves derive their pedigree from the brain and are the organs by which the animall spirits are conveyed and flow into the whole body and with them both sense and motion Sinews have so much of strength in them that the same word is put to signifie both strength and sinews and to do a thing strongly and vigorously is to doe it nervosè sinewously It is wonderfull which Naturalists write of the conjugations and uses of the sinews to whose labours I referre the studious Reader for further satisfaction I have given enough to shew what this Text cals me to That God hath indeed clothed man with skin and flesh and fenced him with bones and sinews Some have quarrelled with the wisdom and goodnesse of God for turning man altogether naked and unarmed into the world This Scripture is enough to confute the unreasonablenesse of that quarrel Job thankfully acknowledgeth That he was both clothed and armed though not in the sense of these complainers It is more honourable for man to make himself artificiall clothing and arms then to have had none but naturall God hath given man reason to invent hands to prepare and a tongue to call for those things which by a Law of nature are imposed upon other creatures the power of reason and the skill of the hand are a better safeguard to man then any the beasts have and can provide whatsoever man wants to secure him either from cold or danger And though the body as now it stands be but as it were the sepulchre of that which God at first created though we lie open to so many diseases and deaths that the soul may well be said to inhabit an unwalled and an unfortified City yet man hath great cause for ever to extoll the bounty of God in those still continued ennoblements of this earthly mansion his mortall body Yea The noble structure and symmetry of our bodies invites our souls not only to thankfulnesse but to admiration One of the Ancients stileth man a great miracle Another The miracle of miracles A third The measure of all things A fourth The patern of the universe the worlds epitome The world in a small volume or a little world They also have distinguished the whole frame of the body into three stories in allusion to a like frame observable in the world First The superiour which they call intellectuall or angelicall because they conceived it to be the habitation of Angels or Intelligences The second or middle part they call celestiall or heavenly the seat of the Sunne and starres The third Elementary in which all corporeall creatures are procreated and nourished This division of the world is eminent in man for he also is a building of three stories The head which is the seat of reason the mansion the tower of wisdome and understanding is placed highest the brest or middle venter is the celestiall part wherein the heart like the Sun is predominant some have called the Sun The heart of the world and the heart The Sunne of mans body by whose lustre beams and influences all the other parts are quickned and refreshed hence we say when the heart fails all fails and while the heart holds all holds The third part of the body or the lower venter containing all parts necessary for the nutrition of individuals or the propagation of the species carrieth a cleare resemblance with the elementary or lowest parts of the universe There are five things in particular which as so many rounds of a lather may help us to raise our thoughts higher in the duty of holy admiration about this work of God First That God frameth up this goodly and beautifull fabrique out of such mean and improbable materials To consider out of what stuff our bodies are made advanceth the honour of him who made us Man can make his work except the form no better then the matter out of which he formeth it But as the form of mans body is better then the matter so the matter becomes better then it was before it received that form Secondly The matter out of which God maketh man is originally homogeneall or but of one kinde yet there is a strange heterogeny or variety in the very substance as well as in the shape of the severall parts which are therefore divided by the survaiers of this building into parts similar and dissimilar Is it not incredible to meer reason that one lump should be spread out into thin tender skin wrought into soft flesh extended into tough sinews hardened into strong bones that one piece should make an outward jerkin or cassock of skin an under garment of flesh columns and rafters of bones bands and ties of sinews that the same should make veins like chanels to carry and blood like water to be carried into every part to moisten and refresh it When an Artificer buildeth an house he requires more materials then one he must have stones and timber iron lead Quomodo ex re tantula sibi simili tamvariae discrepantes partes extiterunt haec profecto est stupenda omnino opifiâ—iâ— nostri sapientia vis ad quicquid efficienduÌ„ Merl. c. to compleat his fabrique but the Lord frameth all the parts rooms and contrivances of the body out of one and the same masse Thou dost not know saith Solomon how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with childe Eccles 11.5 Who can know by a meer rationall demonstration how a solid substance should grow out of that which is so fluid And that parts materially as well as figuratively unlike should arise out of a like matter Thirdly The work of God in the framing of man is internall as well as externall A statuary or an engraver will make the image or pourtraiture of a man but his work is all outward he cannot make bowels or fashion a heart within he cannot cut out veins bones and sinews
dead It is usuall in Scripture by a dogge to set forth the vilest estate of man and the most excellent by a lion When Mephibosheth would shew how low he was in his own eyes though the son of a noble Prince he joyns these two Dead and a dog together 2 Sam. 9.8 What is thy servant that thou shouldst look upon such a dead dog as I am He cals himself not only a dog as Christ did the woman of Canaan and as she acknowledged her self to be but to lay himself as low as lownesse it self he cals himself a dead dog implying That life giveth some honour and casteth a lustre upon every subject which it inhabits though it be the meanest When Esau was near perishing with hunger Gen. 25.32 he resolves thus I am at the point to die and what profit shall this birth-right do to me As if he had said Shall I keep my birth-right and lose my life My life is more precious Thus he spake and he spake profanely in it yet there is some truth in what he spake for if we take birth-right precisely in the notion of a civil priviledge so life is better then a birth-right but he is called profane Esau because there was a spirituall priviledge in his birth-right which he ought to have valued above his life Any spirituall good thing is better then naturall life but life is the best of naturall and better then all civil good things When the Prophet would expresse how great a blessing a King was to his people he called him The breath of their nostrils Lam. 4.29 and live for ever was the highest apprecation given the Babylonian Kings The most noble imitations of art are about this piece of nature It is the ambition of a painter to draw to the life or to shadow the motions and actings of life When we would commend a picture we say It is done to the life How precious a favour is reall life the very shadow of which is of so great a price He that laieth down his life paieth the greatest debt whether to justice or to nature Christ went to the highest price for and shewed the greatest favour to sinners when he parted with and pawned this jewell for them his precious life This should minde parents as to pray for quickning after conceptions so to give thanks when the embryon is quickned Now if this naturall life be such a favour What is spirituall and eternall life Thou hast given me life and favour Chesed omnia beneficia Dei promiscuè complectitur Coc. Non solum vitam dedisti sed cumulasti banis omnibus quae ad victum honorem rem vitae necessariam pertinent Hoc nomine coÌ„plectitur etiam omnia beneficia quae ultra vitaÌ„ Deus homini concedit dum educandum euÌ„ instituendum informanduÌ„ in lege sua timore curat Merc. or life as a favour Thirdly By favour in conjunction with life we may understand the accidents of life that is those good things which accompany and accommodate our lives Thou hast given me life not a bare life not a meer subsistence or being in the world but with life thou hast also given me favour many mercies and comforts to make my life sweet and pleasant to me Besides favour takes in not only those outward comforts of health strength liberty plenty but those inward ornaments of life also good education and instruction in knowledge both humane and divine It appears Iob had a fair portion of these favours His was not a naked but a clothed soul a soul gilded and engraven all over with heavenly truths So that Job in this word reports the bounty and munificence of God towards him in all the former additions and accomplishments of his life Many have lives which they scarce look upon as a favour Some accidents of life are more worth then the substance of it Our well-being is better then our being It may prove a desirable favour to be rid of life In which sense Iob spake of himself at the first verse of this Chapter My soul is weary of my life His life was then a burden but once a favour Thou hast granted me life with favour Fourthly Iob may here intend spirituall and eternall favour Quoniam Chesed significat aliquid perfectum in amore idcirca slatuimus Iohum hic intelligere istaÌ„ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sive studium quod Deus exercet erga suos quâ—s facit filios suos in Christo Coc. Chesed signifies the grace or favour of God in Christ Psal 89.33 My loving kindenesse will I not take from him nor suffer my faithfulnesse to fail If he fail in duty I will chasten him in mercy I will not remove mercy from him The Vulgar translates Thou hast given me life and mercy which some expound of that speciall mercy the pardon of his sinne and his washing from originall corruption As if Iob had said I partake not only of life but also of that which is better then life it self Thy favour or loving-kindenesse Psal 63.4 The favour of God in spirituall things in pardoning sin in regenerating the soul in sending the holy Spirit is the perfection of his favour What is man without that favour which makes him a sonne of God but even a beautifull or at most a rationall beast as David cals him Psal 49.21 And should a man give thanks for outward favours only without any reflection upon spirituall a beast could he speak might give such thanks The life of sense and growth is a mercy but beasts and plants live thus The life of reason is a greater mercy but wicked men live thus many are in hell unto whom God granted this life and they would be glad God would call in his grant and take it from them But unto these three lives God adds a fourth to his elect even a life of grace through Jesus Christ This is the favour of favours and the blessing of all our blessings except this favour be granted with our lives it were better for us never to have had a grant of our lives It is more eligible not to have been born then not to be born again Chesed sumitur pro venustate corporis Coc. There is a fifth Interpretation taking the word Chesed for corporall favour or the beauty of the body we say such an one is well favoured he hath an excellent feature the favour of a man is seen in the feature of his face Favour is the perfection of beauty Some have a clear mixture of white and red yet no favour In this sense the word is used Isa 40.6 where the Lord makes a proclamation The voice said Cry and he said What shall I cry All flesh is grasse and the goodlinâ—sse thereof as the flower of the field The word which we translate goodlinesse is Chesed All flesh is grasse man withers quickly and Chesed the goodlinesse thereof all of man his favour beauty strength all these are as the
point at the sixteenth Chapter of this book and the eighth verse which may be a Commentary upon this Thou hast filled me with wrinckles which is a witnesse against me and my leannesse rising up in me beareth witnes to my face Afflictions bring in evidence and testifie many waies They sometimes witnesse for us evidencing our graces our faith patience sincerity and submission to the hand of God they are witnesses also of our adoption or spirituall sonship Heb. 12.8 If you be without chastisement whereof all are partakers then are ye bastards and not sons It is no good sign to be free from sufferings Hear ye the rod saith the Prophet Micah as we ought to hear it calling us from sin so we may hear it calling us sons Chastenings speak our priviledges as well as our duties They often witnesse against us First That sin is seated in us and hath been acted by us If we had no sin vve should know no sorrow Though some afflictions are not sent out directly against sin yet every affliction is both a consequent and a testimony of remaining sin The bundle of rods at our backs saith there is folly and sin bound up in our hearts and vvhen once we are purged from all sin vve shall hear no more of any affliction of any rod. We shall be past suffering as soon as vve are past sinning Secondly They are vvitnesses in speciall of that great sin the pride of our hearts and lives If there were not swellings and impostumations of pride in our spirits vve should not feel such lancings Paul himself acknowledges that they vvere growing upon him if God had not taken a severe course to keep them down Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelations there was given to me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me 2 Cor. 12.7 Hence afflictions are called humiliations both because an afflicted person is humbled or laid low by the hand of God as also because afflictions are sent to humble and lay us low in our selves Now if one speciall businesse vvhich affliction hath vvith us be to humble us then doubtlesse affliction vvitnesseth that there is pride in us That vvhich is sent to remove an evil shews the presence of it Thirdly They are vvitnesses by bringing to our remembrance the acting of forgotten sins Affliction is a help to memory That vvhich vve forget we have done or spoken vvitnesses coming in make us remember so also do our troubles When the brethren of Joseph had been put in ward three daies and heard him demand one of them to be left as an hostage in prison till they brought Benjamin This distresse caused them to say We are verily guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distresse come upon us Gen. 42.21 The guilt of that sin was about twenty years old but they felt not the smart of it till themselves smarted for it their imprisonment set their memories at liberty and vvhen they saw themselves in danger to become bond-men to the Aegyptians they had vvitnesse enough of their selling Joseph for a captive to the Ishmaelites Fourthly Afflictions vvitnesse obstinacy and resolvednesse in the waies of sin or that afflicted persons or Nations turn not for sinne Every vvound vvill open it's mouth as a vvitnesse and every stroak will bring an evidence against the impenitent The troubles which God brought upon Ahaz witnessed emphatically 2 Chron. 28.22 This is that King Ahaz who in the time of his distresse did trespasse yet more against the Lord. If we are not bettered by our distresses our distresses testifie that we are naught how much more when we are worse in our distresse As all good things which we have received so all evils which we have suffered will rise up in judgement against those who still continue evil Fifthly Afflictions witnesse two things concerning God First That he hath an eye upon us and care of us He will not let us want any thing that is needfull for us no not affliction Due chastisement given a childe is an argument that his father loveth him and looks to him Secondly They are witnesses of Gods fatherly displeasure Some say God cannot be displeased with his children because his love is everlasting But will any man say A father doth not love his childe because he corrects him yet a father never correcteth his childe but when he is displeased with him Parents may not strike unprovoked and 't is rare that God doth so A man may be much displeased with and much love the same person at the same time and 't is very usuall for God to do so Afflictions never testifie any the least hatred of God against his people but they often testifie some and sometimes great displeasure against his people Lastly Afflictions upon the godly are reckoned very sufficient and credible witnesses by the world that either they are not godly or that surely some great ungodlinesse hath been acted by them How many precious men have been cast upon this evidence for traitors and rebels against God Iobs friends took this for proof enough that he was wicked They could not be perswaded he was good because he endured so many evils As the high Priest cried out against Christ what further need have we of witnesses behold now ye have heard his blasphemy so said Iobs friends concerning him What need have vve of further vvitnesse Behold vve have seen his misery What do these losses in his estate and ruines upon his family What do these sores upon his body and sorrows in his soul but publish unto us what he hath kept close and concealed the profanenesse of his spirit and the hypocrisie of his former profession Iob perceiving his friends making use all along of this proof as of their chiefest and strongest medium might well complain to God upon the renewall of every daies affliction Thou renewest thy witnesses against me And encreasest thine indignation upon me or Thy indignation encreaseth upon me In the beginning of the verse his own afflictions did encrease but here the indignation of God Indignation is more grievous then affliction and the indignation of God is the most grievous indignation The word signifies wrath displeasure fierce fiery wrath hot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consuming displeasure Increasest There is a double increase here noted First Extensive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly Intensive an increase both in multitude and magnitude As if he had said I have more troubles in number and more in weight Indignation is here put for the effects of indignation neither the wrath nor the love of God do ever encrease in him but in their exertions or in the putting of them forth towards us Observe from it First That a godly man may conceive himself under the indignation of God The Church stoops to it Mich. 7.9 I will bear the indignation of
p. 49. We must not despise small beginnings p. 52. Sorrow is not easily shaken off p. 347. Soveraignty of God p. 284. Soul taken two waies in Scripture p. 412. Three things weary and load the soul p. 413. Soul and life in man are distinct 418. Spirit A three-fold work of the spirit p. 480. Spirit of man taken three waies p 528. Starre what it is p. 207. The differences of the stars ib. 208. The number of the known stars p. 208. The known stars represented in fourty one images ibid. All the stars are particularly placed in the heavens for the good of man p. 212. Man very apt to commit idolatry with the stars p. 212 215. God knows the number and names of all the stars p. 213. Some stars more excellent then others ib. The power and wisdom of God shine forth from the stars p. 214. Six things shew the power and wisdom of God in making and ordering the stars p. 215. Starres can do nothing of themselves but as God orders p 217. They are for signs but not for infallible signs p. 219. It is a duty to study the starres p. 220. Strength of two sorts p. 158. Strength of God opened ibid. Strength signified by five distinct words in the Hebrew pag. 289. Strength of God insuperable p. 289. The strength of God appears in three things pag. 290. Sunne at Gods command p. 189. Shadow of the Sunne going back in Hezekiahs time p. 193. The rising of the Sunne is an act of favour renewed to the world every day p. 196 Supplication The nature of it p. 29. Supplication properly what it is p. 266. T TEmptation makes the Saints sometimes weary of their lives p. 420. Great afflictions lay us open to great temptations p. 430. Thousand How taken in Scripture p. 151. One of a thousand what it means ib. Time is very swift p. 334. Swift as and swifter then a Post shewed in ten particulars p. 335. Tradition and immediate revelation the rule till the Word was written p. 56. Trust what it is p. 89. A two-fold effect of trust ibid. Trust of hypocrites like a Spiders web in five things p. 90 91. Truth is more ancient then errour p. 59. Truth cannot be had with ease pag. 61. Four things fit us for the search of truth ib. Truth is to be highly esteemed p. 71. We should yeeld to one another in controversies as farre as truth will let us p. 146. Truth is ever the same and we should be the same to truth p. 307. Great truths must be resolutely maintained p. 308. Type what it is properly p. 32. V Vision of God in heaven not in his Essence p. 231. We cannot see God fully on earth in his Word and works p. 228 232. That we see so little of God should humble us p. 233. Visitation of God three-fold p. 527. Untill notes a continued act p. 132. W WAshing What it imports ceremonial washings p. 365 366. Wicked men have their name from unquietnesse p. 309. They often abound with earthly things p. 324. They have a just title to the earthly things which they enjoy p. 325 326. How it is in vain for a wicked man to seek unto God and how not p. 362. 363. To be accounted wicked is a sore affliction p. 434. Wicked men in what sense they may be said to have prosperity p. 448. To be wicked or to do wickedly is inconsistent with grace p. 476. A wicked man who described in five particulars p. 476 c. All men are either godly or wicked p. 482. Wise What it is to be wise in heart p. 156. God is infinitely wise p. 157. Witnesse and party must not be the same man p 295. Woes of two sorts pag. 542. Woe is the portion of the wicked p. 543. Words It is our duty to watch over our words p. 5. It is a duty to give check to the idle or evil words of others ib. Words like a strong winde shewed in six particulars p. 8 9. God is not taken with fine words p. 259. Worldly things have no consistence They are alwaies in motion p. 336 337. They passe as if they had never been 341. Worldly estate of good men as transitory as that of evil men p 342. Works of God are to be recorded for after times p. 57. It is our duty to enquire into former times p. 58. It is but little of God that we are able to see in his works p. 228 â—32 Y YEsterday Taken three waies in Scripture p. 62. A TABLE OF THOSE SCRIPTVRES Which are occasionally cleared and briefly illustrated in the fore-going EXPOSITIONS The first number directs to the Chapter the second to the Verse the third to the Page of the Book Genesis Chap. Vers Pag. 1. 1. 199. 1. 8. 201. 1. 14. 207. 2. 2. 442. 3. 16. 277. 4. 6. 25. 4. 10. 371 6. 6. 498. 7. 23. 99. 11. 5. 15. 11. 15. 474. 18. 21. 474. 18. 25. 11. 19. 16. 126. 22. 12. 474. 25. 23. 49 289 25. 32. 524. 27. 33. 331. 28. 19. 133. 29. 31. 137. 31. 24. 194 385 31. 47. 106. 32. 9 10 11. 256 42. 11 19 31. 406 Exodus Chap. Vers Pag. 10. 28. 166. 13. 4. 73. 15. 11. 380. 20. 6. 31. 23. 1. 389. 23. 1. 125. 23. 2. 164. 33. 20. 229. 34. 7. 36â— Leviticus Chap. Vers Pag. 1. 4. 388 390 4. 15. 388 19. 15. 48 26. 44. 123. Numbers Chap. Vers Pag. 8. 10. 389. 23. 21. 135. 24. 17. 204. Deuteronomy Chap. Vers Pag. 2. 11. 401. 3. 23. 30 4. 19. 212 8. 2. 474 10. 12. 54. 11. 24. 204. 18. 9. 218. 21. 6 7. 368. 29. 26. 213. 32. 13. 204. 33. 9. 303 Joshua Chap. Vers Pag. 6. 5. 134. 7. 7 8. 240. 10. 12. 190. Judges Chap. Vers Pag. 5. 20. 217 6. 21. 150 7. 31. 134 14. 12. 140 1 Samuel Chap. Vers Pag. 1. 18. 346. 1. 19. 501 15. 29. 242 377 15. 32. 286. 17. 33. 375. 22. 18. 289. 24. 14. 26 28. 19. 63 2 Samuel Chap. Vers Pag. 5. 8. 495. 12. 12. 102. 19. 24. 217 21. 1. 437. 22. 19. 93. 1 Kings Chap. Vers Pag. 4. 32 33. 75 7. 21. 100 8. 29. 24. 2 Kings Chap. Vers Pag. 4. 29. 285 9. 26. 62 14. 9. 150 20. 9 10. 193 21. 13. 55â— 2 Chronicles Chap. Vers Pag. 30. 5. 60 Nehemiah Chap. Vers Pag. 6. 9. 126 Esther Chap. Vers Pag. 7. 8. 327 9. 29 31. 99 Job Chap. Vers Pag. 12. 12 13. 473 13. 3. 255 14. 18. 173 15. 19. 322 18. 4. â—74 19. 6. 14 20. 22. 111 21. 2. 171 23. 13. 243 26. 7. 186 26. 12. 245 30. 23. 293 33. 11. 77 33. 19. 416 33. 23. 151 34. 29. 327 37. 18. 200 201 38. 22. 202 38. 31. 217 40. 13. 327 42. 5 6. 252 Psalms Psal Vers Pag. 2. 1. 205 2. 9. 503 4. 2. 4 8. 3. 221 9. 18. 501 14. 5. 55 17. 14. 324 18. 7. 102 18. 25 26. 35 19. 1. 221 19. 4. 9 221 19. 5. 194 22. 29. 507 24. 1 2. 185 33. 6. 7 36. 6. 175 36. 9. 501 46. 2. 175 50. 16. 363 50. 18. 377 51. 4. 21 51. 9. 367 56. 5. 352 58. 8. 177 61. 7. 55 69. 6 7. 139 73. 4. 313 73. 9. 9 73. 15. 33 â—â—â— â—â—â— 187 76. 6. 195 77. 9. 501 77. 9. 78 81. 12. 129 82. 5. 329 89. 15. 134 89. 25. 389 90. 6. 151 90. 11. 403 91. 13. 203 94. 9. 487 95. 10. 88 100. 3. 444 102 27. 225 103 14. 505 104. 32. 174 105. 15. 195 106. 23. 137 108. 1. 57 108. 9. 203 110. 7. 545 119. 116. 139 119. 121. 12 121. 5. 529 130. 3. 539 139. 14 15. 443 143. 2. 154 144. 5. 172 148. 8. 192 Proverbs Chap. Vers Pag. 1. 22. 4 1. 32. 26 7. 27. 210 8. 27. 202 18. 23. 30 19. 11. 226 24. 4. 21â— 23. â— 28. 234 27. 19. 250 28. 14. 161 29. 15. â—23 31. 8. 225 Ecclesiastes Chap. Vers Pag. 1. 16. 13 2. 18. 117 5. 2 259 6. 10. 379 7. 13. 14 8. 4. 241 8. 11. 163 9. 2. 482 10. 7. 328 12. 1. 78 Canticless Chap. Vers Pag. 1. 6. 458 2. 4. 274 5. 10. 151 5. 12. 367 Isaiah Chap. Vers Pag. 1. 18. 255 367 3. 1. 93 3. 9. 138 347 6. 5. 230. 252 8. 9. 167 10. 26. 312 11. 4. 7 11. 3. 425 14. 23. 91 19. 25. 444 24. 20. 187 25. 4. 278 26. 19. 507 27. 8. 556 27. 11. 446 27. 4. 167 28. 15. 312 28. 7. 110 28. 21 560 30. 7. 246 30. 13. 314 32. 17. 46 32. 2. 454 33. 14. 91 38. 10 12. 414 38. 3. 265 40. 31. 340 40. 4. 173 40. 28. 158 41. 15. 172 42. 25. 179 43. 26. 258 43. 13. 194 44. 20. 390 44. 24 25. 218 45. 11. 240 446 47. 3. 556 49. 15 16. 80 81 49. 23. 246 51. 9. 41 245 53. 8. 55 53. 9 12. 359 55. 6 7 8. 378 57. 17. 77 57. 20. 206 57. 1â—â— 404 58. 3. 82 154 59. 6. 97 62. 6. 501 64. 1. 174 64. 6 7. 25 350 484 65. 24. 39 66. 5. 124 66. 12. 557 Jeremiah Chap. Vers Pag. 2. 22. 370 2. 29. 154 2. 31. 80 2. 32. 79 2. 34. 467 7. 1 2. 97 7. 4 9. 363 8. 6. 406 8. 14. 239 10. 24. 403 11. 13. 141 12. 1. 153 15. 2. 26 15. 1. 238 18. 4. 503 22. 24. 17 23. 10. 4â—6 23. 14. 126 27. 6. 323 30. 14. â—79 31. 35. 216 31. 28. 36 50. 20. 467 50. 7. 45 â—â—â— â—â— â—â—â— Lamentations Chap. Vers Pag. 3. 36. 18 3. 59. 14 3. 37. 195 4. 6. 313. Ezekiel Chap. Vers Pag. 3. 8 9. 160 6. 9. 88 16. 49. 126 18. 25. 154 20. 47. 311 21. 3. 310 32. 7. 191 36. 31. 413 Daniel Chap. Vers Pag. 2. 35. 112. 4. 35. 239 7. 9. 460 8. 5. 109 341 9. 14. 37â— Hosea Chap. Vers Pag. 2. 2. 154 2. 21 22. 217 4. 14. â—6