is applyed to the preaching of the Gospel to the scattering of the Word in at the eares and into the hearts of men Luke 8. 5. A sower went out to sow Thirdly sowing is applyed unto the buriall of the dead 1 Cor. 15. 42. that which is sowne in weaknesse the bodies of men are as seed in the earth they shall spring up againe Fourthly sowing is applyed to repenting teares they that sow Psal 126. 5. in teares that is they that goe on repenting and mourning shall reape in joy they shall have sheaves of comfort And fifthly it is applyed generally unto any action good or bad Gal. 6. 8. He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reape corruption and he that soweth to the spirit c. Sowing as ploughing is used in regard of doing good and evill sow to your selves in righteousnesse saith the Prophet and here on the other side They that plough iniquity and sow wickednesse Here is the progresse of sinne sinne goeth on gradually there is not onely a ploughing but a sowing sinne is the seed and there is a seminall vertue in every sin it will spring up againe and bring forth an hundred fold more in misery to the whole man flesh and spirit then ever it gave in delights unto the flesh The word which we translate wickednesse signifies wearinesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seminant dolo res Vulg. labour perversenesse because wicked persons weary and toile themselves in serving and satisfying their lusts Numb 23. 21. I have seen no perversenesse in Israel God did not finde them laboriously and industriously wicked at that time To do wickedly is a wearisome imployment a hard labour The vulgar Latine renders it by sorrow and sow sorrowes Reape the same The Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 37. telleth us That the Husbandman soweth not the same body that shall be how then is it said they sow wickednesse and reape the same when they come to the harvest what shall they have The same saith Eliphaz It is true A man that soweth doth not reape the same individually or numerically that is the very same particular seed but he reaps the same specifically the same in kinde that 's the meaning here their crop or harvest shall be like their seed time Gal. 6. 7 Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reape the same in kinde not the same in number Prov. 22. 8. He that soweth iniquity shall reape vanity It is not the sinne it selfe which is reaped but the fruit the product of that sinne that they shall reape the punishment of sin is the fruit of sin and it is called the same Punishment is a visible sinne Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee this is thy wickednesse Jer. 4. 18. The bitter things procured by wickednesse are called wickednesse As the sweet fruits of our good workes are called our works Rev. 14. 14. Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their workes follow them their workes follow them how Not their workes in kinde the very same individuall workes which they have done here follow them not for they are transient acts and have no subsistency but the fruits of those workes and the blessings which lie in the promise for such as doe those workes these fruits these blessings follow them the blessings annexed to faith obedience and holinesse these follow them So now when it is said of a wicked man what he ploweth and soweth he reapeth the same it is to be understood of the same thing in the issue and consequents of it those curses those treasures that harvest of wrath which lie in the threatnings against him these are rained downe upon him and are made the portion of his cup. Againe the same that is the same in degree if he have sowne much he shall reape much if he have sowne but little he shall reape but little he shall have his due proportion The justice of God doth neither commute nor compound penalties with wicked men as it will not wrong or overcharge so neither will it favour or spare them in their sinnes God spared not his Sonne when he was in the place of sinners Rom. 8. 32. much lesse will he spare any sinner who is not in his Sonne So much for the opening of these words We shall now observe some things from them Even as I have seen they that plough iniquity Hence we learne first That to be a wicked man is no easie taske he must goe to plough for it It is plowing and you know plowing is laborious Beliâ—l de luci potest à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q. e Non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q. e. lugam ut significatur impatienâ—ia Jugâ— Hieâ—on yea it is hard labour Wicked men in Scripture are called Sonnes of Belial that is such as will not endure the yoke they will not endure Gods yoke or the yoke of Christ though it be an easie yoke but they are content slavishly to yeeld their otherwise proud and delicate necks to Satans yoke to tugge and sweat at his plough all their dayes There is a promise in the Prophet of a time when Swords shall be turned into plough-shares and speares into pruning-hooks that is men shall leave fighting and goe to working they shall have peace and it is but too too discernable that many would break their swords into these mysticall plough-shares and their spears into sinning-hooks they would have peace why that they might leave fighting and goe to sinning that they might worke wickednesse more quietly and keep close to their trade the plowing of iniquity without disturbance Secondly observe That there is an art in wickednesse it is Plowing or as the word imports an artificiall working Some are curious and exact in shaping polishing and setting off their sin so the Holy Ghost intimates Rev. 21. 27. Whosoever worketh abomination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and maketh a lye there is but one Verbe in the Greek and so we may reade it fully enough in our language Whosoever worketh abomination and a lye to worke an abomination or a lye is more then to doe an abomination or tell a lye As when we say such a man is a Clockmaker it notes art as well as action So to say such a man is an Abomination-worker or a Lye-maker notes him not only industrious but crafty or as the Prophet speaks wise to doe evill Thirdly note from these metaphors of plowing and sowing That wicked men expect benefit in wayes of sinne and look to be gainers by being evill doers They make iniquity their plough and a mans plough is so much his profit that it is growne into a Proverbe to call that whatsoever it is by which a man makes his living or his profit His plough And when we say there are many candles burning and never a plough going It is to tax unthriftinesse or carelesse spending without honest care of getting Every man tils
esse verbum alicut nihil aliud significat quam factam esse revelationem in aâ—iquo Deum cognitione futurorum instar luminiâ— mentem illustrasse Cyril in 1 cap. Hos v 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brought unto me but it is usuall both in Hebrew and Greek to call A thing A word Luk. 2. 15. The Shepherds said Let us goe to Bethlem to see this thing the Greek is to see this word which is done Though here it is proper enough to say A word was brought unto me Now a thing or a word was brought unto me it was brought unto me secretly The language of the Prophets was The word of the Lord came unto me There are two words in our translation secretly brought but the Hebrew is one and that word signifies to steale or to do a thing by stealth so it may be translated A thing was brought unto me by stealth or was stole into me M Broughton near this A speech came by stealth upon me we translate fully to the sense A thing was secretly brought to me as if it were whispered into the eare and sent in closely to the spirit And it is thus expressed by way of opposition to another way in which God reveales his minde unto his people He sometimes comes openly and speaks aloud that all may take notice or because all ought Isa 58. 1. Cry aloud lift up thy voice like a Trumpet Things are brought openly to the people secretly to the Prophets what the Lord speaks in the eare or to the heart of a Prophet that he by the Prophet speaks on the house top to all his people A thing was secretly brought or a thing was whispered unto Eliphaz But he speaks it aloud to Job This word or this thing is said to be stolne into him or to be brought unto him by stealth for three reasons which I shall but name and proceed First a thing done by stealth is done suddenly The Thiefe hastens to doe mischiefe he makes no delayes Then secondly a thing done by stealth is done secretly a Thiefe comes closely in the dark stealth is committed with greatest privacy and to say a thing is brought by stealth is as much as to say it is brought privately Thirdly a thing done by stealth is done unexpectedly A man seldome looks for the Thiefe he is upon him in the way upon him in his house before he is aware A Thiefe is usually as unexpected as he is aâ— unwelcome guest So this word came or was brought in by stealth because it came suddely it came silently and it came unexpectedly to Eliphaz And in these three respects Christ himselfe is said to come as a Thiefe Behold I come as a thiefe in Rev. 16. 15. the night As the word of Christ comes to many of his people now so the person of Christ will come at the last unto all He will come by stealth or as a thiefe suddenly secretly unexpectedly when the world shall little dreame of him and his Church scarce be awake for him Note from this first That divine truths are infused into us not borne in us or borne with us every thing which is of Heaven commeth unto us from Heaven it is either stolne in secretly or thundred in loudly sometimes the Prophets and Ministers of Christ speaking aloud carry truth into the soule sometimes God whispers it into the soule one way or other truth must be brought in for it growes not in us our hearts by nature are not onely like white paper having no inscription not a letter of Gods will written in them but they are like paper blotted or blurred written all over with the corrupt principles and positions of our own wils God by his Spirit first crosses or wipes out those and then writes down his own golden rules of holy truth and heavenly wisdome This he doth first in conversion from sinne to grace and holinesse and afterward in all the increases of grace and growths of holinesse There is not a syllable of the law of God in any mans heart till the finger of God writes it there I will put my law in their minde and write it in their hearts which is an allusion unto the two Tables of the Law They were first written by the finger of God and then put into the Ark So God first writes the Law in our hearts and then puts it into our mindes he layes it up in the Ark of our understanding and memory Secondly observe That God steales truths into the hearts of his people unawares As they often expect and wait long for knowledge so they sometimes know before they expect A truth either in whole or part in the matter or clearer light of it comes like a Thief into the heart suddenly secretly unlooked for in which case it is ever true that truth unexpected is doubly welcom'd The way of the Spirit of God is alwayes undiscernable to flesh and blood The soule receives a thing and the man knowes not how he can scarce possibly not at all tell where by whom or which way it came to him it was brought secretly brought and with a most blessed gracious slight of hand conveyed into his heart Yet sometime truth enters in State may be said to make its passage visibly into the heart of a man The word comes not as a company of Thieves but as a band of Souldiers with weapons drawn and terrible shouts tearing open the soule and breaking open the iron gate of the heart lock'd and barr'd with unbeliefe to secure that cursed crue of lusts garrison'd within it The weapons of our warfare saith the Apostle are mighty through God 2 Cor. 10. 4. The word is mighty wonderfull in strength it comes upon the soule as an armed man to spoyle it of all sinfull treasures yea of the very life of sinne Sometimes the Lord proclaimes warre as by a Herald of Armes against a man and openly prepares for his siege and battery He surprises another and steals him into a happy captivity to himselfe A thing was secretly brought unto me and mine eare received a little thereof Mine eare caught somewhat of it so Mr. Broughton The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paâ—â—câ—la pars medicum signifies a part or a portion Mine eare received a little yet we are not to understand this as if Eliphaz had taken in onely some fragments or imperfect notes of what God delivered or had heard to halves For doubtlesse Eliphaz received all that was brought he turned nothing back he said not a little is enough I need not the rest that he received but a little was not from neglect of the rest but from inability to receive more or to receive it more perfectly And though he had not all of every part yet he had a part of all it was not a little of this and none of that little respects somewhat of every truth not some one truth He received though not all yet a perfect modell of all
help in me is wisdome driven quite from me Though I have no strength and so no help in my self wisdom is not therefore driven quite from me As if he had said will you conclude that I am a wicked man an hypocrite and a fool because I am not able to help and deliver my self out of these troubles Fifthly consider the words as we translate them with which most of the Rabbins and Jewish writers concur only they usually expresse the text affirmatively we interrogatively yet both equivalent and meet in the same meaning Our Question Is not my help in me is to be resolved into this affirmation my help is in me and the latter branch Is wisdome departed from me into this negation wisdome is not departed from me my help is in me and my An non auxilium meum in me quo me tueri possum ac defendere innuit innocentiam suam ac vitae integritatem qua nunquam destitutus fuit aut rectam ratienem sapientiam quam postea Tusiah Appellat Drus. An judicio ratione destituor ut dignoscere nequeam recta ab insulsis qualia sunt verba vestra non sum mentis inops wisdome is not departed from me Jobs sence may be taken thus Have I not that in me which is and will be a help unto me notwithstanding all the objections and assaults which you make against me Have not I that in me which may furnish me with wisdome to answer all the exceptions which you have taken at my complaints Master Broughtons translation favours this sence very much have not I my defence and is judgement driven away from me Though I thus complain and desire death yea renew my desire Have not I my defence have I nothing to say why I made that request have I no argument to help my selfe and bear up my spirit under the weight of these calamities Is wisdome quite departed from me Doe you take me for a man deserted of God deserted of his spirit and deserted of my own wisdom and understanding too because I am deserted of the world and destitute of outward comforts And so the help which Job knew he had in store was the Innoceney and integrity of his heart Is not my help in me I have no help no strength no comfort in my flesh what is my flesh my flesh is not of brasse but have I no help in me neither my outward man is destroyed my house of clay is almost battered down tottering failing it is but have I nothing within to help at a dead lift have I no grace no hope no testimony of a good conscience no witness in my self Doe you think me clean disâ—obed and stript and emptied of all wisdome and comfort Hath the Devil think you robbed me of my grace have the Sabeans plundered and spoiled me of my understanding Is not my help within me notwithstanding all the troubles that are upon me Thus the interpretation is fair and clear that when all his outward comforts were gone when the strength of his flesh could hold no longer yet then he had help within him his spirit could bear though his flesh could not Grace can hold out beyond nature and when bodily strength can do no more wisdom comes in with her Auxiliaries Is not my help in me and is wisdome departed from me The word wisdome in the Hebrew is of various significations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat â—egem sapientiam subsistentiam Et lex â—epulsa est á me Pagn Nâ—nquid officium impulsum fuit à me Vatab. Num subsistentia impulsa est a me Regia Quid facult as subsistendi me destituit Tygyr as was touched Chap. 5. 12. Here one renders it The law is not departed from me As if his meaning were I never forsooke the law of God Another thus Was my duty driven from me As if his meaning were I ever kept close to the rule of my place and calling A third Is my subsistence driven from me So a fourth Is my ability of subsisting gone from me As if he had said cannot I live because I have not the world to live upon To which sence those words of Christ are appliable Luke 12. 15. The life of man consists not in the aboundance of the things which he possesseth All which interpretations meet to make up a compleat Apology of Jobs piety constancy patience and flourishing resolutions in his dying withering condition The Sabeans drove away his cattel but they could not drive away his understanding They offered violence to his substance but his reason and his graces were untoucht Hence observe first That when all outward helps depart from a godly man he hath somewhat abiding in him to help and stay up his heart As when the outward glory and strength of the Church is utterly decayed Yet the Prophet tells us Isa 6. 13. in it shall be a Tenth as a Teyle tree and as an Oake whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves so the Holy seed shall be the strength thereof Thus also when the outward glory and strength of any true member of the Church is utterly decayed even then he shall be as an Oak his substance shall be in him the seed of Holinesse shall be his substance Is not my helpe in me I know my estate is gone my beauty is gone my strength is gone the strength I mean of my flesh yet I have invisible supports somewhat unseen to trust unto It is the comfort of beleevers that they have an estate riches and possessions lying as far beyond the reach of mens power as their eye and as far beyond the reach of Satans malice as either When they feel nothing but pain in the flesh when nothing but weakness inhabits the house of clay the outward man then the inward man is renewed with sweet refreshings and strong consolations day by day The spirit of a man of a godly man will bear his infirmities when his body cannot The strength of nature is not as the strength of stones nor is the flesh of brass but the strength of grace is stronger then the strength of stones and the spirit is more dureable then brasse Grace wears not out by using nor doth it spend by employing Afflictions are but the higher services and employments of grace A stock of grace is an inexhaustible treasure and a good heart assures us better then the barrs of a Castle Faith and a good conscience are under Christ our best helpes in trouble they are friends that will never forsake us They are to us as their Authour who hath promised that he will not Grace is our participation with the Divine Nature and grace participates with the divine nature in this it is an unchangeable good an everlasting comfort And yet we must take this warily grace and holiness faith and a good conscience are not to be trusted upon no more then riches or any outward meanes We may make an Idol of our faith
not question me upon the least infirmity From the former proverbial exposition Observe first Afflictions are continued upon some without any intermission Iob had not so much whole skin as one might set a pin on nor so much whole time as a man might spit in Every hour brought a wound with it and the renewing of every moment renewed his affliction Observe secondly A short refreshing may be a great mercy Dives in hell desires not a large draught but a drop of water which alas could not have eased him so long as a man is swallowing down his spittle The eternity of pain in hell shall not find so much abatement as that either in time or in degree Every affliction in this life by how much it is with less intermission by so much the more like it is to hell and every comfort by how much the more it is unbroken and without stops by so much it is the more like to Heaven Consider then your mercies who have un-interrupted mercies dayes and years of ease and not pained so long as a man is swallowing down his spittle your mercies are like the glory and the joy of Heaven From the latter proverbial exposition Note That God observes the least the most secret motions of man He tels our steps our wandrings and those not onely corporal but moral and spiritual He knows how many steps our hearts fetch every day and how far they travel Thou hast searched and known me saith David Psal 139. 1 2. and this search is not made in the out-rooms onely but in the inner parlour and closest closets Thou understandest my thoughts and those not onely present or produced but to come and unborn thou knowest them a far off What can scape that eye which a thought cannot And he that sees man swallowing down his spittle how shall not he both hear and see him coffing up and spitting out the rottenness and corruption the filth and flegm of his sinful heart JOB Chap. 7. Vers 20 21. I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men why hast thou set me as a mark against thee so that I am a burden to my self And why doest thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquity for now shall I sleep in the dust and thou shalt seek me in the morning but I shall not be JOB having in the former part of this Chapter contested with his friends and expostulated the matter with God now turns himself into another posture even to humble his soul and make confession of his sin He had justified himself against the accusations of men but now he accuses and judges himself in the presence of his God He will a while forget his sorrows and bethink himself of his sins I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men The words may be taken two waies 1. As a confession or a prayer 2. As a confession or a grant I shall first open them under the notion of a repenting prayer and confession of sin I have sinned As if he had said Lord if thou holdest me thus long upon the rack of this affliction to gain a confession of me to make me confess here I am ready to do it I do it I have sinned The word signifies to miss the mark we aim at or the way wherein we would walk And so it is put strictly for sins of infirmity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat errare aberrare declinare deflectere a via vel scope when the purpose of a mans heart is like the Archers when he draws his bow to hit the white or like the honest travellers in his journey to keep the right way and yet he miscarries and is drawn aside I have sinned But is this a sufficient confession What! to say only in general I have sinned Did not hard-hearted Pharaoh Ezod 9. 25 False-hearted Saul 1 Sam 15. 24. and Traitor-Judas Matth. 27. 4. make as good a confession as this Every one of these said I have sinned and what doth Job say more It is surely no great cost nor pain to sinful nature to bring up such a confession as this I answer First a general confession may be a sound confession It is one thing not to express particular sins with the circumstances of those sins and another thing purposely to conceale them I grant implicit confession may be as dangerous as implicit faith And to digg in the earth and hide our sins in the Napkin of our excuses is worse than to hide our Talents in the Napkin of our idleness And as it is most dangerous knowingly to conceale sin from God so it is very dangerous to do it through ignorance or inadvertency Some confess sin in general termes only because they know not what their sins are or have quite forgot them As Nebuchadnezzar called the Astrologers and Sorcerers and Chaldeans and told them he had dreamed a dreame but he could not tell what it was For the thing was gone from him Dan. 2. 5. Some such there are who can or will only say They have sinned they have sinned but what they cannot tell or they doe not remember Those things are gone from them That which is written of the learned Bellarmine a great Cardinal and a Champion for Auricular particular Confession of sinne to man seemes very strange That when he lay upon his death-bed and the Priest after the Popish manner came to absolve him he had nothing to confess at last he thought of some sleight extravagancies of his youth which was all he had to say of his owne miscarriages We see a man may de a Schollar in all the knowledg of the world of nature and of Scripture and yet not know his own heart nor be studied or read in himself He that is so in a spiritual notion can never want particular matter in his most innocent daies to confesse before the Lord and to shame himselfe for What though he hath escaped the pollutions of the world and is cleansed from the filthiness of the flesh yet he knowes that still in his flesh there dwels no good thing and that in his spirit there are at least touches of many spiritual filthinesses as pride unbelief c. besides his great deficiencies in every duty and in his love to Jesus Christ which is the ground of all So then in any of these sences to confesse sin only in general is a sinful confession And yet Job made a holy confession here and so did the Publican Luk. 18. when he smote his breast and said onely thus God be merciful to me a sinner For secondly though to speak a general confession be an easie matter and every mans work yet to make a general confession is a hard matter a work beyond man As no man in a spiritual sence can say Iesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12. 3. so no man can say in a Holy manner I have sinned but by
that plow iniquity and sow wickednesse reape the same which he applies parsonally to Job Chap. 22. v. 5 6. Is not thy wickednesse great and thine iniquities infinite Thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought and and stripped the naked of their cloathing c. The whole scope of his speech bends the same way and is as if he had said to Job Though thy carriage hath been so plausible among us that we are not able to accuse thee of sin yet these judgements accuse thee and are sufficient witnesses against thee These cry out with a loud voyce that thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought c. Though we have not seen thee act these sins yet in these effects we see thou hast acted them The snares which are round about thee tell us thou hast laid snares for others he that runs may read how terrible how troublesome thou hast been to the poore in the terrours which have seaz'd thy spirit and in the troubles which have spoyl'd thee of thy riches Bildad the Shuite speaks second His opinion is not so rigid as that of Eliphaz He grants that afflictions may fall upon a righteous person yet so that if God send not deliverance speedily if he restore him not quickly to his former estate and honour then upon the second ground of the fourth princple such a man may be censured cast and condemned as unrighteous That such was Bildads judgement in this case is cleare Chap. 8. 5 6. If thou wert pure and upright surely now he would awake for thee and make the habitation of thy righteousnesse prosperous Though thy beginning was small yet thy latter end shall greatly increase And vers 20 21. Behold God will not cast away a perfect man c. till he fill thy mouth with laughing and thy lips with rejoycing As if he had said I connot assent to my brother Eliphaz affirming That every man afflicted is afflicted for his wickednesse I for my part believe and am perswaded that a godly man may be afflicted for the tryall exercise of his graces c. but then I am assured that God never lets him lie in his afflictions for as soon as he cries and cals the Lord awakes presently makes his habitation prosperous again and increases him more then ever I grant the Lord may cast down a perfect man but he will not in this life cast him away no he will speedily fill his mouth with laughing and his lips with rejoycing Zophar the third Opponent differs from the two former in this great controversie affirming That the reason of all those afflictions which presse the children of men is to be resolved into the absolute will and pleasure of God that we are not further to enquire about his wisdome justice or mercy in dispencing them his counsels being unsearchable and his wayes past finding out Thus he delivers his mind Ch. 11. 7 8. Canst thou by searching find out God Canst thou by searching find him out to perfection It is as high as heaven what canst thou do Deeper then hell what canst thou know vers 12. Vaine man would be wise though man be borne like a wild Asses colt In the rest of his speech he comes nearest the opinion of Bildad vers 14 15 16. and gives out â—s hard thoughts of Job as either of his brethren numbring him among the wicked assigning him the reward of an hypocrite Chap. 10. 29. This is the portion of a wicked man from God and the heritage appointed unto him by God These I conceive are the Characteristicall opinions of Jobs three friends about his case All consistent with those four principles which they hold in common all equally closing in the censure and condemnation of Job though in some things dissenting and falling off from one another But what thinks Job or how doth he acquit or extricate himself from these difficulties very well His sentence is plainly this That The providence of God dispences outward prosperity and affliction so indifferently to good and bad to the righteous the wicked that no unerring judgement can possibly be made up of any mans spirituall estate by the face upon the view of his temporall He declares this as his opinion in cleare resolute and Categoricall termes Ch. 9. v. 22 23. This is one thing therefore I said it He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked if the scourge slay suddenly he will laugh at the triall of the innocent Which opinion hath no quarrell at all with any of those three principles held by Job joyntly and in consort with his three friends but only with their fourth which he throughout refutes as heterodox unsound in it self as uncomfortable to the Spirits and inconsistent with experiences of the Saints In the Strong hold and Fort-royal of this holy truth Job secures himself against all the assaults and scatters all the Objections of his Opponents resolving to maintain it to the very death he will lay his bones by this position say his unkind friends what they can against him let the most wise God doe what he pleases with him That he was a sinner he readily grants that he was an hypocrite he flatly denies That the Lord was righteous in all his dealings with him he readily grants That himself was righteous because the Lord had dealt so with him he statly denies How perfect soever he was he confesses that he needed the free-grace and mercies of the Lord to justifie him but withall asserts that he was perfect enough to justifie himselfe against all the challenges of man In these acknowledgements of his sinfullnesse and denials of insincerity In these humblings of himself before God and acquittings of himself before men in these implorings of mercy from the Lord and complainings of the unkindnesse of his brethren the strength of Jobs answer consists and the specialties of it may be summ'd up 'T is true that through the extremity of his pain the anguish of his spirit and the provocation of his friends some unwary speeches slipt from him For which Elihu reproved him gravely and sharply of which himselfe repented sorrowfully and heartily all which the most gracious God passed by and pardon'd freely not imputing sin unto him Thus Christian reader I have endeavoured as heretofore of the whole Book so now to give a brief account concerning the Argumentative part of it And to represent how far in this great Controversie the Answerer and his Objectors agree in judgement and where they part If this discovery administer any help as a Threed to lead your meditations through the many secret turnings and intricacies of this dispute the labor in drawing it out is abundantly satisfied And if any further light subservient to this end shall be given in from the Father of lights that also in it's season may be held forth and set upon a Candle-stick What is now received together with the textuall Expositions upon this first Undertaking between
this truth Heare it and know thou it for thy good So much concerning the Division or Parts of this first Speech or dispute made by Eliphaz in answer to the former complaint powred out by Job against the day of his birth and the night of his conception in the third Chapter The six Verses lately read containe as I said before the first Argument we have the Preface in the second Verse and the Argument it selfe in the four following The point which Eliphaz desires to prove and clear is this that Job was guiltie of hypocrisie of close hypocrisie at the least if not of grosse hypocrisie The Medium or reason by which he would prove it is the unsuitablenesse of his present practise to his former Doctrine His actions under sufferings contradict what himselfe had taught other sufferers And this speaks him guilty The Argument may be thus formed That mans religion is but vaine and his profession hypocriticall who having comforted others in and taught them patience under affliction is himselfe being afflicted comfortlesse and impatient But Job thus it is with thee thou hast been a man very forward to comfort others and teach them patience yet now thou art comfortlesse and impatient Therefore thy religion is vaine and thy profession is hypocriticall Is not this thy feare Here is a goodly religion indeed a proper peece of profession and such is thine this is all thou art able to make out Thus you have the Logicall strength or the Argument contained in the words We shall now examine them in the Grammaticall sense of every part as they lye here in order And first for the Preface If we assay to commune with thee wilt thou be grieved but who can withhold himselfe from speaking The words import as if Eliphaz had said thus unto Job we thy friends have all this while stood silent we have given thee full liberty and scope to speak out all that was in thine heart let it not grieve thee if we now take liberty to speak our selves and indeed a necessity lies upon us to speak Two things Eliphaz puts into this Preface whereby he labours to prepare the minde of Job readily to hear and receive what he had to say unto him First he tels him that he speaks out of good will and as a friend to him If we assay to commune with thee wilt thou be grieved Pray doe not take it ill we meane you no harme we would but give you faithfull counsell we speak from our hearts not from our spleen we speak from love to thee let it not be thy griefe Secondly he shewes that he was necessitated to speak as love provokes so necessity constrains who can withhold himselfe from speaking either of these considerations is enough to unlock both eare and heart to take in wholesome counsell What eare what heart will not the golden key of love or the iron key of necessity open to instruction when a friend speaks and he speaks as bound when kindnesse and dutie mix in conference how powerfull If we assay or try The word signifies properly to tempt either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tentavâ—t in bonum vel in malum periculum fecit expertus est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A lyâ—um quasi Graculum vel loquutoâ—ium dictum quod Deus inde responsa daret for good or evill and because in temptation an assay or experiment is made of a man how bad or how good he is Therefore the word is applyed to any assaying or experimenting of things or persons This very word is winning and gaining upon Job We will but try a little if we can doe thee any good or bring lenitives to thy sorrowes we will not be burthensome or tedious we will but assay to commune with thee The word notes serious speaking The place where God communed with his people in giving answers from Heaven is express'd by this word 1 Kings 6. 19. The Oracle he prepared in the house within c. or the communing-place where God spake Wilt thou be grieved The word signifies to be extreamly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fessus corpore vel animo insanivit furiit wearled even unto rage or fainting Here Elipphaz seemes to hint at Jobs former distemper'd speeches If we speak wilt thou promise us not to fall into such a fit of passion as even now thou wast in And yet whatsoever comes of it or howsoever thou takest it I must discharge my duty and my conscience therefore he addes who can withhold himselfe from speaking That is no man can withhold himselfe from speaking in such a case as this to heare thee speak thus would even make a dumb man speak Christ saith in the Gospel If these should hold their peace the stones would cry there is such a sense in these words if we thy friends should hold our peace when thou speakest thus the very stones would cry out against thee for speaking and against us for holding our peace The Hebrew word translated withhold signifies to shut up a thing so as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clausit coâ—â—cuit 1 Kings 8 35. that it cannot come out It is applyed to the locking up of the Clouds that they raine not to the holding in of fire that it cannot break forth Jer 20. 9. where the Prophet very elegantly fits it to the restraining of speech which is the very point in hand His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones I was weary with forbearing So it implyes that the friends of Job had as it were a fire in their bosomes which they could no longer restraine they were as Clouds full of water full of deaw and raine they were not able to suspend themselves from dissolving and showring upon Job both reproofe and counsell advises and exhortations We may observe from this Preamble That it is wisdome to sweeten reproofe with friendly insinuations Reproofe is a bitter Pill it is a wholesome yet a bitter Pill and there is need to wrap it up in Gold and Sugar that pleasing both eye and palat it may be taken downe the better It is the Apostles counsell to his Galatians Gal. 6. 1. Brethren if a man be overtaken with a fault yee that are spirituall restore such an one in the spirit of meeknesse The word restore is an allusion to the Art of Chirurgerie in setting a bone out of joynt soft words and a soft hand fit the Patients minde to endure that painfull operation By fals into sinne the soule breaks or disjoynts a bone he that will set such a minde must handle it gently We may observe the holy skill of some of the Saints in prayer preparing God for receiving of Petitions by prefaces and humble insinuations as it were getting within him Thus did Abraham Gen. 18. when he prayed for Sodome Let not my Lord be angry if I who am but dust and ashes speake unto thee There is such a spirituall art in winding a reproofe into
catechized or instructed servants The word signifies to train in the Principles of Religion as well as in the postures of war being the same used in the Book of Proverbs for teaching a childe the first elements of holy knowledge And that place of Genesis may very well comprehend both Fourthly observe That charity especially spirituall charity is very liberall and open-hearted Job instructed not onely his owne but he instructed others he instructed many he did not confine his doctrine and his advice to his own walls but the sound thereof went wheresoever he went he instructed many And if Job who had no special no direct calling to it were a teacher of many what shall we think of those whose calling and businesse it is to teach and yet teach not any at all their trade their profession is to teach yet they are so far from teaching many that they teach none and which is worse they hinder teaching they stop the mouth of the teacher and if they can the eare of the learner they take away the key of knowledge They neither open the doore themselves nor suffer those that would This is the very spirit of wickedness And blessed be God whose mighty power hath so graciously cast out and dispossest so many places of the Kingdome of these wicked spirits Further taking those other parts of his instruction as they respect persons afflicted who are here described by weak hands and feeble knees ready to fall unable to stand Observe first That sore afflictions doe exceedingly indispose for duty Sore afflictions make weak hands and feeble knees the weake hand and the feeble knee are as I said before emblems of one unfit for any businesse unfit to work unfit to walk when the hand is weak and the knee is feeble what is a man fit for Great sufferings unfit us for action Hence it is that the Lord moderates the afflictions of his people sweetens the bitternesse and takes off the oppressing weight of them God promiseth to come Isa 57. 16. with reviving and that he will not contend for ever with his people Why A principle Reason is Lest their spirits should fail before me and the soules which I have made Lest the spirits should faile that is lest they should faile in their duties the spirit cannot faile in the essence of it the spirit is of an eternall constitution but it faileth in the duty often And if afflictions lie too hard and too long upon a people their spirits fail their faith fails their courage failes their labours cannot be laborious to carry on and carry out their work Therefore when Job saw any under afflictions he endeavour'd to put courage into their hearts and so strength into their hands Secondly In the generall we may note further That the words of the wise have a mighty power strength and prevalence in them You see how efficatious the words of Job were Jobs instructions were strengthuings thou hast strengthned the weak hands and feeble knees his words were as stays to hold them up that were ready to fall Eliphaz doth not only say thou didst instruct many in instructing thou didst intend it was thy design and aime to strengthen the weak hands but he speaks of what Job had effected wrought thy words put sinews into the hands and knees of men that were weak and ready to fall thy words were as props to hold and bear up the spirits of those that were sinking Words wisely dispensed and followed with the blessing of God what can they not doe God doth the greatest things in the World by a word speaking as at the first he made the world it selfe by a word speaking so he hath done the greatest things and wrought the greatest changes in the World by a word speaking When a word goes forth cloathed with the authority and power of God it works wonders How hath it raised up sinking spirits how hath it made the fearfull undaunted and the weak-hearted couragious God by his word in the mouth of a weak man overthrows the strong holds of sinne and by a word brings every thought of man into subjection to Jesus 2 Cor. 10. 4. 5 Christ By a word he stops the mouth of blasphemy and evill speaking by a word speaking he makes a man deny himselfe by a word he opens the eyes of the blinde and makes the lame to run and leap like a Hart in the way of holinesse And I could wish that the word which I now speak might through the blessing of God have such an effect upon your spirits O that it might strengthen all weak hands and feeble knees O that it might uphold all who are ready to fall we are cast upon knee-feebling hand-weakning yea heart-weakning times the sight of those things which our eyes do see and the hearing of those things which our ears do heare cause many to fear and the spirits of some to fall Now a word invested with commission from God to go and comfort will master all our sorrowes and dispell all these fears If the Lord breathe upon a word that word will breathe lively activity into a very carkasse Look to those many and gracious promises made to those that mourne and comfort will flow in Promises are the treasures of comfort promises hold the Churches stock they are the patrimony of beleivers it is their priviledge and their honour to be called heirs of the promise While Heb. 6. 17. Christ and the Promise lives how can Faith dye or languish eying a promise So much of the first branch of the minor Proposition in the third and fourth Verses The second branch lies in the fifth Verse Now it is come upon thee and thou faintest it toucheth thee and thou art troubled Thou hast instructed many thou hast strengthned the weak hands c. but now it is come upon thee c. That is trouble and affliction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lassus fuit corpore vel animo prae lassitudine nescivit quid ageret are come upon thee And thou faintest The word signifies an extraordinary fainting when a man is so wearied and spent that he knowes not what he doth when his reason seemes tired as much as his strength So that the words Now it is come upon thee thou faintest may import thus much thou art in such a case that thou seemest to be besides thy selfe thou knowest not what thou doest thou speakest thou knowest not what The word is translated in the first Verse by grieved in other Scriptures by mad and furious Prov 26. 18. As a mad-man who casteth fire-brands c. And whereas we say Gen. 47. 13. the land of Egypt fainted by reason of the famine many render it the land of Egypt was inraged or mad because of In sanivit terra Egypti nan propter famem nimiam insanit homo Furebat terra i. e. tumultuabantur anno quinto famis mentem illâ—s adimente sane Jun. in loc the famine want of bread
turnes to want of reason famine distracts The Egyptians were so extreamly pinched with hunger that it did even take away their wits from them and scarcity of food for their bodies made a dearth in their understandings So there is this force in the word Thou who hast given such wise and grave instruction unto others from those higher principles of grace now it is come upon thee thou art even as a mad man as a man distracted not able to act by the common principles of reason It toucheth thee It is the same word which we opened before the Devill desired that he might but touch Job now his friend telleth him he is touched And thou art troubled That word also hath a great emphasis in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it It signifies a vehement amazed trouble as in that place 1 Sam. 28. 21. where when the woman the Witch of Endor had raised up Samuel in appearance as Saul desired the Text saith that when all was ended she came unto Saul and she saw he was sore troubled think what trouble might fall upon a man in such a condition as Saul was in after this acquaintance with the visions of Hel think what a deep astonishment of spirit seaz'd upon him such disorder of minde this word layes upon Job Now it toucheth thee and thou art troubled Observe hence first To commend a man with a But is a wound instead of a commendation Thou hast instructed many But c. How many are there who salute their friends very faire to their faces or speak them very faire behinde their backs yet suddenly as Joab to Amasa draw out this secret Dagger and stab their honour and honesty to the heart As it is said of Naaman 2 Kings 5. 1. He was an honourable man and a mightie man of valour but he was a Leper So c. Observe secondly Great afflictions may disturbe the very seat of reason and leave a Saint in some acts below a man Some acts of holinesse represent the Saints as mad-men to carnall men So Paul appeared to Festus and so to many of his Corinthians 2 Ep cap. 5. v. 13. For whether we be besides our selves it is to God Workings of Grace are sometime so farre above reason that they seem to be without reason So some acts of infirmity represent the Saints to carnall men as mad-men A gracious man works so much below reason sometimes that he seems to be without reason Thirdly note That when we see any one doing ill it is good to minde him of the good which he hath done Eliphaz saw Job fainting enraged as a mad-man or as a man astonished he tels him of the wise and grave counsell and instruction he had given before consider what thou hast done As in the Revelation Christ speaks to the Church of Ephesus Rev 2. 5. Remember from whence thou art fallen and do thy first works vvhen the Church did ill then he tels her what she had formerly done well So the Apostle Ye did runne well having begun in the Spirit will ye end in the flesh vvhen he saw them runne upon fleshly ceremonies and ordinances ye began in the spirit saith he consider that and end as ye began As in dispute and reasoning a false conclusion cannot be derived from true premises so neither can it in practise or in living Holy premises conclude in holinesse He never began well that ends ill Fourthly observe That the good we have done is a kinde of reproach to us when we doe the contrary evill When a mans latter actions contradict his former or when his actions contradict his professions the former good is a staine or blemish to him It had 2 Pet. 2. 21. been better for them not to have knowne the way of righteousnesse then after they have knowne it to turn from the holy commandement given unto them Further take this likewise It is an easier matter to instruct others in trouble than to be instructed or take instruction our selves in our own troubles Even Job holy Job could give those counsels of patience and meeknesse and quietnesse under the hand of God which he could not follow to the full when it fell upon himselfe For though he did not faile to that height which Eliphaz implyeth in this reproofe yet faile he did He had set others a Copie which he could not write by or imitate when his own turn came A good man may quickly give counsell above his own strength to practise Observe lastly It is a shame for us to teach others the right way and to goe in the wrong our selves Eliphaz seekes to shame and convince Job upon this very ground thou hast done thus and thus thou hast taught others patience and thou art mad thy selfe art thou not ashamed to complain and cry out of thy afflictions when thou hast bid others be quiet and cheerfull under them It is an excellent thing when our words are made visible by our actions as he said in the Church story The faith which is seene is a great deale better than the faith which is heard so we may say in another kinde the wisdome which is seen in bearing of affliction is far better than the wisdome which is heard Physitian heal thy selfe He saved others himselfe he cannot save say the Jewes to Christ Man may justly be reproved with thou teachest others thy selfe Turpe est doctorem cum culpa redarguit ipsum thou canst not teach When the same fault which we reprehend in others may be reprehended in our selves our fault is doubled and the act not only sinfull but shamefull The Apostle convinces the Jewes mightily by this Argument Rom. 2. 19. Thou art confident that thou thy selfe art a guide of the blinde a light of them which are in darknesse an instructer of the foolish c. Thou takest upon thee all this Thou therefore saith he that teachest another teachest thou not thy selfe thou that preachest a man should not steale dost thou steale He goes on pressing it upon them as matter of shame and blushing that their actions ranne so crosse and contradictory to their own professions Thus we have opened the minor proposition or assumption of the first Argument couched in these two Verses thou hast comforted instructed and taught many yet when trouble commeth upon thee thou knowest not how to order thy selfe Is not this thy feare thy confidence the uprightnesse of thy wayes and thy hope Thus he gathers the conclusion and from hence inferres Job a hypocrite in Religion or irreligious Is not this thy feare c As if he had said thy feare thy confidence thy uprightnesse thy hope thy religion call it what thou wilt is but thus much or is but this Is not this thy feare In the first Verse of the first Chapter 't was shewed what the feare of God is part of Jobs character being thus given A man fearing God Now Eliphaz by this first point of his Interrogatories taxes Job in the first
built as well and might have stood as long as the other upon the rock but when the raine fell and the floods came when the windes blew and beate upon the house then it fell the foundation failed and all the faire superstructions came downe into the dust Where is the hypocrite with all his faith and feare in a wet windy day is he not like a house founded on the sand Or is not he and his goodly outside of holy feare and hope like the Apples of Sodome reported in Historie which are faire to the eye but touch them and they crumble to ashes in your hand so is the faith and the feare the hope and confidence of hypocrites Where are these they are no where for they never were Take the words in a second construction and so they are thus rendred Is not thy feare thy confidence and the uprightnesse of thy wayes thy hope So Mr Broughton Is not thy Religion thy hope and thy right wayes thy confidence and then the sense is as if Eliphaz had thus spoken unto Job Doth it not now plainely appeare that Satan charged thee rightly that thou servest God for ends of profit and outward comforts seeing thou art thus impatient and unquiet when the hand of God takes away thy profit and outward comforts Is it not a cleare argument that thou heretofore didst obey God only to gaine by him or because thou wast confident he would protect and save thee harmlesse he would blesse and prosper thee with encrease Was not the uprightnesse of thy wayes this hope that is diddest thou not looke to thrive by upright dealing with men and faire carriage in all thy actions thou hadst no love to Religion none to Justice thy love was to thy purse thy profit and thou didst beleeve at least hope that profit would come in at the doore of the Sanctuary or else thou hadst never gone so often thither This is the second sense praedicating the first terme of the second Is not thy feare thy confidence and is not thy uprightnesse thy hope surely ' t is This is a faire exposition of the words and from it we may observe That A hypocrites profession of Religion is grounded on his confidence to gaine by it Is not thy feare thy confidence thy Religion was nothing else but a hope to be rich It was Satans objection and now Eliphaz resuming and managing Satans argument makes it his conviction And it is a truth in the generall thesis that the Religion or the feare of hypocrites is nothing but their confidence they consider the word of promise which God hath given to those that serve him they in their thoughts surveigh the land of promise and tast the milke and honey of it they reade that God will give both grace and glory and no good thing will he withhold from them that walke uprightly therefore that they may be under the influence of these promises or upon a confidence that they shall receive golden showers out of these pretious promises and digge aboundant treasure out of these heavenly mines they feare and worship God they are upright in their wayes and honest in their dealings among men Christ found it was love to the loaves not to his doctrine which brought so many after him Joh. 6. They liked a miracle to feed them more than a Sermon to instruct them And were affected with the meate which endures to everlasting life onely in subordination to the meate which perisheth How many say at least in their hearts at this day if I cast my selfe into such and such courses of holinesse shall I not have credit and custome good acquaintance and profitable correspondence In many men their wickednesse is their confidence that is the very reason why they are so wicked is because they are confident they shall get by their wickednesse So those entisers said to the young man Prov. 1. 11. Come let us lay waite for blood Ego furtum facere volui nulla compuisus ege state sed fastidio justitiae nec ea re srui volebam quam furto appetebam sed ipso furto peccato Aug. l. 3. Confess c. 1. paulo post Eram gratis malus amavi defectum meum non illud ad quod deficiebam there was their wickednesse now at the twefth verse you shall finde that the rise of their wickednesse was this confidence we shall finde all precious treasure we shall fill our houses with spoile Some I confesse have such a spirit of wickednesse that they are wicked for wickednesse sake and they love the very sinne it selfe more than the ends of profit or pleasure which may possibly follow the sinne but others act the sinne out of confidence they shalll advance themselves by it And so there are many so refined in their aymes and hightned in the wayes of holinesse that they are holy for holinesse sake and religious for religions sake yet there is a generation whose Religion is nothing but this confidence I will cast in my lot with the godly I will take their way shall I not fill my house with treasure and raise an estate by it The Apostle speakes of such 1 Tim. 6. 5. Men supposing that gaine is godlinesse and they are godly only that they may gaine by it Whereas they whose hearts are perfect with God love godlinesse for Gods sake and they are holy not out of confidence of gaining by it but out of a delight in acting of it there is a beauty an excellency in holinesse which takes their hearts And they are above not only this poore confidence to be enriched by it but also above that rich that heavenly confidence to be saved by it to get Heaven by it The feare of some who are above the former is yet but equall to this confidence they see there is no other way to be saved to goe to Heaven but this Now I say holinesse in the height and purity of it keepes under the respect of Heaven it selfe it is so much above these things below that it is above those things above That is a second sense Thirdly The words are understood by divers of the Hebrew writers for a direct and simple assertion and they give it thus Will not or would not thy feare be thy confidence and the uprightnesse of thy wayes thy hope As if Eliphaz had thus said unto him Job thou hast pretended much holinesse and Religion feare and uprightnesse why art thou so disquieted now that the hand of God is upon thee why art thou so amazed under these sufferings would not that feare be thy confidence and would not that uprightnesse of thy wayes be thy hope surely it would if thou hadst any such feare as thou pretendest this feare would be thy confidence and this uprightnesse thy hope thou wouldest be very bold and by hope cast Anchor upon the goodnesse and faithfulnesse of God in the middest of all this storme thy heart would be poised setled and established
the soule but thou art driven with every blast in this thy hope Hope makes Heb. 6. 1â— not ashamed but thou either art or oughtest to be ashamed is this thy hope The feare of the Lord is cleane but thou art defiled Rom. 5. 5. is this thy feare Then againe consider this when Job carries himselfe thus in his trouble Eliphaz telleth him what is not this thy feare thou art surely but an hypocrite for if thy feare were true it would have preserved thee from these impatient complainings and distempers Hence observe That true feare holy feare preserves the soule and keepes it holy Holy feare is as a golden bridle to the soule when it would runne out to any evill It is like the bankes to the sea which keepes in the raging waves of corruption when they would overflow all If thou haddest feare indeed thou wouldest never thus breake the bounds of patience The feare of the Lord is to depart from evill that 's the definition of it therefore if thou haddest any feare of God indeed thou wouldest never have done this evill Curse thy day Prov. 14. 27. The feare of the Lord is a fountaine of life to depart from the snares of death that is either from sinne which is spirituall death or from damnation which is prepetuall death the feare of the Lord is a fountaine of life to depart from both these snares of death where this feare is not we are ready to joyne with every evill and so to fall into the jawes of every death Abraham Gen. 20. 11. argues so The feare of the Lord is not in this place therefore they will kill me when we perceive a bent of spirit to devise evill and a readinesse of the hand to practise it we may conclude the feare of the Lord is not lodged in that heart Fourthly observe That trust or confidence in God settles the heart in all conditions Is not this thy confidence Thy confidence certainly is but a shadow for if it had been reall thou hast been established and upheld notwithstanding all that weight of affliction that lies upon thee When there was an unquietnesse upon the soule of David he first questions his soule about it Why art thou disquieted O my soule and then directs trust in God Psal 42. 11. So the Prophet promiseth Isa 26. 3. Him wilt thou establish in perfect peace whose heart doth trust upon thee They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion Psal 125. 1. He that is carried and tost thus about with every winde of trouble and gust of sorrow shewes he hath not cast out this anchor of hope upon the Rock Jesus Christ But here a question must be answered for the cleering of all and likewise for discovering the strength or weaknesse of this argument brought by Eliphaz in this particular case of Job Eliphaz taxed Job with hypocrisie because his graces did not act or they did not act like themselves like graces he gave not proofe of them at that time Hence the doubt is Doe a mans fallings or declinings from what he was before or what he did before argue him insincere Is there sufficient strength in this Argument for Eliphaz to say Job thou hast been a comforter of others thou hast profest much holinesse heretofore and now thou art come to the triall thou canst not make it out thy selfe therefore thou hast no grace therefore all thy religion is vaine For the resolving of that I answer first that the proposition is not simply true that every one who faileth or declineth or falleth off from what formerly he was or held forth is therefore an Hypocrite or that his graces are false and but pretences there may be many declinings and failings many breaches and backslidings and yet the spirit upright Indeed falling away and quite falling off are an argument of insincerity and hypocrisie for true grace is everlasting grace true holinesse endures for ever Therefore we are here to consider whence these failings were occasioned in Job and how a failing may be exprest and continue so as to conclude insincerity or hypocrisie First it was from a sudden perturbation not from a setled resolution Job was not resolvedly thus impatient and unruly an unexpected storme hurri'd his spirit so violently that he was not master of his own actions Job had not his affections at command they got the bridle as it were on their necks and away they carried him with such force that he was not able to stop or stay them Secondly it came from the smart and sense of pain in his flesh not from the perversnesse of his spirit If the taint had been in his spirit then Eliphaz had a ground a certain ground to have argued thus against him Thirdly Jobs graces were hid and obscured they were not lost or dead the acts were suspended the habits were not removed when the grace which hath been shewed is quite lost that grace was nothing but a shew of grace painted feare and painted confidence but in Jobs case there was only a hiding of his graces or a vaile cast over them Lastly We must not say he fals from grace who falleth into sin nor must it be concluded that he hath no grace who falls into a great sinne It followes not that grace is false or none because it doth not work like it selfe or because it doth not sometimes work at all True grace workes not alwayes uniformly though it be alwayes the same in it selfe yet it is not alwayes the same in its effects true grace is alwayes alive yet it doth not alwayes act it retains life when motion is undiscern'd Wherefore they who doe not work like themselves or do not work at all for a time in gracious wayes are not to be concluded as having no grace or nothing but a shew of grace And so much be spoken concerning this first Argument contained in these six Verses the conviction of Job from his failing in the actings of his grace the putting forth of that fruit which formerly he had born and shewed to the world JOB Chap. 4. Vers 7 8. Remember I pray thee who ever perished being innocent or where were the righteous cut off Even as I have seen they that plough iniquity and sow wickednesse reape the same IN these two Verses and the three following Eliphaz coucheth and confirmeth his second Argument wherein he further bespatters the innocency of Job and hopes to convince him of hypocrisie The Argument is taken from the constant experience of Gods dealings in the world Remember I pray thee who ever perished being innocent We may give it in this forme Innocent persons perish not righteous men are not cut off But Job thou perishest and thou art cut off Therefore thou art no innocent or righteous person The major proposition is plaine in the seventh Verse for that question Who ever perished being innocent or where were the righteous cut off is to be resolved into this Negation No innocent person
righteous but inchoatly and intentionally so many are righteous and are called righteous in the language of the Scripture Thirdly there are none righteous that is none righteous by way of merit or desert none are so righteous as that they can challenge any thing at Gods hand of right the most righteous person is an unprofitable servant he hath nothing to plead before God but free grace Nothing to shew unto God but Christs fulnesse and his own emptinesse the riches of Christ and his own poverty Yet there are righteous in Gods acceptance he accounteth and accepteth them for righteous and honours them to be called righteous Lastly we may answer it thus there are none righteous in themselves or from themselves none have any righteousnesse of their own making but the Scripture shewes us those who have righteousnesse and are righaeous in another and from another we have the righteousnesse of justification in Christ and the righteousnesse of sanctification from Christ righteousnesse is both imputed to and floweth into the soule by vertue of the union which is promised in the covenant of grace with Christ the righteous with the Lord our righteousnesse In these respects there are righteous persons and of such we may understand this enquiry where were ever the righteous cut off The righteous by regeneration the righteous by inchoation the righteous by acception or the righteous by imputation where were any such righteous in all the world of whom thou canst say they have ever perished or have been cut off Having opened the sense of the single termes we will look to the sense of the proposition and consider wherein we may cleare the truth of it that innocent persons doe not perish or that the righteous are not cut off Take perishing or cutting off in the first sense namely for annihilation and returning to nothing and so neither righteous nor unrighteous guilty nor innocent can perish no man shall perish so man is of an everlasting make Then take perishing in the second sense as perishing is put for dying and going out of the land of the living thus all righteous and innocent persons perish and are cut off namely by the sword and sithe of death we may say all God indeed hath made some few exceptions out of the generall rule but the Statute is plaine It is appointed unto all men once to dye Enoch was translated and so was Elijah and many shall be found alive when Christ commeth to judgement who shall not die they shall be but changed and have a metaphoricall not a proper death This makes some small abatement from but doth not crosse the generall rule that all must die Take perishing in the third sense for some temporall outward suffering in the world either from the hand of God immediatly or mediately from the hand of man Thus righteous and innocent persons may perish too that is they may fall under fore and great afflictions thus righteous Abel perished and thus Jacob was a Syrian ready to perish and thus the godly party among the Jewes in the time of the captivity perished thoy perished from off the Land as it was threatned Josh 23. with the rest of the wicked of which the two baskets of figgs one bad and the other good were a famous type Jer. 24. 3. And in regard of this outward present temporall perishing we finde it often that the righteous perish while the unrighteous flourish Psal 73. 12. Behold saith David these are the ungodly that prosper in the world and at the fourth verse All the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning As sure or as soone as I rise I have a whipping and my break-fast is bread of sorrow and the water of adversity these prosper and I perish And the Prophet Jer. 12. 1 2. expostulates with holy submission about this flourishing estate of the wicked and perishing estate of the godly Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper c. And in the next verse Thou hast planted them yea they have taken roote they grow yea they bring forth fruit What a gradation is here of the flourishing prosperity of wicked men while the righteous seeme to wither Thou hast planted them but every tree that is planted doth not take roote but these take roote Every tree that taketh roote doth not grow up to any strength but these take roote and they grow there are trees that grow yet they bring not forth fruit but these bring forth fruit also Yea saith he they bring forth fruit these were flourishing trees indeed yet in the meane time thousands of righteous persons perished in and by outward troubles Sometime we find on the other hand that the wicked perish in outward troubles while the righteous are delivered and have Arkes provided to save them in a common deluge God makes that difference sometime even in this life he pulled Lot out of Sodome while Sodome perished by fire And righteous Noah was saved in the Arke while the world of the ungodly perished by water And lastly Both the righteous and the wicked may be wrapped up in the very same outward perishing condition yet alwayes with a difference though both alike perish yet their perishing is not alike As it is with the righteous and wicked in regard of sinne so of sufferings they may both commit the same sinne for the matter as it is a transgression of the Law but a righteous man can never sinne as the wicked he sins not with such formalities of sinning he hath not such a heart such a temper and bent of spirit as a wicked man hath in sinning to sinne so is utterly inconsistent with the new nature Thus also it is with the perishings afflictions and troubles which they fall into God sometimes sends the very same affliction for the matter as suppose poverty want imprisonment captivity and the like upon the one as upon the other But are the righteous smitten as God smites those that smite them Surely no in measure he debateth with them Isa 27. 7 8. They sinne not against God with the same heart or at the same rate as the wicked doe and God never strikes them with the same heart or at the same rate as he doth the wicked he cannot doe it the strength of his love to them makes this imposition for him Therefore though as the Preacher resolves the case Eccles 9. 1. No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before him In the matter of events love or hatred are not visible yet in the manner of events there is much love and hatred visible and the spirits of such as are under those events may discerne love or hatred when no eye can One seeth hatred and another seeth love aboundance of love mixed in his cup of sorrow God never gives his own a cup of pure wrath to drinke there are alwayes some ingredients of comfort and sweetnesse put into it This is the third sense how righteous ones may or may
is greater reason why they should stumble at a mole-hill then we at a mountaine of trouble God having told us that seeing he hath given us such excellent things in Christ such glorious mercies and transcendent priviledges in the Gospel we may well take afflictions and troubles into the bargaine and never shrinke or straine at them but rather take them well So much for that verse The righteous are not cut off neither doe innocent persons perish Eliphaz having given Job his turne to search his experiences brings forth his own in the next words Even as I have seene Vers 8. they that plow iniquity and sow wickednesse reape the same As if he should say Job I know you are not able to give me one instance of a righteous mans perishing but I could give you many and many instances I could write whole books concerning wicked men perishing and of the ungodly cut off This he carries under a metaphor and by continued metaphors makes up an elegant allegorie in those termes of plowing sowing reaping Even as I have seene That word notes a curious observation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat non simpliciter videre sed curiese inspicere not a light transitory glance of the eye but a criticall consideration of any thing As it is said Gen. 1. 4. God saw the light that he had made God saw it discerningly for he found it was very good And so it is said Gen. 34. 1 2. that Dinah went forth to see the daughters of the land that is curiously though vainely to observe the manners and fashions of the people and in the fame verse Hamor the sonne of Sechem saw her he saw her so exactly as to be taken with her beauty his eye entangled his heart and both entangled his life So here Even as I have seene that is by a diligent inspection and judicious consideration of what I saw And what was that Mysticall Husbandry They that plow iniquity and sow wickednesse reape the same They that plow iniquity The word which we translate to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fâ—dit fundam â—ravit Peâ— metaphoram fodit cogitatione vel intentus fuit rei aliâ—ui conficiendae sicut arator praeparat terram ante seminaâ—orem plow signifies the use of any kinde of art or manufacture as the worke of a Smith or of a Carpenter in Iron wood or timber And as the art so the Artist or handicrafts-man Isa 44. 12. is exprest by this word The Smith with his tongs worketh in the coales And Zech. 1. 20. It is put for a Carpenter The Lord shewed me foure Carpenters Now here it is applyed to the Plowman and to his plowing So Hose 10. 13. Ye have plowed wickednesse ye have reaped iniquity ye have eaten the fruit of lies And this plowing of iniquity or plowing of wickednesse takes in both the outward act of sinne to plow iniquity is to commit and practise iniquity and the inward act of sinne to plow iniquity is as much as to devise and meditate iniquity Prov. 3. 29. Devise not Heb. plow not evill against thy neighbour So Prov. 6. 18. A heart that deviseth or ploweth wicked imaginations And Prov. 21. 4. The plowing of the wicked is sinne That is whatsoever they devise or whatsoever they doe inside and outside the cloath and linings of their garments are all sinne Likewise this word denotes not onely speculative evils but also secrecie of practice or a plot carried and acted secretly Thus 2 Sam. 23. 9. it is said David knew that Saul secretly practised evill against him The Hebrew is he knew that Saul plowed evill against him So that it may be taken either for the meditating of evill or for a politick close way of effecting any evill or wicked designe And the Scripture elegantly calls the musing or meditating of sinne plowing because a man in meditation when he would accomplish any wickednesse turnes up as it were all the corruptions that are in his heart and all the conveniencies that are in the world to attaine his end As a man that meditates upon any holy thing upon Christ or Free-grace c. turnes up all the graces and abilities that are in his spirit he plowes up his heart that he may fetch up the strength and enjoy the sweetnesse of them So then this ploughing noteth two things chiefly First the pains and labour which wicked men take in sinfull courses every one that sinnes doth not plough sinne or is not a worker which is an equivalent phrase of iniquity Secondly it implyes the black Art and hellish skill of wicked men in sinning To plough is a skill so is some kinde of sinning though to sin in generall be as naturall as to see and needs as little teaching as the eare to heare some men â—s we may say are bunglers in sinning others are their crafts-masters at this plough and can lay a furrow of iniquity so strait do an act of filthinesse so cleanly that you can hardly see any thing amisse in it Those words in the New Testament To commit sinne to worke iniquity an abomination or a lye Rev. 21. 27. c. are answerable to this in the Old Testament a plougher of iniquity And some translate this Text so the vulgar reades it thus They Qui operantur iniquitatem who worke iniquity all which expressions set forth and elegantly describe such who sinne resolvedly industriously cunningly curiously such as have the art and will spare no pains to do wickedly These have served an apprentiship to their lusts and are now as Freemen of Hell yet still Satans Drudges and active Engineers to plot and execute what God abhorres Note this further that ploughing in Scripture referres both to good actions and to bad there is a plowing for good the Metaphor is so applyed Prov. 4. 27. Doe not they erre that devise evill that plough evill but mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good to them that plough good the same word is used in both and it intimates as before both the paines and the skill which a godly man bestowes and shewes about holy things the great work of repentance is often allegorized by ploughing Breake up the follow ground and our obedience to the Gospell whether in the profession or preaching of it is called ploughing Luk. 9. 62. He that putteth his hand to the plough and lookes backe is not fit for the kingdome of God Grace is as active and as accurate as Lust can be It followes And sow wickednesse reape the same Eliphaz goes on with the Metaphor after plowing comes sowing and after seed time reaping time or harvest Sowing in Scripture is divers wayes applyed unto the actions of men First there is a sowing which is the work of charity when we dispense and drstribute to the helpe of the poore especially to the Saints so 2 Cor. 9. 6. He that soweth sparingly that is he that giveth unto the poore sparingly Secondly sowing
ray of that Eternall Light dazles bim From any or all these considerations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. Occurrit obviam factus est mihi it may be that fear and trembling took hold upon Eliphaz like an armed man as soon as the vision appeared fear met him saith the Original or as the Septuagint fear came out and as it were stood in the way to surprize and apprehend him Neither was this bare fear but fear heightned fear accompanied with trembling Trembling of the body is a symptome or sign of great fear when fear works outwardly manifesting it self by sad effects upon the body then fear is in its reign and greatnesse There are four special effects which fear works upon the body we have three of them here in this Text. The first is the quaking or the shaking of the members of the body the second is the shaking of the bones the third is the standing up of the hair and the fourth is the palenesse and wannesse of the countenance All except the last appeared upon Eliphaz at the appearance of this vision First he trembled in this 14 Verse Fear came upon me and trembling these two go often together in Scripture you shall find trembling coupled with godly fear as well as with naturall fear Psal 2. 11. Serve the Lord with fear with reverentiall filiall fear and rejoyce before him with trembling that is let your fear be an exceeding great fear even such as fills you with an awfull trembling at the presence of the Lord. The Apostle Paul Phil. 2. 12. puts them together again Work out your salvation with fear and trembling The second effect is shaking of the bones It made all my bones Quasi dicat tremor non fait supersicialis sed vehemens intimus qui etiam ossa concâ—â—eret Aquin. Gelâ—dusque perima cucurâ—it Ossa tremor Virg. 2. Aeneid to shake as if he had said this fear stayed not in the flesh but descended and entred into my bones I was deeply affected with it We translate Which made all my bones to shake the word in the Hebrew is it made the multitude of my bones or my bones how many soever they are to shake The Hebrews have this rule that the major part is usually taken for the whole therefore the multude of his bones or many of his bones is well translated all his bones And the Verb which we render shake is of the same root with fear fear came upon me so that according to the letter we may read it thus Fear came upon me and trembling which made all my bones to fear A bone is in it self senselesse and therefore fearlesse but to shew how extream and deep this fear was he saith it made fear enter into that which is without fear and hath of it self no feeling it made my very bones to fear as well as my heart to fear or my flesh to tremble Habakkuk in the third of his Prophesie being before God in his prayer-visions describes the rapture of his spirit by this and other symptomes upon his body When I heard my belly trembled my lips quivered at the voyce rottennesse entred into my bones v. 16. The third effect followes Then a spirit pass'd before my face and the haire of my head stood up A Spirit rush'd upon me so the Seventy Some translate it A wind passd before me a gale or breath of wind as 1 Kings 19. 11. when God appeared to Elijah it is said first there came a mighty wind which rent the mountaines and brake the roots and some conceive that a wind passed before Eliphaz but the context will not bear it those words which follow are not competible with a wind v. 16. It stood before me it stood still this cannot be understood of the wind for wind is alwayes in motion and then it is said I had an Image before my face now there is no form or Image of the wind the wind hath no shape or likenesse therefore it was a Spirit or Angel not an Aeriall wind And if you say how hath a Spirit a form or an Image or how can that be seen I answer it was not a Spirit abstracted and naked in it self but a Spirit joyned with a form and shape as is generally agreed so Angels or Spirits did usually appear to the Ancients taking a body or some from upon them and those apparitions when a body was assumed were called spirits Luke 24. 37. it is said that the Disciples were afraid at the appearing of Christ thinking they had seen a spirit The Apostles were not so absurd as to believe that a spirit in it self a spirit abstracted could be seen but they call'd it a spirit because they thought it only the representation of Christs body and not the true body and therefore though an outward shape appear'd they call'd it a spirit So here A spirit pass'd before me which yet might have some outward shape in which it was clothed to the eye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nâ—n significat propriè matum progressivum qualis est animalum sed motum levemâ— slaxum qualis est caelorum vel venti vel crescentis arboris A spirit passd before me forward backward up and down which is opposed to the words in the 16 Verse It stood still here it was transient or in motion The word used for passing signifies rather such a motion as is of the Heavens or of the winds than that which is properly progressive or the motion of the living creatures And thence some observe that the motion of spirits clothed with bodies in their apparitions is not like the motion of men who move lifting up their feet oue after another but it is a passing as a ship moveth with a gale of winde rather a gliding than a going Among the Heathen this was made the chief difference to distinguish a Numen or spirit coming in any Numina venientia ad nos in homines esse transfoâ—mant Ex oculu auté â—â—â—ari pâ—ssunt cum 〈◊〉 oblutu â—nâ—ueanter â—â— palpebras nunâ—uaÌ„ concladanâ— Et magis ex incessu qui non ex â—â—moâ—â—one pedum neque transpositione existit Sed quodam impetuâ—eâ—â—o vi expedita sindentium magis auras quam transeuntiam QuaÌ„obrem statuas quoque Deorum Egyptij ponunt conjungentes illis pedes quasi unientes Helioder in Aethâ—opâ—cis l. 3. Pedes vestis defluxit ad imos Et vero incessâ— paâ—uâ—â— Dea. Viâ—g l. 1. Aeniad de Venere shape from a naturall body The steddinesse of their eyes was one the not transposing their feet was another and a clearer evidence This Spirit passing thus before him produces the third effect The haire of my head stood up Shaking of the bones went before and now standing up of the haire A spirit pass'd before me and the haire of my head stood up The Originall is The haire of my flesh or the haire of my body flesh is put for the body as in Gen.
2. 24. They two shall be one flesh That is as it were one body speaking of man and wife and Psal 119. 120. My flesh trembleth for fear of thee saith David it is the same word as if Eliphaz had said I am so much affected with thoughts of God that the very hair of my flesh as in extraordinary fear it useth to do stood up The naturall reason why the haire stands up in time of fear is this when suddain fear falleth upon us the blood goes or â—astens rather to the heart and so the outward members wax cold and the skin in which the haire is rooted is prest more together which causeth the haire to stand up though of it selfe it be a weak and unstable excrement So we see the generall effect of the vision which was fear and those three concomitants or symptomes of fear The trembling of his flesh The shaking of his bones And the standing up of the haire of his flesh From all take these Observations First Forasmuch as Eliphaz falleth into such a fit of fear and amazement at this manifestation of God to him we learn That man is not able to bear the presence of God Weak and fraile man falls before the greatnesse power and majesty of God Dust and ashes crumbleth away if the glory of the great God doe but shine forth even in those lesser manifestations of himself Hence it was that Job seems to capitulate with God that he would speak with him upon two Articles or conditions granted Chap. 13. 21 22 First Withdraw thy hand far from me Secondly Let not thy dread make me afraid Then call thou and I will answer or let me speake and answer thou me As if he had said so dreadfull is thy presence that unlesse thou be pleased to sweeten it to me fear will presently seize upon me and disable me to speak Moses who was a favourite of heaven and one who shortly after had communion with God above all that ever lived yet when Jehovah appeared in that flaming Bush the text saith Exod. 3. 6. That Moses hid his face for he was afraid to looke upen God holy Moses could not bear that glory Daniel a man greatly beloved of God and honoured with glorious visions was yet greatly astonished at those visions Chap. 10. 8. There remained no strength in me for my comelinesse was turned into corruption and I retained no strength and vers 16. O my lord by the vision my sorrowes are turned upon me and I have retained no strength Vers 17. Neither is there any breath left in me I am ready to dye I am not able to bear thy majesty in these mysteries of thy will made known to me How doth Habakkuk cry out in the place afore quoted of his trembling belly quivering lips and of rottennesse entring into his bones We find in the New Testament the Saints swallowed up with the like amazements Zechariah of whom the Holy Ghost had given such an excellent testimony a little before for a man that had walked blamelesse in all the Ordinances of God yet as soon as the Angel appeared the Text saith He was â—â—ubled and fear fell upon him Luke 1. 12. Yea the blessed Virgin v. 29. of that Chap. when she saw him that is the Angel she was troubled in her mind Lastly John the beloved Disciple seeing Christ walking in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks c. Fell at his feet as dead Rev. 1. 17. How should this humble and abase us in our selves we that are not able to stand before the gracious manifestations of God when he comes to reveale himself to us in mercy how shall we be able to stand before the wrathfull manifestations of God The Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 15. 50. Flesh and blood cannot enter into the Kingdome of Heaven by flesh and blood we are not to understand the sinfull nature of man as flesh and blood often signifie in Scripture being opposed to spirit but the constitution of nature or that estate wherein we stand as men this flesh and blood is not able to enter into the Kingdome of Heaven that is it cannot bear the majesty glory and excellency of Heaven where God clearly manifests himself unto his Saints and where we shall see God face to face and therefore the Apostle argueth all along as by divers other Arguments so by this to prove the necessity of a resurrection a raising and a new moulding of the body into a spirituall condition Why because our naturall bodies are not able to stand under such a weight of glory as is prepared for the Saints in that Kingdome Corruption nature subject to corruption cannot inherit incorruption hence it was that when but a little of God broke forth the holiest and best of men in the world fell a shaking and trembling as not being able to beare that transcendent majesty shiningout in those weaker refracted beames of glory Secondly Seeing God comming at this time to instruct Eliphaz and reveale a great truth to him was pleased to deale thus with him to make him shake and tremble we may note That God usually humbles a man and layes him very low before he exalts him in the manifestations of his truth or power Humiliations prepare and posture the heart for revelations The reason is because God delights to have a man humbled before he be instructed Paul though as humble a soule as lived was in danger to be exalted above measure through the aboundance of revelations 2 Gor 12. Even divine knowledge through our corruption is apt to puffe up and therefore we had need to have the bladder prickt and our spirits laid flat for the receiving of know ledge Onely humble ones are fit to be Gods schollars he will teach none else he resisteth a proud man then surely he will never teach a proud man The meeâ—e will he teach his way Ye breakes Psal 25. 9. our will before he trusts us with the secrets of his will When the spirits of men lie in the â—ust when they tremble and shake when all their bones are afraid and rottennesse enters into them then they are prepared vessels to receive and take in the dew and influences of divine revelation When â—od made that most memorable manifestation of himselfe to the ancient Church in giving the Law we reade how he terrified them how he humbled and abased them How dreadfull was the preparation to the giving of the Law The Apostle describes it Heb. 12. 18 20 21. by blacknesse and darknesse and tempest so that they could not endure that which was commanded and so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly feare and quake I confesse the Law in it selfe was a terrible a killing letter and that which might well make the world shake and men to tremble If as Luther saith but one precept or sentence of the Law should be left in its full power and strength mans sinne it would destroy mankinde and make all the world
speaking to me Thus it suits well with what he said at the 12 Verse Now a thing was secretly brought unto me And we may further clear it by that 1 Kings 19. 12. where the expression is of the same importance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vox sabtilis silentii dulce susurrum vox sine sono here we have silence and a voice there after the noise of a great winde and of an Earthquake it is said that Elijah heard as some render it the voice of a subtile fine slender attenuated silence or as we translate a still small voice a sweet ravishing whisper a voice without a sound Hence we have a kinde of musick which in our common language we call still musick A twofold reason may be given why the Lord spake as it were in silence First that the secret manner of speaking might be an Argument that the matter spoken was a secret a mystery not common or ordinary Secondly to dispose the hearer to receive it with more care reverence and attention A man must set himselfe to heare with diligence while another speaks with silence A loud voice findes us out comes to us but we must come to a low voice and finde that out When the Speaker takes least pains with his tongue the hearer must take most pains with his eare And this manner of speaking was used by the ancient Heathen in their mysterious Oracles and Revelations As when God revealed a secret he spake secretly and as it were whispered those truths in the eare whispering is speaking within one degree of silence so the Devill who imitates God in what he can that he may draw credit unto his own deceivings is described in his instruments to speak thus Isa 8. 19. When they shall say unto you seek unto them that have familiar spirits and unto Wizards that peep and that mutter they speak as it were silently they onely whisper their diabolicall incantations and lying impostures And Isa 29. Thou shalt be brought down and shalt speak out of the ground and thy speech shall be low out of the dust and thy voice shall be as of one that hath a familiar Spirit out of the ground and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust The Prophet in this alludes to the manner of Witches and Inchanters who had familiar Spirits which he here applyes in a threat unto the people the time shall come that you shall be brought down by your enemies that you shall speak out of the ground you shall lye at their feet like poore captives that cry submissively and pitifully for quarter O mercy mercy spare my life that 's the thing aimed at by the Prophet that God would abase them so before their enemies that they should whisper out of the ground to their enemies for pity as a Witch whispers from the ground to her miserable Clients who come for counsel Tertullian in his Apologetick describes the heathen Magitians thus they speak belohing and gasping humming and hawing rather then speaking The old Poet cals this Poppisme by which sortes ducent frontemque ma numque Praebebit vati crebrum poppisma petenti Juvenal Auruspâ—â—es de circo ex orâ—s pressi sono quod poppisma dicitur fuâ—u a colligebant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word he shews how their Idol Prophets answered the deluded people their miserable Clients when they came for counsell To which the Hebrew word Tâ—sipht saph used by Isaiah in the eighth Chapter before cited is very like both in sound and sense There yet another interpretation of these words more proper and answerable to our translation There was silence and I heard a voice saying This referres the silence to Eliphaz as a preparation to his hearing the voice there was silence that is I stood still and spake never a word but waited to heare what should be spoken I was silent and all things about me wâ—re husht and silent too Then I heard a voice and so Junius gâ—osses Being saith he compos'd and strengthned a little after my former fear I attended Me â—ontinebaâ— tacitus expectans revelationem silently to the Spirit that I might hear what should be spoken unto me We reade Rev. 8. 1. that there was silence in Heaven for halfe an houre and Verse 5 we reade of voices and thunderings before those great voices there was great silence usually before great speaking there is great silence I was silent and all were husht then I heard a voice silence prepares for audience In Congregations before the Preacher begins all hold their peace In Courts of justice when the Judge is to speak the Crier cals for silence It was a usuall word amongst the rites of the Heathen Favour your tongues or spare your speech when the mysteries of their superstition were Favete linguis revealed we may take the present Text in this sense that Eliphaz set himselfe in a silent posture to attend the message which was to be revealed unto him There was silence and I heard a voice saying If we take the former interpretation then for as much as Eliphaz after those terrours and tremblings the shaking of his bones and standing up of his haire the confused form of a spirit and an amazing Image before his eyes for as much I say as after all these he hears a still silent voice We may observe That God after terrours usually sends in comfort and refreshings God having terrified Elijah by a mighty rushing winde in the vision before noted by an Earthquake which brake the Rocks and by a fire then comes as here in the Text a still small voice a voice of silence and God was in that voice It is put as a principall distinction amongst the Ancients to know whether a revelation were from a good Angel or from a bad Angel When a revelation was made by a good Angel though he fill'd the heart with fear at the beginning of his speech yet he gave comfort in the end and closed with in consolation We may observe in those revelations such heartning chearing language as this Be not afraid be of good chear so to Daniel so to John so to Zechariah so to Mary so to Gideon But when a revelation was made by an evill Angel or by a Witch as it filled the hearers with feare so it left them full of feare it wounded them with terrours and it applyed no cure no playster nothing medicinable to heale those terrours We finde indeed 1 Sam. 28 that when Saul consulted with the Witch of Endor as soon as the Spirit appeared it is said that the Witch her selfe was afraid and there is no mention made of Sauls being afraid at the first so that Saul fals a comforting the Witch and said to her be not afraid She was afraid not of the Spirit that appeared but of Saul because he had made a law against Witches and hence Saul comforts her in assurance of impunity notwithstanding that sinne both against the law of God and his
one commended and approved from the mouth of God for a man perfect and upright should be thus afflicted what Shall weake Job be justified before God Yea though Job be considered in his greenest flourishings of grace and highest pitch of his prosperity as he was Geber indeed the greatest the mightiest man in the Easterne world yet shall he be more pure than his Maker No cease your complainings God is just and his honour must be vindicated in what he doth or in what he shall doe against the weakest or against the mightiest against the meanest or against the best of men God will be found just and man a lyar Either of these three senses are faire from the construction of the Text and may be profitable for us I shall therefore draw them down into five or six conclusions which will be at least a portion of that marrow and fatnesse which this Scripture yeilds us to feed upon First we may observe That man naturally preferreth himselfe not onely above other men but even before God himselfe A principle of pride dwels in our hearts by nature which at some times and in some cases breeds better thoughts in us of our selves than of God himselfe And it is this height of spirit which the heavenly vision here would levell to the ground We know it was the first sin of man that man desired to be like God Gen. 3. The first temptation was baited with a parity to the Divine powers Ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evill This also was the language of Lucifers heart Thou hast said in thy heart I will ascend into heaven I will exalt my throne above the starres of God I will ascend above the heights of the Clouds I will be like the most high I say â—4 13 14. And the practise of the man of sinne is thus prophesied That he shall exalt himselfe above all that is called God 2 Thess 2. 4. But the heart of man is yet more mad and hath out-growne those sinfull principles For in troubles and temptations when things go not according to his minde he sometimes hath thoughts not only that he is like God but that he is more just than God and if he had the ordering of things he would order them better than God he sometime thinks himselfe juster than God and if he had the punishing of offenders justice should proceed more freely and impartially than it doth which is upon the matter not onely to exalt himself as the Man of Sin doth above Nuncupative Gods or all that is called God but to exalt himself above him who is God by nature above the onely one-most God Even to speak in this Dialect of highest blasphemy that he is more just than God more pure than his Maker Secondly Take this conclusion That it is a most high presumption not onely for low weak man but for the best the highest of men to compare themselves with God or to have any thoughts concerning his wayes as if they could mend them When God cals us to amend our wayes for us to presume we could amend Gods wayes is the very top branch the highest tower yea the most towring Pinnacle of presumption We say amongst men that comparisons are odious but this is the most odious comparison of all for a man to compare himselfe with God his thoughts with Gods thoughts what he hath done or would doe with what God doth If you consider the termes of opposition that are in the Text this conclusion will be more clear unto you Consider how Enosh weak mortall man is opposite to Elohah the mighty the strong God it is presumption for a weak man to compare with a strong man what presumption is it then for a weake man to compare with the mighty God for a reed to compare in strength with a rock for darknesse to compare with light for a cloud to compare with the Sunne for death to compare with life for folly to compare with wisdome for uncleanenesse to compare with holinesse for nothing to compare with All how presuptuous Will ye provoke the Lord saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. are ye stronger than he It implies that some such thoughts lodge in man as if he could make his partie good with God or might be stronger than he And it is equall folly in us and provocation against the Lord to thinke our selves juster as to thinke our selves stronger than he And then marke the other termes of opposition Man and his Maker Shall the great man compare with or be more pure than his Maker as if he should say How great and excellent soever this man is he was made and made by God with whom he thus compares than whom he thinks himselfe more pure And shall the thing formed stand upon termes with him that formed it shall the potsheard or the pot contend with the Potter what though it be an excellent vessell a vessell determined for the most excellent ends and uses yet whatsoever it is it was made to be and made to be by God both in its constitution and uses Shall it then boast it selfe against its maker The Lord made Geber as well as Enosh the strong man as well as the weake the wise and learned man as well as the foolish and ignorant the Noble as well as the base the holy and righteous as well as the wicked and prophane In a word the vessels of honour are as much yea more of his making than the vessels of dishonour shall they then be more pure than their Maker hath the Lord given more to others than he hath in himselfe hath he made a creature his superior or his Peere hath his bounty impaired his own stock or hath he made man more than God That God hath made the best out of the dust is enough to lay all our pride and boasting as low as the dust That what we are we are from another should ever keep us humble in our selves Thirdly Take this Conclusion That God in himselfe is most just and pure Shall mortall man be more just than God The question hath this position in it that God is infinitely just infinitely pure therefore he is perfectly pure perfectly just God is essentiall Justice essentiall purity Justice and purity are not qualities in God but they are his very nature A man may be a man and yet be unjust but God cannot be God and be unjust A man may be a man and yet impure but God cannot be God and be impure so that Justice and purity are not qualities or accidents in God but his very essence and being destroy or deny the purity and Justice of God and you put God out of the world as much as in you lies for he cannot be God unlesse he be both just to others and pure in himselfe Fourthly Take this conclusion The best men compared with God are evill and the holiest are impure Not onely is it presumption but a lye for men to compare with God
he sees some good he hath above himselfe This passion is a murderer also it begins at the eyes but it rots down into the bones Envy slayeth the silly one There is not much difference between the nature of these two the foolish man and the silly one But the Originall words by which they are expressed are very different The roote signifies to perswade to intice or allure And it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sua sus per sua sus dâ—â—eptus seductus fuit hâ—nc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sua deo apud Grecos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Japheth le Jaâ—heâ—h is taken sometime in a good sense as in Gen. 9. 27. where the Holy Ghost speakes with admirable elegancy God will perswade the perswadable we translate it God will perswade Japhet Japhet had his name from being perswaded or perswadable God shall intice or perswade Japhet which was a prophecie of the calling of the Gentiles who are descendants from Japhet as the Jewes are from Shem. So that word is applied to Gods drawing or alluring men by the sweet promises and winning enticements of the Gospell God doth let it be taken in holy reverence tole men on by promises and deceive them graciously into the Gospell Hos 2. 14. I will allure her and bring her into the wildernesse And because by perswasions men are often deceived and seduced to evill therefore the word signifies also to deceive and beguile as well as to perswade and in the passive to be beguiled and deceived Hence the word in the text is derived which we translate a simple one or a man that will easily be perswaded led by another a sequatious or easie man whom you may carry with a mouth full of good words and faire promises whether you will Yet we finde this word Psal 116. 6. used in a good sense for a man without sinfull guile and craft a simple honest plaine-hearted man The Lord preserveth the simple But here and often else-where it is taken in an ill sence for a man without sence and reason without heart and spirit a man that cannot in any competency judge of things or make out his way but is meerly led and lives upon the opinion and judgement of another To such wisdome cryeth without and uttereth her voyce in the streets how long yee simple ones will ye love simplicity Prov. 1. 20 22. This silly one envie slayeth Exiguo animo abjecto spiritu He is out of his wits already and a little matter will put him out of his life Envy slayeth him that is a simple man looking upon the prosperity and blessings of God upon his neighbour will needs afflict himselfe he lookes upon himselfe as having lost all if that man gaine he fals if his brother stands and can with more ease die miserably then see another live happily In this sense it is That envie kils the silly one Now the reason why Eliphaz speakes of these two the foolish and the simple one and characters them as dying by the hand of these two lusts wrath and envie is because he conceived all Jobs troubled and as he thought muddy complaints in the third Chapter arose from these two impure and filthy springs wrath and envie from proud wrath and impotent envie he looked upon him as angry and displeased yea as enraged because God had dealt so ill with him and he supposed he saw him pale and wanne eaten up and pined with envie because others were so well because his friends enjoyed health lived in prosperity round about him As if he had said Thou art wroth at thy owne povertie sicknesse and sores and thou art envious at our plentie health and ease And may not folly and simplicitie challenge that man for Theirs whose spirit thus resents either his own evils or his neighbours good Observe hence First Every wicked man is a foolish a silly man Sinne is pure folly In the Proverbs all along wickednesse is the Interpretation of foolishnesse It is folly to take brasse Counters for gold and to be pleased with Bugles more then with Diamonds When an heyre is impleaded for an Ideot the Judge commands an apple or a counter with a peece of gold to be set before him to try which he will take if he takes the apple or the counter and leaves the gold he is then cast for a foole and unable to mannage his estate for he knows not the value of things or how to make a true election Wicked men are thus foolish and more for when bugles and diamonds counters and gold are before them they leave the diamonds and the gold and please themselves with those toyes and bables when which is infinitely more sottish Heaven and hell life and death are set before them they chuse hell rather then Heaven and death rather then life they take the meane transitory trifling things of the world before the favour of God the pardon of finne a part in Jesus Christ and an inheritance among the Saints in light All the wisdome of wicked men is wisdome in their owne conceits And Solomon assures us that there is more hope of a foole then of such that is of those who are sensible of their owne failings and are willing as the Apostle directs to become fooles that they may be wise 1 Cor. 3. 18. Opinion in it selfe is weake but self-opinion is very strong even the strongest of those strong-holds and the highest of those high Towers which the spirituall warre by those weapons which are mightie through God is to oppose and cast down which till they are cast down these fooles are impregnable and will not be led captive unto Christ Secondly observe That to vex and to be angerie at the troubles that fall upon us or at the hand which sends them is a high point of folly and of ignorance Wrath and discontent slay the foolish such are at once twice slain slain with the wrath of God and with their own To die thus is to die like a foole indeed For first this wrath of man springs from his ignorance of God Man would not be angry at what the Lord doth if he knew he were the Lord and may doe what himselfe pleases The ground of anger is a supposition of wrong Secondly This wrath of man springs from ignorance of himselfe He cannot be angry with any crosse who rightly knows himselfe First to be a creature This notion of our selves teaches us that lesson of humility to be subject to the will of our Creatour The law of our creation cals us to all passive obedience as well as unto active as much and as quietly to suffer as to doe the will of God But especially if a man did fully know himselfe to be a sinfull creature he would not be angry yea he would lay a charge upon his mouth not to utter a word and a charge upon his heart not to utter a thought against what the Lord doth with him I will beare the
Indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him saith the Church Micah 7. 9. As if she had said the remembrance of my sinne takes away all pleading much more all quarrelling in how angry a posture soever the Lord sets himselfe to afflict me And therefore my spirit is resolved that because my flesh hath sinned my flesh shall beare the indignation of the Lord. He that knowes what it is to sinne knowes that all sufferings lâ—sse then hell are lâ—sse then sinne If a man were convinced of this that what he beares is lesse then his sinne deserves he would beare it with thanks not with complaints Irascitur quia omnia sibi ceberi puâ—at Yea he would say that as he hath deserved all these and more then all these stroakes so he hath need of them The bundle of folly in his heart cals for a bundle of rods upon his backe and he sees want of correction might have been his undoing Therefore to be angry with affliction argues a man ignorant of himselfe as a creature much more as a sinfull creature Once more the foolishnesse of such wrath appeares to the eye of nature and common reason because this wrath brings no ease or remedy at all to those wounds but rather makes them more painfull if not remedilesse It is an argument of folly to doe a thing whereby we cannot helpe our selves but it is folly and madnesse to doe that which hurts which makes our wound fester and our disease grow desperate Did any man ever ease himselfe by fretting or raging under the crosse How many have made their crosse more heavie upon them by raging at it A mans owne wrath is heavier to him then his crosse A stone is heavie and sand weightie but a fooles wrath is heavier then them both Prov. 27. 3. A fooles wrath is very heavie to others but it is heaviest to himselfe The text is expresse for it which may be a third observation To be angry and discontent at Gods judgements is more destructive to us then the judgements themselves The wrath and judgements of God afflict onely but your owne wrath destroyes wrath slayes the foolish Probably God came onely to correct you but wrath kils you The wrath of man is a passion but it is very active upon man and eats up the spirit which nurses and brings it forth Frowardnesse and anger are at once our sinne and our torment He that is angry when God strikes strikes himselfe whereas humble submission to the blow turnes it into a kisse or an embrace and they that sit downe quietly and believingly under any evill beare it at present with more ease and in the end find it in the inventory of their goods So David It is good for me that I have been afflicted Fourthly note That to envie another mans good or prosperity is an argument of the worst simplicitie Envy slayeth the silly one Envie is a common theame I will not stay upon it but shall onely give you two reasons to demonstrate the silly simplicity of an envious person 1. The good of another is not thy hurt thou hast not the lesse because another hath more Leah's fruitfulnesse was no cause of Rachels barrennesse Thy portion is not impaired by thy brothers increase thou hast thy share and he hath but his how silly a thing then is it to envie him that hath much vvhen as his having much is not the cause why thou hast little Againe this troubling thy selfe that others have more will not get thee any more envie never brought in earnings or encrease 2. A man of wisedome will make all the good of another his good Take away envie and that vvhich is mine is thine and if I take away envie that vvhich is thine is mine To have a heart to blesse God for his blessings upon another is it selfe a great blessing and gives thee likewise a part in those blessings Thus we may enjoy all the joyes and comforts the favours and deliverances the Tolle invidiam quod meum est tuum est si ego tollam itvidiaÌ„ quod tuuÌ„ est meum est health and peace the riches and plenty the gifts yea and the very graces of all those in vvhose graces and gifts plenty and riches peace and health c. We can really and cordially rejoyce Whereas an envious man ever stands in his own light and cannot rejoyce in his own mercies for grieving at his Brothers So farre of the second part of the argument whereby Eliphaz would convince Job of wickednesse his likenesse to the wicked in bearing of or rather fretting against his troubles JOB Chap. 5. Vers 3 4 5. I have seen the foolish taking root but suddenly I cursed his habitation His children are far from safety and they are crushed in the gate neither is there any to deliver them Whose harvest the hungry eateth up and taketh it even out of the thorns and the robber swalloweth up their substance TWo parts of the fourth argument were cleared in the two former verses In these three Eliphaz argues further to the same effect His argument is grounded upon his own experience which had shewed many examples of foolish men like Job as he supposed both in his rising and in his falling in his good days and in his evill I have seen the foolish taking root and suddenly I cursed his habitation c. The argument may be thus framed Foolish men flourish a while and then come to certaine and sudden destruction they and their children and their estates are all crushed and swallowed up But thou didst flourish a while and grow up like some goodly tree yet sudden destruction came upon thy children and upon thy estate the robbers have consumed and swallowed all up Therefore thou art foolish c. I have seen the foolish taking root but suddenly I cursed his habitation I have seen thee taking root and I observe thy habitation cursed Thy outward condition is so paralell with theirs that I know not how to distinguish thee from them in thy inward and spirituall condition I have seen the foolish taking root Eliphaz urgeth experience He urged experience in the fourth Chapter v. 8. Even as I have seen they that plow iniquity and sow wickednesse reap the same c. He urgeth experience here againe and this superadded experience seemes to answer an objection which might be made against that former experience For some might say many wicked men plow iniquity enough and sow wickednesse abundantly yet they reap comforts and the contentments of this world they have what their hearts desire a full harvest of riches pleasures and honours It is true saith Eliphaz I grant it I have observed the like also I have seen the foolish taking root yea but I can answer quickly and remove this objection it doth not at all weaken my former assertion grounded upon that experience for as I have seen him take root so suddenly I cursed his habitation his children are far
hath every affliction all sorrowes in him and the justice of God may forme the most dreadfull shapt afflictions out of his sins And as the sparke lyes closely in the fire or the flint till you smite or blow them up so sin lyes secretly in our hearts till some temptation or occasion smites and brings it out Againe we may observe That Man can sin without a teacher You need not instruct him or teach him to doe evill He doth that by a naturall instinct since his nature was corrupted He sins as the sparks fly upwards or as a bird flyes in the ayre whom no man directs how to use her wings Nature is her rute There needs much teaching against sin and it is the businesse of all the Ordinances to bridle us from acting our corruptions But man walkes in the ways of wickedness without guide or precept It was the ancient error of the Pelagians that the sin of man came only by imitation they denied that man had a stock of corruption in his nature or that his nature was corrupted but seeing others sin he sinned an opinion which carries its condemnation in its own face as wel as in our hearts And though similitudes are no proofs yet the reason of a similitude is mans sinning is therefore compared to a sparks flying to shew how naturally he sins A spark flyes upward without any to lead it the way and a bird would flye though she should never see another bird flye And if a man could live so as never to see any one example of sin all his dayes yet that man out of his own heart might bring forth every sin every day Example quickens and encourages the principles of sin within us but we can sin without any extrinsick motion or provocation without pattern or president from without Lastly observe To sin is no burden or labour to a natural man For it is his nature It is no paines to the sparke to flye upwards what we doe naturally we doe easily Holy duties are no burdens to a godly man because through grace he doth them naturally he hath an inward principle which dictates the law of holines to him though he should want outward teaching He hath an unction from the holy Ghost and knoweth all things 1 Joh. 2. 20. Not that a godly man becomes like God Omniscient or knowing all for at most we know here but in part but he knows all things necessary and so farre as necessary his new birth teaches him He lives not meerely upon the outward teaching he hath both light liberty in himself and so hath a tendency to these things in his own spirit as there is a tendency in fire to ascend We should wonder and rejoyce to see how grace conquers the course of sinful nature The new man is born to mercy and holinesse to grace and glory as the sparks fly upward Hence it is said He that is born of God cannot commit sin for the seed of God remaineth in him As the sparke cannot flye downward because the heate of fire remaines in it The Apostle affirmes it of himselfe and his Fellow-labourers in the Gospell we can doe nothing against the truth but for the truth 2 Cor 13. 8. The possibilities and impossibilities of a regenerate man are directly opposite to those of a naturall man The one cannot sin the other cannot but sin the one can doe nothing against the truth the other can doe nothing for the truth gracious acts become as naturall as sinfull when nature is changed from sin to grace What a blessed change is this that man should doe good as readily as once he did evill that he who was borne free to iniquity should be re-borne free to righteousness as the sparke flye upward A godly man is a heavenly sparke He hath a fire in his nature which carries him upward for ever Thus having opened these two verses being the grounds of the following exhortation let us now examine the matter of the exhortation it selfe contained in the 8th verse Verse 8. I would seeke unto God and unto God would I commit my cause Our Translation omits one word in the beginning of this sentence which though it may be understood in our reading yet the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expression of it betters the sense Surely or truly I would seeke c. There are two opinions about the meaning of these words Some conceive that Eliphaz speaks in high contempt of Job and I may give you their sense by that proud schooling which the Pharisee gave the poor Publican Luke 18. As that Pharisee insulted over the publican thus I thank God I am not such a one as thou art c. but I fast and I pray c. So they represent Eliphaz here insulting over Job I thank God I am not such an impatient person as thou art no such rude curser of my day or complainer of my trouble I am not I thank God so distracted and so distempered as thou art and if I had been in thy case I should have shewed more wit and grace too then to do as thou hast done I should never have been so vaine and foolish so forgetfull of my own duty or the Lords Soveraignty as to cry out against and accuse his providence and dealings with me to lay about me like a mad man as thou hast done no I would have songht unto God and committed my cause unto him this should have been my course such and such the frame and temper of my spirit But I rather take these words in a good sense implying much sweetnesse and meeknesse of spirit in Eliphaz And so this verse is as an application of the Doctrine contained in the former two As if Eliphaz had said Seeing matters stand thus in themselves and these are undoubted truths that afflictions come from our selves and that our sinnes are our own and seeing thy case stands thus that now thou art under great afflictions and troubles I doe assure thee my loving friend Job were I in thy condition I will give thee faithfull counsell and tell thee my heart what I would doe I would no longer stay complaining against my day cursing creatures distempering my head and disquieting my heart with these passions but I would even goe and addresse my selfe unto God I would apply my selfe to Heaven I would seeke for remedy there earth affords it not I have ever found this the way to ease my heart when burdened to asswage my sorrowes when encreased to compose my spirit when distracted to strengthen my resolutions when unsetled I can give thee this rule with A Probatum est an assurance from mine own experience in the use of it and with clearnesse of conscience that it is my purpose in such cases to use it ever I would seeke unto God The word signifies a very diligent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat quaerere diligenter cuâ— curâ— sed interregatione veâ—biâ— ut plurimum search I would
is red which notes fierce wrath and it is full of mixture This mixture is of judgements plagues and punishments this is the portion of their cup Psal 11. ult But what will the Lord doe with this mixed cup who shall sip at the top of the cup he tels us not but he is expresse whose the bottome is He powreth out of the same some drops are spilt here and there but the dreggs thereof all the ungodly of the earth shall wring them out and drinke them Alas they loath it their stomacks turne at it They have not been brought up to drink dreggs they have had their wine well refined and sparkeling with spirits in Christall glasses and how can they get this down They who have drunke so willingly and freely of the cup of sin shall be forced whether they will or no to drink the cup of judgement And it is not a sip or two shall serve their turnes they must drinke all dreggs and all they shall drinke it to the bottome and yet they shall never come to the bottome they have loved long draughts and now they shall have one long enough there is eternity to the bottom If a cup of affliction which in the effect is a cup of salvation be sometime or for a time nauseous to the godly how deadly sick will the ungodly be who must for ever drinke a cup of wrath and death Secondly The word which we translate despise notes the rejecting of a thing as unprfitable or unusefull That which a man despiseth he thinkes he shall have no good by it Things which are unprofitable are despicable So the word is used Psal 118. 22. The stone which the builders refused or despised is become the head stone of the corner There were master builders in the Church who when they surveighed all sorts of materials or stones for their fabrique of faith looking upon the person of Christ thought him fit only to cast out among the rubbish as altogether unusefull They layed him by as a refuse-stone who is the head corner-stone both the strength and beauty of the whole building Thus the word is very appliable to the present Text refuse not corrections as unprofitable and uselesse Say not as the Jewes of Christ Can any good come out of Nazareth so can any good come out of chastnings Despise not the chastning of the Almighty And from this Notion of the word we may observe a second prejudice against the rod Even the Saints are ready to conceive afflictions to be unusefull and that they could well enough spare and be without their troubles A naturall eye never sees nor finds any thing but dammage by affliction and a spirituall eye doth not alwayes see the advantage that comes by them Yea he may sometime say of an affliction it will be my undoing and the ruine of my house and yet afterwards find it as a corner stone the choicest outward meanes which through the blessing of God hath united the walls both of his spirituall and civill building the frame both of grace within and comforts without The Apostle Peter hath a strange Parenthesis 1 Pet. 1. 6. For having told them of their rejoycing in the safety of their spirituall estate being kept or secured as with a Garrison from Heaven by the power of God through faith unto salvation Though now for a season if need be ye are in heavinesse through manifold Temptations or afflictions Observe how he puts an If need be or a supposition of necessity upon the afflictions of believers As if he had said ye who are the Candidates of eternity and heirs of salvation may judge your selves past the rod or the ferula and thinke now ye have need of nothing but comfort or rejoycing in the hope of that salvation ready to be revealed but I tell you you may have need of heavinesse yet before you come to Heaven and of manifold temptations for the removing or subduing the corruptions of your hearts before you enter upon your incorruptible inheritance We are apt to conceive chastnings to be of no use when they are as necessary as our daily bread Therefore despise not chastnings as uselesse or unprofitable Thirdly the word is applied often to the rejecting of a thing or person as low dishonourable and disgracefull In this sense also it is appliable here Despise not chestnings That is doe not thinke thy selfe disgrac'd when thou art chastised the heart of man is naturally full of pride Man is a proud peece of flesh Nor doth he resent any thing more then his own dishonour many can beare the paine of the crosse better then the shame of the crosse It is very observable to this purpose how the Apostle describes the Lord Christ in his sufferings Heb. 12. 2. He endureth the crosse despising the shame as noting that his being above the shame of the crosse bore up his spirit under the crosse To despise shame is to looke upon that which the world counts shamefull not only as despicable in it selfe but as not hurtfull to us When a man despises an enemy as Goliah disdained David 1 Sam 17. 42. he presumes himselfe above his enemies power to hurt him So to despise shame is to make nothing of it or to thinke our selves no whit the worse for it yea rather to thinke our selves honoured by it And untill in this sense we can despise shame we shall despise correction and the crosse Who is it almost that finds not this the hardest text in all the chapter of afflictions Zedekiah was more afraid to be mocked by the sugitive Jewes then to be a prisoner to the King of Babylon Jer. 38. 19. If a man be poore presently he thinks he is disgraced If he be weake he doubts he shall be contemned If he loose his estate he fears he shall loose his credit in the world he was a man of place some body among his neighbours but now he shall be slighted Suffering for well doing is our crowne suffering for evill doing is our shame but it is our shame to suffer Fourthly To despise a thing notes the slighting of it as if we did not think it worth while to take any notice of it and so this will be the sense Despise not thou the chastnings of the Lord that is doe not slight the chastnings do not lightly passe them by do not look upon them as inconsiderable as not caring what God doth with thee or thine When God layes his hand upon us he would have us lay it to our hearts As it is our duty to be affected with mercies so likewise with chastnings If a malefactor should say to the Judge do what you will with me I care not or a child to the parent correct me as long as you will I care not how unnaturall were this This is properly to despise afflictions Some are like Leviathan in this sense Job 41. 27. They esteeme iron as straw and brasse as rotten wood They make nothing of the acts or
Deliverer in six troubles yea in seven How sad I say will it be if we have put God to reade the Chronicle and repeate the historie of his deliverances given us as he did to Israel and say I delivered you in 88 from the Spaniard I delivered you in 1605. from the Gun-powder-Treason I delivered your Parliament I delivered your City I have often delivered your Armies and sometimes crown them with glorious victories now I will deliver you no more Will not such speakings from providence be a plaine conviction that we have forsaken the Lord and chosen other gods God hath sometime what a miracle of mercy chosen those who forsook him but he never so stedfast is he in faithfullnes forsook any who chose him to be their God If he keepe not such from yet he will certainly preserve all such in trouble as it follows Yea in seven there shall no evill touch thee He saith not He shall deliver thee from six troubles and from Non dicit â sexsed in sex non quod ab illis non possit sed quod cum acciderint ab illis liberet ut in illis non succumbat seven As if troubles should only threaten but never come upon us or as if all our deliverances should be preventions but he shall deliver thee in six troubles yea in seven there shall no evill touch thee Evill signifies sometimes the evill of sin and sometimes the evill of punishment We may here take it either way The Lord will so keep up thy spirit and direct thy way in trouble that thou shalt not defile thy selfe with the evill of sin thy troubles shall purge not pollute thee And he wil so keep thee that thou shalt not be annoyed by any evill of punishment If fatherly displeasure should appeare against thee wrath shall not Love shall be mixed with thy correction with thy wormwood and gall as the Church speaks in the Lamentations thou shalt have a temperament of hony and of sweetnesse Ita eripiet ut nullum malum attingat eâ—tiaÌ„si tentari conflictari sâ—naâ— ad tempus nocumentum tamen non capies Coc. in loc though troubles presse thee yet evill shall not Touch thee Not touch thee This notes exact deliverance we think ourselves well many times if we can come off from dangers with a scratch face with a wound or with the losse of a limbe but to come off without the losse of a haire or which is lesse without a touch speakes a compleate deliverance It astonisht Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 3. 27. to see the three children come out of the fiery fornace without a haire of their heads singed without any change of their coats or the smell of fire So much this imports thou shalt passe the pikes through six yea seven a whole army of troubles and no evill shall touch thee When the woman told the tempting Serpent God hath said ye shall not eate of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden nor touch it Gen. 3. 3. She implyed a charge of totall abstinence And when the Lord salth No evill shall touch thee it implies a promise of totall deliverance In the first and second chapters of this book and it is the same originall word Satan begs leave of God that he might touch Job and touch all that he had Now here Eliphaz seemes to touch that string No evill shall touch thee as if he had said God will not let his servants be overwhelm'd as thou art with evils no evill shall so much as touch them And the truth is though Satan obtained leave of God to afflict the body of Job with paines and he made it all over as one wound yet no evill touched him in the sence here intended Though Job was all over evill sores yet there was not so much as the least scarre of an evill upon him Troubles touch't him but evils did not And troubles may touch the servants of God but evill shall not Hence observe God saves and delivers his people from all evill even while they are in the midst of trouble He delivers as well in trouble as from trouble while trouble is continued good may be enjoyed While his are in the water and in the fire God is with them and his presence is more then deliverance Isa 43. 2. If God be with us though all evils are upon us yet no evill touches us The presence of the chiefe good is banishment to every evill As a wicked man may be loaded with good things and yet none of them touch him that is doe him any good So a godly man may be loaded with evils and yet none of them touch him that is doe him any hurt And thus we may understand that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 14. God is faithfull who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make away to escape that ye may be able to beare it Temptation you shall have but with temptation even while temptation is upon you or while you are in temptation The Lord will make a way for you to escape the evill of that temptation Thus with or in trouble we have deliverance To be kept from the evill of trouble is a deliverance from trouble while we are in trouble Thus far of the generall promise Now Eliphaz goes on to particulars in the 20 verse c. As if he had said Least thou shouldst think I deale onely in generall notions that I may more easily elude and deceive thee Therefore Dolosus versatur in universalibus I will now give instance in the point and name what troubles I meane I will ascend with thee to particulars and reckon up the greatest outward evills the most pinching straits that befall the sons of men or the children of God and out of all these I affirme The Lord will deliver thee Vers 20. In famine he shall redeem thee from death and in war from the power of the sword Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue c. Famine Redimere est lucrari ex alterus potestate interposito precio velpotentia conâ—ravim detinenâ—ium ad faciendum liberuÌ„ aut suum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Redemit liberavit ex augustia servitute c. leads the Vanne of this great Army of Evills here mustered up He shall redeem But what is it to redeem from Famine To redeem properly is to take a man out of the power of another by price or by greater power Redemption is an act of speciall favour and it notes a speciall distinction by favour When God threatned Pharaoh and his people with swarmes of flies and promised that his own people should be free I will sever in that day the Land of Goshen in which my people dwell that no swarms of Flies shall be there vers 22. This act of divine discrimination is called Redemption in the next verse And I will put a division Heb. a Redemption between
with so much justice equity holinesse that thou shalt not sin Not that Eliphaz undertakes his absolute freedome from sin but he should not sin as he supposed he had before thou shalt not run into such errors or split thy selfe upon such rocks as have wrackt thy former greatnesse And thus he secretly reproves Jobs former carriage in his family as irregular and sinfull There is a further exposition joyning both these together Thou shalt visit thy house and shalt not sin namely by conniving or winking at the sins and disorders of thy family and yet thou shalt have peace thy strict and faithfull carriage in over-seeing thy family shall not provoke either servants or children to contention and complainings to anger and passion Thy holy severity shall not fill thy house with quarrels and troubles but God shall so Domestici correpti non succensebuntâ— Vâ—tabl over awe the spirits of those under thee that they shall willingly and cheerefully submit to thy purer discipline Observe hence First It is a great and a speciall point of godly wisdome well to order and visit a family Families are the principles or seeds of a Common-wealth As every man is a little world so every house is a little Kingdome A family is a Common-wealth in a little volume And the rules of it are an epitomie of all Lawes by which whole Nations are govern'd The Apostle makes it a speciall character of his Bishop That he must be one who rules his own house well and subjoynes the reason For if a man know not how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the Church of God 1 Tim. 3. 4 5. And therein wraps up this truth that he who knowes how to rule his own house well is in a good posture of spirit for publike rule The same wisdome and justice and holinesse for kind only more enlarg'd and extensiue acts in either spheare and will regularly move both Secondly A family well visited and ordered is usually a prosperous family Sinne spoiles the comforts and cankers the blessings of a family Sin brought into a house rots the timber and pulls down the house or it undermines the foundation and blowes up the house The sin of families is the ruine and consumption of families Hence thirdly observe To be kept from sin is a better and a greater blessing than all outward blessings When Eliphaz had reckoned up all the comforts which repenting Job is promised Thou shalt be delivered in six troubles and in seven Sword and famine shall not hurt thee peace and plenty shall dwell within thy walls and lodge in every chamber Yet saith he I will tell thee of a blessing beyond all these thou shalt not sin It is more mercy to be delivered from one sin then from sword and famine grace is better then peace and holinesse then aboundance riches and honour and health are all obscured in this one blessing A holy a gracious an humble heart There is more evill in one sin than in any or all troubles therefore there must needs be a greater blessing in being kept from sin than in protection from any or all troubles Sin is the greatest evill therefore to be kept from sin is one of the greatest goods Christ took upon him all sorts of outward evils he became poor for our sakes he had not so much as an house to lye in he came in the forme of a servant for our sakes and he was a man of sorrowes He was acquainted with grief all his life at last with death and a grave Yet he would not admit of the least sin he was content to bears all our sins but he abhord the thought of acting one Not to sin is the next priviledge to God and the utmost priviledge of man When in a full sense man shall not sin man will be arrived at fulnes of joy and as we daily empty of sin so we proportionably fill with joy Vers 25. Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great and thy off spring as the grasse of the earth From the present bessings upon the family he descends to those which concerne posterity as if he had said thy comforts shall not be confined to thy selfe neither shall they be shut up within the limits of one generation Mercies shall be transmitted to thy children thy heires shall inherit blessings Thy seed shall be great The word Great signifies both multitude and magnitude Thou shalt have a great seed that is a numerous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seed a multitude of children and thou shalt have a great seed that is honourable and wealthy children Job himselfe was called Chap. 1. 3. though by another word yet in the same sense the greatest man in the East This greatnesse is promised his children and thy shall receive additionall further blessings For the word Rab signifies greatnesse in a continuall motion to more eminent greatnesse And therefore it is sometime translated by encreasing So Isa 9. 6. where the Prophet sets out the flourishing glory of the kingdome of Christ Of the increase of his Kingdome and peace there shall be no end or of the greatnesse and greatning of his kingdome there shall be no end So that to say thy seed shall be great notes not only some standing greatnesse but growing greatnesse they shall ever be upon an encrease till they come to their full in glory And thy off-spring as the grasse of the earth Both clauses of the verse meane the same thing The word which we translate off-spring signifies properly that which goeth forth or issues because children spring or goe forth from their parents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Germina sicut ex vite palmites and are therefore called their issue And the word is used for the bud of the Olive or of the Vine hence the Psalmist puts them both into a similitude Thy children shall be like olive plants round about thy table They are as the olive bud in their birth and as the olive branch in their growth Thy off-spring shall be as the grasse of the earth To be as the grasse of the earth is a proverbiall speech and it Proverbiale multitudinis talia sunt sicut arena maris ut stellae coeli Drus arises to the sense of those proverbials spoken to Abraham concerning his seed thy seed shall be as the Starres of Heaven And thy seed shall be as the sand upon the sea-shore The grasse of the field is as innumerable as the Starres or the sands Thy off spring shall be as the grasse of the sield Thou shalt not only have a numerous but thou shalt have as it were an innumerable off spring Man kind in generall is compared unto grasse Isa 40. 6. All flesh is grasse Grasse in regard of its sudden withering he is suddenly cut downe the goodlinesse of man is as the flower of the field Wicked men are compared to grasse not only because they wither but because they wither suddenly
not that some of the Saints have been tempted and tryed they who are under tryals and temptations would find none on earth to succour them As God doth comfort some in all their tribulations that they may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble with the same comforts wherewith they themselves are comforted of God 2 Cor. 1. 4. So he afflicts them that they might pity and helpe others as being under the same troubles with which themselves have been afflicted A man that hath only traveld in Geographicall books and Maps is not able to give you such lively descriptions of or directions about forreigne Countries as he that hath traveld to and been upon the places so they who have read and studied much about afflictions can never give such enlivening strengthening heartning counsell as they who have been afflicted and have dwelt sometime upon the Land of sorrowes To passe on For now it would be heavier than the sand of the Sea That is it would be most heavy Who can tell how heavy that is which is heavier then the heaviest If my calamity saith Job were weighed it would have been found heavier than the sand of the Sea that account would be given of it though you my friend Eliphaz seeme to account it as light as a feather The sand of the Sea is applied three wayes in Scripture First to set forth an exceeding great number Gen. 22. 17. I will multiply thy seed as the Starres of the Heaven and as the sand which is upon the Sea shore That is I will exceedingly multiply thy seed thy children shall be not only numerous but numberlesse Though a book of Numbers be written concerning Abrahams posterity yet their totall number is not written So Psal 78. 27. He rained flesh upon them as dust and feathered fowles like as the sand of the Sea that is he rained aboundance of feathered fowles Secondly The sand of the Sea is used to expresse the largnesse the mighty extent or capacity of a thing The sand of the Sea is of a vaster extent then the Sea it self as being the outward line or bound of it therefore Jer. 33. 22. it is spoken of as a thing impossible for the sand of the sea to be measured As the host of Heaven sc the Starres cannot be numbred neither the sand of the Sea measured so will I multiply the seed of my servant David Measure is taken both of the content and extent of things The sand of the Sea is immeasurable both wayes it cannot as we speak of humane impossibles be measured by the pole or by the vessell And in 1 King 4. 29. it is said God gave Salomon wisdome and understanding exceeding much and largenesse of heart as the sand of the Sea that is as the sand incompasses and takes the Sea in its armes so Salomon had a heart comprehending all the depths and oceans of knowledge he had the compasse of all learning in his understanding Hence when a man attempts a thing impossible we say to him proverbially Thou measurest the sand Areâ—am metiris Thirdly The sand of the Sea is applied in Scripture to note the exceeding weight and heavinesse of a thing that instance is pregnant for it Prov. 23. 7. A stone is heavy and the sand is weighty but a fooles wrath is heavier than both when Salomon would Stulti mores â—ntolerabiles shew us how intollerably burthensome the manners of a wicked man are he compares them to a stone and to the sand The wrath of a wicked man is very weighty but by the way the wrath of God is incomparably more weighty Wrath proceeding from extreame folly is weighty but wrath proceeding from infinite wisdome is infinitely weighty The wrath of a foole upon his brother is heavier then a stone or then the sand How heavy then will the wrath of the most wise God be upon that foole It is further considerable that he saith not barely heavier than Triplex est aâ—enae genus fossâ—â—ia flavialis Marina Plin. lib. 3 naâ— hist cap. 23. the sand any sand is very heavy but heavier than the sand of the Sea Rivers have sand and dry pits have sand but sea-sand is the vastest and the heaviest sand Againe He speakes not in the singular number Heavier then the sand of the Sea but the Hebrew is plurall heavier than the sand of the Seas as if Job had said if thou shouldest shovell up all the sand that is upon the shores of all the seas together on a heap it would not be so heavy as my calamity In such Hyperbolies or high strains of eloquence Job rhetoricates about his sad condition as if he resolved to put more weight into his expressions as he found more weight put into his afflictions Hence observe Afflictions are heavy burthens The judgements of God upon wicked men are frequently in Scripture called burthens and they are heavy burthens Isa 15. 1. we read of the burthen of Moab that is the judgement and calamity that should fall upon Moab And Isa 17. 1. The burden of Damascus And Isa 19. 1. The burden of Egypt And Isa 21. 1. The burden of the desert of the Sea And afterwards The burden of the valley of vision that is of Jerusalem And 2 King 9. 25. when Jehu had killed Jehoram he said to Bidkar his Captaine Take up and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite for remember how that when I and thou rode together after Ahab his father the Lord laid this burden upon him That is that he should be slaine and throwne out in this manner As afflictions upon wicked men are burdens So afflictions upon the godly are burdens too they are also heavy burdens Their sinnes are burdens upon them My sinnes saith David are gone over my head they are a burthen too heavy for me to beare Psal 38. 4. Their sins are burdens and their sorrowes are burdens Sin doth not only burden man but it burthens God I am pressed under your sinnes as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves saith God Amos 2. 13. As man by sin burthens God so God by affliction burthens man But of all afflictions inward afflictions are the greatest burthens As the spirit of a man is stronger then his flesh so the afflictions which are upon his spirit are weightier then those that are upon his flesh The spirit hath wonderfull strength all spirits are strong Angells are mighty in strength One good Angel is an over-match for all men And the devils who are spirits are called not not only Principalities but powers because of their strength Proportionably the spirit of man hath a mighty strength in it and so the afflictions which are upon the spirit may have a greater weight in them The affliction which Job complains of as heavier then the sand was not so much the calamity that pressed his flesh or the paine that tormented his body as is plaine in the next
verse but it was the calamity of his spirit the affliction lying there A man can sustaine his infirmity but a wounded spirit that is when a man hath got a blow a wound an affliction upon his spirit who can beare Pro. 18. 14. As if Salomon had said I challenge all the world to find me out a man that can bear a burdened wounded spirit unlesse Christ put under his hand no strength of mans spirit can bear the burthen of a wounded spirit A spirit hath no weight at all only fleshly and materiall substances are ponderous but a wounded spirit is heavier then wounded flesh The spirit is strong enough to beare the burthen'd flesh but nothing in flesh can beare a burthen'd spirit In the close of the verse we have the effect of this heavy weight of affliction both spirituall and corporall Therefore saith he my words are swallowed up That is I want words to expresse my griefe a Verba deficiunt quibus mognitudinem doloruÌ„ exprimam Nulla possum oratione â—â—nsequi quanto infester dolore Merc. Vix satis esse queant tanto jaÌ„ verba dolori All language is too narrow for the vastnesse of my sorrows Some reade it b Propterea verba mea amaâ—a Symmach Therefore my words are bitter or therefore my words are steep'd in bitternesse as if he had said I my self feed upon bitter things I feed upon gall and wormewood therefore no wonder if my words tast of them The Vulgar goes farther from the letter of the Text rendring c Proptereaverba mea sunt dolore plena Vul. Therefore my words are full of sorrow as if he had said the sorrows which are in my mind flow out upon my tongue The Septuagint yet further off d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sep. Therefore it seemes my words are evill or ill taken My griefe renders my words more liable to exception or mis-interpretation M Broughton translates Therefore my words come short there is a weight upon me heavier than the sand of the sea Therefore my words come short or my expressions come not up to my intention We translate near that sence and answerably to the originall My words are swallowed up The Hebrew word signifies to lick up or to swallow downe and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lambit absorbuit per Metaphoram perdidit corrupit by a Metaphor to destroy or to consume in the prophecy of Obadiah vers 16. The word is used to that purpose They shall drink and they shall swallow downe And Prov. 20. 25. It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy or who swalloweth downe that which is holy So here Therefore my words are swallowed up that is when I would speake my words are as it were halfe-eaten before spoken or my words are snatcht downe in the Verba semesa Jun. speaking by the sharpe teeth and devouring stomack of my griefe and sorrowes Others from the letter reade Therefore my words are corrupted Verba mea corrupta sunt aut peâ—dita R. Levi deleta R. Moyses intercisa Theod Lasta Chald. Verbum perâ—inâ—t ad pronunciationem corruptâ—m ad â—albutiâ—m wearied lâ—st blotted blubber'd so cut-off that I cannot speak distinctly alluding unto those that stammer A stammerer is in such haste to speake that he eats his words and as we use to say proverbially in our language he clips the Kings English he swalloweth up halfe his mind when he would bring it out in words such is the meaning of Job My words are swallowed up I cannot speak all my griefe takes me off and cuts me short And so he seemes to excuse himselfe First in case he had spoken abruptly and brokenly my paine hath been so great that I can hardly speake therefore take no advantage Vix loqui possam vox faucibâ—a haeret Vat. of the abrupt language and broken sentences which have fallen from me for the truth is my griefe hath swallowed up my words I have rather sighed then declared my mind reall sorrow as well as poeticall passionate imitation of sorrow makes many an Ap siopesis or sudden stop and breach when the tongue is upon the swiftest speed and quickest motion And secondly he seemes to excuse himselfe for the matter of his speech I have not yet spoken all my mind I have not given you my full sense about my condition for through griefe I was forced to swallow up my words and to suppresse what I had further to say Therefore suppose my speech hath been imperfect yet be not scandalized at it for if you will have patience to stay I shall anone bring up the words againe which my sorrowes have snatcht from me and swallowed downe Stay a while and you shall heare more you shall heare all I will speake more largely and more distinctly than I have done One of the Rabbins takes the Rab. Kimchi words actively and referrs the act of swallowing to Jobs friends as if he had said Yee my friends have swallowed down my words Ye have not leasurely fed upon and digested them but swallowed them in such hast that ye have not tasted them As a man that swallowes down a morsell greedily without chewing never tastes either the sweetnesse or the bitternesse of it It is a usuall Metaphor to expresse hearing by eating and we have it as many interpret at the sixth verse of this Chapter Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt It is a truth that when words are thus swallowed or gobled downe we take not out the strength or intent of them But I stay not upon this exposition because it strains too hard upon the grammaticall construction and other circumstances of the Text. Observe out of the former meaning First Great griefe interrupteth speech and makes broken language Therefore my speech or my words are swallowed up As sometimes our words devoure so sometimes our words are devoured some men speake swallowing words and others swallow their words Psal 57. 4. Thou lovest all devouring words or thou lovest all swallowing words O thou deceitfull tongue There are swallowing words as well as swallowed words Malice makes a man swallow the integrity of another with his words And grief will make a man swallow downe his own words so that he cannot speake to maintaine his own integrity Secondly observe That some afflictions exceed all complaints and are too bigge for expression That note reaches M Broughtons sence my words come short of what my condition is there is no language large enough no Oratory eloquent enough to describe or make known my sorrowes Lastly observe Not to be able to expresse our griefe is an increase of our griefe Therefore my words are swallowed up This is an addition to my sorrowes that I cannot make knowne my sorrowes It is a great part of my trouble that I can tell you but a part of my trouble Let a man be hindred from expressing his
griefe either through want of power or through the restraint of power both wayes griefe increases Some who have been dying Apud SophocleÌ„ electra faelicem vocat Niobem cui lugere filiorum interâ—tum permissum est cum id sibi matris crudelitas negaverita upon cruell rackes or under bloudie tortures have yet esteemed this beyond all their tortures that they might not freely speak out their minds and sorrows to have their mouthes stopt was worse to them then to have their breath stopt It is a pain to be kept from speaking To command a man to swallow or eat downe his words is next to the command of eating and swallowing downe his own flesh The cruelty of a disease may gagge a man as well as the cruelty of a Tyrant Such is my griefe that my words are swallowed up JOB Chap. 6. Vers 4 5 6 7. For the arrowes of the Almighty are within me the poyson whereof drinketh up my spirit the terrours of God doe set themselves in aray against me Doth the wilde Asse bray when he hath grasse Or loweth the Ox over his fodder Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt Or is there any taste in the white of an Egge The things that my soule refused to touch are as my sorrowfull meate JOB continueth his reply and his complaint He had exprest the greatnesse of his calamity by comparing it with the sand of the sea for weightinesse now he proceeds in the same sad aggravation by comparing it to an arrow for sharpenesse and to an army for terriblenesse For the arrows of the Almighty are within me The terrours of the Lord set themselves in array against me We are in this verse to open a quiver full of poysoned arrowes and to marshall an army full of divine terrours The arrows of the Almighty c. An Arrow is a deadly engine so called in the Hebrew from its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sagitta à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dimidiavit discidit qaod scindit rem percussaâ— effect cutting or wounding Being taken properly it is an instrument shot out of a Bow of wood or iron either for sport or fight But here figuratively And arrows in Scripture are taken in a figure divers wayes First For the word of God Psal 4. 5. Thine arrowes are sharpe in the heart of the Kings enemies whereby the people fall under thee That is thy words are sharpe and peircing whereby thou convincest and beatest downe sin and sinners either converting or destroying them The Rider on the white Horse going out conquering and to conquer who is conceived to be Truth or the word of God triumphing is described with a Bowe in his hand Rev. 6. 2. Secondly Arrows are put for the bitter and reproachfull words of men Ps 64. 3. 4. Ps 120. 4. They bend their bowes to shoot their arrows even bitter words Thirdly For any evill or mischievous purpose which a man intends or aimes to the hurt of his brother Psal 58. 7. When he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrowes let them be as cut in peeces Bending of the bow notes the preparing and setting of mischiefe The arrow shot out of this bent bowe is the mischiefe acted and finished Psal 2. The wicked bend their bowe they make ready their arrow upon the string they prepare mischiefs against their neighbour Fourthly For any kind of affliction judgement or punishment Zech. 9. 14. And the Lord shall be seene over them and his arrow shall goe forth as the lightning Particularly 1. For Famine Ezek. 5. 16. When I shall send upon them the evill arrowes of famine 2 For Pestilence Psal 91. 5. Thou shalt not be affraid for the terrour by nigbt nor for the arrow that fleeth by day What the terrour and the arrow are is explained in the next verse which is not an addition of other evils from which safety is promised but an explication of the same The pestilence that walks in darknesse and the destruction being the same pestilence wasting at noone-day The meaning of all is Thou shalt be kept or antidoted against the plague both night and day 3. Those thunder-bolts and haile-stones which God sends out of the Magazine of heaven and discharges in his wrath against wicked men are called the arrows of his indignation 2 Sam. 22. 15. Psal 144. 6. Hab. 3. 11. compared with Josh 10. 11. Further the arrows of God signifie inward afflictions troubles of the mind and spirit God often shoots an arrow which pierces into the very soule It was said of Joseph The iron entred into his soule And it is in this sense very usuall for the arrowes of God to enter into the soules of his people Psal 38. 1 2. O Lord rebuke me not in Thy wrath c. For Thine arrows sticke fast in me Where stuck they He meanes it not of his body haply the skin of that was not razed There is an arrow which touches not the sides but stickes fast in the soule of a childe of God Understand it here of the arrowes of affliction and those either externall outward calamities fastning in the flesh of Job or internall galling him to the soule and spirit Therefore he saith The Haret lateri Leâ—halis aruÌ„do arrows of the Almighty are within me the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit These arrowes are described in the text two waies 1. From the Efficient cause The arrowes of the Almighty They drink up my spirit Effect 2 They are the arrowes of the Almighty Shaddai Of which word we have spoken in the former Chapter verse 17th at large it being one of the names of God noting out his power and omnipotence There he cals them the chastnings of Shaddai the Almighty And here The Arrowes of Shaddai the Almighty 1. Because they are sent out from him His arme bends and draws the bow And 2. Because of the mighty force and strength in which they are sent home to the marke The strength in which those arrowes come and the depth of the wound which they make speak an Almighty arme drawing the bow None but an Almighty arme can shoot an arrow thus deep up to the feathers in the soul and spirit It is not in the power of all the tyrants in the world to strik or shoot thus deep The soule of a Saint hath such armour upon it as no bodily weapon can enter And therefore the Martyrs when all was wound in their flesh spoke and triumph'd because their spirits were whole and untoucht Onely a spirit can shoot arrowes into our spirits We finde it frequent among heathen Poets and others to describe Poetae deos arcu jaâ—ulis sagittisque armant intelligentes quas inserunt mortalibus clades quae feriunt eminus quod propriâ—m Dei videtur Bold their gods arm'd with bowes and arrowes And in that they shadowed their power to wound the minds of men and to wound them suddenly and secretly The Scripture describes the true God
thus furnished with his Quiver of arrowes and his bowe Psal 7. 13. He ordaineth his arrowes against the persecutors God â—ath an arow for the wounding of his enemies and an arrow for the wounding of his friends He hath arrowes for both and both are wounded and both are wounded with poyson'd fierie arrowes yet with a vast difference these are wounded and poyson'd that they may be healed and they are wounded and poyson'd that they may be destroyed Arrowes are 1. Swift instruments 2 Secret 3. Sharpe 4. Killing I will make mine arrowes drunke without bloud Deut. 32. 42. They are instruments drawing bloud and drinking bloud even unto drunkenesse afflictions are like arrowes in all these properties 1 Afflictions often come very speedily with a glance as an arrow quick as a thought 2. Afflictions come suddenly unexpectedly an arrow is upon a man afore he is aware so are afflictions Though Job saith The thing he feared came upon him he looked for this arrow before it came yet usually afflictions are unlooked for guests they thrust in upon us when we dreame nâ—t of them 3. They come with little noise an arrow is felt before or as soon as it is heard an arrow flies silently and secretly stealing upon and wounding a man unobserved and unseen Lastly all afflictions are sharpe and in their owne nature killing and deadly That any have good from them is from the grace of God not from their nature The poyson whereof drinketh up my spirits There 's the effect of his afflictions Some reade it The furie Quarum indignatio Vulg. Furor Sept. Fervor Tâ—gur pluâ—iâ—â— VenenuÌ„ or anger whereof drinkes up my spirit It may be called the fury and anger of an arrow because the arrow is often sent in fury and in anger We reade also of the fire of an arrow or of a fiery arrow Ps 76. 4. There brakest thou the arrows of the bow Arrows even firing themselves by the swiftnesse of their motion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sagitta ignita incalescens motu The word of the Text is derived from a roote signifying to waxe very hot and in the Nowne heate Hence by a Metaphor it signifies anger because angry men waxe hot Anger is breathed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caluit incaluit ira sic dicta quod iraâ—â— inca â—escunt fire Isai 42. 25. Therefore he hath powred upon them the furie of his anger and the strength of battell and it hath set him on fire round about Fire and fury are neare in name and in nature When fury burns within fire quickly burns without and so by a Metonymie the same word signifies poison the reason is because poisons heat and inflame poysons inflame the flesh and as it were set the body on fire or because an angry man like an angry Serpent seemes to breath out fire or spet poyson Paul before his conversion breathed threatnings fire and sword against the Church Act. 9. 1. And therefore either way the word is well rendred The anger whereof or the poyson whereof drinketh up my spirit And in the Greek the same word signifies anger and Psal 58. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. poyson because of that inflammation which is about the heart of a man throughly angry In these words Job seemes to allude to the custome of cruell savage men who when they pursued their enemies with deadly Venenatis gâ—avida sagitâ—is pharetra Hor. Qui mortis saevo gem nent ut vulnera causas Omnia vipereo spicula Felle linunt Ovid. l. 1. de ponto Mos erat persarum ut ponant venenum serpentis in sagittis suis R. Solo. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hatred and would wound them to death used to dip the head of their arrows the top of their speares or the point of their swords or whatsoever weapon they fought with in poison that so every wound might be a death The poison of such an arrow speare or sword drinks up the spirit and corrupts the bloud presently Some poison strikes the heart almost as soon as the weapon strikes the arme Job compares the arrowes which God shot into him not to ordinary arrowes which kill only by piercing but to poison'd arrowes which kill by insecting As if God had set himselfe to the utmost to powre out the fiercenesse of his indignation upon him not only shooting an arrow but an arrow dipt in poison such an arrow as the most barbarous and cruell men shoot at their most professed and mortall enemies Drinketh up my spirit Poison gets quickly to the spirit and there drinks poison is subtle and spiritfull and therefore if I may so speake incorporates with that which is most subtle in man his spirit Flat pal'd grosse or dreggish liquor will not quench the fiery thirst of poison it drinkes nothing but pure spirits yet some reade It drinketh up my blood but this amounts to the same sencâ— for the spirit of a living creature is in the blood the spirits swim in the blood There are different opinions about this spirit or what we are to understand by it First Some take spirit here for the breath or for the act of Toâ— confossus vulneâ—ibus â—ix respiâ—are valeo Aquin. breathing As if he had said I have received so many wounds by these poisoned arrowes that I begin to faint and cannot draw my breath These arrowes sup up my spirit and by wounding stop my breath Secondly Others understand it more generally taking spirit for his strength and vigour spirits are so strong that they are put for strength The Aegyptians are men and not God and their horses flesh and not spirit Isa 31. 3. that is they are not strength but weaknesse So here it drinketh up my spirit that is the strength that is in me all the powers and abilities of body and Dolores mei â—â—c penitus enervant atque exhausto robore deâ—iciunt Pined soule are wasted and consumed These calamities spend upon my spirit where the stock of my strength is laid up or which is the lock wherein my strength lies A third apprehends that by spirit he meanes his judgement reason and understanding as if he had said showers of arrowes and troubles come so thick upon me that they even darken my mind and drink up the strength of my understanding Hence I may seeme to speake distractedly unadvisedly weakly I have not that spirit to quicken that strength of reason to judge which formerly I had the paines of my body disable and distemper my mind And therefore if I have spoken any thing below what I ought it is because I am cast below what I was The terrours of God doe set themselves in array against me Arrowes and terrors are the same thing in a different cloathing of words Or the arrow is the affliction it selfe and the terrour is the effect or consequent of it The word here used for
of them together Sometimes we see a duell or single combate one man matcht with one trouble Bellum atque virum Here a man and an affliction there a man and an affliction but another time we may see a man and an army as he spake in the story when one made good a passe against a whole host of the enemy in the spirituall war one soul grapples with a multitude of troubls and conflicts with a thousand temptations As there are legions of evill spirits so legions of spirituall evils assaulting at once Secondly Observe God sometimes appeares as an enemy to his own servants The terrours of God and the arrowes of God saith Job God shootes the arrowes and sets the terrours in array Job expected favour and succor from God but he finds terrours and arrowes Those wounds make our hearts bleed most which we apprehend given us from his anger whom we have chosen as our only friend The Church had that apprehension of God Lam. 3. 3. Surely against me is he turned he turneth his hand against me all the day The Church speakes as if God were quite changed as if he having been her friend were now turn'd enemy So Job I that was wont to have showers of sweet mercies shot and darted into my soule now feele deadly arrowes there shot from the same hand my spirit was wont to drinke in the pleasant influences of Heaven but now poison drinks up my spirits I was wont to walk safe under the guard of divine favours but now divine terrours assault me on every side Thirdly observe When God appeareth an enemy man is not able to hold out any longer See how Job poor soul cries out as soon as he found that these were Gods arrowes and Gods terrours Job was a man at armes a man of valour and of an undaunted courage A man that had been in many skiâ— mishes with Satan and had often through the power of God foiled him and come off with victory Chaldeans and Sabeans were indeed too hard for his servants and conquer'd his cattell yet the spirit of Job beate those bands of robbers and triumphed over them but he was never in battell with God before and perceiving now God himselfe to appeare as an enemy in the field he cries out O the terrours of God O the arrowes of the Almighty When God is angry no man can abide it 2 Cor. 5. 11. Knowing the terrour of the Lord we perswade men We saith the Apostle who have felt by experience or by faith have understood the terrour of the Lord we knowing it experimentally or knowing it beleevingly we being fully perswaded that the terrour of the Lord is most terrible perswade men O take heed you put not your selves under the terrour of the Lord or provoke the terrour of the Lord against your selves Those terrours of the Lord which come from pure wrath are altogether intollerable And those which come from love and are set in array by the infinite wisdome and gratious providence of God ordering all things for good to his in the issue even those are very dreadfull no man not the holiest of men and they are the strongest in this warre are able to stand before them Psal 38. 2. Thine arrowes stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore there is no soundnesse in my flesh by reason of thine anger that is I am as a man who hath not a whole peece of skin all his body over all is a wound or I am as one whose flesh is all rotten by reason of his wounds As Ely speakes to his sonnes 1 Sam. 2. 25. If one man sin against another the Judge shall judge him but if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreate for him So we may say on the other side if man contend with man some one may helpe him he may have a Second to releeve him but if once a man be contending with God who will be his Second who will undertake for him who can come in to the rescue when God is fighting and contending with us We wrastle not against flesh and blood saith the Apostle Ephes 6. 12. when he would shew what a terrible thing it is to wrastle with the Devill but against principalities and powers against spirituall wickednesses in high places Flesh and blood is no match for a spirit though a created spirit though an uncleane spirit a Devill how then shall flesh and blood be able to wrastle with the creating Spirit with him who is a most holy Spirit with God who is The Principality The Power The High the Srong The Almighty Shaddai In other battels it is man with man or at worst man with Devils but here it is man with God weaknesse and frailty contending with omnipotency and therefore when once God appeares against the soul the soul can hold out no longer His anger who is The Spirit quickly drinks up our spiirts Fourthly observe Inward wounds and terrrours are most terrible Doe not think that the soares upon Jobs body fetcht all these complaint from him He shewes you now what it was that made him complaine indeed The arrows of the Almighty are within Tanto poena intolerabilior quanâ—o spiritus corpore subtilior me the terrours of God set themselves in array against me As the joyes and exultations of the spirit doe infinitely exceed all the pleasures which come in from the senses all bodily pleasures so the troubles and afflictions which are upon the spirit infinitly exceed all the troubles and afflictions which fall upon the body As God hath such comforts such joyes to bestow upon his people as the world can neither give nor take away so likewise he hath terrours and troubles which all the world is not able to remove or mitigate There are no medicines in the whole circuite of nature that can heale a wounded spirit All your friends all your relations all your riches yea all your naturall wisdome will be but as the white of an egge to your tast in the day when God smites the heart with these terrours These arrowes and terrours are often preparatorie to conversion when some men are overcome to receive Christ an Army of terrours is sent out to take them captive and bring them in There are many I grant whom God wounds with love he shootes an arrow of favour into their hearts and overcomes them with Troopes of mercies Againe An army of terrours is sent out to try the holy courage of those who are converted as well as to conquer the unholy enmity of person unconverted That was Jobs case here and these second armies may be as terrible to the soule as the first and often are more terrible And we have such cases a man that was converted without an army of terrours may have an army of terrour sent against him after conversion The dispensations and methods of God are various though both his rule and end be ever the same But whether this army of terrour comes
hardnesse or bear evil As if he had said thou dost not know what hardship thou shalt be put unto in thy ministry I who am a veterane 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an old beaten though never conquered souldier in this warfare of Christ have been put to much hardship in my time and from my owne experience I advise thee to inure thy selfe to hardship to lie hard to fare hard to work hard to hear hard words and receive hard usage A tender spirit and a delicate body which must have warme and soft and fine and sweet continually is unfit for the warfare of the Gospel Such a sence is here I know I must endure more than now I doe but I would harden my selfe against that time and resolve to endure it let come what could come I am resolved and have fore-thought the worst Further for the clearing of these words it is considerable that some learned Interpreters put the two middle expressions into a parenthesis and read the whole thus I should have comfort though I should scorch with paine and though God should not spare me for I have not concealed the words of the holy One. One thus This yet is my comfort even while I scorch with pain Iunius and God doth not spare me that I have not concealed the words of the holy One Mr. Broughton as I touched before comes near this sence and translation So I should yet find comfort though I parch in paine when he would not spare For I kept not close the words of the most Holy That is when the long expected houre of my death shall come though God to take away my life should heat the fornace of my affliction seven times hotter then hitherto so that I must parch in paine yet I should have comfort Or take it in Master Broughtons owne glosse in all these pangs if God would make an end of me it should be my comfort and I would take courage in my sicknesse to beare it by my joy that I should die because I professed the Religion of God So that the strength of Job to bear the hand of God was from the conscience of his former integrity in doing the will and maintaining the truth of God Let him not spare Job having taken up his hope that he should have comfort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pepercit clementia usus fuerit and this resolution that he would harden himselfe in sorrow speaks now as if he were at a point let God doe what he pleaseth let him not spare as if he had said what course soever the Lord shall see good to take for the cutting me off I am content he should goe on with it Let him not spare The word signifies to indulge or shew mercy to him whom by all right a man might justly destroy Ezek. 5. 11. Because thou hast done thus and thus saith God therefore will I also diminish thee neither shall mine eye spare neither will I have any pity Job seemes to invite what God threatens others Let him not spare let him not have any pity let him take his full swing in destroying of me In this sence it is said Rom. 8. 32. That God spared not his own sonne That is he abated not any thing which justice could inflict Christ therefore saves to the uttermost because he suffered to the uttermost He was not spared one blow one drop one sigh one sorrow one shame one circumstance of all or any one of these which justice could demand as a satisfaction for mans sinne Yea though in a sence he cryed to his father that he might be spared yet he was not There is a three-fold mercy in God There is a preventing mercy mercy that steps between us and trouble And there is a delivering mercy mercy that takes us out of the hand of trouble There is a third kinde of mercy coming in the middle of these two and that is called sparing mercy and that is two-fold First sparing for the time when God delaies and staies long ere he strike Secondly sparing for the degree when the Lord moderates and mitigates abates and qualifies our sufferings not letting them fall so heavie upon us as they might This sparing mercy stands I say in the middle of the two former it is not so much as preventing mercy stopping trouble that it come not neither is it so much as delivering mercy removing it when it is come Now Job did not only not aske delivering mercy that he asked not sparing mercie Let him not spare me in the time let him not delay or loose time let him come as soone as he will And let him not spare me in the degree and measure let him strike me as hard and lay his hand as heavily upon me as he will David Psal 39. 13. makes this his request O spare me that I may recover strength before I goe hence and be no more That is abate and mitigate my sufferings that I die not but Job desireth not to be spared at all He rather saith take away all my strength that I may goe hence and be seen no more Observe hence That the hope troubles will end comforteth yea hardneth in bearing present troubles Then will I comfort my selfe then will I harden my selfe let him not spare if I may have my request and die The sharpest sting of trouble is that it is endless and it is next to that when we can not looke to the end of it nor see any issue or way out of it That which discourages the damned in bearing their sorrowes and softens both their flesh and spirits to receive home to the head every arrow of wrath and dart of vengeance is they see no end and are assured there will be none They know they cannot be cut off and therefore they cannot harden themselves in sorrow no that very consideration makes their hearts which have been hardned to commit sin tender to receive punishment and exactly sencible of their pains could they see that at last they should be cut off even they would be hardned to bear the torments of Hell in the meane time though that time should be very long yea as long as time can be onely not endlesse The pain it selfe doth not afflict so much as the thought that they shall be afflicted for ever As the assurance that the glory of Heaven shall never end infinitely sweetnes it so the assurance that the paines of hell shall never end infinitely sharpens them And not to see the ending of worldly troubles neer puts us further off from comfort then the bearing of those troubles Therefore saith Job if I might be assured that God would cut me off I would harden my selfe in sorrow and let not God spare I would not desire him to hold his hand to mitigate or abate my paines * Eâ— haec mihi merces esset ejus seu pro eo quod nâ—n occultavi unquam sed diligentisâ— simè observavi quam commendatissima habui
neither will I be alwayes wrath For the spirit should fail before me c. The spirit of a man that is his courage and resolution are farre stronger then his flesh namely his natural temper and constitution and yet that cannot hold cut for ever The Spirit will come down whether we will or no if God contend long with us how then must the flesh wither like a leafe before him And therefore the bodies the flesh and bloud of the damned who are to bear the wrath and contendings of God for ever their flesh and bloud I say are in a sence made spiritual that is they have more strength given them then flesh and bloud yeeld naturally otherwise it were impossible for them to hold out for ever under the wrath of God and the torment of their accursed condition Their strength is made the strength of stones and their flesh as brass they are made immalliable their sence of pain shall be admirably quicked and yet they shall continue as if they had no sence at all they shall be for ever wounded and never die of their wounds As it is in reference to that everlasting misery so in proportion to these temporal miseries There is no â—â—rength of man no flesh and bloud able to endure and hold out if God lets out his hand to afflict and puts not under his hand to support Vers 13 Is not my help in me And is wisdom driven quite from me This and the verse following are of a very difficult construction and understanding which caused a learned Interpreter to say If Locus difficilis siquis a lius in hoc libro quem ego adbuc non intelligo Drus there be any hard text in the whole book this is one and after all his thoughts about it he concludes with this ingenuous acknowledgment I do not yet understand the meaning of it First as we read it The text seems to carry a harsh connexion with the words fore-going There Job queries Is my strength the strength of stones And yet immediately to say Is not my help in me sounds incongruous For if he had help in him he had strength in him and such as might well be called the strength of stones extraordinary strength So then Iob having said with his last breath that he had no such strength how is it that here he should say and more strongly affirm that he had such strength so much this question implies Is not my help in me As if he had said do not I know which way to help my self How to extricate my self out of this condition Besides how is this a truth For there is no man that hath his help in himself not help enough in himself for any natural work much lesse for any spiritual work and most of all lesse for the holy carriage of the heart under affliction or to deliver himself from it Man hath no help in himself The voice of the Church is Our help standeth in the Name of the Lord and the voice of David was The Lord is my helper how then doth Iob say Is not my help in me Mans ruine is in himself but how unlike is this to the voice of truth to say My help is in my self We can undoe our selves fast enough but we cannot repair and make our selves up again Nor can any creature be our help no man no Angel can be our help God reproveth the Jewes Isa 31. For going down to Egypt for help though they were a strong people Certainly it is as bad for a man to make himself his help as to make another man his help How then shall we give a wholesome understanding of these words Is not my help in me And is wisdome driven quite from me For the clearing of it consider the divers readings Some thus Was not my help in me And so they make the meaning to Nonne auxilium meum in me sc fuit Vatabl. Nonne quoad potui me juvi minimè fui pusillanimus me quoad fieri potest erigo fussento be this Did not I help my self as much as I could Was I faint-hearted and cowardly Did I sink as a man of a poor spirit under the burden Did not I put my self forth to the uttermost that I could to stand under these troubles and afflictions There is much in that for some men do not help themselves as they might but their own spirits sinke and their hearts fail yea their hearts fail before their strength failes Job disclaims this I did not so I helpt my self while I was able I put out the utmost of my power to bear and set a good face on 't as long as ever I could Was not my help in me The Septuagint with the Greeks in general referre these words to God making Job speak thus Did not I trust in him But Nonne in ipso considebam sed adjutorium à me recessit negavit me miserie ordia visitatio Domini despexit Sept. my help is departed from me and the mercy of the most High hath with-drawn it self from me As if he had said I never put my trust in my self nor did I promise my self great matters as from my self for alas What is my strength I am acquainted well enough with mine own frailty but that which I onely trusted to hath left me I trusted unto God and unto his help now he seemes to forsake and with-draw his assistance from me But I leave this with the Authors it hath little authority with me or sutableness to the course and tenour of Jobs spirit under these afflictions The Vulgar translates the whole verse negatively and so it makes a plain and a good sense Whereas we read it interrogatively Is not my help in me c. He reades it thus Behold my Ecce non est a uxilium mihi â—â—n me necessarii quoque mei recesserunt à me Vulg. help is not in me and my friends who should help me are departed from me That which we translate wisdome Is wisdome departed from me He translates friends my friends who should be my helpers are departed from me And so the meaning of all is as if Job had said I cannot help my self and they who should have deserted me And so connects or joins it with that which went before What is my strength that I should hope my strength is not the strength of stones there is no help in me and they who should help me are departed from me I was once an eye to the blind and a foot to the lame Chap. 29. 15. When a man hath no help in himself he may have it in another If a man want an eye he may have an eye of his neighbour and if he want a hand his friend may be a hand to him but saith Job they that should be eyes and hands helpers unto me are gone and departed from me There is yet another rendering which makes a very clear sence What though I have no
but thorough my comelinesse thou art very beautifull The worth of man is out of himselfe the Church shines by those rayes by that lustre which Christ casts upon her Secondly observe from this question What is man c. Man hath layed himselfe so low that he is not worthy of one thought from God What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him and set thy heart upon him It is a wonder that God should vouchsafe a gracious looke upon such a creature as man it is wonderfull considering the distance between God and man as man is a creature and God the creatour What is man that God should take notice of him is he not a clod of earth a peece of clay but consider him as a sinfull and an uncleane creature and we may wonder to amazement what is an uncleane creature that God should magnifie him will the Lord indeed put value upon filthines and fix his approving eye upon an impure thing One step further what is rebellious man man an enemy to God that God should magnifie him what admiration can answer this question will God prefer his enemies and magnifie those who would cast him downe Will a Prince exalt a traytor or give him honour who attempts to take away his life The sinfull nature of man is an enemy to the nature of God and would pull God out of Heaven yet God even at that time is raising man to Heaven Sinne would lessen the great God and yet God greatens sinfull man Thirdly observe Though man be low in himselfe yet God bestows many thoughts and cares upon him Though there be no reason at all in man why God should magnifie him yet God doth and will Free grace overlooks all the distance that is between God and us as we are creatures and it overlooks that greater and vaster distance which is between God and us as we are sinfull creatures Many a man is ready to think himselfe so good and so great that his brother is not worthy one of his thoughts or a cast of his eye he thinks it too much to looke towards a man that is of the same make with himselfe because he is a little lower statur'd in estate or degree A great rich man thinks he doth a poore man a very great favour if he turns about and speaks to him We may well cry out with admiration O the pride of man to man and O the love of God to man one man hath scarce humility enough to speake to another who in nature is equall to him and yet God who is infinitely above us hath love enough to magnifie and set his heart upon him The language of the holy Ghost is very graduall about this point Eirst What is man that thou art mindfull of him and the sonne of man that thou visitest him Psal 8. 4. To be mindfull of a man is not so much as to visit him we may be mindfull of those whom we goe not to see or to whom we send no helpe Secondly What is man that thou takest knowledge of him or the sonne of man that thou makest an account of him Psal 144. 3. It is much that God will take knowledge of a man or cast an eye upon him but it is a great deale more that God will make account of him but the third and highest step of favour is this of the text that the Lord will magnifie man and set his heart upon him as if he could not be without him Observe Fourthly The true apprehension of the greatnesse of Gods mercy and goodnesse to us makes us little in our owne eyes I ground it thus when Job had considered how the Lord exalts and greatens man he then abases and diminishes man what is man that thou shouldest magnifie him Nothing should draw man so low in himself as to thinke how high God doth and how much higher yet God intends to raise him In the 1 Chron. 17. 16. When David enquired of God by Nathan whether he should build him an house God answered no he should not but his sonne after him should But though the Lord would not have David build him an house yet the Messenger who was to carry this report must tell David That the Lord would build him an house and establish his sonne upon the throne after him vers 10. 11. Assoon as David had this answer brought him of Gods wonderfull goodnesse toward him and of those large promises to his family he breaks out into this diminutive admiration Who am I O Lord God and what is mine house that thou hast brought me hitherto And yet this is a small thing in thine eyes O God for thou hast also spoke of thy servants house for a great while to come and hast regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree O Lord God We hear not of such an humble speech falling from Davids lips till Gon sent him that message of advancement And so 2 Sam. 9. 8. when David out of that aboundant love he bare to Jonathan enquired Is there any that is left of the house of Saul that I may shew him kindnesse for Jonathans sake Mephibosheth was found And when David told him I will take care for thee Thou shalt eat bread at my table continually This favour astonisheth Mephibosheth what is thy sevant that thou shouldest looke upon such a dead dogg as I am He spake of himselfe below men when he heard David speake so highly of him A living dogg is better then a dead Lion but what is worse then a dead dogg The like impression Davids excessive kindnesse made upon the spirit of Abigail 1 Sam. 25. 41. when he sent messengers to her after the death of her husband Nabal to assure her that he would be her husband This honour that David annointed King over Israel should desire her to be his wife abases Abigail in her own eyes Let me saith she be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord. Davids wife said she it is too much preferment for me to be Davids servant I shall be honour'd enough to be his servants servant and that in the lowest service to wash their feet As ingenuous spirits when they heare messages of great favours tender'd them fall low in their own thoughts So much more will gracious spirits Those magnifying offers of Christ and pardon of sin by him of a crowne of life and an exceeding weight of glory purchas'd by him these magnifying promises I say bring the soule upon the knee upon the meditation and acknowledgement of it's owne meannesse and vilenesse What am I that the Lord should respect me that the Lord should redeeme me that he should regenerate me than he should set his love upon me prepare heaven and glory a crowne and a kingdome for me what am I There is nothing doth more emptie us of self-conceit and high thoughts than duly to consider what high thoughts God hath of us Note one thing further from these words
the Holy Ghost Good and bad beleevers and unbeleevers speak often the same good words but they cannot speak the same things nor from the same principles nature speaks in the one in the other grace The one may say very passionately he hath sinned and sometimes almost drown his words in tears but the other saith repentingly I have sinned and floods his heart with Godly sorrowes Thirdly to clear it yet more the general confession of the Saints have these four things in them First Besides the fact they acknowledge the blot that there is much defilement and blackness in every sin that it is the onely pollution and abasement of the creature Secondly They confess the fault that they have done very ill in what they have done and very foolishly even like a beast that hath no understanding Thirdly They confess a guilt contracted by what they have done that their persons might be laid lyable to the sentence of the law for every such act if Christ had not taken away the curse and condemning power of it Confession of sin in the strict nature of it puts us into the hand of justice though through the grace of the new Covenant it puts us into the hand of mercy Fourthly Hence the Saints confess all the punishments threatned in the Book of God to be due to sin and are ready to acquit God whatsoever he hath awarded against sinners O Lord righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face as at this day to the men of Iudah and to the inhabitants of Ierusalem Dan. 9. 7. And as in this confession for the matter they acknowledge the blot the fault the guilt the punishment of sin so for the manner which sets the difference yet wider between the general confessions of wicked and Godly men they confess First freely Acknowledgements of sin are not extorted by the pain and trouble which seazeth on them as in Pharaoh Saul and Judas But when God gives them best dayes they are ready to speak worst of themselves And when they receive most mercies from God then God receives most and deepest acknowledgements of sin from them They are never so humbled in the sight of sin as when they are most exalted in seeing the salvations of the Lord. The goodness of God leads them to this repentance they are not driven to it by wrath and thunder Secondly they confess feelingly when they say they have sinned they know what they say They taste the bitterness of sin and groan under the burdensomeness of it as it passes out in confession A natural mans confessions run through him as water through a pipe which leaves no impression or sent there nor do they upon the matter any more taste what sin is then the pipe doth of what relish water is Or if a natural man feels any thing in confession it is the evil of punishment feared not the evil of his sin committed Thirdly they confess sincerely they mean what they say are in earnest both with God and their own Souls Blessed is the man in whose spirit there is no guile Psal 32. 2. The natural man casts out his sins by confession as Sea-men cast their goods over-board in a storm which in the calm they wish for again They so cast out the evil spirit that they are content to receive him again when he returns though it be with seven worse then himself Even while they confess sin with their lips they keep it like a sweet bit under their tongues And wish it well enough while they speak it very ill Fourthly they confess beleevingly while they have an eye of sorrow upon sin they have an eye of Faith upon Christ Iudas said he had sinned in betraying innocent blood Mat. 27. 4. but instead of washing in that blood he defiles himself with his own he goes away and hangs himself No wicked man in the world continuing in that state did ever mix Faith with his sorrowes or beleeving with confessing he had sinned So much for the clearing of the words and the sence of this general confession Hence observe first While a Godly man maintains his innocency and justifies himself before men he willingly acknowledges his infirmity and judges himself before God Iob had spent much time in wiping off the aspersions cast upon him by his friends but he charges himself with his failings in the sight of God Secondly observe God speakes better of his servants then they doe of themselves When God speakes of Job we find not one blot in all his character all is commendation nothing of reproof He saith c. 1. v. 21. in all this Job sinned not but for all that Job saith I have sinned A hypocrite hath good thoughts of himself and speakes himself faire He flatters himself in his own eyes until his iniquitie be found to be hateful Psal 36. 2. A godly man thinks and speaks low of himself he accuses himself in his own eyes though his integrity be found very acceptable with the Lord. Thirdly observe The holiest man on earth hath cause to confess that he hath sinned Confession is the duty of the best Christians First The highest form of believers in this life is not above the actings of sin though the lowest of believers is not under the power of it And if the line of sinning be as long as the line of living then the line of confessing must be of the same length with both While the Ship leaks the pump must not stand still And so long as we gather ill humors there will be need of vomits and purgings Secondly Confession is a soul-humbling duty and the best have need of that for they are in most danger of being lifted up above measure To preserve us from those self-exaltations the Lord sometimes sends the Messenger of Satan to buffet us by temptations and commands us to buffet our selves often by confession Thirdly Confession affects the heart with sin and ingages the heart against it Every confession of the evill we do is a new obligation not to do it any more The best in their worst part have so much freedome to sin that they have need enough to be bound from it in variety of bonds Fourthly Confession of sin shews us more clearly our need of mercy and indears it more to us How good and sweet is mercy to a soul that hath tasted how evil and how bitter a thing it is to sin against the Lord. How welcome how beautiful is a pardon when we have been viewing the ugliness of our own guilt Fiftly Confession of sin advances Christ in our hearts How doth it declare the riches of Christ when we are not afraid to tell him what infinite sums of debt we are in which he onely and he easily can discharge how doth it commend the healing vertue of his blood when we open to him such mortal wounds and sicknesses which he only and he easily can cure Wo be to those who commit sin abundantly that grace may abound but
well-being thou art a preserver of our outward estates and a preserver of our spirituall estates A God in whom we live move and have our being as well as we receive being life and motion from thee and therefore seeing such is thy nature and this thy office to be a preserver of men what wouldst thou have me to doe unto thee Why dost thou thus destroy me and breake me to peeces Why dost thou follow me with affliction upon affliction till I am utterly ruin'd and undone Thus Jacob Gen 28. 15. If thou wilt keepe me in the way that I shall go he makes a vow to God and indents or articles with God to be kept and preserved by him The word there is Thomer but that and this are used promiscuously as Psal 121. 4. The keeper of Israel In the word of the text and Psal 31. 23. The Lord preserveth the faithfull he preserveth them from the reach of dangers and troubles incompassing them on every side So then in this title we have the worke and office of God held forth the second act of his power The first is the act of creation the second is this act of preservation or providence Preservation or ptovidence is a continued creation Observe from this title First Man wants a preserver If God having made man and set him in the world had left him to his own keeping what would become of him When God trusted man to goe a little alone and did not hold a speciall hand of preservation over him to keepe him from or in temptation how quickly did he fall and loose himselfe Man like a little child which if the mother or the nurse leaveth alone unwatched or uneyed runs into dangers and deaths every moment Man is a weake creature therefore he needs a preserver Againe man as fallen especially is a foolish creature he hath no understanding to guide himselfe he is as ignorant as a child if God leave him how to dispose of his own waies and order his goings The way of man is not in himselfe neither is it in him that goeth to direct his own steps Lastly Man walks in the midst of enemies He is beset with dangers therefore he needs a protectour what would become of a man living in a throng of adversaries were it not that he hath a God whose name is the preserver of men It is good for us to know God by this Name in every letter of it in the full extent of it First Immediately his owne hand and out-stretched arme is our safety Zech. 2. 5. I will be unto Jerusalem a wall of fire round Mirus sane Dei amor in populu suum mira previdemia Sanct. in Zech. 2 about If you want a wall I will be your wall my immediate providence shall be your defence rather then you shall not be defended Is my strength the strength of stones or is my flesh brasse was Jobs question Chap. 6. 12. We may resolve it the strength of God is more then the strength of stones and he The Spirit is more firme then brasse The Romans in their warrs used to call out the Tutelar gods of those Cities they besieged c. as believing them a stronger defence to those places than wals or forts And yet our God is more then a wall of stone or brasse he promised to be a wall of fire Now who can batter downe a fire that is it 's own fewell or who can set up ladders to scale the flames And as the Lord is a wall of fire so a wall of water for the safety of his people Isa 33. 21. there will I be a place of broad rivers and of streames that is I will be their preservation the broad river preserves a place from the invasion of enemies waters are stronger then bulwarks of stones And least any should object though broad rivers keepe of Foot or Horse yet they give advantage to ships therefore it is added I will be such a river to thee as wherein shall goe no galley with oares neither shall gallant Ship passe thereby But if any shall venture their Navies upon these streames to thy annoyance then know as the 23. vers intimates Their tacklings shall be loosed they shall not well strengthen their masts they shall not spread their sailes They shall be so ruffled and entangled that the lame shall take the prey that is the weakest resistance shall subdue them and make prize of their whole fleete even of their invincible Armado's I love the Lord my strength my rock my tower my fortresse my buckler the horne of my salvation Ps 18. 1 2. all these titles meete in this one The preserver of men Secondly God is a preserver of men mediatly by instruments he preserves man by man and man sometimes by the beasts of the earth and fowles of the ayre but chiefely he preserveth men by Angels Are they not ministring spirits sent out for the good of those that shall be heires of salvation Psa 91. He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy wayes they shall beare thee up in thy wayes least thou dash thy foote against a stone A promise so full of sweetnesse for faith to feed on that the devil hath no way to elude it but by tempting us as he did Christ to over-act it surfet faith into a presumption by a wilfull needlesse throwing our selves into danger And there is a necessity that God himself should thus take upon him the preservation of men This necessity is three-fold 1. None are strong enough to preserve us without him our enemies would breake thorough all strength below God so that if he were not our preserver none could In vaine is salvation hoped for from hils and from the multitude of mountains truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel Jer. 2. 2. None are wise enough to preserve us except the Lord. As evill spirits are powers for strength so likewise serpents for policie and craft this craft of hell cannot be discovered much lesse disappointed without wisedome from Heaven 3. None but God are patient enough to be the preservers of men I beleeve if the Angels left to their naturall temper were set to be keepers of men they had all given over this charge long before this time as it is supposed they who fell refused to undertake or take it up at first Angels have not the patience to keepe such a froward peece as man It is a wonder God doth not give over that care and in stead of preserving dash him in peeces When the Lord told Moses he would send an Angel before him and drive out the Canaanite Exod. 34. 2. For I will not goe up in the midst of thee for thou art a stiffe-necked people least I consume thee in the way The text saith when the people heard this evill tidings they mourned and no man did put upon him his ornaments Why what was it that troubled them was it that
But I conceive our translation carries the sense fairer in a reflection upon his owne tired spirits So that I am made a burthen to my selfe that is thou dost even throw me upon my self whereas heretofore thou wast wont to bear me and take my burthen upon thy self Alas I faint I cannot stand under my self I am weary of my life because I am left alone to bear it I know not what to do with my self I am so burthensome to my self Hence observe First Outward afflictions poverty sickness want c. are burthens and they make a man burthensome to himself It is a great burthen to have our comforts taken away from us The removing of comforts lies like a heavy weight upon the spirit the removing of health from the body is a weight upon the soul fear is a burthen care is a burthen and so is pain Therefore God cals us to cast all those burthens upon him Psal 55. 22. Secondly observe Man left to himself is not able to bear himselfe Man is much borne down by the weight of natural corruption Hence the Apostle cals it A weight and the sinne which doth so easily beset us Heb. 12. 1. or dangle about our heels to burden us as long garments do a man that runneth Our ordinary callings and affaires left upon our own backs presse us to the earth much more do our extraordinary troubles and afflictions And therefore he adviseth Cast thy burthen upon the Lord he assures in the next words and he shall sustaine thee As implying that man cannot sustaine or beare his owne weight And though it should seem we have strengh to spare for others and are therefore commanded to bear one anothers burthens Gal. 6. yet no man of himself no not the holiest Atlas nor the spirituallest Porter on earth is able to bear his owne self unless Christ be his supporter who is also therefore said to uphold all thiags by the word of his power Heb. 1. 3. Because no creature in a natural or man in a spiritual capacity can bear his own weight Thirdly From the connexion between these two phrases Thou hast set me as a marke against thee so that I am a burthen to my self what is it that makes my life to be so burthensome to me It is this because I am set as a mark before thee that is because thou seemest to be an enemy to me And so the note from the connexion is this That which presses and burthens the soule ahove all is the apprehension that God is against us Job in many things looked unto God under these temptations with sad thoughts as if he were his enemy so he express'd himself in the sixth Chapter The poyson of his arrows drinks up my spirits he setteth himselfe in battel array against me In these temptations and desertions this was the burden of his spirit that God appeared as an adversary Why doest thou set me as a marke against thee Let the Sabians and the Chaldeans shoot at me as much as they will let fire and windes contend with me and make me the marke of their utmost fury I can beare all these Job was light hearted enough when he thought he contended onely with creatures and that creatures onely contended with him but in the progresse of this triall he finds God against him withdrawing comforts from and shooting terrours at him now he is a burthen to himself he can beare this no longer As Caesar said in the Senate when he had many wounds given him yet this wounded him most that he was wounded by the hand of his son What thou my sonne So when a believer looks this way and that way and fees many enemies Satan and the creatures all in armes against him he can beare all their charges and assaults but if he apprehend God opposing and wounding him he weepes out this mourneful complaint What thou my Father What thou my God Thou who hast so often shined upon me dost thou darken thy face towards me and appeare mine enemy These apprehensions of God will make the strongest Saint on earth a burden too heavy for himselfe to beare That which causeth the most burdensome thoughts in the Saints is the inevidence of their pardon Sin unpardon'd is in it self a burden and our not knowing sin to be pardon'd is a greater burden but our jealousies and fears that it is not pardon'd is the greatest burden of all and that which adds weight yea an intolerableness to all other burdens Hence Job in the next verse and with the last breath of his answer points directly at that which pincht him Verse 21. And why doest thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquitie for now shall I sleep in the dust and thou shall seek me in the morning but I shall not be In the former verse we found Job humbly confessing his sin and earnestly enquiring of the Lord a reason of his sorrowes why he had shot him so full of arrows that now he was not so much wounded as loaded And become a burthen to himself In this verse he sues for the pardon of those sins and so for the removal of those sorrows That the bow might speedily be unbended and not a shot more made at his bleeding breast In the answer of which suite he desires speed and expedition lest help being retarded come too late for he professeth that he cannot hold out his siedge long he must needs make his bed in the grave and then being sought for he shall not be found And why dost thou not pardon my trangressions We may consider the words two waies 1. In the Forme of them Matter 2. In the forme they are a vehement expostulation Jobs spirit hath been heated all along with the fire of his sufferings and here he speakes in the heat of his spirit and with fiery desires after mercie He keepes up his heart to the same height and tenour still There it was Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee Here 's another Why and why dost thou not pardon my transgression As before he was grieved to be set up as a mark for afflictions to aime at so now he desires to be made a marke for mercy to aim at I shall note one thing from hence before I come to open the words They who are sensible of the evill of sinne will pray heartily for the pardon of sinne Expostulation is earnest prayer expostulation is a vehement postulation a vehement enquiring after or desiring of a thing Why dost thou not pardon my sinne may be resolved into this O that thou wouldest pardon my sinne Or Wilt thou not pardon my sinne The matter of this prayer requires such a forme such a vehemency of spirit in him that prayes If there be any petition in the world about which the spirit should be fired it is in this when wee pray for pardon of sinne Will not a man whose body is defiled by falling into the mire call hastily for some to
cleanse and wash him Will he not say if it come not speedily why do ye not bring away the water there sin is the defiling and bemiring of the soul and pardon is the cleansing of it If a man be deeply and deadly wounded will hee have onely some few feeble desires or make cold requests for a Chyrurgion Will hee not call and call aloud Call and call again for helpe and healing Sins are the wounds of the soul and pardon is the only cure of it If a man hath broken his bones will he not be very earnest to have them set again Sin is the breaking of the bones and pardon is their setting How doth David cry to the Lord Psal 51. 8. That the bones which he had broken might rejoyce Sin had broken his bones first and the hiding of Gods favour from him was a second breaking If a mans peace or the peace of a Nation be disturbed is there not earnest crying as at this day to have it repaires and re-established Sin troubles our peace the peace of the soul and the peace of Kingdomes Sin is the great make-bate and pardon is the returning of our peace and quieteth all again and therefore no marvel if we cry out Why doest thou not pardon our sinnes He that is greatly in debt and fears every hour to be arrested and cast in prison is trying all friends to get security and protection Sinning is a running in debt with God and it brings us under the danger of his arrest every-moment forgiveness cancels the bond when the sin is pardoned the debt is paid and the soul discharged And therefore no wonder if in this case we hear or make strong cries Why doest thou not pardon our sinnes My son saith Solomon Prov. 6. 4. speaking about suretiship if thou be surety for thy friend if thou hast ingaged thy self for another Give not sleep to thine eyes nor slumber to thine eye-lids deliver-thy self as a Roe from the hand of the hunter and as a bird from the hand of the fowler Not to give rest to the eye nor slumber to the eye-lids notes the hottest pursuit and greatest intention of spirit about a business Thus busie Solomon advises a man to be who becometh surety for another Then what should we do who have contracted huge debts our selves How should we in this sense give our eyes no rest and our eye-lids no slumber till our souls be delivered as a Roe from the hand of the hunter and as a bird from the hand of the fowler that is from all the power and challenge which the Law without us conscience within us Satan pursuing us and the justice of God threatning us can any way make or have against the peace of our souls That 's the first thing from the manner or form in which Job sues for the pardon of sin His spirit doth not fall he grows not flat upon this point but is as high and earnest here for the pardon of sin as in any of his requests for the ease of his pained bodie or the dissolution of it Why doest thou not pardon my sinne and take away mine iniquity I shall first shew what is meant by pardoning and taking away and then what by transgression and iniquity and so put the sence of all together Why dost thou not pardon my transgression The * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accipiunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tanquam à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oblitus fuis Septuagint reads it Why dost thou not forget my transgression Or bury it in the grave of oblivion and the word may signifie to forget as well as to take away But generally it imports the lifting up or taking away of that which lies heavy upon us either in a morall or in a natural notion Hos 11. 4. I was to them as they that take off the yoak And because pardon is the taking away or lifting off of sin therefore it is often put for the act of pardoning Hence also it is applied to that gesture of the Priests when they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tollere levare per Metaphoram donare cò quòd munera donaria in altum elevari solerent sicut sacrificia cum Deo offerebantur received gifts and sacrifices because they were wont to elevate and lift them up Hence Christ the substance of all the Sacrifices is said to be lifted up himself saith As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness so must the Sonne of man be lifted up Joh. 3. 14. we may say as Aaron lifted up the Sacrifices at the altar so the Son of man was lifted up This lifting up noted also the acceptance of those Sacrifices and the favour of God to those who brought them When Pharaoh bestowed a great favour upon his chief Butler Gen. 43. 30. according to his dream he lifted up his head Ioseph expounded so After three daies Pharaoh shal lift thine head that is he shall freely pardon thy offence and bestow some great honour gift or reward upon thee And in this sence it is proper to the text when sin is pardoned a mans head is lifted up himself is advanced indeed The Lord proclaimes his name in this tenor Exod. 34. 7. The Lord the Lord forgiving or lifting up iniquity and Psal 32. 1. Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven or lifted up Further this word signifies not only to take or lift off a burthen from another and lay it down but so to lift it off from another as for a man to take it upon himself and bear it in his stead from whose shoulders it was taken And in this strict sence we are especially to understand it in the point of pardon for pardon is not the taking away of sin from a man and laying it none knows where but sin being taken off from man some other shoulders are prepared to bear it even the shoulders of our Lord Christ on him our sin is laid All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all Isa 53. 6. when the burthen of dept was taken off from us it was charged on Christ He did not take or lift the burthen of sin from us and throw it by but he bare it himself nothing but this could compleate the work of pardon therfore it was also prophecied Isa 53. 4. Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows And 1 Pet. 2. 22. who his own self bare our sins in his body on the tree that is in his humanity or humane nature while he dwelt with us in the body Body is not here opposed to Soul but includes it as sometime the whole work is laid upon the soul of Christ not excluding his body Isa 53. 10. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin By the whole man this offering was made and the whole man bare our sins on the tree That passage Mat.
Amos 5. Non ultra dissimulabo ei scelera tua Pang Merc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your wickedness or your sin and that carries a fair sense for when a man pardons or will not punish an offence he seemes to take no notice of it for that properly is to dissemble a thing as simulation is to pretend that which is not so dissimulation is to take no notice or not to hold forth that which is God passeth by and dissembles the sins of men in a gracious way when he will not observe or look upon them to question or punish them The Greek word Matth. 26. 39. answereth this Hebrew where our Lord Christ ptayeth earnestly about the removal of the cup Father saith he if it be possible let this cup pass away from me In the same sense that sin is said to pass away the cup of Gods displeasure and wrath passes also away when sin is pardoned therefore Christ prayed thrice that the cup might pass away from him that he might not be dealt with as a sinner but that there might be a course found out to spare him and save the glory of his fathers justice Yet he submits not my will but thy will be done if it must not passe away I am contented it should not passe Thus far we have seen what is meant by pardoning and taking away A word upon those two terms transgression and iniquity which are the objects on which pardoning mercy workes Why doest thou not pardon my transgression and put away mine iniquity Trangression and iniquity are words of great significancy for in them all manner of sins especially sins of a greater stature are comprehended The former transgression notes a violation of the Commands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Propriè rebellio peccatum ex superbia Non simplex qualiscunque sed malitiosa temeraria transgressio of God with a high hand or a rebellion of the mind when pride of spirit shews it self very much There is a spice of pride in every sin Because of pride saith Solomon cometh contention all the contentions we maintain against the word and will of God rise from the pride of our own hearts because we cannot submit to the will of God but in some sins pride holds up her head more proudly Such sins this word notes it is not simply any sin but sin very proudly and rebelliously committed The latter word Iniquity imports the crookedness and inequality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Incurvationem declinationem à recta via ad animum translata significat per versitatem melitiam Curvi mores of a thing when it turns this way or that way and extends not in a straite and right line Hence it is applyed to the vitiosity and perverseness to the crookedness and inequality of mans nature Our nature is a crooked peece and that makes all the crookedness in our lives The Latines speak so in a moral sence they call ill manners and ill manner'd men crooked men and crooked manners David Psal 51. 5. bewaileth his birth sin under this notion I was born in iniquity And he that was first borne in the world applied this word to himself saying my iniquity the Peccata denotat quae fiunt ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 destinata malitia seu proposito cum sc mens videt quod aequū est tamen indulgens cupiditatibus sequitur deteriora Moller in Psal 106 6. perverseness the crookedness of my waies is greater than can be forgiven or made straight Gen. 4. 13. So that this word also take it strictly implies more than a bare act of sin arising from infirmity weakness or inanimad vertency it rather notes those sins which are committed from a crooked purpose from an ill or false bent of the heart when the mind sees that which is right and good just and straite and yet turns to crooked paths and follows that which is perverse and worse Take one thing further This word in Scripture signifies not only the act of such sins but secondly the punishment of them Psal 31. 10. Gen. 19. 15. And thirdly it is put for the means of expiation or pardon Hos 4. 8. They eat up the sin of my people and they set their heart on their iniquity But how did the Priests eat up the sin and set their hearts on the iniquity of the people Sin can make us but a hungry banquet The text bears variety of interpretations But to the point in hand sin is here put for the sacrifices offered up for sin out of divers of which the Priests had a portion for themselves to eat so that the Prophet here describes the horrible prophaneness of those degenerate Priests who set their hearts upon the sacrifices because themselves were fed by them not because the people came to seek the favour of God and make their peace by them when they had sinned As Physitians may be said to eat the diseases of the people and set their hearts upon their sicknesses when they because their own gain is in it are pleased to hear of spreading sicknesses c. Or as Lawyers eat the contentions and quarrels of the people when they are glad to hear of Suits c. because they grow rich by it So those base-spirited Priests were said to eat the sins of the People and set their hearts on their iniquities because they were glad to have of a multitude of sacrifices their provisions being inlarg'd by them So that then iniquity is the sacrifice for iniquity in which sense also Christ is said to be made sin for us namely a sacrifice for sin 1 Cor. 5. 21. From the words thus opened we may observe First to whom Job addresseth himself for pardon is it not unto God And why doest not thou pardon my transgression God onely can pardon sin Pardon is his act his proper and peculiar act he can do it and none can but he We read it among his royal Titles Exod. 34. 7. the Name of God is proclaimed in this stile The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gratious long suffering and abundant in goodness and in truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression an sin Pardoning sin is put the last of those seven attributes in which the Lord manifested himself to Moses as being that wherein all the former are summ'd up and into which they conveigh their several blessings to make man compleatly blessed or to shew that none can be a pardoner of sin but he who is vested with all those foregoing glorious titles and therefore none but God alone Hence the Prophet Micah chap. 7. ver 18. puts the question and challenges all the world Who is a God like unto thee pardoning iniquity Shew me one if you can there is no sin-pardoning God besides thee Who is a God like unto thee pardoning As if the Prophet had said some will be or have been offering at this work but they all have been or will be found
and immortality to light by the Gospel A believer buries all his feares of death in the grave of Christ He looks upon death as the funeral of his so rows and the resurrection of his joyes When the Psalmist had described the troubles and stormy conflicts of a godly man together with the flourishing outward pompe of the wicked he concludes with this advice Mark the righteous man observe him well take special notice of him the latter and of that man is peace if his end be peace there is nothing in his end which can make him afraid of it or put it off All desire peace they especially Pacem te poscimus omnes who are wearied out with war The life of the holiest man is a warfare and his end is peace Then what is his end that he should prolong his life When a worldly man looks upon his end he saith O what is my end that I should desire to die His end is such as makes him justly afraid to die There is nothing in the end of a wicked man but matter to feed the fear of death and the desire of prolonging life as long as he can This is the reason why when God cals him to die he is deaf at the call yea that call is death to him before he dies Lot had a mind to prolong his time in Sodom it was a goodly City and he was not well assured whether to goe or how he should be lodged next night This caused him to linger so long till the Angels came and thrust him out Natural men have all their portion and estates in the Sodom of this world And if they hear a message of departing or going out they linger and make excuses they run behind the door or hang about the posts till God thrusts them out of the world and puls from them their pleasures by head and shoulders as we say They would never leave the world if they might enioy it because they have nothing to enjoy beyond it A worlding groans because he must be uncloathed of his house of earth and the Saints groan earnestly that they may be cloathed upon with their house from heaven Who would not be willing to exchange a suit of flesh a suit of sackcloth and sorrow for a suit of glory for a cloathing of immortality and garments of everlasting praise Ver. 12. Is my strength the strength of stones Or is my flesh of brass These words may refer to the former part of the eleventh verse What is my strength that I should hope What is it Let us seriously Deficio Saxeus aut Calibe us non sum Lapides corpora sunt non solum gravia sed robusta dura quae non facilè cedunt aliis corporibus undè robur lapidum pro duritie examine and consider what my strength is Is my strength the strength of stones or is my flesh of brass Am I made of such hard mettle think you that I am able to endure any thing Only a body of brass and sinewes of Iron are strong enough to endure this tryal Stones and brass are hard bodies and heavy bodies they can bear blows and knocks without breaking They yield not easily to the hammer It is hard to make an impression upon them with many and those violent strokes To say a man is as strong as stones or that he hath a body of brasse is to give him strength which is not mans and to set him two degrees below himself Beasts are stronger and can endure more hardship then man Trees are stronger and can endure more than Beasts Stones are yet stronger and can endure more then Trees Therefore while he asks whether his strength be not only like that of beasts who have no reason or like that of trees which have no sense but like that of stones and brass which have no vegetation or growth he puts it to the utmost as if he had said If a man had as much strength as a Beast or a Tree he must needs fall at these stroaks and troubles but it seems ye put me lower then senseless beasts or trees and that I can stand it out against all storms and batteries like a stony rock or a brazen wall I confesse though the oxe loweth when he wants fodder and the wilde Asse brayeth when he hath no grasse yet the stone complains not when you give it no food nor doth brass cry out when you melt it in a Furnace unless you can find that I am in nature like stones or brass you have no reason to find fault with me Allow me to be either man or beast and you must allow me to be sensible of my sorrows and destroyable by them Only stones can be thus trampled on and brass thus hammer'd without pain and dying As when man in his spiritual capacity is said in Scripture to have a heart of stone an iron sinew a brow of Brass It notes him resolved against all threats and strong against all oppositions of the word to commit the evil of sin So in his natural capacity to say his strength is the strength of stones notes him a man able to bear all the evils of trouble and to stand against all the stormes of tribulation Such kind of speaking is frequent among the ancient Writers Homines Adamantini ferrei saxei nati è scopulis â—li robur aes trip ex circa pectus Hor. Graeci vocant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who when they would express a man of undanted courage a man whose strength would not easily be broken or his spirit be taken down A man insuperable whom no difficulties could overcome Of such an one they say he hath An heart of brass and a back of steel he is a man made up of stones born of a rock He is a man of Adamant he hath Treble brass about his breast as he was described who first ventured in his ship to sea The comman use of the word hath made it proverbial in all languages for a man of more strength then is commonly found in man or for a Master of dangers and extremities Jobs question denies Is my strength the strength of stones Or is my flesh of brass No it is not As if he had said I am made of flesh and bloud as well as others I must shortly yeeld to these stroaks I am not able to hold out and to contend everlastingly with afflictions I cannot stand against these assaults and batteries for ever I am made of the same mould whereof your selves are I am sensible how it is with me I feel what I endure and I cannot long endure what I feel My strength is not the strength of stones Note hence First Mans natural constitution makes him sensible of affliction and subauable by it Mans body is no impregnable Castle We are not made of stones and brasse but of flesh and bloud I will not contend for ever saith God Isa 57. 16.