atque in summa aqua extaret Herod l. 1. b Montanus ex iib. Mifna cap. de phase was anciently the Emblem of everlasting forgetfulness or of a resolution never to recal that which was resolved †A learned Hebrician observes that it was a custome among the Jewes to take those things which they abominated as filthy and unclean and cast them into the sea which act noted either the purging of them or the overwhelming them out of sight for ever And a like usage is noted by * Iosephus Aeosta l. 5. de Historia Natur Moral Novi orbis a reporter of the manners of the Americans that those barbarous people either desciphering some wicked thing upon a stone or making a symbole or sign of it used to throw it into a river which should carry it down into the sea never to be remembred Thirdly Pardon of sin is noted by washing and purging to shew that the filthiness of it is removed from us Psal 51. 2. Fourthly By covering Psal 32. 1. and by not imputing ver 2. Fifthly By blotting out Isa 43. 25. and blotting out as a thick cloud Isa 44. 22. All these notions of pardon concurre in this one that sin passes away is lifted up and taken off from the Conscience of the sinner when it is pardoned The summe of all which is read in that one text Jer. 50. 20. In those daies and in that time saith the Lord the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none c. why For I will pardon them whom I reserve So that pardoned sin in God's account is no sin and the pardoned sinner is as if he had never sinned Forgiveness destroys sin as forgiving a debt destroyes the debt and cancelling a Bond destroyes the Bond. Thirdly observe When sin is pardoned the punishment of sin is pardoned Both words signifie both the punishment and the sin and Job having complain'd that he was set up as a mark and wounded by sharp afflictions now seeks ease in the surest and speediest way the pardon of sin why doest not thou pardon my transgression c. There are three things in sin The inward matter the foul evil the stock the root of sin which is natural corruption dwelling in us and flowing out by actions Secondly The defilement and pollution of sin Thirdly The guilt when we say sin is pardoned or taken away it is not in the former though in pardoned persons corruption is mortified and the actings of it abated but in the latter the guilt is taken away which is the Obligation to punishment and so the punishment is taken away too nothing vindictive or satisfactory to the justice of God shall ever be laid upon that soul whose sin is pardoned Hence Isa 33. 24. the Prophet fore-shewing how happy a pardoned people shall be assures them The inhabitant shall nâ—â— say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall he forgiven their iniqâ—â—ty When iniquity is forgiven our infirmity is cured When the soul is healed the body shall be recovered Both the body natural and the body politick Plague and sword and famine and death all these evils go away when sin goes Judgments are nothing else but unpardoned sins sin unpardoned is the root which giveth sap and life to all the Troubles which are upon man or Nation And as sin committed is every judgment radically that is there is a fitness in sin to produce and bring forth any evil upon man so pardon of sin is every Mercy radically when you have pardon from thence every other particular Mercy springs you may cut out any blessing any comfort out of the pardon of sin particular Mercies are but pardon of sin specificated or individuated brought into this or that particular Mercy of all blessings you may say this is pardon of sin that 's pardon of sin and t'other is pardon of sin Forgiveness destroyeth that wherein the strength of sin lies it destroyeth our guilt and to us abolisheth the condemning power of the Law in these the strength of sin lies Hence when the people of Israel had committed that great sin in making the golden Calf the first thing Moses did was to pray for the pardon of sin and he did it with a strange kind of Rhetoricke Exod. 32. 32. Oh this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of Gold And now if thou wilt forgive their sin what then Moses There 's no more said Moses is silent in the rest it is an imperfect speech a pause made by holy passion not the fulness of the Sentence Such are often used in Scripture as Luk. 13. 9. And if it bear fruit what then Our own thoughts are left to supply the event Our translaters add well The Greek translators supply that in Exodus thus If thou wilt forgive them their sin forgive them We may supply it with the word in Luke If thou wilt forgive them well As if Moses had said Lord forgive them and then though they have done very ill yet I know it will be very well with them God cannot with-hold any mercy where he hath granted pardon for that with the antecedents and requisites of it is every mercy Moses knew what would follow well enough if they were pardoned and what if they were not therefore he adds And if not blot me I pray thee out of thy book which thou hast written If their sins must stand upon record Moses would not he knew if they were an unpardoned people they were an undone people all miseries would quickly break in upon yea overwhelm them and he desired not to out-live the prosperity of that people If Israel must bear their sins they must also bear the wrath of God and if their sin be but taken off then his love is settled on them God gives quailes sometime but he never gives pardons in anger Fourthly observe The greatest sins fall within the compass of Gods pardoning mercy The words in the text are of the highest signification Job speaks not in a diminutive language he is willing to lay load upon himself they whose hearts are upright will not stand mincing the matter and say they have sins but theirs are small ones sins not grown to the stature of other mens As the sins of a godly man may be very great sins so when they are he acknowledges that they are I know not where to set the bounds in regard of the nature or quantity of sin what sin is there which a wicked man commits but a godly man possibly may commit it excepting that against the holy Ghost These Job did and the Saints may put to God in confession and as he did not so they need not be discouraged to ask pardon for them because they are great The grace of the Gospel is as large as any evil of sin the Law can charge us with The grace of the Gospel is as large as the curse of the Law whatsoever the Law can call or
Eliphaz and Job I leave in your hands praying for a blessing from on high to convay truth home to every heart desiring earnest prayers for the Spirit of grace and illumination to be powred out according to the measure of the gift of Christ upon April 28 1645. Your very affectionate Friend and Servant in this worke of the Lord Joseph Caryl AN EXPOSITION Upon the Fourth Fifth Sixth and Seventh Chapters of the Book of JOB JOB Chap. 4. Verse 1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said 2. If we assay to commune with thee wilt thou be grieved But who can withhold himselfe from speaking 3. Behold thou hast instructed many thou hast strengthned the weak hands 4. Thy words have upholden him that was falling and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees 5. But now it is come upon thee and thou faintest it toucheth thee and thou art troubled 6. Is not this thy feare thy confidence the uprightnesse of thy wayes and thy hope IOBS complaint ended in the former Chapter in this a hot dispute begins Job having curs'd his day is now chid himselfe And he had such a chiding as was indeed a wounding such as almost at every word drew blood and was not onely a Red upon his back but a Sword at his heart Job was wounded first by Satan he was wounded a second time by his Wife a third time he was wounded not as it is spoken in the Prophet in the house of his friends but in his own house by his friends Zach. 13. 6. these last wounds are judg'd by good Physitians in soule-afflictions his deepest and soarest wounds Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said Eliphaz being as is supposed the elder and chiefe of the three first enters the list of this debate with Job concerning whose name person and pedigree we have spoken before at the eleventh Verse of the second Chapter and therefore referring the Reader thither for those circumstantials of the speaker I shall immediately descend unto the matter here spoken If we assay to commune with thee wilt thou be grieved c. The whole discourse of Eliphaz may be divided into three generall parts 1. The Preface of his Speech 2. The Body 3. The Conclusion The Preface of his speech is contained in the second Verse If we assay to commune with thee wilt thou be grieved c. The Body of his speech is extended through this fourth and to the last Verse of the fifth Chapter It consisteth especially of two members or two sorts of matter in which Eliphaz deals with Job The first is reprehensory by way of conviction and reproof The second is exhortatory by way of counsell and advice First Eliphaz reprehends Job This work of reprehension begins at the third Verse of this Chapter and is continued to the end of the fourth Verse of the fift Chapter And to shew that he did not reprehend him upon passion he grounds this reprehension upon reason and strengthens his reproofe with Arguments And there are four reasons or speciall Arguments which Eliphaz takes up to make this reprehension convincing the naming of them will give light to the whole before we come to particulars The first Argument is contained in the words I have read to the end of the sixth Verse And it is taken from the unsuitablenesse of his present practice to his former precepts Or from the inequality of the course he now took under affliction to the counsell he had given others under affliction His second Argument beginning at the seventh Verse and carried on to the twelfth is grounded upon a supposed inequality of Gods present dealing with him in reference to his former dealings with godly men Eliphaz thought thus surely Job is an Hypocrite otherwise God would have dealt with him as with an innocent Remember saith he I pray thee who ever perished being innocent I will convince thee by all examples by whatsoever is upon Record in the History of all Ages that thou art an Hypocrite a wicked person for see if thou canst finde an instance in any Story of an innocent person perishing That is his second Argument His third Argument is continued from the twelfth Verse to the end of this fourth Chapter and that he might make the deeper impression upon Jobs spirit he brings it in with a dreadfull Preamble a Vision from God at once terrifying and instructing him thus to reason downe the pride of man The Argument it selfe is coucht in the seventeenth verse It is drawn from an evidence of presumption in all such as shall dare to implead Gods justice or plead their own as if Eliphaz had said surely thou art a proud and a wicked person for there was never any godly man upon the face of the Earth no nor any Angel in Heaven that durst be so bold with God as thou hast been Shall mortall man saith he be more just than God shall a man be more pure than his maker Behold he put no trust in his servants and his Angels he charged with folly His fourth Argument begins at the fifth Chapter and ends with the fourth Verse and it is taken from the unlikenesse of Jobs carriage under his afflictions to that which any of the Saints in any age of the World did ever shew forth under their afflictions He that caries himselfe so as none of the Saints ever caried themselves gives an evidence against his Saintship Call now to the Saints either those now living upon the Earth or search the Records concerning all the Saints that ever lived consider and see whether thou canst observe or reade any paralell of thy complaints and unreasonable expostulotions So much for the summe of his convictions Then Eliphaz turnes himselfe to admonition and exhortation in the following part of that fifth Chapter and there are two Heads of his admonitory exhortation First he admonishes him to seek unto God and to call upon him Vers 8. I would seek unto God and unto God would I commit my cause I give thee no other counsell then I would take my selfe If I were in thy case I would not stand thus complaining and cursing my day but this I would doe I would seek unto God and unto God would I commit my cause This admonition is enforced by divers Arguments to the seventeenth Verse The second head of his exhortation beginneth at the seventeenth Verse and it is to prevaile with him patiently to bear and quietly to accept his affliction or the punishment of his iniquity in pursuance of this he shews him many benefits and blessings attending those who graciously comply with the correcting hand of God upon them Behold saith he Verse 17. happie is the man whom God correcteth therefore despise not thou the chastning of the Almighty he concludeth all from his certain knowledge and infallible experience of what he had said Verse 27. Loe this we have searched it so it is Back'd with a warranty that if he obey his own experience shall quickly teach him
grace yet he did give them light and restraint too in nature Neverthelesse he left not himselfe without witnesse in that he did good and gave us raine from heaven Acts 14. 17. As if he had said though yee have not had the raine of the word yet the raine of the cloud if such a Preacher of Gods power and goodnesse as will leave you for ever without excuse The Lord himselfe seemes to glory in this as one of the chiefest of his works Job 38. 37. Who can number the clouds in wisdome Or who can stay the bottles of heaven I challenge all creatures to a competition with me in this And again in this book Ch. 36. 26. Elihu lifts up the greatnesse of God in this act of his providence Behold God is great and we know him not wherein doth he instance his greatnesse it follows ver 27. For he maketh small the drops of water they powre downe raine according to the vapour thereof Reade paralell texts Jer. 10. 13. Psal 65. 10 11. Psal 147. 8. So much of this first worke of God the raine and of his power wisdome goodnes bounty visible and apparent in it The second instance of Gods power and wisdome c. is in civill things both in setting up and pulling downe First in raising and setting up To set up on high those that be low that those which mourne may be exalted to safetie As if he should say will you see another way wherein God shews himself in his power wisdome and goodnesse It is in looking thorough the world for such as are low that he may lift them up in espying out mourners and weeping eyes that he may wipe them and more exalt them to safety Some of the Jewish Writers connect this verse with the former making this as an effect of Gods bounty wonderfull worke in sending raine He sendeth raine and showers upon the earth with such plenty of blessings that by this means many who were poore low meane and sad-hearted may be set in high estate and exalted unto safety And there is a truth in it Gods blessing upon the earth hath exalted many that were low to an high estate to riches and prosperity But rather we shall take it in a more generall sence And so Eliphaz in these words seemes to comfort Job by giving him a hint that though his estate was now very low yet if he would apply himselfe unto God as he had advised ver 8. By seeking unto and committing his cause to him as low as he was he might be set high againe and though he was now a mourner sitting in dust and ashes He might be exalted to joy and safetie for in this the power wisdome and goodnesse of God are usually put forth and exalted The words carry an allusion to that custome of Princes and Magistrates who sit in high places upon erected thrones As 1K 16. 19. it is said of Solomon that he built him a magnificent throne or chaire of state which had an assent of six steps to it he sate on high And the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 6. ver 1. describes the Lord in the same manner sitting in state I saw the Lord saith he sitting upon a throne high and lifted up The pride and arrogancy of the Assyrian is thus exprest Isa 14. 13. He hath said in his heart I will exalt my throne above the stars I will sit also upon the Mount of the Congregation So that to sit on high is as much as to be preferred or advanced whether we respect honour or riches dignity or authority To set on high those that be low The word may note either those that are low in their own eyes or those that are made low by others active or passive lownesse Grace in our own hearts causes the former lownesse and sinfull oppression from the hand of others causes the latter The former are humble the latter are humbled The Lord sets both these on high And Those which mourne The Hebrew word signifies to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Obscurus obscuritus luce privatus fuit nigruit per Metaphoram câ—nâ—ristatus fuit in tristitia enim fugit spleÌ„dor faciei Sic latinè Atriti dicuntùr lugentes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 maesti vultus blacke darke or obscured And the reason why that word is borrowed to note mourning or sorrow is because sorrow causeth blacknesse or darknesse of habit or countenance Mourning and blacknesse usually goe together Jer. 4. 28. For this cause shall the earth mourne and the heavens above shall be blacke And usually Mourners goe in blacke it is the die and dresse of Mourners As white is the colour of joy Let thy garments be alwayes white saith the Preacher to him that is to eat his bread with joy Eccles 8. 8. Yea the very beauty of the face is obscured the light of the countenance shadowed or clouded with teares and sorrow Hence the Seventy render it They whose faces are sad or sowre It is the word used Mat. 6. 16. When yee fast be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance It implies an affected studied sadnesse severity austerity grimnesse gastlinesse unpleasantnesse of countenance proceeding from art rather then from nature much lesse from grace as the words following imply for they disfigure vitiate or discolour their faces corrupt or abolish their native complexion so as it appeares not what it is that they may appeare what they are not Hypocrisie can paint the face with blacke as well or rather worse then pride with red and white and so doth reall sorrow sometimes whether for sin or outward affliction True passion in the heart will dim the brightnesse and staine the beauty of the face These Mourners shall be exalted to safety The word which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in loâ—â—â—ubâ—â—mi sterit exalâ—aâ—us adeò ut ab hostibus pertingi nequeat Per Metaphorem taâ—us in expugnabilis Hinc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—uâ—â—is Olim munitiones extruebâ—ntur in locis editioribus in montibus prae uptis inaccessis ut latinê arx ab hoste arcendo dicto est we translate Exalted signifies to set in a high place and in a place so high that a man so placed is beyond the reach of danger or the power of an adversary it is to be set upon a place impregnable Hence the word is used for a Fort Tower or Castle because forts and Towers being places of defence were for the most part built upon some high place upon some rocke or praecipice Prov. 18. 10. The name of the Lord is a strong Tower That is we are as safe under his protection as in a strong Tower founded on the steepest rocke And the Prophet describing the safety of him who walks uprightly gives it in this word The place of defence shall be the munition of Rocks Isa 33. 16. So Jer. 48. 1. Misgab is confounded and dismayed That is the high place or Castle of
which God raiseth his people shall be if he pleases like a mountain of Adamant which cannot be melted or like mount Sion which cannot be removed A high place is seldome a safe place All high things are tottering Nâ—tare solent excelsa omnia and the more high the more tottering Then how unsearchable is the wisdome how great the power of God who can set his people very high and yet very safe who can make a man stand as firme and steady upon the highest pinnacle of honour as upon a levell ground or in a valley of the lowest estate and condition He exalts to safety And hence wee may draw downe a difference between Gods exaltation of his own people and the exaltation of his enemies and wicked ones Wicked men are oft times exalted and God exalts them though they know it not but how He exalts them to a high place but doth exalt them to a safe place No the Psalmist after a long temptation concludes Thou hast set them in slippery places thou castest them downe into destruction how are they brought into desolation as in a mement Psal 73. 18 19. Haman was exalted high but not in safety Many are exalted as Jezabel exalted Naboth high among the people but it was to stone him rather then to honour him It is said of Pharaoh he lifted up the head of his chiefe Baker he lifted up his head out of prison indeed but he lifted up his head to the gallowes also he lifted him out of prison but it was unto his death Such is the lifting up of wicked men they may be set on high but they are never set in safety How many have we seen suddenly advanced and as suddenly depress'd We are never safe but where God sets us or while God holds us in his hand Fourthly observe It is a wonder a wonderfull work of God to exalt those that are low and set mourners in safety The 107 Psalme is a Psalme recounting the wonderfull works of God O that men would praise the Lord for his wonderfull works is the burthen of that holy song And all those wonders conclude in this ver 39. 40. Againe they are minished and brought low through oppression affliction and sorrow what then He powreth contempt upon Princes c. yet setteth he the poore on high from affliction and maketh him families like a flock How wonderfull is this that the Lord will give Kings for the ransome of his people and to raise his poore will powre contempt upon Princes The highest must downe rather then his low ones shall not be set on high There are foure things which encrease this wonder and make it exceeding wonderfull First These poore have no strength Deut. 32. 36. He sees that their strength is gone Secondly Many times they have no hope no faith When the Son of Man comes shall he finde among low ones faith this faith to be exalted upon the earth Luk. 18. 8. Thirdly They have many enemies subtill enemies powerfull enemies confident enemies enemies above hope arrived at assurance that they shall keep poore ones at an under for ever Lord saith David how many are they that trouble me So many they were that he could not tell how many Fourthly They are supposed to have no friends none to appeare for them Let us persecute and take him say they for there is Psal 71. 11. none to deliver him Not a man no nor God as they conclude They say of my soule there is no help for him in his God I need not say it is a wonder to exalt a people upon all these disadvantages The fact speakes should you see a man trod upon the ground and many there holding him downe one by the arme another by the leg a third laying a great weight upon his breast were it not a wonder to see this man rise up and rescue himselfe from them all Thus it is with the Church and servants of God when they are low all the world is upon their backs the world of wicked ones hang about them one with his power another with his policie all with their utmost endeavours to hold them downe yet the Lord sets them on high who were thus low and exalts them to safety who were thus in danger Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse and declare his wonderfull workes to the children of men And this is further cleared in the 12th verse He disappointeth the devices of the crafty so that their hand cannot performe their enterprise As if Eliphaz should say would you know how God exalteth his people and setteth them in safety 'T is true they have many enemies many that plot and devise evill against them but the Lord breakes their plots he out-plots them He disappointeth the devices of the crafty c. And as this is a proof of the former so it is a further instance of Gods wonderfull works The first was in naturall things sending raine The second and third were in civill things first exalting his own people and secondly in defeating the policies and power of their adversaries so then this twelfth verse may be taken either as it hath reference to the former or as a further instance of Gods wisdome and power He disappointeth the devices of the crafty Or he defeateth the purposes of the subtill so Mr Broughton readeth it that their hands can bring nothing soundly to passe The Apostle in 1 Cor. 3. 19. sets the holy stampe of divine authoritie upon this whole booke by quoting this or the next verse as a proofe of his doctrine For it is written saith he He takes the crafty in their own counsell He disappoints the devices of the crafty saith Eliphaz and He takes the wise in their own craftinesse He disappointeth The word signifies to breake to breake a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fractus contritus thing to peeces and by a metaphor to disappoint or to defeate because if an engine or instrument with which a man intends to work be broken he is disappointed of his purpose and cannot goe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Confregit dissipavit Metaphoricè irritum fecit Latinè potest reddiâ—abrogari on with his work So here He breakes the devices of the crafty the crafty frame very curious engines and instruments they lay fine plots and projects but the Lord breakes them and then they are defeated or disappointed The word is often used for breaking or making voyd the law as Psal 119. 126. Ezra 9. 13 because wicked men as much as in them lies would defeate and disappoint the holy purpose designe of God in giving those lawes They would repeale abrogate the laws of God that they might enact their own lusts They would doe that by the will of God which the Lord doth with their wills Null and disappoint it The devices The word which we translate devices signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à radice 〈◊〉
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
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
the soule whereby we discerne or distinguish just from unjust truth from false-hood as sweet is distinguished from bitter by the pallate is elegantly called the pallate of the soul Cannot my taste discern The Hebrew is Cannot my taste * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scriptura saepe linguae faucibus manibus tribuit quod men t is intellectus proprium est sc med tari intelligere Magna est rationis orationis cognatio understand perverse things It is usuall in Scripture to ascribe understanding not onely to the senses but also to the tongue and sometimes to the hand Understanding is ascribed to the tongue in the place before named Psal 52. where the tongue is said to de vise mischiefe The tongue properly cannot devise the tongue doth but utter mischiefe it is the mind or heart that deviseth The shop is within where mischiefe is forged and framed yet the contrivance of it is in that text given to the tongue There is a two-fold reason of it why the holy Ghost attributes the worke of the understanding to the tongue hand or senses First there is a great affinity beween reason and speech and therefore the tongue which is the instrument of speech is honoured with the worke of the understanding And so grat is the affinity beween reason and speech that no creature void of reason can speak Speech is a peculiar property of the rationall creature Speech is or ought to be the immediate issue or birth of reason Words are conceived in the mind and born at the tongue And words are the image of the mind We may see what work is wrought in the mind by that which is spoken by the tongue The shape of a mans heart when he speakes himself comes out at his mouth And therefore before a man speakes he meditates Meditation is the conception of words As speaking is the production of them Thus the Lord charges Joshua Chap. 1. 8. The book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night One would think it should rather have been said The book of the Law shall not depart out of thine heart but thou shalt meditate therein or if not cut of thy mouth then Ita meditaberis ut exipsa cogitatione mentis effervescente redundent ebulliant in ore verba thou shalt speak of it Meditation is too high a worke for the mouth Yet because there ought to be much meditation about the Law of God before a word of it comes out of the mouth therefore the Lord saith The book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that is as oft as thou shalt speak thou shalt meditate thou shalt not speake rashly it shall not be the work of thy tongue alone but of thy mind and tongue together There is a second reason why acts of the understanding are ascribed to the tongue or to the senses because when a thing is well spoken or duly acted by any sense Reason is the guide and the bodily Organ is under the dictates of the minde or understanding So Gen. 41. 14. when old Jacob in giving the blessing unto Josephs children Manasseh and Ephraim laid his right hand upon the younger and his left hand upon the elder the text saith he made his hands to understand we translate he guided his hands wittingly there was so much reason such divine reason in that act of Jacobs hands in laying his right-hand upon the younger that the Prudenter egit manibus sun ac siiplae manus mysteriorum consciae erant Onkel Hebrew gives it with this elegancie he made his hands to understand which one of the Jewish Writers learnedly expounds thus He order'd his hands wisely as if they had been made acquainted with that great mystery of Gods counsels that the greater blessing was the portion of the younger sonne And so the Psalmist Psal 78 72. speaking of Davids raigne and government saith He governed them by the skilfulnesse of his hands The Hebrew is by the understanding of his hands and more the understandings of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In intelligentiis manuum vel volâ—rum his hands Or as one renders it The discretions of his hands or the prudency of his Palmes ascribing all kind of politicall knowledge and understanding unto David David in the outward administrations of the kingdome acted with so much reason and justice that his very hands are said to understand His hands understood more than the heads of other Princes As Davids hands so Jobs pallate or taite had an understanding Cannot my pallate understand Yet further it is frequent in Scripture metaphorically to translate things which are only acted or apprehended by the inward senses to the outward Taste properly is of meat and drink the humour or moisture which is in meats sutable to the salivall humour in the mouth causeth pleasantness of taste Here Job speaks of Doctrines or of actions Cannot my taste discerne perverse things If a thing be perversly or properly truely or falsely spoken cannot I taste it quickly And hence the word of God is compared to those things which are the object of taste as to milk and to strong meat 1 Cor. 3. 2. I saith the Apostle have fed you with milk and not with meat That is with easie and common truths not with the more mysterious parts of Gospel-knowledge because ye were not able to bear it The taste of such mysteries was too strong for your pallates The same Metaphor is enlarged by the Apostle Heb. 5. 12 13 14. And in this Book we find it more than once Doth not the eare trie words and the mouth taste his meat Job 12. 11. Chap. 34. 3. That is doth not the eare try words as the mouth tastes meat Cannot my taste discern Perverse things That is words ill spoken or wrong placed The word signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also any calamity or sad accident And so Mr. Broughton renders it Cannot my pallate declare all kind of heavy sorrowes Do ye think I have lost my judgment of things and that I cannot tell when I am pinch't or pain'd First in that he saith here Is there iniquity in my tongue Observe The tongue oft-times discovers the iniquity of the heart If there be iniquity in the heart it will one time or other break forth at and blister upon the tongue He that is rotten at his heart is commonly rotten in his talk Matth. 12. 34. Out of the aboundance of the heart the mouth speakes And when there is aboundance of iniquity in the heart there is seldome a dearth or scarcity of it in the mouth especially in times of trouble that iniquity and corruption that disease and plague of the heart will break forth at the lips As Evill words corrupt good manners So evil words discover that our manners are corrupt There are few men but as the Damosel spake to
take Jobs picture as in the day of his afflictions must draw him thus A man clothed with worms and clods of dust there 's his garment his skin scabby and discolor'd full of chaps and running sores angry biles and enflamed ulcers his posture lying on the ground scraping himself with a pot-sheard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 caroper Synecdochen corpus in Piel Bisher significat Evangelium My flesh is clothed with worms My flesh That is my body by a Synechdoche and the word which we translate flesh springs from a root or hath neare relation to it which signifies to bring and publish good tidings or welcome news and therefore the Gospel is exprest by it Evangelium is the same in Latin or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke with this in the Hebrew And some Criticks give the reason why flesh is exprest by this word which signifies to publish or bring good tydings because there should be a taking of flesh or a making of flesh namely the incarnation of our Lord Iesus Christ which should be the best tidings and the most joyfull news that ever the world heard of Is clothed with worms In the first Chapter of this booke at the 21. verse Iob describes himself thus Naked came I out of my mothers wombe and naked shall I return but now it seemes Iob hath got clothing and being ready to lie downe in the grave he had a vesture put upon him now it seemes Iob should not goe naked out of the world for he said My flesh is clothed but what is this clothing My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust that 's a suite of clothes very fit and sutable for the grave but it is usually put on in the grave Iob is in his grave-clothes before he dies or he speakes this to shew that he accounted himself dead while he lived or as Heman mourns Psa 88. Free among the dead A member of that Corporation a brother of that society already For he was now in their habet or livery A gown of worms set or embroidered with clods of dust My flesh is clothed with wormes It is frequent in Scripture when the holy Ghost would heighten the sense of what we are enjoy would to note the abundance of Quavis re vestiri dicimur Cujus accessione vel dedecoramur vel ocnamur a thing or how man is adorned or defiled with it all over then to expresse it under the notion of cloathing God himself is exprest cloathed with Majesty because he is Majestie all over and there is nothing but glory upon him God is also described clothed with judgement and with justice why Because these are his honour and his ornament he is justice and judgement all over we find Job in the 29. of this book at the 14 verse speaking thus of himself in his state of Magistracy I put on righteousnesse and it clothed me my judgement was as a robe and a diademe that is I was full of righteousnesse I was altogether reghteous in dispensing re wards and punishments in exercising my power among the people To be cloathed with humility to be cloathed with the Spirit to be clothed with Christ are phrases of the same importance So on the other hand to be cloathed with pride with shame with dishonour Let mine enemies saith David be cloathed with shame Psal 109. 29. Let them be cloathed with dishonour Psal 35. 26. that is let them be ashamed and dishonour'd all over or exceedingly ashamed or dishonoured And so a great desolation is called a cloathing with desolation Ezekiel 7. 27. That which stripps a man naked is in this sence called his cloathing cloathed with desolation Thus we are to understand Job when he saith That his flesh was cloathed with wormes his meaning is he had many wormes crawling upon his flesh or lying within his flesh and so were as a lining to his upper garment of nature These worms spread themselves all over him as a filthy and loathsome garment covering his whole body And besides this figure Job spake properly while he was thus full of sores and botches and boyles to say he was cloathed with wormes wormes are proper to sores many sores breed wormes and wormes are a disease in the flesh as well as within the bowels and such diseases are accounted the foulest and filthiest diseases of all other Such was Jobs his sores and boiles corrupted and bred wormes which made him an abhorring to himself Putrifaction is the foyle out of which worms grow Rotten flesh breeds wormes and a rotten conscience breeds a worm Isa 66. 24. Their worme shall not die why doth the holy Ghost say of those men who were never washed nor healed of their sinne-sores of their soul-sicknesses and pollutions that when they die they have a worme that dieth not It is in allusion to this because as a corrupt body or corrupt putrid flesh breeds noisome wormes so a corrupt conscience a soule full of filthinesse and uncleannesse which was never washed or healed in the fountain of the bloud of Christ this soul this conscience breeds wormes even that gnawing worme which shall live with it feed upon it and cloath it for ever Both the naturall and the spirituall worme arise from rottennesse and derive their pedigree from sores sicknesses and putrifaction And clods of dust Wormes and clods of dust Here are strange materials course stuffe for Jobs cloathing clods of dust Some conceive that Job sate in the dust and so the dust gathered about him as a garment Others that these clods of dust were the scrapings of his sores for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word signifies the filings of any mettall or the scrapings of an uncleane thing It is said expressely in the second Chapter that he tooke a pot-sherd to scrape himself those clods of filthy dust or scales scrap'd from his putrifying sores these with the crawling wormes bred in them cover'd his whole body like a garment and therefore he complaines I am cloathed with worms and clods of dust You see what his garment was see now to carry on the allusion his skin upon which this garment was put My skin saith he is broken and become loathsome The skin is the immediate garment of the flesh his sicknesse had worne out his skin he had many holes and rents in that garment which needed mending and it was all over so filthy that it needed washing My flesh is broken and become loathsome Sores breake the skin and defile the skin Jobs skin was so broken and chapt so defiled and filthy that he was loathsome to all beholders and to himself This is the picture of Job A few daies before you might have pictured or drawn him thus Job cloathed with silk and scarlet his garment set with precious orientall stones his skin smooth and beautifull his face cheerfull and manly his eye quick and piercing But now Job is cloathed with worms and clods of dust his skin is broken and become
seemes to looke upon it as too great honour though it were a burdensome one that Saul a King one so much above him would follow and pursue him Against whom is the King of Israel come out against a dead dog or against a flea Alas I am no match for thee thou puttest too much weight upon me in that thou contendest with me To make great preparations and to send out a great army and skifull Commanders against an enemie magnifies that enemy that is it begets an apinion that surely he is some great and potent enemy against whom such great preparations are made In this sense you may understand it that affliction is a magnifying of a man because the great God comes forth to battle against him who is but dust and ashes but as a dead dogg or a flea The Heathens had such a notion they looked Hoctamen infoelix miseram solabere morte Aenei magni dâ—xtra cadis Virg l. 10. Occumbens I nunc Herculis armis Donum ingens semperae tuis memorabile factis Valer. Flac. l. 3. Argon upon it as no small priviledge for a man to be slaine by some famous great Commander Comfort thy selfe in this miserable death said one thou fallest by the hand of great Aeneas thou art magnifyed enough in this that thou hast such a man as Aeneas to fight with thee And another To die by the arme of Hercules amighty favour and alwaies to be remembred Some kind of trouble is an honour as well as a trouble The magnifying of man as well as an afflicting of him Man is so farre from deserving any favour from God that as a creature he is not worthy a blow though as a sinner he is most worthy of death from God But secondly we may answer it that man is not only thus notionally but really magnified by afflictions and that two waies First in this life the very humblings of the Saints are their exaltations their afflictions are their glory There was never any so famous for greatnesse for riches for honours as some have been for sufferings Who is there upon record throughout the whole booke of God who is there in any historie of the world so famous for greatnesse and riches and high atchievements as Job a sufferer All the victories of Alexander or Caesar yea of Joshua and David have not render'd them so famous to posterity as the conflicts of Job His affiictions have magnified him more then all his other greatnesse or then the greatnesse of other men hath magnified them If Job had only been the richest man in the East I believe we should never have had a word of any of his acts or so much as mention of his name in Scripture That which gave him the honour to have a whole booke written of him alone by the pen of the holy Ghost besides the often mention of his precious name in other books is this that he endured so much That man is magnified really who is thus afflicted and comes off holily Secondly Afflictions have an influence upon the life to come The Apostle is expresse in that 2 Cor. 4. 17. where he exhorts not to be troubled with our present afflictions for they worke for us a farre more exceeding weight of glory That which workes for us an exceeding weight of glory magnifies us It is not said any where in the Scripture that mans honours or his riches or his greatnesse in the world worke for him a farre more exceeding weight of glory There is no such thing ascribed or atributed to outward comforts and priviledges but our afflictions worke for us a farre more exceeding weight of glory Not as Papists abuse that Scripture as if afflictions did merit glory but as the way Duntaxat significatur quo itinare ad gloriam pervenitur and course wherein God sets men and through which he will exalt and lift them up to greatest glory Glory is the purchase of Christ and all the heaviest sufferings of the creature are not able to purchase one graine of glory not the least imaginable weight of glory much lesse an exceeding weight of glory but God brings his people to glory and makes them as he did the Lord Christ in their degree perfect through sufferings Hence observe That afflictions are if rightly improved the exaltations and magnifyings of the Saints The rod of discipline in Gods hand becomes a scepter of honour in ours This crosses the common thoughts of the world The truth is there is scarce a soule in the world under affliction but he thinks himself abased by it and saith that God hath laid him low Yet the right use and improvement of affliction is the best preferment The Apostle Jam. 1. is expresse Let the brother of low degree rejoyce in that he is exalted The low have an exaltation yea their lownesse is their exaltation yet we are ready to have undervaluing thoughts of our selves when the hand of God is upon us when God takes away that for which men set a price upon themselves they scarce thinke themselves worth any thing But this especially reaches that sinfull contempt of others a man afflicted is esteemed by most as a man abased They who have prized a man and had great thoughts of him when he had a great estate c. let him once fall in temporals though he continue the same in spirituals yea though he increases in them and his grace shines as much or more then ever yet he is dis-esteemed and laid low in their thoughts So much for those words what it is to magnifie and likewise how they may have a sutablenesse with Jobs condition he being so afflicted and emptied when he spake them And that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him To set the heart notes foure things in Scripture First Great care and intention of spirit Prov. 27. 23. Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks and looke well to thy herds the Hebrew is set thine heart upon thy herds The heart is set upon the herds in providing and taking care of them in looking to the welfare of the herds and of the flocks Samuel uses that language to Saul 1 Sam. 9. 20. when he came seeking his fathers asses As for the asses saith he set not thine heart upon them that is take no care for them never trouble thy selfe more about that businesse that care is over they are found In this sence God sets his heart upon man What is man that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him That is that thou shouldest take so much care of him and watch over him As the Lord speakes of his vineyard Isa 27. 3. I the Lord will keepe it lest any hurt it I will keepe it night and day He set his heart upon the vineyard to watch it least any should touching hurt it God in this sence takes so much care for man that he seemeth as it were carelesse of all other creatures 1 Cor. 9. 9. Doth God take
sence we may observe First That The holiest man on the earth by all his sufferings and doings cannot satisfie the justice of God for one sin I have sinned what shall I doe unto thee When the Angels had sinned what could they doe unto God in this respect These three negations lay upon them and doe lie to this day and shall to all eternity They sinned but once yet could they not escape out of the hand of God Though spirits and powers yet they could not maintaine their state against the power of God and are therefore cast into prison and reserved in chaines of darknesse to the judegement of the great day They could not pacifie the wrath of God towards them God is as highly displeased and his wrath burns as hot against them as ever Now if sinning Angels could doe nothing to God what can sinfull man doe The Question is put Micha 6. 6. Where with shall I come before the Lord And bow my selfe before the high God Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with calves of a yeare old will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousand rivers of oyle shall I give my first-borne for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soule These Questions are denials come not before God with any of these Then what is it that God doth require He hath shewed thee what is good to doe judgement and righteousnesse to walk humbly with thy God But why these things What though I cannot make a price for my sin with calves and rams and rivers of oyle though my children will not be accepted as a ransome for my transgressions yet can I make a price for them out of justice and righteousnesse and humble walking No not out of these neither The Lord doth not require these for the paiments of our debt as we are sinners but for the paiments of duty as we are creatures There is a double debt to God a debt to the justice of God for sins commited and a debt to the law of God for duties enjoyned The former no man is able to pay but with eternall sufferings The latter the Saints through grace do pay by their dayly holy actings There is a three-fold deficiency in al that man can do to satisfie the justice of God Frist all is imperfect and defiled our services smell of the vessell thorough which they passe and taste of the caske into which they are put There is a stampe of our sinfullness even upon our holy things And can that which is sinfull satisfie for sin Secondly whatsoever we doe is a debt before we doe it All our duties are owing before we performe them And can we pay the debt of sin by those duties which were due though sin had never been commited Thirdly The greatest deficiency is this our works want the stampe of Gods appointment for that purpose God hath no where set up mans righteousnesse as satisfaction for mans unrighteousnesse Hence if it should be supposed we had performed perfect righteousnesse according to the whole will of God commanded yet we could not satisfie the justice God offended unlesse God had said that he would accept that way of satisfaction it is the appointment and institution of God which renders what we doe acceptable unto himselfe Surely all that Jesus Christ did or suffered for us in the flesh had not satisfied the justice of God if God had not appointed that Christ should come to doe and suffer those things for the satisfying of his justice It was the compact between Christ and his Father which made him a Saviour Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire Sacrifices were refused by God it being impossible that they should purge sin Heb. 10. 4. Then the eare of Christ was opened or bored as a servant according to the law in that case Exod. 21. 6. to receive and doe the will of his Father Or as the Seventy interpret which the Apostle follows God prepared him a body Then Christ undertakes the worke And said loe I come to doe thy will O God Why In the volume of the booke it is written of me That is thou hast decreed and ordained from everlasting The record is cleare for it that I am he whom thou hast ordained to doe thy will Hence the Apostle concludes at the 10th verse That we are sanctified that is saved by that will through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all As inserting that the very offering of the body of Jesus Christ could not save us but by the will and ordination of God His hanging and dying on the crosse had not delivered us from death unlesse it had been written in the volume of the Booke There is nothing satisfactory but what the law or the will of the Law-giver makes or agrees to accept as satisfactorie In the volume of the booke there is nothing written which appoints man such a work and therefore he cannot doe it There is some what to be done by way of thankfullnesse but nothing can be done by way of paiment That question Psal 116. 12. affirmes as much What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits We must render unto the Lord for his benefits but we cannot render to the Lord for our sins We ought to take up the Cup of Thanksgiving but Christ hath and he alone was able and he alone was ordained to take and drinke the Cup of Satisfying Secondly observe which depends upon the former That pradon and forgivenesse of sinne come in at the doore of free-grace Free-grace doth all What can I do J can doe nothing O thou preserver of men J can only nor that without thy helpe acknowledge my sin it must be thine infinite goodness to pardon it When a man hath travell'd through all duties and doings he must at last sit downe in Gods love and rest in this that God is mercifull to poore sinners Isai 55. 1. Come unto me O all yee that are thirstie come without money or without price There is nothing in the creature that God requires as a price of his favor his milk and his hony his bread and his water are al gifts and bounties unto his people He cals us to buy these because we shall have them as willingly from God as any things from man for our mony he cals it a buying without mony because no value can be set upon it high enough nor any heart receive it freely enough To offer mony that is to think to obtain any of that favor by what we do is the most dangerous offer in the world We read how dreadful the issue was to Simon Magus when he offered mony for the gifts of the holy Ghost and yet those gifts were such as a man may have and go to hell with them for they were but gifts of miracles and of healing and the like But this gift of the favour and love of God in the pardon of sin is such