it but a groundless suspicion they had entertained because of his unusual sufferings makes here in this Chapter a solemn protestation of the mighty value and esteem he had for the Laws of God that he constantly observed them and esteemed them more than his necessary food And to let them know that this was no sudden heat he tells Eliphaz that the fear of God in him came from the most weighty and serious consideration When I consider I am afraid of him as if he had said I have spent many thoughts about God and Religion whether there be any just reason for Mankind to apprehend and stand in awe of an infinite Being above them and I do assure you the more I have fixed my thoughts upon this matter and laid all things before me the deeper impression the fear of God hath made upon me or as some render it perpendo paveo I consider and I fear him Wherein are two things implied I. That Mens disesteem of Religion doth arise from want of Consideration II. That the more men consider the more setled and fixed will their minds be in the esteem and practice of Religion I. That Mens disesteem of Religion doth arise from the want of Consideration Which will best appear by examining the most common and prevailing reasons of Mens disesteem of it which are chiefly these two l. Their looking on Religion as a matter of meer interest and design without any other foundation 2. The unaccountable folly and superstitious fears of Mankind which makes them think more to be in it than really is 1. Looking on the whole business of Relion as a matter of interest and design first started by some great Politicians to tame and govern Mankind and ever since kept up by a company of Priests who lived upon the Cheat and therefore were bound to maintain and to keep it up which otherwise would sink to nothing This is the worst can be said against Religion and it is bad enough of all reason if it were true and we should deserve all the scorn and contempt which such Men treat us with if we were but accessary to so great a fraud and imposture But is there such a thing as Reason among Mankind Can we judge of what is true and false probable or improbable certain or uncertain Or must some things be run down without examining and others taken up without any other colour of reason than because they serve to such a purpose For Gods sake and for our own sake then let us consider these things a little better before we pronounce against them or entertain any doubt or suspicion of them in our minds And there is this great reason for it that the wisest the best the most considering the most disinteressed Men have taken the part of Religion and been zealous Defenders of it whereas on the other side the younger the looser the more debauched part of Mankind have been most enclined to Atheism and Irreligion But if we have not Reason of our side we are content to give up the Cause and to be thought Deceivers which goes very hardly down with an ingenuous mind and if on the other side there be nothing found but false and groundless suppositions or unreasonable suspicions I hope Religion may be fairly acquitted from being thought a meer contrivance of Politicians and we from being the Silver-smiths to this Diana 1. Those who make Religion to be such a contrivance must suppose that all Mankind were once without any such thing as Religion For if some crafty Politicians did first start the notion of an Invisible Being among the rude and unthinking Multitude the better to awe them into Obedience to Government then Mankind must have lived before those Politicians appear'd with as little sense of God and Religion and with as much security and ease as to the thoughts of another World as the very Beasts that perish If this were true these Politicians were so far from consulting the interest of Mankind that they were the greatest Enemies to it by filling their minds with such unconquerable fears as rob them of that undisturbed Tranquillity which they enjoyed before But when and where did this race of Mankind live whom these designing Men first cheated into the belief of a Deity and the practice of Religion The eldest Writings in the World without all dispute are those of the Holy Scriptures and among these the Book of Job hath been thought the most antient for in all this Book we have not one word of the Law of Moses or of Circumcision which makes it very probable to have been written before the Children of Israels coming out of Aegypt and some Arabic Writers think that Job lived before Abraham and others at least in the time of Jacob however it be this Book of Job gives an account of the sense of Mankind about Religion very early and by it we find that the great and wise and understanding Men of the World such as Job and his three Friends were who as far as appears by the story were all of them independent Princes such as were common then and a long time after in those parts about Arabia had a mighty sense of God and Providence and the Duties of Religion upon their minds And they not only give an ample Testimony as to their own times but they appeal to all the Traditions of former times Enquire I pray thee of the former Age saith one of Job's Friends and prepare thy self to the search of their Fathers For we are but of yesterday and know nothing But what is it he appeals to Antiquity for and the observations of all former Ages It was for this viz. the bad condition of all that were not sincere in Religion So are the paths of all that forget God and the hypocrites hope shall perish And another of his Friends speaking of the remarkable judgments of God upon the World saith to Job Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden which were cut down out of time whose foundation was overthrown with a flood i. e. the Men of the old World And what was their great and provoking sin A contempt of God and Religion Which said unto God Depart from us and what can the Almighty do for them This is the oldest and truest and severest instance of such a profane and irreligious temper and the great mischief it brought upon the World which shews that this is not the original disposition of Mankind but the monstrous degeneracy of it But if they are unsatisfied with the Testimony of Job's Friends let them produce any to be mentioned the same Day with it which can pretend to give a truer account of the Religion of the first Ages of the World I do not mention Moses although his Authority be unquestionable lest he should be thought one of these Politicians who inspired the People of Israel with the Principles of Religion but I the rather
A SERMON Preached before the KING February the 15. 1683 4. By EDWARD STILLINGFLEET D.D. Dean of S. Pauls and Chaplain in Ordinary to his MAJESTY Printed by his Majesties Command LONDON Printed by J. M. for Henry Mortlock at the Phoenix in S t Paul 's Church-Yard and at the White Hart in Westminster-Hall 1684. Job xxiii 15. When I consider I am afraid of him THese Words were spoken by Job not in his flourishing and prosperous state when that extraordinary character was given of him That there was none like him in the Earth a perfect and an upright man one that feared God and eschewed evil but after the Devil was permitted to try that malicious experiment upon him viz. whether the changing his outward condition would not alter the inward disposition of his mind as to God and Religion For he suggested that nothing but interest made him so religious that all his Piety and Devotion was owing to the wonderful blessings of God upon him and if these were once removed he would fly out into so much impatience as to curse God to his face i. e. to speak evil of his Providence and renounce his service And this temptation prevailed so far on Job's Wife that she became an Instrument to carry on the Devils design when she said to him Dost thou still retain thy integrity Curse God and dye As though she had said You see what all your Religion is now come to and what a condition the Providence of God on which you trusted so much hath brought you to let them serve God that have ease and plenty you have nothing left to do now but in spite of Providence to put an end to such a miserable life But as it was observed of the old Heathen Oracles that they had often a true meaning in them but it was commonly misapplied the Devils own knowledge of future events being but probable and conjectural so here it was a shrewd guess that so sudden a change would have such an effect upon some person concerned in it But he was very much mistaken as to Job who behaved himself with admirable patience and submission to the Will of God under all his severe afflictions insomuch that he did not suffer an indecent expression to come from him with respect to God and his Providence In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly Which was no doubt a great disappointment to the Devil who made account he should by Jobs impatience have given a terrible blow to Religion by making the World believe that it was nothing but a grave pretence of some mens seeming to be better than their Neighbours For if a man of so much Piety as Job was esteemed should no sooner be pinched himself with affliction but he would be quarrelling at Gods management of things the Devil would have inferred that he did plainly discover how little influence Religion had upon the minds of those who made the greatest shew of it This had been a very dangerous snare in that Age to the rest of mankind among whom the example of so great a Person as Job was in the parts of Arabia where he lived as appears by the Sabaeans and Chaldaeans his unkind Neigbours did give a mighty reputation to the practice of Religion especially among such a wild and ungoverned People as the Arabs were And in truth the World is never so kind to Religion to give a fair interpretation of the failings of those who pretend to it but how unreasonable soever it be they will make Religion bear the blame of all their miscarriages who wear its livery And Job himself tells us there were such profane Persons then in the World who despised and contemned all Religion as a vain impertinent insignificant thing Therefore they say unto God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways What is the Almighty that we should serve him And what profit shall we have if we pray unto him i. e. they understood or valued nothing but what made for their present interest and they were content to let God alone with the disposal of another World so they might secure this to themselves But it was not only then a seasonable vindication of Religion that Job behaved himself with so much patience under his great calamities but it continues so to be as long as the memory of his sufferings remains which hath lasted for so many Ages that some think the Book of Job the oldest Book in the World not in the supposed translation into Hebrew but in the Original Arabic or Syriac and is now like to be preserved as long as the Christian Church endures against which the Gates of Hell will never be able to prevail But notwithstanding the general evenness of Job's temper and his quiet submission to Divine Providence there were two things which touched him more sensibly than all the other circumstances of his afflictions and those were 1. That God should seem so much displeased with him as to single him out as a mark to shoot at when he was not conscious to himself of any such impiety to deserve it according to the common method of his Providence 2. That his Friends should call in question his sincerity in Religion and suspect him guilty of Hypocrisie and secret Impiety because they concluded that such signal calamities could hardly fall upon any man that was not guilty of some such great crime towards God These were a trial of Jobs patience indeed that those from whom he expected the greatest comfort should prove his forest Enemies for if God were angry who could stand before him and if he were false in his Religion how could he expect he should be his Friend But in answer to both these he owns his fear of Gods displeasure and denies the charge as to his secret Hypocrisie and both in these few words of the Text When I consider I am afraid of him These words may be understood I. With respect to his apprehension of Gods displeasure against him Therefore am I troubled at his presence saith he immediately before not as though Job were like those Eliphaz speaks of in the foregoing Chapter which said unto God Depart from us or that he endeavoured as profane Persons do to keep God out of his thoughts as much as he could for what could Job have done under all his Troubles but for Gods presence to support him And therefore he declares his firm resolution never to let go his confidence in God whatever became of him Though be slay me yet will I trust in him He also shall be my salvation for an hypocrite shall not come before him But the Presence which troubled him was the great appearance of Gods displeasure of which again he speaks v. 24. For God maketh my heart soft and the Almighty troubleth me As though he had said All other considerations make no deep impression upon my mind but I am
no more able to bear up under the sense of Gods anger than the Wax is to forbear melting before the Fire And from this sense of his own utter inability to stand before the Power of the Almighty he elsewhere argues thus with him Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro And wilt thou pursue the dry stubble Man being as unable to resist the Divine Power as a leaf is to stand before a tempestuous Wind or the dry Stubble to stop the rage of a consuming Fire But here are two things to be resolved to make this matter clear before I proceed 1. What it was made Job so afraid of God when he considered seeing he insists so much upon his own Integrity 2. What apprehension then ought we to have of God in our minds when such a one as Job said When I consider I am afraid of him 1. What it was made Job so apprehensive of Gods anger that he was afraid of him when he pleads so much for his own Integrity towards God and Man Doth not this seem to lessen the comfort and satisfaction of a good Conscience when such a one as Job was afraid of God For from whence comes all the peace of a good Conscience but from him and what content can there be from him the very thoughts of whom make us afraid To that I answer 1. Mankind ought always to preserve an humble and awful apprehension of God in their mind And that from the sense of the infinite distance between God and us as he is our Maker and we are his Creatures as he is our Benefactor and we his Dependents as he is our supreme Lord and we his Subjects as he infinitely exceeds us in all the Perfections of his Nature For what are our shallow and dark and confused conceptions of things to his Divine Wisdom by which he comprehends all the differences of times at one view and all the Reasons and Connexions and Possibilities of things are open and naked before him What is all the power of Mankind if it were gathered into one in comparison with that Divine Power which gave a Being to the World when it was not and rules and governs and orders all things in it with greater ease than we can move a finger It is by that God hath spread out the Skies and ballanced the Clouds and garnished the Heavens and divided the Sea and hanged the Earth upon nothing as it is elegantly set forth in this Book of Job And therefore as Job saith to his Friends Shall not his excellency make you afraid and his dread fall upon you For as Elihu speaks With God is terrible Majesty and therefore when we consider we have reason to be afraid of him 2. The best of Mankind have guilt enough upon them to make them apprehend Gods displeasure under great afflictions Jobs Friends insist much upon this that God may see just cause to lay great punishments upon Men although they may not see it in themselves For if he charges his angels with folly as Eliphaz speaks and the Heavens are not clean in his sight How much more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water i. e. whose natural propensity to evil is like that of the thirsty Traveller to drink of the Brook that he meets in his way But suppose some to have much greater care to restrain their desires than others yet saith he What is man that he should be clean and he which is born of a woman that he should be righteous i. e. to such a degree as not to deserve afflictions from God And after all the protestations Job makes of his Integrity he confesses that there is so much natural and contracted impurity in Mankind that God may justly cast them into the Furnace to purge and refine them Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one And I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men For thou writest bitter things against me and makest me possess the iniquities of my youth He could not deny but he had sinned enough to deserve Gods displeasure but according to the usual method of Providence he could not but think his Case very hard to suffer so much for sins committed before he well knew the nature or danger of his sins for sins so long since repented of and forsaken which is the only satisfactory sign of true repentance and when so many wicked men in the heighth of their impiety and contempt of God and Religion go away here unpunished whereas he had made it his business and delight to serve him as he speaks in this Chapter My foot hath held his steps his way have I kept and not declined neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food But after all this to find Gods hand so heavy upon him made him sometimes complain in the anguish and bitterness of his Soul Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee so that I am a burden to my self And elsewhere I was at ease he hath broken me asunder he hath also taken me by my neck and shaken to pieces and set me up for his mark Nothing sunk his spirit till he thought God was displeased with him and then his heart and courage failed him and he beg'd compassion from his hard-hearted Friends Have pity upon me have pity upon me O ye my friends for the hand of God hath touched me Which makes good the observation of the Wise Man That the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmities i. e. a Mans natural courage will carry him through a great many troubles but a wounded spirit who can bear i. e. when a Mans heart fails him he becomes a burden to himself every thing adds to his trouble and nothing can give him ease but what can revive his Spirit Now no consideration in the World doth so break in pieces and confound and shatter the Spirit of a Man like the apprehension of Gods wrath and displeasure against him for his sins which made Job cry out like one wounded in the most tender and incurable parts The arrows of the Almighty are within me the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me But after all this 3. God may not be so displeased with such Persons as lie under great afflictions as they apprehend him to be And this was the truth of Job's Case his sufferings were extraordinary and such an unusal concurrence of so many sad accidents made him think he had great cause to apprehend an immediate hand of God to be stretcht out against him But the main design of this Book is to shew that all these afflictions were intended only as trials of his Patience and that God never loved him better than at