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
AN EXPOSITION WITH Practical Observations CONTINUED Upon the Fourth Fifth Sixth and Seventh Chapters of the BOOK OF JOB Being the substance of XXXV Lectures delivered at Magnus near the Bridge London By JOSEPH CARYL Preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincolnes Inne JAMES Chap. 1. Ver. 2 3 4. My brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations Knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience But let patience her perfect worke that ye may be perfect and intire wanting nothing LONDON Printed for L. Fawne L. Lloyd and M. Simmons 1656. To the Christian READER TO Those chiefly of this CITY who have been the Moovers and are the Promoters of this Worke. Sirs YOur continued care and labor of love engages a like degree of both for the growth of this Infant worke And therefore though in the midst of manifold diversions these peeces are ventur'd out We live in an Age O that we could live it wherein the hand of Providence works gloriously yea terribly Having then got three or foure steps further into this Book of Providence it will not be unseasonable to shew you the Prints of them Especially seeing this History of Jobs affliction looks so like a prophecy of ours and almost in every line gives us some lineament of our present troubles and distempers of our hopes and feares In the three former Chapters we had a Narrative of the case and of those occurrences out of which the Question here debated receives it's state As also the bringing together of the Interlocutors or persons maintaining this Discourse As we may alwayes observe in the writings of the Ancients whether Naturall Morall or Divine which are composed into Dialogues or Disputes This great Divinity act one of the greatest surely and most solemn I thinke the first that ever was held out in such a formality in the world is principally spent upon that noble probleme How the justice and goodnesse of God can be salved while his providence distributes good to the evill and evill to the good A Question started and toucht in many books of the holy Scriptures but is here ex professo purposely handled First in a very long Disputation between Job the Respondent and his three Friends Opponents Then in a full determination first by Elihu an acute and wise then by God himselfe the most wise and infallible Moderator The Method here observed is after the manner of the Schooles pro and contra every one of the foure disputants having his severall opinion and each one his arguments in favour of his own Which yet are not presented in that affected plainness of the Schoolmen with their down-right videtur quod sic probatur quodnon This I affirm this I prove this I deny this disprove The pen-men of the holy Ghost never discuss Questions so no nor any of the old Philosophers This Covert carriage of their opinions and close contexture of their arguments Answers and Replies about them render the Booke somewhat dark and obscure to the Readers meditation And therefore it will be a designe not unprofitable if that end offer'd at may be attained briefly to draw them forth and set them before you in a more open light And doublesse what they hold and by what mediums they mannage their proofs may by the blessing of God upon serious thoughts and frequent reviews be made out to a very great plainnesse Towards which it is observable that there are many threeds of the same colour and substance mixt and interwoven by the Disputants throughout this whole Discourse And that though the three Opponents with one consent set up Job as their common mark to shoot at yet they take up very different standings if not different levels varying each from other in some things as well as all upon the main from him The reason of the former is this because there are some common principles wherein they all agree which if we abstract with what is spoken in the illustration of them taking in also those conclusions which springs from them as their first borne Then the remainder will shew us that proper distinctive opinion which each of them holds about this grand Question of providence the events distributions wherof seeme so cross-handed in giving trouble and sorrow to godly men joy and prosperity to the wicked There are three principles wherein Job concurs with his three friends and a fourth wherin they three concur against him The three wherein all foure agree are these First That all the afflictions and calamities which befall man fall within the eye and certain knowledge of God Secondly That God is the Author and efficient cause the orderer and disposer of all those afflictions and calamities Thirdly That in regard of his most holy Majesty and unquestionable Soveraignty he neither doth nor can doe any wrong or injury to any of his creatures whatsoever affliction he laies or how long soever he is pleased to continue it upon them These three principles and such conclusions as are immediately deducible from them are copiously handled and insisted upon by them all In persuance wherof they all speak very glorious things of the Power Wisdom Justice Holines Soveraignty of the Lord. In proclaiming every of which Attributes the tongue of Job like a silver Trumpet lifts up the name of God so high that he seems to drown the sound of the other three makes their praise almost silent But Jobs three friends proceed to a fourth principle which He utterly denies about which so much of his answer as is contradictory to their objections rejoynders wholly consists That their fourth principle seems to be bottom'd upon two grounds First That whosoever is good and doth good shall receive a present good reward according to the measure of the good he hath done and That whosoever is wicked and doth wickedly shall be paid with present punishment according to the measure of his demerits Seondly That if at any time a wicked man flourish in outward prosperity yet his flourishing is very momentany and suddenly in this life turnes to or ends in visible judgements And That if at any time a godly man be wither'd with adversity yet his withering is very short and suddenly in this life turnes to or ends in visible blessings Vpon these two grounds or suppositions They raise and build their fourth principle from which They three make continuall batteries upon the innocency of Job We may conceive the position in this frame That whosoever is greatly afflicted and is held long under the pressure of his affliction that man is to be numbred with the wicked though no other evidence or witnesse appeare or speak a word against him Hence The peculiar opinion of Eliphaz rises thus That all the outward evils which over-take man in the course of this life are the proseeds of his own sin and so from the processe of Gods justice He gives us this sence for his in expresse termes Chap. 4. 8. They
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 〈◊〉
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
beat a thing to powder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Contudit contrivit comminuit or to beat a thing to pieces Psal 143. 3. He hath smitten my life downe to the ground that is He hath beaten me as it were to dirt So Job here I would have the Lord even beat me to dust or dirt The word is used for contrition of spirit Isa 57. 15. I dwell with him that is of an humble heart and of a contrite spirit That is with him that hath a spirit beaten to powder or all to pieces as any hard thing is with a hammer or pestle A hard heart is a heart all in a lumpe condensate and closed together but an humble a repenting heart is a heart beaten small and ground to powder Thus Job desires here O that it would please God to beat my life downe to dust and breake me all to shatters that he would crush me as Eliphaz spake in the 14th Chapter ver 19. as a Moth. Observe then in how sad a condition Job was who not onely makes but renewes such a request as this Some upon a suddaine pang wish to die and hastily call for death yet are willing it should take it 's own time and come leisurely and as soon as death appeares they are crying as hard for life It is rare for any mans second thoughts to keepe up to such desires Job spake once and he speakes it over again O that I might die yea he wooes destruction and is an importunate suiter for the grave How sad is a mans outward condition when he hath only this complaint left that he cannot die when a man hath no helpe but in destruction or healing but in a deeper wound Job in this appeares like a man that is to be pressed to death lying under a heavy weight yet the weight not heavy enough to crush him to death he cries out more weight more weight It will be a kindnesse to crush out my breath and bowels the greatest favour I expect in this world is but to have more weight laid upon them that I may die Some of the Martyrs when the fire was scant have cried out more fire The cruellest flame was their friend and the more the fire raged the more merciful it was to them The book of our Martyrs reports of reverend Latimer that when he was giving witnesse to the truth and glorifying the name of Christ in the fire he cried out Oh I cannot burne the fire came not fast enough upon him Such this expression of Job seemes to be Oh I cannot die I cannot be destroyed I cannot perish yet O that the hand of God would lay more weight upon me that I might die He seemes to aske such a curtesie as that Amalekite said King Saul craved of him 2 Sam. 1. 9. Stand I pray thee upon me and slay me for anguish is come upon me because my life is yet whole in me This is the favour the only favour that remaines for me I am capable of no worldly comfort but a quicker dispatch out of the world And that he would let loose his hand and cut me off Here is the same Petition though other language That he would 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Loco movit evulsit excussit let loose his hand That 's an elegant expression The word signifies to loose the bond that a man may have use of his hands or feet As prisoners are loosed Psal 146. 2. The Lord looseth the prisoners So that it is as if Job had said Lord thou hast been smiting and wounding me but I see thou hast not given thy hand the full scope thy hand is as it were bound or tied behind thee As you know a man that hath great advantage of another or is much his over-mach will say to him I will fight with thee with Translatio ab his qui manum vinctam habent my hand tied behind me The truth is God is able to contend with all the creatures with his hand bound behind him with his hands fast bound that is without putting forth the least part to speake on of his power He can overcome with speaking Job observing here that God contended with him as it were with his hands bound or tied up desires now that God would give himselfe full scope and put out his strength and not strike as if his hand were a prisoner And he may have a respect in speaking thus to the Non se gera◠erga me instar hominis colligatam habentis manum restraint or binding up of Satans power In this worke Satan was Gods hand God put power into the hand of Satan All that he hath is in thy power or in thy hand Chap. 1. 12. First God loosened Satans hand to take away his estate Next he let loose his hand a little further to the afflicting of his body but saith God spare his life there he bound up his hand againe Now Job alluding probably to that restraint Lord saith he loosen thy hand a third time doe not only loosen it to take away my estate to take away my health and strength but O that thou wouldest loosen it to take away my life too enlarge I pray thee Satans Commission who is thy hand let it quite loose that he may make an end of me and cut me off The word here used to cut off comes up to heighten Jobs sence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inexplebilem cupiditatem atque immanem aviditatem vulnerandi humani sanguinu perfundendi sign ficat still signifying to cut off with an unsatiable appetite of revenge As if he should say Cut me off spare me not spare not my blood doe it as they who are most greedy of blood and thirst most vehemently after revenge Let Satan that blood-sucker come with as great revenge thy hand being loosened from restraining his as ever the greatest Tyrant hastned with to suck the blood of innocents Let him greedily cut me off even as if he were to have some great gain or get some rich booty by my blood What profit is there in my blood saith David Psal 30. 9. Let him make what profit he can of my blood saith Job The word signifies to covet or desire gaine And it notes the worst kind of covetousnesse covetousnesse of filthy lucre or covetousnesse of bloodie lucre Hence Job saith Let God cut me off as if he were to have profit or raise Avidè me absumat quasi ex mea morte ingens lucrum reportaturus Pined himselfe a revenew out of my blood or let Satan come upon me and take his penny-worths out of my blood let him murder me as if he were to find all manner of treasure in my bowels and could thence fill and adorn all his chambers of darknes with spoils We may note from hence First That God dispenceth and acteth his power as he pleaseth He looseth his hand gradually as to him seemeth good First To the estate then to the body
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
object stands directly before us and we desire to have an enemy right before us And the word may be taken simply for an enemy or adversary who stands opposite to us both in his actions and designes and against whom we direct both ours We render wherefore hast thou set me as a marke and that suites the sence of the word fully because a marke at which a man aimes is set in direct opposition to him we levell our atrowes or bullets at the marke right before us Job thought himselfe thus placed why hast thou set me as a marke to meete with or intercept thy shot thy arrowes thy bullets thy blowes upon my breast Wilt thou make the bosome of thy servants like the breast of an enemy a But to receive all thy arrows A mark is as a standing enemy and an enemy is a moving marke to shoote at a marke is a livelesse enemy and an enemy is a living marke his meaning then is Thou hast set me against thee as if I were an enemy as if I were one against whom thou resolvest to direct all thine arrows and aim every stroke so the word is used Judg. 8. 21. where Zeba and Zalmunna two Kings taken captive by Gideon said to him rise thou and fall upon us it is this word set us before thee as a marke for thy victorious sword So the Prophet Amos 5. 19. tels us that a man in hopes to escape the hand of God shall be as if a man did flee from a Lion and a Bear met him such a man is but a mark for a Bear who thinks to out-runne this Lion That expression 1 King 5. 4. is very clear to this sense where the peacefulness of Solomons reigne is described thus there was neither adversary nor evil occurrent the word we translate evill occurrent it is that in the text no evil met or befel them So then the sum of all is That Job expostulates or complaines before God that he was as it were the man chosen out amongst all the men in the world to be as the mark and But against which God shot his afflictions and level'd all his arrows As if he had said There are many mo about me and thou doest not so much as touch one of the hairs of their heads there are men that receive not so much as one shot from thee but I am made thy standing marke why is it thus Lord So he expresseth himself in other words but to this very sense chap. 19. 11. chap 13. 24. Wherefore holdest thou me for thine enemy or according to the letter of the Hebrew among those who straighten thee as an enemy straightens a City in the time of a siedge And this he doth to move God to pity and compassion Lord saith he I am set as a mark against thee You would be much moved a tender heart would to see a man bound fast to a post and another standing off with his bow bent and his arrow on the string with his gun or pistoll cockt aiming at his breast Job presents himself in such a posture as if the Lord had bound him fast to a post or to a tree and were pouring vollies of shot and sending showers of arrows upon him continually Observe first the manner of the language which is by way of a vehement question or expostulation Why hast thou set me as a marke against thee Man is very inquisitive to know the reasons of Gods dealings with him That 's one thing And secondly which is near the same It is some satisfaction and ease to the mind smitten by the hand of God to know the reason why he wounds why he smites Why hast thou set me as a marke as if he had said if I could but learne this and see the reason of it surely I should receive thy wounds as kisses and take thy stroakes as embraces When Gideon saw so many evils and troubles upon Israel Jud. 6. and the Angel told him the Lord was with him Then why is it thus saith he Can you give me a reason why God being with us it is thus with us To know the reason of our paine is a great ease and almost the care of it If the people of God did but know what infinite reason he hath reason of the highest temperament of wisdome and goodness why he layes affliction upon them and makes them as his markes they would be abundantly satisfied with it What is the reason why the Saints coming out of great affliction are willing to confesse it is good for us that we were afflicted and blessed be God that we were chastned It is because then they see more cleerly the reason why God afflicted them and they then begin to tast the fruit of those afflictions If while the affliction is upon us we knew what good God meaneth us what honour he intendeth us we should beare it not onely with courage and with patience but with joy If Iob had been but fully acquainted with this that God therefore set him up as a mark to shoot at that he might be to all the world a mirror of patience that God intended him this honour that his name should be upon record in his Book so long as there was a Church surely he would have borne all with more patience and ease than he did But he was groping in the darke and therefore enquires wherefore hast thou set me as a marke against thee The words are not only or not so much an expostulation because he was set as a marke as an inquisition why he was set as a marke Thirdly note God sometimes seemes an enemie to his faithfull servants For one to be before God as a But continually shot at what other interpretation can sense make of it but this that God looks upon him as an enemy Iacob saith of Ioseph Gen. 49. 23. the archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him Joseph was as the common marke of his Bretherens envy But in this case as it is said of Joseph Gen. 42. when his brethren came to him he made himself strange to them Joseph strained himselfe and used his art to overcome his nature he made himselfe strange Joseph was of a meek and loving disposition and therefore like a Player upon a stage he only acted the part of a rigid master or governor Thus many times the Lord takes upon him the posture of an enemy and forces a frowne upon a poor creature whom he loves and delights in with all his heart he makes him as his marke to shoot at whom he layes next his own heart Thus the Church speakes Lam. 3. 12. He hath bent his bow and set me as a marke for his arrowes And Job 16. 13. that you may see how his language agrees with other Scriptures His archers compasse me round about he cleaveth my reines asunder and doth not spare He poureth out my gall upon the ground How exactly he speakes A man shootes at a haires bredth that shootes
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