they are carelesse of or wandring from the Lord leade them by the hand of counsell into ways where he may be found I would seeke unto God Observe in the third place That We ought to manage our exhortations with meeknesse and tendernesse This of Eliphaz is a mild and tender expression and to make it more easie he puts the exhortation as was noted before in the first not in the second person he doth not say seeing afflictions come not from the ground and that man is borne unto trouble therefore doe thou seeke unto God and doe thou commit thy cause unto God but seeing thy case is thus truly brother I advise thee as I would advise mine own soul Seek unto God It moves strongly and gaines upon the affection of another to tell him we would do the things our selves which we desire he should and we wish him as we doe our own souls Fourthly observe That It is both our wisedome and our duty in all our afflictions to seek unto God I would saith Eliphaz if I were in thy case seek unto God Unto whom should we goe but unto God He is our best friend when it is best with us and he is our only friend when it is ill with us all other friends will be Physitians of no value as Job himselfe found them therefore seeke unto God As the Disciples said unto Christ when Christ asked them Will yee also goe away Whether shall we goe say they for thou hast the words of eternall life So faith the soule in afflictions To whom shall I goe Unto this creature or that creature unto this friend or that friend No I will seek unto God That is the wisest and shortest course all other courses are about if not in vain Other wayes may be used as helps but this must pitch mainly upon God When we are directed to seek unto God in afflictions it speakes foure things First To seek unto God about the cause of our afflictions desire that God would informe us what his mind is in sending such an affliction or what it is he aimes at in sending it Afflictions are the Lords messengers and we should never be quiet till we know their errand This is it which Job complained of in the third Chapter That his way was hid which was expounded that he knew not the cause of his afflictions the cause was hidden and so was the issue he could neither tell how he came in nor how he could come out If our way in afflictions be hid we must seeke unto God for the opening of it Secondly To seek unto God for strength and patience to beare the affliction As the affliction comes from God so doth the strength by which we stand under it or get victory over it Thirdly To seek unto God for the sanctifying of affliction to our profit that we may be partakers of his holinesse Afflictions are the good creatures of God and they as all other creatures are sanctifâ—ed to us by the word and prayer We have as much reason to seek unto God for a blessing upon our daily Rod as upon our daily bread Fourthly Seek unto God for cure and ease for the removing or mitigating of them In their affliction they will seeke me early saith the Lord Hos 5. 15. But for what will they seek even for medicine and healing Come and let us returne unto the Lord for he hath torne and he will heale us he hath smitten and he will bind us up Hos 6. 1. Observe from the other branch And unto God would I commit my cause That It is a very great ease unto the soule in affliction to commit our cause unto God and to put our affairs into his hand Man is not able to stand alone under the weight of his afflictions Both sinne and sorrow are burdens too heavie for us to beare if you would have ease lay both upon Christ it is no unbecomming boldnesse to doe so for he cals us to it and bids us doe it Psal 55. 22. Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustaine thee Christ is willing to beare a part and put his shoulder under these burdens yea it is his strength that beares the whole The committing of our cause to God is at once our duty our safety and our ease Thus David did Psal 142 2. I powred my complaint before him I shewed before him my trouble David brought out his evils and set them as it were one by one in the sight of God and told him thus it is with me We may see David acting this rule to the life when Absolom had fomented a most unnaturall rebellion against His He hastens out of Jerusalem All the Country wept with a loud voyce and the Priests with the Arke of the Covenant of God came with him also In what posture was Davids spirit in the midst of these commotions His words to Zadok shew no doubt the true picture of it And the King said to Zadok carry back the Arke of God into the City if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me againe and shew me both it and his habitation but if he say thus I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him doe to me as seemeth good unto him 2 Sam. 15. 25 26. As if he had said I am uncertaine what God will doe with me but I am resolved to let the Lord doe with mee what he will I am willing to be what God will have me I lay my cause and leave my businesse at his foot-stool if he will have me dethroned and unking'd I am content my honour should lye in the dust If he say I shall never come againe to Jerusalem or see the Arke of his strength and presence I am content for ever to be banisht Jerusalem never to see the Arke which to me is the most beautifull and desirable sight in the world any more Here was self-resignation and cause-committing to the height And when David had brought his heart to this his heart was unburden'd he doubtlesse found the weight and stresse of the whole businesse lying upon God himselfe His cause was with God and his cares were with God And therefore Though his throne shaked yet his heart was fixed Nor doe I find that ever his heart was more fixed then in this stresse while his Throne and Crowne were tottering Hezekiah did the like with like success In the day of that great and publike calamity he went and spread the letter of Rabshakeh before God he as it were desired God to reade it to observe the blasphemous contents and see in what condition he was He that commits his cause to God breathes a composed spirit when the greatest stormes and distractions are upon his bodie or estates upon Church or State Only take this caution be sure the cause you commit to God be a good cause The committing of a sinfull cause to God is a dishonour to and a high strain of presumption against God We may commit a doubtfull cause to God desiring that he would try and examine whether it be good or bad But we must not commit a doubtfull cause to
God desiring him to protect it or us in it whether it be good or bad And if in this sence we may not commit a doubtfull cause to God What shall we thinke of those who shall dare to commit an openly unjust and wicked cause to God A wicked mans prayer is alwayes sinfull but how abominable is it when he prayes to be prospered or directed in acting his sin or to be strengthned in suffering impenitently for his sin There is no gracious act but a wicked man at one time or other will imitate He will pray and repent and forgive and commit his cause to God and when he dyes commit his soule to God There is no trusting to a mouth full of good words while the heart will not empty it selfe of wickednesse It is good alwayes to commit our cause and our soules to God but a cause or a soule are not therefore good because committed unto God The language of Israel is often spoken by the men of Ashdod And many who never had the least part of holinesse in them can yet set themselves when there is no remedie to act a part in it The Apostle Peter gives us this rule 1 Epist 4. 19. Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their soules to him in well-doing as unto a faithfull Creatour Except we suffer according to the will or from the hand of God and also doe well in our sufferings Christ will not admit this Feofement though we commit our selves to him he will not accept the trust But he that suffers according to or by the will of God and doth well in suffering that is hath a good cause and a good conscience He I say may commit all to God and in the mercy of the most High he shall not miscarry Lastly Whereas Eliphaz saith I would seeke unto God were I in thy case observe That It is a wise course in advising others to shew our selves readie to follow the same advise It wins exceedingly upon others to take our counsell when it appeares we are ready to follow the same counsell our selves We ought to doe nothing unto others but what we would have done unto our selves and we should advise nothing to others but what we our selves would doe It puts strength into a rule when he that gives it is ready to enliven it by his owne practice As a Physitian for the encouragement of his patient to take a nauseous medicine will say to him Sir you seeme unwilling to drinke it but if I were sicke and distempered as you are I would drinke it readily and that you may see there is no hurt in it I will tast a little my selfe His tasting sweetens it and the patient likes it well Thus when either Minister or private friend offers advise or counsell and shall say thus I would doe this I would follow This takes upon the heart whereas it disparages prayer or any duty to say to another Seeke unto God put your case unto him fast and pray When he that gives the counsell neglects all these duties and is carelesse of communion with God Christ saith of the Pharisees that they bound heavy burthens upon the shoulders of others These burdens were counsels and directions rules and canons they would have men doe thus and thus in the manner of Gods worship or daily converse with men But They themselves would not touch them with one of their fingers Mat. 23. 4. That is they would not practise them in the least degree As to do evil with both hands Mic. 7. 3. notes the highest degree both of desire endeavour in doing evill So not to touch that which is good with a finger notes a total neglect of doing good A finger is the least member and a Touch is the least act then these Pharisees not touching with a finger imports they did not act at all It is good to act a rule privately by way of experiment before we put it upon others but it is most necessary to act it by way of example when we have published it to and press'd it upon others It was a speech of one of the Ancients I never taught my people any thing but what I had first practised and experimented my selfe Doctrine is sooner followed by the eye then by the eare He that like the Scribes and pharisees Mat. 23. 3. saith and doth not shall find but few to doe what he saith No man ought to teach any thing which he is not willing as he is call'd to doe and observe himselfe It is very sinfull to give counsell which we will not take Our works ought to be the practise of our words and as practicable as our words Woe unto those of whom it may be said as Christ of the Pharisees Mat. 23. 3. Whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and doe but doe not ye after their works JOB Chap. 5. Vers 9. Which doth great things and unsearchable marvellous things without number c. THis context unto the 17 verse containes the second argument by which Eliphaz strengthneth his former Exhortation To seeke unto God and to commit his cause unto him The argument may be thus formed He is to be sought unto both in duty and in wisdome and unto him our cause is to be committed who is of absolute infinite power wisdome and goodnesse But God is of absolute infinite power wisdome and goodnesse Therefore it is our duty and our wisdome to seeke unto God and unto God to commit our cause That God is infinite in power wisdome and goodnesse Eliphaz proves by an enumeration or induction of divers effects and works which call for infinite power wisdome and goodnesse to produce and actuate them These effects are laid down first in generall v. 9. Who doth great things and unsearchable marvellous things without number Then these works or effects are given in particulars and the first particular instance of Gods mighty power is in naturall things or his preservation of the world at the 10 verse Who giveth raine upon the earth and sendeth waters upon the fields The second instance is given in civill things or his administrations in the world at the 12 13 14. verses And that we may consider two wayes 1. In destroying the counsels and plots of the wicked in the 12 13 and 14. verses He disappointeth the devices of the crafty so that their hands cannot performe their enterprise c. 2. In delivering those who are in trouble at the 15. verse He saveth the poore from the Sword c. These are works of Power Further the goodnesse of God shines forth in two things 1. By the present intendment or end aimed at in these mighty works ver 11. To set up on high those that be low that those which mourne may
the highest elevation both in parts gifts and graces shall he be more pure than his Maker Christ as incarnate or made man is called the Mighty God Isa 9. 6. God made a Mighty man or man becomming the Mighty God The Chaldee calls all Giants Gibbaraja and Nimrod the first of the Giants was called by this name a Mighty hunter before the Lord Gen. 10. 8. So then Let man be never so excellent his excellency is basenesse let him be never so strong so wise so holy he is but weake foolish filthy compared with him who made him Leave your Enosh your weakeling your poore sick creatures bring forth your Gibers your best they are as nothing yea lesse than nothing before the Lord. Shall mortall man be more just than God shall man the best of men be more pure than his Maker We are to marke the double opposition of the Text. Here is first mortall weake sick man set in opposition to the strong the mighty the all-powerfull God And then in the second place the opposition is between the strongest the best the holiest the wisest of men and the maker of all men Shall mortall man or shall the best of men be more just more pure than God their Maker There is a three-fold sense which we may give of the words joyntly First They are a deniall of all comparison between God and man No man may compare himselfe with God Shall mortall man that is mortall man ought not to be so bold and daring as to venture upon such a thing as this to stand upon termes of equality with the mighty the great the glorious God the Maker of all as the Apostle resolves in his own case 1 Cor. 4. 4. Though I know nothing by my selfe yet am I not hereby justified at all much lesse though a man know nothing by himselfe will this justifie him in this comparison that he is just as God is just But secondly Shall mortall man be more just than God It is as if he had said God who is infinite in justice would never doe that which a just man will not doe God who is infinite in power would never doe that which a weake man would not doe shall weake man be more just than God And so we may forme the argument thus No man no Judge is more just or incorrupt than God who is the supreame and Lord chiefe Justice of all men But there is no just Judge amongst men who will punish an innocent man therefore God doth not punish any one that is innocent The consequence or inference is plaine and cleare for God himselfe should either be unjust or he should be lesse just than man is if he should doe that which a just man upon true grounds would refuse to doe Therefore in Gen. 18. Abraham pleades with God under that title of a just Judge shall not the Judge of all the world doe right As if he should say faithfull Judges upon the earth will doe right therefore surely he that is the Judge of all the earth will doe right so Eliphaz here to Job Never complaine as if God had done thee wrong for certainly the just God will not doe that which a just man would not doe The word whereby God is exprest Eloha Eloha denotot judicem â—quissimum rerum arbitâ—um doth well comply with and answer this sense it being properly attributed to God as a Judge the great arbitrator and determiner of all the causes and cases of all men in the world Shall mortall man be more just than God Thirdly The sense may be taken thus If any man should come to impleade God or to pleade with God if any should dare to tax the Justice of God or be so hardy to put in a bill of complaint against him shall this man this weake man be found more just in his complaining than God hath been in sentencing shall his bill of complaint be better grounded than the Lords award of Judgement It is an allusion to those who supposing they have wrong complaine against the Judge and say that he hath erred in or perverted Judgement That word Justified here used shall man be justified before God is a Judiciarie word a Court or Law terme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Veâ—bum forense spectans ad innocentis absolutionem The same word which the Holy Ghost uses in that great work of Free Grace the justification of a sinner before God And that imports the declaring and setting forth of a man to be righteous and his cause good in Jesus Christ whereupon he is cleered and acquitted When Satan accuses or pleads against us laying such and such sinnes to our charge thus and thus this man hath offended then God is said to justifie a man that is to declare him to be just his sinnes being covered and himselfe accepted in Jesus Christ Hence that divine challenge to all accusers Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is God that justifieth Rom. 8. 33. So now if man should accuse and complaine against God he hath done thus and thus in the world afflicted a Job troubled a righteous person shall mortall man be more just than God Shall this man in his complaint be justified shall not God rather be justified against whom he complains Certainly he shall God shall be declared just yea he shall be declared just by man A man un-ingaged and rightly principled Such a man shall say verily there is a God that judgeth the earth In the judgement of man that judgment shall speak a God and all shall be forced to Daniels mourning acknowledgement O Lord righteousnesse belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face Dan. 97. 9 We may enlighten it further by that of David Ps 51. 4. where he professes thus I will confesse my sins c. that thou maiest be justified when thou speakest and be cleare when thou judgest as if he should say if hereafter thou shalt afflict me and lay thy rod upon me I know many will be ready to complaine and say why doth God thus why doth he afflict David David a holy man a man after his own heart a man of whom he hath given such large testimony of whom he hath said I have found a man after my own heart Now to the intent all these may be cast in their suits and answered in their complainings I here acknowledge before all the world that I have sinned greatly therefore though thou hast pardoned my sinne and so wilt never charge it upon me to condemnation nor punish me for it in a way of satisfaction yet hereafter thou maiest in thy fatherly wisdome see it needfull to chastise me to prevent and purge out sin or to help me against the weaknesse of my nature and the strength of temptation for the time to come So here in the Text Shall man be justified before God If Job or any of his friends for him should complaine against God why he being
of the imagination of mans heart it is evill and onely evill and that continually the Hebrew is every figment or every creature in the heart of man whatsoever a man moulds and fashions within himself naturally is evill and nothing but evill and it is alwayes so The naturall births of mans heart have all one common face and feature They are all of one common constitution Evill all Secondly We may observe That The meritorious cause of mans suffering is from his sinne Iniquity springeth not from the ground neither doth trouble come out of the dust As iniquity springs from our selves so we may resolve it that misery springs from our sinne It is a truth as hath been touched upon the second Chapter that God in many afflictions laid upon his dear children and servants respects not their sin as the cause procuring and drawing on these afflictions And very many are afflicted by the world not for sinnes sake but for righteousness sake As Christ so some Christians may say in their spheare We have done many good works for which of them doe ye stone us Yet this is as cleare a truth that the sinne of any man is in it selfe a sufficient meritorious cause of any yea of all afflictions A creature cannot beare a greater punishment then the least of his sinnes deserves Man weaves a spiders webb of sinne out of his owne bowels and then he is intangled in the same webb the troubles which insnare and wrappe about him are twisted with his own fingers Thirdly observe Naturally every man seekes the reason of his sorrows and afflictions out of himselfe When man is afflicted he is not willing to owne himself as the cause of his afflictions or acknowledge that they spring from his sinne and that may be the reason why Eliphaz speaks thus to Job as if he had said thy thoughts are wandring abroad thou little thinkst that thy afflictions were bred in thy owne bosome Thou art fastning the cause of then upon this and t'other thing Thou art complaining of the day wherein thou wast borne but thou shouldest rather complain of the sin wherein thou wast born Thâ— birth-day hath not hurt thee but thy birth-sin Thy birth-sin hath given conception to all the sorrows of thy life The Jewes in the Prophet Isa's time were in great distresse and could get no deliverance The ports and passages of mercy were all obstructed Now whether went their thoughts And what did they looke upon as the reason of those abiding lingring evils we may reade their thoughts in the refutation of them we may see what the disease of their hearts was by the medicine which the Prophet applies unto them he labours to purge them from that conceit as if either want of power or want of love in the Lord were the stop of their deliverance The Lords hand is not shortned that he cannot save neither his eare heavy that he cannot heare Isa 59. 1 2. as if he had said I know what your apprehensions are in these affliction you thinke the reason is in God that either he cannot or he will not save you You think the hand of Gods power is shrunke up or the eare of his mercy shut up but you reflect not upon your selves nor consider that Your iniquities have separated between you and your God Your sinne does you hurt and you touch not that with a little finger but lay the weight of your charge upon God himselfe So Hos 13. 9. Thy destruction is from thy self in me is thy help God is forced to tel them so that their destruction was from themselves they would not believe it they supposed it was from the cruelty or malice of the creature from the wrath and rage of enemies from some oversight or neglect of their friends therefore the Lord speaks out in expresse termes Thy destruction is from thy self It springs not forth of the dust neither is thy destruction from me In me is thy help in both the heart of man failes equally we are ready to say that the good we have comes from our selves that our help and comforts are from our own power and wisdom and so offer sacrifice to our own nets as if by them our portion were fat but for evil and destruction we assigne it wholly over somtime to men and so are angry sometime to God and so blaspheme We naturally decline what reflects shame upon our selves or speaks us guilty From our translation Although affliction c Observe First Every affliction hath a cause The Proverbe carries that sense in every common understanding Our afflictions have a cause a certaine cause they come not by hap hazzard or by accident Many things are casuall but nothing is without a cause Many things are not fore seene by man but all things are fore-ordained by God The Prophet Amos Ch. 3. 6. sets forth this by an elegant similitude Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no ginne is for him As if he should say is a bird taken in a snare by chance where none have prepared set or industriously laid a snare or a ginne to take him The bird saw not the snare but the snare was set for the Bird. Snaresfall not on the ground at adventure they grow not out of the earth of themselves but the fowler by his art and industry invents and frames them a purpose to catch the bird Thus the calamity and troubles in which men are caught and lime-twig'd insnared and shackled in the world come not out of the ground They are not acts of chance but of providence The wise and holy God sets such snares to take and hold foolish unruly men like silly birds gaping after the baits of worldy pleasures Which meaning is cleare from the scope and tendency of the whole Chapter but the next question resolves it in the letter Is there any evill in a City and the Lord hath not done it Those words are both the conclusion and explication of the former similitude Secondly observe Affliction is not from the power of any creature As it comes not by chance or without a cause so not by the power of creatures they are not the cause dust and the ground are opposed to Heaven or to a divine power Creatures in this sense can neither doe good nor doe evill The world would be as full of trouble as it is of sin if sinfull men could make trouble It is not in the compasse of a creature no not of all the creatures in Heaven or earth to forme or to make out one affliction without the concurrence and allowance of God himselfe Men alone can neither make staves of comfort nor rods of affliction Whence thirdly A consectary from both may be That Afflictions are from the Lord as from the efficient cause the directer and orderer of them These evils are from a creating not from a created strength I saith the Lord forme the light and create darknesse Isa 45. 7. Naturall darknesse hath
a vineyard to hirelings who wrought for a penny a day and at night they had every one their pay It is so in reference to the whole course of this life we are hirelings in the evening we shall have our penny verily There is a reward for the righteous their labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. And as the righteous have a reward so the wicked shall have wages Satans hirelings shall have full pay though no content for all their works The wages of sin is death there 's pay such as it is woefull pay a black penny The daies of man are as the daies of an hireling there is an issue a reward for every work Fourthly note from the Metaphor while an hireling is doing his masters work he doth his owne too that is his owne profit comes in by those acts in which he labours for another It is thus also in the generall state of man above all Christs servants and hirelings gaine by the duties of obedience they performe to Christ their own profit comes in with his honour A godly man cannot doe a stroake of worke for God but he works for himself too the servants of God must not be self-seekers and self-workers they may not make themselves their end but as it is with an hireling let him be never so upright hearted toward the master he serves let him lay self by in all he doth yet he hath a share of profit in all his labors God hath so espoused and married his owne glory and the good of man together that whosoever really promotes the one promotes both It is so likewise with those who work the works of darknesse and doe the lusts of the devill While his slaves are doing his worke they are gaining towards destruction and their owne wages encreases daily they are treasuring up wrath and judgement against the day of wrath As the measure of their sinne fils so doth the measure of their punishment Thus also the daies of man are as the daies of an hireling There are two generall observations which I shall but name because they will occurre again 1. The life of man it is short As the daies of an hireling The servant doth not abide in the hous for ever a hireling is but for a time And it is good for a man that it is so some complaine exceeding much because their lives are so exceeding little But let them weigh it well and they shall see cause to rejoyce much because they live so little In some respect it is good for wicked men that their lives are so short if their lives were longer they would be wickeder and so heaping up more sin they would heap up more wrath against themselves And it is very well for the Saints that their lives are so short Their corruptions temptations their weaknesses and infirmities their troubles and afflictions are so many that it is well their dayes are so few If they should have length of life added to heaps of sorrows and perpetuity with outward misery how miserable were they Christ promises it as a point of favour to his that the days of trouble should be shortned Except those dayes should be shortned no flesh should be saved that is kept or preserved alive in those tribulations but for the Elects sakes those dayes shall be shortned Mat. 24. 22. It is a favour also to the Saints that their particular dayes are shortned that their's are but as the dayes of an hireling for as much as their present dayes are dayes of trouble and travel The dayes of the best are so full of evil that it is good they are no fuller of dayes And further it is good they are so evil or full of trouble It is well for wicked men that their dayes are full of trouble the sweeter their lives are to them the sinfuller they are against God Their outward comforts are but fewel and incouragement to their lusts and while their lives are calm and quiet they do but saile more quietly down into that dead sea of everlasting misery And the Saints have this advantage by the troublesomenesse of their lives to be kept in continual exercise and more dependance upon God they would love the world too well and delight in the creature too much if God did not put bitternesse into their cup. Job having thus shadowed the state of man seems to make out his intendment or scope thus There is no reason why I should be charged so deeply for desiring death For what is the life of man Is it not a life full of travel and of trouble full of dangers and temptations is not the time of his life short and set Is it not a speedy passing time and yet a firmly appointed time Why then should not I think the period of my life to be at hand Why should not I think my appointed time is come Forasmuch as I have so many evidences and symptoms of death before me and have heard so many messages and summons to the grave Death sits upon Plurima mortis imago my lips ready to come in while I am speaking Death hath taken possession of me already and seiz'd my port death is in my face I am the very picture of death and images of death stand round about me Therefore Eliphaz why should I not call to have my daies summed up that I may see the end and summe of these troubles Or wherefore wouldest thou stay my complaint against my life or stop my desire of death by giving me hopes of many daies and of a flourishing estate in this world That 's his first argument from the general condition of mankind Now he proceeds to consider somewhat more special in that condition Verse 2. As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work Verse 3. So am I made to possesse months of vanity and wearisom nights are appointed to me As a servant earnestly desireth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Traxit aerem ad os per Metaphoram inbiavit ardentur cupiit qui enim vehementer aeliquid cupiunt prae desiderii expectationis magnitudine ad os rem trabunt seu frequentiùs respirant To desire earnestly is but one word in the original it is so full of sence that we cannot empty it into any one word in our language The letter is As a servant breaths after the shadow And because a man that hath an earnest longing desire for a thing pants breaths and gasps after it therefore that word which signifies to gape and draw in the air pantingly signifies also to desire or to desire earnestly As a servant earnstly desireth The shadow Some understand it of the night when the servant comes to rest himself after his labour all the day Night is but a great shadow Secondly We may take it for the shadow of the day A servant that is heated in labour abroad in the open field earnestly desires a
the locks or extraordinary ruffian-like long haire and locks And the reason why we translate Robber is given from both From the first because robbers and spoylers are commonly Tosse pots and drunkards men that love their liquor a thirsty generation in that sence and they alwayes thirst for a prey they thirst for the estates or lives of others From the latter because robbers plunderers and spoilers usually wore very long haire either to disguise or make themselves the more terrible So that a robber may be denominated both from his unnaturally naturall thirst after the pot and from his uncivilly civill thirst after a purse or from his long shaggy bushy haire To this latter sence one of Absorbeaâ— pilcsâ—â— divitias eorum Rab. Mordoâ—hai Horridus Hâ—spidus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Propriè aâ—traxit per nares aut os trax it aërem ad os Per Metaphoram inhiavit ardenter cupijt qui enim ardenter aliquid cupiunt pre desiderij magnitudine ad os aeâ—em frequentius â—râ—hunt seu respirant the Rabbins translates The hairy man or the man with long haire shall swallow up their estates Hence some expresse him by a Latine word which signifies a man all overgrown with haire This Ruffian or Robber shall swallow up his substance Swallow up The word notes an utter exhaustion he shall exhaust his substance As we say when a spender or an unthrift is described He hath exhausted his estate he hath as it were suckt it up guzl'd or swallowed it down his throat the radicall word may import drawing or sucking up with a pipe properly it signifies to fetch wind or draw breath and by a metaphor to swallow down to sup or suck up as also with fervency and pleasure to desire because vehement desires are often exprest by quick breathings yea to breath after a thing is to desire it or it notes a mind to swallow it up either from the delight we have in it or hatred of it In which latter sence Daved applies it to his enemies Psal 56. 2. Mine enemies would daily swallow me up They breath after me to devoure me So then the meaning is This robber this hairy spoyler or thirsty one will be so dry that he will swallow all up he will soop and drink up the foolish mans estate to the very bottome he will draw it down to the very dreggs or lees and not leave a drop behind him The robber swalloweth up their substance In the first chapter we read Job described A man of a very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non magis ad corporis quam ad ingenij vires pertinet tres sere virtutes continet fortitudinem justitiam prudentiam great substance Job's subsistance in cattle was thus and thus Here also it is said The robber shall swallow up his subsistance but the word in the Hehrew is very different from that in the first chapter there the word signifieth properly substance in cattle but here it signifies substance in any kind of wealth or riches whatsoever And it notes three things First and most properly strength either strength of body or of mind namely valour activity and courage also wisdome and industry to get or defend our substance So Gen. 47. 6. Pharoah tells Joseph that if among his brethren there were any men of activity he should make them rulers over his cattell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly It notes riches and wealth or any worldly substance because much activity wisdome and strength is usually imployed in obtaining them or because both wisdome and strength are requisite for the keeping and retaining of them Prov. 11. 16. Strong men retaine riches as if he should say though a man have aboundance of riches yet if he have not strength he shall hardly hold them they will be wrested out of his hands Once more Riches are thus exprest because men usually account their riches to be their strength a man naturally puts confidence in his riches Prov. 13. 15. The rich mans wealth is his strong City Riches are callâ—d strength from that corrupt opinion which the world hath of them making them Idols and trusting to them as they should unto God alone Though yet there is a truth in it that Aristoteles diviâ—ias appellat vires reâ—um quia per ipsas oâ—nia possumus lib 1. Polit cap. 8. riches have much strength in them a rich man and a powerfull man are mutually put for each other Thirdly The word signifies an Army of men Psal 33. 16. There is no King saved by the multitude of an host We may take it either way this hungry man this robber shall come and swallow up his substance his riches his strength or he shall come and swallow up his very Army by which he thought to defend his substance All shall be lost neither the estate nor the means used to protect the estate shall stand before this hungry thirsty hairy robber In this description of a totall desolation brought upon the estate and family of the foolish man together with the character of the persons who shall make him desolate questionlesse Eliphaz would represent to Job the desolation brought upon his estate and children by those troops of hungry hairy thirsty robbers the Chaldeans and the Sabeans who swallowed all his substance at one morsell soopt up his estate at one draught Whence observe It is a great point of wisdome to shew a man his condition in anothers and to seem onely relating the History of our forreign observations when we meane the person to whom we speak what is proposed as seen in others works the heart to see it selfe and doth at once mitigate the sharpnesse of the reproofe and open the spirit to let it in As we see in the instance of Nathans Parable to David 2 Sam. 12. Eliphaz said onely I have seen the foolish taking root c. He doth not lay it boysterously and directly upon Job I saw thee taking root c. Thus we have opened the context of these five verses wherein Eliphaz argues Job of wickednesse and insincerity because God had dealt with him as he usually doth with the wicked and infincere whose habitations are cursed their children crushed their substance swallowed up by thirsty and eaten up by hungry robbers who take it out from the very thorns of their own cares in getting or means in securing what they have gotten JOB Chap. 5. Vers 6 7 8. Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground Yet man is borne unto trouble as the sparks flie upward I would seek unto God and unto God would I commit my cause THus far Eliphaz hath spent his discourse in reproofe and conviction And you have had out of the 4 Chapter and the precedant part of this foure heads of reason or arguments by which Eliphaz labours to reprove Job for and convince him of close sin or of grosse hypocrisie Now Eliphaz turns himself to another
stile and falls to counsell and exhortation directing and advising Job what becomes him what he ought to doe in his condition His exhortation consists of two distinct branches The former whereof begins at this sixth and is continued to the seventeenth verse of the Chapter The summe of this exhortation is That for as much as he had found him so distempered in his speech and carriage he now earnestly beseeches and intreats him that he would seek unto God beg favour and believingly commit himselfe and his cause unto God The second branch of exhortation begins at the 17 verse and is continued to the end of the Chapter The Scope whereof is That Job would humbly and patiently submit himselfe unto and under the correcting hand of God quietly waiting the time of his deliverance The matter of the former exhortation lies in the words of the 8 verse I would seek unto God and unto God would I commit my cause He strengthneth this exhortation by two arguments whereof The first is taken from the cause of his afflictions and that either the efficient or the meritorious cause of his afflictions both which we find in the 6 and 7 verses The second argument by which he strengthneth his first exhortation is contained in the 9 10 11 and 12 verses following and it is grounded upon the power wisdome and goodness of God As if he should say Who would not seek unto God who is of infinite power able to deliver Who would not seek unto a God and commit his cause unto him who is gracious and pittifull mercifull and ready to deliver Who would not seeke unto a God and commit his cause unto him who is of infinite wisdome to find out wayes and means for the contriving of deliverance though mans condition to the eye of sence or humane reason seem altogether desperate and remedilesse These three verses containe the first exhortation together with the first argument And we may forme it thus both respecting the efficient and the meritorious cause of his afflictions First respecting the efficient cause the argument seemes to lie thus He is to be sought unto in our afflictions who is the principall efficient cause or sender of our afflictions But God is the principall efficient cause and sender of our afflictions Therefore he is to be sought unto and to him our cause is to be committed The Major or first Proposition is not expresly in this text but it is plainly supposed and logically to be understood The Minor or the Assumption lies in the 6 and 7 verses where he proves that God is the efficient cause or sender of afflictions And his proof is grounded upon a deniall or a removall of all other efficient causes As if he should say there must be some efficient cause of affliction but no efficient cause can be assigned or named except God therefore God is the efficient cause the sender and orderer of afflictions That no other efficient cause can be assigned he proveth plainly in the sixth verse thus Affliction cometh not forth of the dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground yet man is borne to trouble c. As if he should say our eyes teach us we see plainly man is full of trouble man is no sooner borne but he is afflicted these afflictions must have some efficient cause some hand or other doth frame forme and fashion them they come not alone and if they come not alone then we must find out this cause either in earth or in heaven we must find it either in the Creatour or among the creatures but from the earth or from creatures they come not Affliction cometh not forth of the dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground that is it rises not by or from the creatures in themselves and alone considered and if so it must needs come from heaven from the hand of God who dwelleth above and disposeth all things according to the pleasure of his own will It is such a kind of speech as often falls from us when a thing is lost we say some body must have it Sure it is not gone into the gound You or You must have it for there were none else in the place So Eliphaz seems here to argue about the afflictions which he saw upon Job here are heavy afflictions upon thee these afflictions must come some way upon thee They come not out forth of the dust neither doe they spring out of the ground they come not up alone Either then they must come from God or man and from man they come not they spring not out of the earth therefore he leaves it as a clear inference that God is the efficient cause or sender of affliction Againe if we consider this argument as it strengthneth the exhortation from the meritorious cause of his afflictions It may be formed thus If the sin of man be from himselfe and the sufferings of man be for his sin then in his sufferings for sin he ought to seek unto God and to commit his cause unto him But the sin of man is from himselfe and the sufferings of man are for his sin Therefore he ought in such a condition to seeke unto God and commit his cause unto him For remedy is no where else to be had This second argument is grounded rather upon the exposition then the letter of the text as shall be further cleared in pursuance of the words Thus you see how the Minor or second Proposition is confirmed both as it respects the efficient cause and the meritorious cause of mans affliction The conclusion lies in the 8 verse which Eliphaz Conclusi enunciata in persona Eliphazi quod modestum cohortationis genus magnam vim habet est usitatissimum Merl. pronounces in his own person I would seeke unto God therefore seek thou unto God he speakes it in his own person thereby more freely to insinuate his counsell and make way for his exhortation As if he had said Were I in thy case I would doe so therefore doe thou so likewise Seeke unto God and commit thy cause unto him So much of this context and the Logick of it as it contains an exhortation with an argument to strengthen and back that exhortation Now for the clearing of the words Although afflictions come not forth of the dust The Hebrew particle which we translate Although may be taken three wayes and so I find it rendred upon this place First which is its most proper sence it is taken causally and then the text is read For affliction commeth not forth of the dust So Mr. Broughton for sorrow issueth not from the dust Secondly It may be taken Adversatively as we reade it Although affliction or sorrow comes not forth of the dust Thirdly it may be taken Affirmatively according to which acception the text is thus carried Certainly Affliction cometh not out of the dust or Surely affliction commeth not out of the dust Either of these wayes the sense is
good yet to me our translation by the Adversative Although doth a little obscure the sense And to say Surely or certainly affliction comes not forth of the dust seemes to carry it more clearly Surely affliction cometh not out of the dust It is considerable that the word by which affliction is here exprest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iniquitas vanitas molestia bibor quia iniquitas laborem afflictionemq parturit Sept. vertunt per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sclund beares a double signification in Scripture and I conceive it may also in this text properly it signifies sinne iniquity iniquity of all sorts but especially That sinne of Idolatry As Hos 4. 15. when the house of God Bethel was polluted with idolatry the name is changed and it is called Bethaven the house of an Idoll or the house of iniquity or of that speciall iniquity namely of idolatry Sinne alters the nature of man no marvell then if it alter the names of things Hos 10. 15. and often in the old testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ascendit Eliphaz ad comunem naturalem sortem hominis quod omnes â—n peccato et ad miseriam nascimur damnati in Adamo Coc we find this word added to set out the worst of men the workers of iniquity Psal 5. 5. c. Iniquity comes not out of the dust the soyle where it grows or the shop where it is wrought and formed is mans heart Eliphaz would carry us to the wel-head our sinfull natures or our birth-sin Secondly the word signifies affliction or sorrow calamity or misery because sinne is the cause of affliction the mother of sorrow And therefore by a Metonimie of the effect for the cause which is frequent in Scripture The same word notes both sinne and sorrow The mother and the daughter are called by the same name We translate by the effect Surely affliction commeth not out of the dust Many by the cause Surely iniquity comes not out of the dust And for the full understanding of the text we must take in both where the effect only is mentioned the cause is supposed Affliction springs not out of the dust because sin springs not out of the dust Now this forme of speaking Iniquity or affliction springs or commeth not forth of the dust is proverbiall and no doubt was Pâ—oveâ—bialis quaedam sententia est qua tollat casum asseratque divinam eâ—ga res humanas imâ—â—â—ruâ— supplicâ—um providentiam Pâ—nâ—d Sanct. well knowne and often used in those times When they would remove chance or fortune as we say or deny any event to be without a certaine directive power They spake in this language This came not from the ground thereupon the vulgar translates it so in termes * Nihil in terra sine causa sit Vulg. Quasi dicerit non casu ma â— nabis accidunt neque ex terra germinant ut solent herbae nullo jacto semine There is nothing in the world without cause alluding it is probable to the Proverbe Hence a man obscurely borne whose parents and originall are unknowne is called †Terrae filius A sonnne of the earth Which imports that no man can tell whence he is or how descended They whose originall cannot be assigned are usually assigned to the common originall ‖ Mogna parens terra est or parent of us all the earth and as in regard of persons so of things when no man can tell how or which way they come they are said to come out of the ground We speak also in the other extreame affirmatively Such a thing comes out of the clouds that is we know not but God knows how it comes So then here is a deniall of chance or fortune As if Eliphaz should say reason may be found and assigned for these things they come not out of the dust Further for the clearing of this The dust and the ground stand in a two-fold opposition First unto God and secondly unto our selves First in opposition to God thus Affliction springeth not from the ground that is it comes from the wisdome power and disposition of God as the efficient cause Secondly in opposition to our selves and then the sense may be thus conceived that the materiall and meritorious cause of our affliction is not without us Nâ—n exi◠è pulvere iniquitas q. d. ab hominibus est non eter na vol pulvere nam terra non profert iniquitatem sed homines ea est natura eoâ—um coâ—rupta proin proclives aâ— eaÌ„ jucuntur D. us it is not in the ground or in other creatures but it is in our selves Every man in himselfe hath the ground which beares the source or fountain which bubbles out his sorrowes and his sufferings Man hath no reason to accuse or charge heaven or earth as the authors of his sorrow he carries the reason about with him The sinfullnes or sinke of his owne polluted nature And therefore to allude to that of the Apostle in the point of Justification Rom. 10. 6 7. Say not in thy heart who shall ascend into heaven that is to bring thy troubles downe from above or who shall decend into the deepe that is to bring up thy troubles from below for the cause is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is The corruption of nature which we preach The latter branch of this verse Neither doth trouble spring out of the ground is of the very same importance with the former therefore I shall not need to stay upon it The word which we translate Trouble signifies properly toylesome labour or any laborious toyl 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accidentall to man in this life as a fruit of sinne This doth not spring out of the ground It is an allusion to plants or herbs which grow in the open field without the worke or care of man and so are opposed to plants or herbes in a garden As if he should say Terrâ nata dicuntur illa quibus nulla ab agricolis impensa est opera ut suÌ„â— herbae quas â—â—tro terra fund â— in pratis locis incuâ—â—is Saâ—ct thy troubles are not like those herbes that grow wild in the fields without the labour and paines the care or art of man There is some hand or other that both plants and waters them We may ground some observations as the text is read Iniquity comes not forth of the dust And then as it is read Affliction comes not forth of the dust And it is necessary to give it this latitude the word equally bearing both senses As it is read Iniquity comes not c. We learn First The materiall cause of sin is in our selves We bring forth the fruit at our tongues or fingers ends and the root is in our hearts Our sinnes spring not out of the dust but out of the dirt and filth of our owne corruptions Gen. 6. 5. Every thought
Organ of discipline Hearing is the sence of learning and the seasonable stopping of our own mouths a ready means to open our understandings To be swift to hear and flow to speak James 1. 19. is the speediest way to attain wisdom Fourthly observe He that is shewed his errour should speak no more but sit down convinced Teach me saith Job and I will hold my tongue That is I will reply no more upon you I will never stand up in maintaining an errour I wil be no pattern of evil though my self am in the fault Errour shall not be excused or a mistake apologized for by me Some wits are able to make a fair cover for and put a glosse upon the most deformed and grossest errours There was never any opinion in the world but some have seconded it and undertaken it's protection When conscience hath never a word to say wit will be very talkative and when they have ended reasoning some can wrangle everlastingly When wit and learning undertake a cause and leave conscience out of the Commission there must either be a very ill end of it or no end A subtil Sophister will despute any thing and bring probable arguments where reason alone sits judge against the most undoubted truths It is an ill office to be an Oratour for our own or others errous for our own or others sinful practises Prov. 30. 32. If thou hast done evil in lifting up thy selfe or if thou hast thought evil or maintained evil lay thine hand upon thy mouth speake no more never be an advocate in a bad cause though it be thine own when our faults are shewed us we should not open our mouths unlesse it be to renounce and disclaim them A sad account will be given of that time and of those parts which have been laid out in the patronage of our failings and mistakes It is as sinful to few figg-leaves or make fair pretexts to cover the nakednesse of our opinions as of our practises And cause me to understand wherein I have erred As if Job had said when once you bring me to see clearly that I am in an errour and cast light into my conscience you shall find me readily submitting to you A question arises here in the general whether Job doubted his Concessio est quam Quintilianus dicit esse cum aliquid iniquum videmur causae fiducia pati Apud eum dicitur confessio nihil nocitura Quin. lib. 3 cap. 2. Non submittit se errasse sed humiliter se submittit amicorum censure Bold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Hiphil intelligentem secit erudii◠cause or whether or no there were an hesitancy in his spirit about what he had done or spoken I answer this speech implies not that he had any doubt of himself or an admission that he had erred Job speaks like Oratours or Disputants who when they are sure of a point will yet grant a little doubtfulness or raise doubts about what they are able to maintain and confident to carry It is ordinary to put things by way of supposition of which we make no question When Job saith Cause me to understand wherein I have erred it is not an acknowledgement that he had a erred but a submission in case he had or a concession that he might Job was not lifted up with an opinion of his own infallibility he knew to erre was common to man and therefore he speaks of himself under the common notion of all men Not from any consciousnesse of his own errour Cause me to understand It is but one word in the Original and it signifies to convince by reason or argument Cause me to understand that is doe not think to force my opinion or to offer violence to my judgement doe not think to club me down with great words and clomorous threats but doe it by solid Arguments by evident demonstration of reason Doe it by savourie advices and counsel not by bitter reproaches and invectives Deal with my understanding not barely with my affections Cause me to understand My errour It signifies local corporal wandrings and errours and bodily erring or wandring and sometimes it signifies the wandrings of the mind judgement and affections Prov. 5. 19 20. Solomon bids the husband Rejoyce in the wife of his youth let her be as a loving Hind and pleasant Roe let her breasts satisfie thee at all times and be thou ravished alwayes with her love The Hebrew as our Translatours put in the margin is erre thou alwaies in her love that is let all thy wandring erring thoughts and affections be reduced and brought home to the wife whom God hath given thee the next words seeme to interpret so for why my sonne wilt thou be ravished with a strange woman and imbrace the bosome of a stranger That 's dangerous erring in love Therefore saith he let all thine errings and wandrings all thy delights and ravishments be chast and conjugal towards the wife of thy youth Further it signifies erring or wandring out of meer ignorance This word is often used in Leviticus for the sin of ignorance Chap. 4. 2. and Chap. 5. 18. and Chap. 22. 14. If any man hath sinned through ignorance or committed an errour then he shall offer these and these sacrifices and oblations So Psal 19. 12. who can understand his errours That is those sinnes which he commits out of ignorance and inadvertency Hence he concludes with this prayer Cleanse thou me from secret faults He doth not mean faults which he committed privately and so were secrets to others but faults which he had committed ignorantly and so were Secrets to himselfe That is they were sinnes of ignorance And I conceive he means not only such sins as he had committed ignorantly but then knew they were sins but even such sins as he was ignorant whether ever he had committed them or no That is he prayes for the pardon of all those sins which possible he might have committed though to him as yet altogether unknown and undiscovered The title of the 7th Psalm is Shiggaion of David it is the same Original word we have in the text and some translate it awandring song And the reason for it is either because of the Cantio erratica variable and wandring poetry or because of the variable or wandring tune in which that Psalm was sung and to which it was set for greater delight others makes the title sutable to the translation of the word here the Psalm of Davids errours because sets forth his fears and dangers which made him wonder in body and sometime also to go a little astray in mind this Psalm was sung to the Lord concerning the words or the business of Cush the Benjamite that is of Saul who was of Kish and of Jemini 1 Sam. 9. 1. called here Cush that is Ethiopian or Blackmore figuratively from his black and ill conditions his heart not being changed as the Blackmore changeth not his skin Saul was a bitter enemy
the Holy Ghost Good and bad beleevers and unbeleevers speak often the same good words but they cannot speak the same things nor from the same principles nature speaks in the one in the other grace The one may say very passionately he hath sinned and sometimes almost drown his words in tears but the other saith repentingly I have sinned and floods his heart with Godly sorrowes Thirdly to clear it yet more the general confession of the Saints have these four things in them First Besides the fact they acknowledge the blot that there is much defilement and blackness in every sin that it is the onely pollution and abasement of the creature Secondly They confess the fault that they have done very ill in what they have done and very foolishly even like a beast that hath no understanding Thirdly They confess a guilt contracted by what they have done that their persons might be laid lyable to the sentence of the law for every such act if Christ had not taken away the curse and condemning power of it Confession of sin in the strict nature of it puts us into the hand of justice though through the grace of the new Covenant it puts us into the hand of mercy Fourthly Hence the Saints confess all the punishments threatned in the Book of God to be due to sin and are ready to acquit God whatsoever he hath awarded against sinners O Lord righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face as at this day to the men of Iudah and to the inhabitants of Ierusalem Dan. 9. 7. And as in this confession for the matter they acknowledge the blot the fault the guilt the punishment of sin so for the manner which sets the difference yet wider between the general confessions of wicked and Godly men they confess First freely Acknowledgements of sin are not extorted by the pain and trouble which seazeth on them as in Pharaoh Saul and Judas But when God gives them best dayes they are ready to speak worst of themselves And when they receive most mercies from God then God receives most and deepest acknowledgements of sin from them They are never so humbled in the sight of sin as when they are most exalted in seeing the salvations of the Lord. The goodness of God leads them to this repentance they are not driven to it by wrath and thunder Secondly they confess feelingly when they say they have sinned they know what they say They taste the bitterness of sin and groan under the burdensomeness of it as it passes out in confession A natural mans confessions run through him as water through a pipe which leaves no impression or sent there nor do they upon the matter any more taste what sin is then the pipe doth of what relish water is Or if a natural man feels any thing in confession it is the evil of punishment feared not the evil of his sin committed Thirdly they confess sincerely they mean what they say are in earnest both with God and their own Souls Blessed is the man in whose spirit there is no guile Psal 32. 2. The natural man casts out his sins by confession as Sea-men cast their goods over-board in a storm which in the calm they wish for again They so cast out the evil spirit that they are content to receive him again when he returns though it be with seven worse then himself Even while they confess sin with their lips they keep it like a sweet bit under their tongues And wish it well enough while they speak it very ill Fourthly they confess beleevingly while they have an eye of sorrow upon sin they have an eye of Faith upon Christ Iudas said he had sinned in betraying innocent blood Mat. 27. 4. but instead of washing in that blood he defiles himself with his own he goes away and hangs himself No wicked man in the world continuing in that state did ever mix Faith with his sorrowes or beleeving with confessing he had sinned So much for the clearing of the words and the sence of this general confession Hence observe first While a Godly man maintains his innocency and justifies himself before men he willingly acknowledges his infirmity and judges himself before God Iob had spent much time in wiping off the aspersions cast upon him by his friends but he charges himself with his failings in the sight of God Secondly observe God speakes better of his servants then they doe of themselves When God speakes of Job we find not one blot in all his character all is commendation nothing of reproof He saith c. 1. v. 21. in all this Job sinned not but for all that Job saith I have sinned A hypocrite hath good thoughts of himself and speakes himself faire He flatters himself in his own eyes until his iniquitie be found to be hateful Psal 36. 2. A godly man thinks and speaks low of himself he accuses himself in his own eyes though his integrity be found very acceptable with the Lord. Thirdly observe The holiest man on earth hath cause to confess that he hath sinned Confession is the duty of the best Christians First The highest form of believers in this life is not above the actings of sin though the lowest of believers is not under the power of it And if the line of sinning be as long as the line of living then the line of confessing must be of the same length with both While the Ship leaks the pump must not stand still And so long as we gather ill humors there will be need of vomits and purgings Secondly Confession is a soul-humbling duty and the best have need of that for they are in most danger of being lifted up above measure To preserve us from those self-exaltations the Lord sometimes sends the Messenger of Satan to buffet us by temptations and commands us to buffet our selves often by confession Thirdly Confession affects the heart with sin and ingages the heart against it Every confession of the evill we do is a new obligation not to do it any more The best in their worst part have so much freedome to sin that they have need enough to be bound from it in variety of bonds Fourthly Confession of sin shews us more clearly our need of mercy and indears it more to us How good and sweet is mercy to a soul that hath tasted how evil and how bitter a thing it is to sin against the Lord. How welcome how beautiful is a pardon when we have been viewing the ugliness of our own guilt Fiftly Confession of sin advances Christ in our hearts How doth it declare the riches of Christ when we are not afraid to tell him what infinite sums of debt we are in which he onely and he easily can discharge how doth it commend the healing vertue of his blood when we open to him such mortal wounds and sicknesses which he only and he easily can cure Wo be to those who commit sin abundantly that grace may abound but
8. 17. where the first prophecie of Isaiah is quoted is very emphatical when Christ had heal'd many of their outward distempers this reason is added That it might be fufilled which is written sc Isa 53. 9. himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses Now Christ took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses when he took and bare our sins when he took sin he took that which was the necessary fruit of sin our sicknesses and our sorrows For as in Scripture Christ is said to be made sin for us that is with the sin he bare those affiictions and sorrows which are the consequents of sin so here when it is said He bare our sorrows and our sicknesses it takes in the bearing of those sins which procured and produced those sorrows The Greek words used by the Evangelist are ful with this sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assumpsit sccum atque recepit quasi ad se transtulit He took them to him he received them upon himself he as it were translated them from poor sinful man to his owne body The word also imports his taking our sins and sicknesses upon him as a vesture or a garment and so wrapping himself in them We know our sins by nature cloath us as a garment ours is not only a burden but a cloathing of sin and filthiness Take away his filthy garments saith the Lord concerning Joshua the high-Priest then follows and unto him I said I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee and I will cloath thee with change of raiment Man saw not his own nakedness till he was cloathed with sinne Gen. 2. Christ to answer that cloaths and wraps himself with our sins as we our selves were wrapped about and cloathed with them he cloaths himself with our sorrows as we our selves were cloathed with sorrow In which sence among others Christ may be called a man of sorrows as we may call a man cloathed with raggs a man of raggs and a man cloathed with silke a man of silkes The second word of the Evangelist Mat. 18. 17. signifies to bear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Porter bears a great burthen Christ took up that burthen onder which all the Angels in heaven would have sunk he took it up like a mighty Sampson and carried it out for us The scape-Goate was a type of this Levit. 6. 22. And the Goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities into a land not inhabited or a land cut off and separated from other lands and people figuring hereby the total abolishing of our sins which being carried into a land where no man dwels shall be as lost and gone for ever not to be found when they shall be sought for who can find that which is where no man ever was pardon'd sin is carried and as it were hid out of the sight both of God and man for it is not and that which is not is not according to man to be seen In allusion to all which Christ Jo. 1. 29. is pointed at by the Baptist with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold the Lumb of God that takes away the sins of the world he takes sin off from the world upon himself and carries it away no man knows whither That for the first word pardon why doest thou not pardon my sin The second word is rendred by our Translatours Take away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est 1. simpliciter praeterire 2. interire perire evanescere mori why doest thou not take away mine iniquity Others thus Why doest thou not cause mine iniquity to pass away Or Why doest thou not put away mine iniquity So we rranslate 2 Sam. 12. 13. where assoon as David confest his sin saying I have sinned Nathan answers and the Lord hath put away thy sin he hath made it to pass away The word signifies first simply to pass away or to pass by Secondly to die perish or vanish away that which passes by us is vanished as to us So the word is taken Psal 37. 36. where David speaking of the flourishing estate of wicked men saith I have seen the wicked in great prosperity flourishing as a greene bay tree yet he past away and loe he was not A man unpardoned sees or should see his sins growing up as a mighty tree sin unpardoned flourishes like a green bay-tree it roots in the soul and guilt nourishes it but when pardon comes sin passes away and it is not because that which gave it sap is not Further this word which is very considerable is applied to Quando dicitur de mandato pacto juramento significat transgredi violare peecare the committing of sin as well as to the pardoning of sin For when it is joyned with those words The Commandements of God the Statutes of God the Word of God or the like it signifies to violate to break the bounds to transgress for in sinning a man passes by the Word and Commandement of God the precepts which God hath given and the charge God hath laid upon him he goeth away from all when man sins he passeth by the Commandment of God and when God pardons he passeth by the sin of man or he causeth his sins to pass away So that this word Take away put away or cause to passe Transire facis e. i. impunitum retir quis condonas notes the removing of sin both in the guilt and punishment When sin is past by all the punishments due to sin are passed by the sinner shall never be toucht or feel the weight of Gods little finger in judgement when God comes with his revenges he passes such by as in that plague of Egypt the slaying of the first born which was therefore called the Lords Passeover in memorial whereof that great ordinance was appointed the Jews of keeping the Passeover and eating the Pascal Lambe Exod. 12. 13 14. In this sense the word is used Amos 7. 8. when God was resolved to punish and charge the sins of that people upon them he saith Behold I will set a plumbe-line in the middest of my people Israel and what follows I will not again pass by them any more God came before once and again armed to destroy them but when he came he past by them he put up his sword he unbent his bow he stopped up the vials of his wrath when a cloud of blood and judgements hung over their heads he sent a breath of mercy and caused it to pass over them but now saith he I will not again pass by them any more that is I will surely punish them so the next words interpret the high places of Isaac shall be dissolate and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid wast Some translate that in Amos I will not any more dissemble Verbum Ebraicum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quoties in scripturis sanctis ex persona Dei ponitur pro poena accipiendum est ut ncquâ—quam apud eos maneat sed pertranseat Hieron in
meere bunglers at this work None can pardon as thou dost None can pardon 1. So freely 2. None so fully 3. None so continually 4. None eternally 5. None so indifferently whether in respect of sinners or sins as thou doest It is all one to thee what the sins are and all one to thee whose the sins are so they come to ask thy pardon And that which is a disadvantage to ask pardon of man is an encouragement to ask it of God the greatness of our sins The Psalmist did and any man may make that his plea Lord pardon my sin for it is great Dare any be a competitor with God in this work The Pharisees put the question right if they had not mistook the person to whom they put it Mark 2. 7. Who is this that forgiveth sins none can forgive sin but God alone Again sin in one sense is committed onely against God and for that reason also God onely is the pardoner of it Psal 51. Against thee onely have I sinned Onely the creditor can remit the debt and he the offence to whom we have done the wrong God is wronâ—d in all sins chiefly and the wrong is so much his that it may well be called only his therefore without him no pardon But man is charged to forgive his brother Luke 17. 4. Forgive thy brother seven times and Christ hath taught us to pray for the forgiveness of our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us Mat. 6. 12. I answer there are two things in all second-able sins First disobedience against God Secondly injury to man That which man can or is required to forgive and be a pardoner of is only the injury done unto himself so as not to revenge it he cannot take off the sin against God or stay him from taking vengeance But other Scriptures speak of a power committed to man to remit and forgive sin John 20. 23. Whose sins ye remit are remitted and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained I answer This power is not authoritative and magisterial but ministerial and declarative God hath set up such an institution that man should pardon man because many men yea most men are not competent judges of their own estates whether they be fit for pardon or no Many wicked men would remit and loosen themselves when as their sins are to be retained they see not their sins as another man may and doth see them The Apostle Peter could say to Simon Magus Acts 8. 23. I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity Simon Magus did not perceive it he did not know his own condition he flatter'd himself and thought all well because lately sprinckled with the water of Baptisme therefore some must declare these men bound and hold them still under sin Again There are others whose hearts are upright and sincere such as are indeed reconciled to God and all whose sins are pardoned but they are not able to make it out and they cannot clear up this thing from the word to their own hearts therefore they need a helper to declare them pardoned for they cannot speak or declare it to their own souls in such cases both for the conviction of presuming sinners and the help of upright-hearted yet weak and doubting Christians God hath left this power with his Ministers whose sins ye remit they are remitted and whose sins ye retain are retained As in the case of leprosie Lev. 15. The Leper was brought to the Priest and set before him as a Judge in that point many were not competent Judges of their own diseases they could not resolve it whether they had the leprosie or no some perceiving a scab or a sore rising upon them thought presently it was the leprosie when indeed it was not and so wronged themselves Others who were indeed infected would not be perswaded that they were therefore the Priests office was to determine these cases to bind and restrain to loosen and let them go as he saw cause In which ceremonial practice we have the shadow of this Gospel practise in the power of remitting or retaining of binding or of loosing sin according to the various conditions of men Yet all this while God keepeth the great work in his own hand he is the pardoner and therefore Job as the whole tenour of the Scripture rules it made his address to him why doest not thou pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquity Secondly From these expressions about the pardon of sin we may learn what the pardon of sin is Pardon of sin is the removing or the lifting off the passing away of sin from the sinner that properly is pardon of sin Scripture language is very various and copious about this thing and yet all runs into this general I shall instance some of them First Pardon is often expressed by a Metaphor from paying of a debt 1 Joh. 2. 12. I write unto you little Children because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your sins are forgiven you the word notes your sins are paid your debts are satisfied the same word the Apostle useth Rom. 8. 32. in reference to the sufferings of Christ God spared not his Sonne He did not spare him the debt that is he neither forgave the whole nor compounded with him to take half or a part and remit the rest no he made him pay all fully down So to be pardoned notes the sparing of the debt letting the debt pass without calling us to account about it Secondly Pardon of sin is the remooving it out of sight Isa 38. 17. Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back saith Hezekiah that is thou hast put them out of thy sight As when man is said to cast the Word of God behind him Psal 50. 17. or behind his back Neh. 9. 26. The meaning is he regards it not at all to obey it so when God casts the sin of man behind his back the meaning is he will not regard or see it all to punish it That phrase used by the Prophet Micah is of the same importance though of a deeper sence chap. 7. 19. Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea Who can live thither to fetch them up But may they not rise up or swim out of themselvs Surely no our sins are not cork or wood but they are iron or lead they are like stone or like a mil-stone To shew how irrecoverably the Egyptians were destroyed in the red-Sea it is said they sank like lead in those mighty waters Exod. 15 10. and to shew how irrecoverably Babylon shall be destroyed the holy Ghost saith that Babylon shall be like a great mil-stone cast into the Sea by a mighty Angel Rev. 18. 21. The casting of a stone iron or lead into the sea * Phocenses ferream massâ—m in mare demerserunt jurarunt non prius sc in Phoâ—aean reversuros quam hac massa è fundo maris emergerit
Almighty chastens us p. 329. Children of wicked parents often wrapt up in the same judgement with their parents p. 200. Children of godly parents nearest the blessing p. 389. Blessings upon children are the parents blessings p. 390. Chirurgion Three necessary qualifications for him either in a natural or mystical sence p. 337. Christ confirmed the good Angels p. 139. No stability in any estate out of Christ ib. Christ is not onely a principle but a pattern of holiness 175. Faith can live upon nothing but Christ p. 487. Cloud what p. 613. Dying man like a cloud ib. Commendations with a But wound p. 17. Committing our cause to God what it imports p. 228. Committing our cause to God a great ease to the soul 231. A caution about committing our cause to God p. 232. Complaining when sinful 622. Concealing the word of God sinful four wayes of concealing it p. 462 463. Confession of sin a general confession may be a sound one p. 679. Divers ingredients of it p. 680. The holiest have cause to confesse sin and why p. 682. Sin not confessed gets strength three mayes p. 683. It makes the soul very active about the remedies of sin p. 684. Confidence Holy confidence what it is p. 21. Confidence in God settles the heart in all conditions p. 30. Conscience the testimony of it the best ground of willingness to die p. 465. Correction what it is p. 313. The greatest afflictions upon the children of God are but corrections 314. How a correction differs from a judgment ib. 315. A child of God is happy under all corrections 316. What it is to despise corrections opened 319 320 Crafty men who they are 273. Craft wisedome of natural men is craft 275. Crafty men Satan desires to get to his side and service why pag. 276 277 c. Crafty men full of hopes 279. and industry ib. They want power to effect what they devise 279. It is a wonderful work of God to stop the devices of crafty men p. 281. In what sence any of their devices prosper 282. How God takes the wise in their craftiness p. 284 287. No craft of man can stand before the wisdome of God p. 286. Creatures a book wherein we may learn much both of God and our selves 618. Creatures cannot give us any comfort without God 633. He can make any creature helpful to us ib. Counsel in counselling others we should shew our selves ready to follow the same counsel p. 233. God turns the counsels of wicked men against themselves p. 287. What counsel is 290. Rash hasty counsels are successless pag. 292. Curse What it is to curse p. 190 The Saints in Scripture rather prophesie of then pray for curses upon the heads of wicked men 191 No creature can stand before the curse of God p. 196. D DAlilah What it signifies pag. 303. Darkness in the day time what it signifies p. 293. Death consumes us without noise p. 153. Man cannot stand out the assauts of death p. 154. We are subject to death every moment 155. Death hastens upon us all the dayes we live 156 157. What death is p. 162. In death all natural and civil excellencies go away p. 162. Greatest wisedome to prepare to die well 164. How man is said to perish for ever when he dies 157 158. Few of the living observe how suddenly others do or themselves may die 159. Thoughts of death laid to the heart are a good medicine for an evil heart 160. A happy death what 390. A godly man is a volunteer in death 395. When a godly man dies he hath had his fill of living 396. In what sence a man may be said to die before his time and in the midst of his dayes 397. Assurance of a better life carries us through all the paine of death with comfort 457. So doth the testimony of a good conscience 465. No evill in the death of a godly man 480. Death the end of worldly comforts pag. 618 Deliverance is of the Lord pag. 341. The Lord can deliver as often as we can need deliverance 341. God delivers his people from evill while they are in trouble pa. 344. Despaire A godly man may think his estate desperate p. 545. Devices what p. 272. Discontent at the dealings of God with us a high point of folly 182. Discontent at the afflictions of God afflicts more than those afflictions p. 183. Dreams The several sorts and causes of them p. 636 637. Our dreams are ordered by God 638. Satan makes them terrible p. 639. E EGg White of an egg what it emblems p. 443 End two wayes taken p 599. Envy what it is p. 180. Fnvy a killing passion ib. 181. Envy a sign of folly p. 184. Errour he that is shewed his errour should sit down convinc'd 529. He is in a fair way to truth who acknowledges he may erre p. 533. What is properly called an errour as distinct from heresie 533. Vpon what terms an errour is to be left p. 534 Eternity how the longest and the shortest p. 644. Example of God and Christ how our rule p. 175. Exhortation a duty p. 229. It must be joyned with reproof ib. The best Saints on earth may need brotherly exhortations ib. Exhortations must be managed with meekness p. 230. Experience the mistress of truth 186. Experience works hope pag. 305. F FAll A three-fold fall in Scripture p. 12. Family To order a family well is a great point of wisdome p. 387. A family well ordered is usually a prosperouus family ib. Famine A very sore judgement the effect of it p. 345 346. How many wayes the Lord redeems from famine p. 347. Fatherless who p. 546. Such in a sad condition 548. A grievous sin to oppress them p. 549. Faith ought to be great because God can do great things p. 224. We must beleeve not only what we cannot see but what we cannot understand 248. Faith should encrease in us when God works wonders for us p. 253 254. Fear Natural what p. 92. It is natural for man to fear at the appearances of God why ib. Four effects or symptoms of natural fear 93. It is a strong passion 98. From what kind of fear God exempts his people in times of danger p. 358. Fear Holy fear what it is pag. 19 20. They who have most holy fear in times of peace shall have most confidence in times of trouble 27. It keeps the heart and life holy 30. Fear of God ever joyned with love to our brethren p. 495. Fearful persons cannot be helpfull p. 516. Eellow-feeling of others afflictions a duty p. 415. It adds to a mans affliction when others have no feeling of it 416. We cannot be truly sensible of the afflictions of others till we troughly weigh them 417. He that hath not been afflicted seldome feels the afflictions of others ib. Fool who and what a fool is p. 177. Every wicked man is a fool 181 186. A fool ever worst when he is at ease p. 186.
the material cause of it is in our selves p. 219 Sin is the meritorious cause of suffering ib. We need no teaching to sin 223 224. Sin and sorrow the portion of man by nature 224. They are contained vertually in our nature ib. To sin is no burthen to a natural man 225. Not to sin how taken 386. To be kept from sin is better than all outward blessings 384 387. Sin the greatest evill 388. Sin contrary to the nature of God 472. They who are sensible of sin will pray hard for the pardon of it 706. Sinners expect benefit by sin 48. Sin persisted in shall have a sorrowful reward 48 49. Sleep the ease of trouble and cares p. 591. Bed cannot give sleep 592 634. Smallest matters fall under providence p. 241. Sorrow we ought to give a reason of our sorrows as well as of our hopes p. 409. Great sorrow stops our speech and makes broken language 423. Not to be able to express our sorrow is an increase of it 424. Soul of man is the man p. 151. Mans excellency 161 162. Souls being separate from the body 603 604. Sowing How applied and taken in Scripture p. 45 46. Speaking when the heart is full of matter it is a hard thing not to speak p. 7. Stones of the field what it is to be in league with them p. 370 371 c. How God turns stones into bread and how man may be said to do so p 376. Sword Two swords of the mouth p. 199. The hand of the Sword Sword in the hand what they import p. 349. T TEaching compared to raining or holy doctrin to rain in four respects p. 523 524. Teachable a gracious spirit is teachable and a teachable spirit is an excellent spirit p. 528. Unteachableness more dangerous than ignorance ib. Temptation by way of assay or tryal p. 5. Temptation prayer and meditation the three great exercises of a Christian 568. Terrours after terrours God usually sends comforts p. 104. Terrours of God what why so called 430 431. Divers sorts of terrours sent from God 431 435. Spirituall terrours as spiritual joyes are known to few 436 Toughts compared to boughes or branches of a tree and why pag. 80. Toughts the flrst-borne of the soule 81. A godly mans top-branches or highest thoughts are about highest things 81. God never lost any one of his thoughts or ever shall pag. 281 Time The shortnesso and speed of it p. 600. Time past irrecoverable 601. Tongue a scourge and what the scourge of the tongue is p. 351. c. What it is to be hid from the scourge of the tongue 354. It is most sad when Christians scourge each other with the tongue 356. It is a great mercie to be delivered from the scourge of the tongue 357. The tongue discovers the iniquity of the heart 561 Troubles afflict them most who supposed themselves beyond trouble p. 192. Truth is infused not borne with us p 76. God sometime as it were steales a truth into the hearts of his people 76. Why he is said to doe so 77. Holy truths are very pleasant to the care of a holy person 78. Our hearts too narrow to take in or hâ—ld al the truths of God 79. A godly man â—ver receives somewhat when truth is revealed 79. God usually humbleâ— man before he shews him his truth 97. Truth deserves our most diligent search 401 We are to search and make truth our own before we distribute it unto others ibid. 402. Truth may challenge credit ibid. Truth is the portion of the Saints 403. Truth mis-applied is very unsavoury and may be dangerous 449 Truth must be made known 465. It is the study if a godly man to doe so 466. Dangerous to conceale truth ib. The strength of truth naked truth is too hard for armed errour 537. Common truths seriously to be studied 601 V VAnity graduall Moneths of vanity what 585 586. The vanity of mans life shewed foure waies 644 c. Visions and revelations feigned often by false prophets and why p. 72 and Heathens 73 74. Foure sorts of visions or divine revelations observed among the Rabbins 82. Three forts noted from Scripture 83. Visions five waies distinguisht 85 86. A further sort of visions 636. Visit To visit what it imports p. 385. Visitation of God three waies 664 c. Understanding the work of it attributed to the tongue and sences why p. 559. Unsearchablenesse of God in his works two waies considered p. 245. 246. Uprightnesse what p. 22. It makes us confident in saddest times 28. It hath boldnesse 553. and stedfastnesse 554. an upright heart the more it is searched the better it proves 558 Uselesse to be uselesse is in Scripture account to be essenceless p. 515. W VVArre usually accompanied with famine and why pag. 348. Warr a devourer ib. Warfare The life of man is a warfare shewed in six particulars pag. 565. c Weavers shutle life of man like it 598. c. Whale why God sets a watch over him 625. c. Wicked man may flourish in great outward prosperity 188. The patience of God glorified in the prosperity of wicked men 188. Two other reasons why they are permitted to prosper 189. Wicked men may flourish a great while ib. They are under a curse while they flourish 193. Wickedness is very laborious p. 47. There is an art in wickednesse 48 Wife good wife the beauty and ornament of the house p. 385. Wind vaine winds compared to wind 543 544 How the life is a wind 502. c. Wisdom is the stability of things 274 Wise men to whom plaine things may be darke and obscure p 296. Wit often abused by Satan 266 c. 〈…〉 works p. 34. A caution about it ib. word of God how it may be hid and how not 462. Words the conceptions of the mind as hard to keepe them in as children ready for the birth p. 7 8. Words of the wise very powerfull 15. Right words very strong three things in right words 5â—5 536 Works of God are perfect works 238. work of man put for his reward 582 World when we are most retired from the world we usually have and are most fit to have communion with God 88. wordly men would live alwaies in the world 644. Worldly good things not good in themselves p. 189. They are no argument that a man who hath them is good 190 No evidences of the fovour of God 194. The best of worldly things loathed if long used spirituall things the more used the more desired 310. Best of worldly things fading 384. The world is but for this life 610 Woundings by the hand of God are often preparatoric to a cure 332. God never makes a wound too bigg for his own cure 334. And he can easily cure all the wounds which the malice of man can make 335 Wrath what it is p. 178. Wrath kils three at once 180 Y YEâ— and nay what they signifie in 〈…〉 51â— A Table of those Scriptures which