24.63 The subject of his meditation was the starres or the heavens It is good to take field-room sometimes to view contemplate the works of God round about Only take heed of the former folly of Astrologicall curiosities confining the providence of God to secondary causes avoid that and the heart may have admirable elevations unto God from the meditation of the works of God Psal 19.1 The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work if the heavens declare the glory of God we should observe what that glory is which they declare The heavens preach to us every day Their line is gone out thorow all the earth and their words to the end of the world Psal 19.4 Sun Moon and Stars are Preachers they are universall preachers they are naturall Apostles the world is their charge their words saith the Psalm go to the ends of the earth We may have good doctrine from them especially this doctrine in the text of the wisdom and power of God And it is very observable that the Apostle alludes to this text in the Psalm for a proof of Gospel-preaching to the whole world Rom. 10.18 So then faith commeth by hearing and hearing by the word of God But I say have they not heard Yes verily their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the end of the world The Gospel like the Sun casts his beams over and sheds his light into all the world David in the Psalm saith Their line is gone out c. By which word he shews that the heavens being so curious a fabrick made as it were by line and levell do clearly though silently preach the skill and perfections of God Or that we may read divine truths in them as in a line formed by a pen into words and sentences the originall signifies both a measuring line 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat lineam non modo extensam hoc est funiculum sed etiam scriptam hoc est scripturam Par. in Rom. 10 and a written line Letters and words in writing being nothing but lines drawn into severall forms or figures But the Septuagint whose translation the Apostle citeth for Kavam their line read Kolam their sound either mis-reading the word or studiously mollifying the sense into a nearer compliance with the later clause of the verse And their words into the ends of the world Pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus I have endeavoured to make those things plain which are here represented to vulgar ears under strange unusuall and hidden expressions Job is full of Philosophy and Astronomy he was a great student in the heavens doubtlesse and a holy student Job having given these severall instances gathers them all into a generall conclusion in the tenth verse Verse 10. Which doth great things past finding out yea and wonders without number These words are repeated from the discourse of Eliphaz in the 5th Chap. v. 9. I would seek unto God and unto God would I commit my cause which doth great things and unsearchable marvellous things without number I will not stay in a particular disoussion of them but refer the Reader to the place before cited where the text is opened at large and particular observations given from it Take only this observation in generall That A godly man labours to exalt God both in his thoughts and in his words with heart and tongue when God depresses and humbles him most Mark in what a condition Job was when he speaks thus honourably of the name and power of God One would think Job had little reason to extoll the power of God which he felt to his own smart Job was stript of all he had his outward comforts were taken from him and the arrows of the Almighty wounded his very spirit Now when he had wounded Job thorow and thorow thorow flesh and thorow spirit even at this time when God appeared making no use of his power but to undo Job Job is in his Encomium all in the praise and commendation of God He endites a Chapter on purpose to set forth the power and wisdom of God while he imploied both to make his afflictions both great and accurate This shews the admirable frame of his spirit in all his distempers his heart stood right and he would speak good of God what evil soever befell him from Gods hand Let God afflict with his power yet a gracious heart rejoices in it A gracious heart will lift up that power which weakens and throws it down Let the Lord imploy his wisdom to undo to impoverish such a man to bring him into such straits that he cannot get out yet he hath enlarged thoughts of that wisdom He sees God is as wise in troubling us as he is in delivering That language of Spira is the right language of hell I judge not his person but his speech who in a great temptation spake thus I would I had more power then God or O that I were above God He was angry that God had so much power because God used his power against him A carnall man would be above God especially if God at any time puts forth his power against him When he is hard bestead and hungry he frets himself and curses his King and his God looking upward Isa 8.21 to murmur at God not to pray unto him or speake good of him Tertullian Illud est impiorum ingenium ut Deum non ulterius celebrent quam cum benefacit Fer. It is observed by one of the Ancients concerning the Heathen That if God did not please them he should be no longer God Such are our hearts by nature if God do not use his power wisdom mercy for us we presently wish he had no power wisdom nor mercy for any in the world we would be above God unles God will serve us but an holy heart saith thus Let God improve his power and wisdom which way he pleaseth if to afflict and chasten me yea to destroy and cast me to hell his be the power for ever I extoll his power Nature can only praise God and speak good of him when he is doing of us good But grace prompts the heart to indite a good matter and bids the tongue be as the pen of a ready writer to advance God when sense feels nothing but smart and sees nothing but sorrow round about Then grace is in her heights when she can lift up God highest while he is casting us down and laying us lowest When we can honour God frowning as well as smiling upon us smiting and wounding as well as kissing and imbracing us then we have learned to honour God indeed JOB Chap. 9. Vers 11 12 13. Loe he goeth by me and I see him not he passeth on also but I perceive him not Behold he taketh away who can hinder him who shall say unto him What doest thou If God will not withdraw his anger the proud helpers doe stoop under him JOB having in
ye think God would yeeld to me if I should contend with him He multiplieth or He hath multiplied my wounds without cause that is His verbis evidenter exponit quae supra occultè dixerat si venerit adme non video Hoc enim ubique fere in dictis Jobi observanaum quod obscurè dicta per aliqua consequentia exponuntur Aquin. without giving me any account hitherto and do you think that now I shall have liberty to call him to an account or that he will give me one He wounds without cause is * Sine causa manifesta et ab homine afflâ—cto perceptibili Aquin. without cause manifested God hath not told me the reason of his chastenings And I doe not perceive the reason I know not why he contendeth with me And so he expounds what he spake at the 12th verse Loe he passeth by me and I see him not There are mysteries in providence Mans eye is not clear enough to see all that God doth before his eyes Job is his own Expositour This later expression gives us a comment upon the former And it is observable that both in this book and in the whole body of the Scripture easier texts may be found to interpret the harder and clear ones to enlighten those which are darker and more obscure The Word of God is not only a light and a rule to us but to it self Or He multiplieth my wounds without cause is Haec à Job dicta sunt quod intell gat se non tam flagellari quam probari as if Job had said I know the Lord deals not with me as with a guilty person nor doth he judge me as a malefactour mine is a probation not a punishment God doth only try me to see what is in my heart and how I can stand in an evil day He multiplieth my wounds without cause that is without the cause which you have so often objected against me namely that I am an hypocrite and wicked I know God looks upon me as a childe Animus in DeuÌ„ praeclare affectus sed tamen affectus doloribus Sanct. or a friend not as an enemy Therefore I have no cause to multiply words with God though God go on to multiply my wounds without cause To multiply wounds notes numerous and manifold afflictions many in number and many in kinde Iobs were deep deadly wounds and he had many of them he was all over wound body and soul were wounds he was smitten within and without as to multiply to pardon is to pardon abundantly Isa 55.7 So to multiply wounds or to multiply to wound is to wound abundantly Here a Question would be resolved How the justice of God may be acquitted in laying on and multiplying afflictions without cause I shall referre the Reader for further light about this point to the third verse of the second Chapter where those words are opened Thou movedst me against him to destroy him without cause yet take here three considerations more by way of answer to the doubt First Whatsoever the Lord wounds and takes from any man he wounds and takes his own He is Lord over all Our health and strength are his our riches are his The world is his and the fulnesse of it Psal 50. If he be hungry he needs not tell us he can goe to his own store It is no wrong to dispose what is our own wheresoever we finde it That rule is as true in revocations as distributions Friend I doe thee no wrong Mat. 20.15 Is it not lawfull for me to doe what I will with mine own Though there were no sinne in man yet there were no injustice in God because he takes nothing from us but what he gave us and hath full power to recall and take away Secondly Suppose man could say that what he had were his own that his riches were his own that health and strength of body were his own yet God may take them away and doe no wrong It is so among men Kings and States call out their Subjects to warre and in that warre their wounds are multiplied without any cause given by them They gave no occasion vvhy they should be appointed to such hazards of life and limb to such hardships of hunger and cold yet there is no injustice in this When God casts man into trouble he cals him out to his service he hath a vvarre some noble enterprize and design to send him upon To you it is given to suffer for his sake saith the Apostle Phil. 1.29 he puts it among the speciall priviledges vvhich some Saints are graced vvith not only above the vvorld but above many of the Saints To whom it is given and that 's a royall gift only to believe Now if in prosecuting this suffering task whether for Christ or from Christ a believer laies out his estate credit liberty or life he is so farre from being wronged that he is honoured Thousands are slain in publike imploiments who have given no cause to be so slain If according to the line of men this be no injustice much lesse is it injustice in God who is without line himself being the only line and rule to himself and to all besides himself Thirdly I may answer it thus Though the Lord multiply wounds without cause yet he doth it without wrong to the wounded because he wounds with an intent to heal and takes away with a purpose to give more as in the present case God made Iob an amends for all the wounds whether of his body or goods good name or spirit Now though it be a truth in respect of man that we may not break anothers head and say vve vvill give him a plaister or take away from a man his possession and say vve vvill give it him again yet God may Man must not be so bold vvith man because he hath no right to take away and vvound nor is he sure that he can restore and heal but it is no boldnesse but a due right in God to doe thus for he as Lord hath power to take away and ability to restore And he restores sometimes in temporals as to Iob but alwaies to his people in spirituals and eternals Hence the Apostle argueth 2 Cor. 4.17 Our light afflictions which are but for a moment work for us an eternall weight of glory Afflictions vvork glory for us not in a vvay of meriting glory but in a tendency to the receiving of glory and in preparations for it There is no wrong in those losses by which we are made gainers Those losses being sent that we may gain and the sender of the losse being able effectually to make us gainers He multiplieth my wounds without cause Hence observe First Afflictions are no argument that God doth not love us As the Lord hath a multitude of mercies in his heart so a multitude of afflictions in his hand and a multitude of afflictions may consist vvith a multitude of mercies At the same time
like men have transgressed the Covenant they have done like themselves When we see men vain and wicked and sinfull and covetous and earthly we may say of them they have done like men and how wonderous and glorious things soever God doth we can but say He hath done like God As a consectary from the whole take this caution If God is not a man as we are then God must never be measured by the rule and line of man Man hath not line enough to measure God by The Lord exceeds man in all he is not only above mans infirmities but he is above all his perfections The Lord is not only not weak as man is weak or unholy as man is unholy but the Lord is not strong as man is strong nor holy as man is holy nor just as man is just nor wise as man is wise Then man must not venture to judge of the wisdome of God by his own wisdome or of the justice holinesse and strength of God by his own strength holinesse and justice Man is not able to measure God in any of his Attributes and in three things especially man should take heed of measuring God in his actings First In the great work of election In this man is very apt to be meddling and to be measuring God by the line of naturall reason or of civil justice the Apostles dispute beats down this presumption Rom. 9. We read there how man begins to bustle and startle at that great conclusion vers 18. Therefore he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth If it be thus saith he if every mans state be peremptorily determined by the will of God if he loves and hates before men have done either good or evil Why doth he finde fault for who hath resisted his will What need any trouble themselves about the way when their end is under an unmovable decree Why should any strive to forsake evil and doe good on earth seeing it was resolved in heaven what should become of them before they had done either good or evil Thus the pride and ignorance of man cavils at the decrees of God But stay saith the Apostle O man who art thou that repliest against God! He is not a man as thou art he hath done what he hath done by vertue of his just prerogative and therefore he is not unjust in doing it Besides if ye will needs argue from reason then see how common reason confutes this blasphemy Hath not the Potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessell unto honour and another unto dishonour What if God hath done thus and what if he will doe thus What hast thou to doe with it Know thy place and keep thy rank art not thou clay in the hand of the Potter Secondly Measure not God by your own line in his providentiall dispensations He may have a method of his own in giving or taking away in pulling down or building up in wounding or healing in abasing man or in raising him because all is his own He who hath a right to all can wrong none and he who possesses all is debtour to none Thirdly Measure not God by your own line in the matter of your ordinary approvings and that two waies First Doe it not in your approving of things And Secondly Doe it not in your approving of persons Take heed first of measuring God by your selves in your approving of things as if because you approve it therefore God surely doth This misconceit hath been the cause of almost all and almost all the cause of all the superstition idolatry and will-worship that ever was in the world Man thinks God must needs like any thing which is done to his honour hence because the adorning and adoring of images bowing to altars using of unwritten Ceremonies are directed to the honour of God therfore man concludes surely God likes them Whereas nothing pleases God but what himself appoints he is never honoured but when he is obeyed As no man hath been his counsellour to direct him what to doe with us So no man can be his counsellour to direct him what to require of us Not that which we commend is approved but that which the Lord commends Secondly Take heed of this in your approbation or estimation of persons Not be whom you commend is approved but he whom the Lord commends We should judge of men as we believe God judges Or to come nearer let no man think himself is approved of God because he is approved by himself Many flatter themselves in their own eyes till their iniquity is found to be hatefull Psal 36.2 Christ intimates this speaking to the Pharisees Luk. 16.15 Ye are they that justifie your selves ye have high thoughts of your own worth and glory in your own excellencies and ye think God hath high thoughts of you that he glories in you too but let me tell you That which is highly esteemed amongst men is an abomination in the sight of God We are the men said the Pharisees ours are excellent gifts thus they admired and doted upon themselves but the Lord found them out and what they highly esteemed he abominated Some write and subscribe their own letters testimoniall and can get no hand to them but their own Not he who commends himself is approved but he whom the Lord commends such shall finde that their own good word would do them no good He is not a man as they are He saith Job is not a man as I am that I should answer him And we should come together in judgement It hath been shewed what judgement is at the 19th verse of this Chapter and at the third verse of the eighth Chapter therefore I shall not now stay upon it only as to the matter in hand Judgement may be taken three waies First For pleading which is but preparatory to judgement 1 Disceptatio mutur◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rationum 2 Iuris definitio 3 Exactio castigationis debiti Merc. the opening and arguing of the case or fact under triall Secondly For the decision and determination of the case according to law or the award of judgement Thirdly For the inflicting and executing of the sentence according to the judgement awarded Here Job chiefly intends the first He is not a man as I am that I should answer him and we should come together in judgement that is that I should plead argue and debate my matters with him before any other Judge God and man cannot come together to be judged for all man-kinde must receive their judgement from God Vt veniamus pariter in judicium Or nearer the Hebrew which sutes the former clause better He is not a man as I am that we should come alike to judgement No we should be very unlike very unequally matched in judgement Man and man who are upon even terms in their nature may yet be upon such uneven terms in their condition that
saw him languishing under such unparallel'd evils of punishment This moved him to pray Lord do not condemn me by making me an object of the worlds condemnation Again The words Doe not condemn me may have this meaning Lord * Permitto reruÌ„ aliarum â—jâ—cturam sed non possum non doâ—ene vehementer laesam meae sanctitatis innocentiae existimationem Pined Do what thou wilt with me only doe not condemn me His earnest deprecation of this may carry in it a willing submission to any thing besides this And 't is very usuall with men to do so we think we could bear any affliction but that or better then that which is upon us Yet Job had great reason to chuse any affliction rather then this He might well say I can through thy grace enabling me bear these or any other pains of my body and losses in my estate but I know not how to bear the losse of mine innocency or the reproach of being thrown out of thy favour The world and these my friends will be confirmed in their misapprehensions of me if thou doest not speedily deliver me and confute their rash jugement by some eminent mercy Condemnation hath three things in it which make it grievous First The penalty of the sentence Secondly The disfavour of the Judge Thirdly The stain of his integrity who is condemned To have but so much as a suspition or jealousie of the displeasure of God afflicts the spirit of a godly man more then all his other afflictions Though Job had a sure interest in the favour of God and was freed from the penalty of condemnation by his union with Christ yet sometimes clouds and darknesse came over him and the terrours of the Lord did fight against him which caused those sad lamentations in the sixth Chapter but here he is chiefly troubled at the stain of his integrity in the eye of the world who beholding his afflictions blotted him as a wicked man and esteemed him forsaken of God even utterly discarded and cast out of his sight Observe hence First That Great afflictions carry a charge of wickednesse upon the afflicted Paul having escaped death in a wreck at sea could not escape a hard censure at land when a viper was seen upon his hand This man say those Barbarians of Melita among themselves is no doubt a murderer whom though he hath escaped the sea yet vengeance suffereth not to live Act. 28.4 We finde also that those exemplary judgements which befell the Galileans whose bloud Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices it seems he caused them to be slain while they offered sacrifice and those upon whom the Tower of Siloe fell left them all under a charge of highest wickednesse else Christ had not taken it off saying Suppose ye that those Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things or those eighteen upon whom the Tower of Siloe fell thinke ye that they were sinners above all that dwelt in Jerusalem As if he had said I who know your thoughts know ye are ready to think so It is a very ill but it is a very common thing to judge both of persons and of causes by successe Doth a man gain and thrive in the world here 's a man sure whom God loves saith the world Though a Jeremy can say Why doth the way of the wicked prosper He can see them to be wicked thorow all their prosperity yet how often are they accounted righteous who prosper and good who enjoy good But doth a man wither and go down the winde in the world He 's a man sure whom God hates saith the world Man is apt to think them the worst who suffer worst and that they have sinned most who have most sorrow The Prophet Isa 53.4 5. fore-tels that Christ himself While he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows should be esteemed stricken smitten of God and afflicted Christ was esteemed a great sinner when God gave him up to be smitten for sinners therefore he adds but he was wounded for our transgressions c. Secondly observe The displeasure of God is more grievous to the Saints then all other pressures and sorrows whatsoever Job saith not Lord do not afflict me do not chasten me lay not thine hand upon me any more but Lord do not condemn me It is infinitely worse to be condemned then to be chastened yea then to be killed Condemnation carries in it an argument of disfavour and that makes it so burdensome As the love of God is better to us then all the good things of this life Psal 4.6 Many will say Who will shew us any good This is the great query of the world but what saith David Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us thou hast put gladnesse in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine encreased And as the favour of God is better to us then the good things of this life so then life which is better then all earthly goods Ps 63.3 Thy loving kindenesse is better then life Now I say as the love of God is better to us then the best things in the world so the displeasure of God is worser to us then the worst things that are in the world all the torments and racks all the sicknesses and distempers all the reproaches and contempts of men have not so much evil in them to us as one frown from God Hence as when two sore diseases suppose the gout and the stone both very painfull yet one much exceeding at once afflict the body the patient forgets the lesse so it is when inward and outward sorrows at once ceaze upon one man when the arrows of God are fastned in his spirit he forgets the arrow in his flesh The wounds of the spirit heal all the wounds of the flesh they make them as if they were no wounds or not worth the complaining of Thirdly observe To be accounted wicked is a sore affliction It is an affliction to have an ill name though we deserve it not and to be accounted wicked though we are not it is I grant far better to be censured then to be flattered It is very ill when others count us and worst of all when we account our selves better then we are yet it is no small evil to be accounted worse then we are especially to be accounted evil when we are good A wound in our honour is not a wound to be sleighted It was no small part of the sufferings of Christ that he was numbred with the transgressours in his death and called Beelzebub a friend of Publicans and sinners while he lived Fourthly observe from this Do not condemn me That condemnation is the adjudging of one to be wicked Condemnation supposeth a man guilty and leaveth him under a penalty As Justification is the adjudging and declaring of a person to be righteous or the accepting of him for righteous in another who is not righteous