from the presence of the Lord Here was no appearance of terrour it was the voice of God walking as a freind not marching as an enemy and it was in in thr coole not heat of the day these circumstances argue the guiltinesse of Adam and his Wife who fled and hid themselves at this appearance of the Lord. The voice of God walking was a dreadfull sound in their eares because they had not hearkned to the voice of God commanding Wicked Pashur who opposed the good Prophet is branded with a new name Jer. 20.3.4 The Lord sayd his name shall no more be called Pashur but Magor-Misabib that is Feare round about and in the next Verse the reason is given why this name was given him For I will make thee a terrour to thy selfe He that is a terrour to himselfe can no more be without terrour then he can be without himselfe Nor can any thing be a comfort to him who is his owne terrour And therefore a guilty conscience heares a dreadfull sound what sound soever he heares he ever expects to heare bad newes and he puts fearefull glosses and comments upon that which is good A wicked man interprets all reports in one of these two mischievous senses either To the discredit of others Pessimus in dubiis Augur timor Stat or to the disquiet of himselfe Bring what text of providence you can to him he corrupts it with one of these glosses Yea the faithfull counsells of his owne Friends are dreadfull sounds unto him for he hath a suspicion that while they are counselling him for good it is but a contriving of evill against him or a setting of snares to catch him Againe sometimes God creates a sound or causeth the wicked to heare a dreadfull sound 2 Kings 7.6 The Lord made the Hoast of the Syrians to hear a noyse of Charriots and a noyse of Horses even the noyse of a great Hoast c. Upon this dreadfull sound they arose and fled Sometimes a wicked heart creates a sound and what the Prophet threatens he heares the stone out of the Wall the beame out of the Timber crying against him The Story tells us of one who thought that the Swallowes in the Chimney spake and told tales of him We say in our Proverbe As the Foole thinketh so the Bell clinketh much more may we say As an evill conscience thinketh so every thing clinketh As he that hath a prejudice against another takes all he heares spoken of him and all that he heares him speak in the worst sense and most disadvantageous construction to his reputation so he that hath a preâ—udice against himselfe construes all that he either heares or sees against his owne Peace Hence it is that he doth not onely flee when he is pursued but when none pursue Prov. 28.1 The wicked flies when none pursueth except his owne feares but the righteous is as bold as a Lyon This terrour was threatned in the old Law Levit. 26.36 They that are left alive of you in the time of your Captivity I will send fainting in their hearts in the Land of their Enemy and the sound of a shaking leafe shall chase them What poore spirits have they who are chased by the motion of a leafe The sound of a leafe is a pleasant sound it is a kind of naturall musick Feare doth not onely make the heart move Homines tui non expectato adventu hostis velut transsossi examinantur metu Jun. As the Trees of the Forrest are moved with the winde Isa 7. but it makes the heart move if the winde doe but move the Trees of the Forrest The Prophet Isaiah tells Jerusalem Thy slaine men are not slaine with the Sword not dead in Battell Isai 22.2 With what then were they slaine And how dyed they a learned Interpreter tells us how They were slaine with feare and dyed with a sound of Battell before ever they joyned Battell This answereth the judgement denounced by Moses in another place Deut. 28.65 The Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart and fayling of eyes and sorrow of minde and thy life shall hange in doubt before thee and thou shalt feare day and night and shalt have no assurance of thy life But here some may object Is this the portion of wicked men Doth a dreadful sound in their eares afflict their hearts Have not many such much peace and doe they not either smile or wonder to heart others complaining of an afflicted spirit and beg prayers for the appeasing of their troubled conscience which are matters they have no acquaintance with nor knowledge of I answer First We are not to understand the proposition as if all wicked men have or that any wicked man at all times hath this dreadfull sound in his eare but thus it is very often and thus it may be alwayes thus it is with many and thus it may be with all wicked men A wicked man hath as we say no fence for it no priviledge nor promise to secure him from it Againe though some wicked men have not this dreadfull sound in their eares yea though they have pleasant sounds in their eares like them who sang to the Viall c. Amos 6. yet first their peace is not a true peace secondly it is not a lasting peace thirdly that which they have ariseth from one of these two grounds either from neglect of their consciences or from some defect in their consciences The neglect of conscience from whence this ariseth is twofold either first when they neglect to speake to conscience conscience and they never have a word much lesse any serious conference or discourse either concerning the state of their hearts or the course of their lives and then all 's peace with them Secondly when the speakings of conscience are neglected conscience hath a double voice of direction and correction conscience tells a man what he ought and what he ought not to doe conscience checks a man for not doing what he ought or for doing what he ought not Yet many over power and restrain conscience from this office and never leave opposing till they have silenced yea conquered it Such as these have peace such a one as it is and heare nothing but a sound of delight in their eares while this silence lasteth Againe this may arise from some defect disabling conscience to doe its ordinary or naturall duty the conscience of an evill man may have some goodnesse in it Conscience may be considered two wayes either morally or naturally that onely is a morally good conscience which is pure and holy a conscience cleansed from the guilt of sin by the blood of Christ thus no wicked man can be sayd to have a good conscience That is a naturally good conscience which performes the office or duty to which conscience is appointed conscience is set up in man to performe certaine offices if the conscience of a bad man performe them his conscience in that sense is good The first
office or work of conscience is to observe and take notice of what we doe conscience should as it were keep a Day-Book and follow us up and downe with Pen and Inke to write all our motions A second worke of conscience is to testifie what we have done and which way we have moved A third is to accuse us when we doe evill and to acquit us when we doe well Now as a wicked mans conscience is alwayes morally evill because stained and polluted with sin So many times his conscience is naturally evill too that is it will neither take notice of nor check him for his sin When the wicked mans conscience is in this evill state he thinkes his state good enough and so he is at quiet Casuists tell us of foure sorts of evill consciences all which may live out of the hearing of these dreadfull sounds First A blind ignorant conscience that cannot discerne between morall good and evill Secondly A secure conscience which thinkes not of any penall evill Thirdly A dull lazy sleepy conscience which hath little or no sense either of what is done or suffered Fourthly A feared conscience which is altogether senselesse A conscience thus disabled to performe its worke being either blind secure sleepy or feared is tame and quiet with the worst of men But all this while though this wicked man hath some ease yet he hath no peace his conscience while seared is farr enough from being setled his conscience while asleep is farr enough from rest It is with such as with some sick men aske them how they doe they will say Very well when as indeed they are so sick that they know not how ill they are they take death it selfe for health and their not feeling of paine for the curing of their disease But when the conscience of a wicked man is once enlightned softned and awakned he cannot but have these dreadfull sounds which will neither give nor let him receive any rest Conscience will awake at last and speak terrible things conscience will be a Bounnerges a terrible Preacher thundring out not only a chiding reproofe but a sentence of condemnation and then the wicked will even gnash their teeth because conscience did no sooner use its teeth they will gnaw their tongues for sorrow because conscience had no tongue to speak or they no eares to heare what it spake till it was too late A dreadfull sound is in his eare In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In paâ—e The Hebrew is In peace the destroyer shall come upon him Peace is so neer allyed and so great a freind to prosperity that one word may well serve both The wicked mans destroyer shall be to him like Joab to Abner and Amasa shedding the blood of Warr in Peace and putting that blood upon the Girdle about his loynes c. 1 Kings 2.5 But some may demand How doth this suite with the former Verse Where Eliphaz told us that A wicked man travells in paine all his dayes How is he in prosperity if he travells all his dayes in paine I answer The denomination is given from the greatest part of a wicked mans life and that is trouble and paine Or secondly if an instance can be given of any wicked man that hath had more good dayes then evill or that hath had no ill dayes at all in regard of any outward trouble and paine then we may reconcile the Text thus his prosperity is beside his state yea Est amplificatio malae cujusdam impiorum securitatis q. d. si contingat impium nihil timere sed secure agere tunc inopinato opprimetur Pined in his very prosperity he is in paine In the midst of laughter his heart is sorrowfull and the end of his mirth is heavinesse Prov. 14.13 His is but a seeming not a reall prosperity Further these words are an aggravation of his misery because if at any time he appeares prosperous and free from feare then sudden destruction overtakes him Or lastly The destroyer may be sayd to come upon him in prosperity because in his best dayes he feares the destroyer he suspects danger when he sees none and is therefore never out of danger Who this destroyer is is left here at large Et cum pax sit ille insidias suspicatur Vulg. Omnia etiam tuta tyranni impii timent Merc. no particular one is specified but any terrible one is intended Eliphaz doth not say A Destroyer but The Destroyer One both powerfull and skilfull to destroy shall come upon him He shall not onely come to him but come upon him to come upon is to invade or to assault A freind comes to a man with kindnesse and embraces to visit or salute him an Enemy comes upon a man with blowes and violence to wound and destroy him In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him Hence Observe When wicked men thinke themselves most safe they are neerest to destruction 'T is seldome that they thinke themselves safe and when they doe they are furthest from safety When the wicked spring as the grasse and when all the workers of iniquity doe flourish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever Psal 92.7 Their temporall short spring is not onely an antecedent but an argument of their eternall Winter And their Winter is not the going downe of the sap to the root but the pulling of them up by the roots they shall be destroyed Job 20.22 In the fulnesse of his sufficiency hee shall be in straits When it is full Sea with him his Channell shall be dryed up It was sayd to that Foole Luke 12.20 This night thy soule shall be taken from thee The destroyer came upon him indeed in his prosperity when he sang himselfe asleepe with Soule thou hast goods layd up for many yeares he could not keep his soule one night 1 Thes 5.3 When they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction commeth upon them as travaile upon a woman with Childe and they shall not escape The generall destruction of wicked men in the day of judgement shall come as a theefe in the night We have a representation of this in that wofull tragedy which the Lord acted upon the Egyptians Exod. 12.30 At midnight there was a grevious cry he came upon them as a theefe in the night for the Lord smote all the first borne of the Land of Aegypt they dyed in their warme beds in prosperity the destroyer came upon them This is bad enough yet not the worst of the condition of wicked men For Vers 22. He beleeves not that he shall returne out of darknesse he is waited for of the Sword This is a further account of the inward misery or paine which afflicts the spirit of a wicked man He beleeves not that he shall returne out of darknesse Hee looketh not that he shall escape from darknesse So Master Broughton There are five interpretations given about this darknesse out
strength such was the power of the man whom Eliphaz describes such his strength He subdued strong Cities he conquered men and he thought he could conquer God too But though to destroy and pull downe intimate strength yet to build and set up Cities requires grater strength This strength also is here ascribed to the wicked man who First either comes to Cities already overthrowne or overthrowes Cities And then secondly builds the Cities which are overthrown that himselfe may dwell in them He will not dwell in Cities built to his hand or in Palaces ready made but he will make goodly Palaces out of desolate places a City wasted by Warr by Fire and Sword shall revive out of the rubbish and recover to its ancient splendor if he undertake it Master Broughton renders clearely to this sense Though hee makes dwellings of Cities ruinated of houses undwelt which were comming to heaps of stone Here 's the compleatnesse of his worldly power He makes flourishing Cities desolate and desolate Cities flourish he dwells in desolate Cities in Houses where no man inhabiteth that is in Cities which he himselfe once made desolate having cast out their proper Inhabitants but hath now re-edified and enlarged for his owne use and honour Hence Observe First That a wicked man cares not wohm he ruines so he may raise himselfe Downe with Kingdomes downe with Cities downe with all so he may stand or have his owne ends Secondly Observe Which is the scope of Eliphaz A man that hath great power among men begins to thinke himselfe strong enough for God also He made earthly Cities desolate and none was able to resist him therefore he hopes to make Heaven desolate and disturbe the throne of God He runs upon his neck c. Againe Some expound this Verse not of the cause of this mans sin but of the punishment of his sin He dwells in desolate Cities Terrores de quibus nuper dictum est non patiuntur impium in familiari hominum consortio vivere ideo desolatorum urbium ruinas latibula quaerit Pined in places where no man dwelt that is He shall dwell alone he shall either refuse or be refused by all good company For this miserable solitude may arise two wayes First From trouble of minde he having oppressed others shall finde himselfe at last so oppressed with the witnesse of his owne conscience that to avoyd it he retires into desolate places into waste Wildernesses into old ruinous buildings where none dwell but the Owle and the Screech-owle Isa 34. He that findes not his owne conscience good company never finds any Secondly This wicked man is cast out from the company of men he hath been a scourge to many and now all are a scourge to him Tyranny growes intolerable to mankinde Dan. 4.33 Hujusmodi tyranni eiiciuntur in exilâ—um Nebuchadnezzar was the greatest Monarch in the World and a proud Tyrant at last he was turned out to grasse his Nobles Lords and Subjects forsook him and he who ruled men lived among Beasts or as the same Prophesie of Daniel reports it Chap. 5.20 When his heart was lifted up and his minde hardned in pride he was deposed or as the Chaldee made to come downe from his Kingly throne and they tooke his glory from him and he was driven from the sons of men c. Which we may answer with Jobs text He was forced to dwell indesolate places The Roman Story tells us of Nero that perceiving himselfe a lost man by the revolt of some Provinces and the generall complaint of the people against his insolent Government he wandered up and downe and crept first into a thicket by and by into a Cave with Sporus his filthy Favorite and at last when he heard of the sentence of death given against him by the Senate and that their Officers were hasting to attach him he with a little helpe of one of his Servants cut his owne Throat Thirdly Others interpret these words as noting the wicked mans worldly decay he shall not have a House to put his head in His strong Cities and goodly Palaces shall goe to ruine or he shall be forced to dwell in a ruinous House a House ready to fall about his eares who before lived in ceiled Houses He hath pulled downe other mens houses and now he dwels in houses ready to fall downe he impoverisht others and now himselfe is turned out among the poor Hence Observe That God often makes the punishment of man suitable to his sin The Lord is known by the judgement which he executeth the wicked is snared in the work of his owne hands Psal 9.16 The judgements of God are alwayes just and sometimes their justice is visible As the wicked feel them so all may see them and say Righteous art thou O Lord. The Prophet describes this retaliation of Divine judgement Isa 5.8 9. Woe to them that add House to House and lay Feild to Feild till there be no place that is no place for others to dwell in that they may be placed in the midst of the earth What is the danger of this In mine eare saith the Lord of Hoasts of a truth many Houses shall be desolate many and faire without Inhabitant Here is desolation the reward of desolation and as they took bread from others and puld the cup from their mouthes so their bread shall be taken away and their cup left empty Thus it followes in the Prophet Vers 10. Yea ten Akers of Vineyard shall yeeld one Bath A Bath was a measure among the Jews of Liquids containing as is conceived about eight Gallons So that when he saith Ten Akers of Vineyard shall yeild one Bath the meaning is there shall be a great scarcity of Wine An Aker of Vineyard should not yeild a Gallon of Wine that 's a miserable Vintage And the seed of an Homer shall yeild an Ephah An Homer was a measure for dry things containing ten Ephahs So that when it is sayd The seed of a Homer shall yeeld an Ephah the meaning is they shall reape but the tenth part of the seed sowne which is a miserable Harvest and the highest threat of ensuing Famine Thus the Lord punished them as they had sinned they starved the poore and God threatens to starve them Hunger never pinches so terribly as when it is a punishment sent at the cry of the hungry Againe Isa 33.1 When thou shalt cease to deal treacherously then they shall deale treacherously with thee When the deceiver is deceived and the trecherous dealer ruined by treacherous dealing men then the truth and faithfulnesse of God are eminently exalted And as it is in punishments so often in rewards God doth us good in the same way wherein we have done good The Midwives saved the Males of the Israelites in Aegypt and by this act of pitty built the house of Israel which the Lord took so well at their hands That he built their houses or made their houses flourish Ez.