becomes us to have patience till the harvest though it be a late one Lastly There is an opinion which gives this verse connexion with the first of the next Chapter Quia non ita est sc quia à me terrorem suum non eximit ego mecum sc Loquar mecum ipse querar omnem aserbitatem animi effundam apud me ut facit in sequenti capite As if Job had thus resolved upon the Lords not answering his petition Had the Lord condescended to take away his rod and remove his terrour as I requested then I had somewhat to say and I would have spoken it out unto him but because it is not so or because I am not answered therfore I with my self The word Speak is not in the text but such supplies of a word are frequent not only in the Hebrew but also in other languages Seeing I have not liberty to speak to the Lord I will pour my complaints into mine own bosome and commune with my own heart He pursues this tacite resolution in the tenth Chapter which begins thus My soul is weary of my life I will leave my complaint upon my self JOB Chap. 10. Vers 1. My soul is weary of my life I will leave my complaint upon my self I will speak in the bitternesse of my soul JOB having in the former Chapter justified God in afflicting him and maintained his own integrity notwithstanding those afflictions now returneth to that work about which he had been too busie before yet that Afflicti saepe se exonerari putaÌ„t si laxis habenis de suo dolore querantur suas enumerent calamitates uberrima oratione Merc. wherein it seems he only found as the case stood with him some little ease and refreshing The breathing out of his afflicted spirit in sad complainings He resumes his former lamentation and renews afresh what he had been more then large enough in at the 3d 6th and 7th Chapters of this book Here as there he shews how ill it was with him and what cause he had to be in heavinesse under the pressure of so many evils And here more then there Argumentis utitur à natura Dei ante-acceptis ipsius beneficijs quibus mala haec quae immifit Deus magnopere repugnare videantur Merl. he remonstrates that he conceived himself more hardly dealt with then stood not only with the goodnesse of God in his nature but with that goodnesse which he had formerly acted both towards others and himself This encouraged him about the close of the Chapter vers 20 and 22. to petition again that he might have a little refreshing before he lay down in his grave and that God would after these storms return him some of those fair daies he had enjoyed before he returned to the earth and should be seen no more His complaint is very rhetoricall and high Vehemens quideÌ„ partibus omnibus gravis est querimonia â—ed medesta fi unum â—â—â—ud optatum exceperis ver 18 19. Merl. yet with an allay or mixture of modesty Indeed his spirit brake out and passion got head at the 18 and 19 verses where he expostulates with God in the language of the third Chapter Wherefore host thou brought me forth out of the womb c But abating that excesse of his tongue and spirit his complaints are knit up with solid arguments and his Queries put the point resolutely yet humbly home to God himself that he would be pleased to shew the reason of his present dealings and why he varied so much from what he had done in former times The first verse gives us a generall ground of this and of all his sorrowfull complaints The wearisomenesse of his life My soul is weary of my life I will leave my complaint upon my self The argument may be formed thus He hath reason to complain of his afflictions whose afflictions are so heavy upon him and so bitter that he hath reason to be weary of his very life But thus my case stands my afflictions are so bitter to and heavy upon me that I am weary of my life Therefore I have reason to complain The assumption of this syllogisme is contained in the first words of the verse My soul is weary of my life And the conclusion in the latter Therefore I will leave my complaint upon my self I will speak in the bitternesse of my soul My soul is weary of my life Life and soul are often in Scripture put promiscuously for the same but here they differ The soul may be taken two waies First Strictly as it is opposed to the body Secondly In a more large sense by a Synecdoche of the part for the whole for the whole man consisting of body and soul If so here then the meaning of Job in saying My soul is weary of my life is no more but this I Job am weary of my life that is of the marriage or union of my soul and body O that this band which I though most are grieved at the weaknesse of theirs finde too strong were broken or a bill of divorce granted for their separation Life is the band or tie by which soul and body subsist together And when that band is broken or cut asunder by the stroke of death the body goes to the grave and the soul or spirit returns to God who gave it Again When Job saith My soul is weary of my life Life may be taken either for the act of life and so the sense is I am weary of living or it may be taken for the manner of life and so the sense is I am weary of that course or state of life wherein I am Life is often put not strictly for the act of living but for the state or condition in which a man lives or with which life is cloathed The circumstances and concomitants of life are called life Thus in our common speech when a man is in misery another saith I would not have his life or what a life hath he The Apostles character of all naturall men is that they are alienated from the life of God Ephes 4.18 that is they cannot endure to live such a life as God lives or as he commands them to live they cannot endure to be holy as he is holy or holy as he cals them to be holy in all manner of conversation Thus Job was alienated from his own life I saith he am weary of my life that is of a life thus imbittered thus afflicted My soul is weary The word which we translate weary varies the understanding of this sentence It signifies properly to be weakned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Debilitatus languefactus per metapheram taeedio affectus offensus fuit as also to be melted or molten with heat because a man that is extremely heated or melted by heat is weakned his spirits and strength being drawn forth and dissipated But it is most commonly applied to that wearinesse which arises from
examples must not teach us to sinne but they teach us how unable we alone are to keep our selves from sinne they teach us also what need we have to depend upon and look up to Christ that we may be kept from sin if he leave us but a little unto our selves the flesh will discover much of it self and we shall quickly shew what our natures are though we are renewed by grace We must trust to the supplies not to the receipts of grace Secondly When Job saith My soul is weary of my life We learn That Soul and life in man are two distinct things For howsoever as was toucht in explication the soul is often put for the whole man and so the sense of my soul is weary may be but this I am weary of my life yet the holy Ghost would never denominate all man by that which is 〈◊〉 not a part of man That 's a brutish opinion which makes the soul nothing or nothing else but life and this life no more in entity then the life of a beast which vanisheth when it dieth That these opinionists tell us they believe the body shall rise again by the power of God cannot satisfie for this fall which their opinion gives the soul neither doth the immortality of the soul at all contradict which was threatned for and is the wages of sin the death of the whole man For death consists not if we may say a privation doth consist in the annihilation but in the separation of those parts of man soul and body which by life are united and kept close together Thirdly When Job saith My soul is weary of my life we learn That the life of man may grow to be a burthen to him In the third Chapter Job wished for death his wish was examined there about the lawfulnesse of it I shall now only examine a touch about which was given lately whence this wearinesse of life causing wishes to be rid of life doth arise There is a wearinesse of life incident only and proper to wicked men And there is a wearinesse of life which may grow upon the best of men Take a brief account of the usuall grounds of both First Carnall men are often sick with discontent and die of a humour If the Lord will not give them their lusts they bid him take their lives Necessaries and competencies will not satisfie them they must have superfluities they languish if they have not quails to their Manna as Israel once desired and had Was it any thing but this which made Ahab goe home sullen and sad Sullen sadnesse is a degree of this wearinesse Ahab had a Kingdom and yet he could not live without a vineyard He that takes away another mans life to obtain what he desires thinkes his own life searee desirable unlesse he may obtain it There was a spice of this distemper in Jonah though a good man and a Prophet Jonah 4.8 because the Lord did but kill his gourd kill me too saith Ionah He wished himself to die and said his gourd being dead It is better for me to die then to live It is an excesse of desire when we desire any outward thing much more when we desire things unnecessary things not to supply our wants but to serve our lusts As Rachel did children who are the best and noblest of outward things Give me them or else I die Gen. 30.1 Secondly Some wicked men are wearied of their lives by the horrour of their consciences A hell within makes the world without a hell too They who have a sight of eternall death as the wages of sin without the sight of a remedy may soon be weary of a temporall life As much peace of conscience and soul joy in believing makes some of the Saints wish themselves out of the body so also doth trouble of conscience and grief of soul make many of the wicked A man who is not at all weary of committing sin may be weary of his life because he hath committed it And he who was never troubled that his wickednesse is as an offence against God may feel his wickednesse extremely offensive against himself To such a soul the evil of sinne is so great an evil of punishment that he is ready to cry out with Cain My punishment is greater then I can bear Yea what his guilty conscience feared comes to be the desire of many under the same guilt That every one that findeth them would slay them And some are so weary of their lives at the sight of sinne that they make away their lives themselves hoping to get out of the sight of sin There are sins which cry to God for vengeance and some cry to the sinner himself for vengeance This cry was so loud and forcible in the ears of Judas that it caused him to go away and hang himself And what made Ahithophel weary of his life but his wickednesse The rejecting of his counsel was not so much the reason of it as the sinfulnesse of his counsel A good man may be troubled at others when his good counsel is not accepted but he grows not unacceptable to himself nay he is well-pleased that he hath given honest counsel though none will take it though all are displeased at it But they who aim not at the pleasing of God in what they doe thinke themselves undone and die they will if they please not men Thirdly Inordinate cares for the things of this life make others weary of their lives He that cannot cast his care upon God may soon be cast down himself Christ Luk. 21.34 cautions his Disciples Take heed lest your hearts be over-charged with the cares of this life That which Christ would prevent in the Saints fals often upon carnall men their hearts are over-charged with cares cares are compared to a burden and they are compared to thorns they doe not only presse but vex and wound Their weight presses some to death their sharpnesse wounds others to death And not a few would go out of the world because they cannot get so much of it as they would These things among others make wicked men weary of their lives There are other things which make godly men weary of their lives such are these First The violence of Satans and the worlds temptations The soul would gladly be rid of the body that it might be beyond the reach and assaults of the devil and his assistants There 's a serpent every where but in the heavenly paradise Only they complain not of temptation who are willing slaves to the tempter The Apostle 1 Cor. 10.13 assures the Corinthians There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man but God is faithfull who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it as if he had said Temptations are sore burdens and although yours hitherto have been but ordinary temptations such
the displeasednesse or irksomnesse of our mindes All burdens upon the body are light compared with those which reach the soul Three things weary and load the soul First The filth and guilt of our own sins I will sprinkle you saith the Lord Ezek. 36.31 with clean water c. What 's the effect of this It follows Then shall you remember your own evil waies and loath or be weary of your selves it is this word because of all your abominations As if the Lord had said before I change your hearts ye sinne and are not wearâ—â— of your sins nay ye make a sport of and dally with them But when I shall work that great change upon your hearts your opinion and apprehensions of sin will change too nothing will be so bitter or burdensome so unpleasant or wearisome to your souls as sinne Fools make a mock of sin they who are truly wise mourn and groan under the sense and weight of it Secondly The unsutablenesse and perversenesse of other mens manners or dispositions weary the soul The righteous soul of Lot was vexed from day to day in seeing and hearing the unrighteous deeds of the debauched Sodomites 2 Pet. 2.8 The soul of God is said to be wearied by such courses of the sons of men Psal 95.10 Fourty years long was I grieved or wearied with that generation The Lord as we may speak with reverence was even weary of his life he had such a troublesome people to deal with they grieved him at the heart as the old world did Gen. 6.6 and were a heavy burden to his Spirit That 's the Apostles language in his description of that peoples frowardnesse and of Gods patience towards them Act. 13.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He suffered their manners fourty years in the wildernesse which some render He bare them as a burthen the continuall murmurings and unbelief of that people were to the Lord who is yet above all passion as a heavy weight is to a man or as the peevishnesse and unquietnesse of a sucking childe is to the nurse as our translatours conceive the Greek word should rather be Thus also he reproves the same people by the Prophet Isa 43.24 Thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities And Christ though by another word speaks the same thing of his own Disciples Mark 9.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tolero 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 autem dâ—â—untur translatitiè qui volentes onus subeunt sub eo perdurant when the man possest with an unclean spirit being brought to them they could not cast him out How long shall I be with you How long shall I suffer you I am wearied with your unbelief O ye of little faith The Disciples were still so slow of heart and came so short of a Gospel-spirit that Christ professeth He was burthened even with them How long shall I suffer you The il manners of all are a wearinesse to the good but theirs most who are neerest to them Which is also the reason why a godly man is wearied most of all with the corruption of his own heart for that is nearest to him of all Now as our own sins and the il manners of others weary the soul so Thirdly The pains and troubles which are upon the body often cause such grief of minde as is an extream wearinesse to the soul That 's the meaning of this text My soul is weary of my life That is my life is filled with such outward troubles as fill my inward man with trouble and weary my very soul Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exsententia R. David R. Mardoc significat excidere aut succidere Excisa est anima meaâ—n me Pag. Vatao c. Aâ—um est de vita mea en mar or vel perinde ac si mortuâ—s pâ—are sum Secondly The word is translated by divers of the learned Rabbies To cut yea to cut off as with a sword or any other edged instrument These render Jobs minde thus My soul is cut off in me or My soul is cut off from my life As if he had said My daies are at an end I am ready to die the threed of my life is cut I am but a dead man While life continues soul and body are as it were one peece but death divides them or the recourse of night and day runs the threed of time thorow our lives till our web longer or shorter be finished and then the threed is cut To which similitude Hezekiah alludes in his mourning death-bed song as he supposed Isa 38.10 12. I said in the cutting off of my daies c. Mine age is removed from me as a shepherds tent I have cut off like a Weaver my life he will cut me off with pining sicknesse or from the thrum which being woond about the beam the Weaver having finished his work cuts the web off from it The same word in the Hebrew signifies pining sicknesse and a thrum because of the thinnesse and weaknesse of it My life saith Hezekiah is spent I am at the very last cast the yern of time is all wrought off therefore my life is ready to be cut off I am a borderer upon death and to be numbred among the dead rather then among the living Such a sense this reading gives the text of Job My soul is cut off from my life Denotat displicentiam qua homo interius tabescit prae doloru sensu Propriè significat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. remputidaÌ„ quae nauseaÌ„ parit aversari Thirdly The word signifies a reluctance or displicency of spirit arising from the sight and sense of that which is very loathsome filthy and of an evil savour It answers the Greek work rendered Abomination Matth. 24.15 The abomination of desolation he means the Romans who being Idolaters their worship was abominable and who being Lords of the world their power was formidable and laid all countries waste and desolate which opposed them or which they had a minde to oppose And so when Job saith My soul is weary of my life his meaning is represented thus My soul refuses to inhabit or to act so filthy a body as mine My soul loaths to dwell or stay any longer in this nasty lodging As David Psal 120.5 speaks of his wearinesse in dwelling amongst wicked men because of their morall filthinesse or the pollution of their mindes and waies Woe is me that I sojourn in Meshec that I dwell in the tâ—nts of Kedar So Job seems to speak in reference to the naturall pollution and filthinesse of his own body Woe is me that I sojourn in such a diseased body and dwell which yet will not die in such a dying carease The noble tenant my soul is wearie of staying in such a stinking and filthy habitation and I perceive for I have moved him hitherto in vain the great land-lord will neither repair it nor as yet let it fall As then a man who lives in an ill or incommodious
nulla mihi illaâ—o injuria Bol. Take the words as a direct assertion Thou wilt bring me into the dust again So they may have reference to the decree of God concerning man as those before had to the creation of man As if he had said By creation and naturall constitution I am frail and weak made of the clay by thy purpose and decree I am appointed unto death Thou wilt bring me into the dust again therefore spare me for the short time I have to live Some change the conjunction And into the adverb of likenesse so to note a right power or priviledge and the text runs in this form Remember that as thou hast made me of or as the clay so thou maist it is thy priviledge none can contradict thee in it and thou doest me no wrong in it thou maiest as thou hast purposed bring me to the dust again Though it be common and naturall to all creatures mixt of elements to be resolved and turned back into that out of which they were made that is to die yet to man it is more then naturall there is a decree upon it besides the naturality of it Man dieth by a statute-law of heaven To die is a penalty inflicted upon man for sinne for he had not been under a necessity of dying if he had not sinned And therefore though God formed man as the holy story informs us Gen. 2.7 out of the dust of the earth yet so long as man stood he never said to him To dust thou shalt return God only put a supposition that in case man did fall he should surely die But when man had fallen by sin then he hears what he was and what he must be For dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return Gen. 3.19 As if God had thus bespoken sinfull man Thy body was framed out of dust and now I charge this burden upon thee thou shalt return to the dust again It is a Question and I shall touch upon it Whether death were naturall to man or no Whether man were made mortall or whether he made himself mortall Some affirm That death was naturall not accidentall or occasionall to man-kinde They argue for this opinion First thus Adam died not the death of the body or a naturall death when he had sinned therefore the death of the body was not inflicted for sin upon his person and his posterity but was seated in or a consequent of his nature I answer Though Adam died not presently a naturall death yet he was presently made subject or liable unto death the sentence was past upon him though the sentence was not executed upon him A malefactour who is cast at the barre is a dead man in law though he be reprieved from the present stroke of death Again Though death it self did not instantly seize upon him yet the symptoms of death and tokens of mortality did Fear and shame pains and distempers sweat and wearinesse quickly shewed themselves as so many harbingers or forerunners of his approaching dissolution we see and feel death in these before we see or feel death it self These bid us prepare our bodies for the grave and our souls for heaven Secondly Others reason thus Christ hath delivered his people the elect from all that punishment which the sin of Adam did contract and deserve but Christ hath not delivered his elect his own people from turning to the dust Godly men die as well as the ungodly believers as well as infidels therefore say they the death of the body was not procured by sin I answer Whatsoever is an evil in death Christ hath delivered his people from he hath taken away all that from death which is punishment or annoiance though death be not taken away Christ hath freed us from the effects of sin as he hath freed us from sin it self that is from their prevalence and dominion over us not from their presence or being in and upon us Hence the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. triumpheth over death O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory As if he had said Death once had a power over man to sting him to death death once had a victorious power and would have bin the great conquerour riding in triumph over all the posterity of Adam but now death hath neither sting nor sword to use against believers it hath nothing of victory over the Saints It is now but a sleep a sleep in Christ a rest from labour a putting off the rags the worn rags of mortality that we may be dress'd in the robes of glory The evil of death is removed and that which remains of death the separation of soul and body proves the greatest good to both it being but a preparatory to their everlasting union Thirdly It is argued That death and corruption were naturall to man because the matter out of which man was made was dying and corruptible Omne principiatum sequitur naturam principiorum for that which is made must follow the nature of that principle out of which it is made The effect cannot be say they more noble then the cause nor the subject constituted more durable then that which goes into its constitution To clear up an answer to this we must distinguish of a three-fold immortality 1. A primitive simple independent essentiall immortality this is proper and peculiar to God in which sense the Apostle affirmeth He only hath immortality 1 Tim. 6.16 2. There is a derivative dependant essentiall immortality Some substances have no seed of corruptibility nor of death in them Being either separate from all matter which is the seat and root of corruption as the Angels or united to matter yet so as not being produced from it or having any affinity with it such are the souls of men Whole man in his creation was not immortall either of these waies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graec. Int. a part of man was but man was not created immortall Man was of a middle state and condition neither altogether so mortall nor altogether immortall but capable of either 3. There is an immortality by the power or gift by the mercy or justice of God The power and justice of God shall give an immortality to the bodies of the damned in hell they shall ever live a dying life who were dead all while they lived They who have slighted the mercy of God shall be upheld by his power to endure his justice to all eternity wicked men would have sinned with delight for ever upon the earth if they could have lived for ever upon the earth and they shall live for ever with pain in hell to suffer for their sinne The power goodnesse and mercy of God shall much more give immortality to the bodies of the Saints in glory they who have had a will to delight in obeying God that short time they lived on earth shall have a power to live for ever in delight praising God in heaven The body of man
or abide in him or no. And Bellarmine in his 5th book and 5th Chapter concerning justification citeth it to prove That a believer cannot know that he is justified but must believe blinde-fold or take the work of justification by grace in the dark For saith he God goeth by us and we see him not he passeth on and we perceive him not Allenâ—ssi â—e huÌ„c locum citat Bellarâ—inus ut probet nuâ—uÌ„ fidâ—lem scire an justificatus sit Coc. That is as his glosse speaks God commeth in favour to justifie or he leaveth under wrath and yet man remains ignorant both of the one and of the other state Surely he was at a great pinch to finde a proof for his point when he was forced to repair to this Scripture to seek one Providence toward man-kinde not the justification of a sinner is the proper subject of this text And as there is nothing for a blinde-fold justification here so many other Scriptures are expresly against it To say that a man cannot know when God loveth him or shineth upon him is to contradict what our Saviour asserts Joh. 14.17 I will send the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you Ye know him saith Christ to his people the Saints see God in a spirituall sense or in his workings upon their spirits And though God works much upon our spirits which we know not yet we have a promise of the Spirit by whom we know God in his workings Few know when God is nigh or when he is a farre off what his goings away mean or what his commings But when he cometh to the Saints they know he commeth and when he hideth or departeth from them they know his hidings and departures Hence their joies and over-flowings of comfort when he manifests his presence and hence their bitter complainings and cryings after him where he seems to absent himself and hide his face yet this Text hath a truth in it in reference to the inward and spirituall as well as the outward and providentiall dealings of God that sometimes He goeth by us and we see him not he passeth on also and we perceive him not Hence learn First That God is invisible in his essence and incomprehensible in many of his actions Mans eie cannot see him Mans understanding cannot comprehend what he doth But why speaks Job this as a matter of wonder if it be the common condition of man-kinde Behold he passeth by and I see him not who can see him who can perceive or comprehend him When Moses Exod. 33.20 desired to see his face the Lord answers No man can see my face and live God spake to Moses face to face that is familiarly as a man speaketh to his friend yet Moses did not could not see the face of God No man can see God in his essence or nature A sight of God would astonish yea swallow up the creature It is death to see the living God and man must die before he can see God so fully as he may and know as he is known But though the face of God be invisible yet his back-parts may be seen Behold saith the Lord to Moses there is a place by me stand thou there upon a rock and thou shalt see my back-parts thou shalt see much of my glory shining forth as much as thou canst bear as much as will satisfie thy desire were it a thousand times larger then it is though not so much as thou hast not knowing what thou askest desired of me My Name shall be proclaimed Gracious and mercifull c. the back-parts of God may be seen the invisible God discovereth much of himself to man and shews us a shadow of that substance which cannot be seen Some may object that of the Prophet Isaias crying out Woe unto me for mine eies have seen the King the Lord of hosts Chap. 6.5 Seen him could Isaias see him whom Job and Moses could not Isaias did not see him in his essence and nature but in the manifestations and breakings forth of his glory His train filled the Temple saith the Text vers 1. or his skirts It is an allusion to great Kings who when they walk in State have their trains or the skirt of their royall robe held up T' was this train which Isaias saw He saw not God who was present but he saw the manifest signs of his presence That speech of Isaiah seemed to savour of and border upon highest blasphemy and was therefore charged as an article of accusation against him he was indited of blasphemy for speaking those words I have seen the Lord his enemies taking or wresting it as if he had made the Lord corporeall and visible with the eie of the body And it is conceived he was put to death upon that and one other passage in his prophecy Cha. 1.10 calling the Princes of Judah Princes of Sodom and the people thereof the people of Gomorrah But though God be thus invisible in his essence yet there is a way by which the essence of God may be seen And of that Moses to whom the Lord said Thou canst not see my face the Authour to the Hebrews saith Heb. 11.24 That he saw him who was invisible the letter of the text carries a contradiction in the adjunct it is as much as if one should say He saw that which could not be seen The meaning is He saw him by the eye of faith who could not be seen by the eye of sense faith sees not only the back-parts but the face of Jehovah the essence of God is as clear to that eye as any of his attributes yea his essence is as plain to faith as any of his works are to sense Thus he is seen Whom no man hath seen nor can see 1 Tim. 6.16 not the Saints in heaven they are not able to see the Lord in his essence He passeth by them there and they see him not in heaven we are promised a sight of him yet not that fight Blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall see God and without holinesse no man shall see the Lord then holy men shall see him the state of the Saints in glory is vision as here it is faith 2 Cor. 13.12 We shall see him face to face and as he is 1 Joh. 3.2 These Scriptures which speak of the estate of the Saints beholding God in glory are not to be understood as if the nature and essence of God could be seen for no man hath seen that nor ever shall but they are meant of a more full and glorious manifestation of God We shall see then face to face that is more plainly for it is opposed to seeing him in a glasse we see him now in a glasse that is darkly in ordinances in duties in his word and in his works but there shall be no need of these glasses in heaven We
perfect Whereas in other places he justifies himself and saith that he was perfect if you read the 29th and 30th Chapters of this book you shall finde them to be but a continued justification of himself or a manifest of his own innocency There he proclaims how holy he had been and how righteous in all his waies that he had put on judgement as a robe and justice as a diadem that he had delivered the oppressed and distributed of his fulnesse to the necessities of the poor Those two Chapters being a professed Catalogue of his good deeds why is he so shie and modest here I answer In this and the like expressions Pius sensus pulchrè expressus in hac Jobi disputatione nunc peccatum suum dimisse confiteÌ„ t is nuÌ„c justitiaÌ„ suam acerrimè defendeâ—tis Merl. while Job saith He will not justifie himself or say he is perfect he declines the plea of personall righteousnesse or perfection in the sight of God as hath frequently appeared in this argument But in those Chapters and in other places where he is upon his defence he speaks only in reference to the charge of his friends As if he had said Ye accuse me for an hypocrite and censure me deeply I can justifie my self and plead my innocency with you though I have not a word to say for my self before the Lord I will bear any thing at his hands let him say of me and doe with me what he pleaseth I will take shame to my self and give him glory but as for you my friends I will justifie my self in your sight I am not the man ye take me for These speakings are not crosse to each other but helps us to understand Jobs sense in this argument He stands much upon his integrity but it is to his friends he humbles himself in the sight of his own vilenesse but it is to God Paul Rom. 7.24 bewails his sinfulnesse O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sinne and of death I finde a law in my members rebelling against the law of my minde Yet when he answers false Apostles about his personall carriage and the discharge of his Apostleship then he saith I know nothing by my self 1 Cor. 4.4 I am charged thus and thus I am slandered so and so but my conscience acquits me I know nothing by my self The sinfulnesse of his nature made him groan and sigh out O wretched man that I am The sincerity of his heart made him boast and sing out like a happy man as sorrowfull but alwaies rejoycing A man may be conscious of his own naturall corruption and yet confident of his own practicall integrity If I say I am perfect it shall also prove me perverse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These words in strictnesse of sense referre to the inward purpose of his heart ad facta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad animuâ— referuntur or bent of his minde as the former did to the outward way of his life If I say I am perfect that is if I say there is no meditated obliquity in my heart no intended goings astray or wanderings no close hypocrisie or falsenesse there if I should say I am perfect in the bent and purposes of my heart yet this is not such as I dare appear before God in As if I justifie my self by the actings and puttings forth of my life My mouth will condemn me So if I say I am perfect in the thinkings and secret motions of my spirit it will prove me perverse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word which we translate perverse signifies to wander as a man uncertain of his way Prov. 28.18 Who so walketh uprightly having the frame of his inward man right he shall be saved Qui certo est proposito 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui vago diverso qui se dividit distorquet in duas vias Coc. In Hebraâ—o simplex est perversuaevit me but he that is perverse in his waies having a wandering vagrant minde going sometime this way and sometime that holding somewhat of this and somewhat of that but nothing to purpose or steadily of any thing this man shall fall at once a man of an uncertain spirit shall have a certain downfall But was Job thus perverse No Job was perfect and not perverse yet a boast of his perfection had been a proof of his perversenesse Nothing discovers an evil heart more then a profession of it's own goodnesse It shall prove me perverse What shall prove me perverse Some referre it to the former clause My mouth or the speaking of those words I am perfect shall prove me perverse Penversus evadaâ— Others referre it to God God will prove me perverse if I justifie my self The Seventy leave it without restriction to any antecedent If I say I am perfect I shall go away perverse or I shall appear perverse Observe hence that famous Gospel-doctrine No man can be justified before God by the works of the law Nobilis locus clarissimè ostendens neminem ex lege justificari Coc. It is as noble a proof of free justification in the old Testament as any in the new The Saints have been acquainted with this truth from the beginning That man is nothing in himself and that free grace doth all The doctrine of free grace is no new doctrine the doctrine of free will is Prov. 20.9 Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sinne And that he must say who justifies himself before God Every legall justiciary takes up this language I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sinne It is a task too hard for men yea for all the Angels in heaven to make one heart clean only Jesus Christ is able to fetch out the filth and rubbish that lodgeth in and pollutes our spirits To be a heart cleanser is the peculiar work and honour of Christ. Quot tenebrae quot nubes quot maculae quem non pudebit si fidem suam innocentiam ad illustre illud legis speculum contempletur Coc. A man that knows himself and sees his face in the glasse of the word which flatters no man will never say I am clean nor will he say I can cleanse my self How many spots and blots how many defects and deformities will that glasse represent unto him which he is not able to heal or fetch out Every mans face will blush who sees his heart or his life in that glasse unlesse he Who beholding himself goeth his way and straight way forgetteth what manner of man he was Jam. 1.24 Secondly Observe Job had received testimony from God He could produce Letters testimoniall subscribed by the hand of heaven that he was a just and a perfect man one that feared God and eschewed evil Yet this Job let God speak as well as he will of him will not
and the abundance of that mercy which was brought in afterwards and revealed by Jesus Christ when he actually made our atonement by the bloud of his crosse For howsoever it is undeniable that the faithfull under the old Testament had knowledge of that satisfaction which was to be made by the Mediatour for the removing of sinne and the taking away of guilt every sacrifice spake this shewing that there was an atonement to be made by some other bloud which the bloud of the sacrifice typified yet notwithstanding there was not a clearing and a quieting of their hearts because Christ though in the promise slain from the beginning of the world was not actually slain nor offered up for sinners The Apostle Heb. 10.1 2. argues upon the same point That the Law with those Sacrifices could not make the commers thereunto perfect that is it could not assure the heart that sinne was taken away for if it could then saith he the sacrifices should not have needed to be offered up so often What needed any repetition seeing they who were once so purged should have had no more conscience of sinne that is sinne should never have troubled and vexed their consciences any more But now Christ by one offering hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified vers 14. that is he hath made a perfect satisfaction for them and compleated the peace of their consciences So then while there remaineth any scruple about sinne fears of evil will hang upon the spirit And we finde that the old Saints were very fearfull of outward afflictions because they had as it were a relish or taste of the disfavour and displeasure of God in them And in proportion as any of them had more or lesse of free grace appearing to them so they were more or lesse enthralled with these fears We may observe thorow out the old Testament that there was not such a spirit of rejoycing in sufferings and afflictions as we finde breakings forth in the new Paul never saith I am afraid of all my sorrows No he saith As sorrowfull yet alwaies rejoycing You never hear him complain of his afflictions He indeed complains of his corruptions O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death But he never said O miserable man how am I afflicted I am in deaths often who shall deliver me from this death of the body We finde the Saints under the Gospel clothed with a spirit of exultation and rejoycing of which we hear little if any thing at all under the Law The want of which we are to ascribe to their want of a clear light about the removing of guilt and the pardon of sin I know thou wilt not hold me innocent Thirdly Observe That God often deals with his best servants in regard of outward troubles as if they were guilty I know thou wilt not hold me innocent that is thou wilt not deal with me as with an innocent person As the Lord dealt with his Son so he deals with his servants God the Father dealt with Jesus Christ as with a guilty person Isa 53.9 12. He was numbred among transgressours and made his grave with the wicked The Lord reckoned him as a sinner while he was satisfying his justice for sinne and making an atonement for sinners Job is no where called a type of Christ but he was like him and their parallel might be drawn in many things especially in this that both were numbred with the wicked and in that both were used as if they had been guilty The dispensations of God to his own beloved Sonne once did and to his faithfull servants often doe look like those to the greatest transgressours His Son was handled so that he might redeem sinners his servants are so handled sometimes to prevent often to purge them from sin sometimes to try their graces alwaies to make them fitter vessels for glory Though we cannot make any earnings toward glory by the weightiest afflictions yet these light afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a farre more exceeding and eternall weight of glory I shall passe from this reference of the word Thou when I have briefly vindicated the text from the corruptions of some Papists Bellarm. l. 5. de justif cap. 5. who urge it to prove the uncertainty of our justification Job say they doubted whether God would declare him just or no. I answer Justified persons may have doubts yet that doth not argue the uncertainty of justification Justification is a sure act in it self and we may be sure of it though some are unsetled about it This Scripture gives no shelter much lesse support to that doctrine of doubting The Vulgar reading grossely varying from the originall is all the shadow it hath in this place For as that Translatour mistakes the former clause which he renders I am afraid of all my works So this later which he renders Sciens quod non parceres delinquenti Vulg. Knowing that thou wilt not pardon or spare him that offendeth He that seeks to be justified by his works shall not want fears about his justification And if this be a truth which their translation seems to hold forth that God will not pardon him that offendeth the best and holiest men in the world have reason not only to fear whether they are justified but to resolve they can never be justified in his sight If every man that sinneth must doubt of the pardon of sinne all men must doubt In that common acception of the word offend it is false that God will not pardon him that offends whom should he pardon but such as offend They who are above sin are above pardon Job never thought God would not pardon him because he had sinned it being one of the royall titles of God The God pardoning iniquity transgression and sinne But if we take sinning or offending in a stricter sense as it imports a man obstinate and still engaged with delight to sin in which sense the next title of the Lords great name after Forgiving iniquity transgression and sinne is to be understood And that will by no means clear the guilty Exod. 34.7 The Hebrew is And that clearing will not clear We supply the word guilty which the Chaldee well explains by this periphrasis Him that will not convert or turn to the Lord such offenders the Lord will not pardon But to say that the Lord will not spare and pardon such guilty persons such delinquents as will not return unto him but go on to adde one wickednesse to another is no deniall of the Saints assurance of pardon they being already turned and converted to the Lord. So much for that clause as the antecedent referres unto God I know thou wilt not hold me innocent But rather take the antecedent to be Bildad I know Thou Bildad wilt not hold me innocent as if Job had said When I think of comforting my self my wounds bleed afresh and my sorrows present themselves to
as usually befall the Saints though yours be moderate afflictions and 〈◊〉 common stature such as in the eye of reason any man may 〈◊〉 with by a common assistance of grace yet there are temptations which if God the faithfull God should not come in with greater assistances then usuall you are not able to bear They who wrestle with more then flesh and bloud alwaies need more then the strength of flesh and bloud to help them in their wrestlings And because they are often assaulted with greater strength therefore they are assisted with greater strength For if God doe either with-draw his help from the Saints or leave them to wrestle with Satan alone and to fight single with his Armies or if he doe not proportion the aid he sends to the temptation he permits they are sadly over-charged though they can never be totally overcome and 't is possible to grow weary of the battell though we are assured of the victory It is the honour of the Saints to conquer when they are tempted but it is their happinesse to be above or without temptation How many poor souls put up bils of complaint and beg praiers against temptations Paul praid thrice that is often and much when the messenger of Satan buffeted him whether his were an inward or an outward temptation is doubted but without doubt that temptation made his life burdensome to him till he received that answer from God My grace is sufficient for thee Secondly The Saints are wearied with the weight of their sinfull hearts Inward corruption burdens more then outward temptation and were it not for corruption within temptation without could not be very burdensome The devil tempted Christ but because he found nothing at all in him complying with or sutable to his temptations therefore Christ threw them off with ease That enemy without could doe us no hurt he might put us to some trouble if he found no correspondence within The traitour in our own bowels opens our ports and lets in the adversary His sparks could never enflame us if he found no tindar in us The basenesse and unbelief the lusts and vanities of our mindes are apt to take fire at every injection A gracious soul cannot live here without sinne and yet can easier die then sinne Paul Rom. 7.24 cries out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death or from this body of death That is from my body which is subject to death by reason of these remains of carnall corruption or from my carnall corruptions which are the remains of my spirituall death and are worse to me then any death All the afflictions of his 〈◊〉 and the pains of his body were but a play and a kinde of so 〈◊〉 compared with the trouble which this body of death put him to He rejoyced in tribulation but he could not but mourn under corruption Many poor souls are so vexed with these mysticall Canaanites that their spirituall Canaan the state of grace is to them like Egypt the land of their captivity And when they are commanded to rejoyce they answer if we could not sin we could rejoyce How shall we sing the Lords song in a strange land O that we might goe home Thirdly The Saints grow weary of their lives through the wickednesse of other mens lives not only doe their own corruptions burthen them but which shews the holinesse of their hearts more the corruptions of others The sinfulnesse and pollutions of the times and places wherein they live especially of persons they are related to makes their lives grievous and imbitters all their comforts Rebekah that good woman tels her husband Isaac Gen. 27.46 I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth for if Iacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth such as these which are of the daughters of the land What good shall my life doe me The sweetnesse of my life is gone if this son miscarry as his brother hath done before him The Prophet Jeremy cries out O that I had in the wildernesse a lodging place of waifaring men that I might leave my people and go from them What made him so weary of living among them and that was but a step on this side being weary of his life The next words shew us They be all adulterers an assembly of treacherous men Jer. 9.2 Better be in a waste wildernesse among vvilde beasts then in a populous City among beastly men 'T is a part of our compleat happinesse in heaven that vve shall have no ill neighbours there They vvho are evil can take pleasure in those who do evil But the more holinesse any one hath the more is he burthened with the unholinesse of others And that 's the reason why God himself is exprest to be so exceedingly burdened with the sins of men to be wearied and broken with them to be laden with them as a Cart with sheaves He is infinitely holy Grieve not the holy Spirit of God Ephes 4.30 The Spirit is so holy that sin which is unholinesse grieves him presently And in proportion look how much any man is more holy then others by so much is he more afflicted with the impurity of others As the holy Spirit of God who is all holy so the spirits of holy men who yet have a mixture of sin cannot but be afflicted with the sins of men Fourthly Some of the Saints would part with this life because they have got such assurance and evidence of a better life When much of eternall life appears to a godly man he is weary of a temporall life Naturall things are but burdensome trifles to those who are stored with spirituall Christ saith Luk. 5.39 No man having drunke old wine straight way desireth new for he saith the old is better He that tastes what is better then he enjoyes is unsatisfied with all he enjoyes We can hardly be perswaded what we have is good when we see better of the same kinde How much more hardly is this perswasion wrought in us that earthly things which differ in kinde from heavenly are any great good when heavenly things are open before us When the Disciples at the transfiguration had but a glimpse of glory They say It is good to be here Let us build three tabernacles They do not speak comparatively as if now they had met with somewhat better then ever they had before but positively as if they had never met with any good before When the Spirit carries the Saints into his wine-cellar and gives them a draught of everlasting consolations the wine of worldly comforts will not down they begin to disrelish the dainties and delicacies of the creature A true sight of heaven makes the earth scarce worth the looking after or the living in Such live because God will have them live to doe him service not because they desire to live to serve their own ends Paul was in a great straight betwixt two Phil. 1.23 whether he
and yet that no raigning sin The raign of sin or of grace are chiefly seen in that professed subjection or resignation of our selves to the dictates and commands of grace or sinne No man can be at once Gods Son and sins servant no nor at once a servant to both Secondly A vvicked man is a customary sinner he driveth a trade in sinne A godly man possibly may commit the same sinne again yet the custom is broken because he putteth in a plea against sinne and often moveth God for power not only against but over it if he attain not this blessed victory yet he ceaseth not to complain and pray O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death When shall I be delivered from this burden and bâ—â—dage of corruption When shall it once be O that it might once be Wicked men are so far from pleading against that they usually plead for their sins and labour more to make excuses and apologies for them then to get power and victory over them They in stead of making preparation to resist the lusts of the flesh make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof Thirdly A vvicked man preserves in himself a purpose to sinne vvhile he seems to pray and protest against his sinne He is as Augustine confessed of himself before his conversion afraid God should grant his praier vvhile he praieth that his corruptions may be mortified He may put up praiers against sin but he puts up no desires against it As custom is the rode of our lives so purposes are the rode of our hearts What a mans purposes are such the movings of his heart are Isa 56.12 To morrow shall be as to day and much more abundant say they in their beastly abuse of the creatures we have been drunk to day and hope to be more to morrow Ezek. 11.21 Their heart doth go after the heart of their abominable things that is the inclinations and resolutions of their hearts go or walk after their abominations A godly man sinneth but he doth not purpose to sinne his purposes are not to sinne holinesse is his way and as sinne is it self a by-way so it is besides his way The honest traveller intends to keep straight on to his journeys end if he misse his vvay at any time he misses his purpose The robber skulks about in by-vvaies and comes not into the rode but to finde and seize upon his prey Peter denied Christ but did Peter purpose to deny Christ No Peter purposed not to deny Christ yea Peter promised not to deny Christ Peter resolved that he would die rather then deny Christ yet he denied Christ Peter did not go out and make a bargain vvith the Scribes and Pharisees as Judas did to betray his Master Peter was betraied when he denied his Master Peter was suddenly attached with a violent temptation arrested vvith base fear He did not deny Christ because he resolved to do it but because he resolved so much not to do it vvithout due dependance upon Christ for power not to do it A godly man may have some deliberations about sin yet no resolutions He may deliberate upon the acting of some sin vvhen the occasion is given but he doth not deliberate upon the finding of occasions to provoke him to the acting of sinne David did not go up to his house top to invite an incentive of lust though he there met with one Fourthly Wickednesse carrieth clearnesse yea fulnesse of consent in sinne A wicked man may have many checks at sinne from his conscience but he hath none from his will And a wicked man may have some motions to good from his conscience but he hath none from his will When a wicked man abstains from doing evil he wils it and when he doth good he wils it not In nature the act and the consent go both to evil I doe evil and I will do it is the stubborn voice of corrupt nature In grace though the act goes sometimes to evil yet the consent doth not The evil which I would not that do I is the mournfull voice of grace In glory both act and consent go to good and neither of them to any evil The good which I will I doe the evil which I would not I do not shall be for ever the triumphant voice of glory When the Apostle Paul Rom. 7. bewailed his own bondage under corruption he yet professed that what ever evil he did he consented not to do it And though there may be some kinde of consent in the sinning of a godly man yet it is not such a consent as in a wicked man For as a wicked man though he may sometimes shew his willingnesse and give his consent to do good to hear the Word to pray c. Yet it is not a clear a full and free consent the will never comes up heartily in it so there may be some kinde of consent a negative consent in a godly man doing evil he may not as to that act resist or deny as when a question is put to the vote a man who doth not affirm may be said to give some consent when he suspends his voice and doth not openly oppose Thus a godly man when a temptation cometh never gives a direct yea of consent yet sometimes not giving his no there is a kinde of consent a middle act not a clear or determinate act of consent Now a wicked man as he is taken captive by the devil at his will 2 Tim. 2.26 that is at Satans will the devil takes him captive when he pleaseth so also at his own will He is pleased to be taken captive by the devil Eram gratis malus malitiae meae causa nulla erat nisi malitia August lib. 3. confess c. 4. Fifthly Where there is a wickednesse in sinning there is delight in sin Pure delight in sin is impurest wickednesse To disobey for nought is the most wicked disobedience as to serve God for nought is the most holy service What is it which sheweth the eminency of grace Is it not the joy which the soul findes in the waies of grace When we can delight in the law of God as his law abstracted from ends and fruits When it is meat and drink to us to do the will of God though we suffer hunger and are ready to starve in doing it here is godlinesse at the highest and when any delight in sinne as sinne as contrary to the will of God abstracted from ends and fruits here is wickednesse at the highest To act in such a degree of sin is inconsistent with any degree of grace Job appeals to the testimony of God that he had not sinned in any of these degrees while he saith Thou knowest that I am not wicked Observe Fifthly A godly man may know that he is so and be confident of it He that saith God knoweth he is not wicked knoweth it himself For though the Lord hath a
being firm and stiff in themselves are moveable by the sinews There are other parts of the body which concur to the making up of this armour gristles muscles ligaments membranes all which serve for motion fastning and defence as well as bones and sinews but these being the principall and most known are here expressed for all the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hippocr Bones give the body stability straitnesse and form They are as the carcase of a ship whereto the rest of the parts are fastned and by which they are sustained They are as the posts pillars beams and rafters of a house by whose knittings and contignations the whole building is both proportioned and supported And though the bones are for number very many and in their forms exceeding various some thick some thin some plain some hollow some of a greater others of a lesser bore yet are they so connected and fitted together by articulation or by coalition by contiguity or continuity as the Anatomists speak that they all appear as one bone or pack of bones Sinews or nerves derive their pedigree from the brain and are the organs by which the animall spirits are conveyed and flow into the whole body and with them both sense and motion Sinews have so much of strength in them that the same word is put to signifie both strength and sinews and to do a thing strongly and vigorously is to doe it nervosè sinewously It is wonderfull which Naturalists write of the conjugations and uses of the sinews to whose labours I referre the studious Reader for further satisfaction I have given enough to shew what this Text cals me to That God hath indeed clothed man with skin and flesh and fenced him with bones and sinews Some have quarrelled with the wisdom and goodnesse of God for turning man altogether naked and unarmed into the world This Scripture is enough to confute the unreasonablenesse of that quarrel Job thankfully acknowledgeth That he was both clothed and armed though not in the sense of these complainers It is more honourable for man to make himself artificiall clothing and arms then to have had none but naturall God hath given man reason to invent hands to prepare and a tongue to call for those things which by a Law of nature are imposed upon other creatures the power of reason and the skill of the hand are a better safeguard to man then any the beasts have and can provide whatsoever man wants to secure him either from cold or danger And though the body as now it stands be but as it were the sepulchre of that which God at first created though we lie open to so many diseases and deaths that the soul may well be said to inhabit an unwalled and an unfortified City yet man hath great cause for ever to extoll the bounty of God in those still continued ennoblements of this earthly mansion his mortall body Yea The noble structure and symmetry of our bodies invites our souls not only to thankfulnesse but to admiration One of the Ancients stileth man a great miracle Another The miracle of miracles A third The measure of all things A fourth The patern of the universe the worlds epitome The world in a small volume or a little world They also have distinguished the whole frame of the body into three stories in allusion to a like frame observable in the world First The superiour which they call intellectuall or angelicall because they conceived it to be the habitation of Angels or Intelligences The second or middle part they call celestiall or heavenly the seat of the Sunne and starres The third Elementary in which all corporeall creatures are procreated and nourished This division of the world is eminent in man for he also is a building of three stories The head which is the seat of reason the mansion the tower of wisdome and understanding is placed highest the brest or middle venter is the celestiall part wherein the heart like the Sun is predominant some have called the Sun The heart of the world and the heart The Sunne of mans body by whose lustre beams and influences all the other parts are quickned and refreshed hence we say when the heart fails all fails and while the heart holds all holds The third part of the body or the lower venter containing all parts necessary for the nutrition of individuals or the propagation of the species carrieth a cleare resemblance with the elementary or lowest parts of the universe There are five things in particular which as so many rounds of a lather may help us to raise our thoughts higher in the duty of holy admiration about this work of God First That God frameth up this goodly and beautifull fabrique out of such mean and improbable materials To consider out of what stuff our bodies are made advanceth the honour of him who made us Man can make his work except the form no better then the matter out of which he formeth it But as the form of mans body is better then the matter so the matter becomes better then it was before it received that form Secondly The matter out of which God maketh man is originally homogeneall or but of one kinde yet there is a strange heterogeny or variety in the very substance as well as in the shape of the severall parts which are therefore divided by the survaiers of this building into parts similar and dissimilar Is it not incredible to meer reason that one lump should be spread out into thin tender skin wrought into soft flesh extended into tough sinews hardened into strong bones that one piece should make an outward jerkin or cassock of skin an under garment of flesh columns and rafters of bones bands and ties of sinews that the same should make veins like chanels to carry and blood like water to be carried into every part to moisten and refresh it When an Artificer buildeth an house he requires more materials then one he must have stones and timber iron lead Quomodo ex re tantula sibi simili tamvariae discrepantes partes extiterunt haec profecto est stupenda omnino opifiâ—iâ— nostri sapientia vis ad quicquid efficienduÌ„ Merl. c. to compleat his fabrique but the Lord frameth all the parts rooms and contrivances of the body out of one and the same masse Thou dost not know saith Solomon how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with childe Eccles 11.5 Who can know by a meer rationall demonstration how a solid substance should grow out of that which is so fluid And that parts materially as well as figuratively unlike should arise out of a like matter Thirdly The work of God in the framing of man is internall as well as externall A statuary or an engraver will make the image or pourtraiture of a man but his work is all outward he cannot make bowels or fashion a heart within he cannot cut out veins bones and sinews