thus when God sends his archers their bowes shoote so true that they cleave the reines asunder the reines are in the middest of a man and to cleave the reines is to shoot level as pouring out the gall or unbowelling imports to shoot dead Fourthly observe this Why hast thou set me as a mark God takes the most eminent and choisest of his servants for the choicest and most eminent afflictions He makes a Job the white Why hast thou chosen me There was great reason God should choose him he was the most eminent in holiness and grace of all about him he was the most remarkable man for grace and goodness therefore he must be the marke They who have received most grace from God are able to bear most affliction from God God doth this in infinite wisdome as the Apostle Rom. 14. 11. gives an excellent advice in reference to weake brethren such as are weak receive but not to doubtful disputations take heed how you ingage your weake brethren in doubtfull disputes you may loose them so take those that are strong and able such as have their senses exercised to discern both good and evill such as are well ballasted for a storme take these men if you will to doubtfull disputations but doe not take weake brethren If God will not have us take a weak Christian to a doubtful disputation surely then he calls such to sufferings of whose strengh he is well assured A man under great affliction is brought to a very doubtful disputation therefore the Lord will not bring a weak one one low in grace to it but he takes out the strong As the General of an Army chooses out the valiantest and most experienced veterane Souldiers to put them upon hard adventures it is not wisdom to venture a fresh-water Souldier upon difficult services God will not put new wine into old bottles as it is in acting duties so in sufferings And as Christ orders the word in such wisdom that he will not have counsel given to any soul who is unprepared to receive it or unable to bear it Iohn 16. 12. I have many things yet to say unto you but you cannot beare them now therefore I will deferre until you have got more strength So God saith of a young Christian one that is newly come in thou hast great afflictions to undergoe before thou dyest but thou art not fit to beare them yet I will defer thy triall till thou art grown more hardie through more communion with me to fit thee for that encounter As our Lord Christ told Peter Joh. 21. 18. When thou wast young thou girdest thy self and walkedst whither thou wouldest but when thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird thee and carry thee whether thou wouldest not That is when thou wast young and unexperienced thou enjoyest thy liberty but when thou shalt be grown older in years and stronger in grace thou shalt willingly stretch forth thy hands and quietly suffer thy self to be bound to the Crosse Peter was not nailed as Christ but tied to the Crosse and there die in witness of my truth for this Christ spake signifying by what death he should die and glorifie God ver 19. Fiftly In that he saith Why hast thou set me as a marke against thee Why doest thou run thus against me Observe Man in sinning runneth contrary to God and God in afflicting seemeth to run contrary to man Every act of sin is a direct opposition unto God we set God as a marke and shoot arrows of disobedience against him sin is a missing the mark of duty but it ames to hit the Lord as a mark who charges us with that duty In affliction God runneth upon us and makes the trangressor his marke Moses Levit. 26. 41. speakes both wayes If your uncircumcised hearts be humbled and ye acknowledge that ye have walked contrary unto me and that I have walked contrary unto you that I have made you a marke and shot at you by my judgements and that you have made me a marke shooting at me by your sins then I will remember c. So that our sinning is a walking contrary unto God and Gods corrections are his walking contrary to us There is an excellent expression noting how sin strikes and as it were shoots at God Iob 15. 25 26. He stretcheth out his hand against God speaking of a wicked man and strengtheneth himselfe against the Almighty here this word is used he runneth upon him even on his neck upon the thick bosses of his bucklers See how he describes a wicked man in his natural course what doth he he runs upon God he runneth upon him even upon his neck as a man that encounters an enemy runs upon him and sets his feet upon his neck he runneth upon the thick bosses of his bucklers a warrier hath bosses upon his arms both for beauty and defence The enemy runs upon the very bosses and fears nothing such is a wicked man He runs against God wil not God run upon him He wil certainly be upon the bosses of their bucklers and upon their necks too one time or other till they shall be forced to cry out that as they have been burdens unto God so now they are burdens to themselves Thus Job concludes in his own case So that I am a burthen to my self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tulit onus à tollendo ac ferendo dictum Sum super te onus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alii vertunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ouerosus molestus quo alluditur ad importunos peccatores qui auribus Iudicum perstrepunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tibi quod scriba mutarunt in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mibi quòd indignum divina majestate arbitrarentur ut homuncio et oneri essâ—t Abe Ezr. Drus The former words are the cause and these the effect Thou hast set me as a marke what follows O I am a burthen to my selfe The Septuagint reade thus so that I am a burthen unto thee or so that I am burdensome to thee And then his meaning may be conceived thus Lord thou settest me as a marke so that I become burthensome unto thee I have such a weight of afflictions upon me that I am forced to complainings and expostulations wherein I am afraid I am burthensome to thee as poor Suters when they cry long in the ears of a Judge or Magistrate he saith forbear you are very troublesome very burthensome to me The Rabbins observe that this was the ancient reading of the Text I am a burthen unto thee and that the Scribes who wrote out the Bibles in Hebrew made this alteration a burthen to my self because they conceived it was unbecoming the Majestie of God that Job should say he was a burthen to him There is a general truth in that translation a burthen unto thee The sins of man are burthensome to God the frowardness and impatience of men are burthensome unto God
sence we may observe First That The holiest man on the earth by all his sufferings and doings cannot satisfie the justice of God for one sin I have sinned what shall I doe unto thee When the Angels had sinned what could they doe unto God in this respect These three negations lay upon them and doe lie to this day and shall to all eternity They sinned but once yet could they not escape out of the hand of God Though spirits and powers yet they could not maintaine their state against the power of God and are therefore cast into prison and reserved in chaines of darknesse to the judegement of the great day They could not pacifie the wrath of God towards them God is as highly displeased and his wrath burns as hot against them as ever Now if sinning Angels could doe nothing to God what can sinfull man doe The Question is put Micha 6. 6. Where with shall I come before the Lord And bow my selfe before the high God Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with calves of a yeare old will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousand rivers of oyle shall I give my first-borne for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soule These Questions are denials come not before God with any of these Then what is it that God doth require He hath shewed thee what is good to doe judgement and righteousnesse to walk humbly with thy God But why these things What though I cannot make a price for my sin with calves and rams and rivers of oyle though my children will not be accepted as a ransome for my transgressions yet can I make a price for them out of justice and righteousnesse and humble walking No not out of these neither The Lord doth not require these for the paiments of our debt as we are sinners but for the paiments of duty as we are creatures There is a double debt to God a debt to the justice of God for sins commited and a debt to the law of God for duties enjoyned The former no man is able to pay but with eternall sufferings The latter the Saints through grace do pay by their dayly holy actings There is a three-fold deficiency in al that man can do to satisfie the justice of God Frist all is imperfect and defiled our services smell of the vessell thorough which they passe and taste of the caske into which they are put There is a stampe of our sinfullness even upon our holy things And can that which is sinfull satisfie for sin Secondly whatsoever we doe is a debt before we doe it All our duties are owing before we performe them And can we pay the debt of sin by those duties which were due though sin had never been commited Thirdly The greatest deficiency is this our works want the stampe of Gods appointment for that purpose God hath no where set up mans righteousnesse as satisfaction for mans unrighteousnesse Hence if it should be supposed we had performed perfect righteousnesse according to the whole will of God commanded yet we could not satisfie the justice God offended unlesse God had said that he would accept that way of satisfaction it is the appointment and institution of God which renders what we doe acceptable unto himselfe Surely all that Jesus Christ did or suffered for us in the flesh had not satisfied the justice of God if God had not appointed that Christ should come to doe and suffer those things for the satisfying of his justice It was the compact between Christ and his Father which made him a Saviour Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire Sacrifices were refused by God it being impossible that they should purge sin Heb. 10. 4. Then the eare of Christ was opened or bored as a servant according to the law in that case Exod. 21. 6. to receive and doe the will of his Father Or as the Seventy interpret which the Apostle follows God prepared him a body Then Christ undertakes the worke And said loe I come to doe thy will O God Why In the volume of the booke it is written of me That is thou hast decreed and ordained from everlasting The record is cleare for it that I am he whom thou hast ordained to doe thy will Hence the Apostle concludes at the 10th verse That we are sanctified that is saved by that will through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all As inserting that the very offering of the body of Jesus Christ could not save us but by the will and ordination of God His hanging and dying on the crosse had not delivered us from death unlesse it had been written in the volume of the Booke There is nothing satisfactory but what the law or the will of the Law-giver makes or agrees to accept as satisfactorie In the volume of the booke there is nothing written which appoints man such a work and therefore he cannot doe it There is some what to be done by way of thankfullnesse but nothing can be done by way of paiment That question Psal 116. 12. affirmes as much What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits We must render unto the Lord for his benefits but we cannot render to the Lord for our sins We ought to take up the Cup of Thanksgiving but Christ hath and he alone was able and he alone was ordained to take and drinke the Cup of Satisfying Secondly observe which depends upon the former That pradon and forgivenesse of sinne come in at the doore of free-grace Free-grace doth all What can I do J can doe nothing O thou preserver of men J can only nor that without thy helpe acknowledge my sin it must be thine infinite goodness to pardon it When a man hath travell'd through all duties and doings he must at last sit downe in Gods love and rest in this that God is mercifull to poore sinners Isai 55. 1. Come unto me O all yee that are thirstie come without money or without price There is nothing in the creature that God requires as a price of his favor his milk and his hony his bread and his water are al gifts and bounties unto his people He cals us to buy these because we shall have them as willingly from God as any things from man for our mony he cals it a buying without mony because no value can be set upon it high enough nor any heart receive it freely enough To offer mony that is to think to obtain any of that favor by what we do is the most dangerous offer in the world We read how dreadful the issue was to Simon Magus when he offered mony for the gifts of the holy Ghost and yet those gifts were such as a man may have and go to hell with them for they were but gifts of miracles and of healing and the like But this gift of the favour and love of God in the pardon of sin is such
the soule but thou art driven with every blast in this thy hope Hope makes Heb. 6. 1â— not ashamed but thou either art or oughtest to be ashamed is this thy hope The feare of the Lord is cleane but thou art defiled Rom. 5. 5. is this thy feare Then againe consider this when Job carries himselfe thus in his trouble Eliphaz telleth him what is not this thy feare thou art surely but an hypocrite for if thy feare were true it would have preserved thee from these impatient complainings and distempers Hence observe That true feare holy feare preserves the soule and keepes it holy Holy feare is as a golden bridle to the soule when it would runne out to any evill It is like the bankes to the sea which keepes in the raging waves of corruption when they would overflow all If thou haddest feare indeed thou wouldest never thus breake the bounds of patience The feare of the Lord is to depart from evill that 's the definition of it therefore if thou haddest any feare of God indeed thou wouldest never have done this evill Curse thy day Prov. 14. 27. The feare of the Lord is a fountaine of life to depart from the snares of death that is either from sinne which is spirituall death or from damnation which is prepetuall death the feare of the Lord is a fountaine of life to depart from both these snares of death where this feare is not we are ready to joyne with every evill and so to fall into the jawes of every death Abraham Gen. 20. 11. argues so The feare of the Lord is not in this place therefore they will kill me when we perceive a bent of spirit to devise evill and a readinesse of the hand to practise it we may conclude the feare of the Lord is not lodged in that heart Fourthly observe That trust or confidence in God settles the heart in all conditions Is not this thy confidence Thy confidence certainly is but a shadow for if it had been reall thou hast been established and upheld notwithstanding all that weight of affliction that lies upon thee When there was an unquietnesse upon the soule of David he first questions his soule about it Why art thou disquieted O my soule and then directs trust in God Psal 42. 11. So the Prophet promiseth Isa 26. 3. Him wilt thou establish in perfect peace whose heart doth trust upon thee They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion Psal 125. 1. He that is carried and tost thus about with every winde of trouble and gust of sorrow shewes he hath not cast out this anchor of hope upon the Rock Jesus Christ But here a question must be answered for the cleering of all and likewise for discovering the strength or weaknesse of this argument brought by Eliphaz in this particular case of Job Eliphaz taxed Job with hypocrisie because his graces did not act or they did not act like themselves like graces he gave not proofe of them at that time Hence the doubt is Doe a mans fallings or declinings from what he was before or what he did before argue him insincere Is there sufficient strength in this Argument for Eliphaz to say Job thou hast been a comforter of others thou hast profest much holinesse heretofore and now thou art come to the triall thou canst not make it out thy selfe therefore thou hast no grace therefore all thy religion is vaine For the resolving of that I answer first that the proposition is not simply true that every one who faileth or declineth or falleth off from what formerly he was or held forth is therefore an Hypocrite or that his graces are false and but pretences there may be many declinings and failings many breaches and backslidings and yet the spirit upright Indeed falling away and quite falling off are an argument of insincerity and hypocrisie for true grace is everlasting grace true holinesse endures for ever Therefore we are here to consider whence these failings were occasioned in Job and how a failing may be exprest and continue so as to conclude insincerity or hypocrisie First it was from a sudden perturbation not from a setled resolution Job was not resolvedly thus impatient and unruly an unexpected storme hurri'd his spirit so violently that he was not master of his own actions Job had not his affections at command they got the bridle as it were on their necks and away they carried him with such force that he was not able to stop or stay them Secondly it came from the smart and sense of pain in his flesh not from the perversnesse of his spirit If the taint had been in his spirit then Eliphaz had a ground a certain ground to have argued thus against him Thirdly Jobs graces were hid and obscured they were not lost or dead the acts were suspended the habits were not removed when the grace which hath been shewed is quite lost that grace was nothing but a shew of grace painted feare and painted confidence but in Jobs case there was only a hiding of his graces or a vaile cast over them Lastly We must not say he fals from grace who falleth into sin nor must it be concluded that he hath no grace who falls into a great sinne It followes not that grace is false or none because it doth not work like it selfe or because it doth not sometimes work at all True grace workes not alwayes uniformly though it be alwayes the same in it selfe yet it is not alwayes the same in its effects true grace is alwayes alive yet it doth not alwayes act it retains life when motion is undiscern'd Wherefore they who doe not work like themselves or do not work at all for a time in gracious wayes are not to be concluded as having no grace or nothing but a shew of grace And so much be spoken concerning this first Argument contained in these six Verses the conviction of Job from his failing in the actings of his grace the putting forth of that fruit which formerly he had born and shewed to the world JOB Chap. 4. Vers 7 8. Remember I pray thee who ever perished being innocent or where were the righteous cut off Even as I have seen they that plough iniquity and sow wickednesse reape the same IN these two Verses and the three following Eliphaz coucheth and confirmeth his second Argument wherein he further bespatters the innocency of Job and hopes to convince him of hypocrisie The Argument is taken from the constant experience of Gods dealings in the world Remember I pray thee who ever perished being innocent We may give it in this forme Innocent persons perish not righteous men are not cut off But Job thou perishest and thou art cut off Therefore thou art no innocent or righteous person The major proposition is plaine in the seventh Verse for that question Who ever perished being innocent or where were the righteous cut off is to be resolved into this Negation No innocent person
as by stopping them so by putting them forward The Princes of Zoan are become fooles saith the Prophet Why The Lord hath a mingled a perverse spirit or a headlong vertiginous â—pirit in the midst thereof and they have caused Aegypt to erre in every worke thereof as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit Isa 19. 13 14. Verse 14. They meet with darknes in the day time and grope at noon day as in the night Here is a further agravation of the misery upon crafty froward Counsellours They meete with darknes in the day time Some understand this for the darknesse of trouble falling upon these men suddenly in the day of their prosperity as if the holy Ghost had said In the day time of their greatest glory when they think their Sun at the height then they are clouded and over cast they meet with the darknes of sorrow and are benighted in a moment Amos 8 9. I will cause the Sun to go down at noon and I will darken the Earth in the clear day it is meant of great afflictions as the next words interpret And I will turn your feasts into mourning But rather by darknes in the day time we are to understand the Diurnae tenebrae ignorationem denotant rerum clarissimaâ—um ignorance of those things which are very plain and clear They meet with darknes in the day time that is they are puzled to find out and discover those things which are as cleare as the light God often sends such a spirit of giddiness and blindness upon the counsels of his enemies that easie things are hard plaine things obscure and common questions very ridles to them They meet with darknes in the light There is a double light necessary to the seeing or discovery of a thing First an externall light And secondly an internall light External light is of the Medium or place in which we see the aire must be enlightned Internall light is of the Organ or instrument by which we see the eye must be enlightned Though there be much light in the aire a blind eye sees nothing So the meaning of these words may be explained They meet with darknes in the day time though these men have outward light though the busines they are about be plaine a clear case as we speak yet they are so darkned in their understandings that they canot apprehend or make it out The Idoll sheapheard is threatned with this woe Zach. 11. 17. The Sword shall be upon his arme his power shall be broken and upon his right eye his understanding shall be darkned The Idol shepheard shall be like an Idoll having eyes but seeing not He was before a blind Seer sinfully and now he shall be a blind-Seer judicially Aâ— that wicked Priest so these wicked Politicians in the text shall have a sword upon their right eye a wound in the best of their understandings which shall make them also blind-Seers and make the light to be darknes round about them The latter clause clears it farther They grope at noon-day as in the night To grope at noon-day is the description of a blind-man For what the eye is to a man that sees the same is the hand to a man Palpare in meridâ—e est caeci periphrasis Caecus tentat palpat manibus antequam pedem effeâ—t Praebent manus â—aecis â—ulorum usus ministeâ—ia Sanct. in ca. â—9 that cannot see A man that sees looks his way but a blind man feeles it his hand is in stead of an eye to direct his way They as it is said in the text Grope at noon-day as in the night When the Sodomites were smitten with blindnesse They wearied themselves to find the door of Lots house Gen. 19. 11. And when the Philistines had put out Sampsons eyes and he was brought to make them musick at their feast he said to the lad that held him by the hand Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth c. he could not see them but he could grope or feel them out Groping infers either want of light or want of sight These in the text had light enough therefore the failing was in their eys They grope at noon-day This fearfull judgement the Lord threatens against his own people Deut. 28 29. Thou shalt grope at noon-day as the blind gropeth in darknes And it was brought upon them as themselves lamentably complaine Isa 59 10. We grope for the wall like blind-men and we grope as if we had no eyes we stumble at noon-day as in the night In that as it is here added as a further aggravation of the judgment of God upon these who thought themselves Eagle-eyed all eye and all the world blind That they shall meet with darknes in the day time We may observe first It is a sore judgement not to see when there is light It is like starving at a full Table or perishing with thirst in the midst of a fountaine It is a great judgement not to have light to see by but it is a greater judgement not to see by the light It is a great judgment to a people when they have not the light of the Gospel when Christ who is the light is not shiningly preached among them but if light shine if Christ be preached and a people see it not This is a farre greater judgement The poore Gentiles before the light of the Gospell came to them sate in darknes and in the shadow of death and in that estate they could only like blind men grope after God as the Apostle elegantly expresses it Act. 17. 27. He hath made of one bloud all Nations of men c. that they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after him and find him The Gentiles were inexcusable if they did not find the Lord by Feeling after him in the darke What then are they who find him not by seeing in the light The Apostle shewes us them as lost men and blinded by Satan to whom the light of the glorious Gospel doth not shine when it shines 2 Cor. 4 3 4. To grope in Gospel-light to be in darknesse when truth is at her high-noon is as the shadow of death It is the worst of sins to sin against the light and it is the worst of judgements not to see the light by which we may avoid sinne The heat of divine wrath breaks out in this when abused light is hunished with want of sight or when light is sent and eyes taken away Isa 6. 9 10. When the Prophet brought killing light to the Jews he saith See ye indeed but perceive not that is because ye have had light and would not see beleevingly Now ye shall have light which ye shall not see perceivingly or distinctly as the man in the Gospell saw but he did not perceive when he saw men walking as trees he had not a distinguishing eye or a discerning sence as the Apostle speaks Heb. 5. 14. But why shall
with so much justice equity holinesse that thou shalt not sin Not that Eliphaz undertakes his absolute freedome from sin but he should not sin as he supposed he had before thou shalt not run into such errors or split thy selfe upon such rocks as have wrackt thy former greatnesse And thus he secretly reproves Jobs former carriage in his family as irregular and sinfull There is a further exposition joyning both these together Thou shalt visit thy house and shalt not sin namely by conniving or winking at the sins and disorders of thy family and yet thou shalt have peace thy strict and faithfull carriage in over-seeing thy family shall not provoke either servants or children to contention and complainings to anger and passion Thy holy severity shall not fill thy house with quarrels and troubles but God shall so Domestici correpti non succensebuntâ— Vâ—tabl over awe the spirits of those under thee that they shall willingly and cheerefully submit to thy purer discipline Observe hence First It is a great and a speciall point of godly wisdome well to order and visit a family Families are the principles or seeds of a Common-wealth As every man is a little world so every house is a little Kingdome A family is a Common-wealth in a little volume And the rules of it are an epitomie of all Lawes by which whole Nations are govern'd The Apostle makes it a speciall character of his Bishop That he must be one who rules his own house well and subjoynes the reason For if a man know not how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the Church of God 1 Tim. 3. 4 5. And therein wraps up this truth that he who knowes how to rule his own house well is in a good posture of spirit for publike rule The same wisdome and justice and holinesse for kind only more enlarg'd and extensiue acts in either spheare and will regularly move both Secondly A family well visited and ordered is usually a prosperous family Sinne spoiles the comforts and cankers the blessings of a family Sin brought into a house rots the timber and pulls down the house or it undermines the foundation and blowes up the house The sin of families is the ruine and consumption of families Hence thirdly observe To be kept from sin is a better and a greater blessing than all outward blessings When Eliphaz had reckoned up all the comforts which repenting Job is promised Thou shalt be delivered in six troubles and in seven Sword and famine shall not hurt thee peace and plenty shall dwell within thy walls and lodge in every chamber Yet saith he I will tell thee of a blessing beyond all these thou shalt not sin It is more mercy to be delivered from one sin then from sword and famine grace is better then peace and holinesse then aboundance riches and honour and health are all obscured in this one blessing A holy a gracious an humble heart There is more evill in one sin than in any or all troubles therefore there must needs be a greater blessing in being kept from sin than in protection from any or all troubles Sin is the greatest evill therefore to be kept from sin is one of the greatest goods Christ took upon him all sorts of outward evils he became poor for our sakes he had not so much as an house to lye in he came in the forme of a servant for our sakes and he was a man of sorrowes He was acquainted with grief all his life at last with death and a grave Yet he would not admit of the least sin he was content to bears all our sins but he abhord the thought of acting one Not to sin is the next priviledge to God and the utmost priviledge of man When in a full sense man shall not sin man will be arrived at fulnes of joy and as we daily empty of sin so we proportionably fill with joy Vers 25. Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great and thy off spring as the grasse of the earth From the present bessings upon the family he descends to those which concerne posterity as if he had said thy comforts shall not be confined to thy selfe neither shall they be shut up within the limits of one generation Mercies shall be transmitted to thy children thy heires shall inherit blessings Thy seed shall be great The word Great signifies both multitude and magnitude Thou shalt have a great seed that is a numerous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seed a multitude of children and thou shalt have a great seed that is honourable and wealthy children Job himselfe was called Chap. 1. 3. though by another word yet in the same sense the greatest man in the East This greatnesse is promised his children and thy shall receive additionall further blessings For the word Rab signifies greatnesse in a continuall motion to more eminent greatnesse And therefore it is sometime translated by encreasing So Isa 9. 6. where the Prophet sets out the flourishing glory of the kingdome of Christ Of the increase of his Kingdome and peace there shall be no end or of the greatnesse and greatning of his kingdome there shall be no end So that to say thy seed shall be great notes not only some standing greatnesse but growing greatnesse they shall ever be upon an encrease till they come to their full in glory And thy off-spring as the grasse of the earth Both clauses of the verse meane the same thing The word which we translate off-spring signifies properly that which goeth forth or issues because children spring or goe forth from their parents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Germina sicut ex vite palmites and are therefore called their issue And the word is used for the bud of the Olive or of the Vine hence the Psalmist puts them both into a similitude Thy children shall be like olive plants round about thy table They are as the olive bud in their birth and as the olive branch in their growth Thy off-spring shall be as the grasse of the earth To be as the grasse of the earth is a proverbiall speech and it Proverbiale multitudinis talia sunt sicut arena maris ut stellae coeli Drus arises to the sense of those proverbials spoken to Abraham concerning his seed thy seed shall be as the Starres of Heaven And thy seed shall be as the sand upon the sea-shore The grasse of the field is as innumerable as the Starres or the sands Thy off spring shall be as the grasse of the sield Thou shalt not only have a numerous but thou shalt have as it were an innumerable off spring Man kind in generall is compared unto grasse Isa 40. 6. All flesh is grasse Grasse in regard of its sudden withering he is suddenly cut downe the goodlinesse of man is as the flower of the field Wicked men are compared to grasse not only because they wither but because they wither suddenly
but they proved nothing at all to him For as the word Yea in Scripture notes assurance constancy fidelity and faithfulness so the word Not or Nay both in the Hebrew and in the Greek signifies unconstancy and unsettleness especially when these two are joined together And so it hath a clear sense with that 2 Cor. 1. 20. where the Apostle speaking of Christ and of his faithfulness saith The Son of Qui respondet expectationi etiam dicitur Etiam non qui varius inconstans God was not yea and nay but in him was yea That is he was not various inconstant and uncertain but he was the very same look what you have found Christ at one time you shall find him a second and a third time yea the same for ever He will not start from you an inch So vers 17. of the same Chapter When I was minded to come did I use lightnesse Or the things that I purpose do I purpose after the flesh that with me there should be yea yea and nay nay That is that with me there should be I and No something and nothing It is of a near importance with the words of Job Ye are no to me you promised to be I to me to be yea yea bu now it comes to the tryal ye are No No to me that is ye are nothing to me ye are no such thing as I expected you would be For ye see my casting down and are afraid Ye see my casting down That is my affliction To be cast down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dejectus Metaphorice territus fuit mente jacuic and to be afflicted are the same The word signifies dejection and consternation of spirit to be heart-fallen the falling of a mans mind as well as of his estate Deut. 1. 21. Fear not neither be discouraged let not your spirit or courage fall Jobs casting down was in his body and goods his spirit and courage stood upright upon their feet Ye saith Job see my outward casting down the casting down of my estate abroad ye see how all is broken and lost and now what is the help ye give me Do ye stand to me or lift me up now I am thus cast down Do ye supply me with comfort and prop me up with counsell no ye are afraid your selves ye are so far from removing my trouble that you your selves are troubled Ye are afraid Their fear may be referred to his person or to his condition ye are afraid to come nigh me ye are afraid I will infect you or ye are afraid some such evil will fall upon your selves I thought ye had come as friends to deliver me from my fears and now ye are fallen into fears your selves Thus Ye are not ye are no such thing as ye promised me ye promised to comfort at least Vos me visistis nulla miserecordia moti Sept. to pitty me but ye doe not So the Septuagint Ye visit me but ye are not moved with any compassion towards me I had been as well without your companion Or if no such men had ever been in the world Observe first from these words For now ye are nothing He that is not what he ought to be or what he promised to be is nothing To be uselesse is in a sence to be essence-lesse To be uselesse in the world is to be as out of the world A man who lives onely to eat and drinke and sleep may be said not to live at all What we say in our English proverbe is true both of persons and of actions As good never a white as never the better as good not to be as doe no good The Apostle Judge speaking of unprofitable persons ver 12 cals them Trees without fruit And what then Twice dead plucked up by the roots As if the Apostle had said I look upon fruitlesse persons as dead persons yea as doubly dead that is dead sure enough As a man can be borne but once in one kind Nicodemus argued from a truth though not to a truth because he could not destinguish naturall from Spiritual John 3 4. So a man can die but once in one kind These men of whom the Apostle speaks were alive naturally though dead spiritually how then is it said that they were twice dead They were judged twice-dead either because a spiritual death is so great a death that it may well goe for two yea one spiritual death is worse then a thousand natutal deaths Or secondly they are said to be twice-dead because they were dead both in regard of the truth of grace and in regard of any outward actings of grace For some hypocrites who are indeed dead in sinne yet act grace in many outward fruits as if they were alive But of these persons it is said their fruit withereth and they are without fruit They were not so much as externally active they had no life of union with Christ and they did no good with the life of their profession in Christ and therefore are justly said to be twice-dead They who have leaves and look fresh and lively as if they hade more then one life in them yet if Vselesse are called liveless and they who doe nothing in the world are to be reckoned no-bodies in the world In the Parable of the Prodigall the conclusion is This my son was dead and is alive Why dead Because he was unanswerable to those purposes to those ends for which he received life He was a prodigal and had deserted his fathers service therefore his father looked upon him as if all that while he had not been at all That 's the description of the dead as Jacob said of Joseph when he concluded him torne by a wilde beast Joseph is not and Rachel would not be comforted for her children because they were not so saith the Father of the Prodigal This my son was dead or he was not he was no help nor comfort to me We no longer deserve the name or reputation of Any thing then we do those things for which we are If we leave our duty upon the matter we loose our nature and are as if we had no being while we reach not at least while we reach not after the end of our being A Heathen concludes of such a man He hath onely been he hath not lived But Fuit non vixit we may from the warrant of Jobes Rhetorick go a degree further and deny that he hath been For he is as if he had never bin a meer nothing From those words Ye see my casting down and are afraid Note That some man is able to bear more than another is able to behold The sight of fearful things causeth fear Further observe from it A fearful man will never be a helpful man Courage in a day of trouble either of our own or others is a great cure of trouble yea a victory over it There is one fear very good when we see the casting down of our
man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death When a man delights in sinne he would sinne alway he thinkes he can never have enough of sinning it is so in any other instance where once affection is alienated we would be estranged and taken off from conversation We care not to be with that from which our hearts are departed Assoone as ever Amnon had defiled he loathes his sister and assoone as he loathed her he turned her out of doores And Amnon said unto her arise and be gone 2 Sam. 13. 15. He that loathes his life is glad when a doore opens for it's departure I loath it I would not live alway Secondly observe Trouble makes a little time seeme long He had said before that his life was swifter then a Weavers shuttle now I would not live alway O how long is my life how tedious He lookes upon it as if it were a kind of eternity as if his life would never have an end never be done I would not live alway Paine makes every houre a day and every day a moneth and every moneth a yeare yea an age He thinks his life will never end whose affliction doth not he thinkes he shall never die because his troubles live Every man is ready to say he lives too long when he lives not as he would The soules under the Altar cried out Revel 6. 10. How long Lord how long Lord wilt thou cease to avenge c. of our good dayes we complaine How short Lord how short And of our evill daies we cry out How long Lord how long This is a long day and this a long night indeed this is a long fit this a lasting affliction As the eternity which we shall have in heaven is the longest so it is the shortest Eternity is longest in regard of duration but it is shortest in regard of apprehension The eternity of heaven shall be to us no more tedious than a minut or a moment Eternity is so full of pleasure and satisfaction that it breeds no fullnesse of it selfe living at the well head of comfort in immediate communion with God by Jesus Christ our comforts renew as much as they continue whence freshnesse of appetite and fullnesse of satisfaction are perpetually interchangeable The joyes of that estate are so many that the yeares seeme but few Eternall joy makes eternity but as a moment as eternall pain will make every moment an eternity Thirdly Observe forasmuch as Job saith I would not live alwaies he intimates that there is such a desire in some men for he speaks of a life in this world There is a principle in man drawing out his heart in desires to live alway in the world I saith Job would not live alway let others make that their choice if they will I will not Most are very greedy of that commodity and would not part with it upon any termes and no wonder for as the Psalmist describes them They have their portion in this life He that hath his portion in this life would ever have this life he that hath nothing beyond this world would never goe heyond the world Such must needs be all for life all for the world because these are their all You shall never come to a worldly man and find him in a mind to die Let orhers take heaven he is contented with his earth let others make their best of the next life the present shall serve his turne From the reason of this request My dayes are vanity Observe The life of man is a vain life Vanity hath two things in it whereof the one may seem quite contrary to the other it hath emptinesse in it and it hath fulnesse in it it hath emptinesse of comfort and fulnesse of vexation that 's the right vanity Vanity with vexation of spirit My daies are vanity they are empty of good and full of evill Foure waies the vanitie of mans dayes may be demonstrated First they are vaine comparatively So our daies are more then vaine or lesse then vanity for they are nothing Psal 39. 5. Mine age is nothing before thee As in comparison of God Isa 40. 15. 17 The Nations are as the drop of a bucket c. they are vanity yea they are nothing yea they are counted to him lesse then nothing So our daies are vaine they are nothing but vanity they are lesse than vanity or nothing Nothingnesse is the substance of vanity and all troublesomenesse is the accident of it We cannot forme up an apprehension of our life so little as it is we cannot reach so low in our thoughts as the bottome of mans vanity in either notion As we are not able to raise our hearts so high as the excellency of that estate which we have by Christ no mans thoughts are bigg enough or can be to comprehend or to take in that So we cannot little our thoughts enough to consider the estate sinne hath brought us into therefore it is said to be as nothing and lesse than nothing and how little that is which is lesse then nothing no man can proportion Secondly our dayes are vanity because they are so unconstant and changeable so subject to motion and alteration That 's a vaine thing which is ever upon it's change That which sets the glory of God highest in opposition to the vanity of the creature is That with him there is no variablenesse nor shaddow of turning Jam. 1. 17. or shaddow by turning some translate it so no shadow by turning because the Tropique or turning of the Sunne makes the shaddow while the Sun is in the Zenith that is directly over our heads in the highest point of the heavens we cast no shadows Now the Lord never turneth he is ever fixed at a point and so makes no shaddow or thus as we render it no shaddow of turning that is not only is there no turning in God but there is not so much as a shaddow of it not so much as the least imagination of a shaddow This sets up the glory of God highest And in opposition to this point of highest perfection in God lies the lowest point of the creature vanity that in them there is nothing but turning in them there is nothing but variableness and the substance of turning The fashion of the world passeth away it is ever passing never standing at a stay It is more then passing it is posting from stage to stage night and day As the nature of Sicut bomo omnes in scipso res velut mundus quidam ita omnium mutationum seminae continct man containes the seeds and principles of all things in the world and is therefore called a little world So his nature contains the seeds and principles of all the changes in the world Therefore his daies are vain Thirdly the vanity of these daies appeares in this because they are unsatisfying dayes That 's a vaine thing which doth not satisfie for vanity is emptinesse and emptinesse can
atque in summa aqua extaret Herod l. 1. b Montanus ex iib. Mifna cap. de phase was anciently the Emblem of everlasting forgetfulness or of a resolution never to recal that which was resolved †A learned Hebrician observes that it was a custome among the Jewes to take those things which they abominated as filthy and unclean and cast them into the sea which act noted either the purging of them or the overwhelming them out of sight for ever And a like usage is noted by * Iosephus Aeosta l. 5. de Historia Natur Moral Novi orbis a reporter of the manners of the Americans that those barbarous people either desciphering some wicked thing upon a stone or making a symbole or sign of it used to throw it into a river which should carry it down into the sea never to be remembred Thirdly Pardon of sin is noted by washing and purging to shew that the filthiness of it is removed from us Psal 51. 2. Fourthly By covering Psal 32. 1. and by not imputing ver 2. Fifthly By blotting out Isa 43. 25. and blotting out as a thick cloud Isa 44. 22. All these notions of pardon concurre in this one that sin passes away is lifted up and taken off from the Conscience of the sinner when it is pardoned The summe of all which is read in that one text Jer. 50. 20. In those daies and in that time saith the Lord the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none c. why For I will pardon them whom I reserve So that pardoned sin in God's account is no sin and the pardoned sinner is as if he had never sinned Forgiveness destroys sin as forgiving a debt destroyes the debt and cancelling a Bond destroyes the Bond. Thirdly observe When sin is pardoned the punishment of sin is pardoned Both words signifie both the punishment and the sin and Job having complain'd that he was set up as a mark and wounded by sharp afflictions now seeks ease in the surest and speediest way the pardon of sin why doest not thou pardon my transgression c. There are three things in sin The inward matter the foul evil the stock the root of sin which is natural corruption dwelling in us and flowing out by actions Secondly The defilement and pollution of sin Thirdly The guilt when we say sin is pardoned or taken away it is not in the former though in pardoned persons corruption is mortified and the actings of it abated but in the latter the guilt is taken away which is the Obligation to punishment and so the punishment is taken away too nothing vindictive or satisfactory to the justice of God shall ever be laid upon that soul whose sin is pardoned Hence Isa 33. 24. the Prophet fore-shewing how happy a pardoned people shall be assures them The inhabitant shall nâ—â— say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall he forgiven their iniqâ—â—ty When iniquity is forgiven our infirmity is cured When the soul is healed the body shall be recovered Both the body natural and the body politick Plague and sword and famine and death all these evils go away when sin goes Judgments are nothing else but unpardoned sins sin unpardoned is the root which giveth sap and life to all the Troubles which are upon man or Nation And as sin committed is every judgment radically that is there is a fitness in sin to produce and bring forth any evil upon man so pardon of sin is every Mercy radically when you have pardon from thence every other particular Mercy springs you may cut out any blessing any comfort out of the pardon of sin particular Mercies are but pardon of sin specificated or individuated brought into this or that particular Mercy of all blessings you may say this is pardon of sin that 's pardon of sin and t'other is pardon of sin Forgiveness destroyeth that wherein the strength of sin lies it destroyeth our guilt and to us abolisheth the condemning power of the Law in these the strength of sin lies Hence when the people of Israel had committed that great sin in making the golden Calf the first thing Moses did was to pray for the pardon of sin and he did it with a strange kind of Rhetoricke Exod. 32. 32. Oh this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of Gold And now if thou wilt forgive their sin what then Moses There 's no more said Moses is silent in the rest it is an imperfect speech a pause made by holy passion not the fulness of the Sentence Such are often used in Scripture as Luk. 13. 9. And if it bear fruit what then Our own thoughts are left to supply the event Our translaters add well The Greek translators supply that in Exodus thus If thou wilt forgive them their sin forgive them We may supply it with the word in Luke If thou wilt forgive them well As if Moses had said Lord forgive them and then though they have done very ill yet I know it will be very well with them God cannot with-hold any mercy where he hath granted pardon for that with the antecedents and requisites of it is every mercy Moses knew what would follow well enough if they were pardoned and what if they were not therefore he adds And if not blot me I pray thee out of thy book which thou hast written If their sins must stand upon record Moses would not he knew if they were an unpardoned people they were an undone people all miseries would quickly break in upon yea overwhelm them and he desired not to out-live the prosperity of that people If Israel must bear their sins they must also bear the wrath of God and if their sin be but taken off then his love is settled on them God gives quailes sometime but he never gives pardons in anger Fourthly observe The greatest sins fall within the compass of Gods pardoning mercy The words in the text are of the highest signification Job speaks not in a diminutive language he is willing to lay load upon himself they whose hearts are upright will not stand mincing the matter and say they have sins but theirs are small ones sins not grown to the stature of other mens As the sins of a godly man may be very great sins so when they are he acknowledges that they are I know not where to set the bounds in regard of the nature or quantity of sin what sin is there which a wicked man commits but a godly man possibly may commit it excepting that against the holy Ghost These Job did and the Saints may put to God in confession and as he did not so they need not be discouraged to ask pardon for them because they are great The grace of the Gospel is as large as any evil of sin the Law can charge us with The grace of the Gospel is as large as the curse of the Law whatsoever the Law can call or