judiciary hardning of their hearts and a hard heart is the greatest judgment on this side Hell As there is a naturally inbred and sinfully acquired hard heart so there is a judicially hardned or a divinely inflicted hard heart When to a naturall hard heart and an acquired hard heart which men get by many repeated acts of sin the Lord adds a judicially hardned or inflicted hard heart then wrath is heated to the hottest and judgment is within one step of Hell Especially if we consider that every houre of such prosperous impenitence and hardnesse of heart encreases punishment and adds to the treasury of that wrath which is stored up against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God Who thinks that man happy who is let alone only to gather a mighty pile of wood and other fuell of flames to burne himselfe while ungodly men saem to the world to be gathering riches honour and pleasure hey are but gathering a heap of wrath and a pile of fire which at the last will flame so bright that it will make a revelation of the formerly secret but ever righteous judgement of God Lastly To shew that God is just in all his dealings both the righteous and the wicked learne from the end of both That we may fully discover the Justice of God we must looke upon all his works together while we looke only upon some particular peece of Gods dealings with a godly man he may seeme to deale very hardly with him or if we looke but upon some particular peece of his dealings with a wicked man God may seeme very gentle and kind towards him but take all together and the result is exact justice It was a good speech of a moderne writer We must Non est judicandum de operibus Dei ante quintum actum Per. Mart. not judge of the works of God before the fifth act that is the last act or conclusion of all This and that part may seeme dissonant and confused but lay them all together and they are most harmonious and methodicall Hence David Psal 37. after he had a great dispute with himselfe about the troubles of the righteous and the prosperity of the wicked and was put hard to it how to make out the Justice of God resolves all in the close with this advice ver 37. Marke the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace Though a righteous man die in warre yet his end is peace whereas though a wicked man die in peace yet his end is warre It is said Deut. 8. 16. that all which God did to his people in the wildernesse was that he might doe them good at the latter end Come to the end therefore and there you shall find justice visible We often loose the sight of justice in our travailes and passage through the world mountaines and hils interpose which we cannot see over or through but when we come home and arrive at the end of our travailes Justice will appeare in all her state and glory rendring to every man according to his deedes To them who hy patient continuance in well doing seeke for glory and honour and immortality eternall life but unto them that are contentious and doe not obey the truth but obey unrighteousnesse indignation and wrath Joshua concludes the story of the people of Israel in their passage to Canaan with the highest testimonies of Gods justice and faithfulnesse though God dealt with them so variously in the wildernes that they often murmured in their tents as if he had done them wrong yet in the close you shall find how exact and punctuall the Lord was with them Josh 21. 45. There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel all came to passe And in that other text Josh 23. 14 Behold this day I am going the way of all the earth and you know in all your hearts and in all your soules that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you all are come to passe unto you and not one thing hath failed thereof How admirably just was God in his word If a man promise many things we take it well if he performe some of the chiefe and them in the chiefe though some what may faile God promised many things and performed all and which is more all of every one of those many things promised The texts compared make this out the one saying That not one thing failed of all the good things which God spake concerning them And the other That not ought of any good thing failed So then they had every good thing in kind with each particular part and degree of every good thing And for the truth of all this Joshua makes his appeale to themselves and to that in themselves which was best able to determine it All their hearts and all their soules which words doe not only referre to every person as if the meaning were The hearts and soules of you all but rather to all that is in every person All their hearts and all their soules that is understandings memories consciences affections yea sences their eyes and eares their hands and mouthes could bring in witnesse from their severall operations to this great truth And surely God in the end will deale as well with every Israelite as he did with all Israel A time will come it will come shortly when every Saint shall say in all their hearts and in all their soules that not one thing nor ought of any one good thing which the Lord hath said concerning them hath failed I shut up this in the words of Christ to his Disciples when they were amused about that act of his the washing of their feet John 13. 7. What I doe ye know not now but ye shall know hereafter Stay but a while and all those mysteries and riddles of providence shall be unfolded Though clouds and darknesse are round about him yet Judgement and Justice are the habitation of his Throne Psal 97. Mortall man never had and at last shall see he had no reason to complaine of God mortall man shall not be more just than God nor shall man be more pure than his maker And so much for the fifth Conclusion That God neither doth nor can doe any injustice to the creature he is just in his nature just and holy in all his wayes The sixth or last Conclusion is this That to complaine of Gods Iustior sit oportet qui immeriâ—ò affligitur quâ qui immerio affligit dealing with us is to make our selves more just and pure than Gods or when any person or people complaine of Gods dispensations toward them they though not formally yet by way of interpretation make themselves more just and pure than God This was the point wherein Eliphaz labours much to convince Job supposing that he had thus exalted himselfe
or are cut downe by some hand of justice The off-spring of a godly man are compared to grasse but in another reference To grasse first because of their multitude and secondly because of their beauty they shall flourish and be green as the grasse which is very pleasant to the beholders eye And in this also Eliphaz aimes at the death of Job's children Thou hast lost thy children they perished miserably but if thou Hoc dicit quia Iob filios amiserat Merc. returne that blessing shall returne thy seed shall be great and thy off spring shall be as the grasse of the earth The blessing of children hath been shewed in the first Chapter therefore I shall but name a point or two now First That The posterity of godly parents stand neerer then others under the influence of heavenly blessings As grace doth not runne in a blood so neither do blessings infallibly runne in a blood yet the children of those who are blessed are neerest a blessing And their possibilities for mercy are fairest Many promises are made to them they are heires apparent of the promises in their parents right others to appearance are strangers from the promises Though we know free grace chuseth often out of the naturall line The mercies of God are his own and it is his prerogative to have mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardneth Secondly When he summes up the blessings of a godly man the blessings of his children are cast into the account Whence note That the blessings of the children are the blessings of the parent As the parent is afflicted in the afflictions of his children so he is blessed in their blessings Relations share mutually both in comforts and crosses Children are their parents multiplied and every good of the child is an addition to the parents good A flourishing and a numerous posterity is a great outward blessing Some have the choisest of spirituall blessings who want this Isa 56. 3. God comforts those that have no children Doe not say that thou art made a dry tree for I will give thee in mine house a place and a name better than of sons and daughters As if he had said the name of sons and of daughters is a very great comfort but it is not the greatest comfort the best biessing thou shalt have a name and a place better than of sons and daughters Vers 26. Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age like as a shock of corne commeth in his season From personall present blessings of this life and the blessings of posterity Eliphaz descends to shew the blessing of a godly man in death A happy death is the close of temporall happinesse and the beginning of eternall A happy death stands between grace and glory like the Baptist between the law and the Gospel and is the connexion or knitting of both And as it was said of John That among them who are borne of women there arose not a greater then he neverthelesse he that is least in the kingdome of heaven is greater then John So we may say that among all the blessings of this life there is none greater then a blessed death neverthelesse that which is least in eternall life is a greater blessing then a blessed death It was an observation among the Heathen That no man is to be accounted blessed untill he die But when life is shut up with a blessing then man is fully blessed As in reasoning so in living the conclusion lyes in the premises A happy death is the result of a holy life Thou shalt come to thy grave That phrase notes two things First A willingnesse and a chearfulnesse to die Thou shelt come thou shalt not be dragged or hurried to thy grave as it is said of the foolish rich man Luk. 12. This night shall thy soule be taken from thee But thou shalt come to thy grave thou shalt die quietly and smilingly as it were thou shalt goe to thy grave as it were upon thine owne feet and rather walke then be carried to thy Sepulcher Secondly it notes the honor and solemnity of burying Thou shalt come to thy grave with honour as it is said of Ahijah the son of Jeroboam 1 King 14. 12 13. When Messengers were sent to the Prophet to enquire whether he should recover the Prophet tels them The child shall die and all Israel shall mourne for him and bury him For he only of Jeroboam shall Come to the grave because in him there is found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam He only shall come to thy grave the rest shall be thrust into the grave or lye unburied but he shall come that is he shall be buried with honour others shall have reproach cast upon them when the earth is cast upon them Thou shalt come to thy grave In a full age So we translate The word is expounded two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Senium senectutis tempus wayes In a full age that is in an age when thou shalt be full full of estate full of wealth and honour thou shalt have abundance when thou diest And so it points at Jobs present poverty though thou hast nothing now scarse a ragge to thy backe or a sheet to winde thee in if thou shouldst die yet seeke unto God and thou shalt die in a full age in a golden Age thy wants shall be supplied and thy losses repaired to the full But rather a full Age notes here a sulnesse of daies though the other fullnesse of estate be not excluded The Prophet puts the same difference between aged men and men full of dayes as is between children and young men Jer. 6. 11. I am full of the fury of the Lord I will powre it out upon the children abroad and upon the assembly of young men together The aged with him that is full of dayes That is all ages shall feele the fury of the Lord. A full age is an age full of daies or compleate to the utmost time of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 life Some of the Jewish Writers observe that the numerall letters of this word Chelad make up threescore which they conceive is In numeris notat 60 ea prima senectus est non matura Quidam Hebrae orum viâ—idem senectam nomine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 putant significari ut Caph sit similitudinis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—uâ—è virtutem humidum sonat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Senctutem itaque pollecetur-non quidem mâ—lestam morbosam sed vegetaÌ„ paelicem the age here meant but threescore is not a full old-oge it is rather the beginning of old-age Therefore fulnesse of age is by others interpreted to be strength of age thou shalt die in an old age yet thou shalt have strength and comfort in thy old-age thine old-age shall not be a troublesome age thou shalt not be weake and crazy distempered and sick a burthen to
gale of love breathing through the covenant of Grace And as the life of man is compared by Job to a cloud so to that which is the matter of the cloud by the Apostle James Chap. 4. verse 14. where he puts the question what 's the life of man Is it not saith he even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away A vapour is exhaled from the earth by the heat of the Sunne and is the matter out of which the cloud is made Mans life is not only like a cloud which is more condense and strong but like those thin vapours sometimes observed arising from moorish grounds which are the original of clouds and more vanishing then clouds Even these are but vanishing enough to shadow the vanishing decaying quickly dis-appearing life of man As the cloud consumes and vanishes the next words speak out the mind of the comparison So he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more The grave is a descent And the word which is here used for the grave is Sheol about which many disputes are raised among the learned The root of it signifies to desire or to crave with earnestness and the reason given is because the grave is always craving and asking Though the grave hath devoured the bodies of millions of men yet it is as hungry as it was the first morsel still it is asking and craving The grave is numbred among those things which are not satisfied Prov. 30. 16. In the Greeke of the new Testament it is translated Hades which by change of letters some form out of the Hebrew Adam and Adamah the earth unto which God condemned fallen man to returne Gen. 3. 19. We find this word Sheol taken five wayes in Scripture 1. Strictly and properly for the place of the damned Prov. 15. II. Hell and destruction are before the Lord how much more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then all the hearts of the children of men God looks through the darkness of hell which is utter darkness Tam infernus quam sepulchrum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. Status mortuorum vel sepalchrum nam ut anima de corpore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de sepulchro usurpatur Ps 16. Drus 2. It is put Metaphorically for great and extream dangers or miseries which seem irrecoverable and remediless these are figuratively called hell because hell properly taken is a place from whence there is no recovery There 's no release from the chaines of darknesse all changes are on earth Heaven and hell know none When David praises the Lord Psalm 86. 13. for delivering his soul from the lowest hell he meaneth an estate on earth of the lowest and deepest danger imaginable Mercy helpt him at the worst To be as low as hell is to be at the lowest 3. The word signifies the lower parts of the earth without relation to punishment Psal 139. 8. If I go down into hell thou art there He had said before if I ascend up into Heaven thou art there by Heaven he meanes the upper Region of the world without any respect to the estate of blessednesse and hell is the most opposite and remote in distance without respect to misery As is he had said let me go whither I will thy presence finds me out 4. It is taken for the state of the dead whether those dead are in the grave or no Psal 30. 3. Isa 38. 18 19. Gen. 37. 35. In all which places to go out of the world is to go to Sheol Jacob in the text alledged Gen. 37. 35. said he would go down into the grave to his son mourning yet Jacob thought his Son was devoured by a wild beast he could not goe down into the grave to his son for the bowels of a wild beast was his supposed grave but he meaneth only this I wil even die as he is dead So Numb 16. 33. where that dreadful judgement of God upon Korah Dathan and Abiram is storied it is said that they their sheep and their oxen and their tents and all went down into Sheol that is they were all devoured and swallowed up But 5. Sheol signifies the place where the body is layed after death namely the grave Prov. 30. 16. Man hath a demension of earth fitted to the dimensions of his body this portion or allotment is his Sheol Yet it signifies the grave only in generall as it is natural to man-kind not that grave which is artificial and proper to any particular man this the Hebrew expresses by another * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word He that goeth down to the grave goes to his long home to a house out of which he is never able to see or make his way and Ainsw in Gen. 37. therefore it followes He shall come up no more No that 's sad news indeed to go down to the grave and come up no more Are all the hopes of man shut up in the grave and is there an utter end of him when his life ends Shall he come up no more Many of the Greek writers tax Job as not acquainted with the doctrine of the Resurrection as if he either knew not that mystery or doubted at this time of it And some of the Rabbins say plainly Hic abnegat Iob resuscitationem mortuorum Rab. Sol. Non negatur resurrectio ad vitam sed ad similem vitam Pined he denied it But he is so cleare in the 19th Chapter that we need not think him so much as cloudy here And if we look a little farther himself will give us the comment of this text When he saith he shall come up no more it is not a denyal of a dying mans resurrection to life but of his restitution to the same life or to such a life as he parted with at the graves mouth They who die a natural death shall not live a natural life again therefore he addeth in the next verse Verse 10. He shall return no more to his house He doth not say absolutely he shall return no more but he shall return no more to his house he shall have no more to do with this world with worldly businesses or contentments with the labour or comforts of the creature or of his Family He shall return no more to his house But some may say how doth this answer the comparison That as the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more for we find another description of clouds Eccles 12. 2. where the text saith that the clouds return after raine So that it seems though clouds vanish and are consumed yet they returne and come againe The clouds are like bottles full of raine or spunges full of water God crushes these spunges or unstops these bottles and they are emptied and in emptying vanish away but yet Solomon affirms the clouds return after raine how then doth Job say that as the cloud vanisheth so man goeth to the grave
exprest the righteous perish that is they dye as it is explained afterward they are taken away from the evill to come they rest in their beds sc in their graves so Matth. 8. 25. Master save us we perish say the Disciples when they thought they should all be drowned Lord helpe us or else we all dye presently and so we translate Job 34. 15. where Elihu speaking of the power of God thus describes it If he should but shew himselfe all flesh saith he shall perish together that is all flesh shall dye they are not able to stand before Gods power and greatnesse the word which he useth there strictly taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to expire or give up the ghost yet we translate it all flesh shall perish together that is they shall all give up the ghost and dye if God should appear in his power and greatnesse Thirdly by perishing we may understand outward afflictions and troubles falling upon either godly or wicked these are called a perishing Josh 23. 13. Joshua tels the people If you will not obey and walk according to the Commandements of God ye shall quickly perish from off this good Land that is ye shall be removed by outward afflictions from your Land you shall goe into captivity And so if I perish I perish saith Esther Chap. 4. 17. that is if I bring trouble and affliction upon my selfe let it be so I will venture it A Syrian ready to perish was my father Deut. 26. It is meant of Jacob a man much verst in trouble as he himselfe acknowledgeth Few and evill have been the dayes of my pilgrimage Fourthly to perish notes eternall misery as it is put for the miseries of this life so for the life of misery for that life which is an everlasting death John 3. 16. God so loved the world that he gave Omnimodam rei perditionem significat oâ—pâ—â—niâ—uâ— enim generationi his onely begotten Sonne that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life perishing is opposed to everlasting life and therefore implyes everlasting death Fifthly to perish notes utter desolation and totall ruine A cutting off or a destroying the very name and remembrance of a person or of a people He that speaks lyes shall perish Pro. 19. 9. that is he shall be utterly destroyed In this sense the word is used for the Devill because he is a destroyer to the utmost as Christ is a Saviour to the utmost He is called Abaddon from Abad the word here used Rev. 9. 12. and Apollyon his businesse is to destroy totally and eternally Thus also Antichrist The first-borne of the Devill 2 Thess 2. 3. is called the sonne of perdition take it actively he is a destroying sonne one that destroyeth bodies and soules as in Scripture a bloody man is called Ish dammim a man of blood and passively he is a sonne of perdition that is a man to be destroyed both body and soule These two latter senses namely eternall destruction in Hell and utter destruction in this life are joyned together Prov. 15. 11. Hell and destruction or Hell and perishing are before the Lord and Chap. 27. 20. we have the same words againe Hell and perdition or Hell and destruction are never full So that to perish in a strict sense notes even in this life an utter extirpation so some render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abscondit ne amplius auditur vel videatur per metonymiam sublatuâ— doletus succisus Sublata enim è medio non apparent amplius sed absconduntu◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it here Who ever saw the righteous plucked up by the roots so as there should be no remembrance no remainder of them The other word which is joyned in the Text cut off carries the same sense though it signifies properly to hide a thing yet it is so to hide it as it appeareth no more or so to hide it that it can neither be heard of nor seen any more Hence by a Metonymie it signifies to take away or to cut off because things that are taken away and cut off are as things hidden and seen no more Here then is the height of the sense either to take it for perishing in Hell or for such a perishing in this life as is joyned with totall desolation and desertion Then for the termes innocent and righteous The word we translate innocent signifieth empty And it is therefore applyed to an innocent person because innocent persons are emptied of malice and wickednesse their hearts are swept and cleansed purged and washed there is in some sense a vacuum a holy vacuum in the hearts of holy persons they are freed from that fulnesse of evill which lyes in their hearts by nature that filth is cast out Every mans heart by nature is brim full top full of wickednesse as the Apostle describes the Gentiles Rom. 1. 29. being filled with all unrighteousnesse and it is a truth of every mans heart it is a Cage full of uncleane Birds a stable full of filthy dung he hath in him a throng of sinfull thoughts a multitude of prophane ghests lodging in him Now a person converted is emptied of these these ghests are turned out of their lodgings the roomes are swept and emptied therefore an holy person is called an empty person Emptied not absolutely emptied of all sinne but comparatively there is abundance cast out so that considering how full of sin he was he may be said to be emptied of sinne and that his malice is cast out In the fourth of Amos the Prophet threatens cleannesse of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 teeth it is a suitable judgement that uncleane hearts and lives should be punished with cleane teeth or innocency of teeth for it is the word of the Text. Famine is elegantly so called Want of bread makes empty or cleane teeth And where were the righteous that 's the other terme cut off One may put the question where were the righteous surely Job had very good eyes if he could finde any righteous man upon the earth he might seem to have clearer eyes then the Lord himselfe if he could finde any righteous God looked downe from heaven and he saw none righteous no not one Psal 53. 3 4. Yet here Eliphaz bids Job enquire about the righteous where they were cut off To clear that By righteous here we are to understand not righteous persons in a strict and legall sense but in a Gospel mollified sense righteous with an allay righteous by way of interpretation and not in the strictnesse of the letter And so men are called righteous first in reference to the work of regeneration There are none righteous in the root or originall in their first setting and plantation in the soyle of the world but there are righteous persons as regenerate and transplanted into the body of Christ as wrought and fashioned by the Spirit of Christ Secondly there are none righteous that is none exactly perfectly compleatly
it is well with the righteous vvhen they are in the deeps of affliction for it is but to bring them off their Mountaines of pride that they may be exalted in the strength and love of God even upon the Mountain of his Holinesse and their glory for ever Thirdly Afflictions bring the Saints nearer to God Troubles abroad cause the soule to looke inwards and homewards Is there any hurt in being brought neerer to God It is good for me to draw neer unto God says David and it is good for us to be drawn neer unto God if vve vvill not come of our selves It is a desireable violence vvhich compels us heaven-ward Heaven is but our nearest being unto God and by how much vve are nearer God on earth so much the more vve have of Heaven upon earth Afflictions as in the Prodigals example put us upon thoughts of returing to God and the more vve returne the nearer vve are unto him returning thoughts vvill not rest but under our fathers roofe yea returning thoughts vvill not rest till vve are got into our fathers armes or under the shadow of his wing and this a happy condition indeed As it vvas vvith Noahs Dove Gen. 8. 9. vvhen she vvas sent forth of the Ark she could finde no place for the soal of her foot to rest on she knew not vvhether to go for the vvaters vvere on the face of the whole earth therefore she returneth back and comes hovering about the Ark as desiring to be taken in but after the vvaters vvere asswaged he sent out a Dove vvhich returned to him no more So when it is faire weather in the world calme and serene even Doves keepe off from God and though they goe not quite away from him yet they are not so desirous of comming to him but when we finde a deluge in the world such stormes and tempests of trouble that we know not where to fix our souls for a day then we come as the Dove fluttering about the Ark and cry to our Eternall Noah that we may be near him yea within with him Wicked men like the Raven which Noah sent out first Verse 7. and returned not againe care not for the Ark of Gods presence in the greatest troubles to be neare God is more troublesome to them then all their troubles But Believers like the Dove will look home at least in foul weather God is their chiefe friend at all times and their onely friend in sad times Is there any harme in this Christ sends a storme but to draw his back to the Ark That at the last where he is there they may be also Lastly we may say it is well with the righteous in their worst condition of outward trouble because God is with them It can never be ill with that man with whom God is It is infinitely more to say I will be with thee then to say peace is with thee health is with thee credit is with thee honour is with thee To say God is with thee is all these and infinitely more For in these you have but a particular good in God you have all good when God sayes I will be with you you may make what you will out of it sit down and imagine with your selves whatsoever good you can desire and it is all comprehended in this one word I will be with thee Now God who is with the righteous at all times is most with them in worst times then he saith in a speciall sense I will be with thee When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee When thou walkest thhough the fire thou shalt not be burnt c. Isa 43. 2. When a mighty winde passed before Eliah it is said That God was 1 Kings 19. not in the winde and when the Earthquake shook the Hils and a consuming fire appeared it is said God was not in the Earthquake not in the fire God joynes not with outward troubles for the terror of his people but he joynes with outward troubles for the comfort of his people So he is in the fire and in the winde and in the Earthquake and his presence makes the fire but as a warme Sunne the stormy winde a refreshing gale and the Earthquake hut a pleasant dance So much for the removing of this objection and clearing up the justice of God respecting the afflictions of the righteous If any shall look on the other hand upon wicked men as if God came not home in his justice vvhile he suffers them to prosper First I answer their prosperity serves the providence of God and therefore it doth not crosse his justice That vvas Nebuchadnezars case Isa 10. 6. I will send him saith God against an hypocriticall nation so then he must prosper vvhile he goes upon Gods errand but mark vvhat followes Verse 12. It shall come to passe that when the Lord hath performed his whole worke upon Mount Zion sc by Nebuchadnezars power vvho vvas but doing the just vvork of God vvhile he thought ambitiously of doing his own novv it is no injustice for God to give an instrument power to do his work and vvhen his bloody lust hath performed the holy vvork of God you shall see the Lord will take an order vvith him speedily For then saith the Lord I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria and the glory of his high looks God let him alone to doe the work he had set him about and it was a righteous work of God upon his people though Nebuchadnezzar went about it wlth a proud and malicious spirit against his people Secondly the prosperity of wicked men serveth them but as an opportunity to shew how wicked and vile they are to act and publish the seven abominations of their own hearts Now as it is one of the greatest mercies under Heaven for a man to have his lusts quite mortified so it is a very great mercy for a man to have his lusts but restrained It is a mercy for a man to have that fuell taken away from his corruptions upon which they feed therefore it must needs be wrath and judgement upon wicked men when God in stead of restraining their lusts giveth them opportunity to inlarge their lusts and layes the reines on their neck to run whether and which way they please without stop or controule This is wrath and high wrath a sore judgement the sorest judgement that can fall upon them wherefore when vve thinke they are in a most prosperous condition they are in the most dreadfull condition they are but filling themselves with sin and fitting themselves for destruction Many a mans lusts are altogether unmortified which yet are chill'd and overawed by judgements And there is more judgement in having liberty to commit one sinne then in being shut up under the iron barres and adamantine necessities of a thousand judgements He that is Satans treasury for sin shall be Gods treasury for wrath Thirdly Their prosperity is the
he judgeth no cleare light to be putting a negative particle in both branches of the Verse whereas in the Hebrew there is no expresse negation in the latter These I say are led by this reason or rule It is frequent in Scripture when there is a negative in the former clause of a Verse then to understand a negative also in the latter clause though none be exprest For instance Psal 9. 18. The needy shall not alway be forgotten the expectation of the poore shall not perish for ever so we read but in the Hebrew the latter clause is the expectation of the poore shall perish for ever there is no Negative in the Originall but our Transtators and not only they but all that I have seen upon the place render it so supplying the Negative particle of the former in the latter clause of that sentence And without that negative the sentence is not only imperfect but untrue Thus The needy shall not alwayes be forgotten the expectation of the poore shall perish for ever this were a contradiction but reading it the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever makes the whole a truth and congruous in it self Againe Pro. 17. 26. To punish the just is not good to strike Princes for equity so the letter of the Hebrew but we reade it thus To punish the just is not good nor to stricke Princes for equity I might give ynu other examples but a tast may suffice Thus in the Text before us when it is said in the first clause he put no trust in his servants we take up the negative and say in the second neither hath he put light into his Angels or he did not put light in his Angels or he put no perfect light in his Angels or he judged not cleare light to be in his Angels Secondly they who according to our Translation render it madnesse or solly vain boasting or vanity these take the Originall in that figurative sence before given When a man from a reflection upon his own worth boasts out his own praises which because it is a point of extreame vanity and folly therefore the word is elegantly applyed to signifie folly c. He charged his Angels with folly He put or laid folly upon or to his Angels He put for so the Hebrew word bears Not that the vanity which is in Angels is of Gods putting but the folly that is in them he puts to them or charâ—eth it upon them or layeth it to their charge As we say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such a one put it home upon him that is he charged him soundly or fully with such a crime or offence To charge is a judiciall or Law-term implying that the Lord sitting in judgement to examine the state of Angels charged them by way of accusation and upon triall found them in a sense guilty of that which though they had not formed into any one sin yet might be formed and shap'd into any sin Folly or vaine-glory Having given some account of those tearms Charging and Folly He charged his Angels with folly it growes to a great doubt what Angels we are here to understand what Angels did God thus charge with folly The quere or doubt lies whether we shall lay this charge at the doore of the good Angels or of the bad or of both Many of the Ancients restrain it to the evill Angels to the Apostate Angels God put no trust in them he saw folly in them taking it for confessed that the Angels which stood the good Angels are trusty servants discreet and wise farre from either unfaithfulnesse or folly such as God hath put trust in and they never deceiv'd his trust such whose obedience is made the pattern of ours by Christ himself in his patterne of prayer Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven And would the Lord regulare us by them who are themselves irregular or make them our copy in doing his will whose folly renders them unfit to be trusted with the doing of his will Therefore say these such a charge suits not the state and condition of the good Angels Others cast it upon the good Angels that God put no trust no not in them I conceive from either there may be a good sense though I incline to the latter For in the Apostate Angels take it in the broadest sense God saw no light no goodnesse no faithfulnesse at all they have plainly discovered themselves and shewed not only weaknesse and unfaithfulnesse but wickednesse and utmost folly But to confine it to the evill Angels or to understand it chiefly of them is too narrow for the Text especially seeing Angeli boni exse nihil habent nisi insantam negativè i. e. nullam exse sapâ—entiam nullam veritatem bonitatem nullam this is but a light a too easie charge for those Apostate Spirits to say onle thus that God found unfaithfulnesse in them and charged them with folly for in them rebellion was found and they stand charged to this day with High Treason against the Crowne and dignity of the King of Heaven and are therefore committed to prison and reserved in chaines of darknesse to the judgement of the great day As for the good Angels God may be said to charge them with folly without any wrong either to the holinesse of their nature or the stedfastnes of their obedience For upon examination or intuition rather he finds they have no wisdome or stability but by Divine bounty and establishment As the apostate Angels were positively full of folly and unfaithfulnes so the good Angels might be charged with folly negatively namely that they had no faithfullnesse but as assisted and propt up But we may take the Angels in a third or middle consideration neither for the fallen or apostate Angels nor for the good and confirmed Angels as distinct or since this distinction But by Angels we may understand the Angelicall nature the whole complex nature of Angels in their creation and constitution was such as God could not trust fully unto such as he saw folly in We may demonstrate this plainly because a great part of the Angels and it is questioned whether or no the geater part but it is clear that a great part of the Angels a whole Regiment at least proved disloyall and fell together therefore the Angelicall nature in that abstracted notion is subject to folly and unfaithfulnes as well as man although they are of a more excellent make and constitution then man God looking upon Angels in generall saw they were not to be trusted the event also shewing many of them who were as good by nature as they who stand falling from him discovering their folly and nakednesse to all the world But it may be questioned yet how there could be folly in the Angelicall nature for as much as God viewing and reviewing all the works which he had made saw every thing which he had made and behold it was very
and more perfect then those in his house on Earth yet it is a higher act of grace to desire to live to praise God then to be willing to dye that we may praise him because in this we deny our selves most Praysing God on earth is a work as well as a reward but praising God in Heaven is a reward rather then a work And we put forth the most spirituall acts of grace when we cheerfully goe on with a work which we know stands betweene us and the best part of our reward But I returne to the Text. They perish for ever without any regarding or without any laying it to heart The word heart is not in the mouth but it is in the heart of this Scripture For the sense is paralell with that Esay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Absque apponente Pereunt eoquòd nemo opponat eis medicinam 57. The righteous perish and no man layes it to heart The Chaldee gives a strange glosse They perish or dye because no man giveth them medicine as if he had said there is no Physitian can give an Antidote against death or by any medicines prolong mans life It is a truth that the decayes and ruines of Nature will at last exceed the repairs of Art but this glosse hath little regard to the text which we translate well They perish without any regarding it that is none or very few regarding it The negative is not absolutely universall excluding all as if there were none in the world who take notice of the shortnesse and frailty of mans life or of his for ever perishing condition So in that place of Isaiah the righteous perish and no man layes it to heart that is there are very few scarce any to be found who lay to heart in comparison of the number which neglect the death of righteous men Observe hence Few of the living regard how suddenly others do or themselves may dye Till we see a friend gasping and dying till we see him bedewed with cold sweats and rackt with Convulsions till our eye thus affects our hearts our hearts are seldome affected with the sense of our mortality It is one reason why Solomon advises to go to the house of mourning Eccles 7. It is better to goe to the house of mourning then to the house of mirth for saith he that is the way of all men all must dye and the living will lay it to heart or the living will regard it As if he had said the living seldom lay death to heart till they come to the house of death He seems to promise for the living that then they wil yet his undertaking is not so strict as if every man that goes to the house of mourning did certainly lay it to heart but he speaks probably that if living man will at any time lay death to heart then surely he will when he goes to the house of mourning When will a man think of death if not when he sees death and looks into that dark chamber of the grave There are many who lay it to heart only then for a fit at a Funerall they have a passion of the heart about mortality And very many have gone so often to the house of mourning that they are growne familiar with death and the frequency of those meetings take off all impressions of mortality from their hearts As we say of those Birds that build roost in steeples being used to the continuall ringing of the bels the sound disquiets them not or as those that dwel near the fall of the river Nylus the noise of the water deafens them so that they minde it not Many have been so often at the grave that now the grave is worn out of their hearts they look upon it as a matter of custome and formality for men to dye and be buried and when the solemnity of death is over the thoughts of death are over as soone as the grave is out of their sight preparations for the grave are out of mind It is storied 2 Sam. 20. 12. that when Amasa was slain by Joab and lay wallowing in his blood in the midst of the high way every one that came by him stood still but anon Amasa is removed out of the high way into the field a cloth cast upon him then the text saith all the people went on after Joab It is so still we make a stop at one that lyes gasping and groaning at one that lyes bleeding and dying but let a cloth be throwne over him and he draw aside put into the grave and covered with earth then we goe to our businesse to trading and dealing yea to coveting and sinning as if the last man that ever should be were buried Thus men perish for ever without any regarding If this kinde of perishing were more regarded or regarded by more fewer would perish Thoughts of death spiritualliz'd have life in them thoughts of death laid to the heart are a good medicine for an evil heart It followes Verse 21. Doth not their excellency which is in them go away they dye even without wisdome This Verse as I noted in the begining prevents an objection which might be made as if man had wrong done him and that it were too great a diminution to his honour whom God made the chief creature in the inferiour world and but little inferiour to Angels themselves that he should be looked upon only as a heape of dust or a lumpe of clay as a mortall momentany perishing creature therefore he grants that man hath an excellency but all the excellency that he hath whether naturall or artificiall bred in him or acquired by him as a man when he goes goes too Doth not their excellency which is in them go away or journieth not their excellency with them as Mr. Broughton translates alluding to our passing out of the world as in a journey when a man dies he takes a journey out of the world he goes out for ever and saith he doth not his excellency journey along with him yes the question affirmes it when man goes his excellency goes too The word Jether which we translate excellency signifies primarily a residue or a remaine and that two ways First a residue of persons Judges 7. 6. But all the rest of the people bowed downe on their knees to drink water So the vulgar understands it here They who are left after them shall be taken away from them namely their heirs or posterity Secondly it signifies a residue of things Ps 17. 14. where describing worldly men who have their portion in this life he saith their bellies are fill'd with hid treasure they are also full of children and leave the rest of their substance to their babes Thus others take it here Doth not the wealth and riches which men leave when they dye dye also and go away as their persons are mortall so are their estates there is a moth will eat both And Iather quod est
word for a rule but he hath given us examples as a rule to walke by He hath given us his own example that we looking unto him should be holy as he is holy in all manner of conversation be ye holy as I am holy God who is The holy one is the Highest patterne of holinesse And he hath given us his Son who is the expresse image of his person and the brightnesse of his glory to be our example The life of Christ is a faire copy indeed a copy without any blot or uneven letter in it For He also is The Holy one Christ is not only The principle of holinesse but also The patterne of holinesse to his people they that say they abide in him must walke even as he walked His workes excepting those which were miraculous and workes of mediation between God and us are our rule as well as his word Heb. 12. 2. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him c. words of neere importance with those in the text to which of the Saints wilt thou turne thee Looke to Jesus when you are in sufferings and have a race of patience to run let your eye alwayes be upon Christ and draw the lines of your carriage both in your spirits and outward actions according to what you see in Him Looke to Him And ver 3. Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners Which the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 2. 21. gives us in plaine termes For even hereunto were ye called because Christ also suffered for us leaving an example that we should follow his steps We must follow his steps both in the matter and in the manner of our sufferings therefore Christ saith Take my yoke upon you and learne of me Mat. 11. 29. Christ calls it his yoke it is a yoke of affliction as well as a yoke of instruction And he calls it his yoke not only because he as a Lord layes it upon the necks of others but because he as a servant bore that yoke himselfe therefore he saith Take my yoke upon you and learne of me that is not only take my yoke upon you for the matter but learne of me for the manner how to beare that yoke Besides these grand leading unerring examples of God and Christ the examples of the Saints are also commended to our imitation both in doing and in suffering Whatsoever things were written and examples were written aforetime were written for our instruction Why hath the Holy Ghost set so many pens a worke to write the lives of the Saints why hath he kept a record of them in his own book but for direction to his people in after-times The Lord hath not registred any one act of the Saints but is usefull for us The acts of Noah Abraham Isaac Jacob Samuel David are full of practicall Divinity The sufferings and troubles of these and many others are full if I may so speake of pathical Divinity As the Apostle James his counsell doth more then intimate James 5. 10. Take my brethren the Prophets who have spoken in the Name of the Lord for an example of suffering affliction and of patience Hence those antient Saints and believers Heb. 12. 1. are called a cloud of witnesses A cloud because there is a directive or a leading vertue in them As there was a cloud that went before the children of Israel in the day to leade them so this cloud of witnesses leads us up and downe the wildernesse of our sorrowes and in the darke night of our sufferings Turne you to the Saints to that cloud of witnesses eye them and see what becomes you in sad times They have suffered joyfully the spoiling of their goods suffer you likewise if you come into the hands of spoilers They lived by faith in the midst of a thousand deaths live you likewise by faith in death when ever you come into the hand of that king of terrors And when at any time your own hearts or the wayes of others are out of course check and chide them for and from those disorders by sending them to the practise of the Saints Looke to the Saints from which of the Saints have you learned to be proud and high minded from which of the Saints have you learned to be earthly and covetous from which of the Saints have you learned to seek and set up your selves or to be impatient under the hand of God That man hath reason to suspect he hath done ill who doth that which a good man never did or ever repented the doing of it Observe further When God forsakes a man all the Saints on earth forsake him too Eliphaz lookes upon Job as a man forsaken of God and then he bids him get help if he could among the Saints He that opposes God shall be opposed by all who are Gods There is the same mind in the servants of Christ which is in Christ their Master They love where and whom he loves they hate whom he hates they are ashamed of those of whom Christ is ashamed If God reject a man the Saints will not undertake or answer for him So much of the first Argument ranking Job with the wicked because as Eliphaz thought he could not find any in the rank of Saints like himselfe The second Argument rises to a like conviction because in the same mans opinion he might easily see himselfe so like the wicked For wrath kills the foolish man and envy slayeth the silly one Here are two sinfull passions wrath and envy and here are two sorts of sinfull persons The foolish man and The silly one producing two sad effects which yet in effect are but one The one kills and the other slayes both are deadly and destructive wrath killeth the foolish man and envy slayeth the silly one There are severall sinnes and lusts which accompany as the severall ages and degâ—ees so the Omne pomum omne gâ—anum omne frumentum omne lignum habet vermem suum alius vermis mali alius pyri alius Tritici August severall tempers of men Rashnesse and intemperance hurry and inflame young men ambition blowes up riper yeares and covetousnesse often tyranizeth over old age Wrath takes hold of fools and envy seizeth the silly one These wormes strike the roote of such men and make them wither As there is a speciall worme killing speciall trees and consuming their fruits so there are speciall lusts which like wormes eate out and destroy the life of man wrath killeth the foolish man The foolish man He is A foole who hath not wisedome to direct 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temerarius audax imprudens percitus ira himselfe but The foole is he who will not follow the counsell and direction of the wise The word signifies not so much a foole who hath no knowledge as a foole who makes no use of the knowledge which he hath such a one is a foolish man indeed Or it
they grow and they bring forth fruit And who are these Surely the worst of men as the very next words evidence God is neare in their mouthes but he is far from their reines God is neare in the mouth of such that is they may speak of him sometimes but he is far from their reines there is nothing of God in their hearts and surely they that have nothing of God in their hearts have nothing of goodnesse in their hearts or in their lives This present glory and prosperity of wicked men lifts up the glory of Gods patience How is the glory of the patience of God exalted in letting them have ease who are a burthen unto himself in letting them prosper who are as God can be pained a paine unto himselfe in suffering them to flourish who vex his people in suffering them to laugh who make his people mourne Further He gives them leave to take root and flourish whom he could blast and root up every moment that all may see what is in their hearts If God did not permit them to take root yea and sometimes to grow up and flourish we should never see what fruit they would bring forth we should never see those grapes of gall those bitter clusters if these vines of Sodome and fields of Gomorrah were not watered with the dew and warmed with the Sun of some outward prosperity Lastly The prosperity of wicked men is a great tryall of good men The flourishing of the ungodly is as strong an exercise of their graces as their own witherings Observe secondly That wicked men may not onely flourish and grow but they may flourish and grow a great while I ground it upon this the text faith that they take root I have seen the foolish taking roote and the word notes a dcep rooting In the Parable of the sower 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 13. 21. it is said that the seed which fell into stony ground withered because it had no root noting that the cause of a suddaine decay or withering in any plant is the want of rooting whereas a tree well rooted will endure many a blast and stand out a storme Some wicked men stand out many stormes like old Oakes like trees deeply rooted they stand many a blast yea many a blow spectators are ready to say such and such stormes will certainly overthrow them and yet still they stand but though they stand so long that all wonder yet they shall fall that many may rejoyce and take up this proverb against them as of old against the King of Babylon How hath the oppressor ceased The Lord hath broken the staffe of the wicked and the scepter of the Rulers He who smote the people in wrath with a continued stroake he that ruled in the Nation with anger is persecuted and none hindreth Therefore many shall breake forth into singing yea the Fir trees shall rejoyce at him and the Cedars of Lebanon saying since thou art laid down no feller is come up amongst us Isa 14. Thirdly observe Outward good things are not good in themselves The foolish take root The worst of men may enjoy the best of outward comforts Outward things are unto us as we are If the man be good then they are good And though the Preacher tells us Eccles 9. That all things come alike unto all yet all things are not alike unto all There is a great difference between the flourishing of a wise man and the flourishing of a fool all his flourishing and fastning in the earth is no good to him because himselfe is not good Spirituall good things are so good that though they find us not good yet they will make us good we cannot have them indeed and be unlike them But worldly good things find some really good and make them worse others who had but a shew of goodnesse they are occasions of making stark nought Rooting in the earth never helpt any to grow heaven-wards Many deeply rooted in the earth have grown down and gone down to the depths of Hell Fourthly observe as a consequence from the former That the enjoyment of outward good things is no evidence can be made no argument that a man is good I have seen the foolish taking root And yet how many stick upon this evidence blessing themselves because they are outwardly blessed Yea though they meet with a discovery of their sins and sinfull bosomes in the word though they find those sins threatned yea cursed with a grievous curse in the word yet they blesse themselves and say we are rich and flourish we have a good estate and credit we take root and stand but they forget that all this may be the portion of a foole I have seen the foolish man taking root And suddenly I cursed his habitation The word here used to curse springs indifferently from two roots which yet meet and are one in signification Namely to strike through or to pierce as a man is struck through with a staffe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deducitur vel à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fodit perfodit terrebravit per me taphoram maledixit execratus est est metaphora translata ab his qui gladio aut pugione aliquem-transverberant tanquam si aliquis Dei aut hominis maledictione trajiceretur Cartw. in Prov. 11. 26. or sword or stabd with a dagger Thus Hab. 3. 14. Thou didst strike through with his Staves the head of the villages And Isa 36. 6. The piercing of a reed into the hand of him that leans upon it is exprest by this word So then it carries a metaphoricall allusion to the effect of a curse the curse of God alwayes and the curse of man upon due grounds is as a sword or a dagger piercing a man thorough and thorough through both soule and body I have cursed his habitation that is I have smitten his habitation quite through with a curse I cursed his habitation Some read I abhorred or I abhominated his habitation I was so far from envying this flourishing spreading tree or from being in love with his goodly seat and brave habitation that I loathed and could not abide it The cottage of an honest man was more delightfull to me then the tents or pallaces of wickednesse But the word beares rather to curse which is first to wish evill unto another And secondly to fore-tell to pronounce or denounce evill against another Often in the Psalmes Davids curses upon his enemies are predictions from the Spirit of God not maledictions or ill wishes from his own spirit Good men know not how to wish evill their cursings are Prophecies not prayers they fore-tell or fore-see evils but they desire them not I have Pium non decent dirae not desired the woefull day Lord thou knowest said that Prophet who had denounced many woefull dayes Jer. 17. 16. In Scripture many are said to doe that which they declare to Id fieri ab
of the imagination of mans heart it is evill and onely evill and that continually the Hebrew is every figment or every creature in the heart of man whatsoever a man moulds and fashions within himself naturally is evill and nothing but evill and it is alwayes so The naturall births of mans heart have all one common face and feature They are all of one common constitution Evill all Secondly We may observe That The meritorious cause of mans suffering is from his sinne Iniquity springeth not from the ground neither doth trouble come out of the dust As iniquity springs from our selves so we may resolve it that misery springs from our sinne It is a truth as hath been touched upon the second Chapter that God in many afflictions laid upon his dear children and servants respects not their sin as the cause procuring and drawing on these afflictions And very many are afflicted by the world not for sinnes sake but for righteousness sake As Christ so some Christians may say in their spheare We have done many good works for which of them doe ye stone us Yet this is as cleare a truth that the sinne of any man is in it selfe a sufficient meritorious cause of any yea of all afflictions A creature cannot beare a greater punishment then the least of his sinnes deserves Man weaves a spiders webb of sinne out of his owne bowels and then he is intangled in the same webb the troubles which insnare and wrappe about him are twisted with his own fingers Thirdly observe Naturally every man seekes the reason of his sorrows and afflictions out of himselfe When man is afflicted he is not willing to owne himself as the cause of his afflictions or acknowledge that they spring from his sinne and that may be the reason why Eliphaz speaks thus to Job as if he had said thy thoughts are wandring abroad thou little thinkst that thy afflictions were bred in thy owne bosome Thou art fastning the cause of then upon this and t'other thing Thou art complaining of the day wherein thou wast borne but thou shouldest rather complain of the sin wherein thou wast born Thâ— birth-day hath not hurt thee but thy birth-sin Thy birth-sin hath given conception to all the sorrows of thy life The Jewes in the Prophet Isa's time were in great distresse and could get no deliverance The ports and passages of mercy were all obstructed Now whether went their thoughts And what did they looke upon as the reason of those abiding lingring evils we may reade their thoughts in the refutation of them we may see what the disease of their hearts was by the medicine which the Prophet applies unto them he labours to purge them from that conceit as if either want of power or want of love in the Lord were the stop of their deliverance The Lords hand is not shortned that he cannot save neither his eare heavy that he cannot heare Isa 59. 1 2. as if he had said I know what your apprehensions are in these affliction you thinke the reason is in God that either he cannot or he will not save you You think the hand of Gods power is shrunke up or the eare of his mercy shut up but you reflect not upon your selves nor consider that Your iniquities have separated between you and your God Your sinne does you hurt and you touch not that with a little finger but lay the weight of your charge upon God himselfe So Hos 13. 9. Thy destruction is from thy self in me is thy help God is forced to tel them so that their destruction was from themselves they would not believe it they supposed it was from the cruelty or malice of the creature from the wrath and rage of enemies from some oversight or neglect of their friends therefore the Lord speaks out in expresse termes Thy destruction is from thy self It springs not forth of the dust neither is thy destruction from me In me is thy help in both the heart of man failes equally we are ready to say that the good we have comes from our selves that our help and comforts are from our own power and wisdom and so offer sacrifice to our own nets as if by them our portion were fat but for evil and destruction we assigne it wholly over somtime to men and so are angry sometime to God and so blaspheme We naturally decline what reflects shame upon our selves or speaks us guilty From our translation Although affliction c Observe First Every affliction hath a cause The Proverbe carries that sense in every common understanding Our afflictions have a cause a certaine cause they come not by hap hazzard or by accident Many things are casuall but nothing is without a cause Many things are not fore seene by man but all things are fore-ordained by God The Prophet Amos Ch. 3. 6. sets forth this by an elegant similitude Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no ginne is for him As if he should say is a bird taken in a snare by chance where none have prepared set or industriously laid a snare or a ginne to take him The bird saw not the snare but the snare was set for the Bird. Snaresfall not on the ground at adventure they grow not out of the earth of themselves but the fowler by his art and industry invents and frames them a purpose to catch the bird Thus the calamity and troubles in which men are caught and lime-twig'd insnared and shackled in the world come not out of the ground They are not acts of chance but of providence The wise and holy God sets such snares to take and hold foolish unruly men like silly birds gaping after the baits of worldy pleasures Which meaning is cleare from the scope and tendency of the whole Chapter but the next question resolves it in the letter Is there any evill in a City and the Lord hath not done it Those words are both the conclusion and explication of the former similitude Secondly observe Affliction is not from the power of any creature As it comes not by chance or without a cause so not by the power of creatures they are not the cause dust and the ground are opposed to Heaven or to a divine power Creatures in this sense can neither doe good nor doe evill The world would be as full of trouble as it is of sin if sinfull men could make trouble It is not in the compasse of a creature no not of all the creatures in Heaven or earth to forme or to make out one affliction without the concurrence and allowance of God himselfe Men alone can neither make staves of comfort nor rods of affliction Whence thirdly A consectary from both may be That Afflictions are from the Lord as from the efficient cause the directer and orderer of them These evils are from a creating not from a created strength I saith the Lord forme the light and create darknesse Isa 45. 7. Naturall darknesse hath
seeke exactly and enquire laboriously unto God It signifies to seek by asking questions or by interrogating And it imports seeking with much wisedome and skill a curious or a criticall enquirie So Eccles 1. 13. I gave my heart saith Solomon to seeke and search out by wisedome And this seeking implies foure things First A supposition and a sense of our wants no man seekes that which he hath already or but thinks he hath it He that is full loathes a hony-combe Secondly A strong desire to find that which we want it notes not a bare desire only or woulding but a kind of unquietnesse or restlessenesse till we find such a desire tooke hold of David Psal 132. 4. I will not give rest to mine eyes nor slumber to mine eye-lids untill I find out a place for the Lord or untill I find the Lord. Thirdly A care to be directed about the meanes which may facilitate the finding or recovery of what we want and thus earnestly desire A seeking spirit is a carefull spirit after light and counsell Fourthly A diligent and faithfull endeavour in or about the use those meanes to which counsell directs us Through desire a man having separated himselfe seeketh and intermedleth with all wisdome Prov. 18. 1. That is he is very industrious in pursuing those advices which wisdome shews him or which are shewed him as the wayes of wisdome A lazy spirit is unfit to seeke I would seek unto God and unto God would I commit my cause In the former clause the word for God is El and in the latrer Elohim both names note the power of God El notes power or strength to act and execute Elohim power or authority to judge and determine I would seek unto El The strong God I would commit my cause to Elohim the Mighty God As if he had said Thou art in a weake and low condition now therefore seeke unto God the strong God the mighty God who is able to deliver thee Thou wantest the help of such a friend as he The Hebrew word for word is thus rendred Vnto God would I put my words or turne my speech We reach the meaning fully rendring Vnto God I would commit my cause or put my case The terme which we translate cause signifies any businesse or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat verâ—um vel negotium res meas ei committeâ—eÌ„ cause but most properly a word Explicite prayer is the turning of our thoughts into words or the putting of our case to God It is a speaking to or a pleading with the Lord. The Septuagint is clear in this sense I would deprecate the Lord I would call upon the Lord the governor of all things Both these significations of the word are profitable for us and congruous with the scope of the text I would turne my speech and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. prayer or I would commit my cause unto God The committing of our cause to God notes a resignation of our selves and of our condition into the hands of God It is as much as to say Let God doe what he will or determine what he pleaseth concerning me I will not strive or contend about question or dispute his decision or judgement of my cause I will lay my selfe down at his feet and tell him how she case stands with me then let him doe with me what seems good in his eyes This is the committing of our cause and condition unto God And the Originall word here used for God doth very well suite and correspond with this sense I will commit my cause unto God unto Elohim the great and impartiall Judge of Heaven and earth the God who loves Judgement and the habitation of whose Throne is righteousnes The God who knowes how to discern exactly between cause and cause person and person and will undoubtedly give a righteous sentence concerning every cause and person that comes before him Unto this Elohim would I commit my cause and refer my self to his arbitration Observe first in the general Eliphaz having reproved Job turnes himself to counsell and exhortation From which we may learne That As it is our duty to reprove a fault in our brother so it is our duty to advise and counsell him how to amend or come out of that fault for which we reprove him It is not enough to espy an error but we must labour to rectifie it or to tell another that he is out of the way but we must endeavour to reduce him Many can espy faults and failings in others who either know not how or care not to reforme and helpe them out Secondly observe That It is a duty to exhort and excite our bretheren to those duties wherein we find them flack or negligent Eliphaz conceived that Job was much behind in the duty of prayer and self-resignation unto God and therefore he quickens him up to it The Apostle calls us to this Christian inspection Heb. 3. 13. Exhort one another daily lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulnesse of sinne sin growing and getting strength hardens the heart it is best to oppose it betimes and therefore he bids them doe it at all times exhort one another daily Though the Apostle Peter 2 Pet. 1. 12. was perswaded of the Saints establishment in the present truth yet saith he I will not cease to put you alwayes in remembrance of these things It is a dangerous error which some hold that the Saints in this life may out grow counsell and exhortation as if there were no need to bid a godly man pray seek unto God no need to bid a godly man repent or humble himself or believe he cannot but do these things say they these are connaturall to him They are indeed to the new man within him But let them withall remember that the neglect of all these duties is as connaturall to the old man within him While there are two men within us we had need every man to look not only to one but to one another It may goe ill with the better part the new man if while he hath an enemy within to oppose him he hath not a friend without to help him On this ground besides the command of Christ the holiest man on earth may be exhorted to look to his holinesse none are in more danger then they who think they are past danger And as it is a certaine argument that a man was never good if he desires not to be better so it is a great argument that a man was never good who feares not that he may be worse They who are truly assured they cannot fall from grace are assured also that they may fall in grace and fall into sin The foundation of God stands sure but the footing of man doth not and therefore Let him that stands take heed least he fall And let them who see their brethren heedlesly falling lend them the right hand of exhortation to raise them up againe and when
after and he may say Can I any more doe those things I am not what I was my power is gone But come to God after he hath done this or that and a thousand great things he will not say can I helpe you any more can I deliver you any more can I destroy your enemies can I discover their plots and counsels any more yes Lord as thy works are unsearchable so they are innumerable and thou canst doe them for evermore The Lord saith sometime to a people as he did to Israel Judg. 10. 13. in anger I will deliver you no more But he never saith to any people out of weaknesse I can deliver you no more Psal 78. The people provoked God by making a question of this ver 20. Behold say they he smote the rock that the waters gushed out and the streames overflowed we acknowledge that God hath done a marvell but can he give bread also can he provide flesh for his people surely he cannot doe this marvell also what saith the text The Lord heard this and was wroth so a fire was kindled against Jacob and anger also came up against Israel What doe you think that I can doe but one great thing that I have but one blessing but one deliverance but one wonder Know that I who smote the rock can provide you flesh I who gave you water can give you bread I who have discovered one wicked plot of the enemy can discover all I who have given you one victory can give you a thousand I who have given you one deliverance can give you innumerable deliverances Therefore take heed of setting bounds to God of limiting the Holy one of Israel Men love not to be limited but God ought not We at once provoke and dishonour the Lord by thinking that our wants can renew faster then his supplies or that our innumerable evills shall not find innumerable good things to ballance or remove them from the hand of God We weary men when we come often to them to doe great things for us yea to come often for small matters will weary men But we never weary the Lord by comming often we weary God only when we will not come often How doth the Prophet not only complaine but expostulate because that unbelieving King wearied God take it with reverence by not setting him aworke and that about the hardest and most knotty peece of work that can be the working of a miracle and that as hard a one as himselfe would aske either in the depth beneath or in the height above Is it a small thing with you to weary men but will ye weary my God also Isa 7. 13. It is no wearinesse to God to doe innumerable miracles for us but he is weary when we will not believe he can doe them To be distrusted the doing of one is more laborious to God then to doe a million of Miracles To conclude this take heed above all that you limit not God in works of spirituall mercy As to feare to aske pardon of sin because ye have asked it often His great works of forgivenesse are as much without number as any of his works He multiplies to pardon saith the Prophet Isa 55. 7. And when the people of Israel had committed a new sin it is admirable to reade by what argument Moses moves the Lord for pardon It is not this as usually with men Lord this is the first fault Lord thou hast not been often troubled to signe their pardon But pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt untill now Numb 14. 19. as if he had said Lord because thou hast pardoned them so often therefore I beseech thee pardon them now It is a most wicked argument to move our hearts to sin because God will pardon often but when we have sinned it is a holy argument to move God to pardon againe because he hath pardoned often before For he pardons without number Secondly Seeing God doth innumerable great things for us let not us be satisfied in doing a few things at the command and for the glory of God Let us continue in acts of holinesse charity humility zeale and thankfulnesse without number Let us never stand reckoning our duties when we heare the mercies of God are beyond reckoning It is a noble rule in our friendship with men That curtesies must not be counted I am sure it is a holy rule in our obedience to God That duties must not be counted God hath no need of any one of our good works but he will not beare it if we think we have done enow or can doe too many Let out Amicitia non est reducenda ad ealculos Obediantia non est reducenda ad calculos hearts be like the heart of God as he doth great things for us let us doe in what we are able great things for God and good things for one another without number So much in generall of the proofe of Gods power by the Greatnesse c. of his works JOB Chap. 5. Vers 10 11 12. Who giveth raine upon the earth and sendeth waters upon the fields To set upon high those that be low that those which mourne may be exalted to safty He disappointeth the devices of the crafty so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise c. THis Context from the 9. to the 17. verse containes the second argument by which Eliphaz strengthens his exhortation upon Job to seek unto God The argument speakes to this efect He is to be sought and unto him our cause is to be committed who is of absolute power infinite in wisedome and goodnesse But such is God Therefore seeke to him and commit thy cause unto him That God is of infinite power wisedome c. was proved in generall at the 9. verse by those foure adjuncts of his works Great unsearchable marvellous and without number And now at the 10. verse he begins his proofe by an enumeration of the particular effects of Gods power wisedome and goodnesse The first instance is in naturall things God doth great things and unsearchable marvellous things without number And would you know what those things are You need not goe farre to enquire there are things very neere unto us and very common among us which yet if they be well looked unto will advance the power wisedome and goodnesse of God Every shower of raine drops down this truth that God doth great things He giveth raine upon the earth and sendeth waters upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Generale nomen est ad quamcunque plaviam Non desunt qui puâ—ant cognationeÌ„ habere cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod est humectari quòd pluvia liquesanâ—at humectet dissolvat dura Mercer fields There is not any difficulty about the meaning of these words which calls for stay in opening of them Therefore in briefe The Hebrew word for Raine in out letters Matar is so neere in
assault This the Greeke seemes to favour rendring it thus Though we have laine between the inheritances or the lots sc our own and the enemies either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. Ainsworth way the sense reaches this point fully Though Beleevers lye among the pots or ncarest dangers yet they are assured that they shall have wings as the wings of a Dove which are covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold There is gold and silver in the eye of faith while there is nothing but blacknesse and death in the eye of sense yea faith assures them that they shall be white as snow in Salmon as it follows in that Psalme that is they shall have whitenesse after blacknesse or light in the midst of darknesse Salmon signifies darke duskish or obscure for it was a hill full of pits holes and glins very darke and dangerous for passengers but when the snow was upon it it was white and glistering now saith he they shal be like Salmon in the snow though black in themselves yet white lightsome and glorions either through pardon of sin or victory over their enemies to both which whitenesse hath reference in Scripture Againe In that it is said At destruction and famine thou shalt Non solum singulas arumnas superabit sed omnium illarum in unum coeuntiam agmen Integrum ex omnibus exâ—rcitum fâ—gabiâ— laugh as from that word laughing we see what spirits the Saints have in troublesome times So inasmuch as he gathers together and rally's all the scattered troopes of afflictions to charge at once upon a beleever and yet concludes At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh Observe That A godly man laughs at or is above all evils though brought against him at once It hath been said That Hercules could not match two here are two Destruction and famine overmatcht by one bring whole legions and armies of troubles to encounter a Saint he overcomes them all He famishes famine and destroyes destruction it selfe The Apostle Rom. 8. 35. musters up as it were all evils together into a body and dares any or all to battell with a beleever Who shall separate us from the love of God shall tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednesse or perrill or sword which of these shall undertake the challenge or will you bring any more then come life or death Angels or principalities or powers things present or things to come height or depth or any other creature none of these single nor all of these joyned shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Every heightned Saint is a spirituall Goliah who in the name of the living God bids defiance to this huge host and they all run and tremble before him Rejoyce saith the Apostle James 1. 2. when you fall into divers tempatations A beleever hath joy not only when he grapleth with a single temptation but let there come many divers temptations variety of temptations variety for kind and multitude for number yet he rejoyceth in the middest of all Neither shalt thou be affraid of the beasts of the earth Having thus lifted a godly man above the afflicting reach of those two great evils famine and destruction want of good things and spoiling of their goods he proceeds to instance another great evill wherein a godly man is exempt from and set above fear Neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth Beasts of the earoh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vita vivents bestia fera The root of that word signifies life and so any living creature especially a wild beast because they are so active and full of life therefore they are named from life And these are called the beasts of the earth First Because beasts are produced from the earth and the earth received a charge to produce them Gen. 1. 24 25. And God said let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind and God made the Beast of the earth after his kind Or secondly Because Beasts have nothing but earth to live upon as men whose portion is only in creatures are called men of the world or men of the earth The word for * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Complectitur totum terrarum orbeÌ„ tum habitabilem tum qui non est habitabliis deductum volunt a verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 curraâ—e vel quia coelum perpetuo rotatu circa terram currit vel quâ—d omnia animalia currant super faciem terrae earth signifies the whole earth habitable or inhabitable And though the earth stand still yet this word is derived say some from running either because the heavens runne round aboui the earth with a continuall rotation or motion or because all creatures men and beasts move or run upon the face of the earth Though others deduce it from a word which signifies to desire Alii à verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. voluiâ— conâ—upiviâ— deductum voluat eo quod terra jugiter appetat afferre wish or will a thing because the earth is perpetually desirous of bringing forth fruit for the use and helpe of man But it is not agreed on what we are to understand by the beasts of the earth First Some take the words improperly and so the beasts of the earth are interpreted men A company or society of men and these in a double sense For the word notes sometimes a company of men in a good sense and sometimes a company of men in an ill sense I shall give you an instance of both for the clearing of this text It signifies men or a company of men in a good sense Psal 68. 10. where speaking of that raine of liberalities that is blessings of all sorts which God sent upon his inheritance to confirme and refresh it he saith Thy Congregation hath dwelt therein Thy camp or leagure thy host or troop dwelt there so 2 Sam. 23. 13. which the vulgar translates Thy beasts and the Greeke Thy living Animalia tua habitabunt in ijs Vulg. Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 creatures dwelt therein The same word is used and some apprehend in allusion to this Psalme Rev. 4. 6. Chap. 5. 8 9 in those mysticall descriptions of Christ and his Church In this sense it suites not at all with the promise of the text These beasts are not to be feared but honoured and loved mans greatest spirituall comforts on earth are found in the society of these beasts But commonly this word referred unto men signifies an association of wicked men men of the earth worse many of them then the beasts of the earth These are spoken of in the same Psalme ver 30. Rebuke the company of speare men or Archers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The rout or crue of the Cane that is men that beare reeds or canes whereof speares and arrowes were wont to be made therefore the
againe according to which the web was woven on for fifteen yeares more But this speech of Hezekiah as a weaver I have cut off my life is like that of the Apostle I have finished my course He compares the passing of his life to a shuttle and the conclusion of it to the cutting off of the thread Nights and dayes passe this shuttle forward and backward to and againe the night casts it to the day and the day to the night beween these two time quickly weares off the thred of life The heathen Poets had a fiction answering this allusion of the holy Ghost they tell us a story or a fiction rather of three sisters whereof the one held the wheele or the distaffe the Tres Parcae elotho Lachesis Atropos second drew out the thred and a third cut it off In this they shadow the state of mans life our ordinary phrase for living long is spinning a long thred and for dying the cutting off the thred of life And they are spent without hope Some translate they are spent so as that there is no hope left The word which here we 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 english spent signifies both consumption and consummation or sometimes in a good sense the end or perfecting of a thing and sometime in an ill sense the end or consuming of a thing Gen. 2. 1. So the Heavens and the earth were finished It is this word they were ended God ended his works by way of perfection and consummation he made his work compleate But here and often in Scripture it notes ending by way of consumption or as we translate the spending of a thing Jer. 14. 12. I will consume or make an end of them by the sword And Exod. 33. 3. God commands Moses to goe with the people into the wildernesse for saith he I will not goe up in the midst of them lest I consume them in the way And to shew how deep an expence and consumption of time was upon him Job tells us it had devoured and eaten up all his hope It is worse to have our hope spent then to have our dayes spent now saith he my dayes are spent and that is not all my hope is spent Some translate so my dayes are spent and I have Cum inopia spei vel defectu spei sc longioris vitae want or penury of hope as I have spent my dayes so I have spent my hope And his hopelessenesse may refer two wayes I have no hope or my hope is spent First in regard of long life I see I am so afflicted with this disease that there is no hope I should hold out under it Secondly without hope that is without hope of being in a better condition that is of having my estate restored unto me again if I should have health restored and a longer life continued In both these sences as he saw the thred of his dayes cut off so he saw the thred of his hope cut off he was near death and his hope was dead My dayes are spent without hope or there is no hope remaining This also is a negative to both parts of Eliphaz his promise either of longer life or of a better We may observe hence first a common truth which I shall not insist upon about that pretious commodity a commodity more pretious then the gold of Ophir Time All time is short and we have a very short estate in time Man is not master of one day and a servant but of few dayes The holy Ghost gives us very many remembrances of this which is an argument that we are very apt to forget it Man is slow to take notice of the swiftnesse of time and very dull in apprehending the speed of his dayes It is a wonder that such a plaine common doctrine should be handled so often and that the Holy Ghost should as it were labour for similitudes and fetch in all things that are more then ordinarily transitory in nature to teach us the transitorinesse of our condition We meete with many in this booke all hinting at the sudden invisible motion of time This is a point easie to be known but very hard to be beleeved every man assents to it but few live it And surely the holy Ghost would not spend so many words about it nor gather up so many illustrations of it from sence if it were not of much importance to our faith We usually slight the hearing of common principles â—nd a Sermon preacht upon this subject the shortnesse of our lives and the speed of time is judg'd a needlesse shortning of time and the houre seemes very long which runs out upon the speed of time we think it an easie doctrine and a Theame for boyes But the truth is if the heart did well disgest how few our dayes are we should have better dayes and men would live holier if they knew indeed their lives were no longer Therefore though I only touch this subject yet doe ye dwell upon it and stay long in your thoughts upon the shortnesse of your lives Common truths neglected cause a neglect of every truth Had we more serious thoughts of Heaven and hell that these are and what these are that there is a God and who he is that there will be a judgement and what it will be we should more profitably improve and trade our time and talents Secondly note Time passeth irrecoverably When the weavers shuttle is once out of his hand 't is gone presently there is no hope time past should be recalled or time in motion stopt To consider time under that notion should make us very good husbands of our time or as the Apostle advises to redeeme the time Redemptions are made by purchase to redeem a thing is to buy it with a price the price we redeeme time with is our labourand faithfull travell It is matter of mourning to consider that so little care is taken in spending that which when it is gone we have no hope it can be restored to us again Thirdly In that Iob complained before that his life was so long and now complaineth of the shortnesse or swiftnesse of his life we may note That Man thinks good daies end too soone and that evill dayes stay too long or will never have an end We love the company of good dayes and are therefore sorry when they depart When the Disciples were upon the Mount and had such a good day of it how desirous were they to have continued there and sorry they were the day was at an end Master saith Peter it is good for us to be here The sudden passing of our comforts is our trouble Time is alwayes of the same pace no creature keeps his pace more evenly then time doth it alwayes moves at the same rate neither faster nor slower but man thinks this time short and that time long this time speedy and that time slow according to the severall objects he meets with and to the conditions
never fill our dayes are but as a dream And what is spoken in Isaias Chap. 29. 8. concerning the dreamer is verified of a meere naturall life It is saith the Prophet As when a hungry man dreameth and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soule is empty or as when a thirsty man dreameth and behold he drinketh but he awaketh and behold he is faint neither hunger nor thirst can be appeased by dreames satisfaction comes not in at the doore of imagination Our daies of themselves can give us no more satisfaction no better a break-fast then a dreame of meat and drinke doth to a hungry or a thirsty man All creatures are not able to fill one There is a satisfaction which comes to us thorough the creature but the creature doth not satisfie God can make any thing satisfie the least of his creatures shall fill the greatest He can give us as much as we expect from them that is looke what satisfaction a man would have from a creature that God can give when he pleaseth But the daies of man are vanity in this because we cannot take this satisfaction our selves from the creature neither is any creature able to give it us When creatures have done their best we are hungry and restlesse still empty and unsatisfied still There is no rest till we returne to God or till God turne his face to us Fourthly the vanity of our daies appears in this that they are deceiveable daies that 's very vaine to us which deceives us And in this the great vanity of the creature consists it promiseth much and performeth nothing Great promises are made and hopes are raised very high Riches will tell us what they will doe for us and honours will tell us what they will doe for us and how happy they will make us and the wine will tell us O how that will refresh us and the sweet and the fat will tell us how they will fatten us All these make golden promises but leaden performances They cannot make good what they promise unlesse they can with evill As Satan said to Christ when he had not so much as a shoelaâ—chet to dispose of All this will I give thee So the creature joyning with our hearts makes wonderfull promises of high content and then leaves us most discontented This is vanity and vexation of mans spirit If the creature were not so free to enter bond and give us security for the paiment of great good it would not be so ill with us If the creature would say directly to us it is not in me as Job brings in the creatures disclaiming wisedome chap. 28. The sea saith it is not in me and the earth saith it is not in me So if creatures would speak plainly comfort is not in us help is not in us satisfaction is not in us and so tell us how vaine they are their vanity were lesse to us though the same in it selfe It is worse to be deceived of good then to want it Surely saith David of this life every man walketh in a vaine shew Psal 39. 6. there is a shew of this and that and the other Qnasi nihil habeat humana vita verum solidâ—m sed apparens umbratile imag narium thing a promise of it but it is a vain shew it is but like a Pageant which feeds the eye and delights the fancie or pleases the eare but passeth away and leaveth you as empty as before In the fifth verse of that Psalme the inventory of mans temporall estate is summed up and the totall amounts but to this Every man at his best estate is altogether vanity and least any should think he hath miscounted an affirmation is prefixt Surely every man at his best estate is altogether vanity Every man is vanity and every man is vanity at his best estate not only in his afflictions and in his losses in his troubles and in his sorrows such as Job now was in but take a man in the height and perfection and accomplishment of all creature comforts and accrewments take the cream the pith the marrow the sweetnesse of all extract a quintessence of all that can be had in creatures all is vanity Man at his best estate is vanity yea altogether vanity When Cain was born there was much adoe about his birth I have got a man-child from God saith his mother she looked upon him as a great possession and therefore called his name Cain which signifies a possession But the second man that was born into the world bare the title of the world vanity his name was Abel which is the word here used They called his name Abel that is vanity a premonition was given in the name of the second Abel viventium â—mâ—ium typus representatio Pined man what would or should be the condition of all men Psal 144. 4. there is an allusion unto those two names we translate it Man is like to vanity the Hebrew is Adam is as Abel Adam you know was the name of the first man the name of Abels father but as Adam was the proper name of the first so it is an appellative or common to all men now Adam that is man or all men are Abel vaine and walking in a vaine shadow And this word is by some translated nothing his dayes are nothing Temtus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pined Idols are nothing time is but the Idol of eternity and things temporall but the Idol of things eternall This word signifies in the Hebrew an Idol and a vaine thing Deut. 32. 31. Jer. 2. 5. the word Abel is translated Idol and the Apostle 1 Cor. 8. tells us that an Idol is nothing in the world that is an Idol is the vainest thing in the world or the greatest vanity So that upon the matter our estate and our dayes here are but an Idol that is the representation of a thing which is not so much vanity and folly so much trouble and sorrow so much affliction is mixed with the dayes and life we now leade as A nothing is all it can justly be called or an Idol a shew of what is not And therefore we may well make it an argument as Job here to take us off from the world and to chide worldlings with as David did Psal 4. O ye sons of men how long will yee love vanity or as Solomon about that adored Idol of the world riches Prov. 23. 5. wilt thou set thine eyes or as the Originall wilt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou cause thine eyes to fly upon that which is not An Eagle will not catch flies that 's no game for her much lesse will she make a flight at nothing when there is no game sprung at all And wilt thou make a flight with thy heart for the eye which Solomon chiefely intends is the eye of the soul when nothing springs before thee but that which is not To close this point if the creature be so vaine and
In Heaven our time knows no bounds there are no termes or distinctions in eternity Seasons and variety of times vanish and shall not be heard of in Heaven Eterenity is time fixt But there is an appointed time To man upon earth The word is Enosh miserable weake fraile man is there not an appointed time to this man upon earth that is while he walks in this lower region of the world and lives on mould The summe of all may be thus conceived as if Job had said Singulis dichâ—â— sua certaminae praesto sunt adeo non nisi cum ipso vitae terminautor labores vitae ac proinde se cuâ—dum naturam finem vitae expeto Jun. Every day hath evill annexed some affliction or other waites upon every houre so that there is no period of mans sorrow but the period of his life and therefore I walk by the rule of sound reason when that I might see an end of my trouble I call for the end of my daies Observe hence first The life of man is measured out by the will of God Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth There is As God hath set out bounds and limits to the sea Hitherto thou shalt come and no further by a perpetuall decree so he hath also set out bounds and limits to the life of man his life it is an appointed time Thus far the line of thy life shall reach and no further We live not at adventures neither can our care lengthen out our own dayes As all our care cannot adde one cubit to our stature so not one minute to our glasse or houre And as we cannot lengthen so we cannot shorten our own dayes in respect of this appointed time They who die in a time when God forbids yet die when God appoints And they live â—ut all Gods time who wickedly shorten their owne They cut their thread of life but they cannot cut the thread of Gods decree we live not at our own will but at the will of God we are tenants at his will in these houses of clay He is the maker of time and the measurer of our dayes he gives us the lease of our lives for what yeares he pleases and it is most fit that he who created time should dispose of time God is the Lord of time and farmes it out as and to whom he thinks good Christ might doe what he pleased upon the Sabbath for saith he the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath God is the Lord of time and therefore hath power to appoint to one more to another lesse My times saith David are in thy hand Psal 31. 15. Thou mayest lengthen or shorten continue or break them off as thy pleasure is Some live as if they were masters of time and could appoint out their own term as if they lived at their own discretion and could make a covenant with the grave and agree with death when to come for them They article with it for this yeare and the next rhey say to the grave thou shalt not take me yet thou shalt spare me yet I have such ends to drive such pleasures to take before I would die They Isa 56. 12. speak as if their tongues and their time were their own and they knew no Lord of either To morrow shall be as this day and much more aboundant they speak of the next day as if they could command it and bid it come to serve their lusts That wretched rich man Lu. 12. could say soul take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many yeares see how liberall he is to his soule out of anothers right and because he had got a great stock of riches he gives himself a rich stock of time many yeares He resolved to make his life larger as he had done his barns and because they were full of corne he also will be full of dayes whereas the word came Thou foole this night shall thy soule be taken from thee And he could not live till next morning who resolved upon many yeares to live Secondly observe That the decrees of God concerning our lives must not lessen our care to preserve our lives Is their not an appointed time to Non in absurdum trabenda est haec Iobi sententia ut temere se quispiam periculis objiciat quia spatium vitae definitum est man upon earth Yes that there is man lives at Gods appointment but he must not live upon that appointment that is withdraw himself from meanes of his preservation and say God hath appointed how long I shall live therefore what need I take care how to live or what need I take care for the preserving of my life As it is in spirituals so also in temporals God hath determined and appointed the portion of every man all comes under a decree under an everlasting and unmoveable decree yet the decree which is past concerning us must not take us from our care about our selves Though only the elect are saved yet none are saved by their election Infants who attaine not the use of reason much lesse the actings of grace yet are not saved barely by election what they cannot doe is done for them they are saved as elect in Christ not precisely as elect how they are united to Christ we know not but we know they must be united or else they could not be saved But they who grow in yeares must also grow in the graces of sanctification otherwise they are not saved by the grace of election The decree of God appoints us to salvation but the decree of God doth not save us we must runne through all the second causes and wayes which the word of God hath chalked out to eternal life and glory Thus also our temporall life passeth under a decree it is by appointment but woe unto those that shall say God hath appointed how long I shall live therefore what need I take care about my life This is to walk contrary to one part of the decree while we seeme to submit unto the other For God who appoints life appoints all the means which concerne the preservation of life It hath no shadow of a warrant for any man to cast himself upon needlesse dangers or to forbear necessary helps for the sustaining of his life because he heares his time is appointed and that his dayes one earth are all reckoned and numbred to him from Heaven Thirdly for as much as there is an appointed time we should learne patience and wait quietly upon God It is not in creatures be they never so angry to prolong the time of our sorrows The same word which shews us that our life is a warfare shews us also that it is an appointed time Men cannot appoint you one moments trouble or lengthen this warre when God will shorten it Our haires are numbred much more our daies Honour God and have good thoughts of him for whether your times be faire or foule calme or
stormy they are appointed times The whole life of man on earth is ordered in heaven Fourthly if our lives are for an appointed time we should be willing to die when God cals All the time we would live beyond that is of our own appointment and we should be willing to live till God cals for all that 's appointed time As it is sinfull not to be willing to do though it be burdensom what God appoints so is it likewise not to be willing to live what time God appoints though it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mercendarius a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coÌ„duxit Mercenarius est qui in certum tempus conduâ—itur saepe in die quem ideo Graeci vocant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sicut in unico die operario quamdiu lucet sol noâ— est ulla requies mercenario constituâ—aÌ„ ita dum luce hujus vitae fruimur nulla nobis requies expectauda est be painfull and troublesome And are not his daies like the daies of an hireling An hireling is he who works a set time for a set reward And so this latter clause of the verse is the same in sence with the former Is there not an appointed time to man and are not his daies like the daies of an hireling That is are not his daies set as an hireling with whome we agree for so many daies or for such a day An hireling We may take him either for a hired souldier a mercenary in warre or for an hired servant a mercenary in work An hireling in either notion is called to labour sorrow and sweat Such is the common condition of man His daies are as the daies of an bireling God threatneth Moab by the Prophet in this language Isa 16. 14. Within three yeares as the years of an hireling and the glory of Moab shall be contemned that is within three years which shall be like the years of an hireling troublesome years laborious years vexatious yeares wearisome yeares and then the glory of Moab shall be contemned and utterly despised As if he had said Moab is now in great glory but near great desolation You shall see three years trouble will staine all the glory of Moab and wither all her beauty we feele this truth England was a Nation of great glory you see how two or three years like the years of an hireling troublesome years years of affliction years of hard labour and travell have almost spoil'd the glory of it And yet here Job makes a generall description of the life of man It is not the lot only of some poore afflicted hard-wrought servants that their daies are as the daies of an hireling he speakes of man-kind of the master as well as of the servant His daies are like the daies of an hireling We may note from it First That Except we labour we ought not to eat For the dayes of man are as the daies of an hireling the hireling shall not have his meat except he worke for it neither ought he that hires or sets him a worke The master is in this sence an hireling The Saints are in this sence Hirelings The Apostle speakes to believers and reproves them 2 Thess 3. 12. There are some which walke among you inordinately working not at all now them that are such we command that they work and eat their own bread and ver 10. If any man work not let him not eat even they whom Christ hath made free are to account themselves as hired servants that is they must not eat the bread of idlenesse we steale all the bread which one way or other we labour not for and therefore the Apostle bids the Thessalonians work that they might eat their own bread It is not our own bread which we buy with our mony unlesse we pay in what we can and are called to labour for it also As we eat that bread pleasantly so we come by it honestly which is dipt in our owne sweat Secondly we are hence taught That We ought to take our travels well we must not murmur at our labours or complain over our work and say what a wearinesse is it As the Lord cannot bear it that any should murmur at spirituall worke or say with them in the Prophet What a wearinesse is it so it is very displeasing to him to say of our callings and the burdens of them What a wearinesse are they Why It is the common condition of man Why then should we quarrel with that law of labour which is become the portion of our mortality The corruption of our nature hath led us into this condition and made us all as hirelings Mans innocency had businesse but sin hath brought him to sweat and changed his labour into toile Man was put into the garden as Lord of it to dresse and till it but now he is put there as an hireling to sweat and toyle at it There is a stampe of servility and drudgery upon all the labours which the children of men take under the Sun That argument which the Apostle uses to support us in the bitternesse of affliction hath alike strength in it to comfort us in the toile somenesse of our labours As there is no temptation hath taken hold of us but that which is common to man 1 Cor. 10. 13. So there is no labour laid upon any of us in our lawfull callings but that which is common to man Even the Saints whom Christ hath made free and separated from the world are not freed from service while they are in the world And while Christ would not have them carefull in any thing he would have them industrious in every thing That Canon of the Apostle is clear for it 1 Cor. 7. 20. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called that is your spirituall calling doth not void your civill When you have learned to drive a trade for heaven you must still drive your trade on earth While there is any thing of sin in us there must be somewhat of the hireling in us There is not the most ingenious no nor the most spirituall labour we goe about but there is somewhat of the hireling in it in the duty of prayer in the duty of preaching there is somewhat of the hireling that is there is bodily paine and wearinesse a waste upon our strength and expence of our spirits Though in these things the Saints worke not for wages but their very works is their wages and their labour their reward though there be nothing mercenary in their spirits yet they feel the effects of a mercenary worke upon their bodies even wearinesse and waste of naturall strength and spirits Thirdly Seeing the daies of a man are as the daies of an hireling Observe There is a reward or wages somewhat followes the labour and travell of this life The hireling labours all day but at night he hath his reward Mat. 20. Christ compares beleevers even in their spirituall capacity unto labourers in