alone will not do it For that there may be an increase these five things must concur First The skill and industry of the Husband-man Secondly The strength and labour of the Ox or Horse Thirdly The vertue and fatness of the earth Fourthly The showers and influences of heaven Fifthly And above all the blessing of God Old Isaac said of his Son Jacob Gen. 27.27 See the smell of my Son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed As there is no increase without the blessing of God how much soever men or oxen labour so there is great increase the Lord adding his blessing by the labour of men and oxen Labour and increase usually go together and where no labour is there except by miracle is no increase Where no labour is the barn is empty the crib is empty the belly is empty the purse is empty Of doing nothing comes nothing but want and misery 'T is said when the Ox is weariest he treads surest To be sure they who are most wearied by honest pains-taking tread surest upon honest profit Secondly observe Seed sown is not lost but returns and comes home again That which was scattered abroad in the field is gathered into the barn Some may think when they see the Husbandman cast his seed into the ground that he casts it away but by the labour of the Ox by the skill of the Husbandman and the blessing of God upon all the seed cometh home again Thus the Apostle spake in a spiritual sense He that ploweth should plow in hope and he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope 1 Cor. 9.10 It should be so according to the ordination of God as to the faithful Ministers of God of whose labour in plowing up souls by the word and sowing those souls with the word the Apostle there treats And it is so through the benediction of God as to laborious Husband-men and their cattel in plowing and sowing the soyl of the earth Yea thus it is in all we do our actions good or bad are as seed sown which will certainly come again they will not be lost Good done will assuredly turn to good and evil done and not undone by repentance will as surely turn to evil The Apostle gives us this double assurance Gal. 6.7 8. Whatsoever a man soweth that not numerically but specifically shall he also reap For He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting And thus in special works of charity or our distributions to the necessities of others are more significantly called sowing Psal 112.9 He hath dispersed he hath given to the poor That is he hath sowed his alms abundantly what then It followeth His righteousness endureth for ever his horn shall be exalted with honor To give to the poor especially to Gods poor to the godly poor or to those that are made poor for Gods sake is sowing good seed and he that soweth thus shall receive a fruitful crop Grain sowed in the field may yield a good increase but that which is rightly sowed in the bowels of the poor shall certainly yield a better What we give is like seed sowed in the field which increaseth thirty sixty an hundred fold What we keep by us is like corn stored up in the garner which we bring forth and spend and there 's an end of it Here 's great encouragement to do good yea to abound in doing good to others What we so part with is not lost but sowed it will come back to the barn it will come home again and that with a great increase And doubtless where there hath been a plowing up of the heart by a work of grace there will be a free sowing in every good work And though we are not to do good works meerly eying a return or our personal advantage yet we may have an eye to it as Moses had in his holy sufferings and services to the recompence of reward yea and take incouragement from the Lords bounty to be more in duty more in charity even unto bounty We may consider the harvest while we are diligent in sowing yea to make us more diligent in sowing Having thus opened the several properties of this creature here called the Vnicorn properly taken and given out some meditations upon them it will not be I conceive either unuseful or unacceptable to the Reader if for the conclusion of the whole matter in hand I shew how the holy Scriptures together with some of the Ancients make use of this creature tropically or in a figure to resemble and represent First The state of the Church and people of God Thus Moses reports Balaam shadowing the power and blessedness of Israel when he came and was hired to curse them Numb 23.22 God saith he brought them that is the children of Israel out of Egypt he hath as it were the strength of an Vnicorn Most expound the word He collectively concerning that whole people as one body He that is Israel hath as it were the strength of an Vnicorn that is he is exceeding strong Some expound it of God He that is God who brought them out of Egypt the mighty God of Jacob hath as it were the strength of an Unicorn God is indeed infinitely strong stronger than the Unicorn That which is most eminent in any creature or for which any creature is most eminent the Scripture often ascribes in a way of super-eminency unto God The Lord hath strength like the strongest and how strong soever he is he is strong for his Israel yea he is the strength of his Israel So that if we take the word in this latter sense it reaches the same thing setting forth the power and strength of Israel by the strength of the Unicorn for the Lord who is their strength will make them strong like Unicorns Balaam spake thus again Numb 24.8 God brought him all Israel as one man out of Egypt he hath as it were the strength of an Vnicorn he shall eat up the Nations his enemies and shall break their bones and pierce them through with his arrows Thus also Moses spake or prophecyed of the Tribe of Joseph Deut. 33.17 His glory is like the firstling of his Bullock and his horns are like the horns of Vnicorns with them shall he push the people or peoples the word is plural together to the ends of the earth and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim and they are the thousands of Manasseh Moses sets out the fruitfulness of Ephraim beyond that of Manasseh ten for one and in both joyntly shews how powerful how prevailing they shall be even as if they pusht their enemies with horns like those of Unicorns In all these Scriptures the Lord fore-shewed the wonderful force of the Jewish Church of old his portion and peculiar people by that of the Unicorn David also as was said before expresseth his assurance of
ascend into the hill of the Lord c. and answered it vers 4 5. He that hath clean hands and a pure heart who hath not lift up his soul to vanity nor sworn deceitfully he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness that is a righteous reward or a reward according to righteousness from the God of his salvation Solomon asserts the present performance of what is only promised in this Psalm he saith not The just shall receive the blessing but they have actually received it Prov. 10.6 Blessings are upon the head of the just By the just man we may understand First him that is in a justified state or him that is just by faith Secondly him that walks in a just way or that do justly And they who are indeed justified are not only engaged by that high act of grace to do justly but are either constantly kept in doing so or are soon brought to see they have not done so and to repentance for it Just and upright men in these two notions are so much blessed that they are a blessing Prov. 11.11 By the blessing of the upright is the City exalted As an upright man wisheth and prayeth for a blessing upon the City where he liveth so he is a blessing to it and that no small one but to the greatning enriching and exaltation of it He that is good in his person becomes a common good to Cities yea to whole Nations such are a blessing because they receive so many blessings Pro. 28.20 A faithful man shall abound with blessings This faithful man is one that acts and doth all things faithfully as appears by his opposition in the same verse to him that maketh hast to be rich of whom the Text saith he shall not be innocent that is he must needs deal unfaithfully or unrighteously for in making such post-hast to riches he usually rides as we say over hedge and ditch and cannot keep the plain way of honesty Thirdly As they who are in a state of grace and they who act graciously in that state so they who worship holily or holy worshippers have a special promise of the blessing As Sion is the seat of holy worship so there the Lord commandeth the blessing upon holy worshippers Psal 133.3 And again Psal 115.12 13. He will bless the house of Israel he will bless the house of Aaron he will bless them that fear the Lord both small and great that is the generality of holy worshippers shall be blessed The fear of the Lord is often put in Scripture for the worship of the Lord and so they that fear him are the same with them that worship him Fourthly They are the blessed of the Lord who trust the Lord for all and so make him the all of their trust Psal 34.8 O tast and see that the Lord is gracious blessed is the man that trustith in him that is in him only or alone being convinced of the utter insufficiency of the creature That man is cursed who trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm Jer. 17.5 therefore pure trust in God hath the blessing Fifthly They that are a blessing unto others shall have the blessing from the Lord. What it is to be a blessing to others read at large in the 29th Chapter of this Book vers 11. and in 31. Chapter vers 20. They that do good to others they especially who do good to the souls of others are a blessing to others Now they who do good they shall receive good themselves Prov. 11.25 The liberal shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself He that watereth is a common good a blessing to the place where he lives a blessing to the rich a blessing to the poor a blessing to relations a blessing to strangers upon such the Scripture assures the blessing of the Lord. Sixthly They who promote the worship and service of God they that are friends to the Ark of God shall be blessed 2 Sam. 6.11 The Lord blessed the house of Obed-edom because he entertained the Ark shewed kindness to the Ark and was ready to do any service for the Ark of God he will be a friend to the true friends of his Church Seventhly They shall receive a blessing of God who strive in prayer for his blessing Jacob was blessed but he wâ—estled for it They that would have it must ask it with a gracious importunity they that seek it diligently shall find it These are the chief characters of the persons whom the Lord will bless And seeing his blessing is so effectual for the procurement of our good we should above all things labour to procure his blessing When Jacob wrestled with the Angel he asked nothing of him but a blessing Gen. 32.26 He did not say I will not let thee go except thou deliver me from my brother Esau he did not say I will not let thee go unless thou make me rich or great he only said I will not let thee go except thou bless me let me be blessed and let me be what thou wilt or I can be What should we desire in comparison of the blessing of God seeing his blessing strictly taken is the fruit of his fatherly love A man may be rich and great and honoured among men yet not beloved but he that is indeed blessed is certainly beloved of God Esau could not obtain the blessing Now what saith the Lord by the Prophet of him as the Apostle quotes the Prophet Rom. 9.13 Esau have I hated Esau got much riches but he could not get the blessing for he was hated of the Lord and therefore it is said Heb. 12.17 He found no place for repentance though he sought it carefully with tears that is he could not make Isaac repent of blessing Jacob though through a mistake yet according to Gods appointment he could not prevail with him no not by tears to take off the blessing from his brother Jacob and place it upon himself And the reason why the blessing remained with Jacob was because he was loved of God The blessing must go where the love goes The loved of the Lord are and shall be blessed and they who are blessed have all good with a blessing Read Gen. 24.35 Gen. 26.13 Gen. 28.3 2 Sam. 6.11 Psal 107.38 Yea as God giveth all good with a blessing so he giveth himself who is the chief good best of all and blessed for evermore to those whom he blesseth Then how should we desire the blessing of God or to be blessed by God It is wonderful how passionately and even impatiently the Votaries of Rome desire the Popes blessing they think themselves made men if they can but have his blessing I have read of a Cardinal who seeing the people so strangely desirous of his blessing Quando quidem populus hic vult decipi dicipiatur said Seeing this people will be deceived let them be deceived But we cannot be too desirous of a blessing from
c. The Hebrew Text doth not expresse this Adverb of time there 't is onely the Lord answered but we well supply it rendering then the Lord answered as if the Penman had said at that very nick instant or juncture of time the Lord came in the words were no sooner out of the mouth of Elihu he had no sooner concluded his speech with Job but the Lord began and answered Job and if the Lord had not just then interposed possibly Job might have replyed and a new heat might have risen to the encreasing of his troubles and the inflaming of all their Spirits as was hinted before therefore the Lord to stop all further proceedings or speech between them two began presently to speak himself Then the Lord answered Take this Observation from it The Lord will appear in the fittest season It was time for the Lord to appear lest this poor man should have been utterly swallowed up with sorrows and over-whelmed with his affliction or lest he should have been drawn out too long and too far in his bitter complainings and impatiency The Lord is a God of judgement blessed are they that wait for him Isa 30.18 He is a wise God and knows how to time every action he knowes when to appear when to shew himself As he himself will not contend for ever Isa 57.16 so neither will he let others contend overlong least the Spirit should sail before him and the soules which he hath made This is a comfortable truth with respect both to Nations and Persons both to the case of the Church of God in general and of every believer in particular The Apostle Peter having counselled the afflicted to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God 1 Pet. 5.6 addes this encouragement in the next words to do so that he may exalt you in due time though not in your time nor at your day the day when you would have him do it yet he will do it in time and in due time that is when it shall be most fit and best for you Thus he appeared to and for Job in the Text when the sorrowes of his heart were enlarged and when he had most need of such an appearance The Lord knows how at any time and when 't is the most proper time to relieve his servants Then The Lord answered Job The word here used is Jehovah and several of the Learned take notice that it is here used with a special significancy for in the discourses of Job and his friends throughout this Book other names of God are if not universally yet mostly used as Elshaddai Eloah c. In the first Chapter indeed where God is spoken of by the divine Historian or sacred Penman of this History he is named Jehovah as also in some other such like places but in the body of the dispute not so And two reasons may be given of it First The name Jehovah imports the Being of God and therefore God himself being about to speak of his giving a Being to the whole Creation and to several sorts of creatures he is most properly represented by his name Jehovah which as it implyeth that he is the First Being the Fountain of his own Being or that he is of himself so that he gives a Being to all things and that in him as the Apostle told the great Philosophers of Athens Acts 17. we live and move and have our being Secondly The Lord though he came in a Whirle-wind yet manifested himself in a clearer light to Job than ever he had done before Now as in the third of Exodus when the Lord sent Moses to the people of Israel to bring them up out of Egypt to Canaan which was a great work one of the greatest that was ever done in the world and in which the Lord made the most glorious discovery of his Power Justice and Mercy when God I say sent Moses upon this service he said unto him Exod. 6.2 3. I am the Lord I am Jehovah and I appeared unto Abraham unto Isaac and unto Jacob by the Name of God Almighty but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them God being about to make himself more known in the world than he had been to that day by his dreadful plagues upon Pharaoh and the miraculous deliverance of his people out of Egypt as he said chap. 9.16 And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up for to shew in thee my power and that my name may be declared in all the earth The Lord I say being about to doe these great things for the manifestation of his own greatness gave this charge to Moses at the sixth verse of the sixth chapter before mentioned Wherefore say unto the children of Israel I am Jehovah and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians c. Thus in this latter part of the book of Job the Lord being about to loosen the bonds of Jobs affliction and to ease him of his burden as also to declare and manifest himself more clearly to him than formerly as he confessed chap. 42.5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the eare but now mine eyes have seen thee he therefore assumed his great name Jehovah Then the Lord Answered Job c. But some may say Job had not spoken lately much lesse last Elihu spake out six whole Chapters since Job spake a word and though Elihu gave him the liberty yea almost provoked him to speak yet he laid his hand upon his mouth he spake not a word How then can it be said The Lord answered Job To avoid this difficulty Some render Then the Lord answered concerning or about Job And these turn the whole discourse of God in this and the next Chapter upon Elihu in favour of Job I shall touch upon that opinion and interpretation as was said afterwards but at present affirm that Job was the person to whom the Lord here directed his Answer and to take off this doubt how the Lord could be said to answer Job when Job had not spoken last but Elihu I answer as upon a like occasion it hath been elsewhere shewed in this book ch 3.2 that sometimes in Scripture a Speech begun is called an Answer where nothing had been spoken before to which that speech could be applied in way of answer Matth. 11.25 Matth. 17.4 The reason of this Hebraisme is because such as begin to speak do either answer the necessity of the matter or the desire of the hearers and so they give a real and vertual though not a formal Answer Yet there are two considerations in which we may apply the word Answer formally and strictly taken to Job First If we consider Job's wishes and requests Secondly If we consider Job's complaints and though the word be somewhat hard his murmurings The Lord may be said to answer Job as to his wish desire or request because Job had earnestly desired and requested more than once that God would take
assureth us there is not a drop that falleth but he takes notice of it and therefore saith by his knowleâ—ge the Clouds drop down Dew And indeed such and so wonderful is the destillation of the Dew that it may well be said to drop even through his divine fingers The Dew is very useful and beneficial to the earth two wayes or in two things chiefly First Iâ— moystens the earth Secondly It cools the earth When Isaac was giving the blessing to Jacob he put this in particularly Gen. 27.28 God give thee of the Dew of Heaven the fatness of the earth and plenty of Corn and Wine implying that the fatness of the earth causing plenty of Corn and Wine is caused by the Dew of Heaven Answerable to this blessing given by Isaac to his son Jacob is that promise or prophesie given out by Moses Deut. 33.28 The Fountain of Jacob shall be upon a Land of Corn and Wâ—ne also his Heavens shall drop down Dew By the Fountain of Jacob some understand the posterity of Jacob or the whole house of Israel spread abâ—oad like the overflowing of a Fountain to which David seems to allude Psal 68.26 Bless ye God in the Congregations even the Lord from the Fountain of Israel or as the words may be rendred Ye that are of the Fountain of Israel Now saith Moses in that Prophesie The Fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine that is upon a plentiful land also his heavens shall drop down Dew that is he shall have the best blessings of heaven Temporal blessings as Canaan was of heaven being but a shadow of spiritual and eternal blessings And when the Lord would shew how plentious in mercy chiefly in spiritual mercies he would be to his people he saith Hosea 14.5 6. I will be as a Dew unto Israel and he shall grow as the Lilly and cast forth his roots as Lebanon his branches shall spread and his beauty shall be as the Olive tree and his smell as Lebanon Thus the Lord spake by the Prophet in allusion to those great effects which the natural Dew produceth on Earth Solomon having said Prov. 19.12 that the just and deserved wrath of a King is like the roaring of a lion presently adds but his favour is as the Dew upon the grass that is he exceedingly comforts and refresheth the hearts of all upon whom his favour falls And when the Prophet Micah chap. 5.7 would shew how great a blessing the people of God would be to any place where they were cast he saith The remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people how as Dew from the Lord and as showers upon the grass By the remnant of Jacob he means the chosen and faithful remainder of Jacob after many scatterings and trials those few of the people of God in the midst of the world wheresoever they are shall be as Dew upon the g ass that is they shall be a great blessing to them The woâ—ld will scarce let that remnant be any where in some places of the world there are scarce any of them yet see of what benefit they are to any place They are as Dew from the Lord. The Apostle useth such an expression concerning himself and other faithful Ministers of the Gospel 2 Cor. 2.15 We are unto God a sweet favour of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish that is we are a means of salvation and eternal life to them that are saved and we offer eternal life and salvation to them that perish So saith the Prophet concerning all the remnant of Jacob they shall be in the midst of many people as a dew upon the grass that waiteth not for man nor tarrieth for the son of man they shall be as a Dew from the Lord that is there shall be a great multitude of them and they shall be as a Dew that is they shall distill sweetly upon those many people as a Dew from the Lord and as the showres upon the grass that tarrieth not for man nor waiteth for the sons of men The grass in the field is not watered by man as herbs and flowers in a garden are and therefore may be said not to tarry nor to depend upon man nor upon the sons of men but upon God for the Dew and Showers of heaven to water it Thus those many people shall have help and sweet supplies though men neglect them yet God will take care of them and send the remnant of Jacob some or other that are faithful to be as a Dew from him upon them to make them grow and be fruitful Before I pass from this verse we may consider a threefold allusion of the Dew First To Christ himself One of the Ancients expounding that place Judges 6.37 40. where Gideon desired as a sign from the Lord that he would save Israel by his hand that the Dew might fall on the fleece the floor remaining dry and afterward that the Dew might fall upon the floor the fleece remaining dry concludes Ros in vellere Christus in virgine Rupertus in Hos 14. The Dew in the fleece is Christ in the Virgin Jesus Christ indeed came down from heaven as the Dew for the refreshing and comforting of poor sinners he came down also as a Dew to make us fruitful and grow as the Lilly and to cast forth our roots as Lebanon Secondly In the Dew there is an allusion to the word of God preached The dispensers of the Gospel are compared to Clouds Moses was a Cloud and his speech distilled as the dew Deut. 32.2 that is it came down sweetly and efficaciously As the manna and the dew fell together Exod. 16.12 14. so the graces comforts and powers of the Spirit come with the word there 's dew with the Manna and Manna with the dew When the dew of divine doctrine comes down Christ the Manna comes down too Thirdly It carries in it an allusion to that sweetness of affection that is among brethren Psal 133.1 Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwel together in unity then follows vers 3. As the dew of Hermon and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion for there the Lord commanded the blessing even life for evermore Love and unity among brethren is like dew it refresheth them and makes them fruitful They who provoke one another to love will also to good works Heb. 10.24 Unity makes a great increase Small things grow great by concord Concordia parvae res crescunt discordia magnae dilabuntur whereas discord dwindleth or reduceth great things to little things and at last to nothing So much of Gods Father-hood or relation to the Rain and Dew In the next words he is pleased to enquire of Job concerning the original of Ice and Frost Verse 29. Out of whose womb came the Ice These words are an elegant Metaphor taken from Child-bearing What woman can the Ice call Mother
thy labour to hâ—m This latter part of the Verse is of the same importance with the former yet I shall touch a little upon it Wilt thou leave thy labour to him Labour is taken in Scripture two ways First For the very act of labour Jacob said Gen. 31.42 God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands God knows said he to Laban what pains I have taken what hard work I have been at in thy service and how hard he had been at work he told Laban ver 40. Thus I was in the day the drought consumed me and the frost by night and my sleep departed from me To such hard work in spirituals the Apostle exhorts Be stedfast and unmoveable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Labor à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 laboravit defatigatus fuit always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 The word in the Text which we render labour signifieth a labouring to weariness or a labour which causeth weariness Strong labour diligent labour wearieth a strong man and though an industrious person is not weary of his labour yet he may be wearied with his labour yea the more industrious he is in labouring the sooner he may be wearied with his labour Secondly Labour is taken sometimes for the fruit of labour or for that which is got by labour the reward and wages given and received for work and service done is called labour Psal 128.2 Thou shalt eat the labour of thy hands No man can eat the acts of his labour but every man should eat the fruit of his labour labour brings in bread and that bread is sweetest which comes in by labour The Lord threateneth his people Deut. 28.33 strangers shall eat thy labour that is the encrease that comes in or hath been gotten by thy labour even that which thou hast laboured for And it was a mercy bestowed by the Lord upon his Israel Psal 105.44 that they inhâ—rited the labour of the people that is they dwelt in the houses which they had built and enjoyed the gardens which they had planted reaped the fields which they the Heathen had sowed In a word they had the fruit of all their labours Some understand the word here in this latter sence Wilt thou leave thy labour unto him that is Fruges tuas labore tuo partas Pisc wilt thou allow him any of the fruit of thy ground seeing he refuseth to work in thy ground surely thou wilt not Labouring cattel have somewhat for their labour they share in those good things which are the product of their labour 1 Cor. 9.9 Thou shalt not muzzel the Oxe that treadeth out the corn But though it is a truth that labouring cattel eat of and are fed with the fruit of their labour yet here by labour I understand the very act of labour not the fruit of it Wilt thou leave thy labour to him that is wilt thou leave thy business with him wilt thou trust him with thy Plow or with thy Harrow And consider the dependance if thou darest not trust him then thou wilt not leave thy labour unto him Note hence First It is not Wisdom to leave our work to such as we cannot trust Our work will be ill done or half done or not done at all by those that we cannot trust We trust those much to whom we leave our business and there are three things requisite in those to whom we leave it First That they have strength and ability for it there is a necessity of that No wise man will trust or leave his business with him that hath no strength to do it no ability for it Secondly That they be subject and obedient to us No wise man will leave his business in the hand of those who acknowledge no obedience nor subjection to him how much strength soever they have An unsubmitting strength will work against us rather than for us Thirdly That they be faithful No man will leave his business to a person of strength and in subjection to him if he be not honest to him Solomon hath sufficienâ—ly caution'd us against trusting such while he saith Prov. 25.19 Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble 't is true also in time of peace is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joynt A bâ—oken tooth cannot chew our meat and a foot out of joynt can worse go a journey an unfaithful man will prove a worser servant to us than the worst of these And as it is thus among men they will not leave their business with an Unicorn with one that hath strength but yeilds no subjection nor ever shewed any faithfulness so God will not leave his labour his work and service to such as are like the Unicorn he will not leave it in such hands as have great ability to carry it through yet want obedience to his will and faithfulness in his work There must be a concurrence of these three strength subjection and faithfulness in all those to whom the Lord God the God only wise will leave his labour or commit the doing of any service for him But where these three meet and center in any person strength of body and mind submission of will and faithfulness to a work how great things may they do in the service whether of God or Man Secondly Observe A will a mind to work or a wâ—lling mind to work is better than great strength As the Unicorn with his great strength so they who are like the Unicorn in strength may do little or nothing But they that have only a little strength and a mind to be doing have done and may do much Little strength is a kind of weakness yet where there is a willing mind weakness will do more than great strength without a willing mind We have a common saying John is a good servant when Will is at home Willingness to work works better than bare strength We have this conclusion Neh. 4.6 So built we the wall Nehemiah spake there of the Jews return'd from Babylon And all the wall was joyned together unto the half thereof For the people had a mind or as the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an heart to work The wall of a great City being soon raised half up the reason given was because they had a mind to work The Jews at that time were a people under so much weakness that the enemies jâ—ar'd them with it ver 2. What will these feeble Jews do will they fortifie themselves will they sacrifice will they make an end in a day will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish c. Will they work miracles remove mountains But how feeble soever they were the work went on amain For the people had a mind a heart to work Though they were no Unicorns no people of great strength though they were feeble Jews yet they
time of Behemoths making I made him the same day with thee for all the beasts of the earth were made upon the sixth day the same day in which man was made Fourthly Which I made with thee that is I made him to be with thee I did not make Behemoth as I made Leviathan to play in the Sea but I made him to be with thee on the Land that thou shouldst behold him and take notice of him or that he should be under thy hand yea not only so but contrary to the nature of wilde beasts to love thy company and to desire converse with thee to be guided by thee and in many things to act with a kind of reason and understanding like thee or as thy self and other men do Fifthly Which I made with thee that is for thee I made him for thy use I made him to serve thee Though he be thus great and vast yet he will be thy humble servant There will be occasion afterwards to shew further how serviceable and useful Elephants are to man Sixthly I made him with thee that is I made him as nigh to thee as any of the unreasonable creatures yea nigher to thee than any of the unreasonable creatures for I have made him excel them all as thou excellest him he is above other irrational creatures as thou art above all irrationals He next to Angels and men is the chief of my wayes The word made may import this also and so it is used 1 Sam. 12.6 The Lord advanced the Hebâ—ew is Made Moses and Aaron The Lord hath so made the Elephant that he hath also advanced him above all the beasts of the field I have set him as near the seat of reason as might be and not be rational In all these respects we may understand the Lord saying to Job concerning Behemoth I made him with thee He is thy fellow-creature and how great soever he is he is my creature I made him the same day that I made thee and I made him to abide in the same place with thee or where thy abode is I made him also for thy service and that he might be a meet servant for thee I have made him almost a partaker of reason with thee so far at least a partaker of reason that he will very obsequiously submit to and follow the conduct of thine and though he be the strongest beast on earth yet thou mayest find him acting more according to thy reason than his own force or strength There is yet another interpretation of these words given by Bochartus which favours his opinion that Behemoth is the Hippopotame or River Horse Whom I have made with thee Tecum vel potius juxta te or rather near thee or hard by thee that is in thy neighbour-hood in a Countrey which borders upon thine As if saith he God had said to Job I need not fetch arguments from far to prove how powerful I am seeing I have them at hand For among the beasts which I made in Nilus which is near thy Countrey Arabia how admirable is the Hippopotame And that the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies by or near as well as with he gives many examples Josh 7.2 Judg. 9.6 Judg. 18.3 Judg. 19.11 2 Sam. 6.7 2 Sam. 20.8 which the Reader may peruse and consider Thus the Elephant was made with man But how lives he how feeds he Not like man He eateth grasse as an Oxe From these words also the Authour last mentioned collects an argument for the strengthening of his interpretation The Oxe and Elephant saith he are alike labouring beasts and therefore no wonder if they feed alike or live upon the same kind of food but that the Hippopotame which is an aquatical Animal and abides for the most part in the bottom of Nilus should eat grasse like an Oxe this is strange and matter of wonderment Nor is it for nothing that he is compared to the Oxe whom he resembles not onely in his food but in the bignesse of his body and in the shape of his head and feet whence the Italians call him Bomarin that is the Sea-Oxe Yet these words may very well be applied to the Elephant It being not onely true that his food is grasse but a merciful wonder that it is so For â—â—d this vast creature live upon prey or the spoil of other beasts what havock yea devastation would he make to satisfie his hunger So that these words He eateth grasse as an Oxe may carry this sense As if the Lord had said Though I have made this beast so great and strong yet he is no dangerous no ravenous beast he doth not live by preying upon other beasts by tearing and worrying sheep and Lambs as Lions and Bears and Wolves do this great and mighty creature eats grasse lâ—ke an Oxe Thus God would have Job take notice what way he hath provided for the subsistence of the Elephant He eateth grasse as an Oxe yet not altogether as the Oxe His food is as the food of an Oxe for the matter both eat grasse but he doth not eat in the same manner as an Oxe Why how doth an Oxe eat by licking up the grasse with his tongue into his mouth as he is described Numb 22.4 but the Elephant gathers up the grasse with his trunk and then puts it into his mouth Naturalists give these two reasons why the Elephant cannot eat like the Oxe Ne ore pascatur adminuculo linguae ut boves impedit colli brevitas linguae quoque quae illi animali perexigua est interius posita ita ut eam vix videre possis Decerptam proboscideherbam dentibus quos utrinque quatuor habet commolit Arist l. 2. de Histâ—r Animal c. 5 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pasco First Because of the shortnesse of his Neck Secondly The littlenesse of his Tongue which lies so far within his Mouth that it cannot easily be seen and therefore he crops the grasse with his trunk and putting it into his mouth grindes it with his teeth He eateth grasse like an Oxe He is like the Oxe as to what he feeds upon not as to the way of his feeding So then though the Elephant be so bulky and big-bodied yet by the Lords Ordinaâ—ion he is as harmlesse as a labouring Oxe he will not hurt any beast of the field This phrase Eating like an Oxe is used to set forth the peaceablenesse of his Nature Thus those blessed times are described when the power of the Gospel shall overcome the wrath and enmity which is in the Serpents seed against the seed of the Woman Isa 11.7 The Cow and the Bear shall feed their young ones and the Lion shall eat straw like the Oxe Lions will be quiet that is the spirits of those men who have been like Lions and Bears even they shall eat straw like the Oxe they shall not hurt the Lambs and Sheep of Christs flock and fold
thus Now at length O Lord I know more fully than ever that thou hast a most just right and power to command and dispose of all things and that thou both dost and mayst effect whatsoever pleaseth thee nor ought any to murmur at much less resist thy counsels or dealings seeing every thing is and cannot but be just and righteous which thou dost We conclude then Job knew this truth before but not as he knew it now Hence note First Knowledge is a growing thing And it were well if we were all found growing in knowledge That 's the Apostle Peters charge 2 Epist 3.18 Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He puts both together There is a growth in knowledge as well as in grace and in proportion to our spiritual growth in knowledge is our growth in grace for though many grow much in notional and speculative knowledge who grow little in grace yet they cannot but grow much in grace who grow much in spiritual and experimental knowledge As a godly man groweth in knowledge so in grace too Knowledge is a growing thing The rising and encreasing waters of the Sanctuary were a type of the encreasings of knowledge those waters were first to the ancles and then to the knees and then to the loyns and then to the neck And as knowledge increaseth with respect to the several times and states of the Church for so that place Ezek. 47.3 4 5. is to be be understood so it is a truth that there is an increase of knowledge with respect to the state of every particular believer his knowledge is first to the ancles and then to the knees and then to the loyns and then to the neck As some points to be known are so easie or shallow that according to that clear and common similitude a Lamb may wade through them others so difficult and deep that an Elephant may swim in them so the degree of knowledge in the same person which at one time was very small and shallow at another time may be swelled into a great deep and he called a man of deep knowledge We have a general promise of such an increase Isa 11.9 The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea that is there shall be a wonderful increase of knowledge That 's also the import of Daniels Prophesie Chap. 12.4 Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased Particular persons shall improve in knowledge and so shall the whole Church So then this increase of knowledge is of two sorts First it is a knowledge of more things and Secondly of every thing more We should labour to know more truths we must thus add to our knowledge For though it be true that every believer hath received the anointing whereby he knoweth all things that are of absolute necessity 1 John 2.20 yet he may come to the knowledge of more things which are exceeding useful and helpful to him Secondly We should labour to know every thing more as in the Text. Job knew before that God was omnipotent and could do all things but now he knew it more and so much more that the knowledge which he had before might be called ignorance compared with the knowledge which he had now received Then we increase our knowledge fully when we get the knowledge of more things and of every thing more Again we should labour to increase as in speculative so in experimental knowledge Speculative knowledge alone goes no further than the notion of what we know experimental knowledge finds and feels the power of what we know it subjects us or makes us subject to what we know the motions of the Will follow the light and dictate of the Understanding This is the best knowledge Knowledge which is felt and acted is better than that which is heard and declared What the Apostle John said of himself and his fellow Apostles who were personally present with Christ while here on earth with respect to their sensitive knowledge of him is most true of the spiritual and experimental knowledge which believers have of Christ now in heaven and they absent from him 1 John 1.1 That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life that declare we unto you we declare that unto you which we have seen and felt 'T is a blessed thing when we can say that the things which we declare to others we have felt them and even handled them our selves Many as our usual expression is handle Texts and handle truths learnedly and excellently in a discourse who never handled no nor so much as toucht them by any experience of their sweetness or efficacy either in their hearts or lives Further consider in what way Job came to this proficiency in knowledge he had been a great while in the School of affliction before he said I know and I know to purpose that thou canst do every thing Hence note Afflictions and sufferings are a special means to increase our knowledge and wise us in the things of God The godly never increase more in knowledge than under the Cross under afflictions of one kind or another David saith Psal 119.71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes Did not David know the Statutes of God before doubtless he did he was all-along trained up in the statutes of God but when God took him into the School of affliction then he leaâ—nt the Statutes of God much better Let us consider what profiting we find at any time under affliction as to the knowledge of God and of our selves if we do not better our knowledge by one cross we may expect to meet with another and another till matters mend with us Solomon saith Prov. 27.22 Though thou shouldst bray a fool in a morter among wheat with a pestle yet will not his foolishness depart from him that is an obstinate sinner he is the fool there spoken of though extreamly afflicted is not bettered but a godly man profits by his affliction both as to the departure and riddance of his folly as also to his growth in spiritual experimental knowledge Once more which will give us a third note Job was not only in affliction but God taught him in his affliction Job had not only a rod upon his back but a tutor by his side His three friends had been long with him and spoken much to him but he learnt little by them When Elihu had been speaking to him he yielded somewhat to him though not fully but when once God undertook to tutor and instruct him Job learned amain and profited greatly in knowledge Hence note Then we profit indeed under afflictions when God teacheth us in our afflictions If we have nothing but the rod we profit not by the rod yea if we have
Nathan the Prophet did to reprove King David but he told his friends at first word My wrath is kindled against you Though they were good men yet not so dear to God as Job and therefore he dealt in a more fatherly and favourable way with Job than with them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exarsit incensus inflammatus est Inter septem voculas Hebraeorum quae iram significant haec omnium est gravissima Scult they had only hot words My wrath is kindled against you c. I am more than angry As the coals of spiritual love spoken of Cant. 8.6 so the coals of divine wrath are coals of fire which hath a most vehement flame There are seven words in the Hebrew language which signifie anger and this notes the most vehement of them all My wrath is kindled The Latine words Ira and Irasco seem to be derived from it The word is sometimes applied to grief there is a kind of fire in grief Thus 't is said 1 Sam. 15.11 It grieved Samuel and he cryed unto the Lord all night Samuel was vehemently grieved becauâ—e of the ill performance of Saul in his expedition against the Amalakites 'T is also translated to fret Psal 37.8 9. Fret not thy self in any wise to do evil fretting hath its burning My wrath saith the Lord is kindled There is a wrath of God which is not kindled as I may say it is not blown up 't is covered in the ashes of his patience and forbearance but here saith God My wrath is kindled This is spoken by God after the manner of men God feels no change by wrath or anger no impression is made on him by any passion Wrath in God notes only his change of dispensations towards man not any in himself When he acts like a man whose wrath is greatly kindled then 't is said his wrath is kindled as when he acteth like a man that sheweth much love it may be said his love is kindled Further when God saith My wrath is kindled it implieth there is some great provocation given him by man as in the present case Eliphaz and his two friends had done The Lord threatned a sinful Land with brimstone and salt and burning like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and this being executed all Nations shall say wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this Land what meaneth the heat of this great anger Then men shall say because they have forsaken the Covenant of the Lord God of their Fathers c. Deut. 29.23 24 25. The wrath of God is never kindled till blown and that which bloweth it up is mans sin nor doth the ordinary sins of man kindle the wrath of God for then it must be alwayes kindled even against the best of men Doubtless when the Lord said in the Text to Eliphaz My wrath is kindled against thee and thy two friends there was somewhat extraordinary in their sin which kindled it and therefore the Lord directed them an extraordinary way as to circumstances for the querching of it and the making of their peace But here it may be questioned why did the Lord say his wrath was kindled only against Eliphaz and his two friends had he nothing to say against Elihu he had spoken as harshly to Job as any of them yet Elihu was not at all reproved much less was the wrath of God kindled against him I answer 'T is true Elihu spake very hard words of Job yet we may say four things of Elihu which might exempt him from this blame which fell upon those three First He did not speak with nor discover a bitter spirit as they did Secondly Elihu objected not against Job his former life nor charged him as having done wickedly towards man or hypocritically towards God he only condemned him for present miscarriages under his trouble for impatience and unquietness of spirit under the cross Thirdly That which Elihu chiefly objected against Job was the justifying of himself rather than God as he speaks at the beginning of the 32d Chapter not the maintaining of his own innocency nor the justifying of himself before men Indeed Job failed while he insisted so much upon that point that he seemed more careful to clear himself than to justifie God Fourthly When Elihu spake hardly it was more out of a true zeal to defend the justice of God in afflicting him than to tax him with injustice Now because Elihu did not carry it with a bitter spirit and hit the mark much better than his friends though in some things he also shot wide and misunderstood Job therefore the blame fell only upon Jobs three friends and not upon Elihu The Lord said to Eliphaz my wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two friends but his wrath went no further Hence note First The Lord knows how to declare wrath as well as love displeasure as well as favour He hath a store of wrath as well as of love and that is kindled when he is highly displeased Secondly Note Sin causeth kindlings or discoveries of divine wrath Had it not been for sin the Lord had never declared any wrath in the world nothing had gone out from him but kindness and love favours and mercies Wrath is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and against unrighteousness only Rom. 1.18 Unrighteousness kindleth wrath sin is the kindle-coal When we see wrath or displeasure going out we may conclude sin is gone out Moses said to Aaron Numb 16.46 Take a Censer and put fire therein from off the altar and put on incense and go quickly unto the congregation and make an atonement for them for there is wrath gone out from the Lord the plague is begun Now as in this latter part of the chapter Moses shews that wrath was gone out against that people from the Lord so in the former part of it he shews that sin and that a great sin was gone out from that people against the Lord. Thirdly Note The Lord sometimes declareth wrath even against those whom he loveth Wrath may fall upon good men such were these friends of Job All the Elect whilest they remain unconverted or uncalled are called Children of wrath Ephes 2.3 Though they are in the everlasting love of God yet they are children of wrath as to their present condition whilst in a state of nature and unreconciled to God Now as the children of God are children of wrath before their conversion so when any great sin is committed after conversion they are in some sense under wrath and the Lord declareth wrath against them till the breach be healed and their peace sued out It is dangerous continuing for a moment in any sin unrepented of or we not going unto God by Jesus Christ for pardon When once the wrath of God is kindled how far it may burn who knoweth There is no safety under guilt Therefore kiss the son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little blessed
commanded to offer Secondly The Lord directs Eliphaz and his two friends to apply themselves unto Job and desire his intercession for them Go to my servant Job and my servant Job shall pray for you To this direction the Lord subjoyns two things First An incouragement by a gracious promise in these words For him will I accept Secondly A threat in case they should neglect or refuse to go and perform this duty laid down in the close of the verse Lest I deal with you according to your folly in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right like my servant Job These are the particulars considerable in this 8th verse Therefore take unto you seven Bullocks and seven Rams The Lord spake this to Eliphaz and his two friends The word of illation Therefore at the beginning of the verse refers to the word For at the latter end of the former verse As if the Lord had said unto them Because ye have sinned against me and provoked me to anger so that my wrath is kindled by your not speaking of me the thing that is right therefore I advise you and be ye sure at your peril to follow my advice I advise you for the making up of this breach and the recovery of my favour to take unto you seven Bullocks and seven Rams Take unto you Some conceive that these words Vnto you are redundant yet doubtless they carry a clear sense as they stand in the Text Take unto you that is for your use and behoof in this great service Take unto you Seven Bullocks and seven Rams This was a great sacrifice and it was so under a twofold consideration First As to the matter of the sacrifice bullocks and rams were great cattle there were sacrifices of lesser matters We read in the law of Moses of a pair of turtle doves and two young pigeons for a sacrifice these the poorer sort under the law did offer with acceptation whereas rich and great men and such were these Eliphaz and his two friends in their time were commanded to bring great and richer sacrifices The rich as Solomon exhorts Prov. 3.9 were to honour the Lord with their substance and with the first fruits of their increase These rich men were to bring bullocks and rams a great sacrifice in the matter of it Jubentur septem tauros c. immolare quis perfectissimum est sacrificium Christ una expiotione omnia peccata delens Perfectus cuim uumerius septe narius est Brent Septem est numerus plentitu dinis persectionis id quod obsolutam expiationem s remissionam clpae eorum designabat Etsi interim in omnibus sacrificiis veteribus ad emicum Christi sacrificium cujus illa erant imago umbra respiciebatur Nerc Secondly It was a great sacrifice if we consider the number seven bullocks and seven rams One bullock was a sacrifice and one ram was a sacrifice but here God commanded seven of each Seven is a number of perfection and of plenitude seven is a great number and seven is a perfect number it is often used mystically or enigmatically to note perfection The Lord made all things in six days and rested the seventh seven days made up a compleat week and seven years are a week of years We read of A candlestick all of gold with a bowl upon the top of it and his seven lamps thereon and seven pipes to the seven lamps which were on the top thereof Zech. 4.2 We read also of the seven spirits Revel 1.4 and of seven golden candlesticks Rev. 1.12 These were mysterious sevens and there are many more mentioned in Scripture which to insist upon would make too great a digression from the purpose of the text under hand where we have seven bullocks and seven rams which make up and imply a great and perfect sacrifice as the law of Moses also directed in some cases Levit 23.18 And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish So 1 Chron. 15.26 When the Lord helped the Levites that bare the Arke of the Covenant of the Lord they offered seven bullocks and seven rams Again 2 Chron. 29.21 They brought seven bullocks and seven rams and seven lambs and seven he-goats for a sin-offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah Balaam incited and hired to curse Israel said unto Balak Num. 21.1 Build me here seven altars s prepare me here seven seven oxen and rams He would needs imitate them whom he desired to ruin and offer a full sacrifice that he might curse them fully The greatest sacrifice for number that we read of was at the dedication of the Temple where the offering of the King was two and twenty thousand oxen and an hundred and twenty thousand htep l Kings 8.63 We read also of great sacrifices 1 Chron. 29.21 2 Chron. 17.11 and Chap. 30.24 There were greater sacrifices than seven yet seven was a great sacrifice Some Interpreters conceive that every one of the three was to offr seven bullocks and seven rams that had been a very great sacrifice but in that the Text is silent The law of Moses appointed Levit. 4.3 that if a Priest committed a sin of ignorance he should bring a young bullock without blemish unto the Lord for a sin-offering Thelaw required no more for a sin of ignorance in a Priest and if the whole congregation were guilty of a sin of ignorance their ossering was no more ver 13 14. and if a Ruler had committed a sin of ignorance the law required only a kid of the goats a male without blemish ver 23. and if any one of the common people committed a sin of ignorance they were to bring a kid of the goat a female ver 28. So that whereas the law required but one bullock for the sin of ignorance in a Priest and but one bullock for the whole congregation and for a Ruler but a kid of the goats a male and for any common person but a kid of the goats a female Here Jobs friends were commanded by the Lord to offer up seven bullocks and seven rams for the expiation of their sin which doubtless was only a sin of ignorance This plainly signified that the Lord was highly displeased with them for their harsh judgment and uncharitable censures of his servant Job and to let them know that their doing so could not be excused by their good intentions and zeal for God Thus we see what the sacrifice was both for kind and number The next words tell us what they must do with their sacrifice Go to my servant Job faith God Why to Job several reasons may be given why they should go to Job I shall name five or six First Because they had wronged Job and therefore they must be reconciled to him Secondly Because God would have them understand that himself notwithstanding their ill opinion of Job approved him as a good man yea as a man far exceeding them in godliness
though they had judged him an hypocrite or an ungodly man Thus the Lord sent them to Job that they might eat their words and receive a full conviction of their error Thirdly God would have them go to his servant Job to make them sensible that the favour he intended them was very much for Jobs sake and that they must in part be beholding to Job for it Fourthly The Lord sent them to Job that he might give a high evidence of his grace especially of his charity in forgetting injuries and requiting good for evil His friends had reproached him ten times and grieved his spirit very much yet he must shew how ready he was to forgive them and pray that they might be forgiven Fifthly God would have them to go to Job that they might know that Job was reconciled to them as well as himself Sixthly God would have them go to Job that this might humble them or that they might shew their humility and submission It was a great piece of self-denial for them to go to Job after such a contest and entreat him to speak for them of whom they had spoken so hardly and with whom they had long contended so bitterly Thus the Lord tried both Job and them the Lord tried Jobs charity and their humility We are hardly brought to confess that we have wronged others or have been out and mistaken our selves 'T is no easie matter for a man to acknowledge himself overcome 't is extream hard to become a suppliant to one whom we lately despised and trampled upon All this is his hard meat and not easily digested yet Eliphaz and his two friends must digest all this before they could acceptably obey the Lords command in going to his servant Job Nor was it an easie matter for Job to forget so many affronts and unkindnesses as he had received from his friends ' T is hard for a man that hath been wronged and reproached yea condemned to pass air by and not only embrace his opposers and reproachers but pray and solicite for them Thus the Lord in sending them to Job took tryal both of Job and them The Lord commanding them to supplicate him whom they had offended and expecting that he should make suit and supplication for them who had offended him put both their graces to it and in a most sweet and gracious way at once healed the breach which had been between Job and them as also that between them and himself Who ever took up a difference more sweetly or reunited dissenting brethren thus wisely Go to my servant Job And offer up for your selves a burnt-offering That is those seven bullocks and seven rams Here as was said before was the facrifice but who was the Priest The text saith Offer up for your selves which may intimate that that as they were to offer a sacrifice for themselves so that they themselves offered it But as Interpreters generally so I conceive Job was the Priest who offered it in their behalf We read chap. 1.5 that Job offered sacrifices for his children and there it was shewed that he was the Priest Every sacrifice must be offered by a Priest the people brought the sacrifice unto him to offer for them No sacrifice is acceptable without a Priest Therefore Jesus Christ who was our sacrifice was a Priest also none could offer him but himself he was both sacrifice and Priest and Altar So then whereas the Text saith they were to offer a burnt-offering for themselves the meaning is they were to bring it unto Job and he to offer it for them The Priest offered and Israel offered that is Israel offered by the Priest they brought the matter of the sacrifice to the Priest and the Priest slew and presented the sacrifice to the Lord. It is one thing to offer another thing to slay the sacrifice They offered a sacrifice who brought it or at their cost caused it to be brought to the holy place and this any of the people might do They offer it upon the Altar to the Lord who were especially appointed thereunto These were the Priests only Before the Ceremonial law as given by God to Moses the Priest-hood lay in the eldest or father of the family upon which account Job was a Priest whereas afterwards the Priest-hood was settled in the family of Aaron and it was forbidden to any but one of hs line to offer sacrifice So that when the Lord said to Eliphaz and his two friends Go to my servant Job and offer up for your selves a burnt-offering he directed them to Job Non est hic curiousè captendo distinctio holocausti aboliis victimis cim haec ante legem contigovint Quasi latinè diceres-holocaustabitis holo caustum i.e. in solidum offeratis ut in auras totum abort officietis Merc. as having the honour of Priest-hood in him and so the power of doing it for them or in their behalf Offer up for your selves A burnt-offering That is a sacrifice wholly consumed by fire The Hebrew is very elegant make an ascentton to ascend The whole burnt-offering was the most perfect offering and therefore the Hebrews express it by a word that signifieth the perfect consumption of it in the fire and so the ascention of it to heaven in smoke and vapour as a sweet odour in the nostrils of the Lord as the Apostle speaks Ephes 5.1 and as David Psal 141.2 A part of many sacrifices was saved to feast upon afterwards as the harlot spake Prov. 7.14 I have peace-offerings with me this day have I payed my vows but the burnt-offering was wholly consumed and sent up unto the Lord. Go to my servant Job and offer up for your selves a burnt-offering Hence note First The Lord is very ready to forgive and to be at peace with those that have offended him Though the fire of his wrath be kindled as it is said in the former verse yet he is willing to have it quenched The Prophet Micah chap. 7.18 makes this report of God He retaineth not his anger for ever that is he retaineth it but a little while he is speedily pacified and forgives and sometimes as here he forgives without any higher signification of his anger than a bare rebuke The Lord did not lay the least mulâ—t the least chastning or affliction upon Eliphaz and his two friends though his wrath was kindled against them I grant it is not so always some smart sorely and pay dearly for their errors When the anger of the Lord was kindled against Aaron and Miriam Num. 12.9 for speaking against Moses as those three had against Job he was not then so easily pacified for first it is said in the close of the 9th verse he departed and ver 10. the cloud departed from off the tabernacle here was much displeasure yet not all for it followeth and behold Miriam became leprous white as snow In this case God was angry with two that had spoken against a servant of his and they felt
on earth praying for those that live on earth Job was alive in the body and so were those three men to whom the Lord said My servant Job shall pray for you The Lord having assured Eliphaz and his two friends that Job would pray for them giveth them encouâ—agement to go and desiâ—e his prayers by a gracious promise For saith he him will I accept and threatneth them in case they should forbear in the next words Lest I deal with you according to your folly in that ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right like my servant Job First Of the gracious promise him will I accept The Hebrew saith his face will I lift up Acceptation with God is the lifting up of the face of man then man lifteth up his face with boldness when he is accepted with God When God refused to accept Cain and his offering his countenaâ—ce fell or was cast down Gen. 4.5 Unless the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon us as David prayed Psal 4.6 we cannot with any comfort much less with true confidence lift up our face or countenance unto God That 's the significancy of the word Him will I accept God is no accepter of persons as the word is often used in Scripture Deut. 10.17 The Lord is a great God mighty and terrible which regardeth not persons It is the same phrase in the Hebrew with this in the Text he lifteth not up faces that is the Lord doth not accept persons upon any outward respect First The Lord doth not accept persons for their personableness as I may say the Lord doth not delight in any mans legs his delight is in them that fear him Psal 147.10 11. he doth not accept men for their goodly stature as he told Samuel when he would needs have poured the oile upon the first-born of the Sons of Jesse 1 Sam. 16.7 Look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature because I have refused him for the Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart 'T is the beauty of holiness and integrity in the heart not the beauty of fairness upon the face with which God is taken 't is a lowly mind not a high stature which God accepts Secondly The Lord is no accepter of persons as to the nation or country where they were born or live Thus the Apostle Peter spake Acts 10.35 I perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him God doth not prefer Jews before Gentiles Barbarians or Scythians that a man had his birth in this or that Nation neither helps nor hinders acceptation with God Thirdly The Lord accepteth no mans person for his riches Prov. 11.4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath No mans person is acceptable to God for his purse or his penny no not at all Fouâ—thly The Lord â—ccepteth no mans person for his worldly greatness honour and dignity He poureth contempt upon Princes Psal 107.40 The day of the Lord is against the hills and mountains Isa 2.14 The great God regardeth not any man meerly for greatness the Lord accepts no mans person upon these or any such like accounts He only accepts the persons of those that fear him and do his will Suscipit faciem Deus quando precantem câ—audit The Lords acceptance of any person in the sense of this promise concerning Job is First To shew favour and manifest affection to him Secondly To honour aâ—d highly esteem him Thirdly Which is here specially intended to answer his prayers and grant his requests not only for himself but for others When a person is once accepted his prayers shall not be denied nor suffer a repulse The Lord accepteth persons as a King the persons of those loyal Subjects who come to intreat his favour and pardon for those that have offended him and rebelled against him he grants their suit and treats them fairly In this sense the Lord maketh promise to Eliphaz and his two friends that he will accept Job Hence Observe First It is a very high favour and priviledge to be accepted of God Him will I accept saith the Lord of Job This was a favour beyond all the favours that follow after in the close of the book about the doubling of his estate If Jacob Gen 32.20 was so taken with a hope of acceptance by his brother Esau Peradventure he will accept me If when he was accepted by Esau he said chap. 33.10 I have seen thy face as though I had seen the face of God and thou wast pleased with me Then how much more should we rejoyce in this assurance that God hath accepted of us and that he is pleased with us If the Apostle Rom. 15.3 prayed so earnestly and desired others to strive with him in prayer to God that his service which he had for Jerusalem might be accepted of the Saints then how much more should we pray that our services may be accepted of God and rejoyce when they are accepted The Apostle made it his chief work to get acceptation with God 2 Cor. 5.9 Wherefore we labour that whether present or absent that is whether living or dying we may be accepted with him we are ambitious of divine acceptation The word which we translate labour noteth a labouring after honour which ambitious men labour much after implying that to be accepted with the Lord is a very high honour indeed the highest honour There is a two-fold acceptation First Of our persons Secondly Of our services The former is the ground of the latter and Jesus Christ is the foundation of both Ephes 1.6 He through glorious grace hath made us accepted in the beloved Jesus Christ is so dearly beloved of the father that he is called The Beloved as if only beloved The acceptation of our services is often promised in Scripture as a high favouâ— Exod. 28.38 Ezek. 20.40 41. Isa 56.7 This Moses prayed for in the behalf of the Tribe of Levy which Tribe was appointed to offer sacrifice and to pray for the people Deut. 33.11 Bless Lord his substance and accept the work of his hands What was the work of Levies hands it was to offer sacrifice to which prayer and intercession was joyned That Levi who had the priest-hoâ—d fixed in the family of Aaron should be accepted in the work of his hands was a blessing not only to himself but to many more This David prayed earnestly for Psal 19.14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight O Lord my strength and my redeemer He put up a like prayer Psal 119.108 Accept I beseech thee the free-will-offerings of my mouth O Lord. This was the prayer of Araunah for David 2 Sam. 24.23 The Lord thy God accept thee So great a priviledge it is for our persons and services to be accepted with the Lord
Jun. the Lord added all his cattle double in number Yet we need not tye up the word double or twice as much strictly to that sense Therefore Secondly Double may be taken largely and so double or twice as much is very much He added to him double that is he made a very great addition possibly in some things treble yea fourfold to what he had before And thus the Lord made good what Bildad had spoken to Job closely hinting that surely Job lay in some secret sin and was not right with God because God let him lye in that forlorn condition and did not so much as restore him to the same much less raise him to a better estate than he had before chap. 8.6 7. If thou wert pure and upright surely now he would awake for thee and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous Though thy beginning was small yet thy latter end should greatly increase It is usual in the Hebrew to say those things are double which excel and are great Thus spake Zophar chap. 11.6 O that God would speak and open his lips against thee and that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom that they are double to that which is Know therefore c. The secrets of Divine wisdom are double to what is namely to what they appear or are apprehended to be The wisdom of God is double yea an hundred fold more than what man is able to conceive it to be The secrets of Gods wisdom are unsearchable and past any creatures finding out Thus in other Scriptures double is put for very much Isa 40.2 Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished that her iniquity is pardoned for she hath received of the Lords hand double for all her sins We must not think that Jerusalem made satisfaction to the Lord for her sinâ— much less may we imagine that Jerusalems sufferings did exceed her sins or the desert of her sins For 't is said Ezra 9.13 Thou hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve And Lam. 3.22 It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed But the meaning of double thâ—re is plainly this she hath received a very great punishment the Loâ—d hath made her feel the sorrowful effects of her sin fully For said Daniel chap. 9.12 Vnder the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done unto Jerusalem This is called a double recompence by another Prophet Jerem. 16.18 I will recompence their iniquity and their sin double because they have defiled my land And thus Jeremy prayed against the opposers and despisers of his prophesie chap. 17.18 Destroy them with double destruction So then when it is said the Lord added double or twice as much to Job as he had before it noteth at least a very great addition to the prosperous estate which Job had before even in outward things Hence Observe First When we are about spirituals the Lord takes occasion to minister to us in temporals The Lord not only turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends but gave him twice as much Job did not pray for the doubling of his estate or for great things in the world we find him many times giving up his hopes as to temporals when he would not give up his hopes as to spirituals and eternals Though he kill me yet will I trust in him he also shall be my salvation He submitted his life to God in hope of a better life but he had little or no expectation about the things of this life yet the Lord gave him abundance with his life as also an aboundant or long life as we read at the end of this Book There are two special reasons why the Lord gave Job a great increase in temporals First Because in those Old Testament times the promises went much in temporals Secondly Because Job having lost his credit in the world when he lost his estate spiritual supplies would never have set him right in the eye of the world he had suffered as to his reputation in spirituals by his loss in temporals and therefore the Lord doubled his estate to vindicate his reputation in the eye of the world And the Lord did this unsought unthought of by Job therefore as the point saith it is a truth that while we are careful about spirituals the Lord takes care of our temporals Mat. 6.33 Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Secondly Note The Lord is a bountiful rewarder of his servants and a liberal repairer of their losses The Lord is a bountiful rewarder two ways First For what we do we shall not lose our labour in serving him God gives good and great wages 1 Cor. 15.58 Be ye stedfast and unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as-much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord that is labour abundantly for your labour shall have an aboundant reward Not only shall it not be in vain but richly rewarded The Lord is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love Heb. 6.10 The Lord should be unrighteous to forget our labour of love not because any labour of ours can endebt him to reward us but because he hath freely promised to reward us Secondly The Lord is a bountiful rewarder of us for what we suffer And that First When we suffer under his own hand Secondly When for his sake we suffer peaceably and patiently under the hand of men Job was a great sufferer both ways he suffered greatly under the afflicting hand of God and he suffered greatly under the violent hands and reproachful tongues of men and the Lord was to him a bountiful rewarder with respect to both For he did not only heal his wounded state and make him up as well as he was before according to that in Jerem. 30.17 I will restore health unto thee and I will heal thy wounds but he did it double insomuch that he who in the days of his former prosperity was only the greatest of all the men of the East became in the days of his latter prosperity greater than he had been himself The Lord hath plentiful rewards for the godly and so he hath though of another kind for the wicked He saith David plentifully rewardeth the proud doer Psal 31.23 There is a reward of wrath as well as a reward of favour Wrath is the reward of proud men Thus the Lord will plentifully reward proud Babilon at one time or other by some hand or other Revel 18.6 Reward her even as she rewarded you and double unto her double according to her works In the cup which she hath filled fill to her double Babilon shall at last lose double blood for the blood that she hath drawn yea as the Text saith double double that is four times as much and who knows how much that double unto her double means For 't
the Lord if we have a blessing from him and he bless us we cannot be deceived we can never miss of comfort if he bless us But whence is it then that some look so much after creature-helps not minding the blessing of God Doubtless it slows or springs from one of these three bad fountains or bitter roots First From ignorance they know not what the blessing of God means for as Christ told the woman of Samaria Acts 4.10 If thou knewest the gift of God thou wouldst have asked c. So did they know what it is to be blessed of God they would ask it above all things It proceeds Secondly From a spirit of profaneness in many they despise God in their hearts and think it below them to call for his help or blessing Of such David speaks Psal 14.6 Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor because the Lord is his refuge or because 't is all one in effect he lives upon the blessing of God you are ashamed of this this is poor counsel think you as it is the counsel of the poor this trusting in God this making God our refuge this living upon the blessing of God is a pitiful life say you The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts or not at all in his thoughts to seek unto him and depend wholly upon him Psal 10.4 As Ezra was ashamed to require of the King a band of soldiers and horsemen to help them against the enemy in the way because he had spoken unto the King saying the hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him c. Ezra 8.22 So prophane persons are ashamed to ask help of God and his blessing at any time but then especially when they have bands of soldiers and horsemen to help them as will appear further in the next thing For Thirdly This mindlessness and regardlessness of the blessing of God proceeds in some from confidence in an arm of flesh either their own or others The Prophet reproved the Jews for this in the day of their trouble Isa 22.8 9 10 11. And he that is God discovered the covering of Judah that is what Judah covered himself with or thought himself safely sheltered by from all danger what was that the next words tell us thou didst look in that day to the armour of the house of the Forrest ye have seen also the breaches of the City of David that they are many ye have fortified the wall c. but ye have not looked to the maker thereof neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago The meaning of all is this ye relyed upon and put confidence in your own strength but looked not after nor sought unto me for my blessing ye thought ye should do well enough if your magazines were well stored and your City well fortified and therefore neglected me The same Prophet Chap. 31.1 shews the same reason why they neglected God why they looked not to the holy One of Israel nor sought the Lord it was because they went down to Egypt for help and stayed on horses and trusted in charets because they were many and in horsemen because they were very strong We cannot trust in God and creatures too If God alone be not trusted to he is not at all trusted and they who put their trust in any creature withdraw it from God and make that creature their God They cannot so much as mind much less seek a blessing from the true God who chuse to themselves another God Again seeing the Lords blessing is effectual then whatever our successes and increases are let us ascribe all to his blessing Do not sacrifice to your own nets nor burn incense to your own drags but say this hath God wrought the blessing of the Lord hath brought it to pass As the Apostle spake about spirituals 1 Cor. 3.6 I have planted Apollo watered but God gave the increase so 't is in temporals all our encreasings are of God Therefore let us say with the Psalmist Not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy Name be the praise Do not thank your wit for riches nor your industry for increase nor your strength for victory not any humane help for any of your attainments The race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong neither yet bread to the wise nor yet riches to men of understanding c. Ecrl. 9.11 All is of God it is his blessing upon the means which makes the means successful But some may say are all men to ascribe all their successes and increases to the blessing of God I answer Negatively All encreases and outward successes are not to be ascribed unto nor fathered upon God A man may encrease in riches and double his estate as Jobs was yet not by the blessing of God Only that comes by a blessing from God which is got in Gods way or by good means according to the characters before hinted of the persons whom the Lord will bless for they who either make a profession of dishonesty or are dishonest in their profession let them take heed of pinning their successes upon God and of thanking him for them Many say in their hearts and some are not ashamed to say it with their mouths Honest dealers must die beggars They never came by riches in the way of a blessing who say honesty is the way to poverty much less they whose consciences know and tell them though others know it not and so cannot tell them that they have enriched themselves by the wrong or raised themselves by the ruin of others Job was enriched and raised high and the Text assures us what enriched him what raised him The Lord blessed The latter end of Job more than his beginning We have seen the Author of this blessing These words shew the subject of this blessing The latter end of Job 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prae initio ejus or Job in his latter end together with the quantity and abundance of this blessing More than his beginning The Lord blessed The latter end of Job That is Job in the latter part of his life and he blessed it more than his beginning that is than the former part of his life God blessed and greatly blessed the former part of Jobs life for he was the greatest man of all men in the East but now Job shall be greater than Job he shall be greater than himself His affliction razed down his house and all he had to the very foundation but when God would hold the plummet in his hand and rebuild him to what an amazing height did his house arise The Lord blessed his latter end more than his beginning The words are plain and need no comment From them we may observe First The latter part of a good mans life is the best part of his life It is often so I do not say it is alwayes so in
outward things God deals not with all alike but it is often so God gives them their best at last even in the things of this life As the Governour of the Feast said to the Bridegroom John 2. Thou hast kept the best wine till now So the Lord often keeps the best wine of outward comforts to the very last of our lives Bildad put it only as a supposition to Job Chap. 8.7 If thou wert pure and upright surely then he would awake for thee and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous though thy beginning was small yet thy latter end should greatly increase But we may resolve it as a Position concerning Job surely he was pure and upright for God did awake for him and made the habitation of his righteousness prosperous his beginning was comparatively small but his latter end did greatly encrease or he had a great encrease at his latter end And though this be not alwayes true as to outward things that the Lord blesseth the latter end of a good man more than his beginning yet it is always true as to spiritual things it is always true as to the best things The Lord gives his people their best soul-blessings at last though they have great good before yet greater good or their good in a greater measure then he gives them more grace more of his Spirit more of his comforts and their latter end is most blessed as it is the beginning of endless blessedness Abraham said to the rich man in the Parable Son remember thou hast had thy good things and Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented The Lord deals best with all his people at last one way or other to be sure all shall be well with them in the latter end Solomon saith Eccl. 7.8 Better is the end of a thing than the beginning And he said so not because all things end better than they begin but because when things or persons end well it is then surely well with them whatever their beginning was That is well which ends well Hence let us be minded not to judge the work of God before the latter end The works of God seem cross many times to his people but he will set all right and make them amends for all at the latter end The Apostle James calls us to consider Job's latter end Chap. 5.11 Ye have heard of the patience of Job that is you have heard of his sufferings in the flesh and of his suffering spirit and ye have seen the end of the Lord that is what end the Lord made for him Some give another interpretation of these latter words as was shewed formerly but this I conceive most clear to the context Ye have seen the end of the Lord that is what end the Lord made for Job Though the middle part of his life was very grievous yet God changed the Scene of things and his end was very glorious David Psal 37.37 would have the end of upright men marked and well considered Mark the perfect man and behold the upright the end of that man is peace Possibly he hath had a great deal of trouble in his way but his end is peace Let not us be offended at the crosses which we meet with in the course of our lives but look to the promised crown at the conclusion of our lives Let us not stay in the death of Christ nor in the grave of Christ but look to the resurrection and the ascension of Christ You may see those who are Christs on the Cross and in the Grave but mark and you shall see their resurrection and ascension The two witnesses are represented slain yet raised and then ascending up to heaven in a cloud their enemies beholding them Rev. 11.11 12. Despise not the day of small things Zech. 4.10 the latter end may have a great encrease despond not in the day of sorrowful things for the latter end may be full of joy There are three things which should much comfort us in our afflictions First That they cannot last alwayes they will have an end Secondly That while they last or before theyh ave an end they are medicinal and healthful they are for our good while they continue upon us or we in them Thirdly which we have in the Text we may expect that as they shall surely have an end so that they will end comfortably No chastning for the present saith the Apostle Heb. 12.11 seemeth joyous but grievous nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby God will not only bring our troubles to an end but he will give us sweet fruit at the end of them as a recompence for all our troubles God will not only bring our sufferings to an end but to such an end as will make us gainers by them Those are even desirable and lovely losses which issue in such advantages Secondly In that the Lord gave Job so great an advance in worldly things Observe The Lord sometimes gives his people much more of this world than they desire or ever looked after Job was far from praying for such an encrease he never desired that his earthly substance should be doubled in his latter end Indeed we find him once wishing that it were with him as in his beginning but he wished not for more Chap. 29.2 O that it were with me as in the months past as in the day when the Lord preserved me when his candle shined upon my head and by his light I walked through darkness Job wished that he were in as good a condition as he once had but he never wished that all might be doubled or that his latter end should be more than his beginning yet the Lord gave him more gave him double to his beginning God exceeded his prayers and his wishes As the Lord is able to do exceeding abundantly for us above all that we ask or think Eph. 3.20 so he often doth and usually therefore moderates the desires and askings of his people as to the things of this world that he may out-give their askings and out-do their desires Thirdly The Lord made Job the greatest man in the East in his beginning but he blessed his latter end more than his beginning Hence note How much soever the Lord gives at one time he can give more at another God gave Job good measure before but now according to that expression Luke 6.38 he gave him good measure heaped up pressed down and running over Let us not say when God hath given us much or done much for us he can give or do no more for us he hath more in his treasure of temporal good things and he hath more in his treasure of spiritual good things than he hath yet given out to any he can give more faith how much faith soever he hath given he can give more patience how much patience soever he hath given and so of every grace and good thing The
Lords stock and treasure can never be drawn dry he is an ever-over-flowing fountain If you had much at the beginning you may have much more at the latter end So much of these words as they hold out the restoring of Jobs estate in general the particulars are summ'd up in the close of the verse For he had fourteen thousand Sheep and six thousand Camels and a thousand yoke of Oxen and a thousand She-Asses The encrease of his estate is here set forth in cattel only as his first estate was cattel were the riches of those times and Countreys yet doubtless his estate encreased in every thing or kind First his family and servants encreased to look to so many cattel Secondly his Lands and pastures encreased to feed them Thirdly his house and buildings encreased to receive and lodge so numerous a Family Fourthly his honour and dignity increased Some affirm that whereas before he had only some small principality under his government now he was declared King over all the Land of Vz Thus all sorts of good things were given him double but whether at once or by degrees is not exprest Some of the Rabbins have a fancy and it is a wild one that Jobs cattel which were taken from him were not carried quite away but only driven into some other Country and there kept so that when he was restored they were brought home to him again with this double encrease This may well go for a fancy for not his own cattel but cattel of the same kind were restored to him double There is no difficulty in these words The Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning giving double or twice as many Sheep Oxen Camels Asses as he had before Hence note Outward good things Sheep and Oxen Houses and Lands Gold and Silver are a blessing as they come from God unto his servants Here is nothing said of the best things all was but Sheep and Oxen yet in these Job received a blessing The Lord Deut. 28.4 made large promises of blessings to his obeying people or to his people in case of obedience and all in outward comforts Blessed shalt thou be in the City and blessed shalt thou be in the field blessed shall be the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy ground and the fruit of thy cattel the encrease of thy kine and the flocks of thy sheep blessed shall be thy basket and thy store Spiritual things are the best blessings spiritual things are not only the noblest but the most necessary blessings The favour of God the light of his countenance pardon of sin grace in our hearts these are excellent blessings and these make us exceedingly blessed and no doubt but Job did chiefly look after these blessings this good man desired the light of Gods countenance the shinings of his face upon him the workings of his grace and spirit in him the evidences of his love to him infinitely above cattel corn and wine A godly man accounts himself but in a poor condition if he were to reckon all his estate in Houses and Lands in Sheep and Oxen yet these are a blessing from the Lord upon him and so he accounts them And still it must be remembred which hath already been touched that before the coming of Christ before there was a full discovery and a clear manifestation of the grace of God in Christ to his people they in those times were much led and fed with promises of temporal blessings The faithful were allured to heaven by earthly things Jesus Christ who came down from heaven to lift us up thither who took our nature that we might partake of the divine nature who was cloathed with our flesh to shew that God dwelleth in us and hath joyned us to his glory and immortality Jesus Christ I say was known only in shadows and remote prophesies in those times and therefore it was necessary the Lord should deal with them accordingly and allure them by promises of cattel and corn and children especially by the promise of long life which hath the greatest resemblance to and bears the fairest image of eternal life and all because the heavenly life was not then so perfectly discovered as it is now in these Gospel-times For though it be a truth that all the good things of the world are not sufficient to make a love-token yet God gives those good things to his people as tokens of his love and they see love in them and these lesser good things are then best to us when we can look on them as blessings coming from the love of God which we may do First When we can say we have got and keep them with a good conscience Secondly When we use and order them with prudence Thirdly When we dispence them charitably and freely according to the needs and necessities of others When we truly and intentionally honour God with our substance in doing acts of love it shews that he hath given it us in love Fourthly When the Lord with encrease of riches gives us an encrease of grace when our souls thrive as well as our estates then we may look upon riches as coming to us in love Sheep and Oxen Gold and Silver without a just and wise and gracious possessing and using of them prove curses at last not blessings snares not favours There are none so unhappy as foolish rich men none so base as covetous rich men none so intollerable as proud rich men none so vile and despicable as sluggish voluptuous rich men none more ungodly and irreligious than they who having riches trust in them and dote upon them only when the Lord gives spiritual things with temporal grace with goods they are mercies to us When Luther received a favour from a great Prince he began to be afraid that God would put him off with such things A godly man receives a portion in earthly good things but he will not take all the good things of the earth for his portion Now as all spiritual things are better than temporal so among temporals some are better than others Job received good things when his cattel were doubled but he had better blessings of this life restored to him than those his estate restored double in cattle was nothing to his children restored single as it follows in the next words Vers 13. He had also seven sons and three daughters This is the third part of Jobs restauration sons and daughters We may consider this blessing First In the number Secondly In the sex In number his children were seven and three As to sex they were both sons and daughters he had seven sons and three daughters in all ten just the number he had before as we read at the second verse of the first chapter Some of the Jewish Rabbies before spoken of say his former children were not indeed slain but removed during the time of his affliction and that being ended were restored the same both in number and
he hath founded it upon the waters as was shewed before yet that cannot be meant properly for how can water a fluid body naturally bear up or sustain the Earth a heavy body and not at all boyant We all see it hangeth or standeth in the ayre But what foundation can the ayre be to the Earth which will scarcely bear a feather It remains then undeniable that the Will and Power of God are the foundations of the Earth Rationi nihil occurrit cui innitatur terra si divinam exceperis voluntatem Nazian Orat. 24. There 's nothing can be given or assigned in reason if you look not to the Will of God for the foundation of the Earth Besides that there 's no bottom for it One of the Ancients giving a description of the Creation saith All things are laid up in his Power and Will these are the foundations the stay and establishment of all things Omnia reposita existimo in ejus potestate quod voluntas ejus sit fundamentum universorum Ambr. l. 1. Hexam c. 6. And as it is so with respect to the standing of the Earth so with respect to all those great things which God hath promised to do in the Earth the foundation of them all is his own Power and Will or his Powerful Will The foundation laid in Election and the foundation laid in Redemption by Jesus Christ other foundation can no man lay for all our spiritual comforts present priviledges and future hopes 1 Cor. 3.11 These foundations I say were laid in the Will of God Lo I come to do thy Will O God Heb. 10.7.9 The Will of God is the foundation and establishment of all things whether Natural or Civil Spiritual or Eternal Seventhly From the scope of these words we may Observe God who hath made the Earth by his Power doth also govern it and man who inhabits it And therefore man ought to be quiet and sit down in his governing as well as in his Creating Will. To convince and perswade Job of this is as hath been toucht the purpose of God in all that followeth He that hath made the World governs the World and if so shall poor creatures you or I or any other though a Job find fault with his government of it Will a Master-Builder suffer any one to find fault with his work who understands not how to lay a stone in it much less to give the rule or direction for the whole work Forasmuch then as the Lord is not only the Master-Builder but the sole Maker of this great House the World it becomes man for whose use it was made to acquiesce or rest quietly in his Government of it Surely the Maker of all things hath a right to dispose of all things and therefore all persons are to be satisfied in his disposal of them From the whole verse and the observations given upon it take these Scripture inferences First The Scripture makes this inference from it God is one and there is none like to him Isa 40.26 Isa 46.8 To whom will ye liken me to whom will you compare me I am he that stretched out the heavens and laid the foundation of the earth there 's none like to him in Wisdome none in Power who laid the foundation of the Earth There was never such a visible piece of work done in the World as the making of the World therefore theâ—e is none such as the Maker of the World The hypocrite is brought in dreaming that God was altogether such as himself Psal 50.21 And 't is as it hath been the common guise of Idolaters to think that God is no better than their Idol But what the Lord by his Prophet Jer. 10.11 12 taught the captive Jews to say to their great Lords the Babylonians the same hath he taught us to say to all Hypocrites and Idolaters The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens Then presently followeth as in Job He hath made the earth by his power he hath established the world by his wisdom and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion As if it had been said Will ye imagine that the Idols which you have made are like him who made you and all things And 't is considerable that whereas the whole Prophesie of Jeremy is written in the Hebrew Tongue this eleventh verse which holds out at once a testimony and a threatning against those Idolaters is written in the Chaldean Language with which the Jews by their long Captivity in Babylon were well acquainted that so the Babylonians might hear of it and know that the God of Israel who made heaven and earth was altogether unlike their gods who did never so much as arrogate to themsâ—lves any hand in much less the sole power of making heaven and earth Secondly Take this Scripture inference Seeing the Lord hath laid the foundations of the earth by his own Power and Wisdome then He is the Proprietor of the whole earth or the whole earth is the Lords proper possession Psal 34.1 The earth is the Lords aâ—d the fulness thereof the Lord made it and it is his He was not called nor set a work to build this great House for another but he made iâ— as by his own power so for his own pleasure all the inhabitants of the earth are his tenants and not only the earth but the whole stock and furniture of it is his For as the Lord made the earth so all that the earth is stored with Thus spake Abraham Gen. 14.22 to the King of Sodome who bid him take the goods to himself I have lifted up my hand unto the Lord the most high God possessor of heaven and earth that I will not take from a threed even to a shoe latchet c. As if he had said The Lord who is possessor of heaven and earth is my portion my possession and he can give me enough of the earth yea he will give me heaven also therefore I will not take any thing of thine lest thou shouldest say I have made Abraham rich The Lord who is possessor of the earth can give his people what earthly portions or possessions of the earth he pleaseth And let us remember what earthly portions soever we have in this world we have no reason to boast seeing all is the Lords and we are but his stewards and tenants at will And because 't is the Lords earth which we possess let us also remember to pay our rent our quit-rent to him that is thanks duly and daily lest we provoke him to distrain upon us or to take the forfeiture and turn us out of all Many hold lands from great Lords to pay only some small rent or service in a way of acknowledgement O let us remember to pay our rent to our Great Land-Lord The Lord of the whole earth They who acknowledge what they have is his or that they have and hold all they have
of him will honour him with what they have even with their substance and with the first fruits of all their increase Prov. 3.9 Thirdly We may infer Seing God founded the earth He is also the Ruler of it And that the Lord rules the earth is a mercy to all men on the earth The Lord reigns let the earth rejoyce Psal 97.1 That is men of the earth have cause to rejoyce because they have God who is infinitely both wise and good to rule them The Lord is King over all the earth sing ye praises with understanding Psal 47.7 And surely they who understand what a King he is will praise him Fourthly We may be encouraged to go unto God or apply our selves to God about all things here on earth seeing â—e hath laid the fouâ—dations of the earth The Lord having invited his people to ask him things to come concerning his sons and concerning the work of his hands to command him Isa 45.11 adds this in the next words as an encouragement to do so I have made the earth and created man upon it As if he had said Ask of me whatever you would have me do or would have done on earth for I am he that created the earth It may help our faith much when as David expresseth it Psal 11.3 the very foundations of earthly things are destroyed to consider that God laid the foundations of the earth In such a case it may be said as it followeth there in the Psalme What can the righteous do but may it not be said even in that hard case when foundations are destroyed What cannot the Lord do who laid the foundations of the earth This argument the Psalmist also useth Psal 124.8 Our help stands in the Name of the Lord who made heaven and earth Though earth and heaven shake and seem to be confounded or mingled together yet he who made heaven and earth without help can give us help or be our helper If our help stood in the best of men made of earth they might fail us but while our help stands in him that made the earth he will never fail us for he hath said he will not Heb. 13.5 and their experience who have trusted the Lord hath said it too Psal 9.10 This is the great priviledge of all that believe they may address to God by Christ for any thing in this earth because he is the Maker of it and having made it by a word speaking what cannot he do for them if he speak the word Fifthly Let us be much in praising the Lord for his wisdom power and greatness all which gloriously appear and shine forth in his laying the foundations of the earth David makes this a special part of Divine praise Psal 136.6 VVe should not onely praise the Lord for the great things he hath done on the earth but for this that he hath made the earth The work of God in laying the foundations of the earth calls as loudly for our praise as any thing except our redemption from the earth Rev. 5.9 chap. 14.3 which ever God wrought upon the face of the earth The making of the earth calls us to praise the Lord First Because he hath made so vast a body as this earth is or because he hath made such a large house for us Secondly Because he hath founded it so miraculosly hanging upon nothing that appears but in the ayre yet standing more firmly than any house built upon a rock Thirdly VVe should praise the wisdom of God that hath formed it so exactly and adorned it so richly It 's not a house huddled and clapt up together without skill or art though it was made word a word speaking in six days yet it was made with infinite wisdom as is more particularly held out v. 5. where the Lord speaks of laying the measures thereof and stretching the line upon it as also of fastning the foundations and laying the câ—rner-stone thereof all which â—â—ew it is not a house clapt up in haste but made with admirable exactness so that as 't is usual when great houses are built there were great acclamations made at the building of it as we have it the seventh verse of this Chapter then the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy to see such a magnificent pile reared up Lastly Take this inference If the visible world be such a building what is the invisible world the City having foundations which God hath prepared for those that love him Thus much of the first part of Jobs Conviction he had nothing to do in laying the foundations of the earth and he had as little in setting up and finishing that goodly structure as will appear in that which followeth Yet before the Lord proceeded any further to question Job about this great work of Creation he requires or calls for his answer in the close of this fourth verse to the question propounded in the former part of it Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth Declare if thou hast understanding God challengeth Job to answer The Hebrew is If thou knowest understanding And so the word is used Isa 29.24 where we render They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding or as the Margin hath it shall know understanding Again Huram said 2 Chron. 2.12 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel that made heaven and earth who hath given to David the King a wise son endued with prudence and understanding The Original is thus strictly read Knowing prudence and understanding Daniel spake in the same forme chap. 2.21 He giveth wisdom to the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding To know is a work of the understanding No man knoweth any thing but by the help of his understanding The understanding is the first or Master-wheel in that noble engine the soul of man and when rightly informed and inlightned all the other wheels or faculties of the soul move aright unless over-poized by passions and self-ends Every rational creature hath an understanding yet every rational creature doth not know understanding that is doth not is not able to speak knowingly or to use and act his understanding knowingly about every matter The Lord supposeth Job might be defective here and therefore bespeaks him thus Declare if thou hast understanding or knowest understanding As if he had said The things which I question thee about may possibly be too high or too big for thy understanding Si perituâ— sis tantarum rerum Vatab. such as possibly thou canst not reach And hence some render or rather paraphrase the Text thus Declare if thou art skilful in such great things as I now speak of If thou art so wise as thou seemest to be by thy former contesting with my provideâ—ces declare thy wisdom in this point wherein I know thou wilt but declare thy ignorance thy infancy or inability to speak as one speaks Thou wilt shew thy self but a child while thou