Amos 5. Non ultra dissimulabo ei scelera tua Pang Merc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your wickedness or your sin and that carries a fair sense for when a man pardons or will not punish an offence he seemes to take no notice of it for that properly is to dissemble a thing as simulation is to pretend that which is not so dissimulation is to take no notice or not to hold forth that which is God passeth by and dissembles the sins of men in a gracious way when he will not observe or look upon them to question or punish them The Greek word Matth. 26. 39. answereth this Hebrew where our Lord Christ ptayeth earnestly about the removal of the cup Father saith he if it be possible let this cup pass away from me In the same sense that sin is said to pass away the cup of Gods displeasure and wrath passes also away when sin is pardoned therefore Christ prayed thrice that the cup might pass away from him that he might not be dealt with as a sinner but that there might be a course found out to spare him and save the glory of his fathers justice Yet he submits not my will but thy will be done if it must not passe away I am contented it should not passe Thus far we have seen what is meant by pardoning and taking away A word upon those two terms transgression and iniquity which are the objects on which pardoning mercy workes Why doest thou not pardon my transgression and put away mine iniquity Trangression and iniquity are words of great significancy for in them all manner of sins especially sins of a greater stature are comprehended The former transgression notes a violation of the Commands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Propriè rebellio peccatum ex superbia Non simplex qualiscunque sed malitiosa temeraria transgressio of God with a high hand or a rebellion of the mind when pride of spirit shews it self very much There is a spice of pride in every sin Because of pride saith Solomon cometh contention all the contentions we maintain against the word and will of God rise from the pride of our own hearts because we cannot submit to the will of God but in some sins pride holds up her head more proudly Such sins this word notes it is not simply any sin but sin very proudly and rebelliously committed The latter word Iniquity imports the crookedness and inequality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Incurvationem declinationem à recta via ad animum translata significat per versitatem melitiam Curvi mores of a thing when it turns this way or that way and extends not in a straite and right line Hence it is applyed to the vitiosity and perverseness to the crookedness and inequality of mans nature Our nature is a crooked peece and that makes all the crookedness in our lives The Latines speak so in a moral sence they call ill manners and ill manner'd men crooked men and crooked manners David Psal 51. 5. bewaileth his birth sin under this notion I was born in iniquity And he that was first borne in the world applied this word to himself saying my iniquity the Peccata denotat quae fiunt ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 destinata malitia seu proposito cum sc mens videt quod aequū est tamen indulgens cupiditatibus sequitur deteriora Moller in Psal 106 6. perverseness the crookedness of my waies is greater than can be forgiven or made straight Gen. 4. 13. So that this word also take it strictly implies more than a bare act of sin arising from infirmity weakness or inanimad vertency it rather notes those sins which are committed from a crooked purpose from an ill or false bent of the heart when the mind sees that which is right and good just and straite and yet turns to crooked paths and follows that which is perverse and worse Take one thing further This word in Scripture signifies not only the act of such sins but secondly the punishment of them Psal 31. 10. Gen. 19. 15. And thirdly it is put for the means of expiation or pardon Hos 4. 8. They eat up the sin of my people and they set their heart on their iniquity But how did the Priests eat up the sin and set their hearts on the iniquity of the people Sin can make us but a hungry banquet The text bears variety of interpretations But to the point in hand sin is here put for the sacrifices offered up for sin out of divers of which the Priests had a portion for themselves to eat so that the Prophet here describes the horrible prophaneness of those degenerate Priests who set their hearts upon the sacrifices because themselves were fed by them not because the people came to seek the favour of God and make their peace by them when they had sinned As Physitians may be said to eat the diseases of the people and set their hearts upon their sicknesses when they because their own gain is in it are pleased to hear of spreading sicknesses c. Or as Lawyers eat the contentions and quarrels of the people when they are glad to hear of Suits c. because they grow rich by it So those base-spirited Priests were said to eat the sins of the People and set their hearts on their iniquities because they were glad to have of a multitude of sacrifices their provisions being inlarg'd by them So that then iniquity is the sacrifice for iniquity in which sense also Christ is said to be made sin for us namely a sacrifice for sin 1 Cor. 5. 21. From the words thus opened we may observe First to whom Job addresseth himself for pardon is it not unto God And why doest not thou pardon my transgression God onely can pardon sin Pardon is his act his proper and peculiar act he can do it and none can but he We read it among his royal Titles Exod. 34. 7. the Name of God is proclaimed in this stile The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gratious long suffering and abundant in goodness and in truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression an sin Pardoning sin is put the last of those seven attributes in which the Lord manifested himself to Moses as being that wherein all the former are summ'd up and into which they conveigh their several blessings to make man compleatly blessed or to shew that none can be a pardoner of sin but he who is vested with all those foregoing glorious titles and therefore none but God alone Hence the Prophet Micah chap. 7. ver 18. puts the question and challenges all the world Who is a God like unto thee pardoning iniquity Shew me one if you can there is no sin-pardoning God besides thee Who is a God like unto thee pardoning As if the Prophet had said some will be or have been offering at this work but they all have been or will be found
of the imagination of mans heart it is evill and onely evill and that continually the Hebrew is every figment or every creature in the heart of man whatsoever a man moulds and fashions within himself naturally is evill and nothing but evill and it is alwayes so The naturall births of mans heart have all one common face and feature They are all of one common constitution Evill all Secondly We may observe That The meritorious cause of mans suffering is from his sinne Iniquity springeth not from the ground neither doth trouble come out of the dust As iniquity springs from our selves so we may resolve it that misery springs from our sinne It is a truth as hath been touched upon the second Chapter that God in many afflictions laid upon his dear children and servants respects not their sin as the cause procuring and drawing on these afflictions And very many are afflicted by the world not for sinnes sake but for righteousness sake As Christ so some Christians may say in their spheare We have done many good works for which of them doe ye stone us Yet this is as cleare a truth that the sinne of any man is in it selfe a sufficient meritorious cause of any yea of all afflictions A creature cannot beare a greater punishment then the least of his sinnes deserves Man weaves a spiders webb of sinne out of his owne bowels and then he is intangled in the same webb the troubles which insnare and wrappe about him are twisted with his own fingers Thirdly observe Naturally every man seekes the reason of his sorrows and afflictions out of himselfe When man is afflicted he is not willing to owne himself as the cause of his afflictions or acknowledge that they spring from his sinne and that may be the reason why Eliphaz speaks thus to Job as if he had said thy thoughts are wandring abroad thou little thinkst that thy afflictions were bred in thy owne bosome Thou art fastning the cause of then upon this and t'other thing Thou art complaining of the day wherein thou wast borne but thou shouldest rather complain of the sin wherein thou wast born Thâ— birth-day hath not hurt thee but thy birth-birth-sin Thy birth-birth-sin hath given conception to all the sorrows of thy life The Jewes in the Prophet Isa's time were in great distresse and could get no deliverance The ports and passages of mercy were all obstructed Now whether went their thoughts And what did they looke upon as the reason of those abiding lingring evils we may reade their thoughts in the refutation of them we may see what the disease of their hearts was by the medicine which the Prophet applies unto them he labours to purge them from that conceit as if either want of power or want of love in the Lord were the stop of their deliverance The Lords hand is not shortned that he cannot save neither his eare heavy that he cannot heare Isa 59. 1 2. as if he had said I know what your apprehensions are in these affliction you thinke the reason is in God that either he cannot or he will not save you You think the hand of Gods power is shrunke up or the eare of his mercy shut up but you reflect not upon your selves nor consider that Your iniquities have separated between you and your God Your sinne does you hurt and you touch not that with a little finger but lay the weight of your charge upon God himselfe So Hos 13. 9. Thy destruction is from thy self in me is thy help God is forced to tel them so that their destruction was from themselves they would not believe it they supposed it was from the cruelty or malice of the creature from the wrath and rage of enemies from some oversight or neglect of their friends therefore the Lord speaks out in expresse termes Thy destruction is from thy self It springs not forth of the dust neither is thy destruction from me In me is thy help in both the heart of man failes equally we are ready to say that the good we have comes from our selves that our help and comforts are from our own power and wisdom and so offer sacrifice to our own nets as if by them our portion were fat but for evil and destruction we assigne it wholly over somtime to men and so are angry sometime to God and so blaspheme We naturally decline what reflects shame upon our selves or speaks us guilty From our translation Although affliction c Observe First Every affliction hath a cause The Proverbe carries that sense in every common understanding Our afflictions have a cause a certaine cause they come not by hap hazzard or by accident Many things are casuall but nothing is without a cause Many things are not fore seene by man but all things are fore-ordained by God The Prophet Amos Ch. 3. 6. sets forth this by an elegant similitude Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no ginne is for him As if he should say is a bird taken in a snare by chance where none have prepared set or industriously laid a snare or a ginne to take him The bird saw not the snare but the snare was set for the Bird. Snaresfall not on the ground at adventure they grow not out of the earth of themselves but the fowler by his art and industry invents and frames them a purpose to catch the bird Thus the calamity and troubles in which men are caught and lime-twig'd insnared and shackled in the world come not out of the ground They are not acts of chance but of providence The wise and holy God sets such snares to take and hold foolish unruly men like silly birds gaping after the baits of worldy pleasures Which meaning is cleare from the scope and tendency of the whole Chapter but the next question resolves it in the letter Is there any evill in a City and the Lord hath not done it Those words are both the conclusion and explication of the former similitude Secondly observe Affliction is not from the power of any creature As it comes not by chance or without a cause so not by the power of creatures they are not the cause dust and the ground are opposed to Heaven or to a divine power Creatures in this sense can neither doe good nor doe evill The world would be as full of trouble as it is of sin if sinfull men could make trouble It is not in the compasse of a creature no not of all the creatures in Heaven or earth to forme or to make out one affliction without the concurrence and allowance of God himselfe Men alone can neither make staves of comfort nor rods of affliction Whence thirdly A consectary from both may be That Afflictions are from the Lord as from the efficient cause the directer and orderer of them These evils are from a creating not from a created strength I saith the Lord forme the light and create darknesse Isa 45. 7. Naturall darknesse hath
4. This people are as they that strive with the Priefl To strive with the Priest is to strive with God that 's a sad strife Strivers with the Prist are the worst of people how vile then are this people who are as bad as they But to the present poynt if it be so great a sin to remove the land-stones it must needs be a great mercy to have those stones preserved So then to be in league with the stones of the field may have this good sence also the boundary-stones shall be preserved none shall remove them and they shall preserve thy estate that none shall invade or wast it Hence Observe God can doe us good by any thing if he pleaseth and nothing can doe us good without God Though we have carefully set up bounds though we have made strong fences yet these will not keep out evill or annoyance unless there be a league a league of Gods making for us And God can produce our comforts out of improbables yea impossibles to nature He can fetch us bread and a blessing from stones It was a temptation upon Christ when he was hungry to make bread of stones If thou be the son of God command that these stones be made bread Mat. 4. 2. But it is our comfort that God can turn stones into bread that he can make those things which are most improbable to do us good very good unto us It is a sin for us to turne stones into bread or to expect stones to be turned into bread that is to put God upon miracles from us when means or indeavours may help us but God out of the superaboundance of his power and goodnesse alwayes can and sometimes will work miracles turning stones into bread for us Then we turne stones into bread when we live upon sin whosoever eateth a bit of bread out of bread out of the hand of sin turneth stones into bread Then God turnes stones into bread for us when out of his infinite power and goodnesse he gives us supplies by unusall meanes and comforts us by that from which we can expect no more comfort then we doe bread and water out of stones Further when stones seeme to be most angry with a godly man then he is in league with them Stones in a proper sense flew about the eares of Steven and kil'd him yet Steven was in league with the stones even while they took away his life God turned these stones into bread for him and every stone was as a glorious Diamond in his Crown of Martyrdome There are two Interpretations of this league with stones which some make great store and treasure of different from all these Pineda Crimen hoc appellabant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cujus rei admissum tale est plerique inimiâ—orum soâ—ent praedium inimici 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est lapides ponere indicio futuros qâ—od si quis eum agrum coluisset malo letho periturus esset insidiis eorum qui scopulos posuissent Quoe res tantum timorem habet ut nemo agrum accedere audeat crudelitatem timens eorum qui scopelismon fecerunt Idem ex Vlpiano The former is grounded upon a custome in Arabia where or neare which it is supposed Jobs friends dwelt It was saith the learned Authour a very capitall offence in that country if any man did cast or carry heapes of stones into his neighbours ground For that action had this signification or meaning in it The man who afterwards ventured to plow or till that ground should surely dye by the hands of those who cast in those stones So that the sight of such stones was terrible and ominous to the owner of the Land as speaking death and ruine to him if he medled with it Hence t' was often left unus'd and untill'd Against this barbarous custome it being an occasion of murders and blood shed a very severe Law was made That whosoever should be discovered to have cast such Stones into his neighbours ground should have judgment of death by the Magistrate In allusion to this Law or custome the interpretation of this promise Thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field is made out thus The ordinary Stones of the field shall be so farre from hurting that even those Stones which speake anger and malice shall not hurt thee God will reconcile or subdue the rage of thine enemies and though they have cast these Stones of defiance into thy Land yet they shall desire a league of peace with thee or fall before thee The second is grounded upon a custome in warre of which we reade 2 Kin. 3. 25. that when the Moabites fled before Israel The pursuing Israelites beat down their Cityes and on every good peece of Land cast every man his Stone and filled it c. Eliphaz might have an eye to this as if he had said Thy land shall not be buried under the heapes of stones thrown there by a conquering hand that is thou shalt have a league of amity with or victory over all that are round about thee And the Beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee That is they shall through the power of God be made peaceable to thee To be at peace with the Beasts is the same in proportion with being in league with Stones It was mans priviledge by creation to have power over the Beasts of the field and it is the priviledge of Redemption To be at peace with them This is the ordinary priviledge of every Believer But there is a more transcendent priviledge of the Church in the most flourishing estate of it here on the earth represented under this notion Isa 11. 6 7 8 9. The Wolfe shall dwell with the Lambe and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid and the Calfe and the young Lion and the fatling together and a little childe shall leade them c. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the Aspe and the weaned childe shall put his hand on the Cockatrice den They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountaine This Peace with Beasts is within a degree of glory with God whether we understand it in the letter of beasts in kind or in the Allegory of men symbolizing in rage and fiercenesse in power and poysons in stings and teeth with beasts and Serpents The Text before us goes lower then this promise And to be at peace with the Beasts of the field is only a gracious assurance that they shall not hurt us or that they shall be usefull to us In the firmnesse of this promise of peace with the Beasts the fearlesnesse of a godly man is founded He shall not be afraid of the Beasts of the earth for the Beasts of the earth shall be at peace with him Hence observe The courage and fearlesnesse of a godly man is grounded in divine reason not on humane presumption When we see a man stout in the midst of danger
with so much justice equity holinesse that thou shalt not sin Not that Eliphaz undertakes his absolute freedome from sin but he should not sin as he supposed he had before thou shalt not run into such errors or split thy selfe upon such rocks as have wrackt thy former greatnesse And thus he secretly reproves Jobs former carriage in his family as irregular and sinfull There is a further exposition joyning both these together Thou shalt visit thy house and shalt not sin namely by conniving or winking at the sins and disorders of thy family and yet thou shalt have peace thy strict and faithfull carriage in over-seeing thy family shall not provoke either servants or children to contention and complainings to anger and passion Thy holy severity shall not fill thy house with quarrels and troubles but God shall so Domestici correpti non succensebuntâ— Vâ—tabl over awe the spirits of those under thee that they shall willingly and cheerefully submit to thy purer discipline Observe hence First It is a great and a speciall point of godly wisdome well to order and visit a family Families are the principles or seeds of a Common-wealth As every man is a little world so every house is a little Kingdome A family is a Common-wealth in a little volume And the rules of it are an epitomie of all Lawes by which whole Nations are govern'd The Apostle makes it a speciall character of his Bishop That he must be one who rules his own house well and subjoynes the reason For if a man know not how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the Church of God 1 Tim. 3. 4 5. And therein wraps up this truth that he who knowes how to rule his own house well is in a good posture of spirit for publike rule The same wisdome and justice and holinesse for kind only more enlarg'd and extensiue acts in either spheare and will regularly move both Secondly A family well visited and ordered is usually a prosperous family Sinne spoiles the comforts and cankers the blessings of a family Sin brought into a house rots the timber and pulls down the house or it undermines the foundation and blowes up the house The sin of families is the ruine and consumption of families Hence thirdly observe To be kept from sin is a better and a greater blessing than all outward blessings When Eliphaz had reckoned up all the comforts which repenting Job is promised Thou shalt be delivered in six troubles and in seven Sword and famine shall not hurt thee peace and plenty shall dwell within thy walls and lodge in every chamber Yet saith he I will tell thee of a blessing beyond all these thou shalt not sin It is more mercy to be delivered from one sin then from sword and famine grace is better then peace and holinesse then aboundance riches and honour and health are all obscured in this one blessing A holy a gracious an humble heart There is more evill in one sin than in any or all troubles therefore there must needs be a greater blessing in being kept from sin than in protection from any or all troubles Sin is the greatest evill therefore to be kept from sin is one of the greatest goods Christ took upon him all sorts of outward evils he became poor for our sakes he had not so much as an house to lye in he came in the forme of a servant for our sakes and he was a man of sorrowes He was acquainted with grief all his life at last with death and a grave Yet he would not admit of the least sin he was content to bears all our sins but he abhord the thought of acting one Not to sin is the next priviledge to God and the utmost priviledge of man When in a full sense man shall not sin man will be arrived at fulnes of joy and as we daily empty of sin so we proportionably fill with joy Vers 25. Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great and thy off spring as the grasse of the earth From the present bessings upon the family he descends to those which concerne posterity as if he had said thy comforts shall not be confined to thy selfe neither shall they be shut up within the limits of one generation Mercies shall be transmitted to thy children thy heires shall inherit blessings Thy seed shall be great The word Great signifies both multitude and magnitude Thou shalt have a great seed that is a numerous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seed a multitude of children and thou shalt have a great seed that is honourable and wealthy children Job himselfe was called Chap. 1. 3. though by another word yet in the same sense the greatest man in the East This greatnesse is promised his children and thy shall receive additionall further blessings For the word Rab signifies greatnesse in a continuall motion to more eminent greatnesse And therefore it is sometime translated by encreasing So Isa 9. 6. where the Prophet sets out the flourishing glory of the kingdome of Christ Of the increase of his Kingdome and peace there shall be no end or of the greatnesse and greatning of his kingdome there shall be no end So that to say thy seed shall be great notes not only some standing greatnesse but growing greatnesse they shall ever be upon an encrease till they come to their full in glory And thy off-spring as the grasse of the earth Both clauses of the verse meane the same thing The word which we translate off-spring signifies properly that which goeth forth or issues because children spring or goe forth from their parents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Germina sicut ex vite palmites and are therefore called their issue And the word is used for the bud of the Olive or of the Vine hence the Psalmist puts them both into a similitude Thy children shall be like olive plants round about thy table They are as the olive bud in their birth and as the olive branch in their growth Thy off-spring shall be as the grasse of the earth To be as the grasse of the earth is a proverbiall speech and it Proverbiale multitudinis talia sunt sicut arena maris ut stellae coeli Drus arises to the sense of those proverbials spoken to Abraham concerning his seed thy seed shall be as the Starres of Heaven And thy seed shall be as the sand upon the sea-shore The grasse of the field is as innumerable as the Starres or the sands Thy off spring shall be as the grasse of the sield Thou shalt not only have a numerous but thou shalt have as it were an innumerable off spring Man kind in generall is compared unto grasse Isa 40. 6. All flesh is grasse Grasse in regard of its sudden withering he is suddenly cut downe the goodlinesse of man is as the flower of the field Wicked men are compared to grasse not only because they wither but because they wither suddenly
on both sides with moderation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and be cautious inclining neither one way nor other but as the merit of the cause fully heard shall sway her judgement à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Job desires that his calamity might be layed thus in the ballances Levavit sustulit nam qui appendit ali quid tollit lances in altum Drus before his sentence Laid The word is O that my calamity might ascend in the ballances And that manner of speaking is used either because in weighing the lighter scale of the ballances doth ascend or because when things are weighed the ballances ascend or are lifted up A man takes up the ballances in his hand to weigh So it is as if he had said O that these might be poised together and lifted up to see which way the scales will turne Together There is some difference in opinion about that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pariter vel potius similiter Nulla ejus parte praeter missa Together whether he meaneth thus O that all my griefe and calamity were weighed you consider things to halves and leave out those points which are most weighty and material you should take in all together Or whether his desire be that his griefe and calamity both together might be put into one ballance and the sand of the sea into another and so an experiment be made whether his griefe and calamity or the sand of the sea were heavier Or thirdly Whether thus that his griefe should be put into one ballance and his calamity into another and then triall be made which of those two were heavier his griefe and sorrow or his calamity and trouble A learned interpreter conceives that Iob Mercerus wishes his griefe and calamity might both together be put into one ballance and all the sand of the sea if it were possible in the other supposing that his griefe and calamity would out-weigh that vast ponderous aggregated body His opinion is chiefely strengthned by some difficulties in the Gramatical construction unlesse this be admitted and yet if it be a greater difficulty is shewed by a second and therefore I rather take it thus O that Bolduc my griefe and calamity were laid in the ballances together that is O that my griefe were put one into one ballance and my calamity into another or O that my griefe might be weighed with my calamity and it would appeare notwithstanding your judgement of me that yet there is nothing so much weight in my greife as there is in my calamity that is I have not yet grieved or complained up to the height or weight of those calamities which are upon me So that if my sorrow were laid in one ballance and my affliction in another my affliction would outweigh my sorrow and it would appeare that I have complained not only not without a cause but not so much as I had cause And to prove that his calamity was heavier then his griefe he adds in the next words It namely his calamity thus weighed would be heavier then the sand of the sea As if he had said it is possible that in trying all heavy things somewhat might be found heavier then my griefe or my complaint hath been but I am sure nothing can be found of equal weight with my calamity for my calamity which is the immediate antecedent would be heavier than the sand of the sea then which nothing can be found more heavy That of David Psal 62. 9. is paralell to this expression in Job Surely men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are a lye To be laid in the ballances they are altogether lighter then vanity The meaning is That if men of all degrees high and low were put in one scale and vanity in the other vanity it selfe would be weightier then the gravest and most weighty men Hence some reade They together are lighter then vanity Others to this sence Men and vanity being weighed together vanity will not be so light as vaine man As David to shew mans lightnesse makes him lighter then the lightest thing vanity So Iob to shew the heavinesse of his calamity makes it heavier then the heaviest thing the fand of the sea Observe hence first That it is a duty to weigh the sad estate and afflicted condition of our brethren thoroughly But you will say what is it to weigh them throughly I answer It is not only to weigh the matter of an affliction to see what it is which aman suffers but to weigh an affliction in every circumstance and aggravation of it The circumstance of an affliction is often more considerable then the matter of the affliction If a man would confesse his sins and confesse them throughly he is to confesse not only the matter of them as sins are the transgressions of the Law and errors against the rule but he must eye the manner in which sin hath been committed the circumstances with which it is cloathed these render his sin out of measure and out of weight sinful Likewise would a man consider the mercies and favours received from God would he know them throughly and see how much they weigh let him look not only what but how and when and where and by whom he hath received them There may be and often is a great wickedness in a little evil committed and a great mercy in a little good received As relations so circumstances have the least entitie but they have the greatest efficacie Now as there is often more in the circumstances than in the matter of a sin or of a mercy so there is often more in the circumstance than there is in the matter of an affliction therefore he that would thoroughly weigh the afflictions of another must consider all these accidents as wel as the substance of it As namely the time when sent the time how long endured whether a single affliction or in conjucture with other afflictions the strength of the patient and the dependencies that are upon him Secondly He that would weigh an affliction throughly must put himselfe in the case of the afflicted and as it were make anothers griefe his owne He must act the passions of his brother and a while personate the poore the sick the afflicted man He must get atast of the wormwood and of the gall upon which his brother feedeth In a word He must lay such a condition to heart The Prophet Malachy threatens a curse upon those who laid not the word and works of God to heart Chap. 2. 2 I will curse your blessings saith the Lord because ye doe not lay it to heart that is ye doe not consider what I say or doe throughly God cursed them throughly because they would not throughly consider His Laws and judgements So then to weigh the affliction of another throughly is to put our soules as it were in their soules stead Hence that we may be assured Christ hath throughly weighed all our
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Levavit evexit sustu li◠signifies to ease or to lift up or to ease by lifting up if a man have a burthen upon him the way to ease him is to lift it off from him so Job here I lye down upon my couch with a burthen of heavy sorrows upon me God knows hoping my couch will be a means to take off that burthen a while that I may have a little breathing but to my grief I find it doth not The use of sleep is to unburthen the spirit and take off the load of cares The word is used in that sense Magnum est peccatum meum prae tollendo vel majus quam ut tolli possit Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quam ut remittatur mihi quam ut sustinere possim Jun. Gen. 4. 13. about the sin of Cain which lay upon him as a heavy burthen My sin saith he is greater than can be forgiven so some translations or greater than I can beare word for word thus my sin is greater than can be taken off Forgivenesse is the taking sin off from us it is the word here used for easing my sin is greater than I can be eased of as if Cain thought his sin a burthen which the arme of mercy could not lift from his shoulders Pardon is the easing of the conscience sin the burthening of it sin is a burthen and so is sorrow My couch saith he shall ease my complaint by taking off or at least intermitting the troubles which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In retractatione five meditatione miseriae apud animum Loquen mecum cause me to complaine or my couch shall ease me in my conplaint when I am meditating revolving and rowling my troubles up and down in my thoughts then my couch and I am discoursing together and reasoning out the matter but no ease comes We may observe from hence first That a man in paine expects ease from every change My bed saith Job shall comfort me my couch shall ease my complaint every thing he sees raises his hope every man that comes to him he lookes upon as a messenger of good newes I said this shall help me and that shall help me surely if I had such a thing saith a sick man it would do me good if I had such meat I could eate if I had such drink my pallat would relish it if I were in such an ayre it would restore my health and I should get up againe As a Bee goes from flower to flower to suck out somewhat so man from instrument to instrument from meanes to meanes from bed to couch still hoping to find reliefe or mitigation at least for his troubled mind or pained body Secondly observe hence That the most probable or proper meanes are unable of themselves to give us any ease or comfort What is fitter to give a man rest than a bed what is more proper to give one refreshing than a couch but Job goes to his bed in vaine and goes to his couch in vaine nor this nor that nor tother administred him any help Creatures are not able of themseves to give out the comforts committed to them Their common nature must be assisted with a speciall word of blessing or else they doe us no good If God will command a bed to comfort us it shall comfort us if he will say to a couch ease such a mans complaint it shall ease his complaint Job saith it and his saying could not effect it Nay if God will say to a hard stone give such a man rest he shall rest and sleepe sweetly upon it when another shall not get a wink of sleep upon a downe pillow If God say to a prison give such a man rest he shall find rest there if God speake to bonds and fetters give such a man content and pleasure he shall find not only contentment but pleasure in bonds and fetters if God say to flames of fire refresh such as are cast into your armes the fire will obey him and refresh them The most probable meanes cannot help us of themselves and a word from God will make the most improbable meanes helpfull to us yea that which is destructive shall save us For as God can create that good for us which is absent so he can as it were uncreate the evill that is present Providence can take away or suspend that hurting and destroying power which creation gave no creature is able to help or to hurt if God forbid and lay his restraint upon it Bread cannot nourish or cloathes warme us if he say they shall not poison shall not kill or fire burne us if he say they shall not Mans saying is but saying Gods saying is doing Man may say to his bed comfort me to his riches and honours content me to his wife and children please me to wine and musick make me merry he may lay his command or send his desires to all creatures and yet remaine comfortlesse contentlesse mirthlesse Pleasure it selfe will not please him nor the having of his will satisfie his mind at his own saying or biding Observe in the fourth place That rest and sleepe are from the especiall blessing of God When I said to my bed do it the bed could not sleepe is not from a soft bed or from an easie couch Psal 127. 2. For so he giveth his beloved sleepe that is sleepe with quietnesse or extraordinary quiet refreshing sleepe which some have noted in the Grammar of the text The Hebrew word Shena for sleepe being with Aleph a quiet or resting letter otherwise than is usuall in that language He giveth sleepe to his Jedidiaths as the word is there alluding to one of the names of Solomon The Lord gives sleepe sometimes as a love token to his beloved The connection is somewhat obscure the words before run thus It is in vaine for you to rise up early to sit up late to eat the bread of sorrow for so he giveth his beloved sleep how is sleepe a consequent of fruitlesse labour and eating the bread of sorrow these rather hinder sleepe Some referre it to the words of the first verse Except the Lord build the house they labour in vaine that build it except the Lord keep the City the watchman waketh but in vaine for so he giveth his beloved sleepe the Lord watches and takes a care of a City and family and thus gives his people rest and quiet sleep they are not awakened with alarms or surprizes of the enemy Others reade it thus for surely he will give his c. that is notwithstanding the ungodly are eaten up with cares to provide bread for themselves and families to eate yet without faile the Lord of his meere mercy will give food convenient to his people by their labours and quiet sleepe which includes all inward contentments with it So Prov. 3. 24. Thou shall lie downe and thy sleep shall be sweet And Psal 41. 3. there is a speciall promise made to
Hajom i. e. corpus sive robur dici Bold body or strength we the heat of the day either morning may be here meant though the word bears the later properly Thou doest visit him every morning that is as soone as the Sun is up yea as soone as day breakes or there is any light thou art visiting Mans visits are usually in the afternoone it is an extraordinary thing to visit one in the forenoone more extraordinary to visit in a morning and most early in a morning Gods visits are extraordinary visits they are visitings in the morning and visitings every morning as often as the morning returnes so often doth God come to visit not a morning that we misse him To doe a thing every morning notes first the doing of it alwayes or secondly the certaine doing of it Thou doest visit every morning that is as surely and as certain as the Sun riseth and the morning cometh so certainly doth God visit man Or thirdly it notes the speed the hast that God makes to visit He visits in the morning that is betimes God delayes not untill noone much lesse stayes till it be night but he cometh in the morning Psal 46. 5. God shall heare her and that right early the Hebrew is God shall heare her in the morning betimes speedily The late coming in to work in the vineyard is exprest by coming at the eleventh houre they came speedily who came in the morning at the first houre And to shew that we ought not to continue in wrath and keepe up our anger it is said let not the Sunne goe downe upon your wrath that is do not continue all day angry let your anger goe down speedily even before the Sunne In this sence Job saith that God visits man every morning as a Hic ad conservationem generalem providentiam pertinet Metaphora a pastoribus singulis matutinis oves suas recensenntibus Coc shepheard his flock least any should be hurt or straied we may apply it as before in the several sences of visitation either to Gods visiting of us in afflictions or in mercies he afflicts if he pleases continually speedily certainly And as sure as the Sun riseth and the morning cometh so sure God visiteth his with mercies therefore his mercies are said to be renewed every morning Lam. 3. 23. or fresh every morning Unlesse God bring new mercies every day the old would not serve we cannot bring the mercies of one day over to another The mercies of a former day will not support us the next therefore they must come every morning sufficient for the day is the evill thereof Mat. 6. and but sufficient for the day is the good thereof As we are therefore commanded to pray every day for our daily bread the bread you had the last day will not serve this day you must pray for the bread of this day and for a blessing upon it that God would visit your bread and your store in mercy So if need require God afflicts every day And the hearts of some men want as much the rod every day as bread every day they could not be without affliction every day to keep them in order God will be as carefull to correct his children as to feed them If a man be watchfull over his own wayes and the dealings of God with him there is seldome a day but he may find some rod of affliction upon him But as through want of care and watchfullnesse we loose the sight of many mercies so we doe of many afflictions Though God doth not every day bring a man to his bed and breake his bones yet we seldome if at all passe a day without some rebuke and chastning Psal 73. 14. I have been chastned every morning saith he Psalmist Our lives are full of afflictions and it is as great a part of a Christians skil to know afflictions as to know mercies to know when God smites as to know when he girds us and it is our sin to overlook afflictions as well as to overlooke mercies Secondly Take the word as it imports care and inspection Then observe The care of God is renewed every morning The eye of God is alway upon us He visiteth so as he telleth all our steps he tels our very wandrings He visiteth us so that we can turne no way but he is with us his eye of inspection as a Tutour as a guide is ever upon us he lookes to his people as a shepheard to his flock who knowes their wandrings And try him every moment It is of the same sence with the former Try him The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Periculum fecit expertus est tentavit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. signifies an exact and through triall Some take it to be an allusion to the practise of those who set the watch in Armies or Garrison Townes who least their Centinels or Watchmen should sleepe use to come suddenly upon them possibly divers times in a night to try whether they are faithfull and wakefull The Prophet Isaiah hints at such a custome chap. 21. The watchman is set v. 6th Goe set a watchman let him declare what he seeth The watchman is tried v. 11. He calleth to me out of Seir watchman what of the night watchman what of the night And it is observed in forraigne parts that their watchmen in Frontier Towns are tried every houre of the night the token being their giving so many tolls with the Bell hanging in their Watch-tower as the great City-clock strikes This is a good sence of the place the Lord visits ns every morning and tries us every moment that is very very often as often as may be to see whether we keep our watches and stand duely upon our guard But secondly it may note a triall as a Schollar is tried by examination We call it Probation day when the proficiency of Schollars is examined God cometh to examine and make probation of mens proficiencie what have you gotten how have you improved such times such opportunities for the gaining of spirituall knowledge what have you learned what know you more of your selves what more of God and Jesus Christ whom to know is eternall life Thirdly It may note triall by affliction There are three words 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie the troubles which God brings upon man They are First strictly Judgements which he sends in wrath upon enemies Secondly Chastisments and corrections Thirdly Temptations or trials these are proper to his children Hence observe Afflictions are trials The Lord proves what grace there is in the heart he tries what corruption there is in the heart by affliction There are many graces in the heart of man untried and there are some that cannot be tried till God bring him to an houre of trouble There are many corruptions in the heart of man which he taks no notice of nor can till
it is our duty to confesse sinne aboundantly that grace may abound Lastly Though we need not confesse sin at all to informe God he knowes our sins though we will not make them known and hath an eye to see though we should not have a tongue to confes Though I say we confesse not to informe God what we are or what we have done yet we must confesse to glorifie God While we shame our selves we honour him My sonne saith Joshua to Achan c. 7. v. 19 give I pray thee glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession unto him Every attribute of God receives this gift of glory by mans confession Justice is glorified and mercy is glorified patience is glorified and holinesse is glorified Holinesse is glorified in opposing sin and patience in sparing the sinner mercy is glorified in pardoning sin and justice in receiving satisfaction at the hand of Christ for the pardon of it Fourthly observe Holy confession of sin leades the way to gratious pardoning of sin Job begins the next verse with a vehement prayer for pardon And why doest thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquity Sin concealed and kept close growes upon us And it growes three wayes First in the strength of it Secondly in the guilt of it Thirdly in the terrour and vexation of it Psal 32. 3 4. When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long Confession is a meanes to obtaine the abatement of sin in all three The strength of it is weakened the guilt removed and the terrour overcome Then heare the counsell of the Prophet Isa 43. 26. declare that thou mayest be justified Thus farre of the words as they are a confession of sin I shall now handle them as they are a concession or a grant that he had sinned and so the sence may be given thus I have sinned what shall I doe unto thee As if he had said Let it be granted or subpose that I have sinned and sinned as deepely as my friends have charged me supâ—â—â—e I have been as wicked as they imagin what thâ—n if this were my case what shall I doe unto thee O thou preserver of men The later words plainly import a question What shall I doe unto thee But the sence of the question is not so plaine The question may be taken two wayes Either affirmatively or negatively Take it affirmatively and so the sence is what shall I doe that is Lord direct me councell me order me teach me what becomes me to doe in such a case in such a sinfull condition as I either confesse my selfe to be in or am supposed to be in That 's the affirmative sence What shall I doe The word which we translate do signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a radice pagnal respondet Graeco 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est agere cum energia effectu Piscat working or doing under a two fold qualification 1. Working with great willingnesse and readinesse of mind and hence it is applied to the workings of sin in naturall men who work with the greatest freedome that can be Man sins naturally and therefore freely he is carried on with a full swing with tide and wind he sins nothing in himself contradicting or giving a contrary vote He is a true worker of iniquity Psal 5. 5. 2. Working with energie and successe and the doing of a thing not only effectually but willingly Numb 23. 23. What hath God wrought When God works he works thoroughly he doth not his busines to halves So Isa 26. 12. Thou hast wrought all our works in us that is thou hast brought them to passe they have succeeded through thy help and the influences of thy blessing The word being taken in this height of sence the question for an affirmation What shall I doe that is shew me direct me what to do we may observe from it First That What to do in case of sin is a point of the highest consideration I have sinned what shall I do If ever we have need to go and aske counsell to sit down and debate the mater with our sevles or others it is when we have sinned Such is the nature of sin and such the consequences that it calls us to highest consideration what to do about it Matters of great consequence are matters of great consultation Sin hath an influence upon an eternity If any thing be more worthy your thoughts then that let it have them Secondly Look upon the question as following Jobs confession Observe thence That sincere confession of sin makes the soule very active and inquisitive about the remedies of sin I have sinned the very next word is What shall I doe Many make confession of sin who are never troubled about the cure and redresse of sin Lord what shall I doe is not the next question to Lord I have sinned Nay it may be the next action is to sin over the same sin they have confest As soon as those Jewes heard of the foulenesse of their sin in crucifying Christ and of the sadnesse of their condition their question is like this of Job what shall we doe what shall we doe that we may be saved As Christ speakes to the woman of Samaria Job 4. 10. when he offered her the water of life If thou didst know the gift of God and who it is that speakes unto thee thou wouldest have asked c. That is if thou wert sensible of the excellency and vertue of this water and thy need of it thou wouldest be very inquisitive how to get it how to have a tast of it As in regard of Christ and the benefits we have by him so of sin and the evils which come by it When a man hath confest and acknowledged his sin we may say to him if thou didst but know what thou hast confest if thou didst but know what thou hast acknowleged thou wouldest presently be asking how shall I get free how shall I get clear of these sins which are so deadly poisonous destroying condemning He that is but sensible what the wound of sin is wil never be at rest never give over enquiring til he hath found a plaister or a medicine for it He that knowes what he saith when he saith I have sinned will resolve as David in another case that his eyes shall not have a winke of sleep till he sees where to have helpe against it Thirdly In that he saith what shall I doe Observe That a soule truly sensible of sin is ready to submit to any termes which God shall put upon him What shall I doe unto thee O thou preserver of men Put what termes thou wilt upon me I am ready to accept them That was the sence of their question Acts 2. 32. what shall we do shew us the way let it be what it will we will not stand making of conditions we will not pick and choose this we will doe and that we will not doe
atque in summa aqua extaret Herod l. 1. b Montanus ex iib. Mifna cap. de phase was anciently the Emblem of everlasting forgetfulness or of a resolution never to recal that which was resolved †A learned Hebrician observes that it was a custome among the Jewes to take those things which they abominated as filthy and unclean and cast them into the sea which act noted either the purging of them or the overwhelming them out of sight for ever And a like usage is noted by * Iosephus Aeosta l. 5. de Historia Natur Moral Novi orbis a reporter of the manners of the Americans that those barbarous people either desciphering some wicked thing upon a stone or making a symbole or sign of it used to throw it into a river which should carry it down into the sea never to be remembred Thirdly Pardon of sin is noted by washing and purging to shew that the filthiness of it is removed from us Psal 51. 2. Fourthly By covering Psal 32. 1. and by not imputing ver 2. Fifthly By blotting out Isa 43. 25. and blotting out as a thick cloud Isa 44. 22. All these notions of pardon concurre in this one that sin passes away is lifted up and taken off from the Conscience of the sinner when it is pardoned The summe of all which is read in that one text Jer. 50. 20. In those daies and in that time saith the Lord the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none c. why For I will pardon them whom I reserve So that pardoned sin in God's account is no sin and the pardoned sinner is as if he had never sinned Forgiveness destroys sin as forgiving a debt destroyes the debt and cancelling a Bond destroyes the Bond. Thirdly observe When sin is pardoned the punishment of sin is pardoned Both words signifie both the punishment and the sin and Job having complain'd that he was set up as a mark and wounded by sharp afflictions now seeks ease in the surest and speediest way the pardon of sin why doest not thou pardon my transgression c. There are three things in sin The inward matter the foul evil the stock the root of sin which is natural corruption dwelling in us and flowing out by actions Secondly The defilement and pollution of sin Thirdly The guilt when we say sin is pardoned or taken away it is not in the former though in pardoned persons corruption is mortified and the actings of it abated but in the latter the guilt is taken away which is the Obligation to punishment and so the punishment is taken away too nothing vindictive or satisfactory to the justice of God shall ever be laid upon that soul whose sin is pardoned Hence Isa 33. 24. the Prophet fore-shewing how happy a pardoned people shall be assures them The inhabitant shall nâ—â— say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall he forgiven their iniqâ—â—ty When iniquity is forgiven our infirmity is cured When the soul is healed the body shall be recovered Both the body natural and the body politick Plague and sword and famine and death all these evils go away when sin goes Judgments are nothing else but unpardoned sins sin unpardoned is the root which giveth sap and life to all the Troubles which are upon man or Nation And as sin committed is every judgment radically that is there is a fitness in sin to produce and bring forth any evil upon man so pardon of sin is every Mercy radically when you have pardon from thence every other particular Mercy springs you may cut out any blessing any comfort out of the pardon of sin particular Mercies are but pardon of sin specificated or individuated brought into this or that particular Mercy of all blessings you may say this is pardon of sin that 's pardon of sin and t'other is pardon of sin Forgiveness destroyeth that wherein the strength of sin lies it destroyeth our guilt and to us abolisheth the condemning power of the Law in these the strength of sin lies Hence when the people of Israel had committed that great sin in making the golden Calf the first thing Moses did was to pray for the pardon of sin and he did it with a strange kind of Rhetoricke Exod. 32. 32. Oh this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of Gold And now if thou wilt forgive their sin what then Moses There 's no more said Moses is silent in the rest it is an imperfect speech a pause made by holy passion not the fulness of the Sentence Such are often used in Scripture as Luk. 13. 9. And if it bear fruit what then Our own thoughts are left to supply the event Our translaters add well The Greek translators supply that in Exodus thus If thou wilt forgive them their sin forgive them We may supply it with the word in Luke If thou wilt forgive them well As if Moses had said Lord forgive them and then though they have done very ill yet I know it will be very well with them God cannot with-hold any mercy where he hath granted pardon for that with the antecedents and requisites of it is every mercy Moses knew what would follow well enough if they were pardoned and what if they were not therefore he adds And if not blot me I pray thee out of thy book which thou hast written If their sins must stand upon record Moses would not he knew if they were an unpardoned people they were an undone people all miseries would quickly break in upon yea overwhelm them and he desired not to out-live the prosperity of that people If Israel must bear their sins they must also bear the wrath of God and if their sin be but taken off then his love is settled on them God gives quailes sometime but he never gives pardons in anger Fourthly observe The greatest sins fall within the compass of Gods pardoning mercy The words in the text are of the highest signification Job speaks not in a diminutive language he is willing to lay load upon himself they whose hearts are upright will not stand mincing the matter and say they have sins but theirs are small ones sins not grown to the stature of other mens As the sins of a godly man may be very great sins so when they are he acknowledges that they are I know not where to set the bounds in regard of the nature or quantity of sin what sin is there which a wicked man commits but a godly man possibly may commit it excepting that against the holy Ghost These Job did and the Saints may put to God in confession and as he did not so they need not be discouraged to ask pardon for them because they are great The grace of the Gospel is as large as any evil of sin the Law can charge us with The grace of the Gospel is as large as the curse of the Law whatsoever the Law can call or
that plow iniquity and sow wickednesse reape the same which he applies parsonally to Job Chap. 22. v. 5 6. Is not thy wickednesse great and thine iniquities infinite Thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought and and stripped the naked of their cloathing c. The whole scope of his speech bends the same way and is as if he had said to Job Though thy carriage hath been so plausible among us that we are not able to accuse thee of sin yet these judgements accuse thee and are sufficient witnesses against thee These cry out with a loud voyce that thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought c. Though we have not seen thee act these sins yet in these effects we see thou hast acted them The snares which are round about thee tell us thou hast laid snares for others he that runs may read how terrible how troublesome thou hast been to the poore in the terrours which have seaz'd thy spirit and in the troubles which have spoyl'd thee of thy riches Bildad the Shuite speaks second His opinion is not so rigid as that of Eliphaz He grants that afflictions may fall upon a righteous person yet so that if God send not deliverance speedily if he restore him not quickly to his former estate and honour then upon the second ground of the fourth princple such a man may be censured cast and condemned as unrighteous That such was Bildads judgement in this case is cleare Chap. 8. 5 6. If thou wert pure and upright surely now he would awake for thee and make the habitation of thy righteousnesse prosperous Though thy beginning was small yet thy latter end shall greatly increase And vers 20 21. Behold God will not cast away a perfect man c. till he fill thy mouth with laughing and thy lips with rejoycing As if he had said I connot assent to my brother Eliphaz affirming That every man afflicted is afflicted for his wickednesse I for my part believe and am perswaded that a godly man may be afflicted for the tryall exercise of his graces c. but then I am assured that God never lets him lie in his afflictions for as soon as he cries and cals the Lord awakes presently makes his habitation prosperous again and increases him more then ever I grant the Lord may cast down a perfect man but he will not in this life cast him away no he will speedily fill his mouth with laughing and his lips with rejoycing Zophar the third Opponent differs from the two former in this great controversie affirming That the reason of all those afflictions which presse the children of men is to be resolved into the absolute will and pleasure of God that we are not further to enquire about his wisdome justice or mercy in dispencing them his counsels being unsearchable and his wayes past finding out Thus he delivers his mind Ch. 11. 7 8. Canst thou by searching find out God Canst thou by searching find him out to perfection It is as high as heaven what canst thou do Deeper then hell what canst thou know vers 12. Vaine man would be wise though man be borne like a wild Asses colt In the rest of his speech he comes nearest the opinion of Bildad vers 14 15 16. and gives out â—s hard thoughts of Job as either of his brethren numbring him among the wicked assigning him the reward of an hypocrite Chap. 10. 29. This is the portion of a wicked man from God and the heritage appointed unto him by God These I conceive are the Characteristicall opinions of Jobs three friends about his case All consistent with those four principles which they hold in common all equally closing in the censure and condemnation of Job though in some things dissenting and falling off from one another But what thinks Job or how doth he acquit or extricate himself from these difficulties very well His sentence is plainly this That The providence of God dispences outward prosperity and affliction so indifferently to good and bad to the righteous the wicked that no unerring judgement can possibly be made up of any mans spirituall estate by the face upon the view of his temporall He declares this as his opinion in cleare resolute and Categoricall termes Ch. 9. v. 22 23. This is one thing therefore I said it He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked if the scourge slay suddenly he will laugh at the triall of the innocent Which opinion hath no quarrell at all with any of those three principles held by Job joyntly and in consort with his three friends but only with their fourth which he throughout refutes as heterodox unsound in it self as uncomfortable to the Spirits and inconsistent with experiences of the Saints In the Strong hold and Fort-royal of this holy truth Job secures himself against all the assaults and scatters all the Objections of his Opponents resolving to maintain it to the very death he will lay his bones by this position say his unkind friends what they can against him let the most wise God doe what he pleases with him That he was a sinner he readily grants that he was an hypocrite he flatly denies That the Lord was righteous in all his dealings with him he readily grants That himself was righteous because the Lord had dealt so with him he statly denies How perfect soever he was he confesses that he needed the free-grace and mercies of the Lord to justifie him but withall asserts that he was perfect enough to justifie himselfe against all the challenges of man In these acknowledgements of his sinfullnesse and denials of insincerity In these humblings of himself before God and acquittings of himself before men in these implorings of mercy from the Lord and complainings of the unkindnesse of his brethren the strength of Jobs answer consists and the specialties of it may be summ'd up 'T is true that through the extremity of his pain the anguish of his spirit and the provocation of his friends some unwary speeches slipt from him For which Elihu reproved him gravely and sharply of which himselfe repented sorrowfully and heartily all which the most gracious God passed by and pardon'd freely not imputing sin unto him Thus Christian reader I have endeavoured as heretofore of the whole Book so now to give a brief account concerning the Argumentative part of it And to represent how far in this great Controversie the Answerer and his Objectors agree in judgement and where they part If this discovery administer any help as a Threed to lead your meditations through the many secret turnings and intricacies of this dispute the labor in drawing it out is abundantly satisfied And if any further light subservient to this end shall be given in from the Father of lights that also in it's season may be held forth and set upon a Candle-stick What is now received together with the textuall Expositions upon this first Undertaking between
is greater reason why they should stumble at a mole-hill then we at a mountaine of trouble God having told us that seeing he hath given us such excellent things in Christ such glorious mercies and transcendent priviledges in the Gospel we may well take afflictions and troubles into the bargaine and never shrinke or straine at them but rather take them well So much for that verse The righteous are not cut off neither doe innocent persons perish Eliphaz having given Job his turne to search his experiences brings forth his own in the next words Even as I have seene Vers 8. they that plow iniquity and sow wickednesse reape the same As if he should say Job I know you are not able to give me one instance of a righteous mans perishing but I could give you many and many instances I could write whole books concerning wicked men perishing and of the ungodly cut off This he carries under a metaphor and by continued metaphors makes up an elegant allegorie in those termes of plowing sowing reaping Even as I have seene That word notes a curious observation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat non simpliciter videre sed curiese inspicere not a light transitory glance of the eye but a criticall consideration of any thing As it is said Gen. 1. 4. God saw the light that he had made God saw it discerningly for he found it was very good And so it is said Gen. 34. 1 2. that Dinah went forth to see the daughters of the land that is curiously though vainely to observe the manners and fashions of the people and in the fame verse Hamor the sonne of Sechem saw her he saw her so exactly as to be taken with her beauty his eye entangled his heart and both entangled his life So here Even as I have seene that is by a diligent inspection and judicious consideration of what I saw And what was that Mysticall Husbandry They that plow iniquity and sow wickednesse reape the same They that plow iniquity The word which we translate to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fâ—dit fundam â—ravit Peâ— metaphoram fodit cogitatione vel intentus fuit rei aliâ—ui conficiendae sicut arator praeparat terram ante seminaâ—orem plow signifies the use of any kinde of art or manufacture as the worke of a Smith or of a Carpenter in Iron wood or timber And as the art so the Artist or handicrafts-man Isa 44. 12. is exprest by this word The Smith with his tongs worketh in the coales And Zech. 1. 20. It is put for a Carpenter The Lord shewed me foure Carpenters Now here it is applyed to the Plowman and to his plowing So Hose 10. 13. Ye have plowed wickednesse ye have reaped iniquity ye have eaten the fruit of lies And this plowing of iniquity or plowing of wickednesse takes in both the outward act of sinne to plow iniquity is to commit and practise iniquity and the inward act of sinne to plow iniquity is as much as to devise and meditate iniquity Prov. 3. 29. Devise not Heb. plow not evill against thy neighbour So Prov. 6. 18. A heart that deviseth or ploweth wicked imaginations And Prov. 21. 4. The plowing of the wicked is sinne That is whatsoever they devise or whatsoever they doe inside and outside the cloath and linings of their garments are all sinne Likewise this word denotes not onely speculative evils but also secrecie of practice or a plot carried and acted secretly Thus 2 Sam. 23. 9. it is said David knew that Saul secretly practised evill against him The Hebrew is he knew that Saul plowed evill against him So that it may be taken either for the meditating of evill or for a politick close way of effecting any evill or wicked designe And the Scripture elegantly calls the musing or meditating of sinne plowing because a man in meditation when he would accomplish any wickednesse turnes up as it were all the corruptions that are in his heart and all the conveniencies that are in the world to attaine his end As a man that meditates upon any holy thing upon Christ or Free-grace c. turnes up all the graces and abilities that are in his spirit he plowes up his heart that he may fetch up the strength and enjoy the sweetnesse of them So then this ploughing noteth two things chiefly First the pains and labour which wicked men take in sinfull courses every one that sinnes doth not plough sinne or is not a worker which is an equivalent phrase of iniquity Secondly it implyes the black Art and hellish skill of wicked men in sinning To plough is a skill so is some kinde of sinning though to sin in generall be as naturall as to see and needs as little teaching as the eare to heare some men â—s we may say are bunglers in sinning others are their crafts-masters at this plough and can lay a furrow of iniquity so strait do an act of filthinesse so cleanly that you can hardly see any thing amisse in it Those words in the New Testament To commit sinne to worke iniquity an abomination or a lye Rev. 21. 27. c. are answerable to this in the Old Testament a plougher of iniquity And some translate this Text so the vulgar reades it thus They Qui operantur iniquitatem who worke iniquity all which expressions set forth and elegantly describe such who sinne resolvedly industriously cunningly curiously such as have the art and will spare no pains to do wickedly These have served an apprentiship to their lusts and are now as Freemen of Hell yet still Satans Drudges and active Engineers to plot and execute what God abhorres Note this further that ploughing in Scripture referres both to good actions and to bad there is a plowing for good the Metaphor is so applyed Prov. 4. 27. Doe not they erre that devise evill that plough evill but mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good to them that plough good the same word is used in both and it intimates as before both the paines and the skill which a godly man bestowes and shewes about holy things the great work of repentance is often allegorized by ploughing Breake up the follow ground and our obedience to the Gospell whether in the profession or preaching of it is called ploughing Luk. 9. 62. He that putteth his hand to the plough and lookes backe is not fit for the kingdome of God Grace is as active and as accurate as Lust can be It followes And sow wickednesse reape the same Eliphaz goes on with the Metaphor after plowing comes sowing and after seed time reaping time or harvest Sowing in Scripture is divers wayes applyed unto the actions of men First there is a sowing which is the work of charity when we dispense and drstribute to the helpe of the poore especially to the Saints so 2 Cor. 9. 6. He that soweth sparingly that is he that giveth unto the poore sparingly Secondly sowing
it is well with the righteous vvhen they are in the deeps of affliction for it is but to bring them off their Mountaines of pride that they may be exalted in the strength and love of God even upon the Mountain of his Holinesse and their glory for ever Thirdly Afflictions bring the Saints nearer to God Troubles abroad cause the soule to looke inwards and homewards Is there any hurt in being brought neerer to God It is good for me to draw neer unto God says David and it is good for us to be drawn neer unto God if vve vvill not come of our selves It is a desireable violence vvhich compels us heaven-ward Heaven is but our nearest being unto God and by how much vve are nearer God on earth so much the more vve have of Heaven upon earth Afflictions as in the Prodigals example put us upon thoughts of returing to God and the more vve returne the nearer vve are unto him returning thoughts vvill not rest but under our fathers roofe yea returning thoughts vvill not rest till vve are got into our fathers armes or under the shadow of his wing and this a happy condition indeed As it vvas vvith Noahs Dove Gen. 8. 9. vvhen she vvas sent forth of the Ark she could finde no place for the soal of her foot to rest on she knew not vvhether to go for the vvaters vvere on the face of the whole earth therefore she returneth back and comes hovering about the Ark as desiring to be taken in but after the vvaters vvere asswaged he sent out a Dove vvhich returned to him no more So when it is faire weather in the world calme and serene even Doves keepe off from God and though they goe not quite away from him yet they are not so desirous of comming to him but when we finde a deluge in the world such stormes and tempests of trouble that we know not where to fix our souls for a day then we come as the Dove fluttering about the Ark and cry to our Eternall Noah that we may be near him yea within with him Wicked men like the Raven which Noah sent out first Verse 7. and returned not againe care not for the Ark of Gods presence in the greatest troubles to be neare God is more troublesome to them then all their troubles But Believers like the Dove will look home at least in foul weather God is their chiefe friend at all times and their onely friend in sad times Is there any harme in this Christ sends a storme but to draw his back to the Ark That at the last where he is there they may be also Lastly we may say it is well with the righteous in their worst condition of outward trouble because God is with them It can never be ill with that man with whom God is It is infinitely more to say I will be with thee then to say peace is with thee health is with thee credit is with thee honour is with thee To say God is with thee is all these and infinitely more For in these you have but a particular good in God you have all good when God sayes I will be with you you may make what you will out of it sit down and imagine with your selves whatsoever good you can desire and it is all comprehended in this one word I will be with thee Now God who is with the righteous at all times is most with them in worst times then he saith in a speciall sense I will be with thee When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee When thou walkest thhough the fire thou shalt not be burnt c. Isa 43. 2. When a mighty winde passed before Eliah it is said That God was 1 Kings 19. not in the winde and when the Earthquake shook the Hils and a consuming fire appeared it is said God was not in the Earthquake not in the fire God joynes not with outward troubles for the terror of his people but he joynes with outward troubles for the comfort of his people So he is in the fire and in the winde and in the Earthquake and his presence makes the fire but as a warme Sunne the stormy winde a refreshing gale and the Earthquake hut a pleasant dance So much for the removing of this objection and clearing up the justice of God respecting the afflictions of the righteous If any shall look on the other hand upon wicked men as if God came not home in his justice vvhile he suffers them to prosper First I answer their prosperity serves the providence of God and therefore it doth not crosse his justice That vvas Nebuchadnezars case Isa 10. 6. I will send him saith God against an hypocriticall nation so then he must prosper vvhile he goes upon Gods errand but mark vvhat followes Verse 12. It shall come to passe that when the Lord hath performed his whole worke upon Mount Zion sc by Nebuchadnezars power vvho vvas but doing the just vvork of God vvhile he thought ambitiously of doing his own novv it is no injustice for God to give an instrument power to do his work and vvhen his bloody lust hath performed the holy vvork of God you shall see the Lord will take an order vvith him speedily For then saith the Lord I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria and the glory of his high looks God let him alone to doe the work he had set him about and it was a righteous work of God upon his people though Nebuchadnezzar went about it wlth a proud and malicious spirit against his people Secondly the prosperity of wicked men serveth them but as an opportunity to shew how wicked and vile they are to act and publish the seven abominations of their own hearts Now as it is one of the greatest mercies under Heaven for a man to have his lusts quite mortified so it is a very great mercy for a man to have his lusts but restrained It is a mercy for a man to have that fuell taken away from his corruptions upon which they feed therefore it must needs be wrath and judgement upon wicked men when God in stead of restraining their lusts giveth them opportunity to inlarge their lusts and layes the reines on their neck to run whether and which way they please without stop or controule This is wrath and high wrath a sore judgement the sorest judgement that can fall upon them wherefore when vve thinke they are in a most prosperous condition they are in the most dreadfull condition they are but filling themselves with sin and fitting themselves for destruction Many a mans lusts are altogether unmortified which yet are chill'd and overawed by judgements And there is more judgement in having liberty to commit one sinne then in being shut up under the iron barres and adamantine necessities of a thousand judgements He that is Satans treasury for sin shall be Gods treasury for wrath Thirdly Their prosperity is the
aliquo dicitur in Scriptura quod faciendum denunciatur be or fore-tell that it shall be As to give an instance or two Levit. 13. in the case of the Leper the text saith that when the Priest makes up his judgement concerning the Leper having found the tokens of Leprosie upon him he shall defile him ver 3. and ver 8. or make him uncleane so the Originall gives it which we translate The Priest shall pronounce him uncleane In that sence the Ministers of the Gospell whose businesse is to cleanse defile many yea one way to cleanse men is thus to defile and pronounce them Lepers So Isa 6. 8. the Lord sends the Prophet against that people and saith to him Make the heart of this people fat and make their eares heavy and shut their eyes Praedic excaeeanaos oâ—ulos aures aggravandas Now the Prophet did not act this himselfe he did not deafen their eares or blind their eyes but onely fore-told or denounced that this judgement should fall upon them because they had so long stopped their eares at last their eares should be stopt and made heavy enough and because they had so long winked and shut their eyes at last they should be blind and their eyes shut fast enough How fast are those eyes and eares lockt up which are thus double lockt Once more Jer. 1. 10. The Lord gives the Prophet a strange commission See saith he I have this day set thee over the Nations and over Kingdomes to roote out and to pull downe and to destroy and to throw downe and to build and to plant One would think this commission more fitting for a Caesar or an Alexander for great Commanders attended with numerous Armies than for an unarmed Prophet what could he doe could he roote out Kingdomes and destroy Nations Yes by denouncing the destroying judgements and consuming wrath of God due unto them for their rebellions and provocations Thus a poor weak Prophet can overturne a whole Kingdome and roote up the strongest Nations And the truth is that never was any Nation or Kingdome rooted up by the sword but it was first rooted up by the word first God hewed them to pieces and slew them by his Prophets and then let in Armies of cruell enemies to doe it So here in the text I have seen the foolish taking root but suddenly I cursed his habitation The clear meaning is I foretold a curse I knew what would shortly become of his habitation It Non per invidiam iram dira imprecacarer sed animus pâ—aesagiret male ipsi fore Coc. was not anger against his person or envy at his estate that moved me to curse him but it was an eye of faith which shewed me him markt with a curse in the just threatnings of God I saw a curse hanging over his family and dwelling over his riches and honours And though he then flourished that yet he should quickly wither and be destroyed root and branch The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked Prov. 3. 33. Man doth but see it there the Lord sent it there The word is considerable which we traslate Habitation It signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a quiet a setled a peaceable a beautifull habitation And so carries an aggravation of the judgement upon this foolish man his judgement is the worse upon him because he thought himselfe so well so well seated so well setled so secured and accommodated that he should never be removed They are most troubled with removings who thought themselves setled troubles afflict them deepest who supposed themselves beyond trouble When David thought God had made his mountaine so strong that it could not be moved how was he troubled as soon as God hid his face Ps 30. 6 7. And if they are so troubled with shakings who look upon their estates as setled by the favour of God how will they be troubled to meet with totterings and shakings much more with ruinings and destructions whose estates at best are bottom'd onely upon their policies often upon their sins We may observe from hence First The estate of some wicked men is out of the prayers of Gods people When they goe by their dwellings they cannot say The blessing of the Lord be upon you we blesse you in the name of the Lord Psal 129. 8. It is a great mercy to stand under the influences of prayer and for a man to have his estate land dwellings watered with showers of blessings and hearty good wishes from the mouths of Saints Their blessings or their cursings are next to the blessings and cursings of Christ nay they are his It is an argument that Christ hath blessed or cursed a man when the spirits of his people generally are carried to either It is one of the saddest presages in the world for a man to be cast out of the prayers of the Saints or to be cast by their prayers that is when their prayers are against him and he presented naked to the displeasure of Christ It shewes that the sin of a man is a sin unto death when the faithfull cease praying for him 1 Joh. 5. 16. What can it prognosticate then but approaching ruine and destruction when they bend the strength of prayer against him There was never any habitation of wickednes so firmly founded or strongly fortified but that Great and Holy Ordinance hath or may shake and batter it to the dust The fair Towers and walls of Babylon the seate and state of Antichrist have long been under this curse All the Saints whose eyes God hath unscaled and brought out from Egyptian darkness have seene That foolish man taking roote and have cursed his habitation Secondly observe A wicked man in prosperity is under the curse of God He is often under the curse of man but ever under the curse of God Esau have I hated saith God Rom. 9. 13. yet even at that time the fatnesse of the earth was his dwelling and of the dew of Heaven from above Gen. 27. 39. While the meate was in the mouthes of the murmuring Israelites the wrath of God was upon them They did at once eate their lust and their death wrath was mingled with their meate and while he gave them their request he sent leanenesse into their soules Psal 106. 15. This is the most dreadfull curse of all To have a fate estate a well fed body with a leane starven soule Thirdly Observe a vast difference between godly and wicked men between the foolish and the wise When a godly man withers in his outward estate and is pluckt up by the rootes yet God loves him when a godly man is poore God loves him when he is sick God loves him when he is in prison God loves him when he is in disgrace God loves him and when the world hates him most then God usually shewes that he loves him most The world cannot cast a godly man into any condition but he meets with the love
Math. 23. 14. who made Beggars as fast as they made Prayers Ye devoure widdows houses and under pretence make long prayers The greatnesse of his affliction is set forth by the losse of those things which cost much paines to get A harvest is not had with idlenesse The earth must be broken plowed and sowed before we reape The law of Nations I am sure of this Nation is very tender in this point providing that they who till and sow the Land shall also enjoy the crop But this wicked man shall not reape what he sowed The labour shall be his and the benefit another mans The hungry shall come and eate up his harvest Whence observe in generall It is a great evill when we cannot enjoy the thing we labour for What greater disappointment to the husband-man then to deprive him of his harvest Poets have sung this in mournfull verse And we find this threatned in the law as the very sting of those Impius haec tam culia novalia miles habebit Barbarus has segetes en que is consevâ—mus agros Virg. Egl. 1. evills which should come upon a disobedient people Deut. 28. 33. The fruit of thy land and all thy labours shall a Nation which thou knowest not eat up All thy labours that is The fruits for which thou hast laboured shall be eaten up by strangers And Levit. 26. 16. Yee shall sow your seed in vaine for your enemies shall eat it The sloathfull man resteth not that which he tooke in hunting so we translate Prov. 12. 26. But it seemes not so proper to the sence of this proverb A sloathfull man is not usually a hunter That sport requires an active spirit And usually men that are slow at worke are quick at meat and will not loose their venison for the roasting Therefore more properly I conceive with others to the originall and fully to the point in hand it may be translated thus Deceit or the deceitfull man shall not roast his hunting or that which he hath taken in hunting That is he shall Non aduret fraudulentia sive vir dolosus venationem suam Ariâ—s Mont. Pagn not take pleasure in that which he hath got by extreame pains as all hunters doe or by craft and stealth as some hunters doe Somewhat comes between his mouth and his morsell his cup and lip either he cannot get his meat to his table or he rises hungry from it Therefore Salomon puts a great blessing in this when a man enjoyeth his labour Eccles 2. 10. My heart rejoyced in all my labour and this was my portion of all my labour namely the fruit and benefit which God gave me by my labour I enjoyed it and this was my portion Againe Eccles 3. 13. And also that every man should eat and drinke and â—â—â—oy the good of all his labour it is the gift of God He puts the Emphasis upon this when a man hath taken pains to lay in provisions for a comfortable subsistence that then he may sit downe quietly and enjoy it It is the gift of God Therefore on the other hand not to eate and drinke and enjoy the good of our labours but to have all violently snatcht from our mouthes It is the judgement of God This judgement the Prophet also threatens Isa 1. 6. Your land strangers shall devoure it in your presence when you are looking on strangers shall devoure it Thou preparest a Table before me in the presence of my enemies saith David Psal 23 5. As it is one of the greatest outward mercies to eat at a Table prepared in the presence of an enemy so it is one of the greatest afflictions to have an enemy eat up what is prepared for our Table in our presence Mic. 6. 15. Thou shalt sow but thou shalt not reape thou shalt tread the Olives but thou shalt not anoint thee with oyle and sweet wine but shalt not drinke wine Observe how he puts in their labour to aggravate their sorrow If they had not sowne it had not been so troublesome not to reape if they had not trod the Olives it had not been so grievous to have had no oyle but this was their calamity they sowed but reaped not they trod the Olives but had no oyle to annoint themselves The misery of that rich man Luâ— 12. is thus described when he had made larger barnes and got in his harvest when he had made provision for many yeares then the Question is Whose shall all these things be that thou hast provided The rich man was not unprovided of an answer to the Querie long before Whose shall they be Mine own I warrant you I am not such a foole to take pains for others Little did he thinke his grave was a making while he was making his barns Or that all his providence and care should redound to strangers How will it cut the heart to see all those things taken away in and about which a man hath laid out his whole strength and laid up his whole heart This Job imprecates as the extremity of all outward evils in case he were an hypocrite and dealt falsely with God Chap. 31. 8 If any blot hath cleaved to my hands that is if this blot of insincerity Job did not thinke himselfe to be without all blot of sinne but if such a blot as I am charged with cleave to my hands then let me sow and let another eat This judgement which Eliphaz hints at in another person as already fallen on Job for his hypocrisie Job in his own person cals for if he were an hypocrite Let me sow and let another eate yea let my off-spring be rooted out Whose harvest the hungry eateth up The hungry There is some difference in opinion who are to be understood by the hungry Some take this hungry one for the Devill He is a hungry one indeed but his hunger is not after our riches but after our soules 't is them he goes about like a hungry roaring Lyon seeking to devoure 2 Pet. 5. 8. It is a truth also that Satan goes about as a hungrie one to devoure our estates so he did Jobs His harvest that hungry one did eat up but it was not because he desired Jobs harvest but because he gaped for Job Himselfe He thought if God would but give him leave to rob Job of his riches Job would quickly let his soule lapse into his hands A soule is the dainty morsell which That hungry spirit waits for The most delicate things in the world are meate too grosse for a spirit though an uncleane one Others by the hungry one understand the Heire of this rich worldling His heire whom he had kept low and bare and short as long as he lived now when he is dead and gone comes hungry to the estate and quickly consumes it he eats it out drinks it up and lavisheth it away It is often seen that the heires of great rich men come very hungry to their inheritances and as quickly
or commanding stamps justice upon it as is clear in the case of Abrahams call to sacrifice his son and the Israelites carrying away the jewels of the Aegyptians If then the act of God whose will is the supream law makes that lawfull which according to the common rule is unlawfull how much more doth the act of God make that great which in ordinary proportion is accounted small Againe When it is said God doth great things we must not understand it as if God dealt not about little things or as if he let the small matters of the world passe and did not meddle with them Great in this place is not exclusive of Little for he doth not onely great but small even the smallest things The Heathens said their Jupiter had no leisure to be present at the doing of small Non vacat exignis rebus adesse Jovi things or it did not become him to attend them God attendeth the doing of small things and it is his honour to doe so the falling of a Sparrow to the ground is one of the smallest things that is yet that is not without the providence of God the haires of our head are small things yet as not too many so not too small for the great God to take notice of Christ assures us this The very haires of your head are all numbred Mat. 10. 29 30. We ought highly to adore and reverence the power and inspection of God about the lowest the meanest things and actions Is it not with the great God as with great men or as it was with that great man Moses who had such a burthen of businesse in the government of that people upon his shoulders that he could not bear it therefore his Father in law adviseth him to call in the aide of others and divide the work But how The great matters the weighty and knotty controversies must be brought to Moses but the petty differences and lesser causes are transmitted and handed over to inferiour judges And it shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee but every small matter they shall judge Exod. 18. 22. But God the great Judge of Heaven and earth hath not onely the great and weighty but small matters brought unto him the least motions of the creature are heard and resolved disposed and guided by his wisdome and power You will say What is this greatnesse and what are these great things I shall hint an answer to both for the clearing of the words There is a two-fold greatnesse upon the works of God There is so we may distinguish First the greatnesse of quantity Secondly the greatnesse of quality or vertue That work of God which is greatest in the bulk or quantity of it is the work of Creation How spacious huge and mighty a fabrique is Heaven and earth with all things compacted and comprehended in their circumference And in this work so vast for quantity what admirable qualities are every where intermixt Matter and forme power and order quantity and quality are so equally ballanced that no eye can discerne or judgement of man determine which weighes most in this mighty work Yet among these works of God some are called great in regard of quality rather then of quantity As it is said Gen. 1. 16. That God made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night Sunne and Moone these are great lights not that there are no lights great but these or that both these are greater then all other heavenly lights for many Stars are greater then the Moon as the doctrine and observation of Astronomers assures us but the lesser of these is great in regard of light and influence excellency and usefulnesse to the world And as to these works of creation so the works of providence are great works When God destroyes great enemies the greatnesse of his work is proclaimed When great Babylon or Babylon the great shall be destroyed the Saints song of triumph shall be Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy wayes thou King of Saints Rev. 15. 3. Great and marvellous works why Because thou hast destroyed great Babylon and hast executed great judgement and powred out great wrath So great works of mercy and deliverance to his people are cryed up with admiration And hath given us such a deliverance as this saith Ezra Chap. 9. 13. when the Jewes returned from their captivity out of Babylon That mercy was a kind of miracle that deliverance a wonder and therefore he mentions it in termes of admiration Such deliverance as this How great So great that he had neither words to express nor example to paralell it but lets it stand nakedly by it selfe in its native glory Such deliverance as this The Spirituall works of God are yet far greater the work of redemption is called a great salvation the conversion and justification of a sinner the pardon of our sinnes and the purifying of our nature are works as high above creation and providence as the Heavens are in comparison of the earth Take two or three Corolaries or Deductions from hence As first It is the property of God to doe great things And because it is his property he can as easily doe great things as small things Among men Great spirits count nothing great A great spirit swallowes and overcomes all difficulties Much more is it so with the great God who is a Spirit all Spirit and the father of spirits To the great God there is nothing great He can as easily doe the greatest as the least 1 Sam 14. 6. 2 Chron. 14. There Animo magâ—â— nihil magnum is no restraint to the Lord to save with few or by many or it is nothing with thee to help whether with many or with them that have no power It is not so much as the dust of the ballance with God to turne the scale of victory in battell whether there be more or lesse Seeing all Nations before him are but as the dust of the ballance as nothing yea lesse then nothing So that whether you put him upon any great work or small work you put the Lord to no more stresse to no more paines in the one then in the other for he doth great things and to doe them is his property not his study his nature not his labour He needs not make provisions or preparations for what he would have done the same act by which he wills the doing of a thing doth it if he wills What great things hath the Lord done in our dayes We may say as the Virgin Luke 1. 49. He that is Mighty hath done to us great things and Holy is his Name and as they Acts 2. 11. We have both heard and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Magnalia Dei seen the great things of God done amongst us and I believe greater things are yet to be done It was a great work at the beginning
of time to make Heaven and earth and will it not be a great work to shake Heaven and earth That God hath said he will doe before the end of time Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the Heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land Hag. 2. 6. The words following seem to interpret this earthquake and Heaven-quake I will shake all Nations Againe It was a great work to make the old Heaven and earth and will it not be a great work to make a new Heaven and a new earth That is the businesse which God is about in these letter days as he promised Isa 65. 17. Behold I create a new heaven and a new earth what is that Jerusalem a praise and her people a joy When God reformeth the face of his Church and settles the affaires of Kingdomes and Common-wealths he makes new Heavens and a new Earth And if it be the property of God to doe great things then it is a duty in us to expect great things We ought to look for such things as come up to and answer the power and greatness of God we dishonour and as it were humble God when we look onely for low and meane things Great expectations from God honour the greatnesse of God As the Lord expects to receive the greatest services from us because he is a great King Mal. 1. 14. So we ought to expect that we shall receive the greatest mercies from the Lord because he is a great King It dishonours God as much and more when we believe little as when we doe little A great King thinks himselfe dishonoured if you aske him a petty suite he looks more what becomes him to give or doe in bounty then the petitioner to aske in necessity The Great Alexander could tell his suiter whom he had more astonisht then relieved with his favour That though the thing might be too great for him to receive yet it was not too great for Alexander to give If dust and ashes can speake and think at this rate O how large is the heart of God! Then it is not onely our priviledge but our duty to aske and believe great things we ought to have a great faith because God doth great things Is it becomming to have a great God and a little faith To have a God that doth great things and we to be a people his people that cannot believe great things nay To have a God who can easily doe great things and we a people that can hardly believe small things How unbecoming if some small thing be to be done then usually faith is upon the wing but if it be a great thing then faith is clogg'd her wings are clipt and we at a stand why should it be said unto us as Christ said unto his Disciples O ye of little faith It may be as dangerous to us if not as sinfull not to believe the day of great things as to despise the â—ay of small things Why should not our faith in a holy scorne baffle the greatest difficulties in that language of the Prophet Zech. 4. 7. Who art thou O great Mountaine before Zerubbabell thou shalt become a plaine There is another usefull consequence from this truth He that doth great works ought to have great praises As we ought to have great faith that he will doe great things so he ought to have great acknowledgments when he hath done great things Shall God doe great things for us and shall we give him some poor leane starven sacrifices of praise It is very observable that as soon as the Prophet had described the Lord in his greatnesse Isa 40. 15. he adds in the very next verse And Lebanon is not sufficient to burne nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt Offering That is no services are great enough for this great God Lebanon abounded in spices for Incense and perfume it abounded with cattell for Sacrifice and burnt offerings To say that Lebanon had not spice enough to burne for incense nor beasts enough to burne for Sacrifice shews the Lord far exalted in greatnesse above all the praises and holy services of his people Lastly seeing God doth great works for us let us shew great zeale for great love unto the Lord. We should aime at the doing of great things for God seeing God indeed doth great things for us So much of the first Attribute of the works of God Who doth great things And unsearchable The Hebrew is and no search The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports the search of those things which are most abstruce and secret As the heart which the Lord onely can search Jer. 17. 15. The heart lies too low not onely for the eye but for the understanding of man Hence it is used Psal 95. 4. to note the Foundations or deep places of the earth because they cannot be known but by deep searchings or rather because they are beyond the deepest Penetralia terrae ut Aben Ezra explicat quae sciâ—i nequeunt nisi exquisita per scrutatione vel potiùs quòd homini minimè sunt perscutabilia Deo autuÌ„ in prepatulo Buxtorf search of man And the same phrase we find Psal 145. 3. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his greatnesse is unsearchable or according to the letter of his greatnesse no search as when the Psalmist speaks of the greatnesse of God in his nature and essence presently he adds and of his greatnesse there is no search so here when Eliphaz speaks of the greatnesse of God in his works the next word is they are unsearchable As God in himselfe is great and of his greatnesse there is no search so many of the works of God are so great that of their greatnes there is no search that is you cannot find out their greatnesse by any search God is in working and so are men the hand cannot act beyond the head as he is in understanding There is no searching of his understanding Isa 40. 28. Therefore there is none of his working This unsearchablenesse of the works of God may be considered two wayes 1. As that which cannot be found by enquirie 2. As that which ought not to be found or enquired There are some works of God which are not to be searched into Arcana imperij they are to be adored by believing not to be pryed into by searching and in that sence they are called unsearchable Rom. 11. 33. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdome of and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements Many of his judgements that is his works of judgement are so unsearchable that it is not industry or duty but presumption to search into them As those unspeakable words which Paul heard in the third heavens were such as 2 Cor. 12. 4. is not lawfull for a man to utter so unsearchable judgements may be interpreted such as is not lawfull for a man to search Great Princes will
after and he may say Can I any more doe those things I am not what I was my power is gone But come to God after he hath done this or that and a thousand great things he will not say can I helpe you any more can I deliver you any more can I destroy your enemies can I discover their plots and counsels any more yes Lord as thy works are unsearchable so they are innumerable and thou canst doe them for evermore The Lord saith sometime to a people as he did to Israel Judg. 10. 13. in anger I will deliver you no more But he never saith to any people out of weaknesse I can deliver you no more Psal 78. The people provoked God by making a question of this ver 20. Behold say they he smote the rock that the waters gushed out and the streames overflowed we acknowledge that God hath done a marvell but can he give bread also can he provide flesh for his people surely he cannot doe this marvell also what saith the text The Lord heard this and was wroth so a fire was kindled against Jacob and anger also came up against Israel What doe you think that I can doe but one great thing that I have but one blessing but one deliverance but one wonder Know that I who smote the rock can provide you flesh I who gave you water can give you bread I who have discovered one wicked plot of the enemy can discover all I who have given you one victory can give you a thousand I who have given you one deliverance can give you innumerable deliverances Therefore take heed of setting bounds to God of limiting the Holy one of Israel Men love not to be limited but God ought not We at once provoke and dishonour the Lord by thinking that our wants can renew faster then his supplies or that our innumerable evills shall not find innumerable good things to ballance or remove them from the hand of God We weary men when we come often to them to doe great things for us yea to come often for small matters will weary men But we never weary the Lord by comming often we weary God only when we will not come often How doth the Prophet not only complaine but expostulate because that unbelieving King wearied God take it with reverence by not setting him aworke and that about the hardest and most knotty peece of work that can be the working of a miracle and that as hard a one as himselfe would aske either in the depth beneath or in the height above Is it a small thing with you to weary men but will ye weary my God also Isa 7. 13. It is no wearinesse to God to doe innumerable miracles for us but he is weary when we will not believe he can doe them To be distrusted the doing of one is more laborious to God then to doe a million of Miracles To conclude this take heed above all that you limit not God in works of spirituall mercy As to feare to aske pardon of sin because ye have asked it often His great works of forgivenesse are as much without number as any of his works He multiplies to pardon saith the Prophet Isa 55. 7. And when the people of Israel had committed a new sin it is admirable to reade by what argument Moses moves the Lord for pardon It is not this as usually with men Lord this is the first fault Lord thou hast not been often troubled to signe their pardon But pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt untill now Numb 14. 19. as if he had said Lord because thou hast pardoned them so often therefore I beseech thee pardon them now It is a most wicked argument to move our hearts to sin because God will pardon often but when we have sinned it is a holy argument to move God to pardon againe because he hath pardoned often before For he pardons without number Secondly Seeing God doth innumerable great things for us let not us be satisfied in doing a few things at the command and for the glory of God Let us continue in acts of holinesse charity humility zeale and thankfulnesse without number Let us never stand reckoning our duties when we heare the mercies of God are beyond reckoning It is a noble rule in our friendship with men That curtesies must not be counted I am sure it is a holy rule in our obedience to God That duties must not be counted God hath no need of any one of our good works but he will not beare it if we think we have done enow or can doe too many Let out Amicitia non est reducenda ad ealculos Obediantia non est reducenda ad calculos hearts be like the heart of God as he doth great things for us let us doe in what we are able great things for God and good things for one another without number So much in generall of the proofe of Gods power by the Greatnesse c. of his works JOB Chap. 5. Vers 10 11 12. Who giveth raine upon the earth and sendeth waters upon the fields To set upon high those that be low that those which mourne may be exalted to safty He disappointeth the devices of the crafty so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise c. THis Context from the 9. to the 17. verse containes the second argument by which Eliphaz strengthens his exhortation upon Job to seek unto God The argument speakes to this efect He is to be sought and unto him our cause is to be committed who is of absolute power infinite in wisedome and goodnesse But such is God Therefore seeke to him and commit thy cause unto him That God is of infinite power wisedome c. was proved in generall at the 9. verse by those foure adjuncts of his works Great unsearchable marvellous and without number And now at the 10. verse he begins his proofe by an enumeration of the particular effects of Gods power wisedome and goodnesse The first instance is in naturall things God doth great things and unsearchable marvellous things without number And would you know what those things are You need not goe farre to enquire there are things very neere unto us and very common among us which yet if they be well looked unto will advance the power wisedome and goodnesse of God Every shower of raine drops down this truth that God doth great things He giveth raine upon the earth and sendeth waters upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Generale nomen est ad quamcunque plaviam Non desunt qui puâ—ant cognationeÌ„ habere cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod est humectari quòd pluvia liquesanâ—at humectet dissolvat dura Mercer fields There is not any difficulty about the meaning of these words which calls for stay in opening of them Therefore in briefe The Hebrew word for Raine in out letters Matar is so neere in
unto us a place of broad rivers A river that shall not be drawn dry or sluced out as Euphrates was by Cyrus when he took Babylon but shall sill its bankes and shoares perpetually that is the Lord will be there a perpetual defence A river that shall never be impoverish'd but shall keep a full stock and treasure of streames and waters Dalilah had her name from this root and it carries an elegant allusion to the qualities of all Dalilahs or insinuating lascivious women they drayne the strength exhaust the purses dry up the credit wast the All of the mightiest Sampsons whose hearts are entangled by their flatteries or ensnared by their beauties The poore have hope The word hath been opened at the 6th verse of this Chapter to note strong and earnest expectation The poore man observing the wonders which God doth in the world cannot be out of hope though he be out of possession And though his own strength be gone yet he lives upon the strength of Christ he hopes strongly that 's the force of the word when he feeles no strength When I am weake saith the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 12. 10. then am I strong that is I am strongest through hope in Christ when I am weakest through sense in my selfe More distinctly this hope may be taken two wayes 1. For the object or thing hoped for 2. For the act or grace of hope In the former notion of hope the sense runnes thus God having taken the wise in their own craftinesse and disappointed the device of the crafty having delivered the poore from the sword from their mouth and from the hand of the mighty now the poor hath the thing he looked for the thing he prayed for the thing for which he hath been seeking and waiting upon God So the poore hath hope that is he hath the mercy he expected salvation from the sword c. he is made partaker of his hope by those glorious administrations of the justice and mercy of God Hence observe First Gods poore hope for good in the worst times When deliverance comes these poore have but that which they looked for they looked for light when they were in the darkest condition When they were exhausted they knew God was not exhausted and when they were drawn dry they knew the Lord was not though their treasure was spent yet they were assured the treasury of Heaven was full When strength is gone and money is gone and friends are gone yet God is not gone and therefore they know the good may come which they hope for Turne ye to the strong holds ye priseners of hope saith the Prophet Zech. 9. 12. The people of God though prisoners are yet prisoners of hope that is they have hope of deliverance and enlargement in their greatest streights The power of God is never imprison'd and while his people can make this out their spirits are not Secondly observe It is no vain thing to hope in God The poore hath his hope The Prophet brings in the Jewes thus trumphing in God Isa 25. 9. And it shall be said in that day What day was that The former verse points it out A day wherein death shall be swallowed up in victory wherein teares shall be wiped away from off all faces c. And in that day the people of God shall thus boast of God and as it were shewing him to the world shall say Loe this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us This is the Lord we have waited for him we will be glad and rejoyce in his salvation vaine hopes fill our face with shame but hopes fulfilled fill our hearts with rejoycing The poore hath his hope he can shew his hope 't is visible As Hannah when she came to present her Son unto Eli For this child I prayed as if she should say Sir here is my prayer you could not heare my prayer when I was in the Temple you thought I was drunken but now you may see my prayer here it is for this child I prayed and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asâ—ed of him 1 Sam. 1. 27. So the soule saith In such a time of trouble personall or nationall I was praying and seeking God I was beleeving and hoping men knew not understood not the workings of my soule toward Christ yet now they may see them here is the thing I prayed for here is that I hoped for So first the poore hath hope Secondly The poore hath hope that is the grace of hope or the gracious actings of hope and taking it so the sense rises thus So that is God having done such great things in disappointing the devices of the crafty and in saving his poore by this meanes the poore come to have hope the grace of hope strengthned and confirmed in them Hence observe That The experience we have of Gods power and mercy in saving us out of former troubles breeds and nourishes hope against future times of trouble So the poore hath hope Though the poore man was in a hopelesse condition before yet now seeing the works of God he hath hope laid up for ever Psal 64. 9 10. All men shall feare and declare the workes of God for they shall wisely consider of this thing And what followes The righteous shall be glad in the Lord and trust in him that is if they have fail'd in their trust hâ—â—etofore and not given God honour by confiding in him yet these wonderfull works of God of which he speakes in that Psalme worke this hope Rom. 5. 4. Tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope Graces have a generation one from another though all have but one generation from Christ at once We have here the genealogy of hope in three descents Experience is the next or immediate parent of hope So the poore hath hope Thus it is begotten 2 Cor. 1. 10. God who hath delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in him we trust that he will yet deliver us An armed daring Goliah should be looked upon as vanquisht already when we can but remember a vanquisht Lion and a Beare Againe The poore hath hope He doth not say God having thus destroyed the ungodly and saved his own people from the sword c. now they have liberty now they have peace now they have aboundance of riches and prosperity but he makes this the issue now they have hope Whence note That Hope is a greater and better possession unto the people of God here than all the great and good things which they possesse Put as much into their hands us you can there is more than that put in their hearts by hope The poore hath hope he lookes over all his possessions and pitcheth upon expectation as his portion The estate which a beleever hath in the promises is more than the estate he hath in possession Riches in the promise is better than riches in the chest And so the deliverances and
necessary practise in Chyrurgery and to that the holy Ghost may allude in this place When they perceive a wound or a sore to which medicines Illa est vox Domini percutiam ego sanabo hoc faciunt medici Ferrum gestant câ—rare veniunt Clamat secandus secaâ—ur saevitur in vulnus ut homo sanetur Aug in Ps 50. Chyrurgus saepe vulnus infligit ferro sibi spatium ad commodam curationem aperit cannot well be appied and so unfit for healing either to make a new wound in the whole flesh or to make the first bigger The murderer wounds to kill and the Physitian wounds to cure He comes as it were arm'd with instruments of cruelty The patient whose flesh is to be launced cryes out but yet he launces him The patient whose flesh is to be seared cryes out but yet he sears him He is cruell to the wound while he is most kind to the wounded An ignorant man would wonder to see a Chyrurgion when he comes for healing make the wound wider yet so he must do and he doth it upon urgent reasons As when the orifice is not wide enough to let in the medicine or to let out the corruption or cannot admit his searching instruments to the bottome In such cases he saith Vnlesse I increase your wound I cannot cure it Thus often times the Lord is compelled to wound that he may heale or fit our wounds for healing Our wound is not wide enough to let out the sinfull corruptions of our hearts to let in the searching instruments and corrasives of the Law or the blame and comfortable applications of the Gospel We may observe from the sence of the words That The woundings and smitings of God are preparatories for our cure and healing It is said Isa 53. 5. of Christ that with his stripes we are healed and it is in this sence a truth that we are healed with our own stripes We are healed with the stripes of Christ meritoriously and we are healed by our own stripes preparatorily the stripes of Christ heale us naturally our own stripes heale us occasionally or his in the act ours in the event Prov. 27. 6. Faithfull are the wounds of a friend his wounds are faithfull because he wounds in faithfulnesse The healings of many are unfaithfull They heale the hurt of the daughter of my people deceitfully is the Lords complaint by the Prophet they skin over the wound but they doe not cure it Let the righteous smite me it shall be a kindnesse and let him reprove me it shall be an excellent oyle which shall not break my head Psal 141. 5. Much more may we say Let the righteous Lord smite me and it shall be a kindnes to me let the righteous Lord reprove and correct me it shall be as an excellent oyle which shall not breake mine head it shall heale my heart How healing then are his salves whose very sores are a salve Secondly Take the words in the plaine rendring of them noting onely thus much that God makes sore and bindeth up So we have two distinct acts often ascribed to God in a figure to set forth judgement and mercy the afflictions and deliverances of his people Hos 6. 2. Let us return unto the Lord for he hath torne and he will heale us he hath smitten and he will bind us up 1 Sam. 2. 6. The Lord killeth and maketh alive Deut. 32. 39. See now that I even I am he and there is no God with me I kill and I make alive I wound and I heale Hence observe It is the property of God to take care of all the sicknesses sores or evils of his peopls As God is the great correcter and instructer of his people so he is the great Physitian of his people If he make a wound he will take care for the healing of it He doth not make sores and leave others to bind up Mighty men wound but they take no care for healing they can impoverish and spoyle but they care not to repaire they can pull down and root up let who so will build and plant Shaddai the Almighty God doth both If he break thy head come to him humble thy selfe before him and he will surely give thee a plaister which shall cost thee nothing but the asking And whereas he doth not willingly afflict or grieve he doth most willingly comfort and heale the children of men Lam. 3. 33. He speaks of it as a paine to himselfe to make us sore but to make us sound is his delight and pleasure Satan is the Abaddon the destroyer and he only destroys he makes wounds but he heals none he kills but he makes none alive The second branch of the verse He woundeth and his hands make whole is but a repetition of the same thing yet with some addition to or heightning of the sence To make sore and bind up are not so deep either in judgement or in mercy as to wound and make whole The word used for wounding imports a dangerous and a deadly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Transfodit transfixit vel cruentavit wound or to make a man all gore blood It signifies to strike quite thorough and it is divers times applied to note that stroke which God gives his worst enemies Psal 68. 21. But God shall wound the head of his enemies or he shall strike them quite through the head Verse 23. He shall dip his foot or make it red in the blood of the ungodly And Psal 110. 5. The Lord shall strike through Kings in the day of his wrath Hence observe That God sometimes makes very deep and great wounds in his own servants Such wounds as by the sight of the eye you cannot distinguish them from the wounds of his mortall enemies He strikes thorough both heads and hearts of his own people Or as Simeon said to the blessed Virgin Mary Luke 2. 35. A sword pierceth through their soule also But then lastly note God never makes a wound too great for his own cure The power of God to save is as great as his power to destroy his healing power and his wounding power are of the same extent His justice cannot out-act his mercy both are infinite And not onely doth he heale the wounds which himselfe makes but he can heale the wounds which men make even all the wounds which the utmost power and malice of man can make He is able to doe more good to shew more mercy than all creatures are able to doe hurt or mischiefe We finde the state and condition of a people sometimes so wounded and sick that men have despaired of recovery Being consulted they may answer your sore cannot be bound up and your wound cannot be healed your estate is gangren'd and past cure So he said as was toucht before Isa 3 8. In that day shall a man sweare saying I will not be an healer for in my house is neither bread nor cloathing Alas I heale you
or that because they had gone on to sin three and foure times that is very often times therefore the mercy of God was at a stand and could goe on no further but these numbers three and foure note the boundlesse impenitency of those Syrians or their malicious persecutions of the people of God dayes and times without number They turne not from their transgressions theirs are three and foure they will never have done therefore I will begin to punish or I will never have done punishing I will not turne away the punishment thereof Such formes of speech are frequent in Heathen a O terque quaterque beati Virg. lib. 1. Aenead Terque quaterque manu pectus percussa Deo rum Id. l 4. Authors when they would enlarge or multiply the sense Againe b Vbiseptenario numero â—ctonarius adai ur ingentem exprimit pro pè infinitam multitudinem The numbers seven and eight have a greater emphasis in Scripture Eccles 11. 8. Give a portion to seven and also unto eight That is give much and give to many give yet discreetly to all commers We must not stint nor bound our charity Give a portion to seven give to many and if there come more give to more give also unto eight Charity preferres some but she refuses none who are meet objects of charity And when the Lord would shew what choice and store of able men both for counsell and action his people should have in times of dangers and invasions He prophecies by Micah that the people shall speake thus Chap. 5. 5. When he sc the Assyrian shall tread in our palaces then shall we raise against him seven Shepheards and eight principall men that is we shall muster multitudes of wise valiant faithfull men every one of which may be fit to command or direct in chiefe Seven Shepheards and eight principall men So then He shall deliver thee in six troubles yea in seven c. is as if the Holy Ghost had said by Eliphaz O Job The Almighty Shaddai of whom I have spoken to thee is of such power and hath such an unwearied arme that he is able to deliver thee not only in one or two or three or many troubles but he can deliver thee in six yea in seven in all thy troubles let the number of thy afflictions be as great as thou canst imagine The power and malice of men cannot multiply thy troubles faster than the power and goodnesse of God can multiply thy deliverances yea if he pleases he could perfect seven deliverances for thee before they can lay the plot of one trouble against thee Observe hence in brief first Deliverance it is of the Lord. He shall deliver thee Whatsoever the instruments are by which deliverance is brought to you or in whose hand soever deliverance is put Know that the worke and procurement of it is from above It is the priviledge of God and of God alone to be a Deliverer And he hath deliverance at his command Psal 44. 4. Command deliverances for Jacob. Man must humbly petition for and beg deliverance But God stands not intreating the creature or debating the matter with Kings and Princes with the strongest and most hard-hearted Pharoahs to deliver his people but he sends forth a writ of deliverance and Authoritatively commands deliverance when it is his pleasure a person or a people shall be delivered Secondly obseve The Lord can deliver as often as we need deliverance In six troubles yea in seven This should beare up our hearts in the returnes the multiplied returnes of troubles Though as Rheumatick old age is described Eccles 12. 2. The clouds returne after raine That is though one evill follows upon or treads on the heele of another though as soone as one blacke cloud is dissolved and we begin to say as in nature this was a rainie day but sure the next will be faire yet the next proves more over-cast and lowring then that even in such a case know God hath a wind in his first which he can let out to scatter those clouds before they dissolve or if they dissolve he hath a Sun at command to dry up the fallen raine The Lord hath a succession of mercies for our succession of sorrows Say not then we have got off this trouble but what if another come If another come you have the same God and he can give you another deliverance Have not our later experiences taught us this truth Have we not been delivered in six troubles yea in seven Our straits have not been single we may say as she in Genesis at the birth of her son Behold a Troope Enemies have not given over conspiring and acting against us and we ought to speake it to his glory our God hath not given our delivering and doing for us Not once only but many a time may our Israel now say If it had not bin the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us they had swallowed us up quicke when their wrath was kindled against us The waves and bilowes of our Seas The rocks and clifts of our Shores the foundations and the pinacles of our Parliament houses the wals and gates of our Fenced Cities the swords and bucklers of our Mighty men in the high-places of the Field may all beare this inscription Shaddai delivers in six troubles yea in seven The Lord spake once to his people as if he were weary of delivering or would not deliver Judg. 10. 10. There we reade the people of Israel in a great strait crying to the Lord for deliverance but he answers ver 11. Did not I deliver you from the Aegyptians and from the Amorites and from the children of Ammon and from the Philistines The Zidonians also and the Amalekites and the Moabites did oppresse you and ye cryed unto me and I delivered you out of their hand Here are seven troubles in which they found deliverance But as if six or seven deliverances which we have expounded for boundlesse deliverances were now the utmost bound of deliverance he resolves v. 13. I will deliver you no more And at the 14. he turnes them off to their Idols for helpe Goe saith he and cry unto the gods which you have chosen and let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation But what was the reason of this refusall The reason was this not because God was weary of delivering that people but because that people were weary of their God Ye have forsaken me and chosen other gods ver 13. If we choose our selves another god then we choose our selves another deliverer so long as we looke upon God as our God so long we may looke upon God as our deliverer God would never have turned them off for deliverance to any thing below what was in their conceit a God How sad will it be now that we are in great troubles and crying daily Lord deliver us out of these straights for thou art he whose name is The
thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh This verse contains a second paire of evills First The scourge of the tongue Secondly Destruction Two things are here to be enquired into about the former 1. What is meant by the scourge of the tongue 2. What it is to be hid from it The scourge of the tongue Mr Broughton reades it thus Quo tempore lingua flâ—gallabit homines Drus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In piel est detrahare vel nocere lingua Thou shalt be delivered or thou shalt be hid when the tongue whippeth And another to the same serce At what time the tongue shall be scourging of men thou shalt be secured from it And that word Leshon the tongue in Piel signifies to detract to traduce or slander the same word is used both for the instrument of the tongue and one of the worst acts of the tongue calumination or we may render it according to the exact lettter of the Hebrew elegancy to Betongue a man We use such a kind of speaking in our language as to strike a man with a cudgell or a Cane-staffe is to cudgel or cane a man and if a man be shot with a pistol we say he was pistol'd so a man smitten with anothers tongue is said in the Hebrew to be Betongu'd or such an one hath betongu'd him We leave the Verbe and translate by the Nowne From the scourge of the tongue In construction Beth In is often rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saepe redditur per Min 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Min From as Grammarians know Thou shalt love the Lord thy God in all thy heart or from thy whole heart or from the heart-root So here Thou shalt be hid in the scourge that is thou shalt be hid from the scourge when the tongue is lashing and whipping thou shalt be hid from the lash and scourge of tongues But what may we understand by this scourge of the tongue First Some take it for publique accusations before a Judge or Magistrate Many scourge their brethren at the Tribunal of Princes Rev. 12. That accuser of the brethren that traducer the Devill is conceived to make those accusations by his agents in those times before the heathen Emperours against the Christians The Christians in that age were extreamly scourged by malignant and malevolent tongues tongues set on fire of hell as the Apostle James speaks Chap. 3. 6. And so the scourge of the tongue may be that punishment which they by false accusations obtained against the innocent their tongues got judgement against them sometimes to be scourged or whipt therefore also that very work of the tongue is well called scourging Our Lord Jesus was crucified upon the tongues of the Jewes before he was crucified upon the crosse by the Romans The Jewes cryed out first crucifie him crucifie him here was the crosse of the tongue The conspirators against Jeremiah advise thus Chap. 18. 18. Let us smite him with the tongue that is let us accuse him to the King that he may Accusemus eum apud regem omni industria ratione efficiamus ut publica sententia vapuleâ— Flagellum linguae est poena in judcio constituâ—a postulata fieri à calumniatoribus be smitten by a publick sentence In this sence a man is imprisoned by the tongue banished by the tongue hang'd and burn'd by the tongue that is the tongue doth all these virtually or vitiously rather by false accusations causing these things to be done actually and formally Secondly Others interpret the scourge of the tongue to be those terrible and dreadfull reports which amaze lash and afflict the spirit about the approach of dangers As when a report is rung in the eare that an invading enemy spoylers and plunderers arm'd with power and malice are at hand to take away estates liberties and lives How many have bin beaten about the ears and scourg'd with such Alarums Jer. 50. 43. it is said The King of Babylon hath heard the report of them what report was it and of whom A spie rides in and kills the King with his tongue strikes him thorough with his tongue before he was toucht with the sword of the Medes and Persians How He brought him a sad report that the enemy was upon his march then it follows The King of Babylon hath heard the report of them and his hands waxed feeble anguish took hold of him and pangs as of a woman in travell We find the like expression Isa 28. 18 19. They who had slighted the judgements of God and said when the overflowing scourge shall passe thorough it should not come neare them even these saith God shall be vext when they doe but heare of a scourge coming neare I will send a report and it shall passe over morning by morning and it shall travell by day and by night and what shall be the effect of it It shall be a vexation saith the Lord onely to understand the report You shall not onely be vexed when the enemy is come and thrusts a sword into your bowells and fire into your houses but you shall be vext at the noise of his coming it shall be a vexation to you to heare the report It is a great mercy to be delivered and hid from this scourge of the tongue and this is promised him who feares God Psal 112. 7. No evill tydings shall make him afraid A heart which hath trembled at the voice of God instructing him shall not tremble at the voice of men reporting evill to him Many a man is more afraid than hurt and more perplexed with the hearing of evill tydings then others are with seeing or feeling the evill The Lord threatens Ely to doe such a thing in Israel and against his house that both the eares of him that hears shall tingle 1 Sam. 3. 11. But Thirdly Some translate thus He shall be hidde when the Quidam cum vâ—gâ—bitur Imguae ut sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Drus Merc. tongue wandreth or walketh about for the same word which signifies a scourge by the alteration of a point in the Hebrew signifies to run to and fro It is the word used in the first Chapter where Satan reports himselfe A Goer to and fro about the earth There is an expression Psalm 73. 9. sutable to this sense though the Originall word be not the same They set their mouth a-against the Heavens and their tongue walketh thorow the earth The tongues of many take long journeyes while themselves sit still Kings are said to have long hands but many of their subjects have long tongues and strike their brethren with them many hundreds of miles off the tongue travels from towne to towne from City to City and scourgeth one here and there another And while these men send their tongues about a wandring to wound here and there this and that mans credit He is a happy man that can be hid from them
pavillion a secret hiding place for his Favourites where he preserves their credit and reputation untoucht against all the blots and causelesse blemishes of malignant spirits Thus they are hid from the strife of tongues Hence his Saints and people are called His stored or his hidden ones Psal 83. 3. Observe first The tongue is a scourge The tongue is a terrible engine The Scripture gives us variety of comparisons to set forth the evill of an ill tongue It is here called a scourge and it is a scourge of many lashes or knotted cords or rather stinging scorpions scoffing is one slander a second false accusations a third The former strictly taken is a lye told any neighbour and the latter is a lye told the Magistrate The tongue Psal 52 2. is called a sharpe rasor Psal 57. 4. it is compared to speares and arrowes and a sharpe Sword and if at any time with much using this Sword be blunted in the edge or point the Scripture speakes of whetting the tongue Psal 64. 3. It is as the sharpe arrowes of the mighty man and coales of juniper Psal 120. 4. They bend their tongues like a bow Jer. 9. 3. Their tongue is as an arrow shot out ver 8. In a word It is a fire and a world of mischiefe Jam. 3. 6. Jer. 18. 18. we reade of smiting with the tongue and of devouring words Psal 52. 4. As there are devouring opinions opinions which not only hurt the judgements of men but devoure their consciences and eat up truth as it were at a bit so there are devouring words words that eat up a mans reputation and devour his good name as bread Slanderous mouthes lâ—ve the whitest bread the finest of the wheate A mans credit which hath not a branne in it how sweet a morsell is it to such mouthes Though the truth is every name by how much the more pure and spotlesse it is by so much the more deadly will it be in the stomacks of these devourers A good name swallowed by an ill man will as Jonas did the Whale make him one time or other Stomach-sick if not conscience-sick and he shall be forced to vomit it out safe againe It is a sad thing when thus the people of God are wounded and scourged by the tongues of wicked men but I will tell you of a sadder scourging that is when the people and servants of God scourge one another with their tongues I beseech you leave this work to wicked men take not the scourge of the tongue out of their hands let us not only not slander but not speake hardly one of another The ancient Christians in the Primitive times were deepely wounded by the scourge of the tongue what strange things did ungodly men feigne and then fasten on them They reported them as black as hell as if their holy meetings were not to worship God but to defile themselves with incest and uncleannesse but among Christians themselves we reade not of this scourge at that time No Christians loved one another to the amazement of Heathens They were so farre from this scourging or wounding of one another that they were ready to be scourged to be wounded to be burned to die one for another This caused their Pagan persecuters to cry out Behold how the Christians love one another We are scourged by wicked ones as They O that we could love one another as They. Sons of Belial have revived the ancient reproaches and accusations against the brethren O that we could revive the ancient imbraces and most endeared affections of the Brethren Observe secondly It is a great mercy to be delivered from the Scourge of the tongue The Apostle speaks of it as a wonderfull mercy that he was delivered out of the Mouth of the Lion 2 Tim. 4. 17. Surely it is no ordinary mercy though lying be very ordinary to be delivered out of the Mouth of a lyar This is joyned in one promise with deliverance from the most deadly instrumenrs of warre Isa 54. 17. No weapon formed against thee shall prosper that is no weapon of warre neither Sword nor Speare shall hurt thee Then followes And every tongue that shall rise up against thee in judgement thou shalt condemne This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. The tongue of a Ziba or of a Tertullus will devour and destroy as bad as the Sword of a Caesar or a Pompey The holy story tels us what woefull work the tongue had made upon Joseph and Mephibosheth if the good providenee of God had not spoken a good word for them Lastly Let me add one seasonable word of admonition to these tongue scourgers As the word is They that smite with the sword shall perish with the sword so they that smite with the tongue shall perish with the tongue The tongues of the Saints are in some sence sharper and sorer scourges then the tongues of wicked men The word of God in their mouths is a Two-edged Sword yea sharper then any Two-edged Sword A Prophet or a Minister of Christ can strike as hard with his tongue as and infinitely harder then any Prophane wretch or railing Rabshakeb in the world Truth well set home will wound deeper than slander can I saith the Lord Hos 6. 5. have hewed them by my Prophets and slaine them by the words of my mouth In the 11th of the Revelation it is prophecied That fire shall goe out of the mouths of the two Witnesses and devour their enemies vers 5. That is the word of their mouths shall be as a fire to scorch and consume the gain saying world and with this instrument their tongue for that only is sutable for the work of Witnesses they are said to have tormented those that dwell upon the earth ver 10. Some indeed are Sermon-proofe and Word-proofe They at present doe even laugh at all our spirituall Artillery Let whole volleyes of threats be discharg'd upon them let them be hackt and hewed all day long with the Sword of the Word they feele it not it may be they jeer at it at least they regard it not As they Jer. 18. 18. conspiring against the Prophet Come let us devise devices c. let us smite him with the tongue And least any should say if we smite him with the tongue he will smite us againe For these Prophets are notable at that weapon To secure themselves they resolve thus Let us not give heed to any of his words As if they had said we know he will speake bigge words and threaten us terribly with Sword and pestilence and famine and hell c. But let 's arme our selves against him and make no more of all then of a Squibb or a pot-gun then of a stabbe with a wooden dagger or a charge with a Bull rush Let us not give heed to any of his words But let these know though now they are hardned against the spirituall scourge and sword in the mouth of Christs Ministers yet at the last
fearles amongst wild beasts we may wonder where the spring of this courage lies This promise sheweth you the spring-head He is at peace with them It is not conceit and fancy or desperatenesse of spirit that causeth him to deride and slight danger but he hath a solid ground there is a peace and league ratified in heaven for him even with the Stones and Beasts of the earth As a godly man can give a reason of the hope that is in him so he can give a reason of the courage that is in him he knowes why he is so stout and venturous Secondly Observe from both in that man is here said to be in league with the stones and at peace with the Beasts That Every creature by sin is made dangerous and hurtfull unto man For in that there is a league and peace made with these it notes that they were in a state of hostility ready to rise up against us and annoy us As the creature by reason of mans sin is subject unto vanity so man is subject unto feare by reason of the creature Sin hath made the creature vanitie in it selfe and sinne hath made the creature vexation unto us When the Beasts rebell against us we should remember how we have rebelled against God And that untill God renewes a league and makes peace for us with the creatures there is not a creature upon the earth but may quickly be destructive to us If God speakes the word and gives a call or a commission to a fly against the strongest the swiftest man flight shall perish from the swift and power from the strong neither of them shall escape Thirdly Thou shalt be in league with the Stones and with the Beasts he reckons up all those wayes by which evills may come in upon us And assures a man to whom God is reconciled that these evills shall not come Hence observe That When God is once a friend to us he can quickly make all other things friendly to us also Every godly man of such Eliphaz here speaks is at peace and Qui Dominum habet adjutoreÌ„ habebit omnes creaturas adjutrices ille si favet favent omnes ait aiunt negat negant Qui Dominum babet custodeÌ„ habebit lapides campi custodes Brent in loc Tranquillus Deus Tranquillat omnia in league with God therefore God makes all creatures at peace and league with him Though usually they who are in nearest league and covenant with God are most warred with and opposed by the world yet this stands sure that when God is our friend he can make our enemies our friends or their enmity shall be-friend us Stones and savage beasts shall be helpfull to us When God is at peace with us he makes all things at peace with us Daniel was at peace with God and he was at peace among the Lions The Apostle Rom. 8. gives it in generall If God be with us who can be against us No creature hath power in it selfe to maintaine warre and emnity against those on whose side God appeares If God loves us All things worke together for good to us He that hath helpe from God shall not want helpe from any creature for all creatures are at the call and command of God If he saith go they must goe if he saith come they must come if he saith to a stone doe such a man good the Stone must doe it if he saith to a Raven goe carry Elijah his dinner the Raven will hasten if he saith to a wild Beast save such a man deliver such a man spare such a man he must goe of Gods errand In our friendship and league with God we have a vertuall league of friendship with the most unfriendly creatures And if God please he can make men who have as little sense as Stones and lesse reason than Beasts to be helpfull and usefull and peaceable to his people There is a generation amongst us a stony generation a hard-hearted generation of men you may as well move a stone as move them with what you say a beastly generation of men when you deale with them you deale with Beasts yet the great God if he please can make a league for us with these stones he can make these Beasts of the earth brutish and unreasonable men To be at peace with us Further observe It is from speciall providence that the Stones and the Beasts of the earth doe not hurt nor destroy us but specially that they helpe and doe us good There is providence towards all but a speciall providence to the people of God that the creatures hurt them not If God did not bridle the rage and restraine the power of Beasts man could not comfortably subsist with them The reason is given Deut. 7. 22. why God destroyed the Canaanites by little and little before his people namely Least the Beasts of the earth should increase upon them Here was a speciall providence as all leagues and peacemakings are All the leagues and peace which beleevers have are branches of that great league of that grand Covenant which God hath made with Christ on our behalfe And therefore Hos 2. 18. this promise is made in speciall to the Church And in that day I will make a Covenant for them with the Beasts of the field Fifthly note A godly man enjoyes common comforts from speciall favour Wicked men are seldome hurt by the beasts of the field but they are never at peace with them Lastly observe Peace is a great mercy By how much God makes more peace upon earth by so much man hath more of Heaven upon Earth Man should desire peace with Beasts much more with men most of all with God JOB Chap. 5. Vers 24 25 26 27. And thou shalt know that thy Tabernacle shall be in peace and thou shalt visit thy habitation and shalt not sin Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great and thine off spring as the grasse of the earth Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age like as a shock of corne commeth in in his season Loe this we have searched it so it is heare it and know thou it for thy good AT the 19th verse of this Chapter we had a promise of deliverance from evill in six troubles and in seaven In the verses following we had a specification of six or seaven troubles from which deliverance is promised In these words we have the result of all A well grounded security in assurance of a fourfold blessing First of a quiet and happy life Secondly of many prosperous children v. 25. Thirdly of a long life Fourthly of a sweet and comfortable death v. 26. every one confirmed and ratified as a truth in it selfe aâ—â— by way of application brought home to Job in the 27th or last verse of the Chapter Vers 24. And thou shalt know that thy Tabernacle shall be in peace Thou shalt know it Knowledge is sometime put for present sense He that keepes the
passe out against him A if he had said Let not God spare me let him write â—s bitter a sentence against me as he pleaseth for my part I would not conceale the word of the most High but I would publish his judgement and sentence against me yea I would praise him and extoll him for it The vulgar Latine to this sence I would not contradict the word of the holy One Let him not spare me for as for my part whatsoever God shall determine and resolve whatsoever word God shall speake concerning me I will never withstand or open my mouth against it This is a truth and carries in it a high frame of holinesse when we can bring our hearts to this that let God write as bitter things against us as he pleaseth we will never contradict his word or decree but our minds and spirits shall submit wholly and fully to his dispositions of us and dispensations towards us It is as clear an evidence of grace to be passive under as to be active in the word of God Not to contradict his writ for our sufferings as not to conceale what he speaks for our practise But I rather stick to the former interpretation Job giving this as a reason of his great confidence in pursuing his petition for death because he had been so sincere holding forth the word of God both in doctrine and in life And so we may observe from it First That the testimony of a good conscience is the best ground of our willingnesse to die That man speakes enough for his willingnesse to die who hath lived speaking and doing the will of God and he is in a very miserable case who hath no other reason why he desireth death but onely because he is in misery This was one but not the only reason why Job desired death he had a reason transcending this I have not concealed the words of the holy One and I know if I have not concealed the word of God God will not conceal his mercy and loving kindness from me David bottoms his hopes of comfort in sad times upon this Psal 40. 9 10. I have preached righteousness in the great Congregation I have not refrained my lips O Lord thou knowest he was not actively or politickly silent I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart if lay there but it was imprisoned or stifl'd there I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvations I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great Congregation Upon this he fals a praying with a mighty spirit of beleeving vers 11. Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me O Lord let thy loving-kindness and thy truth continually preserve me for innumerable evils have compassed me about The remembrance of our active faithfulness to the truth of God will bear up our hearts in hoping for the mercy of God He that in Davids and in Jobs sence can say I have not concealed the words of the most high may triumph over innumerable evils and shall be more then a conquerer over the last and worst of temporal evils death God cannot long conceal his love from them who have not concealed his truth Secondly observe positively That the counsels of God his truths must be revealed God hath secrets which belong not to us but then he puts them not forth in a word nor writes them in his book he keeps his secrets close in the cabinet of his decrees and counsels but what he reveals either in his word or by his works man ought to reveal too It is as dangerous if not more to conceal what God hath made known as to be inquisitive to know what God hath concealed Yea it is as dangerous to hide the word of God as it is to hide our own sins And we equally give glory to God by the profession of the one as by the confession of the other Paul with much earnestnesse professes his integrity about this as was even now toucht Act. 20. Fourthly observe That the study of a godly man is to make the word of God visible I have not concealed that is I have made plain I have revealed or I have published the words of the holy One Much of Jobs mind is concealed under that word I have not concealed For in this negative there is an affirmative as if he had said this hath been my labour and my businesse my work in the world to make known so much of the will of God as I know This was the work of Christ here below Father I have glorified thee upon earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do Joh. 17. 4. What this work was he shewes vers 6th I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world Lasty observe That it is a dangerous thing for any man to conceale the word of God either in his opinion or in his practice For it is as if Job had said if I had ever concealed the words of God I had bin but in an ill case at this time God might now justly reveale his wrath against me if I had concealed his word from others or God might justly hide his mercies from me if I had hid his word from men Smothered truths will one time or other set the conscience in a flame and that which Jeremiah spake once concerning his resolution to conceale the word of God and the effect of it will be a truth upon every one who shall set himselfe under a resolution to doe what he under a temptation did Jer. 20. 9. Then I said I will not make mention of him nor speake any more in his name what followes Then his word was in my breast as a burning fire shut up in my bones and I was weary with forbearing If a gracious heart hath taken up such a sodaine resolution to conceale the word of God he quickly repents of it or smarts under it He findes that word as a burning fire in his bones he is not able to bear it I was weary with forbearing saith the prophet Nothing in the world will burthen the conscience so much as concealed truth and they who have taken a meditated resolution that they will not reveale the word of God may be sure that word will one time or other reveale it selfe to them in the Light and heat of a burning fire seeding upon their consciences I have not concealed the words whose words The words of the Holy One Who is that The Holy One is a periphrasis for God When you hear that Title The holy One you may know who is meant This is a Title too bigge for any but a God All holinesse is in God and God is so holy that properly he onely is Holy Hence the Scripture sets God forth under this as a peculiar attribute The Holy One The Prophets often use this addition or stile The Holy One of Israel The Holy One Is One separate or set apart from all filthinesse
the sick man or to him who hath been a comforter of the sick The Lord will make all his bed in his sicknesse that is God will make his bed easie and comfortable in his sicknesse When we cannot sleepe we use to complaine of our servants and say sure this bed was not made to night or it was ill made no man complains his bed was ill made when he hath slept well That his people in such a case may be sure of rest the Lord condescends to that low office the making of their beds Therefore we are to receive sleep as a matter of speciall blessing coming from the hand of God he makes the bed in sicknes and in health too then blesse God for rest and not your beds Though we know sleep is the portion of mankind and many times the worst of men have quiet and refreshing sleepe yet no wicked man ever slept upon the pillow of this promise nor will God make the bed of the greatest Prince in the world as such which yet he is ready to doe for his meanest servant common comforts are to some speciall mercies As some enjoy riches and honour by common providence while others enjoy them by vertue of a special promise so it is with sleep He giveth his beloved sleep But what found Job upon his bed Instead of sleep and rest he found skaring dreames and terrifying visions as it follows Verse 14. Thou skarest me with dreames and terrifiest me with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stratus prostratus contritus per metaphoram territus consternatus mente jacuit Et velut animi deliqrium importat visions As if he had said I find my selfe altogether disappointed and deceived instead of being comforted I am skared instead of being eased I am terrified my bed is to me as a very rack and my couch my torment or a little-ease Thou skarost me The word signifies to be cast down prostrate to the ground with feare or to be ground to powder with feare And it is often rendred by that word contrite which notes breaking of the heart by godly sorrow such a breaking is upon me thorough the dreames which fall upon me in and breake my sleepe If I have any sleepe it is terrifying and not refreshing sleepe Thou skarest me with dreames That word springs from a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spissus crassus per Metalepsin somniavit quia ex voporibus crassis provenit somnus queÌ„ somnia conjequuntur roote signifying thick vapours because sleepe is caused by thick vapours ascending from the stomach to the braine and closing up the sences dreames usually come in that sleepe and the stronger and thicker the vapour is procuring sleepe the more we are subject to dreame And terrifyest me thorough visions In the fourth Chapter I had occasion to speake at large concerning visions therefore I shall not here insist upon that point but referre the reader thither I shall only say thus much that these were not †visions as those before treated of for the revelation of any divine secrets to enlighten the mind of man but only visions of hellish horrour to darken and vex the mind of man The Hebrew word signifies to see whence the ancient Prophets were called Chozim * Visiones istae quibus percellebatur Iob erant terriculamenta lemures species umbrae spectra manes simulacra alia hujusmodi a daemone procurata quamvis ipse Iob sibi á Deo inferri asserit Cassia Col. 7. c. 32. Seers Our english word Gaze hath neere affinity with it And we call Star-prophets who pretend skill in predictions from the visions of the Heavens Star-gazers Job had both dreames and visions for in every dreame there is somewhat of a vision There are many visions without a dreame but there cannot be a dreame without a vision An image or similitude is alwayes represented to or formed in the fancy or else * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hinc prophetâ—e cbozim videntes dicti there can be no dreame Jacob dreamed Gen. 28. 12. and behold a ladder set upon the earth and the top of it reached to Heaven The vision here spoken of was I conceive the vision of his dreame though some understand it of day or waking vision There is a two-fold cause of dreames There is an inward cause and an outward cause And The inward cause of dreames is two-fold 1. The accidentall motions of the fancie of which a man can give no reason from any precedent agitation of mind or body 2. The setled naturall temperament and constitution of the body The externall or outward causes are usually according to the objects with which or about which we are conversant in the day time the impressions of these kept in the fancie are formed into dreames at night such as the desires or distempers of the mind are such often are our dreames Or take it thus Dreames may have a five fold cause First The natural temper of the body and so from the variety of constitutions variety of dreames are shaped Cholerick or Melancholy or Flegmatique or Sanguin produce their speciall dreames Secondly Dreames are caused by the distempers of the body either from intemperate drinking or eating any kind of meate or from the very eating though moderately of some meates or from the diseases and sicknesses of the body from this latter Jobs dreames were much encreased and Satan took the advantage to raise fumes and stirre the pudled humours of his body up into his braine out of which his fancie formed terrible representations to his mind As Melancholy is said to be the Devils bath so are other diseased sickly humours in them he sports himself and vexes man Thirdly There is a morall cause of dreames such as the studies and businesses labours and imployments cares and disquietments Quaecunque men t is agitat infestus vigorea per qâ—ietem sacer arcanus refert veloxque sensus Sen. in Octa. of a man are in the day such often are his dreamings As he works in the day his fancie works in the night Fourthly Dreames have a divine cause and are immediately from God The Scripture is full of instances I need not stay upon them Jacob had such a dreame Gen. 28. 16. and Jospeh had many dreames from God Hence his brethren called him in scorne The dreamer or a Captaine Dreamer Gen. 37. 19. And not only have godly men dreames from God but heathens also Pharaoh and Nebuchnazzar men of the earth received dreames from Heaven of high concernment revealing the counsels of God concerning their own Kingdoms and the latter about the state of all Kingdoms and Monarchies till all the Kingdomes of the earth shall become the Kingdoms of that One sole Supreame Monarch the Lord Jesus Christ Fifthly There are diabolicall dreames dreames which are from the Devill Not that the Devill of himselfe is able to cause a dreame he cannot stirre the fancie in the night or
care for Oxen God doth care for Oxen The Apostle having shewed the goodnesse of God to beasts providing by a law that they should not be muzled presently he questions Doth God take care for Oxen As if he had said surely there is some what more in it or saith he it altogether for our sakes Not altogether doubtlesse God had regard to Oxen But for our sakes no doubt it was written that is chiefly for our sakes That he which ploweth should plow in hope and he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope So when Christ speaks of the Lillies Mat. 6. If God so cloath the Lillies of the field how much more will he cloath you You shall have the strength of his care to provide for you to feed and cloath you thus God sets his heart upon man he lookes to his people as to his houshold to his charge he will see they shall have all things needfull for them And so not laying to heart which is the contrary signifies carelesnesse Isa 47. 7. It is reported of Babylon Thou saidst I shall be a Ladie for ever so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart that is thou didst not regard these things to take care about them And Ezek. 40. 4. the expression is very full where God cals the Prophet to attention and he calleth him all over Behold saith he with thine eyes and heare with thine eares and set thine heart on all that I shall shew thee He wakens the whole man See and see with thine eyes Heare and heare with thine eares and set thine heart upon it the sum of all is be thou very intentive and diligent about this businesse to the utmost Secondly To set the heart notes an act of the affections and desires A man sets his love upon what he sets his heart that 's the meaning of Psalm 62. 10. If riches increase set not your heart upon them That is let not your love your affections your desires close with these things when riches abound let not your desires abound too It is an admirable frame of heart to have narrow scant affections in a large plentifull estate He is the true rich man who loves his riches poorly Set your affections on things that are above Col. 3. 2. Thirdly To set the heart notes high esteeme and account this is more than bare love and affection 2 Sam. 18. 3. when a counsell of warre was held by Davids Commanders about going out to battell against Absolom they all vote against Davids person all undertaking upon this ground they will not care for us they will not set their hearts upon us or value us their hearts are set upon thee thou art the prize they looke for and therefore the heate of the battell will be against thee Againe 1 Sam. 4. 20. When the wife of Phineas was delivered of a son a son is the womans joy and glory yet the text saith when the women that stood by told her that a son was borne she answered not neither did she regard it she did not set her heart upon it because the glory was departed from Israel In either of these sences the Lord sets his heart upon man he greatly loves man The love of God to man is the spring of mercy to man yea love is the spring of love love acted springs from a decree of love Deut. 7. 7. The Lord thy God did not set his love upon you c. because ye were more in number then any other people but because the Lord loved you Love also led in that highest work of mercy the giving of Christ God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son Josh 3. 16. As love is the spring and root of all the reall duty which mans performes to God and is therefore called the fulfilling of the law Our love fulfilleth the will of God so the love of God is the root of all that good we receive his love fulfilleth our will that is whatsoever we will or ask according to the will of God the love of God fulfills it for us Our love fulfills the law of Gods command and Gods love fulfills the law of our wants and lawfull desires His heart is set upon us and then his hand is open to us Further God doth not only love man but his love is great and his esteeme of man very high and he reallizes the greatest love by bestowing the greatest mercy How did God set his heart upon us when he gave his Son who lay in his bosome for us He set his bosome upon us when he gave us his Sonne who came out of his bosome Hence let us see our duty Should not we set our heart upon God when God sets his heart upon us the soveraignty of God cals for our hearts He as Lord may use al that we have or are And there is more than a law of soveraignty why we should give God our hearts God hath given us his heart first he who calleth for our hearts hath first given us his What are our hearts to his heart The love of God infinitely exceeds the love and affection of the creature What were it to God if he had none of our hearts But woe to us if we had not the heart of God This phrase shews us the reason why God calls for our hearts he gves us his own it is but equall among men to love where we are loved to give a heart where we have received one how much more should we love God and give him our hearts when we heare he loves us and sets his heart upon us whose love heart alone is infinitely better then all the loves and hearts of all men and Angels There is yet a fourth consideration about this expression the setting of the heart Setting the heart is applied to the anger and displeasure of God so the phrase is used Job 34. 14. If he set his heart upon man all flesh shall perish together that is if God be resolved to chastise man to bring judgements upon him all flesh shall perish together none shall be able to oppose it As it is the hightest favour to have God set his heart upon us in mercy and love so it is the highest judgement to have God set his heart upon a man in anger and in wrath to set his heart to afflict and punish The Lord answers his own people Jer. 15. 1 2 3. that notwithstanding all the prayers and motions of his beloved favourites in their behalfe his heart could not be towards them Then his heart was strongly set against them or upon them in extreame anger therefore he concludes they that are for the sword to the sword and they that are for destruction to destruction c. If God set his heart to afflict he will afflict and he can doe it And there may be such a sense of the text here What is man that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him that thou shouldest come
so resolved to contest and contend with man who is but dust and ashes The words following though I adhere rather to the former interpretation carry somewhat toward it Verse 18. That thou shouldest visit him every morning and try him every moment Here are two acts more about which the question is put What is man that thou shouldest visit him every morning And what is man that thou shouldest try him every moment That thou shouldest visit him every morning To visit is taken three wayes and they may all be applied to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Visitavit in bonum in malum text To visit is first to afflict to chasten yea to punish the highest judgements in Scripture come under the notion of visitations Exod. 34. 7. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children that is punishing them And in the Prophet Jer. 5. 9. Shall not I visit for this shall not my soule be avenged on such a Nation as this Jer. 48. 44. when God came against Moab with those terrible judgements it is called the yeere of their visitation I will bring upon it even upon Moab the yeere of their visitation And it is a common speech with us when a house hath the plague which is one of the highest stroakes of temporall affliction we use to say such a house is visited Then observe Afflictions are visitations They are called so because then God comes to search our hearts and lives afflictions are Gods searchers and examiners Jerusalem is threatned to be scearcht with candles and that was the time of Jerusalems visitation To search with a candle notes the most accurate searching as the woman when she had lost her groate lighted a candle and sought diligently till she found it she visited every hole to find it out When you see the Lord afflicting then he is visiting he lights a candle to search every corner of your lives And if afflictions be Gods visitations it is time for man to visit himselfe when he is afflicted We should visit our soules when God visits our bodies our estates our families or the Kingdome where we live Woe to those who doe not visit themselves when God visits them The Prophet calls to this duty in a time of saddest visitation Let us search and try our wayes Lam. 3. Yet further If God in affliction visit us let us visit God let us answer his visitation of us with our visitation of him Lord in trouble have they visited thee they powred out a prayer when thy chastning was upon them Isa 26. 16. Would you know what the visiting of God is It is praying unto him They visited thee they powred out a prayer when thy chastning was on them We visit Heaven in our afflictions when we pray much in our afflictions When God visiteth us let us visit him never give over visiting him til he remove his visitation from or sanctifie it to us That 's the first sense Secondly To visit in a good sence signifies to shew mercy and to refresh to deliver and to blesse Ruth 1. 6. Naomi heard how the Lord had visited his people and given them bread Gen. 21. 2. The Lord visited Sarah and she conceived c. Exod. 3. 16. The Lord hath surely visited his people when they were upon dawnings of deliverance out of Egypt That greatest mercy and deliverance that ever the children of men had is thus expressed Luke 1. 68. The Lord hath visited and redeemed his people Mercies are visitations when God comes in kindness and love to do us good he visiteth us And these mercies are called visitations in two respects 1. Because God comes neer to us when he doth us good Mercy is a drawing neere to a soule a drawing neere to a place As when God sends a judgement or afflicts he is said to depart and go away from that place so when he doth us good he comes neere and as it were applies himself in favour to our persons and habitations 2. They are called a visitation because of the freenesse of them A visit is one of the freest things in the world There is no obligation but that of love to make a visit because such a man is my friend and I love him therefore I visit him Hence I say that greatest act of free-grace in redeeming the world is called a visitation because it was as freely done as ever any friend made a visit to see his friend and with infinite more freedome there was no obligation on mans side at all many unkindnesses and neglects there were God in love came to redeeme man Thirdly To visit imports an act of care inspection of tutorage Idiotismus est elegans apud Hebeaeos pro eo quod est diligentissime exactissime rem investigare Bold and direction The Pastors office over the flock is expressed by this act Zech. 10. 3. Acts 15. 36. And the care we ought to have of the fatherlesse and widdows is exprest by visiting of them Pure Religion saith the Apostle James is this to visit the fatherlesse and widdowes in their affliction Jam. 1. 27. and Mat. 26. 34. Christ pronounceth the blessing on them who when he was in prison visited him which was not a bare seeing or asking how do you but it was care of Christ in his imprisonment and helpfullnesse and provision for him in his afflicted members That sence also agrees well with this place What is man that thou shouldest visit him that is that thou shouldest take care have such an inspection over him look so narrowly to and provide for him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Singulis mane quotidie mane mane autem fieri dicitur quod quotidie fit ac diligenter seduloque Drus That thou shouldest visit him every morning Fvery morning The Hebrew is in the mornings And the word here used for morning is considerable There is a two-fold morning which the Jewes distinguished exactly by their watch One morning was that which they accounted from an hour before Sun rising from the very first breaking of the day till the Sun appeared above the Horizon which is about the space of an hour And the word which they use for it is Shachar which signifies to be darkish or blackish because that first morning is somewhat darke And so the a Latini vocant dilucuium quasi diei lucula i. e. parva lux latine word diluculum which is for the first morning is by Crittiques called a little of the day But their other morning was the space of an houre after Sun-rising and the root of that word signifies to seeke or to enquire to enquire diligently And the reason why they expresse the second morning so is because when the Sun is up we may seeke and search about our businesse or go on in our callings and affairs The height of the day they call the b Reliquum diei tempus quasi ob majorem lucis intensionem vocant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ghetsem
is stronger then they were So I may say be yee not strivers or strugglers with God for your bands are made strong It is said Exod. 4. 25 26. That the Lord met Moses in the Inne and sought to kill him The Lord is never to seeke to doe what he pleases but thus he speakes after the manner of men who offer or assay at any businesse They seeke to do it But Zipporah having circumcised her sonne He let Moses goe It is this word He slacked or loosened having before as it were arrested and attached him or clapt him in prison for making that great default the neglect of Circumcision Sometimes we find the Lord himself speaking as if he were at the mercy or under the power of man and therefore calling in this word to be loosened or let alone Deut. 9. 14. Let me alone that I may destroy them The prayer of faith is as a band upon Gods hand holding him so fast that he seems as one that cannot strike or destroy till a Moses will give him leave by ceasing to pray unto him To be sure we are at Gods mercy and under his power so that nothing but the prayer of faith can loosen us And therefore Job doth not attempt to break the cords or cut them asunder nor seeks he to untie their knots but desires God himself to do it let me alone loosen me I will be a prisoner till thou openest the door for my deliverance As Jephtahs daughter said to him Judg. 11. 37. when he had bound himself and her in the bands of a rash vow Let me alone for two months or loosen me from the ingagement of my vow for two months as if she had said I will not loose my self by a wilful refusal but doe thou give me a willing dispensation So a godly man bespeaks the Lord in his straights Loosen me Lord. Unlesse God be pleased to loosen him he will be contented and when in a good frame of heart and freeness of spirit well-pleased with his bands In some sence he speakes as Paul and Silas when they were in prison Acts 16. 37. Let the Lord himself come and fetch us out That is let us see such means of our inlargement and freedome from trouble as may assure us that the Lord hath loosened and enlarged us A godly man had a thousand times rather be put into a prison by God than put himself into a paradice He had rather be bound by Gods hand than loosened by his own That place toucht before may reach this sence Prov. 24. 10. if thou faintest so we or loosnest thy self in the day of adversity Thy strength is small that is the strengh of thy faith and patience is small There is nothing discovers our weakness more than striving to break the cords of our afflictions The stronger we are in faith in love in humility the more quietly we lie bound Faith seeks ease and release onely in God to say Lord loosen me is a duty to loosen our selves is both our sin and our punishment Till I may swallow down my spittle Some conceive that from this Hebrew word Rak which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saliva undè quidam deducunt Raca Mat. 5. 22. quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interpretantur i. e. conspuendum vel dignum qui conspuatur Alii a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vacum quasi cerebro vacuus judicio carens Drus we translate spittle Raca is derived Mat. 5. 22. as if to call a man Raca were as much as to say he is worthy to be spit upon or that one should spit in his face though others spring that word from Rik which signifies empty as if it were as much as to call a man an empty fellow without wit or brains or within one degree of a foole which is the next word in Matthew But what is Iobs intendment in desiring God to let him alone Till he might swallow down his spittle First Some refer it to a bodily distemper as if Iob were troubled with a (a) Inter caetera mala Synanchen habuisse se perhibet Hieron squinsie or sore throat which hindered the swallowing of his spittle (b) Dimitta me ut gustum aliqâ—em hujus vitae capiam Albert. Another takes it in a Philosophical notion as if Iob had said Lord let me have some ease that I may at least tast once more what it is to live or how sweet life is For that sence of tast works by the salival humour or spittle in the mouth which mixing with the juice or sap that is in meats affects and delights the pallate Thirdly these words are taken as the discription of a man ready to die who is disabl'd either to swallow his spittle or to void it As if he had said I am now even at the point of death let me alone a little Davids prayer comes near this sense Psal 39. 13. O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more Fourthly It may be taken proverbially and that two waies First To note the shortest time even so much as may serve a Serno proverbialis talis est neque ad scalpendas aures mihi otium est man to spit As if he had said O let me have a little intermission a little respit such is the sence of that phrase Chap. 9. 18. He will not suffer me to take my breath And the like are those used in some countries I have not leisure or time to scratch my ear or to pare my nails My sorrows know no interim my feaver is one continued fit I have no well daies no nor a good hour Ne tantillum quidem temporis est quoÌ„ non tenter aâ—te Coc. therefore let me at least have so much time of ease as I may swallow my spittle let me have the shortest time That I may once more know though but for a moment what it is to be without pain To whlch interpretation that also subscribes which makes these words to be a circumlocution for silence For while a man is swallowing his spittle his speech stops he cannot bring up his words and let down the spittle at the same time so his meaning is I am forced to complain continually I would be silent and forbear speaking but my grief will not suffer me The second proverbial understanding of the word is that they Elegans proverbialis loquutio ad denotandum diligentem in alium intuitum quo minim as in alio discernet actiones Saliva ferè imperceptibiliter obsorvetur import a very strict watch held upon another in all his motions so that he cannot stir a finger or move his tongue silently in his mouth unobserved If I do but stir my tongue to swallow my spittle which is one of the most unperceivable acts of man thou takest notice O do not hold so strict a hand and so curious an eye upon me Let me have a little liberty do not examine every failing do
not question me upon the least infirmity From the former proverbial exposition Observe first Afflictions are continued upon some without any intermission Iob had not so much whole skin as one might set a pin on nor so much whole time as a man might spit in Every hour brought a wound with it and the renewing of every moment renewed his affliction Observe secondly A short refreshing may be a great mercy Dives in hell desires not a large draught but a drop of water which alas could not have eased him so long as a man is swallowing down his spittle The eternity of pain in hell shall not find so much abatement as that either in time or in degree Every affliction in this life by how much it is with less intermission by so much the more like it is to hell and every comfort by how much the more it is unbroken and without stops by so much it is the more like to Heaven Consider then your mercies who have un-interrupted mercies dayes and years of ease and not pained so long as a man is swallowing down his spittle your mercies are like the glory and the joy of Heaven From the latter proverbial exposition Note That God observes the least the most secret motions of man He tels our steps our wandrings and those not onely corporal but moral and spiritual He knows how many steps our hearts fetch every day and how far they travel Thou hast searched and known me saith David Psal 139. 1 2. and this search is not made in the out-rooms onely but in the inner parlour and closest closets Thou understandest my thoughts and those not onely present or produced but to come and unborn thou knowest them a far off What can scape that eye which a thought cannot And he that sees man swallowing down his spittle how shall not he both hear and see him coffing up and spitting out the rottenness and corruption the filth and flegm of his sinful heart JOB Chap. 7. Vers 20 21. I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men why hast thou set me as a mark against thee so that I am a burden to my self And why doest thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquity for now shall I sleep in the dust and thou shalt seek me in the morning but I shall not be JOB having in the former part of this Chapter contested with his friends and expostulated the matter with God now turns himself into another posture even to humble his soul and make confession of his sin He had justified himself against the accusations of men but now he accuses and judges himself in the presence of his God He will a while forget his sorrows and bethink himself of his sins I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men The words may be taken two waies 1. As a confession or a prayer 2. As a confession or a grant I shall first open them under the notion of a repenting prayer and confession of sin I have sinned As if he had said Lord if thou holdest me thus long upon the rack of this affliction to gain a confession of me to make me confess here I am ready to do it I do it I have sinned The word signifies to miss the mark we aim at or the way wherein we would walk And so it is put strictly for sins of infirmity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat errare aberrare declinare deflectere a via vel scope when the purpose of a mans heart is like the Archers when he draws his bow to hit the white or like the honest travellers in his journey to keep the right way and yet he miscarries and is drawn aside I have sinned But is this a sufficient confession What! to say only in general I have sinned Did not hard-hearted Pharaoh Ezod 9. 25 False-hearted Saul 1 Sam 15. 24. and Traitor-Judas Matth. 27. 4. make as good a confession as this Every one of these said I have sinned and what doth Job say more It is surely no great cost nor pain to sinful nature to bring up such a confession as this I answer First a general confession may be a sound confession It is one thing not to express particular sins with the circumstances of those sins and another thing purposely to conceale them I grant implicit confession may be as dangerous as implicit faith And to digg in the earth and hide our sins in the Napkin of our excuses is worse than to hide our Talents in the Napkin of our idleness And as it is most dangerous knowingly to conceale sin from God so it is very dangerous to do it through ignorance or inadvertency Some confess sin in general termes only because they know not what their sins are or have quite forgot them As Nebuchadnezzar called the Astrologers and Sorcerers and Chaldeans and told them he had dreamed a dreame but he could not tell what it was For the thing was gone from him Dan. 2. 5. Some such there are who can or will only say They have sinned they have sinned but what they cannot tell or they doe not remember Those things are gone from them That which is written of the learned Bellarmine a great Cardinal and a Champion for Auricular particular Confession of sinne to man seemes very strange That when he lay upon his death-bed and the Priest after the Popish manner came to absolve him he had nothing to confess at last he thought of some sleight extravagancies of his youth which was all he had to say of his owne miscarriages We see a man may de a Schollar in all the knowledg of the world of nature and of Scripture and yet not know his own heart nor be studied or read in himself He that is so in a spiritual notion can never want particular matter in his most innocent daies to confesse before the Lord and to shame himselfe for What though he hath escaped the pollutions of the world and is cleansed from the filthiness of the flesh yet he knowes that still in his flesh there dwels no good thing and that in his spirit there are at least touches of many spiritual filthinesses as pride unbelief c. besides his great deficiencies in every duty and in his love to Jesus Christ which is the ground of all So then in any of these sences to confesse sin only in general is a sinful confession And yet Job made a holy confession here and so did the Publican Luk. 18. when he smote his breast and said onely thus God be merciful to me a sinner For secondly though to speak a general confession be an easie matter and every mans work yet to make a general confession is a hard matter a work beyond man As no man in a spiritual sence can say Iesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12. 3. so no man can say in a Holy manner I have sinned but by
But I conceive our translation carries the sense fairer in a reflection upon his owne tired spirits So that I am made a burthen to my selfe that is thou dost even throw me upon my self whereas heretofore thou wast wont to bear me and take my burthen upon thy self Alas I faint I cannot stand under my self I am weary of my life because I am left alone to bear it I know not what to do with my self I am so burthensome to my self Hence observe First Outward afflictions poverty sickness want c. are burthens and they make a man burthensome to himself It is a great burthen to have our comforts taken away from us The removing of comforts lies like a heavy weight upon the spirit the removing of health from the body is a weight upon the soul fear is a burthen care is a burthen and so is pain Therefore God cals us to cast all those burthens upon him Psal 55. 22. Secondly observe Man left to himself is not able to bear himselfe Man is much borne down by the weight of natural corruption Hence the Apostle cals it A weight and the sinne which doth so easily beset us Heb. 12. 1. or dangle about our heels to burden us as long garments do a man that runneth Our ordinary callings and affaires left upon our own backs presse us to the earth much more do our extraordinary troubles and afflictions And therefore he adviseth Cast thy burthen upon the Lord he assures in the next words and he shall sustaine thee As implying that man cannot sustaine or beare his owne weight And though it should seem we have strengh to spare for others and are therefore commanded to bear one anothers burthens Gal. 6. yet no man of himself no not the holiest Atlas nor the spirituallest Porter on earth is able to bear his owne self unless Christ be his supporter who is also therefore said to uphold all thiags by the word of his power Heb. 1. 3. Because no creature in a natural or man in a spiritual capacity can bear his own weight Thirdly From the connexion between these two phrases Thou hast set me as a marke against thee so that I am a burthen to my self what is it that makes my life to be so burthensome to me It is this because I am set as a mark before thee that is because thou seemest to be an enemy to me And so the note from the connexion is this That which presses and burthens the soule ahove all is the apprehension that God is against us Job in many things looked unto God under these temptations with sad thoughts as if he were his enemy so he express'd himself in the sixth Chapter The poyson of his arrows drinks up my spirits he setteth himselfe in battel array against me In these temptations and desertions this was the burden of his spirit that God appeared as an adversary Why doest thou set me as a marke against thee Let the Sabians and the Chaldeans shoot at me as much as they will let fire and windes contend with me and make me the marke of their utmost fury I can beare all these Job was light hearted enough when he thought he contended onely with creatures and that creatures onely contended with him but in the progresse of this triall he finds God against him withdrawing comforts from and shooting terrours at him now he is a burthen to himself he can beare this no longer As Caesar said in the Senate when he had many wounds given him yet this wounded him most that he was wounded by the hand of his son What thou my sonne So when a believer looks this way and that way and fees many enemies Satan and the creatures all in armes against him he can beare all their charges and assaults but if he apprehend God opposing and wounding him he weepes out this mourneful complaint What thou my Father What thou my God Thou who hast so often shined upon me dost thou darken thy face towards me and appeare mine enemy These apprehensions of God will make the strongest Saint on earth a burden too heavy for himselfe to beare That which causeth the most burdensome thoughts in the Saints is the inevidence of their pardon Sin unpardon'd is in it self a burden and our not knowing sin to be pardon'd is a greater burden but our jealousies and fears that it is not pardon'd is the greatest burden of all and that which adds weight yea an intolerableness to all other burdens Hence Job in the next verse and with the last breath of his answer points directly at that which pincht him Verse 21. And why doest thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquitie for now shall I sleep in the dust and thou shall seek me in the morning but I shall not be In the former verse we found Job humbly confessing his sin and earnestly enquiring of the Lord a reason of his sorrowes why he had shot him so full of arrows that now he was not so much wounded as loaded And become a burthen to himself In this verse he sues for the pardon of those sins and so for the removal of those sorrows That the bow might speedily be unbended and not a shot more made at his bleeding breast In the answer of which suite he desires speed and expedition lest help being retarded come too late for he professeth that he cannot hold out his siedge long he must needs make his bed in the grave and then being sought for he shall not be found And why dost thou not pardon my trangressions We may consider the words two waies 1. In the Forme of them Matter 2. In the forme they are a vehement expostulation Jobs spirit hath been heated all along with the fire of his sufferings and here he speakes in the heat of his spirit and with fiery desires after mercie He keepes up his heart to the same height and tenour still There it was Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee Here 's another Why and why dost thou not pardon my transgression As before he was grieved to be set up as a mark for afflictions to aime at so now he desires to be made a marke for mercy to aim at I shall note one thing from hence before I come to open the words They who are sensible of the evill of sinne will pray heartily for the pardon of sinne Expostulation is earnest prayer expostulation is a vehement postulation a vehement enquiring after or desiring of a thing Why dost thou not pardon my sinne may be resolved into this O that thou wouldest pardon my sinne Or Wilt thou not pardon my sinne The matter of this prayer requires such a forme such a vehemency of spirit in him that prayes If there be any petition in the world about which the spirit should be fired it is in this when wee pray for pardon of sinne Will not a man whose body is defiled by falling into the mire call hastily for some to
shew to be a sin the Gospel can shew a pardon for it whatever the Law can bind us with the Gospel can unloose The Mercy-seat covered the whole Ark The Mercy-seat noted the forgiveness of sin and if you read the description of it Exod. 25. you shall find that it was exactly to a hairs breadth of the same dimensions with the Ark wherein the Law was put intimating that there was mercy and pardon for sin let it come out of any part of the Law laid up in that Ark. As the least sins must of necessity have a pardon so the greatest sins are in a possibility of pardon And the truth is there is no sin as it is an Anomy a transgression of the Law without the compass of pardon It is not the malignity of the sin but the malignity of the sinner that makes it incurable the sin against the holy Ghost is not unpardonable because there wants mercy large enough to pardon it but because it refuseth the mercy which should pardon it and the medicine that should heal it Fifthly Observe who it is that here presseth thus for pardon it is Job and was Job never pardoned till now Or was this think you the first time that ever Job prayed for pardon Had not Job thought of this business before Without question he had he was one of whom God gave this testimony that he was a just and an upright man one that feared God and eschewed evil He that did all this and was all this must first be in favour with God and yet Job cryeth out Why dost thou not pardon my transgression Whence observe They whose sins are pardoned must yet pray for the pardon of sin Yea they who upon good grounds have assurance that their sins are pardoned must yet pray for the pardon of their sins 2 Sam. 12. 13. When Nathan told David God hath put away thy sin he assured him that he was pardoned and doubtless the heart of David opened by Faith to let in that gracious Message he was not faithless but believing Yet David in his penitential Psalm penned afterward prayes O how earnestly for pardon again and again That which a man is assured he hath he may pray to have and enjoy make it so high which some make the grand objection against this point Why should we pray say they for that which we have already I say a man may pray for that which he hath already and is assured he hath Christ himself was assured of the love of his Father and that his Father would stick to him for ever and he knew God was neer unto him yet he cries Mat. 27. 46. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Which Question may be resolved into this Petition My God my God do not forsake me When David had received a Message by the Prophet concerning a great temporal Mercy the establishing of his house that God would settle him and his Posterity in the Throne for ever the text saith 2 Sam. 7. 15. he presently went in and sate before the Lord and there makes a most earnest Prayer and what is it about He prayeth that God would settle and establish his Kingdom vers 25 26. And now O Lord God the thing which thou hast spoken concerning thy Servant and concerning his house establish it for ever and do as thou hast said c. and let the house of thy Servant David be established before thee Might not the Lord answer according to this Objection why doest thou trouble me about this Did not I send thee a Message even now that I would establish thy Kingdom Dost thou think I have forgotten my Promise or will be unfaithful to it We find not David thus chidden for praying thus Nay at v. 27. you shall see how David makes this the very ground of his prayer Lord saith he thou hast revealed to thy servant saying I will build thee an house therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee c. Even because thou hast revealed this unto me that thou wilt build me an house therefore upon this very ground I make this prayer that thou wouldest build it And to shew that he was full of Faith the thing should be done before he prayed it might be done he adds v. 28. Thou art that God and thy words be true and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant Now therefore let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant No man could be fuller of Assurance or fuller of Prayer than David was Likewise Christ knew and was assured that his sheepe his elect people should continue for ever and that none should be able to take them out of his hand yet how abundantly doth he pour forth his Spirit in prayer about these things Joh. 17. Again Christ was assured he should be delivered and upheld in death Yet in the daies of his flesh he offered up prayers and supplications with strong cries and tears to him that was able to save him from death and he was heard in what he feared Heb. 5. 7. He was not afraid of the event whether he should hold out and prevail or no whether he should conquer and obtain the victory or no he doubted not the success of this war though it were with principalities and powers His fear was only a natural passion which he took upon him when he took our nature upon him He was certain of the issue and knew he should carry the work through against all the armies of hell he would never have undertaken it else yet he prayeth with strong cries that he might be strengthened So then it is no argument because a Believer knoweth his sin is pardoned that therefore he should not pray for pardon for many things of which there was clear and certain evidence that they were or should be have been prayed about it is our duty for it hath been the practise both of Christ and of his people to pray in such a state Further we may Answer Matters of Faith are of Two sorts First Such as are fully accomplished acted and compleated in all the parts and circumstances of them for and about such things we are not to pray No man is to pray for the Redemption of the World for that is a thing past and yet it is a matter of Faith But the pardon of sin though it be compleat in it self and a matter of Faith to us yet it is compleating and perfecting every day more and more Pardon is given us yet we feel not all which pardon gives It is a setled act on Gods part yet it is in motion on ours that is in a perfective motion Therefore though we are assured that our sins are pardoned and shall stand pardoned for ever yet we may pray about the pardon of them Thirdly Suppose a man know his sins are pardoned yet he may pray to know it more and that his evidences may be made yet clearer to him for
654. Marvellous things what p. 249. They are separated from man three wayes ib. Ordinary works of nature and providence are marvellous in two respects 251. Marvels are a token of Gods presence 253. Many marvels wrought in our dayes ib. Marvels should work faith in us ib. 254. Christ will wonder at our unbelief if we beleeve not when he doth wonders 254. Mass a Popish conceit about the Name of it p. 489. Memory and to remember what p. 33. The Works of God are to be remembred ibid. Mercy A three-fold mercy in God p. 460. Mercy of God most moved towards us by telling him our misery 609. Miracles Signs and Marvels how they differ p. 250 251. Morning To do a thing in the morning and every morning what they import p. 667 723. Moth How man is crushed as a moth a three-fold meaning of it p. 152 153. Mourners described p. 266. Such nearest joy and exaltation 268. Murmuring or complaining To murmur at the dealings of God is to make our selves juster than God 123. complain to God but not of God 124. Musing men no great talkers p. 527. N NOstril of God what meant by it pag. 56. Numbers Three six and seven how used in Scripture 337 338. Twice and thrice three and four six and seven seven eight what they signifie in Scripture 339 340. O OLd-age a full old-age what 390 391. A perishign old-age a flourishing old-age 392. A godly man ever dies in a full age 394. A blessing to live to Old-age 395. Oppression To oppress the poor and fatherless a grievous sin p. 549. P PAssion carries us out of our selves p. 556. Pardon of sin God only can do it p. 713. Why pardoning or remitting sin is committed to men in what sence 714 715. How pardon of sin is expressed in Scripture 715 716. When sin is pardoned the punishment of sin is also pardoned 717. Greatest sins pardonable 718. They whose sins are pardoned may and ought to pray for pardon 719. In two cases prayer for pardon is especially to be renewed p. 712. Peace with beasts how p. 378. When God is at peace with us he can quickly make all Creatures at peace with us 379. Peace a great mercy 380 383. Perishing or to perish taken five wayes in Scripture p. 35 36. How righteous persons may or cannot perish p. 38 c. Persisting in evil most dangerous p. 557. Pity what it is p. 490 c. It is a duty to pity the distressed 494. Plowing of iniquity c. p. 44. Plowing referr'd to good actions p. 45. Poor Some Gods poor and some the Devils poor p. 297. Poor are full of desires because full of wants 298. Poor most subject to oppression 301. Wicked men plot against the people of God how poor soever and why 301. God delights to help the poor 302. Poor must take heed of greedy seeking the creatures 522. Poor that are modest in asking should be soonest supplied 522. Prayer Some wicked men thrust out of the prayers of Gods people p. 192. A dreadful thing to be so 193. Prayer is the putting of our case to God 228. They who pray much expect much 452. God often keeps prayer by him unanswered 453. The return of prayer is the solace of the soul 453. Presence of God two-fold p. 671. God can make his own presence grievous to us 673. Preservation of man the work of God p. 692. Man wants a preserver and why 693. How God is a preserver 694. A necessity that God should be mans preserver 695. He preserves his own people in a special manner and why 696. His preserving care is perpetual 697. Pride grows in the best soyl 117. God resists the persons of the proud and he will resist pride in his best friends p. 118. Pride in apparel and beauty p. 596 597. Probability of finding is ground enough for seeking 507. Promises are the portion of Beleevers p. 403. Providence the common blessing of God not dispenced without a special providence p. 260 261. Providence watches over all creatures most over such as are hurtful to man p. 627. Prudence goes softly p. 292. Punishment may come long after the sin p. 49. It shall be proportionable to the degrees of sin 50. It shall not exceed the desert of sin ibid. It is often like the sin in kind 51. The strongest sinner shall not escape punishment 65. Punishment is gradual 66. Reasons why the Lord suspends punishment 69. Wicked punish'd by those whom they have oppressed 204 206. God can punish the strongest by the weakest instruments 207. Q Quections in Scriture sometime heighten the sence and sometime abate it p. 649. R RAin the benefit of it p. 259. 260. How it is a special gift of God 261. It is a wonderful work of God to send raine 262. The giving of raine a motive to fruitful obedience and a conviction of the disobedient 263 264. Raine of Doctrine 523. Reason is the souls taster pag. 562. Redemption what it is p. 341 521 Remembring what it imports when ascribed to God p. 602. Reproof must be sweeten'd with friendly insinuations p. 6. It is no easie thing to bear a reproof 7. in some cases we must reproove whether men take it well or no ibid. Returning what it imports in Scripture p. 554. Return return what it imports 555. Reward every man shall have a reward p. 577. Riches wordly men very careful to secure their riches p. 209. Ill gotten riches cannot be secured 210. Riches why called strength 213. Righteous men so called in a four-fold sence p. 37 38. S SAints what a Saint is p. 173. It is our duty to look upon and imitate the examples of the Saints 175. When God forsakes a man the Saints on earth forsake him too 177. Salvation or safety is of the Lord p. 300. Salt in our speech what p. 442. Ministers of the Gospel why called Salt 449. Sanctifie how man sanctifies God 473. Sand of the sea applied three wayes in Scripture p. 419. Satisfaction for sin cannot be made by man p. 688. A threefold deficiency in all our works for that end 689. Scandal what 546. Scourge of the tongue vide Tongue Sea three things in it most considerable p. 624. How like man in his natural condition 628. Especially to covetous oppressors 629 Season every thing even pale death is beautiful in it 397 Seeking implies four things p. 227. We must seek God especially in times of affliction 230 Sence of want carries us to loâ—k for a remedy p. 507. Shame how caused p. 511. Shaddai One of the names of God what it signifies p. 327 328. Shadow How taken in Scripture p. 580. Sheol How taken in Scripture p. 615. Shekel Whence so called it 's use p. 411. Shiggaion What it means p. 532. Sight of the eye much comfort comes in by it p. 606 607. Silence or stopping of the mouth caused two wayes p. 307. Mouths of wicked men stopt two wayes 308 Silence becomes learners 529. Sin
the material cause of it is in our selves p. 219 Sin is the meritorious cause of suffering ib. We need no teaching to sin 223 224. Sin and sorrow the portion of man by nature 224. They are contained vertually in our nature ib. To sin is no burthen to a natural man 225. Not to sin how taken 386. To be kept from sin is better than all outward blessings 384 387. Sin the greatest evill 388. Sin contrary to the nature of God 472. They who are sensible of sin will pray hard for the pardon of it 706. Sinners expect benefit by sin 48. Sin persisted in shall have a sorrowful reward 48 49. Sleep the ease of trouble and cares p. 591. Bed cannot give sleep 592 634. Smallest matters fall under providence p. 241. Sorrow we ought to give a reason of our sorrows as well as of our hopes p. 409. Great sorrow stops our speech and makes broken language 423. Not to be able to express our sorrow is an increase of it 424. Soul of man is the man p. 151. Mans excellency 161 162. Souls being separate from the body 603 604. Sowing How applied and taken in Scripture p. 45 46. Speaking when the heart is full of matter it is a hard thing not to speak p. 7. Stones of the field what it is to be in league with them p. 370 371 c. How God turns stones into bread and how man may be said to do so p 376. Sword Two swords of the mouth p. 199. The hand of the Sword Sword in the hand what they import p. 349. T TEaching compared to raining or holy doctrin to rain in four respects p. 523 524. Teachable a gracious spirit is teachable and a teachable spirit is an excellent spirit p. 528. Unteachableness more dangerous than ignorance ib. Temptation by way of assay or tryal p. 5. Temptation prayer and meditation the three great exercises of a Christian 568. Terrours after terrours God usually sends comforts p. 104. Terrours of God what why so called 430 431. Divers sorts of terrours sent from God 431 435. Spirituall terrours as spiritual joyes are known to few 436 Toughts compared to boughes or branches of a tree and why pag. 80. Toughts the flrst-borne of the soule 81. A godly mans top-branches or highest thoughts are about highest things 81. God never lost any one of his thoughts or ever shall pag. 281 Time The shortnesso and speed of it p. 600. Time past irrecoverable 601. Tongue a scourge and what the scourge of the tongue is p. 351. c. What it is to be hid from the scourge of the tongue 354. It is most sad when Christians scourge each other with the tongue 356. It is a great mercie to be delivered from the scourge of the tongue 357. The tongue discovers the iniquity of the heart 561 Troubles afflict them most who supposed themselves beyond trouble p. 192. Truth is infused not borne with us p 76. God sometime as it were steales a truth into the hearts of his people 76. Why he is said to doe so 77. Holy truths are very pleasant to the care of a holy person 78. Our hearts too narrow to take in or hâ—ld al the truths of God 79. A godly man â—ver receives somewhat when truth is revealed 79. God usually humbleâ— man before he shews him his truth 97. Truth deserves our most diligent search 401 We are to search and make truth our own before we distribute it unto others ibid. 402. Truth may challenge credit ibid. Truth is the portion of the Saints 403. Truth mis-applied is very unsavoury and may be dangerous 449 Truth must be made known 465. It is the study if a godly man to doe so 466. Dangerous to conceale truth ib. The strength of truth naked truth is too hard for armed errour 537. Common truths seriously to be studied 601 V VAnity graduall Moneths of vanity what 585 586. The vanity of mans life shewed foure waies 644 c. Visions and revelations feigned often by false prophets and why p. 72 and Heathens 73 74. Foure sorts of visions or divine revelations observed among the Rabbins 82. Three forts noted from Scripture 83. Visions five waies distinguisht 85 86. A further sort of visions 636. Visit To visit what it imports p. 385. Visitation of God three waies 664 c. Understanding the work of it attributed to the tongue and sences why p. 559. Unsearchablenesse of God in his works two waies considered p. 245. 246. Uprightnesse what p. 22. It makes us confident in saddest times 28. It hath boldnesse 553. and stedfastnesse 554. an upright heart the more it is searched the better it proves 558 Uselesse to be uselesse is in Scripture account to be essenceless p. 515. W VVArre usually accompanied with famine and why pag. 348. Warr a devourer ib. Warfare The life of man is a warfare shewed in six particulars pag. 565. c Weavers shutle life of man like it 598. c. Whale why God sets a watch over him 625. c. Wicked man may flourish in great outward prosperity 188. The patience of God glorified in the prosperity of wicked men 188. Two other reasons why they are permitted to prosper 189. Wicked men may flourish a great while ib. They are under a curse while they flourish 193. Wickedness is very laborious p. 47. There is an art in wickednesse 48 Wife good wife the beauty and ornament of the house p. 385. Wind vaine winds compared to wind 543 544 How the life is a wind 502. c. Wisdom is the stability of things 274 Wise men to whom plaine things may be darke and obscure p 296. Wit often abused by Satan 266 c. 〈…〉 works p. 34. A caution about it ib. word of God how it may be hid and how not 462. Words the conceptions of the mind as hard to keepe them in as children ready for the birth p. 7 8. Words of the wise very powerfull 15. Right words very strong three things in right words 5â—5 536 Works of God are perfect works 238. work of man put for his reward 582 World when we are most retired from the world we usually have and are most fit to have communion with God 88. wordly men would live alwaies in the world 644. Worldly good things not good in themselves p. 189. They are no argument that a man who hath them is good 190 No evidences of the fovour of God 194. The best of worldly things loathed if long used spirituall things the more used the more desired 310. Best of worldly things fading 384. The world is but for this life 610 Woundings by the hand of God are often preparatoric to a cure 332. God never makes a wound too bigg for his own cure 334. And he can easily cure all the wounds which the malice of man can make 335 Wrath what it is p. 178. Wrath kils three at once 180 Y YEâ— and nay what they signifie in 〈…〉 51â— A Table of those Scriptures which