trials of the Saints They are occasions to shew forth their vertues and their graces They give proofs both to God and the world what manner of men they are Tried ones are precious ones many others are so but these appear what they are they have shewed their metall All true faith is good but tried faith is best 1 Pet. 1.7 That the triall of your faith that is that your tried faith being much more precious then of gold that perisheth may be found unto praise c. Prudens futuri temporis exitū Caliginosa nocte premit Deus Ridetque si mortalis ultra Fas trepidat c. Horat l 3. Car Od. 29. Besides these two interpretations I shall adde for a close two more which may further illustrate the meaning of this laughter ascribed to God at the triall of the innocent First or Thirdly He laughs at the fears and sad fore-casts of his people who not being able to look thorow second causes and see the ends of things in their beginnings presently judge all 's lost the Church must be ruin'd and the Saints undone because thus tried Now God knowing the end of all actions not only at their beginning but from the beginning yea from eternity he looking thorow the blackest clouds and darkest nights upon the issues of all things derides the simple conjectures of men about them The very Heathens have given us such a notion of God in laughter Secondly or Fourthly God laughs at the laughter and derides the joies of wicked men who see his innocent ones tried For they say in their hearts and it may be with their tongues Happy we who have scaped such a scouring we would not have been in their coats for a world better die then live to bring our selves into such troubles Or thus Now the day is ours we have prevailed These men are catcht and entangled we shall doe well enough with them now The Lord hearing such language at the triall of the innocent laughs to thinke how those wretches shall see themselves deceived when they see these who were fallen rising again or God by their fall raising others and setting his King upon his holy hill of Sion Lastly As God laughs at the triall of the innocent so let the nocent and impenitent remember and tremble at it that God will laugh at the approach of their torments and mock when their fear commeth when their fear commeth as a desolation and their destruction as a whirlwinde Job having thus shewed how the innocent are afflicted shews in the next verse how the wicked are exalted from both he infers that there can be no judgement made of any mans inward state whether he be innocent or wicked upon his outward state whether he be prosperous or afflicted The innocent are under the scourge and the wicked are upon the throne and who doth these things but God himself that 's the sum of this 24th verse Verse 24. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked he covereth the faces of the Judges thereof if not where and who is he The earth is given into the hand of the wicked The earth Earth may be taken strictly for the element of earth as it is opposed to fire water and air Not so in this place But more largely earth is put for all earthly things as Psal 115.6 The heaven of heavens is the Lords but the earth hath he given unto the children of men that is he hath divided all earthly comforts as a portion or inheritance among men their lot falleth there Thirdly Earth is put for the inhabitants or people of the earth Psal 100.1 Praise him all ye earth so the Hebrew which we translate Praise him all ye people of the earth Isa 24.4 The earth mourneth and fadeth away that is they who dwell on the earth Fourthly By the earth we may understand speciall Countries or Nations tracts or parts of the earth Fiftly The earth is put for earthly minded men and for the false Church Revel 14.3 The Saints are redeemed from the earth that is God hath fetcht them out from amongst false worshippers and impure ones he hath rescued them from the world of Idolaters and from the superstitious multitude In this place earth is to be understood in the second third or fourth notion namely for all earthly comforts or for the Provinces and Kingdoms of the earth or for the inhabitants and people of the earth These are given into the hand of the wicked Given The Lord makes as it were a deed of gift of these things unto wicked men So in the 15th of this book ver 19. Vnto whom alone the earth was given and no stranger passed among them which some expound of the righteous No stranger passed among them that is none came in to invade them Or as others render it No strange thing that is no unjust thing came in amongst them they had the earth in their own power and rightfull possession Nihil alienum sc injustum Jun. To be given noteth two things or there is a double act of giving There is a gift by providence and a gift by promise When the Lord is said to give the earth into the hand of the wicked we are to understand it of that common providentiall gift whereby he disposeth of all things to all men no man hath any thing but by the gift of God Thus wicked Jeroboam had the Kingdome of Israel given him and so had hypocriticall Jehu for four generations They served the providence of God and the providence of God exalted them Act. 17.26 He hath made of one bloud all Nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation that is he hath as it were chalked out and drawn a line where the bounds and habitations whither the dominions and possessions of such men shall be extended and where they shall be confined That 's a gift of providence There is a speciall gift of promise peculiar to believers Ro. 8.32 He that spared not his own Son but gave him to die for us how shall he not with him also freely give us all things that is all worldy things or we may take in whatsoever else concerns our spirituall estate besides Christ All the things of Christ yea and all worldly things come in to the Saints as a gift by Christ who is himself the greatest gift that ever man received or that God could bestow How shall he deny us any thing when he hath given us him who is above all things 1 Cor. 3.22 23. Whether Paul or Apollos or the world all is yours for ye are Christs Believers enjoy earthly things by an heavenly title Christ is their conveiance In this sense the earth is not given to the wicked the Lord gives them nothing in Christ or for Christ as a Saviour in the Covenant of Grace Christ as a Lord hath bought the wicked 2 Pet.
to stones and pillars have been the preservatives and memorials of his wonderfull works The works of God are his holinesse justice power mercy truth made visible The administrations of God in one age are for the instruction of all ages God spake with Jacob only in person at Bethel yet there the Scripture saith he spake with all his posterity Hos 12.4 He found him in Bethel and there he spake with us It is then a debt to posterity to shew them what God hath done for us Observe Secondly That it is our duty to enquire into the dealings of God in all ages It was their duty before the word was written and it is a duty still The works of God are to be studied and read over as well as his word Deut. 4.20 32. Ask now of the daies that are past which were before thee since the day that God created man upon earth and ask from one side of heaven to another enquire every way to see whether ever God dealt with a people as he hath dealt with thee whether God did ever assay to take to himself a Nation from the middest of another Nation by temptations and by signs and by wonders c. Enquire this of all the former times So Deut. 32.7 Remember the daies of old consider the years of many generations ask thy father and he will shew thee thy Elders and they will tell thee The Psalmist promises to rehearse what these were enjoyned to record Psal 78.3 4. I will open my mouth in a parable I will utter dark sayings of old which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us Our speaking of and enquiring into what God hath done shews the harmony between his word and works And the former providences of God are food for our faith as well as the promises of God Thirdly That which I shall rather insist upon is this True antiquity ever gives a testimony to the truth Hence the Prophets send the people back to antiquity Jer. 6.16 Enquire for the good old-way Every old way is not a good way but in every good old way we may walk safely and see the footsteps of truth Quod antiquissimum verissiâ—um It is a received rule That is truest which is ancientest It is certainly so for truth is not only ancient but eternall Truth is as old as God himself for truth is nothing else but the minde of God truth was with God from everlasting Truth is commonly called the daughter of time yet in a sense it is the mother of time for it was before time was and therefore no question that which is ancientest is truest Yet there is a great abuse of this principle Look back to antiquity and consult with your fathers say many and see what they did how they believed But what is the antiquity they call us to consult with It is not as Moses spake in that place of Deuteronomy antiquity since God created man upon earth or since Jesus Christ was upon the earth and gave out his Gospel-laws but it is the antiquity of some later ages and editions an antiquity far short of what is indeed the ancient time The Apostle 1 Joh. 2.7 gives us the definition of an old commandment This is the old commandment which was from the beginning Our sinfull nature is called the old man and yet it is a corrupt man It is called the old-man not that it is older then the new man the new man is not of a younger house or later date then the old man Holinesse was before corruption And the image of God upon man elder then sinne the image of the devil There are many corruptions in doctrine in opinion in worship in practice which go for very old And there are many doctrines which we call new truths Is it because those corruptions are older then these new truths No new truths are elder then the oldest corruptions That which we call the new world was created in the beginning though discovered but yesterday So new truths were given from the beginning only they were unknown till of late and we may well conceive that some goodly regions of truth are still terra incognita undiscovered God having reserved them for the honour and industry of some divine Columbus who may give us an exacter sea-card of divine mysteries then the world hath yet seen though enough hath been seen from the beginning for the safe steering of our course to heaven He that would enquire and make a diligent search for truth must goe to the first institutions That 's the old commandment which was from the beginning The Prophet Ezekiel Chap. 23.43 speaks of some who were grown old in adulteries that is old in adulterating and corrupting the truth and worship of God That which is old may be old in evil and fuller of errours then it is of daies We finde when the good Kings of Judah reformed they did not search only into what was done in the ages immediately before them or what their next fathers had done but they searcht what was done in the times of their godly fathers how many removes soever distant from them Hezekiah 2 Chron. 29.6 tels the Levites that their fathers were in an errour that they had trespassed and done that which was evil in the sight of the Lord and had forsaken him and Chap. 30.5 speaking of the observation of the Passeover he saith They had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written therefore v. 7. he dehorteth them saying Be not ye like your fathers which trespassed against the Lord God of your fathers he doth not mean that they should not be like their first fathers who had the truth purely committed to them and so worshipped God purely but be not like your immediate fore-fathers or your corrupt fore-fathers how many descents and generations so ever ye can number from them And this was a thing so strange that when Hezekiah sent the Posts from City to City thorow the Countries of Ephraim and Manasseh with this message that he would have a reformation according to the first institution or patern and would not have them stay in what their fore-fathers had done It is said vers 10. That they laughed the messengers to scorn and they mocked them what must we now be wiser then our fathers Yes saith he you have done evil a long time you and your fathers therefore I must bring you back to your first fathers in comparison of whom the fathers you claim by were but children and those degenerate children It is said of Josiah's reformation 2 King 23.22 That there was not the like from the daies of the Judges nor in all the daies of the Kings of Israel and Judah he went to the very beginning of all there had not been such a thing done before So that if any should have objected why may not such a reformation serve us as served those Kings and Judges No saith Josiah I will search
Most buildings have their foundations in the earth but some upon it being raised upon pillars So Hannah 1 Sam. 2.8 in her Song The pillars of the earth are the Lords and he hath set the world upon them What are these pillars that the Lord hath set the world upon or where shall we finde them David shews us Psal 24.1 2. The earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof the world and they that dwell therein for he hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the flouds It is strange that pillars of liquid water should bear up the massie earth the earth seems rather to be the pillar and foundation of the waters Some interpret super which signifies upon by prope or juxta neer he hath founded it upon the seas that is He hath founded it by or neer the seas But take it in the letter and it is a truth for the sea is as much the pillar of the earth as the earth is the pillar of the sea earth and sea being a globe and round the sea is as much under the earth as the earth is under the sea Thus the pillars of the earth are waters And the earth is established upon the flouds Further If you would know what these pillars are hear what Job saith Chap. 26.7 where he assures us that God hangeth the earth upon nothing We are not to think that the Lord in framing and building the earth did first set up pillars and then set the earth upon them for the earth hangeth as a ball in the midst of the air without any pillars under it Hence Jobs Philosophy teaches us That he hangeth the earth upon nothing there are no materiall or visible pillars to sustain it What is then the pillar of the earth What is it that supports and bears it up The reall pillar of the earth it is the power of God But the power of God cannot tremble How then doth he say When he shaketh the earth the pillars thereof tremble Terrae columnae infimas terrae partes significant quae reliquam terrae molem impositam sustineat haec sunt veluti fundamenta fulcra terrae In this place therefore we may expound the pillars of the earth for the lower parts of the earth and so though the whole globe of the earth taken together be neither higher nor lower yet in the parts of it from any point some are higher and some are lower some above and some beneath upon what superficies soever we are the under parts thereof are to us the pillars of the earth So the meaning is He shaketh the earth out of her place and the pillars thereof tremble that is he shaketh it so terribly that if it had any outward visible pillars those pillars must needs tremble Quo pacto terra firma immota consistit quidnā pro vehiculo habet cujus rei adminiculo fulcitur rationi nihil occurrit cui innitatur si divinam voluntatem exceperis Greg Nazianz Orat. 34. Suis l brata ponderibus fixa manet In this we may observe the great power of God in upholding the earth We see what the pillars of the earth are the supposed pillars are no other then the lower parts of the earth and the true pillar of the earth is no other but the power of God there are no other buttresses or pillars upon which the earth is set or by which it is sustained This huge weight of the whole earth and seas is borne up by the thin air Is not this an argument of the mighty power of God that the air which is a body so weak that if you throw a feather up into it it will not stay there but descend yet the whole masse or globe of earth and waters hangs there God poiseth it meerly by its own weight For he weighed the mountains in scales and the hils in balances Isa 40.12 He upholds all things by the word of his power And hath built this great Castle in the air Could we enter into the secrets of nature and set our faith a work by our senses about these things we should be raised above all fear in the greatest difficulties If we saw but a bullet or a piece of lead of a pound yea of a peny weight lifted up and hang in the air without any thing to support it we would conclude it a miracle What thinke you when all the lead and iron and brasse and stone that is in the world hang in the air without any visible stay I finde some interpreting this clause as the former in a figurative sense He shaketh the earth that is States Kingdoms and Common-wealths And the pillars thereof tremble that is they who seemed to be their strongest supporters tremble and shake This is a truth and a profitable one for our meditation To clear this First We finde the earth in Scripture often put for States and Kingdoms Isa 24.20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard and shall be removed like a cottage and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it and it shall fall and not rise again The earth shall doe this what earth He doth not mean the naturall earth ☜ upon which men tread but the people who tread upon the earth or that Common-wealth wherein people are united and governed these shall reel to and fro and be removed like a cottage As if he had said you thought your State and Kingdome was setled like a strong Castle but I will take it down as a man takes down a little cottage raddl'd only with a few sticks and reeds Or the meaning of it is your Common-wealth that hath been founded by the wisdome of so many Law-givers Fundavit legibus urbes and is established in so much riches and power shall be removed as a poor cottage thorow which every puff of winde findes a passage The strongest Kingdoms and Bulwarks of the earth are but as thatcht cottages when God takes them in hand Secondly Pillars are as often taken in a politicall sense Psal 75.3 The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved How comes it then to passe that they are not utterly destroied It follows I bear up the pillars of it that is I maintain Governours and Magistrates some in places of power and authority by whom shaking tottering Kingdoms are upheld Our experience teaches us this We live in a Nation of which we may say Our earth with the inhabitants thereof are dissolved we are a broken and a shattered people yet the Lord bears up our Pillar * the Parliament the politique pillar of our Nation we had long ago lain in the dust if God had not borne up this pillar The chief counsels of the adversary have been to weaken and undermine to ruine and pull down this pillar They like Samson have taken hold of our two pillars and bowed themselves with all their might Judg. 16.28 but neither have they proved Samsons nor proved us Philistines
their own sinfull hearts or had laid the raines in their necks suffering their lusts to hurry them whither they would to carry them captive unto every sinne and rush them head-long into every evil The word here used signifies either simply to send or violently to cast or to put a thing away from us and so it is as much as if Bildad had said For â—â—â—uch as thy children would sin against God he suffered them to sin their fill they being wicked he gave them up to doe all wickednesses They loved to wander from him and he let them wander We have this sense of the word Prov. 29.15 A childe left unto himself brings his mother to shame The Hebrew is A childe sent away sent to himself or put into his own hands A childe sent away to himself or left alone bringeth shame that is will certainly runne into vile and enormious courses to the shame of her that bare him A childe left or sent to himself is one that hath no guide no governour no instructour but himself A man that will learn only of himself hath but a fool to his Master How much more then a weak childe what a master what a tutour hath a childe if he have none but himself To be left or sent out to themselves is to have none to counsell or advise them in a right way or to give them any stop and check in an ill way The character that Paul and Barnabas gave of the former times when they preached to the Heathens at Lystra was this Act. 14.16 We exhort you to turn unto the living God that made heaven and earth who in times past suffered all Nations to walk in their own waies He let them goe and never staied them at all they had no bridle of restraint not so much as a word to bring them back He suffered all Nations as if he had said He left them in the hand of their transgression that their own evil hearts should doe what they would with them In which sense we may also understand that place Act. 17.30 when Paul at Athens disputed with the Philosophers he tels them that now God began to look towards them and had sent them the knowledge of Christ The times of that ignorance God wicked at but now he calleth all men every where to repent The words undergoe a two-fold interpretation Some thus to note the indulgence of God The time past of that ignorance God winked at that is he did not deal severely and strictly with them when they sinned because they had no means or so little means to keep them from sinne And there is a truth in it Nâ—hil aliud filtie volunt Pauli verba quam caecitati addict oâ— fuisse homines donec se illis Deus patefaciat Calv. for though ignorance doth not totally excuse sinne yet it doth abate the degree and measure of sinne But there is another sense which I rather embrace The times of that ignorance God winked at that is in those times wherein there was so much darknesse and blindenesse in the world God let men goe on in their sinne they sinned and he never called upon them he never opposed them or sent any to teach them better God did not manifest his will to them as unto the Jews Psal 147.19 20. He sheweth his word unto Jacob his statutes and judgements unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation c. So that this winking is opposed to favour rather then to justice To have the eye upon a place or upon persons is to shew them favour 1 King 8.29 The later branch clears this meaning But now he calleth all men every where to repent now he doth not leave men in the hands of their transgressions He doth not winke and let them doe what they list now Gospel-light is risen to the world and there are many sent out to call in and reclaim wandering prodigals many to cry Return return He speaks of it as of the mercy and priviledge of that age beyond what the former ages had enjoyed That of the same Apostle hath a parallel sense Rom. 1.20 26. where describing the dealings of God with the Gentiles who sinned against the light of nature he concludes Therefore God left them in the darknesse of nature in the worst of nature they came not up so high as the principles of nature might have led them in the worship of God therefore he left them below the principles of nature in the things of man He gave them up to vile affectâ—ons which is as much as to say He put them in the hands of their transgressions And ver 28. He gave them over to a reprobate minde to a minde that could not judge aright which had not a true understanding of any thing Hence they elected the worst and reprobated the best things The like we have Psal 81.11 of Gods own people the Jews So I gave them up unto their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsels The Hebrew is I sent them into the pertinacy of their hearts because I had so often called upon them and they would not hearken nor return unto me therefore I said forasmuch as you will not hear you shall not hear because you will not obey you shall have none to call you to obedience follow the counsels of your own hearts as long as you will This is the first sense of putting or sending them into the hand of their transgression scil a leaving them to the raign of their lusts Expulit eos è mundo propter praevaricitâ—â—nem Pagn Permifit eis pervenire quod scelus eorum postulabat Tygur Secondly Which is the sense our translation holds out Thou hast left them or sent them into the hand of their transgression That is Thou hast left them in those evils which their transgressions did deserve and call for Our reading carries that meaning He hath cast them away for their transgression Others thus He hath thrust them out of the world for their transgression He hath suffered that to befall them which their transgression called for According to these the sense is Thy children sinned against him and he hath let those evils which their sinne deserved fall upon them He hath rewarded them according to their iniquity Isa 64.6 7. Our iniquities like the winde have taken us away Thou hast hid thy face from us and hast consumed or melted us because of our iniquities The Hebrew is Allisisti nos in manu iniquitatis nostrae Vol. Thou hast consumed or melted us in the hand or in the power of our iniquities And somewhat parallel to this sense is that Gen. 4.6 If thou dost ill saith God to Cain sinne lies at the door As if he had said Thou shalt be given into the hand of sinne presently thy sinne shall arrest thee and bring those evils upon thee which it deserveth thou shalt not need any other punishment then thy own wickednesse Hands and
be humbled under the mighty hand of God If we know not what God hath done he can quickly doe enough to make himself known They who will not see the hand of God when it is lifted up that they may be humbled shall see it and be ashamed Isa 26.11 if the removing and shaking of our mountains doe not awaken us the overturning of them shall That 's the next act of divine power in this noble description And overturneth them in his anger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vertit subvertit significat versionem vel in nibilum vel in formam aut qualitatem aliam vel in locū alium The word signifies to over-turn a thing so as to change the form and fashion of it yea to bring it to nothing not only to remove a thing out of its place but to take away the very being of it and to remove it out of the world He not only turns mountains into mole-hils but into plains yea into pits they shall not be mountains any longer nor any thing like a mountain It is much to remove a mountain and set it in another place but more to crumble it in a moment all to dust that you shall not finde a piece or a clod of it The Prophet threatens the obstinate Jews in such a language Isa 30.13 14. Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall swelling out in a high wall whose breaking commeth suddenly at an instant and he shall break it as the breaking of the Potters vessel c. So that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sheard to take fire from the hearth or to take water withall out of the pit He overturneth them in his anger Anger in man is a mixt affection made up chiefly of these two ingredients sorrow and revenge Some call anger the boiling of the bloud about the heart or the boiling of the heart in bloud The fumes whereof rise so fast into the brain Ira suror brevis that anger sometimes dislodges reason and is therefore called by others a short madnesse The word in the text signifies the Nostrils and the Scripture frequently applies that to anger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ira inde transfertur a l nasum qui est instrumentum trae in quo ira precipuè apparet Fames morabilèm in nasum conciunt Plaut because anger is seen and made visible in the nostrils Quick breathing is a sign of anger God is without parts and passions he is not angry as man but is said to be angry when he doth like man in his anger The Lord is not moved or stirred by anger but he is angry when he makes motions and stirrings in the creature he lets out the effects of anger but himself hath not the affection much lesse the perturbation of anger Hence observe That the troubles and confusions which are in the creature are tokens and effects of the anger of God As the setling and establishment of the creature is an effect or sign of his goodnesse or as these tell us that God is pleased So when the Lord hurls the creature this way and that way when he tosses it up and down as if he cared not how this is an argument of his anger when Moses came down from the Mount and saw what the people of Israel had done how they had made a golden calf and polluted themselves with idols such a passion of anger came upon him that he threw the Tables of the Law out of his hand and brake them So when the Lord would signifie his displeasure he throws the creature out of his hand and breaks man against man Nation against Nation as a Potters vessell one against another The comfort and well-being of the creature consist in this that God holds it in his hand if he doe but let it goe out of his hand it perishes much more when he casts it with violence out of his hand The Prophet Hab. 3.8 describing the great confusions which God made in the world questions thus Was thine anger against the rivers Was thy wrath against the sea that thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation God being angry with the enemies of his people made strange work amongst them Rather then his people shall not be delivered the world shall be confounded Was the Lord angry with the sea when he compelled the rivers to change their courses and discover the bottome of their chanels as in the passage of his Israel thorow the red sea No God was not angry with the sea but with Pharaoh and his host with the oppressours and troublers of his Israel and when he was thus angry he check'd the course of nature and turned things up-side-down When David was in a distresse and his enemies encompast him round about what then Then the earth strook and trembled Tanta extiti◠divinae irae vis pro Davide contra hostes defendendo ut videbatur orbē invertere omnia miscere c. Pined the foundations of the hils were moved and were shaken because he was wrath Psal 18.7 That God might rescue David out of the hand of trouble he troubled the foundations of the earth he made the world shake and Kingdoms tremble that his David might be setled upon his throne The Lord threatneth Hag. 2.6 that he will shake the heaven and the earth and the sea and the dry land he will move all creatures why so He shakes them for the setling of his Zion vers 7. I will shake all Nations and the desire of all Nations shall come and I will fill this house with glory saith the Lord of hostes When the Lord comes against the superstition and idolatry and profanenesse and wickednesses of the world in anger no wonder if Kingdoms shake yea he therefore shakes Kingdoms that he may establish Jerusalem a quiet habitation a tabernacle that shall not be taken down not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken Isa 33.20 We are waiting when God will shake Babylon and in his anger overturn the seven mountains thereof Babylon is built upon mountains upon seven mountains to note the strength and power of it yet the Lord will remove Babylon out of her place and overturn those mountains in the fiercenesse of his anger and in jealousie poured out Then every Island shall flee away and the mountains shall not be found Revel 16.20 That is the remotest and strongest places which owned and maintained Babylon shall either be converted or confounded they shall appear no more under that spirituall notion though in a naturall and civill they doe remain That which is not as it was is spoken of as if it were not A great change in our condition is called a change of our very being The anger of God overturns things as if it did annihilate them Job goes on Verse 6. Which shakes the earth out of her place
the stars which are under the Southern pole are hidden from us and are enclosed lodged as in a chamber God locks them up in his treasury and they are secrets to this part of the world the southern Pole being under or below our Horizon In the artificiall sphears of heaven we finde few Asterismes or descriptions of the starres about those parts there are many but we perceive them not And the vertue and operation of these chambered hidden stars is as strong as of those which appear in greatest lustre and beauty Again When he saith Which maketh Arcturus c. his meaning is Which makes them appear or do their office These stars were made when the heavens were made and Jobs discourse is not about creation but providence So that to make Arcturus c. in the sense of this Text is only this to order the times of their rising and setting to distinguish the seasons of the year and to produce their severall effects in every season which providentiall acts are here especially aimed at Thus he maketh Arcturus to rise about the middle of September which is the time of the Equinox when the civill day and night are even and share the hours of the naturall day equally between them Or as others account this star rises about eleven daies before the Equinox So by Arcturus we may understand that season of the year And he maketh Arcturus is he orders and disposeth of the season commonly called Autumn Orion shines forth in our Hemisphear about the moneth of December and by that winter is designed The Pleiades begin at the spring therefore called Vergiliae because they arise vere in the spring and disappear or go down toward winter The chambers of the South are fiery stars which have their chief influence upon us in heat of Summer And so we may put the Text into these plain expressions He maketh Arcturus Orion and Pleiades and the chambers of the South That is First He makes and orders Summer and winter spring and harvest because these stars divide the four seasons of the year Or secondly thus He makes hot and cold wet and dry storm and calm Or thirdly as these foâ—â— constellations are assigned to the four chief points of heaven Arcturus is known by all who know any thing in the heavens to be seated about the Northern Pole whose opposites are those stars in the chambers of the South Orion dwels in the East and the Pleiades in the West So the plain English of the words is this That the Lord by his mighty power and wisdome ordereth and appointeth the motions of heaven from East to West from North to South Lastly To clear up the sense of this Text we must understand these four constellations Synecdochically these being put for all the rest For as God orders these so every star in the firmament the least are under his eie and at his dispose as well as the greatest But because these are the most eminent usefull and efficacious in their appearances motions and influences therefore these are named He maketh Arcturus Orion and Pleiades and the chambers of the South We may observe from the words thus opened divers profitable instructions First All the stars are placed in the heavens by the speciall designment of God for the use and good of man Moses Deut. 4.19 gives a caution to Israel from the Lord that they should take heed of imitating the Heathens in their abominations and this is one particular Lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven and when thou seest the Sunne and the Moon and the stars even all the host of heaven shouldest be driven to worship them which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all Nations under the whole heaven Observe that The Lord thy God hath divided them unto all Nations under heaven Therefore take heed that thou do not worship them They are the work of God they are creatures and worship which is proper to the Creatour must not be given to them It is a remarkable Text Lest saith he thou shouldest be driven to worship them How driven Not by externall force and power but driven by the strong inclination of thine heart ravished with such beautifull objects The excellency that is in the works of God hath power to draw yea to drive the heart of man to commit idolatry Job shews this while he acquits himself so industriously from it Chap. 31.26 27. If I beheld the Sunne when it shined or the Moon walking in brightnesse and my heart hath been secretly enticed or my mouth had kissed my hand this also were an iniquity to be punished by the Iudge c. Some translate that Deut. 4. in this language of Iob Lest thou be deceived tâ— worship the Sunne Moon and stars and host of heaven this is very considerable but the thing I chiefly note in that Scripture to the point in hand is this That the Lord hath made and appointed the stars to the severall parts of the heavens he hath divided them to all Nations under the whole heaven Some stars are the portion of one people others of another As the earth is an inheritance divided among the children of men so also are the stars and heavens Per hanc divisionem intelligit ordinem morum planetaruÌ„ qui in suis orbibus ita disponuntur ut unaquaeque regio suo tempore eorum gaudeat influxibus Pined We seldom consider what riches we receive from that part of our inheritance most think they live by the earth only No saith Moses The Lord hath divided the heavens the Sunne Moon and Stars unto all Nations under heaven He hath setled it what starre such a Land shall have and in what seasons as also what proportions of the Sunne and Moon for light heat and influence He hath made them for the children of men Man is fed and cloathed warmed and cherished from heaven more then from the earth and the lot and divisions which we have of the earth are naturally and usually good or bad rich or barren pleasant or unpleasant healthy or unwholsome according as the aspects of the heaven and stars are more or lesse benigne or favourable unto them Moses Deut. 29.26 reproves the ingratitude of the Jews by this argument Because they went and served other gods and worshipped them gods whom they knew not and whom he had not given to them So we translate But the letter of the Hebrew gives it thus who had not given to them or divided among them any portion As if Moses had said The Lord divided and gave the heavens and the stars among you and these base dunghill-gods never gave you so much as a clod of earth and will ye depart from Jehovah to serve them Secondly Observe God knoweth the number the names and the nature of all the stars He gives them speciall names These in the translation are names of mans imposition Yet the holy Ghost uses Heathenish names in the new Testament Act. 28.11