Spirit in it and therefore it must needs make great turns God turned the captivity of Job when he prayed Sixthly Jesus Christ presents such prayers the prayers of faith the prayers of repentance unto God his Father Christs intercession gives effect or gets answer to our supplications The Father hears the Son always John 11.42 and so he doth all them whose prayers are offered to him by the Son Revel 8.3 The angel came and stood at the altar having a golden censer and there was given unto him much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne The angel there spoken of is the angel or messenger of the Covenant prophesied of Mal. 3.1 that is Jesus Christ 't is he he alone who offers the incense of his own prayers with the prayers of all Saints upon the golden altar which is before the throne and being there represented doing so presently as it followeth ver 5. There were voices and thunders and lightenings signifying the wonderful effects of prayer till it should come after many turnings in the world or as I may say after a world of turnings to the Lords turning of Sions captivity as here of Jobs Seventhly Jesus Christ doth not only present the prayers of believers to God but also prayeth in them when saints pray he prayeth in them for he and they are mystically one And as Christ is in believers the hope of glory Col. 1.27 so he is in them the help of duty and so much their help that without him they can do nothing John 15.5 Now a believers prayer being in this sense Christs prayer it cannot but do great things Lastly As Jesus Christ presents the prayers of believers to the Father and prayeth in them or helps them to pray by the blessed and holy Spirit sent down according to his gracious promise into their hearts so he himself prayeth for them when they are not actually praying for themselves For saith the Apostle Heb. 7.25 He ever liveth to make intercession for them The best believers do not always make supplications for themselves but Christ is always making as well as he ever lives to make intercession for them The Apostle speaking of Christs intercession useth the word in the present tense or time which denoteth a continued act Rom. 8.34 Who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us The sacrifice of Christ though but once offered is an everlasting sacrifice and this other part of his priestly-office his intercession is everlasting as being often yea always or everlastingly offered The way or manner of Christs making everlasting intercession for us is a great secret it may suffice us to know and believe that he doth it Now it is chiefly from this everlasting intercession of Christ that both the persons of the elect partake of the benefits of his sacrifice and that their prayers are answered for the obtaining of any good as also for the removal of any evil as here Jobs was for the turning of his captivity Thus I have given a brief accompt of this inference that if prayer prevails to turn the captivity of others then much more our own Prayer hath had a great hand in all the good turns that ever the Lord made for his Church And when the Lord shall fully turn the captivity of Sion his Church he will pour out a mighty spirit of prayer upon all the sons of Sion The Prophet fore-shewed the return of the captivity of the Jews out of Babilon Jerem. 29.10 After seventy years be accomplished at Babilon I will visit you and perform my good word towards you in causing you to return to this place for I know the thoughts that I think towards you saith the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end But what should the frame of their hearts be at that day the 12th verse tells us And ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken These words may bear a two-fold sense First The sense of a command Then shall ye call upon me and then shall ye go and pray That is your duty in that day Secondly I conceive they may also bear the sense of a promise then shall your hearts be inlarged then I will pour out a spirit of prayer upon you And ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken We may conclude the approach of mercy when we discern the spirits of men up in and warm at this duty Many enquire about the time when the captivity of Sion shall fully end we may find an answer to that question best by the inlargement of our own hearts in prayer David speaking of that said Psal 102.17 He will regard the prayer of the destitute the meanest and lowest shrubs in grace as the word there used imports and not despise that is he will highly esteem and therefore answer their prayer How much more the prayer of the tall cedars in grace or of the strong wrestlers when they call upon him and cry unto him with all their might day and night The Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends Nor was it a bare turn As Job did not offer a lean sacrifice to God in prayer but the strength of his soul went out in it so the Lord in giving him an answer did not give him a lean or slight return but as it followeth Also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before The Hebrew is The Lord added to Job to the double Some translate too barely The Lord made an accession or an addition but that doth not reach the sense intended For a little more than he had before had been an addition to what he had before but double is more than a little or the common notion of an addition the Lord gave him twice as much or double to that great estate which he had before This doubling of his estate may be taken two ways First Strictly as four is twice two and eight twice four See the wild conceits of the Jewish Rabbins about the doubling of Jobs estate in Mercer upon the place In that strict sence it may be taken here as to his personal estate but as to persons it will not hold the number of his children was the same as before If we compare this chapter with the first chapter ver 3. we find his estate doubled in strict sence Whereas Job had then seven thousand sheep now saith this chapter ver 12. he had fourteen thousand sheep and whereas before he had three thousand camels now he had six thousand camels and whereas before he had five hundred yoke of oxen now he had a thousand yoke of oxen and lastly whereas before he had five hundred she asses now he had a thousand she asses Here was double in the letter In duplum i. e. in plurimum Quam plurimum numerus finitus pro infinito
a favourite Abraham was a favourite God called him his friend and Job was a favourite The Lord shews favour to many who yet are not his favourites Kings and Pâ—inces shew favour to all their faithful subjects yet but one possibly is a Favourite The Lords chief favourite is his Son Jesus Christ he hath his ear continually I knew said Christ John 11.42 that thou hearest me alwayes Now as Christ is a favourite above all men so among good men some have favour with God above others A King will hear a favourite when he will not a common person Our Annotators upon this very place tell us out of Mr. Fox that when Sir John Gostwich had falsely accused Arch-Bishop Cranmer to King Henry the VIII he would not hear him nor be reconciled to him till Cranmer himself whom he had wronged came and spake for him Thus the Lord will not be reconciled to some till the wronged party intercedes for them Yet we must remember that the power or effect of all our prayers depends upon Jesus Christ alone by him it is that any have access to the father and he is the way to the holiest the beloved in whom God is well pleased whom he heareth always and through whom God heareth his best beloved favourites on earth Observe Fifthly It is a great mercy to have the prayers of a good man going for us The Lord told not Eliphaz and his two friends of any thing else that Job should do for them he only saith Job my servant shall pray for you If the Lord doth but stir up the heart of a Job of a Moses of a Jacob a Wrestler in prayer to pray for us who knows what mercy we may receive by it And therefore when the Lord forbids his favourites to pray for a people as sometimes he doth it is a sign that such are in a very sad condition yea that their case is desperate Jeremiah was a mighty man with the Lord in prayer and the Lord said to him Jer. 14.11 Pray not to me for this people for good Jeremiah was forward to pray for them but the Lord stopt him Pray no more not that the Lord disliked his prayer but because he was resolved not to forgive them though he prayed for them therefore he said pray not The Lord would not let such precious waters run wast as the prayers of Jeremiah were They are in a remediless ill condition of whom the Lord saith pray not for them Of such the Apostle spake 1 John 5.16 If any man see his brother sin a sin not unto death he shall ask and God shall give him life There is a sin unto death I say not that he shall pray for it The pardon of a sin unto death is not to be prayed for Every sin deserves death but every sin is not unto death They who sin so are past prayer and in how woful a plight are they whose sins are past prayers They who have been much in prayer themselves and afterwards fall off from or walk contrary unto their prayers come at last to this miserable issue that either they give over praying for themselves or others are stopt from praying for them And though an outward bar be not laid upon their friends prayer as in Israels case yet there may be a bar upon the spirit of such as used to pray for them It is a bad sign when the Lord shuts up the heart from praying for any one and it is a sign of mercy when the Lord inlargeth the heart of any that are godly to pray for others Sixthly Observe Prayer for another doth not profit him unless he be faithful himself I ground it upon the text Job shall pray for you but you must carry a sacrifice which implied their faith and they must carry a sacrifice to Job and that implied their repentance and both implied that they prayed for themselves also It is in vain to offer a sacrifice without faith and repentance being in this frame My servant Job shall pray for you Conjunctis precibus nihil impetratu impossibile est Conjunctae autem preces esse non possunt ubi est offensio Coc. vid. The prayer of faith prevails not for those that go on in their unbelief and impenitency Job prayed for his friends and they repenting and believing he prevailed for them The reason why the Prophet Jeremiah in the place before mentioned as also chap. 7.16 was commanded not to pray for that people was because they were a hardened people in their sins and therefore his prayers could do them no good Yea the Lord told him cha 15.2 that though not only he but other great favourites joyned in prayer for them it should do them no good Though Moses and Samuel stood before me my mind could not be towards this people The reason why those eminent favourites and mighty men in prayer could do no good was as was said before because they were unbelieving and hardned in their sins as appears upon the place The Prophet Ezekiel speaks the same thing chap. 14.14 Though these three men Noah Daniel and Job this Job that we have in the text were in it they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness saith the Lord. Jobs prayers obtained good for his friends but the children of Israel were in such a condition that though Noah Daniel and Job were praying for them they should get no good by it their sins were so high and their hearts so hard that the prayers of the holiest men in the world could not prevail with God for mercy It cannot be denied but the prayers of a godly man may profit a wicked man an unbeliever an impenitent person for his conversion to the faith and the bringing of him to repentance but they profit not any man who as he hath not faith so continues in his unbelief Yet I grant that the prayers of a believer may profit such an unbeliever as to the avoiding of some temporal evil or as to the obtaining of some temporal good as is clear in Abrahams prayer for Abimelech Gen. 20.7 But how much soever a godly man prayeth for the pardon of a wicked mans sin or the salvation of his soul he shall never be pardoned or saved unless himself repent and believe They who never pray in faith for themselves shall not get favour with God by any prayer of faith made by others for them Now as from this and such like Scriptures it appears that the prayers of godly men for good men here on earth are very pleasing unto the Lord and receive great answers So they do absurdly who from this Scripture infer that the Saints departed pray for us as if they knew or understood our condition and they do more absurdly who living here on earth pray to the Saints in heaven to pray for them The Scripture speaks nothing of prayers to departed Saints nor of departed Saints praying for us the Scripture speaks only of the living
good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God That is as he requireth of thee to exercise justice toward all men and mercy to the poor or any in misery so to walk humbly with himself that is to acknowledge thou hast need of the righteousness of a Saviour and of the mercy of a God how much righteousness and mercy soever thou hast exercised towards others When we are low in our own eyes then are we highest in Gods eye when we as it were reject our selves and all that we have done as unworthy of any acceptation then are we most accepted of the Lord. Fourthly Among Believers they are most accepted with God who are most fruitful in their lives and do most good in their places and according to their opportunities The Lord loveth a fruitful Christian Many are barren trees unfruitful ground little can be seen of good which they do these are a burden to God But when a Christian as it is said of Christ Act. 10.38 goeth about doing good when a Christian as Christ giveth the account of his own life John 17.4 Glorifieth God on earth and finisheth the work which God gives him to do O how acceptable is such a one to God! And therefore Let us labour to know and do what is acceptable to the Lord. The Apostle would have us prove what is acceptable to the Lord Eph. 5.10 that is First study the Word to find out what is acceptable to the Lord. Secondly approve and embrace with our whole hearts what we find to be so Thirdly practice and do what we have so approved or embraced And because the Scripture speaks of some duties which are specially acceptable to the Lord I shall instance the Point in a few particulars First Doing right to every one Prov. 21.3 To do justice and judgement is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice This is true or may be affiâ—med of justice both commutative and distributive To do justice in our dealings with men called commutative justice is more acceptable than sacrifice that is than any outward worship given to God without this 'T is true also of distributive justice which is done by Magistrates in rewarding good men and in punishing them that do evil these works of justice also are more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice Secondly The true worship and service of God which the Apostle calls sacrifice is highly acceptable to God Rom. 12.1 I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable service These first Table-duties when in consort with those former second Table-duties are highly honourable and therefore cannot but be highly acceptable to the Lord. Sacrifice to God without justice to man is meer hypocrisie Justice to man without sacrifice to God is no better than Heathenish morality Both united are the beauty of Christianity Thirdly To serve Christ that is to aim at the honouring as well as the enjoying of Christ with our Gospel-priviledges and liberties is exceeding acceptable The Apostle having said Rom. 14.17 The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost presently adds vers 18. He that in these things that is in righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost serveth Christ is acceptable unto God that is this shews he is a person accepted with God The doing of things purely acceptable to God is a clear and strong argument of our acceptation with him Fourthly To do any good we do be it little or much with a willing mind is very acceptable to God 2 Cor. 8.12 If there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath Though it be little that we have yet if the mind be free if there be much of the will in it though but little of the purse if we have no more to give or give according to what we have if there be much of the heart in it though but little of the hand if we do according to the power that is in our hand the Lord hath a very great respect to it Fifthly To be much in prayer for others especially for those that are in power over us is very acceptable to the Lord 1 Tim. 2.2 3. I exhort that supplications c. be made for all men for Kings and all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour As it is good and acceptable in the sight of God that we should lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty under Kings and all in authority so that we should pray for Kings and those that are in authority Sixthly When children do well requite their parents that saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 5.4 is acceptable unto God Seventhly To suffer patiently for well-doing is greatly pleasing unto God 1 Pet. 2.20 In a word they among good men are most acceptable of God who are most zealous in doing any thing in a right manner which for the matter is acceptable unto God Observe Thirdly As the Lord accepteth some godly men more than others so he accepteth some godly men for others The Lord doth not speak here of accepting Job strictly for himself but of his acceptation in the behalf of his friends Him will I accept that is for you I will be intreated by him I will not give you the honour to be intreated by you but to him I give it I will be intreated by him The Prophet Elisha said to the King of Israel 2 Kings 3.14 Were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the King of Judah I would not look toward thee nor see thee he would not vouchsafe that bad King a look but for the respect that he bare to good Jehoshaphat And it is a truth that God would not have so much respect to some good men were it not for the sake of some others who are better Yet that the Lord accepts one mans person more than anothers or one mans person for another is primarily and principally in and for the sake of Jesus Christ Job had acceptation with God more than his friends and for his friends he had the former by his being in Christ and the latter as he was a figure of Christ No mans person no mans work is accepted of otherwise than in relation to Christ The Apostle affirms this fully Eph. 1.6 He hath made us accepted in the Beloved Christians are beloved but Christ only is the Beloved we are accepted in him the beloved as to our selves and 't is in the beloved that any are accepted more than others or for others Take this Inference from the whole The Lord accepted Job praying for others then he will accept a good man praying upon right
Christ in his person is of infinite worth and his sacrifice of so great a value that it became a price sufficient for the ransom and redemption of all sinners yet it was of free grace that Christ was made a ransom for sinners and we accepted through him Secondly Take this Inference If the Lord be ready to hear a Job for his friends then the Lord will much more hear a Job for himself That the prayers and supplications which Believers put up to the Lord obtain mercy and good things for others may strengthen faith that they shall obtain for themselves Thirdly We may infer Job was become a great favourite with God after his humiliation and self-abhorrence He no sooner fell out with himself for his former miscarriages but the Lord as it were fell in love with him afresh What a favourite was he grown who could thus readily get an answer and obtain favour for those against whom the Lord said My wrath is kindled Thus much concerning the judgment and determination of God in this matter which put a period to the long continued controversie between Job and his three friends and reconciled both parties both unto God and between themselves O how blessed is the issue of the Lords Judgment and undertaking towards his servants and children When once he was pleased to appear in the case he soon silenced both sides and made them in the conclusion both of one heart and of one mind And no sooner was this humbling and reconciling work done and over but restoring and restitution work followed as will appear in opening the third and last part of this Chapter which is also the last part of the whole Book JOB Chap. 42. Vers 10. 10. And the Lord turned the Captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends Also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before THis verse begins the third part of the Chapter We have seen Jâ—b humbled before God in the first part we have seen Jobs friends reconciled to God and his anger turned away from them in the second In this third we have Job himself restored or the restitution of Job to as good yea to a better estate than he had before and this was done when he prayed for his friends The Crown is set upon the head of prayer The restitution of Job is set down two wayes First more generally in this verse where it is described three wayes First by the Author of it The Lord it was he that turned the Captivity of Job Secondly by the season of it When he prayed for his friends Thirdly by the degree and measure of it Also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before His was not a bare return or restitution but with advantage and that to a duplication And the Lord turned the captivity of Job Before I open the words as translated by us I shall briefly mind the Reader of another translation Probarem si esset 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ubi nunc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conversio paenitentia Drus Dominus quoque conversus est ad paenitentiam Job Vulg. The word which we render Captivity is by some rendred Repentance and there is a twofold interpretation of that rendring First Some refer it to God and read the words thus The Lord was turned to repentance concerning Job And then the meaning is the Lord repented or changed his dispensation with respect to the affliction of Job when he prayed for his friends The Scripture speaks of the Lords repentance two wayes First that he repenteth of the good which he hath done for or bestowed upon man Gen. 6.6 It repented the Lord that he had made man he seemed as one troubled in his mind that ever he had set up man in such a condition And as there the Lord repented of his making mankind in general in that good natural state so elsewhere he is said to repent of his doing good to some men in particular as to their civil state 1 Sam. 15.11 The Lord repented that he had made Saul King that he had set him upon a Throne to rule men on earth who had no better obeyed the Rule given from his own Throne in heaven Secondly The Lord is said to repent of the evil which he hath either actually brought upon man or threatned to bring upon him In the former sense Moses saith Deut. 32.36 The Lord shall judge his people and repent himself for his servanss when he seeth that their power is gone and there is none shut up or left that is when they are in an afflicted low condition the Lord taketh the opportunity or season to restore them and then he is said to repent concerning any afflictive evil brought upon his people In the latter sense as he is said to repent of the evil threatned it is said of repenting Niniveh Jonah 3.10 The Lord repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not Thus the Lord is turned to repentance with respect to evil either brought or threatned to be brought upon a people for which we have that remarkable promise Jer. 18.7 8. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdome to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it if that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will repent of the evil I thought to do unto them If they turn I will turn Another word is used in the Hebrew there but it imports the same thing Repentance in God is not any change of his Will Counsel or Purpose it only notes a change in his providences and dispensations The Lord is of one mind who can turn him Job 23.13 But he is not alwayes of one way he repenteth that is he changeth his way somtimes and so he did towards Job He once cast him down and left him as a captive bound hand and foot under the power of Satan as to his outward man and worldly enjoyments but the Lord turned and repented that is turned his Captivity This sense and reading is much insisted on by several Interpreters and it is a comfortable truth yet I am not satisfied that it is the truth intended in this place Secondly Others who follow that translation refer this repentance to Job and so the sense is this The Lord turned at the repentance or upon the repentance of Job when he prayed for his friends of which repentance we read in the foâ—mer part of the Chapter The Observation which naturally ariseth from this interpretation is clear from many other Texts of Scripture When persons or Nations pray and depart from iniquity when they joyn true repentance with prayer the Lord turneth to them in mercy and turneth evil away from them The Lord turned in mercy to repenting Job when he prayed for his friends And this was promised to Gods peculiar people the Jewish Nation 2 Chron. 7.14 If my
found matters mending with himself and the answers of prayer in the mercies of God coming tumbling in thick and three-fold His captivity fled far away when he had thus drawn near to God he had as a very full and satisfactory so a very speedy answer When he prayed Prayer is the making known our wants and desires to God It is a spiritual work not a meer bodily exercise it is the labour of the heart not lip-labour Jobs prayer was a fervent working or effectual prayer as the Apostle James speaks chap. 5.16 not a cold slothful sleepy prayer when he prayed he made work of prayer Many speak words of prayer that make no work of prayer nor are they at work in prayer Job prayed in the same sense that Saul afterwards Paul did Acts. 9.11 when the Lord Jesus bid Ananias go to him for Behold he prayeth implying that he was at it indeed He had been brought up after the strictest rule of the Pharisees who prayed much or made many prayers but he prayed to so little purpose before that we may well call that his first prayer and say he had never prayed before Job prayed for his friends as Paul for himself he was very earnest with God for them and prevailed Extraordinary cases call for extraordinary layings out in duty It was an extraordinary case When he prayed For his friends The Hebrew is When he prayed for his friend Singulare partitivum pro plurali Merc. It is usual in the Grammar of the holy Text to put the singular for the plural 'T is so here either First because he prayed for every one of them distinctly and by name or Secondly because he looked upon them all as one and bound them up in the same requests When he prayed For his friends They are called his friends to shew the esteem that he had of them notwithstanding all their unkindness and unfriendliness towards him He prayed for them in much love O raram singularem virtutem quae in paucissimis vel Christianis reperiatur Merc. though they had shewed little love to him and his heart was so much towards them that the Text speaks as if he had forgot himself or left himself at that time quite out of his prayers Doubtless Job prayed for himself but his great business at that time with God was for his friends Now in that Jobs prayer is said expresly to be for his friends not for himself though we cannot doubt but that he prayed and prayed much for himself Observe A godly man is free to pray for others as well as for himself and in some cases or at some times more for others than for himself He seldom drives this blessed trade with heaven for self only and he sometimes doth it upon the alone account of others 'T is a great piece of spiritualness to walk exactly and keep in with God to the utmost that so our own personal soul concerns may not take up our whole time in prayer but that we may have a freedom of spirit to inlarge for the benefit of others Many by their uneven walkings exceedingly hinder themselves in this duty of praying for friends and of praying for the whole Church Uneven walkings hinder that duty in a twofold respect First Because they indispose the heart to prayer in general which is one special reason why the Apostle Peter gives that counsel to Husband and Wife 1 Pet. 3.7 to walk according to knowledge and as being heirs together of the same grace of life that saith he your prayers be not hindred that is lest your hearts be indisposed to prayer Secondly Because uneven walkings will find us so much work for our selves in prayer that we shall scarce have time or leisure to intend or sue out the benefit of others in prayer He that watcheth over his own heart and wayes will be and do most in prayer for others And that First For the removing or preventing of the sorrows and sufferings of others Secondly For the removing of the sins of others yea though their sins have been against himself which was Jobs case He prayed for those who had dealt very hardly with him and sinned against God in doing so he prayed for the pardon of their sin God being very angry with them and having told them he would deal with them according to their folly unless they made Job their friend to him This was the occasion of Jobs travelling in prayer for his friends and in this he shewed a spirit becoming the Gospel though he lived not in the clear light of it And how uncomely is it that any should live less in the power of the Gospel while they live more in the light of it To pray much for others especially for those who have wronged and grieved us hath much of the power of the Gospel and of the Spirit of Christ in it For thus Jesus Christ while he was nailed to the Cross prayed for the pardon of their sins and out-rages who had crucified him Father forgive them for they know not what they do Luke 23.34 Even while his crucifiers were reviling him he was begging for them and beseeching his Father that he would shew them mercy who had shewed him no mercy no nor done him common justice And thus in his measure Jobs heart was carryed out in his prayer for his friends that those sins of theirs might be forgiven them by which they had much wronged him yea and derided him in a sort upon his Cross as the Jews did Christ upon his This also was the frame of Davids heart towards those that had injured him Psal 109.4 For my love they are my adversaries that 's an ill requital but how did he requite them we may take his own word for it he tells us how but I give my self unto prayer yea he seemed a man wholly given unto prayer The elegant conciseness of the Hebrew is But I prayer we supply it thus But I give my self unto prayer They are sinning against me requiting my love with hatred But I give my self unto prayer But for whom did he pray doubtless he prayed and prayed much for himself he prayed also for them We may understand those words I give my self unto prayer two wayes First I pray against their plots and evil dealings with me prayer was Davids best strength alwayes against his enemies yet that was not all But Secondly I give my self to prayer that the Lord would pardon their sin and turn their hearts when they are doing me mischief or though they have done me mischief I am wishing them the best good David in another place shewed what a spirit of charity he was cloathed with when no reproof could hinder him from praying for others in some good men reproofs stir up passion not prayer Psal 141.5 Let the righteous smite me it shall be a kindness smite me how with reproof so it followeth Let him reprove me it shall be an excellent oyl which shall not break my
me So the Lords servants have often had experience of his power and goodness in delivering them or as 't is here expressed concerning Job of turning their captivity take one instance for all Psal 34.4 6. I said David sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears This poor man cryed and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles The Lord who doth us good when we pray for others cannot but do it when we pray for our selves The Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends But some may ask will the Lord turn any mans captivity when he prayeth for his friends whose prayer and what prayer is it that obtains so high a favour I answer in general It is the prayer of a Job That is First The prayer of a faithful man or of one who is perfect and upright with God It is not the prayer of every man that prevails with God Jam. 5.16 The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man only availeth much Nor is it the prayer of a meer morally righteous man that availeth he must be an Evangelically righteous man that is a man estated by faith in the righteousness of Jesus Christ Secondly As 't is the prayer of the faithful so the prayer of faith as it is the prayer of one in a state of grace so of one acting his graces especially that grace of faith It is possible for a man that hath faith not to pray in faith and such a prayer obtaineth not Jam. 1.5 6 7. If any man saith that Apostle lack wisdom we may say whatsoever any man lacketh let him ask of God but let him ask in faith nothing wavering for let not that man the man that wavereth think that he shall receive any thing that is any good thing asked of the Lord. To ask without faith may bear the name but is not the thing called prayer and therefore such receive nothing when they ask Thirdly It is the prayer of a person repenting as well as believing Job was a penitent he repented in dust and ashes for the evil he had done before he obtained that good for his friends and for himself by prayer If my people saith the Lord 2 Chron. 7.14 Which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked wayes there 's compleat repentance then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their Land there is compleat mercy Some pretend at least to be much in believing yet are little if at all in repenting and humbling themselves under the mighty hand of God How can their prayers prevail for the turning away of their captivity who turn not from iniquity If I said David Psal 66.18 regard iniquity in my heart his meaning is if I put it not both out of my heart and hand by sound repentance God will not hear me that is he will not regard much less favourably answer my prayer It is a piece of impudeâ—câ— I am sure such a piece of confidence as God will reject and wherein no man shall prosper to expect good from God by prayers while our evils are retained or abide in our bosoms unrepented of God hath joyned faith and repentance together woe to those who put them asunder They who either repent without believing or believe without repenting indeed do neither they neither repent nor believe nor can they obtain any thing of God by prayer But the prayer of a faithful man made in faith and mixed with sound repentance will make great turns such a one may turn the whole world about by the engine of prayer But what is there in such a prayer that should make such turns and move the Lord to change his dispensations or our conditions I answer First Such prayer is the Lords own Ordinance or appointment and he will answer that When we meet God in his own way he cannot refuse us he seals to his own institutions by gracious answers Secondly As prayer is the Ordinance of God so he hath made promise to hear and turn the captivity of those that pray as was shewed before Promises are engagements to performance God will not be behind hand with man as to any engagement For as he is powerful and can so he is faithful and will do whatever he hath engaged himself to do by promise A word from the God of heaven is enough to settle our souls upon for ever seeing his word is settled for ever in heaven Psal 119.89 Half a promise or an half promise an it may be Zeph. 2.3 from God is better security than an absolute promise than an it shall be yea than an oath from any of the sons of men Thirdly Prayer honours God Our seeking to him in our wants and weaknesses in our fears and dangers are an argument that we suppose him able to help us that all our ruines may be under his hand Such a seeking to God is the honouring of God and therefore God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him and call upon him Our coming to God in all our wants shews that he is an inexhaustible fountain so thick a cloud thar we cannot weary him nor he spend all his waters how much soever he showers down or spends upon us He can distil mercies and drop down blessings everlastingly We often want vessels to receive but he never wants oyle to give It is the glory of Kings and Princes that so many come with petitions to them that they have many suiters at their gates may possibly burden them but undoubtedly it honours them doth it not signifie that he hath a purse to relieve their necessities or power to redress their wrongs and injuries O thou that hearest prayer is a title of honour given to God Psal 65.2 To thee shall all flesh come As God hath said Psal 50.15 they that call upon him shall glorified him for help received so they do glorifie him by calling upon him for help No marvel then if he turn a Jobs captivity when he prayeth Fourthly Prayer is the voice of the new creature The Lord loveth that voice 't is musick the best musick next to praise in his ear Let me hear thy voice Cant. 2.14 that is let me hear thee praying or thy prayer-voice let me see thy countenance for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely The Lord delighteth in prayer therefore the Lord will turn the captivity of a Job when he prayeth Fifthly Prayer is not only the voice of the new creature but it is the voice of the Spirit with the new creature The Spirit himself maketh intercession for us Rom. 8.26 'T is the holy Spirits work to form requests in our hearts to God As the Spirit it self witnesseth with our spirits that we are the children of God Rom. 8.16 so he prayeth in the spirits of Gods children The prayer of a believer hath the power of the holy
his Cause in hand or that he would have the hearing of it Thus he spake at the third verse of the three and twentieth Chapter O that I knew where I might find him that I might come even to his Seat I would order my Cause before him and fill my mouth with arguments Zophar also one of Jobs friends made the same request concerning Job Chap. 11.2 O that God would speak and open his lips against thee As if he had said Eliphaz hath been speaking and Bildad hath been speaking and I am now about to speak but O that God would speak It was the wish of Job that God would speak and it was the wish of this his friend and now behold God appears possibly beyond their expectation though not beside their wish for 't is like they had not faith enough to beleeve that God would answer those wishes So then God may be said here to answer because as it was prayed he now took the matter into his own hand and in person as I may say argued the Case with Job and finally determined his Cause Hence Note The wishes requests and prayers of good men have sometimes been heard though they were over-bold in making them or had no clear ground to make them Job had no rule for such a Petition that he might presently have a trial at the Tribunal of God yet God was so gracious as to answer him in it not onely to his reproof but to his comfort The Name of God is O thou that hearest prayer Psal 65.2 If carnal men have their extravagant prayers and wishes granted 't is in wrath but if the Lord grant the passionate prayers and wishes of a godly man it proves though sometimes a present affliction yet alwayes upon one account or other a mercy in the issue When the lusting Israelites wisht for flesh the Lord heard their wishes take Quails your bellies full till they come out at your nostrils but while the meat was in their mouths the wrath of God fell upon them If the Lord grants what lust asketh such pay dear for what they have for the asking It hath been anciently said Multi irato deo exaudiuntur many have their prayers heard in meer anger so are all theirs who pray for what they have not in meer discontent with what they have The Lord heard Job and not in anger but in favour and condescention to him Now if some not well grounded nor warranted requests of good men may be granted and answered the Lord pitying their weakness and eyeing their uprightness in favour how much more may they be confident that their gracious and humble requests such requests as are every way sutable to the Word and Will of God shall be graciously answered Secondly The Lord answered as the Prayer and Wish so the Complaints of Job He had complained sometimes though he were a mirror of patience impatiently These complaints the Lord answered but it was with severe and sharp reproofs as we find in the next verse To conclude this query we may say God had two great ends or designs in answering both the wishes and complaints of Job First That he might humble and convince him that he might stop his mouth and silence his complainings for ever as he did most effectually Secondly That after his humiliation and repentance he might justifie and acquit him and also restore him to his former comforts and enjoyments as he did most mercifully This being the design of the Lord in speaking to Job what he said may well be called an Answer But how or in what manner did the Lord answer him Surely in such a manner as never man was answered The Lord answered Job Out of the Whirlwind He answered him as we say to some Tune A Whirlwind makes strange kind of Musick A Whirlwind is a sudden mighty loud-blustring Wind taking away or bearing down all before it A Whirlwind is a Wind which moves whirling and gyring about all the points of the Compass no man knows where to have it nor how to shelter himself from it I have had occasion to speak of the Wind and of the natural ordinary Whirlwind in the former Chapter But here 's a Whirlwind extraordinary if not supernatural There 's much questioning among some Interpreters how we are to conceive of this Whirlwind I would answer that point a little and then give some account why the Lord spake to Job out of such a Whirlwind First Some affirm that it was onely a Visional Whirlwind As if the Lord appeared as it were in a Tempest or Whirlwind to Job in a deep sleep such as was upon Adam Gen. 2.21 when the Lord took one of his ribs and made the Woman In such a deep sleep say they Job saw a Whirlwind and heard the Lord speaking to him out of it As Ezekiel who in a Vision looked and behold a Whirlwind came out of the North as we read in the first Chapter of that Prophesie verse 4. Secondly Others conceive that it was not a Visional but a Metaphorical Whirlwind or a Whirlwind in a figure and we may give you a threefold Metaphor or three things to which this passage of Providence may allude to a speaking out of a Whirlwind First God answered Job out of the Whirlwind that is when there was a great bussle or storm among the Disputants conflicting about Jobs case one moving this way another thar all being tossed about as it were with the wind of their several opinions in ventitalating his condition Out of this Whirlwind it was say some or while all were thus discomposed in their spirits and could not compose the matter in difference between them and Job during this hurry or troublesome state of things and minds the Lord arose and answered Job Secondly The Lord may be said to answer Job out of the Whirlwind because he spake to him angrily displeasedly and reprovingly Anger especially the Lords Anger or Displeasure is often in Scripture compared to a Storm or Tempest As if this Whirlwind were nothing else but a sharp angry chiding When a man chides we say The man 's in a storm and we may say with reverence when the Lord speaks chidingly as he did to Job he is in a storm or according to the Text speakes out of a Sto my Whirlwind Thus also when the Lord speaks pleasingly and gently then he may be said to speak in a calm There 's a truth in that Thirdly The Lord answered in a Whirlwind that is while Job both as to his outward condition and inward disposition or the frame of his spirit was evidently in a great storm or toss For doubtless his spirit was very stormy and tossed up and down at that time that is much troubled and disquieted upon the with-drawings of God and the unkindness of his friends Now when Job had this Stoâ—m this Whirlwind in his spirit the Lord appeared and answered him Thus some conceive it though not a Visional Whirlwind yet a
preparatory to serving or waiting Thirdly Cingulum operaturi Accinctus dicitur qui industrius discinctus qui negligens est Drus Accingere se ad opus aliquod It notes in Scripture preparation for any labour or work that we are called to whether of mind or body He is alwayes girt that is ready for work and industrious at it whereas carelesse and idle persons are alwayes ungirt and so unbless'd When Jeremiah was called to that great work of the mind or inner man the Lord said to him chap. 1.17 Thou therefore gird up thy loins and arise and speak unto them all that I command thee A Prophets work begins at his heart and ends at his tongue yet for that his loins must be girt Fourthly Girding up the loins Cingulum pugnaturi Antiquitas cingulum consecravit Mart. notes a preparation for Battel and War Thus David spake of Christ Psal 45.3 Gird thy sword upon thy thigh O most mighty So spake that King to his proud Challenger Let not him that girdeth on his armour boast as he that putteth it off 1 Kings 20.11 That is let not him that prepareth himself for battel carry it as he that hah won the day and got the victory When the Apostle describing our spiritual warfare minds us to stand having our loins girt about with truth Eph. 6.14 he would also have us stand with our loins girt for the truth that is as another Apostle speaks Jude 3. to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints or to undertake the defence and maintenance of the truth against all comers or opposers Girding in the Text is of this latter sort Appara te ad suturam disceptationem Vatab Disputing is a kind of fighting and warring Opponents and Respondents are like Combatants Arma te nunc armis tuis sicut vir strenuus ad committendum duellum mecum Ecce venio ad literarum duellum tecum Arma te scientiae armis Cajet Signanter de praecinctione lumborum facit mentionem quia per lumbos carnalis voluptas intelligitur quae praecipue inipedit spirituaalem auditum Aquin. In arcano sermone significat libidinis in lumbis residentis compressionem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sonat virtutem fortitudinem quod opponitur blanditiis lenociniis infirmitati faemineae Ut vir emphatice animo viriti promptitudine virili Controversal Divinity is called Polemical Divinity Disputes are Word-Wars And there have been as hot wars made by the Pen as ever were by the Sword Thus the Lord seems to send Job a challenge to the battel by a further debate Arme thy self like a mighty man get ready for the duel for I am purposed to try what a man thou art in arguing or at an argument I have heard thee too stiffe in complaining or at a complaint Lastly This girding up of the loins hath as some conceive a spiritual intendment in it noting the mortification of lust or of the sensual appetite They that go about any business for God or with God had need to have their lusts subdued Gird up thy loins Like a maâ— That is like a mighty man a Giant emphatically as a man with manly courage and activity shew thy self what a man thou aâ—t let me see what thou canst do thou hast heretofore braved it and even challenged me and desired that thou mightest come to the battel O that I knew where I might find him that I might come even to his seat chap. 23.3 Now then Gird up thy loins like a man shew thy strength I mean to enter the list with thee I have taken up the glove as it were and am resolved to try it out with thee Gird up thy loins like a man Do not play the child do not trisle with me do not think that I come to trifle with thee Some carry the opposition thus Gird up thy loins like a man not like a woman who girds her self often for ornament only and sometimes for ostentation but like a man that resolves to go about his work and make a business of it Thus Gird up thy loins like a man To do a thing strenuously and with expedition is the work of a man who is neither recarded by difficulty not tired with labour nor frighted with danger therefore the Lord counsels Job to gird up his loins like as men do when they set themselves about or undertake any great business he would not have him do it as tender weak women or as effeminate men Taking these words in the first notion as an encouragement to Job or as comforting words which I conceive to be a good sense Observe God is ready to revive poor and afflicted souls when they are in any distress He knows how it is with us and he will not suffer any temptation to take hold of us but such as he will give strength to bear and encourage us in the bearing of it He saith to fainting ones as here Come gird up your loins or as Heb. 12.12 Lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees Secondly Take the words in that other general notion God calling Job to a great business saith Gird up thy loins prepare thy self VVhence Note We need actual preparation before any duty especially before great duties Never go about any work without your loins girt A man whose mind is ungirt is unready for any service though he may have much outward readiness and all manner of accomodations for it VVhen we pray we should gird up our loins to prayer The Prophet complained Isa 64.7 There 's none calls upon thy Name VVhat none at all Surely not so they were not come to that height of Prophaneness as to throw up or to throw off prayer quite Many among the Jews I may say all of them prayed but they did not gird up their loins to prayer That 's fully the Prophets meaning and almâ—st his language in the next words There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee It is not enough to have a habit of grace unless it be stirred up to duty or unless we bestir our selves in duty The Apostle exhorts Timothy 2 Ep. 1.6 Stir up the gift of God that is in thee If fire be not stirred up it grows dead and gives little or no heat 't is so with our gifts and graces Therefore in prayer in hearing the VVord c. gird up the loins of your mind if you would either do any good in those duties or get any He that lies upon a sick-bed must gird up the loins of his mind to beat his affliction else he will never profit by it nor answer the ends of God in it No grace can be exercised by a soul ungirded Therefore remember St. Peters counsel 1 Ep. 1.13 Gird up the loins of your mind be sober and hope to the end hope perfectly for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ Notat promptam
in this duty The Apostle speaks concerning the Woâ—k of the Ministry 2 Cor. 6.1 We as workers together those words with him are put in by the Translators and the supply is to a very good sense We as workers together with him that is with God For he is pleased to use his Ministers as Workers together with himself Yet it may well be understood concerning the Ministers of the Gospel only joyning in this one thing that is with one voice or one cry beseeching sinners to be reconciled unto God chap. 5.20 and that as it followeth in the close of this first verse chap. 6. They receive not the grace of God in vain All Ministers should be workers together As all the Angels were siâ—gers together and shouters together so the Ministers of Christ should be workers together That which is the work of one is the work of them all and they should all joyn in it And how sad is it to see those who call themselves and would be accounted the Sons of God divided in their work and way when one rejoyceth in that which to another is cause of mourning when one mans meat is as we speak proverbially another mans poyson or one mans comfort another mans grief How many are there who cannot joyn in rejoycing and thanksgiving for works of God I mean Providential Works as eminent in their kind as the Creation Work or the laying of the foundations of the Earth That will be a blessed day when we shall see the full effect of that prophesie Zeph. 3.9 Then will I saith the Lord turn to the people a pure Lip of Language that they may all call upon the Name of the Lord with one consent or shoulder Here 's a promise of all as one and of all with one consent shoulder inward outward man associated in prayer or calling upon the Name of the Lord which by a Synechdoche includes all the parts and takes in the whole compass of the worship of God The accomplishment of this prophesie was the scope of Apostolical Prayer Rom. 15.5 6. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another according to or as the Margin hath it after the example of Christ Jesus that ye may with one mind and with one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ All the Sons of God in the Text were of one mind and had as it were but one mouth the joy of one was the joy of them all All the Sons of God on Earth have this principle in them to rejoyce in God and to magnifie God for his mercy onely all have not the same light They that have not an habitual principle in them to praise God in and for his works are not of his family they are not worthy to be reckoned Sons of God who have not a readiness or present disposition in them to joyn with all or with any of his true Sons in shouting for joy at his gracious appearances in his mighty works of mercy as also in humbling themselves together with them at the terrible appearances of his dreadful works of Judgement or at the usual prognosticks or fore-runners of them Again Taking the Stars for the Angels they were Morning Stars the Angels sang and shouted for joy in the Morning Hence Observe The very first appearances of the power and wisdom of God in his works should put us upon the work of praise and rejoycing We say truly better late than never but 't is best to be early and with the first in a good work David did not onely awake early or in the morning to praise God but as the Hebrew may be rendred he awakened the morning Psal 57.8 David was a morning man in praising of God so were the Angels 'T is healthful both for soul and body to be morning men to be early both in praising God and praying to him God requires and he infinitely deserves the first fruits of our time our youth which is the morning of our life the first fruits of our age should be dedicated to God Eccles 12.1 and so should the morning which is the youth if I may so speak of every day Our first thoughts should be of God and with God as soon as we awake we should set open the door of our hearts by meditation to let God in and knock open the doors of heaven by prayer and supplication to get in to God It should not be unlamented that the course of most men runs so contrary to this their senses are no sooner loosed from the bands of sleep but they let loose their thoughts and set the doors of their souls wide open to sensitive sometimes to wicked and sensual objects and so shut out God and matters of greatest moment to and about their immortal souls How unworthy are such of this blessed relation under which the Angels those early praisers of God are here represented Sons of God Thirdly In that it is here said All the Sons of God shouted for joy that is all the Angels then created Observe They who have joyned in some outward worships of God may yet fall off and apostatize Here all the Angels of God joyned in this thanksgiving at first yet soon very soon after a great part of the Angels rebelled against God and became Apostates for presently upon the Creation of man which was the sixth day there was a Devil a Tempter who overthrew man yet here we have all the Angels in a holy Quire Hypocrites are forward to joyn in acts of praise in acts of prayer in acts of hearing who yet in time of temptation fall away and so fall into as bad a condition as the fallen Angels of whom the Apostle Jude saith vers 6. that not having kept their first estate or principality but leaving their own habitation appointed them of God he hath reserved them in everlasting chains both of Providence and Justice under darkness unto the Judgement of the Great Day Fourthly Observe The great business of Angels and that which they are most bent to is to praise God Psal 103.20 Psal 148.2 Isa 6.3 And as at the birth of the World the Angels shouted for joy so at the birth of Jesus Christ who was the Author of the second Creation as well as of the first the Angels shouted for joy suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God Luke 2.13 To praise God is heavenly work 't is angelical work the most proper work of the Sons of God We shall not alwayes have need of praying but we shall alwayes have cause to be praising and shouting for joy This shout will remain to all eternity Praise is the most spiritual work and requires the most spiritual frame of heart and therefore the chief of that work is reserved to an estate wherein not only our souls but our bodies too shall be altogether spiritual Fifthly Note The Work of Creation should continually call up
hatcht her young they look whitish which the old ones cannot abide being themselves black and therefore the Raven forbears to feed his young ones for seven dayes saith my Author that is till their feathers begin to grow black whereby he knows them to be his own being loth to bring up a spurious brood so that all this time of their estrangement and forbearance the Lord feeds their young ones some say with a dew from heaven or with little flies say others bred out of their dung But I shall not stay upon these things especially considering that they who professedly write of the nature and manners both of beasts birds are very silent as to any such observations concerning the Raven yet because so grave an Author as is noted in the Margin insists upon this latter reason take this Note from it Every one loves its like A Raven doth not love her young till she perceives them in her own likeness It is said also of the Eagle that when her young are first hatcht she will not own them for hers till having held them up to the Sun she finds they out-face it here 't is said the Raven will not own her young till they are black Now if it be thus in nature if it be a truth that the Raven is not delighted in her young till they grow black 't is doubtless true in spirituals like to like God loves none with delight but holy and pure ones and the more holy and pure any are the more he loves them the reason is because himself is altogether infinitely pure and holy Where God sees most of his own image which is puâ—ity and holiness there he loves most and for such he will certainly provide such he will surely feed But which way soever the young ones of the Raven come to want food whether it be through the forgetfulness or the unnaturalness of the old Raven or because they are hatchr white upon what account soever I say it is that they come to want food the Text saith they are in such want that they cry to God yea that They wander for lack of meat This is a further evidence of their distress they cry when they are in their nest and there God provides for them and when they wander from their nest for lack of meat God feeds them too Some restrain this wandring to a narrow compass and say 't is only in their nest where they struggle and are unquiet for want of meat but this their wandering for want of meat may be conceived to be out of the nest rather than in it for a nest being a strait place it cannot be congruously said that the young ones wander while they are in it And therefore which clears the matter sufficiently Naturalists tell us That when the Raven hath fed his young in the nest till they are well fledged and able to flie abroad then he thrusts them out of the nest and will not let them abide there but puts them to get their own living Now when these young ones are upon their first flight from their nest and are little acquainted with means how to help themselves with food then the Lord provides food for them 'T is said by credible Authorities that the Raven is marvellous strict and severe in this Locis arctioâ—ibus ubi non satis cibi pluribus sit duo tantum incolunt suos pullos cum jam potestas volandi est primum nido ejiciunt deinde regione tota expâ—llunt Arist l. 9. de Histor animal c. 31. for as soon as his young ones are able to provide for themselves he will not fetch any more food for them yea some affirm the old ones will not suffer them to stay in the same Country where they were bred and if so then they must needs wander We say proverbially Need makes the old wife trot we may say and The young ones too It hath been and possibly is the practise of some parents towards their children who as soon as they can shift for themselves and are fit in any competency to get their bread they turn them out of doors as the Raven doth his young ones out of the nest Now saith the Lord in the Text When the young ones of the Raven are at this pinch that they are turned off and wander for lack of meat who then provides for them do not I the Lord do not I who provide for the old Raven provide for his young ones both while they abide in the nest and when they wander for lack of meat Hence note first which was in part toucht before The providence of God extends it self to all even the meanest of his creatures As some deny providence so others restrain it to greater matters or more eminent creatures as if it were true of Jehovah which Heathens said of their Idol Jupiter He is not at leisure to mind little things But the Lord Jehovah disdains not to look after the least things he looks into birds nests to see they want nothing or to supply their wants Young Ravens are inconsiderable creatures yet the Lord remembers and considers them And if God take care of young Ravens then I may again infer he will much more take care of their young ones or children who are themselves heirs of the promise the spiritual seed of Abraham Secondly in that young Ravens are here said to cry unto God Observe Extream want or necessity will put meer nature upon praying or crying to God The worst of men yea the very beasts will pray in their kind or after their manner when they are pinched with extremities either of want or fear The Heathen Marriners in Jonah being greatly distressed cryed every one to his god There may be a cry of prayer to God in the mouth where there is no grace in the heart The Apostle saith Rom. 10. Whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved but then it must be in faith for so it follows there How shall they call on him on whom they have not believed Many call upon God that shall not be saved Psal 18.41 They cryed but their was none to save them even to the Lord but he answered them not The cry of graceless men is seldomer heard than the cry of reasonless beasts or birds Hence Thirdly Note The Lord hears the cry of nature when 't is in want He hears the cry of beasts and he hears the cry of Ravens Though wicked men stop their ears and will not hear his commands yet he sometimes hears their cryes in outward troubles and doth them good many wayes Hence also we may infer If the Lord hears the cry of nature in beasts and birds and bad men how much more will he hear the cry of grace and of the spirit of Adoption crying Abba father in his children If he hears the croking cry of young Ravens who have no intention to pray to him how much more will he hear the believing
attained to half their work quickly Strong hearts and feeble hands will dispatch a business better and sooner than strong hands and feeble hearts 'T is thus as in corporal so in spiritual labour where there is a mind to the work though we have but a little strength we shall do great things This was the high commendation of the Church of Philadelphia Rev. 3.8 Thou hast a little strength and hast kept my word and hast not denied my name He doth a great deal of work for God who keeps the Word of God But how unfit the Unicorn is or any strong one like the Unicorn to be trusted or have labour left with them appears further in the next verse Vers 12. Wilt thou believe him that he will bring home thy seed and gather it into thy barn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hiphil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credidit fisus est Credere in Deum credere Deo synonyma sunt reperitur etiam credere in Deo Drus Here is another piece of service which the Unicorn might not be trusted with Wilt thou believe him c. The root-word signifieth that act of faith which we put forth upon God for our free justification and eternal salvation as also for our sustentation under and deliverance from any trouble inward or outward of soul or body in and for all which the just live by faith There is believing God and believing in God both which are expressions sometimes of a like importance Wilt thou believe him or in him saith God of the Unicorn As if he had said Suppose thou couldst get a promise from the Unicorn that he will bring home 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod reddat Mont relaturum esse Jun. or return thy seed so the Hebrew strictly that he will make thy seed to return or as we render fully bring it home Wilt thou take his word or believe him that he will keep his word that he will indeed return or bring home Thy seed Credesnè quod relaturus sit somen tuum ad terras tuas Vatab. Seed may be taken two wayes First For that which is to be sowed it is ordinary with the Husband-man to call that seed-corn which he reserveth for sowing The grain or corn intended to be sowed on the earth is properly seed-corn in allusion whereunto the Psalmist saith Psal 126.6 He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him The people of God mourning and praying sow precious seed Believing prayers and repenting tears never failed nor shall ever fail of a merciful of a plentiful Harvest or of a plentiful Harvest of mercy Some understand this Text thus Wilt thou believe that he will return thy seed will he do this service for thee will he carry thy seed which is to be sown into the field But though that be a piece of service to carry the seed-corn into the field yet the scope of the place doth not well comply with it here and therefore leaving that interpretation I shall rather Secondly Take seed for ripe corn or for that which is reaped as in Haggai Chap. 2.19 Is the seed yet in the Barn That is is the Harvest yet come in No the seed is not in the Barn So in this place seed is that which hath been sown and grown up and ready to be gathered into the Barn And that may be taken two wayes First Thus Num credes ei quod dum humum tuam ei arandam committis ita aptè eam arare possit ut tandem reddat tuam sementem vel ut ex ejus labore proveniat crescat seges ut tandem demetatur in aream deportatur ad triturandum Merc. Sperandum non est ut ager à Monocerote subactus sementem acceptam cum usura reddat Sanct. Will the Unicorn by plowing and harrowing the ground procure that thy seed shall return again to thee or that the seed which is sown shall come home to thy Barn yielding a good crop so returning what was sowed with advantage and increase Wilt thou believe him that he will cause thy seed thus to return home to thee Surely no do not believe that he will do thee any such service for he will deceive thy credulity if thou dost Secondly Thus Wilt thou believe that he will draw the cart and so help thee home with thy corn at Harvest This Exposition is most favoured not only by our Translation but by the words following in the latter part of the verse both which intimate that the seed here spoken of is the seed reaped rather than that to be sowed Will he bring home thy seed And gather it into thy barn Seed to be sowed is carried into the field not into the barn seed or corn reaped is carried into the barn not into the field As if it had been said The Unicorn will do thee no service As he would not go to plow so neither will he go to cart for the gathering of thy seed into thy barn Sowing reaping and gathering into the barn are the three principal parts of the Husband-mans labour and therefore our Lord Jesus Christ shewing how the fowls of the air live purely upon the providence of God without labour saith Mat. 6.26 They sow not neither do they reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly father feedeth them The word which we translate Barn is used Numb 18.27 2 Sam. 6.6 and in both places it is rendred Threshing-floor The threshing-floor is usually in the barn and therefore the same word may well signifie both Wilt thou believe him that he will bring home thy seed and gather it into thy barn Hence note First The labour of beasts is very profitable to man The Ox and Horse bring the seed home formally when 't is reaped and they bring it home or make it to return vertually when they labour and take pains about or for the sowing of it The Psalmist having prayed Psal 144. vers 13. That our garners may be full affording all manner of store presently adds vers 14. That our Oxen may be strong to labour for Prov. 14.4 where no Oxen are the crib is clean Not only First Because there is no need to fill the crib where no oxen are to eat up the fodder as was shewed a little before But Secondly Because where no Oxen are there is nothing to fill it The crib must needs be empty when the barn is empty food faileth both for man and beast where there are no Oxen. Barns and garners are full when the Ox is strong to labour or because the strong Ox hath been in labour For as it followeth Much increase cometh by the strength of the Ox. Why doth Solomon impute increase to the strength of the Ox Surely because the Ox being strong is also willing to labour and lay out his strength and so much increase cometh by the strength and labour of the Ox though that
spare his Servants and Children when they sin he is no cockering Father he will correct his own Children he will not only sweep his house but he will shake his house and he shakes it because it is no better swept nor kept more cleanly And if for these and such like reasons we at any time see judgment beginning at the house of God we may say with astonishment What will the end of those be who obey not the Gospel What will become of the wicked and ungodly of those who openly prophane and blaspheme his Holy Name O what appearances shall they have of God and how shall they appear before God! We read in the 25th of Jeremy of a Bowl of blood given him to carry about to the Nations A terrible message he is sent about he carries a Cup of blood about and bids the Nations drink they must drink it and saith the Lord If they shall refuse to take the Cup at thy hand to drink then shalt thou say unto them thus saith the Lord of hosts ye shall certainly drink Why For lo I begin to bring evil upon the City which is called by My Name and shall ye be utterly unpunished As if the Lord had said I have brought evil upon Jerusalem upon my own people and they have drunk very deep of that bitter Cup and do you O ye uncircumcised nations think that you shall escape We may conclude the Lord hath a terrible storm to bring upon the wicked and ungodly of the world when we hear him speaking to his own people in whirlwinds Consider this ye that forget God as such are admonished Psal 50.22 lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver For our God shall come and shall not keep silence a fire shall devour before him and it shall be very tempestuous round about him as 't is said at the 3d verse of that Psalme And Then as 't is threatned Psal 2 5. shall he speak to them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure That speaking will indeed be speaking out of a whirlwind which shall hurry them away into everlasting darkness Thus far of the manner of Gods speaking to Job the second time It was still out of the whirlwind Now followeth the matter spoken or what he spake to him Vers 7. Gird up thy loins now like a man I will demand of thee and declare thou unto me I shall add but little about this verse because we have had it almost word for word Chap. 38.3 where the Lord thus bespake Job Gird up now thy loins like a man for I will demand of thee and answer thou me These words this second time spoken or repeated by God to Job fall under various apprehensions these four especially First Some look upon them meerly as a challenge sent of God Gird up now thy self like a man come stand to thy work or rather stand to thy word do thy best Secondly Others expound them as an irony or divine scorn put upon Job to humble him Come Gird up thy loinâ— like a man Don't flinch for it stand to it thou wilt surely make good the day with me Thirdly Many in a milder sense look upon these words meerly as Counsel given to Job as if the Lord had said I mean to deal further with thee Therefore come now prepare and address thy self to the business I give thee leave to make the best thou canst of thy cause Fourthly We may take these words Esto bono animo c. as spoken to Job for his Comfort and encouragement The Lord seeing him as it were sinking and refusing to speak saith to him be not troubled be of good chear man Gird up thy loins like a man As the words are taken for a challenge and under the notion of a scorn put upon Job I shall not stay upon them This phrase Gird up thy loins was opened at the 38th Chap. 't is a metaphor taken from Travellers or those that go about any business who wearing long garments used to gird them up that they might be more expeditious whether for labour or for travel Thus the words are matter of Counsel and encouragement given to Job and under that notion I shall Note two things from them First As they are words of counsel the Lord having further business with Job or more to do with him adviseth him to gird up his loins like a man Hence Observe When we have to do with God we should put out our selve to the uttermost To Gird up our loins like a man imports our best preparation and such preparation we need for every holy duty When we are to pray we had need gird up our loins like men for then we are to wrestle or strive with God we must work it out with God in the duty of prayer and if our garments hang loose that is our affections be upon the earth and our hearts in the corners of the world how can we prevail with God in prayer we must gird up our loins like men when we declare our desires and requests to God in prayer and expect that God should answer us The holy Prophet complained of the Jews failing in this Isa 64.7 There is none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee Doubtless many called upon God in those days but they did not stir up themselves to take hold of God by faith and so their prayers went for no prayers And when we go to hear the word wherein God deals with us we had need gird up the loins of our minds else we cannot mind the word while we hear it nor remember much less practice the word which we have heard The Scripture often calls us to preparation for every duty What can discomposed persons loose-spirited persons loose-loin'd persons do with God or for God When we have any thing to do with God any thing to do for God we should do our best and be at our best we should play the men Master Broughton expresseth it well though not clear to the words in the Original Let me see thy skill or how skilfully thou canst handle the matter with me The Lord would have us shew our skill when we have any thing to do with him or to do for him we should then play the men and not the children much less should we play the fools be sloathful sluggish and careless Especially we should do this with respect to the appearing of Jesus Christ in the great day of our account Christ himself gives the rule Stand with your loyns girt and your lamps burning as those servants that wait for their Lords coming When Christ our Lord comes all must come before him but none shall be able to stand before him but they who stand with loyns girt that is who are ready and in that readiness wait for his coming Secondly Taking these words as words of encouragement Gird up thy loyns like a man Poor heart do not
or rather as the Prophet there speaks will not behold it no not when it shines in the plainest demonstrations whether of wrath against wicked men or of love and mercy to the godly as clearly as the Sun at noon day Secondly As we should tremble at the majesty of the Lord so admire his excellency they that excel others especially they who excel all others in any kind are much admired The Lord is cloathed with excellency how then should we admire him and say Who is a God like unto thee This God is our God Thirdly Seeing the Lord is cloathed with glory we should glorifie him and that First in his essential glory Secondly in the glory of his acts and operations We should glorifie him for the greatness of his power especially for the greatness of his grace because the grace and mercy of God are his glory as the Apostle spake in that prayer Eph. 3.16 That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory that is of his grace and favour towards you to be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inner man And as the grace and goodness of God is his glory so also is his holiness Exod. 15.11 Who is a God like unto thee glorious in holiness Let us glorifie God in and for all his glories in and for the glory of his power mercy grace and holiness Fourthly God is arrayed with beauty Beauty is a taking thing then how should our souls delight in the Lord We delight in things that are beautiful we love beauty how should this draw forth our love our affections to God! All the beauty of the world is but a blot 't is darkness and a stained thing in comparison of the Lords beauty the beauty of his holiness and therefore if we have a love to beauty let us love the Lord who is arrayed with beauty even with the perfection of beauty Lastly In general Seeing the Lord is deckt with majesty and excellency arrayed with glory and beauty let us continually ascribe all these to God What God is and hath shewed himself to be we should shew forth 1 Chron. 29.11 Thine O Lord saith David is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in heaven and in earth is thine David ascribed all to God there as also Psal 145.10 All thy works praise thee O Lord and thy Saints shall bless thee they shall speak of the glory of thy Kingdom and talk of thy power to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his Kingdom thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations Thus Saints are to blazon the name of God and to make his praise glorious The Apostle Jude concludes his Epistle with this Doxology To the only wise God our Saviour that is Jesus Christ be glory and majesty and dominion and power now and ever Amen Further to remember the majesty and excellency of God may and should be First an incouragement to serve him Who would not serve a Prince who is decked with majesty and excellency who is arrayed with glory and beauty who would not serve such a King as this How ambitious are men to serve those who are deckt with worldly majesty and excellency shall not we have a holy ambition to serve the Lord who is thus decked and arrayed Secondly This may exceedingly hearten and embolden us against all the danger we may meet with in the Lords service If we encounter with hardships and hazards in Gods work let us remember he that is cloathed with majesty and excellency c. can protect us in his service and reward us for it we can lose nothing by him though we should lose all for him life and all Thirdly This should fill our souls with reverential thoughts of God continually Did we know the Lord in these divine discoveries of himself in his majesty and excellency in his glory and beauty how would our hearts be filled with high thoughts of him we would neither speak nor think of God but with a gracious awe upon our spirits Fourthly This should provoke us in all holy duties to do our best The Lord reproved the Jews Mal. 1.8 when they brought him a poor lean sacrifice Offer it now unto thy Governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person Shall we put off God who is full of majesty and excellency of glory and beauty with poor weak and sickly services such as our Governours men in high place power will not accept from our hands but turn back with disdain upon our hands The worship and service of God consists not in a bodily exercise nor in any outward beauty he is a spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth that is in truth of heart and according to the truth of his word which the Apostle calls the simplicity that is in Christ 2 Cor. 11.3 The glory and beauty of God is spiritual and the beauty that he must be served with is above all the inward beauty of faith and love and holy fear in our hearts Fifthly If God be thus deckt with majesty c. This may assure us in praying to him and calling upon him that we shall not seek him in vain It is worth the while to attend such a God and pour out our hearts before him We may safely depend upon God for all seeing majesty and excellency are his The Lords prayer by which we are to form or unto which we should conform all our prayers concludes with this thine is the kingdom power and glory all is thine and therefore we have great encouragement to ask all of thee Men can give to those that ask them according to the extent of their power There is a confluence or comprehension of all power in the majesty excellency and glory of God and therefore he can give whatsoever we ask Now as that God is thus deckt and arrayed with majesty and excellency is implied in this Text so 't is also implied that he hath thus deckt himself while he saith to Job Deck thy self with majesty and excellency Hence observe Secondly The majesty and excellency the glory and beauty of God are all of and from himself He is the fountain as of his own being so of the majesty and excellency of the glory and beauty of his being he decks and arrays himself he is not decked by others Moralists say honour is not or resides not in him that is honoured but in him that honoureth yet here honour is seated in him that is honoured We honour God and give glory to him but we cannot add any honour to him all is originally in himself he is the beginning without beginning of his own majesty And as Gods majesty is his own so of his own putting on he borroweth nothing from the creature nor needs he any creature to deck him He is not what others will make
great things and we should use means proportionable for the doing of every thing You cannot batter down a stone wall or a strong tower with paper-shot nor with a pot-gun no you must plant cannon for that service Again when this Scripture saith Canst thou draw out Leviathan The emphasis as was shewed before in opening the words lieth in the word thou As if the Lord had said thou canst not but I can Hence note The Lord is able to do the greatest things by smallest means Leviathan to God is but as any little fish to us which is taken with a hook and line To take up Leviathan to do the greatest thing is as easie to God as the least to man As the power of God supplyeth all the weakness of the creature to do any thing so it surpasseth all that strength and greatness of the creature which may seem to hinder him from doing any thing with it or upon it He saith the Apostle Phil. 3.21 shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body how shall he do this according to the working of his mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself The Lord can doubtless subdue Leviathan to himself by the working of that mighty power which subdueth all things to himself And it is much more easie for Christ to subdue any Leviathan than to change our vile body into the likeness of his own glorious body For as Jesus Christ was once declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection that is his own resurrection from the dead so he will again declare himself to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of power by our resurrection from the dead He that can draw our dust out of the grave with a word can soon draw Leviathan out of the deepest gulf in the Sea by his hook and cord This may comfort those and strengthen their faith who at any time see Leviathans ready to swallow them up as the Whale did Jonah As the Lord prepared that great fish to swallow up Jonah Jonah 1.17 so he commanded that great fish to deliver him back safe again or as that Scripture saith Chap. 2.10 He spake to the fish and he vomited out Jonah upon the dry land Both were acts of great power and teach us that the Lord hath a soveraign commanding power over all even the greatest creatures The Lord hath a hook for Leviathan He had hooks for Pharaoh The great Dragon in the midst of his Rivers Ezek. 29.3 4. And of him the Lord commanded the same Prophet to speak in a like notion Ezek. 32.2 Son of man take up a lamentation for Pharaoh and say to him thou art like a young Lion of the Nations and thou art as a Whale in the Seas and thou camest forth with thy Rivers and troubledst the waters with thy feet and fouledst their Rivers therefore I will spread out my net over thee and they shall bring thee up in my net I have a net for thee saith this Chapter I have hooks for thee saith that other The Prophet Isaiah to engage the Lord to do some great thing for his Church minded him of what he had formerly and anciently done for Israel Isa 51.9 Awake awake put on strength O arm of the Lord awake as in the ancient dayes as in the generations of old art thou not it that hath cut Rahab and wounded the Dragon This Rahab was Egypt and the Dragon was Pharoah as Interpreters generally agree The Psalmist reports the dealings of God with Pharoah and Egypt in language nearer that of the Text Psal 74.13 14. Thou breakest the heads of the Dragons in the waters thou breakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness that is the remembrance of that mercy and of the mighty power of God in destroying Pharoah and his Egyptian Host who pursued them after their departure from Egypt to the red Sea was to be food for their faith in all the dangers and hardships which they were like to meet with in their travels through the howling wilderness to the Land of promise Take one Scripture-instance more 2 Kin. 19.28 Sennacherib was a Leviathan he came up against Hezekiah to destroy him and his people which provoked the Lord to speak thus of him Because thy rage against me is come into my ears therefore I will put my hook into thy nose and my bridle in thy lips and turn thee back by the way thou camest Thus far of the first thing in the description of Leviathan his greatness The second part of his description sheweth the stoutness and stubbornness of his spirit he will not comply he will not yield he will not any way submit This is laid down in the 3d 4th and 5th verses Vers 3. Will he make many supplications to thee The word in the Hebrew properly signifies deprecation Precamur bona deprecamur tantum mala which is prayer for the turning away of evil when evil is near then we deprecate it Will he do this not he He will not petition thee he scorns to petition thee or to cry for quarter But it may be said can fishes pray or make supplications to do so is at least the work of rational creatures I answer Per Prosopopoeian tribuit ei orationem these words are to be understood by that figure Prosopopoeia frequently used in Scripture when acts of Reason are attributed to irrational yea to senseless and lifeless creatures The very hills and valleys the Seas and waters praise God by a figure and here by a like figure Leviathan will not make supplications unto man which shews the stoutness of his spirit As some prisoners taken in war scorn to ask their lives so if Leviathan were taken with a hook he would make no supplications nor beg your favour so stout is he his heart is too great his stomack too big for any kind of submission Will he make many supplications unto thee no he will make none at all This is further expressed in the latter part of the verse Will he speak soft words to thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mollibus vel blandis vâ—rbis aut sermonibus Pisc Mr. Broughton renders or Will he speak to thee tenderly Will he flatter or humour thee that he may get loose or be freed from thee When the Gibeonites Josh 9.9 were afraid they should be taken and destroyed they came and begged peace they spake soft words There are words of two sorts Some are very hard words and hard words wound like hard blows And though no blows are given The Lord will come to execute judgement upon the ungodly for all their hard speeches Jude vers 15. Many speak words as hard as stones they throw hard words at the heads and about the
God in our selves there is no standing before God without a Mediator and there is no Mediator but Jesus Christ who is both God and Man or God-man for man to stand before God in Thus much of the first use or inference which the Lord makes from all that he had said of Leviathan The second inference followeth in the next verse Vers 11. Who hath prevented me that I should repay him As in the former verse the Lord gave us instruction concerning his own all-sufficiency and irresistible power Who can stand before me So in this he instructs us concerning his own absolute independency Who hath prevented me that I should repay him Both which parts of the Application the Lords shuts up with an Assertion of his universal soveraignty and lordship over all creatures in the close of this 11th verse Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine Who hath prevented me that I should repay him Master Broughton renders Who gave me any thing first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quis precessit me that I may pay him again These words the Apostle Paul plainly alludes to some conceive he quotes them in the 35th verse of the 11th Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans Who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his counseller or who hath first given to him and it shall be recompensed unto him again So saith Saint Paul and here the Lord himself saith Who hath prevented me that I should repay him as much as to say Who hath first given to me and it shall be recompensed unto him again Who hath prevented me The Lord seems in these words Quis ostendit mihi viam in cretione totius mundi Vatebl to make proclamation all the world over to enquire among Angels and Men who it is or whether there be any one that can come forth and say he hath prevented him To prevent is to be aforehand with another in courtesie or kindness in help or assistance God prevents man in all these but no man hath prevented God in any one of them We may give a three-fold interpretation of this divine challenge First Who hath prevented me or who was afore-hand with me in the work of Creation who helpt me to make Leviathan you see what a piece of work he is how vast how dreadful a creature he is who helped me or who gave me any help in the forming or creating of him Several expound this question of the Lords independency in the work of creation none began to him none directed him how to create none counselled him what to create The Apostle useth that word Who hath been his counseller No man hath been the Lords counseller nor did he need any counsel in or about any of his works And as none were his counsellers to give him advice so none were his helpers to give him any assistance to bring the work about no hand hath been put to it but his own no hand was at it nor in it but his own I am he saith the Lord Isa 54.24 that maketh all things that stretcheth forth the heavens alone that spreadeth abroad the earth by my self I have done all alone all by my self the Angels did not help me As God made the Angels without help so he used not the help of Angels in making any thing else Secondly Who hath prevented me in governing and disposing the affairs of the world I have had no counsel hitherto for that And shall any now take upon them to teach me the art of government Thirdly In general Who hath prevented me that is who hath done me any good office who contributed the least benefit to me to whom am I beholding for the least mite That I should repay him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is that I should be engaged to repay him The word which we render to repay signifies properly to make peace because when debts are paid and what is due discharged then all is quiet there is no matter of difference remaining As if the Lord had said If any one can produce any bill or bond or make proof that I stand indebted to him I am ready to satisfie him and to discharge all my obligations Who hath prevented me that I should repay him Hence note First God will not be in any mans debt If any can make it good that they have prevented him that they have given him counsel or assistance in his works of creation and providence or that they have done him the least courtesie they shall receive to the full worth and value of it What we do in way of duty to the Lord he is ready to reward us for it we shall not lose our labour though God be no gainer by it And though it be through his grace strength and assistance that we do any good yet we shall be rewarded as if we had done it alone Surely then God would not be in our debt if we could do any thing alone or that did in it self oblige him Secondly Note God is afore-hand with us not we with him The Lord prevents us we do not prevent him That 's it which the Lord would then have Job and now us to understand by this question Who hath prevented me even that himself hath prevented us all and in all by his grace and goodness in any good we have received or done David waited for this preventing grace Psal 59.10 The God of my mercy shall prevent me he shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies he shall prevent not only my endeavours but even my desires and wishes Yet what in this Psalm he professed an assurance of in another Psalm to shew that our assurance of mercy must not give a stop to duty he puts into a prayer Psal 79.8 O remember not against us former iniquities let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us for we are brought very low The Lord hath preventing mercies for his people in their low estate Though we do not prevent the Lord though we are not before-hand with him by our preparations and prayers by our repentings and reformings in our low estate yet he hath mercies ready and prepared for us yea though we come forth to meet the Lord as we are advised Amos 4.12 humbling our selves before him in prayers and tears yet this doth not prevent the Lord but he prevents us by his grace and favour helping us to mourn and pray And as the Lord alwayes prevents us by helping us to pray so he sometimes prevents us with an answer to our prayers before he helps us to pray Isa 65.24 It shall come to pass that before they call I will answer and while they are yet speaking I will hear that is they shall have an answer to their prayers before they have made their prayers so that when we have made many prayers and have been long in prayer much fasting and humbling our selves yet mercy prevents us Mercy comes usually before
we are well fitted for mercy alwayes before we have merited or deserved it But saith not David Psal 88.13 Vnto thee have I cryed O Lord and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee Here David seemed to be afore-hand with God Who hath prevented me saith God yet David said My prayer shall prevent thee The meaning is only this That David would pray very early and very earnestly or that David would watch unto prayer and so if possible even prevent God not that his prayers did indeed prevent God but he was resolved to set so hard to and sit so close at the duty of prayer that if such a thing could be he would even prevent him he would as we may say take God before he was awake as the Psalmist spake elsewhere Arise O God why sleepest thou Their prayer may be said to prevent God who pray early and earnestly according to that of David Psal 5.3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up And again Psal 119.140 Mine eyes prevent the night watches He was at it very early he sought the Lord very diligently That 's all we are to understand by such expressions for the Lord is then afore-hand with us in mercies when we are most early and most instant in our duties The Lord who is the beginning and the end and who knows the end of all things from the beginning often gives us our end or what we aimed at in prayer before we begin Thirdly Note God is self-sufficient he can do his whole work alone Take it in the instance of the Text he needs no help to create Leviathan nor needs he the help of any creature to destroy Leviathan what he made without help he can as I may say unmake make without help The Lord who is all-sufficient to do any work or bring what he pleaseth to pass for us is also self-sufficient or able to do any work or what he pleaseth for himself that is to please himself It is a great honour to God that he can command what he will and whom he will to help him in any of his works but it is a far greater honour to the great God that he needs not any help to do or bring about any of his works When the Apostle had said Who hath given to him and it shall be recompenced unto him again Rom. 11.35 He presently gives this reason which is the point in hand ver 36. For of him are all things that is he is the sole efficient of all things all things are from him as from the first principle or mover and he orders all things as it followeth in the same verse through him are all things Deus est omnè modo omnium rerum causa 1. Causa efficiens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Causa administrans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. Causa finalis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad quem omnia quasi in circulum redeunt As of him are all things in their constitution so through him are all things in their dispensation We have the work of creation in the first part of the verse Of him are all things and the work of providence in the latter Through him are all things that is he dispenceth and disposeth all things And thus spake the same Apostle to the great Philosophers at Athens Acts 17.28 In him we live and move and have our being As if it had been said Of him are all things and through him are all things and therefore to him are all things All creatures turn about as in a circle to their Creator all things end in him or he is the end of all as all things began in him and by him This truth is a spring of comfort and consolation to all the faithful or from this general head many streams flow which may both instruct and comfort the City of God From hence we may learn or be instructed First Creatures one or other men or Angels cannot merit any thing at the hand of God Man gives God nothing but what he first receives from him for who hath prevented him therefore there 's no merit preventing-mercy excludes and shuts it out of doors Secondly which followeth upon that God is debtor to no creature he oweth us nothing we owe him all Deus factus est debitor non aliquid à nobis accipiendo sed quod ei placuit promitiendo Aug. de verb. Dom. Ser. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nihil aliud est quam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deus enim propriè non retribuit sed tribuit Who hath prevented me saith God If we have any thing we have it from him but he hath nothing from us therefore we are in his books he is not at all in ours All that God is indebted to us is by his promises which proceed freely from himself we receive no good upon the worthiness of what we have done but because he hath assured us we shall receive good if we do good so and so or are such and such God gives us much but retributes us nothing all his rewards are free gifts or pure alms Thirdly God can do no creature any wrong Man hath no right to any thing he hath inherent in or arising from himself nor hath man obliged God at all to give him any thing therefore he can do man no wrong how little soever he gives him or how much soever he takes from him So that if any man shall say he will not contend with me by right but by might and shall complain that something is taken from him which he would not or not given him which he would what right hath any man to plead with God upon who hath no right to any thing but by the gift of God Fourthly Then the grace of God to man is altogether free Many expound this Scripture as denying the fore-sight of mans works or worthiness of his faith or perseverance in grace as to the grace of Election God did not elect us because he foresaw any worthiness in us Nemo ut divina illum subsequatur gratia prius aliquid contulit Deo si ergo electi praeveniente se gratia sequuntur reprobi juxta quod merentur accipiunt de miserecordia inveniunt electi quod laudent de justitia non habent reprobi quod accusent Bene igitur dicitur quis ante dedit Greg. nor will he save us upon the desert of any thing done by us The foundation-stone of Election and the top-stone of Salvation are laid in free grace Fifthly We have no reason to be discouraged what deficiency soever we see in the creature as to any thing we desire God should do for us forasmuch as none have prevented God either with counsel or assistance in any of those great things which he hath already done either for our selves or others What cannot he do for us alone who made Heaven and
to be had without running such a hazard and thou mayst take thy choice all the world over for the earth is the Lords Fourthly This grand Assertion carrieth in it great encouragement to be much in the Lords work Why because he is able to give us a good reward We shall not need to fear any loss of labour in doing what we do for him he can recompence us fully for all is his under the whole heaven he is able to pay us well for any service we do him Saul wondered why the Benjamites followed David what 's the matter said he 1 Sam. 22.7 Hear ye Benjamites will the Son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards and make you Captains of thousands and Captains of hundreds Can the Son of Jess do these things for you It is a wonder that any should serve him that hath nothing to bestow upon them but who can wonder that the people of God should serve him and stick close to his service while they do but remember that he hath fields and vineyards the silver and the gold together with all the great offices and preferments that he hath in his hand This was the Motive which the Apostle used to edge his Exhortation 1 Cor. 15.5 8. Be ye stedfast and immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as ye know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. He saith as much 1 Tim. 4.8 Godliness is profitable unto all things having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come Godliness hath the promise of a comfortable portion in this life as well as of a full one in the life to come Fifthly Fear not to lose for Christ Do not fear to lose any thing under heaven for Christ for whatsoever is under the whole heaven is Christs he is able to make up all again We need not wonder at that promise which is made by Christ He that suffers loss of any thing for my name sake shall receive a hundred-fold now in this time Mark 10.36 Not only dotâ— the Lord promise a hundred fold in sweet inward contentments in this time to them who lose for him but he is able to supply a hundred fold even in this life of the things of this life and as he is able so he will surely fulfill it according to that promise when he sees it fit to give or us fit to receive such enjoyments O saith one I may lose my lands and I my trade saith another and I my liberty saith a third As many fear and fly from suffering because of the punishment of sense so not a few because of the punishment of loss they are in danger of losing all and they are not willing to lose any thing for Christ Now I may answer all who upon that account fear of loss refuse to suffer for Christ as the Prophet did that King of Judah 2 Chron. 25.9 who when he had word brought him from the Lord that he must let go the Army of Israel that he had hired against the Edomites presently objected But what shall I do for the hundred talents of silver that I have given to the Army The man of God answered The Lord is able to give thee much more than this Do thou obey the Lords command and do not trouble thy self about the hundred talents the Lord is able to give thee more than this This hath been the question of many when called to suffer What shall we do for the hundred talents what shall we do for our worldly substance and subsistence what shall we do for a lively-hood I may say as the Prophet then did the Lord is able to give you abundantly more than what you lose for him Sixthly As we should not fear to lose for the Lord's sake so let us not forbear to give for the Lords sake Some are afraid to give for the Lords sake to supply the necessities of their brethren but remember what you give to the poor you lend to the Lord and to such a Lord as hath all things under the whole heaven for his If we give the Lord is able to repay us The Apostle makes use of this very argument Phil. 4.18.19 I have all and abound I am full having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you an odour of a sweet smell a sacrifice acceptable well pleasing to God What follows But my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus Do not think you shall want because of the supply you give to my wants no my God shall supply your wants or needs according to his riches in glory that is according to his rich and glorious grace There is no need to be supplied in the glory of the next life but there is a glory in rich grace which readily and plentifully supplieth all our needs in this life Seventhly If all under the whole heaven be the Lords then all places are the Lords This is comfort to those who are at any time Gods out-casts he can say to any place as he did to Moab Isa 16.4 Let mine out-casts dwell with thee c. All countries are the Lords he can make room for his in any part of the world for all the world is his The Lord provided a place for the Church Rev. 12.6 14. when she was cast out The Church fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared of God The wilderness was her troublesome condition but the Lord provided a place for her then and there The Lord can command a place for his any where if not in one country yet in another because all the countries and kingdoms under heaven are his demean he is Lord over all blessed for evermore Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is his both in his possession and at his disposition Eighthly If all that is under the whole heaven be the Lords then go to God for all Phil. 4.5 Let your moderation be known unto all men the Lord is at hand he is at hand as a Judge to right you and he is at hand as a Father to provide for you therefore be careful in nothing but let your request be made known unto God by prayer and supplication If you would have any thing of the earth you must go to God for it as well as for heaven it self Ninthly If all things under the whole heaven be the Lords then whatever good things you have under the whole heaven acknowledge the Lord as the Donor and Giver of them all 1 Chron. 29.14 When David together with the Princes and People of Israel had offered so freely towards the building of the Temple he said Lord who am I and what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort for all things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee He acknowledged the Lord as the giver of all that himself and
me or in his undertaking me about this matter And when that 's done I shall easily and quickly convince him or make him both see and confess that he is a poor weakling that he is nothing or if any thing vile compared with me For if I do but oppose to him the parts powers and comliness of Leviathan he will find himself over-matched Thus I say some conceive the Lord referreth to the former words as promising to him right that should accept the challenge there made and say that he had prevented God or had been aforehand with him Alii non tacerem mendacia ita sumitur ejus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enim cap. 11.3 Merc. Others give it thus if any man shall venture to answer my challenge I will not conceal his lies so the word by us translated parts is rendred Chap. 11.3 nor his boasting words not the rhetorical ornaments nor the comely proportion of his speech in pleading and arguing with me all which will be found upon trial to be but lies vain flourishes and mear sophistical fallacies But I rather take this verse as a general Preface to that which the Lord intended further to say in the description of this mighty creature Leviathan As if he had said O Job that thou mayst be yet more fully convinced how unable thou art to deal with this mighty fish and mayst therein see yet more clearly how unable thou art to stand before my power who have given both being and power to this creature I shall go on to give thee a more lively picture a more particular narrative a fuller character of him and as it were anatomize this sea monster in all his parts powers and proportions So then in this context and forward to the end of the 32d verse we have the fourth part of the description of Leviathan even by the distinct parts of his body together with the wonderful powers effects and operations that appear in them as acted by that courage stoutness and greatness of spirit with which God have clothed him I will not conceal his parts The Hebrew is I will not be silent about his parts And when the Lord saith I will not conceal nor be silent his meaning is I will fully Meiosis celebrarem ejus membra Drus largely and evidently declare the parts the power and the comely proportion of Leviathan I will view as it were all that is most observable in and about him I will do it exactly not slightly or perfunctorily but like an Oratour declare all his excellencies I will not let slip nor omit any thing that is material or conducible to his commendation So that when the Lord saith I will not conceal he intends much more than he expresseth As the Prophet also did Isa 62.1 when he said For Zions sake will I not hold my peace meaning that he would pour out his heart and make a loud cry in prayers and supplications for Zions sake That 's the import of his words I will not hold my peace As also of those vers 6. Ye that make mention of the Lord or ye that are the Lords remembrancers in the concerns of Zion keep not silence The meaning is speak much for Zion A man doth not keep silence nor hold his peace who speaketh only a word or two But the Lords remembrancers must speak to the full much and often they must urge him with many arguments and plead hard till he bring forth salvation in Zion I urge this Scripture as parallel to the Text in hand where the Lord saith I will not conceal when his purpose was to speak copiously and largely And here the Lord setteth down three things concerning Leviathan which he will not conceal First His parts Secondly His power Thirdly His comely proportion To these three heads all that can be said of Leviathan is reducible I will not conceal his parts or members 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This creature is made up of several heterogeneal parts or members The word rendred parts properly signifieth the bar or bolt of a door as also the boughs of a tree There is a great elegancy in that metaphor because the members of the body in any creature are as so many boughs shot out from the stock of a tree I will not conceal his parts But what are the parts which the Lord mentions or would not conceal I answer The word parts in our language and common speech signifieth the inward abilities and faculties of any man We say such a one is a man of excellent parts or he hath good parts that is he is a wise man an understanding man a well-spoken man But here in this place the word parts notes only the limbs members and organs of the body or the several pieces of the whole compages or frame of the body Of these parts the Lord speaketh in the following part of the Chapter And he speaketh First Of his skin ver 13. Secondly Of his jaws and teeth ver 14. Thirdly Of his scales ver 1◠16 17. Fourthly Of his nostrils eyes and mouth ver 18 19 20 21. Fifthly Of his neck ver 22. Sixthly Of his flesh all over ver 23. Seventhly Of his heart ver 24. All these if not more particular parts the Lord mentions in this Chapter and therefore he might well say I will not conceal his parts Nor his power Parts are one thing and power is another There may be great bodily parts where there is but little power That which maketh parts excellent is when they are full of power or when outward parts are accompanied with inward parts which are the accomplishments of them I will not conceal his power Notum ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prore sumatur Drus The Hebrew is The word or matter of his power Master Broughton renders I will not conceal the speech of strength that is the matter of his strength The Hebrew word signifies not only a word but matter or thing I will not conceal the things of his power These powers are expressed afterwards First In his nostrils By his neefings a light doth shine in the former part of the 18th verse Secondly In his eyes They are like the eye-lids of the morning in the latter part of the 18th verse Thirdly In his mouth Out of his mouth go burning lamps and sparks of fire leap out ver 19. Heat riseth out of the vital power of any creature Leviathans heat is so great that it is called fire and from thence smoke goeth out of his nostrils as out of a seething-pot or cauldron ver 20. yea his breath kindleth coals and a flame goeth out of his mouth ver 21. All these expressions shew the mighty heat within him Fourthly In his neck ver 22. In his neck remaineth strength He hath not only a neck but a strong neck Fifthly In his heart ver 24. His heart is as firm as a stone yea as hard as a piece of the nether mill-stone Sixthly Such is his power
two-fold demanding First as a Disputant Secondly as a Supplicant Job would now demand as a Supplicant unto God M◠interrogantem doce benignè qui me tuae disciplinae planè submitto Merc. not as a Disputant with God We may be said to demand or enquire of God when we consult his word not humane reason It an innocent person as Job be afflicted where shall he enquire the reason of it if he only respect his affliction and compare that with his own innocency he will quickly murmure at and complain of the dealings of God with him But if he look to the Word of God which tells him that God is a Soveraign Lord and that God hath promised not only to be with his in trouble but that their troubles shall work their comforts he will not only be patient under but glory in his tribulations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interrogobo tc sc petendo orando pulsando Aquin. The Hebrew word which we translate demand may well be rendred petition or crave The common sense of the word demand seems too high for Jobs spirit and condition Master Broughton renders I will make petition unto thee or an humble suit unto thee as if he had said I will pray for and beg this favour of thee that thou wouldst teach and inform me better It is not an authoritative demand Qui regat nescit Interrogare sapientem dimidia sapientia est Apotheg Arab. which is a kind of command but a submissive demand this demanding is the asking of a question not the requiring of a right He that asks a question implyeth that he stands in need of information and that he is desirous to learn And to put questions to a wise man is half wisdom I will demand or put questions unto thee Declare thou unto me The Hebrew is make me to know make me a knowing man As if Job had said Lord if thou wilt teach me I shall soon get knowledg and understanding and therefore I resign my self wholly to thy teachings The true submission of mans will to Gods will is to hearken to the counsel or wisdom of God and not to sit down in our own But as it was questioned at the first verse how Job could answer seeing he had said I will answer no more so here it may be questioned why the Lord spake no more to Job seeing here he desired to receive further instruction from him I answer First Job made this suit to God upon this condition that God would please to enform him if he saw need or should think fit to do it Secondly Job spake this doctrinally to shew what he and others ought to desire submit to even the teachings of God Thirdly I answer that the Lord seeing his submission saw there was no need of speaking any further to him but broke up the whole disputation determining for Job and giving him the day against his three friends as will appear further in the sequel of the Chapter From this verse Observe First The sence of our wants puts us upon prayer When Job was sensible that he wanted understanding and knowledge he came to God for it Give me to understand cause me to know True and fervent prayer floweth from a sence of our wants If we see not our selves in need why should we pray And when really we shall have no need as in heaven there will be no need of prayer all will be praise and all shall be in everlasting praises Secondly The person to whom Job maketh his application for teaching being God himself Note We know nothing of God nor of our selves aright till God teacheth us till he declareth and maketh it known to us Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights c. Jam. 1.17 As no man can either make or redeem himself so no man can teach or instruct himself What we know of God we know from God 'T is in his light that we see light The light may shine round about us and we see it not unless God enlighten us as well as send us the light we are never the better As in conversion the Lord first opens the eyes and then turns from darkness to light Acts 26.18 So under every dispensation we are in the dark till God opens our eyes and give us by his own immediate or mediate teachings light about it Thirdly note If we desire God should teach us or if we would be taught of God we must ask it of him We find the godly often putting up this request to God David was much in this petition Psal 119.33 34. Teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes and I shall keep it unto the end Give me understanding and I shall keep thy law He did not only desire God that he would teach him but give him a faculty to receive his teachings vers 35. Make me to go in the path of thy commandement See how the Psalmist joyneth these petitions together First Teach me the way of thy statutes Secondly Give me understanding as if he had said else thy teachings will do no good Thirdly Make me to go in the path of thy commandement as if he had said though I understand thy statutes yet unless thou help me I shall not be able to walk in them no nor to take one right step in them therefore Make me to go in the path of thy commandement Again Psal 143.10 Teach me to do thy will for thou art my God thy spirit is good lead me into the land of uprightness As the Lord teacheth us our way and hath promised to teach us always in all things needful for us to know and do so he hath taught us by the written practise of many as well as by his written precept that we must pray for his teaching Fourthly Job was humbling himself and now he begs of God that he would teach him Hence note Humble souls desire and give up themselves wholly to be taught by God They hang upon his mouth for instruction and renounce their own wisdom Eliphaz gave Job that advice Chap. 22.22 Acquaint thy self now with him and be at peace and good shall come unto thee Receive I pray thee thee law from his mouth and lay up his words in thy heart Fifthly In that Job prays for teaching in this form according to the Hebrew make me to know Observe The teachings of God are effectual they make us know Men may teach others knowledge but they cannot make them know God can make a very dullard quick of understanding Men may instruct the understanding but they cannot give understanding God doth both The teachings of God are effectual to all purposes First to enlighten the ignorant Secondly to convince gain-sayers Thirdly to convert sinners Fourthly to comfort those that are sorrowful Fifthly to resolve such as are doubtful Sixthly to encourage the fearful And Seventhly to raise up and recover those that are fallen Thus Job is become a
and insignificant Bellarminus l. 1. de poenitentio c. 7. SS percurramus Some Popish Writers make the essence of repentance to consist in these or such like outward signs but though we deny that yet we grant these may be signs of true repentance For as to bow the knee is not to pray although he that prayeth usually boweth the knees as a sign of an humble heart in prayer so to sit in the dust and weep is not to repent although the truly penitent usually do so The essence of repentance consists in a broken heart for sin and in breaking off the course and custome of sin turning to God fully Further this outward ceremony of sitting in dust and ashes intimates the greatness of Jobs repentance or that he repented greatly under a deep sense of and with bitter mournings for his former miscarriages in the time of his affliction Hence note Sixthly A soul truly humbled maketh a very serzous work of repentance Poenitet me ex enime studiosissimè quod illis externa symbolis significabatur Jun. It is a common thing to say I repent but few know what it is to repent in dust and ashes They who repent indeed judge arraign and condemn themselves as at Gods tribunal they put their mouths in the very dust Repentanâ—e is heart work and deep work they who are brought in a spiritual sense to dust and ashes find it so Though some sinners corrupt themselves and their ways more deeply than others yet all sin is of a deep dye and corrupts deeply and therefore calls for deep for heart-deep mournings and repentings in dust and ashes Note Seventhly God will not give over dealing with his sinning servants till he hath brought them to true contrition for their sins How long was Job dealt with by his friends and by Elihu and by God himself before his heart was wrought into this frame and temper to repent in dust and ashes It was long before he understood that God might break in innocent person to pieces and give no account why God did not give over afflicting Job till he came to that acknowledgment Job said Chap. 40.4 I am vile and it might be thought that had been repentance sufficient But though Job was then brought low yet he was not brought low enough he cryed I am vile but till God spake to him of Behemoth and Leviathan he repented not in dust and ashes Ephraim said Jer. 31.18 19. Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke turn thou me and I shall be turned thou art the Lord my God Surely after that I was turned I repented and after that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth The Lord never left smiting Ephraim till he made him smite upon his thigh If we do not come home in the work of repentance by words God will fetch us home with his rods In the eighth place If we consider this repentance of Job with what followeth presently upon it his restauration Observe When we are deeply humbled and brought low we are near our exaltation When Job lay in dust and ashes God was about to set him upon a mountain a mountain of prosperity and that a higher one than ever he was upon before Psal 126.5 6. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy they that go forth weeping bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoycing bringing their sheaves with them Therefore take the Apostles counsel 1 Pet. 5.6 Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God and what then he will exalt you in due time The due time of our lifting up is at hand when we are laid low and sincerely humbled under the hand of God Jobs humiliation and restauration did almost synchronize or come near in time together Ninthly Note True repentance endeth in true joy The word which signifies to be grieved signifieth also to rejoyce and Job found it so he was comforted as soon as fully humbled Repentance issueth in joy three ways First There is joy in heaven when a sinner repenteth Luke 15.7 As he that found his lost sheep brought it home and rejoyced in it more than over the ninety and nine that did not go astray So saith Christ there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance True sorrow on earth maketh joy in heaven Secondly There is joy in the Church The godly on earth rejoyce at the known repentance of a sinner When the prodigal son came home his father said to his discontented brother It was meet that we should make merry and be glad for this thy brother was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found The Apostle greatly rejoyced at the repentance of the Corinthians 2 Cor. 7.9 Now I rejoyce not that ye were made sorry but that you sorrowed to repentance Their sorrow occasion'd his joy yet not that but their repentance was the cause of it There is no better joy on earth than that which ariseth out of the dust of repenting sorrows As the Apostle John had no greater joy than to hear that his spiritual children walked in the truth Ephes 3.4 So what greater joy can we have than to see any who had gone astray from returning to the truth Thirdly Repentance issueth in joy chiefly to the soul repenting If other mens repentance causeth our joy our own will cause it much more 2 Cor. 7.10 Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of The Apostles meaning is more than he speaks repentance not to be repented of is repentance to be rejoyced and gloried in We cannot take comfort in our sins but we may take much comfort in repenting for our sins as that repentance is joyned with faith in Christ who hath given us power to repent and who is for himself to be rejoyced in Lastly Take this general note from the whole matter The speakings of God to man whether mediate or immediate are mighty and effectual The speaking of man to man barely can do nothing but the speaking of man to man in the power of God will do much how much more if God himself speak God spake to Job and these mighty effects followed First Self-abhorrence Secondly Deep repentance Thirdly Full submission to the will of God Fourthly A readiness to testifie by all due means how vile how miserable he was yet cleaving fast to and depending fully upon God by faith in the promise for mercy peace and pardon Fifthly A change both of mind and manners both in thought word and way Job thought no more as he had done he spake no more as he had done he acted no more as he had done in that condition he was another manner of man than before a good man he was before but now a better he came out of the fire of that affliction and
sin First the greatness of the punishment laid upon the sinner Secondly the greatness of the means used for the healing of that breach which sin hath made I answer Secondly the number seven being a Symbol of perfection as was said before figured the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ who by one offering hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 A perfect number of sacrifices was fittest to shadow the infinite perfection of that one sacrifice which makes and which only makes all the comers thereunto perfect For though a person under the Law having offered his sacrifice was no more reckoned guilty of that sin by men yet his conscience did still accuse him of and charge him with sin and therefore sacrifices were renewed Heb. 10.1 2. nor could the accusings of conscience be quieted but by looking to Christ by faith whom the sacrifice shadowed and the sacrificer was to point at Fifthly In that the Lord sent Eliphaz and his two friends unto Job with their sacrifice Observe We must reconcile our selves to those we have wronged before we can look to be reconciled unto God against whom we have sinned or to be accepted of him in any service The counsel of Christ directs to this Mat. 5.23 24. If thou bringest thy gift unto the Altar and there remembrest that thy brother hath ought against thee leave there thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift This general command of Christ is the same in effect with what the Lord here long before gave particularly and personally to Eliphaz and his two friends they must first go and be reconciled to Job and then offer their sacrifice This the Apostle also gave in charge 1 Tim. 2.8 I will therefore that men pray every where holding up holy hands but how without wrath and doubting There are two things required if we look to be accepted of God in any service First Faith Secondly Love or charity There must be faith else we cannot lift up holy hands without doubting There must be love else we cannot lift up holy hands without wrath They who are suing for and expecting favour and mercy from God have need to discharge themselves of all wrath and revenge towards man With what face can any expect favour from God who will not acknowledge wherein they have wronged man Sixthly Observe God is very tender of the credit of his faithful servants he will not be reconciled unless they are righted Job had been wronged no man more by the censures of his friends and God was so tender of his honour and reputation that his friends must make him reparation before God will accept their sacrifice One reason why God is so tender of the credit of his servants is because they are tender of his and will undergo any wrong rather than his Name shall be blasphemed or wronged As God will himself honour them who honour him 1 Sam. 2.30 so he will one time or other some way or other retrench and cast back upon men all that dishonor which they have received from men or cause them to take it off and wipe them clean whom they have undeservedly aspersed Observe Seventhly God will humble proud and high spirits and make them submit to those whom they have wronged There is a twofold submission which is the duty of a Christian First to God James 4.7 Secondly to man and this is twofold First To those that are over us and above us in power Rom. 13.1 Tit. 3.1 And thus not only are subjects to submit to Magistrates but all of a lower degree are to submit to their superiours servants to their Masters wives to their Husbands children to their parents Secondly There is a submission to those that are wronged by us and though they be our inferiours yet in this sense we are to submit to them that is acknowledge that we have wronged them The Apostle James intimates such a submission Chap. 5.16 and the Apostle Paul speaks it plainly Eph. 5.21 Submitting your selves to one another in the fear of God Here is a mutual submission a submission in case of wrong and doubtless that rule of Scripture is extendible to other cases not only of equals one to another but of superiours to inferiours Our spirits like not this we hardly submit to those that we have wronged but there 's no remedy we must Some say they will submit to God but they cannot submit to man they cannot stoop to that Let such remember that without this submission even to an inferiour whom we have knowingly wronged or are made to know which was the case here that we have wronged we cannot hopefully apply to God for peace and reconciliation Eighthly Observe They that are wronged by others must forgive them their wrongs God sent Eliphaz and his two friends to Job not only that they should acknowledge they had wronged him but that Job might freely and fully testifie so far as concerned him his forgiveness of that wrong As it is the duty of them that have wronged others to submit to them in the acknowledgement of it so they that are wronged ought to forgive receive them in that submission We must forgive as we look to be forgiven Mat. 6.12 We cannot pray believingly that God would forgive us the guilt of our iniquity committed against himself or others unless we forgive others the injury which they have done us Observe Ninthly Good men are ready to give and take satisfaction in point of wrong Jobs friends had done him wrong and as they good men were ready to give satisfaction so Job good man was as ready to take it Many wrong others but will give no satisfaction many are wronged by others and will take no satisfaction nothing will quiet or appease them Jobs friends and himself were highly to be commended that they were willing to give and he to take satisfaction The Apostle urgeth this Eph. 4.26 27. Be angry and sin not let not the Sun go down upon your wrath neither give place to the devil They give up their hearts as lodging-chambers to the devil who let the Sun go down upon their wrath therefore it followeth vers 31.32 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ sake hath forgiven you They that know what it is to be forgiven by God they that know what need they have continually of Gods forgiving grace mercy will be as ready to accept satisfaction as any can be to give it This was eminent in Job as will appear further in opening the next words in this verse Go to my servant Job and offer up for your selves a burnt-offering And my servant Job shall pray for you How eminent Job was in prayer and how available his prayers or intercessions were for others may
be collected from that in the Prophet Ezek. 14.14 where he is joyned with Noah and Daniel Job being here called to pray for his friends was put upon another piece of the Priestly Office There were two parts of the Priestly Office and Job is adorned with them both First the Priest was to offer sacrifice Secondly to pray for the people Jesus Christ filled up both these parts of the Priestly office for us First he offered himself a sacrifice for us Secondly he interceded yea he ever liveth to make intercession for us Heb. 7.25 Job as in offering up a sacrifice so in praying for his faulty friends was a type of Christ My servant Job shall pray for you But for what should he pray in their behalf Surely that their sin might be forgiven and they find favour with God The word here rendred to Pray for is elegant and significant Verbum pertinet ad rem forensem judicialem significat orare vel deprecari more ejus qui ad judidicem appellat illum supplex adit precabundus Coc. implying a forinsecal act when an advocate in Court moves the Judge in behalf of an offender so that when the Lord saith My servant Job shall pray for you his meaning is he shall deprecate the wrath and vengeance that your sin hath deserved and entreat my favour for you and seek your peace with me My servant Job shall pray for you Hence observe First It is a duty to pray for those that have wronged us Not only is it a duty to forgive them and be reconciled to them but to pray for them and heartily wish their good The Apostle James having said Chap. 5.16 Confess your faults one to another presently adds Pray for one another yea Christ commands us to pray for the good not only of those that confess they have wronged us and desire reconciliation to us but to pray for our enemies that is such as still hate us and continue to contrive all the mischief they can against us It is a duty not only to pray for them that acknowledge their fault but for theâ— also who go on in their fault against us enemies do so Bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you These are Christs not only counsels but commands Mat. 5.44 Even for them we should pray that God would pardon their sin turn their hearts and give them repentance which is the best we can pray for them Again the Lord saith My servant Job shall pray for you Hence observe Secondly God undertakes and gives his word for a good man that he will do his duty God having spoken to Job about this matter undertook for his performance My servant Job shall pray for you I will put it into his heart to do it The Lord may very well be bound for a good man that he shall do his duty because as he hath promised so he will help him to do his duty Thus the Lord engaged for Abraham Gen. 18.19 Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I am doing I know Abraham I am well enough acquainted with Abraham that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord. I know him I will be surety for him The Lord speaks with confidence concerning his people that they will do this and that they will humble themselves before him and that they will forgive and pray for their enemies he knows they will do all these things because he knows he hath given them power and a heart to do them The Apostle was confident of the obedience of the Church of Galatia Gal. 5.10 I have saith he co fidence in you through the Lord that you will be none otherwise minded When the Apostle undertook that they should do their duty he did it respectively to a divine assistance and presence with them I have confidence in you not in your selves but through the Lord c. but God undertakes absolutely My servant Job shall pray for you Thirdly Note The prayers and intercessions of the righteous prevail much with God The Lord having assured them that his servant Job should pray for them tells them in the next words Him will I accept which intimates that his pâ—ayers should have a great power with God for them James 5.16 The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much and it doth so in a twofold respect First For himâ—elf A godly man gets much good of God in his own case by prayer Secondly It prevails very much with God in respect of others 'T is a great honour with which the Lord crowns the prayers of his faithful servants that they prevail not only for themselves but for others Thus the Lord spake to Abimelech Gen. 20.7 Now therefore restore this man meaning Abraham his wife for he is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee And his prayer was answered When the Lord had smitten Miriam with the Leprosie Moses cryed unto the Lord saying heal her now O God I beseech thee and she was healed Numb 12.13 Thus Samuels prayer prevailed 1 Sam. 7.9 And Samuel took a sucking Lamb and offered it up for a burnt-offering and Samuel cryed unto the Lord for Israel not for himself but for Israel and the Lord heard him And in the twelfth Chapter of the same Book vers 19. the people begged prayers of Samuel And all the people said unto Samuel pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God that we die not And at the 23d verse Samuel said As for me God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you but I will teach you the good and the right way and he prayed for them and the Lord spared the people at that time Not to pray for others proceeds from uncharitableness not to desire the prayers of others proceeds either from ignorance not knowing of what value the prayers of others who are godly are or from pride that we will not be beholding to others for their prayers It is a great mercy to have the prayers of good men going for us Fourthly Note The prayers of others may prevail with God when our own cannot Eliphaz and his two friends were good men yet the Lord did not give answer to them but to the prayers of Job The prayers of others may be answered when ours are not in a double respect First Others may be in a better pâ—aying frame than our selves Every one that is in a praying state is not alwayes in a praying frame especially not in such a praying frame as another may be in another may be in a better praying frame and so may prevail more for us than we for our selves Secondly Some other persons may be more accepted with God than we some are as it were favourites with God God shews favour to all his servants but all his servants are not his favourites Moses was
on earth praying for those that live on earth Job was alive in the body and so were those three men to whom the Lord said My servant Job shall pray for you The Lord having assured Eliphaz and his two friends that Job would pray for them giveth them encouâ—agement to go and desiâ—e his prayers by a gracious promise For saith he him will I accept and threatneth them in case they should forbear in the next words Lest I deal with you according to your folly in that ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right like my servant Job First Of the gracious promise him will I accept The Hebrew saith his face will I lift up Acceptation with God is the lifting up of the face of man then man lifteth up his face with boldness when he is accepted with God When God refused to accept Cain and his offering his countenaâ—ce fell or was cast down Gen. 4.5 Unless the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon us as David prayed Psal 4.6 we cannot with any comfort much less with true confidence lift up our face or countenance unto God That 's the significancy of the word Him will I accept God is no accepter of persons as the word is often used in Scripture Deut. 10.17 The Lord is a great God mighty and terrible which regardeth not persons It is the same phrase in the Hebrew with this in the Text he lifteth not up faces that is the Lord doth not accept persons upon any outward respect First The Lord doth not accept persons for their personableness as I may say the Lord doth not delight in any mans legs his delight is in them that fear him Psal 147.10 11. he doth not accept men for their goodly stature as he told Samuel when he would needs have poured the oile upon the first-born of the Sons of Jesse 1 Sam. 16.7 Look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature because I have refused him for the Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart 'T is the beauty of holiness and integrity in the heart not the beauty of fairness upon the face with which God is taken 't is a lowly mind not a high stature which God accepts Secondly The Lord is no accepter of persons as to the nation or country where they were born or live Thus the Apostle Peter spake Acts 10.35 I perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him God doth not prefer Jews before Gentiles Barbarians or Scythians that a man had his birth in this or that Nation neither helps nor hinders acceptation with God Thirdly The Lord accepteth no mans person for his riches Prov. 11.4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath No mans person is acceptable to God for his purse or his penny no not at all Fouâ—thly The Lord â—ccepteth no mans person for his worldly greatness honour and dignity He poureth contempt upon Princes Psal 107.40 The day of the Lord is against the hills and mountains Isa 2.14 The great God regardeth not any man meerly for greatness the Lord accepts no mans person upon these or any such like accounts He only accepts the persons of those that fear him and do his will Suscipit faciem Deus quando precantem câ—audit The Lords acceptance of any person in the sense of this promise concerning Job is First To shew favour and manifest affection to him Secondly To honour aâ—d highly esteem him Thirdly Which is here specially intended to answer his prayers and grant his requests not only for himself but for others When a person is once accepted his prayers shall not be denied nor suffer a repulse The Lord accepteth persons as a King the persons of those loyal Subjects who come to intreat his favour and pardon for those that have offended him and rebelled against him he grants their suit and treats them fairly In this sense the Lord maketh promise to Eliphaz and his two friends that he will accept Job Hence Observe First It is a very high favour and priviledge to be accepted of God Him will I accept saith the Lord of Job This was a favour beyond all the favours that follow after in the close of the book about the doubling of his estate If Jacob Gen 32.20 was so taken with a hope of acceptance by his brother Esau Peradventure he will accept me If when he was accepted by Esau he said chap. 33.10 I have seen thy face as though I had seen the face of God and thou wast pleased with me Then how much more should we rejoyce in this assurance that God hath accepted of us and that he is pleased with us If the Apostle Rom. 15.3 prayed so earnestly and desired others to strive with him in prayer to God that his service which he had for Jerusalem might be accepted of the Saints then how much more should we pray that our services may be accepted of God and rejoyce when they are accepted The Apostle made it his chief work to get acceptation with God 2 Cor. 5.9 Wherefore we labour that whether present or absent that is whether living or dying we may be accepted with him we are ambitious of divine acceptation The word which we translate labour noteth a labouring after honour which ambitious men labour much after implying that to be accepted with the Lord is a very high honour indeed the highest honour There is a two-fold acceptation First Of our persons Secondly Of our services The former is the ground of the latter and Jesus Christ is the foundation of both Ephes 1.6 He through glorious grace hath made us accepted in the beloved Jesus Christ is so dearly beloved of the father that he is called The Beloved as if only beloved The acceptation of our services is often promised in Scripture as a high favouâ— Exod. 28.38 Ezek. 20.40 41. Isa 56.7 This Moses prayed for in the behalf of the Tribe of Levy which Tribe was appointed to offer sacrifice and to pray for the people Deut. 33.11 Bless Lord his substance and accept the work of his hands What was the work of Levies hands it was to offer sacrifice to which prayer and intercession was joyned That Levi who had the priest-hoâ—d fixed in the family of Aaron should be accepted in the work of his hands was a blessing not only to himself but to many more This David prayed earnestly for Psal 19.14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight O Lord my strength and my redeemer He put up a like prayer Psal 119.108 Accept I beseech thee the free-will-offerings of my mouth O Lord. This was the prayer of Araunah for David 2 Sam. 24.23 The Lord thy God accept thee So great a priviledge it is for our persons and services to be accepted with the Lord
grounds and for right ends against another It is dangerous to stand in the way of their prayers who are accepted of God That man is more safe against whom a thousand are acting than he against whom any one godly man upon a just ground is praying The Lord hath done great things against evil men upon the prayers of the faithful as well as he hath done great things for good men at their prayer David by one ejaculatory petition spoyled the plot of Achitophel the Lord according to that short prayer turned his counsel into foolishness and so overturned the whole design laid against his servant David Thus far of the promise which the Lord gave Eliphaz and his two friends for their encouragement to go unto Job and entreat him to offer up a burnt-offering and to pray for them for him will I accept Now followeth a threat in case they did not Lest I deal with you according to your folly As if the Lord had said Do not slight this advice that I give you no nor forslow it make hast to make your address to Job I will accept him and I tell you I will not accept you alone therefore make hast and do as I have commanded else I shall deal with you according to your folly There is some difference in the reading of these words First Some read Lest I do or act folly to you But how can the Lord do or act folly towards any We may expound this translation by that Psal 18.26 where David saith of the Lord With the pure thou wilt shew thy self pure and with the froward or perverse thou wilt shew thy self froward or perverse But how doth the Lord shew himself froward with those that are froward there is no frowardness in the Lord he is alwayes in a composed and sedate frame infinitely beyond any passion or perturbation the meaning is only this The Lord will deal with men according to what they are the actings and effects of his providence shall be towards a froward man as if he were froward If a man deal perversely with God he will deal with him as if he were perverse and with the pure God will shew himself pure that is he will carry it purely towards them they shall receive good who are and do good Thus here go saith the Lord and do as I bid you Lest I deal folly to you In the Hebrew Language to do kindness with one is the same as to exercise or shew kindness to him That form of speech is used Gen. 20.13 Gen. 24.49 Gen. 40.14 And so to do folly with one is to shew or exercise folly to to him The Lord doth folly to them that do folly that is he makes them see by his wise doing how foolishly they have done Others express it thus Lest I deal foolishly with you or folly to you that is lest I do that which may be accounted foolishness in me You having appeared Advocates in my cause and pleaded for me 't is folly to pay any man with unkindness for the service he hath done us Well saith the Lord look to it I will not accept you but deal folly to you or foolishly with you in the sense of some men possibly but wisely in my own The Lord is alwayes to be admired in his wisdom holiness and in the serenity of his spirit yet in the opinion of the wise men of this world he may seem to deal foolishly or do folly Secondly The words may be rendred Lest I do that which may be disgraceful to you Thus the Chaldee paraphrase readeth Lest I put a disgrace or an affront upon you and make it appear to your shame that you have not carried it aright in this matter but have been shamefully out The word here used is several times used in Scripture to note the defiling or disgrace of a thing Nahum 3.6 I will cast abominable filth upon thee and I will make thee vile that is I will disgrace thee and as it followeth I will set thee for a gazing stock So Micah 7.6 when the Lord would shew the exceeding sinfulness of those times he saith Trust ye not in a friend put ye not confidence in a guide keep the door of thy mouth from her that lyeth in thy bosom for the son dishonoureth the father it is this word the son disgraceth the father he dealeth with his father as if he were a Nabal a very fool When a son knoweth not his distance nor performeth his dury he dishonoureth his father The Prophet Jer. 14 21. speaks in a way of deprecation Do not abhor us for tâ—y name sake do not disgrace the throne of thy glory The Lord is â—ometimes so angry with his people that he even casteth dirt upon the throne of his glory that is upon his Church in and by which he should be glorified as upon his Throne The Lord disgraceth his Church the throne of his glory when his Church disgraceth him and dishonours his gloriâ—us name Deut. 32.15 Jesurun waxed fat and kicked that is Israel the Church was waxen fat the Lord fed Jesurun his Church to the full they had not a lean seâ—vice of it but what did Jâ—surun he forsook God wh ch made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation The word which we translaâ—e he lightly esteemed is the word of the Text Now when Jesurun did lightly esteem or disgrace the Lord he soon after disgraced Jesurun his Church The throne of his glory This is a good sense of the words do as I diâ—ect lest I put a disgrace upon you Thus folly is put foâ— the punishment of folly as sin often for the penal effects and fruits of sin as 't is said 1 King 13.34 This thing â—ecame sin to the house of Jeroboam even to cut it off Our reading saith Lest I deal with you according to your folly that is according to your sin and the hard censures which you have given of my servant Job and as it followeth In that you have not sp ken of me the thing that is right These things have been your folly and 〈◊〉 do not speedily repair with your sacrifice to Job and get him to pray for you what you can do your selves will not makâ— amends for your folly nor mend this breach but I will deal with you according to your folly you shall taste of the fruit of your doings the reward of your hands or of your tongues shall be given to you That 's the general sence of our translation As if the Lord had said Lest I make you understand by your sad experiences by the punishments and chastisements laid upon you that you have done very foolishly and were greatly mistaken in your apprehensions of me and of my providences concerning Job Or thus ye have declared much folly in the management of this matter with my servant Job ye have offended against the common Laws of friendship and humanity insulting over a man in misery and your folly hath been
were threw down a blank and desired the Apostles to write what commands they would that tended to salvation as if they had said we are ready to do what the Lord commandeth and according as the Lord commandeth Thus being made sensible of their sins and of the wrath of God which they had provoked against themselves by crucifying the Lord of life They cried out what shall we do We will submit to any thing that is fit to be done Saul afterward Paul came out with fury to persecute the Disciples of Christ but the Lord having beaten him from his horse to the ground he trembling and astonished said Lord what wilt thou have me to do Acts 9.6 He was fit to take any impression and to be moulded into any form by the hand of God They who have been made to know what it is to break commands are willing to obey and keep them This was the first spring of their obedience God had humbled them There was a second spring of their obedience which will yield a sixth Observation For as the Lord had convinced them of their sin so he had given them hopes of mercy in the pardon of it and of reconciliation to himself So much was intimated in that gracious counsel given them Take unto you seven Bullocks and seven Rams and go and offer up a burnt-offering for your selves c. This was a comfortable word and doubtless they understood it so and said in their own hearts God might have made us a sacrifice but he commands us to offer a sacrifice And what doth this signifie Surely that he will be gracious to us and is ready to pardon us Having these hopes of pardon they went and willingly did what the Lord commanded they went to Job they submitted to him whom they had contemned they honoured him whom they had despised before Hence note The intimations of mercy and hopes of pardon prevail mightily upon the soul of a sinner The Lord did not only shew them their sin and terrifie them with kindled wrath but shewed them a sacrifice and this presently won upon them The love of God is more constraining than his wrath and hopes of pardon and salvation than the fear of punishment and damnation both have their effects and are strong motives wrath and love but the strongest is love As when the Apostle beseeched the Romans Rom. 12.1 to present themselves a living sacrifice he besought them by the mercies of God So when the Lord commanded these men to offer up slain beasts in sacrifice hope of mercy was the motive 'T is mercy which moves most effectually to offer both our services our selves a sacrifice unto God that 's the same Apostles argument again 2 Cor. 7.1 Wherefore having these promises let us cleanse our selves that is use all means of cleansing our selves let us go to Christ for the cleansing of our selves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. The end of the Commandement is charity 1 Tim. 1.5 that is 't is charity or love which gives the Commandement its end What is the end of the Commandement it is that we should obey and fulfil it To what end doth the Lord give us Commandements it is that we should keep them Love is the end of the Commandement as it gives the Commandement a compleating end Now whence comes our love either to God or man Surely from the manifestation of Gods love to us So that when the Lord manifesteth his love to us raising and confirming our hopes by promises then our love appeareth in doing and keeping Commandements and therefore love is there joyned with faith unfeigned a faith without hypocrisie or deceit Now the work of faith in God for pardon and reconciliation is grounded upon a sacrifice Thus as Evangelical obedience is better than legal so mercy revealed in the Gospel quickens to obedience more than wrath revealed in the Law The sight of mercy and the sense of the lovâ— of God in sending his own Son to be a sacrifice for us works more upon us than if the Lord should threaten to make us a sacrifice or to consume us in the fire of his wrath for ever It was the sacrifice which made these men go to Job and humble themselves they perceived there was hope now and that though they had failed yet the Lord was ready to receâ—ve them and would not deal with them according to their folly as he told them he would if they did not according to his command go to Job with their seven Bullocks c. and offer up a burnt-offering They went and did as the Lord commanded them But what came of it how did they speed what was the issue of all The Text saith The Lord also accepted Job This may seem a strange connection they going and doing as the Lord commanded them one would have thought it should be said And the Lord accepted them whereas the Text saith only thus The Lord also accepted Job But were not Jobs friends accepted shall we think that they lost their labour not so neither without all question these three bâ—inging their sacrifice according to the command of God both for matter and manner were accepted too yet because it was at the request and prayer of Job for them therefore the Text saith not The Lord accepted but The Lord also accepted Job Accepit Jehova personam Jobi sacerdotio jungentis nomine Christi sacerdotis victimae sempiâ—â—rnae nostrae quam iste figurabant Jun. that is he offering sacrifice and praying for them they were accepted This sheweth us the great mystery or the sum of the Gospel the Lord did not accept them in themselves but he accepted Job in sacrificing for them and all in Christ And consider it is not said The Lord accepted the sacrifice or the prayer of Job but The Lord accepted Job his person was accepted in and through the sacrifice or intercession of Christ and his sacrifice and intercession for Eliphaz and his two friends were accepted also in him How the Lord testified his acceptance of Job whether by consuming his sacrifice with fire from heaven or by any other outward token of his favour is not here expressed and therefore to us uncertain only this is certain and that is enough for us to know that God accepted him What it is to accept was shewed in opening the former verse In brief to be accepted is to have favour with God our petitions answered and the things done which we move or petition for The Lord also accepted Job Rogavit Job Dominus ignavit profuit illis amicitia quibus obsuit insolentia Ambros 3 Offic. c. ult And when 't is said The Lord also accepted Job this implyeth that Job did willingly undertake the service and duty for his three friends Though it be not said that Job offered sacrifice and prayed for them yet both are wrapt up and understood in this conclusion The Lord
as a prayer for their return out of proper captivity and largely for their deliverance out of any adversity So Psal 126.1 When the Lord turned the captivity of Sion we were like them that dream Read also Zeph. 2.7 Secondly From the author of this turn The Lord turned the captivity c. Observe Deliverance out of an afflicted state is of the Lord. He is the authour of these comfortable turns and he is to be acknowledged as the authour of them The Psalmist prayed thrice Turn us again Psal 80.3 7 19. The waters of affliction would continually rise and swell higher and higher did not the Lord stop and turn them did not he command them back and cause an ebb Satan would never have done bringing the floods of affliction upon Job if the Lord had not forbidden him and turned them It was the Lord who took all from Job as he acknowledged chap. 1.21 and it was the Lord who restored all to him again as we see here the same hand did both in his case and doth both in all such cases Hos 6.1 Let us return to the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up David ascribed both to God Psal 66.11 12. Thou broughtest us into the net thou layedst affliction upon our loins thou hast caused men to ride over our heads we went through fire and through water The hand of God led them in that fire and water of affliction through which they went but who led them out The Psalmist tells us in the next words Thou broughtest us into a wealthy place the Margin saith into a moist place They were in fire and water before Fire is the extremity of heat and driness water is the extremity of moistneâ—s and coldness A moist place notes a due temperament of â—eat and cold of driness and moistness and therefore elâ—gantly shadows that comfortable and contentful condition into which the good hand of God had brought them which is significantly expressed in our translation by a wealthy place those places flourishing most in fruitfulness and so in wealth which are neither over-hot nor over-cold neither oveâ—-dry nor over-moist And as in that Psalm David acknowledged the hand of God in this so in another he celebrated the Lords power and goodness for this Psal 68.20 He that is our God is the God of salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death that is the out-lets or out-gates from death are from the Lord he delivereth from the grave and from every grief The Lord turned the captivity of Job not only p eserving him from death but filling him with the good things and comforts of this life Thirdly Note The Lord can suddenly make a change or turn As he can quickly make a great change from prosperity to adversity and in a moment bâ—ing darkness upon those who injoy the sweetest light so he can quickly make a change from adversity to prosperity from captivity to liberty and turn the darkest night into a morning light For such a turn the Church prayed Psal 126.4 Turn again our captivity O Lord as the streams in the south that is do it speedily The south is a dry place thither streams come not by a slow constant currant but as mighty streams or land-floods by a sudden unexpected rain like that 1 Kings 18.41 45. Get thee up said Eliah to Ahab for there is a sound of aboundance of rain and presently the heaven was black with clouds and wind and there was a great rain When great rains come after long drought they make sudden floods and streams Such a sudden income of mercy or deliverance from captivity the Church then prayed for and was in the faith and hope of nor was that hope in vain nor shall any who in that condition wait patiently upon God be ashamed of their hope The holy Evangelist makes report Luke 13.16 that Satan had bound a poor woman eighteen years all that time he had her his prisoner but Jesus Christ in a moment made her free Ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan hath bound lo these eighteen years be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day The devil who had her in his power eighteen years could not hold her a moment when Jesus Christ would turn her captivity and loose her from that bond If the Son undertake to make any free whether from corporal or spiritual bondage they shall not only be free indeed as he spake John 8.36 at the time when he is pleased to do it but he can do it at any time in the shortest time when he pleaseth We find a like turn of captivity is described Psal 107.10 11 12 13 14. such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death being bound in affliction and iron because they rebelled against the word of the Lord c. These vers 13. cryed unto the Lord in their trouble and he saved them out of their distresses He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and brake their bands in sunder Thus far of the first particular considerable in Jobs restitution the Author of it The Lord turned the captivity of Job The second thing to be considered is the season which the Lord took for the turning of Jobs captivity the Lord did it saith the text When he prayed for his friends Some conceive the turn of his captivity was just in his prayer time and that even then his body was healed I shall have occasion to speak further to that afterwards upon another verse Thus much is clear that When he prayed That is either in the very praying time or presently upon it the Lord â—urned his captivity Possibly the Lord did not stay till he had done accorâ—ing to that Isa 65.24 It shall come to pass that before they call I will answer and while they are yet speaking I will hear Or according to that Dan. 9.20 While I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and presenting my supplications before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God Yea while I was speaking in prayer even the man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning being caused to flie swiftly touched me about the time of the evening oblation and he informed me and talked with me and said O Daniel I am come forth to give thee skill and understanding at the beginning of thy supplications the commandement came forth and I am come to shew thee c. What commandement came forth even a command for the turning of their captivity Thus here I say possibly the Lord gave out that word of command for the turning of Jobs captivity at that very time when he was praying for his friends But without question these words when he prayed for his friends note a very speedy return of his prayers that is soon after he had done that gracious office for them he
head for yet my prayer shall be in their calamities that is if ever they who are my reprovers fall into calamity though they may think they have provoked me so by reproving me that they have lost my love and have cast them out of my prayers or that I will never speak well of them or for them again yet I will pray for them with all my heart as their matters shall require I will pray for them when they have most need of prayer even in their calamity Some heighten the sense thus The more they sharpen their reproof the more I think my self bound to pray for them It shews an excellent spirit not to be hindred from doing good to others by any thing they do or speak against us nor by their sharpest though perhaps mistaken reproofs of us Thus it was with this good man Job prayed for his friends who had spoken much against him and not only reproved him without cause but reproached him without charity and God turned his captivity when he prayed for them Hence observe Secondly Prayer for friends especially for unkind friends is very pleasing to God and profitable to us We never reap more fruit or benefit by prayer our selves than when we lay out our selves in prayer for others and then most when we pray for those who have deserved least at our hands Prayer for unkind friends is the greatest kindness we can do them and the noblest way of recompencing their unkindness Holy David was much in this way of duty and found the benefit of it Psal 35.12 13. They rewarded me evil for good to the spoyling of my soul but as for me when they were sick my cloathing was sackcloth I humbled my soul with fasting that is I was greatly affected with and afflicted for them in their affliction and see what followed My prayer returned into my own bosom There is some difference about the Exposition of those words but I conceive that is clear in it self as well as to my purpose that David received fruit and a good reward for those prayers As if he had said If my prayer did them no good it did me good if it did not profit them it profited me my prayer returned into my own bosom I found comfortable effects of it We never gain more by prayer than when we pray for those by whom we have been losers we never find more comfort by prayer than when we pray heartily for those by whom we have found much sorrow whatever good we pray for in the behalf of others falls upon our own heads and the more we pray for good upon the heads of those that have done evil to us the more good is like to fall upon our own heads and hearts Christ saith Mat. 10.13 When ye come into an house salute it Christ means not a Courtly complemental salute but a Christian spiritual salute wishing them mercy and peace as is plain by that which followeth and if the house be worthy let your peace come upon it but if it be not worthy let your peace return to you As if he had said When ye come into an house good or bad salute it if the house be good they shall receive the benefit of your prayer if not you shall have the benefit of it your selves though they get no good by your good wishes to them or prayers for them yet you shall This is more expresly assured us again by our blessed Saviour Luke 10.6 Into whatsoever house ye enter first say peace be to this house bestow a prayer upon them and if the Son of peace be there your peace shall rest upon it if not it shall turn to you again your prayers shall not be lost nor shall ye be losers by your prayers Hence take these two Inferences First If when we pray for friends for unkind friends God be ready to do us good then he will be much more ready to do us good when we as he hath commanded us pray for professed or real enemies The worse they are if not so bad as to be past prayer by the Apostles rule 1 John 5.16 for whom we pray the better are our prayers and an argument as of our greater faith in God so of our greater love to man Yet this is not to be understood as if we should pray for the prosperity of enemies or evil men in their evil purposes or practices this were to pray at once for the misery of Sion for the downfal of Jerusalem and the dishonour of God Our prayer for enemies should only be that God would change their hearts and pardon their sins as was touched before I grant we may in some cases pray Lord overturn overturn them or as David against Achitophel Lord turn their counsels into foolishness yet even then we should also pray with respect to their persons Lord turn them turn them The Gospel teacheth us to do so Luke 6.28 Bless them that curse you pray for them that despitefully use you Not that we should pray for a blessing on them as they are cursers and despisers but that they may repent and give over their cursed cursings and despiteful usages The Apostle is full for this Rom. 12.14 Bless them that persecute you bless and curse not vers 19. Avenge not your selves And as we should not avenge our selves so we should be sparing in prayer that God would take vengeance and if ever we put up such prayers beware they flow not from a spirit of revenge We indeed are sometimes afraid to be over-gentle and kind-hearted towards them that offend us and this bad Proverb is too much remembred If we play the Sheep the Wolf will eat us up as if to do our duty were to run further into danger and that it must needs turn to our wrong not to avenge our wrongs But know if we carry it meekly like sheep we have a great Shepheard who will take care of us and is able to preserve us from the Wolf Consider these two things in praying for enemies or for those that have any way wronged us First If by prayer we gain them 't is possible by prayer to turn a Wolf into a Sheep then it will be well with us they will be our friends Secondly If they continue Wolves and enemies still God will be more our friend and turn the evil which they either intend or do us to our good A second Inference is this If God be ready to deliver us from evil and do us good when we pray for others then he will be ready to do us good and deliver us from evil when we pray for our selves This Inference appears every where in Scripture And as the Lord himself hath often invited or encouraged us to the duty of prayer for our selves by this promise take one instance for all Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me that is thou shalt have both occasion and a heart to glorifie
equivalently or vertually for when it is said he offered sacrifice when it is said he did eat bread with his friends in his house these are proofs of his health and what was last spoken that he had so many children proves it much more So then though this fourth part of his mercy be not mentioned yet it is implied in all that went before But that being granted 't is further queried when his health was restored whether before he prayed for his friends or in the time of his prayer for his friends or whether after all was done Some make hot disputes about this matter which surely is not much material if we knew the certainty of it nor do I know how any should attain the certain kuowledg of it seing the Scripture is utterly silent as to any determination of it There is one question more The text saith God gave Job twice as much in cattle c. but here is nothing said of his twice as much in grace here is no mention of any amendment in his spiritual state his goods were doubled but was his goodness did Job recover only in temporals I answer First The graces of Job were never lost as his cattle and children were and therefore there needed no mention of the restoring of his graces Satan by the Lords permission put him to it and tried all his graces but could not rob him of one Secondly Jobs graces were not only not lost but doubled in that exercise or combate True grace encreaseth by the ordinary use of it much more by the extraordinary trials of it And doubtless Job who was so eminently gracious increased in every grace while he continued in this fiery trial He said of himself chap. 23.10 When he hath tried me I shall come forth as gold I shall come out better than I came in He lost dross and corruption in the trial but no grace nor any degree of grace his graces were doubled or increased A believer thrives as to the inner man in affliction how much soever he loseth and goeth backward as a man As the time of affliction is a special time for the using of grace so for the increasing of it Grace never grows more in a gracious heart than in a day of trouble And though possibly a godly man doth not sensibly or to appearance grow in grace presently yet he truly doth so and in due time it will appear that he hath done so We may take this chapter for a proof of it God himself found Job much bettered in his graces else he had not used him as a mediator for his friends which was as high a spiritual honour as could be put upon him acceptance being promised and given him in that work Nor would the Lord have used that endearing word My servant my servant Job four times in one verse had not Job improved in his service which could not be but by the improvement of his graces God called Job servant once in the first chapter surely he was become a better servant now that the Lord seemed so much delighted to call him servant in this last chapter of the book when he had taken full trial of him by suffering as formerly by doing We may well conclude Job was become a more humble servant a more profitable servant a more holy servant a more spiritual servant than ever he had been when we find the Lord insisting so much upon and so often repeating that relation to him My servant Job His sufferings had mended his service and his passive obedience had fitted him more for active God was so much pleased with his service that he took pleasure to call him servant So then we may answer the querie proposed Jobs increase was not only in cattle that had been but a poor increase his increase was also in grace and goodness and he who was a servant of the Lord before was then a more approved servant The Lord having told us in the close of this verse how many sons and daughters Job had he is pleased to give us a character or description of his daughters in the two verses following JOB Chap. 42. Vers 14 15. 14. And he called the name of the first Jemima and the name of the second Kezia and the name of the third Keren-happuch 15. And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren THe former verse gave us the account of Jobs children He had also seven sons and three daughters Nor is any thing more said of his sons but that they were seven but much more is said of his daughters in these two verses than that they were three and more is spoken of his daughters in three particulars First They are set forth by their names Secondly By the comliness of their persons Thirdly By the greatness of their dowry Their names are exprest in the 14th verse He called the name of the first Jemima and the name of the second Kezia and the name of the third Keren-happuch The comliness of their persons is shewed at the beginning of the 15th verse And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job The greatness of their dowry is set down at the close of the 15th verse And their father gave them inheritance among their brethren Some have queried why no more is said of the sons of Job than how many they were To such this answer may suffice it was the Lords pleasure to have no more spoken of them and where no more is said why should we expect more If any shall further enquire but were not his sons worthy persons that they are put off thus slightly and mention made only of their number not of their weight Were they not worthy to have so much as their names recorded which honour and much more is done their sisters the daughters of Job I answer We may upon good ground believe that Jobs seven sons were worthy persons because they were a great part yea the chief part of his restored happiness for as children are better than riches so among children sons are better than daughters as being the more worthy sex Sons if not well qualified are not only less worthy than daughters but a great cross to their father And therefore it would have been a diminishing of Jobs felicity to have had sons equal in number with the former yet inferior in vertue and man-like qualities we may for this reason safely conclude that though nothing be said of their worth that Jobs sons were worthy persons or persons of praise worthy qualities But seing we have nothing from divine authority but only from well-grounded reason to assert concerning Jobs sons I shall not stay the reader in any further discourse about them but proceed as the text doth with the daugtiters concerning whom we have many things to say from divine authority And First Their names must not be past with silence And
life a blessing 1017. Why they before the Flood lived so long 1018. Six considerations shewing that long life is a blessing 1018. Long life in prosperity is a great blessing 1020 Light God the Author of it 118. Light wonderful in five respects 119 120. What light is hard to say 120. Light how useful 121. Light how comfortable 122. Eight Inferences from it 122 123. Light of the Gospel how great a mercy 125. Light swift presently spreads it self all over the face of the earth 130 131. Wicked men hate light 133. Light discovers 133 134. Light how it makes a change in things 136 Light where it dwelleth how answered by Geograâ—hers how by Astronomers 164. Light and darkness have their bound their appointed places 167. What is the place of spiritual light and darkness 167 168. Light and darkness whether natural or figurative are at Gods dispose 169 170. The work of God in ordering light and darkness is wonderful shewed several wayes 171 172. Four things considerable in the light 196. Light how parted 197 198. God dispenceth light where he pleaseth 198 Lightning at the command of God 262 Limbus patrum what 152 Line what the stretching of it forth signifies in Scripture shewed in four things 62 63 Lion he bears four resemblaâ—ces in Scripture 282 283. Lion is greedy of prey 286. God provides prey for Lions 287. Two Inferences from it 288 289 Locusts why so called 437 Love it ariseth from likeness 301. Love all duty must be done in love to God and man 918 919 Loyns girding of them what it imports 34. A fourfold use of girding the loyns 34 35 Lurdane who and why so called 36â— Lusts of sinners stick close together like Leviathans scales 736 M Majesty proper to Kings 567. God is full of majesty 570. What that should work in man 571 573. The majesty of God is from himself mans from God 574. Majesty of man little to Gods 575 Maker God loves to be owned as a Maker 633 Man to do a thing like a man what it signifieth 36. Man is vile and how See Vile Masters of two sorts 16 Mazaroth what 247 Meats several forbidden the Jews and why 467 468 Meekness in dealing with others an imitation of God 872 Merchants in Hebrew called Canaanites and why 675 Mercy prevails with sinners more than wrath 922 Mists alwayes accompanied with calms why 103 Money why expressed in the Hebrew by a word which signifies a Lamb or Sheep 971 Months measured by the Moon or Sun their difference 316 Moon the power of it upon earthly things 254 Morning God should have morning or early praises and services 88. Morning light why the clearest light is expressed by it seeing noon light is clearer 741 Mother-Father by whom God was so called and why 227 Mouth what meant by laying the hand upon it 521 Muscovia the sudden change there in the Spring 232 Musculus a little fish the Whales guide 676 N Names it is a duty to give names to our children 999. Parents do well when they give names to their children which may mind them of the providence of God to them 1003. It is good to give names exciting to duty and vertue 1005 Nature course of nature keeps time constantly 117. Nature is content with a little 335 336. It is hard to change nature 360 Neck stiff-neck what it signifies in Scripture 745 Neesing what and how caused 739. Neesing a good sign of two things 739 Neighing of a Horse like thunder 432 New-birth see Birth O Obedience we should yeild ready obedience to all the commands of God 263. Full and compleat obedience what 913. We must obey without disputes or delays when God commands 915. The manner as well as the matter of obedience what 918 Occasion we should be watchful over that which hath been an occasion or instrument of sin 521 Oecolampadius his dying speech about light 168 Old age when a blessing 1019. Old age usually accompanied with many infirmities 1021. God can make old age comfortable 1021. Old age and death cannot be far asunder 1027. Some old men would be young again 1030 Omnipotency of God or that he can do all things how to be understood 790. Gods omnipotency limited by his will Inference from it 796. That God can do whatsoever he willeth a two-fold use of it 797 Opportunity a gate for action 457 Orion the nature of that constellation 241 242 Ornaments and Jewels may be worn 974. Four cautions about wearing them 974 Ostrich five ways described 385. Ostrich why expressed by a word which signifies a feather 393. The eveâ—ness of her feathers the embleme of justice 395. The Ostrich resembles a hypocrite in five things 395 396. That the Ostrich a foolish bird hath such fine feathers three inferences from it 398. Her eggs great and useful yet she careless of them 400. Some give two reasons why she leaves her eggs in the dust which agree not to the text 401. Her eggs many 405. How she is hardned against and hardneth her young ones 405. The Ostrich how said to be without fear though a very fearful creature 411. Ostrich hath little brain and is very deaf 414 415. Her swiftness in running a Proverb 419 P Pagan may deny Christ but cannot deny a God 722 Pain and sorrow in the creatures bringing forth young an effect of sin 320 Pambo his confession about keeping the tongue 521 Patience of God 185. Patience and quietness in every condition why 170 171. Peace hasten to make peace with God 194 Peacock beautiful and proud 386. what the Hebrew word signifieth 387. Proud men like the Peacock shewed in six things 391 392 Pegasus what 423 Pity should be shewed to the afflicted 965 Place a two-fold place of every man decreed 104. Good for all to keep their places 104 105 127 Play A playing life the life of a beast 644 Pleasure God gives man some creatures for pleasure 470. Some displease God most when they are taking their pleasure especially Falcâ—ners 470 Pleiades what 236. Their sweet influence what 237 Pliny his complaint of intemperance and luxury 183 Plowing before sowing both in a natural and spiritual sense 367 Power of God mighty 547. How far God sheweth or putteth forth his power 550. Inferences from it 552. The power of man is nothing to the power of God 554. Power of man not to be trusted for any good it can do us nor feared for any hurt it can do us 555 556. Power of God to be much meditated upon in two cases 557. Power twofold 717 Praise due to God for the work of creation upon several accounts 56 57. Liveless creatures praise God four ways 79. Then men should much more 80. God should be praised at the first appearance of any great work 88. Praise angelical work 89 Prayer obtains rain 260. We may pray for all that God hath promised 551. God gives beyond our prayers 551. The power of God should encourage us in prayer 553. Sense of wants
puts us upon prayer 819. Prayer prevails much with God not only for our selves but for others 890. Prayers of others may prevail with God for us when our own cannot 891. Prayers of good me for us a great mercy 892. How prayer for another doth not profit unless he be good 893 894. Prayers of good men though over-bold yet graciously answered 9. Necessity puts meer Nature upon prayer 302. If we would have we must ask of and pray to God 303. Prayer what it is 936. A godly man ready to pray for others and prays sometimes more for others than for himself 937. Vneven walkings hinder prayer in a two-fold respect 937 938. Prayer for unkind friends yea for enemies a duty and very pleasing to God 938 939 941. What and whose prayer pleasing to God 942. Seven things in prayer make it so pleasing to God 943 Preparation to duty needful especially to great duties 37 536 Preservation God hath given all creatures means to preserve themselves 635 Pride fine feathers make proud birds and men too 390. See Peacock Much pride in the heart of man 506. Pride a very provoking sin shewed four ways 585 586. What any one is proud of may be called his pride 731. There is a kind of pride in bruites 733. Great attainments and injoyments occasion pride 733 P iestly Office two parts of it 888 remises made by God shall surely be performed 924. Promises of two sorts 925 Proprietor God is so of all things in the world by a four-fold title 705. Thirteen inferences from it 706 707 708 Prosperity of bad men should not offend good men 398 Proud men how Gods eye upon them 579. God casts down the proud 579 580. God can easily do it 581. Inferences from it 582. Who may be called proud 582 583. Proud ones why not to be feared nor envied 584 585. What proud ones do 585. Proud and wicked the same 588 590. The true knowledge of God and of our selves will keep down pride 835 Providence of God governs all 53. We should rest in his disposal of things 53. Providences of God cannot be altered by man 214. Providence extended to meanest creatures 302 314. Providence preserves that which is left in danger 403. Providences shall at last appear spotless 505. Providential works of God beautiful and orderly 72 Purgatory what 152 Pythagoreans opinion of Musick made by the motion of the heavens 273 Q Questions which in Scripture signifie rebuke and contempt 22 23. These questions what is man and who art thou what they import in Scripture 29 R Rain ordered and distributed by God 203 204. Rain sent to places uninhabited 206. And why 207. God hath rain enough in store for all places 213. Who the father of rain four reasons why God propounded that question to Job 217. God alone is the father of the rain 218 219. Four inferences from it 220 221. Rain got by prayer 260. God only stayeth the clouds from raining 274. He knows when the earth hath had rain enough 277 Ravens why the killing of them near Cities is prohibited 294. The signification of Hebrew and Greek words 295. The raven provided for by God 296. How their young ones cry to God shewed three ways 299. Whence it is that old ravens neglect to feed their young ones 300 Reason mans natural reason is the gift of God 267 Reconciliation to those whom we have wronged necessary 886. What we must do for our reconciliation to God and man 920 Rejoycing at the good of others very good 91. We are apt to rejoyce in that wherein we excel 443. We should rejoyce in nothing but God 443. Relations when nearest natural relations leave us God will not 304. Not to take care of relations how unnatural 408 409 Repentance see sin Bad men think of repentance in eminent dangers 758. 't is a duty to repent in times of danger 759. Repentance or repenting why expressed in the Hebrew by a word signifying both grief and joy 830 831. Repentance hath a twofold change in it 831. Repenting in dust and ashes what it implieth 832. True repentance is joyned with self-abhorrence 835. Five inferences from it 839. What repentance is opened and described in four things 841. 842. New sins call for new repentings 845. Open sins must have open repentance 847. True repentance ends in joy three ways 849. Repentance in God what 929 Reproving implieth two things 507. There are two sorts of reproving commendable and a duty 508. Reproof not to be deferred 855 Reward of wrath 950 Rewarder God is a bountiful rewarder of his servants 949. He rewards both for doing and suffering 958. Inferences from it 951 Rhinoceros what kind of beast 346. Two things noted of him 347 Rhodians how they honoured the Sun and why 123 Riches why said to make themselves wings like an Eagle 475 Righteousness no standing before God in our own righteousness 695. How our righteousness is to be abhorred 836. Why a repenting person abhors it 838 S Sacrifice must be offered by a Priest 881. Sacrifices for sin were appointed by God not devised by man 883. Every sin must have a sacrifice 884. Why the sacrifice was called sin 884. Why seven bullocks c. Sometime commanded for sacrifice 885 Safety to be sought on high 419. Nature teacheth us to provide for it 482 Salt land the same with barren land in Scripture 333 Salvation neither corporal nor spiritual by man 598. God can save alone 599. Three inferences from it 600. To save by a self-power the sole prerogative of God 601. To imagine that we can save our selves how sinful shewed in four things 601 602. Satisfaction what it is 211 Scriptures have dark places in them yet are not dark 30 Sea a twofold restraint of it 93. Two sorts of sea-dooâ—s 96. What the womb is out of which the sea brake 96. Sea how it resembles God in four things 99. The world in three things 99. 100. The heart of man in three things 100. God rules the sea as easily as a Nurse the Child 102. The Lord hath made a place for the sea 104. Doors and bars of the sea what 10â— The sea left to it self would over-flow all 107. God only keeps the sea in compass 108 109. Infereâ—ces from it 110. A fivefold metaphorical sea to which the Lord puts bounds The sea exceeding deep 148. The sea an embleam of obscure and hidden things 149. Three wonders in the fish of the sea 664 Season the Lord appears in the fittest season 6. We should do all in season 248 855 Secrets nothing a secret to God 149. Secrets some man must not search into 156 Seed taken two ways 376 Self-sufficiency of God 700. Comfort and instruction flowing from it 701 702 Servant honourable tâ— be Gods servant 873. Profitable and easie to be so 873 874. Six things shewing who are Gods servants 874 875 Service should be done willingly both to God and man 358. Service should be rewarded 363 Seven a number of