the house of Israel to bud forth and I will give thee the opening of the mouth in the midst of them and they shall know that I am the Lord That is I will give thee boldnesse and liberty of speech time was when thou didst not dare to â—peake a word for God or of God of his praise name and worship or if thou didst it was but in a Corner or whisperd in secret but the time shall come when I will give thee the opening of the mouth thou shalt speak my truth and praises boldly and the Enemy shall know that I the Lord have procured thee this liberty 'T is a great mercy when God gives his people the opening of the mouth or liberty of speech to speak boldly no man hindring no nor so much as discouraging them The Prophet makes that the character of an evill time when the prudent keep silence Amos 5.13 As in evill or calamitous times it becomes the Godly prudent to be willingly silent adoring the justice of Gods severest dispensations towards them with patience and without murmuring at his hand So in some evill times they are forced to keepe silence though as David spake Psal 39.2 their sorrows be stirred either lest by speaking even nothing but truth and reason they draw further sorrows upon themselves or because they see it but lost labour to speake to a people obstinate and resolved on their way Fourthly This phrase of opening the mouth to speake notes the things spoken to be of very great worth such as have been long concocted and digested and at last ready to be brought forth as out of the treasury of an honest and understanding heart Os aperire est bene discussa et praemeditata habere dicenda Bold The heart is the treasury of words there they are stored up and from thence issued forth as Christ saith Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh As there is a stock of evill words in the hearts of evill men so of good and gracious words in the hearts of Godly men and when they open their mouthes according to this notion it is to bring forth the treasures and riches of their hearts to bring forth the gold and silver and precious things stored up there all these are very usefull interpretations of this phrase and I might give distinct observations from them but it may suffice to have named them I shall only adde that the last is conceived by some to be chiefely intended in the latter branch of this verse My tongue hath spoken in my mouth This seems a strange Expression where should the tongue speak but in the mouth when the tongue is out of the mouth can it speak as the mouth cannot speak without the tongue so the tongue cannot speak out of the mouth why then doth he say My tongue hath spoken in my mouth The Hebrew is In my palate the palate being a part of the mouth and one speciall Instrument of speech Naturalists reckon five The lips the tongue the teeth the palate the throat 't is put for all but there is more in it then so for every man speaks in his mouth Palatum â—ris coelum est Drus Praemeditata et quasi intelligentiae meae palato praegustata sum prolaturus Bez Bene sapui verba mea antequam illa efferendo tibi aliisque sapienda et gustanda traderem Bold Non sequarverba aliorum sed propries conceptus enunciabo Aquin or by the palate which is the heaven roofe or cieling of the mouth Therefore when Elihu saith My tongue hath spoken in my mouth or in my palate The palate may be considered as the instrument of tasting as well as of speaking We say such a thing is very savory to the palate And we call that Palate wine which is quicke and lively briske and pleasant to the tast Thus when Elihu saith here My tongue hath spoken in my mouth or palate His meaning is I have uttered only that which I have wel considered what my tongue hath spoken to you I have tasted my selfe I have put every word to my palate For as a man that that tasteth wine or any other sapid thing must have it upon his palate before he can make a Judgement whether it be sweet or sharpe quick or flat so faith Elihu my mouth hath spoken in my palate I tasted my words before I spake them Hence note Judicious and wise men will tast and try what they intend to speake before they utter it The speaker presents his words to the tast of the hearer For as this Scripture hath it at the 3d verse of the next Chapter The eare tryeth words as the mouth tasteth meat now he that ventures his words to the tast and censure of others had need take a tast of them before he doth it My tongue hath spoken in my mouth Secondly From the scope of Elihu in adding this namely to gaine attention Note There is great reason we should heare that carefully which the speaker hath prepared with care They who regard not what they speake deserve no regard when they speake but a weighing speaker should have a weighing hearer And what any mans tongue in the sence of Elihu hath spoken in his mouth that we should heare not only with our eare but with our heart This a strong argument to quicken attention yet Elihu gives in another and a stronger in the next verse Vers 3. My words shall be of the uprightnesse of my heart my lips shall utter knowledge clearly In the former verse Elihu called for an open eare because he opened his mouth and was about to speak or had spoken what he had well tasted In this verse he presseth the same duty by professing all manner of Ingenuity and Integrity in what he was about to speake He would speake not only seriously but honestly not only from his understanding but his conscience My words shall be of the uprightnesse of my heart c. The meaning is not that the uprightnesse of his heart should be the subject upon which he would treat though that be a blessed and most usefull subject yet it was not the poynt he intended to discusse but when he saith My words shall be of the uprightnesse of my heart his meaning is my words shall flow from the uprightnesse of my heart I will speake in the uprightnesse of my heart or according to the uprightnesse of my heart my words shall be upright as my heart is the plain truth is this Sincerè et absque ullo suco proferam animi mei sensa Bez I will speak truth plainly I 'le speak as I thinke you may see the Image of my heart upon every word I will speak without dawbing without either simulation or dissimulation Some conceive this to be a secret reproofe of or reflection upon Jobs friends as if Elihu had suspected them to have spoken worse of Job then they could thinke him to be in their hearts But as
compounded dust and we shall ere long crumble into dust We are every day going back and shall shortly be gone back to what at first we were These considerations should wither and nip the buddings of selfe-confidence and bring down the height of mans spirit I also am formed out of the clay We may take notice of one thing farther Elihu speaking here of his own naturall formation gives it in this stile I also am formed out of the clay This is a peculiar Scripture-expression or the proper phrase of the holy Ghost not of a heathen Author Poet or Orator They at best had only some rude notions about this mystery of mans originall His formation by the power of God out of the earth Which may enforme us that the Saints and people of God in those elder and darker times were familiarly acquainted with the doctrine of the creation Gentes enim hoc de primi hominis facta a deo plasmatione ex terraformatione mysterium penitùs ignorarunt Bold and knew well how to speake in a Scripture language though they had not then the written word or Scriptures For 't is a question whether these transactions were before the giving of the Law or after However they were versed in Scripture truths and in those formes of speech by which God gave out his minde to their forefathers Here 's Scripture phrase I also am formed out of the clay And therefore Elihu as sencible of anothers frailty by the experience which he had of his own subjoynes this Assurance of his respect to Job's weakness in what he should further say Vers 7. Behold my terror shall not make thee afraid neither shall my hand be heavie upon thee Elihu had given Job much security already that he would deale fairely with him and here he gives him a promise for it As if he had said I give thee my hand I plight thee my truth that my terror shall not make thee afraid nor shall my hand be heavie upon thee Veruntamen miraculum meum te non terreat Vulg The vulgar translation reads my miracles or what I will doe in any strange and unusuall way shall not terrifie thee Indeed miracles haue a kinde of terror in them But we need not put such a straine upon the Text. The word which we translate terror signifies that which is most terrible and dreadfull to man even the Magistrates throne Vox 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 terrorem denotat saepe illum qui in facie regis judicis principis elucet the presence of great Princes of which Solomon saith Pro 20.28 The King sitting upon the throne scattereth all evill with his eyes that is with the terrible looks of Majesty which God hath stampt upon him The Prophet Jer 50.38 useth this word to expresse idols or false Gods by and he câ—lls them so either in a holy scorne O these dumbe idolls which have eyes and see not eares and heare not feete and walke not are doubtlesse very shrewd and terrible things are they not have we not great reason to feare what these doughty Gods will say or doe who can neither say nor doe any thing Thus he might call them in a way of scorne or he calls those Idolls terrible things Jehim from the event because foolish vaine ignorant men did exceedingly feare them or were much terrified by them and God left them to their owne feares and terrors as he spake by the Prophet Isa 66.4 I also will chuse their delusions and bring their feares upon them As if he had said Because they being vainely deluded have chosen to feare that which was not to be feared therefore I also will make this my choyce to bring that upon them which they feared and hoped to avoyd by following and worshipping Idolls or by their Idolatrous worship Now whereas Job was afraid of the terror of the true God Elihu who presented himselfe in Gods stead tells him my terror shall not make thee afraid And we may well conceive that Elihu spake this ironically concerning himselfe for having sayd before I am but a piece of clay surely then my terror cannot make thee afraid What terribleness is there in a piece of clay Terror minimè potest esse in massa luti qualis est omnis homo in a clod of earth What are the most terrible of the sons of men that they should be a terror to us we ought not to trust in the mightiest among men why then should we feare them or what need we feare them Who art thou saith the Prophet Isa 51 1â— 13. that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall dye and of the son of man that shall be made as Grasse and forgettest the Lord thy maker We never feare men unduely till we doe one of or both these things either first forget God who made us or secondly forget of what other men are made I am but a piece of clay saith Elihu what matter of terror can I be to thee I wonder In that Elihu giveth Job such a promise Behold my terror shall not make thee afraid Note Man should shew himselfe faire and meeke to men especially to a man in affliction It is possible for a man though he be but clay as another man is yet to cloath himselfe as it were with terror yea as the neck of the horse is said to be clothed Job 39.19 with thunder He may put on a kinde of dreadfulnesse as a Garment and appeare very formidable to his brother Some men indeed appeare to men as a Wolfe to a poore sheepe or as a Beare and Lyon to a Lamb. Though but clay yet how scaringly doe some men look and Lord it over their brethren they will rore upon them like a Lion and rend them like a Beare clouds and darkness are in their faces and storme sits upon their browes There is a terriblenesse of man to man Thus the holy Prophet Isa 25.2 saith The blast of the terrible one is like a storme against the wall Yea some men are not only dreadfull like savage beasts but like devills they even act or play the devill with their brethren How farre have they departed from their duty and broken all the lawes of love which command us to be as God one to another in kindness in mercy and compassion I grant Magistrates by their place and office are said to be terrible yea a terror but it is to evill doers Rom 13.3 Rulers are not a terror to good workes but to the evill that is not to those whose workes are good but to evill workers And to them they ought to be a terror For they doe not beare the sword in vaine that is to hold it in their hands or let it rust in the scabbard and never strike with it As they are Ministers of God so avengers towards men to execute wrath upon him that doth evill Againe Gospel-Ministers in some cases are to be terrible they may be Boanergesses sons of
they try and judge it But I conceive we need not insist strictly upon this For whether we compare these two senses in their severall operations to wise men or whether we compare them in their operations one with another yet according to the sense of our translation the meaning of Elihu is the same namely that those wise men to whom he spake should not only hear but try what they heard because they had received a power so to do for the ear tryeth words even at the mouth tasteth meat There is a twofold eare there is an outward eare Auris interna dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae vox alibi legitur in Graeca editione pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum sit ipsa mens quae verba et res dijudicat Drus and an inward eare And so a twofold tryall The outward eare tryeth words of what signification they are whether they are as we say good English or Latine c. It tryeth them also as to their grammaticall sense or the construction of what is spoken in the letter The inward eare or understanding tryeth them as to their logicall sense scope and tendency as to their use and force in the matter they are spoken to Both wayes the eare tryeth words as the mouth tasteth meate only with this difference that the tryall which the mouth makes is meerly sensitive and both begun and perfected in the mouth but the tryall which the ear makes is chiefly intellectuall it is begun at the ear but perfected by the understanding It is the mind which judgeth the eare only brings in the report of things to the mind Hence Note First The sense of hearing is a great mercy and of great use to mankind The eare is the chiefe Gate or inlet to the soul Aurem audientem dicit auditorem verbi obedientem Beda nor were our eares given only for an Ornament to the head but for the enriching and bettering of the heart The naturally rationall eare given to heare and try words is a mercy but when a spiritually rationall ear is given with it to heare and try words that 's a mercy indeed Solomon saith Prov. 20.12 The hearing eare and the seeing eye the Lord hath made even both of them These naturall senses are of Gods own creation and the use of them his blessing yet common to all mankind good and bad but the spirituall senses of seeing and hearing are a speciall priviledge promised to the elect and a fruit of Gospel grace Isa 35.5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the eares of the deafe shall be unstopped He meaneth it not either only or chiefly of the bodily eyes and eares though Christ wrought miracles upon them and healed both the blind and deafe in the dayes of his flesh but of the eyes and eares of the soul which are often darke and stopt while the other are free enough in the exercise of their severall faculties The seeing eye which both Solomon and Isaiah intend is the eye which so seeth as that it followeth the good which it seeth and that 's their hearing eare which beleeveth and obeyeth what it heareth A superficiall seeing eye is a blind eye and a formall hearing eare is a deafe eare in the sight and account of God We say it is the symptome of some distemper or growing disease upon the body when the pallate doth not rellish meate Surely it argueth a diseased and sick soul when we have no mind to heare nor find rellish in the word of God Secondly Note Words are not to be received nor submitted to nor beleeved as true till they are tryed Itching eares are bad 2 Tim. 4.3 Trying eares are good You will not swallow your meat till you have chewed and tasted it nor should you swallow words till you have tryed them why else have we eares to heare why are we trusted with reason to judge things with or with rules to judge them by There is no greater Tyranny in the World then to command a man to beleeve by an implicit faith as others beleeve or to impose our opinions and assertions upon those that hear them and not to give them liberty to try them This is to be at once as the Apostle James expresseth it Chap. 3.1 many Masters or many Masters where we should not be one But some will say when the Word of God is preached is that to be tryed by men have we a liberty to take that into consideration or to take and refuse it as we are perswaded in our own judgments I answer The word of God is not to be brought to the barre nor to be tryed by man The word of God is our Judge therefore ought not to be judged by us the word of God is perfect and how can we that are imperfect judge that which is perfect The word of God is truth and all men are lyars we are not therefore to judge the word of God nor try that Yet when any man speaks of or from the word of God we are to try what he speakes that is whether what he speaks be according to the word of God and his doctrine or interpretation grounded on the Text. Every one that speakes about spirituall things professeth he brings the word of God and it must be tryed whether he doth so or no. It is a truth to which all are to submit without dispute by beleeving that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners to wash away their sins with his blood This is the word of God yet when this truth is Preached we may consider whether it be mannaged according to the word of God or no. This great doctrine which containes the summe of the Gospel may have such things mingled with it as are not to be received for the word of God Some in the primitive time thought and taught that there was no salvation by Christ unlesse they still kept the ceremoniall Law and were circumcised though they held that fundamentall truth that Christ dyed to save sinners yet when they came to the explication of it they destroyed it by urging a necessity of continuing the ceremoniall Law whereas others judged rightly that faith only without the use of any Jewish ceremony purifieth the heart Therefore a counsell of spirituall and godly wise men was called to consider of this matter Acts 15.6 What to doe not to try the Word of God but to try which of those two different opinions was according to the Word of God Thus when we hear a Sermon though the Word of God and Christ crucified be the generall subject of it and that is not to be tryed but received by faith and obeyed yet what is spoken upon it and delivered about it as the mind of God in the Scripture that is to be tryed 1 Cor. 2.15 He that is spirituall tryeth or judgeth all things And againe 1 Cor. 14.29 the Apostle gives this counsell about prophesying Let one or two speak and let the
is sayd he will render unto man his righteousness we are not to understand it of righteousness in kinde but of the reward or fruit of his righteousness For here Elihu speaks of a person already righteous or at least of him who had repented of and turned from his unrighteousness So that to returne or render unto man his righteousness is to returne the mercy promised to those that are righteous Reddet justitiam i. e. praemium justitiae Drus For as iniquity or unrighteousness is often put for the punishment of unrighteousness so equity or righteousness is often put for the reward of righteousness or for that which God according to his righteous promise returnes unto a righteous person Thus we may understand Elihu here As if he had sayd God dealt with this man before as with a sinner or he afflicted him for his sin But now he will deale kindly with him as with a righteous person and removing his affliction and taking his hand off from him he will render his righteousness to him he will not reckon with him for any former unrighteousness From this notion of the word Observe God usually deals with men as they are and according to what they doe If a godly man sin he shall smart for it and if a sinner return and repent God will shew him kindness Though the mercy and kindness which God shews to a returning sinner be not for his returnings or repentings yet 't is according to them The favour which God sheweth any man is for Christs sake or for what Christ hath done and suffered but it is according to what himselfe hath done or suffered David experienced this himselfe Psal 18.20 The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousnes c. That is as I have been a righteous and just person so the Lord hath dealt with me And he gives the rule with respect to all others v. 25. With the upright thou wilt shew thy selfe upright with the pure thou wilt shew thy selfe pure c. That is Thou wilt be such to men in thy dispensations as they are in their conversations and dispositions in the frame and bent of their hearts and lives And as it followeth v. 27. Thou wilt save the afflicted or humble people but wilt bring downe high lookes that is those that are proud and high-minded The Prophet holds out the same truth in way of direction Isa 3.10 Say ye to the righteous it shall be well with him for they shall eat of the fruit of their doings that is they shall have good for the good they have done or according to the good which they have done Rom 2.10 Glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile If any object But may it not be ill with men that doe good and are good doth the Lord alwayes render to man according to his righteousness I answer It is well at present with most that doe well look over all the sons of men and generally ye shall find that usually the better they are the better they live Secondly I answer It shall be well with all that doe well in the issue and for ever This truth will abide to eternity God will render unto man according to his righteousness Secondly We may take the word righteousness Justiam quam ei confert in Christo reputans eum pro justo Jun for the righteousness of justification Mr Broughton inclines to that sence He will restore unto man his justice And presently adds by way of glosse Justice is Christ It is Christs Justice or righteousness that is restored to man Christ is indeed The Lord our righteousness Jer 23.6 And thus severall others of the learned expound these words He will render unto man his righteousness That is he will bestow upon him or restore to him righteousness in Christ he will account him righteous though he hath no righteousness of his owne which will hold in Gods account Elihu I grant calleth it Mans righteousness his righteousness yet we may well understand him calling it so not because it is wrought by but because it is imputed to or bestowed upon man as his righteousness That is ours which is freely given us so is righteousness in justification by faith in Christ We have no righteousness wrought in us or by us for that purpose but we have a righteousness wrought for us and freely bestowed upon us for that purpose which is therefore truely called mans righteousness But some may question how can it be sayd that God doth render or return to man this righteousness that is the righteousness of justification Can this righteousness be lost can a person justified fall out of a justified state I answer The righteousness of justification which is true also of the righteousness of sanctification as to the substance and being of it cannot be lost But it may be lost as to the comfortable enjoyments and fruits of it or as to our apprehension of it And the Lord is sayd to returne to man the righteousness of his justification not as if the grace it selfe were lost or taken away from him but because the sight and sence of it the sweetness and joy of it Non enim ablata justitia redditur sed ablatae justitiae sensus Coc the workings and effects of it having been lost are now restored to him againe When the Lord by his Spirit gives the soule a cleare and fresh evidence of it or reneweth the testimony of his Spirit with our spirits that our sins are forgiven and that we are justified beloved and accepted in Christ then the Lord is sayd to render unto man his righteousness otherwise neither the faith by which this righteousness is applyed nor the righteousness it selfe which is applyed to us by faith is at any time lost or removed Only in this sence as in many other Scriptures so in this the Lord is sayd to render unto man his righteousness both of sanctification and justification For when a beleever through sin hath blotted his own evidences and God hath left him under the darkness of his own spirit for his negligent unwatchfull unworthy walking or when the Lord hideth his face to try him what he will doe whether he will trust in his name while he walketh in darkness and seeth no light when I say after withdrawings for either of these reasons or for any other the Lord gives him in a renewed evidence of his love then he is sayd to render unto man his righteousness It is in this case as with a man that labours under some strong and dangerous disease which taketh away his sences and leaves him halfe dead we say the man is gone yet he recovers his speech returnes and his spirits revive and then we say his life is rendred to him or he is brought back from the grave we have fetched him againe not that his life was quite taken away for he was not a carkasse in
of such as make excuses to shift themselves off from acts of charity they will say we know not whether it be so with him or no possibly he may not be in such want as he pretendeth Take heed of these cloaks of covetousnesse and pitifull pleas to save your purses from shewing pity to the poor for saith Solomon Will not God search it out and render to every man according to his worke The holy Scripture abounds in this poynt Read Jer. 32.19 Ezek. 33.10 Rom. 2.6 2 Cor. 5.10 1 Pet. 1.17 Rev. 22.12 But some may say how doth God render to every man his work Is it not said He justifieth the ungodly Rom. 4.5 Are the works of an ungodly man rendred to him when he is justified I answer it is one thing what God will do through free grace and another what he will deale out in strictnesse of Justice The Apostle speaks in that place of the free grace of God to sinners not of his Justice against sinners Secondly though God justifieth the ungodly yet he never justifieth ungodlinesse or though he justifieth a man who hath done many evill works yea all whose works are evill yet he never justifieth nor rewardeth the work of an evill man Thirdly God acts according to justice and righteousness where he justifieth the ungodly he doth not shew favour to the ungodly in his own wrong Acts of grace from God are not opposite to his Justice much lesse doe they contradict or overthrow it He doth not justifie an ungodly man in himselfe or meerly considered in his ungodlinesse but he justifieth him in the righteousness of another even of Jesus Christ who hath given full satisfaction to the Justice of God with respect to the ungodly whom he justifieth Lastly we may say that God renders the work of an ungodly man to him when he justifieth him for though then he hath not done nor ever can doe any works which deserve the justification of his person yet God doth render to him according to that present work of faith in closing with the promise and the work of Christs righteousnesse therein tendered to him and applyed by him for his justification Further that other Scripture seems to lye in the way of this observation Psal 103.10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins or rewarded us according to our iniquities How then doth God render every man his work I answer as before Acts of mercy do not cross acts of justice When the Lord doth not deal with any man according to his sins it is because he hath freely pardoned his sins and he doth not reward a man according to his iniquity because his iniquities are done away thus he deals with all his own people who are received to favour through Jesus Christ but no wicked man no impenitent person in the world shall have cause to say that God hath not dealt with him according to his sin or hath not rewarded him according to his iniquity There may be some present stops of Justice through the patience of God to wicked men their works are not alwayes presently rendered into their bosomes but they shall God will render to every man according to his work one way or other one time or other The full rendering to all men according to their works will be at the great day in this world the godly doe not somtimes receive according to their good works nor doe the wicked according to their evill works Good men are often rewarded with shame and reproach with want and poverty with banishment and imprisonment with tortures and with death in this present world but the Lord will have a time to render to them according to their workes though at no time for their works so look upon wicked men and their workes they goe often unpunished at the present yea many of them prosper greatly as I have had occasion to shew more then once in opening this Book they have their good things many good things in this life but the time will come when God will render to the wicked their work and they shall be forced to say that he hath caused them to find according to their wayes Take two or three inferences from this generall truth If God will render the work of a man to him Then First Godly men have great encouragement to doe good yea to abound in doing good workes That 's the Apostles argument 1 Cor 15.58 Be ye stedfast and unmoveable in the worke of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vaine in the Lord that is the Lord will render to every man his labour Hence also that of Solomon Eccl 11.1 Cast thy bread upon the waters for thou shalt find it after many dayes Charities done in faith as an holy offering to God produce a sure encrease To give with a right heart to the poore is the best way of growing rich For God will render to man according to that work And as it may incourage to doe good so to doe it against all discouragements We must not only doe good when the Sun shines when it is faire weather with us and all men applaud us but though men frowne and scorne though which Solomon reports as one of the great vanities of this world Eccl 4.4 For a right worke a man be envied of his neighbour let us not hold our hand from doing good though we are opposed and checkt though we are traduced and slandred though we are mis-interpreted and have the foulest glosses put upon our fairest workes though men call our zeale madness and our circumspect walking hypocrisie yea though we are persecuted and suffer the worst of evills though men cast stones at us as they did at Christ for his good workes yet let us not be deterred from doing good For howsoever men deale with us or what rendrings soever we find from the world yet God will render to us both according to the rightnesse of our worke done and according to the uprightnesse of our hearts in doing it Let this provoke us not only to doe the Lords worke but to doe it with much patience and perseverance for in due time we shall reape if we faint not where there hath been sowing there will be reaping and where the seed time hath been with teares the harvest or reaping time shall be with joy Secondly This is a dreadfull doctrine to evill workers Some as the Apostle calls the Cretians out of their owne Prophet are evill beasts slow bellyes and as they are slothfull or slow bellyes at doing good so they are very free and forward very quicke lively and nimble beasts in doing evill O how should evill workers tremble at this Scripture To every man will God render according to his worke as a cup of cold water given to a disciple in the name of a disciple shall not be lost but have a reward and the giver fully payd for it Math 10.42 so not any the least evill worke impenitently continued
remove out of place and power Thus a man is taken away when his authority is taken away Secondly There is a removing or taking of a man out of the world Thus they are taken away whose persons are destroyed cut off and perish The mighty both wayes or either way are often taken away The persons of many mighty men have fallen and many more of them have fallen from their places and powers Here they are under a generall threatning They shall be taken away But how shall they be taken away the text answers without hand It is somewhat strange that they who are mighty and have such power in their hand should be taken away and no hand touch them or without hand We use to say of a thing strangely gone or gone we know not how It cannot be gone without hands yet thus the Lord deales judicially with the mighty of the world They shall be taken away without hand There may be a threefold understanding of that expression First Thus The mighty shall be taken away without hand that is they shall have no hands to help them or they shall be destitute of all humane helpe Sometimes God leaves or strips the mighty naked they who have had great power and many thousands standing up to defend them Frequenter manus pro ministerio sed frequentissime pro opâ— et auxilio ponitur Pin have not a hand for them and so are taken away without hand no man drawing a sword or striking a stroake for them Secondly To doe a thing without hand is to doe it with the smallest appearance of second causes or instruments We are ready to say there must be a great deale of tugging to get the mighty downe who like Oakes are strongly rooted and highly growne who looke like mountaines which cannot be removed yet saith Elihu the Lord can take them away without hand that is easily without any trouble at all little meanes or very improbable meanes being used to effect it So then to doe a thing without hand is to doe it as if we put no hand no stresse to it when we doe it As they who move swiftly or lightly are sayd to goe without setting a foot on the ground Dan 8.5 the He-Goate came and touched not the ground he did rather fly then goe So to doe a thing as if we did not put a hand to it is to doe it with the greatest ease imaginable Absque manu armatorum Aquint Thirdly To doe a thing without hand is to doe it without any visible meanes at all even by the immediate stroake or power of God There is a hand of God in all things that are done in the world but some things are done without any other hand and are therefore most properly sayd to be done without hand Thus the Lord is able to doe the greatest things even to take mighty men from the earth no hand of man appearing or joyning with him in the action Nutu tantum dei Merc Now because God usually sets instruments a worke to effect his will in the world and to bring about his counsels therefore in what work soever he either quite leaves or seemes to leave instruments out that work is sayd to be done without hand The stone which shall grow up to be a great mountaine that is the kingdome of Christ is called a stone cut out without hands Dan 2.34 that is without humane power The kingdome of Christ shall be set up so much by the power of God without any earthly contribution that it shall confessedly be sayd to be set up without hands Though we ought not to neglect the coming and advancement of the kingdome of Christ in the world yet we should not be anxiously carefull about it when we see little or no meanes for it yea though we see great very great meanes set against it because a stone cut out without hands shall doe it The Apostle useth this forme of speaking both as to eternalls and spiritualls Concerning the former he is expresse 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that when the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved we have a building of God a house not made with hands eternall in the heavens that is a house of Gods own immediate making a house to the making whereof man hath added nothing The fabrick of this visible world is a house made without hands much more is heaven and the glorious unseene state which Saints shall have hereafter The house above or state of Glory is wholly of Gods making And as our eternall estate is expressed by a house made without hands so our spirituall estate is called by the same Apostle A work done without hands Col 2.11 where having asserted our compleatness in Christ v. 10. he adds In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands The external literal circumcision was made with hands there was an operation of man in it the cutting off the foreskin of the flesh but in the spiritual circumcision man hath no hand it is the work of God alone as also that effectual faith is which alwayes accompanieth it and is therefore called v. 12. the faith of the operation of God There is a temporary faith which we may call a faith of the operation of man but true saving faith is the operation of God and may be sayd as the spirituall circumcision which was signified and shadowed by the corporall to be made without hands Now as the Scripture speakes both of spiritualls and eternalls which are made without hands Indicatur divinum supplicium cujus nulla humana causa assignari aut quod nulla humana vi declinari potest so this text speakes of externalls and providentialls in the same language The mighty shall be taken away without hand that is without any creature-helpe or visible humane hand what ever is done without a visible hand is done by the hand of God Elihu intimates a punishment upon the mighty which as to the effecting of it cannot be assigned to any thing in man much lesse can the effecting of it be hindred by man The hand of God is most visible in doing that which no visible hand hath done or can undoe They shall be taken away without hand Hence note The mightiest have no might against God That cannot be avoyded by any humane power which is done without humane power God slew the first-borne of Egypt and destroyed the Assyrian hoast without hand he did it by his Angel no hand appearing against them The Lord smote Herod and he died without hand Acts 12.23 Immediately that is presently as the Greeke word imports 't is true also immediately that is without humane meanes as our English word also imports the Angel of the Lord smote him and he was eaten of wormes and gave up the Ghost What a poore worme was that mighty man in the hand of God when God slew him without hand and commanded the wormes to eate him Jesus Christ who is also the
man of wickedness nothing but wickedness altogether wicked The Lord looking downe from heaven upon all the children of men in a state of natureâ— sayd There is not one that doth good no not one Take any wicked man he hath no good in him no not one good thought in him he is a man of Iniquity he is meere wickedness till he be changed till his heart be broken by Godly sorrow till he be united unto Christ by faith and through the Spirit I know this expression is used severall times in Scripture to note those men who are sinners of the first forme being not only sinners in their state but in the highest degree of activity Thus Antichrist is called The man of sin 2 Thes 2. And when the Prophet saith Isa 55.7 Let the man of iniquity turne from his evill way he meanes the worst of men Yet this is a truth every man in an unconverted estate is a man of iniquity he hath no goodness nothing of God in him he bears only the Image and impresse of the devill upon him Christ told the Pharisees who were high in reputation with the world for good men John 8.44 Ye are of your father the devill and the lusts of your father ye will doe The naturall man is so sinfull that he is meerly sin And sometimes a godly man speakes and doth as if he were so too Job spake like men of Iniquity Elihu proceedeth more fully to declare both the reason why he would have Job further tryed and likewise what he meant by his answers for wicked men Vers 37. For he addeth rebellion or trespass to his sin Nomine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intelligitur peccatum ex errore commissum Nomine vero 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scelus propriè rebellio Here are two words sin and rebellion the first which we render sin signifies sin in common the least transgression of the Law it is sin the least vaine thought of the heart the least idle word of the tongue is sin but every sin is not rebellion that hath many speciall markes or brands rather upon it To rebell is to sin with a high hand to rebell is to sin with a stiff neck to rebell is to sin with obstinacy and resolvedness of will he addeth rebellion to his sin But did Job rebell indeed I conceive the rebellion which Elihu chargeth Job with is not rebellion in a strict but in a qualified and comparative sense As if he had said Job sinned before but now his sin is heightened we see him now in words rising up against God complaining of his justice or as if he had dealt unjustly with him What he did in the time of his prosperity those slips falls which he had then weighed nothing as laid in the ballance with the intemperate speeches which he hath uttered in the day of his trouble He addeth rebellion unto his sin So we render as respecting what he was and had done before Others render it potentially not indicatively Let Job be tryed unto the end because of his answers for wicked men for otherwise he may adde rebellion to his sin we know not whether his corruptions may carry him if suffered to goe onne This is a more favourable reading of the text not as a charge of naturall but feared rebellion against God As if he had sayd I see the mans spirit is so entangled that if he be not well and wisely dealt with possibly he may come to adde even rebellion unto his sin and whereas he sinned before out of ignorance or imprudence he may shortly sin out of contumacy and perverseness Hence Note First There are sins of severall degrees Every man sinneth he that saith he hath no sin or doth not sin there is no truth in him 1 John 1.8 But every mans sin is not rebellion every man doth not rise up to that height and degree of sinning If any shall enquire when is a mans sin rebellion I answer First That mans sin grows to be rebellion whose will is much in it He that will sin rebells The Apostle Paul saith Rom 7.19 The evill which I would not that I doe This is the case of every godly man at his best he doth those evills which he would not this is not rebellion because the will of a godly man is changed and turned off from sin he can say the evill which I would not doe that doe I. Rebellion is the doing of that evill which we would Secondly In rebellion or in rebellious acts of sin there is much of the understanding as well as of the will that is a man seeth cleerely what he doth is sin or that the rule is against him to rebell is to sin against the light It is sayd in the 24th Chapter of this booke The wicked are of them that rebell against the light that is they cannot abide the light he means it there of the naturall light the adulterer and the thiefe cannot indure Sun or day-light it is much more true of mysticall light if he hath any light of knowledge he resists and rebells against it It s great rebellion to resist the receiving of light offered but 't is greater rebellion to resist light received sins against knowledge are rebellious sins Thirdly A rebellious sin is a sin against reproofe admonition and warning when we have been often told of such a sin and admonished of such an evill course and yet we will goe on in it here is rebellion such a man hath not only light in his understanding that what he doth is sinfull but this light hath been brought home to him and wrought upon him by reproofe counsell and admonition here is still greater rebellion Therefore in the proceeding of the Church spoken of Math 18. when an offending brother hath been reproved and told of his fault first in pâ—ivate by a particular brother then by two or three then by the whole Church if after all these admonitions and reproofes he doth not repent he is to be cast out as a rebel and accounted as a heathen or a publican Lastly As 't is rebellion when we sin as against the reproofes of man so against the providences of God and those of two sorts First When we sin against the favourable providences of God I meane those which are outward when God bestows many mercies and comforts upon us when he gives us health and riches in the world and fullnesse of all things then to sin against him is rebellion Deut 32.15 Jesurun waxed fat and kicked and rebelled against the Lord and lightly regarded the rock of his salvation When we have received many and great mercies then to grow vaine and wanton and nourish our selves as in the day of slaughter this is rebellion against God Secondly When the providences of God have broken us by this evill or that evill when we are broken in our estates broken in our names broken in our relations broken with sickness after sickness and yet persist in