Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	father_n	person_n	trinity_n	2,522	5	9.8786	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81199	An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the twenty-second, twenty-third, twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth, and twenty-sixth chapters of the book of Job being the summe of thirty-seven lectures, delivered at Magnus near London Bridge. By Joseph Caryl, preacher of the Word, and pastour of the congregation there.	Caryl, Joseph, 1602-1673.	1655 (1655)	Wing C769A; ESTC R222627	762,181	881

in man to desire God to strike through his pride and it is a great act of mercy to man when God doth so The more God smiteth our sins the more he declares his love to and his care of our soules The remainders of pride in the Saints shall be smitten through but sinners who remaine in their pride shall be smitten through themselves God whose power and understanding are made known by smiting through the proud waves of the Sea will at last make his Justice and his holynes knowne by smiting through the proud hearts of men or rather men of proud hearts Proud men strike at God yea kicke against him no wonder then if he strike and kicke them All the sufferings of Christ are wrapt up under that one word His humiliation implying that as he was smitten for all our sins so most of all for our pride That man whose pride is not smitten to death or mortifyed by the death of Christ shall surely be smitten to death even to eternall death for his pride As God understandeth thoroughly who are proud so by his understanding he will smite through the proud JOB CHAP. 26. Vers 13 14. By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens his hand hath formed the crooked Serpent Lo these are parts of his wayes but how little a portion is heard of him but the thunder of his power who can understand JOB hath given us a particular of many illustrious works of God what he doth in the depths below Et ut in opere ipsius pulcherrimo desinam hic ille est qui coelos illa enarrabili pulchritudine exornavit spherae illae suis giris undique coelos serpētium instar percurrētes sunt opus manibus ipsius tornatum Bez and what in the hights above in this verse he gives another instance and that a very choyce one upon the same subject As if he had sayd After all this large discourse which I have made of the workes of God I will conclude with that which is the most remarkeable peice of them all This is he who hath adorn'd the heavens with that unutterable beauty wherewith they shine and the spheares which wind and turne round about the heavens like Serpents are smoothed and polished by his hand Vers 13. By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens The Spirit of God is taken two wayes in Scripture First q. d. visua voluntate ut nomen spiritus saepius in scriptura usurpatur sed malo ipsum dei spiritum almum accipere quo omnia deus fecit Merc for the power of God Secondly and so here for God the power as distinct from the Father and the Son By whom God wrought all things in the creation of the world Gen 1.2 The Earth was without forme and voyd and darkenes was upon the face of the deepe and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters It is a rule in Divinity That the external workes of the Trinity are undevided and so the Three Persons concurred in the making of the world God the Father created and is called Father in Scripture not onely in relation to the Eternall ineffable Generation of God the Son but also in reference to the production of the creature God the Son or the Eternal Word created Joh. 1.1 2 3. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God All things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was made God the Spirit or Holy-Ghost he likewise created and He onely is mentioned by Moses distinctly or by name as the Agent in the original constitution of all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non simplicem motionem denotat sed qualem columba perficit cum evis ad excludendum pullos incubat Rab Selom Verbum ●ranslatum ab avibus pullitiei suae incubantibus Jun. And the Hebrew word rendred in our translatiō moved the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters by which the Agency of the Spirit in that Great worke is expressed caryeth in it a very accurate significancy of that formative vertue or power which the Spirit put forth about it For it is a metaphor taken from birds who sit upon their eggs to hatch and bring forth their young ones and so importeth the effectual working of the Spirit whereby that confused masse or heape was drawne out and formed up into those severall creatures specifyed by Moses in the Historie of the Creation Among which we find the Garnishing of the heavens spoken of here by Job is reported by Moses for the worke of the fourth day Further we may consider the heavens first in their matter and being secondly in their beauty and ornaments Job speakes of the latter By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adornavit decoravit pulchrè fecit God hath not onely created but pollished and as it were painted or embroydered the heavens The originall word implyeth the making of them beautifull contentfull and pleasant unto the eye this is the Lords worke And therefore as the whole world because of the excellent order and beauty of it is exprest in the Greeke by a word that signifies beautifull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so some parts of the world have a speciall beauty and lustre put upon them beyond the rest The heavens are not like a plaine garment as we say without welt or guard but they are laced and trimmed they are enamel'd and spangled they glister and sparkle in our eyes with rayes and beames of light By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens If it be asked what is this garnishing of the heavens I answer the setting or placing in of those excellent lights Sunne Moone and Starres in the heavens are the garnishing of them Light is beautifull and the more light any thing hath the more beauty it hath Precious stones have much light in them those lights the Starres are as so many stones of beauty and glory set or moving in the heavens Light as diffused and shed abroad in the ayre is exceeding delightfull and beautifull but light as it is contracted and drawne together into the Sunne Moone and Starres is farre more beautifull light in the ayre pleaseth the eye but light in the Sunne conquers and dazzel's the eye by the excessive beauty and brightnesse of it In the first day of the Creation God sayd Let there be light and there was light but in the fourth day he sayd let there be lights that is let there be severall vessells to receave hold and containe light and then to issue it out among the inhabitants of the earth Gen. 1.14 And God sayd let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signes and for seasons and for dayes and for yeares and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth and it was so And

good It is not enough for a man to say he doth not judge his brother maliciously he ought not to judge him ignorantly Though to speake or judge ill of another because wee wish him ill be the greater sinne yet barely to speake or judge ill of another by whom we know no ill is very sinfull And then 't is most sinfull when wee doe it not onely as not knowing any evill they have done but because we know heare or see the evills which they suffer 'T is dangerous as well as improper to make the hardest and harshest dealings of God with any man the ground of our hard and harsh thoughts of him Thirdly Consider who they were whom Job is supposed to have oppressed they were not the great ones not the mighty men of the earth but the fatherlesse and the widow Whence note That the poore are usually the subject of oppression The greater fish in the sea of this world devoure and live upon the lesser The strong should support the weake and they who are upper-most should uphold those who are under them But because the weake and the underlings may most easily be opprest therefore they are most usually opprest As Covetousnesse is cruell so 't is cowardly and dares not meddle with its match God in reference to Spiritualls filleth the hungry with good things and the rich he sendeth empty away Luk. 1.53 Ungodly men in reference to temporals would send the rich away empty if they could but they are so farre from filling the hungry with good things that they take away all the good things they can from the hungry they care not if they starve the hungry if they make the poore poorer and take all from them who have but little Fourthly Job having been a Magistrate and so by his place a Minister of Justice is strongly pressed with the doing of injustice Whence note First That they who have power may easily though not alwayes justly be suspected for the abuse of it To have a power in our hands whereby we may doe good is a temptation to doe evill 'T is hard to keepe power within its bounds and to rule that by which others are ruled The Prophet Isa 1.10 calls the rulers of Sion rulers of Sodome because they ruled like them or rather worse then they eating up the people under their charge rather then feeding them and vexing those whom they undertooke to governe and to be a Shield unto against the vexations of others Secondly Note That as oppression is a sinne in any man so it is most sinfull in those who have power in their hands to releeve the oppressed Such act not onely contrary to a common rule but contrary to their speciall duty by how much we have the more obligation not to doe a thing by so much we sin the more if we doe it Thirdly Note That as it is very sinfull in Magistrates to wrong any man so it is most sinfull to wrong them or to deny them right who have most need of it the widow and the fatherlesse Magistrates are called Gods And God who hath honoured them by putting his name upon them expects that they should honour him by imitating or acting like unto him What a Magistrate doth he should doe like God he should doe it so that every one may be convinced that God is in him and with him of a truth As God takes care of the widow and of the fatherlesse so should he God is knowne by this Title A father of the fatherlesse and a Judge of the widow is God in his holy habitation Psal 68.5 That is in Heaven for that 's the habitation of his holines and of his glory there he dwells Judging for the widow and the fatherlesse And as that is the speciall businesse as it were of God in Heaven so they who are Gods on earth ought to make it their speciall businesse to judge for the widow and the fatherlesse Hence wee finde the widow and the fatherlesse commended by name to the care of the Magistrate The fatherlesse have no naturall parents living or none neere of kinne remaining to maintaine and defend them therefore the Magistrate who is pater patriae the common father of his Country should be their Foster-Father They who want power are the charge should be the speciall care of those in power Thus they are commanded Psa 82.3 4. Defend the poore fatherless doe justice to the afflicted needy deliver the poore and needy rid them out of the hand of the wicked Here 's their worke and the neglect of this worke how busie so ever Magistrates are about other worke is often complained of aloud in Scripture as a crying sinne as a sinne that ruines Nations and drawes downe publicke Judgements upon a people Isaiah 1.17 Cease to doe evill learne to doe well seeke Judgement relieve the oppressed Judge the fatherlesse plead for the widow And at the 23 verse They judge not the fatherlesse neither doth the Cause of the widow come unto them Againe Jer. 5.28 They judge not the Cause of the fatherlesse It is a sin not to judge any mans Cause not to judge the Cause of the richest of the greatest yet it is more sinfull not to judge the Cause of the widow and the fatherlesse And when he saith They judge not the Cause c. the meaning is they judge not the Cause of the fatherlesse impartially and righteously And indeed he that doth not judge righteously doth not judge at all and when the Prophet saith They judge not the Cause of the fatherlesse it is as if he had said Among all the Causes that lye unjudged this is the Cause that God takes most notice of and is most displeased with the neglect of it even when the Cause of the fatherlesse is not pleaded or judged All are forward enough to plead the Cause of the rich but when the Client is poore and appeares in forma pauperis his cause seld me finds any but a poore and formal pleading We read Acts 6.1 That there was a great murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrew●s because their widdowes were neglected in the daily Administration Church-Officers in their capacity as well as State-Officers in theirs ought to have a carefull eye upon widows that are in want And the Apostle James Cha. 1.27 summes up as it were all Religion into this one duty Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherlesse and the widow Not as if this were indeed all religion or the all of religion but as when the Spirit in Scripture hath to doe with prophane persons or meere moral honest men who place all religion in civill righteousnesse and workes of charity then he calls them to first Table duties or to the sincere worship of God so when the Spirit is speaking to those who place all their religion in worship or in first Table duties neglecting the duties of charity and righteousnes then we finde

desire is a death to the desirer A godly mans desires are active desires they put him upon enquiry lead him to the meanes of enjoying the good des●ered And though God be unexpectedly found of some that seeke him not yet no man can expect to finde God but he that seeketh him And indeed what should the Creature doe but be upon an enquiry after God there is a Naturality in it hee being the supream beeing that we who have our being from him should seeke after him And the Apostle tells us Act. 17.26 27. that this is the designe of God in making of one blood all Nations of men for to dwel on the face of the earth and in determining the times before appoynted and the bounds of their habitation namely That they should seeke the Lord if haply they might feel after him and finde him though he be not farre from every one of us for in him we live c. The Lord is neer all he hath a presence in all places with all persons but the Lord would have all seeke feele grope after him even such as have but a dim light of him as those have that doe not seeke so much with their eyes as with their hands they onely feele after the things which they would have There is a light in the spirits of all men that haply they may feele after God and finde him They who have not Scripture light Gospel light the highest light yet have some kinde or degree of light they have some glimmerings though no cleare discernings And that should put them on to seeke God much more should they seeke after him who have clearest light And where there is any heate of affection to God a little light will serve them to seeke after him they that are true desierers will be diligent seekers And they who seeking God have found him will seeke him yet againe yea they will seeke him more and more as long as there is any thing more of God to be found And there will alwayes be more of God to be found for here we know God but in part and therefore have found him but in part and hence it is that all the Saints in this life or on this side Glory even they of the highest forme and greatest proficiency in grace and knowledge are called Seekers this is the generation of them that seeke him Psal 24.6 not such seekers as we finde too many in these dayes who as if all were upon uncertainties in religion say they have as yet found nothing for as there is something wherein the most knowing and strongest Christians may be to seeke so there are many things yea all things necessary to salvation or without which we cannot be saved which the weakest may finde and know sufficiently though not sully And as they who desire to finde these things will be diligent in seeking them so they may know in themselves or be fully assured that they have found them and so even while they still continue to be seekers know that they are already Finders Lastly Observe God is every where yet especially some where to be found As there is a finding time so there is a finding place and finding meanes There is a finding time saith holy David Psal 32.6 For this shall every one that is godly pray to thee in a time when thou mayest be found The Hebrew is in a finding time though I would not give any one a stop from seeking God at any time yet I must say there is a speciall finding time And this the Apostle calls the Accepted time 2 Cor. 6.2 that is the time which we ought to lay hold upon or accept as also the time wherein we shall be acceptable or finde acceptation There is also a finding place there is a where as well as a when God specially is to be found I mean it not of a meere locality as if God were now to be found more in one place then in another for Paul saith 1 Tim. 6.8 I will that men every where lift up pure hands without wrath and doubting And Christ told the woman Joh. 4.21 The houre cometh when ye shall neyther in this Mountaine nor yet at Jerusalem worship the father not as if Christ had forbid the worship of the father in those places for the time coming but he enlargeth publick worship to all places or abrogates all differences of place under the Gospel as to the worship of the Father Yet if any man shall enquire where may I find God or say as Job here O that I knew where I might finde him I would answer First Seeke him in his promises search the Scriptures there you will finde God Secondly Look for him in his Ordinaces of prayer and preaching c. for there he hath promised to be present Where two or three are met together in my name there am I in the midst of them Math. 18.20 When the Church or Spouse in the Canticles Chap. 1.7 8. Askes the Question Tell me O thou whom my soule loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest at Noone Christ her Beloved answers If thou know not O thou fayrest among Women goe thy way forth by the footesteps of the flocke and feed thy kids besides the Sheepherds tents That is follow the holy practices and examples of the Saints in all former ages which the Apostle calls walking in the steps of the faith of Abraham Rom. 4.12 And againe hearken to the voyce of faithfull Teachers who as Shepherds feed the flocke of God with knowledge and understanding Waite at these Shepherds tents saith Christ and there thou shalt finde a presence of God with thee and his blessing upon thee Thirdly And above all Seeke God in Christ The father is onely to be found in the Sonne Looke to Jesus Christ and in him you cannot but behold God for he is the brightnes of his glory and the expresse image of his person Heb. 1.3 and therefore as he that hath the Son hath the Father also so he that by an eye of faith and in the light of the Word and Spirit Beholdeth the Son beholdeth the Father also For the light of the knowledge of the glory of God is given us in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 The light of the knowledge of the goodnesse of God of his mercy Justice holines which are his glory shineth forth from Jesus Christ that is in and by Christ it appeares gloriously that God is exceeding good mercifull just holy Therefore to every wearied soule complaining of the losse of God and crying out O that I knew where I might finde him The summe of all the Counsell that I can give or indeed that can be given is this Seek God in Christ and he will be found O that I knew where I might finde him That I might come even to his seat Some conceive these words as the issue of a distemperd spirit others tax Job with too much boldnes that