goodnesse Surely all the good that is in the Creature is but a spark of his flame a drop of his Ocean Verse 4 How then can man be justified with God Homo frivolus so the Tygurines translate How can frivolous man sorry man Morbis mortique obnoxius Man subject to diseases and death how can such a man so mortal and miserable a masse of Mortalities a Map of miseries a very mixture and compound of dirt and sin be justified with God How can he be perfect of himself without the gift of grace without an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Just One who alone is the propitiation for our sins 1 John 2.2 Rom. 3.25 who is made unto us of God wisdome righteousnesse c. 1 Cor. 1.30 Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman And therefore born in sin and under a curse the sign whereof appeares in the womans bearing and bringing forth Gen. 3.6 Our whole Nativity is impure Hence in the Law it is commanded that the woman should be unclean seven dayes that the child should be circumcised on the eighth day and that the mother should remain three and thirty dayes in the blood of her Purification Levit. 13. for by Nature we are all children of wrath and That which is born of the flesh is flesh Neither can any one bring a clean thing out of an unclean Chap. 14.4 See the Note there Surely as a slave begetteth a slave so doth a sinner beget a sinner Hence we are loathsome to God as a toad is to us because poison is in the nature of it Infantes ergo non sunt insonâ—es Infants are not Innocents though we commonly call them so because free from actual sin they having not yet sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression as the Apostle expresseth it Rom. 5.14 But the first sheet or blanket wherein they are covered is woven of sin shame blood and filth as may be seen Ezek. 16.4 6 This should teach us modesty and lowly-mindednesse Vnde superbit homo cujus conceptiâ— turpis Verse 5. Behold even to the Moon and it shineth not i.e. Either descend in thy thoughts from the highest Orbs as low as the Moon Or else ascend from Gold Gems Jewels and other Orient resplendent Creatures as high as the Moon and Stars and comparing them with the surpassing Majesty of God thou shalt find no more beauty or brightnesse in them then is in a lump of earth or clod of clay those heavenly Lights will appear to be as so many snuffs Or if thou canst discover no spots and blemishes in them yet God can without the help of any such Perspective Glasses as Galiâ—â—aeus gat him to discry mountains in the Moon Some think it was by Moon light that this speech was uttered and therefore the Moon is mentioned But as the Moon is confounded so the Sun also is ashamed when the Lord of hostes wil display the beams of his glory Mr. Abbot Isai 24.23 and 60.19 There is a Learned Interpreter who thus paraphraseth the Text Consider that by reason of the Fal of man the very creatures that in themselves are sinlesse yea the very Moon and Stars that are so far from earth and so neer to heaven have contracted defilement and are blemished so that with God for mans sake and by mans sin even they are not accounted free from pollution in his sight Thus he The visible heavens are defiled by our sins and must therefore be purged by the fire of the last day as of old the Vessel that held the Sinne-Offering was to be broken if earthen or to passe the fire if of better Metal Yea the Stars are not pure in his sight What ever they are in ours A thing that I see in the night may shine and that shining proceed from nothing but rottennesse There is a comparative imperfection and impurity in the Stars and Angels chap. 4.18 Verse 6. How much lesse man that is a worm He saith not as a worm but a worm it self So Psal 22. I am a worm and no man nullificumen hominis as Tertullian somewhere phraseth it Vermis parvus in carnc out caseo nascent Exod 16.24 David in the Arabick signifieth a worm saith One to which he may seem in that Psalm to allude The word here rendred a worm signifieth a small worm bred in cheese or flesh a Mite a Maggot Others say it signifieth rottennesse which hath no strength Hereby man convinced of his infirmity vanity and impurity should learne Virium suarum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agnoscere to give glory to God and to take shame to himself And the Son of man which is a worm Lumbricus quo vix quidquam contemptius nominari potest So vile and abject a creature is man The greater is Gods mercy to look upon such a walking dunghil Learn hereby to know God and thy self which is the highest point of heavenly wisdom CHAP. XXVI Verse 1. But Job answered and said BIldad had vexed him with his impertinencies and superfluous discourses of Gods Attributes as if Job had denied them or doubted of them which was far from him witness this Chapter He therefore rippleth up Bildad with a continued smart irony in the three next following verses letting loose the reines to his justly conceived grief and indignation and invading his adversary with these sharp questions by way of wonderment Verse 2. How hast thou helped him that is without power q.d. Full well hast thou done it surely See a like irony Mark 7.9 and 1 Cor. 4.8 10 Thou art a very goodly comforter and with a great deal of Wisdome thou hast framed thy discourse to my present necessity Thou lookest upon me as a poor forlorn strengthlesse fruitlesse creature Thou shouldst therefore have set thy self to support me and shore me up by uttering not only commoda sed accommoda things true and profitable but things fit and sutable to my distressed condition Thou hast spoken much of the Majesty and purity of Almighty God wherein I well accord thee but these are words of terror such as I can hardly bear Of strong Physick we say Quòd nec puero nec seni nec imbecillo sed robusto â—conveniat That it is not for children or old folks or weak ones but for the stronger sort it is not for every complexion and state So neither is every discourse for all sort of people It is a singular skill to be able to time a word Isai 50.4 and to set it upon its wheels Prov. 25.11 to declare unto a man his righteousness which not one of a thousand can tell how to do it like him Job 33.23 to seek to find out pleasant words such as have both goads and nailes in them Eccles 12.10 11. to prick them on to duty and to fasten them to the right as pales are to their railes to divide the Word of God aright 2 Tim. 2.25 and to give every one his portion in the due season
these had been caught and made a prey to their Enemies but that they lost their way What saith the Prophet As Birds flying so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem like as when the young are in danger of the kite the Bird flies to save them defending also he will deliver it and passing over he will preserve it Verse 32. And abode there three dayes For necessary refreshment after so long a journey The body is the souls servant and must therefore be kindly and fairely dealt with Corpus sive corpor quasi cordis por id est paer sive famulus ut sit par negotio that it may be neither above not below its businesse but even with it meet for it Verse 33. Now on the fourth day Viz. of their fifth moneth After a short repose they set close to work To recreations God allowes men to stoop for their bodyes sake as the Eagle to the prey or as Gideons Souldiers to soop their handfull not to swill their belly full Verse 34. By number and by weight c. In reference to this Text Let thy confession be full saith a reverend man bring out thy sins as those in Ezra did the vessels of the Temple by number and by weight 1. By Number Lev. 16.21 Aaron was to confesse over the scape goat all the iniquities of the children of Israel 2. By weight he was to confesse all their trangressions in all their sins that is laying open how many transgressions were wrapped up in their several sins and their circumstances Verse 35. Also the children of those that had been In token of presenting their bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God their Deliverer Rom. 12.1 Let us that are freed from sins slavery become the servants of righteousnesse Rom. 6.18 and being delivered from the hands of our Enemies serve God without fear in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our lives Luk. 1.74.75 Verse 36. And they furthered the people Heb. They gave them a lift lent them an helping hand not out of love to the work but for fear of the King and in pursuance of his commands and commissions Thus the Devil and his impes sometimes do Gods will though with an ill will Psal 119.91 They continue this day according to thine Ordinances for all are thy servants How much better were it to work from a right principle not by constraint but willingly not for fear of wrath but of a ready mind 1 Pet. 51 to love to be Gods servants taking hold of his Covenant Isai 56.6 and saying to him as the people did to Joshua Chap. 1.16 or as the Rulers and Elders to Jehu 2 Kings 10.5 We are thy servants and will do all that thou shalt bid us CHAP. IX Verse 1. Now when these things were done HEre are post maxima gaudia luctus Heavens joyes are without measure or mixture But this present life is overspred with sins and miseries as with a filthy morphew Of good Ezra we may say as Pliny doth of Metellus Metellus infelix dici non debet felix non potest Lib. 7. c. 47. Unhappy we may not call him happy we cannot witnesse the dolefull discourse of this Chapter The Princes came unto me The better sort of them that were sensible of the abuses crept in and desired a Reformation For some of the Princes also and Rulers had their hands elbow-deep in the wickednesse complained of Verse 2. The people of Israel The Many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the common sort that shallow-braind but many-headed Beast that loves to follow the herd and do as the most do though thereby they be utterly undone for ever And the Priests and the Levites This was much for these knew the Law and made their boast of it Rom. 2.18.23 They could not be ignorant of the unlawfulnesse of this mixing themselves in marriage with Heathens not proselyted Now sins against knowledge and conscience are of a double dye of a crymson colour and make a great breach a deep gash in a mans spirit Esay 59.11 12. What was it that brought such roarings and troubles on them and that when salvation was looked for Our iniquities testify to our faces and we know them Have not separated themselves The separation of the Saints from the wicked is a wonderful separation Exod. 33.16 such as was that of light from darknesse in the creation God hath brought them out of darknesse into his marvellous light Why then should they be unequally yoked together with unbeleevers what communion hath light with darknesse c 2 Cor. 6.14 1 Pet. 2. Doing according to their abominations How should they chuse but do so when so matched and married what 's the reason the Pope will not dispense in Spain or Italy if a Papist marry a Protestant yet here they will but in hope thereby to draw more to them The brown bread in the Oven will be sure to fleece from the white not that from it So in married couples seldome is the worse bettered by the good but the contrary See Nehem. 13.26 Verse 2. For they have taken of their daughters Taken them for wives which was fllatly forbidden Deut. 7.3 and a reason given ver 4. from the evil effect of such unblest marriages This abuse Malachi complaineth of chap. 2.11 13. whom some make to be the same man with Ezra For themselves and for their sons Whom they herein helped to a cold arm-ful as Lycophron calleth a bad wife or rather to an unnatural heat worse then that of a quartan ague 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as said Simonides as bad as that of an evil spirit said another Heathen So that the holy seed Id est The children of Israel who were all federally holy at least Deut. 7.6 as are also all the children of Christian Parents 1 Cor. 7.14 Hath been chief in this trespasse Which they think audaciously to bear out with their big looks to obtrude and justify to the World this most malapert misdemeanour because it is facinus majoris abollae the fact of a great one Verse 3. Juvenal I rent my garments and my mantle In token of his deep and down-right humiliation indignation detestation of their dealings herein And pluckt â—ff the hair of my head and of my beard To shew how passionately grieved and offended he was The raging Turk did the like at the last assault of Scodra being extremely vexed at the dishonour and losse he had received there But what followed In his choler and frantick rage Turk Hist he most horribly blasphemed God whereas holy Ezra though he sat astonied till the Evening sacrifice yet then he poureth forth his soul in an heavenly prayer verse 5 6. And sate down astonied As one that hath neither life nor soul as we say that can neither say nor do for himself being wondrously amazed astonished or desolate as David had been Psal 143.4 The true Zealot as his love is fervent his desires
distance and disproportion Thus Angels As for Saints All thy works praise thee O God saith David that is they give matter and occasion but thy Saints blesse thee Psal 145.10 How they do this see Rev. 5.11 12. Verse 7. Thou art the Lord the God Heb. That Lord with an emphasis with an accent and besides thee there is none other See verse 6. This is proved by his free favours to Israel and patient bearing with their evil manners in the wildernesse there being not any God like unto our God for pardoning of sinne and passing by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage Mic. 7.18 And didst chuse Abram God first chose him for his love and then loved him for his choice And broughtst him out of Vr of the Chaldees Pulling him as a brand out of that fire where till then he had lived and might else have died an Idolater Josh 24.2 And gavest him the name of Abraham See the Note on Gen. 17.5 Verse 8. And foundest his heart faithful He must needs finde it so who had made it so Otherwise Abraham as well as any other might well say Bern. Horreo quicquid de meo est ut meus sim The natural heart is deceitful and desperately wicked c. a bundle of sinne folly is bound up c. a treasury of sinne an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart c. a raging Sea of sinne Esay 57.20 a world of wickednesse James 3.6 If any good be in it 't is but as a drop of rose-water in a bowle of poyson where falling it is presently corrupted And madest a Covenant with him To be his God and the God of his seed This was divini mellis alveare the bee-hive of heavenly honey this was more then to be made Monarch of the whole world See Gen. 17.20 21. To give the land of the Canaanites c. Who had filled that good land from one end to the other with their uncleannesses Ezra 9.11 and were therefore worthily rooted out of it So Josephus reporteth that in his time these Jewes were grown so wicked that if the Romanes had not destroy'd them without doubt either the earth would have swallowed them up or fire from heaven have consumed them Bede saith of the ancient Britaines immediately before their destruction by the Saxons that they were come to a very great height of wickednesse so as to shame the counsel of the poore because the Lord was his refuge Psal 14.6 And hast performed thy words Of many promisers it may be said as Tertullian of the Peacock all in changeable colours as oft changed as moved Sertorius paid his promises with fair words Antiochus was sirnamed Doson because he oft said I will give you this or that but never did God is none such For thou art righteous That is faithful for there is a twofold justice of God 1. Of Equity 2. Of Fidelity See 1 John 1.9 Rev. 10.1 Where Christ is said to have a rainbow on his head to shew that he is faithful and constant in his promises Verse 9 And didst see the affliction The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous as well as his eares open to their prayers he knoweth their soul in adversity de remedio prospicit he is solicitous of their safety And heardest their cry by the red sea Though mixed with much murmuring Exod. 14.10 So he heard that pitiful poor prayer of David Psal 31.22 I said in mine haste I am cut off from thine eyes Neverthelesse thou heardst the voice of my supplications when I I cryed unto thee God heareth the young Ravens Psal 147.9 though they have but an hoarse and harsh note make no melody to move pity and cry but by implication onely and not directly unto him Verse 10. And shewedst signes and wonders upon Pharaoh That sturdy Rebel whom neither Ministery nor misery nor miracle nor mercy could possibly mollifie This was worse then any or all those ten plagues sent upon him whereof see Exod. 3.19 with the Note For thou knewest that they dealt proudly c. This the just and jealous God could not away with Exod. 18.11 His work in Heaven is said that Heathen to cast downe the lofty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Aesop Chiloni and to lift up the lowly So didst thou get thee a name i. e. A great fame of thy power and justice to the conversion of some as Jethro Exod. 18.1 and conviction of others as Deut. 32.31 Josh 2.10 1 Sam. 4.8 Verse 11. And thou didst divide the Sea before them That which threatened to swallow them preserved them For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him Psal 32.6 As a stone into the mighty waters As lead Exod. 15.10 So shall Rome that spiritual Egypt once sinke into the bottome of the Sea as a milstone thrust into it by a mighty Angel with a most impetuous force Rev. 18.21 Verse 12. Moreover thou leddest them by day c. This pillar of a cloud was miraculously moved with such variation as God thought fit for the guiding of their journeyes much better then did or could Vibilia that Heathen-fiction And in the night by a pillar of fire Though they did not usually journey in the night yet sometimes they did and then this pillar of fire was their guide God is with his at all assayes and is all in all unto them Psal 121.4 See Esay 4.5 6. Verse 13. Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai A place of many bushes and briers The Law there delivered pricketh and pierceth the consciences of evil-doers Thither God came with ten thousands of his Saints as Moses who climbed up that hill and alone saw it saith Deut. 33.2 And spakest with them from heaven He came down upon Sinai and yet spake from heaven See a like text John 3.13 There he spake also with us Hos 12.4 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh from heaven see that ye shift him not off much lesse turn away from him Heb. 12.25 And gavest them right judgements c. All these high praises are farre below the worth and excellency of Gods holy Lawes They were given in the wildernesse because saith Philo they are to be learnt in a wildernesse seeing there we cannot be hindered by the multitude But this is no way solid as one hath well observed Good Statutes and Commmandments Good they are in respect 1. Of the Author 2. Of the Matter 3. Of the Effect for they make those good that observe them This is true of the Moral Law as for the Judicial it was fitted to the Jewes and best for them but Carolostadius did ill to seek to force it as needful for all Christian Common-wealths Encyclop Solon being asked whether he had given the best Lawes to the Athenians answered the best for them the best that
and other texts of Scripture as Revel 14.11 Deut. 32.22 Psalm 55.15 Prov. 15.24 c. To be 〈◊〉 Vbi sit seâ—tient qui curiâ—siùs quaeâ—â—nt saith one where it is they shall find one day who ever curiously enquire The word here rendred hell signifieth the lower and more remote parts of the earth and David telleth us that the wicked shall be turned into hell into the lowest part of it as the He licale there implieth Psalm 9 17. Verse 9. The measure thereof is longer then the earth Wherein some kingdomes are of a very great length as those of the Turks and of the Tartars at this day How long then in the earth it self Some have undertaken to tell in how many dayes a nimble footman might measure it but that 's but a conjecture It must be remembred that these things are spoken after the manner of men for the wisedom of God can neither be measured nor numbred of his understanding there is no number saith the Prophet Psalm 147.5 Archimedes the Mathematician vaunted that he by his skill in Arithmetick could number up all the sand or dust that is in the whole world habitable and inhabitable But who can cast up the extent of the Divine wisedom And broader then the sea Which yet David calleth the great and wide sea Psalm 104.25 Breadth is ascribed to the sea because of its huge extension marriners for many dayes together whiles they sail upon the main see no land but only sky and water Gods wisedom goes beyond all these neither must we think to lade this Ocean with our cockle-shell We may sooner drain the sea with a spoon then the perfections of God with our largest understandings Verse 10. If he cut off and shut up Heb. If he change viz. his course or way of proceedings toward men either to shut them up close prisoners or otherwise to put them to such straits that Job-like they know not what to do or which way to turn themselves Or gather together viz. His witnesses say some against an offender his armies and military forces saith the Chaldee paraphrast to ruine his enemies his out-casts say some interpreters according to that Psalm 147.2 The Lord doth build up Jerusalem he gathereth together the out-casts of Israel If he do any or all of these to shew his soveraignty as well he may Then who can hinder him Heb. turn him away or put a stop to him If God should do and undo confound all things turn the world upside down who shall contradict him or question him May he not do with his own as he pleaseth Atqui non erat necesse haec à Zophar dici quum de his jam eadem dixisset Job Merc. And might not Zophar have spared thus to have spoken to Job sith Job had said the same to him in effect before But Zophars design was to prove hereby that he who is by God brought into straits is a wicked liver He therefore in the two following verses glanceth at him as vain wicked bruitish and not unlike to a wilde asse-colt such as God would surely tame and tutor to better things by afflictions and so bring him to hand Verse 11. He knoweth vain man he seeth wickednesse also Doubtlesse he beholdeth faithlesse men mortals of vanity head-long and head-strong wights homines falsitatis so Cajetan rendreth it men of false-hood homines mendaces so Pagnine lying persons such as thou Job art presumed to be by thy impious words and grievous punishments He seeth wickednesse inanitatem iniquitatem vanity and villany God seeth all how closely and cleanly soever hypocrites think to carry the matter first hiding God from themselves and then vainly hoping to hide themselves also from God but his eyes behold his eye-lids try the children of men Psalm 11.4 He seeth their wickednesse or unreasonableness as the word properly signifieth for wicked men are absurd men 2 Thes 3.2 they are compact of meer incongruities solecizing in opinion speeches actions all Will he not then consider it sc To judg and punish it Man maketh no great matter of sin but God doth He will bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil Eccles 12.14 he will see that every transgression and disobedience shall receive a just recompence of reward Heb. 2.2 This Zophar doth not only affirm but puts iâ— home strongly by a question wherein he closely taxeth Job of hypocrisie Will he not consider it Some read it without a question thus But he that is man considereth not is without understanding of Gods wisedom and justice being dull and stupid like a wild asse-colt as it followeth Verse 12. For vain man would be wise Heb. Hollow man that is as void of grace as an hollow tree is of heart of oak Would be wise Heb. would be hearty â—gregiè cordatus home there is an elegancy in the Original that cannot be Englished Wilt thou know O vain man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. James chap. 2.20 The Greek is thou empty man thou that hast nothing in thee and yet art highly conceited thou that art Ephraim-like a silly dove without an heart Hos 7.11 and yet in superbiam erectâ—â— as the Vulgar here hath it raised up to pride that little knowledge he hath puffeth him up 1 Cor. 8.1 So hollows-like is the natural soul or rather so bladder-like like that filled with earthly vanities it growes great and swelleth in pride but prick'd with the least pin of piercing grief it shriveleth to nothing The Prophet Isaiah fitly compareth it to a bul-rush chap. 58.5 the colour whereof is fresh the skin smooth but if you pill it what is under but a kind of spongious unsubstantial substance of no use in the world worth the speaking of Formallists and pretenders to holinesse are flat nothing worse then nothing iniquity Matth. 23.28 Though man he born as a wilde asses colt Take him in his pure naturals he is no wiser Eph. 4. created he was in Gods image which consisted in knowledg righteousnesse and holinesse knowledg in his understanding rightnesse or straightnesse in his will and holinesse in his affections But since the fall all this is lost and gone quite he hath principium laesum neither can he know the things of God no though he be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a souly man one that doth excolere animam such as Tully and Aristotle yet is he in spirituals as blind as a beetle a meer asse-colt a colt is none of the wisest creature much lesse an asse-colt least of all a wilde asse-colt and yet such is man sensual man Judg. 19. saplesse man Psalm 14.1 he is as an asses foale for rudenesse a wilde asses for unrulinesse untamed and untractable Surely as a wilde asse-colt saith Gregory upon this text not used to the yoak runneth up and down the large fields and woods at his pleasure and when he is weary lieth down and thus doth from day to
not endure Job 31.23 Verse 22. Then call thou and I will answer c. Here Job gives God his choice offering to be either Defendant or Plaintiffe Respondent or Opponent Hoc multum erat saith Lavater this was much and indeed too much for if God should enter into judgment with his best servants no man living should be justified in his sight Psalm 143.2 The best may bear a part in that song of mercy Asperge me Domine purge me with hysop and I shall be clean wash me c. Psalm 51.7 Job is confident of his innocency and he might be for that particular wherewith his friends charged him viz. that he was an hypocrite but yet in defending himself and charging God so highly as he doth in this and the next Chapter he cannot be excused what though he knew himself justified by Christs righteousnesse imputed according to the Covenant of Grace Omnino tamen semper est Job immodicus saith Merce◠here yet surely he passeth the bounds of moderation and is over-bold in this offer of his laying the reins in the neck of his passions Fertur equis auriga c. Cajetan saith these words are arrogant and scandalous and Eliphaz is supposed for this passage to tax Job as he did chap. 15.4 yea thou castest off fear Or let me speak and answer thou me i. e. I will be plaintiffe or Opponent I will be bold to say it is not seemly to handle him as an enemy who knowes nothing by himself If there bee any thing more then involuntary and unavoidable infirmity in me Shew me what and how many my sins are that require so many and great punishments Verse 23. How many are mens iniquities and sins How many too many to be reckoned Sin imputed to thee sins inherent in thee sins issuing from thee commissions omissions failings in the manner of performance for a good work may be marr'd in the doing as many a garment is in the making and many a tale in the telling thy life is fuller of sins then the firmament is of stars or the furnace of sparks besides thy birth-blot and inward evils which might justly cause thy destruction as a man may die of inward bleeding When the house is well swept and all rooms seem very clean if the Sun do but shine into it through the windows the beams thereof discover an infinite number of motes in all places so will it be with the best if narrowly examined Lesser sins secret faults are of daily and almost hourly incursion yet we must be cleansed from them Psalm 19.12 or else vae hominum vitae quantumvis laudibili saith one Wo to the life of men though praise-worthy as the world judgeth A pardon there is of course for such sins and they do not usually distract and plunge the conscience but yet that pardon must be sued out and those sins must be disliked and bewailed Make me to know my transgression and my sin That particular sin that thou chiefly strikest at for every affliction hath a voice in it Mic. 6.9 and saith to the sufferer as those marriners did to Jonas chap. 1.8 what evil hast thou committed or admitted what good hast thou omitted or intermitted Vp and search Israel hath sinned why liest thou upon thy face as the Lord once said to Joshua chap. 7.10 11 something surely there is amisse that God would have amended It is therefore meet to be said unto him Make me to know my transgression and my sin yea the iniquity of my sin the filthinesse of my lewdnesse all my transgressions in all my sins as the phrase is Lev. 16.21 that is how many transgressions are wrapped up in my several sins and their circumstances This either Job meant here or else he was afterwards by Elihu tutored to it chap. 34.31 32. Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more Verse 24. Wherefore hidest thou thy face Who wast wont to shine upon mee chap. 29.2 3. He that hideth his face sheweth that he neither pitieth nor purposeth to relieve God seemed to look upon Job no otherwise then as under Satans cloak said that Martyr But he hideth his love sometimes out of increasement of love as Joseph did to his brethren and is never so near us as when with Mary Magdalen we are so bleared with tears for his absence that we cannot see him though at hand A child of light may walk in darknesse Isai 50.10 which when he doth he must resolve as Isai 8.17 I will wait upon the Lord who hideth his face from the house of Jacob and I will looke for him he must also in that dark condition cast anchor as they did in the shipwrack Acts 2.7 and pray still for day waiting till the day star arise in their hearts and all clear up And holdest me for thine enemy Which if God should have done indeed it would have been wide with Job and far worse then ever yet it had been for if a man find his enemy will he let him go well away 1 Sam. 24.19 I trow not unlesse it be for a greater mischief at another time But Job was out when he judged himself hated of God because afflicted sith he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth Heb. 12.5 See my Love-tokens pag. 23. and 54. Verse 25. Indignum est majestate tua ut misellum homuncionem c. Jun. Wilt thou break a leafe driven to and fro c q. d. egregiam verò laudem Thinkest thou to get any honour by encountring and overturning me who was at my best but as a leafe or as stubble weak and worthlesse and am now by reason of mine afflictions but as a leaf blown off and whirled up and down or as stubble fully dried which is soon scattered by the wind Psalm 1.4 or quickly burnt by the fire Nah. 1.10 David reasoneth in this manner with Saul 1 Sam. 24.14 After whom is the King of Israel come forth after whom dost thou pursue Tibul. After a dead dog after a flea A great purchase surely a great victory An gloria tanta est Insidias homini supposuisse Deum The truth is God doth not afflict any man whom he knowes to be a thing of nothing on purpose to try his strength or to shew his power but either to exercise his justice upon the wicked or to prove the faith of his people and to promote their salvation Verse 26. For thou writest bitter things against me As it were by a judicial rescript thou decreest my doom and accordingly thou inflictest hard and heavy things upon me Humanitùs dictum ex usu forensi Jun. as is most elegantly described in the following verses by metaphors fetcht from the course of Courts Sin is an evil and a bitter thing Jer. 2.19 Heb. 12.15 Acts 8.23 and hath bitter effects Ruth 1.20 Exod. 1.14
drunkards that they deserve double punishments first for their drunkennesse and then for the sin committed in and by their drunkennesse so do all men deserve double damnation first for the corruption of Nature signified by those legall pollutions by bodily issues and then for the cursed effects of it Gen. 6.5 Rom. 7.8 But it may bee Job here had an eye to that promise made to Noah after the flood Gen. 8.21 where the Lord moveth himself to mercy by consideration of mans native corruption even from his child-hood for he knoweth our frame c. Psalm 103.14 that is as the Chaldee Paraphrast explaineth it he knoweth our evill figment or thought which impelleth to sin hee knoweth it and weigheth it See the like Isa 48.8 9. Wee may beseech the Lord to spare us when we act sin because our natures are sinful but let not any go about either to palliate or extenuate their acts of sinne by the sinfulness of their natures as those doe who being told of their evil pranks and practises plead for them saying Wee are flesh and blood c. Not one Fortes creantur fortibus bonis but no meer man can bring forth a clean child out of unclean seed Adam begat a son after his own image Gen. 5.3 Corruptus corruptum That which is of the flesh is flesh John 3. Sin is propagated and proceedeth from the union of body and soul into one man That phrase Warmedin sinne Psalm 51.5 is meant of the preparation of the body as an instrument of evil which is not so actually till the soul come But we should not be so inquisitive how sin came in as how to be rid of it like as when a fire is kindled in a city all men are more careful to quench it then to question where and how it began Now there is one only way of ridding our hearts of sinne viz. to run to Christ and to believe in him For if the Son make you free ye shall 〈◊〉 indeed and hereunto both the Chaldee Paraphrast had respect likely when he rendred this text Cannot One that is Cannot God As also the Vulgar Latine Nonne tu qui solus es Canst not thou alone sc by thy merit and Spirit according to that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 6.11 Verse 5. Seeing his dayes are determined c. God hath set every man both his time whether shorter called here his dayes or longer the number of his months they have both their bounds which none can passe and also his task Acts 13.25 Hieron ep ad Fu. John fulfilled his course in brevi vitae spatia tempora virtutum multa replevit and he lived long in a little space he wrought hard as not willing to be taken with his task undone So verse 36. David after hee had served his owne generation and had done all the will of God fell on sleep See more of this on chap. 7.1 Thou hast appointed his bounds Heb. His statutes It is appointed for all men once to die Heb. 9.27 once for all and for ever it is appointed and this statute is irrepealable Here then we see the cause why some likely to live long die soon and others more infirme live longer God hath set the bounds of each ones life to a very day Virg. The bounds may be passed which our natural complexion setteth the bounds cannot be passed which the providence and will of God setteth Stat sua cuique dies Verse 6. Turn from him that he may rest Heb. Look away from him i. e. from me look not so narrowly and with such a critical eye upon mine out-strayes thus to hold me still on the rack look not so angerly afflict me not so heavily but let me rest or cease from my present pressures and doleful complaints and spend the span of this transitory life with some comfort and then let the time of my departure come when thou pleasest Till he shall accomplish as an hireling his dayes That is saith the Glosse till I am as willing to die as a labouring man is to go to supper and to bed The word rendred accomplish signifieth properly to acquiesce and rest in a thing and vehemently to desire it The Saints when they die shall rest in their beds Isâ—i 57.2 they rest from their labours Rev. 14.13 and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 presently straight upon the stroke of death no sooner have they passed under the flaming sword of that punishing Angel but they are forthwith in Paradise Here they are seldome quiet but tossed up and down as the ball upon the racket or ship upon the waves and hence it is that they sometimes fret or faint as Job and speak unadvisedly with their lips these firm mountains are moved with earth-quakes these calm seas are stirred with tempests and truly whosoever hath set himself to do every dayes work with Christian diligence to bear every dayes crosses with Christian patience and is sensible of his failings in both libentèr ex vita qunsi pleno passu egredietur saith one he will be full glad to be gone hence and be as weary of his life as ever any hireling was of his work See the Notes on chap. 7.1 2. Verse 7. For there is hope of a tree c. Here Job setteth on his request verse 6. with a reason God loveth a reasonable service and liketh well that we reverently reason it out with him And for the literal sense all things saith Gregory are so plain that there is no need to say any thing to that it being no more then this either I shall have comfort in this world before I die or never here therefore grant me rest now This argument Job illustrateth 1. By a dissimilitude here 2. By a similitude Merlin verse 11 12. The dissimilitude betwixt a tree and a man is this a tree may be hewed and felled yet feel no pain Again succisa repullulat imbribus irrigata a tree cut down if well watered will spring and sprout up again But now man as he is very sensible of every stroke of Gods hand neither can he suffer sickness or other affliction without smart so when once cut down by death he can by no means be recovered he cannot revive without a miracle Verse 8. Though the roots thereof wax old in the earth And so the more unlikely to shoot forth again Trees also have their old age wherein they decay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the stock thereof die in the ground Heb. in the dust as it needs must when cut off from the root it lieth along on the earth It was by a miracle that Aaroâ—s rod flourished not only all the plants of Gods setting but the very boughs cut off from the body of them shall 〈◊〉 and be fruitful Verse 9. Yet through the sent of water it will bud Heb. from the smell of waters a sweet Metaphor saith Merlin sense being attributed to things senselesse as smelling to the fire Judg. 16.9 and
upon him as silver and although he now crushed him together and brake him to pieces as the silver-smith doth an old piece of plate which he means to melt yet that he would in the grave as in a furnace refine him and at the Resurrection bring him out of a new fashion Lo this is the right Logick of faith to make conclusions of life in death and of light in darknesse to gather one contrary out of another Verse 16. For now thou numbrest my steps Or But now thou numbrest c. thou keepest an exact account of every sin of mine of every step that I have trod awry yea though it be but some wry motion of my mind as the Septuagint here translate so curious art thou and critical in thine observations of mine out-strayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See chap. 10.14 But is this Job that speaketh or some other How confident was he 〈◊〉 while and comfortable in the hope of a glorious resurrection but now down again upon all four as we say and like an aguish man in a great fit of impatiency which holdeth him to the end of the chapter But for this who knoweth not that every new man is two men that in the Saints the flesh is ever lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh that in the Shulamite is as it were the company of two armies maintaining a continual contest Cant. 0.13 â—said I am cast out of they sight yet I will look againe toward thine holy Temple Jon. 2.4 See the Note there Dost thou not watch over my sin This is the same with the former but without a figure The Rabbines have a saying that there is not any doubt in the law but may be resolved by the context the Scripture is its owne best Interpreter Verse 17. My transgression is sealed up in a bag As the writings or informations of a processe which is ready to be sentenced Deut. 32.34 Hos 13.12 Thou hast as it were sealed up and made sure work with all my sins saith Job to have them forth-coming for the increase of my punishment Look how the Clark of Assizes saith one seals up the indictments of men and at the Assizes brings his bag and takes them out to read the same against them so God dealt with Job in his conceit at least The truth is God had not sealed his transgressions in a bag but had cast them behind his back a bag God hath for mens sins and a bottle he hath for their tears Psalm 56.8 Now Job was one of those penitents that helped to fill Gods bottle and therefore he saw at length though now he were benighted all his sins bag and all thrown into the sea and sinking as a waighty milstone in those mighty waters of free-grace and undeserved mercy And thou sowest up mine iniquity Adsuèsne aliquid iniquitati meae so the Tigurines translate i. e. Wilt thou sew or adde any thing to mine iniquity wilt thou tye to it that tag as a Martyr phraseth it of the Lawes malediction conjoyning the punishment to the sin Adsuere ad iniquitatem est poenas poenis continenter adjungere Merl. Some make this an explication of the former q. d. the bag is not only sealed but for more surety sewed too and that purposely for a purchase of punishment as some sense it Verse 18. And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought q. d. If thou Lord proceed to deal thus rigidly with me viz. to number or cipher up my steps to watch over my sins to seal them up in a bag c. and all this in fierce wrath that thou mayest lay load upon me what mountain what rock what other creature is ever able to abide it chap. 6.12 chap. 7.12 Job had said before Is my strength the strength of stones Am I a sea or a whale Were I these or any the like robustuous creatures yet could not I expect to stand before the displeased Omnipotency who takest the hills like tennis-balls and crackest the rocks like a Nut-shell See Hab. 1.4 5 6. with the Notes And the rock is removed out of his place As in earth-quakes it sometimes falleth out See on chap. 9.5 or by reason of the sea underlaking it decayeth in time and waxeth old as the Hebrew word signifieth Verse 19. The waters weare the stones Gutta cavat lapidem c. the weakest things wear out the hardest by often falling upon them or continual running over them so doth Gods wrath though let out in minnums secretly but surely consume Hos 5.12 I will be unto Ephraim as a moth and to the house of Judah as rottennesse or that little worm teredo that eats into the heart of wood and rots it Thus he plagued the Egyptians by lice and flies There may be much poison in little drops Thou washest away the things that grow out of the earth Or Thou ever-flowest as once in the general deluge when the face of the earth was grown so foul that God was forc'd to wash it with a flood and frequently since we see that after great rains there are huge floods that marre whole meadows and corne fields not only discolouring but drowning all their beauty and plenty This is the fourth comparison used in this and the former verse where a man would wonder saith an Interpreter Olymp. audire Jobum in medus â—rumuis philosophantem to hear Job in the midst of his miseries making use of his philosophy and travelling thus in his thoughts for illustrations of his own case over mountains and rocks c. Thou destroyest the hope of man viz. In destroying the things above-mentioned or so thou destroyest c. though some reserve the raddition to the next verâ—â— so Thou prevailest against him c. i.e. So thou never ceasest with thy might to cast down sorry men till such time as they changing countenance and departing with an heavy and sorrowful heart thou violently throwest them out their lives and hope ending together if they have been wicked as if godly yet their vain and groundlesse hopes of prosperity and plenty c. come to nothing though over the red sea yet Gods people may be made to tack about two and forty times in the wildernesse Verse 20. Thou prevailest for ever against him This and the rest of the words to the end of the Chapter some make to be the Application of the Similitudes Others an Amplification only of what he had said Thou destroyest the hope of man Thou must needs when thou overmatchest and over-masterest him and art never worsted Exod. 15.3 the Lord is called A Man of War the Chaldee there hath it The Lord and Victor of Wars And the word here rendred Ever cometh from a root that signifieth to finish conquer and triumph And he passeth scil Out of the world by a violent or untimely death Violenâ—â— mortâ— aut certe immaturà Merlin with as ill a will many times as the unjust Steward did out
of his Office as the Jebusites did out of the Fort of Zion or as the Devil out of the Demoniack Sâ—d voluntas Dei necessitâ—s rei he passeth because he can neither will nor chuse as they say Thou changest his countenance and sendest him away Eleganter vero mors notatur immutandi verbo saith one Elegant is death set forth by changing the countenance for death taketh away the faire and fresh colour of a man and makes him look wan and withered pale and ghastly It is easâ—e to see death many times before it come in the sick manâ—face in his sharp nostrils thin cheeks hollow eyes c. Facies Hippocratica those Harbingers of death whereby God sendeth for him and so sendeth him away extrudit amandet as once he did Adam out of Paradise Lavaters Note here is Propone tihi semper horribileus speciem mortis ut eò minus pecces Set before thy self alwayes the horrid face of death to restraine thee from sin Verse 21. His sons come to honour and he knoweth it not Whilst he lyeth sick Omnis in Ascanio chari statcura parentis Vir. he regardeth no earthly thing no not what becometh of his children formerly his greatest care whether they be advanced or impaired in their outward condition As when he is dead he can take no knowledge of any thing done in this world Isai 63.16 Eccles 2.19 and 96. be his children or friends rich or poor high or low he is both ignorant and insensible It was a base slander published by a Jesuit some years after Queen Elizabeths death That as she died without sense or feeling of Gods mercies Cambd. Eliz. Prefat so that she wished she might after her death hang a while in the Aire to see what striving would be for her Kingdome As for that opinion of some Papists That the dead do sometimes returne into the Land of the living that they know how things go here and make report thereof to those in heaven it is contrary to the whole Scripture Verse 22. But his flesh upon him shall have pain That is say some But as long as he is living his body is afflicted with a thousand evils and though his soul by the condition of her creation be exempt from them yet she beares a part in them and becomes miserable with it A dying man hath sorrow without and sorrow within the whole man is in misery as Job here felt himself Others hold Aben-Ezra Mercer Deodate that this Poetical representation hath no other meaning but that the dead have no manner of communication with the living Broughtou rendreth it His flesh is grieved for it self and his soul will mourn for it self q.d. he takes no thought or care for his children or neerest relations CHAP. XV. Verse 1. Then answered Eliphaz the Temanice and said LApides locutus est In this second encounter Eliphaz falls upon Job not so much with stronger Arguments as with harder words reproving him sharply or rather reproaching him bitterly Facundiâ quadam caninâ with more Eloquence then charity So hard a thing is it saith Beza espetially in disputing and reasoning to avoid self-love as even in these times experience daily teacheth us He hinteth I suppose at the publick Conference betwixt himself and Jacobus Andreas at Mompelgard Lib. 35. Hist whereby the strife was rather stirred then stinted as Thuanus complaineth Or else at the Disputation at Possiacum wherein Beza Speaker for the Protestant party Hist of Counc of Trent 453. before the Queen Mother of France the young King Charles and many Princes of the Blood entring into the matter of the Eucharist spake with such heat unlesse the Historian wrongs him that he gave but ill satisfaction to those of his own side so that he was commanded to conclude Such meetings are seldome successeful saith Luther because men come with confidence and wit for victory rather then verity In this reply of Eliphaz to Job we may see what an evil thing it is to be carried away with prejudice and pertinacy which make a man forget all modesty and fall foule upon his best friends Here 's enough said to have driven this sorrowful man into utter despaire had not God upheld his spirit whiles he is fiercely charged for a wicked man Non affert ullaâ—â— consolationem non invitat eum ad panitentiam sed potiâ—â— ad desperationem complelas Lav. and hated of God neither doth any of his friends henceforth afford him one exhortation to repentance or one comfortable promise as Lavater well observeth Verse 2. Should a wise man utter vain knowledg Heb. Knowledg of the wind light frothy empty discourses that have no tack or substance in them but only words that are no better then wind a meer flash or Aiery nothing Solomon thinks a wise man should beware of falling into this fault lest he forfeit his reputation Eccles 10.1 Dead flyes cause the Oyntments of the Apothecary to send forth a stinking savour so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour as spots are soonest observed in the whitest and finest garments and envy like wormes and moths doth usually feed on the purest cloth Neh. 6.11 A great many dead flies may be found in a Tar-box and no hurt done but one of them falne into a pot of sweet Odours or precious Perfumes may soone taint and corrupt them And fil his belly with the East-wind Per ventrem mentem intellige per ventum Orientalem vanam opinionem saith Vatablus By belly understand the mind and by the East wind a vain conceit or frothy knowledg blown forth out of a swelling breast to the hurt of others for the East wind is destructive to herbs and fruits Hos 12.1 Gen. 41.6 But doth not Eliphaz here by these bubble of words and blustering questions betraying much choler and confidence fall into the very same fault which he findeth with Job Doth not he also fill his belly with heat so the Vulgar rendreth this Text which kindling in his bosom blazeth out at his lips Doth not this angry man exalt folly and shew himself none of the wisest though he were the oldest in all the company Verse 3. Should he reason with unprofitable talk Why But if he do should he therefore be thus rippled up and rough-hewed And not rather reduced and rectified with hard Arguments and soft words Man is a cross crabbed creature Duci vult trahi non vult Perswade him you may compel him you cannot A fit time also must be taken to perswade him to better for else you may loose your sweet words upon him The Husbandman soweth not in a storm The Mariner hoyseth not sail in every wind Good Physicians evacuate not the body in extremity of heat and cold A brother offendâ—d is harder to be 〈…〉 a strong City Prov. 18.19 This Eliphaz should have considered and not so rashly censured Job for a fool and his talk for trash but
unto the Lord our God who dwelleth on high who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth He raiseth up the poor out of the dust 2 Chron 16.9 c. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth to shew himself strong Rom. 1.18 c. His wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men Job had frequently acknowledged and celebrated the power and providence of God his judgements upon the wicked his fatherly chastisements upon himself deeply detesting all such thoughts and speeches as he is here wrongfully made the Author of And behold the height of the Stars Heb. The head of the stars those that are the very highest and at the top of the visible heaven the eighth heaven beyond which some of the Ancients acknowledged not any other Aristotle saith That beyond the aspectable and moveable heavens Decoel Text. 99. there is neither body nor time nor place nor vacuum But the scripture teacheth us That there is beyond the Stars how high set soever a third heaven a heaven of heavens the Throne of God and habitation of the Blessed The starry sky is but as the brick-wall encompassing this lofty Palace the glorious and glittering rough-cast thereof How high they are Vt vix â—ò noster possit aspectus pertingere so high that our eyes can hardly reach them Mercer It is a wonder that we can look up to so admirable a height and that the very eye is not tyred in the way Now God is far far above the stars omnium supremus altissimorum altissâ—mus The high and lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity Propterea quod tantum Chaos sit inâ—er nos et Deâ—â—â— Vat. Isa 57.17 dwelleth in light inaccessible 1 Tim. 6.16 such as whereof no natural knowledge can be had nor any help by humane Arts Geometry Opticks c. How then can he see from such a distance what is here done on earth saith the Atheist who thinks to hide himself from God because he hath hidden God from himself Hear him else in the next verse See also Ezek. 8.12 and 9.9 Verse 13. And thou sayest How doth God know A bruitish question Psal 94.7 8. and never of Jobs making There are a fort of such miscreants as believe nothing but what they see with their bodily eyes and indeed for a finite creature to believe the infinite Attributes of God he is not able to do it throughly without supernatural grace which therefore must be begged of God Jam. 1.5 that he would give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him the eyes of our understanding being enlightened c. Ephes 1.17 18. For want whereof the wicked blinded with sin ask such senseless and blasphemous questions as this in the text and those like this Psal 10.11 Zeph. 1.12 See the Note there Plin. 1.2 c. 7. It is a ridiculous thing saith Pliny to think that the highest Majesty taketh care of humane affaires a service doubtless far below him and unworthy of his greatness Can he judge through the dark cloud Can he discern through such a dark medium Sicut pueri vultum obvelant putantes sese tum non conspici Lavat Men cannot see God and therefore some fools are apt to think that neither can he see them But that Job was far from any such thought see chap. 21.16.22 To blame therefore was Eliphaz to charge him with such a wickedness and all because he had said that in this life bad men oft prosper and better men suffer which yet is verum tanquam ex tripode very true and not at all derogatory to the divine providence Verse 14. Thick clouds are a covering to him He lyeth close hid among the clouds and seeth nothing But be the clouds never so thick Christ's eyes are a flaming fire Rev. 1.14 And the School of Nature teacheth That the fiery eye needeth no outward light but seech extra-mittendo by sending out a ray c. He will freely blot out the sins of his people as a cloud and their transgressions as a thick cloud Esa 44.22 43.25 but the clouds cannot hinder him from sight of their sins for he is All-eye and darkness and light are both alike to him Psal 139.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A cloud may come between the body of the Sun and us and the whole Hemisphere may be masked and over-cast as we call it but nothing can keep God from eying and ordering all things And he walke h in the circuit of heaven Where it seemeth thou thinkest he only manageth matters and beareth rule and not below So indeed the Peripateticks thought and taught Agreeably whereunto Lysippus made Alexanders picture looking up to heaven with this Posie Juppiter asserui terram mihi tu assere coelum With which picture Alexander was so delighted Plin. l. 6. c. 16. that he proclaimed that none should take his picture but Lysippus Augustus also heard with delight Divisum imperium cum Jove Caesar habet Virgil. vita And the Great Turk vexed at his great loss in the last Assault of Scodra most horribly blasphemed against God saying Turk Hist fol 423. That it were enough for him to have care of heavenly things and not to cross him in his worldly actions The Atheist here taketh it for granted That God hath enough to do to walk from place to place in Heaven as Princes do in their Progress and to order those heavenly bodies how they shall affect these lower bodies by their light heat and influence c. Fain they would confine him to that circuit or circle the heavens are supposed to be sphaerical and circular that he might meddle no further Fain they would perswade themselves and others That God hath cast off the care of earthly business and committed all to Fate and Fortune that many might live far more comfortable if they were less consciencious that it dothing concerneth God whether men do or not do this or that c. Such dust-heapâ—s as these may be easily found in every corner for all places are full of them and so is hell too As for Job the Counsel of these wicked ones was far from him chap. 21.16 he was the worse to think of them whatever Eliphaz by mistake of his meaning at the least thought of him Verse 15. Hast thou marked the old way Heb. The way of old Broughton rendreth it the way of the old world of those ungodly ones before the Flood Hereby it appeareth say our Learned Annotatours that Job lived before the deliverance out of Egypt because he mentioneth the Creation and the Flood but not that deliverance which had he knowne it would have affoâ—ded him an excellent Argument to prove that godly men might be in great afflict on as the Israelites were in Egypt and his friends a plausible argument that God useth to destroy wicked men for their sin as
him For although he were put on by his domesticks who seeing their Master despitefully used would have torn those his enemies in pieces yet he was not moved thereby but contained and kept them in from such violence Beza thus paraphraseth this text And yet I protest that I wanted not setters on even amongst mine own houshold servants who still perswaded me to requite those injuries which I received with most bitter revenge nay their minds were so incensed that they cryed out That they should never be satisfied on them no not though they had eaten them up quick Oh that we had of his flesh So barbarous and bruitish is revenge See Psal 27.2 Erasmus telleth of a Frier Augustine of Antwerp that he openly in the Pulpit wished that Luther were there that he might bite out his throat with his teeth Epist lib. 16. ad obtrectat I can hardly forbear with these nailes of mine to be thy death said Frier Brusierd to Bilney the Martyr At the town of Barre in France the Italians in hatred of Lutheranisâ—e Acts Mon. fol 914. Ibid. 1951. brake forth into such fury that they ript up a living child took out his Liver being as yet red hot and eat it as meat Christiern King of Denmark pulled the dead body of his Enemy Steven the Swedish General out of the grave Val. Max christian 138. inusitataqus rabie dentibus adpetiit and like a mad dog tore it with his teeth The Jewes in Trajans time having one Andrew for their Captain cut in pieces about Cyrent many Greeks and Romans eating their flesh besmearing themselves with their blood and clothing themselves with their skins The like they did also about Cyprus and in Egypt Xiphil in Dist. to the slaughtering of above four hundred thousand people Tacitus noteth of the Jewes in general that they are very kind among themselves but contra oâ—uts alies hostile adium against all others they bear hostile hatred Home homini 〈◊〉 We cannot be satisfied But with his heart blood It is as easie to quench the fire of Aetna Planeè inexplebile est vindictae desiderium Mercer as the thoughts fired by revenge See Psal 124.3 14.4 Verse 32. The stranger did not lodge in the street Job was so far from liking and commending those enraged stomacks of his servants that he would not suffer strangers to lodge abroad in the night season Gregory noteth here that he speaketh first of his pacifick disposition toward his enemies and then of his hospitality because saith he the heart must first be freed from malice and wrath and then charity is to be exercised that we might be accepted Abraham neither set up an Altar to God nor shewed himself forward to entertain strangers till Lot and he were reconciled Hospitality is commended to our practise both by the Prophet Isaiah chap. 58.7 by St. Paul Rom. 12.13 Heb. 13.2 and by St. Peter 1 Epist 4.9 Of Cranmer Tremellius testifieth that he was home 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nec minù 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 humane and hospitable Epist 57. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the example of Abraham and Lot whom Synesius therefore calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-entertainers Julian the Apostate reckoneth the hospitality of the Primitive Christians Chrys in Joan. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hinc tot olim Xenodochia among those three things that caused their Religion to be so generally embraced Of the Waldenses also those ancient Protestants in Germany it is reported that they could travel from Colen to Millain in Italy and every night lodge with Hosts of their own profession who would bid them heartily welcome But I opened my doors to the Traveller I bid the weary wayfaring man welcome to my house Jupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicebatur Ad viam vel versus viam and kept a good table for such Mensares sacra est per quam Deus honoratur praeses amicitiae hospitii Job was known to be a good house-keeper and was much resorted to he set open his gate in the high-way so Beza after Mercer rendreth this text It was his will That that part of his house which bounded upon the high-way-side should alwayes lye open to harbour Passengers Verse 33. If I covered my transgression as Adam A transgressour then Job yieldeth himself the lives of the best alive are fuller of sins than the firmament is of stars or the furnace of sparks But he did not Adam-like or after the manner of men cover or conceale them extenuate or excuse them denying them as Cain did Gen. 4.9 and Gehezi 2 King 5.25 and Ananias Act. 5.8 or at least dealing with them as the unjust Steward did who for an hundred set down fifty Adam went about to hide his sin alledging non causam pro causa that for the cause of his flight that was not the true cause thereof viz. the voice of God his fear thereupon his nakedness c. thus sin and shifting came into the world together Secondly when that would not do but that he was driven from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then he seeks to excuse it by accusing God and transferring the blame upon him for giving him a woman to tempt him Gen. 3.12 The like hereunto do they that plead Predestination or Constellations or natural inclination c. that put God to his proofs as they did Jer. 2.35 Job was none such but made it his daily practise to acknowledge his iniquities against himself Psal 32.5 and with utmost aggravation from all the circumstances laying open how many transgressions were wrapt up in each sin as it is Levit. 16.21 lest as Samuel once said to Jesse Are here all thy sons so God should say to Job Are these all thy sins and there being but one only covered that one should prove destructive to his soul as that bastard Abimelech did to all his brethren But now that he freely and fully confesseth his offences he is sure to find mercy Prov. 28.18 No man was ever kept out of heaven for his confessed badness many are for their supposed goodness By hiding â—inâ— iniquity in my bosom As silly men think to do 1 From God who is all-eye and every man before God is all-window so that he needs not a window in his bosom as the Heathen Momus wisht for God to look in at Job 34.22 2 From the world which yet they cannot alwayes do for God that descryeth will also discover all sooner or later else how should that be fulfilled The name of the wicked 〈◊〉 Broughton rendreth it By hiding mine iniquity of self-love So Kimchi also readeth it Tremellius to the same sense Ex dilectione mei And surely it is this sinful self-love that closeth up mens lips and keepeth them from pouring out their souls as water before the Lord. Some deal with their souls as others do with their bodies when their beauty is decayed they desire to hide it from themselves
of a full liberty and power as Popish Priests arrogate Mr. Ley his Pattern of Piety 145. I have known one saith a very grave Divine who neither by education or affection was disposed to Popery who having the ill hap when his conscience was perplext to fall into the hands of a Popish Priest upon this reason because as the Priest suggested that Religion afforded more comfort because it had and exercised a power to pardon sin which our Ministers neither did or durst assume unto themselves he became a Papist But it is honour enough to Ministers and may be comfort enough to their hearers that God gives them commission to deliver a penitent man from hell not as the Meanes for that is Christ alone but as Instruments 1. To apply Christ crucified or rather risen again unto him 2. To pronounce his safety and salvation upon the due use of that means And this is the greatest honour that ever was done to any mere creature Angels never had such a Commission They indeed are Ministers for the good of those that shall be heirs of salvation Heb. 1.14 But Ministers are called Saviours Obad. 21. 1 Tim. 4.16 Jam. 3.20 I have found a ransom Or An attonement a cover for his sin as a thing is covered with plaister or as under the Law the Ark covered the Decalogue the Mercy Seat upon it and over them two Cherubims covering one another all which shewed Christ covering the Curses of the Law and expiating the sins of his people which things the Angels desire to pry into as into the patterns of Gods deep wisdom who hath found out such a ransom which he now professeth to accept for this penitent man 1 Tim. 2.6 Psal 32.1 Verse 25 His flesh shall be fresher then a childs Tender and smooth full of good blood and fresh spirits he shall be battle and blith like a suckling See a like Hyperbole concerning Naaman the Syrian restored to health 2 Kings 5.24 implying that his disease was throughly cured and his flesh in better case then ever There is a memorable story in the Acts and Monuments of the Church which here may not unfitly be inserted to shew the sweet fruits of remission of sins by the free mercy of God In the dungeon with Pâ—trus Bergerius at Lions in France was a certain thief and Malefactor who had lain in the dungeon the space of seven or eight months This thief for pain and torment cryed out of God and curst his Parents that begat him being almost eaten up with lice miserably handled and fed with such bread as dogs and horses had refused to eat So it pleased the goodness of the Almighty that through the teaching and prayer of this Bergerius he was brought to repentance and the knowledge of God learning much comfort and patience by the word of the Gospel preached unto him Touching his conversion himself wrote a sweet Letter to some friends declaring therein that the next day after he had taken hold of the Gospel and framed himself to patience according to the same Act. Monâ—f 828. his lice which he could pluck out before by twenty at once betwixt his fingers now were so gone from him that he had not once his rotten flesh the Vulgar translateth this Text thus Consumpta est ejus caro à suppliciis was recruited and the Almes of good people so extended toward him that he was fed with white bred and that which was very good His name was John Chambone He shall return to the dayes of his youth Rejuvenescet He shall grow young again and renew his youth like the Eagles Psal 103.4 He shall be vigorous and active as Isai 40 31. Verse 26. He shall pray unto God and he will be favourable unto him All former unkindnesses notwithstanding God will cast his sins into the bottom of the sea and be as propitious to the poor sinner now reconciled recovered and making request as if he had never been offended by him Amongst men Reconciliationes sunt vulpinae amicitiae Reconciliations are for the most part Fox-like friendships and there 's little trust to them Not so betwixt God and men witnesse Peter of whom Christ thought no whit the worse for his threefold denyal of him when once he wept bitterly and prayed for pardon Mark 16. James 2.5 Go tel the Disciples and Peter that I am risen If any man want wisdom or any other good thing else let him ask it of God who giveth unto all men liberally and hitteth no man in the teeth either with his present weaknesses or by-past wickednesses Ambros in Psa Imò plus est propemodum à vitiis se revocasse quam vitia ipsa nescivisse saith a Father Penitence is in a manner as good as Innocence He shall see his face with joy Or Ostendet ei faciem suam in jubilo God shall make him to see his face with joy even with joyful acclamation when he shall find himself possest of Gods Kingdome which consisteth in Righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost which Chrysostomâ— rightly calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heaven afore hand For he will render unto man his righteousnesse Which he had lost by falling into sin as Ezek. 18.24 Understand it of degrees and measures for true grace cannot wholly be lost Rursus eum in album justorum piorum referet Lav. Or he will render unto him now in Christ that righteousnesse he lost in Adam he will fully and freely justifie him and sweetly seale him up to the day of Redemption the former falling out shall be but a renewing of love as it was betwixt Christ and his Spouse Cant. 5 and 6. Verse 27. He looketh upon men He looketh to see when any wil repent and return unto him Now Christs looks are often operative and cause that which he looks after A stroke from guilt broke Judas heart into despair but a look from Christ broke Peters heart into tears And if any say I have sinned so he say it penitently as David and the Prodigal and not fainedly as Saul or forcedly as Pharaoh or desperately as Judas In mens Courts saith Quintillian its best to say Non feci to plead Not guilty but in Gods Court its better to say Ego feci Guilty Lord Mercy Lord and not to put God to his proofs as they did Jer. 2.35 sith he that hideth his sins shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall find mercy Prov. 28.13 And perverted that which was right Thus the true penitentiary layeth load upon himself and aggravateth his sinnes whereof saith Merlin we have here a definition answerable to that of St. John 1 Epist 3 4. Sin is the transgression of the Law I have writhed from the rights saith He in the Text. I have turned aside to crooked wayes and so have deserved to be led forth with the workers of iniquity Psal 125.5 As Cattle are to the slaughter or malefactors to
still in his anger and speech he thus pronounced as the Vulgar hath it in answer to some of Jobs former speeches which he here reciteth but not so candidly and refelleth but not so mildly as was meet True it is that Job in his heat had let fall very many lavish and inconsiderate speeches as is to be seen almost throughout the tenth Chapter But yet it was far from him ever to say either that himself was without sin or that God was unjust as Elihu would bear him downe very odiously taking up certain sayings of his that way sounding and very gravely calling forth the rest there present to give sentence with him against Job Yet is not Elihu to be censured for a proud arrogant person as some make him but to be esteemed Sapiens egregius vir as Lavater here stileth him a wise and excellent man though he should have considered That the Spirit of God is neque mendax neque mordax a Spirit of truth and of meeknesse Verse 2. Hear my words O ye wise men And those are not many Hos 14.9 He excludeth poor Job whom yet he had promised to teach wisdome chap. 33.33 And that he spoke not to the many it is probable for they have not those aures perpurgatas that he calleth for in the next verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ferè sunt they are heavy eared for most part and of dull apprehension Baeôtum in patria crassoque sub aere nati To the other three then of Jobs friends he applyeth himself whom because he had sharply reproved before and that they may not think that he held himself the only wise man amongst them he thus bespeaketh to get audience and makes them Judges of his discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theog Men may be wise in some things that have carried the matter foolishly enough in other And give ear unto me ye that have knowledg It is an happiness to have such hearers I speak as to wise men judge ye what I say 1 Cor. 10.15 Jovianus the Emperor was wont to wish That he might govern wise men and that wise men might govern him But as it was once said That there was never lesse wisdom in Greece then in the dayes of the seven wise men So may we now well complain that there is a very great want of sound and saving knowledg in this great abundance of helps thereunto So that we may cry out with the Prophet Isaiah Whom shall we teach knowledg and whom shall we make to understand the hearing Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the brests q.d. We have to do with very babies children in understanding but not in malice Verse 3. For the ear tryeth words And for that end we have that excellent sense of hearing given us that we may hear with judgment and trying all things hold fast that which is good 1 Thes 5.21 taking heed what we hear Mark 4.24 as by the taste we may take heed what we let down for else a man may easily eat his own bane drink his poyson So here for the soul hath her senses also Phil. 1.9 and these habitually exercised to discern good and evil Hebr. 5. ult Which whilest carnal people want they are carried away as they are led 1 Cor. 12.2 Plucked away with the error of the wicked 2 Pet. 3 17 wherried about with every wind of Doctrine Heb. 13.9 c. See the Note on chap. 12.1 Verse 4. Let us chuse to us judgment Let us summon the sobriety of our senses before our judgments laying aside all prejudice for Omne judicium à se aufert qui praejudicium affert He can never judg aright who comes to a Cause forestalled or prepossessed Let us know amongst our selves what is good Let us go knowingly to work according to apparant truth and not use cunningly devised Arguments as many Mataeologi rather then Theologi do now adayes in the greatest Controversies of Religion and hereunto let us all contribute our best help for the finding out of truth and convincing of Job Verse 5. For Job hath said I am righteous So he was with a two fold righteousness imputed or the righteousnesse of Justification and imparted or the righteousnesse of Sanctification But Elihu understood him as if he had said I am sinless This Job never said only he cleared himself of foul offences wherewith his friends falsely charged him and asserted his own integrity whereof he seemed to be more sollicitous than of giving God the glory of his justice and therein he was to be blamed as here he is to some purpose And God hath taken away my judgement sc By handling me like a wicked man and not shewing me why see chap. 27.2 where Job had used these very words but not in the sense that Elihu urgeth them against him Verse 6. Should I lye against my right Vt meam causam prodam R. Levi. so as to betray my cause and yield my self guilty when I know my self innocent This I will never do said Job no more would that peerless Lady Elizabeth when as a traytour she was laid up in the Tower and pressed to appeach her self Better die than lye My wound is incurable without transgression These last words without transgression Elihu spitefully thrusteth in saith Beza Others think they may be gathered out of chap. 9.17 16.17 Without presumtuous sin which David calleth the great transgression the wickedness with a witness Job might truly say it may be for all men are sinners yet not all alike though all have a dyscrasie yet every man hath not a feaver and though none are without ill humors yet some have not a leprosie upon them Verse 7. What man is like Job This Elihu speaketh by way of angry admiration Exclamatio admirativa Pisc as if he would make Job a very Non-such a match-less offendor and that he much wondred with what face he could speak in that sort What such a man as Job do thus O shameful what upbraid and reproach Almighty God who would ever have expected such words from such a mouth Is the man in his right minde wot you that he thus maketh himself a common laughing-stock and by-word and yet maketh nothing of any thing but doth with as great facility and readiness swallow up mens scoffs and taunts as if he were drinking cold water and no more is he troubled at them Why but is this Job and is it possible that he should have so far lost all fear of God and shame of the world that he should set his mouth against heaven as if he would spet in Gods face and not care though he drink up scorning and affronts like water quasi maledictis aleretur ut venenis capreae as if he were much taken and tickled with them True it is that Nemo pluris astiâ—â—vit virtutem as Seneca saith No man setteth a better price upon vertue than he who will rather part with his good name than part
6.2 Isa 30.26 For my bones are vexed viz. by reason of my leanness and long lying For albeit the bones of themselves are insensible and ake not yet the membranes and tunicles do that compass the bones Vers 3. My soul is also sore vexed This was worse than all the rest A light load to a raw shoulder is very grievous A little water in a leaden vessel is heavie so is a little outward grief to a laden soul Hence Job so complaineth and Jeremy prayeth be not thou a terrour unto me O Lord and then I much matter not what becomes of me But thou O Lord how long soil Wilt thou stand off and not hast to my help This is plena affectus Reticentia Vatab. an emphatical and affectionate Aposiopesis such as is ordinary with those that are in pain and durance Vers 4. Return O Lord deliver my soul He calleth hard upon Jehovah which sweet name of God he hath now five times in these four first Verses made use of as one that knew and could improve the full import of it Here David beggs of him to return not by change of place for God filleth all places being Entèr praesentèr Deus hic ubique potentèr But Miserationis serenitate by a beam of his mercy and by a dispensation of his gracious providence altering his condition for the better Deut. 30.9 Act. 15.16 O save me for thy mercies sake Quà m pulcherrimè ista supplicatio propriis proficicuis sermonibus explicatur saith Cassiodore concerning this text i.e. How finely and fitly is this request set forth David pleadeth not Merit but humbly craveth Mercy The Heart that peice of proud flesh must be brought to such a temper and tameness as to crouch to God for the crums that fall from his table Vers 5. For in death there is no remembrance of thee Some Heathens were of opinion that when a man dyed all dyed with him neither was there any further sense of weal or woe for ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ethic. 1.3 c. 9 Socrates doubted but Aristotle affirmed it to be so for ought he knew Eusebius and Augustine make mention of certain Arabian Hereticks who held that the Soul dyed with the Body and so remained dead till the last day and then they revived with the resurrection of the body This was long since exploded for a foul errour contrary to that which the Scripture holdeth forth in many places All that David would say here is that dead men remember not that is they mention not Gods worthy Acts to the quickning of others their praises cannot provoke other men to beleeve in God or serve him as in their life-time they might therefore David would fain live to do more good A certain Martyr going to suffer said he was sorry that he was going to a place where hee should do God no more work Seven Epist 3. but be receiving wages only Domine si adhuc populo tuo sim necessarius non recuso laborem said a dying Saint Lord if I may be yet useful to thy people I should be very well content it might be so See Isa 38.18.19 David and Hezekiah prayed hard that they might not yet dye lest Religion and the true Worship of God which they had begun to vindicate and establish should by their decease fall to the ground through the wickedness of their survivers and successors In the grave who shall give thee thanks scil Palani cum aliis saith Aben-Ezra openly and exemplarily in the company of others Some render it In Hell who shall consess to thee Hereby is shewed the fear of Gods Children saith Diodate anguished by the feeling of his Wrath least they should dye out of his grace unreconciled and by that means be excluded and debarred from their desired aime to be everlastingly instruments of his glory But it is better to take Sheol here for the place and state of the dead after their dissolution though Dilrio will needs have it to be always in Scripture meant of Hell which if it be so then why should Job so earnestly desire to be hid in it chap. 14.13 That was a singular example of Paul the Hermite Adag Sacr. in 2 Sam. 22. Digress 2. Hier. in Vit. Paul who though dead seemed to be serving God and affected those that beheld him For he was found saith Hierom dead kneeling upon his knees holding up his hands lifting up his eyes so that the very dead corps seemed yet by a kind of religious gesture to pray unto God Vers 6. I am weary with my groaning I have laboured therein even unto lassitude There must be some proportion between our sin and our sorrow A storm of sighes at least if not a shower of tears some sorrow is above tears some constitutions are dry and will not yeeld tears and in such case dry sorrow may be as available as wet Shee that touched the heth of Christs Garment only was as welcome to him as Thomas who put his fingers into the print of the nails All the night make I my bed to swim So one hours sin brought many nights pain Transit voluptas mani◠dolo Nocet emp◠dolore voluptas Bishop Pilkiton on Nehem 1.4 Did we but fore-think what sin will cost us we durst not but be innocent But now adays saith a reverend Writer weep a man may not for disfiguring his face fasting is thought Hypocrisie and shame and when his panch is full then as Priests with their drunken Now is said Mattens and belched out Eruct avit cor meum verbum with good devotion as they thought so hee blusters out a few blustering words and thinks it repentance sufficient c. Another descants thus upon the text As in Sicilia there is Fons Solis the Fountain of the Sun out of which at Mid-day when the Sun is nearest floweth cold water at Mid-night D. Playfere Psal 6.6 when the Sun is further off floweth hot water So the Patriarch Davids head is full of water and his eyes a fountain of tears who when he enjoyed his health as the warm Sun-shine was cold in confessing his sins But being now visited with sickness his reins chastising him in the night season he is so sore troubled and withall so hot and so fervent that every night he washeth his bed Simson in Lo◠and watereth nay even melteth his Couch with tears c. A third makes this good Note upon these words The place of Davids sin his Bed is the place of his repentance and so it should be yea when we behold the place where wee have offended we should be prickt in heart and there again crave him pardon As Adam sinned in the Garden and Christ sweat bloudy tears in the Garden sanctify by tears every place which we have polluted by sin and let us seek Christ Jesus in our Bed with the Spouse in the Canticles who saith In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loved Cant. 3.1
a most curious and strange Piece of Work devised and perfected by the most cunning Astronomers for Maximilian the Emperour whose noble minde never spared for any cost to obtain things of rare and strange devise But what was all this to the Heavens That Work of Gods finger That is most elaborate and accurate a Metaphor from Embroyderers or from them that make Tapestry Aben-Ezra's Note here is Digiti sunt decem sphaera sunt decem As there are ten Fingers so there are ten Spheres c. The Moon and the Stars No mention of the Sun because included in this word Heaven wherein by Day the Sun is most conspicuous as by Night the Moon and Stars VVhich thou hast ordained That was a witty speech of Cyril They were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athiests by Night who worshipped the Sun and Atheists by Day who worshipped the Moon and Stars Vers 4. What is man that thou art mindful of him Sorry sickly man a Mass of Mortalities a Map of Miseries a mixture or compound of Dirt and Sin And yet God is mindful of him he not only takes care of him in an ordinary way as he doth other Creatures but singularly attendeth and affecteth him as a Father doth his dearest Childe Heis Divini ingenii cura saith one he is the end of all in a semi-circle saith another Philosopher meaning that all things in the World were made for man and man made for God Neither is there so much of the glory of God in all his Works of Wonder as in one gracious performance of a godly person But if we understand the Text as the Apostle doth Heb. 2.6 of the Man Christ Jesus Hic homo filius hominis qualis quantus est Deus bone saith Junius And the Son of Man Heb. Arrian in Epictet Of earthly men for what is the greatest Potentate but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a peece of Clay neatly made up That thou visitest him That thou mindest him more than other Creatures and makest him Lord of all thy visitation preserveth his spirit Job 10.12 Vers 5. For thou hast made hima little lower than the Angels Compare here with Heb. 2.6 7. and it will appear that whatsoever is spoken here of man is applied to Christ and so is proper to the Saints by vertue of their union with Christ in which respect they are more glorious saith one than Heaven Angels or any Creature This is their dignity and for their duty they must therefore give the more earnest heed to the Doctrin of the Gospel lest at any time they should leak or let slip the same but retain and obey it This is the Apostles own inference Heb. 2.5 6 7. for thus he argueth Unto the Angels God hath not put in subjection the World to come where of we speak But to man for whose sake the Son of God came in the flesh for whose sake the Gospel was preached for whose sake wee speak of that World to come he hath therefore it behooveth man to observe and obey the Gospel And hast crowned him with glory and honour Some refer this to the reasonable Soul whereby he not only differeth from Beasts but draweth nigh to the heavenly Nature As Rome was an Epitome of the World as Athens was the Greece of Greece and as one said to his Friend who desired to see Athens Viso Solone vidisti omnia when thou hast seen Solon thou hast seen all Athens So man is a little World and is therefore called every Creature Mark 16 15. and the Saints in whom Gods Image is repaired are called All things Colos 1.20 Christ being unto them All and in all Vers 6. Thou madest him to have dominion c. He had so at first Gen. 1.26 and shall have again Zech. 8.12 Rev. 21.7 mean while though Rebellis facta est Creatura homini quia homo numini the Creature rebelleth against man because man doth against God yet we cannot but see some foot-steps remaining of that ancient Soveraignty Tully Plutarch Eâ—ncus which the very Heathens also acknowledged and there-hence fetched excellent Arguments for a Providence Lions hate Apes but fear men though Simia quam similis turpissima bestia nobis Hereof no probable reason can be given but this That God hath put all things under mans feet insomuch as that the most timerous men dare kick and beat the hugest Elephants Indeed by reason of Sin as was said we see not all things subdued Heb. 12.8 But why hath Nature denied to Horses Bodin Theat Nat. p 405. Asses Camels Elephants Deer c. a Gall which it hath given to Lions Wolves and other fierce Creatures Surely herein appeareth the wonderful Wisdom and goodness of God who hath done this that those so serviceable Creatures might be the better tamed and subdued by man Let man consider saith one well what excellency he hath lost through Adams fall and bewail his misery Let him also on the other side well weigh the grace bestowed on him in Christ and be joyful and thankful or mercy knowing this that if the Creatures be not now subjected unto us it is by reason of the Body and relicks of Sin that yet remain in us and that therefore if we would have a conquest over the Creatures we must begin first to get a victory upon sin or else we shall never profit that way Thou hast put all things under his feet The Earth hath its name from treading upon it teaching us Terra à teendo 1 To trample upon earthly things as base and bootless not to dote upon them with out hearts nor grasp them over greedily with our hands as that covetous Cardinal Sylberperger who took so great felicity in Mony that when he was grievously tormented with the Gout his only remedy to ease his pain was to have a Bason full of Gold set before him into which he would put his lame hands turning the Gold upside down But if Silver and Gold be a mans happiness then it is in the earth and so which is strange nearer Hell than Heaven and so nearer the Devil than God The ancient Romans had for a difference in their Nobility a little ornament in the form of a Moon to shew that all worldly things were mutable and they wore it upon their shooes to shew that they trod all under their feet 2. By this posture of all things sunder mans feet God would teach him to use them as a Stirrop for the raising of his heart to those things above A sanctified fancy can make every Creature a Ladder to Heaven and say with that Father Si tanti vitreum quanti verum margaritum If this trash be so highly esteemed of how much more the true Treasure Vers 7. All Sheep and Oxen c. There are Beasts ad esum et ad usum saith one Some are profitable dead not alive as the Hogge some alive not dead as the Dogge Horse c. some both as the Oxe
manner holily encroaching upon God Exod. 33.12 13 16 18. as if his Motto had been that of Charles the fisth Vlterius More yet For thon art the God of my salvation Perfect therefore that which concerneth mee Thy mercy O Lord endureth for ever forsake not the works of thine own hands Psal 138.8 Thou hast written mee down in thy book of preservation with thine own hand oh read thine own hand-writing and save mee said Queen Elizabeth in her troubles Vers 6. Kemember O Lord thy tender mercies Heb. Thy bowels which thou mayest seem to have lost but I shall find them for thee Where are thy bowels and thy compassions are they restrained If thou hast forgotten them but that cannot be I shall bee thy Remembrancer and read them over unto thee out of the Register of a sanctified memory For they have been ever of old Etiam ad Adamum qui vixit quasi mille annis Ever since Adam and so onward saith R. Solomon and why not then to mee who am one of thine to whom mercy successively belongeth in my generation as it did to mine Ancestors in theirs Vers 7. Remember not the sins of my youth Which though long since committed must not bee remembred without remorse sith for them God often punisheth men in their age Job 13.26 Jer. 3.25 It is not the last sand that emptieth the hour-glasse nor the last blow that throweth down the Oak Sin may sleep a long time like a sleeping debt not called for of many years as Sauls sin in slaying the Gibeonites not punished till forty years after as Joâ—bs killing of Abner slept all Davids dayes c. It is not safe to bee at odds with the Ancient of dayes This David knew and therefore was willing to clear all old scores to get pardon of youthfull lusts lest they should put a sting into his present sufferings And that being thorowly done as hee could expect mercy and direction from God so if any should maliciously upbraid him with his by-gone iniquities hee could answer as Austin did in like case Quae tu reprehendis ego damnavi What thou reprehendest in me I have long since condemned in my self And as Reverend Beza when a spitefull Papist hit him in the teeth with his wanton poems set forth in his youth and long before repented of Hic homo invidet mihi gratiam Christi This fellow said hee envieth mee the grace of Jesus Christ Nor my transgressions Or prevarications In personam Vriae In the matter of Vriak saith R. Obadiah the sins of mine age saith Kimchi all my faults of former and later time saith another David was well in years when hee defiled himself with Bathsheba In many young men the Rose is cankered in the bud And again as the canker soonest entreth into the white Rose so doth corruption easily creep into the white head David prayeth God to forgive him his sins both of former and of latter time and not to forgive them only but to forget them too Remember not the sins c. And as hee fitly joyneth memorie of mercies and forgetfullnesse of sins so hee forgetteth not to subjoyn According to thy mercy remember thou mee for thy goodnesse sake O Lord Do all of free grace not for any motive or merit of mine Lorinus a Jesuite here bringeth in sundry passages as well hee may Psal 6.8 51.3 69.14 86.5.15 106.45 119.156 136.7 Dan. 9.18 Isa 55.7 to prove that all is of mercy and not of merits Vers 8. Good and upright is the Lord i.e. Gracious and righteous ' or faithfull and hence it is that our God is mercifull as Psal 116.5 hence it is as that we poor Creatures are not overwhelmed aut magnitudine peccatoram aut male calamitatum either with the greatnesse of our sins or the multitude of our miseries Therefore will hee teach sinners in the way i.e. Sensible sinners meek and mortified as in the next verse self-judging and self-outed those will hee teach to turn to him and to walk before him in all well-pleasing and this Doctrin of direction must needs bee good because hee is good and certain because he is upright Vers 9. The meek will hee guide in judgement Or the poor viz. in spirit will he make to tread in judgment to foot it aright to walk judiciously to behave themselves wisely as David did 1 Sam. 10.14 so that Saul feared him 1 Sam. 23. 22. Naturall conscience cannot but stoop to the image of God shining in the hearts and lives of the really Religious And the meek will hee teach his way Such as lye at his feet and say Speak Lord for thy servant heareth such as whose hearts are supple and soluble tractable and teachable so as that a little child may lead them Isa 11.6 Austin was such an one En adsuâ— senex Aug. Epist 75. ad Auuil Epis saith he à juvene coepisoopâ— Episcopus tot annorum à collega nondum anniculo paratus sum disceer i.e. I am here an old man ready to learn of a young man my coadjutour in the ministry who hath scarce been one year in the service Vers 10. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth All the passages and proceedings both ordinantiall and providentiall whereby he cometh and communicateth himself to his people are not only Mercy though that 's very sweet but Truth they come to them in a way of a promise from God as bound to them by covenant this is soul-satisfying indeed this turns all that a man hath to cream when every mercy is a present sent him from Heaven by vertue of a promise Vnto such as keep his Covenant and his Testimonies i.e. His Law that singular Testimony of his goodnesse towards them called a Covenant because hee bargaineth with us as it were that wee should keep it which because wee can never do he undertaketh to perform his own part and ours too Lex jubet gratia juvat he worketh all our works in us and for us he giveth us to be what he biddeth us to be this is the everlasting Covenant and the fruits of it are sure mercies compassions that fail not Vers 11. For thy names sake O. Lord pardon mine iniquity Never did prisoner at the barre beg more earnestly for his life than David did for pardon of his great offence especially in the matter of Vriah for that lay heaviest Peccatum 〈◊〉 Bathsheba 〈◊〉 jus petii 〈◊〉 hac 〈◊〉 nem 〈◊〉 repeto Could he but get off the guilt of that it were an easie matter for him to glory in tribulations with Paul Rom. 5.3 and to cry out with Luther Feri Domine feri nam à peccatis absolutus sum Smite Lord smite for I am a pardoned sinner and therefore all is in mercy R. David and for good For it is great But that 's nothing to so great a God who delightest in mercy and makest thy power appear in pardoning the many and horrid
In a strong City In Mahanaim 2 Sam. 17.27 where it is likely he made this and some other Psalms Vers 22. For I said in my haste I am cut off c. A frightful and sinful saying doubtless full of diffidence and despair See the like Psal 116.11 Job 9.16 Judg. 13.22 Psal 77.3 Joh. 2.4 Thus he spake when he tremblingly fled and was posting away Nevertheless thou heardest the voyce of my supplication A pitiful poor one though it were and full of infirmity God considereth whereof we are made he taketh not advantages against his suppliants it would be wide with them if he should Vers 23. O love the Lord Let not your hasty discontent beget in you hard thoughts of God or heavie thoughts against your selves as it hath done in me but love him trust him and he will do you right And plentifully rewardeth Heb. repaieth abundantly or with surplussage in seipso vel in semine suo It may be rendred Upon the remainder and understood of the proud mans posterity wherein God will be sure to bemeet with him Vers 24. Be of good courage c. Bear up be stout and stedfast in the faith under trials See Psal 27.14 with the Note Thus good courage cometh not but from the true love of God Vers 23. PSAL. XXXII A Psalm of David Maschil i.e. Giving instruction or making prudent for David here out of his own experience turneth Teacher vers 7. and the lesson that he layeth before his Disciples is the Doctrin of Justification by Faith that ground of true blessedness Rom. 4.6 7. Docet igitur hic Psalmus verè preciosus pracipuum proprium fidei Christiana caput saith Beza This most precious Psalm instructeth us in the chief and principal point of Christian Religion and it differeth herein from the first Psalm that there are set forth the effects of Blessedness but here the cause Quonâ—â—dò etians est Paulus cum Jacobo conciliandus saith he Vers 1. Blessed is be whose transgression is forgiven The heavy burthen of whose trespasses is taken off as the word importeth and he is loosed cased and lightned Sin is an intollerable burden Isa 1.3 such as presseth down Heb. 12.1.2 burden it is to God Am. 2.13 to Christ it was when it made him sweat water and bloud to the Angels when it brake their backs and sunk them into Hell to men under whom the very earth groaneth the Axeltree thereof is even ready to crack c. it could not bear Corah and his company it spewed out the Canaanites c. O then the heaped up happiness of a justified person disburdened of his transgressions The word here rendred transgression signifieth Treachery and wickedness with a witness Aben-Ezra faith David hereby intends his Sin with Bathsheba and surely this Psalm and the one and fiftieth may seem to have been made upon the same occasion they are tuned so near together Whose sin is covered As excrements and ordure are covered that they may not be an eye-sore or annoyance to any Sin is an odious thing the Devils duivell or vomit the corruption of a dead soul the filthiness of flesh and spirit Get a cover for it therefore sc Christs righteousness called a propitiation or coverture and raiment Rev. 3.18 Vt sic veletur ne in judicio reveletur that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear Vers 2. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity Let no man think this triplication of the same thing needlesse or superfluous sith the poor soul afflicted with sense of sin and fear of wrath is not easily perswaded of pardon but when faith would lay hold on the promise Satan rappeth her on the fingers as it were and seeks to beat her off Besides by such an emphaticall repetition and heap of words to one purpose the great grace of God in pardoning mens sin is plainly and plentifully declared and celebrated it being a mercy that no words how wide soever can sufficiently set forth By the word iniquity some understand originall sin that peccatum peccans as the Schooles call it that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 common cause and impure seminary of all actuall disobediences Neither this nor any of the fruites of it doth the Lord impute reckon count or think to the pardoned finner 2 Cor. 5.19 Cui non cogitat peccatum so some render it To whom he thinketh no sin that is he reputeth or imputeth it not for a sin he putteth it not into the reckoning Isa 43.25 48.9 11. the Bill or Bond is cancelled Col. 2.14 and there remaineth no action Christ is our suerty Heb. 7.22 Now the suerty and debtour are in law reputed as one person Christ is made sin for us that is in our stead or place that wee might be made the righteousnesse of God in him 2 Cor. 5. ult And in whose spirit there is no guile Sed sincere sine dolo à suis peccatis resipiscit ad Dei misericordiam se recipit The justified are also sanctified 1 Cor. 6.11 they hide not their sins as Adam thy neither excuse nor extenuate what evills they have done but think and speak the worst of their sins they lay load upon themselves they hate Hy pocrisie and detest dissimulation it is a question whether they do more desire to be good or abhorre to seem only to be so B sil as he commendeth that sentence of Plato that seeming sanctity is double iniquity so hee justly condemneth that saying of Euripides I had rather seem to bee good than be so indeed That maxim of Machiavel is the same for sense that vertue it self should not be sought after but only the appearance because the credit is an help the use a cumber The pardoned finner is sanctified throughout washed not only from his sin the guilt and filth of it but his swinish nature also the love and liking of it he hath no mind to return to his vomit or wallowing in the mire saith R. Solomon here he saith not Resipiscam denuo peccabo vel peccabo resipiscam as R. David senseth it I will repent and then sin again or sin again and then repent This he knoweth to be incompatible with faith unfeigned and hope unfailable 1 Tim. 1.5 1 Joh. 3.3 Vers 3. When I kept silence i.e. Whilest I through guile of spirit for this leaven of Hypocrisie is more or lesse in the best hearts though it sway not there concealed my sin and kept the Devills counsel contenting my self with his anodines and false plaisters That old man slayer knoweth well that as sin is the soules sicknesse so confession is the soules 〈◊〉 and that there is no way to purge the sick soul but upwards He therefore holdeth the lips close that the heart may not disburden it self David by his perswasion kept silence for a while but that he found was to his ruthe and if he had held so it might have been to his ruine Men in pain of conscience will
shark for ease rather than sue for pardon as the Prodigall first joyned himself to a Citizen then ate husks c. before he would resolve to return Satan had first seduced David and then gagg'd him as it were that he might keep silence But then God took him and set him upon the rack where he roared till he resolved to confesse And the like befell Bilney Bainbam Whittle and many other of the Martyrs who having first yeelded could never be at rest within themselves till they had publickly confessed their fault and retracted their subscriptions to those Popish Articles My bones waxed old i.e. My strength wasted and wore away I was in a pittifull plight per febrim for san saith an expositour by a feaver possibly the fruit of his inward affliction So bitter and burdensome is sin cloaked and close kept Through my rearing all the day long Like a wild beast Jun. belluinos potius quam humanos gensitus querimonias fudi I rather roared to the enfeebling of my body than repented to the easing of my conscience I cryed out for pain but prayed not for pardon As a Lyon in a snare roareth as a bird in a gin fluttereth so it fareth with Hypocrites under Gods hand and with better men too sometimes and for a season but especially in pangs of conscience they bellow like bulls in a net or swine when a sticking they beat the air with many brutish roarings and ragings which avail them no more than if an Ox should break out of the slaughter-house after the deadly blow given him the sting of conscience still remaineth Vers 4. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon mee See what God can do when once he taketh a man to do Day and night hee had sinned against God therefore day and night he suffereth and glad he may be that he so scapeth and is not forced to undergo an eternity of extremity Some think that this Psalm and the sixth were made much about a time when David was newly recovered of some grievous fit of sicknesse It may be meant only of his inward terrours or chiefly at least his body suffering by Sympathy as having shared in his sin My moisture is turned into the drought of Summer My naturall radicall moisture that oyl that maintaineth the lamp of life is dryed up and become like a lump of clay the vigour also and verdure of my soul is quelled and consumed with the fire of thy fierce wrath God will bring his best people to this if they put him to it that they shall find it to be the greatest folly in the World to buy the sweetest sin at so dear a rate Selah I speak it feelingly Vat. O quantum tormentum c. O aridum exhaustuns me prae mastitia c. O my pittifull condition Vers 5. I acknowledged my sin unto thee Though it were long first yet thou broughtest mee to it The soul is ready to hang her comforts on every hedge to shift and shark in every by-corner for comfort rather than to repair to the right fountain Let should have escaped to the Mountaines at first but he would needs to Zoar which yet was soon too hot to hold him David should have acknowledged his sin ere this time he should speedily have cast up the poyson he had swallowed down before it got to the vitalls but he had no mind to it till he had tasted of the whip and then he agnized his sin unto the Lord he put himself into the hands of justice in hope of mercy The properties or conditions of sound Confession are these say the Schoolmen in this Tetrastich Sit simplex humilis confessio pura fidelis Atque frequens nuda discreta lubens verecunda Integra secreta lachrymabilis accelerata Fortis accusans se punire parata And mine iniquity have I not hid In confession wee must shew the Lord the iniquity of our sin the filthinesse of our leudnesse the abomination of our provocations Rom. 7.13 Wee must bring out our sins as they took the Vessells of the Sanctuary Ezra 8.34 by number and by weight laying open how many transgressions are wrap'd up in our sins and their circumstances See for this Levit. 16.21 I said I will confesse c. i.e. I resolved and purposed so to do but 〈◊〉 that could be done thou forgavest c. Gods ear was in Davids heart before his confession could be in his tongue So at another time he did but conceive a purpose to build God an house and God rewarded it with the building and establishing of Davids house 2 Sam. 7. And thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin The sting and stain of it the criminall and penall part ofit Vel peccatum peccati Utiâ—ur duobus vocabulis ad aggravandum peccatum suum Kimchi As we say terra pulveris or 〈◊〉 luti the worst thing that was in it not the fire only but the filth that was in it reserving still to thy self a power of fatherly corrections and medicinall miseries But the iniquity of sin is wiped off by the spunge of true confession Homo agnoscit Deus ignoscit Man no sooner acknowledgeth the debt but God crosseth the Book It is therefore good counsell that a Father giveth Fac confitendo propitium quem tacendo non facis nescium Confesse and find mercy sith by a senselesse silence thou canst not keep thy sins from Gods knowledge of them Let out that bad blood by opening a vein that good health may enter Per misereremti tollitur ira Dei Wot you what said Henry the eighth to the Duke of Suffolk concerning Stepâ—en Gardiner when he had confessed his Popery for which he should have been the morrow after sent to the Tower he hath confessed himself as guilty in this matter as his man Act. Mon. fol. 1177. and hath with much sorrow and pensivenesse sued for my pardon And you know what my nature and custome hath been in such cases evermore to pardon them that will not dissemble but confesse their fault c. Selah q. d. I speak it joyfully there being no such matter of mirth in all the World as the sweet sense of forgivenesse of sin O singularem inquit David hic Dei erga homines peccata sua agnoscentes gratiam benevolentiam Vers 6. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee For this that thou hast so graciously done for mee the godly shall gladly perform these two duties the prayer of faith and the obedience of faith As I have been an example to them of sin which is now my grief so I shall be to them of good and that 's my comfort Where note first That every godly man is a praying man God hath no dumb children in his house Secondly That such will be making use of Gods dealing with others for their own instruction and comfort For this Thirdly That they will observe the fittest times to
months saith Theadoret in weeping and lamentation he fell down on his face in the place of the Penitents and said My soul is glued to the earth c Henry the Fourth then King of Navarre only after wards of France also having abused the Daughter of a Gentlemanin Rochel by whom he had a Son was perswaded by Mounsieur du-Plessis to make a publick acknowledgement of his fault in the Church Life of Phil. de Morn by Mr. Clerâ— which also he did before all the Nobility of his Army This counsel being thought by some to be too rigorous Du-Plessis made this answer That as a man could not be too couragious before men so he could not be too humble in the presence of God Whâ—n Nathan the Prophet came unto him Rousing him out of a long Lethargy into which Sin and Sathan had cast him See here the necessity of a faithful Ministery to be to us as the Pilot was to Jonas as the Cock to Peier c. as also of a friendly admonitour such as David had prayed for Psal 141.5 and here he is answered David had lain long in sin without repentance to any purpose some remorse he had felt Psal 32.3 but it amounted not to a godly sorrow till Nathan came and in private dealing plainly with him more prevailed than all the Lectures of the Law or other means had done all that while After he had gone in to Bathsheba This was the Devils Nest-egge that caused many sins to be laid one to and upon another See the wosul chain of Davids lust 2 Sam. 11. 12. and beware Vers 1. Have mercy upon me O God T was wont to be O my God but David had now sinned away his assurance wiped off his comfortables he dares not plead propriety in God nor relation to him as having forfeited both At another time when he had greatly offended God by numbring the people God counted him but plain David Go and say to David 2 Sam. 24.12 whereas before when hee purposed to build God a Temple then it was Go tell my servant David 2 Sam. 7.5 Sin doth much impair and weaken our assurance of Gods favour like as a drop of water falling on a burning Candle dimmeth the light thereof The course that David taketh for recovery of this last evil is confession of sin and hearty prayer for pardoning and purging grace In the Courts of men it is safest saith Quintilian to plead Non feci Not guilty not so here but Ego feci miserere miserrimi peccatoris misericors Deus Guilty Lord have mercy c. Permiserâ—ra mâ—i toâ—â—itur ira Dei According to the multitude of thy tender mercies They are a multitude of them and David needeth them all for the pardon of his many and mighty sins tha where 〈◊〉 had abounded grace might super abound it may have a super-pleonasâ—â—â— â— 1 Tim. 1.14 Bloâ— out my transgressions Out of thy Debâ—-book cross out the black lines of my sins with the red lines of Christs bloud cancel the Bond though written in black and bloudy Characters Vers 2. Wash me thorowly from mine iniquity Heb. Multiply wash me so Isa 55.7 God is said to multiply pardon as much as we multiply sin David apprehended his sin so exceeding sinful his stain so inveterate so ingrained that it would hardly be ever gotten out fill the cloath were almost rub'd to pâ—eces that God himself would have some what to do to do it He had been in a deep ditch Prov. 23.27 and was pitifully moyled He therefore begs hard to bee thorowly rinsed to be bathed in that blessed fountain of Christs bloud that is opened for sins and for uncleaneness Zach. 13.1 to be cleansed not only from outward defilements but from his swinish nature for though a Swine be washed never so clean if she retain her nature she will be ready to wallow in the next guzzle The time of our being here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen calleth it i. e. our washing time Wash thy heart O Jerusalem that thou maist be clean Jer. 4.14 not by thinking to set off with God and to make amends by thy good deeds for thy bad this is but lutum luto purgare to wash off one filth with another but by the practice of Mortification and by Faith in Christs meritorious Passion for he hath washed us from our sins in his own bloud Revel 1.5 Other bloud defileth but this purifieth from all pollutions of flesh and spirit 1 Joh. 1.7 And cleanse me from my sin In like manner as the Leper under the Law was cleansed Leprosie Frensie Heresie and Jealousie are by men counted uncurable Sed omnipotenti medico nullus insanabilâ—s occurr it morbus saith I sidore to an Almighty Physician no Disease is uncurable There is indeed a Natural Novatianisâ—â— in the timorous Consciences of convinced sâ—â—ners to doubt and question pardon for sins of Apostacy and failing after Repentance but there need bee no such doubting sith God who hath bidden us to forgive a repenting Brother seventy times seven times in one day will him self much more All sins and Blasphemies shall bee forgiven to the sons of men c. Mat. 12.31 Vers 3. For I acknowledge my transgressions And therefore look for pardon according to thy promise Home agroscit Deus ignoscit And my sin My twisted sin and sadly accented mine accumulative sin voluminous wickedness that hath so many sins bound up in it as Cicero saith of Paricide Is ever before me To my great grief and regret my Conscience twitteth mee with it and the Devil layeth it in my dish This maketh him follow God so close resolved to give him no rest till he hath registred and enrolled the remission of his sins in the Book of Life with the bloudy lines of Christs soul-saving sufferings and golden Characters of his own eternal love Vers 4. Against thee thee only have I sinned This he spake in respect of the secresie of his sins say some whence also it followeth And done this evil m thy sightâ— David sent for Bathsheba by his Servants but they knew not wherefore he sent for her saith Kimchi neither knew any one why Letters were sent to Joub to kill Uriah but because hee refused to obey the King bidding him go home to his honse c. Others thus Against thee only that is thee maâ—â—ly for every sin is a violation of Gods Law the trespass may be against man but the transgression is ever against God Others again thus Against thee c. that is Against thee so good a God have I thus hainouâ—â—y offended giving thereby thine enemies occasion to blaspheme thee This I take it is the true meaning And done this evil in thy fight Which was to despise thee 2 Sam. 12.10 not caring though thou lookedst on That thou might est be justified when thou speakâ—st c. i.e. declared to be just whatever thou hast denounced against me or shalt inflict upon me The unrighteousness