great men Jer. 5.5 said These have altogether broken the yoak and burst the bonds that is the yoak of duty which God hath laid upon them They have no cause of boasting that are free from the bonds of service but they who cast off the bonds of duty have great cause to be ashamed Thus the Prophet reproves that people as one man Hos 8.9 They are gone up to Assy iâ— a wilde Ass alone by himself As if the Prophet had said Thâ—y loâ—k not up to the high God for help but to Assyria the high God was not so high in their eyes as Assyria doing thus they weâ—e like a wilde Ass saith the Prophet and so they were in two things First They weâ—e extream stubborn resolved to have their will and satisfie their lusts Ephâ—aim was as violent in his way as a wilde Ass Secondly â—hey were like a wilde Ass they would be alone A wilde Ass alone by himself that is they would be at liberty free from all command to do what they list they had rather be in a barren wilderness where none could controul them than in good pastures under any thing that looked like a restraint or a rule This is a very unworthy spirit this is liberty in a way of licenciousness this liberty is libertinism They who submit to no rule but that of their unruly head-strong passions and affections nor will be reclaimed nor tamed by any whether fair or foul means these in Scripture are compared to the wilde Ass for their folly and vanity Zâ—phar offered this rebuke to Job in the 11th Chapter of this book vers 12. and possibly he could not altogether free himself from it Vain man would be wise though he be born like a wilde Asses colt that is though this be all his wisdom to be free from that subjection which he oweth to God and man The Prophet Jer. 2.24 compares the whole people of Israel when they cast off the service of God to a wilde Ass which Scripture was toucht at the second verse upon another occasion that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure in her occasion who can turn her away all they that seek her will not weary themselves in her month they shall find her There is no bringing such into compass till they are compassed with pains We may call all such nominal Israelites real Ishmaelites it being said of Ishmael Gen. 16.12 that he was pere Adam a wilde man having more of the wilde Ass than of the man in them Thus it is with vain and unbridled spirits they cannot bear the yoak of service and therefore remember though this be spoken of as a priviledge yet it is a low priviledge to be free from any honest service and to be be free from all service is worse than the worst of outward servitudes 'T is a mercy to be free from slavery to man but to be free from service to man is to be unmanly every man should be a servant in one kind or another and therefore the Law saith To call a man a servant distinguisheth no man seeing every man is supposed in the way of his life a servant The Apostle speaking to those whose very calling is to serve and are therefore in strict sense called servants 1 Cor. 7.21 22. saith Art thou called being a servant care not for it that is be not troubled that thou art a servant service to man is not inconsistent with the service of God but if thou maist be made free use it rather for he that is called in the Lord being a servant is the Lords free man Let every man v. 24. wherein he is called therein abide with God that is let him continue to serve man in all things according to the will of God To be wholly free from the service of man is no better than the freedom of the worser sort of beasts the wilde Ass Christ Mat. 11.29 30. calls his to the yoak and Christs yoak implyeth all manner of dutiful service even service to man as well as to God Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoak upon you and learn of me c. for my yoak is easie and my burden is light If we refuse Christs easie yoak we may quickly get a heavy one yea an iron one as the Prophet told him who broke the wooden one Jer. 28.13 There are some yoaks which to bear is our honour 't is surely so to bear the yoak of Christ to be under Christs bonds is a favour woe to those that seek to be loosed from them The Prophet Jeremiah tells us Lam. 3.37 It is good for a man to bear the yoak in his youth There is a threefold bond or yoak from which it is a favour to be wholly freed and that freedom we should seek after but neither of the three is a freedom from duty and service or from due service First To be free from the yoak of sin and to have the bonds of our iniquities loosed that is a blessed priviledge John 8.36 If the Son make you free you shall be free indeed The chief part of a Sons freedom which we have by Christ the Son is freedom from sin Freedom from the condemning power of sin and freedom from the ruling power of sin is our spiritual or Gospel freedom Peter said to Simon Magus Acts 8.23 I perceive thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity thou art still a prisoner a slave to sin the guilt of sin holds thee fast nor art thou delivered from the filth of it To have our sin-bonds loosed is to be free like Saints to loose our selves from duty-bonds whether to God or man is to be free like wilde Asses Secondly There is a great mercy in being loosed and made free from the curse of the Law Thus also the Son makes us free Gal. 3.13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us that is enduring the curse for us or dying acursed death for us that we might have and for ever enjoy a blessed life This is a glorious liberty Thirdly To be freed from the old legal ceremonies is the priviledge of all believers under the Gospel and 't is such a priviledge as the Apostle exhorted the Galatians and us with them to maintain with all our might Gal. 5.1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not intangled again with the yoak of bondage that is with the bondage of the ceremonial Law from which Christ hath made us free Gal. 4.26 Jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all free First from the slavery of sin free Secondly from the curse of the Law free Thirdly from the yoak of legal ceremonies All believers are made thus free by Christ but Christ hath not made so much as one believer free from service Christ makes us free to serve not free
more than a bare rebuke here was a blow given and that a sore one The Lord deals gently with some sinners that none may despair and severely with others though his servants that none may presume Only let us remember that when the Lord at any time doth chasten and rebuke his servants for sin with great severity he doth not drive them away nor discourage them but would have them look to him for pardon and healing When he judgeth them as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 11.32 he doth not condemn them or if we call it a condemnation yet he doth not condemn them with the world nor as he condemns the world God condemns the unbelieving world to destruction but he condemns his servants only for their humiliation The goodness of God appears much in these two things First In his flowness to anger his mercy doth even clog his justice and gives it leaden feet it comes slowly Secondly In his readiness to show mercy The Scripture saith he is slow to wrath and ready to forgive his goodness doth even adde wings to his mercy causing it to fly swiftly to the relief of sensible and humbled sinners or as one of the Ancients expresseth he sharpneth the sword of his justice with the oile of his mercy and so it becomes a healing as well as a wounding sword Secondly In that the Lord himself gave this direction Take unto you seven bullocks and seven rams c. Observe God against whom we sin sheweth us the way to get peace and the pardon of our sins When man sinned at first or when the first man fell into sin there he had lain for ever if the Lord had not shewed him a way out Had it been left to man to devise a way to recover himself when he was fallen his fall had been irrecoverable he had never found how to get at once his sin pardoned and the justice of God satisfied This was the Lords own invention and it was the most noble and excellent one that ever was in the world he shewed fallen man at first how to get up and here he gave direction to these fallen men what to do that they might The Lord who was their Judge was also their Counsellor Thirdly Consider the particular way of their peace-making it was by sacrifice Take unto you seven bullocks and seven rams c. Hence note Sacrifices for sin were appointed and commanded by God not devised by man Sacrifices have been from the beginning Cain and Abel brought their offerings unto the Lord Gen. 4.3 4. Noah also builded an altar unto the Lord and offered burnt-offerings on the altar Gen. 8.20 Abraham offered the ram for a burnt-offering Gen. 22.13 Now though the law for sacrifices was not formally given in those times yet it was really given All those elder sacrifices were of the Lords appointment and by his direction as well as those in and after the days of Moses There is no expiating of sin against God by the inventions of man Heathens offered sacrifices to their Idol-gods imitating the worship of the true God The Devil is Gods ape Typical sacrifices were of God for the taking away of the sin of man And so was the true sacrifice the Lord Jesus Christ when he that is Christ said sacrifice and offering and burnt-offering and offering for sin thou wouldst not that is thou wouldst not have those legal sacrifices nor didst ever intend to have them as satisfactions to thy offended justice ultimately to rest in them then said he that is Christ Lo I come to do thy will O God Heb. 10.8 9. It was the will of God that Jesus Christ should be the expiatory sacrifice for the sin of man by the which will v. 10. We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all The sacrifice of Christ himself had not saved us if it had not been of Gods appointment nor could any sacrifice have so much as shadowed the way or means of our salvation if God had not appointed it Fourthly Consider the purpose for which the Lord commanded Eliphaz c. to offer their sacrifice it was to make an attonement for their sin Hence Observe Sin must have a sacrifice There was never any way in the world from first to last to help a sinner but by a sacrifice and who was the sacrifice Surely Jesus Christ was the sacrifice it was not the blood of bulls and goats of bullocks and rams that could take away sin as the Apostle argueth at large in the Epistle to the Hebrews these could never take away sin these only pointed at Jesus Christ who alone did it by bearing our sins and by being made a sacrifice for them To typifie or shew this we read in the law of Moses that the sin of the offender was laid upon the sacrifice and a sacrifice for sin was called sin by the Prophet long before Christ came Dan. 9.24 He shall make an end of sin that is when Christ shall come in the flesh he shall make an end of all sacrifices for sin and so the Apostle called it after Christ was come and had suffered in the flesh 2 Cor. 5.21 He made him to be sin that is a sacrifice for sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him The sacrifice was called sin because the sin of the person who brought it and in whose behalf it was offered was laid upon the sacrifice there was as it were a translation of the sin from the person to the sacrifice In which sence Luther is to be understood when he said Jesus Christ was the greatest sinner in the world not that he had any sin in his nature or any sin in his life but because he had the sins of all that are or shall be saved laid upon him as the Prophet spake Isa 53.6 The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all or as our Margin hath it He hath made the iniquity of us all to meet on him And there is no atonement for sin but by a sacrifice So the Lord ordained the offering up of a whole burnt-offering for the taking away of sin that sinners might see what they had deserved even to die and not only so but to be wholly burnt and consumed in the fire of his wrath Impenitent sinners shall be consumed in fire that shall never be extinguished nor ever extinguish them they shall abide in an ever-living death or in an ever-dying life They who rest not upon the sacrifice of Christ once offered must be a sacrifice themselves alwayes offered to the justice and wrath of God Here it may be questioned why the Lord commanded them to offer seven Bullocks and seven Rams what could the blood of seven do more than the blood of one I answer First This being a great sacrifice possibly the Lord commanded it thereby to intimate the greatness of their sin Two things chiefly shew the greatness of a
not be brought to hand he will neither bear the yoak nor wear the bridle nor endure to be harnessed like the Ox and Horse let man do what he will what he can with him he will neither go to Plow nor Cart not he Hence note First Service should be done with willingness or with the will It is the commendation of a servant when he doth his Masters work with his will more than with his hand Man should be as willing to serve as he is to be served as willing to obey as to rule nor doth any man know truly how to command but he that knows how to obey and when called is willing to obey in the service of God nothing is done to him unless it be done with the will and therefore the full effect of the work of the grace of God upon the heart of man is comprehended in this one word Psal 110.3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power They were once like the Unicorn in the Text that will not serve but in the day of thy power when the word comes upon them in the power of the Spirit they shall serve with all manner of dutiful readiness and willingness Some men are not at all wrought to the service of God others serve him but are not willing to serve they do it by constraint not willingly for base fear of loss or for baser hope of filthy lucre not of a ready mind upon which carnal terms the Apostle Peter warns the Ministers of the Gospel to take heed they feed not the flock of God 1 Epist 5.2 Nothing but a day of power conquering the will renders us willing to serve Christ willing to submit to the yoak of Christ to be bound in his furrow and to harrow the valleys after him that is to do any work that he calls us to Service should be with the will and 't is so by grace That 's the first thing which the nature of the Unicorn is against as to the service of man he hath no will to it Secondly Note Some beasts have a kind of willingness to serve man That some beasts have such a willingness is more than implyed while 't is said that some have not As the wild Ass before was spoken of in opposition to the tame so here the Unicorn is spoken of in opposition to the Ox or Horse who though they are not properly willing to serve yet they will not alwayes refuse service but freely at last or after a while take the yoak and receive the bridle The Apostle saith Rom. 8.20 The creature is made subject to vanity not willingly The creatures are not willing to serve the lusts of men yet many of them are willing to serve the occasions and necessities of men 'T is through the sin of man that the creature is made subject to vanity but it is through the appointment of God that the creature is made subject to duty and that with a kind of willingness Thirdly 'T is said here of the Unicorn as of the wild Ass before Canst thou make him willing when thou hast used fair means foul means one way or other will he serve thee he will not Hence note It is hard to change nature Naturam ex pelias furca licet usque recurret Laâ—pus pilum non antevum mutâ—t Beasts hold fast their natural qualities The Horse the Bullock who are tame by nature will come to hand but the wild Ass and the Unicorn whose nature is quite opposite to service will never be broken nor brought to it Thrust out nature with a fork it will return again Till nature is quite altered and changed acts will not change 'T is thus with man considered in nature who as he is compared to a wild Asses Colt Chap. 11.12 so he may be compared to an Unicorn Will man be willing to serve God no not by any moral perswasions no nor heartily he may hypocritically by any outward benefits nor by any hard usages Though as Solomon saith Prov. 27.22 thou shouldst bray a fool in a morter among wheat with a pestle yet will not his foolishness depart from him A carnal man will never submit quietly to duty till God hath changed his nature and made him a new man or till his mind is renewed after the image of God Conversion is first a change of our nature and then of our way This makes conversion so difficult a work Good education and humane instructions may change a mans way but nothing less than the power of God can change his nature Man is naturally as unwilling to serve God as the wild beasts are to serve man He is as stout and as stiff as the Unicorn as cruel and fierce as the Lion as crafty as a Fox as crooked and cross as any creature unless his heart be changed he will never to purpose change his course Man cannot change the course of the Unicorn because he cannot change his nature and could not God change mans nature he could never really change his course Fourthly Observe That any of the creatures especially strong ones are brought to hand or to the service of man must be ascribed to the power and goodness of God The Horse would no more serve man than the Unicorn nor would the Ox serve man more than the wild Ass unless the Lord had put another spirit or disposition into them than he hath done into the Unicorn Fifthly Observe That any of the creatures are unserviceable to man is to be ascribed to the sin of man At first all creatures were subject to man not only the Horse and the Ox and all the now tame creatures but the fiercest Lions Tygers Bears Unicorns were all in subjection to man according to that soveraign power given man by God in the day that God made him Gen. 1.27 28. So God created man in his own image in the image of God created he him male and female created he them And God blessed them and said to them be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fishes of the sea and over the fowls of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth The original grand Charter of mans Soveraignty was extended over the Unicorn and the Lion c. And therefore when creatures are not willing to serve man especially when they rise up against man let man remember his sin in not obeying the Soveraign command of God Had not man been unwilling to submit to and serve God Quòd non omnia animalia homini serviunt signum est poâ—na peccati no creature had been unwilling to serve man We may see our own neglect or refusal to serve God in the refusal of any creature to serve us we may see our own rebellion against God by the rebellion of the creatures against us Unless man had departed from God by sin none of the creatures had departed from their subjection to
give God the rule the law how to guide the world more equally in general or him in particular Whether the Contention lieth about the providence of God to the whole world or any Nation family or person it comes under the same question Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him That is Can he direct God to do and order things better or put them into a righter or more equitable course than they are disposed in No he cannot Who is the pleader saith Mr. Broughton that will instruct the Omnipotent let him come forth and try his skill Thus the Lord yet in a tender and fatherly way derides the folly of Job who would needs attempt upon the matter to teach him who is perfect in knowledge and to over-rule his decrees and determinations who is not only The Lord Chief Justice of all the World but Justice it self and the sole rule of it Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him Hence observe First There is a spirit in man in weak sinful man ready to contend with the Almighty God The question in the Text may be resolved into this position There are Contenders with God There are Contenders with the Word of God as was shewed before There are Contenders also with the Works of God or with God about his Works as I shall shew further now and this will soon appear if we do but compare the 4th verse of the 51th Psalme with the 4th verse of Rom. 3. In the Psalme David made Confession of his sin of that special enormous sin Adultery with the Murder that followed it Against thee onely have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mâ—ghtest be justified when thou speakest and clear when thou judgest As if David had said I humbly confesse my sin my adultery and my murder that when-ever the Lord shall bring any chastisement upon my person or upon my family when ever he shall afflict me or mine greatly he may be justified in so doing or that all the world may see that God had great reason to correct me and so justifie him in it For some possibly may say with wonder at the hearing of it What! the Lord correct David such a man as David so holy a man as David so just and upright a man as David Yes and the Lord is just in doing it and Dâ—vid confessed his sin that God might be justified when he should speak terrible things and be cleared when he should judge that is correct and afflict him terribly as the word is used 1 Cor. 11.31 If we would judge our selves we should not be judged that is we should not be chastened as 't is expounded vers 32. When we are judged saith the Apostle there we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world Now those words spoken by David are applied by the Apostle Rom. 3.4 to vindicate the honour of God against all aspersions whatsoever in his proceeding with man Let God be true and every man a liar as it is written that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art judged In the Psalme the words are active That thou mayest be clear when thou judgest But St. Paul following as I remember the Septuagint renders them passively That thou mayest overcome when thou art judged As if he had said Some take upon them to judge God they who judge him contend with him that is they judge and passe sentence upon his works now saith the Apostle Let God be true and every man a liar that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art judged that is that all men may see and say thou art righteous though thou afflictest the godly for they sin and though thou condemnest the wicked for they sin and repent not of their sins These two Scriptures considered either apart or compared together besides many more which might be called into this service are a clear proof that there are Contenders with God about his works Yet possibly some may say surely there are none to be found so bold and presumptuous What contend with God I answer First There are some who do it very openly avowedly and with a bare face they stick not to speak their dis-satisfaction concerning the works of God and belch out blasphemy against what he hath done or is doing in the world Such doubtlesse were they of whom it is said Isa 8.21 They shall passe through it hardly bestead and hungry and it shall come to passe that when they be hungry they shall fret themselves and curse their King and their God and look upward not in faith and patience as they who in such extremities call earnestly and humbly upon God but in passion and vexation as they who wickedly curse God and depart from him Such also are they spoken of Rev. 16.9 who being scorched with great heat at the pouring out of the fourth vial upon the Sun blasphemed the Name of God who had power over those plagues and repented not to give him glory Secondly I answer There are many who do this secretly or within their teeth they bite in their words yet 't is the language of their hearts in tumultuating thoughts arising and working there about the works of God and thus a good man a Job who was a good man of the first form may be found contending with the works of God Any discontent with the works of God is a degree of contending with God about them Any secret rising of heart against what God doth is in this sence a striving with God yea our being not fully pleased and satisfied with what God doth is in some sense a contending with God And if all this be to contend with God how many are there that contend with God! and who almost is there that doth not Who can say in this thing my heart is clean Who can say but at one time or other he hath contended with God Remember when we would have things after our mind and mode when we are not free to comply with the will of God this is to contend with God There are two Cases as to the common state of the world in which the hearts even of good men are very apt to rise against the work of God First When they see the wicked prosper and carry all before them in the world then they are ready to say Why doth God suffer this Jeremiah had much adoe to keep his heart from contending with God in this case Jer. 12.1 And David could hardly keep his from it Psal 73.2 3. As for me my feet were almost gone my steps had well nigh slipt for I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked And for this he befooled himself vers 22. So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee Thus David was and many more have been offended at the work of God in giving good to
gracious in condescending to man He is willing we should answer for our selves and do our best to clear our selves when we have done our works amiss or have spoken amiss of his JOB Chap. 40. Vers 3 4 5. 3. Then Job answered the Lord and said 4. Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth 5. Once have I spoken but I will not answer yea twice but I will proceed no further IN the former verse the Lord urged Job to answer He that reproveth God let him answer it Job being thus urged by the Lord to answer gave his answer and the answer which he gave was this in general That he could not answer Or we have here First An humble confession of his utter inability to answer Secondly His settled resolution not to answer His inability to answer appears at the 4th verse Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth His resolution not to answer or only to give this for an answer That he could not answer is expressed in the 5th verse Once have I spoken but I will not answer yea twice but I will proceed no further Jobs spirit it seems was much appaled by the Lords appearance to him and immediate parlee with him his understanding also was much puzzled yea non-plust with those many and intricate questions which God had put to him and therefore he submits at once acknowledging he had done amiss in his over-free discourses before and promising that he would run that course no more Vers 3. Then Job answered the Lord and said What he said by way of answer followeth Vers 4. Behold I am vile what shall I answer Behold Job doth not conceal nor cover but calls all eyes to the view of his own vileness Behold Let God behold let Angels behold let men behold what now I my self behold that I am vile The root of the word which we translate vile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et levem vilem ac contemptum esse significat signifies three things First To be light or of little weight and because light things are lightly esteemed therefore it signifies Secondly To be contemned or that which is contemptible and Thirdly Because light things and things contemptible are also vile things therefore as we translate it signifies vile As if Job had said I am light I have no substance no solidity in me I am but as chaff or as a feather I bear no weight I deserve no esteem no respect I am vile As the Hebrew word for honour and glory is derived from a root which signifies heaviness or weightiness whence the Apostles phrase in the Greek tongue 2 Cor. 4.17 which we translate an exceeding weight of glory Glory is such a weighty thing that we must have other manner of shoulders other manner of strength than now we have before we can be able to bear the weight of it Flesh and blood as it is unrefined or meerly natural would soon sink under that weight Now I say as glory and honour are exprest by a word which signifies weightiness so that which is vile and contemptible is exprest by a word that signifies lightness or to be light Thus saith Job Behold I am light or Behold I am vile There are two other translations of these words whereof the one refers to the speeches the other to the actions of Job First The old Latine translation saith thus Qui leviter loquutus sum respondere quid possum Vulg. I have spoken lightly how shall I answer thee Ours refers to his person I am light or I am vile that to his words I have spoken lightly To speak lightly or vainly is to be vain and light Some words have a great deal of weight in them words of truth words of soberness holy words gracious words are weighty words evil words impertinent words unprofitable words specially corrupt filthy sinful words are light words how many words soever of those sorts any man speaks they are all light words they have not a grain of goodness and therefore not a grain of weightiness in them That 's a good sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecce leviter feci Aquila Secondly One of the Greek translators renders Behold I have done or acted lightly There is lightness in our actions as well as in our speeches We say such a man is of a light that is of a vain carriage and we say of another he is a grave man or there is gravity in his carriage Thus some speak and act gravely or weightily others speak and act loosely lightly When Job saith Behold I am vile it may take in both I have spoken lightly I have done lightly and therefore I am light therefore I am vile or contemptible Cum nihil siâ— Sept. Yet further The greek Septuagint translates I am nothing they carry the sense to the lowest and least imaginable There is nothing less than nothing How shall I answer thee seeing I am nothing All that I am is so light a thing that I am nothing at all that is nothing of worth nothing of value I am of so little validity that I have scarce any entity From all these readings we may fully gather up Jobs sense in this self-abasing confession Behold I am vile Lastly For the clearing of these words consider we are not to understand Job when he saith I am vile as speaking only with reference to his then present sad sorrowful deplorable condition sometimes such are accounted vile by men who are low and mean in the eye of the world Job did not count himself vile upon that consideration because stript of all his worldly greatness power and glory health and strength he did not call himself vile because of the present dispensation of God towards him but he called himself vile with respect to the common natural condition of mankind or as he was a sinful man though his providential condition had been never so good and prosperous Behold I am vile Hence observe First Man at his best estate is vile David saith he is even then altogether vanity Psal 39.5 and what is vile if that be not or what can be viler than that which is altogether vanity Man is vile First If we consider the matter of his body Was he not originally made of the dust and moulded out of the clay which we tread upon and trample undeâ— feet In which sense among others the Apostle Phil. 3.21 calls oâ—r body a vile body the materials of it being vile it iâ—â—â—so vile Secondly Man is very vile ch â—â—â—y vile through the sinfulness both of his nature and life Sin reâ—ders us vile indeed corruption makes us of no repâ—â—ation Thâ—ugh man as to the matter of his body might have bâ—en called vile iâ— the day of his creation yet he had never deserved that diminishing title if he had not sinned Sin hath degraded man and laid him low sin hath dishonoured
that we are vile in vain do we cry for deliverance or hope for mercy When we are lowest in our own eyes we are nearest to our exaltation when once we say in our hearts we are nothing we deserve nothing we have spoken lightly we have done lightly salvation will not tarry 1 Pet. 5.7 Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God and he will lift you up in due time If we would be lifted up out of any affliction we must be at this humbling work We shall never work as I may say upon the heart of God unless we are thus at work with our own hearts or till this work be done upon our hearts Our great work lies within especially in a day of tryal and tribulation such as Job was in Job was speedily reduced to his former honour and greatness when once through grace he had wrought his heart to this confession Behold I am vile What shall I answer thee As if Job had said truly I have nothing to answer thee Thou O Lord hast given such demonstrations of thy greatness of thy power of the excellency of thy wisdom of thy goodness that I have nothing to say but this that I can say nothing What shall I answer thee I know not what to answer or I have nothing to answer As in a great strait when we know not what to do we usually say What shall we do So here it sheweth that Job was no way able to answer when he said What shall I answer The Hebrew is What shall I return or turn back We may exemplifie this passionate interrogation by that of the Patriark Judah Gen. 44.16 when Joseph would have detained Benjamin having found the cup in his sacks mouth Judah said What shall we say unto my Lord what shall we speak or how shall we clear our selves Here are three questions to shew that he had nothing to answer First What shall we say to my Lord Secondly What shall we speak Thirdly How shall we clear our selves Truly we know not what to say nor speak nor how to clear our selves The plain truth is we have nothing at all to answer for our selves but to yield our selves to thy mercy Thus Job I am vile what shall I answer thee the great God the holy God the mighty God the wise God what shall I answer thee Hence note When God is opponent no man can be respondent God can put such questions and make such objections as no man is able to answer Thus spake Job at the 3d verse of the ninth Chapter If he that is God will contend with him that is with man he cannot answer him one of a thousand Which implyeth that not only not one among very many men but that not one among all men or that not any man is able to answer if God will contend The Apostle saith of all men in a state of sin Rom. 3.19 We know that what things soever the law saith it saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God If the Lord should make objections against or charge sinners according to the strictness and severity of the law the best the holiest of men could not find an answer or no answer would be found in their mouths how much less could any answer him who not only were altogether born in sin as all are and as the proud Pharisees told the poor man in the Gospel he was Joh. 9.34 but abide and continue in sin How will the mouthes of all such be stopt with a sense of their self-guiltiness how mute how answerless will they stand before God or say as Job in the Text but in a ten thousand times sadder plight than he What shall we answer It is the happiness of humbled sinners that they have Christ to answer for them seeing in that case no sinner can answer for himself And such is the Majesty and glory of God when it breaks forth in any case to a poor creature that it leaves him quite answerless and takes away not only all matter of dispute but of speech and therefore Job resolves upon silence as appears by what he saith in the last clause of this verse I will lay my hand upon my mouth As if he had said That all may see I know not what to answer I will stop up the conveyance of answers What this Scripture phrase to lay the hand upon the mouth imports hath been opened Chap. 21.5 In brief Jobs meaning in resolving thus was as if he had said I will impose silence upon my self Or thus Lord thou shalt not need to silence me or to stop my mouth I will do it my self I know not what to answer thee but if I did if I could gather up something that might look like an answer yet I will not answer I will lay my hand upon my mouth Further when he saith I will lay my hand upon my mouth it may imply that he would fain have been answering though he could not tell what to answer The tongue if left at liberty if not checkt will be making answers Constituo linguae licentiam perâ—nitèr coercere when it cannot answer any thing to purpose and therefore as David said Psal 39.1 I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me So would Job here while the Holy one was before him fearing he might give further offence while he went about to take off offences The tongue of a good man needs a bridle and the better any man is the more he bridles his tongue Job had offended with his tongue though he had not spoken wickedly yet he had spoken rashly and inconsiderately and now he saith I will lay my hand upon my mouth Hence note We should be very watchful over that which hath been an instrument or an occasion of sin He that hath offended with his mouth should lay his hand upon his mouth and take order with his tongue It is better to be silent than to offend in speaking Socrates l. 4. hist Eccles cap. 18. Pambâ— as the Church Historian reports confessed that in forty nine years he had scarcely learned the meaning of or the duty contained in the first and â—econd verses of the thirty ninth Psalm concerning the due restraint and government of the tongue Secondly Note Hoc suppliâ—ii gonus linguarium appellant Sanct. It is necessary sometimes to abridge our selves in what we may do lest we should do what we may not This is a holy revenge and it is one of those seven effects of Godly sorrow which works repentance not to be repented of 2 Cor. 7.11 We should in some cases forbear to speak at all for fear we should speak amiss They who are truly wise are much asham'd to speak when once they see their error in speaking or how apt they are to erre in speaking and therefore lay that penalty upon their tongues either to spare speaking or
of a penitent Now saith he I will proceed no further Hence note Thirdly When sins and failings are heartily and penitently confessed they are not persisted nor persevered in He that hath really confest his sin will to his utmost put a stop to his sin he will be so far from renewing or continuing in it that he sets himself might and main and prayes in aid from God against it True confession of sin is always seconded and followed with forsaking of sin The Prophet calling the people of Israel to repentance said Isa 1.16 Cease to do evil It will not avail us to say we have done evil unless we cease to do evil The promise of mercy is not to bare confessors but to those who are also forsakers of sin Prov. 28.13 He that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find mercy Prov. 30.32 If thou hast done foolishly lifting up thy self or if thou hast thought evil lay thy hand upon thy mouth do no more that is do not open thy mouth to speak a word in defence of it do not put forth thy hand any more to act it Every unfeigned confession of any one sin Confessio peccati est professio desinendi peccare Hilar. in Psal 136. Irrisor est non poenitens qui adhuc agit quod poenitet Bernard is a real profession against that and against all other sins That man let him be who he will is not a confessor of sin to God but a mocker of God who confesseth a sin and takes no care to keep himself pure not only from that but from every sin The Apostle John doth not only say Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin but he cannot sin because he is born of God 1 Epist 3.9 Not that he hath not a natural power to sin but he hath not a will a mind to sin or he sins not with the full consent or swing of his will or he hath a sincere bent of will against every sin and would sin no more How wicked and bent to back-sliding were those Jews to whom the Lord said by his Prophet Isa 1.5 Why should ye be stricken any more ye will revolt more and more The will of a wicked man is wholly for sin the will of a godly man as such is wholly against sin so that when he sinneth he may be said to sin against his own will as well as against the will of God and therefore being convinced that he hath sinned though but in passion or by impatient words as Jobs case was he gives his honest word for it as Job here did that he will proceed no further In these three verses Job hath shewed his repentance for his unwary speeches and excesses in language he hath confessed his own vileness and sits down as silenced by God yea as imposing silence upon himself Thus he is got a good way in the work of humiliation yet he was not come quite through he had not yet made such a confession of his sin nor was his heart so humbled as it ought to be before God would raise him up and therefore in the following part of this Chapter and in the next God sets upon him again and speaks to him a second time out of the whirlwind The Lord had begun to humble him and Job had begun to humble himself yet the Lord deals further with him to humble him more and speaks to him again out of the whirlwind What again out of the whirlwind Yes Then answered the Lord unto Job out of the whirlwind and said c. And not only so but after the Lord had put many questions to him about himself as before about several creatures he had a reserve of two creatures more to question with him about that would more astonish him than all the rest Behemoth and Leviathan Thus we see when once the Lord begins to humble a soul he will make through work of it and never give it over till he hath brought him to the dust indeed Job was so far humbled that he had no more to say unto God but God had much more to say unto Job and all for this end that he might humble him more as will appear in opening that which followeth JOB Chap. 40. Vers 6 7 8 6. Then answered the Lord unto Job out of the whirlwind and said 7. Gird up thy loyns now like a man I will demand of thee and declare thou unto me 8. Wilt thou also disannul my judgement wilt thou condemn me that thou mayst be righteous IN the former verse Job gave out in the plain field confessing himself overcome not by rigour and force of arms but by reason and strength of argument or rather by that which is above all reasons and arguments the soveraign power and authority of God and thereupon he resolved to meddle no more to answer no further and that though he had spoken once yea twice yet he would not proceed he would adde no more he had enough of it he had already spoken too much much more with respect to God than came to his share Hereupon the Lord at this 6th verse begins again to speak and answer him and his answer is contained and continued quite through this fortieth Chapter together with the whole one and fortieth and in it we may consider these four things distinctly First A pâ—eface at the 6th verse Then answered the Lord unto Job out of the whirlwind and said Secondly We have here a challenge at the 7th verse Gird up thy loyns now like a man I will demand of thee and declare thou unto me Thirdly We have in this answer of God a reproof of Job or a vehement expostulation with Job in the 8th and 9th verses Wilt thou also disannul my judgement wilt thou condemn me that thou mayst be righteous Hast thou an arm like God canst thou thunder with a voice like him Thus he expostulates thus he reproves Fourthly We have here a large proof or demonstration of the greatness power wisdom and soveraignty of God for the further conviction and humiliation of Job And this proof or demonstration of the power of God is laid down two wayes First By his providencial actings in destroying proud and wicked men This we have in the 10 11 12 13 and 14 verses Deck thy self now with majesty and excellency and array thy self with glory and beauty cast abroad the rage of thy wrath and behold every one that is proud and abase him As if the Lord had said these things I do I look on every one that is proud and bring him low I tread down the wicked in their place c. All this I can do and do in my providences daily Job canst thou do so too Thus we have a proof of the great power and soveraignty of God taken from his judiciary proceedings with proud men Secondly He gives of a proof his great power by a double instance from the work of creation as in the former Chapter by the works of
the danger of pride poor proud is so common that it is grown into a proverb And they especially who are poor in spirituals grow proud in spirit as it was with the Laodicean Angel Rev. 3.17 But further they are proud who lift up themselves in any thing of self As First in their natural parts wit understanding memory elocution Secondly in their acquired parts learning knowledge skill Thirdly in their moral vertues sobriety temperance justice Fourthly in their spiritual graces faith love self-denial 't is possible to be proud for a fit of these or to have a fit of pride come upon us upon the exercise of these Fifthly in their holy duties and performances prayers fastings c. Sixthly in their legal righteousness and good deeds alms charities We seldom do well or any good especially as we ought and duty binds us much good but we think too well of our selves that we are better than we are or too much both of the good we have done and of our own goodness As the great goodness of God or the greatness of his goodness appears chiefly in this that he can make all things even evil things and those not only the evils of trouble but the evil of sin work together for our good Rom. 8.28 so the great evil of mans heart or the greatness of that evil appears chiefly in this that it causeth all things even good things and those not only the good things of this natural life but the good belonging to and done in the power of a spiritual life to work to our hurt sometimes for a time and would to our ruine for ever did not the Lord over-rule it Seventhly the favour which they have with men whether they be the mighty the Princes and powers of the world or the many the common people of the world How are some lifted up because they are the darlings of the people because the multitude eyes them points at them and applauds them To be lifted up in any of these things or in any thing else and what is there not only of an earthly but of an heavenly pedigree and extraction in which the vain heart of man is not ready to be lifted up unduly forgetting God from whom all good comes to be lifted up I say in any of these things layes man open to the wrathful resistance of God and all such God will bring down and abase therefore let us be empty of our selves and beware of being found among the proud yea of being in any kind or degree proud It is dangerous to have any pride found in us but woe to those who are found proud Thirdly If the Lord hath such an eye to and upon proud men and will thus bring them low Then let us not be afraid of proud men why should we be afraid of them who are falling Prov. 15.33 The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom and before honour is humility But what saith the same Solomon Prov. 18.32 Before destruction the heart of man is haughty As soon as ever we see any man shewing a proud heart by pride of life we may quickly conclude the Lord is about to pluck him down One very great reason why the Lord hath laid many who were once as mountains low as valleys was the pride of their hearts When pride buds the rod blossometh that is God is preparing for the correction if not for the destruction of proud ones And as it is sad to see pride bud at any time so then especially when the rod blossometh that is when God is correcting us with his rods Fourthly Then do not envy proud ones We are apt to envy those that are high in place though they are proud in spirit but do not envy proud ones how high how great soever you see them for they are in danger of falling according to the truth of this Scripture and many others When proud men are in their fullest ruff and highest ascent then they are nearest a dreadful downfall Before destruction the heart of man is haughty saith Solomon Prov. 18.12 and before honour is humility And the Apostle Peter having given this counsel to those who are humbled by affliction 1 Epist 5.6 humble your selves under the mighty hand of God subjoyns this comfortable promise in the close of the verse That he may exalt you in due time Fifthly Then pride is a very provoking sin The Lord who declares himself against all sorts of sinners declares himself most against proud sinners Prov. 16.5 Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord mark what followeth in the same verse though hand joyn in hand he that is the proud man shall not be unpunished Pride is the Devils sin the Devil is that Mystical Leviathan spoken of in the 41th Chapter of this Book who is a King over all the children of pride They who are not subject to God proud men above all men are not are the Devils subjects He is a King over all the children of pride There are four things in which the provocation of the sin of pride consists any one of which may provoke God to pull down proud ones First Proud men set themselves in the place of God Lucifer by whom the proud Babilonian is meant said Isa 14.14 I will be like the Most High Thus the Lord said of the Prince of Tyrus Ezek. 28.2 Because thine heart is lifted up and thou hast said I am a God I sit in the seat of God in the midst of the seas yet thou art a man and not God though thou set thy heart as the heart of God See how that proud Prince thought to carry it as God as if he had been the founder of his own strength How can the Lord but be provoked with such an affront as this Proud Babilon spake this language and at as high a rate Isa 47.8 I am and none else besides me is not this to speak just like God I shall not sit as a widdow neither shall I know the loss of children Secondly As pride is an usurpation of the place and power of God so of the providences of God A proud man knoweth not how to acknowledge God in any mercy nor how to be humbled under the hand of God in any affliction He mindes not God either in what he enjoyeth or in what he suffereth is not this a provocation Thirdly Pride must needs provoke God as a proud man sets himself against all the Commands Laws of God God cannot but be provoked to see all his Laws and Commands slighted by man A proud man will keep no bounds nor would he be kept in any Fourthly Pride is a Mother sin it brings forth many other sins As Unbelief is a Mother sin so is Pride Hab. 2.5 He is a proud man neither keepeth at home who enlargeth his desire as hell and is as death and cannot be satisfied but gathereth unto him all Nations and heapeth unto him all people The
he should not only be salvation to the Jews but also to the ends of the earth or to the Gentiles he no longer said I have laboured in vain but thought himself well rewarded for all his cost and pains for all that he did or suffered to bring about and effect the salvation of man Hope is in vain when we have and get but little expecting much Secondly Hope it much more in vain when we hope for much and get nothing at all As Peter said to Christ Luke 5.5 We have toyled all night and have taken nothing That 's like fishing for Leviathan such hope is utterly in vain Such a vain hope the Church spake of Jerem. 8.15 We looked for peace looking is an act of hope and no good came no good at all that hope is vain when we look for peace and no good no benefit comes And thus the Lord spake of his smiting in vain Jerem. 2.30 In vain have I smitten your Children Why in vain they have received no correction that is they were never a whit the better for it they were not amended by it When God spends his rods upon us and we neither cease to do evil nor learn to do good then he correcteth us in vain And when he sends his word and we receive no good by it no instruction by it then his word is in vain To wash an Aethiopian is the embleam of labour in vain because how much soever you wash him he is not at all the whiter nor is any change wrought in his complexion Thirdly Hope is yet more in vain when we look for good and get hurt instead of good The Prophet complained Jerem. 8.15 not only thus We look for peace and no good came but as it follows for a time of health and behold trouble But what was the time of health which they looked for or what was the health which they looked for at that time There is a two-fold health a health of the body natural and a health of the body politick which consists in prosperity and peace for this health they looked but behold trouble So Jer. 14.19 We looked for peace and there was no good and for a time of healing and behold trouble Thus the Lords Vineyard that is the Church of the Jews disappointed the Lords expectation Isa 5.5 when while he looked for grapes it brought forth wild grapes that is as 't is explained ver 7. Oppression instead of judgment and instead of righteousness a cry This was the quite contrary and this is the worst way of having our hope in vain It is said Job 27.8 What is the hope of the hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his soul Suppose a hypocrite hath gained much in this world yea suppose he hath got or gained all the world yet what is his hope when God taketh away his soul then he will not only find no God but much trouble pain and anguish and wrath and hell for evermore upon him When Christ saith Mat. 16.26 What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul His meaning is not only this that he shall have no profit at all but he shall be utterly undone and broke for ever How vain then is the hope of that man yea how vain a man is that who hopes for profit or gain in doing that which endangers the loss of his soul much more that by which his soul is absolutely and for ever lost Thus hope is in vain First when we hope for much and get little Secondly when we hope for much and get nothing Thirdly when we hope for good and get hurt Now in these two latter senses we are to take the meaning of God here A man may hope by use of means to catch Leviathan yet he gets nothing yea probably loseth much or gets much hurt Behold the hâ—pe of him is in vain Hence note First It is hope of gain that usually puts men upon action The Lord supposeth that they who undertake the taking of Leviathan hope to gain much by taking him 'T is hope of attaining that encourageth to doing No man would be stirring much less bestir himself about any business were it not for hope of getting And as it is hope of attaining that puts upon doing so it is hope of attaining that puts us upon suffering Who would suffer for Jesus Christ if he had not a hope of attaining somewhat better than he can lose by his sufferings therefore Jesus Christ hath set that hope before us To suffer rightly for Jesus Christ is so honourable that we should suffer willingly though we get nothing by it yet he hath set a reward before us a crown by his Cross he hath assured us all our losses even our loss of life for his sake shall turn to our gain and profit Hope of attaining is the motive to every undertaking No wise man will meddle with doing that which is either impossible to be done or altogether unprofitable when it is done Were it not for hope the heart would faint First in labouring Secondly in suffering Thirdly in waiting Hope is like a Helmet upon the head when we are in danger of blows 2 Thes 5.8 and like an Anchor both sure and stedfast when we are in storms Heb. 6.19 Secondly The Lord having said before Remember the battel and do no more adds The hope of him is in vain Hence note It is a vain thing to go about that which we see no ground of hope to have success in to do good upon or to get any good by As the Apostle exhorts us To be stedfast and unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as we know true believers do know and all men should know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord so we have ground enough to dehort all men from those works which we know or may know will be in vain And if so Then First How vain a thing is it for any man to sin Is there any thing to be gotten by sin I may well say to sinners as the Lord saith to Job in the latter end of the 8th verse Do no more sin no more your hope is in vain that think to gain by sin that hope to make your selves rich great or happy by sin Do no more your hope is in vain The Apostle puts the question Rom. 6.21 What fruit had you then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed Have you got any benefit by them have you got any thing worth the getting All that is gained by sin will turn to loss at last Samuel charged the Israelites upon this account 1 Sam. 12.21 Turn ye not aside that is do not sin do not turn from the Law of the Lord do not depart from God why for then should you go after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver for they are vain If you turn aside from the wayes of God to by-wayes from the truths of
dares come within his lips or jaws which look like a double bridle Surely no man dares make such an adventure seeing his jaws are so vast or wide and terrible that it may even strike a man of courage with terror or into a fit of trembling to look into them Secondly Others because the jaws are spoken of afterwards understand this double bridle of any thing which man may attempt to put into his jaws to subdue him with as if it had been said who can coerce or bridle him though he have never so strong a bridle though he have a double bridle The word rendred bridle properly signifies the reine of a bridle Fraena nominantur eae partes quae utrinque ad maxillat desinunt Quis cum fraeno duplicato audeat accedere ad eum ut ejus rictui inserat sicut fit equo Sed malo parabolicè intelligere pro labiis Merc. There are two words by which a bridle is expressed the one signifying the bit which is put into the mouth of a horse the other the nead-stall and reins which a horseman holdeth in his hands Here we may take it for the whole bridle and that the strongest bridle as we render a double bridle As if it had been said who dares come neer Leviathan as we commonly do to a horse to put a bridle into his mouth who will undertake to halter or bridle him with all his skill and strength Thus the Relative His doth not respect Leviathan but the man who comes to bridle him And this is most probable because if by the double bridle we understand the jaws of Leviathan this would be the same with what is spoken plainly in the next words Vers 14. Who can open the doors of his face The Lord compareth the gaping jaws of Leviathan to doors to which also the lips are compared in Scripture Psal 141.3 Keep the door of my lips As by a Metaphor our lips are called doors so Leviathans jaws bear the similitude of a two-leav'd door which who can open This seems to carry on the allusion to a horse whose mouth must be opened before he can be bridled Who can force Leviathan to gape that he may put a bridle into his mouth That which is said of him in the latter part of the verse may make any one afraid to do so for His teeth are terrible round about or terrour is round about his teeth His teeth are not to be meddled with they are so terrible As the holy Prophet said to Pashur that false Prophet Thy name shall be called Magor Missabib terrour round about Jer. 20.2 So the teeth of the Leviathan are terrour round about Per gyrum deutium ejus formido Hieron If any one come near him he will see reason enough to be afraid His teeth are terrible Dread dwells round about his teeth and why so why are his teeth so terrible Surely because they are so hurtful he being able to tear any man to pieces with or to break a mans bones with his teeth Hence note That is terrible to us which we perceive hurtful to us The teeth of Leviathan are terrible round about because he can soon crush those that come near him with his teeth Now if that be terrible which we see can hurt us let us remember how terrible the unseen God is His teeth as I may say are terrible round about The Apostle tells us so while he saith 2 Cor. 5.11 Knowing the terrour of the Lord that is knowing how terrible the Lord is we perswade men God loves to save but he can destroy us sooner than Leviathan can crush us were we between his teeth The consideration of the terribleness that is in any creature should lead us to consider how terrible the Lord is to those who provoke him Are the teeth of a Leviathan or the teeth and paws of a Lion teâ—rible is the sting of a Serpent or the poison of Aspes terrible how terrible then is the wrath of God! As what is sweet and comfortable to us in the creature should lead us to consider how surpassing sweet and comfortable God is so that which is dreadful and terrible in the creature should lead us to consider how dreadful and terrible God is And as it is good for us often to say unto our selves O how good is God! so to say O how terrible is God! Yea David would have us say so unto God Psal 66.3 Say unto God that is acknowledge with admiration how terrible art thou in thy works And ver 5. Come and see the works of God he is terrible in his doings toward the children of men Yea God is terrible to his own people Psal 68.35 O God! thou art terrible out of thy holy places that is out of the Church and Church assemblies the Lord many times declares himself very terribly in those sacred assemblies How terrible was God in his Church when he devoured Nadab and Abihu with fire for offering strange fire before him which he commanded not Levit. 10.1 2. How terrible was the Lord out of his Church when he struck Ananias and Saphira dead Acts 5.5 10. how terrible was the Lord out of his holy place the Church to the Corinthians concerning whom the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 11.30 For this cause that is their unworthy partaking of the Lords Supper many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep God deals terribly with those who are not regardful of him who prepare not themselves with due and reverential respect to his holiness for holy duties He is a jealous God and he will not hold them guiltless that is he will hold them very guilty or deal with them as with guilty persons who take his Name in vain Exod. 20.7 When the Law was given so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake Heb. 12.21 The Lord appeared thus terrible at the giving of the Law to shew how terrible he will be to sinners who transgress the Law and repent not of nor turn from their sins and transgressions yea the Lord for their trial shews himself very terrible to good men to broken-hearted and repenting sinners Heman had long and sad experience of this Psal 88.15 I am afflicted and ready to dye from my youth up while I suffer thy terrours I am distracted And for this Job made that grievous complaint Chap. 6.4 The arrows of the Almighty are within me the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit the terrours of God do set themselves in array against me Now if the Lord make such a terrible war upon Saints if he terrifie them even till he hath distracted them how will he draw up his terrours as an army or his army of terrours in battle array against the wicked and ungodly How often doth the Lord express himself by terrible things against such As he sometimes destroyeth sinners secretly or without any appearare of terrour Hosea 5.12 I will be unto Ephraim as a moth So often openly
Leviathans description is taken by Bochartus as a further proof that the Leviathan here spoken of is the Crocodile whose scales are not penetrable by the force of any weapon whereas saith he the skin of the Whale gives passage to the forcible stroke or thrust of any sharp-edged or sharp-pointed instrument For answer to this I have no more to say than what hath been said at the 15th 16th and 17th verses of this Chapter concerning the scales of Leviathan to which I refer the Reader and shall pass on when I have given three or four hints by way of improvement from the whole First If the Lord hath made a creature that no weapon can hurt then surely the Lord himself is exalted above all hurt from the creature as it is said in another place of this Book Chap. 35.6 If thou sinnest what dost thou against him or if thy transgressions be multiplyed what dost thou unto him that is thou canst not hurt God with thy sin Though men by sin lay at him as with sword and spear though they throw their sling-stones of blasphemy at him they cannot hurt him Gamaliel Acts 5.39 gives warning against this take heed what ye do refrain from these men lest haply ye be found even to fight against God They fight against God who set themselves to do mischief but what mischief soever they do to men or among men they can do none to God their weapons reach him not As Solomon tells us Prov. 21.30 There is no wisdom nor counsel against the Lord so there is no weapon against the Lord Sword and spear and dart whether material or metaphorical are but stubble before him And as the Lord himself is beyond the reach of weapons and the rage of man so are they who are under the Lords protection therefore it is said of the Church Isa 54.17 No weapon formed against thee shall prosper that is it shall not have the intended effect of the Smith that made it as that Scripture speaks nor of the hand that weilds it The sword of him that layeth at the Church of God shall not hold the spear the dart nor the habergeon As none are so much assaulted as the Church so none are so well armed and defended Secondly As no offensive weapon can hurt the Lord so no defensive weapon can shelter us from hurt if under the wrath of the Lord. Though we have got an Habergeon though we have scales or bucklers like Leviathan yet the Lord hath a sword a spear a dart that can strike through them that is through all the defences of the most hardned sinners in the world There is no shelter to be found nor defence to be made against the weapons of divine wrath but only in and by Jesus Christ God is a shield and Buckler a Helmet and an Habergeon for believers against all offensive weapons of men or devils but where shall unbelievers find a shield or a buckler to secure themselves against the offensive weapons of God! Again some in allegorizing this Scripture say that Leviathan is an emblem of the Devil Now though it be a truth that no outward weapon no sword nor dart can terrifie or hurt the Devil yet the Lord hath furnished us with weapons that can pierce the Devil that Leviathan and defend us from his power Eph. 6.14 15 16. The sword of the Spirit the Word of God will wound that old Leviathan the Breast-plate of Righteousness the Helmet of Salvation the Shield of Faith will preserve us from woundings in the midst of all his fiery darts How soon would the Devil that cunning and cursed and cruel Darter and Archer wound our souls to death with his fiery darts and poysonous arrows if the Lord had not given us a shield a breast-plate and an helmet more impenetrable than the scales of Leviathan Lastly This description of Leviathan carrieth in it a fit resemblance of a hardned sinner of a sinner resolved upon his evil wayes Some sinners come at last to such a hardness that they are like Leviathan nothing will pierce them the sword of the Spirit doth not enter them Though you lay at them with all your might in the Ministry of the Word though you cast darts and shoot arrows of terrible threatnings against them they esteem them but straw and stubble sin hath so hardned them that they as we may express it are Sermon-proof threatning-proof yea judgement-proof too as to amendment by them though they are broken and perish under them Let God say what he will in his Word or do what he will in his works they regard it not they laugh at the shaking of these spears As a man that hath armour of proof cares not for sword or spears fears not an arrow nor a bullet so 't is in a spiritual sense with resolved sinners God having as a just judgement for former sins given them a shield upon their hearts as the word signifieth Lam 3.65 which we render sorrow of heart and put in the margin obstinacy that is hardness of heart they then account reproofs threats admonitions the most terrible words in all the armoury of God no more than a straw or rotten wood Woe to these Leviathans to those who harden their hearts against the Word of God Who hath hardned himself against the Word of the Lord and prospered And let all such know that as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 10.4 The weapons of our warfare are not carnal that is weak dull edgeless pointless tools but mighty through God c. And that though now they prevail not to conversion yet they will prevail to condemnation and that while they go on to sin they are but going as Solomon speaks of the young wanton Prov. 7.22 As an Ox goeth to the slaughter or as a fool to the correction of the stocks till a dart strike through his liver God will have a dart at last which shall enter a dart which those Leviathans shall not count stubble nor find to be so The Lord proceeds to describe Leviathan and as we may conceive to give a further demonstration of the hardness of his scales and skin Vers 30. Sharp stones are under him he spreadeth sharpe pointed things upon the mire Mr. Broughton reads it His underneath-places be as sharp-sheards The word rendred Sharp stones properly signifies the sharp pieces of a pot-sâ—â—â—rd that is stones or other hard things as sharp and pricking as the pieces of a broken pot-sheard We may expound this verse two wayes First As being a proof of the hardness and firmness of Leviathans skin and flesh so hard they are that he can lye down and rest himself upon hard and sharp stones even upon the sharp tops of rocks in the Sea as we lye down upon our beds Sharp stones are under him but he feels them not which may be the meaning also of the next words He spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire That is Leviathan like some hardy man or iron-sides scorns to lye
respect First because 't is that which the wisdom of God the Father hath provided for us and Secondly which the worthiness of God the Son hath wrought out and procured for us Take two or three Inferences from the general Observation thus far prosecuted That true repentance is joyned with self abhorrence First Then self-admirers are no repenters They are at the furthest remove from abhorring themselves who admire themselves Secondly Self-justifiers are no true repenters Christ told the Pharisees Luke 16.15 Ye are they which justifie your selves They are far from abhorring themselves who justifie themselves such surely are highly pleased with themselves and have much confidence in themselves therefore very far from self-abhorrence Thirdly What shall I say of their repentance who instead of abhorring themselves abhor others Luke 18.9 Christ spake a Parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others and presently instanced in the Pharisee who despised the poor Publican and called him in contempt This Publican he would as we say hardly touch him with a pair of tongs They that despise others are usually if not alwayes much pleased with themselves Fourthly If these self-boasters and self-admirers c. are not repenters then do they repent who are so far from abhorring sinful self and righteous self that they take pleasure in sin and unrighteousness whether their own or others The Apostle speaks of such Rom. 1.32 Who knowing the judgement of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them That 's a dreadful word 2 Thes 2.12 That they all might be damned who believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness O how far are they from abhorring their own righteousness who take pleasure in unrighteousness How are they puffed up with that which hath but a shew of righteousness who please themselves with that which is really unrighteous Fifthly If true repentance be accompanied with self-abhorrence then do they repent who return to those sins which they say they have repented of do you think the dog loaths his vomit when you see him go back and lick it up again 2 Pet. 2.22 When once the Jews loathed or abhorred Manna they had no mind to eat of it though it was Angels food When Job loathed his life he said he would live no longer Chap. 7.16 I loath it I would not live alwayes that is not at all not an hour longer in this world He that is weary of his life thinks to live but a day or a little longer is to live alwayes or that his life will never end Thus if a man doth truly loath and abhor his sin he will not return to it again though it hath been as sweet to him as Manna yea as life it self I do not say that he who loaths and abhors his sin can never relapse into the same sin or be overtaken with it again but this I say he that truly repents never delights in sin again he never goeth back to it and licketh it up as a dog his vomit A good man may fall into the same sin but he never returneth to the same sin he may be overtaken with the same sin but he never taketh up the same sin again That 's the Apostles word Gal. 6.1 If any of you be overtaken with a fault c. A good man may be overtaken with the same fault but he never taketh up that fault nor runs a course in that sin again I shall only add these two words for the working of our souls to this self-abhorrence First The more we abhor our selves the more God delighteth in us the more we are displeased with our sins the more is he pleased with our persons the worse the viler we are in our own eyes the better we are and the more beautiful in the eye of God Secondly Unless we abhor our selves God will abhor us I may say unless we so repent as to abhor our selves God will abhor our very repentance There is no true repentance without some degree of self-abhorrence yea of self-condemnation Let us not take up this word repentance too easily that is when we know not what this word self-abhorrence meaneth We defile this holy this precious thing called repentance when our hearts are not fully taken off from that or thole sins of which we say we repent All such would have that go for repentance towards God which indeed is but a mocking of God and can never be joyned from which true repentance cannot be separated with faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ Acts 20.21 I abhor my self said Job And repent in dust and ashes I shall here give somewhat about the nature of repentance in general and then gather up those particular Observations which arise from these words about it Repentance is a grace of the Gospel wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Word and Spirit turning the whole man from all sin to God in the sincere and universal obedience of his holy will In this description of repentance we have four things considerable First The nature of it or what it is A grace of the Gospel Secondly The seat of it or where it is wrought The heart of a sinner Thirdly The means by which it is wrought and that twofold First Instrumental The Word Secondly Principal The Spirit Fourthly The issue or effect of it Conversion or turning wherein two things are to be taken notice of First the term from which the turn is made Sin and all sin Secondly the term to which the turn is made God thus explained In the sincere or universal obedience of his holy will or in the practice of every known duty First I say Repentance is a grace of the Gospel Some possibly may say Job was before the Gospel I answer no The Gospel was published long before Job was born even as soon as God promised the seed of the woman Christ Jesus should bruise the Serpents head Gen. 3.15 The whole body of Gospel duty moves upon these two feet Faith and Repentance Some have questioned which of these two graces hath the precedency or takes the first step in the motion of the soul heaven-ward All that I shall say in answer to it is First that where these two graces are mentioned together in Scripture usually repentance is named first because it appears first and is most visible to us in its actings yet Faith is to be understood first because without that no man can come to Christ as a true penitent for pardon of sin and reconciliation unto God Secondly in those Scriptures where true saving repentance is spoken of alone it supposeth faith also and where true saving faith only is spoken of it necessarily implyeth true repentance This repentance is so much a grace of the Gospel that the first Sermon that ever was preacht at the approach of Christ or at the opening of the Gospel in the new
that is their own peace interest and advantage is all that moves them to it or is designed and aimed at by them in it they mind not the glory of God nor his reparation in honour which hath been by their sin greatly impaired The Lord was down-right with Israel in this Jer. 4.1 If thou wilt return O Israel saith the Lord return unto me intimating that Israel used to make some kind of repenting turns but short of God they minded not God sincerely in them but the removal of some rod or trouble that was come or which they feared was coming upon them They return to God in repenting who repent with a holy resolve upon their hearts to obey God and with a longing desire to enjoy God all the days of their life Thus upon the occasion of Jobs saying I repent I have briefly opened the duty of repentance of such a repentance as without all peradventure Job was then exercised in His was the grace of repentance his repentance was wrought in his heart chiefly by the immediate word and speakings of God to him He turned fully in it from all his passions and expostulations with God which were at that time his special sin to a meek quiet submission to the will of God and a resting in his dispensations All this was wrapped up in this short word I repent Further consider when Job said I repent in dust and ashes he was not then to begin his repentance he had repented long before yet then he began a new work of repentance or then he renewed his repentance Hence note First New sinnings call for new repentings As the new leakings of a ship calls for new pumpings and repairs so I say new sins call for new repentings There is a first repentance and there is a second repentance First Repentance is our coming out of a state of sin of which Christ spake Mat. 11.20 21. Then began he to upbraid the Cities wherein most of his mighty works were done because they repented not Wo unto you Chorazin and wo unto you Bethsaida for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes that is they had come out of their sins Those converts in the Acts of the Apostles chap. 2.38 repented that is they came out of a sinful state Now as there is a repentance which I call our coming out of a state of sin so there is a repentance which is a coming off from this and that act of sin and this is the repentance which Job was upon Again this repentance as to acts of sin is two-fold First Our ordinary and every days repentance Secondly Our extraordinary repentance When we have fallen greatly when we have sinned extraordinary of when the Lord brings any extraordinary judgment upon us then the Lord expects extraordinary repentance such was Davids repentance in the 51. Psalm and such was Jobs repentance here as it was in general for sin so for some extraordinary sinful failings Secondly Consider what was Jobs sin Job was no vile person he had committed no gross acts of wickedness If you would know what Jobs sin was it was impatience under Gods dealings with him and his distrustfulness as to Gods delivering of him yet even his were great sins Hence note Not only gross sins murder adultery and the oppression of our neighbours are great sins but impatiency under the hand of God and unwary speeches concerning the dealings of God with us are great sins Every great sin is not a gross sin Drunkenness and swearing and adultery and murder are gross sins but impatience under afflictions and unbelief not resting upon God in an evil day these are great sins though not gross sins Remember not only are gross sins great sins but many sins which appear not to the eye nor to the ear may yet be great sins especially as to the person that committeth them Thirdly note Not gross sins only but slips of the tongue and impatiency under Gods hand are to be repented of Job not only acknowledged these to be sins but repenteth of these nor had he any other matter to repent of When we are under some great sickness or any other affliction as we are to repent of former sins so let us repent of our sickness and affliction-sins that is of impatience or any unwary speeches in our affliction These Job repented of Again how did Job repent It was in dust and ashes Hence Observe Fourthly Open sins must have open repentance That 's intended by repenting in dust and ashes We are not bound to repent openly of all our sins but in in these two cases we are First When we have done any thing that hath openly dishonoured God Secondly When we have scandalized or offended others In these cases we must repent openly so far that they who are concerned may have a testimony of our repentance When Job repented in dust and ashes he like those servants of Benhadad who came with ropes about their necks testified that he deserved to be thrown into the dust or to be burnt to ashes We can neither edifie nor satisfie such as are grieved by our sins unless our repentance be visible and we appear repenting As the light of our zeal must so shine before men that they may see our good works so the light of our repentance must so shine before men that they may see us humbled for and turning from our evil works and glorifie our father which is in heaven Fifthly Note We may testifie our repentance by outward signs Here was not only the reallity of repentance but the ceremony of it There are many outward signs of repentance spoken of in Scripture Such are First Smiting upon the thigh thus Ephraim is described repenting Jerem. 31.19 Secondly Smiting upon the breast so the Publican is described repenting Luke 18.13 He smote upon his breast and said God be merciful to me a sinner Thirdly Laying aside our ornaments thus the Lord commanded the Israelites Exod. 33.5 Put off thy ornaments from thee that I may know to do unto thee as if God had said humble thy self openly and repent Fâ—urthly The putting on of sack-cloth this the Jews were called to do Isa 22.12 Fifthly Holding down the head The Jews Isa 58.5 were not reproved for doing that but because they did it like a bull-rush only when a storm was upon them Sixthly Renting the garment and walking softly So did Ahab 1 Kings 21.27 Seventhly as in the text Job saith he did sitting in dust and ashes I do not say these or the like are absolutely necessary to repentance but they are lawful and have their use When the Prophet Joel 2.13 said Rent your hearts not your garments that is rent your hearts rather than your garments it was not a prohibition but a direction or if rent your garments be sure you rent your hearts also else all your outward modes of repentance are in vain
and insignificant Bellarminus l. 1. de poenitentio c. 7. SS percurramus Some Popish Writers make the essence of repentance to consist in these or such like outward signs but though we deny that yet we grant these may be signs of true repentance For as to bow the knee is not to pray although he that prayeth usually boweth the knees as a sign of an humble heart in prayer so to sit in the dust and weep is not to repent although the truly penitent usually do so The essence of repentance consists in a broken heart for sin and in breaking off the course and custome of sin turning to God fully Further this outward ceremony of sitting in dust and ashes intimates the greatness of Jobs repentance or that he repented greatly under a deep sense of and with bitter mournings for his former miscarriages in the time of his affliction Hence note Sixthly A soul truly humbled maketh a very serzous work of repentance Poenitet me ex enime studiosissimè quod illis externa symbolis significabatur Jun. It is a common thing to say I repent but few know what it is to repent in dust and ashes They who repent indeed judge arraign and condemn themselves as at Gods tribunal they put their mouths in the very dust Repentanâ—e is heart work and deep work they who are brought in a spiritual sense to dust and ashes find it so Though some sinners corrupt themselves and their ways more deeply than others yet all sin is of a deep dye and corrupts deeply and therefore calls for deep for heart-deep mournings and repentings in dust and ashes Note Seventhly God will not give over dealing with his sinning servants till he hath brought them to true contrition for their sins How long was Job dealt with by his friends and by Elihu and by God himself before his heart was wrought into this frame and temper to repent in dust and ashes It was long before he understood that God might break in innocent person to pieces and give no account why God did not give over afflicting Job till he came to that acknowledgment Job said Chap. 40.4 I am vile and it might be thought that had been repentance sufficient But though Job was then brought low yet he was not brought low enough he cryed I am vile but till God spake to him of Behemoth and Leviathan he repented not in dust and ashes Ephraim said Jer. 31.18 19. Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke turn thou me and I shall be turned thou art the Lord my God Surely after that I was turned I repented and after that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth The Lord never left smiting Ephraim till he made him smite upon his thigh If we do not come home in the work of repentance by words God will fetch us home with his rods In the eighth place If we consider this repentance of Job with what followeth presently upon it his restauration Observe When we are deeply humbled and brought low we are near our exaltation When Job lay in dust and ashes God was about to set him upon a mountain a mountain of prosperity and that a higher one than ever he was upon before Psal 126.5 6. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy they that go forth weeping bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoycing bringing their sheaves with them Therefore take the Apostles counsel 1 Pet. 5.6 Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God and what then he will exalt you in due time The due time of our lifting up is at hand when we are laid low and sincerely humbled under the hand of God Jobs humiliation and restauration did almost synchronize or come near in time together Ninthly Note True repentance endeth in true joy The word which signifies to be grieved signifieth also to rejoyce and Job found it so he was comforted as soon as fully humbled Repentance issueth in joy three ways First There is joy in heaven when a sinner repenteth Luke 15.7 As he that found his lost sheep brought it home and rejoyced in it more than over the ninety and nine that did not go astray So saith Christ there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance True sorrow on earth maketh joy in heaven Secondly There is joy in the Church The godly on earth rejoyce at the known repentance of a sinner When the prodigal son came home his father said to his discontented brother It was meet that we should make merry and be glad for this thy brother was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found The Apostle greatly rejoyced at the repentance of the Corinthians 2 Cor. 7.9 Now I rejoyce not that ye were made sorry but that you sorrowed to repentance Their sorrow occasion'd his joy yet not that but their repentance was the cause of it There is no better joy on earth than that which ariseth out of the dust of repenting sorrows As the Apostle John had no greater joy than to hear that his spiritual children walked in the truth Ephes 3.4 So what greater joy can we have than to see any who had gone astray from returning to the truth Thirdly Repentance issueth in joy chiefly to the soul repenting If other mens repentance causeth our joy our own will cause it much more 2 Cor. 7.10 Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of The Apostles meaning is more than he speaks repentance not to be repented of is repentance to be rejoyced and gloried in We cannot take comfort in our sins but we may take much comfort in repenting for our sins as that repentance is joyned with faith in Christ who hath given us power to repent and who is for himself to be rejoyced in Lastly Take this general note from the whole matter The speakings of God to man whether mediate or immediate are mighty and effectual The speaking of man to man barely can do nothing but the speaking of man to man in the power of God will do much how much more if God himself speak God spake to Job and these mighty effects followed First Self-abhorrence Secondly Deep repentance Thirdly Full submission to the will of God Fourthly A readiness to testifie by all due means how vile how miserable he was yet cleaving fast to and depending fully upon God by faith in the promise for mercy peace and pardon Fifthly A change both of mind and manners both in thought word and way Job thought no more as he had done he spake no more as he had done he acted no more as he had done in that condition he was another manner of man than before a good man he was before but now a better he came out of the fire of that affliction and
sin First the greatness of the punishment laid upon the sinner Secondly the greatness of the means used for the healing of that breach which sin hath made I answer Secondly the number seven being a Symbol of perfection as was said before figured the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ who by one offering hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 A perfect number of sacrifices was fittest to shadow the infinite perfection of that one sacrifice which makes and which only makes all the comers thereunto perfect For though a person under the Law having offered his sacrifice was no more reckoned guilty of that sin by men yet his conscience did still accuse him of and charge him with sin and therefore sacrifices were renewed Heb. 10.1 2. nor could the accusings of conscience be quieted but by looking to Christ by faith whom the sacrifice shadowed and the sacrificer was to point at Fifthly In that the Lord sent Eliphaz and his two friends unto Job with their sacrifice Observe We must reconcile our selves to those we have wronged before we can look to be reconciled unto God against whom we have sinned or to be accepted of him in any service The counsel of Christ directs to this Mat. 5.23 24. If thou bringest thy gift unto the Altar and there remembrest that thy brother hath ought against thee leave there thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift This general command of Christ is the same in effect with what the Lord here long before gave particularly and personally to Eliphaz and his two friends they must first go and be reconciled to Job and then offer their sacrifice This the Apostle also gave in charge 1 Tim. 2.8 I will therefore that men pray every where holding up holy hands but how without wrath and doubting There are two things required if we look to be accepted of God in any service First Faith Secondly Love or charity There must be faith else we cannot lift up holy hands without doubting There must be love else we cannot lift up holy hands without wrath They who are suing for and expecting favour and mercy from God have need to discharge themselves of all wrath and revenge towards man With what face can any expect favour from God who will not acknowledge wherein they have wronged man Sixthly Observe God is very tender of the credit of his faithful servants he will not be reconciled unless they are righted Job had been wronged no man more by the censures of his friends and God was so tender of his honour and reputation that his friends must make him reparation before God will accept their sacrifice One reason why God is so tender of the credit of his servants is because they are tender of his and will undergo any wrong rather than his Name shall be blasphemed or wronged As God will himself honour them who honour him 1 Sam. 2.30 so he will one time or other some way or other retrench and cast back upon men all that dishonor which they have received from men or cause them to take it off and wipe them clean whom they have undeservedly aspersed Observe Seventhly God will humble proud and high spirits and make them submit to those whom they have wronged There is a twofold submission which is the duty of a Christian First to God James 4.7 Secondly to man and this is twofold First To those that are over us and above us in power Rom. 13.1 Tit. 3.1 And thus not only are subjects to submit to Magistrates but all of a lower degree are to submit to their superiours servants to their Masters wives to their Husbands children to their parents Secondly There is a submission to those that are wronged by us and though they be our inferiours yet in this sense we are to submit to them that is acknowledge that we have wronged them The Apostle James intimates such a submission Chap. 5.16 and the Apostle Paul speaks it plainly Eph. 5.21 Submitting your selves to one another in the fear of God Here is a mutual submission a submission in case of wrong and doubtless that rule of Scripture is extendible to other cases not only of equals one to another but of superiours to inferiours Our spirits like not this we hardly submit to those that we have wronged but there 's no remedy we must Some say they will submit to God but they cannot submit to man they cannot stoop to that Let such remember that without this submission even to an inferiour whom we have knowingly wronged or are made to know which was the case here that we have wronged we cannot hopefully apply to God for peace and reconciliation Eighthly Observe They that are wronged by others must forgive them their wrongs God sent Eliphaz and his two friends to Job not only that they should acknowledge they had wronged him but that Job might freely and fully testifie so far as concerned him his forgiveness of that wrong As it is the duty of them that have wronged others to submit to them in the acknowledgement of it so they that are wronged ought to forgive receive them in that submission We must forgive as we look to be forgiven Mat. 6.12 We cannot pray believingly that God would forgive us the guilt of our iniquity committed against himself or others unless we forgive others the injury which they have done us Observe Ninthly Good men are ready to give and take satisfaction in point of wrong Jobs friends had done him wrong and as they good men were ready to give satisfaction so Job good man was as ready to take it Many wrong others but will give no satisfaction many are wronged by others and will take no satisfaction nothing will quiet or appease them Jobs friends and himself were highly to be commended that they were willing to give and he to take satisfaction The Apostle urgeth this Eph. 4.26 27. Be angry and sin not let not the Sun go down upon your wrath neither give place to the devil They give up their hearts as lodging-chambers to the devil who let the Sun go down upon their wrath therefore it followeth vers 31.32 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ sake hath forgiven you They that know what it is to be forgiven by God they that know what need they have continually of Gods forgiving grace mercy will be as ready to accept satisfaction as any can be to give it This was eminent in Job as will appear further in opening the next words in this verse Go to my servant Job and offer up for your selves a burnt-offering And my servant Job shall pray for you How eminent Job was in prayer and how available his prayers or intercessions were for others may
a favourite Abraham was a favourite God called him his friend and Job was a favourite The Lord shews favour to many who yet are not his favourites Kings and Pâ—inces shew favour to all their faithful subjects yet but one possibly is a Favourite The Lords chief favourite is his Son Jesus Christ he hath his ear continually I knew said Christ John 11.42 that thou hearest me alwayes Now as Christ is a favourite above all men so among good men some have favour with God above others A King will hear a favourite when he will not a common person Our Annotators upon this very place tell us out of Mr. Fox that when Sir John Gostwich had falsely accused Arch-Bishop Cranmer to King Henry the VIII he would not hear him nor be reconciled to him till Cranmer himself whom he had wronged came and spake for him Thus the Lord will not be reconciled to some till the wronged party intercedes for them Yet we must remember that the power or effect of all our prayers depends upon Jesus Christ alone by him it is that any have access to the father and he is the way to the holiest the beloved in whom God is well pleased whom he heareth always and through whom God heareth his best beloved favourites on earth Observe Fifthly It is a great mercy to have the prayers of a good man going for us The Lord told not Eliphaz and his two friends of any thing else that Job should do for them he only saith Job my servant shall pray for you If the Lord doth but stir up the heart of a Job of a Moses of a Jacob a Wrestler in prayer to pray for us who knows what mercy we may receive by it And therefore when the Lord forbids his favourites to pray for a people as sometimes he doth it is a sign that such are in a very sad condition yea that their case is desperate Jeremiah was a mighty man with the Lord in prayer and the Lord said to him Jer. 14.11 Pray not to me for this people for good Jeremiah was forward to pray for them but the Lord stopt him Pray no more not that the Lord disliked his prayer but because he was resolved not to forgive them though he prayed for them therefore he said pray not The Lord would not let such precious waters run wast as the prayers of Jeremiah were They are in a remediless ill condition of whom the Lord saith pray not for them Of such the Apostle spake 1 John 5.16 If any man see his brother sin a sin not unto death he shall ask and God shall give him life There is a sin unto death I say not that he shall pray for it The pardon of a sin unto death is not to be prayed for Every sin deserves death but every sin is not unto death They who sin so are past prayer and in how woful a plight are they whose sins are past prayers They who have been much in prayer themselves and afterwards fall off from or walk contrary unto their prayers come at last to this miserable issue that either they give over praying for themselves or others are stopt from praying for them And though an outward bar be not laid upon their friends prayer as in Israels case yet there may be a bar upon the spirit of such as used to pray for them It is a bad sign when the Lord shuts up the heart from praying for any one and it is a sign of mercy when the Lord inlargeth the heart of any that are godly to pray for others Sixthly Observe Prayer for another doth not profit him unless he be faithful himself I ground it upon the text Job shall pray for you but you must carry a sacrifice which implied their faith and they must carry a sacrifice to Job and that implied their repentance and both implied that they prayed for themselves also It is in vain to offer a sacrifice without faith and repentance being in this frame My servant Job shall pray for you Conjunctis precibus nihil impetratu impossibile est Conjunctae autem preces esse non possunt ubi est offensio Coc. vid. The prayer of faith prevails not for those that go on in their unbelief and impenitency Job prayed for his friends and they repenting and believing he prevailed for them The reason why the Prophet Jeremiah in the place before mentioned as also chap. 7.16 was commanded not to pray for that people was because they were a hardened people in their sins and therefore his prayers could do them no good Yea the Lord told him cha 15.2 that though not only he but other great favourites joyned in prayer for them it should do them no good Though Moses and Samuel stood before me my mind could not be towards this people The reason why those eminent favourites and mighty men in prayer could do no good was as was said before because they were unbelieving and hardned in their sins as appears upon the place The Prophet Ezekiel speaks the same thing chap. 14.14 Though these three men Noah Daniel and Job this Job that we have in the text were in it they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness saith the Lord. Jobs prayers obtained good for his friends but the children of Israel were in such a condition that though Noah Daniel and Job were praying for them they should get no good by it their sins were so high and their hearts so hard that the prayers of the holiest men in the world could not prevail with God for mercy It cannot be denied but the prayers of a godly man may profit a wicked man an unbeliever an impenitent person for his conversion to the faith and the bringing of him to repentance but they profit not any man who as he hath not faith so continues in his unbelief Yet I grant that the prayers of a believer may profit such an unbeliever as to the avoiding of some temporal evil or as to the obtaining of some temporal good as is clear in Abrahams prayer for Abimelech Gen. 20.7 But how much soever a godly man prayeth for the pardon of a wicked mans sin or the salvation of his soul he shall never be pardoned or saved unless himself repent and believe They who never pray in faith for themselves shall not get favour with God by any prayer of faith made by others for them Now as from this and such like Scriptures it appears that the prayers of godly men for good men here on earth are very pleasing unto the Lord and receive great answers So they do absurdly who from this Scripture infer that the Saints departed pray for us as if they knew or understood our condition and they do more absurdly who living here on earth pray to the Saints in heaven to pray for them The Scripture speaks nothing of prayers to departed Saints nor of departed Saints praying for us the Scripture speaks only of the living
were threw down a blank and desired the Apostles to write what commands they would that tended to salvation as if they had said we are ready to do what the Lord commandeth and according as the Lord commandeth Thus being made sensible of their sins and of the wrath of God which they had provoked against themselves by crucifying the Lord of life They cried out what shall we do We will submit to any thing that is fit to be done Saul afterward Paul came out with fury to persecute the Disciples of Christ but the Lord having beaten him from his horse to the ground he trembling and astonished said Lord what wilt thou have me to do Acts 9.6 He was fit to take any impression and to be moulded into any form by the hand of God They who have been made to know what it is to break commands are willing to obey and keep them This was the first spring of their obedience God had humbled them There was a second spring of their obedience which will yield a sixth Observation For as the Lord had convinced them of their sin so he had given them hopes of mercy in the pardon of it and of reconciliation to himself So much was intimated in that gracious counsel given them Take unto you seven Bullocks and seven Rams and go and offer up a burnt-offering for your selves c. This was a comfortable word and doubtless they understood it so and said in their own hearts God might have made us a sacrifice but he commands us to offer a sacrifice And what doth this signifie Surely that he will be gracious to us and is ready to pardon us Having these hopes of pardon they went and willingly did what the Lord commanded they went to Job they submitted to him whom they had contemned they honoured him whom they had despised before Hence note The intimations of mercy and hopes of pardon prevail mightily upon the soul of a sinner The Lord did not only shew them their sin and terrifie them with kindled wrath but shewed them a sacrifice and this presently won upon them The love of God is more constraining than his wrath and hopes of pardon and salvation than the fear of punishment and damnation both have their effects and are strong motives wrath and love but the strongest is love As when the Apostle beseeched the Romans Rom. 12.1 to present themselves a living sacrifice he besought them by the mercies of God So when the Lord commanded these men to offer up slain beasts in sacrifice hope of mercy was the motive 'T is mercy which moves most effectually to offer both our services our selves a sacrifice unto God that 's the same Apostles argument again 2 Cor. 7.1 Wherefore having these promises let us cleanse our selves that is use all means of cleansing our selves let us go to Christ for the cleansing of our selves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. The end of the Commandement is charity 1 Tim. 1.5 that is 't is charity or love which gives the Commandement its end What is the end of the Commandement it is that we should obey and fulfil it To what end doth the Lord give us Commandements it is that we should keep them Love is the end of the Commandement as it gives the Commandement a compleating end Now whence comes our love either to God or man Surely from the manifestation of Gods love to us So that when the Lord manifesteth his love to us raising and confirming our hopes by promises then our love appeareth in doing and keeping Commandements and therefore love is there joyned with faith unfeigned a faith without hypocrisie or deceit Now the work of faith in God for pardon and reconciliation is grounded upon a sacrifice Thus as Evangelical obedience is better than legal so mercy revealed in the Gospel quickens to obedience more than wrath revealed in the Law The sight of mercy and the sense of the lovâ— of God in sending his own Son to be a sacrifice for us works more upon us than if the Lord should threaten to make us a sacrifice or to consume us in the fire of his wrath for ever It was the sacrifice which made these men go to Job and humble themselves they perceived there was hope now and that though they had failed yet the Lord was ready to receâ—ve them and would not deal with them according to their folly as he told them he would if they did not according to his command go to Job with their seven Bullocks c. and offer up a burnt-offering They went and did as the Lord commanded them But what came of it how did they speed what was the issue of all The Text saith The Lord also accepted Job This may seem a strange connection they going and doing as the Lord commanded them one would have thought it should be said And the Lord accepted them whereas the Text saith only thus The Lord also accepted Job But were not Jobs friends accepted shall we think that they lost their labour not so neither without all question these three bâ—inging their sacrifice according to the command of God both for matter and manner were accepted too yet because it was at the request and prayer of Job for them therefore the Text saith not The Lord accepted but The Lord also accepted Job Accepit Jehova personam Jobi sacerdotio jungentis nomine Christi sacerdotis victimae sempiâ—â—rnae nostrae quam iste figurabant Jun. that is he offering sacrifice and praying for them they were accepted This sheweth us the great mystery or the sum of the Gospel the Lord did not accept them in themselves but he accepted Job in sacrificing for them and all in Christ And consider it is not said The Lord accepted the sacrifice or the prayer of Job but The Lord accepted Job his person was accepted in and through the sacrifice or intercession of Christ and his sacrifice and intercession for Eliphaz and his two friends were accepted also in him How the Lord testified his acceptance of Job whether by consuming his sacrifice with fire from heaven or by any other outward token of his favour is not here expressed and therefore to us uncertain only this is certain and that is enough for us to know that God accepted him What it is to accept was shewed in opening the former verse In brief to be accepted is to have favour with God our petitions answered and the things done which we move or petition for The Lord also accepted Job Rogavit Job Dominus ignavit profuit illis amicitia quibus obsuit insolentia Ambros 3 Offic. c. ult And when 't is said The Lord also accepted Job this implyeth that Job did willingly undertake the service and duty for his three friends Though it be not said that Job offered sacrifice and prayed for them yet both are wrapt up and understood in this conclusion The Lord