and this agrees well with the former because he that performeth and payeth according to his word hath peace both in himselfe and with other men An honest pay-master sits downe in peace and prevents his owne trouble But to the matter He that is God performeth The thing that is appoynted for mee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia reddet statutum meum Mont. 'T is the same word which we had at the 12th verse of this Chapter I have esteemed the words of his mouth more rhen my necessary or my appoynted food Here wee render it the thing that is appoynted for mee The word is often used in the 119 Psalme and signifieth any Ordinance Law Statute or Decree whether divine or humane for all these are the appoyntments eyther of God or man about things to be done or forborne And as God makes appoyntments of things which he would have us doe so of such things as himselfe will doe to or concerning us Master Broughton translates it here as we doe at the 12th verse implying necessary food or the provisions of this life Because he furnished mee with my dayly bread That which wee render the thing that is appoynted for mee he renders my dayly bread Another learned in that language Perfecit necessaria mea Vatab i. e. perfecit quicquid mihi erat opus ipse corporis mei artifex omnium quae in me sunt agrees in the same sence and varyes very little in words Hee hath performed or accomplished those things which were necessary for mee or all those things which I stand in need of He who set up this frame of my body and hath given mee this life hath administer'd all things needfull for the upholding of this body and for the maintaining of this life And so the words carry Jobs sence or acknowledgement of the fatherly care and kindnes of God towards him What his soule desireth even that he doth for hee furnisheth mee with dayly bread and hee performeth what is necessary for me or supplyeth all my wants According to which sence Mr Broughton renders the second part of the verse also And many such graces are with him Thus Job spake at the 10th Chapter ver 8.12 Thy hands have made mee and fashioned me together round about Thou hast granted me life and favour and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit So that the minde of these translaters seemes to be this That Job would set forth the unchangeablenes of Gods decree in giving him his appoynted comforts as well as sorrows Yet rather by this appoyntment or the thing which God had appoynted him wee are to understand as I conceive his afflictions onely and his sorrow As if he had said Quicquid deme decrevit absolvet sive in bonum sive in malum Merc Non me missum faciet donea impleverit quae in statuit Merc I finde that God will doe what he hath a minde to doe how grievous soever it be eyther to the minde or flesh of man for he performeth the thing that hee hath appoynted for mee hee hath appoynted me to sorrow and I have had sorrow and trouble store And he will not dismisse me or let mee goe out of his hand till he hath performed every title of what he hath appoynted for my portion of sorrow and suffering in this world And to shew how much he was assured of this He speakes in the present tense Not he will performe but he performeth c. As if he had sayd He will as surely doe it as if he were now a doing it Hence observe First That God will certainly performe all his appoyntments concerning man He is able to doe it and he will doe it This poynt was largely insisted upon from those words of the former verse He is in minde who can turne him God doth what he hath a minde to doe therefore I shall not here stay to shew the certainty of Gods performing what he hath appoynted but to shew the appoyntment of all things which he performeth Take the observation thus formed Whatsoever God performeth or doth to any man was before appoynted or decreed for or concerning him All the workes of God in time were his decrees before time hee performeth the thing that is appoynted and appoynted by himselfe and his appoyntments are as himselfe is from everlasting Whatsoever God doth we finde it under an appoyntment First and especially as to the buisines in hand the afflictions and suffering of his servants All their sufferings are under an appoyntment Micah 6.9 The Lords voyce cryeth unto the City and the man of wisdome shall see thy name heare ye the rod and who hath appoynted it As if he had said your selves by your sins are the procurers of it we the Prophets are onely the reporters and publishers of it But God himselfe is the appoynter of it As publique and national rods so private or personall rods are appoynted And as often as we feele their smart we should consider their appoyntment The Apostle 1 Thes 3.3 moves the Saints to a steadines of spirit under affliction upon this ground that no man should be moved by these afflictions he doth not mean that wee should be without sense of our afflictions stroakes and sufferings but his meaning is that we should neither be moved by impatience under them to murmure at them nor be moved by undue feares to faint in them why for your selves know that wee are appoynted thereunto The afflictions are appoynted to us and wee are appoynted to them and your selves know it This doctrine hath been published to you that afflictions are under a divine appoyntment that there is a decree of God about them And that First as to the matter of what sort the affliction shall be secondly as to the measure or degree how great the affliction shall be Thirdly the appoyntment reaches the season and that twofold First when the affliction shall begin and secondly how long it shall continue every thing in affliction is under an appoyntment Secondly As our afflictions so also our comforts are under an appoyntment As the Lord hath appoynted the Gall so the honey of our cup as the cold and winter so the warme and summer seasons of our lives Isa 61.2 3. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath annoynted me to preach good tidings to the meeke c. To proclaime the acceptable yeare of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourne to appoynt unto them that mourne in Sion and this appoyntment in execution is 〈◊〉 fullfilling of the first appoyntment by decree to appoynt unto them tâ—â— mourne in Sion to give unto them beauty for ashes the oyle of Joy foâ— mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heavines And as our spirituall comforts so our temporall our outward salvations and protections are under an appoyntment Isa 26.1 Salvation shall God appoynt for walls and bulwarkes Thirdly As the wall of
thirsty and pineing and empty and starveing and dying till he had God till he had this speciall Enjoyment of God for so wee are to Expound that text as this A wicked man can take up on this side God Cares not to finde him nay is afraid to be found of him he then saith according to the text touched before as Ahab to Elijah Hast thou found mee O mine Enemy He would be glad if God would never finde him nor he finde God Ps 10.4 The wicked through the pride of his Countenance will not seeke after God The seat of pride is in the heart but the prospect of pride is in the face through the pride of his Countenance that is by reason of that pride which doth discover it selfe in his Countenance which breakes out there he will not seeke after God his pride will not let him seeke after God He that is proud seeth not his need of God and he that seeth not his need of God will never seeke after him Such a one is so farre from longing after God or saying O that I might know where I might finde him that hee will not so much as looke after him when he is told where he may be found And not onely so but God is not in all his thoughts or as some render it all his thoughts are there is no God yea not onely are all his thoughts but all his hopes are that there is no God if hee can but strengthen himselfe in the unbeleef of a God then he is well all the thoughts and hopes that please and delight him are that there is no God so farre is he from being solicitous to know God 'T is a condition equally sad eyther when all a mans thoughts are that there is no God or when God is not in all his thoughts A wicked man may talke of God sometimes but God never comes neer his heart as the Prophet speakes Jer. 12.2 Thou art neare in their mouth but farre from their reines that is from their desires and delights 'T is what our reines say not what our mouthes say that God respects A Godly mans chiefe care is to be accepted with God his thoughts are for God and of God and were it not for this thought that God is or that there is a God and he a holy God a just God a gracious God he would not thinke himselfe as wee say worth the ground hee goes upon And as all his thoughts are that there is a God so all his hope and faith is in him and his desires are after him O that I might finde him enjoy him graspe him take hold on him who is The All of my desires and hopes and thoughts Secondly Observe That a Godly man is sometimes at a loss for God and cannot tell where to finde him He hath no sensibly-spirituall Enjoyment of him The children of light often walke in darkenes They who feare the Lord much may be without the feelings of his love and they who obey his holy commandements without the comfort of his pretious promises Even Christ himselfe was at such a loss for God when he cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Psal 22.1 Christ being to suffer for sinners tasted of all those sorts of sufferings which are due to sin He endured not onely the punishment of sence in the paines of his body but the punishment of losse in the hidings of his fathers comfortable presence from his soule If this were done to the Greene tree much more to the dry and if our head found an interruption of the presence of God much more may we who are his members Thirdly Observe That while Saints are at a loss for God their desires are often quicker and more stirring after God It is a sad thing not to finde God but it is farre sadder to have no desires after him Unbeleevers are alwayes at a loss for God they live without God in the world such a life is a very death but this is more deadly that they have no desires after God that they make no enquiry no search after him Though Job were at a loss for God yet his heart was full of desires to finde him and God I may say is most desireable to Saints while they are at a loss for him Thus the Spouse speakes Cant. 3.1 By night on my bed I sought him whom my soule loveth I sought him but I found him not But because she found him not when shee sought him did shee give over seeking him No her desires of seeking and finding him were enflamed by her not finding him when she sought him as it follows in the second verse I will rise now and goe about the City in the streetes and in the broad wayes I will seeke him whom my soule loveth I sought him but I found him not Thus her second labour in seeking of him was lost also But doth not this quite discourage her and kill her desires after him will she not now give over seeking him No not yet ver 3. The watch-men that goe about the City found me to whom I sayd saw ye him whom my soule loveth Shee is still enquiring and seeking and at last shee found ver 4. It was but a little that I passed from them but I found him whom my soule loveth I held him and would not let him goe c. Many who enjoy Christ have not such strong desires after him as they who enjoy him not as it is with other mercies so with this which is the highest and chiefest the summe of all mercies the Enjoyment of God our desires to him grow quicker upon his absence and wee seldome prize his presence as we ought till he is departed or withdrawne from us Againe we may consider Job here in a very afflicted Condition what doth he doe now O that I knew where I might finde him Note Fourthly God is most sweet to an afflicted soule The presence of God is sweet precious and delicious to Saints at all times but then sweetest when they finde most bitternes in the world How pleasant is the love of God when we are sencible of mans hatred Some good men have so much sweetnes and love in the world that they cannot so well relish or taste the sweetnes of the love of God though indeed nothing argues the Excellency of the spirit of a Saint then this Extrema calamiâ—as aba lienatio amicorum justum hominem ad deum confugere compellebat Pined that the sence of the love of God to him takes off the relish of all creature-love in the midst of his highest Enjoyments of it That soule is purely spirituall which having abundance of worldly enjoyments riches friends relations all that he can desire yet in the affluence and highest floate of all these can say that the sweetnesse which he tasteth in God drownes the relish of all these and makes them as tastlesse as the white of an Egge in comparison of that sweetnes which
treasure I need not stay to tell you The Judgements of God saith David Psal 19.10 are more to be desired then Gold yea then much fine gold And againe Psal 119.72.127 The law of thy mouth is better to me then thousands of Gold and silver And ver 127. when he saw how some made voyd the Law of God he sayth Therefore I love thy commandements above Gold yea above fine Gold As if he had sayd because I see some men esteeme and reckon thy law as if it were drosse and throw it up as voyd and antiquated or taking the boldnes as it were to repeale and make it voyd that they may set up their own lusts and vaine imaginations because I see both prophane and superstitious men thus out of love with thy Law therefore my love is more enflamed to it I love it above gold which leads the most of men away captives in the love of it and I esteeme it more then that which is most esteemed by men and gaines men most esteeme in this world Fine Gold yea as he sayd Psal 19. more then much fine Gold Secondly Observe A high and reverentiall esteeme of the word of God workes the heart and keepes it close to the obedience of the word Job having said before I have kept the commandements of his mouth I have kept his wayes and not declined I have not gone back now comes to the spring of all this constancy in obedience I have esteemed the words of his mouth c. Love is the spring of action and esteeme is the top of love we love nothing which we doe not esteeme and what we love much we thinke we can never esteeme enough And what we thus love and esteeme we strive to keepe close unto They that receive the truth and doe not receive the love of it quickly turne from it to beleive a lye yea God therefore sends them strong delusion to beleive a lye because they received not the love of the truth As not to love the truth is a sin so it is punished with another sin the love of error Though we have taken much truth into our understandings yet unlesse we take it into our affections also we cannot hold it long 'T is love which holds the heart and the word together No man willingly obeyes that Law which he doth not love Before David could say The Law is my meditation all the day he sayth O how I love thy law Ps 119.97 The hypocrite who hates instruction and casts the word of God behinde his backe that is slights and vilifies it to the utmost for so much to cast behinde the backe imports the hypocrite I say who thus casts the word of God behinde his backe will be talking of the word and have it much in his mouth yea he will mouth it so or be so talkative about it that God reproves or checks him for it Psal 50.16 Vnto the wicked saith God What hast thou to doe to declare my statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant in thy mouth So then the hypocrite was very busie with his tongue and he could speake much of that which he loved never a whit But was the hypocrite a man of his hands also was he busie in obeying the word which he had cast behinde his back The next words of the Psalme ver 18 19 20 21. tell us what he was busie about even this he was breaking the Law as fast as he could When thou sawest a theife then thou consentest with him and hast been partaker with Adulterers c. The inditement is large and upon many heads yet all true and is therefore closed with These things hast thou done ver 21. I the Lord am witnes and so is thy owne Conscience That Scripture is a cleare glasse wherein we may see how all they will use the Law of God who doe not highly esteeme the words of his mouth We may read Jobs text backward for their character Their feete have not held his steps his way have they not kept but declined they have gone back from the commandement of his lips And why so for they have esteemed the words of his mouth no more then their un-necessary food no more then the scraps that fall from their Table no more then as the Proverb saith their old shoes I have esteemed the word of his mouth more then my necessary food When Job saith I have esteemed the word of his mouth c. It is as if he had sayd this is enough for me that God hath sayd it to make me esteeme it Hence observe Thirdly Whatsoever God saith is to be esteemed for his owne sake or because he hath sayd it As God needs not borrow light from any what to speake so he needs not borrow testimony or Authority from any to ratifie what he hath spoken He is to be beleeved for himselfe His words need no sanction but ipse dixit I the Lord have sayd it or thus saith the Lord that is enough to silence all queryes and disputes both about the truth of what is delivered and the necessity of our obedience to it As the word of Gods mouth is to be obeyed so it is therefore to be obeyed because it is the word of his mouth That he hath sayd it must command our faith As he is the true God so he is the God of truth Every word of his mouth is pretious As what God hath spoken must be the rule of our faith so that he hath spoken it must be the reason of our faith I have esteemed the words of his mouth c. Lastly From both these verses we may take notice of the severall steps by which Jobs piety did arise to so eminent a hight First He strongly tooke hold of the steps of God Secondly He diligently kept his way Thirdly He declined not eyther to the right hand or to the left Fourthly He went not backe from the Holy commandement both which negatives may be resolved into this affirmative He walked very closely and exactly with God in utmost perseverance Fifthly He tooke a delightfull care about all those things which the word of God called him unto even beyond all the care which he tooke for those things which are most conducible to and necessary for the comforts of his body or natural life JOB CHAP. 23. Vers 13. But he is in one minde and who can turne hinc and what his soule desireth even that he doth IN this verse Job is conceived by some at once making discovery of his owne infirmitie and of the soveraignty of God But though all agree that they carry a full discovery of the soveraignty of God yet many are so farre from judging them a discovery of Jobs infirmitie that they rather discover the strength and hight of his Grace and holines To cleare the whole matter we may take notice That there are three apprehensions about the scope and sence of these words First As if in them Job renderd a reason
in any new sufferings O saith he God hath made my heart soft that is I begin to faint I finde my selfe drooping I have not that strength of spirit and though I am not a coward yet I have not that courage that hardnes or hardines of spirit which I have had heretofore He queried indeed Ch. 6.12 Is my strength the strength of stones or is my flesh brass He had much strength but not the strength of stones nor was he hard as brass Now he saith plainly my heart is made soft it melteth like wax at the fire I am so litle like brass or stones in strength or hardnes that I am altogether like wax or water I am so far from having a minde to strive with or rise up against God that I know not how to stand before him if he which he seems to intend should still goe on to afflict me I am growne weake and unable to beare yet my burden remaines and will probably be made yet more heavie This interpretation carrieth a distinct sence in it and that which is most genuine to the scope of the place Mr Broughtons translation of the latter clause of the verse suites this exposition of the former with much clearenes For the Omnipotent hath softned my heart and the Almighty hath made me shrinke Whereas wee say the Almighty troubleth me he saith The Almighty hath made me shrinke For so a man commonly doth who eyther feares or feeles that which he is not well able to beare Hence Note The heart of a Godly man even of the most Godly may be so weakened under long continued sufferings that he may finde himselfe utterly unable to beare them any longer Wicked men labour to strengthen and harden themselves all they can to beare in opposition to God and Saints would strengthen and harden themselves all they can to beare in submission to God Pharaoh hardened his heart to oppose God striking him hee had stroake after stroake and Judgement after Judgement yet he would not yeeld but at last God made his heart soft in one sense though hee hardened it in another God appeared at last too hard for Pharaoh hee could hold out no longer And we finde the Lord speaking thus by Ezekiel to his people who it seemes by the language which God useth concerning them had as it were set themselves with unholy resolutions to stand or rather stout it out with God and beare the worst that hee could doe unto them But saith the Lord Ezek. 22.14 can thine heart endure or can thine hands be strong in the day that I shall deale with thee When I deale with thee in wayes of Judgement when I take thee in hand to punish and repay thee according to thy workes can thine heart endure no! it cannot endure it shall not be able to endure The Lord doth not meane it of an endureing with submission and patience So it is the honour of Saints to endure what ever God layes upon them but to endure with stoutnes and resistance art thou able to stand it out or can thine hand be strong no thy heart and hand will be soft and weake thou wilt not be able to beare it when I come to deale with thee It is sayd of Christ by David his type Psal 22.13 when hee was under those terrible sufferings for our sins that his heart was made soft and if it were so with the greene tree what must it be with the dry I am powred out like water and all my bones are out of joynt my heart is like wax it is melted in the midst of my bowells Thus the sufferings of Christ our head who was also the Captain of our salvation and the mighty God made his heart soft and melted him His heart was not melted with sorrow for his owne sin for he was without sin but the sorrow that was upon him for our sins melted his heart Whose heart will not melt grow soft that is unable to beare it when God layeth his hand heavy and long upon him Therefore we râ—ad in the Prophet how the Lord takes notice of this and condescends to the weaknes of man Isa 57.16 I will not contend for ever neither will I be alwayes wroth I will not goe onne to doe as I have done Why What 's the reason of it not but that God is able to continue his Contending and to carry on his warre whether with persons or with Nations for ever but he hath respect to the poore Creature for saith he I will not doe it lest the spirit should faile before mee and the soules which I have made How can soules faile the soule is an immortall substance and shall not faile for ever The soules of the damned shall be under everlasting Contendings and never faile they shall beare wrath for ever and not faile yea their bodyes shall not faile but through the power of God sustaining them under his Justice shall endure everlasting torments The meaning of that expression in the Prophet is the same with this in the Text Their heart will be made soft as yet they have strength faith and courage to beare these afflictions but if I continue them longer their spirit and strength their faith and patience will faile and be so worne out that they will not be able to abide it God would not Contend for ever lest as Job here complaines he should make their hearts soft And the Almighty troubleth mee That is his presence or his dispensations trouble me Deus in cujus potentia sufficientiaque divitiarum solatium meum esse debebat is me privavit omni solatio animam meam plane dejecit deserit me terret me Sanct wee see how much the spirit of Job was carryed out in the thing And he useth a word here that signifieth the power of God to comfort and refresh or God in his allsufficiency to comfort yet saith he this Almighty troubleth mee that is the thoughts or remembrance of him troubleth me He hath cast downe and grieved my soule already and I am much troubled with fearefull apprehensions of like severities from him againe These words the reader will easily perceive to be of the same minde and meaning with the 15th verse of this Chapter lately opened and therefore I shall not stay upon them but proceed to the last verse Vers 17. Because I was not cut off before the darknes neither hath he Covered the darknes from my face Here Job gives another reason of his being thus troubled at the presence of the Almighty It is saith he because I was not cut off before the darknes or because I dyed not by thick darknes so Mr Broughton we say because I was not cut off hee because I dyed not both meete in the same meaning For death is a cutting off and death will cut off or mow downe the strong yea the strongest as the sith doth eyther corne or grasse Thus spake Hezekiah in his sicknes Isa 38.10 I sayd in the
employments whether more private or publicke are wronged and suffer in his death Though that which cuts off a mans life cannot cut off his owne hope if he have a wel-grounded one for things to come yet it cuts off the hopes of all others depending upon him as an instrument in the hand of God for good things present Eighthly The murtherer takes away that from a man which no man can restore to him or repaire him in he takes away that which is Impossible for him to give againe He that tooke away a mans goods was bound by the law of God to restore it fourefold or fivefold or sevenfold according to the case and possibly he might restore it an hundredfold but he that takes away a mans life hath taken that which though he would he cannot restore so much as single The law of nature will not suffer the murderer to restore life for 't is like water which being spilt cannot by any humane power be gathered up againe and the law of God saith concerning the sin of murther that no satisfaction shall be taken for it and indeed none can For though some would commute and have by the sinfull indulgence and cruel pity of unjust Magistrates commuted for it yet none could ever satisfie for it And when Magistrates eyther through foule corruption or foolish compassion have not taken vengeance upon the murtherer in kinde but have suffered him to commute or compound for that sin eyther by paying a pecuniary penalty or by undergoing some punishment lesse then death God hath taken vengeance upon them for it and hath sayd to them in his providences as he sayd to Ahab by his Prophet for the sparing of Benhadad 1 Kings 20.42 Because ye have let goe out of your hand a man whom I had appointed to utter destruction therefore your life shall goe for his life and your people shall be cut off by the sword because your sword did not cut off the murderer Si magistratus cessent ab officio deus ipse injustas caedes fame peste bellis externis aut intestinis ulciscitur Merl. Whole nations have been filled with blood by this kinde of keeping backe the hand from blood Lastly The murtherer hurts others but he chiefely hurts himselfe Some expound Lamech confessing this with sorrow Gen. 4.23 while he said unto his wives Hearken unto my speech for I have slaine a man to my wounding and a young man to my hurt There are divers other Interpretations and readings of those words and we put in the Margin I would slay a man in my wound and a young man in my hurt As if he had boasted of his strength to his wives that though he were weake with wounds and hurts yet he would venture to fight with any man and doubted not to get victory over him kill him and so the words carry a sence like that speech of the Prophet Jer. 37.10 telling the Jewes that theirs were vaine confidences while they hoped to be delivered from the Caldeans who besieged them for saith he Though there remained but wounded men among them yet they should rise up every man in his tent and burne this City with fire But as to our reading I have slaine a man to my wounding Some expound it onely of a bodily wounding I have got a wound my selfe or I have hurt my selfe while I slew a man much more is this true of a spirituall wounding and hurt to the soule and Conscience for though a murtherer slay a man and come off with a whole skin yet he slayeth a man to his wounding and killeth him to his hurt The Rabbins have a tradition upon that place that Lamech having been a great hunter in his younger dayes being then growne old was led forth by his young man to take his pleasure in hunting and shooting at Deere and that while he was in this disport or exercise in the feild Cain passed by and the young man poynted him to Cain Lamech being dim-sighted shot at Cain and killed him in stead of a wild beast but soone after discovering that he had killed Cain turned to the young man his guide in a passionate anger and killed him also This relation they give as the reason why Lamech sayd I have slaine a man to my wounding and a young man to my hurt but I shall not stay upon that tradition of the Jewes and shall onely make so much use of Lamechs confession as at least to illustrate if not to prove the poynt in hand that he who slayeth a man doth it to his owne hurt and wounding often to the wounding of his body estate and honour alwayes to the wounding of his owne soule and conscience Every sin in some degree or other wounds the soule But the wounding of others to death is the chiefe sin of all sins against the body and outward concernments of man which woundeth a mans soule The murtherer at one blow strikes through the body of his neighbour and his owne soule Further we might observe from those words in the text riseing with the light That murderers and indeed any sort of wicked doers are diligent and laborious to doe the commands of their vilest lusts But I noted this at the 5th verse upon those words Rising betimes for a prey I shall not stay upon it here I onely adde this Let not us be sloathfull in doing good seeing the murderer is so diligent and early up for the doing of mischiefe And in the night is as a Thiefe These words may be taken two wayes For First The Particle as is by some conceived not to be a note of similitude but to carry on a direct predication He is as a thiefe that is Particula quasi non dicit similitudinem sed proprietatem He is a very thiefe We finde elsewhere in Scripture that a particle of likenes doth not onely note the likenes of one thing to another but the samenes of one thing with another Taking it thus here The meaning of the words is as if Job had said He riseth betimes in the morning to play the murtherer and in the night hee playe's the thiefe I have noted the same sence of the particle heretofore first from those words of the Evangelist concerning Christ Joh. 1.14 Wee saw his glory as the glory of the onely begotten Son of God for Christ was not onely like the onely begotten Son of God but he was really so as also from that of the Prophet Hosea 5.10 The Princes of Judah were as or like them that remove the bound that is they did remove the bound Secondly Others keepe to the similitude and say the meaning of Job is not that the murtherer doth turne theife or that he proceeds from killing in the day to stealing in the night Facere aliquid tanquam fur est proverbialis locutio quae importat secretam diligentemque abscensionem But say they this verse is quite through a description of the murtherer
for the sensitive appetite and that shee is sayd to forsake the guide of her youth because in youth appetite commonly forsakes reason which is appoynted to be the guide of it But we may expound this guide eyther for her father who had the government of her in her younger yeares or else for her husband whom she married in her youth and whom by marriage shee receaved as the guide of her youth under God who is indeed the guide both of our youth and old age and what guide soever the wife forsaketh shee cheifely forsaketh God who is her chiefe guide and forgetteth the covenant of her God that is the covenant which God gave her in reference to that particular estate of marriage Every beleever is in covenant with God in reference to his spirituall estate but a married person hath a covenant with God in reference to that civil state And Adultery is the breach of this covenant Secondly This shewes the sinfullnesse of Adultery that it is a sin which cannot be committed alone there is alwayes a double sin in this sin of adultery two are defiled with it at once In which sense it is worse then murther and theft For these may be committed and but one defiled with the sinfullnes of them He that robs is guilty of stealing not he that is robbed He that murders is guilty of blood not he that is murdered But in Adultery the Agent and patient are both alike guilty of uncleanenes The defilement reacheth both Thirdly The evill of this sin appeares by the many and manifold evills which it brings with it Solomon hath set them forth very particularly and fully Pro. 6.26 27 28 29 30. Lust not after her that is after the strange woman in thine heart neither let her take thee with her eyelids why not First thou mayest be undone in thy outward estate by meanes of a whorish woman a man is brought to a peice of bread that is he is ruin'd in all he hath by it and brought to so low an ebbe of poverty that he hath scarce the worth of a peice of bread left And which is both a second and a worse evill the adulteresse will hunt for the pretious life which may either be understood of the naturall life sometimes the adulterer is murtherd by the adulteresse or of that which is a more pretious life then the natural even the life of the soule or the eternal good and happinesse of the soule she cares not to destroy body and soule for ever so her lust may be satisfied that 's the gaine which the adulteresse pursues shee hunts for the pretious life the life of the soule Thirdly Solomon describes the evill of this sin in the 27 and 28 verses by the guilt which it inevitably brings with it Can a man take fire in his bosome and his cloathes not be burnt can a man goe upon hot coales and his feete not be burnt So he that goeth into his neighbours wife whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent that is he shall surely be very guilty As if he had sayd You can no more retaine your innocency while you commit this folly then you can avoyd being burnt when you carry fire in your bosome or tread upon burning coales Fourthly the sinfullnes of this sin appeares by the comparison which the Scripture makes between it and theft Pro. 6.30 31. Men doe not despise a theife Ferenda est magis omnis necessitas quam perpetranda aliqua iniquitas if he steale to satisfie his soule when he is hungry it is a sin to steale though it be to satisfie hunger no necessity can excuse iniquity and we should rather chuse to starve then steale if at least that may be called stealing which is done meerly to avoyd starving Therefore saith Solomon if he be found he shall restore seavenfold he shall give all the substance of his house yet this sin of stealing which is to satisfie hunger is but a small sin compared with Adultery which is onely to satisfie a mans lust and beastiall sensualnes This Solomon affirmes to us in the next words But who so committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding he that doth it destroyeth his owne soule He that stealeth upon those termes doth it for want but he that commits adultery upon any termes doth it for wantonnes He that stealeth doth it for lacke of bread but he that commits adultery doth it for lacke of understanding He that stealeth when he is hungry doth it to satisfie his soule but he that committeth Adultery though he doth it not with an intent to destroy his soule yet in the issue he destroyeth his owne soule But is not stealing a soule-destroying sin too I answer it is and so is every sin in its owne nature but there are some sins and among these Adultery is a chiefe one which in the event prove usually more destructive to the soule and have oftener destroyed it And as this sin doth very often destroy the soule as to its happines hereafter so it destroyeth it as to its abiding here Thus the soule may be sayd to be destroyed when the life is destroyed and this destruction of the soule Solomon seemes directly to ayme at as the next words lead us to Judge ver 33. A wound and dishonour shall he get and his reproach shall not be wiped away for jealousie is the rage of a man therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance Another Scripture to be much minded in this poynt is that of St Paul 1 Cor. 6.13 14. where writing to the Church of Corinth among which people that sin was very common before they were called to the knowledge of Christ by the preaching of the Gospel he urgeth many arguments upon their consciences to prevent their relapse into it And we may discover six arguments which the Apostle useth in that place I shall onely touch them and so returne to the text in hand The first appeares at the close of the 13th verse Now the body is not for fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the body As if he had said you put the body to a use for which it was never intended the body is not for fornication but for the Lord that is for the Lords use and service and the Lord is for the body that is for the good and salvation of the body Such is the wonderfull goodnesse of God that looke in whatsoever we are for him he is for us As our bodyes are for the Lords service as well as our soules so the Lord is for the good of our bodyes as well as for the good of our soules And therefore our bodyes ought to be imployed for his Glory in every thing The second argument is taken from the resurrection God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his owne power ver 14. As if he had sayd your bodyes shall be raised againe if they were to be lost in
the dust then it were no great matter how you did defile and abuse them but as God hath raised up the Lord so he will raise you up Seeing then God hath promised and you are such as professe faith in that promise that your bodyes shall be raised up out of the dust to put on glory as a Garment in the last day therefote in the meane time while your bodyes are in your keeping doe ye keepe your bodyes pure Thirdly He argues thus with the beleeving Corinthians v. 15th Know ye not that your bodyos are the members of Christ not onely is the soule of a beleever a member of Christ but his body too yet it is not properly eyther the body or the soule that is a member of Christ but the person for the union is made between Christ and the person of a beleever consisting of soule and body But thus the Apostle argues Know ye not that your bodyes are the members of Christ shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of an harlot God forbid What! will ye dispose the members of Christ to so base a use will ye who prefesse your selves joyned to Christ condiscend to such a base conjunction And hence he expostulates at the 16th and 17th verses What know ye not that he which is joyned to an harlot is one body for two saith he shall be one flesh They who abuse marriage are as the marryed The Adulterer and the harlot are one flesh as well as the husband and the wife but he that is joyned to the Lord by faith and love is one spirit He hath a neerer and a more noble union then that of flesh and therefore he ought to maintame the hight of honour and purity both in minde and body and as he is one Spirit with the Lord so to make it good that he is guided and governed by one Spirit and that The holy One. We have a fourth argument at the 18 â—h verse Flee fornication why so The reason is added every sin that a man doth is without the body but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his owne body But are all other sins without the body I answer first other sinnes have the body as an instrument for the committing of them if a man steale the body is an instrument if a man commit murther the body is an instrument but in this sin the body is more instrumentall then in other sins the body is cheifely instrumentall in this sin so that comparatively to this every sin that a man doth is without the body And therefore this sin is more against the body then other sins are Againe secondly when the Apostle saith every sin is without the body he is to be understood of those sinnes which are externall otherwise every sin that a man commits is not without the body there are a thousand acts of sin that are done within the body or in the soule envy wrath malice are sinnes within the body being bred and acted in the Spirit But we may say of every sin which is externall about which the discourse there is that comparatively to this sin of adultery fornication it is without the body I answer thirdly The body is not onely the instrument of this sin but the object of it also for the uncleane person doth not onely sin with his body but he sins against his body Adultery leaves that blot and brand of ignominy and basenes upon the body which no other sin doth making it the member of a harlot as was toucht before and degrading it from that excellent honour whereunto God advanced it even in a Naturall consideration much more degrading it from that honour whereuntor God hath advanced it in a spirituall consideration And as that was the Apostles third Argument so upon another relation of the bodyes of beleevers he makes his 5th argument which is layd downe at the 19th verse What know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy-Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your owne As if he had sayd A Temple is a holy and sacred thing and will ye defile the Temple of the Holy-Ghost The Jewes how angry were they what an uproar did they make when they thought Paul had brought Greeks into the Temple who by the law were looked upon as prophane persons and so not to be admitted to come there they cry out This is the man that hath polluted this holy place Acts 21.28 Much more may it be urged upon Gospel-professors what commit such a sin as this what pollute the Temple of God Know ye not which every beleever is bound to know that your body is the Temple of the Holy-Ghost as well as the soule The last argument concludes the 19th verse and is prosecuted in the 20 h Ye are not your owne for ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods Redemption is a strong engagement ye are bought and dearely payd for ye are bought with a price ye are not your owne Some who take liberty in this sin would excuse themselves by the contrary argument Our bodyes say they are our owne and we may doe what we will with our owne No sayth the Apostle ye are bought with a price ye are not your owne ye have your bodies of God in their natural constitution It is he who hath made us in that capacity and not we our selves Psal 100.3 and ye are not your owne for ye are redeemed or bought with a price both body and soule Yee are bought out of your owne hands as well as out of the hand of divine justice and displeasure The Apostle speaks especially to beleevers For though it be a truth concerning all whether beleevers or unbeleevers that they are not their owne none of the sons of men are their owne God hath a right to them by creation as also by his continuall providence provision and preservation yet beleevers or the redeemed in a speciall manner are not their owne and therefore they ought above others to glorifie God in their body and in their spirit which are Gods Having thus opened several Scripture grounds and arguments to demonstrate the soulenes and filthines of this sin of Adultery which is the generall subject of this verse I shall now proceed in the exposition of particulars in it The eye also of the adulterer waiteth c. The word also referres to the murderer spoken of in the former verse implying that the Adulterer and he though their sins are very different yet agree much in taking their opportunities of sinning How contrary soever sinners are in their particular practice yet they have all one common principle and Spirit The Murderer and the Adulterer are alike desierous of privacy They both love darkenes rather then light or that which is neyther Twilight Jeb seemes to speake of a man that is no novice but of one long verst and practiced
to doe in a right manner we upon the matter doe not at all We may resolve these interrogations of the Text into negations How hast thou helped him that is without power is as much as this thou hast not helped him how savest thou the arme that hath no strength is indeed Thou hast not saved him how hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdome caryeth this meaning thou hast given him no counsell we use to say as good never a whit as never the better and how good soever any thing is that we doe if we doe it amisse it will be reckoned by God what reckoning soever men make of it as if we had done no such thing Moses said to the Lord under a temptation when he was troubled at the complaint of the people because the deliverance promised did not come on and they were not freed as was expected Lord wherefore hast thou so evill entreated this people why is it that thou hast sent me for since I came to Pharaoh to speake in thy name he hath done evill to this people neither hast thou delivered thy people at all Exod. 5.23 Is this a deliverance this is no deliverance we are apt to thinke the mercyes of God no mercyes unlesse he give us full and perfect mercyes unlesse we presently receave all that we looke for we looke upon it as if we had receaved nothing at all But how truely may the Lord say to the children of men when they performe duties slightly and negligently ye have not done them at all ye have neyther prayed nor heard nor fasted at all because ye have been negligent in and unprofitable under them The workes and dutyes of the best are not every way full but the workes and dutyes of some are alltogether empty and they doe nothing in all they doe Fourthly In these severall interrogations are here held forth the severall effects of holy advice given according to the word and minde of God how hast thou helped him that is without power saved the arme that hath no strength counselled him that hath no wisdome As if he had sayd thou indeed hast offered me counsell from God if thou hadst managed it right this would have been the fruit of it I who have no power should have been helped and I who am as an arme without strength should have been saved Hence observe That the word of God or divine truths are mighty in operation when duely administred The word of truth conveigheth strength to the weake wisdome to the simple comfort to the sorrowfull light to those who are in darkenes and life unto the dead The word lifts up the hands which hang downe and the feeble knees The law of the Lord that is every holy truth saith David Psal 19.7 8. is perfect and what can it doe the next words tell us converting or restoring the soule The testimony of the Lord is sure and what can that doe the next words tell us making wise the simple The statutes of the Lord are right and what can they doe even that which is most sweete where it is done reioycing the heart The commandement of the Lord is pure in it selfe and it worketh gloriously in us enlightning the eyes I may say also The word of the Lord is mighty and it giveth strength to those who have no might As it is mighty for the pulling downe of strong holds casting downe imaginations every thing that exalteth it selfe against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor 10.4 5. So it is as mighty for the raysing up of the weake for the lifting up of those who are cast downe and fallen below the knowledge of God through unbeliefe and for the bringing of poore soules out of captivity into that blessed liberty of faith in Christ What Great things the word rightly applyed and divine truths brought home with Authority have done and still can doe was shewed at the 4 â—h Chapter of that booke verse 3d and 4th As also at the 25 â—h verse of the sixth Chapter upon those words How forcible are right words Though we ought to helpe those who have no power by more then words yet words have holpen many who had no power as Job doth more then intimate while he reproves Bildad for his unskillfull wording it with him How hast thou helped c. And how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unde Graecum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Appellatio a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod esse significat sapientia enim rerum omnium existentium prima praecipua est Drus That which we render The thing as it is is but one word in the Original and it hath a threefold signification First It is put for the essence substance or being of a thing The Greek word for substance is very neere this in sound and may possibly be a derivative from it Secondly It signifieth that working or operation which flowes from being Things first are and then they act and they are to little or no purpose unlesse they act Thirdly It signifieth counsell advice wisdome or sound wisdome Prov. 3.21 so Mr Broughton translates And makest advice knowne aboundantly Others taking up the same notion render How hast thou declared wisdome abundantly As if he had sayd Thou thinkest thou hast opened a treasure and declared store of wisdome and knovledge in this discourse or that thou hast made a very wise and learned discourse whereas indeed it will be found leane and short in it selfe as also impertinent to the poynt in hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad multitudinem vel multiplicitèr Our translation takes it in the first sense How hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is that is how hast thou declared the substance of the thing or the solid truth in plenty or as the Hebrew phrase imports in great number and with much variety Hence note First Every thing ought to be declared as it is that is the naked truth ought to be declared It is our duty to speake of things as they are not to put colours upon them and so make them appeare what they are not or otherwise then they are truth is plaine and truth should be told plainely The naked truth or the thing as it is is most beautifull to the eye of the understanding And though Bildad did misreport what he spake of God yet he did not make a full report How hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is Secondly Hence note As we ought to speake the truth so to speake the truth out or all the truth Paul tells the Church of Eâ—hesus Acts 20.20 That he had kept nothing back that was profitable for them and sayth he ver 27. I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God Paul plentifully declared the thing as it was Bildad spake truth but not all the truth as to Jobs case
should thinke that this is meant of the resurrection of the body Christ speakes of that distinctly ver 28. Marvel not at this for the houre is coming he doth not say as before and now is in the which all that are in the Graves dead bodyes shall heare his voyce and come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evill unto the resurrection of damnation As if Christ had sayd That powerfull voyce and a voyce lesse powerfull then that will not doe it which is able to rayse dead bodyes bodyes mouldered into dust from the earth and cause them to live againe that voyce I say is able to rayse a dead soule from a state of sin to newnes of life The Apostle saith as much while he calleth the preaching of the Word a savour of life unto life in them that are saved 2 Cor 2.16 They smel and tast life even eternal life at the receaving of the Word And as it is the meanes of conveighing life to those who are dead in sinne so of recovering and renewing life to those who are dead in sorrow Worldly sorrow or the sorrow of the world worketh death 2 Cor. 7.10 and extreame spirituall sorrow or the extreame sorrow of the soule about spiritualls puts us into a kinde of death Thus Heman spake of himselfe in that case Ps 88.4 5. I am counted with them that goe downe into the pit I am as a man that hath no strength free among the dead like the slaine that lie in the grave whom thou remembrest no more and they are cut off from thy hand As Heman was counted among the dead by others so he was like a dead man in his owne account too as he speakes at the 15th verse I am afflicted and ready to dye from my youth up while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted He was not ready to dye of bodyly diseases but of soule terrours nor could any thing revive him or fetch him backe from that death but the favour of God shining to him in the word of promise how glorious is the word by the workings of the Spirit which causeth the spirit to come forth and maketh them who were free among the dead become free among the living This effect and fruit of the word Job expected from his friends before and now from Bildad but all in vaine As their so his discourse with Job was fruitlesse and ineffectuall Much hath been spoken but I have got nothing I have got no spirit no refreshing my heart is no whit cheared nor my soule comforted both you and the rest of your brethren have proved miserable comforters to me To whom hast thou uttered words I am no better then if you had sayd nothing And whose spirit came from thee not mine for as yet notwithstanding all your reasonings my spirit is not returned to me I am as deepe in sorrow as ever I was There is yet another reading of this last clause of the verse given by Mr Broughton And whose soule admired thee The same word may signifie to admire and to come forth because the soule or spirit of a man comes forth as it were to gaze upon those things and persons which he admireth As if Job had sayd Possibly O Bildad thou presumest that thou hast spoken like an Oracle of Wisdome even much beyond the rate and proportion of ordinary men or of what is common to man and therefore doest expect to be applauded yea to be admired But whose soule is come forth by reason of thee who hath admired thee not I nor doe I know that any man hath reason so to doe unlesse it be because thou hast so much mistaken my meaning and intention in what I sayd and hast sayd things so improper to my condition Some have the persons of men in admiration because of advantage Jude v. 16. and others desire no other advantage but to be cryed up and had in admiration I dare not say that Bildad was a man of such a spirit though this translation whose soule admired thee seemes to charge him with such a folly JOB CHAP. 26. Vers 5 6 7. Dead things are formed from under the waters and the inhabitants thereof Hell is naked before him and destruction hath no covering He stretcheth out the North over the empty place and hangeth the earth upon nothing IN the former part of this Chapter Job reproved the last discourse of Bildad as unprofitable not that it was so in it selfe for that was true and a great truth which he spake of the greatnesse of God but the method which he used and the application of it to his case made it so How hast thou helped him that is without power c. In this Context and the subsequent part of the Chapter Job enters upon or reassumes the same argument or subject which Bildad had handled before The power soveraigntie and dreadfullnes of God in his workes both of Creation and providence all the world over Job would let Bildad understand that he was not unacquainted with the doctrine that he had prest upon him in the former Chapter As if he had sayd Doest thou thinke that I know not these things surely I can tell thee as much yea more of the power of God then thou hast spoken and thereby thou shalt see that I am not to learne nor to seeke in this matter yea I will point and paint out the power of God not onely in the visible heavens but in those things which lye unseene I will goe downe to the deepes to the bottome of the mighty waters I can tell thee that he is not onely admirable above but beneath in so much as nothing is bred or brought forth whether animate or inanimate in the vast Ocean but it is by his power and at his disposing Yea I will goe as low as hell and search the power of God there I will also ascend up to heaven and speake of the great things that God doth in the ayre and in the clouds and among the starrs whereby you may see that I am no stranger to such divine Philosophy and therefore this was not the poynt you should have insisted upon or that I needed to be informed in That 's the general scope and aime of Job in these words I shall now touch upon the particulars Dead things are formed from under the waters Jobs first instance concerning the power of God is about things under the waters Dead livelesse inanimate things are formed there Properly that onely is a dead thing which hath sometime lived wee cannot say a stone is a dead thing because it never had any life neither can wee say that water or earth are dead things for they never had any life but those things that have had life whether vegetative or sensitive or rationall as man or beasts or plants when once that life is withdrawne from any of them that is properly called a dead thing Yet in a generall
numberless of our sins There is an Arithmeticall as well as a Geometricall infinity in sin Thus the Septuagint as was sayd before render the Text Are not thine iniquities innumerable That hath a kinde of infinity which cannot be numbred but cannot our sinnes be numbred are they infinite in number I answer sinnes may be considered two wayes first in their species and kinds secondly in their acts if we consider sinnes in their species and kinds so they are not innumerable for it is possible to number up all the severall heads divisions and kinds of sinne but if we consider sin in reference to acts so every mans sins are innumerable yet this innumerablenes of sins in reference to acts may be considered either absolutely or as to us The acts of sin are not absolutely or in themselves innumerable but as to us they are innumerable they are more then any man can number John sayth Rev. 7.9 After this I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could number besides those that were sealed of every Tribe of all Nations and kindreds c. This great multitude was not in it selfe without number but as to mans arithmeticke it was no man could number it The haires of our head and the sands of the Sea are numerable to God but to us innumerable David Psal 40.12 speakes first of innumerable evills and then of innumerable sinnes innumerable evills compasse me about mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to looke up they are more then the haires of my head therefore my heart faileth me when he sayth they are more then the haires of my head his meaning is they are innumerable I can no more tell the summe of my sinnes then the summe of my hayres Christ to assure his Disciples in time of their afflictions and sufferings that he will take care of them tells them The very hayres of your head are all numbred Mat. 10.30 As if he had sayd seing God taketh care of those inconsiderable not parts but excrements of the body surely then he will take care of those more noble parts of your bodies and most of all of that most noble part of you which is your all your soules The hayres of our heads are innumerable to us but God numbers them The sins of our hearts and lives are all numbred by God Thou tellest my wandrings sayth holy David Psal 56.8 he meanes it of his wandrings by persecution and 't is as true of his wandrings by transgression But what man knowes the errors or wandrings eyther of his heart or life Psal 19.12 He that hath fewest sins hath more then he can number and therefore every mans sins are to him in number infinite Fourthly Iniquities may he called infinite in reference to the will or the spirit of him that committeth those iniquities those sinnes are without bounds to which man would never set a bound The natural man would never end sinning therefore his sins are without end or infinite The Prophet Jer. 13.27 speakes reproveingly to that people in the name of the Lord I have seene thine adulteries and thy neighings the lewdnesse of thy whoredome and thine abominations on the hills in the feilds wo unto thee O Jerusalem wilt thou not be made cleane when shall it once be As if be had said O Jerusalem thou hast no will to be made cleane or thou wouldest never be cleane if thou mightest have thy will When shall it once be The time is yet to come when thou wouldest have it to be so thou hast a mind to pollute thy selfe still but no minde to wash thy selfe from thy pollution The sins of a person or people are then infinite or without end when they discover that they have no minde to leave sinning A godly mans desires to doe good are infinite and so are the desires of a wicked man to doe evill This Prophet had spoken to Jerusalem in the same language Chap. 4.14 How long shall vaine thoughts lodge in thee when wilt thou be weary of these lodgers when wilt thou bid these guests be gone whom thou hast thus long bid welcome The Church of God doth sometimes suffer evill to lodge very long in her even in the middest of her as it were at her very heart but the world lodgeth or lieth continually in evill 1 Joh. 5.19 and there as it is the world it will lie for ever soakt and steept in evill Some give this as one reason to justifie the infinitnesse or everlastingnesse of the punishment that is laid upon impenitent sinners in hell The damned are under endlesse sufferings because they would have sinned without end Vellet sine fine vivere ut posset sine fine peccare Greg. A wicked man would live long yea he would have no end of his life here he would live ever that he might sinne ever therefore the Lord giveth him a life not such a one as he would have but such a one as he deserves to have which is indeed a death for ever They dye eternally for sin who would have lived eternally in sin Take a Scripture or two more to illustrate this way of the infinity of mans sinne Jer. 8.5 Why is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetuall back-sliding they hold fast deceite they refuse to returne Here are three phrases noting this one thing First They hold fast deceit secondly They refused to returne thirdly Their's was a perpetuall back-sliding or as some reade it an eternall rebellion an obstinate rebellion a strong and mighty rebellion the Seventy call it an impudent shamelesse rebellion all these are proper Epithites of that obstinacy and setlednesse of resolution which is in the heart of man by nature to continue in sinne yet there is a further rendering of the words which as the Originall will beare so it hath an elegancy in it Why is this people of Jerusalem slidden backe by a conquering or a prevailing back-sliding A perpetuall back-sliding hath conquest or triumph attributed to it upon a twofold consideration first in reference to other sinnes finall obstinacy or impenitency lifts up its head above all other sinnes and sits as King among them impenitency under any sin committed is greater then the sin committed not to repent of the evill we have done is worse then the evill which we doe Impenitency seales the soule under condemnation Repentance conquers sin but impenitency is the conquering sin Secondly 't is called a triumphing or conquering sinne because it seemes as it were to carry the day against the mercy and goodnesse of God that 's a sad conquest indeed not that any sinne no nor impenitency for sinne exceeds the mercy and goodnesse of God for his thoughts of mercy are as high above our acts of sin as they are above our thoughts of his mercy that is as high as the heaven is in comparison of the earth Isa 55.9 But the mercy of the Lord is said to be overcome by perpetuall backslidings
abscondere negare fraudare Subtrahebas ei si habebat prohibebas si non habebat i. e. nolebas ei panem dare Dâ—us Esurientium substraxisti fructum panis Ambr. and sometimes to deceive a man of that which is due to him Our translation Thou hast withholden carries that sence in it Properly we are sayd to withhold onely that from a man which he hath a right to Thou hast withholden Bread from the hungry As hunger and thirst are put for all manner of Extreamity so bread and water are put for all manner of supplyes generally The Greekes and some Latines Interpret this strictly of a morsell of bread Thou hast withholden a morsell of bread as the rich man in the Gospel did Lazarus desired but the crummes that fell from his Table but could not get them So here thou hast withholdden not onely a full Table but a morsell of Bread This latter clause and the former are of the same sence yet from that word withholden which Implyeth a wrong done to the poore note first That the poore have a right in what rich men have And if they withhold all from them they shall be condemned not onely as uncharitable and illiberall but as oppressors and unjust not onely as not having given them reliefe but as not having done them right Prov. 3.27 Withhold not good from them to whom it is due when it is in the Power of thy hand to doe it A thing is due upon a double account first by the Law of Justice secondly by the Law of Love I conceive here that the Proverb is to be understood of a dueness not by the Lawes of Common Justice as if a man have his brothers Estate in his hand he cannot withhold it from him without transgressing the Law of Justice but of a dueness by the Law of Love or more strictly by the Law of Charity thus 't is a duty to doe good to those that are in want it is not onely a favour that wee shew to them when wee releive them but there is a duty in it which wee owe to God who hath commanded that their poverty should be supplyed by the plenty abundance which he hath given to others If therefore it be demanded who are they to whom this doing of good is due I answer not onely they to whom thou art endebted in Justice witnes thy hand and seale but even they to whom thou art endebted in charity witnes their want and need The poore have a right to what we are able to give and can conveniently spare yea sometimes their right may lye somewhat beyond the line of our conveniency So then there is a poynt of Justice in it as well as of charity in releiving the poore and if as the next words in Solomon imply it be sinfull to delay them till to morrow it must needes be a wickednes to deny them for ever Therefore the same Solomon Prov. 22.2 speaking of the poore and the rich puts them together The rich and poore meet together the Lord is the maker of them all Now the Lord is the maker of the poore and of the rich not only in their naturall constitution as they are men consisting of body and soule so indeed he hath made the poor as well as the rich and they are both alike the worke of his hands but the Lord is the maker of them in that capacity or state wherein they are he makes the rich man and the poore man that is hee makes the one rich and the other poore he 〈◊〉 the maker of them both and Solomon I conceive puts that in to shew first that poore men should not envy the rich man why for the Lord hath made him rich why should thine Eye be Evill because the Lords Eye is good And againe that the rich man should not despise the poore or withdraw the bowells of his Compassion from them the Lord could have made thee poore too if hee had pleased therefore be Compassionate towards them for the Lord is the maker of you both And this answers that objection commonly given by some why are not my goods my owne may I not do with them as I please I have not stolne them I have wronged no man in the obtaining them it is well when men can say thus that they have done no wrong in getting riches but this is no argument how justly soever any man hath got his Estate that he should keepe it all to himselfe and not give a portion to those that are in want The rich man withholds what is due to the poor when he withholds releife from them It is true your Estate is your owne it is yours no man can challenge or claime it from you I but God can claime it from you you are possessors and masters of your Estate in reference unto men but you are but Stewards and Servants of your Estate in reference unto God Now a Stewards buisinesse you know is not only to receive and lay up the Estate of his Lord or Master but 't is his buisines also to pay or lay out according as he receives command or order from his Lord thus it is in this Case Rich men are but Stewards to the Lord in reference to all that they have Therefore as they receive from him and partake of the fullnes of the Earth which is his for the Earth is the Lords and the fullnes thereof so they must issue it according to his order and command Now he hath left a standing order for all times that the rich should distribute to the necessities of the poore and hungry Rich men must not thinke themselves Stewards onely to receive in but also to pay out what their Lord calls for and therefore as they would give a good account of their Stewardship at the great Audit day let them take heed how they withhold bread from the hungry I might shew further that the rich are not onely obliged to give or that it is their duty to give but that they ought to give chearfully and readily not upon constraint 2 Cor. 9.7 that they ought to give liberally and bountifully noâ— with restraint and that they ought to give sincerely not thinking thereby eyther to merit at the hand of God or to get the praise of men Secondly From the matter of this charge Thou hast withholden bread from the hungry we may observe That Not to doe good or the omission of doing good to the poore renders us culpable as well as the doing or Commission of that which is evill or injurious to them Not to releive the poore is a sin as well at to injure or oppresse the poore yea not to releive hath injurie and oppression in it The reason of it is cleare from the former poynt because the poore have a right to so much of a rich mans estate as is a releife of their pressing necessities to preserve them from perishing And every man must acknowledge that to deny any man his right
Church Lest saith he such a one should be swallowed up with over-much sorrow Sorrow of any sort even sorrow for sinne may possibly have an excesse or an over-muchnes in it and when ever it hath so beyond the end for which it serves for sorrow is not of any worth in it selfe but as it serves to a spirituall end When I say sorrow hath such an excesse then not onely the comforts but the gifts and usefullnes of the person sorrowing are in danger to be swallowed up by it Secondly Water doth not onely swallow up but enter in while it covereth the body it fills the bowells Thus affliction like water fills within as well as covers without David complaines that his afflâ—ctions did so Psal 69.1 Save me O God for the waters are come in unto my soule Not onely have these waters sweld over mee but they are soakt into mee Inward or soule-afflictions as well as outward and bodyly afflictions are set forth by waters Psal 109.18 As he cloathed himselfe with cursing like as with his garment so let it come into his bowells or within him like water and like oyle into his bones Liquids penetrate so doe afflictions Thirdly As the water is not mans proper Element hee lives and breathe in the ayre not in the water So affliction is not our proper Element though it be due to our sinne yet it is not proper to our nature Man was not made to live in affliction as the fish was made to live in the water and therefore as it is said The Lord doth not willingly afflict nor grieve the Children of men Lam. 3.33 'T is as it were besides the nature of God when he afflicts the children of men So it is sayd Heb. 12.11 No chastning for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous Man is out of his Element when he is under chastnings Hee was made at first to live in the light of Gods countenance in the smiles and embraces of divine love As man is out of his way when he sins so he is off from his end when he suffers He was not designed for the overwhelming choaking waters of sorrow and judgement but for the sweete refreshing ayre of joy and mercy It often proves a mercy in the event to be covered with these waters To be covered with them that we may be washed by them is a mercy but onely to be covered with them especially as Eliphaz here saith Job was to be deeply covered with them is a deepe and soare affliction Abundance of waters cover thee Hence note That as God hath treasures of mercy and abounds in goodness so hee hath treasures of affliction and abundance of wrath As God hath abundance of waters sealed up in the Clouds as in a treasury and hee can unlocke his treasury and let them out whensoever he pleaseth eyther to refresh or overflow the Earth so hee hath abundance of afflictions and hee can let them forth as out of a treasury when he pleaseth And as wee read Ezek. 47. that the waters of the Sanctuary those holy waters were of several degrees first to the Ankles secondly to the knees then to the Loines and then a river that could not be passed over abundance of waters Thus also the bitter waters the waters of affliction are of severall degrees some waters of afflictions are but Ancle-deepe they onely make us a little wet-shod there are other waters up to the knees and others to the Loynes and others wee may rightly call abundance of waters a Sea of waters I am come into deepe waters saith David Psal 69.2 or into depth of waters where the floods overflow mee And having sayd Psal 42.6 O my God my soule is cast downe within mee He adds in the next words v. 7. Deepe calleth unto deepe at the noyse of thy water-spouts All thy waves and thy billowes are gone over me Where by deepe to deepe by waterspouts by waves and billowes he elegantly sets forth his distresse in allusion to a Ship at Sea in a vehement storme and stresse of weather when the same wave upon whose back the vessel rides out of one deep plungeth it downe into another Thus the afflicted are tossed and overwhelmed in a Sea of trouble till they are at their wits end if not at their faiths end Take two or three Deductions from all these words layd together Wee see by how many metaphors the sorrows of this life are set forth even by snares and feares and darknes and waters Hence note First That as God hath abundance of afflictions in his power so hee hath variety of wayes and meanes to afflict the sonnes of men eyther for the punishment of their sinne or for the tryall of their graces If one will not doe it another shall if the snare will not feare shall if feare will not darknes shall and if darknes will not the waters shall and if waters of one hight will not doe it hee will have waters deepe enough to doe it abundance of waters shall doe it hee hath variety of wayes to deale both with sinners and with Saints Secondly Consider the inference which Eliphaz makes Therefore snares c. are upon thee That Is because thou hast done wickedly in not releeving and in oppressing the poore therefore snares have entangled thee This though false in Jobs particular case yet is a truth in General And it teacheth us That There is an unavoydable sequell between sinne and sorrow Looke upon sinne in its owne nature and so the sequell is unavoydable sinne is bigge with sorrow as affliction burdens the sinner so sinne is burdend with affliction Sinne hath all sorts of affliction in its bowells and wee may say of all the evills that afflict us they are our sinnes Sinne is formally the transgression of the Law and sinne is virtually the punishment of transgressors Many I grant are afflicted for tryall of their graces as hath been shewed before but grace had never been thus tryed if man had not sinned Sinne is the remote cause of all afflictions and it is the next or immediate procuring cause of most afflictions Would any man avoyde the snare let him feare to sinne would he avoyd feare let him feare to doe evill would he keepe out of darkness and not be covered with abundance of waters let him take heed hee drinke not iniquity like water let him have no fellowship with the unfruitfull workes of darkness God tells the sinner plainely what portion he is to expect Say woe to the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him Isa 3.11 Wee may as well hope to avoyd burning when we run into the fire or dirtying when we run into the mire as to escape smarting when we run into sinne Yet more distinctly wee may consider all those evills comprehended under those words in the Text Snares darknes c. eyther in reference to wicked men or to the Saints Snares and darknes upon the wicked are the
is here Jer. 23.23 24. Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not afarre off Can any hide himselfe in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord doe not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord All these expostulating questions are resolved into this one position God is every where And though some reade the first not as a Qâ—estion but as an Assertion Thus I am a God at hand and not a God afarre off yet the sence is the same God therein affirming that he is ever neere us and never afarre off from us wheresoever we are Though God be in those places which are furthest off from us as well as in those that are neere at hand yet God himselfe is never afarre off from us but alwayes at hand When Solomon had set up the Temple 1 King 8.27 He was sure of the presence of God in it and therefore did not speake doubtingly but admiringly when he asked But will God indeed dwell on earth that is will God manifest himselfe gloriously on the earth behold the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot conteine thee how much lesse this house that I have builded Solomon knew that heaven could not conteine that is limit God much lesse could the house which he had builded Yet the Lord made the Temple another heaven to himselfe it was as his second heaven there the Lord had a kinde of glorious residence beyond what he had in any other part of the world Now the Assemblyes and Congregations of the Saints are in a speciall manner the dwelling place of God and his second heaven He dwells so much in the Churches that he seemes not to dwell at all in any part of the world beside 2 Cor. 6.16 17. I will dwell in them and walke in them Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the uncleane thing and I will receive you God who is in all the world dwels onely in and with his people They who separate from whatsoever is unholy have him neerest them who is altogether Holy To conclude this poynt we may make use of that distinction of the Schooles to cleare the difference how a corporall substance and a spirituall as as also how a spirituall created and uncreated substance may be sayd to be in a place All bodyes are in place circumscriptively spirituall substances created Angels and soules of men are in place definitively Wee cannot draw a line about an Angell as about the body of a man yet the Angel is so in this place as not in another but God who is a spirit and uncreated is in place repletively that is he filleth all places where he is but is not limited by any place where he is He is as some have not unfitly spoken a Spheare whose center is every where and whose circumference is no where This is a mystery which indeed we are not able to comprehend by reason but we must take it downe by faith The Lord is in the height of heaven yet so there as he is not shut up there But if any shall yet querie How is the Lord every where how is he in heaven and in earth is it so as the Sunne may be said to be every where the Sunne is seated in heaven yet is by way of communication on earth the Sunne by light heate or influence is all the world over in some degree or other yet the Sunne moves onely in his Orbe Or is God so every where as a Soveraigne Prince who though in person he reside here or there yet in power and Authority he is every where within his own Dominion I answer No These allusions are farre below this truth God is every where not onely as the Sunne by light heate and influence not onely as a Prince by his power and Authority but as we speake in person and in his Essence Further the Lords presence in all places is not as that of the aire which is more every where then the Sunne the aire is every where filling all places and so encompassing all bodies as if it made them all but one Great body yet that part of the aire that is in one place is not in another for the aire is divisible Divina essentia est tota intra omnia tota extra omnia nusquam inclusa aut exclusa omnia contineus a nullo contenta nec propterea immistu rebus aut rerum sordibus inquinata August Epist 55. ad Dard But we must not take up any such apprehensions of God for as he is every where so he is wholly every where God cannot be divided or parted as the ayre is may The Divine Essence as one of the Ancients hath expressed this astonishing mysterie is whole within all things and whole without all things no where included no where excluded conteining all things conteined of nothing yet not at all mingled with the nature of these things nor defiled with their pollutions That which the Philosopher speaks of the soule of man That it is all in the whole body and whole in every part of the body comes neerest this mystery Some quarrell at that expression about the soule yet there is a truth in it The soule is indivisiâ—le much more God wheresoever he is he is all and altogether he is every where and every where all So he is in the height of heaven and so he is on earth below But if God be every where why doth Christ teach us to pray Our father which art in heaven Mat. 6.13 And when the Heathen made that scoffing demand Where is now their God Why did David Answer Our God is in heaven Psal 115.2 3. To these and all other Texts of like import wee may answer heaven is not there spoken of as bounding the presence of God but as guiding the faith and hope of man In the morning saith David Psal 5.3 will I direct my prayer unto thee and will looke up When the eye hath no sight of any helpe on earth then faith may have the clearest visions of it in heaven And while God appeares so little in any Gratious dispensation for his people on earth that the enemy begins to scoffe Where is now your God Then his people have recourse by faith to heaven where the Lord not onely is but is glorious in his appearings From whence as he seeth how it is with us so he seemes to have a kinde of advantage to relieve us But as some Scriptures seeme to confine God to heaven so other Scriptures seem to deny that he is every where on earth Thus Moses sayd to the people of Israel Numb 14.42 Goe not up for the Lord is not among you And againe Deut. 7.21 Thou shalt not be affrighted at them for the Lord thy God is among you with some the Lord is with others the Lord is not and he is with the same persons at one time not at another How then can it be sayd that the
of God when he puts the mighty from their seates when the Oaks and the Cedars when the high walls and mountaines are shaken and removed by his blowes and batteries When Pharoah and his Egyptian hoast were drowned in the red Sea Then Moses magnified God in his power Exod. 15.2 The Lord is my strength and song that is I will sing of the strength of the Lord not of the strength of man he is my God and I will prepare him an habitation my fathers God and I will exalt him In these three attributes Justice truth and power God is honoured when the wicked are destroyed and therfore it cannot be uncomly for the Saints to rejoyce when they are destroyed The Lord by his Prophet assures the Church his Jacob that all the enemies thereof shall be scattered Is 41.15 Behold I will make thee a new sharpe threshing instrument having teeth thou shalt thresh the Nations beat them smal shalt make the hills as chaffe c. The mountains thâ—â—â—lls to be threshed were the mighty ones of the earth setting themselves against the wayes and designes of heaven The Instrument or flayle wherewith they were to be threshed was the worme Jacob ver 14. God did not so much make an Instrument for the worme Jacob as he made the worme Jacob his Instrument Behold I will make thee not for thee a new threshing Instrument But when the worme hath done this great worke when he hath threshed the mountaines and made the hills as chaffe What must he doe then The 16th verse tells Thou shalt rejoyce in the Lord Gaudebunt de eorum exitio non vindictae cupiditate sed zelo dei accensi qui hoc modo declarabit sibi curae esse res humanas Drus and shalt glory in the holy One of Israel Glorying is more then rejoycing Glorying is a kinde of rapture or extasie of the soule As there is an extasie of Infatuation so there is an extasie of Gratious admiration Fooles and madmen are besides themselves for want of reason the wisest and best of men are besides themselves through the aboundance of the Grace of God in them and the aboundance of the goodness of God towards them When the goodness of God acted mightily towards us meetes with the Grace of God acting mightily in us we are lifted up so farre out of our selves that we can see nothing in our selves and then in whom or in what can our rejoycing be but in the Lord the holy one of Israel This joy is not First the joy of the Epicure A sensuall joy in wine and belly-cheare in eating the fat and drinking the sweete in carnal merriments musicke nor is this secondly a cruel joy in the ruine and destruction of men which the Prophet rebukes Obad. v. 12. Thou shouldest not have rejoyced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction Nor is this thirdly a proud joy or a joy of ostentation when men spread their plumes and publish their owne wisdome greatnes and power nor is it fourthly a covetous joy such as theirs is who are glad because they have fill'd their purses enriched their familyes and their hand hath gotten much Nor is it lastly a secure joy because when evill men are cast downe we hope to fit warme and well safe and quiet upon their ruines But this joy consists first in high thoughts and valuations of God Whom have I in heaven but thee c. Psal 73.25 Who is like unto thee O Lord among the Gods Exod. 15.11 It consists secondly in a sweete rest or complacency in God Returne unto thy rest O my soule that is turâ—â—â—n to God live neerer him saith a Godly man to his soule a such a case Psal 116.7 This joy is the rest of the soule in God He who is rest to himselfe as God is may be so infinitely more to us Thus The righteous see it and are Glad And the innocent laugh them to scorne This heightens the sence of the former part of the verse not onely are the righteous glad when the wicked are destroyed but they laugh them to scorne The righteous in the former part of the verse are the same with the innocent here yet we may distinguish them The innocent are taken two wayes in Scripture first the innocent are they who are pure from sinne secondly the innocent are they who are pure or free from punishment or from trouble freedome from sin and freedome from trouble are so dependent upon one another that one word may well expresse both Thus the word is used 2 Sam. 14.9 The woman of Tekoah said to the king My Lord O king the iniquity be on me Innocens in Scriptura sumitur non solùm activè pro eo qui nemini nocet sed etiam passivè pro eo cuâ— nemo nocet and my fathers house and the king and his throne be guiltlesse or innocent that is free from all evill and trouble While she saith The iniquity be upon me her meaning is let the punishment of the iniquity be upon me let the king and his throne be guiltlesse let no punishment of iniquity fall eyther upon the king in person or upon his government In the same sense the word is read Exod. 19.21 If he that hath been smitten rise againe and walke abroad upon a staffe then he that smote him shall be quitt the Hebrew is then shall he be innocent that is free from punishment he shall not have any censure or judgement for it We have the like use of the word Numb 5.19 in the case of the woman suspected by her husband for disloyalty in breaking her marriage vow she being for her purgation to drinke the bitter water Innocens eris ab aquis istis amarissimis Heb. the Priest was to bespeake her in this manner If no man hath lien with thee and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanenes with another in stead of thy husband be thou free or innocent from this bitter water that causeth the curse that is let the water doe thee no harme as if he had sayd thou shalt feele no evill of paine by it if thou art not guilty of the evill of sinne Thus some expound the word here The innocent shall laugh them to scorne that is they who are free from those troubles with which the wicked are over-taken and undone those particular righteous men who escape the storme untouched laugh the wicked to scorne Many of the Hebrew writers fix upon a speciall person and by the Innocent understand Noah as if it were a report of what was done upon the old world Then the righteous that is as the Chaldee Paraphrase explaines it the sonnes of righteous Noah saw the flood and were glad Videbant filij Noë justi et laetabuntur Noe innocens subsaâ—nabit ees Targ and innocent Noah laught the prophane old world to scorne When Noah and his sonnes were building the Arke the old world in stead of
little way but it must be put farre away There are severall degrees of putting away sin first There is a putting it away out of our practice or conversation so that it hath no visible being or abode in us or with us This is a putting of sin away but this is not a putting of sin farre away Secondly There is a putting of it out of our affections or out of our hearts not as if we could keepe it while we are in the body from having a place or dwelling there but as keeping it from having a throane or reigning there This is to put sin very farre away from us it is no great thing to put sinne out of our hands but 't is hard to get it out of our hearts hypocrites will possibly lay downe the practice of it but still their spirits cleave to it they are not at all alienated from the love of it but onely restrained from the acting of it such are oftentimes kept from doing iniquity but they do not at all put away their iniquity much lesse put it far away As it is with a naturall man in reference to his doing of Good so to his not doing of evill If good be at any time in his practice yet it is farre from his spirit he hath no minde to it he cannot say the law of God is in his heart or that he delights to doe it so if evill be at any time put out of his practice yet it is still in his spirit his minde is toward it he cannot say that his heart is withdrawne from it or that he hates it No but as the Prophet Ezekiel speakes of the stubborne Jewes Ezek. 11.21 Their heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things As every Godly man is in the maine like David A man after Gods owne heart and walketh after the heart of God so every ungodly man is a man after the heart of the devill and every Idolater or worshipper of false Gods who is one of the worst of ungodly men is after the heart of his false gods and he walketh after the heart of his false Gods which the Prophet calls detestable things Whatsoever is most after the heart or according to the desires and commands of an Idol that the Idolatrous heart walketh after that is he loves it he delights in it and thus doth every naturall mans heart walke after the heart of his lust though sometime his feete walke not after it or he may seeme to lay it out of his hand But he that turnes indeed from sin deales with it when he is repenting of it as the Lord doth when he is pardoning it How is that The Lord in pardoning sin puts it farre from us Psal 103.12 As farre as the East is from the West so farre hath he removed our transgressions from us That is he hath removed them from us to the utmost imaginable distance for such is that of the East from the West they and we shall no more meete together againe then the East and West shall or can meete at all And thus in repenting a godly man desires to put his sin as farre from him as the East is from the West that he and they may never meete together in the practice of them as he is assured that God hath so pardoned them that they and he shall never meete together in the punishment of them Thou shalt put away iniquity farre from thy Tabernacles Innuit ante hac â—ec Jobum nec e us filios culpa vacasse ideocum eversum filios extinctos Merc In which words he includes more then his owne personall repentance for by the Tabernacles we are to understand the whole family or household the tabernacle conteining is put for the persons contein'd in this Eliphaz seemes to strike at Job for his former course as if he said Wickednesse hath lodged not onely in thy heart but in thy house in thy family children and servants And this surely was it which provoked the Lord to crush thy family of children and their servants with the fall of a house now therefore I counsel thee to put away iniquity from thy tabernacle that is from all that belong to thee from all that are under thy shadow and are committed to thy trust and charge Hence observe That they who repent truly should indeavour to purge sinne not onely from themselves but from all that belong to them They should cleanse not their persons onely but their families they should sweep their houses as well as their hearts from sin Gen. 35.2 Then Jacob said to his household and to all that were with him put away the strange Gods or the estranging Gods such are Idols they are not onely strange because new Gods and strange because 't is a strange or wonderfull thing that man should be so besotted as to worship such things for Gods but they are estranging Gods because they withdraw or steale away the heart from the true God therefore sayd Jacob put away the strange Gods that are among you and be cleane and change your garments This outward changing of their garments signified the changing or cleansing of their soules God principally lookes at that and the outward ceremony hath no acceptance at all without the inward sincerity In comparison of which as the Lord said in Joel Rent your hearts and not your garments so he would say here change your hearts and not your Garments Now Jacob was very carefull that this blessed change of Garments betokening the change and cleansing both of heart and life should be the livery of all his family and household Family sinnes bring family judgements as well as personall and they that have the charge of a family have in a great degree a charge of soules as well as of bodies every Master of a family hath cure of soules And he is to see so farre as lieth in him that no sinne nor wickednesse remaine or be harboured in his family that his children and servants live not in ignorance nor in any evill In the 6th of Numbers Moses gives charge to the Congregation That they should depart from the tents of those wicked men Corah Dathan and Abiram it is dangerous to be neere the families of the wicked but it is more dangerous to have wickednesse remaining in our family in our servants or in our children And if Masters endeavour not by all due meanes to remove sin out of their family that in a little time may remove them out of their family or as we say eate them out of house and home Thou shalt put away iniquity farre from thy Tabernacle Thus much of this part of the verse in the first sence as iniquity is taken for sin yet Further as the word iniquity is taken for punishment thou shalt put away iniquity or the effects of iniquity farre from thy Tabernacle and then the words are both a new promise and a further explication of what is meant by being built up which
owne hearts may vow more care and diligence in and about all these things And thus wee are to understand that of Jacob Gen. 28.21 vowing that the Lord should be his God as also that of David Psal 119.106 I have sworne and will performe it that I will keepe thy righteous judgements David kept them before but now he would be more strict then before in keeping them So then when we vow things already commanded or forbidden we must pitch and place our vow not upon the matter of the commandement but upon the manner and intensenes of our spirits in keeping it Fourthly Let not vowes about indifferent things be perpetuall All vowes about things expressed in the Law of God must be perpetuall because the things themselves are allwayes a duty For the affirmative precepts of the Law are at all times binding and the negative binde at all times But as for things which are not precisely under a Law As for example in the affirmative to pray so many times in a day to reade so many Chapters of the holy Scriptures in a day to heare so many Sermons in a weeke and in the negative not to drinke any wine or strong drinke not to weare silke or lace for or upon our Apparrel not to take such or such a recreation in it selfe lawfull I say in these cases let not vowes be perpetuall but limited to a season lest thereby wee entangle our owne soules and cast our selves into temptation while through a zeale not according to knowledge we use such meanes to avoyd it Make no vowes to binde your selves at all times in things which are not necessary at all times eyther to be done or not to be done From the whole verse Observe That the answer of prayer received from the Lord doth call us to pay and performe all the duties that we have promised or vowed to the Lord in prayer Though we doe not alwayes make strict and formal vowes when we pray yet every prayer hath somewhat of a vow in it so that having prayed at any time we may say The vowes of God are upon us for when we pray we promise and then especially we doe so when we pray under any pressure of trouble or when we have any extraordinary request to make then I say we engage our selves in a more solemne manner to serve and walke with God And so the returne or answer of such prayers ingageth us more strongly to duty For wheresoever the Lord soweth there he lookes to reape and where he hath sowed much he looks to reape much but then and there chiefly when we promise him fruits of duty for our receipts of favour and mercy Did we take notice of this we should not be found as we are so much in arreare to the Lord eyther for our private or publique mercies What promises have we made in the day of our distresse that we would be holy that we would strive against and mortifie our sinnes or the deeds of the body through the Spirit power of our Lord Jesus Christ Now let conscience speake have wee performed our promises have we paid our vowes we can hardly say that we have put up a prayer which hath not had an answer by blessings and successes God hath been to us a prayer-hearing God have we been to him a vow-paying people Who amongst us is now more active for God or more carefull to please him then before Who amongst us is more watchfull over his heart or more circumspect in his walkings then he was before Who is more carefull over his family that it may be holy or more zealous for the publicke that it may be reformed then he was before What manner of men should we be in all holy conversation and Godlines did we but pay those vowes and make good those engagements which have gone out of our lips and we have layd upon our selves before the Lord in the day of our trouble how just how pure how righteous a Nation should we be were we what we promised our utmost endeavours to be the Lord hath done much for us let us up and be doing for him let us make good what we have spoken to the Lord in vowing and promising seing the Lord hath performed what we have spoken to him in praying and calling upon his name God hath answered us at the first call yea sometimes before we called let us not put God to call a second and a third time much lesse often and often for the payment of our vowes For though the Lord in patience waite many dayes for the payment of vowes yet according to righteousnes we should not let him waite one day for it All these spirituall debt-bills are payable at sight or upon demand God shewes us our owne bills and bonds wherein we stand engaged to his Majesty every day and every day by some or other of his Atturneyes that is by some meanes or other he makes his demand therefore pay to day pay every day for we can never come wholy out of these debts to God or say we owe him nothing how much soever we have payd him And know that if when God hath heard us we be sloathfull in paying our vowes eyther God will heare us no more or wee shall heare of him and that as we say with both eares till he make our eares tingle and our hearts ake for not paying them Swift Judgements have often followed these slow payments And though they have not been swift in comming presently upon the neglect yet when they have come they have come swiftly upon the neglecters And as wee may alwayes say of the evills and Judgements which come upon any of the people of God as the Prophet in a like case doth to the people of Israel Jer. 4.18 Thy way and thy doinâ—s have procured these things unto thee this is thy wickednes So in most cases when evills and judgements fall upon and afflict the people of God we may say Your not doing what you have promised hath procured these things unto you This is your vow-breaking or your neglect of paying your vowes And how just is it that their troubles should not onely be renewed but even doubled and trebled yea seventimes more encreased upon them who slight and throw off those very duties which they tooke upon them in the day of their trouble in expectation to have their troubles removed Every mans mouth will be stopt when he suffers for not doing that good which the mouth of the Lord hath spoken how much more will his mouth be stopt and he have nothing to say for himselfe who suffers for not doing that good or for not forbearing that evill which his owne mouth hath spoken and solemnly charged upon himselfe as a duty in the presence of the Lord. They will have least to say for themselves who goe against or come not up to what themselves have sayd Then pay your vowes JOB CHAP. 22. Vers 28 29 30. Thou shalt also decree
Dimissus oculis est qui suo ju dicio existi matione sibi ipsi vilescit He shall save the humble person that is the person who is low in his owne eyes while in the greatest worldly heights the person that humbles himselfe and walkes humbly with God and men when most exalted Thus the Apostle James exhorts the brother of high degree or the rich brother to rejoyce in that he is made low Jam. 1.10 But if he be rich how is he made low he meanes it not of a lownes in state but of a lownes or rather lowlines of spirit The brother of high degree hath no cause to rejoyce in his highnes but when he is low in his owne eyes Lownes of eyes is more then a vertue or common modesty 't is a Grace That 's in a spirituall sence the most Grace-full looke which is the most humble looke He shall save the humble person But with what salvation I answer Salvation is eyther temporal and bodyly or eternal usually called the salvation of the soule We may expound this Text of both The Lord saveth the humble person both body and soule both temporally and eternally Where note That the Lord takes speciall Care of humble ones The Lord seemes to take so much care to save the humble as if there were none else that he tooke care to save or regarded what became or them whether saved or no. And the Lord speakes of proud persons as if he contemn'd none but under that name and notion Jam. 4.6 He resisteth the proud he that is proud of his person or parts or estate or witt or power the Lord resisteth him And he speakes of the humble as if none were saved but under that name and notion He saves the humble person◠or as that Text in James hath it He giveth grace to the humble What grace There is a twofold grace and both are given to the humble First he gives them the grace of favour or good will he is kinde to and respecteth the humble or as this text in Job hath it Hee saves the humble person Secondly He gives much grace to the humble as grace is taken for that gracious worke of the Spirit in us forming up faith love c. in our soules The Lord gives more of this grace also to the humble that is he addeth unto the graces which they have and makes them more humble more gratious a man cannot be in that sence an humble person without grace humility it selfe is a great grace and the greater our humility is the greater accession we have of other graces Thus I say we may understand the text in James both wayes He giveth grace to the humble that is he favours and respects them because they are gracious and he addeth to or encreaseth their graces We have a promise very paralel to these of Eliphaz and James Psal 18.27 Thou wilt save the afflicted people but wilt bring downe high looks The word which we translate afflicted signifies also one humbled and humble and so we might render the Psalme Thou shalt save the humbled or the humble people and that the humble are to be taken in to partake of the priviledge of that promise is plaine from the opposite Terme in the latter clause of the verse High lookes that is high lookers God will bring downe but he will save the humble person Men of low and meane estates are usually wrapt up with great ones in the same judgement as the Prophet speakes Esay 5.15 The meane man shall be brought downe and the mighty man shall be humbled the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled there we have the meane man and the mighty man under the same wrathfull dispensations of God The wicked whether high or low are farre from salvation but God knowes how to make a distinction between the humble and the proud when his wrath makes the greatest confusions in the world Humility it is not onely a sweet but a safe grace yea a saving Grace wee never goe under the Covert of God so much as when wee walke humbly with God He will save the humble person Vers 30. Hee shall deliver the Island of the Innocent and it is deliver'd by the purenes of thine hands The promise is continued to the man that returnes to God Hee shall deliver the Island of the Innocent or as some translate the Innocent shall deliver the Island The sence is the same He shall deliver the Island that is the Inhabitants of the Island All shall be safe the Island and they that dwell in it There is another reading of the Text which yet falls in fully and clearly with this whereas we reade He shall deliver the Island of the Innocent Liberabit noxium Pisc it may be read He shall deliver him that is not Innocent Now because this may seeme a very wide difference in the translation wee are to Consider the ground of it how this can be made out that the same text should be rendred the Innocent and him that is not Innocent The reason is because the word which we translate Island is taken by many of the Hebrew Doctors Vocula 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae hic redditur insula idem valet quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non Pisc Ego cum veteribus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro negatione exponerē Eritque facilis sensus sc deus puritate manuum tuarum etiam nocentē vel non innocentem liberabit Merc. as also by other translators onely for a negative particle signifying not or that which is not So the word is rendred 1 Sam. 4.21 when Phineas his wife dying in travell gave the name to her Childe shee sayd Hee shall be called Ichabod There is no glory or not glory And againe Pro. 31.4 the word is used in the same sence It is not for Kings O Lemuel to drinke wine strong drinke is not for Princes So here Thou shalt deliver the nocent or the not Innocent And so the whole verse is thus translated God because of or for the purenes of thy hands will doliver the nocent or those who are not innocent Whereas we say Thou shalt deliver the Island of the Innocent or the Innocent shall deliver the Island And it is delivered by the purenes of thine hands Eliphaz spake before in the third person here in the second 't is probable he did so purposely to make Job understand that he meant him It is delivered c. That is the Island is deliver'd according to our translation how is it delivered by the purenes of thine hands The word notes the most exact purity and cleannes like that of gold when it is refined in the fire or of garments that are washed with Soape or Nitre Manus purae sunt opera inculpata quae crimine vacant Drus by this purenes it or the Island shall be deliver'd and by the purenes of his hands he meanes the purenes of his actions or administrations The
of his hands lifted up in prayer Yet wee must take this with a Caution For wee cannot affirme it universally that the righteous have alwayes this priviledge in the event to deliver the Island or Nation wherein they are But wee may say that this is a priviledge which Saints have often been honoured with and which none but Saints have been honoured with at any time to be the Saviours and Deliverers of a people among whom they dwell For wee know the Lord himselfe hath given expresse Exceptions to this rule Jer. 15.1 where hee tells the stubborne Jewes by his Prophet Though Moses and Samuel stood before mee yet my minde could not be toward this people Cast them out of my sight and let them goe forth and it shall come to passe if they say unto thee whither shall wee goe forth thou shalt tell them thus saith the Lord such as are for death to death such as are for the sword to the sword and such as are for famine to famine When he saith Though Moses and Samuel stood before wee Some may aske what to doe I answer wee are not to take it for a mute standing before the Lord but a standing before the Lord with earnest Prayers Intercessions and Supplications for the sparing of that people Now saith the Lord though Moses and Samuel who in their generations were eminent godly men and eminent favourites of God though these should stand before mee earnestly praying for this people yet my minde could not be toward them that is I would not spare them nor save them from death sword famine or captivity no not at their entreaty And wee have a like Instance Ezek. 14.14 Though these three men Noah Daniel and Job were in it there were but two named in Jeremy but here three though these three men Noah Daniel and Job were in it they should but deliver their owne soules by their righteousnes saith the Lord God They might have the priviledge mentioned by Eliphaz in the former verse When men were cast downe they might say there is a lifting up or there is preservation for us God will take care of us but God would not be perswaded no not by Noah Daniel and Job to save the rest So that there are cases wherein the Lord will not heare the Intercessions of the best of men for a sinfull people The Island of the wicked or of the not Innocent shall not be delivered no not by the purenes of their hands yet 't is an experienced truth that God hath spared a people for the sake of some Godly found among them yea the reason why the Lord doth not destroy the world which lies in wickednes is much in respect of them who walk in holines For were it not as Elisha told Jehoram to his face in reference to good king Jehosaphat 2 Kings 3.14 that God hath regard to their presence in the world God would not so much as looke towards the ungodly nor see them for good This honour have all the Saints and how great an honour is it to be a publique good to be a Saviour to an Island to a Nation Some indeed are of such narrow spirits that if they may save themselves and keepe their owne stakes they care not what becomes of the publique But as it is a great honour to be active for the saving and delivering of a Nation so it is a greater honour to have the safety and deliverance of a Nation attributed or given in to us by God himselfe though not at all by way of desert yet in a way of favour Paul was at Sea with no good company yet when all looked to be swallowed up An Angel of God appeared to him saying Feare not Paul Thou must be brought before Caesar and lo God hath given thee all them that sayle with thee Acts 27.23 24. That is for thy sake or because they are now in thy company they also shall escape the rage of this tempest They all owe their lives to thee henceforth as well as to mee for to thee have I given them The men of this world might hence take notice of their own folly who can hardly afford them a good word or roome to live in the world for whose sake it is that they live How often doe they wish and seeke their destruction for whose sake it is that themselves are not destroyed How often doe they accuse the Godly as the troublers of a Nation as the hinderers of publique good whereas they are indeed a common good The Chariots and horsemen The Protection and Defence the Salvation and Deliverance of those States and Nations where they are The breaches which wicked men make by sinning they make up by praying to turne away the Lords wrath that they be not consumed We read how the Lord Complaines that there was none found to make up the hedge to stand in the gapp when he was coming to destroy them Ezek. 22.30 And it is sayd of Moses Psal 106.23 that he stood before the Lord in the breach that he should not destroy the Israelites Which phrase of standing in the breach seemes to beare an alusion to an Army besieging a Citie who first plant their Canon and make a breach and then come to the storme Thus the Lord deales many times with a people he encampes against them and batters them he makes some breach upon them by troubles and divisions and then expects that some should stand in the breach and beseech him not to storme them with the whole Army of his Judgements And the Lord takes it well when any of the Valiant Ones when any of the Worthies of his Israel present themselves in the breach praying with utmost importunity that the Lord would withdraw those evills which threaten to come in at the breach like armed men and lay wast a Nation And forasmuch as men of pure hands or Godly men have this priviledge to be a common Good by being the deliverers of Nations from common evills and calamities I shall hint some few things from it more distinctly First We see wherein under God the strength and safety of Kingdomes and Common-wealths doth consist It is not so much in the wisdome of the Counseller or in the courage of the Souldier It is not so much in Armyes at Land or Navyes at Sea It is not so much in walled Cities and fortified Castles It is not so much in union at home or in leagues and confederacies abroad as it is in the purity of mens hands or in the holines of their lives Godlines is the Sampsons locke wherein the strength of a Nation lyes A Heathen could say that A people were never safe by the standing of their walles while themselves were falling in their virtues It is therefore if there were nothing better in it good policy to encourage piety and to â—ndeavour the encrease of a Holy Seed in any Nation For as the Prophet speakes Is 6.13 As a teile tree and as an oake
a cause to complaine Thanksgiving will be all our worke and the worke of all in heaven And by how much we are the more in thanksgiving and the lesse in complaining on earth unlesse it be of and against our selves for sinne the more heavenly we are When we are stricken we should complaine as little as we can and we should alwayes be able to say as Job here That our complaint is not greater then our stroake JOB CHAP. 23. Vers 3 4 5. Oh that I knew where I might find him that I might come even to his seate I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth with arguments I would know the words which he would answer me and understand what he would say unto me JOb having shewed in the former verse how bitter and how sad his Condition was even farre beyond his owne Complaint and that his stroake was heavier then his groaning he now turnes himselfe from earth to heaven from the creature to the Creator from man to God Job had been among his friends a great while they had debated the matter long but all in vaine and without fruit to his soule he had yet received no Comfort What will he doe next see here his address to God Vers 3. O that I knew where I might finde him that I might come even to his seat O that I knew The Hebrew is who will give me to know c. The words are a forme of wishing ordinary among the Jewes Who will give or who will grant mee this or that O that I knew c. And it Intimates or Implyes two things First A vehement and strong desire after somewhat much desierable who will give mee this or where shall I have it Secondly It Implyes selfe-Inability or selfe-Insufficiency to attaine and reach the thing desiered As if Job had said I am not able of my selfe to finde him O that I knew where I might finde him O that I eyther had the light of this knowledge in my selfe or that some body would enforme and teach mee O that I had a friend to Chalke mee out the way to lead mee by the hand and bring mee neer to God Quis mihi tribuat ut cognos cam inveni am illum Vulg. The vulgar latine Reading fixeth both those acts upon God as the Object O that some one or other would give mee to know and finde him As if his wish and longing desire were first to know God secondly to finde him or in finding to know him Our translation determines this knowing in Job and finding upon God O That I knew where I might finde him Who it is that Job would finde is not exprest in the text by name nor is there any Anticedent in the verse before with which we can Connect this relative him Yet 't is beyond question or dispute that he meanes God O that I might finde him that is God But why did he not say O that I knew where to finde God but O that I knew where to finde him I answer He doth it because his heart being full of God he supposed that those to whom he spake had their hearts full of him too and so would easily understand whom he meant or that he could mean none but God Wee finde such kinde of abrupt speeches as I may call them in other Texts of Scripture still arising from fullnes and strength of affection in the speaker See how Solomon begins his Love-song his Song of Songs The Song of Songs which is Solomons that 's the title of it How doth it begin Let him kiss mee c. Here is a strange Exordium to a Song none having been spoken of before Let him kiss mee with the kisses of his mouth by whom the Church would be kissed shee expresseth not but her heart was so full of Christ so full of love to Christ her Bridegroom her husband that shee thinks it needlesse to mention him by name when shee speakes of him whose kisses shee desiered Her love had passed through the whole Creation through men and Angels through all things here below and fixt it selfe onely upon Christ her Lord and Love Therefore shee never stood speaking personally of him but onely relatively and leaves all to understand whom she intended Thus saith Job O that I knew where I might finde him when as he had not spoken of any distinct person before in this Chapter And wee have a like passage flowing from a like abundant love to Christ in the 20 â—h of John ver 15. where Mary comes to the Sepulchre Christ being risen and the Angel seing her weepe asked her the reason of it To whom shee replyed Because they have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him having thus said shee turned her selfe backe and saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was Jesus he saith unto her Woman why weepest thou whom seekest thou Shee supposing him to be the Gardiner said Sir if thou have borne him hence tell me where thou hast laid him Shee never names Christ but onely saith If thou have borne him hence c. because her heart was full of Christ shee thought his heart was full of him too and that hee understood her well enough whom she meant though shee sayd not whom shee meant Thus in the present text Job was to God at that time as Mary to Christ at a losse for him not knowing where to finde him God was as it were removed from him as Christ was risen from the Sepulchre Therefore he complainingly and affectionately enquires O that I knew where I might finde him My soule is a thirst for God my heart pants after him O that I knew where I might finde him The Hebrew word signifieth to finde Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat saepius obviam habere quemquam vel alâ—cui obvium fieri by going out to meet a man or as we say to light upon him As Ahab said to Elijah 1 King 21.20 Hast thou found or met mee O mine enemy and he answered I have found or met thee So the word is used 2 King 10.13 Jehu mett with the Brethren of Ahaziah King of Judah In the Margin wee say Jehu found the Brethren of Ahaziah that is he mett them upon the way for he went out to meet them Read also 1 Sam. 10.3 As if the sence were thus given O that I knew where I might finde him that is whither I might goe to meet him though I should not finde him by accident or as wee say stumble upon him I would goe out I would travell and take paines upon hopes to meet him Secondly That word signifies so to finde as to take hold and apprehend to take fast hold of a thing and then O that I might finde him is O that I might lay hold on him if I knew where I might have him I would lay fast hold on him and cleave close to him So the word is used Esay 10.10 As
my hand hath found the kingdomes of the Idolls and whose graven Images did excell them of Jerusalem and Samaria Thus spake the proud Assyrian my hand hath found them Why the Kingdomes of the Heathen were not in a Corner that he had need to search after them he did not make a new discovery of those kingdomes They were not terra Incognita an unknowne or a new found land that 's not the meaning but when he saith my hand hath found them the sence is I have laid hold on them and ceized them to my owne use I have added them to my owne dominion and brought them under my subjection So in the 14 verse of that Chapter My hand hath found as a Nest the riches of the people that is I have laid hold on their riches and said all 's mine I have taken the whole nest with all the eggs all their goods and treasures into my custody and possession Thus Job would finde God that he might lay hold on him for his owne or owne him as his Thus also the word is used Psal 21.8 Thine hand shall finde out all thine Enemies thy right hand shall finde out those that hate thee It is not meant onely of a discovery of a person though it be a truth that the Lord will discover all that are his Enemies but thine hand shall finde them out is it shall take hold of them graspe them and arrest them Thy hand shall finde out all thine Enemies though close though Covert Enemies not onely thy above-ground Enemies but thy under-ground Enemies as well those that undermine thee as those that assault thee Once more in the 116th Psal ver 3. we have an Illustration of this sence The sorrowes of death Compassed mee and the paines of hell gate hold upon me The Hebrew text is the paines of hell found mee the painâ—s of hell that is the greatest the extreamest paines gat hold upon mee they found mee that is they ceized upon mee and held me fast a word of the same roote is used in both parts of that text that which wee translate to get hold is the same with that I found trouble and sorrow they found mee and I found them thus saith Job O that I knew where I might finde him that I might take hold of him why how doth the hand of a Saint finde God how doth he take hold of and apprehend God how doth he as it were arrest him and keepe him close I answer By faith and reliance upon him O that I knew where to finde him that the Lord might not be at such a distance from mee as he hath been but that I finding him might fix my soule upon him That 's a good sence Yet I conceive in this place wee may rather expound Job speaking of God after the manner of Magistrates among men who appoynt certaine places where to sit in Judgement where to heare Causes whither all that are wronged and oppressed resort for reliefe and right 1 Sam. 7.17 Samuel was the Chiefe Magistrate The Judge in Israel Now the text saith at the 16th verse that he went from yeare to yeare in Circuit as wee have the Judges of the Circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpeh and Judged Israel in all those places and returned to Ramah for there was his house and there he Judged Israel As if he had sayd his standing house was at Ramoth and thither all causes were brought and all persons grieved resorted for Justice in their severall cases Hee rid Circuit every yeare that all the people might the more easily finde him yet he had a fixed seate In alusion to this practice Job appealing from his friends to God saith O that I knew where I might finde him and goe to him for Judgement O that I might have Audience before him in this great buisines But it may be said Did not Job know where to finde God or was Job out of the presence of God I answer the Lord carryed himselfe to Job at that time as a stranger and though he were with him as he alwayes is with all his yet he did not finde him The Lord is with many of his people when they are not with him that is when they doe not finde him or are not sencible of his presence God is with his people even when they walke through the valley of the shadow of death yet they are not alwayes with God yea God doth not alwayes manifest himselfe to them while they walke in the most delicious and lightsome paradises of this life God sometimes hides himselfe so that they cannot make it out that God is present with them God is never seene in regard of the invisibility of his nature and he is often unseene in regard of the obscurity of his dispensations as Job shewes further at the 8th verse Behold I goe forward but he is not there and backward but I cannot perceive him I goe forward and backward that is I goe every way I take all courses to finde him but I cannot perceive God for he hides and covers himselfe with clouds that our prayers cannot come at him as the Church complaines Lament 3.44 though wee are alwayes present to God yet God is not alwayes present to us that is to our apprehension as God is not at all present to our sense so he is not alwayes present to our faith that 's the meaning of Job when he saith I goe forward but he is not there c. God is every where whither can I goe from his presence saith David Psal 139. If I goe up into heaven he is there c. yet saith Job if I goe forward he is not there that is I have no Enjoyments of God there and upon this ground he saith in the present text O that I knew where I might finde him Job was well acquainted with the doctrine of Gods Omnipresence he was farre from thinking that there was any certaine place where God was fixt and whether he must repaire as to the Kings and Princes of this world for helpe Job knew better Divinity then this he was acquainted with the nature and divine perfections of God but he speaks as to his present want O that I knew where I might finde him Hence observe first A godly man hath earnest and longing desires after God Whatsoever or whomsoever he findes he thinks he hath found nothing or no body till he findes God O that I might finde him How doth David Psal 42.1 2. shew his unsatisfiednes till he found God As the hart panteth after the water Brookes so panteth my soule after thee O God my soule thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appeare before God nothing but God was in his mouth nothing in his desire David had a kingdome David had a Throne David had honour and riches as much as he could desire why would not these satisfie his thirst Could not he sit downe in these Enjoyments no! David was hungry and
though I confesse if God should put forth his power I were not able to hold up my head before him and that he could easily overthrow me with a breath yet I am perswaded he will take a more favourable course and deale with me in mercy not with rigour or severity Vers 6. Will he plead against me with his great power I know he is cloathed with Majesty and that the greatnes of power is his but will he plead against me with it The Hebrew text is will he plead with me to plead with and to plead against are the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contenâ—et quasi de jure suo ut illud exigat To plead is a Law terme He that pleadeth against another discovers eyther the faultines of his person when accused or the weaknes of his Title when controverted This word is used by the Prophet Isa 57.16 I will not contend or plead for ever I will not argue my owne prerogative nor will I argue thy sinfullnesse alwayes or without end why not if I should the spirit would faile before me and the soules which I have made where though spirit and soule are put synechdochically for the whole man that is for flesh and spirit for soule and body together yet the Lord mentions onely spirit and soule because of their strength to beare divine contendings beyond the body or the flesh As if he had sayd even that which is strongest in man would fayle if God should alwayes contend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Num copia sui roboris c. Will he plead against me with his great power or strictly to the Letter with the multitude of his power with the forces of his power The power of God is great yea the power of God is greatest all his power is allmighty power yet God doth not alwayes put forth the greatnes of his power He is a most free agent and so can restraine and hold in his owne power when he pleaseth and not use it to the terror of a poore creature or plead against him with it Againe The power of God may be taken two wayes First for his strength or his power of doing and executing secondly for his prerogative authority or his power of commanding and ruling we may interpret it here of the latter will God deale with me by his prerogative power thinke you will he oppresse me with his meere authority Per multaÌ„ dei fortìtudineÌ„ potentiam ejus absolutam summum jus dici solet intelliguÌ„t multi Bold I have another opinion of God surely he will not doe so For he is good and gratious and he will attemper his prerogative with pity his great power with much mercy Will he plead against me with this great power Jobs question is a confident negation such negative interrogations are frequent in Scripture will he is he will not plead against me with his great power but Job is not satisfied that his speech carrieth a negation in it and therefore lest any should not fully enough understand him so he expresseth his negative will he plead with me with his great power no His power is not nor ever will it be against me He will take some other course with me he will deale with me upon the account of goodnes and mercy not upon the account of power He will not breake me a bruised reed nor quench me who am but smoaking flax he will rather bind me up and cherish the least sparke which he perceiveth alive in me Will he plead against me with his great power Hence observe First God hath great power much power All power is his The power of men and Angels is his What power soever whether for kinde or degree is in the hand of any creature that power belongs to God Thus David a man of Great power states it God hath spoken once twice have I heard this That power belongeth unto God The power that is scattered and divided all the world over is centred and united in him God hath a greatnesse of power in commanding and disposing what and how things shall be done he also hath a greatnes of power in doing and executing what he hath commanded The commands of men are often unperformed eyther because they to whom their commands are sent have no power to performe them or because they want power to backe their owne commands Wee may consider the Greatnes of the power of God several wayes First As he can doe all things and is omnipotent there is nothing too hard for him his hand is not shortened in reference to the longest or the greatest workes and difficulties And as he can doe whatsoever he hath a will to doe so he will doe whatsoever he pleaseth to have done whatsoever he purposeth to doe whatsoever is upon his heart to doe none of his counsells ever fayled nor have any of the thoughts of his heart been frustrated Men often purpose to doe but they seldome have power to doe what they have purposed they are bigge with the conceptions of many great matters but when the children come to the birth they have no strength to bring forth God never failes in his power to doe whatsoever he hath a purpose or a mind to doe God hath power enough to backe his commands and he can supply power to those whom he calleth to execute them Secondly The greatnesse of Gods power is seene in this that He hath a right to doe all that he doth As he hath a fullnesse of strength so a fulnesse of Authority he doth not usurp or intrench upon any other power in what he doth nor upon any mans property in what he hath it is his due to doe what he doth and to have what he hath God is supream giving the Law to all receiving the Law from none his is not a tyrannicall but a just and a righteous power his is not a might without right but a might with right What the Prophet speakes of the Chaldeans Hab. 1.7 is true of God in every sence in the strictest sence His judgement and his dignity proceedeth of himselfe he is a law unto himselfe his rule is internall and his power intrinsecall All derive power from him therefore his power is altogether underived Power underived must needs be great power yea the Greatnes of power Thirdly The greatnesse of his power appeareth further in this that no man may presume to question him for what he doth He hath great power in what he doth whom none may so much as aske what doest thou Nebucadnezzar a heathen in highest earthly power confesseth as much of the power of God as soone as he regained the reason of a man Dan. 4.34 35. At the end of the dayes that is after the terme of seven yeares was accomplished when for the heart of a beast a mans heart was restored to him I Nebuchadnezzar lift up mine eyes to heaven and mine understanding returned unto me and I blessed the most high and I
To draw backe is perdition as they who draw backe are the most forward to destroy others Hos 5.2 The revoulters are profound to make slaughter so they shall be sure to be destroyed themselves The people of Israel in their travels through the wildernes to Canaan did often discover this spirit of Apostacy Psal 78.41 They turned backe and tempted God We finde them at a consultation about it Numb 14.4 They said one to another let us make us a Captaine and let us returne into Egypt Our Lord Jesus had such a sort of men who followed him in person Joh. 6.66 From that time many of his Disciples went backe from him and walked no more with him They were Disciples who went backe and there were many of them so many that Christ in the next verse sayd to the twelve Will ye also goe away Then Peter answered Lord whether shall we goe thou hast the words of eternall life As if he had sayd we cannot mend our selves whether soever we goe why then should we goe from thee As a Godly man goeth on so he seeth reason why he should 'T is as irrationall as sinfull to goe backe from him who hath the words of eternall life or from the commandement of his lips who hath given the promise of life The Apostle Paul had a reaching spirit and he was alwayes reaching forward Phil. 3.12 13. Not as though I had already attained or were already perfect but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus As if he had sayd I would to the utmost answer the designe which Christ had upon me when he first tooke hold of me effectually by his grace Paul was so farre from going backe that he forgot what was backward Some remember what is past or what they have done so much that they forget what is to be done But saith Paul this one thing I doe forgetting those things which are behinde and reaching forth unto those things which are before I presse towards the marke for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus The marke and the price are alwayes before us there is no coming at the marke nor winning of the price by turning backe Prov. 4.18 The path of the just is like the shining or morning light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day The path of the unjust if it have any light in it is but like the evening light which shines lesse and lesse which declines and goeth downward till the perfect night and till himselfe be wrapt up in everlasting darknesse The Sun in the firmament went backe by miracle for a signe to Hezekiah that he should recover the health of his body But if we see any goe back who have heretofore shined like the Sunne in a Gospel pofession we have just cause to looke upon it as a sad symtome that their soules are in a dangerous if not in an irrecoverable condition I have not gone backe sayth Job from the commandement of his lips Againe from all these expressions in that Job speaking of the same thing calls it the way of God the commandement of his lips and in the latter part of this verse the word of his mouth to which he had cleaved and wholy devoted himselfe for the guiding of his whole man in the duty which he owed and had been carefull to pay both to God and man Observe The word of God is the onely rule of life And in this poynt the word or commandement of God is to be taken in a double opposition first to our owne devises and rules secondly to the devises and rules of other men man must not prescribe to himselfe nor may we receive the prescriptions of men to order our practise by God is the onely Law-giver and we must receive the Law from his mouth He that will please God must shutt all his own imaginations out of doores and have nothing to doe with them 'T is not what man hath a minde to doe but what the minde of God is he should doe that pleaseth him or is eyther a worship or a service acceptable to him We never dishonour God more then when we take upon us to serve him our owne way and leaving his rule make a rule for our selves Such a serving of God is rebellion against him as was told Saul by the Prophet 1 Sam. 15.22 Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voyce of the Lord. Saul thought he had done very well when he saved the sheep and oxen for sacrifice But he was told that to obey is better then sacrifice and to hearken then the fat of Rams God had commanded burnt offerings and sacrifice but he had no delight in them when his owne voyce was not obeyed or when they were offered eyther beside or against his command Luk. 16.15 That which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to the Lord His thoughts are not our thoughts eyther in the doing of what is good or in the pardoning of what is sinfull As man is apt to thinke that God will not pardon what he hath done sinfully so that he will accept of what he thinkes he hath done holyly though he hath no rule for the doing of it but what himselfe hath devised We alwayes fayle in our measure while we measure God by our selves And it is as dangerous to take the rule of our actions from men as not to take the rule of God In this sence we must call no man Master nor may we be the servants of the wisest men And as we must not be the servants of men because which is the Apostles reason 1 Cor. 7.23 We are bought with a price that is dearely redeemed by Christ so neyther may we be the servants of men in following their dictates because we have received a word from God whom alone we ought to follow and none else but in subordination to or complyance with his word and the commandement of his lips or as it followes in the conclusion of this verse the words of his mouth I have esteemed the words of his mouth more then my necessary food Job having given us two negatives I have not declined I have not turned backe as proofes of his integrity and holines now gives us an affirmative to make up the fullnes of his proofe Not to doe evill is commendable but to doe good is a higher commendation I have esteemed the words of his mouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Hebrew word signifies two things first to hide or conceale secondly to prise value or esteeme Some render this Text by the former not as we I have esteemed the words of his mouth In sinu meo abscondi verba oris ejus Vul◠Graecos secetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 legit non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at ventit ac si scriptum esset 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in sinu meo abscondi Merc.
to the dictates of his owne will and wisdome He is one And who can turne him Or Who can turne him away Or as another renders Who can make him returne backwards that is who can make him goe back from what he hath determined and once resolved upon True repentance or conversion is the change of the minde in man Every man that is converted from his sinfull state course by the power of God becomes another man as to his morals and spiritualls then he was before but man cannot turne God and make him any other then he is God can cause man to change his minde but man cannot make God change his minde nor turn him backward The Prophet saith of God Isa 44.25 That he turneth wise men backward and maketh their knowledge foolish The turning of the wise backward is the altering of their councells When they will not alter them God can He saith Their councells shall not stand nor shall they reach the end to which they were appoynted And it is so Sed quid ego similis cum sit sibi semper idem Quis rationem ab eo facti dictivè reposcat But can the wisest of men or all wise men plotting and laying their heads together turne the most wise God backward They cannot So that these words hold forth the efficacie and stabilitie of the purposes counsells and decrees of God Who can turne him And what his soule desireth even that he doth God is not like man consisting of a soule and body Man is the result of soule and body united together A soule is not a man nor is a body a man man is a third thing rising out of both But God is a spirit Animam alicujus sumi pro eo cujus est anima res est nota quare anima dei deus est Sanct And when Job sayth What his soule desireth The meaning is what himselfe desireth The soule of a man is indeed the man because the choycest part of man though man hath another part namely a body yet the soule is he The soule of man being his best part is often put for the whole man But the soule of God is not put here for God because it is the best part of Him His soule is himselfe Further This phrase or manner of speaking what his soule desireth notes onely the intensnes and strength of his desires or what he desiereth strongly The Lord sometimes makes offers to doe that which is not in his heart or desire to doe But what ever his soule goes out upon indeed or would have done that shall be done Thus the word is used frequently to set forth the full purpose of God to doe a thing Levit. 26.30 And I will destroy your high places and cut downe your images and cast your carkases upon the carkases of your idols and my soule shall abhorre you That is extreamly abhorre you I will abhorre you with the utmost abhorrence And againe Isai 1.14 Your new moones and your appointed feasts my soule hateth That is I hate them with a perfect hatred to shew how deepe his hatred was of those things as done by them he saith my soule hateth them As if he had sayd I hate your formality in my worship from the bottome of my heart We have the same sence Jer. 6.8 Be thou instructed O Jerusalem lest my soule depart from thee That is lest I totally depart I will depart not onely by withdrawing some of your outward comforts but even those which are the more intimate and immediate discoveries of my love my soule shall depart from thee or be loosed and dis-joynted from thee as we put in the Mergin that is I will be of no more use to thee or a helpe to thee then a member of the body is to the body when it is dislocated or removed from its proper joynt Once more Jer. 32.41 I will rejoyce over them to doe them good and will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soule That is I will doe it for them entirely and affectionatly or with entirest affection What his soule desireth That is What he desireth or whatsoever pleaseth him Velle est hoc loco aliquid peculiarius expetere concupiscere solet ad rem quam piam delectabilem referri We desire onely those things which are very pleasing And those things which are most pleasing to us are to us very desirable The desire of man is love in motion as his joy is love at rest But in God desire and joy are not distinguishable in him there is no motion all is rest What his soule desireth Even that he doth The Hebrew is very concise His soule desireth and doth That is he no sooner desireth a thing but he doth it Optat tantam protinus fectum est Merc or when he desireth it is done The will of God is execution though he willeth many things which as to man are not presently no nor till a long time after executed yet as to himselfe whatsoever God willeth is executed and whensoever he pleaseth his will is actually executed among men He desireth and it is done From the words thus opened we may observe according to the first reading of the former part of the verse That God is one There is one God and but one Thus the Lord speaks of himselfe by the Prophet Isa 44.8 Is there a God besides me Yea there is no God I know not any Isai 45.5 I am the Lord and there is none else there is no God besides me He is one himselfe and he hath not a second The Heathens having many gods when they were oppressed by any one god Saepe premente deo dat deus alter opem they sought reliefe from another As Sorcerers and Witches goe to a stronger spirit for help against what a weaker spirit hath done Heathen gods were devill-gods and they are many The Jewes degenerating into Idolatry multiplyed their Gods according to the number of their Cities Jer. 2.28 But Jehovah The living God The Lord is one God We affirme from Scripture that there are three Hees or subsistences in the God-head commonly called persons Father Sonne and Spirit but these three are one not onely by consent but by nature and essence Heare O Israel sayd Moses Deut. 6.4 The Lord our God is one Lord. Secondly From our reading He is in one or as we supply He is In one minde Observe that great truth God is unchangable I the Lord change not Mal. 3.6 The unchangeablenes of God may be considered in divers things First In his essence or nature God knoweth no decay He is a spirit an eternall spirit He hath nothing mingled or mixed in him which should worke or tend to alteration God is simple He is most simple even simplicity it selfe There is no composition in him no diversitie of qualities in him Man changeth in his natural constitution because compounded and made up of
And who can but feare to be under that power which hath no limits but a corrupt will But who would feare to be under the power of God acted by his will seing he willeth nothing but what is righteous just and good What can we expect but right from him who is righteousnesse what but good from him in a good cause who is goodnes it selfe how great or how unlimited soever his power is If some men might doe what they would what evill would they not doe There 's nothing stands between some men and the wronging of all men they have to doe with but the want eyther of power or of opportunity to doe it The Lord can doe what he will but he will doe nothing but what is good He is able to ruine all men but he will wrong no man no not the worst of men What his soule desireth even that he doth but it is impossible his soule should desire to any thing but what is right Lastly When it is sayd Whatsoever his soule desireth even that he doth or more close to the Originall He desireth He doth We learne That It is as easie with God to doe a thing as to desire to have it done All men would doe what their soules desire but most men desire that which they cannot doe yea though men have a desire to doe a thing and a power to doe it also yet it is not so soone done as desired there must be a preparation and the use of meanes before man can doe what he hath a power to doe so that though a man hath power proportionable to his desire yet he is not presently a partaker of his desire But God can make his power as speedy as his desire He can make the declaration of his will and the execution of it contiguous For though many things lie long in the will of God before they are done and what he willed from eternity is don in time and the time of doing it be yet a great way off yet he can doe any thing as soone as will it and whatsoever he willeth or desireth is to him as done already Psal 104.30 Thou sendest forth thy Spirit they are created The creation there spoken of is providence for that is a continued creation The first creation was the production of all things out of nothing to that being which they had but there is another work of creation which is the continuing or renewing of things in their being and of this he sayth Thou sendest forth thy Spirit that is thy power they are created And thou renewest the face of the earth Thou makest a new world And thus God makes a new world every yeare sending forth his Spirit or quickning power in the raine and Sun to renew the face of the earth And as the Lord sends forth his power in providenciall mercies so in providenciall Judgements He looketh on the earth and it trembleth He toucheth the hils and they smoake ver 32. A man can soone give a cast with his eye so soone can God shake the earth that is eyther the whole masse of the earth or the inferior sort of men on the earth When he looketh or casts an angry eye upon the earth it trembleth He toucheth the hils that is the powers and principalities of the world and they smoake If he doe but touch them they smoake that is the dreadfull effects of the power and Jugement of God are visible upon them As soone as the Lord calls all creatures readily tender their service Psal 105.31 34. He spake and there came divers sorts of flies and lice in all their coasts ver 34. He spake and the Locusts came and caterpillers and that without number If the Lord speake the word it is done God spake the world into this beautie he did but say Let there be light and there was light And he can speake the world into trouble and confusion He doth but say Let there be darknes and there is darknes It was an high speech of Caesar who meeting with some opposition from that yong noble Roman Metellus sayd Let me alone lest I destroy thee And presently added It is easier for me to doe this then to speake it Such was his power that he could easier take away a mans life then give sentence of death against him This is most true concerning the great God of heaven and earth there is no more difficultie in his doing of a thing then in his desiring and willing it to be done The generall truth of this verse carryeth in it a twofold inference First Of terrour to the wicked God is in one minde the same opinion which he had of their wayes and persons heretofore the same he hath still The same curses and Judgements which he hath denounced against them formerly are in force still Is it not a terrible thing to incorrigible wicked men to remember that what the soule of God desireth he doth when his soule desireth nothing but vengeance and wrath for them Therefore tremble before the Lord ye wicked and be ye sore affraid at the remembrance of his unchangeablenes Secondly Of abundant comfort to the faithfull and righteous The mind of God is mercy to them and he is in this one minde towards them none can turne him His soule desireth to doe them good And whatsoever his soule desireth that he doth What can Saints desire more then that God should doe all that for them which he desireth and all that he will assuredly doe Therefore rejoyce in the Lord ye righteous and give thankes at the remembrance of his unchangeablenes JOB CHAP. 23. Vers 14 15 16 17. For he performeth the thing that is appoynted for mee and many such things are with him Therefore I am troubled at his presence when I consider I am afraid of him For God maketh my heart soft and the Almighty troubleth mee Because I was not cut off before the darknesse neither hath he covered the darknesse from my face IN the former verse Job exalteth God first in his unchangeablenes He is in one minde who can turne him Secondly in his Almightines What his soule desireth even that he doth In the 14th ver he speaks of God in reference to his personal experience and brings downe the generall proposition to his owne particular case As if he had sayd I indeed have found that what his soule desireth even that he doth mine owne sad experience proves and beares witnes to this truth my present state makes the Comment of this text for he performeth the thing that is appoynted for mee Vers 14. Hee performeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in primaria significatione denotat implere finire deinde in pace esse etiam solvere compensare Pined The word hath various translations but all are well summ'd up in this Hee performeth First It signifies to pay payment is performance therefore the same word is used both for performing and paying Secondly The word signifies to be at peace
shall be righteousnesse to thee before the Lord thy God That is God will looke upon this as a righteous act The Lord was very tender in this poynt he would not have the poore lodge without cloathing but some wicked men care not what the poore suffer they neyther regard whether they have any lodging nor whether they have any cloaths to lodge in They cause the naked to lodge without Cloathing so That as it followeth in the text They have no Covering in the Cold. The word signifies to Cover as with a vaile or with a garment It is applyed to the pardon of our sins Psal 32.1 Blessed is the man whose sin is Covered Their condition is most sad who have no covering for their soules yet theirs also is very sad who have no covering for their bodyes in the Cold. To have no covering in the Cold winter nights is not onely uncomfortable but dangerous Death is a great cold and it endangers life to have no covering in the cold or in the frost which is the extreamity of cold The word is used to signifie frost Gen. 31.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gelu Jacob tels Laban Thus I was in the day the drought consumed mee and the frost by night The Septuagint translate thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept They take away the Covering of their soule what 's that you will say in a spirituall sence Christ is the onely covering of the soule But no tyrant can take away this Therefore by the covering of the soule here wee are to understand that which is to a man as his life take away that and you take away his life The soule is often put for the body and then the Covering here meant is the Covering of the body or that covering that is neerest the soule or neerest life so that there is a great elegancy and emphasis in it to say They take away the Covering of their very soule That is they endanger their lives by it Some translate to that sence They take away the covering which is next their very skin they would not leave them so much as a shirt that 's the Covering in this sence of the soule And when wee speake of the utmost rigour and cruelty of man towards man wee say proverbially He hath not left him so much as a shirt to his backe Yet the Prophet expresseth the rigorous cruelty of man to man by taking away that which may much more be called the covering of their soule Mich 3.3 They eate the flesh of my people and flay their skin from off them Skin and flesh are indeed the Covering of the soule To strip the poore to their skin is to take away the Covering of their soule How much more to strip off the skin from their flesh and the flesh from off their bones But to the words of the text They have no Covering in the cold This hath in it a double Inhumanity First to expose them to extreame paine and then to extreame shame Not to have a covering is to be exposed to shame not to have a covering in the cold is to be exposed to paine But what becomes of the poore when they are naked and have no covering in the cold The next verse informes us about that Vers 8. They are wet with the showers of the mountaines and embrace the rock for want of a shelter Here 's the shift these poore hearts are put to they are wet with the showers of the mountaines that word which we render wet is onely found in this place in the old Testament it notes not onely to be dasht with raine but to be soakt thorough with it We use to say of those who are very wet that they are wet to the skin but these being naked had nothing to wet but their skin and their skin was if it might be soaked through with the wet or they were thorough-wet with the showers of the mountaines that is with those showers which they meet with upon the mountaines showers gather about high mountaines there the Clouds engender raine and there the showers are bred Travellers observe by the eye how Clouds gather about the tops of mountaines Est autem qualecunque nuditatis remedium si ille qui vestimentorum operimentum non habet saltem operimento demus non careci Aquin and that the raine broods there This is a further addition to the Cruelty of oppressors and the misery of the oppressed they tooke away their Cloaths and turned them out of their houses naked into the open ayre and left them to contend with cold and hunger with all varieties of weather and danger among the mountaines It is some helpe to a man if he have no Cloaths to cover him yet to have a house to cover him but to have neyther body-cloaths nor bed-cloaths nor house nor harbour how sad is this And being thus helplesse the next words shew us what a poore shift they made They embrace the rock for want of a shelter When he sayth They embrace the rock his meaning is they make much of it they are glad of it for so we are of those things which we embrace in stead of soft warme beds they were glad of cold hard stones to secure and shelter them from the raine Againe They embrace the rock that is they goe into the holes and clefts of the rock they had houses possibly Pallaces before but now they are forced to dwell in the holes of the rock In as much as Job sayth they did not onely goe to the rock for shelter and make a shift with it but embrace and hugg it as being joyfull they had it Note Great afflictions make small comforts very welcome to us He that is turned out naked and hath no Cloaths to Cover him would be glad to have a thatcht house or the meanest Cottage to hide himselfe in hee that hath no house is glad if hee can have but the hole of a rock Lam. 4.5 They who were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills hee doth not say they are throwne upon dunghills but they embrace them they that were bred up in scarlet are now glad of a dunghill to scape in there to finde a mouldy crust to eate there to pick up an old dirty ragge to cover their nakednes with or old shoes to put upon their feete So it was in the great famine and desolation of Jerusalem And so it was during the late warres in Germany and the later in Ireland Some have fought and contended for a peece of Carrion for a peece of a dead Horse nay for a peece of a dead man that which stunck above ground they contended for and having wonne it they embraced it and made dainty of it as of the most pleasant meate Wee that are in our fullnes and plenty wee that have abundance slight and make light of many good things but we may soone be so straitned and put to it that we would be glad to embrace a rock
or a dunghill that we would be glad of the crums that fall from our tables and of the worst scraps we leave upon our trenchers Thus the old Saints are described Heb. 11.36 glad they were of Caves and Dens they wandred in deserts and in mountaines and in dens and Caves of the earth being destitute afflicted and tormented they were glad to live among the wild beasts when they could not live quietly among men When the winde and the Sunne beat upon the head of Jonah the text saith Jonah was glad of his gourd a thing of little value very meane and fadeing in it selfe yet when the Sunne shined hot and the winde beat strongly upon him then hee was glad of a gourd In times of plenty and peace wre are scarse thankfull for goodly houses for full tables and rich Cloaths But a little and that course food will cause the hungry to be thankfull The naked will catch at old raggs and they who have no house will embrace a rocke There is a rocke a mysticall rocke whom the Saints embrace for a shelter and rejoyce in above all the goodly houses in the world yea above this whole world Christ is a rocke to be embraced in our best dayes as our best shelter and in our bad dayes he is our onely shelter And while we are constrained by outward wants to embrace natural rocks for the shelter of our bodyes let us remember how our inward and spirituall wants doe alwayes constraine us to embrace that mystical rocke for the shelter of our soules Lastly Observe The Cruelty of man to man knowes no bounds Wee have seene in this context several steps of cruelty men ravening for their prey like wild beasts men invading the harvest and the vintage of their neighbours men robbing both the fatherles and the widdow men pulling cloaths from the backes of the poore and exposing them naked to the cold and to the raine to the mercy of rocks and mountaines Thus man who should be a God to man kinde mercifull charitable bountifull courteous proves himselfe a Devill to man churlish cruel merciles yea such that even his tender mercies are cruell How cruel are their cruelties whose mercies whose tender mercies are cruel JOB CHAP. 24. Vers 9 10 11 12. They plucke the fatherles from the breast and take a pledge of the poore They cause him to goe naked without Cloathing and they take away the sheafe from the hungry Which make oyle within their walls and tread their wine-presses and suffer thirst Which groane from out of the City and the soule of the wounded cryeth out yet God layeth not folly to them JOb still drawes out the line of the oppressors wickednes or discovers the severall wayes of his oppression We have seene much of his bloody worke before here we have more even highest oppression oppression devoyd not onely of all justice but of all humanity such is that which is next instanced in Vers 9. They plucke the fatherles from the breast They that is the oppressors before spoken of doe it eyther with their owne hands or 't is done at their command by their ministers and instruments They plucke the fatherlesse The word notes an act of violence they lay violent hands upon the fatherlesse Who are meant by the fatherlesse hath been opened more then once already Here the fatherlesse are taken not largely for any that are destitute of helpe and meanes as the word is often used in Scripture but strictly for children whose fathers are lately dead and they yet in their minority yea in their infancy and in the first of their infancy sucking children children hanging upon their mothers breasts which exceedingly hightens the cruelty of these oppressors To use any violence to the fatherlesse though growne up is as hath been shewed a great wickednesse to use violence towards fatherlesse infants is much more wicked but to pull fatherlesse infants from their mothers or nurses breast which is all the livelihood a childe hath this is utmost wickednes And this is not onely an affliction to the children but to the mother a disconsolate widdow who having lost her husband is now bereaved of her childe also Thus they adde affliction to the afflicted and sorrow to the sorrowfull 'T is here enquired what should move them to plucke the fatherlesse from the breasts or what their intent might be in this barbarous action Some answer That it was their covetousnesse which moved them to be cruel They pull'd the children from their mothers breasts that so their mothers might be the fitter to doe them service they would needs weane the children before they were fit that the mother might be the more fitt to labour and toile for them or they pluckt the fatherlesse from the breast to sel them and to make money of them when they had murthered the father and taken all from the widow they made their markets of their children So we may interpret that of the Prophet Isa 10.2 Woe to them that decree unrighteous decrees and that write grievousnesse which they have prescribed to turne aside the needy from judgement and to take away the right from the poore of my people that widdows may be their prey and that they may rob the fatherlesse So we reade implying that they tooke away the estate of the fatherlesse and so robbed them Others give this sence of thâ—se words that they tooke away the persons of the fatherlesse or more plainely thus That they stole away fatherlesse children and sould them into slavery There is a generation among us called spirits who pull children from the breast or enveigle away such as know not their right hand from the left to make merchandize of them The smell of gaine is sweet to some from any thing even from the sale of poore fatherlesse children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mamma etiam vastitas a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vastavit Rapiunt pupillo quod post vastationem relictum est Tygur Secondly Others reade the text thus They plucke from the fatherlesse that which was left after the prey or destruction for the word which we translate breast is derived from a roote which signifies to destroy or lay wast so the sense is given thus They take away from the fatherlesse even that poore pittance which was left after they had made havocke of all that was their fathers And take a pledge of the poore What a pledge is hath been opened Chap. 22.6 The words may also beare this translation They take that which is upon the poore for a pledge namely their rayment not onely the cloaths which they have by them to spare a poore man may have a little change but the cloaths which they actually weare How contrary this practise was to the Law hath been shewed before which forbad to take a pledge of such things as without which the poore cannot conveniently subsist There is a third reading which sayth not as we they take a pledge of the poore but
labourers yet it is extendible to all honest labourers in what kinde or way soever For if the mouth of the labouring oxe should not be muzled then much more the mouth of a labouring man should not be muzled that reaps the corne and treadeth the wine-presse that is such should not be sent away hungry and thirsty The Prophet Jer. 22.13 thunders out a threatning against those who deale thus with the labourer Woe to him that builds his house by unrighteousnesse and his chambers by wrong that useth his neighbours service without wages and giveth him not for his worke As some unrighteous men build chambers and houses with the gold and silver which they have wrongfully gotten from the rich so some build their houses by getting the labour and paines of the poore wrongfully from them that is by denying them the wages which is due for their worke Woe to such sayth the Lord. And againe James 5.4 the Apostle chargeth this upon the rich Behold saith he the hire of the labourers that have reaped downe your fields which is of you kept backe by fraud cryeth and the cryes of them which have reaped are entred into the eares of the Lord of Sabaoth or of the Lord of hosts As if he had sayd the Lord who hath all the Armies of heaven and earth in his power even he hath taken notice how ye wrong the labourer and he will put forth his power to avenge their quarrel The Lord of hosts is the poore labourers friend and he will be his Avenger It is a sin crying for vengeance that when a poore man hath sweat out his strength to doe service to the rich he should not have his wages given him to renew his strength and revive his spirits for further labour The Apostle 2 Thes 3. gives a charge that they that will not labour should not eate we heare saith he that there are some who walke among you disorderly working not at all now then they that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietnesse they worke and eate their owne bread and ver 10. If any will not worke neither should he eate But as they that will not worke have no right to eate what they eate they steale so they who worke should eate else they are deprived of their right Woe be to those who eate and worke not in some kinde or other and woe be to those who doe not give them to eate who worke who compel or but call the poore to treade their wine-presses and then let them suffer hunger and thirst This sin is committed not onely by the totall denying of reward and wages that 's the grossest way of it But First This sin is committed when the poore man receives not a reward proportionable to his labour when he hath not what answers his worke but his wages is so scanty and short that he is not able to make a living of it for the comfortable according to his degree maintaining of his charge many are apt in this case to oppresse the labourer while they pay him They will give him somewhat but it shall be so short and poore that he is not able to subsist upon it Hence that common speech among us that there is nothing cheape but poore mens labour men care not so their worke be done though the workman be undone They care not though the sweat of his brows will scarse as 't is usually phras'd finde him water to wash his hands Secondly This sin is committed when the labourer is defrauded of that which hath been agreed for when cavills are raised and so the hire detained This the Apostle James reproves Chap. 5.4 speaking of the labourers hire which saith he is of you kept backe by fraud they did not tell them plainely they should have no wages but they quarrelled with them about their worke ye have not done your worke well or not so soone as ye should and therefore they will not pay them or they pay them to halves Thus some by fraud and cavills detaine the labourers hire as others doe it by open violence or flat denyall Thirdly This sin is committed by delaying to pay the labourer We finde in Moses Law the equity whereof remaines to this day that not onely the denying or defrauding of the labourer concerning his hire is charged as sinfull but the very delaying of it Suppose you pay all at last yet if you cause the poore to waite long for what is their due this will be reckoned an oppression therefore sayth the Law Deut. 24.14 15. Thou shalt not oppresse an hired servant that is poore Minus solvit qui minus tempore solvit and needy at his day thou shalt give him his hire Thou shalt not oppresse him so much as by deferring it for a day neither shall the Sunne goe downe upon it Consider how strict the righteous Lord and our great Master is in this poynt That Masters should deale well with their servants and day-labourers The Sun must not goe downe upon it Why for he is poore and sets his heart upon it Which is not to be understood like that Psal 62.10 If riches increase set not thy heart upon them that is doe not fix your affections upon your riches thinke not your selves happy because ye are rich but when Moses sayth the poore labourer sets his heart upon it the meaning is this the poore labourer having wrought hard all day thinkes of his wife and family for whom he is to provide and then remembers that at the evening he shall have his wages I sayth he shall have somewhat at night though I worke hard all day therefore sayth the Lord give it him at his day let not the Sunne goe downe upon it he reckons to have it when he goeth home therefore disappoint him not It may be a dangerous thing to be a labourers purse-bearer for a night if he desire to have his hire and you able to pay it to deteine his wages upon those termes is sinfull for he hath set his heart upon it and fully expects it therefore disappoynt him not doe not make him ashamed of his hopes This is the sinne which Job describes here the wicked take yea exact worke of the poore and then take or deteine their wages also They must make oyle for them and tread their wine-presses and suffer thirst This sin cryeth and this oppression makes the poore groane as it follows in the next verse Vers 12. Men groane out of the Citie and the soule of the wounded cryeth out yet God layeth not folly to them This verse shewes two things first the sad effects of oppression it makes men groane and cry secondly the frequent and long impunity of oppressors yet God layeth not folly to them Men groane out of the Citie They vex not onely the Country but the City too for as before hee described Country-oppressors so now City-oppressors oppression is a sinne that filleth both City and Country
Est velut epiphonema ad superiora Merc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clamare non quoquo modo significat sed cum singultu ut solent moribundi Merc and here we have as it were the conclusion or a kinde of acclamation upon the whole matter Would you know what worke these men make they are so high in their cruelty that men groane under it The word which we translate to groane doth not signifie any kinde of groane for some cry before they are hurt but that which is caused by the greatest hurt and comes from the very bottom of the heart even such a groane as they give forth who are about to dye Men groane from Out of the Cittie This shews the impudence of those men in sinne as well as their impunity We might reasonably suppose they would not dare to doe thus in the open Citie though they had done it in a corner of the Country where there were but few to take notice of them To doe thus in the Citie in the eyes of all men is an argument that they had lost their modesty as well as their honesty and were resolved not onely to doe evill but to stand to it or make it good And the soule of the wounded cryeth out That is the wounded cry out the soule is put for the person or the man or the soule of the wounded is sayd to cry out to shew the greatnesse and dolefullnesse of the cry As when Mary sayd My soule doth magnifie the Lord it argues that shee magnified the Lord with strong affections as if shee had been all soule Suâ—h also is the force of that passage in Deborahs Song Judg. 5.21 O my soule thou hast troden downe strength shee trod downe the strength of the enemy with all her strength And her soule which was her strength in God was in it more then her body So here the soule of the wounded cryeth out that is the wounded cry out most lamentably they powre out their owne soules while others were powring out their bloud But what are these wounded or how were they wounded Wee may take it eyther of an outward or inward wounding There is a wounded spirit as well as a wounded body many are wounded whose flesh is whole who have not so much as a scarre made in their skin yet here the wounded were such whose flesh or outward state was wounded first and then their hearts or spirits were wounded because of that with griefe and sorrow The soule of the wounded The word which we translate wounded signifies two things First that which is prophane and polluted and in the verb to pollute and prophane a thing Idol-worshippers are so called because they are polluted as wounded men with blood And hence also it is used as a word of abomination The Lord forbid sayd David 1 Sam. 24.6 And againe 2 Sam. 20.20 Farre be it from me farre be it from me sayd Joab in both which places the actions abominated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 polluti prophani 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absit vox prohibitionis abominationis res prophana s t mihi had the defilement or pollution of blood in them And the Jewes speaking this word usually rent their garments shewing the abhorrence and indignation of their minds at blasphemie or such like abominations Now because wounded men are defiled in their blood therefore this word signifieth the wounded The soule of the wounded cryeth out not onely cryeth but cryeth out Which implyeth the greatnesse of their wound and the extreame painefullnes of it Hence Note Oppression is a crying sinne and makes the oppressed cry The blood of Abel who was the first man that ever was outwardly wounded cryed when he was dead how much more doe they cry whose blood is powring out and themselves under present feare of death The soules under the Altar cryed how long Lord how long Rev. 6.9 Those soules had suffered and were past suffering yet they cryed out for vengeance upon their adversaryes how much more will their soules cry who are under sufferings The wounds of the wounded are as so many wide mouthes crying out to God though their owne soules should be silent and say nothing I have upon other passages in this booke met with the sinne of oppression and the cry of the poore upon it therefore I shall not further stay here but a while insist upon the last clause of this context which holds out the chiefe and most considerable matter of it The oppressour doth all these wickednesses but what doth God Surely we might expect to heare of God in the next words healing and helping the wounded who make this cry and wounding the hairy scalpe of those who made them cry had not God a fit occasion put in his hand to shew himselfe first for the releife of the oppressed and secondly for the punishment of the oppressour He that beholds such actings as these the fatherles plucked from the breasts the poore made slaves the labourer denied his wages the wounded crying groaning he I say that beholds all this might say in his heart surely now God will presently appeare and indeed God hath often appeared when the wicked have been in the heate of such actings and the poore in the heate of such sufferings Psal 12.5 For the oppression of the poore for the sighing of the needy now I will arise saith the Lord I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him Yet here we finde no such thing nothing like the Lords arising for the saving of the poore from oppression or for the breaking of oppressors Job saw or had seene the poore oppressed and the needy sighing but did not see God comming eyther with deliverance or revenge for he adds though all this be done Yet God layeth not folly to them Master Broughton reads And the puissant marketh not the unsavory dealing His meaning is not that God did not know that their dealings were unsavory or that he did not observe and take notice of their dealings but he did not observe them so as to appeare presently against them God layeth not or God putteth not the meaning is God imputeth not or God chargeth not folly or strictly to the letter of the Hebrew that which is unsavory to them or upon them That word which signifies a thing unsavory or without salt in a natural and proper sence may elegantly be rendred folly in a moral or metaphoricall sence for foolishnes or folly is that which hath no salt of reason righteousnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod fit praeter omnem rationem aequitatem Bez justice or equity in it Hence the word is often used to signifie that which is done besides without or against all these So it is sayd Chap. 1.22 In all this Job sinned not neither did he charge God foolishly or neither did he charge folly upon God it is this word Job did not thinke that God dealt unjustly or unreasonably with him though he had
hereafter what ever portion of worldly profit or pleasure they have had here hell shall consume them and they shall be consuming for ever The 20th verse may carry the sence of this interpretation but it complyeth more clearely with the former describing the calamitous condition of a wicked man at his departure out of this world Vers 20. The womb shall forget him the worme shall feed sweetly on him he shall be no more remembred and wickednesse shall be broken as a tree The number varyes here againe Job spake in the plural number immediately before yet here keeping to the same subject he speakes in the singular The womb shall forget him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a verbo quod intensissiâ—rè tenerrimè amare signisicat That is They who loved him most tenderly and dearely shall forget him The word which we render the womb is of a verbe which signifyes to love with greatest intensenesse and tendernes it is applyed to the love of man to God Psal 18.1 I love the Lord I love the Lord dearely with bowells of affection and it is often applyed to the love of God unto man Some translate it here by the Abstract Vim majorem haber per abstractum Obliviscetur ejus miseratio sive amor sive dilectio i. e. illi qui eum suaviter amabunt Bold Love mercie or pittie shall forget him Which may be taken two wayes First that those friends who before were pittifull to him should forget him his lovers and acquaintance who were deare to him even as his bowels they shall forget him or secondly mercy shall forget him that is the mercy of God or the God of mercy shall forget him God who is alltogether mercy shall forget him hell shall consume him and mercy or the mercifull God shall forget him for ever The vulgar reads it by way of imprecation let mercy forget him others as a direct denunciation mercy shall forget him But I rather apprehend that this phrase or manner of speaking The wombe shall forget him doth onely import thus much That when the wicked man dyeth he shall be as much forgotten among men as if such a man had never come out of his mothers wombe nor been born into the world But are not wicked men remembred to have been in the world when once they goe out of the world usually they doe such things in the world as cannot easily be forgotten And are not many wicked men who dyed some thousands of yeares agoe remembred unto this day as if they had dyed but yesterday I answer As to forget alwayes implyeth former knowledge and acquaintance so sometimes it implyeth onely present neglect When we passe by or slight a man then we are sayd to forget him though we not onely remember who he is but see him before our eyes Much more then may we be sayd to forget those men being dead whom we slighted while they lived and never speake of but with contempt and abhorrence both of their persons and actions since they dyed The wombe shall forget him Yet as the former verse is expounded by some as was there touched to shew how quiet and easie a passage wicked men usually have out of this world by death so this clause also of the verse in hand yea the whole verse is expounded to the same sence I will onely hint it and passe onne The wombe shall forget him That is his mother shall not be troubled or grieved at his death because he dyed without griefe or trouble The wormes shall feede sweetly on him That is The grave shall be no seveerer to him then to others Ita suavitèr obdormit ut in sepulchro ei vermis duscescere videatur Drus There the wormes feed upon all men and they shall feed sweetly on him or it shall be a kinde of sweetnes and pleasure to him to have the wormes feeding on him which is no more then what Job sayd upon the same argument Chap. 21.33 The clods of the valley shall be sweete to him He shall be no more remembred That is there shall no hard fate or evill accident befall him when he dyes to administer matter of discourse concerning him for when a man is cut off by some remarkeable stroake of Judgement eyther from the hand of God or man his death becomes the discourse and Table-talke of all sorts of men for that generation at least if not for many more What hath caused Korah Dathan and Abiram to be remembred to this day was it not the strangenes of their death Numb 14.29 30. And Moses sayd If these men dye the common death of all men or if they be visited after the visitation of all men then the Lord hath not sent me but if the Lord make a new thing and the earth open her mouth and swallow them up c. This dreadfull hand of God upon them in swallowing them up alive hath made them to be remembred more then many thousands of honest and good men in Israel who dyed in their beds Upon this account Ananias Saphira are remembred and so is That Herod Act. 12.23 Who was eaten of wormes gave up the Ghost because he gave not glory unto God But saith Job according to this exposition the wicked mans death is commonly so fayre and so much after the common death of all men that no man reremembers him any more And wickednesse shall be broken as a tree That is the wicked man shall dye like an old rotten tree he shall moulder away and decay by peice-meale or gradually as a tree doth which is never hewen downe but is suffered to wast and dye alone Thus the interpretation is carried through the whole verse as a proofe that bad men may in this kinde have a good death But though this be a truth and suites well with Jobs scope in some passages of this Chapter as also in other passages of this booke that wicked men dye as to outward appearance as fairely and sweetly as the godly so that as no man knoweth love or hatred by all that is before him but all things in this life come alike to all There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked Eccl 9.1 2. So all things come alike to all in death so farre as it meerely concernes the separation of soule and body yet I rather conceive that this verse declares wrath and judgement to wicked men dying or their misery and wretchednes in death And therefore first the wombe that is his neerest relations and friends even his mother and wife shall forget him They expected no good from him while he lived and so it was little sorrow to them when he dyed Some men live till their friends are weary of them Mater quia a vivo nihil expectabat solain neq pro mortuo amplius angitur every one thinks the world is well rid of them when they dye Secondly The worme shall feed sweetly on him that is as he fed sweetly
Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chiefe Captaines and the mighty men and every bondman and every free man shall hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountaines and say to the rocks and to the mountaines fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lambe They who having been threatned with the wrath of God were no more afrayd then the rocks shall for feare wooe the rocks to hide them from the wrath of God Though Adam had not the feare of God to keepe him from sinne yet the feare of God fell upon him as soone as he had sinned Gen. 3.10 I heard thy voice in the garden and I was affraid because I was naked and I hid my selfe Hence Observe First God is in himselfe very dreadfull hee is to be feared God is so much to be feared that not onely feare is with him but hee is feare As because God is so full of love therefore the Scripture predicates love directly of God God is love 1 Joh. 4.8 so because God is greatly to be feared therefore he is called feare Gen. 31.42.53 Except the God of my father the God of Abraham and the feare of Isaac that is the God whom my father Isaac feared had been with me surely thou hadst sent me away empty sayd Jacob in his contest with Laban And at the 53d verse of the same Chapter he sayth againe to Laban the God of Abraham and the Gâ—d of Nahor the God of their father judge betwixt us and Jacob â—ware by the feare of his father Isaac that is hee sware by God for by him onely can we sweare in a holy manner An oath being a part or an act of divine worship The dominion and feare of God are put together Mal. 1.14 I am a great King there is dominion and my name is dreadfull among the Heathen there is feare Even Heathens who know God oâ—ely by the ligâ—t of Nature which is so imperfect a way of knowing God that the Heathen are sayd not to know him Jer. 10.25 yet I say the Heathen who know God onely thus doe feare him they feare him in proportion to or according to the way of their knowledge of him How much more then is the Lord to be feared and how dreadfull is be to and among his owâ—e people who know him savingly who know him by Gospel light God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the Saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him Psal 89.7 Hee is terribly dreadfull amongst the Heathen hee is awfully or reverentially dreadfull among the Saints Feare is with him First In reference to the greatnesse of his power consider what God can doe and that renders him dreadfull Wee feare those that can doe great things those especially that can doe great things against us For this reason Christ exhorts his Disciples to feare God when hee saw them in danger of a surprisal by the feare of what men could doe against them Luk. 12.4 5. I say unto you my friends be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can doe But I will forewarne you whom yee shall feare feare him which after hee hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you feare him How is he to be feared who at one stroake can peirce body and soule quite through and throw both into hell The Lord is to be feared upon the consideration of the ordinary providentiall puttings forth of his power how much more when he puts forth his power extraordinarily and Judicially Jer 5.22 Feare ye not me sayth the Lord will yee not tremble at my presence which have placed the sand for the bound of the Sea by a perpetuall decree that it cannot passe it and though the waves thereof tosse themselves yet can they not prevaile though they roare yet can they not passe over it I have done this thing put a stop to the Sea I have put a bridle into the mouth of the Sea I can check the waves when they roare and tosse and will ye not feare me Secondly God is to be feared for his goodnesse as we read at the 24th verse of the same Chapter where the Lord upbraides their want of feare while they remembred his most ordinary good providences at land Neither say they in their heart let us now feare the Lord our God that giveth raine both the former and the latter in his season hee reserveth unto us the appointed weekes of the harvest If God be to be feared for that witnes of his goodnesse which is held out by raine and fruitfull seasons or by filling the hearts of men in common with food and gladnes then how much more is God to be feared for the distinguishing acts of his goodnes and mercy the pardon of sin and the giving out of his Spirit There is forgivenes with thee that thou mayest be feared sayd the Psalmist 130.4 and Hos 3.5 They shall feare the Lord and his goodnesse in the latter dayes that is they shall feare the Lord because of his goodnes his speciall goodnes to his Church and people in advancing them to all their spirituall liberties priviledges in the latter dayes And thus the Lord is sayd to be not onely glorious in holinesse but fearefull in praises because we should feare him when wee are praising him both because hee hath wrought so much goodnes and mercy for those who are unworthy as also lest while we receave so much from the hand of his goodnes and mercy we should walke unworthyly Secondly When the text sayth Feare is with him wee learne That God can strike man with feare when he pleaseth Power is with him and he can put forth his power if God send out his power it goeth and prevaileth So feare is with him and hee can send out his feare to strike whom he will with feare when and as oft as hee will The Scriprure sheweth the Lord sending forth his feare at pleasure and attaching the strongest and hardyest of the children of men It is sayd Gen. 35.5 And they journeyed that is Jacob and his small company and the terrour of God was upon the Cities that were round about them and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. The terrour of God was sent out to keepe them in so that none of them stirred Else no doubt but all the Cities would have pursued them because of that high provocation which the sons of Jacob had given them by the late slaughter of the Sichemites When God promised to send Hornets before the people of Israel to drive out the uncircumcised Nations this feare was the Hornet Exod. 23.28 God stung their hearts with feare or as it were by Hornets buzz'd a feare into their eares as he did into the eares of the Syrians who encamped before Samaria 2
man chafed and enraged as a man full of wrath and fury but as a man most tenderly affected and full of pity for a bruised reade shall he not breake and smoaking flax shall he not quench a bruised read and smoaking flax are emblems of the weake of the arme without strength of those who are without wisdome Christ will not deale roughly with those he will not breake the bruised read nor quench the smoaking flax that is such as are broken with the sence of sin such as are weake in faith such as are so much over-powred by corruption that they doe rather smoake and make an ill-sented smother then burne or shine in a gracious profession such as are thus low and meane in spiritualls Christ will not breake with his power nor quench with his rebukes till he send forth judgement to victory that is till he hath perfected their conversion and hightned their graces to the full and caused the better part in them to prevaile over the worse as the house of David did over the house of Saul till it arive at a blessed victory And againe Isa 61.2 The spirit of the Lord God is upon me for whâ—t because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meeke he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaime liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound Here is helping those that have no power and saving the arme that hath no strength Thus Christ handles those who through temptation affliction or any trouble are brought low For the neglect of this duty the Lord reproves the Shepheards Ezek. 34.2 3 4. Son of man prophesie against the Shepheards of Israel prophecy and say unto them thus saith the Lord God unto the Shepheards Woe be to the Shepheards of Israel that doe feed themselves should not the Shepheards feed the flockes That is should they not be more intent upon the feeding of their flocke with spiritualls then upon the feeding of themselves with temporalls should they not labour more to feed the peoples soules then their owne bellyes surely they ought But what did the Shepheards of Israel The next words shew us both what they did and what they did not Ye eate the fat and ye cloath you with the wool ye kill them that are fed These things they were forward enough to doe But see what they did not ye feed not the flock That 's a general neglect of duty then followeth their neglect of particular duties The diseased have ye not strengthened neyther have ye healed that which is sicke neyther have ye bound up that which was broken neyther have ye brought againe that which was driven away by force of Satans temptation neyther have ye sought that which was lost through selfe-folly and corruption Here is a large enditement against the Shepheards All which may be summed up in Jobs language to Bildad They did not helpe those who had no power they did not save the arme without strength nor counsel those who had no wisdome See againe how the Prophet describes the compassionatenesse of God to his people in an afflicted condition Isa 27.8 In measure that is moderately when it shooteth forth thou wilt debate with it he stayeth his rough winde in the day of the East winde that is when affliction like an East winde blowes feircely upon his from the world then he stayeth his rough winde he will not bring his rough winde out of his treasures to joyn with the East-winde God will deale gently with his when they are hardly dealt with by men And thus it is our duty when it is a day of the East winde a day of trouble and temptation upon any soule to stay the rough winde to breath gently to give refreshment and ease to the weary soule How hast thou helped him that hath no power how savest thou the arme that hath no strength Secondly Observe The manner how we performe any duty is to be attended as well as the matter Bildads businesse was to comfort the sorrowfull to strengthen the infirme how did he performe this his strengthening was a weakning his helping was a grieving of Job already weake and grieved and the reason was because he failed in the manner or mannaging of this worke we must be carefull as to doe good for the matter so to doe it effectually which cannot be unlesse it be done rightly Some goe with an honest purpose to helpe who yet administer no helpe at all to every such helper it may be sayd with rebuke How hast thou helped him that is without power how unhandsomely hast thou done it what worke hast thou made of it Thou hast but entangled the poore soule worse then before This runs through all duties We may say to some How have you prayed and called upon God They onely speake a few words present a few petitions but without a heart without faith without a sense of the presence of God or of their owne wants how have such prayed call ye this prayer we may say to others how have you heard the word of God is this to heare what to reâ—eive the sound or the sense of the word and never to minde it more never to digest nor turne what is heard into practice is this hearing We may say to others how have you fâ—sted and humbled your soules before God Is this a fast that God hath chosen a day for a man to hang downe his head like a bullrush Is this fasting to God even to God No This is but a mock-fast a No-fast God hates such formality in praying hearing fasting with a perfect hatred A body exercised and a soule sitting still is not worship God is a spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and in truth In the truth or according to the rule of his owne word as also in the truth or according to the sincerity of our owne hearts unlesse we worship God in this twofold truth we worship him not at all as he will be worshipped how much soever we seeme to have a will to worship him As Job here puts a question mixt with admiration and indignation to his helper How hast thou helped him that hath no power How ilfavordly how bunglingly hast thou done it So the Lord will put such a question to many of his worshippers How have ye worshipped him that hath all power how slightly how formally how hypocritically have ye done it Therefore in all duties looke to the manner as well as to the matter and labour to doe them well as well as to doe them To neglect the doing of a duty or the doing of it negligently are alike offensive unto God and he will say to the latter with as much displeasure How hast thou done what I commanded as he will to the latter Why hast thou not done what I commanded yea Thirdly Observe That which is not done as it ought is to be judged as if not done That which we strive not
He spake great things of the power and holynes of God but Jobs case called him to speake as much if not more and rather of the goodness and kindnes of God He spake enough to humble and cast Job downe at the sight of his natural uncleanenes but he should have spoken more to rayse him up and comfort him by shewing him that fountaine which is opened to wash in for sin and for uncleanenes Wee may quickly entangle a soule by speaking truth unlesse we shew him all that ruth which belongs to his condition The Scriptures have plenty of truth in them and are therefore able to make as wise unto salvation They are profitable for doctrine for reproofe for correction for instruction in righteousnes The Scripture is like that River spoken of Gen. 2.10 which went out of Eden to water the Garden and from thence it was parted and became into foure heads Paul in that place now mentioned 2 Tim. 3.16 shewes us the Scripture parting it selfe into foure heads first of Doctrine for establishing the truth secondly of reproofe for removing of error thirdly of correction for the beating downe of ill manners fourthly of instruction for building up in a holy conversation That so as it there follows the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good workes that is in Jobs language that he may be able plentifully to declare the solid truth the thing as it is and as knowingly to declare General truths so to apply them discerningly to the state of every person A fayling wherein Job is supposed to charge Bildad with in the next verse Vers 4. To whom hast thou uttered words Here Job taxeth Bildad with inconsideratenesse in reference to the person to whom he spake To whom hast thou uttered words hast thou considered to whom thou spakest Quem docere voluisti nonne eum qui fecit spiramentum Vulg The vulgar translation referrs it to God whom wouldst thou teach wouldst not thou teach him who made the breath surely thou takest upon thee to teach him who is the teacher of us all Thus many carry on the sense of this fourth verse according to the second interpretation of the second and third verses With which presumption Job taxed his friends once before and that in expresse termes Chap. 21 22. Shall any teach God knowledge seeing he judgeth those that are high But I conceive Jobs meaning is onely to shew Bildad that he had not well advised about his case and condition before he spake for Bildad might say is this a question to be asked to whom have I uttered words have not I been speaking to thee all this while art not thou the man for whose sake we are here met and about whom we have had all this dispute Why then doest thou aske to whom hast thou uttered words Job doubted not who it was to whom he spake but Job questions him as fearing he was not well acquainted with or had not enough layd to heart the state of the man to whom he spake dost thou know what my condition is and hast thou suited and cut out thy discourse to my condition to whom hast thou uttered words Hence note We should well consider the state of every person to whom we speak and apply our speech or doctrine accordingly Bildad in the former Chapter had been setting forth the power majesty and dread of God as also his infinite purity befoâ—e whom the Angels are not-cleane now sayth Job to whom hast thou uttered these words should I be thus dealt with thus handled who am a man cast downe already and under the terrours of God Is this discourse though an undoubted truth sutable to my condition Thou shouldst rather have represented God to my faith in his goodnesse and mercy in his long suffering and patience in his tendernesse and gentlenesse towards sinners thou shouldst have proclaimed that name of God to me which is his Glory Exod. 34.6 The Lord The Lord gracious and mercifull long suffering and aboundant in goodnes and truth this had been a description of God a proclamation of God fit for a man in my case Whereas thou hast onely told me of his mighty power and dominion of his Hosts and Armyes doest thou know to whom thou hast uttered these words Jesus Christ when here on earth considered to whom he was uttering words and therefore tells his Disciples Joh. 16.12 I have many things to say unto you but ye cannot beare them now Christ would not put new wine into old botles but attemper'd his speech to the strength and capacity of his hearers Some must heare that which they cannot beare when that springs from their passion and impatience especially when from their love to and resolvednesse to goe onne in sinne Amos must not forbeare to speake though Amaziah cry out The Land is not able to beare all his words But we must take heed of forcing words upon any which they cannot beare or are not fit to heare eyther by reason of their afflictions and temptations or by reason of their present infirmities and incapacities The Apostle 2 Tim. 2.15 bids Timothy study to shew thy selfe approved unto God he doth not meane it in his private course of life and dayly converse which is the duty of every beleever but in his publicke course of life or converse as a Minister of the Gospel in that sayth he study to shew thy selfe approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed what kind of workman was Timothy his worke lay in the Word shew thy selfe a workeman and a Master in thy worke rightly dividing the word of truth how is the word to be divided he doth not meane of a gramaticall nor of a logicall division though there may be a use of these divisions of the Word but the dividing of the word intended by Paul is the dividing of it spiritually to the severall states and conditions of men giving to such a word of instruction to others a word of reproofe to a third sort words of comfort This is dividing the word aright And in doing this Paul would have Timothy declare himfelfe a workman that he needed not be ashamed He would have him know to whom he uttered words to know when he spake to sinners and when to Saints when he spake to the afflicted and when to them that were in a comfortable estate He would have him know when he spake to those who were hardned in their sin and when to those whose hearts were broken under the weight and sence of sin And thus as every man who uttereth words so Ministers of the Gospel especially should be well advised to whom they utter them For as the same garment will not serve every body to weare nor the same bed to lye upon so the same word will not serve every soule We must not doe as the tyrant who made one bed serve all his guests and they that were too long for it were cut shorter and they who
vulgar and improper sence even those things that never had life may be called dead Mr Broughton renders strictly not dead things but things without life are formed under the waters The Hebrew word may come from a twofold roote and so hath a twofold signification First to heale and cure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dolorem mitigavit sanavit transferturper MetaphoraÌ„ a corpore ad animam ut sig remittere peccata and in Scripture it is transferred from the healing of the body to the healing of the soule in the remission of sins because as the wound of the body is healed by the salve so is the soules wound namely sinne healed by remission or forgivenesse The word is used in this sence Isa 6.10 Make the heart of this people fat and make their eares heavy and shut their eyes least they see with their eyes and heare with their eares and understand with their heart and convert and be healed that is pardoned Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debitis dissolutus laxus languidus it signifies to be dissolved or loosened to be weake and languishing wee translate it dead because things that are dead are weakened and dissolved and therefore death is called a dissolution As Paul sayd Phil. 1.23 I desire to depart or to be dissolved that is to dye and the same phrase is used for death 2 Cor 5.1 Wee know that when the earthly house of this Tabernacle shall be dissolved c. Againe by the figure Antiphrasis frequent in Scripture this word as it signifies dead and weake things so also strong and lively things yea those that are strongest or most lively and therefore Gyants who are the strongest of men are expressed by this word Deut. 2.11 The Enims dwelt therein in times past Ecce Gigantes gemunt sub aquis Vulg a people great and many and tall as the Anakims which also were accounted Giants c. And the vulgar translates so here Behold The Giants groane under the waters Giants are called Rephaim in the Hebrew which word in the roote signifies to weaken not from their nature but from their effects not because they are weake but because they weaken others Giants are so strong that the very sight of them makes others weake and faint or pulls downe men of strength and might It is sayd that Saul and the whole Army of Israel were dismayed when they saw Goliah and greatly afraid they were weake before the Giant There is much labouring to make out this sence of the word here some understand it of the Giants before the flood Behold the Giants groane from under the flood Those Giants were indeed overthrowne by the waters and so they conceave that Job alluded unto them but I shall not stay upon that interpretation Others expound the text of those Gyants whose proper element is water the mighty fishes of the Sea the Whale the Leviathan spoken of in this booke of Job Leviathan is a Sea-monster a Sea-gyant of huge dimensions Naturall Historians and travellers describe the vastnes of the Whale or Leviathan to wonder and amazement And 't is granted that in these Gods power is much seene But I shall lay by this exposition also because I conceive fishes are spoken of in the next words where they are called the inhabitants thereof that is of the Sea or waters Againe this word Rephaim is often put for the dead or those that are departed this life Psal 88.10 Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead shall the dead arise and praise thee There are two words used for the dead in that verse one is the ordinary word the other is that of the Text. Solomon Pro. 2.18 shewing how dangerous it is to have to doe with the adulteresse sayth Her house inclineth unto death and her paths unto the Rephaim or the dead The house of Adultery and uncleanenes is the Gatehouse to death it is not a house raysed up but bowed downe her house enclineth unto death and she who is the governesse of rather the miss-governeness of the house will by her ill life bring thee among the dead even among those who are twice dead corporally dead at present and spiritually dead for ever But that which I shall rather pitch upon according to our translation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that by these dead things are meant such things as never had any life Mr Broughton expounds his translation Things without life of those precious things that are formed under the waters Amber and pearle and goodly stones These dead things are found under the waters and there they are formed Gods providence reacheth to the furthest places even to the bottome of the Sea and lowest earth which seeme to be as cast off So he glosseth and so doe other Interpreters Incipit dei providentiam poâ—entiam describere a rebus subterraneis initio sumpâ—o Merc concluding that Job is here setting forth the power of God in forming minerals and pretious stones under the waters or in the deepes and so riseth in his discourse by degrees to higher things As if he had sayd O Bildad what doest thou shewing me the power and providence of God in the high places where he maketh peace I can tell thee that the same power and providence of God are extended to those things which are wrought in the bowels of the earth and at the bottome of the Sea and so are furthest removed from our sight And whereas we say Dead things are formed there that word properly signifies to bring forth children or any living creature Job 39.1 2. Knowest thou the time when the wilde Goates of the rock bring forth or canst thou marke when the Hindes doe calve Canst thou number the moneths that they fulfill or knowest thou the time when they bring forth yea The Eternall Word and Wisdome of God speakes of himselfe in the language of this Word Pro. 8.25 Before the mountaines were setled before the hils was I brought forth It signifieth also to be in paine and groane for paine because child-bearing causeth much paine and groaning So the word is used in a metaphoricall sence Deut 2.25 This day will I begin saith the Lord to put the dread of thee and the feare of thee upon the Nations that are under the whole heaven who shall heare report of thee and shall tremble and be in anguish because of thee they shall be in anguish as a woman travelling with child and pained to bring forth Whence that translation takes its ground The Gyants groane under the waters And as it signifies to forme and fashion the child or any living thing in the womb and then to bring forth so it is applyed to the forming of things that have no life Ps 90. â—2 Before the mountaines were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God Dead things are formed But by whom here is no power exprest Job sayth onely they are formed
and 't is usuall in Scripture to speake that in negative words which was before spoken in affirmative As to be naked and to have no covering are the same so hell and destruction are the same and these two are often put together Pro. 15.11 Hell and destruction are before the Lord how much more the hearts of the children of men Though we know not where hel is nor what is done there though wee know not what is become of those that are destroyed nor what they suffer yet God doth and if the secrets of hel and devills are knowne to him then much more the secrets of the hearts of the children of men And as that proverb teacheth us that nothing is hid from God because hell and destruction are not so another proverb delivered in the same forme teacheth us that nothing in the creature can satisfie the desires and lustings of man even as hell and destruction can never be satisfied Prov. 27.20 Hell and destruction are never full so the eyes of men are never satisfyed The Devill who is the great executioner of the wrath of God is exprest by this word as hell is called destruction in the abstract so the Devill is called a destroyer in the concrete Revel 9.11 And they had a King over them which is the Angel of the bottomlesse pit or hell whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon but in the Greeke tongue hath his name Apollyon both the one and the other the Hebrew and the Greeke signifie the same thing a destroyer The Devill who is the Jaylour of hell is called a destroyer as hell it selfe is called destruction from the Co-incidency of these two termes Note Hell is destruction They that are once there are lost and lost for ever The reason why hell is called destruction is because they that are cast to hell are undone to eternity We read of a City Isa 19.18 which was called the City of destruction because it was to be utterly destroyed Hell may be called a City of destruction not because it shall ever be destroyed but because it shall ever be full of destruction and nothing but destruction shall be there There is no estate on earth so miserable but a man may be delivered out of it but out of hell there is no deliverance Heman saith Psal 88.11 Shall thy loving kindnesse be declared in the grave or thy faithfullnesse in destruction There grave and destruction are put together much more may hell and destruction be put together or for each other What ever comes into the grave is destroyed it rots and perisheth much more doth hell destroy all that comes thither And looke as the grave is to the body now a destroyer consuming so hell is to the soule now and will be to soule and body after the resurrection a destroyer tormenting The loving kindnesse of God shall not be declared in Hell nor any faithfullnesse of his in destruction unlesse it be his faithfullnesse according to what is threatned in the Word to destroy The Apostle Peter sayth 1 Ep 3.19 20. that Christ by the Spirit went and preached to the Spirits in prison which sometime were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the dayes of Noah c. It is true that Christ by the Spirit in the ministery of Noah did preach to those Spirits who were disobedient in the time when Noah preached and were in prison or in hel in the time when Peter wrote But Christ did not preach by his Spirit in the ministery of Noah or any other way to Spirits who were in prison or in hel while he preached to them There are no Sermons in hel nor any salvation there The loving kindnesse of God is aboundantly declared on earth but it shall not be declared in hel As there is nothing felt in hel but destruction so there is no salvation offered to those who are in hel There 's teares enow and mourning enough in hel but there is not the least Godly sorrow in hel which onely worketh repentance to salvation August lib. 21. de Civ dei cap 17. not to be repented of 2 Cor. 7.10 One of the ancients hath reported the opinion of some in his time who thought that though there be destruction in hel yet not eternal destruction but that sinners should be punished some a lesse others a longer time and that at last all shall be freed and yet saith he Origen was more mercifull in this poynt then these men for he held that the Devill himselfe should be saved at last Of this opinion I shall say no more in this place then this one thing which he there sayd These men will be found to erre by so much the more foulely against the right words of God so much the more perversely by how much they seeme to themselves to judge more mercifully for indeed the justice of God in punishing sinners is as much above the scale of mans thoughts as his mercyes in pardoning them are let not sinners flatter themselves in a hope of salvation when they are in hel who have neglected salvation while they were on the earth For as the Apostle saith Heb. 2.3 How shall we escape that is how shall we escape falling into hel if we neglect so great salvation so I may say how shall any escape by getting out of hell who neglect so great salvation Hel is destruction and as because heaven is a place of happinesse and salvation therefore heaven and happinesse heaven and salvation mutually or reciprocally signifie one another to obtaine heaven is to obtaine salvation to obtaine heaven is to obtaine happines So because hel is a place of misery and destruction therefore hel and misery hel and destruction signifie the same thing nor can they be separated Againe when he sayth Hell is naked before him and destruction hath no covering we learne There is nothing hid from the eye or knowledge of God Philosophy and reason teach us that the vertue and force of the heavenly bodyes the Sunne Moone and Starres doe not onely act upon those parts of the earth which are uppermost but send their influences and powers to the lowest parts or bowels of the earth for as was sayd before according to the ordinance of God dead things are formed there Now I say as the power of the heavenly bodyes reacheth downe into the earth much more doth the power and light of God reach into hell it selfe I will not stay upon any curious enquiries where this hell is wheresoever it is God seeth it Hel is naked before him therefore sayth David Psal 139.8 If I ascend up into heaven thou art there if I make my bed in hell behold thou art there that is there thou art by thy power and inspection thou seest what is in hell and if so how much more doth God behold what is done heere upon the earth if hell be naked before him then the earth is naked before him if destruction have no
covering then our actions heere have no covering Hypocrites put many coverings upon their actions they have many policies to vaile and screene them from the eye of man but the actions of men have no covering before God yea the hearts of men have no covering before God As Solomon in the Proverbs which place was lately toucht upon argues from this reason because hell and destruction are before him Prov. 15.11 Hell and destruction are before the Lord how much more then the hearts of the children of men As if he had sayd God who looketh into hell which is not onely darkenes but outer darkenes that is darkenes without any thing that hath the least ray or similitude of light in it God I say who looketh into this hel can looke into the hearts of men much more There are some men I grant whose hearts are a very hell a very deepe and they hope to hide themselves in the depth of their owne hearts from the sight of God as the Prophet telleth us Isai 29.15 Woe unto them that seeke deepe to hide their councell from the Lord and their workes are in the darke and they say who seeth us and who knoweth us And what doth he meane by the deeps which they seeke doe they seeke caves and dens of the earth to take counsel or consult together in no they may be in the open ayre and yet seeke deepe to hide their counsells from God so that the meaning is they seeke to keepe their counsels close lockt up in their hearts but woe unto them that digge thus deepe to hide their counsells from God for they cannot be hid for even hel is before him and destruction hath no covering how then shall these destroyers cover themselves or any of their counsels from him As the reason of all things is naked and manifest before God so are the motions and actions of all persons Thirdly When 't is sayd Hell and destruction are before him that word before doth not onely imply that God hath a view or sight of what is in hel but also that hee hath power in and over hel and can doe what he will there hell is naked before him that is hee hath hell at his dispose Hence note The power and providence of God reaches to those things that are most remote He orders all things in hell as well as upon the earth his power rules there where there seemes to be least order yea where there is no order at all They who are cast into hel kept no order while they were upon the earth nor are they in any willing order there when we see confusions in the world wee say what a hell is there or we say Hel is broken loose hell is a place of confusion yet hell is before God he keepes hell in order And when by reason of troubles and confusion among men wee are ready to say there is a hell in the world yet this hell is naked before God he disposeth and orders those places persons and things which are most confused hell and destruction are before him Before I passe from these words I shall onely take notice that there are many words in Scripture by which hell is exprest The Rabbins number seven or eight heere are two First Sheol or the grave because we lye as it were buried there in a second death Secondly Abaddon or destruction because all are there in a perishing state or as given up into the hand of destruction Thirdly Hel is called Tsalmaveth or the shadow of death and by the shadow of death is not meant a smal appearance of death as the word shadow is used Jam 1.17 where the Apostle exalts the glory of the Lord in his unchangeablenes that he is the Father of lights from whom every good gift and every perfect gift cometh downe with whom is no variablenesse neither shadow of turning that is he is not subject to any turning at all but hel is called the shadow of death as shadow is put for strength and power and so to be under the shadow of God or man is to be under their protection Thus hell is the shadow of death that is the strength and power of it Death never triumphs so much in its strength as it doth in hell Fourthly Hel is called Erets tachith which signifyes first the earth under or the lowest and most inferiour earth whence in Scripture hell is called the bottomlesse pit and the way to it is described by descending and going downe as heaven is described by ascending and hight heaven is high and the highest ascending is our ascending to heaven so hell is low and the lowest descending is descending into hel Secondly it imports feare vexation and trembling hell is a land of trembling it is a land of feare it is sayd of Caine that when he went out of the presence of God after he had murthered his brother he went into the land of Nod that is into a land of trembling which some expound not of any speciall place that he went to but that every place where he went was to him a land of trembling hee having much feare and dread upon his conscience after he had embrewed his hands in his brothers blood Hel is indeed the land of Nod a Trembling land They who have not rejoyced with trembling in this world shall sorrow with trembling for ever in the world to come Fifthly Hel is called Bershiachathith that is the piâ—â—â— corruption not that the bodyes of the damned shall corrupt in hell as they doe in the grave for though we cannot say that the bodyes of the wicked shall be raysed incorruptible as the bodyes of the Saints shall yet they shall be raysed immortall and in that sence incorruptible that is they shall never dye but they shall be corruptible that is filthines and corruption shall be upon them The bodyes of Saints onely shall be raysed so incorruptible that nothing of corruption shall be seene upon them or felt by them but the bodyes of the wicked shall ever feele corruption and beare the markes of it without total corrupting or perishing as corrupting and perishing are taken for not-being The wicked would be glad that they might perish so but they shall not hel will be a pit of corruption to them for whatsoever is painefull and grievous to the flesh shall dwell in their bodyes and therefore it is called the pit of corruption and it may also be called a pit of corruption in a morall sence because all their sins and lusts shall remaine upon them for ever hel-fire cannot purge the soule from sin nor free any man from the power of that old man who as the Apostle speakes Eph 4.22 Is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts Nothing but the blood of Christ can purge the soule from corruption Hell is for the punishment of corruption but not at all for the purging of it and therefore it is well called the pit of corruption Sixthly It is called Erets
and proper to it Further as God hideth his glory from man because he is not able to beare it all so he hideth much of that from him which he is able to beare both to make him hunger and thirst the more after it and to draw him into the greater reverence and estimation of it We usually esteeme that more which is veyled and under a cloud then that which is very cleare and openly revealed and according to our present state and frame that is most reverenced by us which is most concealed from us When a cloud hath dwelt a while upon the Sunne we desire the more to see the face of it and are the more affected with the sight of it God will not hold backe the face of his throne from us in glory nor will he ever spread a cloud upon it and yet we shall have fresh desires after it and high valuations of it everlastingly But while we dwel in this corrupt and corruptible flesh wee are apt to neglect that which is alwayes with us especially if it be alwayes alike with us And therefore as the wise and gracious God will not let us see his throne here at all in the full glory of it because we cannot beare it so he will not let us see that glory of it continually which we are able to beare lest we should grow eyther carelesse of it or unthankfull for it It is even best for us that we have but a darke and imperfect sight of God in this world both in reference to what he is and to what he doth or first in reference to himselfe in his nature and Excellencyes Secondly in reference to his wayes or workes in their speciall reasons and ends As our darkenes cannot at all comprehend the light of God so God is pleased to cover much of his own light with darkenes that we should not comprehend it How many glorious truths are there the face of which he holdeth backe from many of his precious servants how often doth he spread a cloud as upon the truths which he sendeth in his Word so upon the graces which he hath wrought in us by his Spirit so that the soule is not onely hindred from beholding what is without but what is within and is so farre from beholding the glorious perfection of God and his workes abroad that it cannot so much as discerne any of the gracious workes of God at home He spreadeth his cloud upon it Vers 10. He compasseth the waters with bounds untill the day and night come to an end Job having described marvaylous acts of divine power in the heavens descends againe to shew his marvayles in or about the Seas and mighty waters He compasseth the waters with bounds The word which we render to compasse Proprietas pecaliaris verbi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est lineam vel circulum describere quasi circino Forte etiam in dicatur eodem circumdandi verbo unum effici globuÌ„ ex terra et aqua atque unum idem utriusque elementi esse centrum Pined signifyeth properly to draw a line or make a circle as Mathematicians doe with a payre of Compasses so that it notes the shutting up or circumscribing any thing to a certaine place or measure beyond which it cannot move And thus God compasseth the waters At the 8th verse Job shewed how God compasseth the upper waters the waters in the ayre He bindeth up the waters in his thicke clouds Here he sheweth how God by the same almighty power compasseth about the lower waters the waters of the Sea The Hebrew is The face of the waters as in the former verse The face of his throne The face of the earth is the upper part of the earth Gen. 1.29 I have given you every herbe bearing or seeding seed which is upon the face of all the earth And so the face of the waters is the upper part of the waters because the upper part of the water as also of the earth lyeth open to the eye as the face of a man doth And it may therefore be sayd that he compasseth the face of the waters because though the whole body and bulke of the waters swel and rage yet the face or upper part of the waters is that which at any times breaketh over and overfloweth And therefore the face of the waters onely as to us is compassed about with bounds The word noteth a legal bound a statute or decree and is frequently used in Scripture especially in the 119th Psalme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stanuum constitutie dec câ—etum sign ficat praecepti constantiam durationem nam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est insculpere seu incidere lapidi ligno vel Metallo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Septu for the Law or rule which God hath given man both for his worship and continuall course of life And hence the Prophet Jeremiah speaking to the Jewes about this thing useth another word to signifie the bound of the Sea and the word which here we render Bound is there rendred Decree Jer 5.22 Feare ye not me saith the Lord will ye not tremble at my presence which have placed the sand for the bound of the Sea by a perpetuall decree that it cannot passe it And there is so much of a Law or of an appoyntment in it that the word is applicable to any thing which is put under a certaine law or appoyntment So it is put for an appoynted time in the 14th Chapter of this booke v. 13th and for appoynted foode in the 23d Chapter of this booke v. 12th as here for an appoynted space or circle within which as within a wall or with gates and barrs the waters of the Sea are kept He compasseth the waters with bounds Hence Note First The Sea is bounded by the power of God As God hath given man understanding to provide a bit and a bridle for the mouth of the horse and mule which have no understanding lest they come neere unto him Psal 32.9 that is neerer to him then they should or neere to him not to serve him or be used by him but to kicke him or tread upon him Thus God himselfe who is infinite in understanding hath put a bit or bridle into the mouth of the Sea which is further from understanding then eyther Horse or mule lest it come neere to drowne and overwhelme us Neyther shoares nor sands neyther cliffs nor rockes are the bound and bridle of the Sea but the Decree and command of God Observe Secondly It is an unanswerable argument of the glorious power and soveraignetie of God that he is able to compasse the waters with bounds Who shut up the Sea with dores was Gods humbling Question to Job in the 38th Chapter of this booke v. 8.10 11. and sayd hitherto shalt thou come and no further here shall thy proud waves be stayed The Psalmist Ps 104. having shewed how at first Gen. 1 1. the whole earth was covered with the deep as