miscarriage makes us question or disrelish the institution of God In the fourth place Iob is not only not angry with the ordinance of God in generall but he is not angry with the speciall act of Gods providence in his own particular choice There are many will say if their wives trouble them I wish we had never seene the faces one of another we may curse the houre we ever met together Iobs spirit was farre from this he was indeed angry with his wife but he was not angry because this woman was his wife He doth not reject her because she was bad but labours to make her better To convince another of folly is the readiest way to make him wise Thus we see though there were sharpenesse in the reproofe to search the wound yet there was none to exasperate the person This reproofe was an exact compound of love and anger of zeale and knowledge From the ground of her counsell and this reproofe compared together we may Observe That it is an argument of a low and of a foolish spirit to judge of any mans condition by Gods outward dealings with him For this was it that she grounded her counsell upon seeing his outward condition she thought him as a miserable man and therefore adviseth him to curse God and die Thou speakest saith he as one of the foolish women It is an argument of folly and madnesse to judge a man miserable because poore or unhappy or unhealthy Againe observe That unworthy and low thoughts of God argue a low and a foolish spirit Thou speakest as one of the Nabalesses Thou hast such low thoughts of God and speakest so poorely of God that at present I cannot but number thee among the fooles for as there is nothing ought to be so high in our thoughts as God and his wayes so we ought to have high and reverent thoughts of God and his wayes whatsoever he doth with us though we change yet he and they change not God is the same and his service the same for ever Lastly Observe That to doe or speake wickedly is to doe or speake foolishly Sin is the greatest folly in the world sin is a declining from the rule of right reason both from spirituall reason and from naturall Loe they have rejected the word of the Lord and what wisedome is in them Jer. 8.9 True wisedome is to walke by a right rule to a right end While we sin lust in some degree or other is the rule and selfe is the end In both which we joyne hands with folly and are the companions of fooles Thou speakest as one of the foolish women c. From the reproofe it selfe we come to consider the reasons of the reproofe Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh what shall we receive good at the hand of God and not evill Here is the reason upon which he grounds his reproofe Shall we receive good at the hands of God c. The Hebrew runnes thus in the letter shall we receive good from God c. The emphasis of the words carry it thus shall we receive good with hand or heart at the hand of God and shall we not in the same manner receive evill The word Cabal whence this is derived signifieth the receiving of a thing with the hand and with the heart that is to receive gladly and thankfully as it were to kisse the hand and receive a thing Or to receive a thing with much reverence and veneration Hence the Iewes call the Doctrine which is received and transmitted from hand to hand namely their traditionall Doctrine Caballa That which the word Tradition imports among the Papists the word Caballa imports among the Iewes Then the meaning of Job is That good and evill are to be a like received and entertained as from God that is they are to be received with the same reverence and chearfullnesse We receive good things chearefully thankfully reverently we kisse the hand and take them And shall we not receive evill The words doe not referre to the act of receiving but to the manner of receiving We shall receive evill whether we will or no but shall we not receive it namely so and so as we receive good cheerefully thankfully reverently respecting God and his wayes of providence towards us And then the question may be resolved into this affirmative conclusion That looke in what manner we receive good from the hand of God in the same we ought to receive evill Or thus Where we have our good thence we must have our evill One and the same hand moderates and dispenseth both Wherefore shall we receive good and not evill Shall we receive good Some interpret the good here to be meant of the good of the next life shall we be in expectation of everlasting good shall we be in expectation of enjoying Christ and seeing the face of God for ever in Heaven shall we be at least in hope of a crowne of glory layed up in store for us and shall we not be willing to receive evills and digest troubles to beare the crosse a few dayes while we are here I saith the Apostle Paul Rom. 8.18 reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed Shall we have glory in the eye of our faith and shall we not endure a little trouble in the eye of our sence But rather by good here we are to understand the good things of this life shall we receive good sc outward comforts and prosperity and shall we not receive evill from whom Evill from the hand of God What Evill Sooner shall the Sun send forth a cloud then God send forth any evill properly taken therefore evill here is only afflictions as contradistinct to the good before named So the sense is shall we receive comforts at the hand of God and shall we not receive afflictions Afflictions are evill not morall evill not naturall evill but they are called evill either first because they are usually esteemed so or secondly because they are so to sense or thirdly because they are many times abused and so in the event they prove evill unto us lastly they are often evill negatively that is they doe us no good but they are never evill positively in themselves or relatively as they are received from God We may take notice for the further clearing of this passage of the forme of the argument It is proposed by way of question or expostulation as we render it What shall we receive good c. There is a great deale of force in the manner of proposing questions are full of quicknesse and spirit Job doth not only give his wife a Logicall reason but a Rhetoricall reason words with life to convince her by What saith he shall we receive good c. As if he had said this were an absurd thing once to imagine a blind man may see this it is so plaine and a foole
I am sure with passions or the working of many passions together The word you see in the Hebrew hath a neere affinity in sound and sense with our English word raging and we translate it so Psal 2. Why doe the heathen rage It is the same word So here the wicked cease from raging or from troubling that is from that madnesse of rage in troubling the poore especially such as feare God Wicked men are not only sinfull but they are mad in their sin As Paul speakes of himselfe before his conversion I punished them oft in every Synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme and being exceedingly mad against them I persecuted them even unto strange Cities Acts 26.11 In Paul unconverted see the picture of a wicked mans spirit he could not cease from troubling but in death he shall And there the weary are at rest The weary Some by the weary understand those whom the wicked have wearied by troubling of them and that is a truth that in the grave the wearied those that wicked men have turmoiled and vexed are at rest so the sense is made out thus that in the grave they that trouble others and the troubled the poore persecuted and the proud persecutors are at rest But rather by the wearied we are to understand only the wicked themselvs There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest that is there those wicked men who weary and tire out themselves with vexing and troubling of others are at rest they then cease from those vexatious undertakings which have consumed their spirits and worne out their bodies And the reason why I rather expound the weary to be the wicked though the other be a good sense is because Job afterward speakes of the rest of those that are wearied who are passive under the cruelties and plottings of those wicked ones There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest Hence observe first That wicked men are troublers both of themselves and others There the wicked cease from troubling as if the wicked did nothing in the world but trouble the world As before Job had given the speciall character of great ones and Princes They get gold build Palaces and Sepulchers and fill them with treasure So when he speakes of wicked ones he saith There the wicked cease from troubling As intimating that while they live in the world they are a perpetuall trouble to the world The Prophet Isaiah is expresse chap 57.20 The wicked are as the troubled sea that cannot rest they can doe any thing better then be quiet they have not strength enough to sit still they cannot rest King Ahab had this apprehension of Elijah 1 King 18.17 when the kingdome of Israel was full of trouble for God did vex them with great adversity Art not thou he saith Ahab that troublest Israel No saith Elijah who could make up a better judgement then Ahab in that point I am not he that troubleth Israel but it is thou and thy fathers house Ahab had sold himselfe to worke wickednesse and so had stock enough to purchase trouble for Israel wicked ones are the troublers of all they are troublers of their own families troublers of the places and Cities where they live the troublers of a whole Kingdome troublers of the Churches of Christ and the troublers of their own soules they are borne to trouble both active and passive they love to trouble and they have what they love It is the character and the argument of an extreame wicked man to be a troubler Even as it is a great argument of great grace when you see one a comforter of others or busie to helpe others to doe good to others The tree is knowne by the fruites Secondly Taking the latter words of this verse There the weary be at rest for those wicked men who are wearied by troubling others we may observe That wicked men by troubling others doe as much weary and tire out themselves And though they find that in troubling others they weary themselves yet they will not give it over they will trouble still Job saith thus of a wicked man in the 15th of this booke ver 20. The wicked man travaileth with paine all his dayes not only doth he put others to paine but himselfe is in paine and they are frequently expressed in Scripture as wearying themselves sometimes as weary of themselves so Jer. 9.5 They weary themselves to commit iniquity And thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels Isa 47.13 Thou art wearied in the greatnesse of thy way Isa 57.10 and that was but a way of troubling the Church She wearieth her selfe with lies Ezek. 24.12 The sins which wicked men commit only in and against themselves weary them but they are most wearied when they are persecutors of others It is observed of Antiochus Epiphanes that famous troubler of the Church by him that hath written the Itinerary of the Saints that he did undertake more troublesome journeyes and went upon more hazardous designes meerely to trouble and vex and oppose the Church of the Jewes then ever any of his predecessors did about any other conquest or noble enterprise that he travail'd more miles to doe mischiefe then as the Authour doth compare their journeys any of the Saints did to doe good and therefore he concludes the story of him with this generall truth concerning persecutors All such wicked men goe with more trouble to eternall death then the Saints doe to eternall life they toyle themselves more and suffer more to worke out their own damnation then the godly doe in working out their salvation To be wicked in the height is the height of trouble Solomon saith that a good man is mercifull to his beast but a wicked man is unmercifull to himselfe he will tire himselfe more then a good man will tire his beast This is a certaine truth he that will follow sinne and serve his own lusts especially the lust of pride and oppression whosoever serveth those lusts serveth a hard master a master that will make him toile and sweat and weary himselfe while he lives and at the last pay him with death The worke of sin is bad enough but as to the sinner the wages of sinne is worse The last thing I shall note from it is this There the wicked cease from troubling There where is that At the grave when they come to die they make an end of their troubling not before Observe then Wicked men will never cease troubling untill they cease to live In the grave they cease troubling there they are at rest If they should live an eternity in this world they would trouble the world to eternity As a godly man never gives over doing good he will doe good as long as he lives though he fetches many a weary step so wicked men never give over doing evill untill they step into the grave And the reason of it is because it is their nature to doe
extreame lye that was in the Minor in the Assumption namely that the profession and holinesse of Job was grounded onely upon outward things he I say perceiving that seekes to confirme what he had affirm'd by this motion If you doubt saith he whether it be so or no with Job let that come to the tryall touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face The strength of the reason that lyes in the motion may be thus conceived That profession is grounded upon outward things which a man layes downe when outward things are removed and taken away but if those outward things be removed and taken away from Iob he will quicly lay downe his profession yea he will take up blasphemy he will curse thee to thy face therefore the profession of Iob is grounded upon outward things This now is the logick or the reason upon which Satan bottomes and inferres this motion that so he may bring Iob upon a further tryall Put forth thine hand now The Hebrew is send forth thy hand To put foorth the hand signifies sometimes to help and sometimes to hurt So in Ps 144.7 send forth thine hand and deliver me There is a sending forth the hand in a way of mercy And so Act. 4.30 there Peter prayeth that Christ would stretch forth his hand to heale So that stretching forth or sending forth or putting forth the hand for the words are all used in common to the same sense signifie to doe a thing for our good and preservation But usually this putting forth or stretching forth of the hand notes some affliction some punishment A man that standeth with his hand stretched out is in a posture to strike And so God himselfe is often described by having his hand stretched forth when he is about to punish as in the Prophecy of Isaiah divers times Chap. 5.25 Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people and he hath stretched forth his hand against them and hath smitten them and Chap. 9. three times vers 12. For all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still and so at the 17th verse and at the 21. verse His anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still that is the Lord is still smiting and afflicting them In the 6th of Esther verse 2. Two men were found in the Chronicle who sought to lay or put forth their hands on the King Ahasuerus scil they would have slaine him Then the meaning of Satan here is stretch foorth thine hand let him feele the weight of thine hand in smitings and sore afflictions Thy hand The hand of God in Scripture signifies First the purpose of God as that Act. 4.28 They have done whatsoever thy hand and thy counsell determined before to be done that is whatsoever according to thy purpose thou didst determine 2. The hand of God signifies the Spirit of God in the mighty actings and workings of it so a Spirit of prophecy is called the hand of God Ezek. 1.3 The hand of the Lord was there upon me And Ezek. 37.1 The hand of the Lord was upon me that is the Spirit of the Lord a mighty power of prophecy was upon me So likewise a spirit of strength that is upon a man is called the hand of God 1 King 18. ult The hand of the Lord was upon Elijah and he girt up his loynes and ran before Ahab Here the hand of the Lord is put for the power of the Lord put forth thy hand that is put forth thy power and so the hand of the Lord is used often Isa 59.1 The hand of the Lord is not shortened that is the power of the Lord is not abated The Lord hath a long hand and his hand is alwayes of the same length so stretch forth thine hand now that is doe thou put forth thy mighty power This hand of the Lords power to cleare that a little further is taken 3 wayes in Scripture First For his protecting power There is a protecting hand as Joh. 10.28 No man is able to plucke them out of my Fathers hand saith Christ God hath his sheepe in his hand and he will protect and safeguard them so that none shall be able to plucke them away This hand God put forth before for Job Againe It is put for his correcting-power as Psal 32.4 His hand was heavy upon me that is the afflicting hand of God was heavy upon me Let us fall into the hand of God David chose that 2 Sam. 24.14 that is into the afflicting hand of God rather than into the hands of men It is put thirdly for a revenging hand for a wrathfull hand by which he doth destroy and breake in peeces those who are his enemies Heb. 10.31 It is a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of the living God David desireth to fall into the hands of God sell into his correcting hand because he knew there was mercy but it is a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of God when he commeth in wrath to take vengeance of those who contemptuously despise his mercy as there it is expressed Now here when Satan saith Put forth thy hand that is thine hand of power Satan intendeth not that God should put forth the hand of his power to protect nor barely to correct He desireth more then barely a correcting or chastising hand upon Job he would have his revenging hand his breaking his destroying hand as we shall see afterward Further Thy hand that is Gods owne hand as if he did desire that God himselfe would take Job into his own hand to chasten and punish him The hand of God his correcting or chastising hand sometimes is an immediate and sometimes a mediate hand Sometimes it is immediate when God by himself doth chasten or punish or afflict when no second cause doth appeare or interveene So it may seem Satan here meanes when he saith put forth thine hand that is doe it thine owne selfe let no other have the handling of Job but thy selfe God doth send such immediate afflictions a man is afflicted in his body in his estate and many other wayes and he cannot find any thing in the creature whence it should come it is an immediate stroke of God he cannot see how or which way or at what doore this evill came in upon him therefore it is called a creating of evill Isa 45.7 I make peace and create evill Now creation is out of nothing there is nothing out of which it is wrought So many times God bringeth evill upon a people or person when there is no appearance of second causes no matter out of which it is made but it comes as a creature formed by the only hand of God Sometimes likewise it is called Gods hands when it is the hand of a creature it is Gods hand in a creatures hand Gods hand when it is the hand of wicked men Gods hand when it is Satans hand So that
the souls under the Altar cry How long Lord how long They cry to God how long they knew that he only had the time in his hand he only could tell how long and it should be as long as he pleased How long Lord They cryed not to cruell tyrants how long will ye persecute but Lord how long will it be before thou come to revenge And so David Psal 31.15 My time it is in thy hand speaking of his afflictions There is no affliction but it is in the hand of God for the continuance of it as well as for the manner of it and as no enemie man or devill can make thy crosse greater or longer or heavier so no friend man or Angell can make thy crosse lighter or lesser or shorter then God himselfe hath appointed Onely upon himselfe shalt thou not put forth thine hand thou shalt not move an inch further not a haires bredth further As our afflictions for the matter of them are by the will of God as the Apostle speaks 1 Pet. 4.19 While you suffer saith he according to the will of God those words according to the will of God note not only the righteousnesse of suffering that it must be in a good cause but also the spring from whence those sufferings come they are Ex voluntate Dei so Mr. Beza translates it they are out of the will of God Now I say as they are out of the will of God or from the will of God springing from his will and flowing from his dispensation of things in the matter of them so also in every circumstance God himself gives thy crosse length and bredth and thicknesse he fills thy cup of sorrow he directeth how many drops to a drop shall be put into it thou shalt not have a drop more then God prescribes and which is more comfortable knowes will be for thy good Secondly Observe That Satan is boundlesse in his malice toward the people of God If God did not set him bounds he would set himselfe no bounds therefore saith God unto him Onely upon himselfe c. He had a mind to have gone further he would have been upon Job himselfe as well as upon his estate if God had not stop'd and curb'd him Therefore the Apostle gives that assurance for the comfort of the people of God 1 Cor. 10.13 God saith he is faithfull who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able As if he should say Satan would with all his heart lay more upon you than you are able to beare Satan would breake your backs if he were let alone but God will not suffer it Satan hath a boundlesse malice against the people of God Some observe this from his name Leviathan Isa 27.1 In that day the Lord with his great and strong Sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing Serpent Leviathan is put there for Satan and for all the instruments of Satan now Leviathan signifieth in the Hebrew an augmentation an addition or an increase And Satan is so called because say they he ever desires to lay more burdens upon to increase the afflictions troubles and temptations of Gods people he never thinkes he hath done enough against them His thirst to worke mischiefe is never quenched but still he desires to doe more he would faine have his Commission inlarged to doe more mischiefe in the world Therefore God is said not to strike after their stroake in the 7th verse of that 27. of Isa Hath hee smitten him as he smit those that smote him In the Hebrew it is Hee hath not smitten him according to the stroake of those that smote him according to their stroake noting that the stroake of Leviathan and the stroake of his instruments is an unmeasurable stroake a boundlesse stroake they would never give over striking They thinke the wound is never deepe enough nor blood shed enough but saith the Prophet verse 8. God doth it in measure so that he opposeth their striking to Gods afflicting by the measure of it God keepeth his afflictions in such a bound and compasse he afflicts in measure but Satans stroake and the stroakes of wicked men are without all measure that is without all moderation unlesse God stop them they would never make an end Lastly Observe how Satan is by this proved a deceiver he intended more than he spake you may see it plainly in this because God put a restraint upon him Touch all that he hath saith Satan that referred to his possessions outward estate as if that had bin the mind of Satan in the motion do but afflict him in his outward estate I desire no more to make this tryal now when the Lord saith All that he hath is in thy hand there he grants him the motion in the letter of it but the Lord God saw that Satan had a further reach when he said Touch all that he hath which words seeme to extend no further then his estate but had not God limited and restrain'd him he by an indefinite grant to his motion had likewise fallen upon his person that was the great morsell he gaped after all this while he would have been doing with Job himselfe else there was no need of this limitation Onely upon himselfe put not forth thy hand Satans fingers itcht to be medling with Job though his words called for what he had not for himselfe And Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. As soone as he hath leave and his Commission he is gone presently He went out from the presence of the Lord. The word is he went out from the face of the Lord Now the face of the Lord in Scripture it is taken sometimes for the essentiall glory of God that inaccessible Majesty of God Exod. 33. ult Thou canst not behold my face Sometimes the face of God is put for the favour and love of God Cause thy face to shine upon thy Sanctuary which is desolate Dan. 9.17 and cause thy face to shine upon thy servant So in many other places the face of God is put for the favour of God because as the favour and love of a man is seene and discovered in his face so there is somewhat in those dealings of God which discover God he is said to make his face to shine upon his people when he doth discover by any act of his that he loves and favours them that is the shining of his face upon them The face interprets the heart and shewes the meaning of the spirit so in those things which interpret somewhat of the love of God to us God is said to make his face shine upon us On the other side the face of God is put sometimes for the anger and wrath of God because anger is seene in the face too so in those things by which God discovereth his anger he is said to set his face against men there is an expresse place for it in this sense Lam. 4.16 The anger of the Lord the
bruise and breake the heart of their tender Father Afflictions presse most when they are least expected Let us observe then this mixture of malice and cunning in Satan in choosing his time To carry a man from one extremity to another puts him upon the greatest extremity To make the day of a mans greatest rejoycing to be the day of his deepest sorrowes this is cutting if not killing sorrow To be brought from extreame sorrow to extreame joy suddenly doth rather amaze then comfort the spirit of a man It is said that when the Lord turned againe the captivity of Zion the people were like them that dreame the change was so great so sudden that they were rather astonished and amazed then comforted with it for a while So much more to be hurried from extreame joy to extreame sorrow from the borders of comfort to the brinke of death on a sudden is not so much to afflict a man as to confound and distract him This course Satan takes with Job It were well if we could be wise in this respect to imitate Satan to choose out our day to do good when there is greatest probability of successe as he chose out his day to do mischief It is the Apostles rule as you have opportunity doe good if wee could be wise to lay hold upon opportunities it would be a wonderfull advantage to us as a word fitly spoken is word upon the wheele so a worke fitly done is a worke upon the wheele it goeth on takes upon the heart both of God and man Let us consider whether now we have not a season whether this be not a day that holds forth to us a glorious opportunity Surely we may present this day unto you as a day to be doing in Let us therefore be as quick in this our day to doe good as Satan was in that day to doe hurt This is a day wherein great things are a doing and grievous things are a suffering by many of our bretheren therefore you should be working this day make a day on 't This is a day in which sonnes of Belial men that will not beare Christs yoke are combining to breake it and to cast his coards from them Then joyne this day to helpe Christ else as Mordecai said to Esther If thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time this was a day for Esther to worke in then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jewes from another place but thou and thy fathers house shall be destroyed So I may say to you in reference to the present opportunity if you altogether hold your peace hold your purses and hold your hands at this time at such a day as this enlargement will come to the Church some other way but you may be destroyed who thinke to hold and keepe your peace either by saying or doing nothing If ever you will appeare this is a day to appeare in to doe good Let us be wise to manage and improve our day That it may never be said of us as our Lord Christ did of Jerusalem If yee had knowne even ye in this your day the things which belong unto your peace Luk. 19.42 It is a sadder thing to have had a season and not to know it sc not to use it then not to have had it Solomon tells us Eccles 8.6 That Because to every purpose there is a time and judgement therefore the misery of man is great upon him Misery cannot be great to a man because there is a time for every purpose but because men are either so blind that they cannot see or so sluggish that they will not make use of the proper time for every purpose Thus the preacher himselfe expounds it Chap. 9.12 For man also knoweth not his time as the fishes that are taken in an evill not and as the birds are taken in a snare so are the sonnes of men snared in an evill time when it falleth suddenly upon them Consider what Solomons experience taught him Let not your inadvertency of these times make you a new experiment of that ancient truth And leave men that should be wise especially that pretend to wisedome to be numbred among and compared with a silly bird a silent fish Then again Forasmuch as it was the day of their great feast of their feast with wine upon which this great affliction assaulted Job Observe That the fairest and clearest day of our outward comfort may be clouded and overcast before the evening It was as faire a day as ever began in Jobs family a feast and a feast with wine and that in the eldest Brothers house and yet all was darkenesse before night This is true in reference to ungodly men great and terrible judgements fall suddainly upon them their light is turned into darknesse in a moment as Christ compares it to the dayes of Noah and the dayes of Lot As it was saith he in the dayes of Noah they did eate they dranke they married wives they were given in marriage untill the day that Noah entred into the Arke and the flood came and destroyed them all and as it was in the dayes of Lot c. both which are in two words set out by the Apostle when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction commeth Thus it is with ungodly men their Sunne often sets at noone when they say yea when they conclude all 's well then judgement mixt with wrath is at the doore This is a truth also in reference unto godly men and the Churches of God all their outward comforts may be clouded in a day while they are eating and drinking not sinfully but in a holy manner suppose as the Apostle adviseth to the glory of God yet even at that time all may presently be taken away And therefore as the Apostle saith rejoyce as if you rejoyced not in the creature and eate as if you did not eate and buy as if you possessed not Why For the fashion of this world the Scheme of this world passeth away You see it did with Job in what a goodly fashion was his worldly estate in the morning how was it drest and adorned in perfect beauty in all its excellencies as we heard it before described yet before night all the fashion of it past away and the beauty of it was quite blasted Therefore you that have great estates and good estates estates well gotten and well govern'd be not high-minded trust not in uncertaine riches If riches increase and if they increase in a right way yet set not your hearts upon them for the fashion of worldly things quickly passeth away Riches make themselves wings to fly away when thou art making doores and locks bolts and barres to keepe them in That for the time in the 13th verse But what did Satan upon this day That is set forth in the 14th v. and so on And there came a messenger unto Job and said The Oxen were plowing and
that prayer For sitting we have 2 Sam. 2.18 When Nathan brought that message unto David concerning the building of the house of God that it should be deferred till his sonnes time the Text saith That David went in and sate before the Lord and said who am I O Lord And in the end he saith Therefore have I found in my heart to pray this prayer unto thee We also find walking in prayer Gen. 24.63 Isaac went out into the field to pray He walked and pray'd we translate it to meditate but in the margin of your bookes you find it to pray as being nearer the Hebrew So that walking and sitting and standing are likewise praying gestures or postures of holy worship But chiefly that posture of bowing downe the body or bending the knee is the worship posture so it followes in the Text. He fell upon the ground and worshipped And worshipped To vvorship is to give to any one the honour due unto him So the rendering unto God that love that feare that service that honour vvhich is due unto him is the worshipping of God that 's the Scripture definition Psal 29.2 Give unto the Lord the honour due unto his name then followes by vvay of exposition Worship the Lord in the beauty of holinesse that is in his holy Temple in his beautifull Sanctuary or in the comely honour of his Sanctuary So that worship is the tendering of honour to the Lord in a vvay honourable to him namely according to his own vvill and Lawes of vvorship vvhich is intimated by comming to worship him in his beautifull Sanctuary where all things about the service of God vvere exactly prescribed by God And then there was beauty or comely honour in the Sanctuary vvhen all things vvere ordered there by the rule of his prescription varying and departing from vvhich vvould have filled that holy place vvith darknesse and deformity notwithstanding all the outward lustre and beauty had bin preserved The worship of God is two-fold there is internall worship and there is externall worship Internall worship is to love God to feare God and to trust upon him these are acts of inward worship these are the summe of our duty and Gods honour contained in the first Commandement And so you may understand vvorship in the Text. Iob fell downe and worshipped that is presently upon those reports hee put forth an act of love and holy feare acts of dependance and holy trust upon God in his Spirit saying to this effect within himselfe Lord though all this be come upon me yet I will not depart from thee or deale falsly in thy Covenant I know thou art still the same Jehovah true holy gracious faithfull All-sufficient and therefore behold me prostrate before thee and resolving still to love thee still to feare thee still to trust thee thou art my God still and my portion for ever Though I had nothing left in the world that I could call mine yet thou Lord alone art enough yet thou alone art All. Such doubtlesse vvas the language of Iobs heart and these were mighty actings of inward worship Then likewise there is externall worship which is the summe of the second Commandement and it is nothing else but the serving of the Lord according to his owne Ordinances and institution in those severall wayes wherein God will be honoured and served this is outward vvorship and as we apply our selves unto them so we are reckon'd to worship God Job worshipped God outwardly by falling to the ground by powring out supplications and by speaking good words of God as we reade afterward words tending to his owne abasement and the honour of God clearely and fully acquitting and justifying the Lord in all those works of his providence and dispensations towards him This is worship both internall and externall Internall worship is the chiefe but God requireth both and there is a necessity of joyning both together that God may have honour in the world Internall worship is compleat in it selfe and pleasing unto God without the externall The externall may be compleat in it selfe but is never pleasing to God without the internall Internall worship pleases God most but externall honours God most for by this God is knowne and his glory held forth in the world Externall worship is Gods name Hence the Temple was called the place where God put his Name sc his worship by which God is knowne as a man by his name They that worship God must worship him in Sprit and in Truth In Spirit that is with inward love and feare reverence and sincerity In Truth that is according to the true rule prescribed in his word Spirit respects the inward power Truth the outward forme The former strikes at hypocrisie the latter strikes at Idolatry The one opposes the inventions of our heads the other the loosenesse of our hearts in worship Observe further that it is only said Job fell downe and worshipped nothing is said of the object to whom he did direct his worship or whom he did worship The object is not exprest but understood or presupposed And indeed worship is a thing so proper and peculiar to God that when we name worship we must needs understand God For nothing but God or that which we make a god is or can be worshipped Either he is God whom we worship or as much as in us lies we make him one What creature so ever shares in this honour this honour ipso facto sets it up above and makes it more then a creature The very Heathens thought every thing below a God below worship therefore there needed not an expression of the object when the Text saith Job worshipped that implyes his worship was directed unto God yet there is a kind of worship which is due to creatures There is a civill worship mentioned in Scripture as well as divine worship Civill worship may be given to men And there is a two-fold civill worship spoken of in Scripture There is a civill worship of duty and there is a civill worship of courtesie That of duty is from inferiours to their superiours from children to their Parents from servants to their Masters from Subjects to Kings and Magistrates These gods must have civill worship As Gen. 48.11 vvhen Joseph came into the presence of Jacob his father he bowed downe to the ground this vvas a civill vvorship and a vvorship of duty from an inferiour to a superiour And it is said of the brethren of Judah Gen. 49.8 when Jacob on his death-bed blessed the 12. Tribes Thy brethren shall worship thee or bow downe to thee It is the same vvord used here in this Text. Judahs honour vvas to vvield the Scepter the government was laid upon his shoulders now he being the chiefe Magistrate all the rest of the Tribes all his brethren must vvorship him or give civill honour unto him Secondly There is likewise a worship of courtesie vvhich is from equals when one equall vvill bow to another or vvhen a
of Learning were seated Jer. 49.7 Concerning Edom thus saith the Lord Is wisedome no more in Teman Two things may be gathered from that Text. First That Teman was in Edom or Idumea Secondly That it was a place wherein there was much profession of wisedome and learning So then we may take the word Temanite either as referring unto the Stock from which Eliphaz sprung or unto the place where Eliphaz lived The Hebrewes referre it unto his Stock or pedigree And the Caldee Paraphrase is for the place or Country Jobs second friend was Bildad the Shuhite All that I find for his pedigree is that he came from one of the sonnes of Abraham by his second wife Keturah of whom it is said Gen. 25.1 That she bare him Zimram and Jockshan with others and Shuah From which Shuah was the family of the Shuhites And it is conceived that Bildad was of that line and therefore here called Bildad the Shuhite And for the last Zophar the Naamathite there is lesse certainty concerning him Some will have him to be Zepho mentioned Gen. 36.11 who was Grand-child to Esau by Eliphaz his eldest sonne And for his additionall name Naamathite the best conjecture which I find takes it from Naamah the name of a City spoken of Josh 15.41 in the division of the promised Land to the Children of Israel Now it is said that these three upon the report of all the evill that was come upon Job came to visit him for they had made an appointment together to come or they all agreed together they came not by accident but by appointment The word signifieth to meete by solemne agreement Hence the place where the children of Israel used to meete to solemnize the worship of God before the building of the Temple was called the Tabernacle of the Congreation because they were to congregate or meete there at set times to celebrate the name of God according to his own institution And in the thirtieth Chapter of this Booke the grave is called Beth-mogned v. 23. the house of the gathering together of all men according to that Statute of Heaven It is appointed unto men once to dye Heb. 9.27 It is the fancie of Origen upon this place that these three friends came at adventure that they came all of them severall wayes unknowne to or without the privity of one another from their severall Countries and met as it were by miracle at Jobs house the same day and houre But the Text is cleere that there was a profest covenant and agreement made by which they came together They came saith the Text to mourne with him and to comfort him In these words we have the end or intendment of their coming First They came to mourne with him The word which we translate to mourne signifieth to move the body or to passe from place to place Cain after that sinne of his in murthering his Brother Gen. 4. hath this judgement pass'd by God upon him that he should be a fugitive and a vagabond he should be Nod a mover from place to place and afterwards it is said he dwelt in the Land of Nod which some interpret for a speciall place for a Country called Nod but it is taken by others thus hee dwelt in the Land of Nod that is where ever he dwelt he found the Land as it were moving it was a moving a shaking a trembling Land to him He dwelt in the Land of Nod His conscience quaking continually by reason of the guilt that was upon him for murdering his Brother the earth also seemed to quake under him wheresoever he went or dwelt That only by the way The same word here used in the Text by a Metaphor signifies to mourne or compassionate the afflictions and miseries of another So Nah. 3.6 Nineveh is laid wast who will be moane her And Isa 51.19 These two things are come unto thee who shall be sorry for thee And the reason why this word which signifieth properly to move is translated to signifie mourning in compassion with others may be either first this because such persons will runne goe or move from place to place to give and administer comfort to their friends whose afflictions affect and grieve them as we see here in these friends of Job they took a long journey they moved indeed when they came to mourne Or rather secondly as I conceive for this reason because such compassionate sorrowes and mournings when our friends are under deepe and sore afflictions are usually exprest by moving the body or at least moving some member of the body as many times the hand is lifted up and we strike our breasts or we shake the head It is ordinary in compassionate sorrowes thus to move the hand or the head and so the word is used to signifie mourning from that act which accompanies or testifies mourning And the same word is sometimes used to signifie that trepidation or trembling of the heart those convulsions of the spirit upon the approaches of our own troubles So Isa 7.2 That fearfull motion and disquietnesse both of Prince and people when they heard of the invasion of their Country by Rezin King of Syria c. is thus exprest The heart of the King and the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the wood are moved with the winde Secondly It is said they came to comfort him The word which is there used to comfort signifies likewise to mourne and especially the mournings of repentance or to repent for sin with sorrow the reason is given because true comfort doth spring from repentance Joy often ariseth out of sorrow and so the same word is applied to both Worldly joy and sorrow are contraries but godly joy and sorrow are con-causes mutually effecting and helping one another We have here an excellent patterne held forth unto us of our duty in reference unto distressed persons or Nations First thus It is both an act and an argument of true friendship to mourne with and comfort those that are in affliction A man doth then set his seale to it that he is a friend when he will partake and share in his friends afflictions when he will divide with him in all estates whatsoever it is whether sweet or sowre joy or sorrow he will have his part Many friends will come and rejoyce with you they will come to a feast with you they will meete at a house of mirth with you but they fall off and goe backe when they must weepe with you when if they come they must come to a house of mourning Solomon Prov. 17.17 gives us the true character of a friend A friend loveth at all times and a brother is borne for adversitie It is the note and triall of our love to God when we love him at all times what ever he doth with us And it is the argument of true love unto our bretheren when we love and owne them at all times whatsoever they