ad percutiendum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye go out with a message of peace in your â—â—uths let there not be so much as an instrument of contention in your hands But in Mark he useth the word Misnan which signifies a staff to lean upon Take a staff to rest or ease your selves upon or to help your selves on in your travell Virga vel baculus ad sust entandum A walking staff but not a striking staff Thus they reconcile the difference But though this interpretation be good yet this ground of it appears not either in the Syriack which in both texts hath the word Shebet or in the Greek which expresses both by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So then we must rather say that the same word signifies a staff for both uses and that when Christ forbids his Disciples a staff he means a staff to strike with Preachers must be no strikers according to the Apostles rule in Timothy and that when he bids them take a staff he means a walking staff Iunerant Preachers might be wearied with travelling as well as with speaking But to the Text. The rod which Job desires might be removed Nihil aliud postulat Iob quam ut Deus vel mittigaret vel penitus auferret ab eo flagella sc morbos dolores Non aâ—at pro jure sed gratiae moderationi faciat locum Coc. is That sore affliction which the soveraign power of God laid upon him and exercised him with As if he had said Lord thou dealest with me upon the height of thy prerogative and I acknowledge thou maiest do so But my humble sute and prayer is that thou wouldest afflict me lesse then thou hast though thou hast not afflicted me more then thou maiest Thou hast not injured me at all but ô that thou wouldest relieve me He speaks to this sense with a little variety of words Chap. 13.20 21. Onely doe not two things unto me then will I not hide my self from thee with-draw thine hand from me and let not thy dread make me afraid And in a language not unlike this he describes the peace and prosperity of wicked men Chap. 21.9 Their houses are safe from fear neither is the rod of God upon them We finde also that Elihu who undertook Job and debated the matter with him when these three had no more to say or would say no more He I say perceiving what it was which Job had complained of as an impediment of speaking unto God promises that himfelf would give him no such impediment or cause of complaint Chap. 33.7 Behold my terrour shall not make thee afraid neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee As if he had said The Lords hand hath been heavy upon thee and his terrour hath made thee afraid but take my word I will deal gently and mildly with thee My terrour shall not make thee afraid neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee So that Jobs desire is only this That he might have ease or release from â—is present sorrows And 't is not improbably conceived that he alludes to the custom of the Judges in those Eastern Countries who laid a rod upon some offenders in token of condemation and took it off from others in token of absolution of grace and favour Take thy rod away from me Affliction is called a rod in a three-fold consideration 1. Because of the smart of it Afflictions are grievous and painfull to flesh and bloud They grieve and pain the outward man while the inward man takes pleasure in them I saith Paul take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in persecutions in necessities in distresses for Christs sake 2 Cor. 12.10 that is my spirit doth for no affliction not that for Christs sake is joyous for the present but grievous to the flesh For as the Spirit would not doe those evils of sin which the flesh would and doth The evil which I would not that I doe was Pauls cry Rom. 7.19 So the flesh would not endure those evils of sorrow which the Spirit would and doth And as a believer delights in the Law of God after the inward man when corruption is vext and troubled at it so a believer delights in the rod of God after the inward man when corruption is most impatient and unquiet under it Hence the Apostles counsell to the dispersed Jews Rejoyce when ye fall into divers temptations Jam. 1. that is into divers afflictions the flesh hath it's sense and feels smart but the Spirit is armed with faith which overcomes the smart Affliction were not so much as a rod if it did not make us smart and we are not so much as Christians if we cannot bear the smart with patience or overcome it with faith 2. Affliction is called a Rod in regard of the hand that useth it A sword is in the hand of a Judge and a Rod in the hand of a father God deals with his people as a father with his children in afflicting them When we most provoke his fatherly displeasure against us he doth not wish as Balaam when his Asse offended him that there were a sword in his hand to slay us he only takes up a rod to scourge us Hence 3. Affliction is called a rod in regard of the end for which it is sent A rod is not prepared to kill nor is it an instrument of cruelty A rod is not for destruction but for correction There are indeed destroying rods which God will destroy and save his people who are destroied by them I will destroy the rod of the oppressour Isa 9.4 Nebuchadnezzar the rod of Gods anger was a destroying rod yet they among the Jews who feared God were only corrected while they were destroied The Lord means no hurt to those who are good when he makes them smart and die under the rod of those who are evil If ever any man might think he had a sword in his bowels rather then a rod upon his back Job might yet even he cals it a rod while he cals to God for the removing of it Remove thy rod away from me And seeing he cals to have it removed we may observe That it is lawfull for to pray against affliction We may pray to be eased of that which we must be patient under To be discontented with affliction is sinfull buâ— it is no sinne it is a duty to desire the taking of it away For 1. We may pray for the preventing of afflictions therefore we may pray for the removing of afflictions we may pray Lord keep thy rod off from us therefore we may pray Lord take thy rod off from us 2. Afflictions themselves are evil There is no good in them nor can they doe us any good of themselves The good commeth from a superiour work from those admirable influences and concurrences of God upon and with corrections The rod is an evil in it self and will make us worse unlesse the Lord make it a blessing to us Some are
and the abundance of that mercy which was brought in afterwards and revealed by Jesus Christ when he actually made our atonement by the bloud of his crosse For howsoever it is undeniable that the faithfull under the old Testament had knowledge of that satisfaction which was to be made by the Mediatour for the removing of sinne and the taking away of guilt every sacrifice spake this shewing that there was an atonement to be made by some other bloud which the bloud of the sacrifice typified yet notwithstanding there was not a clearing and a quieting of their hearts because Christ though in the promise slain from the beginning of the world was not actually slain nor offered up for sinners The Apostle Heb. 10.1 2. argues upon the same point That the Law with those Sacrifices could not make the commers thereunto perfect that is it could not assure the heart that sinne was taken away for if it could then saith he the sacrifices should not have needed to be offered up so often What needed any repetition seeing they who were once so purged should have had no more conscience of sinne that is sinne should never have troubled and vexed their consciences any more But now Christ by one offering hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified vers 14. that is he hath made a perfect satisfaction for them and compleated the peace of their consciences So then while there remaineth any scruple about sinne fears of evil will hang upon the spirit And we finde that the old Saints were very fearfull of outward afflictions because they had as it were a relish or taste of the disfavour and displeasure of God in them And in proportion as any of them had more or lesse of free grace appearing to them so they were more or lesse enthralled with these fears We may observe thorow out the old Testament that there was not such a spirit of rejoycing in sufferings and afflictions as we finde breakings forth in the new Paul never saith I am afraid of all my sorrows No he saith As sorrowfull yet alwaies rejoycing You never hear him complain of his afflictions He indeed complains of his corruptions O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death But he never said O miserable man how am I afflicted I am in deaths often who shall deliver me from this death of the body We finde the Saints under the Gospel clothed with a spirit of exultation and rejoycing of which we hear little if any thing at all under the Law The want of which we are to ascribe to their want of a clear light about the removing of guilt and the pardon of sin I know thou wilt not hold me innocent Thirdly Observe That God often deals with his best servants in regard of outward troubles as if they were guilty I know thou wilt not hold me innocent that is thou wilt not deal with me as with an innocent person As the Lord dealt with his Son so he deals with his servants God the Father dealt with Jesus Christ as with a guilty person Isa 53.9 12. He was numbred among transgressours and made his grave with the wicked The Lord reckoned him as a sinner while he was satisfying his justice for sinne and making an atonement for sinners Job is no where called a type of Christ but he was like him and their parallel might be drawn in many things especially in this that both were numbred with the wicked and in that both were used as if they had been guilty The dispensations of God to his own beloved Sonne once did and to his faithfull servants often doe look like those to the greatest transgressours His Son was handled so that he might redeem sinners his servants are so handled sometimes to prevent often to purge them from sin sometimes to try their graces alwaies to make them fitter vessels for glory Though we cannot make any earnings toward glory by the weightiest afflictions yet these light afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a farre more exceeding and eternall weight of glory I shall passe from this reference of the word Thou when I have briefly vindicated the text from the corruptions of some Papists Bellarm. l. 5. de justif cap. 5. who urge it to prove the uncertainty of our justification Job say they doubted whether God would declare him just or no. I answer Justified persons may have doubts yet that doth not argue the uncertainty of justification Justification is a sure act in it self and we may be sure of it though some are unsetled about it This Scripture gives no shelter much lesse support to that doctrine of doubting The Vulgar reading grossely varying from the originall is all the shadow it hath in this place For as that Translatour mistakes the former clause which he renders I am afraid of all my works So this later which he renders Sciens quod non parceres delinquenti Vulg. Knowing that thou wilt not pardon or spare him that offendeth He that seeks to be justified by his works shall not want fears about his justification And if this be a truth which their translation seems to hold forth that God will not pardon him that offendeth the best and holiest men in the world have reason not only to fear whether they are justified but to resolve they can never be justified in his sight If every man that sinneth must doubt of the pardon of sinne all men must doubt In that common acception of the word offend it is false that God will not pardon him that offends whom should he pardon but such as offend They who are above sin are above pardon Job never thought God would not pardon him because he had sinned it being one of the royall titles of God The God pardoning iniquity transgression and sinne But if we take sinning or offending in a stricter sense as it imports a man obstinate and still engaged with delight to sin in which sense the next title of the Lords great name after Forgiving iniquity transgression and sinne is to be understood And that will by no means clear the guilty Exod. 34.7 The Hebrew is And that clearing will not clear We supply the word guilty which the Chaldee well explains by this periphrasis Him that will not convert or turn to the Lord such offenders the Lord will not pardon But to say that the Lord will not spare and pardon such guilty persons such delinquents as will not return unto him but go on to adde one wickednesse to another is no deniall of the Saints assurance of pardon they being already turned and converted to the Lord. So much for that clause as the antecedent referres unto God I know thou wilt not hold me innocent But rather take the antecedent to be Bildad I know Thou Bildad wilt not hold me innocent as if Job had said When I think of comforting my self my wounds bleed afresh and my sorrows present themselves to
stubborn under the rod and their hearts are hardened while themselves are melted in the fire of affliction As man lives not by bread alone So man mends not by the rod alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God T is little lesse then a miracle that this dry rod as that of Aaron did naturall should blossom and bring forth spirituall fruit the fruits of righteousnesse 3. We may pray for the removing of afflictions because the Lord often sends afflictions upon this message to bespeak praier Many a soul is sluggish in prayer till awakened by the voice of the rod. When the rod makes the flesh smart then the Spirit in whom any thing of the Spirit is cries mightily unto God and among the many things about which the soul exercises prayer under afflictions this is one that the affliction may be removed As they alwaies sin who murmur at and quarrell with God because he corrects them so also doe they who say they care not how long he corrects them or let him correct them as long as he will It is as ill a sign when a childe will not pray his parent to spare him when he is about to chasten him or to stay his hand when he is chastening of him as it is to resist his chastisement There may be greater contempt of God in lying under affliction then in resisting it Now as it is our duty to pray for deliverance out of trouble so it is one end why the Lord casts us into trouble that we may be engaged to pray for deliverance But take it with a caution we must not pray absolutely for deliverance or the removall of afflictions but at least with an implicit limitation While we are striving earnestly for the taking away of the rod we should be ready to submit if the Lord will not take it away A believer may say to the Lord as wrestling Jacob I will not let thee goe except thou blesse me but he must not say I will not let thee goe except thou now deliver me Time and means and manner must all be laid at Gods feet and submitted to his wisdome And we must honour God though he will not remove the rod even while we are praying that he would remove it For the close of this point consider the rod may be removed not only by a totall release from affliction But First By an abatement of the affliction as we are said to leave off those graces from the degrees and lively actings of which we fall and decline He that lacketh these things that is who aboundeth not as he hath heretofore in the exercise of them is blinde c. 2 Pet. 1.9 Thou hast left thy first love saith Christ to the Angel of Ephesus when the heat of his former love was cooled So the Lord may be said to remove our troubles when he remits the extremity and cools the heat of them Secondly The rod is removed when it is sanctified to us when the Lord who is excellent in working causeth it to doe us good The Saints die yet death is abolished as to the Saints by the death of Christ 2 Tim. 1.10 because Christ hath pluckt out the sting of their death and made it a gain to them Thus while Christ makes temporall losses or sufferings an advantage to the spirituall estate of his people he takes them away And as outward blessings are taken away from wicked men while they possesse them riches are not riches to them nor is their honour an honour to them because they are ensnared by them So the outward crosse is taken away from the godly while they suffer because they are bettered by the crosse Thirdly Affliction is removed from us when Christ gives us strength to bear affliction Nothing grieves us either in active or passive obedience but what is either against our wils or above our power It is all one to have a burthen taken off our shoulders or to have so much strength given as makes it easie to us While the Saints have trouble upon their backs and loins they have no trouble in their hearts and spirits when their spirits are carried above those troubles To conquer an enemy is more noble then to have none Much more which is promised the Saints in the throng of sorest enemies to be more then conquerours In all or any of these waies Jobs praier may be fulfilled Take away thy rod from me And let not thy fear terrifie me There was somewhat more upon Job then a rod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Formidabilis terribilis Emathah or it was an extraordinary rod a rod like a Scorpion Let not thy fear terrifie me The word which we translate fear comes from a root signifying that which is very formidable and terrible Fear and dread shall fall upon them Exod. 15.16 that is they shall be extremely afraid even dead with fear as the next words import They shall be still as a stone c. There is a letter added as the Hebricians observe to the word used by Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ne me transversum agat Sept. alius ne me consternet implying the excesse of fear Giants are called by this name Emims Deut. 2.11 because they are of a dreadfull aspect The whole host of Israel trembled at the sight of Goliah 1 Sam. 17.24 〈◊〉 Idols 〈◊〉 exprest by this name Emim And there is a double reason of it Either because Idols are a terrour to their worshippers we hear how at this day poor Pagans who worship Idols are extremely opprest with slavish fear of displeasing them The true God is terrible to his despisers but false Gods are terrible to their worshippers Or secondly They were called Emims in a way of contempt Yours are terrible Gods sure They have hands and handle not feet and walk not eyes and see not Here are terrible gods So then Idols are Emims either because they are really to be feared so little or because they are superstitiously feared so much Jobs fear was no needlesse fear he was not terrified with a fancy Ex vi verbi originalis ejusno di terror est qui hominem exaâ—itat quasi extra evalde distrabat though his fancy was ready enough to over-act upon his affliction and so encreased his fear Let not thy fear that is say some fearfull thoughts or sights terrifie me So Chap. 7.14 When I say My bed shall comfort me my couch shall ease my complaint then thou scarest me with dreams and terrifiest me with visions There is an humbling and a cleansing fear The fear of the Lord is clean not only in the nature of it but in the effects of it Psal 19.9 There is also an amazing and a terrifying fear such the letter of the originall imports this to be even a fear bordering upon madnesse as if he were rather frighted then afraid and scared rather then troubled Others expound this
with me Why am I brought to such a triall I am sure it is not with thee as with mortall Judges who having eyes of flesh can see no further then the out-side of things and know no more then is told them and therefore must fetch out what lies in the heart of man by examination and if examination will not do it they must do it by torture Lord there is no need thou shouldest take this course Thou canst enform thy self fully how it is with me though I should not speak a word though I am silent yet thine ear hears the voice and understands the language of my spirit Though I hide or cover my self yet the eye of thy omniscience looks quite thorow me seeing then thou hast not eyes like the eyes of men wherefore is it that thou enquirest by these afflictions after mine iniquity and searchest as men use to do after my sin Hast thou eyes of flesh or seest thou as man seeth God hath no eyes much lesse eyes of flesh God is a Spirit and therefore he cannot have eyes of flesh He is all eye and therefore properly he hath no eyes The eye is that speciall organ or member of the body into which the power of seeing is contracted but God is all over a power of seeing The body of man hath severall parts and severall honours and offices are bestowed upon every part The eye hath the great office and honour of seeing committed to it The eye is the light of the whole body and knowledge is the eye of the soul The eye of God is the knowledge of God Ipsum nomen Dei Graecum hanc videndi efficacit atem prae sesert 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nimirum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spectare contemplari dicitur Nihil est in intellectu quod noÌ„ priâ— suit in sensu The Greeks expresse God by a word which signifies to see and he is therefore said to have eyes and to see because the eye is a principall instrument and seeing a principall means by which man receives knowledge Naturalists tell us there is nothing in the understanding but that which is first in the sence The sences are doors to the minde the furniture and riches of that are conveyed in by the eyes or ears These bring informations to the understanding Naturall knowledge cannot have an immediate accesse to man and 't is but seldom that spirituall hath Both are commonly let in by sence The superiour powers must traffick with the inferiour otherwise they make no gain Though God hath no need of any help to bring in or improve his knowledge yet that is ascribed to him by which knowledge is improved He hath eyes but not of flesh he seeth but not as man Hast thou eyes of flesh Flesh by a Synechdoche is put for the whole nature of man The Word was made flesh Joh. 1.14 not body or soul but Flesh that is man consisting of soul and body Thus here eyes of flâ—sh that is mans eyes And so the later clause of the verse is an exposition of the former Oculi carnei sunt secundum carnem judicantes When he saith Hast thou eyes of flesh It is no more then this Dost thou see as man seeth To have an eie of flesh is to judge according to the flesh and to see as man seeth is to see no more then man When Samuel was sent to anoint a King over Israel in the place of Saul 1 Sam. 16.7 the Lord said concerning the first-born of Jesse Look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature because I have refused him The reason added is this For the Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart There we have Jobs doctrine of Gods seeing delivered by God himself Samuel thought he who made the fairest shew to the eie of man must needs be the man who was fairest in the eye of God but the Lord seeth what is not seen and often findes most reality in the least appearance he who hath not eyes of flesh sees beyond the flesh There are seven differences between the eye of flesh or mans eye and the eye of God 1. Mans eye is but a means or an instrument of knowledge Gods eye is his knowledge The act and the faculty are not distinct in God All in God is act Neither is God another thing from his act whatsoever is ascribed to him is himself The eye of God is God seeing The knowledge of God is God knowing The love of God is God loving 2 Man must have a two-fold light to see by an inward light the light of the eye and an outward light the light in the air without both he cannot see man doth not see as Naturalists speak by sending forth a beam or a ray from his eye to the object but by receaving or taking in a beam or a ray from the object into his eie The object issues it's species to the eye which being joyned with the visive power of the eye man seeth But God seeth in himself of himself and from himself he needs no outward light Christ is described having a fiery eye His eyes were as a flame of fire Revel 1.14 Revel 2.18 Even nature teacheth us that those creatures which have fiery eyes see in the dark and see best when it is darkest because they see by sending forth a beam or a flame from their eyes which at once apprehends the object and enlightens the passage to it God who commanded light to come out of darknesse for the use of man commands light in darknesse for his own The darknesse hideth not from thee saith David but the night shineth as the day The darknesse and the light are both alike to thee There is no darknesse nor shadow of death where any of the workers of iniquity can hide themselves Job 34.22 Thus God hath not eyes of flesh he seeth not as man seeth 3. Man seeth one thing after another his eye is not able to take in all objects at once he views now one and then another to make his judgement of them But God seeth all things together he beholdeth all at one view his eye takes and gathers in all objects and all that is in every object by one act The Lord looketh from heaven and beholdeth all the sonnes of men from the place of his habitation he looks upon all the inhabitants of the earth Psal 33.13 14. 4. An eye of flesh seeth at a distance and at such a distance Naturalists tell us there must be a due distance between the eye and the object If you put the object too neer the eye Sensibile positum super sensuÌ„ tollet sensationem the eye cannot see it That which is sensible put upon the sense takes away sensation Again if the object be very remote the eye cannot make any discovery of it The eye cannot see farre and it cannot discern so farre as it
of the dust of the ground Gen. 2.7 here Job saith Thou hast made me as the clay or Thou hast made me of the clay the sense is near the same whether we take clay for the matter out of which man was made or for the similitude according to which man was made Job speaks of himself with respect to creation for In memoriam revoca ut me è luto primùm i. e. primum hominē unde orti caeteri formaris figuli more Merc. according to the ordinary course of generation man is not made of clay The first man was made of clay and of him all men are We derive our pedigree from the dirt and are a kin to clay Job might say and so may any man Thou hast made me of the clay However Job was and man now is made as the clay that is frail brittle and weak We are composed of materials which will quickly crack and break When the holy Ghost would describe how easily Christ can shatter to pieces all the opposites of his Kingdom it is said He shall dash them in pieces like a potters vessel A potters vessel will not bear blows especially not the blows of such an instrument as is there spoken of an iron rod He shall break them with a rod of iron Psal 2.9 we may break a potters vessel with a little wand or a weak reed how then should it endure the weight and hardnesse of an iron rod The Spirit of God seems to delight in this allusion and therefore takes it up often Read Isa 45.9 Isa 64.8 Rom. 9.21 We have the state of the Jews described under this notion Jer. 18.4 The Lord bids Jeremy go down to the potters house he obeys and found the potter working a work on the wheel And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter so he made it again another vessel as seemed good to the potter to make it Then the Word of the Lord came to him saying Cannot I do to you as this potter saith the Lord Behold as the clay is in the hand of the potter so are ye in my hand O house of Israel I can form you and I can break you I can put you into what condition I please and ye ought not to be displeased at it A potters vessel is an embleme of the strongest Kingdoms How much more of the strongest men That we are made of clay intimates three things at all which Job seemeth to aim when he saith Thou hast made me as the clay First The excellency of mans frame He is not thrust together like a rude lump or masse of earth but curiously wrought Psal 139.15 To make a vessel of clay is an artificiall work not a naturall It requireth much pains but more skill Whence Job argueth Thou hast made me as the clay Thou hast shewed thy heavenly wisdome in shaping and contriving me as a vessel of honour for thy use And wilt thou bring me into dust again The remembrance of that love and care which God hath laid out upon us in our constitution is an argument moving him to pity and compassion as was shewed at the third verse Secondly That God hath made us of clay shews our utter inability to contend with God and to stand against his stroaks It is as if Job had said Lord Surely thou forgettest of what mettall I am made thou thinkest I am made of a hard rock or of invincible Adamant that I am compounded of iron and other the strongest materials Alas Lord there is no such matter I am made but as the clay A great deal of power and wisdome appeared in making me but a little power will serve to ruine me I am no sooner toucht but crackt Why then dost thou plant all thy Ordnance and discharge so many volleys of shot against me Lord What am I Am I a wall of brasse or a bulwark of stone Thou knowest I am but a wall of clay a paper wall a potters vessel a little moistened earth Will any man prepare Cannon to batter a cottage or a beetle to kill a flie Thy providence needs not make such provision against me or handle me so roughly that which is weak cals for tender usage and that which is weak may last long if tenderly used a glasse with care will continue many ages Deal gently with thy servant Remember I beseech thee thou hast made me as the clay Thirdly That we are made as the clay shews our easinesse to be overcome by temptation and our obnoxiousnesse to sin Sin is in its kinde as spirituall as grace is yet our sinfull corruption is figuratively called the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad circumagendum proclivis Metaphora ducta à laciniotis talaribus vestibus quae currentibus in stadio non sunt aptae One reason I conceive of which may be this because flesh taken properly is an occasion of sin As the sensitive part is a servant so a snare to the rationall much more to the spirituall The flesh is at once the organ and the burthen of the spirit The Apostle calling Saints to run the race of holinesse with patience gives a very sutable advice Let us lay aside every weight that is all carnall comber he that would shew himself light of foot will not take a burden upon his back he casts off his very garments to which the next words of the Apostle seem to allude Cast off every weight and the sinne which doth so easily beset us So a garment doth especially a long garment which in running daggles and folds about our heels The reason why our sinfull corruption is compared to such a garment is because it is so much assisted by this body of clay the flesh which is as a long garment to the soul hanging about it and besetting it on every side From which sense Iob seems thus to move the Lord Suppose I have sinned he had said vers 7. Thou knowest I am not wicked but suppose I have sinned and have had my failings yet Lord Remember thou hast made me as the clay I am not a pure spirit as Angels are I have a body of earth about me which clogs and hinders me in every duty which many waies endangers me unto every sinne God himself takes up this as an argument to spare sinfull man Psal 78.39 when the people of Israel rebelled against him He many a time turned his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath What staid him The next words give a reason for he remembred that they were but flesh that is weak and very subject unto sin This argument prevails again Psal 103.14 Like as a father spareth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him Why For he knoweth their frame he remembreth that they are dust As if the very matter out of which man was first made though without sin were some disadvantage to him in the resisting of sin It was a disadvantage
before man had any sinne in him how much more is it now when most men have nothing at all in them but sin and the best have very much That which is born of the flesh saith Christ Ioh. 3.6 is flesh His meaning is corrupt nature can produce none but corrupt acts It is a truth also that our pure nature because it was constituted as of other parts so of flesh the soul like a sparkling diamond being set in clay was thereby rendered more prone to fleshly or sinfull acts Naturall flesh in its best state is more apt to bring forth spirituall flesh namely sinne then a spirit is Angeli idcirco irremissibilitèr peccaverunt quia tanto robustius stare poterant quanto eos carnis commix tio non tenebat Greg. Moral in loc And that 's a reason among others which some give why God was so irreconcilably angry with the Angels which fell why he did never so much as mention them in a way of mercy or discovered a thought of them for good since their fall I say one reason given is this Because God could not remember that Angels were made as the clay or formed out of the dust They were created spirits pure spirits they had no clogs of flesh and bloud about them no fogs no mists vapouring up from a sensitive part to cloud their intellectuall They had the more power to continue pure because they were free from any earthly and elementary mixtures Their sin was a compound of more evils because their nature was so simple Angels having no tempter without them no flesh about them turned themselves away from God meerly upon the freedom of their own wils As every good action is by so much the better by how much it hath a freer concurrence of our wils so is every evil action so much the worse The sinne we commit is the greater by how much we have had the lesse provocation to commit it The sinne of our first parents in eating the forbidden fruit was aggravated in it self because God gave them such plenty and variety of other fruits to eat but it was lessened in comparison of the Angels sinne because they had more provocations to sinne then the Angels had The bait of the temptation against our first parents was laid in their constitution which being corporall and earthly must needs be delighted with earthly objects The forbidden fruit was pleasant to the eye there the flesh took it And it was pleasant to the taste there the flesh took it again These provocations man had over and besides that of the Angels a hope or a desire to mend his condition and to become like unto God A body of earth hath a sutablenesse to all earthly allurements Every like hath a naturall tendency and motion towards its like This moves the Lord to pity sinfull man though man must not hence plead impunity for sinne The measure and degrees of sin upon such actings are abated but the acts do not therefore put off the nature of sinne A sinner in dust and clay cannot be excused yet is not so much polluted and more to be pitied then a sinning spirit And that 's a third notion in which we may expound Iob beseeching God to remember that he hath made him as the clay I might write many things in this clay out of which man was made but I have met with other passages already of the same subject especially in the fourth Chapter vers 19. in those words Materia ex quae orti sumus nobis ad modestiā magistra esse debet quid enim luto sive argilla vilius Sanct. Whose foundation is in the dust which Text being near of the same importance and interpretation with this in hand I shall rather refer the Reader thither then insist upon the same deductions and inferences a second time Take only this in generall Our reflection upon the matter out of which we are extracted should lesson us to low and modest thoughts of our selvs for what is lower then the earth We say He that lieth upon the earth hath not whence to fall It is as true He that riseth out of the earth hath nothing in himself whence he should be lifted up Remember that thou hast made me as the clay and Wilt thou bring me into the dust again To be brought to the dust is first a circumlocution or description of death Psal 30.9 Shall the dust praise thee shall it declare thy truth That is shall I praise thee when I am among the dead What profit is there in my bloud when I go down to the pit Not that profit sure I cannot bring thee in the tribute of praise when my life 's gone out Secondly To be brought to the dust is a description of any low and poor condition Psal 22.29 All they that be fat upon the earth that is the great and mighty shall eat and worship All they that go down to the dust that is the mean and base shall bow before him As if he had said rich and poor high and low the King and the beggar have alike need of salvation by Jesus Christ and must submit unto him that they may be saved for as it there follows None can keep alive his own soul The captivity of the Jews in Babylon is expressed under those notions of death and of dwelling in the dust Isa 26.19 to shew how low they were brought even so low that no power but his who can raise the dead could work their deliverance Job saw himself brought to the dust of a low condition of poverty and of disgrace and he feared he should be brought to the dust of death and of the grave That 's the meaning of this expostulating querie And wilt thou bring me into the dust again He was not at all brought out of the dust of his affliction and therfore he could not say of that Wilt thou bring me into the dust again The words are read three waies 1. As an Assertion 2. As an Interrogation 3. As an Admiration First Many Interpreters give them as a plain assertion Remember that thou hast made me as the clay and thou wilt bring me into the dust again Secondly Others read them as we with an interrogation Remember that thou hast made me as the clay and wilt thou bring me into the dust again Thirdly Some heighten them into an admiration Thou hast made me as the clay and what wilt thou now bring me into the dust again What a wonder is this Could I have expected such a sudden change as this Quoad naturam vilissimus sum quoad judicium tuum morti addictus ut in pulverem revertar utrumque debet te commovere ut parcas mihi in vita Coc. Particula pro sic sumenda est futurum potentiale est decentiam vel debitum vel jus vel potestatem denotans q. d. sicut me tanquā cementum compegisti eadem potestate cum volueris in terram reduces
judgement under the roof and goodly fabrick of this house Out of these three sorts of materials spirituall gifts spirituall duties and supposed spirituall graces upon all these and out of these he buildeth and thinks he hath made an house that shall stand for ever The point I shall give you taking in those three sorts of materials is That gifts duties and supposed graces are the stay and the staff the house and the strength of hypocrites Upon these they lean and in these they secure themselves they rest upon this bottom for eternity Hence they even dare to plead with God himself about it Mat. 7.22 Many will say unto me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name cast out devils and done many great wonders They trusted upon Have we not prophesied Have we not praied Have we not done wonders They thought those sufficient materials to build them a tower which should reach heaven it self who can doubt but they who do such things as these shall do well The gift of prophecy the power to cast out devils and work miracles sound high and make a great noise Yet at last this tower of their confidence proves but a Castle in the air or a spiders web How confident were they who could plead thus with God He hath opened the secrets of heaven to us and do you thinke he will shut the gates of heaven upon us We have preached we have been instruments of saving others and shall not we be saved ourselves We have cast out devils and shall we be cast to the devil We have not walked in an ordinary tract of Profession but we have traded in wonders and done miracles we have amazed the world with reports of the great things we have done is all this nothing Thus they plead with Christ as if he were bound to save them by the law of these services yet Christ tels them Depart from me I know you not Surely thought they God will fetch his fewell for those everlasting burnings from among the rude Heathens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrysost or debauched drunkards adulterers c. not from among us Were it not a wonder greater then any we have wrought if we who have wrought great wonders should not be admitted One of the Ancients represents them in such an amazement What means this strange unexpected answer from Christ Depart c. Must we depart who have lived so near thee Must we be damned whom thou hast thus honoured The Apostle Paul Rom. 2.17 speaking of the hypocriticall Jews discovers such a confidence Thou restest in the Law as a man resteth in his house there he sleeps is quiet so these in the Law there they were quiet that is in the priviledges and outward profession of the Law or in a literall and outward obedience to the Law The Jews built their house upon or with legall righteousnesse Thou restest in the Law Tibi applâ—u lis quod legem scriptam acceperis quòd frequenses in lectione auditione legis he speaks both by way of narration and likewise by way of redargution He tels what they did and how ill they did in doing so Paul rejects this as refuse stuff as hay and straw as drosse and dung as confidence in the flesh Phil. 3.3 c. Those things which acted or enjoyed are spirit being trusted to are flesh So Prayer is flesh ordinances are flesh the righteousnesse of the Law is flesh yea Grace it self trusted to is flesh The duties which Christ hath appointed are the house of the hypocrite but Christ himself is the house of the upright He would be found in him Phil. 3.9 not in duties or inherent graces Saints desire that much grace may be found in them but they dare not be found in graces they would ever be acting graces but never thrusting to them Secondly Observe An hypocrites hope is high and strong that his estate is good now and that he shall receive good at the last He leaneth upon this house Some are without hope in the world of whom we may speak as the Apostle of an heretike Tit. 3.11 they are condemned of themselves Some men have the sentence of condemnation in their own hearts But there are others as you see here who have great and strong confidences in themselves who live and die with this confidence too This they do upon the former witnesse As the Apostle John speaks concerning the witnesse which the Saints have for heaven There are three which bear witnesse c. and these three are one So there are three which bear witnesse to the hypocrite and these three are one they agree in one to deceive as the other to give assurance First The world that giveth many a man a witnesse and letters testimoniall that his estate is good his neighbours say so they flatter him and cry peace peace to him Secondly Satan applauds him the devil gives him his good word and tels him that certainly his estate is very good Thirdly His own heart will seal to all he shall have the witnesse in himself as it is spoken of the true believer So that the hypocrite having such witnesses a witnesse within himself a certificate under the hand of Satan and letters commendatory from the world all this must needs give him strength of hope that his house shall stand for ever But see the issue He leaneth upon his house What then It shall not stand The word signifies to stand firmly and strongly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stetit subsist it mansit or to continue standing He thought that the materials which he had brought together and the hopes which he had raised upon them would have been as Mount Zion that cannot be removed but he leaneth upon it and it shall not stand Whence observe All that an hypocrite trusteth unto shall deceive him at the last It shall not stand Their webs shall not become garments Neither shall they cover themselves with their works Isa 59.6 The language is proverbiall importing highest disappointment Who would weave a web if he knew he should never have a garment by it Or work hard when himself must go naked Jer. 7.1 2. the Lord sends to the people by his Prophet Say to this people Trust not to lying words that is words which will deceive and fail you you trust and lean to them but they will fall away from you What were those words Even that they had a goodly house to lean to they cried The temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord but I hope that 's a strong house as well as a beautifull a man may lean upon that upon the temple of the Lord and do well No The temple of the Lord leaned upon will be but a spiders web God gave the Jews a temple to worship him in and many of them worshipped the temple We adore every duty we depend upon and give the Ordinances of God the honour of God
help from God he hath all that from himself from his own wicked heart or from Satan To eat was a naturall act in our first parents this was from God but to eat against the command was a morall act and that was from man and the serpent As suppose that a Musician should touch or play upon a Lute that is out of tune his touching the Lute is an artificiall act but the sounding of it comes from the nature of the instrument the sounding of the instrument is from the hand of him that plaies upon it but that it sounds untuneably is because the instrument is out of tune So the Lord by naturall assistance puts the hearts and hands of wicked men into motion but that they move irregularly that they make such harsh musick that there is so much discord in their actions that 's from the disorder and untuneablenesse of their own spirits not from the hand of God They have not any morall assistance from God in sinne but a naturall only Or take it negatively God doth not help the evil doers First He doth not help the evil doers by instilling the least motion of evil into them He casts in or infuses holy thoughts and motions into the hearts of his own people to prepare them for holy performances but he never dropt the least motion of evil into the heart of man to fit him for wickednesse Secondly The Lord doth not excite or stir up that naturall inherent corruption that is in wicked men he doth not provoke or blow up their lusts He excites the graces of his own people when they are to doe any good they have a principle of grace in them and this God breaths upon moving and acting it by fresh assistances Neither of these waies doth the Lord assist evil doers Further Taking the words as they must in a figure when it is said God doth not help the evil doers the meaning is he doth oppose and resist them Hence observe Wicked men are resisted and opposed by God in their evil doings God is so farre from giving them any help that he sets himself against them Understand this with a distinction There is a two-fold resistance or opposition that God makes against the evil doings of men There is 1. A morall opposition 2. A naturall opposition Or there is 1. A declarative resistance 2. An operative resistance When it is said that God doth resist as this phrase imports or supposeth wicked men in doing evil we are to understand it that he ever opposes them morally that is he ever laies a morall impediment in their way and he ever opposes them declaratively he declares his opposition in his Word He never shews the least liking of wicked men in their waies For when he saith He that is filthy let him be filthy still and he that is unjust let him be unjust still Revel 22.11 he doth not at all approve but threatens these sinners This seeming admission is the highest rebuke of sinne But take it for a naturall opposition which is the bringing out of strength and power to stop men in the waies of sin Thus the Lord doth not alwaies resist evil doers For if he did it were impossible that any wicked man should move one hairs breadth in doing evil if God would put forth his power against man he could not stir to sin against God but God doth not so neither is he bound to lay a naturall impediment in the waies of wicked men It is enough to acquit him in his holinesse that he ever laies a morall impediment in their way He declareth his law against and his dislike of their sins and in this sense he alwaies resists them All the sinne of man is against the will of God yet no man sins whether God will or no. The declarative will of God is often resisted but his operative will cannot be resisted As which may illustrate this in the civill State the laws of this Kingdome lay a morall impediment in the way of thievery and robbery c. It is perpetually declared by the law that no man ought to take another mans estate from him violently but yet the Kingdome doth not ever set a naturall impediment against robbers c. That is we doe not place a power of men to guard all high waies or houses to see that no passenger shall be robbed or house broken open So the Lord laies a morall impediment in the way of wicked men alwaies but he doth not alwaies set his power against them whereby he is able if he please to disable wicked men from doing evil Thirdly Observe When wicked men are going down down they shall Why God will not put forth his hand to help them they whom God will not assist or help cannot stand long They in the Psalm thought they had got the godly man at an advantage Come say they let us persecute and take him for God hath forsaken him and there is none to deliver him Now we may have our wils of this man for God stands by and doth not own him If God be a neuter his friends cannot stand long how then shall his enemies stand when he is their opposer We may conclude against wicked men that they shall be destroyed for God hath forsaken them he will not own them and as Hamans wife told him sadly Est 6.13 If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews before whom thou hast begun to fall thou shalt surely fall before him When a man is going down nothing can stay him if God doe not his hand must support a sinking and tottering person or Nation or else either fals When wicked enemies begin to fall they shall fall and perish for God will not put forth his hand to help the evil doers Now follows the effect of all The effect first of Gods gracious helping of the righteous He will not cast away the righteous man and is that all Shall a righteous man be only not rejected As mans duty ought not so the mercy of God doth not stay in negatives The Lord hath positive blessings in store for his people the later part of the promise affirms this He will not cast away the righteous man Verse 21. Till he fill thy mouth with laughing and thy lips with rejoycing Till he fill thy mouth with laughing And is it but just till then Will the Lord when he hath set his people a laughing leave them and help them no more Will he when he hath given them cause of joy cast them off His people had better never laugh at all then laugh upon those terms Particula donec non significat postea projiciendum esse à Deo simplicem sed quod immutabiliter servabitur à Deo No man can laugh long nor at all upon any due ground if God leave him We are not to understand this Till to be a terminative or a determinative particle as if the Lords care and favour towards his people should be only till he
how vile and corrupt we are His fulnesse will convince us abundantly of our emptinesse his purity will shew us our spots and his all-sufficiency our nothingnesse If we bring a course peece of cloth before a fine we shall see what course stuff it is if we lay a better in any kinde by a worse the worse will appear worser then before For the most part we who are course stuff our selves compare our selves with those who are as course as our selves While some men compare themselves with men they begin to thinke they are like God himself A man looking upon his neighbour is just before him or sees him no better then himself of no purer threed of no better die in his life then he I have faults and so have others I have failings and so have my neighbours if you charge me with my sinnings who is it that is without sinne As our usuall phrase is If the best mans faults were written in his fore-head it would make him pull his haâ— over his eyes Thus usually men compare themselves with men but if they would look up to God O how would the thoughts of their hearts fall and be abased before him The Pharisee could pride himself in his comparisons with men Luk. 18. God be thanked I am not as other men are nor as this Publican But Pharisee art thou as God pure and holy and just as he Look upward and pride will down The holy Apostle 2 Cor. 10.12 speaking of those false Apostles saith They measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves amongst themselves are not wise So we may say to men in generall while ye take a scantling of your own waies by your own rules and measure your selves by your selves or while ye measure man by man and compare creature with creature ye are not wise while we go this way to work pride will not down Man hath some reason to say I am as good as man I have sinned and so hath he such a man hath as many sins as I. But if we look up to God we shall quickly finde that he hath no sinne at all in him and that we have no goodnesse at all in us The best of Saints must not only confesse with Paul I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7.18 but he must confesse also I know that in me even in my spirit dwels no good thing in comparison of the goodnesse of God Though man in regeneration is made a partaker of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 yet his nature cannot bear the perfections of the divine nature How shall man be just with God Verse 3. If he will contend with him he cannot answer him one of a thousand This is a confirmation of the former grant I faith he acknowledge no man can be just by inherent righteousnesse before God For If he would comend with him he cannot answer him one of a thousand If he would contend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Voluit optavit The word If he would is If he have a minde or delight to contend if any man takes pleasure in contending with God he shall quickly as we speak have his hands full and his belly full of it From this word the Church is called Hephzibah that is my pleasure is in her Isa 64.2 And Psal 16.3 David professes of the Saints Hephsiham my pleasure or my delight is in them So here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if any one hath a pleasure or a delight or would take upon him to contend with God or as the word signifies to chide In foro extra litigavit disceptavit causam egit seu dixit etiam jurgavit de verbali tantum contentione seu actione dicitur Merc. Contentio haec est rationibus objectionibus responsionibus argumentationibus cum Deo agere Pined to argue and plead with God The word may be taken either for an angry chiding or a rationall chiding which is disputing The place where the Israelites did contend or chide with Moses is called Meribah from this word Exod. 17.7 And after Gideon had pul'd down Baals altar a great controversie or contention a pleading or arguing ensued therefore he was called Jerubbaal a contender or pleader with Baal Judg. 6.21 Now saith Job if a man take delight to contend plead or argue with the Lord What will be the issue of it He is like to have a cold pull of it He cannot answer him one of a thousand poor creature Before I open that take this observation Man naturally loves to be contending Some cannot live but in this fire and in troubled waters 1 Cor. 11.16 If any man seems to be contentious or as the Greek carries it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est cui victoria potiorest veritate Est in 1 Cor. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non aliud est quam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si quis fibi in eo placeat quod contentiosus sit Dan. Heins exerc a lover of victory Contentious spirits love victory more then truth and to overcome more then to teach or be taught Besides the verb which we in this text of the Apostle translate seems doth rather signifie is pleased to be desires or hath a will to be contentions yea boasts and prides himself in it So the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used Mat. 3.9 and Gal. 6.3 If a man thinke himself to be something c. That is if he boast and take upon him as if he were some great man Thus some glory to be medling and contending in all Questions Yea though it be upon as unequall terms as Jehoash the King of Israel by his parable supposed Amaziah King of Judah would warre with him 2 King 14.9 The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the Cedar that was in Lebanon c. Thistles will sometimes challenge Cedars whom we may counsell as he doth tarry at home why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt It argues folly enough in any man to love contention with man and pride enough to love contention with men above him Then how mad are they both with folly and pride who attempt to contend with God Whom as it follows They cannot answer One of a thousand A thousand is a great number a full number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paedagogus dux quod alijs praeire solet sicut Alâ—ph prima litera reliquas omnes praecedit hinc Eleph mille numeroruÌ„ princeps and therefore it is put for all great numbers It is a leading number therefore the word in the Hebrew for a thousand commeth from a root which signifies to lead and the Noun Duke or a Captain who is a chief and a leader of men Gen. 36. The Dukes of Edom or the leaders of Edom As also a master or teacher because he goes afore and is a chief over those he instructs And hence the number thousand in the Hebrew hath it's name because a thousand is as it were a prince
all these the Lord is mighty in strength Vis confilij expers mole ruit sua Never fear either a defect of power in God or a defect in mannaging that power Sometimes power overthrows it self by it's own bulk and greatnesse but mighty strength ordered with equall wisdome is dreadfull to enemies and comfortable to friends A rude rout an undigested Chaos of men though very great never did any great thing But suppose a very numerous army of men and every man in that army having as much wisdome as would fit a Generall to lead and command them all what could stand before them Thus it is with God and how admirable is the union and marriage of these two together he hath all power and all wisdome Every degree of power in God is acted with a sutable degree of wisdome therefore there can be no miscarriage Note further how this Attribute runs thorow all the Attributes of God He is mighty in strength he is mighty also in truth mighty in love mighty in mercy mighty in faithfulnesse a mighty strength is in whatsoever God is Again Take this generall concerning all the Attributes of God when it is said He is wise in heart and mighty in strength c. These are not qualities in God they are in men Wisdome is to them an accident and so is strength whether civill strength or naturall it may be severed from them and they still keep their being But the wisdome of God is the wise God and the power of God is the powerfull God and the knowledge of God is the knowing God These Attributes are not accidents but his essence not qualities but his nature From both these Attributes laid together Job draws down his great conclusion which he puts by way of question Who hath hardened himself against him and hath prospered Shew me the man having described the Lord in his wisdome and power he challengeth all the world and sends defiance to all creatures in heaven and in earth to meet with this God As if he had said Friends Doe ye thinke I have any thought to contend with God No I know not one who hath accepted this challenge or hardened himself against God and prospered If my own conscience would not yet their harms who have attempted it might warn me from such presumption Hardened himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Indurare aut obdurescere Metaphoricè à tactu ad alios sensus transfertur denotat crudele saevum difficile quod dura sunt difficilia Durum est quod in se per superficiem non cedit Arist l. 4. Met. c. 4. Durities est qualitas densas bene compactas habens partes difficulter cedens tactui Arist l. 2. de Gener. Hardening under a naturall consideration comes by withdrawing the moisture out of any substance whence the parts of it are condensed grew stiff and unyeelding to the touch So Philosophers define it That is hard which doth not easily submit to impressions from without In a morall sense to harden is to settle the spirit or immoveably to resolve upon the doing or not doing of a thing when a man doth purposely resolve and resolvedly purpose to carry on a design he hardeneth himself to doe it The word is used both in a good sense and in an ill sense In a good sense when a man is resolute to do the will of God that is when he grows so resolved that he will not be removed by hopes or fears by promises or by threats When a man hath not a soft sequacious spirit to be swaied this way and that way but stands fixed and firm like a rock such a resolute spirit in goodnesse is a spirit hardened to doe good When the Lord had told Ezekiel that he should finde the ears of Israel lock'd against his messages and their hearts hardened he gives him assurance of a sutable ability to deal even with such Ezek. 3.8 9. Behold I have made thy face strong against their faces and thy fore-head strong against their fore-heads as an adamant harder then flint have I made thy fore-head The words seem to carry an allusion to Buls or Rams who use to run head against head when they are enraged against one another And so the sense is as if the Lord had said I know this people will be mad at thee and runne upon thee like furious beasts but trouble not thy self I will through my grace make thee as strong in declaring my will as they through pride and unbelief are strong in opposing it Thou needest not fear to encounter these Buls and Rams holinesse shall make thy fore-head that is thy purpose to performe my command harder then wickednesse shall make their fore-heads that is their purposes to disobey what I command As to be hardened in sinne is worse then sinning so to be hardened in doing good is better then doing good Sinne and grace act most like themselves when they act against all opposition As an adamant have I made thy face The adamant is insuperable as the notation of the * Adamas ejus creditur esse naturae ut domet omnia neque ipse ab ulla vifive arte domari possit Vnde nomen traxit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sonat indomitum Sanct. in Ezek. 3. word imports A heart thus hardened in holinesse overcomes all the fears and terrours which the world can raise against it Heroicall Luther was thus hardened when he said he would goe to Worms though the tiles upon every house in that City were matcht with a like number of Devils ready to resist him and the truth of Christ But usually hardening is taken in an ill sense and so to harden the spirit noteth First A resolving to sin whatsoever God saith or doth Obdurare cor est Deum loquentē nolle audire contemnere pervicaciter resistere nec se ejus verbo subjicere velle Par. in Heb. c. 3. v. 8. To sin against the word and works of God that 's hardening of the heart against God when a man will go on in his way though a threat be sounding in his ears a judgment appear terribly before his eyes such a man is hardned indeed he is grown valiant and couragious in wickednes Secondly A man hardens himself against God when he speaks stoutly against God the hardnesse of the heart appears in the tongue Mal. 3.13 Your words have been stout against me Stout words are a sign of stout spirits Our language is usually the image of our mindes So the word of the text is used 2 Sam. 19.43 The words of the men of Judah were fiercer then the words of the men of Israel Their words were harder then the words of the men of Israel they spake more resolutely and manly When a man sets himself to speak boldly against God the waies or the works of God he hardens himself against God fearfully Thirdly We harden our selves against God when we are displeased with what God doth That man
24.63 The subject of his meditation was the starres or the heavens It is good to take field-room sometimes to view contemplate the works of God round about Only take heed of the former folly of Astrologicall curiosities confining the providence of God to secondary causes avoid that and the heart may have admirable elevations unto God from the meditation of the works of God Psal 19.1 The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work if the heavens declare the glory of God we should observe what that glory is which they declare The heavens preach to us every day Their line is gone out thorow all the earth and their words to the end of the world Psal 19.4 Sun Moon and Stars are Preachers they are universall preachers they are naturall Apostles the world is their charge their words saith the Psalm go to the ends of the earth We may have good doctrine from them especially this doctrine in the text of the wisdom and power of God And it is very observable that the Apostle alludes to this text in the Psalm for a proof of Gospel-preaching to the whole world Rom. 10.18 So then faith commeth by hearing and hearing by the word of God But I say have they not heard Yes verily their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the end of the world The Gospel like the Sun casts his beams over and sheds his light into all the world David in the Psalm saith Their line is gone out c. By which word he shews that the heavens being so curious a fabrick made as it were by line and levell do clearly though silently preach the skill and perfections of God Or that we may read divine truths in them as in a line formed by a pen into words and sentences the originall signifies both a measuring line 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat lineam non modo extensam hoc est funiculum sed etiam scriptam hoc est scripturam Par. in Rom. 10 and a written line Letters and words in writing being nothing but lines drawn into severall forms or figures But the Septuagint whose translation the Apostle citeth for Kavam their line read Kolam their sound either mis-reading the word or studiously mollifying the sense into a nearer compliance with the later clause of the verse And their words into the ends of the world Pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus I have endeavoured to make those things plain which are here represented to vulgar ears under strange unusuall and hidden expressions Job is full of Philosophy and Astronomy he was a great student in the heavens doubtlesse and a holy student Job having given these severall instances gathers them all into a generall conclusion in the tenth verse Verse 10. Which doth great things past finding out yea and wonders without number These words are repeated from the discourse of Eliphaz in the 5th Chap. v. 9. I would seek unto God and unto God would I commit my cause which doth great things and unsearchable marvellous things without number I will not stay in a particular disoussion of them but refer the Reader to the place before cited where the text is opened at large and particular observations given from it Take only this observation in generall That A godly man labours to exalt God both in his thoughts and in his words with heart and tongue when God depresses and humbles him most Mark in what a condition Job was when he speaks thus honourably of the name and power of God One would think Job had little reason to extoll the power of God which he felt to his own smart Job was stript of all he had his outward comforts were taken from him and the arrows of the Almighty wounded his very spirit Now when he had wounded Job thorow and thorow thorow flesh and thorow spirit even at this time when God appeared making no use of his power but to undo Job Job is in his Encomium all in the praise and commendation of God He endites a Chapter on purpose to set forth the power and wisdom of God while he imploied both to make his afflictions both great and accurate This shews the admirable frame of his spirit in all his distempers his heart stood right and he would speak good of God what evil soever befell him from Gods hand Let God afflict with his power yet a gracious heart rejoices in it A gracious heart will lift up that power which weakens and throws it down Let the Lord imploy his wisdom to undo to impoverish such a man to bring him into such straits that he cannot get out yet he hath enlarged thoughts of that wisdom He sees God is as wise in troubling us as he is in delivering That language of Spira is the right language of hell I judge not his person but his speech who in a great temptation spake thus I would I had more power then God or O that I were above God He was angry that God had so much power because God used his power against him A carnall man would be above God especially if God at any time puts forth his power against him When he is hard bestead and hungry he frets himself and curses his King and his God looking upward Isa 8.21 to murmur at God not to pray unto him or speake good of him Tertullian Illud est impiorum ingenium ut Deum non ulterius celebrent quam cum benefacit Fer. It is observed by one of the Ancients concerning the Heathen That if God did not please them he should be no longer God Such are our hearts by nature if God do not use his power wisdom mercy for us we presently wish he had no power wisdom nor mercy for any in the world we would be above God unles God will serve us but an holy heart saith thus Let God improve his power and wisdom which way he pleaseth if to afflict and chasten me yea to destroy and cast me to hell his be the power for ever I extoll his power Nature can only praise God and speak good of him when he is doing of us good But grace prompts the heart to indite a good matter and bids the tongue be as the pen of a ready writer to advance God when sense feels nothing but smart and sees nothing but sorrow round about Then grace is in her heights when she can lift up God highest while he is casting us down and laying us lowest When we can honour God frowning as well as smiling upon us smiting and wounding as well as kissing and imbracing us then we have learned to honour God indeed JOB Chap. 9. Vers 11 12 13. Loe he goeth by me and I see him not he passeth on also but I perceive him not Behold he taketh away who can hinder him who shall say unto him What doest thou If God will not withdraw his anger the proud helpers doe stoop under him JOB having in
if he had said There shall be sorrow in those places where usually the greatest joy was found or there shall be sorrow in every place Joy shall dislodge and give place to sorrow for I will passe thorow thee saith the Lord. So that as the work of providence in sparing and the work of providence in punishing may be understood by this word with a little varying of the construction He passeth by me in the waies of mercy and I see him not Deus simplicissimus est spiritus invisibilis itaque neque nos adorientem cum venit neque cum obis pedem referentem sentiâ—e possumus and he passeth thorow me in the waies of judgement and I see him not I cannot see or understand him as I ought either in waies of judgement or of mercy Thirdly we may take the words as they are an argument to prove the power and wisdom of God to be such as man is no way able to match or to deal withall which is the subject Job is upon He would set the Lord infinitely above all that is in the creature and he doth it there by an argument drawn from his nature What is his nature Why he is most simple he is a spirit without any mixture without any composition without any materiality he is invisible bodily eies cannot behold him therefore certainly bodies are not able to overcome him Man being a materiall substance is not able to see the Lord then surely he is not able to contend with much lesse to conquer the Lord What then doth he medling with him It was said at the 4th verse of this Chapter Who ever hardened himself against him and hath prospered Is flesh and bloud any match for a spirit If man would strive with God where should he have him He goeth by me â—nd I see him not he passeth on also and I perceive him not I know not where to meet him he can come upon me on every side he may take me at all advantages and destroy me for I know not how to guard or defend my self If a man were to fight with an enemy whom he could not see and yet his enemy saw him what an advantage had his enemy against him Doth any man harden himself against God He goeth by and we see him not How then can we deal with him or stand against him Thus I say it may be an argument to make good that great assertion That there is no contending with God flesh and bloud are too weak for a spirit It is the argument which the Apostle uses to shew that the devil is too hard for man We wrestle not with flesh and bloud but with principalities and powers with spirituall wickednesses c. Ephes 6. They passe by us and we understand it not they are now here amongst us and we take no notice of it We are no matches for evil spirits much lesse are we able to match the most holy Spirit Est invicti hostis descriptio Spirituall wickednesses are strong but spirituall holinesses are stronger This third interpretation renders the words a description of an invincible enemy Fourthly It may be understood in the generall Significatur hic summa distantia inter Deum homines Deus omnia videt rebus omnibus praesentia efficaciâ— sua intervenit homo suo affixus loco Deum non videt nisi in effectis Coc. to note the infinite distance which is between God and man or the dignity of God above man The Lord is omnipresent he is going by and he is passing on he is in all places and he acts his power and wisdom where he pleases Poor man is confined to a place to a spot of earth when he is here he cannot be there but God is every where And though God be every where yet he cannot be seen any where where he is God sees all himself being unseen and fils all places his presence being is unperceived nothing is hid from him yet he is hid to every thing but the faith of his own people Thus He goeth and we see him not he passeth on and we perceive him not And so the whole is a confirmation and proof of the generall assertion that the Lord is infinite in power and wisdom and that man is an ignorant narrow-room'd and narrow-hearted weak creature compared unto him We may form up the Argument thus Si quod documentum potentiae sapientiae suae â—e dat Deus ob oculos meos non sum is qui id pervestigare possum adeo inscrutabilia sunâ— judicia ejus Juâ— Transeundi transmeandi verbis concinnè significat ea documenta sapieÌ„tiae quae Deus exh bet quasi praesens praeâ—entes erudiret He is weak and ignorant in comparison of God who cannot see or comprehend where God is or what God doth But man is not able to comprehend or see where God is or what God doth Therefore man iâ— weake and ignorant in comparison of God The ground is this He that cannot comprehend or see what another doth is not able to hinder or match him in what he doth But such is the state and condition of man he is so far from being able to equall God in dignity or hinder what he doth that he cannot finde out or know what God doth Yet this is not to be taken strictly as if man did not at all perceive or understand what God doth Job in the former context gave us a large account of the works of God what wonders he had done The Saints finde out some of Gods doings in the world though the blinde world see not any thing he doth But he speaks comparatively The Lord passeth on and we perceive it not that is it is little of God that we perceive it is little of the workings of God that we see at the best There are many persons who do not see him at all and many works that are not seen at all by any person Ita significat ex ioperibus Dei vix centissimum quodque ut par est ab hominibus expendi â—ined And they the eies of whose understandings are anointed to see most clearly are not able to see all that God doth None can see all some will not see what they may Isa 26.10 Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see it and in the former verse In the land of uprightnesse will he deal unjustly and will not behold the Majesty of the Lord. That which good men see is but little and evil men see nothing So that as the Lord goeth altogether invisibly in his essence so mostly in his actions man sees but few things of the many and little of the great things which God doth Nemo potest scire an Deum habeat in se habitantem in se manentem Jâ—cob Janson in loc I meet with a grosse exposition of this text given by some Papists No man saith one of them can know whether God dwell
be any imperfection or flaw in it he will venture his soul upon it In this sense man answers God But Job speaks about inherent personall righteousnesse the righteousnesse of his waies Upon this he will not venture a hair of his head much lesse his soul and everlasting peace Though I were righteous I would not answer him Respondere verbum est forense c. Sanct. Si ille me arguet aut in me sententiam feret etsi causa mea justa fit non audebo illi respondere aliquid objicienti aut in me pronuncianti me enim rationibus obrâ—et sua opprimet majestate Mâ—rc There is somewhat further considerable for as righteous is a judiciary word so likewise is answer And it implies that Job would not only not answer God objecting or reasoning but that he would not answer him accusing or charging him judging or sentencing him I must acknowledge my self to be what God judgeth me to be and that I am worthy to suffer what he judges me to suffer Hence observe First Job having shewed the weaknesse and ignorance of the creature in his former discourse here you see whither it tended namely to prove man to be sinfull and unrighteous This teaches us That all the failings infirmities and weaknesses which are in man are the issues and effects of the sinne of man Man is an unrighteous creature therefore a weak creature Job argues from the effect to the cause from the fruit to the root Ex effectis causam declarat unde enim tanta in mentibus hominum caligo inscitia unde tanta infirmitas corporum animorum nisi ex peccato Mâ—râ— man hath infirmities upon him therefore he hath sinne in him Where there is no sin there is strength and where there is no sinne there is knowledge Perfect holinesse scatters all the clouds of darknesse and ignorance Secondly Though I were righteous I would not answer him then it follows Vnrighteous men cannot answer God If a righteous man cannot can an unrighteous No marvell if David saith in the first Psalm The wicked shall not stand in judgement for in a sense the righteous cannot stand in judgement that is they cannot plead their own righteousnesse before God Wicked men have nothing to help them no help without and none vvithin they have nothing but sinne in them and they have no Saviour vvithout them Hence the Apostle Peter argues 1 Pet. 4.18 If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and sinner appear If Abel be not able to answer God how shall Cain If David cannot how can Saul They vvho have not the righteousnesse of Christ have nothing but unrighteousnesse of their own Thirdly Observe the vast difference that is between the spirit and temper of a godly man and of a wicked man O the humility of Jobs spirit Job vvill not justifie his own righteousnesse or justifie himself in his righteousnesse A vvicked man vvill justifie his sinne or justifie himself in his sinne A Saul vvill justifie his disobedience but a Job vvill not justifie his obedience Job vvill not take upon him to be a righteous man though God had told him he vvas perfect and upright A vvicked man vvill take upon him to be righteous though God tell him to his face a thousand times that he is vile and filthy How doe vvicked men seek for pleas and covers to make themselves appear righteous How doe they gild the base metall of their hearts and paint over those rotten posts to make them appear beautifull Christ tels the Pharisees that they vvere like filthy sepulchres full of dead mens bones yet they vvould be painted over vvith the notion of a righteous generation Job vvho had much righteousnesse and faithfulnesse in him vvould not own them and modestly blushes at the praise of God Though I were righteous yet I would not answer Fourthly Observe The righteousnesse of man is not pleadable before the righteous God Though I were righteous yet I would not answer him The Apostle 1 Cor. 4.4 gives a parallel testimony Though I know nothing by my self yet am I not hereby justified Paul knew nothing by himself that is he had not any guilt upon him that he knew of he did not allow himself in any sinne but kept his conscience void of offence both toward God and toward man yet though it vvas thus vvith him he disclaims all opinion of himself I am not hereby justified this is not the plea I have to make before God he is able to finde out failings vvhere I finde none he knows better then I vvhat I am Fifthly Observe A godly man looks upon his own righteousnesse as no righteousnesse Whom though I were righteous I would not answer His supposition hath a negation in it I am not righteous Job did not deny the vvork of the Spirit or the grace of God in him but he vvould not own them in his pleadings vvith God He could stand upon his terms vvith men and let them knovv vvho he vvas and vvhat he had done and it vvas reason he should but before God he had nothing to mention but Christ In reference to the higher degree of grace for sanctification vve must forget all that is behinde and presse on to that which is before And in reference to the whole grace of justification we must forget all our sanctification The lesse we remember our own righteousnesse the more righteous we are in Christ As vve abate in our selves vve encrease in him Christ draws the picture of an hypocrite to the life Luk. 18. in that parable of a Pharisee and a Publican going up to the Temple to pray and the design of Christ in that Parable is held forth at the ninth verse to be the conviction of such as trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others Now vvhat did this Pharisee He thanks God he was not as other men extortioners unjust adulterers or as that Publican and then he mindes God that he gave tithes and kept fasts twice a week and so makes a goodly report of himself both in the negative and in the affirmative vvhat he vvas and vvhat he vvas not Never did any good man tell God such a story of his own life as this Pharisee told The Saints love to do well more then to hear vvell from others much more then to hear well from themselves they love to do good more then to receive good much more then to speak good of themselves When Christ is represented sitting in judgement Mat. 25.35 he tels the faithfull of all their good deeds or acts of charity I was an hungred and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in naked and ye cloathed me c. Hear how the Saints answer as if they had done no such thing when was this Lord when saw we thee hungry and fed thee c. We have forgot the time They did so little
thus in the excesses of spirituall joy and consolation so sometâ—mes in the excesses of anguish and sorrow a man scarce knows vvhether he be alive or dead vvhat his state is vvhether in the body or out of the body he regards neither hot nor cold friend or foe wife or children he forgets to eat his bread A third expounds the words as an admiration I am perfect and doe ye thinke I know not my own soul Do ye think I am not acquainted with my self Am I a stranger at home Have I so despised my life think ye that I take no notice of it and am either carelesse or insensible how things go with me As if he had said I am perfect and this is the work of a man whose waies are perfect before the Lord he knows and considers his own soul and grows assured how matters are with him Ye my friends charge me with these and these failings and will force them upon me whether I will or no though I deny your charge yet ye re-joyn and re-affirm it upon me as though I knew not my own soul or as if ye knew me better then me self But I am perfect in heart and I know my own soul I doe not so despise my lifâ— as if it were not worth the looking after or as if I were not worth the ground I goe upon Lastly Integer sum rec s cio animam meam i. e. quicquam perversi in anima mea Others understand it thus which appears the fairest and most sutable interpretation of these later ones I am perfect neither do I know my own soul that is I am not conscious of any evil in my soul I know of no secret guilt or corruption hidden there and so science is put for conscience I know not is I am not privy to any evil that my soul delights in and keeps close either against God or man yet such evils are upon me that I despise my life The spirit of a man saith Solomon will bear his infirmity Then what a load of infirmity presses that man whose life is a burthen to him though no sin burthen his spirit Troubles of conscience doe often make the most peaceable outward estate of this life troublesome And troubles in the outward estate may make those who have great peace of conscience weary of their lives What it is to despise life and that afflictions make this life burdensome hath been shewed in the third and sixth Chapters and will come more fully to be considered at the first verse of the tenth Chapter whither I referre the Reader and forbear to insist upon it here I shall only adde that Job makes these words as a transition to the second part of his answer to the charge of Bildad Ingreditur in alteram suae respoâ—sionis parteÌ„ qua justitiam suam defendit à gravi libera integritatis suae animi beâ—e conscij assertione Merl. For having before given glory to God by acknowledging his justice wisdome power and soveraignty in all his actings he passes to an apology for himself or a defence of his own integrity against the insultations suspitions and accusations of his friends As if he had said I have desired to save the honour of God from the least touch of an uncomely thought much more then doe I abhorre proud and rude contendings with him But as for you my friends ye must give me leave to be plain with you I am not the man ye take me for I have none of that basenesse of spirit with which ye charge me I am no hypocrite I am perfect in heart with God and upright in my dealings with men And yet I cannot but complain of my sad afflictions and renew my desires that the Lord would give me ease by death and acquit me from the bands of these calamities by cutting the threed of my life I know ye judge these outward evils as the brand of a wicked man of a man hated by God But I 'll maintain a proposition contradictory to that your opinion ye shall never prove me wicked because afflicted for thus I hold and I will hold it against you all as long as I am able to speak that the Lord destroieth the perfect and the wicked The argument may be formed up thus That cannot be made a clear proof of mans impiety which falleth alike upon the good and bad But great and destroying outward afflictions fall equally upon good and bad Therefore great and destroying afflictions cannot be made a clear proof of mans impiety The proof of the minor proposition or assumption is contained in the three verses immediately following The discussion and opening of which will give both light and strength to this argument JOB Chap. 9. Vers 22 23 24. This is one thing therefore I said it he destroieth the perfect and the wicked If the scourge slay suddenly he will laugh at the triall of the innocent The earth is given into the hand of the wicked he covereth the faces of the Iudges thereof if not where and who is he Videtur hic locâ— impictatem inâ—ludere quasi apud Iob unum idem sit piorum improboruâ— judiciuÌ„ quoâ—que Deus haec inferiora non curet Isid Claâ— THis speech of Iob caused a learned interpreter to tremble when he read it conceiving that it savoured strongly of impiety and blasphemy as if Iob had mingled the state of the wicked and of the righteous in one or as if his minde were that the Lord did not distinctively order the affairs of the world by the dictates of his wife providence but left them to be hudled together by inexorable fate or blinde fortune therefore he concludes that Iob rather personates a man void of the true knowledge and fear of God than speaks his own opinion Thus he censures but let Job be well weighed and his discourse will appear full of truth and holinesse This is one thing therefore I said it This is one thing As if he had said You have spoken many things to me about the power greatnesse justice and wisdome of God in all which I agree with you ye and I have no difference about those points I have alwaies thought highly of God and I desire to think humbly of my self but here is one thing wherein I must for ever disagree from you here we must part So that this verse is as the limit-stone between Iobs opinion Hoc unaÌ„ est meae assertionis caput and that of his friends Here he speaks out the speciall tenet which he holds in opposition to them As if he had said I yeeld and subscribe to your judgement in all but this one and in this one thing I must be your adversary though I will not be your enemy I say it and say it again He destroieth both the righteous and the wicked This is one thing This is uniform So Mr Broughton reads it and in this thing I am uniform or of
will lay aside my heavinesse I will comfort my self It is a hard thing to comfort others Luther said It is as easie a work to raise the dead as to comfort the conscience but it is harder for a man to comfort himself Eliphaz gave testimony to Job in the fourth Chapter vers 3 4. that he had upholden him that was falling and had strengthned the feeble knees But now it is come upon thee and thou faintest it toucheth thee and thou art troubled Thou who hast holpen others canst not help thy self Yet here Job was upon a resolve to comfort himself I answer Though it be a truth that no man is able to comfort himself no more then he can convert himself and that a man is no more able to change his heart from sorrow to joy then he is able to change his heart from sin to grace yet a man may attempt or assay he may use means to comfort himself When Job saith I will comfort my self the meaning is I will doe the utmost I can I will not be behinde in my endeavours I will take the best course and improve all opportunities to get out of these dumps whosoever will prescribe me a way or direct me to a remedy of these sorrows I will submit to it I will comfort my self From whence note That What a man really endeavoureth to doe that he may be said to doe I will comfort my self Why Because though he were not able to attain such an end Joy and comfort lieth beyond the line of the creature yet he reached at it he attempted and assaied all means to comfort himself Thus the salvation of a man is ascribed to himself A man is said to save himself though salvation belongeth to the Lord even temporall salvation but especially eternall salvation yet a man may be said to save himself As the Apostle 1 Epist 4.16 exhorts Timothy to walk by a holy rule to settle himself in his studies to read the Scriptures and to meditate in them to be faithfull in dispensing of the Gospel assuring him If thou dost these things thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee Save thy self No man can be his own Saviour he may be as well his own Creatour Timothy was thus encouraged because in so doing he did all that a man ought who expects salvation That was the way to though not the cause of salvation Salvation is all Christs yet he who doth his best to save himself may be said to save himself Thus also a man comforts himself converts himself instructs himself when he putteth himself out to the utmost of gifts graces and opportunities to doe or attain duties and blessings No man saith the Prophet doth stir himself up to take hold of the Lord. The word in the Prophet signifies to awake or to watch no man wakes or watches his opportunity to take hold of the Lord. It notes also that action of old birds who flutter with their wings and beat up their young ones to urge and provoke them to use their wings and flie abroad Thus he complained because the lazy dull-hearted Jews did not raise up and waken their hearts to doe what they could though to doe it was more then they could Secondly Observe That a man in affliction may help on his comforts or his sorrows I will comfort my self I will leave off my heavinesse Some adde to their afflictions and are active to aggravate and encrease them they make their night darker and obscure the light of counsell that is brought unto them they joyn with Satan their enemy and by the black melancholy vapours of their own hearts stifle the consolations that are administred them by faithfull friends Like Rachel Jer. 31. they refuse to be comforted when reviving Cordials are offered they spill them upon the ground and will not take in a drop they are so farre from comforting themselves that they will not receive comfort from others The Prophet seems to be resolved upon the point he would go on in sorrows Look away from me I will weep bitterly labour not to comfort me Isa 22.4 As sometimes a man under great affliction bespeaks comfort from others O I am in a sad case come comfort me shew me how I may get ease from these sorrows Many beg praiers and send bils of their afflictions desiring to have them spread before the Lord in the Congregation that some comfort may be dropt from heaven into their diseased bodies or wounded spirits Others sleight praiers and care not to be comforted as if it were an ease to them to mourn and a refreshing to be in heavinesse There is a two-fold ground upon which comforts are thus put off 1. Some put off their comforts upon fullennesse of spirit black and dark spirits love to bathe themselves in sorrow Sorrow is the bath of drooping spirits and it is Satans bath too Melancholly is commonly called The devils bath he takes delight to wash in the streams of our unnecessary tears Sorrow for sinne puts the devil to the greatest sorrow Godly grief is a grief to Satan but he delighteth in our worldly sorrows as the devil may be delighted if he have delight in any thing this is one thing he delights in our forbidden sorrows Some sorrows are as much forbidden as any pleasures The devil is as much pleased with our unlawfull sorrows as he is with our unlawfull pleasures And he labours as much to make us pleased with them 2. Others help on their own sorrows and lessen their comforts through forgetfulnesse or ignorance they as the Apostle chides the Hebrews Chap. 12.5 have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto them as unto children Now as wicked men rejoyce because they forget or know not their ill condition So godly men are sad when they forget or know not how good their condition is Yet Job supposes the review of his good estate would neither check his sorrows nor establish his peace If I say I will forget my complaint I will comfort my self I am afraid of all my sorrows Thirdly Observe Man is not able to comfort himself we can make our selves crosses but we cannot make our selves comforts A man may say as Job did Chap. 7.13 to his bed comfort me or to his riches comfort me or to his wine and good chear comfort me or to his friends comfort me He may say to all outward acts of pleasure to merry company and musick eomfort me Yea a Saint may say to his graces and holinesse comfort me and yet none of these can comfort him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or they comfort him in vain Timuit expavit prae metu se abstrahere timorem denâ—tat imminentis calamitatis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat dolore affiâ—ere interdum figurare Qui materiam aliquam ut lucum vel ceram figurat manibus digitis is illam premendo quasi dolore afficit Bold Est elegans metaphora verba alicujus figurare nam
qui verba detorquet aliam figuram i. e. significationem iis tribuit To seek comfort any where but in Christ is to seek the living among the dead Christ is comfort cloathed in our flesh and he is the comfort of our spirits Till he gives comfort every man must conclude as Job I am afraid of all my sorrows I am afraid The word signifies strong trembling and shaking fear Of all my sorrows The root hath a double signification First To afflict with grief Isa 63.10 They vexed his holy Spirit Secondly To fashion or form a thing Job 10.8 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me round about The same word by a Metaphor signifies both to grieve and to fashion to vex and to form because a man that forms fashions a piece of wood or stone seems to put it to pain by cutting and hewing And he that forms wax vexes and chafes it in his hands Thus I say because in the fashioning of a thing a man doth bruise cut and as it were put it to pain therefore the same word signifies both to vex or grieve and to form or fashion And this word is applied unto the ill usage of words Psal 56.5 Every day saith David speaking of his enemies they â—rest my words or they put my words to pain and grief or they painfully and grievously wrest my words Davids enemies took up what he spake and put a new shape upon it and this they did so vexingly that they are said to wrest his words a thing is vexed when it is wrested or wrought quite out of the form it before had The same Metaphor the Apostle Peter useth in reference to Doctrine 2 Pet. 3.16 speaking of the Epistles of Paul in which are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest or put upon the rack they painfully form his words and represent them in a meaning which he never intended What is spoken may be right both in the matter and intendment of the speaker yet another wrests forms and fashions it in his own mould and makes it bear a sense which the speaker never dream'd of In this Text we have the Noun only which importeth either the labour or pains which a man taketh or the pain and grief which a man feeleth Hence in the Hebrew this word signifies an Idol and both acceptions fall into the reason of it First because Idols are made fashioned and formed up curiously with a great deal of art and labour the wax or clay or stone is put to pain you must cut it and carve it to make an Idol Secondly because Idols are served attended and worshipped with much pain and grief False worship or the worship of Idols is alwaies more servile and painfull then true worship is False worship is a painfull service a servile service a toil rather then a worship but the service of the true and everliving God is an holy an ingenuous a noble and an honourable service Idols are troublesome both in their making and in their worshipping From this two-fold interpretation of the word I finde a two-fold translation given First Thus I am afraid of all my works as if Job Verehar omnia opera mea Vul. having a design to comfort himself in a reflexion upon his good works and former holy walkings feared they would not serve his turn or bear up his spirit in the evil day which was come upon him As if he had said I have lived as exactly by the rule of the Word as I could I have had respect to all the Commandments of God that I might not sinne against him Yet I am afraid of all my works the anger of God will surely soak thorow them all or finde holes and breaches in them to come in upon me at Thus he is conceived reasoning with himself But doubtlesse it was not Jobs meaning to look to the innocency or holinesse of his life past as the ground of his present comfort he that would doe so may justly be afraid of all his works When we see the best of our selves we have more reason to be afraid then to be comforted As we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling so we have cause to fear and tremble at our works But rather as we translate I am afraid of all my sorrows that is I no sooner endeavour to comfort my self but presently my sorrows throng about me they appear before my face and make such a gastly apparition that I am afraid Sorrows charge and assault me afresh when I am purposing to make an escape from the hands of sorrow When I think of leaving off my heavinesse or of getting out of the sight of it sorrows come upon me with greater violence then before While a prisoner is quiet and content with his restraint the keeper laies no great restraint upon him but if he perceive him meditating an escape or attempting to break prison and set himself at liberty presently more irons are clapt upon him and an advantage taken even to load him with chains Such hard usage this poor prisoner feared at the hand of his sorrows If I say I will leave off my heavinesse I will throw off my bolts and fetters and get out of these troubles I am afraid of all my sorrows I shall have all the Keepers and Jailers about me they will lay more load upon me and watch me more strictly then before You tell me I am in love with my sorrows but the truth is fears of sorrow incompasse me round about I am afraid of all my sorrows Note hence First this generall truth That affliction is the matter of fear Naturall fear arises from the apprehension of some approaching evil and as fear grows more boisterous and inordinate so it represents us with sadder though but supposed evils Secondly Observe A godly man may be much opprest with the fear of afflictions When I would comfort my self I am afraid of all my sorrows It is terrible to me to think that they still encrease upon me and that whilest I hope to escape I am more ensnared Christ himself when he was in our nature and clothed with our flesh was afraid of all his sorrows he was a man of sorrows and he was afraid of his sorrows too Matth. 26.38 He said My soul is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death and he offered up praiers and supplications with strong cries and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared Heb. 5. His were extraordinary sorrows indeed such as no creature ever felt or tasted The Cup of sorrow which he drank was mixed and tempered with all our sorrows and with the cause of them our sins This was it he feared being in our nature though as that nature was hypostatically united unto the divine nature it had infinitely more power to bear all those sorrows then we have in our nature to bear the least sorrow Now if Christ himself
in our flesh was afraid of his sorrows which yet he knew he should overcome how much more may the fear of sorrows overcome us while we are in the flesh Lastly Observe That the fear of afflictions assaults and oppresses some most when they set themselves most to conquer and overcome them I saith Job would comfort myself but I am afraid of all my sorrows I fear they will be doubled and trebled upon me therefore I had rather sit still then by striving to unloose straiten the cords of my affliction faster upon me The next clause seems to hint this as a reason why his sorrows hung so close upon him I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent But how did Job know this As God said to Adam Gen. 3.11 Who told thee that thou wast naked So I may say to Job Who told thee that God would not hold thee innocent Or where hadst thou this assurance of thy condemnation The Saints may know or be assured that God will pardon them but a wicked man cannot know or be assured that God will not This knowledge of Job was but a suspition or at the most a conjecture And the giving out of this conjecture was but the language of his fear his faith could say no such thing for God had no where said it The best men speak sometime from their worser part Their graces may be silent a while and leave corruption to have all the talk When the flesh is under great pain the spirit is hindered from acting its part and then sense gets the mastery over faith Had it not been upon such a disadvantage Job had never offended with his tongue by saying he knew what he could not know I know that thou wilt not hold me înnocent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word which we translate innocent commeth from a root which signifieth pure and clean purus mundus per Metaphorae innocent insous and in the verb to cleanse and make pure And because innocency is the purity or cleannesse of a person therefore the same word signifies to cleanse and to hold or make innocent In which sense it is used frequently Exo. 20.2 Thou wilt not hold him guiltlesse or innocent that taketh thy Name in vain The counsell that David gave upon his death-bed unto Solomon concerning Joab was Therefore hold thou him not innocent or guiltlesse 1 King 2.9 that is let the bloud which he hath shed be upon him let his honour and his name continue stained and blemished in thy thoughts and judgement Hold him not innocent Here the Question is To what antecedent we are to referre the relative Thou I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent Thou who There are two opinions about it Some referre it to God and some to Bilaad to whom Job maketh answer in this place They that refer it unto God make out the sense thus Either first taking the word properly for cleansing and healing the sores and wounds which were upon his body Adversus illud quod amici statuunt probos videlicet etiam castigatos nunquam succidi hoc pro certo statuam ô Deus nunquam esse me ab istis quibus totus scateo foedissimis ulceribus ac vermibu◠repurgandum Bez Novi quod non sis me liberum dimissurus Coc. I know thou wilt not cleanse my body from this filthinesse from these diseases that now anoy me And so it is an answer to the words of Bildad telling Job that in case he sought unto God and humbled himself before him he would awaken for him and remove those judgements No saith Job when I think of ease and deliverance all my fears return upon me and I know God will not yet cleanse ease or deliver me from them Again Taking it tropically as we render it for a judiciall cleansing or purification so Thou wilt not hold me innocent is as much as this Lord such sorrows and troubles are upon me that I fear thou wilt not declare or pronounce or give testimony concerning me to the world that I am an innocent person Because the sores and troubles upon him were as an evidence against him in the judgement of his friends that he was a wicked person therefore saith he Lord I am afraid Thou wilt not hold me that is Thou wilt not declare me to be innocent by taking away these evils Non mundabis i. e. purum justum vel etiam innocentem non declarabis that so this opinion of my friends concerning me may be removed or confuted From this sense note First That even a godly man in deep afflictions may have misgiving thoughts of God The soul misgives sometimes about the pardon of sinne and is even swallowed up with despair concluding I know God will not hold me innocent he will not be reconciled unto me or blot out my transgression But especially which is rather the minde of Job the soul misgives about release from punishment Some being hamper'd in the bands of affliction conclude God will never let them loose or set them at liberty again Such a conclusion Davids unbelief made against himself I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul 1 Sam. 27.1 When Jonah was cast into the deep in the midst of the seas when the flouds compassed him and all the billows and waves passed over him then he said Chap. 2.4 I am cast out of the sight of thine eyes Indeed Jonah began to recover quickly his next words being a breath of faith Yet I will look again toward thy holy Temple Secondly Observe That untill fear of guilt be removed fear of trouble will not remove Job was not very clear about the pardon of his sinnes somewhat stuck upon his spirit while he was under the clouds and darknesse of this temptation therefore saith he I am afraid of all my sorrows Till the soul is setled in the matter of pardon or freedome from guilt it can never be setled about freedome from punishment Hence the Apostle Heb. 2.10 15. speaking of the Saints before the comming of Christ cals Christ the Captain of our salvation and assures us he took flesh that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil and deliver those who through fear of death were all their life time subject unto bondage The language is very near this of the Text I am afraid of all my sorrows As Job was in bondage under his afflictions through the fear of his returning sorrows So they were all their life time subject unto bondage through the fear of approaching death All the Saints before the comming of Christ were under such a bondage for the Apostle speaks as of a generall state That he might deliver those who through the fear of death were all their life time subject unto bondage The reason hereof was because they had not so manifest and convincing a light concerning the pardon of sinne the freenesse of grace
as usually befall the Saints though yours be moderate afflictions and 〈◊〉 common stature such as in the eye of reason any man may 〈◊〉 with by a common assistance of grace yet there are temptations which if God the faithfull God should not come in with greater assistances then usuall you are not able to bear They who wrestle with more then flesh and bloud alwaies need more then the strength of flesh and bloud to help them in their wrestlings And because they are often assaulted with greater strength therefore they are assisted with greater strength For if God doe either with-draw his help from the Saints or leave them to wrestle with Satan alone and to fight single with his Armies or if he doe not proportion the aid he sends to the temptation he permits they are sadly over-charged though they can never be totally overcome and 't is possible to grow weary of the battell though we are assured of the victory It is the honour of the Saints to conquer when they are tempted but it is their happinesse to be above or without temptation How many poor souls put up bils of complaint and beg praiers against temptations Paul praid thrice that is often and much when the messenger of Satan buffeted him whether his were an inward or an outward temptation is doubted but without doubt that temptation made his life burdensome to him till he received that answer from God My grace is sufficient for thee Secondly The Saints are wearied with the weight of their sinfull hearts Inward corruption burdens more then outward temptation and were it not for corruption within temptation without could not be very burdensome The devil tempted Christ but because he found nothing at all in him complying with or sutable to his temptations therefore Christ threw them off with ease That enemy without could doe us no hurt he might put us to some trouble if he found no correspondence within The traitour in our own bowels opens our ports and lets in the adversary His sparks could never enflame us if he found no tindar in us The basenesse and unbelief the lusts and vanities of our mindes are apt to take fire at every injection A gracious soul cannot live here without sinne and yet can easier die then sinne Paul Rom. 7.24 cries out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death or from this body of death That is from my body which is subject to death by reason of these remains of carnall corruption or from my carnall corruptions which are the remains of my spirituall death and are worse to me then any death All the afflictions of his 〈◊〉 and the pains of his body were but a play and a kinde of so 〈◊〉 compared with the trouble which this body of death put him to He rejoyced in tribulation but he could not but mourn under corruption Many poor souls are so vexed with these mysticall Canaanites that their spirituall Canaan the state of grace is to them like Egypt the land of their captivity And when they are commanded to rejoyce they answer if we could not sin we could rejoyce How shall we sing the Lords song in a strange land O that we might goe home Thirdly The Saints grow weary of their lives through the wickednesse of other mens lives not only doe their own corruptions burthen them but which shews the holinesse of their hearts more the corruptions of others The sinfulnesse and pollutions of the times and places wherein they live especially of persons they are related to makes their lives grievous and imbitters all their comforts Rebekah that good woman tels her husband Isaac Gen. 27.46 I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth for if Iacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth such as these which are of the daughters of the land What good shall my life doe me The sweetnesse of my life is gone if this son miscarry as his brother hath done before him The Prophet Jeremy cries out O that I had in the wildernesse a lodging place of waifaring men that I might leave my people and go from them What made him so weary of living among them and that was but a step on this side being weary of his life The next words shew us They be all adulterers an assembly of treacherous men Jer. 9.2 Better be in a waste wildernesse among vvilde beasts then in a populous City among beastly men 'T is a part of our compleat happinesse in heaven that vve shall have no ill neighbours there They vvho are evil can take pleasure in those who do evil But the more holinesse any one hath the more is he burthened with the unholinesse of others And that 's the reason why God himself is exprest to be so exceedingly burdened with the sins of men to be wearied and broken with them to be laden with them as a Cart with sheaves He is infinitely holy Grieve not the holy Spirit of God Ephes 4.30 The Spirit is so holy that sin which is unholinesse grieves him presently And in proportion look how much any man is more holy then others by so much is he more afflicted with the impurity of others As the holy Spirit of God who is all holy so the spirits of holy men who yet have a mixture of sin cannot but be afflicted with the sins of men Fourthly Some of the Saints would part with this life because they have got such assurance and evidence of a better life When much of eternall life appears to a godly man he is weary of a temporall life Naturall things are but burdensome trifles to those who are stored with spirituall Christ saith Luk. 5.39 No man having drunke old wine straight way desireth new for he saith the old is better He that tastes what is better then he enjoyes is unsatisfied with all he enjoyes We can hardly be perswaded what we have is good when we see better of the same kinde How much more hardly is this perswasion wrought in us that earthly things which differ in kinde from heavenly are any great good when heavenly things are open before us When the Disciples at the transfiguration had but a glimpse of glory They say It is good to be here Let us build three tabernacles They do not speak comparatively as if now they had met with somewhat better then ever they had before but positively as if they had never met with any good before When the Spirit carries the Saints into his wine-cellar and gives them a draught of everlasting consolations the wine of worldly comforts will not down they begin to disrelish the dainties and delicacies of the creature A true sight of heaven makes the earth scarce worth the looking after or the living in Such live because God will have them live to doe him service not because they desire to live to serve their own ends Paul was in a great straight betwixt two Phil. 1.23 whether he
saw him languishing under such unparallel'd evils of punishment This moved him to pray Lord do not condemn me by making me an object of the worlds condemnation Again The words Doe not condemn me may have this meaning Lord * Permitto reruÌ„ aliarum â—jâ—cturam sed non possum non doâ—ene vehementer laesam meae sanctitatis innocentiae existimationem Pined Do what thou wilt with me only doe not condemn me His earnest deprecation of this may carry in it a willing submission to any thing besides this And 't is very usuall with men to do so we think we could bear any affliction but that or better then that which is upon us Yet Job had great reason to chuse any affliction rather then this He might well say I can through thy grace enabling me bear these or any other pains of my body and losses in my estate but I know not how to bear the losse of mine innocency or the reproach of being thrown out of thy favour The world and these my friends will be confirmed in their misapprehensions of me if thou doest not speedily deliver me and confute their rash jugement by some eminent mercy Condemnation hath three things in it which make it grievous First The penalty of the sentence Secondly The disfavour of the Judge Thirdly The stain of his integrity who is condemned To have but so much as a suspition or jealousie of the displeasure of God afflicts the spirit of a godly man more then all his other afflictions Though Job had a sure interest in the favour of God and was freed from the penalty of condemnation by his union with Christ yet sometimes clouds and darknesse came over him and the terrours of the Lord did fight against him which caused those sad lamentations in the sixth Chapter but here he is chiefly troubled at the stain of his integrity in the eye of the world who beholding his afflictions blotted him as a wicked man and esteemed him forsaken of God even utterly discarded and cast out of his sight Observe hence First That Great afflictions carry a charge of wickednesse upon the afflicted Paul having escaped death in a wreck at sea could not escape a hard censure at land when a viper was seen upon his hand This man say those Barbarians of Melita among themselves is no doubt a murderer whom though he hath escaped the sea yet vengeance suffereth not to live Act. 28.4 We finde also that those exemplary judgements which befell the Galileans whose bloud Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices it seems he caused them to be slain while they offered sacrifice and those upon whom the Tower of Siloe fell left them all under a charge of highest wickednesse else Christ had not taken it off saying Suppose ye that those Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things or those eighteen upon whom the Tower of Siloe fell thinke ye that they were sinners above all that dwelt in Jerusalem As if he had said I who know your thoughts know ye are ready to think so It is a very ill but it is a very common thing to judge both of persons and of causes by successe Doth a man gain and thrive in the world here 's a man sure whom God loves saith the world Though a Jeremy can say Why doth the way of the wicked prosper He can see them to be wicked thorow all their prosperity yet how often are they accounted righteous who prosper and good who enjoy good But doth a man wither and go down the winde in the world He 's a man sure whom God hates saith the world Man is apt to think them the worst who suffer worst and that they have sinned most who have most sorrow The Prophet Isa 53.4 5. fore-tels that Christ himself While he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows should be esteemed stricken smitten of God and afflicted Christ was esteemed a great sinner when God gave him up to be smitten for sinners therefore he adds but he was wounded for our transgressions c. Secondly observe The displeasure of God is more grievous to the Saints then all other pressures and sorrows whatsoever Job saith not Lord do not afflict me do not chasten me lay not thine hand upon me any more but Lord do not condemn me It is infinitely worse to be condemned then to be chastened yea then to be killed Condemnation carries in it an argument of disfavour and that makes it so burdensome As the love of God is better to us then all the good things of this life Psal 4.6 Many will say Who will shew us any good This is the great query of the world but what saith David Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us thou hast put gladnesse in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine encreased And as the favour of God is better to us then the good things of this life so then life which is better then all earthly goods Ps 63.3 Thy loving kindenesse is better then life Now I say as the love of God is better to us then the best things in the world so the displeasure of God is worser to us then the worst things that are in the world all the torments and racks all the sicknesses and distempers all the reproaches and contempts of men have not so much evil in them to us as one frown from God Hence as when two sore diseases suppose the gout and the stone both very painfull yet one much exceeding at once afflict the body the patient forgets the lesse so it is when inward and outward sorrows at once ceaze upon one man when the arrows of God are fastned in his spirit he forgets the arrow in his flesh The wounds of the spirit heal all the wounds of the flesh they make them as if they were no wounds or not worth the complaining of Thirdly observe To be accounted wicked is a sore affliction It is an affliction to have an ill name though we deserve it not and to be accounted wicked though we are not it is I grant far better to be censured then to be flattered It is very ill when others count us and worst of all when we account our selves better then we are yet it is no small evil to be accounted worse then we are especially to be accounted evil when we are good A wound in our honour is not a wound to be sleighted It was no small part of the sufferings of Christ that he was numbred with the transgressours in his death and called Beelzebub a friend of Publicans and sinners while he lived Fourthly observe from this Do not condemn me That condemnation is the adjudging of one to be wicked Condemnation supposeth a man guilty and leaveth him under a penalty As Justification is the adjudging and declaring of a person to be righteous or the accepting of him for righteous in another who is not righteous
can see We may see a thing and not know what we see But the eye of the Lord seeth and discerneth at all distances There are none so neer him but he knows what they are neernesse doth not hinder his sight and there are none so farre from him but he can discover what they are remotenesse doth not hinder his sight And indeed all things are present with him as in time so in place God is nearest Deus non soluâ— est proximus objecto sed est intimè cum illo conjunctut even next to every object He is in every place yet not included by any he is in every thing yet not mixed with any Prov. 15.3 The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good His eies are upon the waies of man he seeth all his goings Job 34.21 and that this seeing is a distinguishing sight another Scripture clears to us His eye-lids try the children of men Psal 11.5 Let them be what they will and where they will his eye-lids do not only see but try that is he hath a distinct and a certain knowledge or a criticall sight of the state and condition of every man 5. Man seeth but the colour and skin the face and out-side of things or persons but God seeth the in-sides and looks into the very bowels of them He is a searcher and discerner of the heart He seeth the spirit as soon as the face Our clothes are not more open to him then our brests and bosoms An Heathen wished for a window there and if we had windows there we could not see what 's there An eye of flesh cannot reade the meaning of our spirits but the Lord can look into the heart without a window yea we are all window to him and he at every turn looks not only upon us but into us It was prophecied of Christ Isa 11.3 He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes neither reprove after the hearing of his ears that is he shall not judge as a meer man but as God he shall not judge according to fair appearances or flying reports He shall judge with righteousnesse and reprove with equity Man whose eyes are of flesh should not judge according to appearance yet because his eyes are of flesh he cannot judge of that which doth not appear But God who calleth those things which are not as if they were judgeth of those things which appear not as if they did appear 6. An eye of flesh may be deceived The sight of man is subject to manifold deceptions Many things put a stop to the sight of the eye The eye of man is in danger of as many fallacies as the understanding and the understanding is entangled with many fallacies by the eye But there is no errour in the sight of God nor any deception of his eye you cannot by any art or device by any policy or hypocrisie by any masques or disguises by any simulations or dissimulations make that appear to him which is not or make it appear to him otherwise then it is The heart of man saith the Lord is deceitfull above all things and desperately wicked who can know it only the Lord who makes can answer this challenge so he doth in the next words I the Lord search the heart I try the reins even to give every man according to his waies and according to the fruit of his doings How can that which is deceitfull receive according to its doings but by knowing all its doings and all it's deceits As the tongue the greatest troubler of the world no man can tame so the heart the greatest impostour in the world no man can discover but God and he can do it easily and doth it continually 7. When it is said the Lord hath not eyes of flesh he seeth not as man seeth the meaning is his knowledge is not imperfect as the knowledge of man is An eye of flesh hath bin but a while and can be but a while and therefore cannot attain much knowledge We are but of yesterday and know nothing saith Bilaad c. 8. He that hath but little experience must needs have more then a little ignorance Experience breeds knowledge and brings to perfection in knowledge The eye of God is from everlasting If he had not as he hath all knowledge in and from himself he might have fetcht it in before this time from what he hath seen And he having seen all things must needs have perfect knowledge whose knowledge had been perfect though he had never seen any of these things Besides As this phrase an eye of flesh imports thinnesse of experience and thence imperfection of knowledge so grossenesse of spirit and dimnesse of understanding to attain knowledge When Peter made that gracious confession Mat. 16.16 Thou art Christ the Sonne of the living God Christ answers Carò significat aliquia pingue obtusum crassuÌ„ minime subtiâ—e aut perspicax Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona for flesh and bloud that is man hath not revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in heaven As if he had said All men are flesh and bloud so dull-sighted and blinde that they could never have perceived this truth by any study or observation it comes only by gift and revelation The eye of God is not an eye of flesh in this sense neither All spirits have much clearnesse of understanding much sharpnesse and quicknesse of apprehension The devil being a spirit Daemon though now a wicked spirit hath one name from knowledge How much more knowing is he who is The spirit the Creatour of the spirits of all flesh and the Creatour of those spirits which subsist without flesh Further Sight is put for judgement and seeing for judging Judging is an act beyond knowing Judgement is the result of knowledge So Thou dost not see is Thou dost not judge as man judgeth 1. Mans judgement is often hindered by his affections Num vides more hominum siâ—ut illi ex facie judicas ut affectibus ducaris siâ—ut illi His judgement is hindred by divers affections especially by love and the nearnesse of relations man can hardly see a fault and a friend a sin and a son together Love makes knowledge as ignorance and light as darknesse Christian charity covers a multitude of sins from private revenge and harsh censures But humane charity coverâ— a multitude of sins from publike justice and wholsome admonitions The former keeps from rigid severity this endangers to cockering flattery It is not thus with God He seeth not as man seeth They who have the greatest interest the nearest relation to God are seen what they are and shall be judged as they are God hath indeed an infinite largenesse of affection to poor sinners and the lap of his garment of love covers every day a multitude yea many multitudes of sins But he doth not this because his love to the persons offending hinders his eye from seeing but because
a Judge Chap. 29.16 The cause which I know not I searched out but God searches out those causes which he knows God doth not search us that he may know us or to inform himself but to make us know him and our selves There are not many who know themselves at all there are none who know themselves enough The Lord searches us that we may search our selves There are not many who know God at all there are none who know God enough God searches us that we may seek after him By every affliction the Lord would make us know our selves and Himself better It is said of Manasseh when he was in the briars That then Manasseh knew the Lord and then doubtlesse he began to know himself The same light that brings us to the knowledge of what God is brings us also to the knowledge of what our selves are Secondly Observe Afflictions are searchers Thou searchest for mine iniquity saith Job Job supposed that the Lord came to try him and to finde out the bottom of his heart when God smites our bodies or our estates he searcheth our hearts and maketh enquiry in our lives The Prophet threatens the Jews Zeph. 1.12 That God would come and search Ierusalem with candles That is as some interpret he would cause the Chaldeans to search for their most hidden treasures and finde them out Others understand it of God himself searching Ierusalem But God is not like the woman in the Parable who had lost her groat he needeth no candle-light to finde out the lost groat or to finde out the filthinesse that is in the most secret corners of the heart The meaning then is that God would search Ierusalem that is the people of Ierusalem as exactly as if they were searched with a candle Quùm minutatèm cognoscam de peccatis potuli cum eo inibo rationes meas accuratissimè ut solent qui adhibitis lucernis perlustrant omnia Jun. he would bring forth their secret sins and all their hidden abominations This search was made by those terrible and sore judgements brought upon Ierusalem God kindled a fire of affliction and searched them by the light of that fire Troubles are as so many candles lighted up to search our selves by and they will be as so many fires kindled to consume us with if we search not our selves At this time God is searching England with candles The Prophet describing the great sorrows of the Jews in their captivity directs us what to do Lam. 3.40 Let us search and try our waies When God is searching us it is high time for us to search our selves It is sad when God is searching for our sins if we are not searching for them too and it is more sad if when God commeth to search for our sins we be found hiding our sins These are searching times God is searching let us search too else we may be sure as Moses Numb 32.23 tels the people of Israel our sins will finde us out They who endeavour not to finde their sins shall be found by their sins Our iniquity will enquire after us if we enquire not after it But what if iniquity enquire after us What If iniquity enquire after us it will finde us and if iniquity finde us trouble will finde us yea if iniquity finde us alone without Christ hell and death will finde us If iniquity finde any man he hath reason enough to say unto it what Ahab said to Eliah without reason Hast thou found me O my enemy The best of men have reason to look out what is evil in them when God brings evil upon them or wraps them up in common evils They who have no wickednes in them to cast them under condemnation have yet sin enough in them to make them smart under correction Though Iob could say from the testimony of a pure conscience Thou knowest I am not wicked yet he durst not say thou knowest I have not sinned Iob acknowledged he was sinfull and God knew he was not wicked In searching after iniquity he found not hypocrisie yea he knew he was not an hypocrite before he searched him so it follows Verse 7. Thou knowest that I am not wicked and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand Continet versus septimus id quod praecipuè in hac causa disputatione spectandum est sc Iobum non esse improbum Pined This 7. verse containeth one of the chiefest questions of that grand controversie handled in this book whether Job were a wicked man or no Satan represented him for such to God and therefore called that he might be tried the Lord tried him upon that challenge and he was brought to a grievous triall Job appeals to the Lords own knowledge and is contented to stand or fall according to his determination being yet assured that he stood right in the thoughts of God Thou knowest I am not wicked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apud scire tuuÌ„ est Multo plus dicit per hanc phrasin apud scire tuum est quam si diceret tu scis In scientia tua est penes notitiam tuam est non aliundè sed ex te optimè nosti me non esse improbum Dru. Haeret in regenitis peccatum improbi taâ—en dici nec possunt nec debent Mer. Thou knowest The Hebrew is rendered word for word thus It is upon thy knowledge or It is upon thy know that I am not wicked As if he had said Thou hast not this knowledge from without thou dost not ground thy judgement concerning the state of any man upon what others say of him upon reports or hear-saies no thy knowledge is from thy self Thou knowest upon thine own knowledge thine is an internall an immediate and so a perfect an infallible knowledge and that tels thee of me I am not wicked That I am not wicked He doth not say Thou knowest that I am not a sinner or Thou knowest that I have not sinned Job had no such opinion of himself and he knew God had no such knowledge of him There is a great difference between being a sinner and a wicked man The best of Saints while they are here upon the earth are sinners but the worst of Saints even here upon the earth are not wicked they have a new nature they are new creatures regenerate and born again by the Word and Spirit therefore they are not wicked though much sin be in them yet no wickednesse is in them and they are denominated from their better part not wicked from their remaining corruption but holy from their received renovation Thou knowest that I am not wicked Again The word in the originall being in the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quod non impiè egerim Mont. we may translate as many do Thou knowest that I have not done wickedly But the sense is the same for every man is in doing as he is in being He that is not wicked in his state cannot act
me out of thine hand or pull me away from thee by strength or by entreaty I should wonder the lesse at thy severity God doth sometimes even bespeak the intercession of others and complains that none come in to deliver a people or a person out of his hand When he was about to destroy Sodom he tels it unto Abraham probably for that very end that Abraham might intercede for Sodom and at least get Lot out of his hand When God was about to execute his judgments upon Jerusalem Non est qui clamâ—t Deus optme re stringas gladium ne strictum exterdas â—n populum tuuÌ„ He saw and there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessour none to take him off from destroying that people Isa 59.16 The Prophet complains in words of the same importance chap. 64.7 There is none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee Friends seeing a father go out hastily to correct his child rise presently or stir up themselves to take hold of the father or to mediate for the childe Pray spare him for this time and hold your hand but saith the Prophet There is none that will stir up himself to take hold of God He is going out in wrath and no man puts him in minde of mercy with that cry of another Prophet O spare thy people and give not thine heritage to reproach When Abraham was ready to slay Isaac upon the altar when his hand was stretched out to fetch the fatall blow just then did the Angel take hold of his sword and delivered Isaac out of his hand God saith to Moses Exod. 32.10 Let me alone God was about to destroy that people Moses would not permit him he seeks to deliver Israel out of the revenging hand of God by that holy violence of praier and supplication Lastly Others look upon Job as breathing out a very heroick and magnanimous spirit in these words As if he had said Lord Thou knowest and thou shalt know that I am not wicked though none deliver or take me out of thine hand Thou shalt finde me holding mine integrity as long as I hold my life I am resolved to honour thee whatsoever thou doest with me And so he refutes the charge of Satan Satan said Touch his flesh and his bone and he will curse thee to thy face No saith Job though he taketh away my flesh and my bones yet I will not curse him to his face no nor speak an ill word of him behinde his back Though I should never be delivered yet God shall never be blasphemed Upon the whole observe That there is no means on earth can rescue us out of the hand of God I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand Deut. 32.39 Till God discharge us there 's no escaping none can force us out of his hand whatsoever is in theirs power cannot policy cannot riches cannot we cannot bribe our selves out of the sight or beyond the stroke of divine justice A golden key will not open Gods prison door Riches avail not in the day of wrath and in some daies of wrath prayer it self cannot prevail Then take heed how ye fall into the hands of God No wise man will run into his displeasure from whom there is no deliverance but at his own pleasure See more of this point Chap. 9.12 JOB Chap. 10. Vers 8 9 10 11 12 13. Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about and yet thou doest destroy me Remember I beseech thee that thou hast made me as the clay and wilt thou bring me into dust again Hast thou not poured me out as milk and crudled me like cheese Thou hast cloathed me with skin and flesh and hast fenced me with bones and sinews Thou hast granted me life and favour and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit And these things hast thou hid in thine heart I know that this is with thee AT the third verse of this Chapter we found Job questioning with the Lord Is it good for thee that thou shouldest oppresse That thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands In these words he insisteth upon and illustrateth that argument by fitting it to his own condition As if he had said Lord seeing thou wilt not despise the work of â—â—ine hands why shouldest thou despise me Am not I the work of thy hands Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about and yet thou dost destroy me The whole context argues out this point wherein we may observe 1. His forming or making set down in generall at the eighth verse Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about 2. The matter out of which he was formed and made at the ninth verse Remember I beseech thee that thou hast made me as the clay 3. His forming is drawn out in particulars Wherein we have First His conception at the tenth verse Hast not thou poured me out as milk and crudled me as cheese 2. The conjunction or setting together of his patts at the 11. verse Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh and hast fenced me with bones and sinews 3. The quickning of his parts thus joyned and set together at the 12. verse Thou hast granted me life 4. The preservation of his life in the same verse Thou hast given me life and not only so but favour and thy visitation doth preserve my spirit 5. Lastly We have Jobs strength of assurance or his assertion concerning all this at the 13. verse These things thou hast hid in thine heart I know that this is with thee as if he had said Lord Thou knowest all is truth which I have spoken There are three opinions concerning the connection or tie of these words with those that went before First Some conceive that Job persisteth in the same matter handled in the words immediately foregoing exalting the knowledge of God concerning man upon this ground because God made man Thou knowest that I am not wicked How did Job know that He must needs know what man is who made man Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about forasmuch as I am thy work a piece of thy framing surely thou knowest what thou hast framed thou who hadst knowledge enough to make me hast a perfect knowledge of what thou hast made me We may joyn it also with the later clause None can deliver out of thine hand Why Thine hands have made me and fashioned me Is it possible for the work to deliver it self out of the hand of him who wrought it Is that which is formed too strong for him that formed it when as the same hand which gave it form gave it strength We finde this argument as to the former part Psal 94.9 where from the work of God in our naturall constitution the holy pen-man proves the fulnesse of his knowledge concerning us in every
in the state of innocency had an immortality by the gift of God yet with condition that he did submit to that rule which God gave him to live by Doe this and live Adamus habuit potentiam non moriendi non impotentiaÌ„ moriendi Adamus peccans non solum potuit mori sed non potuit non mori Quicunque dicit Adamum primuÌ„ hominem mortalem factum ita ut sive peccaret sive non peccaret moreretur in corpore hoc est de corpore exiret non peccati merito sed necessitate naturae Anathema sit Concil Melivit Can 1. was the law of Adams life Adam had not an impossibility to die but a possibility not to die This was the state of immortality in the state of innocency Man had not fallen into the grave if he had not fallen into transgression His life was made as long as his obedience if he had not turned from God he had not returned to the earth Death was convaied in by sin and our possibility not to die was not only lost but changed into a necessity of dying So then man is brought to dust not because his nature was subject to corruption but because sin hath corrupted his nature When he abused the liberty of his will he was subjected to this necessity against his will By an irreversible ordinance of heaven It is appointed unto men once to die Heb. 9.27 Iob speaks to that point of Gods law concerning man Thou hast made me as the clay and thou wilt bring me into the dust again Thus the words are taken as an assertion of the power and priviledge of God to unmake and pull down man whom he had made and set up If we read the words by way of interrogation or admiration so Iob seems to intend them as an allay to mitigate the present severity of the Lords proceeding with him Thou hast made me of the clay but a while ago and wilt thou bring me into the dust again O spare me a little before I go hence and shall be seen no more It will not be long before there must be an end of me O let me have a more comfortable being and breathing while I am here When Satan provoked the Lord against Ierusalem to destroy it the Lord answered Zech. 3.2 Is not this a brand pluckt out of the fire As if he had said unto Satan Art thou moving me to throw this people into that fire of affliction out of which they were so lately snatcht Ierusalem was in the fire but awhile ago and shall I cast it in again Iob pleads in the same form though not in the same matter I was clay but the other day and Lord shall I to dust again to day Let we see some quiet daies before I see the end of my daies Gild over this clay of mine with the shinings of thy face upon me before thou renderest me dust again I have more then once had occasion to touch this argument and shall therefore passe it here Iob having thus set forth his naturall constitution in the matter of it as he was made of clay goeth on to describe himself more distinctly first in his conception of his whole body secondly in the formation and delineation of his parts Verse 10. Hast thou not poured me out as milke and crudled me like cheese Lacti simile initio semen postea admirabili Dei opere non secus ac caseus conerescit con solidatur ut membra paulatim conformari incipiant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Notat reiliquâ—dae concretioneÌ„ coagulationem vel condensationem Under the modest shadow of this verse that great naturall mystery of mans generation and conception is contained The former word signifies not only the pouring forth of liquids but the melting and dissolving of the hardest mettals iron brasse c. that they may be fitted to run or be poured forth Ezek. 22.21 22. And as this signifies the softning and melting of that which is hard so the next word which we translate crudled signifies the hardening or thickning of that which is soft and fluid Moses useth it in describing the miraculous dividing of the red sea Exod. 15.8 The flouds stood upright as an heap and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea The Prophet Zephany useth it for the setlednesse and resolvednesse of a people in sinne Chap. 1.12 The Lord saith he will punish the men that are setled we put in the margin curded or thickned on their lees I might from these proprieties of the originall words illustrate that secret of mans originall But forasmuch as the Spirit of God hath drawn a curtain and cast a vail of metaphors over it therefore I intend not to open or discover it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Arist de gen Animal c. 20. Ancient Philosophers have spoken of these naturall operations in a like language and under these similitudes I shall only say in generall that these two expressions First Thou hast poured me out as milk secondly And crudled me like cheese are appliable to that speciall contribution which God hath charged upon each parent towards that great work the continuation of their own kinde Miseret atque etiam pudet aestimantem quaÌ„ sit frivola animantium superbissimorum origo Plin. l. 7. c. 7. and the raising up of a posterity in their place to serve himself and their generation Learn hence Fitst That man hath reason to be humbled at the meannes and manner of his original What hath he to be proud of in the world who that he might be prepared for his coming into the world was poured out as milk and curdled as cheese Let not man be high minded whose beginning was so low and homely Learn secondly Our naturall conception is from God Men in a strict sense are called The fathers of our flesh Nihil de genitoribus aut seminibus nascitur si ea non operetur Deus August in Psal 118. and God the father of spirits Heb. 12.9 Yet God hath the chief title to the father-hood of our flesh as well as the sole title to the fatherhood of our spirits Thou hast poured me out as milk and thou hast crudled me like cheese here is no mention of his father none of his mother but as if the Lord had wrought all by an immediate power he ascribes the whole effect to him Thou hast poured me out as milk c. We are also his off-spring as the Apostle tels the Athenians out of their own Poets Act. 17.28 Thirdly This gives caution to all whom the Lord hath called or shall call to the state of marriage to be holy in that estate Marriage is honourable Heb. 13.4 and the bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge no wonder if God have a respectfull eye to the undefiled in that relation and a revengefull eye upon the defilers of it seeing as his own authority instituted it so his own power acts so
The greatest wonders of creation are unseen God hath packt many rarities mysteries yea miracles together in mans chest All the vitall instruments and wheels whereby the watch of our life is perpetually moved from the first hour to the last are locked up in a curious internall cabinet where God himself prepared the pulleys hung on the weights and wound up the chime by the hand of his infinite power without opening of any part As our own learned Anatomist elegantly teacheth us in the Preface to his sixth book Fourthly The dimensions proportions and poise of mans body are so exact and due that they are made the model of all structures and artificials Castles Houses Ships yea the Ark of Noah was framed after the measure and plot of mans body In him is found a circulate figure and a perfect quadrat yea the true quadrature of a circle whose imaginary lines have so much troubled the Mathematicians of many ages Fifthly In every part usefulnesse and commodiousnesse comelinesse and convenience meet together What beauty is stampt upon the face What majesty in the eye What strength is put into the arms What activity into the hands What musick and melody in the tongue Nothing in this whole fabrique could be well left out or better placed either for ornament or for use Some men make great houses which have many spare rooms or rooms seldom used but as in this house there is not any one room wanting so every room is of continuall use Was ever clay thus honoured thus fashioned Galen gave Epicurus an hundred years to imagine a more commodious scituation configuration or composition of any one part of the body And surely if all the Angels in heaven had studied to this day they could not have cast man into a more curious mould or have given a fairer and more correct edition of him This clay cannot say to him that fashioneth it What makest thou Or this work he hath no hands Isa 45.9 The Lord hath made man so well that man cannot tell which way to be made better This work cannot say He that wrought me had no hands that is I am ill wrought as to say you have no eyes you have no ears are reproofs of negligence and inadvertency both in hearing and seeing So when we say to a man Surely you have no hands our meaning is he hath done his work either slothfully or unskilfully But this work of mans body shall not need to say unto God he hath no hands he hath given proof enough that hands and head too were imploied about this work Let us make it appear that we have hands and tongues and hearts for him that we have skin and flesh bones and sinews for him that we have strength and health and life and all for him seeing all these are also derived from him as appears in the next words Thou hast granted me life and favour Job having thus described the naturall conception and formation of his body descendeth to his quickning and preservation When God had formed man out of the dust of the earth he then breathed into him the breath of life and man became a living soul and thus when God hath formed man in the womb given him skin and flesh bones and sinews then he gives life and breath and all things necessary to the continuation of what he hath wrought up to such excellent perfections Our divine Philosopher teacheth us this doctrine Verse 12. Thou hast granted me life and favour and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit This verse holds out to us the great Charter of God to man consisting of three royall grants First Life Secondly Favour Thirdly Visitation The bounty of God appears much in granting life more in granting favour most of all in his grant of gracious visitations Thou hast granted me life c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vitas fecisti Mont. Vitam disposuisti mihi Sep. Quasi debito loco ordine The letter of the Hebrew is Thou hast made or fitted for me life and favour The soul is the ornament of the body life the lustre of our clay Thou hast not thrown or hudled my life into my body Thou hast put it in exquisitely and orderly The frame of the body is an exquisite frame but the frame the faculties and powers the actings and motions of the soul are farre more exquisite The inhabitant is more noble then the house and the jewell then the cabinet As the life is better then meat and the body then artificiall raiment Mat. 6.25 So the life is better then the body which is to it a naturall raiment Thou hast granted me life c. Life is here put metonymically for the soul of which it is an effect as the soul is often put for the life whereof it is a cause We translate in the singular number life the Hebrew is plurall Thou hast granted me lives But hath a man more lives then one Some understand Job speaking not only of corporall but spirituall life as our naturall life is the salt of the body to keep that from corrupting so spirituall life or the life of grace is the salt of the soul to keep that from corrupting Secondly Thou hast granted me lives that is say others temporall life and eternall life Thirdly Lives may be taken for the three great powers of life Man hath one life consisting of three distinct lives For whereas there is a life of vegetation and growth such as is in trees and plants and a life of sense and motion such as is in beasts of the earth fowls of the air and fishes of the sea And a life of reason such as is in Angels whereby they understand and discourse these three lives which are divided and shared among all other living creatures are brought together and compacted into the life of man Whole man is the epitome or summe of the whole Creation being enriched and dignified with the powers of the invisible world and of the visible put together under which notion we may expound this Text Thou hast granted me lives a three-fold life or a three-fold acting and exercise of the same life Thou hast granted me lives Observe hence Life is the gift of God With thee is the fountain of lives the well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vena vitarum or the vein of lives Psal 36.9 The Psalmist alludes either first to waters which flow from a fountain and so doth life from God Or secondly To metals With thee is the vein of lives as all minerall veins the veins of gold and silver of lead and iron c. lie as it were in bank in the bosom and bowels of the earth so doth life in God There is not the lest vein of this quick-silver in all the world but comes from him Or thirdly The Psalmist alludeth to the veins of the body which as so many rivers and rivolets derive their bloud from tha◠red-sea the liver God hath a sea of life in himself
and that God means us no good when we doe not enjoy good But the strong faith speaketh on this wise Lord I know there is mercy in thine heart towards me though I see nothing in thy face but frowns and feel nothing from thy hand but blows Let God do what he pleaseth with me I will not have a jealous thought of him or suspect his intentions towards me whatsoever his actions be Secondly observe We may gather arguments of support in our greatest sufferings from the apprehension of concealed mercies The skill and holy subtilty of faith can winde it self in Gods bosome and from what it findes lying secretly there for us encourages us to bear what is openly laid upon us Lastly Observe A believer looks upon all his receits as coming out of the heart of God As he can look into his own heart and see all the Commandments and revealed counsels of God hidden there so he can look into the heart of God and see all the comforts he wanteth hidden there Men of the world take their comforts only from the hand of God Saints take theirs from the heart of God It putteth the price upon every blessing when we can look upon speciall love as the spring of it Look how much of the heart of our friend we can see in a courtesie so much true value there is in it Hence it is usuall with man when he would expresse his freenesse to those who desire a favour at his hands to say Yes Take it with heart and good will you have it with all my heart We reade of one who complained he had received but a golden cup when he saw another receive a kisse from a noble Prince A kisse is a better gift then a cup of gold Love is the richest present How happy then are they who have the golden cup and a kisse too much from the hand and all from the heart from the love of God Job having thus revised and read over the particular of his former mercies received from the bounty and free love of God revives his complaint about and renews his desire of deliverance from present sorrows in his next addresse to God JOB Chap. 10. Vers 14 15 16 17. If I sinne then thou markest me and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity If I be wicked woe unto me if I be righteous yet will I not lift up my head I am full of confusion therefore see thou mine affliction For it encreaseth Thou huntest me as a fierce lion and again thou shewest thy self marvellous upon me Thou renewest thy witnesses against me and encreasest thine indignation upon me changes and war are against me THe connection of these words lieth somewhat in the dark and this inevidence hath caused divers conjectures about it 1. Some make the connection with the 13. verse I know said Job that this is with thee and here he declareth what was with him namely that If I sinne then thou markest me and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity 2. The connection is made by others with the 12. verse Thou hast granted me life and favour and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit yet if I sin thou markest me c. As if Job had said Though thou hast been pleased to make so many grants of favour and hast done all those things for me which were hidden in thine heart yet I know thou wilt not bear with or connive at me If I sinne against thee Thou hast not given me these mercies that I should be imboldened to transgresse the rule of thy justice no though thou hast done much for me Yet if I sin thou markest me and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity 3. A third goeth higher and makes these words depend upon the third verse where Job puts three Queries to God the last of which is Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest shine upon the counsel of the wicked I know it is not for 't is like I might escape as well as another yet If I sinne thou markest me and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity If I be wicked woe unto me Mine own experience proves thee farre enough from shining upon the counsell of the wicked Behold clouds and darknesse are upon me There is a fair sense in any of these connections which to determine is not easie I shall leave all three before the Reader Verse 14. If I sin then thou markest me If I sinne Sin standeth here in opposition to wickednesse Thou wilt not shine upon the counsel of the wicked And vers 15. If I be wicked then woe unto me for if I sinne then thou markest me Sin is any transgression against or deviation though but an hairs bredth from the rule if I fail be it never so little Then thou markest me The Originall hath four significations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which occasion as many different interpretations of the text First To preserve and that two wales first by protecting from those evils which others would bring upon us Psal 141.9 Keep me from the snare which they have laid That is Protect me from the danger which their snares threaten me with So at the 12th verse of this Chapter Thy visitation doth preserve my spirit Secondly It is rendered to preserve by sparing or not bringing those evils upon us which our own sins have deserved So the Vulgar here who to make out his sense Si peccavi ad horam pepercisti mihi c. Vulg. puts the later part into the form of an interrogation If I have sinned and thou hast spared me for a time Wherefore then dost thou not acquit me from mine iniquity As if the meaning of Job were this When in former times I sinned against thee thou wast pleased to remit of thy severity and deal gently with me Thou didst spare me as a father spareth a sonne that serveth him Why is the tenour of thy dispensations so much changed from what it was seeing thou art a God that changest not and I am but what I was a weak and changeable man Why am I now charged with sinne and not set free as sometimes I have been from sorrow the fruit of it Wilt thou deal with me who sinne out of infirmity or against my will as with those who are wicked and have a will to sin Secondly To prevent others from doing what they desire or our selves from what we fear Psal 18.23 I was upright before him and I kept my self from mine iniquity As if he had said I have maintained such a strict watch over my own heart that I have prevented my self from falling into that sin which I was most subject to and in danger of both in regard of my constitution and temptation Taking this meaning of the word the whole verse is rendered thus If or when I am ready to sinne thou stoppest or preventest me Why then dost thou not acquit me from mine iniquity As if he had said Lord wilt
dropping upon them when they suppose the Sunne shineth upon them Secondly Consider who speaks this If I saith Iob be wicked then woe unto me Hence observe That A godly man may put the worst cases to himself The Scripture puts such cases to godly men therefore they may put such to themselves Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die saith the Apostle writing to the Saints Though such a supposition cannot be resolved into this position A godly man shall die yet the supposition is true If he liveth after the flesh he shall die So the Apostle of himself and his fellow-Apostles yea of the Angels If we or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you then that which we have preached let him be accursed Gal. 1.9 And as Paul prophecied a curse upon any either Apostle or angel who should preach a false Gospel so a woe upon himself if he should neglect to preach the true Gospel 1 Cor. 9.16 They who are above all curses may be threatned with a curse And they who shall certainly be preserved from doing that which inevitably brings the curse may be told of a curse in case they should do it They put dangerous suppositions opposite to these who say Let a godly man be never so wicked yet it shall be well with him let him sinne as much as he will yet it shall be well with him The Spirit of God never puts such suppositions As the Scripture speaks often to perswade so sometimes to terrifie the godly from sinne but never a tittle which may be an encouragement to sin It speaks much to keep up their hearts in an assurance of pardon in case they fall into sin and much more to keep down their corruptions and to preserve them from falling into sin Though there be a truth in it that how much so ever a godly man sinneth he shall be pardoned yet the Scripture useth no such language and the form of wholsom words teacheth every man rather to speak thus If I be wicked then woe unto me If I be righteous yet will I not lift up my head These words stand in an elegant opposition against the former Here are persons and states opposite persons The wicked and the righteous If I be wicked if I be righteous states Woe and lifting up the head If I be wicked then woe unto me If I be righteous then will I not lift up mine head He doth not say If I be righteous I shall be happy though that be a truth but which was more sutable to his purpose If I be righteous yet will I not lift up my head Some put this into a dilemma or double argument by which Iob would aggravate the greatnesse of his affliction As if he had said Let me look which way I will my case is very said if I be wicked then woe be to me If I be righteous yet I am so full of sorrows that I am not able to hold up my head But I rather interpret this later part of the verse as a description of Jobs humility in the best of his spirituall estate then as any aggravation of the ilnes of his temporall estate If I be righteous He speaks not as if he doubted whether he were righteous or no. Iob had shewed the setlednesse of his spirit in that assurance more then once before but he puts the best of his case to shew how low he was in his own thoughts when he was at best There is a two-fold righteousnesse First of Justification Secondly of Sanctification of sincerity or uprightnesse and so his meaning is Suppose I am such as I have asserted my self to be and as God himself hath testified me to be perfect and upright yet I will not lift up my head Some read I cannot others I dare not lift up my head I will not lift up my head Not lift up thy head man if thou wert righteous Why who in the world shall lift up their heads if the righteous shall not Are there any that have such cause to lift up their heads as they He might say indeed If I were rich or if I were honourable yet I will not lift up my head these are things which cannot and therefore should not lift up any mans spirit an inch from the ground but to say If I were righteous I would not lift up my head seems a degradation or an abasement of righteousnesse To clear this I shall open the phrase a little To lift up the head of another man is to advance him Thus Pharaoh lifted up the head of his chief Butler Gen. 40.13 And the King of Babylon lifted up the head of Iehojakin King of Iudah and brought him forth out of prison Jer. 52.21 In this sense David cals God The lifter up of his head Ps 3.3 To lift up our own heads is to prevail and to get above pressing evils victoriously Judg. 8.28 Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel so that they lifted up their heads no more That is Gideon routed and made so compleat a conquest over the Midianites that they were totally broken and could no more insult over Israel The victory of Christ over all our spirituall enemies is thus described Psal 110.7 He shall drink of the brook in the way that is of the waters of affliction and sorrow which either the wrath of God or the rage of men gave him to drink while he was in the way of perfecting the work of our redemption and because he shall do this Therefore shall be lift up his head that is he shall prevail by his passion and overcome by dying yea he shall overcome death by a triumphant resurrection Attolere caput notat gaudium fiduciā Coc. Again There is a two-fold lifting up of the head First a lifting up of the head with joy and consolation Luk. 21.28 Secondly A lifting up of the head with pride and ostentation Psal 83.2 Loe thine enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee have lift up the head that is they have proudly boasted and vaunted themselves The later is Jobs sense If I be righteous I will not lift up my head in pride he might and he did lift up his head in joy because he knew himself righteous Once more There is a lifting up of our heads in our selves and a lifting up of our heads in Christ Job disclaims the former here but he all along assumes the later We cannot lift up our heads too high in the thoughts of free grace nor hang them down too low in the thought of our own works Non levabo caput h e. demisso capite ac mente coram te ambulabo Further While Job saith I will not lift up my head he meaneth lesse then he speaketh In Scripture there is sometimes lesse expressed then is intended and sometimes more That of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.58 Your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord rises in sense higher then the