Spirit of his mouth that is Jehovah by his Eternall Son and Spirit made all things The heavens and their host are there expressed by a Synecdoche of the part for the whole creation or for all creatures both in heaven and in earth Againe Psal 104.30 Thou sendest forth thy Spirit they are created The Spirit of God creates every day what is it that continueth things in their created being but providence That 's a true axiome in Divinity Providence is creation continued Now the Spirit of God who created at first creates to this day Thou sendest forth thy Spirit they are created The work of creation was finished in the first six dayes of the world but the work of creation is renewed every day and so continued to the end of the world Successive providentiall creation as well as originall creation is ascribed to the Spirit The Scripture is full of arguments to prove that the holy Ghost is God Which because this fundamentall truth is blasphemously spoken against I shall a little touch upon First As the Spirit createth and makes the naturall man consisting of body and soule so he regenerateth which is a greater creation the whole into a spirituall man therefore he is God John 3.5 Except a man be borne againe of water and of the Spirit that is of the Spirit who is as water he cannot enter into the kingdome of God The holy Ghost is also call'd The sanctifier sanctification is regeneration in progress and motion regeneration is sanctification begun and sanctification is regeneration perfecting from day to day 2 Thes 2.13 We are bound to give thanks to God for you brethren beloved of the Lord because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and beliefe of the truth And the Apostle Peter writes to the Elect 1 Pet 1 2. according to the foreknowledge of God the father through sanctification of the Spirit Now who can doe these great things but God who can regenerate or give a new nature who can sanctifie or perfect that new nature but God alone Men and Angels must let these workes alone for ever or as we translate Psal 49.8 these acts cease for ever from men and Angels as much as the redemption of man from the grave or from hell from corruption or condemnation Secondly The Spirit is omniscient He knoweth all things 1 Cor 1.12 2 10.19 The Spirit knoweth all things yea the deep things of God He is not only acquainted with and privie to the surface and outside of things but he searcheth things to the bottom of them Nor doth he search only the deepe or bottome things of common men or of the chiefest of men Kings and Princes whose hearts are usually as much deeper then other mens as their persons and places are higher but the Spirit searcheth the deep things the bottome things of God the things of God that lye lowest and most out of sight the Spirit understandeth therefore the Spirit is God For as the Apostle argueth 1 Cor 2.11 No man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man that is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God or he that is God if the spirit that is in man were not man or the intellectuall power in man it could never know the things of man and if the Spirit of God were not God he could never search and know the deep the deepest things of God Thirdly As the Spirit of God knoweth all things as he searcheth the deep things even all the secrets and mysteries of God so he teacheth all things even all those secrets and mysteries of God which 't is needful or useful for man to know The Spirit is a teacher and he teacheth effectually Joh 16.13 When the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himselfe that is he shall not teach you a private doctrine or that which is contrary to what ye have learned of me but whatsoever he shall heare that shall he speake and he will shew you things to come Which last words are A fourth argument that he is God As the Spirit teacheth so he foretelleth all things 1 Tim 4.1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressely that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devills The Spirit of God clearly foreseeth and infallibly foretelleth what shall be before it is therefore he is God The Lord by his holy Prophet Isa 41.23 challengeth all the false Idol gods of the Heathen to give that proofe of their Divinity Shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are Gods As if he had sayd Doe that and we will yield the cause Men and Devills may guesse at but none can indeed shew things to come but God Fifthly The Spirit appoints to himselfe officers and ministers in the Church therefore he is God Acts 13.2 The holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them Sixthly The holy Ghost furnisheth those Officers whom he calleth with power and gifts as he pleaseth that they may be fit for the work or ministery of the Gospel 1 Cor 12.8.11 To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdome to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit c. But all these worketh that one and the selfe-same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will Now who can give wisdome and knowledge who can give them prerogatively following in this distribution or division of gifts no rule nor giving any other reason of it but his owne will except God only Seventhly The holy Ghost is sinned against therefore he is God Some possibly may object and say This is not a convincing or demonstrative argument that the holy Ghost is God because he is sinned against For man may sin against man All second table sins are sins against our Neighbour and the Apostle tells the Corinthians 1 Ep 8.12 that while they used their lawfull liberty in eating with offence they sinned against the Brethren I answer Whosoever is properly sinned against is God because God is the Law-giver And though many actions of men are direct wrongs to man yet in every wrong done to man God also is wronged and in strict sence he only is sinned against by man For the reason why any action is a wrong to man is because it is against some Law of God And if to be sinned against in strict sence be proper to God only then the argument stands good that the Holy Spirit is God because he is sinned against especially if we consider that there is such an Emphasis put upon sinning against the holy Ghost in the holy Scripture more if possible then upon sinning against the Father or the Son Math 12.31 Wherefore I say unto you saith Christ All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto
thy mouth for ever speak not thus to God If thou art as thou canst not deny a thing formed by God then say not why hast thou made me thus And as now thou strivest with God about that which thou canst not understand so at last though now thou dost not thou shalt understand that thou oughtest not to have striven with him about it And indeed if men have a mind to strive with God they may find as many occasions for it in the doctrine of his conditionall decrees of foreseene faith repentance and persevering obedience as in his absolute We shall never want matter of quarrelling with God till we have learned simply that is graciously to submit Secondly This truth should much more quiet our spirits and stop our strivings in reference to our temporall estate And that First As wrapt up in common with others Did we consider the soveraigne power of God in ordering the affairs of Nations and Churches we would glorifie him in a gracious silence however we see things goe with them The Scripture urgeth us often to this fixednesse of mind in the midst of all publick revolutions and changes upon this only account Heare David Psal 46.9 10. Come behold the works of the Lord What works ruining works what desolation he hath made in the earth God made strange work in the World at that time Those countryes which before were as the Garden of God became like a desolate Wildernesse who was able to beare this with patience Yet the Spirit of God saith in the next words it must be patiently borne when God lets men strive and warre with one another to a common confusion yet no man may strive with God about it and the reason given why no man may is only this which is indeed all the reason in the world He is God So it follows in the Psalme Be still and know that I am God As if the Lord had said not a word do not strive nor reply whatever you see hold your peace know that I being God I give no account of any of my matters Thus the Prophet cautions the whole world Zech. 2.13 Be silent O all flesh before the Lord doe not dispute the doings of God doe not murmure at them for he is raised up out of his holy habitation That is God is going to work as a man raised out of his bed is therefore doe not you trouble your selves nor rise up against him in your words or thoughts what work soever he makes Like counsell is given Psal 75.5 Lift not up your horne on high speak not with a stiffe neck for promotion cometh neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South But God is the Judge he putteth down one and setteth up another All great changes proceed from his judgment take heed of judging the sentence of the great Judge Remember That he whose name alone is Jehovah is the most high over all the earth Psal 83.18 Againe This is as true if we respect the private or personall estate of any man If God makes a man poor in estate or despised in the World if he make him sick or weak in body he must not say unquietly why doth God thus If he taketh away our Relations if he empty our families we must not strive with him When old Ely had received one of the saddest messages that ever was sent man It is the Lord said he let him doe what seemeth him good 1 Sam. 3.18 So David Psal 39.9 I was dumb I opened not my mouth because thou didst it Psal 62.1 Truly my soul waiteth patiently upon God The word is my soul is silent before God And Psal 42.5 How doth David chide his soul for making a noyse Why art thou disquieted O my soul hope thou in God But you will say May we not at all strive what ever God doth in the World or with us must we sit downe under it or rest satisfied in it and say nothing I answer First we may and ought to be very sensible of all the dealings of God But we must not be unquiet under any of them It is one thing to feele the smart and another thing to dispute the rod. Some are under a kind of Stoicall stupidity they doe not strive with God because they doe not mind what God doth they are not sensible Others are stout sturdy and proud spirited they care not for the crosse they slight and despise rebukes Thus or upon these grounds not to strive with God is as bad if not worse then that striving with him which this poynt disswades and disapproves We may yea we ought to take notice of every stroak we receive from God Secondly As we should be sensible of the hand of God at any time upon us so we may pray for the removing of his hand 'T is not a sinfull but a gracious act to strive with God by prayer for deliverance out of trouble Thirdly A man under the Rod may use means to get it off and free himselfe from it even while he is quiet under it So then the quietnesse of mind in our afflicted condition here intended and pressed is opposed only first to fretting and repining Secondly to vexing and tumultuating Thirdly to distracting cares Fourthly to desponding fears Fifthly to killing sorrows Sixthly to uncomposednesse of spirit for our callings Seventhly to hard thoughts of God Eighthly to the using of any unlawfull meanes to help or rescue our selves out of the hand of evill And that we may be preserved from all these strivings against God and unquietnesse of spirit under any of his saddest and darkest dispensations which will certainly run us upon some of if not all those eight most dangerous rocks last mentioned Let me lay down a few considerations why we should not strive with God in such a manner And prescribe some preservatives to keep us at the greatest distance from it First Consider to strive with God dishonours God and darkens his glory for hereby we call his wisdome and goodnesse yea his truth and faithfulnesse to us in question What can be done more dishonourable to God then this God resented it as a great dishonour that Moses and Aaron did not sanctifie him that is give glory to his name before the children of Israel Num 20.12 and therefore told them Ye shall not bring the children of Israel into the land which I have given them As if he had sayd Ye have not honoured me as ye ought in this thing and therefore I will not honour you in that But what is it that Moses and Aaron did not sanctifie God in it was saith the text in not believing And what is that at best but a striving with God as to the truth of his word and his faithfulnesse in fulfilling it Secondly Such striving with God hinders the exercise of grace and stops the worke of the new creature He that striveth with God by way of murmuring can never strive with God by praying and believing
is venerable not which hath white hayre but which whiteneth with vertuous and worthy actions Senectus illa venerabilis est non quae canis sed meritis albescit Ambro lib 7. Epist 70. Elihu speaks here not only narratively but reprovingly he reflects upon the ancient whose abilities come not up to or doe not equall their yeares The aged may well blush and be ashamed to be sound ignorant of or unskilfull in any thing that they ought to know The Apostle shames the Hebrewes with this and tells them they were dull of hearing Heb. 5.11 12. because when for the time they ought to be teachers they had need that one should teach them againe which be the first principles of the oracles of God and were become such as had need of milke and not of strong meate As if he had said When for the time dayes and yeares which have gone over your heads the reproofe lyes there you should be able to teach others what a shame is it that you your selves should not be capable of those higher teachings which he calls strong meat but must be dealt with about the very principles of Religion and be fed like Children with milke and spoones How is it that you who should have had sences exercised to discerne both good evill should be so little able to distinguish them either in their minds or degrees These were spiritually Children while naturally old men They had not learned of their teachers when the Apostle had reason to hope they had been able to teach learners yea were learned teachers Some are exceeding old exceeding ignorant they have multitude of dayes upon them yet if asked they are not able to hold forth the least Number of divine truths possibly not one in a right understanding As gray haires are a crowne of glory when found in the way of righteousness so gray haires are crowns of glory when found in a way of wisdome knowledge and understanding otherwise to be old and dotish old and sottish how dishonorable is it yea they that are old and ignorant shall at last finde their old age a strong aggravation as of all their sins so especially of their ignorance JOB Chap. 32. Vers 8 9. But there is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding Great men are not alwayes wise neither doe the aged understand judgement ELihu as was shewed in the former words having in vaine waited for the wisdome of the Ancient proceeds in this Context to give the reason why the Ancient are not alwayes wise Vers 8. There is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding There 's the reason of it we render the first word of this eight verse by the Adversative particle But there is a spirit in man it is usually rendered by the Affirmative particle verily truly or indeed Mr Broughton saith Certes a spirit is in sad man These is some difference in opinion about this spirit affirmed to be in man Divers expound Elihu intending the Spirit of God there is a spirit that is the divine Spirit the holy Spirit of God or God the Spirit is in man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Symmach One of the Greek translations puts it into the text Surely the Spirit of God is in man and the Chaldee paraphrase gives it in a like expression Surely there is a prophetick spirit in the son of man or in the sons of men Some are induced to this interpretation because it would be say they but a cold argument to commend what he had to say for the rectifying Job by telling him that man hath a reasonable soule which is common to all men Yet I rather conceive that in this first part of the verse the spirit spoken of is the naturall spirit of man which in the latter part of the verse he affirmes is instructed by the inspiration of the Almighty with supernatural light for speciall services The word is often used in Scripture to note the reasonable soule or those powers of the soule which are the vessells of reason or in which naturall reason hath its seate and exercise There is a power of reasoning in man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 animam rationalem denotat or a spirit which is able to discourse of all things there was such a naturall power implanted in man at his Creation and though that power be much weakned and broken by the fall yet there are to this day some remaines of it in all men as borne into this world Surely there is a spirit in man And because the word is universall or extendable to all men therefore it is more then probable the word spirit here is to be taken in the largest sence for every man hath not the Spirit of God yea the word here used for man notes man of the meanest ranke or lowest forme surely there is a spirit in enosh Mr Broughton translates in sad man in sickly man in weak man in the sickliest weakest and lowest of men there is a soule a spirit indued with reason this is as the substratum or ground of the whole businesse Surely there is a spirit in man And in the latter part of the verse Elihu sheweth what that is which heighteneth raiseth and improveth this naturall spirit certainly there is a spirit in man every man hath a reasonable soule And the inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding Inest quidem hominibus vis illa rationatrix sed quae nisi dei afflatu dirigatur verè sapere non potest Bez. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anhelavit The worke of God inlightning man is expressed by breathing when Jesus Christ gave his Disciples the Spirit he breathed upon them or inspired them and said receive ye the holy Ghost John 20.22 For as in the first Creation when God gave man a naturall being he breathed into his nostrills the breath of life and man became a living soule Gen. 2.7 so in the second or new Creation God breaths a spirituall life into that life and man becomes a quickned soule And as his own soule is quickned by the holy Spirit of grace so he is fitted as an instrument in the hand of God to quicken the soules of others with grace or to instruct them in the wayes of grace The inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding But hath not the reasonable soule of every man an understanding Doubtlesse it hath Therefore I answer The understanding may be taken two wayes First for the facultie Secondly for the furniture and enrichings of it now though every man hath an understanding yet every man hath not a furnished and an enriched understanding a beautified and an adorned understanding The Scripture speakes of some men as if they were nothing but understanding Prov. 1.5 A wise man will increase knowledge and a man of understanding will attaine unto all Counsell Every man hath an understanding but every man is not
confound the wise and the weake things of the world to confound the things which are mighty And base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen yea and things which are not to bring to nought things which are that no flesh should glory in his presence God chuseth those things which have the greatest improbility for his worke that the power and successe of the worke may be ascribed to him alone When we chuse we should chuse those that are fit for the worke to which they are chosen we should not chuse a foole to governe nor one that is of low parts himselfe to teach others we should pitch upon the wisest and ablest we can get Joseph said well to Pharoah Gen. 41.33 Looke out a man discreet and wise and set him over the Land of Egypt We cannot make men wiser then they are and therefore we must chuse and take those that are wise to doe our worke But when God comes to doe his worke he often takes the foolish and the weake because as he calleth them to so he can fit them for his worke As the strongest opposition of nature against grace cannot hinder the worke of the Spirit when the Spirit comes he will make a proud man humble a covetous man liberall an uncleane person modest and temperate so the weaknesse of nature cannot hinder his worke If a man below in parts God can raise him Out of the mouths of babes aâ—d sucklings hast thou ordained strength Psal 8.2 or as Christ alledgeth that text Math 21.16 Thou hast perfected praise one might thinke Surely God will take the aged the learned and great for his praise no he ordaines praise to himselfe out of the mouths of babes and sucklings that is out of their mouths who in all natuturall considerations are no way formed up nor fitted to shew forth his praise Isa 32.4 The heart of the rash or hasty shall understand knowledge Heady and inconsiderate persons whose tongues as we say run before their wits shall then be grave advised and serious both in what they doe and as it followeth in what they say The tongue of the stammerers shall speake plainly that is cleare words with cleare reason or they shall speake well both in matter and forme right things rightly All this the Lord doth that he may honour himselfe and lift up his owne name only which alone is to be lifted up Never feare to put an empty vessell to a full fountaine no matter how empty the vessell be if the fountaine be full God delights in broken weake and empty creatures that he may mend strengthen and fill them There is a spirit in man in weake man and the Inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding Elihu having shewed the original of mans wisdome to be from God in this 8th verse makes an inference from it in the 9th The inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding And what then surely even hence it cometh to passe that Vers 9. Great men are not alwayes wise neither doe the aged understand Judgement It is well conceived by some Interpreters that the Apostle doth more then allude to even cite this text 1 Cor. 1.26 You see your Calling Brethren how that not many wâ—se men after the flesh not many mighty not many Noble are called If God should chuse only of mostly wise men they would be ready to say we are chosen for our wisdome If he should chuse and call only or mostly rich men they would be ready to thinke we are chosen for our riches If he should call only or mostly Kings and Princes they would conclude we are called for our Greatnesse Therefore the Lord passeth by most of these and calleth the Fisherman calleth the poore man the ignorant man and saith You that have nothing you that in the esteeme of the world are nothing doe you follow me who have all things and can supply you with all Thus here saith Elihu Great men are not alwayes wise Why not the reason is because God doth not alwayes bestow wisdome upon them It is the Inspiration of the Almighty that giveth understanding Greatnesse doth it not Not many wise men after the flesh not many Great or Noble are Called Elihu and the Apostle Paul speake the same thing almost in the same words This is also a proofe of the divine Authoritie of this booke as well as that 1 Cor. 1.19 taken out of the speech of Eliphaz in the 5th Chapter at the 13th verse He taketh the wise in their owne craftinesse c. Great men are not alwayes wise The word alwayes is not at all in the Originall text and therefore put in a different Character Great men are not wise but 't is well supplyed by that word alwayes For the meaning of Elihu is not that great men are never wise but not alwayes wise Great men the Rabbies the honourable men of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Magnus unde Rabbi Magister qui multam eruditionem habet Honorabiles Pagn Magnates Tygur men in Authoritie and great place are intended by this word The Officers which King Ahasuerus set over his feast are called Rabbies Est 1.8 so that we may expound it here in the largest sence as including all sorts and degrees of Great ones Great men are not alwayes wise That is wisdome neither floweth from nor is it alwayes associated with Greatnesse As some are little yet great little in the world yet great in true wisdome so others are Great yet little they are little in wisdome or have little true wisdome though they are great in the world or have great worldly wisdome Hence note It is not greatnesse of birth of place or power that can make any man wise nor doth it at all assure us that a man is wise because we see him exalted to and setled in a place of power and greatness The Prophet Jer. 5.4 5. finding some very incorrigible and hardned in sinfull courses concluded them meane persons and in the lowest forme of the people Therefore I said Surely these are poore they are foolish for they know not the way of the Lord nor the Judgement of their God To be poore and foolish is very common these are poore and foolish saith the Prophet but surely I shall finde the Great ones better accommodated with wisdome and thereupon he resolved I will get me to the great men and will speak unto them for they have knowne the way of the Lord and the judgement of their God That is these great men have had great meanes of knowledge and we have reason to suppose them as great in knowledge as they are in place or power But did the great men answer his expectation did he find that in them which he sought and looked for nothing lesse The great men proved more foolish or lesse in true knowledge then the poore as it followeth But these have altogether broken the yoake and burst the bonds As if he had said I
hath convinced Job That is ye have not proved what ye have sayd Ye have called him an hypocrite and told him that he hath oppressed the poore and detained the right of the fatherless But ye have proved none of these evills against him Ye have not proved the matter of fact that he might sit downe penitentially confessing himselfe such an offender as ye have accused him to be Hence note We can never convince another by what we say untill we prove what we say If we reprove any man for an errour in his judgement and doe not prove it to be an errour or if we reprove a man for sin in practice and doe not prove his practice sinfull or that he hath practised that sin no conviction follows What is sayd and not proved comes to the eare only not to the conscience Therefore saith Christ John 8.46 Which of you convinceth me of sin Find a spot in my life if you can I know you are ready to slander me with but you cannot convince me of evill It is sayd of Apollos Acts 18.28 He mightily convinced the Jewes How did he convince them not by reproving them only for not receiving the Messias he did not barely tell them ye are a company of unbelievers but he reproved them by proving the necessity of their receiving Christ the Messias and the evill of rejecting him shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ Here was proofe and so conviction followed He convinced them by authority by the testimony of the word comparing Scripture with Scripture the prophesie with the history of Christ The Apostle would have the Ministers of the Gospel mighty at this worke Tit 1.8 They must hold fast the faithfull word that they may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gain-sayers Not only must they be able to rebuke gain-sayers this will not doe it they must also convince them or stop their mouths James 2.9 If any of you have respect to persons ye commit sin and are convinced of the Law as transgressours How doth the Law convince Not only by reproving but by proving It shews us a rule and saith there you have departed from it here is the line and there ye have transgressed or gone over it Thus ye are convinced that ye are transgressors He is both wise and faithfull he doth his worke like a workman that needeth not be ashamed who not only gives reproofe but proofe either of error in judgement or of evill in practise For the close of this poynt I may shew you three great convincers First The holy Spirit of God This office of the Spirit Christ sets forth John 16.7 I will send the Comforter and when he is come what shall he doe He will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of Judgement That is he will bring proofe home to the conscience to shew sinners their evill state and evill lives He will also bring home to their spirits the alsufficiency of the righteousness of Jesus Christ and so overcome their unbeliefe that they shall nor be able to refuse the offers of grace He will likewise shew them such reasons why they ought to be holy and walke in the wayes of righteousness that they shall neither have power nor will to gain-say The second great convincer is Conscience They who were so forward to accuse the woman taken in adultery John 8.9 were at last convicted by their owne Conscience and went out one by one Their conscience told them they were guilty if not for that sin yet of other sins as bad as that They were so far before from judging themselves for that they tooke no notice of their owne faults they were severe against the woman but they flattered themselves till Christ made their owne consciences their convincers And surely conscience will one time or other convince to purpose They who have refused or outstood conviction by the word yea and put by the motions of the Spirit shall at last find conscience convincing and speaking home to them The third great Convincer is Jesus Christ in person Of him in the performance of this office the Apostle speakes clearely Jude v 15. Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints And what comes he to doe To execute judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him Christ will make the greatest of ungodly ones in that great day to acknowledge that all their hard speeches which they have spoken against the Saints or godly men were spoken against him When prophane men are among their wicked companions they can jeare at the godly professors of the name of Christ even while they pretend to honour Christ But Christ will make them see that they scoâ—ned him while they scorned the least of those that feared him and believed on his name The great day will be a day not only of executing Judgement but of conviction every mouth shall be stopped and all the world of wicked men shall become guilty in their owne sight before God These are the three great Convincers The holy Spirit of God the Conscience of every man and Jesus Christ in the judgement of the great day And let those who now undertake that great worke of conviction often remember which was a little before mentioned and set downe the method to be used and observed in it First prove the matter and then reprove the man None were ever wrought to any good by bare reproofe much lesse by force Men are not to be driven into the faith by fire and sword by terrors and imprisonments conviction must doe it and that will doe it to purpose This is the first thing which Elâ—hu blamed and burdened Jobs friends with They reproved him but did not bring sufficient convincing proofe against him There was none of you that convinced Job Secondly He lays this to their charge that They had not answered his words As ye have not proved your owne allegations so ye have not refured nor infirmed his reasons But how could Elihu say They had not answered his words when to every word he spake we find their severall answers Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said The like is said of Zophar the Naamath te They had been answering all the while yet saith Elihu Behold there was none of you that answered his words I shall resolve this doubt by giving this note which was also given upon the 3d verse where see more Vnlesse we answer home to the matter and as we say hit the naile on the head we have given no answer We have not answered unlesse we give a satisfactory answer When the Respondent in Schooles acquits himselfe well The Moderator brings him off honorably saying Thy Answers suffice Jobs friends had been answering long and they made
love to act other mens parts rather then their owne and to intrude into Provinces which are not theirs But whatsoever our hand findes to doe as Solomon speakes Eccl 9.10 that is whatsoever is as Elihu here calls it our part that we should doe with all our might More was given about using our talent and shewing our opinion at the 10th verse of this Chapter whether I referre the reader Fourthly Elihu was here but an auditor not a disputant not a party he came in only upon the by yet having received a word he utters it Hence note Every man should thinke himselfe Concern'd to speake for the truth when 't is wronged and doe his best to right it Or we should take all occasions and seasons of doing good by our words as well as by our workes As it is not good to out-â—un providence so to neglect or foreslow it is not good Lastly Observe What others fayle in we should labour to supply in the cause of God and for his truth It is a proverbiall speech among the Hebrewes Vbi non est vir tu vir esto Where there is not a man there be thou a man That is if we see any unable to carry on and goe thorow-stitch with the worke before them we should lend a hand to helpe and supply them thus saith Elihu I will answer for my part I also will shew mine opinion And it seemes by that which follows Elihu did so not only to answer his duty but to empty and ease his spirit For In the 18th 19th and 20th verses he gives us that further account of his interposition about this controversie Vers 18. For I am full of matter Yea I am under a mighty Constraint there is a kinde of force upon me The Spirit within me Constraineth me I am full of matter The Original is I am full of words yet of more then words as appeares in the following part of this Chapter therefore we translate I am full of matter that is I am full of such words as are materiall words of truth words of sobernesse I am full of such words as will carry with them a Conviction home to thy Conscience O Job silence all thy complaints Cum ait se plenum amicorum impiam notare videtur Pined Or as if Elihu had said to Job's friends Though ye have spent your store upon Job yet I have store and plenty by me to spend upon him Thus he reflects upon them as scanty and short in their undertaking your Lamps have spent their oyle you have emptied your vessels so have not I I am full of matter The Spirit within me Constraineth me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hiphil anxit angustovit pressit The text is My spirit in my belly Constraineth me Master Broughton renders My bellye 's spirit doth press me The Seventy render The spirit of my belly destroyeth me A Greek translater saith My spirit within me sets me on fire or I am all in a flame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comburit Sym. The word which we render Constraine signifies to press very sore Judges 14.17 And it came to passe the seventh day that he told her because she lay sore upon him or constrained him It may be questioned whose spirit or what spiâ—it it was that Constrained Elihu Some Expound it of the Spirit of God he dictates both words and matter to me Master Calvin seemes to Comply with this Exposition God hath printed such a marke in the doctrine of Elihu that the heavenly Spirit is apparent in his mouth God saith Elihu hath put his Seale to what I have to say therefore doe not receive it as the word of a mortall man the Spirit of God Constraines me Paul useth a word in the Greeke of like significancy 2 Cor. 5.14 The love of Christ Constraineth me it presseth and overbeareth me I am not able to get out of the power of it Againe Others understand it of his owne spirit yet acted by the Spirit of God Prov 29.11 A foole uttereth all his spirit we translate all his minde the spirit pressing Elihu was his mind carried strongly or resolvedly bent upon this business The strong inclination or disposition of a mans mind to any thing good or bad is in Scripture language called his Spirit The Spirit within me The Hebrew is The spirit of my belly Which forme of speech notes only that which is most internall Spiritus ventris est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alacritas urgens existimulans ad loquendum Coc or lyeth closest within us Solomon saith of the words of wisdome Prov 22.18 It is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee The Original is in thy belly John 7.38 Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water That is out of his inward man there shall be a spirit in his spirit for this Christ spake of the Spirit which should be given and the same word is used of the wicked man Job 15.35 His belly that is his mind or understanding prepareth deceit And Solomon Cant 7.2 speaking of the Church saith Her belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lillies That is she is big with holy thoughts and conceptions as a woman great with child ready to be delivered A gracious heart is continually meditating and conceiving holy things which it brings forth and is as it were delivered of upon any good occasion The spirit within me Constraineth me What Elihu had thus spoken in plaine termes by way of assertion in this verse he illustrates by way of similitude or allusion in the next Vers 19. Behold my belly is as wine which hath no vent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vinum novum vel mustum cui non est ademptum obthuraculum ut exhalet Iun it is ready to burst like new bottles Elihu prosecutes the same thing in another way and to shew how troublesome it was to refraine speaking any longer his thoughts being not only too many but too working to be enclosed in so narrow a roome as his owne breast he compares them to wine or to new wine which will either find or make its way out The whole similitude is exceeding elegant First he compares his thoughts or the matter he had in his mind to wine Secondly he compares his soule or spirit to bottles his inward man was the vessell that held this wine Thirdly he compares his long silence to the stople or Corke of the bottle Fourthly he compares that trouble and griefe of mind which this forbearance to speake brought upon him to the working which is in a bottle so stopt or having no vent Fifthly he compares his intended speaking to the opening of the bottle which gives it vent Behold my belly is as wine that is the thoughts of my belly are as wine The Chaldee Paraphrase saith as new wine which is full of spirits and being stopt is ready to breake the bottle which shews the mighty force which
Elihu's thoughts had upon him they would out there was no stopping of them Christ saith Math 9.17 No man putteth new wine into old bottles but men put new wine into new bottles why because they are stronger and so more fit to preserve the wine My belly is as wine It is ready to burst like new bottles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro utre non alibi reperitur saepe pro pythone quod qui hoc ariolaÌ„di genere uterentur velut ex utribus vocem emitterent Vnâ—e a Grecis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicuntur Merc The word which we render bottles is never used in Scripture elsewhere in this sence but it is often used to signifie Wizards or such as have familiar Spirits Isa 8.19 Isa 29.4 because they who used those hellish arts by compact with the Devill did speak out of their belly so as it were out of a bottle Now saith Elihu My belly is as new wine that hath no vent and it is ready to burst like new bottles even new bottles will break unlesse the new wine have some vent And because though new bottles be stronger then old to keepe in wine yet the wine may be so strong as to breake them therefore Elihu here-by shewes that his desire or necessity of speaking was so urgent upon him that though he should strengthen himselfe yea strive with himselfe as much as he could to refraine from speaking yet speake he must I am full of matter c. Observe First A man should not speak especially in weighty matters till himselfe be well stored with matter Secondly Observe When some vessells are drawne quite dry and instruments spent and worne to the stumps when they can neither doe nor say any more then God fills up and furnisheth others for his purpose There was not a drop more to be squeez'd out of Jobs friends but Elihu was a full bottle Mal 2.15 there is a residue of the Spirit God hath more Spirit or spirituall abilities to dispose of and bestow then he hath yet disposed of to or bestowed upon any one or all the sons of men Thirdly Note God can furnish Instruments with proper gifts for the worke which he Calls them to Here was a man Cut out on purpose for this worke he was Clothed with a spirit of prudence and courage as well as with a spirit of discerning We have a wonderfull Example of this in Luther who came forth against all the powers of the papacy What a spirit had he his was a spirit of might his spirit Constrained him his belly was like a bottle full of new wine there was no stopping of it Others would have been daunted and cowed downe with the tenth of that opposition which he met with but he was bold as a Lyon who turneth not aside Againe Why did Elihu come forth why did his spirit constraine him what made his belly like wine Some charge him with pride and arrogancy of spirit as if he did it out of vaine ostentation to shew his parts and gifts to set himselfe above those other Worthyes who had dealt and discoursed with Job before But we have reason enough considering what he spake and what the issue of his speaking was to determine that he was moved with a zeale for God and to doe good to Job not with a spirit of pride to shew his learning wit or wisdome among men and therefore we finde that when the whole matter was brought to an issue and God himselfe came to deale with Job and his three friends God commends Job and reproves his three friends but there is no reproofe upon Elihu Now for as much as God himselfe doth not charge him what hath man to doe to charge him Not only charity but reason and judgement command us to thinke his designe honest and his aymes sincere while he professeth under so vehement an impulse or impression upon his spirit to engage and speake in this matter Hence note Thirdly To see truth ill handled should fill our spirits with much zeal for God That was it which drew Elihu to this engagement he saw those men though good men had put a disguise upon the things and dealings of God and if men disguise the truth and maintaine error if they deface the doctrines of faith and pure worship with their owne phansies and false glosses it should kindle a holy fire and fervour of spirit in us to assert and vindicate the truth Our spirit within us in all such cases should Constraine us Fifthly In that Elihu was so Constrained and pressed in spirit as wine which hath no vent or as a woman with Child ready to travell Note It is a paine not to speake when we have much to utter and much minde to utter it When Elâ—hu was full he had a Constraint upon him to vent his opinion David saith Psal 39.1 2 3. I held my peace even from good words he did not only forbeare idle and evill discourse but refrain'd from good but it was a trouble to him not to speak especially not to speak good words therefore he adds My heart waxed hot within me Jeremy found it no easie worke to keepe in words yea he describes himselfe as much pained by not delivering his minde as a woman is when not delivered in child-birth Jer 20.9 Then said I I will not make mention of him nor speak any more in his name but his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay There was wine new wine in his belly yea there was a fire within him as we may be weary with speaking so with not speaking or forbearing to speake Jer 4.19 My bowels my bowels I am pained at the very heart my heart maketh a noise in me I cannot hold my peace Read him in the like trouble upon the same occasion Jer 6.11 Eliphaz Chap 4.2 was thus pressed Who can withhold himselfe from speaking 'T is a great paine to be mind-bound or not to deliver our mind when our mindes are full and we full of desire to deliver it Sixthly When he saith I am Constrain'd I am like a bottle ready to burst It teacheth us The Spirit of God doth so over-power some men that they cannot containe The Pharisees and high Priests thought to stop up the Apostles those bottles full of the new wine of the mysteries of Christ and therefore gave them Counsell yea a command to speake no more in his name At the 10th verse they said of some in a common sence These men are full of new wine that is they are drunken but the truth was they were full of the Spirit full of Gospel-truths and like bottles full of new wine they could not hold And when the Pharisees and high Priests would have stopt up those bottles and charged them that they should speak no more in the name of Jesus they answered Whether it be meet to obey God or man judge ye for
former Chapter in prefacing to Jobs friends directs his speech now to Job himselfe yet not without a renewed Preface as will appeare in opening this Chapter Wherein we may take notice of foure heads of his discourse First We have his Preface in the seven former verses of the Chapter Secondly A proposition of the matter to be debated or of the things that Elihu had observed in Job's speech about this Controversie from the 7th verse to the 12th Thirdly We have his confutation of what Job had affirmed from the 12th verse to the 31th Lastly We have his conclusion exciting Job to make answer to what he had spoken else to heare him speaking further in the three last verses of the Chapter Elihu in his Preface moves Job about two things First to attend what he was about to say Secondly To make reply to and answer what he should say Elihu moves Job to the former duty severall wayes First By a mild Entreaty and sweet Insinuation in the first verse Wherefore Job I pray thee heare my speeches and hearken to my words As if he had sayd I doe not come authoritatively and rigorously upon thee to command or demand thy attention but as a faithfull friend I desire thee to attend unto my speech and hearken to my voice Secondly He moves him to heare by professing his own readinesse and preparednesse to speak in the 2d verse Behold now I have opened my mouth my tongue hath spoken in my mouth that is I have been as it were tuning my instrument and fitting my selfe for discourse let me not loose my labour nor my study Thirdly He moves him to attend from the sincerity and gracious Ingenuity of his heart in that which he had to say to him This he layeth before him in the 3d verse My words shall be of the uprightnesse of my heart and my lips shall utter knowledge clearely What better Encouragement to heare And Fourthly Elihu moves him to heare from the Consideration of his present state as a man not only made by God but by him instructed for the work which he had undertaken the former of which is Exprest the latter Implyed in the 4th verse The Spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life Thus Elihu Calls out Job to heare And Secondly As he invites him to heare what he had to say so he provokes him to answer what he should say vers 5. If thou canst answer me set thy words in order before me stand up As if he had said Be not discouraged take heart man doe thy best to defend thy selfe and make good thy owne cause against what I shall say Spare me not Doe thy best thy utmost Having thus encouraged him in General to answer he proceeds to give him two speciall Motives First From their Common state or Condition in the 6th verse Behold I am according to thy wish in Gods stead I also am formed out of the clay As if he had sayd You have often desired to plead with God or that God would heare your plea now consider I am in Gods stead though a man like your selfe Secondly He encourageth him from the tendernesse of his spirit toward him respecting his present Condition promising to deal with or treate him fairely gently in the 7th verse Behold my terror shall not make thee afraid neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee That favour Job hâ—d asked of God in the 9th Chapterâ— Let not thy terror make me afraid Now saith Elihu thaâ— which thou didst fear from God thou needest not at all feare in dealing with me My terror shall not make thee afraid c. Thus Elihu begins with Job that he might lead him to receive fairely or answer fully what he had to say The three first verses of the Chapter Containe the first part of the Preface wherein Elihu excites and calls forth Jobs attention by those foure Considerations already distinctly proposed the first whereof is layd downe Vers 1. Wherefore Job I pray thee heare my speeches and heerken to all my words Elihu begins very mildly sweetly insinuatingly even entreatingly and beseechingly Wherefore I pray thee The word which we translate I pray thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adhortartis vel excitantis tum etiam obsecranâ—â— is in the Hebrew language a monasyllable adverb of obsecration or exhortation I pray thee Hence note 'T is good to use gentlenesse towards those with whom we have to deale especially with those who are either outwardly afflicted or troubled in spirit Entreaties have great power and therefore though the Prophets and Apostles speake sometimes in a threatning way and command attention upon utmost peril yet for the most part they bespeake it with Entreaties 2 Cor 5.20 Now then we as Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God The Apostles went about a begging as it were with this message with the best message that ever was carried forth to the world Reconciliation unto God we pray you And againe 2 Cor 6.1 We then as workers together with him beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vaine that is the doctrine of the Gospel holding forth the grace and favour of God freely in Jesus Christ 1 Thes 4.1 Furthermore we beseech you brethren that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walke and to please God so ye would abound more and more As he did beseech them not to receive the grace of God in vaine so he did beseech them to a progress in an Improvement of that grace Again 1 Thes 2.7 We were gentle among you even as a Nurse cherisheth her Children how tender is a nurse to the infant hanging at her breast or dandled on her knee Speak ye Comfortably to Jerusalem was the Lords direction when she was in her warfare that is in a troubled and afflicted condition Isa 40.2 The Hebrew is Speak to her heart speak such words as may revive her heart and adde fresh spirits and life to her The Apostles rule for the restoring of those that are fallen is that they should be kindly treated Gal 6.1 Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye that are spirituall restore such an one with the spirit of meeknesse It is a great poynt of holy skill so to order a reproofe as not to provoke so to speak as to speak open or pick the lock of the heart Affectionate Entreaties are blessed pick-locks which doe not straine the wards but effectually lift up the holders and shoote the bolt of the heart causing it to stand wide open to receive and take in the truth of promises counsels and reproofes Meeke words meeken the spirit 'T is hard to refuse what we perceive spoken in love and if any thing will soften a hard heart soft language is most likely to doe it When Abigail came out and met David upon his way hot
the chaffe of unwritten traditions nor with the mixtures of humane iâ—â—entions They should be taught cleare knowledge as Elihu here speaketh This mercy was also prophecied Zeph 3.9 Then will I turne to the people a pure language or a Clean lip it is this word that is what they speak shall be pure truth Their language shall be not only Grammatically pure proper and genuine but Theologically pure without any tincture of error in it Secondly As the word is taken according to our translation Adverbially Note We ought to speake truth clearly Some speake cleare truths who yet doe not speak them clearly They speak great truths yet obscure them in their own way of expressions they who wrap up sound doctrine in hard uncouth words or deliver it in an unnecessary multitude of words doe rather puzzle and confound their Auditors then enforme or instruct them And they who speak not knowledge clearly are like those who mud the waters or raise a dust in the ayre which will not let others see distinctly what they hold or put in either Speaking in darke words and strange notions is like speaking in a strange language They only speak profitably who speak clearly We commonly say Truth seekes no corners truth would not be hid What are obscure and ambiguous words words of a doubtfull construction and interpretation but corners wherein many hide truth while they pretend to speak and publish it Such speakers as wel as they who speak in an unknowne language are Barbarians to their hearers And therefore as the Apostle in reference to an unknowne tongue so should we say in reference to any covert or obscure way of speaking in our owne mother tongue We had rather speak five words that others may be edified then ten thousand words in hard and strange expressions Though we speak in a knowne language yet doubtfull words hinder edifying as much as an unknowne language doth yea such are as a forreiner to their hearers while they speak in their owne Country tongue 'T is a speciall gift of God to speak knowledge clearly The Apostle hath left that excellent advice with all who are called to speak the great things of eternall life 1 Pet. 4.11 If any man speak that is if he speak about the things of God divine things let him speak as the Oracles of God What are they The oracles of God are the knowne word of God But how are those oracles to be knowne Surely as God spake them plainly and clearly The oracles of God were spoken without ambiguity therefore let no man speake them as the oracles of the devil were spoken or as the devill spake his oracles that is ambiguously and doubtfully The devill of old gave out all his answers and oracles doubtfully and darkly to his darke and blinded votaries what he sayd might beare severall Constructions And he spake so on purpose that whatsoever the event or issue proved to be he though the father of lyes might have the reputation of speaking truth Croesus Halym penetrans magnam perverâ—et opum vin The Devils oracle gave Croesus such an answer as he might Interpret either of a great successe or of a great overthrow when he asked counsel about his warres And when Saul came to Enquire of the Witch of Endor that is of the Devill 1 Sam 28.11 he gave him a doubtfull resolve To morrow shalt thou and thy Sons be with me v. 19. Which ambiguous answer might be understood as of the next day following so indefinitely of any day neere approaching Satan loves not to speake knowledge clearely But the servants and messengers of Christ must use great plainness of speech while they are treating of and giving out the mind of God to his people and be carefull that as the doctrine is sound which they deliver so there may be a clearness in their delivering of it Their lips as Elihu engaged his should ought to utter knowledge clarely JOB Chap. 33. Vers 4 5 6 7. The Spirit of God hath formed me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life If thou canst answer me set thy words in order before me stand up Behold I am according to thy wish in Gods stead I also am formed out of the clay Behold my terror shall not make thee afraid neither shall my hand be heavie upon thee IN these foure verses Elihu still prosecutes a discreete praefatory insinuation both of himselfe and of his intended discourse into the heart of Job that both might find wellcome and good entertainment there Elihu had assured him at the third verse that he would speak in the uprightness of his heart or that he would deale candidly and clearly with him That was a strong argument to gaine attention And in this fourth verse he argueth with and urgeth Job to give him attention because he was a man of Gods making as Job also was The same hand wrought them both and therefore why should there be a strangenesse between them or an unwillingness to give or receive counsel and helpe from one another Vers 4. The spirit of God hath formed me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life I shall open these words two wayes First As a direct proposition or assertion Secondly In their connection and dependance as they are here used for an argument of perswasion First Consider the Text as an assertion The spirit of God hath made me c. The word doth not signifie barely to make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faciendi verbum artificiosam elaboratam agendi rationem affert Pined or to clap up a worke any how but to make with art to make skilfully to compose and fashion a thing with exactest grace comeliness and beauty Thus are we made by the Spirit of God Man is an excellent piece of worke yea man is the Master-piece of all the visible workes of God The Spirit of God hath made me There are two things here to be enquired First what we are to understand by the Spirit of God to whom Elihu attributes his making Secondly Why doth Elihu attribute his making to the Spirit of God To the former question I answer First negatively that by the Spirit of God we are not to understand a power or vertue put forth by God in which sence we sometimes read the Spirit of God in Scripture But by the Spirit of God here we are to understand God the Spirit In which sence we read Gen 1.2 The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters As also Math 3.16 He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him that is upon Jesus Christ baptized by John in Jordan The second question is Why doth Elihu attribute his making to the Spirit of God Regeneration or our new-making is properly the work of the Spirit but is Creation or our naturall constitution his work also Saith not Moses Gen 2.7 The Lord God formed man out of the dust of the earth Jehovah Elohim formed man
And if we look into the first of John ver 2 3. we read thus In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God the same was in the beginning with God all things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made There our maker for the making of all things is attributed to him is the Son the second person in the holy Trinity or the Word who as it followeth in that Chapter was made flesh Why then doth Elihu here ascribe his making to the Spirit And how are these Scriptures reconciled I answer By that received Maxime in Divinity The workes of the holy Trinity towards the creature are undevided So that while this Scripture ascribes the making of man to the Spirit or Third person in the Trinity it doth not at all crosse those which ascribe it to the first or second the Father or the Son The Spirit of God hath made me Hence note First Man as to his bodily making or the making of his body is the workmanship of God As we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good or holy workes Eph 2.10 so we are his workmanship created to common and naturall workes We have heard of that divine consultation or resolution rather Gen 1.26 Let us make man The Father made man and the Son made man and the holy Spirit made man The Father by the Son through the holy Spirit made man What a glorious what a mighty power is put forth for the production of such a poore creature as man is And this is true not only of the first man in his creation but of every man since the creation there is a concurrence of a divine power and workmanship in the setting up of man as man Psal 100.3 It is he that made us and not we our selves God doth not only make us holy men but he makes us men Hence David Psal 13 9-14 I am fearefully and wonderfully made He speaks there of the frame of his body though that be much more true in reference to the admirable frame of the new creature which is set up in the soule so indeed we are fearefully and wonderfully made Isa 27.11 This is a people of no understanding But did God ever make a people without naturall understanding Surely no but they were a people without spirituall understanding they did not understand what the mind and meaning of God was and what their owne duty was Such are a people of no understanding how wise soever they are in their owne eyes or in the eyes of the world what followeth Therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will shew them no favour That is God who made and formed them both in their naturall capacity as men as also in their civill and spirituall capacity as a Church and Nation or as a Nationall Church understanding it of the Jewes will not have mercy on them will not favour them We read the same Church at once looking to God as their maker and most earnestly moving and imploring his pity upon the same account Isa 64.8 9. But now O Lord thou art our father we are the clay and thou our potter and we all are the work of thy hand As if they had sayd Thou O Lord hast moulded us as thy creatures and fashioned us as thy Church when we were but a rude masse or heape without forme or comeliness therefore doe not marre thy owne worke doe not breake the vessels of thine owne making or as it followeth in the same Chapter Be not wroth very sore O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever behold we beseech thee we are all thy people Hence consider First That we owe not only our well-being but our very being unto God And therefore Secondly No man ought to looke upon himselfe as his owne So the Apostle argues 1 Cor 6.19 Know ye not that your body is the temple of the holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your owne No man is his owne he is Gods who hath made him Saints and believers especially are not their own in that repsect as also because their bodies are the temple of the holy Ghost that is the holy Ghost hath sanctified them for himselfe for his peculiar service and for his habitation Now as the bodyes of Saints are the temple of the holy Ghost because he doth sanctifie them so they are the temple of the holy Ghost because he hath reared them up and built them That consideration should urge us to duty our bodies are temples built as well as temples sanctified by the holy Ghost And therefore we are not our owne at all nor in any respect and if we are not our owne at all but the Lords then we ought to be alwayes for the Lord. Hence Thirdly Hath the Spirit of God made us as Elihu saith then let the Spirit use us how sad is it that when the Spirit of God hath made our bodies and soules we should let the wicked spirit use either as he doth both the bodies and soules of carnall men to his base services The evill spirit did neither make your bodies nor your soules why should he have the command of either Therefore as your members have been weapons of unrighteousnesse to sin so let them be instruments of righteousnesse unto God Seeing the holy Spirit hath made us let not the evill spirit use so much as a little finger of us for he hath not made not only so much as a little finger of our hand but so much as the least haire of our heads as Christ saith we our selves cannot Math 5.36 white or blacke And therefore let not the evill spirit make use of one haire of our heads white or black as a flagge of pride and vanity or to be an occasion of sin to others He that maketh the house ought to have the possession and service of it either to dwell in it himselfe or to receive rent and profit from him that dwells in it The spirit having made us should not only have the rent and revenue but the full possession of us for ever That which is of God should be for God for him alwayes and only for him Secondly In that the making of man is attributed to the Spirit Observe The Spirit of God is God The holy Ghost is not only a power of God or a word gone out from God but the holy Ghost is God This is cleare from the efficiency of the holy Spirit The Spirit of God hath made me The work of creation is attributable to none but God That power which at first set up man in his creation continueth him to this day this power and great prerogative is given to the Spirit therefore the Spirit is God Psal 33.6 By the word of the Lord his substantiall Word or Son were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath or
men but the blasphemy against the holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men As if he had said Though you sin against the Father and the Son it shall be forgiven you but if you sin against the holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven either in this world or in the world to come that is it shall never be forgiven Seeing then there is more in sinning against the holy Ghost then against the Father or the Son who are God the holy Ghost must needs be God For though there is no degree or graduall difference in the deity each person being coeternall coequall and consubstantiall yet the Scripture attributes more in that case as to the poynt of sinning against the holy Ghost then to sinning against the Father or the Son therefore certainly the holy Ghost is God Lastly The holy Ghost is the object of divine worship are not we baptized in the Name of the Father Son and holy Ghost Is the Father and the Son God and the holy Ghost not God who is joyned with them in the same honour Shall a creature come in competition with God And doth not the Scripture or word of God direct us to pray for grace from the Spirit as well as from the Father or the Son 2 Cor 13.13 Rev 1.4 Thus we see how full the Scripture is in giving the glory of the same workes upon us and of the same worship from us to the Spirit as to the Father and the Son And therefore from all these premises we may conclude That the Holy-Ghost with the Father and the Son is God blessed and to be glorified for evermore The Spirit of God hath made me And the breath of the Almighty hath given me life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritus ex ore egregiens halitus flatus anima proprie significat halitem pâ—r metonymiam effecti animam per synechdoâ—hen membri animal Pisc in Deut 10.16 The words carry an allusion as Interpreters generally agree to that of Moses describing the creation of man Gen 2.7 And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrills the breath of life and man became a living soule Elihu speakes neere in the same forme fully to the same effect The breath of the Almighty hath given me life or enlivened me As if he had sayd That soule which the Lord hath breathed into me hath made me live The soule of man may be called the breath of the Almighty because the Almighty is expressed infusing it into man at first by breathing And therefore the word Neshamah which properly signifies the breath doth also by a Metonymie of the effect signifie the soule it selfe which causeth breathing Thus our translaters render it Isa 57.16 I saith the Lord will not contend for ever neither will I be alwayes wroth for the spirit should faile before me and the soules which I have made As the soule of man was breathed in by God so the soule is that by which man breathes Breath and soule come and goe together Some comparing the originall word Shamaijm for the heavens with this word Neshamah which here we translate breath take notice of their neere affinity intimating that the soule of man is of a heavenly pedegree or comes from heaven yea the latine word mens signifying the mind is of the same consonant letters with the Hebrew Neshamah and as some conceive is derived from it So then I take these words The breath of the Almighty as a description of that part of man which is opposed to his body The Spirit of God hath made me that is hath set me up as a man in humane shape And the breath of the Almighty hath given me life that is this soule which the Almighty hath breathed into me hath made me a living man ready for any humane act or as Moses speakes God breathing into my nostrills the breath of life I became a living soule Hence observe First The soule of man floweth immediately from God 'T is the breath of God not that God liveth by breathing the way of his life is infinitely above our apprehension But 't is cleare in Scripture That the Almighty breathed into man the powers of life And therefore he is called by way of Eminence The father of spirits Heb 12.9 For though the Almighty is rightly entituled the Father of the whole man though both body and soule are the worke of God yet he is in a further sence the father of our spirits or soules then of our bodyes And here Solomon shewing how man is disposed of when these two are separated by death saith Eccl 12.7 Then shall the dust that is the body returne to the earth as it was and the spirit that is the soule shall returne to God who gave it The body is the gift of God but the body is not the breath of God it is not such an immediate gift of God as the soule is when the body of man was made at first God tooke the dust of the earth and formed his body out of it but when he gave him a soule he breathed that from himselfe it was an immediate effect of Gods power not dealing with nor working upon any prae-existing matter The spirit or soule of man is purely of God solely of God And hence we may inferre First Then the soule is not a vapour arising from the crasis or temperament of the body as the life of a beast is Secondly Then the soule of man is not traduced from the parents in generation as many learned men affirme especially to ease themselves of those difficulties about the conveyance of originall sin or defilement into the soule Thirdly We may hence also inferre then the soule is not corruptible it is an immortall substance How can that be corruptible or mortall which hath its rise as I may say immediately from God or is breathed in by the Almighty who is altogether incorruptible and immortal And whereas there is a twofold incorruptibility First by divine ordination that is God appoynts such a thing shall not corrupt and therefore it doth not so the body of man in it's first creation was incorruptible for though it were in it selfe corruptible being made out of the earth yet by the appoyntment of God if man had continued in his integrity he had not dyed And therefore it is said By sin came death yea doubtlesse if God should command and appoynt the meanest worme that moves upon the earth to live for ever or the most fading flower that groweth out of the earth to flourish for ever both the one and the other would doe so Secondly there is an incorruptibility in some things not meerely by a law or appoyntment of God but as from that intrinsecall nature which God hath bestowed upon them and implanted in them Thus the Angels are immortall they have an incorruptible nature and likewise the soule of man being breathed from the Almighty is in it's owne nature
incorruptible it hath naturally no seedes of dissolution in it because no contrariety no contrary qualities in it as all bodyes or corporeall substances have I know the Apostle saith 1 Tim 6.16 God only hath immortality it 's true he only hath it in himselfe independently originally but he derives and gives it as a talent to some creatures in a way of dependance upon himselfe Secondly Observe The soule brings in the life of the body The life of man What is the body without the soule but a lumpe of clay As soone as ever the soule departs life departs man dyeth and becomes a putrifying carkasse yet such is the folly of most men that all their care is for the life of the body which is at best a dying life they utterly neglect the soule which as it is the life of the body so it selfe never dyeth The soule is the Jewell the body is but the Cabinet the soule is the kernel the body is but the shell Will you be sollicitous about a Cabinet and a shell and slight the Jewel or throw away the kernel Will you take care of that which liveth the body and will you not take care of that which holds your life the soule Againe Note Life is the gift of God If the soule which is the cause of life in man be of God then the life of man is of God also The cause of the cause is the cause of the effect or thing caused But we need not argue it from Logick rules Scripture testimony being so aboundant in this thing Acts 17.25 He giveth to all life and breath and all things And v. 28. In him we live and move and have our being Spirituall and eternall life are the gift of God so also is naturall life And if so Then First Live to God Secondly Seeing God gives us life we should be willing to give our lives to God Yea Thirdly We should therefore be ready to give up or rather to lay downe our lives for God And as we should give up our lives to God when he calls for them by natural death so we should give up our lives for God when he calls us to beare witness to his name and truth by violent death I shall yet take notice of one thing further before I passe from this verse The Spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life Some upon good grounds referre the first clause The Spirit of God hath made me to the creation both of soule and body and the second or latter clause the breath of the Almighty hath given me life to that quickning which we receive by the Spirit to the duties whereinto we are called in this life The breath of the Almighty hath given me life that is hath fitted and prepared me for the severall offices and services of life As if Elihu had sayd The Spirit of God hath not only made me a man but a man for worke yea the Spirit of God hath quickned me to the present worke and businesse I am come about Thus life imports not only spirituall life in the being of it but all the furniture ornaments and abilities of a spirituall life The Septuagint render this profession made by Elihu expressely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiratio omnipotentis est quae docet me Sept Haud me latet non a meipso sed a deo hunc prudentiae sensum me accepisse Nicet to this sence holding out a strong assurance which Elihu had that God had both called and prepared him for the service he was come about and engaged in The Spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath instructed me Another of the Greek Interpreters speaks as much I am not ignorant that of my selfe I am able to doe nothing but I have received this power from God As if Elihu had said The Spirit of the Almighty hath quickned me to this worke I am now upon and taught me what both to say and doe in thy case O Job Hence note God giveth not only the life of nature unto men but he fits them for all the duties and services of this life We indeed are scarcely to be reckoned among the living if we have no more but a naturall life what is it to be able to eate and drinke to heare and see and speake unlesse we have more then this we deserve not to be numbred or written among the living we are upon the matter but dead lumps and clods of clay It is the breath of the Almighty that quickens us and superadds ability to doe good that frames fashions and fits us for every good word and worke This is the life of man when a man is fitted for duty and service when he is furnished for imployment to stand God and his Brethren in some stead while he is in this world then he lives The motions impulses and influences the teachings and guidings of the Spirit of God are the life of our lives We can doe nothing of our selves till the Almighty bestows a new life upon us and as we can doe nothing at all in spiritualls till he gives us a new life so we can do nothing to purpose till the Spirit acts stirres up that life in us It is the Spirit who first bestows Secondly encreaseth Thirdly excites our spirituall life puts the new creature into motion All our good thoughts and holy actings all our uprightnesse and sincerity all our strength and ability flow from the Spirit untill the holy Spirit workes in us we sit still and when the Spirit worketh we must not sit still I saith the Apostle Rom 15.18 will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed As if he had sayd My owne workes are not worth the naming I will not so much as mention any thing that Christ hath not wrought in me by the Spirit That was a mighty worke which he was enabled to doe to make the Gentiles obedient in word and deed Christ did not leave him to doe it in his owne power The breath of the Almighty enabled him and so he doth all those that are able and willing ready for and successefull in any such holy worke Let us therefore ascribe all to his working and quickening let us set down our severall Items of receit in our account-books confessing that we have nothing of our own This gift that grace that ability to doe to speake to suffer to act we have received from him Let the whole Inventory of our soules riches have Gods name written upon it and ascribed to his praise alone And if we thus uncloath our selves by giving God the glory of all we shall loose nothing by it for God will apparrell and furnish us deck and adorne us better every day The poorer we are in our selves the richer will he make us To be thus diminish't is the best way to
had before him nor did Elihu look upon Job as such a puny to him or so much his underling as that he durst not hold up the Bucklers in dispute against him Elihu knew Job was an old experienced Souldier well vers'd in the wayes and things of God And therefore Secondly If thou canst may rather referre to the weaknesse and soarenesse of Job's body to the wounds or troubles which he had received and felt from the Almighty in his spirit then to any inability of his mind for argument As if Elihu had said I consider how it is with thee thou art a man diseased and distempered in thy body fitter to lye upon or keep thy bed then to stand up to a dispute fitter for a hospitall then for the Schooles Thou also hast a troubled and an afflicted spirit I doubt thou art not in case to answer me or to stand up longer in a way of dispute but this I say if thou canst answer me pray doe set thy words in order before me I will not lay this burden upon thee unlesse thou art willing to take it unlesse thou findest thou hast strength and spirit to beare and carry it through Answer me if thou canst otherwise I will speak my thoughts out and make what use of it thou pleasest Thirdly I conceive Elihu might here intend to let Job understand that he was resolved to put him to the utmost that he was resolved to bring the strongest arguments and use the quickest way of reasoning for his conviction that he could and that therefore he also adviseth Job to doe the like to doe his best to buckle himselfe to the businesse with all his might for he was not come to dally with him he would have him set his shoulders to the work and gather all the forces of his soule to the battaile he bids him bring forth even his horsemen for his defence as I may speak in allusion to that in the 12th of Jeremy If thou hast run with footmen and they have wearied thee how shalt thou contend with horses Elihu was purposed and resolved to bring out his greatest strength his horsemen to the battaile and therefore wisheth Job doe so too Thus he gives him faire warning If thou canst answer me doe thy utmost I am ready for thee Fourthly While Elihu saith If thou canst answer me set thy words in order before me stand up We may take his words as a gentle and sweete invitation to the worke As if he had sayd If thou hast spirits enow left to hold discourse with me or to reply upon me come friend spare me not set thy words in order before me I will not be a terror to thee Or there may be this condescending sence in these words of Elihu Doe not thinke O Job because I begin to speak that therefore I meane to speak all or to have all the discourse my selfe assure thy selfe I have no purpose to hinder thee in any defence which thou art able to make for thy selfe No though I am come with my best preparations to urge thee and reply upon thee as to all that hath past between thee and thy friends yet I am as willing that thou shouldest answer as I am ready prepared and prest to speake thou hast free leave to make thy Apologie to say what thou canst for thy selfe I intend not to impose upon thee nor by any Authority to compell thee to stand to my sentence as if I were thy Master or would Lord it over thee Doe and speake thy best for thy owne vindication I am ready to receive it from thee and give thee a faire account of my thoughts about it If thou canst answer me Set thy words in order before me 'T is a metaphorical speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 often and most properly used for the marshalling of an Army and so is elegantly applyed here in this matter of controversie or polemicall discourse Set thy words thy reasons thy arguments as it were in battaile aray against me we had the word in the former Chapter at the 14th verse It is applyed also to the exactness of the heart in prayer not an affected exactness or curiosity about words or to word it with God but it notes exactness or spirituallness rather in meditating and disposing the strongest Scripture reasonings to prevaile with God in prayer Prayer is as it were a battaile fought in heaven not in wroth or revenge but with faith and holy submission Thus did Jacob when he wrastled with the Angel Gen 32. And thus David speaks Psal 5.3 In the morning I will direct my prayer unto thee and will look up or I will marshall my prayer I will bring up petition after petition pleading after pleading even till I am become like Jacob a Prince with God till I have won the field and got the day Thus the word is applyed by a metaphor both to disputations with men and supplications to God Further we may take the meaning plainly without any straine of rhetorique Set thy words in order before me Methode is good in every thing either an expresse or a covert methode Sometimes 't is the best of art to cover it in speaking there is a speciall use of methode for though as one said very well speaking of those who are more curious about methode then serious about matter Methode never converted any man yet methode and the ordering of words is very usefull Our speeches should not be heaps of words but words bound up not a throng of words but words set in aray or as it were in ranke and file The Prophet Joel 2.5 describes a terrible Judgement of God by a strong people set in battaile aray In pursuance of which sence Mr Broughton renders the next words not as we stand up but stand to it as Commanders say to their Souldiers stand to it and the Italian translation thus Set thy words in order before me present thy selfe to the Combate Thus he continues the metaphor As if he had said Chuse thy ground St◠quasi in acie ad pugnandum contra me convincendum me rationibus Drus and maintaine it like a valiant Champion I doe not desire thou shouldst yeild me an inch of ground yeild to nothing but the truth dispute every patch with me stand up stand to it stand as if thou wert to fight a battaile not only for thy honour but for thy life The Apostle 1 Cor 16.13 speaks in that language about our spirituall warre Watch ye stand fast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viriliter agire quit your selves like men man it be strong There is such a sence in Elihu's exhortation here to Job Set thy words in order before me stand up Now in that Elihu when he was thus bent to speak and was so full of matter to speak that as he tells us in the former chapter He was like bottles of wine and that he could not hold yet gave Job faire law and bids him answer if he could
then Ish The wisest and most accomplisht the most perfect and mightiest of men as well as he is greater then Enosh sorrowfull or miserable man I answer the word Enosh is not to be taken exclusively as if when he saith the puissant is greater then the sorrowfull man he were not also greater then the greatest or strongest man but it notes that all men or man considered in his best estate is but weaknesse and wretchedness when put in the ballance with the great God or the puissant Lord what is man saith David one of the best and greatest of men a King Psal 144.3 that thou takest knowledge of him or the son of man that thou makest account of him Now if it be even too much that God should make any account of man then what is any man in account to God O what man or Angel is able to cast up the account how much the great God is greater or more then man The words are plaine only there is somewhat yet to be added or touched upon to cleare up further the scope of Elihu in speaking thus to Job which I shall endeavour to cleare and make out when I have given a note or two from the words as they are a plaine proposition God is greater then man Hence Observe First God is Great He that is greater then the Greatest is certainly great he that is higher then the highest is high This greatness of God is every where celebrated in Scripture The Prophet Isa 12.6 calls the inhabitant of Zion to cry out and shout why For great is the holy One of Israel in the midst of thee that is the holy one of Israel who is in the midst of thee is both Great in himselfe and declares his greatness in thee Mal 1.14 I am a great King saith the Lord of hosts and my name is dreadfull among the heathens I need not stay to give particular Scriptures to hold forth the attribute of Gods greatness his greatness runs through all his attributes Whatsoever God is he is great in it He is great in power Psal 56.3 Psal 147.5 he is great in all sorts of power great in authoritative power and great in executative power As God commandeth what he pleaseth to be done so he can doe what he commandeth The power of man in doing is not alwayes commensurate with his power in commanding but Gods is He needs no helpe much lesse any leave to execute what he willeth Againe God is great in wisdome he hath the compasse of all things in his understanding God is so wise that he is called the only wise God 1 Tim 1.17 The wisdome of men and Angels is folly to his God is great also in his goodnes so great that Christ himselfe as man would not be called good but told him that called him so by way of rebuke There is none good but one that is God Math 19.17 Holy David brake out into the admiration of that goodness which God hath layd up yea of that which he dayly worketh for man How much more did he and ought we to admire that goodness which is not so much in himselfe as himselfe Psal 31.19 O how great is thy goodnesse which thou hast layd up for them that feare thee which thou workest for them that trust upon thee before the sons of men The goodnesse which God acts and puts forth for the creature is a great goodnesse Isa 63.7 Neh 9 25â— but that goodnesse which is the goodnesse of his nature is a goodnesse as great as God is a goodnesse infinite in greatnesse Againe how often is God called great yea admired for his greatnesse in mercy When David 2 Sam 24.14 made choyce to fall into the hands of God he gave this reason of it For his mercies are great He is also great in wrath we read 2 Kings 23.26 of the fiercenesse of his great wrath And how great is his Love First in redeeming us by Christ Joh 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son c. God loved us so much in that gift that no man could ever tell how much love he hath given us in it Secondly His love is great in quickning us with Christ Eph 2.4 God who is rich in mercy for the great Love wherewith he hath loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ His love both in redeeming and quickning us is so great that while we are called to the greatest study after the knowledge of we are told we cannot know the greatnesse of it Eph 3.18 That you may know the Love of God which passeth knowledge I will not stay upon this Attribute the Greatnesse of God onely take these five briefe inferences from it God is Great Then First God can doe great things the greatest things for us every thing is in working as it is in being they that are but little can doe but little God being great in his being that is in his power in his wisdome in his goodnesse in his mercy how easily can he doe great things The Scripture is abundant in shewing forth the great things which God hath done and will doe 2 Sam 7.22 23. Job 5.9 Psal 71.19 Psal 86.10 Psal 92.5 Psal 111.2 Psal 126.2 3. Psal 136.7 17. Joel 2.21 The workes of God in all ages and in all places have borne the stamp of and given testimony to his excellent Greatnesse We say There is nothing great to a great mind or to a man of a great spirit A Great spirited man will overcome not only great difficulties but seeming impossibilities yea he is glad to meete with greatest difficulties because they match the greatnesse of his mind Then certainly the Great God doth nothing but great and can doe the greatest things 'T is no matter how great the things are which we have need to be done for us if we can but interest the Great God in the doing of them God can doe great things in wayes of mercy for his people and he can doe great things in wayes of Judgement against his enemies Though his enemies be Great Oakes and Cedars he can hew them downe Amos 2.9 Though his enemies be as great as the greatest mountaines he can remove and level them Who art thou O great mountaine before Zorobabell thou shalt become a plaine Zech 4.7 that is the great power of God with Zorobabell can overthrow or overturne those powers which oppose or stand in the way of his Church and people though they appeare as inseparable and immoveable as a Great Mountaine Secondly If God be Great then he can pardon great transgressions you that are great sinners feare not Were not God a great God the least of our sins could not be pardoned were not he great in mercy and great in goodnesse our hearâ—s would fayle us yea our faith could have no bottome to come to him for the pardon of our great sins But why should great sins discourage us to aske
of their heart And hence he concludes 1 Cor. 2.14 The naturall man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnesse to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned spirituall objects must have a spirituall eye to see them Secondly this comes to passe sometimes from the judgment of God upon carnall men who as in mercy he causeth the blind to see so in wrath he striketh those that have no mind to see with greater blindnesse and punisheth their former rebellion and obstinacy against the word received with an impotency to perceive it Yea God doth not only leave such in the blindnesse of their mind and dullnesse of their understanding but gives them up to it The Prophet Isaiah was a Gospel Preacher he held out the light clearly yet his hearers were under such a doome that the very light which he held out blinded them so that the more he spake the lesse they perceived Isa 6.10 And he said go and tell this people hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not make the heart of this people fat and make their eares heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their eares and understand with their hearts and convert and be healed This is a dreadfull Scripture The Lord is highly provoked indeed when he judicially shuts up the eyes of men and hardens their hearts against his own messages not that he infuseth any hardness or instilleth any ignorance into them but gives them up to that ignorance hardnesse and darknesse which already possesseth them And then though God speak once or twice or a hundred times they perceive it not They that harden their hearts shall have them hardened by that which is the ordinary meanes to soften and melt them and they that shut their eyes against any truth are in danger of having them shut against all truth even by that means which usually openeth eyes Thus we see that this first sort of men meere carnall men cannot see ot perceive when God speaketh and why it is so Secondly which I conceive rather to be the meaning of Elihu here Man may be considered in his spirituall state That is as converted and renewed in spirit by the mighty working of the Spirit Now to men in this estate God speakes once yea twice and they perceive it not They that are spirituall doe not alwayes perceive spirituall things For First they have much corruption in them Though they are renewed yet they are renewed but in part we see in part and but darkly yea sometimes Saints can hardly see at all especially as to some dispensations and manifestations of God! he may speak once yea twice and thrice to them in such a thing or to such a purpose and they take little or no notice of it He may poynt unto them by such providences and by such Sermons and yet they look upon themselves as un-concerned not making any home-application of what they outwardly hear or see yea feele and smart under and all this by reason of some prevailing corruption Secondly this may proceed from their negligence and slothfullnesse good men are not alwayes carefull as they should much lesse criticall and wisely curious to observe every providence of God and to consider why or for what end such or such a word is sent to them As carnall men thrust the word from them so godly men faile much at all times and at some times wholly neglect to lay the word to heart They doe not compare themselves that is their lives and consciences their thoughts and wayes with the word and then no wonder if they perceive not what is spoken to them Even a Job may be hindred by his own indulgence from perceiving what God saith unto him The Prophet complained of the people of God for not striving to take hold of him Isa 64.7 There is none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee And may we not complaine that few stirre up themselves either to take hold of the word of God or that the word may take hold of them Paul exhorted Timothy 2 Tim. 1.6 to stir up the Gift of God that was in him They that have received both gifts and grace may be much wanting to themselves in stirring them up Though we deny mans naturall power yet persons converted have a spirituall power which they often neglect to stir up When the servants of Benhadad 1 Kings 20.32 33. came to Ahab upon that message to beg his life it is said The men did dilligently observe whether any thing would come from him that they might take hold of and urge it in favour of their Master and as soon as Ahab had dropt that word he is my Brother as soon as they had that word they did hastily catch it and applyed it for their present purpose So they that are godly should observe what is spoken unto them what corruption is smitten by the word or by the rod of God and as soone as ever such a word is spoken they should take it up and apply it to themselves Thirdly those many lusts that are in the heart of a godly man not yet fully mortified as secret pride self-love and unbelief these hinder him from understanding the mind of God And therefore we are counselled by the Apostle James Chap. 1.21 to lay aside that is to get subdued and mortified all filthinesse and superfluity of naughtinesse and so receive with meekness the engraffed word which is able to save our souls As if he had said we can neither perceive nor receive the word savingly unlesse our lusts are cast out and cast off How much any man neglects this duty of mortifying his lusts by so much is he rendred both unable to perceive the word and unfit to profit by it Lastly Mr. Broughton renders the words thus God speaks once yea twice and man will not mark it We say man perceiveth it not he saith man will not mark it As our reading shews the weakness and imperfections or the negligence and slothfullnesse of man when he doth not perceive what God speaketh so his sheweth the obstinacy of man The will of man is as perverse as his understanding is blind Man hath not only a wound or a weaknesse in his will unto that which is good but he hath a rebellion in his will against that which is good and that not by some occasionall disgust or sudden gust of passion but he is naturally set and resolved against that which is good Man will not mark what God speaketh in his word and works Christ upbraids the Jews Joh. 5.40 Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life he chargeth the fault upon their wills 'T is certaine man hath a will not to come to Christ for life yet that is a forced and farre fetcht inference which some make from it that man hath therefore power and will to come
arcanum Further the Hebrew is as we put in the Margin He revealeth or uncovereth the eares of men This revealing or uncovering of the eare say some noteth only private speaking and is a similitude taken from a common custome among men who when they would convey their mind secretly to a friend that stands by put their head near to his eare and take up the brim of his hat or put by his haire if long that they may whisper in his eare Thus in a dreame God whispers and speaks silently unto men This seems to have a sutablenesse with that Chap. 4.12 13. where Eliphaz spake of a thing brought secretly to him or that was whispered or stoln into him But I conceive there is more in this place then the intendment of a secret and private conveyance of the mind of God unto man in a vision or dreame And therefore this opening of the eare imports the removing or taking away of that whatsoever it is which hinders the effectuall hearing or obeying of those messages which God sends to men When God spake in a dream he did more then speak aliquid in illorum aures in susussirare vellet deducebat defluentes copillos et in apertes aures tacito â—â—â—mure aliquid instillabat Sanct Cinthius aurem vellit et admonuit c. Horat. Loquitur et audire facit Aurem revelare vel aperire est insinuare aliquid auribus animisque quod intimis sensibus reponendum sit Clariorem et penetrantiorem insinuationem voluntatis divinae denotat Coc he open'd the ear yea he gave an eare to hear This powerfull work of God upon the heart is elegantly expressed by opening the eare because when the ears are stopt we cannot hear till that which stops them is pluckt out or taken away so that here we have speaking with effect or the cleare and penetrating power of the Spirit of God sweetly and prevailingly insinuating his mind to man God speaks so as he will be heard Hence Observe First The eare of man is naturally stopt against the teachings of God There are many things which stop the eares of man or man hath many eare stoppers I will name seven all which God removes and takes away when he effectually reveals his mind to man First the eare of man is stopt with ignorance that 's a thick vaile or covering upon the eare and keeps out the mind of God till it be removed And Secondly Unbelief is another ear-stopper till the Lord removeth that we cannot hear Thirdly Impenitency or hardnesse of heart stops the eare there are a number of Scriptures I might give for each of these Fourthly the love of any particular sin is an eare-shutter or an eare-stopper and the Lord removes that when he opens the eare Fifthly Prejudices stop the eare prejudices somtimes against the person speaking somtime against the word spoken That man will never hear a word to purpose who hath a prejudice against the person or a prejudice against the word either a prejudice against the man or against the matter Sixthly Pride stops the eare too the proud man will not hearken therefore God humhles and brings down the spirit that the word may be heard Seventhly and lastly the World is a great ear-stopper that locks up the eare against the word the world in the profits of it and the world in the pleasures of it and the world in the cares of it and the world in the fears of it the world by or in every one of these stops the eare and by these the ears of all men naturally are stopped so that they are as it is said Psal 58.4 like the deafe adder that stops her eare and will not hear the voyce of the charmer charme he never so wisely Till all these stoppers are removed and the eare opened there is no receiving of the word Secondly Observe God is able to open and unlock the eare of man Though it hath never so many stopples in it he can pull them out never so many locks upon it though all the seven spoken of and seven more obstruct the ear yet he can open them all and make a free and uncontroulable passage for his word into the remotest and closest chambers of the soul God can speak loud enough not only to make the deafe but the dead hear his voyce Verily verily I say unto you saith Christ Joh. 5.25 the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voyce of the Son of God and they that hear shall live By the dead he means not those who are corporally but spiritually dead that is dead in sins and trespasses and in danger of eternall death for their sins and trespasses even these heard the voyce of the Son of God then speaking personally and heard it afterwards ministerially in the dispensation of the Gospell and that voyce revived them not only by giving them the comfort of that naturall life which they had before but by bringing in a new spirituall life which before they had not Then the internall eare is opened to purpose when those internall or mystically darke graves of sin are opened and the soul comes forth into the light of life Yet more distinctly God may be said to uncover or open the eares of men when he doth these four things First When he makes us not only to heare but to attend not only to heare but to hearken or not only to heare but to give eare Many give the word of God the hearing but they doe not give eare to the word of God Secondly God opens the ear when he makes us not only attend but understand or when he takes the vaile off from our minds The Apostle saith of the Jewes 2 Cor 3.14 The vaile remaineth upon them untaken away to this day in the reading of the old Testament and it doth so still so that as they could not so yet they cannot Looke to the end of that which is abolished that is to Christ who was the end or scope at which the whole Ceremoniall Law now abolished did then ayme When once the eâ—re is divinely opened then the vaile of ignorance and spirituall blindnesse is taken off from the mind both as to that greatest truth and all other necessary truths The opened eare is an understanding eare Thirdly God openeth the eare when he causeth us to believe what we perceive and understand As faith sets the whole soule aworke for God so faith is the great worke of God upon the soule When the eare is opened truth is not only knowne but savingly believed Fourthly This opening of the eare maketh the soule obedient Jesus Christ in that great prophecy of him Psal 40.6 to shew his ready obedience to his fathers command saith Mine eare hast thou opened or digged The eare of Christ was never shut in the least either through ignorance or unbeliefe but he is sayd to have his eare opened only to shew his constant preparedness and readiness for obedience
purpose Lastly consider God withdraweth man from his sinfull purpose all or any of these wayes by putting forth his mighty power with them For his word alone his works alone his patience alone the counsell of man alone would not doe it if God did not stretch forth his own arme in and with these meanes for the doing of it Nothing is any further efficacious then as God is with it Numb 22. Balaam was going on in his wicked purpose being sent for by Balak to curse the people of God And though the Lord sent his Angell to be an adversary to him in his way vers 22. so that his Asse turned out of the way into the field yet Balaam went on in his purpose yea though the Angell standing between two walls caused his Asse to turne so suddenly that she crusht Balaams foot against the wall vers 25. yet Balaam went on in his purpose Once more though the Angell went further and stood in a narrow way where there was no way to turne to the right hand nor to the left so that the poor Asse fell down under him v. 27. and speaking as the Apostle Peter expresseth it 2 Epist 2. with mans voyce rebuked the madnesse of the Prophet Yet so mad he was that all these checks and warnings could not withdraw him from his purpose And what the Lord did at that time to Balaam by an Angell that he doth by some other means and providences to stop many from their evill purposes who yet will not be stopt He speaks to them in the ministry of his word he speaks to them in his works he spreads their way with roses he hedgeth up their way with thorns he bestoweth sweet mercies upon them he sends sharp afflictions upon them to withdraw them from their evill projects and purposes yet on they goe like Balaam unlesse he send more then an Angell even his holy Spirit to withdraw them Lastly Elihu reports it as a speciall favour of God to withdraw man from his purpose Whence note It is a great mercy to be hinder'd in sinfull purposes and intendments Disappointments are acts of grace when we are acting against grace If God stop us from doing evill not onely by his word but by blowes or by a hedge of thorns yea if he stop us by a drawn sword it is a great mercy Though God throw us to the ground as he did Saul afterwards Paul when he went with a bloody purpose to vex and persecute the Saints Acts 9. let us count our selves exalted and rejoyce in it more then in any worldly exaltation 'T is a rich mercy to be kept from executing an evill purpose though by our owne poverty and outward misery The doing of that which is sinfull is worse then any thing that can be done to us or endured by us as a stop against sin Sin hath death in it sin hath wrath in it sin hath hell in it sin hath Devill and all in it therefore to be kept from sin let it be by what means it will if by paines and pining sicknesses if by reproaches and disgraces yea if by death we have cause to blesse God The greatest and sorest Judgement which God powres upon sinfull men is to let them alone in or not to withdraw them from their sins To be suffered to goe on and prosper in sin is the worst of sufferings the last of Judgements the next Judgement to hell it selfe and an infallible signe of an heire of hell Thus the wrath of God waxed hot against Israel when he gave them up to their owne hearts lusts and they walked in their owne Councel Psal 81.11 This was the highest revenge that God could take upon that sinfull people He sayd a little before Israel would none of me when God wooed them they were so coy they would have none of him and then said he goe on take your fill of sin I give you up to your owne hearts lusts The Lord did not say I gave them up to the sword to the famine or to the pestilence but to their owne hearts lusts and to walke on in their own way That person or people may be sure God hath purposed evill against them whom he will not withdraw from their evill purposes The severity of the wrath of God against the Gentiles is exprest and summ'd up in this Rom 1.26 28. He gave them up to vile affections he gave them up to a reprobate mind to doe things which were not convenient A naturall man left to himselfe will soone doe such things as nature it selfe abhorreth and blusheth at The same dreadfull doome is denounced Rev 22.11 He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still I will not withdraw him from his way let him goe on and perish let him goe on and sink downe to the pit of perdition for ever As St. John in the Revelation foretelling the Church given up or left to not in great sufferings of all sorts Here is the patience of the Saints So when we see the world given up and left in great sinnings of any sort especially if to sinnings of all sorts we may truely and sadly say Here is the wrath of God 'T is therefore a great mercy if God will any way withdraw man from his sinfull wayes and purposes especially when he taketh such gentle wayes as dreams and visions counsels and instructions to withdraw man from his purpose and as it followeth in this verse to hide pride from man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 texit operuit imponendo aliquid quo tegas The word which we render to hide is to hide by casting a covering a vayle a garment or any other thing over what we desire should be hid Prov 12.23 A prudent man concealeth knowledge it is this word he doth not pretend to know so much as he knoweth he puts a vayle upon his own abilities as Moses upon his face when there was such a shining beauty imprinted there rather then reveales them unnecessarily or uncalled 'T is the foolish man or he that hath but a shew of wisdome who loves and affects to be shewing it But to the text The word is used also to note that gracious act of God his pardoning the sin of man Psal 32.1 Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is covered God covers our sins in the riches of his grace by the perfect righteousnesse of Jesus Christ Now there are two wayes by which God hideth pride from man First by pardoning it Secondly preventing it Here to hide pride from man properly is not to pardon it when acted but to prevent or keep man from the acting of it God indeed hides the pride of man by pardoning it and that 's a high act of grace and he hideth pride from man by keeping man from doing proudly or from shewing his pride in his doings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 superbia excellentia The word rendred pride
with us they would even stand sâ—â—ll and have nothing to doe if God did not bring us into straights or keep us for a season in them In a sick-bed the Lord shews us and we may find work enough for all our graces especially for faith and patience and submission of spirit to his worke and will We may doe better worke and doe it better in sickness then in health Seventhly God brings many upon their fick-beds to teach them the worth of health and make them thankfull for it They who are seldome sicke are as seldome thankfull for their health and scarce reckon that for a mercy the want whereof they have never felt 'T is rare that we prize what we have till we have it not Eightly God exerciseth many with sickness with a purpose to put men upon a holy purpose of improving their health better and of doing more for God while 't is well with them Lastly not a few are afflicted that God may have an opportunity to doe his worke and declare his power God himself would be hindred of much glorious work in restoring and recovering them to health did he not chasten them upon sick beds The question was put about the blind man Joh. 9.3 4. Who did sin this man or his Parents that he was born blind Jesus answered neither hath this man sinned nor his Parents but that the works of God should be made manifest in him If there had not been a blind man in the world how could the power of God have been made manifest in giving sight to the blind if some were not extreamly torturingly sick how would the power of God be seene in healing the sicke and rebuking their paine For all these purposes Man is chastened with paine upon his bed and the multitude of his bones with strong paine We never profit by chastenings till we answer the purposes of God in sending them and unless we know what and which they are we can never answer them If we answer these nine toucht upon we shall either answer all or to be sure we shall baulke or refuse none Elihu having thus shewed us the sicke man in paine proceeds to shew us what further effect his paine and sickness wrought upon him Vers 20. So that his life abhorreth bread and his soule dainty meat This verse sheweth the second effect of sickness The former was paine This is loss of appetite or nauseousnesse His life That is his living body We may call the sick mans body a living body though it be hard to say whether we should number him among the living or the dead We read life put for the body which liveth or whereby it liveth Psal 88.3 My soule saith Heman is full of troubles and my life draweth nigh unto the grave that is I am ready to dye and my body to be buryed He doth not say he hath no great stomack to but his life abhorreth bread The word here used is of a Syriack derivation Vox 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syra est notat nauseare facere nam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sordes scoriam excrementum quicquid sordicum et immundum est vel in humano corpore vel ex eo excretuÌ„ Drus Merc nor is it found any where in Scripture but here The nowne signifieth any thing that is filthy excrementicious or uncleane whence the verbe is rendred to abhorre loath or nauceate because we abhorre those things which are filthy or uncleane His life abhorreth bread That is common food Sometimes bread is put for all kind of dyet as David sayd to Mephibosheth 2 Sam 9.10 Thou shalt eat bread at my table But because of that opposition in the text to dainties by bread we may here understand only ordinary food His life abhorreth bread and his soule dainty meat The Hebrew is Meat of desire Not only such meat as men usually desire for the wholesomnesse of it but such as curious palates desire for the pleasantness of it such meat is here meant Yea thirdly such meat as the man had a desire to before his sicknesse for the sutableness of it to his owne taste and appetite he then abhorreth His soule abhorreth dainty meat The turning of the stomack and losse of appetite are usuall symptomes of sickness Almost all sicknesses weaken the appetite and some take it quite away so that the patient not only hath no desire to but loathes dainty meate or meate of desire This phrase or forme of speaking is used Dan 10.3 I saith he ate no pleasant bread or no bread of desires as we put in the margin neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth 'T is used againe 2 Chro 32.27 Hezekiah made himselfe treasuries for silver and gold c. and all manner of pleasant jewells we put in the Margin for all jewells of desire So Amos 5.11 Pleasant vineyards or vineyards of desire It was the manner of the Hebrews to expresse pleasant by desirable because pleasant things are much desired His soule abhorreth meate of desire or dainty meate Hence note First 'T is a mercy to tast our meat or to take the comfort of what we eate Many have meat but cannot taste it That which giveth the best taste to our meat is a taste of the goodnesse of God in it 1 Pet 2.1 If ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious It is sweet to taste meat and the goodnesse of the Lord together Secondly Note God can quickly make those things that are most desirable to us dainty meat meat of desire loathsome to us Some abhor meat because they have eaten of it long The Jewes did eate Manna and Quailes till they loathed them Num 11.20 Others loath meat because they have eaten over-much A third sort loath some meat by a naturall antipathy against it Fourthly Others loath wholsome meat out of a curiosity because it is not dainty enough Lastly Sickness causeth a loathing of all meate even of the most dainty and desirable meate And the Lord at any time can make that which was our desire our loathing We have a like description of a sick man Ps 107.18 His soule abhorreth all manner of meat and draweth neere unto the gates of death Thirdly Note The best of Creature-comforts are but vaine comforts What can dainty meat doe a man good when he is sicke and ready to dye Then gold and silver lands and houses which are the dainty meat of a covetous man are loathsome to him When a man is sicke to death his very riches are sapless and tastless to him wife and children friends and acquaintance can yeild little comfort in that dark houre yea they often prove miserable comforters When we have most need of comfort these things administer least or no comfort at all to us Is it not our wisdome then to get a stock of such comforts as will hold and abide fresh with us when all worldly comforts either leave us or become tastless to us Is it not good to get a store of
stile Psal 67.1 God be mercifull to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us that is give us tokens and pledges of his favour Secondly How see we the face of God Doth not God tell Moses No man can see my face and live How then can the face of God be seene I answer The face of God which was touched before as taken for the essence of God or for his essentiall glory cannot be seene That 's too transcendent a glory for man to behold What we see of God is but some ray or beaming out of light and glory from himselfe we cannot see himselfe The essentiall or personall glory of God is that face which cannot be seene but the declarative glory of God is a face of God which may be clearely seene by faith in the light of his word and workes And to see the face of God is nothing else but for a man to know in himselfe as the Apostles word is in somewhat a parallel case Heb 10.34 that God is gracious to him that is to have an assurance of his favour or a reflect act of faith about it The holy Spirit sheweth us what God is and what the things of God are 1 Cor 2.12 We have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God that is that we mayâ—e enlightned with the knowledge of the grace goodness and favour of God to us discovered in the Gospel The Spirit sheweth us this blessed face of God and we see it by the actings of our faith all our visions of God in this life are visions of faith upon whose wings all our intellectuall powers soare aloft and are carried up to God Faith is not only a worke of the will in consent and application but a worke of the understanding by assent and knowledge Thus we see God as a Spirit is only to be seene with a spirituall eye The vision of God is intellectuall the vision of faith Videre faciem dei nihil aliud est quam sentire apud animum suum deum propitium Coc In Jubilo i. e. in quodam inexplicabili gaudio Aquin Thus the reconciled sinner finding God favourable to him he seeth his face with joy The word signifies joyfull acclamation or shouting for joy such as men use after great favours done them and benefits or rather bounties bestowed upon them There is a seeing of the face of God with terror so the wicked shall see God that is they shall have manifestations of Gods displeasure they shall be made to see him with shame and sorrow They shall say when they see him to the mountaines and rockes fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lambe They who never saw the face of God with joy shall see it with horror amazement Saints see it with joy they have unexpressible comfort and contentment in beholding God they shall rejoyce with shouting as in the yeare of Jubile when they sounded out their joyes with trumpets or made a joyfull noyse 'T is no ordinary but a triumphant joy with which the godly see the face of God Extraordinary sights affect with extraordinary joy Now the face of God being the highest and most glorious sight in the world it must needs affect the beholder with a glorious with a Jubilean joy He shall see his face with joy First It being sayd He shall see his face with joy upon his prayer and the humbling of himselfe before God Observe God hides or vayles his face till we humble our soules and seeke his face God will not be seene at all times no not by his owne people There are severall cases in which he turneth away his face in anger or drawes a curtaine as it were yea a cloud between himselfe and the soule And this he doth First and most usually to try his people how they can beare his withdrawings and to see whether or to what they will betake themselves when he takes himselfe so much from them that they cannot see him Secondly He doth it often to chasten and correct man for sin To be under the hidings of Gods face is the saddest effect of sin to a sencible or an awakened soule David made a grievous complaint because of this what ever the cause or occasion of it was Psal 13.1 The absence of God from him though possibly but for a short time was so tedious to him that he cryed out How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever How long wilt thou hide thy face from me Even Jesus Christ while he stood in the place of sinners bare the hiding of his fathers face as the summe of all those punishments which were due to and deserved by our sin This pressed him more then all bodyly sufferings and made him cry out while he hung upon the Crosse My God my God not why hast thou left me to be crucified but why hast thou forsaken me Math 27.46 Thirdly God hideth his face from some because the manifestations of it have not been received thankfully nor improved rightly We ought to give thankes for the light of the Sun shining in the ayre and also doe our worke in it Is it any wonder if God cloud and eclipse the light of his countenance towards those who neither prize it nor improve it If you would alwayes see the face of God then be ye alwayes seene at the worke and in the wayes of God Secondly Observe It is the sole priviledge of Gods Favourites or of those to whom he is favourable to see his face As no man can see that face of God his essentiall presence so none but Godly men shall see this face of God his comfortable or blessed-making presence Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb 12.14 There is a two-fold vision or sight of God and that negative assertion may be understood of either or of both There 's first a vision of God on earth thus we see his face as was shewed before in the actings of faith For though the Apostle opposeth these two faith and sight We walke by faith and not by sight 2 Cor 5.7 yet faith hath its sight we walke not by sight as the worldly men walk who doe as they see and make their eyes both the guide of their consciences and the in-bringers of their comforts we walke not by outward sight nor doe we make conclusions how to guide our conversations by what we see We walke by faith and that 's the sight which we have of God while we are here on earth which cannot possibly be without holiness faith being so great a part of our holiness and by drawing vertue from Christ dayly the maintainer of it all Secondly there is a sight of the face of God in glory And if none can enter into glory but holy men then no man without
for all the comforts of this and the next life All the blessings of this temporall life and the perfect blessedness of eternall life are comprehended in light So that when 't is sayd his life shall see the light the sence riseth thus high He shall be happy forever so extensive is the favour of God to repenting persons that time is too narrow for it everlasting light shall be their portion From the former branch of the words thus opened He will deliver him from the pit Observe All our deliverances are of God As there is none can deliver like God so none can deliver but God If he gives out the word that such a man shall goe to the pit it is not in the power and skill of all the Princes and Physitians in the world to save or stay him from it And how low and desperate soever any mans condition is if God say the word he is deliver'd and reprieved from going downe into the pit Secondly From the connexion with the former verse the sick man having made this confession I have sinned and perverted that which is right and it profiteth me not the Lord presently delivers him c. Observe God is ready to deliver humble praying and believing sinners That command hath a promise joyned to it Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver The 107th Psalme speakes this quite through where we find many sorts of perishing persons crying unto God and God delivering them from perishing when they cryed As when sin cryeth God will afflict so when sinners cry God will relieve them in or bring them out of their affliction From the latter branch His life shall see the light Note Naturall life and light are a great blessing God promiseth much when he promiseth life and light The light of this life is no small mercy how much greater is the light of spirituall life But who can conceive how great a mercy the light of eternall life is yet all this God speakes to the humble and believing sinner when he saith His life shall see the light Secondly Comparing the two parts of this text together He will deliver him from going downe to the pit and his life shall see the light Observe The mercy of God to humble sinners is a compleate mercy Here is not only deliverance from evill but the bestowing of good it is much to be kept from going downe into the pit but it is more to see light the light of comfort here and the light of glory hereafter The mercy of God to his people is great in temporalls greater in spiritualls greatest in eternalls The benefit of redemption to shew the fullness of it is set forth two wayes First by our freedome from evill Secondly by our enjoyment of good John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life He shall not perish that is he shall be delivered from going downe to the pit he shall have everlasting life that is as the text speakes his life shall see the light Elihu having at large drawne a description or narration of the whole proceeding of God with sinfull man in all the parts and particulars of it gives a briefe of all that he sayd in the two next verses Vers 29. Lo all these things worketh God oftentimes with man Vers 30. To bring back his soule from the pit to be enlightned with the light of the living As the Apostle after he had discoursed at large about the dignity of Christs Priest-hood gathers up all together Heb 8.1 Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum we have such an high Priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens So Elihu having spoken much of the severall wayes by which God revealeth himselfe to man and works him to a sight of his sin and penitentiall sorrow for it recollects and summes up all in these words Lo all these things worketh God oftentimes with man c. In these two verses we may take notice chiefly of two things First The frequency of Gods dealing thus with man v. 29th Lo all these things worketh God oftentimes Secondly The designe and purpose of God in doing so That he may bring back his soule from the pit and be enlightned with the light of the living Lo all this worketh God oftentimes with man Here 's the application of the former Doctrine Elihu presseth his hearers with it and bids them lay it to heart As if he had sayd I have not been speaking of things in the clouds but of what is really and dayly acted among the children of men Lo or behold all these things There are foure speciall significations in Scripture of this word Lo or behold and they may all foure meete in this place First It imports some new unheard-of and wonderfull thing Isa 7.14 Lo or behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son That a virgin should bring forth a son is a wonder of wonders a wonder so much above the course and power of Nature so much beyond the compasse comprehension of reason that men and Angels have reason to be astonished at it Secondly 'T is prefixed to shew some extraordinary impulse or readinesse of spirit for action Thus Christ speaketh in that other noble prophecy of him Psal 40.7 Then said I Lo I come in the volume of the book it is written of me I delight to doe thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart Lo I come that is I am ready to come I am prest upon the work I am under the pressure and command of my own spirit as well as under thy appoyntment and decree to undertake and finish that worke of mans redemption Thirdly It frequently implyeth matter worthy of weight and deepest consideration That 's usefull and remarkeable which is thus prefaced Thus Solomon speaking of the field of the slothfull man saith Prov 24.31 Lo it was all growne over with thorns and nettles had covered the face thereof and the stone wall thereof was broken downe As if he had sayd Marke this is a thing to be attended the sluggards field is full of thorns that is in a spirituall sence slothfull hearts are full of lusts and vanities In this language the Church invites all to consider the Glorious excellencies of God Isa 29.9 Lo this is our God And thus Christ speakes of the woman whom he had healed on the Sabbath day Luke 13.16 And ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan hath bound lo these eighteene yeares be loosed from her infirmity on the Sabbath day As if he had sayd Pray consider the case and speake your mindes Fourthly 'T is often used in a way of strong assertion and affirmation intimating the certainty of what is spoken Gen 1.29 And God said Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed And
againe Gen 12.11 It came to passe when he was come neere to enter into Egypt that he said unto Sarah his wife Behold now I know that thou art a faire woman to look upon Read Psal 132.6 Ezek 30.9 Luke 1.32 In the present text it may have all these intendments for is it not a wonderfull thing that God should be gracious to poore creatures is it not strange that he should take so much paines with and exercise so much patience towards them Secondly Lo God worketh all these things He is ready to doe them he waiteth to be gracious or to magnifie his grace in doing them Thirdly Lo God worketh all these things is not this a matter of great consideration ought we not to sit downe and weigh it well Fourthly Lo all these things worketh God certainly God hath and will work all these things this is a truth out of all question a truth of which there is no doubt to be made As the Apostle saith 1 Tim 3.16 Without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh So I may say without controversie great is this mystery of Gods manifesting himselfe to frayle flesh and doing all these things here spoken of awakening the consciences of men by dreames and working upon them by grievous sicknesses sending an interpreter one of a thousand to declare unto man his uprightness and at last delivering his soule from going downe into the pit Lo all these things worketh God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 operatus est egit perfecit usurpatur etiam pro gubernatione rerum creatarum There is somewhat peculiar in that expression he worketh The native sence of the word implyeth First a willing worke not forced or constrained Secondly a full and compleat worke not an essay or offer not a worke begun only but carried on to perfection The wicked are called workers of iniquity Psal 5.5 because they are free and ready to sin they have a strong tyde and bent of spirit to doe evill and they doe it not to halves but throughly they doe not only begin or nibble at the baite a little as a good man often doth but greedily swallow it downe hooke and all they are fully in it and doe it fully they make a worke of it and so are workers of iniquity The Lord doth good as the wicked doe evill All these things worketh God He worketh them willingly he worketh them compleatly Isa 26.12 Lord thou wilt ordaine peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our workes in us Thou art the Author and finisher of them We are invited Psal 46.8 to come and behold the workes of the Lord what desolations he hath made in the earth The building workes and the desolating workes of God whether respecting persons or nations are perfect workes Lo all these things worketh God Hence note What ever good we see wrought among or for the children of men God is the worker of it As he over-ruleth the evill which is done and both sendeth and ordereth the evill which is suffered so he is the worker of all the good that is done God worketh it all either immediately by himselfe or mediately by second causes and what instrument soever is set a worke yet the worke as to the matter and manner of it as also to the result and issue of it is the Lords He was the worker of all that hath been spoken of in the former context though we reade of a messenger of an interpreter yet the work was Gods 'T is sayd Gen 39.22 The keeper of the prison committed to Josephs hand all the prisoners that were in the prison and whatsoever they did there he was the doer of it Not that he did every thing with his own hand in the prison but he gave the rule and ordered all that was done Much more may I say of the Lord whatsoever is done in the world especially among his people God is the doer of it All goes through his hand Lo all these things worketh God Further From the prefix Lo. Observe The workes and dealings of God with men are wonderfull those especially which he worketh for the humbling of a sinner and for the delivering of a soule from going downe to the pit The breaking of the heart the raysing of it by faith the renewing of its peace and comfort are wonderfull works of God And the reason why we wonder no more at them is because we consider so little of them Hence againe from the word Lo. Note The workes of God are to be deeply considered to be stayed upon We must not passe them by lightly whether they be towards our selves or others God hath made his wonderfull workes to be remembred saith David Psal 111.4 or to be considered that 's the designe of God in his works he hath made them for that end that they should be remembred and attended to or they are such as cannot but be remembred they leave their markes and memorialls behind them God sets such a stamp of his power wisdome justice and goodness upon his workes that they will not be forgotten And as his outward providential workes are such so his spirituall workes are much more such The godly-wise understand them so they have a criticall eye in discerning those invisible workes of God with a poore soule in reducing him from sin and bringing him to himselfe David calleth all the godly to the consideration of those workes in his owne case Psal 66.16 Come and heare all ye that feare God and I will declare what he hath done for my soule What God doth for our bodyes is very considerable but what he hath done for our soules can never be enough considered nor admired Lo all these things worketh God oftentimes with man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The originall is twice thrice so we put in the margin and render it often-times in the text Some expound it of those three distinct wayes in which God dealeth with man before described The Septuagint are expresse for that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schol. All these things worketh the strong God three wayes with man Which the Scholiast exemplifies in the three wayes here noted by Elihu First awakning him by dreames and visions Secondly troubling him by sicknesses and afflictions Thirdly teaching him by Prophets and Interpreters Yet I conceive the text doth not strictly recapitulate those three severall wayes before spoken of in these words twice thrice but only shewes us that God useth all these wayes or any other as his wisdome shall thinke fit many times or oftentimes for the producing of those blessed effects Lo all these things worketh God oftentimes with man Twice thrice is a double certain number put for any single uncertain number And it only teacheth or assureth us that God debateth with the sons of men in all or any of these wayes oftentimes or more then once If they doe not answer his call or purpose which they
what is good what is right is a gracious work of a renewed will as Gods Election of us from Eternity so our Election of God and the things of God at any time is a very gracious worke This affirmative act To chuse to us judgement seemes to imply a negative the rejecting or laying aside of whatsoever is contrary to or a hindrance of Judgement that is the laying aside First of all animosities or undue heates of spirit Secondly of all prejudices and undue prepossessions Thirdly of all groundlesse suspitions and jealousies of the person we have to deale with we can never chuse judgement till we are cleare of all these The original word rendred to chuse signifies in the noune a young man a man in the flower of his age in the best of his life when his breasts as Job spake at the twentieth Chapter are full of milke and his bones of marrow and the reason is given because our younger time is our chusing time as to our way in this world it should be so much more for heaven or the things of another world Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth saith Solomon Eccl 12.1 Some render those words expressely In the dayes of thy elections or chusings As if he had sayd Remember to chuse God in thy chusing dayes when thou chusest thy calling in which to live when thou chusest a wife In diebus electionum tuarum Mont with whom to spend thy life then be sure and remember above all things to chuse God When Moses was a young man he was famous for this Choice Heb 11.25 26. He chose the reproach of Christ rather then the riches of Egypt when he had all the riches and honours of Egypt presented to him and courting him on the one side and the reproach of Christ affliction poverty disgrace threatning him on the other side he chose these rather who would thinke that man wise who should chuse the reproach of Christ in appearance nothing but dirt and dross before the riches of Egypt yet Moses never shewed his wisdome and learning so much in all the learning of the Egyptians as he did in that Choice Let us chuse Judgement Judgement may be taken two wayes First Judicium est causae inquisitio Judicium pro aequo Merc. for the act of enquiry let us discourse and debate this matter to find out what is just Judgement is the result or sentence given upon hearing and debate And most properly a right sentence is Judgement and that by Judgement Elihu meanes a right sentence appeares clearely from the next words And let us know among our selves what is good Communis hic sit nobis propositus scopus ut accurata judicij lance quae hactenus in hac causa dicta sunt probemus quod optimum est approbemus Scult Let us know that is let us so try by the ear what shall be spoken that we may come to a right knowledge to a right gust or tast of what is good There is a two-fold knowledge First of simple intelligence when we know any thing as it is precisely in its owne nature true or false good or evill Secondly of approbation when we conclude what we know to be true or good We may take in both here especially the latter It being doubtlesse the desire of Elihu to find truth and goodness if it were to be found on Jobs side And when he saith That we may know what is good we may understand it either Comparatively or Positively that we may know what is good is first that we may know good from evill Secondly that we may know among good things what is better yea what is best let us not only distinguish between good and bad but between good and better better and best The reason of man is able to put a difference not only between wheat and tares but if you bring him severall samples of wheat or other graine he is able to judge which is the better which is best a knowing man will judge to two pence in a bushell which is best so in all other commodities we not only judge between that which is good and that which is stark nought but when we have many parcels and particulars of any kinde before us good and usefull we judge which is the best which the principall Thus in spiritualls we are not only to judge of things so farre as to know good from evill which yet is a very good piece of knowledge for many put darkness for light and light for darkness bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter as the Prophet complained Isa 5.20 that is they huddle all things together in a Chaos of confusion but it should be our care to know good from good yea to know what excells among things that are excellent 'T is well when we know truth from falshood but we should labour to know which among truths is the most precious truth Paul having spoken of what was good yea of the best gifts saith Yet I will shew you a more excellent way 1 Cor 12.31 As if he had sayd sayd This is a good way you are in the exercise of the best gifts but here 's a more excellent way the exercise of grace Thus here I take good not so much Positively as Comparatively Let us know what is good that is what is best and what is best of all Let us chuse to our selves Judgement and know among our selves that which is good First In that he saith Let us chuse to our selves Judgement Observe We must consider deliberately and maturely before we pass Judgement Judgement is a choice thing and must be made upon choyce it is not to be snatched up hastily but duely chosen They that are upon the choyce either of things or persons should be much in Consideration How uncomely besides unrighteous is it to judge men or matters rashly to be hurried on to election with passion or to judge upon heare-sayes and Conjectures This is not to chuse Judgement but to snatch it up to chuse Judgement is to doe it with mature deliberation there must be much weighing else properly no judging rash judgement is usually wrong judgement and that layeth us open to another judgement Judge not that ye be not judged is Christs warning Math 7.1 that is doe not judge hastily or harshly doe not judge rashly nor rigidly much lesse falsely for if you do you shall be judged righteouâ—â—y indeed as to your case but not comfortably as to your condition They who will not chuse Judgement doe in the issue chuse Judgement that is not using deliberation in Judgement they draw deservedly upon themselves a judgement of condemnation Secondly Taking it more generally Let us chuse to our selves Judgement or that which is right Note It is not enough for us to doe Judgement or that which is right but we must chuse it 'T is a worke of no acceptation with God to doe that which is just unlesse
is doe not exact the utmost of others which the Law in the rigour of it will allow he that will not remit any thing of his right is not only over-righteous but may soon doe wrong or Thirdly when he saith be not over-righteous as he would not have men stand strictly upon their right with others so he would not have them speak much of their own righteousnesse but rather sometimes take blame to themselves then which was Jobs case proclaime themselves altogether blamelesse As we are not to betray our innocency so not give a shadow of any boasting in it We seldome lose by saying little of our selves And in most cases we should rather trust God who hath promised he will doe it Psal 37.6 to bring forth our righteousnesse as the light then be over-industrious in bringing it to light or in bringing it out of that darknesse with which it lyeth obscured either by or among men As we ought never to lye against our right so it may not be convenient at some times to speake all the truth of it which we can This at least was Jobs fault and it will be any mans who doth like Job yea though he should be which few have been or are like to be under as great sufferings as Job The greatnesse whereof he aggravated to the hight in the next words with which Elihu chargeth him My wound is incurable without transgression An incurable wound is the worst of wounds and though to be wounded without transgression is best for him that receives it yet it is worst for him that gives it My wound is incurable The Hebrew is my arrow the arrow is a wounding weapon and in this Text 't is put for the wound it self Job complained Chap. 6.4 The arrows of the Allmighty drink up my spirits There are arrows of two sorts and answerably there are wounds of two sorts There are first externall secondly internall arrows God shooteth his arrows both into the flesh and spirit the former make a wounded body the latter a wounded soule Job may intend both for he received wounds in both his flesh was wounded and all that belong'd to flesh his estate his credit and good name were wounded his soule and spirit were wounded also the arrowes of God were shot thick at him and hit him from head to foot The Archers as dying Jacob said of Joseph Gen. 49.23 Gravissima est sagitta mea absque transgressione Bez 24. sorely grieved him they all shot at him and one of them Satan hated him but though his bow as to the maine abode in strength and the arms of his hands were made strong by tht hands of the mighty God of Jacob yet he cryed out as if there had been no helpe no healing no hope for him My wound Is incurable Hanc sagittam Elihu vocat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. gravem doloratam pessimè habentem hinc Enosh homo ab infirmitate et fragilitate dictus The word which we render incurable signifies not only what is very dolorous or grievous but mischievous mortall and deadly And from this word man is called Enosh in the Hebrew to shew how infirme and fraile he is sin having given him a wound which is incurable by any thing but the blood of Jesus Christ Job felt his wounds and he spake of them as a man swallowed up with desperation and expected no cure of his present sad condition My wound is incurable and he concluded with that which is yet harder My wound is incurable Without transgression Mr. Broughton translates My stroak is sore without trespasse Job in saying his wound was incurable shewed a defect in his faith but in saying it was incurable without transgression he seemeth to shew his defect in truth For surely had there not been transgression in him there had never been a wound upon him God had never so much as broken our skin but for sin Man had never felt so much as the scratch of a pins poynt by the hand of God if he had not once prevaricated and Apostatiz'd from God We ow all our sorrows to our sins all our woundings to our transgressings How then doth Job say My wound is incurable without transgression The word here used is not usually put to signifie sin in generall though some take it so but some speciall kind of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotat grave scelus vel Apostasiâ—m Scult that of more then an ordinary degree a sin with a malignity a provoking sin As if the meaning of Elihu were that he heard Job say Though his sin were not great though it were not any rebellion against light nor dangerous Apostacy though his were a very curable sin yet his wound was altogether incurable his wound was great though his sin was little Now because Justice doth usually apportion the punishment inflicted both to the nature and measure of the sin committed therefore Elihu takes it and he had too much occasion to doe so as a great reflection upon the justice of God when he heard Job thus bemoaning himselfe My wound is incurable without transgression To receive the least wound without transgression is a great wound to justice how greatly then doth he wound the Justice of God who saith he hath received a great yea an incurable wound without transgression But where spake Job these words when said he My wound is incurable without transgression we must bring in that Job hath said to every one of these charges I answer Job spake of the arrows of God Chap 6.4 and that they were incurable he saith in other words Chap 16.13 His arrowes compasse me round about he cleaveth my reines asunder he powreth out my gall upon the ground When a mans reines are cleft in sunder with an arrow and his gall powred on the ground his wound is incurable But where did he say My wound is incurable without transgression Elihu might collect that from Chap 9.17 He breaketh me with a tempest and multiplyeth my wounds without cause and from Chap 16.16 17. My face is foule with weeping c. not for any injustice in my hands While Mary washed the feete of Christ with her teares Luke 7.38 she might be sayd to foule her owne face with her teares Teares which in a qualified sence or as a token of true repentance wash and cleanse the soule doe yet blubber and disfigure the face My face saith Job is soule with weeping though my hands are not foule with sinning or any evill doing This was in effect to say what Elihu here censureth him for saying My wound is incurable without transgression Hence note First God hath his arrows he can wound us when and where he pleaseth He shooteth and misseth not his marke He hath a quiver full of deadly arrows take heed how ye provoke him Jbb had a whole quiver of arrows emptied upon him for triall for the exercise of his patience Woe to those upon whom God emptieth his quivers
in shall be unpunished Further God will not render to man according to the opinion he hath of himselfe A bad man and the worst of his workes may be good in his owne conceit He may flatter himselfe in his owne eyes untill his iniquity be found to be hatefull Psal 36.2 But God will render unto man according to what his workes are in truth Secondly God will not render to man according to the thoughts which others have of him and of his work some are high in the opinion not only of the world but of some Good men they have a name to be alive while they are dead and their workes dead workes but God will render to man according to that cleare certaine and infallible knowledge which himselfe by whom actions are weighed 1 Sam 2.3 hath of them Thirdly God will not render to man according to his good meanings when his workes are evill many will confesse they have done amisse but they had good intendments in it A right end will not excuse us if our way be wrong There is no pleading of meanings against commandements nor will sincerity of intentions cover the deformity and irregularity of actions The Apostle pronounceth a fearefull doome against those who sayd Rom 3.8 Let us doe evill that good may come whose damnation is just Fourthly As God will not render according to a mans good ends if his worke be evill so remember God will not render to man according to his good workes if his ends are bad Therefore consider your end when you enter your way and begin your worke Pro 21.27 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord how much more when he bringeth it with an evill mind that is when he hath some bad end in doing it A wicked mans sacrifice is an abomination to the Lord at the best but much more when he hath base designes in his sacrifices or holy services Herod sayd to the wise men Math 3.8 Goe and search diligently for the young child and when ye have found him bring me word againe that I may come and worship him also It was a good worke to enquire after Christ and worship him but his end was to destroy him Jezebel pretended a holy fast but her end was to feast her selfe with revenge upon innocent Naboth The best workes of hypocrites will have an ill returne because they doe them with an evill mind There are three sorts of good workes which will never turne to a good account First Those good works which are done but for a season temporary good workes or the good workes of temporary professors such as are described Math 13.5 7. by the 2d and 3d grounds who bring forth for a while but afterwards fall away such good workes I say shall not have a good reward If your goodness be as the morning cloud and as the early dew it passeth away it will doe you no good He that endureth to the end shall be saved and none but he Math 10.22 Christ exhorts the Church Rev 3.11 Hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy crowne They loose the good workes they have done who hold not out in doing them It will not advantage us to begin in the Spirit if we end in the flesh Secondly Those good works which are trusted to or boasted of will never make a good returne Though a man should continue doing good all the dayes of his life yet if he buildeth his hope upon it his hope shall be cut off and his trust that is what he trusteth to shall be a spiders web that is weake like that because like that woven out of his owne bowels he shall leane upon his house but it shall not stand he shall hold it fast but it shall not endure Job 8.14 15. you and your workes will perish together if you depend upon your workes Good workes trusted to are as dangerous to the soule as evill workes persevered in Thirdly Those good workes which are done for base ends to serve men or to compasse a worldly interest shall have no reward from God but that which shall be upon every soule that sinneth and repenteth not anguish and tribulation JOB Chap. 34. Vers 12 13. Yea surely God will not doe wickedly neither will the Almighty pervert Judgement Who hath given him a charge over the earth or who hath disposed the whole world ELihu proceedeth in the proofe of this poynt the vindication of the righteousnesse of God with a strong asseveration Vers 12. Yea surely There is a mighty force of affirmation in the originall words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Irgons est in origi-nali assertionu vis we may parallel them with those assertive speeches frequently used by our Saviour Jesus Christ in the Gospel Amen Amen Verily verily I say unto you Yea surely is as much as verily verily as if Elihu had sayd There is no question to be made of what I affirme that God is righteous or will not doe wickedly as the Apostle writ to Timothy about the great mystery of the Gospel God manifested in the flesh 1 Tim 3.16 without controversie great or as the word imports confessedly on all hands great is the mystery of Godlinesse so here Elihu might speak to Job This is a truth beyond dispute or controversie an unquestionable truth and such a truth that if once confessed will quickly determine all the Questions which are depending between you and me There are some Master-truths ruling truths such a one is this in the text Yea surely or undoubtedly God will not doe wickedly Hence note It becomes us to grow up into highest confidences about the truths of God especially about the truth and Justice of God We should not be as meteors hanging in the ayre speaking with hesitation possibly it is so peradventure it is true but as the Apostle directs the Collossians Chap. 2.3 We must labour to grow up unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding as there is a full assurance of faith in believing of hope in waiting or expecting so also of understanding in apprehending the things of God We should be in a sense Masters of truth and then we are so indeed when truth hath fully mastered us and prevailed upon both our judgement and affections and we are led captive by light to the love and obedience of it We have cause to bewayle those much more have they cause to bewayle themselves who are but Scepticks or Questionests in Religion never coming to a poynt nor able after a due making up of their thoughts to say Thus it is and by this we will abide as Elihu did in the then present case delivering himselfe confidently yea surely or verily verily God will not doe wickedly To cleare the meaning in this Negative assertion we must take in the highest affirmatives of the holinesse and Justice of the righteousnesse truth and faithfulnesse of God For it sounds like a flat and low commendation of God to say
mighty men that all may know his judgements are deserved by their works he makes their works known Secondly Others render He maketh them know or acknowledge their works The Lord at last by sore and severe judgements will extort confessions from the worst of them he will make the mighty acknowledge that their works have been nought and their wayes perverse In Scripture the same word signifies to know or to confess and acknowledg Thus here he makes them to know or to acknowledge what their works have been Thirdly Rather take it as we render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non significat notum facio quod sciam sed tantum cognosco ideo transtuli cognoscit Drus of Gods act in taking notice of all they had done Therefore he knoweth their works As if Elihu had said these mighty men of the earth thought themselves under covert or that the Lord took no notice of them nor of their works their works were done in the dark and they supposed the Lord could not pierce into them but he will make it appear that he knew their works when he maketh his justice appear in punishing them for their works Hence Note We have an assurance that God knoweth the works of all mon because he punisheth all wicked works or the works of the wicked so punctually and exactly He punisheth many of them here and will punish them all hereafter when we see him breaking the mighty men of the world 't is a proof that God was in their Cabinet counsels and saw what was done there we may conclude he knew their works though men knew them not he could never lay his judgements so exactly upon them as he doth if he did not know their works That God knows the works of all men is a point I have met with before and therefore pass from it here And he overturneth them in the night There are several readings of this clause First Some thus Therefore the Lord knoweth their works and turneth into night that is he turneth their prosperity into adversity he bringeth trouble and affliction upon them they lived before in a day of prosperity in a day of power and worldly greatness but he turneth them into night Secondly Or as others thus He turneth the night that is he changeth the night into day Simul atque mutavit noctum c. Jun. i. e. Lucem protulit qua revelantur omnia in judicio ejus Id. he takes away the dark and close covers of their sins and makes them as manifest as the light Now as the Apostle saith Eph. 5.13 That which maketh manifest is light If God were not light he could not bring to light the hidden things of darkness nor manifest the counsels of the heart Thirdly thus Therefore he knoweth their works and when the night is turned he destroyeth them that is they are destroyed and perish as soon and as easily as the day takes place of the night or as soon as the night is turned into day so soon doth the Lord destroy them he can quickly make an end of them he can destroy them with the morning light We render and I judge that best He overturneth them their persons in the night and so Elihu points at the season or time of Gods breaking and overthrowing them he doth it in the night We may take it strictly as in the case of Pharaoh and the Egyptians Exod. 12.29 as also in that of Belshazzer Dan. 5.30 or in the night that is suddenly unexpectedly Though a man be destroyed in the day yet if it be done suddenly he looking for no such matter we may say it was done in the night because then men are most secure This way of expressing an unlookt for evil the coming of in the night was opened at the twentieth verse therefore I shall not stay upon it He overturneth them in the night So that they are destroyed Elihu said before He shall break in pieces mighty men Here he saith they are destroyed that is they shall be broken to purpose or throughly God doth not break them in pieces for correction but for destruction there are great breakings upon the persons and estates of some men and yet it is but for correction others the Lord breaketh for utter ruine as here so that they are destroyed The Original word signifieth to destroy as it were by pounding in a Morter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contrivit atirivit contudit and the same word is used to signifie a contrite heart a heart broken by godly sorrow under the sense of sin They are destroyed or as it were ground to powder you may break a thing into many pieces yet not grinde it to powder or dust as corn in a Mill or spice in a Morter but these saith Elihu are not only broken to pieces but beaten to dust that 's the strength of the word which we render they are destroyed Hence Note What God hath a mind to do he can do it certainly and will do it throughly He breaks men in pieces so that they are destroyed and brought to dust When the Prophet declares the breaking of the four Monarchies it is said Dan. 2.35 They shall be as the chaffe of the Summer threshing upon the Mountains if the Lord will destroy the mightiest they shall certainly be destroyed as Balak said to Balaam I wo◠that whom thou cursest are cursed as if he had said thou canst curse effectually if thou wilt set thy self to it 't is not in the power of all the Balaams in the world to effect a curse though they pronounce a curse 't is only in the power of the Lord to curse effectually he can bless whom he pleaseth and they are blessed he can curse whom he pleaseth and they are cursed Thus as Ephraim lamenting his sin and sorrow confessed Jer. 31.18 Lord thou hast chastised me and I was chastised God paid him home as we speak if we chastise a childe he is chastised but when Ephraim saith thou hast chastised me and I was chastised his meaning is I was greatly and effectually chastised that is first In a literal sence I found thy hand heavie upon me it was a sore affliction that I was under Secondly In a spiritual sence Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised that is my heart was humbled and broken under thy chastisements in either notion we see the effectualness of the Lords work Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised And therefore Ephraim invited the Lord to another work Turn me O Lord and I shall be turned if thou wilt but turn thy Spirit upon this hard heart of mine it will be effectually turned it will be not only broken for sin but from sin As if he had said I have received reproofs and counsels from men and they have not turned me but Lord if thou wilt reprove and counsel me I shall be turned thus the Lord carrieth his work home to conversion in his spiritual dealings with some and to
Psalmes The 32d Psalme as also the 42d Psalme is called Maschil as much as to say a teaching or an instructing Psalme a Psalme giving understanding and requiring deep and serious consideration Thus in the text they would not consider nor understand nor know nor contemplate any of his wayes The Hebrew is all his wayes that is none at all of them The wayes of God in Scripture are taken in a two-fold notion First for those wherein he would have us walk such are the wayes of his commandements they are called the wayes of God because he directs us to walke in them A holy life consists in our walking with God and we cannot walke with God any further or any longer then we keep in the wayes of his commandements It is sayd of the children of Israel after the death of Joshua Judg 2.17 they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in obeying the commandements of the Lord but they did not so To obey the commandements is to walke in the way of them Taking the wayes of God in this sence when Elihu saith They would not consider any of his wayes his meaning is they did not intend nor had any heart to set themselves to learne the mind of God revealed in his word concerning their duty or what they ought to doe they know not the wayes of God practically The word properly denotes the wisdome and prudence which stayeth not in notion but proceeds to action These men lived as if they had never heard of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad prudentiam sapientiam practicam rerum agendarum pertinet at least never understood the Law of God which is the rule of life They considered not the wayes of God to walke in them as Moses exhorted the people of Israel Deut 29.9 Keep therefore the words of this covenant to doe them Secondly The wayes of God are those wherein himself walketh the works of God are the wayes of God the works of his providence either in mercy or in judgement either in doing good or in doing evil that is poenal evil these are the wayes of God in these God shewes himself as in a way in these he goeth forth in his power and goodness in his mercy and justice All these divine glories and perfections are discovered in the works of God Thus David is to be understood when he saith Psal 25.10 All the wayes of God are mercy and truth to them that fear him and keep his Covenant that is all the providential works of God are mercy and truth though all of them are not mercy in the matter or precisely taken as works done though none of them are mercy respecting some persons to whom they are done for many of them are materially chastisements afflictions and crosses to good men and all of them are wrath and judgement to evil and impenitently wicked men yet they are all mercy in the issue or result of them to good men or to those who fear God and keep his covenants For whether he do good or whether he do evil whether he wounds or whether he heals all these providential wayes of God are as truth in themselves so mercy to his people or as the Apostle concludes Rom. 8.28 They work together for good to them that love God and are the called according to his purpose In both these sences we may expound this Text They would not consider any of his wayes that is they would neither consider the Lawes of God which were the way wherein they should walk towards him nor would they consider the works of God which are the wayes wherein himself walketh towards them This was the spirit of that evil generation intended in this Scripture they had not much understanding in and less consideration of the wayes of God Hence first we may take notice Elihu doth not say they did not consider his wayes but they would not It was not so much an act of carelesness and negligence as of contempt and rebellious resolution Hence Observe Evil men have no will to consider or understand the good wayes of God yea their will is against such an understanding A natural man liketh not to retain God in his knowledge Rom. 1.28 Now he that doth not like to retain God in his knowledge or had rather think of any thing then of God he can never while such like to retain the wayes of God in his knowledge he that layeth God out of his thoughts will much more lay the law of God out of his thoughts The natural man hath not only a blindness in his minde which hinders him from discerning the things of God they being discernable only by a spiritual eye but he hath an obstinacy in his Will or he hath not only an inability to know but an enmity against the knowledge of that which is spiritual He shuts his eyes and draws a curtain between himself and the light which is ready to dart in upon him away with this light saith he Thus he rebelleth against the light and as his understanding is dark so his affections are corrupt Solomon gives us all this in the expostulations of wisdome with wicked men Prov. 1.20 21 22. Wisdome cryeth c. How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge That which a man hateth he hath no will no minde to know An impotency or inability unto God argues a very sad condition but a rebellion a frowardness a wilfulness against it demonstrates a condition much more sad not to know because we have no means of knowledge will make us miserable enough but not to know because unwilling to receive or because wilfully set against the means of knowledge renders any mans condition most miserable Such were these in the Text They would not consider any of his wayes Secondly Elihu saith not they did not know any of his wayes or they knew not which way to go but they would not consider them There is no man but knowes some yea many of the ways of God that is of those wayes wherein God would have him to walk these wayes of God are written in the heart by nature there is an impression of the Will of God upon every soul though not such an impression or writing as grace maketh there that 's another kinde or manner of work for when once through grace the Law of God is written in and impressed upon the heart then the heart is suited to the Law yea the heart is not only conformed unto but transformed into the Law of God whereas by nature the Law is written only so far as to give us the knowledge of the Law and a conviction of that duty or conformity which we owe to it The men here intended by Elihu knew the Law or wayes of God by the light of a natural conscience but not by the light of a renewed conscience and therefore they would not consider any of his wayes
is hated of God I shall shew first the nature of an hypocrite secondly give the distinctions of hypocrites thirdly make some discoveries who is an hypocrite To the First An hypocrite in his general state or nature is as I may say a wicked man in a godly mans clothes he hath an appearance of holiness when there 's nothing but wickedness at the bottome There are two great parts of the hypocrites work first to shew himself good which he is not this is properly the work of simulation or feigning secondly to cover that real evil which he is or doth this is properly the work of dissimulation or cloaking The hypocrite strives as much to appear what he is not as not to appear what he is he makes a semblance of that purity which he loves not and he dissembleth that impurity which he loves and lives in Secondly We may consider hypocrites under this distinction First there is a simple hypocrite who hath not the good which he thinks and believes he hath thus every one that professeth or nameth the name of Christ and is not really converted is an hypocrite because he hath not that which he seems to have yea which possibly he verily believes he hath I may call such a one though it may seem a very strange expression a sincere hypocrite he doth not intend to deceive others but is deceived himself because he hath not the root of the matter in him nor the power of godliness though he brings forth some seeming fruits of godliness and is much in the form of it Such we may conceive shaddowed out to us by the foolish Virgins they made a profession they had their lamps yea they had oyl in their lamps they did somwhat which was considerable in the outward duties of Christian Religion and they hoped to be accepted with Christ but they had no oyl in their vessels with their lamps as the wise Virgins had Matth. 25.4 that is they had no grace in their hearts nor did they minde the getting of that till it was too late v. 10. but satisfied themselves with that little oyle in their lamps to make the blaze of an external profession Such as these are simple hypocrites being pleased with a shell instead of a kernel and with a shaddow neglecting the substance These hypocrites are in a very deplorable condition yet these are not the hypocrites which I intend in this point or have here to do with There are a second sort of hypocrites commonly called gross hypocrites such as hold that out which they know they have not such as know they have nothing in or of Religion but the shew of it such as work by art or with a kinde of force upon themselves in all the good they do and duties they perform towards God and about the things of God They do nothing as the Apostle saith Timothy did Phil. 2.20 naturally I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state The word naturally is not there opposed to spiritually but to artificially or to forcedly What a sincere heart doth in the things of God he doth it naturally that is it floweth from an inward principle it is not forced from him but the hypocrite doth all as it were by a kinde of art or force upon himself The Lord chargeth the Jews with this kinde of hypocrisie Isa 58.2 They seek me daylie and delight to know my wayes as a Nation that did righteousness that is they acted with an appearing forwardness like those who truly delight to know my wayes yet all this was but as a piece of art for as the Lord upbraided them vers 3 4. they really kept their sins and walkt in their own wayes of oppression strife and debate yea they made all that noise aboâ—t humbling themselves that they might the more undiscernedly smite others with the fist of wickedness and therefore saith the Lord v. 5. Is it such a fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his soul c. and then for many dayes to afflict both the souls and bodies of his brethren or to abstain a day from meat and glut himself with sin That 's the strain of the hypocrite he as I may say maintains and drives two trades he hath a trade for God and the wayes of God and he hath a trade for sin and the wayes of wickedness this is his course Jer. 12.2 Thou art neer in their mouth but far from their reins they speak of thee but they have no desires to thee no affections for thee thou art far enough from their reins they act a part in Religion but they neither partake of Religion nor with it Thirdly There are others who besides that they are gross hypocrites may also be called designing or plotting hypocrites for they that serve God with a reserve as to any sin or by-way usually serve him with a designe or for an end of their own Christ Matth. 23.14 speaking of gross hypocrites such as the Pharisees were saith they devour widdows houses and in a pretence make long prayers they pray long in a pretence or under a pretence that is they have a plot or a designe in prayer they pray not purely to enjoy communion with God nor purely to honour God but they make use of prayer and under pretence of that do other work Christ doth not there speak against nor disparage long prayers as some do to the great reproach of the Spirit and grace of God but he chargeth them with praying long in a pretence pray heartily and then pray as long as you will other due circumstances being observed the more you pray the more is God pleased But whether prayers are long or short if done in a pretence or with a designe to do mischief to others or only to get some worldly profit and advantage to our selves as those Pharisees prayed they are an abomination to the Lord. 'T is not the length of prayer but the end of prayer which discovers hypocrisie The prophet Isaiah chap. 32.6 gives us a description of this gross designing hypocrite The vile person will speak villany and his heart will work iniquity to practice hypocrisie and to utter errour before the Lord while the hypocrites heart worketh iniquity his tongue speaks villany not that all his words are villanous words for then he were not an hypocrite but a profest prophane person but he is said to speak villany because how pious and specious and godly soever his discourse is yet he hath a villanous intent in speaking and his heart at the same time is working iniquity to practice hypocrisie Now that I may a little more unmask this plotting hypocrite I will shew you a fourfold plot or designe which such hypocrites have in their most zealous professions of and pretendings to Religion First They designe their own praise or estimation among men Christ makes this discovery in his Sermon upon the Mount Matth. 6.2.5 Do not as the hypocrites for all
that which is good how much more are they short in the knowledge of God and therefore what reason have we to say as Elihu here directs the penitent soule to say That which I know not teach thou me Secondly Note It is the duty of the most knowing servants of God to confesse their ignorance When Elihu would have Job say That which I see not teach thou me he would have him confesse that there was some goed or evill which he did not see He that desireth God to teach him what he doth not see doth therein acknowledge that he doth not see all that he ought Our understandings are imperfect as well as our wills and affections and our sins or imperfections wheresoever they are must be confessed The deficiency of our knowledge or the imperfection of our understanding must be confessed as well as the imperfection of our will to doe good and of our doing good David layeth load upon himselfe in confessing the faultinesse of his understanding or inability to judge aright of what he saw before him Psal 73.22 So ignorant was I and foolish even as a beast before thee And the speciall poynt wherein he confessed his ignorance was about the outward dispensations of God in suffering wicked men to flourish He had ignorant apprehensioÌ„s and was quite out in that matter and therefore befools himselfe and calls himselfe a beast so far was he from seeing the mind and designe of God as became a Saint Such an acknowledgement Agur made Pro 30.2 I am more brutish then any man I have not the understanding of a man I neither learned wisdome nor have the knowledge of the holy This worthy man confessed his ignorance and as the more we know the more we see our ignorance so the more we know the more we confesse our ignorance They that have but little knowledge are especially defective in this poynt of knowledge to see their ignorance and are therefore but little troubled with their ignorance Many think they know enough some possibly think they know all They who have least knowledge are least conscious of their own ignorance And as there are many sins of ignorance so ignorance it selfe is a sin and therefore to be confessed and bewailed before God Thirdly When Elâ—hu brings in the penitent person confessing his ignorance and begging instruction It teacheth us Sins of ignorance need pardon As our ignorance needs pardon so doe our sins of ignorance The law of Moses teacheth this Levit 4.2 If a soule shall sin through ignorance c. he shall bring his sacrifice He must make an attonement for his sin of ignorance And we have further directions about offerings for sins of ignorance when they are discovered and made knowne to the sinner himselfe Lev 5.2 3 4 5 6. Then saith the Law he shall be guilty that is if when he knoweth his sin he doe not performe what the Law requireth in such cases then he is not only ceremonially but morally guilty as a neglecter if not as a despiser of the ordinance and appoyntment of God for his cleansing That which I see not teach thou me The words are a prayer for divine teaching The teaching of God is two-fold First Immediate by his Spirit John 14.26 The Spirit which is the comforter shall come and teach you all things And againe 1 John 2.27 The anoynting that is the Spirit which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you that is ye need not rest in or pin your faith upon the teachings of man as you must not despise so ye need not depend upon the instruction of man Secondly There is a mediate teaching God teacheth by meanes instruments and ordinances First by the ministery of his word Secondly by the works of his hands He teacheth First by his works of creation Secondly by his works of providence they are our masters tutors and instructers Now when this penitent person prayeth Teach thou me we may understand him of both these teachings First of immediate teaching by the Spirit who is the anoynting Secondly of teaching by meanes by the preaching of the word of God and by his providences in what way soever God is pleased to teach us our hearts should stand open to receive instruction And what way soever we receive instruction it is God that teacheth us Though men be the instruments yet the effect is of him Hence Note First God only is able to teach or shew us the things which we know not Men alone cannot Christ said to his Disciples when he commissioned them Matth. 28.19 Go teach all Nations And Eph. 4.11 When he ascended up on high he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers yet no Teachers can bring home instruction without the teachings of God The tenour of the new Covenant runs thus Isa 54.13 All thy children shall be taught of the Lord. And again Jer. 31.34 They shall teach no more every one his neighbour c. that is they shall not be left to the teachings of man or the teaching of God shall be so glorious that all shall acknowledge it though there be instruments yet the flowing forth of the spirit shall be such that instruments and means shall be little taken notice of For when he saith they shall not teach every one his neighbour it is not an absolute Negative but shews that there shall be a more excellent teaching as when the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 3.6 Christ hath made us able Ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit This Negative is not absolute for the Apostles did teach the Letter and the Spirit is usually conveyed by the Ministery of the letter or of the external word the word is as it were the chariot wherein the Spirit rideth and cometh by the ear to the heart So that when Paul saith We are Ministers not of the letter c. his meaning is we are rather or we are more the Ministers of the Spirit then of the letter The inward teaching accompanying our Ministery carryeth the matter both for conviction and conversion both for illumination and consolation not the outward teaching John 6.45 Every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me And how long soever we go to School to men how long soever we sit under the Ministery of the ablest Gospel Preachers in the world we come not to Christ till the Father teacheth till he joyn his inward teaching to the outward teaching of the Minister the light and life of grace is not received It is God who teacheth effectually men teach but instrumentally Thus it was prophesied of the Gospel times Isa 2.3 Micah 4.2 Many Nations shall come and say Come and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord and to the House of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his wayes and we will walk in his paths that is he will accompany the Ministers