or rather as the Prophet there speaks will not behold it no not when it shines in the plainest demonstrations whether of wrath against wicked men or of love and mercy to the godly as clearly as the Sun at noon day Secondly As we should tremble at the majesty of the Lord so admire his excellency they that excel others especially they who excel all others in any kind are much admired The Lord is cloathed with excellency how then should we admire him and say Who is a God like unto thee This God is our God Thirdly Seeing the Lord is cloathed with glory we should glorifie him and that First in his essential glory Secondly in the glory of his acts and operations We should glorifie him for the greatness of his power especially for the greatness of his grace because the grace and mercy of God are his glory as the Apostle spake in that prayer Eph. 3.16 That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory that is of his grace and favour towards you to be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inner man And as the grace and goodness of God is his glory so also is his holiness Exod. 15.11 Who is a God like unto thee glorious in holiness Let us glorifie God in and for all his glories in and for the glory of his power mercy grace and holiness Fourthly God is arrayed with beauty Beauty is a taking thing then how should our souls delight in the Lord We delight in things that are beautiful we love beauty how should this draw forth our love our affections to God! All the beauty of the world is but a blot 't is darkness and a stained thing in comparison of the Lords beauty the beauty of his holiness and therefore if we have a love to beauty let us love the Lord who is arrayed with beauty even with the perfection of beauty Lastly In general Seeing the Lord is deckt with majesty and excellency arrayed with glory and beauty let us continually ascribe all these to God What God is and hath shewed himself to be we should shew forth 1 Chron. 29.11 Thine O Lord saith David is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in heaven and in earth is thine David ascribed all to God there as also Psal 145.10 All thy works praise thee O Lord and thy Saints shall bless thee they shall speak of the glory of thy Kingdom and talk of thy power to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his Kingdom thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations Thus Saints are to blazon the name of God and to make his praise glorious The Apostle Jude concludes his Epistle with this Doxology To the only wise God our Saviour that is Jesus Christ be glory and majesty and dominion and power now and ever Amen Further to remember the majesty and excellency of God may and should be First an incouragement to serve him Who would not serve a Prince who is decked with majesty and excellency who is arrayed with glory and beauty who would not serve such a King as this How ambitious are men to serve those who are deckt with worldly majesty and excellency shall not we have a holy ambition to serve the Lord who is thus decked and arrayed Secondly This may exceedingly hearten and embolden us against all the danger we may meet with in the Lords service If we encounter with hardships and hazards in Gods work let us remember he that is cloathed with majesty and excellency c. can protect us in his service and reward us for it we can lose nothing by him though we should lose all for him life and all Thirdly This should fill our souls with reverential thoughts of God continually Did we know the Lord in these divine discoveries of himself in his majesty and excellency in his glory and beauty how would our hearts be filled with high thoughts of him we would neither speak nor think of God but with a gracious awe upon our spirits Fourthly This should provoke us in all holy duties to do our best The Lord reproved the Jews Mal. 1.8 when they brought him a poor lean sacrifice Offer it now unto thy Governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person Shall we put off God who is full of majesty and excellency of glory and beauty with poor weak and sickly services such as our Governours men in high place power will not accept from our hands but turn back with disdain upon our hands The worship and service of God consists not in a bodily exercise nor in any outward beauty he is a spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth that is in truth of heart and according to the truth of his word which the Apostle calls the simplicity that is in Christ 2 Cor. 11.3 The glory and beauty of God is spiritual and the beauty that he must be served with is above all the inward beauty of faith and love and holy fear in our hearts Fifthly If God be thus deckt with majesty c. This may assure us in praying to him and calling upon him that we shall not seek him in vain It is worth the while to attend such a God and pour out our hearts before him We may safely depend upon God for all seeing majesty and excellency are his The Lords prayer by which we are to form or unto which we should conform all our prayers concludes with this thine is the kingdom power and glory all is thine and therefore we have great encouragement to ask all of thee Men can give to those that ask them according to the extent of their power There is a confluence or comprehension of all power in the majesty excellency and glory of God and therefore he can give whatsoever we ask Now as that God is thus deckt and arrayed with majesty and excellency is implied in this Text so 't is also implied that he hath thus deckt himself while he saith to Job Deck thy self with majesty and excellency Hence observe Secondly The majesty and excellency the glory and beauty of God are all of and from himself He is the fountain as of his own being so of the majesty and excellency of the glory and beauty of his being he decks and arrays himself he is not decked by others Moralists say honour is not or resides not in him that is honoured but in him that honoureth yet here honour is seated in him that is honoured We honour God and give glory to him but we cannot add any honour to him all is originally in himself he is the beginning without beginning of his own majesty And as Gods majesty is his own so of his own putting on he borroweth nothing from the creature nor needs he any creature to deck him He is not what others will make
they carried it on a new Cart when it should have been carryed upon the Levites shoulders that was a failing in the outward manner of that work Hence that confession of David when he undertook that work a second time 1 Chron. 15.13 The Lord made a breach upon us at first for that we sought him not after the due order We must worship God aright for the outward manner of his commands and institutions else we dishonour him while we intend to worship him Secondly The inward manner must be according to the command of God 'T is possible we may hit the outward form of worship yet miss in the inward manner of it The Lord searcheth the heart he knoweth what is within and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth John 4.24 that is according to the truth of the rule made known in the word and in truth of heart The inward manner of worship is First That we worship in faith Without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 If we have not a justifying faith yea if we have not a perswading faith Rom. 14.5 23. that what we do is according to the will of God our worship iâ— not according to what the Lord hath commanded and so becomes sin to us Secondly That we worship in love Though we do never so many holy services to the Lord if we do them not in love to him we fail in the inward manner of our worship The sum of all the Lords commands is Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might It is not heaâ—ing and praying but these in love which is the fulfilling of the commandement Every duty must be mixt also with love to man We may do many things commanded to men yet if we do them not in love to men we do nothing as the Lord commandeth Thus the holy Apostle concluded peremptorily 1 Cor. 13.1 Though I speak with the tongue of men and angels c. and have not charity I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cimbal and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burnt and have not charity it profiteth nothing Thirdly To do all that the Lord commands according to the inward manner is to do all in humility that is First Acknowledging that we have no power of our own to do any thing Secondly That we have deserved nothing how much soever we have done or how well soever we have done it Thus in doing the Lords commands we should labour to answer the mind of the Lord fully and to hit every circumstance to omit nothing no not the lest thing Moses Exod. 10.16 being to carry the people of Israel out of Egypt would not compound the matter with Pharaoh Ye may go said Pharaoh after he had been broken by several plagues Only let your little ones stay no saith Moses that is not as the Lord hath commanded me And at another time he said Go only let your cattle stay no saith Moses this is not as the Lord commanded I will not leave so much as a hoof behind me And so said Moses concerning the observances of the law For thus I am commanded or this is as the Loâ—d commanded as we read all along the books of Exodus and Leviticus We are not full in our obedience till we obey fully It is said of Caleb Num. 14.24 He had another spirit he followed the Lord fully that is as to matter and manner as to out-side and in-side Let us labour to be full followers of God not out-side followers of God only but in-side followers Let us not rest in the in-side when we are not right in the out-side nor please our selves with an out-side service when we are careless of the inward Thus of their obedience as considered in general They did according as the Lord commanded Further consider their doing as the Lord commanded them in that special matter their reconciliation first to himself and then to Job Hence Observe Fourthly What the Lord appointeth for our reconciliation we must do and we must do it as he hath appointed Cur te pudeat peccatum tuum dicere cum non pudet facere Bernard in Sentent Erubescere mala sapientiae est bonum verò erubescere fatuitatis Greg. l. 1. in Ezek. hom 10. Though the means which God appointeth seem to us improbable and weak though it be troublesome and chargeable as here the offering up of so many bullocks and rams yet we must do it Yea though it put us to shame before men by the acknowledgment of our errors and mistakes as here Eliphaz and his two friends also did yet we must do it They who are ashamed of sin will not be ashamed to acknowledge their sin But what must we do to be reconciled to God or maâ— They who desire reconcilion with God must go out of themselves and go to Jesus Christ they must as Eliphaz c. did bring a sacrifice to God not as they did of bullocks and rams but which was shadowed by those legal sacrifices the sacrifice of Jesus Christ himself Who by one offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 They who desire reconciliation with man must do that which God here appointed these men go to him whom they have wronged and acknowledge their error or that they have wronged him they must also desire his pardon and prayers Thus did these men and they did as the Lord commanded for their reconciliation first to himself and then to Job Fifthly We may consider this their obedience as to the spring of it What made them so ready when the Lord commanded them to go and do as he had commanded them doubtless this was one thing the men were now humbled God had brought them to a fight of their sin Ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right this they were made sensible of and confessed and so obeyed Hence Observe They who are truly humbled and touched with a clear sight and deep sense of their sins will do whatsoever the Lord commandeth and as he commandeth They who are made sensible of the wrath of God deserved by and kindled against them for their sins will do any thing which he commands for the obtaining of his favour God may have any thing of an humble soul had the Lord commanded these men to go to Job and offer sacrifice before he had convinced them of their sin they might have flung away over the field and not have kept the path of his commandments but having humbled them they submitted When Peter had preached that notable Sermon which prickt his hearers at the very heart Acts 2.37 Then they said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles men and brethren what shall we do They were not only ready to do what they were commanded but did even ask for commands What shall we do They as it
I may say fed and fattened from heaven All Vegetatives grass herbs plants flowers trees all Sensitives beasts of the earth fowls of the air yea and rational creatures too all men who breath in the air and walk upon the earth are refreshed and fed by the influences of heaven by the clouds and stars Further the Stars send down their influences not only upon living creatures in their three ranks but even upon inanimate creatures the minerals the stones that lye deep under the earth the precious gems with those of a courser grain receive much from the influences of the Stars So then all earthly bodies receive and derive their vigor and beauty from the heavenly the Sun and Moon have the greatest power and there is a very great power in the Stars and Constellations in the Pleiades Orion and Arcturus for the production of great effects Secondly In that 't is said Canst thou bind or stop the Influences of Pleiades Observe It is not in the power of man of any man to hinder or stay the virtue of the stars from falling down upon the earth What God will do by the creature no man can undo If God set those heavenly bodies at liberty and bids them send down their influences man cannot lock them up nor imprison their powers nor bind them from working And hence we may inferr First if none can bind the influences nor stay the comfortable virtue of the stars when God is pleased to let them out then much less can any bind or hinder the influences of the Spirit When God is pleased to send his Spirit to work upon the heart of man who can lett him There is a threefold influence or work of the spirit of God upon the soul of man First To enlighten or to give the light of the knowledge of his own glory in the face of Jesus Christ Who can hinder God when he purposeth thus to instruct and teach the ignorant and make them wise unto Salvation wiser than their teachers who can hinder it Secondly To convert to work faith and repentance together with love humility c. These graces are destilled and drop down from the Spirit of God upon the soul and who can hinder the Spirit from working them in the most hardened and unbelieving souls in the most vain proud and presumptuous soul the barren'st wilderness dryest heath such are persons unconverted are made fruitful by the influences of the Spirit Thirdly To refresh and comfort There are unspeakable influences of joy destilled from the spirit upon believers and when God will let them down from heaven who can lett them what can let them All the troubles and sorrows all the pains and tortures that men can invent or inflict upon a believer cannot bind these influences of the Spirit nor hinder joy in believing The greatest evils of this life can neither shut up nor shut out that comfort which the Spirit speaketh The most churlish winds that can blow from the coldest quarters of the world cannot chill much less kill or blast those fruits of the Spirit Love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness saith meekness temperance mentioned by the Apostle Gal. 5.22 23. The soul grows green like a Garden or Pasture in the Spring the soul bud's blossom's and brings forth these blessed fruits abundantly when fed with these dainties and delicacies of the Spirit Those great floods of trouble and persecution which the Serpent any where or at any time casts out of his mouth cannot prevail against the least drop of Consolation wrought in the heart by the Spirits influence Paul and Silas were bound in Prison but there their persecutors could not bind the sweet influences of the Spirit from comforting them nor daunt them by any terror from triumphing in Christ they could sing in Prison yea they sung at Midnight Secondly We may Inferr If God hath placed the Stars in heaven to drop down sweet influences upon us then at every sight of the Stars our hearts should be raised up in the admiring thoughts of the wisdom goodness and power of God We usually look upon the Stars as if they were only so many lights bespangling the Canopy of heaven and sparkling as so many fires in the firmament but we seldom consider their virtues their influences or the wonderful effects which they produce How few are there who behold the heavens with Davids eyes Psal 8.3 4. When I said he consider thy heavens the work of thy fingers the Moon and the Stars which thou hast made What is man that thou are mindful of him God is mindful of man not only to give him light by the Moon and Stars by the benefit whereof he sees other things but God gives many unseen benefits by the Moon and Stars The influences of the Stars are as beneficial to us Qui negat esse Deum spectet modo fidero câ—li Sidorâ— qui spectat non negat esse Deum and as great a treasure as their light We indeed have great cause as we are commanded Psal 136.7 8 9. to pay the tribute of thanks to God for setting up the Sun Moon and Stars in the heavens to give us light O give thanks to him that made great lights the Sun to rule by day the Moon and Stars to rule by night Yet we must not confine our thankfulness to God for them only as they give us light for they give us heat as well as light and wonder working influences as well as either Moses their civil Father blessing the twelve Tribes as Jacob their natural Father did before his departure out of the world thus bespake the blessing upon Joseph Deut. 33.13 14 15. Blessed of the Lord be his land for the precious things of heaven for the dew and also for the deep that coucheth beneath and for the precious fruits brought forth by the Sun and for the precious things put forth by the Moon and for the chief things of the ancient mountains and for the precious things of the lasting hills and for the precious things of the earth and the fulness thereof c. Here we have two sorts of precious things First The precious things of heaven Secondly The precious things of the earth of the hills and mountains The former precious things are the cause the latter the effect The precious things of heaven are the influences of the Sun and Moon under which we are to comprehend the influences of the Stars these cause or produce the precious things of the earth that is Grass Hearbs with all sorts of Vegetables growing upon the surface of the earth they produce also the precious things of the ancient mountains and of the lasting hills that is gems or precious stones gold and silver together with all sorts of inferiour minerals Now if the Stars by their influences yield us all these precious things have we not much cause to admire both the power of God who hath implanted those vertues and opperations in them as also his
not be brought to hand he will neither bear the yoak nor wear the bridle nor endure to be harnessed like the Ox and Horse let man do what he will what he can with him he will neither go to Plow nor Cart not he Hence note First Service should be done with willingness or with the will It is the commendation of a servant when he doth his Masters work with his will more than with his hand Man should be as willing to serve as he is to be served as willing to obey as to rule nor doth any man know truly how to command but he that knows how to obey and when called is willing to obey in the service of God nothing is done to him unless it be done with the will and therefore the full effect of the work of the grace of God upon the heart of man is comprehended in this one word Psal 110.3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power They were once like the Unicorn in the Text that will not serve but in the day of thy power when the word comes upon them in the power of the Spirit they shall serve with all manner of dutiful readiness and willingness Some men are not at all wrought to the service of God others serve him but are not willing to serve they do it by constraint not willingly for base fear of loss or for baser hope of filthy lucre not of a ready mind upon which carnal terms the Apostle Peter warns the Ministers of the Gospel to take heed they feed not the flock of God 1 Epist 5.2 Nothing but a day of power conquering the will renders us willing to serve Christ willing to submit to the yoak of Christ to be bound in his furrow and to harrow the valleys after him that is to do any work that he calls us to Service should be with the will and 't is so by grace That 's the first thing which the nature of the Unicorn is against as to the service of man he hath no will to it Secondly Note Some beasts have a kind of willingness to serve man That some beasts have such a willingness is more than implyed while 't is said that some have not As the wild Ass before was spoken of in opposition to the tame so here the Unicorn is spoken of in opposition to the Ox or Horse who though they are not properly willing to serve yet they will not alwayes refuse service but freely at last or after a while take the yoak and receive the bridle The Apostle saith Rom. 8.20 The creature is made subject to vanity not willingly The creatures are not willing to serve the lusts of men yet many of them are willing to serve the occasions and necessities of men 'T is through the sin of man that the creature is made subject to vanity but it is through the appointment of God that the creature is made subject to duty and that with a kind of willingness Thirdly 'T is said here of the Unicorn as of the wild Ass before Canst thou make him willing when thou hast used fair means foul means one way or other will he serve thee he will not Hence note It is hard to change nature Naturam ex pelias furca licet usque recurret Laâ—pus pilum non antevum mutâ—t Beasts hold fast their natural qualities The Horse the Bullock who are tame by nature will come to hand but the wild Ass and the Unicorn whose nature is quite opposite to service will never be broken nor brought to it Thrust out nature with a fork it will return again Till nature is quite altered and changed acts will not change 'T is thus with man considered in nature who as he is compared to a wild Asses Colt Chap. 11.12 so he may be compared to an Unicorn Will man be willing to serve God no not by any moral perswasions no nor heartily he may hypocritically by any outward benefits nor by any hard usages Though as Solomon saith Prov. 27.22 thou shouldst bray a fool in a morter among wheat with a pestle yet will not his foolishness depart from him A carnal man will never submit quietly to duty till God hath changed his nature and made him a new man or till his mind is renewed after the image of God Conversion is first a change of our nature and then of our way This makes conversion so difficult a work Good education and humane instructions may change a mans way but nothing less than the power of God can change his nature Man is naturally as unwilling to serve God as the wild beasts are to serve man He is as stout and as stiff as the Unicorn as cruel and fierce as the Lion as crafty as a Fox as crooked and cross as any creature unless his heart be changed he will never to purpose change his course Man cannot change the course of the Unicorn because he cannot change his nature and could not God change mans nature he could never really change his course Fourthly Observe That any of the creatures especially strong ones are brought to hand or to the service of man must be ascribed to the power and goodness of God The Horse would no more serve man than the Unicorn nor would the Ox serve man more than the wild Ass unless the Lord had put another spirit or disposition into them than he hath done into the Unicorn Fifthly Observe That any of the creatures are unserviceable to man is to be ascribed to the sin of man At first all creatures were subject to man not only the Horse and the Ox and all the now tame creatures but the fiercest Lions Tygers Bears Unicorns were all in subjection to man according to that soveraign power given man by God in the day that God made him Gen. 1.27 28. So God created man in his own image in the image of God created he him male and female created he them And God blessed them and said to them be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fishes of the sea and over the fowls of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth The original grand Charter of mans Soveraignty was extended over the Unicorn and the Lion c. And therefore when creatures are not willing to serve man especially when they rise up against man let man remember his sin in not obeying the Soveraign command of God Had not man been unwilling to submit to and serve God Quòd non omnia animalia homini serviunt signum est poâ—na peccati no creature had been unwilling to serve man We may see our own neglect or refusal to serve God in the refusal of any creature to serve us we may see our own rebellion against God by the rebellion of the creatures against us Unless man had departed from God by sin none of the creatures had departed from their subjection to
much strength of grace to act it And hence it comes to pass that the higher and stronger any are in grace they are still lower and lesser in their own sight bacause true height and strength of grace works the soul to more self-denial And therefore as a godly man is vile so he is made more sensible of his own vileness the more he encreaseth in godliness so that if any have low thoughts of him he hath lower of himself None can think him lower in truth than he thinks himself I am light saith he I am vile Though he well understands his state his priviledge and his interest in Christ through grace and understands it so well that he values it above all the world and would not part with it for the whole world yet he is still vile in his own eyes and low in his own rate-books Abraham the chief of believers said Gen. 18.27 Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord who am but dust and ashes So David 2 Sam. 7.18 What am I and what is my fathers house that thou hast brought me hitherto How sensible was he of his own vileness who spake thus who yet was a man after Gods own heart and the best of Kings Further Consider the time when Job was brought to this humble confession and acknowledgement of his own vileness he had not spoken thus before but was much in justifying himself especially as to the sincerity of his heart and wayes and he did it even to offence but the Lord having dealt roundly with him he cryes out I am vile Hence Observe The dealings of God with man aime mostly at this great mark to humble him and to make him see his own vileness We quickly see or are quick-sighted to see and take notice of any good in us or done by us to make us proud instead of thankful but we are dull of sight to see or take notice of that in us or done by us which may humble and lay us low And therefore we put God to it to shew us our vileness by severe and humbling dispensations There are two great things which God would bring man to First To make him know how vile he is Secondly To make him know how excellent how glorious himself is The Lord never left battering Job by afflictions and following him with questions till he brought him to both these points Behold I am vile saith he in this place I know thou canst do every thing and that no thought can be with holden from thee said he afterwards Chap. 42.2 in which words he highly exalted God in the glory both of his power and wisdom As one great purpose of the Gospel is to exalt man and lift him up unto a most glorious condition in and through Christ so another great purpose of the Gospel is to lay man low in himself or to take him quite off from his own bottome The Apostle often insists upon that as one grand design of the Gospel with respect to man 1 Cor. 1.26 Ye see your calling brethren that not many wise men after the flesh c. are called He tells us at the 29th verse why it is so Even that no flesh should glory in his presence But ver 31. that according as it is written he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. All the dealings of God both in Law and Gospel both in his providences and in his ordinances tend to bring man off from and out of himself and till that be effected neither ordinances nor providences have their due effect upon him We must come to Jobs acknowledgment that we are vile that we are nothing and that God is all to us in Christ before we are Christians indeed Fourthly The former discourse sheweth that God was come very near to Job he spake to him out of the whirl wind his appearance was very dreadful And then Job cryed out Behold I am vile Hence Observe The more we have to do with God and the nearer God comes to us the more we see and the more we are made sensible of our own vileness Vnusquisque sibi dum tactu veri luminis illustratur ostenditur Greg. Man is clearly discovered and known to himself when he beholds God in the shinings of divine light and not till then Job was higher in his own thoughts than became him till God came thus near to him and when God came yet nearer to him and discovered himself as he afterwards did yet more fully to him then Job did not only say as here I am vile but I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes This first approach of God in so eminent and illustrious a way or manner wrought much upon him but the second more The light of God shews us our darkness the power of God our weakness his wisdom our folly his purity our uncleanness his Majesty our vileness and his Allness or alsufficiency being seen gives us to see our utter deficiency and nothingness Still in proportion to the nearness of God to us or our nearer and clearer apprehensions of him by faith we are carried further out of and further off from our selves and thus 't is in our attendance upon God in the Ordinances of worship The reason why many come to ordinances with proud hearts and go away proud is because they have little or no communion with God in them by faith or God doth not manifest himself to them by his blessed Spirit They who have seen the power and glory of God in the Sanctuary as David professed he had sometimes done and longed to see it again Psal 63.1 2. they will say with the same David Psal 131.1 2. Lord our heart is not haughty nor our eyes lofty our soul is like a weaned child Lastly Job was waiting for the goodness of God to him or for deliverance out of his sad condition and doubtless he was convinced that the most probable way to it was to leave off contending with God and to be found humbling himself before him in this or a like confession Behold I am vile Hence note There is nothing that doth more sweeten and molifie God or I may say any ingenuous adversary towards us then an humble acknowledgement of our own vileness and unworthiness When our hearts are truly humbled mercy and deliverance are at hand Job was no sooner made deeply sensible of his vileness but mercy came in The only skill of this excellent wrestler as one calls him was to cast himself down at Gods foot There is no way to get within God and to prevail with him Sciebat Jobus contra spiritum humilem inermem esse Dei manum but by submitting to him The Lord layeth down his rod when we lay down our pride and casts his sword out of his hand when we cast our selves at his feet And in all our afflictions whether personal or national till we acknowledge not formally but in a deep sense of our own vileness