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
also accepted Job This gives evidence or witness to the goodness of Job and his eminence in grace how full of love how ready to forgive was he He did not insult over Eliphaz c. nor say now I have got the day God hath determined the matter for me Amicè ut amicos illos amplexus est he did not tell them ye have wronged and abused me ye have unjustly censured and reproached me but putting their unkindnesses into oblivion and laying aside the thought of them he laid out his soul to the utmost for the healing or making up of the difference arising from their folly between God and them For the better improvement of these words First Let us compare them with those in the eighth verse Here it is said The Lord also accepted Job and there the Lord said Him will I accept there it is a promise here a performance Hence note Whatsoever the Lord promiseth to do he will certainly perform and do A word from God is as sure as his deed our hope upon promise as good as possession In hope of eternal life which God who cannot lye promised before the world began Tit. 1.2 Christ will be Amen that is performance 2 Cor. 1.20 to all the promises 2 Cor. 1.20 As they are all made in him so they shall every one of them and in every thing be made good by him unto the glory of God by us that is we shall at last have abundant cause of glorifying of God in performing and making good of all the promises upon the undertaking of Jesus Christ for us No man shall fail of acceptance that is under as Job was a promise of acceptation get under promises and you shall partake the good promised Secondly Whereas upon their doing according as the Lord commanded presently it followeth The Lord also accepted Job Note Though the Lord will surely perform what he hath promised yet if we would have the good promised we must do the duty commanded otherwise our faith is but presumption If Eliphaz and his two friends had not done as the Lord commanded them they could not rightly have expected God should do what he promised accept Job and so themselves There are promises of two sorts First of preventing grace these are made to the wicked and unconverted Secondly there are promises of rewarding grace these are made to the godly who must perform the duty commanded if they would receive the mercy promised As many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy Gal. 6.16 If you will have peace you must walk according to rule the Lord is not bound to fulfil promises if we take liberty to break Commandements or neglect to do them And they who have true faith in the truth and faithfulness of God to fulfil the one can never take liberty to break the other None are so sure to the Command as they who have fullest assurance in the Promise The Lord also accepted Job Here are but few words yet much matter and who knoweth how much mercy Here is much yea all in a little The Lord accepted Job Hence note Thirdly To be accepted of God is the answer of all our prayers and desires a full reward for all our services Acceptation with God is the happiness of man and should be his satisfaction If we are accepted in our services we are bountifully rewarded for them and if our persons are accepted we shall be everlastingly saved When the Lord accepted Job he he heard his prayer for his friends they were reconciled This good news The Lord also accepted Job was enough to make their hearts leap for joy Acceptation is a reviving word the sum of all that we can wish or pray for 't is enough enough to confirm our faith and to wind up our assurance to the very highest expectation of a supply to all our wants and of pardon for all our sins All the kindnesses of God are comprehended in this one word Acceptation Fourthly The Lord accepted Job Here is no mention at all of accepting his sacrifice yet that was accepted too Hence note The Lord having respect to our persons cannot but have respect to our services If our persons are accepted our services are and if the services of any are not respected it is because their persons are not 'T is said Gen. 4.4 5. The Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering but unto Cain and his offering he had no respect Respect or no respect to what is done alwayes begins with the person of the doer Yet further Job was accepted but uâ—on what account or how was Job accepted not in himself nor for himself but in Christ the promised Messias Hence note Fifthly That any mans person is accepted is from free grace through Jesus Christ When we have done all we deserve nothing we are only accepted The Lord accepted Job not for his own sake not for the worth of his service not for the worthiness of his person but for him whom he in that action represented and in whom he believed Jesus Christ Job himself needed Christ for his acceptation 't is in and through him that any are accepted The word Acceptance plainly implieth that there is nothing of merit in us acceptation notes grace and favour This respect to us is not for any desert in us From the whole we may infer First If the Lord accepted Job when he offered sacrifice and prayed for his friends how much more doth he accept Jesus Christ who offered himself a sacrifice for sinners and ever liveth to make intercession for them whose sacrifice he is Did the Lord presently accept Job and his friends or Job for his friends then what confidence may we have that Jesus Christ who is our everlasting sacrifice and Advocate who is entred into the holiest the Sanctuary of heaven and there pleads for us with his own blood is accepted for us and we through him Christs suit shall never be refused nor shall we while we come to God through him This act of divine grace was as I may say but a shadow or figure of that great work of Jesus Christ in reconciling sinners and making them accepted with the Lord and therefore as often as we pray Christs everlasting sacrifice should come to our remembrance for the confirmation of our faith and our encouragement against fears We may argue down all our doubts about acceptation by Christ upon this account that Jobs friends were accepted at his suit and their acceptation not bottom'd on him nor in his sacrifice but as both shadowed Christ Where the Reconciler is accepted they that are in him and for whom he makes request are accepted too What the Lord spake from heaven Mat. 3.17 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased reacheth all believers to the end of the world whose head and representer Christ is Let us adore and ever be thankful that we have received such grace in Christ for though Jesus
of Heth. If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth such as these which are of the daughters of the Land what good shall my life do me Better be out of the world than see my sons miscarry These two sights to see children suffering or to see them sinning are a pain not only to the eyes but to the hearts of parents But to see them First Prosperous in their way Secondly Pious keeping the way of the Lord to have and see such children and childrens Children to the third and fourth generation how delightful is this The Apostle John professed 3 Epist ver 4. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth He means his spiritual children those whom he had converted to the faith and begotten to Christ in the ministery of the Word O what a joy was it to that holy Apostles heart to see them walk answerably to the profession of the Gospel and his expectation Now as that was so great a joy to him that he had no greater so 't is an unspeakable joy when godly parents see their natural children spiritual and walking in the truth To see children new born to see them gracious and to see them prosperous also what a blessed sight is this And this was the sight doubtless which Job had he saw his children His sons and his sons sons to the fourth generation His blessedness as to all without him in this life was at the highest when he saw the prosperity of his children both in soul and body Thus Job was blessed every way he was blessed with riches blessed with long life blessed in the multiplication of his family he was blessed also in his death as appeareth in the next and last words of this Chapter and Book Vers 17. So Job died being old and full of days As Solomon said Eccles 12.13 Hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his commandements So I may say now Hear the conclusion of all men To fear God and keep his commandements is the consumating end of our lives but to dye is the consuming end of all our lives and to a good man 't is an entrance into eternal life Such and so Job died The Lord having spoken of his life is not silent about his death The story the holy story brings Job to his grave and that could not but be a blessed death which was the close of a gracious life So Job died Death is the separation of the soul from the body 't is the sleep of the body in the grave and thâ— rest of their souls in heaven who dye in the Lord. There is no difficulty in these words take a note or two from them First Death takes all sooner or latter Job lived a long time but he did not out-live death Mors ultima clausula vitae Mors ultima linea rerum he enjoyed an hundred and forty years prosperity in this world yet he left the world He lived long yet a day came when he could not live a day longer 'T is said of all the long livers Gen. 5. They died Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years and he died Seth lived nine hundred and twelve years and he died Methuselah the longest liver in this world lived nine hundred sixty and nine years and he died Here Job lived an hundred and forty and so he dyed David put the question of all men Psal 89.48 What man is he that liveth and shall not see death How great or how good how rich or how wise how strong or how valiant soever any man living is he must dye How long soever any man hath lived in this world he must dye for the world must dye there must be a dissolution of all things and therefore a dissolution of all men Psal 82.6 7. I said ye are gods but ye shall dye like men Kings and Princes who have the priviledge to be called gods have not the priviledge of God not to dye like men This is a common theam I intend not to stay upon it only let me tell you death will overtake us all sooner or later upon a double account First Because it is appointed Secondly Because it is deserved It is appointed unto men once to dye Heb. 9.27 and all men have deserved to dye to dye eternally and therefore much more to dye naturally Rom. 5.12 As by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death past upon all men for that all have sinned Now seing the condition of all men is a dying condition receive these four cautions First Prepare for death There is no avoiding it at the long run therefore be ready to entertain it at last and because we may dye at any time be preparing for death at all times How miserable are they who are so old that they cannot live and yet so unprepared that they are afraid to dye Job died and we must If so Is it not our wisdome to prepare for death Secondly Submit quietly to the arrest of death There is no striving with the decrees of God Our death is under a divine appointment Eccles 8.8 There is no discharge in that war no priviledge to be pleaded no exemption no prescription Your strength cannot stand against the assaults of death your prudence and policy cannot find any way of escape from it nor can your piety or godliness deliver you out of the hands of natural death As there is no work nor devise nor knowledge in the grave whither we are going Eccles 9.10 so there is no knowledg no device no wisdom can keep us from going into the grave no not our graces Grace is as salt to the soul preserving it from moral corruption for ever But it cannot keep the body from natural corruption in this world Mors est nobis nimis domestica utpote quam in viscaribus nostris circumserimâ— Plutarch in Consol ad Apoll. because our graces in this world are mingled with corruption Death is domestical to us that is we have the seed of it within our selves we carry it daily in our bowels and in our bosomes therefore submit quietly to it for there is no avoiding it Thirdly Seing all must dye get that removed which is the troubler of a death-bed and the sting of death get that removed which makes death bitter get that removed which makes death the King of terrours so terrible that is sin This should be our study all the days of our life to get rid of sin to be dying to sin daily because we must dye at last and may dye for all that we know or can assure our selves any day we live 1 Cor. 13.56 The sting of death is sin Whensoever or in what way soever we dye it will be well with us if the sting of death be first pulled out and whensoever we dye after never so long a life it will be miserable if we dye in our sins as Christ told the Jews in
c. The Hebrew Text doth not expresse this Adverb of time there 't is onely the Lord answered but we well supply it rendering then the Lord answered as if the Penman had said at that very nick instant or juncture of time the Lord came in the words were no sooner out of the mouth of Elihu he had no sooner concluded his speech with Job but the Lord began and answered Job and if the Lord had not just then interposed possibly Job might have replyed and a new heat might have risen to the encreasing of his troubles and the inflaming of all their Spirits as was hinted before therefore the Lord to stop all further proceedings or speech between them two began presently to speak himself Then the Lord answered Take this Observation from it The Lord will appear in the fittest season It was time for the Lord to appear lest this poor man should have been utterly swallowed up with sorrows and over-whelmed with his affliction or lest he should have been drawn out too long and too far in his bitter complainings and impatiency The Lord is a God of judgement blessed are they that wait for him Isa 30.18 He is a wise God and knows how to time every action he knowes when to appear when to shew himself As he himself will not contend for ever Isa 57.16 so neither will he let others contend overlong least the Spirit should sail before him and the soules which he hath made This is a comfortable truth with respect both to Nations and Persons both to the case of the Church of God in general and of every believer in particular The Apostle Peter having counselled the afflicted to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God 1 Pet. 5.6 addes this encouragement in the next words to do so that he may exalt you in due time though not in your time nor at your day the day when you would have him do it yet he will do it in time and in due time that is when it shall be most fit and best for you Thus he appeared to and for Job in the Text when the sorrowes of his heart were enlarged and when he had most need of such an appearance The Lord knows how at any time and when 't is the most proper time to relieve his servants Then The Lord answered Job The word here used is Jehovah and several of the Learned take notice that it is here used with a special significancy for in the discourses of Job and his friends throughout this Book other names of God are if not universally yet mostly used as Elshaddai Eloah c. In the first Chapter indeed where God is spoken of by the divine Historian or sacred Penman of this History he is named Jehovah as also in some other such like places but in the body of the dispute not so And two reasons may be given of it First The name Jehovah imports the Being of God and therefore God himself being about to speak of his giving a Being to the whole Creation and to several sorts of creatures he is most properly represented by his name Jehovah which as it implyeth that he is the First Being the Fountain of his own Being or that he is of himself so that he gives a Being to all things and that in him as the Apostle told the great Philosophers of Athens Acts 17. we live and move and have our being Secondly The Lord though he came in a Whirle-wind yet manifested himself in a clearer light to Job than ever he had done before Now as in the third of Exodus when the Lord sent Moses to the people of Israel to bring them up out of Egypt to Canaan which was a great work one of the greatest that was ever done in the world and in which the Lord made the most glorious discovery of his Power Justice and Mercy when God I say sent Moses upon this service he said unto him Exod. 6.2 3. I am the Lord I am Jehovah and I appeared unto Abraham unto Isaac and unto Jacob by the Name of God Almighty but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them God being about to make himself more known in the world than he had been to that day by his dreadful plagues upon Pharaoh and the miraculous deliverance of his people out of Egypt as he said chap. 9.16 And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up for to shew in thee my power and that my name may be declared in all the earth The Lord I say being about to doe these great things for the manifestation of his own greatness gave this charge to Moses at the sixth verse of the sixth chapter before mentioned Wherefore say unto the children of Israel I am Jehovah and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians c. Thus in this latter part of the book of Job the Lord being about to loosen the bonds of Jobs affliction and to ease him of his burden as also to declare and manifest himself more clearly to him than formerly as he confessed chap. 42.5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the eare but now mine eyes have seen thee he therefore assumed his great name Jehovah Then the Lord Answered Job c. But some may say Job had not spoken lately much lesse last Elihu spake out six whole Chapters since Job spake a word and though Elihu gave him the liberty yea almost provoked him to speak yet he laid his hand upon his mouth he spake not a word How then can it be said The Lord answered Job To avoid this difficulty Some render Then the Lord answered concerning or about Job And these turn the whole discourse of God in this and the next Chapter upon Elihu in favour of Job I shall touch upon that opinion and interpretation as was said afterwards but at present affirm that Job was the person to whom the Lord here directed his Answer and to take off this doubt how the Lord could be said to answer Job when Job had not spoken last but Elihu I answer as upon a like occasion it hath been elsewhere shewed in this book ch 3.2 that sometimes in Scripture a Speech begun is called an Answer where nothing had been spoken before to which that speech could be applied in way of answer Matth. 11.25 Matth. 17.4 The reason of this Hebraisme is because such as begin to speak do either answer the necessity of the matter or the desire of the hearers and so they give a real and vertual though not a formal Answer Yet there are two considerations in which we may apply the word Answer formally and strictly taken to Job First If we consider Job's wishes and requests Secondly If we consider Job's complaints and though the word be somewhat hard his murmurings The Lord may be said to answer Job as to his wish desire or request because Job had earnestly desired and requested more than once that God would take
his Cause in hand or that he would have the hearing of it Thus he spake at the third verse of the three and twentieth Chapter O that I knew where I might find him that I might come even to his Seat I would order my Cause before him and fill my mouth with arguments Zophar also one of Jobs friends made the same request concerning Job Chap. 11.2 O that God would speak and open his lips against thee As if he had said Eliphaz hath been speaking and Bildad hath been speaking and I am now about to speak but O that God would speak It was the wish of Job that God would speak and it was the wish of this his friend and now behold God appears possibly beyond their expectation though not beside their wish for 't is like they had not faith enough to beleeve that God would answer those wishes So then God may be said here to answer because as it was prayed he now took the matter into his own hand and in person as I may say argued the Case with Job and finally determined his Cause Hence Note The wishes requests and prayers of good men have sometimes been heard though they were over-bold in making them or had no clear ground to make them Job had no rule for such a Petition that he might presently have a trial at the Tribunal of God yet God was so gracious as to answer him in it not onely to his reproof but to his comfort The Name of God is O thou that hearest prayer Psal 65.2 If carnal men have their extravagant prayers and wishes granted 't is in wrath but if the Lord grant the passionate prayers and wishes of a godly man it proves though sometimes a present affliction yet alwayes upon one account or other a mercy in the issue When the lusting Israelites wisht for flesh the Lord heard their wishes take Quails your bellies full till they come out at your nostrils but while the meat was in their mouths the wrath of God fell upon them If the Lord grants what lust asketh such pay dear for what they have for the asking It hath been anciently said Multi irato deo exaudiuntur many have their prayers heard in meer anger so are all theirs who pray for what they have not in meer discontent with what they have The Lord heard Job and not in anger but in favour and condescention to him Now if some not well grounded nor warranted requests of good men may be granted and answered the Lord pitying their weakness and eyeing their uprightness in favour how much more may they be confident that their gracious and humble requests such requests as are every way sutable to the Word and Will of God shall be graciously answered Secondly The Lord answered as the Prayer and Wish so the Complaints of Job He had complained sometimes though he were a mirror of patience impatiently These complaints the Lord answered but it was with severe and sharp reproofs as we find in the next verse To conclude this query we may say God had two great ends or designs in answering both the wishes and complaints of Job First That he might humble and convince him that he might stop his mouth and silence his complainings for ever as he did most effectually Secondly That after his humiliation and repentance he might justifie and acquit him and also restore him to his former comforts and enjoyments as he did most mercifully This being the design of the Lord in speaking to Job what he said may well be called an Answer But how or in what manner did the Lord answer him Surely in such a manner as never man was answered The Lord answered Job Out of the Whirlwind He answered him as we say to some Tune A Whirlwind makes strange kind of Musick A Whirlwind is a sudden mighty loud-blustring Wind taking away or bearing down all before it A Whirlwind is a Wind which moves whirling and gyring about all the points of the Compass no man knows where to have it nor how to shelter himself from it I have had occasion to speak of the Wind and of the natural ordinary Whirlwind in the former Chapter But here 's a Whirlwind extraordinary if not supernatural There 's much questioning among some Interpreters how we are to conceive of this Whirlwind I would answer that point a little and then give some account why the Lord spake to Job out of such a Whirlwind First Some affirm that it was onely a Visional Whirlwind As if the Lord appeared as it were in a Tempest or Whirlwind to Job in a deep sleep such as was upon Adam Gen. 2.21 when the Lord took one of his ribs and made the Woman In such a deep sleep say they Job saw a Whirlwind and heard the Lord speaking to him out of it As Ezekiel who in a Vision looked and behold a Whirlwind came out of the North as we read in the first Chapter of that Prophesie verse 4. Secondly Others conceive that it was not a Visional but a Metaphorical Whirlwind or a Whirlwind in a figure and we may give you a threefold Metaphor or three things to which this passage of Providence may allude to a speaking out of a Whirlwind First God answered Job out of the Whirlwind that is when there was a great bussle or storm among the Disputants conflicting about Jobs case one moving this way another thar all being tossed about as it were with the wind of their several opinions in ventitalating his condition Out of this Whirlwind it was say some or while all were thus discomposed in their spirits and could not compose the matter in difference between them and Job during this hurry or troublesome state of things and minds the Lord arose and answered Job Secondly The Lord may be said to answer Job out of the Whirlwind because he spake to him angrily displeasedly and reprovingly Anger especially the Lords Anger or Displeasure is often in Scripture compared to a Storm or Tempest As if this Whirlwind were nothing else but a sharp angry chiding When a man chides we say The man 's in a storm and we may say with reverence when the Lord speaks chidingly as he did to Job he is in a storm or according to the Text speakes out of a Sto my Whirlwind Thus also when the Lord speaks pleasingly and gently then he may be said to speak in a calm There 's a truth in that Thirdly The Lord answered in a Whirlwind that is while Job both as to his outward condition and inward disposition or the frame of his spirit was evidently in a great storm or toss For doubtless his spirit was very stormy and tossed up and down at that time that is much troubled and disquieted upon the with-drawings of God and the unkindness of his friends Now when Job had this Stoâ—m this Whirlwind in his spirit the Lord appeared and answered him Thus some conceive it though not a Visional Whirlwind yet a
that shall be made as grass and forgettest the Lord thy Maker What a kind of creature art thou to set so much by a man let him be who he will that thou shouldest be unduely afraid of him who by nature is like thy self frail and mortal is if thou hadst nor the immortal God thy Maker for thy helper and defender They act below men who over-fear men while they are in a way of duty to God Who art thou c. Secondly The Scripture useth such questions when man is over-bold with or not enough in the fear of God which is the case here in the Text If any man intrench upon the prerogative of God he is like to hear of it with a Who art thou The Apostle Rom. 9.20 by way of prevention represents man so bold with God as to darken his counsel even his eternal counsel by words without knowledge Thou wilt say then unto me why doth he yet find fault who hath resisted his will When God to shew his unquestionable Sovereignty saith Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy Then man begins to complain of God and thinks he hath cause for it But saith the Apostle Who art thou that repliest against God shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus When-ever man give occasion to say that he fears man too much or God too little he is like to hear these rebuking and humbling questions Who is this or Who art thou Many have too high thoughts of others and most of themselves as if they were as we say some-body that is more than any-body as if they were of some greater worth or had some greater worthiness than their neighbours Now whosoever have too hign thoughts either of others or of themselves they alwayes have too low thoughts of God and therefore God to shew them their vanity that all men are but emptiness yea very nothingness compared with him makes the best of men strike sail or God shoots down their top-sail with such questions as these Who are you and who is this Thirdly Note We may quickly darken the counsels of God while we think to explain them Job had no intent to darken the counsel of God yet he did it Some make it their business when they speak of the counsels of God to darken them and raise a dust these are either angry with the light or envious at it and unwilling that others should enjoy it Some Patrons of Popery the better to make their own excuse for obscuring or hiding the Scriptures in darkness from the People have not feared to charge them with darkness obscurity And others by their ill and unskilfull handling of the Scriptures have brought darkness and obscurity upon them Though the Scriptures have many dark places in them yet woe to those who say the Scriptures are dark and let all take heed of darkening them for they are the counsel of God It is an easie matter to paddle in a clear stream till it runs muddily but it will not be for any mans ease or peace to do so in the clear crystal streams of the holy Scriptures It is the unhappiness of some that they cannot but speak and write about the counsels of God obscurely and there are others who glory that they can It was said of a dark Pen Dum legi vâ—luit quae scripsisset intelligi noluit quae logerentur that While he wâ—uld have that read which he had written he would not have that understood which was read and while some would have that heard which they speak they speak as if they would not have that understood which is heard It is a great sin purposely and designedly to darken the Counsels of God and 't is a failing and an affliction to darken them though we as Job did not design it not We should labour to deliver our minds plainly concerning the mind of God that what we utter may not be sound a darkning of his Counsel but as much as in us is a clearing of it Counsel as was toucht before is the giving of light in dark cases and therefore we should enlighten Counsel Two things are the grace and excellency of a spaker First To speak boldly and freely to speak the truth out not to clip nor straiten it Secondly To speak plainly to open the truth and not to intricate nor involve it Both these are comprised in one word by the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.12 where he saith as we translate therefore we use great plainness of speech but the Margin hath great boldness of speech the same word in the Greek signifies both plainness of speech and boldness of speech and these are the two great vertues and ornaments of him that speaketh Both these are again implied in that direction of the Apostle 1 Pet. 4.11 If any man speak about the things of God let him speak as the Oracles of God that is let him speak as becomes him that hath to do with the Oracles of God reverently freely and boldly not as if he were speaking the opinions of men much less Old Wives fables Or let him speak as the Oracles of God speak that is plainly cleerly not as the Oracles of the Heathens spake darkly doubtfully Let us take heed of wrapping up the truth of God or entangling it in uncertain expressions which may be interpreted either way or to quite contrary purposes there is a great danger in this We may give our selves some scope or take more liberty when we are debating about worldly matters or disputing the subtil questions and curiosities of Schoolmen But when we have to do with the Secrets and Counsels of God then let us beware and be sober Some speak as rashly and inevidently of deepest Gospel Mysteries as they talk of other mens crotchers or as of their own trifles Fifthly Consider How did Job darken the Counsel of God It was by words without knowledge Hence Note The ignorant are very apt to speak amiss of the things and Counsels of God If Job who had so great a measure of knowledge darkened the Counsel of God by words without knowledge what will they do that have upon the matter no knowledge at all The Apostle speaks of such as more than darkening even as wresting the Counsel of God 2 Pet. 3.16 In Pauls Epitles saith he are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction Some things in the Word are hard to be known and they are made harder by such unlearned ones as utter their own notions of them by words without knowledge 'T is very true that many learned men have wrested and perverted the Word of God and some of them have employed their learning on purpose to wrest and pervert it but they that have not a comperent degree of learning and knowledge what can they do
without them but a foundation is of absolute necessity there cannot be continuing house without a foundation Fourthly The foundation is the support of the whole building that bears and upholds all the rest But some may say What are the foundations of the Earth I answer A foundation may be taken either properly or metaphorically formally or allusively The foundations of the Earth are not formal but metaphorical foundations 'T is a speech borrowed from men who must have a proper foundation for their buildings The Earth is not laid upon any formal but it hath a vertual foundation The Scripture saith sometimes that the Earth is founded upon the seas and established upon the floods Psal 24.2 yet in a proper sense the Sea is not the foundation of the Earth It 's said also Job 26.7 He hangeth the Earth upon nothing The whole bulk of Sea and Earth together are one Globe one Building formed and compacted together But the Earth may be said to have foundations and that God hath laid the foundations of it for this reason Because the Earth is set fast and firm it is like a house that hath foundations not only a foundation but foundations it stands most firm A house builded upon a rock Matth. 7.25 stands fast and immoveably in all weathers because built upon a sure foundation A house builded upon the sands falls it hath no sure foundation The Earth is made firm strong and sure as those houses or buildings that are raised upon rocks and is therefore said to have foundations Why is Heaven or the state of glory called a City having foundations Heb. 11.10 but because the state of glory or that glorious City is a firm state or as it is called in another place Chap. 13.14 a continuing City A City which shall it self continue for ever and whose Citizens without succession continue for ever Now though the Earth be but a moveable tent or weak cottage in comparison of Heaven or our heavenly state yet God in his infinite Wisdom and Power hath formed and established it so firmly for the habitation of man and all inferiour creatures upon its own center that the Lord may truly be said to have built it upon foundations or to have appointed foundations for it as 't is often expressed elsewhere Psal 102.25 Psal 104.5 Prov. 8.29 as well as here Where wast thou When I laid the foundations of the Earth The form of the words is considerable in opposition to that opinion of some of the Ancients Aquin. in loc who attributed the site of the Earth and of the other Elements not to any divine supernatural Power of the Maker but to the very Nature of the Earth or the necessity of the Matter according to which heavy things tend downward and light things rise high so according to that opinion the Earth being a heavy body falleth lowest or took its place of its self Now that this opinion may be consuted and shut out of doors the Lord compares his making of the World to the building of a house which is ordered according to the reason of the builder so that though it be a truth in Nature that heavy things fall lowest yet we are to ascribe all to the Wisdom of God the Disposer of them who hath done all things according to the pleasure of his own Will and that with such admirable contrivance that man is not able to comprehend it as the last words of the verse intimate Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the Earth Declare if thou hast understanding But before I pass to those words in the latter part of the verse I shall gather up some observations from this former part of it Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth c. Hence Note First The time of man upon Earth compared with the Eternity of God is nothing Where wast thou David Psal 39.4 prayed that God would teach him how frail he was as to the duration of his life and he adds in the next verse Mine age is nothing before thee The age of man is nothing before God if we consider it as to its beginning or if we consider it as to its ending When began the age of the most aged man Are not all men of yesterday God had an eternity of Being before man was upon the face of the earth And what 's the age of man as to its continuance As it began but yesterday that is a very little while ago or but the day past so it may end to morrow that is within a few dayes to come yea possibly before the next day or the morrow cometh Boast not of to morrow Prov. 27.1 both because thou knowest not what a day may bring forth nor whether as to thee a to morrow shall be brought forth Death sweeps men suddenly from the face of the earth only the Lord alwayes is and is alwayes the same All things change but God is not changed He is himself and his years fails not Then what 's mans age compared to God Note Secondly God is the first Being Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth God alone was before all things yet he was not at all alone Anteomnia erat deus solus ipse sibi mundus locus tempus omnia Tertul. adversus Praxeam cap. 5. For as one of the Ancients saith He was to himself a world place and time and all things Thirdly God is an Eternal Being It 's possible for one to be first and not to be eternal One man may have a Being before another and not have a Being from eternity but God had an eternal Being before the world had a Being or man any Being in the world There are Things of three sorts First Such as have had a beginning and shall have an end and be no more Thus it is with all meer sensitive Creatures the Beasts of the Earth and Fowls of the Ayre they perish there 's an end of their being when they die or come to the end of their lives Secondly There are other things which have had a beginning yet shall have no end As Spirits Angels good or bad and the souls of men yea the bodies of men though they are subject to and are cut off by death yet they shall return again and having been sown in corruption shall be raised in incorruption and be clothed with immortality which is a piece of Eternity Thirdly There is a Being which is without beginning and without ending and that is Gods Being only or the Being of God who thus exprest himself to Moses I am and I am that I am Exod. 3.14 That word takes in all Time past present and to come yea past present and to come are all one in Gods Being Psal 90.1 Thou hast been our habitation from generation to generation That is We thy people have alwayes or in all revolutions of time dwelt or sheltered our selves in thee and then at the second
verse they confess not only their being in him throughout all generations but his most blessed Being before all generations Before Mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the Earth and the World even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God The first Being is an eternal Being and therefore the Prophet saith Isa 57.15 God inhabiteth Eternity The Eternal dwells in Eternity But what is Eternity One of the Ancients calleth it Aeternitas est interminabilis vitae tota simul et perfect possessio Boeth de Consol l. 6. The perfect possession of a boundless or limitless life whole and all at once Eternity hath no terms nor bounds of beginning or ending 'T is a possession of all at once there is nothing past or to come but all is alwayes present to God Note Fourthly God is the fountain of all being he hath given a being to all things The Apostle Paul Acts 17.28 discoursing with the Athenians having said In him we live and move and have our being convinceth them further by that saying of their own Poets for we are also his off-spring We spring from him as from a root or fountain With him is the fountain of lives Psal 36.9 even of natural life as well as of spiritual and eternal Every life every being is but a stream issuing from Jehovah And as every life is from God so also is the being of all things without life The Lord gave the liveless Earth its being its beginning Some Naturalists have asserted the eternity of the World and so the eternity of the Earth They could not compass which way or how the World could have a beginning and therefore said it had none Here we have the Founder of the World God himself teaching man this Divine Philosophy about the beginning of the World and taking it to himself I laid the foundations of the Earth When the Heathen Philosopher read what Moses had written concerning the Creation of the World Thus the Heavens and the Earth were finished and all the host of them Ger. 2.1 He presently said The man speaks wonders but how doth he prove what he hath spoken Where are his demonstrations He would put Moses to his proof but Moses's proof was faith in the testimony of God Through faith we understand that the Worlds were framed by the Word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear Heb. 11.3 We understand the Work of Creation yet not by the strength of natural reason but through faith which gives credit to the Word of God and perswades the heart that the report therein made is a truth Plato in Timaeo For though some Philosophers have evinced by arguments grounded upon reason that the World was made yet that it was made by the Word of God either the Essential Word the Son of God spoken of John 1.1 who is the efficient cause of it or by the Declarative Word spoken of in this place of the Hebrews which was the means or instrumental cause of making the World Gen. 1.3 6. This I say cannot at all be understood by reason but purely and only by faith because it is so revealed in the Scriptures Fifthly In that the Lord here saith I laid the foundations of the Earth Observe God hath made the Earth firm and immoveable The stability of the Earth is of God as much as the being and existence of it Psal 104.5 He laid the foundations of the Earth that it should not be removed for ever There have been many Earthquakes or movings of the Earth in several parts of it but the whole body of the Earth was never removed so much as one hairs breadth out of its place since the foundations thereof were laid Archimedes the great Mathematician said If you will give me a place to set my Engine on I will remove the Earth It was a great bâ—ag but the Lord hath laid it fast enough for mans removing Himself can make it quake and shake he can move it when he pleaseth but he never hath nor will remove it He hath laid the foundations of the Earth that it shall not be removed nor can it be at all moved but at his pleasure and when it moves at any time it is to mind the sons of men that they by their sins have moved him to displeasure There hath been or will be a shaking of the Earth in mercy for we have it in a promise Heb. 12.26 Whose voice then namely at the giving of the Law shook the Earth but now he hath promised saying yet once more I shake not the Earth only but also Heaven Some understand this promise as fulfilled at the coming of Christ in the flesh at which time indeed there were notable and amazing motions and alterations both in Heaven and Earth Others expound it of the Day of the ultimate Judgement not a few of some great providential dispensations of God which shall shake not the Earth only but also the Heavens as taken in a Metaphor for earthly and heavenly things referring to the Church of God and the Kingdomes of Men. I shall not interpose in this matter about the sense of that Text but onely say whatever the Apostle meant by Earth or Heaven and the shaking of it yet this remains as an unshaken Axiom that the Fabrick of the Earth properly taken stands fast The Lord hath laid the foundations of it that it should not be removed David to shew the stedfastness of his faith put that supposition Psal 46.2 Therefore will not we fear though the Earth be moved The Prophet also did the like to assure us of the stability of the Covenant of Grace Isa 54.10 yet we need not fear that either the Earth shall be removed or the Mountains depart Such suppositions shew indeed the immoveableness of the Word which God hath spoken not the moveableness by any natural power or natural decay of the Earth whose foundations he hath laid And hence the Psalmist argues the Lords faithfulness to his Word Psal 119.90 Non magis moveronaturaliter terra quam quiescere coelum potest Bold All earthly things move but the Earth wherein all these motions are made stands still Eccl. 1.4 The Earth can no more move than the Heavens can stand still Some modern Philosophers have turned the scale of Nature and would perswade us that the Heavens stand still and the Earth moves but 't is good for us to stand to and abide by the Scripture which tells us the Earth stands still and abideth or it abideth that is it standeth as the Margin explains it Psal 119.90 And that it standeth still or abideth not only because it hath still a being as things in motion have but because it is still or stands without moving is so much my faith as well as my sense that I see no reason to be moved from it Sixthly The Power and Will of God are the onely foundation of the Earth 'T is said by the Psalmist
of thy workmanship have cause to do it more than and above all they cannot but be speaking and talking of thy Kingdome and Power which are very glorious Upon which account the tongue of Man especially the tongue of a Godly Man is called his glory I will sing and give praisâ— said David Psal 108.1 even with my glory What is that his tongue the chief bodily instrument of divine praises The Stars in their courses once fought against the enemies of God Judg. 5.20 and they alwayes in their places sing the praises of God Let it not be said that Saints are silent So much of these words as the Stars are taken properly There are some as I said before who take these Stars metaphorically or figuratively for the Angels and then their singing is proper and there are two reasons given why by the stars in this place we should understand the Angels First If we consider the truth or course of the History because the Earth being created the first day the Stars were not in being till the fourth day unless we comprehend them as was said before as to their matter and reallity under those words of Moses In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth but as to their appearance and formality so they were not till the fourth day and if so how could they sing the praises of God at the laying of the foundations of the Earth A second reason is given from this Chapter because God speaks of the Stars afterwards vers 31 32. Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades the seven Stars so called or loose the bands of Orion c. Here the Lord treats with Job about the Stars in proper sense therefore probably the Morning Stars here mentioned are not to be taken properly but tropically for the Angels And the Angels may very well be called Stars or Morning Stars by a Metaphor because of their spiritual beauty and excellency in which they out-shine all the Morning Sâ—ars yea that special Morning Star commonly known by the Name of Lucifer or Light-bringer Though the Angels have not a visible bodily beauty yet they have a better beauty than any body 'T is said of Stephen Acts 6.15 when he stood before the Council They beheld his face as it had been the face of an Angel Angels being Spirits have no visible faces but because Angels are in their nature and qualities beautiful creatures therefore Stephen having an extraordinary beauty stampt upon him is said to have the face of an Angel And as beautiful persons may be said to look like or resemble Angels so Angels may be said to look like or resemble Stars The Church for the lustre of her graces is said to look forth as the Morning fair as the Moon clear as the Sun Cant. 6.10 and so may the Angels as the Stars The Apostle saith of those false Apostles who would needs be accounted Stars faithful Ministers of Christ in the Firmament of the Church they are transformed into Angels of light 2 Cor. 11.14 that is they would appear like Angels of light The holy Angels are Angels of light The seven Stars are the seven Angels saith Christ expounding the Vision to John Revel 1.20 This shews that Angels and Stars have a ve y great similitude so that as there in one sense so here in another the Stars may signifie the Angels And the Angels may very well be called Morning Stars because they were the first of living Creâ—tures their Creation being supposed to be though Moses expresseth nothing of it comprehended within that of the Heavens In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth the Heaven and the heavenly Inhabitants the Angels The evil Angel the Devil that fallen Angel is also called a Morning Star That Title Lucifer Son of the Morning which the Prophet bestows on the Assyrian Isa 14.12 for his pomp and pride properly belongs to the Devil the Arch-Devil a fallen Angel or the Primier of the fallen Angels yea Jesus Christ himself is called the Day-Star 2 Pet. 1.19 and under another far different expression the Morning Star Rev. 2.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he saith of himself Rev. 22.16 I am the bright and Morning Star Thus Christ who is the Angel of the Covenant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord of Angels the Creator of Angels is called the Morning Star All these Scriptures bear testimony that it is not strange to expound Stars by Angels And therefore when the Lord saith The Stars sang together according to this interpretation upon which yet I shall not insist but leave the Reader to his own opinion it is but the same with that which followes in the close of the verse to which I now proceed And all the Sons of God shouted for joy Acies Angelorum Chald. Angeli mei Sept. The Chaldee Paraphrase is express that the Sons of God are the Angels rendring The Armies of Angels shouted for joy And the Septuagint are as clear for it saying When all my Angels sung for joy both leave out our Translation the Sons of God and put that which is the Exposition into the Text the Angels of God That the Angels are called Sons of God hath been shewed before chap. 1.6 There was a day when the Sons of God came together that is the Angels and Satan the evil Angel came also among them The Devil or evil spirit thrust himself into the assembly of the good Spirits or holy Angels who are the Sons of God If any ask how the Angels are the Sons of God I answer First Negatively They are not the Sons of God as Jesus Christ is Angels became the Sons of God in time Jesus Christ is the Son of God from Eternity The Apostle Heb. 1.5 puts the question To which of the Angels said he at any time thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee The Angels are the created Sons of God Jesus Christ onely is his onely begotten Son Angels are the Sons of God by meeâ— gâ—ace and favour the Lord accounting them as Sons accepting them as Sons using and respecting them as Sons as he doth also all true believers who likewise are the Sons of God But Jesus Christ alone is the Son of God by Naâ—ure or by an eternal generation and was so declared in the fulness of time both by his Incarnation and Resurrection which many conceive to be the Apostles intendment in those words This day have I begotten thee taken out of the second Psalm and quoted Acts 13.33 as also Heb. 1.5 Secondly In the Negative The Angels are not the Sons of God by Regeneration nor by Adoption Thus Believers only are the Sons of God John 1.12 To as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to as many as believed on his Name Believers are the Sons of God regenerated and adopted Angels are not so The holy Angels needed not Regeneration nor as they were created
our lives these are or may be seen of men yet they must not be brought forth that we may be seen in doing them but that men seeing our good works may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Matth. 5.16 Our inward good fruits which are indeed our choicest and most spiritual good fruits are of three sorts First Good Thoughts To do good is best for others but to think good or to have many good thoughts is the best proof that we our selves are good Solomon saith Prov. 12.12 The root of the righteous yieldeth fruit The root of a righteous man is his heart and the first-fruits of a good heart are good thoughts He is a precious person and hath a precious heart that can say as holy David did Psal 139.17 How precious are thy thoughts unto me O God how great is the sum of them That is the thoughts which I have of thee O God are exceeding precious unto me and I have many very many of them more than I am able to sum or reckon up Secondly Good affections are good inward fruits such are godly sorrow joy in God love to God longing after God Psal 27.4 Psal 42.1 2. Isa 26.9 hatred of evil all these movings of the heart are good and precious fruits Thirdly which are the issue and result of both the former good purposes and holy resolves to cleave fast to God to stick as David expresseth it Psal 119.31 to his testimonies wayes and truths at all times especially in times of trial or to continue with Christ in his temptation these are very good inward fruits Psal 17.3 Dan. 1.8 Acts 11.23 Outward good fruits are of two sorts First Good words are good fruits The lips of the righteous feed many Prov. 10.21 Edifying words Eph. 4.29 words of exhortation to good Heb. 3.13 words of reproof as to evil Gal. 6.1 words of comfort to the sad and sorrowful 1 Thess 5.14 all these words are good fruits Secondly Good works first of holiness towards God secondly of righteousness and love towards all men thirdly of charity to the poor all these are outward good fruits and all these the Lord looks for where-ever or upon whomsoever he sends the rain of his word JOB Chap. 38. Vers 28 29 30. 28. Hath the Rain a Father or who hath begotten the drops of dew 29. Out of whose Womb came the Ice and the hoary frost of Heaven who hath gendred it 30. The Waters are hid as with a stone and the face of the deep is frozen THe Lord having questioned Job in the former context about the course of the Rain and the free dispensation of it even to those places where no man is and to the Wilderness where there is no man here he questions him about the cause and original of the Rain and not only of the Rain but of the Dew the Ice and the Frost So then in these three verses we have four Questions First about the Rain and Secondly about the Dew in the 28th verse Thirdly about the Ice and Fourthly about the Frost in the 29th verse together with the marvelous force and effects of it vers 30. Vers 28. Hath the Rain a Father The Inquiry is who is the Father of the Rain that is who is the Author what is the cause of it Not as if the cauâ—e of that or of the other Meteors here mentioned could not at all be known but to shew First That much of them all is unknown There are many things in this lower Sphear beyond mans Sphear even these are not propagated altogether according to our understanding or apprehensions of them Secondly To shew that he must be plentifully stored with all sorts of good who as a Father begets and as a Mother brings forth such useful and necessary things for the preservation of living Creatures Thirdly To shew that these creatures are not produced by causes which are constant and unvariable in nature but proceed from and daily depend upon the power and will of God who somtimes checks and stops the course of Nature and at other times impregnates it for the production of these effects or brings them forth by the Midwifery and help of second causes Fourthly When the Lord propounds the Question under this Relation of a Father he would shew or teach us that he gives Rain and Dew to the earth as a father gives food and other requisites to his children Further This seems to be the design of God in putting these Questions to Job that forasmuch as he could not fully comprehend the causation and production of these things much less was able to cause or produce them himself but must receive them from the power and according to the dispose and providence of God therefore he should refer all his concernments to the same Providence and so rest satisfied whether God sent him a sweet and refreshing Rain and Dew or a grievous and afflictive season of Ice and Fâ—ost Thus we may conceive the general scope of this Context Now to the particulars Hath the Rain a father The question may be resolved both negatively and affirmatively First Negatively the Rain hath no Father that is on earth or among men There is no creature power that can produce a drop of Rain Secondly affiâ—matively Hath the Rain a father Yes it hath God is the Father of the Rain The Rain is not fatherless there is one who will own the Rain as his child or issue The causation of Rain is a great secret in nature a secret about which though wise and learned men have discoursed much and given out much light about it yet they have not reached the utmost nor attained the full knowledge of it and the reason of that is because the Rain hath a Father whose wayes and workings as in the first constitution of Nature so in the daily motions of it exceed our knowledg Hath the Rain a father Not on earth Nor are the Heavens the Father of the Rain the God of Heaven is As not a shower no nor a drop of Rain falls on the earth at the will or by the power of man Si quis alium praeter Deum pluviae patrem quaerat is erit vapor qui ex humidis locis entractus eâ— alevatus a Solo concrescit in nebulam aut nubem et inde a Sole repefactus liquescit et solvitur Sanct. so not by the power of the Sun drawing up the vapours and dissolving the Clouds nor by the Winds scattering the Clouds The Sun may shine the Moon may change the Winds may blow and turn long enough yet no Rain till the Lord gives the Word Some and that not improperly have called the Sun The father of the Rain The Sun draws up those vapours from the earth into the Air which are the matter of Rain and there those vapours are condensed into Clouds and afterwards rarified and dissolved into Rain yet these natural causes produce these effects only as God sets them on work and he can
suspend their working as often as he will And therefore the simple and plain meaning of this question is the Rain owes its original to God and must call him father And that 's the observation which riseth out of this question Hath the Rain a Father God and God alone is the Father of the Rain Without him it had never been and that it is continued is by his power and providence that the frame of nature is so disposed that second causes are so ordered and furnished as to produce Rain proceeds from or comes to pass by the Lord alone The Prophet spake this in a time of great drought Jer. 14.22 both in the negative and in the affirmative and he proposed two questions or the question twice intending the negative First Are there any among the Vanities of the Gentiles that can cause Rain By the vanities of the Gentiles we are to understand their Idol gods Idols are vanities or nothings and can they who are nothing do this great thing give Rain That 's the first question Can Idols cause Rain surely they cannot But will it not rain of course will not the Heavens one time or other yield Rain That 's the second Question Can the Heavens give showers No As Idols or false gods cannot give Rain so neither can the Heavens if forbidden give Rain they act not their power in their own power The Heavens cannot give Rain if God gives them a command to the contrary and the God of Nature can check and countermâ—nd the course of Nature both on earth and in the Heavens when he will Though those bottles the Clouds be never so pregnant and full of Rain yet he can stop them So then neither the Idols nor the Heavens can do it if God say No yea if he give not forth a word of command if he bids not the course of Nature proceed the Heavens over our heads will be Brass and the eaâ—th under us as Iron and therefore the Prophet in the latter part of the verse tells us expresly who is the Father of the Rain Art not thou he O Lord our God Therefore will we wait upon thee for thou hast made all these things As if he had said O Lord thou hast made them and therefore thou hast both the right and the power to dispose of them What can be said more clear and full for the confirmation of this poynt Many other Scriptures say the same thing Read Deut. 28.12 Psal 147.8 Jer. 5.24 Amos 4.7 So then though there are natural causes of Rain yet God is the first cause and it is at his pleasure that these natural causes either pâ—oduce their effects or are stayed from pâ—oducing them It Rains not by accident nor by any concatenation of second causes but according to the appoyntments and pleasure of the great God 'T is no small part of our duty to eye God in causing these common things and 't is a great piece of Atheism or a disowning of God to tye them up to natural causes Now If God be the Father of the Rain we may hence infer First That God is the Father of all Creatures and the supream cause of all effects in the creatures As a Father is the second or instrumental cause of his Sons Being so God is the supream efficient cause of all Beings and Entities Not only Animals and Rationals but the very inanimates and sensless creatures are of a Divine extraction God is the Fountain of their Being And if God be and must be acknowledged as the Father of all Creatures even of the Rain then Secondly God is much more the Father of Mankind The Apostle voucheth that to the superstitious Athenians as a Divine truth out of their own Authors Acts 17.28 As certain also of your own Poets have said for we are also his off spring we are sprung from him as Branches from the Root or as Streams from the Fountain Not that we are as the Streams with the Fountain or the Branches with the Rooâ— of the same Nature with him which to imagine were highest Blasphemy but we take or receive our Nature from him that is he hath made us to be what we are and in him that is in dependance upon him we live and move and have our Being Thirdly If God own himself as a Father to all things and to all men in a general way of Nature then much more doth he own himself a Father to all his people in a way of grace What the Apostle saith of his Title Saviour 1 Tim. 4.10 He is the Saviour of all men especially of those that believe so I may say of this Relation Fatâ—er God is the Father of all men but especially of those that believe The fatherhood which stands in gâ—ace is the highest and most excellent fatherhood which God beareth to any of his Creatures As to this â—he Apostle Jam. 1.18 saith Of his own will begat he us by the Word of Truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his Creatures that is as I conceive that believers they only are begotten with the word of truth considered with all other creatures to whom God is a Father in a common way should have the honour to be called the chief of his creatures The first fâ—uits were chief among the fruits of the earth The first born both of man and of beast were the Lords portion Exod. 13.1 therefore chief This honour have all the Saints the Birth-right is theirs and theirs is the Blessing They as all holy things are dedicated to God and graciously accepted with him as a chosen Generation as a peculiar people He who is Lord over all and Father of all both things and persons as they stand in the whole compass of Nature is eminently and with endeared affections a Father to all them who believe and are actually in a state of grace Fourthly If God be a Father to all creatures and to man more than to inferiour creatures and to true Beleevers more than to other men then as his fatherhood is extended so is his fatherly care God will not be wanting to any as a Father to whom he is upon any account a Father He takes care of the fruits of the earth and of the beast of the field and of all mankind he feeds them all and cloaths them all and protects them all but they who are a kind of first-fruits of his creatures and bears the image of his holiness or his Image in holiness have a special portion and proportion of his care over them and love to them and provision for them What can he deny to us as a Father who hath vouchsafed to be our father Hath the Rain a father Or who hath begotten the drops of Dew This latter part of the verse is of the same meaning with the former The word which we translate hath begotten Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Chal et de viro et de muliere dicitur et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
with them to send lightning hast thou the command of thunder and lightning will the lightnings come forth at thy bidding The words may have a double allusion 1. To the General of an Army commanding his Souldiers and they going at his word 2. To the Master of a Family who gives orders to his Se vants and they go at his word Canst thou send lightnings that they may go And say unto thee here we are or as the Hebrew is Behold us That manner of speech here we are or behold us is a description of the most ready obedience either of Souldiers to their General or of Servants to their Master Will the lightnings obey thee thus and say here we are Some expound these words as supposed to be spoken by the lightnings upon their return from some former service given them in charge by God as having dispatcht what they were sent for and were ready to go again Hence the Latine translator gives it thus Vt reverentia tibi dicent adsumus Vulg. That they being returned or after their return should say unto thee with reverence here we are 1. Ready to go whithersoever thou wilt send us 2. Ready to do whatsoever thou wilt enjoyn us As if the Lord had said Canst thou send forth the lightnings and will they return to thee and say we have done thy commands and here we are again to receive fresh commands or new orders from thee Surely as the rain will not thus obey thee so neither will the lightnings neither the one nor the other will be thy servants to go of thy errand or execute thy will The same note which I gave before concerning the rain might be taken up here again concerning the lightnings They are not under the command of man c. Secondly for as much as the Lord here denies this priviledge both respecting the rain and lightning unto man he would have us understand and know that both are in himself though you cannot yet I can command them both are under my dominion While the Lord shews Job his impotency to command these meteors he asserts his own omnipotency as he hath made them so he can rule them Hence observe All treatures even those which seem to be most out of command are fully under the command of God What to appearance is more out of command than the lightning that quick that piercing that fierce and fiery creature yet that stirs no more than a stone till the Lord commands and at his command it stirs and is gone in a moment The Lord God hath spoken saith the Prophet Amos 3.8 who can but prophesie And as a faithful Prophet cannot but prophecy so the not only faithless but senseless creatures cannot but do what God hath spoken That of the Psalmist Psal 104.4 which we read who maketh his Angels spirits his Ministers a flaming fire some render thus who maketh the winds his messengers and the flames of fire his ministers That is he useth tempestuous winds and flames of fire as his messengers and ministers The same Hebrew word that signifieth an Angel signifieth a Messenger at large and the same word that signifieth a Spirit signifieth also the Wind. And as the words so the truth will bear both translations or constructions for as those higher or highest of rational creatures the Angels so those high inanimate creatures the winds and lightnings which may properly be called flames of fire are the Ministers and messengers of God that is they go forth and Minister according to his Word they say Here we are The Lord by a call or word speaking can have whom and what he will to serve his purpose and fulfil his decrees It is said 2 King 8.1 as also Psal 105.16 The Lord called for a famine a famine of bread and he no sooner called but the famine came and said Here am I the famine presently brake the staff of bread and did eat up all the good of the Land The Prophet Haggai Chap. 1.11 represents the Lord saying I called for a drought which is the usual fore-runner of famine and the drought said Here am I it came presently as soon as the Lord commanded On the other hand when the Lord made many promises under the new Covenant among other things he said I will call for plenty Ezek. 36.29 I will call for the corn and will increase it and lay no famine upon you As in those other places he called for famine and drought so here he saith I will call for plenty and it shall say Here am I abundance of corn and grass and fruits of the earth came at that call Lamenting Jeremiah speaking of the woful captivity of the people of Israel saith Lam. 1.15 The Lord called an assembly against me that is I conceive an assembly of the Assyrians and Babylonians an assembly of men an army of men he caused them to assemble and come together he did but call and they said Here we are and we will go vex Judah and Jerusalem Thus if the Lord call for famine and drought if he call for an assembly of men for men assembled with the sword of war in their hand to punish and chastise any people for their sin they will surely come and do his pleasure whatever the Lord calls for cannot but come Take this inference from it If the Lord have such a command upon all creatures even the inanimate creatures if the lightnings answer him when he calls Here we are Then how readily should men the best of visible creatures answer his call and say Here we are When the Lord said to Abraham Gen. 12.1 Get thee out of thy Country and from thy Kindred and from thy Fathers house unto a Land that I shall shew thee he never disputed the case but saith the Apostle Heb. 11.8 Obeyed and went out not knowing whither he went He never enquired what the place was to which he was to go nor what accommodations he should find when he came thither Abraham knew he was to go whither God called him to go though whither he was to go he knew not And when long after this the Lord called to Abraham Gen. 22.1 he said Behold here I am or Behold me as if he had said Lord I am here ready to obey thy command to go of thy errand to carry whatever message thou shalt put into my mouth to do whatever work thou shalt put into my hand and that Abraham did not complement with God it appears in the same Chapter for though when God commanded him to offer up his Son his only Son Isaac whom he loved every word was enough to wound his heart the last deepest to part with a Son is hard with an only Son harder with a son dearly beloved is hardest of all especially when he must be not only passive but active in this loss his own hand must give the parting blow yet Abraham being called to this hard and hot service said Here am I and readily
there is oppression Better be sometimes in a starving condition than alwayes in a fearing condition alwayes hearing the cry of the Driver The wild Ass is content to fare hard so he may be free how much more then is he below a man who parts with his true liberty as Esau did with his Birth-right for a morsel of meat or a mess of broth Fourthly Note To be driven and forced is grievous to beasts much more to men The wild Ass regards not the crying of the Driver because he knows the Driver cannot reach him with his cry much less with his whip The tame Ass must regard and attend the cry of the Driver though he hath no will to it whether he will or no. It was said by the Moralists Man would be led not driven perswaded not compelled The disputes have been great what man may do and how far he may go to that matter but I shall not meddle with it any further than to say that when Christ in the Parable said Luke 14.23 Compel them to come in The compulsion there intended is only that of argumentation exhortation and perswasion by his Ministers whose divine Rhetorick in beseeching sinners to come in and to be reconciled unto God hath such a power in it as amounts unto and may be called a compulsion I grant many use their liberty or rather abuse it as an occasion to the flesh and turn it into wantonness these are indeed no better than wild Asses and though they are such as regard not the cry of the Driver yet they need it Thus the Lord hath shewed Job the house and dwelling as also the liberties and priviledges of the wild Ass in the next verse the Lord shews him the food or diet of the wilde Ass Vers 8. The range of the mountains is his pasture and he searcheth after every green thing This verse tells us where the Lord hath made provision for the wild Ass The Range or as some render the search of the mountains is his pasture Investigatio montium est pascuum ejus i. e. quicquid in montibus investigari potest id ei pabuli loco est Bez. that is whatsoever he searcheth and findeth out upon the mountains is his pasture Job speaketh of wicked men Chap. 24.5 after the manner of these wild Asses finding food in the wilderness for themselves and for their children The range of the mountains is his pasture Some interpret it choice things that is the best things or those things that are most savoury to the pallat of that beast those he picks up for his food Mr. Broughton translates Chosen places in the mountains are for his pasture As if it had been said Though he be wilde yet he is prudent he takes not what comes next but he chuseth what is best for him for as it followeth He searcheth after every green thing The word notes a very diligent search after every green thing Green things are his delicacies he lives upon them and delights in them he searcheth after all and feeds upon that which is best for him he looks not that man should fodder him in winter as they do tame and working cattel he looks out his own living and picks up some green thing or other all the year long Hence note Where God gives dwelling he gives feeding God hath made the wilderness and barren places for the wild Ass to dwell in yet there is something for him to feed on Secondly His food is every green thing Whence learn God gives food to all creatures convenient to their nature He gives green things grass to the beasts of the field but he doth not feed man with grass he feedeth man with the finest of the wheat and with honey out of the rock Psal 81.16 And as the Lord provides sutable food for the bodies of men so for their souls he hath spiritual green pastures for them Psal 23.1 2. The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want he maketh me to lye down in green pastures that is in his Word and Ordinances They are green pastures for his people he makes them lie down in the Promises and in the Commandments in the holy Prophecies and Histories of the written word all which are written for our instruction or learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 that is that our faith having the truth of the Word especially in the promises to feed upon our hope may be said to wait for the good of the Word patiently The holy Scriptures I say are the green pastures which the Lord hath provided for the souls of men to feed in and grow fat upon The Scriptures are a bare common a dry heath to unbelievers they find nothing there which is food for them but to believers they are fat pastures and full of such green things as are most sutable to their taste and nourishing to their souls Thus spake the Prophet Isa 49.9 10. Their pastures shall be in all high places they shall not hunger nor thirst neither shall the heat nor the Sun smite them that is they shall have safe passage and sufficient food both for soul and body for their souls especially when delivered out of their soul-prisons or spiritual captivity there spoken or prophecyed of under the Gospel Thirdly Wild Asses seaâ—ch after every green thing they take pains for their living iâ— it be not neer they will travel for it and seek after it Hence note Hunger makes irrational creatures every living creature industrious They who love not labour will yet take some pains at least so much as serves them to get food and keep them alive Those beasts which are most at liberty are in a kind of bondage to their bellies The wild Asses saith the Prophet Jer. 14.6 did stand in the high places they snuffed up the wind like Dragons because there was no grass How will they search after grass who are thus afflicted for want of grass And will not spiritual hunger make us as industrious as natural hunger doth Hungry souls will be seeking after every green thing after every divine precept after very precious promise these are the green things which the soul searcheth for and is satisfied with Naturalists say of the wild Ass that he utterly refuseth to feed upon those things that are dry and dead he must have gâ—een That 's true of every believer he cannot feed upon dead and dry things upon what is chaffy and husky he must have green sappy juicy lively food such hath God provided for him and he will be satisfied with none but such JOB Chap. 39. Vers 9 10 11 12. 9. Will the Vnicorn be willing to serve thee or abide by thy crib 10. Canst thou bind the Vnicorn with his hands in the furrow or will he harrow the valleys after thee 11. Wilt thou trust him because his strength is great or wilt thou leave thy labour with him 12. Wilt thou believe him that he will
translation with most others take the Hebrew word as an Adverb of place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet some conclude it to be an Adverb of time So 't is used Isa 25.1 where the Prophet be speaks the Lord thus Thy counsels of old that is those counsels which thou O Lord hast had a long time ago or long before time are faithfulness and truth We also render the word by long ago 1 King 19.25 But it may be objected Though the word in those places notes time yet it cannot do so in this place of Job for in those places alleadged it signifies a vast space of time before whereas here in Job if it denotes time it is but a very short space of time no more than the space of time between giving the signal of a battel by sound of trumpet and the joyning of the battel To this the answer is That this Hebrew word may be applied to a short space of time as well as to a long one seeing both the Greek and Latine words set in the Margin of the same signification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Olim. are used to note sometimes a very long and sometimes but a short space of time Now according to this sense of the word this latter clause of the verse is thus translated He smelleth or perceiveth the battel is neer at hand or will shortly be Which gives a very fair meaning of the Text if that word which all grant signifies time as well as place doth also signifie a short as well as a long space of time for then the verse runs clearly thus At the full sound of the trumpet he saith Ha ha smelling or perceiving that the battel is at hand I leave this to the Readers judgement Our own translation is an undoubted truth both as to the signification of the word and the experiences of the thing A Gallant horse trained up and accustomed to War when he sees much stirring in an Army and hears the trumpets sounding perceives a battel will be though the armies be possibly a good distance of ground one from the other Thus he smells the battel afar off especially when he hears that which follows in the close of the verse The thunder of the Captains and the shouting This is musick to him Here are two other antecedents of a battle which the horse takes notice of First The thunder of the Captains or Princes that is of the great Commanders and Generals of the field who when they give out the word they give it with a loud voice they thunder it out 'T is no time to whisper when armies are ready to joyn battle and therefore Commanders lift up their voices like trumpets or like thunder out of the clouds that the Souldiers may hear them And when Captains or Generals give exhortation to the Souldiers they thunder out arguments to encourage them and fire their spirits to the battle The horse doth as it were hear this thunder oh it pleases him when the military oration is made and the Captain-general gives order for the battle And the shouting What 's that Surely the acclamation of the whole army when the Captain Confusus clamor exercitus Praeparantis se ad praelium â—â—quin or Commander in chief hath made his military Oration then usually the Souldiers shout and make an acclamation in token of their willingness to fight and readiness for the battle Thus the horse smells the battle afar off the thunder of the Captains and the shouting The whole verse may be read in this form At the sufficient sound of the trumpet and the exhortation of the Captains together with the acclamations of the Souldiers he saith Ah ha or rejoyceth perceiving that the battle though the armies be not yet joyned but keep their ground at a distance is at hand or will suddainly be Having opened this whole context concerning the horse and given several observations from the parts of it I shall for the close of all shew how aptly this description of the horse represents or is applicable unto two very different sorts of men First The Horse as here described is the embleme of a bold and hardened sinner The Spirit of God speaks this expressly Jer. 8.6 I harkened and heard saith the Lord but they spake not aright no man repented him of his wickedness saying what have I done every one turned to his course what course his sinful course how as the horse rusheth into the battle as the horse mocks at fear and will not turn back from the sword As the horse will not be affrighted at the ratling of the quiver nor at the shaking of the spear so hardened sinners rush on though you tell them there 's deadly danger in it and that the Sword of the Word points directly at them and will cut them off Yea they will not turn back though the Lord should brandish a flaming sword as he did against Adam to keep him from the tree of life so to keep them from the tree of death they will for all this rush on as the horse to the battle The wicked man is thus described in one place of this book of Job Chap. 15.25 26. where Eliphaz saith of him He stretcheth out his hand against God here 's war with God and strengthens himself against the Almighty that is draws all his forces together and what then just as the horse in the Text He runs upon the thick bosses of his buckler even upon his neck A wicked man like the horse runs upon God even upon the thick bosses of his buckler The Lord is there represented by Eliphaz as holding out a buckler against the sinner what 's that the Law his Word of command that 's Gods buckler and this buckler hath thick bosses and sharp points especially in the middle a great boss with a pike such are all divine threatnings yet the sinner runs as a horse upon these thick bosses of Gods buckler his severest threatnings Thus the horse and a bold sinner are alike Secondly The horse is also the embleme of a bold Saint or of a faithful servant of God Such specially were all the holy Martyrs St. Austine A chief among the Ancients saith expressly that in the Horse the Martyr may be seen whom none account valiant but God himself and they who are born of God I may Parallel a holy Martyr and the Horse in every particular mentioned in this context First As the horse is said to receive his strength from God hast thou given strength to the horse so it was God who gave strength to the Martyrs to stand it out in the day of battle Secondly As God gives courage to the horse so it was God that gave courage to the Martyrs and such courage he hath sometimes given as hath made poor weak women as strong and couragious as the horse in the Text Persecuters could not make the old martyrs run like Grashoppers they have even mocked at fear and would not turn back from
gracious in condescending to man He is willing we should answer for our selves and do our best to clear our selves when we have done our works amiss or have spoken amiss of his JOB Chap. 40. Vers 3 4 5. 3. Then Job answered the Lord and said 4. Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth 5. Once have I spoken but I will not answer yea twice but I will proceed no further IN the former verse the Lord urged Job to answer He that reproveth God let him answer it Job being thus urged by the Lord to answer gave his answer and the answer which he gave was this in general That he could not answer Or we have here First An humble confession of his utter inability to answer Secondly His settled resolution not to answer His inability to answer appears at the 4th verse Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth His resolution not to answer or only to give this for an answer That he could not answer is expressed in the 5th verse Once have I spoken but I will not answer yea twice but I will proceed no further Jobs spirit it seems was much appaled by the Lords appearance to him and immediate parlee with him his understanding also was much puzzled yea non-plust with those many and intricate questions which God had put to him and therefore he submits at once acknowledging he had done amiss in his over-free discourses before and promising that he would run that course no more Vers 3. Then Job answered the Lord and said What he said by way of answer followeth Vers 4. Behold I am vile what shall I answer Behold Job doth not conceal nor cover but calls all eyes to the view of his own vileness Behold Let God behold let Angels behold let men behold what now I my self behold that I am vile The root of the word which we translate vile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et levem vilem ac contemptum esse significat signifies three things First To be light or of little weight and because light things are lightly esteemed therefore it signifies Secondly To be contemned or that which is contemptible and Thirdly Because light things and things contemptible are also vile things therefore as we translate it signifies vile As if Job had said I am light I have no substance no solidity in me I am but as chaff or as a feather I bear no weight I deserve no esteem no respect I am vile As the Hebrew word for honour and glory is derived from a root which signifies heaviness or weightiness whence the Apostles phrase in the Greek tongue 2 Cor. 4.17 which we translate an exceeding weight of glory Glory is such a weighty thing that we must have other manner of shoulders other manner of strength than now we have before we can be able to bear the weight of it Flesh and blood as it is unrefined or meerly natural would soon sink under that weight Now I say as glory and honour are exprest by a word which signifies weightiness so that which is vile and contemptible is exprest by a word that signifies lightness or to be light Thus saith Job Behold I am light or Behold I am vile There are two other translations of these words whereof the one refers to the speeches the other to the actions of Job First The old Latine translation saith thus Qui leviter loquutus sum respondere quid possum Vulg. I have spoken lightly how shall I answer thee Ours refers to his person I am light or I am vile that to his words I have spoken lightly To speak lightly or vainly is to be vain and light Some words have a great deal of weight in them words of truth words of soberness holy words gracious words are weighty words evil words impertinent words unprofitable words specially corrupt filthy sinful words are light words how many words soever of those sorts any man speaks they are all light words they have not a grain of goodness and therefore not a grain of weightiness in them That 's a good sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecce leviter feci Aquila Secondly One of the Greek translators renders Behold I have done or acted lightly There is lightness in our actions as well as in our speeches We say such a man is of a light that is of a vain carriage and we say of another he is a grave man or there is gravity in his carriage Thus some speak and act gravely or weightily others speak and act loosely lightly When Job saith Behold I am vile it may take in both I have spoken lightly I have done lightly and therefore I am light therefore I am vile or contemptible Cum nihil siâ— Sept. Yet further The greek Septuagint translates I am nothing they carry the sense to the lowest and least imaginable There is nothing less than nothing How shall I answer thee seeing I am nothing All that I am is so light a thing that I am nothing at all that is nothing of worth nothing of value I am of so little validity that I have scarce any entity From all these readings we may fully gather up Jobs sense in this self-abasing confession Behold I am vile Lastly For the clearing of these words consider we are not to understand Job when he saith I am vile as speaking only with reference to his then present sad sorrowful deplorable condition sometimes such are accounted vile by men who are low and mean in the eye of the world Job did not count himself vile upon that consideration because stript of all his worldly greatness power and glory health and strength he did not call himself vile because of the present dispensation of God towards him but he called himself vile with respect to the common natural condition of mankind or as he was a sinful man though his providential condition had been never so good and prosperous Behold I am vile Hence observe First Man at his best estate is vile David saith he is even then altogether vanity Psal 39.5 and what is vile if that be not or what can be viler than that which is altogether vanity Man is vile First If we consider the matter of his body Was he not originally made of the dust and moulded out of the clay which we tread upon and trample undeâ— feet In which sense among others the Apostle Phil. 3.21 calls oâ—r body a vile body the materials of it being vile it iâ—â—â—so vile Secondly Man is very vile ch â—â—â—y vile through the sinfulness both of his nature and life Sin reâ—ders us vile indeed corruption makes us of no repâ—â—ation Thâ—ugh man as to the matter of his body might have bâ—en called vile iâ— the day of his creation yet he had never deserved that diminishing title if he had not sinned Sin hath degraded man and laid him low sin hath dishonoured
to speak very sparingly 'T is seldom that the tongue is left loose but it speaks loosly and it often speaks those things which give occasion of offence both to God and man As all iniquity shall at last stop her mouth Psal 107.42 that is evil men the abstract is put for the concrete shall be so ashamed and confounded for their evil deeds that when they are charged with them or convinced of them they shall hold their peace as if their mouths were stopped or like the man that came to the feast in the Gospel without his Wedding-garment they shall be speechless Now I say as all iniquity shall stop her mouth for shame so it is good for the best somtimes to stop their own mouths for fear they should speak any iniquity This godly fear as well as a gracious shame for what he had spoken amiss before caused Job to say Agnoscit se imparem esse sustinendae disputationi cum Deo illo summo aeterno bono Pro unum duo licet vertere semel bis sic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 semel in anno intrabit Pontifex fanctum sanctorum Levit. 16.34 Drus I will lay my hand upon my mouth which resolve he further confirms in the next verse Vers 5. Once have I spoken but I will not answer yea twice but I will proceed no further Once have I spoken That is once have I spoken amiss not that he never spoke but once for he had spoken often but once he had spoken amiss and been too forward with his tongue But I will not answer That is I will not speak so again But had Job spoken amiss but once he confesseth more in the latter part of the verse Yea twice but I will proceed no furthor Once yea twice Some Interpreters are much in shewing what that once or twice speaking should be First Some say it was that he so importunately desired to plead with God Secondly Others that he did so much justifie himself for though he did well in maintaining his integrity yet his over-doing it or being so much in it was not well Others That his once was his complaining of the afflictions of the godly especially of his own as if they were too heavy and he not weighed in an even ballance at least afflicted more than needed That his twice was his heightning the prosperity of the wicked as if God favoured them at least that he did not punish them as they deserved nor shew displeasure enough against them But we need not stay upon such particulars nor take once and twice strictly This expression once yea twice implies only that he had spoken often I have spoken not only once but twice that is I have spoken several times amiss The first step beyond once is twice and who knows how much beyond twice he had spake when he said once have I spoken yea twice the meaning plainly is I have several times spoken amiss We had this form of speech Job 33.14 where Elihu told Job that the Lord speaketh once yea twice yet man perceiveth it not that is he speaks often in a dream in a vision of the night and man understands not the meaning of it So here I saith Job have spoken once yea twice or many times But I will proceed no further or I will not adde saith the Hebrew I will no more apologize for my self nor stand in my own defence for in so doing I shall stand in my own light but lay my self low in the presence of God As if he had said My sin is already too great in that I have divers times spoken too boldly and freely if not presumptuously about thy proceedings but I will refrain from offending in that kind any more The sum of all that Job had spoken may be thus conceived Now Lord I confess to thee and before all the world my sin and folly in questioning any of thy dealings with me instead of submitting to them especially in urging a hearing of my cause in thy presence Therefore I revoke my challenge and cast my self at thy footstool acknowledging my self in comparison of thee every way vile and base utterly unable to satisfie any of thy demands And as I my self purpose so I humbly beg leave of thee that I may be silent I grant all that thou hast said of thy own greatness and of my vileness and I bewail my over-daring rashness I will not defend pertinaciously what I have said unadvisedly and to make sure of that I am resolved to say no more lest carryed out in heaâ— of speech I should heat my passions lâ—st multiplying words I should multiply my errours and so dash against the same reck again First In that Job confesseth once have I spoken yea twice Note A good man may fall often Once and more than once once and twice yea more than twice We cannot limit the number nor say to this or that number the failings or sinnings of a good man may come and no further Though it be very sad to multiply sins yet the best of men have multiplied them From the latter words I will proceed no further Note Secondly Though a good man may fall often yet a good man will not take leave to sin often no nor once He will not give himself a liberty to proceed or continue in sin When he hath sinned once or twice he does not say possibly I may sin again therefore what should I trouble my self about it who knows how often any man may sin no though he knoweth not how often he may sin yet he will not give himself liberty to sin not only not knowingly but not at all once more but saith in the strength of Christ I will proceed no further I will do so no more A gracious heart is so far from taking liberty to sin often that he takes up a resolve not to sin and will to the utmost watch against and keep himself pure from sin especially from his special sin as David did who said Psal 18.21 I have kept my self from mine iniquity As if he had said There is an iniquity which dogs me and follows me a sin which easily besets me but I have kept my self to the utmost of my power from falling into that iniquity And I say though a good man may multiply iniquity yet wo to those who give themselves scope to multiply iniquity or to commit any one iniquity The voice of true repentance is this I will sin no more Though I deny not but a man who hath truly repented of some particular sin and sincerely purposed not to commit it any more may being over-powered by corruption and temptation be overtaken with the same sin again yet the voice of true repentance is this and thus the penitent soul speaks in truth I will sin no more I will proceed no further Again Job had been confessing his fault his failings Once have I spoken yea twice The words are a penitent confession or the confession
the danger of pride poor proud is so common that it is grown into a proverb And they especially who are poor in spirituals grow proud in spirit as it was with the Laodicean Angel Rev. 3.17 But further they are proud who lift up themselves in any thing of self As First in their natural parts wit understanding memory elocution Secondly in their acquired parts learning knowledge skill Thirdly in their moral vertues sobriety temperance justice Fourthly in their spiritual graces faith love self-denial 't is possible to be proud for a fit of these or to have a fit of pride come upon us upon the exercise of these Fifthly in their holy duties and performances prayers fastings c. Sixthly in their legal righteousness and good deeds alms charities We seldom do well or any good especially as we ought and duty binds us much good but we think too well of our selves that we are better than we are or too much both of the good we have done and of our own goodness As the great goodness of God or the greatness of his goodness appears chiefly in this that he can make all things even evil things and those not only the evils of trouble but the evil of sin work together for our good Rom. 8.28 so the great evil of mans heart or the greatness of that evil appears chiefly in this that it causeth all things even good things and those not only the good things of this natural life but the good belonging to and done in the power of a spiritual life to work to our hurt sometimes for a time and would to our ruine for ever did not the Lord over-rule it Seventhly the favour which they have with men whether they be the mighty the Princes and powers of the world or the many the common people of the world How are some lifted up because they are the darlings of the people because the multitude eyes them points at them and applauds them To be lifted up in any of these things or in any thing else and what is there not only of an earthly but of an heavenly pedigree and extraction in which the vain heart of man is not ready to be lifted up unduly forgetting God from whom all good comes to be lifted up I say in any of these things layes man open to the wrathful resistance of God and all such God will bring down and abase therefore let us be empty of our selves and beware of being found among the proud yea of being in any kind or degree proud It is dangerous to have any pride found in us but woe to those who are found proud Thirdly If the Lord hath such an eye to and upon proud men and will thus bring them low Then let us not be afraid of proud men why should we be afraid of them who are falling Prov. 15.33 The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom and before honour is humility But what saith the same Solomon Prov. 18.32 Before destruction the heart of man is haughty As soon as ever we see any man shewing a proud heart by pride of life we may quickly conclude the Lord is about to pluck him down One very great reason why the Lord hath laid many who were once as mountains low as valleys was the pride of their hearts When pride buds the rod blossometh that is God is preparing for the correction if not for the destruction of proud ones And as it is sad to see pride bud at any time so then especially when the rod blossometh that is when God is correcting us with his rods Fourthly Then do not envy proud ones We are apt to envy those that are high in place though they are proud in spirit but do not envy proud ones how high how great soever you see them for they are in danger of falling according to the truth of this Scripture and many others When proud men are in their fullest ruff and highest ascent then they are nearest a dreadful downfall Before destruction the heart of man is haughty saith Solomon Prov. 18.12 and before honour is humility And the Apostle Peter having given this counsel to those who are humbled by affliction 1 Epist 5.6 humble your selves under the mighty hand of God subjoyns this comfortable promise in the close of the verse That he may exalt you in due time Fifthly Then pride is a very provoking sin The Lord who declares himself against all sorts of sinners declares himself most against proud sinners Prov. 16.5 Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord mark what followeth in the same verse though hand joyn in hand he that is the proud man shall not be unpunished Pride is the Devils sin the Devil is that Mystical Leviathan spoken of in the 41th Chapter of this Book who is a King over all the children of pride They who are not subject to God proud men above all men are not are the Devils subjects He is a King over all the children of pride There are four things in which the provocation of the sin of pride consists any one of which may provoke God to pull down proud ones First Proud men set themselves in the place of God Lucifer by whom the proud Babilonian is meant said Isa 14.14 I will be like the Most High Thus the Lord said of the Prince of Tyrus Ezek. 28.2 Because thine heart is lifted up and thou hast said I am a God I sit in the seat of God in the midst of the seas yet thou art a man and not God though thou set thy heart as the heart of God See how that proud Prince thought to carry it as God as if he had been the founder of his own strength How can the Lord but be provoked with such an affront as this Proud Babilon spake this language and at as high a rate Isa 47.8 I am and none else besides me is not this to speak just like God I shall not sit as a widdow neither shall I know the loss of children Secondly As pride is an usurpation of the place and power of God so of the providences of God A proud man knoweth not how to acknowledge God in any mercy nor how to be humbled under the hand of God in any affliction He mindes not God either in what he enjoyeth or in what he suffereth is not this a provocation Thirdly Pride must needs provoke God as a proud man sets himself against all the Commands Laws of God God cannot but be provoked to see all his Laws and Commands slighted by man A proud man will keep no bounds nor would he be kept in any Fourthly Pride is a Mother sin it brings forth many other sins As Unbelief is a Mother sin so is Pride Hab. 2.5 He is a proud man neither keepeth at home who enlargeth his desire as hell and is as death and cannot be satisfied but gathereth unto him all Nations and heapeth unto him all people The
chief in the word of God is the truth of it that which rules and reigns and holds as it were the headship in and throughout the word of God is the truth of it or Gods trueness and faithfulness in making it good and therefore the first thing which faith doth is to set to its seal that God is true true of his word or that his word is true John 3.33 The Greeks call honey the first of sweetnesses because it is the sweetest of all natural things Mel dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quòd dulcedine praestat rebus omnibus Now here when the Text saith he is the chief or beginning of the wayes of God we are not to take it of a beginning in time several creatures were seniors to Behemoth being made before him but in excellency which we render clearly He is the chief of the wayes of God But you will say how is the Elephant the chief of the wayes of God Are not Angels and men at least above him I answer There is a twofold chief First Absolute Secondly in its kind Behemoth is the chief of the wayes of God not absolutely not as if God had made nothing more excellent than the Elephant but in his kind that is among the beasts of the earth he is the chief and as we say bears away the bell from all the rest Behemoth is not only of the first three but like Adino the Tachmonite among Davids worthies he is the first of the first three among all the irrational creatures which move upon the face of the earth And though in some one thing many excel him yet taking him altogether he excels them all He is the chief of the wayes of God that is of the works of God The works of God are called his ways because he appears stands forth in his works as man doth in his way God did not appear at all til he did create then he appeared gloriously in all his divine perfections of power wisdom and goodness And as he appeared in the works of creation so he daily appeareth in his woâ—ks of providence as in his way for in them also it is seen how powerful how wise how good he is Behemoth both as to creation and providence is the chief of the wayes or works of God in his kind Angels and Men are indeed above him but as for other creatures Behemoth is the chief Thus the Lord having spoken of many particular excellencies in this creature recapitulates or sums up all that he had said like an eloquent Orator in these crowning words He is the chief of the ways of God Hence note First There is a difference as to excellency or there are degrees of excellency in the works of God God hath bestowed more upon some creatures than he hath upon others God bestowed most upon man in the first creation for how excellent soever he made any visible creature yet it is said of no creature he made him in his image after his likeness till he came to man and the new creature which comes in by redemption is far more excellent than man in his first creation Now I say as man is far more excellent than all earthly creatures he is next to Angels man is placed in the uppermost form of the visible world So among the creatures there are some that very much excel others here 's one called the chief of the ways of God himself This is not an Orators flattery the Spirit of God gives Behemoth this encomium this commendation he hath precedency by a divine right All creatures are not alike they cannot all be chief and there are none like this he is the chief of all Among the inanimate creatures there is a gradual difference 1 Cor. 15.40 There are coelestial bodies and bodies terrestial but the glory of the coelestial is one and the glory of the terrestial is another and all coelestial bodies are not alike for There is one glory of the Sun and another of the Moon and another of the Stars and one Star differs from another in glory There are also various excellencies both as to kind and degree among vegetatives or plants What is a Nettle in the Ditch to Hysope in the Garden and what is the Thistle in Lebanon to the Cedar in Lebanon that 's one of the lowest and most ignoble plants this one of the highest and most honourable Consider animals What variety among the fish of the sea what is a Sprat to a Whale What variety among the fowls of the air what is a Sparrow to the Eagle What variety among the beasts of the earth what is a Bullock to an Elephant or an Ass to a Lion Coâ—sider â—ationals Men are not all alike some men do almost as much excel other men as all men excel beasts yea there is a difference in the same man his soul is more excellent than his body some parts of the body are more excellent than others some powers and faculties of the soul are more excellent than the rest The Apostle 1 Cor. 12.28 29. speaking of the Church shews how God hath put the guides of it into several ranks He hath set some in the Church First Apostles Secondly Prophets Thirdly Teachers after that miracles then gifts of healing helps governments diversities of tongues Are all Apostles are all Prophets are all Teachers do all speak with tongues are all workers of miracles are all chief are all in the first rank no some are in one condition some in another And thus it is in the world God hath set some Kings all others Subjects and among them some are Lords some Judges and Magistrates c. Are all Kings are all Lords are all Judges and Magistrates surely not To have all men of one order would put all men and all things too out of order There is a chief among beasts And those men are worse than beasts who acknowledge not a chief among men God is not the author of confusion as in all the Churches of the Saints saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 14.33 so I may say in all the Kingdoms of the world And if so I would only infer then let none be troubled that they are not chief no nor that they are not of equal rank with other men let us be content with our station though it be a low one 'T is best for us to be where God hath placed us and to be thankful for what God hath given us though in gifts and parts we are much inferior to many God doth not bestow a like measure of gifts no nor of grace upon all And though it may be a favour and a mercy to have outward preheminency above others yet to love or affect preheminency as the Apostle John taxed Diotrophes is very sinful The Apostle would have us covet earnestly the best gifts 1. Cor. 12.31 and he there minds us of a better thing to be coveted than the best gifts that is grace Faith hope charity to covet
for his turn And the same saith another learned interpreter Armavit illum Deus manu seu proboscide quasi gladio validi simo Jun. Pisc following this Translation God hath armed him with a Trunk as with a strong and a mighty sword There is a truth in this Translation and interpretation and it hath the suffrage of many worthy men for it as the principal if not the sole meaning of these words God who made Behemoth hath also made him a Sword to defend himself with that his vast body should not be liable to every danger and affront Take one Note from this reading As God hath given the Creatures a being so means to protect and preserve themselves in their Being He that made him hath given him a Sword he hath not left him naked or unarmed Many creatures I mean of the irrational creatures have natural weapons horns hoofs teeth and claws to defend themselves with and offend those with that trouble them Others have only defensive Arms as it were for safety against annoyance shells and thick skins Many have neither offensive nor defensive armes who yet by their natural swiftnesse shift for themselvs by flight and out-â—un their dangers There for is no creature but hath some way or other for its defence As man the chief creature God hath given him Reason to provide all sorts of lawful means for his preservation and defence Take it also spiritually God having made any man a New creature gives him a Sword and means of defence to preserve himself in his spiritual being Every godly man hath spiritual weapons the whole armour of God for his defence against the Devil his spiritual enemy The Apostle leads us into Gods Armory and shews us what weapons God hath made for the spiritual man or for the preservation of man in his spiritual state and being Eph. 6.13 14 c. The Girdle of Truth the Breast-plate of righteousness Feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace The Shield of Faith to quench the fiery darts of the Devil The Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God Thus God hath armed the New-Creature with a Sword he that made him hath made him weapons of defence and offence to save his soul from the wounds of temptation and to resist yea overcome the Tempter Thus as the Lord who made Behemoth hath made him a Sword so he hath provided weapons or means of defence for all other creatures for man especially and most specially for man in his spiritual condition that his immortal soul may be safe whatever becomes of his frail flesh or mortal body So much of and from that first Translation He that made him made his Sword to be near him Yet before I come to explain our own Translation I shall here again mind the Reader what learned Bochartus understands by the Hebrew word rendred Sword in reference to the Hippopotame He that made him saith he hath given him Harpen a sickle or crooked Sword Our Dictionaries render the word Harpe a Wood-knife as also a Sythe This crooked Sword or Sickle denotes saith he the long sharp and somwhat bowed teeth of the Hippopotame with which he doth as it were reap or cut down coâ—n and grasse when he comes on Land to feed as several Greek Poets by him named describe the manner of the Hippotame's feeding which must be granted complyeth well with the words in the next verse where 't is said of Behemoth The Mountains bring him forth food Yet I see no reason but that those great teeth of the Elephant which surely are no hurtlesse weapons as also his Promuscis or Trunk though commonly called his hand may be compared to and expressed by a Sword if that be true which good Authors say he doth with them The Second reading of the Text which Bochartus saith a very learned Interpreter perceiving the inconvenience of the former as to the Elephant took up is also ours He that made him can make his Sword to approach unto him His Sword That is his own Sword Gods Sword God hath a Sword and he can make his Sword approach Behemoth that is As strong as Behemoth is God that made him and gave him his strength can subdue him can pierce his skin though very hard and wound him to the very heart he can break his bones though they are like strong pieces of brass and bars of iron Quasi à Solo Deo sit occidendus Drus So then the meaning of the words according to our translation is plainly this As if the Lord had said Though Behemoth be very vast and big strong and torrible yet I can quickly bring him down Hanc expositionem respuere videtur verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accedere faciet applicabit quo nulla notatur hostilitas sed potius amica conjunctio Pisc and vanquish him Some oppose this translation and exposition because the Hebrew word which we render to approach is not applicable say they to an hostile approach but rather to an amicable and friendly approach Now to come upon one with a Sword is an hostile approach 't is to come as an enemy which say they that word will not well bear But I conceive this to be a mistake for in Scripture once if not oftner the word is used to denote an hostile approach or an assault 1 Sam. 17.40 where David encountring Goliah 't is said He took his staffe in his hand and chose five smooth stones out of the brook and put them in a shepherds bag which he had even in a scrip and his sling was in his hand and he drew near or approached to the Philistim Now how did David approach the Philistim Surely not to salute him as a friend but ro destroy him as an enemy as in the issue he did Though the word commonly signifieth a friendly approach yet the Scripture applyeth it also to an enemy-like or violent approach and therefore that objection is of no force to invalidate our Translation or the Interpretation given of it He that made him can make his Sword approach unto him But what is this Sword that God makes to approach unto Behemoth I answer This Sword is any thing whereby God is pleas'd to subdue or destroy Behemoth or the Elephant whatever instrument God will use that 's his Sword or whether God will use any other creature to kill the Elephant that creature is his Sword 'T is said that the Rhinoceros his sworn enemy if I may so speak gets his sharpned horn under his belly and paunches him 'T is said also that the Dragon loving to suck or drink his blood kills him Now whether the Elephant fall by these beasts and serpents or be slain in battle and war by men he may be said to fall by the sword of God or that God makes his sword approach unto him The sword of God is the power of God put forth by this or that or any means
ears of others hard words of threatning and hard words of reviling for these the Lord will judge the ungodly as well as for their ungodly deeds Now as there are hard words so soft words What are they Soft words are words of intreaty words of meekness words of love words of submission these are soft words Will Leviathan make supplications or Will he speak soft words Again soft words are often flattering words which are therefore compared by the Prophet Ezek. 13.18 To pillows sowed under the arm-holes Will Leviathan flatter himself into thy favour will he lie down like a Spaniel and fawn upon thee no he is too high-spirited to bow too stiff to stoop he will speak no soft words A soft answer saith Solomon Prov. 15.1 turneth away strife 'T is good when a question is put to us to give a soft answeâ— And if when we have hard words spoken to us we return hard answers they will quickly stir up strife Solomon hath a strange expression Prov. 15.15 A soft tongue breaketh the bones The tongue naturally is a soft fleshy spungy member of the body yet there is nothing hath more hardness I may say more bones in it than the tongue but 't is the soft tongue which breaketh the bones not the bones of the body but of the mind and the meaning is this If the spirit of a man be as stiff as the bones of his body against you yet if you speak soft words you may break him and bring him to your desire whereas if you be high and stiff if you give hard for hard it turns to an exasperation It were no great loss if they could speak no more than Leviathan who like Leviathan know not how to speak soft words And usually they who are freest to speak soft words of flattery are furthest from speaking soft words of love or charity of gentleness and true ingenuity 'T is good and our wisdom in two cases to speak soft words in truth even to those who are none of the best First To avoid hard dealing from those who have us in their power and they who are afraid of hard dealing will sure enough speak soft words whereas a man that cares not how hardly others deal with him cares not to speak soft words Secondly 'T is wisdom to speak soft words when we are in expectation or under hope of receiving benefit or good from any Loqui mollia inferioris est in the power of whose hand it is to do us good They have reason to give good words who would receive any good Thus some speak soft words to divert evil others speak soft words that they may obtain good As for Leviathan he is here represented in the pride of his heart as neither fearing any hurt you can do him nor desiring you should do him any good and therefore Will he speak soft words to thee no not he Hence observe The strong and mighty will not make supplications nor use entreaties They who think they have enough in themselves will not make supplication to God himself they will not entreat his favour nor speak soft words to him There are many such proud stout-hearted Leviathans in the likeness of men Jer. 10.25 Pour out thy wrath upon the families that call not upon thy name There are whole families that will not make supplications to God What are these a company of Leviathans that think they have enough of their own and live in a self-strength or in a self-sufficiency as if they were not beholding to God for any thing they have nor desired to have any thing of him The Lord speaks of a generation of men who shame the counsel of the poor because the Lord is his refuge Psal 14.6 that is because they in all their wants dangers and distresses had recourse to God by prayer as their only refuge Of what spirit those men were who shamed or were ashamed of this counsel and course of the poor he tells us at the 4th verse of that Psalm They eat up my people as they eat bread and call not upon God We thought they have enough of our own strength enough of our own we are Leviathans we need not be beholding to God It is an argument of a wicked stout high mind not to make supplications Prov. 18.23 The poor useth entreaties or the poor speaketh supplications They that are poor in outward things will speak very humbly to those above them and if we know our own spiritual poverty that we are weak empty creatures even nothing-creatures if we are poor in spirit we will be using many entreaties to get in with God and to move him to have mercy upon us None but humble ones and such as see their wants and dangers that they are hardly bestead in this world or are convinced that all the good and great things they have yea that the greatest things they can have in this world can stand them in no stead without God will speak soft words of supplication unto God Leviathan never thinks himself in danger or in want and therefore he scorns all the world and in this he is an emblem of all carnal worldly men And as Leviathan will make no supplications nor speak soft words so Vers 4. Will he make a Covenant with thee Some who think themselves too high to make supplications to others may yet possibly make a covenant with them But Will Leviathan make a covenant with thee he will not The word which we translate a Covenant signifies two things First to chuse because a Covenant is to be made by choice persons and upon choice tearms An scindet vel secabit Heb. foedus factum erat adhibita sectione vituli Secondly it signifies to eat because they were wont to feast when covenants were made The Hebrew is Will he strike or cut a covenant with thee The reason of that was because they were wont to divide a beast and pass between the parts of it at the making of a Covenant Jer. 34.18 They did cut the calf in twain and passed between the parts thereof Will Leviathan cut a Covenant with thee As he will not speak thee fair nor endeavour to soften thy heart towards him by speaking soft words to thee were he in thy power so he will never enter covenant with thee to become thy sure friend much less thy faithful servant as it followeth in the Text. Wilt thou take him for thy servant for ever Many are Covenant-servants for a time some for ever These four things follow in order First Some for fear make supplications Secondly They speak soft words Thirdly They makes covenant or promise Fourthly They offer their service to those in whose hand they are But Leviathan will do none of these from first to last Wilt thou take him for thy servant for ever If thou wilt he will not Suppose thou hadst taken Leviathan with a hook and hadst him fast in thy power with a cord will he be thy servant as long
of counsel Great dangers even unhinge our reason and put it out of place The Disciples of Christ in a storm Mat. 8.25 were not only like men at their wits end but almost at their faiths end too crying out Lord save us we perish if thou help us not we are all undone And he said why are ye fearful O ye of little faith There is nothing but faith can keep down the prevailings of fear in great or prevailing dangers breakings and when once we are at our faiths end in a time of extremity we shall soon be at our wits end also yea even quite out of our wits A faithless man is no match for little fears he that hath but a little faith or is a man of little faith may soon be over-matcht with great ones As perfect love either the actings of our perfect love to God or the evidence and apprehensions of the perfect love of God to us casteth out fear 1 Joh. 4.18 that is all that fear which hath torment in it so also doth perfect faith in God that is a strong a well-foundation'd and a well and high-built faith 'T is either for want of faith or for some want in faith that mighty men by reason of breakings are not only afraid but wander as uncertain of their way That 's the first reading Secondly We say They purifie themselves What 's that there are two interpretations of this translation First Some interpret it of a bodily distemper Quando mare fluctibus intumescit nausea â—boritur qui sunt in navi fere vomuâ—â— stomachum purguntes Drus Alvum solvit Bez. Rab. Levi. coming upon the mighty by reason of their fear In storms at sea passengers purge their stomacks usually by vomiting and sometimes by stool Thus I say some expound this Text that through extreamity of fear they are surprised with a suddein loosness The Prophet speaking of a dreadful day saith Ezek. 7.17 All knees shall be feeble we put in the Margin All knees shall go into the water the meaning is as all interpreters give it they shall not be able to hold there water And as some upon a suddain assault of fear cannot hold their water so neither can others their ordure The reason of it is plain in nature fear making a great dissipation of spirits weakens the retentive faculty Some look upon this as a sense too low and mean for the intendment of this place though in it self a truth And therefore 't is enough to mention it nor ought it to be left unmentioned seeing it may humble us to consider unto what pitiful exigents mighty ones may be brought when surprised with dangers But Secondly I conceive and upon that I shall insist these words Vox 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Piet Hiphtael expiationem à peccato importat unde vertitur expiabunt se seu paenitentiam agent remissionem à Deo petent praesenti mortis discrimino teriti Scult They purifie themselves are rather to be taken morally that is mighty men when they see themselves in such danger mighty Leviathan raising himself breaking all before him what do they they purifie themselves that is they betake themselves to prayer and repentance and then they will purifie themselves in all hast by confessing and vowing to put away their sins then they will in all hast make their peace with God this is a good interpretation And the word which we translate here to purifie is applied to this spiritual purifying by confessing of sin and tuâ—ning to God and promises of amendment Psalm 51.7 Purge or purifie me with hysop and I shall be clean only there 't is Gods act here mans But as God doth purge us by pardon so we may be said to purge our selves by repentance and earnest suing to God for pardon And how usual is it even with bad men when they are in great danger when they see nothing but death before them then to fall a praying and repenting then to confess their sins and promise amendment or to become new men Thus by reason of breakings when all is ready to be broken loft and spoiled they purifie themselves Hence Observe In great dangers which threaten present death or undoing at least even common men will confess their sins and make great shews or semblances of repentance When the mighty are afraid when they are in trouble and misery then they cry to God for mercy and cry out upon their sins as the procuring cause of their miseries and troubles How good how godly will they be for a fit and it may work further in a day of evil It is said of the Marriners in a storm Psal 107.28 Then they cry unto the Lord in their distresses Even such Marriners as seldom think of God nor pray to him in a calm being in a storm fall a praying they purifie thomselves Now they are for repentance now they will cast their sins over-board seing themselves almost swallowed up by the raging sea Thus Jon. 1.4 5. When the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea and there was a mighty tempest in the sea so that the ship was like to be broken Then the Marriners were afraid that was the first effect which the tempest wrought in them and what was the next that was a fit of devotion They cryed every man to his God Now they purified themselves by repentance and prayer Were not these Marriners grown very good when beset with evil Thus many pray repent make lamentations over their sins take up resolutions against their sins in a storm then or thus even carnal ignorant common men will purifie themselves in times of great danger We say well true repentances is never too late but late repentance is seldome true We may say also Repentance in a storm is good but repentance in a storm it not always good real dangers may produce but false feniged and forced repentance And they who repent only when they are in or because they are in a storm were never good as yet nor will they continue in that goodness which then they make shew of As a godly man purifies himself when he sees a storm so he purifies himself in a calm too or when he is in greatest safety And if we do not purifie our selves in a calm as well as in a storm our repentance is but the repentance of Heathen Marriners Be in a calm what you are in a storm be when you see Lambs what you were when you see or saw Leviathans Secondly Observe It is a duty to repent when we see great dangers or as the Text speaks great breakings To be sure we ought to repent in a time of trouble We are to repent at all times but then most Be careful you leave not that work undone at any time but do it very carefully at such a time It is said of those that were scorched with great heat Revel 16.9 they blasphemod the Name of God which hath power over
Leviathans description is taken by Bochartus as a further proof that the Leviathan here spoken of is the Crocodile whose scales are not penetrable by the force of any weapon whereas saith he the skin of the Whale gives passage to the forcible stroke or thrust of any sharp-edged or sharp-pointed instrument For answer to this I have no more to say than what hath been said at the 15th 16th and 17th verses of this Chapter concerning the scales of Leviathan to which I refer the Reader and shall pass on when I have given three or four hints by way of improvement from the whole First If the Lord hath made a creature that no weapon can hurt then surely the Lord himself is exalted above all hurt from the creature as it is said in another place of this Book Chap. 35.6 If thou sinnest what dost thou against him or if thy transgressions be multiplyed what dost thou unto him that is thou canst not hurt God with thy sin Though men by sin lay at him as with sword and spear though they throw their sling-stones of blasphemy at him they cannot hurt him Gamaliel Acts 5.39 gives warning against this take heed what ye do refrain from these men lest haply ye be found even to fight against God They fight against God who set themselves to do mischief but what mischief soever they do to men or among men they can do none to God their weapons reach him not As Solomon tells us Prov. 21.30 There is no wisdom nor counsel against the Lord so there is no weapon against the Lord Sword and spear and dart whether material or metaphorical are but stubble before him And as the Lord himself is beyond the reach of weapons and the rage of man so are they who are under the Lords protection therefore it is said of the Church Isa 54.17 No weapon formed against thee shall prosper that is it shall not have the intended effect of the Smith that made it as that Scripture speaks nor of the hand that weilds it The sword of him that layeth at the Church of God shall not hold the spear the dart nor the habergeon As none are so much assaulted as the Church so none are so well armed and defended Secondly As no offensive weapon can hurt the Lord so no defensive weapon can shelter us from hurt if under the wrath of the Lord. Though we have got an Habergeon though we have scales or bucklers like Leviathan yet the Lord hath a sword a spear a dart that can strike through them that is through all the defences of the most hardned sinners in the world There is no shelter to be found nor defence to be made against the weapons of divine wrath but only in and by Jesus Christ God is a shield and Buckler a Helmet and an Habergeon for believers against all offensive weapons of men or devils but where shall unbelievers find a shield or a buckler to secure themselves against the offensive weapons of God! Again some in allegorizing this Scripture say that Leviathan is an emblem of the Devil Now though it be a truth that no outward weapon no sword nor dart can terrifie or hurt the Devil yet the Lord hath furnished us with weapons that can pierce the Devil that Leviathan and defend us from his power Eph. 6.14 15 16. The sword of the Spirit the Word of God will wound that old Leviathan the Breast-plate of Righteousness the Helmet of Salvation the Shield of Faith will preserve us from woundings in the midst of all his fiery darts How soon would the Devil that cunning and cursed and cruel Darter and Archer wound our souls to death with his fiery darts and poysonous arrows if the Lord had not given us a shield a breast-plate and an helmet more impenetrable than the scales of Leviathan Lastly This description of Leviathan carrieth in it a fit resemblance of a hardned sinner of a sinner resolved upon his evil wayes Some sinners come at last to such a hardness that they are like Leviathan nothing will pierce them the sword of the Spirit doth not enter them Though you lay at them with all your might in the Ministry of the Word though you cast darts and shoot arrows of terrible threatnings against them they esteem them but straw and stubble sin hath so hardned them that they as we may express it are Sermon-proof threatning-proof yea judgement-proof too as to amendment by them though they are broken and perish under them Let God say what he will in his Word or do what he will in his works they regard it not they laugh at the shaking of these spears As a man that hath armour of proof cares not for sword or spears fears not an arrow nor a bullet so 't is in a spiritual sense with resolved sinners God having as a just judgement for former sins given them a shield upon their hearts as the word signifieth Lam 3.65 which we render sorrow of heart and put in the margin obstinacy that is hardness of heart they then account reproofs threats admonitions the most terrible words in all the armoury of God no more than a straw or rotten wood Woe to these Leviathans to those who harden their hearts against the Word of God Who hath hardned himself against the Word of the Lord and prospered And let all such know that as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 10.4 The weapons of our warfare are not carnal that is weak dull edgeless pointless tools but mighty through God c. And that though now they prevail not to conversion yet they will prevail to condemnation and that while they go on to sin they are but going as Solomon speaks of the young wanton Prov. 7.22 As an Ox goeth to the slaughter or as a fool to the correction of the stocks till a dart strike through his liver God will have a dart at last which shall enter a dart which those Leviathans shall not count stubble nor find to be so The Lord proceeds to describe Leviathan and as we may conceive to give a further demonstration of the hardness of his scales and skin Vers 30. Sharp stones are under him he spreadeth sharpe pointed things upon the mire Mr. Broughton reads it His underneath-places be as sharp-sheards The word rendred Sharp stones properly signifies the sharp pieces of a pot-sâ—â—â—rd that is stones or other hard things as sharp and pricking as the pieces of a broken pot-sheard We may expound this verse two wayes First As being a proof of the hardness and firmness of Leviathans skin and flesh so hard they are that he can lye down and rest himself upon hard and sharp stones even upon the sharp tops of rocks in the Sea as we lye down upon our beds Sharp stones are under him but he feels them not which may be the meaning also of the next words He spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire That is Leviathan like some hardy man or iron-sides scorns to lye
therefore Job was specially to beware of this lest the Devil who desired to tempt him should prevail upon him by suggesting proud and high thoughts of himself and so make him a subject of his own kingdom for he is that mystical Leviathan who kings it to purpose over the children of pride As if the Lord had said to Job Lay down all thoughts and words which have any savour or tincture of pride Wilt thou be proud of this or that or any thing know that in his kind I have given more to Leviathan to be proud of than to thee And consider under whom thou art to reckon thy self if thou art lifted up in pride even under Leviathan for he is a King over all the children of pride And though Leviathan be exceeding proud and haughty yet I can quickly bring him down surely then I can bring thee down yet more than hitherto I have done Therefore O Job do not contend any more with me be not unquiet under my hand who am indeed thy King Lapsi videntur qui hoc de Leviathan vel etiam de Satana interpretati sunt Coc. Tenebras offudit interpretibus omissio relativi c. Coc. This leads me to another reading of the verse which makes the antecedent to he not Leviathan not the Devil but God himself He that beholdeth all high things is a King over all the children of pride That is God who beholdeth all high things and is higher than the highest Eccles 5.8 he is above the proudest men So then these words he beholdeth all high things having the Relative That supplyed are a circumlocution of God God indeed beholds all high things and high persons Let men be never so high God beholds them And as he beholdeth all things so he is higher than the highest things he is a King over all the children of pride who are the highest among men or high above all men in their own conceit The Lord as a King can rule and over-rule the proud he can bring down their high looks the Lord said to Job which may give some light to this interpretation when he would stir him up to consider himself what he was able to do and to do his best chap. 40.12 Look on every one that is proud and bring him low Canst thou do it canst thou look on every one that is proud and bring him low Thou canst not but I can God beholdeth all high things he hath them all before him and is a King over them he can make the proudest and stoutest and greatest that are in the world stoop to him That Great Monarch Nebuchadnezzar who lorded it over the greatest of the world in his days was at last brought to confess that the Lord was a King over all the children of pride Dan. 4.37 Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven all whose works are truth and his ways are judgment and those that walk in pride he is able to abase In this sence God is a King over all the children of pride Now though the words according to the sense given of this last reading may safely be applied to God yet as most among late Interpreters understand them literally of Leviathan so many of the antients who have written upon this Book turn this whole description of Leviathan into an Allegory of the Devil as was toucht before and to make it out they have run into many needless speculations But I conceive though it be true that many things spoken of Leviathan are applicable to the Devil as also to Tyrants to Antichrist and all wicked men and some who are very sparing in urging the Allegory yet grant we may when we read what is said of Leviathan reflect upon the Devil and consider what a mighty power he hath to do mischief if the goodness and power of God did not restrain him Yet 't is safest to keep to the plain sense and not to busie our selves much in transforming the holy Scriptures into Allegories in which some have been over-bold nor should any venture to draw Allegories but out of a natural meaning as the Apostle Paul did in the 4th Chapter of his Epistle to the Galathians I shall only adde that as from the nature of this Leviathan supposed to be the Whale we may receive many instructions so the Lord doth sometimes Preach or Prophesie to whole Nations by him that is he gives warning by him to Nations of some great things which shall come to pass among them 'T is the observation of an Interpreter upon this place God saith he prophesies to people and nations by the Whale or Leviathan Deus catos quasi poenitentiae precones facit dum insolitis locis apparentes bella alias clades nuncient ut homines poenitentiam agant Scult And as other places he was a Germane so we have had warnings by him for saith he in the year 1620 there was a Whale cast upon the shore of a great river far within the land twenty and five ells long and a half immediately before the great wars changes and troubles which befel Germany Hence he infers when these mighty fishes come into places which are out of their way and road or when God casts them upon unwonted shores it foreshews some unwonted thing or that God will bring guests among them that they never thought of Thus I have done with this long and large description which the Lord makes of Leviathan There remains only one chapter more which gives us the full effect and issue of all the dealings of God with Job and of his speakings to Job about Behemoth and Leviathan All was to humble him and we shall see him deeply humbled and eminently restored in the next chapter JOB Chap. 42. Vers 1 2 3 4 5 6. 1. Then Job answered the Lord and said 2. I know that thou canst do every thing and that no thought can be with-holden from thee 3. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledg therefore have I uttered that I understood not things too wonderful for me which I knew not 4. Hear I beseech thee and I will speak I will demand of thee and declare thou unto me 5. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee 6. Wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes THis Chapter is the conclusion of the whole History and Book of Job it consisteth of three general parts First Of Jobs deep and sincere humiliation before the Lord in these six verses Secondly Of the reconciliation of Jobs three friends to the Lord or of their attonement and peace made with the Lord vers 7 8 9. Thirdly Of Jobs restitution by the wonderful goodness and powerful hand of the Lord to as good yea to a better estate tahn he had before from the tenth verse inclusively to the end of the Chapter The words under hand contain the first part of the Chapter and I call them Jobs
petitioner to the Lord for instruction having confessed his own ignorance and weakness And that he had formerly profited under the teachings of God and was now in a further way of profiting is evident by that which followeth Vers 5. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee Job had no sooner asked for teaching but God taught him though not formally and explicitely as he desired yet really and effectually as he needed For this verse seems to be a real answer to the petition he made in the former verse and in it Job asserts two things First That he had heard of God by the hearing of the ear Secondly That now his eye did see him There are two opinions about the general sense of this verse and I shall conclude in a third First Some conceive these discoveries of God to Job were only inward to his soul so that when he saith I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee we are not to understand him as if he had had any visible appearance of God but that these words may be taken First as a comparison between a slight hearing when the mind is not intent upon what the ear heareth and a serious hearing which brings the mind fully into the ear As if Job had formerly been a careless hearer but now an attentive one and so the knowledge which Job had of God formerly was little compared with his present knowledge He had a knowledge of God by hearing only before but his mind was not intent upon it he heard only with the hearing of his ear but his eye did not see that is he had not a clear sight or knowledge which is an intellectual sight of the things which he heard But doubtless Job was no slight hearer of the word in former times he did not hear the word in the dayes of his prosperity as if he had only as we say given it the hearing for had he not seriously hearkned to the voice of God in those dayes he had never obtained such a testimony as God gave of him towards the end of those dayes yea this very phrase I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear implyeth serious and attentive hearing Secondly Others who deny any visible manifestation of God to Job grant that the first part of the verse notes serious hearing and receiving of the word the latter more so that here say they is a comparison between that lesser light or knowledge which Job had of the will of God before and that fuller light which he got upon this discourse which the Lord had with him the former being but as of a matter heard this as of things seen The Scripture sometimes calls clear knowledge sight So that look how much that which we see with our bodily eyes is clearer to us than that whereof we have only heard the report by so much the knowledge which Job had now of the things of God especially about the whole mystery of Gods dealing with him was clearer and fuller than what he had before even as if he now saw what before he only heard As we say One eye-witness is better than ten ear-witnesses so one eying of the word of God the eye of the mind fully and distinctly taken in what is heard is better than ten earings of it that is when little or nothing is taken in at the ear but a sound of words For then only we may be said to know divine things by the seeing of the eye when we know them not only from without by the report of others but from experience within our selves The Apostle saith of those who took joyfully the spoyling of their goods for the truths sake They knew in themselves that they had in heaven a better and a more enduring substance Heb. 10.34 that is they had even got a sight of that heavenly enduring substance Hence in Scripture vision is applied to spiritual things heard and we are said to see the Word of God Jer. 2.31 O generation see ye the Word of the Lord have I been a wilderness c. As if the Lord had said Ye have heard it before but now see it Seeing notes the highest knowledge then we see what we hear when we fully understand what we have heard Thus they expound this Text who judge there was no outward vision at all but that Jobs seeing was only spiritual and intellectual Secondly Others affirm that Job had an outward apparition and that the eye of his sense was affected And concerning this First Some are so much of this opinion that they say Christ appeared in humane shape to Job as he did to many of the holy Patriarks and Prophets of old which apparitions are by the Ancients called preludes to his incarnation And some Jewish Writers tell us that Job upon this sight of God had a spirit of prophesie given him but they need not insist upon that for several have had apparitions who were no Prophets Secondly others say the appearance of God to Job was only in or by a cloud with the whirlwind But that he had a vision or sight of God one way or other is asserted as by many of the Jewish Writers so by most of the Christian Ancients And doubtless when the Lord spake to him out of the whirlwind he had a vision or an extraordinary manifestation of God even to his eye Not that God in himself can be seen No man hath seen God at any time 1 John 4.12 It is reported by the Jewish Writers that the Prophet Isaiah was sawn asunder by his own Nation for saying that he had seen the Lord Isa 6.1 I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up This they counted blasphemy and put him to death for it say some yet others say he was put to death for his plainness in reproving the Princes and people of Israel in those words Isa 1.10 Hear the word of the Lord ye Rulers of Sodom give ear to the Law of our God ye people of Gomorrah But of that by the way I say God in himself cannot be seen he is seen only by those visible demonstrations of his presence which he is pleased to make of himself as here he spake to Job out of the whirlwind I conceive we may take in both so that when Job speaketh of his hearing by the ear he intends that teaching which he had in former times by the Ministry of his Ancestors And that when he saith But now mine eye seeth thee he intends that teaching which he had from the present appearance of God to him for his instruction and humiliation I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee As if he had said Lord heretofore I heard of thee for I was religiously brought up I had Parents and Ancestors who declared to me who the Lord was and I heard many things of thee which
I wished so often for death that I wooed the grave and so haâ—tily called for my return to the dust in the day of my affliction Thirdly I abhor that ever I despaired of my restauration or that I gave up my self as a man utterly lost for this world Fourthly I abhor that I used so many complaints of the severity of the Lords dealings with me Fifthly I abhor that I was so bold as to desire to plead with God Sixthly I abhor that I was so much in setting out my own righteousness and innocency Seventhly I abhor that ever I spake any word which should in the least darken or reflect upon the goodness mercy faithfulness righteousness and soveraignity of God in his dispensations towards me These are the things which had unwarily passed him in the heat of disputation with his friends and these he now abhorreth Take it either way I abhor my self or these things it comes all to one for the truth is he did abhor himself for those things which he had spoken with so much imprudence and impatience while he was under the hand of God I abhor my self neither is that all And repent Job was not only affected to abhorrence but to repentance The word translated repent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Niphal significat consolari in Piel poenitere Drus signifies two contrary things in Scripture First To grieve which is proper to repentance sorrow and repentance ought to go together Secondly To comfort or to take comfort thus it is rendered Gen. 24.67 Isaac was comforted concerning the death of his mother 2 Sam. 13.39 David was comforted concerning Amnon Psal 77.2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord my sore ran in the night and ceased not my soul refused to be comforted It may seem strange that the same word which signifies sorrow and repentance should signifie also comfort and to be comforted but sorrow and comfort meet in true repentance godly sorrow doth not hinder much less quite exclude and shut out joy in God Repentance is ushered in by godly sorrow and grief of heart for sin and it concludes with comfort and joy of heart in God who pardoneth sinners and therefore the same word which signifies to repent may well signifie both to grieve and to take comfort Repentance is a change from a bad state to a good and a turning from the worst of evils sin to the chiefest good God himself and therefore must needs be followed if not accompanied with much sweetness and comfort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et consolationem accepi in pulvere cinere A Greek translator renders it expressly so in this place Wherefore I abhor my self and take comfort in dust and ashes and doubtless while Job was repenting in floods of sorrow his comforts came flowing in There is a laughter in the midst of which the heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is heaviness saith Solom Prov. 14.13 and there is a sorrow that 's a blessed sorrow in the midst of which the heart laughs and the end of which heaviness is mirth To repent in the general nature of it is to change both the mind and way and so take up new principles and new practices A man that truly repenteth is not the same man he was before he repented he can say I am not I. And as in true repentance there is a change from a bad to a good mind and from a perverse to a right and righteous way so in repentance there is a change from a troubled to a quiet mind and from a painful to a pleasant and delightful way So then there is a two-fold change in repentance First A change of the mind from sin Secondly A change in the mind from sorrow Many are the griefs and gripes the troubles and perplexities with which the conscience of an awakened sinner is followeth till he hath unburdened himself by confession and repentance when once he hath truly done so how great is his peace how sweet are his consolations And therefore when the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 7.10 Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of his meaning is the repentance which it works is matter of great rejoycing or fills the soul of an humbled believing sinner with great joy I abhor my self saith Job and repent But how did Job repent his was no ordinary repentance therefore he adds I repent In dust and ashes That is either First Throwing my self upon the ground Jer. 6.26 Jer. 25.34 2 Sam. 12.16 or Secondly Sitting upon the ground in the dust as Job 2.8 Isa 58.5 Jonah 3.6 or Thirdly Casting dust upon my head Job 2.12 Dust cast upon the head was the embleme of an afflicted heart And to sit in the dust or to cast dust upon the head was anciently the ceremonial part of repentance Job doth not leave that out I repent saith he in dust and ashes Solitis ceremoniis poenitentiam agâ— and so some express it I repent with outward wonted ceremonies But I conceive we need not take it strictly to repent in dust and ashes being only a proverbial speech implying very great solemn and serious repentance There is another rendring of this latter part of the verse thus I repent as looking upon or accounting my self dust and ashes 't is an argument of much humility and humiliation to do so Abraham gave himself no higher a title before the Lord Gen. 18.27 I have begun to speak who am but dust and ashes If we take it thus I abhor my self and repent looking upon my self but as dust and ashes it is a good sence also and reacheth the purpose which Job was upon or which was upon Jobs spirit in that day and duty of repentance There is no difficulty in the words they yield many useful observations Wherefore I abhor my self First As the word wherefore refers to that signal discovery which Job had of God who did not only manifest himself to him by the hearing of the ear but by the seeing of the eye that is more fully than before Observe The clearer manifestations we have of God the greater and deeper are our humiliations Job saw more of the power more of the soveraignity more of the holiness of God in himself and more of his goodness to him Qui Deum vidit fieri non potest quin seso accuset contemnat despiciat non enim certiâ— noveris tuam impuritatem quam si divina puritas op osita fuerit Brent than he had done before and therefore he abhor'd himself That place is parallel to this Isa 6. where as soon as the Lord had declared himself in his holiness and glory the Prophet cried out ver 5. Wo is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts that is my bodily eyes have see the signs of his presence and
is said ver 7. How much she hath glorified her self and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her Now as no man can tell nor imagine how much she hath glorified her self nor how deliciously she hath lived so no man can tell how much torment and sorrow she shall have Yea we read not only of a double and quadruble but of a seven-fold reward of wrath for evil men Psal 79.12 Render unto our neighbours seven-fold into their bosome And surely that Scripture means bad neighbours Now as the Lord doth plentifully reward the proud and evil doers in a way of wrath so he will plentifully reward well-doers and well-sufferers whether under his own hand or the hand of man in ways of mercy And if so then First Fear not to lose by God and that in a two-fold respect First When he cometh to borrow of you for the poor He that hath pity on the poor lendeth to the Lord Prov. 19.17 Every time we are asked to give to the poor upon due occasion God sends to borrow of us and he will surely repay what he hath borrowed therefore fear not to lose by God when he borrows of you for the poor Secondly Fear not to lose by God when he takes all from you and makes you poor Sometimes God doth not come a borrowing but he cometh a taking he will have all whether you will or no He will sometimes take all away by fire by losses at sea or land in these and such like cases fear not â—o be losers by God But First Trust him as Job did Secondly Be patient as Job was They that have an interest in God and a portion in the promise need not fear they shall lose a thread or a shoe-latchet by God though his providence takes all away and strips them as it did Job naked What God takes from his servants he keeps for them and will restore to them either in the same kind with much more as he did to Job at last or in some other kind which is much better as he did to Job at first While Job was deprived of his all worldly good things God gave him much patience at first so that when all was lost and gone he could say Naked came I out of my mothers womb and naked shall I return thither The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken blessed be the name of the Lord. While this frame of heart lasted it was better than all that he had lost and though through the extremity of his pains and temptations it was somewhat abated and his patience somewhat ruffled yet it was never wholly lost and when it was worst with him his faith failed not which was best of all Now what the Apostle spake concerning those troubles which befel the Israelites in the wilderness They happened for examples 1 Cor. 10.11 So all these troubles and takings away happened to Job as our example or which the Greek word signifieth as a type that we should be patient under the Lords hand in taking and remember for the encouragement of our faith the Lords bounty in restoring For this end the Apostle James calleth us to consider this dealing of God with Job Jam. 5.11 Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord. What is that to us may some say that Job was patient Yes all the matter is to us it was written for our example and admonition and saith the Apostle ye have not only heard of the patience of Job but have seen the end of the Lord. Here is an exercise of those two noble senses Hearing and Seeing mentioned and doubtless for great purposes both But why doth he adde ye have seen the end of the Lord Some interpret these words as a second instance the Apostle mentioning Job in the former words and Christ in these Ye have seen the end of the Lord that is how it was with Christ in his sufferings The Lord Jesus Christ was well rewarded for all that he suffered God highly exalted him Phil. 2.7 because he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross 'T is a truth if we take those latter words of the verse Ye have seen the end of the Lord for the issue of Christs sufferings But I rather conceive that the whole verse relateth unto Job and so the end of the Lord in the latter part is the end which the Lord made with Job As if the Apostle James had said Hath it not been set before your eyes what end the Lord made with him or how he gave him double in the end Be not afraid to lose by God either borrowing or taking for he is a bountiful rewarder Secondly As we should not be afraid to lose by God when he comes either to borrow a part or as the case was with Job to take all from us so let us not be afraid to lose for God which was toucht before together with the former Inference upon the 11th verse of the 41 Chapter We have no ground in the world of fear when all that we have in the world is taken from us for Gods sake that is for righteousness sake seeing God who here restored to Job double all that himself had taken from him hath also promised to give his faithful servants double for all that is taken from them upon his account by men or which they lose for him That 's the meaning of the Prophet Isa 61.7 For your shame ye shall have double that is ye having suffered shame or been put to shame for Gods sake or for doing that which is honourable and commendable in it self shall receive double What double As by shame we are to understand any evil suffered so by double any good promised as a reward for suffering that evil especially such good as stands in direct opposition to that evil As if it had been said ye shall have double honour for shame and double riches for poverty and double health for sickness and and double liberty for imprisonment and captivity 'T is much to have double reparation of any loss yet this doubling is a poor matter to what is promised in another place to those who lose for God We have Christs word with an asseveration for it Mat. 19.28 29. Verily I say unto you that ye which have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel And every one that hath forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my name sake here are great sufferings but behold a greater reward followeth not like Jobs twofold but an hundred-fold so saith that Text shall receive an hundred-fold and which is ten-thousand-fold more than that shall inherit everlasting life Be not afraid to lose for God Job had double who lost by God and so may you but if ye lose
charity of some is only in words to those who are in extream need of more and it is only so not because they have no more in their hands to give but because they have no hearts to give more To say to a naked or hungry one be clothed and sed or to give a large parcel of condoling and bemoaning words and then do nothing no not give a Doit for the supply of his wants is this love or charity Jobs friends loved him now not in word and in tongue only but indeed and in truth their deeds shewed the truth of their love They gave him every one of them a piece of money There are two readings of this clause The word which we here render a piece of money signifies also a sheep according to which Master Broughton translates and so do others Dederunt ei quisque pecudem unam Bez. They gave him each one a lamb we say a piece of money the same word signifying both as is plain from other Scriptures Gen. 37.19 And he that is Jacob bought a parcel of a field where he had spread his tent at the hand of the children of Hamor Shechems father for an hundred pieces of money or lambs as we put in the Margin The same thing is reported again in the same words Josh 24.32 Now the reason why that word is rendred both a lamb and a piece of money is say some because money in those times bare the stamp or figure of a lamb upon it as in some times and places money or coin was stamped with the figure of an oxe from whence came that Proverb The oxe is upon his tongue that is he speaks as he is bribed A second reason given of it is because the riches of the Antients was most in cattle Recunia à pecore dicta est Plin. l. 18. c. 3. Severus rex ovium boumque effigie primus â—s assignavit Plin. and that kind of riches being as money by which all things are valued and by which they made their payments therefore the same word was used for cattel and for coin or money The Latine word for money is also derived from another which signifies cattle And it is reported by Pliny that Severus first stampt money with the effigies or image of sheep and oxen They gave him every one a piece of money or a lamb Some are most for that reading they gave him a lamb because that seems most answerable to the loss of Job he lost all his cattle and now every one brought him a lamb But it is not much to the matter whether we take their reading or ours If it were a lamb it was worth a piece of money and if it were a piece of money it would buy a lamb But why did they bring Job either a piece of money or a lamb I answer First To testifie their renewed friend-ship or as a signification of their love and so to ingratiate themselves with him Secondly It might be towards the repair of his losses every one brought him somewhat yet I conceive they bestowed those gifts upon him rather as an honour than a relief yet possibly they might intend both in giving them Upon the one account or the other or upon both the Lord brought over Jobs friends to congratulate him with these presents It hath been an ancient usage to present Princes with gifts in way of honour and homage as appears plainly from what is of the refusal of some called Sons of Belial a Title of disgrace bestowed by the Spirit of God upon none but the worst of men to bring presents unto Saul the first King of Israel 1 Sam. 10.27 And many superiors in any kind think themselves slighted if they have not gifts from their inferiors Job was a Prince the greatest man of the East and for that reason it was but a duty in his friends to bring him presents Every one gave him a piece of money or a lamb And every one an ear-ring of gold Gemmas à fronte pendentes Vulg. Mâ—ntlâ— demissum Sept. There is som dispute what this ear-ring of gold was The word is translated Isa 3.21 A nose jewel which was not a jewel to hang upon the nose but a jewel that was fastned upon the forehead and hung down towards the nose In other places it is called an ear-ring Gen. 24.47 Gen. 35.4 Ezod 35.22 Such jewels were doubtless used and worn by gâ—eat persons in the Land of Vz where Job dwelt and was chief among them Jobs friends brought him not only presents of money or cattle which are useful to all Honoraria obtulerunt Jun. Munere haec erant tum amicitiae tum obsequii symbola Sic enim viri principes munere salutabantur but jewels which are ornamentals and used only by persons of noble quality or of great estate An ear-ring in some mens ears would be no more becoming nor better placed than a jewel in a swines snout to which Solomon compares beauty in a woman without wit discretion and understanding A jewel or an ear-ring is not for every mans wearing The presents brought Job shewed him a person of honour Every one also gave him a piece of money and every one an ear-ring of gold Hence Note First To send or bring gifts in many cases is not only lawful but necessary and a duty Though both the giving and taking of gifts heareth ill in Scripture and common language yet there are six sorts of gifts which may lawfully be given and taken and there is a seventh sort which none ought either to give or take First Gifts of pure charity or Eleemosinary gifts such as are bestowed upon and distributed among the poor are a duty We should be much in gifts of charity for this very reason because to give them is not so much a bounty as a duty A part of all we have is due to those that have nothing Secondly There are gifts of respect to those who are not in want yea to those who abound these are honorary gifts 'T is lawful and a duty also to bring gifts to Kings and Princes as was shewed in opening the words When Christ is spoken of as a King the Scripture saith The Kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents the Kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts Psal 72.10 And as that holy Prophesie saith it should be so so the holy History saith it was so the wise men of the East came with gifts to Christ as soon as he was born Mat. 2. Thirdly There are gifts of courtesie from equals One friend sends a gift to another in testimony of love and kindness or as rejoycing in the goodness and kindness of God to them in delivering them from any evil as Jobs case also was These are congratulatory gifts Fourthly There are gifts of bounty such are from superiors to inferiors to testifie their greatness and magnificence Fifthly There are gratulatory gifts in token of thankfulness for benefits and favours
imponuntur Hieron in Proaem Comment in lib. Mich. as prophecying or hoping at least they will really be what they are in name or what their names promise One of the Ancients reports this practice of the Ancients We give names saith he wherein we hold forth our wishes and desires and pray to God that our children may answer the signification of their names Many Scripture-names have mysterious meanings in them Hosea signifieth a Saviour his parents therein prophecying as it were and shewing their faith that he would be a Prophet and prove instrumental for the salvation of others Obadiah signifieth the servant of God his parents gave him that name we may suppose hoping he would and wishing he might be a faithful servant of God Zachariah signifieth the memery or remembrance of God his parents earnestly desiring that God would both remember him which is all mercy to man or that he might alwayes remember God which is all duty to God Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth that is perform all duty to God Nomina erant quasi omina vel monita vel vâ—ta rei futurae We see then it hath been usual among godly parents to give significant names to their children either that they might be minded of the mercies of God to them or of the duties which they were to perform to God I shall only adde for the close of the point this short admonition to all to women especially because the Text speaks of them that As it is useful and usual for parents to give good names to their children so children should have a gracious ambition to make good the signification of their names What will it advantage a man to be called John which signifieth grace if himself be graceless or to be called Obadiah which signifieth a servant of God if he neglect to serve God or to be called Zechariah which signifieth the Remembrance of God if he forget God Again what will it benefit a woman to be called Susanna which signifieth a Lilly a beautiful flower if she be not like that lilly among thorns the Church Cant. 2.2 but only a lilly in the wilderness of this world What will it benefit a woman to be called Tamar which signifieth a Palm-tree tall and strait if her self be of a low base and crooked diâ—position 'T is better to be a crooked shrub in bodily stature than a tall strait Palm-tree with a crooked mind and a low spirit To be named Jemima as fair as Day to be named Kezia as sweet as spice or perfume to be called Keren-happuch as beautiful as the very horn of beauty what will it advantage any women unless they have real vertues and gracious qualities answering these names Yea these names will be real witnesses against them at last and fill their faces with shame To profess our selves to be or to have a name to be what we are not is to be deeply hypocritical and to bear that in our names which we are not nor take any care to be is highly disgraceful But when names are fulfilled in persons when men and women who wear good names are or do the good signified by their names how precious are their names and their memories how honorable And when the good or vertues of the three feminine names in the Text meet and center in the person of any one woman when Jemima the day-light of true knowledge and understanding is joyned with Kezia the perfume of reputation ascending from Keren-happuch store of beautiful graces put forth in the gracious actions of a spotless and unblameable conversation what Pencil is able to draw to the life the ravishing features of such a person Such I believe were those noble Ladies Jobs daughters named in the Text which was the joy of their fathers heart and the staff of his old age Thus much of the names of Jobs daughters and of the signification of them both in reference to the then present change of Jobs estate and the hope he had of their future good estate with respect to the beauty and gracefulness of their bodies but especially to the beauty and graciousness of their souls or minds Now as the beauty and vertues too of Jobs three daughters were implyed and wrapt up in their names so their beauty is plainly expressed in the next words Vers 15. And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughâ—ers of Job and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren In this verse we have two things concerning Jobs daughters First The supereminency of their beauty Secondly The greatness of their dowry or portions bestowed on them by the bounty of their father The former we have at the beginning of the verse And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job When 't is said in all the land we are to understand it of all the land of Vz 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In ea quae sub coelo Sept. Tota terra est sub coelo hic autem restringitur ad certam Regioâ—em Drus Yet the Septuagint extend it to all lands all the world over rendring all under heaven but the word in the Original will not reach so far though the truth might But in all that land were no women or women kind as Master Broughton reads found so fair that is none were so fair as they The word found is to be taken as in that of Moses Exod. 35.23 Every man with whom was found that is with whom there was or who had blue and purple c. brought them And as in that which is spoken of Christ Phil. 2.8 He was found that is he was or appeared in the form of a man So Mal. 2.6 2 Chron. 19.3 For we are not to conceive that there was an inquiry or search made amongst all the women of the land of Vz who was fairest and that upon the return none were found so fair and beautiful as Jobs daughters The meaning is only this none were known so fair as they or they had no known Peers in fairness and this is a sufficient proof that those notable names were not given Jobs daughters without a cause either seen or foreseen at least desired the issue answering the desire In all the land there were none so fair as they There is a bodily fairness and a soul fairness The word into which we render the Hebrew signifieth properly the fairness of the face or body Non sunt inventae juxta filias Job meliores eis Sept. but the Septuagint translate it by a word signifying the souls fairness They say No women were found better than the daughters of Job Their goodness without question as it was far more excellent in it self so more contentful and delightful to him than their fairness But we may very well take in both as was hinted before namely that his daughters were excellent both for the one beauty and for the other Yet I conceive
and cause them to travel more than needs in pain every day Secondly The Lord instanceth here in the Hinds for hard travel and Naturalists observe the Hind hath the sorest travel in bringing forth of any creature woman excepted And that the Hinds have very sore travel in bringing forth beside what Naturalists speak may be collected from those expressions in the Text They bow themselves they bring forth their young ones they cast out their sorrows That Scripture also intimates as much Psal 29.9 when among other wonderful effects of thunder The breaking of Cedars c. This is added The voice of the Lord maketh the Hinds to calve as if it did require the special help of God to give the Hinds ease and deliverance in the time of their travel The voice of God doth it that is Tunc officis ut cervae quae alioquin aegerrimè essent pariturae commodius pareant dum ante partum purgantur herba quadam quae Seselis dicitur faciliore ita utentes utero Jun. Plin. l. 8. c. 32. Arist l. 9 de Histor animal c. 5. Cicero l. 2 de nat Deorum either the thunder or some extraordinary power sent out for that purpose doth it And here we may consider the goodness of God even to this wilde beast in ordering her natural helps to ease her the more speedily of her grievous pains in bringing forth her young ones The natural Historian tells us concerning the Hind that she by common instinct a litle before she calves feeling her pains coming upon her seeks out a certain herb called Seselis feeding upon which doth exceedingly facilitate her pains in bringing forth Women who have understanding and reason as also the assistance of friends about them have many means for their ease in that hour of extremity but the Lord hath made this poor creature both Physician and Midwife to her self Further 't is reported of them that when they have brought forth they use the same and other herb to help themselves against their after-pains Once more Naturalists observe A partu duas habent herbas quae Aros Seselis appellamur Plin. l. 8. c. 32. that they usually bring forth at that time of the year when there is much thunder according to that before mentioned Psal 29. The voice of the Lord or thunder maketh the Hinds to calve For the Hind being of a fearful nature that dreadful noise doth so astonish her that it either makes her put out all her strength to bring forth or makes her less sensible of her pains in bringing forth That 's the second thing here considerable in Hinds their painful bringing forth They bow themselves they bring forth their young ones they cast out their sorrows Hence take this inference with respect to women who come under the like pains This should be a staff of consolation to them in the time of their travel If the Lord directs these creatures to the best posture and most proper means for their help and ease in that condition how much more will he take care of them especially of them who call upon him and trust in him We may well make that interpretation of the Apostles words 1 Tim. 2.15 She shall be saved in child-bearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety This early care of God for mankind is described Psal 22.9 10. Thou art he that took me out of the womb I was cast upon thee from the womb thou art my God from my mothers belly And again Psal 71.6 By thee have I been holden up from the womb thou art he that took me out of my mothers bowels my praise shall be continually of thee St. Augustine applies this matter of the Hinds bringing forth to the spiritual birth First Because the time is unknown or known only to God when any soul comes to the new birth Secondly Because every soul which travelleth with this new birth boweth and humbleth himself greatly under the sense of sin before the Lord. Thirdly Because this new birth is usually accompanied with great and grievous pangs alwayes with the truth of godly sorrow The Lord having spoken thus of the Hindes bringing forth their young ones speaks next as I may say of the education and bringing up of their young ones Vers 4. Their young ones are in good liking they grow up with Corn they go forth and return not unto them This Verse holds out three things First The good plight of their young ones They are in good liking As if it had been said Though the Hinds have much pain in bringing them forth yet they are slick and fat as soon as or soon after they are brought forth The word which we render in good liking notes a growing into health and strength 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat aliquando valere incolumem esse Licet matres difficilem habent partum filii tamen salvi incolumes sunt beneque valent alii pinguescunt Drus Facti sumuâ— sicut consolati melius quam ab aliis somniantes c. Bold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ager unde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sera agrestis Sed hic est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod in lingua Chaldaeorum extra denotat unde Barbarus geninalis syllabis Drus Mira est providentia Dei in subulonum himulorum nutricatione qui nullo custode nullo opilione reguntur sicut vituli haedi vel agni tamen pinguescum Codrec which we call recovering Isa 38.9 16. The writing of Hezekiah King of Judah when he had been sick and was recovered c. And 't is said of Naaman 2 Kings 5.14 his flesh came to him or he recovered his flesh as the flesh of a little Child The same word is used Psal 126.1 When the Lord turned the Captivity of Sion we were like to them that dream which others translate thus and conceive it nearer the Oâ—iginal Text When the Lord turned the Captivity of Sion then we were like them that are fed and grow fat at the dugg and so are chearely or in a comfortable condition Thus the Hinds young ones grow fat lusty and strong As the Lord takes care for their bringing forth so of their bringing up he that maketh the Hinds to calve makes their calves of good liking too as he makes the Babe thrive at the Mothers breast so the Calf at the Hinds dugg And when they have a while grown fat at the dam's dugg then Secondly They grow up with Corn. They come to harder meat they soon leave sucking and feed upon corn Some read they grow up in the fields or by the field that is by that which groweth in the field Thus it is with our Children they are fed first at the breast spoon afterwards with flesh or any wholesom food According to every degree of life God provides sutable food the Infant shall have milk and when a little grown stronger meat As it is in spirituals when we are new born babes
in Jesus Christ we are fed with milk that is with plain and easie truths called by the Apostle The first principles of the doctrine of Christ afterwards we go on as the Apostle there speaks to perfection and then we can digest and profit by the deeper Mysteries of the Gospel Thus 't is said of the young Hinds or of the Hinds young ones in the Text They grow up with corn The word signifies to grow apace to thrive much in strength and stature and being thus thriven and grown their Dam's hear no more of them For as it followeth Thirdly They go forth and return not unto them Iâ— hunc sinem haec allata sunt ut ostendoretar haec eâ—â— sola Dei providentia fiâ—ri â—â—n â—ilâ— humano in lustriâ— Merc. First they had the duggs of the Dam to nourish them soon after they fed upon corn at length they go forth and return not unto them they trouble the old ones no further they shift for themselves One of the Naturalists commending the qualities of the Hind notes this chiefly They are very diligent to instruct their young ones how to geâ— or where to seek food for themselves before they put them out of their own care Hence note First The Lord hath taught the bruit creatures to provide for their young ones till they are able to help themselves This intimates the duty of Parents to take care of their Children till they are able to get their living Secondly Forasmuch as those young ones go forth and return not again when once they can live of themselves Note It is the duty of Children when Parents have bestowed cost in bringing them up to go forth and not return to be chargeable to their Parents Arist l. 9. de â—â—â—â—t Animal c. 5. Quòd pulcher erat nemine indigeret vocatur cervus eâ—â—issus Editos partus exercent cursu sugam meditari docent ad praecipitia ducunt sâ—ltumque docent Plin. l 8 c. 32. Children must not think to burthen their Parents always but stick to their own labour the very bruit beasts will condemn those children who do not When the Hind hath sufficiently instructed her young ones by her example where and how to get food having also breathed them well and taught them how to hasten away when in danger having lastly led them to precipices taught them to leap or jump then they go forth return no more The Patriark Nephthali was called Gen. 49.21 a Hind let loose because strong and able to live alone Thus we have here both the care of the Hind to provide for her young ones as long as they need which layeth a great obligation upon Parents to take care of their Children He that provides not for his own especially for those of his houshold for his own Children and Servants is worse than an Infidel yea he is worse than a hind But then let Children when they have been well provided for and taught how to get a living in the world take heed of lasiness and idleness as if they were to live upon their Parents pains or provision always Let them go forth and not return but to shew kindness and thankfulness to their Parents for their care and cost bestowed on them in their tender years and while under their inspection yea let them learn as the Apostle gives them in charge 1 Tim. 5.4 To shew piety or kindness at home and requite their Parents helping their Parents if need be in their old age as their Parents helped and brought them up when they were young Which dutifulness of Children the Greeks express by a word alluding to Stork◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who are so much noted for their tender care towards their aged Parents that their name signifies the thing not only in that famous language but in the Sacred Language namely piety and pity JOB Chap. 39. Vers 5 6 7 8. 5. Who hath sent out the wild Ass free or who hath loosed the bands of the wild Ass 6. Whose house I have made the wilderness and the barren land his dwellings 7. He scorneth the multitude of the City neither regardeth he the cry of the driver 8. The rang of the mountains is his pasture and he searcheth after every green thing THe Lord continues his speech with Job to shew his provident care of yea and bounty towards the wildest creatures The question put in these four Verses concerns the wild Ass and there are three things considerable in the description given him in these four Verses First His liberty and freedom v. 5. Who hath sent out the wild Ass free c. Secondly His dwelling and habitation v. 6. whose house I have made the wilderness and the barren land his dwelling He scorneth c. Thirdly His food or manner of feeding ver 8. the range of the mountains is his pasture and he searcheth out every green thing Thus the Lord proposeth to Job the example of these wild and untamed creatures for whom no man provides nor bestows a thought upon towards their livelihood yet God provides for them and feeds them and houseth them and preserveth them in as good a condition as those which are tame and under the daily care and inspection of man Vers 5. Who hath set the wild Ass free The wild Ass is at liberty he is free love of liberty is the property of the wild Ass and here it is questioned whence he hath his liberty or who made him free that is so stout that he will not be taught subjection to the command of man nor do him any work as not only other creatures but other Asses do who hath made him thus free Surely not any man not any company society or brotherhood of men the wild Ass hath not his manumission by them Liberum sâ—â— ab hominibus iâ—a ut in eorum potestate non sit Drus but by God he hath bestowed that priviledge such as it is upon the wild Ass God hath set him free Some beasts are as it were Apprentiz'd or bound to the service of men and men have special services uses and employments to which they appoint them there are other creatures as it were manumitted from mans service man hath no command of them nor work done by them they are free and amongst these the wild Ass is eminent for freedom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unde serus ferae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multiplicare augere fructificare quòd foecundiores solent esse ferae quam domasticae animantes The Hebrew text which we render the wild Ass is but one word and from thence some derive the Latine word which signifies wild beasts in general conceiving also that the Hebrew word comes from a root signifying to multiply and increase because wild beasts usually multiply and increase more than tame Thus they understand this former part of the verse not as we of that special sort of wild beasts the wild Ass but in common of
Merc. Rigor caudae i. e. Genitalium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De libidine accipio libidinatur caudam instar cedri i. e. libidinâ—ndo facit instar cedri Coc. Penem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jun. Membrum Genitale Pisc Scult Others say it cannot be so understood for though the Elephant be a vast creature in all other parts yet his tail is but small and smaller than seems to answer the vast proportion of so great a beast and therefore cannot resemble a Cedar Secondly Others expound the Original word of his snout or trunk which is of great force and strength and they conceive it may well be understood of his trunk or snout both because that is great and long like a Cedar as also because the trunk being so principal a part of this beast it is not probable the mention of it should be wholly omitted in this description and so small and inconsiderable a one as the tail taken notice of Thus Mr. Beza renders He moveth his prominent part or trunk which is as the Cedar And the latter part of the verse he renders to the same sense The sinewes of the terriblenesse thereof are wrapped together that is though his trunk be very great yet he easily turneth it as he listeth or at pleasure it being wholly compact of sinewes strongly twisted together and is of such force that it may well amaze and terrifie a man of greatest courage The word which we translate stones properly signifieth fears and is so rendred in all other places of Scripture where it is used and hence that reading of Mr. Beza The sinewes of the terriblenesse thereof This opinion is altogether disliked by Mercer I leave it to the Readers judgement Thirdly Many expound it of his genitals and connect the sense with that which followeth The sinews of his stones are wrapt together Or as Mr. Broughton platted in and out as branches As if it had been said Nervi quos medici cremasteras vocant à testibus ad penem deducentes ramis arborum conseruntur in the heat of his lust he erecteth or moveth his generative part like a strong Cedar-tree being corroborated from natures conduit pipes the sinews of his stones which are complicated or wrapt together like the roots of a great grown tree in the earth or like its branches in the air Vers 18. His bones are as strong pieces of brass Bones are the strength and stability of the body and they keep the body strait Bones are to the body as posts to a house the stayes and supporters of it Bones also are as an armour or corselet on the body to defend and preserve the more noble parts the heart liver and lungs from danger and annoyance and therefore it was necessary the Lord should speak of Behemoths bones when he spake of his strength His bones Are as strong pieces of brass As bars of steel saith Mr. Broughton or as conduit pipes of brass so the words may be read and then they refer to those bones that are hollow Some conceive his bones are said to be as strong pieces of brass because the Elephant cannot bow that 's an old opinion as if he were all bone and had no joints which opinion is at large confuted by a learned Physician Dr. Brown of vulgar errors lib. 3. c. 1. in his book of vulgar Errors who proves and experience teacheth that the Elephant hath Joynts with his bones as other living creatures have though not so apparent His bones being great and strong he must needs be very strong It is said Gen. 49.14 Issachar is a strong asse Asinus Osseus i. e. robustus The Hebrew is Issachar is a bony asse which we well render a strong asse able to bear great burthens strength lying so much in the bones And to shew that the bones of the Elephant are more than ordinarily strong they are compared to brasse Job saith in his complaint at the sixth Chapter Is my flesh brass Am I strong like brass The bones of the Eleare so and not only so but His bones are like bars of iron The word here rendred bones is not the same as in the former part of the verse Mr. Broughton translates by a general word his hard parts are like staves of iron But we may well keep to the word bones yet understand them of a different sort of bones as in the former part hollow bones so in this latter solid bones or in that lesser in this greater bones or in that upper bones which are as rafters in his lower bones those in the thighs and legs which are as posts His bones are like bars of iron Iron is the strongest of all metals as we read in the vision of the four Monarchies Dan. 2.1 The image had a head of gold signifying the Babylonian Monarchy breasts of silver signifying the Persian belly of brass signifying the Grecian but it had legs of iron signifying the Romane Monarchy of which 't is said in the 40th verse The fourth Kingdom shall be strong as iron forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things So then when the Lord saith His bones are like bars of iron this importeth that the bones of Behemoth are exceeding strong as strong as if made of iron We call a very strong man iron-sides The Elephant hath iron-sides His bones are as bars of iron Bochartus denieth not that the bones of the Elephant are very hard and strong yet affirms from some Authorities that the bones of the Hippopotame are harder If it be so yet the Elephants bones are hard and strong enough to answer the comparisons in this part of the description of Behemoth Now hear the Epiphonema the triumphant conclusion which the Spirit makes of all this Vers 19. He is the chief of the wayes of God The word is He is the head of the wayes of God Or he is the beginning of the wayes of God as the word is used Gen. 1.1 In the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth There is a twofold beginning or head as we may say First there is a beginning as to time so the word is taken in Genesis There in the beginning is in the first of time God created the Heavens and the earth so Gen. 10.10 The beginning of his Kingdom was Babel or there he began his Kingdom the beginning in time as well as place was there Secondly There is a beginning which notes priority in dignity though not in time beginning imports excellency and is as much as chief 'T is usual in several languages to call that which is chief the first or head of any thing Exod. 30.23 It shall be of pure myrrh the Hebrew is head of myrrh that is chief or prime myrrh purest myrrh Thus said David Psal 119.160 Thy word is true from the beginning The Hebrew strictly taken is The beginning or head of thy word is true or truth As if David had said That which is most eminent and