Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	according_a	heart_n	word_n	1,814	5	3.8480	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81199	An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the twenty-second, twenty-third, twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth, and twenty-sixth chapters of the book of Job being the summe of thirty-seven lectures, delivered at Magnus near London Bridge. By Joseph Caryl, preacher of the Word, and pastour of the congregation there.	Caryl, Joseph, 1602-1673.	1655 (1655)	Wing C769A; ESTC R222627	762,181	881

man chafed and enraged as a man full of wrath and fury but as a man most tenderly affected and full of pity for a bruised reade shall he not breake and smoaking flax shall he not quench a bruised read and smoaking flax are emblems of the weake of the arme without strength of those who are without wisdome Christ will not deale roughly with those he will not breake the bruised read nor quench the smoaking flax that is such as are broken with the sence of sin such as are weake in faith such as are so much over-powred by corruption that they doe rather smoake and make an ill-sented smother then burne or shine in a gracious profession such as are thus low and meane in spiritualls Christ will not breake with his power nor quench with his rebukes till he send forth judgement to victory that is till he hath perfected their conversion and hightned their graces to the full and caused the better part in them to prevaile over the worse as the house of David did over the house of Saul till it arive at a blessed victory And againe Isa 61.2 The spirit of the Lord God is upon me for wh●t because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meeke he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaime liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound Here is helping those that have no power and saving the arme that hath no strength Thus Christ handles those who through temptation affliction or any trouble are brought low For the neglect of this duty the Lord reproves the Shepheards Ezek. 34.2 3 4. Son of man prophesie against the Shepheards of Israel prophecy and say unto them thus saith the Lord God unto the Shepheards Woe be to the Shepheards of Israel that doe feed themselves should not the Shepheards feed the flockes That is should they not be more intent upon the feeding of their flocke with spiritualls then upon the feeding of themselves with temporalls should they not labour more to feed the peoples soules then their owne bellyes surely they ought But what did the Shepheards of Israel The next words shew us both what they did and what they did not Ye eate the fat and ye cloath you with the wool ye kill them that are fed These things they were forward enough to doe But see what they did not ye feed not the flock That 's a general neglect of duty then followeth their neglect of particular duties The diseased have ye not strengthened neyther have ye healed that which is sicke neyther have ye bound up that which was broken neyther have ye brought againe that which was driven away by force of Satans temptation neyther have ye sought that which was lost through selfe-folly and corruption Here is a large enditement against the Shepheards All which may be summed up in Jobs language to Bildad They did not helpe those who had no power they did not save the arme without strength nor counsel those who had no wisdome See againe how the Prophet describes the compassionatenesse of God to his people in an afflicted condition Isa 27.8 In measure that is moderately when it shooteth forth thou wilt debate with it he stayeth his rough winde in the day of the East winde that is when affliction like an East winde blowes feircely upon his from the world then he stayeth his rough winde he will not bring his rough winde out of his treasures to joyn with the East-winde God will deale gently with his when they are hardly dealt with by men And thus it is our duty when it is a day of the East winde a day of trouble and temptation upon any soule to stay the rough winde to breath gently to give refreshment and ease to the weary soule How hast thou helped him that hath no power how savest thou the arme that hath no strength Secondly Observe The manner how we performe any duty is to be attended as well as the matter Bildads businesse was to comfort the sorrowfull to strengthen the infirme how did he performe this his strengthening was a weakning his helping was a grieving of Job already weake and grieved and the reason was because he failed in the manner or mannaging of this worke we must be carefull as to doe good for the matter so to doe it effectually which cannot be unlesse it be done rightly Some goe with an honest purpose to helpe who yet administer no helpe at all to every such helper it may be sayd with rebuke How hast thou helped him that is without power how unhandsomely hast thou done it what worke hast thou made of it Thou hast but entangled the poore soule worse then before This runs through all duties We may say to some How have you prayed and called upon God They onely speake a few words present a few petitions but without a heart without faith without a sense of the presence of God or of their owne wants how have such prayed call ye this prayer we may say to others how have you heard the word of God is this to heare what to re●eive the sound or the sense of the word and never to minde it more never to digest nor turne what is heard into practice is this hearing We may say to others how have you f●sted and humbled your soules before God Is this a fast that God hath chosen a day for a man to hang downe his head like a bullrush Is this fasting to God even to God No This is but a mock-fast a No-fast God hates such formality in praying hearing fasting with a perfect hatred A body exercised and a soule sitting still is not worship God is a spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and in truth In the truth or according to the rule of his owne word as also in the truth or according to the sincerity of our owne hearts unlesse we worship God in this twofold truth we worship him not at all as he will be worshipped how much soever we seeme to have a will to worship him As Job here puts a question mixt with admiration and indignation to his helper How hast thou helped him that hath no power How ilfavordly how bunglingly hast thou done it So the Lord will put such a question to many of his worshippers How have ye worshipped him that hath all power how slightly how formally how hypocritically have ye done it Therefore in all duties looke to the manner as well as to the matter and labour to doe them well as well as to doe them To neglect the doing of a duty or the doing of it negligently are alike offensive unto God and he will say to the latter with as much displeasure How hast thou done what I commanded as he will to the latter Why hast thou not done what I commanded yea Thirdly Observe That which is not done as it ought is to be judged as if not done That which we strive not

when the ungodly fall and not fall into sin themselves I answer First The righteous rejoyce at the fall of the wicked as blessing God who hath kept their feete from those wayes in which the wicked have fallen As 't is a great mercy to be kept out of those ill wayes to be kept from fiding with those corrupt interests in the pursuit of which we see many broken so 't is a duty to rejoyce that we have not walked in their way whose end we see to be nothing els but destruction Secondly The righteous have cause to rejoyce blesse God when they see the wicked fall because themselves are saved keepe their standing because themselves have escaped the danger and the Lord hath been a banner of protection over them in the day when the wicked fell Moses after the destruction of Amaleck built an Altar and called the name of it Jehova-Nissi Exod. 17.15 that is to say The Lord is my banner And in like cases the joy of the Saints is not properly in the destruction of the wicked but in their owne deliverance through the mighty power good hand of God with them It is the presence of God with them the appearance of God for them which is the gladnes of their hearts Thirdly The righteous then rejoyce because the Church and people of God are in a fayre way to peace when the Lyons are destroyed the sheepe are in safety when the Wolves and the Beares are cut off the flock rests quietly so in this case when men of devouring cruell spirits wicked and ungodly ones are removed the flocke of God the sheepe of his pasture feed quietly none making them afrayd The fall of the enemies of Sion is the establishment of Sion yea in a great measure of mankinde As the Prophet most elegantly sets it forth Isa 14.6 7 8. He who smote the people in wrath with a continuall stroke he that ruled the Nations in anger is persecuted and none hindereth The whole earth is at rest and is quiet they breake forth into singing yea the firre-trees rejoyce at thee and the Cedars of Lebanon saying since thou art layd downe no feller is come up against us How often have wicked men in power felled not onely the Firre-trees and Cedars of the world but the goodly trees of righteousnesse in the Lords plantations have they not therefore reason to sing when such fall seing the Fellers themselves are then felled and fallen Fourthly Joy ariseth to the righteous because God is honoured in the fall of wicked men And that 's their chiefest joy That God is honoured is more joy to the righteous then that themselves are saved how much more then then that the wicked are destroyed There is a threefold honour arising to God when the wicked fall First God is honoured in his justice such a day is the day of the declaration of the righteous judgement of God as the Apostle speakes of the great day of Judgement Rom. 2.5 Thou after thy hardnesse and impenitent heart treasurest up to thy selfe wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God Some doe even question the justice of God when wicked men prosper but he is vindicated in his justice when wicked men fall It cannot but please righteous men to see the righteous God exalted or God exalted in his righteousnesse They know and beleeve that God is righteous when the wicked prosper Jer. 12.1 But when the wicked are punished they proclaime his righteousnes Then they sing the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lambe saying Great and marvailous are thy workes Lord God Almighty just and true are thy wayes thou King of Saints Who shall not feare thee O Lord and glorifie thy Name c. for thy Judgements are made manifest Rev. 15.3 4. The Lord is alwayes alike Just but it doth not alwayes alike appeare how just he it And as that God is just is the faith and stay of the Saints so the appearances of his justice are their joy and triumph Secondly God is honoured much in the attribute of his truth in the truth of his word in the truth of his threatenings when the wicked are punished God hath spoken bloudy words concerning wicked men not onely in reference to their future estate in the next life but to their present estate in this Say to the wicked it shall be ill with him the reward of his hands shall be given him But what is this reward There are two sorts of rewards First rewards of love and favour according to the good which we have done Secondly rewards of wrath and anger poenal rewards according to the evill which we have done Now when the Lord puts these poenal rewards into the hands of the wicked or powres them upon their heads he is honoured in his truth as well as his justice for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it As the promises are yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 so also are the threatnings unto the glory of God by us But as when David saw his life in danger every day he began to question the truth of God in the promise that he should live to reigne and fit upon the throne of Israel for saith he Psal 116.11 when things went thus with him I said in my hast all men are lyars even Samuel among the rest who assured me of the Kingdome by expresse message from God but surely he also is deceived and hath fed me with vaine hopes Now as these words of David according to our translation of them and the truth of the thing in frequent experiences shew that Godly men are apt to question the truth of the promise when themselves are by seemingly contradicting providences much afflicted so they are apt to question the truth of the threatnings when they see outward providences prospering the wicked Therefore when the threatnings have their actuall yea and Amen that is when they are executed upon the ungodly this also is to the glory of God by us that is God is glorified by all his people who heare of it in the truth of what he hath spoken Againe as God is magnified in the truth of his threatnings when any particular wicked man is punished so when common calamities come upon the wicked the truth of God or God in his truth is magnified two wayes First As such calamities are a fullfilling of many Prophecies secondly As they are the answer or returne of many prayers The vengeance which falls upon the Enemies of the Church of God is drawne out by prayer Luke 18.7 8. And there is nothing wherein God is more honoured then when prayer is answered For as therein he fullfills our wants so his owne word Who hath not said to the seed of Jacob seeke ye mee in vaine Thirdly When the wicked fall the Lord is honoured in the attribute of his power How great is his power who puls downe great power It argues the Almightines

said to be the midst or Center of the body now saith he keep the law in the very midst of thine heart in the safest place as the heart is the safest place the middle of the body so the middle of the heart is the safest place of the heart So vve may understand that of David I have hid thy Commandements in my heart Psal 119.11 And Deut. 6.6 These words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart that is thou shalt lay them up there Of this laying up the law in the heart vve are to understand Eliphaz here as if he had sayd O Job thou hast often heard of the law but thou hast been a forgetfull hearer now heare it and hold it now as the Apostle exhorts the Hebrewes Heb. 2.1 give the more earnest heed to the things which thou hast heard or shalt hereafter heare lest at any time thou shouldest let them slip or thou shouldest run out as we there put in the margin as a leaking vessel Further This laying up the vvord in the heart is opposd unto a bare barren knowledge it is not enough to have the vvord of God in our heads that is to know it it is not enough to have the word of God upon our tongues that is to speake of it but we must lay it up in the heart For though the heart in Scripture takes in the understanding and the whole soule yet chiefly it respects the affections lay up the word in thine heart that is let thy affections be vvarm'd with it vvhile thy memory retaines and keepes it and thy understanding is enlightened vvith a true notion of it Hence Observe First The word of God is a precious thing We doe not lay up trifles and trash but precious things and treasure vve lay up our Plate and Jewells our Gold and Silver the vvord of God should be more to us than thousands of gold and silver it is the most precious Jewell 't is treasure and therefore it must be laid up Secondly The heart is the Arke or Cabinet in which the word must be laid up There was an Arke or Chest provided for the law Exod. 25.21 and that Arke was Christ he was typified by it and indeed the law would be too hot for our hearts too hot to lye there if it had not first layne in the heart of Christ wee since fallen could never have been an Arke for it if he had not been The tables of the law were laid in the Arke and the Arke in which the lavv vvas put had a mercy-seat vvhich did cover it all over The dimensions of the Arke and of the mercy-seate were exactly the same two cubits and a halfe in length and a cubit and a halfe in breadth Exod. 25.10.17 so that nothing of the law could appeare or rise up in Judgement against poore sinners The propitiatory or mercy-seate covered all Now as Christ hath been the Arke of the law to protect and cover us from the condemning power of it so the hearts of beleevers must be the Arke of the law where it must be layd up with a readines of minde to yeeld our selves up to the commanding power of it David prophecying of Christ saith Psal 40.10 I have not hid thy righteousnesse within my heart yet he had said before I delight to doe thy will thy law is within my heart To cleare which Scripture take notice that there is a twofold hiding of the righteousnesse or vvord of God in the heart First so as to obscure or conceale it from others in that sence David saith I have not hid thy righteousnesse in mine heart I have declared thy faithfullnes and thy salvation and not concealed thy loving kindnesse and truth from the great Congregation And thus no man ought to lay up the truths the law the promises of God in his heart to conceale and stifle them there Secondly There is a hiding of the law in our hearts first that it may be safe lest Satan or the world should snatch it from us Secondly That we may further consider of it when a man hath got an excellent truth or Scripture he should lay it up in his heart to ponder and meditate more upon it to draw out the sweetnes and to experience the power of it Thirdly That vve may have it ready at hand for our use and so the Scribe instructed for the kingdome of heaven is described by bringing forth out of his treasury things both new and old How sad is the condition of many that have heard much but laid up little or nothing at all of all that vvord which they have heard Some having laid it up in their note books are satisfied with that 't is good and usefull to doe so but doe not let it lye there get a Copie of it in your hearts a few truths in your hearts are better to you then many truths in your bookes no man was ever saved by the vvord in his booke unlesse that vvord were also written in his heart God commanded the Jewes Deut. 6.8 9. to vvrite the law upon the post of their houses and on their gates to bind them as a signe upon their hand and as frontlets between their eyes They were commanded also to put fringes upon the borders of their garments Numb 15.38 vvhich our Saviour calls Phylacteries Math. 23.5 these were ribands of blue silke or as some say scroles of parchment upon which the law being first wrought or written and then bound upon their garments they were to looke upon it and remember all the commandements of the Lord Num. 15.39 Vanissimi profecto pharisaei illi qui cum ipsi non servarent in corde manda●a at membranulas decalogi complicantes quasi coronā capiri facientes phylacterium eoc sua proprictate Custodit●rium est Bold Now saith Christ they make broad their Phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their Garments as much of the lavv as you vvill upon thei● Clothes but none of it in their hearts Thus the proud Scribes and Pharisees went about as it were Clothed with the vvord of God but his vvord was farre from their hearts nor did it appeare in their lives it is a meere vanity to have much of the law in our bookes while vve neglect to keepe it in our hearts and act it in our wayes The former is good but it doth no good without the latter The want of this the laying up the vvord in the heart causeth the great want of Saints in the things of God and as many loose that Grace which they seemed to have so many are at a losse in the use of that Grace which they have because they have not laid up the vvord of God in their hearts so carefully as they ought We say proverbially Sure bind and sure find They who would surely finde the comfort of the word of God when they need it had need to bind it sure when they receive it JOB CHAP. 22. Vers 23 24.25

golden pipes which did empty the golden oyle or according to the letter of the Hebrew the Gold out of themselves That spirituall oyle was called golden or gold because like gold shineing pure and precious The gifts and graces of the Spirit are golden oyle indeed So Jer. 51.7 Babylon hath been a golden Cup in the hand of the Lord Which some expound tropically taking the Continent for the thing contained The cup for the wine Called golden wine because of the splendidnes and beauty of it as Solomon speakes Pro. 23.31 When it giveth his colour in the cup. Or Babylon is called a Golden cup first because of the great glory wealth and illustrious pomp of that Empire described in Daniel Chap. 2.32.38 by a head of Gold and marked out in Isaiah by the name of the Golden City Isa 14.4 and secondly because God had caused other Nations to drinke deep of his wrath by the power of the Babylonian Empire Upon which account Mysticall Babylon is sayd to have a Golden cup in her hand Rev. 17.4 Gold is the King the chiefe of metals gold is among metals as the Sunne is among the Starres and Planets of Heaven the glory and Prince of them all So that when Job saith I shall come forth as gold his meaning is I shall come forth pure and in much perfection Gold is first the most precious metal secondly the most honourable metal thirdly the most weighty metal fourthly the most durable metal fifthly the most desirerable metal Every one is for gold Aurum per ignem probatum symbolum est j●storum nam ill● minime laedit examen ●gnis per ista igitur verba vir sanctus candorem suae innocentiae conscientiae puritatem maximam cir●umloquitur Bold So that when Job saith I shall come forth gold his meaning is as if he had sayd my tryall will not diminish but rather adde unto me I shall be precious honourable weighty durable desireable after I have been in the furnace or fineing pot of my sorest and severest Tryalls And he speakes thus in opposition to his friends who had an opinion of him as if he were but drosse or the off-scoureing of all things as the Apostles were reckoned in their time I shall come forth not drosse and trash but gold as if he had sayd Were I once tryed I should be for ever quit of those Charges brought in against mee and of those scandals cast upon mee I should shine in reputation and honour like pure gold coming out of the fire I should recover my good name and be found a man loyall to God and righteous towards men Hence note Grace renders man excellent and precious Every godly man is gold yea he is more precious then fine gold The finest gold is but drosse to Grace the wicked of the world are reprobate silver or refuse silver Jer. 6.30 the Saints are finer then Gold refined in the fire for they are precious they are honourable they are usefull they are dureable and lasting they shall endure everlastingly they are weighty in their worth and their portion is an eternall weight of glory Secondly Whereas Job saith when I am tryed I shall come forth as gold Observe A godly man is no looser by being tryed yea he gaines by it He who before was reputed but as drosse and had much drosse in him comes out of the tryal as gold and loseth nothing of his weight worth or beauty by being tryed he onely loseth a good losse his drosse and the rubbish of his corruptions Grace is not onely grace still but more gracious even glorious after tryall Some speake of grace as if it were but drosse consumeable in the fire as if every temptation and tryal endanger'd it to an utter consumption or as if like lead it would quite evaporate and spend to nothing in the fire They sticke not to affirme that a true beleever may lose all his graces and how much soever enricht before by the Spirit yet prove a bankrupt in spiritualls Job was Confide●t that his gold would hold the tryal both of the hottest afflictions and of the strictest examinations He had been tryed long in the furnace of affliction heated seaven times more then ordinary and yet held his integrity and though he should come to tryal at the Judgement-seate of God which is more then seventy-times seven times stricter then the Judgement-seate of man according to truth can be yet he nothing doubted that nothing as to the general bent of his heart and frame of life should be found or appeare but integrity still That is but drossie grace natural grace if not hypocritical grace or a counterfeit onely of grace which a●ides not in the day of tryall They who loose the grace which they have shewed had onely a shew of grace Hypocrites shall ●o●e all at their tryal their paint their varnish will not endure the fire eyther of a lasting affliction or of that last examination when once a hypocrite is tryed then he is sham'd He may goe currant for pure gold a great while but at last he appeares but as a gilded sepulcher or drosse of gold Psal 119.119 Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like drosse And the Lord speaking of the degenerate house of Israel Ezek. 22.18 saith The house of Israel is to me become drosse all they are brasse and tin and iron and lead in the midst of the furnace they are even the drosse or drosses of silver That is though they are a professing people and hold out my name yet I having tryed and examined them throughly finde them to have nothing but a name of profession They being tryed are come forth like drosse The Apostle 1 Cor. 3.13 Allegorically shadowing out all sorts of superstructive doctrine by Gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble saith If any man build upon this foundation that is Christ Gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble every mans worke shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire Dum p●obantur toti in fumum abeunt and the fire shall try every mans worke of what sort it is If any mans worke abide which he hath built thereupon hee shall receive a reward if any mans worke shall be burnt he shall suffer loss c. The wood hay stubble shall be burnt but the gold silver precious stones will abide the tryall of fire Whether it be the fire of persecution tribulation and temptation nothing but holy truth can abide these fires or the fire of the holy Spirit who in Scripture is often compared to fire and who together with the light of the Word revealeth the soundnes or falsenes of all doctrines delivered by men and like fire consumes what is false but gives a further brightnes and lustre to the truth Even truth untryed may be counted drosse but being tryed it comes forth like gold Now as the truth of doctrines so the truth of persons in

but I have hid or layd up the words of his mouth that 's a good reading and so M● Broughton translates More then my daily bread have I layd up the words of his mouth The Vulgar gives another reading In my bosome have I hid the words of his mouth in this following the Septuagint who by the change of a letter in the Originall translate the word which we render More then my necessary or statute food in my bosome But I passe that as a mistake of the text in that word yet in the former part it consents with Mr Broughton I have hid or layd up the words of his mouth more then my daily bread And as this translation holds out a truth in it selfe so the sense meets with ours for as the Originall word doth as properly signifie to hide or lay up as to esteeme so those things are layd up or hidden by us which are of most esteeme And this action of hiding or laying up the word is often spoken of in Scripture both as the practise and as the duty of the Saints Psal 119.11 I have hid thy commandements in my heart And the rule is given by wisedome Prov. 2.1 My sonne if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandements with thee Wisdome counselleth us not onely to receive but to hide the commandements And Pro. 4.20 21. Wisdome goeth yet further My sonne attend to my words incline thine eare to my sayings let them not depart from thine eyes keepe them in the midst of thy heart The heart as Naturalists say is in the midst or center of the body Holy truths must be kept in the midst of the heart in the midst of the middle that is in the safest place in that most retyred chamber the midst of the heart But why should these words be hidden in the heart which are and ought to be proclaimed in the eare and upon the house-top I answer wee hide things first that we may know where to have them what is throwne at our heeles wee know not where to have Secondly We hide things for safety or from danger as well as to have them ready at hand for use There are enemies who watch their opportunity to steale the word away from us and therefore it is our wisdome as well as our duty to hide it or lay it up safe So that in both notiōs we ought to hide the word of God first that wee may have it at hand for use as it is sayd of the Good house-holder in the Gospel that he layeth up and hath in his treasure things both new and old Secondly that it may be kept out of the hand of the theife who would rob us of that precious treasure Satan and the world are Word-stealers and they steale away the Word not because they desire to make any use of it but lest we should therefore as Gideon Judg. 6.11 threshed wheat by the wine-presse to hide it from the Midianites so seing there are mysticall Midianites who dayly steale away the Word that most necessary and precious wheat from thousands who have heard and received it we should in a holy jelousie and suspition of them hide it out of their reach In conversion God puts the Law in our minde and writes it in our heart And through that grace received and dayly renewed we also are enabled to lay it up there Pectus meum feci Bibliothe cam dei Hieron de Nepotiano A Good man as one of the ancients speaketh makes his heart Gods library there he layeth up whole volumes of holy precepts and of precious promises And looke what precepts or promises he finds in the Bible or written booke of the Word of God the same he finds transcribed into his owne heart and so into his life But I will not insist upon that reading I have laid up the words of his mouth more then my necessary food We render I have esteemed the words of his mouth c. These two rendrings of the word give light to each other That which we esteeme we hide and the more we esteeme a thing the more carefully we hide it No man will lay up that which is worth nothing what we hide is of value at least we judge it to be so Childrens pockets are often full of Bables but to them they are no Bables they esteeme them as men doe gold and silver else they would not take them up much lesse lay them up I have esteemed the words of his mouth Before it was the commandement of his lips some make a distinction between these expounding the commandement of his lips for the preceptive part of the word and the word of his mouth for the promissive part of the word or for the promises which are gracious declarations and manifestations of the love and good will of God to sinfull man Dicta oris distinguo a praeceptis dictum oris est verbum gratiosae nunciationis et promissionis q. d. gratiam annunciatam libentè● accepi animi fide Coc As if Job in the former words had a respect chiefely to the Law or rule of doing and in this latter to the Gospel or ground of beleeving But though I see not well how these seemes can beare that distinction yet the matter doth yea and seemes to require it for though a godly man esteemes the precepts of God as well as the promises and the commandements are the words of Gods mouth as well as the promises yet the promises are the most feeding fatning and refreshing part of the word and if so surely they were not left out yea possibly were principally intēded by Job in this place that he might shew how his Spirit was carried out to the full latitude and compasse of the minde of God both in the Law and in the Gospel And because the promises have so much soule-food in them he doth therefore elegantly preferre them before his necessary food I have esteemed the word of his mouth But how much or at what rate did he esteeme them it follows in the next words More then my necessary food There is yet some variety observable in the reading of these latter words Some give it thus A statuto meo abscondi eloquia oris ejus Mont Ex statuto meo vel more meo ut ab ●nevute aetate assuevi praetermittere quae deus odio habet i. e. plena electione deliberatione fixa apud se non externè tantum et levitèr divinam legem custodire apud se decreverit Cajet Aliqui ad actiones hominis consuetas quas de more facit referunt ut antiquius habuerit legem domini animo recondere ei operam dare quam solita constitua sibi ac usitata facere Merc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proprie statutum et decretum sonat hinc certam decretam cibi rationem Quicquid advictum vitam fovendam ac tuendam est necessarium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellatur Merc I

treasure I need not stay to tell you The Judgements of God saith David Psal 19.10 are more to be desired then Gold yea then much fine gold And againe Psal 119.72.127 The law of thy mouth is better to me then thousands of Gold and silver And ver 127. when he saw how some made voyd the Law of God he sayth Therefore I love thy commandements above Gold yea above fine Gold As if he had sayd because I see some men esteeme and reckon thy law as if it were drosse and throw it up as voyd and antiquated or taking the boldnes as it were to repeale and make it voyd that they may set up their own lusts and vaine imaginations because I see both prophane and superstitious men thus out of love with thy Law therefore my love is more enflamed to it I love it above gold which leads the most of men away captives in the love of it and I esteeme it more then that which is most esteemed by men and gaines men most esteeme in this world Fine Gold yea as he sayd Psal 19. more then much fine Gold Secondly Observe A high and reverentiall esteeme of the word of God workes the heart and keepes it close to the obedience of the word Job having said before I have kept the commandements of his mouth I have kept his wayes and not declined I have not gone back now comes to the spring of all this constancy in obedience I have esteemed the words of his mouth c. Love is the spring of action and esteeme is the top of love we love nothing which we doe not esteeme and what we love much we thinke we can never esteeme enough And what we thus love and esteeme we strive to keepe close unto They that receive the truth and doe not receive the love of it quickly turne from it to beleive a lye yea God therefore sends them strong delusion to beleive a lye because they received not the love of the truth As not to love the truth is a sin so it is punished with another sin the love of error Though we have taken much truth into our understandings yet unlesse we take it into our affections also we cannot hold it long 'T is love which holds the heart and the word together No man willingly obeyes that Law which he doth not love Before David could say The Law is my meditation all the day he sayth O how I love thy law Ps 119.97 The hypocrite who hates instruction and casts the word of God behinde his backe that is slights and vilifies it to the utmost for so much to cast behinde the backe imports the hypocrite I say who thus casts the word of God behinde his backe will be talking of the word and have it much in his mouth yea he will mouth it so or be so talkative about it that God reproves or checks him for it Psal 50.16 Vnto the wicked saith God What hast thou to doe to declare my statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant in thy mouth So then the hypocrite was very busie with his tongue and he could speake much of that which he loved never a whit But was the hypocrite a man of his hands also was he busie in obeying the word which he had cast behinde his back The next words of the Psalme ver 18 19 20 21. tell us what he was busie about even this he was breaking the Law as fast as he could When thou sawest a theife then thou consentest with him and hast been partaker with Adulterers c. The inditement is large and upon many heads yet all true and is therefore closed with These things hast thou done ver 21. I the Lord am witnes and so is thy owne Conscience That Scripture is a cleare glasse wherein we may see how all they will use the Law of God who doe not highly esteeme the words of his mouth We may read Jobs text backward for their character Their feete have not held his steps his way have they not kept but declined they have gone back from the commandement of his lips And why so for they have esteemed the words of his mouth no more then their un-necessary food no more then the scraps that fall from their Table no more then as the Proverb saith their old shoes I have esteemed the word of his mouth more then my necessary food When Job saith I have esteemed the word of his mouth c. It is as if he had sayd this is enough for me that God hath sayd it to make me esteeme it Hence observe Thirdly Whatsoever God saith is to be esteemed for his owne sake or because he hath sayd it As God needs not borrow light from any what to speake so he needs not borrow testimony or Authority from any to ratifie what he hath spoken He is to be beleeved for himselfe His words need no sanction but ipse dixit I the Lord have sayd it or thus saith the Lord that is enough to silence all queryes and disputes both about the truth of what is delivered and the necessity of our obedience to it As the word of Gods mouth is to be obeyed so it is therefore to be obeyed because it is the word of his mouth That he hath sayd it must command our faith As he is the true God so he is the God of truth Every word of his mouth is pretious As what God hath spoken must be the rule of our faith so that he hath spoken it must be the reason of our faith I have esteemed the words of his mouth c. Lastly From both these verses we may take notice of the severall steps by which Jobs piety did arise to so eminent a hight First He strongly tooke hold of the steps of God Secondly He diligently kept his way Thirdly He declined not eyther to the right hand or to the left Fourthly He went not backe from the Holy commandement both which negatives may be resolved into this affirmative He walked very closely and exactly with God in utmost perseverance Fifthly He tooke a delightfull care about all those things which the word of God called him unto even beyond all the care which he tooke for those things which are most conducible to and necessary for the comforts of his body or natural life JOB CHAP. 23. Vers 13. But he is in one minde and who can turne hinc and what his soule desireth even that he doth IN this verse Job is conceived by some at once making discovery of his owne infirmitie and of the soveraignty of God But though all agree that they carry a full discovery of the soveraignty of God yet many are so farre from judging them a discovery of Jobs infirmitie that they rather discover the strength and hight of his Grace and holines To cleare the whole matter we may take notice That there are three apprehensions about the scope and sence of these words First As if in them Job renderd a reason

therefore shew the worke of the law written in their hearts Against this internal light the wicked rebel Secondly There is a light of divine Revelation which shines into the soule from the Scriptures or written word of God The word of God is so often called light in Scripture that I need not give particular Instances Divine truths inspired and directed by the Spirit of God are there written as with the beames of the Sun Yet the wicked man rebells as against the light of nature so against the light of Scripture against the clearest and fullest discoveryes of the minde of God Further Some by the light against which they rebelled understand God himselfe who is light as the Apostle John calls him 1 Ep 1.5 and in him is no darknes at all All that rebel against God must needs rebel against light seing God is light And the very reason why the light of nature and the light of Scripture are rebelled against is because the former hath somewhat of God in it and the latter much of God in it For as God is light so all light is of God And that light which is of God must needs be rebelled against by wicked men seing they most of all rebel against God who is light and the fountaine of it for as the Apostle John argues about love 1 Ep 5.1 Every one saith he that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him So we may argue about hatred and the effect of it rebellion He that hateth and rebelleth against him that begetteth light so God doth whence also he is called the Father of lights Jam 1.17 he I say that rebelleth against him that begetteth light hateth and rebelleth against that light which is begotten of him They are of those that rebell against the light Hence observe First Divine truth is as light As the Sunne gives light to the eye or outward man so the Spirit of truth gives light by the word to the inner man When God sends his word to a people he sends light to a people Christ is light and the word is light Christ in person is the light of the world the word in doctrine is the light of the world The truth of Divine Revelation is many wayes answerable to the light First Light is pure and beautifull and the light is so pure that you cannot impure or defile it so is truth Though many have attempted to corrupt the truth and word of God and shall at last be dealt with and judged as they who have corrupted it yet the truth remaines incorruptible and ever shall The beauty of it fades not nor is the purity of it stained by all the filth of false doctrine which hath been cast into the face of it from the beginning of the world unto this day Secondly Light is pleasant and delightfull Light is sweet saith Solomon Eccl. 11.7 and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the Sunne So truth is sweete and it is a pleasant thing to behold and receave the Sun-light of Divine Revelations where truth is taken in it doth even ravish the soule and fill it with unspeakeable delights Truth is as sutable and pleasant to the understanding as good is or can be to the will and affections David found not onely delight this or that single delight but all sorts and degrees of delight in the Law of God And therefore he speakes plurally Psal 119.92 Vnlesse my delights had been in thy law I had perished in my trouble And againe ver 143. Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me yet thy commandements are my delights All his troubles were over-ballanced and conquered by his delights in the law and all his delights and contentments were Center'd in the Law That light was so much his delight that it overcame all worldly darknes and did even extinguish all his worldly lights Thirdly Light hath heate in it and light is accompanied with influences or conveighes them with it All living creatures here below are cherished and refreshed yea and things without life as Gemms and mineralls are concocted and refined with the warmth and vertue of it And so hath truth The light of the word carrieth heat and Influences with it to warme the heart and comfort it to concoct the grossenes of mans minde and sublimate it into an heavenly purity Did not our heart burne within us while he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the Scriptures sayd the Disciples of Christs discourse with them Luk. 24.31 Fourthly Light discovers and makes manifest so doth truth Joh 3.20 21. Every one that doth evill hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved or as we put in the Margin discovered Light makes manifest the word of God as the Apostle speakes Heb. 4.12 is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart it discovers that to us not onely in others but in our selves which wee saw not before wee are much if not altogether unknowne to our selves till we see our selves in the Glasse of the Word Hence observe Secondly The light of truth is Clothed with Authority the truths of God have a Soveraignety over man Wee cannot be said to rebell against any thing but that which hath power and authority over us a man may oppose and contend with his equall but hee cannot be said to rebell against his equall wee rebell onely against those that are above us If a childe opposeth his father it is rebellion if a servant opposeth his Master it is rebellion because fathers and masters have authority over their children and servants All rebellion is the breaking of the bands of subjection And all the bands of subjection are broken when the light is rebelled against because the light of heavenly truth is invested with all power and authority over us it hath a power to lift up and a power to humble or cast downe It hath a power to convince and a power to comfort It hath a power to kill and it hath a power to make alive all these powers the light of the word hath But it hath two powers more especially and eminently First It hath the power of a rule or power to rule and governe both the hearts and lives of men the light of the word doth not onely offer advice and give Councell but it gives out a Command what the word speaketh we are not upon poynt of Indifferencies whether we Will receive it or no but upon poynt of duty Therefore not to receive it especially to resist it is rebellion the light of the word is as a King and where the light of that word comes there is power and no man may say What doth it Secondly It hath the power of a Judge It gives both Law and Judgement He that rejecteth me saith Christ Joh 12.48 and receaveth not my words The not receiving of the word of Christ is the rejecting of Christ himselfe and he that rejecteth

boast read that v. 21 22 23 24. Thou therefore which teachest another teachest thou not thy selfe Thou that preachest a man should not steale doest thou steale Thou who makest thy boast of the law through breaking the law dishonourest thou God for the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you So that wicked men doe not onely rebell against the light to hinder the coming of it or to keepe it off as long as they can that so they may not know what to doe but they rebell against it when it is come and will doe against what they know Fifthly When 't is sayd They rebell against the light Observe Wicked men are not onely no friends but professed resolved enemies of the light they hate and oppose holy truths or the discoveries of the minde and will of Christ They are in open actuall hostility they take up armes and maintaine a warre against it not that all wicked men doe expressely send forth their defiance against God and his word but all wicked men carry this defiance in their hearts and it is to God as an openly profest defiance though it be not so to man God heares the language of their hearts and he knowes that the wisdome or best of the flesh is Enmity against himselfe that it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be Rom. 8.7 That is while a man continues as to his spirituall state under the power teachings of the wisdome of the flesh and is unregenerate as he is not so it is impossible he should continuing in that state be subject to the law of God The law of God will ever continue as holy as it is and if the heart of man continue as unholy as it is how shall they agree A wicked man stands not upon termes of neutrality with the law and light of God but he is a direct opposite or enemy he rebells against the light Sixthly Seeing Job when he had described all those wickednesses which he saw done adds this description of the wicked who did them they are of those that rebell against the light This may be Considered two wayes as I intimated before first as the discovery of a new and a greater sin then any of those particular sins already instanced in or as a reason why they did breake out into those enormous sins the former consideration yeelds this Note To resist or rebell against the light of truth the word of God is wickednes in perfection or wickednes wrought and boyld up to the very height As God sometimes brings Judgements upon men in perfection so men sin against God sometimes in perfection And if any doe so surely they doe so who rebell against the light That speciall sin against the Holy Ghost of which Christ sayth It shall never be forgiven what is it but rebellion against the light the highest and clearest light and the more cleare and high the light is the more danger there is of falling into that sin And hence some conceive that before Christ came in the flesh though there were very high and presumptuous sins committed that yet none of them did amount to that which the Gospel calls The sin against the Holy Ghost There was Gospel-light in those times but it was under types and shaddowes there was not that cleare light that clearest light which was shed abroad at the coming of Christ and therefore there was not light enough to sin against for the production of that sin against the holy Ghost which is not onely the greatest rebellion against light but is also a rebellion against the greatest light And here consider by what degrees sinning against light riseth unto its full height of rebellion First It is very sinfull and extreamely dangerous not to love the light See how Christ thunders against such as doe not Joh. 3.19 This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darknes rather then light He doth not say men rebelled against the light he onely charges them with this crime that they did not love it but loved darknes rather This saith he is the Condemnation that is this will certainly be matter of condemnation against sinners that when light came to them their hearts did not close with it and embrace it Now if it be so sinfull not to love the light what is it to rebell against it It is very possible for a man not to love that thing or person against which yet he doth not rebel Secondly Not to obey not to submit to the light is exceedding sinfull Jesus Christ shall at last be revealed from heaven personally in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that obey him not as revealed doctrinally that is who obey not the Gospel 2 Thes 1.7 8. yet it is possible not to obey the Gospel that is to forbeare an active obedience to that which is Commanded in it and not to rebell against it actively these are distinct in themselves though seldome if at all distinct in those that doe them Now then if there be aboundance of wickednes in not obeying the light in not doing every thing that the light directs us to then it must needs be a more abounding wickednes when the heart rises up and rebells against it For though as was even now intimated we can hardly divide these in their existences yet we may distinguish them in their natures or at least in their degrees for barely not to obey the light in doing the will of God is a sin of a lower stature then a profest rebelling against it though in every not doing according to light there is somewhat of rebelling yet in that which is properly rebelling there is more then not doing Thirdly It is a great sin not to set a great price upon the light or not to value it according to its worth that is not to value it highly not to have a high esteem of it not to have a higher esteem of it then of all the Enjoyments and Comforts of this world is a high provocation What is it then to rebell against it it is sinfull not to let all goe not to suffer the loss of all for the light not to suffer even the loss of life it selfe for the light this is extreamly sinfull Therefore saith Christ Luk. 14.26 He that will be my Disciple must forsake father and mother c. yea and his life too that is hee must be ready to let all these goe if called to it rather then let goe the light or truth of the Gospel Now if it be so great a sin not to be willing to suffer any losse or to endure any torment in standing up for the light what is it for any soule to rise up against the light or knowingly to withstand it Fourthly The Apostle saith that our neglect of the light of the Gospel subjects us to outer darknes Heb. 2.3 How shall we Escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to

layd up in the dust 241. The natural place of Gold should abate our desires after it 242. Gold the most excellent metal in five respects 382 Grace renders a man precious 383. The glory of grace is that it continueth 659 Greatest and strongest as easily cast downe by God as the least or weakest 665 Growth of Grace 397 H Hands purenes of hands what 290 Hardnes of heart in sin when the sinner can feed upon it 494. Hard heart trembles not at the reproofes of God 790 Heart lift up to heaven the worke of Grace 106. Laying up the word in the heart hath a twofold opposition 225. The heart of man is the Arke where the word of God must be layd up 227. Truth in the heart better to us then truth in the booke 228. Heart of man makes more false Gods then his hand ever made 128. The word to be hid in the heart 407. Soft heart what several sorts of it 457 Heathens confined their Gods to certain places 114 Heaven is the place of Gods speciall residence 105. 111. Two inferences given from it 106. Heaven and hel know no changes 779 Heavens what the garnishing of them is 804. Visible heavens are full of Beauty 807. Severall inferences from it 807 808 Hel in what sence it consumes those who are cast into it 624. What meant by hel in Scripture 746. Hel is destruction 747. Hel expressed by eight words in Scripture 751 Heresie like a flood yet bounded by God 777 Hiding the word of two sorts 227. Three ends of hiding the word in the heart 228 Hidings of God from his people 367 368. God hideth himselfe five wayes 368. God will be as hid to his people sometimes after the use of much meanes to finde him 371 High places of God what they are 684 Holynes the Lord takes pleasure in it three reasons why 22 23. Why we should be every where holy 113. Holynes hath boldnes with God 261 328. Holynes gives us weight and honour 602 Holy-Ghost sin against the Holy-Ghost what it it in general 557 Honour a threefold honour arising to God by the fall of the wicked 189 Houses God hath two speciall houses 808 Humble persons of two sorts 287. Humble persons under the speciall care of God 288 Hypocrites some not discovered in this world 330. Hypocrites feare the judgement of God or to be tryed by God 330. An hypocrite cannot rejoyce that God knoweth him shewed in three things 377. Hypocrites cannot hold out when they come to the tryall 384 I Jelousie guilt makes men full of it 642 Ignorance wicked men love it 554. A twofold ignorance 560 561 Imitation of God our duty 390 Impenitency under sin cōmitted worse then the sin committed 44 Imprisonment when a cruelty 54 Inconstancy of a carnal man shewed two wayes 602 Industriousnesse of the wicked in sinning 517 518 Infinite what Nothing strictly infinite but God 40 Innocent oft charged with foulest crimes 83. Innocent taken two wayes in Scripture 192 Joy at the troubles which befall wicked men how lawfull 186 187. What kind of joy that is not and what it is 192 Judge God the most desireable Judge to the godly and sincere five grounds of it 429 430. A Godly man rests in the Judgement of God 336. God is every way fitted to be a righteous Judge 378. In a Judge two things specially needfull 378 Judging man apt to judge favourably of himselfe hardly of others 48. We must take heed of Judging upon suspition 48. What Judging of others forbidden 49 Judgement wicked ripe for judgement sometimes before ripe in years 143. Judgements of God have somewhat of mercy in them 168. Judgements of God upon the wicked how matter of Joy to the righteous 184. Why the Judgements of God upon the wicked are not visible 482 Jupiter Hammon why so called 618 Justice how blind and how seeing 124 Justice must be done for the example of others 182 183 Justice of God honoured by the fall of evill men 189 Justification selfe justification extreamely displeasing unto God 24. God hath no respect to our righteousnes in the busienes of Justification 29. Justification what it is 700. Man hath nothing of his owne to justifie him before God two grounds of it 702. A twofold Justification 703 K Keeping the way of God twofold 392 Knowers of God or they who know God who they are 473. Every Godly man is a knower of God 476. Some godly men know God much more then others who are godly too 478 Knowing and understanding taken two wayes 334. 372 Knowledge evill men will act against their owne knowledge 555. Knowledge of God how and what God knoweth 121. The most secret wayes of man even the way within him is knowne to God 373. A general inference from this knowledge of God 374. It is the Joy of the upright that God knowes their most secret wayes 374. That God knowes the wayes of a godly man assures him of three things 375. Nothing is hid from the eye or knowledge of God 749. All our knowledge of the wayes and workes of God is but in part 819 L Labourer not to be wronged 536. Nothing cheape but poore mens labours why sayd so 538. It may be a dangerous thing to be the labourers purse-bearer but for a night 539 Land-markes the removing of them very sinfull 489 Law of God the Elegancy of the Hebrew word whereby it is expressed opened 220. Law taken two wayes 222. To receive the Law what it is 225. God onely can give a Law to the conscience 224. Law how written in our hearts by God and how by our selves 226 Left-hand declining what it importeth 396 Levelling principles confuted by the naturall state of the creature 117 Leviathan or Whale the mighty power of God in forming the Leviathan 814. An inference from it 815 Liberty threefold where the Spirit is 262. Life of man in what sence it should alwayes hang in doubt to him 641. How no man is sure of his life 643 Light of God fourefold 695 Light God is with all men by a twofold light 157. Light threefold shining upon the wayes of a Godly man 282. Light twofold 550. Wicked love not the light neyther to see what good they should doe nor to be seene in the evill they doe 554. Light internall against which the wicked rebel twofold 550. Holy truth is light 551. How divine truth is like light shewed in severall resemblances 552. Sinning against light exceeding sinfull 557. Foure degrees of sinning against light 558 They who sin against light are ready for every sin 560 Looke of God twofold 652 Love true love to man will not easily conceave or nourish suspition 102 Love we cannot be constant in that which we doe not love or affect 561 Lusts and corruptions like a stormy Sea within us 801 802 Lyars men are made lyars two wayes 670. The worst that can be sayd of a man is that he is a lyar 672 Lye false doctrine is a lye 671

enter with thee into judgement ELIPHAZ now enters his third and last contest with Job in which some tell us that he behaveth himselfe like a man who seekes Victory rather then Truth who though he hath been sufficiently answered yet will not seem to be overcome yea that he takes up the same weapons to maintain this third with which hee maintain'd his two former Encounters The first in the fourth and fifth Chapters and the second in the 15th as if he were resolved to contradict though he could not confute the reasons wherewith Job had made his defence But as such a carriage as this in Disputation is altogether vaine in it selfe so it is most uncomely in a wise and godly man who ought not to refuse truth and reason though spoken by an Adversary but rather modestly to sit downe and confesse his own errour and mistaking And therefore though Eliphaz in this answer or triplication doth but roule the same stone and move upon the same hinge in generall still adjudging Job to suffer for his sinne and to be punisht as an evill doer yet he puts all into a new method and varies the sceane or manner of his argumentation which may be reduced to this forme as if Eliphaz had said O Job if thou sufferest all these evills for some cause as certainely thou dost for these things could not come by chance but by the wise disposure and providence of God then that cause or reason for which thou sufferest must either be found in God or in thy selfe If thou sayest the reason is in God and that he doth it by his prerogative thou dost rashly intrude thy selfe into his secrets and art over-bold or curious in searching into his hidden counsells and when thou hast made out thy conjectures we may as easily denie as thou dost affirm but if thou hast recourse to and refl●ctest upon thy owne selfe for the cause of thy sorrows and sufferings surely thou canst finde out or pitch upon nothing else but thy sinfulnesse and abounding transgressions which while thou refusest to acknowledg thou dost but harden thy heart against God and growest impatient under the rebukes of his afflicting hand therefore I admonish thee to repent c. This seems to be the summe of that whole discourse which Eliphaz gives in this Chapter as will further appear in the explication of the parts Againe we may contract his scope and give it in this briefe Job having constantly affirmed against his friends that God equally afflicts the righteous and the wicked and having said which might have gained respect to what he was about to say that hee pleaded for God Chap. 21.4 As for me is my complaint to man or for man no it is to God or in Gods behalf Hereupon Eliphaz taxes him with this presumption as if he would needs undertake to be a patron for God and so to bring him in some advantage or to stand him in stead for the maintaining of his cause therefore he begins his speech with this chiding expostulation Can man be profitable unto God or suppose thou wert which I shall presently disprove as thou hast often boasted righteous yet is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous This seems to be the intent of the whole Chapter in which we may further take notice of two distinct parts The first is reprehensory Eliphaz reproves and rebukes Job sorely to the end of the 20. verse The second is hortatory Eliphaz moveth Job earnestly to repentance in which he coucheth many Promises and gives Assurance that it shall not be in vaine from the 20th ver to the end of the Chapter Acquaint now thy selfe with him and be at peace thereby good shall come unto thee c. The first part his reprehension begins at the second vers V. 2. Can a man be profitable unto God There are three readings of these words First thus Can a man be compared to God Numquid Deo comparari potest homo etiam cum perfectae fuerit scientiae Vulg. Some labour much in the defence of this reading but I shall not stay upon it For though it be a truth that man cannot be compared to God how wise or how good soever he is What 's the wisdome or the goodnesse of man to God Yet the Originall Text doth not freely yeeld it selfe up to that translation which bears this truth 2. Master Broughton renders thus Can the humane wight teach the Omnipotent that word which we render to be profitable he Quidam verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro docere exponunt in utroque hamistichio Merc. to Teach The Chaldee Paraphrase favours this translation and some render it so in both parts of the verse Can a man teach God As he that is wise may teach himselfe If a man should be so bold to take upon him to teach God would God regard his teachings but I shall passe by this also especially considering that Eliphaz had no reason to tax Job with such a Presumption as if he had taken upon him to direct God how to order his affaires when as Job himselfe Chap. 21. v. 22. had strongly repressed and condemned such a boldnesse Shall any teach God knowledge Job having so lately exalted God above mans teaching as was shewed in opening that verse it is not probable that Eliphaz should reprove him as conceiting himselfe wise enough to teach God Or that he thought Job either had done or was about to doe that which with his last breath almost he confessed no man could do The third is our reading Can a man be profitable unto God Can a man he doth not mean an ordinary weak sickly frail man but a man yea any man at his best the word here used notes a man in his health strength and glory a man in the flower and perfection not only of his naturall abilities but in the richest furniture and array of his acquired yea inspired abilities Take this man a man of these atttainments a man thus accomplisht and Can he be profitable to God For as when the Psalmist saith Psal 33.17 A horse is a vaine thing to save a man By the horse there wee are not to understand a leane poor weak slow-pac'd horse or a strong swift horse unman'd Such a horse indeed is a very vain thing to save a man by Such a horse may do a man more hurt then help when hee comes into danger but the Psalmist means a horse of the greatest strength courage and swiftnesse A horse exactly man'd and taught all his postures even such a horse is a vaine thing to save a man Againe when the Scripture saith Christ came to save sinners we must not understand it of lesser lower or of the ordinary sort of sinners only but even of the highest and the greatest for such Jesus Christ came to save as well as the least of sinners So here when 't is said Can a man be profitable to God we must expound it of the

vision Thirdly Some expound feare in the Text for that speciall feare which riseth from guilt or for terror of conscience Sudden feare troubleth thee That is thy conscience flyes in thy face and affrights thee thy feare flows not from any outward troubles that threaten thee or from wants that afflict thee but from those wickednesses which have been committed by thee thy conscience vexeth and tormenteth thee not onely with feare but with sudden feare feare rusheth upon thee unexpectedly violently like an armed man Sudden feare troubleth thee Taking feare in all or any one of these interpretations Note Sudden feare surprizeth securest sinners When they shall say peace and quietnesse then sorrow and anguish come upon them as paine upon a woman in travell and they shall not escape The Prophet in vision Zech. 5.1 Saw a flying roll That flying roll was the Curse And it was called a flying roll to note the speedy and sudden coming of those judgements that were written in it They came not onely upon the spurre but upon the winge They came flying Flying is a swift motion and that motion is applyd to judgement when once God giveth it a Commission to come Hence also Deut. 32.41 the sword is called a lightning sword or a sword that hath lightning in it If I sayth the Lord whet my glittering or lightning sword The sword of the Lord is as Lightning it hath burning and swiftness in it divine vengeance cometh as Lightning It is called also the overflowing scourge Isa 28.15 'T is a scourge because the lashes of it cause much smar● and paine and 't is an over-flowing scourge to note the suddennes of it The scourge comes in like a mighty flood Againe This suddennes of feare or of things feared may have reference unto the security of wicked men who though they have often heard of dangers and judgements have been threatned upon them yet they alwayes come suddenly upon them because they never prepare for them To such as are unprepared evills are alwayes sudden how often soever they have been warned of them As to him that is prepared death is never sudden though he dye as we vulgarly phrase it a sudden death So he that is unprepared for death dyeth suddenly though he dye that which wee commonly call a lingring death Thus death and judgement shall come suddenly upon all ungodly men It shall be sayth Christ Matth. 24.37 as in the dayes of Noah they were eating and drinking they were marrying and giving in marriage till the day that Noah entred into the Arke and knew not till the floud came and tooke them all away But did they not know of the floud till the floud came assuredly they did for Noah foretold them of and preached the coming of the floud a hundred and twenty yeares before it came Gen. 6.3 My spirit shall not alwayes strive I will not alwayes be contending yet his dayes shall be an hundred and twenty yeares That is he shall have an hundred and twenty yeares warning all that time the old world had warning of the flould and Noah preached upon that Text all that time yet the floud came upon them saith the Text and they knew it not that is they regarded not what Noah said they tooke no thought neyther to prevent the floud nor to prepare for it The Author to the Hebrews tels us that Noah by faith being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with feare prepared an Ark to the saving of his house by which he condemned the world that is the then world of unbeleefe and hardnes of heart and became heyre of the righteousnesse which is by faith Heb. 11.7 Hee had a holy feare in him and a faith also a faith that the thing should be done and a feare of God who threatned to doe that thing Thus by faith being moved with feare he prepared an Arke for the safety of himselfe and of his household Why did not the rest also make preparation they did not beleeve nor did they feare Christ rebuked hi● Disciples in the storme at Sea Matth. 8. with why are ye fearefull O ye of little faith The old world might have been rebuked with why are ye fearelesse even because ye are of little or rather of no faith at all Vnlesse dangers threatned be beleeved they are never feared and unlesse they be both beleeved and feared they are never avoyded Whensoever the Lord of such servants shall come he cometh in a day when they looke not for him and in an houre that they are not aware of Matth. 24.50 that is he cometh suddenly What can come more suddenly upon any man then that which he looked not for nor was at all aware of Thus he shall come to cut them asunder and to appoint them their portion with hypocrites There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Sudden feare troubleth thee Vers 11. Or darkness that thou canst not see and abundance of waters cover thee Some render this verse by way of interrogation Aut autu solus tenebras non videres tanta scelera impunè ferres Shalt thou not see darkness and shall not the abundance of waters cover thee shalt thou onely not see darkness and passe unpunished for such monstrous wickednesses As if he had sayd thou seemest to wonder that darkness is upon thee thou makest strange of it that flouds or abundance of waters cover thee But hast thou not deserved and called forth these Judgements by many sinfull provocations Others render this Text not as a Question but as a direct Assertion Thou thoughtest that thou shouldest or thou hadst a conceit that thou shouldest never see darkness nor any trouble coming upon thee thy heart was lift up in hope of Impunty thou didst perswade thy selfe that God had as high an opinion of thee as thou hadst of thy selfe or thou hast flattered thy selfe in thy sinfull way and thou thoughtest that God would have flattered thee also But I shall rather as we connect it with the former verse carrying on the same intention Or darkness that thou canst not see Darkness may be taken eyther properly or improperly darkness properly taken is that of the ayre by the withdrawing of the Sunne This is not here intended Darkness improperly taken is that of our state and it is twofold First Internall which is indeed ignorance or the darknes of the minde As if he had sayd Darkness veyles the eye of thy understanding that thou canst not see eyther the hand of God upon thee for thy sinnes or those thy sinnes which have caused God to lay his heavy hand upon thee Thy understanding is darkned that thou canst not see This intellectuall or internall darknesse is twofold First Naturall or inbred every man hath naturally so much darkness in him that as he cannot see the truths that are in the word of God so he cannot see the intendment of the works of God Secondly Judiciary or inflicted Isa 6.9 Goe and tell this

Chapter wee have found Eliphaz charging Job with those hainous crimes injustice and uncharitablenesse towards man in these three verses he proceeds to charge him with a higher crime even irreligiousnesse and impiety against God as if at least Job doubted if not denied the providence of God about what is done here below or affirmed that he neither rewarded the righteous according to their good nor punisheth the wicked according to the evill which they have done That 's the scope of this context in which wee may observe First A twofold truth held forth Secondly A wrong suggestion of two errors as arising from those truths Thirdly An indeavour to prove and make good what he had wrongfully suggested The two truths are contained in the 12th verse first God is in the height of heaven secondly The Stars are very high these are cleare truths from these Eliphaz makes a wrong suggestion as if Job upon those grounds of Gods being in the height of heaven c. had pleased himselfe with this conceit that God could not at such a distance take notice of what passeth among or is acted by men in this inferior world Ver. 13. And thou sayest how doth God know can he judge through the dark cloud As if he had sayd God being in the height of heaven cannot know much lesse judge concerning the state of things here below Why what should hinder Hee tells us what in the 14th verse where which was the third thing he endeavours to prove his suggestion Thick clouds are a covering to him that he seeth not that 's the first proofe and then we have a second in the latter end of that verse God hath other things to doe then to minde what is done here he hath higher businesses and imployments then to look upon us who are creeping upon mole-hills and engaged about a heape of earth for he walketh in the circuit of heaven that is there lieth his great worke he hath enough in a nobler Spheare to imploy himselfe in and therefore surely thou thinkest that God takes no care at all or not such speciall care about the affayres and wayes of men This is the summe and scope of these three verses They are a new charge of impiety upon Job as shutting up or restraining the providence of God to the things of heaven alone and we see how Eliphaz frames arguments and proofes of the point for Job which as will appeare afterwards never came into his heart Now though Eliphaz misapplyed all this to Job yet herein he fully characters clearly paints out the spirit of carnal men for such secure themselves in their evill wayes upon this presumption that God takes no notice of them or that he hath something else to do then to trouble himselfe with what they are doing Ver. 12. Is not God in the height of heaven Nonne deus sublimior est coelo Pagni Nonne deus coelum alium tenet Tygur Nonne deus in sublimitate coelorum Mont Deus sublimitas coelorum Hebr There are divers readings of these words first thus Is not God higher then the heavens A second thus Doth not God possesse the high heaven The Originall may strictly be renderd God the height of heaven that is God is above all heavens we render well God is in the height or sublimitie of heaven This Question Is not God in the height of heaven is taken three wayes First Some read it as an Exhortation given by Eliphaz to Job to draw off the motion of his thoughts most of all the setled bent of his heart from those inferior things his losses troubles his sorrows paines and sicknesses he would divert his minde from these worldly sorrows and raise it up to heavenly enjoyments Is not God in heaven As if he had sayd Why standest thou poring upon things below Why dwellest thou so much upon thy dunghill and thy present poverty God is in the height of heaven consider him there This is both a safe and a very spirituall way to ease our minds of all the troubles and sorrowes which we meete with in this world could we but ascend in Spirit to the height where God is could we by an eye of faith looke to him live upon him and in him all burdens would be light and pressures easie to us Secondly This question may be taken as a plaine assertion or affirmation and it is of the same value signification with this God is in the height of heaven there he is and from thence he beholds all the children of men their wayes and workes Thirdly Is not God in the height of heaven May be understood not as the question of Eliphaz and so his affirmation but as the question of Job and so his supposition As if Eliphaz apprehended Job thus speaking in his heart Annon deus est inquis in altitudine coeli Jun. Is not God sayest thou in the height of heaven or doest not thou O Job say thus God is in the height of heaven I grant that he is there but I deny that he is there in thy sence or according to thy opinion He is not concluded or shut up there he is not so in the height of heaven but that he mindeth what is done upon the earth yea in the very depths of hell As if he had sayd Thy thoughts and conceptions of God are too strait and narrow Thou speakest much below God while thou sayest he is in the hight of heaven While thou confinest God to heaven thou makest him like thy selfe on earth From these words in the two former Expositions Observe That the hight of heaven or heaven above is the place of Gods speciall residence Heaven is my throne sayth the Lord Isa 66.1 the throne is the seate of a Prince there he declares his power and his state his glory shines from his throne A Prince looks like a common man when he is abroad in the world but when upon his throne then the rayes of Majesty break forth and he appeares as he is Thus the holy Prophet begs a gratious look of the Lord from heaven Isa 63.15 Looke downe from heaven the habitation of thy holinesse and of thy glory Heaven is called the habitation of Gods holinesse and of his glory because his holinesse and glory shine forth more in heaven then upon the earth little of the holinesse of God is discovered to us here though so much of it breaks forth here as causeth the heart of carnal men to quarrell with it continually Nor are any able with these eyes or rather with these hearts to beare the glory of God or endure his holines When but some extraordinary glimpses of these appeared to Esayah he cryed out Wo is me I am undone or cut off because I am a man of uncleane lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of uncleane lips for mine eyes have seene the King the Lord of H●sts Isa 6.5 As God is of purer eyes then to behold iniquity so

oughtest of these truths that the Lord is in the height of heaven and that he hath made those high and glorious lights in heaven that indeed thou doest quite pervert his meaning in making them Thou sayest how doth God know In stead of honouring God who formed these lights thou art darkning his honour and ecclipsing the light of his omniscience For whereas thou shouldest have sayd seeing God is on high and hath made the Starres which are so high surely nothing can be hid from his knowledge Thou sayest How doth God know And there is a twofold saying of this first a saying with the tongue secondly with the heart The vaine heart of man hath many sayings and this among the rest Dicis 1 verbis prolatis 2 mentis cogitatione falsa persuasione How doth God know Psal 14.1 The foole hath said in his heart there is no God And he that saith in his heart How doth God know speakes as foolishly as that foole doth who saith There is no God To deny that or doubt whether God knoweth all things is not onely to doubt but to deny that God is at all He is not God who knoweth not all things And thou sayest how doth God know The conjunctive particle And is here put as a causal And thou sayest that is therefore thou sayest how doth God know So the sense is more cleare Is not God in the height of heaven c. He is And what then The use thou makest of it is this Thou sayest how doth God know so the particle is used Gen. 49.16 He saw that rest was good and he gave his shoulders to the burthen c. that is therefore he gave his shoulders to the burthen Thou sayest How doth God know Wee may answer First Negatively Not by sence as wee eyes and eares are ascribed to God improperly in Scripture nor doth God know by discourse drawing one thing from another but in the Affirmative he knowes intuitively he knowes every thing nakedly in it selfe Againe Some read What doth God know how farre doth his eye extend what are the objects of his knowledge To this we may answer God knoweth all things even the hearts of all the children of men There are no secrets to God But whether wee expound it of the manner or matter of divine knowledge the sence is the same eyther an affirmation that God did not know all things or at least a doubt whether he did or no. Thou sayest How doth God know But where and when did Job say this Job might challenge Eliphaz bring your proofes and witnesses against me why doe you impute such thoughts to me and frame such imaginations in my breast certainly Job never spake this and as surely Job never thought this yet Eliphaz puts it directly upon him What was his ground Existimabet haec consequi ex Jobi dictis quasi necesse sit eum qui dicat improbos prospere agere existimare etiam deum res humanas noncurare Merl. onely as the former crimes of uncharitablenesse and injustice his breaking the armes of the fatherlesse c. were fastned upon him because of the feares snares and darknesse in which he was as if he must needs have done those evills because he endured so much evill Jobs sufferings were great and therefore according to the Logicke of Eliphaz his sinnes must needs be very great So here he hath onely this to prove his supposition that Job said How doth God know because Job had sayd that God doth sometime prosper wicked men and afflicts the righteous As if he who sayth that God suffers wicked men to prosper in this life must needs also say that God regards not the things of this life so that Eliphaz seemes to speake thus We have heard thee saying that the wicked prosper and that the godly are afflicted what need we any further witnes that thy opinion is God neyther takes notice nor care of the things here below Out of thine owne mouth we condemne thee as Guilty of this blasphemy That Thou sayest How doth God know Hence observe First That good men are sometimes charged with saying and doing the worst and vilest things Thus 1 King 21.13 Naboth was accused of blaspheming God and the King Christ himselfe was taxed with blasphemy more then once Matth. 9.3 And behold certaine of the Scribes said within themselves this man blasphems There they did not openly averre it but they said it within themselves At other times they spake it openly Joh. 10.33 The Jewes answered and sayd for a good deed we stone thee not but for blasphemy because thou being a man makest thy selfe God And againe Matth. 26.65 He hath spoken blasphemy ye have heard his blasphemy To speak or doe well and heare ill was the portion of Christ and may be the portion of the holyest of those who are Christs Secondly Note That when men are heated in dispute they are apt to make false inferences from the tenets and sayings of their opposers Eliphaz sayth Job denied providence whereas Job adored it that he denyed Gods knowledge of the good and evil done in the world because he maintained that good men receive evill and evill men good in the world When we deny transubstantiation or that the bread is changed into the very substance of the body of Christ Papists inferre that we deny that Christ spake truely when at his Last Supper he said This is my body and they will hence force it upon us that we say God is not omnipotent because we affirme that it is inconsistent with the nature of a true humane body such as Christ hath now in heaven though glorified and spirituall to be in many places at once For as some deny the omnipresence of the divine nature so Papists affirme the omni-presence of the humane nature And say they while we deny this we deny the omnipotency of God Others charge us that we make God the author of sinne and that according to our tenet all the impiety and wickednesse that is in the world lyeth at his doore because we affirme That God hath passed an Eternal absolute and unchangeable decree concerning all the sonnes of men When all other arguments fayle how usuall is it to make the divinest truths guilty of the most uncomely and ugly consequences that are imaginable Further Thou sayest How doth God know Take it eyther of the inward or of the outward saying eyther of the tongue or of the heart saying so Eliphaz would prove from it that certainly Job was a wicked man And his inference had been true if he could have proved it true that Job had sayd so Hence observe That to have evill thoughts or to speake evill of God is the character of a wicked man He that is good must needs both thinke and speake good of God David doth often aggravate the wickednesse of his enemies from the language of their hearts and tongues Psal 10.11 He hath said in his heart God hath forgotten he

he is a God eyther he is talking c. Thus Hierusalem is expressed Isa 37.22 when Senacherib sent up that proud threatning message the Lord sent a comfortable message to his people by Isaiah the Prophet Thus saith the Lord God of Israel whereas thou hast prayed to me against Senacherib the king of Assyria this is the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning him the virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorne the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee The daughter of Zion and the daughter of Jerusalem are but one and the same shee was called a virgin not as some have conceived because she was never taken or forced by any enemy nor was she so called because he had preserved her selfe pure and chast in the worship of the true God For she had her faylings and Idolatrous dalliances before that day but she was so called because of that speciall care which God had of her to protect and save her against the insultations of the enemy then ready to assault her even as a virgin is protected from violence in her fathers house And the Prophet to assure them that it should be so speakes of the ruine of Senacheribs Army and Jerusalems laughter as accomplisht and come to passe already The virgin daughter c. hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorne and shaken her head at thee What God saith shall be done is as good as done already The Assyrians were yet in their Jollity laughing at Jerusalem and promising themselves the spoyle of the people of God yet saith the Lord Jerusalem hath laughed thee to scorne that is assuredly she shall And as the people of God doe sometimes formally and explicitly laugh at the downfall and whitherings of the wicked so they alwayes virtually and secretly laugh them to scorne even when they stand and flourish in their greenenes and prosperity For while the Godly are not daunted with the power and splendour while they are not terrified with the threats and high lookes of the wicked but in the singlenes and simplicity of their hearts keepe close to God his wayes and truths even this though they use the duest respect to them in regard of their authority both in word and gesture is a laughing them to scorne For this is as a thorne in the sides of evill men and as a pricke in their eyes when they see they will not stoope to their greatnes in any sinfull complyance with their commands This is a truth but the former is the truth intended in this Text. Hence note That wicked men are not onely miserable but ridiculous They are the laughter of the innocent upon more accounts then one First because they doe such childish and ridiculous things such things as can never reach the ends they desire and purpose they are justly laughed at whose counsells and courses are unsuitable much more when contrary to their designes Secondly Wicked men become ridiculous while the Lord frustrates their wisest counsels and blasts those hopes which were bottom'd upon the most probable principles and foundations while he takes them in their own craft and entraps them in the snare which they layd for others Thirdly While he over-rules all that they plot or act to serve his owne ends and fullfill his owne holy counsels Hence the enemies of God are said to pine away this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feete he doth not say that they shall all be slaine but their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feete and their eyes shall consume away in their holes and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth Zech. 14.12 which as some interpret of their bodily languishment that they shall live dying continually or that their life shall be a continuall death so all interpret the cause of this consumption to arise from vexation of spirit because they shall see themselves scorn'd and laughed at or that they are become ridiculous to all the world but chiefly to Jerusalem the Church and people of God whom they shall behold in good condition notwithstanding all the opposition which they have made against them which Eliphaz also clearely expresseth in the next words Vers 20. Whereas our substance is not cut downe but the remnant of them the fire consumes There are divers readings and renderings of this verse first some with an affirmative interrogation is not their substance cut downe that is it is cut downe And then this verse is a continuation of the former discourse concerning the utter extirpation of the wicked The righteous are glad they laugh them to scorne is not their substance cut downe and doth not the fire consume the remnant of them As if Eliphaz had said Whatsoever they had of any substance or moment is cut downe and if possibly there be any small inconsiderable remainder of them fire that is some devouring Judgement will meete with it and make an utter end of it Innocens subsarnabit eos quia non fuit succisa substantia nost●a c. q. d. ut qui se res suas salvas illos autem penitùs igne illo divino videant jure absumptos Bez Secondly Another understands this 20 ●h verse as a reason of the former the righteous are glad when the wicked fall the innocent shall laugh them to scorne because our substance was not cut downe as if he had sayd our safety will be matter as of praise to God who hath preserved us so of holy scorne and insultation over ungodly men who longed to see our destruction and sayd in their hearts that surely our day was not onely comming but hastning whereas indeed we see the day come upon them which burneth as an oven and themselves as stubble Wicked men are for the most part doubly disappointed first by their owne fall when they looked to stand secondly by the standing of the righteous when they looke yea and long for their fall This double disappointment doth at once double their sorrow and the joy of the Innocent who laugh them to scorne because their owne substance is not cut downe but the remnant of them the fire consumeth Innocens subsannabiteos dicens etsi non est succisa substantia nostra tamen excellentiam illorum consumpsit ignis P●sc There is a third translation which makes these words the forme in which the innocent expresse their laughter at the wicked When The innocent laugh them to scorne they will thus bespeake them Whereas or Although our substance is not cut downe yet the remnant of them or the best the excellency of them the fire hath consumed There is a fourth reading which makes the second part of the Chapter begin with this verse For hitherto Eliphaz hath been describing the sinfulnesse of wicked men and the wrath of God upon them for their wickednes

come to such so to stay and abide with them As good comes so good continues according to the command and commission which it hath from God Thus he promised in the Prophet Isa 48.18 in case his people had harkned to his commandements Then had thy peace been as a River and thy prosperity as the waves of the Sea Thy peace and prosperity had not been as a Land flood or Brooks of water which faile in summer when we have most need of them all worldly things are apt to doe so but they should have flowed perpetually as a river doth which is fed by a constant Spring or as the Sea doth which is the feeder of all Springs A godly man gets not onely a large portion of good things but a lasting portion yea a portion of those good things which are everlasting by acquainting himselfe with God And because by acquaintance with God so much good comes to us Therefore Eliphaz presseth Job further to it in the next verse Vers 22. Receive I pray thee the Law from his mouth and lay up his words in thine heart Receive that is learne from his mouth he that teaches gives Dat Magister quando docet capit discipulus quando discit Drus and he that learnes receives and the Hebrew word which we render here to Receive signifies not ordinary receiving but receiving with an earnest desire yea it implyeth a kinde of violence in desire such as they have who take spoyles in warre They fly upon the spoyle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verbum hoc ad praedam quae cum violentia tollitur referri potest and catch it with as much eargernes as they wonne it with courage So Receive the Law from his mouth David saith I have rejoyced in thy word more then they that finde great spoyles Psal 119.162 O how strongly did his heart run out to the word And there is an Elegancy also in it that this word which signifies to receive the Law Ex hac radice dicitur doctrina 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quase accepta vel accipienda quia sc lex debet accipi grato lubenti animo doth also signifie the Law or doctrine to be received Prov. 4.2 I give you good doctrine forsake you not my Law The word which is there used for doctrine is the same that ●s here rendred to receive the reason is because wholsome doctrine ●s worthy to be received and ought to be received willingly chearfully and gladly and therefore the Gospel which is the highest and most precious doctrine is called an Acceptable doctrine This is a faithfull saying and worthy of all Acceptation 1 Tim. 1.11 The Gospel is worthy not onely of Acceptation or of great but of all Acceptation and that from all men even from the Greatest And so also is the Law for as shall be opened further afterwards the Law in this place comprehends the Gospel also Receive the Law at his mouth Further The word which we expresse Receive is rendred by some to buy we may connect both sences here Receive the Law as a thing bought and carry it home with thee That of Solomon Prov. 23.23 suites it well Buy the truth and sell it not Truth is a Commodity the trade whereof goes but one way all Civill Trades and Merchandizes are continued by buying and selling but this spirituall trade is continued by buying onely without selling it will be our profit to have this Commodity alwayes upon our hands or rather alwayes in our hands Thus here Receive the Law at a price buy it and keepe it not that the Lord doth expect any price from us or that vve can bring any thing to him valuable for it We buy it when vve take paines for it vvhen vve doe our utmost endeavour to receive the truth vvhen vve receive the truth not onely as it is offered and brought home to us but vvhen we goe out for it and seeke after it in all the meanes vvhich God hath appoynted as conveyances of it that 's buying the Law of truth Receive the Law Againe We may profitably consider a double derivation of that word vvhich vve trenslate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 explorare aut circumquaque lustrare quia lex universa est diligentèr observanda ne q●is in uno offendat Law Some say it is from a roote that signifies to behold or Contemplate to Consider to looke about and the Lavv is vvell exprest by a word of that sence because the vvhole Law is diligently to be observed and considered looked into and meditated upon vvee are alwayes to behold it and that in every part For the vvhole Lavv is copulative and he that offends in one part offends in all David speaking of the righteous man Psal 1.2 saith hee meditates in the law of the Lord day and night What 's meditation but the Inward view of a thing or the beholding it with an Intellectuall eye meditation is the continuall turning of things over in the minde to behold the excellencies and perfections that are in them A radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod est p●uere irrigare quare commune fere idem est nomen pluviae Doctoris legislatoris Secondly Say others it proceeds from another radicall vvord that signifies to raine and that not onely some small drissling dewing raine but full showers or as we say to powre downe and in the Hebrew the same vvord signifies to raine and to teach because teaching by the vvord is like raining or the sending dovvne of raine The Apostle Heb. 6.7 alludes to it For the earth which drinketh in the raine that commeth oft upon it c. by the earth he meanes those vvho heare the vvord or doctrine vvhich comes dovvne upon them like raine to soften their hearts and make them fruitfull There are tvvo other Texts of Scripture very suitable to this Exposition Esay 30.20 Though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction yet shall not thy teachers be removed into Corners any more but thine eye shall see thy teachers Thy teachers shall not be removed so wee render but strictly from the letter of the Hebrew we may read it thus 〈◊〉 elongabit ●●viam Though the Lord give thee the bread of adversitie c. yet shall not thy raine be removed from thee It may seeme strange that they should have the bread of adversity and the vvater of Affliction and yet have also raine vvhich naturally causeth the earth to bring forth bread and fills the pooles vvith vvater But the Prophet vvho speakes of corporall bread and vvater in the former part of the verse speakes of spirituall raine in the latter making this so full a compensation to the people of God for the want of other tvvo that they should have no cause to complain of it As if the Prophet had said Though you are cut short in outward things yet you shall not

highest in grace are censured as acting and speaking below nature And as these whose graces are ●oving aloft are often suspected of madnesse So secondly they who lye below complaining under the pressures of nature by affliction are as often suspected of and charged with impatience A troubled spirit can hardly judge aright of it selfe and is seldome rightly judged by others I will end this poynt with two Cautions The first to all concerning those that are afflicted The second to all that are afflicted To the former I say judge charitably of those who complaine bitterly for as a man in a low condition knoweth not what himselfe would eyther be or doe were he advanced to the heights of honour and power so he that is at ease and wel knoweth not what himselfe would eyther be or doe were he in paine or overwhelmed with sorrows Extreames in any ●●ate are rarely borne with a wel or duely tempered moderation Secondly To the latter I say let them expect to heare themselves hardly censured and learne to beare it let not such thinke strange of their sufferings eyther under the hand of God or by the tongues of men Great sufferers speake often unbecommingly and are as often so spoken of Thirdly Forasmuch as the matter of this suggestion against Job tumultuous and rebellious speeches at least speeches savouring strongly of rebellion are incident to any Godly man in Jobs condition Observe There may be rebellion against God in a good mans complainings under the afflicting hand of God An unquiet spirit is not onely a great burden to man but a dishonour to God Our dissatisfaction with the dealings of God carrieth in it at least an implicit accusation of him or that God hath not done well because it is ill to sence with us There is a rebellion against the rod as wel as against the word of God For as our strugling and striving with the word of God and the unquietnesse of our hearts under any truth when it takes hold of us is rebellion against God so to strive and struggle with the rod of God or with the crosse that he layes upon us is rebellion against him also God speakes to us by his rod as wel as by his word and we spurne at God in wrangling with his rod as wel as in wrangling with his word Yea to have hard thoughts of God as that he is severe and rigourous that he hath put off his bowells of compassion towards us and forgotten to be gratious such thoughts as these of God under affliction are rebellious thoughts And as there is a rebellion in the thoughts against God in case of affliction so also in the Tongue Thus to murmur is to rebell I doe not say that all complaining is rebelling but all murmuring is we may complaine and tell the Lord how sad it is with us how much our soules our bodies our estates our relations bleed and smart We may complaine and make great complaints without sin but the least murmuring is sinfull yea in the very nature of it so full of sin that it usually and deservedly passeth under the name of Rebellion The children of Israel were as often charged with rebellion as with murmuring And therefore when they murmured for want of Water Moses sayd unto them Heare now ye rebels must we fetch you water out of this Rocke Numb 20.10 And againe Moses chargeth this upon them with his last breath as it were Deut. 31.27 I know thy rebellion and thy stiffe necke behold while I am yet alive with you this day ye have been rebellious against the Lord and how much more after my death yea the Lord himselfe chargeth rebellion upon that unparalleld payre of Brethren Moses and Aaron themselves because they had not so fully as they ought at all times and in all things submitted unto his divine dispensations among that people Numb 24. The Lord spake to Moses saying Aaron shall be gathered unto his people for he shall not enter into the Land which I have given unto the children of Israel because yee the Lord puts them both together in the sin rebelled against my word at the waters of Meribah Fourthly whereas Job sayth Even to day my complaint is bitter Observe The Afflictions and sorrows of some eminently Godly sticke by them or continue long upon them It is with afflictions as with diseases there are some acute diseases sharpe and feirce for a while but they last not they are over in a few dayes for eyther the disease departs from the man or the man departs out of the world by the feircenes of his disease There are also Chronicall diseases lasting lingring diseases that hang about a man many dayes yea moneths and yeares and will not be gone while he lives but lye downe in the grave with him Such a difference we finde among thos● other afflictions and troubles which are not seated as diseases in the body but reach the whole estate of man Some are acute and sharpe like the fierce fitts of a feavor but they last not or like Summers sudden stormes which are soone followed with a succession of faire weather But there are also chronicall afflictions tuffe and unmoveable troubles which abide by us which dwell with us day after day yeare after yeare and never leave us while we live or till we leave the world Many a good man hath carryed his affliction with him to the grave If any shall object how then is that of David true Psal 30.5 Weeping may endure for a night ●●t joy commeth in the morning I answer First That Scripture speakes of that which is often experienced but not alwayes secondly It is most true also that all our weeping is but for a night yea but for a Moment as the Apostle speakes 2 Cor. 4.17 compared with that morning of joy when the day of our blessed eternity shall begin Thirdly the Psalme hath this scope cheifely to shew that the troubles of the Saints are not everlasting not that they are never lasting or to shew that the night of weeping shall at last conclude in a morning of joy to the Godly not that their night of weeping shall presently conclude For as some have onely a Summers night or a short night of sorrow so others have a winters night or a long night of sorrow And this night of sorrow may be as long not onely as many natural dayes or as somes yeares but as long as all the naturall dayes and yeares of this present life The morning of joy is not to be understood of the next morrow after the sorrow began for how long soever our weeping continues it is night with us and whensoever joy comes though at midnight 't is morning with us For sure enough as those sonnes of pleasure are described Isa 56.12 promising themselves the continuance of their joyes To morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant therefore come fetch wine and let us drinke to day there will be wine enough

what he saith to mee and then reverently submit thereunto Further This forme of speaking I would know the words and I would understand c. seemeth to imply a vehement desire in Job to know the minde of God concerning him As a man that is accused longs to heare the minde of the Judge as for others 't is not much to him what they say for him or against him As Paul spake in a like case 1 Cor. 4.3 With me it is a very small thing to be judged of you or of mans judgement c. he that judgeth me is the Lord that is to his judgement I must stand He is above all Hence note First That a godly man is carefull to understand the answer and determinations of God concerning him I would know the words that he would answer mee and this not onely according to the supposition which Job makes here if God should speake to him personally or mouth to mouth but in what way soever God should speake to him It is the great care of a Godly man to know the word of God written and deliver'd over to us as the rule of our life and faith for indeed therein wee have our judgement and our answer as Christ saith the words that I speake they shall judge you at the last day that is by the word you shall be judged Likewise it is the care of a Godly man to understand what God speakes to him by his workes and providences by his rods and chastnings In these the Lord speakes to us and gives us answers They who are wise will study to know and understand them We may conceive that Job had respect to two things especially about which he desiered that he might understand the answer and words of God to him First That God would shew him the true Cause of his affliction for he did not take that to be the Cause which his friends had so often suggested and so disputed upon that Fallacy all along which Logicians call The putting of that for a Cause which is not the Cause Therefore Job hoped to know of God what he would say as to the reason why he did Contend with him Secondly What God would say to him by way of Direction and Councell by way of remedy and redress he was sollicitous to understand the minde of God and what God expected from him under this dispensation So that Jobs scope was not at all as Eliphaz suspected to plead his owne righteousnesse and holy walkings before God as if God had been beholding to him for them and so must needs grant him as having deserved it whatsoever he should aske But that he might be acquainted with the holy will and purpose of God concerning himselfe and to be instructed by him about the grounds and ends of his long and sharpe affliction that so he might beare it more chearefully and more fruitfully As also and that principally that he might heare from his Majesty which was the great poynt in controversie between him and his friends whether he did correct and chasten him as a son or punish and take vengeance on him as on a rebell and so set him among the examples of caution for sinners in time to come Secondly Note A Godly man rests in the Judgement of God Si me nisontem pronunciaret cum gaudio si sontem cum patientia s●sciperem sententiam ejus Scult Job would not rest in his friends judgement but in Gods judgement he would rest and enquire no further I saith he freely yeeld up my selfe to that if the Lord should pronounce mee Innocent I would rest in his sentence and be thankfull if the Lord should pronounce mee faulty yet I would rest in his sentence and be patient yea then I would aske mercy and begg his grace for the pardon of my faylings God is an Infallible Judge and therefore no man ought to question his determinations Indeed Every mouth shall be stopped and all the world become guilty before God Rom. 3.19 that is acknowledg thēselves guilty before him when he judgeth And as there is no avoyding the judgement of God so a godly man desires to rejoyce in it Good is the word of the Lord sayd Hezekiah 2 King 20 19. When a very sore sentence was past against him and he sayd is it not Good if peace and truth be in my dayes By good in the former part of the verse he meanes just and equall as if he had sayd though this word be full of gall and wormewood yet it is no other then I and my people have deserved and drawne upon our selves By good in the latter part of the verse he meanes Gracious and mercifull as if he had sayd God in this sentence hath mixed the good of justice and equity with the good of graciousnes and mercy or in the midst of Judgement he hath remembred mercy Thus also when God gave sentence by fire against the two sons of Aaron Moses sayd to Aaron This is that the Lord spake saying I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before all the people I will be glorified Lev. 10.3 Now when Aaron heard this the text saith And Aaron held his peace He murmured not he contradicted not but rested patiently in the judgement of God And thus Job was resolved to give himselfe up to the judgement of God whatsoever it should be And we shall finde him in the next words hoping strongly to finde God very sweete and gratious to him could he but obtaine a hearing at his Judgement seate JOB CHAP. 23. Vers 6 7. Will he plead against me with his great power No but he would put strength in me There the righteous might dispute with him so should I be delivered for ever from my Judge JOb still prosecutes the proofe of his integrity from his willingnesse to appeare before God and plead his case at his throne and as in the two former verses he told us what he would doe upon supposition that he could finde God and have accesse unto him even that he would state his case and then fill his mouth with arguments he would also seriously attend and strive to understand the answer which God should give him So in these two verses he holds out what entertainment he assured himselfe of in this his addresse to God as also what confidence he had of a faire hearing and of a good issue As if he had said O Eliphaz you have often deterred and over-awed me with the Majesty of God as if he would certainly crush such a worme as I am and that I could not at at all stand or abide a tryall before him in Judgement Eliphaz hath spoken to that sense at the 4th verse of the former Chapter Will he reprove thee for feare of thee will he enter with thee into judgement dost thou thinke that God will condescend so farre as to treate with thee but know O Eliphaz that I am not afraid of the presence of God for

is that when God comes to plead with Beleevers he pleads not against them with his power and righteousnesse seing Christ with both pleads for them He pleads for them not onely as he is Jesus Christ the righteous but as he is the mighty the All-powerfull God This is the chiefest ground of a beleevers confidence that God as Job here saith will not plead against him with his great power What then did Job beleeve would God doe with him the next words enforme us what his faith was in that particular But he would put strength in mee So we render the Hebrew is onely thus He will put in mee Veruntatem ille pones in me Heb. what he would put is not expressed in the Original which hath caused some variety of opinion what it should be that the Lord would put into him and I finde a threefold conjecture in the poynt First The supplement is made thus He would produce arguments or reasons against me and this is conceived most suitable to the context and scope of the place as also to the action of pleading before spoken of Poneret afferret in me suas rationes Merc. Ipse poneret cōtentionē in me id est non robore mecum ageret sed verborum contentione Ch would he plead with or against me with his great power no but he would shew me the reason of his dealings with me he would not proceed against me in a martiall but in a legal way not in a prerogative but in a discoursive argumentative way he would shew me the cause why he thus contendeth with me and hath so sorely afflicted me God would condescend so farre to my weaknes as to give me an account though I dare not presume to call him to an account and though he hath both power and right to deale with me as he pleaseth yet I am much assured that he would be pleased to tell me why he deals thus with me This interpretation is cleare to the generall scope of the context and argues nothing unbecoming that holy confidence which the Grace of the Gospel alloweth a beleever in yea encourageth him unto when in any distresse he approacheth unto God for the reliefe and comfort of his troubled Spirit Secondly Another thus Will he plead against me with his great power Fonet in me sc cor suum i e. comple●eretur me favoure Pisc no but he would put his heart upon me that is he would imbrace me with his favour and lay me in his bosome Though his hand hath been exceeding heavy upon me yet I believe his heart is towards me though he hath smitten me with the wound of an enemy yet he will receive me as a friend and give me signal testimonies of his love I should not feele the weight of his hand but see the tendernes of his bowels and his heart moving towards me This also is an interpretation full of truth and as full of comfort to a wearied soule Thirdly The supplement made in our translation reacheth both the former and suites also to the former branch of the Text with much elegancy Alij sub audiūt repetūt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in me robur poneret ad consistendum coram s● ●e infi●mum fulciens roborans Merc. Would he plead against me with his great power no but he would put power or strength into me he will be so farre from putting out his strength against me that he will put his strength into me he knoweth my weaknesse how unable I am to contend with or beare up against his power and therefore he would put power into me Mr Broughton renders clearely to this sense Would he by his great power plead against me no but he would helpe me helpe is power and he that helpeth another administers power to him he either puts new strength into him or joynes his strength with him So then Job was assured that God would put strength into him or be his strength to helpe and carry him through all the difficulties that lay before him Hence Observe First A beleiver hath no opinion of his owne strength or that he can doe any thing in his owne strength He trusts no more to his owne strength or power then to his owne righteousnesse or worthinesse As our Justification before God is purely founded in the righteousnesse of Christ so all the actings of our sanctification are maintained by the strength of Christ Holy Job spake nothing of his owne strength yea he spake as having no strength of his owne A Godly man knows his owne strength is but weaknesse and that when he prevailes with God it is with a power which he hath from God Paul useth a forme of speech which we may call a divine riddle 2 Cor. 12.10 When I am weake then I am strong he predicates or affirmes one contrary of another weaknesse is contrary to strength how a weake man should be strong and then especially strong when he is weake is hard to conceive by those who are spirituall and is unconceivable by those who are carnal This assertion is enough to pose and puzle nature He that is weake is strong or the readiest way to get strength is to be weake The truth and the Apostle Pauls meaning is plainly this When I am weake in my owne sense and opinion when I am convinced that I have no power of my owne then I feele power coming in then Christ strengthens me and I am strong then I experience that word My grace is sufficient for thee When I finde the waters of my owne cisterne low and fayling then I have a supply from the Spirit So the Apostle spake Phil. 1.19 I know that this also shall turne to my salvation through your prayers and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ The first Adam received all his strength at once we now receive our strength by dayly fresh supplyes from the second Adam The word there used by the Apostle which we render supply signifieth an under-supply implying thus much that as the naturall body and each particular member of it is supplyed with sence and motion together with a suitable strength and ability from the head so beleevers who are altogether the mysticall body of Christ and each of them members in particular are supplyed from Christ their head by the Spirit with spirituall life motion and strength of Grace for every duty to which they are called or which is required of them And because as this is so in its selfe so beleevers are instructed in it therfore they disclaime and goe out of their own strength that the power of Christ may rest upon them Christ fills none but the hungry nor doth he strengthen any but the weake They who thinke they have any thing of their owne shall receive nothing from him unlesse Christ be all in all to us he will not be any thing at all to us Secondly Observe God himselfe puts strength into humbled sinners that they

Christ to subdue and conquer them they will be too hard for us and foyle us We are easily and presently foiled by pride by covetousnesse by wrath by envie all these passions and lusts will trample us under their feete in the dirt of all sinfullnesse and pollution both of flesh and spirit unlesse we receive power from on high to subdue and mortifie them Rom. 8.13 If ye through the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live that is ye shall live comfortably holyly and eternally The deeds of the body that is sinfull deeds and the roote of them sinfull lusts count all weapons as Leviathan doth speares and swords but straw and stubble rather to be laughed at then feared except onely the weapons or power of the Spirit And when once we take our lusts to taske with the weapons of the Spirit they presently fall and dye before us The Spirit is the strength of God in us for the mortification of Corruption Fourthly We are strengthened or God puts strength into us for the resisting and conquering of the temptations of Satan we meet with many assaults from the devill and from the world who are confederate with our lusts These we must resist stedfast in the faith and that not onely in the faith as the faith imports soundnes of doctrine or divine truth but as The faith imports dependance upon Christ for strength and assistance Peter being a cheife a grandee in the traine of Christ or among the Disciples of Christ was Satans eye-sore and the fayrer marke for his fiery darts Satans fingers itcht to be doing with him he saith our Saviour desired to have him that he might sift him as wheat Luk. 22.31 that is to sift him throughly not to fetch out his chaffe from him but indeed to make him chaffe How was Peter upheld I have prayed for thee saith Christ that thy faith faile not that is I have prayed that God would put strength into thee that thy faith faile not if once faith faile we are overcome But is faith our strength No but faith goes to and takes hold of him who is our strength or who puts strength into us that we fall not in temptation But you will say Peter fell and he fell grievously his fall was great he denyed his Master 'T is true Peter fell but he did not fall away his faith did not faile that is it was not totally lost and therefore when Christ lookt upon him and by that looke renewed his strength he gat up againe even when he denied Christ there was a seed of faith remaining in him though like a tree in the winter his fruit was gone yea and his leaves too and he looked dead and withered yet there was sap in the roote his faith failed not whence was this he had an invisible supply of strength from God I have prayed saith Christ that thy faith faile not The prayer of Christ fayled not and therefore his faith did not Christ prayed that he might have strength by beleeving and though he had not so much faith as to preserve him standing yet he had so much faith as to raise him from his fall And what Christ prayed for Peter he prayed for all that should beleeve on his name that in all their resistings of and contendings with temptation their faith also may not fayle As faith is one principall piece of our spirituall armour whereby we overcome temptation so it fetches in that which is the whole of the whole Armour of God even the strength of God When the Apostle exhorts Saints Eph. 6.11 To put on the whole armour of God He premises another most needfull exhortation or exhorts them first v. 10. to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might implying that it is not any one piece no nor the whole armour of God abstractly or precisely taken which is our strength but that the God of this Armour is our strength in the spirituall combate Though our loynes were girt about with truth and we have on the breast-plate of righteousnesse though our feete were shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace and we have the shield of faith in our hand though we should take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God yet if thus arrayed it were possible for us to neglect or forget the God of the Word it were not possible for us to conquer the footmen lesser much lesse the horsemen Greater least of all The Charets of iron the greatest temptations of the Prince of darknes As no carnal weapon hath any thing at all to doe so no spirituall weapon can doe any thing at all in this warre without the strength of God or rather to conclude this poynt all these spirituall weapons and Armour are nothing else but the strength of God or the various puttings forth of the strength of God in weake man Fifthly and lastly God gives us strength to pray to and plead our cause before him he will not dazle us with his glory nor confound us with his Majesty when we come to plead with him but he will put strength into us In prayer we prevaile with God but the strength whereby we prevaile with God comes from God yea he doth not onely give us strength in prayer to act by but he acts that strength in prayer Rom. 8.26 Likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it selfe maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered Prayer is strong worke it calls forth the whole strength of the soul nor doth the soule in any thing shew its strength more then in prayer praying is wrestling and how can we wrestle without strength Even the king of Ninevy gave this direction at his fast Jon. 3.8 Let them cry mightily And our Lord Jesus Christ in the dayes of his flesh offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and teares Heb. 5.7 Now the Spirit is the strength of God in us for prayer he helpeth our infirmities and we are onely a bundle of infirmities without his helpe There is a threefold strength needfull in prayer and God by the Spir●t puts these three strengths into us First The Spirit helpes us with strength of argument to plead with God Secondly The Spirit helpes us with strength of faith in taking hold upon God Thirdly The Spirit helpes us with strength of patience in waiting upon God till we receive what we have prayed for Jacob by this threefold strength had power with God in prayer Hos 12.3 and it was the power or Spirit of God by which he had this threefold strength to prevaile with God Thus we are strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man Eph. 3.16 We are strong to doe and strong to suffer we are strong to mortifie corruptions and strong to conquer temptations we are strong to pray and strong to plead our

Hac ratione liber evaderem ab iniquis vitae meae Judicibus calumniatoribus ut ultra mihi disceptatione contentione opus non erit all their charges shall be reprobated and rejected God who hath once Justified a person will never lay any thing to his charge and what charge soever others bring against him Gods justification will take it off The Apostles challenge is universal Who shall lay any thing c It is universal two wayes First in regard of persons accusing he excepts none in earth heaven or hell Secondly in regard of crimes he excepts no sort of sinne let them seeke and finde what they can be they sins against God or man be they sins of omission or commission be they sins never so much aggravated or sadly circumstantiated though against both light and love yet they will not doe against a person Elect and Justified Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect wipes away all charges Accused they may be though justified but condemned they cannot be because justified The best of Saints on earth have much in them and much is done by them which might be matter of charge against them for he that saith he hath no sin in him hath indeed no truth in him 1 Joh. 1.8 but Justifying Grace is their full discharge Againe As the word Judge is expounded universally for all those that did or might accuse Job Observe The best and most righteous on earth meete with many harsh accusers and hard Judges David had those who layd to his charge things that he knew not Psal 35.11 The Jewes returned from Babylon to build their City and Temple were charged with sedition Jeremie was charged with treason Paul was called a pestilent fellow and the primitive Christians were generally loaded with slaunders by the Heathen Misreport and reproach are the portion of Saints from the world And how sadly Job was charged all along by his friends and how severely censured hath appeared every where in this Booke especially in the former Chapter ver 5 6 7. Is not thy wickednes great and thine iniquities infinite for thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought and stripped the naked of their cloathing c. Had not Job reason to looke upon it as a great mercy to be delivered from such a Judge And hath not every Godly man reason to make Davids choyce 2 Sam. 24.14 Let me fall into the hand of the Lord for his mercies are great and let me not fall into the hand of men Now as men are for the most part over-severe executioners of Gods sentence so they are usually over-severe Judges in giving their owne whether sence or sentence concerning others And therefore Jobs faith did prophecy this good to himselfe That God having heard him and judged him he should be delivered for euer from man his Judge And let this be the comfort of the righteous who are oppressed with the hard opinions of men That God will at last deliver them for ever from every rigorous and unrighteous Judge In that Great day as the Apostle Jude calls it the cause of every righteous man shall be disputed before God and then they shall be delivered for ever from their Judge And this did exceedingly beare up the spirit of the Apostle Paul in the midst of the various censures and judgements of men concerning him he knew their judgement should be taken off at last 1 Cor. 4.3 4. With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of mans judgement yea I judge not my owne selfe But he that judgeth me is the Lord therefore judge nothing before the time till the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darknesse and make manifest the counsells of the hearts and then shall every man have praise of God That is every righteous man though dispraised and despised though judged and condemned by men though blackt over with false reports and reproaches yet then every righteous man shall have praise from the most righteous God He will then doe all his people right who have been wronged and passe a just sentence upon those who have suffered much and long under unjust censures And so shall they be for ever delivered from their Judge JOB CHAP. 23. Vers 8 9 10. Behold I goe forward but he is not there and backward but I cannot perceive him On the left hand where he doth worke but I cannot behold him hee hideth himselfe on the right hand that I cannot see him But he knoweth the way that I take when he hath tryed mee I shall come forth as gold IN the two former verses Job exprest much Confidence of a good issue in his Cause could he but finde God and come to tryall And he reneweth this againe at the 10th verse Expressing the same Confidence When he hath tryed mee I shall come forth as gold But though he was thus Confident of a faire coming off in Case he could finde God yet he seemes in these words to cast off all Confidence of finding him forasmuch as yet he could not or had not Expressing himselfe here as a man that had travelled into all parts and quarters of the world East West North and South to finde a friend yet could not meet with him Behold I goe forward but he is not there and backward but I cannot perceive him On the left hand where he doth worke but I cannot behold him he hideth himselfe on the right hand that I cannot see him There is a threefold scope held forth about these words First As if Job did here deplore his fruitles paines in wishing for his appearing before God and in appealing to his Tribunal for as yet he saw himselfe unanswered and frustrated in his expectation God did not appeare to him in his troubles nor declare his purpose towards him Declarat Job se non posse ratione humana per res naturales quas per quatuor mundi plagas significat cognoscere certò clare rationes divinorum judiciorum Pined Secondly His scope may be to assert the hiddennes of the wayes of God or that the wayes of God are not to be found out nor understood by all the paines and industry by all the endeavours and disquisitions of man let him turne himselfe which way he will East or West North or South yet he must say I cannot behold him Thirdly Some conceive that Jobs intent is to declare his owne understanding or meaning in that earnest wish which he lately made Haec subjungit ad declarandū dei immensita tem ne quis putaret eum ex istimasse deum corporeum esse aut corporali loco circumscribi cum de illius tribunali loquutus est Id about his admittance to the Throne of God O that I knew where I might finde him that I might come even to his seat v. 3d He was not so grosse as to thinke that God was Confined to any

is come upon us that is all these common calamities and afflictions yet have we not forgotten thee nor dealt falsely in thy Covenant our hearts are not turned back neither are our steps declined from thy way As if she had said These afflictions have been strong temptations upon us to cause us to decline from thy wayes but through grace we have kept our ground and remained constant in thy Covenant yea though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons and covered us with the shadow of death As many yea most of the Saints have improved under the crosse so there have been some who either through their present unbeleefe or forgetfulnes of the exhortation which as the Apostle saith Heb. 12.5 speaketh unto them as unto children have had their faintings and declinings under it Fifthly Others decline through prosperitie and worldly injoyments when they grow rich in temporalls they grow poorer in spiritualls As their outward man encreaseth so their inner man decayeth and as they flourish in the flesh so hey wither in spirit Hence holy Agur prayed Pro. 30.8 9. Give me not poverty least I be poore and steale and take the name of God in vaine that would be a sad declining give me not riches lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord That 's a sadder declining then the former Povertie endangers grace much but riches more To be rich or great in the world is a great temptation Food convenient is the most sweet and most untemptationlesse condition As hypocrites fall quite off from God when they come onne much in the world so the sincere may be much hindred in their way And as many godly men have declined through their owne prosperitie so some have declined or at least have been in great danger of declining by the prosperitie of others David was readie to decline from God when he saw the prosperitie of ungodly men Psal 73.2 As for me my feete were almost gone my steps had well nigh slip't when I saw the prosperitie of the wicked David was almost downe when he saw the wicked up Their standing had almost given him a fall My steps sayth h●● had well nigh slipt now if it put David a man eminent in godlinesse so hard to it to keepe his standing all the grace in his heart and assistance from God could scarce hold him up how much more may they who come farre short of David decline by seing the prosperitie of wicked men are not they readie to conclude surely we shall thrive and doe well enough though we doe as others doe who doe not trouble themselves in a strictnes about matters of religion as we have done Verily as it follows at the 13th verse we have cleansed our heart in vaine and washed our hands in innocency If we had spared our paines of labour we could not have endured more paine of trouble for all the day long have we been plagued and chastned every morning Such arguings as these shew great declinings Yet they who are sincere will soone recover themselves againe and say as David after he had reviewed this Temptation ver 15. If we say we will speake thus we should offend against the Generation of the righteous Now seing the Godly are so many wayes endangered to declining let us be warned of it and beware of it These are declining times many professors have shamed themselves and the profession of the Gospel He is a Christian indeed that can say in truth as Job did I have kept his words and not declined they that knew me many yeares agoe may finde me in as good yea in a better plight then I was then Hypocrites true beleevers may look act very like one another but as the nature of their estates have alwayes a vast difference to the understanding so the event gives a vast difference between them to the eye Hypocrites keep the word of God a while but they ever decline in the end finally from it and sometims throw it off in the way totally When they are in the way they grow weary of it a smal matter working either upon their hopes or fears will put them quite out of it Every difficulty every danger is to them a Lion in the way causing them to decline from it wheras to those that are sincere difficulties are not stops but incitements and spurres they doe but provoke their zeale they cannot quench it And hence the holy Apostle sends a challenge Rom. 8.35 to all the troubles afflictions and evills in the world he bids them doe their worst and when they have done it they shall not be able to seperate him from the love of God neither from the love wherewith Go●●oved him or from that love wherewith he loved God I have kept his wayes and not declined Secondly Observe That sinne is a declining from the way of God That 's the Apostles definition 1 Joh. 3.4 Sin is the transgression of the Law And transgression is a going aside or a going over the line by which God hath chaulked us out our way God hath not left us at our liberty though he hath left us as the Apostle James calls it Chap. 1.25 a perfect law of liberty He hath not left us to travell over hedge and ditch but hath shewed us our way a high way and a way as the Prophet speakes Isa 35.8 And it shall be called the way of holines the way-faring men though fooles shall not erre therein Yet fooles are alwayes erring from it all their walkings are wandrings and their goings are goings astray who walke and goe on in a sinfull way The word which signifies sinne in the Hebrew imports most properly the missing of a mark because sinning is a missing of the mark and a declining from the way I have kept his way and not declined Vers 12. Neither have I gone backe from the commandement of his lips c. Job proceeds with his negative profession having said before I have not declined he saith the same thing againe in other words I have not gone backe from the commandement of his lips See how often he repeats and inculcates this poynt both that he might be beleived and that he might shew how confident he was in the uprightnes of his owne heart I have not declined neither have I gone backe By these various expressions and often repetitions Job sets forth in generall the exactnes of his care in keeping close to God neither have I gone backe The word signifies both to depart and to touch and some put both significations together here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 recessit decessit palparit tetegit Ita recedere a re aliqua ut tangi aut contrectari nequeat implying such a departure from a thing or person as not at all to touch or come neere it againe which is a totall apostacy or desertion from it As if Job had said I have not apostatised from the wayes of God But this seemes

a fitt or a convenient time implying that time in that notion is not hidden from God Isa 50.4 God hath given me the tongue of the learned that I might speake a word in season to him that is weary Which some translate thus That I might know the appointed time to the afflicted An afflicted soule must be watched and a season taken these times are not hidden from the Almighty he knoweth the opportunity and therefore can direct him that speakes to a wearyed soule as to speake proper and taking matter so to speake it in a proper and taking time when it shall be as welcome to the soule as raine to the dry and thirsty ground David saith to the Lord Psal 119.23 It is time Lord for thee to worke for they have made voide thy Law that is now is the season and opportunity for thee to work if ever thou wilt shew thy selfe doe it now And when David confessed Psal 31.15 My times are in thy hand He meanes that the seasons of his comforts Per tempora intelligit rerum vicissitudines divitias et pauperiem pacem bellum c. Theodoret and of his sorrowes all the turnings and changes of his life from one condition to another were cast and ordered by the power and wisdome of God Why seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty Doe they that know him not see his dayes Thus Job describes the persons that see not the dayes of God they are such as know him Which character as was shewed before belongs to every Godly man though it be more peculiar to some Hence note First Every Godly man knoweth God And none but the Godly know him indeed many ungodly men professe they know God and they may know him notionally but no ungodly man knoweth him truly experimentally or practically Many ungodly men have a forme of knowledge and of the truth in the Law as the Apostle speakes of the Jewes Rom. 2.20 but no ungodly man feeleth the power of knowledge and of the truth in the Law Pietas est cognitio scientiaque dei Trismeg And therefore the wicked are spoken of in Scripture as not knowing God Jere. 10.25 Powre out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not And when the Prophet describes the wickednesse of the Jewish State he saith Hos 4.1 There is no knowledge of God in the Land Which the Chalde Paraphrast renders thus Neither are there any who walke in the feare of God in the land where there is no knowledge of God there is no feare of God We neyther love nor feare him of whom we have no knowledge nor can we beleeve in or trust him whom we know not Psal 9.10 They that know thy name will put their trust in thee That is the truly godly will trust in thee for they know thy name but they that know thee not how can they trust upon thee and therefore the Prophet calls us to boast in the knowledge of God Jere. 9.23 Thus saith the Lord let not the wise man glory in his wisdome neither let the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches but let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord whech exercise loving kindnesse judgement and righteousnesse in the earth for in these things I delight saith the Lord. There is nothing in this world worth the boasting in but the holy knowledge of a holy God or such a knowledge of God the fruit whereof is a godly life here and the end whereof is an eternall life hereafter Joh. 17.3 This is eternall life that they may know thee the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent This knowledge of God doth not floate in the braine but sinkes into the heart and is rooted in the affections Thus the Apostle John argues 1 Epist Chap. 2. v. 3 4 5 6. Hereby we know that we know him if we keepe his Commandements he that sayth he knows him and keepeth not his commandement is a liar and the truth is not in him As if he had sayd The true knowledge of God is an obedientiall knowledge so that if any man sayth he knoweth God while his life is not sutable to what he knoweth this mans profession is vaine and himselfe is a lyar Whosoever keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected that is he loveth God with a perfect or sincere love and the love of God is perfected towards him The scope of his whole discourse there is to shew that the true knowledge of God is the keeping of the word of God Many are so ignorant of God that they know not the word which they should keepe and all they who knowing the word keepe it not will at last be numbered among the ignorant or among those that know not God But their condition will be worse and their punishment greater then theirs who never knew God according to the teachings of his word Their estate will be bad enough who perish for want of the knowledge of God then what will their end be who perish in the neglect or abuse of plentifull knowledge From the second notion of the words they that know him as they intimate a sort of Godly men who have neerer acquaintance with and freer accesse to God then others Observe That as all godly men know God which the wicked doe not so some godly men have such a knowledge of God as many who are godly have not Though the knowledge of all godly men be of the same nature and kinde yet not of the same degree and height We reade of some who in old time were called Seers 1 Sam. 9.9 as if they onely had been endued with sight and all others were blinde in the things of God They were the onely seers yea they were fore-seers because God did often reveale himselfe and declare to them what he was about to doe in dreames and visions Now as in those times there were some men called seers so in these times some may be called knowers as if none knew any thing of God comparatively to them or as if other godly men were ignorant and understood nothing of him When God 1 Sam. 3. appeared to Samuel in a vision and revealed the doome of Elies house to him the Text sayth at the 7th verse Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord surely Samuel did know the Lord as other godly did in those times though he were but young yea it is said The childe Samuel ministred before the Lord and did not he know the Lord no doubt he did The meaning therefore is Samuel did not yet know the Lord by any speciall intimacy with him or particular revelation from him as afterward he did he became a knower of God at last though then he did not know God in this peculiar sence But God having revealed to him the secret what he would doe to Elies house then he knew God he

a further illustration and enforcement of these words Vers 17. For the morning is to them even as the shaddow of death if one know them they are in the terrours of the shaddow of death This verse gives a reason why these theives tooke the night for their worke or it is an exposition of what was last sayd They know not the light The text may be read thus out of the Original Vmbra mortis i. e. tam terribilis ut aliquem enecare potest Genitivus effecti Pisc Cum venit mane venit umbra dictum acutè propter speciem contradictionis As soone as it is morning the shaddow of death comes upon them This Hebraisme the shaddow of death hath been opened at the 5th verse of the third Chapter whether I referre the reader In this place it onely imports thus much in General That these wicked men did equally feare the morning as death it selfe they were surprised with feare as soone as surprised with light What is the reason of it why doth the adulterer feare the morning and why doth the theife feare the morning they doe so upon these three considerations First Lest they should be hindred in their wicked workes secondly lest their wicked workes should be discerned thirdly lest their wicked workes should be punished for these reasons they hate the light and the morning is to them as the shaddow of death Hence observe That good things even the best things are a trouble to wicked men Sin makes good things evill to us and pleasant things troublesome to us What a pleasant thing is the light How beautifull are the eyelids of the morning yet light is a trouble and the morning a burden to wicked men And if natural light be a trouble to them much more is moral and spirituall light How doe they hate the morning of truth the dawnings of divine knowledge These lights to life these enlivening lights are to them as the shaddow of death In how deplorable a condition are they to whom Good becomes evill and that which good men rejoyce in is to them an occasion of sorrow The whole course of nature is out of frame to us till we are set into a right frame by grace We put light for darkenes and darkenes for light till we our selves are brought out of darkenes into light Nothing is good to us till we are made good nor doth any thing please us except sin or that which we use sinfully till we please God The very morning which gives a new life to all is to some as the shadow of death If one know them they are in the terrours of the shaddow of death These words are but a further explication of the same thing if one that is if any one man woman or childe as we say know them that is take notice of them in their wickednesse or take notice of their wickednesse they are as we say dead in the nest Cum agnoscit alius alium Pisc Others render the words thus if they know one another that is if only so much of the light of the morning breakes forth as serves them to see one anothers faces they are afraid So this phrase is used Ruth 3.14 And shee lay at his feete untill the morning and she rose up before one could know another that is before there was light enough to discerne each other So these two readings if one know them or if they know one another meete in the same General sence their unwillingnes to be discovered at their worke if once there be light enough for these evill-workers to see themselves by they then know they may also be seene by others And if one any one know them They are in the terrours of the shaddow of death That is they are troubled like them who being ready to dye are yet unwilling to dye when death stands at a mans bed-side when death stands at his back ready to attach and apprehend him ready to carry him away while yet he is alltogether unwilling and unready to dye O in what a terrour is he Just thus it is saith Job with those wicked men they are not onely afraid to dye but the terrours of the shadow of death are upon them their terrour is such as men have when death over-shaddows them That 's the meaning of They are in the terrours of the shadow of death A shaddow in Scripture is taken two wayes First properly for that darknesse which is caused by the interposition of a thicke body between us and the Sunne Secondly improperly or metaphorically and so that is a shaddow which keepes off the heate of the Sunne or the violence of the raine and winde and so by a trope any thing of defence is called a shadow Judg. 9.9.15 Come trust under my shadow sayd the bramble that is put your selves under my protection And againe Isa 30.2 3. Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame and the trust in the shaddow or protection of Aegypt your confusion So Isa 49.2 In the shadow of his hand hath he hid me And Isa 51.16 I have covered thee in the shadow of my hand as birds cover or shelter their young ones with their wings and feathers Thus the Scripture speakes of a shadow But what is the shadow of death It is first the appearance of death secondly the power of death So the the meaning is as was touched before they are as much terrified as if death appeared to them as if the image of death passed before them in vision or as if the power of it had taken hold of them to bring them prisoners to the grave If one know them they are in the terrour of the shadow of death I have from the former words of this context as also at the 12th verse taken occasion to observe how troublesome both the light of the Sunne and the light of the minde are to evill men and therefore I shall not stay upon any Instructions of that kinde here Yet forasmuch as not onely the Murderer and Adulterer spoken of before but the Theife spoken of here are all for darkenes and concealement Observe First That sinners have a secret conviction upon themselves that what they doe is not good They draw up their own enditement and condemne themselves before God doth They would rocke conscience asleepe but they cannot they would blind it but they cannot This their delight in darknesse both outward and inward is a plaine demonstration that they know their deedes are evill Christ sayth as much Joh. 3.20 21. Every one that doth evill hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved No man feares his deeds will be reproved but he that suspects at least that his deeds are his faults and his actings his transgressings for as it followes He that doth truth that is who acts according to the truth cometh to the light He that doth good or truth indeed yea he who is but perswaded that he doth

word with all readines of mind yet they did not swallow downe all whole that was sayd to them but searched the Scriptures dayly whether those things ware so Act. 17.11 The Apostles rule is sutable to their practice 1 Thes 5.21 Prove all things hold fast that which is good Now as it is the duty of hearers and learners to hold nothing till they have proved it so it is the duty of Teachers to offer every doctrine to the ballance or tryall which they desire others should hold Secondly While Job doth thus confidently offer his assertion to tryall We learne That Truth is not affrayd to be tryed Truth often lieth in a corner but truth doth not seeke corners truth never hides her head as ashamed to be seene or discussed by men Truth as some have sayd lyeth in a deepe pit it is hard to finde it out it lieth out of sight yet truth doth not hide it selfe but dares stand forth in the face of all the world truth no more feares the triall then pure gold feares the touchstone or then a schollar who hath made good progresse in his learning feares to be examined He that hath truth with him needs not care who appeares against him Thirdly In that he sayth if it be not so now who will make me a liar Note False doctrine is a lye Isa 9.15 The antient and the honourable he is the head the Prophet that teacheth lies that is the Prophet that teacheth false doctrine he is the tayle Jer. 9.3 They bend their tongues like their bowes for lies but they are not valiant for the truth on the earth The Prophet as I conceave intends not so much falsehood in discourse which we call telling a lye as falsehood of doctrine which we call teaching of lyes They bend their tongues as bows for lies that is they set themselves to the maintaining of false doctrine to the utmost stretch of their wit and words Againe saith the Lord Jer. 14.14 The Prophets that prophecy lyes in my name I sent them not neither have I commanded them neither spake unto them they prophecy unto you a false divination and a thing of nought and the deceit of their heart The whole doctrine of the man of sin is called a lye Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved therefore God gave them up to strong delusion that they should beleive a lye 2 Thes 2.11 All the faith-devouring and conscience-wasting errors that ever the man of sin vented to the world are wrapt up in this one syllable or word a lye He that receaveth a lye that is told wrongeth others by it but he that receaved a lye that is taught wrongeth himselfe most by it To tell a lye is very sinfull but to teach a lye is much more sinfull The evill of that sin is greatest which spreadeth furthest continueth longest A lye that is told and received sticketh not long in the memory but passeth away for the most part like a tale that is told and it is enough to many a man that telleth a lye if he be beleeved but a little while But a lye that is taught and receaved sticketh long in the understanding and abideth there like a nayle fastned by the Masters of the assemblyes and it is not enough to him that teacheth a lye unlesse it be beleeved for ever Thirdly When Job sayth Who will make me a liar Note The worst thing that can be proved against any man is that he is a lyar To be a lyar is to be as bad as may be For it is to be as bad as the Devill He deceaved the woman both by telling and teaching a lye Gen. 3. He abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him when he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his owne for he is a lyar and the father of it Joh. 6.44 Every sin is of the Devill both by temptation and approbation but onely some sinnes are of the Devill by way of practice and the sin which is chiefely of him by practice is lying Now every sin the more congeniall it is to the Devill the more sinfull abominable it is And therefore among those who shall be without lye-makers are chiefe Rev. 22.15 Without are doggs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and Idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lye The universality of this exclusion is onely expressed upon lyars as if he had sayd to be sure all lyars shall be without He that maketh a lye hath nothing worse to make and he that maketh that is proveth a man to be a lyar hath nothing worse to make of him And make my speech nothing worth The Hebrew is And bring my speech to nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 idē quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graeci b●nè interpretantur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verbum è verbo in non as if he had sayd I challenge all men to disprove my reasons or to prove that my reasons are not a proofe of that for which I brought them In briefe let any man refute or confute what I have sayd if he can and then let all that I have sayd goe for nothing or be counted nothing worth Hence note Vnsound doctrine is worthlesse doctrine The speech of a lyar is nothing worth sound doctrine is of great value it is worth thousands David preferr'd the word of God before thousands of Gold and silver every holy truth is the word of God eyther formally or vertually eyther in termes or by consequence The Apostle compares sound doctrine to things of greatest worth even to Gold silver and pretious stones and in the same place 1 Cor. 3.12 he compares unsound doctrine or doctrine unsutable to the foundation which is Jesus Christ alone to wood hay stubble which as they are things in their owne nature unconsiderable worthlesse in comparison of Gold silver and pretious stones so as to the busienes upon which he there treates a suitable building upon Christ they are altogether worthlesse And if those doctrines which because of some errour in them are unsutable to the foundation are to be accounted but wood hay and stubble how worthlesse are those doctrines which being altogether erroneous are inconsistent with and quite overthrow the foundation Such doctrines are worthy of nothing but a dung-hill being themselves nothing but drosse and dung What is that worth to us which is uselesse to us How worthlesse then is that which is destructive to us Every error is a Bable a thing of no use some errors are as poyson deadly in their use The Apostle Peter doth not spare to say as much of them 2 Epist 2.1 2. while he calleth them damnable heresies which bring swift destruction upon the bringers of them in or the broachers of them abroad And if they bring destruction upon those who bring them they that receave them cannot be safe To conclude this poynt and Chapter if erroneous doctrine be nothing worth

to doe in a right manner we upon the matter doe not at all We may resolve these interrogations of the Text into negations How hast thou helped him that is without power is as much as this thou hast not helped him how savest thou the arme that hath no strength is indeed Thou hast not saved him how hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdome caryeth this meaning thou hast given him no counsell we use to say as good never a whit as never the better and how good soever any thing is that we doe if we doe it amisse it will be reckoned by God what reckoning soever men make of it as if we had done no such thing Moses said to the Lord under a temptation when he was troubled at the complaint of the people because the deliverance promised did not come on and they were not freed as was expected Lord wherefore hast thou so evill entreated this people why is it that thou hast sent me for since I came to Pharaoh to speake in thy name he hath done evill to this people neither hast thou delivered thy people at all Exod. 5.23 Is this a deliverance this is no deliverance we are apt to thinke the mercyes of God no mercyes unlesse he give us full and perfect mercyes unlesse we presently receave all that we looke for we looke upon it as if we had receaved nothing at all But how truely may the Lord say to the children of men when they performe duties slightly and negligently ye have not done them at all ye have neyther prayed nor heard nor fasted at all because ye have been negligent in and unprofitable under them The workes and dutyes of the best are not every way full but the workes and dutyes of some are alltogether empty and they doe nothing in all they doe Fourthly In these severall interrogations are here held forth the severall effects of holy advice given according to the word and minde of God how hast thou helped him that is without power saved the arme that hath no strength counselled him that hath no wisdome As if he had sayd thou indeed hast offered me counsell from God if thou hadst managed it right this would have been the fruit of it I who have no power should have been helped and I who am as an arme without strength should have been saved Hence observe That the word of God or divine truths are mighty in operation when duely administred The word of truth conveigheth strength to the weake wisdome to the simple comfort to the sorrowfull light to those who are in darkenes and life unto the dead The word lifts up the hands which hang downe and the feeble knees The law of the Lord that is every holy truth saith David Psal 19.7 8. is perfect and what can it doe the next words tell us converting or restoring the soule The testimony of the Lord is sure and what can that doe the next words tell us making wise the simple The statutes of the Lord are right and what can they doe even that which is most sweete where it is done reioycing the heart The commandement of the Lord is pure in it selfe and it worketh gloriously in us enlightning the eyes I may say also The word of the Lord is mighty and it giveth strength to those who have no might As it is mighty for the pulling downe of strong holds casting downe imaginations every thing that exalteth it selfe against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor 10.4 5. So it is as mighty for the raysing up of the weake for the lifting up of those who are cast downe and fallen below the knowledge of God through unbeliefe and for the bringing of poore soules out of captivity into that blessed liberty of faith in Christ What Great things the word rightly applyed and divine truths brought home with Authority have done and still can doe was shewed at the 4 ●h Chapter of that booke verse 3d and 4th As also at the 25 ●h verse of the sixth Chapter upon those words How forcible are right words Though we ought to helpe those who have no power by more then words yet words have holpen many who had no power as Job doth more then intimate while he reproves Bildad for his unskillfull wording it with him How hast thou helped c. And how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unde Graecum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Appellatio a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod esse significat sapientia enim rerum omnium existentium prima praecipua est Drus That which we render The thing as it is is but one word in the Original and it hath a threefold signification First It is put for the essence substance or being of a thing The Greek word for substance is very neere this in sound and may possibly be a derivative from it Secondly It signifieth that working or operation which flowes from being Things first are and then they act and they are to little or no purpose unlesse they act Thirdly It signifieth counsell advice wisdome or sound wisdome Prov. 3.21 so Mr Broughton translates And makest advice knowne aboundantly Others taking up the same notion render How hast thou declared wisdome abundantly As if he had sayd Thou thinkest thou hast opened a treasure and declared store of wisdome and knovledge in this discourse or that thou hast made a very wise and learned discourse whereas indeed it will be found leane and short in it selfe as also impertinent to the poynt in hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad multitudinem vel multiplicitèr Our translation takes it in the first sense How hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is that is how hast thou declared the substance of the thing or the solid truth in plenty or as the Hebrew phrase imports in great number and with much variety Hence note First Every thing ought to be declared as it is that is the naked truth ought to be declared It is our duty to speake of things as they are not to put colours upon them and so make them appeare what they are not or otherwise then they are truth is plaine and truth should be told plainely The naked truth or the thing as it is is most beautifull to the eye of the understanding And though Bildad did misreport what he spake of God yet he did not make a full report How hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is Secondly Hence note As we ought to speake the truth so to speake the truth out or all the truth Paul tells the Church of E●hesus Acts 20.20 That he had kept nothing back that was profitable for them and sayth he ver 27. I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God Paul plentifully declared the thing as it was Bildad spake truth but not all the truth as to Jobs case

He spake great things of the power and holynes of God but Jobs case called him to speake as much if not more and rather of the goodness and kindnes of God He spake enough to humble and cast Job downe at the sight of his natural uncleanenes but he should have spoken more to rayse him up and comfort him by shewing him that fountaine which is opened to wash in for sin and for uncleanenes Wee may quickly entangle a soule by speaking truth unlesse we shew him all that ruth which belongs to his condition The Scriptures have plenty of truth in them and are therefore able to make as wise unto salvation They are profitable for doctrine for reproofe for correction for instruction in righteousnes The Scripture is like that River spoken of Gen. 2.10 which went out of Eden to water the Garden and from thence it was parted and became into foure heads Paul in that place now mentioned 2 Tim. 3.16 shewes us the Scripture parting it selfe into foure heads first of Doctrine for establishing the truth secondly of reproofe for removing of error thirdly of correction for the beating downe of ill manners fourthly of instruction for building up in a holy conversation That so as it there follows the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good workes that is in Jobs language that he may be able plentifully to declare the solid truth the thing as it is and as knowingly to declare General truths so to apply them discerningly to the state of every person A fayling wherein Job is supposed to charge Bildad with in the next verse Vers 4. To whom hast thou uttered words Here Job taxeth Bildad with inconsideratenesse in reference to the person to whom he spake To whom hast thou uttered words hast thou considered to whom thou spakest Quem docere voluisti nonne eum qui fecit spiramentum Vulg The vulgar translation referrs it to God whom wouldst thou teach wouldst not thou teach him who made the breath surely thou takest upon thee to teach him who is the teacher of us all Thus many carry on the sense of this fourth verse according to the second interpretation of the second and third verses With which presumption Job taxed his friends once before and that in expresse termes Chap. 21 22. Shall any teach God knowledge seeing he judgeth those that are high But I conceive Jobs meaning is onely to shew Bildad that he had not well advised about his case and condition before he spake for Bildad might say is this a question to be asked to whom have I uttered words have not I been speaking to thee all this while art not thou the man for whose sake we are here met and about whom we have had all this dispute Why then doest thou aske to whom hast thou uttered words Job doubted not who it was to whom he spake but Job questions him as fearing he was not well acquainted with or had not enough layd to heart the state of the man to whom he spake dost thou know what my condition is and hast thou suited and cut out thy discourse to my condition to whom hast thou uttered words Hence note We should well consider the state of every person to whom we speak and apply our speech or doctrine accordingly Bildad in the former Chapter had been setting forth the power majesty and dread of God as also his infinite purity befo●e whom the Angels are not-cleane now sayth Job to whom hast thou uttered these words should I be thus dealt with thus handled who am a man cast downe already and under the terrours of God Is this discourse though an undoubted truth sutable to my condition Thou shouldst rather have represented God to my faith in his goodnesse and mercy in his long suffering and patience in his tendernesse and gentlenesse towards sinners thou shouldst have proclaimed that name of God to me which is his Glory Exod. 34.6 The Lord The Lord gracious and mercifull long suffering and aboundant in goodnes and truth this had been a description of God a proclamation of God fit for a man in my case Whereas thou hast onely told me of his mighty power and dominion of his Hosts and Armyes doest thou know to whom thou hast uttered these words Jesus Christ when here on earth considered to whom he was uttering words and therefore tells his Disciples Joh. 16.12 I have many things to say unto you but ye cannot beare them now Christ would not put new wine into old botles but attemper'd his speech to the strength and capacity of his hearers Some must heare that which they cannot beare when that springs from their passion and impatience especially when from their love to and resolvednesse to goe onne in sinne Amos must not forbeare to speake though Amaziah cry out The Land is not able to beare all his words But we must take heed of forcing words upon any which they cannot beare or are not fit to heare eyther by reason of their afflictions and temptations or by reason of their present infirmities and incapacities The Apostle 2 Tim. 2.15 bids Timothy study to shew thy selfe approved unto God he doth not meane it in his private course of life and dayly converse which is the duty of every beleever but in his publicke course of life or converse as a Minister of the Gospel in that sayth he study to shew thy selfe approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed what kind of workman was Timothy his worke lay in the Word shew thy selfe a workeman and a Master in thy worke rightly dividing the word of truth how is the word to be divided he doth not meane of a gramaticall nor of a logicall division though there may be a use of these divisions of the Word but the dividing of the word intended by Paul is the dividing of it spiritually to the severall states and conditions of men giving to such a word of instruction to others a word of reproofe to a third sort words of comfort This is dividing the word aright And in doing this Paul would have Timothy declare himfelfe a workman that he needed not be ashamed He would have him know to whom he uttered words to know when he spake to sinners and when to Saints when he spake to the afflicted and when to them that were in a comfortable estate He would have him know when he spake to those who were hardned in their sin and when to those whose hearts were broken under the weight and sence of sin And thus as every man who uttereth words so Ministers of the Gospel especially should be well advised to whom they utter them For as the same garment will not serve every body to weare nor the same bed to lye upon so the same word will not serve every soule We must not doe as the tyrant who made one bed serve all his guests and they that were too long for it were cut shorter and they who

the breath whose spirit or whose breath came from thee The sense is the same And. First Some interpret Job thus Whose spirit or whose breath came from thee That is Consider O Bildad whose spirit moved thee or who breathed these things into thee whose breath or whose spirit came from thee when thou didst utter these words so 't is a rebuke of Bildads presumption as if he had conceaved himselfe wrought or acted by some extraordinary spirit while he was speaking or that the things which he uttered had been dropt into him by an immediate Revelation from heaven whose spirit came from thee what breath what gale hath filled thy sayles thou hast high conceits of thy selfe as if God had spoken to thee by his Spirit or as if thou hadst spoken these things to me from his mouth But is it not rather thy owne spirit thy owne heart which hath dictated these words unto thee Some thinke the same spirit comes from them when they speak which came from the holy Prophets and Apostles who yet are deceaved The Disciples of Christ thought the same spirit came from them which came from Eliah when they said Luk. 9.54 Lord wilt thou that we command fi●e to come downe from heaven and consume them as Elias did But he turned and rebuked them and sayd ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of As if he had sayd in the language of Job ye know not whose spirit comes from you ye would speake the words of Elias but ye have not the spirit of Elias you have a zeale but not according to knowledge yours is but a humane affection not a divine inspiration as Elias his was his was a pure spirit of zeale but yours is a rash spirit of revenge And therefore your motion suites not with your calling for as I am come so I send you to save not to destroy We may speake the same words and doe the same things which others have done and spoken and yet not with the same but with quite another spirit Therefore examine whose spirit comes from you This is a good and profitable sence Yet Cujus anima prodijt ex te i. e. quem consolatus es tam efficaciter sermone tuo ut anima ejus ex maerore quasi in corpore sepulta jacebat rursum è latebris prodierit seseq per corpus exserue rit Pisc Cujus animam verbis tuis vivificasti Hebraei Apud Merc Secondly Rather thus Whose spirit came from thee that is whose soule or whose minde hath been recovered out of trouble and feare out of sadnesse and sorrow by the words which thou hast spoken Thus the spirit is taken for his to whom he spake not for his spirit who spake or not for the spirit with which he spake This is a Great truth gratious and right words rightly applyed doe as it were releive the spirit and bring back the fainting yea dead soule from the grave of griefe and sorrow wherein it lay as buried Now sayth Job whose spirit came from thee Hast thou recovered or raysed any languishing soule by what thou hast sayd who hath felt life and power coming from thee I am sure I have not though I have heard thee out and heard thee attentively What the Moralist sayd of Idlenes the same may we say of sorrow or heavynes It is the buriall of a man while he liveth And therefore he that hath comforted a man and recovered him out of his sorrows may be sayd to give him a new life and that the sp●rit of such a man is come forth from him yea he that instructeth the ignorant and bringeth them to the saving knowledge of God may be sayd to breath or put a soule into them In which sence some of the Jewish writers expound that place Gen. 12.5 where it is sayd That Abraham tooke Sarah his wife and Lot his Brothers son and all their substance that they had gathered and the soules that they had gotten in Charan c. that is all those whom by good instruction and example they had gained to God or as the Apostle speakes 1 Thes 1.9 had by their meanes turned to God from Idolls to serve the living and true God These soules they got in Charan though Abraham and Sarah were barren of naturall issue yet they had much spirituall issue many soules or the soules of many came from them And therefore when Job would put a disparagement upon what Bildad had spoken he puts him this Question Whose spirit or whose soule came forth from thee or whom hast thou resouled as the Greeke word which the Apostle useth for refreshing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth elegantly signifie Acts 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the time of refreshing or resouling shall come from the presence of the Lord. When a man faints or is very weary we say he hath lost his spirits and he is even as a man without a soule But when in the use of any meanes he is refreshed then we say his spirit or soule is come to him againe The spirit of man comes onely from God in its natural constitution he is the father of Spirits Eccl 12.7 Heb. 12.9 But the spirit of man may come from man in its refreshings and consolations And therefore sayth Job to Bildad Whose spirit came from thee or whom hast thou comforted Thou hast undertaken to comfort me but I am not comforted Hence note Holy truths or words rightly applyed have a releiving yea a reviving power in them Such words give a man his soule againe when he hath lost it and when he is as it were gone from himselfe he is brought backe to himselfe againe For as it is sayd of the repenting Prodigall he came to himselfe he was gone he was lost from himselfe his soule was departed from him his understanding was none of his he was no more Master of any spiritually rationall faculty then a dead man is of any meere rationall faculty and so his father reported him whilst in that condition this our sonne was dead but is alive he was lost but he is found Luk. 15.32 Now I say as it is in extreame sinnings so in extreame sorrowings and dejections of spirit a man is lost from himselfe he is as a dead man and so when comfort comes in againe life may be sayd to come in againe he who before was lost is found and he who was dead revives The word revives from a twofold death It revives a natural man from the death of sin and it revives a Godly man from a death in sorrow How many spirits have come forth at the voyce of the Word out of the grave of sin Christ foretold this resurrection of the soule by the preaching and publication of the Gospel Joh. 5.25 The houre is coming and now is when the dead shall heare the voyce of the son of God in the ministery of the word and they shall live And lest any

and proper to it Further as God hideth his glory from man because he is not able to beare it all so he hideth much of that from him which he is able to beare both to make him hunger and thirst the more after it and to draw him into the greater reverence and estimation of it We usually esteeme that more which is veyled and under a cloud then that which is very cleare and openly revealed and according to our present state and frame that is most reverenced by us which is most concealed from us When a cloud hath dwelt a while upon the Sunne we desire the more to see the face of it and are the more affected with the sight of it God will not hold backe the face of his throne from us in glory nor will he ever spread a cloud upon it and yet we shall have fresh desires after it and high valuations of it everlastingly But while we dwel in this corrupt and corruptible flesh wee are apt to neglect that which is alwayes with us especially if it be alwayes alike with us And therefore as the wise and gracious God will not let us see his throne here at all in the full glory of it because we cannot beare it so he will not let us see that glory of it continually which we are able to beare lest we should grow eyther carelesse of it or unthankfull for it It is even best for us that we have but a darke and imperfect sight of God in this world both in reference to what he is and to what he doth or first in reference to himselfe in his nature and Excellencyes Secondly in reference to his wayes or workes in their speciall reasons and ends As our darkenes cannot at all comprehend the light of God so God is pleased to cover much of his own light with darkenes that we should not comprehend it How many glorious truths are there the face of which he holdeth backe from many of his precious servants how often doth he spread a cloud as upon the truths which he sendeth in his Word so upon the graces which he hath wrought in us by his Spirit so that the soule is not onely hindred from beholding what is without but what is within and is so farre from beholding the glorious perfection of God and his workes abroad that it cannot so much as discerne any of the gracious workes of God at home He spreadeth his cloud upon it Vers 10. He compasseth the waters with bounds untill the day and night come to an end Job having described marvaylous acts of divine power in the heavens descends againe to shew his marvayles in or about the Seas and mighty waters He compasseth the waters with bounds The word which we render to compasse Proprietas pecaliaris verbi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est lineam vel circulum describere quasi circino Forte etiam in dicatur eodem circumdandi verbo unum effici globū ex terra et aqua atque unum idem utriusque elementi esse centrum Pined signifyeth properly to draw a line or make a circle as Mathematicians doe with a payre of Compasses so that it notes the shutting up or circumscribing any thing to a certaine place or measure beyond which it cannot move And thus God compasseth the waters At the 8th verse Job shewed how God compasseth the upper waters the waters in the ayre He bindeth up the waters in his thicke clouds Here he sheweth how God by the same almighty power compasseth about the lower waters the waters of the Sea The Hebrew is The face of the waters as in the former verse The face of his throne The face of the earth is the upper part of the earth Gen. 1.29 I have given you every herbe bearing or seeding seed which is upon the face of all the earth And so the face of the waters is the upper part of the waters because the upper part of the water as also of the earth lyeth open to the eye as the face of a man doth And it may therefore be sayd that he compasseth the face of the waters because though the whole body and bulke of the waters swel and rage yet the face or upper part of the waters is that which at any times breaketh over and overfloweth And therefore the face of the waters onely as to us is compassed about with bounds The word noteth a legal bound a statute or decree and is frequently used in Scripture especially in the 119th Psalme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stanuum constitutie dec c●etum sign ficat praecepti constantiam durationem nam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est insculpere seu incidere lapidi ligno vel Metallo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Septu for the Law or rule which God hath given man both for his worship and continuall course of life And hence the Prophet Jeremiah speaking to the Jewes about this thing useth another word to signifie the bound of the Sea and the word which here we render Bound is there rendred Decree Jer 5.22 Feare ye not me saith the Lord will ye not tremble at my presence which have placed the sand for the bound of the Sea by a perpetuall decree that it cannot passe it And there is so much of a Law or of an appoyntment in it that the word is applicable to any thing which is put under a certaine law or appoyntment So it is put for an appoynted time in the 14th Chapter of this booke v. 13th and for appoynted foode in the 23d Chapter of this booke v. 12th as here for an appoynted space or circle within which as within a wall or with gates and barrs the waters of the Sea are kept He compasseth the waters with bounds Hence Note First The Sea is bounded by the power of God As God hath given man understanding to provide a bit and a bridle for the mouth of the horse and mule which have no understanding lest they come neere unto him Psal 32.9 that is neerer to him then they should or neere to him not to serve him or be used by him but to kicke him or tread upon him Thus God himselfe who is infinite in understanding hath put a bit or bridle into the mouth of the Sea which is further from understanding then eyther Horse or mule lest it come neere to drowne and overwhelme us Neyther shoares nor sands neyther cliffs nor rockes are the bound and bridle of the Sea but the Decree and command of God Observe Secondly It is an unanswerable argument of the glorious power and soveraignetie of God that he is able to compasse the waters with bounds Who shut up the Sea with dores was Gods humbling Question to Job in the 38th Chapter of this booke v. 8.10 11. and sayd hitherto shalt thou come and no further here shall thy proud waves be stayed The Psalmist Ps 104. having shewed how at first Gen. 1 1. the whole earth was covered with the deep as

rule and governe the floods for a while but he ruleth and governeth them alwayes he sitteth upon them king for ever even untill day and night come to an end Thirdly note The waters shall never totally overflow the earth As God hath given them a bound so such a bound as shall keepe them in compasse for ever And as we have an assurance in the power of God that he can keepe or compasse the waters with bounds to the end of the world so also we have his promise and his faithfullnes engaged that he will maintaine those bankes and bounds and keepe them in such repayre that the waters shall never prevaile over them Gen. 9.8 9 10 11. And God spake unto Noah and to his sons with him saying and I behold I establish my Covenant with you and with your seed after you c. neyther shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood neyther shall there be any more a flood to destroy the earth And as mankinde is under this promise of freedome from an universal deluge so every godly man may rise up to this assurance that no waters of any sort can wet so much as the sole of his foote or the hemme of his garment but as they have leave and commission from him who hath compassed the waters with bonnds untill the day and night come to an end JOB CHAP. 26. Vers 11 12. The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproofe He divideth the Sea by his power and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud JOB still proceedeth in the enumeration and illustration of the mighty works of God what he doth in the clouds and what in the heavens was shewed from the former context Here Job tells us what the Lord doth with the heavens He who made the heavens and stretched out the North over the empty place can make these heavens totter in their place and tremble when he pleaseth The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproofe There are three things to be enquired into for the opening of this verse First What is meant by the pillars of heaven Secondly How the pillars of heaven may be said to tremble and be astonished Thirdly What we are to understand by the reproofe of God Columnae coeli i. e. Angeli contremiscunt Aquin Angelos vocat columnas coeli quia s●ilicet eorum officio adm●nistratur motus coelorum Aquin when he sayth they are astonished at his reproofe The pillars of heaven tremble There are various opinions about these pillars first many of the Latins hold that these pillars of heaven are the Angells by whose assistance say some Philosophers the motions of the heavenly bodyes with their orbes or spheares are guided and maintained And doubtlesse as the Angels have great employments upon and about the earth so also in and about the heavens and therefore may not improperly be called the pillars of heaven in which sence also the Angels are called the powers of heaven as some interpret Math 24.29 where Christ prophesieth that immediatly after the tribulation of those dayes the Sunne shall be darkened and the Moone shall not give her light the starrs shall fall from heaven and the powers of heaven shall be shaken Many of the antients interpret those powers of heaven by the Angels as if the Lord would doe such things in that great day as should trouble and astonish not onely men on earth but the Angels in heaven who may be called the pillars of heaven as some eminent men for parts and power are called the pillars of the earth And wee may suppose them pillars of heaven not for the strength and sustainement of heaven Stabilita●ē permanentē in natura angelorum intelligamus nemine Columnarum Philip but for the beauty and ornament of it As we see many pillars in stately Pallaces which are not placed there to beare up the weight of those buildings but only to adorn beautifie them Or Angels may be called the pillars of heaven because of the firmenes and stability of their owne nature not as if they were any firmenes or establishment unto heaven Secondly By these pillars of heaven are conceaved to be meant the high mountaines of the earth which seeme to touch the heavens according to sence and so to sustaine and beare them up as pillars but this opinion not being grounded upon any truth in nature but onely upon a popular errour though it be a truth that even these supposed pillars of heaven tremble at the reproofes of God I shall not insist at all upon this interpretalion Thirdly These pillars of heaven say others are the ayre for as the lowest parts of the earth are called the foundations of the earth because the foundation of a building is layd lowest so the lower parts of heaven the ayre which is sometimes called heaven yea the firmament of heaven Gen. 1.20 may be called the pillar of heaven 'T is true also that the Lord maketh dreadfull combustions by stormes and tempests in the ayre insomuch that those pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproofe But I shall not give this neyther as Jobs meaning here Terra tota velut orbis totius fundamentum ac firmanentum Merc Fourthly By the pillars of heaven others understand not the ayre or the mountains but the whole body on globe of the earth Thus David speakes 2 Sam. 22.8 Then the earth shooke and trembled the foundations of heaven moved and shooke because he was wroth where the foundations of heaven in the latter part of the verse may be expounded by the earth in the former part of the verse For if we consider the whole fabricke of the world together then the earth seemes to be the foundation or pillar of heaven And frequent experiences in all ages especially in some parts of the world have felt and reported the trembling of the earth We commonly call it an Earth-quake and Philosophers teach us that the reason of it in nature is the strength of vapours included in and striving to make their way out of the bowels of the earth And as this trembling of the earth hath a reason in nature so it is often caused by speciall command from God as a reproofe of the sinfullnes of man or to awaken him from his sin yet Fifthly I rather conceive that this phrase The pillars of heaven is used onely in a generall sense and not particularly intended eyther of Angels or mountains of the ayre or of the earth but that the pillars of heaven are the strength of heaven the strength of a building consists in the pillars that beare it up take away the pillars and it falls downe as Sampson sayd to the lad that held him by the hand suffer me that I may feele the pillars whereupon the house standeth and when he had once moved them the house fell Judg. 16.26.30 so that when Job sayth the pillars of heaven tremble the

of our decrees is from God 279. The decrees of Godly men are under a promise of successe 279. Decree and appoyntment of God whatsoever God doth was before appoynted and decreed 444 Degrees of excellency and dignity in the creatures God hath not levelled them 117 Delight consisteth in two things 254 Delight in God is our duty as wel as our reward and comfort 254. They who mourne for sin shall find delight in God 256. Delight in the Lord is the choycest mercy 257. Delight in the Lord exceeds all worldly delights in foure things 257 258 Deliberate sinning the way of the wicked 584 Desertion God is every where present yet often not present to the apprehension of his people 317. 319. Desires of Saints often quickest after God in a time of desertion 319 Desire they who truely desire to finde God are diligent in searching after him 323. Where God is cheifely to be found 325 326. Desire is diligent in enquiryes 370 Devill in what consideration made by God 812 Difficultyes an evill heart will breake through all difficultyes to find a way to his sin 615 Diligence good in a good way 519 Dishonour fallen upon man by sin 716 Disputers apt to make false inferences from the tenets of their opposers 122 Dividing the word of God aright what 732 Divisions among men sent as a punishment from God 796 Doctrine and divine teachings why compared to and expressed by raine and raining 220 False doctrine is worthlesse 673 Dominion of God what Three things it it 676. Dominion of God considered foure wayes 677. The Dominion of God calleth us to a twofold subjection 679 Drawing twofold 637 E Earth men of the earth why the wicked are so called 73. In what sence the earth is founded upon the Sea 756. What the foundation of the earth is 757. The earth is upheld by the infinite power of God 757 758. Inferences from it 758 759 How the earth may be called the pillar of heaven 782 Earth-quake whence it is 733 East-ward why it if called forward 360 361 Aegypt why called Rahab 793 Election the decree of Election is an unmoveable foundation 153 Empty a person may be sent away empty in a threefold sence 80. How a place may be sayd to be empty 754 Enemyes in what sence we may not or may rejoyce in their fall 187 188 Error very binding upon t●● conscience as wel us truth 101. Hard to judge which is worse unsetlednes in truth or tenaciousnes in error 102. The way of error old 139 Ever The saddest or sweetest word in the whole Bible 356 Exaltation of wicked men shall not continue 656 Extasie twofold 191 Examples very drawing 398 Examples of punishment upon sinners ought to be marked 140. Examples of two sorts 141. God makes wicked men example● 182. A Godly man doth example himselfe by God 390 Eye of God upon a place or person notes his care of them 649 Eyes high or low note pride or humility 286. Eye much in adultery 582 Ez●kiel why so often called and spoken to by God under this name Son of man 712 F Face lifting vp the face what it imports in Scripture 259. Face cost downe three wayes 260. Face of a thing what it notes in Scripture 768 Faith the reflect act of it most sweete 254. How faith is our strength to resist temptation 349 Fatherlesse and widdow who in Scripture 81. How sinfull to wrong them 85 86 Feare taken two wayes 27. Feare makes men cruel and do unjust things as wel as hope 30 31. Feare may be a just ground of doing Justice 31 32. Feare of two sorts 90. Sudden feare surprizeth secure sinners 91. Feare threefold 453. Feare ariseth two wayes 454. God would be more feared if he were more knowne 454 Feare is with God upon a threefold consideration 680. God can strike man with feare when he pleaseth 682 Feared God is much to be feared 681. God is to he feared as great and as good 681 682 Fire put to signifie any Judgement 201. There is a different fire for the righteous and the wicked 202. How God is a consuming fire in reference to the Godly 202 Fishes of the Sea three things most considerable about them 744 Flattering and reproaching one another are two extreames to be carefully avoyded 715 Flood the Judgements of God compared to it and why 148 149 Folly the wayes of sin and unrighteousnesse are full of folly 544. Folly put in Scripture to note some notorious sin 546. Folly of sinners 597 Forgetfullnes what implyed by it 625 Foundation figuratively taken what 148. 150. Everlasting foundation what 152. The strongest foundations which the wicked lay are quickly overthrowne by God 152. A righteous man hath two foundations which shall never fayle 153 G Giants terrible why called Rephaim 741 Gifts of God which hee repenteth of what they are 424 Glory of God such as man cannot beare or behold it 771 Glorifie in what sence man may be sayd to glorifie God 9 God absolutely independent and perfect in himselfe 7. To thinke of God on high the best way to quiet our soules in any trouble here below 104 How God is every where 110. Carnal men frame cōceptions of God like themselves 127. A wrong notion of the true God is the setting up of a false God 128. The presence of God slighted by carnal men the onely Joy of Saints 159 160 161. God hath not given the worst of men any cause to be weary of him 167. G●d doth good to them that are evilly two reasons of it 170 God is to be acknowledged as the fountaine of all good to us 171 172. God ready to be at peace with sinners 215. God infinitely better to the soule then all other things 218. God is the defence of his people 245. God is the riches the gold and silver of his people 246. God hath put it into the nature of all men to seeke after him 324. God is often doing great things when we see him not 366. God appeareth onely to such as himselfe pleaseth 367. God is one 419. God doth whatsoever he will 438 Godly and the wicked have quite contrary both desires and feares 161. 178. A Godly man is one of Gods acquaintants 207. He shall be guided the right way and blessed in his way 283. He shall have comfort in his way 284. A godly man is a common good 290. Godly save others three wayes 292 Godly men most likely to be acquainted with what God is doing in the world for two reasons 481 Godlines is truly profitable 17. Godlines the neerest way to worldly gaine 248. Godlines is Godlikenes or an imitation of God 390 Goodnes of God Sin hath by somuch the greater evill in it as it is committed against the greater goodnes 171 goodnes of God fivefold 693. God gives out goodnes freely 697 Good things many of them a trouble to evill men 593 Gold and silver how a defence and why put for all riches 241. How Gold is to be