sentence is but one word in the Hebrew yet more then a single word it is elegantly doubled in construction to imply double affliction Grammarians tell us that two words put together or the same word twice put encrease the sense Ordinary words will not serve to expresse an extraordinary condition he speakes great and compounded words because his sorrows were great and compounded sorrows Jobs was not a single but a double breaking yea his vvas a manifold breaking He vvas often broken and utterly broken the repeated stroaks which fell upon him by divine dispensation from all hands had beaten him to dust and atomes He hath broken me in sunder Further The root of the vvord signifies to make voyd to dissipate to scatter to bring to nought or to make nothing of Psal 33.10 The Lord brings to nought the counsell of the heathen So againe Isa 8.10 It is used often for breaking the Law by frequent and vvilfull sinning against it Proud sinners vvould break the Law in sunder or pull it all in peices They have made voyd thy Law Psa 119 As if they would not onely sin against the Law but sin away the Law not onely vvithdraw themselves from the obedience of it but drive it out of the World they would make voyd and repeale the holy acts of God that their owne wicked acts might not be questioned and lest the Law should have a power to punish them they vvill deny it a power to rule them that 's the force of the simple vvord here used as applyed to highest transgressing against the Law of God Now as vvicked men by sinning vvould batter the Law to peices so God by afflicting doth sometimes break good men to peices Consider what course usage the holy Law of God hath in the hearts and lives of vvicked men O how they tear it and vex it and batter it every day Thus doth the Lord deal vvith many of his holy servants vvho had they their vvish would not make the least breach in the Law and vvhose hearts are often broken vvith godly sorrow because they cannot but break it yet to these he doth not onely give a bruise or a blow but breaks them asunder There is yet another elegancy in the signification of the vvord For as Hebreicians observe it notes a bruising like that of Grapes or Olives vvhich are trodden in a presse to make Wine or Oyle Confractus sum velut uvae aut olivae in torculari hence also a Noune from this Verbe signifies the Wine-presse Isa 63.3 Now Grapes and Olives being trodden are broken and bruised in peices not onely is their forme and beauty totally spoyled but all their sweetnesse juyce and liquor is vvrought out of them and they are left as a dry lumpe Now look vvhat Grapes and Olives are vvhen taken out of the Presse even such a lumpe vvas Job he vvas broken asunder in the Wine-presse though not of Gods vvrath as his Freinds mis-judged yet in the Wine-presse of his chastisements and severest tryalls all his vvorldly moysture vvas squeezed out and his earthly glory vvas quite defaced he had nothing left of that but as it were a dry huske yet his spirituall estate was still juicy and his soule by these pressings treadings and breakings had distilled much sweet Oyle and Wine and much more was still remaining in him From these heightned significations of the word layd together Observe in generall God doth not onely afflict those whom he loves but afflict them soarely and severely He afflicts some not onely to the empayring and abating but to the undoing and ruining of their outward comforts and worldly enjoyments Nothing can be sayd to descipher an afflicted state beyond what this word will beare And that God doth afflict his chosen ones to the utmost rack of this phrase will appeare also from all that follows to the end of the fourteenth Verse the opening of which will be a continuall proofe and illustration of this great and often experimented truth upon and among the precious Sons of Sion This I shall hint all along besides those observations which arise out of them He hath broken me asunder and what follows in the same Verse He hath also taken me by my neck and shaken me to peices Is not this to deale severely A loving Father takes his Son about the neck and kisses him what a rough salute did the Lord give this Son of his when he tooke him by the neck and shook him to peices Such a carriage seemes not to be after the manner of men much lesse after the manner of Fathers yet this was the manner of God to Job who was also his Freind and Father He hath taken me by my neck The neck is as the tower and strength of the body and when a man is taken by the neck he is assaulted in his chiefest strength and taken at the greatest advantage There is a threefold metaphor or allusion in these words which being considered distinctly will let out their meaning yet more fully First They beare an allusion to Wrestlers who take one another by the neck or collar he that is the strongest not onely takes his Antagonist by the neck but shakes him as if he would shake him to pieces God wrestled with the Patriarch Jacob literally and corporally though the greatest labour and stresse of Jacobs wrestling was spirituall and internall And when he saw that he prevailed not Jacob prevailed with God for so much strength that now God could not according to that dispensation prevaile against Jacob yet he touched the hollow of Jacobs thigh and made him halt God wrestled with Job not corporally yet in corporall things the stresse also of his wrestling was spirituall and he prevailed with God and over Satan yet God was pleased not only for the present to touch a joynt and make him halt but even to shake every joynt and limbe to peices Secondly It is an allusion to Sergeants or Bailiffs that are sent to arest men for debt or for their evill deeds This sort of men are boysterous enough they having power will not forbeare to lay hold on Persons obnoxious and take them by the neck when they attach them We have that usage expressed Matth. 18.28 The evill Servant to whom the Lord had forgiven ten thousand Talents a vast debt found one of his fellow Servants who owed him an hundred pence an inconsiderable summ and would needs exact the utmost from him the Text saith The same Servant went out and found one of his fellow-servants which ought him an hundred pence and he layd hands upon him and took him by the throat saying Pay me that thou owest He took him by the throat the word signifies properly to choake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Premebat sauces illius debitoris tanquam suffocaturus obtorto collo premebat Eras or to take another so rudely by the throat as to choake or as wee say throttle him It is translated to choake with water Mark 5.13
usually teacheth by the Word never against it and it is a tempting of God while he gives us meanes to linger after immediate Revelations yea when the Lord reveales himselfe immediately he uses to doe it without mans fore-thought or expectations The Prophets did not set themselves to receive Revelations from God but his Spirit came upon them with mighty power and irresistible evidence And though God doth reveale some of his secrets yet he hath secrets which he will not reveale The secret of the Lord is with them that feare him Psal 24.14 And his secret is with the righteous Prov. 3.32 This secret is either the good will and favour of God of which the World knowes nothing or the good Word and Faith of God of which the World knowes as little Both these sorts of Divine secrets are with the righteous and men fearing God but the secrets of his Counsel are reserved in his owne breast He reveales to his people the secrets of his bounty and of their duty what he will doe for them and what they must doe for him but many things which himselfe will doe shall never be revealed but by the doing of them Hast thou heard the secrets of God And doest thou restraine wisedome to thy selfe That is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Detrahis ad te quod sensu in idem recidit cum eo quod est tibi ascribis fraudando alios negatam aliis sapientiam tibi assumpsisti ex divino arcano Sapientia ultra te suos terminos non porriget Tygur Doest thou thinke there is no wisedome besides thine art thou at the very border and utmost limit of knowledge and understanding is all beyond thee ignorance and folly Hast thou got and engrossed all the learning from others and reserved it to thy selfe alone as thy peculiar with which none must intermedle without a license obtained from thee hast thou the monopoly of wisdome or is all but enough for thee Shall none of thy neighbours share with thee This is either a charge of greater arrogancy then the former Doest thou restraine wisedome to thy selfe or at least a charge of greatest uncharitablenesse goodnesse is diffusive and so is wisedome and it is the duty of good men to diffuse wisedome When they have heard the secrets of God they must communicate them to others not restraine all to themselves But I conceive Eliphaz intends onely the former charge Hence observe It is the highest straine of pride for a man to restraine wisedome to himselfe or to thinke himselfe so wise that all must addresse to him for wisedome God hath not given all wisedome to any one man or sort of men though he hath trusted some with more Talents of it then he hath done others The Priests lips of old under the Law and so the lips of Ministers under the Gospel should preserve knowledge and the people should seek both Law and Gospel at their mouth Mal. 2.7 Yet neither might the Priests then nor may Ministers now restraine wisedome to themselves The rule of the Apostle is Be not wise above what is written that is above holy Writ or above what is written from the immediate dictates of the Spirit of God They are as we say fooles in Print who say they are wise above what is thus written but we may be wise above what is spoken or written by any man for no man ought to restraine all wisedome to himselfe to doe so is the top-staire of Antichristian pride The Pope restraines wisedome to himselfe he boasts that he hath the secrets of God and that all must come to him if they will have them unlockt and opened His sentences from the Chayre are Oracles and there he is infallible all are obliged to receive what he saith because he saith it no man must scruple much lesse oppose or contradict it Thus to impose upon men is to set our selves in the place of the God of Heaven yea to arrogate to our selves that we are Gods on earth So the Apostle hath characteriz'd that man of sin 2 Thes 2.4 He opposeth and exalteth himselfe above all that is called God or that is worshipped that is above all civill powers or Magistracy So that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himselfe that he is God And as he out of all measure wickedly so many others in a very great measure have shewed themselves as God while they have taken upon them as we speake proverbially To give the Law yea to give the Gospel to other mens consciences or to bind up all mens tongues and judgements unto the rule of their apprehensions When the Apostle had called God to record that he alwayes purposed to be bold and plaine with the Corinthians he presently subjoynes this corrective 2 Cor. 1.24 Not that we have Dominion over your Faith but are helpers of your joy As if he had sayd Doe not thinke that I take upon me as a Lord over your consciences to charge any command or observations of my owne upon them No I am but as a servant of God to instruct you in his counsels and to comfort you with his promises The Grecians who were men of great knowledge and learning a very witty and Philosophicall people called all other Nations Barbarians Such pride appeares among some in name Christians they speake and act as if all knowledge and truth were centred in them or as if all were in the darke who see not by their light Knowledge is apt to puffe up how are they puffed up who thinke they know all though indeed they who thinke they know any thing know nothing as they ought to know 1 Cor. 8.2 God reveales that to Babes and Sucklings which he hides from such wise and prudent ones who restraine all wisedome to themselves God in judgement restraines wisedome from them who in pride restraine it to themselves and as God takes all wisedome from them who in another sense restraine wisedome to themselves that is who will not use it because they have but one Talent of it or but a little so he will give them no wisedome at all who thinke they are possessors or Lord-Treasurers of all the Talents of it as if all wisedome were layd up in them The Babâ—s and Sucklings such as are low humble and meek are the objects of this bounty as for the proud God beholdeth them affar off and they can never get neere wisedome who are farre from the God of wisedome While such vainely restraine wisedome to themselves the hand of God is justly restrained from bestowing it upon them Eliphaz having thus reproved Job for entitling himselfe to so rich a stock of knowledge either brought in by his owne long experience or from the speciall inspirations and teachings of God proceeds to challenge to himselfe and his Freinds a knowledge equall at least to what he really had in the ninth and tenth Verses Vers 9. What knowest thou that we know not what understandest thou that is not in us
relenting towards his Son when he stood suffering in the place of sinners then he doth to those sinners who stand in their owne place to suffer without his Son Yea God the Father did not onely not relent or shew any yearning of bowels towards his Son in that suffering condition but as to sense and present apprehension he hardned his heart towards him which caused that greivous out-cry of Christ upon the Crosse My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Not that God did really withdraw his love in the least from his Son but he did infinitely delight to see his Justice satisfied and his Son as a Conquerour bearing up under the weight of it Thus the Lord tooke pleasure in afflicting his Son or as Job speaks Chap. 9. He laughed at the tryall of that innocent and Holy one And indeed without this the worke of our redemption had not been accomplished by a full satisfaction to divine Justice for it would have had somewhat of mercy in it towards the Redeemer as well as it is all mercy towards the redeemed But as it is all of mercy to us so it was to be nothing at all of mercy to Jesus Christ that sinners are redeemed he was to have no more of his Father then he payd for and his Father did not spare him but made him pay the utmost Farthing that upon the casting up of the account betweene himselfe and sinfull man appeared a due debt unto his Justice Job complaines that he was not spared yet the truth is that every man how much soever he suffers on this side Hell hath somewhat of sparing mercy in his sufferings Secondly Forasmuch as Job being about to shew the extremity of his affliction tells us That God did not spare Observe Sparing mercy is the lowest degree of mercy If God deny sparing mercy he denyes all mercy It is argument enough that God shewed Christ no mercy when the Apostle saith He did not spare him That we sinners might have all mercy he that saved us from our sins had none The Angels who sinned found no mercy no sacrifice was provided for them God cast them downe to Hell and delivered them into chaines of darknesse to be reserved unto judgement All which punishments are affirmed by the Apostle Peter as the result of this Negative God spared not the Angels 2 Pet. 2.4 The same Apostle tels us also in the next Verse that God spared not the old World but saved Noah the eight person a Preacher of righteousnesse bringing in the Flood upon the world of the ungodly Neyther the Angels who apostatiz'd from God nor the old ungodly World had any share in sparing mercy Job looked upon himselfe in reference to present peace as one in their case He doth not spare which appeares further in the next clause He powreth out my Gall upon the ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fel ab amaritudine Viscera Vulg. The Originall word vvhich vve render Gall signifies properly bitternesse because the Gall is so Peter speaking to Simon Magus Acts 8.23 puts these two together I perceive that thou art in the Gall of bitternesse He that continues in sin lives in the Gall of spirituall bitternesse and he whose Gall is powred out is in or ready to goe into the gall or corporall death For as cleaving of the reines implyed the receiving of a deadly wound so powring out the Gall upon the ground is a proverbiall speaking present death When the gall is out the bowels are out the gall is affixed to the Liver So that it is as much as to say He kils me dead or I am now upon the borders of death it selfe When the gall is indeed powred out we cannot live and he who is afflicted to such a height that he cryes my gall is powred out may well he numbred among the dead The reason or originall of this speech was this as I conceive because when a wilde Beast or any other which are fit for mans eating are taken and slaine it is usuall when the bowels are pulled out to cut off and throw away or powre out the Gall upon the ground lest the overflowing of it should disrelish the neighbouring parts So that Job in this doth onely prosecute the former theame of his greevious sufferings or that he was as Paul speakes of himselfe 2 Cor. 1.18 pressed out of measure above strength insomuch that he despaired even of life which he gives us yet more fully in the next Verse Vers 14. He breaketh me with breach upon breach and runneth on me like a Giant Job varies into all manner of inventions and allusions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vi disrupit erupit Poeticè variat orationis modos lugubres to set forth both the constancy and extremity of his afflictions As before he compared himselfe to a marke against which Arrows are shot so now to a Stone wall or fortified Towre against which battering Rams of old and Cannons in latter ages are usually planted to make a breach that the Souldiery may come up to the assault He breaketh me with breach upon breach Some men are like fortified Cities which cannot be easily entred yet when the Lord of Hosts drawes up his Armies and beseigeth them he hath Artillery and Ammunition enough to thunder downe their highest Towers and to make breach upon breach in their thickest walls Satan complaines Ch. 1. Thou hast made a hedge about him Jobs hedge was the protection of God that hedge was so strong that Satan could not pull up a stake of it nor make a gap in it till God gave him leave But though Job as this similitude implyes were like a wall or fortified tower yet God had made breaches in him God can soone breake our estates our strength our health our comforts our peace our all And when Job saith he breaks me with breach upon breach he meanes a multitude of breaches made together or continuall breaches made one after another Jeremy laments Chap. 4.16 My bowels my bowels I am pained at the very heart my heart makes a noyse in me Why doth he thus double upon these words My bowels my bowels my heart my heart The twentieth Verse gives us an account of that Destruction upon destruction is cryed for the whole Land is spoyled Destruction upon destruction is totall destruction Thus Sampson repeats his Victory over the Philistines Judg. 15.16 With the Jaw-bone of an Asse heaps upon heaps or as the letter of the Hebrew an heap two heaps that is I have made a great slaughter or as himselfe explaines it in the close of the Verse I have slaine a thousand men Wee have the Prophet Ezekiels threat in the same language Chap. 7.26 Mischeife shall come upon mischeife and rumour shall be upon rumour When the Prophet Isaiah would convince the Jewes of their unteachablenesse that whereas as the Apostles speakes Heb. 5.12 They ought to be teachers yet they had need to be taught the first principles of the
light and puft up with knowledg Secondly vvhen men are unthankfull for the light and vvill not acknowledge God the giver of it Thirdly vvhen men grow vvanton or vaine in the light vvhen they abuse it and having the light vvalke in darknesse All vvhich reasons of Gods vvithdrawing light as many Scriptures testifie so they are all testified in that one Scripture Rom. 1.21 22. Fourthly As God may be sayd to hide the heart from understanding by a totall withdrawing of light so by vvithholding it for a time or in part by clouding or eclipsing it God hides the heart of some men from understanding onely in such a point or at such a season giving them light in other things yea and in that thing too at another season This fourth way I conceive most proper to this Text of Job for his Freinds vvere not under that terrible judgement of a totall hiding their hearts from understanding onely the light was with-held from them in and about that transaction As vvhen Christ after his resurrection appeared to those Disciples Luke 24.26 the Text saith Their eyes were held that they should not know him And Vers 31. Their eyes were opened and they knew him Thus God at one time holds the intellectuall eye of some good men that they cannot discerne such or such a Truth yet afterwards he opens their eyes and they discerne it Hence Observe First The wisest men doe not see all truths nor are they able to judge of all matters These were vvise men very vvise men they spake excellent things and very understandingly about God they gave Job very good counsell but yet they failed here Elihu Ch. 32.9 saith Great men are not alwayes wise vve may say vvise men are not alwayes wise and as no man is wise at all times so there is no man wise in all things We cannot conclude that because a man hath given a right judgement in some one or in many points that therefore we may trust his decisions in all points As God hides all wisedome from some men so he very rarely if at all trusts any one man or sort of men at one time with all vvisedome Jobs Freinds were vvell acquainted with and they have acquainted us with many excellent notions about that great Doctrine of Providence but they were much mistaken about the Providence of God with Job nor did they shew themselves acquainted vvith that excellent Designe of God in his afflicting Providences thereby to try the strength and manifest the graces vvhich hee hath bestowed upon his people Secondly Observe The hiding of the heart from and the opening of the heart to understanding are the worke of God We see no further then God gives us light and so farr as he leads us we goe right if hee vvithdraw vve turne aside and quickly vvander from the way of truth and righteousnesse We have nothing of our owne but sin and ignorance wisedome is of God Every good and perfect gift comes from above As God hides all Gospell-truths and mysteries from vvorldly vvise men so no Gospell mysterie is knowne to any man till God discover and make it knowne Matth. 11.25 At that time Jesus answered and sayd I thanke thee O Father Lord of Heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent but hast revealed them unto babes By vvise and prudent he meanes wordly vvise men meere Philosophers and Politicians or hypocriticall Professors such as the Scribes and Pharisees were from these God in judgement hides the things of the Kingdome of Heaven and reveales them unto Babes even to such as are at the greatest distance in naturall considerations from the capacity of such rich and heavenly manifestations There is no greater argument that God opens the heart to understand then to see Babes understand If true knowledge in spirituall mysteries vvere from man they vvho have most of man in them vvould have most of that knowledge but vvee are taught by experience that such men as the World calls Fooles doe not erre in the way of holinesse Isa 35.8 And that the course of all Worldly vvise men is a continuall erring from that vvay and that some godly men who are higher by head and shoulders then some of their Brethren in naturall wisedome have run into and maintained errors whither can we ascribe all this but to the power of God Moses speakes of the many signes and miracles which God wrought in the midst of that people vvhich they did not understand Why what was the reason Moses tells us expressely vvhat Yet the Lord hath not given you a heart to conceive nor eyes to see nor eares to heare to this day Deut. 29.4 They had sensitive eyes and eares yea they had a rationall heart or minde but they vvanted a spirituall eye to see a spirituall care to heare a spirituall heart or minde to apprehend and improve those wonderfull vvorkes of God And these they had not because God had not given them such eyes eares and hearts Wonders without grace cannot open the eyes fully but grace without wonders can And as man hath not an eye to see the wonderfull workes of God spiritually untill it is given so much lesse hath he an eye to see the wonders of the Word of God till it be given him from above and therefore David prayes Psal 119.18 Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wonderous things out of thy Law And if the wondrous things of the Law are not much seene till God give an eye then much lesse are the vvondrous things of the Gospell The light of nature shewes us somwhat of the Law but nothing of the Gospell was ever seen by the light of nature Many who have seene and admired some excellencies in the Law could never see and therefore have derided that which is the excellency of the Gospell till God hath opened their heart to understanding Thirdly Observe It is a great judgement to have our hearts hidden from understanding in the things of God It is a sore judgement not to have the light but it is a sorer judgement not to see by the light when we have it To have a heart hid from understanding is farr worse then to have a heart unable to understand Our inability to understand ariseth two vvayes First From a naturall infirmity in the understanding Secondly From the naturall obscurity of the matter presented to the understanding Plaine truthes are not apprehended by a weake understanding and the strongest understanding cannot apprehend some obscure truthes as the Apostle Peter saith of Saint Pauls Epistles that in them there are some things hard to be understood 2 Pet. 3.16 Now as there is an affliction in it not to be able to understand any truth which God hath revealed for our use so there is much wrath and judgement in it when God hides understanding from the heart in any of those things which he hath revealed for our use but especially in those things which are necessary