in him that is in God or by way of question Shall I not hope the thing that is fixed upon is God from whom he expects approbation and eternal salvation as is cleared in the following verse even though he slay him 3. He joyns his maintenance of his integrity with his confidence by the adversative particle but or by way of exception only or yet I will maintain c. Not that there is any opposition betwixt those or any real exception from his confidence in his maintaining of his integrity seeing that proved the strength of his faith that he would in such a condition maintain his integrity as it proved his self-denyal that notwithstanding the testimony of his integrity yet trust in God is the course he followeth But whereas they could allow him to trust in God on their terms and to expect not only eternal salvation but temporal deliverance if he would be converted and turn to God He professeth that he will so trust in God as he will not renounce his former integrity Or it may be understood thus by way of conjunction with his resolution to trust that though God slay him yet he will trust and yet also he will maintain his own ways before him 4. This is a strong proof of Job's honesty and that he may boldly go to God to lay his case before him seeing none but an honest man would keep his grip in such a difficulty as he clears v. 16. Doct. 1. It is the duty of godly men to lay their account for the saddest of dispensations and sadder then possibly yet hath befaln them that so they may not stumble at such when they come and may bear more easie lots patiently For Job supposeth here that God may slay him It is true when we are in a sad condition we are apt to make it worse by our apprehensions and fears Yet it is our duty to be resolved for the hardest of lots not looking upon them as inconsistent with love nor yet stumbling if they befal us nor quarrelling because others have a more easie task 2. Saints must resolve that faith and only faith must support them under these pressures without limiting of God to give them much joy and sense at such times For here Job layeth his account only to trust As Faith is surer then Sense and will afford us necessary help in distress Psal 28.7 and doth so support us as yet we want not the exercise of our tryals for our use and behoof So readily we could not well bear any more then it in our troubles nor would our troubles discover us to ourselves nor should we be able to discern Gods wonderful supporting of us in our faintings if our bitter lots were still sweetened with sense 3. Satans great design in troubles and tentations is to crush our confidence wherein when he prevails he gets his will of us and drives us into all inconveniences For Job looks upon it as his greatest task in the saddest lots that he trust and quit not his confidence See Luk. 22.31 32. They who cast away their confidence in trouble do themselves as ill a turn as Satan could wish them For what can they do next but either grip to it again or else resolve to turn out of Gods way if that can bring them case or lay their account to be crushed and swallowed up Therefore it should be our chief care to keep faith and if we do not undervalue it because we have no more we will not cast it away and if we cast it not away Satan will not easily get us driven from it 4. Albeit many do think that they do well when they cast away their confidence yet no trouble how great soever is a warrant to quit it For even though God slay it is a duty to trust Saints ought to fix this as a Principle that be their trouble what it will or let it say what it will to them by way of reproof or whatever they think they ought to read in it Yet it doth not say that they should quit their confidence Psal 46.1 2. For faith is given us for such times and lots to bear us through Prov. 24.10 Heb. 10.38 Great troubles are a call to believe and a meane to excite us to that duty Psal 56.3 And it is service and obedience to God as at all times Psal 62.8 so especially at such a time 1 Sam. 30.6 And therefore should be set about with an eye to his command whatever our apprehensions be of the success of it 5. As no trouble of it self so neither the seeing of God as our party in trouble should marre confidence For saith Job Though he slay me yet will I trust Faith must not quit God when he seems to quit it but must take him for a friend and put a good construction upon his dealing when he seems even to deal like an enemy In such a case beside the faith of a better life ver 16. the trust and confidence of a Child of God should appear In his adhereing to God and his way as his only safety and way to an issue Psal 44.17 18 19. In trusting his Power that he is able to deliver but with much submission to his good will and pleasure Dan. 3.17 18. In giving him credit that his dispensations whatever sense hast carnal reason c. seem to finde in them will never give his Word the lie but whom his Word approves they are approved doe to them what he will And consequently In believing that there is more good will in his heart then is seen in his dealing 6. Not only hath faith a warrant thus to adhere to God but faith hath been attained in such exigents Believers have essayed it and been victorious As we see here in Job's experience And albeit the experience of one be much yet we may be the more encouraged that we have a cloud of witnesses bearing witness to this truth that faith is attainable and hath carried men through in saddest tryals and assaults See Rom. 8.38 39. 2 Cor. 12.7 10. Jonah 2.4 1 Sam. 30.6 Psal 46.1 2 c. and many the like instances 7. Not only ought Saints not to quit their grips by faith and adherence but not to renounce their integrity whatever befal them even albeit not only troubles come but God himself appear an eminent party in them For he adds I will maintain or argue mine own wayes before him It is Satans great policy to drive us to renounce what evidences of grace we have either as an evidence of our tenderness under trouble or upon a pretence that we may begin of new upon better grounds But to hearken to this were both injurious to God and his grace and would still shake us loose at every new difficulty 8. The testimony of our integrity is not therefore to be quit because we have difficulty to keep it and much seems to speak against it or because we have many steps in our walk which
It is not easie to believe the misery that hangs over the head of the wicked For it must be gravely asserted Surely such are the dwellings and place of the wicked or those things formerly mentioned do befal only them and their families and that certainly And though he erred in the particular yet it is true that what they deserve is hardly believed see Deut. 29.18 19 20. Nor ought we to stumble though their ruine be object of faith only and not of sense and though we find themselves crying peace and safety 4. It is an undeniable truth that the state of the wicked is miserable and will prove so in end For though matters go not as Bildad asserts yet this General is surely true That they are miserable and obnoxious to all this See Eccl. 8.11 12 13. Isa 3.10 11. and it is our sin to doubt of it Mal. 3.15 5. The wicked do meet with a just recompence from God in that as they will not know nor acknowledg him so they are deprived of the Protection of his Providence For they know not God and their dwellings and place either come or deserve to come to that issue which he hath formerly mentioned And we should read our not acknowledging nor depending upon God in any crosse dispensations of Providence we meet with 6. Men ought to try their perswasions well seeing good men may have strong perswasions in an Errour As here Bildad asserts all this to be surely true when yet he erred in some respects in what he taught And here we are to guard that sound General Principles against wickedness and concerning the desert thereof do not occasion our erring in particular Applications as it was with him and his Associates CHAP. XIX This Chapter contains Job's Reply to Bildad together with the rest of his Friends Wherein his chief scope is to reprehend their uncharitable and cruel dealing with a man so afflicted which yet he manages so as he takes occasion to ease himself by venting his Complaints and withal handleth the main Controversie debated betwixt them and proveth that he was righteous though thus afflicted The Chapter may be taken up in two Principal Parts First A Challenge for their Miscarriage or a General Proposition of their fault ver 1 2 3. Secondly Some Arguments fortifying and pressing home this Challenge Namely 1. That they should not rail upon him instead of convincing him if so be he were in an Errour ver 4. 2. That they should not have been so cruel in vexing him who was so sadly afflicted by God ver 5. 22. 3. That it was yet greater cruelty to deal so harshly with a man under affliction who is a righteous man as he was ver 23. 28. 4. That if none of these Considerations did move them yet they should be afraid to provoke the wrath of God to break out upon themselves for their miscarriage ver 29. Vers 1. Then Job answered and said 2. How long will ye vex my soul and break me in pieces with words 3. These ten times have ye reproached me you are not ashamed that you make your selves strange to me IN these verses beside a General Intimation that Job did answer v. 1. we have 1. A General Proposition of the Challenge v. 2. that by their alleaging of untruths and brangling his peace and driving him to despair they had grieved and vexed his soul and that for a long time 2. An Explication of the Challenge v. 2. that they did not only vex but even crush and break in pieces his strength and courage of mind by their impertinent untrue and cruel language 3. An instructing of this Challenge v. 3. that those ten times or very many times a definite number being put for an indefinite as Gen. 31.7 Lev. 26.26 and elsewhere they had reproached him and slandered his integrity 4. An aggravation of this their fault v. 3. That they who ought to have proved friends and professed to do so yet without shame dealt so strangely and left off all tenderness toward him In General Learn 1. As Controversies are not easily ended when once they are begun So it doth commend a mans honesty and zeal for truth that many renewed assaults do not make him quit it Both these may be gathered from this that Job after all the former debates yet answered 2. A good way to put an end to Controversies is not always to jangle about Questions debated but sometime to put the matter roundly home to the Consciences of Debaters that they may consider whether in cold bloud they be not refuted and self-condemned in their own bosomes For such is the strain and scope of Job's Reply at this time to charge home their cruel and uncharitable carriage upon their own Consciences Where Conscience interposeth not in Debates mens parts and their delight to make a shew of them their interest and credit being engaged and their heat and passion kindled and increased by debating may keep strife long on foot In Particular From v. 2. Learn 1. Afflictions are sad and mens carriage cruel in so far as they reach the souls and spirits of men to vex and grieve them When either afflictions and mens way of dealing get in upon their spirits and cause a breach and wound there or men do fall upon the afflicteds inward state and condition to question the goodness thereof For this is his complaint that they vexed his soul and brake him in pieces by one or other of these means 2. Affliction is so much the sadder when it is added to former afflictions For saith he ye vex my soul who am already afflicted in my outward condition They either added the breach of the peace of his soul to his outward crosses or his inward peace being already disturbed by desertion and tentation they contributed to the continuance and increase of that vexation 3. The longer men continue in an ill course it is so much the worse in regard they do more hurt thereby and do witness that it flows not from a fit of weakness but from a fixed resolution For he points at this as a great aggravation of their fault How long will ye vex my soul c. 4. A small thing may hurt one that is already crushed and particularly impertinent words may do much hurt to one who is tender and broken with afflictions For Job who had born all his other losses could not bear such language but words brake him in pieces 5. Men who have the testimony of their integrity and get grace to stick by it may yet expect to meet with many rubs in going through a time of tryal their corruptions may be irritated and God may try and humble them thereby For Job who who was honest and would not quit the testimony of it yet is vexed and broken with irritating words Such distempers should not be looked upon as a proof that men have no integrity 6. Men intending most good to others may yet prove most hurtful unless
looks and thoughts if men delight and persist in them are wickedness and works of iniquity and so prove men to be wicked For the scope of Jobs discourse doth import that he avoided these evils v. 1. left he should run the hazard which the wicked and workers of iniquity do incurr as judging that by these acts he would have put himself among the number of such This is not so to be understood as if truly godly men were not obnoxious to tentations and failings of that kind But that such practices being delighted and persisted in do argue a wicked disposition and will draw men to act visible wickedness Hence vain thoughts are accounted wickedness from which the heart should be washed Jer. 4.14 And it were good men would give sins their right names For then these courses would appear to be ugly wherewith they are less affected because they have learned to extenuate them as if they were only infirmities 3. Though men use to forget the hazard that followeth upon sin while they dally with sin it self Yet sin and destruction for sin are inseparable in Gods appointment unless the mercy of God in Christ interpose which is only in the case of repentance and faith nor are they to be separated in our thoughts And particularly we are to believe that as all the wicked so they who give way to uncleanness in wanton looks and thoughts do deserve destruction from the Lord For Job asserts it as an undeniable truth and therefore propounds it by way of question as defying any to disprove it That destruction is to the wicked c. Which he speaks here with a particular eye to the sin of uncleanness as hath been said 4. Beside eternal destruction or bodily death it pleaseth God sometimes to testifie his displeasure against wicked men and particularly unclean persons by some remarkeable judgements such as bodily diseases and odd plagues upon Persons and Nations For there is a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity and to these in particular Sodom Benjamin Judg. 20. Zimri and Cosbi c. are remarkeable instances and proofs of the truth of this Yea David though a Saint and a penitent smarts for this fault 2 Sam. 12. 5 Such as consider the punishment due to sin and particularly to uncleanness will tremble and be afraid to run so great a hazard And men do therefore rush upon sinful courses because they forget to study this hazard For these questions Is not destruction to the wicked And a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity do import not only the evidence of the truth it self but that many have need to be excited by such rowzing questions to consider it And that these who seriously do so will be afraid to sin as Job was v. 1. when he considered this And it is a sad case when men have nothing but inadvertency and forgetfulness of these and the like considerations betwixt them and dreadful horrour which the conscience of their sinful wayes would raise in them Verse 4. Doth not he see my wayes and count all my steps In this Verse we have the last Reason whereby Job was perswaded to this resolution which confirmeth the former Shewing that God knows and observes all the wayes of men and particularly their sinful courses and therefore he who hates such courses will punish them where he seeth them And the apprehension of this all-seeing eye of an holy and just God being still in Jobs mind made him careful to bridle his lust and to watch over his eye and heart This Argument is made use of to press this same Conclusion Pro. 5.20 21. And as for the various words here made use of if we make any difference betwixt wayes and paths the first may point out mens counsels and purposes for atttaining such ends and the second their deeds and practices tending toward these ends be they good or evil Or the first points out the general course or courses of life to which a man betakes himself and the second these particular acts steps and progresses as the word signifieth which a man hath in these courses and therefore they are designed in their universality all my steps because there are many of them in comparison of these wayes or courses of life which a man chooseth As for the other two words Gods seeing and counting they point out that this knowledge which God hath of mens wayes and actings is particular and distinct so that no vails of darkness and secretness wherewith unclean persons especially please themselves Chap. 24.15 can hinder him from seeing nor can any numbers of mens actings and deviations marr his exact counting of them all From this Verse Learn 1. God is Omniscient to see and know all things particularly the things of man For what Job saith concerning his wayes and paths in particular that God seeth and counteth them is an universal verity See Pro. 5.21 2 Chr. 16.9 Job 34.21 Only Job doth not satisfie himself as many do with an acknowledgement of this truth in general while they forget it in their own particular walk But he takes notice of Gods Omniscience as knowing and noticing his own wayes in particular So also doth David Ps 119.168 and 139.1 5. 2. God is very accurate and distinct in his taking notice of mens way and looks not only to the general scope of their lives but to every particular step thereof and not only to their practices but to their principles from which they flow whether they be wicked or miscarry only through infirmity simplicity and ignorance whether they be hypocritical or sincere in the good they do c. For God looks to his wayes and all his paths Thus God pondereth or weigheth all the goings or turnings of man and his life Pro. 5.21 3. As no darkness or secrecy nor coverings and plausible pretences will hide mens way from God nor hinder him to see them as they are so the multiplicity of their courses will not confound his knowledge For however men seek to hide themselves and do run into confusion so that they can keep no account of their wayes yet saith Job He seeth my wayes and counteth all my steps The consideration whereof may alarum loose walkers with the fears of a sad after-reckoning Ps 50.21 4. Albeit unclean persons do satisfie themselves with the secret conveighance of their wayes Yet they do not run these courses without a witness but God hath a special eye upon them while they goe about them For that is the particular here in reference to which Job considered that God did see his wayes c. 5. It is usual for men to forget the all-seeing eye of God when they are upon an evil course especially if it be closely conveighed For Job propounds this reason also by way of question Doth he not see my wayes c. Which imports as hath been said on the former Verse not only the evidence of this truth but that men need to be rouzed up to
his own workmanship v 8. and that having formed such a curious piece out of brittle clay in his Primitive Original Adam oâ— as the Potter formeth Vessels out of clay he will now bring him to dust again v. 9. which is not to be understood simply of death as if he declined that but of God over-throwing thus violently his own work and cutting off a godly man in anger 2. To press this Expostulation he insists more particularly on Gods framing of him partly in his body where in a modest similitude he declares how the seed the matter of his body was brought to some consistence as Milk is cruddled that it may be Cheese v. 10. and how out of that matter God made bones to grow to be as Pillars to this Structure also sinews to unite the bones and direct the motions flesh to bolster and fill up this Structure and a skin to cover and protect it v. 11. Partly in his soul granting him life and a reasonable soul to animate this Fabrick v. 12 To which he adds Gods care of him since he framed him v. 12. granting him favour in caring for him in the womb at his birth and since and his visitation preserving his spirit Which however it be true in it self if we understand it of gracious manifestations yet here it seems to be meant only by way of Explication of that favour of Gods care and inspection to preserve his Spirit life or being by his Providence 3. That he may more confidently found his Expostulation upon this kindness of God he asserts v. 13 that Gods present severity cannot perswade him that all this care is forgotten but he believes it is hid in Gods heart though it be not visible to his sense And therefore it is that he hath expostulated that God should destroy him toward whom he hath shewed so much kindness in making and preserving of him which he cannot believe is yet forgotten In this Argument Observe these Truths 1. Man in his frame is an excellent Structure and a little world in his body and soul wherein God is much to be seen Therefore doth Job insist here to point out that excellent work and makes use of words which do express diligence and pains Not that God needeth or is put to take pains in it but to shew that the effect and work is such as if he had taken all pains about it See Gen. 1.26 Psal 139.14 15. And when men do not mind this but are Atheists though their very frame be an Argument proving a Deity and when they do not dwell upon the meditation of it as Job doth here till it affect them nor study to look like it in their walk but become brutish or liker to Devils then to God in whose Image they were created it is no wonder they be destroyed and that this Argument have no force to plead for their preservation 2. As Gods part in framing of Man doth set out his glory so mans Original in it self is such as may abase him being but as clay and milk 3. God can of very mean things make out somewhat very excellent as he made Man his skin flesh bones and sinews of this clay and milk 4. The favour of life especially of a reasonable life is a mercy much to be esteemed For Job esteemeth of it Thou hast granted me life See Job 35.11 5. That same power care and love of God which gives being doth preserve it in the womb and afterward by a continued Creation For when he granted life he did grant favour also and his visitation as a Parent overseeth his Child that the Nurse neglect it not preserveth the spirit or breath and life 6. It is the duty of Believers when they are in trouble and evidences of special love are over-clouded to take hold by faith of very common grounds and evidences of love that they may come to God with them As Job pleads from his Creation and being formed in the womb against Gods present severity See also Psal 22.9 10. Albeit the strongest Arguments for discouragement ought not to drive us away from God yet we may make use of more remote and common Arguments to come to God and get better 7. It is one good Argument in pleading with God that he will be tender of his own work of mercy and favour be what it will wherein his hand hath been eminently seen For in the general Job's Argument is good that God would respect him whom he hath so curiously formed though it will not bear all that weight he layeth upon it as I shall clear afterward 8. It is also a good argument and plea before God when we are sensible that we are of a weak and frail mould and constitution not able to endure God's strokes nor needing much to undo us For this is a plea which he desires God will remember that he is made as clay and therefore will soon be brought to dust again 9. To strengthen our faith in this plea it would be remembered That albeit Gods people be driven from the sense of what they have found and be not able to reconcile his present dispensations with their former experience yet faith is bound not to quit its grip but to see that which is hid in Gods heart and comfort it self in concealed favour and mercy For so doth Job reckon These things hast thou hid in thine heart I know that this is with thee 10. When mercies are not visible or obvious to sense faith should look upon them not only as sure and with God but as hid in his heart or affection That his love is not withdrawn though his dispensations which speak love be gone and that his affection is the dispenser of our lots either in granting or with holding of mercies For so doth Job here argue In Job's arguing from this against Gods present dealing with him we may also observe those mistakes which will afford us needful Caution and Instruction 1. Whatever respect or obligation God have to his creatures especially those whom he hath made of new and regenerated by his grace yet they should not take ill with change of dealing but resolve upon it For herein Job argued weakly that because God had made and preserved him therefore he should still preserve him from trouble or any change in his condition See Psal 102.10 We should be ready to study the mutability of time and of the things thereof which will make us look for a day after a night and that will keep us from quarrelling that we have had a night after a day See Zech. 8 14 15. 2. Especially we should guard that Gods former kindness and tender care do not make us so ill bred as to bear a trouble the worse which should rather be borne the better for that As Job argues when he is in a right frame Chap. 2.10 though now he take it ill to be thus broken after such tender kindness 3. We may so plead our weakness as Job
4.4 2. Cor. 10.18 And being clean in his eyes or having his approbation we ought not much to regard misconstructions from men Psal 35.11 12 13. Job 16.20 3. Men even good men may be so far blinded as to judge Truth to be Errour either simplie mistaking the one for the other or misconstructing mens true expressions and charging more upon their speaches then they meant by them For so doth Zophar quarrel and intend to refute this true assertion of Job In the first branch thereof condemning his pure Doctrine as unsound and in the second relating to his Conversation and purity of life reckoning it unsound that he who was so afflicted should reckon himself a regenerate and purified man or at least judging him an insolent lyar in asserting that he was without sin This should warn godly and Orthodox men to be guarded against such exercises as these 4. As men ought not to quit the testimony of their integrity so they ought to speak very soberly and humbly of it before God Not only that they may avoid guilt and sin which they contract by pride and insobriety but that they may also prevent the misconstructions of others For herein Job failed as God afterward marketh and by his way of managing his good cause in bitter Complaints and Expostulations with God gave some occasion of this challenge and misconstruction as if he had thought and spoken too highly of his own purity Vers 5. But O that God would speake and open his lips against thee 6. And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdome that they are double to that which is know therefore that God exacteth of thee less then thine iniquity deserveth In the second place Zophar in these verses subjoyns his intended Refutation of this Assertion of Job wherein for the more distinct understanding of the words we are to consider First The way he takes to refute Job Which in stead of arguing with him himself is by wishing and desiring that God would take him in hand to dispute with him according to his own desire Chap. 9.34 35. and refute and convince him v. 5. He speaks of God in terms taken from among men and wisheth that God would not only speak or make him know his mind which might be done by inward Inspiration but that he would open his lips against him or speak with an audible voyce to him and convince him in the hearing of all of them Consider Secondly That whereby he expects God could convince him and wisheth he could do it is by shewing him the secrets of wisdom that they are double to that which is v. 6. For understanding whereof we are to remark 1. This wisdom the secrets whereof he desireth may be shewed is the wisdom and knowledge of God which though it be in it self a great depth and be unsearchable in his Providences and Dispensations in the world Rom. 11.33 and is commended as such in general v. 7 8 9. to confirm his particular conclusion intended here yet in this place it is only to be understood of his secret or infinite wisdom in knowing of men and what their faults are as may be gathered from the Inference in the end of the verse And what is more expresly asserted v. 11. 2. These secrets of wisdom are said to be double to that which is which is not to be understood of any exact Proportion as if they were only double and no more to it but generally the meaning is that those secrets of wisdom are much more then that which is so Isa 40.2 3. But the great obscurity in these words is occasioned by the word rendered here that which is It signifieth sound wisdom a law and that which hath an essence or being and really exists or is as here All those agree and come to one purpose here That the secrets of Gods wisdom in knowing man and his faults according to the strict rule of the spiritual law which was then imprinted in their hearts and otherwise revealed to them though not as yet written were double or much more then any thing man can know of himself or then what exists in mans soundest judgment and knowledge of himself or he can see and take up in that law And that therefore God knew that of man which deserves double to any trouble that is or exists and lies upon him This last clearly followeth upon the former considering the demerit of sin and doth sute well with his Inference which is the Third thing to be considered and a Key to open the former words v. 6. wherein he would have Job know and consider that notwithstanding all the afflictions had befaln him yet God did exact less then his iniquity deserved or God so to say forgets of his iniquity and doth not remember all of it when he chastiseth him Or he lends out of his iniquity as the word will also bear upon interest or to a day when he afflicts him that is he oâ—eth God more then he hath yet payed and is obliged by reason of his sin to greater punishments then he yet fâ—lt Thus the meaning of this whole purpose in short is That if God would interpose to debate this cause with Job and let him know how spiritual the Law is how much he knoweth of man according to that Law above what man knoweth of himself and how much man sins according to the sentence of that Law deserve above what is inflicted upon him in this life Job would not have spoken so much as he did of his own purity but would have looked upon his sufferings as far short of his deservings This is sound General Doctrine That Gods Law is most spiritual and perfect That his Wisdom and Knowledge of Man is above what he can know of himself That mans sins transcends his own knowledge and even godlies mens deservings are above their saddest calamities But all this proves nothing against Job who whatever his failings were in the heat of the debate never pleaded perfection according to the strict rigor of the Law nor sinlesness but only that he was sincere according to the tenor and condescendance of the Covenant of Grace Nor did he deny his own ill deservings but only pleaded that he was not wicked notwithstanding his afflictions and his afflictions being very sharp he resented that they should have been inflicted upon him a reconciled man as if God were about to destroy and cut him off in anger In this purpose considered abstractly and in general we may observe those sounds Truths and Instructions 1. Errours are such bewitching and intangling evils that whatever be mens duty to oppose them yet the rooting out thereof is above their reach Therefore doth Zophar quit this task of refuting Job's supposed Errours as too hard for him and prayeth that God will interpose in it Man is neither able to hold out clear grounds of light for every thing he knoweth and believeth to be a truth nor though he had clear light is he
They grope in the dark without light and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man The last proof and instance of the Assertion is Gods taking away of wisdom from the chief persons in Nations or from their Heads or Rulers Numb 1.16 Judg. 11.8 upon which followeth perplexity and irresolution like the case of men who have lost their way in a Wilderness or like those who must grope in the dark wanting light or like drunken men who stagger hither and thither See Psal 107.4 27 Isai 59.10 This is again repeated and inculcated beside what is already said of Rules Not only because great men will not readily believe this certain Truth but will trust to their own understandings but to shew that the ruine of Nations formerly mentioned comâ— ordinarily to pass through the infatuation of their Rulers Whence Learn 1. Plagues and ruine come upon Nations as by other means so particularly by Gods Plagues upon their Rulers giving them up to misgovernment as the dependance of this upon the former verses teacheth See Eccl. 10.16 17. This informs people that they are not a little concerned in the matter of their Rulers but ought to hold them up to God as those that will prove means and occasions of much good or evil to them 2. A special stroke upon Rulers and a mean of peoples ruine is their want of wisdom and counsel without which the people perish Prov. 11.14 For such is the stroke here he taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the Earth Where by heart we are not only or so much to understand magnanimity as wisdom as the following discourse makes clear 3. Let men have never so much wit and never so much of the spirit of their calling Yet it is in Gods power to deprive them of it when he pleaseth For He taketh away the heart c. See Isai 19.13.14 4. When God deserts men and blasts their wit they will prove wonderful silly and will be filled with perplexities uncertain of their way void of light and counsel and staggering and irresolute So much do all these three similitudes of wanderers in a Wilderness gropers in the dark and drunken staggerers teach See Isai 51.20 Those considerations do warn men That they lean not to their wit That they suffer not their wit and policy to drive them out of Gods way lest that draw on perplexities That they do not abuse nor sleight divine light lest they miss it and feel the want of it in a day of perplexity And That they be sober-spirited lest they get drunkenness and reeling of their judgments to the full for their plague CHAP. XIII In this Chapter Job goeth on with his Replie wherein as was marked in the entry to Chap. 12. he first makes use of his former Doctrine Chap. 12 13 c. to shew his knowledge and what cause he had to decline them to ver 13. 2. He quits them and addresses himself to complaine to God ver 13-20 3. He enters upon his complaint ver 21-28 But I shall follow it in this order 1. He concludes his former discourse clearing himselfe from the imputation of ignorance ver 1.2 2. He appeals from them to God or quits them and betakes himself to God to have his cause debated which he avowes to be his desire ver 3. and gives reasons for it Some whereof are taken from their carriage in the debate with him Namely That they were ignorant erroneous and unskilful in their dealing with him ver 4. and so had to better purpose held their peace ver 5. And That which he wisheth they would remark ver 6. they were sinfully partial in their discourses upon the matter debated betwixt God and him ver 7.8 Which was nothing else but a mocking of God as they might feel to their hurt ver 9. For God would certainly reprove them for their partiality ver 10. And as God was too excellent to be thus injured by them so they were too weak a partie to endure the just displeasure of so excellent a Lord ver 11.12 Other Reasons are taken from the thing it self or from the lawfullness of debating his cause with God For he professeth that if they would let him alone he will plead his cause with God at his peril ver 13. Seeing this his attempt flowed not from despair ver 14 but from grounds of confidence and the conscience of his integrity befall him what will ver 15. being assured that God will be his salvation which is far from the condition of the hypocrite ver 16. and therefore he desires they would let him speak being confident that God would approve of him ver 17.18 And as he is confident of his cause So his greife would crush him if he got not ease by speaking ver 19. 3. Having thus pleaded in defence of his resolution he enters upon his complaint and debating of the matter with God And having premitted a caution concerning what he desires of God previous to the debate ver 20 21 22. He expostulates that God should deal so sharply with him an innocent and righteous man ver 23.24 and should thus crush a weak creature ver 25 as he pursued him ver 26.27 till he was unable to subsist under his hand ver 28. Vers 1. Lo mine eye hath seen all this mine ear hath heard and understood it 2. What ye know the same do I know also I am not inferiour unto you IN these verses Job draws a conclusion from his former discourse concerning Gods Power and Wisdom whereby he vindicates himself from the imputation of ignorance whâ—ch had been cast upon him Chap. 11.6 12. He declares that he had been a diligent student of Gods ways not limiting him to one way of dealing as they did by observation and hearing and a digester of what was presented to him in his understanding by meditation and that he was not inferiour to them in knowledge that is in those things which they spoke of God their skill was not singular as themselves judged Otherwise by this comparison bewixt himself and them he doth not own all they said for sound knowledge but only what they spake concerning the Power and Wisdom of God Of this last see Chap. 12.3 In General Obs 1. How digested and well rooted Job is in what he hath formerly spoken having observed and meditated upon it and having them concurring with him in it which might witness that it was not his singular phancy It were good if men were thus careful to be sure of their Opinions before they brought them forth to inculcate them upon others Obs 2. He prefixeth a Lo or Behold to this conclusion and inference that they might notice how far they had mistaken him and be ashamed of their rash judgment It is mens duty to be well advised and examine matters well before they condemn any For rash judgment proves ordinarily false and reflects upon the Judger rather than upon thoe who are judged by
Truth which he hath revealed and we are commanded to imbrace by his Word as Job here argueth against them Then Truth must not be prejudged by any consideration of the greatest or best of men who oppose it but the consideration of their person must be laid aside till it be impartially tryed what is Truth and what is Errour 3. God will have no honour nor service tendered to him but by lawful and approved means He will not have his person accepted nor an attempt made to give him glory unless it be upon allowed and approved grounds He will not have an ill turn justified by this that it tends to his honour and service Rom. 3.8 nor will he allow that a pretence of being for the Righteousness of God should be a cloak to hide the wrath of man Jam. 1.20 4. Zeal and good intentions will never justifie unlawful actions in Gods sight For his Friends wanted none of these when Job tells them they miscarried most grossly 5. God doth not allow that we should devise opinions or worship thereby to serve and honour him but we must cleave to his own prescribed Rule For otherwise he will not be honored by our worship and service Matth. 15.9 6 The Consideration of Gods righteousness in afflicting of a person or people must not be urged to prove them wicked unless the Word prove they are so This is the very instance in the Text. Doct. 3. Whosoever do not walk according to those Rules but will study to set off Errour by specious pretences they deal both wickedly and deceitfully They wrong men whom they would falsly condemn of their right by imploying their wit to overthrow it craftily and they do insinuate iâ—l things of Godâ— by their pretending for him in their Errours Yea their course being wicked in it self their handsome and deceitful conveyance adds to the sin thereof Therefore Job saith that in all this they spake wickedly and deceitfully cheating him of his righteousness upon a pretence of Gods glory and sinfully implying that Gods Righteousness was gone and could not be defended if he were not wicked So far different may men in reality be from what they pretend to be that they may be acting wickedly even while they pretend to honour God in a singular way 4. His charging home this guilt upon them by way of question Teacheth 1. True zeal will not be blunted by the fair face put upon a bad cause but rather set on edge to oppose it so much the more For the questions import his indignation at their sinful and unhandsome way 2. Consciences are not easily convinced of the ill of a plausible and well masked course and Errour For he must put their Consciences to it to see the ill of their way before they put themselves to it 3. However Conscience be deluded for a time yet at last it will see and condemn the evil of a course notwithstanding all its pretences and fair shews For he puts the matter to their Consciences as a judge that would speak out impartially at last Vers 9. Is it good that he should search you out or as one man mocketh another do ye so mâ—ck him In this and the following verses to v. 13. Job insists to press and inculcate the former argument upon them that they may see the evil of their way And First in this v he points it out both in the sinfulness and hazard of it As to its sinfulness he tells them that their pleading to God was as really a mocking of him as ever one man mocked another And a reproachâ—ng of him and his righteousness as if he needed their lies and had a bad cause for which there were no better arguments then they brought And therefore as to the hazard of it he wisheth them to consider how little it would bâ— for their good or advantage that he should search them out or discover by effects that he looked upon them as mockers of him Doct. 1. God seeth things nakedly as they are notwithstanding all the specious pâ—etences wherewith they are adorned And when men will not so see them he is provoked to let then know them as indeed they are For in this sense is searching out attributed to God who knoweth all things He searcheth out men and their way when he looks upon them nakedly as thâ—y are as men do see things best after search And when he causeth men know that he so looketh upon them 2. Men are so shallow and so easily deluded that they may think they are eminently for God when in effect they are but scoâ—ning him And particularly they mock God when they seek the patrociny of his glory to a wrong cause or when they defend his cause wiâ—h false arguments For saith he of their plâ—ading as one man mocketh another so do ye mock him Men will be judged by their actions whatever their intentions be 3. Such deluded pretenders serve a thankless Master for God will not be mocked upon any accompt Gal 6.7 And their Consciences can tell them it will be little to their advantage when God shall discover them and their way Therefore he propounds it by way of question Is it good that he should search you out Do ye mock him Vers 10. He will surely reprove you if ye do secretly accept persons Secondly He confirms the hazard of this way by telling them that God who is the Truth will surely reprove and punish their partiality and respect of persons He propounds it in general of accepting of persons to shew that if God abhor all partiality much more this wherein beside the fault of partiality he is wronged in his glory He propounds also their fault bâ— way of supposition If ye do accept peâ—sons which is not a baâ—e supposition for Job had positively charged it on them before but it supposeth the fault to be real and the challenge true and insinuates that if they go on God though he had hitherto spared will surely punish He adds if they do it secretly not against the light of their Consciences but with cunning discourses and under the covert of good intentions which hid it even from themselves The punishment threatened if they persist in this fault is God will surely reprove them that is he will make them know they are in the wrong either by his Word and appearing to speak himself as he afterward did or if that will not do it by Rodâ— From this beside what is formerly marked Learn 1. Sin may be so masked with plausible and fair pretences and good intentions that even the act is cannot well discern the evil of it For this fault was acted secretly not only cunningly as to others but even so as it was hid from themselves 2. All this ignorance and inadvertency of men will not excuse their fault considering they are bound to know right and wrong and that they are accessory to the involving of themselves in mistakes For God reproves secret accepting of persons 3. God
Experience and that their life be well improved in those Observations and of much intimacy with God who would be wise indeed And men may live long in the world and not know things well if they had only Experience to lean to and not the Word or extraordinary Revelations in their time to help them But passing those This purpose may teach us these Truths 1. As Man is generally proud of all he hath and filled with a conceit of it so in particular there is nothing whereof he is more ready to be proud than of his wit and parts For albeit I will not as Eliphaz doth charge thâ—s upon Job in this debate but rather upon himself yet it is a general Truth that Man is naturally inclinâ—d to restrain wisdom to himself 1 Cor. 8.1 It began with Adam and Eve that they desired to be as God particularly in knowing good and evil Gen. 3.5 6. So that as Humility and Modesty is nothing natural to us so in particular we are to guard against affectation and conceit of singularity in the matter of wisdom 2. A man that conceits of his own wisdom and of himself because of it supposeth impossibilities of himself and boasts of that which cannot be attained without wonders For so doth Eliphaz insinuate that he who restrains wisdom to himself as if none could compare with him must be the first man that was born and be made before the Hills which is so impossible and ridiculous to suppose that he layeth it before Job in these bitter Questions And albeit Eliphaz mistook the case in particular nor were any such advantages necessary for attaining the knowledg of Truth in this Debate Yet the General Doctrine is sound That the ordinary means whereby God teacheth Man gives him no ground to boast of his singular wisdom nor can he in reason claim to that unless he can prove that God hath afforded him singular means For those questions put it undeniably home that Man cannot restrain wisdom to himself unless he were the first man that was born c. seeing others having the same means may improve them with as good success as he 3. A conceit of wisdom and of being singular in it is indeed an evidence of shallowness and emptiness Therefore Eliphaz sheweth that he who restrained wisdom to himself v. 8. was but like his neighbours if not inferiour to them v. 9 10 What knowest thou that we know not c with us are both the gray 〈◊〉 c. And albeit he mistook in the particula◠〈◊〉 â—s a general sound Truth That a conceity proâ— is defective at least in the manner of his knowledge 1 Cor. 8.2 And for the measure of knowledge if we were indeed knowing we would think little of what we know Chap. 26.14 and the effects of sound knowledge would tend to humble us and not to pull us up For knowledge increaseth sorrow Eccl. 1.18 and saving knowledge humbleth Job 42 5 6. Prov. 30.2 3. 4. This Text may afford Evidences of mens conceiting of their own wisdom which are to be gathered not from Job's carriage but from Eliphaz's way And 1. It is an evidence of conceit when men are so puffed up that they think it impossible they should be found in an Errour or out-stripped by others in finding out Truth As he thinks that Man behoved to be made before the Hills c. that would decry their Opinions and that all must be secrets simply hid from all others which they know not 2. It doth also evidence this evil when men cannot endure to be under-valued or cried down in the matter of wisdom as he is enraged at Job for attempting to decry their knowledge Such a disposition evidenceth that there is an Ulcer there which may not be touched 3. It is another evidence of conceit when men are so jealous that any checkâ—ng of them or commending of others doth alarm them as if they were quite decried and undervalued For when Job did only clear the Truth and let them see that their conceit of themselves was groundless Eliphaz looks on this as if he had restrained Wisdom to himself and quite decried all their abilities 4. It doth also evidence this evil when men are so full of self love that they are nothing sensible of any irritations they give to others or contempt they put upon them and yet themselves do highly resent the least indignity they imagine to be offered to them and are so blinded that they can digest a beam in their own eye but cannot endure so much as a mote if it be so much in anothers For he cannot endure that Job should speak to their prejudice as he thought it and yet he spares not to speak contemptibly of him little regarding or pitying the sad trouble that was upon him Doct. 5. From this challenge we may also gather several needful Instructions and Cautions concerning mens wrong managing of Disputes for finding out of Truth And 1. It is a wrong course when men turn from the consideration of the Cause in Debate to the consideration of or reflecting upon persons as here Eliphaz falls upon a personal debate whether Job or thâ—y ought to be preferred for parts This may well produce Passion and Irritation but will not find out Truth And albeit men may be brought to think on Causes and Questions more seriously when they are made to know themselves their ignorance or ill frame of heart Yet that is not to be rested on as sufficient to find out Truth 2. Men take a wrong way of managing Debates when they think to carry a Cause by the consideration of Persons or Parties As he would bear down Job in this Debate by shâ—ng that whether he looked to their persons oâ—â—herents in their Countrey they were his maâ—â—iore For albeit one man may indeed compâ—â—e with another and in some respects be preferred to him yet that will not prove his cause good if it be not otherwise instructed 3. Men do also miscarry in this matter when the learning or wisdom of Disputants is cryed up to make men believe that every thing they hold is Truth because they are more learned then their opposites As here he prefers himself and his adherents to Job in the matter of knowledge that so he might perswade him he was in an Errour Whereas suppose Job had been less wise then they yet his reasons proved he had Truth on his side nor could their abilities prove their Opinion was Truth For Wisdom and Learning do not always fall to be on Truths side And we should look to the Arguments in the Cause and not to mens Parts but ought rather to magnifie Truth if it defend it self in weak hands 4. It is also a wrong way to find out Truth when men make a flourish of antiquity of Opinions or of the age of persons who maintain them as a clear proof of the Truth thereof as Eliphaz speaks of their age who maintained his Opinion and consequently of the
failings in the by And this was a chief cause of Job's disappointment when he got his desire that though he was approved of as to the state of his person yet there was a necessity to humble him for his sinful miscarriages Doct. 5. Their form of proceeding in judgment here alluded unto may also teach us somewhat The Parties entering of security or pledges that they should stand to and perform what was determined May condemn them who make it their work to frustrate justice by drawing out of contentions even after sentences pronounced to an endless length and may teach Judges not only to determine well but to take care that there be effectual execution according to the sentence And their entering of this suretyship or concluding of bargains by striking hands one with another doth commend their plain and sincere ingenuity in that a bargain so closed would bind them whereas many ties and obligations will not bind many in this age Vers 4. For thou hast hid their heart from understanding therefore shalt thou not exalt them Followeth the Third Branch of this Part of the Chapter wherein Job fortifieth and presseth his desire to plead his cause with God or with some in his Name by a threefold reason The first is taken from the incompetency of his Friends to determine or Umpire in this business and therefore some other was needed Of this he gives two Evidences First in this verse that they were unfit and unable Agents for God as being deprived of light and understanding in the point debated and therefore they should not be exalted or should have no honour by appearing in this cause and particularly should not have the honour to prevail in the debate but when God should appear and determine in the cause he should pass sentence against them and they should want approbation and be ashamed Doct. 1. Even wise and eminently pious men may err and want light in many Truths and Controversies For so did Job Friends who were very godly men The best of men unless they be extraordinarily inspired by God should not arrogate to themselves a priviledge of being infallible or that they cannot be wrong but should be afraid of ignorance and errour as well as others 2. It is not to be looked on as an injury though men in defence of Light and Truth which is on their side do declare even good men who are opposite to them to be in the dark For Job sticks not nor looks upon it as an injury to assert that all those three godly men wanted understanding in this matter False Prophets did indeed take it ill to have delusion and errour charged upon them 1 Kings 22.23 24. But godly men should make another use of it and should rather try whether the charge be true 3. Men who would rightly judge of Gods strange dispensations toward his people should not content themselves with a superficial view thereof but ought to have hearts fraughted with solid understanding whereby they may penetrate so far as is lawful and attainable into those mysteries of his Providence For this doth Job deliderate in his Friends that they had not an heart of understanding See Psal 41.1 4. The knowledge of Truth or light in difficult Cases is of Gods giving or with-holding as he pleaseth For Thou hast hid their heart from understanding saith he to God See Deut 29.4 Psal 119.18 And as this calleth upon men to abide near God that they may get light as they need it from him So they who would not want light or be left in the dark or an errour should 1. Beware of living unfruitfully and contentiously under and against light Isai 6 9 10. Luk. 19.41 42 43. 2. They should beware of that great sin of not receiving the Truth in love when it is revealed 2 Thes 2 10 11 12. 3. They should beware of Interest engaging or bribing the Affections to blind the Judgment which is more dangerous then simple Ignorance and may be imported in this that their heart is hid from understanding 4. They should beware of Pride and conceit of their own Abilities or a proneness to be proud of any success they have in carrying on of their Opinions For this marred those Friends success in their dealing with Job as Elihu tells them Chap. 32.13 Doct. 5. As God and not mens own self-love is the Supreme and Impartial Judge of men and what they are So men may be really ignorant and looked on as such by God who yet do not believe it not will be convinced of it Therefore Job speaks this not to themselves but to God who is impartial in his Judgment and knew that what he said was true though themselves would not acknowledge it Thou saith he hast hid their heart c. 6. Exaltation Eminency and Advancement is of God only Psal 75.5 6 7. And as his Providence is to be adored therein so whoever attempt to exalt themselves against him or his Rods or by sinful ways he can abase them Daâ— 4.37 Mal. 1.4 Therefore he speaks of Exaltation as Gods works only 7. It is the knowledge and owning of Truth only that makes men precious and truly eminent For not to be exalted followeth upon hiding of their heart from understanding To call erroneous men precious men is a Soloecism in Scripture-dialect 8. When the Lord is to debase persons or parties ordinarily he makes use of themselves and their want of judgment to bring it about For so much also may be imported in the connexion betwixt these two that men want understanding when they are not be exalted Thus Princes and Counsellers turn fools when Kingdoms are to be ruined Isai 19.11 12 13. 9 It is a Truth which men may foretel without Prophesie that a wrong Cause or Errour will not always prevail nor be exalted in the end nor will the followers thereof have any honour by their undertaking For because they are wrong it followeth Therefore thou shalt not exalt them Vers 5. He speaketh flattery to his friends even the eyes of his children shall fail The meaning of the words in this verse is clear and obvious That who so flatter their Friends their posterity shall be disappointed of their hope and expectation But Job's scope in them is not so well agreed upon I do not think that Job subjoyns this by way of Apologie for his sharp language of his Friends v. 4. shewing that he durst not flatter them for fear of judgments Nor yet that his scope is to prevent an Objection of his Friends who might be ready to say that since he would not admit of their free censures as sound he desired to be slattered and therefore he refuseth that and disswades them from flattering him under the pain of judgments to come upon them and their Posterity But I take the words to contain a second Evidence of his Friends incompetency to determine in this business that as they were unfit v. 4. so they were unsound and unjust
a duty required of man nor doth his happiness consist in being able to know and dive into the depth of this wisdom But that to fear God and depart from iniquity is mans wisdom and will prove him to be wise unto salvation albeit he cannot comprehend these depths and secrets which are not needful for him to know In the words Consider 1. The general scope of this proposition and the preface to it which contains in sum That though wisdom to comprehend the unsearchable wisdom and counsels of God be denyed to man yet somewhat is communicate unto him which is his wisdom God alone knoweth the way of that wisdom whereof we have been speaking v. 23. and yet unto man he said c. that is God by various ways and means in all ages hath revealed to man what is his true wisdom and will prove him to be wise though he know none of these secrets 2. The proposition it self giving this account of mans true wisdom or of the evidences and effects thereof which are the fear of the Lord and to depart from evil Where it is to be considered 1. That these two terms Wisdom and Vnderstanding do signifie the same thing even that true wisdom whereby a man becomes wise unto salvation which is excellent above any other wisdom man can pretend unto under whatsoever notion and expression See on v. 12. where the same names are given to that wisdom of God the knowledge whereof is denied to man 2. While it is said that to fear God and depart from evil are mans wisdom and understanding the meaning is that these are acts and effects flowing from a mans spiritual wisdom and evidences thereof 3. As for these two expressions of fearing God and departing from evil which point out these effects and evidences of wisdom they are also the same in substance only this fear or religious awe of God may be looked upon as the root of true piety and departing from evil as an effect of the former See Job 1.1 From the general scope and preface of this proposition And unto man he said c. Learn 1. However God humble man by secluding him from much knowledge that he would be at yet it is Gods mercy to him that he is not deprived of what is necessary to his eternal happiness if he be within the Church and do not neglect the means which he enjoyeth for enough is said or revealed to man concerning this whatever other secrets and mysteries be kept up from him And albeit it may be asserted that this hath been said to all mankind when God did inculcate these necessary truths upon Adam after his fall which he no doubt did press upon his posterity who lived with him that the knowledge thereof might be transmitted to all generations and when Noah and his Children had the same things revealed to them for the same end and we see here some of his posterity who were not of the seed of Israel are well acquainted with them though some of them did mistake in some things yet now it is come to pass through mans sinful negligence his perverse hatred of the light and truth and his apostacy from it that saving knowledge is only to be found within the Church and among that select company whom God hath called out of the World to be a peculiar people to himself Now in this Society it is to be considered that As many of these sad things wherewith man is exercised may be consistent with his good and happy estate and may be so far from hindering or crossing that through Gods blessing they may contribute and promote his eternal happiness 2 Cor. 4.17 And as notwithstanding the great vanity and vexation that are in the things of time there is still a good thing wherein man may be exercised all the days of his vain life Eccl. 2.24 and a sum of all upon which he may bottom and rest Eccl. 12.13 So when the Lord keeps many things secret particularly as to what concerns his dispensations and reasons thereof yet he hath revealed what is mans duty and the way to happiness and what may suffice to quiet his vexations about the dispensations of God Deut. 29.29 Mic. 6.6 7 8. Our ignorance is oft-times affected 2 Pet. 3.5 and we know not because we desire not to know and because our lusts and passions do blind us But if the very Gentiles be without excuse in their ignorance of some Truths Rom. 1.20 how much more inexcusable shall the visible Church be if they be ignorant of any Truth that is necessary to salvation Therefore it is our duty to study to know these things which are indeed our task and not to dive into Gods counsels especially considering that we may firmly believe his dispensations will be comfortable to us if we walk in his way or the way of our duty 2. It is carefully to be adverted unto that piety be well cherished in our studying the dispensations of Divine Providence For here when men are supposed to be upon the search of the reasons of Gods wise dispensations this direction is subjoined that they forget not that wisdom which leads to the fear of God Not only do our enquiries and thoughts of heart about Gods dispensations oft-times take us off our chief work while we are more troubled and anxious about what God doth or will do to us and about us than about what our selves should do But to be much taken up and affected with outward dispensations doth oft-times retard piety which leads a man to look chiefly to the things which are not seen 2 Cor. 4.18 and to make providence our Bible while we judge of things by the success or hard lots that attend them is the ready way to make us reel and waver in the matter of Religion And withall the fear of God will lead men to have more charity toward others who are under sad dispensations than Jobs friends had to him From the first branch of the proposition The fear of the Lord that is wisdom Learn 1. A Religious fear and awe of God in the heart is the root of true holiness and piety Therefore is true holiness so frequently expressed by this fear of the Lord from which it sloweth Where this fear of God is it will cause men to walk tenderly though it be in the power of their hand to do otherwise Gen. 42.18 Neh. 5.15 and where it is not men are ready to run into all mischief Gen. 20.11 It is also an antidote against all sinful fears which drive men from their duty Prov. 29.25 Is 8.12.13 and delivers from slavish fears of troubles and sad events Prov. 28.1 Only it is to be adverted that this must not be a superstitious fear of God whereby men are prompted to offer service unto God which is not commanded in his Word nor is it that slavish servile fear of God which love casts out in so far as it prevails 1 Joh. 4.18 But it is a
filial fear of God wherby men are taught to stand in awe of offending him because they are children who are averse from offending their Father and to reverence his word Is 66.2 Ezr. 10.3 and his works whether ordinary Jer. 5.22 or extraordinary Is 26.9 yea and his mercies Hos 3.5 And for attaining and entertaining of this fear we should avoid Atheism Ps 14.1 for it is no wonder if men fear him not when they believe not that he is we should avoid presumption Deut. 29.19 and stumbling upon Gods patience to sinners Ps 55.19 Eccl. 8.11 and we should study much his love and goodness which will beget fear and reverence Hos 3.5 2. To fear God is an effect and evidence of true wisdom and a man proves that he is wise indeed thereby For the fear of the Lord that is wisdom see Deut. 4.6 for hereby men prove that they know what God is with whom they have to do that they are wise to discern what is their true interest and good for them and that they can so try things that differ as to approve what is most excellent Phil. 1.10 It is also frequently said that this fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom Ps 111.10 Prov. 1.7 and 9.10 because a man doth then begin to be wise indeed when he begins to fear God and if a mans policy be not founded upon and regulated by this fear of God it will prove but folly in the end And therefore the words the beginning of Wisdom may be also rendred principal wisdom or the principal part of wisdom to point out the excellency of this wisdom above either carnal policy or moral prudence and to shew that whatever wisdom a man hath beside yet this wisdom must still be chief and keep the throne to command and over-rule all his projects and to cause him in many things become a fool that he may become wise 1 Cor. 3.18 But more particularly This commendation of the fear of God as mans true wisdom may be considered 1. In opposition to the simplicity and weak parts of many who truly fear God and the low esteem they are in among men of parts It is true there is a spiritual wisdom and prudence which should accompany and adorn piety the want whereof causeth piety to be stumbled at and exposeth some godly persons to tentations of miscarrying yet mens real piety though they be otherwise simple and the drawing near to God with the wit they have is more true and excellent wisdom in Gods account than all parts and endowments of men without it Jer. 9.23 24. 2. In opposition to mens curiosity in searching after the knowledge of deep and mysterious things which God hath hid in himself such as these deeps of Divine Providence of which Job hath been speaking A man is wise enough if he be wise to know his duty and the way to happiness albeit he know none of those and many men prove themselves to be real fools while they break their heads and spirits with Studies about things whereby they can reap little or no profit as Dogs gnawing upon bare bones and yet neglect this one needful study 3. In opposition to all carnal policy which will prove but folly in the issue seeing men who follow that trade never propose the right end to themselves which is to know God themselves and their duty and to have their eye upon their latter end Deut. 32.29 Ps 90.12 and therefore can never steer a right course From the second branch of the Proposition and to depart from evil is understanding Learn 1. Sin is a real evil as being the work of Satan the evil one 1 Joh. 3.8 the cause of other evils Jam. 1.15 a punishment and the saddest punishment to it self Hos 4.14 17. Rom. 1 26 28. as wronging both God and our selves befooling and defiling us coming in betwixt us and our happiness and plaguing all even the very mercies that we enjoy For these among other reasons it is called evil 2. A fearer of God is in so far as he is renewed opposite to this evil in all the kinds and degrees of it in every act of it and in all the occasions and appearances of it for it is supposed here as his duty who fears God that he must be opposite to this evil indefinitely not only to this or that particular evil or degree of it c. God doth not approve that men should dally with any one sin though they avoid never so many beside or that they should sport about the hole of this Serpent and cast themselves upon occasions and tentations to sin when yet they pretend to abhor it 3. Godly men will not only not pursue and hunt after sin or embrace it but will run from it with detestation both shunning it and being afraid to be overtaken by it and regarding no hazard of trouble upon which they may run by avoiding of sin for it is the godly mans character to depart from evil See Job 1.1 where aversion from sin and a godly fear and jealousie of our own inclinations to sin are not entertained and improved we are half taken and Captives and if we have terrifying apprehensions of trouble in the way of God we will soon chuse iniquity before it Job 36.21 and on the other hand if we be departing from evil and endeavouring to rid our selves it is well even albeit we have not yet clean escaped 4. To depart from evil is an act and evidence of understanding in men for to depart from evil is understanding Hereby a man proves that he hath understanding to discern the fallacies that are in sins Oratory when it pursues him with fair offers of profit pleasure and other advantages And in the end he will be found to be the wisest man who keeps himself most free of sin And where tentations to sin are strongest it is the greater evidence of wisdom and tenderness to avoid it From the note of attention Behold prefixed to this whole proposition Learn 1. It is an incredible thing to natural men that men prove themselves wise by being godly and careful to avoid sin therefore it is propounded as a wonderful thing and an assertion which more will wonder at than believe 2. This is a truth which men ought to consider better before they reject it and not to trust the first reports of their own hearts prepossessed with prejudices for Behold saith he the fear of the Lord that is wisdom exciting all stumblers to examine and try the matter better before they reject this truth 3. Albeit mens deluding and self-deceiving dreams and principles must either be taken upon trust or if they be once well tryed they will prove but like the dream of an hungry mans eating when he awakes Is 29.8 yet the real wisdom and advantages that are in piety will abide the Furnace and tryal of most censorious and accurate spirits if they will judge impartially For Behold saith he it is a thing
be credited and heard As men ought to walk so uprightly as their word may be credited so it is a fault to be jealous of men who have given proof that they are such Thirdly To open the mouth in Scripture-language doth frequently import to speak like a wise man and gravely to a purpose So it seems to be taken Chap 32 20. See also Judg. 11 3â— Psal 78.2 Prov. 24.7 and 31.8 9 26. Matth. 5. â— A fools mouth is alwayes open but a wise man shuts his mouth and only opens it when there is just occasion to speak It teacheth 1. Men who would prevent alienation of mind in the afflicted ought to deal very seriously and gravely in handling and speaking to their condition As here Elihu resolveth to do that he may perswade Job to be attentive Whereas they who do but trâ—fle in dealing with such do justly breed alienations and bring themselves in contempt 2. The more seriously men deal with others about their condition their guilt will be the greater if they slight them For Elihu's Argument conclude this that since he was to speak so seriously Job could not in reason nor without guilt decline to hear and hearken attentively Fourthly We are also to remark how he doubleth his expressions and in the end of the Verse repeats the same thing in other words My tongue hath spoken in my mouth where he describes his speech from the Instruments employed therein his tongue and his mouth or palate This repetition or diversifying of expressions is made use of not only to make up the Verse for this Book is written in Poesie as we see Poets usually do or to shew Job that he is even now upon the very act of speaking and his tongue moving to bring forth what doth concern him and consequently that he should be careful not to lose the tyde and opportunity through his own inadvertency But further he would shew Job how considerate he was in this enterprize His doubled expressions serve to assure him that he had thought again and again upon it that he was now going to speak and to loose the tongue that unruly member in a weighty and important cause and therefore would be sure to speak advisedly and only that which he had tryed well as the tongue and palate tast meats before they let them down to the stomack It teacheth That wise men will not think it an easie task to order their speech well especially to afflicted persons and in weighty causes as here Elihu is again and again upon it And when we find men circumspect and humbled in such an undertaking upon the account of its difficulty we may hear them with the greater confidence As Elihu presseth this as one Argument of attention Verse 3. My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart And my lips shall utter knowledge clearly The next Argument of attention in this Verse is taken from his purpose to deal faithfully with him as he had resolved Chap. 32.21 He promiseth that he shall deal sincerely in speaking to him without passion or partiality and that he will speak truth clearly or without any dross or chaffe as the word may import like mettal that is purified or corn that is winnowed that is He will deal plainly and clearly with him without dissembling or going about the bush and will not speak upon conjectures and surmises but will speak demonstrative clear truths and things whereof he had certain knowledge It seems that in making this promise he reflects upon the three Friends who had dealt with Job out of passion and prejudice and made use of general ambiguous and parabolick sentences in their reflexions upon him and took surmises and false reports from others and charged them upon him as if he had been guilty of them Doct. 1. It is mens duty to deal sincerely and uprightly with others especially in speaking of matters which concern their Soul wherein it is great cruelty not to speak truly and uprightly to them For saith he My words upon this subject shall be of the uprightness of my heart or shall be the uprightness c. that is I shall speak sincerely my very heart in this business 2. Men have need of an upright heart who would speak sincerely and rightly to the condition of Souls and they should be careful that they be not byassed with prejudices or with fear to offend them with whom they have to do For he professeth uprightness of heart as the principle of his speaking right to him If many did examine themselves they would find that their hearts do not goe along with what they say They do not believe and then speak 2 Cor. 4.13 If they speak truth it is but from a false heart or coldly and not from the heart And their byasses and prejudices rather than their solid convictions make them speak what they speak 3. It is not sufficient that men be of upright hearts in what they say unless there be sound Doctrine and knowledge in what they say For saith he My lips shall utter knowledge See 2 Tim. 4.2 4. Men should also speak clearly in what they say and make the truth plain and clear not leaving people in the dark or publishing surmises in stead of verities For saith he My lips shall utter knowledge clearly 5. Men ought to examine well what they are to speak and ought to refine it in their own minds without taking every thing upon trust and without tryal that so their Doctrine may be pure and free of mistakes For thus also will he utter pure and refined knowledge as the Metaphor imports 6. Such as speak truth freely clearly and uprightly ought to be heard and attended unto For this is an Argument pressing attention upon Job If even good men consider that they may erre and need admonition they will allow of freedome and will account it an act of love and kindness not to let them goe away with their faults And they are cruel to themselves who cannot endure to be freely dealt with but would still be prescribing how others should teach and admonish them Verse 4. The Spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life This Verse abstracting from what followeth may contain a third Argument of attention That being sensible that he is a Creature formed and quickned by the Spirit of God as the first man was he will be faithful to God his Maker and to him his fellow-creature and therefore should be heard Doct. 1. The Holy Spirit is a Worker with the Father and the Son in the creating and forming of man For as all the persons of the blessed Trinity concurred at the making of the first man and in breathing into his nostrills the breath of life Gen. 1.26 and 2.7 So Elihu here acknowledgeth The Spirit of God hath made me which seems to be understood especially of his Body and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life or a reasonable Soul
are most willing to be taught and helped to promove in knowledge Therefore also when he is to teach wisdome Chap. 33.33 he calls unto wise men and them that have knowledge as persons who would most readily hear and give ear 5. Even when men are about most grave and serious matters and among grave and wise men there is such a dulness that they need to be seriously excited to give attention For therefore doth Elihu make use of this Preface exhorting the Auditors to hear and give ear at the beginning of every one of his Speeches and sometime repeats it also in the midst of his discourse as we will hear 6. It is their duty who are called to deal with others to carry respectively toward them that so they may prepare the way for their message Therefore also albeit some of those to whom he speaks had erred yet he doth call them wise men and they that have knowledge that thereby he might conciliate their affections and make them willing to hearken unto him From v. 3. omitting what is marked upon Chap. 12.11 Learn 1. Men receive great benefit particularly in sacred and holy things by the ear For so is here imported that the ear receiveth words or instructions from others particularly concerning the things of God such as he is now treating of As the truths of God depend upon Divine Revelation so our own observation of what he reveals is not sufficient to take it all in without the assistance of information and instruction from others And therefore they who employ not their ears to hear do no less prejudge their own souls than they do wrong their bodies who make not use of their mouths for eating Yea the very constitution of their bodies and the ear which God hath made for that use Prov. 20.12 will bear witness against their negligence 2 As God requireth that we do hear so also that we try and discern of what we hear with a consequent approbation or rejection of it as there is cause For so the ear tryeth words as the mouth or palate tasteth meat and it is swallowed down or cast out again according as the palate relisheth it ill or well 3. Whatever defect there be in others in the matter of discerning Yet men of experience and knowledge should have their senses exercised to discern good and evil Heb. 5.14 For therefore doth he appeal to these wise men seeing their ear could try words c. From v. 4. Learn 1. It is the duty of such as would prosper or do good to others to aim singly at truth For in his disquisition and enquiry about this matter he would be at judgement or an equitable and just determination of this controversie and what is good 2. Men ought not to follow or enquire after truth upon any carnal or crooked design but because it is their delight and they esteem it only good and worth the knowing For because it is judgement and good and so worthy the knowing therefore he would have it chosen affectionately and with delight 3. It is mens duty and will be the practice of sober men as to aim at truth so also to study to bring up others in a calm and friendly way to the acknowledgement thereof without insulting over or derogating from them or affecting emicency to themselves Therefore albeit some of them were wrong yet he is content to goe about this work in a friendly way and as it were with common consent Let us choose c. Let us know c. Verse 5. For Job hath said I am righteous and God hath taken away my judgement 6. Should I lye against my right My wound is incurable without transgression These Verses contain the second part of the Chapter or a Proposition of these expressions of Job which he intends at this time to refute The challenge is the same in substance with what was propounded in the former Chapter Namely That Job had wronged God by his complaints but this is more sharply refuted and spoken to He chargeth him to have said First That though he was righteous yet God had taken away his judgement or he got not a fair hearing and decision of his cause v. 5. As for that part of the Charge That Job said he was righteous he hath had it so frequently in his mouth in his discourses that it is needless to instance any particular place for it See Chap. 13.18 and 23.10 11 12. and 27.6 and 31.5 6 7. And for the second part of the Charge That God had taken away his judgement we find it expresly spoken by Job Chap. 27.2 Secondly He chargeth him with obstinacy in those complaints and that he said That it was no less than a lying against his own right to say any other thing of his condition than that his affliction caused by those arrows of the Almighty Chap. 6.4 as the word here is was mortal and incurable even though he was a man free of transgression v. 6. This Charge seems to be the same in substance with what Job had said Chap. 27. 2 3 4 5 6. though it may be gathered also from his frequent complaints of the fad stroaks which had befallen him an innocent man Chap. 9.17 and 19.7 and 16 13 17. For clearing of this Charge Consider 1. As Job did never assert his sinlessness as may appear from his frequent confessions of sin but only that he was righteous as to the state of his person and the cause debated betwixt him and his Friends and consequently that phrase v. 6. to be without transgression will import no more in Jobs sense but that he was free of gross wickedness So Elihu doth not charge it upon him as a crime that he had simply seen and asserted his righteousness but that he took occasion thereby to aggravate his complaints 2. He doth not charge him that he had directly taxed God as unrighteous but only that in his passion and being put to it by his Friends he spake too much of his own righteousness without a due remembrance of what sinfulness yet remained in him and what it deserved and so complained too bitterly of God that he did not vindicate and clear him when he was not only sore oppressed with trouble but unjustly censured by his Friends Thus albeit Job was sound in the main cause and his expressions upon some accounts pleaded for pity Yet they were not so suitable and reverent as became him And therefore Elihu gathers together what he had spoken at several times and chargeth him therewith that he may be convinced of his rashness and folly in them Those expressions have been spoken to in their proper places and the subjoyned refutation will discover more particularly his failings in them And therefore I shall here only observe a few things 1. The dearest Children of God when they are hard put to it by troubles and tentations may discover more weaknesses and fall into more faults than one As here he finds faulty
in deciding of this quarrel betwixt himself and Job it will be necessary as formerly I have done upon the Dispute betwixt Job and his Friends and upon Elihu's Discourses to premit a few things which may serve as a Key to open up the following Discourses And 1. If we speak of hiâ— scope Negatively He doth not at all touch upon that which Job's Friends had alledged of his Wickedness or Hypocrisie But though he find faults in his way yet he doth noâ— condemn him as a grace less man Albeit none know us so well as God doth yet our dearest godly friends will not be so tender and charitable as he is who will not quench a smoking flâ—x when it is surrounded with tentations and infirmities 2. If we speak of his scope positively he doth insist at least upon a part of what Elihu assisted by his Spirit had spoken and so confirms it though he speak of those Subjects in a more lofty stile And this intimateth how much we may be encouraged to lean to what his Servants speak according to the Word and how confidently his Servants may publish it seeing God whenever he appears will speak and judge accordingly and it is according to the Gospel that God will judge the secrets of men Rom. 2.16 See also John 12.48 3. Albeit he thus insist on Elihu's Discourse yet whereas Elihu had urged divers Arguments taken from Gods Justice mans sinfulness and the failings of the most Godly c. and had spoken sharply to Job in handling of them God insists only upon that one Argument which Elihu had last spoken to taken from his Dominion Power and Wisdom and his unsearchable Greatness which shines in his common and obvious Works This he pitcheth upon not because the rest of Elihu's Arguments were unsound but partly he had sent Elihu before to use that needful sharpness that when himself appears he might give proof of what he is indeed even not only a tender regarder of true Grace though it be surrounded with faults and infirmities but more tender and meek in reproving the faults of his own Children than the tenderest of Saints such as Elihu was Partly to shew that when men once stoop to Gods greatness it will both cure other distempers and evils and God will not hotly pursue them for them for a stooping mind gains much at Gods hand 4. His scope in demonstrating his greatness by his works is not so much to prove any particular Conclusion as some do gather or to evince that men need not be anxious seeing all things are well ordered by God and he cared for mâ—n before ever Job had a being But as may be gathered from Chap. 40.2 8. 41.10 11. to prove his Soveraignty and that it ought not to be quarrelled and his eternal Power and Wisdom which ought to be adored And in sum it points at this That however Job carped at Gods dispensations yet his works demonstrate that there is nothing in Job like his Eternity as being but of yesterday nothing like his Knowledge as being but an Ignorant nothing like his Power as being but a weak man and nothing like his Wisdom and Providence as being witless and without skill And therefore it was folly for a Worm of yesterday who is also so weak witless and ignorant to challenge any thing in Gods Dispensations and not to submit to his Soveraignty And this God makes use of as his only Argument to shew That this study of God is the best way to solve all doubts about his Dispensations and an effectual mean to cause men keep that due distance which should be betwixt God and the Creature and which is often encroached upon by their complaints And till we submit to his Soveraignty and infinite Wisdom in all that he doth there is no reason that we should get another more comfortable account of our Lot 5. This his Argument he confirmeth by several Instances taken from his common works of Creation and Providence and poseth Job with Questions about them every one of which argueth Majesty and Wisdom in God who worketh and understandeth all these things and Ignorance and Weakness in Job This points out partly how unquestionable the evidences of the wisdom and greatness of God are seeing they shine in what is most obvious and ordinary Partly A right use of Physiology or the study of the works of Nature which is to know God by them and to adore him therein Partly how well this speaks to Job's case by an Argument from the less to the more for if Wisdom â—hine in common things made for mans use much more in guiding â—f man himself as 1 Cor. 9.9 10. And if Job could not comprehend his counsel in common things but would be non-pluffed at every step and was neither Counseller nor Assiâ—tant to God in making and ordering of them How much less could he be able to comprehend what he was doing about himself and his deep counsels in that singular dispensation that he should thus presume to carp and quarrel If he could not see through all that is in the vicissitude of day and night in an Hawk Eagle Horse c. How could he know what God intended by his trial and that he was about to make him a Mirrour to all ages and a comfortable Precedent to all afflicted Saints 6. Albeit this truth was conspicuous in any one Instance yet he helps them upon Job as Elihu had done before and all his Discourse runs upon these Instances To shew not only how many Instances and Witnesses God hath for him but how uncapable we are to understand and take up what God reveals of himself and how unwilling to be convinced of our Mistakes concerning him For all Job's silence while Elihu spake is not yet enough And after God hath brought him to confess his weakness Chap. 40.4 5. He yet insists further till he come a further length Chap. 42.1 2 c. This being the general scope of all the ensuing Dispute beside what may be gathered from any of the particular Instances sutable to Job's case I proceed to speak to the Instances in particular wherein those Attributes of God do shine And in these Verses we have the first Instance of the Earth and the founding and forming thereof Which may be understood of the whole Globe of Earth and Water which was formed on the first day Gen. 1.1 2. Or rather seeing he speaks afterward of the Sea by it self v. 8. of the dry land which he founded and established upon or beside the Seas and Flouds Psal 24.2 to make up one Globe with it which was the work of the third day Gen. 1.9 In this Instance three things are remarkable First That Job was not when God wrought this That Question v. 4. imports that he who is but of yesterday and a bit of Clay and a parcel of the dust of the earth was far to seek when God made the whole of it nor can he give any account