ever perished nor were the righteous ever cut off And Eliphaz conceiveth this to be so clear a truth that he challengeth Job to give one instance to the contrary out of his own experience he appeals to experience which is a strong way of arguing Remember I pray thee who ever perished being innocent shew me the man and withall he professeth that he could give many instances or examples out of his own experience that wicked men have perished and were cut off this he doth in the eighth Verse Even as I have seen they that plough iniquity and sow wickednesse reap the same which he inlarges in the three following Verses by the blast of God they perish and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed c. This in generall for the summe and substance of the Argument We will now consider the words and examine the strength of it in particulars Remember I pray thee He handleth Job tenderly in words he speaks gently and winningly to him Remember I pray thee To remember noteth often in Scripture a serious consideration of things present and before us Eccles 12. 1. Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth that is seriously bethink thy selfe at the present of God and his wayes and how thou oughtest to walk holily before him But properly to remember is the calling to minde of things which are past and so Eliphaz in this place directs Job to search the Records Goe and inquire into all the Monuments of Antiquity look the Registers and Histories of the Ages past and see if thou canst finde any such thing as this A righteous man perishing Memory is the soules store-house there we lay up Observations and from thence fetch them out as occasions invite Hence Christ Matth. 12. 57. compareth every Scribe which is instructed for the kingdome of Heaven to a house-holder which bringeth forth out of his treasury things both new and old This treasury is the memory there holy truths and profitable examples are stored and reserved Remember I pray thee In that Eliphaz sendeth Job back to former experiences we may note That it is our duty to lay up and record the dealings of God whether publick or personall whether with the godly or with the wicked It is our duty to observe what God doth Psal 111. 4. He hath made his wonderfull works to be remembred as if the Psalmist had said God hath not wrought such great things in the world whether respecting persons or Nations that we should write them upon the water or in the sand which the next puffe of winde defaces and blowes out but he hath made his wonderfull workes to be remembred hee will have them written in brasse with a pen of Iron and with the point of a Diamond that all ages may heare the judgements and loving kindnesses of the Lord he hath made his wonderfull workes to be remembred or he hath made them so as that they are most worthy to be remembred David was a great observer of experiences Psal 31. 35. he telleth us that he had as it were collected notes concerning Gods dealings all his dayes and it is to the very point in hand I have been young and now am old yet never saw I the righteous forsaken himselfe carefully observed the dealing of God in this Psalme and in the next Psal 37 35 36. he gives the like direction to others thus I have done doe you take the same course too I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himselfe like a green Bay-tree then he goes on Mark the perfect man and behold the upright I have considered the estate of wicked men let all observe the estate of the godly Mark the perfect man and behold the upright The works of God expound his Word in his works his Word is often made visible That 's an excellent expression Psal 111. 7. The works of his hands are verity and judgement The acts of God are verity that is God acts his own truths As the works of our hands ought to be the verity and judgements of God every action of a Christian should be one of Christs truths so it is exactly with God himselfe the works of his hands are his owne verity and judgements When we cannot finde the meaning of God in his Word we may finde it out in his works his works are a Comment an infallible Comment upon his Word Yet we must take this Caution the dealings of God in the surface and outward part of them appear sometimes contrary to his Word contrary unto his promise but they only appear so they are never so When a man reads a promise and finds much good stor'd up in it for the righteous and then looks upon the state of the righteous and seeth it full of evill here is a seeming contrariety between the Word and the Works of God but it is onely a seeming contrariety as we shall see somewhat further anon Therefore in that Psalme 111. 2. where he saith The works of God are verity and judgement he addes The works of God are sought out if you will have the verity or judgement that is in the works of God you must not only look upon the outside of them but you must seek them out studie them studie them as you studie the Scriptures and then you will finde out the meaning of them and see how exactly they square with every part of the Word Why doth Eliphaz send Job to experience the ground is this the works of God are like the Word of God therefore if thou canst not make it out by experience from his works thou canst hardly make it out as a Position from his Word that righteous persons are cut off Remember now I pray thee who ever perished being innocent or where were the righteous cut off Here are foure termes to be opened perished cut off innocent righteous We will consider first what we are to understand by perishing and by cutting off Secondly whom we are to understand by innocent and righteus persons And then apply the whole sentence by shewing wherein the truth of this proposition stands that a righteous man or an innocent person cannot perish or be cut off The word which we translate perished hath divers significations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First a returning to nothing an utter consumption which is to perish as a beast Psal 49. 20. the Holy Ghost describing a man who is not acquainted with God in his great estate compares him thus Man being in honour and not understanding sc the things of God becommeth like the beasts that perish not that he perisheth as a beast doth but he is like a perishing beast the similitude is not in perishing but in his qualities who perisheth he hath but such qualities he is upon the matter even of as grosse a temper as a perishing beast Secondly to perish signifies to dye The dissolution of man or the dis-union of soule and body Isay 57. 1. is thus
from safety c. He flourisheth but he withers quickly he takes root but he is soon puld up by the roots I have seene Experience is the mistresse of truth Truth is called the daughter of time because experience bringeth forth many truths and the word of God is made visible in the works of God I have seen saith he This truth hath run into my eye In experiences the promises of God stand forth and in experiences the threatnings of God stand forth and shew themselves all the experiences that we have in the world are onely so many exemplifications of the truths contained in the promises or threatnings of the word The foolish I shall not stay to open that terme for we met 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Levem homineÌ„ notat qui sine consilio agit vulâ— facit nullamque facti rationum habet nisi quia ita venâ—â— in mentem Goc with it in the former verse wrath slayeth the foolish one Onely in a word this foolish man is one who acts without counsell and whose will is too hard for his understanding He hath no reason for what he doth but because he hath a mind to doe it A foolish man is a wicked man and here the foolish man is a wicked man at ease a wicked man in his fulnesse and aboundance of outward comforts A foole is ever worst when he is at ease And as he more abounds in comforts so he abounds more in sin All mercies are to him but fuell for his folly and meat and drink for his madnesse That rich man who pleased himselfe so in his worldly successes is cal'd a foole Thou foole this night shall thy soule be taken from thee and then whose shall all these things be which thou possessest Luke 12. 20 All wicked men are foolish and wicked rich men have ever the greatest stock of folly And they are therefore more foolish then others because they think themselves wiser then all If a man can get riches if his root be well setled in the earth and his branches spread fairely out he accounteth himselfe very wise and so doe many others account him too A thriving sinner is a foolish and an unprosperous man but he that plots how to thrive by sin is the most foolish man in the world and therefore in all his prosperity most unprosperous As the foolish take roote so that by which they take root is often times their folly Taking root Wicked men under the outward curse are compared to trees not taking root Isa 40. 24. He bringeth the Princes to nothing yea they shall not be planted yea they shall not be sowne yea their stocke shall not take root in the earth And Psalme 129. 6. Let them be as the grasse upon the house having no earth to take root in which withereth afore it groweth up whereof the mower filleth not his hand nor he that bindeth up the sheaves his bosome Wicked men prospering are compared to a tree well rooted I have seen the foolish taking root that is confirmed and setled in their outward prosperity A root is to the tree as a foundation is to the house the establishment of it when a tree is well rooted it takes in the moisture of the earth freely then the body or trunk growes big the branches spread forth the leaves are green and it abounds with fruit So that with the welrooting we must take in all that concernes the flourishing of a tree Hence other Scriptures expresse the men of the world by trees not onely secretly taking root in the earth but putting themselves forth and appearing in their visible beauty and verdure Ps 37. 35. David produceth his experience I have seen the wicked in great power how taking root yea spreading himselfe like a greene bay-tree They are described by their boughs branches and leaves And in Isa 2. 11. The day of the Lord shall be upon the Cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up not onely upon the Cedars of Lebanon that are deeply rooted but upon the Cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up and upon all the Oakes of Bashan In the 14. of Hosea v. 5. The prosperous estate of the Church under the dew and influence of heavenly blessings is held forth to us under the notion of a tree taking root I will be as the dew to Israel he shall grow as the Lilly and cast his roots as Lebanon that is as the trees in Lebanon his branches shall spread and his beauty shall be as the Olive tree and his smell as Lebanon In the fourth of Daniel the state glory and magnificence of the kingdomes of this world are shadowed by a tree Nebuchadnezzar in a vision hath a tree presented before him he knew not what to make of it and therefore calls for the Wise-men to expound the vision which he thus relates ver 4. I saw and behold a tree in the middest of the earth the height thereof was great and the tree grew and was strong and the height thereof reached unto heaven and the sight thereof to the ends of the earth and the leaves thereof were faire When Daniel comes to interpret it ver 22. he sayes to the King Thou art this tree c. Nebuchadnezzar in all his worldly pomp is set forth by a goodly tree In the 53. of Isa v. 2. Where the birth of Christ is prophecied it is said That he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground As a very flourishing estate whether in spirituals or temporalls is exprest by a tree planted by the water side So a mean low estate is signified by a tree in a dry ground Our Lord Jesus in regard of any outward glory was like a tree in a dry ground as the words following expound it He hath no forme nor comelinesse and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him His kingdome was not like the kingdome of those great Monarchs strong and high and beautifull with any created lustre Hence observe First That wicked men may flourish in great outward prosperity I have seen the foolish taking root The Prophet Jeremiah in the twelfth of his Prophecy a Scripture touched before Chap. 4. v. 7. to this purpose being somewhat scandalized at the prosperity of treacherous dealers describes them thus ver 2. Thou hast planted them yea they have taken root they grow yea they bring forth fruit Here are four degrees first they are planted there is many a tree planted that takes not root but saith he thou hast planted them yea they have taken root There are some trees which are both planted and have taken root yet they doe not grow especially not to any height or greatnesse though they live yet they doe not thrive These are planted and they take root and they grow but there are many trees planted rooted and growing which yet are fruitlesse these have all they are planted they take root
by them all together or debated first in private conference and agreed on that thus Eliphaz should speake because he saith we have searched it But the meaning is only this I suppose I have spoken the sense of my two friends who stand by and I beleeve they are ready to subscribe to or vote every word I have now uttered therefore behold we have searched and thus it is Heare thou it To advise thee was our part to heare and hearken is thy part therefore heare it But had he not heard them all this while why doth Eliphaz now bid him heare it It is true he had heard but there is more required then the hearing of the eare when such a Sermon as this is preached To heare is more than the worke of the eare It is First To beleeve and give credit to what was heard Joh. 9. 27. I told you before and you would not heare saith the blind man wherefore would you heare it againe that is I have told you already but you would not beleeve nor give credit to what I spake Secondly To heare is to hearken that is to yeeld and consent to what is spoken Gen. 3. 17. Forasmuch as thou hast hearkned to the counsell of thy wife Barely to heare a temptation to sin is no act of sin as barely to heare an exhortation to good is no act of grace Therefore because thou hast hearkned is because thou hast yeelded and consented to that which she hath spoken Thirdly To heare is to obey Isa 55. 3. Heare and your soule shall live It is not every hearing af the eare that bringeth life to the soule obedient hearing is enlivening hearing So here we have searched it so it is heare it that is beleeve what we have spoken submit unto and consent to what we have spoken obey and practise what we havespoken To heare is both an act of sence and an act of reason an act of nature and an act of grace To heare one requesting and praying is to grant and to heare one counselling and commanding is to obey When God heares man he grants and when man heares God or heares men speaking in the name of God he yeelds and obeys It followes And know thou it for thy good The Hebrew is know it for thy selfe Now because that which a man knowes for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himselfe is for his profit therefore we translate know it for thy good that is know it as that whereby thy selfe mayest receive good The meaning of know it for thy selfe is not this know and keep it to thy selfe let none partake with thee of it It is against the use of knowledge that a man should so know for himselfe though a mans selfe hath or may have good by all he knowes So we must understand that of Salomon Prov. 9. 12. If thou be wise thou shalt be wise for thy selfe that is thou shalt be advantag'd by thy wisdome Wisdome brings in a faire revenew though many know much and seem very wise who know nothing for themselves and are not wise at all for their own good There are three sorts of knowing men First Some know onely to know They know but the propose no end to themselves beyond knowledge They know not for the good of others no nor for their own good As it is with riches and honour so with knowledge covetous men gather riches that they may be rich they propose not any other end of having riches but only to be rich An ambitious man desires honor that he may be honourable he proposeth to himselfe no other end of his desiring honor but to be honourable So many are covetous and ambitious of knowledge they read from book to book and from point to point from science to science and what do they with all this knowledge only this that they may know to know thus is not to know for good To know only to know is no better then not to know Secondly Others know that they may be knowne to know this is their end that other men may know that they are knowing men that they are great Schollars great read-men men of great abilities and boundlesse studies Even as some desire riches that they may be accounted rich and honour that they may be fam'd for honourable To know only that we may be known is worse then not to know But thirdly That which is the right way of knowing is to know that others may know or to know that our selves may practise These are the true ends of knowing to communicate knowledg and to obey knowledge The great end of knowing should be our own profiting in holinesse and obedience And so here Know it for thy good is to know it so as to make an advantage of thy knowledg To know for our good is the only good knowledge Hence observe first Truth deserves our most diligent search We have searched it saith Eliphaz The promise of finding truth is only to such as search for truth Prov. 2. 4. Thou shalt find wisdome c. If thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures There are two places two veines especially where truth is to be found There is the book of Gods word and the book of Gods works The book of Scripture and the book of providence In these two books we are to search in them to study out truth for our own practise and for advise to others Secondly Observe That which we offer to others for truth we ought diligently to make tryall of our selves or we should make truth our own before we distribute it to others We have searched the thing out saith Eliphaz we know the truth to be thus we are masters of what we teach They who hear aright search as the Bereans those things which are taught them and they who instruct aright ought to search the things which they teach If there must be after-searching of those things we hear certainly there must be fore-searchings of the things we teach Truth ordinarily is not worth the having unlesse it be come in by our own searching They who receive that for truth which they never searcht will not hold any truth when themselves are searcht Truths merely borrowed and taken upon trust are no stock no abiding treasure of knowledge And yet most can only say of all the truth they have as he of his axe head 2 Kings 6. 5. Alas master for it was borrowed they snatch up one truth from this hand and another from that they take it upon the credit of this and that learned man very few are able to say as Eliphaz here Loe this we have searched it The more paines we take to find truth the more pleasure we take in it That is sweetest to us which we sweat most for in praying and studying Morsells of Truth dipt in that sawce fatten and strengthen the soul most Observe thirdly What a man knoweth by search and disquisition he is confident of We have
own integrity that he was not afraide to put him self upon the highest triall in that point A holy heart is willing that God and men should search it even search it with candles as God threatens he would the corrupt and false-hearted Jews Secondly note this from it Where a lie is it will not long he hid A lie will breake forth one time or other you may cover and hide a lie you may keep it close and sit upon it as Rachel upon her fathers Images but at last it will be evident a lie will out We say Truth is the daughter of time and so is a lie too a little time will bring that work of darknesse to light Take the word in the other sence for failing and it yeelds us this Instruction That He who hath uprightnesse of heart is stedfast for ever Truth is uniforme Which way soever the wind and the world turne his posture is the same Christ will not faile him and therefore he cannot Such a man is as Mount Zion that shall never be removed when the heart is sound the actions are steady and he that moves upon a right principle moves regularly and in all changes of events changes not his way try him and try him again it will be evident unto you he will not lie Grace is ever the same and renders them who have it like him in their degree from whom they have it without variablenesse or shadow of turning He that is not for the substance what he was was never what he ought to be sincere He that is upon a good ground and knowes his ground will stand to it trust him as a creature may be trusted and he will not faile Vers 29. Returne I pray you let it not be iniquity yea returne againe my righteousnesse is in it He goes on to bespeake his friends to heare him better Returne The word signifies First A Locall returne or returning from a place Secondly It is used Metaphorically to returne from anger or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Redire significat sed saepe transfertur ad animum estque a proposito ab sistere institutum vita mutare paenitentiam agere to turn anger away Isa 5. 25. His anger is not turned away the Lord did not turn from his feirce wrath Some understand it so here Return I pray you that is I beseech you be not so angry be not so hasty and cholerick with me Thirdly To turn or return notes desisting from our purpose or the change of our resolutions And thus it is the same with repentance the Scripture aboundes with the word in the sence I shall not need to quote texts Thus most understand it here Returne that is repent of your former hard dealing with me persist not in it persevere not in your uncharitablenesse Vbi redierit is tursum redieritis id est ubi iterum atque iterum omnia dâ—iigenter discusseritis codem subinde redeuntes cadem accuratius reputantes meani cognoscetis justitiam Or lastly Returne that is weigh the matter better Return looke it over againe let it have your second and more setled thoughts consider whether I speake not as one constrained to this seeming impatience from reall sorrow rather then from a professed hypocrisie So he bespeakes his friends againe Chap. 17. 10. But as for you all doe you return and come now that is be better advised as the next words expound his meaning for I cannot find one wise man among you As if he had said you have not shewed any great treasures of wisdom in all your disputations against me hitherto And therefore he tells them Chap. 19. 28. what counsels became them to take Yee should say why persecute we him let us give over such hard censures and wounding language Say to your selves let us return as here he saith to them return I pray you Let it not be iniquity Some understand it thus let not the thing which is objected against me be iniquity object not unrighteously against me Or thus Secondly in this disputation as it shall be carried on againe deale not so unequally so unjustly and hardly with me as before deale fairely uprightly candidly and friendly with me Return I pray you let it not be iniquity let there not be such wrangling and hard speeches between us as hitherto there have been Mr Broughton agrees to either sence Change your mind now let not unrighteousnesse be objected Yet the Hebrew particle Al doth not alwayes forbid but often Particula 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non semper prohibet sed aliquâ—ndo simpliciter negat Non erit iniquitas in verbis meis scili es Merc. notes simply to deny and some translate it here for a plaine deniall rather than a forbidding Not as we Let it not be iniquity but there shall not be iniquity that is in my words or in that which I shall speake and we may connect it with the latter part of the vers my righteousnesse is in it Yea return againe He advised them to return before now he doubles his advice yea return againe Such repeated doubled speeches in Scripture note First A vehemency of spirit in the speaker Secondly A necessity of obedience to the thing which is spoken by the hearer It is surely a weighty and a necessary point which is spoken and spoken again That 's a double duty and calls for double alligence which we are doubly call'd to Return I pray you doe not think that this is a small matter a businesse of indifferency return againe As Cant. 6. 13. Return return O Shulamite return return There was great necessity for the Shulamite to return when he was so often cried after to return So Rejoyce and againe I say reioyce said the Apostle to note the vehemency of his spirit and the necessity of that Gospel-duty or how exceeding becomming it is for Christans to walk cheerfully and rejoyce Here then Return yea return againe is as if he had said there is great cause you should return and be better advised that you should consider otherwise of my case than hitherto you have done My righteousnesse is in it That is I am righteous in this matter in this businesse or upon such a further consideration and returning to the quistion my righteousnesse by a true stating of these differences will appeare unto you Job was no Justiciary no boaster in or of his own righteousnesse but he speakes of the righteousnesse of his cause and of the uprightnesse of his conscience According to that of Psal 73. ver 6. Thy righteousnesse shall appeare as the light that is the righteousnesse of thy cause so saith Job my righteousnesse is in it when you return and return again to consider diligently and seriously of this businesse you will finde the result of all will be that my righteousnesse is in it that is that I am in the right or free from blame in this businesse that I have not broken the rules of justice
part of his character or commendation Thou art reported to be a man fearing God is not this thy feare Feare is taken either for the whole compasse of Gods worship or for that awfulnesse of affection with which we worship God which we ought to mingle and mix in all our actions and duties Therefore saith the Apostle Heb. 12. Let us have grace to serve him with reverence and godly feare And Psalme the second Serve the Lord with feare God is to be served in love and yet God loves no service which hath not this ingredient Holy feare Feare is the most proper affection which we creatures dust and ashes who are at such an infinite distance from God can put forth in his worship God condescends so farre as to be loved by us yea he calleth for our love as a friend or as a father as a familiar as one in neer relation but considered in his Majesty glory and greatnesse feare is the most suitable affection in our approaches unto God The name of God in some languages is derived from feare and God is expresly called Fear by Jacob Gen. 31. in that dispute with Laban where he telleth him Except the fear of his father Isaac had been with him c. Verse 42 And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac Verse 53. that is by that God whom his father Isaac feared Jacob was a man so holy that he would take nothing into his mouth to swear by but onely the holy Name of God Religious swearing is one of the highest acts of worshipping as vaine swearing is one of the highest acts of prophaning the name of God Thy confidence The word which we translate confidence signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inconstantia levitas per Antiphrasin constantia considenâ—ia also and that most properly folly inconstancy levity when the Prophet Jeremy reproveth the idolatry of those times speaks to worshippers of Idols he expresses it by this word They are altogether bruitish and foolish Jer. 10. 8. And holy David Psalme 49. 13. speaking of wicked men who make riches their portion and who lay out all their endeavours in the raising of an outward estate gives this account of their practise in the 13 Verse This their way is their folly this is the course that worldly men take and they think it is a very wise course but indeed their way is their folly Some translators reade that text this their way is their confidence as here in Job and so they make the sense out thus this way of worldly men in gathering riches in heaping up abundance of these outward things is their confidence that is they have nothing else to trust unto they have nothing beyond the world to trust unto this their way is their confidence So againe Prov. 15. 26. A foolish man or a man of folly despiseth his mother And once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more Psal 85. 8. where the Psalmist goeth up like Habakkuk to his Watch-tower to hearken for an answer of his prayer I will hearken what the Lord will say for he will speake peace unto his people but let them not returne againe to folly So some reade it in this Text of Job is not this thy fear thy folly that is was it not meere folly for thee to bragge and boast of thy feare sc That thou didst feare God c. But the word is often taken in a contrary sense as we translate for constancy or confidence and sometimes for hope and thus Job 31. 24. If I have said to gold thou art my hope or my confidence and Chap. 8. 14. speaking of the Hypocrite whose hope shall be cut off the same word is used and Prov. 3. 26. The Lord shall be thy confidence and he shall keep thy foot from being taken and not to heape many places Psal 78. 7. That they may set their hope in God In this sense it is generally understood here Is not this thy fear and thy confidence sc all the trust thou hast placed in thy God Feare and confidence are acts of naturall worship Confidence or Trust is the resting of the soule upon another here the resting of the soule upon the Word or promises of God upon the power faithfulnesse and truth of God an act thus put forth by the soule is confidence Now saith Eliphaz is not this thy confidence thou hast spoken much of resting and trusting upon God and his Word upon his power and faithfulnesse is not this that which thou hast all this while talked of See what a goodly confidence it is Doth it look like a proper piece of grace Confidence is an act beyond faith a soule confiding walkes in a higher Region of grace and comfort than a soule only believing there may be believing where there is not this confiding As patience is hope lengthned so confidence is hope strengthned Assurance is the highest degree of faith and confidence is the highest degree of assurance It carries with it first cheerfulnesse opposite to sorrow secondly courage opposite to fear and despondency of spirit thirdly boldnesse adventurousnesse opposite to cowardice Confidence having a good cause and a good call will take a Beare by the tooth or a Lion by the beard Fourthly it notes boasting or a kinde of spirituall wise bragging opposite to sinfull modesty or concealement of what God hath done for us Or take it thus Confidence is the noblest exercise of faith which looking steadily upon God in himselfe and in Christ through the promises raises the soule above all fears and discouragements above all doubts and disquietments either about the removing of evill or the obtaining of good Hence confidence is well called the rest of the soule therefore such as attaine to confidence are said to be in peace in perfect peace Isay 26. 3. Him wilt thou establish in perfect peace whose heart doth trust upon thee And this act of confidence or trust is proper and peculiar to God no creature must share in it This is worship commanded in the first precept Thou shalt have no other Gods before mee Whatsoever we confide in unlesse it be in subordination unto God we make it our God And it is one of the highest acts of the soule not onely as we respect the taking in our own comforts but also the giving out glory unto God This confidence is well coupled with holy feare the more we feare God so the more we trust him such feare is the mother and nurse of confidence But confidence is directly contrary yea contradictory to carnall feare he that trusts God indeed leaves both soule and body temporall and eternall estate with him without ever sending a fearefull thought or a jealous looke after either It followes And the uprightnesse of thy wayes It is the word used in the description of Job Cap. 1. 1. There it is in the concrete perfect here in the abstract uprightnesse We may reade it Is not this the perfection of thy wayes
not perish Take perishing in the fourth sense as perishing is an eternall destruction and so the proposition of Eliphaz is true throughout strictly true That no righteous ever perished or were cut off an innocent person is in that sense past perishing a righteous man is past cutting off Joh. 10. 28. I doe give unto them eternall life and they shall never perish Rejoyce in this ye righteous ye are beyond perishing ye are past perishing while ye live in a perishing world Lastly Take it in the fifth sense and so you may have a further truth which I conceive is that which Eliphaz purposely aimeth at take perishing for outward present destruction joyned with a totall desertion and in that sense the proposition of Eliphaz is true also No righteous man no innocent man ever perished or was so cut off with any temporall judgement The Apostle is direct for it 2 Cor. 4. 8 9. We are in trouble on every side we see trouble which way soever we turne but we are not distressed we are perplexed we are in the bryars as well as ungodly men but not in despaire we are in hope still and if there be hope for us God is for us We are persecuted but not forsaken God is neere us though all the world stand aloofe we are cast downe but not destroyed we shall up againe So that while he admits of perishing in the former sense respecting outward afflictor yet he denies it constantly in this latter sense so as to be cut off quite from the comforts and supports of God That observation of David may be thus understood Psal 37. 25. I have been young and now am old yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken he doth not say in my experience I never saw the righteous afflicted but I never saw him left or forsaken in his afflictions and I never saw his seed begging their bread he puts in that because begging of bread especially in the Common-wealth of Israel and in the state of the Jewes was a note of utter dereliction for though God had told them that they should have the poore alwayes with them yet he had given an expresse Law that there should be no beggar among them therefore saith he I have not seene the righteous so forsaken that they should be forced to live by begging If any say that David himselfe begged he asked bread of Abimelech Casus transitorii non reddunt mendicum and of Nabal I answer It is a good rule and it resolves the case Transitory cases and suddaine accidents make no beggars we must not say David was a beggar or begged his bread because once he was in a straite and asked bread of Abimelech and in a second straite sent to Nabal In such sudden cases the richest man in the world may be put to aske a peece of bread A good man may fall into such wants but good men are rarely if ever or at all left in them Now to apply it particularly to the intent of Eliphaz in this place We have given three interpretations in which we have shewed how righteous men may perish and two wherein the righteous cannot possibly perish in both which the words here spoken by Eliphaz are a truth And concerning the fifth and last I conceive Eliphaz is particularly ro be understood For he speakes not here of the eternal estate of Job though that be involved when he concludeth him a wicked man but he speakes of the dealings of God in temporals He look't upon Job as a lost man a man utterly forsaken of his God as a man of a forlorne hope cut downe and pluckt up root and branch when he saw his stocke consumed his children slaine his body diseased and his spirit so distempered And so the minor or the assumption onely is false the proposition true Righteous men doe not perish thus innocent persons are not thus cut off but thou Job perishest and art cut off Hold there that 's false Job in the sense Eliphaz intended perished not was not cut off for in the sequell God gave him both comfort and deliverance Love was mingled with the affliction strength was ministred to beare the affliction and at last a gracious way was made out of the affliction The blessing of God caused him to spring out againe though his goodly branches were broken and his fruit pluckt off yet his roots were not pluckt up It will not be unnecessary for the clearing of this Scripture to subjoyne a reason why in the Old Testament or under the old Covenant there was so much stumbling at the afflictions and troubles of the righteous for it put even a David a Jeremiah and a Habakuk Psal 73. Jer. 12. 1. hard to it for an answer when they saw such under sufferings the reason was this because God in those times made more speciall temporall promises to his people in case of obedience than he hath done in the time of the Gospel Reade Deut. 28. Levit. 27. and other places where you shall finde how all the promises runne upon things that concerne the outward man they shall be blessed in their basket and in their store they shall have this and that and all outward things aboundantly and the curse threatned was the losse and deprivation of those outward blessings in case of disobedience For God did winne and carry them on in that non-age of the Church by outward and temporall promises hence they were much troubled and offended when they saw righteous men under heavy pressures and breaking afflictions Now since the comming of Christ in the flesh and the pouring out of those speciall spirituall blessings upon his people by the Holy Ghost he doth not feed us so much with these outward hopes or enjoyments Therefore in the Gospell we read what hard meate he giveth his people foretelling them plainly If any will follow me let him deny himselfe and take up his crosse There is scarce such a word in all the old Testament as that he which will follow me shall finde a crosse and be sure of persecution They were but children such words and sights might terrifie them therefore they were as it were dandled on the knee and allured by sensible comforts a land flowing with milke and honey if they did obey and they heard of rods and stripes in case of stubbornnesse and disobedience Say to the righteous it shall be well with him for they shall eate the fruite of their doings Woe to the wicked it shall be ill with him c. Isa 3. 10 11. David saith indeed many are the troubles of the righteous but it is not put among the termes of their state or service It is not said if ye will be righteous ye shall have trouble Moses never told them If any will be my disciple let him taka up his crosse c. So then Gods dealings and dispensations being most in outward things at that time they were very apt to stumble at the crosse And there
tremble The Naturalists observe that though many creatures are swifter of foot then the Lion yet when he roareth they fall downe and he overtakes them with his astonishing voyce so tyrannicall men with their roaring words their loud threatnings often affright and daunt the poor 7. They resemble Lions in the sowrenesse and sternenesse of their countenance and cloudinesse of their browes Much of mans heart is seene in his face frownes are as blowes hence we call it brow-beating The love of God is expressed by the pleasantnesse of his face and the light of his countenance So also is the love of man and we may see what the intent of another is in his very lookes Many are in this respect Lion-like men they have as Aristotle saith of the naturall Lion clouds and stormes hanging about their eye-browes It was a threatning against the Jewes in case of disobedience that God would send against them a Nation of a fierce countenance which should not regard the person of the old c. Deut. 28. 50. Lastly they are like Lions in regard of their greedinesse after prey They have set their eyes bowing downe to the earth like as a Lyon that is greedy of his prey Psal 17. 11 12. Thus you see both who are here meant by Lions and likewise how the resemblance or picture of a wicked man may be taken from a Lion Now when it is said that the teeth of the Lions are broken that the old Lions perish and the young Lions are scattered abroad By all these expressions of scattering perishing and being broken to peeces the Holy Ghost shewes us the utter full and finall consumption of wicked men they are not only touched troubled and roused up out of their dens but these Lions old and young are scattered and consumed They perish There is an opinion currant among the Jewish writers that this verse is to be understood as a description of the means or instruments by which God destroyes wicked men and not as we of wicked men themselves whom God will destroy Junius agrees with this interpretation of the Jewes translating the two verses in this sence By the blast of God they perish and by the breath of his nostrils they are consumed by the roariag of the Lion and by the voyce of the fierce Lion and by the teeth of young Lions they are consumed As if when wicked men so he giveth the glosse are not destroyed immediately by the breath and by the blast of God then God stirres up the creatures against them and will destroy them by Lions We know it was a speciall judgement threatned in the Law against the disobedient Levit. 26. 22. that God would send evill beasts among them The Prophet numbers this among Gods sore judgements Sword famine pestilence and evill beasts are put together In the history of the Kings we have a famous 2 King 17. â—â— record how the Lord sent Lions who slew some of those Idolaters whom the King of Bahylon had transplanted into the Cities of Samaria But I rather conceive the former exposition of the words to be the truth and most sutable to the context and there is this reason to be given because it agrees best with the purpose of Eliphaz whose worke was so to describe the destruction of wicked men in generall that he might particularly intimate the destruction fallen upon Job and his family with the reason of it Job was a great man in his time he was among men as the Lion among beasts a chiefe His friends thought him a cruell Lion too and so he is told to his face afterward by one of them that he like a greedy Lion had taken away the pledge and the garment from the poore This Eliphaz would hint at least to Job and that God had found him out in his Lion-like qualities that he being a Magistrate and a man in authority having dealt hardly and cruelly with others now the Lord had measured to him the same measure he had given others He the Lion and she the fierce Lion or Lionesse his wife they the young Lions his children were all broken and either perished or perishing So much for the cleering of the words I shall now adde some observations from them First Wicked men how powerfull how strong soever shall fall before the wrath and indignation of God The day of the Lord shall be against every one that is high and that is lifted up God desires in a speciall manner to be dealing with these for they in the pride of their spirits think themselves a match for God though indeed their strength be but weaknesse and their wisdome foolishnesse yet in their own conceits they are stronger and wiser then God himselfe Hence like Pharaoh they send defiance to Heaven and say Who is the Lord Exod. 5. 1. When God sees the hearts of men swolne to this height of insolent madnesse he delights to shew himselfe and graple with them that the pride of man may be abased and every one that is exalted may be laid low that he only may be exalted and his Name set up in that day David was much troubled at that murther of Abner yet he could not take vengeance presently upon the fierce Lion that had suckt his blood Why his power did not reach it ye sonnes of Zerviah saith he are too hard for me 2 Sam. 23. 3. But there are no sonnes of Zerviah too hard for God no Lions so strong but he can teare them with infinitely more ease then a Lion can the tender kid This should comfort us when we see great and potent enemies rising up against the Church what are these before the great Lion the Lion of the Tribe of Judah If the Lord doe but roare if the Lion of the Tribe of Judah come against these Lions they will run like a heard of fearfull deare The Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chiefe Captaines and the mighty men are described trembling at the presence of Christ when he appeared but as a Lambe Rev. 6. 15 16. They cry to the mountaines and the rockes to fall upon them and to hide them from his face If when Christ appeares like an angry Lambe the greatest in the world fall before him what then will these doe when Christ shall appeare as a roaring Lion Secondly observe how gradually the Holy Ghost expresses the destruction of wicked tyrants All is not done at once First the roaring of the Lion doth perish then their voice then their teeth are pulled out next their prey is taken away lastly their whelps are scattered Note hence That usually God destroyes wicked men by degrees Here are five steps or degrees of Gods justice against these Lions First He stops the roaring of the Lions they shall not be able to make such a dreadfull noise as heretofore their roaring may be stopt when their voice is not though they can speake yet they shall not yell In the second
thus will God break the yoke of your captivity and at such a time The true Prophets complaine often of the false for crying up their deceivings under the warrant of visions and dreams when all was but a dreame indeed a meere phancy or studied imposture to mislead the people and gaine credit to their lies While a man hath nothing but ordinary humane authority for things extraordinary he is easily rejected Man is subject to error he may deceive and be deceived therefore when they would put a new nothing upon the world as an infallible truth and have it swallowed without chewing received without disputing then usually they pretended that it was quid Divinum a doctrine or message received immediately from God And it is well observed that this course of pretending to Divine revelation was very frequent amongst the Heathen when their Wise men had a minde to fasten some unwonted opinion upon the vulgar Among the Romans Numa to the intent they might be received with greater authority stampt his lawes with a kinde of divinity and told the people that he had received them from the Goddesse Aegeria As if he had said these lawes are not such as I have coyned and fashioned by my owne policy drawne up or enacted by my own power I had them from the Goddesse So Plato informes us of another law-maker Minos the Cretian that he used to enter into Caves and solitary places where he told the people he received lawes and immediate dictates from Jupiter their God to governe them by This drew a great estimation and reverence upon him Valerius Maximus and Herodotus tels us of those Valer. lib. 1. Herod lib. 1. other Law-makers Licurgus and Seuleucus using the like State-stratagems to over-rule the people Licurgus said he received his lawes from Apollo Zaleucus and Pisistratus avouch Minerva for the Directresse or Doctresse of Theirs So that both among the people of God and among Heathens it hath been very frequent to pretend Divine authority that they might with the more estimation put off either such points of doctrine or such rules of policy as themselves had invented For this of Eliphaz howsoever some charge him directly and Rem in dubio relinquimus videtur tamen potius vera fuisse visio eâ—sâ— ea abataâ—ur Merc. others leave the matter in doubt only turning the scale with a probability it seemeth rather that it was a true vision Yet I shall adventure to resolve directly that his was a true vision as well as a vision of truth sent from God And the reasons which sway with me are these three First if we consider the manner of this vision the description here made holds exact proportion with those of which there is no question but they were the Oracles of Heaven When a thing is done as God doth it it is some argument that God hath done it I grant this reason is not demonstrative or infallible because Satan and our own hearts are very apt to make imitations of holy things for sinfull ends Satan can transforme himselfe into an Angel of light and the heart can disguise or shape its own dark conceptions by the light of divine revelations Take then a second reason Eliphaz was a godly man 'T is granted on all hands that Eliphaz and his friends were right in their affections though they failed in this action God was angry with them indeed told them in the close of this dispute Chap 42. 7. That they had not spoken of him the thing that was right as Job his servant had yet he bids Job pray and offer sacrifice for them which he would not have done unlesse they had been upon good termes with him in generall and in a present capacity for mercy and acceptance Now it being supposed that Eliphaz was a godly man it is a sinne not to be supposed of him that he would make boast of a false revelation and with such deliberate gravity put a lye upon God Thirdly the matter which he professes to have received in this vision is a great and a holy truth of God Man never belyes God to confirme the truth of God When any boast vainly of revelations it is to confirme their own phancies and delusions 'T is rare when men are so zealous for truth as to improve all that God hath spoken in the maintenance of it I have not read of any that have fained a word from God to maintaine that which is really the Word of God We finde all along in Scripture that when visions from God were falsely pretended they ever tended to secure the heart in false opinions or unwarrantable practises The Apostle Paul found many who falsified the stampe of the Spirit and forged his hand and seale to establish error 2 Thess 2. 2. I beseech you brethren that you be not soone shaken in minde or be troubled either by spirit or by word or by letter as from us as that the day of Christ is at hand That grosse error was scattered in the Church of Thessalonica that the day of Christ was at hand that in those beginnings of the Gospell there should be an end of all things To confirme this false teachers boasted of the Spirit an immediate revelation from God or a word immediately from the mouth or a Letter under the hand of Paul How active is error to finde patronage It cares not whom it belyes so it selfe may passe for truth Thousands love errours but none will own them by that name And therefore because children bear their fathers name they would father them upon the God of truth or upon men most eminent for truth Montanus the Heretick said he had the Holy Ghost his Paraclâ—te dictating those erroneous doctrines to him beside Histor Eccl. l. 5 c. 14 16. his Prophetesses Prisca and Mavinilla Mahomet that Grand hellish Impostor often pretended visions from Heaven And the story assures us that he cunningly made use of the disease of his body to perswade his Disciples of the soundnesse of his doctrine For being afflicted with the falling sicknesse when at any time a fit was upon him he made the people believe that he was in an extasie or ravishment of spirit at the appearance of the Angel Gabriel who revealed many mysteries to him And having by long use and familiarity taught a Pigeon to seed at his eare he by art prevailed with the people to feed at his poysonous mouth as if his words had been the inspirations of the Holy Ghost who as he affirmed came then to him in the forme of a Dove and taught him those secrets So then this of Eliphaz was a true vision because it was the confirmation of a truth Invented visions are in use only to gaine credit to the inventions of man or the visions of the Devill Now for the matter and words themselves Now a thing was secretly brought unto me We translate thing the Hebrew is word A word was secretly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Factum
that was brought Further this speech may have reference unto our present condition concerning which the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 13. We know but in part now when he saith we know but in part it is not as if we had but a part of Gods will made knowne unto us The Word of God and the works of God are perfect And the Apostle assures the Church of Ephesus That he had not shunned to declare unto them the whole counsell of God Acts 20. 27. The whole which concernes man is declared but we know that whole but in part Such is our weaknesse and infirmity that we cannot take in All of All no nor any part of all in the full latitude and extent of it Thus we know but in part so saith Eliphaz when this was brought to me mine eare received but little of it my narrow eare could drinke in but some drops of that ocean which was poured out upon me All that man apprehends is but little in respect of what Modestè loquiâ—ur quâ—si nâ—n plenè acceperâ—t quod sciendâ—m esset de hac â—e Quod optimum est eximiam comprehendere non potest mortalis homo Mercer God offers now or of what hereafter he shall apprehend Eliphaz speakes modestly and humbly of himselfe God brought a thing unto me and I am such a poore streightned vessell that I could receive but a little of it yet somewhat I caught hold of which I am about to make known unto thee We may note from this First Holy truths are very pleasant to the eare of a holy person A thing was brought unto me and mine eare caught a little of it As when meates pleasant to the tast are brought to a man he puts forth his hand and takes them or when pleasant musique sounds the eare catches it or we drinke it in greedily at the eare so when holy truths are revealed a holy heart catches them The eare is not more affected with pleasant musique or the pallate with pleasant meates then the understanding spiritualiz'd is affected with spirituall truths The eare of a holy man takes in holy things with pleasure and therefore he is said to catch them or drinke them in as with much desire and ravishing delight David sound more sweetnesse in the truths of God then in the honey or honey combe The spirit of a regenerate man doth so much catch heavenly Doctrine that in the Hebrew the word which signifies such doctrine signifies also catching or receiving and a word from the same roote signifies the palate Vide Buxtorf Lex in verto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the mouth which may hint us thus much that heavenly doctrine pleases the palate or taste of a heavenly minde And the reason of it is because there is a suitablenesse in the heart of every godly man with every truth of God All delight arises from proportion and suitablenesse between the object and the organ in sensitives between the object and the understanding will affections in spirituals That which makes delight to the eye is the sutablenesse of visibles to the eye and that which makes delight the taste is the sutablenesse of edibles to the pallate and so that which makes delight to the soule is the sutablenesse of intelligibles to the understanding Hence the reason is cleere why wicked men will not receive the things of God but insteed of catching them catch at them snarle and murmure at them speake yea raile and fight against them their hearts are unsutable to those truths therefore they distast them therefore they relish them no more then the white of an egge or a dry stick Nay not only have they no pleasant taste but they have a bitter tast in their mouthes they are as gall and wormewood to them they are a vexation and torment to them The truth which the two Witnesses publish torments Revel 11. them that dwell on the earth and then no marvaile if instead of catching those truths to embrace them they catcht the Witnesses and kill them Observe secondly That the eare and heart of man in this state of corruption are vessels too narrow to take in or hold all the truths of God I have many things to say saith Christ to his Disciples but ye cannot beare them now Joh. 16. 12. Nor could they ever fully beare so much as Christ had to say We have line upon line precept upon precept here a little and there a little Isa 28. 10. because it is but here and there a little some few lines or precepts which we are able to learne and digest into our spirits whole showers of divine truths are often rained upon us Heb. 6. yet we drinke in but a drop or two we swimme as it were in a whole ocean a sea of holy revelations but we are narrow-necked-bottles and how little is it which bubbleth in mine eare received a little thereof The truth of God is like God himselfe infinite Truth is nothing else but the minde of God and that is infinite therefore we who are not only finite but streightned cannot possibly comprehend it Thirdly Mine eare received a little thereof it was but a little he received yet he received a little all did not fall beside his eare all did not slip away he caught somewhat Note from hence That the eare and heart of a godly man ever receive somewhat when the truths of God are revealed I cannot get in all my heart will not receive all my memory will not retaine all but a little it will hold somewhat it takes in at every Sermon and from every vision of God Sermons are the visions of God and somewhat of Gods mind is brought to you in every holy Sermon Naturall men are like sieves like vessels without a bottome or full of holes into which these truths being put run out every drop the best in this life are leaking vessels much drops out Eliphaz received a little How many heare much and receive nothing They come empty to the Ordinances and they returne empty their eaâ—es have been fill'd with a sound but their hearts have not caught a sillable not a word of truth is written in their hearts not a letter laid up in their minds And that 's the reason why not a word is to be seen in their lives How can they hold out the word in a pure conversation who have not received it into a pure conscience In thoughts from the visions of the night when deepe sleepe falleth on men The former Verse shewed us the manner how that thing was brought to Eliphaz a thing was secretly brought to me this shewes the time when it was brought it was saith he in thoughts from the visions of the night when deepe sleepe falleth on men In thoughts from the visions of the night Some reade it in the Vel post visio nes noctis sicut dicimus à coena à â—randio sic Hos 6. 2. vel â—n cogitationibuâ— visâ—â—num noctis ut
upon his estate upon the branches and the fruit of that goodly tree much like that in the vision Dan. 4. 13 14. I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed and behold a watcher and a holy One came downe from Heaven He cryed aloud and said thus Hew downe the tree and cut off his branches shake off his leaves and scatter his fruit c. This Allegory may be rendred in the plaine words of Eliphaz I cursed his habitation his children are far from safety The Master of the Family is the tree His children are either fruit or branches His leaves are riches and honour the beauty and pleasantnesse of his habitation Some things in the letter of the text are to be opened but I shall first observe one thing in the generall from the connection of this fourth verse with the third I suddenly cursed his habitation verse 3. Then follows his children are far from safety Observe from it That Creatures cannot stand before the curse of God How strongly soever they are rooted the blast of the breath of Gods displeasure will either blow them downe or wither them standing The curse comes powerfully suddenly and secretly it is often an invisible stroake When we see neither axe nor spade at the roote nor strome at rhe top yet downe it comes or stands without leafe or fruit When Christ in the Gospell curst the fruitlesse figg-tree his Disciples passing by that way wondred saying how quickly is this figg-tree whithered it was but onely a word from Christ Never beare fruit more and the fig-tree which had no fruit lost its life Some are such tall Cedars such mighty Oakes that men conclude there is no stirring of them no Axe can fell them or blast loosen them yet a word from the Lord will turne them up side downe or if he doe but say to them never fruit grow upon your actions or out of your counsels presently they wither The curse causlesse shall not come but when there is a cause and God speaks the word the curse will come Neither power nor policies neither threatnings or entreaties can hinder or block it up It is said of the water of jealousie in the booke of Numbers that when the woman dranke that water if there were cause of her husbands suspition presently her belly swel'd and her thighes did rot the effect was inevitable So if God bid judgement take hold of a man family or Nation it will obey A word made the world and a word is able to destroy it There is no armour of proofe against the shot or stroake of a curse Suddenly I cursed his habitation and the next news is His children are far from safety If God speake the word it is done as soone as spoken as that mysterious Letter said of the Gun-pouder plot As soone as the paper is burnt the thing is done Surely God can cause his judgements to passe upon his implacable enemies such horrid conspiratours against Churches and Common-wealths truth and peace with as much speed as a paper burns with a blaze and a blast they are consumed That in the generall from the connexion of these two verses Assoone as he was cursed his children and his estate all that he had went to wrack and ruine I shall now open the words distinctly His children are far from safety Some reade Were far from safety and so the whole passage in the time past because he speaks of a particular example which he himself had observeâ— in those daies as is cleare v. 2. Having shewed the curse upon the eoot he now shews the withering of the brauches Some of the Rabbins understand by Children the Followers or Imitators of wicked men such as assisted them or such as were like them These are morall children but take it rather in the letter for naturall children such as were borne to them or adopted by them these come under their fathers unhappinesse They are far from safety The Hebrew word is commonly rendred salvation His children are farre from salvation But then we must understand it for temporall salvation which our translation expresses clearely by safety His children are farre from safety It is possible that the children of a wicked man may be neare unto eternall salvation Though godly parents have a promise for their seed yet grace doth not runne in a bloud neither is the love of God tied or entayl'd upon any linage of men Election sometimes crosses the line and steps into the family of a reprobate father Therefore it is not said His children are farre from salvation in a strict but in a large sence We find the word salvation frequently used for safetie 2 Kings 13. 17. when Elisha bad Joash the King of Israel shot the arrow he called it the arrow of the Lords salvation which we render the arrow of the Lords deliverance So Moses bespeakes the trembling Israelites aâ— the red Sea Stand still and behold the salvation of the Lord that is behold what safety the Lord will give you from all these dangers what deliverance from the hand of Pharaoh The Prophet represents the Jewes thus bemoaning their outward judgements We roare all like Beares and mourne sore like Doves we looke for judgement but there is none for salvation but it is farre off Isa 59. 11. They are far from safety To be far from safety is a phrase importing extreame danger As when a man is said to be far from light he is in extreame darknesse and when a man is said to be far from health he is in extreame sicknesse and when a man is said to be far from riches he is in extreame poverty So here His children are far from safety that is they are in extreame danger and perill they walk as it were in the regions of trouble in the valley of the shadow of death continually That phrase is used also respecting the spirituall estate of unbeleevers They are far off from God far off from the Covenant Isa 57. 19. Ephes 12. 13. that is they have no benefit by the Covenant no interest in no favour at all or mercy from the Lord. To be far off from mercy is to be neare wrath and to be far from safety is to dwell upon the borders of danger And they are crushed in the gate In the forth Chapter Eliphaz describes man as crushed before the moth to shew how suddenly how easily man is destroyed This mans children are crushed in the gate as a man would crush a flie or a moth between his fingers They are crushed in the gate That notes two things First the publikenesse of their destruction they shall be destroyed in the sight of all men for the gate was a publike place Pro 31. 31. her workes praise her in the gates that is she is publikely knowne by her good works To doe a thing in the gate is opposed to the doing of a thing secretly To suffer in the gate is to suffer publikely Secondly to be crushed in the gate
hath every affliction all sorrowes in him and the justice of God may forme the most dreadfull shapt afflictions out of his sins And as the sparke lyes closely in the fire or the flint till you smite or blow them up so sin lyes secretly in our hearts till some temptation or occasion smites and brings it out Againe we may observe That Man can sin without a teacher You need not instruct him or teach him to doe evill He doth that by a naturall instinct since his nature was corrupted He sins as the sparks fly upwards or as a bird flyes in the ayre whom no man directs how to use her wings Nature is her rute There needs much teaching against sin and it is the businesse of all the Ordinances to bridle us from acting our corruptions But man walkes in the ways of wickedness without guide or precept It was the ancient error of the Pelagians that the sin of man came only by imitation they denied that man had a stock of corruption in his nature or that his nature was corrupted but seeing others sin he sinned an opinion which carries its condemnation in its own face as wel as in our hearts And though similitudes are no proofs yet the reason of a similitude is mans sinning is therefore compared to a sparks flying to shew how naturally he sins A spark flyes upward without any to lead it the way and a bird would flye though she should never see another bird flye And if a man could live so as never to see any one example of sin all his dayes yet that man out of his own heart might bring forth every sin every day Example quickens and encourages the principles of sin within us but we can sin without any extrinsick motion or provocation without pattern or president from without Lastly observe To sin is no burden or labour to a natural man For it is his nature It is no paines to the sparke to flye upwards what we doe naturally we doe easily Holy duties are no burdens to a godly man because through grace he doth them naturally he hath an inward principle which dictates the law of holines to him though he should want outward teaching He hath an unction from the holy Ghost and knoweth all things 1 Joh. 2. 20. Not that a godly man becomes like God Omniscient or knowing all for at most we know here but in part but he knows all things necessary and so farre as necessary his new birth teaches him He lives not meerely upon the outward teaching he hath both light liberty in himself and so hath a tendency to these things in his own spirit as there is a tendency in fire to ascend We should wonder and rejoyce to see how grace conquers the course of sinful nature The new man is born to mercy and holinesse to grace and glory as the sparks fly upward Hence it is said He that is born of God cannot commit sin for the seed of God remaineth in him As the sparke cannot flye downward because the heate of fire remaines in it The Apostle affirmes it of himselfe and his Fellow-labourers in the Gospell we can doe nothing against the truth but for the truth 2 Cor 13. 8. The possibilities and impossibilities of a regenerate man are directly opposite to those of a naturall man The one cannot sin the other cannot but sin the one can doe nothing against the truth the other can doe nothing for the truth gracious acts become as naturall as sinfull when nature is changed from sin to grace What a blessed change is this that man should doe good as readily as once he did evill that he who was borne free to iniquity should be re-borne free to righteousness as the sparke flye upward A godly man is a heavenly sparke He hath a fire in his nature which carries him upward for ever Thus having opened these two verses being the grounds of the following exhortation let us now examine the matter of the exhortation it selfe contained in the 8th verse Verse 8. I would seeke unto God and unto God would I commit my cause Our Translation omits one word in the beginning of this sentence which though it may be understood in our reading yet the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expression of it betters the sense Surely or truly I would seeke c. There are two opinions about the meaning of these words Some conceive that Eliphaz speaks in high contempt of Job and I may give you their sense by that proud schooling which the Pharisee gave the poor Publican Luke 18. As that Pharisee insulted over the publican thus I thank God I am not such a one as thou art c. but I fast and I pray c. So they represent Eliphaz here insulting over Job I thank God I am not such an impatient person as thou art no such rude curser of my day or complainer of my trouble I am not I thank God so distracted and so distempered as thou art and if I had been in thy case I should have shewed more wit and grace too then to do as thou hast done I should never have been so vaine and foolish so forgetfull of my own duty or the Lords Soveraignty as to cry out against and accuse his providence and dealings with me to lay about me like a mad man as thou hast done no I would have songht unto God and committed my cause unto him this should have been my course such and such the frame and temper of my spirit But I rather take these words in a good sense implying much sweetnesse and meeknesse of spirit in Eliphaz And so this verse is as an application of the Doctrine contained in the former two As if Eliphaz had said Seeing matters stand thus in themselves and these are undoubted truths that afflictions come from our selves and that our sinnes are our own and seeing thy case stands thus that now thou art under great afflictions and troubles I doe assure thee my loving friend Job were I in thy condition I will give thee faithfull counsell and tell thee my heart what I would doe I would no longer stay complaining against my day cursing creatures distempering my head and disquieting my heart with these passions but I would even goe and addresse my selfe unto God I would apply my selfe to Heaven I would seeke for remedy there earth affords it not I have ever found this the way to ease my heart when burdened to asswage my sorrowes when encreased to compose my spirit when distracted to strengthen my resolutions when unsetled I can give thee this rule with A Probatum est an assurance from mine own experience in the use of it and with clearnesse of conscience that it is my purpose in such cases to use it ever I would seeke unto God The word signifies a very diligent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat quaerere diligenter cuâ— curâ— sed interregatione veâ—biâ— ut plurimum search I would
light at high-noon So then this word includes all kinds and degrees of happines yet here it is properly to be understood of the happines of this life which only is consistent with correction There are no rods in Heaven and we shall be past children before we come thither Thirdly we may answer plainly that the word in the Hebrew Simplex genuina responsio est quod nomen ipsum quo He braei beaâ—itudinem notant est plurale tantum ut latinis opes dâ—vitiae Ames in Ps 3. is only Plurall or Duall being never read in the singular number As in the Latine we have many the like words It is further observable concerning this word that it is alwayes applied unto man whereas the word Barac blessed is applied both to God and man This happinesse is a speciall and peculiar happinesse of man The Lord being infinitely above both obeying and suffering Happy is the Man Enosh the Hebrew word for Man of whom happinesse under correction is predicated is very sutable to this businesse of correction Enosh signifies a sickly weake miserable man We might render the full sence of the word thus Happy is that miserable man whom God corrects That is look upon a man according to the ordinary account of the world and calculation of reason he is a miserable man a weake sickly man yet happy is this weake sickly miserable man in the account of God and by the calculation of faith Grace makes that good sence which is a contradiction both in nature and in reason A miserable man and a happy man one and the same In Psal 1. the word Ish is used Blessed is the man that is Blessed is that excellent man that holy man that strong man walking and delighting in the Law of the Lord. Yea blessed with the same blessednesse is that miserable man smarting under the rod of the Lord whom God correcteth And yet blessednesse is joyned with all the words by which man is expressed It is joyned with Adam Psal 32. 1. Blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven Adam is the generall word for Man and is therefore most fitly joyned with blessednesse in pardon of sinne because all men are sinners and no man can be blessed except he be pardoned Blessednesse is joyned also with Geber a strong powerfull and mighty man Psal 94. 12. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest him out of thy Law Blessed is Geber the great man the honourable man the highest by birth or place whom thou chastnest The Chaldee Paraphrase restraines the word Man to an individuall Beatus AbrahaÌ„ virpius quem corripuit Deus Chald. Paâ—ap to Abraham as if Eliphaz had put the instance in Abraham and said Behold happy was that holy man Abraham whom God corrected therefore despise not thou the chastning of the Almighty I can give thee a famous example of a godly man corrected Abraham thy Ancestor met with afflictions as well as thou and yet he was a most happy man therefore despise not thou the chastning of the Lord. But the word is generall and so we are to understand it though this be a truth in any or every instance among the servants of God I must yet put in a caution for the right understanding of this proposition Blessed is the man whom God corrects The meaning is not as if happinesse were the portion of every miserable man or of every man that is afflicted doe not thinke so many are at once corrected and cursed troubled and miserable in trouble To many their present sorrows are but the fore-tasts of eternall sorrowes As Christ spake in a common case These things are but the beginning of sorrowes So we may say to the particular cases of many groaning under sicknesse poverty disgrace c. Alas poore soules ye are so far from being happy in these that these are but the beginnings of your unhappinesse God doth but begin to call for some arreares due to his justice which you must be a paying and satisfying to all eternity There is no happinesse in affliction naturally considered it is accidentall to afflictions that happinesse is associated with them Affliction in it selfe is grievous and it would be only so to us did not the over-ruling admirable dispensations of God temper order dispose and worke it to an end above its own nature it is the art and wisdome of the Physitian which corrects poysonous simples and ingredients so as to make them medicineable And did not the wisedome and goodnesse of of God correct our corrections they would not be medicine to us but poyson It is not correction but the hand of God with it and in it which makes us happy Happie is the man whom God correcteth The word which we translate * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arguit redarguit corripuit praeparavit verba contra aliquem disputaÌ„do ostendendojus Quod et si verbis plerumque fiat pertinet tamen ea vox ad sevirorem discip inam verbera quae cujuspiaÌ„ peccati reprehensionem comitari solet Pined correct signifies to reprove or to convince by arguments or dispute To argue a man down from his errour by the strength and clearnesse of reason or divine authority So Levit. 19. 19. Thou shalt not suffer sinne upon thy brother thou shalt surely rebuke him Thou shalt rebuke him it is the word here used that is thou shalt bring such arguments as may convince him of his sin and lay his wickednesse open before him This word is applied to corrections and afflictions in Scripture because with convictions we feele corrections frequently joyned The Lord argues the matter and as it were disputes with some very long who yet will not let in divine truth nor be perswaded though they are perswaded What doth he then Then he sends correction with his redargution he cloaths his words with blowes disputes with a God in his hand and brings an argument from feeling when reasoning prevailes not In this booke of Job Elihu shewes it Chap. 33. 16 19. Then he openeth the eares of men and sealeth their instruction he is chastened also with paine upon his bed Hence observe First That afflictions to the children of God at sorest are but corrections Blessed or happie is the man whom God corrects You will say but what is a correction And how in a strict sence differenced from judgements and punishments and wherein doe they agree They agree first in the efficient cause God layes his hand on man in both Secondly They agree in the matter the same evill the same trouble to one man is a correction to another a judgement Thirdly they may agree also in the degree A trouble or an affliction may fall and lie as heavy and be as painfull to sence upon a child of God as upon the vilest wretch in the world he may be as poore as friendlesse as sicke as sorrowfull in his outward man as any wicked man he may lie in the
necessary practise in Chyrurgery and to that the holy Ghost may allude in this place When they perceive a wound or a sore to which medicines Illa est vox Domini percutiam ego sanabo hoc faciunt medici Ferrum gestant câ—rare veniunt Clamat secandus secaâ—ur saevitur in vulnus ut homo sanetur Aug in Ps 50. Chyrurgus saepe vulnus infligit ferro sibi spatium ad commodam curationem aperit cannot well be appied and so unfit for healing either to make a new wound in the whole flesh or to make the first bigger The murderer wounds to kill and the Physitian wounds to cure He comes as it were arm'd with instruments of cruelty The patient whose flesh is to be launced cryes out but yet he launces him The patient whose flesh is to be seared cryes out but yet he sears him He is cruell to the wound while he is most kind to the wounded An ignorant man would wonder to see a Chyrurgion when he comes for healing make the wound wider yet so he must do and he doth it upon urgent reasons As when the orifice is not wide enough to let in the medicine or to let out the corruption or cannot admit his searching instruments to the bottome In such cases he saith Vnlesse I increase your wound I cannot cure it Thus often times the Lord is compelled to wound that he may heale or fit our wounds for healing Our wound is not wide enough to let out the sinfull corruptions of our hearts to let in the searching instruments and corrasives of the Law or the blame and comfortable applications of the Gospel We may observe from the sence of the words That The woundings and smitings of God are preparatories for our cure and healing It is said Isa 53. 5. of Christ that with his stripes we are healed and it is in this sence a truth that we are healed with our own stripes We are healed with the stripes of Christ meritoriously and we are healed by our own stripes preparatorily the stripes of Christ heale us naturally our own stripes heale us occasionally or his in the act ours in the event Prov. 27. 6. Faithfull are the wounds of a friend his wounds are faithfull because he wounds in faithfulnesse The healings of many are unfaithfull They heale the hurt of the daughter of my people deceitfully is the Lords complaint by the Prophet they skin over the wound but they doe not cure it Let the righteous smite me it shall be a kindnesse and let him reprove me it shall be an excellent oyle which shall not break my head Psal 141. 5. Much more may we say Let the righteous Lord smite me and it shall be a kindnes to me let the righteous Lord reprove and correct me it shall be as an excellent oyle which shall not breake mine head it shall heale my heart How healing then are his salves whose very sores are a salve Secondly Take the words in the plaine rendring of them noting onely thus much that God makes sore and bindeth up So we have two distinct acts often ascribed to God in a figure to set forth judgement and mercy the afflictions and deliverances of his people Hos 6. 2. Let us return unto the Lord for he hath torne and he will heale us he hath smitten and he will bind us up 1 Sam. 2. 6. The Lord killeth and maketh alive Deut. 32. 39. See now that I even I am he and there is no God with me I kill and I make alive I wound and I heale Hence observe It is the property of God to take care of all the sicknesses sores or evils of his peopls As God is the great correcter and instructer of his people so he is the great Physitian of his people If he make a wound he will take care for the healing of it He doth not make sores and leave others to bind up Mighty men wound but they take no care for healing they can impoverish and spoyle but they care not to repaire they can pull down and root up let who so will build and plant Shaddai the Almighty God doth both If he break thy head come to him humble thy selfe before him and he will surely give thee a plaister which shall cost thee nothing but the asking And whereas he doth not willingly afflict or grieve he doth most willingly comfort and heale the children of men Lam. 3. 33. He speaks of it as a paine to himselfe to make us sore but to make us sound is his delight and pleasure Satan is the Abaddon the destroyer and he only destroys he makes wounds but he heals none he kills but he makes none alive The second branch of the verse He woundeth and his hands make whole is but a repetition of the same thing yet with some addition to or heightning of the sence To make sore and bind up are not so deep either in judgement or in mercy as to wound and make whole The word used for wounding imports a dangerous and a deadly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Transfodit transfixit vel cruentavit wound or to make a man all gore blood It signifies to strike quite thorough and it is divers times applied to note that stroke which God gives his worst enemies Psal 68. 21. But God shall wound the head of his enemies or he shall strike them quite through the head Verse 23. He shall dip his foot or make it red in the blood of the ungodly And Psal 110. 5. The Lord shall strike through Kings in the day of his wrath Hence observe That God sometimes makes very deep and great wounds in his own servants Such wounds as by the sight of the eye you cannot distinguish them from the wounds of his mortall enemies He strikes thorough both heads and hearts of his own people Or as Simeon said to the blessed Virgin Mary Luke 2. 35. A sword pierceth through their soule also But then lastly note God never makes a wound too great for his own cure The power of God to save is as great as his power to destroy his healing power and his wounding power are of the same extent His justice cannot out-act his mercy both are infinite And not onely doth he heale the wounds which himselfe makes but he can heale the wounds which men make even all the wounds which the utmost power and malice of man can make He is able to doe more good to shew more mercy than all creatures are able to doe hurt or mischiefe We finde the state and condition of a people sometimes so wounded and sick that men have despaired of recovery Being consulted they may answer your sore cannot be bound up and your wound cannot be healed your estate is gangren'd and past cure So he said as was toucht before Isa 3 8. In that day shall a man sweare saying I will not be an healer for in my house is neither bread nor cloathing Alas I heale you
pavillion a secret hiding place for his Favourites where he preserves their credit and reputation untoucht against all the blots and causelesse blemishes of malignant spirits Thus they are hid from the strife of tongues Hence his Saints and people are called His stored or his hidden ones Psal 83. 3. Observe first The tongue is a scourge The tongue is a terrible engine The Scripture gives us variety of comparisons to set forth the evill of an ill tongue It is here called a scourge and it is a scourge of many lashes or knotted cords or rather stinging scorpions scoffing is one slander a second false accusations a third The former strictly taken is a lye told any neighbour and the latter is a lye told the Magistrate The tongue Psal 52 2. is called a sharpe rasor Psal 57. 4. it is compared to speares and arrowes and a sharpe Sword and if at any time with much using this Sword be blunted in the edge or point the Scripture speakes of whetting the tongue Psal 64. 3. It is as the sharpe arrowes of the mighty man and coales of juniper Psal 120. 4. They bend their tongues like a bow Jer. 9. 3. Their tongue is as an arrow shot out ver 8. In a word It is a fire and a world of mischiefe Jam. 3. 6. Jer. 18. 18. we reade of smiting with the tongue and of devouring words Psal 52. 4. As there are devouring opinions opinions which not only hurt the judgements of men but devoure their consciences and eat up truth as it were at a bit so there are devouring words words that eat up a mans reputation and devour his good name as bread Slanderous mouthes lâ—ve the whitest bread the finest of the wheate A mans credit which hath not a branne in it how sweet a morsell is it to such mouthes Though the truth is every name by how much the more pure and spotlesse it is by so much the more deadly will it be in the stomacks of these devourers A good name swallowed by an ill man will as Jonas did the Whale make him one time or other Stomach-sick if not conscience-sick and he shall be forced to vomit it out safe againe It is a sad thing when thus the people of God are wounded and scourged by the tongues of wicked men but I will tell you of a sadder scourging that is when the people and servants of God scourge one another with their tongues I beseech you leave this work to wicked men take not the scourge of the tongue out of their hands let us not only not slander but not speake hardly one of another The ancient Christians in the Primitive times were deepely wounded by the scourge of the tongue what strange things did ungodly men feigne and then fasten on them They reported them as black as hell as if their holy meetings were not to worship God but to defile themselves with incest and uncleannesse but among Christians themselves we reade not of this scourge at that time No Christians loved one another to the amazement of Heathens They were so farre from this scourging or wounding of one another that they were ready to be scourged to be wounded to be burned to die one for another This caused their Pagan persecuters to cry out Behold how the Christians love one another We are scourged by wicked ones as They O that we could love one another as They. Sons of Belial have revived the ancient reproaches and accusations against the brethren O that we could revive the ancient imbraces and most endeared affections of the Brethren Observe secondly It is a great mercy to be delivered from the Scourge of the tongue The Apostle speaks of it as a wonderfull mercy that he was delivered out of the Mouth of the Lion 2 Tim. 4. 17. Surely it is no ordinary mercy though lying be very ordinary to be delivered out of the Mouth of a lyar This is joyned in one promise with deliverance from the most deadly instrumenrs of warre Isa 54. 17. No weapon formed against thee shall prosper that is no weapon of warre neither Sword nor Speare shall hurt thee Then followes And every tongue that shall rise up against thee in judgement thou shalt condemne This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. The tongue of a Ziba or of a Tertullus will devour and destroy as bad as the Sword of a Caesar or a Pompey The holy story tels us what woefull work the tongue had made upon Joseph and Mephibosheth if the good providenee of God had not spoken a good word for them Lastly Let me add one seasonable word of admonition to these tongue scourgers As the word is They that smite with the sword shall perish with the sword so they that smite with the tongue shall perish with the tongue The tongues of the Saints are in some sence sharper and sorer scourges then the tongues of wicked men The word of God in their mouths is a Two-edged Sword yea sharper then any Two-edged Sword A Prophet or a Minister of Christ can strike as hard with his tongue as and infinitely harder then any Prophane wretch or railing Rabshakeb in the world Truth well set home will wound deeper than slander can I saith the Lord Hos 6. 5. have hewed them by my Prophets and slaine them by the words of my mouth In the 11th of the Revelation it is prophecied That fire shall goe out of the mouths of the two Witnesses and devour their enemies vers 5. That is the word of their mouths shall be as a fire to scorch and consume the gain saying world and with this instrument their tongue for that only is sutable for the work of Witnesses they are said to have tormented those that dwell upon the earth ver 10. Some indeed are Sermon-proofe and Word-proofe They at present doe even laugh at all our spirituall Artillery Let whole volleyes of threats be discharg'd upon them let them be hackt and hewed all day long with the Sword of the Word they feele it not it may be they jeer at it at least they regard it not As they Jer. 18. 18. conspiring against the Prophet Come let us devise devices c. let us smite him with the tongue And least any should say if we smite him with the tongue he will smite us againe For these Prophets are notable at that weapon To secure themselves they resolve thus Let us not give heed to any of his words As if they had said we know he will speake bigge words and threaten us terribly with Sword and pestilence and famine and hell c. But let 's arme our selves against him and make no more of all then of a Squibb or a pot-gun then of a stabbe with a wooden dagger or a charge with a Bull rush Let us not give heed to any of his words But let these know though now they are hardned against the spirituall scourge and sword in the mouth of Christs Ministers yet at the last
thy selfe or friends thou shalt die as some translate in a good old-age or as Mr. Broughton thou shalt die in lusty old-age Time shall not wither thee nor drinke up thy blood and spirits Thou shalt have a spring in the Autumne and a Summer in the winter of thy life As it was with Moses Deut. 34. 7. who died when he was an hundred and twenty yeares old yet saith the text His eye was not dimme nor his naturall force abated This is to die in a full old-age full of daies yet full of strength and health It is a great blessing when a man is in this sense youthfull in old-age when others see with foure eyes and goe with three leggs he uses neither staff nor spectacles but renews his strength like the Eagle Or we may take the sense more generally for any one that liveth long and liveth comfortably as it was said of Abraham Gen. 25. 8. That he died in a good old-age an old man and full of yeares He died in a good old-age The young-man is counsel'd To remember his Creator in the dayes of his youth before the evill daies come Eccles 12. 1. What are those Those evill daies are the daies of old-age The words following being an Allegoricall elegant description of old age Old-age in it selfe is the evill day The lives of many old-men are a continuall death They live as it were upon the racke of extreame paines or strong infirmities therefore it is a speciall blessing for man to be old and yet to have a good old-age that is a florid comfortable old-age To have many yeares and few infirmities is a rare thing In some old-age flourishes and in others old-age perishes Job gives us this difference in the use of this word Chap. 30. 2. Yea whereto might the strength of their hands profit me in whom Chelad old-age was perished As if he had said some old-men are active and strong but these who were faded and flatted in all their abilities in what stead could they stand me They were a trouble to themselves and therefore could be no comfort unto others This full old-age is explained further by way of similitude He shall die in a full age lie as a shock of corne commeth in in his season When a young man dye he is as greene corne The Psalmist imprecates that some may be like the grasse or corne on the house-top that withereth before it is cut downe whereof the mower Psal 129. 6 7. filleth not his hand nor he that bindeth up the sheaves his bosome The life of a man sometimes is like corn growing upon the house top that withereth Or as it is in the parable of the sower Mat. 13. like the corne that fell on the high-way side or among stones and thornes which came not in in it's season it never staid the ripening or reaping but was eaten up or dried or choaked before the harvest Now here man is compared unto corne sowed in good ground well rooted and continuing out it's season and is brought in ripe at harvest Old-age is the harvest of nature Some divide mans life into seven parts comparing it to the seven planets Some into five comparing it to the five acts of an interlude but commonly the life of man is divided into foure parts and so it is compared to the foure seasons of the yeare And in that division old-age is the winter-quarter cold and cloudy full of rheumes and catarrhs of diseases and distellations But here old-age is the harvest though thou art a very old-man thou shalt not die as in winter but thou shalt die as it were in harvest when thou art full ripe and readie as a shock of corne that is laid up in the barne The generall judgement of the world is compared to a harvest and death which is a particular day of judgement is a harvest too Those words He shall come to his grave as a shock of corne are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ascendere significat â—vanescere velut in auras tolli velè medio tolli further considerable the Hebrew is He shall ascend as a shock of corre and that referring to death is sometimes translated by cutting off or taking away Psal 102. 25. Cut me not off in the midst of my daies The letter is Let me not ascend in the midst of my daies Whether it have any allusion to that hope or faith of the Saints in their death that they doe but ascend when they die or to their disappearing to the eye of sence when they die because things which ascend vanish out of sight and are not seene In either sence when the Saints are cut downe by death they ascend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Propriè significat acervum frugum qui in And they are elegantly said To ascend as a shock of corne because that is taken from the earth and reored or stackt up and so by a Metaphor it signisies a Tombe or a monument errected or high-built over a dead corpse much after the manner of a shock of corn area erigitur Metaphoricè tumultum ceu currulum teâ—rae vel monumentuÌ„ sepulcro imposiâ—um So the word is used He shall remaine in the tombe or Heape Job 22. 32. So then the sum of this verse is a promise of comfort and honour in death He shall die in a full age when he is readie and ripe for death Yet this is not to be taken strictly that every godly man dies in such a full old age in an age full of daies or full of comforts Many of Gods best servants have had evill daies in their old age their old age hath had many daies of trouble and sickness of paine and perplexity But thus it is with many in old age and this is especially to be look't upon as an Old Testament promise when the Lord dealt more with his people invisible externall mercies Yet in one sense it is an universall truth and ever fulfilled to his people for whensoever they die they die in a good age yea though they die in the spring and flower of youth they die in a good old age that is they are ripe for death when ever they die when ever a godly man dies it is harvest time with him though in a naturall capacity he be cut down while he is green and cropt in the bud or blossome yet in his spirituall capacity he never dies before he is ripe God ripens his speedily when he intends to take them out of the world speedily He can let out such warme rayes and beams of his Spirit upon them as shall soone maturate the seeds of grace into a preparednesse for glory whereas a wicked man living an hundred yeaers hath no full old-age much lesse a good old-age he is ripe indeed for destruction but he is never ripe for death he is as unreadie and unripe for death when he is an hundred years old as when he was but a day old He hath not begun
searched it and what follows so it is He speaks with authority not timerously as if he doubted whether it were so or no but so it is we will bide by it we have it upon enquiry and diligent search Observe fourthly The truths we know our selves we should communicate unto others Here it is we have searched it but we will not put the light we have found under a bushell we will not hide the talent we have in a napkin Here it is make what use of it thou canst know it for thy good Observe fifthly Truth may challenge credit and command the eare Hear thou it Truth needs not stand begging audience or creep upon the ground with flattering insinuations or humble submissions to gaine acceptance Truth is a great Prince and may speak in the language of Princes We will We require It commands rather then entreats or all its entreaties commands every word a law or a charge Hear thou it Observe in the sixth place That It is needfull to make speciall application of generall doctrinall truths Eliphaz had delivered a doctrinall truth and here he makes application And though he failed much in the application of it to Job yet there were generall truths very appliable in the things he delivered Therefore he stays not in generals nor leaves his doctrine hovering in the ayre but brings it home to the heart and layes it close to the conscience Hear thou it and know it thou for thy good And not onely are nationall and speculative truths to be brought home and applied but even common experimentall truths such were these discussed and handled by Eliphaz Observe seventhly A man may know much and yet get no good by it Know this for thy good The Devil is a great Scholler he knows much but he knows nothing for his benefit but all for his hurt Many a man knowes almost all that is knowable but he knowes nothing which is to him profitable Nothing gaines by his knowledge but onely his pride he is puffed up with knowledge not built up and that knowledge which puffes up will at last puffe down or cast us down Eightly Observe A godly man may make a profitable use of any Truth You see what truths Eliphaz spake many of them ordinary common Doctrines and many of them sore threatnings and judgements upon wicked men yet know thou this for thy good There is no veine of Doctrine in the book of God but a man may make use yea treasure of it All truth is so symbolical to the regenerate part that it cannot but more sublimate and spiritualize a spirituall heart though it selfe be a truth about things earthly and temporall Observe lastly All truths especially truths contained in the promises are the portion of a godly man Know thou it for thy good saith he As if he should say if thou art a godly man then all the good things I have here spoken of belonging to godly men belong to thee they are thy portion also While a believer reads the book of God he sees great riches many precious things in the promises and whatsoever good he findes there there is nothing of it too good for him he may know it all for his own good those sweet delicious promises of the pardon of sin of the love of God of the freenesse of grace of the glory to come the promises of Christ and of all that is Christs all these things are his when he reads them he may set his mark upon them and know them for his goods know them as his own proper goods Unbelievers are strangers to the promises and the promises are as strange to them they know not the promises and the promises will not know them They know not a letter of Scripture for their good The very promises are threatnings to them and the very blessings of the book of God are their curse As the clouds passe over this and that piece of ground and then dissolve upon a third by the directing and all disposing providence of God So the promises which are full of blessings full of comforts as the clouds are of showers passe over a wicked mans head and let not down one drop of mercy or comfort upon him but leave him like the dry hearth or barren wildernesse which seeth not when good cometh Jer. 17. 6. But when the cloud moves a little farther and meets with the family or person of a godly man there it dissolves and powreth out a plentifull raine both of temporall and spirituall blessings to refresh and confirme that inheritance of the Lord Psal 68. 9. And so much for this fifth Chapter wherein with the fourth we have handled the first part of the dispute undertaken against Job by Eliphaz the first of his three friends The whole discourse consisting of divers arguments to convince and humble him under the hand of God of divers counsels and motives to perswade and direct him to seek unto God and submit to his correcting hand All he was to speak being let in by a loving preface and all he spake being ratified with an assuring conclusion that all he had spoken was for his good if he would hear believe and obey In the next Chapters we shall hear Job making his defence scattering the charge thus brought against him stiffely maintaining and importunately renewing his first complaint JOB Chap. 6. Vers 1 2 3. But Job answered and said O that my griefe were throughly weighed and my calamity laid in the ballances together For now it would he heavier than the sand of the sea therefore my words are swallowed up c. THis sixth Chapter begins Jobs replication which is continued to the end of the seventh He replies exactly to the severall parts of the charge given by Eliphaz who in the two fore-going Chapters undertook both to reprove the impatience of Job and to advise him a more holy and better temper'd carriage towards God under his afflictions In this reply Job shapes and formes up answers unto both I shall endeavour to give you a briefe of the whole and then to particulars First Job enters with a refutation of those reproofes of impatience which Eliphaz had heap't upon him and with that subjoyns a refusall of the counsels in his sence which he had given him In this work seven verses of the Chapter are spent Secondly We have a renovation or a re-inforcement of his grief and desire to die from the 8 to the end of the 13 verse O that I might have my request that God would cut me off c. As if he had said I am so far from being satisfied with what thou hast spoken against me or from recanting and recalling what I have spoken in those my breathings after death that I will be bold to make the same suit to God againe O that I might have my request and that God would cut me off c. Thirdly He proceeds to a charge of rash censure of uncharitable yea of deceitfull dealing upon his
friends from the 13 unto the 24 verse To him that is afflicted saith he pity should be shewed from his friend my brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brooke c. Fourthly He yet submits himself to their judgement and direction if they would speak reason to him at last and come home to his case indeed or if they could fully and candidly discover to him any errour he was willing to be rectified This he professes and it is a most ingenious profession in the 24. and 25. verses Teach me saith he and I will hold my tongue and cause me to understand wherein I have erred c. As if he had said All that you have spoken hitherto doth not reach my condition ye have quite mistook my case yet you shall see I doe not stand out against you because I will stand out it is not my will that opposes what you have spoken but my understanding therefore if you can shew me better reason I lay down the bucklers and yield my selfe a prisoner to your selves and unto truth I delight not to lengthen out contentions nor am I resolved to have the last word Teach me and I will hold my tongue Fifthly He adds an expostulation mixed with an aggravation An expostulation about and an aggravation of their high jealousie and low opinion of him in the 26. and 27. verses Doe ye imagine to reprove words and the speeches of one that is desperate which are â—â— wind As if he had said Doe you think that you have had to deale with a man that onely makes a noyse or speaks a great many words which have more sound then sence doe ye think I am out of my wits and in stead of arguing with you doe onely rave like a mad man at you Ye have not had vaine windy words from me but words full of weight and matter words of truth and sobernesse wherefore then doe you speak thus Doe ye imagine to reprove words and the speeches of one that is desperate Doe ye think I speak like one who knows not what he speaks Or that I have at once lost my hope and my understanding Sixthly He gives them advice and admonition to take better heed to what they should after say if they intended to to say any more or to continue their counsell and discourse with him in the three last verses of this sixth Chapter Now therefore be content looke upon me for it is evident to you if I lie returne I pray you c. In the 7th which concludes his speech he offers three things especially to be observed First A renewing of many arguments and considerations by which he confirmes the equity of his request to have his life cut off upon which sad subject he insists from the beginning of the Chapter to the end of the 17th verse Is there not an appointed time to man upon the earth Are not his dayes like the dayes of an Hireling c. Secondly After all his high straines of contest with man we have an abasement of himselfe as unworthy that God should take notice of him either by mercies or judgements in the 18. and 19. verses What is man that thou shouldst magnifie him and that thou shouldest visit him every morning c. A godly man will stand when he sees cause upon his termes with men but he ever falls low before and hath not a word to reply against God He is sometime angry when men vilifie him but he ever admires why God should magnifie him What is man c. Thirdly He concludes his speech with an humble acknowledgement of his own sinfulnesse and with an earnest request for the pardon of his sin Lord saith he I have sinned what shall I doe unto thee O thou preserver of men vers 20 c. After all this heat and passion after all these complainings Jobs heart lay levell before the Lord yea he abases himselfe to exalt and give glory to God with humble confession and an earnest supplication for the pardon of his sin Thus we have the generall parts and substance of his answer to that charge of Eliphaz in the two former Chapters But Job answered and said c. In these words and the three following verses Job gives us the refutation or rejection of that reproof given him by Eliphaz And he refutes it by shewing the reason why Eliphaz as he supposed was so sharpe and bitter in reproving him And further he shews cause why he rejects his counsell or consolation The reason upon Amicos taxat quod antequam ipsum reprehender ent non expendissent suam miseriam Coc. which he puts off those reproofs is this because Eliphaz had not duly considered his sorrowes or was not so sensible of them as a man should be that undertakes a friend in his condition The sum of his argument against what Eliphaz had spoken may be thus formed He cannot duly reprove or convince another of impatience in complaining who hath not fully weighed those calamities which are the cause and ground of those complaints But Eliph z thou hast not fully weighed and considered my case and condition my troubles and calamities which are the ground and cause of my complaints Therefore thou canst not duly reprove or convince me of impatience The Assumption or second Proposition of this argument is couched in the second verse O that my griefe were throughly weighed and that my calamity were laid in the ballances together As if he had said I had never received such harsh censures such a judgement or reproofe if thou hadst duly weighed my sorrows if thou hadst faithfully studied my case thou hadst never rebuked me thus The weight of his calamity himselfe expresseth two ways First Comparatively at the third verse by putting it into the ballance with the sand of the sea For now saith he it would be heavier than the sand of the sea Secondly He sets forth the greatness of his calamity demonstratively by declaring in what manner he had been afflicted My affliction is not an ordinary affliction I am wounded with the arrows of the Almighty and those poisoned arrows and those arrows drinking up my spirits I have not onely some single great affliction or many small ones upon me but I have terrour and terrours yea I have an army of terrours yea an army of terrours always incamping about me and charging me continually why Eliphaz thou didst never clearly consider these things much lesse hast thou had a sympathy or fellow-feeling of them Thou hast not bin afflicted in my afflictions Thou hast not sorrowed my sorrowes nor wept my tears Therefore it is that thou hast so sharply reproved me and put so much gall and wormwood into thy discourse So then the summe of this first part may be thus given taking it out of those high and hyperbolicall straines in which his passion was carried as if Job had thus answered Eliphaz It is an easie matter to slight that which a man doth not know and to thinke
griefe either through want of power or through the restraint of power both wayes griefe increases Some who have been dying Apud SophocleÌ„ electra faelicem vocat Niobem cui lugere filiorum interâ—tum permissum est cum id sibi matris crudelitas negaverita upon cruell rackes or under bloudie tortures have yet esteemed this beyond all their tortures that they might not freely speak out their minds and sorrows to have their mouthes stopt was worse to them then to have their breath stopt It is a pain to be kept from speaking To command a man to swallow or eat downe his words is next to the command of eating and swallowing downe his own flesh The cruelty of a disease may gagge a man as well as the cruelty of a Tyrant Such is my griefe that my words are swallowed up JOB Chap. 6. Vers 4 5 6 7. For the arrowes of the Almighty are within me the poyson whereof drinketh up my spirit the terrours of God doe set themselves in aray against me Doth the wilde Asse bray when he hath grasse Or loweth the Ox over his fodder Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt Or is there any taste in the white of an Egge The things that my soule refused to touch are as my sorrowfull meate JOB continueth his reply and his complaint He had exprest the greatnesse of his calamity by comparing it with the sand of the sea for weightinesse now he proceeds in the same sad aggravation by comparing it to an arrow for sharpenesse and to an army for terriblenesse For the arrows of the Almighty are within me The terrours of the Lord set themselves in array against me We are in this verse to open a quiver full of poysoned arrowes and to marshall an army full of divine terrours The arrows of the Almighty c. An Arrow is a deadly engine so called in the Hebrew from its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sagitta à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dimidiavit discidit qaod scindit rem percussaâ— effect cutting or wounding Being taken properly it is an instrument shot out of a Bow of wood or iron either for sport or fight But here figuratively And arrows in Scripture are taken in a figure divers wayes First For the word of God Psal 4. 5. Thine arrowes are sharpe in the heart of the Kings enemies whereby the people fall under thee That is thy words are sharpe and peircing whereby thou convincest and beatest downe sin and sinners either converting or destroying them The Rider on the white Horse going out conquering and to conquer who is conceived to be Truth or the word of God triumphing is described with a Bowe in his hand Rev. 6. 2. Secondly Arrows are put for the bitter and reproachfull words of men Ps 64. 3. 4. Ps 120. 4. They bend their bowes to shoot their arrows even bitter words Thirdly For any evill or mischievous purpose which a man intends or aimes to the hurt of his brother Psal 58. 7. When he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrowes let them be as cut in peeces Bending of the bow notes the preparing and setting of mischiefe The arrow shot out of this bent bowe is the mischiefe acted and finished Psal 2. The wicked bend their bowe they make ready their arrow upon the string they prepare mischiefs against their neighbour Fourthly For any kind of affliction judgement or punishment Zech. 9. 14. And the Lord shall be seene over them and his arrow shall goe forth as the lightning Particularly 1. For Famine Ezek. 5. 16. When I shall send upon them the evill arrowes of famine 2 For Pestilence Psal 91. 5. Thou shalt not be affraid for the terrour by nigbt nor for the arrow that fleeth by day What the terrour and the arrow are is explained in the next verse which is not an addition of other evils from which safety is promised but an explication of the same The pestilence that walks in darknesse and the destruction being the same pestilence wasting at noone-day The meaning of all is Thou shalt be kept or antidoted against the plague both night and day 3. Those thunder-bolts and haile-stones which God sends out of the Magazine of heaven and discharges in his wrath against wicked men are called the arrows of his indignation 2 Sam. 22. 15. Psal 144. 6. Hab. 3. 11. compared with Josh 10. 11. Further the arrows of God signifie inward afflictions troubles of the mind and spirit God often shoots an arrow which pierces into the very soule It was said of Joseph The iron entred into his soule And it is in this sense very usuall for the arrowes of God to enter into the soules of his people Psal 38. 1 2. O Lord rebuke me not in Thy wrath c. For Thine arrows sticke fast in me Where stuck they He meanes it not of his body haply the skin of that was not razed There is an arrow which touches not the sides but stickes fast in the soule of a childe of God Understand it here of the arrowes of affliction and those either externall outward calamities fastning in the flesh of Job or internall galling him to the soule and spirit Therefore he saith The Haret lateri Leâ—halis aruÌ„do arrows of the Almighty are within me the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit These arrowes are described in the text two waies 1. From the Efficient cause The arrowes of the Almighty They drink up my spirit Effect 2 They are the arrowes of the Almighty Shaddai Of which word we have spoken in the former Chapter verse 17th at large it being one of the names of God noting out his power and omnipotence There he cals them the chastnings of Shaddai the Almighty And here The Arrowes of Shaddai the Almighty 1. Because they are sent out from him His arme bends and draws the bow And 2. Because of the mighty force and strength in which they are sent home to the marke The strength in which those arrowes come and the depth of the wound which they make speak an Almighty arme drawing the bow None but an Almighty arme can shoot an arrow thus deep up to the feathers in the soul and spirit It is not in the power of all the tyrants in the world to strik or shoot thus deep The soule of a Saint hath such armour upon it as no bodily weapon can enter And therefore the Martyrs when all was wound in their flesh spoke and triumph'd because their spirits were whole and untoucht Onely a spirit can shoot arrowes into our spirits We finde it frequent among heathen Poets and others to describe Poetae deos arcu jaâ—ulis sagittisque armant intelligentes quas inserunt mortalibus clades quae feriunt eminus quod propriâ—m Dei videtur Bold their gods arm'd with bowes and arrowes And in that they shadowed their power to wound the minds of men and to wound them suddenly and secretly The Scripture describes the true God
who walke in a spheare below beasts who are more foolish and ignorant then a beast Take heed of complaining without cause if beasts are satisfied with what is agreeable to nature man should be so much more When Nature hath not enough Grace hath all Grace will not bray or low when there is no grasse no fodder surely then they have a scarcity of grace in their hearts who bray and low over their grass and fodder Spirituall accommodations will make a good heart forget temporall incommodities and it is reason they should God promiseth Isa 30. 20. Though I give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction yet thy teachers shall no more be removed into a corner but thine eyes shall see thy teachers As if he had said though your bodies are coursely fed yet your souls shall be feasted Good cheare shal daily be served into them both at your eyes and eares Thine eyes shall see thy teachers and thou shalt heare a voice behind thee Thy sight and thy hearing shall be refreshed with heavenly Messengers and good news from heaven Now besides this promise exprest there is a duty implyed in the text namely that because their spirits were so well fed therfore they must not complain though their flesh come short in feeding The bread of affliction should be pleasant to us while we eate Gospel-dainties In these times God gives more plenty of spirituall food than formerly yet many complaine because their naturall bread is shortned Remember beasts complaine not when they have what is suitable to nature then let not Christians complaine when they have what is suitable to grace though nature have but spare diet and short commons Vers 6. Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt He proceeds to another similitude It is as if Job had said Nature will complaine when it wants meat yea oftentimes nature will complaine when it wants pleasant meat Nature is not pleased if it want a graine of salt if it have not sauce it is not satisfied Therefore surely I am to be borne with and not to be charged thus deeply who complaine when you offer me that which is unsavoury when you give me meat without salt without sauce without any thing to render it either pleasing to my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est quod debito condimento temperamento caret sive in defectu sive in excessu Sales pro facetijs quod sint quasi condimentum sermonis Literae Sparsae sale humanitatis Gicer ad Artic. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Est prepositio absque fine Sed quidam accipiunt pro nomine composito ex Min quod est ex beli à Balab quod est veâ—â—stâ—s Hâ—nc locam reddunt Infaluatum ex vetustate salis potius quam insipidum absque salae Bold Job rem prae horrore prorsus impossibiliem vult significare Numquid comodetur c. At impossibile omnino non est comedere insipiduÌ„ sine sale carnes autem corruptae ex vetustate salismanducars nulla tenus possunt Bold pallate or easie to my digestion Unlesse I were sencelesse like a stock or a stone how should I not disrelish and disgust saplesse saltlesse how much more bitter things Can that which is unsavorie The word which we render unsavorie is the same used Chap. 1. ver 22. which wee there opened at large Job did not charge God with folly or foolishly or he spake not unsavorily of God There is a threefold application of that word in Scripture 1. To unpleasant meats 2. To untempered morter 3. To indiscreet speeches which want the seasoning either of wit wisdome or of truth Lam. 2. 14. Thy Prophets have seene vaine and foolish things for thee Lying visions without truth vain words without wisdome So here Can that which is unsavourie be eaten without salt Seasoning makes unsavory things sweet As salt gives a relish to meat so wisdome and wit to words And therefore the Latines expresse wise witty speeches pleasant discourse a good grace in speaking and a salt by the same word There is another Interpretation of that word which we render b without for some understand it not as a Preposition governing the word Salt but as a compound word noting the oldnesse or stalenesse of meat wherein the very salt it selfe is putrified and so whereas we say Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt They translate thus Can that which is unsavoury through the corruption of salt be eaten Or can that meat be eaten which having been salted is now putrified Salt which keeps meat from corruption may in time be overcome with the corruption of the meat And a learned Interpreter gives the reason why he rather chuseth this interpretation of the word because saith he it carries a stronger Emphasis with it Job speakes as of a thing in a manner unpossible to be done Now it is very possible to eat unsavoury meat without salt A good appetite will downe with unpleasant food and hunger will dispence much with Cookery But when season'd or salted meat corrupts and putrifies whose stomach doth not loath and abhorre it Therefore it is a fuller and a more flat deniall to say Can that which is unsavoury thorough the corruption of salt be eaten then Then to say Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt Or is there any taste in the white of an Egge These words are much obscured by most Translators and have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 found almost as many expositions as Expositours Some translate thus Is there any taste in that which being taken brings death So the Vulgar Doubtlesse a man hath but little pleasure to taste An potest aliquis gustare quod gustatum affert mortem Vulg. that which tasted will be his death So the words are an aggravation of the unsavourinesse of those things which were offered him by his friends to touch or take them was to take poison or to drinke in a deadly cup. To cleare up this Exposition they make the Hebrew word Challamuth which we translate Egge a compound from Muth signifying to die whence Maueth death and Chala signifying froth or fome or from Chali signifying infirmity As if the word having these parts put together had this sence The froth and foame of death Or The infirmitie of death That is deadly froth on deadly infirmity As if he had said is there any pleasing taste in the spettle of dying men who we know often fome and froth at their mouthes when they lie drawing on Others thus Is there any taste in the spettle of a healthy man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sanus confortatus convaluit The word Rir which we translate white signifies spettle or froth As when David acted the mad-man before the King of Gath it is said that he let his spettle fall downe upon his beard 1 Sam. 21. 13. And the word which we translate Egge signifies Health and the verbe to be healthy Chap. 39. 4.
of this booke Their young ones are in good liking So Isa 38. vers 16. But I leave this as a very diseased and sickly Interpretatiion I shall therefore passe from these to our owne rendring Is In albumine vitelli there any taste in the white of an Egge The word signifies strictly but the yolke of the Egge so Mr Broughton Is there any taste in the white of the yolke And in the root to waxe fat or strong and it is therefore taken for the yolke of the Egge because that is the fatter grosser and more condense part of the Egge As the white being the thinner and much like spettle is therefore exprest by a word which also signifies spettle The white of an egge is an embleame of things without taste or savour And so the summe of all is that Job in this place by a Proverbiall speech for so I take this to be intends only thus much that he had very infipid tastlesse things presented to him such as he found to rellish at all in such as no way raised his appetite or quickned his stomake to receive them all were unseason'd and flat In the next words he goes yet higher even to the highest Antipathy against them Vers 7. The things which my soule refused to touch are as my sorrowfull meat Here is the application and explication of both the former similitudes The things which my soule refused that is the things Anima 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 partem scilicet animae qua concupiscimus noâ—at hoc loco which I exceedingly refused or abhominated The soule is here taken for the appetite As to desire with the soule notes a strong intension of desire Isa 26. 9. With my soule have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seeke thee early That is I have most vehemently desired and in my most retired thoughts sought the Lord When the soule is expressed to doe that which nothing can doe but the soule it imports the highest actings of the soule in doing it To desire with the soule implies the sweetest delight and so to refuse with the soule implies the bitterest aversation a refusall to the uttermost The word refuse is proper to the nauseating of the stomacke at the sight of any filthy thing Isa 30. 22. Thou shalt defile the covering of the graven images c. Thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth thou shalt say unto them get ye hence So here the things which my soule refuseth as a man refuses a filthy clout or as he should refuse that which is most loathsome then any filthy clout an Image or an Idoll These things saith he are now my sorrowfull meate or the meate of my sorrow The termes of the latter clause are at farthest distance from and opposition with that which went before Not to touch a thing notes the greatest aversation from it and to have a thing given us as meate notes our greatest communion with it That which a man will not touch with his finger how farre is he from chewing it between his teeth or letting it downe into his stomach and digesting it into himselfe So that Jobs meaning seemes to be this that what he desired to be the greatest stranger from was now offered to his neerest familiarity and acquaintance He was now as it were to eate what before he would not touch This we call sorrowfull meat Psal 127. 2. We reade of the bread of sorrow that is bread gotten with sorrow bread eaten with sorrow or course bread As bread of pleasure Dan. 10. 3. is fine bread here sorrowfull meat is either unpleasant meate or any meate eaten in that time of his sorrow That relative the Things is not in the Hebrew and so we may render word for word thus my soule refused to touch them as my sorrowfull meate Or as another My mind refuses to touch them these are plainly the very sicknesse of my meate As if he had said I am so farre from being refreshed with these that the truth is they make my very meate and so my whole life unpleasant to me Mr. Broughton varies the latter clause Those things which I have loathed to touch are now the very sicknesse of my flesh The word Lechem which we translate meat or prepared flesh signifies also living flesh in the Syriacke and Arabique languages as the learned Grammarians observe Besides we render the word Lechem flesh Zeph. 1. 17. Their blood shall be powred out as dust and their flesh as dung Hence he translates These things are to me as the sicknesse of my flesh That is the things which my soule refused to touch are now brought very neere and laid close upon me as sicknesse or soares cleave unto and are in the flesh or they trouble me as much as the sicknesse of my flesh The right application of these words is as difficult as the translation of them there are divers wayes to make out the sence I shall reduce them unto two Either first That all these unsavoury tastlesse sorrowfull meates which Job speakes of are but the shadowes of his afflictions and troubles received from the hand of God Or Secondly That they are shadowes of the counsels and reproofes which he had received from the mouth of his friends Nauseabam ego quondam ad hujusmodi aerumnas movebant mihi stomachum squâ—lor paupertas viliorâ—cibus ulcerna sanios verss nunc vero his ipsie abundè pascor Pined First Some refer and apply all to the troubles which were upon Job and so these words are a fuller justification of himselfe that he had great cause to complaine because his grasse and fodder that is comforts suitable to mans nature as they to a beasts were taken from him and he was now fed and dieted with unsavoury meate meate without salt the white of an egge distastfull grievous afflictions very gall and wormewood The things which heretofore my soule refused to touch are as my meate I am put as it were to feed upon that which I would not willingly come neere poverty and soares sorrowes and wormes are my companions and my cates From that sence note What at one time we loath at another time may be our diet We have a saying what is one mans meat is another mans poison but it may fall out to the same man that what he disgusted and avoided as poison he shall be constrained to receive for his meat and portion Lam. 4. 5. They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghils When those gallants were in scarlet how did their soules loath to touch a dunghill they loathed to touch it with their feet but now they must hugge it in their armes and lay it in their bosomes they embrace dunghils How many have been brought from faring deliciously from wearing purple and fine linnen every day to scraps and rags to hunger and nakednesse every day The Lord threatens the
potion and mistooke his case his was good searching physick for the foul stomach and grosse spirit of a hypocrite but it is enough to kill the heart of an upright-heart when God seemes angry with him and appeares against him when he is smitten without and smitten within by sore afflictions of mind and body then for his comforters to smite him with their tongues to lay at him with hard words and wound him with their unreasonable jealousies then for his counsellers and helpers to be angry with and opposite against him too Observe hence That not only words untrue but words misapplied are unsavoury and may be dangerous They are no food and they may be poison Prudence in applying is the salt and seasoning of what is spoken As a word spoken in the right season is precious and upon the wheele so is a word right placed When that faith full Prophet Ezek. 13. reproves the false prophets he saith They dawbed with untempered morter ver 10. it is the word of the text and why was theirs untempered morter even because they applied the word of God wrong They made sad the hearts of those whom God would have refreshed and they cheared the spirits of those whom God would have sadned they slay the souls that should not dye and save the souls alive that should not live This was untempered morter The Apostle advises all Col. 4 6. Let your speech be alwayes with grace seasoned with salt And speech must be seasoned not only with the falt of truth but with the salt of wisdome and discretion and therefore the Apostle adds that ye may know how to answer every one that is that you may give every man an answer fitting his case and the present constitution of his spirit Of some have compassion saith the Apostle Jude ver 22. making a difference and others save with feare This shewes the holy skill of managing the word of God when we make a difference of our patients by our different medicines and not serve all out of the same boxe Hence our Lord calleth those great Teachers of the Gospel and dispensers of his Oracles Light and Salt You are the Light of the world and you are the salt of the earth because they were to speake savoury things to every person to every pallate as well as to enlighten them with knowledge and prevent or cure the corruption of their manners and keep their lives sweet As there is an unsavourinesse in persons when they are mis-employed so there is an unsavourinesse in speeches when they are mis-applied The history of the Church speaks of one Eccebolius who changed religion so often and was so unsetled that at last Conculcate me salem insipidum Niceph. he cast himselfe down at the congregation doore and said Trample upon me for I am unsavoury salt And that word though in it self a truth which is unseasonably delivered or unduly placed may be cast at the doores of the Congregation to be trampled on for in this sence it is unsavoury salt Such corrupt the word and their's is but corrupt communication such as cannot minister grace unto the hearers and often grieves the holy Spirit of God These work-men for their ill division of the word of God have reason enough to be ashamed and the Lord may justly reprove them as he did Jobs friends Chap. 42. 7. Ye have not spoken of me nor of my wayes the thing that is right JOB Chap. 6. Vers 8 9 10 c. O that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing that I long for Even that it would please God to destroy me that he would let loose his hand and cut me off Then should I yet have comfort yea I would harden my selfe in sorrow Let him not spare for I have not concealed the words of the holy One c. IN the former part of this Chapter we have had Job defending his former complaint of life and his desire of death In this context from the 8th verse unto the end of the 12th he reneweth and reinforceth that desire He not only maintaines and justifies what he had done but doth it again begging for death as heartily and importunately as he did in the third Chapter O that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing that I long for The request it selfe is laid downe in the 8 â—h and 9 â—h verses and the reasons strengthning it in the 10 11 and 12 verses So these 5 verses are reduceable to these two heads 1. The renewing of his desire to dye 2. An enlargement of reasons confirming that desire O that I might have my request It is such a vehement desire and so exprest as Davids was 2 Sam. 23. 15. And David longed and said Oh that one would give me drinke of the water of the well of Bethlem which is by the gate David did not long more to tast a cup of that water then Job did to tast the cup of death The summe and scope of Jobs thoughts in this passage may be conceived thus He would assure his friends that his faith was firme and his comforts flowing from it very sweet That it was not impatience under the troubles of this life but assurance of the comforts of the next which caused him so often to call for death That these comforts caused his heart to triumph and glory in the very approaches of the most painfull death and made him despise and lightly to esteeme all the hopes of life That he was gone further then the motives which Eliphaz used from the hopes of a restitution to temporall happinesse he now was pitcht upon and lodg'd in the thoughts of eternall happinesse That he call'd for death not as that with which he had made any Covenant or was come to any agreement with but only as that which would bring him to his desired home The one Thing he desired That his comforts had not a foundation in a grave where all things are forgotten but in the Covenant of God who remembers mercy for ever and therefore it should not trouble him to die before he was restored to health riches and honour which his friends proposed to him as a great argument of comfort and of patience For in death he should have riches and glory and hence it was that he had rather endure the extreamest paines of death then stay to receive any outward comforts in this life His desires to be dissolved were not so much from the sence of his present paine for he would harden himselfe to endure yet more as from the apprehension of future joy This was not a fancie or a dreame but he had good proof and reall evidence of it in the whole course of his life which had been as a continued acting of the word of God and to a fitting him for nearest communion with God This in general The letter of the Hebrew runneth thus Who would give me that my request or that
verba Domini Opin Nonnullorum Hebraeorum apud Merc. Yea I would account every blow an embrace and every wound a reward For not concealing the words of the holy One In these words Job gives the reason or an account of his renewed prayer and request to die As the desire of Job was strong and passionate so likewise it was well grounded He had a very high reason an excellent ground upon which he bottom'd this request to die His reason was spirituall and therefore strong He beggs to be delivered from the troubles of his life though by a painfull death because he was clear in himselfe that he had led a blamelesse life That which set him above the paines of bodily death was the tranquillity of his spirit in this testmony of his conscience I have not concealed the words of the holy One As if he had said You may wonder why I should be so forward and ready to die why I seeme so greedy after the grave why I am such an importunate suiter for my dissolution The account I give you is this I have the testimony of a good conscience within me notwithstanding all the troubles which are upon me notwithstanding all your harsh vnfriendly accusations jealousies and suspitions of me yet my own breast is my friend my heart speakes me faire and gives me good words even these It tells me that I have not concealed the words Mirum est ut mihi non parcat quum illius verba non celarim neque dissimulaverim Aben Azr. of the holy One That I have not smothered any light he hath sent me that I have not refused any councell he hath given me that I have not wilfully departed from any rule he hath prescribed me that I have been faithfull to God to his cause and to his truth that I have declared his will and spoken his minde to others that I have not hidden any thing he hath given me in charge to declare or committed to my trust the word of God hath appeared in my life and therefore I am not afraid yea I have boldnesse to die and to appear before God I have not concealed The word signifieth to hide a thing so as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat abscondere ne vidleatur vel audeatur ne amplius appareat it be neither heard of or seen But may not we conceal the words of the most high it is said of Mary that she hid the words of Christ in her heart and of David that he hid the commandements of God in his heart Psal 119. 11. Did not the wise merchant hide the treasure namely Gospel truth Math. 13. 44. as soon as he had found it It should seem all these concealed the word of God how then is it that Job improves this as a speciall point of comfort that he had not concealed the words of the holy One There is a double hiding or concealement of the truth There is first a hiding from danger Secondly a hiding from use There is a hiding to keep a thing safe that others shall not take it from us and there is a hiding to keep a thing close that others may not take the benefit of it with us When it is said that Mary and David and the wise Merchant hid the word of God it was lest they themselves should lose it lest any should deprive them of it they hid it from danger They layed it up as a treasure in their hearts but they did not hide it from the knowledge or use of others and that is it which Job affirmes of himselfe I have not concealed the words of the holy One And there are four wayes by which the word of God is sinfully hid or concealed from all which Job seemes to acquit himselfe The first is when we conceal the word of God by our own silence when we know the word and truth of God and yet we draw a vaile over them by not revealing them The Apostle Paul Acts 20. 27. acquits himself in this to the Church of Ephesus I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsell of God and verse 20. You know how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you Silence to what is spoken is consent and silence when we should speak is concealement There is a second way of concealing the word of God and that is by silencing others Some conceale the words of the holy One themselves and they cannot endure that others should publish them The chiefe Priests and the Rulers Acts 4 18. charged Peter and John that they should not speake at all nor teach any more in the name of Jesus They would stop the Apostles mouthes from speaking the words of the holy One These keep the truth lockt up as Christ charges the Lawyers Luk. 11. 52. by taking away the key of knowledge Thirdly There is a concealing of the word of God under false glosses and misinterpretations or a hiding of it under errours and misconstructions This is a very dangerous way of concealing the words of the holy One The Pharisees made the law of God of none effect by their expositions as well as by their traditions by the sence they made of it as well as by the additions they made unto it Fourthly The word of the holy One may be concealed in our practise and conversations The Apostle exhorts Phil. 2. 16. To hold forth the word of life in a pure conversation The lives of Christians should publish the word of life The best way of preaching the word is by the praictse of the word The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse of men who hold the truth in unrighteousnesse that is who by their unrighteous practises and ungodly conversations imprison fetter restrain and keep in the word Mans holy life is the loudest Proclamation of the word of God And a sinfull life is the concealment of it Job here acquits himselfe from all these concealements I have not eâ—ncealed the words of the holy One either by my own silence or by imposing silence upon others I have not concealed the word of the holy One by my own corrupt glosses and interpretations nor by a corrupt practise and conversation I have desired and endeavoured that the whole word of God might be visible in my actions and audible in my speeches that I might walke cloathed as it were with the holy counsels and commandements of my God There is a reading of the words different from this Whereas we Malo potentialiter exponi omnia utinam inquit non parceret Nequenim occultarem dicta sancti sed ejus in me sententiam praedicarem laudarem Merc. say I have not concealed the words of the holy One that gives it thus I would not conceale the words of the holy One and so the word of the holy One is taken not for the truths of God in generall but for that special word of decree or sentence which God should
passe out against him A if he had said Let not God spare me let him write â—s bitter a sentence against me as he pleaseth for my part I would not conceale the word of the most High but I would publish his judgement and sentence against me yea I would praise him and extoll him for it The vulgar Latine to this sence I would not contradict the word of the holy One Let him not spare me for as for my part whatsoever God shall determine and resolve whatsoever word God shall speake concerning me I will never withstand or open my mouth against it This is a truth and carries in it a high frame of holinesse when we can bring our hearts to this that let God write as bitter things against us as he pleaseth we will never contradict his word or decree but our minds and spirits shall submit wholly and fully to his dispositions of us and dispensations towards us It is as clear an evidence of grace to be passive under as to be active in the word of God Not to contradict his writ for our sufferings as not to conceale what he speaks for our practise But I rather stick to the former interpretation Job giving this as a reason of his great confidence in pursuing his petition for death because he had been so sincere holding forth the word of God both in doctrine and in life And so we may observe from it First That the testimony of a good conscience is the best ground of our willingnesse to die That man speakes enough for his willingnesse to die who hath lived speaking and doing the will of God and he is in a very miserable case who hath no other reason why he desireth death but onely because he is in misery This was one but not the only reason why Job desired death he had a reason transcending this I have not concealed the words of the holy One and I know if I have not concealed the word of God God will not conceal his mercy and loving kindness from me David bottoms his hopes of comfort in sad times upon this Psal 40. 9 10. I have preached righteousness in the great Congregation I have not refrained my lips O Lord thou knowest he was not actively or politickly silent I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart if lay there but it was imprisoned or stifl'd there I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvations I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great Congregation Upon this he fals a praying with a mighty spirit of beleeving vers 11. Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me O Lord let thy loving-kindness and thy truth continually preserve me for innumerable evils have compassed me about The remembrance of our active faithfulness to the truth of God will bear up our hearts in hoping for the mercy of God He that in Davids and in Jobs sence can say I have not concealed the words of the most high may triumph over innumerable evils and shall be more then a conquerer over the last and worst of temporal evils death God cannot long conceal his love from them who have not concealed his truth Secondly observe positively That the counsels of God his truths must be revealed God hath secrets which belong not to us but then he puts them not forth in a word nor writes them in his book he keeps his secrets close in the cabinet of his decrees and counsels but what he reveals either in his word or by his works man ought to reveal too It is as dangerous if not more to conceal what God hath made known as to be inquisitive to know what God hath concealed Yea it is as dangerous to hide the word of God as it is to hide our own sins And we equally give glory to God by the profession of the one as by the confession of the other Paul with much earnestnesse professes his integrity about this as was even now toucht Act. 20. Fourthly observe That the study of a godly man is to make the word of God visible I have not concealed that is I have made plain I have revealed or I have published the words of the holy One Much of Jobs mind is concealed under that word I have not concealed For in this negative there is an affirmative as if he had said this hath been my labour and my businesse my work in the world to make known so much of the will of God as I know This was the work of Christ here below Father I have glorified thee upon earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do Joh. 17. 4. What this work was he shewes vers 6th I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world Lasty observe That it is a dangerous thing for any man to conceale the word of God either in his opinion or in his practice For it is as if Job had said if I had ever concealed the words of God I had bin but in an ill case at this time God might now justly reveale his wrath against me if I had concealed his word from others or God might justly hide his mercies from me if I had hid his word from men Smothered truths will one time or other set the conscience in a flame and that which Jeremiah spake once concerning his resolution to conceale the word of God and the effect of it will be a truth upon every one who shall set himselfe under a resolution to doe what he under a temptation did Jer. 20. 9. Then I said I will not make mention of him nor speake any more in his name what followes Then his word was in my breast as a burning fire shut up in my bones and I was weary with forbearing If a gracious heart hath taken up such a sodaine resolution to conceale the word of God he quickly repents of it or smarts under it He findes that word as a burning fire in his bones he is not able to bear it I was weary with forbearing saith the prophet Nothing in the world will burthen the conscience so much as concealed truth and they who have taken a meditated resolution that they will not reveale the word of God may be sure that word will one time or other reveale it selfe to them in the Light and heat of a burning fire seeding upon their consciences I have not concealed the words whose words The words of the Holy One Who is that The Holy One is a periphrasis for God When you hear that Title The holy One you may know who is meant This is a Title too bigge for any but a God All holinesse is in God and God is so holy that properly he onely is Holy Hence the Scripture sets God forth under this as a peculiar attribute The Holy One The Prophets often use this addition or stile The Holy One of Israel The Holy One Is One separate or set apart from all filthinesse
and a vaine thing of a good conscience The meaning then is faith and a good conscience are our best helds and friends because faith carries us unto Christ who is our best help Faith pitches upon Christ and a good conscience feasts us in the favour of God Faith alone is no help but faith is our help because it is not alone Grace left alone would be our strength but little more then nature is and our spirit little more then the flesh And therefore our comforts are not to be resolved into this That we have grace in our hearts but into this That we and our graces are in the hand of Christ Faith can live no where but upon Christ That which faith respects as our help is Christ in whom we beleeve not the act of beleeving We are helped by the grace within us but the grace within us is not our help Secondly Observe A godly man in the darkest affliction or night of sorrow finds a light of holy wisdome to answer all the objections of his enemies and the suspitions of his friends Is wisdome departed quite from me Doe you think I have nothing to say nothing to reply by way of apologie for what I have don or spoken Though Job had many afflictions upon him and his friends against him yet see how he recollects himselfe Is not my help in me he makes out the goodnesse of his cause in the midst of a thousand evils and can plead his own integrity in the throng of many jealousies and contradictions Is not my help in me Doe you think you have so daunted me that I am not able to make out my own estate or that I know not what I am The truth is sometimes God leaves his servants in so much darkness for their tryal and exercise that they cannot see their own estates but cry out they are lost and undone Many a good soul cannot reflect upon his graces or get his heart into any communion with Christ in promises This is walking in darkness and seeing no light As our sins are sometimes secrets to us so also our graces may But let a man be encompast with never so many outward afflictions yet if his spirit be free he is able to judge of his own interests through all the black clouds which hang over him through all the distractions and confusions that are about him The eye of faith is usually quickest in a dark night And while trouble is near at hand beholds Christ near at hand He can never be without help who carries his help about him or within him Nor can he utterly want counsel to direct him whose heart is as a councel Table where Christ the wisdom of God is ever President and in the Chair My worldly comforts are quite driven from me but wisdome is not I am afflicted and therefore should not be thus suspected but pittied Vers 14. To him that is afflicted pitty should be shewed from his friend but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty This verse begins the third Section of the chapter wherein Job draws up a strong charge against his friends for their uncharitablenesse See the progresse and links of his Discourse First he refuted and answered their objections against him from the first to the 8 verse Secondly he renewed his complaint which was the ground of all their objections from the 8th verse unto the end of the 13th Here at verse 14. he begins a charge against his friends of unkindness indiscretion yea of cruelty in managing of this dispute against him He giveth it first in general or by way of Preface To him that is afflicted pitty should be shewed from his friend But he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty As if he had said You should have dealt otherwise with me then you have in this case though blessed be God I find help within me God hath given me the light of his spirit and wisdome to discern my own condition yet it is no thank to you I have found no help in my friends you have dealt unfriendly with me you should have pittied me but you have opposed me and so forsaken that duty which the fear of the Almighty teaches He proceeds to illustrate this more particularly by way of similitude comparing his friends to a brook whose waters fail when we are athirst or when there is most need of water To him that is afflicted The word signifies Him that is melted and the reason is because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solvit dissolvit liquidum fluidum reddidit Sic mea perpetuis liquescant pectora curis Ovid. de Pont 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Tributum sic dictum quia paulatim liquescere facit facultates maximo si nimium imponatur Buxtorf b Quidam Pontificii volunt suam Missam hac voce hebraica fuisse appellatam Recte quidem per eam scilicet pietas omnis liquefacta est dâ—ssoluta Rivet affliction dissolves the spirit of a man and as it were melts his heart therefore it is called the fire of affliction To be dissolved or melted and to be afflicted are the same And that effect is ascribed to fear and trouble of spirit arising from affliction Psalm 22 15. My heart saith David a type of Christ in the middest of my belly is like melting wax By reason of the heat and greatness of his trouble and the anguish of his spirit he was as metal melted in a furnace At the defeat of the Israelites before Ai it is said the hearts of the people melted and became as water Josh 7. 5. And in the sixth Psalm verse 6. David cryes up the exuberance of his sorrowes by this word I melted or watered my couch with tears Thus the Prophet threatning a day of great fear against Jerusalem tells them They shall be as when a Standard-bearer fainteth Isa 10. 18. When the Battell waxes hot and a vanquisht army is running and crying for quarter the standard bearer is in greatest danger all make up to him and then he fainteth or melteth away with fear a Tributes and taxes are exprest in the Hebrew by a word coming from this root because if heavily imposed they melt away the estates of a people b It is a witty observation that whereas some of the Papists conceive their word Masse was derived from this Hebrew word Massas which signifyeth to melt One of ours answers let it be so It suites this sense of the word exactly and the effect oâ— that abhominable Idolatry for the Masse hath dissolved and melted away truth and pitty out of the Popish Territories To him that is offlicted pitty should be shewed That word pitty in the Hebrew signifies a sacred sweet affection of mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pietas bonitas benignitas per Antiphrasin impletas crudetitas ex Calâ—aicae linguae usu benignity goodness and piety And by Contraries in which sense words are often used in that language it notes First Reproach Prov. 14. 34 Sin is
chesed a reproach to any people Secondly Impiety and cruelty harshness and severity Thirdly It signifies any abhominable wickedness Levit. 20. 17. where Moses speaking of incest incest between brother and sister calls that abomination by this word Chesod A wicked thing That may have a good name the nature whereof is so ill that it is not to be named Further The word as we translate imports more than a bare act of pitty or commiseration as suppose a man see his brother in misery compassionates him but relieves him not this is not pity Such the Apostle James describes in his first Chapter vers 15. If a brother or a sister be naked and destitute of daily food and you say unto them be filled be warmed be cloathed poor creatures ye are hungry yea are naked I pitty you I am sorry to see you thus be filled be cloathed I wish it were otherwise with you and yet in the mean time he gives them nothing wherewith either to cloath or feed them Is this fulfilling the law of love Is this charity Nothing lesse The pity here spoken of is not a verbal piety Our saying to a brother in trouble be comforted or I would course were taken for you I wish you well with all my heart and so we bestow a mouth-ful of good words but not so much as a morsell of bread or a cup of cold water Good words alone are cheap charity to mans expence and they are so cheap in Gods esteem that they will not be found of any value at all in the day of reckening good words not realized if they be found any where will be found in the treasures of wrath This is not the pitty which Job teacheth us should be shewed to him that is afflicted The Apostles quesion shakes such out of all claime to this grace 1 John 3. 17. whosoever saith he hath this worlds goods and seeth his brother in need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how doth the love of God dwell in him Though a mans mouth be open with good words yet if he shut his bowels from good deeds there is no love to God or man hous'd in that mans heart It is no Pitty to speak of onely to speak pitty and therefore the Apostle addes verse 18 My little children let us not love in word and in tongue but in deed and in truth that 's the true meaning of this word to him that is afflicted pitty should be shewed But you my friends have not given me so much as the sound of pitty you have not bemoaned me much less have you relieved me which is the substance of pitty reall pitty You have not loved me in tongue giving me good words much less in deed and in truth Deed-pitty is both the duty and the disposition of a godly man therefore this word Chasid in the concrete is often used in Scripture to signify a godly man He is one that hath obtained much grace and pitty from the Lord and he is kind gracious and pittiful unto men The holy Proverb assures us That a good man is merciful pittiful to his beast much more to a man and most of all to a godly man who is his brother in the nearest bond And it is considerable how this word was used by way of distinction among the Jewes who cast their whole people or nation into three ranks and it is grounded upon Rom. 5 6 7. where the Apostle alludes to those three sorts First There were Reshagnim ungodlymen the prophane rabble Secondly there were the Tsadikmi righteous men And thirdly there were Chasidim good men or pittiful mâ—n scarcely saith the Apostle will one die for a righteous man for a man fair and just in his dealings peradventure for one of the Chasidim for a good man some one may chance to dy He that had been pittiful might haply find pitty and having done so much good in his life all would desire he should live still But herein God commended his love to us that while we were â—et sinners Reshagnim in the worst raâ—ke of men Christ died for us No man had either love or pitty enough to die for them who had so much impiety The farthest that the natural line oâ— mans pitty can reach is to do good to those who do him good or are good Pitty notes out such a sort of men and such a sort of actions as Antiqui vocant Ciconâ—am pietatis cultricem Ciconiis pietas eximia est Soâ— are fullest of love of bowels of brotherly kindeness and compassion Hence the Stork which by divers of the ancients was put for the Emblem of love and benignity is exprest in the Hebrew by this word Levit. 11. 19. The Storke is very tender towards her young ones and her young ones are as tender of her when she is old as naturalists have observed So then this word imports the height of all offices and affections of love from man to man especially from Christian to Christian in times of trouble and cases of extremity This Pitty you should have shewed me saith Job But he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty That is he forsakes all godlinesse goodness and religion Fear takes in all that 's good and so it is conceived that Job retorts the words of Eliphaz in the fourth chap. Is this thy fear or where is thy fear thy Religion Now Job saith Is this your fear You have forsaken the fear of the Almighty Is this your Religion to deal so harshly with a distressed friend or to give him such cold comfort Surely you have forsaken that fear of the Almighty which you charged me with Have not I reason to ask Is this thy fear or to conclude You have forsaken the fear of the Almighty These words are diversly rendred Some thus He that takes away pitty from his friend hath forsaken the fear of the Almighty And Qui tollit ab â—mico suo misericordiam timorem Domini derelinquit Vulg. that 's a truth and a good sense though not so clear to the letter of the Text. Mr. Broughton joins this with the former verse By him whose mercy is molten toward his friend and who leaveth the fear of the Almighty So referring this melting to mercy and not to the man joining it with the former thus Have not I my defence and is judgment driven away from me by him whose mercy is molten away toward his neighbour and who leaveth the fear of the Almighty As if Job had said Eliphaz doest thou thinke thou haste driven away all wisdome from me by thy dispute Doest thou think that I have lost my reason as thou hast lost thy pitty Thou thinkest wisdome and understanding have forsaken me but it appears by thy dealings that thou hast forsaken the fear of God which is the beginning of wisdome Thirdly it is rendred in the contrary sense The word Chesid An dissoluto à sodali suo convitium et quod timorem omnipotentis
deseruerit An hac amicitiae jus c. ut nunc ego à vobis audio Merc. being taken for reproach and harsh dealing and so the meaning is made out with a kind of admiration thus Should reproaches be cast upon a man that is afflicted from his friend should he be told that he hath forsaken the fear of the Almighty and that wisdome is driven from him Do you think I am not able to discover your dealings should you go about to reproach me in this condition should you tell me thus harshly that I am departed from the fear of God Is this thinke you a fair carriage towards me when you saw me melted and afflicted you should have given me sweet and comfortable words not reproachfull words Job according to this sence sound his friends dealing with him as the Jews with Christ to whom being a thirst they gave vinegar to drink Or as David in the type speaks they gave me gall for my meat and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink here seems to be a like meaning You have given me reproaches in stead of comforts slandered me instead of refreshing me and is this the course you should take As Absalom said to Hushai 2 Sam. 16. 17. Is this thy kindnesse to thy friend when he seemed to fall away from David unto him So Iob might speak to Eliphaz Is this thy kindnesle to thy friend to load him with reproaches when you see him over-laden with afflictions A fourth thus Shall he that consumes by the reproaches of his friend forsake the fear of the Almighty The meaning whereof is this Doe Qui tabescit ab amico suo proâ—ro etiam timorem omnipotentis retinquet Foelices soli videntur sapere miseri desipere you think that all men whose riches and comforts are lost have lost their reason and judgement And doe you think that they who are reproacht by men doe not fear God The world commonly judges none wise but they that are rich And that they fear God most who rejoyce most But my practise and example I doubt not shall consute that opinion and give all the world to know that a man consumed and spent by the reproaches of men and the stroakes of God may yet fear God and keep up his stock to the full in holinesse and in wisdom Contabescens charitatem non tam dicitur erga guem socij charitas contabescit quam quuÌ„ per sociâ— charitatem preposter ram fcilicet sine scientia exercitam contabescit Cocc Fifthly This melting is referred not to the pitty of his friends but to Job melting or consuming by that which they called pity Thus. Shall he be charged to have forsaken the fear of the Almighty who consumes by the charity of his friends that is who is more afflicted by the counsels which his friends in love give him then by all his other afflictions As the mercies of the wicked are alwayes cruel Prov. 12. 10. So sometime the mercies of the godly are especially when they give preposterous and indiscreet counsel and this interpretation suites well with the title which Iob gave his friends Miserable comforters are ye all Chap. 16. 2. That is you have done your good will to comfort me but God hath not shewed you the way nor given you the tongue of the learned that yee might know how to minister a word in season to him that is weary and so notwithstanding all your good intentions ye have added to my miseries A sixth thus * Hunc dissolutum prae doloribus ab amico ejus exhibenda misericordia dereliquit eundem dissolutum timor Saddai dere inquit Horum duorum versiculorum terminos ita digerimus ut in posteriori vâ—x dissolutus sit mascu ini generis accusativi casus â—egaturque à verbo dere inquit cujus duo nominativi sint misericordia timor Saddai ille verò dissolutâ—s sit Job loquente de seipso in tertia persona Apparet ex hoc explâ—atione â—um nominativo ut in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa 31. 1. Ezr. 1. 5 Coc. Dissoluto à socio ejus benignitas est sc impendenda alioqui timorem Omnipotentis deserit Drus Vau apud Hebraeos varie sumitur interdum pro a ioqui That pity which friends should shew this man melted with afflictions hath forsaken him but hath the fear of the Almighty forsaken him also The meaning whereof may be made out to this effect As if Job had said thus You plainly see that there is no help in me for my pains and uncessant troubles have quite bereaved me of all that strength upon which I should naturally subsist And as for you my friends that pitty and compassion which you should afford a man thus melted with sorrows is quite fled and gone from your hearts and lips But what then Is the fear of God departed also from this sorrowful soul It is confessed strength is gone from my body and I see pitty towards me is gone from your soules O how miserable then were I if I should goe from my God and forsake his fear You shall see that though the pitty of men hath forsaken me a melted man yet as you object the fear of God hath not A seventh reading varying from ours only in a word gives the sence very fair and easie * to him that is afflicted or melted pitty should be shewed by his friend otherwise he forsakes the fear of the Almighty Whereas we say but he forsaketh this translation saith Otherwise he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty that is if a man do not shew pitty to his friend in affliction that man sheweth that he hath forsaken the fear of the Almighty Thus as I hinted at the entrance of this passage Interpreters are much divided about the Grammatical construction of these words There is a truth in every sence given and their variety may teach us to adore the fulness of the holy language which leads our thoughts so many wayes as also to be humbled for our own blindness of mind and narrowness of heart to see or comprehend the mind of God fairly written to us But I take the last to be the clearest meaning of Job in this passage and that to which most of the former are reducible and therefore staying upon this sence I shall give two or three observations from it First It is the common duty of friends and the speciall duty of godly friends to pitty and help one another in affliction I say to pitty and to help for that is the compasse of the word we have not done our duty in pittying the distressed unless we come to real assisting them We satisfie not our obligation to the bond and Law of love by giving comfortable words As that faith which is alone without works doth not justifie us so that pitty which is alone without works doth not justifie our faith such empty pitty will goe for little better then cruelty and not
as one that travelleth and thy want as an armed man Want strips us but is it selfe not only cloathed but armed Evils have so much life and strength in them that they are compared to the strongest who live armed men Hence observe first It is an aggravation of unkindnesse to those who are in want not to be kind to them when they are modest in asking a supply of their wants Love ought to prevent asking and should be moved to give most to them who being in need complain least Again He speakes this to wipe off that aspersion as if the losse of his estate were the thing which grieved and pinched him so sore Did I say unto you bring me a reward c. It is an argument that a man overloves that which he hath lost when he is over-importunate to have his losses repaired If you had seen me call out unto you for an estate then you had reason to think that the losse of my estate was the losse of my patience Thirdly Observe the temper of a gracious heart under losses and afflictions A gracious heart under losses is not forward to complain to creatures or to ask help of men Did I say bring unto me or give me a reward of your substance He complaines to God and sheweth him his trouble he openes his want to God and asketh supplies of him but he is very modest and slow in complaining to or in suing for help at the hand of creatures It is not unlawful for those that are in want to make their losses and wants known to men It is a duty rather so to doe onely it must be done with caution least when we ask of creatures too importunately we give an argument against our selves that we are too much in love with creatures As it is reproved in those Rulers before spoken of Hos 4. 18. that they did love give ye It is a crime in the rich to love give ye And certainly it is a sin at least an infirmity in those that are poor and in want to love give ye or to say as Iob here had not bring to me Solomon speakes of the daughters of the horsleach that they are alwayes crying give give noting their insatiable thirst after blood Some poor are alwayes crying give give which notes a very inordinate desire after riches Iob is very careful to take off the suspition of such a blemish from himself I did not say bring ye or give ye me of your substance It is the duty of those that are full to give to their empty brethren it is their sin if they give not and it is their shame if they are not most free in giving to those who are most modest in asking But when God hath emptied us we should not be eager in filling our selves When God takes creatures from us we should take heed of pursuing them we should not doe any thing which may argue our hearts glued to them when the Lord hath loosen'd them out of our hands It is an honour to a poor Christian when in his greatest straights he can approve himself to God and men and can say as the Apostle Acts 20. 33. I have coveted no mans silver or gold or apparel It is as sinful to covet in our wants as it is in our abundance And it is as bad if not worse to be greedy of the creature when we are empty as when we are full A poor man oppressing the poor Prov 28. 3. and covering from the rich are sights of equal abomination Vers 24. Teach me and I will hold my tongue and cause me to understand wherein I have erred c. This and the next verse contain the fourth branch of Jobs reply and the general sence of them is a submission of himself to his friends if yet they should speak reason or discover his error Teach me and I will hold my peace as if he had said Though I have to the best of my understanding thus far acquitted my self and cleared mine own innocency though I have as I think with truth and justice laid this charge of uncharitablenesse and unfriendly dealing with me upon you yet you shall see I am ready to hear you I am teachable if you can yet teach me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iecit projecit per metaphoram 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rigavit quando transfertur ad pluviam quae lapidum sagitarum instar ex coelo decidit in terram eamque ferit rigat foecundat Hinc per Metathoram significat etiam docere Quod doctrina veluti instiletur animis dicentium ininutatim indatur eosque impuat I will keep silence and if you cause me to understand wherein I have erred I shall doe so no more Teach me The Original word notes in strict sence to cast a thing forth to throw a thing as a dart or a stone is thrown either downward or upward or in a direct motion forward Hence by a Metaphor it signifies raine because raine is as it were darted forth from the clouds and cast down upon the earth And from hence yet one remove further the Metaphor is carried to signifie teaching Hence the holy Prophet is commanded to drop his word Ezek. 20. 46. 21. 2. Sonne of man set thy face toward the south and drop thy word towards the south Sonne of man set thy face toward Jerusalem and droop thy word toward the holy places And the reason is this because Doctrines Truths and wholesome Instructions are instilled and cast down among the people or dropt into their spirits as rain is cast or dropp'd from heaven upon the earth And so we may read the word◠out of the metaphor thus rain down upon me doe ye O my friends like clouds full of water dissolve and showre down instructions upon me and see if I doe not receive and drink them in And from this word all doctrine and instruction in the Hebrew is called Torah Prov. 13. 1. and Psal 1. 1. And the Jewes by way of eminency call the five books of Moses as also all the books of the old Testament the Torah that is the Law or rule of holy doctrine which God rained down from Heaven and distilled graciously upon his people for their growth in knowledge and in holiness And so a Teacher from the same root is called Moreh Job 36. 22 Who teacheth like Him who raineth like him there is no man can distill truths as God doth Moses Deut. 32. 2. elegantly sets forth his preaching by an allegory of rain and dew My doctrine shall drop as the rain my speech shall distil as the dew as the small rain upon the tender herb and as the showres upon the grasse And the Apostle Paul Heb. 6 7 8. compares a taught people to ground that is well watered with rain For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it and bringeth forth fruit is blessed but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected and is nigh unto
cursing whose end is to be burned A people well instructed are like that ground which is under continual showers and dews And doctrine is fitly compared to rain and teaching to raining First because all true holy doctrine comes from God as the rain doth The rain is Gods proper gift Jer. 14. 22. Can any of the vanities of the Gentiles give rain All the men in the world are not able to make one drop of rain So we may say of this figurative rain of truth and holy doctrine Can any of the vanities of the Gentiles yea can any of the most learned among the sons of men give this rain Can any man make any one truth which hath not first been made above Truth like rain comes from Heaven it drops from beyond the clouds Art not thou He O Lord our God therefore we will wait upon Thee say they of the natural rain Jer. 14. 22. and so we must in regard of the spiritual Hence the word which Moses uses Deut. 32. 2 for Accipere est discipuli ficut dare praeceptoris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doctrine dropping as the rain signifies a received learning Holy Truths are so called in that language because the doctrine of Religion is received from God not devised by men So the Apostle phrases it 1 Cor. 11. 23. I received of the Lord that which I delivered unto you And Christ himself As my Father hath taught me so I speak these things John 8. 28. That which Nicodemus said of Christ is true of every one that teacheth truth Joh. 3. 2. Thou art a Teacher come from God As truth it self so the teachers of it are from God as a lye and the tellers of it are from the Devil John 1. 44. Secondly Like rain as in regard of the original whence it comes so in regard of the effect rain refresheth the earth when the earth is weary and faint when the earth gaspes and is parched how doth a showre of rain revive it When the Psalmist had spoken of the rain coming down upon the earth he presently adds this effect The little hills rejoyce on every side they shout for joy they also sing Thus also a people wearied and languishing and fainting in ignorance when they receive truths and holy instructions how do their hearts rejoyce how do they laugh and sing In the Parable Mat 13. Some are said to receive the word with joy Even they who are but formalists and hypocrites for it is spoken of them rejoyce and are refreshed for a season with the word Truth is such a gracious showre that they sometimes receive it with joy who have no grace And if truth refresh men who are but nature or move in spiritual workes but upon natural principles how will it refresh those who have grace and spiritual principles sutable to it Thou O God saith David Psal 68. 9 10. didst send a plentiful rain whereby thou didst refresh thine inheritance when it was weary That is a truth in the letter and some understand it of natural rain but others interpret that plentiful rain in a figure for the rain of doctrine which God sent down upon his people when he gave the Law and dropt those heavenly Oracles from Mount Sinai upon his people Israel that showre of the Law came indeed in a storm Thunder and lightning and a terrible tempest accompanied it But though the thunder terrified yet the showre refreshed and the Saints have ever delighted in the matter of those instructions and holy counsels given there though Moses a chief amongst the Saints seared and quaked exceedingly at the manner of giving them Thirdly as rain so teaching makes fruitful The Prophet Isaiah makes out this part of the similitude expressly Chap. 55. 10 11. As the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and returns not thither but waters the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater So shall my word be that goeth out of my mouth c. Hence also the people of God are compared Deut. 32. 2. to grasse and tender herbs which grow and flourish which are fed and bring forth fruit when watered with the rain It cannot be denied though it be much to be lamented that many souls upon whom much of this rain falls are altogether barren and unfruitful But Oh! How barren are those souls upon whom not a droop of this rain ever fell They that are deprived of these showres are under a grievous curse even such a curse as David imprecates upon the mountains of Gilboa 2 Sam. 1. 21. Ye mountains of Gilboa let there be no dew neither let there be rain upon you c. When God saith unto a people let there be no dew no raine upon you no Moses to drop doctrine upon you no Paul to plant no Appollo's to water you with the word this is the saddest showre of curses that can fall upon a people as without rain so without the word ordinarily there can be no fruitfulnesse You see at this time how upon a little with-holding of the natural raine we presently fear barrennesse and famine the want of spiritual rain brings in a This was preacht in a time of drought worse barrennesse though there are not many who fear it or are sensible of it Fourthly the word taught is like rain in regard of the dispensing of it The rain comes not down alike at all times showres are very various sometimes it raines softly then we call it a still soaking rain sometimes we have a strong mighty rain at another time rain is accompanied with thunder and lightning while the showres descend the great Ordnance of heaven discharge from the clouds and fill the air with terrour Thus also it is or should be in teaching Many soules require a still soft quiet rain Others must have stronger showres mighty raine you must powre down upon them A third sort must have thunder joyned with rain they need a Boanerges a sonne of thunder a mixture of terrour with instruction to bore their eares and break their hearts Those teachers mistake their work who in stead of raining are alwayes thundering and lightning As if their pulpit were set upon Mount Sinai And I believe it is as great a mistake to think Teachers need never thunder The word of God in all parts of it and in all manner of dispensations of it is exceeding useful A Minister without teaching is as Iude speakes a cloud without water And he shall doe but little good upon some if he have nothing but water in his cloud Fire sometime must mingle with the rain and a Tempest come after or before the dewing distilling still voice The word of God is compared to fire as well as unto water Only it must be the wisdome and it is the duty of every Teacher to know how to give every one his portion or as the Apostle Jude counsels ver 22 23. Of some to have
to David and made him flie and wander and sometime go astray in his speeches and actions upon a sudden gust of temptation And so a Psalm of that subject may well bear this stile either from his corporal or spiritual errours There is a third apprehension upon Siggaion taking it for delight and ravishments of mind and so the Psalm is superscribed Davids delight or solace That is the Psalm which he composed and sung to the Lord to comfort himself in all his troubles with Saul his soul wandred heaven-ward in holy ravishments and delights in God while his body wandred about the earth in astonishment and sorrows caused by a bloody-minded man The very same title is given to the prayer of Habakkuk chap. 3. 1. A prayer of Habakkuk upon Sigionoth which some interpret to be so called because of the strange variety or variableness of the song and tune the Prophet being in a holy rapture ravished in spirit and swallowed up in the contemplation of Gods power and majesty soars up and wanders like Paul in another case he knowes not whither or how But the vulgar renders it a prayer for ignorance or a prayer for Oratio pro ignorantijs errour which translation is surely an errour if not an ignorance as to the scope of that prayer Though the letter of the Original word as in the former instances and in the text before us bears that sence When Job saith Cause me to understand my errour his meaning is that his errours whatsoever they were in that business were secret to him he had not gone against the light of his own conscience nor as yet had they brought any light to convince his conscience he had been charged with errours extravagancies and wandrings But he understood not what they were and therefore desires them to cause him to understand his errour Observe hence first Man is subject to errour To errour in speech to errour in practise to errour in judgement Man by nature can do nothing else but erre all his goings are goings astray and all his knowledge is bottomed upon a heap of false principles All his works by nature are errata's and the whole edition of his life a continued mistake Secondly observe That man is in a fair way to truth who acknowledgeth he may erre Cause me to understand wherein I have erred saith Job He thought he had not erred but he grants it was possible for him to erre That which hath fastened so many errous to the Popes chaire and from thence scattered them over all the world is an opinion that he in his chair cannot erre his supposed spirit of infallibility hath made him the great Deceiver and deceived him He that thinks he cannot erre errs in thinking so and seldome thinks or speaks or doth any thing but it is an errour He is most secured from errour who suspects he hath erred and humbly acknowledges that he may Thirdly We may here observe what an errour is An errour strictly and properly taken is that which we hold or doe out of bare ignorance of the Truth It is an errour in practice when we are ignorant of what is better to be done An errour in opinion is when we are ignorant of what is better for us to believe or hold Heresie is an errour and more for heresie hath these three things in it 1. In regard of the matter it must be in some great and fundamental truths The word Heresie is by some derived from choosing by others from taking away because it takes us off from Christ or from the foundations of saving knowledge 2. Heresie is accompanied with pertinacy and obstinacy after clear light offered It is possible one may have an errour about things which are fundamental and yet be no heretick An heretick is condemned of himself Tit. 3. 10. But he will not be convinced by another Not that he doth formally and in terms give sentence against or condemn himself but equivalently he doth as the Apostle Acts. 13. 46. speakes to the unbeleeving Jews seeing ye put the word from you and judge your selves unworthy of everlasting life c. These men did not judge themselves such formally they came not to the Apostle and said we willingly submit our selves to hell and wrath No they thought very well of themselves and judged themselves worthy of eternal life But their practice judged them and gave a real sentance against them while they acquitted themselves Thus also a heretick who ever hath a very high opinion of himself and his opinions is condemned of himself 3. In heresie there is taken of pleasure and delight therefore heresie is numbred among the lusts of the flesh adultery and fornication c. Gal. 5 20. Hereticks desire to disperse and vend their opinions A man onely in an errour will weep over his opinions and it grieves him that he dissents and goes contrary unto others But he that stiffely maintains an errour insults over others and delights to maintain his opposition he triumphs and boasts of his war though he can never obtain victory Truth onely is victorious And some learned Criticks observe as much from the form of the Haereticus est cui voluptas est falsas tueri opiniones ea enim est nominum Graecorum in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 definentium proprietas ut ad qualitatem designandam non adhibeantur modo sed etiam ad innuendam delectationem quam in ea capit cui illa qualitas in est Camer Myroth Evang. in cap. 3. Epist ad Titum Greek word Tit. 3. 11. So then heresie is not only an errour in judgment but a pertinacy in the will and it takes in delight at the affections Fourthly observe from these words Cause me understand wherein I have erred That An erring brother or friend must not be importuned barely to leave his errour but he must be made to understand his errour Errour should not be left nor truth received blind-fold a man may sin in leaving an errour they do without question who lay it down thinking it to be a truth and there is little question but they do who leave it before they understand it to be an errour It is much alike to reject an opinion as an errour which we doe not understand and to practice an opinion for a truth which we doe not understand If a man practice or beleeve a truth not convinced that it is or not conceiving it to be a truth that truth is but as an errour to him because he doth not beleeve or practice it under the notion of a truth and so if he leave an errour which he is not convinced to be an errour his leaving it is not much better and in some cases it may be worse then his holding it because he leaves it not under the notion of an errour We must not dance after other mens pipes or see with other mens eyes Except we know it is good we do and evil which we leave und on our not
doing evil is not good to us and our doing good is to us no better then evil Verse 25. How forcible are right words but what doth your arguing reprove Job speakes by way of admiration How forcible I cannot In Haebreo Admirativum est elegans patheticum Bold tell how forcible It is an elegant way of expressing the highness of our thoughts As Psal 84. 1. How aimable are thy dwelling places O Lord of hosts He admires in stead of speaking they are so aimable as I cannot tell how aimable they are Put your thoughts to their utmost conceptions of beauty and that beauty is in the dwellings of the Lord So saith Job here How forcible are right words they are so forcible as I cannot tell how forcible they are I must admire and be silent How forcible are right words The Chaldee Paraphrase reads it how sweet are right words interpreting it by that Psal 119. 103. Oh how sweet are thy Commandements unto me they are sweeter than the honey and the honey comb But the Originals differ though that be a good sense We read How forcible The word signifies any thing that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acrimoniae notionem habet strong potent or mighty It notes also acrimony sharpnesse or smartnesse and so it is often applyed to words either good or bad 1 King 2. 8. when David lay upon his death bead giving his last advices to Solomon Thou saith he hast Shimei with thee who cursed me with a grievous curse In the Hebrew it is this word who cursed me with a sharp strong forcible curse he cursed me with all his heart with all his might he laid load upon me Evil words are strong right words are strongest Job had before at the 6th verse of this Chapter called the discourses of Eliphaz unsavoury in this he taxes them for flat or weak right words have a pleasing acrimony upon the palate of the soul and a power upon the judgement to sway and carry it but yours are dull and feeble Some render it after the letter of the Hebrew words of right or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eloquia rectitudinis Mont. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aquil. truth Others in the Concret how forcible are the words of a right or upright man But take it as we translate How forcible are right words Words are right three wayes 1. In the matter when they are true 2. In the manner when they are plain direct and perspicuous 3. In their use when they are duely and properly applied when the arrow is carried home to the white then they are right words or words of righteousnesse When this three-fold rightnesse meets in words how forcible how strong are such words But what doth your arguing reprove I confess there is great strength in right words and in the words of the upright but you have been long disputing the matter with me and what have you got where are your gains The word signifies to rebuke with conviction and argument to shew what is right and to refute that which is contrary Job 13. 3. the word is so used Surely I would speak to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arguit redarguit praeparavit verba contra aliquem disputando ostendendo jus the Almighty and I desire to reason with God to reason it out as it were by force of Argument with God The word is answerable in sence to that in the Greek used by the Apostle Heb. 11. 1. Faith is a conviction or the evidence of things not seen that is an evident conviction faith gives a stronger evidence then any reason yea then sence therefore though faith be of things that fall not under sence and are above reason yet faith is an evidence or a conviction fuller then any Logical conviction or demonstration The Argument from such authority as faith grounds upon is stronger and more convincing then any or then all the reason in the world What doth your arguing reprove Word for ward what doth Quid disceptando conficiet disceptatio vestra q. d. quod vos reâ—â—â—guitis redarguendi verbo non est donandum your disputation dispute Or what doe your arguments argue as if he had said your arguing is no arguing your reasons are no reasons that which you have been arguing all this while with me doth not so much as deserve the name of an argument in my case it hath no power or strength in it Job laies a charge upon his friends by this opposition Right words are forcible but your arguments are not right or you are not right who argue therefore what force what power is there in what you have spoken I can blow it all off as easily as a man can blow off a feather Mr. Broughtton varies somewhat from this sence And what can your blame soundly blame that is you shall finde nothing blame worthy or reprovable in me Observe hence first Words rightly spoken are very forcible Take it in the general What mighty things have words words duly spoken done Abigail a weak woman by a few right words overcame the strength and wrath of mighty David and turned his whole army back David with all his men were in the heat of resolution and upon a hot march to destroy Nabal yet she stops them And that woman speaking to Johab when Sheba fled to the City with a few right words prevailed to save the City and stay the fury of war Take the point more strictly The words of truth are full of power full of strength Naked truth is too hard for armed errour Truth hath the strength of God in it therefore that must needs prevail The Apostle professes 2 Cor. 1. 3. We can doe nothing against the truth He means it in regard of the bent of his spirit his heart could not move against truth but we may use it in another sence We can doe nothing against the truth that is let us put out the uttermost of our power we can never prevail against the truth Look upon truth in the promises that will conquer all Look upon truth in the threatnings that 's forcible to overcome all Jer. 1. 10. God gives the Prophet a commission I have set thee over the Nations and over the Kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down to build and to plant Here is a strange commission for a Prophet How could Jeremiah plant or root up build or pull down Nations He never drew sword yet he performed this commission fully by his word he pulled them down and rooted them up by the word of threatning and he planted them and built them with the word of promise Zech. 1. 10. Your fathers are dead they are gone but my words saith the Lord which I spake by my servants the Prophets did not they take hold of your fathers Your fathers are dead and the Prophets are dead but my words live still and did not they hold
of your fathers you esteemed my words as wind but they were a strong wind they blew down the power of your fathers The Apostle gives this honour to all the word of God which is all right that it is mighty or forcible through God to bring down strong holds and to bring every thought into subjection unto Christ And Heb. 4. 12. The word of God is mighty in operation The energie of it is such that nothing can stand before it no lust can stand before it no errour can stand before it it bears down all with fine force Therefore take heed of standing in the way of right words Truth comes with such a force that no man is able to beare up against it It is better to have all the men of the world against us Than to have one word of God against us One word of truth will doe more against us than all the Armies in the world no force can stand against this force the force of the word will destroy the force of the sword Truth will be the great Conquerour at last Thirdly Take it in the Concrete in reference to the speaker How forcible is the word of an upright man Then Observe The words of one that is upright hearted carry great strength and power with them Truth loses by the patronage and defence which some give it Truth gets little by the tongues of those men who have no grace in their hearts Truth in the mouth of a wicked man is weakened by the falseness of his heart and filthiness of his life Sometimes precious truths are spoken by vilest men but what force have they they are not received or owned Christ could not abide to hear the Devil speak truth A godly man speakes with Authority as it is said of Christ He spake as one having authority and not as the Scribes the Scribes taught that which was truth sometimes and the Scribes had alwayes authority to teach the chair of Moses was theirs they were not intruders upon an office they had no call to When Christ saith the Scribes and Pharises sit in Moses chair Matt. 23. 2. He speakes not onely de facto of what they did but de jure of what they had right to doe They were not usurpers or actors beyond their line But though the Scribes had the right of authority to teach yet their teaching had no force of authority it was but talke And it appears plainly that the words of that hypocritical generation the Scribes and Pharisees bare no weight with the people because Christ gives them a charge to observe and doe what the Scribes and Pharisees bid them As intimating that the doctrine of those Scribes though true was low-priz'd and lay much unpractis'd Mat. 23. 3. We must not shorten the hand of God as if he might not use those who have no truth to publish a truth He may imploy what instruments he pleases and he can make those that are evil instruments of good But look upon it ordinarily thus it is the word of truth hath most power strength and force from the lips of those who are upright in heart and holy in life How forcible are their words The words of the wise are like goads or like nailes fastened by the Masters of the Assembly Eccl. 11. But the words of wicked masters in the assembly are like nailes without points they will not drive or take hold there is no fastning of them Or the words of wicked men are like weak nailes which break in the driving What doe you arguing reproving teaching you that carry your selves thus what force have your words Truth loses both strength and credit in your mouthes Thou that teachest another teachest thou not thy selfe thou that preachest a man should not steal doest thou steal thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery doest thou commit adultery c are the Apostles chiding expostulations with the Jewish Doctors Rom. 2. And upon this he charges them with dishonoring God and causing his name to be blasphemed among the Gentiles vers 23 24. But what was the blasphemy Surely this The Gentiles grew to have a low esteeme of the word of God his Law was of no force with them because those teachers were so false to it and unspoke with their lives whatsoever their tongues had spoken That which hath no force upon the speakers heart hath seldome any upon the hearers What doe your teachings teach or your comfortings comfort what doe your arguings argue or your reprovings reproove Shall vice reprove sin as we speake proverbially or if it doth sin is not much hurt with those reprofs Words spoken from the heart goe to the heart and words read in the life are most forcible to reforme the life Then the word goes forth cloathed with list and power when the preacher can reade his Sermon in his own heart and the people in his life He that speakes onely out of books does much after his rate who as we say speakes without book And he that lives not what he speakes what in him lies kills what he speakes And how shall such a dead letter t is almost a miracle if it doth conveigh a quickning spirit Such arguings seldome reprove any but the arguer and him they alwayes reprove JOB Chap. 6. vers 26 27 28 29 30. Doe ye imagine to reprove words and the speeches of one that is desperate which are as wind Yea ye overwhelm the fatherlesse and you digge a pit for your friend Now therefore be content look upon me for it is evident unto you if I lie Return I pray you let it not be iniquity yea return again my righteousness is in it Is there iniquity in my tongue Cannot my taste discern perverse things IN the two former verses Job made an humble submission of himself unto the better counsel and instruction of his friends if they could yet shew him wherein he had erred In these five verses he doth two things further First he expostulates with his friends about their former speech and carriage toward him Secondly he admonishes them to be better advised more moderate and considerate in what they had yet to say unto him The former of these is contained in the 26. and 27. verses And there are two branches of it 1. He taxes them for making so light of what he had said Doe ye imagine to reprove words and the speeches of one that is desperate which are as wind ver 26. 2. He taxeth them for laying such heavy load upon him in what they had said Yea ye overwhelm the fatherlesse and you digge a pit for your friend vers 27. As if he had spoken plainly thus You have carried the matter hitherto with me as if I had spoken nothing but bare empty words words without any weight yea as if I were rageing mad distracted desperate not knowing nor caring what I did or what I speak as if my whole discourse were no better then meere vapouring a puffe of wind
the soule whereby we discerne or distinguish just from unjust truth from false-hood as sweet is distinguished from bitter by the pallate is elegantly called the pallate of the soul Cannot my taste discern The Hebrew is Cannot my taste * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scriptura saepe linguae faucibus manibus tribuit quod men t is intellectus proprium est sc med tari intelligere Magna est rationis orationis cognatio understand perverse things It is usuall in Scripture to ascribe understanding not onely to the senses but also to the tongue and sometimes to the hand Understanding is ascribed to the tongue in the place before named Psal 52. where the tongue is said to de vise mischiefe The tongue properly cannot devise the tongue doth but utter mischiefe it is the mind or heart that deviseth The shop is within where mischiefe is forged and framed yet the contrivance of it is in that text given to the tongue There is a two-fold reason of it why the holy Ghost attributes the worke of the understanding to the tongue hand or senses First there is a great affinity beween reason and speech and therefore the tongue which is the instrument of speech is honoured with the worke of the understanding And so grat is the affinity beween reason and speech that no creature void of reason can speak Speech is a peculiar property of the rationall creature Speech is or ought to be the immediate issue or birth of reason Words are conceived in the mind and born at the tongue And words are the image of the mind We may see what work is wrought in the mind by that which is spoken by the tongue The shape of a mans heart when he speakes himself comes out at his mouth And therefore before a man speakes he meditates Meditation is the conception of words As speaking is the production of them Thus the Lord charges Joshua Chap. 1. 8. The book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night One would think it should rather have been said The book of the Law shall not depart out of thine heart but thou shalt meditate therein or if not cut of thy mouth then Ita meditaberis ut exipsa cogitatione mentis effervescente redundent ebulliant in ore verba thou shalt speak of it Meditation is too high a worke for the mouth Yet because there ought to be much meditation about the Law of God before a word of it comes out of the mouth therefore the Lord saith The book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that is as oft as thou shalt speak thou shalt meditate thou shalt not speake rashly it shall not be the work of thy tongue alone but of thy mind and tongue together There is a second reason why acts of the understanding are ascribed to the tongue or to the senses because when a thing is well spoken or duly acted by any sense Reason is the guide and the bodily Organ is under the dictates of the minde or understanding So Gen. 41. 14. when old Jacob in giving the blessing unto Josephs children Manasseh and Ephraim laid his right hand upon the younger and his left hand upon the elder the text saith he made his hands to understand we translate he guided his hands wittingly there was so much reason such divine reason in that act of Jacobs hands in laying his right-hand upon the younger that the Prudenter egit manibus sun ac siiplae manus mysteriorum consciae erant Onkel Hebrew gives it with this elegancie he made his hands to understand which one of the Jewish Writers learnedly expounds thus He order'd his hands wisely as if they had been made acquainted with that great mystery of Gods counsels that the greater blessing was the portion of the younger sonne And so the Psalmist Psal 78 72. speaking of Davids raigne and government saith He governed them by the skilfulnesse of his hands The Hebrew is by the understanding of his hands and more the understandings of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In intelligentiis manuum vel volâ—rum his hands Or as one renders it The discretions of his hands or the prudency of his Palmes ascribing all kind of politicall knowledge and understanding unto David David in the outward administrations of the kingdome acted with so much reason and justice that his very hands are said to understand His hands understood more than the heads of other Princes As Davids hands so Jobs pallate or taite had an understanding Cannot my pallate understand Yet further it is frequent in Scripture metaphorically to translate things which are only acted or apprehended by the inward senses to the outward Taste properly is of meat and drink the humour or moisture which is in meats sutable to the salivall humour in the mouth causeth pleasantness of taste Here Job speaks of Doctrines or of actions Cannot my taste discerne perverse things If a thing be perversly or properly truely or falsely spoken cannot I taste it quickly And hence the word of God is compared to those things which are the object of taste as to milk and to strong meat 1 Cor. 3. 2. I saith the Apostle have fed you with milk and not with meat That is with easie and common truths not with the more mysterious parts of Gospel-knowledge because ye were not able to bear it The taste of such mysteries was too strong for your pallates The same Metaphor is enlarged by the Apostle Heb. 5. 12 13 14. And in this Book we find it more than once Doth not the eare trie words and the mouth taste his meat Job 12. 11. Chap. 34. 3. That is doth not the eare try words as the mouth tastes meat Cannot my taste discern Perverse things That is words ill spoken or wrong placed The word signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also any calamity or sad accident And so Mr. Broughton renders it Cannot my pallate declare all kind of heavy sorrowes Do ye think I have lost my judgment of things and that I cannot tell when I am pinch't or pain'd First in that he saith here Is there iniquity in my tongue Observe The tongue oft-times discovers the iniquity of the heart If there be iniquity in the heart it will one time or other break forth at and blister upon the tongue He that is rotten at his heart is commonly rotten in his talk Matth. 12. 34. Out of the aboundance of the heart the mouth speakes And when there is aboundance of iniquity in the heart there is seldome a dearth or scarcity of it in the mouth especially in times of trouble that iniquity and corruption that disease and plague of the heart will break forth at the lips As Evill words corrupt good manners So evil words discover that our manners are corrupt There are few men but as the Damosel spake to
Peter Their speech bewrayeth them and you may smell the filth of their hearts by their breath Secondly observe from these words Is there iniquity in my tongue He whose heart is upright may know that he is upright When Job questions Is there iniquity in my tongue He resolves There is no iniquity in my tongue None of that iniquity which you charge me with I grant a believer hath not alwaies a sight of his own integrity and uprightness many a soule bears false witness against himself and oppresses his owne innocency yet for the most part sincerity hath a witness in it self and holiness carries a light by which it is seen to him that hath it An upright heart may know his own uprightness Thirdly in that Job is thus stiff in maintaining his own uprightness and in denying any iniquity to be in his tongue Observe It is a duty to maintain our own integrity and uprightness Job was upon it before and is now upon it again and he will be upon it afterward he never gives over justifying of himself against man though he had not a word to plead for himself against God Fourthly from the latter clause Cannot my taste discern perverse things Observe Reason distinguishes truth from falshood as the pallate distinguishes bitter from sweet Reason it is the souls-taster Princes have their tasters before they eat least there should be poison in the dish God hath given unto man a taster for his spiritual meat The Pope will not suffer the meat he provides and cooks to be tasted but will have it swallowed whole or else he will thrust it whole down their throats It is alike spiritual tyranny to starve souls and to cram them It is our duty when meat is set before us we are at a full table of knowledg where variety of doctrins and opinions are served in then to call for our taster We may be surfetted else if not poison'd There may be a wild guord among good hearbs in the pot and so death in the pot too therefore first taste then eat and digest A Christian hath a taste to discern error from truth why then should he be denied the use of it A woe is pronounced against those who offer unwholsome doctrin Isa 5. 20 Wo to those that call evil good good evil that put light for darkness and darkness for light that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter A like wo is due to them who will not give others leave to discern for themselves what is good or evil light or darkness bitter or sweet as good let another live for us as another taste for us And their misery will be little less then the woes of these men who cannot or will not take pains to distinguish when evill is called good and good evil when light is put for darkness and darkness for light when bitter is put for sweet and sweet for bitter or as Job speaks here whose taste cannot discern perverse things There are some whose taste is so far from discerning perverse things that it is easie to discern their taste is perverse for bring them wholesome true and savoury doctrine they say it is bitter or false doctrine Bring them false doctrin a lie a dream a fancie a meer humane invention dish out such provision before them that 's excellent chear This was the heaviest curse which God sent upon the Gentiles Rom. 1. 28. God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient that is to a mind void of judgement a mind that could not taste or distinguish things therfore the issue or effect was They did things which were not convenient as if a man not being able to judge of meats eats poyson or meats most contrary to his health and constitution It is a fearful judgement to be given up to an unapproving mind to a mind that cannot discern truth from false-hood the Oracles of God from the forgeries of men superstition from holy worship It is a sad thing to loose our spiritual senses Such as play the wantons with the word of God and walk below the truths they know are at last given up to a reprobate mind to a mind not able to know the word of truth and then they swallow down error for truth and suck in deadly poison like sweet pleasant wine The Apostle speaking of the difference of doctrins under the metaphor of meats saith Milk is for babes but strong meat is for them of full age even for those that by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil That is their spiritual senses exercised to taste this from that doctrin and not to swallow every doctrin alike It is a great blessing when a people have senses exercised And it is a blessing we have much cause to pray for in these times That many pallats are out of taste is too apparent by the multitude of heterodox opinions which go down without disrelish Some which would even make a man tremble to name them are entertained with delight Some which dissolve our comforts and breaks us off from comfortable communion with Christ Some which shake if not overthrow the very foundations of faith are swallowed as pleasant morsels Doth not this convince that there 's a want of Jobs taste among us to discern perverse things Therefore get your senses exercised be established in the present truth that ye as this holy man in the middest of all bodily distempers and outward troubles which usually put the natural pallate out of taste may yet even then as he have your inward senses exquisite and your spiritual pallate exact to discern right from perverse things Lastly note False doctrine or true doctrine falsely applied is a perverse thing False doctrin perverts First Reason Secondly Scripture Thirdly the souls of men The Apostle Acts 20. 30. prophecies to the Church of Ephesus and with them to all Churches That out of themselves men should arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them Holy doctrin draws men to God and false doctrine draws men to man As itching ears heap teachers to themselves 2 Tim. 4. 3. So false tongues heap disciples to themselves That which is perverse in it's nature is perverting in its effect JOB Chap. 7. Vers 1 2 3 4. Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth are not his dayes also like the dayes of an hireling As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work So am I made to possess moneths of vanity and wearisome nights are appointed to me When I lie down I say When shall I arise and the night be gone and I 'am full of tossings too and fro unto the dawning of the day WHere the knot of connection between this and the former Chapter lyeth is not so discernable which hath given occasion for much diversity of conjecture about it First It may be conceived that Job in
shadow to get under a tree or a bush a little to refresh himself Or Thirdly the shadow may be taken for the house to come into a mans house or under a mans roof is called a comming under his shadow Gen. 19. 8. Therefore they are come under my shadow saith Lot to the men of Sodome that is under the covert of my roof The shadow is used often in Scripture to note protection and mercy Shadows are substantial mercies and the promise of a shadow â—â—bra id significat quod proteâ—endo custoâ—â—endo obâ—mbrat is a real favour Isa 4. 6. The Church hath a promise under this notion There shall be a Tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat Isa 25. 4. A refuge from the storm a shadow from the heat And Isa 32. 2. The Lord promises that he will be as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land unto his people And David flies to this shadow for safety Vnder the shadow of thy wings shall be my refuge till these calamities be over-past Psal 57. 1. So Psal 17. 8. Psal 91. 1. So that in these words As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow Job means that which is most refreshing and desirable by a servant And in those Eastern hot Countries shadows were very refreshing and much desired Jacob reporting his labours in keeping Labans sheep saith In the day time I was consumed with heat or parched with heat Therefore a servant hath reason to desire the shadow And as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work There are two things which a servant or an hireling desires much Rest and reward Shadow and pay When he is hot the shadow refreshes him And when he is hungry his pay refreshes him while his hand is at work in the day his heart is upon the wages he shall receive at night Hence the Lord in compassion to servants made a gracious provision for them by a law Deut. 24. 14 15. Thou shalt not oppress a hired servant c. at his day thou shalt give him his hire neither shall the Sun go down upon it for he is poor and setteth his heart upon it lest he cry against thee to the Lord and it be sin unto thee Job puts the instance in both As the hireling looks for the reward of his work c. He looketh The word signifieth to expect a thing with an eye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 toward it what we earnestly expect our eyes move after it David in his waiting upon God saith Mine eyes are towards thee I lift up mine eyes and my heart to God The same word is here used The hireling looks For the reward of his work So we translate it The Hebrew is He looks for his work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why he had work before he had his work all day long his Master shewed him his work he needed not look for that then his work is the reward of his work In the Scripture the word work signifies three things 1. The very act of labour 2. The effect of labour the thing wrought or that which is the product of labour When a man hath laboured what he labour'd about is visible and that we call his work as well as the act of his labour 3. The reward or the wages which a man receives for his labour Levit. 19. 13. we read a plain text for it The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning The Hebrew is The work of him that is hired shal not abide with thee So Psal 109. 20. Let this be the reward of mine adversaries Obus est fructus seu merces oberis quae pro labore datur ber Metonymiam from the Lord The Hebrew is Let this be the work of mine adversaries from the Lord. And Jer. 22. 13. we have the word in the same sence work for wages As it is usual to put prayer for the thing prayed for a petition for the thing petitioned or for the thing obtained by petition The Lord hath given me my petition saith Hannah 1 Sam. 1. 27. that is the child for whom I did petition It is usual also in Scripture to put sin for the punishment or reward of sin Gen. 4. 13. My sin is greater that is my punishment is greater than I can bear And the Master is forbidden to detain the servants wages least it be sin to him Deut. 24. 15. that is least he be punished for detaining it Thus also it is usual to put the work for the reward of the work The hireling expects his work that is he earnestly looks that he shall have wages in the evening for his work Now saith Job as these wait the servant and the hireling for the shadow in the day and for their wages at night So I am made to possesse months of vanity c. I shall note a point or two in passage from the words as they contain a general truth before I examine them in this application Take the words as they are a direct proposition A servant desires the shadow and an hireling looks for the reward of his work Hence observe First The condition of a servant is a very laborious and a wearisome condition He longs for some rest he earnestly desires the shadow Observe Secondly The servant must have a reward Ther 's all the reason in the world he should Observe Thirdly The hireling hath earnest thoughts upon his reward His reward is in his eye It is the reason given why the wages of the hired servant should not be with-held Deut. 24. 15. The Lord the righteous judge between Masters and servants gives this account or ground of his Law Thou shalt not detaine his wages for he setteth his heart upon it Poor man he hath been working all day and he hath had his heart upon his wages the hopes of that gave him some relief and ease in going through his hard task and service therfore thou shalt not keep it from him his heart is set upon it But it may be questioned Is not this a sin in the servant to set his heart upon his wages A charge is given Psal 62. 10. If riches increase set not your heart upon them and is it approveable in a servant to set his heart upon his wages or encrease There is a great difference and it is worthy our notice between those two Scriptures The word in Deutronomy speaking of the poor servant notes the lifting up of the soul He hath lifted up his soul unto it so we read in the margin of our Bibles But in the Psame where he speaks of the covetous rich man the word imports the letting down or setling of his heart upon it A poor man hath but a little and his wages it may be is above him his wages possibly is more than he is worth therefore he lifteth up his mind to it as a mercy and a blessing from God for the