him I look upon the proud man and bring him low now let me see you do so too Canst thou with a look only abate their pride and bring down the pomp of man Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath Hence note First There is wrath in God God knoweth how to cast forth his wrath as well as to send forth his love Habet ira Domini suam energiam nunquam egreditur vana or shed it abroad as the Apostles word is Rom. 5.5 in the hearts of his justified ones by the holy Ghost which is given unto them The wrath of God saith the same Apostle Rom. 1.18 is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness The wrath of God is such as we can neither First withstand nor Secondly avoid there 's no out-running no making an escape from it but only by Jesus Christ and therefore the Apostle gives that glory to him alone 1 Thess 1.10 Even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come There is a wrath to come which God will scatter over all this sinful wicked world blessed are they that are delivered from it Yea not only is there wrath in God but a fierceness of wrath terrible wrath such as will cause the wicked as was said before to run into the holes of the rocks and into the caves of the earth for fear of the Lord and for the glory of his majesty when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth Isa 2.19 Let us mind this wrath and the fierceness of it and let us bless the Lord who hath sent Jesus Christ â—o deliver us from this wrath and from the fierceness of it When wrath shall be cast abroad upon the wicked world that it falls not upon the godly is the fruit of highest and freest love And though they sip of the cup yet that they drink not the dregs of it is rich mercy Psal 75.98 In the hand of the Lord there is a cup and the wine is red it is full of mixture and he powreth out the same in this powring out possibly a godly man may drink somewhat of it especially in a time of common calamity but the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them It is of the Lords mercy and because his compassions fail not that we are delivered from the fierceness of his wrath and from drinking the very dregs of the cup of his displeasure Consider further upon whom this wrath will be exercised Cast forth the rage of thy wrath behold every one that is proud and abase him This the Lord bids Job do to shew what himself usually doth Hence note First The Lord takes special notice of proud persons He beholds them he locks upon them As it is said Saul 1 Sam. 18.9 He eyed David from that day forward that is which was his great sin he cast a revengeful envious eye upon him Thus when the holy God seeth wicked men gâ—ow lofty and proud he eyeth and beholdeth them from that very day with an eye of just revenge or with a purpose to break them and be revenged on them God beholds them as I may say with an evil eye that is with an intent to bring evil upon them He saith David Psal 138.6 knoweth the proud afar off As it is said of the Father of the humbled Prodigal in the Parable Luke 15. When he was yet a great way off his father saw him and had compassion So God quickly spies out a proud man even a great way off and hath indignation against him or as we may rather expound the Psalm He knoweth the proud afar off that is a proud man shall never come near him he will not admit him into his presence much less into his imbraces To be known afar off is to be far from the favourable or respectful knowledge of God yea to those whom the Lord knows afar off in this world he will say in the next I never knew you depart from me ye workers of iniquity Mat. 7.23 Secondly Note God is able to and will cast down proud men That which he would have Job do he himself as was said usually doth He beholdeth the proud and abaseth them he layeth them low Nebuchadnezzar that proud Monarch was brought to that confession Dan. 4.37 Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and honour and extol the King of Heaven all whose works are true and his ways judgment and those that walk in pride he is able to abase If men will be proud and lofty the Lord both knoweth very well how and is able very easily to bring them down And as he knows how and is able to deal with proud men so he desires and delights to deal with them above all sorts of sinners his greatest contests are with the proud Isa 2.12 13 14. The day of the Lord of Hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty and upon every one that is lifted up in his own conceit especially and he shall be brought low and upon all the Cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up and upon all the Oaks of Bashan and upon all the high mountains c. What meaneth the Prophet by these is the Lord angry with trees and mountains These are but the shadows of great and proud men the day of the Lord shall be upon every one of them and his hand will be heavy upon them in that day Proud men look upon themselves much above others but as God is above them so he loves to shew himself ahove them especially when they shew out their pride As Jethroe said to Moses Exod. 18.9 11. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them God sheweth himself above all when he acts above proud men and acts them down in their proudest actings And as the Lord delights to bring proud men down so he will certainly do it he is resolved upon it He looketh upon every one that is proud to abase him The Angels that fell were proud they kept not their first estate but left their habitation they did not like the state wherein God had placed them and therefo e God cast them down and he hath reserved them in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day Jude 6. When man in Paradise began to be proud and would be more than God made him God made him above all earthly creatures but he would be as God as his Creator he would be as it were the founder of his own happiness pride and unbelief at once took hold of him and led him to his sin-fall and then followed his fall his judgment-fall God cast him down God abased him and not only that proud man but man-kind for his pride they being in him his pride was theirs And to this day God hath all along set his face against all proud men and the pride
else but wrest and darken the Word of God I intend not humane learning meerly in Arts and Sciences though there be great use of them but I mean especially Holy and Divine Learning They that are not taught of God nor have the light of God in them cannot but darken the things and Counsels of God how much humane learning soever they have The Prophet foretels us of Christ speaking thus of himself as the great Prophet Isa 50.4 The Lord hath given me the tongue the learned that I should kn w how to speak a word in season to him that is weary that is to those who are wearied not with bodily labours and travels but with soul-labours and travels about the pardon of their sins and the favour of God to their souls He that speaks a word effectually for the refreshing of such weary ones must open the Counsels of God to them and he that doth so must have the tongue of the learned that is a tongue taught of God how to speak else he will never be able to do it knowingly but through the darkness of his own mind will darken the Counsel of God concerning those dark souls and so rather weary them more than relieve them out of their weariness That the soul be without knowledge is not good Prov. 19.2 that is 't is very bad such Negatives in Scripture intend their contrary Affiâ—matives and as it is not good or very bad for themselves whosoever they are so it is not good for them with respect to others who are called to declare the Counsels of God to others Souls without knowledge cannot open but are apt to darken the Soul-counsels of God Sixthly Inasmuch as God reproved Job for this Note God will not take it well if we speak improperly darkly and unsafely of his Matters and Counsels though our minds be honest and our meaning good in what we speak We had need be cautious what we say and not talk at random about the things of God Job a holy and a wise man had a peal rung in his ear for speaking words without knowledge words not duly poized and placed There are some who will catch at and take hold of every slip of the tongue they will make a man an offender for a word which hath no real ground of offence in it as the Prophet spake Isa 29.11 God may justly make a man an offender for a word which he thought was without offece Lastly Consider when God came to reprove Job he did not charge him with iny ill intentions but with ill expressions He indeed had darkened his Counsel by words Without knowledge but God did not say he had a purpose and a mind to do it nor did he say that Job had spoken lastly but that he had spoken truth obscurely The Lord did not object hypocrisie or impiety against him but imbecility as not having handled the Judgements of God nor delivered his own judgement clearly and prudently enough but had hudled and put things so passionately and confusedly together that some could not tell how to distinguish them from blasphemy Hence Note God will not charge any man beyond his fault If he did it in a heat of passion God will not deal with him as if he had done it in cold blood as we sy or with a setled resolution The Lord will not call a slip of the tongue an errour of the mind much less a minded nor God knowe the intent and purpose of every man that speaks he weighs not only our actions but words he knows not only what we say but why and with what aimes we say it and therefore he never urgeth any mans sin beyond it self Job had darkned the Counsel of God only by words without knowledge therefore God would not charge him to have darkned his Counsel knowingly or against the light of knowledge Yea notwithstanding this fault the Lord having reproved him for it proceeds presently as some interpret the next verse to comfort and encourage him Vers 3. Gird up now thy loins like a man As if the Lord had said thou hast spoken thus and ths of my Counsels now give me an account of what thou hast spoken Gird up thy loins like a man Cinctus lumbonum erit pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coc. To call a man to gird up his loins is to bid him be in a readiness or to prepare himselfe for any work The strength of a man is in his loins and they who are weak are said to be loin-lesse To gird up the lions is a powerbial speech and may be used to a man who weareth the shortest garments yea to him who is naked Hence the Lord bid Job to gird up his loins who possibly was so weak that he could not stand upon his legs or possibly had no long garments at all There is a girding the lions with sack-cloth that is with sorrow implying the work of repentance and mortification Isa 22.12 In that day did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldness and to girding with sackcloth The two Witnesses of Christ are said to prophesie in sackcloth one thousand two hundred any sixty dayes Rev. 11.3 to note that they were in a sad or sorrowful conditoin all the dayes of their Prophesie Thus Jobs loins had been girt a long time But Again There is a girding of the loins with joy Thou hast put off from me my sackcloth and girded me with gladness Psal 30.11 Also There is a girding of the lions with strength Psal 17.39 Further we may take notice of a fourfold use in Scripture of girding up the loins Cingulum amkulaturi First There is a girding up the lions for travel or when a man is to take a journey Thus Elisha said to Gehazi 2 Kings 4.29 Gird up thy loins and take thy staffe in thy hand and go thy way c. It was a fashion in those Eastern Countreys where they wore their garments long and ordinarily loose to gird them up in travel Secondly Cingulum ministraturi There is a girding up the loins for serving or waiting so Christ expresseth it Luke 12.35 Let your loins be girded about and your lamps burning and ye your selves like unto men that wait for their Lord. And he saith at the 37th vcese Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching Verily I say unto you that he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meat and will come forth and serve them that is he will be ready to do them offices of love as it were in person which is an expression of the greatest condescention For when Christ would set forth the common custom among men he saith Luke 17.7 8. Which of you having a servant plowing or feeding Cattel will say unto him by and by when he is come from the field Go and sit down to meat and will not rather say Gird thy self and serve me c. Girding is
verse they confess not only their being in him throughout all generations but his most blessed Being before all generations Before Mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the Earth and the World even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God The first Being is an eternal Being and therefore the Prophet saith Isa 57.15 God inhabiteth Eternity The Eternal dwells in Eternity But what is Eternity One of the Ancients calleth it Aeternitas est interminabilis vitae tota simul et perfect possessio Boeth de Consol l. 6. The perfect possession of a boundless or limitless life whole and all at once Eternity hath no terms nor bounds of beginning or ending 'T is a possession of all at once there is nothing past or to come but all is alwayes present to God Note Fourthly God is the fountain of all being he hath given a being to all things The Apostle Paul Acts 17.28 discoursing with the Athenians having said In him we live and move and have our being convinceth them further by that saying of their own Poets for we are also his off-spring We spring from him as from a root or fountain With him is the fountain of lives Psal 36.9 even of natural life as well as of spiritual and eternal Every life every being is but a stream issuing from Jehovah And as every life is from God so also is the being of all things without life The Lord gave the liveless Earth its being its beginning Some Naturalists have asserted the eternity of the World and so the eternity of the Earth They could not compass which way or how the World could have a beginning and therefore said it had none Here we have the Founder of the World God himself teaching man this Divine Philosophy about the beginning of the World and taking it to himself I laid the foundations of the Earth When the Heathen Philosopher read what Moses had written concerning the Creation of the World Thus the Heavens and the Earth were finished and all the host of them Ger. 2.1 He presently said The man speaks wonders but how doth he prove what he hath spoken Where are his demonstrations He would put Moses to his proof but Moses's proof was faith in the testimony of God Through faith we understand that the Worlds were framed by the Word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear Heb. 11.3 We understand the Work of Creation yet not by the strength of natural reason but through faith which gives credit to the Word of God and perswades the heart that the report therein made is a truth Plato in Timaeo For though some Philosophers have evinced by arguments grounded upon reason that the World was made yet that it was made by the Word of God either the Essential Word the Son of God spoken of John 1.1 who is the efficient cause of it or by the Declarative Word spoken of in this place of the Hebrews which was the means or instrumental cause of making the World Gen. 1.3 6. This I say cannot at all be understood by reason but purely and only by faith because it is so revealed in the Scriptures Fifthly In that the Lord here saith I laid the foundations of the Earth Observe God hath made the Earth firm and immoveable The stability of the Earth is of God as much as the being and existence of it Psal 104.5 He laid the foundations of the Earth that it should not be removed for ever There have been many Earthquakes or movings of the Earth in several parts of it but the whole body of the Earth was never removed so much as one hairs breadth out of its place since the foundations thereof were laid Archimedes the great Mathematician said If you will give me a place to set my Engine on I will remove the Earth It was a great bâ—ag but the Lord hath laid it fast enough for mans removing Himself can make it quake and shake he can move it when he pleaseth but he never hath nor will remove it He hath laid the foundations of the Earth that it shall not be removed nor can it be at all moved but at his pleasure and when it moves at any time it is to mind the sons of men that they by their sins have moved him to displeasure There hath been or will be a shaking of the Earth in mercy for we have it in a promise Heb. 12.26 Whose voice then namely at the giving of the Law shook the Earth but now he hath promised saying yet once more I shake not the Earth only but also Heaven Some understand this promise as fulfilled at the coming of Christ in the flesh at which time indeed there were notable and amazing motions and alterations both in Heaven and Earth Others expound it of the Day of the ultimate Judgement not a few of some great providential dispensations of God which shall shake not the Earth only but also the Heavens as taken in a Metaphor for earthly and heavenly things referring to the Church of God and the Kingdomes of Men. I shall not interpose in this matter about the sense of that Text but onely say whatever the Apostle meant by Earth or Heaven and the shaking of it yet this remains as an unshaken Axiom that the Fabrick of the Earth properly taken stands fast The Lord hath laid the foundations of it that it should not be removed David to shew the stedfastness of his faith put that supposition Psal 46.2 Therefore will not we fear though the Earth be moved The Prophet also did the like to assure us of the stability of the Covenant of Grace Isa 54.10 yet we need not fear that either the Earth shall be removed or the Mountains depart Such suppositions shew indeed the immoveableness of the Word which God hath spoken not the moveableness by any natural power or natural decay of the Earth whose foundations he hath laid And hence the Psalmist argues the Lords faithfulness to his Word Psal 119.90 Non magis moveronaturaliter terra quam quiescere coelum potest Bold All earthly things move but the Earth wherein all these motions are made stands still Eccl. 1.4 The Earth can no more move than the Heavens can stand still Some modern Philosophers have turned the scale of Nature and would perswade us that the Heavens stand still and the Earth moves but 't is good for us to stand to and abide by the Scripture which tells us the Earth stands still and abideth or it abideth that is it standeth as the Margin explains it Psal 119.90 And that it standeth still or abideth not only because it hath still a being as things in motion have but because it is still or stands without moving is so much my faith as well as my sense that I see no reason to be moved from it Sixthly The Power and Will of God are the onely foundation of the Earth 'T is said by the Psalmist
neither foundation nor corner-stone Remember O Job and well consider that as when in the beginning I saw the earth without form and void Gen. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I by a creating word commanded it into form and fulness So when thou seest nothing but Tohu and Bohu confusion and disorder voidness and darkness in the earth even then I am laying the measures of Justice and stretching the line of Truth and Equity upon all that is done or suffered and will bring forth my work in full perfection Nothing shall be amiss or out of order when my work is finished how much soever it may seem to be amiss as to beginnings or present actings Therefore O Job leave off thy complainings and rest quietly in my dealings Some have questioned the Natural Works of God yet 't is impossible to mend any part or the least pin of them And 't is as impossible for the wit and understanding of Men or Angels to mend any thing in the Providential Works of God That 's the scope of this discourse even that the consideration of Gods power and wisdom in making the world should bâ—idle our curiosity and awe our spirits when they begin to quarrel with yea but to query about any thing that God hath done though it appear to us altogether irregular and confused or as done without either line or measure The Lords work is beautiful and glorious 't is also sure and strong As his Promise or Covenant is ordered in all things and sure 2 Sam. 23.5 So are his Providences too for they are the issues and accomplishments of his Promises oâ—dered as to means and sure as to the end They shall end oâ— issue in b inging about the things which are laid in the foundation and corner-stone of his purposes counsels and decrees all which work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose Rom. 8.28 And to convince Job from the Works of Creation that he ought not only to acquiesce or rest quietly under the Works of Providence whatsoever they were but to rejoyce in them the Lord tells him in the next verse that there was great rejoycing yea shouting for joy when the foundations of the earth were fastened and the corner-stone thereof laid JOB Chap. 38. Vers 7. 7. When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy THere are two opinions among learned Interpreters concerning the general state of this verse First Some here reassuming the first words of these questions proposed at the fourth verse by God to Job Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth c. make this the second instance of Gods mighty power in the works of Creation Where wast thou when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy As if the Lord had said I have as yet questioned thee only where thou wast when I made the earth which is the most inferiour part of the world But now I purpose to rise higher in my discourse and therefore I put these questions to thee Where wast thou when I set up the morning stars those sparkling lights which shine to the earth through the firmament of heaven as also the sons of God those blessed spirits all which sang together and shouted for joy at the appearance of my power and wisdom Secondly Others connect these words in a continued sense and sentence with the verse going before Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth c. at which sight the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy Taking the words thus they carry an allusion to or are a similitude taken from noble buildings or structures whose foundations use to be laid with solemnity and their corner-stones to be set up with shouting and acclamation That it was anciently customary to make such acclamations at the laying of the foundation of some eminent building besides what is clear out of humane Authors and Histories we have several Scripture evidences The 87th Psalm throughout setting forth the structure of the Gospel Church of the spiritual Zion by way of prophesie begins thus His foundation is in the holy mountains there 's the foundation of Zion laid Then followeth as at the second verse The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee O thou City of God! Selah As if he had said there was a great acclamation high praises at the laying the foundation of Zion with which the Psalme closeth more expresly v. 7. As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there all my Springs are in thee Again Psal 118.22 23 24. there is no sooner mention made of the corner-stone the stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner but presently we have acclamations about it This is the Lords doing it is marvelous in our eyes This is a blessed work indeed This is the day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it That corner-stone of salvation Jesus Christ being laid as I may say all the stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy This is the day which the Lord hath made If we go to those material buildings which were figurative of the Church and Christ we shall find the like Ezra 3.10 When the Jewes at the return of their Captivity began to build the Temple the Text saith at the tenth verse And when the builders laid the foundation of the Temple of the Lord then they set the Priests in their apparel and with their voices with the Levits and the sons of Asaph to praise the Lord. As soon as the foundation was laid they were all in song and raised up in holy rejoycings though some of the old men who remembred the first Temple wept when the foundation of this was laid That Scripture Zach. 4.7 speaks of the same thing where the Prophet in the Spirit fore-seeing the disappointments of all the enemies of the people of God thus triumphs over them by faith Who art thou O great Mountain before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain he shall bring forth the head-stone thereof with shouting That is the building of Hierusalem or the restoring of the Temple shall be brought to perfection and then they shall cry grace grace unto it Now in allusion to the practice both of men in common and of the people of God in special at the raising of great structures the Lord tells us here that when he laid the foundations of the earth and when he fastened the corner-stone thereof there was a Triumph made Then the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy Thus we have the state of this verse either taking it for another instance of the power of God in creating the Stars and the Angels or else subjoyning it as an acclamation
suspend their working as often as he will And therefore the simple and plain meaning of this question is the Rain owes its original to God and must call him father And that 's the observation which riseth out of this question Hath the Rain a Father God and God alone is the Father of the Rain Without him it had never been and that it is continued is by his power and providence that the frame of nature is so disposed that second causes are so ordered and furnished as to produce Rain proceeds from or comes to pass by the Lord alone The Prophet spake this in a time of great drought Jer. 14.22 both in the negative and in the affirmative and he proposed two questions or the question twice intending the negative First Are there any among the Vanities of the Gentiles that can cause Rain By the vanities of the Gentiles we are to understand their Idol gods Idols are vanities or nothings and can they who are nothing do this great thing give Rain That 's the first question Can Idols cause Rain surely they cannot But will it not rain of course will not the Heavens one time or other yield Rain That 's the second Question Can the Heavens give showers No As Idols or false gods cannot give Rain so neither can the Heavens if forbidden give Rain they act not their power in their own power The Heavens cannot give Rain if God gives them a command to the contrary and the God of Nature can check and countermâ—nd the course of Nature both on earth and in the Heavens when he will Though those bottles the Clouds be never so pregnant and full of Rain yet he can stop them So then neither the Idols nor the Heavens can do it if God say No yea if he give not forth a word of command if he bids not the course of Nature proceed the Heavens over our heads will be Brass and the eaâ—th under us as Iron and therefore the Prophet in the latter part of the verse tells us expresly who is the Father of the Rain Art not thou he O Lord our God Therefore will we wait upon thee for thou hast made all these things As if he had said O Lord thou hast made them and therefore thou hast both the right and the power to dispose of them What can be said more clear and full for the confirmation of this poynt Many other Scriptures say the same thing Read Deut. 28.12 Psal 147.8 Jer. 5.24 Amos 4.7 So then though there are natural causes of Rain yet God is the first cause and it is at his pleasure that these natural causes either pâ—oduce their effects or are stayed from pâ—oducing them It Rains not by accident nor by any concatenation of second causes but according to the appoyntments and pleasure of the great God 'T is no small part of our duty to eye God in causing these common things and 't is a great piece of Atheism or a disowning of God to tye them up to natural causes Now If God be the Father of the Rain we may hence infer First That God is the Father of all Creatures and the supream cause of all effects in the creatures As a Father is the second or instrumental cause of his Sons Being so God is the supream efficient cause of all Beings and Entities Not only Animals and Rationals but the very inanimates and sensless creatures are of a Divine extraction God is the Fountain of their Being And if God be and must be acknowledged as the Father of all Creatures even of the Rain then Secondly God is much more the Father of Mankind The Apostle voucheth that to the superstitious Athenians as a Divine truth out of their own Authors Acts 17.28 As certain also of your own Poets have said for we are also his off spring we are sprung from him as Branches from the Root or as Streams from the Fountain Not that we are as the Streams with the Fountain or the Branches with the Rooâ— of the same Nature with him which to imagine were highest Blasphemy but we take or receive our Nature from him that is he hath made us to be what we are and in him that is in dependance upon him we live and move and have our Being Thirdly If God own himself as a Father to all things and to all men in a general way of Nature then much more doth he own himself a Father to all his people in a way of grace What the Apostle saith of his Title Saviour 1 Tim. 4.10 He is the Saviour of all men especially of those that believe so I may say of this Relation Fatâ—er God is the Father of all men but especially of those that believe The fatherhood which stands in gâ—ace is the highest and most excellent fatherhood which God beareth to any of his Creatures As to this â—he Apostle Jam. 1.18 saith Of his own will begat he us by the Word of Truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his Creatures that is as I conceive that believers they only are begotten with the word of truth considered with all other creatures to whom God is a Father in a common way should have the honour to be called the chief of his creatures The first fâ—uits were chief among the fruits of the earth The first born both of man and of beast were the Lords portion Exod. 13.1 therefore chief This honour have all the Saints the Birth-right is theirs and theirs is the Blessing They as all holy things are dedicated to God and graciously accepted with him as a chosen Generation as a peculiar people He who is Lord over all and Father of all both things and persons as they stand in the whole compass of Nature is eminently and with endeared affections a Father to all them who believe and are actually in a state of grace Fourthly If God be a Father to all creatures and to man more than to inferiour creatures and to true Beleevers more than to other men then as his fatherhood is extended so is his fatherly care God will not be wanting to any as a Father to whom he is upon any account a Father He takes care of the fruits of the earth and of the beast of the field and of all mankind he feeds them all and cloaths them all and protects them all but they who are a kind of first-fruits of his creatures and bears the image of his holiness or his Image in holiness have a special portion and proportion of his care over them and love to them and provision for them What can he deny to us as a Father who hath vouchsafed to be our father Hath the Rain a father Or who hath begotten the drops of Dew This latter part of the verse is of the same meaning with the former The word which we translate hath begotten Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Chal et de viro et de muliere dicitur et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
with them to send lightning hast thou the command of thunder and lightning will the lightnings come forth at thy bidding The words may have a double allusion 1. To the General of an Army commanding his Souldiers and they going at his word 2. To the Master of a Family who gives orders to his Se vants and they go at his word Canst thou send lightnings that they may go And say unto thee here we are or as the Hebrew is Behold us That manner of speech here we are or behold us is a description of the most ready obedience either of Souldiers to their General or of Servants to their Master Will the lightnings obey thee thus and say here we are Some expound these words as supposed to be spoken by the lightnings upon their return from some former service given them in charge by God as having dispatcht what they were sent for and were ready to go again Hence the Latine translator gives it thus Vt reverentia tibi dicent adsumus Vulg. That they being returned or after their return should say unto thee with reverence here we are 1. Ready to go whithersoever thou wilt send us 2. Ready to do whatsoever thou wilt enjoyn us As if the Lord had said Canst thou send forth the lightnings and will they return to thee and say we have done thy commands and here we are again to receive fresh commands or new orders from thee Surely as the rain will not thus obey thee so neither will the lightnings neither the one nor the other will be thy servants to go of thy errand or execute thy will The same note which I gave before concerning the rain might be taken up here again concerning the lightnings They are not under the command of man c. Secondly for as much as the Lord here denies this priviledge both respecting the rain and lightning unto man he would have us understand and know that both are in himself though you cannot yet I can command them both are under my dominion While the Lord shews Job his impotency to command these meteors he asserts his own omnipotency as he hath made them so he can rule them Hence observe All treatures even those which seem to be most out of command are fully under the command of God What to appearance is more out of command than the lightning that quick that piercing that fierce and fiery creature yet that stirs no more than a stone till the Lord commands and at his command it stirs and is gone in a moment The Lord God hath spoken saith the Prophet Amos 3.8 who can but prophesie And as a faithful Prophet cannot but prophecy so the not only faithless but senseless creatures cannot but do what God hath spoken That of the Psalmist Psal 104.4 which we read who maketh his Angels spirits his Ministers a flaming fire some render thus who maketh the winds his messengers and the flames of fire his ministers That is he useth tempestuous winds and flames of fire as his messengers and ministers The same Hebrew word that signifieth an Angel signifieth a Messenger at large and the same word that signifieth a Spirit signifieth also the Wind. And as the words so the truth will bear both translations or constructions for as those higher or highest of rational creatures the Angels so those high inanimate creatures the winds and lightnings which may properly be called flames of fire are the Ministers and messengers of God that is they go forth and Minister according to his Word they say Here we are The Lord by a call or word speaking can have whom and what he will to serve his purpose and fulfil his decrees It is said 2 King 8.1 as also Psal 105.16 The Lord called for a famine a famine of bread and he no sooner called but the famine came and said Here am I the famine presently brake the staff of bread and did eat up all the good of the Land The Prophet Haggai Chap. 1.11 represents the Lord saying I called for a drought which is the usual fore-runner of famine and the drought said Here am I it came presently as soon as the Lord commanded On the other hand when the Lord made many promises under the new Covenant among other things he said I will call for plenty Ezek. 36.29 I will call for the corn and will increase it and lay no famine upon you As in those other places he called for famine and drought so here he saith I will call for plenty and it shall say Here am I abundance of corn and grass and fruits of the earth came at that call Lamenting Jeremiah speaking of the woful captivity of the people of Israel saith Lam. 1.15 The Lord called an assembly against me that is I conceive an assembly of the Assyrians and Babylonians an assembly of men an army of men he caused them to assemble and come together he did but call and they said Here we are and we will go vex Judah and Jerusalem Thus if the Lord call for famine and drought if he call for an assembly of men for men assembled with the sword of war in their hand to punish and chastise any people for their sin they will surely come and do his pleasure whatever the Lord calls for cannot but come Take this inference from it If the Lord have such a command upon all creatures even the inanimate creatures if the lightnings answer him when he calls Here we are Then how readily should men the best of visible creatures answer his call and say Here we are When the Lord said to Abraham Gen. 12.1 Get thee out of thy Country and from thy Kindred and from thy Fathers house unto a Land that I shall shew thee he never disputed the case but saith the Apostle Heb. 11.8 Obeyed and went out not knowing whither he went He never enquired what the place was to which he was to go nor what accommodations he should find when he came thither Abraham knew he was to go whither God called him to go though whither he was to go he knew not And when long after this the Lord called to Abraham Gen. 22.1 he said Behold here I am or Behold me as if he had said Lord I am here ready to obey thy command to go of thy errand to carry whatever message thou shalt put into my mouth to do whatever work thou shalt put into my hand and that Abraham did not complement with God it appears in the same Chapter for though when God commanded him to offer up his Son his only Son Isaac whom he loved every word was enough to wound his heart the last deepest to part with a Son is hard with an only Son harder with a son dearly beloved is hardest of all especially when he must be not only passive but active in this loss his own hand must give the parting blow yet Abraham being called to this hard and hot service said Here am I and readily
obeyed This readiness at the call of God David professed from his own experience Psal 27.8 When thou saidst seek ye my face my heart said unto thee thy face Lord will I seek That is as thou hast commanded that I should worship thee so I do or what thou O Lord sayest is my desire thy command is not only the resolution but the request and supplication of my soul We have the like readiness of that holy Prophet Isaiah who after the Angel with a coal from the Altar had touched his lips and cleansed him from his filthiness hearing the Lord enquire for a messenger Whom shall I send presently answered as the lightning in the Text Here am I send me Is 6.8 Lord I am ready to go whithersoever thou wilt send me This should be in some measure is the temper of all believers though they may have to their sorrow find many reluctancies and stops yet this is in the heart of every true believer to be ready at the call of God to say Here I am When the Apostle Paul had a call to preach the gospel of Christ which once he persecuted Immediately saith he Gal. 1.16 I conferred not with flesh and blood he made no delayes much less any excuses least of all any dâ—nials but was obedient to the heavenly Vision As soon as he had that vision and call from God to go and preach the Gospel he never stood reasoning and conferring with flesh and blood he put no questions he asked not this or that mans opinion whether it were best for him to go or not neither did he confer with the flesh and blood in his own heart he conferred not with himself he consulted not his own safety nor any carnal interests but did as he was commanded And unless we do thus not only will the ordinary practise of servants to Masters rise up in judgement against us Mat. 8.9 I am a man under authority said the Centurion having soldiers under me I have a superior officer and I have inferior soldiers and I say to one go and he goeth and to another come and he cometh Such is or ought to be the carriage of soldiers and servants towards their Superiors Now I say unless we readily obey the voice of God not only will the daily practise of servants but the practise if I may so speak of the lightnings from the clouds will rise up in judgement against us and condemn us Shall a servant say Here I am at the call of man Shall the lightning say here I am at the call of God and shall not man say so at Gods call Shall men put questions to Gods commands Shall they query Will the world bear it if I do this or will this stand with my ease and profit with my credit or commodity when God requires it If any do so the lightning may flash in the face of their consciences and not only blast them as stubborn and disobedient but brand them for foolish and unwise or at least for want of wisdom about which the question is put to Job in the next verse Vers 36. Who hath put wisdom into the inward parts and who hath given understanding to the heart Some Interpreters conceive that at this verse the Lord enters discourse with or begins to question Job concerning living creatures and beginning here with man the chiefest of visible living creatures he proceeds to inferior living creatures the beasts of the earth and the fowls of the air as followeth in the 39th Chapter Yet the very next verse offers a great objection against this opinion for there return is made to the former matter the works of nature Vers 37. Who can number the clouds in wâ—sâ—om or who can stay the bottles of heaven And therefore I rather conceive that this 36th verse is to be joyned with the two former already opened as if here the Lord would convince man that as he hath not power sufficient to command so not wisdom enough to dispose either of the Rain or of the Lightnings under which by a Synechdoche all other creatures may be comprehended As if God had said Whatever wisdom man hath is of my putting into him now I have not given him wisdom enough nor taught him how to order and dispose the clouds and lightnings and if I have not given him wisdom for these things whence should he have it So then according to this way of interpâ—etation the 37th verse which followeth gives a reason why man cannot attain to this priviledge the government of the clouds the disposal of rain and lightnings even because God hath not given him any such wisdom All the wisdom which man hath is the gift of God but God hath not given man wisdom to order the clouds and lightnings therefore he hath no such wisdom Who hath pâ—t wisdom into the inward parts Wiâ—â—â—â— may be taken either generally for knowledge which is the 〈◊〉 of the mind and may be called speculative knowledgâ—◠〈◊〉 pâ—â—ticularly for prudence which is practical knowledge in the duâ— ordering and manage of things before us Who hath puâ— wâ—sâ—â—◠〈◊〉 either sort Into the inward parts The word which we translate inward parts signifies sometimes the Reins and sometimes the Heart The Chaldee paraphrase renders Who hath put wisdom into the heart The matter is not much to which of them we determine it for though the heart in Scripture is usually put for the seat of wisdom and the Reins for the seat of the affections yet David saith My reins instruct me in the night season Psal 16.7 To instruct or teach is properly the work of wisdom The word is well rendred by us the inward parts for that takes in all wisdom lyeth within Psal 51.6 Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom The inward parts in the foâ—mer part of that verse and the hidden part in the latter are the same by both or either he means his soul in all the faculties or operations of it And indeed neither the Reins not the Heart nor any nor all the members of the body are properly oâ— strictly wisdoms seat Wisdom is lodged in the soul in the man of man as some call it and therefore that must needs be intended here Sapientia non tantum in cordeâ—sed in renibus aliquo modo posita est ie Quòd omnis hominis affectus à divina quadam sapientia irradietur Coc. Renes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocantur ut quidam volent quia sunt oblitae adipe Drus. but because Naturalists speak of wisdom as lodged and exercised in bodily parts some placing it in the heart some in the head others in the reins therefore we may well place it as our Translation expresseth it in the inward parts The original word strictly imports that which is covered over the root is rendred to cover and Grammarians give this reason of it because the reins and
there is oppression Better be sometimes in a starving condition than alwayes in a fearing condition alwayes hearing the cry of the Driver The wild Ass is content to fare hard so he may be free how much more then is he below a man who parts with his true liberty as Esau did with his Birth-right for a morsel of meat or a mess of broth Fourthly Note To be driven and forced is grievous to beasts much more to men The wild Ass regards not the crying of the Driver because he knows the Driver cannot reach him with his cry much less with his whip The tame Ass must regard and attend the cry of the Driver though he hath no will to it whether he will or no. It was said by the Moralists Man would be led not driven perswaded not compelled The disputes have been great what man may do and how far he may go to that matter but I shall not meddle with it any further than to say that when Christ in the Parable said Luke 14.23 Compel them to come in The compulsion there intended is only that of argumentation exhortation and perswasion by his Ministers whose divine Rhetorick in beseeching sinners to come in and to be reconciled unto God hath such a power in it as amounts unto and may be called a compulsion I grant many use their liberty or rather abuse it as an occasion to the flesh and turn it into wantonness these are indeed no better than wild Asses and though they are such as regard not the cry of the Driver yet they need it Thus the Lord hath shewed Job the house and dwelling as also the liberties and priviledges of the wild Ass in the next verse the Lord shews him the food or diet of the wilde Ass Vers 8. The range of the mountains is his pasture and he searcheth after every green thing This verse tells us where the Lord hath made provision for the wild Ass The Range or as some render the search of the mountains is his pasture Investigatio montium est pascuum ejus i. e. quicquid in montibus investigari potest id ei pabuli loco est Bez. that is whatsoever he searcheth and findeth out upon the mountains is his pasture Job speaketh of wicked men Chap. 24.5 after the manner of these wild Asses finding food in the wilderness for themselves and for their children The range of the mountains is his pasture Some interpret it choice things that is the best things or those things that are most savoury to the pallat of that beast those he picks up for his food Mr. Broughton translates Chosen places in the mountains are for his pasture As if it had been said Though he be wilde yet he is prudent he takes not what comes next but he chuseth what is best for him for as it followeth He searcheth after every green thing The word notes a very diligent search after every green thing Green things are his delicacies he lives upon them and delights in them he searcheth after all and feeds upon that which is best for him he looks not that man should fodder him in winter as they do tame and working cattel he looks out his own living and picks up some green thing or other all the year long Hence note Where God gives dwelling he gives feeding God hath made the wilderness and barren places for the wild Ass to dwell in yet there is something for him to feed on Secondly His food is every green thing Whence learn God gives food to all creatures convenient to their nature He gives green things grass to the beasts of the field but he doth not feed man with grass he feedeth man with the finest of the wheat and with honey out of the rock Psal 81.16 And as the Lord provides sutable food for the bodies of men so for their souls he hath spiritual green pastures for them Psal 23.1 2. The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want he maketh me to lye down in green pastures that is in his Word and Ordinances They are green pastures for his people he makes them lie down in the Promises and in the Commandments in the holy Prophecies and Histories of the written word all which are written for our instruction or learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 that is that our faith having the truth of the Word especially in the promises to feed upon our hope may be said to wait for the good of the Word patiently The holy Scriptures I say are the green pastures which the Lord hath provided for the souls of men to feed in and grow fat upon The Scriptures are a bare common a dry heath to unbelievers they find nothing there which is food for them but to believers they are fat pastures and full of such green things as are most sutable to their taste and nourishing to their souls Thus spake the Prophet Isa 49.9 10. Their pastures shall be in all high places they shall not hunger nor thirst neither shall the heat nor the Sun smite them that is they shall have safe passage and sufficient food both for soul and body for their souls especially when delivered out of their soul-prisons or spiritual captivity there spoken or prophecyed of under the Gospel Thirdly Wild Asses seaâ—ch after every green thing they take pains for their living iâ— it be not neer they will travel for it and seek after it Hence note Hunger makes irrational creatures every living creature industrious They who love not labour will yet take some pains at least so much as serves them to get food and keep them alive Those beasts which are most at liberty are in a kind of bondage to their bellies The wild Asses saith the Prophet Jer. 14.6 did stand in the high places they snuffed up the wind like Dragons because there was no grass How will they search after grass who are thus afflicted for want of grass And will not spiritual hunger make us as industrious as natural hunger doth Hungry souls will be seeking after every green thing after every divine precept after very precious promise these are the green things which the soul searcheth for and is satisfied with Naturalists say of the wild Ass that he utterly refuseth to feed upon those things that are dry and dead he must have gâ—een That 's true of every believer he cannot feed upon dead and dry things upon what is chaffy and husky he must have green sappy juicy lively food such hath God provided for him and he will be satisfied with none but such JOB Chap. 39. Vers 9 10 11 12. 9. Will the Vnicorn be willing to serve thee or abide by thy crib 10. Canst thou bind the Vnicorn with his hands in the furrow or will he harrow the valleys after thee 11. Wilt thou trust him because his strength is great or wilt thou leave thy labour with him 12. Wilt thou believe him that he will
backward upon such as hunt them They have an admirable concoction digesting the hardest things which they swallow down nor is their folly less admirable thinking themselves sufficiently hid when their heads are Their eggs serve for cups to drink in and their feathers adorn the crests and helmets of the Warrior And besides the beauty of her feathers their equality or evenness is so remarkable that among the Egyptians the feather of an Ostrich was taken for the symbol of equity so that when they would signifie a man of an equal spirit and conversation towards all men and in all things they used to paint the feather of an Ostrich Secondly I shall add this also That as in the Peacock we had the representation of a proud person so in the Ostrich the lively image or picture of an Hypocrite which may be held out and made good in these five particulars First The Ostrich is a kind of middle creature as was said between a bird that flies in the air and a beast that goes upon the ground having somewhat of both yet is properly neither Thus it is with the Hypocrite or false-hearted Christian He stands between a godly man and a profane man Sunt animalia amphiâ—ia quae non facile statuas an aquatilia sint an terrestria volatilia an terrestria ut vespertilio qui est mus pennatus Struthicamelus qui est quasi Camelus alatus utriusque naturae participes expertes Sanct. he is neither he is not profane in strict sense though really he be so as the Hebrew word for a Hypocrite imports yet I say in strict sense he is not profane because he makes a profession and appears to men in a form of godliness yet he is not godly because he only makes a profession and appears in a form of godliness either denying or at least not having any power of godliness A Hypocrite hangs as I may say between God and man between the wayes of holiness and the ways of sin he either halts between two Religions as Elijah told the Jews 1 King 18.21 or takes not one right step in that one which he pretends to he is as it was said of the Church of Laodicea neither hot nor cold but between both luke-warm As the Ostrich is a creature between two something like a fowl of the air and something like a beast of the earth or as the Latine word for an Ostrich implies A Camel winged a winged Camel so is a Hypocrite a kind of a middle-man between a good man and a bad in appearance very good but in truth and reality stark naught and by so much worse than the worst of profane ones by how much he had a mind to appear better than the best at least among the best of holy ones Secondly This Ostrich as he is described is a creature without natural affection and so the Hypocrite and false-hearted professor is alwayes without spiritual Christian gracious affections and very often without natural and meer humane affections That 's one part of the character which the Apostle gives of those who have a form of godliness but deny the power 2 Tim. 3.3 Thirdly the Ostrich hath feathers but cannot flie the Ostrich spreads her wings as if she would flie aloft yet cannot make a lofty flight she raiseth her self no higher above the earth than a man may hop or leap her body or earthly part is so ponderous that her wings cannot raise her far into the air much less bear her up long there It is so with the Hypocrite he hath wings and he seems to spread them as if he had strong desire and great designes heaven-wards he would make you believe he is both from and for above yet he cannot get off the earth he is an earthly minded man as the Apostle speaks of such Coelestia se quaerere simulantes terrenis adhaerem though as to an outward profession and some formal actions he seems to soar aloft and live above the world yet he ever drives an earthly trade and hath some base carnal aime or other in his highest services The earth is every natural mans center and therefore though as any heavy body a stone or clod of clay he may be forced upward yet when that impression is spent he falls down again to earthly things which only are connatural to him Fourthly The Ostrich is a creature of a mighty digestion of a hot stomack and therefore is painted and figured with a piece of iron in her mouth implying she digests iron Omnia digerere potest Struthio Thus the hypocrite can digest the hardest things even that which is harder than iron sin that which lieth upon the stomack of a godly man as heavy as a stone that is which burdens his conscience that the hypocrite can swallow it goes down easily with him and is as easily digested he can swallow this and that sin without trouble especially if he can but do it unseen or in secret he makes no bones as we say of any thing which may but feed some lust he hath a conscience wide enough and hot enough and strong enough to digest iron any unlawful deed if it serve his turn or may tuâ—n to his worldly advantage That which a man truly fearing God and strongly resolved to do his known will and nothing else knowingly cannot will not do nor touch with for a world that he can do and will do for some poor pittances much more for the great things of the world Fifthly Pliny saith the Ostrich being a very tall creature Tanta eorum stoliditas ut cum colla frutice occulta berint latere se existimant Plin. l. 10. c. 1. is yet so foolish that if she hide her head she thinks herself all hid and safe from danger she concludes no man sees her if she sees no man Thus it is with the hypocrite if he can but be out of sight himself he thinks none see him no not God himself Psal 94.6 7. They slay the widdow and the stranger and murther the fatherless yet they say the Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard it They think they do all in such secrecy that as men do not so God shall not behold it Lastly The Ostrich hath very gay feathers of much more worth than the Peacock yet the Ostrich hath no more wit than the Peacock one is the embleme of a proud man the other of a hypocrite both bravely clothed yet with nothing but feathers From both I would infer these two or three things which may hold out much of the mind of God in this discourse with Job and which some Interpreters conceive God chiefly aimed at in this place by telling Job or minding him that he had given goodly wings and gay feathers to Peacocks and Ostriches We see those creatures which have little worth in themselves have very goodly ornaments put upon them by the hand of God Hence we may infer First God
gracious in condescending to man He is willing we should answer for our selves and do our best to clear our selves when we have done our works amiss or have spoken amiss of his JOB Chap. 40. Vers 3 4 5. 3. Then Job answered the Lord and said 4. Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth 5. Once have I spoken but I will not answer yea twice but I will proceed no further IN the former verse the Lord urged Job to answer He that reproveth God let him answer it Job being thus urged by the Lord to answer gave his answer and the answer which he gave was this in general That he could not answer Or we have here First An humble confession of his utter inability to answer Secondly His settled resolution not to answer His inability to answer appears at the 4th verse Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth His resolution not to answer or only to give this for an answer That he could not answer is expressed in the 5th verse Once have I spoken but I will not answer yea twice but I will proceed no further Jobs spirit it seems was much appaled by the Lords appearance to him and immediate parlee with him his understanding also was much puzzled yea non-plust with those many and intricate questions which God had put to him and therefore he submits at once acknowledging he had done amiss in his over-free discourses before and promising that he would run that course no more Vers 3. Then Job answered the Lord and said What he said by way of answer followeth Vers 4. Behold I am vile what shall I answer Behold Job doth not conceal nor cover but calls all eyes to the view of his own vileness Behold Let God behold let Angels behold let men behold what now I my self behold that I am vile The root of the word which we translate vile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et levem vilem ac contemptum esse significat signifies three things First To be light or of little weight and because light things are lightly esteemed therefore it signifies Secondly To be contemned or that which is contemptible and Thirdly Because light things and things contemptible are also vile things therefore as we translate it signifies vile As if Job had said I am light I have no substance no solidity in me I am but as chaff or as a feather I bear no weight I deserve no esteem no respect I am vile As the Hebrew word for honour and glory is derived from a root which signifies heaviness or weightiness whence the Apostles phrase in the Greek tongue 2 Cor. 4.17 which we translate an exceeding weight of glory Glory is such a weighty thing that we must have other manner of shoulders other manner of strength than now we have before we can be able to bear the weight of it Flesh and blood as it is unrefined or meerly natural would soon sink under that weight Now I say as glory and honour are exprest by a word which signifies weightiness so that which is vile and contemptible is exprest by a word that signifies lightness or to be light Thus saith Job Behold I am light or Behold I am vile There are two other translations of these words whereof the one refers to the speeches the other to the actions of Job First The old Latine translation saith thus Qui leviter loquutus sum respondere quid possum Vulg. I have spoken lightly how shall I answer thee Ours refers to his person I am light or I am vile that to his words I have spoken lightly To speak lightly or vainly is to be vain and light Some words have a great deal of weight in them words of truth words of soberness holy words gracious words are weighty words evil words impertinent words unprofitable words specially corrupt filthy sinful words are light words how many words soever of those sorts any man speaks they are all light words they have not a grain of goodness and therefore not a grain of weightiness in them That 's a good sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecce leviter feci Aquila Secondly One of the Greek translators renders Behold I have done or acted lightly There is lightness in our actions as well as in our speeches We say such a man is of a light that is of a vain carriage and we say of another he is a grave man or there is gravity in his carriage Thus some speak and act gravely or weightily others speak and act loosely lightly When Job saith Behold I am vile it may take in both I have spoken lightly I have done lightly and therefore I am light therefore I am vile or contemptible Cum nihil siâ— Sept. Yet further The greek Septuagint translates I am nothing they carry the sense to the lowest and least imaginable There is nothing less than nothing How shall I answer thee seeing I am nothing All that I am is so light a thing that I am nothing at all that is nothing of worth nothing of value I am of so little validity that I have scarce any entity From all these readings we may fully gather up Jobs sense in this self-abasing confession Behold I am vile Lastly For the clearing of these words consider we are not to understand Job when he saith I am vile as speaking only with reference to his then present sad sorrowful deplorable condition sometimes such are accounted vile by men who are low and mean in the eye of the world Job did not count himself vile upon that consideration because stript of all his worldly greatness power and glory health and strength he did not call himself vile because of the present dispensation of God towards him but he called himself vile with respect to the common natural condition of mankind or as he was a sinful man though his providential condition had been never so good and prosperous Behold I am vile Hence observe First Man at his best estate is vile David saith he is even then altogether vanity Psal 39.5 and what is vile if that be not or what can be viler than that which is altogether vanity Man is vile First If we consider the matter of his body Was he not originally made of the dust and moulded out of the clay which we tread upon and trample undeâ— feet In which sense among others the Apostle Phil. 3.21 calls oâ—r body a vile body the materials of it being vile it iâ—â—â—so vile Secondly Man is very vile ch â—â—â—y vile through the sinfulness both of his nature and life Sin reâ—ders us vile indeed corruption makes us of no repâ—â—ation Thâ—ugh man as to the matter of his body might have bâ—en called vile iâ— the day of his creation yet he had never deserved that diminishing title if he had not sinned Sin hath degraded man and laid him low sin hath dishonoured
chief and dwelt as King in the Army Now should we look upon Jobs arm not as when God spake this to him lean and thin and extreamly fallen away if not quite withered but as I was at best fullest thickest strongest before he fell into that affliction or after his restauration out of it yet what was Jobs arm or power in his highest advancement to the arm and power of God! might not God then have said to him as well as when he said it Hast thou an arm like God or hath any man at this day Surely saith David Psal 62.10 men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are a lye to be laid in the ballance that is if they are truly weighed especially if they are weighed with God they are altogether lighter than vanity For First the power of man to help is weak and vain Psal 33.16 There is no King saved by the multitude of an Hâ—st a mighty man is not delivered by much strength And that 's an unquestionable truth whether we understand it of his own strength or of the strength of any others who come in and contribute their utmost to his aid and assistance And this is one reason why the Lord calls us off from trusting to the arm of man Psal 146.3 Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help True may some say it were a a folly to trust in weak Princes to trust in them for help who have no power to help but we will apply to mighty Princes we hope there is help in them No those words In whom there is no help are not a distinction of weak Princes from strong but a conclusion that there is no help in the strongest That 's strange what no help in strong Princes If he had said no help in mean men carnal reason would have consented but when he saith Trust not in Princes nor in any son of man one or other who can believe this yet this is a divine truth we may write insufficiency insufficiency and a third time insufficiency upon them all the close of that verse in the Psalm may be their Motto There is no help in them And if any shall trust in man for help some one of if not all these evils or sad issues will follow First He will be deceived and disappointed what he looked upon as a rock will prove but a sand what he took for a Cedar will prove but a reed and the more he leans upon it the more it fails him as the Scripture speaks Secondly He will be ashamed and vexed Isa 20.5 They shall be afraid ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation of Egypt their glory that is which they gloried in and believed would b ing them in much glory or into a very glorious condition They probably expected help from Ethiopia but they gloried in the fore-thoughts of that help which they presumed Egypt would give them but they gloried in that which soon proved their shame Thirdly If any trust in any arm of flesh it will bring a curse upon him Jer. 17.5 Cursed be the man that maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord. Nor doth the Prophet only pronounce a curse upon that man but explains the curse or tells him plainly what it shall be both in the negative and in the affirmative He shall be like the heath in the desert and shall not see when good cometh but shall inhabit the parched places of the wilderness in a salt land and not inhabited Then cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of Whatsoever account is to be made of man this is not that he should be trusted in We may apply to men for help but we must not trust in them as if they could carry the matter for us Have men an arm like God Mans is but a weak and withered arm and as the arm of man is not to be trusted in for any help he can give us so Secondly The arm of man is not to be feared for any hurt he can do us These two have a near relation to and dependance upon each other for they who are so strong that we are ready to trust them if we can make them our friends those we are as ready to fear if they turn our enemies and they who never trust in man unduly will not fear man but according to duty And we have no reason if we consider that and what the arm of man is in the hand of God to fear the arm of man The Scripture speaks often of the Lords dealing with the strongest arm of man Ezek. 30.21 Son of man I have broken the arm of Pharoah King of Egypt and loe it shall not be bound up to be healed to put a roller to bind it to make it strong to hold the sword Pharoah had an hurting arm an arm stretched out against the Israel of God but God did more than hurt he broke that arm And consider how the Spirit of God followeth the metaphor It shall not be bound up Pharoah would fain have got his broken arm set hoping it might be stronger than ever No saith God It shall not be bound up to be healed to put a roller to bind it to make it strong As if the Lord had said Pharoah may call for his Chyrurgions to bind up his broken arm yet it shall be without effect all their skill and Chyrurgery shall be in vain his arm shall not be healed nor made strong Again Jer. 48.25 The horn of Moab is cut off and his arm is broken A savage beast cannot hurt us when his horn is cut off nor can a cruel-hearted man with a broken arm In these and many other Scriptures we see both that mans arm is in the hand of God and what God doth often to mans arm upon which considerations he infers Isa 51.12 I am he that comforteth thee Who art thou that art afraid of a man that shall die and of the son of man that shall be made as the grass and forgettest the Lord thy maker As if the Lord had said dost thou hear and believe that I have a stronger arm than man and art thou who hast an interest in me afraid of a man We have cause to fear man when we do that which is evil the magistrates arm beareth not the sword in vain for he is the Minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil Rom. 13.4 But to all them who remain peaceably in their duty to God and man Jesus Christ hath said Luke 12.4 5. Be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him Christ who gave but a single prohibition of our fear of man gave a double
and â—readless drinking in the two last verses of the Chapter Behold he drinketh up a River and hasteth not for fear he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth not an ordinary River but Jordan a high expression to shew the extream thirst of this creature according to our reading and how large a cask he hath to hold his liquor He trusteth that he can draw up Jordan with his mouth he taketh it with his eyes he thrusts his head into the water up to the eyes and his nose pierceth through snares By these six particulars this creature is described upon all which I shall adde somewhat distinctly and briefly Behold now Behemoth which I have made with thee God calls Job to a very attentive consideration being to enter upon a discourse about the creature Behold is a usual word of attention it also is a word which carries admiration in it it gives us warning that the matter following is of no ordinary importance and surely that which followeth here is not Behold now Behemoth Hence note The works of God especially his great works are very attentively to be considered Let 's not think it a matter of indifferency whether we consider these works of God yea or no. Here is a Behold prefixt lest we should say what should we stay our minds upon beasts upon Behemoth or Leviathan we have other more spiritual objects to think upon 'T is true we have but we must take heed of slighting these objects especially when God doth as it were travel by his Spirit to set them forth before the eye of our mind in their utmost grandure and excellency We should not pass the least work of God lightly by much less should we so pass by the great works of God We should not lightly pass by the least mercy of God but think much of little mercies little mercies are great mercies to us seeing we are less than the least of them as Jacob spake Gen. 32.10 but we must especially consider great mercies great deliverances great salvations upon them our minds must stay or make a stand and our meditations dwell We are also to consider and well to view all our sins our little sins our least failings seeing they have a greatness in them as being committed against the great God and as being able to do us great hurt and to draw down great wrath upon us if not repented of and turned from but our great sins must much more be viewed and considered And every godly man doth so he holds the eye of his soul upon the ugly face of great sins especially to discover the deformity and iniquity of them to the utmost that he may be greatly humbled for them Now as we should not lightly pass by our least mercies and sins but very deeply consider our great mercies and sins so we should not neglect the least creature the least work of God the great wisdom and power of God are visible in the least but we should seriously consider the more noble creatures and the greater works of God whether they be works of creation or woâ—ks of providence I may say as Christ Mat. 23.23 about tything mint annise and cummin these things ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone Christ used a piece of rhetoâ—ick when he said You should not leave them undone his meaning was you should do those greater things of the Law judgement righteousness and faith with greatest exactness So I say in this case you are not to leave the least pieces of Gods work in creation or providence unviewed unconsidered unmeditated but his great works his Behemoths you should behold study and admire or behold and study with admiration When I consider saith David Psal 8.3 the Heavens the work of thy hands the Sun and the Moon c. This implyeth that David did often consider the Heavens those great pieces of Gods work as also the great Luminaries there placed and moving with admired swiftness and evenness continually Though we are chiefly to behold spiritual things yet we must not think our time lost in beholding natural things though we should specially behold Gods gracious woâ—ks the works of grace the workmanship of God in framing the new creature yet we must also behold the old creation and view every piece of it especially the great pieces of it Again though we should behold and be looking to the Author and fiâ—isher of our faith though we should as the Baptist called some to do in his time and all to do in all times John 1.29 Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world our eyes and our hearts the eye of our faith should be upon Christ the Lamb of God more ten thousand times more than upon Leviathan or Behemoth yet 't is our duty to behold Behemoth and Leviathan Jesus Christ saith Isa 65.1 Behold me behold me 'T is the word here in Job Jesus Christ speaks there as if he would call off our eys and hearts from all things in the world to behold himself and in comparison so we should He is the most amiable sight or spectacle in the world and therefore ought to be the desire of our eyes yet in their places there are other worthy spectacles for us to behold especially as they hold forth and as in them we may behold the power wisdom and goodness of God Let no man say we lose our time in a due meditation upon any of the creatures which God hath made for he hath made them that we should behold and meditate upon them Behold now Behemoth The word Behemoth is applicable to or may signifie any greater or great beast of the field Gen. 3.14 The Lord said unto the serpent because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pecus majus and above every beast of the field And again Every beast of the forrest is mine saith the Lord Psal 50.10 and the cattel upon a thousand hills Hence some conceive that we are here to understand beasts in general the word Behemoth being in the plural number Behold now the beasts as if the Lord pointed at all the beasts of the field in this Behold And ' â—is a truth we are to consider them all but it is very improbable that in this place God calls Job to behold the beasts of the field in general and not rather some one in special And I may give four reasons for it First Because in the former Chapter God had spoken of divers particular beasts of the earth and therefore doubtless here also he speaks of some particular beast Secondly That creature which is joyned with Behemoth in this discourse is by most taken for a particular kind of fish in the Sea and therefore 't is most congruous that Behemoth should denote some particular kind of beast at land Thirdly and chiefly The description given here of Behemoth will not fit all sorts of beasts in the
Merc. Rigor caudae i. e. Genitalium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De libidine accipio libidinatur caudam instar cedri i. e. libidinâ—ndo facit instar cedri Coc. Penem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jun. Membrum Genitale Pisc Scult Others say it cannot be so understood for though the Elephant be a vast creature in all other parts yet his tail is but small and smaller than seems to answer the vast proportion of so great a beast and therefore cannot resemble a Cedar Secondly Others expound the Original word of his snout or trunk which is of great force and strength and they conceive it may well be understood of his trunk or snout both because that is great and long like a Cedar as also because the trunk being so principal a part of this beast it is not probable the mention of it should be wholly omitted in this description and so small and inconsiderable a one as the tail taken notice of Thus Mr. Beza renders He moveth his prominent part or trunk which is as the Cedar And the latter part of the verse he renders to the same sense The sinewes of the terriblenesse thereof are wrapped together that is though his trunk be very great yet he easily turneth it as he listeth or at pleasure it being wholly compact of sinewes strongly twisted together and is of such force that it may well amaze and terrifie a man of greatest courage The word which we translate stones properly signifieth fears and is so rendred in all other places of Scripture where it is used and hence that reading of Mr. Beza The sinewes of the terriblenesse thereof This opinion is altogether disliked by Mercer I leave it to the Readers judgement Thirdly Many expound it of his genitals and connect the sense with that which followeth The sinews of his stones are wrapt together Or as Mr. Broughton platted in and out as branches As if it had been said Nervi quos medici cremasteras vocant à testibus ad penem deducentes ramis arborum conseruntur in the heat of his lust he erecteth or moveth his generative part like a strong Cedar-tree being corroborated from natures conduit pipes the sinews of his stones which are complicated or wrapt together like the roots of a great grown tree in the earth or like its branches in the air Vers 18. His bones are as strong pieces of brass Bones are the strength and stability of the body and they keep the body strait Bones are to the body as posts to a house the stayes and supporters of it Bones also are as an armour or corselet on the body to defend and preserve the more noble parts the heart liver and lungs from danger and annoyance and therefore it was necessary the Lord should speak of Behemoths bones when he spake of his strength His bones Are as strong pieces of brass As bars of steel saith Mr. Broughton or as conduit pipes of brass so the words may be read and then they refer to those bones that are hollow Some conceive his bones are said to be as strong pieces of brass because the Elephant cannot bow that 's an old opinion as if he were all bone and had no joints which opinion is at large confuted by a learned Physician Dr. Brown of vulgar errors lib. 3. c. 1. in his book of vulgar Errors who proves and experience teacheth that the Elephant hath Joynts with his bones as other living creatures have though not so apparent His bones being great and strong he must needs be very strong It is said Gen. 49.14 Issachar is a strong asse Asinus Osseus i. e. robustus The Hebrew is Issachar is a bony asse which we well render a strong asse able to bear great burthens strength lying so much in the bones And to shew that the bones of the Elephant are more than ordinarily strong they are compared to brasse Job saith in his complaint at the sixth Chapter Is my flesh brass Am I strong like brass The bones of the Eleare so and not only so but His bones are like bars of iron The word here rendred bones is not the same as in the former part of the verse Mr. Broughton translates by a general word his hard parts are like staves of iron But we may well keep to the word bones yet understand them of a different sort of bones as in the former part hollow bones so in this latter solid bones or in that lesser in this greater bones or in that upper bones which are as rafters in his lower bones those in the thighs and legs which are as posts His bones are like bars of iron Iron is the strongest of all metals as we read in the vision of the four Monarchies Dan. 2.1 The image had a head of gold signifying the Babylonian Monarchy breasts of silver signifying the Persian belly of brass signifying the Grecian but it had legs of iron signifying the Romane Monarchy of which 't is said in the 40th verse The fourth Kingdom shall be strong as iron forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things So then when the Lord saith His bones are like bars of iron this importeth that the bones of Behemoth are exceeding strong as strong as if made of iron We call a very strong man iron-sides The Elephant hath iron-sides His bones are as bars of iron Bochartus denieth not that the bones of the Elephant are very hard and strong yet affirms from some Authorities that the bones of the Hippopotame are harder If it be so yet the Elephants bones are hard and strong enough to answer the comparisons in this part of the description of Behemoth Now hear the Epiphonema the triumphant conclusion which the Spirit makes of all this Vers 19. He is the chief of the wayes of God The word is He is the head of the wayes of God Or he is the beginning of the wayes of God as the word is used Gen. 1.1 In the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth There is a twofold beginning or head as we may say First there is a beginning as to time so the word is taken in Genesis There in the beginning is in the first of time God created the Heavens and the earth so Gen. 10.10 The beginning of his Kingdom was Babel or there he began his Kingdom the beginning in time as well as place was there Secondly There is a beginning which notes priority in dignity though not in time beginning imports excellency and is as much as chief 'T is usual in several languages to call that which is chief the first or head of any thing Exod. 30.23 It shall be of pure myrrh the Hebrew is head of myrrh that is chief or prime myrrh purest myrrh Thus said David Psal 119.160 Thy word is true from the beginning The Hebrew strictly taken is The beginning or head of thy word is true or truth As if David had said That which is most eminent and
chief in the word of God is the truth of it that which rules and reigns and holds as it were the headship in and throughout the word of God is the truth of it or Gods trueness and faithfulness in making it good and therefore the first thing which faith doth is to set to its seal that God is true true of his word or that his word is true John 3.33 The Greeks call honey the first of sweetnesses because it is the sweetest of all natural things Mel dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quòd dulcedine praestat rebus omnibus Now here when the Text saith he is the chief or beginning of the wayes of God we are not to take it of a beginning in time several creatures were seniors to Behemoth being made before him but in excellency which we render clearly He is the chief of the wayes of God But you will say how is the Elephant the chief of the wayes of God Are not Angels and men at least above him I answer There is a twofold chief First Absolute Secondly in its kind Behemoth is the chief of the wayes of God not absolutely not as if God had made nothing more excellent than the Elephant but in his kind that is among the beasts of the earth he is the chief and as we say bears away the bell from all the rest Behemoth is not only of the first three but like Adino the Tachmonite among Davids worthies he is the first of the first three among all the irrational creatures which move upon the face of the earth And though in some one thing many excel him yet taking him altogether he excels them all He is the chief of the wayes of God that is of the works of God The works of God are called his ways because he appears stands forth in his works as man doth in his way God did not appear at all til he did create then he appeared gloriously in all his divine perfections of power wisdom and goodness And as he appeared in the works of creation so he daily appeareth in his woâ—ks of providence as in his way for in them also it is seen how powerful how wise how good he is Behemoth both as to creation and providence is the chief of the wayes or works of God in his kind Angels and Men are indeed above him but as for other creatures Behemoth is the chief Thus the Lord having spoken of many particular excellencies in this creature recapitulates or sums up all that he had said like an eloquent Orator in these crowning words He is the chief of the ways of God Hence note First There is a difference as to excellency or there are degrees of excellency in the works of God God hath bestowed more upon some creatures than he hath upon others God bestowed most upon man in the first creation for how excellent soever he made any visible creature yet it is said of no creature he made him in his image after his likeness till he came to man and the new creature which comes in by redemption is far more excellent than man in his first creation Now I say as man is far more excellent than all earthly creatures he is next to Angels man is placed in the uppermost form of the visible world So among the creatures there are some that very much excel others here 's one called the chief of the ways of God himself This is not an Orators flattery the Spirit of God gives Behemoth this encomium this commendation he hath precedency by a divine right All creatures are not alike they cannot all be chief and there are none like this he is the chief of all Among the inanimate creatures there is a gradual difference 1 Cor. 15.40 There are coelestial bodies and bodies terrestial but the glory of the coelestial is one and the glory of the terrestial is another and all coelestial bodies are not alike for There is one glory of the Sun and another of the Moon and another of the Stars and one Star differs from another in glory There are also various excellencies both as to kind and degree among vegetatives or plants What is a Nettle in the Ditch to Hysope in the Garden and what is the Thistle in Lebanon to the Cedar in Lebanon that 's one of the lowest and most ignoble plants this one of the highest and most honourable Consider animals What variety among the fish of the sea what is a Sprat to a Whale What variety among the fowls of the air what is a Sparrow to the Eagle What variety among the beasts of the earth what is a Bullock to an Elephant or an Ass to a Lion Coâ—sider â—ationals Men are not all alike some men do almost as much excel other men as all men excel beasts yea there is a difference in the same man his soul is more excellent than his body some parts of the body are more excellent than others some powers and faculties of the soul are more excellent than the rest The Apostle 1 Cor. 12.28 29. speaking of the Church shews how God hath put the guides of it into several ranks He hath set some in the Church First Apostles Secondly Prophets Thirdly Teachers after that miracles then gifts of healing helps governments diversities of tongues Are all Apostles are all Prophets are all Teachers do all speak with tongues are all workers of miracles are all chief are all in the first rank no some are in one condition some in another And thus it is in the world God hath set some Kings all others Subjects and among them some are Lords some Judges and Magistrates c. Are all Kings are all Lords are all Judges and Magistrates surely not To have all men of one order would put all men and all things too out of order There is a chief among beasts And those men are worse than beasts who acknowledge not a chief among men God is not the author of confusion as in all the Churches of the Saints saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 14.33 so I may say in all the Kingdoms of the world And if so I would only infer then let none be troubled that they are not chief no nor that they are not of equal rank with other men let us be content with our station though it be a low one 'T is best for us to be where God hath placed us and to be thankful for what God hath given us though in gifts and parts we are much inferior to many God doth not bestow a like measure of gifts no nor of grace upon all And though it may be a favour and a mercy to have outward preheminency above others yet to love or affect preheminency as the Apostle John taxed Diotrophes is very sinful The Apostle would have us covet earnestly the best gifts 1. Cor. 12.31 and he there minds us of a better thing to be coveted than the best gifts that is grace Faith hope charity to covet
ears of others hard words of threatning and hard words of reviling for these the Lord will judge the ungodly as well as for their ungodly deeds Now as there are hard words so soft words What are they Soft words are words of intreaty words of meekness words of love words of submission these are soft words Will Leviathan make supplications or Will he speak soft words Again soft words are often flattering words which are therefore compared by the Prophet Ezek. 13.18 To pillows sowed under the arm-holes Will Leviathan flatter himself into thy favour will he lie down like a Spaniel and fawn upon thee no he is too high-spirited to bow too stiff to stoop he will speak no soft words A soft answer saith Solomon Prov. 15.1 turneth away strife 'T is good when a question is put to us to give a soft answeâ— And if when we have hard words spoken to us we return hard answers they will quickly stir up strife Solomon hath a strange expression Prov. 15.15 A soft tongue breaketh the bones The tongue naturally is a soft fleshy spungy member of the body yet there is nothing hath more hardness I may say more bones in it than the tongue but 't is the soft tongue which breaketh the bones not the bones of the body but of the mind and the meaning is this If the spirit of a man be as stiff as the bones of his body against you yet if you speak soft words you may break him and bring him to your desire whereas if you be high and stiff if you give hard for hard it turns to an exasperation It were no great loss if they could speak no more than Leviathan who like Leviathan know not how to speak soft words And usually they who are freest to speak soft words of flattery are furthest from speaking soft words of love or charity of gentleness and true ingenuity 'T is good and our wisdom in two cases to speak soft words in truth even to those who are none of the best First To avoid hard dealing from those who have us in their power and they who are afraid of hard dealing will sure enough speak soft words whereas a man that cares not how hardly others deal with him cares not to speak soft words Secondly 'T is wisdom to speak soft words when we are in expectation or under hope of receiving benefit or good from any Loqui mollia inferioris est in the power of whose hand it is to do us good They have reason to give good words who would receive any good Thus some speak soft words to divert evil others speak soft words that they may obtain good As for Leviathan he is here represented in the pride of his heart as neither fearing any hurt you can do him nor desiring you should do him any good and therefore Will he speak soft words to thee no not he Hence observe The strong and mighty will not make supplications nor use entreaties They who think they have enough in themselves will not make supplication to God himself they will not entreat his favour nor speak soft words to him There are many such proud stout-hearted Leviathans in the likeness of men Jer. 10.25 Pour out thy wrath upon the families that call not upon thy name There are whole families that will not make supplications to God What are these a company of Leviathans that think they have enough of their own and live in a self-strength or in a self-sufficiency as if they were not beholding to God for any thing they have nor desired to have any thing of him The Lord speaks of a generation of men who shame the counsel of the poor because the Lord is his refuge Psal 14.6 that is because they in all their wants dangers and distresses had recourse to God by prayer as their only refuge Of what spirit those men were who shamed or were ashamed of this counsel and course of the poor he tells us at the 4th verse of that Psalm They eat up my people as they eat bread and call not upon God We thought they have enough of our own strength enough of our own we are Leviathans we need not be beholding to God It is an argument of a wicked stout high mind not to make supplications Prov. 18.23 The poor useth entreaties or the poor speaketh supplications They that are poor in outward things will speak very humbly to those above them and if we know our own spiritual poverty that we are weak empty creatures even nothing-creatures if we are poor in spirit we will be using many entreaties to get in with God and to move him to have mercy upon us None but humble ones and such as see their wants and dangers that they are hardly bestead in this world or are convinced that all the good and great things they have yea that the greatest things they can have in this world can stand them in no stead without God will speak soft words of supplication unto God Leviathan never thinks himself in danger or in want and therefore he scorns all the world and in this he is an emblem of all carnal worldly men And as Leviathan will make no supplications nor speak soft words so Vers 4. Will he make a Covenant with thee Some who think themselves too high to make supplications to others may yet possibly make a covenant with them But Will Leviathan make a covenant with thee he will not The word which we translate a Covenant signifies two things First to chuse because a Covenant is to be made by choice persons and upon choice tearms An scindet vel secabit Heb. foedus factum erat adhibita sectione vituli Secondly it signifies to eat because they were wont to feast when covenants were made The Hebrew is Will he strike or cut a covenant with thee The reason of that was because they were wont to divide a beast and pass between the parts of it at the making of a Covenant Jer. 34.18 They did cut the calf in twain and passed between the parts thereof Will Leviathan cut a Covenant with thee As he will not speak thee fair nor endeavour to soften thy heart towards him by speaking soft words to thee were he in thy power so he will never enter covenant with thee to become thy sure friend much less thy faithful servant as it followeth in the Text. Wilt thou take him for thy servant for ever Many are Covenant-servants for a time some for ever These four things follow in order First Some for fear make supplications Secondly They speak soft words Thirdly They makes covenant or promise Fourthly They offer their service to those in whose hand they are But Leviathan will do none of these from first to last Wilt thou take him for thy servant for ever If thou wilt he will not Suppose thou hadst taken Leviathan with a hook and hadst him fast in thy power with a cord will he be thy servant as long
might declare himself in Leviathan Hence note The parts powers and comely proportions of the creature clearly evidence the excellencies of God The Lord chiefly proclaimed his own name when he proclaimed the name of Leviathan Rom. 1.20 The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead The unseen God hath made all things that he may be seen in them When he makes a Comment upon his own works why is it but that he may make a Comment upon himself and expound his own glory in them And as the excellencies of the Lord are seen in the works of creation so in the works of providence and he hath therefore made so many declarations of them to us that his power wisdom and justice may shine through them to us Psal 75.1 That thy name is neer thy wondrous works declare And he said to Pharaoh Exod. 9.16 For this cause have I raised thee up for to shew in thee my power and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth All that the Lord doth to or in the creature is to get himself a name and a glory therefore let us give God the glory of his power wisdom and goodness in all his works Negare Pagaganus Christum potest negare Deum omnipotentem non potest August ser 139. de Temp. It was the saying of one of the Ancients A Pagan may deny that there is a Christ but a Pagan cannot deny Almighty God A Pagan may deny Christ for that 's meerly matter of faith but sense will lead a Pagan to believe there is a God or some omnipotent power that hath wrought all these things If we see a stream that assures us there is a Spring or Fountain if we see a goodly Palace built that assures us it had a builder a maker And if the stream be full what is the fountain If the Palace built be great and magnificent how great how magnificent was the builder Every house as the Author to the Hebrews said upon another occasion Chap. 3.4 is builded by some man but he that built all things is God Fourthly Seeing the Lord is pleased to read such a natural Phylosophy Lecture upon this creature we may take this Observation from it God would have man know the parts and powers of the creatures Why doth the Lord in this book speak at large of them and of their powers but that we may take notice of them and understand them or that we should search and study them What the Psalmist speaks concerning the works of providence is true of the Lords works in nature Psal 111.2 The works of the Lord are great And vers 4. He hath made his wonderful works to be remembred that is that they should be spoken of and memoriz'd And therefore having said at the beginning of the second verse The works of the Lord are great he adds in the close of it Sought out of all them that have pleasure therein His work is honourable and glorious c. The works of God are to be searched to the bottom though their bottom cannot be found by all those that have pleasure and delight either in God or in his works and they therefore search them out also because they encrease and better their knowledge of God the Creator by encreasing and bettering their knowledge about the creature From the whole verse we may infer First If God will not conceal the parts the power and comliness of his creatures then let not us conceal the power the glory and the excellency of God Yea let us with heart and tongue declare the glorious perfections of God how holy how just how wise how merciful how patient and long-suffering a God he is When God makes the creature known to us he would much more have us know himself and make him known Davids heart was set upon this duty Psal 9.14 Thou hast lifted me up from the gates of death that I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Sion As if he had said This O Lord was thy design in lifting me up from the gates of death that is from deadly dangers or killing diseases that I might declare thy praise in Sions gates or that I might declare how praise-worthy thou art to all who come into the gates of Sion And again Psal 118.17 I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. In the 40th Psalm which is a Prophecy of Christ he speaks in the words of the Text vers 10. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great congregation As the Lord saith here concerning Leviathan I will not conceal his parts so saith the Prophet I will not conceal his loving kindness and truth c. Which as it is most true of Christ whose work it was to do so as also the end of all his works so it sheweth what we ought to do and what should be the end of all our works not to conceal the righteousness and goodness of God but declare them in the great congregation And as Christ declared the glory of the Father so should we the glory of Christ We read the Church engaged in this As I shewed before Christ could not conceal the parts of the Church so the Church could not conceal the parts of Christ Cant. 5.9 There the question is put to the Church What is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou dost thus charge us The Church being asked this question will not conceal the parts nor the power nor the comely proportion of Christ her Beloved but gives a copious Narrative of his gracious excellencies vers 10. My Beloved is white and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousand his head is as most fine gold his locks are bushy and black as a Raven his eyes are as the eyes of Doves by the rivers of waters washed with milk and fitly set his cheeks are as a bed of spices as sweet flowers his lips like Lillies dropping sweet smelling myrrh his hands are as gold rings set with Beryle his belly is as bright Ivory overlaid with Saphyres his legs are as pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold his countenance is as Lebanon excellent as the Cedars his mouth is sweet yea he is altogether lovely This is my beloved and this is my friend O daughters of Jerusalem Thus as Christ concealed not the parts of the Church so the Church concealed not the parts the power and comely proportion of Christ And did we more consider who Christ is and what he is both in himself and unto us we should be more both in admiring within our selves and in reporting to others his parts his power and comely proportion Secondly If God hath not concealed the knowledge of his creatures from us if
who stand in the grace of the Covenant That nothing is too hard for God is a marvelous Consolation to us in all our hardships When God promised Abraham a Son in his old age Gen. 18. what a hard task was here for God Sarah could not believe it she laughed but what saith the Lord Is any thing too hard for me he presently urgeth his own power where he had declared his will Whatsoever God hath declared to be his will either as to particular persons or the whole Church it matters not how hard it is if we have but his will for it As Christ will at last Change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself Phil. 3.21 so according to that working he is able to change and subdue all things to and according to his own will When the Jews were to be carried into captivity to Babylon the Lord commanded Jeremy to make purchase of a field in Anathoth Jer. 32.7 8 9. Now Jeremy might object behold the Chaldaeans are come to the City to take it and shall I go and buy land Is this a time to make purchases is this a time to buy land when the City is ready to be taken and the whole land like to be lost yes saith God Buy the field for money seal the evidences and take witnesses for thus saith the God of Israel vers 15. houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land Am not I able to bring you back again And therefore after Jeremy had confessed in prayer to the Lord vers 17. Nothing is too hard for thee The Hebrew is hidden from thee or wonderful to thee because hard things are hidden from us strange and wonderful to us The Prophet I say having said this to the Lord in prayer the Lord said to him vers 27. Is any thing too hard for me And to the same point the Lord spake again Zech. 8.6 Thus saith the Lord of hosts if it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people namely that Jerusalem should be restored should it also be marvellous in mine eyes saith the Lord of hosts to perform what was said ver 4. There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem and every man with his staff in his hand for very age and the streets of the City shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof Who could beleive this but it was the will of God it should be so And therefore he said If it be marvellous in your eyes should it be so in mine eyes You think this can never be brought about But must it needs be marvellous in my eyes because it is so in yours or as the margin hath it must it needs be hard or difficult to me because 't is so to you The same word which signifies marvellous signifies difficult because that which is difficult and hard we marvel at But saith the Lord because this thing is marvellous in your eyes must it be so in mine who can do every thing And we may conceive that when Job spake thus he began to have some hope of his restauration He had lost all children and health and strength and estate all was gone and he many times gave up all for gone and spake despairingly as to a restitution but now God having spoken of what he had done Jobs faith and hope revived in these words I know that thou canst do every thing and among other things thou canst restore all to me again thou canst give me as much health and strength of body as many children as full an estate as ever I had Secondly This truth is matter of great terrour to the wicked As God can strengthen the weak so he can weaken the strong and as he can raise up the godly so he can easily pull down the ungodly as he can fill up the vallies so he can level the mountains Thus the Lord spake Ezek. 17.24 All the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree have exalted the low tree have dryed up the green tree and have made the dry tree to flourish I the Lord have spoken and have done it It must needs be terrible to the wicked that God can do what he will seing his will is to destroy them except they repent and turn to him he hath power enough to do it and his will is to do it what then can hinder his doing it but their repentance for what they have done There are no sons of Zerviah too hard for him who can do every thing Again from the second notion of these words Thou canst do every thing that is thou hast right as well as might to do every thing Observe The Lord may do he hath an unquestionable right to do whatsoever he is pleased to do God gives a law to all others for their actions but he is the law to himself He can do every thing of right he willeth as well as he hath might to do what he will Then let none complain that God hath done them wrong for every thing is right which God doth Job had failed in this by speeches reflecting upon the justice of God in his dealings with him and therefore we may conceive that in this confession I know thou canst do every thing he chiefly aimed at this to give God the glory of his justice As if he had said Though thou O Lord layest thy hand heavy upon an innocent person and strippest him of all that he hath though thou O Lord makest a wicked man to flourish in this world and fillest him with outward felicity yet all ought to rest in thy will for this thou canst do of right being absolute Lord over all I said Job know that thou canst do every thing And that no thought can be with-holden from thee Master Broughton renders that no wisdom was with-holden from thee which he thus glosseth Thou hast made all things in perfect wisdom to shew thy eternal power and God-head The same word signifies both wisdom and thought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 breviavit abrupit decerpsit propriè uvas fructus vindemiavit Hinc Bozra metropolis Idumeae cum vinetis vini proventu fuit celebris nomen soâ—â—ita est Isa 63.1 Nihil cogitas quod non possis si velis efficere quid enim te prohibebit aut impediet Drus Nec avertito posse à cogitatione sc perficienda Jun. Et quòd non vindemiabitur à te cogitatio i. e. rei cogitatae atque propositae effectionem Pisc and well it may for unless we have wise thoughts in our selves we can never shew wisdom either in our words or actions towards others There is a difference amongst Interpreters whose thought we are here to understand when Job saith No thought can be with-holden from thee First Many very
worthy and learned men are of opinion that by thought we are to understand the thought of God Gods own thought and so these words are but the carrying on of the same thing or a further explication what was said before I know that thou canst do every thing that is whatsoever is in thy thought or in thy heart to do no power in the world can with-hold thee from doing it no thought that is not any one of thy thoughts can be with-holden from thee that is from thy fulfilling it or bringing it to pass what thou hast in thy mind thou wilt perform with thy hand If thou hast but a thought to do such a thing thou canst not be hindered of thy thought it shall be done The words hold out a very glorious truth concerning God if we take thought in this sense and as it is a great truth in it self so it is a very useful one to us The Observation is this Whatsoever God hath a thought to do he will do it he cannot be hindered in the effect of a thought As none of Gods thoughts are vain so none of them are in vain or ineffectual they all reach their end Isa 43.13 I will work and who shall lett it God will work if he hath but a thought to work and if all the Powers in the world set themselves against him they shall not be able to disappoint any one of his thoughts Prtv. 19.21 There are many devices in a mans heart yet the counsel of the Lord shall stand that is there are many thoughts in mans heart opposite to the counsel and thought of God Men think this and that they make up many things in their thoughts yet can make nothing of them because against the thoughts of God for all the devices that are in mans heart cannot hinder the effect of Gods counsel his counsel shall stand fast and firm without any bowing without any bending while their devices fall and are utterly broken The conclusion of wise Solomon is Prov. 21.30 There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord. Let men take or give counsel as long as they will against the Lord they cannot avoid the effect of his counsels We have both these the standing of the Lords counsel and the overthrowing of all counsels that are against him in that one Scripture Psal 33.10 11. The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought he maketh the devices of the people of none effect The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever the thoughts of his heart to all generations God never lost a thought all come to pass This sheweth the mighty efficacy of the counsel of God this is more than can be said of any man or men in the world the wisest and greatest have had many thoughts withholden from them They have thought to do this and that but could not effect it nor bring it about Psal 146.4 Their thoughts perish they have a great many plots in their heads but they prove not they often live to see their own thoughts dye Their thoughts perish not only when they dye but they live to see them perish and dye The Prophet Isa 44.25 sheweth how the Lord frustrates the counsels of men and turneth them backward he shews also that without him they cannot go forward Lamen 3.37 Who is he that saith and it cometh to pass when the Lord commandeth it not But some may object the Lord speaketh of the builders of Babel as Job here speaketh of him Gen. 11.6 Behold the people is one and they have all one language and this they begin to do and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do as if he had said there will be no with-holding of them from their thoughts 'T is very true amongst men there was nothing to stop them they being all as one man and of one mind would have accomplished any thing that they did imagine but though there was nothing upon earth nothing among men that could restrain them yet God could do it and he did it he confounded their language and one brought morter when he should have brought brick and another brought stones when he should have brought timber they thought to build a tower that should reach as high as heaven they would be drowned no more but they and their thoughts were soon scattered and blown away This point hath in it also abundance of comfort as the former for take thought for the thought of God and it runs parallel with what I spake before of the work of God he can do every thing every thing that is in his thought to do we may take fresh comfort from it Can no thought be with-holden from God what a comfort is this to all that he hath good thoughts of or thoughts for good The heart of God is full of good thoughts to his people though he many times speaks hard words to them and doth hard things against them yet he hath good thoughts concerning them Psal 40.5 Many O Lord my God are thy wonderful works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which thou hast to us-ward Thoughts to us-ward are thoughts for us that is thoughts of good intended us Now hath the Lord many good thoughts for us and none of these shall be with-holden is not this comfort When the Church of the Jews was in Babilon the Lord dealt very hardly with them though not so hardly as they deserved But what were his thoughts Jer. 29.11 I know the thoughts that I think towards you you do not know the thoughts that I have towards you but I do what are they thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end that is the end which you expect and wait for What a mercy is this that no thought of God can be with-holden whenas he hath so many thoughts of mercy and good things to his people Again I might shew how dreadful this is to wicked men for the Lord hath nothing but thoughts of revenge and evil towards them But 't is enough to hint it Before I pass from this interpretation some may object If all the thoughts of God shall be brought to pass and none can withhold them if God will do what he hath a purpose to do then what need we trouble our selves so much in prayer For if God hath any thoughts of good to us it shall be done but if not we cannot bring it to pass by prayer And so some urge what need we repent and humble our selves the thoughts of God shall be fulfilled To this I say in general take heed of such reasonings for as they are very absurd and reasonless so they are very dangerous and leave us remediless More particularly I answer thus Though God hath thoughts and purposes of good to his people yet whatsoever good he will do for his people he will be sought unto to do it for them and therefore prayer repentance and humiliation are needful to
petitioner to the Lord for instruction having confessed his own ignorance and weakness And that he had formerly profited under the teachings of God and was now in a further way of profiting is evident by that which followeth Vers 5. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee Job had no sooner asked for teaching but God taught him though not formally and explicitely as he desired yet really and effectually as he needed For this verse seems to be a real answer to the petition he made in the former verse and in it Job asserts two things First That he had heard of God by the hearing of the ear Secondly That now his eye did see him There are two opinions about the general sense of this verse and I shall conclude in a third First Some conceive these discoveries of God to Job were only inward to his soul so that when he saith I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee we are not to understand him as if he had had any visible appearance of God but that these words may be taken First as a comparison between a slight hearing when the mind is not intent upon what the ear heareth and a serious hearing which brings the mind fully into the ear As if Job had formerly been a careless hearer but now an attentive one and so the knowledge which Job had of God formerly was little compared with his present knowledge He had a knowledge of God by hearing only before but his mind was not intent upon it he heard only with the hearing of his ear but his eye did not see that is he had not a clear sight or knowledge which is an intellectual sight of the things which he heard But doubtless Job was no slight hearer of the word in former times he did not hear the word in the dayes of his prosperity as if he had only as we say given it the hearing for had he not seriously hearkned to the voice of God in those dayes he had never obtained such a testimony as God gave of him towards the end of those dayes yea this very phrase I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear implyeth serious and attentive hearing Secondly Others who deny any visible manifestation of God to Job grant that the first part of the verse notes serious hearing and receiving of the word the latter more so that here say they is a comparison between that lesser light or knowledge which Job had of the will of God before and that fuller light which he got upon this discourse which the Lord had with him the former being but as of a matter heard this as of things seen The Scripture sometimes calls clear knowledge sight So that look how much that which we see with our bodily eyes is clearer to us than that whereof we have only heard the report by so much the knowledge which Job had now of the things of God especially about the whole mystery of Gods dealing with him was clearer and fuller than what he had before even as if he now saw what before he only heard As we say One eye-witness is better than ten ear-witnesses so one eying of the word of God the eye of the mind fully and distinctly taken in what is heard is better than ten earings of it that is when little or nothing is taken in at the ear but a sound of words For then only we may be said to know divine things by the seeing of the eye when we know them not only from without by the report of others but from experience within our selves The Apostle saith of those who took joyfully the spoyling of their goods for the truths sake They knew in themselves that they had in heaven a better and a more enduring substance Heb. 10.34 that is they had even got a sight of that heavenly enduring substance Hence in Scripture vision is applied to spiritual things heard and we are said to see the Word of God Jer. 2.31 O generation see ye the Word of the Lord have I been a wilderness c. As if the Lord had said Ye have heard it before but now see it Seeing notes the highest knowledge then we see what we hear when we fully understand what we have heard Thus they expound this Text who judge there was no outward vision at all but that Jobs seeing was only spiritual and intellectual Secondly Others affirm that Job had an outward apparition and that the eye of his sense was affected And concerning this First Some are so much of this opinion that they say Christ appeared in humane shape to Job as he did to many of the holy Patriarks and Prophets of old which apparitions are by the Ancients called preludes to his incarnation And some Jewish Writers tell us that Job upon this sight of God had a spirit of prophesie given him but they need not insist upon that for several have had apparitions who were no Prophets Secondly others say the appearance of God to Job was only in or by a cloud with the whirlwind But that he had a vision or sight of God one way or other is asserted as by many of the Jewish Writers so by most of the Christian Ancients And doubtless when the Lord spake to him out of the whirlwind he had a vision or an extraordinary manifestation of God even to his eye Not that God in himself can be seen No man hath seen God at any time 1 John 4.12 It is reported by the Jewish Writers that the Prophet Isaiah was sawn asunder by his own Nation for saying that he had seen the Lord Isa 6.1 I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up This they counted blasphemy and put him to death for it say some yet others say he was put to death for his plainness in reproving the Princes and people of Israel in those words Isa 1.10 Hear the word of the Lord ye Rulers of Sodom give ear to the Law of our God ye people of Gomorrah But of that by the way I say God in himself cannot be seen he is seen only by those visible demonstrations of his presence which he is pleased to make of himself as here he spake to Job out of the whirlwind I conceive we may take in both so that when Job speaketh of his hearing by the ear he intends that teaching which he had in former times by the Ministry of his Ancestors And that when he saith But now mine eye seeth thee he intends that teaching which he had from the present appearance of God to him for his instruction and humiliation I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee As if he had said Lord heretofore I heard of thee for I was religiously brought up I had Parents and Ancestors who declared to me who the Lord was and I heard many things of thee which
respect First because 't is that which the wisdom of God the Father hath provided for us and Secondly which the worthiness of God the Son hath wrought out and procured for us Take two or three Inferences from the general Observation thus far prosecuted That true repentance is joyned with self abhorrence First Then self-admirers are no repenters They are at the furthest remove from abhorring themselves who admire themselves Secondly Self-justifiers are no true repenters Christ told the Pharisees Luke 16.15 Ye are they which justifie your selves They are far from abhorring themselves who justifie themselves such surely are highly pleased with themselves and have much confidence in themselves therefore very far from self-abhorrence Thirdly What shall I say of their repentance who instead of abhorring themselves abhor others Luke 18.9 Christ spake a Parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others and presently instanced in the Pharisee who despised the poor Publican and called him in contempt This Publican he would as we say hardly touch him with a pair of tongs They that despise others are usually if not alwayes much pleased with themselves Fourthly If these self-boasters and self-admirers c. are not repenters then do they repent who are so far from abhorring sinful self and righteous self that they take pleasure in sin and unrighteousness whether their own or others The Apostle speaks of such Rom. 1.32 Who knowing the judgement of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them That 's a dreadful word 2 Thes 2.12 That they all might be damned who believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness O how far are they from abhorring their own righteousness who take pleasure in unrighteousness How are they puffed up with that which hath but a shew of righteousness who please themselves with that which is really unrighteous Fifthly If true repentance be accompanied with self-abhorrence then do they repent who return to those sins which they say they have repented of do you think the dog loaths his vomit when you see him go back and lick it up again 2 Pet. 2.22 When once the Jews loathed or abhorred Manna they had no mind to eat of it though it was Angels food When Job loathed his life he said he would live no longer Chap. 7.16 I loath it I would not live alwayes that is not at all not an hour longer in this world He that is weary of his life thinks to live but a day or a little longer is to live alwayes or that his life will never end Thus if a man doth truly loath and abhor his sin he will not return to it again though it hath been as sweet to him as Manna yea as life it self I do not say that he who loaths and abhors his sin can never relapse into the same sin or be overtaken with it again but this I say he that truly repents never delights in sin again he never goeth back to it and licketh it up as a dog his vomit A good man may fall into the same sin but he never returneth to the same sin he may be overtaken with the same sin but he never taketh up the same sin again That 's the Apostles word Gal. 6.1 If any of you be overtaken with a fault c. A good man may be overtaken with the same fault but he never taketh up that fault nor runs a course in that sin again I shall only add these two words for the working of our souls to this self-abhorrence First The more we abhor our selves the more God delighteth in us the more we are displeased with our sins the more is he pleased with our persons the worse the viler we are in our own eyes the better we are and the more beautiful in the eye of God Secondly Unless we abhor our selves God will abhor us I may say unless we so repent as to abhor our selves God will abhor our very repentance There is no true repentance without some degree of self-abhorrence yea of self-condemnation Let us not take up this word repentance too easily that is when we know not what this word self-abhorrence meaneth We defile this holy this precious thing called repentance when our hearts are not fully taken off from that or thole sins of which we say we repent All such would have that go for repentance towards God which indeed is but a mocking of God and can never be joyned from which true repentance cannot be separated with faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ Acts 20.21 I abhor my self said Job And repent in dust and ashes I shall here give somewhat about the nature of repentance in general and then gather up those particular Observations which arise from these words about it Repentance is a grace of the Gospel wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Word and Spirit turning the whole man from all sin to God in the sincere and universal obedience of his holy will In this description of repentance we have four things considerable First The nature of it or what it is A grace of the Gospel Secondly The seat of it or where it is wrought The heart of a sinner Thirdly The means by which it is wrought and that twofold First Instrumental The Word Secondly Principal The Spirit Fourthly The issue or effect of it Conversion or turning wherein two things are to be taken notice of First the term from which the turn is made Sin and all sin Secondly the term to which the turn is made God thus explained In the sincere or universal obedience of his holy will or in the practice of every known duty First I say Repentance is a grace of the Gospel Some possibly may say Job was before the Gospel I answer no The Gospel was published long before Job was born even as soon as God promised the seed of the woman Christ Jesus should bruise the Serpents head Gen. 3.15 The whole body of Gospel duty moves upon these two feet Faith and Repentance Some have questioned which of these two graces hath the precedency or takes the first step in the motion of the soul heaven-ward All that I shall say in answer to it is First that where these two graces are mentioned together in Scripture usually repentance is named first because it appears first and is most visible to us in its actings yet Faith is to be understood first because without that no man can come to Christ as a true penitent for pardon of sin and reconciliation unto God Secondly in those Scriptures where true saving repentance is spoken of alone it supposeth faith also and where true saving faith only is spoken of it necessarily implyeth true repentance This repentance is so much a grace of the Gospel that the first Sermon that ever was preacht at the approach of Christ or at the opening of the Gospel in the new
they carried it on a new Cart when it should have been carryed upon the Levites shoulders that was a failing in the outward manner of that work Hence that confession of David when he undertook that work a second time 1 Chron. 15.13 The Lord made a breach upon us at first for that we sought him not after the due order We must worship God aright for the outward manner of his commands and institutions else we dishonour him while we intend to worship him Secondly The inward manner must be according to the command of God 'T is possible we may hit the outward form of worship yet miss in the inward manner of it The Lord searcheth the heart he knoweth what is within and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth John 4.24 that is according to the truth of the rule made known in the word and in truth of heart The inward manner of worship is First That we worship in faith Without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 If we have not a justifying faith yea if we have not a perswading faith Rom. 14.5 23. that what we do is according to the will of God our worship iâ— not according to what the Lord hath commanded and so becomes sin to us Secondly That we worship in love Though we do never so many holy services to the Lord if we do them not in love to him we fail in the inward manner of our worship The sum of all the Lords commands is Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might It is not heaâ—ing and praying but these in love which is the fulfilling of the commandement Every duty must be mixt also with love to man We may do many things commanded to men yet if we do them not in love to men we do nothing as the Lord commandeth Thus the holy Apostle concluded peremptorily 1 Cor. 13.1 Though I speak with the tongue of men and angels c. and have not charity I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cimbal and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burnt and have not charity it profiteth nothing Thirdly To do all that the Lord commands according to the inward manner is to do all in humility that is First Acknowledging that we have no power of our own to do any thing Secondly That we have deserved nothing how much soever we have done or how well soever we have done it Thus in doing the Lords commands we should labour to answer the mind of the Lord fully and to hit every circumstance to omit nothing no not the lest thing Moses Exod. 10.16 being to carry the people of Israel out of Egypt would not compound the matter with Pharaoh Ye may go said Pharaoh after he had been broken by several plagues Only let your little ones stay no saith Moses that is not as the Lord hath commanded me And at another time he said Go only let your cattle stay no saith Moses this is not as the Lord commanded I will not leave so much as a hoof behind me And so said Moses concerning the observances of the law For thus I am commanded or this is as the Loâ—d commanded as we read all along the books of Exodus and Leviticus We are not full in our obedience till we obey fully It is said of Caleb Num. 14.24 He had another spirit he followed the Lord fully that is as to matter and manner as to out-side and in-side Let us labour to be full followers of God not out-side followers of God only but in-side followers Let us not rest in the in-side when we are not right in the out-side nor please our selves with an out-side service when we are careless of the inward Thus of their obedience as considered in general They did according as the Lord commanded Further consider their doing as the Lord commanded them in that special matter their reconciliation first to himself and then to Job Hence Observe Fourthly What the Lord appointeth for our reconciliation we must do and we must do it as he hath appointed Cur te pudeat peccatum tuum dicere cum non pudet facere Bernard in Sentent Erubescere mala sapientiae est bonum verò erubescere fatuitatis Greg. l. 1. in Ezek. hom 10. Though the means which God appointeth seem to us improbable and weak though it be troublesome and chargeable as here the offering up of so many bullocks and rams yet we must do it Yea though it put us to shame before men by the acknowledgment of our errors and mistakes as here Eliphaz and his two friends also did yet we must do it They who are ashamed of sin will not be ashamed to acknowledge their sin But what must we do to be reconciled to God or maâ— They who desire reconcilion with God must go out of themselves and go to Jesus Christ they must as Eliphaz c. did bring a sacrifice to God not as they did of bullocks and rams but which was shadowed by those legal sacrifices the sacrifice of Jesus Christ himself Who by one offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 They who desire reconciliation with man must do that which God here appointed these men go to him whom they have wronged and acknowledge their error or that they have wronged him they must also desire his pardon and prayers Thus did these men and they did as the Lord commanded for their reconciliation first to himself and then to Job Fifthly We may consider this their obedience as to the spring of it What made them so ready when the Lord commanded them to go and do as he had commanded them doubtless this was one thing the men were now humbled God had brought them to a fight of their sin Ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right this they were made sensible of and confessed and so obeyed Hence Observe They who are truly humbled and touched with a clear sight and deep sense of their sins will do whatsoever the Lord commandeth and as he commandeth They who are made sensible of the wrath of God deserved by and kindled against them for their sins will do any thing which he commands for the obtaining of his favour God may have any thing of an humble soul had the Lord commanded these men to go to Job and offer sacrifice before he had convinced them of their sin they might have flung away over the field and not have kept the path of his commandments but having humbled them they submitted When Peter had preached that notable Sermon which prickt his hearers at the very heart Acts 2.37 Then they said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles men and brethren what shall we do They were not only ready to do what they were commanded but did even ask for commands What shall we do They as it
charity of some is only in words to those who are in extream need of more and it is only so not because they have no more in their hands to give but because they have no hearts to give more To say to a naked or hungry one be clothed and sed or to give a large parcel of condoling and bemoaning words and then do nothing no not give a Doit for the supply of his wants is this love or charity Jobs friends loved him now not in word and in tongue only but indeed and in truth their deeds shewed the truth of their love They gave him every one of them a piece of money There are two readings of this clause The word which we here render a piece of money signifies also a sheep according to which Master Broughton translates and so do others Dederunt ei quisque pecudem unam Bez. They gave him each one a lamb we say a piece of money the same word signifying both as is plain from other Scriptures Gen. 37.19 And he that is Jacob bought a parcel of a field where he had spread his tent at the hand of the children of Hamor Shechems father for an hundred pieces of money or lambs as we put in the Margin The same thing is reported again in the same words Josh 24.32 Now the reason why that word is rendred both a lamb and a piece of money is say some because money in those times bare the stamp or figure of a lamb upon it as in some times and places money or coin was stamped with the figure of an oxe from whence came that Proverb The oxe is upon his tongue that is he speaks as he is bribed A second reason given of it is because the riches of the Antients was most in cattle Recunia à pecore dicta est Plin. l. 18. c. 3. Severus rex ovium boumque effigie primus â—s assignavit Plin. and that kind of riches being as money by which all things are valued and by which they made their payments therefore the same word was used for cattel and for coin or money The Latine word for money is also derived from another which signifies cattle And it is reported by Pliny that Severus first stampt money with the effigies or image of sheep and oxen They gave him every one a piece of money or a lamb Some are most for that reading they gave him a lamb because that seems most answerable to the loss of Job he lost all his cattle and now every one brought him a lamb But it is not much to the matter whether we take their reading or ours If it were a lamb it was worth a piece of money and if it were a piece of money it would buy a lamb But why did they bring Job either a piece of money or a lamb I answer First To testifie their renewed friend-ship or as a signification of their love and so to ingratiate themselves with him Secondly It might be towards the repair of his losses every one brought him somewhat yet I conceive they bestowed those gifts upon him rather as an honour than a relief yet possibly they might intend both in giving them Upon the one account or the other or upon both the Lord brought over Jobs friends to congratulate him with these presents It hath been an ancient usage to present Princes with gifts in way of honour and homage as appears plainly from what is of the refusal of some called Sons of Belial a Title of disgrace bestowed by the Spirit of God upon none but the worst of men to bring presents unto Saul the first King of Israel 1 Sam. 10.27 And many superiors in any kind think themselves slighted if they have not gifts from their inferiors Job was a Prince the greatest man of the East and for that reason it was but a duty in his friends to bring him presents Every one gave him a piece of money or a lamb And every one an ear-ring of gold Gemmas à fronte pendentes Vulg. Mâ—ntlâ— demissum Sept. There is som dispute what this ear-ring of gold was The word is translated Isa 3.21 A nose jewel which was not a jewel to hang upon the nose but a jewel that was fastned upon the forehead and hung down towards the nose In other places it is called an ear-ring Gen. 24.47 Gen. 35.4 Ezod 35.22 Such jewels were doubtless used and worn by gâ—eat persons in the Land of Vz where Job dwelt and was chief among them Jobs friends brought him not only presents of money or cattle which are useful to all Honoraria obtulerunt Jun. Munere haec erant tum amicitiae tum obsequii symbola Sic enim viri principes munere salutabantur but jewels which are ornamentals and used only by persons of noble quality or of great estate An ear-ring in some mens ears would be no more becoming nor better placed than a jewel in a swines snout to which Solomon compares beauty in a woman without wit discretion and understanding A jewel or an ear-ring is not for every mans wearing The presents brought Job shewed him a person of honour Every one also gave him a piece of money and every one an ear-ring of gold Hence Note First To send or bring gifts in many cases is not only lawful but necessary and a duty Though both the giving and taking of gifts heareth ill in Scripture and common language yet there are six sorts of gifts which may lawfully be given and taken and there is a seventh sort which none ought either to give or take First Gifts of pure charity or Eleemosinary gifts such as are bestowed upon and distributed among the poor are a duty We should be much in gifts of charity for this very reason because to give them is not so much a bounty as a duty A part of all we have is due to those that have nothing Secondly There are gifts of respect to those who are not in want yea to those who abound these are honorary gifts 'T is lawful and a duty also to bring gifts to Kings and Princes as was shewed in opening the words When Christ is spoken of as a King the Scripture saith The Kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents the Kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts Psal 72.10 And as that holy Prophesie saith it should be so so the holy History saith it was so the wise men of the East came with gifts to Christ as soon as he was born Mat. 2. Thirdly There are gifts of courtesie from equals One friend sends a gift to another in testimony of love and kindness or as rejoycing in the goodness and kindness of God to them in delivering them from any evil as Jobs case also was These are congratulatory gifts Fourthly There are gifts of bounty such are from superiors to inferiors to testifie their greatness and magnificence Fifthly There are gratulatory gifts in token of thankfulness for benefits and favours
imponuntur Hieron in Proaem Comment in lib. Mich. as prophecying or hoping at least they will really be what they are in name or what their names promise One of the Ancients reports this practice of the Ancients We give names saith he wherein we hold forth our wishes and desires and pray to God that our children may answer the signification of their names Many Scripture-names have mysterious meanings in them Hosea signifieth a Saviour his parents therein prophecying as it were and shewing their faith that he would be a Prophet and prove instrumental for the salvation of others Obadiah signifieth the servant of God his parents gave him that name we may suppose hoping he would and wishing he might be a faithful servant of God Zachariah signifieth the memery or remembrance of God his parents earnestly desiring that God would both remember him which is all mercy to man or that he might alwayes remember God which is all duty to God Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth that is perform all duty to God Nomina erant quasi omina vel monita vel vâ—ta rei futurae We see then it hath been usual among godly parents to give significant names to their children either that they might be minded of the mercies of God to them or of the duties which they were to perform to God I shall only adde for the close of the point this short admonition to all to women especially because the Text speaks of them that As it is useful and usual for parents to give good names to their children so children should have a gracious ambition to make good the signification of their names What will it advantage a man to be called John which signifieth grace if himself be graceless or to be called Obadiah which signifieth a servant of God if he neglect to serve God or to be called Zechariah which signifieth the Remembrance of God if he forget God Again what will it benefit a woman to be called Susanna which signifieth a Lilly a beautiful flower if she be not like that lilly among thorns the Church Cant. 2.2 but only a lilly in the wilderness of this world What will it benefit a woman to be called Tamar which signifieth a Palm-tree tall and strait if her self be of a low base and crooked diâ—position 'T is better to be a crooked shrub in bodily stature than a tall strait Palm-tree with a crooked mind and a low spirit To be named Jemima as fair as Day to be named Kezia as sweet as spice or perfume to be called Keren-happuch as beautiful as the very horn of beauty what will it advantage any women unless they have real vertues and gracious qualities answering these names Yea these names will be real witnesses against them at last and fill their faces with shame To profess our selves to be or to have a name to be what we are not is to be deeply hypocritical and to bear that in our names which we are not nor take any care to be is highly disgraceful But when names are fulfilled in persons when men and women who wear good names are or do the good signified by their names how precious are their names and their memories how honorable And when the good or vertues of the three feminine names in the Text meet and center in the person of any one woman when Jemima the day-light of true knowledge and understanding is joyned with Kezia the perfume of reputation ascending from Keren-happuch store of beautiful graces put forth in the gracious actions of a spotless and unblameable conversation what Pencil is able to draw to the life the ravishing features of such a person Such I believe were those noble Ladies Jobs daughters named in the Text which was the joy of their fathers heart and the staff of his old age Thus much of the names of Jobs daughters and of the signification of them both in reference to the then present change of Jobs estate and the hope he had of their future good estate with respect to the beauty and gracefulness of their bodies but especially to the beauty and graciousness of their souls or minds Now as the beauty and vertues too of Jobs three daughters were implyed and wrapt up in their names so their beauty is plainly expressed in the next words Vers 15. And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughâ—ers of Job and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren In this verse we have two things concerning Jobs daughters First The supereminency of their beauty Secondly The greatness of their dowry or portions bestowed on them by the bounty of their father The former we have at the beginning of the verse And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job When 't is said in all the land we are to understand it of all the land of Vz 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In ea quae sub coelo Sept. Tota terra est sub coelo hic autem restringitur ad certam Regioâ—em Drus Yet the Septuagint extend it to all lands all the world over rendring all under heaven but the word in the Original will not reach so far though the truth might But in all that land were no women or women kind as Master Broughton reads found so fair that is none were so fair as they The word found is to be taken as in that of Moses Exod. 35.23 Every man with whom was found that is with whom there was or who had blue and purple c. brought them And as in that which is spoken of Christ Phil. 2.8 He was found that is he was or appeared in the form of a man So Mal. 2.6 2 Chron. 19.3 For we are not to conceive that there was an inquiry or search made amongst all the women of the land of Vz who was fairest and that upon the return none were found so fair and beautiful as Jobs daughters The meaning is only this none were known so fair as they or they had no known Peers in fairness and this is a sufficient proof that those notable names were not given Jobs daughters without a cause either seen or foreseen at least desired the issue answering the desire In all the land there were none so fair as they There is a bodily fairness and a soul fairness The word into which we render the Hebrew signifieth properly the fairness of the face or body Non sunt inventae juxta filias Job meliores eis Sept. but the Septuagint translate it by a word signifying the souls fairness They say No women were found better than the daughters of Job Their goodness without question as it was far more excellent in it self so more contentful and delightful to him than their fairness But we may very well take in both as was hinted before namely that his daughters were excellent both for the one beauty and for the other Yet I conceive