that prayer For sitting we have 2 Sam. 2.18 When Nathan brought that message unto David concerning the building of the house of God that it should be deferred till his sonnes time the Text saith That David went in and sate before the Lord and said who am I O Lord And in the end he saith Therefore have I found in my heart to pray this prayer unto thee We also find walking in prayer Gen. 24.63 Isaac went out into the field to pray He walked and pray'd we translate it to meditate but in the margin of your bookes you find it to pray as being nearer the Hebrew So that walking and sitting and standing are likewise praying gestures or postures of holy worship But chiefly that posture of bowing downe the body or bending the knee is the worship posture so it followes in the Text. He fell upon the ground and worshipped And worshipped To vvorship is to give to any one the honour due unto him So the rendering unto God that love that feare that service that honour vvhich is due unto him is the worshipping of God that 's the Scripture definition Psal 29.2 Give unto the Lord the honour due unto his name then followes by vvay of exposition Worship the Lord in the beauty of holinesse that is in his holy Temple in his beautifull Sanctuary or in the comely honour of his Sanctuary So that worship is the tendering of honour to the Lord in a vvay honourable to him namely according to his own vvill and Lawes of vvorship vvhich is intimated by comming to worship him in his beautifull Sanctuary where all things about the service of God vvere exactly prescribed by God And then there was beauty or comely honour in the Sanctuary vvhen all things vvere ordered there by the rule of his prescription varying and departing from vvhich vvould have filled that holy place vvith darknesse and deformity notwithstanding all the outward lustre and beauty had bin preserved The worship of God is two-fold there is internall worship and there is externall worship Internall worship is to love God to feare God and to trust upon him these are acts of inward worship these are the summe of our duty and Gods honour contained in the first Commandement And so you may understand vvorship in the Text. Iob fell downe and worshipped that is presently upon those reports hee put forth an act of love and holy feare acts of dependance and holy trust upon God in his Spirit saying to this effect within himselfe Lord though all this be come upon me yet I will not depart from thee or deale falsly in thy Covenant I know thou art still the same Jehovah true holy gracious faithfull All-sufficient and therefore behold me prostrate before thee and resolving still to love thee still to feare thee still to trust thee thou art my God still and my portion for ever Though I had nothing left in the world that I could call mine yet thou Lord alone art enough yet thou alone art All. Such doubtlesse vvas the language of Iobs heart and these were mighty actings of inward worship Then likewise there is externall worship which is the summe of the second Commandement and it is nothing else but the serving of the Lord according to his owne Ordinances and institution in those severall wayes wherein God will be honoured and served this is outward vvorship and as we apply our selves unto them so we are reckon'd to worship God Job worshipped God outwardly by falling to the ground by powring out supplications and by speaking good words of God as we reade afterward words tending to his owne abasement and the honour of God clearely and fully acquitting and justifying the Lord in all those works of his providence and dispensations towards him This is worship both internall and externall Internall worship is the chiefe but God requireth both and there is a necessity of joyning both together that God may have honour in the world Internall worship is compleat in it selfe and pleasing unto God without the externall The externall may be compleat in it selfe but is never pleasing to God without the internall Internall worship pleases God most but externall honours God most for by this God is knowne and his glory held forth in the world Externall worship is Gods name Hence the Temple was called the place where God put his Name sc his worship by which God is knowne as a man by his name They that worship God must worship him in Sprit and in Truth In Spirit that is with inward love and feare reverence and sincerity In Truth that is according to the true rule prescribed in his word Spirit respects the inward power Truth the outward forme The former strikes at hypocrisie the latter strikes at Idolatry The one opposes the inventions of our heads the other the loosenesse of our hearts in worship Observe further that it is only said Job fell downe and worshipped nothing is said of the object to whom he did direct his worship or whom he did worship The object is not exprest but understood or presupposed And indeed worship is a thing so proper and peculiar to God that when we name worship we must needs understand God For nothing but God or that which we make a god is or can be worshipped Either he is God whom we worship or as much as in us lies we make him one What creature so ever shares in this honour this honour ipso facto sets it up above and makes it more then a creature The very Heathens thought every thing below a God below worship therefore there needed not an expression of the object when the Text saith Job worshipped that implyes his worship was directed unto God yet there is a kind of worship which is due to creatures There is a civill worship mentioned in Scripture as well as divine worship Civill worship may be given to men And there is a two-fold civill worship spoken of in Scripture There is a civill worship of duty and there is a civill worship of courtesie That of duty is from inferiours to their superiours from children to their Parents from servants to their Masters from Subjects to Kings and Magistrates These gods must have civill worship As Gen. 48.11 vvhen Joseph came into the presence of Jacob his father he bowed downe to the ground this vvas a civill vvorship and a vvorship of duty from an inferiour to a superiour And it is said of the brethren of Judah Gen. 49.8 when Jacob on his death-bed blessed the 12. Tribes Thy brethren shall worship thee or bow downe to thee It is the same vvord used here in this Text. Judahs honour vvas to vvield the Scepter the government was laid upon his shoulders now he being the chiefe Magistrate all the rest of the Tribes all his brethren must vvorship him or give civill honour unto him Secondly There is likewise a worship of courtesie vvhich is from equals when one equall vvill bow to another or vvhen a
feare of God that must be the spring of uprightnesse and perfection else they are onely Heathen vertues not Christian graces God delights in nothing we doe unlesse we doe it in his feare As Joseph said to his brethren when they feared some hard measure from him I feare God when this feare of God tyes our hands it shews the love of God fils our hearts Not to wrong man because we feare God is an argument of more then man Fearing God you may observe 2. Holy feare containes in it every grace we receive from God and all the worship we tender up to God Feare is a comprehensive word it is more then a particular grace When Abraham had offered up his sonne Isaac that was a worke of mighty faith and the faith of Abraham is wonderfully commended by it but God speakes thus Now I know thou fearest me Feare containeth faith and feare containeth love too Though perfect love cast out tormenting feare 1 Joh. 4.18 yet perfect love cals in obeying feare Heare the conclusion of all saith the Preacher Eccl. 12.13 Feare God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man or this is whole man Feare is all duty and every grace Fearing God and eschewing evill Hence this from the connexion 3. Holy feare keeps the heart and life cleane The feare of the Lord is cleane saith David Psal 19. Cleane not onely in it selfe formally cleane but effective it makes clean and keepes cleane the heart and life Feare is as an armed man at the gate which examines all and stoppes every one from entring that is unfit It stands as a Watch-man on the Tower and it lookes every way to see what 's comming to the soule If evill come feare will not admit it And therefore in Scripture you shall have these two often put together fearing God and eschewing evill Nay eschewing evill is not onely put as an effect of the feare of God but it is put into the very definition it selfe of the feare of God The feare of the Lord is to depart from evill He eschewed evill From hence observe also 1. Godly persons do not only forbeare sin but they abhorre sin They have not only their hands bound from it but they have their hearts set against it Holy enmity against sin is the temper of a godly mans heart he eschew's evill 2. A godly mans opposition of sin is universall it is against all sin Job eschewed evill all evill there was no picking of this or that particular evill to oppose but whatsoever came under the name and notion of sin Iobs spirit turned against it enmity is against the kind 3. Godly persons doe not onely avoid the acts of evill but all the occasions of evill Iob eschewed evill whatsoever led him to evill all the appearances of evill as the Apostle speakes we cannot avoid the sinne if we will not avoid the occasion When Solomon cautions to take heed of the path of the wicked he useth foure expressions and all to the same purpose Avoid it saith he passe not by it turne from it and passe away to shew unto us that if we would keepe from the acts ofâ—â—n we must keepe from the way of sin The second thing whereby his prosperous estate is set out unto us is what his possessions were You have a particular Inventory of his estate in the second and third verses and you have the totall summe cast up after all the particulars are set down and it amounts to thus much that Iob was the greatest of all the men in the East In the second verse you have the first part of his goods set down his jewels his children There were borne unto him seven sons and three daughters This verse contains the first part of Iobs outward happinesse the blessings of children Concerning whom we have 3. things offered 1. Their number 10. 2. The distinction of Sexes Sons and Daughters 3. Their mutuall love and concord v. 4. There is little in the words that needs explication therefore where the Scripture is plaine and cleare I will not spend time There were borne unto him His children were not borne against him but borne unto him given as comforts and blessings to him Seven sonnes and three daughters The number seven and the number three are numbers of perfection Some trouble themselves much about them But I will not stay upon numbers Verse 2. And there were borne unto him seven sonnes and three daughters Here observe 1. Children are the blessings of the Lord. They are put here as a part of his Inheritance Children are an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the wombe is his reward They are speciall blessings Children as it is observed are a resemblance of our immortality because a man revives againe lives anew as it were in every child he is borne againe in a civill sence when others are borne to him There be some who account their children but bils of charges but God puts them upon the account of our mercies how holily and piously speakes Iacob concerning his children These saith he are the children which God hath graciously given thy servant 2. Observe this Children as they are blessings and great blessings so they are greater blessings than any outward thing else whatsoever When a description is made of Iobs goods the best is put first First his spirituall blessings are set downe then comes his outward now children are put in the very next degree to his graces What our Saviour Christ saith of a mans soule may be said of children What saith he shall a man give in exchange for his soule It is true that is spoken there of a mans owne soule that it is more to himselfe than the world but it is a truth here too if one have a soule given him and to have a child is to have a soule bestow'd on us for the present it is more than to have the whole world bestowed on him A whole world of riches is not so good not such goods as one child therefore children are put in the first place as his choisest and chiefest outward blessings Then from the number of his children he had many children he had 7. sons and 3. daughters Observe 3. To have many children is a great blessing and the more children the greater the blessing Some thinke themselves blessed if they may have one or two children one to inherit their estates one or two to delight themselves in to play with or to beare their name but if they come to a number to a great number then they thinke themselves exceedingly burthen'd then they are troubles When God casts up the estate of a blessed man in outward things he saith not onely that he hath a child that he is not barren but that he hath many children that he hath his quiver full of such arrowes as the expression is Psal 127.5 and that is made the blessednesse of a man there Happy is the
single thred All his outward estate was kept without not a shred not a thread got into his spirit Take this for a third reason why the Holy Ghost doth thus exactly set forth the estate of Iob sc that he might appeare to be an exact holy man From the whole take these Observations First We see here Job a holy man very full of riches Then Observe That riches are the good blessings of God God would never have bestowed them upon his Job else Least we should thinke riches evill they are given to those who are good And least riches should be thought the chiefest good they are given to those that are evill It is a certaine truth that God never gives any thing in it selfe evill to those that are good nor doth he ever give the chiefest good to those that are evill Therefore it shewes that riches are good because the godly have them and it shewes that they are not the chiefest good because the wicked have them When the Gospell calls us to renounce the world to cast off the world it calls us to cast the world out of our affections not out of our possession To hold and possesse great riches is not evill it is evill to set our hearts upon them Secondly Iob was described before A just man an upright man that is a man just in his dealing a man that gave every one his owne He did not decline no not a haires bredth if possibly he could from the line of Justice Commutative or Distributive yet this Iob is exceeding rich Hence observe That Plaine and honest dealing is no hinderance to the gaining or preserving of an estate Honest dealing is no stop no barre to getting There is a cursed Proverbe amongst us which some use and it is to be feared some walke by it That he which useth plaine dealing shall die a Beggar You see Job that was a plaine man a just dealing man yet is full of riches the nighest and the safest way to riches is the way of justice Woe to those who by getting riches get a wound in their owne consciences What will it advantage any one to gather many goods when in the meane time his heart tells him that all have a bad Master What will it advantage any to load to fraight his Ship by trading on forbidden Coasts when by doing this he splits and makes shipwracke of his soul If you would goe the ready way to attaine the things of this life walke in the wayes of God Honesty and Justice Uprightnesse and truth will leade you to the highest and greatest estate with Gods blessing All other riches are poverty all other gaine is losse There is a fire in an estate ill gotten which will at last consume it A man builds with timber that hath a fire in it that layes the foundation of his estate by sinne he layes up iniquity for his children And so doth God Job 21.19 It is commonly said likewise Dives aut iniquus aut iniqui haeres A rich man is either an unjust man or the heyre of an unjust man In Psal 82. the wicked are put for the rich How long will you iudge uniustly and accept the persons of the wicked That is the persons Divitum aut Potentum of rich or great men so it is to be understood for Judges would never accept the persons of wicked men if they were poore if they be in equall ballance with others in regard of outward things and then the opposition that is made in the next words Defend the poore and fatherlesse shewes that the rich are there meant These great ones are called wicked because saith the Glosse they usually get and uphold their greatnesse by wickednesse Such is the course of the world and it is the shame of the world much more of Christians We see in Jobs practise that riches may be attained and maintained too by righteousnesse Job was rich and iust Thirdly In that Iob a man fearing God was thus rich thus great See here the truth of the promises God will make good his promise concerning outward things to his people Godlinesse hath the promises of this life as well as of that which is to come As it hath promises made to it so it hath promises performed to it Iob a man fearing God a godly man is very rich Indeed not many rich not many mighty not many honourable not many great ones are called and so not many of those that are called are mighty and rich and great and noble yet some such are that the truth of the promises may appeare somtime in the very letter to the eye of sence as it alwayes doth to the eye of faith Doe not feare that you shall be poore if you turne godly for godlinesse hath the promises of this life and there was a rich Iob a rich Abraham a rich Isaac a rich David and many other godly rich God will performe when it is good for them the promises of outward good things to his children outwardly Fourthly Here is another Observation from this place Iob was frequent in holy duties he was a man fearing God that is as we explained it in the first verse he was much verst in the wayes of holy worship he did not serve God by fits or at his leasure but continually yet he was very rich Note hence Time spent in holy duties is no losse no hinderance to our ordinary callings or to our thriving in them Iob serves God so frequently that it is called continually yet he grows in wealth abundantly The time that he spent in the service of God did not rob his purse impoverish his family or hinder him in his dealings and businesses of the world Iob maintained both his callings he maintained his generall calling in the wayes and service of God and his speciall or particular calling in his relations unto men both went on together and they were no hinderance one to another but a furtherance rather The time we spend in spirituall duties is time gain'd for secular The paines we take in prayer c. whets our tools and oyls our wheels promotes all we go about and getteth a blessing upon all This meets with another blasphemy very frequent in the world If a man professing godlinesse goe backward in his estate especially a man that is taken notice of for his extraordinary zeale and constancy in holy duties Then the clamour is O you see what hearing of Sermons hath brought him unto you see what comes of his praying and fasting he ha's followed these things you see till he is undone I say two things unto these men First Many are thought to goe backward in their outward estate because they doe so much in spirituall duties when indeed they are so farre from doing too much that they doe too little and that rather is the reason why they thrive not The body may be exercis'd often when the spirit workes but seldome if at all in holy things and this
in that sense to please men with sinning against and provoking God Secondly My Servant by way of speciall right and property So Job and all godly persons are called Gods servants First by the right of election they are Gods chosen servants as Paul is called a chosen vessell that is a chosen servant to carry the name of God 2. They are Gods servants by the right of purchase my servant whom I have bought and purchased so in the 1 Cor. 6. You are bought with a price be not the servants of men that is you are bought with a price to be my servants therefore be not the servants of men in opposition to me or to my disservice in any thing So Job was Gods servant by way of purchase God buyeth every one of his servants with the bloud of his sonne Thirdly My servant by way of Covenant Job was Gods Covenant servant God and he had as it were sealed Indentures Job entered into Covenant with God that he would performe the duty of a servant and God entered into Covenant with him that he should enjoy the priviledge of a servant Now that which is Gods by right of Covenant is his by speciall right Then again We may further understand this and all such like expressions When God saith my servant he doth as it were glory in his servant God speaks of him as of his treasure my servant as a man doth of that which he glorieth in As the Saints glory in God when they use this expression my God and my Lord my Master and my Christ this is a kind of glorying and triumphing in God So this expression carieth such a sense in it Hast thou not considered my servant Job there is one that I have honour by one that I rejoyce and glory in one that I can speake of with much more then content even with tryumph my servant Job Ther 's a man It is mans honour to be Gods servant and God thinkes himselfe honoured by the service of man It was once a curse and it is a great curse still to be the servant of servants as it is said of Cham but it is an honour the great honour of the creature to be a servant to God He that is a servant of Christ is not only free but noble And Christ reckoneth that he hath not only worke done him but honour done him by his willing people and therefore he glories in any such my servant My servant Job There is somewhat also to be considered in that When God speakes of his people by name it noteth two things in Scripture First A speciall care that God hath over them Secondly A speciall love that God hath to them Joh. 10.3 He calleth his owne Sheepe by name this noteth a speciall care Christ hath of his sheepe and a speciall love that he beareth to them So Isa 49.1 The Lord hath called me from the wombe from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name it noteth the speciall care and the speciall love that God had of and bare to Christ See it eminently in that place Exod. 33.12 where Moses speakes thus unto God Yet thou hast said I know thee by name now what it is to know by name is by way of Exposition added in the end of the verse And thou hast also found grace in my sight So that to be knowne by name is in a speciall manner to find grace in the sight of God when it is said here My servant Job it shewes that God did take an extraordinary care of and did in an extraordinary manner love Job above all that were upon the Earth There is a great deale of difference betweene these two expressions to know the name of a man and to know a man by name It is a truth that God knoweth all your names and the names of all the men in the world but he doth not know all by name Therefore the Scripture assures us that God hath the names of none written but the names of his owne as Moses saith in the former Chapter If thou wilt not forgive the sinne of this people blot me I pray thee out of thy Booke which thou hast written Thou knowest me by name my name is written in thy booke So Luk. 10. Christ bad his Disciples that they should not rejoyce so much that they had the spirits subject unto them but in this they should rejoyce that their names were written in heaven Note from hence That God doth take care of his elect children and servants in a speciall manner above all other men in the world The names of Princes or Emperours or Potentates if they belong not to God are not vouchsafed a place in his booke but the names of the meanest of his Saints are recorded for ever and shall be had in everlasting remembrance Hast thou not considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the Earth c. We reade before at the end of the 3d. verse that Job in reference to his riches was the greatest of all the men of the East Now he goeth beyond that in reference to his holines he is the greatest upon the earth there is none like him in the earth This we may understand first as a cause or reason why Job fell under the speciall consideration or observation of Satan Hast thou not considered my servant Job because so some render that particle or in a much or for that there is not the like to him in the Earth As if God should say there is reason why he must needs be taken into thy consideration because there is not such another man as he in the earth You know that a man is quickly taken notice of when there are none like unto him in the place or company where he is If a man walke in the streets or come into a house who is of an extraordinary tallnesse some will aske the question did you not observe such a man for there was never a man in the company never a man in the street so tall as he So one that is extraordinary in beauty or extraordinary in rich apparrell every one hath an eye upon such The reason why many are observed is because they are not like to others they are beyond others in quality or in habit So here Hast thou not considered my servant Job that there is none like unto him in the Earth thou must needs take notice of him Or againe it may be understood thus as the matter which Satan should consider and observe in Job Hast thou not considered my servant Job sc in this thing that there is not a man upon the earth like to him Hast thou not taken notice of this in him Thou who hast looked over all men and hast as it were sifted all mens manners hast thou not observed thus much that there is not such a man upon the earth as Job Hath not that fallen under thy observation So now in the words There is
shed bloud when Satan would have God to afflict us doe it presently saith he when Satan would have us sinne against God doe it presently saith he now sinne now provoke God doe not stay till the next day but when we are called to give up our selves to God then to morrow will serve the turne and next yeare will serve to repent yea when you are old 't is time enough to repent when he tempteh to doe any mischiefe any sinne then now now sin but 't is time enough to doe good hereafter to morrow will serve for that Put forth now thine hand and touch all that he hath It is a truth which Satan here speakes concerning the hand of God That if God doe but touch the highest and greatest estate in the world it will fall to peeces quickly There is a truth in it take it in the easiest sense that can be if God doe but lightly touch the estate of a man it will soone fall in peeces God is not put to any stresse to afflict and punish as Psal 81.14 I should soone have subdued their enemies and have turned my hand against their adversaries God expresseth the utter over-throw of the enemies of his people but by the turning of a hand if God doe but turne his hand they are all gone presently soone subdued If he doe but touch the might the pompe the greatnesse the riches and the power of all those in the world that are opposers of his Church presently they fall to the ground A touch from the hand of God will end our warres If he touch the Mountaines they smoake as it is in the Psalme and consume to ashes they that are the mighty and great ones of the world the Mountaines by one touch of his hand fall as it were to nothing So if God doe but touch our estates they moulder away no creature can uphold them Then againe observe here the cunning imposture of Satan that puts such sore such heavy afflictions into such light and easie expressions he cloatheth his malice his utmost malice here in very faire words doe but touch him saith this enimie but you see what Satans touches are touch all that he hath Why Satan would nothing have made a tryall but only a touching of all For Job to have lost somewhat had been a tryall a touch for Job to have lost halfe his flockes of Sheepe or his Oxen had been a tryall and no very light one neither for Job to have lost a sonne to have found one of his children suddenly strucke dead had been an affliction and a heavy one too such a touch as that might well have touched the fathers heart Would it not serve Satan that a sonne should die or that some of his cattell should be destroyed but he must have all touched all that he hath The malice of Satan is unsatiable there is nothing will serve him unlesse he may devoure all This touch of Satan which he desireth might be laid upon Job is like the touch that many have given to those who have come into their hands amongst us they would but touch them but they would touch them in all when they put forth their hands as they pretended in wayes of justice in their Courts they would touch men in all touch them in their liberties by imprisonment and touch them in their estates by extreame vast fines and touch them in their names by disgrace touch them in their bodies by whipping and cutting and touch them in their relations by keeping all friends from sight of them No moderation no bounds but touch them in all that they had And O exactnesse of Justice when God came to touch that power he gave them a touch just after the rate and proportion of their owne touches for when those Courts and persons came to have their power and actions scanned it was not moderating or regulating or restraining or abating or limiting their power that satisfied they must quite downe and be taken away God gave them a touch just as they touched others before So that a man may say certainly there is a God that judgeth the earth These are the touches of Satan and the touches of mercilesse men are as like his as themselves are they thinke there is nothing done unlesse men be undone they never give over touching till they come to ruining Touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face Some render it thus Touch all that he hath if hee curse thee not to thy face So it is word for word out of the Originall nisi unlesse or Si non touch all that he hath and see if he doe not curse thee to thy face We give the sense of it in a direct affirmation touch all that he hath and he will c. Others put the force of an imprecation to it Touch all that he hath and see if he doe not curse thee to thy face that is as if he had said let me never be beleeved and never be trusted Indeed Satan is so farre disgraced and damned already that he hath nothing to loose he cannot damne himselfe further he cannot wish any thing to himselfe worse than he already is but yet here is a kind of execration or imprecation upon himselfe in it Doe this and if he doe not curse thee to thy face let me never be accounted of or as many use to say let me never be trusted or as some wretched hellish ones Let me be damned if such or such a thing be not There is such an emphasis in that manner of speaking used in the Text. But we translate it by a direct affirmation and that is a good sense too touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face that 's certaine so saith Satan he will doe it it is as sure as done already Curse thee It is the same word which is used before ver 5. It may be my children have cursed God The word signifies properly to blesse It was shewed that probably in that place it might be translated Curse but in this Text there is a necessity of translating it so seeing a cleare sence cannot be made out taking the word properly In cursing another these three things concurre First an ill opinion or conceit of that person 2. Hatred or malice against him 3. A desire that some evill may befall him This Satan meanes when he undertakes that Job being afflicted will curse God So then to curse God is to blaspheme God in our thoughts and words to think or speake unworthily of God and the wayes of God see if he curse thee not to thy face that is see if his heart be not imbittered against thee see if his tongue be not sharpened to wound thy honour to reproach thy goodnesse to accuse thy providence As it is said of those Isa 8.21 They shall be hungry and hard bestead And what then They shall fret themselves and curse their King and their God and looke
them honour in the eyes of all his servants There is another good So Satan while he setteth men a worke Sabeans Caldeans and others to doe mischiefe he doth a double mischiefe at once he doth mischiefe to Job or others whom he afflicts and he doth mischiefe to his instruments he makes these sin as he makes others suffer If he carry on the worke alone they suffer but others doe not partake in the guilt of the sin but now when he useth instruments to effect his wicked designes he makes one miserable and the other wicked This is one of Satans methods he will worke by meanes and do his businesse by the hands of men that he may at once doe a double mischiefe Thirdly In that these Sabeans and Caldeans are observed in Histories to be a people given much to robberies and spoile and these are the men whom Satan picks out for this businesse Observe That Satan suiteth his temptations to mans naturall temper and inclination Whensoever he tempteth he takes this advantage if he can discover or obtaine it He is wiser then to set saile against wind and tyde to row against the streame Therefore he labours all he can to find which way the streame of every mans affections runs and to what sins his relations his calling or his opportunities lay him most open and obnoxious accordingly hee layes his snares and spreads his net When he meets with a proud man him he tempteth with high thoughts When he meeteth with a covetous man him he tempteth to the love of the world he layes a golden bait of profit before his eyes The adulterous he leades to the Harlots house For howsoever it be true that every man hath in him a principle suiting to every sinne yet it is a truth too that every man is not equally active for or dispos'd unto every sin and every man hath not every particular sinne predominant in him now Satan when he seeth what is predominant in any man then he fashioneth and frameth a temptation sutable He perceived these Sabeans were given to rob and spoyle and he sheweth them a desirable booty And have slain thy servants with the edge of the sword This is a further aggravation of the affliction they did not onely fall upon Jobs cattell and tooke them away but they slew his servants A mans servants are nearer to him then his Cattell then his Oxen and his Asses servants are next unto our Children So that this was an heightning of Jobs sorrow not onely are your cattell gone but your servants are slaine and they are slaine saith he with the edge of the sword the word in the Hebrew is they are slain with the mouth of the sword We reade in Scripture sometimes of the face of the Sword and sometime of the mouth of the Sword As Isa 31.8 where wee translate they shall flee from the Sword the Hebrew is they shall flee from the face of the Sword The like Text you have Jer. 25.27 Now when the Scripture speakes of the face of the Sword it is meant of warre comming or warre preparing and approaching But the mouth of the Sword is warre inflicted warre acted This phrase the mouth of the Sword is used to shew that the Sword is a great devourer Deut. 32.42 I will make mine arrowes drunke with bloud and my Sword shall devoure flesh Warre hath a terrible face it hath a wide mouth and sharpe teeth They have slain thy servants with the edge of the Sword the mouth of the Sword hath devoured them At this day we have great cause to have our hearts deepely affected with this thing There hath been as it were the face of the Sword a great while looking towards us but now there is the very mouth of the Sword gaping at us yea tearing gnawing and devouring the flesh and bones of thousands amongst us Where the Sword comes it will devoure warre is a great judgement one of Gods sore judgements the sorest of all Gods outward judgements David chooseth the pestilence rather then the Sword the pestilence is a devourer but the Sword is a greater devourer And though the Prophet Jeremiah in his Lamentations makes famine a sorer judgement then the Sword Cap. 4.9 They that be slaine with the Sword are better then they that be slaine with hunger Yet the Sword is in this worse then famine because usually it is the cause of famine The Sword cuts off food the support of mans life as well as the life of man While the Sword is making it self fat it hath famine in the belly of it We need not goe to Jeremy or Josephus for the proofe of this in Jerusalems Babylonian or Roman desolations sad Germany bleeding Ireland are neare woefull witnesses and spectacles of it at this day The Sword hath open'd a way for famine to enter both and which of the two hath eaten most flesh is hard to determine Let us cry earnestly to God that the mouth of the Sword may be stopped or continued open only to devoure those who would devoure the man that is more righteous then they Let us pray that bloud may be spared or none but corrupt bloud spilt Spare thy people O Lord It is I confesse one of the saddest prognosticks in my observation against this Nation That God hitherto hath made little difference Our Sword hath not yet been taught from Heaven to distinguish of men Precious bloud hath been drawne and men whose very haires were all numbred that is highly priz'd by God have been numbred among the slaine It must satisfie us that the will of God is so The answer which David gave Joabs messenger is good setling councell now 2 Sam. 11.25 Let not this thing displease thee He speakes this after the fall of noble Vrijah for the sword not by accident but decree not casually but providentially devoureth so and such as the Hebrew elegance hath it one as well as another so we translate It is mercy we are not all consumed by this eater as in the Text yee may reade all the servants of Job were excepting one only one got out of the mouth of the sword it eat up all saving one and hee was saved that by the report of this destructive sword he might destroy Job himselfe And I onely am escaped to tell thee The word in the Originall is double Tantum ego solus ego only I I alone am escaped as if the man should have said between horrour and amazement much adoe I had to get away without loosing somewhat of my selfe I onely single single I got away and escaped The sword was very hungry when but one man of all Jobs servants escaped the teeth of it But how commeth it to passe that this one man escaped Certainely as I said before the hand of Satan was in this also For howsoever the Lord ordered and disposed all these things yet he let Satan worke in his circle in his compasse to contrive things as he pleased himselfe the
worldly comforts and possessions Death is called an uncloathing 2 Cor. 5.4 We that are in this Tabernacle doe groane being burdened not for that we would be uncloathed that is not that we would die Death is called an uncloathing because it pulleth all outward things off from a man it pulleth off all his raiment his riches his lands his honours yea death uncloathes the very bones our flesh weares off quickely in the grave Wee have a usuall phrase among us and it is a very proper one when a rich man dies we say he left a great estate he leaves it indeed for he cannot carry it with him he must goe out naked how well cloathed so ever he was while he was here The Apostle doth more then intimate that some rich men do scarce beleeve this for sound doctrine he speaks as if he would beat them off from some thought of carrying the world with them out of the world while they live they are buried in their riches and when they die they hope their riches will be buried with them yea and rise with them againe Such a conceit I say the Apostle seemes to meet with for in the 1 Tim. 6.7 having said We brought nothing with us into this world he addeth in the next words and it is certaine we can carry nothing out he doth not say we brought nothing into the world and we can carry nothing out as Job here speakes but as if Jobs assertion had come into question in Pauls time he saith we brought nothing into this world and it is certaine never doubt of the truth of it we can carry nothing out we shall goe out as we came-in Many as the Prophet Habbakkuk speakes Chap. 2.6 lade themselves with thick clay But as the question there followes How long This lading must be laid downe againe If riches end not before thee as thine they must end with thee Yet if any would carry riches and cloathing out of the world it will be their wisdome to labour for spirituall riches for spirituall cloathing when such die as they shall not be found naked so they shall not goe out naked All your other cloathing and riches must be left on this side the grave but get spirituall cloathing and riches and you shall goe out of the world adorn'd and enrich'd for ever the cloathing of grace the robe of righteousnesse a vesture of spirituall ornaments will endure to all eternity Thirdly note here further how the Holy Ghost describes the life of man Naked came I into the world and naked shall I returne The life of man it is nothing else but a comming and a returning Here is nothing said of staying or abiding We have here no continuing City while we are here we can hardly be said to continue here and after a few dayes we shall not be here at all It is but a comming and a going it is but a flood and an ebbe and then we are carried into the Ocean of eternity We may yet consider the words as they are an argument and so I shall note two things from them So Job uses them as an argument both to support himselfe and to acquit God Then observe First That a godly man in his straights studieth arguments to acquit and justifie God in all his dealings with him Job could not have found out upon longest study a better or a stronger argument for the acquitting of God then this is I have as much as I brought then what wrong is done me in all this As wicked men when they fall into straits or troubles especially when they fall into sin study arguments how to shift themselves out and lay all the blame upon God as Adam and Eve our first Parents in Paradise there it began when they had sinned and were naked they began to devise shifts how to put it from themselves and to fasten the fault upon God David on the other side labours as much to cleare God if ever he should be stript naked Psa 51.4 I will confesse my sinne that thou mayest be justified when thou speakest and cleare when thou judgest Weigh the reason why David confesseth his sinne in that Psalme I doe it saith he that I may by this meanes acquit God whatsoever God shall doe with me hereafter whatsoever affliction God shall bring upon me men it may be will begin to judge Gâ—d for it and to say that he hath dealt hardly with me notice having been taken what an eminent servant of God I have been Behold saith he I confesse my sinne before thee that thou maist be cleare when thou judgest or as the Apostle Paul quotes the place according to the Septuagint Rom. 3.4 That thou mightest overcome when thou art judged David knew men would be apt to judge God if they saw him afflicted and therefore to stop their mouthes or to give God the day against them he confesses his sin thereby shewing cause why God might chastise him either for correction of sin past or prevention of sin to come Secondly As the argument referreth unto Job himselfe we may observe this That the consideration of what we once were and of what at last we must be may releeve our spirits in the greatest outward afflictions of this life Art thou for the present in a naked condition Consider thou wast naked once and ere long shalt be naked againe Consider the two extreames the beginning and the ending and that will beare thee up in the middle condition There is many a man that complaines and saith I have nothing but the cloathes upon my backe left me and they are but raggs but meane ones neither Why With nothing but the cloathes upon thy backe Know O man thou wast borne with nothing but thy skin upon thy backe Consider this and leave complaining this was one thought which helped Job to beare this burden the want of all And the Apostle Paul useth this argument to the very same purpose 1 Tim. 6.6 having said That godlinesse with contentment is great gaine he subjoynes presently this argument of Job for saith he we brought nothing into this world and it is certaine we shall carry nothing out To consider what not long agoe we were and what very shortly we must be will mightily work the soule to contentation in what estate soever wee are It followes The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away This is the second argument which Job useth to both the former purposes and it is a more spirituall and sublime argument than the former A man who hath nothing in him but nature may say as much as Job did before though he could never say it with Jobs spirit for though godly persons use naturall arguments and common reasons yet being concocted in their spirits they become heavenly and spirituall Naturall men I say or Heathens have taken up such an argument as that as when word was brought to a Heathen Philosopher that his sonne was dead I knew saith he that I
the soule is more worth then a thousand lives What will it advantage a man to gaine the world and loose his soule Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soule The truth is a man should not gaine much to get the whole world and loose his life that losse is a losse irreparable irrecompensible from the creature Nature teacheth us to prize our lives above the world and grace teacheth us to value our soules above our lives Therefore how unnaturall are they that preferre a little profit before their lives but O how ungracious are they who preferre a little profit before their soules Some will sinne as we say for six-pence selling their owne soules as those false Prophets did the soules of their people for hand-fulls of barley and for peeces of bread Ezek. 13.19 And whereas a man should give all for his life they will give their soules for a thing of nought Know therefore the worth of your soules Jesus Christ thought soules worth his life and therefore dyed to save soules How much then doe our soules transcend our owne lives And if Christ laid downe his life to ransome soules doe you rather lay downe a thousand lives if you had them then indanger your soules either by acting sinne or by submitting unto errour In that case let estate goe let liberty goe let life let all goe for life hath not so much preheminence over all as the soule hath over life Fourthly If your lives are worth so much then what is the Gospell worth If a man would give all for his life what should he give for his Religion to maintaine and uphold that in the purity and power of it Life is a precious thing a thing of great value but when the Gospell comes in competition then life is a poore commodity and our breath but a perishing vapour Such was the judgement of that great Apostle Act. 20.24 when the Holy Ghost had witnessed in every City that bonds and afflictions did abide him in preaching the Gospell he thus resolves But none of these things move me neither count I my life deare unto my selfe so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministery which I have received to testifie the Gospell of the grace of God His life came to a low rate in his esteeme how cheape was life when the Gospell was spoken of I count not my life deare saith Paul as all other outward things are meane and low compared with life so life it selfe is a meane a low thing in comparison of the Gospell This life is but the life of the body but the Gospell is the life of the soule Many men live but no soule lives on this side or without the Gospell Now if you will offer much to save your lives will not you offer much more to save the Gospell In and about this we may make the best improvement of Satans argument Skin for skin and all that a man hath should he give for the Gospell for Gospell ordinances for Gospell priviledges for Gospell light Where or for what will you venture and bid high if not for the precious Gospell Lastly If life be worth all then hereby we may take measure of the love and bounty of Christ to poore sinners who not onely spent himselfe in all to his life but spent life and all that they might not perish the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was exceeding great towards us That though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poore 2 Cor. 8.9 That though he was in the forme of God and thought it no robbery to be equall with God yet he made himselfe of no reputation Phil. 2.6 7. But how superabundant was his grace towards us that though he was the Prince of life Act. 3.15 Yet became obedient unto death even the death of the crosse Phil. 2.8 that we might live If a man loves his life so that he will give skin for skin and all that he hath to redeeme it then O how did Christ love his Church who gave not only his riches and his reputation but his life also for it's redemption JOB 2.5 6 7 8. But put forth thine hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face And the Lord said unto Satan Behold he is in thine hand but save his life So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boyles from the sole of his foote unto his crowne And he tooke him a pot-sheard to scrape himselfe withall and he sate downe among the ashes IN this fifth verse Satan goeth on and makes a motion unto God as we observed his method in the former Chapter but put forth thine hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face This is Satans motion In the sixth verse we have a grant of this motion bound up yet with a limitation as it was in the former Chapter For the motion But put forth thine hand now and touch c. What it importeth to put forth the hand that was opened in the former Chapter vers 11. where we have the same expression therefore we shall not stay upon it here Consider now only that which is differing a new object upon which the hand must be put forth and which Satan desireth might now be touched It is the laying of his hand not upon his Cattell or upon his estate or upon his children but upon his flesh and his bone Touch his bone and his flesh that is afflict his body The bone and the flesh are the two chiefe parts the materiall parts of the body of them the whole Fabrique doth consist the bone it is as the timber in this house and the flesh it is as the lime and morter filling of it up Touch this saith Satan And in that he saith touch his bone and his flesh he intends and requires a deepe and a sore affliction upon his body for if he had said only thus Touch his flesh that had beene an affliction upon his body For we know often in Scripture the flesh is put for the whole body and sometimes for the whole man therefore Satan is not satisfied with an expression generall but he putteth it in direct and expresse termes Touch his flesh and his bone that is touch him so as that the paine and the distemper may sinke into his very bones into his very Marrow touch him thus and then you shall see what he will doe The Bone it selfe is a part without feeling yet to touch the bone imports the greatest paine that can be felt Touch his bone and his flesh and then saith he He will curse thee to thy face What it is to curse to the face hath bin opened already in the former Chapter at the eleventh verse and I must referre you thither for the sence of this phrase only in a word take it thus Hee will curse thee to thy face is as if
was forced to goe out as a Leper concerning whom the Law was afterwards you know that they should be put out of the Campe or City and it was a Law grounded upon reason and the common light of nature though it had a spirituall signification as given to the Jewes The Septuagint say expresly he sate upon the dung-hill without the City as Lepers were wont to be according to the Law of Moses and as we see executed in that case of Vzziah the King being a Leper he dwelt in a house by himselfe alone and was cut off from the house of the Lord 2 Chro. 26.21 But that Job sate either without the City or upon a dung-hill is only a conjecture and besides the Text. Which way soever we take it it is a great aggravation of Jobs sorrowes Take it for a necessitated sitting in the ashes abroad it inferres that either he was so poore as that he had not a house to be in or that his disease was so contagious that he could not be endured in the house Or take it for a voluntary act that he did choose to sit in ashes it was an aggravation of his affliction for then it notes that he was in the lowest in the saddest condition that can be imagined sitting in ashes being an embleme of extreame sorrow and never used but in times of greatest calamity publick or personall So that here every circumstance is an aggravation of Jobs affliction He was smitten by Satan and he smote hard enough he smote him and he smote him with boyles he smote him with the most malignant kind of boyles he smote him with such boyles all over from the sole of his feet to his crowne and when he was in this condition he had no Nurse no Chirurgion no Physitian to helpe him he was forced to take a pot-sheard to scrape himselfe he had no soft bed prepared to lye on nor as many have thought house to be in but out of the City or out of his house he must and among the ashes upon the dung-hill Lo there he sits What one said of an exact History of a great Prince That surely it was written rather in theory as a pattern or picture of a Prince then according to the truth of a history So we may say of this description of Jobs troubles That surely it was written rather as a studied pattern of mans sufferings then as an accomplisht History of the sufferings of any man yea who almost can goe so farre in imagination as Job went in reall passion But we will passe from the description of his sorrow to some Observations upon them First Here we see That Satan if he be permitted hath a power suddenly to aflict the body with diseases And that is a power farre transcending all the power that is in man Man is able to wound the body of his brother with a materiall instrument but all the Tyrants in the world cannot smite the body with a disease or command a man into sicknesse Though God should say to them as here to Satan I give you leave yet they must leave that to Satan whose helpe is sometime begg'd by envious wretches who would kill their bretheren without a Sword and vex them unseene Man must have a weapon to smite but Satan can smite and kill without a weapon if God say the word Man can spill the blood but Satan can poison the blood He can infect the humours and taint the spirits more subtilly more speedily then the most skilfull poisoner in Rome We shewed before how suddenly Satan can raise commotions in the ayre stormes and tempests there he can doe the like in our bodies for such are diseases in the body as stormes and tempests in the ayre Stormes make as it were a confusion among the Elements and are the distemper of nature diseases make a confusion among the humours and distemper the constitution and spirits of the body It is said of the woman in Luk. 13.16 that Satan had bound her 28 yeares Observe in that the power Satan hath over the body if God give him liberty to exercise it As cruell men can bind in chaines and cast the body into prison for many yeares so Satan can bind the body with a spirit of infirmity as with a chaine Secondly observe this That health and strength of body are a very great blessing You see Satan desires to try Job by taking away this blessing last and he thought this would make Job curse God you may see the value of it by his desire to destroy it Health is the Prince of earthly blessings We say he lives miserably that lives by medicines who to uphold nature is in the continuall use of art How miserably then doth he live whom art and medicines cannot restore to health who is diseased beyond the help of Physick I might mind you likewise from this to remember what fraile bodies we live in even such as have in them the seeds of all diseases Sin indeed is the seed of sicknesse and of death And hence it is that if the humours of the body be a little stirr'd they quickly turne to a disease and this house of clay is ready to dissolve and fall What is the strength of the body that we should trust it or the beauty of the body that we should be proud of it We see in Job how quickly the strength of it is turned into weakenesse and the beauty of it into blacknesse All flesh is grasse and all the goodlinesse thereof is as the flower of the field The grasse withereth and the flower fadeth Isa 40.6 And here likewise note this you that enjoy health of body whose strength yet continues and your selves are free from the bonds of any bodily infirmity while you heare of one smitten with a disease from the crowne of the head to the sole of the feet consider what a mercy you have who have no paine from the crowne of the head to the sole of the feete who have not an aking joynt nor paine so much as in a finger It is like that many of you can say you have this blessing you doe not know what paine in any one member meanes looke upon a man that knew nothing but paine upon a man that had not one member free and prize your blessing Such likewise who have paine and infirmities in one or two or more parts of the body may see in this spectacle cause to blesse God that they have any part free To have but one or but a few sores is mercy sparing mercy when we behold another nothing but a sore Indeed when one member suffers whether in the body naturall or mysticall all the members suffer with it But compassion is not so heavy a burden as passion is And as the sound members sympathize in sorrow with those that are smitten so they that are smitten sympathize in joy with those that are sound The ease of one part mitigates the disease of
of sleepe sleepe is a short death and death is a long sleepe Many of them that sleepe in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to everlasting contempt Dan. 12.2 Our friend Lazarus sleepeth saith Christ to his Disciples Jâ—h 11.11 but I goe that I may awake him out of sleepe In the 14th verse Jesus said unto them plainely Lazarus is dead Then had I beene at rest We usually say when a man goes to sleepe he goes to rest Yet rest is more then sleepe for sometimes a man sleepes when he doth not rest his very sleepe being troubled and he troubled in his sleepe But when rest is joyned with sleepe it is perfect sleepe The word here used signifies a very quiet setled and peaceable condition Hence Noah had his name And he called his name Noah saying this sonne shall comfort us concerning our worke and toile of our hands because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed Gen. 5.29 He was rest and comfort to the old world by preaching righteousnesse even the righteousnesse which is by faith which alone gives rest unto the soule and is able to refresh us in the midst of all those toyles and labours which that first curse brought upon the world both new and old Such rest and sweet repose had I found saith Job from all my toile in the house of death and bed of the grave Having thus foure words concurring in the same sense we may here not unprofitably take notice of that elegant multiplication of words in the holy Scriptures There store is no soare and variety is no superfluity yea there Tautologie is no superfluity It is the usuall rhetorick of the Holy Ghost to speake the same thing in divers words yea sometime in the same words We find such a congeries or heaping up of words used for the most part in some heate of passion or vehemency of spirit As first when God would expresse a great deale of anger and wrath against a people he speakes thus Isa 14.22 23. I will rise up against them saith the Lord of hostes and cut off from Babylon the name and remnant and sonne and nephew I will also make it a possession for the Bittern and pooles of water and I will sweepe it with the besome of destruction Here are a multitude of words and all tending to the same purpose setting forth the fiercenesse of Gods anger and the resolvednesse of his judgement for the ruining of Babylon The towring confused pride of the King of Babylon is presented to us in such a heape of words Isa 14.13 14. heare the pure language of pride from that Kings heart Thou hast said in thine heart I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my throne above the Starres of God I will sit also upon the mount of the Congregation I will ascend above the heights of the clouds I will be like the most High The manifold apostacies and backslidings of Judah are described in many words by the Prophet Zephanie chap. 1.6 And them that are turned bank from the Lord and those that have not sought the Lord nor enquired for him Chap. 3.2 She obeyed not the voice she received not correction she trusted not in the Lord she drew not neere to her God When our Lord Christ would shew the extreame ignorance and darknesse of his Disciples in those great Articles of his sufferings death and resurrection having taken the twelve unto him and discoursed of those points he concludes Luk. 18.31 34. And they understood none of these things and this saying was hid from them neither knew they the things that were spoken As if Christ had said their ignorance in these mysteries was so great that they had not the least glimpse or glimmerings of light about them So here I should have lien still and been quiet I should have slept and been at rest and all to note the interrupted-quiet and tranquility of the grave As if he had said Had I died then not only had not these stormes been upon me nor these waves gone over me but the least breath of wind had never blowne upon me Hence we may observe First That in regard of all outward troubles death is the rest of man Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours And they who die out of the Lord rest from all that labour they have had in this world There is no worke nor device nor knowledge nor wisedome in the grave whither thou goest Eccles 9.10 This life is a day of working and death is a night of resting The Sunne ariseth man goeth forth to his labour untill the evening Psal 104.23 When the Sunne of our life ariseth we goe forth to our labour untill the evening of death This life is a continued motion death is a continued rest This life is but noise and tumult death is silence Our life is a stormy passage a tempestuous sea-voyage death bringeth us to the harbour There is a foure-fold rest which we obtaine in death First A rest from labour and travaile no working there Secondly There is a rest from trouble and oppression no warres no bloody battels there Thirdly There is a rest from passion no sorrow no griefe shall afflict us there In the grave there is a fourth rest better then all these a rest from sin a rest from the drudgerie of Satan a rest from the winnowings and buffetings of Satan a rest from the law of our members warring against the law of our minds When Saul went to the witch of Endor for advise with Samuel that Samuel or the Devill in the appearance of Samuel speakes as one disturb'd being raised from the grave Why saith he hast thou disquieted me to bring me up 1 Sam. 28.15 I was at rest why diddest thou call me up to a land of trouble It is the observation of an ancient Father and the resolution of an ancient Councell concerning Christs weeping over Lazarus Joh. 11. That not his death but his rising drew those teares When Christ came to the grave where Lazarus lay the Text saith that Jesus wept Why did Christ weepe saith Jerome in comforting a mother that had lost her daughter It is cleare that Christ wept over Lazarus that was dead but he did not weepe thy teares Christ did not weepe because Lazarus was dead but he wept rather because Lazarus was to be raised up againe he wept to thinke that his friend Lazarus should be brought back into so troublesome a world And it was the resolution of the third Toletane Councell that Christ did not weepe over Lazarus because he was dead but because he was to be raised up againe to feele the burdens and afflictions of this life that was their apprehension of it And it is a truth that whosoever lives the common life of nature lives in trouble But such is not the life of him who is raised from the dead The lives of such though here
He lives by that caution Psal 62.10 If riches flow in or encrease yet set not thine heart upon them In the highest flood and spring-tide of worldly prosperity we should keepe our hearts within the channell When riches are encreased into a mountaine and to the eye of nature into a mountaine of rocks yet then doe not set thy heart upon them as upon a foundation so the Hebrew word imports to settle thy contentments All the creatures in Heaven and earth are not strong enough to beare the weight of a mans heart God only can doe that who is the rocke of ages or an everlasting strength Isa 26.3 all besides him is a foundation of sand and so a godly man takes them What nature lookes at as a foundation of rockes that grace sees to be a foundation of sand and therefore will not rest upon it neither indeed can it A godly man in his afflictions is as having nothing and yet possessing all things 2 Cor. 6.10 and in his aboundance he hath all things but possesseth nothing for he so possesses things as if he did not possesse them as the Apostles counsell is 1 Cor. 7.31 He marries as if he married not he weepes as if he wept not he rejoyces as if he rejoyced not he buyes as if he possessed not because the fashion of this world passeth away It was an excellent speech of Luther concerning worldly things I have protested that I will never be satisfied with the creature this is to be a Protestant indeed as well as in truth A godly man is an Epicure in Christ he would never play the Epicure but in Christ and in God In them and towards them he gives his affections their full swing and as a wicked man is said to enlarge his desires after the earth as Hell Hab. 2.5 so he enlarges his desires after Heaven as Heaven and complaines his desires are no larger In the thoughts of Christ he sits downe and would take his fill he saith I am safe in him I am quiet and at rest He saith to his soule soule doest thou see That Christ and doest thou take notice of those promises Thou hast goods layed up in him in them for many yeares yea for eternity soule take thine ease take it fully thou hast riches thou hast an estate that can never be spent soule eate drinke and be merry his blood is drinke indeed and his flesh is meate indeed joy in Christ is joy indeed unspeakeable joy here and fullnesse of joy hereafter In his presence there is fulnesse of joy and at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore Untill the soule pitches thus on Christ it is not in safety much lesse in rest or quiet As the needle in the compasse is in continuall motion till it points towards the North where as it is conceived there are rocks of Load-stone with which it sympathiseth So the soule is in continuall motion untill it points to Christ who we are sure is that living rock with whom all beleevers sympathise and the true Load-stone which attracts all beleevers to him A beleever like Noahs Dove finds no rest all the world over for the feete of his soule untill he returnes to this Arke of safety and salvation And therefore after all his flights and flutterings among the creatures he saith with the Psalmist returne unto thy rest thy Christ O my soule for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee Psal 116.7 Thou hast been abroad in the world and that like a narrow-hearted Master deales niggardly with thee If thou shouldest stay long either in the service of or dependance upon the world the world would starve thee Therefore returne unto thy rest in the Lord for the Lord hath dealt and will yet deale more bountifully with thee O my soule Lastly In that Job saith I was not in safety neither had I rest c. yet trouble came We may observe That the more our hearts are loosened from the creatures the more assurance we may have of enjoying the creatures It is as if Job had said I was not fastned to the world my heart was not engaged to any thing on this side Christ and this was the fairest the most probable way for the continuance of my outward comforts yet trouble came The redditive particle yet supposes somewhat in reason or probability at least that might have carried it another way As when the Prophet Amos reckoning up the judgements of God upon his people speakes to them thus in his Name chap. 4.6 8 9. I have sent you cleanenesse of teeth yet have you not returned unto me I have sent you the pestilence the sword yet have you not returned unto me The yet shewes there was great reason God should expect their returne or that he had done that which in all probability might have caused them to returne when he sent those judgements So here when Job saith I was not in safety c. yet trouble came The yet implies that there was somewhat even in that unquietnesse which gave him hopes of settlement in his outward comforts It seemes to carry such a sense in it as if he had in more words explained himselfe thus Had I dwelt securely and given my selfe up to the contentments of my flesh or trusted in an arme of flesh for safety I should not have wondred at my calamity or thought strange of my trouble But this is a riddle which I cannot yet expound that when my heart was no way set upon my estate my estate should fall That when I rested not in the creature I should meet with such troubles in the creature This is not the manner of God It is not usuall for God to doe thus in his dispensations toward his people and servants It is very rare that he takes their outward comforts from them when they are not taken with their comforts Hence it is as I apprehend that Job putteth it in with a yet trouble came This way of God with me is out of the ordinary course of providence I confesse Mercer a very learned commentator doth not favour this exposition of laying such a weight upon the particle yet and therefore renders the Originall Vau as a bare copulative I was not in safety c And trouble came Yet having the authority of our translation and the frequent use of the word to that sense in other places we may venture upon it yea I thinke it is no venture but a certaine advantage both to the Text and to our selves And I am certaine the position is true though the exposition should not prove so For the truth is troubles are never so neere as when we put them furthest off Nor is the world ever so unsure to us as when we make surest of it God often pulls their comforts from them whose hearts are glued to their comforts As it is said of those in the 1 Thes 5.3 when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction shall come upon
last p. 167. Some tempt the Devill p. 374. Tongue To governe the tongue under great afflictions is a high act of grace p. 298. Touching the estate or person of a man what it signifies p. 127 128. Satans touches are utter ruinings p. 130. Treasure called hidden in two respects p. 447. Troubles To consider what vve were and shortly must be may much strengthen us to beare present troubles p. 202. Troubler To be a troubler of others is the height of sin p. 425. Wicked men are troublers both of themselves and others p. 427. By troubling others they trouble themselves ibid c. They never cease to trouble till they cease to live p. 428. Except in two cases p. 429. Truth Satan will speake truth for his own advantage p. 114. V VZ Land of Uz why so called wher seated p. 22. What manner of people dwelt there page 23. Verse Or meeter those parts of Scripture which are fullest of affection are written in verse p. 334. Visiting of the afflicted how called pure Religion p. 306. Uselessenesse of any creature is the dishonour of that creature p. 363. Uprightnesse Vpright what it is to be upright as upright is distinct from perfect p. 26. Two sorts of uprightnesse p. 27. W WAy of a man what p. 458. Way of man towards God two-fold ibid. How our way is hid from God p. 459. How Gods way is hidden from us p. 460. Weeping and crying out in paine is an ease of paine p. 315. Wicked men are employed as instruments to afflict the godly p. 166 Wife why Jobs wife was spared when all else was lost p. 27◠Wives have a three-fold advantage in perswading with their husbands p. 273. Winds their nature and power p. 170. How sent by God how raised by Satan p. 171. Wishes In what sense we may lawfully wish that had not been which is p. 406. Women Fullest of affections p. 379. Worldly things in their greatest beauty may be blasted in a moment p. 174. The thoughts of great and wise worldly men are only for the world p. 418. The best things of this world may prove burdens to us p 443. Worldly mens hearts fuller of the world then their houses p. 474. They rest fully in wordly contentments ibid. A godly man never sets up his rest in worldly things p. 475. The more our hearts are loosened from the world the more assurance we have to hold the world p. 476· Worldly things the more we trust to them the lesse we receive from them p. 478. Their difference in this from spirituall things ibid. Worship What the postures of it p. 188. Standing sitting walking kneeling falling downe all these are worship postures p. 189. What worship is with the kindes of it p. 190. Divine Worship proper only to God p 191 194. Civill worship may be given men that of two sorts p. 192. God must be worshipped in an humble manner p. 194. A Table of those Scriptures which are occasionally cleared and briefely illustrated in the fore-going Expositions The first number directs to the Chapter the second to the Verse the third to the Page of the Booke GEnesis Chap. Verse Page 1. 2. 357. 1. 22 28. 329. 1. 20 24. 251. 1. 28. 121. 2. 7. 251. 2. 25. 197. 2. 20. 271. 2. 24. 272. 3. 9 11. 86. 3. 5. 108. 3. 19. 120. 3. 17. 329. 3. 14 17. 332. 4. 9. 87. 4. 16. 92. 4. 16. 204. 5. 25. 401. 6. 2. 80 223. 6. 9. 26. 6. 4. 421. 7. 21. 396. 9. 25. 438. 9. 4. 251. 16. 4. 328. 16. 4. 212. 19. 24. 160. 20. 18. 389. 22. 14. 254. 23. 12. 192. 23. 8. 394. 25. 32. 242. 25. 8. 396. 25. 27. 25. 26. 14. 40. 26. 11 19. 127. 29. 15. 105. 29. 31. 389. 31. 29. 256. 34. 23. 116. 35. 2. 53. 37. 34. 180. 38. 21. 73. 38. 29. 119. 39. 7 8. 137. 42. 18. 32. 42. 13. 423. 43. 11. 21. 44. 30 31. 395. 46. 32. 39. 47. 10. 71. 47. 9. 393. 48. 11. 192. 49. 8. 192. 49. 10. 472. 50. 3 10. 318. Exodus Chap. Verse Page 1. 14. 360. 1. 12. 118. 3. 7. 393. 4. 19. 241. 4. 21. 137. 9. 10. 260. 10. 13 19. 171. 14. 13. 121. 14. 15. 88. 15. 11. 99. 18. 11. 70. 19. 20. 53. 20. 3. 464. 20. 12. 327. 20. 16. 301. 21. 11. 106. 28. 38. 216. 28. 30. 216. 32. 6. 70. 33. 12. 98. 33. 19. 60. 33. 23. 142. 40. 38. 358. Leviticus Chap. Verse Page 10. 2. 160. 19. 27. 185. 20. 9. 327. 20. 27. 324. 21. 5. 185. Numbers 6. 12. 336. 11. 31. 171. 35. 12. 357. Deutrenomie 6. 13. 27. 8. 10. 213. 11. 12. 349. 13. 6. 301. 14. 1. 185. 17. 17. 415. 18. 11. 324. 28. 6. 118. 28. 12. 390. 28. 15. 332. 28. 31. 395. 28. 25. 463. 28. 35. 261. 28. 59. 169. 28. 67. 395. 32. 6 21. 287. 32. 42. 157. 34. 8. 318. Joshua Chap. Verse Page 6. 7. 180. 7. 19. 278. Judges Chap. Verse Page 6. 1 7. 137. 9. 15. 355. 20. 18. 178. Ruth 1. 21. 41. 1 Samuel Chap. Verse Page 1. 12. 324. 1. 13. 88. 2. 9. 430. 2. 30. 328. 4. 18. 179. 4. 20. 94. 7. 6. 465. 9. 20. 95. 16. 5. 54. 16. 14. 139. 20. 8. 293. 21. 4. 58. 25. 11. 208. 25. 16. 112. 25. 25. 94. 25. 25. 287. 28. 15. 403. 2 Samuel Chap. Verse Page 1. 21. 333. 1. 11. 180. 3. 31. 180. 7. 14. 250. 10. 4. 184. 11. 25. 158. 12. 9. 56. 12. 7 8. 110. 14. 2. 376. 14. 22. 71. 14. 31. 178. 16. 15. 328. 18. 18. 413. 18. 33. 427. 24. 4. 226. 24. 14. 125 294. 1 Kings Chap. Verse Page 5. 4. 81. 11. 14. 81. 15. 5. 216. 18. 17. 427. 18. 46. 125. 19. 4. 293 449. 21. 5. 230. 21. 13. 73. 21. 25. 101 273. 22. 19. 79. 2 Kings Chap. Verse Page 3. 14. 94. 5. 25. 87. 5. 18. 189. 8. 11. 308. 8. 46. 66. 9. 13. 87. 18. 5. 101. 19. 4. 62 391. 23. 5. 360. 23. 25. 101. 1 Chronicles Chap. Verse Page 21. 1. 154. 29. 14. 208. 2 Chronicles 6. 13. 70. 28. 22. 230. 30. 18 19. 58. 35. 2. 376. Ezra 4. 6. 82. Nehemiah 1. 4. 308. 2. 18. 178. 3. 2. 151. 13. 26. 101. Ester 5. 6. 146. 6. 2. 125. Job Chap. Verse Page 5. 7. 392. 6. 6. 217. 7. 13. 313. 15. 20. 427. 19. 21. 126. 21. 19. 44. 24. 13 16. 373. 30. 23. 304 416. 31. 1. 394. 34. 31. 460. 38. 7. 80 365. 39. 7. 432. 41. 15. 369. 41. 25. 371. 42. 6. 264. Psalmes Psal Verse Page 2. 1. 426. 2. 7. 200. 14. 1. 287. 15. 4. 95. 17. 14. 419 126. 18. 43 44. 195. 22. 9. 389 391. 22. 1 14. 465. 23. 4. 355. 23. 1. 301. 25. 1. 62. 26. 6. 57. 29. 2. 190. 30. 6. 467. 31. 15. 140. 32. 3. 465. 32. 4. 125. 34. 7. 112. 35. 7. 105. 36. 6. 161. 39. 2. 315. 39. 9. 211. 44. 5. 212. 46. 2. 70. 49. 1 2. 435 20. 48. 10. 212.
of life there cannot be any miscarriage in pitching upon either of these Interpretations I shall give you some notes from hence First observe what a blessing life is Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life Life is the most precious treasure the most excellent thing in nature And let me tell you life is the treasure that is now so much digged for there are many abroad that are digging for your precious lives Consider what lyes at stake and what will you give for the securing or reducing of it Have we not cause to say of some of our bloody brethren as Jacob did Gen. 32.12 when his brother Esau was marching towards him I feare him saith he least he will come and slay me and the mother with the children Losse of life was the thing Jacob feared And Hesters speech in her petition to the King imports that all other losses might have been borne but losse of life Cap. 7. ver 3 4. Let my life saith she be given at my Petition and my people at my request for we are sold I and my people to be destroyed to be slaine and to perish But if we had been sold for bond-men and for bond-women I had held my tongue See how she wrought for life for her own life and the life of her people and thought liberty not worth the asking for compared with life Moses made many demurrs and excuses I am not eloquent c. when God gave him Commission to goe into Aegypt but we heare of no delayes at all when once God had said Returne into Egypt for all the men are dead which sought thy life Exod. 4. ver 19. God had not spoken thus if he had not knowne there was such a scruple in his mind which would have galled him worse in his travels to Egypt then any peble in his shoe Secondly If life be the most precious thing the richest jewell in the world then in the next place learne to value your lives You see how Satan values life here out of an ill intent only to extenuate and undervalue all the sufferings of Job he sets his life at a very high rate that he might make all his losses of no rate not worth the speaking off Let our intent be good and then it is good for us to value our lives high and to sell them at as deare a rate as we can if we must sell them You know what Solomon saith in the person of a naturall man A living dog is better then a dead Lion Eccles 9.4 We reade what is said of the woman in the Gospell that had spent all she had upon Physitians What was it for Onely to restore her health which is a degree below life Certainly if she spent all that she had to obtaine health which is onely the comfort of life shall not we spend a part of that we have to save our lives As ships in danger to be wrack'd in a storme are often preserved by casting some of their rich lading into the Sea So it is possible yea probable that the casting away of some of your estates in this great storme may be a meanes to save both your ship and your lives your estates kept may sinke the vessell and then you must sinke with it and certainly die or swim from it and hardly live When Esau Gen. 25.32 was hungry and could not obtaine a messe of pottage from his brother but upon very hard tearmes the sale of his birth-right Sell me thy birth-right saith Jacob a precious jewell indeed which Esau should have valued more then his life but he comes to his price on this ground Behold I am at the point to die and what profit shall this birth-right doe to me He was prophane Esau for saying so that 's the Apostles stile Heb. 12.16 It was profanenesse to preferre one morsell of meat before his birth-right because the birth-right was a spirituall priviledge as well as a naturall but there is no meere naturall blessing but we may both in wisdome and conscience part with to keepe our lives when yee are ready to die yee may say what will this estate these riches doe us good If that your estates may be the price of your lives yee have reason and it is your duty to part with them willingly give some give all for what will these riches do you good when you are ready to die or already dead Further be ready to give more than your estates for your lives Give some of your bloud for your lives that 's more Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life and which is yet more give a limbe for your lives The whole is better then a part And which is highest of all venture your lives to save your lives That which I intend is only this doe not barter away your lives upon meane rates upon low tearmes If it comes to it as wee have great cause to feare it will we see many have been put to it already sell your lives as deare as you can Indeed there are none in so great danger to loose their lives as they that will not venture their lives That of Christ is true in this sense also he that will save his life shall loose it such saving tends to undoing yea it tends to death And whosoever will venture to loose his life shall most probably find it Math. 16.25 Let it not be said that you died to save charges let it not be said that you died to save your skins or to save your bloud yea let it not be said that you died to save your lives I meane that you feared to hazard your lives for the securing of your lives Give all that you have for your lives venture life and all your safety depends upon this hazard by such a noble liberality you are in the fairest way not only to save all you have but to gain more then you have Thirdly If your lives be so much worth what are your soules worth What is this life which is valued thus above all that a man hath The Apostle James makes the question and gives the answer It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Jam. 4.14 a mans breath it is but in his nostrils it is gone presently yet you see in a true value all the world is below that If you are to esteeme your lives so at what price will you set your soules To save your lives and save your soules are two things A man may save his life and yet loose his soule yea many labour to save their lives in doing that which will be the losse of their soules poore creatures Therefore looke to that set a high rate indeed upon your immortal soules when estates and liberties and lives are called for count them all as trash that you may save your soules hazard not your soules If life be more worth then all the world