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
Thou hast made me the head of the Heathen a people vvhom I have not knowne shall serve me As soone as they heare of me they shall obey me the strangers shall submit themselves unto me That of the Apostle will more illustrate this sence who speaking of the great benefit of prophecying in a knowne tongue concludes his Discourse thus If all prophecy and there come in one that beleeveth not or one unlearned he is convinced of all he is judged of all And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest and so falling downe on his face he vvill WORSHIP God and report that God is in you of a truth The worship then is not given to the Church but to God who in such ordinances or other acts of his power and goodnesse is evidently revealed as present in the Church So much for the actions or gestures of Iob what he did He rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell downe upon the ground and worshipped Now we come to his words to that which Iob spake in the two last verses Verse 21. Naked came I out of my mothers wombe and naked shall I returne thither Verse 22. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh blessed be the name of the Lord. Words are or ought to be the Interpreters of the heart and the Comment of our actions This speech of Iob doth indeed interpret his heart and expound the meaning of his former actions This speech I say of Iob is the true Comment of his owne actions for some seeing Iob renting his garments and shaving his head and casting himselfe downe upon the ground they might not know the meaning of all this they could not reade his heart in these strange behaviours they might not understand what his intentions were probably they might judge that he was enraged and madde that he was distracted or drunke with sorrow that he was either desperate or impatient at the report of those losses Therfore now to confute all such surmizes he speaks forth the words of truth and sobernes And by that which he saith sets so fair and true a glosse upon his actions as might then render them not only rationall and ingenuous but holy and gracious in the eyes of all men as they were before in the eyes of God who knew his heart Satan was now like the servants of Benhadad before Ahab watching for words he had done his businesse and now he was trying how it would worke what the event and issue would be he harken'd when some irreverent speech should come from the mouth of Iob he looked presently that he should blaspheme God he could not but smile surely when he saw him renting his garments and shaving his head and falling downe on the ground O now it workes I shall heare him blaspheme and curse God presently He that is thus distempered in the carriage of the other members of his body will not surely be able long to rule that unruly peace his tongue One undutifull or dishonourable word cast upon God would have beene musicke to Satans eare and joy to his heart He would have catch'd it up as nimbly as the men before spoken of did brother Benhadad from the mouth of Ahab But how blanke look'd Satan how was he cloathed with shame at the fall of those words from Iob Naked came I out of c. What David spake concerning the words of his enemies Psal 55.21 Their words were smoother then butter but warre was in their heart they were sweeter then honey and softer then oyle yet were they drawne swords vve may speake of these words of Iob considered in reference to Satan and in reference unto God These words of Iob in reference unto God were as sweet as hony as smooth as butter For this breath had nothing in it but meeknes and patience humility and holinesse in all which God delights but in reference unto Satan they were as drawne Swords as poyson'd arrowes Satan was hardly ever so smitten before as he was by these words of Iob. There is no word in this sentence but gave Satan the lye and refuted all his slander And in the close Iob gives him the deepest stabbe of all It was a dagger at the very heart of the devill when he heard him say Blessed be the name of the Lord. No words could be utter'd upon the longest study more crosse to Satans expectation or more answerable to the former testimony of God and therefore the Lord crownes all both his actions and his speeches with a new testimony In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly So much of Jobs words in generall I shall now examine them distinctly in the parts Some conceive that Job at that time spake out his mind more largely but that the Holy Ghost in the penning of this Story did gather and summe up the strength of all his speech into these two conclusions Naked came I out of my mothers wombe and naked shall I returne thither The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh blessed be the Name of the Lord. We will consider the words a little first in the Grammaticall sense of them and then we will consider the reason of them For here they are used logically as a strong and mighty argument both for the supporting of his owne spirit under those afflictions and for the justifying and acquitting God in so afflicting him Naked came I out of my Mothers wombe c. Naked There is a two-fold nakednesse there is an internall nakednesse and there is an externall nakednesse There is a nakednesse of the soule as well as of the body The nakednesse of the soule is when it is devested of all it 's gracious ornaments and endowments When Job saith Naked came I out of my mothers wombe and naked shall I returne thither it referreth especially to the nakednesse of the body for though it be a truth that Job came naked into the world in regard of his soule yet he knew he should not goe naked out of the world in regard of his soule Seeing then he referreth nakednesse to his going out of the world as well as to his comming in therefore it cannot be here meant of an inward nakednesse his soule came naked in but he knew his soule should go out cloathed Neither can it be meant of a then present spirituall nakednesse for Job was never so richly and gorgeously attired in his soule never appeared in such glorious ornaments of grace as when he was stript of all worldly comforts Therfore the nakednesse here is bodily nakednesse that which Moses speaks of Gen. 2.25 describing our first Parents They were both naked saith he the man and his wife and they were not ashamed Yet that nakednesse and this which Job speakes of though they were both bodily and externall were very different and unlike for that nakednesse of Creation needed no covering nakednesse was then an ornament Man was richly attired when he had no garments The nakednesse of creation
may understand it the reason lyes all in sight That if we receive good from the hand of God we must at least with patience receive evill From this reason in generall Observe That reproofes come then most strongly upon the heart when they are backed with reason Some reprove with rage and not with reason with passion and not with wisedome they reprove with their wit rather then with their spirit Job mixes reason with his passion and gives her an argument as well as a rebuke More particularly from the matter of this reason Observe first That good and evill are both from the hand of God Give me neither poverty nor riches saith Agur Prov. 30.8 both are the gift of God Poverty is Gods guift as well as riches If God doe not give us poverty all the 〈◊〉 will not make us poore I forme the light and create darkenesse 〈◊〉 â—â—ke peace and create evill I the Lord doe all these things 〈◊〉 45.7 The same Prophet teacheth us that these two are equally the pâ—aitve of God and such a prerogative as equally distinguisheth 〈◊〉 from all Idols and false gods Shew the things that are to comâ—â—eafter that we may know that ye are gods yea doe good or doe eâ— that we may be dismayed and behold it together No creatuâ—â— hath ever answered this challenge or ever shall Isa 41.23 Creatures doe good and evill as ministers of Gods will not as masters of their owne Good of every kind and all kinds of poenall evill come forth from God Indeed God usually conveyes these to us by the hand of man but it becomes us to receive them as from the hand of God Much both good and evill comes to us at the second hand but we ought to take it as from the first This truth well wrought upon our hearts will make every good wee enjoy better and every evill wee feele not so bad This latter branch shall be cast into a second Observation Which may be this To looke on evill as coming from the hand of God will quiet the heart in bearing of evill Shall wee receive good at the hand of God and not evill And this in two respects First because of the soveraignty of God he being supreame Lord may doe what he will and his will being the supreame rule of Justice he can doe no wrong This notion of God assures us that whatsoever we receive from the hand of God is just and right hence the inference is naturall If God send evill I must receive it quietly for he sends it justly Secondly because of the assured faithfulnesse and love and goodnesse of God to his even when he sends them which are all he sends this sort of evills As if Job had said any thing is welcome that cometh from one that loves me and hath done me good as God I know doth and hath done often and will doe for ever Will not a man take a nominall evill kindly at his hand from whom he hath received much reall good While we looke only upon creatures and what they doe the burthen of trouble is intollerable but as it cometh from God from a God that loveth us we cannot but receive it in love Afflictions coming from the creature are as the rod of Moses upon the ground a biting a stinging serpent but considered in the hand of God they are as the serpent in the hand of Moses a rod to correct and a staffe to comfort us David we know fled from Saul in feare of his life envious bloody Saul had threatned to kill him In his flight David meetes with his beloved Jonathan and saith unto him 1 Sam. 20.8 Jonathan if there be any iniquity in me slay me thy selfe for why shouldest thou bring me to thy father He would die rather by the hand of Ionathan then by the hand of Saul death from the hand of Ionathan who loved him was sweete whereas from Saul it had bin a bitter cup indeed Take another instance Elijah flyeth from Iezabel 1 King 19.4 and why doth he flie from her She seekes my life saith he to take it away Thoughts of this pressed him so hard that when he came into the wildernesse the text saith hee sate downe under a Juniper tree and requested for himselfe that he might die and said It is enough now O Lord take away my life But Elijah if thou be so willing to die why doest thou flie from Jezabel she would have given thee thy wish presently and satisfied at once her own malice and thy longing I but death from the hand of a Iezabel was his feare not his desire He could welcome it from the hand of God but not from the hand of a spightfull woman But you will say death is from the hand of God though it come by the hand of the creature True but as every good we receive is so much the more sweete by how much the more we see of the hand of God in it and lesse of the creature so every evill is so much the more bitter by how much we see lesse of God and more of man in it If God will take away my life I am pleased but I beg deliverance from the hand of Iezabel He fled for his life for feare of Iezabel but he calleth upon God to die We may exemplifie this in Christ Ioh. 18.11 The cup which my Father hath given me saith he shall I not drinke it It is poculum charitatis a grace cup to poore sinners a cup though bitter in it selfe though mixt with the wrath of God as a judge due to sinners yet temper'd and sweetned with a Fathers love everlastingly assured unto me I cannot but drinke it it cometh from my Father But it may be objected that I lately assign'd it as one reason why Satan spared Jobs wife namely That she who was his neerest friend being made an instrument of his affliction the affliction might be more afflictive and vexatious And David complaines most of a friend that smote him Psal 55. I answer when love turnes to hatred and friendship to unfaithfullnesse when former kisses like that present one of Judas are changed into trecherie this is very wounding and grievous indeed But when God strikes his friends he is their friend still when he afflicts it is in faithfulnesse Psal 119.75 He is good to us when he sends us evill and he sends us evill for our good To be smitten by a friend whose very smiting is friendship and who heales us by wounding cannot be offensive Hence Davids choice Let us fall now into the hands of the Lord for his mercies are great and not into the hand of man 1 Sam. 24.14 Hence a third Observation from the strength of the argument and reason may be thus framed To consider that all the good we have descends from God makes it both reasonable and equitable that wee should beare evill quietly when he is pleased to send it Shall we receive good and not evill saith he It is