object cannot be immoderate but in temperals they quickly may and therefore as to them our moderation should be known to all men Yet if God give in abundance of temporals in the lawfull exercise of our callings we may warraÌ„tably enjoy it as a blessing from him The providence of God doth often bound us to a little and we ought to be contented with the least portion of outward things with bare food rayment but the word of God doth not bound us to a little nor doth it say it is unlawfull to have much And as it is not unlawfull to have much of the world so it is a great exercise and tryall of our Graces to have much As there are some Graces of a Christian which come not to tryall till we are in want so there are other Graces which come not to tryall unlesse we have aboundance Want tryeth our patience and our dependance upon God for a supply of what we have not and aboundance tryeth our temperance our humility our liberality yea and our dependance upon and faith in God for the sanctifying blessing and making of that comfortable to us which we have When a rich man seeth an emptines in his aboundance without the enjoyments of God in it he exerciseth as high a grace and sheweth as heavenly a frame of mind as that poore man doth who seeth and enjoyeth a fullnes in God in the midst of all his emptines And therefore Paul puts both these alike upon a divine teaching Phil. 4.12 In all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need And had it been unlawfull to enjoy plenty Eliphaz had never pressed Job to repentance by this motive The Almighty shall be thy defence and thou shalt have plenty of silver JOB CHAP. 22. Vers 26 27. For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty and shalt lift up thy face unto God Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him and â—e shall heare thee and thou shall pay thy Vowes IT hath been shewed from the former context how Eliphaz encouraged yea provoked Job to repentance and returning to God by the proposall of many promises by promises of outward and temporall mercies gold silver and protection He might have what he pleased of God for the comforts of this life if his life were once pleasing unto God In this latter part of the Chapter he riseth higher and proposeth spirituall promises And he begins with the best of spirituall promises the free injoyment of God himselfe Vers 26. For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty c. As if Eliphas had said If thou dost indeed repent and turne from sin thy conscience which now troubles yea torments thee shall have sweete peace in God and thou who now grovellest with thy eyes downe to the ground by reason of thy pressing guilt and misery shalt then with confidence lift up thy face unto God in prayer and thou shalt finde God so ready at hand with an answer that thou shalt see cause chearefully to performe thy Vowes which thou madest to him in the day of trouble That 's the generall scope of this latter part of the Chapter I shall now proceed to explicate the particulars For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Allmighty The first word implyeth a reason of what he had said before Having spoken of temporall promises he confirmes his interest in them by assuring him of spirituall for then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty As if he had said God will not deny thee outward comforts in the creature seing he intends to give thee the highest comforts even delight in himselfe 'T is an argument like that of the Apostle Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his owne Sonne but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things Thus Eliphaz seemes to argue seeing God will give thee himselfe to rejoyce in or to rejoyce in himselfe how can he deny thee gold and silver with those other conveniencies which concerne this life these being indeed as nothing in comparison of himselfe Then shalt thou delight c. Then that is when thou returnest to God and not till then then thou mayest expect to receive much sweetnesse from him such sweetnesse as thy soule never tasted or experienced to this day Then shalt thou have thy delight The word signifies to delight or take contentment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delectatus fuit coâ—pore vel animo Sonai etiam aliquâ—d delicatum â—oâ—â—e whether it be outward contentment or inward contentment the delight of the body or the delight of the minde And so an universall delight thy whole delight shall be in the Lord. Moses Deut. 28.56 describes those women by this word who were made up of delight Thy tender and delicate woman that is such as are so delicate that they are the delight of all who behold them or who are themselves altogether devoted to their delights who as the Apostle Paul speaks of the wanton widdow 1 Tim. 5. live in pleasure These are threatned with such calamities as should render their very lives a paine to them The word is used againe Isa 58.13 14. where the Prophet speaks of keeping the Sabboth If thou turne away thy foote from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight what then then shalt thou delight thy selfe in the Lord thou shalt have curious delight all manner of delight in the Lord if thou call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him if thou hast a delight in duty thou shalt have the delight of reward Thus Eliphaz then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty And 't is considerable that he doth not say thou shalt have thy delight in the mercifull or gracious God but in the Allmighty in him thou shalt have thy delight whose power is over all and who is able to doe whatsoever pleaseth him Even the power and allmightinesse of the Lord shall be as pleasant to thee as his mercy and loving kindnesse Further delight in the generall nature of it consists in these two things First In the suitablenesse and conveniency of the object and the faculty whether sensitive or intellective Secondly It consists in the reflection and application of the faculty upon the object So that to delight our selves in the Allmighty hath these two things in it First A suitablenesse in our soules to the Lord. Secondly The soules reflecting upon the Lord as good and gratious unto us This reflect act breeds and brings in delight and works the heart to an unspeakeable joy in God By this last and highest act of faith we take in the sweetnesse of the Almighty and delight our selves in him mightily This faith doth not onely suck the promises wherein the love of God is evidenced to us but is it selfe an evidence of the love of God to
he further explaines in the next words Vers 3. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous Or is it any gaine to him that thou makest thy way perfect In the former Verse Eliphaz denyed in generall that God receiveth any benefit from man In this third Verse he speaks the same thing but somewhat more distinctly denying first that he receives any pleasure which might add to his blessednesse or secondly any gaine which might add to his abundance Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous Is it any gaine to him that thou makest thy way perfect As if he had said Is the blessednesse of God encreased by thy righteousnesse Or doth the perfection of thy wayes augment his treasure Is he either the happier or the richer by any thing thou art or canst doe That 's the scope and sence of the words in generall Is it any pleasure The word which we Translate Pleasure signifies the will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Notat voluntatem cum complacentia vel acquiescentia and because it is so great a pleasure unto man to have his wil therefore the same wâ—rd signifieth both pleasure and the will So the word is used Psal 1.2 Blessed is the man whose delight is in the Law of God that is whose will is there or who takes pleasure in the Law of God his will being resolved into the will of God Then we take pleasure and delight in a thing when we conforme to it or close with it The judgment of God is so expressed upon Coniah Jer. 22.28 Is this man Coniah a despised broken Idol Vas in quo non est voluntas Is he a vessel wherein there is no pleasure A Vessel for the lowest use as 't is interpreted ver 21. A vessel in which there is no complacency it is onely for necessity So the word is taken also Prov. 3.15 He is more precious then Rubies all the things thou canst desire or have pleasure in are not to be compared to him And againe Isa 58.13 If thou forbeare to do thy pleasure upon mine holy day What is the pleasure of a carnal man upon the Sabboth upon the holy day of God It is to doe his own will and not the will of God If thou forbear to doe thine own pleasure that is thine own will upon my holy day Thus here Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Sept. The Septuagint Translate somewhat differently What cares the Almighty if thou art unblameable in thy wayes Thus a man usually speaks of that wherein he hath no pleasure What care I for it Is it any pleasure c. That thou art righteous Righteousnesse is two-fold First of Justification so some understand it here Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art justified Or secondly there is a righteousnesse in Conversation so most understand it here Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art holy Which is the same with the latter clause of the Text That thou makest thy way perfect Further the word signifies to plead our own justice as wel as to have a justice or righteousnesse of our own And thus it may be Expounded in this place An oblectationi est omnipotenti quod justificas te Jun. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous that is that Thou dost justifie thy self or as Mr. Broughton pleadest justice Dost thou justifie thy selfe or stand upon thine owne integrity and then think to please God Se justificare non tam est justum esse quam contendere conari adversus calumnias scelera sibi objecta ex ratione coram judice respondere or to carry the day against man upon those tearms Is it any pleasure to the Almighty That word fully hits the design of Eliphaz it signifies both Almighty and All-sufficient one that hath all in his own compaâ—â— that needs not goe out of himselfe to fetch in any supplies or aid from abroad He is self-sufficient and he hath a sufficiency for all others Is it any pleasure to this Almighty one that thou dost thus justifie thy selfe Or is it any gaine to him that thou makest thy way perfect As it is no pleasure so no gaine The second Verse before opened clears the mind of this clause What there he calleth profit is here called gaine in different words And the word here used is rendred indifferently both gaine and profit Gen. 37.26 When Joseph was cast into the pit Judah said What profit is it to slay our Brother let us sell him let us make gaine of him that way slaying him wil be no profit to us And as it signifies gain so covetousnes the reason is because covetousnes hath gaine for its object covetousnesse provokes men to seek gain Jethro Exod. 18.21 gives councel that Magistrates should be Men fearing God and hating covetousnesse or hating gaine that is not onely all covetous practices but inordinate desires of gaine for these lead into unlawful wayes of gaine even to the perverting of Justice Is it any gaine to him that thou makest thy way perfect That is thy life thy conversation thy course what though thou strivest after the highest attainments of grace the purest purity of life is this any gaine to the Lord The Septuagint render That thou makest thy way simple The simple sincere plain way is the perfect way The perfection of our way is the simplicity sincerity and uprightnesse of it Another reads Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thy way is undefiled Or cleane that thou doest sweep and wash thy way so that there is no spot to be seen upon it Psal 119.1 Blessed are the undefiled or perfect in the way The severall parts of this Psalm begin with a new Letter Alphabetarius est hic Psalmus ostendens parvulos ab ipsis statim elementis pueritia infarmandos esse ad pietatem Hilar. according to the order of the Hebrew Alphabet intimating that it ought to be learned even of Children as one of the Ancients infers from it The undefiled in the way are such properly as have been holy or pure from their youth such as did never corrupt their wayes Timothy is said from a Child to learn the Scriptures Suppose thy way thus perfect that none could tax thee with any grosse sin even from thy Child-hood could this be any gaine to the Almighty There is yet another Translation Aut an lucro quod integras asseris vias tuas Iun. which implyeth not only the study of holinesse but a boasting in holinesse Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou doest justifie thy selfe Or is it any gaine to him that thou dost affirm thy wayes are perfect So it fals in with the third rendring of the former clause For the understanding and further clearing of these words I shall draw them forth into distinct Propositions
which will be as so many Observations from the Text. It may seem a very Paradox to assert that it is no pleasure to the Almighty that a man makes his way perfect therefore take the sense first in three Affirmative Propositions and then in three that are Negative First The Lord hath pleasure in us as we are righteous in Christ Yea he loves to hear us boast of this righteousnesse and glory in it and the more we doe so the more pleasure he taketh in it Isa 45.25 Surely shall one say in the Lord have I righteousnes even to him shall men come c. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory The seed of Israel are righteous in the Lord and glory in that righteousnesse yea the Lord is pleased to hear them glorying in that righteousnesse for that 's the righteousnesse of his Son in whom he is well pleased Mat. 3. â—7 And because the Church is cloathed with this righteousnesse therefore she is called The Lords delight Isai 62.4 Thou shalt no more be called forsaken neither shall thy Land any more be termed desolate but thou shalt be called Hephzibah thy land Beulah for the Lord delighteth in thee Thou shalt be called my delight or my pleasure is in her The word of the Text the Lords pleasure is in the Church and therefore the Lords pleasure is in the Church becaus the Church is adorned and beautified with the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ this is it which causeth the Lord to call his Church Hephzibah My pleasure is in her When Eliphaz enquireth Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous We may answer the Lord hath pleasure in this righteousnesse and as he tels the Church so every perticular Believer his delight and pleasure is in him Secondly God takes pleasure also in us as we are righteous in Conversation David Psal 147.10 11. gives a clear proof of it both in the negative and in the affirmative The Lord delighteth not in the strength of a Horse he taketh not pleasure in the leggs of a man The Lords delight is neither in Horses nor in men neither in their strength nor in their beauty wherein is the Lords pleasure then The next words shew us where He takes pleasure in them that feare him and hope in his mercy This Scripture seems to speak directly contrary to Eliphaz in Job he saith Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous But David saith The Lord takes pleasure in those that feare him therefore we must not understand Eliphaz in this sense as if the Lord had no delight or contentment at all in the holinesse of his people as if it were all one to him whether they are holy or unholy There is a Generation who say that all actions are alike and that it is all one before God whether men be righteous or unrighteous whether they doe good or evil wo to them that understand this Scripture in such a corrupt sense for the Lord doth not onely hate iniquity but he is Of purer eyes then to behold any iniquity He hath no pleasure either in unrighteousnesse or in the unrighteous but both righteousnesse and the righteous are his pleasure There are three things which I shall touch for the confirmation of it First the Lord cannot but take pleasure in his own Image Now that righteousnesse which is implanted in us and put forth by us the righteousnesse of our natures and of our actions as we are regenerate is nothing else but the Image of God renewed upon us Seeing then God cannot but take pleasure in his own Image therefore it is a wickednesse to think that God takes no pleasure in a righteous man or in his righteousnesse Secondly as this righteousnesse is the image of God in us so it is the very workmanship of God upon us Ephes 2.10 For we are his workmanship we are so not only first in our naturall capacity as we are men and secondly in our civil capacity as such or such men high or low rich or poor but also which is the thing intended by the Apostle in our spiritual capacity as Saints Thus we are the workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them The same Apostle saith againe He that hath wrought us for this selfe same thing is God 2 Cor. 5.5 Is it possible that God should have no pleasure in his own works We read in the first of Genesis that when he had made the world the Lord saw all that he had made and behold it was very good God hath an All-seeing eye he alwayes beholdeth all things but when 't is said he saw all that he had made this imports a special act of God after the manner of men who strictly view and behold what they have done delighting in it Thus the Lord saw all that he had made he as it were came to view his own work he saw and behold it was very good he took pleasure in it Now if God took pleasure in that structure and fabrick of the world the first Creation how much more doth he take pleasure in that holinesse which he hath wrought in the hearts of his people which is a second creation and that 's a more curious and noble structure then this visible world is The new Creation is more excellent then the old Therfore the Lord cannot but delight in a righteous person for he is his workmanship What Job Ch. 14.15 assures himselfe of is most true in this respect Thou wilt have a desire to the worke of thine hands Job speaks there of his outward man my body he means was made by thee 't is the work of thy hands and thou wilt fetch it back again thou wilt redeem it from the dust Whatsoever hath the workmanship of God upon it he hath pleasure in it as it is his work and a speciall pleasure in that which as any work of Grace is is his speciall work Thirdly this Consideration shews that the Lord must take pleasure in a righteous person because he bears the form of his will revealed in his word Holinesse is our conformity to the will of God Now the Lord cannot but take pleasure in those who conforme to his will Samuel tels Saul 1 Sam. 15.22 and there he useth this word in the Text Hath the Lord as great delight in Burnt-offrings and sacrifices as in obeying the voyce of the Lord God gave thee a word a Command to which he expected thy conformity but thou hast thought to please the Lord with Sacrifices which he commanded thee not this was thy mistake and thy folly We honour God when we do his will surely then he must needs take pleasure in those that doe it Man takes pleasure when he can have his will though it be a corrupt and sinfull will fulfilled It cannot but be a pleasure to God when his holy will is
and as a hater of wickednesse He reproves man because he hath sinned against him not because he is afraid of him as Eliphaz shews in the words which follow JOB CHAP. 22. 5 6 7 8 9. Is not thy wickednesse great and thine iniquity infinite For thou hast taken a pledge of thy Brother for nought and stripped the naked of their clothing Thou hast not given water to the weary to drinke and thou hast with holden bread from the hungry But as for the mighty man he had the earth and the honourable man dwelt in it Thou hast sent widdows away empty and the arms of the fatherlesse have been broken IN this Context Eliphaz intends to shew the true reason why God reproved Job and entred into judgment with him it was not as was sayd at the 4th Verse either because God was afraid of him or because he feared God but it was for his wickednesse as Eliphaz though mistaken concluded against him as if he had said God doth not punish thee because he is afraid of thee but because he loveth justice and hateth iniquity Is not thy wickednesse great and thine iniquity infinite That 's the scope of these words which we may fitly call Job's Indictment and this Indictment is laid down first in general words vers 5. Is not thy wickednesse great and thine iniquity infinite And here Job is not charged with wickednesse and iniquity barely but under a two-fold aggravation 1. Great 2. Infinite Secondly We have his Indictment drawn on t into particular Charges or a spefication of some notorious sins given against him in the Verses following This particular Charge consists of two heads First Sinnes against man Secondly Sinnes against God His supposed sinnes against man contained in the words now read are of two sorts First Sinnes of commission or of the evill which he had done Secondly Sinnes of omission or of the good that he had not done The evill which he chargeth him to have done is twofold first an act of injustice taking a pledge in the sixt verse secondly an act of uncharitablenesse stripping the naked in the same verse Both which evills or miscarriages towards the honest poore are aggravated ver 8th by his undue connivence at the wicked rich as he was too severe against the poore so he was over-favourable towards the great and mighty But as for the mighty man he had the earth and the honourable man be dwelt in it as if he had said Thou didst never set thy selfe to doe justice upon the great ones be they and doe they what they will they have the earth thou didst never put forth or exercise thy power to suppresse and oppose their insolencies thy edge was turned only against inferior ones Thou tookest a pledge from the poore and hast stripped the naked of their cloathing His sinnes of omission are expressed in the 7th verse Thou hast not given water to the weary thou hast withholden bread from the hungry and in the 9th verse Thou hast sent widdows away empty and the armes of the fatherlesse have been broken Which may be either taken thus Thou hast broken their armes or thou hast not given thy helpe and assistance to restore and releive them when broken Thus we have a light into the meaning of these five verses as they are a charge of sinne upon Job Vers 5. Is not thy wickednesse great The question may be taken two wayes either conjecturally and doubtingly or assertively and affirmingly Usually in Scripture such questions are resolved into assertions and so divers Interpreters resolve this here Is not thy wickednesse great That is I conclude against thee that thy wickednesse is great and that thy iniquities are infinite so Mr Broughton renders Doubtlesse thy evill is great Others conceive it more cleare to the minde of the Text that this question should be interpreted conjecturally Non tam haec ei ex professo obijcit quam cogitandum ei relinquit num haec fecerit Merc. Is not thy wickednesse great That is may we not suppose that thy wickednesse is great may we not from at least probable grounds thinke thus of thee And that First from the generall state of man by nature mans heart being sinfull he may sinne and sinne as it were without bounds greatly There is no man sayth Solomon 1 Kings 8. 46. that liveth and sinneth not Solomon puts it as a parenthesis in his prayer but it is such a parenthesis as hoocks in all man kinde it takes all in Who is there that sinneth not so Pro. 20.9 Who can say I am cleane from my sinne Now upon this generall ground Eliphaz might suppose Is not thy wickednesse great All men have this in their nature and hast not thou made improvement of it in thy life All men being sinfull by nature art not thou extreamely sinfull in practise Againe He might make the supposition upon this ground his present condition or his affliction thou art greatly afflicted thy afflictions are not of an ordinary sise or measure therefore is not thy wickednesse great and thine iniquity beyond the ordinary measure Upon this common rule he might suppose his sin very great for usually God doth proportion and measure out punishments by our sinnes Thy sufferings are very great therefore are not thy sinnes great too Thus he might speake conjecturally upon both these considerations And yet if we consider how positively he speaks of particulars at the 6th and 7th verses c Thou hast taken a pledge of thy brother for nought and stripped the naked of their cloathing c. He gives us but too much ground to thinke that he did more then barely conjecture while he sayd Is not thy wickednesse great The word which we render wickednesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 malum tuū vox Hebraea pertinet ad improbitatē quandam impudentiam contra jus aequum omnia conculcantem is by some specially expounded of that wickednesse which hath a kinde of impudence in it and which doth not onely breake transgresse or step over the Law but spurns against it every man that sinneth steppeth over the Law over the line but there are some that kicke at it some who trample upon it yea they would destroy it so some highten the emphasis of the word Againe the word is rendred by others as signifying the evill of punishment in this part of the verse and not the evill of sinne Is not thy affliction great therefore thy iniquity is infinite Malitia in sacris interdū est afflictio aerumna vexatio pro malo paenae non culpae accipit Rab Lev The Greeke word Matth. 6.34 answers this Sufficient to the day is the evill thereof that is the trouble and the sorrow of it Amos 3.6 Is there any evill in the Citie which the Lord hath not done So here Is not thy evill great thy evill of punishment therefore thy iniquity is infinite But I rather fix it upon the former though the word sometimes
numberless of our sins There is an Arithmeticall as well as a Geometricall infinity in sin Thus the Septuagint as was sayd before render the Text Are not thine iniquities innumerable That hath a kinde of infinity which cannot be numbred but cannot our sinnes be numbred are they infinite in number I answer sinnes may be considered two wayes first in their species and kinds secondly in their acts if we consider sinnes in their species and kinds so they are not innumerable for it is possible to number up all the severall heads divisions and kinds of sinne but if we consider sin in reference to acts so every mans sins are innumerable yet this innumerablenes of sins in reference to acts may be considered either absolutely or as to us The acts of sin are not absolutely or in themselves innumerable but as to us they are innumerable they are more then any man can number John sayth Rev. 7.9 After this I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could number besides those that were sealed of every Tribe of all Nations and kindreds c. This great multitude was not in it selfe without number but as to mans arithmeticke it was no man could number it The haires of our head and the sands of the Sea are numerable to God but to us innumerable David Psal 40.12 speakes first of innumerable evills and then of innumerable sinnes innumerable evills compasse me about mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to looke up they are more then the haires of my head therefore my heart faileth me when he sayth they are more then the haires of my head his meaning is they are innumerable I can no more tell the summe of my sinnes then the summe of my hayres Christ to assure his Disciples in time of their afflictions and sufferings that he will take care of them tells them The very hayres of your head are all numbred Mat. 10.30 As if he had sayd seing God taketh care of those inconsiderable not parts but excrements of the body surely then he will take care of those more noble parts of your bodies and most of all of that most noble part of you which is your all your soules The hayres of our heads are innumerable to us but God numbers them The sins of our hearts and lives are all numbred by God Thou tellest my wandrings sayth holy David Psal 56.8 he meanes it of his wandrings by persecution and 't is as true of his wandrings by transgression But what man knowes the errors or wandrings eyther of his heart or life Psal 19.12 He that hath fewest sins hath more then he can number and therefore every mans sins are to him in number infinite Fourthly Iniquities may he called infinite in reference to the will or the spirit of him that committeth those iniquities those sinnes are without bounds to which man would never set a bound The natural man would never end sinning therefore his sins are without end or infinite The Prophet Jer. 13.27 speakes reproveingly to that people in the name of the Lord I have seene thine adulteries and thy neighings the lewdnesse of thy whoredome and thine abominations on the hills in the feilds wo unto thee O Jerusalem wilt thou not be made cleane when shall it once be As if be had said O Jerusalem thou hast no will to be made cleane or thou wouldest never be cleane if thou mightest have thy will When shall it once be The time is yet to come when thou wouldest have it to be so thou hast a mind to pollute thy selfe still but no minde to wash thy selfe from thy pollution The sins of a person or people are then infinite or without end when they discover that they have no minde to leave sinning A godly mans desires to doe good are infinite and so are the desires of a wicked man to doe evill This Prophet had spoken to Jerusalem in the same language Chap. 4.14 How long shall vaine thoughts lodge in thee when wilt thou be weary of these lodgers when wilt thou bid these guests be gone whom thou hast thus long bid welcome The Church of God doth sometimes suffer evill to lodge very long in her even in the middest of her as it were at her very heart but the world lodgeth or lieth continually in evill 1 Joh. 5.19 and there as it is the world it will lie for ever soakt and steept in evill Some give this as one reason to justifie the infinitnesse or everlastingnesse of the punishment that is laid upon impenitent sinners in hell The damned are under endlesse sufferings because they would have sinned without end Vellet sine fine vivere ut posset sine fine peccare Greg. A wicked man would live long yea he would have no end of his life here he would live ever that he might sinne ever therefore the Lord giveth him a life not such a one as he would have but such a one as he deserves to have which is indeed a death for ever They dye eternally for sin who would have lived eternally in sin Take a Scripture or two more to illustrate this way of the infinity of mans sinne Jer. 8.5 Why is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetuall back-sliding they hold fast deceite they refuse to returne Here are three phrases noting this one thing First They hold fast deceit secondly They refused to returne thirdly Their's was a perpetuall back-sliding or as some reade it an eternall rebellion an obstinate rebellion a strong and mighty rebellion the Seventy call it an impudent shamelesse rebellion all these are proper Epithites of that obstinacy and setlednesse of resolution which is in the heart of man by nature to continue in sinne yet there is a further rendering of the words which as the Originall will beare so it hath an elegancy in it Why is this people of Jerusalem slidden backe by a conquering or a prevailing back-sliding A perpetuall back-sliding hath conquest or triumph attributed to it upon a twofold consideration first in reference to other sinnes finall obstinacy or impenitency lifts up its head above all other sinnes and sits as King among them impenitency under any sin committed is greater then the sin committed not to repent of the evill we have done is worse then the evill which we doe Impenitency seales the soule under condemnation Repentance conquers sin but impenitency is the conquering sin Secondly 't is called a triumphing or conquering sinne because it seemes as it were to carry the day against the mercy and goodnesse of God that 's a sad conquest indeed not that any sinne no nor impenitency for sinne exceeds the mercy and goodnesse of God for his thoughts of mercy are as high above our acts of sin as they are above our thoughts of his mercy that is as high as the heaven is in comparison of the earth Isa 55.9 But the mercy of the Lord is said to be overcome by perpetuall backslidings
fatherlesse when extreamely needing the helpe eyther of God or man And so the word widow must be understood Rev. 18.7 where Babylon boasteth I sit as a Queene and am no widow that is I am neither friendlesse nor helplesse or as the next words seeme to expound it I shall see no sorrow which is usually the widows portion Thus in the Text by the widow and the fatherlesse wee must understand not onely those who are formally so but all in affliction who are equivalently so The armes of the fatherlesse have been broken In the former part of the verse he saith Thou hast sent the widow away empty charging the sinne personally upon Job here he onely sayth The armes of the fatherlesse have been broken As if he did not place the fault directly upon him yet some translate it so Thou hast broken the armes of the fatherlesse making it Jobs act However our rendring layes fault enough upon him and leaves him in particular without excuse while it speaks onely in gâ—nerall The armes of the fatherlesse have been broken For it is as if he had said thou hast permitted their armes to be broken And if he should object what if the armes of the fatherless have been broken what is that to mee Yes you being in place and power and having strength in your owne hands to preserve the fatherlesse if the armes of the fatherlesse have been broken the sinne must lye at your doore Every man is guiltie of all the evill which he hath power and a call to hinder and doth not hinder The armes of the fatherlesse Armes may be taken either properly or figuratively The arme properly is a noble and most usefull Limbe of the body we are not to understand it so here as if he had broken the naturall armes of their bodyes A mans arme is broken when his power is broken though his skin be not so much as touc ht So then Per brachia robur divitiae facultates quae Orphano pro brachijs manibus esse possunt intelliguntur By the armes of the fatherlesse wee are to understand whatsoever is the strength or makes for the defence of the fatherlesse The arme as was toucht in the former verse is put for strength because the arme hath much strength and activity in it for the defence and use of the whole body The estate the friends the kindred all the meanes helpes and ayds which are subservient to the good and protection of the fatherlesse are by a figure called the Armes of the fatherlesse These armes saith Eliphaz Have been broken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confringere contundere The word notes an utter breaking a breaking to pieces To break as a thing is broken in a Morter with a pestle This breaking may be also considered two wayes 1 Non subveniendo 2 Detinendo substantiam ipsis a parentibus relictam either as done by a positive act or by a negative act that is by withholding that helpe which might preserve them from breaking The armes of the fatherlesse are broken by denying them protection as well as by exercising oppression upon them Thus wee see what a bill of inditement is here drawne up against Jâ—b how he is charged with crimes which are not onely against the light of Scripture but even against the very light of nature even with those crimes which his hand was farre from and his heart further from with those crimes which he did not onely forbeare to practice but which his soule did abhorre Hence observe That the most innocent persons are often charged with the foulest and sinfullest crimes Job was so cleare in his owne conscience from this accusation that he not onely professeth openly that he never did but imprecates a like vengeance upon himselfe if ever he had done it Chap. 31.21 If I have lift up my hands against the fatherlesse when I saw my helpe in the gate that is when by reason of my great power and authority in the place of judgement I could easily enough have done it no man daring to oppose or hinder mee but all rather being ready to countenance and assist me in it if I say when I had these advantages over the fatherlesse I did ever breake their armes then let mine arme fall from my shoulder blade and mine arme be broken from the bone As if he had said if I have done this thing let a divine and visible retaliation poynt me out for the man let all the world see and reade my sinne in my punishment and my injustice against man in the most discernable judgements of God upon my selfe Thus free and innocent was Job and yet thus accused And indeed if to accuse were enough there is no man in the world could be innocent or free Who is there of so unspotted a conversation that may not be spotted with accusation who while his conscience is pure may not have much dirt cast in his face Secondly Eliphaz accuses Job of all this not because he knew it to be so but because he thought it was so Whence note which hath formerly been toucht at That to charge any man upon surmise with things that wee cannot prove is a high breach not onely of charity but of justice The Lord reproves Jobs three friends in the last Chapter of this Booke because they had not spoken of him the thing that was right and as they had not spoken the thing that was right of God so not of Job They pitcht upon no reason why they condemned him so much but onely because he indured so much They concluded him a man of sinne because he was a man of sorrow The Apostle gives us the true genius of charity 1 Cor. 13.3 4. Charity beleeveth all things not that charity is so credulous as to take up every thing for truth which is scattered by any common and ungrounded report that 's no commendation in any man much lesse is it the commendation of a godly man therefore when the Apostle saith Charity beleeveth all things the meaning is Charity interprets every thing in the best sence which it will beare and makes the fayrest construction which every mans case and condition will admit And againe at the 5th verse Charity thinkes no evill that is it thinkes no evill of others As a godly man will not maintaine evill thoughts or suffer them to lodge within him in reference to any sinne which himselfe is tempted to commit So a charitable man will not maintaine or Iodge evill thoughts of others in reference to any sinne which he can onely suppose that they have committed Againe as charity thinkes no evill that is it doth not plot evill against others so thinkes no evill by a rash surmising it of others Thus charity beleeves all 's well and thinkes no evill How uncharitable then are they yea how unjust who beleeve all 's ill where they know of none and thinke the worst of them in whom they never saw any thing but what was
Church Lest saith he such a one should be swallowed up with over-much sorrow Sorrow of any sort even sorrow for sinne may possibly have an excesse or an over-muchnes in it and when ever it hath so beyond the end for which it serves for sorrow is not of any worth in it selfe but as it serves to a spirituall end When I say sorrow hath such an excesse then not onely the comforts but the gifts and usefullnes of the person sorrowing are in danger to be swallowed up by it Secondly Water doth not onely swallow up but enter in while it covereth the body it fills the bowells Thus affliction like water fills within as well as covers without David complaines that his afflâ—ctions did so Psal 69.1 Save me O God for the waters are come in unto my soule Not onely have these waters sweld over mee but they are soakt into mee Inward or soule-afflictions as well as outward and bodyly afflictions are set forth by waters Psal 109.18 As he cloathed himselfe with cursing like as with his garment so let it come into his bowells or within him like water and like oyle into his bones Liquids penetrate so doe afflictions Thirdly As the water is not mans proper Element hee lives and breathe in the ayre not in the water So affliction is not our proper Element though it be due to our sinne yet it is not proper to our nature Man was not made to live in affliction as the fish was made to live in the water and therefore as it is said The Lord doth not willingly afflict nor grieve the Children of men Lam. 3.33 'T is as it were besides the nature of God when he afflicts the children of men So it is sayd Heb. 12.11 No chastning for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous Man is out of his Element when he is under chastnings Hee was made at first to live in the light of Gods countenance in the smiles and embraces of divine love As man is out of his way when he sins so he is off from his end when he suffers He was not designed for the overwhelming choaking waters of sorrow and judgement but for the sweete refreshing ayre of joy and mercy It often proves a mercy in the event to be covered with these waters To be covered with them that we may be washed by them is a mercy but onely to be covered with them especially as Eliphaz here saith Job was to be deeply covered with them is a deepe and soare affliction Abundance of waters cover thee Hence note That as God hath treasures of mercy and abounds in goodness so hee hath treasures of affliction and abundance of wrath As God hath abundance of waters sealed up in the Clouds as in a treasury and hee can unlocke his treasury and let them out whensoever he pleaseth eyther to refresh or overflow the Earth so hee hath abundance of afflictions and hee can let them forth as out of a treasury when he pleaseth And as wee read Ezek. 47. that the waters of the Sanctuary those holy waters were of several degrees first to the Ankles secondly to the knees then to the Loines and then a river that could not be passed over abundance of waters Thus also the bitter waters the waters of affliction are of severall degrees some waters of afflictions are but Ancle-deepe they onely make us a little wet-shod there are other waters up to the knees and others to the Loynes and others wee may rightly call abundance of waters a Sea of waters I am come into deepe waters saith David Psal 69.2 or into depth of waters where the floods overflow mee And having sayd Psal 42.6 O my God my soule is cast downe within mee He adds in the next words v. 7. Deepe calleth unto deepe at the noyse of thy water-spouts All thy waves and thy billowes are gone over me Where by deepe to deepe by waterspouts by waves and billowes he elegantly sets forth his distresse in allusion to a Ship at Sea in a vehement storme and stresse of weather when the same wave upon whose back the vessel rides out of one deep plungeth it downe into another Thus the afflicted are tossed and overwhelmed in a Sea of trouble till they are at their wits end if not at their faiths end Take two or three Deductions from all these words layd together Wee see by how many metaphors the sorrows of this life are set forth even by snares and feares and darknes and waters Hence note First That as God hath abundance of afflictions in his power so hee hath variety of wayes and meanes to afflict the sonnes of men eyther for the punishment of their sinne or for the tryall of their graces If one will not doe it another shall if the snare will not feare shall if feare will not darknes shall and if darknes will not the waters shall and if waters of one hight will not doe it hee will have waters deepe enough to doe it abundance of waters shall doe it hee hath variety of wayes to deale both with sinners and with Saints Secondly Consider the inference which Eliphaz makes Therefore snares c. are upon thee That Is because thou hast done wickedly in not releeving and in oppressing the poore therefore snares have entangled thee This though false in Jobs particular case yet is a truth in General And it teacheth us That There is an unavoydable sequell between sinne and sorrow Looke upon sinne in its owne nature and so the sequell is unavoydable sinne is bigge with sorrow as affliction burdens the sinner so sinne is burdend with affliction Sinne hath all sorts of affliction in its bowells and wee may say of all the evills that afflict us they are our sinnes Sinne is formally the transgression of the Law and sinne is virtually the punishment of transgressors Many I grant are afflicted for tryall of their graces as hath been shewed before but grace had never been thus tryed if man had not sinned Sinne is the remote cause of all afflictions and it is the next or immediate procuring cause of most afflictions Would any man avoyde the snare let him feare to sinne would he avoyd feare let him feare to doe evill would he keepe out of darkness and not be covered with abundance of waters let him take heed hee drinke not iniquity like water let him have no fellowship with the unfruitfull workes of darkness God tells the sinner plainely what portion he is to expect Say woe to the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him Isa 3.11 Wee may as well hope to avoyd burning when we run into the fire or dirtying when we run into the mire as to escape smarting when we run into sinne Yet more distinctly wee may consider all those evills comprehended under those words in the Text Snares darknes c. eyther in reference to wicked men or to the Saints Snares and darknes upon the wicked are the
Lord is God of the hills and not of the valleys therefore will I deliver this great multitude into thy hand As if he had said however you deserve not in the least that I should owne you or assist your cause yet that I may confute the blasphemous and derogatory principles of these Syrians I will give you a second victory against them even in the valleys where they suppose they have you at an advantage and shall deale with you beyond the extent of my power and Territory Though God had no cause to respect the honour of the Israelites yet he could not forget the honour of his owne name which was obscured by those superstitious Syrians The most received Doctrine Divinity of the Heathens confined their Gods to certaine places some to this City some to that some to the hills some to the plaines some to the Sea others to the Land 'T is sayd that the same night in which Alexander the Great of whose Conquests Daniel Prophesied was borne that the Temple of Diana at Ephesus was burnt to the ground And the Heathens gave this as the reason of it because Diana was absent from hir Temple being gone to assist at the birth of Alexander implying that their Goddess was so in one place as she could not attend what was done elsewhere Such were the grosse conceits which they had of their Gods and they imagined the God of Israel to be such a one as their owne The veriest Idolater in the world presumes his God as good as any is But Jehova the living God hath taught us to say Who is a God like unto thee and our experiences have sealed to it that there is none like the God of Jesurun who rideth on the heavens for thy helpe and in his excellency on the skyes Deut. 33.26 And wee have learned to comfort our selves in all places and streights in this assurance that he is the God of the hills as well as of the valleys of the Sea as well as the dry Land and that he is as truely present in the lowest depths as in the highest heavens Is not God in the height of heaven And behold the height of the Starres how high they are The Hebrew is Behold the head of the Starres The head of a man is the highest part of him and the head of any thing is the top of it Behold the head or height of the Starres how high they are Starres are high but God is higher many creatures are high but God is high above all creatures The creature is strong but God is stronger the creature is wise but God is wiser the creature is glorious but God is infinitely more glorious The glory wisdome strength and highest height of the creature is but a glimpse of what God is The Starres are high I shall not enter into an Astronomicall Discourse about the Starres or the height of Starres I shall not meddle with a Jacobs staffe to take the elevation of the Starres no need of such Discourse here all that is intended by Eliphaz is a proofe that God is infinitely exalted in his highnes and majesty above the Starres Behold the height of the Starres how high they are This word behold in Scripture is often applied to things of wonder To say behold is not a calling for the bare act of the eye to see the height of the Starres but it calls for a worke of the minde duly to consider of and to wonder at their height Some creatures especially the heavenly are not onely usefull but wonderfull and 't is as hard to understand them as it is comfortable to enjoy them The Hebrew word for Heaven cometh from a roote which signifies to amaze and astonish And indeed there are naturall wonders and mysteries enow in the heavens to astonish any considering man And the true reason why we are no more astonisht at them or doe no more admire them is because we doe so little consider them We often see or looke upon the Starres but we seldome behold them And therefore David saith Psal 8.3 When I consider the heavens the worke of thy fingers the Moone and the Starres which thou hast ordained what is man that thou art mindfull of him As the beholding and consideration of our owne workes will make us ashamed because they appeare so bad so the consideration and beholding of the works of God will make us astonisht because they appeare both so good and great Behold saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 3.1 what manner of Love the father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God even this transcendent Love of God in our Adoption is passed by as a small matter by those who will not take the paines or rather the pleasure and leysure to behold and consider the manner of it No mervaile if the power of God in making the highest Starres be passed by as a low thing by those who doe not behold that is diligently consider them Behold the height of the Starres how high they are Wee are called to consider this Hence note That it is our duty to contemplate the excellency of the creature God hath not onely given us the booke of the Scripture but of the creature and we must attend to the reading of this as well as of that even to the reading of every lease and line of it There are foure great leaves of this booke First the heavens secondly the earth thirdly the Sea fourthly the aire These are the foure great leaves of this booke of the creature in every one of which we should labour to be expert Scholars and spel out the name and minde of God in them For though as I said before beholding notes wondering yet wee must not behold them to wonder at them like children but we must behold them to learne somewhat from them or to be instructed by them as men Behold the Starres First In their number As God said to Abraham Gen. 15. 5. Looke now towards Heaven and tell the Starres if thou be able to number them and he said unto him so shall thy seed be 'T is matter of wonder that God should make so many of those eminent Lights that he should set up so many flaming torches in heaven for man to see his way and worke by on earth That God who hath spread this Canopie over our heads should also embroyder it with such a multitude of Golden spangles which render it as much our delight as it is our duty to behold them Secondly Behold the Starres in their order they move by rule they keepe their rankes none of them goe out of their place or forsake their station They who are skilled in the motion of the Starres know where to have them a hundred yeare hence In the 5th of Judges it is said The Starres in their courses fought against Sissera Thirdly We should consider the Starres in their magnitude what vast bodyes they are Some of them are bigger then the whole body
reader to his choyce I shall only give the observation which riseth clearely from this God never giveth wicked men any just cause to be weary of him He never doth them any wrong and he often gives them many a blessing and have they any reason to bid him depart he is usually very patient towards them and doth never bring any evill upon them till they have doubly deserved it and have they any reason to be displeased at that yea whensoever he punisheth them in this world he punisheth them then their sinnes deserve indeed there is a punishment behinde adaequate and commensurate to their sinne but they shall never be punished beyond what or more then their sin deserves Seeing then their punishment in the next life though it will be great beyond imagining yet shall not be great beyond deserving and all their punishments in this life are lesse then the demerit of their sinne As was paenitentially confessed by Ezra in the name of the Jewes after they had been broken by the sword and brought into captivity for their sinne Chap. 9.13 Seeing I say 't is but thus with them when 't is worst with them What hath the Allmighty done against them is not all their destruction meritoriously from themselves Againe How much soever God punisheth them in this life they have no reason to complaine or say to God depart from us for even those punishments are messages from God to awaken them out of their sinnes and so to prevent worser punishments therefore when God perceived that stubborne people going on in their sinnes telleth them he will smite there no more as implying that it was his favour to smite them Isa 1.5 Why should ye be smitten any more ye will revolt more and more Surely then such have no reason to say to God depart from us when he smites them as if he did them ey ther hurt or wrong seing he smites them that they might returne unto him Those judgements of God are a mercy which are sent to teach man his duty Now if the judgements of God have somtime mercy in them and never have any injury in them what hurt or injury can there be to man in the service of God Hath the Allmighty done any thing against them whom he lovingly invites to the doing of his will And yet some complaine of wrong when they are onely called to doe what is right and cry out as if God hurt them when he doth but governe them The Lord calls his murmuring people to account about this thing Mich. 6.3 O my people what have I done to thee that is what hurt what wrong have I done unto thee and wherein have I wearied thee testifie against mee As if he had sayd thou hast nothing to bring against me in evidence unlesse it be my kindnes as it follows ver 4. For I brought thee up out of the Lord of Egypt and redeemed thee our of the house of servants and I sent before thee Moses Aaran and Miriam O my people remember c. Consider all my dealings with thee all the deliverances I have wrought for thee all the Statutes and Ordinances all the Lawes and Commandements which I have given thee and then let thy Conscience speake What have I done unto thee which is an evill to thee or wherein have I wearied thee in the things which I have required thee to doe I have done many good workes for thee and I have commanded thee to doe many workes such workes as are not onely good in themselves but good for them who doe them for which of these is it that thou art weary of me There is not that wicked man in the world but God may say to him what have I done to thee or what have I called thee to doe that thou shouldest be weary of mee that thou shouldest desire me to depart from thee Thus if we reade the words in this latter sence What hath the Allmighty done against them They carry a reproofe of their ingrâ—titude against God who had not hurt them yea who had done them good If we reade the words in the second sence What can the Allmighty doe against them They carry a high contempt and slight of his power as if God could doe them no hurt If we reade the words in the first sence according to our translation which I rather pitch upon they carry upon contrary termes a like contempt of the power of God as if he could doe them no Good What can the Allmighty doe for them Vers 18. Yet bee filled their houses with good things The Hebrew is And be filled their houses with good things wee translate yet which better cleares the meaning and scope of the Text according to our reading of the former verse They say to God depart from us and what can the Allmighty doe for them yet he filled their houses with good things As if he had sayd they thought God could doe nothing for them Horum quidem domos ipse impleaver at bonis Jun q. d. Dei benificijs abusi sunt turpitèr tanquam de spolijs dei ipsius triumphaverunt Jun whereas indeed he did all for them all the good they had they had it from God He filled their houses that is he gave them abundance he did not onely put some good things into their houses but he filled their houses with good things they had a plentifull state God gave them a rich portion in the good things of this world his corne his wine his oyle his flax his gold his silver were their portion He filled them and they rebelled against him He bestowed many benefits upon them which they abused to serve their lusts and vainely triumphed in what he freely gave them as if they had been spoyles forcibly taken from him Hence Observe first That God doth them good that are evill Christ perswaded his hearers and us in them upon this account to love their enemies That they and we might be the children of our father which is in heaven For he maketh his Sunne to rise on the evill and on the Good and sendeth raine on the just and on the unjust Matth. 5.45 As God hath some peculiar people so he hath some peculiar blessings and good things which the world in common shares not in but he hath a sort of blessings and good things which are the common share of the world raine and Sun fat and sweet Gold and silver are such good things as their hearts and houses are often filled with whose hearts and house are empty of goodnes These good things God gives them who know no more why he gives them then they did why he did not suddenly bring evill upon them of whom the Apostle speakes Rom. 2.4 Despisest thou the riches of his goodnesse and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodnesse of God leadeth thee to repentance when God doth good to those that are evill whether it be by bestowing good upon them or by withholding evill
be shortned in spiritualls the raine of holy doctrine shall not be removed from you or as vve translate thy teachers shall not be removed c. Some amongst us vvould have the teachers of holy doctrine removed lest by feeding them the bread vvater of the Land should fayle as if the charge of publick preaching the riches of the Grace of Christ would be an undoing or at least an impoverishing of the Nation Whereas I touch it onely by the way the Prophet comforts the people of God in the midst of all their wants outward afflictions that they should not want the presence of their teachers nor the showers of holy instruction by them Againe Joel 2.23 Be glad O Zion and rejoyce in the Lord your God for he hath given you the former raine moderately and he will cause to come downe the raine the former raine and the latter raine in the first month That vvhich vve render The former raine moderately others translate a Teacher of righteousnes Sanctè colludit propheta nominibus doctoris seu legislatoris pluvâ—ae seu imbris maturini serotini or according to righteousnes so you may finde in the Margin of your larger Bibles And that 's the great mercy vvhich Zion is to rejoyce in for can vve thinke that Zion the children of Zion should be called so earnestly to rejoyce meerly in natural raine or the effects of it because of the abundance of Corne and Wine and Oyle which the earth vvell vvatered usually produceth This is too poore a thing considered alone for Zion to rejoyce in Zion or the people of God doe and must confesse themselves unvvorthy of the least outward mercy even of a shovver of raine or of a sheafe of corne and they ought to praise God and be very thankfull for these But these are not properly the matter of Zions gladnesse and rejoycing In these the vvorld rejoyceth Who will shew us any good Psal 4.7 they are for Corne and Wine and Oyle but Lord saith David lift up the light of thy Countenance upon me Thou hast put gladnes in mine heart more then in the time that their corne and their wine encreased As if he had said Worldly men rejoyce in corne and vvine but I rejoyce more in the light of thy countenance The light of the favour of God and the light of the knowledge of God are the chiefe matters of a beleevers joy And this light of holy joy comes in usually vvith and by the raine of that doctrine which falls upon us from the mouth of God in the teachings of his divine Lavv. Receive the Law from his mouth But you vvill say What is this Lavv vvhich comes dovvne like raine from heaven and vvhich vve are to receive from the mouth of God I ansvver The Lavv may be taken tvvo vvayes First Strictly for the ten Commandements or the five Bookes of Moses vvhich are called the Lavv. Secondly More largely and so the vvhole vvord of God is the Lavv. Christ himselfe calls the Booke of Psalmes the Lavv tvvo or three times in the nevv Testament Joh. 10.34 Jesus answered them is it not written in your Law I have said yee are Gods vvhere vvas that vvritten in the 82d Psal v. 6. And so againe Joh. 15.25 But this cometh to passe that the word might be fullfilled that is written in their Law they hated me without a cause What Lavv doth he meane those vvords vve finde Psal 35.19 Take one text further 1 Cor. 14.21 In the Law it is written With men of other tongues and other lips will I speake unto this People Where is that vvritten Esay 28.11 So that the Law in a large sense is taken for the vvhole body of the vvord of God or for the general Revelation of the mysterie of his vvill in vvhich sense vvee may say the Gospel is the Lavv And the Gospel is expressely called the Law or rule of faith Rom. 3.27 So that by Law here vve may understand vvhatsoever the Lord hath given us eyther as a rule of life or as a rule of faith The Seaventy translate Eliphaz speaking in that latitude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Receive whatsoever God delivers declares or puts forth Receive I pray thee the Law from his mouth From vvhose mouth from the mouth of God how can that be Indeed Moses vvent up into the Mount and vvas vvith God fourty dayes and there received the Lavv from his mouth but could Job Receive the Lavv from his mouth as Moses did I ansvver If God had called him to it as he did Moses he might But that 's not the purpose of Eliphaz Neither are wee I conceive to understand him of such a Receiving from the mouth of God as the old Prophets had vvho received the minde of God by Immediate Inspiration dictates from God himselfe for though they vvere not called up solemnly into a Mount as Moses to receive the Lavv yet the Spirit was sent to make knowne the minde of God to them And in that sence the Prophet Jeremiah is said to warne King Zedekiah from the mouth of the Lord 2 Chron. 36.12 And he did that which was evill in the sight of the Lord his God and humbled not himselfe before Jeremiah the Prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord that is he received a vvord from God by an Extraordinary Revelation to carry unto the King vvho yet humbled not himselfe And so Esay 30.2 the Lord complaines of his people that walked to goe downe to Aegypt to strengthen themselves with the strength of Pharaoh c. and yet had not asked at his mouth that is had not asked direction in the thing according to the vvayes of Revelation then in use by enquiring of the Prophets or of the high Priest And the Lord tels the Prophet Jeremy Ch. 15.19 Prophetae sunt quasi os dei quia per ipsos loquutus est that he should be as his mouth if he would take forth the precious from the vile as if he had sayd if thou art faithfull in my vvork I will reveale my selfe to thee thou shalt speak even as if I my selfe spoke thou shalt be as my mouth Now I conceive Eliphaz doth not goe thus high when he bids Job Receive the Law from the mouth of God as if he vvere to expect Immediate direction and advice from him For then we may be sayd to receive a rule or a law from the mouth of God when vve receive that which God hath manifested at any time as a rule and lavv for us vvith the rest of his people to walke by they vvho receive that law once delivered from the mouth of God may be said to receive the lavv from his mouth though they are not the Immediate receivers of it yea though it were published some thousands of yeares before they vvere borne Some from these words collect that the books of Moses vvere written before this time and that Eliphaz did referre Job to those
Dimissus oculis est qui suo ju dicio existi matione sibi ipsi vilescit He shall save the humble person that is the person who is low in his owne eyes while in the greatest worldly heights the person that humbles himselfe and walkes humbly with God and men when most exalted Thus the Apostle James exhorts the brother of high degree or the rich brother to rejoyce in that he is made low Jam. 1.10 But if he be rich how is he made low he meanes it not of a lownes in state but of a lownes or rather lowlines of spirit The brother of high degree hath no cause to rejoyce in his highnes but when he is low in his owne eyes Lownes of eyes is more then a vertue or common modesty 't is a Grace That 's in a spirituall sence the most Grace-full looke which is the most humble looke He shall save the humble person But with what salvation I answer Salvation is eyther temporal and bodyly or eternal usually called the salvation of the soule We may expound this Text of both The Lord saveth the humble person both body and soule both temporally and eternally Where note That the Lord takes speciall Care of humble ones The Lord seemes to take so much care to save the humble as if there were none else that he tooke care to save or regarded what became or them whether saved or no. And the Lord speakes of proud persons as if he contemn'd none but under that name and notion Jam. 4.6 He resisteth the proud he that is proud of his person or parts or estate or witt or power the Lord resisteth him And he speakes of the humble as if none were saved but under that name and notion He saves the humble person◠or as that Text in James hath it He giveth grace to the humble What grace There is a twofold grace and both are given to the humble First he gives them the grace of favour or good will he is kinde to and respecteth the humble or as this text in Job hath it Hee saves the humble person Secondly He gives much grace to the humble as grace is taken for that gracious worke of the Spirit in us forming up faith love c. in our soules The Lord gives more of this grace also to the humble that is he addeth unto the graces which they have and makes them more humble more gratious a man cannot be in that sence an humble person without grace humility it selfe is a great grace and the greater our humility is the greater accession we have of other graces Thus I say we may understand the text in James both wayes He giveth grace to the humble that is he favours and respects them because they are gracious and he addeth to or encreaseth their graces We have a promise very paralel to these of Eliphaz and James Psal 18.27 Thou wilt save the afflicted people but wilt bring downe high looks The word which we translate afflicted signifies also one humbled and humble and so we might render the Psalme Thou shalt save the humbled or the humble people and that the humble are to be taken in to partake of the priviledge of that promise is plaine from the opposite Terme in the latter clause of the verse High lookes that is high lookers God will bring downe but he will save the humble person Men of low and meane estates are usually wrapt up with great ones in the same judgement as the Prophet speakes Esay 5.15 The meane man shall be brought downe and the mighty man shall be humbled the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled there we have the meane man and the mighty man under the same wrathfull dispensations of God The wicked whether high or low are farre from salvation but God knowes how to make a distinction between the humble and the proud when his wrath makes the greatest confusions in the world Humility it is not onely a sweet but a safe grace yea a saving Grace wee never goe under the Covert of God so much as when wee walke humbly with God He will save the humble person Vers 30. Hee shall deliver the Island of the Innocent and it is deliver'd by the purenes of thine hands The promise is continued to the man that returnes to God Hee shall deliver the Island of the Innocent or as some translate the Innocent shall deliver the Island The sence is the same He shall deliver the Island that is the Inhabitants of the Island All shall be safe the Island and they that dwell in it There is another reading of the Text which yet falls in fully and clearly with this whereas we reade He shall deliver the Island of the Innocent Liberabit noxium Pisc it may be read He shall deliver him that is not Innocent Now because this may seeme a very wide difference in the translation wee are to Consider the ground of it how this can be made out that the same text should be rendred the Innocent and him that is not Innocent The reason is because the word which we translate Island is taken by many of the Hebrew Doctors Vocula 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae hic redditur insula idem valet quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non Pisc Ego cum veteribus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro negatione exponerē Eritque facilis sensus sc deus puritate manuum tuarum etiam nocentē vel non innocentem liberabit Merc. as also by other translators onely for a negative particle signifying not or that which is not So the word is rendred 1 Sam. 4.21 when Phineas his wife dying in travell gave the name to her Childe shee sayd Hee shall be called Ichabod There is no glory or not glory And againe Pro. 31.4 the word is used in the same sence It is not for Kings O Lemuel to drinke wine strong drinke is not for Princes So here Thou shalt deliver the nocent or the not Innocent And so the whole verse is thus translated God because of or for the purenes of thy hands will doliver the nocent or those who are not innocent Whereas we say Thou shalt deliver the Island of the Innocent or the Innocent shall deliver the Island And it is delivered by the purenes of thine hands Eliphaz spake before in the third person here in the second 't is probable he did so purposely to make Job understand that he meant him It is delivered c. That is the Island is deliver'd according to our translation how is it delivered by the purenes of thine hands The word notes the most exact purity and cleannes like that of gold when it is refined in the fire or of garments that are washed with Soape or Nitre Manus purae sunt opera inculpata quae crimine vacant Drus by this purenes it or the Island shall be deliver'd and by the purenes of his hands he meanes the purenes of his actions or administrations The
before thee Job speakes to this sence I would order my cause before him or to his face as the Hebrew Text hath it that is in his presence And fill my mouth with Arguments Pleno ore fidentèr constanter pro me dicam Bold I would have arguments enow or good store to prove that your proceeding hath been unequall toward mee And when he sayth I would fill my mouth with arguments it shewes that his heart was full of arguments Christ teacheth us to argue so Luk. 6.45 Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Jobs heart was full therefore he would fill his mouth David prayeth Psal 71.8 Let my mouth be filled with thy praise And the Church speakes of her joy when God had turned their captivity Psal 126.2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter In this language God bespeakes his people Psal 81.10 Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it Open it by faith and I will fill it with what fill it with mercy and with blessings So here I would fill my mouth with arguments that is I would not want matter to speake for my selfe Os meum replebo increpationibus Vulg. or in my owne cause The vulgar reades it I will fill my mouth with Chidings or with reproofs The word properly signifies Conviction and then wee are to understand it in reference to his friends I would abound with convincing reproving or chiding arguments against you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non redargutiones intelligit quibus deum injustitiae accusaret sed rationes quibus se tueretur Sic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graecie sumitur Merc. who have thus long reproached mee I would bring such arguments as should not onely be a proofe of mine owne integrity but a reproof of my friends severity Some arguments have onely a proof in them others have a reproof too Job would fill his mouth with arguments which should be both proofs for himselfe and reproofs to his opposers Job had not a word to say against God but he had much to say against his friends I would fill my mouth with Arguments Note from it Troubled spirits have many things to say and usually abound much in their owne sence Furor arma ministrat As the passion of anger will administer weapons to a man though he be no great fighter so those passions of griefe and sorrow will administer arguments to him though he be no great disputer A troubled soule will hardly be put to a stand or non-plus They who suffer much will alwayes have somewhat to say If nature deny said one of old yet Indignation will make a man a Poet And if nature deny yet sorrow will make a man a Logician and trouble will make a man an Advocate in his owne cause The tongues of many are tipt with Oratory they have excellent words and strong reasons too from the pressures that are upon their spirits trouble of spirit fills the mouth with Arguments two wayes First Against themselves how strongly will some in that case dispute against their owne peace what arguments will they bring against any comfort that is offered them and how nimbly will they reply to any one that goes about to answer them how will they finde out new mediums when those are foyled by which they have formerly nourished their unbeleefe and discouraged themselves from taking hold on mercy 'T is wonderfull to heare the pleadings of a troubled spirit and 't is one of the hardest taskes in the world to answer the doubts which such a man will make against himselfe Secondly The troubles of many fills their mouths with arguments for themselves that 's the meaning of Job here in this place I would fill my mouth with arguments to maintaine my Cause I should not want eyther matter or words to plead this busienes were I before the Throne of God and yet I would not be so free and forward to speake as to neglect or slight what is spoken to me as it followes Vers 5. I would know the words that he would answer mee and understand what he would say unto mee Some are so hasty to speake that they will not heare they are so forward to plead their owne Cause that they will not receive the opinion of another Job discovers an equall spirit to both As I would order my Cause and fill my mouth with arguments so I would know the words that he would answer mee too I would have the good manners or the grace rather to heed and understand what God would say to mee Cognâ—scam sanationes quas loquetur mihi Sep. Quam mihi laboranti curationeÌ„ adhibiturus esset intelligeâ—em Chrysost The Septuagint render it thus I would know the healings which he would speake to me or as another What medicine or way of cure he would praescribe and administer to mee and this might respect eyther the quieting of his Spirit or the repayring of his credit and good name which had been sorely and deeply wounded by his friends not onely suspecting but charging him as an hypocrite or wicked man This is a fayre sence onely it straitens the Text For we may suppose Job in this addresse and application to God ready to heare whatsoever God should say unto him whether his were words of approbation or reproof whether for him or against him Though Job had doubtlesse a strong confidence that God would approve of him and give sentence on his side yet considering his owne weaknesses and distempers of minde he might well conceive that some things had fallen from him or been done by him which might deserve and call for chidings and rebukes as the issue indeed was And therefore it was most congruous that he should present himselfe before the Lord in a frame of heart to receive reprehensions as well as consolations I would know the words that he would answer me and understand c. Knowing and understanding may be taken here two wayes First for Considering and weighing what God would say or what Award he would make In which he seemes closely to checke his friends who thought him so dull and incapable that surely he did not apprehend nor understand their answers Well saith Job whatsoever you thinke of my dulnes to understand your answers or what you have sayd yet I doubt not but I shall understand the answers of God or what he shall say unto mee Secondly They note a reverence and respect to the word of God I would know the words that he would answer that is submit to them I would not oppose the Judgement or Opinion of God concerning me Though Job did not sit downe or acquiesse in the judgement of his friends yet he would reverence and sit downe quietly in the judgement of God in the answer which he should please to give In eyther of these interpretations the sence is good I would know that is I would study to finde out the minde of God and understand
For so some expound that Scripture Isa 41.25 I have raysed up one out of the North and he shall come from the rising of the Sun shall â—e call upon my name c. This prophecy I say some expound of Christ who shall gather his dispersed and despised ones from all quarters of the world The greatest workes of God that ever were done Christ did them and therefore the North may justly be called the place where he worketh seing he raysed Christ from thence Secondly As the words are read thus On the left hand while hee worketh as if Job had sayd I look after God on the left hand or in the North even in the time while he is working or doing great things and yet I cannot behold him Observe That God may be and often is working great things and we not able to apprehend or behold him at his worke The invisible thengs of God even his eternal power and Godhead are seene in the things that are made and that not onely in the things that he made while he created the world but also in the things which he makes while he governes the world and yet himselfe is not seene in making them and that not onely because he is invisible in his nature but because which is the poynt in hand the manner of his working is invisible In some things God workes so evidently that the natural man cannot but say The finger of God is here But in other things he workes so secretly that the spirituall man is not able to see where the finger of God is unlesse upon that general acknowledgement that the finger of God is every where Solomon Prov. 30.18 saith There be three things which are too wonderfull for mee yea foure which I know not the way of an Eagle in the ayre the way of a Serpent upon a rock and the way of a Ship in the midst of the Sea even such are the motions of God the wayes and workings of God among the sons of men A ship in the Sea leaves no track no path you cannot see where the Ship hath sailed The ship plowes the Ocean but the furrowes are unseene as soone as made A Serpent upon a rock makes no dint leaves no footsteps behinde him the flying Eagle parts the aire but there 's no discerning where shee hath past And thus Job seemes to speake here Though I goo to the North while God worketh yet I can see no more of him then of the way of an Eagle in the aire or of a Serpent upon a rock or of a Ship in the Sea I cannot behold him while he worketh nor the way of his working And further Hee hideth himselfe on the right hand that I cannot see him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cooperire involvere seu occultare significat Quasi deus meridionali parte velut operimento sese circumtegat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est mare at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dextra unde etiam meridies dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theman Nomini Jaâ—in praâ—â—sitio Thau Exo. 26.18 unde Theman si appellativè sumatur dextrum Australe sive meridionale significat si autem proprie est noâ—men regionis Australis Hieron The word which we render hideth signifieth to wrap up with a covering implying that God doth cover himselfe from the eye of man in or with the right hand part of the world Some render it thus He hideth his right hand or his working hand that I cannot see him We render it well hee hideth himselfe on the right hand that I cannot see him The right hand is put in opposition to the left mentioned in the former part of the verse There in the South God doth as it were purposely and artificially hide and cast a vaile over himselfe saith Job lest I should see him there hee keeps himselfe yet more out of my view and reach then elsewhere The word which we translate the right hand signifies the Southern parts of the world Cant. 4.16 Awake O Northwinde and come thou South blow upon my Garden Exod. 26.18 On the South or right side Southward The word is also rendred the right side 2 Sam. 24.5 On the right side of the City Further the word signifies as the right hand so also strength because the right hand is strongest in most men and readyest for use And so he hides himselfe on the right hand may import as was toucht before that God hideth himselfe even there where he puts forth his strength and power From all these expositions layd together in that Job here saith hee went forward and backward or East and West on the right hand and on the left or North and South from all I say it appeares that Job was a great traveller that he travel'd all the world over yet where was Job when he spake all this Was he not upon his bed was he not Gods Prisoner shut up in his Chamber when he said I goe forward and backward Northward and Southward and yet I finde him not perceive him not see him not Hence learne First That God is every where Job knew there was a presence of God forward and backward Northward and Southward He knew that God fills heaven and earth with his presence There is a presence of God from which the worst of men cannot goe and there is a presence of God into which many times the best of men cannot get there was a presence of God out of which Job could not get while according to his desires he could not get into the presence of God Secondly From those various negatives here used I cannot perceive him I cannot behold him I cannot see him Observe God is a spirit not visible at all in himselfe and he onely appeares as and to whom himselfe pleaseth to appeare to and among men The appearances of God are not naturall but voluntary when his will is to be seene he gives man the priviledge to see him It is altogether impossible to see him with a bodily eye 1 Tim. 6.16 God onely hath Immortality dwelling in the light that no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see that is with bodily eyes and as it is impossible to see him at any time with an eye of sence so he will not alwayes be seene by the eye of our understanding no nor alwayes by the eye of faith Faith shall hereafter be perfected in the vision of God but here faith is sometime quite deprived of the vision of God He hideth himselfe from the house of Jacob. Faith is opposed to all bodily sight 2 Cor. 5.7 We walke by faith not by sight and faith hath not alwayes a spirituall sight It is said Heb. 11.27 that Moses saw him that is Invisible he saw him with a spirituall eye the eye of faith wee have reason to beleeve that Job at that time saw God with an eye of faith but he saw him not with an eye of understanding to discerne the way of his working
least work A natural man eyther makes the Law of God voyd by doing that which is against it or he lets it lie voyd by not doing it and would be glad that this talent committed to him might for ever be wrapt up in a napkin or be buryed in the earth Both these turnings whether to the right hand or to the left are evill The way of holines the good way lieth streight forward right on It hath no turning either to the right hand nor to the left All the wayes of sinne are called crooked wayes and they are our owne wayes Psal 125.5 As for such as turne aside to their crooked wayes the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquitie The Psalmist calls them Their crooked wayes that is wayes of their own devising whereas the way of holines is the Lords way To exceed or to doe more to be deficient or to doe lesse then God requires both these are crooked wayes the way of the Lord lyes streight forward right before us Pro. 28.18 Who so walketh vprightly shall be saved but he that is perverse or crooked in his wayes shall fall at once The motion of a godly man is like that of the kine that carryed the Arke 1 Sam. 6.12 Who tooke the streight way to the way of Bethshemesh and went along the high way lowing as they went and they turned not aside to the right hand or to the left But you will say Doe not good men even the best of good men decline sometimes and goe aside or doth it argue every man to be wicked who declines at any time I answer Job speakes of what he had not done not of what it was impossible for him to doe he had not declined yet he might have declined Wee finde many declinings among the godly how many are there that decline in degrees who are godly in the maine They love still but they have not the same warmth of love the same heate of affection They obey still but they have not the same strength of obedience There may be a declineing also not onely in the way but from the way to the right hand sometimes and sometimes to the left there may be an exceeding and there may be a coming short in those as to actions who as to their state are come home to God these things are possible yea common but we speake of what many godly men doe and what should be the aime and designe of every godly man that is to keepe the way of God and not to decline to keepe himselfe up in spirituall strength and to keepe himselfe onne in a spirituall course yea every godly man may and can say as David did Psal 18.21 I have kept the wayes of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God Though every godly man cannot say as godly Job did I have kept his way and not declined yet every godly man may say as David I have kept his wayes and have not wickedly departed from my God we should be afraid of declineing and decaying we should strive to be alwayes advancing and encreasing And as Saints are under a command to be such so they are under a promise to be such Psal 92.12 13 14. The righteous shall flourish like a Palme tree he shall grow like a Cedar in Libanon Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the Courts of our God they shall still bring forth fruit in old age they shall be fat and flourishing Here is not onely a mention of growing but of flourishing and here 's flourishing three times mentioned and 't is growing and flourishing not onely like a tree but like a Palme-tree which flourisheth under opression and like a Cedar not growing in ordinary places but in Lebanon where were the goodliest Cedars Nor doth the Spirit promise here a flourishing in boughes ane leaves onely as some trees doe and doe no more but in fruit And this not onely fruit for once in a yeare or one yeare but they still bring forth fruit and that not onely in the yeares of their youth or beginnings in grace but in old age and that not only in the entrance of that state which is called old age threescore yeares but that which the Scripture calls the perfection of old age threescore yeares and ten as the learned Hebrewes observe upon the word used in the Psalme What a divine climax doth the Spirit of God make in this Scripture to shew that the godly man as to his state is so farre from declining that he is still climbing higher and higher And if any shall aske how comes it to passe then that some godly men are observed not onely by themselves but by others to decline often in and sometimes from the wayes of God I answer these declinings may be assigned to severall Causes First To the power of some Corruption remaining much unmortified in them as in a garden when the weeds grow high the good herbs decline And as in a field when the weeds are strong the corne is weake so it is here the prevailing or growing of Corruption is the declining of Grace in degree and by reason of it some for a time decline from the way Secondly Declinings are from the prevalency of temptation while Satan plieth some with temptation he turneth them out of the way or causeth them to walke but slowly in it As temptation is a tryall of so a hindrance unto grace yea though corruption be kept much downe yet some through a violent gust of temptation have been over-borne Thirdly Declinings are caused in the good by the example of those that are evill therefore the Apostle gives that Caution Rom. 12.2 Not to be conformable to the world A godly man is apt enough to write by a false copie and to doe as he sees the world doth What was all their way or their onely way before conversion they after conversion through neglect of their watch may be found stepping into or taking a step or two in Before conversion our whole course sayth the Apostle Ephe. 2.2 is according to the course of this world And the examples of the world have drawne many aside after they have come out from the world The fashions and vanities of the world in pride and pleasure are very drawing All examples especially evill examples like the Loadstone have an attractive vertue in them and many of the godly have been drawne aside thus and have declined with much scandal fot a while from the way of God Fourthly Declinings are sometimes from afflictions and those we may consider of two sorts personall or publique both or either of these have caused many to decline The cold frost of affliction hath nipped the graces of some and made them to turn aside from the way of God Therefore the Church having reported her great troubles speakes it as an argument of much sinceritie towards God and strength of Grace received from him Psal 44.17 18. All this
is come upon us that is all these common calamities and afflictions yet have we not forgotten thee nor dealt falsely in thy Covenant our hearts are not turned back neither are our steps declined from thy way As if she had said These afflictions have been strong temptations upon us to cause us to decline from thy wayes but through grace we have kept our ground and remained constant in thy Covenant yea though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons and covered us with the shadow of death As many yea most of the Saints have improved under the crosse so there have been some who either through their present unbeleefe or forgetfulnes of the exhortation which as the Apostle saith Heb. 12.5 speaketh unto them as unto children have had their faintings and declinings under it Fifthly Others decline through prosperitie and worldly injoyments when they grow rich in temporalls they grow poorer in spiritualls As their outward man encreaseth so their inner man decayeth and as they flourish in the flesh so hey wither in spirit Hence holy Agur prayed Pro. 30.8 9. Give me not poverty least I be poore and steale and take the name of God in vaine that would be a sad declining give me not riches lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord That 's a sadder declining then the former Povertie endangers grace much but riches more To be rich or great in the world is a great temptation Food convenient is the most sweet and most untemptationlesse condition As hypocrites fall quite off from God when they come onne much in the world so the sincere may be much hindred in their way And as many godly men have declined through their owne prosperitie so some have declined or at least have been in great danger of declining by the prosperitie of others David was readie to decline from God when he saw the prosperitie of ungodly men Psal 73.2 As for me my feete were almost gone my steps had well nigh slip't when I saw the prosperitie of the wicked David was almost downe when he saw the wicked up Their standing had almost given him a fall My steps sayth hâ—â— had well nigh slipt now if it put David a man eminent in godlinesse so hard to it to keepe his standing all the grace in his heart and assistance from God could scarce hold him up how much more may they who come farre short of David decline by seing the prosperitie of wicked men are not they readie to conclude surely we shall thrive and doe well enough though we doe as others doe who doe not trouble themselves in a strictnes about matters of religion as we have done Verily as it follows at the 13th verse we have cleansed our heart in vaine and washed our hands in innocency If we had spared our paines of labour we could not have endured more paine of trouble for all the day long have we been plagued and chastned every morning Such arguings as these shew great declinings Yet they who are sincere will soone recover themselves againe and say as David after he had reviewed this Temptation ver 15. If we say we will speake thus we should offend against the Generation of the righteous Now seing the Godly are so many wayes endangered to declining let us be warned of it and beware of it These are declining times many professors have shamed themselves and the profession of the Gospel He is a Christian indeed that can say in truth as Job did I have kept his words and not declined they that knew me many yeares agoe may finde me in as good yea in a better plight then I was then Hypocrites true beleevers may look act very like one another but as the nature of their estates have alwayes a vast difference to the understanding so the event gives a vast difference between them to the eye Hypocrites keep the word of God a while but they ever decline in the end finally from it and sometims throw it off in the way totally When they are in the way they grow weary of it a smal matter working either upon their hopes or fears will put them quite out of it Every difficulty every danger is to them a Lion in the way causing them to decline from it wheras to those that are sincere difficulties are not stops but incitements and spurres they doe but provoke their zeale they cannot quench it And hence the holy Apostle sends a challenge Rom. 8.35 to all the troubles afflictions and evills in the world he bids them doe their worst and when they have done it they shall not be able to seperate him from the love of God neither from the love wherewith Goâ—â—oved him or from that love wherewith he loved God I have kept his wayes and not declined Secondly Observe That sinne is a declining from the way of God That 's the Apostles definition 1 Joh. 3.4 Sin is the transgression of the Law And transgression is a going aside or a going over the line by which God hath chaulked us out our way God hath not left us at our liberty though he hath left us as the Apostle James calls it Chap. 1.25 a perfect law of liberty He hath not left us to travell over hedge and ditch but hath shewed us our way a high way and a way as the Prophet speakes Isa 35.8 And it shall be called the way of holines the way-faring men though fooles shall not erre therein Yet fooles are alwayes erring from it all their walkings are wandrings and their goings are goings astray who walke and goe on in a sinfull way The word which signifies sinne in the Hebrew imports most properly the missing of a mark because sinning is a missing of the mark and a declining from the way I have kept his way and not declined Vers 12. Neither have I gone backe from the commandement of his lips c. Job proceeds with his negative profession having said before I have not declined he saith the same thing againe in other words I have not gone backe from the commandement of his lips See how often he repeats and inculcates this poynt both that he might be beleived and that he might shew how confident he was in the uprightnes of his owne heart I have not declined neither have I gone backe By these various expressions and often repetitions Job sets forth in generall the exactnes of his care in keeping close to God neither have I gone backe The word signifies both to depart and to touch and some put both significations together here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 recessit decessit palparit tetegit Ita recedere a re aliqua ut tangi aut contrectari nequeat implying such a departure from a thing or person as not at all to touch or come neere it againe which is a totall apostacy or desertion from it As if Job had said I have not apostatised from the wayes of God But this seemes
To draw backe is perdition as they who draw backe are the most forward to destroy others Hos 5.2 The revoulters are profound to make slaughter so they shall be sure to be destroyed themselves The people of Israel in their travels through the wildernes to Canaan did often discover this spirit of Apostacy Psal 78.41 They turned backe and tempted God We finde them at a consultation about it Numb 14.4 They said one to another let us make us a Captaine and let us returne into Egypt Our Lord Jesus had such a sort of men who followed him in person Joh. 6.66 From that time many of his Disciples went backe from him and walked no more with him They were Disciples who went backe and there were many of them so many that Christ in the next verse sayd to the twelve Will ye also goe away Then Peter answered Lord whether shall we goe thou hast the words of eternall life As if he had sayd we cannot mend our selves whether soever we goe why then should we goe from thee As a Godly man goeth on so he seeth reason why he should 'T is as irrationall as sinfull to goe backe from him who hath the words of eternall life or from the commandement of his lips who hath given the promise of life The Apostle Paul had a reaching spirit and he was alwayes reaching forward Phil. 3.12 13. Not as though I had already attained or were already perfect but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus As if he had sayd I would to the utmost answer the designe which Christ had upon me when he first tooke hold of me effectually by his grace Paul was so farre from going backe that he forgot what was backward Some remember what is past or what they have done so much that they forget what is to be done But saith Paul this one thing I doe forgetting those things which are behinde and reaching forth unto those things which are before I presse towards the marke for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus The marke and the price are alwayes before us there is no coming at the marke nor winning of the price by turning backe Prov. 4.18 The path of the just is like the shining or morning light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day The path of the unjust if it have any light in it is but like the evening light which shines lesse and lesse which declines and goeth downward till the perfect night and till himselfe be wrapt up in everlasting darknesse The Sun in the firmament went backe by miracle for a signe to Hezekiah that he should recover the health of his body But if we see any goe back who have heretofore shined like the Sunne in a Gospel pofession we have just cause to looke upon it as a sad symtome that their soules are in a dangerous if not in an irrecoverable condition I have not gone backe sayth Job from the commandement of his lips Againe from all these expressions in that Job speaking of the same thing calls it the way of God the commandement of his lips and in the latter part of this verse the word of his mouth to which he had cleaved and wholy devoted himselfe for the guiding of his whole man in the duty which he owed and had been carefull to pay both to God and man Observe The word of God is the onely rule of life And in this poynt the word or commandement of God is to be taken in a double opposition first to our owne devises and rules secondly to the devises and rules of other men man must not prescribe to himselfe nor may we receive the prescriptions of men to order our practise by God is the onely Law-giver and we must receive the Law from his mouth He that will please God must shutt all his own imaginations out of doores and have nothing to doe with them 'T is not what man hath a minde to doe but what the minde of God is he should doe that pleaseth him or is eyther a worship or a service acceptable to him We never dishonour God more then when we take upon us to serve him our owne way and leaving his rule make a rule for our selves Such a serving of God is rebellion against him as was told Saul by the Prophet 1 Sam. 15.22 Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voyce of the Lord. Saul thought he had done very well when he saved the sheep and oxen for sacrifice But he was told that to obey is better then sacrifice and to hearken then the fat of Rams God had commanded burnt offerings and sacrifice but he had no delight in them when his owne voyce was not obeyed or when they were offered eyther beside or against his command Luk. 16.15 That which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to the Lord His thoughts are not our thoughts eyther in the doing of what is good or in the pardoning of what is sinfull As man is apt to thinke that God will not pardon what he hath done sinfully so that he will accept of what he thinkes he hath done holyly though he hath no rule for the doing of it but what himselfe hath devised We alwayes fayle in our measure while we measure God by our selves And it is as dangerous to take the rule of our actions from men as not to take the rule of God In this sence we must call no man Master nor may we be the servants of the wisest men And as we must not be the servants of men because which is the Apostles reason 1 Cor. 7.23 We are bought with a price that is dearely redeemed by Christ so neyther may we be the servants of men in following their dictates because we have received a word from God whom alone we ought to follow and none else but in subordination to or complyance with his word and the commandement of his lips or as it followes in the conclusion of this verse the words of his mouth I have esteemed the words of his mouth more then my necessary food Job having given us two negatives I have not declined I have not turned backe as proofes of his integrity and holines now gives us an affirmative to make up the fullnes of his proofe Not to doe evill is commendable but to doe good is a higher commendation I have esteemed the words of his mouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Hebrew word signifies two things first to hide or conceale secondly to prise value or esteeme Some render this Text by the former not as we I have esteemed the words of his mouth In sinu meo abscondi verba oris ejus Vul◠Graecos secetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 legit non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at ventit ac si scriptum esset 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in sinu meo abscondi Merc.
And who can but feare to be under that power which hath no limits but a corrupt will But who would feare to be under the power of God acted by his will seing he willeth nothing but what is righteous just and good What can we expect but right from him who is righteousnesse what but good from him in a good cause who is goodnes it selfe how great or how unlimited soever his power is If some men might doe what they would what evill would they not doe There 's nothing stands between some men and the wronging of all men they have to doe with but the want eyther of power or of opportunity to doe it The Lord can doe what he will but he will doe nothing but what is good He is able to ruine all men but he will wrong no man no not the worst of men What his soule desireth even that he doth but it is impossible his soule should desire to any thing but what is right Lastly When it is sayd Whatsoever his soule desireth even that he doth or more close to the Originall He desireth He doth We learne That It is as easie with God to doe a thing as to desire to have it done All men would doe what their soules desire but most men desire that which they cannot doe yea though men have a desire to doe a thing and a power to doe it also yet it is not so soone done as desired there must be a preparation and the use of meanes before man can doe what he hath a power to doe so that though a man hath power proportionable to his desire yet he is not presently a partaker of his desire But God can make his power as speedy as his desire He can make the declaration of his will and the execution of it contiguous For though many things lie long in the will of God before they are done and what he willed from eternity is don in time and the time of doing it be yet a great way off yet he can doe any thing as soone as will it and whatsoever he willeth or desireth is to him as done already Psal 104.30 Thou sendest forth thy Spirit they are created The creation there spoken of is providence for that is a continued creation The first creation was the production of all things out of nothing to that being which they had but there is another work of creation which is the continuing or renewing of things in their being and of this he sayth Thou sendest forth thy Spirit that is thy power they are created And thou renewest the face of the earth Thou makest a new world And thus God makes a new world every yeare sending forth his Spirit or quickning power in the raine and Sun to renew the face of the earth And as the Lord sends forth his power in providenciall mercies so in providenciall Judgements He looketh on the earth and it trembleth He toucheth the hils and they smoake ver 32. A man can soone give a cast with his eye so soone can God shake the earth that is eyther the whole masse of the earth or the inferior sort of men on the earth When he looketh or casts an angry eye upon the earth it trembleth He toucheth the hils that is the powers and principalities of the world and they smoake If he doe but touch them they smoake that is the dreadfull effects of the power and Jugement of God are visible upon them As soone as the Lord calls all creatures readily tender their service Psal 105.31 34. He spake and there came divers sorts of flies and lice in all their coasts ver 34. He spake and the Locusts came and caterpillers and that without number If the Lord speake the word it is done God spake the world into this beautie he did but say Let there be light and there was light And he can speake the world into trouble and confusion He doth but say Let there be darknes and there is darknes It was an high speech of Caesar who meeting with some opposition from that yong noble Roman Metellus sayd Let me alone lest I destroy thee And presently added It is easier for me to doe this then to speake it Such was his power that he could easier take away a mans life then give sentence of death against him This is most true concerning the great God of heaven and earth there is no more difficultie in his doing of a thing then in his desiring and willing it to be done The generall truth of this verse carryeth in it a twofold inference First Of terrour to the wicked God is in one minde the same opinion which he had of their wayes and persons heretofore the same he hath still The same curses and Judgements which he hath denounced against them formerly are in force still Is it not a terrible thing to incorrigible wicked men to remember that what the soule of God desireth he doth when his soule desireth nothing but vengeance and wrath for them Therefore tremble before the Lord ye wicked and be ye sore affraid at the remembrance of his unchangeablenes Secondly Of abundant comfort to the faithfull and righteous The mind of God is mercy to them and he is in this one minde towards them none can turne him His soule desireth to doe them good And whatsoever his soule desireth that he doth What can Saints desire more then that God should doe all that for them which he desireth and all that he will assuredly doe Therefore rejoyce in the Lord ye righteous and give thankes at the remembrance of his unchangeablenes JOB CHAP. 23. Vers 14 15 16 17. For he performeth the thing that is appoynted for mee and many such things are with him Therefore I am troubled at his presence when I consider I am afraid of him For God maketh my heart soft and the Almighty troubleth mee Because I was not cut off before the darknesse neither hath he covered the darknesse from my face IN the former verse Job exalteth God first in his unchangeablenes He is in one minde who can turne him Secondly in his Almightines What his soule desireth even that he doth In the 14th ver he speaks of God in reference to his personal experience and brings downe the generall proposition to his owne particular case As if he had sayd I indeed have found that what his soule desireth even that he doth mine owne sad experience proves and beares witnes to this truth my present state makes the Comment of this text for he performeth the thing that is appoynted for mee Vers 14. Hee performeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in primaria significatione denotat implere finire deinde in pace esse etiam solvere compensare Pined The word hath various translations but all are well summ'd up in this Hee performeth First It signifies to pay payment is performance therefore the same word is used both for performing and paying Secondly The word signifies to be at peace
24. Vers 5 6 7 8. Behold as wilde asses in the desert goe they forth to their worke rising betimes for a prey the wildernes yieldeth food for them and for their Children They reap every one his Corne in the field and they gather the vintage of the wicked They cause the naked to lodge without Cloathing that they have no Covering in the Cold. They are wet with the showers of the mountaines and embrace the rock for want of a shelter JOb proceeds to enumerate the wickednesses of those men whom yet God spared and bare with he had set downe many of their sinfull wayes before they removed the land-marks they violently tooke away flocks they spared not the asse of the fatherles nor the widdows oxe They turned the needy out of the way so that the poore of the earth were forced to hide themselves together See now the further progresse of their wickednes even to admiration for so much the word Behold with which Job leads on his discovery of their vexatious practices doth import Vers 5. Behold as wilde asses in the desert they goe forth to their worke There is a difference in opinion among Interpreters about the subject of this verse whom wee are to understand under this description As wilde asses in the desert going forth to their worke Some of Note conceave that the poore are the subject of these words Exegesis praeordentis dicti de intoleranda inproborum sevâ—tia in pauperes quorum opera contra legem abutuntur Jun or the persons here intended And then they hold forth the hardship and misery to which they were reduced by those mercilesse tyrants Behold as wilde asses in the desert they goe forth to their worke Oppressors did so vex them and strip them out of all that they who heretofore had enough to live upon were constrained to goe forth to day-labour and worke for their living at the command or under the cruel bondage of those inhumane Taske-Masters Yet I conceive that wee may more clearly expound these words as carrying a continued series of the practices of wicked men who are here compared to wilde asses and there is a word in the 5th verse which gives a speciall reason why this should not be understood of the poore or oppressed but of the oppressor where it is sayd they rise betimes for a prey now that word which we render a prey cometh from a root which signifies to teare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carpsit discarpsit dilaceravit dentibus prâ—prium ferarum est to rend to pull assunder after the manner of wilde beasts and is of the same sound as well as significatioÌ„ with our English word teare therefore it should rather be understood of oppressors then of the oppressed for a man that goes forth to labour and worke for his living cannot properly be said to rise betimes for a prey for he goes forth to get his bread honestly now a prey is that which is got by violence and the word is never applyed to men but in allusion to ravenous and devouring beasts Jacob comparing his son Judah to a Lyons whelpe Gen. 49.9 saith From the prey my Sonn thou art gone up So Moses Deut. 33.20 And of Gad he said Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad hee dwelleth as a Lyon and teareth the Arme with the Crowne of the head And David praying to be delivered out of the hand of his enemy gives this reason Psal 7.2 Lest he teare my soule like a Lyon while there is none to deliver So that the word noting properly the act of a ravenous beast who lives upon spoyle and prey It is very improper to apply it to the worke of a labouring man who lives and earnes his bread with the sweat of his brows Yet I finde that word signifying food in generall Mal 3.10 Bring yee all the tythes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house Which the interlineral renders that there may be a prey in mine house Vt sit praeda in domo mea Mont Vt sit quod rapitis c. Pâ—gna and another thus that there may be that which ye snatch in mine house Surely the Lord strikes at some misdemeanour while he expresseth the food of the Priests Levites by a word signifying that which is torne away by violence And I conceave it may either reflect upon the people who parted so hardly with the tythes which did belong to the Temple at that time that they were rather torne or pulled from them by a kinde of violence then freely payd or brought in according to the Law of God or it might reflect upon the extreme greedines of the Priests that did administer in the Temple as if they did look upon the tyths their portioÌ„ in them with as earnest desire as wild beasts hang over wait for a prey So that where this word is used to signifie food there is somewhat in the circumstance of the Text which leaves a touch of rapine and violence upon it And therefore it is not applicable to the earnings of honest labourers but to the cruel gettings of theeves and oppressors The mountaines of prey spoken of Psal 76.4 were eyther those places where conquering Armyes devided the spoyle after a victory obtained or where robbers preyed upon passengers And therefore I shall take the subject of this verse to be the oppressors of the poore not the poore oppressed Behold as wilde asses in the desert they goe forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The particle of likenes as is not in the Hebrew nor yet the word Asses expressely And therefore Mr Broughton reads strictly to the Original Behold the wilde in the wildernes goe forth to their worke The word signifies wilde at large but because wilde asses are extreamely wilde therefore the word is specially applyed to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ferus homo Thus the Angel sayd of Ishmael Gen. 16.12 And he will be a wilde man Behold as wilde asses in the desert The desert is the dwelling place of wilde asses Tame asses or asses brought to hand are about the house or in the enclosed pastures but wilde asses inhabit the desert The word that wee render desert comes from a roote that signifies to speake and the desert is so called by the figure of Contrary speaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Locutus est per antiphrasin quasi locus a sermone remotus because there is little or no speaking in deserts many words are heard onely in Cities or places where many people frequent It signifies also to lay wast because deserts are wast and barren places in comparison of drest and Enclosed grounds such is the place whether these spoylers goe forth as wilde asses To their worke But wild asses worke not onely tame asses are labouring asses So that the similitude runs not upon that poynt yet we may say wilde asses have a worke and 't is much like that which
Est velut epiphonema ad superiora Merc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clamare non quoquo modo significat sed cum singultu ut solent moribundi Merc and here we have as it were the conclusion or a kinde of acclamation upon the whole matter Would you know what worke these men make they are so high in their cruelty that men groane under it The word which we translate to groane doth not signifie any kinde of groane for some cry before they are hurt but that which is caused by the greatest hurt and comes from the very bottom of the heart even such a groane as they give forth who are about to dye Men groane from Out of the Cittie This shews the impudence of those men in sinne as well as their impunity We might reasonably suppose they would not dare to doe thus in the open Citie though they had done it in a corner of the Country where there were but few to take notice of them To doe thus in the Citie in the eyes of all men is an argument that they had lost their modesty as well as their honesty and were resolved not onely to doe evill but to stand to it or make it good And the soule of the wounded cryeth out That is the wounded cry out the soule is put for the person or the man or the soule of the wounded is sayd to cry out to shew the greatnesse and dolefullnesse of the cry As when Mary sayd My soule doth magnifie the Lord it argues that shee magnified the Lord with strong affections as if shee had been all soule Suâ—h also is the force of that passage in Deborahs Song Judg. 5.21 O my soule thou hast troden downe strength shee trod downe the strength of the enemy with all her strength And her soule which was her strength in God was in it more then her body So here the soule of the wounded cryeth out that is the wounded cry out most lamentably they powre out their owne soules while others were powring out their bloud But what are these wounded or how were they wounded Wee may take it eyther of an outward or inward wounding There is a wounded spirit as well as a wounded body many are wounded whose flesh is whole who have not so much as a scarre made in their skin yet here the wounded were such whose flesh or outward state was wounded first and then their hearts or spirits were wounded because of that with griefe and sorrow The soule of the wounded The word which we translate wounded signifies two things First that which is prophane and polluted and in the verb to pollute and prophane a thing Idol-worshippers are so called because they are polluted as wounded men with blood And hence also it is used as a word of abomination The Lord forbid sayd David 1 Sam. 24.6 And againe 2 Sam. 20.20 Farre be it from me farre be it from me sayd Joab in both which places the actions abominated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 polluti prophani 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absit vox prohibitionis abominationis res prophana s t mihi had the defilement or pollution of blood in them And the Jewes speaking this word usually rent their garments shewing the abhorrence and indignation of their minds at blasphemie or such like abominations Now because wounded men are defiled in their blood therefore this word signifieth the wounded The soule of the wounded cryeth out not onely cryeth but cryeth out Which implyeth the greatnesse of their wound and the extreame painefullnes of it Hence Note Oppression is a crying sinne and makes the oppressed cry The blood of Abel who was the first man that ever was outwardly wounded cryed when he was dead how much more doe they cry whose blood is powring out and themselves under present feare of death The soules under the Altar cryed how long Lord how long Rev. 6.9 Those soules had suffered and were past suffering yet they cryed out for vengeance upon their adversaryes how much more will their soules cry who are under sufferings The wounds of the wounded are as so many wide mouthes crying out to God though their owne soules should be silent and say nothing I have upon other passages in this booke met with the sinne of oppression and the cry of the poore upon it therefore I shall not further stay here but a while insist upon the last clause of this context which holds out the chiefe and most considerable matter of it The oppressour doth all these wickednesses but what doth God Surely we might expect to heare of God in the next words healing and helping the wounded who make this cry and wounding the hairy scalpe of those who made them cry had not God a fit occasion put in his hand to shew himselfe first for the releife of the oppressed and secondly for the punishment of the oppressour He that beholds such actings as these the fatherles plucked from the breasts the poore made slaves the labourer denied his wages the wounded crying groaning he I say that beholds all this might say in his heart surely now God will presently appeare and indeed God hath often appeared when the wicked have been in the heate of such actings and the poore in the heate of such sufferings Psal 12.5 For the oppression of the poore for the sighing of the needy now I will arise saith the Lord I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him Yet here we finde no such thing nothing like the Lords arising for the saving of the poore from oppression or for the breaking of oppressors Job saw or had seene the poore oppressed and the needy sighing but did not see God comming eyther with deliverance or revenge for he adds though all this be done Yet God layeth not folly to them Master Broughton reads And the puissant marketh not the unsavory dealing His meaning is not that God did not know that their dealings were unsavory or that he did not observe and take notice of their dealings but he did not observe them so as to appeare presently against them God layeth not or God putteth not the meaning is God imputeth not or God chargeth not folly or strictly to the letter of the Hebrew that which is unsavory to them or upon them That word which signifies a thing unsavory or without salt in a natural and proper sence may elegantly be rendred folly in a moral or metaphoricall sence for foolishnes or folly is that which hath no salt of reason righteousnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod fit praeter omnem rationem aequitatem Bez justice or equity in it Hence the word is often used to signifie that which is done besides without or against all these So it is sayd Chap. 1.22 In all this Job sinned not neither did he charge God foolishly or neither did he charge folly upon God it is this word Job did not thinke that God dealt unjustly or unreasonably with him though he had
from this Hebrew word it is conceaved the Heathens also called the Sun Jupiter Hammon and they had Sun-Images called Chammamin Levit. 26.30 which they worshipped Drought and heate consume the snow water The word as many other in the Hebrew hath a neernesse of sound as well as in sence with our English word gussell and wee say of Great drinkers They are Guzzlers The dry earth and heate gussell or drinke in the snow water as the intemperate person gussels and drinks downe his liquor Thus drought and heate consume the snow water that is the snow when melted into water So doth the grave those that have sinned There is a wonderfull concisenes in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intra breviâ—as quae obscuritatem parit non dubium est similitudinem esse Merc we finde there no particle of likenes nor is there any expression of those that as appeares by the different letter in our translation yet there is no doubt but the words carry in them the force of a similitude therefore we may safely supply them according to our reading So doth the grave those that have sinned The same word is used indifferently in the Original both for the grave and hell both significations are made use of by Interpreters in this place First the grave or death secondly Hell which is the second death and everlasting death consumeth those that have sinned But why doth he say the grave consumeth those that have sinned Can he meane any speciall sort of men by this forasmuch as all men have sinned and sin dayly I answer It is a truth the grave consumeth and death reigneth over all for that all have sinned Wheresoever sin hath to doe death hath to doe the terretories of death are as large as the terretories of sin And had it not been for sin death had never had any dominion in the world nor can the grave consume any but those who have sinned The Body of man had never come into the graves mouth and it had been too hard a morsel for the stomacke of the grave to digest had it not been for sin For though the body of man in its materialls and constitution was mortall that is was under a possibility of dying before he sinned yet if sin had not brought him under the threat of death God had never subjected him under that decree of dying in pursuance of both which the grave now consumeth all those that have sinned The grave consumes Godly men because they have sinned and the grave consumes wicked men because they have sinned yet there is a great difference among these sinners who dye and a greater difference among these sinners when they are dead And therefore Job speakes here destinctively for though it be a truth that all whether Godly or wicked have sinned and that the grave consumeth all who have sinned yet Job doth not here intend all men by Those who have sinned For by them Job meanes grosse presumptuous and impoenitent sinners he meanes it not of those who sin according to common fraylety but of those who sin with a high hand obstinately Such he meanes even oppressours adulterers murtherers of whom he spake by name before these and such as these are the sinners whom he intends while he saith so doth the grave those that have sinned And it be said so doth the grave those that in this sence have not sinned I answer The Grave is sayd in a speciall manner to consume those who have thus sinned First Because such sinners doe more subject and lay themselves open to death by their wicked courses and intemperate living Such sinners spoyle their bodyes and corrupt their blood they fill themselves with diseases which bring them early to the Grave Secondly Because God doth often cut the thread of such mens lives when they are strong and healthy and tumbles them into the graves mouth to be consumed before they have lived out halfe their dayes The words being thus opened fall under a twofold interpretation First As implying the felicity such as it is of wicked men in dying or the easinesse of their death as they live in pleasure so they dye without paine That 's a poynt insisted upon at the 13th verse of the 21th Chapter They spend their dayes in wealth and in a moment or with ease they goe downe to the grave Moriuntur facillimè suavissime ita ut nihil doloris aut cruciatus senti ant non lenta morte contabescunt ut magna ex parte probi Merc Ex Hebraeis aliqui putant indicari lenissimam mortem in piorum qua lenitur et insensibiltâ—è◠liqu fiant c. Pined And againe ver 32 33. Hee shall be brought to the grave the clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him Where Job shews that wicked men have as much ease in death as others and many times a great deale more They dye in a moment not tyred out with the torture of chronical diseases but having a quicke and speedy passage out of the world are dissolved even as the snow is by the heate and warmth of the Sunne This sence some of note insist chiefly upon as most suiteable to Jobs scope in describing the corporall and temporall felicity of wicked men even in death which carryes the greatest appearance of terror and trouble in it But I rather take these words as a description of the miserable end and sad conclusion of a wicked man For the word which we render to consume signifies a forceable swallowing downe a kinde of devouring which doth not consist with that other explication Drought and heate consume the snow-waters so doth the grave those that have sinned Hence observe First Some sin so as if they were the onely sinners or as if they onely had sinned All men sin but some goe away with the name as if they onely were worthy to be called sinners In which sence the Evangelist sayth Luke 7.37 And behold a woman in the City which was a sinner when she knew that Jesus sat in the Pharisees house brought an albaster box of ointment c. But were not all the women in the City sinners They were so but this woman had a common fame for a sinner that is for an uncleane wanton woman shee was a sinner of sinners the chiefe of sinners in that City So Luk. 19.7 when Christ went to the house of Zacheus the Pharisees were vexed and murmured saying that he was gone to be guest with a man which was a sinner As if they had sayd he is gon to the house of a notorious sinner a man so sinfull and guilty that all men seeme innocent and sinlesse in comparison of him So they accounted That Zacheus the Publican and doubtlesse he was as noted a man for sin before his conversion as he was for grace after it As they who are borne of God doe not commit sin yea cannot sin because they are borne of God 1 Joh. 3.9 that is their sinning
upon sin before so now the worme shall have a sweete morsell of him Which some interpret also as a circumlocution of an ignominious or at least a vulgar buryall as if he had sayd he shall not have the buryall of the noble and honourable who usually are secured from wormes by spices and imbalmings spice and perfume fence the dead body against the worme But though he lived honourably death shall overtake him and he shall be buryed ignominiously or he shall be buryed among common men he shall not have that priviledge which appertaines to his state preservation from the wormes And which is a greater misery then both the former Thirdly He shall be no more remembred that is he shall be no more spoken of with honour but his name shall rot as a man that is not worth the remembring His name shall not be registerd with honour nor kept upon the file with men of credit and renowne So that as the first part of the verse shewes how his neerest relations and lovers shall forget him so this latter part shewes that he shall be remembred no more of any others The Original word which we translate to remember Meshciim secretarij zichronoth memoriae historiae monumenta zacha◠Masculus taken in other formes signifyes a history or a monument of record as also a recorder or register who writes and sets downe things for memory And hence also a man-childe in the Hebrew is called Zachar because the family is reckoned by the males they only being named in genallogyes and registred in the monuments of antiquity so that these words He shall be no more remembred sound thus much he shall be a man whose name is quite blotted or rased out of all memorialls And This curse of being no more remembred may be taken as was intimated before eyther first absolutely he shall not be thought of named or remembred at all or secondly relatively he shall no more be remembred with honour his name will smell worse then his rotten carkasse when he is dead and whensoever he is mentioned it will be like rakeing in a dunghill which raiseth up a filthy stench and vapour Possibly while he lived he was spoken of with honour he had many flatterers who crept to him bowed to him adored him and called him a gracious Lord but when he dyeth his reputation dyeth too he shall be no more remembred with honour when any man ceaseth to be remembred as he once was he may be said not to be remembred at all The worst and wickedest men that ever were in the world may be still remembred but when they are remembred it is with some marke of infamie or with a blacke brand upon their name Hence note Not to be remembred at all when we are dead or to be remembred with dishonour is the portion of the wicked Many pretious Saints have both lived in obscurity and being dead 't is scarse remembred that they ever lived but none of the knowne Saints did ever live in disgrace unlesse in their opinion who had no grace and being dead they are remembred by all who have grace with honour But They who have been most famous for wickednesse while they lived in this world the most famous oppressours adulterers and robbers have dyed undesiered and their name◠hath rotted being dead Prov. 10.7 David Psal 69.28 powreth out this curse upon his enemies Let them be blotted out of the booke of the living and not remembred among the righteous The Jewes were wont to number their familyes and to take their names so they did when they came out of Egypt In which sence the booke of numbers may be called The booke of the living and we may take the booke of the living in a double notion eyther first for the booke of those who lived naturally or secondly of those who lived spiritually and so were such as should live eternally Phil. 4.3 Rev. 3.5 David seemes to intend this booke of the living because he addeth let them not be remembred among the righteous As if he had sayd These men made an outward profession and seemed once to be in the list and catalogue of the righteous they had once an esteeme and a name among the people of God as all hypocrites have till they are unmasked but they have discovered themselves to be of another alliance therefore let them be no more named nor remembred as having any relation to that society Thus we may interpret that imprecation of Moses Exod. 32.32 when the Lords wrath waxed hott against the people of Israel and would have destroyed them Moses prayed Yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin and if not blot me I pray thee out of the booke which thou hast written that is out of the booke which thou hast commanded to be written as a record of the people of Israel As if he had sayd Voluit Moyses de libro legis deleri nomen suum ne unquā ulla in ea plus mentio fieret nec legislator haberetur vel dux populi Rab Sol Ex pungi se voluit ex catalogo quasi scriptorum patrum i. e. principum virorum populi Hebraei sc patriarcharum c. qui vocabatur liber Justorum Bold Ab ipso populi dei catalogo radi poscebat ut nulla deinceps inter fidelium nominis sui mētio fieret quamvis fidissimus dei servus esse perseveret Haec deletio nominis a libro viventium populi dei opprobriosa nimis erat infamis sceleratorum poena Id let me be reckoned no more for an Israelite especially let me not have a glorious honourable name in Israel such a one Moses had being the leader of that people Blot me out of the booke which thou hast written let not my name stand upon that record The Lord had sayd ver 20. Let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them that I may consume them and I will make of thee a great nation And Moses besought the Lord c. As if he had said I stand not upon my own name I am so farre from being ambitiously desirous to be the head of a greater nation then these that rather then thy name should suffer I care not to be taken notice of as the head of this nation no nor as the meanest member of them no nor to be accounted so much as a common Israelite Blot me out of the booke which thou hast written This also is a fayre interpretation of Pauls meaning Rom. 9.3 when he wished himselfe accursed from Christ for his brethren his kinsmen according to the flesh We may suppose that Moses and Paul were moved with the same Spirit of zeale for the Glory of God in both their wishes And that when Moses wished upon that account to be blotted out of the Booke which God had written he wished the same thing which Paul did when he wished to be accursed or an anathema from Christ That is to be as a person separated
to the widow That is he administers no helpe to the widdow in her wants no counsel to her in her straites nor any Comfort to her in her sorrows And this Negative he doth not good to the widow hath an Affirmative in it hee doth her wrong hee grieveth and vexeth the widow For as Negative Commandements alwayes containe the Affirmative while we are forbidden to doe any evill wee are enjoyned to doe the contrary good so negative practices usually imply the affirmative and while we neglect to doe good we are active in doing evill Or as the Negative threatnings of God containe affirmatives Exod. 20.7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vaine for the Lord will not hold him guiltles that taketh his name in vaine that is hee will hold him very guilty or look upon him as very sinfull and punish him accordingly that takes his name in vaine and as Negative promises containe affirmative promises Psal 51.17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise that is thou O God wilt highly esteem accept of and delight in a broken heart and as negative conclusions imply the affirmative Prov. 17.21 The father of a foole hath no Joy that is hee hath much sorrow and griefe Prov. 28.21 To accept persons in Judgement is not good that is to accept persons in Judgement is very bad so negative practices of sin containe the affirmative as elsewhere so here in the Text hee doeth not good to the widow that is he wrongeth and troubleth the widdow the widdow who is helples is hurt by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod significat câ—llâ—gare obmutescere The word which we render widow signifies in the verbe both to binde and to be silent Both which significations are complicated in the widows Condition For first the widow is bound though shee be loose from her husband shee is bound and that two wayes first with troubles that 's her affliction secondly shee is bound to be or stay much at home that 's her duty secondly as the widow is home-bound so she is tongue-bound too the widows eloquence is silence she speakes most to her owne commendation when she speakes little The Apostle Paul reproves widows about two things which discover two faylings in them opposite to both these latter bindings 1 Tim. 5.13 And withall they learne to be idle wandering from house to house As if he had sayd it is not comely for the widow to wander abroad she should stay at home the widow should be a fixed starre not a planet Not that the widow is to be a prisoner in her house but she should be so much there that shee may deserve the name of a House-keeper not of a wanderer from house to house The Apostle proceeds in his charge against the faulty widow And not onely Idle but which is the second vice Tattlers also and busie bodyes speaking things which they ought not Tattlers are such as use their tongues overmuch and usually much more then their hands whereas the widow should be much in busienes little in discourse alwayes doing seldome speaking We see the wisedome of God in teaching proper dutyes in common names in which thing the Hebrew language is most exact fruitfull But I shall returne from this digression if it may be so called about the word when I have onely added that the sence given from this Etymologie of the word doth not onely shew the widow much of her duty but aggravates the sin of the wicked man in the neglect or omission of his duty unto hir He doth not good to the widow no not to the widow who is bound downe with many sorrowes he speakes not a good word for the widow who is as David speakes in another case Psal 39.2 even dumbe with silence I have already both in this Chapter as also in the 22d shewed how sinfull it is eyther to neglect or afflict widows yea that to neglect them is to afflict them therefore I shall not prosecute those poynts here Onely from the forme of speaking Note Not to doe good is sinfull as well as to doe evill yea as sinfull as to doe evill Not to doe what we are enjoyned is as bad as to doe what we are forbidden We are not onely forbidden to wrong the widow Jer. 22.3 but we are often enjoyned to relieve and helpe her to visit her and doe her good therefore the widow hath wrong done to her when good is not done to her The spirit of wickednes is not yet drawne to the full length see the wicked man still at worke in the next verse Vers 22. Hee draweth also the mighty by his power hee riseth up and no man is sure of his life In the former verse the wicked man had to doe with the weake with the barren with the widow but now he grapples with the strong mighty Hee draweth also the mighty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 traxit per traxit occulto impetu aliquem impellere quo velis verbis atque rationibus aliquem trahere Drus The word may denote a twofold drawing First drawing by a secret hidden imperceptible power a moral power the power of perswasion working upon the heart and influencing the affections There is an internal atractive vertue which draweth the mind as the loadstone doth iron when nothing is seene nor so much as a word heard The word is used in that sence Judg 4.6 7. where the people of Israel being sore oppressed by Jabins Army under the conduct of Sisera Deborah the Prophetesse who at that time Judged Israel sent and called Baruch and said unto him Hath not the Lord God of Israel Commanded saying goe and draw toward mount Tabor and take with thee ten thousand men of the Children of Napthali and of the Children of Zebulun Thus God bid them draw to that place But what had God promised Deborah tells him what in the next verse And I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera the Captaine of Jabins Army with his Chariots and his multitude and will deliver him into thine hand But it may be questioned how God would draw Sisera with his Army thither It was not by any outward force onely God put a purpose into his heart to draw up his Army to that place that so he might fall into the snare Sisera had a secret motion or impulse upon his spirit which he could not withstand though he fell by obeying it Thus also God draweth soules to himselfe by the invisible power of his Spirit in their effectuall vocation and Conversion Joh. 6.44 No man can come to me except the father which sent me draw him how doth God draw hee drawes by perswasion not by compulsion his perswasion carryes a mighty commanding power with it This drawing is not a bare moral perswasion by the proposal of an object before them and so leaving
word with all readines of mind yet they did not swallow downe all whole that was sayd to them but searched the Scriptures dayly whether those things ware so Act. 17.11 The Apostles rule is sutable to their practice 1 Thes 5.21 Prove all things hold fast that which is good Now as it is the duty of hearers and learners to hold nothing till they have proved it so it is the duty of Teachers to offer every doctrine to the ballance or tryall which they desire others should hold Secondly While Job doth thus confidently offer his assertion to tryall We learne That Truth is not affrayd to be tryed Truth often lieth in a corner but truth doth not seeke corners truth never hides her head as ashamed to be seene or discussed by men Truth as some have sayd lyeth in a deepe pit it is hard to finde it out it lieth out of sight yet truth doth not hide it selfe but dares stand forth in the face of all the world truth no more feares the triall then pure gold feares the touchstone or then a schollar who hath made good progresse in his learning feares to be examined He that hath truth with him needs not care who appeares against him Thirdly In that he sayth if it be not so now who will make me a liar Note False doctrine is a lye Isa 9.15 The antient and the honourable he is the head the Prophet that teacheth lies that is the Prophet that teacheth false doctrine he is the tayle Jer. 9.3 They bend their tongues like their bowes for lies but they are not valiant for the truth on the earth The Prophet as I conceave intends not so much falsehood in discourse which we call telling a lye as falsehood of doctrine which we call teaching of lyes They bend their tongues as bows for lies that is they set themselves to the maintaining of false doctrine to the utmost stretch of their wit and words Againe saith the Lord Jer. 14.14 The Prophets that prophecy lyes in my name I sent them not neither have I commanded them neither spake unto them they prophecy unto you a false divination and a thing of nought and the deceit of their heart The whole doctrine of the man of sin is called a lye Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved therefore God gave them up to strong delusion that they should beleive a lye 2 Thes 2.11 All the faith-devouring and conscience-wasting errors that ever the man of sin vented to the world are wrapt up in this one syllable or word a lye He that receaveth a lye that is told wrongeth others by it but he that receaved a lye that is taught wrongeth himselfe most by it To tell a lye is very sinfull but to teach a lye is much more sinfull The evill of that sin is greatest which spreadeth furthest continueth longest A lye that is told and received sticketh not long in the memory but passeth away for the most part like a tale that is told and it is enough to many a man that telleth a lye if he be beleeved but a little while But a lye that is taught and receaved sticketh long in the understanding and abideth there like a nayle fastned by the Masters of the assemblyes and it is not enough to him that teacheth a lye unlesse it be beleeved for ever Thirdly When Job sayth Who will make me a liar Note The worst thing that can be proved against any man is that he is a lyar To be a lyar is to be as bad as may be For it is to be as bad as the Devill He deceaved the woman both by telling and teaching a lye Gen. 3. He abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him when he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his owne for he is a lyar and the father of it Joh. 6.44 Every sin is of the Devill both by temptation and approbation but onely some sinnes are of the Devill by way of practice and the sin which is chiefely of him by practice is lying Now every sin the more congeniall it is to the Devill the more sinfull abominable it is And therefore among those who shall be without lye-makers are chiefe Rev. 22.15 Without are doggs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and Idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lye The universality of this exclusion is onely expressed upon lyars as if he had sayd to be sure all lyars shall be without He that maketh a lye hath nothing worse to make and he that maketh that is proveth a man to be a lyar hath nothing worse to make of him And make my speech nothing worth The Hebrew is And bring my speech to nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ideÌ„ quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graeci bâ—nè interpretantur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verbum è verbo in non as if he had sayd I challenge all men to disprove my reasons or to prove that my reasons are not a proofe of that for which I brought them In briefe let any man refute or confute what I have sayd if he can and then let all that I have sayd goe for nothing or be counted nothing worth Hence note Vnsound doctrine is worthlesse doctrine The speech of a lyar is nothing worth sound doctrine is of great value it is worth thousands David preferr'd the word of God before thousands of Gold and silver every holy truth is the word of God eyther formally or vertually eyther in termes or by consequence The Apostle compares sound doctrine to things of greatest worth even to Gold silver and pretious stones and in the same place 1 Cor. 3.12 he compares unsound doctrine or doctrine unsutable to the foundation which is Jesus Christ alone to wood hay stubble which as they are things in their owne nature unconsiderable worthlesse in comparison of Gold silver and pretious stones so as to the busienes upon which he there treates a suitable building upon Christ they are altogether worthlesse And if those doctrines which because of some errour in them are unsutable to the foundation are to be accounted but wood hay and stubble how worthlesse are those doctrines which being altogether erroneous are inconsistent with and quite overthrow the foundation Such doctrines are worthy of nothing but a dung-hill being themselves nothing but drosse and dung What is that worth to us which is uselesse to us How worthlesse then is that which is destructive to us Every error is a Bable a thing of no use some errors are as poyson deadly in their use The Apostle Peter doth not spare to say as much of them 2 Epist 2.1 2. while he calleth them damnable heresies which bring swift destruction upon the bringers of them in or the broachers of them abroad And if they bring destruction upon those who bring them they that receave them cannot be safe To conclude this poynt and Chapter if erroneous doctrine be nothing worth
persons not limited to this or that particular nation or person yea he hath dominion not onely over all here below but in heaven above as Bildad speakes a little after He maketh peace in his high places Christ is Prince of the Kings of the earth Rev 1.5 He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings Rev. 19.16 that is not onely a King or a Lord excelling all other Kings and Lords but also ruling them or reighning over them Kings are his Subjects Secondly His is an absolute dominion that is he governes by no law but by his owne will this kinde of dominion is proper unto God alone He doth and he onely may governe by his owne will Hee doth in heaven and earth what ever pleaseth him This was spoken of Job 23.13 Hee is in one minde and who can turne him and what his soule desireth that hee doth Hee doth not goe out of himselfe for his rule his owne desire is his rule all the desires of God are holy just and righteous and therefore his desire and will may well be his rule It is good that he should have an absolute dominion and rule according to his owne will who cannot will any thing but what is good And 't is but just that he should rule as he pleaseth who cannot be pleased with any thing but what is just Thirdly His is an everlasting dominion Psal 145.13 Psal 66.7 As men are mortall so are States Kingdomes and Empires The strongest and greatest of them have had their fates and funerals Wee see what changes there have been of dominion and power out of one hand into another but the dominion of God is subject to no change nor knoweth it any fate The Babylonian the Persian the Graecian and the Roman Monarchyes have seene their day but the dominion of Jesus Christ is an everlasting dominion Dan. 4.34 't is so acknowledged even by Nebuchadnezzar And at the end of the dayes I Nebuchad-nezzar lift up mine eyes unto heaven and mine understanding returned unto mee and I blessed the most high and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever whose dominion is an everlasting dominion and his Kingdome is from generation to generation Fourthly His is an Effectuall Dominion As he hath a right to doe what he will so he hath strength to effect what he willeth Such is the dominion of God and because it is such even an uniâ—â—rian absolute everlasting and effectuall Dominion Therefore let man remember his duty Dominion calleth for subjection That 's the Apostles rule Rom. 13.1 Let every soule be subject unto the higher powers and if every soule ought to be subject unto the higher powers among men then every soule ought to be subject much more to the power of God for his is the highest power And thus we ought to submit First Unto his lawes Legislative power is his what God sayth must be our rule We may not dispute much lesse quarrell at any of his commands but obey them naturally the heart of man rebells against the law of God Rom. 8.7 The carnall minde is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be that is it cannot be subject while it remaineth carnal onely a renewed or a spirituall minde submits to a spirituall law Secondly Submit to his workes to what he doth as wel as to what he saith and that first in the provision and allowances that he makes for you that is a part of Gods dominion to cut out a portion for every man Therefore in every estate be content secondly submit to the works of God in his afflictions and chastisements 1 Pe. 5.6 Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time When old Eli heard that terrible message concerning the destruction of his whole family for Samuel told him every whit and hid nothing from him hee sayd it is the Lord let him doe what seemeth him good 1 Sam. 3.18 Thus the Church sate downe in silence not speaking a word because it was the act of God Lam. 3.28 Thirdly submit to God in the whole compasse of his government in ordering the affayres of the whole world when he breaks and when he builds when he sets up and when he pulls downe when he makes peace and when he makes warre in all these acts of dominion submit to God When the Prophet calls us to behold what desolations the Lord maketh in the earth he adds this word as from the Lord Be still and know that I am God Psal 46.10 As if the Lord had sayd Let none question mee for what I have done I am God and if ye know indeed that I am ye will not have a word to say against what I doe So Zech 2.13 Be silent O all flesh before the Lord for he is raised up out of his holy habitation He is risen to make great changes therefore be silent submit let there be no murmuring at no contending with his providences for dominion and feare are with him Some render this word feare as an adjunct or Epithete of the former Dominatus quidem formidabilis est penes illum Jun Dominion and that a terrible fearefull or formidable dominion is with him but rather distinctly as wee Dominion and feare are with him God hath no feare in him nor upon him for he is as infinitely above all feare as he is above hope But feare is with him or feare is his because he is so much to be feared Feare is with God upon this threefold account First Because many at present doe feare the Lord every Godly man is a man fearing God Secondly Because every man ought to feare dread and stand in awe of God even the Princes and powers and dominions of the earth ought to feare the Lord. Psal 2.11 Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be instructed O ye Judges of the earth serve the Lord with feare and rejoyce with trembling Kings and Judges must serve and feare the Lord or serve the Lord with feare Who then must not Thirdly Feare is with him because all shall feare and dread him at last whether they will or no they whose proud hearts stout it against God they that goe on impudently in sinne fearelesse of the Majesty and wrath of God yet a time will come when their stomacks shall be taken downe a time will come when all the world shall tremble before the Lord. As now many doe it and as all ought to doe it so all shall doe it Isa 2.19 They shall goe into the holes of the rocks and into the tops of the ragged rocks for feare of the Lord and for the glory of his Majesty when hee ariseth to shake terribly the earth Such a day is comming upon the lofty ones upon the Cedars and upon the Oakes upon the fearelesse and they shall feare and which is the greatest argument of feare run into a hole for feare It is prophecyed Revel 6.15 That the
able to number them And hee sayd unto him so shall thy seed bee Gen. 15.5 that is thy seed shall be numberlesse as the Starres are numberlesse Thirdly By these Armyes wee may understand not onely the Angells and the Sunne Moone and Starres that heavenly host but any creature yea all the creatures from the Elephant even to the worme that creepeth upon the ground or to the fly that buzzeth in the ayre or to the lice that breede out of corruption All these are the Armyes of God and by these he can doe his worke as well as by the Angells in heaven What were the armyes of God with which he made warre upon Pharaoh were they not flyes and lice and such like contemptible creatures mustred together at his command therefore the Text may well say Is there any number of his armies God can leavy an army upon the earth not onely of men but of beasts and not onely of Lyons and Elephants the stoutest and greatest beasts but of the weakest and meanest and not onely of the weakest and meanest among living creatures but of the very Inanimate creatures the stones in the feilds the winds in the ayre the waters of the Sea yea the sand of the Sea and the very dust of the earth are the armyes of God if hee give them commission and send them forth God and the weakest creature are an overmatch for the strongest creatures 'T is no matter how meane the meanes is or how inconsiderable the instrument so it be in the hand of God so it be of Gods providing and goe forth at his bidding God can leavy an army where he will and out of what he will and it shall doe the deed Now if all things or any thing may be his army no marvayle if it be sayd Is there any number of his Armyes Hence observe All creatures are the host the Armyes of God They may be called his Armyes in a threefold consideration First Because of their multitude a few cannot make an army There are many creatures of every kinde how many then are all of every kinde put together Secondly They are his Armyes because of their order The greatest many out of order doe not make an Army but a throng or heape Armyes are martiall'd and disciplin'd trayned and taught An Army is an ordered company all the creatures are in order by nature and when God calls they are in order as it were by Art Thirdly They are his Armyes because as God hath a power to command them so they are ready to obey him They as the Centurion in the Gospel sayd of his Souldiers goe when God sayth goe they come when he sayth come and if he bid them doe this or that they doe it Souldiers must neyther refuse nor dispute the commands of their General The most violent and boysterous creatures are obedient to the call of God stormy winds and tempests fullfill his word Psal 148.8 Hee speakes to the lightnings and they say heere are wee Job 38.35 The very thunder which seemes to be all voyce is all eare at the voyce of God The Angels are so ready to goe that they are sayd to fly and their readines to doe the will of God in heaven is made the patterne of our doing it here on earth The Scripture speakes often of them as of an army employed in warres eyther to destroy the wicked or to be a guard to the people of God We have an illustrious example of the latter in Jacobs case Gen. 32.2 And when Jacob saw them hee sayd this is Gods host and hee called the name of that place Mahanaim that is two hosts or companies And it might be so called because Jacobs company or little host and that company of Angels who were Gods host sent out to convoy him in safety did both encampe upon the same ground or rather because the Angels divided themselves into two companyes The one encamping and marching before him as his Vantguard the other behind him or in his Reere That so he might see himselfe every way protected and might be filled with a full assurance of safety That God hath such numerous Armyes alwayes at hand and under command is First A very comfortable hearing to all that love and feare God The Apostle sayth Rom. 8.31 If God be for us who can be against us that is none can Though many be against us opposingly yet none can be against us prevaylingly We may say also if the Lord be for us who will not be for us If God be our helper we cannot want helpers not onely because the helpe of God is enough without any more but because if he be our helper we shall have many more When we see our selves utterly destitute of all helpes and helpers yet God hath an army of helpers he hath auxiliary forces ready for us Psal 34.7 The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that feare him and delivereth them David speaketh as if one single Angel were a whole Army The Angel of the Lord sayth he encampeth he doth not say the Angels of the Lord encampe about them that feare him and indeed every Angel of the Lord is more in power then a whole Army of men yet here possibly is meant that Angel who is the Lord The Angel of the Covenant who as Captaine General with his Army of created Angels encampeth about them that feare God And if so then they need not be afrayd 2 Kings 6.16 17. When the servant of Elisha cryed out for feare Elisha answered feare not they that be with us are more then they that bee with them And Elisha prayed And sayd Lord I pray thee open his eyes that hee may see and the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and hee saw and behold the mountaine was full of horses and Charrets of fire round about Elisha And thus it is often with us though wee discerne it not Wee have many invisible succours in our visible dangers And as that the Angels are our helpers in eminent and extraordinary dangers is very comfortable so also that they are so against ordinary common or every-day-dangers Psal 91.11 12. Hee shall give his Angells charge over thee to keepe thee in all thy wayes They shall beare thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foote against a stone that is lest thou take hurt in thy dayly workes and travels Secondly These Armyes are a terrour to all those who rebell and rise up against God or are enemies to his people Hee that resists God hath as many enemyes as there are Angells in heaven or starres in the firmament or stones in the earth or beasts in the feild so many enemies hath he and if God appeare as Captaine generall none shall be able to stand before his armyes though he levy them of Grasse-hoppers or flyes or wormes or lice How should the greatest feare to provoke God who can make them fall by that which is least For as David acknowledged Psal 33.16 17.
wherein with respect to Christ apprehended by faith hee absolveth the beleever from sin and death and doth repute him just and righteous unto eternal life Of this the Apostle treates at large in the 3d 4 â—â— and 5th Chapters of the Epistle to the Romanes and in that to the Galatians This doctrine of free justification is the foundation and corner stone of all our comfort For whereas there is a double change in the state of a sinner first a relative change secondly an absolute and reall change The one is made in sanctification the other in Justification Sanctification is a reall change subduing corruption destroying the power of sin in us but Justification is not a Physicall or real change in the person it doth not make him that is unrighteous righteous in himselfe nor is man at all Justified in this sence by any selfe-righteousnes but it is onely a relative change as to his state To Justifie is a Law-terme signifying the pronouncing or declaring of a man righteous So that Justification is an act of God upon us or towards us Sanctification is an act of God in us This blessed Grace of Sanctification alwayes followeth the grace of Justification as an effect or fruit of it and though it may easily be distinguished from it yet it can no more be separated or divided from it then heate from fire or motion from life Yet I concave that Bildad in this place doth not speake of Justification in that strict Gospel sence as it imports the pronouncing of a man righteous for the sake of Christ or as if he supposed Job looked to be pronounced righteous for his owne sake But Bildad speakes of Justification here as to some particular act As for instance If any man will contend with God and that Bildad chargeth Job with as if God had done him some wrong or had afflicted him more then was need is he able to make this plea good and give proofe of before the Throne of God How can man be Justified with God There is a fourefold understanding of that phrase with God First Thus If any man shall presume to referre himselfe to the Judgement of God shall he be justified all at last must appeare before the Judgement of God whether they will referre themselves to him or no but suppose a man referre himselfe to God as Job had done by appealing to him can he be Justified Will God upon the tryall examination of his cause give Judgement or sentence for him But in this sence it is possible for a man to be justified with God and thus Job was justified by God at last against the opinion and censures of his three friends Secondly To be Justified with God is as much as this If man come neere to or set himselfe in the presence of God shall he be justified Man usually lookes upon himselfe at a distance from God he looks upon himselfe in his owne light and so thinkes himselfe righteous but when he lookes upon himselfe in the light of God and as one that is neer God will not all his spots and blemishes then appeare or rather will not he himselfe appeare all spot and blemish When he is once with God will he be any thing with himselfe but an impure and wretched creature In this sence Bildad might check Jobs boldnes in desiering to come so neere God even to his seate which would but have made him more vile in his owne eyes and discovered to him his owne impurities as it did to the Prophet Isayah Chap. 6.5 and as it did also to Job himselfe when he attained his wish and got so neere to God that he called it a seeing him with his eye Chap 42.5 Then we have not a word more of pleading his cause before God His mouth was stopt and he abhorred himselfe repenting in dust and ashes Thirdly Can man be justified with God that is if man compare himselfe with God an he be justified one man may compare himselfe with another and be justified And thus the fâ—ithfull people of God are called righteous and just in Scripture comparatively to wicked and unrighteous men But how can any man be just or righteous compared with God in comparison of whom all our righteousnesse is unrighteous and our very cleanenes filthy Fourthly To be justified with God is against God that is if man strive or contend with God in any thing as if God were too hard and severe towards him eyther by withholding good from him or bringing evill upon him can man be justifyed in this contention or will God be found to have done him any wrong without all question he will not From the words taken in a generall sence observe Man hath nothing of his owne to Justifie him before God There are two things considerable in man first his sinne secondly his righteousnesse his worst and his best all grant man cannot be justified by or for his sins nor can he at all be justifyed in or for his owne righteousnesse And that upon a twofold ground First Because the best of his righteousnesse is Imperfect and no Imperfect thing can be a ground of Justification and acceptance with God For though God doth justifie those who are imperfect yet hee never justified any man upon the account of that which is Imperfect God never tooke cockle-shels for payment he must have pure gold and he seeth wel enough what poore stuffe what base coyne the best of our righteousnesse is and therefore cannot admit any of it in justification For the purpose of God is to exalt himselfe in Justice as wel as in mercy by the justification of sinners And therefore the Apostle sayth Rom. 3.25 26. That God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousnesse and he is not content to say it once but saith it againe To declare I say his righteousnesse that he might be just and the justifier of him that beleeveth in Jesus Secondly All the righteousnesse wrought by man is a due debt how can wee acquit our selves from the evill wee have done by any good which we doe seeing all the good we doe we ought to have done though we had never done any evill When we have done our best we may be ashamed of our doings we do so poorly But suppose we had done richly and bravely suppose our workes which indeed are full of drosse were pure gold and silver were precious stones and Jewels yet they are already due to God Wee owe all and all manner of obedience as wee are creatures And wee can never justifie our selves from our transgressions by satisfying could we reach them our obligations There is enough in Christ to justifie us but there is nothing in our selves All that Christ did was perfect and Christ was under no obligation to doe any thing but what he willingly submitted to doe for us This booke of Job beareth as great a testimony to this truth as any How often doth
Lord mindes him often of his Original by calling him Son of man Son of man so here Bildad mindeth man of the meanenes of his birth he is but the son of man Some proud men have drawne their pedigree from the Gods or from the Starres Alexander the Great would be called the son of Jupiter which was to say the son of the Sunne hee did not like to be called the son of man though as he was so so he was soone after convinced and confessed that he was so And the son of man which is a worme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vermis magnus parvus qui ab omnibus teritur contunditur Wee expresse this latter branch by the same word worme in our English but the Hebrew speakes it in a different word and Master Broughtn renders it differently in the English and the son of man a vermin The word signifieth both small and great wormes all sorts of wormes or vermine here 's the state of man and how can hee who is such a worme stand before God in his purity when the Sunne Moone and Starres are impure before him Againe wee may take notice that Bildad doth not say man is like a worme but is a worme 'T is not spoken by way of similitude but of assertion Hence observe Man is a very poore thing So poore a thing that hee is twice in this Text called a worme the lowest things serve for a Comparison and beare the likenes of the highest and greatest men in the world man is but a worme and the son of man is no better a worme or vermin As it sheweth the excellency of God that nothing is so good so great so perfect that is worthy to be compared with him Isa 40.18 To whom will yee liken God or what likenes will yee compare unto him Looke over all the Excellencyes that are in the Creature is there any thing that lookes like God that hath any excellency or beauty comparatively to him And againe Isa 46.5 To whom will yee liken mee and make mee equall and compare mee that wee may be like that is there is nothing that you can compare or make mee like unto I am above all comparison Now I say as it shewes the excellency of God that there is nothing worthy to be compared to him so it shewes the meanenes of man that there is nothing so unworthy but that he may be compared to it and that without wrong or disparagement The Scripture doth as it were strive for Comparisons to set forth the weaknes the poorenes the worthlesnes of man hee is compared to yea called dust Gen. 3.19 Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne Hee is compared to the grasse of the feild that groweth to day but withereth or is cut downe to morrow Isa 40.6 Hee is compar'd unto a shadow that hath nothing of Entity or substance and therefore continueth not but vanisheth away Job 14.2 Hee is compar'd to that which is lesse then a shadow even to that which is as I may say the nothingnes of all things vanity and thus hee is called when at his best or in his best estate Psal 39.5 Further man is not onely nothing and lesse then nothing but that which is worse then nothing a ly hee is naturally under such disgrace that he is the very word of disgrace a ly Surely saith David Psal 62.9 men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are a ly Nor doth the Lord speake thus of single persons onely but of Nations and not onely of this or that Nation but of all Nations take mankind in a cluster or as bundled up together not onely is this or that man this or that Nation but all men and all Nations before him are as nothing and are counted to him lesse then nothing and vanity Isa 40.17 They are not onely dust but which is the lightest and most inconsiderable dust the dust of the ballance and that the smallest dust of the ballance Isa 40.15 they are not onely a drop but the drop of a bucket which is but the drop of a drop The similitude in the Text layeth man low enough He is a worme When the Lord would speake of his people at the lowest rate in reference to the opinion which they had of themselves or which others had of them hee calls them a worme Isa 41.14 Feare not thou worme Jacob and yee men of Israel God doth not speake this to the disparagement or to the discouragement of Jacob but to the comfort of Jacob As if he had said though thou art a worm though thou art thus low thus mean humbly in thy own thoughts contemptuously in the thoughts of others yet feare not yea all shall have cause to be afraid of thee for though thou art a worme yet thou shalt thresh the nations and beate them small c. As National Jacob then so personal Jacob or Jacob in person before was but a worme in his owne eyes Gen. 32.10 I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies or I am lesse then all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant for with my staffe I passed over this Jordan that is I came over in a very poore manner all my state was but a staffe Here Jacob in person spake of himselfe as a worme and when wee speake thus like wormes wee speake most like Saints Our Lord Jesus Christ spake thus of himselfe as for our sakes he became poore and emptyed himselfe as for our sakes he tooke upon him the forme of a servant and was made in the likenes of man Psal 22.6 I am a worme and no man a reproach of men and despised of the people O how low did Christ esteeme and set himselfe as and while he stood in the place of sinners He not onely confessed that he was a worme because a man but that he was a worme and no man How then ought every sinfull man to abase himselfe and say I am a worme and no man Man is a worme in a five-fold respect First Looke upon his original and constitution hee is from the earth as the worme is Secondly Looke upon him in his natural state and condition hee liveth upon the earth and earthly things as wormes doe Thirdly Hee is a worme because continually subject to danger every foot may crush him Fourthly As the worme is very subject to danger so likewise unable to resist or make defence the worme is a naked creature and weares no armes neyther offensive nor defensive Such a one is man a worme unable to defend himselfe unlesse the Lord be his shield and a defence to him round about Fifthly Man is a worme for hee must shortly returne into the Earth where the wormes are housed hee is going to wormes as a worme and when he comes to the grave it will be worme to worme As the Lord sayd Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne so wee may
man chafed and enraged as a man full of wrath and fury but as a man most tenderly affected and full of pity for a bruised reade shall he not breake and smoaking flax shall he not quench a bruised read and smoaking flax are emblems of the weake of the arme without strength of those who are without wisdome Christ will not deale roughly with those he will not breake the bruised read nor quench the smoaking flax that is such as are broken with the sence of sin such as are weake in faith such as are so much over-powred by corruption that they doe rather smoake and make an ill-sented smother then burne or shine in a gracious profession such as are thus low and meane in spiritualls Christ will not breake with his power nor quench with his rebukes till he send forth judgement to victory that is till he hath perfected their conversion and hightned their graces to the full and caused the better part in them to prevaile over the worse as the house of David did over the house of Saul till it arive at a blessed victory And againe Isa 61.2 The spirit of the Lord God is upon me for whâ—t because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meeke he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaime liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound Here is helping those that have no power and saving the arme that hath no strength Thus Christ handles those who through temptation affliction or any trouble are brought low For the neglect of this duty the Lord reproves the Shepheards Ezek. 34.2 3 4. Son of man prophesie against the Shepheards of Israel prophecy and say unto them thus saith the Lord God unto the Shepheards Woe be to the Shepheards of Israel that doe feed themselves should not the Shepheards feed the flockes That is should they not be more intent upon the feeding of their flocke with spiritualls then upon the feeding of themselves with temporalls should they not labour more to feed the peoples soules then their owne bellyes surely they ought But what did the Shepheards of Israel The next words shew us both what they did and what they did not Ye eate the fat and ye cloath you with the wool ye kill them that are fed These things they were forward enough to doe But see what they did not ye feed not the flock That 's a general neglect of duty then followeth their neglect of particular duties The diseased have ye not strengthened neyther have ye healed that which is sicke neyther have ye bound up that which was broken neyther have ye brought againe that which was driven away by force of Satans temptation neyther have ye sought that which was lost through selfe-folly and corruption Here is a large enditement against the Shepheards All which may be summed up in Jobs language to Bildad They did not helpe those who had no power they did not save the arme without strength nor counsel those who had no wisdome See againe how the Prophet describes the compassionatenesse of God to his people in an afflicted condition Isa 27.8 In measure that is moderately when it shooteth forth thou wilt debate with it he stayeth his rough winde in the day of the East winde that is when affliction like an East winde blowes feircely upon his from the world then he stayeth his rough winde he will not bring his rough winde out of his treasures to joyn with the East-winde God will deale gently with his when they are hardly dealt with by men And thus it is our duty when it is a day of the East winde a day of trouble and temptation upon any soule to stay the rough winde to breath gently to give refreshment and ease to the weary soule How hast thou helped him that hath no power how savest thou the arme that hath no strength Secondly Observe The manner how we performe any duty is to be attended as well as the matter Bildads businesse was to comfort the sorrowfull to strengthen the infirme how did he performe this his strengthening was a weakning his helping was a grieving of Job already weake and grieved and the reason was because he failed in the manner or mannaging of this worke we must be carefull as to doe good for the matter so to doe it effectually which cannot be unlesse it be done rightly Some goe with an honest purpose to helpe who yet administer no helpe at all to every such helper it may be sayd with rebuke How hast thou helped him that is without power how unhandsomely hast thou done it what worke hast thou made of it Thou hast but entangled the poore soule worse then before This runs through all duties We may say to some How have you prayed and called upon God They onely speake a few words present a few petitions but without a heart without faith without a sense of the presence of God or of their owne wants how have such prayed call ye this prayer we may say to others how have you heard the word of God is this to heare what to reâ—eive the sound or the sense of the word and never to minde it more never to digest nor turne what is heard into practice is this hearing We may say to others how have you fâ—sted and humbled your soules before God Is this a fast that God hath chosen a day for a man to hang downe his head like a bullrush Is this fasting to God even to God No This is but a mock-fast a No-fast God hates such formality in praying hearing fasting with a perfect hatred A body exercised and a soule sitting still is not worship God is a spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and in truth In the truth or according to the rule of his owne word as also in the truth or according to the sincerity of our owne hearts unlesse we worship God in this twofold truth we worship him not at all as he will be worshipped how much soever we seeme to have a will to worship him As Job here puts a question mixt with admiration and indignation to his helper How hast thou helped him that hath no power How ilfavordly how bunglingly hast thou done it So the Lord will put such a question to many of his worshippers How have ye worshipped him that hath all power how slightly how formally how hypocritically have ye done it Therefore in all duties looke to the manner as well as to the matter and labour to doe them well as well as to doe them To neglect the doing of a duty or the doing of it negligently are alike offensive unto God and he will say to the latter with as much displeasure How hast thou done what I commanded as he will to the latter Why hast thou not done what I commanded yea Thirdly Observe That which is not done as it ought is to be judged as if not done That which we strive not
were too short were stretched longer Yet thus doe they who have but one word for all commers or for all they come to We would judge him a very unskilfull Physitian who let the disease be what it will should prescribe one and the same medicine or apply the same salve though a very soveraigne one to every soare As wee say That which is one mans meate is another mans poyson so we may also say That which is one mans medicine may be another mans poyson That which cures one disease may encrease another Therefore the Physician must consider to whom he gives the potion as well as what he gives and the Chirurgion must not onely know what his salve is but to whom he applyes it so in this case To whom hast thou uttered words weigh it wel whether they be babes or strong men in Christ whether they be under peaceable or troublesome dispensations whether obstinate or tender-hearted For these must be differently dealt with as their states doe differ We may else doe more hurt then good We may quickly as the Prophet speakes Ezek. 13.19 Slay the soules that should not dye that is grieve trouble the godly and save the soules alive which should not live that is harden and fatten the wicked in their sinnes The Apostle hath left us an excellent rule by his owne practice 1 Cor. 9.19 Though I be free from all men yet have I made my selfe servant to all that I might gaine the more and unto the Jewes I became as a Jew that I might gaine the Jewes to them that are under the Law as under the Law that I might gaine them that are under the Law to them that are without the Law as without Law being not without law to God but under the law to Christ that I might gaine them that are without Law to the weak became I as weak that I might gaine the weak I am made all things to all men that I might by all meanes save some and this I do for the Gospel sake that I might be partaker thereof with you In this context we see what was chiefely in the Apostles eye even that which is the highest and fayrest marke in the world the saving of soules And that he might attaine this end he critically observed the temper and state of his hearers striving to frame and sute himselfe and his speech accordingly He was not the same to all but he would be as they were to whom he spake or with whom he did converse yet Paul did not symbolize with nor connive at any in their sins he did not take upon him all colours he was not a man for all men or a man for all houres and humours The holy Apostle did not turne as flatterers doe with the times nor fashion himselfe to the severall garbes of men in a sinfull way Paul was so farre from any such base complyances that he having put the question doe I yet please men answers and concludes in the next words Gal. 1.10 If I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ But weighing the state of all men he formed his words and did accommodate his Ministery for their gaine or rather for the gaining of them Some are all things to all men that they may gaine by all that they may advantage themselves by all which is a spirit not onely unworthy of a Minister but of a man but Paul complyed with all that he might gaine them or bring them in the greatest gaine Or he complyed with all men that Christ might gaine and faith in him be propagated this I doe for the Gospel sake I doe not this for my owne sake I doe not put my selfe into all formes towards men for my own preferment in the world but that Christ may be preferred in the hearts and acceptations of all men with whom I have to doe before the world And that this was his purpose we have his sence fully from his owne pen 1 Cor. 10.32 33. Give none offence neyther to the Jewes nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God even as I please all men in all things not seeking mine own profit but the profit of many that they may be saved There are five things to be taken notice of that we may utter words to profit First The matter or what we speake Those words which have no worth in themselves can never profit others While the Prophet Hos 14.2 exhorteth the people to repentance He sayth Take with you words that is choise words select words consider what words you take with you when you turne to the Lord and plead with him for mercy saying take away all iniquity and receave us graciously And as we are to take words with us choyse words to expresse choyse matter in when we speake to the Lord so also in proportion when we speake to Men as from the Lord. Secondly We must consider to whom we are to utter words we must not shoot at random or without a marke Some doctrines are generall but there ought to be a speciall application of Generall doctrines Other Doctrines are peculiar to some We must not cast pearles before swine nor give childrens bread to doggs And we must be as carefull that we speake not to children that is to the truely Godly as we should doe to doggs and swine for so the Scripture calls them prophane and ungodly men Thirdly We must consider the season or time when we speake Those words will take at one time which will not at another There is as much care to be had and as much skill seene in a due timeing of our words as of our actions Fourthly We must consider the quantum or the measure of words uttered we may over-lay and over-charge those to whom we speake Every one cannot beare a strong shower of speech or words powred out like a flood upon such Our doctrine as Moses sayd his did Deut. 32.2 must drop as the raine our speech must distill as the dew as the smal raine upon the tender hearbe and as the showers upon the grasse Fifthly We must consider the manner in which we utter words whether to speake as a Barnabas or as a Boanarges whether as a son of thunder of wrath and judgement or as a son of peace of joy and consolation Of some have compassion that is deale tenderly with them Jude v. 22. making a difference and others save with feare pulling them out of the fire We doe but cast words into the ayre unlesse we thus make a difference in the manner of speech as they differ to whom we speake When we have duely weighed the matter which the persons to whom the season when the measure how much and the manner in which we ought to speake then we are like to speake to purpose and shall be above this reproofe which Job here gives Bildad To whom hast thou uttered words And whose spirit came from thee The word which we translate spirit signifyes also
should thinke that this is meant of the resurrection of the body Christ speakes of that distinctly ver 28. Marvel not at this for the houre is coming he doth not say as before and now is in the which all that are in the Graves dead bodyes shall heare his voyce and come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evill unto the resurrection of damnation As if Christ had sayd That powerfull voyce and a voyce lesse powerfull then that will not doe it which is able to rayse dead bodyes bodyes mouldered into dust from the earth and cause them to live againe that voyce I say is able to rayse a dead soule from a state of sin to newnes of life The Apostle saith as much while he calleth the preaching of the Word a savour of life unto life in them that are saved 2 Cor 2.16 They smel and tast life even eternal life at the receaving of the Word And as it is the meanes of conveighing life to those who are dead in sinne so of recovering and renewing life to those who are dead in sorrow Worldly sorrow or the sorrow of the world worketh death 2 Cor. 7.10 and extreame spirituall sorrow or the extreame sorrow of the soule about spiritualls puts us into a kinde of death Thus Heman spake of himselfe in that case Ps 88.4 5. I am counted with them that goe downe into the pit I am as a man that hath no strength free among the dead like the slaine that lie in the grave whom thou remembrest no more and they are cut off from thy hand As Heman was counted among the dead by others so he was like a dead man in his owne account too as he speakes at the 15th verse I am afflicted and ready to dye from my youth up while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted He was not ready to dye of bodyly diseases but of soule terrours nor could any thing revive him or fetch him backe from that death but the favour of God shining to him in the word of promise how glorious is the word by the workings of the Spirit which causeth the spirit to come forth and maketh them who were free among the dead become free among the living This effect and fruit of the word Job expected from his friends before and now from Bildad but all in vaine As their so his discourse with Job was fruitlesse and ineffectuall Much hath been spoken but I have got nothing I have got no spirit no refreshing my heart is no whit cheared nor my soule comforted both you and the rest of your brethren have proved miserable comforters to me To whom hast thou uttered words I am no better then if you had sayd nothing And whose spirit came from thee not mine for as yet notwithstanding all your reasonings my spirit is not returned to me I am as deepe in sorrow as ever I was There is yet another reading of this last clause of the verse given by Mr Broughton And whose soule admired thee The same word may signifie to admire and to come forth because the soule or spirit of a man comes forth as it were to gaze upon those things and persons which he admireth As if Job had sayd Possibly O Bildad thou presumest that thou hast spoken like an Oracle of Wisdome even much beyond the rate and proportion of ordinary men or of what is common to man and therefore doest expect to be applauded yea to be admired But whose soule is come forth by reason of thee who hath admired thee not I nor doe I know that any man hath reason so to doe unlesse it be because thou hast so much mistaken my meaning and intention in what I sayd and hast sayd things so improper to my condition Some have the persons of men in admiration because of advantage Jude v. 16. and others desire no other advantage but to be cryed up and had in admiration I dare not say that Bildad was a man of such a spirit though this translation whose soule admired thee seemes to charge him with such a folly JOB CHAP. 26. Vers 5 6 7. Dead things are formed from under the waters and the inhabitants thereof Hell is naked before him and destruction hath no covering He stretcheth out the North over the empty place and hangeth the earth upon nothing IN the former part of this Chapter Job reproved the last discourse of Bildad as unprofitable not that it was so in it selfe for that was true and a great truth which he spake of the greatnesse of God but the method which he used and the application of it to his case made it so How hast thou helped him that is without power c. In this Context and the subsequent part of the Chapter Job enters upon or reassumes the same argument or subject which Bildad had handled before The power soveraigntie and dreadfullnes of God in his workes both of Creation and providence all the world over Job would let Bildad understand that he was not unacquainted with the doctrine that he had prest upon him in the former Chapter As if he had sayd Doest thou thinke that I know not these things surely I can tell thee as much yea more of the power of God then thou hast spoken and thereby thou shalt see that I am not to learne nor to seeke in this matter yea I will point and paint out the power of God not onely in the visible heavens but in those things which lye unseene I will goe downe to the deepes to the bottome of the mighty waters I can tell thee that he is not onely admirable above but beneath in so much as nothing is bred or brought forth whether animate or inanimate in the vast Ocean but it is by his power and at his disposing Yea I will goe as low as hell and search the power of God there I will also ascend up to heaven and speake of the great things that God doth in the ayre and in the clouds and among the starrs whereby you may see that I am no stranger to such divine Philosophy and therefore this was not the poynt you should have insisted upon or that I needed to be informed in That 's the general scope and aime of Job in these words I shall now touch upon the particulars Dead things are formed from under the waters Jobs first instance concerning the power of God is about things under the waters Dead livelesse inanimate things are formed there Properly that onely is a dead thing which hath sometime lived wee cannot say a stone is a dead thing because it never had any life neither can wee say that water or earth are dead things for they never had any life but those things that have had life whether vegetative or sensitive or rationall as man or beasts or plants when once that life is withdrawne from any of them that is properly called a dead thing Yet in a generall
vulgar and improper sence even those things that never had life may be called dead Mr Broughton renders strictly not dead things but things without life are formed under the waters The Hebrew word may come from a twofold roote and so hath a twofold signification First to heale and cure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dolorem mitigavit sanavit transferturper MetaphoraÌ„ a corpore ad animam ut sig remittere peccata and in Scripture it is transferred from the healing of the body to the healing of the soule in the remission of sins because as the wound of the body is healed by the salve so is the soules wound namely sinne healed by remission or forgivenesse The word is used in this sence Isa 6.10 Make the heart of this people fat and make their eares heavy and shut their eyes least they see with their eyes and heare with their eares and understand with their heart and convert and be healed that is pardoned Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debitis dissolutus laxus languidus it signifies to be dissolved or loosened to be weake and languishing wee translate it dead because things that are dead are weakened and dissolved and therefore death is called a dissolution As Paul sayd Phil. 1.23 I desire to depart or to be dissolved that is to dye and the same phrase is used for death 2 Cor 5.1 Wee know that when the earthly house of this Tabernacle shall be dissolved c. Againe by the figure Antiphrasis frequent in Scripture this word as it signifies dead and weake things so also strong and lively things yea those that are strongest or most lively and therefore Gyants who are the strongest of men are expressed by this word Deut. 2.11 The Enims dwelt therein in times past Ecce Gigantes gemunt sub aquis Vulg a people great and many and tall as the Anakims which also were accounted Giants c. And the vulgar translates so here Behold The Giants groane under the waters Giants are called Rephaim in the Hebrew which word in the roote signifies to weaken not from their nature but from their effects not because they are weake but because they weaken others Giants are so strong that the very sight of them makes others weake and faint or pulls downe men of strength and might It is sayd that Saul and the whole Army of Israel were dismayed when they saw Goliah and greatly afraid they were weake before the Giant There is much labouring to make out this sence of the word here some understand it of the Giants before the flood Behold the Giants groane from under the flood Those Giants were indeed overthrowne by the waters and so they conceave that Job alluded unto them but I shall not stay upon that interpretation Others expound the text of those Gyants whose proper element is water the mighty fishes of the Sea the Whale the Leviathan spoken of in this booke of Job Leviathan is a Sea-monster a Sea-gyant of huge dimensions Naturall Historians and travellers describe the vastnes of the Whale or Leviathan to wonder and amazement And 't is granted that in these Gods power is much seene But I shall lay by this exposition also because I conceive fishes are spoken of in the next words where they are called the inhabitants thereof that is of the Sea or waters Againe this word Rephaim is often put for the dead or those that are departed this life Psal 88.10 Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead shall the dead arise and praise thee There are two words used for the dead in that verse one is the ordinary word the other is that of the Text. Solomon Pro. 2.18 shewing how dangerous it is to have to doe with the adulteresse sayth Her house inclineth unto death and her paths unto the Rephaim or the dead The house of Adultery and uncleanenes is the Gatehouse to death it is not a house raysed up but bowed downe her house enclineth unto death and she who is the governesse of rather the miss-governeness of the house will by her ill life bring thee among the dead even among those who are twice dead corporally dead at present and spiritually dead for ever But that which I shall rather pitch upon according to our translation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that by these dead things are meant such things as never had any life Mr Broughton expounds his translation Things without life of those precious things that are formed under the waters Amber and pearle and goodly stones These dead things are found under the waters and there they are formed Gods providence reacheth to the furthest places even to the bottome of the Sea and lowest earth which seeme to be as cast off So he glosseth and so doe other Interpreters Incipit dei providentiam poâ—entiam describere a rebus subterraneis initio sumpâ—o Merc concluding that Job is here setting forth the power of God in forming minerals and pretious stones under the waters or in the deepes and so riseth in his discourse by degrees to higher things As if he had sayd O Bildad what doest thou shewing me the power and providence of God in the high places where he maketh peace I can tell thee that the same power and providence of God are extended to those things which are wrought in the bowels of the earth and at the bottome of the Sea and so are furthest removed from our sight And whereas we say Dead things are formed there that word properly signifies to bring forth children or any living creature Job 39.1 2. Knowest thou the time when the wilde Goates of the rock bring forth or canst thou marke when the Hindes doe calve Canst thou number the moneths that they fulfill or knowest thou the time when they bring forth yea The Eternall Word and Wisdome of God speakes of himselfe in the language of this Word Pro. 8.25 Before the mountaines were setled before the hils was I brought forth It signifieth also to be in paine and groane for paine because child-bearing causeth much paine and groaning So the word is used in a metaphoricall sence Deut 2.25 This day will I begin saith the Lord to put the dread of thee and the feare of thee upon the Nations that are under the whole heaven who shall heare report of thee and shall tremble and be in anguish because of thee they shall be in anguish as a woman travelling with child and pained to bring forth Whence that translation takes its ground The Gyants groane under the waters And as it signifies to forme and fashion the child or any living thing in the womb and then to bring forth so it is applyed to the forming of things that have no life Ps 90. â—2 Before the mountaines were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God Dead things are formed But by whom here is no power exprest Job sayth onely they are formed
covering then our actions heere have no covering Hypocrites put many coverings upon their actions they have many policies to vaile and screene them from the eye of man but the actions of men have no covering before God yea the hearts of men have no covering before God As Solomon in the Proverbs which place was lately toucht upon argues from this reason because hell and destruction are before him Prov. 15.11 Hell and destruction are before the Lord how much more then the hearts of the children of men As if he had sayd God who looketh into hell which is not onely darkenes but outer darkenes that is darkenes without any thing that hath the least ray or similitude of light in it God I say who looketh into this hel can looke into the hearts of men much more There are some men I grant whose hearts are a very hell a very deepe and they hope to hide themselves in the depth of their owne hearts from the sight of God as the Prophet telleth us Isai 29.15 Woe unto them that seeke deepe to hide their councell from the Lord and their workes are in the darke and they say who seeth us and who knoweth us And what doth he meane by the deeps which they seeke doe they seeke caves and dens of the earth to take counsel or consult together in no they may be in the open ayre and yet seeke deepe to hide their counsells from God so that the meaning is they seeke to keepe their counsels close lockt up in their hearts but woe unto them that digge thus deepe to hide their counsells from God for they cannot be hid for even hel is before him and destruction hath no covering how then shall these destroyers cover themselves or any of their counsels from him As the reason of all things is naked and manifest before God so are the motions and actions of all persons Thirdly When 't is sayd Hell and destruction are before him that word before doth not onely imply that God hath a view or sight of what is in hel but also that hee hath power in and over hel and can doe what he will there hell is naked before him that is hee hath hell at his dispose Hence note The power and providence of God reaches to those things that are most remote He orders all things in hell as well as upon the earth his power rules there where there seemes to be least order yea where there is no order at all They who are cast into hel kept no order while they were upon the earth nor are they in any willing order there when we see confusions in the world wee say what a hell is there or we say Hel is broken loose hell is a place of confusion yet hell is before God he keepes hell in order And when by reason of troubles and confusion among men wee are ready to say there is a hell in the world yet this hell is naked before God he disposeth and orders those places persons and things which are most confused hell and destruction are before him Before I passe from these words I shall onely take notice that there are many words in Scripture by which hell is exprest The Rabbins number seven or eight heere are two First Sheol or the grave because we lye as it were buried there in a second death Secondly Abaddon or destruction because all are there in a perishing state or as given up into the hand of destruction Thirdly Hel is called Tsalmaveth or the shadow of death and by the shadow of death is not meant a smal appearance of death as the word shadow is used Jam 1.17 where the Apostle exalts the glory of the Lord in his unchangeablenes that he is the Father of lights from whom every good gift and every perfect gift cometh downe with whom is no variablenesse neither shadow of turning that is he is not subject to any turning at all but hel is called the shadow of death as shadow is put for strength and power and so to be under the shadow of God or man is to be under their protection Thus hell is the shadow of death that is the strength and power of it Death never triumphs so much in its strength as it doth in hell Fourthly Hel is called Erets tachith which signifyes first the earth under or the lowest and most inferiour earth whence in Scripture hell is called the bottomlesse pit and the way to it is described by descending and going downe as heaven is described by ascending and hight heaven is high and the highest ascending is our ascending to heaven so hell is low and the lowest descending is descending into hel Secondly it imports feare vexation and trembling hell is a land of trembling it is a land of feare it is sayd of Caine that when he went out of the presence of God after he had murthered his brother he went into the land of Nod that is into a land of trembling which some expound not of any speciall place that he went to but that every place where he went was to him a land of trembling hee having much feare and dread upon his conscience after he had embrewed his hands in his brothers blood Hel is indeed the land of Nod a Trembling land They who have not rejoyced with trembling in this world shall sorrow with trembling for ever in the world to come Fifthly Hel is called Bershiachathith that is the piâ—â—â— corruption not that the bodyes of the damned shall corrupt in hell as they doe in the grave for though we cannot say that the bodyes of the wicked shall be raysed incorruptible as the bodyes of the Saints shall yet they shall be raysed immortall and in that sence incorruptible that is they shall never dye but they shall be corruptible that is filthines and corruption shall be upon them The bodyes of Saints onely shall be raysed so incorruptible that nothing of corruption shall be seene upon them or felt by them but the bodyes of the wicked shall ever feele corruption and beare the markes of it without total corrupting or perishing as corrupting and perishing are taken for not-being The wicked would be glad that they might perish so but they shall not hel will be a pit of corruption to them for whatsoever is painefull and grievous to the flesh shall dwell in their bodyes and therefore it is called the pit of corruption and it may also be called a pit of corruption in a morall sence because all their sins and lusts shall remaine upon them for ever hel-fire cannot purge the soule from sin nor free any man from the power of that old man who as the Apostle speakes Eph 4.22 Is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts Nothing but the blood of Christ can purge the soule from corruption Hell is for the punishment of corruption but not at all for the purging of it and therefore it is well called the pit of corruption Sixthly It is called Erets
Nesciah that is the land of forgetfulnesse as the grave so hell is called the land of forgetfulnesse where the wicked shall be remembred no more God will remember them no more to doe them any good and they are forgotten how much soever they are remembred who are not remembred for good And as God will not remember those in hell for good so they shall forget all the good they have had upon the earth or the remembrance which they have of it shall onely be to encrease their sorrow under present evills Abraham in the Parable Luk. 16.25 sayd to the rich man in hel Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and that remembrance of the good things which he once enjoyed was but an addition to all the evills and miseries which he then endured It is better never to have had any good thing then onely to remember that we have had it How miserable is their condition who shall neither be â—â—membred for good nor remember any good but to make them more miserable Seventhly Hel is called Erets choscec that is a land of darknesse a region of darknesse there is nothing but darknesse in hell The wicked goe to the generation of their fathers where they shall never see light Psal 49.19 They loved darknesse here rather then light and they shall be punished with darkenes hereafter which hath no light Darknes was their choyce in this life and it shall be their curse in the next Eightly Hel is called Gehinon whence the Greeke Gehenna from the valley of Hinnon in which the Idolatrous Israelites imitating the abomination of the Heathens were wont to sacrifice their children with horrible cruelty And hence the Scripture often makes use of that word to signifie the place of torment or the torments of that place where the damned must abide separate for ever from the favourable presence and subjected under the wrath of God This Hel is naked before God and this destruction hath no covering Vers 7. He stretcheth out the North over the empty place and hangeth the earth upon nothing In this verse Job exalts God in his Almighty power upholding the mighty fabrick of heaven and earth His discourse mounts up from the earth from the waters and from hell as high as heaven it selfe and he speakes of heaven and of the earth in their conjunction together He stretcheth out the North over the empty place Bildad had spoken of the power of God in the heavens Dominion and feare are with him hee maketh peace in his high places is there any number of his armies and upon whom doth not his light arise Job also speaks of the power of God in the creation and disposition of these things He stretcheth out the North over the empty place The word is so rendred to signifie a gracious act of God to regardlesse men Prov. 1.24 I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded God stretcheth out his hand to smite and he stretcheth it out to save but man layeth it not to heart It is used also to signifie that powerfull act of God in preparing the heavens for himselfe Ps 104.2 Who coverest thy selfe with light as with a garment who stretchest out the heavens like a curtaine As wee draw or stretch out a curtaine so God stretcheth out the heavens But why doth Job say He stretcheth out the North I answer by the North he meaneth that part of heaven that is Northward or the northerne heavens Againe the North may be taken for the whole heavens by a Synechdoche and Job might speak of the North because the North-pole was neerest the climate where he dwelt He stretcheth out the North or the northerne heavens that is the whole heavens both the North and South East and West Hee stretcheth out the North over the empty place What is this empty place First By the empty place some understand the most remote and uninhabited places of the earth Hee over-spreads them with heavens and disposeth things there as well as here hee spreads the heavens over those parts where there is no man and so may be called Empty places because un-inhabited or not fill'd with men God causeth it to raine on the earth where no man is on the Wildernes where there is no man as he speaketh of himselfe to Job in the 38â—h Chapter of this booke ver 26th Now as God raineth upon those in this sence empty places so he stretcheth out the heavens over these empty places that is he takes care of them as well as of those that are peopled or inhabited Secondly Rather by the empty place wee are to understand the ayre for in the natural disposition or systeame of the world the earth is lowest the water next the ayre is the third and the fire fourth over which God stretcheth out the heavens And because nothing is visible to us upwards on this side heaven but the ayre therefore it may wel be sayd that he stretcheth out the heavens immediately over the ayre or the empty place Super inane quod juxta communem opinioneÌ„ intelligi decet Vulgo enim totum spatium a terra usque ad coelum vacuum putatur quum plenum aere sit But is the ayre or that place which we call the ayre empty no the ayre is not empty there is no vacuity no empty place in nature and nature will put it selfe into strange courses to avoide a vacuity water will ascend to avoide vacuity and it will not descend to avoide vacuity but though the ayre be not empty or voide taking emptines strictly and philosophically for every place hath its filling yet as emptines is taken largely and vulgarly so the ayre may be called an empty place when wee come into a roome where there is no artificiall furniture wee say it is an empty roome so the space between us and the heavens in a vulgar sence is an empty place The Scripture speakes often of things according to the vulgar acceptation and understanding Mr Broughton translates thus He stretcheth out the North upon the empty And wee may conceave Job using this forme of speech the more to magnifie and shew forth the great power of God As if he had sayd The heavens have nothing to beare them up but an empty place what can the ayre beare the ayre will beare nothing yet the Lord useth no support for the whole heavens but this empty place Thirdly I conceave that this phrase may be expounded barely of the Creation For Moses sayth Gen. 1.1 2. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without forme and voyd or empty It is the word Tohu used here in Job over this Tohu or empty place did God at the first stretch the heavens And as this was the worke of God at first in Creation so it is his worke still in providence and therefore the Lord speakes of it as of a continued worke Isa 44.24 Thus sayth the Lord thy
from the waters which were above the firmament Where by the firmament we are to understand that vast space which is extended or stretched out from the earth up to the clouds commonly called The ayre and by the waters above the firmament those raine-waters bound up in the clouds These upper waters are the waters of which our divine Philosopher here sayth that God bindeth them up In his thicke clouds Though clouds are much thinner then the water which they hold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 densitas as Naturalists teach us yet they are thicker then the common ayre or they may be called thickned ayre and therefore the Hebrew word for a cloud is derived from a roote that signifyeth Thicknes And though we have a distinction of clouds into thicke and thinne comparing one with another yet all clouds compared to the ayre are thicke and compared to the waters all are thinne Besides the Hebrew word signifyes clouds indifferently as wel thinne as thicke or rather clouds Generally without any determination or restriction eyther to thick or thinne And therefore the text is best translated without an Epithete In his clouds or if any Epithete were given It would advance Jobs scope and purpose most to translate it In his thinne clouds for the thinner the cloud is the greater is the power of God and the wonder the more wonderfull in making them the Continent of such mighty waters But we translate wel Hee bindeth up the waters in his thicke clouds It may here be enquired why the clouds are appropriated unto God in such a speciall manner by calling them His clouds I answer the clouds are His not onely First In that common sence in which all things in the world are his because he maketh and disposeth of them for that use to hold the waters which the heate of the Sun exhaleth or draweth up in vapours from the earth But they are called his clouds Secondly Because God is sayd to use them as Princes doe Horses of State or Charets of triumph to ride upon Isa 19.1 Behold the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud as also because the Lord to shew the unsearchablenes incomprehensiblenes of his wayes and counsells in governing this world and in ordering the affaires of his chosen people is often expressed in Scripture as dwelling in a cloud or covering himselfe with clouds Psal 18.11 Hee made darkenes his secret place his pavilion round about him were darke waters and thicke clouds of the skies And againe it is no sooner sayd Psal 97.1 The Lord reigneth but in the very next verse it is sayd Clouds and darkenes are round about him righteousnes and Judgement are the habitation of his throane that is his administrations are alwayes full of righteousnes though seldome full of clearenes they are alwayes cloathed with equity though usually cloathed with obscurity His way and his dwelling is in the clouds and therefore also the clouds are his He bindeth up the waters in his thicke clouds Some Philosophers hold that the cloud doth not so much hold the water as is water and that the cloud is dissolved into water when it raineth others that the clouds hold water like a spunge which being pressed yeelds it out againe But Jobs Philosophy lifts up the glory of God most which maketh the cloud as a vessel or garment in which the waters are bound and yet see the wonder The cloud is not rent under them The waters being of a mighty bulke and weight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 discidit rupit secuit in duas partes usurpatur de quavis violeÌ„ta ruptione aut segregatione rerum ante hac cohaerentium might easily breake their way through the clouds did not God both bind and ballance them as Elihu speakes Chap. 37.16 Doest thou know the ballancing of the clouds To his ballancing to his binding we must ascribe the not renting of the cloud As binding in the former clause noted an act of power and force in God so this word renting noteth a power and force in the water It is sayd Ps 78.13 God rent or divided the Sea that his people might passe through And this word is used 1 Chron 11.18 concerning those mighty men who fetched David water from the wel of Bethlem And the three brake through the host of the Philistines And thus would the waters naturally breake through the clouds but they are forbidden The cloud is not rent under all that weight for God holds it together and makes it as firme as brasse Hence observe It is an eminent a wonderfull act of divine power by which the waters are contained and stayed within the clouds The mighty power of God is seene in keeping the waters of the Sea in compasse by the sands and shoares but it is a greater act of power to keepe the waters of the ayre in compasse by the clouds There are three things very wonderfull or there are three wonders in this detention of the waters First That the waters which are a fluid body and love to be continually flowing and diffusing themselves should yet be stopt and stayed together by a cloud which is a thinner and so a more fluid body then the water It is no great matter to see water kept in conduits of stone or in vessels of wood and brasse because these are firme and solid bodyes such as the water cannot penetrate nor force it selfe through but in the Judgement of nature how improbable is it that a thinne cloud should beare such a weight and power of waters and yet not rent nor breake under them When Peter had enclosed a multitude of Great fishes in his net even an hundred fifty and three Joh. 21.11 we find this added as a wonder And for all there were so many yet was not the net broken How much more may this be added as a wonder that such a multitude of waters should be held in a cloud and yet the cloud not broken Hac sane est ex illis naturae mirabilâ—bus quae assiduitate vituerunt yea though the cloud be tossed and driven with feirce and raging windes This is one of those wonders in nature which is therefore onely not wondered at because it is so common and which because it is continually done few enquire into or admire the power by which it is done Secondly As it is a wonder that the cloud is not rent with the weight of the water so that the cloud is rent at the speciall order and command of God At his word it is that the clouds are lockt up and by his word they are opened As in spiritualls so also in naturalls Nulla gutta descendit ex illis donec veniat verbum ejus mittat illas per plateas Moses Gerund He openeth and no man shutteth he shutteth and no man openeth It is not in the power of all the world to rent or open a cloud though the earth be parcht and all things that live languish
till God unlocke it Thirdly This also is wonderfull that when at the word of God the cloud rents yet the waters doe not gush out like a violent flood all at once which would quickly drowne the earth as it did Gen 7.11 When the windowes of heaven were opened but the water descends in sweete moderate showers as water through a Cullender drop by drop and streame by streame for the moystning and refreshing of the earth And God caryeth the clouds up and downe the world as the keeper of a Garden doth his watering pot and bids them distill upon this or that place as himselfe directeth The clouds are compared to bottles in the 38th Chapter of this booke v. 37th these God stops or unstops usually as our need requireth and sometime as our sin deserveth Amos 4.7 I have withholden the raine from you and he can withhold it till the heavens over us shall be as brasse and the earth under us as iron I sayth the Lord of his vineyard Isa 5.6 will also command the clouds that they raine no raine upon it The Reader may finde further discoveryes about this poynt at the 5â—h Chapter v. 10th Onely here I shall adde First That we depend upon God not onely for grace and pardon of sinne but for raine and fruitfull seasons Secondly When we have raine let us acknowledge that God hath rent the cloud and given it us that he hath loosed the Garment wherein he had bound the waters Pro. 30.4 that they may issue downe upon us Thirdly When the cloud rents not let us goe to God to doe it Are there any among the vanities of the Heathen that can cause raine Surely there are none Jer 14.22 And therefore the Prophet Zech 10.1 sends the people of God to him for it Aske ye of the Lord raine in the time of the latter raine so the Lord shall make bright clouds and give them showers of raine to every one grasse in the feild Onely he who bindeth up the waters in his clouds can unbinde the clouds and cause them to send out their waters Job having thus shewed the power of God among the clouds and upper waters riseth yet higher in his discourse and from these waters wherein as was toucht before God layeth the beames of his chambers he ascendeth to the chambers themselves even to the throane of God there Vers 9. He holdeth backe the face of his Throane and spreadeth his cloud upon it There are three things to be enquired into for the explication of the former part of this verse First What is here meant by the Throane of God Secondly What by the face of his Throane Thirdly What by holding it backe To the first Querie I answer That according to Scripture Heaven or that place above in opposition to the earth or this sublunary world is called the throne of God and that not the inferior heaven or ayre which in Scripture is more then once called heaven but the supreame or highest heavens Thus the Lord speaketh by the Prophet Isa 66.1 The heaven is my throne and the earth is my footestrole where is the house that ye build unto me c. Thus also our Saviour in his admonition against swearing Math 5.34 saith Sweare not at all that is rashly neyther by heaven for it is Gods throne nor by the earth for it is his footestoole Againe Mat 23.22 Hee that sweareth by heaven sweareth by the throne of God The reason why heaven is called the throne of God is because there he manifests himselfe as Princes doe upon their thrones in greatest glory and majesty as also because there he is more fully enjoyed by glorifyed Saints and Angels God fills heaven and earth with his presence yet he declares his presence more in heaven then here upon the earth Heaven is the throne of God but Quidam faciem esse hominis putant os tantum oculos et genas quod Graeci prosopon dicunt quando facies sit forma omnis et modus et factura quaedam totius corporis a faciendo dicta sic mentis coeli Maris facies probe dicitur Gel libâ— 13. c. 28. Secondly What is the face of his Throne I answer The face of a thing is taken for the whole outward appearance or for the appearing state of it As the face of a mans body is not onely that fore-part of the head which we strictly call so but the forme and structure of the whole body is the face of it And in that sence the word is applyed both to those great naturall bodyes the Heaven and the earth as also to a civill body or to the Body-politicke of a Citie and Common-wealth Thus whereas we render Isa 24.1 Behold the Lord maketh the earth empty and maketh it wast and turneth it upside downe c. The Hebrew is and so our translaters put it in the margin he perverteth the face thereof that is he changeth the state and outward forme of things and putteth them into a new mould or model respecting order and Government And so we commonly speake after great publicke changes The very face of things is altered or things have a new face And thus the Psalmist expresseth the gratious and favourable changes which God maketh in the things of this world Psal 104.30 Thou sendest forth thy Spirit they are created Coeli vultus est coeli superficies concavastellata quae nos respâ—cit Albert and thou renewest the face of the earth that is all things appeare in another hiew and fashion then before So then the Face of the Throane of God is that part of heaven say some which looketh towards us or which we looke upon All that Greatnes and beauty of heaven which our eye reacheth unto and which appeares to us as a vast Canopy set with spangles or studs of Gold such are the Starrs to our sight But I rather conceave The face of the throne of God to be the visible and full demonstration of that infinite light and glory wherein God dwelleth and which appeareth or is given forth to the blessed Saints and Angels who are sayd to be about his throne according to their measure and capability of receaving it The face of his throne taken thus he holdeth backe from us alwayes in this life and as the face of his throne is taken in the other sence he often holds it backe from us About which it remaines to be enquired Thirdly What is meant by holding backe the face of his throne To hold backe seemes to be the same as to hide cover Est tollere apparentiam coeli Cajet or conceale the face of his throne for when any thing is held backe it is concealed and hidden out of sight Thus God doth often hold backe or cover the face of his throne as the face of it notes the Appearances of heaven towards us with clouds as it is sayd in the report made of that terrible storme wherein Paul had almost suffered shipwracke
waves but he was asleepe And his Disciples came to him and awoke him saying Lord save us we perish And he saith unto them why are ye fearefull O ye of little faith then he arose and rebuked the winds and the Sea and there was a great calme This is a plaine exemplification and exposition of Jobs assertion by his understanding he smiteth through the proud When the Sea was as furious as a mad man who hath lost his reason and will heare none yet then Christ by his divine power and wisedome made it as obedient as they who have and act most reason are when they heare the most rational and pressing perswasions or we may say that he husht the Sea as a mother doth her crying childe and rock't it into a sleepe yea he doth not onely calme the Sea but kill it or strike it dead as the word of the text imports There is a particular sea which is called The Dead Sea But God can make all the seas Dead Seas and then he delights most to doe it when they threaten to swallow up all living This may be a great support to us among the stormes which we meete with here at land When men and nations are divided and raging against one another God can quiet them It is an easie matter to make divisions among men but it calls for much holy skill and wisedome even the wisedome of God to heale and soder them And when the spirits of men are proudest and lifted up like the high waves of the sea then usually t is Gods time to appeare and strike them through At his word as the Prophet speakes Isa 11.13 The envy of Ephraim shall depart and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off Ephraim shall not envy Judah and Judah shall not vexe Ephraim Whence is it that Ephraim envyeth Judah whence is it that Judah vexeth Ephraim is it not from their pride saith not Solomon Pro 13.10 By pride commeth contention How then shall the contention between Ephraim and Judah cease but by striking through their pride When there is lesse pride among men there will be more peace and God will smite the proudest rather then his people shall not have peace As the Jewes were divided among themselves so likewise were the Jewes and Gentiles Till Christ reconciling both to God in one body by the Crosse did slay enmity thereby Eph 2.16 And how did he slay their their enmity even by smiting through their pride and humbling their spirits under his owne crosse or sufferings by which and the throane of Grace they were at once reconciled to God and one to another Secondly That God who can appease the rage of the proud seas can also appease or destroy the rage of the proudest men who oppose his people So some understand that Zech 10.11 where we have a prophesie of bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt and Assyria into their owne land And he shall passe through the sea with affliction and he shall smite through the waves in the sea and all the deeps of the river shall dry up that is Christ the deliverer of his people shall passe through the nations who are like the red Sea standing in the way of his peoples returne and he will afflict them or bring much affliction upon them and he will smite those who like proud waves shall threaten to swallow them up so that the deepes of the river even those hindrances which it was thought could never be removed shall dry up at his command or rebuke and the pride of Assyria shall be brought downe and the scepter of Egypt shall depart away that is they who shall then be to the people of God as Egypt and Assyria were of old hard Taske-masters and leaders of them into Captivity shall be subdued and removed when they are proudest and in their greatest power 'T is matter of strong consolation to all the faithfull that they serve a God who is able to reconcile the divided spirits of his own people one to another and cause all their envy to depart from them who is able also to reconcile their greatest adversaryes to them and eyther to stay their enmity or to slay them as enemyes Thirdly 'T is matter of comfort to the people of God For he who can appease the rage of the Sea can also appease the rage of Satan and smite through the proud waves of his Temptations Satan goeth about continually to raise stormes and vex poore soules O the rage of temptation that many poore soules are under how doe the billowes of it rise like a violent sea wave after wave gust after gust As God himselfe rayseth stormes of temptation against a poore soule thus David spake in his owne case Psal 42.7 Deepe calleth unto deepe at the noyse of thy water-spouts all thy waves and thy billowes are gone over me which yet in due time he will appease so when Satan by his leave or command direction or permission rayseth stormes of temptation which he hath no mind to allay but rather to encrease and double dayly more and more yet O wearyed and weather-beaten soule be of good cheere the Lord can smite through the proud enemy Satan with all his floods and waves of temptation and make a calme Lastly Let them also remember this and be comforted who finde proud waves proud lusts and corruptions stirring and raging like a Sea within them For that which is said by the Prophet of the wicked is true in part of the righteous and sometimes it is in a very great measure fullfilled in them The wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest Isa 57.20 that is they are like the Sea in a storme which is so not onely because of the unquietnesse of their spirits about the providences and dealings of God with them but because their violent lusts hurry them this way and that way as the sea is toyled and tossed by the windes this I say is true also in part of Saints some more some lesse are like a troubled Sea yea they have a Sea of sinfull lusts within them which the Lord is pleased sometimes to divide and stirre up their corruptions storme and bluster and Satan labours to make them bluster more more We dayly heare the complaints and cryes of soules thus tossed comming to Christ as his Disciples once did and crying to him Master save us we perish we feare we shall be over-whelmed and drowned in this Blacke Sea of our corruptions To such Christ saith O ye of little faith wherefore do ye thus feare cannot I smite through the proud the proud waves of your hearts Is unbeliefe the proud wave that ye feare will swallow you up Christ can give you such an encrease of faith as shall swallow up your unbeliefe is pride it selfe the proud wave that is like to overwhelme you Christ who smiteth through the proud in Judgement will also smite through thy pride in mercy It is a great act of Grace
in man to desire God to strike through his pride and it is a great act of mercy to man when God doth so The more God smiteth our sins the more he declares his love to and his care of our soules The remainders of pride in the Saints shall be smitten through but sinners who remaine in their pride shall be smitten through themselves God whose power and understanding are made known by smiting through the proud waves of the Sea will at last make his Justice and his holynes knowne by smiting through the proud hearts of men or rather men of proud hearts Proud men strike at God yea kicke against him no wonder then if he strike and kicke them All the sufferings of Christ are wrapt up under that one word His humiliation implying that as he was smitten for all our sins so most of all for our pride That man whose pride is not smitten to death or mortifyed by the death of Christ shall surely be smitten to death even to eternall death for his pride As God understandeth thoroughly who are proud so by his understanding he will smite through the proud JOB CHAP. 26. Vers 13 14. By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens his hand hath formed the crooked Serpent Lo these are parts of his wayes but how little a portion is heard of him but the thunder of his power who can understand JOB hath given us a particular of many illustrious works of God what he doth in the depths below Et ut in opere ipsius pulcherrimo desinam hic ille est qui coelos illa enarrabili pulchritudine exornavit spherae illae suis giris undique coelos serpeÌ„tium instar percurreÌ„tes sunt opus manibus ipsius tornatum Bez and what in the hights above in this verse he gives another instance and that a very choyce one upon the same subject As if he had sayd After all this large discourse which I have made of the workes of God I will conclude with that which is the most remarkeable peice of them all This is he who hath adorn'd the heavens with that unutterable beauty wherewith they shine and the spheares which wind and turne round about the heavens like Serpents are smoothed and polished by his hand Vers 13. By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens The Spirit of God is taken two wayes in Scripture First q. d. visua voluntate ut nomen spiritus saepius in scriptura usurpatur sed malo ipsum dei spiritum almum accipere quo omnia deus fecit Merc for the power of God Secondly and so here for God the power as distinct from the Father and the Son By whom God wrought all things in the creation of the world Gen 1.2 The Earth was without forme and voyd and darkenes was upon the face of the deepe and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters It is a rule in Divinity That the external workes of the Trinity are undevided and so the Three Persons concurred in the making of the world God the Father created and is called Father in Scripture not onely in relation to the Eternall ineffable Generation of God the Son but also in reference to the production of the creature God the Son or the Eternal Word created Joh. 1.1 2 3. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God All things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was made God the Spirit or Holy-Ghost he likewise created and He onely is mentioned by Moses distinctly or by name as the Agent in the original constitution of all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non simplicem motionem denotat sed qualem columba perficit cum evis ad excludendum pullos incubat Rab Selom Verbum â—ranslatum ab avibus pullitiei suae incubantibus Jun. And the Hebrew word rendred in our translatioÌ„ moved the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters by which the Agency of the Spirit in that Great worke is expressed caryeth in it a very accurate significancy of that formative vertue or power which the Spirit put forth about it For it is a metaphor taken from birds who sit upon their eggs to hatch and bring forth their young ones and so importeth the effectual working of the Spirit whereby that confused masse or heape was drawne out and formed up into those severall creatures specifyed by Moses in the Historie of the Creation Among which we find the Garnishing of the heavens spoken of here by Job is reported by Moses for the worke of the fourth day Further we may consider the heavens first in their matter and being secondly in their beauty and ornaments Job speakes of the latter By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adornavit decoravit pulchrè fecit God hath not onely created but pollished and as it were painted or embroydered the heavens The originall word implyeth the making of them beautifull contentfull and pleasant unto the eye this is the Lords worke And therefore as the whole world because of the excellent order and beauty of it is exprest in the Greeke by a word that signifies beautifull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so some parts of the world have a speciall beauty and lustre put upon them beyond the rest The heavens are not like a plaine garment as we say without welt or guard but they are laced and trimmed they are enamel'd and spangled they glister and sparkle in our eyes with rayes and beames of light By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens If it be asked what is this garnishing of the heavens I answer the setting or placing in of those excellent lights Sunne Moone and Starres in the heavens are the garnishing of them Light is beautifull and the more light any thing hath the more beauty it hath Precious stones have much light in them those lights the Starres are as so many stones of beauty and glory set or moving in the heavens Light as diffused and shed abroad in the ayre is exceeding delightfull and beautifull but light as it is contracted and drawne together into the Sunne Moone and Starres is farre more beautifull light in the ayre pleaseth the eye but light in the Sunne conquers and dazzel's the eye by the excessive beauty and brightnesse of it In the first day of the Creation God sayd Let there be light and there was light but in the fourth day he sayd let there be lights that is let there be severall vessells to receave hold and containe light and then to issue it out among the inhabitants of the earth Gen. 1.14 And God sayd let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signes and for seasons and for dayes and for yeares and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth and it was so And
God made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night he made the starres also and God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth God in Creation did with the light as he did with the waters which being made were divided the waters above the firmament were divided from the waters under the firmament and the waters under the heaven he gathered together into one place Gen. 1.9 God prepared a certaine great vessell into which the waters were called and gathered that they should not spread over the earth as they did at first which gathering together of the waters God called Seas Gen. 1.10 Thus the light which was spread and scattered through the ayre over all the earth God gathered into severall vessells Pulchritudo es ornamenta coeloruÌ„ stellae sunt sicut terrae animantia et plantae Sanct and the gathering together of light he called Sunne Moone Starrs which are as Job here calleth them the garnishing of the heavens Moses epitomiseth or briefly summs up his larger narrative of the Creation in these words Gen 2.1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them that is they were finished not onely as to their essentials but ornamentalls not only was the foundation layd the walls and pillars the beames and rafters of that goodly structure set up and perfected but all the furniture of it was brought in and the beautyes of it compleated Now as gemms minerals plants trees and all living creatures are the Garnishing of the Earth and the host of God there so the Sunne Moone and Starrs are the garnishing of heaven and the host of God there David speaketh of these distinctly Psal 33.6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth All creatures whether placed in heaven or earth are for their number their strength their order their readynes at a call or command the host of God Earthly Princes shew their power in their hosts and armyes of what power God is both his acts and his hosts aboundantly declare And as these creatures are the armyes or host of God in heaven and earth so they are the Adornings and Garnishings of heaven and earth Job in this place speaketh onely of the former By his Spirit he hath Garnished the Heavens Onely here take notice that some expound the word Spirit for the winde which bloweth in the ayre and so render the text thus By his winde hee garnisheth the heavens As if this were Jobs meaning that God sending forth the windes dispelleth and scattereth those clouds foggs and mists which often cover the face of the heavens and hinder our beholding their glory and garnishings According to this interpretation the garnishing of the heavens is nothing else but the removing of that which obscureth the Garnishing of them And it is true that when the heavens are maskt over with clouds and darknesse God by the winds cleareth the ayre and so reneweth the face of those heavenly bodyes But I passe by this and shall onely insist upon the former exposition of these words as being more sutable with Jobs scope and more expressive of the power and Glory of God in the great things which he hath wrought for us By his Spirit hee garnisheth the heavens Hence learne First We ought joyntly to acknowledge and give glory to the Father Son and Spirit in the worke of Creation Solomon in his advice to the young man sayth Eccl 12.1 Remember thy creators in the dayes of thy youth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 creatorum tuorum Mysterâ—um Sanctae Trinitatis Pisc Wee translate in the singular number creator but the Hebrew is plural Creators intimating the mystery of the Holy Trinity as Moses also is conceaved to doe in that plural expression Gen 1.26 And God sayd let us make man in our image after our likenes And though this be added in a way of Eminency when the particular creation of man is set downe yet we are to understand it so generally of the whole worke of Creation and as of the worke of Creation so of all other divine workes towards the creature Redemption is the worke of the Father and of the Spirit as wel as of the Son and sanctification is the worke of the Father and of the Son as wel as of the Spirit The three persons worke together onely they have a distinct manner of working according to which each worke is chiefely attributed to that person and so creation is specially appropriated to the Father Redemption to the Son and Sanctification to the Holy Ghost Seing then all Three worke together in all things towards us All three ought to be equally and eternally honoured worshipped loved and obeyed by us By his Spirit he hath garnished the Heavens Secondly Observe The heavens are full of beauty God hath not onely made them but adorn'd them What a rich and Royall Canopy hath God hung over the heads of poore wormes dust and ashes God did not thinke it enough to give us a house unlesse he gave us also a pleasant house he was not satisfied in setting up a large fabricke for us unlesse he also furnished and garnished it for us God hath made the world not onely usefull but contentfull to us he hath fitted it not onely for our necessity but delight The earth is beautifull but the heavens exceed in beauty The heavens are the Ceiling of our house and the Starres are like Golden studs and sparkling Diamonds in that Ceiling We may inferre three things from the Garnishing of these heavens First If the heavens which we see are so glorious what are the heavens which no eye hath seene If God hath thus discernably adorned the first and second heavens how unconceaveable are the ornaments of the third heavens If nature hath so much beauty in it how beâ—utifull a thing is Glory If God hath prepared such heavens as our eyes see for those who hate him then surely eye hath not seene eare hath not heard nor hath it entred into the heart of man to understand what those heavens are which God hath prepared for them and for them alone who love him The light of these visible heavens is but darkenes to that inheritance of the Saints in light The Moone-light if I may so speake of that state shall be better and more illustrious then the Sun-light of this and the light of the Sunne shall be sevenfold as the light of seven dayes in that Great day when the Lord shall perfectly bind up All the breaches of his people and heale the stroake of their wound God who by his Spirit hath garnished these heavens will be himselfe with his Son and Spirit the eternal Garnishing of those heavens Secondly Seing God hath been so bountifull and munificent as to Garnish the heavens for us even for us by his Spirit seing he hath provided such
serpent and he shall slay the Dragon that is in the Sea Where we may note by the way that our translaters render those very original words a peircing serpent in this text of Isayah which they render a crooked serpent in Job and I conceave it is better translated peircing for so bolts or barrs are rather then crooked another word being also used in Isayah which we translate crooked For serpents are both straite and long like a Barre Malo hic coetuÌ„ intelligi balaenam Merc A coeli ornatu ad maris ornatuÌ„ tanquam ad aliud extremuÌ„ descendit Pined Intelligo Balaenam insigne inimis opus divinae potentiae efficacitatem voluntatis atque arbatrij ejus singularitèr comprobant Coc they are also crooked can winde themselves into a circle when they please or see it for their advantage Now the long Bar-like or as we say crooked serpent which Job here saith the hand of God hath formed is according to this interpretation the Whale-fish or Leviathan which is the greatest not onely of all the fishes in the Sea but of all living creatures and therefore may well be brought here by Job as an instance to demonstrate the mighty power of God whether in forming or wounding of him especially considering that God himselfe when he would humble and abase Job in the sight of his owne meanenes as he had led him to the meditation of many of his great workes in nature throughout the 38th 39th and 40â—h Chapters of this he bestowes the whole 41â—â— Chapter in a large particular and Rhetoricall description of the Leviathan and though he had sayd of the Behemoth or Elephant Chap. 40.19 He is the chiefe of the wayes of God yet he saith more of the Leviathan or Whale Chap. 41.33 34. Vpon earth there is none like him who is made without feare he beholdeth all high things he is a king over all the children of pride As if he had sayd The Elephant is the chiefe of all sensitive living creatures upon the earth but the Whale is greater then the Elephant therefore he exceeds all creatures moving upon the earth The Whale is so vast turbulent a living creature that he is joyned with the Sea which is the vastest and most turbulent creature without life Thus Job speakes Chap. 7.12 Am I a Sea or a Whale that thou settest a watch over me implying that the Whale is among sensitive creatures as the Sea is among insensitive the greatest and most unruly of them and therefore hath as much need to be watched by a divine providence as the Sea it selfe hath Thus the Psalmist describing the great workes of God putteth the Leviathan or Whale among the chiefest of them Psal 104.24 25 26. O Lord how manifold are thy workes in wisedome hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches so is the great and wide Sea wherein are things creeping innumerable both small and great beasts There goe the Ships there is That Leviathan whom thou hast made to play therein Thus we see how the Scripture consents in exalting the power and wisedome of God in this part of his worke the forming of this long and mighty or as we translate the Substantive Epithete crooked serpent And therefore Job might wel claspe these two together while he was studying to exemplifie in particulars the greatnes of the workes of God his garnishing or peopling the heavens with such infinite variety of Starres especially with the Sunne and his forming of and so storing the Sea with such infinite variety of fishes especially with the Leviathan For as the Sun is a Prince among the lights of heaven so Leviathan is a Prince a King among the fishes of the Sea His hand hath formed the Crooked or rather the long Serpent And if any should object against this interpretation that it seemes unsutable to call the Whale or Leviathan a Serpent I answer that the text in Isayah Chap 27.1 before alledged may wel beare us out in it which though it be to be understood of the Devill or of his instruments the enemyes of the Churches peace and safety yet calleth Leviathan the peircing which word in the Original as I hinted before is here in Job rendred crooked Serpent and in the immediately following words That crooked Serpent and the Dragon that is in the Sea Wherefore restg chiefely if not onely in this interpretation that Job having gone up in his discourse to the heavens and the garnishing of them came downe to the Sea and to the furnishing thereof and instances in that creature which is chiefe in the Sea The Leviathan thereby to exalt and lift up the glory of God in his workes of creation and providence Observe The Sea as well as the heavens and all the inhabitants thereof declare the mighty workes and workmanship of God As the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-worke Psal 19.1 So the earth declareth the glory of God and the Sea sheweth his handy-worke The least creatures preach the power of God how much more the greatest All beleevers are taught of God and every thing we see teacheth us somewhat of God and this they teach us especially that God is the former of them all The Hand of God hath formed the Eagle and a lesse powerfull hand then Gods could not forme a fly The hand of God hath formed the Elephant and a lesse powerfull hand then his could not forme a mouse The hand of God hath formed Leviathan and a hand lesse powerfull then his could not forme a shrimpe As Jesus Christ was declared many wayes to be the Son of God but as the Apostle saith Rom. 1.4 He was declared to be the Son of God with power or powerfully declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead So all things that are created declare that their Creator is God But he is declared with power or powerfully declared to be God by many of the creatures Who can make any thing to live but the living God Who can make Great things but the Great God His hand hath formed the crooked serpent And seing the Lord hath formed the crooked serpent even those creatures that are most dreadfull and dangerous to man then the most dreadfull and dangerous creatures are under the power of God hee formed them and therefore he can restraine and curb them As it is sayd of Behemoth Job 40.19 He that made him can make his sword approach unto him that is though he be too strong for man yet God who gave him that strength hath infinitely more and can easily Master him yea and give a weake man skill and power to doe it so though it be sayd Job 41.26 of Leviathan that the sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold the speare the dart nor the habergeon yet God who made him can make his sword approach to him or as some render the words under hand His hand hath
the rule of contrary speaking bound that is not at all bound but free or loosed from her husband Thus the Apostle speaks Rom. 7.1 2 3. 1 Cor. 7.39 her marriage knot is unâ—yed by death If her husband be dead shee is loosed from the law of her husband shee is left to her selfe and her owne dispose alone Take the word in the second fignification to be silent A widow is so called because shee seldome hath that natural and never hath that civil liberty or freedome of speech which her husband had and therefore shee needs others to speake for her or must speake her minde by others her selfe being eyther unable or disabled to speake in her owne case or to speake for her selfe This being the widows state he hath the greater sinne who deales unkindly with her What Thrust away the widow whose heart is bound about yea and thrust thorough with many sorrowes What thrust away the widow who is unable to mannage her owne cause and defend her selfe in her right yet this thou hast done Thou hast sent widows away Empty That is without any helpe or comfort A radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod est effundere vel evacuare The word is used to signifie the emptines of a vessell 2 King 4.4 It is used also concerning the Dreamer who thinks that he hath eaten but when he awakes his soule that is his stomacke is empty Isai 29.8 So we may expound the word Racha Mat. 5.22 He that saith to his brother Racha which some understand not of a man that wants wit or honesty only but wealth or plenty And then to call a man Racha Erat ergo contumeliosuÌ„ verbum discere fratri Raka i. e. Vocare pauperculum bonis omnibus exhaustum is to upbraid him both with poverty and simplicity As if it should in disgrace be sayd to him Thou poore snake thou silly fellow what dost thou talke thou who hast so little wit thou that art not worth a groate In the Story of Jephtah Judg. 11.3 such a sort of men are spoken of as his ayders and assistants Then Jephthah fled from his brethren and there were gathered together vaine men to Jeptah and went out with him Some translate Heb Vacui non ut putat Vatablus Otiosi sed ut alij inopes bonis exhausti poore men were gathered together and went out with him Vaine men are usually idle fellowes and vagabonds and we may conceive his company or followers to have consisted of poore men rather then of vaine men And in that sense the word is used Neh. 5.13 Even thus be he shaken out and emptied That is impoverish'd and reduced to nothing And thus also the low estate of Jesus Christ is expressed Phil. 2. Hee empted himselfe namely of his divine glory and splendour that is he shew'd not his Majesty whilest hee was in the flesh but covered and vailed it and was in appearance as a poore empty man having voluntarily made himselfe of no reputation though he were Lord over all Such was the emptines in which these widows were sent away by Job as Eliphaz accuseth him And this act may have a threefold interpretation First they were sent away empty that is not filled or releived by thy charity thou didst not open eyther thy heart or thy hand to supply their necessities or to make them up in what they wanted and humbly desired Secondly Thou hast sent widows empty away That is thou hast given them no reliefe by thy Justice some widows beg meerly for our Almes others bring their case and cause to the Magistrate or man in Authority for helpe against their oppressing adversaries In the 18th of Luke the importunate widow saith to the Judge Releive mee against my Adversary I beg not your charity but your Justice The widow is sent away empty when her suite is not heard Wee may understand Eliphaz eyther way that when the widow sued for her right shee found no Justice and when shee came for an almes shee found no charity Thirdly Wee may interpret it yet higher Thou hast sent widows away empty That is widows came to thee full or in a good condition but thou hast emptyed them by oppression and taken away what they had Covetous Magistrates care not how or of whom they get it so they can get it They empty the widows purse yea widows houses to fill their owne Christ reproved the Pharisees for this Mat. 23.14 Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees for yee devoure widows houses yee eate them out of house and home Tradunt se ad tuendum majoribus deditias se divitum faciunt Illud grave est quod hac lege tueri pauperes videntur ut spoliant hac lege defendunt miseros ut miseriores faciant defendendo Salvian Lib. 5 to de provid eyther by living upon them or by taking away their livings Wee may understand Eliphaz in this sense also Thou hast sent widows away empty that is widdows came to thee for protection and thou didst promise it but then to make thy owne market upon them and serve thy selfe thou hast oppressed them they came to thee to doe them right and thou hast undone them by unrighteousnesse It is ill enough to deny widows charity it is worse to deny them Justice but it is worst of all to undoe them by unjustice yet those two Horse-leaches pride and covetousness will not forbeare to draw from the widow Some rich men undertake the widows cause onely to enrich themselves by the spoyles of the widow and for this reason they promise helpe to those who are in misery that they may make them more miserable in stead of helping them Thou hast sent widows away empty Thus Job was supposed to have dealt with widows See next how Eliphaz chargeth him for his dealings with the fatherlesse And the Armes of the fatherlesse have been broken These two desolate names are often found alone Duo ista nomina in quantum despectui humano in tantum miserecordiae divinae exposita Tertull. l. 1. ad uxor c. 8. Per viduam pupillum omne genus miseroruÌ„ hominum significatur Pined but oftener as one in Scripture the widow who is disjoyn'd from her husband and the fatherlesse who are bereaved of their parents are commonly joyned together And these two names are taken in Scripture eyther strictly or more largely strictly to signifie onely such persons as have eyther lâ—st their husbands or parents Largely and so the widow and fatherlesse signifie any that are in distresse or need our charity Because the widow and the fatherlesse stand often in need of charity therefore these names in Scripture signifie any that need our charity While the Prophet saith Hos 14.3 With thee the fatherless findeth mercy Wee are not to straighten his sense onely to Orphans but to any that are in distresse hee that is a father may be called fatherlesse and the childe that hath a father may be called
sayth when he is in a right frame in reference to the wayes of holynes Psal 108.1 O God my heart is prepared or fixed A godly man doth not good upon a sudden or by chance as we say but he sets himselfe to it his heart is fixed or prepared and his face is set heaven-ward or for heavenly duties So Daniel spake of himselfe Dan. 9.3 I set my face unto the Lord God to seeke by prayer and supplications and as a godly man is in the wayes of God so the wayes of God are in him Thus David describes him Psal 84.5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee in whose heart are the wayes of them that is the wayes which Godly men walke in and they are the wayes of God Now as this is the true state of godlinesse when the heart is in it and prepared for it so the true state of wickednesse is when a mans heart is in it and prepared for it This is the proper character of a wicked man The eye of the Adulterer waiteth for the twilight Every word hath weight in it the twilight is the Adulterers season It is not sayd he waites for the night or for the day but he waiteth for the twilight which is neither day nor night but between both We have such a description of time in reference to the mixt and uncertaine state of things Zach. 14.6 7. And it shall come to passe in that day that the light shall not be cleare nor darke But it shall be one day which shall be knowne to the Lord not day nor night Such a thing is Twilight it is neyther cleare nor darke neyther day nor night but between both There is a twofold twilight first the morning twilight and secondly Diluculum Crepusculū the evening twilight the morning twilight begins when the night ends the evening twilight begins when the day ends The Latines have two distinct words to expresse these distinct twilights by but our language is not so well stored and therefore we must distinguish them by the matter spoken of or the scope of the speaker Thus here when 't is sayd in the text he waiteth for the twilight we are to understand it of the evening twilight not for the morning twilight and the reason is because the morning twilight is not for the adulterers turne or purpose for then the light prevailes upon the darkness but it is the evening twilight for then darkness prevailes upon the light And that this is the Adulterers twilight is cleare Prov. 7. v. 6 7 8 9. Nox et tenebrae administrae sunt impijs suarum libidinum Ipsa nox alioquin caeca infandarum tamen libidinū oculatus testis est At the window of my house saith Solomon I looked through the casement and behold among the simple ones I discerned among the youths a man voyd of understanding passing by the way to her house and he went neere her corner in the twilight in the evening or in the evening of the day in the blacke and darke night And behold there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot c. His eye waited for the twilight and in the twilight he was taken Hence note The doing of evill hath its proper seasons as well as the doing of good Though sin be never in season yet it hath some times which are more seasonable for it to sin is never in season as to the lawfullnesse of committing it but sin hath its seasons as to the conveniency of committing it The Adulterer takes his season he waiteth for the twilight Whence note secondly Evill men are very carefull to hit their seasons for the doing of evill It were desireable that the godly were as carefull to hit their seasons and take their times as the ungodly are To every thing saith the Preacher Eccl 3.1 there is a season and a time for every purpose under the Sunne And because it is so saith the same Preacher Eccl 8.6 The misery of man is great upon him But why doth this make the misery of man great upon him I answer The reason of this misery upon man is not because there is a season but because eyther of his ignorance or negligence to find it There are a thousand wayes to misse a season and but one to hit it And were there as many wayes to hit as to misse it were a thousand to one but man would misse rather then hit and therefore the misery of man is great upon him Because if once he misse his season it cannot be recovered and then he must needs be miserable Good men are miserable as to some cases because they are often so carelesse to hit their season of doing good and doe so often misse it notwithstanding all their care Wicked men are for ever miserable because they are so carefull not to misse their season of doing evill and doe so often hit it The eye of the Adulterer waiteth for the twilight and he seldome as to his own end waites in vaine But why is he so greedy for the twilight The next words say why where he brought in Saying no eye shall see me Where sayth he this he sayth it in his heart this is his discourse in his owne breast and to whom sayth he this he sayth it to himselfe there is a dialogue between the Adulterer and his owne heart and thus he concludes I will waite for the twilight and then no eye shall see me And when he sayth no eye shall see me his meaning is There is not any eye that shall see me Thus he playes the foole at All 's hid Yet further this no eye may have a threefold reference First No eye of common men shall see me I will doe this in secret I will have such a cover of darknesse over me that my neighbours and friends shall not be able to take any notice of mee Secondly No eye may referre to men in chiefe that is Verba quae sequuntur exigunt ut ista de Magistratus justitiaeque ministris intelligantur Bold Quisquis aut officio aut quovis alio modo super alios inspicit actusque eorum observat vocatur oculus no eye of the Magistrate nor of any Minister of Justice shall see me Magistrates are the eyes of a Nation they should overlooke all places eyther by themselves or their Officers to observe what is done As the adulterers eye watcheth so there should be an eye of Justice watching to catch Adulterers Some interpret this Text especially of the adulterers hope or selfe-perswasion that he shall escape the eye or knowledge of the Magistrate who is appointed to oversee the manners of that people over whom he is placed and to be a terror yea a Minister of vengeance to them that doe evill for he beareth not the sword in vaine Rom. 13.3 4. Magistrates should so much marke and eye the state of a people that they are called eyes in Scripture Isa 29.10 For the Lord
hath powred out upon you the spirit of deepe sleepe and hath closed your eyes what or who are those eyes the next words enforme us the Prophets and Rulers the seers hath he covered The Hebrew word which we render rulers is heads Rulers are the heads of a people and what is a head without eyes or having its eyes covered God did not cover the eyes which were in the peoples personal heads but he covered the eyes which were in their publicke heads He hath closed your eyes that is those that should be as heads and eyes to you your Prophets and your rulers Thus also say some Government is expressed by an eye Deut. 33.28 Israel then shall dwell in safety alone Fons vel oculus Jacob suum imperium habebit in terra Canaan Bold Apud persarum reges quidam fuerunt qui dicebantur oculi aures Zenoph the fountaine of Jacob shall be upon a land of corne and wine also his heaven shall drop dew That which we translate the fountaine of Jacob others render as well and as truely from the Original the eye of Jacob that is say they the Magistracy the ruling power as if he had sayd as the people of Israel in generall shall dwell in safety so their eye their government or their Governours in speciall shall be blessed with plenty they shall be upon a land of corne and wine It hath been observed also in antiquity that great Princes had certaine men in office whom they called their eyes Princes have their eyes and eares in every place that is their Officers Thus we may expound this Text the Adulterer sayth No eye shall see me The ruling or Magistraticall eye shall not see me and if what I doe be not seene by that eye let others see what they will and say what they please I shall not suffer at all for what I doe and then all 's well that 's as much as I care for And here we may note That As some Adulterers have their eyes abroad that is agents to espy out Beauties for them So most of them if not all are afraid of the eyes of others Thirdly No eye shall see me that is not the eye of God God himselfe shall not see me Thus the adulterer hopes to hide his sin from his eye who is indeed all eye Homines latere cupiens Dei oculum non timeus and whose eye is over all Thus the adulterer supposeth himselfe under such a vayl of darknes that he is free not onely from the eye of men on earth and from the eye of those who are gods upon earth but even from the eye of the God of heaven Hence observe First A sinner is full of vaine presumption He presumes that the sin which he commits against the light of his owne conscience shall never come to light he presumes that the sin which he commits in his owne eye shall not come to the eye of others I have elsewhere noted this ignorant confidence of carnal men and onely name it here Secondly Note It is not the act of sin but the discovery of it which a wicked man feareth He cares not what wickednesse he doth so he may goe unseene a godly man is afraid of doing evill though he could doe it with greatest secrecy or under the darkest cover he is afraid to doe evill because of the evill and unrighteousnesse of it because of the pollution and unanswerablenesse of it both to his owne duty and the goodnesse of God to him but it is the discovery not the iniquity of his worke which the hypocrite feareth Thirdly As the eye is taken for the eye of the Magistrate Observe That it is the punishment of sin at which a wicked man is troubled he is not troubled at the sin it selfe 'T is the consequence of sin not the nature of it the smart of sin and not the filth of it which the wicked would avoyd Lastly As no eye is exclusive also to the eye of God Note Wicked men presume that their sins are secret even to God himselfe They thinke sure God can see no further nor no better then man And so they have hopes to hide themselves not onely from the eyes of men but from the eyes of God as we may see plainly Jere. 23.23 Can any hide himselfe in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord This question can any shews that some had flattered themselves into such a conclusion that they could so hide themselves in secret places that God could not see them The holy Psalmist sayd Psal 139.12 The darknesse hideth not from thee but the night shineth as the day the darknesse and the light to thee are both alike But a wicked man sayth the darknesse hideth from thee the night is night to thee O what beggerly apprehensions have men of God! As if he whose eyes are ten thousand times brighter then the Sunne could not see without Sunlight or as if he could not see but in the light who made the light Vanus est qui purat se in tenebris esse tutum cum lucem vitare non possit quae lucet in tenebris tenebrae eam non comprehenderunt Ambros Naturalists say of those living creatures which have fiery eyes that they can see as well in the darke as in the light the reason is because they see not by taking in the species of the object into the eye but by sending out a light from their own eye upon the object God hath fiery eyes indeed he needs no outward light to see by who is nothing else but light Vaine sinner what can be darknes to him who is light and in whom there is no darkenes at all There is nothing doth more argue the blindnes of a sinner then this simple saying of his No eye seeth me unlesse it be that simple practice of his which he useth to the same purpose and which is discovered as his last shift in the last words of this verse And he disguiseth his face The Hebrew is He setteth his face into a secret he muffles himselfe he changeth his habit he puts on a visard harlots were wont to disguise themselves Gen. 39.14 when Tamar tooke upon her the habit of an harlot the Text saith She put on a disguise so here the Adulterer puts on a disguise he puts a cozzening face upon his face and then thinkes that though he be seene yet he cannot be discerned and that though some may see where he is yet none shall see who he is He disguiseth his face One would have thought that being in the twilight and the darkenes of the night ready to compasse him about that no eye could see him he should not need to have put on a visard or a muffler yet he doth so he puts a disguise upon his face Which may teach us That when a man doth ill he never thinks he is safe or secret enough When a mans conscience tells him he sins he would not
will according to his measure carry him through a world of evills and incumbrances to the doing of that good which duty and conscience or the conscience of his duty calls him to Now as Godly men labour to approve themselves the Ministers or servants of God so ungodly men will approve themselves the servants of sin in much patience in afflictions in necessities and in distresses they will run all hazzards and venture through all extreamities rather then leave the law of a lust unfulfilled The Lord put the Jewes to much suffering for their sins yet sin they would Why should ye be stricken any more saith he Isa 1.5 Ye will revolt more and more while I have been striking ye have been revolting The same pertinacy is complained of Isa 57.17 I smote him and was wrath yet he went on frowardly in the way of his heart that is in a sinfull way The heart of man knowes no other way till himselfe is formed after the heart of God and in that sinfull way he will goe though God make his heart ake as he goes I smote him and was wroth yet he went on c. In drought and heate they rob and in the snow water Againe we may take drought heate and snow water not onely as importing their sufferings while they were doing in such times but also as importing the severall seasons of time as if he had sayd they will sin both winter and summer that is continually wee say of some they are never well neither full nor fasting As full and fasting imply all the conditions of man so hot and cold summer and winter imply all divisions of time Hence note Evill men will doe evill allwayes Sinning time is never out with them they doe not sin by fits or starts in an ill mood onely or through a stresse of temptation but they sin from a principle within they have a spring of wickednes within and that will ever be sending and flowing out A good man may be overtaken with sin at any time but he doth not sin at all times in winter and summer in heate and cold Corruption will be working where Grace is but where Grace is not nothing workes but corruption If wicked men be not doing evill in every moment of time it is not because they at any time would not doe evill but because at all times they cannot And therefore the translation now underhand speakes of their whole life as one continued act of sin They sin to the grave That is till they dye and so are caryed out to the grave So that this manner of speaking They sin to the Grave signifyes the utmost perseverance of wicked men in sinning as if it had not been enough to say they sin in heate and cold winter and summer but they sin out the last inch of time even till they come to the graves mouth Whence Note Wicked men will not cease to sin while they continue to live The Apostle Peter 2 Pet. 2.14 saith of that generation who have eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin sin is their nature it is not what they have acquired but what is implanted in them and borne with them And because sin is naturall to them therefore they cannot get it off untill their nature is changed And hence it is that conversion or regeneration is the change of our nature as well as of our actions A man unregenerate sins as naturally as he lives he sins as naturally as he sees or heares or exerciseth any of those naturall faculties so naturally doth he sin and therefore he sins to the grave And this is a rational demonstration of the Justice of God in awarding eternall punishment for sin committed in time or in a short time the whole time of a mans life in which sin is committed is but a short time a nothing to eternity wherein sin shall be punished This I say is a demonstration of the Justice of God in punishing wicked men because if they could have lived to eternity they would have done evill to eternity they doe evill as they can and as long as they can Seeing then there is a principle in man to sin eternally it is but just with God if he punish sinners eternally did not the grave stop him his heart would never stop him from sin In heate and cold they rob they sin to the grave Further as these words are put into a similitude they intimate the easinesse and naturallnesse of their sinning as well as the continuance of it Like as the hot earth drinketh up the snow water so wicked men sin to the grave they sin to death and they sin with as much ease and naturalnes as the earth when dry and thirsty drinks up the snow water Sinners are sayd to drinke iniquity as water Job 15.16 They are sayd to draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with cart ropes Isa 5.18 The last of these comparisons notes their strength and grossenesse in sinning The second notes their wit and cunning in sinning The third which suites with the present text notes their readynes and easynes to sinne They can doe it as easyly as drinke as easyly as the hot earth drinketh up the snow water So much of that translation I come now to consider our owne Drought and heate consume the snow waters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 siccitas propriè ariditatem terrae significat unde pro terra arida inculta sumitur Drought or drinesse The word notes the drinesse of the earth and is often put for dry earth as also for earth undrest or for a desert place because in such places the earth is usually parcht with heate and over-dry And hence the word Tsijm in the plural number signifyes a people that dwell in a wildernesse or in a desert So the people of Israel were called while they marched slowly throught it to Canaan Psal 74.14 Thou brakest the head of the Leviathan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 populo soâ—itudâ—nicolis aut de serta incolenti and gavest him to be meate for the people who dwelt in the wildernesse And as men so those wild beasts that dwelt in deserts or solitary places are called Tsijm Isa 34.14 The wilde beasts of the desert shall also meete with the wilde beasts of the land and the Satyre shall cry to his fellow the Shrich-Owle also shall rest there and finde for her selfe a place of rest Tsijm are such uncouth creatures as inhabit Tsijah dry and desert places Drought And heate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 caluit Hebâ—aeis Cham calidum et chum nigrum sonat hinc chami nomen a calore vel nigredine Jupiter Hammon C ham the originall word signifyes both to be hot and to be blacke The second sonne of Noah who mocked his father was named Cham and it is supposed that the posterity of Cham inhabited Africa which is also called Ammonia being a hot Countrey and the people of it blacke And
in their fullnesse in their hight and glory When the wicked are not onely eares but heads of the eares of corne when they are at the highest they shall dye and this resemblance holds not onely because some eares are head-eares fuller and higher then others but because all corne is cut when once it comes to a head that is to a perfect fullnes Fourthly To be cut off as the tops of the eares of corne may also signifie that there is a speciall time or season when wicked men are to be cut off For as corne is not alwayes ripe for the sickle so wicked men though they alwayes deserve yet are not alwayes ripe for Judgement Corne is not cut downe when greene or when grown high but when it is ripe fit for the flaile it is cut in its season wicked men shall be cut off in their season And as there is a general season for the harvest of the whole world so for every man in particular Rev 14.15 Thrust in thy sickle and reape for the time is come for thee to reape for the harvest of the earth is ripe God will not command the Angel to put in his sickle till the world be ripe for Judgement as he spake also by the Prophet Joel Ch. 3.13 14. Put in thy sickle for the harvest is ripe come get you downe for the presse is full the fats overflow for their wickednes is great multitudes multitudes in the valley of decision for the day of the Lord is neere in the valley of decision that is in the valley of cutting downe or of cutting off or as we put in the Margin in the valley of concision or threshing When the wicked shall be cut off as the tops of the eares of corne by the sickle of divine wrath and be under dreadfull breakings and threshings for evermore Lastly This cutting off as the tops of the eares of corne shewes that God doth not cut off wicked men when he hath them at an advantage when they are weake when they are low but when they are as the tops of the eares of corne when they are at their best then he doth it the chiefe of the people are called the heads of the people Numb 25.4 hang up the heads of the people before me sayth God by Moses he cut them off who were as the heads of the eares of corne As some Tyrants for feare So God in Justice cuts off the heads of the people the chiefe of Familyes Princes and great men This was Elegantly though cruelly Summa papaverum capita decussit ut significaret principes civitatis paulatim esse â—ollendos Flor de Gest Rom cap. 7. expressed by Tarquin the proud the last King of the Romanes who when a Citie was taken or surrendred and application was made to him how he would have the Citizens dealt with he answered onely by a signe calling the Messengers into a garden and having a sticke in his hand he strucke off the heads of the poppyes intimating to them that now the Citizens were in their power they should cut off all the chiefe and leading men among them Thus the Lord cuts off the heads of the eares of corne the chiefe of men or men of greatest power in the greatnesse of their power he cuts them off in love to justice and righteousnesse as tyrants doe in feare and jealousie of their power and greatnesse They are cut off as the tops of the eares of corne Job having at large described the state of wicked men and exemplified many of their wickednesses concludes by way of challenge Vers 25. And if it be not so who will make me a liar and make my speech nothing worth In this verse we have Job triumphing and yet not so much Job triumphing as truth triumphing for how much soever we speake for and defend the truth Non timet veritas falsitatis insidias sed vel pressa tandem triumphat August Ser de Sanct it is not comely that our selves should triumph but the truth onely Job indeed shewes his confidence in the equity of his cause which he affirmes so just and so fully proved to be the minde of God that he dares venture upon the Judgement of any man alive If it be not so now who will make me a liar Brevissime in Hebraeo Etsi non Some make other men lyars by teaching them or encouraging them to tell lyes others make men lyars by proving that they have taught or told lyes This is Jobs meaning when he sayth Who will make me a lyar Wee may suppose Job at the close of his speech rising up and looking about him while he spake thus who will make me a liar Let me see the man stand forth that hath any thing to object against what I have sayd The words are elegant in the Original and if not that is if it be not so as I have asserted concerning the dealeings of God with wicked men that they many times flourish and continue flourishing a long time if it be not so let any man disprove me and make me a liar if he can let him convince me that I am in an errour if he can As if he had sayd I doe not impose my opinion upon you but submit it to the consideration and discussion of all men Hence note First We should freely offer our opinions and assertions to the tryall 'T is too much for a man to looke that what he hath sayd should be consented unto and beleeved because he hath sayd it Onely God himselfe is worthy and may demand to be thus beleeved by man That God saith this or that is enough to perswade yea to require our faith in it and obedience to it When God speakes he that hath eares to heare let him heare Math. 13.9 that is let him beleeve and obey at his perill be it He that is truth cannot but speake truth and therefore is to be beleeved in whatsoever he speaketh Man ought not to say any thing as questioning the verity of what God hath sayd But we ought to consider what men say and not to beleeve beyond what we have tryed And as no man ought to beleeve before he hath tryed so every man ought to present what he hath sayd to the tryall Man hath no dominion over the faith of another Paul professed he had not 2 Cor. 1. 24. and if Paul had not who hath dares any man pretend to a higher priviledge then Paul himselfe did Wee may not bind up the consciences of men to our dictates any further then what we say is grounded upon and answerable to the sayings of God To the Law and to the Testimony if we speake not according to this word ye have leave or may take leave to say as to that saying there is no light in us Is 8.20 We must not teach magisterially but ministerially we must not affect to be called Masters for one is our Master even Christ Mat. 23.10 The Beraeans receaved the
hee leaves that to be understood And what or whom can wee understand but God or the power of God by whom or whereby dead things are formed as well as living things for all things whether animate or inanimate receave their being and forme from him Dead things are formed from under the waters Hence note That all things are produced in their beings by the power of God Dead things as well as living things gold and silver minerals and gemms are formed by God as well as men or beasts And as they were of God in Creation at the beginning so there is a continuall putting forth of the power of God in the continuing or renewing of them God is dayly forming rich and rare things in the secret Cabinets of the earth and from under the waters And the inhabitants thereof That is as dead things are formed under the waters so are the inhabitants thereof or those living things that dwell in the water wee put in the Margin with the inhabitants who are they The inhabitants of the water are the fishes they are bred and abide in the water As if he had sayd Those precious stones and minerals called dead things are formed from under or in the waters as well as the fishes who are the proper inhabitants of the water Mr Broughton reades thus Dead things are formed under the waters and places neere them that is in the mountaines and hills in the clifts and rocks are these precious things formed But I rather take our reading and so the Text gives a further illustration of the power of God who as he formeth dead things under the waters so living things or the inhabitants of the water Hence note The power of God is great in forming the fishes of the Sea And the greatness of it will appeare if we consider three things about them First Their number as to us the fish of the Sea are infinite in number there is no sort of creatures that multiply so fast as fishes doe therefore when God created the inhabitants of the water we read Gen. 1.21 how emphatically their encrease is exprest And God created great Whales and every living creature that moveth which the waters brought forth aboundantly after their kinde The waters did not bring them forth by any power of their owne but they were brought forth in the waters by that power which God had planted in the waters for that purpose Now it is not onely sayd that the waters brought them forth but the waters brought them forth aboundantly implying that fish doe multiply and bring forth more then other creatures and therefore when the Spirit of God would shew a great increase of men 't is sayd They shall increase like fish Gen. 48.16 Jacob blessing the children of Joseph prayed thus Inter omnes bestias nihil est foecundius piscibus igitur trāffertur ad multiplicationem immensum The Angel which redeemed mee from all evill blesse the ladds and let my name be named on them and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth The Originall is Let them grow or multiply like fishes into a multitude in the midst of the earth or let them be as numerous upon the land as fishes are in the Sea And we finde in the sacred History how the blessing and providence of God made good this history For of the sons of Joseph Manasseh and Ephraim were numbred eighty five thousand and two hundred men meete for warre Numb 26.34.37 which exceeded the encrease of any one Tribe beside How wonderfully doth the Lords power appeare not onely in those infinite sholes of lesser fishes but in the greater also Who is able to report the number of these Sea-inhabitants or of the fishes who people the Sea Secondly If wee consider their various kindes that also sheweth forth the great power of God Naturalists observe that there is no creature upon the earth but hath as I may say its representative in the Sea besides those that have nothing like them on the earth so various are their kindes Thirdly Many of these inhabitants of the waters are wonderfull for the vastnesse and greatnesse of their bodyes the greatest of all living creatures are in the Sea Psal 104.25 So is this great and wide Sea wherein are things creeping innumerable both small and great beasts The Psalmist calleth the fishes beasts and there are small beasts in the Sea and great beasts even of a stupendious greatnesse The greatest beasts of the earth are as nothing compared to them The Elephant is little to the Leviathan Naturalists have written much of this subject the numerousnes variousnes and vastnes of these water-Inhabitants So that wee may see much of the Majesty and power of God as in these things that are formed under the waters so in those that are formed in the waters Job descends lower yet in the next words Vers 6. Hell is naked before him and destruction hath no covering 'T is questioned what is here meant by hell Some expound hell of the lowest parts of the earth so Master Broughton The lowest earth is naked before him and the lost that is that which seemes to be lost and condemned as himselfe Glosseth it hath no covering Secondly Hel is often put for the grave Psal 16.10 Thou wilt not leave my soule that is me in hel that is in the grave nor wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption Thirdly It is most usually taken for that prison or place of torment where the Lord detaynes all those in hold that have rebelled against him and dyed impaenitently in that rebellion In this third sence we may interpret it here as I conceive most suitably to the scope and purpose of Job in this place Hell is naked before him That is it is fully discovered to him he sees who are there and what is done there he observes all passages there even in that bottomlesse pit of hel as wel as in heaven or upon the earth As if Job had sayd to Bildad You told me that God maketh peace in his high places I tell you God hath to doe in hell or in the lowest places The lowest hell is naked before him The Apostle speaketh in this phrase Heb 4.13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to doe The words are an allusion unto bodyes which being stript and uncloathed all see what they are there may be many deformities blemishes and scarrs yea ulcers upon the body undiscerned while 't is cloathed or covered but when naked nothing is hid All things are naked before God that is he as plainly discernes what they are as wee discerne what a body is that stands naked before us Hell is called darknesse and utter darknesse yet it is light to God And destruction hath no covering Here the same thing is againe repeated
and 't is usuall in Scripture to speake that in negative words which was before spoken in affirmative As to be naked and to have no covering are the same so hell and destruction are the same and these two are often put together Pro. 15.11 Hell and destruction are before the Lord how much more the hearts of the children of men Though we know not where hel is nor what is done there though wee know not what is become of those that are destroyed nor what they suffer yet God doth and if the secrets of hel and devills are knowne to him then much more the secrets of the hearts of the children of men And as that proverb teacheth us that nothing is hid from God because hell and destruction are not so another proverb delivered in the same forme teacheth us that nothing in the creature can satisfie the desires and lustings of man even as hell and destruction can never be satisfied Prov. 27.20 Hell and destruction are never full so the eyes of men are never satisfyed The Devill who is the great executioner of the wrath of God is exprest by this word as hell is called destruction in the abstract so the Devill is called a destroyer in the concrete Revel 9.11 And they had a King over them which is the Angel of the bottomlesse pit or hell whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon but in the Greeke tongue hath his name Apollyon both the one and the other the Hebrew and the Greeke signifie the same thing a destroyer The Devill who is the Jaylour of hell is called a destroyer as hell it selfe is called destruction from the Co-incidency of these two termes Note Hell is destruction They that are once there are lost and lost for ever The reason why hell is called destruction is because they that are cast to hell are undone to eternity We read of a City Isa 19.18 which was called the City of destruction because it was to be utterly destroyed Hell may be called a City of destruction not because it shall ever be destroyed but because it shall ever be full of destruction and nothing but destruction shall be there There is no estate on earth so miserable but a man may be delivered out of it but out of hell there is no deliverance Heman saith Psal 88.11 Shall thy loving kindnesse be declared in the grave or thy faithfullnesse in destruction There grave and destruction are put together much more may hell and destruction be put together or for each other What ever comes into the grave is destroyed it rots and perisheth much more doth hell destroy all that comes thither And looke as the grave is to the body now a destroyer consuming so hell is to the soule now and will be to soule and body after the resurrection a destroyer tormenting The loving kindnesse of God shall not be declared in Hell nor any faithfullnesse of his in destruction unlesse it be his faithfullnesse according to what is threatned in the Word to destroy The Apostle Peter sayth 1 Ep 3.19 20. that Christ by the Spirit went and preached to the Spirits in prison which sometime were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the dayes of Noah c. It is true that Christ by the Spirit in the ministery of Noah did preach to those Spirits who were disobedient in the time when Noah preached and were in prison or in hel in the time when Peter wrote But Christ did not preach by his Spirit in the ministery of Noah or any other way to Spirits who were in prison or in hel while he preached to them There are no Sermons in hel nor any salvation there The loving kindnesse of God is aboundantly declared on earth but it shall not be declared in hel As there is nothing felt in hel but destruction so there is no salvation offered to those who are in hel There 's teares enow and mourning enough in hel but there is not the least Godly sorrow in hel which onely worketh repentance to salvation August lib. 21. de Civ dei cap 17. not to be repented of 2 Cor. 7.10 One of the ancients hath reported the opinion of some in his time who thought that though there be destruction in hel yet not eternal destruction but that sinners should be punished some a lesse others a longer time and that at last all shall be freed and yet saith he Origen was more mercifull in this poynt then these men for he held that the Devill himselfe should be saved at last Of this opinion I shall say no more in this place then this one thing which he there sayd These men will be found to erre by so much the more foulely against the right words of God so much the more perversely by how much they seeme to themselves to judge more mercifully for indeed the justice of God in punishing sinners is as much above the scale of mans thoughts as his mercyes in pardoning them are let not sinners flatter themselves in a hope of salvation when they are in hel who have neglected salvation while they were on the earth For as the Apostle saith Heb. 2.3 How shall we escape that is how shall we escape falling into hel if we neglect so great salvation so I may say how shall any escape by getting out of hell who neglect so great salvation Hel is destruction and as because heaven is a place of happinesse and salvation therefore heaven and happinesse heaven and salvation mutually or reciprocally signifie one another to obtaine heaven is to obtaine salvation to obtaine heaven is to obtaine happines So because hel is a place of misery and destruction therefore hel and misery hel and destruction signifie the same thing nor can they be separated Againe when he sayth Hell is naked before him and destruction hath no covering we learne There is nothing hid from the eye or knowledge of God Philosophy and reason teach us that the vertue and force of the heavenly bodyes the Sunne Moone and Starres doe not onely act upon those parts of the earth which are uppermost but send their influences and powers to the lowest parts or bowels of the earth for as was sayd before according to the ordinance of God dead things are formed there Now I say as the power of the heavenly bodyes reacheth downe into the earth much more doth the power and light of God reach into hell it selfe I will not stay upon any curious enquiries where this hell is wheresoever it is God seeth it Hel is naked before him therefore sayth David Psal 139.8 If I ascend up into heaven thou art there if I make my bed in hell behold thou art there that is there thou art by thy power and inspection thou seest what is in hell and if so how much more doth God behold what is done heere upon the earth if hell be naked before him then the earth is naked before him if destruction have no
a house for the comfort of our lives here who never deserved the meanest cottage how should we pray that he would Garnish our soules by the Spirit as a heaven for himselfe to dwell in or as the Apostle speakes Eph. 2.22 That we may be builded for an habitation of God through the Spirit God hath two houses an upper house and a lower house The heaven of heavens is his upper house and the heaven of an holy and humble heart is his lower God is every where but he dwelleth no where but in a heaven He dwelleth not in the heart of any man till that be made a heaven and that a heaven Garnished by the Spirit As the Sunne Moone and Starres are the garnishing of the naturall heaven so holy knowledge and the graces faith hope and love are the Garnishing of those spirituall heavens the hearts of the sons of men And untill their hearts be thus garnished they are not an heaven for God but a hell or habitation for the devill and he puts furniture and garnishings into them sutable to himselfe and fitting his owne entertainement We read in the Gospel Math 12.43 44. That when the uncleane Spirit is gone out of a man he walketh through dry places seeking rest and findeth none Then he saith I will returne into my house from whence I came out and when he is come he findeth it empty swept and garnished Lusts and corruptions unbeliefe pride wrath envy these are the Garnishings of Satans house And as he delighteth most to dwel there where he findeth most of these Garnishings so God delighteth most to dwel in that soule which is most Garnished with grace Then pray and pray earnestly that God who hath garnished the heavens by his Spirit for our use would also garnish our hearts by his Spirit for his owne use Thirdly As this should provoke us to pray that our hearts may be garnished as a house of delight that God may dwel in us So it should provoke us to garnish our lives that God may be honoured by us And as God hath not onely made a good world for us as to the matter but made it pleasant and adorn'd it for us so we should strive not onely to doe that which is good for the matter but to put ornaments upon it and make it pleasant to our utmost in the eyes of God We should garnish our workes as God hath garnished his God hath as it were polisht and engraven his workes for us by exquisite art and skill so that the workmanship is better then the matter and shall we satisfie our selves if we doe that which is good for the matter though we bestow no cost no holy skill and workmanship upon it shall we serve God onely with plaine worke when we see how curious and elaborate his workes are I grant plaine worke is best and most pleasing to God as plainenes is opposed to hypocrisie but plaine worke is not best as plainenes is opposed to exactnes God loves to see some lace and trimming in sincerity upon what we doe that is it pleaseth him when he seeth that we do our best and that we not onely doe good but garnish to his prayse the good we doe he would have us not onely walke in the truth but honour the truth by our walkings He would have us not onely obey the doctrine but as the Apostle speakes Tit 2.10 Adorne the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things or to use Jobs language Garnish it as he by his Spirit hath garnished the heavens And his hand hath formed the crooked Serpent His hand that is his power hands are ascribed to God in a figure or in allusion to men who doe all their externall workes by their hands The hand is a noble and most serviceable Organ or Instrument and therefore the Great things which God hath done especially the heavens are called the worke of his hands and his handy-worke Psal 19.1 yea the heavens are called the worke of his fingers Psal 8.3 Which notes I conceave the exactnes and curiosity of the worke for such are those things which are wrought by the fingers God being a Spirit invisible and incorporal hath no formal hands but he hath a vertuall hand That Executive power by which he performeth and bringeth about his will in every thing is his hand This hand Hath formed the crooked Serpent There are severall opinions about this crooked Serpent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Serpentem vectem Pagn Serpentem fugacem Mont Serpentem oblongum Jun who or what it should be that Job here meaneth The Hebrew is The Sepent the barre That is The serpent which is like a barre or bolt of iron Some render the flying or running serpent because as the bolt or barre of a doore runneth from side to side so that from place to place Mr Broughton translates the long serpent But what is this serpent Divers interpretens connect the sence of these words with the former part of the verse and so place this crooked serpent in the heavens as belonging to the Garnishing of them or as if Job were giving a particular instance of what God hath done towards the garnishing of the heavens His hand hath formed the crooked serpent By which they understand the coelestiall circles or spheares which are wrapt and involved one within another as a serpent wrappeth or twineth himselfe in several rounds Another following the same sence expoundeth it of that which Astronomers call the milkey way which is a beauty in heaven It being as it were the coalition of a number of little starrs Vatablus viam lacteam intelligit which because they looke white and milkish are therefore called the milkey way Which also hath somewhat of the forme of a serpent as is evident to the eye of any diligent observer A third keeping still to that sence expoundeth it yet more particularly of that speciall constellation in the heavens knowne among Astronomers by the name of the dragon or serpent Which is supposed to be spoken of here by Job synecdochically putting a part for the whole or one for all the other Constellations with which the heavens are garnished As if it had been sayd His hand hath formed the crooked serpent that is all the Starres in their severall shapes and configurations among which one representeth the forme of a Lion another of a Beare another of a Ram and among many others one appeareth in the forme of a Dragon or Crooked Serpent shooting himselfe forth or forward like the bolt of a doore I finde a fourth sort who though they keepe the crooked serpent of the Text still in the heavens yet they bring it downe to a lower heaven that is from the starry heaven or from that heaven which is the Subject of the Starres to the ayery heaven which is the subject or shop in which the meteors of all sorts are bred and formed and among them there is a meteor called by Naturalists the flying serpent As
if the meaning of these words His hand hath formed the crooked serpent Draco volans were this God hath wrought and formed by his power wisdome all those fiery meteors that are often seene as it were flying and shooting in the ayre to the wonder of many and the astonishment of not a few There are the treasures of the snow and of the hayle there God prepareth a way for the lightning of the thunder Job 38.22.25 Some learned interpreters insist much upon this Exposition placing the crooked serpent in the heavens eyther the upper or lower as hath been shewed under foure distinct titles nor can it be denyed but that the hand of God hath wrought all these things much lesse can it be denyed that the working of these things is a great argument and demonstration of the power and wisedome of God which is the purpose of Job in this place therefore I shall not totally lay it aside Neyther yet will I leave it with the reader as the speciall meaning of this place for this reason because I much doubt whether those poeticall phancyes in giving such fictitious names to the Starres of heaven as The Lion the Beare the Bull the Dragon the Serpent c. of which Philosophers and Astronomers have made use were at all borne or ever so much as heard of in those elder times in which and before which Job lived For though both in the 9th Chapter of this booke v. 9. as also in the 38th Chapter v. 21 22. many Names are given to the Starres which both the Greeke and Latine translaters and we following them in the English render by those poeticall names yet The Original Hebrew words beare no allusion at all to those phancyes As for instance The Hebrew word which we render Arcturus Chap 9.9 hath nothing at all in it signifying The Tayle of a Beare But here in this text the word properly signifyeth a crooked serpent and therefore to place it in the heavens as a Starre when as in the times when this was written there is so little if any probability at all that any such apprehensions were taken up by any or any such allusive names given to the Starres seemes to me somewhat improper There is another veine of interpretation carrying the sence of these words His hand hath formed the crooked serpent to quite another poynt for 't is conceaved by the Authors of this opinion that as Job gave instance before in the workes of God above his highest workes in nature the garnishing of the heavens so hee now giveth instance in his workes below or in his lowest workes This general interpretation is delivered two wayes distinctly First That as God hath garnished the heavens so he hath made and now governeth hel too His hand hath formed the crocked serpent that is the Devill That which favoureth this opinion and hath possibly cast the thoughts of many upon it is that in Scripture the devil is often called a serpent yea a crooked serpent and that he acted a serpent as his instrument in the first temptation Gen. 3.1 Now the serpent was more subtile then any of the beasts of the feild which the Lord God had made and he sayd unto the woman that is The Devill in or by the Serpent sayd unto her c. He hath wel deserved to be called a Serpent who acted his first malice against mankinde by the helpe of a Serpent And for his thus early making use of a Serpent he is called not only a serpent but that old Serpent Rev. 12.9 The great Dragon was cast out that old Serpent called the Devill and Satan which deceiveth the whole world he was cast out into the earth and his Angells were cast out with him The hand of God hath formed this crooked serpent To cleare which some interpret the former part of the verse in complyance with this sence for the good Angells thus By his Spirit he hath Garnished the heavens Spiritus ejus ornavit coelos Vulg i. e. coelestes spiritus ornamētis scilicet spiritualium denorum Aquin Et obstetricante manu ejus eductus est coleber tortuosus Vulg that is he hath bestowed excellent gifts upon the Angels who are the great ornament of heaven and may tropically be called heaven as men are called earth And as holy wise just and faithfull men are the ornaments and garnishings of the earth so the holy Angels are the garnishings of heaven they having such mighty power and excellent gifts Now saith this interpretation as God garnished the heavens with good Angels so he brought forth the crooked serpent the Devill by his working power Not as if they who stand up for this exposition did affirme that God did make the Devill by his immediate hand as he did the good Angels and the rest of the Creatures for when God saw every thing that he had made behold it was very good and therefore the crooked-serpent as taken under this Notion for the Devill who is the Evill one could not be of his making Therefore though the Devill according to his original or general nature as an Angel was formed of God yet the crookednes of his nature as wel as of his wayes which properly and formally denominate him a Devill was of himselfe he having turned away from God and defiled that state by the freedom of his own will in which he was created pure and had society with his fellow-Angels Eduxit deus diabolum è medio Angelorum Aquin till God for his sin did as it were pull him and his Adhaerents from the midst of them and as the Apostle Jude saith v. 6. Hath reserved them together in chaines of darknesse unto the judgement of the great day But I conceave that Job is not here speaking of an Allegoricall or Metaphoricall serpent such a one as the Devill is but of a reall and proper one And therefore I lay by this exposition as unsutable to the text in hand And conclude that Job having in the former part of the verse set forth the power and wisedome of God in garnishing the heavens his meditation descendeth in this latter part of it though not so low as hel yet as low as the waters especially the waters of the Sea and there sheweth us the hand of God at worke both in making and destroying in forming and wounding the crooked serpent For the Hebrew word which we render hath formed signifyes also to wound and so we translate it Isa 51.9 Awake awake O arme of the Lord c. art not thou it which hath cut Rahab and wounded the Dragon yea it is so translated by some in this text of Job His hand hath wounded the crooked serpent Which cometh neere that of the Prophet according to the bare literal reading Isa 27.1 In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the peircing or as we put in the Margin the crossing like a bar serpent even Leviathan that crooked