And if we look into the first of John ver 2 3. we read thus In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God the same was in the beginning with God all things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made There our maker for the making of all things is attributed to him is the Son the second person in the holy Trinity or the Word who as it followeth in that Chapter was made flesh Why then doth Elihu here ascribe his making to the Spirit And how are these Scriptures reconciled I answer By that received Maxime in Divinity The workes of the holy Trinity towards the creature are undevided So that while this Scripture ascribes the making of man to the Spirit or Third person in the Trinity it doth not at all crosse those which ascribe it to the first or second the Father or the Son The Spirit of God hath made me Hence note First Man as to his bodily making or the making of his body is the workmanship of God As we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good or holy workes Eph 2.10 so we are his workmanship created to common and naturall workes We have heard of that divine consultation or resolution rather Gen 1.26 Let us make man The Father made man and the Son made man and the holy Spirit made man The Father by the Son through the holy Spirit made man What a glorious what a mighty power is put forth for the production of such a poore creature as man is And this is true not only of the first man in his creation but of every man since the creation there is a concurrence of a divine power and workmanship in the setting up of man as man Psal 100.3 It is he that made us and not we our selves God doth not only make us holy men but he makes us men Hence David Psal 13 9-14 I am fearefully and wonderfully made He speaks there of the frame of his body though that be much more true in reference to the admirable frame of the new creature which is set up in the soule so indeed we are fearefully and wonderfully made Isa 27.11 This is a people of no understanding But did God ever make a people without naturall understanding Surely no but they were a people without spirituall understanding they did not understand what the mind and meaning of God was and what their owne duty was Such are a people of no understanding how wise soever they are in their owne eyes or in the eyes of the world what followeth Therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will shew them no favour That is God who made and formed them both in their naturall capacity as men as also in their civill and spirituall capacity as a Church and Nation or as a Nationall Church understanding it of the Jewes will not have mercy on them will not favour them We read the same Church at once looking to God as their maker and most earnestly moving and imploring his pity upon the same account Isa 64.8 9. But now O Lord thou art our father we are the clay and thou our potter and we all are the work of thy hand As if they had sayd Thou O Lord hast moulded us as thy creatures and fashioned us as thy Church when we were but a rude masse or heape without forme or comeliness therefore doe not marre thy owne worke doe not breake the vessels of thine owne making or as it followeth in the same Chapter Be not wroth very sore O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever behold we beseech thee we are all thy people Hence consider First That we owe not only our well-being but our very being unto God And therefore Secondly No man ought to looke upon himselfe as his owne So the Apostle argues 1 Cor 6.19 Know ye not that your body is the temple of the holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your owne No man is his owne he is Gods who hath made him Saints and believers especially are not their own in that repsect as also because their bodies are the temple of the holy Ghost that is the holy Ghost hath sanctified them for himselfe for his peculiar service and for his habitation Now as the bodyes of Saints are the temple of the holy Ghost because he doth sanctifie them so they are the temple of the holy Ghost because he hath reared them up and built them That consideration should urge us to duty our bodies are temples built as well as temples sanctified by the holy Ghost And therefore we are not our owne at all nor in any respect and if we are not our owne at all but the Lords then we ought to be alwayes for the Lord. Hence Thirdly Hath the Spirit of God made us as Elihu saith then let the Spirit use us how sad is it that when the Spirit of God hath made our bodies and soules we should let the wicked spirit use either as he doth both the bodies and soules of carnall men to his base services The evill spirit did neither make your bodies nor your soules why should he have the command of either Therefore as your members have been weapons of unrighteousnesse to sin so let them be instruments of righteousnesse unto God Seeing the holy Spirit hath made us let not the evill spirit use so much as a little finger of us for he hath not made not only so much as a little finger of our hand but so much as the least haire of our heads as Christ saith we our selves cannot Math 5.36 white or blacke And therefore let not the evill spirit make use of one haire of our heads white or black as a flagge of pride and vanity or to be an occasion of sin to others He that maketh the house ought to have the possession and service of it either to dwell in it himselfe or to receive rent and profit from him that dwells in it The spirit having made us should not only have the rent and revenue but the full possession of us for ever That which is of God should be for God for him alwayes and only for him Secondly In that the making of man is attributed to the Spirit Observe The Spirit of God is God The holy Ghost is not only a power of God or a word gone out from God but the holy Ghost is God This is cleare from the efficiency of the holy Spirit The Spirit of God hath made me The work of creation is attributable to none but God That power which at first set up man in his creation continueth him to this day this power and great prerogative is given to the Spirit therefore the Spirit is God Psal 33.6 By the word of the Lord his substantiall Word or Son were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath or
he invited them into the City as poore birds into a snare to destroy them presently He was seemingly troubled at their affliction and wept but his were Crocodiles tears he murthered them as soone as he had them in his power Thirdly Some speake against their hearts doctrinally or in the Doctrines which they propound and teach There are three sorts who speak amisse doctrinally First Some speak that which is not right in the uprightnesse of their hearts or I may say they speak that which is false with a true heart that is they think it to be a truth which they utter when 't is an error and will be found so at last When ever we see different opinions stifly maintained among honest and godly men which though it be a very sad sight yet it is too often seene in that case I say one side alwayes speaks that which is false with a true heart and utters error uprightly The truth is some men defend an error with better and more honest hearts then some others defend the truth For Secondly There are such as speak right without any uprightnesse of heart or they speak truth with a false heart this Elihu specially professeth against he would not only speak that which was right but with uprightnesse The Apostle found several teachers of this second sort Phil 1.16 17 18. Some preach Christ that is the Gospel yea the truth of Christ in the Gospel else the Apostle would not have rejoyced in it as he professeth he did at the 18th verse I therein doe rejoyce yea and will rejoyce Yet these men did not preach in the uprightnesse of their own hearts for saith he Some Preach Christ out of envy and strife and some out of good will they preached Christ pure Gospel yet not with pure hearts for he adds they did it supposing to adde affliction to my bonds They preacht to oppose the Apostles more then to set up Christ and though they preached the truth yet they did it more in pretence then in truth as 't is sayd at the 18th verse The same Apostle speakes of others 2 Cor 11.13 14. who preached what was true for the matter and yet he calls them false Apostles deceitfull workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ and no marvell for Satan himselfe is transformed into an Angel of light They formed and shaped themselves into Angels of light and tooke up the doctrine of the faithfull Apostles of Jesus Christ in some things yet they did it not in the uprightnesse of their hearts but that they might weaken the estimation of the true Apostles in the hearts of the people and set up themselves there that so in other things they might with greater efficacy or more effectually mis-lead them or draw them into error Thus some are found speaking lyes in the truth of their hearts and others speaking truth in the falsenesse of their hearts Thirdly Many speak that which is false with a false heart This is the height of wickednesse The Apostle prophesieth of such 1 Tim 4.2 Who shall speake lyes in hypocrisie the matter they speak is a lye and they speak it with a base and false heart too And therefore he saith of these in the same verse Their consciences are seared with a hot iron that is they are insencible both of the mischiefe they doe and of the misery they must suffer Elihu professeth himselfe to be none of all these He spake that which was right and true in the uprightnesse and truth of his heart Such a one the Apostle directs the Gospel Deacon to be 1 Tim 3.9 Holding the mystery of faith in a pure Conscience which is the same with an upright heart And he tells us 1 Thes 2.4 5. That himselfe did not use any guile in the ministration of the Gospel He had truth on his side and he had truth in his heart as he also professed to his Brethren the Jewes Rom 9.1 2. I speak the truth in Christ I lye not my Conscience also bearing me witnesse in the holy Ghost c. And againe 2 Cor 2.17 We are not of those that Corrupt the truth we speak the truth and speak it truly He is a better speaker that speaks with an upright heart then he that speakes with an eloquent tongue He is the happy speaker who speakes more with his heart then with his tongue that can say with Elihu to Job My words shall be of the uprightnesse of my heart Words spoken of that subject and words flowing from that subject are lovely words Of this latter sort saith Elihu to Job My words shall be And my lips shall utter knowledge clearly Job had charged his three friends Chap 13. 4. that they were forgers of lyes Quia tribus amicis Jobus imposherat quod essent fabricatures mendaâ—ij hoc a se exâ—lâ—dit dicens sententiam labia mea puram loquentur Aquin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 purum planum perspicuum a fuco alienum sincerum ab omni scoria doli aut mendacij purgatorem Merc This Elihu engageth against while he saith My lips shall utter knowledge clearly The word here translated Clearly is rendered two wayes First As an Adjective Secondly As an Adverb Many render it as an Adjective My lips shall utter cleare knowledge or distinct knowledge cleare as to the matter pure plaine without any adulteration deceit or guile as to the manner So the word is often used I might give you many Scriptures for it The Prophet speaking in the person of Christ Isa 49.2 saith He hath made me a polished shaft the Hebrew is a pure shaft a glittering shining shaft Jer 5.11 He made bright his arrowes there this word is used It is applyed also to Chiefe men 1 Chron 7.48 These were Choyce men pure men So saith Elihu My lips shall utter cleare shining pure knowledge Hence note We should speak cleare truth Truth without mixture truth well winnowed doctrine well refined The commandement of the Lord is a pure word Psal 19.8 There 's not any dross at all in it 't is like silver tryed seven times in the fire Psal 12.6 The Prophet among other blessings which God promiseth to his Church and people hath this Isa 30.24 The Oxen likewise and the young Asses that eare the ground shall eate cleane Provender free from the straw and chaff dust and darnel But may we not here renew the Apostles question 1 Cor 9.9 10. Doth God take care for oxen or saith he it altogether for our sakes for our sakes no doubt it is written That the mouth of the oxe treading out the corne should not be muzzl'd was written for the Ministers sake to assure them that while they labour in the Gospel to feed souls their bodies should be fed And that the oxen and young asses shall eate cleane provender was written for the peoples sake to assure them that Christ would send them such Ministers as should feed them with pure holy wholesome doctrine not with
arcanum Further the Hebrew is as we put in the Margin He revealeth or uncovereth the eares of men This revealing or uncovering of the eare say some noteth only private speaking and is a similitude taken from a common custome among men who when they would convey their mind secretly to a friend that stands by put their head near to his eare and take up the brim of his hat or put by his haire if long that they may whisper in his eare Thus in a dreame God whispers and speaks silently unto men This seems to have a sutablenesse with that Chap. 4.12 13. where Eliphaz spake of a thing brought secretly to him or that was whispered or stoln into him But I conceive there is more in this place then the intendment of a secret and private conveyance of the mind of God unto man in a vision or dreame And therefore this opening of the eare imports the removing or taking away of that whatsoever it is which hinders the effectuall hearing or obeying of those messages which God sends to men When God spake in a dream he did more then speak aliquid in illorum aures in susussirare vellet deducebat defluentes copillos et in apertes aures tacito â—â—â—mure aliquid instillabat Sanct Cinthius aurem vellit et admonuit c. Horat. Loquitur et audire facit Aurem revelare vel aperire est insinuare aliquid auribus animisque quod intimis sensibus reponendum sit Clariorem et penetrantiorem insinuationem voluntatis divinae denotat Coc he open'd the ear yea he gave an eare to hear This powerfull work of God upon the heart is elegantly expressed by opening the eare because when the ears are stopt we cannot hear till that which stops them is pluckt out or taken away so that here we have speaking with effect or the cleare and penetrating power of the Spirit of God sweetly and prevailingly insinuating his mind to man God speaks so as he will be heard Hence Observe First The eare of man is naturally stopt against the teachings of God There are many things which stop the eares of man or man hath many eare stoppers I will name seven all which God removes and takes away when he effectually reveals his mind to man First the eare of man is stopt with ignorance that 's a thick vaile or covering upon the eare and keeps out the mind of God till it be removed And Secondly Unbelief is another ear-stopper till the Lord removeth that we cannot hear Thirdly Impenitency or hardnesse of heart stops the eare there are a number of Scriptures I might give for each of these Fourthly the love of any particular sin is an eare-shutter or an eare-stopper and the Lord removes that when he opens the eare Fifthly Prejudices stop the eare prejudices somtimes against the person speaking somtime against the word spoken That man will never hear a word to purpose who hath a prejudice against the person or a prejudice against the word either a prejudice against the man or against the matter Sixthly Pride stops the eare too the proud man will not hearken therefore God humhles and brings down the spirit that the word may be heard Seventhly and lastly the World is a great ear-stopper that locks up the eare against the word the world in the profits of it and the world in the pleasures of it and the world in the cares of it and the world in the fears of it the world by or in every one of these stops the eare and by these the ears of all men naturally are stopped so that they are as it is said Psal 58.4 like the deafe adder that stops her eare and will not hear the voyce of the charmer charme he never so wisely Till all these stoppers are removed and the eare opened there is no receiving of the word Secondly Observe God is able to open and unlock the eare of man Though it hath never so many stopples in it he can pull them out never so many locks upon it though all the seven spoken of and seven more obstruct the ear yet he can open them all and make a free and uncontroulable passage for his word into the remotest and closest chambers of the soul God can speak loud enough not only to make the deafe but the dead hear his voyce Verily verily I say unto you saith Christ Joh. 5.25 the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voyce of the Son of God and they that hear shall live By the dead he means not those who are corporally but spiritually dead that is dead in sins and trespasses and in danger of eternall death for their sins and trespasses even these heard the voyce of the Son of God then speaking personally and heard it afterwards ministerially in the dispensation of the Gospell and that voyce revived them not only by giving them the comfort of that naturall life which they had before but by bringing in a new spirituall life which before they had not Then the internall eare is opened to purpose when those internall or mystically darke graves of sin are opened and the soul comes forth into the light of life Yet more distinctly God may be said to uncover or open the eares of men when he doth these four things First When he makes us not only to heare but to attend not only to heare but to hearken or not only to heare but to give eare Many give the word of God the hearing but they doe not give eare to the word of God Secondly God opens the ear when he makes us not only attend but understand or when he takes the vaile off from our minds The Apostle saith of the Jewes 2 Cor 3.14 The vaile remaineth upon them untaken away to this day in the reading of the old Testament and it doth so still so that as they could not so yet they cannot Looke to the end of that which is abolished that is to Christ who was the end or scope at which the whole Ceremoniall Law now abolished did then ayme When once the eâ—re is divinely opened then the vaile of ignorance and spirituall blindnesse is taken off from the mind both as to that greatest truth and all other necessary truths The opened eare is an understanding eare Thirdly God openeth the eare when he causeth us to believe what we perceive and understand As faith sets the whole soule aworke for God so faith is the great worke of God upon the soule When the eare is opened truth is not only knowne but savingly believed Fourthly This opening of the eare maketh the soule obedient Jesus Christ in that great prophecy of him Psal 40.6 to shew his ready obedience to his fathers command saith Mine eare hast thou opened or digged The eare of Christ was never shut in the least either through ignorance or unbeliefe but he is sayd to have his eare opened only to shew his constant preparedness and readiness for obedience
the spirit of the Almighty gave him understanding for the Government which he was called to for whereas before he had only a private spirit taken up about cattel and the affaires of husbandry then God gave him a spirit of prudence and valour a spirit of wisdome and magnanimity a Noble and an Heroicall Spirit befitting the Governour of so great and populous a kingdome both in peace and warre Every Calling is a mystery much more the Calling of Kings and Supreame Magistrates It was said to Imperiall Rome Tu regere im perio populos Romane memento Hae tibi sint artes Doe thou remember to Rule Nations and Kingdomes let these be thy arts This Art the Spirit of the Lord gave Saul even knowledge and skill to rule and governe yea he had a gift of Illumination not only for government but for prophesie he was found amongst the Prophets and when v. 11th they asked wondering Is Saul also amongst the Prophets As if they had said How strange and unheard of a thing is this that Saul should be furnished with the gift of prophecy and joyne himselfe with the Prophets They who before were acquainted with his person and manner of education were even amazed at the sight And while they were surprized with this amazement one of the same place as it seemes wiser then the rest Answered and said but who is their father ver 12. That 's the speciall word for which I alledge this text What Saul among the Prophets is it not strange that he should be Inspired Then one Answered and said who is their father As if he had said Doe not any longer stand wondering at this thing but consider who is the father of Saul as a Prophet as also the father of all these Prophets Saul was the son of Kish as to naturall descent but he had another father as he was a Prophet and so all these Prophets had besides theit Fathers as men one and the same father as Prophets Therefore wonder not that ye heare Saul prophecying for all these whom ye heare and see prophecying have not these gifts by birth from men nor by industry from themselves but from God who is a free agent and inspireth whom he pleaseth The same God who by inspiration hath freely bestowed those gifts upon the other Prophets hath also inspired Saul with a gift of prophecy The Spirit of God is his father in that capacity as well as the father of these other Prophets And hence that Scripture runs in the plurall number who is their father Unlesse God give power from above the understanding is darke the memory unfaithfull the tongue stammering It is light from on high that teacheth the skill of prophecy Solomon had the greatest measure of understanding of any meere man since the fall of man and of him it is said 1 Kings 4.29 God gave Solomon wisdome and understanding exceeding much and largenesse of heart even as the sand that is on the sea-shore Solomons heart had been as narrow as another mans if the Inspiration of the Almighty had not widened it When Moses was so sinfully modest as to excuse his Embassie to Pharoah supposing himselfe not fitted for such an undertaking Exod 4.10 11. O my Lord I am not eloquent neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue God presently put the question to him Who hath made mans mouth c. As if he had said Cannot he give words into thy mouth who gave thee a mouth cannot he act thy organs of speech who made them Now therefore goe and I will be with thy mouth Est deus in nobis sunt et commercia caeli sedibus aethereis spiritus iste venit Ovid. and teach thee what thou shalt say The Inspiration of the Almighty shall give thee understanding Heathen Poets have boasted of their â—â—ptures and inspirations The people of God have a promise of the Spirit to lead them into all truth and to helpe them in maintaining those truths From this generall that the furniture of the understanding is the gift of God or by Inspiration of the Almighty take these hints by way of Coralary First If a right understanding flow from the Inspiration of the Almighty then pray for an understanding pray for the Spirit Ye have not because ye aske not saith the Apostle James 4.2 God gives wisdome but he gives it to them that aske it Jam 1.5 If any man want wisdome let him ask it of God who giveth liberally and upbraideth not God upbraideth us not either with our want of wisdome or with the abundance of wisdome that he is pleased to supply us with and give out to us When Solomon was put to his choice what to aske he said Give thy servant an understanding heart God gave Solomon wisdome but Solomon asked it first All good things are shut up in promises and the promises are opened to give out their good things when we pray Prov. 23.5 When thou Cryest after knowledge and liftest up thy voyce for understanding then shalt thou understand the feare of the Lord and find the knowledge of God To pray well is to studâ—e well because by prayer light comes in from on high to make studies successfull and the worke to prosper in our hand As the Almighty breatheth downe on us so we must breath up to the Almighty To expect and not to pray is to tempt God not to trust him Secondly Doe not onely pray for wisdome but use meanes and be industrious for the obtaining of it The gift of God doth not take off the diligence of man God doth not worke in us that we should sit still Prov. 2.4 Then shalt thou know wisdome when thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasure And where is this treasure to be had Surely in the mines of Scripture and in all those Appoyntments wherein God hath promised to meete his people to shine upon them and give them the knowledge of his wayes in Jesus Christ Thirdly Be thankfull for any gift of knowledge for every beame and ray of light be thankfull It is God who commands light to shine out of darknesse and that God who at first commanded light to shine out of darknesse dayly shineth into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 Fourthly If understanding be from Inspiration then they who have received much understanding must be caution'd against two evills First not to be proud nor high minded that our gifts come from on high should make us very low in our owne eyes What hast thou that thou hast not received and if thou hast received it why doest thou glory as if thou hadst not received it These are the Apostles soule-humbling and pride-mortifying questions or expostulations rather 1 Cor. 4.7 You that have received the greatest gifts whom the Inspiration of the
confound the wise and the weake things of the world to confound the things which are mighty And base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen yea and things which are not to bring to nought things which are that no flesh should glory in his presence God chuseth those things which have the greatest improbility for his worke that the power and successe of the worke may be ascribed to him alone When we chuse we should chuse those that are fit for the worke to which they are chosen we should not chuse a foole to governe nor one that is of low parts himselfe to teach others we should pitch upon the wisest and ablest we can get Joseph said well to Pharoah Gen. 41.33 Looke out a man discreet and wise and set him over the Land of Egypt We cannot make men wiser then they are and therefore we must chuse and take those that are wise to doe our worke But when God comes to doe his worke he often takes the foolish and the weake because as he calleth them to so he can fit them for his worke As the strongest opposition of nature against grace cannot hinder the worke of the Spirit when the Spirit comes he will make a proud man humble a covetous man liberall an uncleane person modest and temperate so the weaknesse of nature cannot hinder his worke If a man below in parts God can raise him Out of the mouths of babes aâ—d sucklings hast thou ordained strength Psal 8.2 or as Christ alledgeth that text Math 21.16 Thou hast perfected praise one might thinke Surely God will take the aged the learned and great for his praise no he ordaines praise to himselfe out of the mouths of babes and sucklings that is out of their mouths who in all natuturall considerations are no way formed up nor fitted to shew forth his praise Isa 32.4 The heart of the rash or hasty shall understand knowledge Heady and inconsiderate persons whose tongues as we say run before their wits shall then be grave advised and serious both in what they doe and as it followeth in what they say The tongue of the stammerers shall speake plainly that is cleare words with cleare reason or they shall speake well both in matter and forme right things rightly All this the Lord doth that he may honour himselfe and lift up his owne name only which alone is to be lifted up Never feare to put an empty vessell to a full fountaine no matter how empty the vessell be if the fountaine be full God delights in broken weake and empty creatures that he may mend strengthen and fill them There is a spirit in man in weake man and the Inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding Elihu having shewed the original of mans wisdome to be from God in this 8th verse makes an inference from it in the 9th The inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding And what then surely even hence it cometh to passe that Vers 9. Great men are not alwayes wise neither doe the aged understand Judgement It is well conceived by some Interpreters that the Apostle doth more then allude to even cite this text 1 Cor. 1.26 You see your Calling Brethren how that not many wâ—se men after the flesh not many mighty not many Noble are called If God should chuse only of mostly wise men they would be ready to say we are chosen for our wisdome If he should chuse and call only or mostly rich men they would be ready to thinke we are chosen for our riches If he should call only or mostly Kings and Princes they would conclude we are called for our Greatnesse Therefore the Lord passeth by most of these and calleth the Fisherman calleth the poore man the ignorant man and saith You that have nothing you that in the esteeme of the world are nothing doe you follow me who have all things and can supply you with all Thus here saith Elihu Great men are not alwayes wise Why not the reason is because God doth not alwayes bestow wisdome upon them It is the Inspiration of the Almighty that giveth understanding Greatnesse doth it not Not many wise men after the flesh not many Great or Noble are Called Elihu and the Apostle Paul speake the same thing almost in the same words This is also a proofe of the divine Authoritie of this booke as well as that 1 Cor. 1.19 taken out of the speech of Eliphaz in the 5th Chapter at the 13th verse He taketh the wise in their owne craftinesse c. Great men are not alwayes wise The word alwayes is not at all in the Originall text and therefore put in a different Character Great men are not wise but 't is well supplyed by that word alwayes For the meaning of Elihu is not that great men are never wise but not alwayes wise Great men the Rabbies the honourable men of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Magnus unde Rabbi Magister qui multam eruditionem habet Honorabiles Pagn Magnates Tygur men in Authoritie and great place are intended by this word The Officers which King Ahasuerus set over his feast are called Rabbies Est 1.8 so that we may expound it here in the largest sence as including all sorts and degrees of Great ones Great men are not alwayes wise That is wisdome neither floweth from nor is it alwayes associated with Greatnesse As some are little yet great little in the world yet great in true wisdome so others are Great yet little they are little in wisdome or have little true wisdome though they are great in the world or have great worldly wisdome Hence note It is not greatnesse of birth of place or power that can make any man wise nor doth it at all assure us that a man is wise because we see him exalted to and setled in a place of power and greatness The Prophet Jer. 5.4 5. finding some very incorrigible and hardned in sinfull courses concluded them meane persons and in the lowest forme of the people Therefore I said Surely these are poore they are foolish for they know not the way of the Lord nor the Judgement of their God To be poore and foolish is very common these are poore and foolish saith the Prophet but surely I shall finde the Great ones better accommodated with wisdome and thereupon he resolved I will get me to the great men and will speak unto them for they have knowne the way of the Lord and the judgement of their God That is these great men have had great meanes of knowledge and we have reason to suppose them as great in knowledge as they are in place or power But did the great men answer his expectation did he find that in them which he sought and looked for nothing lesse The great men proved more foolish or lesse in true knowledge then the poore as it followeth But these have altogether broken the yoake and burst the bonds As if he had said I
prerogative but with a respect also to our spirituall which is the best profit and for our good Now among the good things which God aymeth at in afflicting any man this is nor the least the purging out of his evills And therefore when we cannot ascribe the chastisement of man to man but to God alone 't is a witness against him at least it drawes a suspition upon him of some great sinfulness lodged in him or sinfull wayes walked in by him Thirdly Observe It is no Concluding argument against any man that he is wicked because God afflicts him immediately or how much soever the hand of God appeares in an affliction 't is no concluding argument against the afflicted 'T is one principall scope intended by Elihu in this discourse to shew that there were other causes reasons of Gods afflicting Job or any man else besides him And that we should not make Conclusions that the greatest sufferers are the greatest sinners For first though indeed God threatneth to punish the wicked who wilfully transgresse his Law yet he afflicts many without respect to wickednesse Secondly though God threatens the wicked only or chiefely at least yet he reserves a liberty to try the innocent yea as Job saith in the 9th Chapter He laughs at the triall of the innocent And therefore the most innocent are most tryed I have had occasion more then once to shew why they are most or so much tryed First for the exercise of their faith Secondly for the improvement of their patience thirdly to humble them Fourthly sometimes to set them up for examples to others as the Apostle James speaks Chap. 5.10 Take my Brethren the Prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering affliction and of patience The Prophets have suffered affliction and God hath let them suffer that they might be patternes of suffering and 't is so in many other instances Fifthly God doth it to mortifie their corruptions Sixthly to prevent future transgressions he hedgeth up their way with thornes Seventhly to discover or gaine a testimony of their sincerity They serve Christ to purpose who can suffer while they serve and bleed under his crosse while they sweat under his yoke Surely then there is no concluding against any man that he is a son of Behal or hath cast off the yoke of Christ because Christ burdeneth him with his crosse Yet this was the great Maxime which Jobs friends insisted upon He must needs be a wicked man because the Lord had thrust him downe not man But when we see good men thrust downe by the hand of God there is a better use to be made of it then to judge them and that is to be watchfull over our selves lest we put a rod into the hand of God to chasten us or a sword into his hand to wound us For as Christ spake Luke 23.33 If it be thus done to the greene tree what shall be done to the dry If Christ suffered so much who was a greene flourishing fruit-bearing tree what may we who are dry and barren trees Or take the meere sons of men some of them comparatively to others are as greene trees flourishing in grace and holinesse who yet are under sore affliction and if this be done to a greene tree what shall be done to those who are but dry barren fruitless trees yea trees that bring forth evill fruit The Apostle 1 Pet. 4.17 gives a sutable caution If Judgement begin at the house of God he does not say at the Temple of Idolls But if it begin at the house of God what will the end be of those that obey not the Gospel Let others looke to it when they see God afflicting his people when they see God bringing such troubles into his owne house what troubles may they expect who are indeed but a den of theeves and whose houses are yea who themselves are as a Cage of uncleane birds Thus we see the great argument disproved which Jobs friends used to prove him wicked because God did thrust him downe not man And saith Elihu this is it you say and boast of as your wisdome but indeed you have not convinced Job no not by this What you have taken for a demonstration is but a fallacy And though I might wave mine owne trouble in shewing that it is so because I am not the man but ye are the men to whom Job hath shaped his whole discourse yet I cannot forbeare to doe it only I promise you I will not tread in your steps nor take up your method in doing it That 's the summe of the words which follow Vers 14. Now he hath not directed his words against me nei-neither will I answer him with your speeches In this verse Elihu speakes Negatively in two things First He tells us that Job had not spoken professedly nor directly to him Secondly he tells us how he would not deale with Job that is not as his friends before had done Now he hath not directed his words against me As if Elihu had said I confesse I have not been at all spoken to all this while unlesse in common with all the Auditory and therefore might well enough looke upon my selfe as unconcern'd in this matter The word here used to direct hath a great elegancy in it and may be an allusion First to an Archer who aymes at or directs his arrow to the marke Secondly to a Warrier especially a Commander in warre who sets his men in battel array against the enemy As if Elihu had said Job hath not aymed at me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 digessit disposint ordinavit verbum bellicum de acie ordinanda dicitur Merc nor hath he ordered or set his words in order to opprsse me Job hath not drawne up his forces nor set himselfe in array against me but against you And so perhaps that hate and bitterness of spirit which you have contracted by this long-continued debate with Job hath given you occasion prudently to withdraw and forbeare the entertainment of any further discourse with him Yea possibly ye are now fallen into a deep contempt of him as a man forsaken of God and therefore to be no more dealt with by man But there is not the like reason for me to forbeare speaking with him seeing as he hath not at all opposed me so I am not at all disturb'd in my owne thoughts about him nor is my spirit imbittered with any unidictive motions against him and shall therefore enter the lists of this disputation with a peaceable and quiet minde or rather I shall being a person every way unprejudic'd doe my best endeavour to moderate and compose this great difference between you Now he hath not directed his words against me c. Hence note First Our words should be well ordered They should be drawne up like a wel disciplin'd Army in ranke and file Confusion in words is as bad as confusion in things Some heape up words but they
doe not rightly dispose nor order them all they speake is out of joynt or frame As a multitude or rout of men doth not make an Army we may see ten thousand men together and yet no Army why because they are not in order or method they are not under Discipline and so they are but a confused throng not an Host of men And thus a great many words hudled and throng'd together are of no more force nor use then a number of men without order Method is very good in every thing we doe especially in what we speake A speech rightly ordered is like an Army rightly marshaled A word fitly spoken fitly as to the season of it and fitly as to the joynting and disposing of it we may take in both in that place of Solomon A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver Vult ostendere quod non loquitur quasi provocatus Aquin There is another thing considerable in this former part of the verse Elihu as was lately intimated spake thus to shew he came to the dispute unprovoked He hath not directed his words against me he hath not toucht me Ye indeed have been provoked by his words he hath touched you often and often to the quicke and this hath made you touchy angry and passionate and you have growne into heats but because he hath not directed his speech against me therefore I shall come upon the stage and enter this dispute with much coolness and temper In a word I bring no passion against his person as you being stung by his words have done Hence note Secondly They who are not provoked have no reason to speake provokingly That 's it which Elihu would have Job perswaded of we use to say Speake when you are spoken to Then surely we are not to speake otherwise then we are spoken to we must not give rayling for rayling much lesse may we rayle when rayling is not given He hath not directed his words against me Superbi quae ad coÌ„munem omnium utilitatem dicuntur nunquam sibi dicta eâ—istimant Gregor One of the Ancients Commenting upon this text saith Elihu discovers pride in this speech He hath not directed his speech against me As if Elihu disdained to take notice of what was spoken to them which saith he is the humor of a proud man who lookes not upon himselfe as engaged by any thing spoken unlesse you speak personally and directly to him whereas Christ speaking personally to his Disciples only would yet have all men see themselves spoken to Mark 13.34 What I say to you I say to all watch Elihu should have taken what Job spake to his three friends as spoken to all that were present and so might well enough have spared this complement as my Author conceives But I passe that as a curiosity Especially because it appeares plainly enough that Elihu though the words were not spoken directly to him yet did take himselfe to be much concerned and therefore riseth up as a Moderator in this Controversie between Job and his three friends He hath not directed his words against me Neither will I answer him with your speeches I will not goe your way Mihi integrum est respondere quidem longe aliter ex alio fundamento licet me directè Jobus non oppugnaverit Scult Non sequur vias vestrasin respondendo sed alias efficaciores inveniam Aquin nor follow your example in this undertaking I shall proceed upon other principles and use other medium's then ye have done such I hope as will be found much more effectuall and attaine their end We may take these words I will not answer him with your speeches two wayes First as their speeches had too little light of reason in them Secondly as their speeches had too much fire of passion in them As if he had sayd I will use milder words and stronger arguments I utterly disapprove the course you have taken with him and therefore I will neither insist upon your theame to condemne him for an hypocrite nor use your argument to prove it because God hath thus sorely afflicted him for I hold that a meere Sophisme I will not answer him with your speeches That is with speeches which have so much passion and so little true reason in them as to the poynt in hand For though Jobs friends had spoken many things of much weight and reason considered abstractly or in Thesi yet when it came to the hypothesis as appliable to Jobs speciall case then their speeches had little or no weight in them So that in this profession Elihu seemes to promise these two things First That he would use stronger arguments then they had done I will not use yours that is weake ones I purpose to come better prepared to the Combate then you For though Elihu doth sometimes use such arguments as they yet he doth not use them to their end to prove that Job acted rebelliously or like a wicked man against God as they did but to shew that he carried himselfe too highly or over-confidently towards God And this as it appeares by the issue tooke more upon Job then all his friends hard suspitions charges and accusations This humbled him this silenced him he had nothing to returne but sate downe convinced and therefore Elihu dealt with him in more strength of reason and divine authority then they had done Secondly When Elihu saith I will not answer him with your speeches he seemes to engage that he would deale mildly with him or without passion he would not use bitter words but debate and argue the matter gently and meekly For though Elihu gave Job many severe reproofes yet alwayes in a more friendly manner not to prove that he had done wickedly but to convince him that he had spoken overboldly or that while he was so zealous to defend his own innocency he sometimes intrencht upon the soveraignty of God in his eager and earnest desire of pleading his cause before him And surely it was but need that Job should have a man of a milder temper sent in to speake to him else his spirit might have been quite over-whelm'd and sunke Nor was it without the speciall hand of God that after this poore afflicted soule had been so hardly used and so grievously censured by those rigid disputants he should at last meere with a man more meeke and compassionate in some measure to mittigate and allay his sorrow First In that Elihu saith I will not answer him with your speeches Observe It is not good to imitate others in any thing they doe or speake which is not good We must not either act or speake by example but by rule or by example only so farre as it answers the rule 'T is dangerous treading in their steps who tread awry When Paul found that Peter did not goe right he was resolved not only not to follow him but to reprove him Gal. 2.14 Thus saith Elihu here I will not
shoulders to them Secondly passionateness of spirit and of speech must be avoyded That which hinders reason had need be shut out while we are reasoning What a contradiction in the adjunct is it to heare of an angry moderator or to see a man set himselfe to compose differences between others with a discomposed spirit of his owne Thirdly partiality in speaking or the favouring of a party must be layd aside for as Elihu did not spare to tell Jobs friends their owne so neither did he spare to tell Job his owne he was not partiall on either side What can be imagin'd more uncomely then that he who stands between two should leane to any one or that he who comes to be an umpire or a Judge should make himselfe a party or an Advocate Fourthly he must avoyd timorousnesse and not be daunted with what man shall say or can doe against him while he is doing his duty The feare of man is a snare saith Solomon That man had not need be in a snare himselfe whose business it is to bring others out of the snares of error whether in opinion or in practise Fifthly he must beware of an easiness to be drawne aside either by the perswasions or applauses of men A Judge between others must keepe his owne standing Thus farre concerning these two verses wherein Elihu is still carrying on his Preface to prepare Job to receive attentively what he had to say In the next place Elihu turning to the standers by signifies to them in what condition he found Jobs friends JOB Chap. 32. Vers 15 16 17 18 19 20. They were amazed they answered no more they left off speaking When I had waited for they spake not but stood still and answered no more I said I will answer also my part I also will shew mine opinion For I am full of matter the spirit within me constraineth me Behold my belly is as wine which hath no vent it is ready to burst like new bottles I will speak that I may be refreshed I will open my lips and answer ELihu had spoken of his friends silence before and here he returns to it againe with a further addition and aggravation Vers 15. They were amazed they answered no more they left off speaking c. There are two opinions concerning the person who spake these words First Some referre them to the writer or penman of this Book but I rather take them as the words of Elihu himselfe They were amazed The root signifies to be affected with a very passionate and strong feare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum pavorem affert quo affici solent qui ab hoste potentissimo superantur even such a feare as they are arrested with who flee or fall before their Enemies in battel So the word is used Jer 50.26 A sword is upon her mighty men and they shall be dismayed Dismay or amazement is the displacing at least the disturbing of reason it selfe Elihu shews how unable and unfit Jobs friends were to argue with him any further seeing upon the matter they had lost the use of their reason and were as men crack-brain'd or broken in their understanding They were amazed They answered no more they left off speaking or Speech was departed from them there is a two-fold Exposition of that speech they left off speaking Some understand it passively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q. d ab illis ablata sunt verba like that Luke 12.20 This night shall thy soule be required or taken from thee thou shalt not freely deliver it up but it shall be snatcht from thee So here their speech was taken from them or by an unanswerable conviction silence was imposed upon them Mr Broughton renders They doe speake no more speeches be departed from them How can they speake from whom speech is departed We translate actively they left off speaking as implying a voluntary act they gave a stop to themselves either they were not able or it was not fit for them to say any more The Hebrew is They removed speech from themselves and so became as silent as if they could not speake at all They were as mure as fishes The following verse being of the same sence I shall open that before I give the observations from this Vers 16. When I had waited for they spake not but stood still and answered no more Job waited hoping they would speak somewhat worthy of themselves worthy of that opinion and reputation which they had in the world for wisdome Stare pro tacere but they deceived his expectation He could not have nor heare a word more from them This Elihu puts into a parenthesis for they spake not but stood still and answered no more He useth many words to the same purpose to shew that there was somewhat extraordinary in their silence They spake not their tongues stood still As speech is the image of the mind and from the aboundance of the heart so it is by the motion of the tongue If the tongue stand still discourse is stayd Their mouths were stopt as being either unable or ashamed to urge their accusations and arguments any further They stood still and answered no more It is said of those forward accusers of the women taken in adultery John 8.9 That being Convicted by their owne Conscience they went away one by one they shrunke away having not a word to reply And so did Jobs friends who while they stood still carried it as men unwilling to be heard or seene any more upon the place They were amazed c. First Hence note Amazement unfits us for argument Where wondering begins disputing ends They were amazed they answered no more Secondly Note The same men are sometimes so changed that they can scarcely be knowne to be the same men Eliphaz sayd Chap 4.2 Who can withhold himselfe from speaking He was so forward that he could not be kept from words but now he had not a word in his keeping speech was withheld or departed Thirdly Note False grounds or positions cannot be alwayes maintain'd God will supply both matter and forme arguments and words to confirme his owne truth they who are in the right shall not want reason to back it but they who are in the wrong may quickly find a stop and have no more to say The Apostles were weake because unwilling in a bad cause 2 Cor 13.8 We can doe nothing against the truth but for the truth and they who are willing to be against the truth shall be weake and not able long to doe any thing against it They spake no more As God gives a banner that is outward power to them that feare him that it may be displayed because of the truth Psal 60.4 So he gives wisdome and understanding that is inward power for the maintaining of the truth In thy majesty ride prosperously because of the truth Psal 45.4 As Christ who is truth and the giver forth of truth so they who are undertakers for
truth shall ride and prosper Truth may be borne downe by power and out-fac'd by impudence but it cannot be overcome Never feare to undertake a good Cause and ever feare to undertake a bad one for it will be slur'd at last Truth may be opposed but truth-defenders shall never be ashamed nor want a tongue to speake for it Christ Math 10.17 warnes his Disciples what entertainment they were like to find in the world They shall deliver you up to Rulers ye shall be brought before Governours and Kings for my sake But he withall encourageth them Take no thought what ye shall speak or what ye shall answer For some might say What if we should be called in question for the truths of the Gospel we are willing to burne for them as that Martyr said bâ—t we feare we cannot dispute for them Well saith Christ take no thought what you shall speak for it shall be given you in the same houre God himselfe by his Spirit will prompt you he will whisper such things into your eares as all your opposers shall not be able to gainsay Indeed we see some men of corrupt minds and reprobate concerning the truth as the Apostle gives their Character who have courage enough to set forth lyes and slander the truth who straine their wits to the utmost and as the Prophet speakes Jer 9.3 bend their tongues like their bow for lyes But let them remember what the Apostle sayd of such as they 2 Tim 3.8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so doe these also resist the truth but v. 9. they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be made manifest to all men That is shortly all shall see that these men have but playd the fooles we may say of all those who hold wild taunting opinions they shall proceed no further though they act highly against the truth now yet stay but a while and they will have nothing to answer or returne they will have emptied their quiver and quite spent their powder you shall heare no more of them From that 16th verse where Elihu addeth I waited for they spake not but stood still and answered no more Observe First It is our wisdome and our duty to stay our time before we put our selves out upon business It is good to wait God himselfe is not hasty upon us he waits to be gracious and we must wait our season to be serviceable Elihu did not presently engage The providences of God and the Exigency of things must put us on we must not put our selves on Christ tells us Math 9.38 The harvest is great and the labourers few pray therefore the Lord of the harvest that he would thrust forth labourers into his harvest he doth not say pray that labourers would thrust forth themselves into the harvest or run into it before they are sent but pray the Lord of the harvest that he would thrust forth labourers that is that he would powerfully encline their hearts to the worke whom he hath fitted and prepared for it And as untill we are at least both competently prepared and fairely enclined to that or any other good worke 't is best for us to waite so when once we are prepared and enclined 't is best for us without delay to set upon the worke Elihu did so as appeares in the next verse Vers 17. I said also I will answer my part I will shew my opinion Now Elihu addresseth to his worke his duty and in this with the verses following to the end of the Chapter we have first his resolvednesse to speak I said I will answer for my part c. Secondly his ability readiness and furniture to speake v. 18. For I am full of matter c. Thirdly we have the motives that prest him to speak or that he was exceedingly prest to it in the latter end of the 18th verse as also v. 19 20. My spirit within me Constraineth me Behold my belly is as wine which hath no vent c. I will speake that I may be refreshed Fourthly in the two last verses he tells us what caution yea what conscience he meant to use in speaking v. 20. Let me not I pray you accept any mans person neither let me give flattering titles unto man c. I said I will answer for my part c. Now you have done I will begin those words I said are not in the Hebrew text explicitely yet are well understood I will answer for my part that is as some conceive the force of the phrase I will answer with my strength and might I will put my shoulders to it but better Grammarians conclude Illud quod aliqui partem interpretantur pro mea virili parte aut pro viribus latinè potius dictum est quam ad germanant vocis significationem Pined that the word imports A mans share or portion in any worke to be done rather then the strength which the workman useth or puts forth in doing it And so the sence is plaine as if Elihu had said they have done their part they have gone to the utmost of their line now I see it falls to my turne to speak and I will do what falls to my turne I will answer also for my part I also will shew my opinion We had these words in the negative at the 6th verse There Elihu sayd I was afraid and durst not shew you my opinion But here as also before v. 10. Elihu had taken courage and was resolved to shew his opinion I shall not stay upon any opening of this clause only I shall note two or three things briefely from it as connected with the former verse There we had Elihu waiting here we have him purposing to speake Hence note They who consider and waite before they speake speake most prevailingly most weightily It was long ere Elihu ventured to speake but when he did he did it to purpose and with full effect That which comes from our owne heart is most like to take upon the hearts of others they speake as much from their hearts as with their tongues whom we see long waiting before we heare them speaking And therefore it is not good no not for good speakers to be speaking before they have been waiting many through hast bring forth untimely births and unripe fruit Elihu could say I have waited before he sayd I will answer for my part Secondly Note We ought to observe order in speaking and act our proper part I will answer for my part saith Elihu or my turne is come to answer The Apostle Paul gives this rule at large 1 Cor 14.28 29 30. He would have no Interruption no confusion in Church-meetings or Church-speakings Thirdly When he saith I will answer also for my part I also will shew mine opinion Note He that hath received a gift or talent should make use of it and not hide it It is good to be doing our part and shewing our opinion where we may be usefull Some
doing my Maker would soon take me away IN these two verses Elihu concludes in which he had continued long the Preface to his following discourse and procedure with Job Here also he acquaints us in what manner he meant to proceed with him about which we may consider two things First His resolvednesse or the setlednesse of his purpose what course to take Secondly the reasons which moved him to it The former he expresseth negatively in the 21th verse and that in two points First He would not accept any mans person Secondly He would not give flattering titles unto man These two negatives as the negative precepts in the Law of God are to be understood with their affirmatives I will not accept any mans person is I will have and give an equall or neither a more nor lesse to the best of my understanding then a due regard to every mans person And I will not give flattering titles that is I purpose to speak plainly I will not complement men but doe my best to accomplish the matter And as he assures us how he will proceed in this 11th verse so Secondly He gives us the reasons of this his intended impartiall plaine and down-right proceeding in the 22d. These reasons are two-fold First He would not doe otherwise because he could not with any content to himselfe It was against the very graine of his spirit to doe otherwise his disposition lay a quite contrary way he was a man of another genius or temper a man of another mould and make then to doe such low and unworthy things as accepting the persons of or giving flattering titles unto men He is expresse in this v. 22. I know not to give flattering titles Secondly He would not because he durst not give flattering titles nor accept the persons of men The danger and dammage he should incurre by doing so kept him from doing so as wel as his owne indisposition to it He should lay himselfe open and obnoxious to the wrath of God by such seeking the favour of men as appeares in the close of the verse In so doing my Maker would soon take me away Thus you have the parts and purpose of these words I shall now give a more distinct explication and account of them Vers 21. Let me not I pray you accept any mans person or let me not now So that particle is rendred Job 5.1 Call now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adverbium seu particula obsecrantis seu ad horiandi ut fades amabo latinis if there be any that will answer thee yet 't is an Adverb of beseeching or intreating and therefore we render wel Let me not I pray you which rendring seemes to have in it these two things As if Elihu had sayd First Expect not that I should nor believe that I will doe any such thing as the accepting of persons or the giving of flattering titles Secondly Be not offended if I doe not be not angry with me if I deale plainly with you pray give me leave to use my owne freedome and liberty when I am speaking for I am resolved to doe it and not to accept the persons of men nor to give them flattering titles The words may be rendred also in a direct negation Verily I will not accept any mans person Non accipiam ut sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae enallage insolens non est Drus But I shall keep to our reading Let me not I pray you accept any mans person The Hebrew is Let me not lift up any mans person or which the Apostle forbids Let me not have any mans person in admiration I will not over-reverence any man nor give him a respect beyond himselfe The word which we render person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in Hebrew face Let me not lift up the face of a man or wonder at any mans face as the Septuagint often render this phrase And it is usuall to put the face or the countenance for the person because the face declares the person and shews who the mans is and it is elegantly expressed by the face because accepting of persons importeth a respect to others for their outside or in consideration of some externall glory Let me not accept the face of any man or person let him be who he will The originall word ish most properly signifieth an eminent or honourable man a learned or wise man As if Elihu had sayd I will not accept or lift up the face of a man though he be ish a man never so much lifted up and exalted above his brethren To accept the person of a man is not a fault in it selfe for as our persons are accepted of God so ought our persons to be accepted with one another yea it is a duty to accept the person of a man that is to give him favour honour and due respect Not only civility and humanity but religion it selfe calls us to give outward reverence to them who excell and are superior either to others of our selves God himselfe is sayd to accept the persons of his people first and thâ—â— their sacrifices or services And we ought to accept the persons of men according to their differences in place and power especially according to those gifts and Graces which shine in them Therefore when Elihu saith Let me not I pray you accept any mans person his meaning is let me not doe it in prejudice to the cause or truth that is before us Then we are properly and strictly sayd to accept persons when in any matter businesse or poynt of controversie our eyes are so dazel'd or blinded by external appearances that we have respect rather to the person of the man then to the matter or the truth of the cause in hand So then this sin of accepting persons is alwayes committed when we are more swayed by or when there is more attributed to persons then to things that is when the mans worth is more looked to then the woâ—th or merit of his cause or further when something in a person which hath no respect to the goodnes or badnes of his cause moves us to give him more or lesse then is meete this is sinfully to accept or respect a person Thus Elihu acquits himselfe from all those bonds and blinds which his respect to those worthy persons before him might lay upon him They were ancient and grave men they were wise and good men he had a great respect for them he owed much reverence to them considering their age and gravity their degree and dignity yet he owed a greater respect to God and to the truth then to their persons and was thereupon resolved though he had many and great temptations to doe it not to accept the persons of men Hence note To accept persons in prejudice to the cause or truth before us is a high offence both to God and good men 'T is so in a double notion First in the act of it
in his Then all sorts and degrees of men are judged righteously when there is no regard had or notice taken in Judgement of what sort or degree any man is Judges are called gods and therefore should act like God without respect to men And as this is a truth in all those cases of judgement where Magistrates sit in the place of God so it is as true in all the private judgements and determinations of brethren concerning persons or things which by way of distinction from the former is commonly called the putting or referring of a matter in difference to men We must take heed in private judgements that we be not swayed according to the condition of persons nor must we make the fault great or lesse the cause better or worse because the person is greater or lesse friend or stranger to us The Apostle gives this counsel and caution to the Churches James 2.1 2 3 4 5. My Brethren have not the faith that is the doctrine of faith or profession of our Lord Jesus the Lord of glory with respect of persons For if there come into your assembly a man with a gold ring and there come in also a poore man in vile rayment and you have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing and say unto him sit thou here in a good place and say to the poore stand thou there or sit here under my footstool are ye not then partiall in your selves and are become judges of evill thoughts In administring the things of God which are spirituall we must observe no civill difference no distinction among men Christ hath given himselfe alike and equally to rich and poore bond and free and therefore as to Church-priviledges and enjoyments they must all be alike and equall unto us No man is to be knowne after the flesh in the things of the Spirit 2 Cor 5.16 that is no man is to be valued meerely upon natural or worldly accounts if we doe then as the Apostle James concludes in the place last â—efore mentioned are we not partiall in our selves that is as some also translate that reproving question Have we not made a difference a groundlesse difference or a difference grounded upon carnal respects rather then upon any solid reason and so as it follows in the close of the verse are become judges of evill thoughts that is have made our judgement of those persons according to the dictate of our owne evill and corrupt thoughts not according to the rule of the word Further this sin of respecting persons is found also in the ordinary converse of men For when we cast favours upon those that are ill deserving and commend those as we say to the skies who should rather fall under our severest censure and are led to doe all this also because the person is a kinsman or a friend for though eaeteris paribus other qualifications and circumstances being equall we are to respect friends and kindred who are our owne flesh before strangers yet vertue and worth should out-weigh relations and as Levi in doing Justice Deut 33.9 so we in bestowing rewards should not acknowledge our Brethren nor know our owne children but let such have our rewards who best deserve them I may adde this also To take up this or that forme of religion because such and such persons are in it and to reject another though better because none but a few that are despised and contemned are in it is a most dangerous way of respecting persons This was the meaning of that question John 7.48 Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him As if certainly that must alwayes be the best way and rule of believing which is professed by the rulers Or as if it were ground enough to reject a way of religion because the common people or the poore are mostly found in it Thus 't is storied of a Great Prince that was converted to the Christian faith and resolved to be baptized that seeing a great many poore men in his way as he went he asked to whom they belonged it was answered they were Christians and of that religion which he was entring into what doth Christ keep his servants so poore sayd he I will not serve such a Master and so drew backe even while he was but setting his face towards Christ I might instance the sinfullness of accepting persons in many other particular cases as well as these but these may suffice for a tast Let me not saith Elihu accept any mans person Neither let me give flattering titles unto man In the former part of the verse it was Ish here it is Adam Graeciverteum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cognominandi per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reverori et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mirari persona in reddiderunt Merc Et deum homini non aequabo Vulg I will not respect the person of the greatest men nor will I flatter any earthly any mortall man Mr Broughton renders That I respect an earthly man The vulgar latine translates the whole verse thus I will not accept any mans persons and I will not equall God to man As if he had sayd I will not measure God by man in his dealings and proceedings with man As my purpose is to speake truth and spare no man so I will not wrong God by drawing him downe to the rules of men What is man that he should compare with God But though this be a truth yet because it departs so farre from the Original text I will not stay upon it Our reading is cleare I will not give flattering titles There are severall other readings of these words which I shall propose and passe to our owne Apud hominem Praefatione non utar Jun Et apud hominem ne permutem nomina Coc Et ad hominem non nutato nomine loquar Merc Ego non ingratiam ejus tectis verbis utar occultè eum designans nomen proprium immutans Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat aliquem occultè designare Merc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est mutatis rerum nominibus agere ut non possis nisi obscurè quid sentiatur intelligi Cujus contrarium est aperire os et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellare Coc First I will not use a preface or I will not stand prefacing with man Flatteries are usually set forth in affected Prefaces and Apologies Secondly Let me not change names before men or let me not speak to man under a borrowed name That is let me speake plainly and clearly without ambages and fetches let me speake to every man and about every thing by its owne name and not with covered words as if I were unwilling to touch those to whom I speake Our translation is yet more cleare to the scope and tendency of this place I will not give flattering titles This sentence is but two words in the Hebrew The verbe signifies say the Rabbins to hide or conceale or to carry a matter closely
and obscurely and they give the reason of it because in flattering there is a hiding of what men are and a shewing of what they are not The word signifieth also to give a nicke name or a by-name and so the sence is I will not give secret reflections nor gird at any man upon the by Jobs friends had done so sometimes though they after spake explicitely and directly enough Further the word signifies the giving of any additionall title Thus I finde it used in the Prophet Isa 44.5 One shall say I am the Lords speaking how persons shall flow into the Church and another shall call himselfe by the name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and sirname himselfe by the name of Israel He shall sirname himselfe that 's the word here used he shall take up that title that illustrious title he shall list or enroll himselfe among the people of God and thinke it his honour and glory to sirname himselfe by the name of Israel The word is so used againe Isa 45.4 For Jacob my servants sake and Israel mine elect I have even called thee by thy name I have sirnamed thee though thou hast not knowne me It is spoken of Cyrus I have given thee a glorious title God did not only name Cyrus but gave him a sirname he called him Cyrus my servant and Cyrus mine anoynted Thus the word signifies to give a title or a sirname now there are sirnames or titles of two sorts First disgracefull and reviling ones justly given to but commonly by vile men Secondly Honorable and advancing ones And these are of two sorts First Such as are true and well deserved many by the great acts which they have done have purchased sirnames Alexander King of Greece for his Warlike valour and successes was called The Great And among The Romans Scipio after his victories over the Carthaginians in Africa was sirnamed Africanus The Romane Histories supply sundry examples of this kind And when in Scripture Paul is called an Apostle Peter an Apostle They well deserved these honorable Titles because as they were meerely of Grace immediately called and sent of God to publish and plant the Gospel all the world over so they laboured aboundantly in it and by their ministery subdued and conquered the world to the faith and obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ Secondly There are also titles and sirnames which are meere pieces of flattery there being no worth in the person that may justly deserve them 'T is not sinfull to give titles but as we translate to give flattering titles unto men We should call men as they are and as they deserve I will call a spade a spade saith Elihu he that is good I will call him good and he that is bad I will call him bad and that which is ill done I will say it is ill done Let me not give flattering titles unto men Hence observe Flattery is iniquity to give flattering titles unto men is to transgresse the Law of God Some will not give true and due Titles to any man The most truly honorable persons and highest Magistrates shall have nothing from them but Thou and Thee Jacob a holy and a plaine man yet called his owne brother My Lord Esau Gen. 32.4 Gen 33.8 Luke The Evangelist called Theophilus Most excellent Luke 1.3 And Paul stiled Festus Most Noble Acts 26.25 Now as they erre upon one extreame who will not give true titles so doe they on the other who give which Elihu here disclaimes flattering titles There is a two-fold flattery First In promises Secondly In praises Some are full of flattery in promises they will tell you of great matters which they will doe for you yet meane no such thing Thus Psal 78.36 The children of Israel dealt with God when in the time of their straights and calamities they promised to doe great and good things they would turne to the Lord and serve him Neverthelesse saith the text they did flatter him with their mouth and they lied unto him with their tongues for their heart was not right with him c. Thus many upon their sick-beds or in a day of trouble what promises will they make How deeply will they engage for duty if God will restore them how holy and zealous and upright will they be they will leave their former ill courses and yet all is but flattery they really intend it not 'T is flattery in promises to God when there is not a purpose in the heart to doe what we say but only to get our ends upon him And we deale no better many times by one another men in streights will promise any thing and when they have gained enlargement performe nothing Secondly There is a flattery in praises and that 's here professed against This flattery in praising hath a double respect First To the actions of men 'T is flattery to call that act good that is nought Multi sunt qui vitia virtutibus vicinis honestare contendunt vitium omne palliant adumbrata nomenclatura è vicino subjectae virtutis Basil in Psal 61. that just that is unrighteous To put titles of vertue upon those things that are vicious to call that which is indeed a covetous act a thrifty one and to call that act which is cruell just at most but strict or severe this is to flatter men in what they doe Secondly There is a flattery of persons as to what they have and are when we speake more of them then is in them when we speake highly of them who are low in all abilities and attainments How grossely doe they give flattering titles who blow up very Ideors with a conceit of their learning who extoll fooles for wisdome and commend the wicked as vertuous yea recommend them as patternes of vertue We should give honour to all men to whom it belongs but we are not to flatter any man for that belongs to no man Rom 13.7 Render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custome to whom custome feare to whom feare honour to whom honour There is an honour that belongs to men with respect to their degrees when none belongs to them with respect to their qualities He that is very honorable as to his place may not deserve any honour as to his worth yet he must be honoured as much as his place comes to And as there is an honour due to those that are above us so there is an honour due to those that are our equalls yea to those that are our inferiours and below us The Apostle gives that direction more then once we have it first Rom 12.10 Be kindly affectionate one to another in honour preferring one another The people of God should be so farre from an ambitious affectation of preheminence above others that they should fâ—eely and really not as many doe complementally give others the preheminence and offer them the upper place or hand The grace of humility doth not
is enough to make all the Ministers of Christ tremble and cry out in the Apostles words Who is sufficient for these things to remember that when they speake to men they speake in Gods stead We saith the same Apostle 2 Cor 5.20 are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be yee reconciled to God Thus spake he who had indeed an immediate call and commission from God and they who have not such an immediate call and commission as he had yet speaking of or about the things of God and coming in the name of God they should speake as placed in Gods stead And if the Ministers of Christ ought to speake as in Gods stead then surely they that heare should heare them as speaking in Gods stead The Apostle testifies of the Galathians Gal 4.14 My temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not nor rejected but received me as an Angel of God even as Christ Jesus Ye received me not only as an Angel or messenger of Christ but as if Christ had been there in person so did ye receive me He gives the same testimony of the Thessalonians 1 Thes 2.13 For this cause also thanke we God without ceasing because when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of man but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that beleeve I doe not say that what every man speaketh about the things of God is presently to be taken for the word of God or as if God spake it But if that be his scope and purpose if that be his Theame and his businesse if that be the subject matter and substance of his speech Then he as to the body of his speech is to be lookt upon as uttering the word and minde of God in Gods stead 'T is a very great means to advance our profit in hearing the word when they who speak it are lookt upon as speaking in Gods stead and not bringing an errand of their owne Before I passe from this first clause of the verse I shall briefely touch two other readings and interpretations of it First thus Behold I am as if thy mouth were to God that is Ecc◠ego quasi esset os tuum ad deum Coc thou needest not as thou hast wished to goe or addresse to God himselfe for the laying open of thy cause the matter may be done between me and thee even as if thou hadst spoken to God himselfe Secondly Some render those latter words not in Gods stead as we But in respect of God As if he had said In respect of God I stand in the same proportion or upon the same terms with thy selfe for he is the God of us both nor did God make me of any better or more excellent matter then thou art made of which he fully expresseth in the close of the verse as it followeth I also am formed out of the Clay These words are another argument as was shewed when I gave the prospect of the whole Context why Job should heare Elihu I am in Gods stead indeed but I am a poore creature moulded out of the dust made up of earth as thou art I also am formed out of the Clay therefore stand up answer me and feare not answer me and spare not The highest and holyest that ever dispenced the minde of God in Gods stead to his Church and people here on earth were made of earth and were formed out of Clay The Apostle makes that humble confession of himselfe and fellow-Apostles 2 Cor 4.6 We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power might be of God The weakness of the instrument lifts up the glory of the superior agent They who by commission are the Ministers of God and so in Gods stead are yet but as other men in their naturall structure and constitution Acts 10.26 when Cornelius gave too much respect a kinde of Adoration to Peter he forbad him saying Stand up I also am a man As if he had said with Elihu I am formed out of the clay as well as thee There is a respect due to the persons of men and much more to the Messengers of God yet too much may soone be given I will none of that saith Peter I also am a man So Paul and Barnabas Acts 14.15 when the people were so hightned in their ignorant respects that they would have sacrificed to them as Gods They rent their cloathes as in case of blasphemy and ran in among the people crying out and saying Sirs why doe ye these things We also are men subject to like passions with you c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Excisus I am also formed or as the Hebrew signifies Cut out of the Clay As the potter cuts off a rude lump of clay from the whole masse of clay before him to make a vessel of it so man is cut out of that masse of mankinde for though the birth and originall of man is now by another way then the first mans was yet we may all look upon our selves as having the same originall we are cut out of the clay and formed out of the dust Hence note For the matter all men have one originall I also am formed out of Clay I have heretofore met with this poynt and therefore passe it here Secondly From the scope of Elihu Note The consideration of our common condition should fit us with compassion one to another much more should it keep us from insulting over one another Elihu used this expression to assure Job that he would deale very tenderly with him What dost thou think that I who am a piece of clay will insult over thee who art as good a piece of clay as I why should one earthen vessel dash hard upon another When we are tempted to pride in our selves let us remember that we are clay when we are provoked to anger against our brethren or to any harsh and rigorous dealing with them let us remember that we also are clay that our pedigree and our stock is from the dust as well as others If our feet be but a little fouled we think our selves somewhat humbled by it if but a little dirt stick to our shoes or hang about our cloaths we are somewhat ashamed of our selves yet the truth is we are all dust all clay all mire we are nothing as to our bodyes but a little living dust and breathing clay why then should we be lifted up in high thoughts of our selves I might hence also give a third note 'T is a common Theame but of important usefulnesse Man is a very fraile creature he is clay But having had occasion to speak to this also heretofore I shall not stay upon it Only consider that as man is clay so he is returning to clay yea turning into clay We are but a little well compacted and
Hoc nominè justus non es quod deum in jus provocare ausus â—s Merc There is a third antecedent which we may take up from severall passages in the former part of the Booke and that is because thou hast so often and so importunately desired to plead with God and hast made so many suites for a hearing with him as if thou hadst somewhat to say which might acquit thy selfe and shew reason why God should not deale thus with thee For though Job did not desire to plead with God as having any intent to accuse him of doing him wrong yet he was therefore to be blamed because he desired to plead with him seeing it becomes man to submit to the judgement of God without murmuring or complaining So then Elihu had cause to charge him with this God indeed passed it by as knowing it did not proceed as in the wicked from malice but from weakness and ignorance as Job also himselfe humbly confessed at last Behold thou hast too often called for Justice in this thou art not just Mr Broughton renders Loe here thou art not in the right These words in this or here may also have a negative reference to what Job had been charged with before by his friends As if Elihu had sayd I doe not charge thee with such crimes as thy friends have loaded thee with heretofore I doe not burden thee with grosse impiety nor with hypocrisie I doe not tell thee thou hast oppressed the poore or wronged the widdow and the fatherlesse I have nothing of this sort to say against thee But in this or here I have somewhat to say wherein my judgement also is that thou art not just nor in the right for however thou art otherwise or in other things upright and righteous however just thou hast been in thy transactions with men and pure in thy worship toward God yet in this I am sure and I dare say it openly and avowedly thou art no wayes justifiable much lesse just in that thou hast cryed up thy owne innocency and spoken so much of the hard dealings of God with thee yea hast been so bold as to desire a day of hearing even before God himselfe Let this be the Question or matter under debate Whether or no Job speaking thus highly of himselfe and thus boldly of God hath done right or no Elihu undertakes the negative he engageth to prove that Job had not done well or right how innocent soever he was in speaking so much of his own innocency or how hardly soever God dealt with him in making so many complaints of his severity Elihu undertakes to prove this negative and Job never durst undertake the affirmative that he had done right or well in speaking or doing so and therefore in the close of the business he sits downe convinced that he had been too bold with God and too forward in justifying himselfe His argument which runs through this whole discourse to make good his negative assertion may be formed up thus He that speakes much of his owne righteousnesse and seemes to reflect upon the righteousnesse of God at least that God hath been over-rigorous with him is not just nor justifiable in this But thou O Job hast spoken thus of thy selfe and thus of God in the extremity of thy paine and in the anguish of thy spirit Therefore in this thou art not just nor justifiable No man of understanding can take thy part or be an Advocate for thee in this matter As for me I must needs be and am resolved to be an Advocate for God against thee The Major or first proposition is not exprest in the text the conclusion is given in the beginning of the 12th verse and the assumption or 2d proposition is collected from Job's owne mouth in severall places of this Booke Againe besides the generall scope of the words and the tendency of Elihu in this dispute we may consider the manner of his speech how he deales with Job Behold in this thou art not just In this manner of treating with Job the sweetnesse of his spirit and likewise the boldnesse of it are observable These two vertues or excellencies of an Advocate shew themselves plainly in this one passage Behold in this thou art not just For consider First He expresseth his reproofe negatively he doth not say Behold in this thou art wicked or thou hast impiously blasphem'd the name of God but he speakes at as low a rate as may be Behold in this thou art not just or justifiable thou hast not done right or thou art not right there is a great good temper of spirit and a mixture of much meeknesse in such negative expressions it being much lesse to say to a man in this thou art not just nor justifiable then to say positively or directly in this thou art unjust and deservest to be condemned For though there be no difference in the thing between not being just and being unjust yet there is much more mildness in the words and a man takes lesse offence when told that he is not just then in being told that he is unjust The imputing of a crime to a man is more and worse then the denying him a vertue or that he is vertuous Hence note We ought to temper our reproofes with much gentlenesse and meeknesse We should not speake cutting words if other words will serve the turne Thus the Apostle directs us Gal 6.1 Brethren if a man be overtaken with a fault ye which are spirituall restore such a one with the spirit of meeknesse considering thy selfe lest thou also be tempted deale as gently with a fallen brother as thou wouldest with a man whose bones are dislocated or broken so much the metaphor there used imports There is a time indeed when we must rebuke as the Apostle gives direction Tit 1.13 sharply or cuttingly we must goe to the quicke that they may be found in the faith but there is a great regard to be had to the state and spirits of those with whom we have to deale As it is our duty to receive the word with meeknesse James 1.21 some receive the word proudly riggidly in the worst sence they can yea they receive it rebellingly now as we ought to receive the word with meeknesse so 't is good to speake the word with meeknesse with as much meeknesse and tendernesse as the case will beare Secondly consider this manner of speaking Behold in this thou art not just Elihu tells him plainly of his faults he reported them before and here he applyed them home to his person Behold in this thou rememberest thy owne words Thou canst not but take notice what thou hast spoken now I tell thee in this thing thou art not just Elihu doth not speak doubtingly nor fearefully nor doth he tell Job what the thoughts of others were upon the matter but he tells him directly categorically plainly from himselfe in this thou art not just Hence note We are to hold out our convictions
with the speare even to the earth at once and I will not smite him the second time Once smiting is there opposed to smiting more then once As if he had sayd I will pay him home or dispatch him at once there will be no need to fetch another blow Thus when the Apostle had sayd in the Epistle to the Hebrews Chap 9.27 It is appointed unto men once to dye and after this the judgement presently he addeth So Christ was once offered to beare the sins of many there also once is opposed to twice or a second time excluding all repetition of the sacrifice of Christ As 't is sayd Heb 10.10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all And therefore the same Apostle in the same Chapter v. 26. terrifieth Apostates with this dreadfull doome If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins that is neither will Christ give up himselfe to be a sacrifice againe for such as have after light received about it and some seeming closings with it cast off that his sacrifice nor can any other sacrifice be given In this sence also sometimes God speakes once He speakes once and will speake no more once and not a second time though we have a twice here in the text yet I say in some cases and unto some persons God speaketh once and will not speake againe Whence take this observation or Admonition rather It is dangerous refusing the first call the first Word of God Possibly you may never heare more of him or from him once may be all God may speak in thy case not only once that is firmly and certainly not only once that is sufficiently but once that is exclusively once and no more for ever That moving caution of the Apostle is grounded upon such a sad possibillity as this Heb. 3.7 Wherefore as the holy Ghost saith to day if ye will heare his voyce harden not your hearts and again vers 13. Exhort one another dayly while it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfullnesse of sin As if it had been said heare to day hear this hour of the day for you know not first whether there will be a morrow or another day for you secondly if you have a morrow yet you know not whether you shall have a word to morrow both time and season dayes and opportunities are in the hand of God and he that neglects the season of one day hath no assurance of another day much lesse of a season with the day Wh◠knows whether the cock shall crow twice or no possibly the cock may crow but once in what a condition had Peter been if it had been so with him for after he had as Christ notwithstanding all his confidence to the contrary told him Mark 14.30 denyed his Master thrice he never called to mind the words of Christ nor had any thought of humbling himself for what he had done till as 't is said vers 72. The second time the Cock crew Every one hath not a promise as Peter equivalently had that the cock shall crow twice or that God will affoard him meanes a second time to awaken him out of his sin That which the Lord spake of affliction to shew the fullnesse of it may also be fullfilled concerning his warnings and admonitions Nahum 1.9 I will make an utter end affliction shall not rise up the second time We should hear at first speaking lest it should prove that when the Lord hath spoken once he should make an utter end and say instruction and admonition shall not rise up a second time And to be sure as Abraham after he had interceded for Sodom and Gomorrah severall times said at last Gen. 18.32 O let not the Lord he angry and I will speak yet but this once So the Lord when he hath spoken oft to sinners and is not heard growes so angry that he comes at last and saith I will speak yet but this once God will at last come to his but once more to all men and with some he is at his once at first and no more for ever There is a time when every man shall hear his last word and God will speak but that once and somtimes it is but once in all that God will speak Therefore take heed it is dangerous deferrings if God speaks once if he call knock once it is our sin folly too that we doe not hearken to and open at his first call and knock though the Lord doth I grant usually and mostly exercise much patience towards sinners calling and knocking once and againe as it followeth in the text He speaketh once Tea twice or a second time Severall of the Jewish writers interpret this twice of the two sorts or wayes of divine revelation which are spoken of in the following parts of this context God speaks to man by visions and dreams and God speaks to man by diseases and sicknesses as we shall see afterward But I rather take it more generally not only as to the divers manner and distinct wayes of his speaking but as to the divers times or reiteration of his speaking he speaketh once yea twice As he speaks severall wayes so severall times twice or thrice possibly in the same way twice by visions twice by dreams twice by sicknesses and often by his Ministers He speaketh once In ditabus et sc vicibus i. e. bis quod uno verbo dicunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aut secundo i. e. iterum semel iterumque loquitur deus una admonitione non semper contentus Drus Yea twice I shall consider this twice three wayes and give a brief note from each First consider twice as to number twice strictly taken is more then once One is no number but two is Hence note God is so gracious that he speaks once and againe once and a second time to sinners Who is there among us that hath not had experience of Gods speaking to him more then once And that not only with respect to the various wayes of speaking but with respect to various times of speaking He speakes more then once by his word more then once by his workes whether of judgment or of mercy Some sinners are consumed in a moment or at once as it is said of Corah Dathan and Abiram with their confederates Numb 16.21 others dye of a lingring consumption God waiteth to be gracious and therefore he rarely speaketh his all or striketh his all at once He gives precept upon precept line upon line he sends sorrow upon sorrow crosse upon crosse that sinners may at last remember themselves returne and live Secondly As twice notes a number so it may be considered as a small number yea as the smallest number twice or two is the first number the first step into number They that doe a thing more then once
the land of the living Secondly From the way of expressing this in allusion to a childe or a youth Note God he can quickly make the greatest changes in nature either for the better or for the worse He can turne youth into old age and old age into youth That is he can make a young or a healthy man weake as an old man and an old or sickly man strong as a young man and as it is with naturall so with politicall bodyes as with persons so with nations A nation that is flourishing in its youth heate strength and glory rich and full of peace and plenty God can bring an oldness upon it and cause it to decline every day The Prophet spake of the state of Israel in this notion Hos 7.9 Gray haires are here and there upon them and they perceive it not they thought ttemselves to be in a very youthfull flourishing condition as a state but the Lord brought gray haires that is they were decaying withering weakning and became a decrepid nation And when a nation is gray-hayred old and withered he can make it youthfull he can recover the honour and power of it and cause the dread of it to fall upon the neighbouring nations round about He turnes a land into a wilderness which before was as the Garden of God And he can change that land into a Garden of God which now is a desolate wildernes The unchangeable Lord is visible and glorious in all these changes The health and strength both of the body politick and naturall are at his dispose He can bring a decay upon what is built and repaire what is decayed whether in nations or persons When the earthly house of this Tabernacle is ready to drop downe into the grave and crumble into dust God by a word speaking repayreth it to as much beauty and strength as when the first stone being layd the top-stone was set up When Naaman had once submitted to and obeyed the Prophets counsell which at first he despised washed in Jorden His flesh saith the text 2 Kings 5.14 came againe like unto the flesh of a little childe The holy Psalmist charged his owne soule to praise the Lord and all that was within him to blesse his holy name Psal 103.1 5. Who had satisfied his mouth with good things so that his youth was renewed as the Eagle This renovation of his youth may be understood three wayes First as to his naturall state or bodyly strength Secondly as to his civill state or worldly successes as to his honour and kingly renowne Thirdly as to his spirituall state or the hightning of his gifts graces and comforts 'T is probable David had found a declension in all these and at last through the goodness of God and his blessing upon him the renewing of them all from that oldness to a youthfullness againe like that of Eagles We find the same allusion in the Prophet Isa 40.31 They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up as with Eagles wings Some Naturalists say the Eagle reneweth her strength by sucking blood when her stomack is so weake that shee cannot seed upon the flesh of her prey Saints indeed renew their strength as the Eagle while by faith they sucke the blood of Jesus Christ and they get cure of their owne weaknesses while they believingly lay hold upon his strength Thirdly We heard in the former verse of a divine warrant issued out for this mans recovery Then he is gracious to him and saith deliver him Here we have the warrant executed His flesh shall be fresher then a childes Hence observe The commands and warrants of God are effectuall they shall be obeyed and made good to man If God say deliver him from a sick bed he shall be delivered I will worke saith the Lord Isa 43.13 14. and who shall let it for your sake I have sent to Babylon and have brought downe all their Nobles or barrs as the margin reads it I will have it done I will breake all those Nobles who are as barrs in the way of my peoples deliverance So when the Lord sends his warrant for the delivering of a sick man he will break all those barrs and bands by which diseases and sicknesses hold him as a prisoner in his bed Nothing can stand against the word of God as by a word speaking he gave the creature a being when it had none The Lord only spake the word Let there be light let there be a firmament c. and it was so Thus also the word or warrant of God reneweth a wel-being to those with whom it is worst or a comfortable life to those who are compassed about with the sorrowes of death The word of God prevailes over all or is effectuall to every purpose Psal 33.9 He spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast Further In this restoring of the sick we have a shadow of the resurrection The raysing of a dying man from his bed is like the raysing of the dead from the grave The spring of the yeare is a shadow of the resurrection because then the earth returnes to her youth and is fresh as a child In winter all things are dead and desolate their glosse and beauty is gone but then cometh the spring and all revives againe the face of the earth looks fresh corne and grasse trees and plants flourish and put forth their buds and blossomes Now what the spring of the yeare is to the body of the earth the same is the returne of health to the body of man In both we have an exemplar of the resurrection as also in the regeneration or new birth of the soule by the power of the holy Ghost For till then we are like old sickly men in the old man yea we are dead But no sooner doth the Spirit bring us forth by a second creation into the life of the new man but we become in spirit fresh like Children our youth returnes to us againe that is we returne to that state wherein we were first created and set up by God in righteousness and true holiness yea into a better and surer state then that Man through grace is not only as he was in the first day of his creation but better He returnes to the day of his youth and receives such a youth as shall never decay into old age yea the older he is in nature the younger that is the stronger and more beautifull he shall be in grace He shall according to that promise Psal 92.14 still bring forth fruit in old age he shall be fat and flourishing This renewed youthfullness and flourishing condition of the restored sick man in spiritualls is specially and fully set forth in the next verse For Elihu having shewed the recovery of the sick mans body he proceeds to the recovery of his soule which eminently returnes to the dayes of its youth both in the puttings forth of or exercising the grace of God
is sayd he will render unto man his righteousness we are not to understand it of righteousness in kinde but of the reward or fruit of his righteousness For here Elihu speaks of a person already righteous or at least of him who had repented of and turned from his unrighteousness So that to returne or render unto man his righteousness is to returne the mercy promised to those that are righteous Reddet justitiam i. e. praemium justitiae Drus For as iniquity or unrighteousness is often put for the punishment of unrighteousness so equity or righteousness is often put for the reward of righteousness or for that which God according to his righteous promise returnes unto a righteous person Thus we may understand Elihu here As if he had sayd God dealt with this man before as with a sinner or he afflicted him for his sin But now he will deale kindly with him as with a righteous person and removing his affliction and taking his hand off from him he will render his righteousness to him he will not reckon with him for any former unrighteousness From this notion of the word Observe God usually deals with men as they are and according to what they doe If a godly man sin he shall smart for it and if a sinner return and repent God will shew him kindness Though the mercy and kindness which God shews to a returning sinner be not for his returnings or repentings yet 't is according to them The favour which God sheweth any man is for Christs sake or for what Christ hath done and suffered but it is according to what himselfe hath done or suffered David experienced this himselfe Psal 18.20 The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousnes c. That is as I have been a righteous and just person so the Lord hath dealt with me And he gives the rule with respect to all others v. 25. With the upright thou wilt shew thy selfe upright with the pure thou wilt shew thy selfe pure c. That is Thou wilt be such to men in thy dispensations as they are in their conversations and dispositions in the frame and bent of their hearts and lives And as it followeth v. 27. Thou wilt save the afflicted or humble people but wilt bring downe high lookes that is those that are proud and high-minded The Prophet holds out the same truth in way of direction Isa 3.10 Say ye to the righteous it shall be well with him for they shall eat of the fruit of their doings that is they shall have good for the good they have done or according to the good which they have done Rom 2.10 Glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile If any object But may it not be ill with men that doe good and are good doth the Lord alwayes render to man according to his righteousness I answer It is well at present with most that doe well look over all the sons of men and generally ye shall find that usually the better they are the better they live Secondly I answer It shall be well with all that doe well in the issue and for ever This truth will abide to eternity God will render unto man according to his righteousness Secondly We may take the word righteousness Justiam quam ei confert in Christo reputans eum pro justo Jun for the righteousness of justification Mr Broughton inclines to that sence He will restore unto man his justice And presently adds by way of glosse Justice is Christ It is Christs Justice or righteousness that is restored to man Christ is indeed The Lord our righteousness Jer 23.6 And thus severall others of the learned expound these words He will render unto man his righteousness That is he will bestow upon him or restore to him righteousness in Christ he will account him righteous though he hath no righteousness of his owne which will hold in Gods account Elihu I grant calleth it Mans righteousness his righteousness yet we may well understand him calling it so not because it is wrought by but because it is imputed to or bestowed upon man as his righteousness That is ours which is freely given us so is righteousness in justification by faith in Christ We have no righteousness wrought in us or by us for that purpose but we have a righteousness wrought for us and freely bestowed upon us for that purpose which is therefore truely called mans righteousness But some may question how can it be sayd that God doth render or return to man this righteousness that is the righteousness of justification Can this righteousness be lost can a person justified fall out of a justified state I answer The righteousness of justification which is true also of the righteousness of sanctification as to the substance and being of it cannot be lost But it may be lost as to the comfortable enjoyments and fruits of it or as to our apprehension of it And the Lord is sayd to returne to man the righteousness of his justification not as if the grace it selfe were lost or taken away from him but because the sight and sence of it the sweetness and joy of it Non enim ablata justitia redditur sed ablatae justitiae sensus Coc the workings and effects of it having been lost are now restored to him againe When the Lord by his Spirit gives the soule a cleare and fresh evidence of it or reneweth the testimony of his Spirit with our spirits that our sins are forgiven and that we are justified beloved and accepted in Christ then the Lord is sayd to render unto man his righteousness otherwise neither the faith by which this righteousness is applyed nor the righteousness it selfe which is applyed to us by faith is at any time lost or removed Only in this sence as in many other Scriptures so in this the Lord is sayd to render unto man his righteousness both of sanctification and justification For when a beleever through sin hath blotted his own evidences and God hath left him under the darkness of his own spirit for his negligent unwatchfull unworthy walking or when the Lord hideth his face to try him what he will doe whether he will trust in his name while he walketh in darkness and seeth no light when I say after withdrawings for either of these reasons or for any other the Lord gives him in a renewed evidence of his love then he is sayd to render unto man his righteousness It is in this case as with a man that labours under some strong and dangerous disease which taketh away his sences and leaves him halfe dead we say the man is gone yet he recovers his speech returnes and his spirits revive and then we say his life is rendred to him or he is brought back from the grave we have fetched him againe not that his life was quite taken away for he was not a carkasse in
for all the comforts of this and the next life All the blessings of this temporall life and the perfect blessedness of eternall life are comprehended in light So that when 't is sayd his life shall see the light the sence riseth thus high He shall be happy forever so extensive is the favour of God to repenting persons that time is too narrow for it everlasting light shall be their portion From the former branch of the words thus opened He will deliver him from the pit Observe All our deliverances are of God As there is none can deliver like God so none can deliver but God If he gives out the word that such a man shall goe to the pit it is not in the power and skill of all the Princes and Physitians in the world to save or stay him from it And how low and desperate soever any mans condition is if God say the word he is deliver'd and reprieved from going downe into the pit Secondly From the connexion with the former verse the sick man having made this confession I have sinned and perverted that which is right and it profiteth me not the Lord presently delivers him c. Observe God is ready to deliver humble praying and believing sinners That command hath a promise joyned to it Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver The 107th Psalme speakes this quite through where we find many sorts of perishing persons crying unto God and God delivering them from perishing when they cryed As when sin cryeth God will afflict so when sinners cry God will relieve them in or bring them out of their affliction From the latter branch His life shall see the light Note Naturall life and light are a great blessing God promiseth much when he promiseth life and light The light of this life is no small mercy how much greater is the light of spirituall life But who can conceive how great a mercy the light of eternall life is yet all this God speakes to the humble and believing sinner when he saith His life shall see the light Secondly Comparing the two parts of this text together He will deliver him from going downe to the pit and his life shall see the light Observe The mercy of God to humble sinners is a compleate mercy Here is not only deliverance from evill but the bestowing of good it is much to be kept from going downe into the pit but it is more to see light the light of comfort here and the light of glory hereafter The mercy of God to his people is great in temporalls greater in spiritualls greatest in eternalls The benefit of redemption to shew the fullness of it is set forth two wayes First by our freedome from evill Secondly by our enjoyment of good John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life He shall not perish that is he shall be delivered from going downe to the pit he shall have everlasting life that is as the text speakes his life shall see the light Elihu having at large drawne a description or narration of the whole proceeding of God with sinfull man in all the parts and particulars of it gives a briefe of all that he sayd in the two next verses Vers 29. Lo all these things worketh God oftentimes with man Vers 30. To bring back his soule from the pit to be enlightned with the light of the living As the Apostle after he had discoursed at large about the dignity of Christs Priest-hood gathers up all together Heb 8.1 Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum we have such an high Priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens So Elihu having spoken much of the severall wayes by which God revealeth himselfe to man and works him to a sight of his sin and penitentiall sorrow for it recollects and summes up all in these words Lo all these things worketh God oftentimes with man c. In these two verses we may take notice chiefly of two things First The frequency of Gods dealing thus with man v. 29th Lo all these things worketh God oftentimes Secondly The designe and purpose of God in doing so That he may bring back his soule from the pit and be enlightned with the light of the living Lo all this worketh God oftentimes with man Here 's the application of the former Doctrine Elihu presseth his hearers with it and bids them lay it to heart As if he had sayd I have not been speaking of things in the clouds but of what is really and dayly acted among the children of men Lo or behold all these things There are foure speciall significations in Scripture of this word Lo or behold and they may all foure meete in this place First It imports some new unheard-of and wonderfull thing Isa 7.14 Lo or behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son That a virgin should bring forth a son is a wonder of wonders a wonder so much above the course and power of Nature so much beyond the compasse comprehension of reason that men and Angels have reason to be astonished at it Secondly 'T is prefixed to shew some extraordinary impulse or readinesse of spirit for action Thus Christ speaketh in that other noble prophecy of him Psal 40.7 Then said I Lo I come in the volume of the book it is written of me I delight to doe thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart Lo I come that is I am ready to come I am prest upon the work I am under the pressure and command of my own spirit as well as under thy appoyntment and decree to undertake and finish that worke of mans redemption Thirdly It frequently implyeth matter worthy of weight and deepest consideration That 's usefull and remarkeable which is thus prefaced Thus Solomon speaking of the field of the slothfull man saith Prov 24.31 Lo it was all growne over with thorns and nettles had covered the face thereof and the stone wall thereof was broken downe As if he had sayd Marke this is a thing to be attended the sluggards field is full of thorns that is in a spirituall sence slothfull hearts are full of lusts and vanities In this language the Church invites all to consider the Glorious excellencies of God Isa 29.9 Lo this is our God And thus Christ speakes of the woman whom he had healed on the Sabbath day Luke 13.16 And ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan hath bound lo these eighteene yeares be loosed from her infirmity on the Sabbath day As if he had sayd Pray consider the case and speake your mindes Fourthly 'T is often used in a way of strong assertion and affirmation intimating the certainty of what is spoken Gen 1.29 And God said Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed And
before we judge either of things or persons Though we may judge rightly of that we have not heard or of that which we have heard slightly yet we are not right Judges of any matter till we have heard it 'T is possible to hit upon a right judgement blind-fold but Judges must not be blind nor judge blind-fold To judge right not knowing it to be so shall have no better reward then a wrong judgement Yea they that are called to judge must both heare and give eare else they may quickly give wrong judgement Againe Elihu is speaking here to wise and good men yet how strictly doth he exhort them Heare and give eare Hence note Good men are often dull of hearing and had need to be put forward Christ tells his Disciples that many are judicially so and we know that all are naturally so Math 13.15 and the Apostle tells the Hebrewes they were so Chap 5.11 where treating of Christ called of God an high Priest after the order of Melchisedeck he concludeth of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered seeing ye are dull of hearing But how did their dullness of hearing make those things hard to be spoken or uttered may it not be easie enough for a man to utter that which others are dull to heare I answer the Apostles meaning seemes to be this It was hard for him to utter or expound them so as they might perceive the cleare truth of those great mysteries because their internal eare or apprehending faculty was weake and dull There is a stople in the eare of man and 't is hard to pull it out When any one speakes to purpose 't is the duty of those that are present to heare and yet he that speakes had need to invite and presse all to heare yea to heare and give eare The words of the wise are goads to provoke and pricke us on to heare the truth as well as nayles to fasten it Eccl 12.11 Elihu having called wise men to heare or eare his words sheweth the use or force of the eare in the next verse Vers 3. For the ear tryeth words as the mouth tasteth meat In this verse Elihu gives the reason why he so earnestly exhorted them to heare and give ear The ear tryeth words that is by the hearing of the ear words are tryed It is the office of the eare to conveigh words to the understanding that so a judgement may be made of them before they are either received or rejected The word which we translate to try 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pericula fecit probavit signifies to try as gold is tryed in the fire the eare is as it were a furnace wherein words are tryed the ear will discover whether what is sayd be dross or pure mettal The Prophet Zach 13.9 speaketh of a third part of men that should be brought thorow the fire and tryed as the fire of affliction and persecution tryeth persons so man hath a fire and a touchstone in his eare which tryeth words The ear is given not only to heare a sound of words not only to understand the general meaning of words what they signifie in any language but the eare is given to try the sense and soundness of words And when Elihu saith words speaking indefinitely he includeth all words of one sort or other it tryeth good words and it tryeth bad words it tryeth heavenly words and it tryeth earthly words it tryeth naturall words and it tryeth spirituall words the truth or falshood of words are brought to tryall at the barre and tribunall of the eare But in what manner or after what similitude doth the eare try words The answer followeth as the mouth tasteth meat In the 12th Chapter we had the same expression and therefore I shall not stay upon it here Only there the sentence is made up by a particle Copulative The ear tryeth words and the mouth tasteth meat Here by a particle of likeness The eare tryeth words as the mouth tasteth meat There is a faire analogy or proportion between the eare and the mouth in discriminating their proper obiects Hearing and tasting are two of those five excellent usefull senses which God hath planted in the nature of man the other three are seeing smelling feeling Here we have a comparison between two of the five senses look what the mouth is to meat the same is the ear to words In the mouth the sense of tasting is placed as a Judge to discerne between good and bad savory and unsavory meates and the eare of a man which receiveth words is accompanied with an understanding whereby we apprehend what is true what is false what is to be approved and what refused And the comparison runs yet more clearely while we consider that as the food which the mouth receiveth is prepared for the helpe of our natural or bodily life so the words of instruction which the eare receiveth are prepared for the food of our soules and the maintaining of our spirituall life Some conceive the comparison is not here made between the two senses of tasting and hearing but that both are compared to those wise and knowing men spoken of and to whom appeale is made in the former verse For as all the senses are not fitted to judge of words and meates but only the eare and palate so all men are not fit nor capable to judge of weighty matters and profound questions but only wise and knowing men And so according to this interpretation both or either of these sensitive faculties and both or either of their properties are alike compared to wise and learned men who are able not only to understand the sound of words but also exercise a judgement upon them both to discerne and determine what there is of truth and right in them Sapientia est sapida scientia Hence that saying of the Ancient Wisdome is a savory knowledge Wise men tast and savour the things which they know He surely was a wise man who sayd of the word of God Jer 15.16 Thy words were sound and I did eate them and thy word was to me the joy and rejoycing of my heart Heare O ye wise men and give ear to me ye that have knowledge the ear tryeth words as the mouth tasteth meat that is as the ear of a man tryeth words and as the mouth of a man doth tast meat so wise and knowing men try and tast that which is spoken and heard Thus both these sensitive faculties their properties and powers are compared to wise men who doe not only heare the voyce of him that speaketh but sit downe to consider it The mouth having taken meat and chawed it tasts it and makes a judgement of it Thus wise men deal with all they hear so that look what these two natural faculties doe with naturall things with words naturally spoken with meat naturally eaten the same they who are wise and knowing do to what is spoken spiritually and rationally
what is good what is right is a gracious work of a renewed will as Gods Election of us from Eternity so our Election of God and the things of God at any time is a very gracious worke This affirmative act To chuse to us judgement seemes to imply a negative the rejecting or laying aside of whatsoever is contrary to or a hindrance of Judgement that is the laying aside First of all animosities or undue heates of spirit Secondly of all prejudices and undue prepossessions Thirdly of all groundlesse suspitions and jealousies of the person we have to deale with we can never chuse judgement till we are cleare of all these The original word rendred to chuse signifies in the noune a young man a man in the flower of his age in the best of his life when his breasts as Job spake at the twentieth Chapter are full of milke and his bones of marrow and the reason is given because our younger time is our chusing time as to our way in this world it should be so much more for heaven or the things of another world Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth saith Solomon Eccl 12.1 Some render those words expressely In the dayes of thy elections or chusings As if he had sayd Remember to chuse God in thy chusing dayes when thou chusest thy calling in which to live when thou chusest a wife In diebus electionum tuarum Mont with whom to spend thy life then be sure and remember above all things to chuse God When Moses was a young man he was famous for this Choice Heb 11.25 26. He chose the reproach of Christ rather then the riches of Egypt when he had all the riches and honours of Egypt presented to him and courting him on the one side and the reproach of Christ affliction poverty disgrace threatning him on the other side he chose these rather who would thinke that man wise who should chuse the reproach of Christ in appearance nothing but dirt and dross before the riches of Egypt yet Moses never shewed his wisdome and learning so much in all the learning of the Egyptians as he did in that Choice Let us chuse Judgement Judgement may be taken two wayes First Judicium est causae inquisitio Judicium pro aequo Merc. for the act of enquiry let us discourse and debate this matter to find out what is just Judgement is the result or sentence given upon hearing and debate And most properly a right sentence is Judgement and that by Judgement Elihu meanes a right sentence appeares clearely from the next words And let us know among our selves what is good Communis hic sit nobis propositus scopus ut accurata judicij lance quae hactenus in hac causa dicta sunt probemus quod optimum est approbemus Scult Let us know that is let us so try by the ear what shall be spoken that we may come to a right knowledge to a right gust or tast of what is good There is a two-fold knowledge First of simple intelligence when we know any thing as it is precisely in its owne nature true or false good or evill Secondly of approbation when we conclude what we know to be true or good We may take in both here especially the latter It being doubtlesse the desire of Elihu to find truth and goodness if it were to be found on Jobs side And when he saith That we may know what is good we may understand it either Comparatively or Positively that we may know what is good is first that we may know good from evill Secondly that we may know among good things what is better yea what is best let us not only distinguish between good and bad but between good and better better and best The reason of man is able to put a difference not only between wheat and tares but if you bring him severall samples of wheat or other graine he is able to judge which is the better which is best a knowing man will judge to two pence in a bushell which is best so in all other commodities we not only judge between that which is good and that which is stark nought but when we have many parcels and particulars of any kinde before us good and usefull we judge which is the best which the principall Thus in spiritualls we are not only to judge of things so farre as to know good from evill which yet is a very good piece of knowledge for many put darkness for light and light for darkness bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter as the Prophet complained Isa 5.20 that is they huddle all things together in a Chaos of confusion but it should be our care to know good from good yea to know what excells among things that are excellent 'T is well when we know truth from falshood but we should labour to know which among truths is the most precious truth Paul having spoken of what was good yea of the best gifts saith Yet I will shew you a more excellent way 1 Cor 12.31 As if he had sayd sayd This is a good way you are in the exercise of the best gifts but here 's a more excellent way the exercise of grace Thus here I take good not so much Positively as Comparatively Let us know what is good that is what is best and what is best of all Let us chuse to our selves Judgement and know among our selves that which is good First In that he saith Let us chuse to our selves Judgement Observe We must consider deliberately and maturely before we pass Judgement Judgement is a choice thing and must be made upon choyce it is not to be snatched up hastily but duely chosen They that are upon the choyce either of things or persons should be much in Consideration How uncomely besides unrighteous is it to judge men or matters rashly to be hurried on to election with passion or to judge upon heare-sayes and Conjectures This is not to chuse Judgement but to snatch it up to chuse Judgement is to doe it with mature deliberation there must be much weighing else properly no judging rash judgement is usually wrong judgement and that layeth us open to another judgement Judge not that ye be not judged is Christs warning Math 7.1 that is doe not judge hastily or harshly doe not judge rashly nor rigidly much lesse falsely for if you do you shall be judged righteouâ—â—y indeed as to your case but not comfortably as to your condition They who will not chuse Judgement doe in the issue chuse Judgement that is not using deliberation in Judgement they draw deservedly upon themselves a judgement of condemnation Secondly Taking it more generally Let us chuse to our selves Judgement or that which is right Note It is not enough for us to doe Judgement or that which is right but we must chuse it 'T is a worke of no acceptation with God to doe that which is just unlesse
turn the sence of the words into another channell Absit a me coram domino impie ager◠c. Sept as if Elihu spake here in his own vindication and not in Gods and so they render the Text personally of Elihu Farre be it from me that I should do wickedly before God or that I should pervert Justice before the Almighty as if Elihu had said I am now to speake before God or in Gods presence God being my witnesse therefore I had need look to it while I am speaking before the righteous God that I speake righteously and while I speak before the God of truth that I speak according unto truth farre be it from me that I should doe wickedly before God there is a truth in this translation But this is not a true translation according to the Hebrew nor is it the truth of this place Elihu speaking in so weighty a matter might well say farre be it from me to pervert justice so much as in a word because I speake before God and am in the presence of the Almighty We should not speak a word amisse in his sight or hearing who seeth and heareth what all men doe and say whatsoever they are doing or saying especially when they are doing or saying that which is of neare concernment to himselfe This rendring gives us a usefull caution But doubtlesse Elihu's purpose here was not to shew with what reverence of God himselfe was about to speak but that he was about to speak for the vindication of the righteousness of God which he thought Job had wronged by that assertion when he said vers 9. It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God Hereupon Elihu with some heat of spirit turnes upon him in these words Farre be it from God that he should doe wickedly The word rendred God forbid is often used in Scripture implying the greatest detestation and utter abhorrence of that which is extreamly offensive to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profanum aut pollutum esse A deo procul est omne profanum Affectionem indicat animi qui scelus aliquid a se vel ab alio deprecatur et horret Sanct the root of it signifieth any thing that is prophane filthy or polluted because all prophane things and persons are farre from God that is such as he utterly abhorreth Further the verbe signifieth as to pollute or to prophane so to offer violence to wound and kill uniustly or murtherously which sence complyeth fully with the businesse in hand Job had complained that his innocency at least that he being innocent was sorely afflicted and wounded and lay as it were weltring in in his gore and blood Hereupon Eiihu stands up to vindicate the righteousnesse and justice of God Farre be it from God c. When a Judge doth unrighteously he offereth violence to the Law and viciates that chast Virgin Justice committed to his care and keeping All acts of injustice are therefore farre from God even the abomination of his soul because polluted and filthy in themselves as also such as pollute and defile all those that use them Thus Abraham spake to God Gen. 18.23 25. Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked that be farre from thee c. He spake of it with indignation as a thing most unworthy of God to wrap up good and bad in the same common calamity When all Josephs brethren as one man Gen. 44.17 offered to become his prisoners God forbid said he that I should doe so ye shall not all suffer for one mans sault let that be farre from me he that is found in fault only shall be my prisoner Thus Elihu would remove the remotest suspicion of unrighteousnesse from God when he saith farre be it from God that he should doe wickedness Hence note We should reject all unworthy thoughts of God with indignation and detestation The Apostle shewed a spirit full of this fire Rom. 3.5 6. Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance I speak as a man that is naturall or carnall men are apt to think so but God forbid or let it not be once named by those who name that is profess the name of God If every one who nameth the name of Christ must depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 woe to those who say that Christ himself closeth with any iniquity As God himself puts all evill farre from him so should we put the least thought of it farre from God What can be more unjust then to have so much as the shadow of a thought that God doth any injustice away with such blasphemous suggestions can he who is the very rule of righteousnesse doe unrighteously To throw this dirt into the face of God hath as much absurdity and irrationallity as blasphemy in it None but they who know not God can have such apprehensions of him To doe wickednesse is farre from God and therefore let man be farre even as farre as the east is from the west from saying or thinking that he doth any Farre be it from God That he should doe wickedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat quodvis peccati genus quod contra aequitatis sit normam omnique careat legis ratione Bold The Text is farre be it from God from wickedness we render that he should doe wickedness The word signifieth wickedness of the worst sort that wickedness which does not only break the Law so every the least sin doth but slights it and denyeth it any reverence or regard It is farre from a godly man to sin at this rate to doe wickednesse Then O how farre is it from God that he should doe wickedness And from the Almighty that he should commit iniquity Elihu useth two Titles or Names of God First the strong God the mighty God Secondly Almighty the Allsufficient God farre be it from the Allsufficient that he should doe any iniquity He that hath all things in his power and can command Heaven and Earth heart and hand he that is able to supply all deficiencies in the creature by his allsufficiency farre be it from this Allmighty God that he should commit iniquity towards man Strength without goodnesse is alwayes unprofitable and often hurtfull Goodness without strength is very unusefull because so weake But where both strength and goodness meere and center in the same person as he is able to doe much good so he hath no will to doe evill or offer injury to others How then should the Allsufficient commit iniquity The word rendred iniquity signifies any crookedness or perversnesse any distortion of right and justice Now right or justice is distorted many wayes chiefly these five 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fraudem aliquando innuit Et generaliter diutur de omni injuria omnique malo contra leges First by a flat denyall of it Secondly by a tedious delaying of it Thirdly by punishing where there is no fault Fourthly by not rewarding where there is desert Fifthly Justice or right
he will not doe wickedly for so it may be sayd of every honest man He will not do wickedly but seeing in this Negative commendation given by man to God as in all the Negative commandements given by God to man all affirmatives are to be understood what can be sayd more to or more sound out his praise and glory then this God will not doe wickedly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est aliquando impium pronunciare condemnare aliquando vero impiè agere vel iniquè quippiam facere Merc The word here used for doing wickedly signifies two things First to pronounce any person wicked and Secondly to doe any thing which is wicked both these often meete together For in many cases to pronounce a person wicked is to doe a wicked thing he that condemneth a just person pronounceth him wicked and what thing can be done more wickedly then that Some take the word in that sence here as a deniall that God either hath done or ever will condemne the innocent There are two things wherein men doe very wickedly with respect to the persons of men both which the Lord abhorres First when they condemne the innocent Secondly when they acquit or cleare the guilty The former way of doing wickedly is chiefly removed from God here by Elihu as the latter is directly and expressly by himselfe Exod 34.7 The Lord the Lord c. that will by no meanes cleare the guilty To pronounce a guilty person innocent or an innocent person guilty if ignorantly done is a great piece of weaknesse and if knowingly done is a great piece of wickednesse Yet because the latter part of the verse speakes particularly to cleare God from wrong Judgement therefore I conceive we may better expound this former part of it more largely as a generall deniall of any evill act whatsoever done by God Surely God will not doe wickedly Neither will the Almighty pervert Judgement The Almighty who hath power to doe what he will hath no will to doe this evill He will not pervert Judgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 detorquobit curvabit The word signifies both to pervert and subvert as also to bow wrest or put out of order to mingle or blend those things together which should be for ever separated or as we say to mingle heaven and earth yea heaven and hell together so doe they who mingle good and ill right and wrong together To pervert Judgement is to doe all this for then which Abraham assured himselfe was farre from God Gen 18.25 The righteous are as the wicked that is the righteous fare as ill as the wicked or the wicked fare as well as the righteous But the Almighty will not pervert Judgement that is the right which belongs to any man and therefore he will-doe every man right We had the same position in termes Chap 8. 3d and we have had this whole verse equivalenâ—ly in the 10th of this Chapter where Elihu sayd Far be it from God that he should doe wickednesse and from the Almighty that he should commit iniquity Here only one verse intervening Elâ—hu reports and repeats the same matter againe but it is no needlesse or vaine repetition for which Christ reproved the prayer of the Heathens Math 6.7 there are many repetitions in Scripture but not one vaine one how often soever the same truth is repeated there it hath its weight and use not only as it is still a truth but as it is a truth repeated And therefore I shall give a threefold reason why this truth is here againe repeated which will also lead us to a fuller improvement of it First Because this truth is as it were the hinge upon which the whole controversie between Job and Elihu is turned Job was unsatisfied because he was so ill handled and therefore Elihu tells him often that God is righteous and that he will not wrong any man Hereby giving Job to understand that God had done him nothing or done nothing to him but right Such grand swaying controling truths should be often and can scarce be too often repeated Secondly Elihu repeated this againe because 't is such a truth as no man can too much no nor enough weigh and consider the value and worth of it Now that which cannot be too often nor too much thought of cannot if rules of prudence be observed be too much or too often spoken of There is scarce any man who hath not sometimes at least indirectly and obliquely some hard thoughts of the proceedings of God either in reference to himselfe or to others Nor is there any thing that we have more temptations about then that surely we are not in all things rightly dealt with and that the dispensations of God are not so even as they might These sinfull suspicions are dayly moving and fluctuating in the heart of man and therefore this opposite principle ought to be fastened and fixed there to the utmost that the will and workes of God are all just and righteous yea that his will is the rule of all righteous workings or that as whatsoever is done in this world is done by the disposure of God so God though the thing be evill and unjust is just and good in the disposure of it Therefore unlesse we resist or contradict the will of God we must say whatsoever comes to passe comes righteously to passe because it comes to passe by the determinate will and counsell of God Thirdly Elihu repeates this assertion that he might the more commodiously make his transition or passage to the matter following and prosecute it with greater successe And therefore I shall not stay longer upon those words only Note First This great truth that God will not doe wickedly neither will the Almighty pervert Judgement convinceth those not only of injudiciousnesse but of wickednesse who though they are ready to acknowledge in generall God is just yet as to those particular providences which concerne them or wherewith themselves are pincht doe not cannot acquiesce and rest in the will of God with freedome and satisfaction That which is just should not displease us though in it selfe it be very bitter and unpleasant to us Secondly This truth is a ground of comfort to all the people of God who are under heavy pressures from this evill world or who receive little reward or incouragement as to sense from the good hand of God Such are apt to say with the kingly Prophet Psal 73.13 14. Verily in vaine have we cleansed our heart and washed our hands in innocency for all the day long have we been plagued and chastened every morning David was under a temptation when he was under hatches he could hardly perceive it worth the while to take paines in cleansing and washing either heart or hand while God was so constant and frequent in correcting and chastening him with so heavy a hand Yet David soone after recovered out of this temptation and concluded the Psalme with this particular assurance v. 28. It is
all flesh perisheth and turneth again unto what it once was dust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Hebrew word which we render to gather signifieth to add one thing or person to another When Rachel had conceived and bare a son Gen. 30.22 23. she called from this word his name Joseph and said the Lord shall add to me another son Thus here If God add or gather to himself his spirit and his breath that is the spirit and breath of man c. We may distinguish between these two Spiritus animam flatus vitam quae ab anima provenit conservatur significat ego opinâ—r idem esse hoc loco Sanct. spirit and breath Some insist much and curiously upon this distinction The spirit denoting the soul or the internal rational power of man and the breath that effect of life which followeth or floweth from the union of soul and body The life of man is often expressed by breath Cease ye from man whose breath or life is in his nostrils Isa 2.22 If once man's breath goeth out his life cannot stay behinde the spirit of a man is in this sence distinct from his breath for when the breath is vanished and is no more the soul or spirit liveth The Apostle in his prayer for the Thessalonians 1 Thess 5.23 puts soul and spirit together The very God of peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved harmless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ There 't is most probable by the soul he intends the inferiour powers in man or his affections and by the spirit his higher powers of reason and understanding yet the spirit is often put for that whole part of man which is contradistinct to his body Into thy hands I commend my spirit that is my soul not forgetting my body And I conceive we may safely expound it here in that latitude as comprehending the whole inner man Yet it is all one as to the sence of this place whether we take spirit and breath distinctly or for the same the spirit being so called from spiration or breathing If he gather unto him his spirit and his breath The gathering of the spirit and breath of man unto God is but a periphrasis or circumlocution of death or of man's departure out of this life when man was formed or created Gen. 2.7 it is said God breathed into him the breath of life and man became a living soul And when man dyeth his breath or spirit may be said to be gathered or returned back unto God so then the meaning of Elihu in this double supposition If he set his heart upon man if he he gather to himself his spirit and his breath is clearly this if God were once resolved or should but say the word that man must presently die die he must and that presently Hence Note First God can easily do whatsoever he hath a minde to do If he do put his heart upon the doing of any thing it is done Men often set their hearts yea and their hands unto that which they cannot do if men could do that which they set their hearts to do or have a minde to do and thereupon set their hands to do we should have strange work in the world 'T is a mercy to many men that man is often frustrated in his thoughts and purposes in his attempts and undertakings and 't is a glorious mercy to all that have an interest in God that God never lost a thought nor can be hindred in any work he setteth his heart upon He that can lett or stop all men in their works can work and none shall lett or stop him What God will do is not defecible or undoeable if I may so express it by any power in heaven or earth And as God can do what he will and ask no man leave so he can do what he will without trouble to himself 't is but the resolve of his will the turning of his hand or the cast of his eye all which are soon dispatcht and 't is done Thus God breathed out his wishes for the welfare of Israel Psal 81.13 O that my people had hearkned unto me c. I should soon have subdued theâ—r enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries As if he had said I could and would have eased them of all their enemies even of all that rose up against them easily even with the turning of my hand What is more easily done or moâ—e speedily done then the turning of a hand Many things are hard to man and indeed very few things are easie to him except it be to sin or to do evil he can do evil easily some things are not only hard but too hard impossible for man but there is nothing hard much less too hard for God he can easily do the hardest things yea the hardest things are as easie to him as the easiest for as Psal 139.12 Darkness hideth not from the sight of God the darkness and the light are both alike to him so hardness hinders not the work of God hardness and easiness are both alike to him if he set his heart upon it From this general truth take two inferences First How should we fear before this God How should we tremble at the remembrance of and walk humbly in our highest assurance with this God We are much afraid to displease those men who can easily hurt us and in whose hand it is to ruine us every hour But O how little are we in this thought to fear the Lord to take heed of displeasing the Lord who can with ease either help or hurt either bring salvation or destruction who in a moment can thrust the soul out of the body and cast both into hell Secondly We may hence make a strong inference for the comfort of the people of God when their straits are most pinching and their difficulties look like impossibilities and are so indeed while they look to man when their enemies are strongest and the mountains which stand in the way of their expected comforts greatest if then God will be entreated to set his heart and cast his eye upon them their straits are presently turned into enlargements difficulties become easie and mountains plains If we can but engage the Lord his own promise is the surest engagement and indeed all that we can put upon him or minde him of if I say we can thus engage the Lord to be with us who can be to our hurt many will be to their own against us Secondly Note Our life is at the beck dispose and pleasure of God He can gather the spirit and the breath to himself whensoever he pleaseth Psal 104.29 Thou hidest thy face and they are troubled and thou takest away their breath they die and return to their dust If God hideth his face from us 't is death while we live but if he take away our breath we cannot live but die Psal 90.3 Thou
deus omnium judicio est in justitiae damnare sustines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 potest exponi validū num justum et potentē eum qui simul et justus et potens est damnare audes sed malo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exponere per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multum valde q.d. eum qui summe justus est audes damnare de eo queri quasi tibi sit iniquior Rab Sel Merc as the word imports Wilt thou condemne him that is most just Here are two words in the Hebrew we put them together and so render them by a superlative most just Some translate Wilt thou condemne him that is strong and just that is strongly just mightily just God is full of strength and might so full that he and he only is Almighty yet his might never exceedeth right nor his strength his justice Strength and justice are commensurate in God And while he is so strong that he can doe what he will he is so just that he will doe nothing but what is righteous Further I find others joyning the word strong with the word condemne As if Elihu had sayd Wilt thou so confidently and pertinaciously condemne the just God To condemne God though but a little to passe the easiest sentence of condemnation upon him is bad enough but wilt thou strongly condemne him We render clearely to the scope of the place Wilt thou condemne him that is most just Hence note First God is most just or altogether just He is strongly just mightily just as he is strongly mercifull putting forth a power in pardoning sin and shewing mercy so he is strongly just or altogether just The rule given to Judges by Moses speakes thus Deut 16.20 That which is altogether just shalt thou follow We put in the margin justice justice shalt thou doe that is thou shalt doe pure Justice nothing but Justice or justice without the least mixture tincture or if it be possible without the least shadow of injustice I may say justice justice is God that is he is altogether just strongly just everlastingly and unchangeably just God is just under a three-fold notion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phavor First As to be just is taken largely importing a person accomplished with concurrence of all perfections and vertuous qualities In that sence I suppose the Apostle useth the word 1 Tim 1.9 The law is not given for that is to terrifie or condemne a just man that is for a man who is holy and good Thus God is altogether just for he hath all the lines of perfection of holinesse and goodnesse centring in him he is not only just and vertuous but justice and vertue it selfe Secondly To be just imports the keeping of promises and the performance of our word He is a just man who when he hath spoken you may know what to have of him and where to have him Some give words and you can get nothing of them but words that 's injustice because our words binde us and should be as lawes to us A man may chuse whether he will make promises but when he hath promised it is not in his choice whether he will performe or no his word bindes him In this sence God is altogether just Whatsoever word you have had from God and he hath given us many comfortable words for every condition God is a just God and will performe it to a tittle That Glorious and everlasting witnesse is borne to him by dying Joshua Josh 23.14 And behold this day I am going the way of all the earth and ye know in all your hearts and in all your soules that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you all are come to passe unto you and not one thing hath failed thereof In this sence God is sayd to be not only mercifull but just in forgiving our sins 1 John 1.9 If we confesse our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse If we confesse our sins spiritually and believingly deeply humbly and affectionately if we confesse thus he is just to forgive why because he hath given a promise to forgive those who make such confessions of sin And thus 't is in any other promise he keepes his word he keepes touch with man he will not fayle nor come short in the least therefore he is altogether just Thirdly He is just in the strictest acception of justice giving every one his due It is possible for a man to be just in neither of the two former notions he may neither be vertuous in his actions nor a keeper of his word as a man yet he may be just as a Magistrate just as in a cause committed to his determination But God is just in all these three considerations of a just man and therefore he is eminently or altogether just And I conceive the latter of the three is chiefely intended here God is most just that is he never did nor ever will give an undue or an undeserved sentence upon any man I might shew distinctly that God is just and how just he is First in rewarding those that doe well Secondly in punishing those that doe ill And that because he doth it First by a law Secondly by a law published Thirdly by a law possible our inability of keeping the law is consequentiall to the giving of it man hath drawne it upon himselfe though now he cannot performe it at all yet God is just in punishing because he sins against a law that he had a power in his head or representative to have fullfilled Fourthly God is just because the penalties which he inflicteth slow from a right and just law as the Apostle speaks Rom 7.12 The law is holy and just and good and therefore all the awards that are grounded upon it must needs be just too Fifthly he punisheth justly because he never punisheth but upon proofe and evidence yea he will make every mans Conscience a witness against himself or condemne him out of his own mouth Sixthly he punisheth justly because he punisheth impartially neither feare nor hope nor favour can divert him Isa 27.11 Jer 22.24 Seventhly he doth not only punish in a proportion to the law but often in a proportion to the sin and that not only to the measure of the sin but to the manner of the sin as that cruel king Adonibezek confessed when himselfe was cruelly dealt with his thumbs and great toes being cut off Judg 1.7 As I have done so God hath requited me As if he had sayd God is just not only because he hath punished me in measure according to my sin but after the very same manner in which I sinned he hath as it were hit my sin in the eye of all beholders what I have done may be seene by what I suffer Note Secondly To condemne God who is most just is the highest poynt of injustice Wilt thou
condemne him that is most just wilt thou do such a thing what condemne him that is most just How great a wickednesse is this if we consider First that what-ever God doth we ought to be patient under it Secondly that whatsoever God doth we ought to acquiesce or rest quietly and contentedly in it that 's more then to be patient Thirdly that whatsoever he doth we ought to approve and justifie God in it Fourthly that we ought to magnifie God whatsoever he doth though his dispensations are bitter burthensome and if we do so we shall finde the bitterest dispensations sweete to us Now if we ought to be patient under to acquiesce in to approve of yea to magnifie and exalt the name of God in all his dealings with us and determinations concerning us then how sinfull is it to condemne him What shall such poore creatures as we take upon us to censure and condemne the workes of God! Some say it at least in their hearts if they had the reines of government in their hands they would carry things evener then God doth they would put all things right if they might have the rule if they might a while doe as they thinke fit they would doe all things fitly Some will talke thus arrogantly of their fitness to governe the whole world who have not wit enough to governe their owne familyes nor any grace at all to governe themselves yea they will presume they could governe all men who are scarce fit to governe a heard of swine or as Job speakes Chap 30.1 to be set over the dogs of a mans flocke such as these will take upon them to governe the world say they could do it better then 't is done Things should not goe thus if they might have their will Though indeed like that rash and inconsiderate young man in the fabulous Poet who desired for one day at least to be Charioteere to the Sun if they might have their will they would set the whole world a-fire or put all into a flame in one day Thus vaine man would be wise as Zophar sayd Chap 11.12 Though man be borne like a wild asses colt that is being altogether unwilling to be governed by any right law he would faine give the law to and governe all what is this but to condemne the most just and how great how blasphemously impudent a wickednesse is this But some may say Did Job ever thus condemne God I answer he did not condemne him in so many words he did not formally sit upon his tribunall and condemne God but he spake such words as did shew a condemning of God and Elihu justly condemned him for speaking them Hence note lastly Not to submit freely to or to complaine of the dealings of God is a condemning of God This is a hard saying we may be almost astonished to heare it what condemne God yeas so farre as any man murmurs against the dealings of God so farre he condemnes God The workes of God must be submitted to as wel as his word his dispensations must be obeyed as wel as his lawes and constitutions Our complaints of what he doth are censures of his person We question not only the soveraignty and power of God but his very wisdome and truth and justice when we reluct against any of his actings or awards concerning us though they produce our greatest sufferings This Elihu further aggravates in the next words Is it fit to say to a King Thou art wicked and to Princes Ye are ungodly If men will be mannerly to Princes how much more mannerly ought they to be towards God JOB Chap. 34. Vers 18 19. Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked and to Princes ye are ungodly How much less to him that accepteth not the Persons of Princes nor regardeth the rich more then the poor for they are all the work of his hands THese two verses are both an Illustration and a Confirmation or proof of what Elihu spake last in the close of the 17th verse Wilt thou condemn him that is most just Hereupon he infers Vers 18. Is it sit to say to a King thou art wicked Those words Is it fit are not literally and expresly in the hebrew and therefore some connect these two verses immediately with the former Wilt thou condemn him that is most just Who saith to a King O thou wicked and to Princes O ye ungodly That is Qui dicit Regi Apostata qui vocat Duces impios c. Vulg. An dicentem Regi O nequam O improbe ingenuis condemnares Jun. Quinquennium Neronis who is so just that he spares not to tell the greatest Kings and Princes of their wickedness and ungodliness Or as the Vulgar Translation hath it Who saith to a King O thou Apostate I tell thee Thou art fallen from that Justice and Righteousness which thou didst once exercise in thy Government It is said of Nero he had his five years wherein he govern'd excellently but afterward he proved Apostate cruelly tyrannizing over instead of ruling his people as there are Apostates in Spirituals so in Civils an apostate is an hypocrite revealed an hypocrite is an apostate vail'd God unvails hypocrites of all sorts and will not fail sooner or later to reprove their Apostacy It is better not to be good then not to continue good Backsliders are worse then they who never set one step in the wayes of God and goodness So then according to this reading the sence may be given out thus As if Elihu had said How canst thou O Job possibly imagine that God should be unjust when he doth not forbear to tell the greatest Kings of their injustice and convince them of it he who calleth degenerate Kings Apostates and unjust Princes wicked he that is thus impartial in reckoning with Kings and the mighty men of the earth as indeed God hath alwaies been and will ever be How should he be unjust Wilt thou condemn the most Just Even him who is so just that he rebukes injustice wheresoever he sindes it and who can finde it wheresoever it is Psal 105.14 He reproved Kings for their sakes that is for the sake of his peculiar people when they did them wrong saying Touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm implying that he trusts Kings with that great power to protect his anointed and to save his Prophets from harm and therefore would not take it well at their hands if they abused their power to hurt and afflict them This is a good reading but I shall not insist upon it though some insist much upon it because I would rather favour our own Translation and carry the Interpretation that way as containing an argument to prove that it is a most wicked thing to condemn God as unjust because men are scarce any where found so presumptuous or bold as to say to a King Thou art wicked or to Princes ye are ungodly It is much easier for any man much more for
great men to do evil then for others to tell them so And as the faults of Princes seldome finde reprovers so it requires a great deal of wisdome not to commit a fault in reproving them Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked Is this a comly thing Or will Kings endure it And if so doth it become thee O Job to speak hardly of God Or will he endure it Elihu did not charge Job with speaking evil of God directly but would intimate to him that while he was so unquiet under the afflicting hand of God and pressed him so often for a further hearing of his cause he did very dangerously reflect upon his Justice and that seeing we stand in awe of Kings and Soveraigne Princes and dare not misbehave our selves before them nor let fall an unreverend word concerning them how durst he presume to speak any thing unseemly of God Is it fit to say to a King Thou art wicked Kings are supream they are cloathed with Soveraigne power over all persons within their Dominion Is it therefore fit to use such course language such down-right unhewen speeches in any address to them Is it fit to say to a King Thou art wicked The original word imports the worst sort the most infamous among wicked men So Mr Broughton renders Is it meet that one say to a King Belial Some give it in the Vocative case Is it meet for a subject to say to his Soveraigne O thou Belial O thou wicked one Dare any speak thus to a King This word Belial is often used in Scripture to note not only a wicked man in general but an eminently wicked man even a man in whom all wickedness is as it were centred and setled the very lees and dregs of all men who may be called wicked When Jezabel procured and suborned two false witnesses against Naboth it is said There came in two men children of Belial 1 Kings 21.13 and sate before him and the men of Belial witnessed against him even against Naboth in the presence of the people saying c. These witnesses were perjured persons to tell a lye is the worst of sins what then is it to swear a lye no word could reach the height of this wickedness more fully then to call them children of Belial When the Lord comforted the Church with the glad tydings of the Gospel Nah. 1.15 Behold the feet of those upon the mountains that preach peace O Jerusalem keep thy solemn Feasts perform thy Vowes He subjoyns this promise as a reason The wicked shall no more pass thorow thee he is utterly cut off We put in the margin Belial shall no more pass thorow thee that is thou shalt then be freed from those Belialists who formerly interrupted thy peace by vexing and persecuting thee or prophaned thy holy Assemblies by mixing themselves with thee But I give thee assurance the time is coming when Belial shall no more trouble thee Yea Belial is a Title so full of wickedness that it fits the Devil himself whom the Scripture brands with that black mark The wicked one or the evil one The Apostle puts that question with much holy disdain 2 Cor. 6.14 15. What communion hath light with darkness and what concord hath Christ with Belial that is Christ with the Devil They differ from the Devil only in flesh and blood in nature they are as bad as he who bear his name This may yet further appear if we look into the Grammatical derivation of it Belial is commonly expounded a man without a yoke or a man that will not be yoked that is a man who will not come under command a lawless person so we translate the Apostle's word 1 Tim. 1.9 Aliqui a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jugo deducunt qui nullis legum vinculis teneatur aut jugo The Law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient for the ungodly and for sinners c. that is for the sons of Belial or for such as will not endure the yoke the Law is a yoke Christ calls the Law of the Gospel his yoke Matth. 11.29 and they that will not bear the yoke of Christ shall never have benefit by the Cross of Christ we must take up the yoke of Christ if we would taste the fruit of the Cross of Christ Now a Beliallist will not hear of nor have to do with the yoke he is like the wilde Ass described in the 39th of Job who will not be taught to plow nor be bound in the furrow you cannot make the wilde Ass work like the Oxe Wicked men have hard and stony hearts yet such soft tender and delicate necks that they cannot abide the yoke 't is their bondage to be tyed to obedience Again The notation of the word Belial Alii a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proficere deducunt quasi significet hominem qui ad nihil sit utilis Merc. imports a person of no use or altogether unprofitable a man that is good for nothing a meer unthrift or spendthrift a man that neither doth good to himself nor to any others as if he were born only to spoil and devour all that is before him as if he came into the world to eat other mens labours and not to labour that he might have to eat Christ calleth the idle or slothful servant an unprofitable servant Matth. 25.30 and to be an unprofitable servant is to be a son of Belial one that hath no good in his heart nor doth any good in his place neither in his private nor publick capacity neither in his own family nor in the neighbourhood and Nation where he lives No man is born for himself nor ought any man to live to himself It were better not to live then not to be doing good while we live He that liveth only to profit himself liveth to little purpose to what purpose then doth he live whose life is altogether unprofitable to himself And indeed he that is not in some respect or other a common good or good to others cannot be good nor do any true good to himself yet such is the wicked man represented under the notion of this Text. Seeing then there are such bad and base significancies in the bowels of this word is it sufferable by a King Is it fit to say to a King thou art Belial or wicked What can be said more unfitly What greater reproach can be cast upon a King who ought to be a living Law a breathing Law as also the Keeper of the Law by way of conservation and protection then to call him Belial or one that will not keep the Law at all by way of observation There are two wayes of keeping the Law First By Conservation so Kings preserve the Laws that they may have their free course to others and be obeyed by others in which sence Kings are commonly called Keepers of both Tables Secondly By observation
and as in the former sense 't is the prerogative of Kings to be Keepers of the Law so it is their piety and their goodness to be Keepers of them in the latter 'T is possible a King may be a Keeper of the Law by Conservation and yet not be a Keeper of it by Observation but then he shines most bright in the sphear of his Royal Soveraignty when he is every way a keeper of the Law of God and so far as they respect himself of his own Further Is it fit to say to a King Belial As Belial designs an unprofitable person a man good for nothing a man of no use what Upon the Throne and yet of no use to a Nation How high an indignity is this to Regal dignity Kings are set up for the greatest use for the most important services even for the profit and advantage of mankinde especially of all within their Kingdoms and Dominions as all are to serve them in their state so they count it their chiefest honour to advance the peace and profit of all their peaceable and profitable subjects Therefore nothing can be said more dishonourably to a King then this Thou art good for nothing an unprofitable person Belial Is it fit to say to a King Thou art wicked And to Princes ye are ungodly The word rendred Princes signifies munificent bountiful free willing Principes hic vocantur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a liberalitate munificentia quasi tu dicas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Drus so Princes are called to shew what they are or should be men of bountiful noble munificent heroick free spirits open hearted and open handed they who are so are Princes in truth as well as in Title The holy Spirit of God or God the holy Spirit is called a Princely Spirit Psal 51.12 we read it Free Spirit and this free Princely Spirit of God makes all his people of a free Princely spirit of a large heart both as to duty God-wards and as to charity man-wards Psal 110.3 In the day of thy power the people shall be willing they shall be as Princes they shall serve thee as sons not as slaves a Royal Spirit is conveyed into them by the Spirit in the day of the Power of Jesus Christ or when he conquers them to the obedience of himself By this appellation worldly Princes the Princes of this world are expressed in sacred language that so their very names might minde them of being such and of doing such things as are the ornament both of their persons and places These two high Titles in the Text Kings and Princes are somtimes taken for the same and in strictest sence Princes are the next degree or but one remove from Kings Again There are some called Princes who have the supreame power within their own Territories Others are called Princes who have a delegated or derived power from Kings The Apostle speaks of such 1 Pet. 2.13 charging the Church and people of God to submit to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether to the King as supream or unto Governours as sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well Elihu brings in both for the fuller confirmation of his point and the stronger conviction of Job Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked and to Princes who stand about his Throne and serve him in his Government ye are ungodly Ye regard neither right nor reason neither what 's fit to be done nor what to be advised That 's the sence of the words as they are an argument from the less to the greater If it be an uncomely and undecent thing saith Elihu to say to a King thou art wicked and to Princes ye are ungodly How much more to him that accepteth not the persons of Princes c. Hence Note First Men are not all of a rank or all are not of an equal state in this world This Text speaks of Kings and Princes and the most of men are inferiour not only to Kings but to Princes God hath not made man upon earth as minims in writing all of a height but as in the alphabet of Letters some are longer and deeper then others so in the Alphabet of mankinde some men are bigger and higher then others Kings and Princes are but men yet they are men in a great letter or they are among men as the Aleph among the letters which as it is first in order so it signifies a Prince a Chief a Leader And if the most wise God had not ordered such an inequality among men how should order have been kept among men Nothing considering the corruptions and lusts of men can be more unequal then that equality which some have vainly contended for among men All men would fall down into confusion if some were not above That which keeps all up is only that some are uppermost Kings and Princes Secondly which is here principally aimed at Note It is most uncomly and sinful to revile or give reproachful words to Kings or Princes When we say It is not fit we say less then the thing is or then the Text intendeth there is more evil in it then a bare unfitness 't is indeed a very great wickedness and ungodliness to say to a King thou art wicked and to Princes ye are ungodly To say so is expresly against the Rule Exod. 22.28 Thou shalt not revile the gods or as we put in the margin Judges nor curse the Ruler of thy people And the Apostle Paul quotes this Text Acts 23.5 when himself had slipt in that point as he stood before the Judgement seat and pleaded his own integrity for when Ananias the high Priest commanded them that stood by to smite him on the mouth Paul said unto him God shall smite thee thou whited wall This drew a reproof upon him presently from them that stood by v. 4. Revilest thou Gods high Priest And what doth Paul answer v. 5. I wist not Brethren that he was the high Priest for it is written Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy people There hath been much dispute about that answer I wist not that he was the high Priest Certainly Paul saw and knew that he was the high Priest and it is as certain that he did not tell a lye when he said I wist not that he was the high Priest His meaning I conceive was only this as if he had said having received such unjust usage in the Court as to be openly smitten in time of hearing I confess I was in a passion and did not consider 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I ought that it was the high Priest I spake rashly and unadvisedly I wist not that is I deliberated not with my self who it was I spake to for I ought not to have used such language the Scripture also having forbidden it which saith Thou shalt not curse the Ruler of thy people It will not bear us
Numb 12.1 though they were thus neerely related yet speaking irreverently of Moses the Chiefe Magistrate the Lord sayd to them v. 8. Wherefore were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses Yet how common is this sin the tongues of men walke exceeding loosly in their discourses about the persons and powers of Princes And we every where find most pleased to heare well of themselves and ill of others or to speake well of themselves and ill of others and the higher they are who are spoken of or of whom they speake evill the more they are pleased both in hearing and speaking evill of them How unruly are their tongues who cannot forbeare their rulers Thus much of Elihu's question as it is resolved into a Negative proposition It is not fit to say to a King thou art ungodly We may further consider it as an argument from the greater to the lesse to prove That it is a most wicked thing to speake a word unduely of God Is it fit to say to a King Thou are wicked and to Princes ye are ungodly Vers 19. How much less to him that accepteth not the persons of Princes Who is that The words are a cleare Periphrasis of God he accepts not the persons of Princes As if Elihu had said the Kings and Princes of the earth expect such great respect from their subjects that no man should dare to censure them or speake evill of them though they doe evill or deale unjustly how much more unfit is it to speake evill of God or to charge his government with injustice who never doth any evill all whose wayes are not only just but justice He that accepteth not the persons of Princes who are the greatest of men can have neither will nor motive to deale unjustly with any man I shall not stay to shew what it is to accept persons because that hath been shewed at the 7th verse of the 13th Chapter as also Chapter 32.21 only I 'le give it in one word To accept persons is to have more respect to the man then to the matter and that 's a very common fault among men and as commonly condemned by God 'T is a received axiom He that would or doth put on the person of a Judge must put off the person of a friend that is he must not be sway'd by any respect whatsoever of friendship or allyance but must judge purely as the cause deserveth Nor shall I stay to urge the greatness of the sin of speaking any thing uncomely of God that also hath been spoken to in many former passages of this Chapter Only from these words How much lesse to him that accepth not the person of Princes Note First That which ought not to be done or spoken to the greatest of men ought much lesse to be either done or spoken to God The reason is because first God is infinitely more to be reverenced then any man Secondly because God is infinitely more able to take vengeance and certainly will of any that shall doe or speake evill to him then the greatest among the children of men Yet how many are there who dare not offend a man not a great man especially either by word or deed who are not afraid by both to offend and provoke the great God O remember the force of this text If it be not fit to speake unduely of Princes How much lesse of him that accepteth not the persons of Princes Hence note Secondly God is no accepter of persons He hath no respect to Princes in prejudice to truth and righteousnesse but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousnesse be he never so poore is accepted with him Acts 10.35 and in every nation he that feareth him not but worketh unrighteousnesse be he never so great is unacceptable yea abominable to him The Scripture often attributes this glory to God Deut 10.17 2 Chron 19.7 Gal 2.6 Col 3.25 And as it is the glory of God that he is no accepter of persons so it is the duty of man Deut 1.17 Judgement must proceed and conclude with respect to the rule and command of God not with respect to the persons of men or our relations to them Levi was highly commended for this Deut 33.9 who sayd unto his father and to his mother I have not seene him neither did he acknowledge his brethren nor knew his owne children c. When man accepteth not the persons of men he acteth most like God of whom Elihu saith He accepteth not the persons of Princes Nor regardeth the rich more then the poore That 's a further description of God He doth not regard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aguoscere familiaritèr tractare that is acknowledge or know the one more then the other He is in the best things as communicative to and converseth as familiarly with the poore as the rich yea he doth not value or prize the rich man more then the poore the poor man is worth as much as the rich man in Gods account suppose the rich man worth thousands yea ten thousands of gold and silver and the poore man so poore that he is not worth a shilling yet in the account of God the poor man is worth as much as the rich man The Scripture speakes of two sorts both of rich and poor men There are men rich in spiritualls such Christ intimates who are Luke 12.20 rich towards God or as he speakes of the Church of Smyrna Rev 2.9 rich in grace I know thy poverty but thou art rich That is I know thou art poor in earthly pelfe but rich in spiritualls The Apostle James puts the question Chap 2.5 Hath not God chosen the poore of this world rich in faith and heires of the kingdome Now it is most certaine that God regardeth the rich in spiritualls more then the poore in spiritualls he highly regardeth those that are poore in spirit and pronounceth them blessed Math 5.3 for theirs is the kingdome of heaven But he regardeth not those who are poore in spiritualls not them especially who boast of their spirituall riches when they have none they that have them are thankfull for them they do not boast of them as the Church of Laodicea did of whom Christ sayd Rev 3.16 17. I will spew thee out of my mouth because thou sayest I am rich encreased in goods and knowest not that thou art poore Thus you see there are a sort of rich men whom Christ regardeth more then the poore of that sort But as poore and rich are distinguished meerely by aboundance and want by the smallness and greatness of their portion in the things of this world as Dives and Lazarus in the parable were so he regardeth not the rich more then the poore When a poor man is gracious as wel as poore God regardeth him more then any rich man who hath no grace And when either both have grace alike or both are alike without grace he regardeth them both alike When rich and poore
of the night as the words may be rendred that 's a great aggravation of the judgement The night is a time of rest and midnight is the time of deepest rest so that for the people to be in a tumult or troubled at midnight is to be overtaken with matter of fear when fear seemed furthest off or when they suspected nothing to make them afraid David saith of some Psal 3.5 There were they in great fear where no fear was To fear at midnight is to fear when usually no fear is that is when people are at rest in their beds And so to say the people shall be troubled at midnight signifieth either First the coming of trouble upon a secure people Cum maximè securi upon a people who thought themselves and while they thought themselves not only out of the noise but reach of danger Or secondly It may signifie the coming of trouble upon a people altogether unfit to help themselves when a man is asleep he cannot give counsel how to prevent danger and while he is in his bed he is in no posture to oppose it All this may well be included in what Elihu saith The people shall be troubled at midnight Hence Note First There are National troubles as well as personal God can scare not only a family or this and that particular man but a whole people at once he cannot only make a childe or a woman but a multitude yea an Army of mighty men tremble like a childe and faint as the weakest woman A people are many yet every man shall be as if he were alone or but one in the midst of innumerable dangers and of a thousand deaths Moses in his Song foresaw the dread of Nations upon the report of the Lord 's miraculous conduct of Israel through the red Sea Exod. 15.14 15 16. The people shall hear and be afraid sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina all the inhabitants of Canaan shal melt away And when Christ speaks of those dreadful Prognosticks of his coming he not only saith There shall be signes in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars but upon the Earth distress of Nations with perplexity Luke 21.25 Secondly Observe Both personal and publick troubles are at the command of God as both publick and personal peace are A people as well as a person may and shall be troubled even at the midnight of their greatest security if God give the word I make peace saith the Lord Isa 45.7 and create evill that is the evill of trouble There will be occasion afterward to speak further of this poynt from those words v. 29. When he giveth quietness who can give trouble and when he hideth his face who can behold him Whether it be done against a nation or against a man only trouble of all sorts is at the command of God if he saith to such or such a mischiefe goe to a nation it will goe if he bid the sword trouble them if he bid pestilence trouble them if he bid famine trouble them if he bid their owne divisions trouble them the people shall be troubled yea they shall be troubled at midnight Whence note Thirdly Trouble takes or seazeth upon many when they least expect it God can send trouble when no man thinkes of it At midnight every one is in bed all are for rest and quiet The Lord usually executes his judgements upon the unwary world upon a secure people Exod 12.29 At midnight the Lord smote all the sirstborne in the land of Egypt c. And Pharoah rose up in the night he and all his servants and all the Egyptians and there was a great cry in Egypt We read also 2 Kings 19.35 In that night the Angel of the Lord went out and smote in the campe of the Assyrians an hundred four-score and sive thousand It was not a day-battel but a night-battel When they were all gone into their tents and were at rest when the Army was secure In that night did the Lord fight them by an Angel and made a mighty slaughter among them Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans was slaine in the night Dan 5.30 even in that night wherein he made a feast to a thousand of his Lords and dranke wine before the thousand v. 1. In that night not only of his security but of his jollity and sensuality when he had even drowned himselfe and his great Lords with wine and belly-cheare in that very night the City was broken up and Belshazzar slaine History tells us what dreadfull work was made upon the Babylonians that night The great Judgement day is so described Jesus Christ will at last trouble the world at midnight The Day of the Lord so cometh saith the Apostle 1 Thes 5.2 as a thiefe in the night when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them c Christ himselfe shadowing his coming under the parable of the ten Virgins who all slumbred and slept tells us Math 25.6 At midnight there was a cry made Behold the Bridegroome conteth goe ye out to meete him Though some were in a better condition then others some wise some foolish yet all slept and it was a kind of midnight to them all Christ will come and the people shall be troubled at midnight and then there will be a dreadfull Cry among the secure drowsie world Therefore the Counsell of Christ is most proper Math 13.35 Watch because ye know not at what houre your Master may come whether at even or at midnight or at Cock-trowing or in the morning It is hard to be put to it at midnight 't is sad to be in a sleepy or slumbring condition when evill comes The Gospel sheweth us how much that man was troubled when his neighbour came to borrow bread of him at midnight Luke 11.5.7 Trouble me not my children are with me in bed I cannot rise and give thee If it be matter of trouble to be called out of our bed to doe a courtesie for a friend at midnight O what will it be to be called up to Judgement or to be surprized with any Judgement at midnight Therefore prepare and be ready for all changes At midnight the people shall be troubled And passe away These words are a third part of the description of the Judgement of God upon a people they shall die they shall be troubled they shall passe away that is some of them shall die all shall be troubled others shall passe away There is a three-fold notion of passing away First Some expound it thus They shall be carried captive out of their own Country This with the former two make up a perfect Judgement upon any people Some shall die or be slaine all shall be troubled and vext they shall be at their wits end and the rest shall be carried away captive Secondly They shall pass away that is they shall pass into their graves the forme of speech here used may well beare that
sense for death is a passing away a passing out of this world Psal 37.36 Transire intelligo non pro migrare aliò sed pro abire in sepulchrum Merc Loe he passed away and was gone that is he died And that which is as death to the heavens and the earth their great change when ever it shall be is called a passing away Math 5.18 Till heaven and earth passe away one jot or one tittle shall in no wise passe away from the Law till all be fullfilled that is the Law shall stand in force as long as the world stands Thus to passe away is to die But I conceive we are to expound this third branch of the Judgement distinctly from the former two and therefore for as much as we have death in the first words it will not be proper to take in death here againe or to expound passing away by dying The third notion of they shall passe away is they shall run or flee for it they know not whether they shall flee for their lives from the danger impending over them As some shall die and all be troubled so not a few shall endeavour to save their lives by flight Christ in the Gospel foretold the great troubles and afflictions which should come upon Jerusalem and in them there was a sad concurrence or meeting of these three Judgments in the text For when after forty yeares the Romans invaded and ruin'd their City many dyed were destroyed by sword and famine all the people were troubled Oh in what a hurry were they to see the Romane Eagle displayed before their Gates and then they passed away that is as many as could withdrew and got out of the danger It is reported in history that before the Seidge of that City a voyce was heard in Jerusalem saying Migremus hinc let us passe from hence they who believed that warning departed soone after And as some passed away before the Judgement came so when it was come many were striving to be gone or to passe away Therefore Christ admonished them Math 24.20 Pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabath day I conceive we are to understand this text distinctly of such a passing away In a moment shall they die and the people shall be troubled at midnight and passe away they shall doe what they can to secure themselves by out-running the danger Note from it First God hath variety of meanes to humble a sinfull people Into how many wayes doe the Judgements of God divide themselves severall persons beare severall parts here is death to many trouble to all flight to some That in the Prophet answers it fully Jer 15.1 where the Lord protesting that nothing no not the intercession of Moses and Samuel should take him off from his resolve against that people saith Such as are for death to death and such as are for the sword to the sword and such as are for the famine to the famine and such as are for the captivity to the captivity There 's pestilence and sword and famine and captivity ready at the call of God to take away a provoking people Secondly Note To passe away or to be put to our flight is a grievous Judgement To flee from the face of the pursuer to run for our lives who knows the trouble and terror of it but they that have been in it what a mercy is it that our dwellings are continued to us that we abide in our places that we neither die in a moment are not surpriz'd by midnight-feares but rest quietly in our beds though feares at midnight have been ready to surprize us What a mercy is it that we are not passing away running fleeing into the wildernesse as the poore Churches of God have done in severall ages So much of Judgement upon the people in that three-fold notion of it We have here also Judgement upon Princes And the mighty shall be taken away without hand Not only the many but the mighty shall feele the Judgements of God For as 't is sayd in the former verse He accepteth not the persons of Princes nor regardeth the rich more then the poore The mighty and the meanest of men are alike to God when they are alike in sinning against God If they doe evill alike they shall suffer evill alike God accepteth no mans person The mighty shall be taken away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fortis robustus excellens fortitudine pluraliter Abirim in genere forte significat The word rendred mighty taken plurally is used in Scripture to denote not only mighty men but any creature that excells in might And therefore according to the exigence of the place it signifies sometimes Angells who being spirits exceed all flesh in might The people of Israel in the wilderness did eat Angells food Psal 78.5 the food of the Abirims of the mighty or strong ones And as it is applyed to Angells who exceed the strongest men in strength so it is applyed to any sort of strong beasts to the horse Jer 47.3 to Bulls Isa 34.7 Jer 50.11 Psal 22.13 Psal 68.31 Thus the word riseth above man to Angells and falls below man to the beasts of the earth here 't is applyable only to strong and mighty men of whom yet there are three sorts First Some are men of a mighty arme Secondly Others are mighty in Armes Thirdly There are men mighty in Authority The first of these is a natural mighty man he hath a mighty arme a strong body or he excells in bodily strength The second is a marshall mighty man a souldier a man of warre The third is the Magistratical mighty man he is cloathed with power both to punish and reward Possibly he may have no bodily might yea possibly he is no souldier yet a man of such power he is that he commands whole Nations Now take the word Mighty in any of these three senses and it is a truth the mighty shall be taken away the mighty in strength of the Arme the mighty in strength of Armyes the mighty in power and dignity are by the hand of the Almighty God taken away They shall take them away saith the Hebrew text that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 et amovent potentem impersonaliter Pisc say some according to the first translation mentioned the people shall violently take away the mighty But by an usuall Hebraisme we may read it Impersonally the mighty shall be taken away concealing or leaving it to be understood by whom Like that speech to the rich man Luke 12.25 This night doe they require thy soule of thee so we put in the Margin that is as the text hath it this night thy soule shall be required of thee they shall take thy soule that is it shall be taken away so here they shall take away the mighty that is the mighty shall be taken away or removed We may take notice of a two-fold remove or taking away First There is a
man Thus if we take the wayes in that distinction of internal and external the eyes of God are upon them Secondly Take the wayes of man as differenced in their kinds as they are either good or evil the eyes of the Lord are upon both They are saith Solomon Prov. 15.3 in every place beholding the evil and the good that is the evil wayes and the good wayes of men But saith not the Prophet Habbak 1.14 Thou art of purer eyes then to behold evil Which may seem at first reading to imply that God doth not behold the evil wayes or actings of men I answer if we distinguish the word behold we shall soon reconcile these Scriptures To behold is either to discerne what is before us or to behold is to approve what is before us There is a seeing of knowledge and there is a seeing of contentment now when the Prophet saith the Lord is of purer eyes then to behold evil his meaning is he doth not he cannot behold evil with contentment or approbation otherwise the Lord beholds evil even all the evil in the world both good and evil are before him who is himself only and altogether good His eyes are upon the ways of Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not only upon the wayes of this or that man but of every man let man be what he will for a man let him be a great man or a mean man let him be a rich man or a poor man let him be a wise man or a fool let him be an ignorant or a knowing man let him be a holy or a prophane man let him be a subtle or a simple man his eyes are upon him Those things which difference men among themselves make no difference at all among them as to the eye of God His eyes are upon the wayes of whomsoever you can câ—ll man And he seeth all his goings This latter clause of the verse is of the same sence with the former therefore I shall not stay upon the opening of it The Scripture often useth Synonoma's and repeats the same thing in other terms to shew the truth and certainty of it and surely the Spirit gives a double stroke here to strike this truth home into our hearts and fasten it in our mindes He beholdeth the wayes and he seeth alâ— the goings of man The word translated seeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth a very curious or critical sight as was opened before Again these latter words say he seeth All his goings Where we have the universal particle exprest which was only understood in the forme And though these two words wayes and goings may be expounded for the same thing yet in this conjunction we may distinguish them by understanding the word wayes for the constant course of a man's life and the word goings for his particular and renewed motions in those wayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incedore cum pompa propriè deambulare The Original word rendred goings signifies somtimes going with much caution yea with a kinde of state or pomp yet frequently any ordinary going Now when Elihu asserts The Lord seeth all his goings we may sum up the matter under these five considerations He seeth First Where he goeth what his path is Secondly He seeth whether he is going what he makes the end of his journey or travel Thirdly when he goeth or sets out what time he takes for every undertaking Fourthly how far he goeth the Lord takes notice of everystep what progress he makes in any business good or bad Fifthly he seeth in what manner he goeth with what heart with what mind or frame of soule he goeth Thus distinct and exact is the Lord in beholding the wayes and in seeing all the goings of man Hence note First Surely the Lord is a God of knowledge If we could conceive a man to have his eyes in all places and upon all persons an eye upon all hearts and an eye in all hearts as wel as an eye upon all hands you would say this man must needs be a knowing man especially if he have such an eye as the eye of God is a discerning eye a distinguishing eye a trying eye an eye which seeth to the bottome of whatsoever it seeth Hannah sayd this in her song 1 Sam. 2.3 Speak not so proudly let not arrogancy come out of your lips for the Lord is a God of knowledge and by him actions are weighed 'T is not a slight superficial knowledge which God hath of things or persons by him actions are weighed and so are the Actors God puts all into an even ballance and he will weigh both persons and actions to a graine yea every word and thought shall goe into the ballance It was said to that great Monarch Belteshazer by a hand-writing upon the wall Thou art weighed in the ballances The Lord weighed that great King he weighed all his power and the exercise of it and he that weigheth Kings will not leave the meanest subject unweighed by him actions are weighed We many times passe over our actions without consideration and never take the weight of them at least we never weigh them in the Sanctuary ballance If they will beare weight in the ballance of the world we presume they will in Gods ballance also But as the Lord is a God of knowledge otherwise then man is so by him actions are weighed otherwise then by man It is said of Idolls Psal 115.15 They have eyes and see not but we may say of the Lord Jehovah the true God the living God he hath properly no eyes yet he seeth and his faculty of seeing is infinitely above that which himselfe hath planted in man The Atheist while he is about the worst work in the world the breaking in pieces of the people of God and afflicting his heritage while he is slaying the widow and the stranger and murdering the fatherlesse while he is I say at such kind of worke as this he saith Psal 94.7 The Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard it But what saith the Psalmist to him and such as he v. 8 9. Vnderstand ye brutish among the people he that formed the eye shall not he see Those words of the Prophet to King Asa 2 Chron 16.9 The eyes of the Lord run too and fro through the whole earth are an allusion to a man who having a desire to know much or to see all in the world runs up and down travels from place to place from Country to Country for information The Lord would have us know that he knoweth every thing as exactly as they who run from place to place to see what 's done in every place It is prophecyed of the latter times Dan 12.4 Many shall run too and fro and knowledge shall be increased that is many shall be so graciously greedy of knowledge that they will refuse no labour nor travel to attaine it They will run too and fro to inquire and search for it they
mighty men that all may know his judgements are deserved by their works he makes their works known Secondly Others render He maketh them know or acknowledge their works The Lord at last by sore and severe judgements will extort confessions from the worst of them he will make the mighty acknowledge that their works have been nought and their wayes perverse In Scripture the same word signifies to know or to confess and acknowledg Thus here he makes them to know or to acknowledge what their works have been Thirdly Rather take it as we render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non significat notum facio quod sciam sed tantum cognosco ideo transtuli cognoscit Drus of Gods act in taking notice of all they had done Therefore he knoweth their works As if Elihu had said these mighty men of the earth thought themselves under covert or that the Lord took no notice of them nor of their works their works were done in the dark and they supposed the Lord could not pierce into them but he will make it appear that he knew their works when he maketh his justice appear in punishing them for their works Hence Note We have an assurance that God knoweth the works of all mon because he punisheth all wicked works or the works of the wicked so punctually and exactly He punisheth many of them here and will punish them all hereafter when we see him breaking the mighty men of the world 't is a proof that God was in their Cabinet counsels and saw what was done there we may conclude he knew their works though men knew them not he could never lay his judgements so exactly upon them as he doth if he did not know their works That God knows the works of all men is a point I have met with before and therefore pass from it here And he overturneth them in the night There are several readings of this clause First Some thus Therefore the Lord knoweth their works and turneth into night that is he turneth their prosperity into adversity he bringeth trouble and affliction upon them they lived before in a day of prosperity in a day of power and worldly greatness but he turneth them into night Secondly Or as others thus He turneth the night that is he changeth the night into day Simul atque mutavit noctum c. Jun. i. e. Lucem protulit qua revelantur omnia in judicio ejus Id. he takes away the dark and close covers of their sins and makes them as manifest as the light Now as the Apostle saith Eph. 5.13 That which maketh manifest is light If God were not light he could not bring to light the hidden things of darkness nor manifest the counsels of the heart Thirdly thus Therefore he knoweth their works and when the night is turned he destroyeth them that is they are destroyed and perish as soon and as easily as the day takes place of the night or as soon as the night is turned into day so soon doth the Lord destroy them he can quickly make an end of them he can destroy them with the morning light We render and I judge that best He overturneth them their persons in the night and so Elihu points at the season or time of Gods breaking and overthrowing them he doth it in the night We may take it strictly as in the case of Pharaoh and the Egyptians Exod. 12.29 as also in that of Belshazzer Dan. 5.30 or in the night that is suddenly unexpectedly Though a man be destroyed in the day yet if it be done suddenly he looking for no such matter we may say it was done in the night because then men are most secure This way of expressing an unlookt for evil the coming of in the night was opened at the twentieth verse therefore I shall not stay upon it He overturneth them in the night So that they are destroyed Elihu said before He shall break in pieces mighty men Here he saith they are destroyed that is they shall be broken to purpose or throughly God doth not break them in pieces for correction but for destruction there are great breakings upon the persons and estates of some men and yet it is but for correction others the Lord breaketh for utter ruine as here so that they are destroyed The Original word signifieth to destroy as it were by pounding in a Morter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contrivit atirivit contudit and the same word is used to signifie a contrite heart a heart broken by godly sorrow under the sense of sin They are destroyed or as it were ground to powder you may break a thing into many pieces yet not grinde it to powder or dust as corn in a Mill or spice in a Morter but these saith Elihu are not only broken to pieces but beaten to dust that 's the strength of the word which we render they are destroyed Hence Note What God hath a mind to do he can do it certainly and will do it throughly He breaks men in pieces so that they are destroyed and brought to dust When the Prophet declares the breaking of the four Monarchies it is said Dan. 2.35 They shall be as the chaffe of the Summer threshing upon the Mountains if the Lord will destroy the mightiest they shall certainly be destroyed as Balak said to Balaam I wo◠that whom thou cursest are cursed as if he had said thou canst curse effectually if thou wilt set thy self to it 't is not in the power of all the Balaams in the world to effect a curse though they pronounce a curse 't is only in the power of the Lord to curse effectually he can bless whom he pleaseth and they are blessed he can curse whom he pleaseth and they are cursed Thus as Ephraim lamenting his sin and sorrow confessed Jer. 31.18 Lord thou hast chastised me and I was chastised God paid him home as we speak if we chastise a childe he is chastised but when Ephraim saith thou hast chastised me and I was chastised his meaning is I was greatly and effectually chastised that is first In a literal sence I found thy hand heavie upon me it was a sore affliction that I was under Secondly In a spiritual sence Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised that is my heart was humbled and broken under thy chastisements in either notion we see the effectualness of the Lords work Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised And therefore Ephraim invited the Lord to another work Turn me O Lord and I shall be turned if thou wilt but turn thy Spirit upon this hard heart of mine it will be effectually turned it will be not only broken for sin but from sin As if he had said I have received reproofs and counsels from men and they have not turned me but Lord if thou wilt reprove and counsel me I shall be turned thus the Lord carrieth his work home to conversion in his spiritual dealings with some and to
Advocate Therefore you that dare not wrong the mighty for fear they should crush you be much more afraid to wrong the poor for God is their avenger and how easily can he crush you Lastly This is matter of comfort to the godly poor to the humble and meek they may look for help from God in all their afflictions and hard usages they meet with in this world from the hands of men when men even eat them up as bread and ride over their heads as if they were but dirt they may appeal to heaven and there have audience they may râ—fer their cause to God and be righted He that is their Redeemer is mighty and he will plead their cause The expectations of the poor shall not perish for ever Psal 9.18 that is it shall never perish JOB Chap. 34. Vers 29. When he giveth quietness who can make trouble and when he hideth his face who then can behold him whether it be done against a Nation or against a man only THis verse is an argument or proof of what Elihu affirmed in the former that God heareth the cry of the poor He doubtless heareth the cry of the poor when he stops or takes away the cry of the poor when he sets the poor in a quiet state or settles them in peace in such a peace as their proud and wrathful oppressors shall not be able to disturb Thus the Lord dealeth graciously in reference both so persons and Nations that cry unto him and that 's an undeniable argument that he heareth their cry the cry of distressed persons the cry of distressed Nations Vers 29. When he giveth quietness who then can make trouble and when he hideth his face who then can behold him whether it be done against a Nation or against a man only The first part of the sentence rendred when he giveth quietness is but one word in the Hebrew we had it before chap. 3.13 where Job supposeth if he had died in his infancy then should he have been still and been quiet he should have slept and been at rest The grave is a silent and quiet abiding place the dead are quitted of all worldly unquietness And at the 26th verse of the same chapter Job saith I was not in safety neither was I quiet that is secure yet trouble came So then as this word notes the quietness of the dead who have no sense of trouble so it notes such a quietness of the living as hath no fear of trouble When he giveth quietness or as Master Broughton translates when he maketh rest who c. The Italian version is if he sendeth home in peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quievit in Hiphit quiescere fecit c. As if it had been said If he by his soveraigne sentence freeth out of slavery and oppression as he did the children of Israel out of the bondage of Egypt c. If he commandeth rest and quiet then as it followeth Who can make trouble Or as Master Broughton renders who can disturb Who can disease those to whom God gives ease or oppresse those to whom God gives protection The words bear the signification of a divine challenge like that Rom. 8.31 If God be for us who can be against us or like that vers 34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect Let us see the man or the devil that can charge the elect and prevail Such is the Emphasis of the present 〈◊〉 When he giveth quietness who then can make trouble Where is the man high or low great or small that can do it Further the word which we translate make trouble hath a threefold eminent signification in Scripture First It signifieth to be wicked or to do wickedly thus we read it at the 12th verse of this chapter Surely God will not do wickedly He that is altogether holy and righteous doth all things holily and righteously The same word signifieth to do wickedly and to make trouble because to do wickedly bringeth trouble often upon others alwayes upon the doers Secondly it signifieth to condemn thus we translate at the 17th verse of this chapter Wilt thou condemn him as one that hath done wickedly who is most just The same word may well signifie to do wickedly and to condemn because they who do so are worthy to be condemned In this sense also we translate it in that famous Prophesie of Christ Ipso enim concedente pacem quis est qui condemnat Vulg. Isa 50.9 He is near that justifieth me who shall condemn me or make me wicked and unrighteous Thus some render the minde of Elihu in this place if he giveth peace or quietness who can condemn Thirdly The word signifieth as we render to trouble molest or vex so we translate 1 Sam. 14.47 where 't is said of Saul that he fought against all his enemies on every side against Moab and against the children of Ammon and against Eâ—om and against the Kings of Zâ—bah and against the Philistines and whither soever he turned himself he vexed or troubled them The word may be taken in these three significations with a subserviency one to another for he that is wicked or doth wickedly deserveth to be condemned or men are condemned because they do wickedly and he that is condemned by a righteous sentence is punished and cannot but be troubled a legal sentence of condemnation brings a legal penalty upon the person condemned we translate clearly to the sence of the Text who can make trouble when God giveth quietness for here the word is not opposed to well doing or acquitting but to quietting and pacifying when he giveth quietness who can make trouble And when he hideth his face who then can behold him The face of God by a well known Hebraisme very frequent in Scripture signifieth the favour of God Master Broughton reads when he hideth favour The favour which we bear to others is most visible in the face and therefore the face may well signifie favour David over-looking all the good things of this world prayed for a good look from God in this expression Psal 4.6 There be many that say who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance or of thy face upon us that is shew us favour or be favourable to us And as the greatest good of Saints in this world so all the good of the next world is comprehended in this one word Psal 16.11 In thy presence the text is in thy face that is in the full enjoyment of thy benigne and gracious presence is fulness of joy In like sense the word is used Psal 21.6 Psal 67.1 So then to hide the face is to withdraw favour and kindness love and respect more distinctly this phrase of hiding the face hath a three-fold importance or may hold out these three things First a distaste either against persons or things we turn away our face from him or that which we do not like or is displeasing
hide his pleased face or withdraw his favour who can behold him confidently or come to him with hopes to speed Fierce Abner sayd to Asael 2 Sam 2.22 Turne thee aside from following me wherefore should I smite thee to the ground I could easily doe it and he did it presently how then should I hold up my face to Joab thy brother As if he had sayd I can have no confidence to come to Joab thy Generall if I should kill thee Guilt of evill done to others drawes a jealousie that others will do evill to us especially they who are neerely concern'd in the evill which we have done we cannot hold up our face to or behold them with expectation of acceptance and favour to whose neere relations we have been unkind or injurious Thus if God hide his face who can behold him either with confidence or with comfort Some referre the relative him who can behold him to man not to God as if the meaning of Elihu were this if God hide his face from any man all men will hide their faces from him too no man will looke kindly upon such a deserted person Quis favorem ei exhibebit a quo deus vultum averterit Drus or give him a good look he shall have but frownes from men from whom God withdraweth his favour that 's a truth He that is out with God cannot keep in long with men Usually all sorts disowne him that is forlorne and forsaken of God As when a mans wayes please God because then God is pleased with him his enemies shall be at peace with him Pro 16.7 so when God is displeased with a man his very best friends shall turne enemies to him Yet I conceive the text carrieth it rather the other way referring to God himselfe If God hide his face who can behold him that is who can confidently behold God or draw neere to him with comfort And so it generally comes to passe or thus it is Whether it be done against a nation or against a man only As if Elihu had sayd What I have affirmed that when God giveth quietness no man can make trouble or when he hideth his face no man can behold him is appliable to whole nations as well as to particular persons This is an extensive truth a truth of large concernment and therefore a truth of necessary and important consideration That which may be any mans or all mens case should be studyed by every man Whether it be done against a nation c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The particle which we render against signifieth also for We find it so translated Psal 32.6 and at the 36th verse of this Chapter Now to doe a thing for a nation or for a person notes the doing of it with respect to or in favour of either Thus we commonly speake in our language pray doe such or such a thing for me To this sense some render here whether it be done for a nation or for a man only So Mr Broughton whether it be done for a nation or for an earthly man alone But whether we read for or against the generall truth is the same The word and power of God in sending good or evill upon nations or persons in acting for or against them is uncontrouleable and irresistible Further to cleare the text that word in the close of the verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trio significat simul pariter solum rendred only signifieth sometimes together Ezra 4.3 sometimes alike Psal 34.15 and sometimes as we understand it alone or only whether it be done against a nation or a man together or against a man only or alone the matter is alike or the same to God Many or one make a great difference among men in any matter but they make no difference with God he can deale with whole nations in wayes of Judgement or mercy as well as with single persons yet because of the opposition which the text makes between one man and a nation it is most sutable to translate it either only or alike not together Thus we see how the Spirit of God by Elihu hath made a double application of the fo mer part of the text when he giveth quietness who can make trouble c. in this latter first to a nation secondly to a person If the text were not thus exprest it might be thus expounded and improved without any streine at all to it But forasmuch as the Spirit of God hath told us distinctly that this great truth concernes nations as well as persons This Lecture was preached upon the Fifth of November 1658. therefore we have a cleare ground besides the great usefullness of it to speake to the words in both their references And this present memorable day as also their native order leades me specially to speake of them first under a National consideration When he giveth quietness to a nation who can make trouble or disturbe the peace of it And the text may well respect that national blessing peace because the word translated giveth quietness signifies such quietness primarily as is opposite unto warre sedition and tumult in a nation Josh 11.23 And the land rested from warre it is this word so Judg 3.11 The land had rest forty yeares Judg 3.30 And the land had rest fourscore yeares 2 Chron 14.1 In his dayes the land was quiet ten yeares Zech 1.11 And behold all the earth sitteth still and is at rest in all these places we have the word here rendred quietness in opposition to warre who knows not how great an unquietness warre makes wheresoever it comes and by a like analogie the word is sometimes rendred to be silent Warre is full of clamour Isa 9.5 Every battell of the warrier is with confused noise Not only is it so in some battells but saith that Scripture 't is so in all battels Every battel of the warrier is with confused noise What a noise is there in an Army especially when joyning battell with another Army what beating of drums what sounding of trumpets what neighing of horses what clashing of armour what groanings of the wounded When God gives quietness or peace there is none of this noise none of this confused noise of the warrier Hannah saith in her song 1. Sam 2.9 The wicked shall be silent in darkness that is either they shall be destroyed and thrust into their graves where there 's nothing but rottenness and stench darkness and silence or they shall be so affrighted confounded with the horror and darkness of those miseries which shall come upon them while they live that they shall not have a word to say the mouth of iniquity shall be stopt In this manner the wicked are silent in darkness but the Lord can make his people silent in light that is he can give such quietness as shall at once silence the noise of warre and all their own complaints When he giveth quietness this blessed silence to nations who then can
the joy of the holy Ghost And because the quietness which every believer hath is the gift of God through Jesus Christ who hath made their attonement and established their peace through the blood of his Cross therefore Satan cannot make any such trouble in any of their souls as shall for ever destroy their peace or dissolve their quietness though for many reasons all serving his glory and their good God suffereth satan many times possibly for a long time to entangle and interrupt it Temptations to the committing of sin and accusations or charges about sin committed may exceedingly hinder and shake the peace of a believer but as the sins to which he is tempted cannot hurt his peace when he resists and overcomes them so the sins into which he falleth through temptation cannot destroy his peace because those sins shall certainly be destroyed both by repentance and pardon Thirdly The thunders of the Law cannot take away the peace of that soule to whom God giveth quietness Christ having in his owne person fullfilled the Law for beleevers both doing the duty and enduring the penalty of it he hath delivered them from the terror and curse of the Law himselfe having been made a curse for them Gal 3.13 So then if neither tribulations nor temptations nor the terrors of the Law can make trouble where God giveth quietness we may conclude nothing can There is a double Consideration upon both which we may demonstrate that if God giveth quietness either outward or inward none can make trouble First Because as God is soveraigne and so may dispose peace and quietness to whom he pleaseth or at his pleasure when he will or to whom he will so he hath an all-sufficiency to maintaine and confirme to preserve and protect the outward peace of any man against all the powers of this world and the inward peace of a godly man against all the powers of hell against the terrors of the Law and the accusations whether of Satan or of his owne Conscience Secondly None can destroy the peace of a godly man because it is a perfect peace as was shewed before from that promise in the Prophet Isa 26.3 Him wilt thou keepe in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee For being a perfect peace it will not decay of it selfe and because 't is perfect God will neither destroy it himselfe nor suffer any else to destroy it Marke the perfect man saith David Psal 37.37 and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace He is a perfect man whose end is peace and that is perfect peace which holds to the end or which shall never end The peace which God giveth is perfect First because 't is established upon perfect righteousnesse the righteousnesse of God That righteousnesse which is the roote of our peace is called the righteousnesse of God both because God hath appoynted it and because God hath wrought it Jesus Christ God-man is the Lord our righteousnesse and the Prince of our peace or as the Apostle expresseth it Heb 7.1 2. He is Melchisedec being by interpretation King of righteousnesse and after that also King of Salem which is King of peace Isa 32.17 The work of righteousnesse is peace and the fruit of it is quietnesse and assurance for ever Righteousnesse is such a foundation of peace as cannot be shaken and therefore that peace which is built upon it cannot be utterly overthrowne how much soever it may be shaken Secondly 'T is a perfect peace because it was obtained by an absolute victory over all the enemies of it That people must needs be in perfect peace who have got a perfect conquest over all their enemies and have got their opposers under their feet Now the spirituall peace which God giveth his people ariseth from a perfect conquest over all their enemies First the world is perfectly conquered by Christ John 16.33 Be of good cheare I have overcome the world Secondly the Devill is perfectly conquered by Christ Heb 2.14 He hath destroyed him that had the power of death that is the Devill He is more then conquered who is destroyed Christ hath destroyed the Devill who is the destroyer though not as to his being though not as to his will to destroy yet as to his power to destroy those whom he hath redeemed and will eternally save Thirdly Christ hath also perfectly conquered the Law not by destroying but by fullfilling it Christ was above all that the Law required or commanded and so he did at once freely submit to it and fully as to any hindrance of a believers peace subdue it he holdeth it under him as well as he was made under it And he was contented for that very reason to be made under the Law that he might hold it under him and that we might not be under the dread of the Law though we must walke and worke by the rule of it but under grace 'T is matter of strong consolation to poore soules that when the Lord giveth quietness none can make trouble And hence we also learne that all the breaches which are made upon the peace of the people of God are from God himselfe As those breaches are meritoriously from themselves so efficiently from God himselfe till he breaks their peace none can Thirdly From the second branch When he hideth his face who then can behold him This being applicable to a single person as well as the former Observe God sometimes clouds his face from his owne servants and children These words When he hideth his face suppose that God sometimes doth so and the Scripture else-where testifies that God hath often done so God hath love alwayes in his heart towards his children but he hath not alwayes favour in his face towards them his appearances are not alwayes the appearances of a friend he may appeare angry and turne away his face as if he would not be spoken with Of this we find frequent complaints in Scripture and I might speake much to this poynt but I have already met with it Chap 13.24 and therefore I passe from it Only from the connexion of these words When he hideth his face who can behold him Note The hiding of Gods face or the vayling of his favour is exceeding grievous unto any person When he doth it who can behold him This manner of speaking doth not only hold out that if God will hide his face no man can see him or know him for God is a secret to all men untill he is pleased to reveale himselfe yea all the truths of the Gospel are secrets and mysteries till God is pleased to reveale them and make them knowne Math 11.25 Father I thank thee saith Christ that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes that is thou hast not opened them to the wisest c. there needs no other hiding of them from the wisest of men than a forbearance to open them but to the babes who are
the Mighty and he is so impartiall that if there be cause he will not spare to doe it Or in the words we have to consider these three things First The character of the person upon whom the Justice of God is executed The hypocrite Secondly The Judgement it selfe 't is a stop to his greatnesse that he reigne not Thirdly We have the grounds of this Judgement which are two-fold First His wicked purpose against the people He if suffered would lay snares for the people Secondly Gods gracious protection of the people He will not have the people ensnared That the hypocrite reigne not lest the people be ensnared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat sceleratum profanū plerumque autem vertitur hypocrita What a hypocrite is and what the importance of the original word is here translated hypocrite hath been opened from some other passages in this booke I shall only say thus much further that the word imports First a filthy thing disguised or covered For a hypocrite is a filthy prophane person under the cover or disguise of holiness Our English word knave is neere in sound to this Hebrew word chanaph and some conceive 't is derived or taken from it And to be sure every hypocrite is a prophane person though all prophane persons are not hypocrites Some wicked and prophane ones care not who knoweth they are so yet very many who are indeed prophane and wicked cover it what they can and shew that only whereof they have only a shew somewhat of godlinesse or of goodnesse Againe There are hypocrites of two makes or straines First Religious or Church hypocrites Secondly State or Civil hypocrites and somtimes these two are combined in one 'T is possible for a man who pretends not to Religion yet to be a hypocrite A Magistrate whether supream or subordinate may offer very fair for the profit and liberty of the people whom he governeth when he mindes no such thing yea he may not only offer fair for the good of a people as to their outward profits and liberties but as to the good of Religion and the benefit of their souls and yet minde no such thing we may take the hypocrite in this Text as twisted up or compounded of both these The State hypocrite and the Religious are somtimes bound up together That the Hypocrite Reigne not To reigne is the priviledge of Supream Powers By me Kings reigne saith Wisdome that is Christ Prov. 8.15 and when Paul saw how high the Corinthians carryed it in spirituals he by way of allusion tells them 1 Cor. 4.8 ye have reigned like Kings without us ye are got as ye suppose to the top and into the very throne of Religion and you think your selves able to manage all difficulties and can do well enough there without our help But to the Text. This not reigning of the hypocrite may be taken two wayes First As a stop given him by the providence of God In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ne regnat Mem Negationem includit juxta linguae morem in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab offendiculis similiter ut dei magis extolletur justitia simul potentia qui reges de throno suo dejicit ut populum ejus laqueis irretitum liberet ab illius tyrannide Merc. from getting up into the throne or from getting the power of a Nation into his hands thus somtimes God saith to the hypocrite Thou shalt not reigne that is thou shalt not exalt thy self though thou attempt it Secondly This not reigning may be taken for a stop to the progress of his power when he hath both attempted and attained it and that two wayes either first by taking him away from his power or secondly by taking away his power from him as Daniel told Belshazzar while he minded him of the greatness of his father Nebuchadnezzar who had all the world upon the matter at his command as also of his fall from that greatness Dan. 5.19 20. Whom he would he set up and whom he would he put down but when his heart was lifted up and his minde hardned in pride he was deposed from his Kingly Throne and they took his glory from him He was deposed or as the Chaldee hath it so we put in the margin He was made to come down from his Princely throne either of these wayes doth God who is the King of kings and Lord of lords when he pleaseth put a stop to or check the progress of false hearted Princes that have either got their power by flatteries and pretensions to that good which they intended not or who exercise their power so That the hypocrite reigne not Lest the people be ensnared The root of the word here rendred to ensnare signifieth the spreading of a Net or the setting of a Grin such as Fowlers and Hunters make use of to take Beasts or Birds with and thus God himself spake concerning his dealing with Babylon Jer. 50.24 I have laid a snare for thee and thou art also taken O Babylon and thou wast not aware litteral Babylon was a snare to the people of God of old and so is mystical Babylon at this day The great Hypocrite or Snare-setter reigns in or over Babylon therefore saith God thou who hast set snares for my people shall be ensnared thou shalt be taken unawares I have set a snare to catch and hold thee fast When Elihu saith lest the people be ensnared it seems to intimate that God will prevent the ensnaring of a people by the hypocrite He shall not reigne lest the people be ensnared or lest they should come into snares There is another reading which gives the reason from the snares which the people have already been entangled with because of the snare or because the people have been ensnared therefore saith the Lord let not the hypocrite reigne thus God revengeth the peoples wrong and doth justice upon those that had set snares for them So much for the general sence of these words and the opening of them There is a second reading of the whole verse which carryeth the sence somwhat another way and yet may be of use and yeild us some profitable considerations but I shall not meddle with that till I have prosecuted those observations which arise clearly from our own reading The words in general hold forth the heart of God towards false hearted men he cannot abide them nor will he suffer them long to abide especially not to abide in power and greatnesse That the hypocrite reigne not lest the people be ensnared Hence Note First A hypocrite is a person hated of God and hurtful to men He is therefore hated of God because hurtful to men And therefore God is not pleased he should reign either as to reign is taken strictly for the exercising of Soveraign power or as to reign may be taken largely for the exercising of any power and living in the height of prosperity For the clearing of this truth that a hypocrite
is hated of God I shall shew first the nature of an hypocrite secondly give the distinctions of hypocrites thirdly make some discoveries who is an hypocrite To the First An hypocrite in his general state or nature is as I may say a wicked man in a godly mans clothes he hath an appearance of holiness when there 's nothing but wickedness at the bottome There are two great parts of the hypocrites work first to shew himself good which he is not this is properly the work of simulation or feigning secondly to cover that real evil which he is or doth this is properly the work of dissimulation or cloaking The hypocrite strives as much to appear what he is not as not to appear what he is he makes a semblance of that purity which he loves not and he dissembleth that impurity which he loves and lives in Secondly We may consider hypocrites under this distinction First there is a simple hypocrite who hath not the good which he thinks and believes he hath thus every one that professeth or nameth the name of Christ and is not really converted is an hypocrite because he hath not that which he seems to have yea which possibly he verily believes he hath I may call such a one though it may seem a very strange expression a sincere hypocrite he doth not intend to deceive others but is deceived himself because he hath not the root of the matter in him nor the power of godliness though he brings forth some seeming fruits of godliness and is much in the form of it Such we may conceive shaddowed out to us by the foolish Virgins they made a profession they had their lamps yea they had oyl in their lamps they did somwhat which was considerable in the outward duties of Christian Religion and they hoped to be accepted with Christ but they had no oyl in their vessels with their lamps as the wise Virgins had Matth. 25.4 that is they had no grace in their hearts nor did they minde the getting of that till it was too late v. 10. but satisfied themselves with that little oyle in their lamps to make the blaze of an external profession Such as these are simple hypocrites being pleased with a shell instead of a kernel and with a shaddow neglecting the substance These hypocrites are in a very deplorable condition yet these are not the hypocrites which I intend in this point or have here to do with There are a second sort of hypocrites commonly called gross hypocrites such as hold that out which they know they have not such as know they have nothing in or of Religion but the shew of it such as work by art or with a kinde of force upon themselves in all the good they do and duties they perform towards God and about the things of God They do nothing as the Apostle saith Timothy did Phil. 2.20 naturally I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state The word naturally is not there opposed to spiritually but to artificially or to forcedly What a sincere heart doth in the things of God he doth it naturally that is it floweth from an inward principle it is not forced from him but the hypocrite doth all as it were by a kinde of art or force upon himself The Lord chargeth the Jews with this kinde of hypocrisie Isa 58.2 They seek me daylie and delight to know my wayes as a Nation that did righteousness that is they acted with an appearing forwardness like those who truly delight to know my wayes yet all this was but as a piece of art for as the Lord upbraided them vers 3 4. they really kept their sins and walkt in their own wayes of oppression strife and debate yea they made all that noise aboâ—t humbling themselves that they might the more undiscernedly smite others with the fist of wickedness and therefore saith the Lord v. 5. Is it such a fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his soul c. and then for many dayes to afflict both the souls and bodies of his brethren or to abstain a day from meat and glut himself with sin That 's the strain of the hypocrite he as I may say maintains and drives two trades he hath a trade for God and the wayes of God and he hath a trade for sin and the wayes of wickedness this is his course Jer. 12.2 Thou art neer in their mouth but far from their reins they speak of thee but they have no desires to thee no affections for thee thou art far enough from their reins they act a part in Religion but they neither partake of Religion nor with it Thirdly There are others who besides that they are gross hypocrites may also be called designing or plotting hypocrites for they that serve God with a reserve as to any sin or by-way usually serve him with a designe or for an end of their own Christ Matth. 23.14 speaking of gross hypocrites such as the Pharisees were saith they devour widdows houses and in a pretence make long prayers they pray long in a pretence or under a pretence that is they have a plot or a designe in prayer they pray not purely to enjoy communion with God nor purely to honour God but they make use of prayer and under pretence of that do other work Christ doth not there speak against nor disparage long prayers as some do to the great reproach of the Spirit and grace of God but he chargeth them with praying long in a pretence pray heartily and then pray as long as you will other due circumstances being observed the more you pray the more is God pleased But whether prayers are long or short if done in a pretence or with a designe to do mischief to others or only to get some worldly profit and advantage to our selves as those Pharisees prayed they are an abomination to the Lord. 'T is not the length of prayer but the end of prayer which discovers hypocrisie The prophet Isaiah chap. 32.6 gives us a description of this gross designing hypocrite The vile person will speak villany and his heart will work iniquity to practice hypocrisie and to utter errour before the Lord while the hypocrites heart worketh iniquity his tongue speaks villany not that all his words are villanous words for then he were not an hypocrite but a profest prophane person but he is said to speak villany because how pious and specious and godly soever his discourse is yet he hath a villanous intent in speaking and his heart at the same time is working iniquity to practice hypocrisie Now that I may a little more unmask this plotting hypocrite I will shew you a fourfold plot or designe which such hypocrites have in their most zealous professions of and pretendings to Religion First They designe their own praise or estimation among men Christ makes this discovery in his Sermon upon the Mount Matth. 6.2.5 Do not as the hypocrites for all
chastisement also is not expresly in the original there it is only I have borne but because bearing must needs import that somewhat is borne as a burthen and seeing according unto the subject matter that Elihu is upon with Job it must referre to some affliction or chastisement laid upon him therefore we fitly supply this word chastisement It is to be sayd unto God I have borne what it cannot be meant of any outward corporall burthen or visible loade layd upon his back but I have borne chastisement affliction or correction It is meete to be sayd unto God I have borne chastisement that is I both have and will beare whatsoever thou hast or shalt be pleased to lay upon me I will not dispute thy burthens but take them up So then this first part of the verse is a direction ministred to Job shewing him how to behave himselfe in the bearing of affliction He must not strive or struggle with them nor with God about them but sustaine them And this direction is not peculiar to Job's person or to his case alone but it belongs to all that are in affliction let their case be what it will all such ought to beare quietly or patiently to abide under the burthen which God layeth upon them I shall not stay upon the opening of the speciall signification of that word chastisement because it is not in the Hebrew text only thus chastisements are usually taken for those afflictions or afflicting providences which God layeth upon his owne children he layeth judgements upon the wicked and punishments upon the ungodly but properly and strictly that which falls upon his owne people is called chastisement For though in Scripture there are dispensations of God towards his owne people spoken of under the notion of judgement yet they have not a proper sense of judgement as proceeding from wrath and intended for revenge Wrath is the spring from whence judgements flow and as to their issue they tend to the satisfaction of Justice This God doth not expect at the hands of his owne children and therefore their afflictions are most properly called chastisements Surely it is meete to be sayd unto God I have borne chastisement Hence note It is our duty when the hand of God is upon us or when we are under chastisements to speake humbly meekly and submissively to God We ought alwayes to be humble and carry it humbly towards God but then especially when God by any afflicting providence is humbling us The Prophet Hos 14.2 calling that people to returne unto the Lord adviseth thus Take with you words and turne to the Lord say unto him take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the calves of our lips As Elihu here makes a kinde of directory what a person in affliction should say unto God It is meete to say unto God that is for a man in thy case to say thus unto God so that Prophet by the Spirit saith Take unto you words and turne to the Lord and say or speake thus unto him though not strictly syllabically in so many words yet to this sence and purpose or according to this tenour speak thus Take away iniquity and receive us graciously And when the Prophet saith Take unto you words his meaning is not that they should affectedly study a forme of words for God much lesse that they should artificially counterfeit words which their hearts had not conceived or were not correspondent to their hearts many speake words even to God which never come neare but are meere strangers to the intents of their hearts but sincere words humble words words of supplication not expostulating words not quarrelling words not murmuring words not meere complaining words but take to you words of confession and submission and so present your selves and your condition before the Lord. The Preacher Eccles 12.10 sought to finde out acceptable words and so should we when we speake unto men Preachers of the word should seeke to finde out acceptable words not fine words not swelling words of vanity not slattering soothing words but acceptable words that is such as may finde easie passage into the heart or such words as may make their passage into the heart through the power of the Spirit of God Now if the Preacher sought to finde out acceptable words when he spake to the people much more should we when we speak to God O how should we labour then to finde out acceptable words All words are not fit to be spoken unto God the words that are in such cases as the text speakes of may be reduced to these two heads First They must be God justifying words that is words by which we acquit the Justice of God how sore and how heavy soever his hand is upon us When Daniel Chap 9.7 14. was laying before the Lord the calamitous state of that people they were under as sore judgements as ever nation was For under the whole heavens saith he there hath not been done as God hath done unto Jerusalem yet all the words he spake unto God tended unto the justification of God O Lord said he righteousnesse belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of faces as at this day to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem c. We have not had one stroake more then we have deserved there hath not been a grain of weight more in our burthen then we have brought upon our selves there hath not been a drop in our cup more then we have given just cause for Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doth for we obeyed not his voice these are words fit to be spoken unto God Secondly We are to take to our selves self-condemning self-abasing self-emptying words Such we finde in that chapter v. 5 6 7. To us belong shame and confusion of face c. these are the words we should take to our selves and thus it is meet to be said unto God whensoever his chastisements are upon us Secondly Observe It is our duty to acknowledge it to God that he hath chastened us when he hath We must own his hand in afflicting us as much as in prospering us in casting us down as much as in lifting us up in wounding us as much as in healing us It is meet to be said unto God we have born chastisement thy hand hath been upon us The neglect of or rather obstinacy against this is charged as a great sin Isa 26.17 Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see that is they will not acknowledge thy most eminent appearances in anger against them 'T is so with many at this day though there be a hand of God as it were visibly afflicting their bodies and estates their children and families yet they will not see that it is a hand of God but say as the Philistines it is a chance or it is our ill fortune
destruction Every mouth must be stopped and all the world become guilty before God upon that account Rom. 3.19 yet God doth not destroy And that he hath no content in destroying he bindes it with an Oath Ezek. 33.11 As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked c. as if he had said I am not bent upon your destruction I had rather be taken off and save you I pardon I will not destroy If any shall say Hath God no pleasure in destruction Hath he not a will to destroy as well as to save I answer God hath pleasure in destroying but it is in the destruction of those who obstinately resist his Will who refuse both his counsel and his Covenant to such indeed he saith Prov. 1.26 I will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear that is the thing you feared cometh as desolation c. That the men in whose calamity God laugheth are such is evident by the character given of them at the 25th verse Ye have set at nought all my counsel and would none of my reproof As if God had said you have laughed at my counsel therefore I will laugh at your calamity The Lord will declare himself delighted in their destruction who have despised instruction and he will glorifie himself in the actings of his Justice upon them who have slighted and put by the tenders and entreaties of his mercy Yet still God declareth himself more pleased in acting and putting forth his saving power then his destroying power The Prophet Hos 11.8 9. most pathetically represents as it were a debate in the breast of God himself between his Justice and his Mercy How shall I give thee up Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah How shall I set thee as Zeboim Mine heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together v. 9. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger I will not return to destroy Ephraim We see after the debate the Lord determines for sparing not for destroying So then though he can and will not only destroy but laugh at the destruction of obstinate sinners yet he loves to spare rather then to destroy Thirdly From the connexion of these two pardoning and sparing mercy God saith first I pardon and then secondly I will not destroy who are they whom God will not destroy they are are such as he pardons Hence Note Pardoned persons shall never be destroyed As soon as Nathan had said to David the Lord hath put away thy sin the very next word is this thou shalt not dye 2 Sam. 12.13 if Davids sin had not been pardoned Daved must have dyed for it 'T is a Logical Maxime When the Cause is taken away Sublata causa collitur effectus the Effect is taken away Sin is the cause of destruction therefore when God takes away sin which is the cause destruction the effect must needs be taken away too pardon destroyeth sin therefore how can they that are pardoned be destroyed Pardon swallows up sin As the Apostle speaks of life 2 Cor. 5.4 That mortality might be swallowed up of life Here mortality swallows up our lives by degrees but hereafter mortality shall be swallowed up at once of life Now as life shall then swallow up mortality so pardon at present swalloweth up sin for as in our glorified state there shall never any thing of mortality appear so in a pardon'd estate nothing of sin shall appear as to hurt us Sin pardoned cannot be found Jer. 50.20 In those dayes and in that time saith the Lord the iniquity of Jacob shall be sought for and there shall be none and the sins of Judah and they shall not be found why not The Lord answers for I will pardon them whom I reserve And if their sins shall not be found surely they shall not be found guilty and therefore not destroyed God may chasten them whom he hath pardoned but he will not destroy those whom he hath pardon'd pardoned persons may smart and smart greatly for sin but they shall not dye eternally for it they shall not be destroyed for it David was pardoned yet God told him the sword shall never depart from thy house and the Lord told him particularly of a sore destruction upon a part of his house presently because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme thou being a Professor hast opened the mouths of the wicked against profession therefore though thou shalt not dye yet the childe also that is born unto thee shall surely dye There are two things which the pardon of sin takes away First the power or reigne of sin where-ever sin is pardoned the strength of it is subdued God doth not pardon sin as Princes do they may pardon an evil doer and yet he still remain as evil and as ready to do evil as ever they may pardon a thief and yet he continue to be a thief still but if God pardons a drunkard an adulterer or a thief he doth not remain a drunkard or an adulterer or a thief still God takes away the power of that sin which he pardoneth Secondly The pardon of sin takes away the punishment of sin it may leave some chastisement but it wholly takes away the punishment The Popish doctrine saith the fault is taken away by pardon but there is a commutation of the punishment eternal punishment is changed into temporal either in this life or that to come hence their doctrines of Purgatory and of Prayer for the dead c. all which stuffe comes in upon this account They cast all men into three sorts some are Apostles and Martyrs men very eminently godly and they go immediately to heaven there are another sort and these are Apostates from or persecuters of the faith notorious sinners these go immediately to hell there are a third or middle sort of ordinary sinners and they go immediately after death neither to heaven nor hell but to Purgatory where they must bear the punishment of their sins till they can be prayed out Christ hath only got so much favour for them say they to change their eternal punishment into a temporal The grace of the Gospel knows nothing of this Doctrine that tells us when sin is pardoned all is pardoned both guilt and punishment both temporal and eternal nothing remains but only chastisement how sorely soever a believer suffers in this life yet strictly taken it is but a chastisement and there remaineth nothing for him to suffer in the life which is to come And if so then Pardon of sin is a precious mercy 'T is so First Because it proceeds from the precious mercies of God Secondly Because it comes thorow the precious blood of Christ Col. 1.14 Thirdly Because it opens a door to all precious mercies as sin unpardoned with-holds all good things from us Jer. 5.25 so sin pardoned opens the door for all mercy
that which is good how much more are they short in the knowledge of God and therefore what reason have we to say as Elihu here directs the penitent soule to say That which I know not teach thou me Secondly Note It is the duty of the most knowing servants of God to confesse their ignorance When Elihu would have Job say That which I see not teach thou me he would have him confesse that there was some goed or evill which he did not see He that desireth God to teach him what he doth not see doth therein acknowledge that he doth not see all that he ought Our understandings are imperfect as well as our wills and affections and our sins or imperfections wheresoever they are must be confessed The deficiency of our knowledge or the imperfection of our understanding must be confessed as well as the imperfection of our will to doe good and of our doing good David layeth load upon himselfe in confessing the faultinesse of his understanding or inability to judge aright of what he saw before him Psal 73.22 So ignorant was I and foolish even as a beast before thee And the speciall poynt wherein he confessed his ignorance was about the outward dispensations of God in suffering wicked men to flourish He had ignorant apprehensioÌ„s and was quite out in that matter and therefore befools himselfe and calls himselfe a beast so far was he from seeing the mind and designe of God as became a Saint Such an acknowledgement Agur made Pro 30.2 I am more brutish then any man I have not the understanding of a man I neither learned wisdome nor have the knowledge of the holy This worthy man confessed his ignorance and as the more we know the more we see our ignorance so the more we know the more we confesse our ignorance They that have but little knowledge are especially defective in this poynt of knowledge to see their ignorance and are therefore but little troubled with their ignorance Many think they know enough some possibly think they know all They who have least knowledge are least conscious of their own ignorance And as there are many sins of ignorance so ignorance it selfe is a sin and therefore to be confessed and bewailed before God Thirdly When Elâ—hu brings in the penitent person confessing his ignorance and begging instruction It teacheth us Sins of ignorance need pardon As our ignorance needs pardon so doe our sins of ignorance The law of Moses teacheth this Levit 4.2 If a soule shall sin through ignorance c. he shall bring his sacrifice He must make an attonement for his sin of ignorance And we have further directions about offerings for sins of ignorance when they are discovered and made knowne to the sinner himselfe Lev 5.2 3 4 5 6. Then saith the Law he shall be guilty that is if when he knoweth his sin he doe not performe what the Law requireth in such cases then he is not only ceremonially but morally guilty as a neglecter if not as a despiser of the ordinance and appoyntment of God for his cleansing That which I see not teach thou me The words are a prayer for divine teaching The teaching of God is two-fold First Immediate by his Spirit John 14.26 The Spirit which is the comforter shall come and teach you all things And againe 1 John 2.27 The anoynting that is the Spirit which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you that is ye need not rest in or pin your faith upon the teachings of man as you must not despise so ye need not depend upon the instruction of man Secondly There is a mediate teaching God teacheth by meanes instruments and ordinances First by the ministery of his word Secondly by the works of his hands He teacheth First by his works of creation Secondly by his works of providence they are our masters tutors and instructers Now when this penitent person prayeth Teach thou me we may understand him of both these teachings First of immediate teaching by the Spirit who is the anoynting Secondly of teaching by meanes by the preaching of the word of God and by his providences in what way soever God is pleased to teach us our hearts should stand open to receive instruction And what way soever we receive instruction it is God that teacheth us Though men be the instruments yet the effect is of him Hence Note First God only is able to teach or shew us the things which we know not Men alone cannot Christ said to his Disciples when he commissioned them Matth. 28.19 Go teach all Nations And Eph. 4.11 When he ascended up on high he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers yet no Teachers can bring home instruction without the teachings of God The tenour of the new Covenant runs thus Isa 54.13 All thy children shall be taught of the Lord. And again Jer. 31.34 They shall teach no more every one his neighbour c. that is they shall not be left to the teachings of man or the teaching of God shall be so glorious that all shall acknowledge it though there be instruments yet the flowing forth of the spirit shall be such that instruments and means shall be little taken notice of For when he saith they shall not teach every one his neighbour it is not an absolute Negative but shews that there shall be a more excellent teaching as when the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 3.6 Christ hath made us able Ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit This Negative is not absolute for the Apostles did teach the Letter and the Spirit is usually conveyed by the Ministery of the letter or of the external word the word is as it were the chariot wherein the Spirit rideth and cometh by the ear to the heart So that when Paul saith We are Ministers not of the letter c. his meaning is we are rather or we are more the Ministers of the Spirit then of the letter The inward teaching accompanying our Ministery carryeth the matter both for conviction and conversion both for illumination and consolation not the outward teaching John 6.45 Every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me And how long soever we go to School to men how long soever we sit under the Ministery of the ablest Gospel Preachers in the world we come not to Christ till the Father teacheth till he joyn his inward teaching to the outward teaching of the Minister the light and life of grace is not received It is God who teacheth effectually men teach but instrumentally Thus it was prophesied of the Gospel times Isa 2.3 Micah 4.2 Many Nations shall come and say Come and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord and to the House of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his wayes and we will walk in his paths that is he will accompany the Ministers
Rom. 11.34 Who hath been his Councellor As God had none to counsel him concerning his eternal purposes so we must not adventure to counsel him as to his daylie providences or dispensations either toward our selves or others the true rule of our life is to yeild our selves to be ruled by God He will recompence it whether we chuse or whether we refuse And not I. As if he had said If thou wilt struggle with the will of God thou mayest but I will not God will go his own way and do as he sees good say thou what thou canst or howsoever it please or displease thee And for mine own part I dare not entertain or give way to a thought of prescribing to him in any of these things what he should do no nor be unsatisfied with much less censure what he hath done Therefore if thou canst acquit thy self of this crime and accusation which I have laid to thy charge as thou didst theirs who spake before do it say what thou canst for thy self Hence Note He that sees another do amiss ought to take heed of doing the like himself Again As these words and not I refer to the word recompence He will recompence whether thou chuse or whether thou refuse the meaning of them may be conceived as if Elihu had thus bespoken Job If thou dost smart for thy pride and the height of thy spirit if God pay thee home for it do not lay the fault upon me I have given thee counsel to direct thee better I desire not thou shouldest come under such a handling but certainly God will do it When we have declar'd the minde and will of God in the severity of his judgements upon sinners it is good for us to say God will do it and not we The Prophet Jeremiah chap. 17.16 having warned them of an evil day addes Nor have I desired the woful day Lord thou knowest it Jeremy had spoken woful things against that people but saith he I have not desired that woful day though I have prophesied of it So Elihu seems to speak he will recompence and not I though it be not in my minde yet I assure thee 't is the mind of God Yet further Some read these words with the former as an Interrogation or rebuking question made by God himself What Should you chuse and not I Election or choice is my priviledge not thine thou must not think to prescribe to me Verba Dei per Mimesmesse puto Merc. I will chasten and afflict as I think fit or according to my own will not according to thine Thus he brings in God speaking to Job thou findest thy self much aggrieved and complainest that thou art afflicted more then is meete It should seem then that I must do what thou thinkest fit not what I think fit my self Surely thou must give me the rule how much how long and in what manner I must correct both thy self and others Should you chuse and not I How uncomely Therefore speak what thou knowest Here Elihu gives Job time to reply as he had done at the 33d chap. vers 5. as if he had said If thou knowest any thing against what I have spoken or art able to make any objection against it speak if thou thinkest I have not spoken right shew me my errour and spare not Hence Note First When we have declar'd what we judge to be the minde of God in any case we should give others liberty of speaking their minds also This is my opinion speak what thou canst against it we should speak 2 Cor. 1.24 Not as having Dominion over the faith of others but as helpers of their joy The Ministers of Christ must speak as Servants to not as Lords of the faith of others Elihu did not carry it as a Lord over the faith of Job but left him to make good his own opinion and practise if he could Secondly Note Knowledge is the fountain of Speech We need no other light to speak by then that of reason the understanding should feed the Tongue we must not speak at a venture but keep to Rule and take our ayme The Apostle Paul tells us of some who make a great noise but know not what they say nor whereof they affirm 1 Tim 1.7 they speak they understand not what and vent what they can give no account of Speak what thou knowest Thirdly Note We should speak when called what we know Knowledge is a Talent and must not be hid in a Napkin if thou know better then I speak pray speak do not hide thy knowledge As Elihu would have Job speak in his own case so he inviteth others to speak about his case as it followeth in the next verse Vers 34. Let men of Vnderstanding tell me c. In this 34th verse Elihu turns his speech to Job's friends again presuming of or not questioning their consent to what he had said being confident that himself was in the right and that they were wise enough to apprehend it He was perswaded that all wise men either were or upon hearing the matter would be of his minde and that therefore what Job had spoken was very defective of wisdome as he concludes in the thirty-fifth verse Let men of understanding tell me c. He appeales to Jobs friends or any other men of understanding let them saith he Consider what I and he have spoken Viri cordis i. e. cordâ—ti cor notat fapientiam et carere cor dicitur qui descipit Cum Jobo non putat amplius producendum esse colloquium Quare viros vocat intelligentes Sanct. Et vir sapiens audit i. e. audiet me et mihi acquiescet in hoc Merc and give their judgement impartially concerning the whole matter in debate between him and Job Let men of understanding tell me c. The Hebrew is men of heart the heart is the seat of understanding according to Scripture language there we read of a wise heart and of an understanding heart and it saith of a foolish or indiscreete person he hath no heart he is a man without a heart Ephraim is a silly dove without a heart Hos 7.11 that is he doth not understand Mr Broughton translates Sad men of heart will speake as I and the wise person that heares me As in the former part of the verse Elihu called for speakers so in the latter he calleth for hearers Let men of understanding tell me And let a wise man hearken to me or as some render a wise man will hearken to me The word rendred hearken signifies more then to heare even to submit to obey a wise man will hearken to me that is he will assent to and consent with me he will vote with me and declare himselfe to be of my mind In that Elihu appealed to wise and understanding men Note First It is not good to stand to our owne Judgements altogether in dealing with the Consciences of others Let wise men let men of understanding
up to Satan or a putting him into the very power of the devill for a time 1 Cor 5.4 5. it is the end or designe which makes this lawfull our business in the ministry and in all Church-administrations is to put soules out of the power of Satan to rescue them out of the hand of the devill to recover those that are led Captive by him at his will yet saith the Apostle Deliver such a one unto Satan put him into the devills hands for what end For the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus This makes the prayer or act of the Church lawfull because the intendment is the destroying of that which ought to be destroyed or to destroy that in man which will be the destruction of man his flesh his lust his pride his covetousnesse his wantonness For the destruction of this flesh deliver him to Satan that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Thus we may pray and wish for affliction upon others but 't is a prayer which must be managed with a great deale of caution lest our prayers to God in that kinde be found ill wishes to men That which Elihu had in his thoughts when he desired Job might be tryed to the very end was that he might be prevented from going on in the way wherein he was to the end Yea I conceive a man may pray for afflictions upon himselfe rather then he should goe on in a course of sin or when he findes that other wayes and means which God hath used with him have not been effectuall to subdue his corrupt heart to mortifie his lusts and to bring him off from a course of sin but that as it is sayd in the next verse he is in danger of adding rebellion to his sin A godly man had much rather that God should make him poore sicke weake and nothing in this world then let his corruptions have dominion over him He desires rather God should take the world quite out of his hand the◠that the world should get into his heart or be as fuel to feed and enflame his lusts Thus Elihu desired that Job might be tryed Bono ipsius optat hoc non odio aut malevolentia Drusi because tryalls by affliction are for our purging refining and bettering Love was the roote of this wish nor hatred or ill will Let Job be tryed to the end Why we may take the latter part of the verse for a reason why as wel as for the matter about which he would have him tryed Because of his answers for wicked men Propter responsiones communes cum hominibus improbis Bez Tanquam unus è numero virorum vanorum Pisc Let him be tryed concerning those words which he hath spoken in common with or after the manner of vaine men He hath spoken words wherein he seemes to comply with wicked men to say as they say to consent with them and to be of their opinion this was charged upon him directly by Elihu at the 8th verse of this Chapter What man is like Job who drinketh up scorning like water which goeth in company with the workers of iniquity and walketh with wicked men that is though Job in his conversation or carriage of his life hath not yet in this discourse he hath strengthened the hands of wicked men or confirmed them in their opinion speaking so much of the heavy pressures of God upon him and desiring to often to come to a hearing as if he had some wrong done him We are not to understand these words of Elihu Because of his answers for wicked men As if he charged Job to doe so directly or as if he had formally taken upon him to plead or advocate the cause of wicked men we are not I say to understand him so grossly nor had it been true to say that Job opened his mouth or spake thus for wicked men but his meaning is he hath spoken such things as in common apprehension seeme to comply with the opinions of wicked men or with the speeches which they use when they are like him in a troubled condition Or againe Because of his answers for wicked men that is that he may acknowledge the answers he hath given are not such as doe become a godly man but rather savour of such a spirit as unbroken proud persons hold forth in the time of their affliction who are never pleased with but alwayes complaining at divine dispensations Lastly These words Because of his answers for wicked men may possibly have this sence Because he hath spoken such things as may serve the turne of wicked men for answers or as if he would instruct them what to answer when at any time they are under the hand of God He may be sayd to answer for another man who any way prompts him how or what to answer And while a good man speakes amisse in any case he teacheth yea and encourageth bad men to speake so too Yet I rather incline to the first interpretation that Elihu would have Job tryed because his answers were such as it might be judged he had taken wicked men for his patterne in giving them and not as if in them he had given a patterne to wicked men Hence note First A good man may sometimes act the part of a wicked man or he may speak like wicked men as if he were one of them Though his state be as different from the state of wicked men as light is from darknesse or as sweet from soure or white from black yet as to some actions or speeches he may beare a resemblance to them Good men and bad men doe as I may say enter-common in many things a wicked man whose heart is nought who is yet in an unregenerate estate for I meane not by a wicked man him only that is flagitious a murderer a whoremonger a drunkard but a wicked man is any one that is unregenerate whose heart is not yet changed Now I say a wicked man may speak and doe many things like a godly man he may heare the word and pray and performe outward duties which are like and are take them materially the same which godly men performe Thus he enter-commons with godly men and this is the case of all hypocrites who make a pretence of religion when they have no acquaintance with the power of it And thus through temptation and in some very burthensome afflictions a godly man may speak as a wicked man such hasty rash provoking speeches may passe from him as proceed from the ungodly only here is the difference those evill speeches or actions proceed from the state of the one and only from the temptation of the other Secondly From the phrase or forme of speech in which the originall expresseth wicked men The words are Men of wickedness or iniquity As if it had been sayd the worst of wicked men This shews us what man naturally is he is a
there is store of sin in the multitude of words They that will be speaking much slip much Job saith he multiplyeth words against God There is a multiplying of words against God two wayes First directly Secondly by way of reflection or rebound Elihu could not say Job had spoken nor could he presume he would speak one word much lesse multiply words against God directly He knew Job was a godly man but he asserts he had or feared he might multiply words against God reflectively that is speak such words as might cast dishonour upon God such words as God might take very ill at his hands and interpret as spoken against himselfe Hence note They who speake unduely of the wayes and proceedings of God with them in this world speake against God himselfe The business of Elihu in all this discourse was to hold forth the evill frame of Jobs heart signified by the intemperance of his language under the dealings of God God had afflicted and chastned Job he had multiplyed wounds upon him and Job in the heate of his spirit and bitterness of his soule making many complaints about the workings of God with him is charged with multiplying words against God We may speak against God before we are aware yea we may speake many words against God when we thinke we have not spoke one word against him While we speake impatiently of the proceedings of God in the world and murmur at his dispensations to our families or persons what doe we but multiply words against God we speake much for our selves to God yea I may say we highly commend our selves to God when we submit to his doings and say nothing but in a silent admiration adore his dealings and waite for a good issue of them Aaron proclaimed both his humility and his faith in holding his peace when the Lord slew his two sons Nadab and Abihu strangely with fire for offering strange fire before the Lord which he commanded them not Lev 10.1 2 3. But how many are there who proclaime their pride and unbeliefe by not being able to hold their peace under the afflicting hand of God when his hand scarce toucheth them or when he doth but lay the weight of his little finger upon them in comparison of that heavy stroake which fell upon Aaron We are in much danger of sinning when at any time we speake many words or as Elihu speaketh multiply words he is a rare man that speaketh many words and but some amiss Now if to multiply words at any time even when we are most composed exposeth us to error in our words how much more when our tongues utter many words in the bitterness and discomposure of our spirits And as to speak amisse in any matter is to sâ—n against God so to speak much amisse of our sufferings or of the severest providences of God towards us is to speak much or to multiply words though nor intentionally yet really and indeed against God O then forbeare this multiplication of words lest you multiply sins Speak but little unlesse in the praise of God take heed how you speak of what God is doing to others or doing to your selves Let your words be few and let them be weighed for God will weigh your words and you may heare from him in blowes what he heareth from you in words 'T is a dangerous thing to be found speaking words against God yet this may be the case of a good man whose heart is with God and whose heart is for God even while he hath a general bent of heart to lay himselfe out in speaking and doing for God he through passion and temptation may be found speaking against God What we speake discontentedly of the wayes or works of God is a multiplying of words against God himselfe Thus I have given out and finished my thoughts upon the Preface which Elihu made to lead in his discourse with Job as also upon two stages of his discourse with him Job sits silent and answers him not a word which Elihu perceiving takes liberty to urge him further with two distinct discourses more contained in the three Chapters following which if the Lord give life and leave may be opened and offered to the readers use and acceptance in convenient season A TABLE Directing to some speciall Points noted in the precedent EXPOSITIONS A ABraham a threefold gradation in his name 13 Acceptance with God is our highest priviledge 429 Accepting of persons wherein the sinfullness of it is 119 120. To accept persons in prejudice to the truth is a high offence 121. Some speciall wayes wherein we run into this sin 124 125. 630. God is no accepter of persons 631 Account God giveth no account to man 253. All men must give an account to God 254. 322. God will call all men to account 664 Accusations not to be taken up hastily or meerely by heare-say 195 196 Addition of sin to sin proper to the wicked 828. It is very dangerous to make such additions 830 Adversity a night 688 Affliction must not be added to the afflicted 90. The afflictions of some men more eminently from the hand of God 91. These afflictions which are most eminently from God seeme to beare the greatest witness of the sinfullness of man 91. Foure grounds of it 92. Yet it is no concluding argument 93. Godly men most afflicted seven ends God hath in afflicting them 93 94. What use we should make of it when we see godly men much afflicted 94. In affliction it is better be found bewayling our sin then reporting our innocency 208. We hardly keepe good thoughts of God when we are afflicted and suffer hard things 223. Afflictions put a double restraint upon us 224. How affliction carrieth in it matter of disgrace 225. God speaks to us by affliction 340. Nine designes of God in afflicting man 343 344. Times of affliction must be times of confession 450. Afflictions designed for the good of man 472. No pleading of our innocency or righteousness for our freedome from affliction 515 516. The Lord takes liberty to afflict them greatly whose sins are not great 529. We must not complaine of the greatness of our affliction how little soever our sins are 529. In affliction we should speake humbly and meekely to God 789. The hand of God must be acknowledged in our afflictions 791. Affliction or chastning must be born 791. What it is to beare affliction shewed many wayes 792 793. We must pray for the taking away of an affliction while we are willing to beare it 794. What it is to be exercised under affliction 796. The sin and danger of breaking out of an affliction 801. Who may be sayd to breake from or out of an affliction 801. Affliction tryeth us 852. How it may be lawfull to pray or wish for affliction to fall upon others 852 Alexander the Great his speech to a Souldier of his owne name 12 Amazement what 103 Anarchy the worst of national judgements 746 Angels good or bad
sent to destroy 362. How the Angels come to know the mystery of the Gospel 408 Anger full of heate 10 11. Anger in the cause of God is good 15. Anger prevailes most in those who have least reason 27. They who give counsel must bridle anger 28. We should see good reason to be angry before we are 40 Answer unlesse we answer home we give no answer 82. A fourefold way of answering 232 233. Apostates who are so 620. Apostacy or turning back from God 700. Apostates grow worse and worse every day 705 Archimedes much transported with joy and why 85 Arrow put for a wound 525. Two sorts of arrows 525 Attention the best men may need to have their attentions quickned 551. B Barachel what that name signifieth 11. Behold a fourefold use of it in the Scripture 460 461. Behold to behold taken two wayes in Scripture 658 Belial what it signifieth and who may be called Belial 622 623 Bernard his description of an Opinionist in his time 115 Best not barely good but the best things to be looked after and chosen 508 510 Binding the great use of it for healing 608 Bladders wicked men how like them 691 Blindness spirituall or of the understanding to be smitten with it how sore a judgement 699 Boasting man is very apt to boast of himselfe 83 84 Man is apt to boast in the evill he doth much more of the good he doth 84. His boasting of wisdome 85 Bones what they are to the body 337. Paine in the bones grievous 337 338 Breath and spirit their difference 590 C Call of God it is dangerous to refuse or not hearken to his first call 268 Cato his answer to a voluptuous person 505 Change or turning of a man into another man twofold 55 Changes God can quickly make the greatest changes both in naturall and civill things 418 Charities done rightly produce a great encrease 566 Chastisements are documents 340. What properly a chastisement is 789. Chastisement is for amendment 797. When God chastneth us we should promise amendment 797. In what sence we may promise being chastned to offend no more 798 Chirurgion three things required in him answerably those three in those who would cure the soule 101 Christ remembrance of his humbling himselfe a great meanes to humble us 325. Christ the Angel of the Covenant 371. We must have union with Christ else we can have no benefit by him 429. Christ the only hiding place for sinners 672. Sinners under a fourefold consideration may hide themselves in Christ 672 Churches of the Gentiles to be warned by the severe dealings of God with the Church of the Jewes 697 Chusing or chusing of Instruments how it differs from Gods 61. Chusing or election what it is 506. The chusing of judgement what 506. It is not enough to know or doe good unlesse we chuse it 509 Clay that all men are clay how it should worke 187 Comforts the best in the creature vaine 347 Company to chuse ill company the signe of an evill man 538 543. To be much in the company of good men a signe of goodness 540. In what sense a good man may be sayd to goe in company with evill men 541 542 Condemnation supposeth a man to be wicked 29. To condemne and make wicked the same in Scripture 29 30 31. Condemnation out of our owne mouth must needs stop the mouth 196 Condemne to condemne those whom we cannot answer how sinfull 29 30 31. To condemn God the great wickedness of it and in what sense many doe it 618 619 Conditional acts of grace 398 Confession threefold 445. Sin must be confessed 449. Whether a generall confession be enough 449 Confidence or trust in man a strong argument against it from mans weakness 600 Conviction what or when a person may be sayd to be convinced 78 79. Three great convincers shewed 80 81 Conversion the worke of God not of man 89 Consideration what it is 707 711. Not to consider the wayes and word of God very sinfull 713 714. The duty of consideration prest 717 Corruption doth not prevaile upon the dead body of man till the fourth day 328. Corruption why sin is so called 797 800 Courtesies They watch for a discourtesie who aske courtesies of us beyond our power 210 Croesus the answer which the Oracle gave him ambiguous 160 Cry of the oppressed will goe up to God 718. Their affliction hath a cry though they cry not 719. They are the worst of wicked men who cause the poore to cry 720. God graciously heareth the cry of humble oppressed ones 722. Vide oppressed D. Darkness twofold 666 Death is a going downe to the pit 402. Sickness hath a tendency to death 402. When man dyeth he is gathered to God 593. Death is called a gathering in a threefold sense 594. No man hath priviledge against death 597. Death of two sorts 639. Death of any sort may befall all sorts of men 640. Death comes suddenly upon many men and may upon all men 640. Violent death sweepes away many in a moment 641 Declining how a good man may decline and grow worse 860 Deferre God sometimes deferrs to doe his servants right 520. Deferrings are very afflictive 520 Deficiencies of the best men two wayes to be considered for their humbling 323 Delaying dangerous though God be patient 467. Delayes in business may be no stop of it 483 Delighting in God what 545 546 Deliverances of five sorts 399. Deliverance is from God only 403. God conveighs deliverance by man or meanes usually 403. Our deliverance from sin is costly 410. Deliverances are obtained three wayes 410 411. Temporall deliverance by Christ also 412. Great deliverances give us a new life 470 Despayre of the end puts an end to endeavour 6. Despayre in creatures yet hope in God 528 Destruction in whose destruction God hath pleasure 811 Devills sin and condemnation what 86 Diadumenus his resolution 12 Differences what hinders the healing of them 483 484 486 487 488 Diligence how it makes rich 635 Discontent the Devills sin 59 Diseases and death not farre asunder 360. Diseases are destroyers 365. Diseases at the command of God 400 Displeasure of God renders all outward comforts nothing to us 348 Disputing tough and hard worke 3 Disputation the true law of it 193 Drawing and withdrawing two gracious acts of God towards man 299 Dreame what it is 280. Naturall dreams caused foure wayes 281 Diabolicall dreames 282. Divine dreames five messages upon which they are sent 282 283. It hath been the use of God to reveale himselfe by dreames 285. Five reasons why God revealed himselfe in dreames 286. Dreames the way of Gods revealing himselfe to the Church of old 287. Luthers prayer about dreames 288. A profitable use may be made of dreames at this day 289 Drinking what it signifieth in Scripture 533. A threefold measure of drinking 534. To drinke scorning like water what it imports 535 Dust in what sence all men are but dust 598. Humbling
taken two wayes in Scripture 191 To be taken away without hand what 638. To doe a thing without hand notes three things 650 Hast often doth hurt 483 Haters of all good many such 610 Health to be prayed and praised for 366. Health to be carefully preserved 367. Health and strength of body the gift of God 417 Hearers severall sorts of faulty hearers 146. Six considerations upon which the whole mind of God is to be heard 147 148. He that would be a profitable hearer must be an attentive hearer 476. The most prudent speakers are also patient hearers 483. The sin of those who either heare and doe not or doe not heare 505 Hearing good men may be dull of hearing 498. The sense of hearing is a great mercy and of great use to mankinde 501 505 Hearkning more then hearing 144 145. What it is to hearken 146 475 Heart and tongue should goe together 154. Three wayes in which men speake against their own hearts 155 Heart of man prone to and fixt in evill 299. Setting of the heart upon any thing what it notes 587. Heart the severall wayes of it 657 Heartless man who 552 Hearty man or man of heart what it signifieth 551 Holiness two things argue much the holiness of any mans heart 15. Holiness consists in our keeping close to and imitation of God 706 Holy things the iniquity of them not easily discerned 819 Honour how to be given all men 128 Humble God is highly pleased with the humble 427 Humbled a truely humbled soule much in the exercise of a fourfold duty 803 Humility low thoughts of our selves best 45. Three degrees of humility 129 Hypocrites much discovered by sickness and affliction 359. What the Hebrew word for a hypocrite imports 758. Two sorts of hypocrites 759. A Hypocrite is hated of God and hurtfull to man 761 The nature of an hypocrite 761 A threefold distinction of hypocrites 761 762. A fourefold designe of hypocrites opened in their making profession of religion 763 764. Foure things by which hypocrites may be discovered 768 769. They love to be seene and are very censorious 770 771. Severall considerations moving all to take heed of hypocrisie 773 774. Hypocrites rarely converted 775. Hypocrites are high-minded and look after Great things 776. Hypocrites under the power of covetousness and ambition 776 777. Hypocrites getting power abuse it to the wronging and ensnaring of the people 778. They ensnare two wayes 778. A hypocrite is most unfit for publick service 781 I Idolls how and why called terrible things 189 Jealousie Vide suspition Ignorance It is the duty of the most knowing to confesse their ignorance 820. Sins of ignorance need pardon 820. They who have but little knowledge are little troubled at their ignorance 820 Imitation It is not good to imitate any in what they doe ill 98 99. Imitation of God is our holiness 706 Incorruptibility twofold 170 Indians their modesty in not speaking before their Elders 38 Infirmities it is uncharitableness to take much notice of them in others but holiness to take notice of them in our selves 217. God is not strict to take notice of our infirmities 218 Iniquity what strictly 202 Interpreter taken three wayes 375 A threefold interpreter 375 376 The Ministers of Christ are the interpreters of the mind of God to sinners 376. Ministers are the peoples interpreters to God foure wayes 377. Two inferences from it 377 378. True interpreters very rare 379. Interpreters or Ministers few in a twofold reference with the reasons of it 380 381. Interpreters in truth but few compared with those who are so in title shewed five wayes 381 382. Faithfull interpreters to be much prized 383. The great worke of an interpreter or minister is to shew man his uprightness or how he may stand upright with God 386 The interpreter sh uld be very tender towards troubled soules 390 Innocency is our safety 200 Instruments God can furnish such as he calleth to his worke with gifts proper for their worke 112. Why God useth instruments 584. God can worke without instruments 653 Injustice the sinfullness of it 553 555 Inspiration of God what meant by it 52 The inspiration of God sufficient to qualifie all men for all duties and without that nothing can 56 57 Seven usefull inferences made from it 57 58 59 Intercession of Christ sues out our deliverance 411 John of Times why so called 46 John what it signifieth and why the Baptist was so called 392 Job his innocency had a threefold testimony 205. Five things in favour of him while he spake so much of his owne innocency 205 206. His patience how to be considered 242 Judges it is abominable for them to doe unrighteous things 553 559 Judging before we judge we must heare diligently 498. We must take time to judge of things 504 508 Judgements of God must needs be all right 662. Visible Judgements make secret sins visible 687 Judgement taken two wayes in Scripture 65 507. A threefold notion of Judgement in Scripture 517. Judgement how it is taken from a man 518 Julian once a great pretender to Christianity 768 Just some thinke they are just enough if they give man his right though they deny God his right every day 231 232 Justice nothing should weigh with us but truth and right and that in a fivefold opposition 121. Justice perverted five wayes 555. Foure things cause men to pervert Justice 573. Some men are haters of Justice 610. To hate justice is a most hatefull thing 611. Justice-haters are most unfit to be Governours 613. The Justice of God shewed divers wayes 616. God will not allow any man a liberty to complaine of his Justice 674. God never wronged any man 676. God doth Justice upon some sinners openly 695. A threefold reason of it 696 Justification wherein it consists 17. Justification of our selves two wayes What lawfull what unlawfull 18 Justification an act of absolute free grace 397 Justifie to justifie our selves layeth us open to the reproofe of others 17. To justifie is taken foure wayes in Scripture 17 18. In two cases a man may justifie himselfe 18 19. Five wayes shewed wherein men justifie themselves sinfully 21 22. How God is sayd to justifie the ungodly 22. To justifie our selves rather then God very blasphemous 23. When or how we may be sayd to justifie our selves rather then God 24. Two inferences about this sin 25 26 Justified persons have confidence to looke up to God 436. Such are righteous 440. A justified person when and how he may loose the sight of his righteousness 441. When that sight returnes Joy returns 442 K Keeping a man back three wayes 326 Kings and Princes It is most uncomely and sinfull to revile them in word 626. 'T is a degree of blasphemy 627. With what tenderness though with plainness and by what rules the faults of Princes are to be reproved 628 629 Know not to know taken three wayes 130. The choycest servants of God may be short of
cannot 736. Two reasons why not 736 737. A wonder that the peace of our Nation is continued foure considerations why 738 739. Peace of particular persons twofold from God 748. Peace personal of believers how it comes from the Father Son and Spirit 749. The peace of believers how an insuparable peace 750. Two demonstrations of it 752. Peace of believers in what sense perfect 753 How we are tenants at will for our peace with respect to God 756. Peace holding our peace or silence what it may signifie 478. A twofold holding of our peace 479. In three cases especially we should hold our peace 480. It is a great poynt of prudence to know when to hold our peace 481 People troubled and in a tumult described 642 643 Perfection three reasons why God calls us to it though we cannot attaine it in this life 514 Perishing twofold 596 Perseverance is our best or our worst 828 Phantasie the power of it in sleepe 281 Pit and deliverance from it what 457 Princes what they ought to be 624 Promises of God alwayes performed 676 Provocation doth not excuse yet somewhat abate a sin committed 206 Pharisaei Shechemitae why so called 766 Phocas the prayer of a good man about him how answered 785 Poore men of two sorts 631. Poore men are as much the worke of God as the rich 633. It is the Lord who makes men poore or rich 634 The fall of a poore man oppressed makes a loud cry 721. What cryes of poore men are not heard by God 722. 'T is dangerous medling with Gods poore 723 Pope his great cheate put upon the world 67 Power men in power caution'd 584 585 Princes and people their sins produce mutuall ill effects towards one another 784 Pronounes how the sweetness of the Gospel lyeth in them 849 Prayer good things must be asked of God 57. Endeavour must be joyned with prayer 58. There are but two restrictions upon the grant of whatsoever we pray for 148. Prayer how a battaile fought in heaven 178 Strong prayer 422. Sickness is a speciall season for prayer 423. God only the object of prayer 424. We must aske mercy if we would have it 424. The Lord is ready to heare and give when we pray 425. Till the person is accepted his prayer is not 428. Length of prayer not disapproved by Christ if other things be right 763. We must pray for the removing of our affliction while we beare it chearefully 794 Pride man naturally proud 83. God hideth pride from man two wayes 304. Pride why put for all sin 305 Man very prone to pride 306 Pride shews it selfe three wayes 306 Eleven things named of which men are proud 307 308. Five conceits as so many rootes of pride discovered 311 312. Pride is a vile and odious sin shewed upon six considerations 313 314. Great wise and rich men most subject to pride 316 Pride the greatest sin for foure reasons 316. God by various meanes gives check to pride 317. Foure pride-subduing considerations 318 Seven meanes to cure man of pride 320 321 Protection from sin the best protection 200 Proud men scornfull and contentious 537 Property our property to any thing makes us love it the more 849 Providence a continued creation 165 Not to consider the workes of providence is the marke of an ungodly man 715 Punishment of sin in this life is not equall to sin 452. Humbled sinners confesse their greatest punishments lesse then their sin 453. The justice of God in his punishments shewed seven wayes 617. Wicked shall not be unpunished 663. No man ever punished by God beyond desert 676 677 678 Purposes of evill man is very forward to them 298. Vntill God withdraw him he will goe on in them 300 Five wayes by which God withdraweth men from evill purposes 301 It is a great mercy to be hindred in evill purposes 302 Q Questions which are unprofitable 44 Quietness of the dead and living what 725. Quietness opposed to warre Vide Peace 732 R Ransome who and what our ransome is 405 406. The deliverance of sinners by a ransome is the invention of God 407. God is to be highly honoured for this invention 409. That we are ransomed should mind us of five things 413 Reason we ought to heare reason whosoever speakes it 71 Rebellion when a sin may be called rebellion 857 Redemption the benefit of it set forth two wayes 459 Repentance a truely penitent person is resolute against sin 826. Continuance in any knowne sin is inconsistent with true repentance 827 Reproofe there must be proofe before there can be reproofe 79. Negative reproofes more easie then affirmative 229. Reproofe to be tempered with meeknesse 230. Reproofes should be given with plainness 230. Reproofe to be taken with humble silence 549. A good man will take reproofe with patience 846 Resurrection shadowes of it 420 Revenge the highest acts of revenge from God are but the awards of justice 92 Rewarding if the Lord should not reward those that serve him he were unrighteous 556. Righteous shall not be unrewarded 663 Rewards both good and evill such as men are and according to what they doe 438. What God renders to man according to his worke is called a reward in a fourefold respect 560 Rich and poore men of two sorts 631 What rich men are not what are regarded by God more then the poore 632. How men make themselves and how God makes them rich 634 Right what it is 448. What it is to pervert right 448 Righteous there are three sorts of righteous persons 4. How a man in a good sence may be righteous in his owne eyes 5. How being righteous in our owne eyes is hatefull both to God and good men 8. A justified person is righteous 440 Righteousness how it delivers from death 403. Righteousness twofold 437. Why the same word in the Hebrew is used to signifie Almes and righteousness 437. Righteousness how it cannot be lost 439 440. Severall sorts of righteousness 514 Most dangerous to be proud of or trust to our owne righteousness 516 Running with God and in the wayes of his commandements what it implyeth 544 S Scorners are the worst sort of men 536 Scorning two wayes taken 534 Seales a threefold use of sealing 294 Sealing of instruction what it is 294 295 Senators why so called 37 Season to be observed for speaking 106 Such speake to most advantage 108 Season to hit a right season of speaking very advantageous 36. Season the danger of neglecting it 268 269 Selfe-love a bad glasse for any man to see himselfe in 311 Service of God to account it unprofitable how sinfull 546 Shadow of death what it signifieth in Scripture 667 Shew-bread why so called 435 Sick persons should be wisely minded of death 361. They should pray and desire prayers 423. A sick man being recovered should report the goodness of God to him 445 Sicknes three expressions gradually setting it forth 336. Sickness comes not by chance nor only from naturall causes 341.
breath bloweth away sickness if he doe but speak to a disease to a feaver to an ague to a dropsie to a consumption O killing malady spare him thou hast done enough any disease might prevaile to death did not God say spare him hold thy hand not a blow more not a fit more O killing malady Death it selfe much more sickness heareth the voyce of God And it may be said to heare him because it doth that which they who have the power of hearing ought to doe that is it obeyeth or yeildeth to the voyce and command of God will no longer afflict the sick man Diseases may be said to deliver a man from death the pit when they depart from him Yet Secondly I conceive this warrant for the deliverance of the sick man is given out to the messenger or interpreter to the one among a thousand that visiteth him in his sickness He having been with him and dealt with his conscience he having brought him into a good frame the Lord is gracious Sequestrem illum Jubebit ei renunciare impetratum esse sibi liberationem Bez and in answer to his prayer sets it upon his heart that he shall recover and warrants him to tell him so which is declaratively to deliver him from going downe to the pit This act of mans delivering the sicke is like that act of man pardoning the sinner John 20.23 that is 't is ministeriall or declarative not originall nor Authoritative The interpreter doth not deliver him but tells him God will We have the Psalmist speaking thus after his supplication and prayer made to the Lord for a sick State or Nation or for a sick Church that 's his scope Psal 85. Wilt thou not revive us againe that thy people may rejoycâ— in thee v. 6. Surely thou wilt and he expresseth his confidence that God would v. 8. I will heare what God the Lord will speake for he will speak peace unto his people and to his Saints When he had prayed he would harken for news or for a message from heaven whether or no the Lord would order him to speak peace to those for whom he had been praying and say deliver them from going downe to the pit Thus did the Prophet Habakkuk I will stand upon my watch and set me upon my tower and see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer when I am reproved Chap 2.1 In the next verse The Lord answered and sayd write the vision and make it plaine upon tables that he may run that readeth it And what was the answer surely deliverance for having sayd in the end it shall speake and not lye v. 3. he concludes v. 4. The just shall live by his faith Believing deliverance he shall at last be delivered from the pit of captivity and live Here in the text we must suppose this messenger had prayed and having prayed he did not neglect his prayer but was hearkning what the Lord would say Elihu was confident the Lord would give a gracious answer though not by an immediate voyce or revelation to his eare yet by an assurance of the mercy given into his spirit When that good king Hezekiah was not only sick unto death but had received an expresse message from the Lord Set thy house in order for thou shalt dye and not live 2 Kings 20.1 'T is sayd at the 2d verse He turned his face to the wall and prayed unto the Lord saying c. And at the 4th verse The word of the Lord came to Isaiah the Prophet saying turne againe and tell Hezekiah the Captain of my people Thus saith the Lord the God of David thy father I have heard thy prayer I have seene thy teares behold I will heale thee c. Here God gave a word formally and put it into the Prophets mouth Goe deliver him from going downe to the pit And though the Lord doth not thus now in such an explicite and open way nor may we expect it yet there is a virtuall saying of this word from the Lord and that sometimes mightily imprest upon the hearts of those who have prayed and sought unto him for the sick man whereby not by an ungrounded vaine confidence but by a scripturall holy confidence comparing the promise with the mans condition they are enabled to tell him The Lord hath delivered thee from going downe to the pit And he shall as certainly be delivered as if the Lord had sent an expresse from heaven to tell him so Then he is gracious to him and saith deliver him from going downe to the pit Hence observe First Death is a going to the pit a going to destruction Thus it is ordinarily with all who dye to the pit they goe Many dye and goe downe to the bottomless pit all who dye may be sayd to goe to the pit To goe to the bottomless pit is the circumlocution of eternall death as to goe to the pit is the circumlocution of temporall death Secondly Forasmuch as the man being sick the Lord gives out this word deliver him from going downe to the pit Note Sickness hath in it a tendency unto death The sick stand as it were upon the borders of the grave Some not only put death farr from them in health but in their sickness untill they are even dead they scarce thinke themselves dying It is good for us in our health and best strength to be looking into the pit and considering upon what grounds of comfort we can descend into the grave How much more should we be thinking of and looking into the pit when we are in a languishing and dying condition Thirdly Observe The word and work of deliverance is from God alone Then he will be gracious and say deliver him from going downe to the pit God can and God only can deliver from death no creature in heaven or earth can speak this but by commission from God none can open this secret till God interpret it Deliverance is the Lords salvation and the word of salvation from sickness as well as of salvation from hell comes out from the Lord. But is it not sayd Pro 11.4 Righteousness delivereth from death I answer when it is sayd Righteousness delivereth from death The meaning is God delivereth the righteous from death He delivereth them from the sting and terror from all that which is properly called the evill of corporall death and he delivereth them wholly from the least touch or shadow of eternall death And this righteousness which delivers from death is not our own but the righteousness of Christ made ours by the appoyntment of God and received as ours by faith 'T is neither any righteousness wrought in us nor any righteousness wrought by us but that righteousness which is wrought for us which delivereth from death and that delivereth us from death because God saith of such a righteous person deliver him as often from temporall death or going downe to the pit of the grave so alwayes from
eternall death or going downe to the pit of hell Fourthly In that this word deliver him is given to the messenger Observe God conveighs deliverance and mercy to us by men like our selves He will have the creature beholding to the creature for his mercy though mercy come freely and only from himselfe God delivereth the sick and the sinner in such a method that we may owne though not stay in his messengers as the instruments of his favour God who can doe all things by himselfe will not doe many things but by meanes He saith to the messenger Deliver him from going downe to the pit You will say How can a Minister or a Messenger deliver the sick from going downe to the pit I answer as was touched before he delivers him by declaring to him the minde of God by acquainting the sick with the promises of deliverance and by pressing him to believe and rest upon them by assuring him that as God is able to performe the promise so he is faithfull and willing to performe it yea that he hath given some tokens for good that he will deliver him from going downe to the pit Thus the worke of Gods free grace mercy and power is oftentimes attributed to instruments and second causes because they have their place and use in the bringing about the purposes of God for the good of his people Hence some men are called Saviours And Saviours shall come up on mount Zion Obad v. 21. No man can save either from temporall or eternall destruction He that is our God is the God of salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death Ps 68.20 yet saith the Prophet there shall come Saviours that is God will rayse up worthy men principall men as another Prophet cals them Mic 5.5 who shall destroy Zions enemies Thus Paul admonisheth Timothy Take heed to thy selfe and to thy doctrine continue in them for in so doing thou shalt save thy selfe and them that heare thee 1 Tim 4.16 The Apostle James Chap 5.20 speakes the same thing He which converteth a sinner from the errour of his way shall save a soule from death and shall hide a multitude of sins And the same Apostle faith as to the case in the text at the 15th verse of the same Chapter The prayer of faith shall save the sicke Though none can save yet many are means of our salvation And the Lord is pleased to honour those who are the meanes of any salvation so farre as to say They save It is indeed the duty of all to ascribe the all of every worke and piece of salvation and deliverance to God only When the people stood wondering at Peter and John after they had healed the lame man Peter answered Acts 3.12 Ye men of Israel why marvel ye at this or why looke ye so earnestly on us as if we by our own power or holiness had made this man to walke The God of Abraham c. hath glorified his Son Jesus As if they had said Therefore doe ye also glorifie him not us for delivering this lame man Though God is pleased to put much honour upon man by speaking of what himselfe doth as if man had done it yet he will not give the glory of what he doth to any man nor may any take it God saith to the messenger deliver him from going downe to the pit but woe to that messenger who saith when he is delivered I have delivered him from going downe to the pit Thus we see the spring of the sick mans recovery it is from the graciousness of God and we see the meanes of it God gives a warrant to his messenger saying Deliver him from going down to the pit But what is the procuring or meritorious cause of this deliverance As the Text hath shewed us the first moving cause The grace of God so it shewes us the meritorious cause by which his deliverance is procured Things are so ordered in the Covenant of grace that though the Lord acts with infinite freeness yet he hath appointed and ordered a way in which alone he will doe what he freely doth This is expressed in the last clause of the verse Fer I have found a ransome But where did God find it certainly in his own bosome in his own heart Jesus Christ came out of the bosome of the Father there he was God found him in and with himself God did not find the ransome by chance nor did he find it by advice and consultation with others but he found it in himself in his own infinite wisdome and goodness that is he contrived it he invented i◠there This rare this most excellent thing a ransome is the Lords own invention I have found it I know how to doe this man good I know how to save him and doe my own honour and Justice no hurt no wrong my honour is saved Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotet expiationem aut redemptionem tum etiam pretium quod pro redemptione offertur Significat etiam cooperire linire aut operire bitumine quasi pristinam faciē rei alicujus aut immunditiem abscondere quod elegantèr refertur ad ab stertionem peccati Pined my Justice is satisfied in doing it I have found a ransome The word here rendred a ransome signifies in the Verb to cover or to hide that which before lay open that it appeare no more Grace brings another face upon things a new face I may say upon our souls The covering of sin elegantly denotes the pardon of sin And what reason have we to be thankfull and rejoyce when sin our soul durt and deformity is covered We have very foul faces I meane outward conversations and more foul souls or inward inclinations till the Lord is graciously pleased to put a covering upon them If we cover our own sins we shall have no mercy but if the Lord once cover our sins he cannot deny us mercy that being it self our greatest mercy and the fruit of his great mercy The Mercy-seat so famous in the Mosaicall Poedogogy is exprest by this word which properly signifieth a Covering The Mercy-seat was it self a Covering of pure gold laid over the Arke in which Arke the Law was put Exod. 25.17.21 Thou shalt put the Mercy-seat above upon the Arke and in the Ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee And as the dimensions of the Arke were two Cubits and a halfe in length and a Cubit and a half in breadth so the same were the dimensions of the Mercy-seat Vers 10.17 which figured that as the Mercy-seat fully covered the Arke wherein the Law was so Christ should fully cover all our sins which are transgressions of the Law The righteousness of Christ is as long and as broad as the Law and so our sins being covered with that shall never appeare against us Therefore also from above this Mercy-seat between the two Cherubims the Lord said vers 22. I will meete thee and I will