of it So that even terrours may be in so far comfortable as they are known to come out of his hand These are some few of many reasons of this dispensation to be well considered and improved by Gods people in such a condition Having thus cleared this mistake if we look upon this Doctrine as pointing out the lot of a wicked man which is Bildad's scope in it it is true indeed that whatever be Gods indulgence toward some of them yet by the sentence of the Law he deserves this as his lot and portion Lev. 26.16 And so the General Doctrine may teach 1. Among other calamities of a wicked man terrour from God is a part of his portion For so is here supposed that he is assaulted with terrours As indeed in many respects he is obnoxious to them and lieth under the hazard of such a stroke from God So that 1. Whatever be his prosperous condition yet he hath no cause to sleep in a sound skin For God hath terrours as his Serjeants to arrest him when he will 2. Whatever be his troubles within time yet his terrours and fears may justly be above his troubles and may tell him that those are but the beginning of sorrows as his Conscience may tell him he deserves more Yea not only what he feels or foresees but what he can but imagine and apprehend may be his terrour 3. His fears in justice may be not ordinary but singular dreadful and full of terrour he not having God reconciled to him to whom he may flee in such a distress 4. Beside all his exercises about outward and temporal-afflictions God can raise terrour in his Conscience and give him an Hell there Now albeit all this do not befal every wicked man yet the apprehension of those things and how they are deserved by them may affright them from secure trusting in their prosperity and outward comforts see Prov. 23.34 Isa 50.11 and from pleasing themselves in a quiet Conscience when yet it is not a good Conscience as not being sprinkled by the blood of Christ nor purged from dead works Doct. 2. Whatever shift wicked men make under other troubles Isa 9.9 10. and elsewhere yet the terrour of God when it cometh upon them will surround and shut them in on every hand For so is here declared that terrours shall be on every side where-ever he would turn him This is deserved by all of them and inflicted upon some of them Jer. 20.3 4. For God hath terrours in aboundance wherewith to hem them in and their own minds being once terrified can make enow to vex them yet more This 1. Serveth to point out the great mercy and advantage of the godly who however they may sometime to their own sense be thus hemmed in as well as others yet never want an out-gate on some hand if they could see it were it but to run through terrour into mercy as Job professeth he would do Chap. 13.15 2. It teacheth that in other troubles it is not safe to find an issue without God or without going to him as the wicked endeavour to do and sometime the godly are tempted to take that course lest God be provoked to send over-whelming terrours where no such issues will be found 3. When the godly are at any time thus hemmed in on all hands as they ought to read their own stubborness in it Hos 2.5 6 7. and their unwillingness to deny themselves and trust entirely on God 2 Cor. 1.8 9. So being rightly exercised under such a condition they may expect that God is sitting them for a notable proof of his love as Paul found by experience 2 Cor. 1.10 Doct. 3. How stout soever the wicked may be under other troubles and resolute to bear them when they cannot avoid them yet they will find themselves too weak a party to grapple with terrour from God For Terrours shall make him afraid on every side and drive him to his feet or make him ready to betake himself to his heels And though this be unjustly applyed to Job who was never so afraid but he expected God would be his salvation Chap. 13.16 yet it holds true of every wicked man when terrour comes upon him that he being a weak creature and God a strong God and this stroak seizing upon the very fort of his courage he cannot but be confounded and dismayed And this warns those who are stout-hearted under other troubles to expect that God will send terrours to suppress their obstinacy as is said in another case Ezek. 28.6 9. And such as are under the terrours of the Lord ought to look on stooping and humility as their only safety 4. It is the disposition of wicked men under judgments and terrours to run the faster away from God For Terrours shall drive him to his feet or scatter him to his feet and to all corners subterfuges where he may think to find relief Though the godly may have some inclination to this in their fits of tentation by which we are not to judge of their state yet this is unjustly applyed to Job who in his greatest extremity never thought of running away but would gladly have been at God Yet it holds true of wicked men in such a condition that with Adam they seek to hide themselves from God and are ready to run any where before they run to God For terrours do represent God as dreadful especially to them who never tasted of his love and therefore they run away from him They know not Gods scope in those terrours when he lets them loose on godly men which is to drive them to himself and therefore they turn not to him who smiteth them Their guilt if they have any sense of it adds to their amazement and helps to suggest sad thoughts of God to them And they are justly thus scared away by terrour from God who were still careful not to come to him and afraid lest they should be prevailed with to seek him Mat. 13.15 And when godly men under such an exercise are tempted to run away from God they should enquire at themselves what they will leave to the wicked to do if they do so And if they be driven to God thereby they should notice that as the finger of God and a mercy beyond any thing that terrour it self could either promise or produce Vers 12. His strength shall be hunger-bitten and destruction shall be ready at his side In the Second Branch of this Similitude Job's loss of Goods his present pain and that apprehension of death which he speaks of Chap. 17.7 11 c. are pointed at as resembling that affliction which Malefactours suffer in Prison before their execution who being destitute of means are wasted with hunger and live in a continual fear of a violent death and it may be are tortured in the mean time In this reflection also Bildad doth mistake 1. In suspecting Job to be so much afflicted with any apprehensions of his destruction as
here a Job is provided for those about him Gods faithfulness is engaged that his people under tentation shall find such a way to escape that they may be able to bear it 1 Cor. 10.13 And this is one special mean of support among others to have a faithful and useful friend to encourage and direct them So that Saints in distress may certainly expect in Gods due time and way consolation and comforters were it even in Arabia where Job lived 5. In dealing with crushed and tender minds Jobs practice affords two Rules necessary to be observed 1. That the afflicted be well instructed and their judgments informed in divine truth which will cure much anxiety disquiet and diffidence which flow from ignorance Psal 9.10 For Job made it his work to instruct many 2. That whatever Instructions or reproofs and admonitions be found necessary to give them as afflicted souls may need such yet care must be had that they be not thereby weakened but strengthened to keep their grips For Jobs scope in all his Instructions was still to strengthen and uphold See 1 Sam. 12.20 21. Doct. 6. God not only can but when he seeth it fit doth add an effectual blessing to the weak endeavours of his servants and children for strengthning and encouraging of fainting souls and other gracious effects As here his words upheld him that was falling c. which may encourage men as they have a calling to go forth in the strength of the Lord to deal with souls according to their various cases which otherwise doth appear to be an insuperable task as Exod. 6.9 Jer. 22.21 See 1 Cor. 1.22 2 Cor. 10.4 5. Secondly Jobs present behaviour under his own trouble ver 5. He who had been stout enough so long as trouble kept off himself now when it cometh and but toucheth himself becometh so faint in spirit and troubled and perplexed in mind that he knoweth not what to do In this he reflects upon Jobs former complaint Chap 3. wherein there was distemper of spirit more then enough discovered And it doth hold out these Truths 1. Greatness of trouble may drive a man from the comfortable use of what light he may have in his judgment ready to minister to others in cold bloud For Job who comforted others now faints and is troubled This needs not seem strange if we consider Partly That comforting of souls is the work of God and therefore had men never so much clear light yet if God withdraw they will want the use of it when they have most need Yea Ministers who dispense Consolation to others may yet be disconsolate enough themselves till God interpose Not that men are warranted to lie by from making use of what light they have for their own encouragement 1 Sam. 30 6. But that their activity without dependence upon God will not effectuate any thing Partly That there is a great difference betwixt a tryal apprehended in our judgment and felt by sense In the one case a mans judgment may be clear enough and his spirit resolute But in the other his spirit and judgement being over-charged he cannot so easily recollect and fix himself Hence it was that even our Lord was troubled in soul when the real sense of trouble came upon him Joh. 12.27 2. Faintness and discouragement of spirit when way it given thereunto doth soon perplex men that had they never so much light they will want the comfortable use of it for when once fainteth then he is easily troubled confounded and perplexed So that humble fortitude of mind being endeavoured and studied after it keeps a man in a near capacity to receive influences and direction from God for expeding him out of his perplexities Psal 27.14 Yet in this challenge we may observe a double injury done to Job 1. That Eliphaz doth so much aggravate his weakness and frailty For neither did he so faint as to quit his grips of an interest in Gods love and favour Nor is it solidly argued That because in his tentations his weakness did appear in his fainting and perplexities Therefore he is a wicked man as he would infer in the following verses It is our mercy that God doth otherwise judge of the ravings and swoundings of his afflicted Children For if this were sound Divinity that every able comforter of others when he is not able to comfort himself and every one that faints and is perplexed when God is emptying and humbling him under trouble is a wicked man or hypocrite Who of all the Lords tryed Worthies should ever dare to claim to integrity These things do indeed proclaim our frailty and oft-times we our selves have a sinful hand therein Yet the experience of Saints recorded in Scripture doth witness that they are incident to the best of Saints 2. Eliphaz doth also too much extenuate Jobs tryal and tentation drawing forth this weakness calling it but a touch contrary to their thoughts thereof Chap. 2.12 It is true a touch may import a sharp stroke which a man is made to feel as Chap. 2.5 Yet it is but a very slender word to express all Jobs great afflictions And it teacheth That many are apt to pry into and aggravaâ—e the failings of Saints who do little ponder the strong tentations they have to drive them so to slip But God though he be angry with those who raise a clamour above their strait doth ponder our tentations when he judgeth of our failings and consequently pitieth as Elisha did the Shunamite 2 King 4.27 The third head of his Argument is an Inference and conclusion drawn from his comparing the former two together ver 6. Wherein he thinks himself so clear that he dare appeal to Job himself whether this his way did not prove his Religion unsound and hypocriticall and that by his fainting who had comforted others he had given a poor proof of that Piety to which he had so much pretended Some take up those Questions thus Hath not thy fear been thy confidence and the uprightness of thy ways been thy hope That is Doth it not now appear that thy pretending to Piety to fear God and walk uprightly of which Chap. 1.1 was only mercenary because thou trusted and hoped to continue in prosperity thereby seeing now when thou art stripped of what thou enjoyedst thou faintest and discoverest that thou wast not sincere This was Satans very calumny against Job Chap. 1.9 10. now cast in his teeth by a godly friend As oft-times also the child of God may meet with his own very bosom tentations cast up to him by way of reproach for his further tryal and that he may be roused up to resist these tentations which otherwise he doth but too much cherish Psal 22.1 7 8 with 9. And whatever wrong they did to Job in this of which we heard somewhat on the former verse and somewhat will be added hereafter yet there is a general truth in this That time-servers can take up a form of godliness when it
their work will be about sin to discover and purge it out which they will look upon as a greater hast than to be rid of trouble For then he is advised to be exercised about offending as the consequent of the former step 10. When men are rightly exercised about sin especially under trouble they will look upon it as a very abominably corrupting and destroying evil As the word also signifieth 11. It is not enough that men especially under trouble discover sin or contemplate the abominableness thereof unless there be strong resolutions and endeavours to amend it and turn from it For he is advised to promise I will not offend Not that men can undertake never to sin though that be their duty but especially that they should oppose all sin and should never purpose to commit any sin And they should be as careful of this as they are about the pardon of sin committed 12. It is in particular a great evil to be avoided that men do not corrupt and lose the opportunity of a tryal which otherwise might do them much good by their miscarriages under it For this may be particularly intended in this engagement not to offend or corrupt as hath been explained And it is certain Jobs miscarriages under trouble were the evils which he was bound especially to amend and for which Elihu did quarrel him especially 13. Men even by their managing of the testimony of a good conscience too hotly under trouble may spoyl their own cause and lose a fair opportunity of good For therefore was Job a godly man to engage against offending thus Verse 32. That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more This Verse contains the rest of the Direction or what he should desire Namely That being resolved not to offend though he knew not his particular miscarriages yet he should seek light from God to inform him of his failings and should renew his resolutions to avoid what should be discovered to him particularly of his miscarriages under trouble Whence Learn 1. As the people of God when they are well exercised are sensible of their own sinfulness So they should have their eye upon it For the Original expression Beside what I see or contemplate imports that he should alwayes be seeing some sinfulness in himself See Is 59.12 As none will neglect examination and daily observing of their own wayes and miscarriages but they who are ignorant of themselves So it is better we see our failing this way by daily observation than that our consciences be wakened by the terrour of God and made to dwell upon that subject Psal 50.21 and 51.3 And it must be sad also when men who know many other things yet are ignorant of themselves 2. Saints who know themselves best will be sensible of their ignorance and short coming in taking up their defects For when Job cometh to be right he supposeth that he will apprehend there are evils beside what he seeth See Psal 19.12 Saints are not soon or easily satisfied with their own sight of their sinfulness but knowing the deceitfulness of their own hearts Jer. 17.9 when they have seen most they will know there is yet more to be seen for their ignorance whereof they will mourn as well as for the evils which they discern 3. As simple ignorance inadvertency unfound principles self-love the multitude of escapes c. are reasons why many of the people of Gods faults pass unobserved by them So in particular passion and distemper under trouble may bring them into many snares unawares For it is of these miscarriages under trouble especially that Elihu supposeth Job to be ignorant Thus did Moses miscarry at the Rock Psal 106.32 33. David spake often amiss in his hast and Jonah in his passion justifieth his fault Jon 4.9 4. It is the property of the Child of God when he is sensible that ignorance and inadvertency do not satisfie his conscience as knowing that he is bound to know the Rule of his duty and to try all his actions thereby and that sins even of ignorance need an expiatory sacrifice and pardon Lev. 4.2 3 c. And therefore he desireth not to be deluded but to know what really he is although he see it not for present For so much doth this desire to be taught what he seeth not import that a sensible Soul is teachable and earnestly desireth to be well informed concerning its own condition See Psal 25.4 5. and 139.21 22 23 24. It is sad when men do skin over their own bad condition and so long as they are not disquieted they will not trouble themselves but sport themselves with their own deceivings 5. It is not the testimony of any but of God alone that will quiet an honest conscience about its guilt or honesty For it is to God this desire is put up What I see not teach thou me Without Gods approbation all Davids shifts to cover his Adultery availed nothing 2 Sam. 11.27 And as God is the effectual teacher and convincer of men So in every thing we should see what he saith Exod. 18.23 1 Chron. 13.2 And what he saith the conscience must rest upon neither taking with guilt if he do not charge it upon it nor resting secure in any course how plausible or successful soever if he approve it not See Luk. 16.15 1 Cor. 4.4 2 Cor. 10.18 6. However God may give up sometimes with a stubborn people and will reprove them no more Ezek. 3.26 Yet it is his way with his own people not to let them goe away with their faults but either by their own consciences or some other means to bring their sin to their remembrance and be a reprover unto them which is their great mercy For this desire is grounded upon this that it is Gods ordinary way with his people to teach them what they see not as he made Davids heart to smite him and made Josephs brethren remember their cruelty toward him So that Saints had need to prevent such after-games when their sin shall find them out Numb 32.23 7. As the faults of the people of God especially under trouble may be very gross and yet not seen by themselves So they will not extenuate their faults when they do discern them In both these respects he is to call that whereof he can but suspect himself till it be discovered iniquity as being committed against professions and manifold engagements against mercies and under corrections beside the grosseness of it in its own nature Thus David was sensible of the iniquity of his sinne Ps 32.5 8. Discoveries of sin are then rightly improved when reformation or a serious resolution and endeavour of reformation follow thereupon And the way to keep the conscience tender and to have Gods light shining upon it for continual information is to take heed to those faults which it points at For so is here subjoyned If I have done iniquity I will do no more and