SEED THOUGHTS.

OR

SELECTIONS

FROM

CARYL’S EXPOSITION OF JOB,

WITH AN INTRODUCTION,

BY THE

Rev. J. E. ROCKWELL, D.D.

PHILADELPHIA:

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION,

No. 821 CHESTNUT STREET.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year

1869

BY

THE TRUSTEES OF THE

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION,

In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the

Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Westcott & Thomson,

Stereotypers, Phila.

Source: https://archive.org/details/seedthoughtsorse00cary

Modernized, formatted, corrected, and annotated by

William H. Gross www.onthewing.org Oct 2014

original page numbers [bracketed]

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION.

ANALYSIS OF THE BOOK OF JOB.

ABUNDANCE.

ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD.

ADVOCATE.

ADVICE.

AFFLICTIONS.

BRIBERY.

CHARITY.

CHASTISEMENTS.

CHRIST.

CONFIDENCE.

CONFESSION OF SIN.

CONSCIENCE.

CONVERSION.

CONSISTENT CONDUCT.

COMFORT.

COMPASSION.

EXPERIENCE.

DAYSMAN.

DEATH.

DELIGHT IN GOD.

DELIVERANCE FROM TROUBLE.

EXAMPLE.

EXPOSITION OF SCRIPTURE.

FAITH.

FRIENDSHIP.

THE FAMILY.

FROWARD MAN.

GOD.

GRACE.

GROWTH IN GRACE.

HAPPINESS.

THE HEART.

HEAVEN.

HELL

HERESY.

HOLINESS.

HOPE.

THE HOLY SPIRIT.

HUMAN JUDGMENT.

HUMILITY.

HYPOCRISY.

IDLENESS.

INABILITY.

THE JUDGMENT.

JUSTIFICATION.

LIFE.

THE LIVING REDEEMER.

MAGISTRATES.

MEDITATION.

MINISTERS.

NATIVE DEPRAVITY.

OLD AGE.

OMNISCIENCE OF GOD.

OPPORTUNITIES.

PAPAL INFALLIBILITY.

PARDON OF SIN.

PASSIONS.

PATIENCE.

PERSEVERANCE.

PRAYER.

PELAGIANISM.

PREACHING.

PERFECTION.

POPULARITY.

PRIDE.

PROMISES.

PROVIDENCE.

PRUDENCE.

REDEMPTION.

REPENTANCE.

RESTITUTION.

RESURRECTION.

RETRIBUTION.

SACRIFICES.

SALVATION.

SANCTIFICATION.

SLANDER.

SATAN.

SELF-KNOWLEDGE.

SEPULCHRES.

SIN.

SINCERITY.

SINNERS.

SOUL

SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD.

TEARS.

THE TONGUE.

TRUST.

TRUTH.

THE WILL.

WORSHIP.

YOUTH.

INTRODUCTION.

In the course of a series of morning readings of the Scriptures in connection with Kitto’s Daily Bible Illustrations, I met with the first notice of Caryl’s Exposition of Job. The passage which attracted my attention is as follows:

“There is a work which few men possess, and which we are assured that no man alive ever ventured to read through. It is in two mighty folios, containing together between four thousand and five thousand pages of closely-printed matter, in double column. The grandfathers of our grandfathers liked to write such books, and even liked to read them. With patient diligence the author returned from day to day during half a life to his task, slowly building, brick by brick, the vast monument of his industry, his learning, his fame, and, it may be, sometimes of his folly. But the readers were of like sort. They had none of the modern fancy for small books which one may hold in the hand without wearying it, as he lounges in his easy-chair. They liked to see a great book which required an effort to lift, and which, therefore, remained a fixture upon their tables for months or years, while with strong powers of digestion, they returned day by day to take in a fresh morsel of the ponderous meal. There belongs to these days a story of this very book, that the son of a reverend divine left his father engaged thereon when he departed on a voyage to India,

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and on his return, found him still engaged on the first volume, though the pile of leaves to the left of the reader had indeed considerably increased, and that to the right diminished.”

All this work is upon the Book of Job, whose patience the author seemed bent on affording the world an opportunity of exemplifying. It is by Joseph Caryl, “sometimes preacher to the honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, and more lately of St. Magnus, near London Bridge.” It was published in 1672, “Printed by Samuel Simmons, and to be sold at his house, next door to the Golden Lion, in Aldergate street.”

The sarcastic Warburton says that Job was strangled by Caryl,” and Owen calls this process of exposition a mode of treating the word of God which partakes more of entombing than of exhibiting it. Nevertheless, the patience which the work exacts will in the end be rewarded, as well as that of Job. It is not only an elaborate, but a most learned, sound and pious work — a mine from which he who has courage to explore it will come back laden with precious things. In a foot-note the author asks, “How is it that such books ever become scarce? Why should not all the copies have lasted as well as our own, which is in a perfectly fresh and sound condition? People do not willingly destroy such books as these; what becomes of them?” Shortly after reading the above, and having my interest in the work more thoroughly awakened by reading the extracts from it which are found in Kitto, I met with the Exposition in looking over the shelves of an old book-store, and it has been in my library for more than twelve years.

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The copy which I possess is in twelve quarto volumes, well preserved, and has evidently been carefully studied. On a fly-leaf of the twelfth volume, in the hand of one who was its owner in the year 1740, is written these words: ‘‘Lector, si cupis Dominum Cognoscere Libri’ — “Reader, if you seek for the Lord, inquire in this book.” The first volume was issued in 1651, and the last in 1666. There must have been some delay in the printing of this work, as the first preface was dated November 3, 1643, and the usual parliamentary notice concerning its publication was issued in May, 1645. Each volume of this work contains from five hundred to one thousand pages. The title-page of the first volume reads as follows:

AN

EXPOSITION

WITH

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS

UPON

The Three First Chapters of the Book of Job.

Delivered in xxi Lectures at Magnus,

near the Bridge, London.

By Joseph Caryl, Preacher to the Honourable Society of

Lincoln’s Inn.

James 5: Verse 10, 11.

Take my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord,

for an example of suffering, affliction and patience.

Behold we count them happy which endure. You have heard of the patience

of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord: that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.

LONDON:

Printed for Luke Fawn, at the Parrot in Paul’s Church Yard, and

H. Cripps and L. Lloyd, in Pope’s Head Alley, MDCLI. (1651)

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In his preface to the last volume the learned and pious author remarks:

“Through the all-disposing providence of God and the importunate call of not a few friends, I began this work; and now, after twenty-four years of travel, making twelve stages (in so many parts the whole has come forth), I am come to the end of it.”

The fact that several editions of his work were published within a few years shows the value which was set upon it in those days. Besides the folio copy alluded to by Kitto, and the edition in twelve volumes first issued, Home, in his Introduction to the Study of the Bible, speaks of it as having been published in six books, and adds, I have never had an opportunity of examining it, but Wachi eulogizes it in very high terms. It is now very little read or even consulted, few readers being able to wade through two large folio volumes.

But little has been recorded of the life of Caryl. He was a learned Nonconformist minister, who lived and laboured during the time of Cromwell, and who was so much in favour with him as to have been appointed one of his chaplains, in connection with Dr. Owen, to attend him to Scotland. In Neal’s History of the Puritans we meet with this brief notice of his life:

“Mr. Joseph Caryl, M. A., the ejected minister of St. Magnus, London Bridge, was born of genteel parents, in London, 1602, educated in Exeter College, and afterward preacher in Lincoln’s Inn. He was a member of the Assembly of Divines, and afterward one of the triers for the approbation of ministers, in all of which stations he appeared a man of great learning, piety and modesty. He

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was sent by the Parliament to attend the king at Holmly House, and was one of their commissioners in the treaty of the Isle of Wight. After his ejectment in 1662, he lived privately in London, and preached to his congregation as the times would permit. He was a moderate Independent, and distinguished himself by his learned Exposition upon the Book of Job. He died universally lamented by all his acquaintances, February 7, 1672-3, and in the seventy-first year of his age.”

In a foot-note by the editor it is added of the Exposition:

“This work was printed in two volumes folio, consisting of upward of six hundred sheets, and there was also an edition in twelve volumes 4to.” “One just remark,” says Mr. Granger, “has been made on its utility: that it is a very sufficient exercise for the virtue of patience, which it was chiefly intended to inculcate and improve.”

In a second note by the American editor it is said:

“It is not amiss to add that very few works of equal magnitude contain so much piety and good sense. This commentary — for such it may be termed — is highly prized, and a copy is never to be met with in a London catalogue but at a high price. It is one of the scarcest theological books, and, on account of its size, not likely to meet a reprint.”

This voluminous exposition of Job, of which such a variety of opinions is held, was first delivered by Caryl in the form of lectures to his people, few of which could have occupied less than an hour in the delivery, and many must have occupied an hour and a half. Many a congregation of modern times, accustomed to brief essays on some moral or religious subject, and looking anxiously for the last leaf

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of the sermon if it exceed half an hour, would have deserted such a preacher; and many others, who prefer to hear political discussions or popular harangues, mingled with pleasant stories and occasional flashes of wit, would have soon wearied of hearing these long and connected unfoldings and enforcements of gospel truths. But in those days, “the word of God was precious,” and Christians were fed and nourished by its glorious truths. Year after year they listened to that learned and godly pastor while he opened to their minds the Scriptures, and Sabbath after Sabbath came to see what new riches he had brought up from the mine in which all the week he had been busily at work. His sermon would never have drawn together a crowd in modern times. Probably the most judicious of homiletical critics would have called him prosy, and pronounced his style unsuited to the wants of the Church. There is much of apparently needless repetition, though the attentive reader will find that each repetition is designed to bring out a fresh thought, or to give to the first some new light. Each turn of the diamond presents a new series of brilliant refractions of the sunbeam that falls upon it.

There is much that appears prolix and dry, yet the patient reader will often be startled with some unexpected and precious display of gospel truths, when the author seems to dwell and insist upon some text that in his estimation might be passed over with but a moment’s notice. There is a quaintness of speech which may sometimes excite a smile, but it also serves to fix more indelibly in the mind the thought which it embodies. There is a marvellous facility of what might be called in a good sense “double

[9]

entendre,” which startles the reader with the power of the text of which he had never dreamed before. The author often indulges in a play on words, which is exceedingly rich and instructive. When speaking of the sin of rebelling against the light he says, “As God sometimes brings judgments upon men in perfection, so men sin against God sometimes in perfection.” He often uses the same word several times in the same sentence, but at each repetition brings out a new truth. When commenting on the verse (Psalm 92.12), “The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree,” etc., he says, “Here is not only a mention of growing, but of flourishing, and here’s flourishing three times mentioned; and it is growing and flourishing not only like a tree, but like a palm tree (which flourishes under oppression), and like a cedar (not growing in ordinary places, but) in Lebanon, where were the goodliest cedars.”

The lectures of Caryl abound in proverbial and pithy sayings, which are scattered in rich profusion through the whole work, many of which appear in the selections here made. The Exposition, which is a monument of his genius and piety — and, many would say, of his folly — though voluminous and full of repetitions and often prolix, is still a vast treasury of sound and learned criticism, of able and suggestive comments, and of pious and profitable reflections. It is too vast for any man to undertake to read through. Yet every page on which the eye rests contains some wise and pithy sentiment which may well be remembered, and often may serve as a subject for long and serious study. As a commentary on the Scriptures it is eminently thorough and scholarly; as a system of theology it is sound and com-

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plete; and as a work of practical and experimental religion[1] it is exceedingly rich and instructive. It is marvellous with what readiness and skill the learned author has pressed in other portions of the holy Scriptures to explain and illustrate the text of Job. His Exposition is indeed a thorough commentary upon the Bible.

In each volume there is an Index of Texts, used for his illustrations of the Book of Job. These indices extend over five or six pages each, with three closed-printed columns to each page. Frequently there is to be met a full and rich exposition of the texts thus quoted, serving to throw fresh light upon them in their new relations, bringing clearly to light the gospel in that most ancient of the biblical writings, and making thus a valuable commentary upon the whole of the sacred volume. This vast work is too voluminous ever to be reproduced from the press; nor, perhaps, is it desirable that it should be. Yet there is a mine of precious thoughts which will well repay the exploration on the part of those who have access thereto. There are valuable suggestions which will give to the thoughtful food for contemplation and subjects for investigation. There are instructions for the advanced Christian, comforting words for the afflicted, and clear and vivid statements of gospel doctrine which all may read with profit.

The collation and arrangement of the few out of many thoughts which are here brought together has been a work full of pleasure and profit. If it shall prove so to others, the labour expended thereon will not have been in vain.

J. E. R.

EDGEWATER, STATEN ISLAND, October, 1868.

ANALYSIS OF THE BOOK OF JOB.

The main subject of the Book of Job is contained in one verse of the 34th Psalm: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Two questions are handled and disputed fully and clearly:

1st. Whether it consists with the justice and goodness of God to afflict a righteous and sincere person, to strip him naked, to take away all his outward comfort; or whether it consists with the goodness and justice of God that it should go badly with those who are good, and well with those who are evil.

2d. Whether we may judge about the righteousness or unrighteousness, of the sincerity or hypocrisy, of any person by the outward dealings and present dispensations of God toward him.

The whole argument or dispute of the friends of Job may be reduced to this one syllogism: “He that is afflicted, and greatly afflicted, is certainly a great, open sinner or a notorious hypocrite.” But Job, you are afflicted, and greatly afflicted — therefore, certainly you are, if not a great, open sinner, a notorious hypocrite. Besides this, there are many discourses falling in collaterally which concur to make up the subject of the book.

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1st. We have the character of a discreet and faithful master and father in a family.

2d. We have the character of a faithful, zealous and just magistrate.

3d. We have a great discovery made in the secrets of Nature.

4th. Here are discourses of Christian morals, of the duties of equity from man to man, of the duties of piety which man owes to God, and of the duties of sobriety and temperance toward himself.

Lastly, here are many discoveries made about God in himself and his attributes — in his power, wisdom, justice, goodness and faithfulness. In a word, this book is a summary of all knowledge, human and divine.

Respecting the division of this book, we may regard it —

1st. As a dialogue, having eight collocutors or speakers; or,

2d. As a disputation, with opponents, respondents and a moderator.

3d. We may divide the book into three parts, and so it sets forth — 1st, Job’s happy condition; 2d, his calamity; 3d, his restoration.

As for the scope or use of this book —

First. It aims at our instruction, and that in diverse things:

1st. It instructs us how to handle a cross; how to behave ourselves when we are in a conflict, whether outward or inward; what the postures of the spiritual war are, and with what patience we ought to bear the hand of God and his dealings with us.

2d. God would have us learn that afflictions do not come by chance

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— that they are all ordered by Providence, in the matter, in the manner and in the measure.

3d. Another thing we are to learn from this book is this: the sovereignty of God — that he has power over us, over our estates, our bodies, our families and our spirits; that he may use us as he pleases, and we must be quiet under his hand; when he comes and will take from us all our comforts, we must give all glory to him. This book is written for this especially, to teach us the sovereignty of God and the submission of the creature.

4th. It teaches us that God sometimes afflicts his children out of his prerogative; that though there is no sin in them, which he makes the occasion of afflicting them, yet to exercise his grace in them, for the trial of their graces and to set them up for examples to the world, God may and does afflict them. Though no man is without sin, yet the afflictions of many are not for their sins.

5th. There is this general instruction which God would have us learn out of this book — that the most justly-possessed and best-secured estate in outward things is uncertain; that is, there is no trusting to any creature comforts.

6th. God would show his people the strength and stability of faith. How unconquerable it is — what a kind of omnipotency there is in grace! God would have all the world take notice of this in the Book of Job, that a godly person is in vain assaulted by friends or enemies, by men or devils, by wants or wounds; though he is even benighted in his spirit, though God himself takes away the light of his countenance from him, yet God would have us learn and know that over all these a true believer is more than conqueror. For

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here is one of the greatest battles fought that ever was between man and man, between man and hell, yes, between God and man; yet Job went away with the victory. True, grace is often assaulted; it never was or ever shall be overthrown.

7th. This also we may learn — that God never leaves or forsakes his own, totally or finally.

8th. Lastly, the book teaches us that the judgments of God are often secret, but they are never unjust; that though the creature is unable to give a reason for them, yet there is an infinite reason for them. These are the general uses from the general scope and intendment of the book by way of instruction.

Secondly. This book serves to convince and reprove —

1st. That slander of worldly men and of Satan, who say that the people of God serve him for their own end.

2d. It is to convince and reprove all those who judge the spiritual estate of those who are under the hand of God in sore afflictions by some unbecoming and rash speeches which may fall from them during their conflicts when troubles and sufferings are upon them.

3d. To convince and confute those who judge men’s spiritual estates by God’s dealing with them in their outward estates.

4th. To convince and confute that cursed opinion that a man may fall finally and totally away from grace and from the favour of God. God has shown by this history that such an opinion is a lie. Certainly God would have all the world know that free grace will uphold his forever.

5th. To convince all those of pride and extreme presump-

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tion who think to find out and to trace the secrets of God’s counsels, the secrets of God’s eternal decrees, the secrets of all his works of providence; whereas God shows them in this book that they are not able to find out or comprehend his ordinary works; they are not able to comprehend the works of creation: how are they able then to find out the counsels of God in his decrees and purposes and judgments?

Thirdly. There is much for consolation —

1st. That all things work for the good of those that love God.

2d. That no temptation shall ever take hold of us but such as God will either make us able to have, or make a way of escape out of it. We can be in no condition, cast so low, that the hand of God cannot reach us, find us, send in deliverance, and raise us up again.

Lastly. There are two general exhortations —

1st. We are exhorted to the meditation and admiration of the power and wisdom of God from all the creatures.

2d. To glorify God in every condition, to have good thoughts of God, to speak good words for God in every condition. We are drawn to this by considering how Job (though sometimes in vehemency of spirit he overshot himself, yet he recovers again and again) breathes sweetly concerning God, showing that his spirit was full of sweetness toward God, even when God was writing bitter things against him, as when Job says, “Though he kill me, yet will I trust in him,” nothing could express a more holy or submissive frame of heart in reference to the dealings of God with him than this.

SEED THOUGHTS,

ABUNDANCE.

ABUNDANCE cannot satisfy. Only he is well who has enough; and he is best who has (in temporals) the least enough.

A MAN does not live more days, nor more cheerfully any day, because he lives plentifully.

AS there are some graces of a Christian which do not come to trial till we are in want, so there are other graces which do not come to trial till we have abundance. Want tries our patience and our dependence on God, and abundance tries our temperance, our humility, our liberality, yes, and our dependence on and faith in God for the sanctifying blessing, and making comfortable to us, what we have. — JOB 22.28.

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IT is hard to abound in riches and not to trust in them.

TO see a man rich in purse, and poor in spirit, is a great wonder.

THE godly do not please themselves that they have much good laid up for many years in their own stock, in their lands, in their houses, in their purses, in their shops; but they please themselves that they have good laid up for many years, yes, for eternity, in the promises of God.

SOME of the best servants of God have been afraid, when they have seen much of the world come in, lest God were to put them off with such worldly things; when their table has been full of fatness and delicacies, when they have had houses and lands, gold and silver aplenty, they have been troubled lest God were to say to them, “There is your all.” It is said of Luther, when he had a considerable present sent to him from a great prince (the duke of Saxony, I remember), this came from his heart:

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“I hope God will not put me off with these things. With gifts from princes I shall be hungry as long as I live, if I have nothing to feed upon but what is of the world; and I shall be poor as long as I live, if I have no other treasure but what is earthly;”

and thereupon he protested that he would not be satisfied with the best things of this world, though he would be content with anything.

ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD.

A GODLY man is (as we may say) one of God’s acquaintances.

THOUGH God does not refuse acquaintance with many poor souls when their necessities drive them to him, yet it is best to acquaint ourselves with him for the love we bear to him, or the desire we have to enjoy him, rather than for the need we have of him.

TILL we acquaint ourselves with God, we can have no peace with him.

OUR daily holy walking is a daily acquainting ourselves with God; every step of a holy life is both toward and with God.

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GOD is ready to give peace, or to be at peace with those that acquaint themselves with him.

ADVOCATE.

SIN has made a breach; there needs a Mediator to heal it.[2] God and sinful man are two, and they cannot be made one except by a third. Christ appears for us in heaven (Heb. 9.24).[3] He appears as an attorney in court for his client.

CHRIST is very ready to speak for and plead the cause of poor sinners before God his Father. Christ is easy to be entreated; if he is found by those who do not seek him; then surely he will be found by those who do seek him.[4]

WE are sure all shall go well with us in the court of heaven while we have Christ our Advocate with the Father. And that we may have full confidence to come to God by Christ, let us consider these five things:

1st. Christ is most wise to manage our cause — so wise that he is the wisdom of the Father.

2d. Christ is an eloquent Advocate, a powerful

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Orator. As no man ever spoke like him to man, so no man ever spoke like him to God.

3d. Christ is a faithful Advocate. His intercession is a part of his priestly office. We have a faithful High Priest, therefore a faithful Advocate.

4th. Christ is a merciful Advocate. He lays our cause to heart; our cause is his cause. He has espoused the interests of his people, and does all on his own account. Christ had an ability of sufficiency to be merciful to us as God, even if he had never been made like us by becoming man; but he would not have had that ability (as some speak) of idoneity, or fitness to be merciful. His being made like us has given him a double idoneity for the tenderness of his heart toward us. First, in that he himself suffered, being tempted; his passions in the flesh were great. Secondly, in that he himself suffers still in all our temptations; his compassions with our flesh are great. Now an advocate who has either experienced trouble in his own person, or is full of the sense of his client’s trouble, will certainly do his utmost to relieve him, because in his relief he is also relieved himself.

5th. Christ is the favourite of the Judge; it is a great advantage to have one pleading for us at the bar who is a favourite of the bench. Christ is

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highly in favour with the bench. God has testified from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” The Judge is our Advocate, Friend and Father.

Lastly, that we may be well assured that he will do his utmost for us, our Advocate calls us his friends. As the Judge is his friend before whom he pleads, so every saint is his friend for whom he pleads. Some will do more for friendship than for a fee. We know it is so with Jesus Christ; he pleads for his people because they are his friends. This, Job makes use of here: “He will plead for a man with God and the son of man for his friend.” As if Job had said, “I know that I have a friend in Christ, and Christ looks on me as his friend, and therefore I have highest confidence that he will plead my cause and take off this scandal.” — JOB 16.21.

THE Mediator between God and man has been known in all ages under a twofold nature — both God and man.

ADVICE.

THE good which others do by our advice and counsel, is reckoned as done by ourselves.

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IT is a wise course in advising others to show ourselves ready to follow the same advice. It was a speech of one of the ancients, “I never taught my people anything but what I had first practiced and experimented myself.” Doctrine is sooner followed by the eye than by the ear. He that, like the Pharisees, says and does not do, shall find but few to do what he says. It is very sinful to give counsel which we will not take. Our works ought to be the practice of our words, and as practicable as our words. Woe to those of whom it may be said, as Christ said of the Pharisees, Matt. 23.3, “Whatever they bid you to observe, observe and do that; but do not do according to their works.” — JOB 5.8.

IT wins exceedingly with others to take our counsel, when it appears we are ready to follow the same.

COUNSEL ourselves. It puts strength into a rule when he that gives it, is ready to enliven it by his own practice.

COUNSEL is the extract of reason, both about what we are to do or leave undone.

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HASTINESS in counsel always makes waste, and so does hastiness in action.

THOSE who will not take time to consult about what they do, may have time enough to repent of what they have done.

AFFLICTIONS.

AFFLICTION is the trial and touchstone of sincerity. When God afflicts you, then he brings you to the touchstone to see whether you are good metal or not; he brings you then to the furnace to test whether you are dross or gold. Affliction is the great discoverer that unmasks us. Some will hold on with God as long as the sun shines, as long as it is fair weather. But if the storm arises, if troubles come — whether personal or public— then they pull in their heads, then they deny and forsake God, then they draw back from and betray his truth. While religion and prosperity go together, it is hard to say which a man follows; but once they are forced to a separation, where the heart was, will soon be manifest. — JOB 1.11.

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AFFLICTIONS send the people of God home to God. “Then Job fell down and worshipped.” Afflictions are a great advantage to the servants of God; for when the world frowns most, then they beg most for the smiles of God; when the world is strange to them and will not look at them, then they get more familiarity and close communion with God. When God is striking, then Job is praying; when God is afflicting, then Job falls to worshipping. Grace makes every condition work glory to God, and God makes every condition work good to those who have grace. — JOB 1.20.

IF we bless God in our afflictions, then our afflictions are blessings to us. We have so much blessing in our afflictions that we can bless God for our afflictions. Here is a heavenly alchemy: Whatever affliction you touch with blessing God, you turn that affliction to a blessing. If you have an iron yoke of affliction on you, only touch it with blessing God, and it turns it into gold. When you have a heavy cross upon you, ready to weigh you down, only touch it with this word from the heart, and it makes it like a crown of glory on your head. — JOB 1.21.

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WHEN God afflicts us with sufferings, we ought to afflict ourselves to humble our souls for sin. Stinging times are good repenting times; and worldly sorrow should get the company of godly sorrow. It is not safe to be alone with worldly sorrow that works death; but if we mingle tears for sin and our unkindness to Christ, with these tears [of godly sorrow], they will refresh us. There is no question that Job at this time (of his affliction) fell to searching his heart and trying his ways, renewing his repentance and assuring himself of his peace with God. When afflictions cause us to respond thus within our own hearts, then they have a secret influence, a blessed operation upon us. — JOB 1.20.

A CROSS without a Christ never made any man better; but with Christ all are made better by the cross.

NATURALLY every man seeks the reason for his sorrows and afflictions outside of himself. When man is afflicted, he is not willing to admit that he is himself the cause of his afflictions, or to acknowledge that they spring from his sin. — JOB 5.6.

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AFFLICTIONS come from God. When God gives, it is an act of bounty; and when he takes, it is an act of justice — for he is sovereign Lord in both. Every evil of affliction or of trouble is said to be the Lord’s doing, because it cannot be done without the Lord. Wicked men in all their plots and all their successes, are either the rod of God to chasten his people for their sins, or else they are God’s furnace to try his people’s graces and purge them from their sins. Hence in all our afflictions we should look beyond the creature. In all the evils we either feel or fear, let our hearts be carried up to God. — JOB 1.20.

GOLD is never wronged by being tested,

IT is not correction, but the hand of God in it and with it, which makes us happy.

WHEN God lays the rod of correction on his child, he aims at purging his sin, at preventing his sin, and at revealing a fatherly displeasure against him for sin.

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EVERY affliction is a messenger from God.[5] It has something to say to us from heaven, and God will not bear it if his messenger is despised, however much.

WHEN God lays his hand upon us, he would have us take it to heart. Some err by neglecting the hand of God as light, and others by fainting under it as too heavy. Just as a good heart takes notice of or will not despise the least comfort, so it will take notice of and not despise the least cross.

AFFLICTIONS are but the higher services and employments of grace.

AFFLICTIONS, blessed and made effectual by God, make a gracious change in man. How many ignorant men have, with correction, received instruction! How many proud men have been made humble, and how many carnal men have been made spiritual! How many unruly spirits have been brought within the compass, and stubborn ones subdued with a rod! The rod and the word work miracles when God works with them. — JOB 11.12.

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GOD takes the most eminent and choicest of his servants, for the choicest and most eminent afflictions. Those who most received grace from God, are most able to bear afflictions from him.

AFFLICTION does not hit the saints by chance, but by direction. God does not draw his bow at a venture. Every one of his arrows goes on a special errand, and touches no breast but that against whom it was sent. It is not only the grace but the glory of a believer when he can stand as a bulls-eye,[6] and take affliction quietly.

A GODLY man may see two things in the heaviest strokes of his affliction, which may provoke him to thanksgiving — at least which may stop him from all immoderate complaining. First, that God regards his good in his heaviest afflictions, and that the outcome will certainly be good to him; and secondly, that however heavy God’s stroke is, his sin deserved a heavier one, and that God could have made it heavier — even his little finger could have been heavier on him than his loins have been. — JOB 23.2.

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ALL the afflictions of this life are less than our sins.

AFFLICTION is called a rod because it stings in regard to the hand that uses it, and the end for which it is sent.

AFFLICTION does not separate us from Christ. When Job could call nothing in or of the world his own, he could call Christ his; though not his health, strength, riches, friends, or beauty — for all these had departed from him — yet he could say, My Redeemer, for Christ had not departed from him. This was Paul’s assurance and the triumph of his faith (Rom. 8.35).[7] Unless saints could be conquered, indeed, unless Christ himself could be conquered, saints cannot be separated from Christ. — JOB 19.25.

WHEN prayer is sent out with a cry to God in affliction, it is a wonder if it is not quickly heard. Just as affliction puts us to crying out to God, so crying out puts God to doing for us.

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SAINTS have days of affliction, and the wicked have an eternity of affliction.

WE can never be brought so low by any affliction or disease that God cannot bring us up again. How easily God can command resurrection from affliction, who can command it from the grave! And therefore, by resurrection from the grave, he represented to Ezekiel the resurrection of his people Israel from their affliction.[8] Both or all things are alike easy to Him to whom nothing is hard.[9] — JOB 30.19.

AS frost and cold kill the weeds and worms which eat the roots and hinder the growth of herbs, corn and plants, so afflictions kill our lusts — those worms and weeds that breed and grow in our hearts, always hindering the fruitfulness (sometimes to utter unfruitfulness) of the seed of the Word sown among us and upon us. So when we are in the winter of affliction, let us not be impatient nor unquiet; let us not think that the past will ruin and undo us. Cold weather does us good as well as hot. — JOB 38.28.

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THE scope of God in the afflictions of his people is not their hurt, but their good; it is not to destroy them for their sin, but to destroy sin in them; it is not to withdraw himself from them, but to draw them nearer to himself. All the hurt that the Lord intends us by any affliction, is but to get out our dross and to fetch out our filth— to bring us from those things that will undo and ruin us forever. And how great an argument of the goodness of God it is, that he designs the evils which we suffer in these dying bodies, to heal the evils and to help on the good of our immortal souls! That’s all the hurt that the Lord means us. And the Lord’s heart is so much in this design (the return of those he afflicts, from their iniquity) that he seems confident of it, that when they are in affliction, they will surely return. And therefore the prophet (Isaiah 9.10)[10] speaks of the Lord as defeated and disappointed of his purpose, when he sees those he has afflicted, continuing in their sins.[11] Remember, the Lord therefore allows you to be bound in fetters, that you may be loosed from your sins; he therefore allows you to be held in the cords of affliction that you might let go your transgressions. Take heed you are not found disappointing him of his purpose. — JOB 30.10.

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GOD usually reveals himself most to his people after great sufferings.

GRACE never grows more in a gracious heart, than in a day of trouble.

A BELIEVER thrives (as to the inner man) in affliction, however much he loses and goes backward as a man.

BLESSED afflictions, which make us less to ourselves, and make all creatures less to us! We are never so much in God’s eye as when we are least in our own, nor do we ever have so much of God as when we expect little or least from man. Therefore, say it is well with the righteous when they are in the deeps of affliction; for it is only to bring them off their mountain of pride, that they may be exalted in the strength and love of God, even upon the mountains of his holiness and their glory forever.

AFFLICTIONS (as in the prodigal’s example) bring us to thoughts of returning to God.

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AFFLICTIONS bring the saints nearer to God. Troubles abroad cause the soul to look inward and homeward.

IT is our duty to pray most, and usually we pray best, when it is worst with us; when we are near the mire and dust, prayer is not only most seasonable, but most pure.

BRIBERY.

BRIBE-TAKING hands are blotted hands, not only because to take bribes is a blot, but because taking them makes many a blot both in the mind of the taker, and in the matter or business which he undertakes.

A TRAVELLER coming to Rome, and viewing many famous structures and sizable houses there, asked who built them? It was answered, “These are the sins of Germany.” The meaning was that the money bought for pardons out of Germany built these houses. So we may say of many fair places and sizable dwellings, these are bribes and oppressions — such a man built these by iniquity.

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SOME have built houses with what they have gotten by bribes; and many, by taking bribes, have gotten enough to build houses.

BRIBES may build houses, but bribe-takers cannot protect them. The tabernacles of bribery shall be consumed. — JOB 15.34.

MANY give bribes to undo others, and all who receive bribes undo themselves.

CHARITY.

CHARITIES done in faith as a holy offering to God produce a sure increase. To give with a right heart to the poor is the best way of growing rich.

CHARITY, especially spiritual charity, is very liberal and open-hearted. Job instructed not only his own, but he instructed others. He did not confine his doctrine and advice to his own walls, but the sound of it went wherever he went. He instructed many.

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THERE are four special acts of spiritual charity; so we may call and distinguish them. First, instructing the ignorant; secondly, encouraging the weak and slothful; thirdly, supporting those who are ready to fall; and, fourthly, comforting those who are ready to faint. — JOB 4.1.[12]

IT is a duty of those who are full, to give to their empty brethren. It is their sin if they do not give, and it is their shame if they are not most free in giving to those who are most modest in asking.

CHASTISEMENTS.

CHASTISEMENTS usually mean those afflictions which God lays upon his own children. He lays judgment upon the wicked and punishments upon the ungodly, but properly and strictly, what falls upon his own people is called chastisement.

CHASTISEMENT is for amendment. The evil of affliction is brought upon us so that we may take heed of and turn from the evil of sin. Therefore, to go on offending while God is chastening, is to add rebellion to our sin.

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THE chastisements of God upon us are our documentation. He speaks by the rod beyond all the eloquence of words (Micah 6.9): “Hear the rod.” The voice of God is his rod; it speaks so loudly from heaven, in many strokes, that the profanest sinners are sometimes forced to hear and acknowledge it.

THE cross is a school in which those who are dull in hearing what God speaks to them in his word, are wonderfully revived by his rod. “The words of the wise are as goads;”Ecc 12.11 and surely these goads of affliction are pricking, piercing words for promoting and pressing on a lazy soul in God’s work. — JOB 33.19.

FEW hear when they are spoken to until they feel as well as hear; and therefore the Lord first sends them into trouble so that they may hear; and having opened their ears to hear by that means, he brings them out of trouble. When we are truly humbled by affliction, we are near deliverance from affliction. The bandage must be kept on till the wound is healed. The Lord will not quit scourging or correcting his people till he has

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brought them to such a posture that they are fit for mercy.

THE godly never increase more in knowledge than under the cross.

CHRIST.

CHRIST not only pleads our cause for us, but he pays our debts. He entered into bond for us, and took all our debts and duties upon himself — whatever we owe to God — to ensure all is performed, that we might go free and be accepted. — JOB 17.3.

TO a soul in bitterness, everything is bitter except Christ; and to a darkened soul, no sun shines bright but the Sun of Righteousness.

AS the needle in the compass is in continual motion till it points toward the north where (it is conceived) there are rocks of loadstone with which it sympathizes, so the soul is in continual motion until it points to Christ, who (we are sure) is that living Rock with which all believers sympathize, and the true loadstone which attracts all believers to himself. — JOB 3.3.

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A GODLY man is an epicure in Christ. In the thoughts of Christ he sits down and would take his fill. He says to his soul, Do you see Christ and take notice of these promises? You have goods laid up in him, in them for many years, yes, for eternity. Soul, take your ease; take it fully; you have riches; you have an estate that can never be spent. Soul, eat, drink and be merry. His flesh is food indeed and his blood is drink indeed.Joh 6.55 Joy in Christ is joy indeed — unspeakable joy here, and fulness of joy hereafter.1Pet 1.8

CHRIST is not only the principle of holiness, but also the pattern of holiness to his people. Those who say they abide in him must also walk as he walked. His works (except those which were miraculous, and works of mediation between God and us) are our rule as well as his Word. Look to Jesus when you are in sufferings and have a race of patience to run; let your eye always be on Christ, and draw the lines of your carriage, both in your spirits and outward actions, according to what you see in him. We must follow his steps both in the matter and manner of our sufferings. Therefore Christ says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.”Mat 11.29 — JOB 5.1.

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CHRIST saves to the uttermost, because he suffered to the uttermost. He was not spared one blow, one drop, one sigh, one sorrow, one shame, one circumstance of all or any one of those which Justice could demand as a satisfaction for man’s sin. Yes, though (in a sense) he cried to his Father that he might be spared, yet he was not.

THERE is no stability in any state apart from Christ. When Adam fell, if God had restored him again and set him up in the same condition in which he had been — indeed, in a better condition (if a better one could be had), without a Mediator, and so tested his obedience once more — or if every particular man had stood for himself and not one for all, then certainly, just as we fell at the beginning, all in a lump together, so we would all have fallen singly (as it were), one after another! There is no assurance in any estate this side of Christ. Christ is called the “surety of the covenant,” because he undertakes for us what we will do on our parts, so that we will be faithful and believing, so that we will be holy and humble, so that we will do what God expects from those whom free grace shall save. Christ undertakes for all, the grace and holiness and faithfulness which is required in believers.

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He gives no command except what he himself helps us to fulfil, nor does he call for any duty except what he himself works in us and for us. — JOB 4.18.

LET us be much in remembrance of Christ humbling and abasing himself for us. What can kill pride if the humblings of Christ do not? Oh how many of us school and catechise our souls with the remembrance of Christ in his abasements! What a humble Christ and a proud Christian, a humble Master and a proud disciple! Christ emptied himself and made himself of no reputation; and shall we who are but emptiness, be lifted up with a reputation of ourselves, or with a reputation which others have of us? Did he abase himself into the form of a servant, while we lift ourselves up as if we reigned as kings? He humbled himself and became obedient to the death of the cross, and what have we to glory in but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ? Think often and much of the humblings of Christ, and then you will think of yourselves as mere nothings. This is the most effectual means, through the Spirit, to bring down the swellings of the heart and to hide pride from man. — JOB 33.17.

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SINNERS, under a fourfold consideration, may hide themselves in Christ: 1st, if humbled sinners; 2d, if confessing sinners; 3d, if reforming sinners; 4th, if believing sinners. Christ is a hiding-place for all such sinners. — JOB 34.32.

CONFIDENCE.

CONFIDENCE is an act beyond faith; a soul confiding[13] walks in a higher region of grace and comfort than a soul believing; there may be believing when there is not this confiding. Just as patience is hope lengthened, so confidence is hope strengthened. Assurance is the highest degree of faith, and confidence is the highest degree of assurance. It carries with it — first, cheerfulness, opposite to sorrow; secondly, courage, opposite to fear and despondency of spirit; thirdly, boldness and adventurousness, opposite to cowardice. Confidence, having a good cause and a good call, will take a bear by the tooth or a lion by the beard. Fourthly, it denotes boasting, or a kind of a spiritual-wise bragging, opposite to sinful modesty or a concealment of what God has done for us. Or take it this way: confidence is the noblest exercise of faith which, looking steadily upon God in himself, and

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in Christ through the promises, raises the soul above all fears and discouragements, above all doubts and disquietments, either about the removing of evil or the obtaining of good. Hence, confidence is called the rest of the soul; therefore those who attain confidence are said to be in peace, in perfect peace (Isaiah 26.3). And this act of confidence or trust, is properly and uniquely [directed] to God; no creature must share in it. This is worship commanded in the first precept. Whatever we confide in, unless it is in subordination to God, we make it our god. And it is one of the highest acts of the soul, not only in respect to taking in our own comforts, but also in giving out glory to God. This confidence is well-coupled with holy fear; the more we fear God, the more we trust him. Such fear is the mother and nurse of confidence; but confidence is directly contrary, indeed, contradictory, to carnal fear. The one who trusts God indeed leaves both his soul and body, his temporal and eternal estate, with God, without sending even a fearful thought or a jealous look after either one. — JOB 4.6.

IT is a sad confidence that proceeds from ignorance, and a sad fearlessness that has no ground but carelessness.

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TRUST or confidence in God settles the heart in all conditions. When there was an unquietness upon the soul of David, he first questions his soul about it: “Why are you disquieted, O my soul?” and then he directs it to trust in God. So the prophet promises (Isaiah 26.3): “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you; because he trusts in you.” He that is carried and tossed about with every wind of trouble and gust of sorrow, shows he has not cast this anchor of hope upon the Rock, Jesus Christ.

IT is a great part of the happiness of our lives to have a confidence or quietness of spirit about the things of this life; nor is anything more unattractive or uncomfortable for a saint than distrustful thoughts and fears. To carry a troubled mind and a troubling frame of spirit about with us, lest some evil befall us, is more grievous than the present suffering of evil. Distrust is one of the worst diseases or sicknesses of the mind; and to be anxious about our earthly enjoyments is as bad as to trust in them. Just as our hopes should be above the creature, so likewise our fears.

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CONFESSION OF SIN.

TIMES of affliction are special times of confession and repentance. Usually in prosperity, at leisure, men will not search their hearts and take notice of their sins. Therefore the Lord draws them to confession by drawing them away from the world, by laying them on sick beds, or by bringing them into straits.

A MAN would better fall into the hands of the most cruel tyrants in the world, than into the hands of his own conscience. The awakened conscience carries in it as a thousand witnesses, and so a thousand terrors.

THE holiest man on earth has cause to confess that he has sinned.

EVERY confession of the evil we do, is a new obligation not to do it any more.

HOLY confession of sin leads the way to gratuitous[14] pardoning of sin.

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TO dig in the earth and hide our sins in the napkin of our excuses, is worse than to hide our talents in the napkin of our idleness.

SOME confess sin only in general terms because they do not know what their sins are; or they have quite forgotten them.

CONSCIENCE.

THAT man can never lack music whose conscience speaks in concert and is harmonious with himself.

A GOOD conscience is the best pillow to sleep on, and the best dish to feed from.

NOTHING beside the blood of Christ can stop the voice and still the cry of an awakened conscience.

WHEN our own book of conscience has nothing but good in it, we need not fear (and not much care) who writes books against us.

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IT is better to have the reproaches of all the men in the world fall upon us, than the reproaches of conscience. Better that all the men in the world call us hypocrite and wicked, than conscience should tell us so.

CONSCIENCE is a very busy faculty of the soul, and it has many offices. First, conscience is a register, to take notice of and record what we do. Secondly, conscience is a witness against us when we do things amiss. Thirdly, conscience is a judge, and it gives sentence; it sits upon a throne as God’s deputy to award life or death. Fourthly, conscience has the office of a tormenter; it is that worm which does not die, and a fire that never goes out. The damned shall feel the sting and teeth of conscience forever, though here they have bribed it and blinded it, that it might not trouble them.

CONVERSION.

IN conversion, not only the acts, but the state and nature of a man are changed. He who was nothing but a bundle of unrighteousness before, becomes a righteous man; that is, he has a righteous principle planted in him and abiding with him.

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BARE reason is farther from grace than sense is from reason. It would be as easy to change a beast into a man, or to make a beast understand reason, as to change a sinner into a saint, or to make a believer out of an infidel. Conversion is not the change of actions only, but of nature.

GOD must convert the sinner, not the preacher. It is God who both thrusts man down by a gracious work of repentance and self-abhorrence, and raises him up by a powerful work of faith and holy confidence in Jesus Christ. When man has done his best, he can do nothing effectually; only God can.

A CARNAL man will never submit quietly to duty till God has changed his nature and made him a new man, or until his mind is renewed in the image of God. Conversion is first a change of our nature, and then of our way. This is what makes conversion so difficult a work. Good education and human instruction may change a man’s way, but nothing less than the power of God can change his nature.

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CONSISTENT CONDUCT.

NEVER brag of your good intentions, or that you have good hearts, when your hands are foul. The heart may keep its filthiness while the hands are washed; but if the heart is washed, the hand will not keep its filthiness.

IT is very possible for a man who has a clear heart to foul his fingers, but he will not wear them foul.

THE preparation of the heart will be seen at the fingers’ ends; purity of spirit cannot consist with impurity of life.

THERE is no holiness in having a show of goodness, but the very shows of sin are evil.

THE two heads of religion, or the two main hinges on which all religion turns, are purity of doctrine and clearness of practice. Holiness of life and soundness of opinion, constitute a perfect man. — JOB 11.4.

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THERE are two things which exceedingly declare the holiness of a man’s spirit: First, when he can patiently bear loads of evils and wrongs in his own case, and are only privately regarded. Secondly, when he is ready to take fire in the cause of God. When we are angry with sin, we are angry, and sin not.Psa 4.4

WHEN Alexander the Great met a common soldier whose name was Alexander, he said to him, “Be sure you do nothing unworthy of the name of Alexander.” The apostle exhorts, “Let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” It is a great argument, seeing that all who profess the gospel are called Christians from Christ, that they should therefore adorn that most worthy name, by worthy walking.

TO be plain and simple, to have a spirit without tricks and turnings, without knots and riddles, is better and more honourable than the highest titles of honour. Integrity is our perfection under the covenant of grace, and simplicity is our greatest excellency. It is the fundamental excellency

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of God himself, and so it is of his people. That which is truly simple, is truly perfect in its kind, and therefore the same word signifies both simple and perfect; this is the glory of grace and the grace of glory. How glorious we are when this precious stone of integrity, this spiritual Thummim that is fixed in our hearts, sparkles in all our ways!

Those who are truly humbled and touched with a clear sight and deep sense of their sins, will do whatever the Lord commands, and as he commands.

COMFORT.

HE only can comfort us in outward afflictions, who can command the creature; and he only can comfort us in our inward grief, who can convince the conscience. None can do either of these but God, and therefore consolations are from God. Luther spoke truly, “It is easier to make a world, than to comfort the conscience.”

TO minister comfort to the sorrowful is a greater point of charity, than to minister bread to the hungry or clothing to the naked.

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CHRIST is the true Noah. Lamech said of Noah (Gen. 5.29), “This man shall comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands.” It was not in Noah to comfort, except as God made him a comfort; and he was said to comfort as a type of Christ. Christ is true comfort; he is comfort clothed in our flesh. Noah sent a dove out of the ark, which returned with an olive branch. Jesus Christ sends the Holy Ghost, who is the Comforter, with the olive branch of true peace to our wearied souls.

THERE are three things which should comfort us much in our afflictions. First, that they cannot last always; they will always have an end. Secondly, that they are medicinal and healthful; they are for our good while they continue. Thirdly, we may expect that just as they will surely have an end, so they will surely end comfortably. God will not only bring our troubles to an end, but he will give us sweet fruit at the end of them as a recompense for all our trouble.

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COMPASSION.

TO weep for those that are in hard days, to be grieved for those that are pinched and pinned with poverty, is a duty to which we are called under a threefold consideration:

1st. As men, being of the self-same nature, mould, and matter as those who are troubled or poor.

2d. As being subject ourselves to the same special troubles with which others are troubled.

3d. We should sympathize with the troubles of many, as being of the same faith with us.[15]

HE that has helped others out of their afflictions, may with probability look for pity in, and help out of, his affliction. 2Cor 1.4-6

THOSE who have experienced the compassions of God for themselves (as every gracious soul has), cannot help but be moved with compassion for others.

EVERY helpless and comfortless soul is as an orphan without parents, as a widow is without a husband. To relieve them is pure religion.

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AS it is the support and comfort of the whole Church, as it is of every believer, to remember that Jesus Christ bears their burdens with them, so it is a great stay and comfort to suffering saints that their fellow-brethren are affected by their condition and take compassion on them.

OUR verbal compassions for the poor are poor things, and our tears are but dry things, unless we give the poor bread. The heart of Christ was full of trouble for those of us who were sick and in trouble; but he did not stay at that; he took care to deliver us out of our trouble, to cure us of our sicknesses, and to make us happy forever. He not only pitied us in our poverty, but he took a course to make us rich, and to set us up in a good and plentiful estate again.

A TRUE friend can hardly be revealed in prosperity, and a false friend can hardly be hidden in adversity.

WE have not done our duty in pitying the distressed, unless we come to really assisting them. We do not satisfy our obligation to the bond and law

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of love by giving comfortable words. Just as that faith which is alone without works does not justify us, so the pity which is alone without works does not justify our faith. Such empty pity will go for little better than cruelty, and not to help will be interpreted as oppression.

EXPERIENCE.

EXPERIENCE is the mistress of truth. Truth is called the daughter of time, because experience brings forth many truths, and the word of God is made visible in the works of God. In experiences, the promises of God stand forth; and in experiences, the threatenings of God stand forth and show themselves. All the experiences that we have in the world are only so many exemplifications of the truths contained in the promises or threatenings of the word. — JOB 5.3.

THE experience we have of God’s power and mercy in saving us out of former troubles, breeds and nourishes hope against future times of trouble. Tribulation works patience, and patience

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works experience, and experience works hope. Graces have a generation one from another, though all have but one generation from Christ at once. We have here the genealogy of hope in their descents. Experience is the next or immediate parent of hope. So the poor have hope. Thus it is begotten. God who delivers us from so great a death, and does deliver, in him we trust, that he will yet deliver us. An armed, daring Goliath should be looked upon as vanquished already, when we can but remember a vanquished lion and bear. — JOB 5.16.

DAYSMAN.

THERE are five things belonging to a daysman, or an umpire:

1. He must be agreed upon and chosen by both parties; for unless he is accepted by both of them, he can have no power to determine for or against either of them.

2. He must hear both sides speak, and allege what they can for themselves, before he determines.

3. He must beat out the matter by interrogatories and questions; he must not stay upon the bare narrative of the persons.

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4. He must have power to conclude and determine of the differences between them.

5. Both parties must be bound, at least by promise, to stand to the determination which he will make.

There is indeed a Daysman between God and man, but God himself has appointed him. God has referred the difference between himself and man to Jesus Christ; and his own good will and free grace moving him to it, he stands engaged in the bonds of everlasting truth and faithfulness, to perform what Jesus Christ, as Mediator, would ask for us. To him we may safely commit our cause and our souls with that assurance of the apostle (2Tim. 1.12), “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” Christ, God-man, is umpire between God and man. What we trust him with shall not miscarry; he will make our cause good and our persons acceptable before God in that great day. — JOB 9.33.

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DEATH.

SLEEP is a short death, and death is but a long sleep.

WHEN the saints die, they have a change and no change. As a worthy among us once said when he was ready to die, “I shall change my place, but not my company. I shall have a new house, but my old society.” The saints converse with God; they live with God while they live in the world; they converse with Christ and have communion with the Spirit; they converse (among men) chiefly with good men on earth; and with all these they shall have converse in heaven. Here is no change. Yet the saints have a great change, and a blessed one, when they die. They change from all outward evils — all their troubles shall be removed; they change also from spiritual evils — all their corruptions shall be removed; there shall not be so much as a sin or any remnant of sin remaining in them when they remove from here. Here is a happy change. Yes, they shall have not only no sin within them, but no temptation without them; no Satan to tempt, as well as no corruption to side with temptation. — JOB 14.14.

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THE saints receive their call to death as a call to rest; and though the body for awhile lies down in the dust, yet they know what is prepared for the soul; and when the two meet together again, both shall be called to an everlasting rest. — JOB 14.15.

TO have death, the king of terrors, and the living, the ever-living God, falling upon a poor creature at once, is ten thousand deaths at once.

THAT which makes a man die with true courage, and step with holy boldness into the grave, is to believingly remember that Jesus Christ died and lay in the grave, not only before us, but for us, and that he has worsted[16] and conquered that king of terrors on his own ground, the grave.

DEATH is good to those that are good. Death carries them beyond the reach of affliction, and frees them from all the evils of this life.

Those who live like the wicked shall die like the wicked, and live with them — if theirs may be called a life — forevermore.

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SOME translate death into such terrible shapes, and represent it to themselves under such frightening forms, that they live in bondage through the fear of death all their days. Do as the Spirit of God teaches you: clothe it with pleasant expressions; call it the undressing and unclothing of yourselves; call it rest; conceive it under the notion of sleep, and then you will not fear, but welcome it. — JOB 14.12.

DELIGHT IN GOD.

FALSE and carnal spirits will express a great deal of desire for salvation. Oh they like salvation, heaven and glory well, but they never express any longing desire for God and Jesus Christ. They love salvation, but they do not care for a Saviour. Now what faith rests most on, is God himself: he shall be my salvation; let me have him, and there’s salvation enough. It pleased holy David more in Psalm 18.1, 2,[17] that God was his strength, than that God gave him strength — more that God was his deliverer, than that he was delivered. It pleased David, and it pleases all saints, that God is their salvation (whether temporal or eternal), more than that he saves them. — JOB 13.16.

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AS it is the spirit of sinfulness to delight in sin, so it is the spirit of godliness to delight in God.

Those who have seen and tasted how gracious the Lord is, will be calling for more such sights and tastes; and the more they have had of these sights and tastes, the more they will desire them. As it is the property of a godly man to delight in God, so he promises, indeed he assures himself of more delights in God, if only he could get and keep his heart to meditate more of God.

DELIVERANCE FROM TROUBLE.

THE Lord can deliver us as often as we need deliverance; in six troubles, yes, in seven. This should bear up our hearts in the multiplied returns of troubles. Though (as rheumatic old age is described in Eccles. 12.2) the clouds return after the rain — that is, though one evil follows or treads on the heel of another — though as soon as one black cloud is dissolved and we begin to say (as in nature), This was a rainy day, but the next will be fair —the next proves still more overcast and lowering than that;

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even in such a case, know that God has a wind in his fist which he can let out to scatter those clouds before they dissolve; or if they dissolve, he has a sun at his command to dry up the fallen rain. The Lord has a succession of mercies for our succession of sorrows. Do not say then, We have gotten off this trouble, but what if another comes? If another comes, you have the same God, and he can give you another deliverance. — JOB 5.19.

GOD saves and delivers his people from all evil, even while they are in the midst of trouble. If God is with us, though all evils are upon us, yet no evil touches us. The presence of the Chief Good is banishment to every evil. To be kept from the evil of trouble, is a deliverance from trouble while we are in trouble.

NOT only our eternal deliverance, but even our temporal deliverances and mercies, are purchased by the blood of Christ. A believer does not eat a bit of bread that he does not have by virtue of the purchase of Christ. Christ has bought all good for us, and Christ has bought us out of all evil.

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EXAMPLE.

IT was the error of the old Pelagians that error was not traduced[18] into the nature of man by the fall of the first man, but that sin is continued by imitation. Children (they say), seeing their parents or others do evil, take it on by example. Now, though this has been justly condemned as a gross error, and the contrary has been asserted both as a scriptural and experiential truth — that the whole mass of mankind is steeped in sin by nature, and that we have the root of every evil matter in ourselves — yet it is also a truth that we do bad by example, and that sin is mightily increased by imitation. What one does, others are apt to do, and most men go where they see others go rather than where they ought to go; indeed, they begin to conclude that they may go safely enough in a bad way, if they see others go before them in it.

THERE is a great power in example. What is done persuades as well as what is spoken.

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EXPOSITION OF SCRIPTURE.

TRANSLATE the sense of Scripture into your lives, and expound the Word of God by your works. Interpret it by your feet and teach it by your fingers; that is, let your workings and your walkings be Scripture explications.

THE teachings of the Spirit, the teachings of God himself, are chiefly to be looked after and prayed for, so that we may know the mind of the Spirit, the will of God in Scripture.

I WOULD rather know five words of Scripture by my own practice and experience, than to know ten thousand words of Scripture — yes, than the whole of Scripture — by the bare exposition of another.

HE has his pulpit in heaven who teaches hearts, the heart of Scripture. Paul was a learned Pharisee and greatly versed in the law; yet he says of himself before his conversion, that he was without the law. But when Christ came to him, then the commandment came to him.Rom 7.9

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A WALKING or breathing commentary goes infinitely beyond the written or spoken commentary.

IT is easy to paddle in a clear stream till it runs muddy; but it will not be for any man’s ease or peace to do so in the clear, crystal streams of the holy Scriptures. We should labour to deliver our minds plainly concerning the mind of God, that what we utter may not be a darkening of his counsel, but as much as it is in us, a clarifying of it.

FAITH.

WE must often believe where knowledge is shut out — we must believe where we cannot understand. Abraham followed the call of God by faith, not knowing where he went.

IF God works marvels and we do not believe him, does he not have reason to marvel at our unbelief? God loves and values the faith of man so highly, that sometimes he bids a miracle for it rather than go without it. — JOB 5.9.

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THE eye of faith is usually quickest in a dark night; while trouble is near at hand, behold Christ near at hand. He can never be without help, who carries help around with him, or within him. — JOB 6.14.

FAITH is the soul’s taster. Faith is the mouth of the soul, which not only tastes but chews the promises and manifestations of God to his people, and so it makes food of them.

AS faith is one principal piece of our spiritual armour whereby we overcome temptation, so it fetches the whole of the armour of God, even the strength of God.[19]

A GODLY man takes God as his own, and appropriates him by faith in all his relations. Faith takes not only a share in God, but all of God. A believer, as it were, engrosses God to himself, yet he desires and endeavours that everyone, as well as himself, may have their part and portion in God — yes, may have God for their entire portion.

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LET us not pin our faith or our consciences upon men, however great or ancient they are. We must not reverence any man’s person to the prejudice of the truth. Believe what is said because you judge it to be true; do not believe it is true because such or such a man has said it. How strictly and religiously this is to be observed in hearing the word of God, and the doctrines of faith! In that case, be sure to lay aside all that concerns the speaker, and weigh what he says only and singly in the balance of the sanctuary. — JOB 32.9.

NOTHING but faith in God can make us still stand when we are ready to fall.

HE that does not have faith, has nothing to get a mercy with; and he that does not have a broken heart, has nothing to put a mercy in.

FAITH gives the soul a view of Christ in all his excellency and glory, in his love and in his loveliness, in his righteousness and holiness. Faith gets a view of Christ in all his beauty, and in beholding him, we rejoice with joy unspeakable.

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FRIENDSHIP.

THIS is the great difference between the love of God and that of most men: God is the best friend to us at all times (he is best to us in the best of times; if we did not have him as our friend, it would be very bad for us even when most are our friends); but God is best of all to us in the worst of times; a best friend to us when we have no friends; he is our spring when the rain falls, but he is our surest, sweetest spring when there is no rain or dew upon the face of the earth. Therefore he is compared (as in Jer. 2.13 and other places) to a living fountain, where you may be sure to find living water in the hottest season. This infinitely commends the love of God beyond that of men, who at the best are but broken cisterns, which leak out the comforts they are trusted with, and for the most part are like Job’s brooks — they turn aside and pass away when we most need them. — JOB 6.21.

RUTH was a true pattern of a faithful friend and brother, even though a daughter. I went out full (said her mother-in-law), but the Lord has brought me home empty. But though she was

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emptied of the world, yet Ruth’s heart was full of love for her: “I will not leave you. God do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me.” So says faithfulness among Christian friends. It is one of the greatest duties and commendations of Christian profession, to stick to and stand by one another; whether it is foul weather or fair, whether the winds blow high or low, whether stormy or calm — ever the same. — JOB 6.21.

ADVERSITY and affliction are the touchstone of friendship.

THE FAMILY.

A FAMILY well visited and ordered is usually a prosperous family.

SIN spoils the comforts, and cankers the blessings, of a family. Sin brought into a house rots the timber and pulls down the house, or it undermines the foundation and blows up the house. The sin of families is the ruin and consumption of families. — JOB 5.24.

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IT is a great and special point of godly wisdom well to order and visit a family. Families are the principles or seeds of a commonwealth. As every man is a little world, so every house is a little kingdom. A family is a commonwealth in a little volume, and the rules of it are an epitome of all laws by which whole nations are governed. The apostle makes it a special character of his bishop that he must be one who rules his own house well, and subjoins the reason: “For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God? (1Tim. 3.5). And therein wraps up this truth, that he who knows how to rule his own house well is in good posture of spirit for public rule. — JOB 5.24.

FROWARD MAN.[20]

“WITH the froward you will show yourself froward.” That is, if men are winding and turning and thinking to catch others, or to overreach the Lord himself with tricks and turnings of wit, the Lord will meet and answer them in their own kind. He can turn as fast as they; he can put himself into such intricate labyrinths of wisdom and craft as will entangle and ensnare the most cunning wrestler or tumbler of them all. He will Cretize the Cretians, supplant the supplanters of his people. — JOB 13.5.

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ONCE the heart is free to do a thing, not only bent and inclined, but set and resolved to do a thing, then it is far from any fear in doing it. And when some men have ventured to sin once, and come off safe (as to any tangible hurt), they will venture again and again, and often, till at last they are persuaded that there is no venture in sinning, and there is no more (or possibly not so much) of a hazard in transgressing or disobeying.

GOD.

THE knowledge of God comes down from God. We know him when he makes himself known to us, and usually he does not make his fulness known to us till we make our emptiness known to him.

MAN’S inability to reach the perfection of creatures should teach him his utter inability to reach God in his perfection.

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GOD is himself most just and pure. Justice and purity are not qualities in God, but they are his very nature. A man may be a man and yet be unjust, but God cannot be God and yet be unjust. A man may be a man and yet be impure, but God cannot be God and yet be impure; so that justice and purity are not accidents or qualities in God, but his very essence and being. Destroy or deny the justice and purity of God, and you put God out of the world as much as it lies in you to do so: for he cannot be God unless he is both just to others and pure to himself. — JOB 4.17.

GOD is usually the last, but he is the best refuge. When we have recounted the story of our sorrows and sad condition, and poured our wants into the bosoms of our most faithful friends, yet this apostrophe is the sweetest to the soul when we can turn to God: Oh remember me! The one who does not know how to complain to God, or to speak out about his sorrows and griefs in the ear of Christ, will gain little by complaining to the creature (even though he receives much). But so long as we have a God to turn to, and to spread our cause before, though men turn from us and forget us, yet it is enough that we have said, O Lord, remember me! — JOB 7.7.

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ONE God helping is more than all men opposing.

IF at any time we have unbecoming thoughts of the justice of God, either that he afflicts the good without reason, or prospers the wicked against reason, all this arises from our ignorance or the shortness of our sight. We do not have a full or perfect belief about things; we see but a little way backward; we are not wise to compare what is past with what is present, nor can we infallibly foresee anything future or discern what shall be. Whereas God at once has all things before him; he sees what is past as well as what is present, and what shall be hereafter, as well as what has been; and so he sees the completeness and indefectibility of his own justice in all. And when in the great day we see all the works of God in the world brought and presented together in one view, we will then say from the evidence of sight, as now we ought to say from the evidence of faith, that the Almighty has not perverted judgment in anything. And therefore the apostle most excellently and appropriately calls that day, “The day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” — JOB 34.13.

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THE power of God is primitive or underived power. His power is of himself — indeed, his power is himself. God does not rule by deputation or commission. All ruling power is fundamentally in him, as also the rule of that power, both of which in God are one.

As the power of God is underived or proceeds only from himself, so it is absolute and unlimited. In the strictest sense, his is imaginable, supreme power. None may presume to say to him, “What are you doing?” It is his prerogative to do what he will; and however much he acts by prerogative, he will do only what is right. We may consider the absolute supremacy of God in a fivefold exercise of power:

1st. In commanding. He commands what he pleases to be done; nor may his commands be disputed. They must be obeyed, because they are his.

2d. In prohibiting. He forbids whatever displeases him to be done. And however pleasing, however right anything is in our own eyes, yet if he forbids it, we must forever forbear it. We all know by our own sting, how dangerous it is to eat from a forbidden tree.

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3d. In allowing. I do not mean allowing any evil in himself (God is infinitely above that), but allowing others to do evil, or allowing any evil to be done. God permits what is naughty, wicked, and unrighteous to be done in the world, and yet he himself remains altogether holy, righteous, just, and good. This is a great part of the transcendency of his power.

4th. In rewarding. God has absolute power to reward — 1st, when he wills; 2d, for what he wills; 3d, in what kind he wills; 4th, in what degree or measure he wills; 5th, for how long he wills. He can give everlasting reward (which none of the princes of the earth can do).

5th. In punishing. God has absolute power to punish, and the absoluteness of his power in punishing may be exemplified in these five particulars in which his power of rewarding consists. And inasmuch as there is such a supremacy, such an absoluteness of power in God, take these three inferences from it:

First. How freely we should yield ourselves to the commands of God, not questioning this as unequal, or saying it is hard. We are more apt to find fault with the work which God requires us to do, than to remember that it is a great fault not to do it.

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Secondly. Seeing that God has charge of all the earth, we should as readily submit to his dispensations, works, and dealings as to his commands.

Thirdly. If the Lord is supreme, then let us set him up as supreme in all things. Let his ends be above our ends. Let us consider God in all we do. He who is over all ought to be honoured by all. All our actions, like so many lines, ought to centre on the honour of the one who is the centre of power. — JOB 34.13.

GRACE.

A GODLY man labours to exalt God, both in his thoughts and in his words, when God depresses and humbles him most. Grace prompts the heart to indite a good matter,[21] and bids the tongue to be like the pen of a ready writer, to advance God when sense feels nothing but sting, and sees nothing but sorrow round about. Grace is in her heights when she can lift up God highest while he is casting us down and laying us lowest. When we can honour God frowning upon us, as well as smiling upon us, smiting and wounding us, as well as kissing and embracing us, then we have learned to honour God indeed. — JOB 9.10.

A gracious spirit is a teachable spirit.

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GRACE will preserve itself in the midst of the greatest opposition. It is such a fire as no water can quench or wholly put out. True grace will keep itself sound and clean among those that are leprous and unclean. It is such a thing as overcomes and masters all the evil that is about it. God has put such a mighty power into grace that once it possesses the heart in truth — even though there is only a little of it, even though there is only as much as a grain of mustard-seed — not all the wickedness in the world — no, not all the devils in hell — can dispossess it. Just as all the water in the salt sea cannot make the fish salty, but the fish still retains its freshness, so all the wickedness and filthiness in the world cannot destroy, cannot defile, true grace — that will bear up its head and hold itself up forever. — JOB 1.1.

A GRACIOUS heart is willing to know and to see the worst of himself. He would have God teach him what iniquity he has done. A godly man never thinks he sees his sin enough. However little he sins, he thinks that he sins too much, and however much he sees his sin, he thinks he sees it too little.

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GRACE is magnified as much in working in us, as it is in saving us without works. That’s the reason why we are so often called to duty, though we have no power.

ALL our mercies flow out from the grace of God. That’s the fountain, yes that’s the ocean which feeds and fills all the channels of mercy which stream to us as our happiness in this world, and for our everlasting happiness in the world to come.

GRACIOUS men do not always hold out the same gracious frame of spirit. There was a time when Job was far from striving with God, or speaking anything which had the least shadow or favour of it. Yet in the process of the business, Job not only spoke those things which had a shadow of striving with God, but were real strivings and unattractive pleadings with him. His heart did not retain that first sweet, submissive frame throughout the affliction which appears to be admiration at the beginning of it. The state of grace always abides. It is not (as some affirm) losable; it is not, like the best things of the world, perishing.

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But even though a state of grace always abides, every man’s grace (if any man’s) does not always abide in the same state. The heat of grace may be cooled, the height of it may be abated, the strength of it may be weakened, and the beauty of it faded. Such changes and varieties are found on the most gracious frame of spirit which the best of saints have in this world. We have only this to hold to: The state of grace is unchangeable, and we are waiting for such a frame of grace as shall never change.

NO man can merit the least favour from God; his is free grace. All good comes to us through the Son of his love, and it was merely of his love that ever his Son came to us and died for us.

GROWTH IN GRACE.

A TRULY humbled and repenting soul is as careful to avoid the act of sin for the time to come, as to be freed from the guilt of sin past. He that loves God cannot abide doing any one thing which God hates; but just as he expects good out of all the promises, so he has regard for all the commandments.

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CONTINUED and repeated acts, though small, produce great effects. A believer finds no growth in grace, or in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by some one exercise, either in prayer or hearing the Word; yet by a constant attendance upon the Lord in these duties, he grows to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. — JOB 14.19.

TRUE grace increases by the ordinary use of it — and much more by the extraordinary trials of it. A believer thrives (as to the inner man) in affliction, however much he loses and goes backward as a man.

HAPPINESS.

A GODLY man is happy in the largest sense, in all senses, because his is not this or that particular good, but all good. And he is happy not only at this or that particular time, but at all times. He is as happy when he is suffering under the hand of God as when he is serving God — as happy in his passive as in his active obedience.

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HAPPINESS is the enjoyment of good, commensurate to all our desires. Happiness is the sum of all our desires, and the aim of all our endeavours. And when we have attained perfect happiness, we shall be at a full point both of our desires and endeavours.

GLORIFIED saints shall forever feed their eyes with unutterable delights in beholding the glory of Jesus Christ.

THE HEART.

THE heart of man is the ark or cabinet in which the Word must be laid up. As Christ has been the ark of the law to protect and cover us from its condemning power, so the hearts of believers must be the ark of the law, where it must be laid up with a readiness of mind, to yield ourselves to its commanding power.

THE heart is God’s uniquely. As only he has the lock and key of the heart, to shut or open it, so only he has a window to look into it.

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THE tongue should always be the heart’s interpreter, and the heart should always be the tongue’s suggester. What is spoken with the tongue should first be stamped upon the heart and wrought from it.

A hard heart is Satan’s cushion.

IF your hearts are disorderly, it is a kind of cursing God. Remember not only to keep your hearts when you are praying, and when you are hearing, and when you are in holy duties, but remember to keep your hearts when you are feasting and refreshing yourselves, when you are in your callings, and when you are buying and selling.

HEAVEN.

IN heaven, saints shall have their interest in God clear to them, undoubtedly clear, forever. There are very few who always see God for themselves in this life, or whose hearts are cleared from all scruples and fears about their interest in Christ. This is reserved for glory, where love shall be perfected. — JOB 19.27.

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SAINTS glorified shall ever behold and see the glorious body of Jesus Christ.

OUR complete happiness consists in the vision of God. Christ places the future happiness of the saints in the vision of his mediatorial glory: “Father, I will that they also whom you have given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory that you have given me.”

HELL

WE find this word “Sheol” taken five ways in Scripture:

1st. Strictly and properly for the place of the damned (Prov. 15.11).[22] God looks through the darkness of hell, which is utter darkness.

2d. It is put metaphorically for great and extreme dangers or miseries, which seem irrecoverable and remediless. These are figuratively called hell, because hell properly taken is a place from which there is no recovery. When David praises the Lord for delivering his soul from the lowest hell (Psa. 86.13),[23] he means an estate on earth of the lowest and deepest danger imaginable. Mercy helped him at the worst.

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3d. The word signifies the lowest parts of the earth, without relation to punishment (Psa. 139.8): “If I go down into hell, you are there.” He had said before, “If I ascend into heaven, you are there.” By heaven he means the upper region of the world, without any respect to the state of blessedness, and hell is the most opposite and remote in distance, without respect to misery. As if he had said, Let me go where I will, your presence finds me out.

4th. It is taken for the state of the dead, whether these dead are in the grave or not (Psa. 30.3; Isa. 38.18, 19; Gen. 37.35); in all these places, to go out of the world is to go into Sheol. Jacob said, “He would go down into the grave to his son mourning,” yet Jacob thought his son was devoured by a wild beast. He could not go down into the grave to his son, for the bowels of a wild beast were his supposed grave; but he means only this — I will even die, as he is dead.

5th. Sheol signifies the place where the body is laid after death, namely the grave (Prov. 30.16). Man has a dimension of earth fitted to the dimensions of his body; this portion or allotment is his Sheol. Yet it signifies the grave only in general as it is natural to mankind;

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not that grave which is artificial and proper to any particular man; this the Hebrew expresses by another word: “He that goes down to his grave goes to his long home — to a house out of which he is never able to see or make his way.” — JOB 7.10.

HELL is large to take in, but strait to let out — so strait that it will not let one out forever.

HERESY.

HERESY has these three things in it:

1st. In regard to the matter of it, it must regard some great and fundamental truths. The word heresy is derived by some from choosing, and by others from taking away, because it takes us away from Christ or from the foundations of saving knowledge.

2d. Heresy is accompanied with pertinacy[24] and obstinacy, even after clear light is offered. It is possible that one may have an error about fundamental things, and yet not be a heretic. A heretic condemns himself (Tit. 3.10),[25] but he will not be convicted by another. Not that he formally and

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specifically pronounces sentence against or condemns himself, but he does the equivalent, as the apostle (Acts 13.46) says to the unbelieving Jews: “Seeing that you reject the word and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life,” etc. These men did not judge themselves unworthy formally; they did not come to the apostles and say, We willingly submit ourselves to hell and wrath. No, they thought very well of themselves, and judged themselves worthy of eternal life. But their practice judged them and gave a real sentence against them, while they acquitted themselves. Thus also a heretic (whoever has a high opinion of himself and his opinions) condemns himself.

3d. Pleasure and delight is taken in heresy; therefore heresy is numbered among the lusts of the flesh (Gal. 5.20).[26] Heretics desire to disperse and vend their opinions. A man will weep over his opinions only in an error, and it grieves him that he differs and goes contrary to others. But the one that stiffly maintains an error, insults others and delights to maintain his opposition; he triumphs and boasts of his war, though he can never obtain victory. Only truth is victorious, and some learned critics observe as much from the form of the Greek word (Tit. 3.11).[27] So then, heresy is not only an error in judgment, but a pertinacy in the will, and it delights at the affections. — JOB 6.24.

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GOD is able to stop those seas of error and give a bound to those floods of false doctrine which are ready to overflow the face of the world. The sea or flood of the Arian heresy (which denied the deity of Christ, or made him barely a man by nature, only clothed with wonderful powers and privileges — this heresy, I say, like a sea or flood) had almost overwhelmed the whole world. Yet God compassed these black waters with bounds, and gave them a commandment which they could not pass; and though in this age they strive to return and overflow the earth, yet both the waters of this heresy and of all other damnable heresies (as the Apostle Peter calls them), which abound in these days and threaten us with a fearful inundation, are compassed with bounds which they shall not exceed.

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HOLINESS.

THE holiness of man consists in his conformity to God.

GOD is the objective cause of holiness; looking upon him we become holy. “We all with open face (says the apostle, 2Cor. 3.18), beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord (that is, we looking upon that glory, holiness and excellence which is in the Lord), are changed into the same image;” that is, we are made conformable to him. We receive (as it were), the engravings of holiness in our souls by beholding the Holy One. The eye of faith (as well as, yes more than, the eye of sense) affects the heart. Vision assimilates both in nature and in grace, yes and in glory too. In heaven we shall be perfectly holy, because we shall perfectly see God (in Christ, who is the express image of his person), and so be like him. And proportionately here, as our visions of God are, such is our likeness to God.

SEEING God is everywhere present, we should be everywhere holy.

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Those who want holiness must go to God for it, for he is the Holy One. Are any of your hearts unholy? Where will you go? To what coast will you trade for holiness? Or where will you find its merchandise? Go where you will — to whatever holy ordinance, to whatever holy duty, to whatever holy minister — your vessels will return unfreighted and empty of holiness if you do not tread to the holy God. We must deal with ordinances and by ordinances; but if we only have to deal with them, neglecting to meet with God, then we shall make nothing of them; we shall not traffic in them to any spiritual enriching or advantage. They are conduit pipes on the well-head, not springs. — JOB 6.10.

TO follow God is our duty. Godliness is god-likeness or an imitation of God; and practical Christianity is nothing but our imitation of Christ; and that is not only in doing, but in suffering.

HOLINESS consists in a complete uniformity or in conformity to the whole will of God. Some are first-table Christians[28] — others are second-table Christians. Some who are extremely cold in doing justice are zealous for prayer; some

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are extremely honest and just to men, are righteous in all their dealings, but they do not care for prayer, nor do they have any delight in communion with God. The law of God is one entire thing, and so man’s obedience must also be. He that offends in one point is guilty of all. — JOB 16.17.

HOPE.

NO man would be stirring, much less bestir himself about any business, if it were not for the hope of getting something. And as it is the hope of attaining that puts us to doing, so it is the hope of attaining that puts us to suffering. Who would suffer for Jesus Christ if he did not have a hope of attaining something better than he can lose by his sufferings? Therefore Jesus Christ has set that hope before us. To suffer rightly for Jesus Christ is so honourable that we should suffer willingly, even though we get nothing by it. Yet he has set a reward before us — a crown by his cross. He has assured us that all our losses — even our loss of life for his sake — shall turn to our gain and profit. Hope of attaining is the motive for every undertaking. No wise man will meddle with doing what is

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either impossible to do, or altogether unprofitable when it is done. Were it not for hope, the heart would faint — first, in labouring; secondly, in suffering; thirdly, in waiting. Hope is like a helmet on the head when we are in danger of blows (1Thess. 5.8); and it is like an anchor, both sure and steadfast, when we are in storms. — JOB 41.9.

THE loss of hope is the greatest loss. When God would show man’s worst condition, he says his hope is in vain; that pinches worst of all, and that’s what will pinch hypocrites most at last, who were in hope of enjoying God. Not only their labour, but their hope shall be in vain. This loss of hope will grieve more than the loss of heaven.

LET a night be ever so dark or tempestuous, yet the hope of the morning is a mercy and a light. How sick then, are those who are hopeless? Everlastingness is the head of the arrow, the sting and poison of all miseries; it is, indeed, the sting of hell. That hell is such a night as shall never see the dawning of day, has more torment and pains in it than all the pains of hell. What

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makes heaven so full of joy, is that heaven is above all fear; and what makes hell so full of terror, is that hell is below all hope. Heaven is a day that shall never see any approaches of night; and hell is a night that shall never see any dawning of day. — JOB 3.3.

THE HOLY SPIRIT.

WE cannot make pure prayer with our own breath, parts, and gifts. The Holy Spirit breathes pure prayer into and draws it out of our hearts.

AS it is the office of Christ to intercede for us with God, so it is the office of the Holy Ghost to make those intercessions in us, which we put up to God.

THERE is a threefold influence or work of the Spirit of God on the soul of man: First. To enlighten, or to give the light of the knowledge of his own glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Secondly. To convert, to work faith and repentance together with love, humility, etc. Thirdly. To refresh and comfort.

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These are unspeakable influences of joy distilled from the Spirit upon believers. And when God lets these influences down from heaven, who can stop them, what can stop them? All the troubles and sorrows, all the pains and tortures that man can invent or inflict upon the believer, cannot bind these influences of the Spirit, nor hinder his joy in believing. The greatest evils in this life cannot shut up or shut out that comfort which the Spirit speaks. The most churlish winds that can blow from the coldest quarters of the world cannot chill, much less kill or blast, these fruits of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. The soul grows green like a garden of pasture in the spring; the soul buds, blossoms and brings forth these blessed fruits abundantly when fed with these dainties and delicacies of the Spirit. Those great floods of trouble and persecution which the serpent anywhere and at any time calls out of his mouth, cannot prevail against the least drop of consolation wrought in the heart by the Spirit’s influences. Paul and Silas were bound in the prison; but their persecutors could not bind the sweet influences of the Spirit from comforting them, nor daunt them by any terror from triumphing in Christ. They could sing in prison, indeed, they sang at midnight. — JOB 38.31.

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HUMAN JUDGMENT.

WE are more ready to judge the sins of others great, than to judge our own.

WE are ready to judge their sins great, who are the greatest sufferers. The worst of sinners never suffered more in this world than the best of saints.

SUPPOSITIONS and conjectures are no fit grounds on which to build a judgment concerning the faultiness of others. We must not censure based on I hear so, I suppose so, I think so, but only I know it so. Many have run into great sin by judging the sins of others great. — JOB 22.5.

WISE men may err in judgment and in speech. Job’s friends spoke many truths, but did not apply them truly to Job’s case. The best men may not only miss, but mistake their mark.

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Those who are in the light — yes, who are in the light in the Lord — still have some darkness in them, and may both do and speak from that darkness.

WE are very apt to judge one another, but very backward to judge ourselves.

IF we consider the sum of what Eliphaz and his two friends spoke about God, we will find Eliphaz in this great mistake — affirming that all the sufferings and afflictions which befall man in this world are laid upon him by God as a punishment for sin. And all these joined in two other mistakes: First. That all wicked men sooner or later are visibly punished for sin in this life. Secondly. That though a good man may possibly suffer grievous afflictions in this life, yet God always delivers him out of them before he departs this life. Hence it must follow that if a man, for a long time, especially if all his life long, continues in great calamity, that man must be judged wicked, even though no apparent wickedness can be charged or proved against him. On these unsound principles, they were all confident to infer against Job that he was a hypocrite, and that all those troubles which befell him were inflicted by the righteous hand of God as a punishment for his sin. — JOB 42.7.

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HUMILITY.

THE way for us to humble ourselves for our own sinfulness is to look and consider the purity and holiness of God. If we set ourselves before him, we shall see how vile and corrupt we are. The Pharisee could pride himself in his comparison with other men (Luke 18.11). But, Pharisee, are you as God? pure and holy and just as he? Look upward, and pride will go down. — JOB 9.2.

IF the best man’s faults were written on his forehead, it would make him pull his hat over his eyes.

A GODLY man’s thoughts are lowest of himself. No man ever received a fairer or more valuable certificate from God than Job did; and yet no man could speak more undervaluingly of himself than Job did. — JOB 9.14.

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THE more holiness any soul has, the more humility it has.

THE better any man is, the more he is willing to know the worst of himself.

THERE is no greater argument of height in grace than low thoughts of ourselves.

THE dealings of God with man aim mostly to humble him or make him see his own vileness.

WHEN our hearts are truly humbled, mercy and deliverance are at hand. Job was no sooner made deeply sensible of his vileness but mercy came. The only skill of this excellent wrestler (as one calls him) was to cast himself down at God’s foot. There is no way of getting in to God or prevailing with him except by submitting to him. The Lord lays down his rod when we lay down our pride; and he casts his sword out of his hand when we cast ourselves at his feet. — JOB 40.4.

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THE more we know God, the more humble we are before him.

HYPOCRISY.

HYPOCRITES are well compared to a rush, because in windy weather they set whichever way the wind sets. They take no harm by a storm, because they yield to every turn; let the wind blow whichever way it will, the rush breaks neither body nor branch. Hypocrites keep their standing because they never stand. A great man being asked how he kept his honour and preferment in so many changes of wind and weather, of times and princes, answered, “By being a willow and not an oak.” He that can sway seldom breaks. Hypocrites in the Church and State live by the same principles. — JOB 8.12.

WE ought to reprove and not flatter sin in others; yet those who are extremely severe against a sin in others usually favour either the same sin or a worse one in themselves.

A hypocrite never does good out of love to God, but out of design for himself.

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A hypocrite is not worse than other wicked men because he has more sin than they, but because he hides his sin. Nor does the greatness of his sin lie simply in this — because he hides how sinful he is — but because he appears holy, which he is not.

WE may wrong a wicked man by calling him a hypocrite, but we cannot wrong any hypocrite by thinking of him all that’s wicked.

HYPOCRITES grow more wicked in heart while the hand of God — his afflicting hand — is upon them. The more they are under the rod, the more they rebel. If they did not heap up sin, they would not heap up wrath.

HYPOCRITES do not cry to the Lord, though he makes them cry. They are readier to find fault with God than with themselves in the day of adversity. They cry neither the cry of godly sorrow for their sin, nor the cry of godly prayers to help them out of their affliction. Those who are false with God in times of peace, seldom, if at all, repent, or duly apply themselves to God to help them in times of trouble.

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IDLENESS.

SLOTHFUL persons are to be numbered among thieves. Those who will get nothing for themselves by labour steal all they have from others.

TO nourish idle persons is to nourish theft. To succour the lazy poor is not so much to relieve their wants, as to strengthen their vices.

The life of play, is the life of a beast.

ADAM was not put into that pleasant garden only to take his pleasure and to eat of its fruit, but to dress and keep it.

INABILITY.

WE may be called to do what is not in our power to do. The apostle exhorts (Phil. 2.12), “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” He seems to give a strange reason in the next verse: “For it is God that works in you

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both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Our inability to work does not exempt us from working: we have a promise from God to make us able. We are commanded to do what we do not have so much will to do, because God is engaged in us both to will and to do; and that is not according to any predisposition of ours, but of his own good pleasure. Our Master in heaven shows us our duty, and then he helps us to perform it.

THE JUDGMENT.

THAT there shall be a general judgment has been known and believed in all ages. Just as Scripture authorities are full of it, so there are many rational demonstrations of it. For first, the judgments that have been, have shown that there shall be a judgment. Secondly, the lesser external days argue for it, so do internal judgment days. There is a day of judgment kept in the conscience of man, which tells us that God will keep a day of judgment at last concerning all men. Thirdly, judgment has not been fully executed in any age of the world. Fourthly, just as the Lord will have a time to acquit himself and to declare the righteousness of his judgments, so he will have a time to quit the

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integrity of his people and to set them right in the eyes of all the world. He will have a day in which there will be a fresh edition of the works of all his saints, with a comment about their own upright and honest meaning placed upon them, not racked and wire-drawn with the malice and misconception either of enemies or mistaken friends.

THE great work of judgment is appropriated to the Son as a part, or as the completion, of his mediatorial office. And it is only fair that judgment should be put into the hand of the Redeemer, and that he should come in all his glory when he comes to sit in judgment, because he has been judged and condemned; and because he has borne shame and dishonour while he himself stood in judgment. Christ not only died for us, but he was condemned to death as an evil-doer. There was not only pain in his death, but shame. He humbled himself in this indeed, and what is more, he became obedient and (which is the lowest obedience) he became obedient unto death (and which is the lowest and most ignominious death), the death of the cross. The apostle makes this threefold humiliation the ground of his threefold exaltation

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(Phil. 2.9, 10): “Therefore God has highly exalted him,” etc. He exalted him above the grave in his resurrection, above the earth in his ascension, and above the heavens in his session at the right hand of the Father.

This honour of Christ the Redeemer — to be the Judge of the world — carries a twofold effect in it, according to that twofold distribution of those who are the objects of this judgment:

First. It carries terror to the wicked who do not know God and who have not obeyed the gospel. There is nothing in condemnation more dreadful than to be condemned by a Redeemer. Those who are without Christ are without hope; how hopeless then, and helpless are those who are cast out by Christ! Who can stand before his wrath as a Judge, who as a Redeemer came to deliver us from the wrath to come? There are five things in this Judge which make his wrath most dreadful:

1st. He is such a Judge as the power of the most powerful cannot daunt him.

2d. He is such a Judge as the wealth of the wealthiest cannot bribe him.

3d. He is such a Judge as the wit and subtlety of the wisest cannot elude him.

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4th. He is such a Judge as there is no appealing from his sentence.

5th. What he sets down shall stand forever.

Second. This carries comfort and speaks joy to the saints. How sweet it is to remember that their Redeemer is their Judge. For,

1st. He being their Judge, the judge is their friend.

2d. He being their kinsman, is their brother.

3d. Their Judge is also their priest and propitiation. The one who will judge them, has satisfied for them, and knows how all reckoning and accounts stand between God and their souls; for he is the one who by his own blood has balanced and satisfied for them.

4th. The Judge is their advocate and intercessor.

Lastly. The Judge is the one who was judged in their behalf; and seeing he was condemned, bearing their sins, he will not lay those sins again upon those who have laid hold on him, and so condemn them. All these considerations laid together show how sweet it is for saints to remember that the Redeemer shall stand upon the earth to judge them. — JOB 19.25.

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JUSTIFICATION.

NO man can be justified by his works. One who mixes but one sin with a thousand good actions, cannot be justified by his works; how then can one be justified by his works if he does not have one perfectly good action among a thousand sins? One who would be justified by his works must not have one bad action among all his actions. One fly in the ointment corrupts all; one defect makes a sinner, but many good actions cannot make one righteous. — JOB 9.3.

MAN has nothing of his own to justify him before God. First, because the best of his righteousness is imperfect. God never took cockleshells for payment; he must have pure gold, and he sees well enough what poor stuff, what base coin the best of our righteousness is, and therefore he cannot admit any of it in justification. Secondly, all the righteousness wrought by man is a due debt. How can we acquit ourselves of any evil we have done, by any good which we can do, seeing that all the good we do should have been done, if we had never done any evil?

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“IF I say I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.” Observe from this that famous gospel doctrine, “No man can be justified before God by the works of the law.”Rom 4.2 It is as noble a proof of free justification in the Old Testament, as any in the New.

THE saints have been acquainted with this truth from the beginning — that man is nothing in himself, and that free grace does all. — JOB 9.20.

Those who would make themselves most holy, appear most unholy before God. Thoughts of our own purity render us impure. We are never so black before God as when we are whitest in our own eyes. We find the Pharisee (Luke 18.12-14) washing himself in snow-water and making his hands very clean. He tells us that he had fasted, and prayed, and given alms and paid tithes (this is to wash ourselves in snow-water), but the Lord plunged this Pharisee into the ditch; he portrayed him as a wicked man. The poor Publican plunged himself in the ditch, and judged himself fit to be thrown into the mire. But he went down to his house justified, rather than the other. — JOB 9.31.

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JUSTIFICATION (considered in the gospel notion of it) is that gracious sentence of God in which, with respect to Christ apprehended by faith, he absolves the believer from sin and death, and reputes him just and righteous unto eternal life. This doctrine of free justification is the foundation and cornerstone of all our comfort. For whereas there is a double change in the state of the sinner — first, a relative change; and secondly, an absolute and real change — the one is made in sanctification, and the other in justification. Sanctification is a real change, subduing corruption, destroying the power of sin in us. But justification is not a physical or real change in the person; it does not make the one who is unrighteous righteous in himself, nor is man at all justified (in this sense) by any self-righteousness, but it is only a relative change as to his state. To justify is a legal term; it signifies pronouncing or declaring a man righteous; so that justification is an act of God upon us or toward us. Sanctification is an act of God in us. This blessed grace of sanctification always follows the grace of justification as an effect or fruit of it; and though it may be easily distinguished from it, yet it can no more be separated or divided from it, than heat can be separated from fire, or motion from life. — JOB 25.4.

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GOD does not justify a sinner for anything that he finds or sees in us.

LIFE.

THE life of man is nothing else but a coming and a returning. It is but a flood and an ebb, and then we are carried into the ocean of eternity.

AS a man would give skin for skin, one outward thing for another, so a man will give all outward things for his life.

IF life is worth all, then hereby we may measure the love and bounty of Christ to poor sinners: he not only spent himself in all to his life, but he spent life and all that they might not perish.

SOUL and life are sometimes taken promiscuously or indifferently as the same thing; yet there is a very great difference between soul and life. The life is nothing else but the union between soul and body; but the soul is a spiritual substance, distinct from the body while remaining in it, and subsisting alone when separated from it.

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THE LIVING REDEEMER.

FOR I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.” To clarify these words, I will premise two general veins of interpretation:

FIRST.[29] The Jewish writers interpret this context of a metaphysical resurrection in reference to Job’s outward condition, or of his resurrection from a state of affliction. We have this sense of a resurrection illustriously held forth in Ezekiel 37.4-14, when the return of the people of Israel out of Babylon is described by the reviving of dry bones. Now I say the Rabbins generally, and also some of our learned expositors, take this strain here, conceiving that Job therefore calls God his Redeemer, because he had to that day preserved him alive in the midst of so many deaths and dangers; and also because he had a sure hope that through the power of God, he would survive them and be restored to the state of honour and riches he enjoyed in the former part of his life. They call this his resurrection and redemption.

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Three special reasons may be urged against this opinion:

1st. The height and spiritualness of Job’s language tell us that his hopes were fixed above this world’s felicity.

2d. Though his expressions in the letter may be fitted to this inferior sense, yet if we remember what has been touched more than once in the former passages of this book, we find that Job had disclaimed, as it were, all hope of restoration to any temporal happiness in this life, affirming that his hope was gone, and that he was worse than a tree cut down, of which there is hope that it will grow again, and that as he had no desire, so no expectation, of recovering his former beauty and greatness.

3d. He says that he will see God with the same eyes — that he will see him for himself and not another; which argues that he did not intend a resurrection of his outward estate; for what doubt could there be that if he were raised from affliction, he would see God with the same eyes, and that he himself would see him? But to believe the restoring of the same body, or the identity of

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the eyes of the body after all had mouldered into dust — this was a high act of believing. From these reasons it appears that Job presents his faith in a resurrection not to a temporal good in this life, but to eternal life. The argument of Job is this: “He that waits by faith in the Redeemer for the resurrection of his body to eternal life after death has done its worst, is not a wicked man or an hypocrite, as you have charged me. But such is my faith. I believe in the Redeemer, and I look to rise (after this body is consumed and eaten of worms) to an eternal happy life. You accuse me as rejected of God, yet I know that God is my Redeemer and that he lives forever; and therefore do not think, because I have no hope in this life, that I therefore despair of life. For I know that my Redeemer lives, and shall stand upon the earth at the latter day.”

The word which we translate Redeemer comes from a root which is applied three ways in Scripture: First, to buying again what was alienated by sale or mortgage; secondly, to rescuing or bringing back those who had been taken prisoners, by force or power, or by a price or ransom; thirdly, this word is applied to avenging the death of those who have been wrongfully slain, God (Numb. 35.12) is the avenger of blood, or the redeemer of blood, because he came to take vengeance on those who had unjustly shed the blood of his kinsman.

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Again, to be a redeemer is taken in two ways:

1st. It is taken largely for a deliverer or helper; so it is one of the names of God; and to redeem is both his work and his honour.

2d. It is taken more strictly as redeem. And the title Redeemer is applied to Jesus Christ, to whom also, I conceive, we may apply all those works of redemption which in the Old Testament are ascribed to God. For he was God the Redeemer from the beginning, long before he was God manifest in the flesh. In this strict sense, the word Redeemer suits Christ fully; for God signifies someone near to us in blood, and under special obligation to redeem us (Ruth 3.12).[30] In this strict sense, besides him there is no redeemer. For though God the Father in the Son by the Holy Spirit is our Redeemer, yet properly, and according to the signification of the word, Jesus Christ alone is our Redeemer. Taking our nature upon himself and becoming our brother, he had the right to redeem us, even as being God in our nature, he had full power to redeem us.

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The blood of Christ may be considered two ways in the work of redemption:

First. As the price of our redemption. “We are bought with a price” (1Cor. 6.20); “not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ” (1Peter 1.18).

Secondly. The blood of Christ carries the right of redemption. Blood implies near relation. As God made all nations of men of one blood, so he has made Christ and us of one blood (Heb. 2.14). “Inasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself took part in the same.” Christ as God had power to redeem us; but being Immanuel, God with us, one with us, a kinsman and brother, he not only had a right, but he was obliged to redeem us.

To clarify the point a little further, there are five things which concur to complete the office and service of our Redeemer:

1st. The Redeemer must be a kinsman.

2d. He must redeem on that ground or notion.

3d. He must deliver those who were under restraint or captivity from the hand of their enemies and oppressors.

4th. He must not pay any price to the oppressor.

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5th. He must pay the price to the true Lord, or into his hands, to whom the redeemed originally or of right belongs.

These five considerations meet in Christ our Redeemer. Fallen mankind may be looked at in two ways:

First. As being under the power of sin and Satan.

Secondly. As being under the power and justice of God.

When Christ came to redeem us, he paid nothing to the devil but blows. “He spoiled principalities and powers,” but he did not make their satisfaction. We owed the devil nothing; he was only an executioner to vex and afflict us; rather, Christ paid the price to the Father, under whose justice we had fallen; and so he exactly fulfilled all the duties and sustained all the parts of a Redeemer to the utmost.

Further, Job not only professes faith in a Redeemer, but in his Redeemer — my Redeemer lives. Every word in this confession is precious and weighty. Here he uses an appropriating word, yet he does not engross the Redeemer to himself, excluding others, but he takes his part with others. Those pronouns, mine, yours, his, are words of love, and drop like honeycomb with sweetness of affection. The first work of faith is to believe that Christ is

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a Redeemer; the second is to believe and rely upon Christ as a Redeemer; the third is to see an interest in Christ as my Redeemer. The faith of Job did not run upon generalities, but was fixed, set down and resolved to live and die by his living Redeemer. As if he had said, ‘Though I am mortal and dying, as also you my friends are, yet my Redeemer lives.’ He speaks of his life without any distinction of time, whether past or to come; God is forever “I Am.”

Again, when he says, My Redeemer lives, we must look at Christ not only as having life, but as the Lord and Prince of life. Christ as the eternal Word has life in himself; so also he has life to bestow at his pleasure, or upon whom he pleases.

Again, the words, “My Redeemer lives”: note the strength, activity and power of Jesus Christ — not a mere being or substance only, but might and strength. As if he had said, “Though I am weak, poor and miserable, though my life is so low and my body so dispirited that I may more fitly be numbered among the dead than among the living, yet my Redeemer lives and is mighty.” And thus Job ascribed efficiency and strength to him as well as life.

From this part of Job’s confession observe —

First. Affliction does not separate us from Christ. When Job could call nothing in or of the world his, he could call Christ his.

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Secondly. Observe that a believer may arrive at an assurance, at the full assurance, of his interest in Jesus Christ the Redeemer. Faith acts upon a sure ground; it is bottomed on the knowledge of a sure word — not upon an opinion — and it is not satisfied until it can say, Jesus is mine and I am his.

Thirdly. Observe that Jesus Christ was the Redeemer from the beginning. Christ speaks of the times as high as Abraham: “Before Abraham was, I am.”Joh 8.58 And the apostle Jude speaks higher of him, that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of the coming of Jesus Christ to judge the world;Jud 1.14 therefore he was certainly acquainted with the promise of Jesus Christ to redeem the world.

Fourthly. Learn that there is but one Redeemer. One is all, as the apostle testifies (Acts 4.12): “Nor is there any name under heaven whereby we must be saved, but only by the Lord Jesus.”

Fifthly. Note we have a living Redeemer. “Christ being raised from the dead, dies no more.”[31] In this life of Christ our comfort lives. First, in that he lives to us; that is, for our good, both in a temporal salvation from troubles, and in an eternal salvation from sin and condemnation.

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Secondly, that we live in him; he is our life, and our life is as safe as his. From this double comfort, issuing out of this great truth, I shall only intimate this single duty incumbent upon all believers — Live to Christ.

The SECOND article of Job’s confession is not only that his Redeemer lives, but that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. As the entire gospel-time is called the last time or the latter days, so there is a latter day which is more special and particular: and that is the day of the resurrection, or the Day of Judgment, which we may call the last of the latter days.

1st. The vulgar translation renders the clause, “He shall stand at the latter day,” in the first person, as Job’s profession of his faith about his own resurrection.

2d. This clause is understood by some metaphorically: “He shall stand” — that is, Christ shall conquer all his enemies.

3d. These words (as others conceive) at least intimate to us the incarnation of Christ.

4th. Others conceive these words speaking of Job’s faith in the resurrection of Christ from the earth.

5th. Yet (as I conceive) these words are more strictly to be understood of his coming to raise

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all flesh out of the dust, and then to proceed in judgment with them. Our bodies shall be raised out of the dust in the latter day by the power of Christ. Then those who are dead shall be redeemed from the power of the grave, and those who are found alive shall be redeemed from all the troubles and sorrows of life. Then Christ will wipe all tears from the eyes of every afflicted Job; then he will heal all the sores of his Jobs; then he will make all his Jobs like himself; those who lie on a dunghill scraping their sores with a potsherd when Christ appears, shall appear with him in glory. Yes, when the Redeemer stands upon the earth in the latter day, he will marry all his Jobs to himself; he will take them from the dust and lay them in his bosom forever. Therefore Job, and any saint in his condition or worse, might well rejoice and triumph in this faith: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth.” — JOB 19.25.

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MAGISTRATES.

MEN in power should not satisfy themselves with what will pass among or be countenanced by men, but consider what is right in itself, what is right in the sight of God, and that they are in the sight of God. A bad business may pass very well among men, and we may have advocates who answer for us and stop the mouths of all challengers; but can they stop the mouth of conscience? Can they blind the eyes of God or impose upon him? God is the Judge of all the earth, and he will at last sit in judgment upon all the judges of the earth. — JOB 31.21.

A GODLY magistrate will do just and righteous things, though all the world rise up against him.

BY however much magistrates are lifted above the fear of men, and however much all other men ought to fear them, they should conduct themselves that much more in the fear of God.

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SOME men are set to rule men who keep no rules. A wise man would not set them over his dogs.

MEDITATION.

MEDITATION turns the promises of God into marrow.

MEDITATION is the inward view of a thing, or beholding it with the intellectual eye; it is the continual turning of things over in the mind to behold the excellences and perfections in them.

THERE are two things which should be the daily meditation of saints, or they should continually acquaint themselves with them: First, the cross of Christ, that they may know how and be willing to suffer for him; secondly, the yoke of Christ, that they may know how and be willing to serve him.

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MINISTERS.

IT IS enough to make all ministers of Christ tremble and cry out in the apostle’s words, “Who is sufficient for these things?” to remember that when they speak to men, they speak in God’s stead.

GOD has not made his ministers lions to scare his flock, nor bulls to gore them, but shepherds to feed them and watch over them.

IT IS not enough merely to receive Christ’s messengers; they must be received as the messengers of Christ.

NATIVE DEPRAVITY.

MAN being naturally unclean, his children and posterity are unclean too. The copy cannot be better than the original, nor the effect nobler than the cause. This flesh has a bad name all the Scriptures over. The son of an Ethiopian is also an Ethiopian. Our father was an Ammonite, and so are we. The natural constitution of everything is transmitted by natural generation. Man is

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himself unclean, and all his issue is like himself. God created man pure, in his own likeness, after his image, and man begets man impure, in his own likeness, after his image. There are two things in this uncleanness:

1st. There is a privation of that attractiveness and beauty which was stamped on man in his original creation.

2d. The actions which he brings forth are unclean.

There are seven considerable properties in this uncleanness:

1st. It is an internal uncleanness, for even the mind and conscience are defiled.

2d. It is an abiding uncleanness. All the water in the ocean cannot wash it out; all the fire in hell cannot burn it out.

3d. It is an abounding uncleanness. It is not in the hand or face only, but in and upon the whole man; it goes quite through.

4th. It is an active or powerful uncleanness, stirring up an unholy war in man against the holy will of God.

5th. It is a diffusive or infectious uncleanness, like a leprosy or plague — first, by way of propagation from Adam; secondly, by way of imitation; and so one man doing evil, another sees and catches it: he is infected and defiled with it.

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6th. It is a bewitching and ensnaring uncleanness. All the bodily beauty in the world never enticed so many as the deformity and foul face of sin has.

7th. It is a murderous and mortal uncleanness. There is no escaping death if we live in it; it is the ruin as well as the dishonour of man. — JOB 14.4.

OLD AGE.

THAT old age is not venerable which has white hair, but which whitens with virtuous and worthy actions.

OLD age has no glory without wisdom to do righteous things; and when an old man is without righteousness, his old age is not his crown but his reproach.

OLD age is a blessing, and good indeed when we are old in goodness or grow old doing good. Better to die young than to live to old age, and then die in sin.

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SOME old men have nothing of old age in them except its infirmities.

OMNISCIENCE OF GOD.

HE that sees our ways and counts all our steps cannot be a stranger to what we are, nor to what we are doing or have done.

A GRACIOUS heart considers himself much and always under the eye of God. And as it shows a very holy frame of heart to do so, so it is an excellent means to keep the heart in a steady frame of holiness.

AS the Lord marks all our paths, so it will be our wisdom to mark our own paths.

OPPORTUNITIES.

SATAN observes and watches his time to fasten his temptations most strongly upon the soul. As the mercies of God are exceedingly endeared to us by the season in which they come to us, so when they come to us in our special need, how sweet is a mercy then!

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Our obedience is exceedingly commended to God when it is on a fit day, a day in which he calls for and expects it. And our sins are exceedingly aggravated by the season and time in which they are committed — What! sin on a day of trouble, a day of humiliation? As Elisha rebuked Gehazi (2Kings 5.26), “Is this a time to receive money?” Is this a time for your heart to run out sinfully after the world? So likewise the temptations of Satan are exceedingly embittered by the season, and he knows well enough what seasons will make them most bitter. And what can more embitter a cup of sorrow than to have it brought to us in a day of rejoicing?

Thus he did with Christ. It is observed that when Christ had fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward was hungry, then the tempter came. He lays hold of this advantage. He would not come till he was hungry, to persuade him to turn stones into bread. What a strength this temptation gained from the season! If Christ had been full, there would not have been such an edge, such a weight, on this temptation. How many does Satan tempt to turn stones into bread when he comes to them in hunger! You are in a strait,

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likely to starve and perish; procure yourself food and provision by unlawful and sinful ways — this is indeed to turn stones into bread.

It would be good if we were wise to imitate Satan in this respect — to choose our day to do good when there is the greatest probability of success, just as he chose his day to do mischief. It is the apostle’s rule, “As you have opportunity, do good.”Gal 6.10 If we were wise to lay hold of opportunities, it would be a wonderful advantage to us. As a word fitly spoken is a word on the wheel, so a work fitly done is a work on the wheel; on it goes— it takes on the heart both of God and man. Let us consider whether we now have a season, whether this is not a day, that holds out to us a glorious opportunity. Let us therefore be as quick in our day to do good, as Satan was in that day to do hurt.

This is a day in which great things are being done and grievous things are being suffered by many of our brethren. Therefore you should be working this day. This is a day in which the sons of Belial — men that will not have Christ’s yoke — are combining to break it and cast his cord away from them. So then, join this day to help Christ. Otherwise, as Mordecai said to Esther, “If you altogether hold your peace

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at this time (this was a day for Esther to work in), then enlargement and deliverance shall arise for the Jews from another quarter; but you and your father’s house shall be destroyed.” Est 4.14 So I may say to you in reference to the present opportunity: if you altogether hold your peace, hold your purses and hold your hand at this time, enlargement will come to the Church some other way. But you may be destroyed who think to hold and keep your peace, either by saying or doing nothing. If you would ever appear, this is the day to appear in, to do good. Let us be wise to manage and improve our day, so it may never be said of us as our Lord said of Jerusalem, Luk 19.42 “If you had known, even in this your day, the things which belong to your peace!” —JOB 1.13.

PAPAL INFALLIBILITY.

THAT which has fastened so many errors to the pope’s chair, and scattered them from there all over the world, is an opinion that he in his chair cannot err; his supposed spirit of infallibility has made him the great deceiver, and deceived him. He that thinks he cannot err, errs in thinking so, and seldom speaks or thinks or does anything that is not an error. The one who is most secured from error is the one who suspects that he has erred, and humbly acknowledges that he may have. — JOB 6.24.

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WISDOM is no man’s uniquely, and a great opinion of our own wisdom savours of great folly. The very head of that monster, papal pride, appears in this point. The pope thinks that he is the man, that he is the people, that all the wisdom and judgment of the world is contracted into him and fastened to the pummels of his chair, from which he would be believed to utter oracles with a spirit of infallibility. — JOB 12.2.

THE great cheat which the pope has put upon the world is that the Spirit of God is tied to the pummels of his chair, so that there he cannot err. But as particular men have erred, so whole councils of learned and aged men have erred.

TRUE wisdom is not the birth of time, nor the peculiarity of a party, but the free gift of the Spirit of God, who is most free both in what he gives, and to whom he gives.

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THE pope challenges himself that even though he may err in his private actions, as he is a man, yet as he is seated in the apostolic chair (in cathedra), and as he is the visible head of the Church, he cannot err; his will is the rule. We see what rule it is by the rule which it has given. Who can say that something is clean which produces an unclean thing, or what is straight and true produces what is crooked and erroneous? Sinful acts indicate a sinful man, and his acts have been sinful enough to speak of him (what is written about him) as “the man of sin.”

PARDON OF SIN.

PARDONED sins cannot hurt the sinner; and though it troubles him that he has sinned, yet his sins cannot trouble him. Once someone is purged, he has no more conscience about sin. This is the glory of the gospel. Free grace in justification takes all our sins off the file, as if they were not at all.[32] Pardon blots transgressions out of God’s book, and once they are blotted out of God’s book, we need not care who writes them in their own book, nor what books men or devils write against us. — JOB 31.37.

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THE greatest sins fall within the compass of God’s pardoning mercy. The grace of the gospel is as large as any evil of sin the law can charge us with. Whatever the law can call or show to be sin, the gospel can show a pardon for it; whatever the law can bind us with, the gospel can unloose. The mercy-seat covered the whole ark. The mercy seat noted the forgiveness of sins, and if you read the description of it (Exodus 25.17-21), you will find that it was exactly to a hair’s breadth of the same dimensions with the ark in which the Law was put, intimating that there was mercy and pardon for sin, let it come from any part of that Law laid up in the ark.

THE sin-pardoning mercy of God is one of the highest and most spiritual arguments by which the soul is kept from sin.

THOUGH your sins are great, when you come to ask pardon of them, do not be discouraged. As the greatness of sin puts a very great damp on the spirit of man in asking pardon, so the greatness of God removes that damp. There is nothing in which God more exceeds man than in

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pardoning sin. If sin is great, the mercy of God is great too — infinitely greater than the sin of man; if sin is great, remember we have a great High Priest (Heb. 4.14); and not only a Priest, but a High Priest, and a great High Priest: therefore do not fear to ask pardon for even the greatest sin, in his name and for his sake.

PASSIONS.

PASSIONS in the mind are like a tempest in the air.[33] They disturb others much, but ourselves more.

HE that fills his own mind with passionate thoughts, will soon fill the ears of others with unprofitable words.

TO show much reason and little passion is our wisdom.

FEAR will not be blown away with a breath. - Our passions are never truly quieted nor tempered except by reason.

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PATIENCE.

PATIENCE ascends by three steps to the perfection of her work. The first is a silent (not a sullen) submission in resigning ourselves to the disposal of God. Secondly, a kind of thankful acceptance, or kissing the rod which strikes us. The third step is spiritual joy and serious cheerfulness under sorrowful dispensations.

THE Lord waits to be gracious. He waits the working of this or that means, of a second or third means, and he waits the working of them all over and over again, or often. Here is patience with long-suffering.[34]

PERSEVERANCE.

PERSEVERANCE is at once the duty and the privilege of the saints.

IT is not the hold which we have of God, but that which he has of us, that makes us hold on our way. We would quickly let go our hold of God, if God did not have an infinitely faster hold of us.

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TRUE grace lives, and therefore it must grow. The grain of mustard seed proves a great tree.

TO persevere is best when we persevere in good, and worst when we persevere in evil.

PRAYER.

IN prayer there is reasoning with God; and the reasonings and pleadings that are in prayer, are the life and strength of prayer. The prayers of the saints recorded in Scripture are full of arguments. I will show it in one example, as a taste of the rest: Jacob, in his distress at the approach of his brother Esau, flees to God in prayer (Gen. 32.9 f.), and he does more than speak in prayer; he argues, indeed he wrestles with God in prayer. The sum of it is set down in v. 11: “Deliver me, I pray you!” To undertake this deliverance, he urges the Lord by no fewer than seven arguments: First, from God’s covenant with his ancestors, “O God of my father Abraham,” etc.; as if he had said, Remember those names with whom you made solemn covenants of protection, both to them and their posterity.

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The second is from God’s particular command for this journey, “You said to me, ‘Return;’” I did not depart on my own, but by your direction; and for your honour you cannot therefore do other than free me from danger, seeing that at your word I have fallen into it. You, O Lord, are ever engaged to defend me while I yield obedience to you. Thirdly, Jacob reminds him of his promises. You said, “I will deal well with you,” and that includes all other promises made to him; he makes these like a bulwark to defend him, as his anchor in the storm. This anchor must fail, and this bulwark must be broken down, before danger comes to me. If your promise stands, I cannot fall. The fourth is the confession of his own unworthiness. Faith is always humble, and while we are most confident in God’s word, we are most distrustful of our own undeservedness: “I am not worthy of the least of all your mercies.” Though I am thus bold to urge your covenant, yet I am as ready to acknowledge my own undeservedness. You are a debtor by the promise you made to me, not by any performance of mine to you. Fifthly, he seeks to continue the current of God’s favour by showing how plentifully it had already streamed to him, which he does by way of antithesis, setting his former poverty in opposition to his present riches:

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“With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I have become two bands;” that is, you have blessed me abundantly, and shall my brother’s malice destroy it all? Am I increased only to make him abound? The sixth argument is the greatness and eminence of his peril: “I fear lest he come and slay the mother with the children” — a proverbial speech in the holy Scriptures, like cutting off branch and root in one day, denoting both a total excision and an utter overthrow. Seventhly, he closes by reinforcing the mention of the promise which he urges more strongly than before. There it was only, “You said I will deal well with you;” but here it is, “You said, ‘In doing good, I will do you good’” — that is, as it is rendered in our translation, “I will surely do you good,” and therefore do not let my brother do me evil. We see Jacob’s prayer was a reasoning with God, and as a result, he got not only a new blessing but a new name (32.28): Israel, a prince with God, a prevailer both with God and men. — JOB 9.14.

PRAYER without faith is like a gun discharged without a bullet, it makes a noise, but it does not execute.

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ANSWERING our prayer is the grant of God. Nothing stands between us and our desires except his will. If he signs our petition, no creature can keep us from our expectation.

THE return of prayer is the soul’s solace and satisfaction.

IN seeking God we must look to receive all from his free grace and undeserved favour. Mercy in God is the spring of all mercies received by man. In all our approaches to God we should reflect upon ourselves, not only as having many wants and no worthiness, but as having many sins and (of ourselves) no goodness. — JOB 8.5.

A PRAYING soul is an expecting soul.

DO not think your prayers are lost because your afflictions are not removed, or that God does not hear you because he does not quickly relieve you. God forbears when he does not deny. He answers to our profit when he does not answer to our feeling.

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GOD is a sure paymaster; and yet he expects we should seek him before he pays.

THE will of God is the rule, not only of things to be done by us, but of things which we are to ask God to do for us.

IN prayer we prevail with God, but the strength by which we prevail with God comes from God; indeed, he not only gives us strength in prayer to act by, but he acts out that strength in prayer.

WINGED prayers usually have a winged answer — they are answered speedily.

INWROUGHT prayer, or prayer that has a spirit in it, carries all before it. Surely that prayer which is acted by the Holy Spirit, nothing can bind or hold from prevailing.

GODLY men are ever answered in effect though not in kind.

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GOD certainly hears what we speak, but many times we do not hear what he speaks, even though he speaks peace to us. God always hears the prayer of faith and answers it; but we do not always hear what the answer is.

JOB thought he was not heard because he did not have quick deliverance, and in that sense indeed he was not heard; and thus many of the saints may pray and not be heard — that is, they may pray and not have quick deliverance. But how may we know that we are heard at any time, especially when we do not have quick deliverance? I answer it, in four things:

1st. By the quietness of our spirits. It is a sign that prayer is answered when we are satisfied, even though the thing which we prayed for is not given. Hannah, having poured out her soul before the Lord, went her way and ate, and her countenance was no longer sad (1Sam. 1.18). The text says nothing of the answer of her prayer at that time. But the peace and satisfaction which she had in her own spirit about it, was an argument that the thing was granted, as indeed it was.

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2d. Though we do not receive the mercy quickly, yet if we receive fresh strength to bear the lack of it, that’s an answer. So Paul was answered. God did not remove the messenger of Satan from him, but he said, “My grace is sufficient for you, and my strength is made perfect in weakness;” though I do not remove the evil, yet my power shall support you under it.

3d. We are answered when, even though the evil is not removed, yet we have faith and patience to wait for the Lord’s leisure to remove it. When patience has a perfect work (either in expecting or suffering) we are perfect and entire, lacking nothing, even though we do not have what we want.

Lastly. We are answered in prayer when we are more heavenly, or more in heaven, after prayer. We are edified in our holy faith when we have certainly prayed in the Holy Ghost (Jude 1.20); and sure enough, every such prayer is heard.

NOTHING is tunable or takes the ear and heart of Christ like the voice of prayer and praise from a gracious heart.

PRAYER is, as it were, a battle fought in heaven — not in wrath or revenge, but with faith and holy submission.

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THERE is a threefold strength needed in prayer; and God by his Spirit puts these three strengths in us:

First. The Spirit helps us with strength of argument to plead with God.

Secondly. The Spirit helps us with strength of faith in taking hold of God.

Thirdly. The Spirit helps us with strength of patience in waiting upon God till we receive what we prayed for.

PELAGIANISM.

IT was the ancient error of the Pelagians that the sin of man came only by imitation. They denied that a man had a stock of corruption in his nature, or that his nature was corrupted; but seeing others sin, he sinned — this is an opinion which carries its condemnation in its own face as well as in our hearts. And though similitudes are not proofs, yet the reason of a similitude is. Man’s sinning is therefore compared to sparks flying, to show how naturally he sins. A spark flies upward without any guide to lead the way, and a bird would fly even though she never saw another bird fly. And if a man could live so as never to see any

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example of sin all his days, yet out of his own heart, that man might bring forth every sin, every day. Example quickens and encourages the principles of sin within us; but we can sin without any extrinsic motion or provocation, and without pattern or precedent from without. — JOB 5.7.

PREACHING.

WE should well consider the state of every person to whom we speak, and apply our speech or doctrine accordingly. Christ would not put his new wine into old bottles, but tempered his speech to the tempers and capacity of his hearers. Dividing the Word is dividing it spiritually to the several states and conditions of men, giving to some a word of instruction, to others a word of reproof, to a third sort, words of comfort. Paul would have Timothy be a workman who does not need to be ashamed. He would have him know to whom he uttered words, to know when he spoke to sinners and when to saints, when he spoke to the afflicted, and when to those who were in a comfortable state. And thus, as with every man who utters words, so ministers of the gospel especially should be well-advised as to whom they utter them. For as

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the same garments will not serve everybody to wear, nor the same bed to lie upon, so the same Word will not suit every soul. When we have duly weighed the matter — the persons to whom, the season when, the measure how much, and the manner in which we ought to speak — then we are likely to speak to the purpose, and we will be above the reproof which Job gives to Bildad: “To whom have you uttered words?” — JOB 24.4.

TWO things are the grace and excellency of a speaker: First, to speak boldly and freely, to speak the truth — not to clip or straighten it. Secondly, to speak plainly, to open the truth and not to make it intricate or involved.

PERFECTION.

THERE is a twofold perfection ascribed to the saints in this life — perfection of justification and perfection of sanctification. Justification, in a strict sense, is a complete perfection. The saints are complete in Christ; they are perfectly justified; there is no sin left uncovered, nor any guilt left unwashed in the blood of Christ, nor the least spot that is not taken away.

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His garment is large enough to cover all our nakedness and deformities. By one offering, Christ has perfected forever those who are sanctified.Heb 10.14 Then there is a perfection of holiness or sanctification, and that is so called either in regard to the beginning of, or in regard to the desires for and aims at, perfection. The saints in this life have a perfect beginning of holiness, because they have begun to be sanctified in every part (1Thess. 5.23), even though every part is not sanctified throughout. When sanctification has begun in all parts, it is the beginning of a perfect work. They are likewise perfect in regard to their desires and intentions. Perfect holiness is the aim of the saints on earth — it is the reward of the saints in heaven. — JOB 1.1.

IF anyone asks, “Why does God call us to perfect sanctification in this life, if it is not attainable in this life?” I answer, he does it — first, to show how holy he is; secondly, to show how holy we ought to be; thirdly, he does it that we might run to Christ, who is the Lord our righteousness,[35] we being altogether short of righteousness; and being short in righteousness, we may go to him and have a complete and perfect righteousness. — JOB 34.5.

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POPULARITY.

THE affections and opinions of men are very variable. How great a change Christ himself found! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Yet one day the Jews cry, “Hosanna”; they would make him a king; he made much ado to keep himself from a crown; the air echoes with “Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord!”[36] Yet quickly after, their cry was, “Crucify him, crucify him;” Luk 23.21 ff. he is not worthy to live; he could not save himself (by all his power as a man) from the cross. A murderer is preferred before him: “Not this man, but Barabbas.” — JOB 17.6.

DO not live upon the breath of men, upon popular air, or the speech of the people.

WHEN Job swam in the full streams of riches and honours, all respected him; but no sooner had the waters fallen, and his worldly greatness ebbed or abated, than all sorts of men, especially the worst of men, abated their respect for him. No sooner was he afflicted, than he was slighted and derided. — JOB 30.1.

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PRIDE.

MAN naturally prefers himself, not only above other men, but even before God himself. A principle of pride dwells in our hearts by nature, which at some times and in some cases breeds better thoughts of ourselves than of God himself. We know it was the first sin of man, that man desired to be like God. The first temptation was baited with parity to the divine powers: You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.Gen 3.5 This was also the language of Lucifer (Isaiah 14.13, 14). And the practice of the man of sin is thus prophesied: that he shall exalt himself above all that is called God.2Thes 2.3 But the heart of man is more insane, and it has outgrown these simple principles. For in troubles and temptations, when things do not go according to his mind, he sometimes has thoughts that he is not only like God, but that he is more just than God; that if he had the ordering of things, he would order them better than God; and if he had the punishing of offenders, justice would proceed more freely and impartially than it does. — JOB 4.17.

PRIDE is such a weed as often grows in the best soil.

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PRIDE is a bad mother of many bad children, especially these three: first, boasting about ourselves; secondly, contending with others; thirdly, despising others.

PROMISES.

WHILE a believer reads the Book of God, he sees great riches, many precious things in the promises; and of whatever good he finds there, there is nothing too good for him; he may know it all for his own good. Those sweet delicious promises of the pardon of sin, of the love of God, of the freeness of grace, of the glory to come, the promises of Christ and of all that is Christ’s — all these things are his. When he reads them, he may set his mark on them and know them for his good — know them as his own proper good. — JOB 5.27.

LET us be sure to stick to the commandments of God, for we may be sure that God will stick to his promises. To keep commandments is our work — to keep promises is God’s work; though we may fail much in our work, God will not fail at all in his work. To believe this, is our highest and truest work of faith.

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THERE are four things ascribed to God in Scripture which may assure us that he will be just in performing all his promises: First, he remembers them all (Psa. 111.5): secondly, he is unchangeable and of one mind (JOB 23.13, 14); thirdly, he is the Almighty, and ever furnished with power to perform them; fourthly, he is most faithful, and will not deny nor falsify them (Heb. 10.23).

A WORD from God is as sure as his deed; our hope upon promises is as good as possession.

PROVIDENCE.

THE very confusions that exist in the world are an argument for the power of God. For seeing the world continues in the midst of such confusions, it shows there is a mighty power balancing those confusions so exactly that they cannot ruin the world. If there were not an overruling power in God, wicked men ruling would soon ruin all. There are mysteries of Providence as well as mysteries of faith, and thus many are as troubled to interpret what God does, as what he has spoken. — JOB 9.24.

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THE common blessings of God are not dispensed without a special providence. Nature does not work without the God of Nature. — JOB 5. 10.

THE providence of God watches over all his creatures. All their motions are by his permission or commission. They do not stir without his leave. The providence of God is his watch, and therefore it is called the eye of Providence; and Providence has an eye that never slumbers nor sleeps,Psa 12^1.4 and in this lies our security: that we have a providential eye open for us when ours are shut and we asleep.

SOME providences of God bring the wisest to a standstill. Not only are fools and wicked men so puzzled that they do not know what to say or how to answer, but also men of the greatest experience and understanding in the ways of God. The Lord is pleased to give us hard texts and chapters in his works, just as he does in his Word.

THOUGH providences appear cross to promises and prophecies, yet they never frustrate either.

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THE date of God’s order for disposing the creation is from the beginning, yes from everlasting. The model of the creation (what things should be) was with God from everlasting. So too the model of providence (how all things should be governed and disposed of) was from everlasting. The government of the world is as much of God as giving it existence. Creation was a work that ended in six days, but providence is a work that never ends; thus God always works, though always at rest.[37]

Providence is creation continued.

PRUDENCE.

PRUDENCE usually goes softly — wisdom keeps a kind of state in her pace and loves to go step by step, not headlong. A prudent man sets his head before his feet in consultation, but he loves to go on his feet — not upon his head — in action.

HASTY counsels are successless counsels. Those who will not take time to consult about what they do, may have time enough to repent about what they have done.

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And those who will not take the time for doing what they consulted about, lose all the time they took for consultation.

REDEMPTION.

TO redeem, properly, is to take a man out from the power of another by price or by greater power. Redemption is an act of special favour, and it notes a special distinction by favour. When God threatened Pharaoh with swarms of flies, and promised that his own people would be free, this act of divine discrimination is called redemption. “And I will put a division (in Hebrew, a redemption) between my people and your people;” that is, those armies of flies which invade your people shall not meddle with my people. To see one perish with (and ourselves saved from) the sword, is redemption in war. To see others hunger-starved, and ourselves still fed, is redemption from famine, even though we ourselves were never in the hands or between the teeth of famine. A people divided from the troubles of others, are redeemed from those troubles. Our Saviour speaks of such redemption in Matt. 24.40, 41: “Two shall be in the field; one shall be taken, the other left, — JOB 5.20.

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AS Christ will not save presumptuous sinners who believe without repenting, so neither will he save incredulous sinners who repent without believing.

JESUS CHRIST came to save us from our sins, not to save us in our sins.

REPENTANCE.

NEVER think to have help for the cure of your souls by the diseases of your bodies; usually we find that sick persons do not repent, or theirs is a sickly repentance.

TILL the heart is prepared, we cannot pray; until iniquity is purged, prayer is not accepted; unless all three are done, we have not repented, or else our repentance must be repented of. Unless we repent in this way, we cannot be saved; and the only repentance that is not to be repented of, is that repentance which is unto salvation.2Cor 7.10

THERE is no way for us to get our sin covered except by revealing it, nor hidden except by confessing it.

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HOW pitifully mistaken are those who put off repentance till their bodies are in pain — till they are sick and weak! They do it on this ground: because they think when they are in pain they will repent with more ease. Observe: if Satan thinks to gain an advantage on a holy man such as Job, as to make him blaspheme when he is in pain, do you think pain will be an advantage to your repentance? It is said that upon pouring out the fourth vial (Rev. 16.8, 9), when God struck the inhabitants of the earth and scorched them with great heat, they blasphemed the name of God (they did what Satan presumed Job would do); they did not repent and give him glory.

IN true repentance there is a change from a bad mind to a good one, and from a perverse way to a right and righteous way; so too there is a change from a troubled to a quiet mind, and from a painful to a pleasant and delightful way.

NEITHER a weeping eye nor a confessing tongue, nor (in case of wrong done to man) a restoring hand, will be taken as repentance unless there is a broken heart.[38]

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REPENTANCE is a grace of the gospel wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Word and Spirit, turning the whole man away from all sin, to God, in the sincere and universal obedience of his holy will. — JOB 42.6.

THE whole body of gospel duty moves on these two feet: faith and repentance.

REPENTANCE for sin, and continuance in sin, cannot consist together in the same subject.

RESTITUTION.

THAT which is ill-gotten must be restored. Put it out of your house, out of your family; it will be a fire to burn, a moth to consume, a canker to fret all your comforts. That which is ill gotten, will poison that which is well gotten.

RESURRECTION.

THE resurrection is a birth-day to the world. The earth and sea shall be in travail,[39] and be delivered. They took dead men into their womb, and (by the power of God) they shall return them living.

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IN the morning of the resurrection we shall all put on fresh suits — fresh suits of flesh and robes of glory upon them, such as shall never change, much less wear out. — JOB 14.4.

THE total consumption of the body of man is no impediment in the way of faith, to stop us from believing the resurrection. Job speaks in such language as might represent the greatest difficulty to faith, and yet conquers it. As death shall triumph over my body, so my faith shall triumph over death. — JOB 19.26.

THE body after the resurrection shall be true flesh, or shall have true flesh. Something will be added to what was before, nothing will be taken away from what was before. The flesh shall be refined and purified; it shall not be laid aside or annihilated.

RETRIBUTION.

GOD sometimes gives the riches of wicked men to poor godly men whom they have oppressed. Job himself gives us this truth in express terms. When speaking of a

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wicked man he says (JOB 27.16), “Though he heaps up silver like dust, and prepares raiment like clay, he may prepare it (let him prepare it, let him scrape it together as fast as he can), but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver;” that is, those just and innocent persons whom he has wronged shall, by a divine retaliation, receive his estate. The wicked grind the faces of the poor to make themselves bread, but at last the poor shall make bread of their corn and grist. We may see the track and footstep of this judgment in our days. How many sons of violence who have made many persons — indeed, families — hungry, naked and desolate, are now made desolate and naked! God has so wrought and answered us by terrible things in righteousness, that oppressed innocents have been put into the houses and fed on the richness of unrighteous oppressors. — JOB 5.5.

SACRIFICES.

BEFORE giving the Law, the father or elder of the family was like a priest to the whole family, and he had the right and the power to perform all holy family duties, such as the duty of sacrificing and the like.

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SACRIFICES in themselves were nothing either to God or to man; they had no power in them either to pacify God or to purge the soul of man. But look at the sacrifice as it was an institution, and there God saw his Son Jesus Christ in it and was well pleased; and likewise, man beheld and believed Christ in it and was purged. When sacrifice became offering, man saw Christ suffering; this took away his sin and pacified his conscience. God saw the death of his Son, and that satisfied him; and man saw the death of his Saviour, and that justified him. — JOB 1.5.

THERE was never any way in the world, from first to last, to help a sinner except by a sacrifice; and who was the sacrifice? Surely Jesus Christ was the sacrifice. It was not the blood of bulls and goats that could take away sin;Heb 10.4 these only pointed at Jesus Christ, who alone did it by bearing our sins and by being made a sacrifice for them. To typify or show this, we read in the law of Moses that the sin of the offender was laid upon the sacrifice, and a sacrifice for sin was called sin by the prophet long before Christ came (Daniel 9.24): “We shall make an end of sin” — that is, when Christ

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comes in the flesh, he will make an end of all sacrifices for sin; and the apostle called it that after Christ had come and suffered in the flesh (1Pet. 4.1).[40] The sacrifice was called sin because the sin of the person who brought it, and in whose behalf it was offered, was laid upon the sacrifice; there was, as it were, a translation of the sin from the person to the sacrifice. And there is no atonement of sin except by a sacrifice. So the Lord ordained the offering up of a whole burnt-offering for taking away sin, that sinners might see what they had deserved — even to die, and not only so, but to be wholly burnt and consumed in the fire of his wrath. Those who do not rest upon the sacrifice of Christ once offered, must be a sacrifice themselves, always offered up to the justice and wrath of God. — JOB 42.8.

SALVATION.

THE Arminians maintain that propitiation is made or a sacrifice is offered by Christ for all; yet they dare not say it is effectual for all. Christ died (they say) for those he does not save, but Christ prayed only for those that shall be saved. They are not for a universal intercession, even

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though they are for a universal sacrifice or propitiation. And their reason is, because Arminians cannot deny that many shall perish forever, which could not happen if Christ had prayed for them. We believe that his sacrifice is as effectual as his intercession; and therefore he died for none but those for whom he prays; his intercession is for drawing out and bringing home the benefit of his sacrifice to those, and to all those, for whom he offered himself to God.

NOTHING can hide us from the wrath of God but the mercy of God.

SANCTIFICATION.

TO sanctify in Scripture denotes two things:

1st. The infusion of a holy habit — the infusion of a new principle into the soul.

2d. A preparation of the soul to holy duties.

When it is said Job sent and sanctified his children, it is not meant as if Job infused holy habits into them — as if it were in his power to make them gracious indeed; that is impossible. It is only the work of the Spirit of God. But it means this: he sent them to prepare themselves, to advise

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and warn them to prepare themselves, so that they might be ready for that duty, for the duty of sacrificing. And this preparation for holy duties is often called sanctifying, as in Gen. 35.2, etc. — JOB 1.5.

HE that is a holy person himself, desires to make others holy too.

SLANDER.

TO commend a man with a “but” is a wound instead of a commendation. “You have instructed many, but,” etc. How many are there who salute their friends very fair to their faces, or speak about them very fair behind their backs, yet suddenly (as Joab did to Amasa) draw out this secret dagger and stab their honour and honesty to the heart! As it is said of Naaman (2Kings 5.1), “He was an honourable man and a mighty man of valour, but he was a leper.” — JOB 4.5.

THE most innocent persons are often charged with the foulest and most sinful crimes. Who is there of such unspotted conduct, that he may not be spotted with accusation? Who, while his conscience is pure, may not have much dirt thrown in his face?

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SATAN.

NOW what does Satan do when he walks up and down the world? Does he walk like an idle vagrant that has nothing to do? Does he walk with his hands in his pockets, as having no business? Does he walk merely to take the air or to take his pleasure, to see and be seen? No; when Satan walks about the world, his walking is working; he goes about to tempt, to try and lay snares and baits to catch and captivate the souls of men. — Job 1.7.

SELF-KNOWLEDGE.

IT is harder to know the nature than the number of our sins — to know what, than how many, our sins are. For just as some have whole books written full of sermon-notes, who do not have one line of a sermon written on their hearts or ways, a man may have a whole book full of sin-notes written, and yet not one sin has made an impression on his heart. There are but few who know what they are. — JOB 13.23.[41]

THE reason why we are so proud of ourselves is because we are so ignorant of ourselves.

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MANY are apt to overvalue and overrate their own abilities, as if they had engrossed all knowledge, and had the monopoly of wisdom in their own hearts — as if all must borrow or buy from their store, and light their candle at their torch.

Those who think all are blind who do not see with their eyes, are yet blind and have never seen themselves. It is the emptiness of knowledge, not the fulness of it, which makes so great a sound.

SEPULCHRES.

SOME in their life take more care for their sepulchres than they do for their souls. Great men build desolate places; they will be sure to have stately monuments, and they have gold. They will be sure to fill their graves with treasure; they will be buried richly, or they will have their riches buried with them. But what care did these take for their poor souls in the meantime, where they should lie? When all things are disposed of, this choice piece is for the most part left unprovided for. The great business of the saints on earth is to

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get assurance of a place for their souls to lodge in when they die. It does not trouble them much what lodgings their bodies have, if they can put their spirits into the hands of Christ.

SIN.

IT is not safe to let sin lie a moment unrepented of, or unpardoned on our own consciences or the consciences of others. If a man’s house is on fire, he will not only rise in the morning, but he will rise at midnight, to quench it. Certainly, when you have guilt on your souls, you have a fire in your souls; your souls are aflame; therefore you need to rise and rise early, and get up as soon in the morning as you can, to get it quenched and put out. — JOB 1.5.

THERE is no created excellency that, if left to itself, will not quickly undo itself. There is no trusting to any estate apart from Christ.

SIN despoils the creature of all its comfort and honour at once.

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WICKED and ungodly men, while they satisfy their own lusts, are but doing the work of Satan and executing his designs. “You are of your father, the devil, and you will do his lusts,” says Christ to the Jews. While they satisfy their own lusts, they fulfil the lusts and designs of Satan.

TO be a wicked man is no easy task; he must go to plough for it. Wicked men in Scripture are called sons of Belial; that is, those who will not endure the yoke. They will not endure the yoke of Christ, even though it is an easy yoke; but they are content to slavishly yield their (otherwise) proud and delicate necks to Satan’s yoke, and to tug and sweat at his plough all their days. — JOB 4.8.[42]

THOUGH a man does not formally commit or yield every sin, yet virtually and radically a man has every sin in him; or it is possible for any sin to be formed and shaped out of the nature of man. And as the spark lies quietly in the fire or flint till you strike or blow on them, so sin lies secretly in our hearts till some temptation or occasion strikes and brings it out.

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TO be kept from sin is a greater blessing than outward blessings. When Eliphaz had reckoned up all the comforts which repenting Job is promised, “You shall be delivered in six troubles and in seven; sword and famine shall not hurt you, peace and plenty shall dwell within your walls and lodge in every chamber; yet (he says) I will tell you of a blessing beyond all these: you shall not sin.” It is more mercy to be delivered from one sin than from sword and famine. Grace is better than peace, and holiness is better than abundance. Riches, honour and health are all obscured in this one blessing: a holy, gracious, and humble heart. — JOB 5.25.

THE sins of youth may prove the sufferings of old age.

THE punishment of sin may come long after committing the sin; the one is the seed-time, and the other is the reaping-time.

OUR sins do not spring out of the dust, but out of the dirt and filth of our own corruptions.

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Those who sense the evil of sin will pay heartily for the pardon of sin. He that is in great debt, and every hour fears to be arrested and thrown into prison, is trying all his friends to get security and protection. Sinning is running into debt with God, and it brings us under the danger of his arrest every moment. Forgiveness cancels the bond; when the sin is pardoned, the debt is paid, and the soul is discharged. — JOB 7.21.

SIN begins with turning the heart from God; and sin ends with turning the heart against God. The first step in sin is neglect of God; the second is contempt of God; the third and last is war with God. — JOB 15.25.

SIN runs against reason, and causes us to act not only wickedly, but foolishly.

SIN has greater evil in it by how much it is committed against the greater good. As good things received bind us stronger to duty, so good things abused bind us stronger under guilt.

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SOME sins are not only contempt of God in themselves, but they are committed in contempt of God. When men sin presumptuously and with a high hand — when they sin with a command shining in their eye, and a threat sounding in their ear — they even send defiance to Heaven and bid God to do his worst.

SUPPOSE sin does not appear in a full body: yet if it puts out only a little finger, we must have nothing to do with it.

SIN promises gold, and pays with dross; it promises bread, and pays with stones; it promises honour, and pays with disgrace; it promises a paradise, and pays with a wilderness; it promises liberty, and pays with bondage — in a word, it promises all manner of content, and pays us with utter disappointment and dissatisfaction. If any man has a mind to be fed with mallows, and lodged in caves, and torn with bushes, and stung with nettles, and scorched with everlasting burnings, let him but hearken to the voice, believe the promises, and take the word of sin. — JOB 30.1-7.

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SO THAT sin may be avoided, we must avoid whatever leads to or occasions it. He that fears burning must take heed of playing with fire. He that fears drowning must keep out of deep water. He that fears the plague must not go into an infected house. Would they avoid sin who present themselves to its opportunities, and bring their corruptions and temptations as it were into an interview? “I (says Job) have made a covenant with my eyes.” — JOB 31.1.

THERE are three eminent evils in sin: First. There is pollution in sin; it defiles. Secondly. There is dishonour in sin: it dishonours. Thirdly. There is a deceitfulness in sin: it would make us believe we will become, and we will receive, what sin is not able to perform.

EVERY step in sin is a step to misery; and the farther any man proceeds on in sin, the farther he wanders from God, and the farther he wanders from God, the nearer he comes to misery. Every motion toward sin is hastening into the arms and embrace of death.

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ALL sin is either against ourselves, strictly called intemperance; or against God, strictly called impiety; or against man, strictly called unrighteousness.

SINCERITY.

HE that is sincere does not desire it to be open, but silently satisfies his soul by conscientiously doing his duty; he is more content in knowing his own integrity than in knowing that others know it. Like the earth, he keeps his richest minerals and most precious gems of grace and goodness below in his inward man, or at the centre of his heart, and will not let them be seen till a kind of necessity digs them out. Every true Moses, whose acquaintance and fiducial familiarity with God has stamped on him the impressions of divine light, is so far from trying to dazzle the eyes of others with it, that he would rather put a veil of gracious modesty on it.Exo 34.35 He will not let so much as the light of his good works be seen, unless thereby (in which Christ commands it)[43] he may glorify his Father in heaven. — JOB 34.30.

A SOUL that is sincere and well-grounded on the grace of God in Christ, is unconquerable.

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SINNERS.

WICKED men make the blessings of God fuel for their lusts, and beat their outward comforts into the weapons of an unholy war against him.

THEY take little care for their souls who take too much for their bodies. Those who desire to please their own appetite cannot endeavour to please God.

WICKED men take more pains to go to hell and eternal destruction than godly men take in the way of eternal life and salvation. A wicked man cannot go to hell with ease; he goes with pain to eternal pains. — JOB 15.20.

WHERE can a sinner be hidden from Him who is everywhere? Or what can be our covering from Him in whose sight all things are open? Then let none think they have made a good market in sinning when they have hidden their sins from the eyes of men. What will it avail to hide yourselves from men, when you lie open and manifest to the eye of God? — JOB 34.22.

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HE makes a bad deal who sells his soul at any price.

SOUL

THE marriage of the soul and body together is life; the breaking of this marriage bond is death.

WHAT is the body without the soul but a lump of clay? As soon as the soul departs, life departs; yet such is the folly of most men that their entire care is for the life of the body, which (at best) is a dying life. They utterly neglect the soul, which being the life of the body, never dies itself. The soul is the jewel, the body is but the cabinet; the soul is the kernel, the body is but the shell. Will you be solicitous about the cabinet or the shell, and slight the jewel, or throw away the kernel?

SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD.

THE absolute sovereignty of the Lord over us is enough to acquit him from doing us any wrong, whatever he does with us. Job says only this, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away.”

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He is the sovereign Lord; therefore I have no reason to complain. I have not engaged the one who does it —I have no tie on him at all, to do this or that for me. The one who does it may resolve all the reasons for his own actions into his own will; he is the Lord. God cannot injure his creatures; therefore the apostle has recourse only to that one statement in the ninth chapter of Romans, which answers all cavils and objections against God’s dealings with man: “Does the potter not have power over the clay?” — JOB 1.21.

GOD is the only Lawgiver, and we must receive the law from his mouth. He that would please God, must he shut out all of his own imaginations and have nothing to do with them? It is not what man has a mind to do, but what the mind of God would have him do, that pleases God, or is either a worship or service acceptable to him. We never dishonour God more than when we take it upon ourselves to serve him our own way, and leaving his rule, make a rule for ourselves.

MAN is never displeased with what God does till he forgets what he himself is.

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GOD elects those in whom he sees no good; and he does not elect anyone for their goodness, either because he sees them as good, or because he foresees they will be good. He beholds no excellency, beauty, or worthiness in them. He elects according to the pleasure of his own will. Man’s goodness is not the cause, but the effect of God’s election. The election of God makes men good, but it does not find them so.

TEARS.

THE voice of tears is very significant; yet only God knows the special significance of it. Man knows only the general: that it signifies sorrow.

Tears are powerful orators.

GOD reads our hearts in those lines which tears draw on our faces.

THE TONGUE.

THE tongue is a little member, and yet it falls heavy.

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THE tongue is the scholar of the heart, and speaks what that heart dictates. A man is justly condemned by evil words, because they testify that he is evil.

THERE is a speedy passage between the heart and the tongue. Evil thoughts are soon formed up into evil words.

THE one who can command his tongue has a mighty command over his spirit, especially when he is provoked. It is a real part of perfection not to offend in word.

TRUST.

PURE spiritual trust is the highest exercise of faith, whereby looking upon God in himself and in his Son, through the promises, the soul is raised above all fears or discouragements, above all doubts and disquietments, either for removing that which is evil, or obtaining that which is good. — JOB 13.15.

TRUST in God is the best ease to the soul, and a remedy for evils, before the remedy comes.

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A BELIEVER sees God as good to him or as a friend to him, when he receives nothing but evil[44] from his hand, and sees nothing but frowns upon his face.

NOTHING fixes the soul but trust in God. We are unquiet, indeed we boil with unquietness and we toss like the angry sea with the winds, till we trust fully in God, in his wisdom and power, in his goodness and faithfulness, and we can say, “Let him do as seems good in his eyes.” 2Sam 1^0.1^2

ONCE we can stay our minds on God, we are quiet; but when we must bring God to our mind, and must have God go at our pace, or come at our time, and work in our way (none of which he will do, whatever we do to make it so), oh how restless and troubled we are, even like the troubled sea when it cannot rest!

WHEN things are not clear to us, when we have no light about what God is doing or what he will do, yet it is our duty to trust and wait upon God.

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TRUST in God though you are in darkness, though you see no light;Isa 50.10 this is light before light, pardon before pardon. Trust God in temptations, and you are above temptations, even while you groan under the burden of them. Trust God in weakness, and you are strong.2Cor 12.10 When we rest with our weakness upon Christ, the power of Christ rests upon us.

WE can never trust God too much, nor creatures too little.

MANY trust God (as they trust some men) no further than they can see him.

TRUTH.

TRUTH is the food of the mind, the nourishment of the understanding.

A physician of the soul is of no value if he makes the wrong applications of truths, as well as if he applies what is false. The Word of God must be rightly divided;2Tim 2.15 every soul must have his own portion.Luk 12.42 The children’s bread is not for the dogs.Mat 15.26

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WHEN truth is honoured and applauded, it is easy to own, but it is our greatest honour to own a dishonoured and despised truth.

IT is no new thing for him that speaks truth to be considered a liar, nor for him that speaks seriously to be considered a mocker. — JOB 11.3.

HE that judges himself to be in the truth, should not leave it just because others call it error.

HE that has truth on his side need not fear the opposition of many — no, nor the opposition of all men.

A LONG train of followers will do us no good if our cause is bad.

ONE man and the truth are strong enough to oppose a multitude in error, and a multitude of errors.

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THE WILL.

THE will of man is as perverse as his understanding is blind. Man not only has a wound or a weakness in his will toward what is good, but he has a rebellion in his heart against what is good; and that is not by some occasional disgust, or a sudden gust of passion, but he is naturally set and resolved against what is good. — JOB 33.14.

MAN not only has an inability to know it, but an enmity against the knowledge of that which is spiritual.

MAN would have everything go according to his own mind. He would have his mind the measure, both of all that he is to do for God, and of all that God does to him. We love to do all things according to our own minds, and we love to have all things done according to our own minds. — JOB 34.33.

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WORSHIP.

WE must worship God aright — first, for the outward manner of his commands and institutions, or else we dishonour him while we intend to worship him; secondly, the inward manner must be according to the command of God. The Lord searches the heart; he knows what is within, and he must be worshipped in spirit and in truth Joh 4.23 — that is, according to the truth of the rule made known in his Word, and in truth of heart.

GOD is not only to be praised with joy and thankfulness, but with fear and reverence; for with him is awesome praise.Deu 10.21 We should not be afraid to praise God — no, we should be most forward to praise him — but we should have a holy fear upon our hearts when we praise him. Praise is the work of heaven, from which fear shall be forever banished; and even in this life, praise, which is the work of heaven on earth, should be performed with such a spirit of love and joy, that it is without any base, tormenting fear. We should have so much love to God, in and for all the good things he does for our souls especially, yes and for our bodies too,

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in dealing out daily mercies, that love should cast out all that fear that has torment in it.1Joh 4.18 Yet there is a fear which should possess our spirits while we are praising God: a reverent fear — I mean the sort of fear (I have no doubt) that will remain in heaven forever. Glorified saints shall praise God with that fear: that is, having an everlasting awe of the majesty of God upon their hearts. He is fearful in praises; and therefore let us so praise him as to remember our distance, let us so praise him as to fear miscarrying in our duty in such a way, that instead of praising him, instead of honouring him, we grieve him.

A BODY exercised, and a soul sitting still, is not worship.

THE Scripture assures us that God looks at or reckons prayer as an honour done to him. It is an eminent part of worship — it is giving him glory.

YOUTH.

THE strength of a young man profits little, if he does not have the virtues and good qualities of an old man.

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WE should not despise what young men say because of their youth. If old men are not always wise, their wisdom may be with the young. That which is the true glory of gray hairs sometimes crowns the youthful head— I mean wisdom and ripeness of understanding. It was said of a godly woman, “She had a youthful body but an aged mind.” Samuel was young in years, but in grace he was older than Eli; Jeremiah was young, but how wise the inspiration of God made him! Daniel was young, yet wiser than all the magicians and astrologers; Timothy and Titus were young, yet they were honourable for their prudence and piety. Therefore, just as we should not always accept what old men say because of their age, so let us not slight what young men say because of their youth. — JOB 32.9.

MODESTY should bridle young men from being over-forward to show themselves; but it must not shut or seal their lips.

Notes

[←1]

That is, experiential, or practical religion.

[←2]

Job 9:33 Nor is there any mediator between us, Who may lay his hand on us both.

[←3]

Heb 9:24 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;

[←4]

Isa 65:1 "I was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me.

[←5]

Compare 2Cor 12:7 — And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure — with Job 1:11-12 "But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!"  12 And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person." So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

[←6]

Originally “butt-mark,” indicating in Middle English the mark on a target at which arrows are aimed.

[←7]

Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

[←8]

Eze 37:5 `Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: "Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.

[←9]

Jer 32:27 "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?

[←10]

Isa 9:10 "The bricks have fallen down, But we will rebuild with hewn stones; The sycamores are cut down, But we will replace them with cedars."

[←11]

God appointed us to salvation not destruction, to liberty not bondage, to hope and not despair. This isn’t suggesting that we can thwart God’s purposes; but that by sin we dis-appoint ourselves from His purposes for us. We suffer the consequences, and then need restoration – Isa 9.10 promises that we’ll be rebuilt even stronger, by God’s grace.

[←12]

Job 4:3-4 Surely you have instructed many, And you have strengthened weak hands. 4 Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, And you have strengthened the feeble knees;

[←13]

That is, a soul that places full confidence in God alone, and not in anything or anyone else.

[←14]

That is, the free and gracious.

[←15]

Gal 6:10 as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

[←16]

Thoroughly defeated.

[←17]

Psa 18:1  The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

[←18]

Passed on; transmitted.

[←19]

Heb 11:11 By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.

[←20]

Habitually disposed to disobedience and opposition.

[←21]

To produce a literary work on the topic.

[←22]

ESV  Pro 15:11 Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the LORD; how much more the hearts of the children of man!

[←23]

Psa 86:13 For great is Your mercy toward me, And You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

[←24]

Persistent determination.

[←25]

Tit 3:10 Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, 11 knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.

[←26]

Gal 5:20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,

[←27]

Tit 3:11 knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.

[←28]

That is, the first tablet of the Ten Commandments, containing numbers one through four with our duties to God. The second tablet contains five through ten with our duties to others. These are our vertical and horizontal duties, or as Christ described them, the two pegs “on which hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Mat 22.40).

[←29]

The second article is on page [117] below.

[←30]

Ruth 3:12 "Now it is true that I am a close relative; however, there is a relative closer than I.

[←31]

Rom 6.9,

[←32]

Col 2:14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

[←33]

This is referring to unruly or intemperate passions, such as rage and overwhelming lust, rather than mere emotions. Jas 4:2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 1Joh 2:16 For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world.

[←34]

Col 1:10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; (also Eph 4.1-3)

[←35]

Jer 23:6 In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

[←36]

Mat 21.9.

[←37]

Gen 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Joh 5:17 But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working."

[←38]

Psa 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart-- These, O God, You will not despise.

[←39]

That is, birth-pangs. Rom 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Rev 20:13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them.

[←40]

1Pet 4:1 Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin [or “finished with sin”].

[←41]

Job 13:23 How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin. [said to God]

[←42]

Job 4:8 Even as I have seen, Those who plow iniquity And sow trouble reap the same.

[←43]

Mat 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

[←44]

“Evil” here means bad things or adversity; it refers to trials and tribulations which test and prove our trust in God.

Table of Contents

ANALYSIS OF THE BOOK OF JOB.

INTRODUCTION.

ABUNDANCE.

ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD.

ADVOCATE.

ADVICE.

AFFLICTIONS.

BRIBERY.

CHARITY.

CHASTISEMENTS.

CHRIST.

CONFIDENCE.

CONFESSION OF SIN.

CONSCIENCE.

CONVERSION.

CONSISTENT CONDUCT.

COMFORT.

COMPASSION.

EXPERIENCE.

DAYSMAN.

DEATH.

DELIGHT IN GOD.

DELIVERANCE FROM TROUBLE.

EXAMPLE.

EXPOSITION OF SCRIPTURE.

FAITH.

FRIENDSHIP.

THE FAMILY.

FROWARD MAN.

GOD.

GRACE.

GROWTH IN GRACE.

HAPPINESS.

THE HEART.

HEAVEN.

HELL

HERESY.

HOLINESS.

HOPE.

THE HOLY SPIRIT.

HUMAN JUDGMENT.

HUMILITY.

HYPOCRISY.

IDLENESS.

INABILITY.

THE JUDGMENT.

JUSTIFICATION.

LIFE.

THE LIVING REDEEMER.

MAGISTRATES.

MEDITATION.

MINISTERS.

NATIVE DEPRAVITY.

OLD AGE.

OMNISCIENCE OF GOD.

OPPORTUNITIES.

PAPAL INFALLIBILITY.

PARDON OF SIN.

PASSIONS.

PATIENCE.

PERSEVERANCE.

PRAYER.

PELAGIANISM.

PREACHING.

PERFECTION.

POPULARITY.

PRIDE.

PROMISES.

PROVIDENCE.

PRUDENCE.

REDEMPTION.

REPENTANCE.

RESTITUTION.

RESURRECTION.

RETRIBUTION.

SACRIFICES.

SALVATION.

SANCTIFICATION.

SLANDER.

SATAN.

SELF-KNOWLEDGE.

SEPULCHRES.

SIN.

SINCERITY.

SINNERS.

SOUL

SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD.

TEARS.

THE TONGUE.

TRUST.

TRUTH.

THE WILL.

WORSHIP.

YOUTH.