heaven; and pressed no other principle with so repeated an importunity, on His hearers. 'It is well worthy of our observation,' says an excellent commentator, that no one sentence uttered by our Lord, is so frequently repeated as this: Whosoever shall exalt himself, shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself, shall be exalted ;' which often occurs in the Evangelists; but is never duly accomplished in us, till we disclaim all pretensions to merit and righteousness of our own, and seek them only in the atonement and obedience of Jesus Christ.-Ibid. 'Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?'-There have been men, and there are still, who, while they acknowledge that they possess no personal claim to this hyper-purity of character themselves, would yet wish us to believe that they could have given us a purer Bible, than that which purports to be the standard of Christian doctrine and practice. This is a genera tion pure in their own eyes, and not washed from their filthiness.' (Prov. xxx. 12.)-L. Mr. Paine professes to detest the Bible on account of its obscene stories, voluptuous debaucheries, cruel executions, and unrelenting vindictiveness.' That the Bible relates such things is true; and every impartial history of mankind must do the same. The question is, whether they be so related as to leave a favourable impression of them upon the mind of a serious reader. If so, and if the Bible be that immoral book which Mr. Paine represents it to be, how is it that the reading of it should have reclaimed millions from immorality? Whether he will acknowledge this, or not, it is a fact too notorious to be denied by impartial observers. Every man residing in a Christian country will acknowledge, unless he have an end to answer in saying otherwise, that those people who read the Bible, believe its doctrines, and endeavour to form their lives by its precepts, are the most sober, upright, and useful members of the community; and, on the other hand, that those who discredit the Bible, and renounce it as the rule of their lives, are, generally speaking, addicted to the grossest vices; such as profane swearing, lying, drunkenness, and lewdness. It is very singular, I repeat it, that men, by regarding an immoral book, should learn to practise morality; and that others, by disregarding it, should learn the contrary!-Rev. A. Fuller. 18 Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly: 19 How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth? 'His angels He charged with folly.'The angels themselves-notwithstanding their residence in the presence of God, beholding His face, and all the glorious messages wherein they were employed, learned more of the mind and will of God after the personal ministry of Christ, and the revelation of the mysteries of His counsel therein, than ever they knew before (1 Pet. i. 12). And on the account of their imperfections in the comprehension of His counsels, it is said that He charged His angels with folly.' And the best of the prophets not only received Divine truth by parcels, but comprehended not the depths of the revelations made to them (1 Pet. i. 11-12). -Dr. Owen. As all creatures are unclean in regard of God's purity, so they are all fools in regard of His wisdom; yea, the glorious angels themselves. Wisdom is the royalty of God; the proper dialect of all His ways and works. No creature can lay claim to it; He is so wise that He is wisdom itself.-Charnock. 20 They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding it. They are destroyed from morning to evening.'-Naturalists speak of a fly, they call Ephemeron, a creature of a day, which comes forth in the morning, is very active about noon, but when the sun declines, it declines too, and sets with the setting of the sun. Man is an Ephemeron, a creature of a day; for howsoever his life consisteth of many days, and is often lengthened out to many years; yet, between morning and evening, or from morning to evening, he is destroyed. The first step he sets upon the stage of the world, is a going out of the world; his ascending to the height of his natural perfection, hath in it a descent. One part of his life compared with another, is an increase; but the whole, in reference to his end, is a decrease. His life is but a breathing death, life shortening as fast as it lengthens. His life is death hastening upon him continually. -Caryl. 'They perish for ever without any regarding it.'-Many have been so often at the grave, that now the grave is worn out of their hearts: they look upon it as a matter of custom and formality, for men to die and be buried; and when the solemnity of death is over, the thoughts of death are over; as soon as the grave is out of their sight, preparations for the grave are out of mind. We read (2 Sam. xx. 12) that when Amasa was slain by Joab, and lay wallowing in his blood, in the midst of the highway, every one that came by him stood still; but anon, Amasa is removed out of the highway into the field, and a cloth cast upon him, and then (the text says) all the people went on after Joab. It is so still. We make a stop at one that lies gasping and groaning, at one that lies bleeding and dying; but let a cloth be thrown over him, and he be drawn aside, put into the grave, and covered with earth; then we go to our business, to trading and dealing, yea to coveting and sinning, as if the last man were buried. Thus men perish for ever, without any re garding. If this kind of perishing were more regarded, or regarded by more, fewer would perish.-Ibid. What a narrow circle is affected by the death of a man, and how soon does even that circle cease to be affected! A few relatives and friends feel it, and weep over the loss; but the mass of men are unconcerned. It is like taking a grain of sand from the sea-shore, or a drop of water from the ocean. There is indeed one less, but the place is soon supplied, and the ocean rolls on its tumultuous billows, as though none had been taken away. So with human life. The affairs of men will roll on; the world will be as busy, and active, and thoughtless as though he had not been; and soon, oh how painfully soon to human pride, will our names be forgotten!-Rev. A. Barnes. "Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? they die, even without wisdom. It is our wisdom to die well, because we can die but once. A man had need do that wisely, which he can do no more. An error in death is like an error in war, you cannot commit it twice. We have most reason to look to it, not to err at all, where it is not possible to err again. Actually to err twice, is more sinful; but not to have a possibility of erring twice, is most dangerous. We transgress the laws of CALL living over and over a thousand thousand times; but as for the laws of dying, no man ever transgressed them a second time. That we so often transgress the law of living, is an aggravation of sin upon all men. And that we can transgress the law of dying but once, is the seal of misery upon most men. Let us then cry unto God, to be taught this great wisdom, how to die, and not without wisdom.-Caryl. CHAP. V. troubles, ALL now, if there be any that will answer thee; and to which of the saints wilt thou turn ? The Popish writers affect to build upon this passage their doctrine of the Invocation of Saints: as if Eliphaz had said, What saint will thou choose for thy patron and helper in thy sad condition?' Thus they teach and practise. Having appointed a particular saint in the Calendar of the year, to the help of every particular affliction in their lives, to these they turn themselves in every distress. They have a saint for the sea, and a saint for the land, a saint for the fire, and a saint for the water, a saint for each disease of the body, and for each disaster in the family. To some of these they suppose Job was advised to have recourse for succour and comfort in his This conceit, we may observe, is, in the first place, utterly at variance with the confessed Popish doctrine respecting the state of departed souls, previous to the time of Christ's coming in the flesh, and His resurrection; and secondly, if we consider the words, we may as well seek for fire in the bottom of the sea, as for the invocation of saints in this text; for if the words have any meaning, they clearly go to condemn praying to saints, rather than to encourage it; and carry with them this sense: 'Call now, for there is none to answer thee; none among the saints can give thee any help.'Caryl. 2For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one. I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I cursed his habitation. His children are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate, neither is there any to deliver them. 5 Whose harvest the hungry eateth up, and taketh it even out of the thorns, and the robber swalloweth up their substance. "Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground; 7 Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. V. 6-7. I have heard people say, 'What a fortunate circumstance it was that that trouble came to-day, just as I was so well prepared to meet it! I really don't think I could have borne it, if it had come at some other time.' Very true; you could not. God knew that, and He did not send it upon you until He had prepared you to bear it. It was fortunate for you that He thus cared for you; yet you speak as if its coming just at that time were all accidental. — Henry Ward Beecher. When God afflicts, it is good to consider what it is for. It comes not out of the dust, though it may reduce us or ours thither. And if our utmost search cannot find out a particular cause (wherein we should take heed of being too indulgent and partial to our- Trouble and sorrow are a man's inheritance; as an heir is born to his land or estate. Man has a right to those troubles. They are his birthright; and as soon as ever he is born, he takes possession of sorrow, or sorrow possesses him. Many a man is born to riches, and a great estate, but he stayeth a great while for the possession of them. Man is born to trouble, and he enters upon that, as soon as ever he enters the world. Sorrow is not his inheritance in reversion, but in possession.-Caryl. No sooner come we into the world as men, or as Christians, by a natural or supernatural birth, but we are tossed upon a sea of trouble. The spark no sooner comes out of the fire, but it flies up naturally; it needs not any external force, help, or guidance; but ascends from a principle in itself. So naturally, so easily, does trouble arise out of sin. There is radically all the misery, anguish, and trouble in the world in our corrupt natures.-Flavel. It was the ancient error of the Pelagians, that the sin of man came only by imitation. They denied that man had a corrupt nature, but seeing others, he sinned, an opinion which carries its refutation in its own face, as well as in our hearts. And though similitudes are no proofs, yet the reason of a similitude is: man's sinning is therefore compared to a spark's flying, to show how naturally he sins. A spark flies upward without anything to show it the way. And a bird would fly, though she should never see another bird fly. And if a man could live so, as never to witness a single example of sin all his days, yet that man, out of his own heart, 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, without pattern or precedent from without.-Caryl. I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause. When a man engages his lawyer to stand for him and to plead his cause, he doth not only reveal, but commits his cause to him. 'I would seek unto God,' says Eliphaz to Job, 'and unto God would I commit my cause.' Now there is a difference betwixt revealing my cause, and committing it to a man. To reveal my cause, is to open it to one; and to commit it to him, is to trust it to his hand. Many a man will reveal his cause to him unto whom he will yet be afraid to commit it. But now, he that engages a lawyer to plead his cause, doth not only reveal but commit his cause to him. As suppose right to his estate be called in question: why, then, he not only reveals his cause to his lawyer, but puts into his hands his evidences, deeds, leases, mortgages, bonds, or what else he hath, to show a title to his estate by. And thus do Christians deal with Christ; they deliver up all to Him,to wit, all their signs, evidences, promises, and assurances, which they have thought they had for heaven and the salvation of their souls, and have desired Him to peruse, to search, to try them every one. This is committing thy cause to Christ, and this is the hardest task of all; for the man that doth thus, he trusteth Christ with all; and it implies, that he will live and die, stand and fall, lose and win, according as Christ will manage his business.-Bunyan. Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number: too great for him to receive, yet it was not too great for Alexander to give. If dust and ashes can speak and think at this rate, O how large is the heart of God! Then, it is not only our privilege, but our duty to ask and believe great things. We ought to have a great faith, because God doth great things. Is it not unbecoming to have a great God, and a little faith? If some small thing be to be done, then usually faith is upon the wing; but if it be a great thing, then faith is clogged, her wings are clipped, and we at a stand. It may be as dangerous to us, if not as sinful, not to believe the day of great things, as to despise the day of small things.-Caryl. 10 Who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields: "To set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be exalted to safety. 12 He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. 18 He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong. V. 12-13. When Satan tempts a saint, he is but God's messenger, (2 Cor. xii. 7): There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me;' so our translation has it. But according to Beza, 'the messenger Satan;' implying that he was sent of God to Paul, and indeed the errand he came about was too good and gracious to be his own, 'Lest I should be exalted above measure.' The devil never meant to do Paul such a good office; but God sends him to Paul, as David sent Uriah with letters to Joab, -neither knew the contents of their message. Let the devil choose his way, God is a match for him at every weapon. If he will try it by force of arms, the Lord of hosts' will oppose him. If by policy and subtlety, He is ready there also. The devil and His whole council are but fools to God; nay, their wisdom, foolishness.-Gur nall. Cunning and art commend everything but sin. The more artificial the watch, the picture, &c., the better; but the more wit and art in sin, the worse; because it is employed against an all-wise God, that cannot be outwitted, and therefore will in the end but pay the workman in greater damnation.-Ibid. God useth the temptations of Satan to one sin, as a preventive against another; so Paul's 'thorn in the flesh,' was sent to prevent his pride. God sends Satan to assault Paul on that side where he is strong, that in the mean time He may fortify him where he is weak. Thus Satan is befooled: as sometimes we see an army sitting down before a town, where it wastes its strength to no purpose; and in the mean time gives the enemy an advantage to recruit; and all this by the counsel of some Hushai, that is a secret friend to the contrary side. God, who is the saint's true friend, sits in the devil's council, and overrules proceedings there to the saint's advantage. He suffers the devil to annoy the Christian with temptations to blasphemy, atheism, &c., and by these, together with the troubles of spirit they produce, the soul is driven to duty, is humbled in the sense of these horrid apparitions in its imagination, |