and secured from abundance of formality and pride, which otherwise God saw invading him. As in a family, some business falls out which keeps the master up later than usual, and by this the thief, who that night intended to rob him, is disappointed: had not such a soul had his spirit of prayer and diligence kept awake by those afflicting temptations, it is likely Satan might have come as a seducer, and taken him napping in security.Ibid. 14 They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope in the noonday as in the night. 15 But he saveth the poor from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty. 16 So the poor hath hope, and iniquity stoppeth her mouth. "Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: V. 17. No philosopher or pure moralist ever said, 'Happy is the man that is sick, or sore, or disgraced, or in prison:' these are riddles, such as nature is not able to expound or make out. Therefore no marvel if Eliphaz usher it in with a behold; 'Behold, happy,' &c. There is at the same time no happiness in affliction naturally considered; it is accidental to afflictions that happiness is associated with them. Affliction in itself is grievous, and it would be only so to us, did not the overruling, admirable dispensations of God, temper, order, dispose, and work it to an end above its own nature. It is the art and wisdom of the physician, which corrects poisonous simples and ingredients, so as to make them medicinable. And did not the wisdom and goodness of God correct our corrections, they would not be medicines to us, but poison. It is not correction, but the hand of God with it, and in it, which makes us happy.-Caryl. One way of despising the chastening of the Almighty is by slighting it; as if we did not think it worth while to take any notice of it. When God lays His hand upon us, He would have us · lay it to our hearts. Paul adds (Heb. xii. 5), Nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him.' Do not think, that is, that thy afflictions are so great, that thou must needs faint and sink under them. These are the two extremes, into which our hearts usually run when chastenings are upon us. Some err by neglecting the hand of God, as light; and others by fainting under it as too heavy. 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. When a man has a small loss in his estate, if he say, This will not undo me, I can bear this, I will fare as well, and go as fine as ever for all this, such speeches or thoughts are a despising of the chastening of the Lord.-Ibid. Remember, when the stroke is little, yet a great God strikes. Although God give thee but a touch, yet He is able to wound thee to the heart. Know, it is not because He wants power to strike harder, but because He will not, because He is pleased to moderate His power. And this carries a mighty persuasion with it, not to despise the chastening of the Lord, how little soever; for He can strike harder, if thou slight this.—Ibid. 18 For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole. 19 He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. 20 In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword. "Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue: neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh. 22 At destruction hell, be armed, and ready to assail him: let there be no peace to the wicked; and universal nature responds, there shall be none; and the universal experience of sinners, as it sends up its reply from the bottomless pit, declares, in accents of terrible despair, there is none. and famine thou shalt laugh: neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth. 28 For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee. V. 23. I was somewhat moved this morning, in thinking of the mercy of God, how it was a hedge about us, preserving us from the ravages of the very beasts and birds, nay, from the very stones. The whole creation groans and suffers through us, and would retaliate the injuries we have done them, were not a covenant made on our behalf with them.-Rev. A. Fuller's Diary. Could the sinner but open his eyes to the dreadful reality of his condition, were he endowed with a power of vision like the servant of the prophet, he would find himself surrounded, not indeed with horses and chariots of fire to guard him, but with terrible frowns of anger and destruction, waiting to dart on him, and make him their prey. He would find himself standing in the great theatre of the universe, with every eye that it contains fixed and frowning upon him; with every weapon in the infinite armoury of God ready and levelled against him. And the hour arrives when he finds that sin has arrayed against him, not only all the universe without, but all the powers and passions within him; that it has armed him against himself; that it has given a sting to every thought, and turned his conscience into a worm that dieth not, and his depraved and ungoverned passions into fires never to be quenched. -Dr. Harris. There is a sense in which all nature stands ready to avenge the quarrel of God with man. It will be found, in the history of the Divine justice, that every element of nature has taken its turn, as a minister of wrath, to assert the quarrel of God with rebellious man. And be it remembered that one of these elements is held in reserve for the destruction of the world: He has only to speak, and it will wrap the globe in living flames. Meanwhile, He may be said to have laid all nature under a solemn interdict, not to minister to our most pressing wants: He has laid it under an eternal ban. Let there be no peace to the wicked, saith my God; let everything be at war with him. If he will be the enemy of God, let him live and die amidst a universe of frowns; let everything, in heaven, earth, and 24 And thou shalt know that thy thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin. 'Thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin.'-O blessed thing! What can be the meaning of that? Can any man suppose it a sin to go home to his own house? No, but that he can visit his tabernacle without conscience of sin: I have kept a good conscience this day, blessed be God. It may be I I have met with temptations, to be in a debauch by those that would have insulted over the weakness of my flesh; it may be I have, but God hath kept me. Blessed be God, now I can visit tabernacle shall be in peace; and my tabernacle without sin, and lay me down in rest and peace. I can visit my tabernacle without spot, without any such spot.' What a blessed thing is it, when God brings about that reconciliation between a man and himself, and where peace is kept and continued between a man and his own conscience, not by stupifying conscience, (a fearful thing that is,) but by the conforming of a man's heart and inclinations and ways thereunto !-Howe. 25 Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great, and thine offspring as the grass of the earth. 26 Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season. V. 26. This is especially to be looked upon as an Old Testament promise, when the Lord dealt more with His people in visible external mercies. Yet, in one sense, it is a universal truth, and is ever fulfilled to His people. For whensoever they die, they die in a good old age. Yea, though they die in the spring and flower of youth, they die in a good old age; that is, they are ripe for death whenever they die. Whenever a godly man dies, it is harvest time with him. Though in a natural capacity he be cut down, while he is green, and cropt in the bud or blossom; yet, in his spiritual capacity, he never dies before he is ripe. God ripens His people speedily, when He intends to take them out of the world speedily. He can let out such warm rays and beams of His Spirit upon them, as shall soon mature the seeds of grace into a preparedness for glory. Whereas a wicked man living a hundred years, hath no full old age, much less a good old age. He is ripe indeed for destruction, but he is never ripe for death. He is as unready and unripe for death, when he is a hundred years old, as when he was but a day old. He hath not begun to live, when he dies; or he is at the end of his natural race, before he hath taken one step in his spiritual. Gray hairs are the shame, and should be the sorrow, of old age, when they are not found in the way of righteousness.-Caryl. Few men die of age. Almost all die of disappointment, passional, mental, or bodily toil, or accident. The passions kill men sometimes, even suddenly. The common expression, 'choked with passion,' has little exaggeration in it; for even though not suddenly fatal, strong passions shorten life. Strongbodied men often die young;-weak men live longer than the strong, for the strong use their strength, and the weak have none to use. The latter take care of themselves; the former do not. As it is with the body, so it is with the mind and temper. The strong are apt to break, or, like the candle, to run; the weak burn out. The inferior animals, which live, in general, regular and temperate lives, have generally their prescribed term of years. The horse lives 25 years; the ox 15 or 20; the lion about 20; the dog 10 or 12; the rabbit 8; the guinea-pig 6 or 7 years. These numbers all bear a similar proportion to the time the animal takes to grow its full size. But man, of all the animals, is the one that seldom comes up to his average. He ought to live 100 years, according to this physiological law, for 5 times 20 are 100. But instead of that, he scarcely reaches, on the average, 4 times his growing period; the cat 6 times; and the rabbit even 8 times the standard of measurement. The reason is obvious-man is not only the most irregular and the most intemperate, but the most laborious and hard-worked of all animals. He is also the most irritable of all animals; and there is reason to believe, though we cannot tell what an animal secretly feels, that, more than any other animal, man cherishes wrath to keep it warm, and consumes himself with the fire of his own secret reflections.-J. A. St. John. The Cardinal de Solis, Archbishop of Seville, who attained to the great age of 110 years, when asked by his intimate friends, what methods he had taken to prolong life to so extraordinary a period, observed, that he had led a sober and studious, but not a sedentary, life; that his diet, though delicate, was sparing; and that he exercised himself every day, either in riding or walking. So far,' said the amiable prelate, I took care for the body; and as to the mind, I strove to preserve it in due temper by a scrupulous obedience to the Divine injunctions, and keeping a conscience void of offence toward God and man. By these easy and innocent means, I have arrived at the age of a patriarch, with less injury to my constitution than many experience at forty. I am now, like ripe corn, ready for the sickle of death, and by the mercy of my Redeemer, I have strong hopes of being translated into His granary.'—Universal History. If thou hast some beginnings that look like good, and death should overtake thee before those beginnings are ripe, thy fruit will wither, and thou wilt fall short of being gathered into God's barn. Some men are cut off as the tops of the ears of corn,' and some are even nipped by death in the very bud of their spring; but the safety is when a man is ripe, and shall be gathered to his grave, as a shock of corn to the barn in its season.-Bunyan. 27 Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy good. CHAP. VI. OUT Job answered and said, 2 Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together! 8 For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea: therefore my words are swallowed up. It is necessary not only to weigh the matter of an affliction, to see what it is which a man suffers; but to weigh an affliction in every circumstance and aggravation of it. The circumstances of an affliction are often more considerable than the matter of the affliction. If a man would confess his sins, and confess them thoroughly, he is to confess, not only the matter of them, as sins are the transgression of the Law, and errors against the Rule; but he must have regard to the manner in which sin hath been committed, the circumstances with which it is clothed; these render his sin out of measure, and exceeding sinful. Likewise, would a man consider the mercies and favours received from God, would he know them thoroughly, and see how much they weigh; let him consider not only what those mercies are, but how, and when, and where, and by whom he hath received them. There may be (and often is) a great wickedness in a little evil committed, and a great mercy in a little good received. Now, as there is often more in the circumstances, than in the matter of a sin, or of a mercy; so there is often more in the circumstances, than there is in the matter of an affliction: therefore, he that would thoroughly weigh the afflictions of another, must consider all those accidents, as well as the substance of it; as the time when sent, the length of time endured, whether the affliction be single, or in conjunction with other affiictions, the strength of the patient, &c.-Caryl. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves. in array against me. The following passage from the Toozooky Teemoor, affords a fine illustration of this passage: 'It was once demanded of the fourth Caliph (Ali), If the canopy of heaven were a bow, and the earth the cord thereof; if calamities were the arrows; if mankind were the mark for these arrows; and if the Almighty God, the tremendous and glorious, were the unerring Archer: to whom would the sons of Adam flee for protection? The Caliph answered, The sons of men must flee unto the Lord.'-Comp. Bible. Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? or loweth the ox over his fodder? 6 Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg? 7 The things that my soul refused to touch are as my sorrowful meat. They who know no want, and feel no pain, may easily be composed, and critically comment on the words and actions of such as are in overwhelm ing trouble; but their discourses are fort him. This should be well considered by those who discourse with persons in great distress; and except they can command evident affection, sympathy, and caution, it is better to let the storm subside before they speak at all, lest they cause it to rage with greater impetuosity.-Scott. O that I might have my request; and that God would grant me the thing that I longed for! Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off! The passionate earnestness with which Job here requested to die, and the vehement language which he used, were very unbecoming. It seemed as if God could bestow on him no greater favour than instantaneous death, in whatever manner it should come. Though Job thus longed and prayed for death, however, he did not think that he was authorized to commit suicide. A heathen philosopher, or a modern unbeliever, would not have been so scrupulous.-Scott. 10 Then should I yet have comfort; yea, I would harden myself in sorrow let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One. 'Let Him not spare.'-We are much indebted to sparing mercy; it is bad indeed with us when we are sick of that. Let us rather say with David, 'O spare me a little.-M. Henry. should hope? and what is mine "What is my strength, that I end, that I should prolong my life? 12 Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass? Since there is no strength in nature, which may give us hope to live long; it is our greatest wisdom to consider what provision we have in grace, to maintain our hopes that we shall live for ever. They are in an ill case, who, when they cannot hope to live long, care not to settle their hopes of living eternally. It is a most sad spectacle, 14 to see a languishing body, and a languishing hope, meet in a man. Some have a calendar in their bones, showing them they have but few days here, and many distempers upon their whole body, crying in their ears with a loud voice, 'What is your strength, that you should hope to live?' who yet prepare not at all to die.-Caryl. 13 Is not my help in me? and is wisdom driven quite from me? To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty. 15 My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away; 16 Which are blackish by reason of the ice, and wherein the snow is hid: 17 What time they wax warm, they vanish: when it is hot they are consumed out of their place. is The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish. 19 The troops of Tema looked, the companies of Sheba waited for them. 20 They were confounded because they had hoped; they came thither, and were ashamed. |