William HuntingtonXXXI. The Saints Right, and His Lies Against it
JOB in his affliction had three friends which came to bemoan him and to comfort him; but they proved themselves to be but miserable comforters; for they soon fall into vain jangling, and labour to prove Job a bad man, which they conclude from God's severity with him, God's testimony of Job is, that he was a perfect and an upright man, and that he feared God, and eschewed evil. This Job pleads when he says, "The just, the up, right man, is laughed to scorn." Against this they argue, "If thou wert pure and upright, surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous." This is the opinion of Bildad; and he enforces it by insisting that God will not cast away a perfect man, nor will he help the evil doers. Hence he concludes that Job is a castaway, and therefore cannot be a perfect man; and as God afforded him no help, he must be an evil doer. Eliphaz sarcastically throws Job's former conduct at him, and insinuates that Job could not trust nor rely upon his own doctrine: "Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands. Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees. But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled." Physician, heal thyself; practise now your former advice. Zophar charges Job with falsehood, and asks, "Should thy lies make men hold their peace; and, when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?" Job against them all maintains his integrity, in which he is right, and tells them that he knows that he shall be justified, and that when he was tried that he should come forth as gold; and that he should see God for himself, and not for another; and in all this he bore no better witness of himself than God had borne of him. But as did not appear to deliver him so soon as he expected, and being sadly irritated and provoked his friends, he breaks out even against God himself, in which he justifies himself, but-not God: "This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked. If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent." That God destroys those that are perfect as well as the wicked, and that persons who are innocent when they are tried, if the scourge slays them suddenly it is with God a matter of laughter; these are hard and bad speeches, of which God complains: "Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God let him answer it." Again: "Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?" After a long contention between Job and his three friends, Elihu steps forth as a moderator; and a very strong impulse of the Holy Spirit seems to have been upon him; for he tells Job that he was, according to his wish, in God's stead. Job had desired to reason with God, and he was come in God's stead to reason with him. He highly blames Job's friends, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job. Elihu believed Job to be a good man, and as such he desired to justify him. He rehearses many of Job's hard speeches, and for which he was not to be justified, but highly to be blamed. He enforces the sovereignty of God, that he gives not account of any of his matters. He rehearses the various dealings of God with man, and the end that God aims at, to keep man from his purpose, and to hide pride from man, and to bring them to obedience; and that if they obey and serve him they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasure. He asks Job, "Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art wicked? and to princes, Ye are ungodly? How much less to him that accepteth not the persons of princes? Shall even he that hateth right govern? and wilt thou condemn him that is most just?" Job xxxiv. 17-19. And for all these hard speeches he charges Job with rebellion: "For he addeth rebellion unto his sin; he clappeth his hand amongst us, and multiplieth his words against God." This wonderful moderator having silenced Job's three friends, and brought in so many charges against Job for false and unbecoming words spoken against God, he stopped Job's mouth so that he had not a word to say, and therefore makes no reply; upon which God came in as umpire. He lays the same charges against Job as Elihu had, and yet acknowledges that even Job had spoken more things than were right of him than his three friends had; for they are all charged with folly; but there is not one word against Elihu; he has no censure passed upon him. Job's conduct also is preferred before all his friends. They are ordered to bring their sacrifices to Job, and his prayers are to be heard and answered in their behalf. God heals Job, and turns his captivity, while he prayed for his friends; and in answer to his prayers his friends are pardoned. They present an offering to Job their priest, and God commands his blessing upon it, and this enriches Job; and so the matter ends. I shall now return to my text. "Should I lie against my right?" Man, when God made him, was a happy and a blessed creature. All things were given to him, and he was to bare dominion over all other creatures; but he sinned, and forfeited all; so that, strictly speaking, he has no right to any one thing but the sentence of death. "The day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." He did eat; and therefore this sentence in all its meaning, and the execution of it, is man's right; and this is all that he has any right to by the tenor of a covenant of works. But God has appointed us another head, a second Adam, and proclaimed him to us as our everlasting Father; and he has redeemed us, and restored us again to the divine favour. And many wonderful things has God given to us in him, and whatsoever God hath given to us is our right; for nothing can be freer than gifts; and what is given me I have a right to inherit. And, 1. He has promised the kingdom of God to all them that are poor in spirit: "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of God." A man truly poor in soul is a debtor that needs a surety; a starving soul, like the prodigal, that wants bread, and begs it; a naked soul, that hungers after righteousness. He is weary, and wants a resting place; and he is chased out of all confidence in the flesh, and exposed to the wrath of God; and therefore he wants a refuge, a shelter, and a dwelling-place. He has neither good words nor good works to plead; and therefore becomes a pauper on a throne of grace, and relies wholly on the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. This is the poor and needy man. To this man God promises the kingdom; and this man has many adversaries. But God takes his part: "I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and the right of the poor. Surely the righteous shall give thanks to thy name; the upright shall dwell in thy presence," The right of the poor in spirit is the kingdom of God; to the poor it is promised, and the poor are the heirs of it; and to the poor the promise of God secures it. The cause of a just man is his sonship. He that believeth is a child of God, manifestly so, by faith. Against this high character and title the devil and sinners labour hard, as may be seen in the devil's ifs and buts which he brought to Christ when he tempted him in the wilderness: "If thou be the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread." Upon this head the Jews charge him with blasphemy, to which Christ replies, "Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?" This they throw at him most blasphemously when on the cross: "tie saved others, himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God." And against the sonship of the saints Satan labours with all his might; and in making this matter clear and sure to us every divine person in the ever-blessed Trinity is concerned. God makes it plain by shedding abroad his love in our hearts, and declaring that, "He that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God." Christ makes it manifest to us upon our receiving him and believing on him; for to them that receive him and believe on his name, to them he gives power to become the sons of God; and again, Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." The Holy Ghost also cries Abba, Father, and bears his witness with cur spirits that we are the children of God. Our heirship and inheritance depend upon our adoption; so that if we stagger at our sonship we lose the comfort and support of the promises; for, being sons, we are heirs of promise. But in the hour of temptation, or when under spiritual desertion, and when in the old vail gathers over the mind, and a hasty spirit comes upon us, at which times the soul is alarmed, affrighted, and hurried, which confounds and baffles the soul, so that all is confusion, and we cannot make a proper judgment of any thing, and at such a time faith is not in exercise, nor is the Spirit's witness within perceived, nor Can hope or love be discerned; under such circumstances Zion concluded her God had forsaken her; Hezekiah drew the same conclusion, that the should see his God no more; and Job also, that God had sealed up his iniquity in a bag, and that he would not hold him innocent. But our adoption is the work of God; he predestinated us to the adoption of sons. God makes this known to us, and sends his own Spirit into the heart to claim it. Nor will God suffer the evidences of our adoption to be finally obscured; nor will he lose the love and filial fear of his children, nor suffer their faith, by which he is glorified, always to lie dormant. He purges the branch in order to remove the superfluities, that the Union with the noble vine may be more close, and the branch be made more fruitful; and it is by this that God gets the more glory; for, being adopted and brought into the presence of God, he will maintain our standing there. And this the psalmist knew when he said, "I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and the right of the poor. Surely the just shall give thanks to thy name; the upright shall dwell in thy presence." By maintaining the cause and the right of his saints he secures to himself the thanks of the just, and the company of the upright; for these arc to dwell in his presence. Besides, it is by the blood of Christ that we are made nigh to God, and by his mediation are we introduced into God's presence; and therefore he will never cast us away from his presence, nor take his holy Spirit from us, for both are secured by covenant; and, to speak more plainly, the Spirit of God in his presence, as saith the psalmist, "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, and whither shall I flee from thy presence." Moreover, "We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. This banquet is intended and promised to perishing souls; it is a feast of fat things, of marrow and fatness, and of wines on the lees well refined. And the great trumpet is to be blown to invite the guests to this feast; and they shall come, says God, that were ready to perish. Hence the invitation to those that were not worthy was wholly slighted; but the poor, the halt, the lame, and the blind, were compelled, and brought in. This feast is promised to the poor and needy; and to these it is secured by the purpose and promise of God. And consistent with this does our great Shepherd proceed in all his offices: "And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock. Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me. Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another." Thus have we a right to this altar; it is a grant from God to the poor and needy, to which the outward-court worshipper has no right. And this feeding the poor of the flock is nothing else but giving us now and then a glimpse of the Lord's sweet face, and a reviving and refreshing sense of his powerful presence: "Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my Spirit," Job x. 12. All the preaching in the world will not feed nor satisfy the child of God if the Lord be not there. The promise of his presence being with his people to the world's end is their ground of hope; hence it is that the children of the bride-chamber never fast when the bridegroom is with them; but when his presence is not enjoyed they are sure to fast in those days. Sometimes this feeding is done by the Spirit taking the things which are the Lord's and showing them unto us; but without the light of the Lord's countenance the things set forth are not seen; nor are they felt or enjoyed unless attended with his life-giving presence, for the Spirit testifies of him. Again: "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Here is a right to the tree of life; and they have this right who do his commandments. And these commandments are not the commands of the moral law; for they that are of the works of the law are not under a blessing, but under the curse. There is no one spiritual blessing in all the book of God promised but to faith; "As many as are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." Besides, if they which be of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect. These commandments are faith in the Son of God, and love to the brethren: "This is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And sure I am that the tree of life is already in the doers of these commandments; for he that believeth is passed from death unto life, and so he is that loveth his brother. These are the blessed doers of his commandments; and these have a right to the tree of life, to the leaves of it, which are to heal, and to the fruits of it, which are for meat, and shall enter through the gates into the city; for they are already fellow citizens of the saints, and of the household of God. And this city itself is no other than their own mother; their birth and their breasts are nothing else but the love of God, the Spirit of God, and the promises of God made to the elect in this better covenant, which is called the heavenly Jerusalem. Again: "For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the market-place, and said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way." To go into the vineyard is to come out of the world and go into the church at the call of God; the labour is that of a spiritual birth, and of working out our salvation with fear and trembling, bearing the cross, denying self, holding fast our profession and the word of life, and following hard after God through evil report and good report. Now, whatsoever is right, saith the parable, I will give you; and upon this promise they went their way, exercising faith upon his word, and hoping for the promised reward, which is of grace, and not of debt. I will go now to the old law to sec what this hire is: "Thou shalt not oppress an hired, servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates: at his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee." Whatever this penny per day may mean, it is the wages of the kingdom. The kingdom of God is like this householder, who hires labourers into his vineyard. The kingdom of God is the grace of God, which is to reign through righteousness unto eternal life. The labourer's wages are intended to buy him food and raiment; upon this he sets his heart. The grace of life, and the righteousness of faith, are what the poor and needy sinner seeks after. The Roman penny bore the image and superscription of Cesar upon it; and the work of grace within is called the new man, which is created after the image of him that created him in righteousness and true holiness. And the most lovely feature in this image is charity; and every believer sets his heart upon this. And sure I am that the Sun of righteousness will never go down upon this hire; for at six of the clock, according to the parable, every one was paid, and every one received a penny, the last as well as the first; and this, according to the parable, was right; and that which was right they received: "He preserveth not the life of the wicked: but giveth right to the poor. He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous: but with kings are they on the throne; yea, he doth establish them for ever, and they are exalted." In this passage we see the poor and needy in full possession Of all their right which God has granted to them in his dear Son; for they are with kings on the throne, established, and exalted for ever. We have seen what this right is, and who it is that grants us this right; in what way it comes, and how it is secured; namely, by a covenant of promise: "It is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed." But, then, "Should I lie against my right?" No: I should not. But I often have, and so have others also: "For Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment," Job xxxiv. 5. Now the judgment that is in favour of a righteous man, and that should always be passed upon him, and which is his right from God, whether at the tribunal of men, or at the bar of God himself, is and should be, that of justification. This is the just man's right at all tribunals, whether human or divine. "If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them, then thou shalt justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked." Again: "If a man sin against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to make him swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house: then hear thou from heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, by requiting the wicked, by recompensing his way upon his own head; and by justifying the righteous, by giving him according to his righteousness." Again: "Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not; for I will not justify the wicked," Exod. xxiii. 7. Here we see that the right of a righteous man, at all tribunals, is justification; and if this sentence be not passed upon him his judgment is taken away. And this leads us to the true understanding of that mysterious passage in the prophecy of Isaiah, as quoted in the Acts: "In his humiliation his judgment was taken away." The sentence of justification, which was due to him, was passed upon Barabbas the robber, and he was set free; and the sentence of condemnation, due to the robber, was passed and executed upon the Saviour. Every one who condemns the just takes away the right of the just, and the right of the poor and needy, hence the complaint, "They are waxen fat, they shine; yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge." Elihu had pointed out to Job that he should put his trust in the Lord; and that God in due time would pass a true sentence upon him and upon his case, and that to the shame of all his friends, and to the confusion of the devil and all his accomplices: "Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust thou him." This is Elihu's advice, and it coincided too both with Job's faith and conscience, for he himself had declared the same: "Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified. Who is he that will plead with me?" Moreover Job had well examined himself and his state, and could appeal to God for a confirmation of his integrity; and he had the testimony of God himself that he was perfect and upright, that he feared God, and eschewed evil. And a brighter testimony cannot be given to poor frail, imperfect men, however gracious they may be. And upon this footing Job styled himself to be what God had declared concerning him: "I am as one mocked of his neighbour, who calleth upon God, and he answereth him. The just, upright man is laughed to scorn." Now, against this express testimony of God in Job's behalf; against the honest and true confession of Job himself; against the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit; against all light and knowledge; against the verdict of his own thoughts; against the decision of his own conscience; against his own former practice as a magistrate; and against all sound reason; he no less than twice lies against his right; and he brings it in by way of an oath, and, as it were, swears by God: "Moreover, Job continued his parable, and said, As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul; all the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, my lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit." I think there is wickedness enough, and falsehood too, in this very speech, notwithstanding the oath with which it is prefaced. And here we see the wonderful conscientiousness of Job, that though the Almighty had deprived him of his right, and taken away his judgment, and vexed his soul by so doing, yet he would be far from such an example; for all the time his breath was in him he would not speak wickedness, nor should his tongue utter deceit. Job has this heavy charge brought against him by Elihu: "For Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment." This is lying against our right. But I have no call to look into the scriptures, nor any where else, for I have found more of this sort of lying in my own heart than ever I found in the infirmities of Bible saints, or in the mouth and heart of all my neighbours put them all together. But to proceed. Job not only lied against his right to the sentence of justification, which at his delivery God granted to him, but he lied against his right at the bar of God in the future judgment: "For now thou numberest my steps; doest thou not watch over my sin? My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity." Again: "I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent." "He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked," Job ix. 22. Thus Job lied against his right in the judgment which God promises to his children upon every fiery trial; as the Holy Spirit declares: "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust in him, and he shall bring it to pass; and he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noon-day," Psalm xxxvii. 5, 6; yea, this is secured by the covenant: "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord; and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord." And to this the faith of the church subscribes, when she says, "He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness." But then it may be objected, Where is the judgment of the martyrs? And it may also be objected, Where is the judgment of the Son of God, for he was condemned being innocent? To both which I answer, that though he was condemned in the flesh, yet he was justified in the Spirit, both by his resurrection, and in the hearts, and by the faith, of all his followers. And at the destruction of Jerusalem judgment was given to him; wrath came upon them to the uttermost; and the angel Gabriel tells Daniel that Messiah's death should go before, and the Jews' destruction should be an inevitable consequence of it: "And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the [Roman] prince that shall come shall destroy the city, and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined." And as for the judgment of the saints that suffered martyrdom, their prayers lie yet at the foot of the altar, which were put up when they were offered: "And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them, [this is their justification and wedding-robe before God;] and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also, and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled." The prayers of these departed souls, which were offered up to God when they died, are left at the foot of the altar, which is Christ; and the time will come when their judgment, which was taken away by men, will be given unto them by God; and so it is written, "I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom." The New Testament records it thus: "And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth." It was a long time before the dying prayer of Zechariah was answered; but he left it at the foot of the altar with his last breath: "And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper? Because ye have forsaken the Lord, he hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones, at the commandment of the king, in the court of the house of the Lord. And, when he died, he said, The Lord look upon it, and require it." These very dying words our Lord takes notice of, and promises a full answer to them: "That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, it shall be required of this generation," Luke xi. 50, 51. Thus the promised judgment of the poor and needy is sure to be given to the saints of the Most High; this is their promised right. But Job lied against it; both against the present judgment, and the judgment to come. But again: the right of all believers, from the foundation of the world, is eternal life. It is the eternal statute of the Lord of hosts, that the just man shall live by his faith; hence it is said, that "As many as were ordained to eternal life believed." And the strong believer has this life in Christ by faith; the weak believer has it in Christ by hope; hence hope is called a lively hope; and the word of life is the basis of hope: "Remember thy word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope." And what word was that? why, the promise of life: "This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me." But Job lied against this also: "The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man," Job xiv. 19. If his hope was destroyed, then he could be in no better state than the poor heathens, who were without God, and having no hope in the word. And for such hopeless souls there can be no salvation; "For we are saved by hope." Again: Job certainly had a right to the kingdom of God; for we are sons of God by faith; and if sons, then heirs; for the kingdom of God is set up in the hearts of all believers; and the empire of grace within is to rain till it waft the soul into glory. There is a glorious kingdom: we shall reign for ever, even in heaven. And Job was a sound believer, for he believed in his heart unto righteousness, and had with his mouth made confession unto salvation: "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me." Moreover, the kingdom of God was sure to Job by the testimony of God himself. God had borne witness to Job that he was a perfect and an upright man, one that feared God and eschewed evil, and that there was none like him in all the earth. Now, according to this testimony, he had a right to the kingdom; for the reward is promised to God's servants, the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear God, small and great. But Job lied against this branch of his right; for he concluded that God viewed him as his enemy; "Wherefore hidest thou thy face from me, and holdest me for thine enemy?" Now heaven is not intended for enemies; all that dwell in those blissful mansions are called God's friends and neighbours: "And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost." He concludes it from my text also, "My wound is incurable without transgression." If there was no cure for his wound he could have no part in the health and cure of the great Physician; and if the broken heart be not bound up, nothing can ensue but remediless grief and desperate sorrow. Job concludes it from the common destruction which he suggests would be made of all without exception: "This is one thing therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked." In this common slaughter who can escape? He predicts also the dismal end that he should make; not in the enjoyment of perfect day, or in the realms of ineffable light, but the reverse of all this: "Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little, before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death; a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness," Job x. 20-22. These dismal regions of the shadow of death, without order, and where the light is as darkness, is ten times worse than the grave, and can be no other than hell itself; for as for the grave, Job speaks pleasantly of that! "There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master." "But should I lie against my right?" No, I should not. And sure I am that none but the devil would set us at it. But why is it called lying? Why, because there is no truth in it; for not one thing spoken in this unbelieving and perverse way ever came to pass, but all fell to the ground. Furthermore, it is called lying, because Job did not in his heart believe one word of this when his lips muttered it; for Job's faith and confession contradict the whole of it: "I know I shall be justified." I shall see God for myself. "He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him;" and, "When he hath tried me I shall come forth as gold." All this was spoken in faith, and by the Holy Spirit; and all this came to pass; but, as for all the rest, he did not believe one word of it when he spoke it, but spoke it in anger and rebellion. It is called lying, because it was contrary to his own spiritual knowledge. He knew that God had borne witness of him, and he knew that his name stood in the Lamb's book of life: "Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high." He knew also that he had the love of God shed abroad in his heart, which is that charity that never fails: "But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?" "Should I lie against my right?" No, you should not; and none but Satan would set you at it. It is called lying, because Job spoke contrary to his own conscience. Every good man is conscious to himself of his own uprightness; and so was Job: "My foot hath held his steps; his way have I kept, and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food." Hence it appears that Job spoke contrary to his faith, contrary to his better knowledge, and contrary to his own conscience; and this, in plain English, is downright lying. And there is not a little of this scandalous trade carried on to this day among God's people, especially the convicted soul when in legal bondage, and the believer when in the furnace of affliction. The awakened soul in his chains, though at the same time equipped with a firm hope, will bring forth his innumerable fears and doubts, and represent them ten times worse than he either feels them or fears them; and if he has got treasured up in his own mind ten promises, and a thousand tokens for good, he will keep all these back, except you press him close, and squeeze them out of his heart. And what is this for? Why do they keep back part of the price? Why, this is done to move the bowels of mercy, and to excite your pity; and one half they complain of they do not believe; and though they make their case singular' and desperate, they can see through a hypocrite, and censure him highly; and many that seem high in profession they envy not, but prefer their own state much before theirs. But so it is when in the furnace, though we know it is for our good; and experience tells us it ever has been so; yet enmity is so inflamed, hardness of heart and the perverseness of our wills so averse to the cross, and we are so mortified at being stripped of peace and comfort, that our anger resents it, and we seek to be avenged on the Lord himself for his fatherly anger; and we keep back all that we believe, and bring forth that which we do not believe; and thus our lips speak lies, and our tongue mutters perverseness. Reader, when thou art going to carry thy complaints to thy fellow Christian, bring forth all the best as well as the worst, and ask thyself whether thou believest all these evident tokens of perdition which thou art going to bring forth, and whether conscience will put her amen to thy complaining oration; and if not, depend upon it that thou art going on with this old cursed trade of lying. But I must drop a few words on the second part of my text; "My wound is incurable without transgression." Job's wound, strictly speaking, was occasioned by the exhibition of the law to Job's mind, and the application of it to Job's conscience, which discovers our sin. Paul calls it the hand-writing that is against us, and contrary to us; and of this Job complains: "Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble? For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth, Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths." A sight of sin, and even of the sins of his youth, appeared in this handwriting; and sad bondage always attends it; of which Job complains when he calls his bondage the stocks; and as the law lays open all our evil ways, Job complains of God's looking narrowly to all his paths. Another part of Job's inward wound was, the terrors of the law, which terrify the soul with fears of future judgment; and these are attended with cutting rebukes, reproofs, and the piercing sentence of the law: "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." Job was sorely assaulted with the blasphemous suggestions and fiery darts of Satan; besides the hard treatment of his friends, the loss of property and family, and the sore afflictions of body which he laboured under; and, if what the Jews assert be true, that Job was seven years in this furnace, it was a long, a sharp, and a grievous trial; but it ended gloriously. Now this wound was incurable. So says carnal reason, so says unbelief, and so say the lips of those that lie against their right. And this incurable wound was inflicted without any transgression as the procuring cause thereof. This Job contradicts himself: "Thou makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth." Again: "I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men?" Job vii. 20. Various are the voices in this book; unbelief, carnal reason, desperation, and inflamed wrath, have their voices; faith, conscience, and truth, have their voices also. But all that has been advanced by infidelity, anger, or blind reason, at the grand trial is put to silence, and falls to the ground; but not one word spoken by the Spirit, not one word spoken in faith, and with the testimony of conscience, but what is highly honoured and fulfilled, to the glory of God, and to the comfort of Job. |