A35439:2368
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of…An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of…
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of the book of Job being the sum of thirty two lectures, delivered at Magnus near the bridge, London / by Joseph Caryl ...An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of the book of Job being the summe of thirty two lectures, delivered at Magnus neer the bridge, London / by Joseph Caryl ...
London: printed by A. Miller for Henry Overton, 1647
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Take the words as a direct assertion, Thou wilt bring me into the dust again. So they may have reference to the decree of God concerning man, as those before had to the creation of man. As if he had said, By creation and natural constitution, I am frail and weak, made of the clay, by thy purpose and decree I am appointed unto death, Thou wilt bring me into the dust again, therefore spare me for the short time I have to live.
Take the words as a direct assertion, Thou wilt bring me into the dust again. So they may have reference to the decree of God concerning man, as those before had to the creation of man. As if he had said, By creation and naturall constitution, I am frail and weak, made of the clay, by thy purpose and decree I am appointed unto death, Thou wilt bring me into the dust again, therefore spare me for the short time I have to live.
Some change the conjunction [And] into the adverb of likeness, so, to note a right, power, or privilege, and the text runs in this form, Remember, that as thou hast made me of, or as the clay, so thou mayest (it is thy privilege, none can contradict thee in it, and thou doest me no wrong in it, thou mayest) as thou hast purposed, bring me to the dust again. Though it be common and natural to all creatures mixed of elements, to be resolved and turned back into that out of which they were made, that is to die; yet to man it is more then natural; there is a decree upon it, besides the naturality of it: Man dieth by a statute-law of heaven. To die is a penalty inflicted upon man for sin, for he had not been under a necessity of dying, if he had not sinned. And therefore though God formed man (as the holy story informs us (Gen. 2.7.) out of the dust of the earth, yet so long as man stood, he never said to him, To dust thou shalt return; God only put a supposition, that in case man did fall, he should surely die. But when man had fallen by sin, then he hears what he was, and what he must be, For dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return (Gen. 3.19.) As if God had thus bespoken sinful man. Thy body was framed out of dust,