A35473:277
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of…An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of…
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of the book of Job being the sum of twenty three lectures delivered at Magnus near the bridge, London / by Joseph Caryl.An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of the book of Job being the summe of twenty three lectures delivered at Magnus neer the bridge, London / by Joseph Caryl.
London: printed by Matthew Simmons, 1650
Title page typeset from the transcription.
AN EXPOSITION Upon the Fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth Chapte… › Chapter 15 › Verse 15
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.
Secondly, Because the Saints, not only those in Heaven, but they on earth, have their conversation in Heaven; (Phil. 3.20.) As carnal and earthly minded men are called Earth, because their hearts and conversations are fixed to the earth; so spiritual and heavenly minded men may be called Heaven, because their hearts and conversations are fixed in Heaven.
Secondly, Because the Saints, not onely those in Heaven, but they on earth, have their conversation in Heaven; (Phil. 3.20.) As carnall and earthly minded men are called Earth, because their hearts and conversations are fixed to the earth; so spirituall and heavenly minded men may be called Heaven, because their hearts and conversations are fixed in Heaven.
Thirdly, We may rather understand it in a proper sense; the heavens, that is, The heavenly bodies are not clear in thy sight; the heavens are the most excellent and purest part of the Creation: And therefore this interpretation, or rather plain construction of the words, suites the scope of Eliphaz fully, who as he spake before of the Angels, who are the purest of all rational ⟨p. 64⟩creatures; so here of the heavens, which are the purest of all inanimate creatures,1 yet these are not pure in the sight of God, therefore no man is. The heavens have a kind of uncleanness in them: the Moon hath her spots, yea the Moon is but a spot, if Philosophers may be credited, who tell us that all the Stars (in their sense the Moon is a Star) are but as the spots of Heaven. A Star (as they define) being the thicker and grosser part of its Orb: The heavens themselves are so fine and liquid, so thin, and fluid, that they cannot hold the light; therefore the Lord made those Celestial bodies the Sun, Moon, and Stars, more compact and gross, that so they might both receive, and retain the light, as also transmit and give it out to the World here below. These are spots in the Heavens; and though they appear as the glory or Beauty-spots of Heaven to our sight, and are so indeed; yet these are not clean in the sight of God.