A35535:2640
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty second, the thirty third, and…An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the thirty second, the thirty third, and…
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty second, the thirty third, and the thirty fourth chapters of the book of Job being the substance of forty-nine lectures / delivered at Magnus near the Bridge, London, by Joseph Caryl ...An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the thirty second, the thirty third, and the thirty fourth chapters of the booke of Job being the substance of forty-nine lectures / delivered at Magnus neare the Bridge, London, by Joseph Caryl ...
London: printed by M. Simmons, 1661
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.
Agur prayed (Prov. 30.8.) Give me neither poverty nor riches. Agur knew poverty was a gift of God as well as riches. It hath been said (though profanely) Every man is the fashioner of his own fortune, or the contriver of his own condition. Some who acknowledge God hath made them men, think they have made themselves rich, or great men; and we commonly look on those who fail in their worldly Estates, that they have made themselves poor and low in the world. I grant, there is a sense wherein men make themselves rich, and make themselves poor; that is, when they do either by their sins. God is not so engaged in the making of a man rich, when he enricheth himself by his sin, by deceiving or oppressing his brethren, as when he groweth rich in a way of righteousness: He that is enriched by oppression, or deceit, or sets his nest on high by flattery, or by fraud, cannot thank God for his riches, or honours; and if he doth, he blasphemously makes God a partner in those sins by which he hath got his riches and honours. For though it be a truth that there is a hand of God in his gettings, (for all the craft, and policy, and oppression which men use, will never be able to make them either rich or great, if God did not permit and order it so) yet the heart of God is not with him in it, and God will not own his own hand in giving them wealth or power, further then as they are a testimony against them, of his goodness, and their ingratitude. We may also say of some poor men, they have made themselves poor, not God; He made Job poor, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, was his humble acknowledgement (chap. 1.21.) but there are some, of whom we cannot so much say God hath made them poor by his sad providences to them, as that they have made themselves poor by their idleness and improvidence, or by their prodigality and vain profuseness; yet even of such poor men we may truly say, ⟨p. 635⟩there be a righteous hand of God upon them in leaving or giving them up to the lusts of their own heart, their laziness, or lavishness, which produce their utter undoing, and bring them to a morsel of bread. So that let men be in what condition they will, the Lord is the former of it. The diligent hand maketh rich, but it is with the blessing of God; and when an indiligent man becomes poor, it is the curse of God upon him for his sin, as well as the consequent of his sin.