An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and thirty-seventh chapters of…

Hence Note; First, Though the Lord be infinitely more mighty than the mightiest of men, yet he doth not despise any man;

He doth not despise man in general, who is the work of his hand; yea, Job said once (Chap. 14.15.) Thou wilt have a desire to the work of thy hand. The Lord doth not despise any of his works, as they are his works, or as they come out of his hand; and therefore when Jonah seemed to set so low a rate upon the Ninevites, who were the work of his hand, his Creatures, the Lord reproved him for it, by the Gourd, which when the Lord smote, Jonah was angry; but said the Lord, Dost thou well to be angry for thy Gourd? Hast thou mercy upon a Gourd, and should not I spare this City, wherein are more than six score thousand persons, that know not their right hand from their left, and also much Cattle? The Lord did not despise, but pity them. Go through all the sorts of men, the Lord despiseth none; the Lord despiseth not great men, because great (which will come to a further consideration, upon another Translation of the Text) nor ⟨p. 171⟩mean men, because mean; he despiseth not men in prosperity, because they are rich and prosperous, nor doth he despise men in adversity, because poor and unprosperous. He despiseth not any upon any of these accounts; the Lord despiseth none but the wicked, and the ungodly, the unbeliever and the impenitent, and all them he despiseth, and them he ever will despise, how great, how high, how mighty, how rich soever they are; the Lord despiseth them, and he will always despise them. He doth not despise any man because a great man, if he be not a wicked great man; and let men be never so poor or low, the Lord looks not disdainfully upon them because they are so; God doth not despise any man because he is in a bad case, he only despiseth men, because their case or Cause is bad, and then he will despise them, let them be who or what they will. Such is the goodness of God, and this goodness is his Glory, That although the highest and greatest of men, are but as worms to him, or not so much to him as the dust of the Balance, or the drop of the Bucket, yet he despiseth not any, no, not the lowest and least of men.