A35538:1546
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fortieth, forty-first, and forty-second,…
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fortieth, forty-first, and forty-second, being the five last, chapters of the book of Job being the substance of fifty-two lectures or meditations / by Joseph Caryl ...
London: printed by M. and S. Simmons, 1666
Title page typeset from the transcription.
AN EXPOSITION WITH Practical Observations UPON The Thirty-eighth, T… › Chapter 39 › Verse 9-12
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.
First, That they have strength and ability for it; there is a necessity of that: No wise man will trust or leave his business with him that hath no strength to do it, no ability for it.
Secondly, That they be subject and obedient to us. No wise man will leave his business in the hand of those who acknowledge no obedience nor subjection to him, how much strength soever they have. An unsubmitting strength will work against us rather than for us.
Thirdly, That they be faithful. No man will leave his business to a person of strength and in subjection to him, if he be not honest to him. Solomon hath sufficiently cautioned us against trusting such, while he saith (Prov. 25.19.) Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble ('tis true also in time of peace) is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint. A broken tooth cannot chew our meat, and a foot out of joint can worse go a journey; an unfaithful man will prove a worser servant to us, than the worst of these. And as it is thus among men, they will not leave their business with an Unicorn, with one that hath strength, but yields no subjection, nor ever showed any faithfulness; so God will not leave his labour, his work and service to such as are like the Unicorn; he will not leave it in such hands, as have great ability to carry it through, yet want obedience to his will, and faithfulness in his work. There must be a concurrence of these three, strength, subjection, and faithfulness, in all those to whom the Lord God, the God only wise, will leave his labour, or commit the doing of any service for him. But where these three meet and centre in any ⟨p. 375⟩person, strength of body and mind, submission of will, and faithfulness to a work; how great things may they do in the service whether of God or Man?