A35538:465
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 38 › Verse 8-11
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, Of his habitation, in what part of the world he shall live (Acts 17 26.)
Secondly, Of his station, or vocation, what part he shall act in the world, to serve his generation, or to get his living. He that abides within the bounds of his calling, abides in his place, though he every day move or remove from place to place. It is best for our selves and for others also to abide in our decreed places; as it is a mercy to us all, that the sea abides where God placed it. If men break out of their places, they may quickly do mischief like the breach of the sea: To prevent which God brake up for it his decreed place, and not only so, but as it followeth in the close of this tenth verse, Set bars and doors.
In the eighth verse we have only doors; he hath shut up or anointed the doors of the sea; but here we have bars and doors. It is an allusion to strong Cities and Castles, or to great mens Houses, which have not only doors, but doors barred and double locked. Bars strengthen doors, and keep them fast and sure. A strong door, if not well locked and barred, may quickly be broken open; therefore the Lord to make all fast, tells us that when he had put the sea into his decreed place, that it should no more return to cover the earth at its own pleasure, or according to its natural bent (for there is a desire, that is, a natural bent in the sea to be over-flowing all, and to repossess the place from which it was at first with-drawn; the Lord I say tells us that) he then set doors and bars to keep it in, and shut it up fast enough. And if you enquire what is meant by these doors and bars, with which 'tis shut in? Some answer, The sands of the sea, others the rocks, cliffs and banks; these are bars and doors by which the sea is shut in. But though these things are indeed as bars and doors to keep the sea from returning again; yet that which is the great bar and door, is the word of command from God, as appears fully in the next verse.