Chap. 3 2. An Expofrtion upon the Bookof J o s. Verf. z i. 89 -I am ready, but thewhole efficacy and power mull be from him- felfe. This carrieth a profitableand a holy fence ; every goodnun afcribes the effect of all that he fpeaks inperfwading others for good to the power of God. God mull convert the firmer, not man, not the preacher ; God mull humble the proud, not man, Godmull cati him downe from his high thoughts, or cart downe the high thoughts that are in him,not man ; God mutifoften and breake the hard heart, not man ; in a word , 'cis God who both thrufleth man downe by 'a gracious work of repentance and felfe- abhorrence, and rayfeth himup by a powerful! worke of faith and holycon ìdence inJeiús Chrilt : when man bath done his bell,, he can doe nothing effectually, only God can. Whatfoever-good man doch, God doth it in him and by him. Hence thofe creature- abating and Çhrill-exalting quetiions (t Cor 3. S.) 7Pho is Paul ? andwho is Apollo ? bat Miniflers by whomye believed, even at the Lord gave to every man. Paul puts a flight upon himtelfe, and a flight upon all intiruments, that thewhole power might be of God, as he concludes,( v. 7.) So then neither ¡s he thatplant ethary thing, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the en- ereafe. God only thrufis man downe from his vaine and carnal Date, God only lifts him up unto a blelfed. ând -a heavenly Date. This, you fee, is animproveable interpretation, as the words are füppofed fpokenbyElihu. But, I rather referre them to Jobs friends, being colleeted or ,gatheredup byEldon , as the Wile of their whole difcourfe with fob. God thrusbeth him downe, and not man. This is it, that you mean (faith Elihu) this is the top of your wifdome, the flower and Creame,the fumme and fubilance of all your arguments. All that ye have fayd is reducible to this one pofition, God thrufieth him downe ,not man, and therefore he isa wicked man ; This is the wifdome which ye glory to have found. - Now though we take the words as the fumme of what fobs friends had fpoken , collected and drawne together by Eliha, yet there is fotnevariety in opening the fence of them ; I will but touch a little at what is offered by feverall Interpreters, and flay upon that which I conceive moll proper to the place. Fira , Some conceive that in thefe words an account is given why Yobs friends gave over fpeaking, or why they flood filent, either refolving to fpeakeno more, or prefuming they had fpo- N ken
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