Chap. ç. An Expofation "pen the Book of J O B. Verf. t 2. 275 any thing:becaufewickednefsis nothing,or it is good for np- tentogib rebtrc to mund, thing : 7bofr things which want wifdom and realn, are ,u if they were tranfeuntibre+. not, and portly will not be at all. Hence force render the words i incJ,gnif. thus , Their hands cannot perform their wifdom , that is, they car, omne pod cannot bring to pats that enterprife,which they had determined cumintelldlu and laid(as themfelves conceived ) with fo much wifdom and Y °bonefìr: flrength of reafomMrBroughtonto the fame fenfe: Their band, hie jpe "°' brings nothing oandl t pop literproeo,quod g gÎ I P f And the Chaldce exemplifies it iu quiafrbiftatuie theEgyptians before mentioned, whoas the9holy flory informs utfaciorgao us, could not tfiè;l, that which they had confulted with thofe finemaptatum depths of policy,and principles of finful wifdom,Thc deflrufi- affquatur, on of the children of Ifrael. Here then we may obferve. Firfl, Iummmer.d That The wifdom of natural men it nothing but craft or wit to do wick. edly: TheProphet ftremygives us this charaasr of them , They are wife to do evil,( Jsr.4 22. ) And to be wife to do evil is very ill wifdom, the wordl wifdom, indeed meet folly ; better be a fed, than to be but fo wife : And thefe have it from their father , it dwels and is derived in their blood, They are thefeed of the Ser pent (as was toucht before)and his fubtilty was made the inflru- mentof the greatefl evil,the tainting of that fira created inno- cency,and the overthrow ofman: Now they are called theSer. petits Seed,becaufe they are fleethe Scrpents;the Serpent was the fubrilefl of all the beafls of the field,and tbefc(as Chrifl fpeaks of the men of the world )are wifer in their generation than the children of light ; yet is but in their generation, and their wifdom lafleth but for their generation,if it Taft fo long: El,mar (Atha x3.10 ) beingcharged ra befaa of all fubtilty and mifcbief is called at the next word, child of the Devil. Subtil to do mifchief, is the Genius ordifpofition of t he Devils children ; and they (hall have the Serpents,the Devils portion : For as the Serpent, who was once fubtilief/ of all the beafis of the field (applying his fubtilty to mifchief)became the moll curled of all the beafts of the field, fo they who are thus the fubtilleftamong thechildren of men [hall bethe moll curled of all the children of men,Ìer. t 8.t8.we findcrafty men inconfultation, and under a cm fè. Come( fay f they)let of devife a device againfl Jeremiah, and let us finite him with the tongue ; Let us devife dFvtcet, it is the fame word in the Text,but doubled for greater emphafis:Thefewere their craftf- N n 2 mailers;
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