Caryl on Job

Job was full of many other excellent graces and, indeed, he had all the graces of the Spirit of God in him.  But the patience of Job was the principal grace.  As it is with natural men, they have every sin in them, but there are some sins which are the master sins, or some one sin, it may be, doth denominate a wicked man.  Sometimes, he is a proud man.  Sometimes, he is covetous.  Sometimes, he is a deceiver.  Sometimes, he is an oppressor.  Sometimes, he is unclean.  Sometimes, he hath a profane spirit, and so the like.  Some one great master lust doth give the denomination to the man.  He hath all other sins in him and they are all reigning in him.  But one, as it were, reigneth above the rest and fits uppermost in his heart.  So it is with the saints of God (and, here, with Job).  Every saint and servant of God hath all grace in him – every grace in some degree or other – for all the limbs and lineaments of the new man are formed together in the souls of those who are in Christ.

From: An Exposition, with Practical Observations, Upon the Book of Job by Joseph Caryl; 12 volumes; reprint (Berkley, MI: Dust & Ashes Publications/Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2001), 1:11.  Originally published in London (1644-1666.)

Joseph Caryl (1602-1673) served as a moderate Independent minister in London for many years.  He was also a member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines.

 

On Sacrifices

Sacrifices have been from the beginning.  Cain and Abel brought their offerings unto the Lord (Genesis 4.3-4).  Noah, also, “builded an altar unto the Lord and offered burnt offerings on the altar” (Genesis 8.20).  Abraham offered the ram for a burnt offering (Genesis 22.13).  Now, though the law for sacrifices was not formally given in those times, yet it was really given.  All those elder sacrifices were of the Lord’s appointment and by His direction as well of those in and after the days of Moses.  There is no expiating of sin against God by the inventions of man.  Heathens offered sacrifices to their idol gods, imitating the worship of the true God (the devil is God’s ape).  Typical sacrifices were of God for the taking away of the sin of man.  And so was the true sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ, when He (that is, Christ) said, “sacrifice and offering, and burnt offering, and offering for sin, Thou wouldst not” (that is, Thou wouldst not have those legal sacrifices nor didst ever intend to have them as satisfactions to Thy offended justice, ultimately to rest in them); then, said He (that is, Christ), “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God” (Hebrews 10.8-9).  It was the will of God that Jesus Christ should be the expiatory sacrifice for the sin of man, by the which will (verse 10).  “We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”  The sacrifice of Christ Himself has not saved us if it had not been of God’s appointment, nor could any sacrifice have so much as shadowed the way or means of our salvation, if God had not appointed it. 

From: An Exposition, with Practical Observations, Upon the Book of Job: Volume 12: Job 38-42 by Joseph Caryl; reprint (Berkley, MI: Dust & Ashes Publications/Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2001), 12:883-884.  Comment on Job 42.8.  The 12 volumes were originally published from 1644 to 1666.

 

On Parables

Why doth Job call what he had to say a parable?  The original word signifies “to rule, to govern,” to govern as a prince, whose righteous precepts and commands, whose laws and councils his people ought to obey.  Speeches or sentences which are full of wisdom and of truth are called parables for a threefold reason.

First, because parables and wise sentences rule over the spirits of men, as princes and magistrates do over their bodies, or outward man.  Parables carry so convincing a light, so great an authority in them that every man’s judgement and understanding submits and falls down before them; such words bear rule and sway.  And, though many contradict truth and rebel against it, yet truth will subdue even them to its power who would not submit to its rule nor bow to its scepter.  And Job might well call what he had to say a parable, a collection of ruling sentences, seeing, in the issue, his friends who were no friends to what he said, were forced to yield themselves up to it and submit to him by the final sentence or determination of God Himself.

Secondly, parables are so-called because such speeches came, usually, from the mouths of princes and great persons; they were speeches of rulers, therefore, ruling speeches.  Solomon spake proverbs or parables, who was a great king and ruled over men, more by wisdom than he did by power.

Thirdly, because whether men will submit to such speeches and truths or no, yet their judgements, actions, and opinions must be tried and ruled by them.  Parables are touchstones of truth; they are rules and, therefore, ought to rule.

From: An Exposition, with Practical Observations, Upon the Book of Job by Joseph Caryl; 12 volumes; reprint (Berkley, MI: Dust & Ashes Publications/Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2001), 8:6.  Comment on Job 27:1.  The set was originally published from 1644 to 1666.

 

Job’s Plight

Job’s complaint ended in the former chapter.  In this, a hot dispute begins.  Job, having cursed his day, is now chid himself.  And he had such a chiding, as was, indeed, a wounding, such as almost at every word drew blood, and was not only a rod upon his back but a sword at his heart.  Job was wounded, first, by Satan; he was wounded a second time by his wife; a third time, he was wounded (not as it is spoken in the prophet, “in the house of his friends,”) but in his own house by his friends.  The last wounds are judged (by good physicians in soul afflictions) his deepest and sorest wounds.

Eliphaz, being (as is supposed) the elder and chief of the three, first enters the list of this debate with Job, concerning whose name, person, and pedigree we have spoken before at the eleventh verse of the second chapter; and, therefore, referring the reader thither for those circumstances of the speaker, I shall immediately descend unto the matter here spoken…

From: An Exposition, with Practical Observations, on the Book of Job by Joseph Caryl; 12 volumes; reprint (Berkley and Grand Rapids: Dust & Ashes Publications and Reformation Heritage Books, 2001), 2:1-2, on Job 4:1-6.  Originally published: 1644-1666.

Joseph Caryl (1602-1673) was pastor of the Church of St. Magnus, London Bridge (Independent) from 1645 to 1662, when he was ejected from the ministry along with approximately 2,000 other English Puritan-minded ministers.  He was a member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines in the 1640s which compiled the Westminster Standards.  His 424 sermons on Job, covering 8,701 printed pages, represent not only an exposition of that book but, also, a vast survey of Christian theology.