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Vers. 19. How much less on them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?
Followeth, the Second Branch of the Comparison, or, the Inference, from the condition of Angels, to prove the imperfection of men before God. The word of comparison, in the Original, may either be rendred, How much less? and so it relates to the first part of the former verse. If he put no trust in his Angels, how much less in man? Or, How much more? and so it answers to the latter part of the verse. If he charge Angels with folly; how much more may he charge man? In sum, the scope cometh to this, If Angels cannot plead purity in comparison of God, nor be trusted in, as having any stability, without supporting grace; How shall man dare to enter the lists with God? And to make this inference good, there are insinuated three disadvantages that men have in point of purity and stability, being compared with Angels,
1. Angels are Spirits; Men, though they have souls, yet they officiate in a body of clay.
2. Angels are near God in Heaven; Men are kept on the Earth, as on their basis and foundation, while they are in their bodies.
3. Angels are sinless; Man hath sin resident in him, as appears by his frailty and mortality, being but mouldring dust, and proving so since the fall, Gen 3.19. and being destroyed before the moth, sooner cut off then these weak creatures, and ap∣pointed to be destroyed and consumed by moths and worms.
Doct. 1. Albeit vain man be ready to swell in pride before God; yet upon a right reckoning, he will find himself inferiour, in the point of purity and righteousness, even to other creatures; as this com∣parison doth teach: And if Angels do cover their faces before God, and proclaim him holy; how dare men quarrel?
2. Albeit men do not see nor regard their impurity and sinfulness in it self; yet it is so visible in the frailty of their constitution, and daily miseries, as they must be blind who will not observe it: For, thus is it convincingly demonstrated here.
3. Albeit Man was created perfect in his kind; yet his very corporal and animal life in the body, common to him with beasts, did speak him more weak and mutable in himself then Angels; and now since the fall, these affections that are common to him with beasts do most easily mislead and pervert him; For, it is mans disadvantage, that he dwells in an house of clay.
4. As Mans body was but formed of the dust; so his fall hath brought him so experimentally to know that his base original, as may make him sober in his quarrellings with God; For, it may lay him low, that his foundation is in the dust, both as to the constitution of his body, and as to his habitation. See Gen. 18.27.
5. Whatever man do think of his present disadvan∣tages and defects; yet his mortality, and the con∣sideration of his being easily crushed, and how the worms will triumph over him, may quell his pride, especially before God: For, this layeth him low, that he is destroyed before the moth. See Isai. 2.22.