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A50106 The duty of submission to divine providence, in all its dispensations described and recommended from the example and argument of Job / by Samvel Masters. Masters, Samuel, 1645 or 6-1693. 1689 (1689) Wing M1070; ESTC R103 29,258 129

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THE DUTY OF SUBMISSION TO Divine Providence In all its Dispensations Described and Recommended from the Example and Argument of JOB By SAMVEL MASTERS B. D. James 6. 10 11. Take my Brethren the Prophets who have spoken in the Name of the Lord for an example of suffering Affliction and of Patience Behold we account them happy which endure Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender Mercy London Printed for Awnsham Churchill at the Black-Swan in Ave-Mary-Lane 1689. IMPRIMATUR GUIL NEEDHAM July 23. 1689. TO THE Right Honourable the LADY LETITIA ISABELLA Countess Dowager of RADNOR MADAM THe late smarting Afflictions which I have felt in my Person and Family have made me very quick of Sense in resenting Yours and have ingag'd my Mind on such Meditations as may render me capable of speaking a Word in Season to You. I dare not be so unjust to your Sorrows as to dissemble or extenuate your Loss All who knew the Lady Essex found it necessary to admire her for the Beauty of her Person the Quickness of her Parts and the most obliging Sweetness of her Conversation but chiefly for her Religious Accomplishments her unaffected Vertues and her frequent Exercises of Devotion both in publick and private But I need not tell your Ladyship how good she was who took so much delight in making and seeing her such and I dare not gratify my self any farther in displaying her excellent Character lest I should thereby sollicit those Tears which your Religious Wisdom endeavours to suppress I would rather observe to you those good things wherewith the Divine Wisdom hath attempered your Affliction that the Sweetness of the One may allay the Bitterness of the Other The Person You bewail is indeed gone from You but to her Heavenly Father She died in the Youth of her Age but not before She was capable of a Life of Glory She left the World when it began to temp her with a New Scene of Enjoyments but She left its Vanities and Troubles too and hath gain'd by the exchange much purer and more lasting Joys You have lost One Blessing but Others continue still which deserve your Esteem and Love and which may support and consolate the Remainder of your Life You have lost a Child but Your Heavenly Father is immortal and unchangeable who will continue to dwell with you here by his Holy Spirit till he take you up to dwell with him Above of which he hath given you a Pledg in advancing a part of you already thither Let not then the evil Things You have met with so far ingross Your Thoughts and Affections as to rob God of the Honour and Your self of the Comfort of all those good Things he hath provided and prepared for You. And to assist You herein I humbly offer the ensuing Discourse to perfect You in that Art wherein You are already so well improv'd of receiving dutifully whatever good or evil is dispensed to You by the Hand of Providence That You may continue long among us to recommend the Power and Beauty of Religion by Your Illustrious Example And may at last exchange Your Earthly Honour for a far brighter Glory in Heaven is the Hearty Prayer of MADAM Your most Humble and Faithful Servant and Chaplain SAMUEL MASTERS JOB 2.10 What shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive Evil THese Words relate to a Passage in the History of Job concerning which History it may be useful to premise a few Things to recommend it to our serious Attention and to predispose our Minds by some proper Anticipations to consider more easily and profitably this Argument of the Text. There have been some Christians of late and some Jews of old who thought this History of Job to be a Poetick Fiction and not a real History because so extraordinary in its Matter and so artificial in its Composure and because they observe that it was usual in those Times to teach and exemplify the Institutions of Morality and Religion by such Fictitious Parables But when we consider how positively this History doth describe and assert the Person of Job and the several Circumstances of his Condition also that the Holy Ghost makes mention of Job Ezek. 14.14 as a Person in great Favour with God and joins him with Noah and Daniel of whose Reality there can be no doubt and that St. James recommends Job for an imitable Pattern of Patience Jam. 5.10 11. which cannot but suppose the Reality and Truth of his History These Considerations will be sufficient to induce us to concur with the more general Testimony both of Jews and Christians that this History however wonderful is yet real that there was indeed a Man so great and good as Job that his Trial was no less and his Patience as great as this Book describes and asserts And as this History is real so it may be probably presum'd to be the most ancient now extant in the World for tho it be plac'd next before the Book of Psalms because compos'd like them in Metrical Numbers yet it is probable that this Book was written by Moses the most ancient Writer and before any of those Five Books which are plac'd first in our Bibles For there are good Reasons upon which learned Men conjecture that Job lived in the time of the Patriarchs being a Nephew of Abraham descended from Esau and that Moses met with this History of him while he sojourned in the Land of Midian where he translated it out of the Arabian into the Hebrew Language and compos'd the Discourses between Job and his three Friends in that Metre in which we now read them and that when he return'd to his Brethren in Egypt he presented this Book to them to teach them Patience under their Afflictions from Job's Example and to confirm their Faith and Hope in the Divine Mercy from the Deliverance and Reward which God wrought for him of which an antient Author under the Name of Origen is so certain that he recites a Speech made by Moses to the People of Israel when he publish'd this excellent Book among them But this History is not more considerable for its Antiquity than for its Usefulness which acquaints us with several important Truths that we could not know but by Revelation and which are not declared so expresly in any other part of the Holy Scriptures as in this Book and also sets before us an eminent Pattern of Patience to instruct and support us under the many Troubles to which we are here always obnoxious For first in perusing this History we meet with such considerable Truths as these 1. That God takes a particular and kind notice of all his Faithful Servants and reflects on them with Complacency and is ready to bear an honourable Testimony of their Innocence for thus he speaks and even boasts of his Servant Job to Satan