where were the righteous cut off All the answer Job returns to their uncharitable character calumny is in that meek but smart reply Job 6.14,15 To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend How forcibly are right words but what doth your arguing reprove Endeavouring all along in his whole dispute with them at once to clear Gods Justice and to vindicate his own Innocency and upon the whole to discover his matchless Patience his high content and uninterrupted joy through the whole scene of his dismal wretched condition the main foundation you see of Job's comfort in his affliction was his assurance that his poverty and sickness came from Gods own hand The Lord says he hath taken away His own wickedness riot or idleness had contributed nothing to it But he saw 't was purely the Lords doing and that was the reason that he opened not his mouth And indeed whensoever a good Christian upon the impartial searching of his heart can find that 't was neither his gluttony nor his drunkenness neither his idleness extortion defrauding over-reaching his worldly-mindedness covetousness or unthankfulness that have provoked God to withhold his blessing from him in the management of his affairs so that notwithstanding all his honest studious endeavours his diligence in his calling his devotion to God his intire dependance upon him for success it still pleases the Majesty on high to lessen his Estate and by variety of sad Providences to bring him to beggery He hath now the justest cause of satisfaction in his Poverty that can be desired He may pronounce with truth in the language of old Eli 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good And he may assure himself and rejoice in the very thought of it that Psal 116.5 gracious is the Lord and righteous yea our God is merciful Psal 103.13,14 And that as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him he knoweth our frame he remembers that we are but dust So likewise when a good Christian observes his sickness to come from God his disease arising from no act of intemperance or luxury from no greedy incessant prosecution of his business nor from any bold presuming upon his strength or slighting the severities of wind air and weather much less from the perpetual following his pleasure and his eager addictedness to his sport He may then with an humble confidence repose himself upon Gods goodness for ease and cure not doubting but that God will strengthen him upon his bed of languishing will make all his bed in his sickness Psal 41.3 enable him with strength to go thorough with his distemper if it be great or else lessen the disease if he be too weak to bear it at its heighth And whereas others in their fits of sickness lie like so many wild bulls in a net raving and tumbling in a most impatient manner and refuse to be comforted because they are full of the fury of the Lord Isa 41.20 An humble good Christian does with all quietness resign up himself to his heavenly Physicians ordering looking upon Gods dealing with him in the whole course of his sickness as a procedure full of mercy and goodness such as aims at nothing but the Patients health and soundness designed so to make him whole that he sins no more And therefore though Gods handling him be never so irksome to flesh and blood yet does he look upon it and rejoice in it as a necessary method for the curing the tumors and ulcers of his diseased soul And this strengthens his feeble knees and enables him to lift up the hands that hang down and to praise God even when he hath brought him to the brink of the grave For though no chastisement at the present seems to be joyous but grievous yet 't is worth observing that 't is only said it seems so and not that it is so for it hath indeed an inconceivable joy wrapt and coucht in it for them that are exercised thereby though there are few eyes so piercing that can discern it Yea affliction affords an infinite satisfaction and comfort to them that are so far exercised thereby that they seem like wrestlers in the Olympick Games quite stript by and for their encountering with it for so the Original signifies reduced to that condition that have not clothes to cover their nakedness nor an house to hide their head in And this is the chief cause that they faint not in the worst of tribulations because though their outward man doth perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day to use St. Paul's words 2 Cor. 4.16 Now the comforts of a Soul are really so great that they are above all description none being able sufficiently to know them but he that hath them St. Paul gives us to understand something of them by which I shall leave you to guess at their inexpressible excellency and sweetness in that account he gives of himself to the Corinthians where he says 2 Cor. 1. That though he was troubled out of measure above strength insomuch that he despaired even of life Vers 8. Yet could he in that hopeless and almost helpless condition pour out his heart to God in that joyful Thanksgiving Vers 3. Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies the God of all comforts who comforteth us in all our tribulation Vers 5. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ And hence it was that he that became capable of all this comfort viz. for the consideration of his well-led-life the remembrance whereof must needs refresh not only him but all such as he was Vers 12. For our rejoicing is this says he the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity by the grace of God we have had our conversation in this world keeping a conscience void of offence both towards Gods and towards all men He that does this hath just cause whatsoever his condition in this world may happen to be to rejoice in the Lord always again I say to rejoice Being able to defie his last grim enemy in that Triumph of the Apostles 1 Cor. 15.55 O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory And in that great day of darkness to give thanks to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ I shall conclude all in the following words Therefore my beloved Brethren be ye stedfast unmovable in this thanksgiving praising and rejoicing in him always abounding in this work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour yea and your leisure too your suffering and your joy are not in vain in the Lord. To which God the only bestower of all true comfort and consolation be ascribed all Honour and Glory Might Majesty Praise and Thanksgiving in Saecula FINIS
my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee Vers 15. And in thee do I hope for thou wilt hear O Lord my God Nay should the same God bring him so low that he might truly say The sorrows of death compass me about and the pains of hell get hold upon me However he would have cause to say still with the same David Psal 1.2,3 I will love the Lord my strength and I will call upon the Lord who though he hath humbled me to the very dust of death yet is he still worthy to be praised And herein will appear how worthy God is of praise even when he does afflict his servant in this sad manner and therefore how just cause such an one hath even then to rejoice in the God that smites him Because as the same David tells us Psal 23.4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear none evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff comfort me 'T is the consideration and assurance of Gods presence with them in their affliction that bears up their hearts and comforts the souls of Gods servants in the most dismal calamity enabling them to rejoice in the worst of tribulations And yet 't is not bare being with them but the love and kindness he discovers to them that makes them thus satisfied and joyful He makes his very rod comfort them as well as his staff Ordinary rods indeed are dry insipid things fit for nothing but to give blows and create a smart but Gods rod hath a Prerogative beyond all others in that like Aaron's Rod Numb 17.8 laid up by Gods appointment in the Ark it blooms blossoms such as by their sweetness refresh the spirits and yields almonds a fruit that delights and comforts the Soul Nay when the strokes of his rod seem most to weaken and strike them to the ground then does God put his staff into their hands and that bears them up and keeps them from falling and therefore both together can't chuse but afford an inexpressible comfort to those good souls that are exercis'd thereby And 't is for the continual supply of this comfort and the frequent refreshment of this cordial that a devout soul is rais'd to such a degree of satisfaction and exultation amidst the very agonies of death as enables her in that dire conflict triumphantly to cry out in the language of afflicted Job Chap. 3.15,16 Though he slay me yet will I trust in him He also shall be my Salvation And 't is the same overflowing comfort that God vouchsafes a good Christian that bears up his heart and lifts up his head above all the disgraces and calumnies that the unjust ungrateful world throws upon him He knows a blessing goes along with him when men revile him and persecute him and say all manner of evil against him falsely upon account of his constant adhering to Christ and his Gospel And 't is the assurance of this that enables him to rejoice and be exceeding glad answerable to our Saviours encouragement in that particular affliction Math. 8.11,12 Nay 't is the same merciful God that supplys them with an exuberant joy in recompence for all the unkindness they meet with at the hands of cruel relations and unfaithful friends David indeed acquaints us Ps 27.13 That he had certainly fainted but that he believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living And herein God exprest his goodness to him that when his father and his mother forsook him the Lord took him up Vers 10. And 't was his receiving this seasonable comfortable mercy that made him resolutely wait on the Lord and be of good courage knowing that he did and would strengthen his heart Vers 14. Nay further when he was brought to that sad condition that his own familiar friend in whom he trusted who also eat of his bread had lift up his heel against him an affliction that of all others seems to go nearest to his heart and which he was least able to bear For if it had been an enemy that reproached him then he could have born it by whom he implies the perfidiousness of a friend to be almost insupportable Ps 55.12 And yet even in the worst of miseries was he not destitute of a satisfactory comfort Thou O Lord says he upholdest me in my integrity and settest me before thy face for ever And for this reason says he Psal 41.9,12,13 blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting Amen and Amen We have the clearest instance of what was but now delivered in the person and practise of holy Job a man afflicted beyond compare and yet satisfied and joyful beyond all example Let us but observe how of the richest man of the East he was in a few hours reduced to be one of the poorest persons upon earth His servants we find slain and his cattel carried away by the hands of thieves and murderers his sheep and his shepherds were consumed by fire from heaven his sons and his daughters kill'd by the fall of the house blown down upon their heads And yet all the discontent that Job expresses at these sad tidings was only his worshipping and praising God so says the Text Job 1.20,21,22 Then Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground and worshipped and said Naked came I out of my mothers womb and naked shall I return thither The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. Nay when God allowed the Devil to execute so much of his malice upon him as to smite his body with sore boils from the soal of his foot to his crown whereby we may easily guess that the noisomeness and the pain made his life a burden to himself and his friends and when the wife of his bosom had perswaded him to end his days with Blasphemy against God at once as 't were to defie and revenge himself upon the Author of his Misery He was so far from doing so that rebuking her for her wicked advice Thou speakest says he Job 2.9,10 as one of the foolish women speaketh He there acquaints her with his contentment and satisfaction in his present povertous painful condition What shall we receive good at the hand of God says he and shall we not receive evil 'T is unreasonable we should covet the one and not accept the other when they both come from the same gracious hand Nay when his three friends had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and comfort him as we are told Job 2.11 and yet instead of doing so made it their great business to reproach him and accuse him as some notorious sinner or vile Hypocrite for so says Eliphaz in the name of the rest Chap. 47. Remember I pray thee whoever perished being innocent or