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