Job 27:23

REFLECTIONS

READER! we have gone over many Chapter s now of the patriarch Job's controversy, and heard much on both sides. What conclusions have we drawn from all that hath been said? Certainly the reasoning of Job is unanswerable, and as he expressed it in one of the Chapter s, It is meet to be said unto GOD I have borne chastisement. I will not offend anymore. That which I see not teach thou me. Job 34:31. Sin and sorrow are twins and are born together. So that they are inseparable. It ought to be no wonder, that a sinful creature is a sorrowful creature. For man that is born in sin, is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. And if the best of men were to converse more with themselves, and compare self with the law of an holy GOD; this would lower all presumptuous reasonings in the seasons of our afflictions. Reader! let us from Job's sorrows make these improvements. Methinks while I read this man's trials, I would learn to consider more GOD'S holiness and my unworthiness; and while I keep in view the divine law and human transgression; as sin then appears what it really is, exceeding sinful, the burthen of it will be heavy, and the affliction grow lighter; till at length the confession of the church in Babylon, or what is to the same amount, the prophet for the church will be found to suit every case: Wherefore should a living man complain; a man for the punishment of his sins? In an ocean of trouble there is not a drop of injustice. Thou art righteous, O Lord, in all that is come upon us (saith the church) thou punisheth us less than our iniquities deserve. Everything short of hell is mercy.

Precious JESUS! oh how sweet is it to fly to thee, who hast both borne our sins and carried our sorrow's. Thou drankest the cup of trembling dear LORD; and hast wrung it all out. One view of thine agony in the garden and on the cross is enough, when GOD the HOLY GHOST opens the eye to see, to silence every complaint and to dry up every tear, which falls for our sufferings, and to cause them to fall in showers, in the contemplation of thine. Blessed LAMB of GOD! I would say, as I view by faith thine agonies, Why LORD didst thou die for me? and whence this bloody sweat? Was it for me? Oh for grace to look, and love, and make the apostle's conclusion mine: If one died for all, then were all dead. And that he died for all, that henceforth they that live should not live to themselves, but to him that died for them, and rose again. Oh LORD! let my life be wholly thine. May I glorify thee in my body, and in my spirit, forever.