Job 42:17

REFLECTIONS

AND now, farewell Job. We have seen, in thy most instructive history the blessed truth confirmed, that the end of the LORD, in the events of his servants ministry and lives upon earth, is very pitiful and gracious, Sweetly, under the HOLY GHOST'S divine teaching, do we learn from hence, that the LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works; and especially in the lives of his servants, that he ordereth and arrangeth all things, as shall best promote his gracious designs in the furtherance of his own glory and his people's happiness. Satan may be permitted to exercise a certain degree of power; but how painful soever this may be, during the operation, to flesh and blood, the whole must and shall minister to the enemy's disgrace, to GOD'S faithful servants comfort, and to the display of the divine wisdom, love, and goodness. No temptation shall overtake them but what is common to man, and with every temptation the LORD will make a way to escape, until at length the GOD of peace will bruise Satan under their feet.

But before I take a last farewell of Job, let me look once more, and behold in how many things he bore a striking resemblance to my adorable Redeemer. Yes, thou blessed man of Uz, surely the HOLY SPIRIT graciously intended to teach the Church, in thy history, somewhat, however faint in the outlines, of what the Church forever must be delighted to dwell upon; of Him who is the first and last, and never-ceasing object of her affection. Was Job the greatest man of all the East? And what was JESUS, the wisdom-man, set up from everlasting, but the greatest of all, and LORD of all, that in all things he might have the preeminency? Was Job perfect and upright before GOD, one that feared GOD, and eschewed evil? And what wert thou, thou blessed JESUS, in thy human nature, but holy, harmless, and undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens? Was Job suddenly brought from a state of affluence to a state of poverty and sorrow? And can we overlook thee, thou adorable LORD JESUS, who, though rich, yet for our sakes didst become poor, that we through thy poverty might be made rich? Did Satan assault Job in his affliction, and buffet him in every direction? And can we forget thine unequalled temptations, O thou Prince of Sufferers, when from the river Jordan to the garden, and though the cross, Satan furiously made his attack on thee, in thy holy nature he could find no part vulnerable to his fiery darts? But oh! precious JESUS, what were the conflicts of the man of Uz compared to thine thou man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief? What persecution, from false friends, in Job's history, can bear resemblance to thine, when thou enduredst such a contradiction of sinners against thyself, lest thy people should be, weary and faint in their minds? Many of thy faithful servants, through thy grace enabling them, have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Yes, blessed JESUS! in all things it becometh thee to have the pre-eminence, in suffering as in glory, that thou mightest be the first-born among many brethren. It is sweet and precious to follow the teachings of the HOLY GHOST, and to trace, in the lives of thy people, in those early ages of thy Church, any outlines of character as typical of thee. It is highly profitable to eye Job shadowing forth some faint resemblance of thee in his original greatness, with which his history begins! in his humiliation, in his interceding for his friends, and in his final exaltation. But oh! blessed LORD, enable me to look through all these shades to thy bright manifestations, when coming from thy glory in heaven, and tabernacling upon earth in substance of our flesh, thou didst pass through sorrows, sufferings, reproaches, persecution bearing our sins in thine own body on the tree, and dying the just for the unjust, to bring us unto GOD. Hail, thou Almighty JESUS! now hath GOD our FATHER turned thy captivity, and blessed thee above thy fellows. Now hath he constituted and appointed thee as the Great High Priest and Intercessor for all thy redeemed; and thee, and them in thee, he accepts. And now hath be given thee a family of both Jew and Gentile, to bless thy name, to sing thy praise, and to adore thee forever. And now shall every knee bend before thee, and every tongue confess, that JESUS CHRIST is LORD, to the glory of GOD the FATHER.

I cannot close this part of my feeble labours, without desiring to fall down before the mercy seat in thankfulness for such distinguishing mercy as hath been manifested in permitting so unhallowed a pen to be thus employed, imploring pardon and forgiveness for all that is here offered. I find cause, at every review, to take shame in the consciousness how far, how very far short it comes of the divine original. Blessed Master, I would say, manifest thine accustomed compassion to the errors, of this humble work. Preserve all that read it from injury in the perusal: and, if it shall please thee to commission it for good but to one of thine, to the sovereignty of thy grace shall be all the glory, in condescending to make use of so poor an instrument to so great a service, to work in thy people both to will and to do according to thy good pleasure.