An exposition with practical observations continued upon the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of…An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of…

Thirdly, That which rendered them yet more miserable Comforters, was, their unkind grating upon that string of his sinfulness and studied hypocrisy. Job acknowledged himself a sinner, and that he could not be justified in the sight of God by any righteousness of his own; yet still his friends were unsatisfied about his sincerity; and still they presented him with suspicions of secret wickedness, as the cause of all his sufferings; still they told him of the sad fate of Tyrants, of Oppressors, of unjust Judges, of unsound, and false-hearted Worshippers; and though they did not apply these Parables personally to Job, yet the general discourse sounded, as if they had said, Thou art the man.

Thirdly, That which rendered them yet more miserable Comforters, was, their unkinde grating upon that string of his sinfulnesse and studyed hypocrisie. Job acknowledged himselfe a sinner, and that he could not be justified in the sight of God by any righteousnesse of his owne; yet still his freinds were unsatisfied about his sincerity; and still they presented him with suspicions of secret wickednesse, as the cause of all his sufferings; still they told him of the sad fate of Tyrants, of Oppressours, of unjust Judges, of unsound, and false-hearted Worshippers; and though they did not apply these Parables personally to Job, yet the generall discourse sounded, as if they had sayd, Thou art the man.

Now as the Apostle speaks concerning death (1 Cor. 15.56.) so we may say concerning any affliction, The sting of affliction is sin; the sting of sickness, the sting of poverty, the sting of disgrace is sin: when the least trouble is armed with sin, the strongest tremble at the sight of it. A godly man can easier bear the weight of all afflictions, then the weight and burden of one sin; so long as he sees all clear between God and his own soul; so long as he can look up to God, as having his sin pardoned, and can approve his heart to God, that he lives not in any known sin; in this case, though the Lord lay the heaviest burden of affliction upon him, he can go lightly under it; The spirit of a man will bear all these infirmities: but if his spirit be wounded, either with the guilt of sin, or with the fear of the wrath of God, how can he