A35537:267
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and thirty-seventh chapters of…
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and thirty-seventh chapters of the book of Job being the substance of thirty-five lectures / by Joseph Caryl ...
London: printed by M. Simmons, 1664
AN EXPOSITION WITH Practical Observations UPON The Thirty-fifth, Th… › Chapter 35 › Verses 9-13
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
God sends comfort to his people, or causeth them to rejoice in the midst of their afflictions.
God sends comfort to his people, or causeth them to rejoyce in the midst of their afflictions.
It is the Apostles description of God, (2 Cor. 1.3, 4.) The God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation. What sweet songs have suffering Saints sound in the darkest midnight of their affliction! What inward peace in outward troubles! What soul freedom in bodily restraint!1 One of the Ancients hath put the question, and answered it. What's a song in the night? 'Tis joy in time of trouble. Whenever God gives a soul joy in time of trouble, he gives a song in the night. Paul and Silas sang in the night, in both notions of night. If we take night in a proper sense, they sang in the night, and in an improper sense, they ⟨p. 74⟩were in prison, that was a night of affliction to them, yea it was midnight with them, the power of darkness, or the darkest outward affliction to them, yet, saith the Text, At midnight Paul and Silas sang: They had songs in their mouths, and in their hearts too; they sang so loud that all heard them. And hence we may collect the strength of the argument or reason upon which Elihu here saith, God doth not regard the cry of many under oppression, they make a noise, but none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night, who is able to comfort us in all our afflictions, who is able to make darkness light to us, and turn our sorrows into songs of joy; they had not these high thoughts of God, not these holy confidences in God, while they lay under the oppressions of men, and therefore God did not regard their cry, nor save them from the arm of the mighty. This is the first part of the answer which Elihu made to Jobs complaint, that the oppressed were not delivered, though being pressed so sorely they could not forbear to cry, yea to cry out in their misery. The next words give us a fuller and more express answer to that complaint.