An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and thirty-seventh chapters of…

Hence Note; There is no condition so low and forlorn, but the Lord is able to bring us out of it, and into the enjoyments of fullest comforts;

He can change our Iron Fetters, and Cords, into Rings of ⟨p. 249⟩Gold, and Bracelets; he can translate our days of trouble, and our years of pain, into days of prosperity, and years of pleasure; it was so with Job in the issue, and he was the man that Elihu here intended. Job was long bound in fetters, and holden in the cords of affliction, yet as Elihu told him he should, so he did afterwa ds, spend his days in prosperity, and his years in pleasure; the Lord doubled his Cattle to him, his friends filled his Coffers, and his Cabinets, Every man gave him a peace of money, and every one an Ear-ring of Gold; his children also were the same fo• number, his daughters the fairest in the Land; himself also lived in the fullness of this outward Prosperity, till he was full of days, and he fed upon the delicious fruits of this Promise all his after-days. Manasseh having run a course of unparalleled wickedness, was at last taken by the Captains of the host of the King of Assyria, among the Thorns, and they bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon (2 Chron. 33.11.) yet when in his affliction he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers, he was entreated of him, and brought again to Jerusalem, where he spent his days in prosperity, and his years in pleasure. If we turn to the Lord in affliction, the Lord is ready to turn away our affliction, or (as the Church prayed in the half turn of her affliction, Psal. 126.4.) to turn our captivity, as the streams in the South; that is, to make both a most admirable and a most comfortable turn of our condition. Streams in the hot Southern Countries are rare; the Rain of those Lands usually is dust. Streams in the South are also very welcome: How glad are they of a cooling Shower from a Cloud, who daily feel, and are fainted with the scorching Beams of the Sun! Such a turn shall they have (saith Elihu) who being holden in the cords of affliction, turn from iniquity, obey and serve the Lord.