An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fortieth, forty-first, and forty-second,…

Observe; The outward appearances of God are often very terrible, when he intends nothing bu• mercy and love to his people.

What more dreadful than a Whirl-wind? yet Job found this storm ushering in a sweet calm and a most comfortable ⟨p. 21⟩sunshine. Job said (chap. 9.16, 17.) If I had called, and he had answered me, yet would I not have believed, that he had hearkened to my v ice, for he breaketh me with a tempest, or a Whirld-wind. Now the Lord came in a Whirl-wind, and Job finds the quite contrary: God came in a Whirl-wind, not to break him, but to bind him up; not to condemn him, but to convince him; not to discourage him, but to comfort him; comfort comes out of a storm. Thus comfort hath come to many a poor soul, and it comes thus sometimes to the whole Church of God. When Jacob was in a stormy condition, because of his brother Esau, then the Lord came to him (Gen. 32.) but how came he to him? one would have thought, that Jacob being in such a condition, the Lord who came to comfort him, would have taken him by the hand and embraced him, or walked aside with him, and told him, I am come to help thee, and deliver thee; be of good cheer, let not thy heart be troubled at the approach of thy bloody brother, for I am with thee. One would have thought (I say) the Lord should have treated him in some such manner; but what saith the text? (v. 24) there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. Poor Jacob was tugging, and sweating all night, as if he would sweat his heart out; here was a strange kind of greeting; 'tis not said the man saluted him, or spake a kind word to him, much less complemented with him, he only wrestled with him; and when he had toiled a great while, he put his thigh out of joy•t (which was very course usage) and only said Let me go (which was very course language) yet the Lord came at that time with a full purpose to bless him, & deliver him out of the hand of Esau. Then be not afraid of storms, for the Lord hath sunshine in his heart, when there's nothing but a storm in his face. The Lord may come to you in poverty, and sickness, he may chasten you with pain upon your bed,