Chap. i. An Expoftion upon the Bookof J OB. Verf...r9. and fpiritlefs as hehoped. I fhall note this in general from it. That Satan ufually keeps bis "greate(f Jirengtb and moft violent temptations unto the laff. When he thinks weare at the weakef, thenhe cometh with his tfrongeti affaults. If Satan had fent Job word ofthe death of his children firti, all the reti would have been as nothing to him : He would not have regarded the lofsof hisCattell when he heard that all his Children werecruth- ed to death by the fall ofthe houfe. As force one great evP fàlling upon us,takes the heart off from having any fenfe or joy in a lefter good; fo one great evil fwallowsup the fenfe and feeling ofa lef- fer evil:that great evil which fell upon thewife off' bineas, when the heard that the Ark ofGod was taken,afflif ed her fo extreatn- ly, that the could not at all rejoyce in the birth of her fon ; the hadno fenfeof that. Here was therefore the cunning,of Satan, lcíl Job thould have loft the fmart of the lefller affli lions, left they thould have been all (wallowed up in the greater, the brings them out inorder,the leali fall, the greatetl is referved for the latt. We obferve in War, that whenonce the great Ordnance are difchar- ged, the Souldiers.are not affraidof the Musket ; fo when agreat battery is made by force thundering terribIè judgement upon the foul,or upon the body or eílateofany man, the noire and fears of lefs iv ils are drowned and abated.ThereforeSatan keeps his great- eft (hot to the lati, that the ftnall might be heard and felt, and that the lati coming in greater fl:rength might find the lead flrength to refìfi it. And that this was a greater of lidiou then any of,orthenall the former, is fo clear that I thall not need to flay long in the confirm- ing ofit,only toquicken the pointa little,take notice of the great- nefs ofit in five refpcEfs. Firll, it appeareth without controverfie to be the greatetl of all, becaufe it was uponhis children:a mans children are more than all that hehath in theworld:a mans children are himfelf, every child is the father multiplyed ; a fon is the fathers bowels : and there- foxe;when Paul wrote toPhilemon concerning 0nelimus,whom(faith Philern,v. ra; he)/ havebegotten in my bonds; (fe. to the faith of Chrifl) Receive himwbo is mine own bowels. A fpiritual fon is the very bowels ofa Minifler ; he doth but allude to a natural fon, a fon is thevery bowels of the father. This atHiolion reached unto thevetybowels of fob himfelf; Satan had no leave to affliCi the body ofjob, and yttyou fee he afllits him inhis very bowels. Secondly, 167
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