Chap. 6. An Expolitiaaup:n the Book of J B. verf. S. 453 willfay ; job had fent up his rcqueft, and now he was hearkning for an anfwer. 0 that I might have the thing that I lookfor! Hab- bakkuk, in the fecond of that propheíe, verse r. having pray- ed about the great concernments of thole times, resolves, I will fundupon my watch, and fet me upon the lower, and will matt h to fee what he will jay unto me. They who fend Embaffadours to forreign Princes, wait for a return. Thus it is with the foul, ha- ving put up its requeft and fent an Embaflie to God: Obierve, Secondly, Anfiver of our prayer it the grant of God. Nothing (lands between us andour delires but his will. Ifhe sign our petition, no creature canhinder us of our expeo`}ation: Observe, Thirdly, God often keeps the petitions ofbisfervants,by him unanfwered. Observe, Fourthly, the returnofprayer is the foulsfolace andfatisfal7ion.- As coldwater to a thirjty foul, fo it good news from that far Country, Prov. 25. 25. 0 that my requeft might come, and0 that .1 might have the thing that I longfór ! Would ydu know what his-requef1 was? heexplains that inthe 9th verle, and a man would wonder, that one should be fo very earneft to have fuch a requeft. Many have prayed to God to fave and deliver them, but how unnatural doth this prayer feem, to be cut offand deftroyed?yet the thing which Job doth more than pray for, long for, is this, That it wouldpleafe God to deft-ivy him6 and that be would let loft his band and cut him of. That it wouldpleafe Godte de(trey me. Some read, 7 hat be who bath, begun, would make an end in de- firoyingofme ; For the word fignifïes both to be willing to do a thing, and likewife to begin to do a thing ; therefore they Inv make out the fence thus, That he who bath begun thus to deftroy Sergnealnr: me, to tear andconfume me, would finish bis work and make an re vol acn. endofme ; As ifJob had Paid, I am already near unto dettrut i- efcen in re on, a borderer upon the grave. God hath begun to destroy me, guapiam,eamg, Iwould have him to go on and perfet that work. As in Iotavolunteer works ofinercy,Deut.32.4. Heir the Itoek,andhir workirperfeü. ampleßi When he begins to deliverhe will make an end. So likewife, wheu he begins todestroy, he can make an end too ; Job de- fires, that his atfíif,Iions might be petfeciedt to the dcitrution of
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