Chap. i o. AnExpofition upon the Bookof J O B. . Verf. 2. or have all about himmyfieries and riddles. Evil men love not that light which íhews than a rule againfl their fins,but any man wduld have light to thew him the reafonof his fufferings. To be troubled we know nos why, is an aggravation of our troubles, what it more thenfelt,which is onlyfelt. As toknow the caufe of a difeafc,leads and lets us into the wayof a perfeft cure,foto know it is half a cure. lob, as here he Both, fo heretofore he had com- plained that his way was hidden (Chap.3.23.) and here,as before, he folicites that his waymight be cleared_to him. Secondly obferve, A godly man may be long in the dark about the reafonof Gods dealing with him. He laboursalwayes to give an account of his own heart and wayes to God, but he is feldom able to give an account of the wayes of God toward him. The way of God both in mercy and is judgment is in the tea, and his foot -ficps are not fem. As there is much of the Word of God, which a fincere heart after many prayers and much fludy, is not able to give a reafon of : fo alto are there many of his works. The text of both is dark to us, till God make the Comment, and he fees it heft fometimes to make us call and call, wait and wait before he makes it. There was famine in the Landof Ifrael three years, year after year, and yet David knew not the caule; doubtleti he did often examine his own Ïeart,and look into the Kingdom, to fee what might be a provo- cation there, but taw nothing, till (after three years) he enquired ofthe Lord, Nho anfwerèd, It isfor Saul,andfirhis Cloudy houfe, becaufe heflew the Gibeonites (z Sam. 2I. r.) It is more then pro- bable that David had enquired of the Lord before that time, A holy heart, efpeci,lly one fo holy as Davids was, can hardly let perfonl affliction be aday or an hour old, without enquiringof the Lord about it : And fhall we think that Davidletthis Natio- nal afllidiongrow threeyears old, before he enquired of the Lord about it ? Purely then this enquiry after the end of three years, was that grand and aloft folemn enquiry by Vrim and Thammim, appointed at the Taft refort toGod in cafes of greatefl difficulty and concernment ; till David ufed this means, he found no refo- lutionof that cafe, why the Lord contended with his Kingdom . by famine,year after year. Neither had Job got refolution (when he thus complained) why the Lord contended with him, byfore difeafes and mighty terrours, day after day. But becaufe it might yet be wondred at by fome, howhe durfl adventure 437
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