Chap.j2. A z Expofition upon the Bookof JOB.Verfe 23. 32.3 them into warres and troubles. We have both expreft (Jer.3 r. 28,) Like c& I have watched over them , to pluckup and tobreak,. ata quedatt! d¿wn , and to aeftroy , fö brill I watch over them, to buildAnd to reguorum plant,faith the Lord. No people in the worlddid ever find God .8e1tr ire qui- more increafing or ftraitning them , then the Jews did. They fd emnra talìa were as fet upon a Beacon, for all theworld to lookand gaze at: no docet Seri- They were Gods peculiar treafare, yet he call themout as dung ptura Dc iz -. or drofs. He increafed them innumber,in riches and in honour..tui con ' bas f g ri When the fevereft courfes were taken to diminifh them (as in buere. Merr. Ecyptby flaying the males) he then increafed them: yet the hand of God was as eminent in deftroying, as,increafing them. More then fix hundred thoufand came out of Egypt ,all whofecarkafles (excepting two) tell in the wìldernefs. God increafed them a- gain-in Canaan, they were almost innumerable , when David numbred them; yet he deftroyedand wafted them by the Baby., Ionians. After their return from Babylon , they grew mighty a-` gain , at laft God fent the Romans , who took their City and Temple from them : And how they have been fcattered and emptied ever fence, theRecords of ancient times , and theexpe- rinces of this declare. What God did and hath done with the Nationof the Jews , hebath alto done in many other Nations , and can do in all. He can lift them up or cart themdown, give them abeing or no being, a well being or a miferable being, at his pleafure. The abfolute fovereignty, and greatnefs of God, will bear him out in there great works, upon the greateft Nati- ons. What's the greatnef, ofany one, or of all Nations put to- gether to the greatnefs ofGod ? Behold (faith the Prophet, Ifa. 40 i g. ) the Nations are a, the drop ofa buckst , and are counted. od the (mall daft of the ballance. A bucket full ofwater is no great matter to the Ocean, what then is a drop ? All the weight that can be put into a pair ofballances is not much what then is the licht duff , which hangs about it? we know that bears no weight at all. It is no more for the great God to move the greaieft Nation upwards or downwards , into an increafe or a diminution, then to blow away the fmalleft duff. And as if a drop ora -duft were toomuch , the 17 h. verfe affures us , that .Ali Nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted tohim as lefs then nothing andvanity. Nor can' God ever want means to increafe or deftroy whole Nations who made the whole world without means r Cannot he fpea1,a Nation into any thi,u T t 2 who-
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