C:hap. 23. An Expoficion upon the Book of J OB. Ver fó 9, 3tft yea (poflibly) he lets them fe, anger, welch, difplea+airc ; he puts on the habit of an enemy, and deates with them aï with ere mies. ?ob complainer more thenonce that God hid his favour from him, and (hewed him nothing hot his dread and terror. Secondly, God hides his workes from his people, he will not let them be teen, nor be feen in them ; O bowunfearch:ble are thy lodgements, and thy wayspxfl finding our ! Godbathwayes and Judgements which man cannot reach unto. Some of his workes are at`ted (as we fay) above-bond, they are done in a cieare light, he that runs may fee and read them, andGod in them ; he that ran": may read lovewritten upon fdme of them in letters ofGold, or with beams of light, And he that runs may read wrath written upon others of them in letters of blood, or with &reams ofdark- nefT and the very fhadowsofdeath ; but force works ofGod are fo curtayndabout andvailed, fo hidden andobfcured,that we cannot perceive them. Though all the works of God r re works of light, yer many ofthem are in the darke toman ; Whilejudge- ment and righteous reffa are the 122bi:aticn of Gods Throne, clouds and dnrknrfsare round about hisn, (Pfal. 97. 2.) Third! v,God hideth the reafon, ofhis working. His works are often hid, but the reafon of his working is oftner hid. fereny comp!aines, w'kj doth the stay of the wicked prefper ? Ha would know a reafon ofit; he faw that God lec the wicked profper, but the reafonhe law not. Fourthly, he defign,or end ofthe worke ofGod is a hidden thing ; a; God doth not let men fee the reafon why he doth this or that, fo not his aime, and end,what he would have, or what he drives at in doing no When God afiltis a godly man, whether it he for the tr}'gil ofhis graces, or ro chaflen him for his failings, or for the purging out of his corruptions, is often his doubt and as 'cis thus in perforall workings, fo alto in pr blhqie workings ; tVbztioer Cod hark to doe with a Nation, or with a man enely, be both his fecrets.. Frfchly, As God hideswhat himfeife loth, fo he tide; from us what h would have us doe, he hides his owne will from us in force things ; we have indeed his Letters Patents, his proclaimed lawes before us in all things needful} to falvation ; but there a e force things which-concern particular adings in our lrves,where- in a godly man may be very ignorant of the will ofGod ,&muc'a B b b puzzled t
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