SERMON . TheSoul drawing near to Godinpraye Jos xxiii. 0, 4. -0 that I knew where I might find him : that I might come even to bis seat; I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. tEE FIttST PART. THIS book of Job might, perhaps, be the first and earliest part of all the writtenword of God ; for learned men, upon good ground, suppose that this history was elder than the days of Moses, and yet it hath many a sweet lessen of experimental reli- gion in it, to teach the disciplesof Christ; we may learn many duties and comforts from it in our day, upon whom the ends of the world are come. The style of it in some parts is so magnificent and solemn, in others so tender and affectionate, that we must feel something of devout passionwhen we read this history, if our hearts are butin aserious frame, and if our temper or cir- cumstances of mindor body have anything a-kin to the grief or pietyof this good man. Job had now heard longstories of accusationfrom hisfriends while he was boweddown, and groaning under the heavypro- videntes, of God; theypersecuted him whomGod had smitten, and poured in fresh sorrows upon all his wounds. " I will turn aside, saith he, from man, for miserable comforters are ye all; 'and 'I will address myself' to God, even to the God that smites me. Q that knew. where I might find him ! The stroke of the father doth not make the child fly from him, but come nearer, and bow himself before his best friend : this is the filial temper ofthe children of God. °" M, complaint is bitter, (saithJob, ver. 2.) because" of my sorrows from thehand of God, and from the accu- sations and reproaches of my friends ; youmay think I am too lavish in my complainings and my continual cries, but I feel more than I complain of." And therefore Job is set up as a pattern of patience ; for he could say, my stroke is heavier than my groaning. There are someof the childrenOf God who nive themselves up to aperpetual habit of complaints and groans, though no trial Math befallen them but what is common tomen ; they make all around them sensible of every lesser pain they feel, and being always uneasy in themselves, they take the kindest and. gentlest
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