Chapter XL
The second general head : The cases wherein God leaves his unto this dark
ness, First, three cases extraordinary.
II. HAVING despatched the efficient causes of this darkness, the causes phy-
sical? I now proceed to the cases wherein, and ends for which, God leaves his
children to such a condition : the causes moral. The cases, they were the
second general head I propounded to be handled ; and they are either extra
ordinary or ordinary.
1. Extraordinary; as
(l.J Out of his prerogative.
(2.) In case he means to make a man eminently wise, and able to comfort
others.
(3.) In case of extraordinary comforts and revelations.
(1.) What if God will use his absoluteness and prerogative in this his dealing with his children, and proceed therein according to no ruled case or prece dent ? This he may do, and, as it is thought, in Job s case he did ; who is
thought by some to be set up as a type, among the Gantiles, of Christ at his
<fec. And
crucifying, who was to be left by his apostles, forsaken of God,
though Job s desertion began but with his estate, children, and body, yet it
pierced further in the end, and seized upon his spirit ; this we read nowhere
of him, yet it was seen in God s withdrawing himself in the comfort of his
presence, and in Satan s making him a butt to spend his arrows on. And
yet, although the Lord had cause enough against him, yet no cause, as I
remember, is pleaded. But it is resolved into an extraordinary dealing, wherein God took a liberty to glorify himself, by singling out one of his
stoutest, valiantest champions, and setting him hand to hand to wrestle with
the powers of darkness. And because Satan was, as it were, not hard enough
for him, he turned enemy himself, Job xiii. 24. None more just than he
before ; the Lord, you know, glories in him : none ever led a stricter life, read chap. xxxi. : no man kept more in awe, and that by fearing such a
desertion aforehand ; which was the only way to prevent it, for what a man
fears he prays much against; which he expresses when, complaining, he
says, chap. iii. 25, that though he feared it, yet it came, implying that it was not ordinary; nor indeed is it so. And although Job justifies himself
too far, yet this was it which made him so stoutly to plead his own cause, that
he could find no precedent, no ruled case of the like proceeding. And
therefore Elihu, who took both God s part and Job s, and stepped up as a
moderator, and as one in God s stead to decide the matter, resolves it most
of all into God s prerogative, though not without Job s desert ; yet not such
as according to which God ordinarily proceedeth, not so severely with others,
as appears by the 34th chapter. And to that end he set forth God s great ness in the 36th and 37th chapters. And thus also God himself, when he
CHAP. XL] A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DARKNESS. 289
came to plead with Job about it, and to shew him a reason of it, he only tells him how great a God he was, and therefore might do as he pleased; and useth no other arguments in the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st chapters. God indeed never wants a cause, nor doth deal thus where sin is not ; yet, as is said of the young man, that he was blind, not for his sin, nor his
parents , yet not without it, but for the glory of God, it was an act of God s
: so here. God hath higher ends of glorifying himself in the
prerogative
patience, the victory, and the conquest of such a champion as Job was ; and of confuting the devil, who accused him of not serving God for nought/ the falseness of which to demonstrate, God tries conclusions with him : as also to confute the opinions which in those days were generally received, as may seem by his friends arguings, and also by the 73d Psalm, that godly men did prosper and flourish outwardly, according to their godliness. For these and the like reasons God did it. However, Elihu gives Job this good and seasonable counsel, to make this use of it, to search into his sins, chap, xxxiv.
31, 32. And God might well take liberty to deal thus with Job, because he could make him amends, as afterward he did, in restoring double to him ; and indeed it was but the concealing a while of his love, as many parents love to do by their children, and yet to shew it the more in real effects, as God even then did, in making him more than a conqueror.
(2.) A second case extraordinary is, when he intends to make a man a
wise, able, skilful, and a strong Christian ; wise, namely, in this, which is the
greatest learning and wisdom in the world, experimentally to comfort others.
This may seem to be the reason of this his dealing with Hcman. Heman was brought up in this school of temptation., and kept in this form from a
youth, Ps. Ixxxviii. 15. He was put soon to it; and so deep lessons had he
set him, as he had like to have lost his wits, as he says there. Yet in the
end, when God raised him up again, this Heman, who lived about David and Solomon s time, is reckoned among the wisest of his time, and one of the four that were next to Solomon for wisdom, 1 Kings iv. 31. So that
great Apostle was a man exposed to the same combats that others were ; he was buffeted by Satan, 2 Cor. xii., filled with inward terrors, as well as those without. What was this for 1 Not so much for any personal cause of his
own, as to make him able to comfort others, 2 Cor. i. 4, 5. For that com
fort which answereth a temptation in one man s heart will answer the same
in another s : when temptations have the same wards, that key which un locked one man s bolts will serve and answer to another s.
It is not every word that will comfort a weary soul, but only a word in
season, ver. 4 of this 50th of Isaiah ; that is, which is fitted to the party s
case. Now, who are they who are furnished with such apt, and fit, and seasonable considerations to comfort such, but those who have had the same
temptations, and have been in the like distresses? This art of speaking peace and words of comfort in season is the greatest wisdom in the world, and is not
learned but in Heman s school. Temptation was one of Luther s masters. And therefore of all abilities of the ministry, Christ in this chapter instanceth
in this, ver. 4, and calleth the tongue of him that is able to speak season
ably to weary souls, the tongue of the learned; and therefore, Job xxxiii.
23, to raise up one whose soul draws nigh to the grave, is said to be the work of one of a thousand. Which is easily granted, if you consider the
danger of such a distress. In Scripture it is called the breaking the bones, Ps. li., because the strength of a man s spirit that should uphold it, as the bones the body, sinks within him. Now, to be a bone-setter is not every VOL. III. T
290 A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DARKNESS. [PART I.
man s skill; he must have special art and cunning, and withal a lady s hand,
as we use to say, that is, meekness and pity; which also are never kindly but when we have tasted the like, or may fear the like. The Apostle com mands them to set such a one in joint again, Gal. vi. 1, xaraor/^srs, as the word signifies, lest thou also be tempted; and it is the work of one that is
spiritual, You that are spiritual restore such a one. It requires skill to
get out every shiver, to meet with every scruple, and set all straight again.
It is also called the wounding of the spirit ; so Solomon, A wounded spirit who can bear? Prov. xviii. 14. As the power of sin wounds, so the guilt
also ; and the one as incurably as the other : and it being the spirit of a man
which is wounded, that which must heal it must be something dropped into
the heart, that may come at the spirit. And there are to be peculiar elective
plasters to heal these wounds, because these wounds are often differing. Some objections there are that often the learnedest men never met with in
books; and Satan hath devised methods, Eph. vi., of tempting souls de
: and a man shall not know those
serted, which he useth again and again
depths, and fathom them, unless he hath been in the depths himself, as Heman speaks; and then he shall see such wonders of God in those deeps which none else ever saw, and thereby gain such wisdom as to be able to
encourage others, by his example, to trust in God and call on him; so David,
Ps. xxxii. 5, 6.
(3.) The third case extraordinary; God doth desert, in case a man hath had,
or is to have, from God an abundance of revelations and comforts.
[1.] First, in case he hath already had abundant revelations from God. As
after that glorious testimony given to Christ at his baptism, This is my be
loved Son, &c., Matt. iii. 17; then was Jesus led aside to be tempted, Matt,
iv. 1. He points out the time to this very purpose. In like manner doth God
often deal with the members of Christ for the season and time of their deser
tions and temptations. This was also that great Apostle s case, 2 Cor. xii. 7, Lest I should be exalted above measure, through abundance of revelations,
a messenger of Satan was sent to buffet me. That which he calls there the
thorn in the flesh, that pricked him, is meant rather I think of a desertion, and leaving him to distress of spirit, than of a lust. For his scope is, to
glory in his afflictions, ver. 9,10. Now if it had been a lust, it had not been a
thing to have been gloried in. Again, it was a messenger of Satan, which
imports something external ; and it buffeted him, he was as a mere patient in it, as a man buffeted is. In the exercise of lusts our spirits are active. And besides, he prayed it might depart ; which phrase would seem to note
out something external. God had took him aside into heaven, and spoke wonderful things to him, and when he comes down again, Satan must take him to task and batter him; the flesh would have grown proud if it had not
been thus beaten black and blue. He had been in heaven, and heard the
language of angels and saints, things not to be uttered; and now he must
hear by devils t*he language of hell. This buffeting, I take it, was by Satani-
cal injections.
[2.] Secondly, before God doth dispense great revelations and comforts, he
doth sometimes desert. And as before great distresses, which he means to
lead his children into, he fills their hearts with joy unspeakable and glorious,
to strengthen them against the approaching conflict, (thus God, to hearten
his Son against that great agony in the garden and combat on the cross,
transfigureth him on the mount first;) so, on the contrary, sometimes before
great revelations and comforts, to make them sweet and the more welcome,
CHAP. XL] A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DARKNESS. 291
God useth to withdraw himself then most; thereby preparing the heart for them, as physicians do the body for cordials. The greatest spring-tide of comfort comes m ^upon the lowest ebb of distress. Distress enlargeth the heart and makes it thirst after comfort the more, whereby it is made more capable of consolation; for that rule holds usually true, 2 Cor. i. 5 that
< as sufferings abound, so comforts shall abound also.
292 A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DARKNESS. [PART L