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in the blood of the Lamb, they will outshine the ruby; in their golden crowns they will exceed the topaz; and, being alive for evermore, they shall be more green than the emerald; in royal majesty they will transcend the amethyst; and their heaven will outshine the sapphire with all its golden specks. They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels,"

XI.

THE SAINT'S RIGHT, AND HIS LIES AGAINST IT.

JOB XXXIV. 6.

"Should I lie against my right? my wound is incurable
without transgression."

JOB in his affliction had three friends which came to bemoan him and to comfort him; but they proved themselves to be but miserable comforters; for they soon fall into vain jangling, and labour to prove Job a bad man, which they conclude from God's severity with him. God's testimony of Job is, that he was a perfect and an upright man, and that he feared God, and eschewed evil. This Job pleads when he says, "The just, the upright man, is laughed to scorn.” Against this they argue, "If thou wert pure and upright, surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous." This is the opinion of Bildad; and he enforces it by insisting that God will not cast away a perfect man, nor will he help the evil doers. Hence he concludes that Job is a castaway, and therefore cannot be a perfect man; and as God afforded him no help, he must be an evil doer,

Eliphaz sarcastically throws Job's former conduct at him, and insinuates that Job could not trust nor rely upon his own doctrine: "Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands. Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees. But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled." Physician, heal thyself; practise now your former advice.

Zophar charges Job with falsehood, and asks, "Should thy lies make men hold their peace; and, when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?" Job against them all maintains his integrity, in which he is right, and tells them that he knows that he shall be justified, and that when he was tried that he should come forth as gold; and that he should see God for himself, and not for another; and in all this he bore no better witness of himself than God had borne of him. But as God did not appear to deliver him so soon as he expected, and being sadly irritated and provoked by his friends, he breaks out even against God himself, in which he justifies himself, but not God: "This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked. If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent." That God destroys those that are perfect as well as the wicked, and that persons who are innocent when they are tried, if the Scourge slays them suddenly it is with God a mat

ter of laughter; these are hard and bad speeches, of which God complains: "Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God let him answer it." Again: "Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?"

After a long contention between Job and his three friends, Elihu steps forth as a moderator; and a very strong impulse of the Holy Spirit seems to have been upon him; for he tells Job that he was, according to his wish, in God's stead. Job had desired to reason with God, and he was come in God's stead to reason with him. He highly blames Job's friends, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job. Elihu believed Job to be a good man, and as such he desired to justify him. He rehearses many of Job's hard speeches, and for which he was not to be justified, but highly to be blamed. He enforces the sovereignty of God, that he gives not account of any of his matters. He rehearses the various dealings of God with man, and the end that God aims at, to keep man from his purpose, and to hide pride from man, and to bring them to obedience; and that if they obey and serve him they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasure. He asks Job, "Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art wicked? and to princes, Ye are ungodly? How much less to him that accepteth not the persons of princes? Shall even he that hateth right govern? and wilt thou condemn him that is most just?" Job xxxiv. 17-19. And for all these hard

speeches he charges Job with rebellion: "For he addeth rebellion unto his sin; he clappeth his hand amongst us, and multiplieth his words against God."

This wonderful moderator having silenced Job's three friends, and brought in so many charges against Job for false and unbecoming words spoken against God, he stopped Job's mouth so that he had not a word to say, and therefore makes no reply; upon which God came in as umpire. He lays the same charges against Job as Elihu had, and yet acknowledges that even Job had spoken more things than were right of him than his three friends had; for they are all charged with folly; but there is not one word against Elihu; he has no censure passed upon him. Job's conduct also is preferred before all his friends. They are ordered to bring their sacrifices to Job, and his prayers are to be heard and answered in their behalf. God heals Job, and turns his captivity, while he prayed for his friends; and in answer to his prayers his friends are pardoned. They present an offering to Job their priest, and God commands his blessing upon it, and this enriches Job; and so the matter ends. I shall now return to my text.

"Should I lie against my right?" Man, when God made him, was a happy and a blessed creaturę, All things were given to him, and he was to have dominion over all other creatures; but he sinned, and forfeited all; so that, strictly speaking, he has no right to any one thing but the sentence

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