SERMON XIV. Of Religious Melancholy. JOB vi. 4. For the Arrows of the Almighty are within the Poison whereof drinketh up my Spirit; The Terrours of God, m2, themselves in array against me. T do Jet n HESE Words are part of SER M. on him, for the Trial of an exemplary and unfhaken Virtue: And because it was fent upon him for That Reason only, and not as any Mark of the divine Displeasure; therefore, how vour. A SER M.great foever the Calamity was in all other XIV. respects, yet was it by no means infupportable; because there ftill remained to him the great Foundation of Comfort, in the Affurance of a good Confcience, and the Expectation of God's final FaHe had been all his days a perfect and an upright man, one that feared God, and efchewed evil, (ch. i. 8;) And he had in his own Mind, even in the midst of his Affliction, the Satisfaction to reflect with Pleasure upon his paft Behaviour, and to strengthen his Refolutions of continuing in the fame Course for the Future. As God liveth, faith he, who has taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who has vexed my Soul; All the while my Breath is in me, and the Spirit of God is in my Noftrils; My lips fhall not Speak Wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit. 'Till I die, I will not remove my integrity from me; My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go; my heart Shall not reproach me, fo long as I live; (ch. xxvii. 2.) And (Ch. xiii. 15;) Though he flay me, yet will I trust in him; but I will maintain my own ways before him; He aljo XIV. also shall be my Salvation, for an hypo- SERṀ. crite shall not come before him. He knew, and maintained it against the Opinion of all his Friends, that God was not angry with him, even at the Time he afflicted him. He knew, that after a fhort Tryal, God would reftore him to his former Profperity. And if not; yet he knew that his Redeemer lived, and was to stand at the latter day upon the Earth; and though after his Skin, Worms deftroyed his Body, yet in his Flefh fhould he fee God; Whom he Should fee for himself, and his eyes fhould behold, and not another; though his reins were confumed within him. Thefe confiderations very much alleviated, even that fingularly great and unparallelled Affliction, wherewith God was pleafed to try this righteous perfon, and make his Patience exemplary to all fucceeding Generations. Wherefore though, in the Nature of the Thing itself, in the Circumftances of the external Affliction, no Calamity could well be heavier than that of Job; yet when the Difpofition of the Perfon comes alfo to be taken into the Act, there is a Trouble far greater than SER M. His Namely, when the Storm falls XIV. where there is no preparation to bear it; when the Weight is laid, where there is no Foundation to fupport it; when the Affault is made from without, and within is nothing to refift it. And That is, when the Judgments of God fall upon a wicked Perfon; when the Providence of God fmites him from without, and his own Confcience torments him within ; when That which should be his only Comfort and Support in the day of Trouble, proves itself the greatest and most infupportable part of his Calamity: This is indeed, a truly miferable Cafe; and can be exceeded by nothing, but That whereof it is a Part and a Fore-runner, even the Stingings of the Worm that never dieth. In all other Cafes, the Spirit of a man will sustain his Infirmity; But when the Spirit itself is thus wounded, who can bear it? Then it is doubly true, what the Text emphatically describes, that the Arrows of the Almighty are within them, the poifon whereof drinketh up their Spirits; The Terrours of God do set themfelves in array against them. They can not XIV. not say with Job; shall we receive goodS ER M. at the hands of God, and shall we not receive evil? The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the Name of the Lord But the Remorfe of an impenitent Confcience drives them to defpair; and, having no ferious Thoughts of an effectual Repentance, their Mind is, like Judas's, tormented with an inextricable Perplexity. The Scripture reprefents the Mifery of fuch a State, by very elegant Similitudes: The wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot reft, whose Waters caft up mire and dirt; Ifa. lvii. 20. And in the fecond Book of Efdras, ch. xvi. 77; Wo be unto them that are bound with their Sins, and covered with their Iniquities; Like as a Field is covered over with Bushes, and the Path thereof covered with Thorns, that no man may travel through; It is left undressed, and is caft into the Fire, to be confumed therewith. There is ftill a Third State, moft melancholy, and truly pitiable; and that is of thofe, who neither by the immediate Appointment of Providence, as in the Cafe of job, nor by the proper Ef fect |