Job 13
SIBBehold, all these things I know from my own experience and observation, or have learned from others; whereby you may see that I need none of your instructions on these points
Job 13:3
It is with God himself that I wish to debate my own integrity, and to answer his objections against it
Job 13:4
For ye are all forgers of false doctrines and accusations against me; you unskillfully and unfaithfully prescribe bad remedies for my affliction, and misapply good ones. 5, 6. It would be more agreeable to me, and shew more wisdom in you, if ye would never speak a word more on the subject, but carefully listen to what I can say in my own behalf
Job 13:7
Doth God stand in need of your false doctrines, or your false accusations of me, contrary to the dictates of your own conscience, to justify his proceedings against me?
Job 13:8
Hath he so little right on his side, that you must shew him favour, and oblige him by wronging me?
Job 13:9
Would it be for your honour or advantage that he should narrowly examine your discourses, and the springs and motives of them? Do ye think that he will be deceived with your flatteries and high pretences to piety?
Job 13:10
No; he will certainly, fearfully, and openly, chastise you for your hypocritical attempts to gratify him by condemning me
Job 13:11
Should not his infinite majesty, holiness, and awful justice, make you afraid to deal unjustly, even on his behalf, or to speak rashly of his ways and counsels?
Job 13:12
Ye yourselves are but mean worms, sprung out of the dust before him; and your boasted remonstrances on his behalf, and your bulwarks of arguments, are worthless and weak, as heaps of dirt or clay
Job 13:13
Keep silence therefore, and do not interrupt my speech; let me but speak out my mind, be the penal issue of it what it will
Job 13:14
I am so conscious of my integrity, that I must wonder why I suffer such enraging miseries, and am exposed to such evils; and I could risk all danger to obtain a thorough reasoning with God
Job 13:15
Lo! should be utterly cut me off, and not leave me the least glimmering of hope, I would, to the last gasp, maintain mine integrity
Job 13:16
Nay, I am confident that he himself, with whom no hypocrite dare lodge his appeal, will in due time vindicate me, preserve me in, or deliver me from, trouble; and save me with an everlasting salvation. 17, 18. Hear me then with care and attention: I have formed a process against myself, and digested what I have to say for myself, and I know that, in the issue, I shall be cleared from every charge of hypocrisy, and manifested a righteous person
Job 13:19
What impartial person dare charge me with hypocrisy, or can prove his point? If he could, I should be silent, die with shame, and be strangled with grief. But, when it is otherwise, it is death to me to neglect my own just vindication
Job 13:20-22
Do thou, great Judge, remove thy oppressing rod from off me, and let not the overwhelming awe of 4 thy majesty terrify me: then will I, in the most bold and free manner, debate my cause with thee
Job 13:23
What, and how many, O God, are those heinous sins which require such grievous punishments? Or, if I am thus afflicted for some particular crime, cause me to know it
Job 13:24
Why shouldst thou in anger thus withhold thy favours and comforts? Why shouldst thou hold and treat me as an enemy to thee?
Job 13:25
How canst thou find in thy heart so violently to toss and grievously persecute me, who am so mean, weak, and contemptible, in thy sight? And what honour canst thou acquire by it?
Job 13:26
Thou passest the most severe sentences against me; and, by afflicting me with the most tormenting troubles, bringest to my mind, and punishest me for, the crimes which were committed before I well knew what I did
Job 13:27
Thy fearful judgments compass me in so close and tormenting a manner that I cannot escape. They follow me at the very heels; the tokens of thy wrath are engraven on the very soles of my feet
Job 13:28
And under these my frail carcass gradually rots into death
REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XIII.—Hot disputants generally magnify themselves and undervalue their opponents; and too seldom do they adhere to truth with proper exactness. There is great need then to pray that the Lord would mortify our pride, and keep us from the way of lying; and, so far as is for his glory, keep us out of temptation. Deliberate lying is of all things most infamous. But what insignificant physicians are all but Christ to a sin-sick or wrath-sick soul! It is singularly criminal to manage the cause of God in a wicked and deceitful manner. What men call pious frauds are with God impious chents; and devout persecutions are but horrid profanations of his name. Strict will be the scrutiny, and severe the rebukes of God, with respect to those found guilty of these things! No good intentions, no pious pretence, will avail at his awful bar. Let us then stand in awe of his perfections. Never let us, who are so mean and mortal, dare to contemn or trample on our neighbour. Never let us dare to exhibit weak and carnal remonstrances on God’s behalf. But how supporting is it under trouble to have the testimony of a good conscience! and it is relieving to get our minds vented in kindly complaints. It is glorious, in the extremity of trouble, to be strong in the faith, giving glory to God, and coming boldly to his throne of grace, to ask mercy and obtain grace to help us in the time of need. But how awful is it to find the greatest saints mingling their passions with their prayers! Lord, what is man, even in his best estate, if left to himself! And what an hell on earth sin sometimes forms for the chief favourites of God! Sins long before committed fall with an awful weight on their conscience, and cause them to roar through disquiet of spirit. If then I find myself deserted of God; if I find my sins of youth remembered by him, and my present miscarriages strictly animadverted 62 67 upon; if I find myself wasting away under his heavy hand; let me never murmur at his dispensations. Let me, holding fast his promise, believe him to be my friend, even when he puts on the appearance of an enemy. Let me firmly expect the performance of his promises, even when all the ways leading to it are seemingly shut up. Let me rejoice in the Lord when he hath left me nothing else: and in dying moments let me derive from him my everliving consolation