How much his eternal happiness was affected by it, it is impossible for us to say : but sure we arc that his affliction was the means of greatly augmenting it. In this view, affliction was better to him than heaven itself would have been : for, if he had been removed to heaven at once, his state, though glorious, would have been forever fixed: whereas his affliction was " working for him" as long as it continued : it was every moment increasing that weight of glory which he was to pos- sess for ever'. Who does not see that it would be better for a man to be cut oil' and be cast into hell immediately, than to live only to " treasure up wrath against the day of wrath"?" for though his torments would come upon him a little sooner, yet the respite of a few months, or years, would bear no pro- portion to the increased weight of misery that he must eternally endure. And exactly thus the additional weight of glory which Job will eternally possess, will far overbalance the trials he suffered, or the short period of bliss, which, by an earlier removal, he might have enjoyed.]
To make the just improvement of this history, we must notice,
III. The general character of God, as it is exhibited in this particular dispensation —
This seems to be the more immediate object, to which St. James would direct our attention. Persons in the midst of their trouble are apt to entertain hard thoughts of God : but we who, in this instance, " have seen the end of the Lord," may rest assured " that he is very pitiful, and of tender mercy," how- ever dark or painful his dispensations towards us may be. It is by love alone he is actuated,
1. In sending afflictions —
[He does "not willingly afflict his people*." He knows what we stand in need of; and he sends it for our good. He chastises us, not as earthly parents too often do, to indulge their own evil tempers, but purely " for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness5'.'" And as he knows what we want, so he knows what we can bear ; and will take care either to apportion our burden to our strength z, or to give us strength sufficient for our trials a. Besides, in all our afflic- tions he sympathizes with us1'; he watches over us with the
1 2 Cor. iv. 17. u Rom. ii. 5. x Lam. iii. 33.
y Heb. xii. 10. z 1 Cor. x. 13. a Deut. xxxiii. 25.
b Isai. lxiii. 9.