Chastisment

It is one of the hardest conflicts in the spiritual life , when God himself appears , as a party , contending with his own children ; when he seems to set himself against them ; when instead of raising them up with his consolations , he casts them down with his terrors. And this procedure is especially intricate , when it is met with , in the way of holy, humble , and diligent faith and obedience ; so that God seems to run against his own promises , and to pursue a controversy, when there is is no  particular allowed provocation to be the ground of it . Such was Job's situation . He could discover no particular reason for God's severity against him . Yet he found not only the  Divine hand externally lifted up ; but he felt the arrows of the Almighty so within him that the poison of them drank up his spirit . In such cases , there is need of a very resolute faith, such as Job expressed , when he said "Though he slay me yet will  I trust him."And this faith naturally vents itself , in a way of humble , yet bold expostulation. For there is firm ground to proceed upon , in applying to God to clear up his own dispensations , to show their consistency with his own inviolable engagements , and to disclose the reasons for their more intricate parts . This Job wished earnestly to do ; therefore he cried out ,"O that I knew where I might find him !"For he felt it necessary to get nearer to God , than he then found himself , before he could , freely and comfortably , expostulate with him , as he designed to do.   John Love