Question: Might not God have kept Job from [these] infirmities and would it not have been more for God’s honour?
Answ: God works his end in Job’s trial more by letting his infirmities [appear]. 1. because the more Job’s infirmities [appear], and that like a spate or flood of waters, the more [appears] his grace in Job that is not drowned with it. The messenger of Satan is sent to buffet Paul (2 Cor 12:7) and his weakness must kyth, that God’s grace over passion is mre than if his passion had not broken out. 2. The Lord gains his end better, because as he had one end before him, to stop Satan’s mouth, so he had this end, to let Job and all his children know what they hold of him, and how he will have them in his reverence. Therefore the best of the Saints with Jacob have a halt [limp], that they may know the strength whereby they stand, and to whom they are obliged for the victory. 3. God’s end was not only that Job may have the victory being tried, but that he might b e a pattern to these that should come after, and therefore he will have his infirmities to kyth, and yet do them away, and give him the victory: bring him to the brink of despair, and yet uphold him, and give him an outgate [deliverance], that other saints may not be discouraged or despair though their condition should be like his. And often Job’s infirmities [appearing], have proven as comfortable to the people of God as his patience and other graces. James Durham--Lectures on Job
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