Job 10:2

"And I will say to the Lord, Do not teach me to become ungodly. Do not test me beyond my strength, and let me come to what would bring me to impiety.

I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore Thou so judgest me. Whereas he declares himself a sinner 'in the bitterness of his soul,' what else does he say to God, but that he may not be condemned, in that the bitterness of his present penance does away with the pains of ensuing wrath? Now God judgeth man in this life in two ways, seeing that either by present ills He is already beginning to bring upon him the torments to come, or else by present scourges He does away with the torments to come. For except there were some whom the just Judge, as the due of their sins, did both now and hereafter visit, Jude would never have said, The Lord afterwards destroyed them that believed not. And the Psalmist would not say of the wicked, Let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a lined cloak. For we mean by 'a lined cloak' a double garment. And so they are 'clothed with confusion as with a double garment,' who according to the due reward of their sin are at once visited with both a temporal and an everlasting judgment. For chastisement delivers those alone from woe, whom it alters. For those whom present evils do not amend, they conduct to those which are to ensue. But if there were not some whom present punishment preserves from eternal woe, Paul would never have said, But when we are Judged we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. Hence it is spoken to John by the voice of the Angel, As many as I love I rebuke and chasten. Hence also it is written, For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION Therefore it often happens that the mind of the righteous man, in order to be made more secure, is the more penetrated with fear, and when he is beset with scourges, he is troubled with misgivings about the Judgment of the Most High. He fears lest all that he suffers should be the forerunner of the doom to ensue, and in his heart he questions the Judge, in that under His visitation he is full of doubts about the merit of his life. But when the goodness of his life is brought before the eyes of the mind, it is as if comfort were given in answer by the Judge, in that He never strikes to destroy him, whom by so striking He keeps in innocency of life and conduct. Therefore it is justly said here, Shew me wherefore Thou so judgest me. As if it were…