^ *
LIBRARY
BX 9178 .B668"C7^ 1839 Boston, Thomas, 1677-1732. The crook in the lot
The John >1I. Krelis Donation.
RECOMMENDATION.
I AM gratified to learn that you are about to publish Boston's " Crook in the Lot." Few books contain so much valuable matter within the same space. It may be considered an ex- position of God's providence towards his people, while performing their pilgrimage through this vale of tears; and was evidently the fruit of much observation of the dispensations of God, and of profound acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures. I do not know that I could point out a work so well adapted to reconcile the af- flicted saint to his lot in this world, and at the same time to teach him how to derive benefit from those events which are most adverse to his natural inclinations. I can, therefore, cordially recommend this little volume to all who desire wisely to interpret, and faithfully to improve, the dealings of Providence towards them; espe- cially in the *' dark and cloudy day" of adver- sity.
A. Alexander.
THE
CROOK IN THE LOT;
A DISPLAY OF THE
SOVEREIGNTY AND WISDOM OF GOD
IN THE AFFLICTIONS OF MEN,
CHRISTIAN'S DEPORTMENT UNDER THEM.
BY REV, THOMAS BOSTON.
PHILADELPHIA: WILLIAM S. MARTIEN.
NEW YORK : ROBERT CARTER. — PITTSBURGH : PATTERSON AND INGRAM.
1839.
PREFACE.
Thomas Boston, the author of The Crook in the Lot, was born in the town of Diinse, Scotland, A. D. 1676, of respectable and reli- gious parentage, and was the youngest of seven children. He was licensed to preach the Gos- pel in 1697, and was ordained at Simprin in 1699. In the year 1700 he married Catherine Brown, a lady of good family and rare endow- ments of mind ; by her he had a number of children, four of whom survived him. He de- parted this life in the hope of a glorious immor- tality, A.D. 1732, in the 56th year of his age.
In person, Mr. Boston was above the middle stature, and of a grave and amiable aspect. His mind was vigorous and fruitful; his imagina- tion lively but under due restraint; his judg- ment solid ; his affections warm and tender; and his whole demeanour courteous, obliging, and benevolent. Under provocation he was gentle, and always manifested a delicate regard for the feelings of others ; but when a just occasion of
Xll PREFACE.
rebuke occurred he was always prompt in ad- ministering it.
Having become in early life a subject of di- vine grace, he honoured his profession by a deportment at once consistent and uniform. He was pre-eminently a man of prayer, cultiva- ting a close communion with God, and receiving many encouraging evidences of his personal ac- ceptance. The divine providence was carefully observed and recorded by him in all its opera- tions, and the law of God was regarded in all its claims with the most scrupulous exactness. Tender in conscience, watchful in spirit, and rich in Christian experience, his effort was to avoid even the appearance of evil, and to be fruitful in every good work.
In regard to others, he was affectionate as a husband, indulgent as a father, and sincere and faithful as a friend. Not only did he extend his counsel and sympathy to the distressed, but one tenth of his annual income was religiously devo- ted to the relief of the poor.
As a scholar, Mr. Boston was well versed in the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and French lan- guages, and in other departments of learning, was no novice. As a Theologian, his various works afford the best evidence of his great ac- quirements, of his sound and judicious views, and of his skill in defending the truth. In his
PREFACE. XIU
application to study he was indefatigable, and it was with him a rule, to leave no subject he was investigating, until he had mastered its difficul- ties. Yet withal he was so unostentatious, that nothing in his manner betrayed the conceit of learning. He was a liberal admirer of the gifts of others, and was unwilling to detract from their merits, although they might differ with him in opinion.
As a minister of Jesus Christ he was particu- larly conspicuous. He was " mighty in the Scriptures," not only in his critical acquaint- ance with them, but in his understanding of their spirit and power ; by which he was well qualified to expound in a clear, simple, and co- gent manner the great mysteries of the Gospel to others. His tiioughts were generally just and often profound; his mode of expression simple and yet forcible ; his imagination fertile in happily adapted illustrations; his delivery graceful and earnest ; and in his whole manner in the pulpit, gravity, meekness, and authority Avere happily blended. His ministrations were not only acceptable, but successful in the conver- sion of sinners, and in the edification of saints. M . Boston, although a devoted student, never suffered his delightful pursuit of knowledge, to interfere with his pastoral visitations. In pre- paring for the pulpit, he generally wrote out his
XIV PREFACE.
sermons in full; — an example worthy of imita- tion by more modern preachers. It is a remark- able fact that, although Mr. Boston was so emi- nently endowed by grace and mental culture for the work of the ministry, yet he was tempted to abandon it after he had entered on it, from a deep and humbling sense of his unfitness for the work. This was indeed a rare humility.
In ecclesiastical judicatories Mr. Boston dis- played great wisdom and prudence, and was well qualified to give counsel in difficult and intricate cases. His talent was so admirable in framing minutes, that he was pronounced by a statesman of considerable note, the best clerk he had ever known in any court, civil or ecclesias- tical.
In relation to the general concerns of the church, zeal and knowledge were happily com- bined in him ; and in securing its best interests, few were so zealous for its purity, or studious of its peace. He was no friend to innovations, and always subjected novel suggestions to the most careful scrutiny. His opinion on the subject of controversy was, that error was best confuted by a strong representation of the truth ; and in his defence of the Protestant doctrine against the aspersions of a certain book, he fully vindicated the truth, answered objections, but still avoided all offensive personal allusions. In some no-
PREFACE. • XV
tices of his life written for the use of his chil- dren, he remarks :
" Thus also I was much addicted to peace, and averse from controversy ; though once engaged therein, I was set to g.o through with it. I had no great difficulty to retain a due honour and charity for my brethren, differing from me both in opinion and practice. But then I was in no great hazard, neither of being swayed by them to depart from what I judged truth or duty. Withal, it was easy to me to yield to them in things wherein I found not myself in conscience bound up. Whatever precipitant steps I have made in the course of my life, which I desire to be hum- bled for, rashness in conduct was not my weak side. But, since the Lord, by his grace, brought me to consider things, it was much my exercise to discern sin and duty in particular cases ; be- ing afraid to venture on things, until I should see myself called thereto. But when the matter was cleared to me, I generally stuck fast by it, being as much afraid to desert the way which I took to be pointed out to me."
The same paper he thus concludes : " And thus have I given some account of the days of my vanity. Upon the whole, I bless my God in Jesus Christ, that ever he made me a Christian, qnd took an early dealing with my soul : that ever he made me a minister of the
XVI PREFACE.
gospel, and gave me some insight into the doc- trine of his grace : and that ever he gave me the blessed Bible, and brought me acquainted with the originals, and especially with the Hebrew text. The world hath all along been a step- dame unto me, and whensoever I would have at- tempted to nestle in it, there was a thorn of un- easiness laid for me. Man is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed from that quarter. * All is vanity and vexation of spirit ; I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord.' "
It may be interesting for the reader to know that the truly valuable treatise with which he is here presented, under a quaint title, was one of the last of the author's writings, and therefore embodies much of the maturity of his expe- rience. He was engaged in revising it when he was called to cease from his labours. May it prove a happy legacy to every one into whose hands it may fall.
CONTENTS
Page Introductory Remarks, - - - 19
PROPOSITION I.
Whatsoever Crook there is in one's Lot, it is of God's making, - - - - 22
I. As to the Crook itself, . - - 22—34
II. The Crook is of God's making. How it is of his making. Why he makes it, - 35 — 58
PROPOSITION II.
What God sees meet to mar, we shall not be able to mend in our Lot. What Crook God makes in our Lot, we shall not be able to even, - - 58
I. God's marring and making a Crook in one's Lot,
as he sees meet, .... 59
II. Men's attempting to mend or even the Crook in their Lot, . . - . 60
III. In what sense it is to be understood, that we shall not be able to mend, or even the Crook in our Lot, - - ... 61
IV. Some reasons of the point, - - 62 Directions for rightly managing the application for
removing the Crook in our Lot, - - 66
PROPOSITION III.
Considering the Crook in the Lot, as the work of God, is a proper means to bring one to behave rightly under it, - - - - 76
I. What it is to consider the Crook as the work of God, 76
II. How it is to be understood to be a proper means
to bring one to behave rightly under the Crook. 78
III. That it is a proper mean to bring one to be- have rightly under it. - - - 81
A comparison between the Lowly and Proud, - 83
\ -
XVlll CONTENTS.
•Page. DocT. — There is a generation of lowly afflicted ones, having their spirit lowered and brought down to their lot ; whose case, in that respect, is better than that of the proud getting their will, and carrying all to their mind, - - 86
I. The generation of the lowly afflicted ones, - ib.
II. The generation of the proud getting their will, and carrying all to their mind, - - 92
III. It is better to be in a low afflicted condition, with the spirit humble and brought down to the lot, than to be of a proud and high spirit, getting the lot brought up to it, and matters go according
to one's mind, .... 96
Humility the great means to bring all to their re- spective duties, - - . .104 DocT. I. The bent of one's heart, in humbling cir- cumstances, should lie towards a suitable hum- bling of the spirit, as Under God's mighty hand placing us in them, ... - 107
II. What are those humbling circumstances the mighty hand of God brings men into, - 109
III. What it is in humbling circumstances, to hum- ble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, 111
Directions for reaching humiliation, - 119
DocT. II. In due time, those that humble them- selves under the mighty hand of God will cer- tainly be lifted up, - - - - 128
THE
CROOK IN THE LOT
EccLEs. vii. 13.
Consider the work of God : for tvJio can make that straight which he hath made crooked?
A JUST view of afflicting incidents is altogether necessary to a Christian deportment under them ; and that view is to be obtained only by faith, not by sense ; for it is the light of the word alone that re- presents them justly, discovering in them tlie work of God, and, consequently, designs becoming the divine perfections. When these are perceived by the eye of faith, and duly considered, we have a just view of afflicting incidents, fitted to quell the turbulent motions of corrupt afi'cctions under dismal outward appearances.
It is under this view that Solomon, in the preceding part of this chapter, advances several paradoxes, which are surprising determinations in favour of certain things, that, to the eye of sense, looking gloomy and hideous, are therefore generally reputed grievous and shocking. He pronounceth the day of one's death to be better than the day of 4
20 INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.
his birth ; namely, the day of the death of one, who having become the friend of God through faith, hath Jed a hfe to the honour of God, and service of his generation, and thereby raised himself the good and savoury name better than precious ointment, ver. 1. In like manner, he pronounces the house of mourning to be preferable to the house of feasting, sorrow to laughter, and a wise man's rebuke to a fool's song; for that, howbeit the latter are indeed the more pleasant, yet the former are the more profitable, ver. 2 — 6. And observing with concern, how men are in hazard, not only from the world's frowns and ill-usage, oppression making a wise man mad, but also from its smiles and caresses, a gift destroying the heart ; therefore, since whatever way it goes there is danger, he pronounces the end of every worldly thing better than the beginning thereof, ver. 7, 8. And from the whole, he justly infers, that it is better to be humble and patient, than proud and impatient, under afflicting dispensations ; since, in the former case, we wisely submit to what is really best ; in the latter, we fight against it, ver. 8. And he dissuades from being angry with our lot, be- cause of the adversity found therein, ver. 9 ; cautions against making odious comparisons of former and present times, in that point insinuating undue reflec- tions on the providence of God, ver. 10: and, against that querulous and fretful disposition, he first pres- cribes a general remedy, namely, holy wisdom, as that which enables us to make the best of every thing, and even givethlife in killing circumstances, ver. 11, 12; and then a particular remedy, consisting in a due application of that wisdom, towards taking a just view of the case, "Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight which he hath made crooked ?"
BENEFIT OF DUE CONSIDERATION. 21
In which words are proposed, 1. The remedy it- self; 2. The suitableness thereof.
1. 'J'he remedy itself, is a wise eyeing of the hand of God in all we find to bear hard upon us : " Con- sider the work (or, see thou the doing) of God," namely, in the crooked, rough, and disagreeable parts of thy lot, the crosses thou findest in it. Thou seest very well the cross itself; yea, thou turnest it over and over in thy mind, and leisurely viewest it on all sides : thou lookest, withal, to this and the other second cause of it, and so thou art in a foam and fret. But, wouldst thou be quieted and satisfied in the matter, lift up thine eyes towards heaven, see the doing of God in it, the operation of his hand. Look at that, and consider it well ; eye the first cause of the crook in thy lot ; behold how it is the work of God, his doing.
2. This view of the crook in our lot is very suita- ble to still indecent risings of heart, and quiet us under it : " For who can (that is, none can) make that straight which God hath made crooked?" As to the crook in thy lot, God hath made it: and it must continue while he will have it so. Shouldst thou ply thine utmost force to even it, or make it straight, thine attempt will be vain : it will not alter for all thou canst do ; only he who made it can mend it, or make it straight. This consideration, this view of the matter, is a proper means, at once, to silence and to satisfy men, and so to bring them unto a duti- ful submission to their Maker and Governor, under the crook in their lot.
Now, we take up the purpose of the text in these three propositions.
Prop. I. Whatsoever crook there is in one's lot, it is of God's making.
22 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
Prop. II. What God sees meet to mar, no one shall be able to mend in his lot.
Prop. III. The considering of the crook in the lot as the work of God, or of his making, is a proper means to bring us to a Christian deportment un- der it.
Prop. I. Whatsoever crook there is in one's lot, it is of God's making.
Here, two things are to be considered, namely, the crook itself, and God's making of it.
I. As to the crook itself, the crook in the lot, for the better understanding thereof, these few things that follow are premised.
1. There is acertain train or course of events, by the providence of God, falling to every one of us during our life in this world : and that is our lot, as being allotted to us by the sovereign God, our Creator and Governor, " in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways." This train of events is widely different to different persons, according to the will and pleasure of the sovereign manager, who ordereth men's conditions in the world in a great variety, some moving in a higher, some in a lower sphere.
2. In that train or course of events, some fall out cross to us, and against the grain ; and these make the crook in our lot. While we are here, there will be cross events, as well as agreeable ones, in our lot and condition. Sometimes things are sofdy and agreeably gliding on ; but, by and by, there is some incident which alters that course, grates us, and pains us, as when we have made a wrong step, we begin to halt.
3. Every body's lot in this world hath some crook in it. Complainers are apt to make odious compa-
IT CAME IN BY SIN. 23
risons: they look about, and taking a distant view of the condition of others, can discern nothing in it but what is straight, and just to one's wish ; so they pronounce their neighbour's lot wholly straight. But that is a false verdict; there is no perfection here ; no lot out of heaven without a crook. For, as to " all the works that are done under the sun, behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit. That which is crooked cannot be made straight." Eccl. i. 14, 15. Who would not have thought that Haman's lot was very straight, while his family was in a flourishing condition, and he prospering in riches and honour, being prime minister of state in the Persian court, and standing high in the king's favour ? Yet there was, at the same time, a crook in his lot, which so galled him, that " all this availed him no- thing." Esth. V. ] 3. Every one feels for himself, where he is pinched, though others perceive it not. Nobody's lot, in this world, is wholly crooked ; there are always some straight and even parts in it. Indeed, when men's passions, having got up, have cast a mist over their minds, they are ready to say, all is wrong with them, nothing right; but, though in hell that tale is true, and ever will be so, yet it is never true in this world ; for there, indeed, there is not a drop of comfort allowed, Luke xvi. 24, 25, but here it always holds good, that " it is of the Lord's mercies we are not consumed." Lam. iii. 22.
4. The crook in the lot came into the world by sin : it is owing to the fall, Rom. v. 12. " By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin ;" under which death, the crook in the lot is compre- hended, as a state of comfort or prosperity is, in scripture style, expressed by living. 1 Sam. xxv. 6. John iv. 50, 51. Sin so bowed the hearts and minds of men, that they became crooked in respect of the 4*
24 IT DENOTES ADVERSITY.
holy law ; and God justly so bowed their lot, that it became crooked too. And this crook in our lot in- separably follows our sinful condition, till, dropping this body of sin and death, we get within heaven's gates.
These being premised, a crook in the lot speaks, in general, two things, (1.) Adversity, (2.) Continu- ance. Accordingly it makes a day of adversity, op- posed to the day of prosperity, in the verse immedi- ately following the text.
The crook in the lot is, first, some one or other piece of adversity. The prosperous part of one's lot, which goes forward according to one's wish, is the straight and even part of it ; the adverse part, going a contrary way, is the crooked part thereof. God hath intermixed these two in men's condition in this world ; that, as there is some prosperity therein, making the straight line, so there is also some adver- sity, making the crooked : which mixture hath place, not only in the lot of saints, who are told, that " in the world they shall have tribulation," but even in the lot of all, as already observed. Secondly, it is adversity of some continuance. We do not reckon it a crooked thing, which, though forcibly bended and bowed together, yet presently recovers its former straightness. There are twinges of the rod of adver- sity, which passing like a stitch in one's side, all is immediately set to rights again: one's lot may be suddenly overclouded, and the cloud vanish ere he is aware. But under the crook, one having leisure to find his smart, is in some concern to get the crook made even. So the crook in the lot is adversity, continued for a shorter or longer time.
Now, there is a threefold crook in the lot incident to the children of men.
1. One made by a cross dispensation, which, how-
SOMETIMES IS LONG CONTINUED. 25
soever in itself passing, yet hath lasting effects. Such a crook did Herod's cruelty make in the lot of the mothers in Bethlehem, who by the murderers were left " weeping for their slain children, and would not be comforted, because they were not." Matth. ii. 18. A slip of the foot may soon be made, which will make a man go halting long after. " As the fishes are taken in an evil net ; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time." Eccl. ix. 12. The thing may fall out in a moment, under which the party shall go halting to the grave.
2. There is a crook made by a train of cross dis- pensations, whether of the same or different kinds, following hard one upon another, and leaving last- ing effects behind them. Thus in the case of Job, while one messenger of evil tidings was yet speaking, another came. Job i. 16 — 18. Cross events coming one upon the neck of another, deep calling unto deep, make a sore crook. In that case, the party is like unto one, who, recovering his sliding foot from one unfirm piece of ground, sets it on another equally unfirm, which immediately gives way under him too : or, like unto one, who, travelling in an un- known mountainous track, after having, with diffi- culty, made his way over one mountain, is expecting to see the plain country ; but, instead thereof, there comes in view, time after time, a new mountain to be passed. This crook in Asaph's lot had like to have made him give up all his religion, until he went into the sanctuary, where this mystery of providence was unriddled to him. Psal. Ixxiii. 13 — 17. Solomon observes, " That there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked." Eccl. viii. 14. Providence taking a run against them, as if they were to be run down for good and all. Whoever they be, whose life in no part thereof
26 WISE AND RIGHT, AS IT RESPECTS GOD.
affords them experience of this, sure Joseph missed not of it in his young days, nor Jacob in his middle days, nor Peter in his old days, nor our Saviour all his days.
3. There is a crook made by one cross dispensa- tion, with lasting effects thereof coming in the room of another removed. Thus one crook straightened, there is another made in its place : and so there is still a crook. Want of children had long been the crook in Rachel's lot. Gen. xxx. 1. That was at length made even to her mind ; but then she got another in its stead, hard labour in travailing to bring forih. Chap. xxxv. 16. This world is a wilderness, in which we may indeed get our station changed ; but the remove will be out of one wilderness station to another. When one part of the lot is made even, soon some other part thereof will be crooked.
More particularly, the crook in the lot hath in it four things of the nature of that which is crooked.
(I.) Disagreeableness. A crooked thing is way- ward; and, being laid to a rule, answers it not, but declines from it. There is not, in any body's lot, any such thing as a crook, in respect of the will and purposes of God. Take the most harsh and dismal dispensation in one's lot, and lay it to the eternal decree, made in the depth of infinite wisdom, before the world began, and it will answer it exactly, with- out the least deviation, "all things being wrought after the counsel of his will." Eph. i. 11. Lay it to the providential will of God, in the government of the world, and there is a perfect harmony. — If Paul is to be bound at Jerusalem, and "delivered into the hands of the Gentiles," it is "the will of the Lord it should be so." Acts xxi. 11, 14. Where- fore, the greatest crook of the lot on earth, is straight in heaven : there is no disagreeableness in it there.
CROOKED ONLY AS IT RESPECTS VS. 27
But in every person's lot, there is a crook in respect of their mind and natural inclination. The adverse dispensation lies cross to that rule, and will by no means answer it, nor harmonize with it. When Divine Providence lays one to the other, there is a manifest disagreeableness : the man's will goes one way, and the dispensation another way: the will bends upwards, and cross events press down : so they are contrary. And there, and only there, lies the crook. It is this disagreeableness which makes the crook in the lot fit matter of trial and exercise to us, in this our state of probation : in which, if thou wouldst approve thyself to God, walking by faith, not by sight, thou must quiet thyself in the will and pur- pose of God, and not insist that it should be accord- ing to thy mind. Job xxxiv. 33.
(2.) Unsightliness. Crooked things are un- pleasant to the eye : and no crook in the lot seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, making an unsightly appearance. Heb. xii. 11. Therefore men need to beware of giving way to their thoughts, to dwell on the crook in their lot, and of keeping it too much in view. David shows a hurtful experience of his, in that kind, Psal. xxxix. 3. " While I was musing the fire burned." Jacob acted a wiser part, called his youngest son Benjamin, the son of the right-hand, whom the dying mother had named Benoni, the son of my sorrow ; by this means providing, that the crook in his lot should not be set afresh in his view, on every occasion of mentioning the name of his son. Indeed, a Christian may safely take a steady and leisurely view of the crook of his lot in the light of the holy word, which represents it as the discipline of the covenant. So faith will discover a hidden sightliness in it, under a very unsightly outward appearance; perceiving the suitableness thereof to
28 OFTEN EXPOSES TO TEMPTATION.
the infinite goodness, love, and wisdom of God, and to the real and most valuable interests of the parly : by which means one comes to lake pleasure, and that a most refined pleasure, in distresses. 2 Cor. xii. 10. But whatever the crook in the lot be to ihe eye of faith, it is not at all pleasant to the eye of sense.
(3.) Unfitness for motion. Solomon observes the cause of the uneasy and ungraceful walking of the lame, Prov. xxvi. 7. " The legs of the lame are not equal." This uneasiness they find, who are ex- ercised about the crook in their lot : a high spirit and a low adverse lot, makes great difficulty in the Christian walk. There is nothing that gives temp- tation more easy access, than the crook in the lot ; nothing more apt to occasion out-of-the-way steps. Therefore, saith the apostle, Heb. xii. 13. " Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way." They who are labouring under it are to be pitied then, and not to be rigidly censured ; though they are rare persons who learn this lesson, till taught by their own experience. It is long since Job made an observation in this case, which holds good unto this day. Job xii. 5. '* He that is ready to slip with his feet, is as a lamp des- pised in the thought of him that is at ease."
(4.) *' Aptness to catch hold and entangle, like hooks, fish-hooks." Amos iv. 2. The crook in the lot doth so very readily make impression, to the rufliing and fretting one's spirit, irritating corrup- tion, that Satan fails not to make diligent use of it for these dangerous purposes ; which point once gained by the tempter, the tempted, ere he is aware, fin-ds himself entangled as in a thicket, out of which he knows not how to extricate himself. In that temptation it often proves like a crooked stick, troubling a standing pool, which not only raises up
DIFFERENT IN DIFFERENT PERSONS. 29
the miul all over, but brings up from the bottom some very ugly thing. Thus it brought up a spice of blasphemy and atheism in Asaph's case, Psal. Ixxiii. 13. " Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence :" as if he had said. There is nothing at all in religion, it is a vain and empty thing, that profiteth nothing; I was a fool to have been in care about purity and holiness, whether of heart or life. Ah ! is this the pious Asaph ? How is he turned so white unlike himself! but the crook in the lot is a handle, whereby the temper makes surprising discoveries of latent corruption even in the best.
This is the nature of the crook in the lot; let us now observe what part of the lot it falls in. Three conclusions may be established upon this head.
1st. It may fall in any part of the lot; there is no exempted one in the case : for, sin being found in every part, the crook may take place in any part. Being " all as an unclean thing, we may all fade as a leaf." Isa. Ixiv. 6. The main stream of sin, which the crook readily follows, runs in very different chan- nels, in the case of different persons. And in regard of the various dispositions of the minds of men, that will prove a sinking weight unto one, which another would go very lightly under.
2dly. It may at once fall into many parts of the lot, the Lord calling, as in a solemn day, one's ter- rors round about. Lam. ii. 22. Sometimes God makes one notable crook in a man's lot; but its name may be Gad, being but the forerunner of a troop which cometh. — Then the crooks are multi- plied, so that the party is made to halt on each side. While one stream, let it from one quarter, is running full against him, another is let in on him from
30 IN SOME IT APPEARS IN BODILY DEFECTS.
another quarter, till in the end the waters break in on every hand.
3dly. It often falls in the tender part ; I mean, that part of the lot wherein one is least able to bear it, or, at least thinks he is so. Psalm Iv. 12, 13. " It was not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it. But it was thou, a man, mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance." If there is any one part of the lot, which of all others one is dis- posed to uestle in, the thorn will readily be laid there, especially if he belongs to God; in that thing wherein he is least of all able to be touched, he will be sure to be pressed. There the trial will be taken of him ; for there is the grand competition with Christ. *' I take from them the desires of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their minds, Ezek. xxiv. 25. Since the crook in the lot is the special trial appointed for every one, it is altogether reasonable, and becoming the wisdom of God, that it fall on that which of all things dolh most rival him.
But more particularly, the crook may be observed to fall in these four parts of the lot.
First, In the natural part affecting persons consi- dered as of the make allotted for them by the great God that formed all things. The parents of man- kind, Adam and Eve, were formed altogether sound and entire, without the least blemish, whether in soul or body; but in the formation of their posterity, there often appears a notable variation liom the ori- ginal. Bodily defects, superfluities, deformities, in- firmities, natural or accidental, made the crook in the lot of some : they have something unsightly or grievous about them. Crooks of this kind, more or less observable, are very common and ordinary ; the
IN OTHERS, IT AFFECTS THEIR REPUTATION. 31
best are not exempted from them: and it is purely- owing to sovereign pleasure they are not more nu- merous. Tender eyes made the crook in the lot of Leah, Gen. xxix. 17. Rachel's beauty was balanced with barrenness, the crook in her lot, chap. xxx. 1. Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles, was, it should seem, no personable man, but of a mean outward appearance, for which fools were apt to contemn him, 2 Cor. x. 10. Timothy was of a weak and sickly frame, 1 Tim. v. 23. And there is a yet far more considerable crook in the lot of the lame, the blind, the deaf, and the dumb. Some are weak to a degree in their intellects ; and it is the crook in the lot of several bright souls to be overcast with clouds, notably bemisted and darkened, from the crazy bo- dies they are lodged in : an eminent instance whereof we have in the grave, wise, and patient Job, "going mourning without the sun ; yea, standing up and crying in the congregation." Job. xxx. 28.
Secondly. It may fall in the honorary part. There is an honour due to all men, the small as well as the great. 1 Pet. ii. 17, and that upon the ground of the original constitution of human nature, as it was framed in the iuiago of God. But, in the sovereign disposal of holy Providence, the crook in the lot of some falls here ; they are neglected and slighted ; their credit is still kept low : they go througli the world under a cloud, being put into an ill name, their reputation sunk. This sometimes is the natu- ral consequence of their own foolish and sinful con- duct; as in the case of Dinah, who, by her gadding abroad to satisfy her youthful curiosity, regardless of, and therefore not waiting for a providential call, brought a lasting stain on her honour, Gen. xxxiv. But, where the l^ord intends a crook of this kind in ouc'b lot, innocence will not be able to ward it olf in
32 IN OTHERS, THEIR CALLING IN LIFE.
ail ill-natured world ; neither will true merit be able to make head against it, to make one's lot stand straight in that part. Thus David represents his case, Psal. xxxi. 11 — 13. "They that did see me without, fled from me : I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind : 1 am like a broken vessel. For I have heard the slander of many."
Thirdly, It may fall in the vocational part. What- ever is a man's calling or station in the world, be it sacred or civil, the crook in their lot may take its place therein. Isaiah was an eminent prophet, but most unsuccessful, Isa. liii. 1. Jeremiah met with such a train of discouragements and ill usage in the exercise of his sacred function, that he was very near giving it up, saying, " I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name." Jer. xx. 9. The Psalmist observes this crook often to be made in the lot of some men very industrious in their civil business who sow in the fields — and at times " God blesseth them — and suffereth not their catUe to de- crease ; but again, they are minished, and brought low, through oppression, affliction, and sorrow." Psal. cvii. 37 — 39. Such a crook was made in Job's lot after he had long stood even. Some ma^ nage their employments with all care and diligence ; the husbandman carefully labouring his ground; the sheep- master " diligent to know the state of his flocks, and looking well to his herds ;" the tradesman, early and late at his business ; the merchant, dili- gently plying his, watching and falling in with the most fair and promising opportunities ; but there is such a crook in that part of their lot, as all they are able to do can by no means make even. For why? The most proper means used for compassing an end are insignificant without a word of divine appointment commanding their success. " Who is he that sailh,
IN OTHERS, THEIR NEAREST RELATIONS. 33
and it comelh to pass, when the Lord commandelh it not?" Lam. iii. 37. People ply tlieir business with skill and industry, but the wind turns in their face. Providence crosses their enterprises, discon- certs their measures, frustrates their hopes and ex- pectations, renders their endeavours unsuccessful, and so puts and keeps them still in straitened cir- cumstances. *' So the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to tiie wise." Eccl. ix. 11. Providence interposing, crooks the measures which human prudence and industry had laid straight towards the respective ends ; so the swift lose the race, and the strong the battle, and the wise miss of bread ; while, in the mean time, some one or other providential incident, sup- plying the defect of human wisdom, conduct, and ability, the slow gain the race and carry the prize ; the weak win the battle and enrich themselves with the spoil ; and bread falls into the lap of the fool.
Lastly, It may fall in the relational part. Rela- tions are the joints of society; and there the crook in the lot may take place, one's smartest pain being often felt in these joints. They are in their nature the springs of man's comfort ; yet, they often turn the greatest bitterness to him. Sometimes this crook is occasioned by the loss of relations. Thus a crook was made in the lot of Jacob, by means of the death of Rachel, his beloved wife, and the loss of Joseph, his son and darling, which had like to have made him go halting to the grave. Job laments this crook in his lot. Job xvi. 7. " Thou hast made desolate all my company ;" meaning his dear chil- dren, every one of whom he had laid in the grave, not so much as one son or daughter left him. Again, sometimes it is made tln-ough the afflictinsf hand of
34 IN DOMESTIC DISQUIETUDE.
God lying heavy on them : which, in virtue of their relation, recoils on the party, as is feehngly ex- pressed by that believing woman, Matt. xv. 22. " Have raercy on me, O Lord ; my daughter is grievously vexed." Ephraiin felt the smart of family afflictions, " when he called his son's name Beriah, because it went evil with his house." 1 Chron. vii. 23. Since all is not only vanity, but vexation of spirit, it can hardly miss, but the more of these springs of comfort are opened to a man, he must, at one time or other, find he has but the more sources of sorrows to gush out and spring in upon him ; the sorrow always proportioned to the comfort found in them, or expected from them. And, finally, the crook is sometimes made here by their proving uncomfortable through the disagreeableness of their temper, and disposition. There was a crook in Job's lot, by means of an undutiful, ill-natured wife. Job xix. 17. In Abigail's, by means of a surly, ill-tempered husband, 1 Sam. xxv. 25. In Eli's, through the perverseness and obstinacy of his chil- dren, chap. ii. 25. In Jonathan's, through the fu- rious temper of his father, chap. xx. 30 — 33. So do men oftentimes find their greatest cross, where they expected their greatest comfort. Sin hath unhinged the whole creation, and made every relation sus- ceptible of the crook. In the family are found masters hard and unjust, servants froward and un- faithful ; in a neighbourhood, men selfish and uneasy ; in the church, ministers unedifying, and offensive in their walk, and people contemptuous and disorderly, a burden to the spirits of ministers; in the state, magistrates oppressive, and discountenancers of that which is good, and subjects turbulent and sedi- tious ; all these cause crooks in the lot of their rela- tives. And thus far of the crook itself.
OOD, THE AUTHOR OF THESE DISPENSATIONS. 35
II. Having seen the crook itself, we are in the next place, to consider of God's making it. And here is to be shown, 1. That it is of God's making. 2. How it is of his making. 3. Why he makes it.
First, That the crook in the lot, whatever it is, is of God's making appears from these three consid- erations.
First, It cannot be questioned, but the crook in the lot, considered as a crook, is a penal evil, what- ever it is for the matter thereof; that is, whether the thing in iiself, its immediate cause and occasion, be sinful or not, it is certainly a punishment or afflic- tion. Now, as it may be, as such, holily and justly brought on us, by our Sovereign Lord and Judge, so he expressly claims the doing or making of it, Amos iii. 6. " Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord has not done it?" Wherefore, since there can be no penal evil, but of God's making, and the crook in the lot is such an evil, it is necessarily concluded to be of God's making.
Secondly, It is evident, from the scripture doctrine of divine providence, that God brings about every man's lot, and all the parts thereof. He sits at the helm of human affairs, and turns them about whi- thersoever he listeth. " Whatsoever the Lord pleas- ed, that did he in heaven and in earth, in the seas and all deep places," Psal. cxxxv. 6. There is not any thing whatsoever befalls us, without his over- ruling hand. The same providence that brought us out of the womb, bringeth us to, and fixeth us in, the condition and place allotted for us, by him who " hath determined the times, and the bounds of our habitation." Acts xvii. 26. It overrules the smallest and most casual things about us, such as " hairs of our head falling on the ground," Matt. x. 29, 30. " A lot cast into the lap." Prov. xvi. 33. Yea, the 5*
36 ALL ARE UNDER HIS ARRANGEMENT.
free acts of our will, whereby we choose for our- selves, for even "the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water." Prov. xxi. 1. And the whole steps we make, and which others make in reference to us ; for " the way of man is not in him- self; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." Jer. X. 23. And this, whether these steps causing the crook be deliberate and sinful ones, such as Jo- seph's brethren selling him into Egypt ; or whether they be undesigned, 'such as man-slaughter purely casual, as when one hewing wood, kills his neighbour with " the head of the axe shpping from the helve." Deut. xix. 5. For there is a holy and wise provi- dence that governs the sinful and the heedless actions of men, as a rider doth a lame horse, of whose halt- ing, not he, but the horse's lameness, is the truo and proper cause ; wdierefore in the former of theso cases, God is said to have sent Joseph into Egypt» Gen. xlv. 7, and in the latter, to deliver one into his neighbour's hand, Exod. xxi. 13.
Lastly, God hath, by an eternal decree, immove- able as mountains of brass, Zech. vi. 1, appointed the whole of every one's lot, the crooked parts thereof, as well as the straight. By the same eternal decree, whereby the high and low parts of the earth, the mountains and the valleys, were appointed, are the heights and the depths, the prosperity and adver- sity, in the lot of the inhabitants thereof determined ; and they are brought about, in time, in a perfect agreeableness thereto.
The mystery of Providence, in the government of the world, is, in all the parts thereof, the building reared up of God, in exact conformity to the plan in his decree, " who worketh all things after the coun- sel of his own will." Eph. i. 11. So that there is never a crook in one's lot, but may be run up to
SINLESS AND SINFUL CROOKS DISTINGUISHED. 37
this original. Hereof Job piously sets us an exam- ple in his own case, Job xviii. 13, 14. '* He is in
one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desircth, even that he doth. For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me ; and many such things are with him."
Secondly, That we may see how the crook in the lot is of God's making, we must distinguish between pure sinless crooks, and impure sinful ones.
First, There are pure and sinless crooks ; which are mere afflictions, cleanly crosses, grievous indeed, but not defiling. Such was Lazarus's poverty, Ra- chel's barrenness, Leah's tender eyes, the blindness of the man who had been so from his birth, John ix. 1. Now, the crooks of this kind are of God's making, by the efficacy of his power directly bringing them to pass, and causing them to be. He is the maker of the poor, Prov. xvii. 5. " Whoso mocketh the poor, reproacheth his Maker ;" that is, reproach- eth God who made him poor, according to that, 1 Sam. ii. 7, " The Lord maketh poor." It is he that hath the key of the womb, and as he sees meet, shuts it, 1 Sam. i. 5, or opens it. Gen. xxix. 31. And it is "he that formeth the eyes," Psal. xciv. 9. And the man was " born blind, that the w^orks of God should be made manifest in him." John ix. 3. Therefore he saith to Moees, Exod. iv. 11. " Who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind ? Have not I, the Lord?" Such crooks in the lot are of God's making, in the most ample sense, and in their full comprehension, being the direct effects of his agency, as well as the heavens and the earth.
Secondly, There are impure sinful crooks, which, in their own nature, are sins as well as afflictions,
38 GOD TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED IN ALL AFFLICTIONS.
defiling as well as grievous. Such was the crook made in David's lot, through his family disorders, the defiling of Tamar, the murder of Amnon, the rebellion of Absalom, all of them unnatural. Of the same kind was that made in Job's lot by the Sabeans and Chaldeans, taking away his substance and slaying his servants. As these were the afflic- tions of David and Job respectively, so they were the sins of the actors, the unhappy instruments thereof. Thus one and the same thing may be, to one a heinous sin, defiling and laying him under guilt, and to another an affliction, laying him under suffering only. Now, the crooks of this kind are not of God's making, in the same latitude as those of the former : for he neither puts evil in the heart of any, nor stirreth up to it : " He cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." James i. 13. But they are of his making, by his holy permission of them ; powerful bounding of them, and wise overruling of them to some good end.
1st. He holily permits them, sufl'ering men " to walk in their own ways." Acts xiv. 16. Though he is not the author of those sinful crooks, causing them to be, by the efficacy of his power : yet, if he did not permit them, willing not to hinder them, they could not be at all : for " he shutteth and no man openeth." Rev. iii. 7. But he justly withholds his grace which the sinner doth not desire, takes off the restraint under which he is uneasy, and since the sinner will be gone, lays the reins on his neck, and leaves him to the swing of his lust. Hos. iv. 17. " Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone." Psal. Ixxxi. 11, 12. "Israel would none of me: so I gave them up to their own heart's lusts." In which un- happy situation the sinful crook doth, from the sin-
LIMITED BY HIS POWER AND GOODNESS. 39
ner's own proper motion, natnrnlly and infallibly follow ; even as water runs down a hill, wherever there is a gap left open before it. So in these cir- cumstances, " Israel walked in their own counsels." ver. 12. And thus this kind of crook is of God's making, as a just judge, punishing the sufferer by it. This view of the matter silenced David under Shi- mei's cursings, 2 Sara. xvi. 10, 11. " Let him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden him."
2dly. He powerfully bounds them, Psal. Ixxvi. 10. "The remainder of wrath" (that is, the creature's wrath) "thou shalt restrain." Did not God bound these crooks, howsoever sore they are in any one's case, they would be yet sorer. But he says to the sinful instrument, as he said to the sea, " Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." He lays a restraining hand on him, that he cannot go one step farther, in the way his impetuous lust drives, than he sees meet to permit. Hence it comes to pass, that the crook of this kind is neither more nor less, but just as great as he by his powerful bounding makes it to be. An eminent instance hereof we have in the case of Job, whose lot was crooked through a peculiar agency of the devil ; but even to that grand sinner, God set a bound in the case: "The Lord said unto Satan, Behold all that he hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth thine hand." Job. i. 12. Now, Satan went the full length of the bound, leaving no- thing within the compass thereof untouched, which he saw could make for his purpose, ver. 18, 19. But he could by no means move one step beyond it, to carry his point, which he could not gain within it. And therefore, to make the trial greater, and the crook sorer, nothing remained but that the bound set should be removed, and the sphere of his agency
40 WISELY OVERRULED FOR SOME GOOD PURPOSE.
enlarged ; for which cause he saith, " But touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face,*' chap, ii, 5, and it being removed accordingly, but withal a new one set, ver. 6. " Behold he is in thine hand, but save his life;" the crook was carried to the utmost that the new bound would permit, in a consistency with his design of bringing Job to blaspheme; " Satan smote him with sore boils, from the sole of his foot unto the crown of his head." ver. 7. And had it not been for this bound, secur- ing Job's life, he, after finding this attempt un- successful too, had doubtless despatched him at once.
Sdly. He wisely overrules them to some good purpose, becoming the divine perfections. While the sinful instrument hath an ill design in the crook caused by him, God directs it to a holy and good end. In the disorders of David's family, Amnon's design was to gratify a brutish lust; Absalom's, to glut himself with revenge, and to satisfy his pride and ambition ; but God meant thereby to punish David for his sin in the matter of Uriah. In the crook made in Job's lot, by Saian, and the Sabeans and Chaldeans, his instruments, Satan's design was to cause Job to blaspheme, and theirs to gratify their covetousness : but God had another design therein becoming himself, namely, to manifest Job's sincerity and uprightness. Did not he wisely and powerfully overrule these crooks made in men's lot, no good could come out of them ; but he always overrules them so as to fulfil his own holy purposes thereby : (howbeit the sinner meaneth not so ;) for his designs cannot miscarry, his " counsel shall stand,'* Isa. xlvi. 10. So the sinful crook is, by the over- ruling hand of God, turned about to his own glory, and his people's good in the end ; according to the
WHY IS THE CROOK ArrOINTEDl 41
word, Prov. xvi. 4. *' The Lord hath made all things for hhnself." Rom. viii. 28. " All things work to- gether for good to lliem that love God." Thus Haman's plot for the destruction of the Jews " was turned to the contrary." Esth. ix. 1. And the crook made in Joseph's lot, by his own brethren selling him into Egypt, though it was on their part most sinful, and of a most mischievous design ; yet, as it was of God's making, by his holy permission, power- ful bounding, and wisely overruling it, had an issue well becoming the divine wisdom and goodness: both of whicli Joseph notices to them, Gen. 1. 20. " As for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive."
Thirdly, It remains to inquire, why God makes a crook in one's lot? And this is to be cleared by- discovering the design of that dispensation : a matter which it concerns every one to know, and carefully to notice, in order to a Christian improvement of the crook in their lot. The design thereof seems to be, chiefly, sevenfold.
First. The trial of one's state, whether one is in the state of grace or not? Whether a sincere Chris- tian, or a hypocrite ? Though every affliction is trying, yet here I conceive lies the main providential trial a man is brought into, with reference to his state ; forasmuch as the crook in the lot, being a matter of a continued course, one has occasion to open and s.how himself again and again in the same thing; whence it comes to pass, that it ministers ground for a decision, in that momentous point. It was plainly on this foundation that the trial of Job's state was put. The question was, whether Job was an upright and sincere servant of God, as God himself testified of him; or but a mercenary one, a hypocrite,
42 FOR THE TRIAL OF ONE's STATE.
as Satan alleged against him ? And the trial hereof was put upon the crook to be made in his lot, Job i. 8-^12. and ii. 3—6. Accordingly, that which all his friends, save Elihu, the last speaker, did, in their reasonings with him under his trial, aim at, was to })rove him a hypocrite; Satan thus making use of these good men for gaining his point. As God made trial of Israel in the wilderness, for the land of Canaan, by a train of atllicting dispensations, which Caleb and Joshua bearing strenuously, were declared meet to enter the promised land, as having followed the Lord fully; while others being tired out with them, their carcasses fell in the wilderness ; so he' makes trial of men for heaven, by the crook in their lot. If one can stand that test, he is manifested ta be a saint, a sincere servant of God, as Job was proved to be ; if not, he is but a hypocrite ; he can- not stand the test of the crook in his lot, but goes away like dross in God's furnace. A melancholy in- stance of vvhich we have in that man of honour and wealth, who, with high pretences of religion, arising from a principle of moral seriousness, addressed him- self to our Saviour, to know "what he should do that lie might inherit eternal life." Mark x. 17 — 22. Our Saviour, to discover the man to himself, makes a crook in his lot, where all along before it had stood even, obliging him, by a probatory command, to sell and give away all that he had, and follow him, ver. 21. "Sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and come take up the cross and follow me." Hereby he was, that moment, in the court of con- science, stript of his great possessions ; so that thencefordi he could no longer keep them, with a good conscience, as he might have done before. The man instantly felt the smart of this crook made in his lot; "he was sad at that saying." ver. 22.
EXCITATION TO DUTY. 43
that is, immediately upon the hearing of it, being struck with, pain, disorder, and confusion of mind, his countenance changed, became cloudy and lower- ing, as the same word is used. Matth. xvi. 3. He could not stand the test of that crook ; he could by no means submit his lot to God in that point, but behoved to have it, at any rate, according to his own mind. So he " went away grieved, for he had great possessions." He went away from Christ back to his plentiful estate, and though with a pained and sorrowful heart, sat him down again on it a violent possessor before the Lord, thwarting the divine order. And there is no appearance that ever this order was revoked, or that ever he came to a better temper in reference thereunto.
Secondly, excitation to duty, weaning one from this world, and prompting him to look after the liappiness of the other world. Many have been beholden to the crook in their lot, for that ever they came to themselves, settled, and turned serious. Going for a time like a wild ass used to the wilder- ness, scorning to be turned, their foot hath slid in due time ; and a crook being thereby made in their lot, their mouth hath come wherein they have been caught. Jer. ii. 24. Thus was the prodigal brought to himself, and obliged to entertain thoughts of re- turning unto his father. Luke xv. 17. The crook in their lot convinces them at length that here is not their rest. Finding still a pricking thorn of uneasi- ness, whensoever they lay down their head where they would fain take rest in the creature, and that they are obliged to lift it again, they are brought to conclude, there is no hope from that quarter, and begin to cast about for rest another way, so it makes them errands to God, which they had not before ; forasmuch as they feel a need of tlic comforts of the 6
44 CONVICTION OF SIN.
Other world, to which their mouths were out of taste, while their lot stood even to their mind. Where- fore, whatever use we make of the crook in our lot, the voice of it is, " Arise ye and depart, this is not your rest." And it is surely that, which of all means of mortification, of the afflictive kind, doth most deaden a real Christian to this life and world.
Thirdly, Conviction of sin. As when one walking heedlessly is suddenly taken ill of a lameness: his goinff halting- the rest of his way convinces him of having made a wrong step; and every new painful step brings it afresh to his mind : so God makes a crook in one's lot, to convince him of some false step he hath made, or course he hath taken. What the sinner would otherwise be apt to overlook, forget, or think light of, is by this means recalled to mind, set before him as an evil and bitter thing, and kept in remembrance, that his heart may every now and then bleed for it afresh. Thus, by the crook, men's sin finds them out to their conviction, " as the thief is ashamed when he is found." Numb, xxxii. 23. .Ter. ii. 26. The which Joseph's brethren do feelingly express, under the crook made in their lot in Egypt, Gen. xlii. 21. " We are verily guilty concerning our brother," chap. xliv. 16. " God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants." The crook in the lot doth usually, in its nature or circumstances, so naturally refer to the false step or course, that it serves for a providential memorial of it, bringing the sin, though of an old date, fresh to remembrance, and for a badge of the sinner's folly, in word or deed, to keep it ever before him. When Jacob found Leah, through La- ban's unfair dealing, palmed upon him for Rachel, how could he miss of a stinging remembrance of the cheat he had, seven years at least before, put on his own father, pretending himself to be Esau ? Gen.
CORRECTION FOR SIN. 45
xxvii. 19. How could it miss of galling him occa- sionally afterwards during the course of the marriage ? He had imposed on his father the younger brother for the elder; and Laban imposed on him the elder sister for the younger. The dimness of Isaac's eyes favoured the former cheat ; and the darkness of the evening did as much favour the latter. So he be- hoved to say, as Adoni-bezek in another case, Judges i. 7. " As I have done, so God hath requited me." In like manner, Rachel dying in childbirth, could hardly avoid a melancholy reflection on her rash and passionate expression, mentioned Gen. XXX. I. " Give me children, or else I die." Even holy Job read, in the crook of his lot, some false steps he had made in his youth, many years before. Job xiii. 26. " Thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth,"
Fourthly, Correction, or punishment for sin. In nothing more than in the crook of the lot, is that word verified, Jer. ii. 19. "Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee." God may, for a time, wink at one's sin, which afterward he will set a brand of his indignation upon, in crooking the sinner's lot, as he did in the case of Jacob, and of Rachel, mentioned before. Though the sin was a passing action, or a course of no long continuance, the mark of the divine dis- pleasure for it, set on the sinner in the crook of his lot, may pain him long and sore, that by repeated experience he may know what an evil and bitter thing it was. David's killing Uriah by the sword of the Ammonites was soon over ; but for that cause " the sword never departed from his house." 2 Sam. xii. 10. Gehazi quickly obtained two bags of money from Naaman, in the way of falsehood and
46 PREVENTING OF SIN,
lying ; but as a lasting mark of the divine indigna- tion against the profane trick, he got withal a leprosy which clave to him while he lived, and to his posterity after him. 2 Kings, v. 27. This may be the case, as well where the sin is pardoned, as to the guilt of eternal wrath, as where it is not. And one may have confessed and sincerely repented of that sin, which yet shall make him go halting to the grave, though it cannot carry him to heH. A man's person may be accepted in the Beloved, who yet hath a par- ticular badge of the divine displeasure, with his sin hung upon him in the crook of his lot. Psal. xcix. 8. *' Thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance on their inventions."
Fifthly, Preventing of sin. Hos. ii. 6. *' I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall that she shall not find her paths." The crook in the lot will readily be found to lie cross to some wrong bias of the heart, which peculiarly sways with the party: so it is like a thorn-hedge or wall in the way which that bias inclines him to. The defiling objects in the world do specially take and prove ensnaring, as they are suited to the particular cast of temper in men : but by means of the crook in the lot, the paint and varnish is worn off the defiling object, whereby it loses its former taking appearance : thus, the edge of corrupt aff"ections is blunted, temptation weakened, and much sin prevented ; the sinner after " gadding about so much to change his way, returning ashamed." Jer. ii. 36, 37. Thus the Lord crooks one's lot that " he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from men :" and so " he keepeth back his soul from the pit." Job xxxiii. 17, 18. Every one knows what is most pleasant to him ; but God alone knows what is most profitable. As all men are liars, so all men are fools too : He is the only
DISCOVERY OF LATENT CORRrPTION. 47
wise God. Jude, ver. 25. Many are obliged to the crooli in their lot, that they go not to those excesses, which their vain minds and corrupt affections would with full sail carry them to ; and they would from their hearts bless God for making it, if they did but calmly consider what would most likely be the issue of the removal thereof. When one is in hazard of fretting under the hardship of bearing the crook, he would do well to consider what condition he is as yet in to bear its removal in a Christian manner.
Sixthly, Discovery of latent corruption, whether in saints or sinners. There are some corruptions in every man's heart, which lie, as it were, so near the surface, that they are ready on every turn to rise up ; but then there are others also which lie so very deep, that they are scarcely observed at all. But as the fire under the pot makes the scum to rise up, appear a-top, and run over ; so the crook in the lot raises up from the bottom, and brings out, such corruption as otherwise one could hardly imagine to be within. Who would have suspected such strength of passion in the meek Moses as he discovered at the waters of strife, and for which he was kept out of Canaan ? Psal. cvi. 32, 33. Num. xx. 13. So much bitterness of spirit in the patient Job, as to charge God with becoming cruel to him? Job xxx. 21. So much ill-nature in the good Jeremiah, as to curse not only the day of his birth, but even the man who brought tidings of it to his father? Jer. xx. 14, 15. Or, such a tang of atheism in Asaph, as to pronounce religion a vain thing? Psalm Ixxiii. 13. But the crook in the lot, bringing out these things, showed them to have been within, how long soever they had lurked unobserved. And as this design, however indecently proud scoffers allow themselves to treat it, is in no way inconsistent with the divine perfec- 6*
48 THE EXERCISE OF GRACE.
tions ; so the discovery itself is necessary for the due humiliation of sinners, and to stain the pride of all glory, that men may know themselves. Both which appear, in that it was on this very design that God made the long-continued crook in Israel's lot in the wilderness ; even to humble them and prove them, to know what was in their heart. Deut. viii. 2.
Seventhly, The exercise of grace in the children of God. Believers, through the remains of indweiUng corruption, are liable to fits of spiritual laziness and inactivity, in which their graces lie dormant for the time. Besides, there are some graces, which of their own nature are but occasional in their exercise; as being exercised only upon occasion of certain things which they have a necessary relation to : such as patience and long-suffering. Now, the crook in the lot serves to rouse up a Christian to the exercise of the graces, overpowered by corruption, and withal to call forth to action the occasional graces, ministering proper occasions for them. The truth is, the crook in the lot is the great engine of Providence for making men appear in their true colours, discovering both their ill and their good ; and if the grace of God be in them, it will bring it out, and cause it to display itself. It so puts the Christian to his shifts, that however it makes him stagger for awhile, yet it will at length evidence both the reality and the strength of grace in him. " Ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more pre- cious than of gold that perisheth, may be found unto praise." 1 Pet. i. 6, 7. The crook in the lot gives rise to many acts of faith, hope, love, self- denial, resignation, and other graces ; to many hea- venly breathings, pantings, and groanings, which otherwise would not be brought forth. And I make
THE EXERCISE OF GUACE. 49
no question but these tilings, however by carnal men despised as trifling, are more precious in the sight of God tlian even believers themselves are aware of, being acts of immediate internal worship ; and will have a surprising notice taken of them, and of the sum of them, at long run, howbeit the persons themselves often can hardly tliink them worth their own notice at all. The steady acting of a gallant army of horse and foot to the routing of the enemy, is highly prized ; but the acting of holy fear and humble hope, is in reality far more valuable, as be- ing so in the sight of God, whose judgment, we are sure, is according to truth. This the Psalmist teacheth. Psal. cxlvii. 10, 11. " He delighteth not in the strength of the horse ; he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in iiis mercy." And indeed the exercise of the graces of his Spirit in his people, is so very precious in his sight, that whatever grace any of them excel in, they will readily get such a crook made in their lot as will be a special trial of it, that will make a proof of its full strength. Abraham excelled in the grace of faith, in trusting God's bare word of promise above the dictates of sense : and God, giving him a promise, that he would make of him a great nation, made withal a crook in his lot, by which he had enough ado v/ith all the strength of his faith ; while he was obliged to leave his country and kindred, and so- journ among the Canaanites ; his wife continuing barren, till past the age of child-bearing : and when she had at length brought forth Isaac, and he was grown up, he was called to offer him up for a burnt- oflfering, the more exquisite trial of his faith, that Ishmacl was now expelled his family, and that it was declared, That in Isaac only his seed should be
50 THE DOCTRINE APPLIED.
called. Gen. xxi. 12. ♦' Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." Numb. xii. 3. And he was intrusted with the con- duct of a most perverse and unmanageable people, the crook in his lot plainly designed for the exercise of his meekness. Job excelled in patience, and by the crook in his lot, he got as much to do with it. For God gives none of his people to excel in a gift, but some time or other he will afford them use for the whole compass of it.
Now, the use of this doctrine is threefold. (I.) For reproof. (2.) For consolation. And (3.) For exhortation.
Use 1. For reproof. And it meets with three sorts of persons as reprovable.
First, The carnal and earthly, who do not with awe and reverence regard the crook in their lot as of God's making. There is certainly a signature of the divine hand upon it to be perceived by just ob- servers; and that challengeth an awful regard, the neglect of which forebodes destruction, Psal. xxviii. 5. " Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up." And herein they are deeply guilty, who, poring upon second causes, and looking no further than the unhappy instruments of the crook in their lot, overlook the first cause, as a dog snarls at the stone, but looks not to the hand that easts it. This is, in effect, to make a God of the creature ; so regarding it, as if it could of itself effect any thing, while in the mean time, it is but an instrument in the hand of God, '* the rod of his anger." Isa. x. 5. " Ordained of him for judgment, established for correction." Hab. i. 12. O ! why should men terminate their view on the instruments of the crook in their lot, and so magnify their
FOR REPROOF. 51
scourges? The truth is, they are, for the most part, rather to be pitied, as having an undesirable office, whichfor their gratifying their own corrupt alTections, in making the crook in the lot of others, returns on their own head at length with a vengeance, as did " the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu." Hos. i. 4. And it is specially undesirable to be so em- ployed in the case of such as belong to God ; for rarely is the ground of the quarrel the same on the part of the instrument as on God's part, but very different ; witness Shimei's cursing David, as a bloody man, meaning the blood of the house of Saul, which he was not guilty of, while God meant it of the blood of Uriah, which he could not deny. 2 Sam. xvi. 7, 8. Moreover, the quarrel will be, at length, taken up between God and his people; and then their scourgers will find they had but a thank- less office, Zech. i. 15. *' I was but a little dis- pleased, and they helped forward the affliction," saith God, in resentment of the heathen crooking the lot of his people. In like manner are they guilty, who impute the crook in their lot to fortune, or their ill-luck, which in very deed is nothing but a creature of imagination, framed for a blind to keep man from acknowledging the hand of God. Thus, what the Philistines doubted, they do more impiously deter- mine, saying, in effect, " It is not his hand that smote us, it was a chance that happened to us." 1 Sam. vi. 9. And, finally, those also are guilty, who, in the way of giving up themselves to carnal mirth and sensuality, set themselves to despise the crook in their lot, to make nothing of it, and to forget it. I question not, but orte committing his case to the Lord, and looking to him for remedy in the first place, may lawfully call in the moderate use of the comforts of life, for lielp in the second place. But
52 FOR REPROOF.
as for that course so frequent and usual in this case among carnal men, if the crook of the lot really be, as indeed it is, of God's makin^r, it must needs be a most indecent unbecoming course, to be abhorred of all good men, Prov. iii. 11. " My son, despise not the chastening of the TiOrd." It is surely a very desperate method of cure, which cannot miss of issuing in something worse than the disease, how- ever it may palliate it for a while, Isa. xxii. 12 — 14. *' In that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weep- ing and to mourning, and behold joy and gladness, eating flesh and drinking wine : and it was revealed in mine ears, by the Lord of hosts. Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die."
Secondly, The unsubmissive, w'hose hearts, like the troubled sea, swell and boil, fret and murmur, and cannot be at rest under the crook in their lot. This is a most sinful and dangerous course. The apostle Jude, characterising some, " to whom is re- served the blackness of darkness for ever," ver. L3. saith of them, ver. 16. " These are murrnurers, complainers," namely, still complaining of their lot, which is the import of the word there used by the Holy Ghost. For, since the crook in their lot, which their unsubdued spirits can by no means submit to, is of God's making, this their practice must needs be a fighting against God : and these their com- plainings and murmurings are indeed against him, whatever face they put upon them. Thus when the Israelites murmur against Moses, Numb, xiv. 2. God charges them with murmuring against himself. *' How long shall I bear with this evil congrega- tion, which murmured against me?" ver. 27. Ah! may not he who made and fashioned us without our advice, be allowed to make our lot too, without ask- ing our mind, but we must rise up against him on
FOR CONSOLATION. 53
account of the crook made in it? What doih this speak, but that the proud creature cannot endure God's work, nor bear what he hath done? And how black and dangerous is that temper of spirit ! How is it possible to miss of being broken to pieces in such a course? " He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered ?" Job. ix. 4.
Thirdly, The careless and unfruitful, who do not set themselves dutifully to comply with the design of the crook in their lot. God and nature do no- thing in vain. Since he makes the crook, there is, doubtless, a becoming design in it, which we are obliged in duty to fall in with, according to that, Micah vi. 9. " Hear ye the rod." And, indeed, if one shut not his own eyes, but be willing to under- stand, he may easily perceive the general design thereof to be, to wean him from this world, and move him to seek and take up his heart's rest in God. And nature and the circumstances of the crook itself being duly considered, it will not be very hard to make a more particular discovery of the design thereof. But, alas ! the careless sinner, sunk in spiritual sloth and stupidity, is in no con- cern to discover the design of Providence in the crook ; so he cannot fall in with it, but remains un- fruitful ; and all the pains taken on him, by the great Husbandman, in the dispensation, are lost. '♦ They cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty ;" groan- ing under the pressure of the crook itself, and weight of the hand of the instrument thereof: " But none sailh, Where is God my Maker?'' they look not, ihey turn not unto God for all that. Job xxxv. 9, 10.
Use 2. For consolation. It speaks comfort to the atHicted children of God, Whatever is the crook
54 FOR EXHORTATION.
in your lot, it is of God's makinj^, and therefore you may look upon it kindly. Since it is your Father has made it for you, question not but there is a'favourable design in it towards you. A discreet child welcomes his father's rod, knowing that being a father, he seeks his benefit thereby ; and shall not God's children welcome the crook in their lot, as designed by their Father, who cannot mistake his measures, to work for their good, according to the promise ? The truth is, the crook in the lot of a believer, how painful soever it proves, is a part of the discipline of the covenant, the nurture secured to Christ's children, by the promise of the Father, Psalm Ixxxix. 30, 32. " If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments, then will I visit their transgressions with the rod." Further- more, all who are disposed to betake themselves to God under the crook in their lot, may take comfort in this, let them know that there is no crook in their lot but may be made straight; for God made it, surely then he can mend it. He himself can make straight what he hath made crooked, though none other can. There is nothing too hard for him to do : " He raiselh up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill ; that he may set him with princes. He maketh the barren wo- man to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children." Psalm cxiii. 7 — 9. Say not that your crook hath been of so long continuance, that it will never mend. Put it in the hand of God, who made it, that he may mend it, and wait on him : and if it be for your good, that it should be mended, it shall be mended ; for " no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." Psa. Ixxxiv. 11.
Use last. For exhortation. Since the crook in the lot is of God's making, then, eyeing the hand of
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 55
God in yours, be reconciled to it, and submit under it whatever it is ; T say, eyeing the hand of God iv it, for otherwise your submission under the crook in your lot cannot be a Christian submission, acceptable to God, having no reference to him as your party in the matter.
Object. I. But some will say, " The crook in my lot is from the hand of the creature ; and such a one too as I deserved no such treatment from."
Ans. From what hath been already said, it ap- pears that, although the crook in thy lot be indeed immediately from the creature's hand, yet it is me- diately from the hand of God ; there being nothing of that kind, no penal evil, but the Lord hath done it. Therefore, without all peradventure, God him- self is the principal party, whoever be the less prin- cipal. And albeit thou hast not deserved thy crook at the hand of the instrument which he makes use of for thy correction, thou certainly deservest it at his hand ; and he may make use of what instrument he will in the matter, or may do it immediately by him- self, even as seems good in his sight.
Object. II. " But the crook in my lot might quickly be evened, if the instrument or instruments thereof pleased ; only there is no dealing with them, so as to convince them of their fault in mak- ing it."
Ans. If it is so, be sure God's time is not as yet come, that the crook should be made even ; for, if it were come, though they stand now like an impreg- nable fort, they would give way like a sandy bank under one's feet : they should bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet." Isa. xlix. 23. Meanwhile, that state of the matter is so far from justifying one's not eyeing the hand of God ijii the crook in the lot, that it makes 7
56 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
a piece of trial in which his hand very eminently ap- pears, namely, that men should be signally injurious and burdensome to others, yet by no means suscep- tible of conviction. This was the trial of the church from her adversaries, Jer. 1. 7. " All that found them have devoured them ; and their adversaries said. We offend not: because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice." They were very abusive, and gave her barbarous usage ; yet would they own no fault in the matter. How could they ward off the conviction? Were they verily blameless in their devouring the Lord's stray- ing sheep ? No, surely, they were not. Did they look upon themselves as ministers of the divine jus- tice against her? No, they did not.
Some indeed would make a question here, How the adversaries of the church could celebrate her God as the habitation of justice ? But the original pointing of the text being retained, it appears, that there is no ground at all for this question here, and withal the whole matter is set in a clear light. " All that found them have devoured them ; and their ad- versaries said, We offend not; because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice." These last are not the words of the adversaries, but the words of the prophet showing how it came to pass that the adversaries devoured the Lord's sheep, as they lighted on them, and withal stood to the de- fence of it, when they had done, far from acknow- ledging any wrong : the matter lay here, the sheep had sinned against the Lord, the habitation of jus- tice ; and as a just punishment hereof from his hand, they could have no justice at the hand of their ad- versaries.
Wherefore, laying aside tliese frivolous pretences, and eyeing the hand of God, as that which hath
SUBMISSION ENFORCED. 57
bowed your lot in that part, and keeps it in the bow, be reconciled to, and submit under the crook, what- ever it is, saying from the heart, " Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it." Jer. x. 19. And to move you hereunto, consider,
1. It is a duty you owe to God, as your sovereign Lord and Benefactor. His sovereignty challenges our submission ; and it can in no case be meanness of spirit to submit to the crook which his hand hath made in our lot, and to go quietly under the yoke that he hath laid on ; but it is really madness for the potsherds of the earth, by their turbulent and refrac- tory carriage under it, to strive with their Maker. And his beneficence to us, ill-deserving creatures, may well stop our mouth from complaining of his making a crook in our lot, who would have done us no wrong had he made the whole of it crooked : *' Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" Job ii. 10.
2. It is an unalterable statute, for the time of this life, that nobody shall want a crook in their lot ; for " man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward." Job V. 7. And those who are designed for heaven, are in a special manner assured of a crook in theirs, *' that in the world they shall have tribulation," John xvi. 33 ; for by means thereof the Lord makes them meet for heaven. And how can you imagine that you shall be exempted from the common lot of man- kind ? " Shall the rock be removed out of his place for thee ?" And since God makes the crooks in men's lot according to the different exigence of their cases, you may be sure that yours is necessary for you.
3. A crook in the lot, which one can by no means submit to, makes a condition of all things the likest to that in hell. For there a yoke, which the
68 SUBMISSION ENFORCED.
wretched sufferers can neither bear nor shake off, is wreathed about their necks ; there the Almighty arm draws against them, and they against it; there they are ever suffering and ever sinning ; still in the fur- nace, but their dross not consumed, nor they puri- fied. Even such is the case of those who now can- not submit to the crook in their lot.
4. Great is the loss by not submitting to it. The crook in the lot, rightly improved, has turned to the best account, and made the best time to some that ever they had all their life long, as the Psalmist from his own experience testifies, Psal. cxix. 67. " Before I was afflicted I went astray ; but now have I kept thy word." There are many now in heaven, who are blessing God for the crook they had in their lot here. What a sad thing must it then be to lose this teeth-wind for Immanuel's land ! But if the crook in thy lot do thee no good, be sure it will not miss of doing thee great damage ; it will greatly increase thy guilt and aggravate thy condemnation, while it shall for ever cut thee to the heart, to think of the pains taken by means -of the crook in the lot, to wean thee from the world, and bring thee to God, but all in vain. Take heed, therefore, how you man- age it, " Lest — thou mourn at the last- — and say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised re- proof!" Prov. V. 10—12.
Prop. II. What God sees meet to mar, we shall not be able to mend in our lot. What crook God makes in our lot, we shall not be able to even. — We shall,
L Show God's marrincr and makinf^ a crook in one's lot, as he sees meet.
GOD S HAND TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED. 59
II. We shall consider men's attempting to mend or even that crook in their I5t.
III. In what sense it is to be understood, that we shall not be able to mend, or even the crook in our lot.
IV. Render some reasons of the point.
I. As to the first head, namely, to show God's marring and making a crook in one's lot, as he sees meet.
First, God keeps the choice of every one's crook to himself; and therein he exerts his sovereignty, Math. XX. 15. It is not left to our option what that crook shall be, or what our peculiar burden ; but, as the potter makes of the same clay one vessel for one use, another for another use ; so God makes one crook for one, another for another, according to his own will and pleasure, Psal. cxxxv. 6. " Whatso- ever the Lord pleased, that did he, in heaven and in earth," &c.
Secondly, He sees and observes the bias of every one's will and inclination, how it lies, and wherein it especially bends away from himself, and consequently wherein it needs the special bow ; so he did in that man's case, Mark x. 21. "One thing thou lackest; go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor," &c. Observe the bent of his heart to his great possessions. He takes notice what is that idol that in every one's case is most apt to be his rival, that so he may suit the trial to the case, making the crook there.
Thirdly, By the conduct of his providence, or a touch of his hand, he gives that part of one's lot a bow the contrary ^vay ; so that henceforth it lies quite contrary to the bias of the party's will, Ezek. xxiv. 25. And here the trial is made, the bent of 7*
60 OUR WILL OFTEN OPPOSED TO HIS WILL.
the will lying one way, and that part of one's lot ano- ther, that it does not *swer the inclination of the party, but thwarts it.
Fourthly. He wills that crook in the lot to remain while he sees meet, for a longer or shorter time, just according to the holy ends he designs it for, 2 Sam. xii. 10. Hos. V. 15. By that will it is so fixed, that the whole creation cannot alter it, or put it out of the bow.
II. We shall consider men's attempting to mend or even that crook in their lot. This, in a word, lies in their making efforts to bring their lot in that point to their own will, that they may both go one way; so it imports three things :
First. A certain uneasiness under the crook in the lot ; it is a yoke which is hard for the party to bear, till his spirit be tamed and subdued, Jer. xxxi. 18. *' Thou hast chastised ms, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke ; turn thou me, and I shall be turned," &c. And it is for the break- ing down of the weight of one's spirit that God lays it on : for which cause it is declared to be a good thing to bear it. Lam. iii. 27, that being the way to make one at length as a weaned child.
Secondly. A strong desire to have the cross re- moved, and to have matters in that part going ac- cording to our inclinations. This is very natural, nature desiring to be freed from every thing that is burdensome or cross to it ; and if that desire be kept in a due subordination to the will of God, and it be not too peremptory, it is not sinful. Matt. xxvi. 39. " If it be possible, let this cup pass from me ; never- theless, not as I will," &c. Hence so many accepted prayers of the people of God, for the removal of the crook in their lot.
Thirdly. An earnest use of means for that end.
SUCH OPPOSITION VAIN AND FRUITLESS. CI
This naturally follows on that desire. The man be- ing- pressed with the cross, which is in his crook, la- bours all he can in the use of means to be rid of it. And if the means used be lawful, and not relied upon, but followed with an eye to God in them, the attempt is not sinful, whether he succeed in the use of them or not.
in. In what sense it is to be understood, that we shall not be able to mend or even the crook in our lot.
It is not to be understood, as if the case were absolutely hopeless, and that there is no remedy for the crook in the lot. For there is no case so des- perate, but G«d may right it. Gen. xviii. 14. "Is any thing too hard for the Lord ?" When the crook has continued long, and spurned all remedies one has used for it, one is ready to lose hope about it ; but many a crook, given over for hopeless that would never mend, God has made perfectly straight, as in Job's case.
But we shall never be able to mend it by our- selves ; if the Lord himself take it not in hand to re- move it, it will stand before us immovable, like a mountain of brass, though perhaps it may be in itself a thing that might easily be removed. We take it up in these three things :
1. It will never do by the mere force of our hand. 1 Sam. ii. 9. — " For, by strength shall no man pre- vail." The most vigorous endeavours we can use will not even the crook, if God give it not a touch of his hand ; so that all endeavours that way, without an eye to God, are vain and fruitless, and will be but ploughing on the rock. Psalm cxxvii. 1, 2.
2. The use of all allowable means for it, will be successless unless the Lord bless them for that end, Lam. iii. 37. " Who is he that saith, and it cometh
62 REASONS ASSIGNED FOR THIS.
to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?" As one may eat and not be satisfied, so one may use means proper for evening the crook in his lot, and yet prevail nothing ; for nothing can be or do for us any more than God makes it to be or do, Eccl. ix. 11. " The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong ; neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding," &:c.
3. It will never do in our time, but in God's time, which seldom is so early as ours, John vii. 6. " My time is not yet come, but your time is always ready." Hence that crook remains sometimes immovable, as if it were kept by an invisible hand ; and at another time it goes away with a touch, becainse God's time is come for evening it.
IV. We shall now assign the reasons of the point.
1st. Because of the absolute dependence we have upon God. Acts xvii. 28. As the light depends on the sun, or the shadow on the body, so we depend on God, and without him can do nothing, great or small. And God will have us to find it so, to teach us our dependence.
2dly. Because his will is irresistible, Isa. xlvi. 10. " My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my plea- sure." When God wills one thing, and the creature the contrary, it is easy to see which will must be done. When the omnipotent arm holds, in vain does the creature draw. Job ix. 4. *' Who hath hardened himself against him and prospered?"
Inference 1 . There is a necessity of yielding and submitting to the crook in our lot ; for we may as well think to remove the rocks and mountains, which God has settled, as to make that part of our lot straight which he hath made crooked.
2. The evening of the crook in our lot, by main force of our own, is but a cheat we put on ourselves,
MOTIVES TO INDUCE SUBMISSION. 63
and will not last, but, like a stick by main force made straight, it will quickly return to the bow again.
3. The only effectual way of getting the crook evened, is to apply to God for it.
Exhortation 1. Let us then apply to God for re- moving any crook in our lot, that in the settled or- der of things may be removed. Men cannot cease to desire the removal of a crook, more than that of a thorn in the flesh : but, since we are not able to mend what God sees meet to mar, it is evident we are to apply to him that made it to amend it, and not take the evening of it in our own hand.
Motive 1. All our attempts for its removal will, without him, be vain and fruitless. Psal. cxxvii. 1. Let us be as resolute as we will to have it evened, if God say it not, we will labour in vain. Lam. iii. 37. Howsoever fair the means we use bid for it, they will be ineflfectual if he command not the blessing. Eccl. ix. 11.
2. Such attempts will readily make it worse. No- thing is more ordinary, than for a proud spirit striving with the crook, to make it more crooked, Eccl. x. 8, 9. *' Whoso breaketh a hedge, a serpent shall bite him. Whoso removeth stones, shall be hurt there- with," &c. This is evident in the case of the mur- murers in the wilderness. It naturally comes to be so ; because, at that rate, the will of the party bends farther away from it : and, moreover, God is pro- voked to wreath the yoke faster about one's neck, that he will by no means let it sit easy on him.
3. There is no crook but what may be remedied by him, and made perfectly straight, Psal. cxlvi. 8. *' The Lord raiseth them that are bowed down," Sic. He can perform that, concerning which there re- mains no hope with us, Rom. iv. 17. " Who quick-
64 MOTIVES TO INDUCE SUBMISSION.
enelh the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were ?" It is his prerogative to do wonders ; to begin a work, where the whole creation gives it over as hopeless, and carry it on to perfec- tion. Gen. xviii. 14.
4. He loves to be employed in evening crooks, and calls us to employ him that way, Psal. 1. 15. " Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee," &c. He makes them for that very end, that he may bring us to him on that errand, and may manifest his power and goodness in evening of them. Hos. v. 15. The straits of the children of men afford a large field for displaying his glorious perfections, which otherwise would be wanting. Exod. XV. 11.
5. A crook thus evened is a double mercy. There are some crooks evened by a touch of the hand of common providence, while people are either not ex- ercised about them, or when they fret for Ntheir re- moval; these are sapless mercies, and short-lived. Psal. Ixxviii. 30, 31. Hos. xiii. 11. Fruits thus too hastily plucked off the tree of providence can hardly miss to set the teeth on edge, and will certainly be bitter to the gracious soul. But O the sweets of the evening of the crook by a humble application to, and waiting on the Lord ! It has the image and super- scription of divine favour upon it, which makes it bulky and valuable. Gen. xxxiii. 10. " For therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God," 6lc. chap. xxi. 6.
6. God has signalized his favour to his dearest children, in making and mending notable crooks in their lot. His darling ones ordinarily have the greatest crooks made in their lot. Heb. xii. 6. But then they make way for their richest experiences in the removal of them, upon their application to him.
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. G5
This is clear from the case of Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph. Which of the patriarchs had so great crooks as they? but which of them, on the other hand, had such signal tokens of the divine favour ? The greatest of men, as Samson and the Baptist, have been born of women naturally barren ; so do the greatest crooks issue in the richest mercies to them that are exercised thereby.
7. It is the shortest and surest way to go straight to God with the crook in the lot. If we would have our wish in that point, we must, as the eagle, first soar aloft, and then come down on the prey. Mark V. 36. Our faithless out-of-the-way attempts to even the crook, are but our fool's haste, that is no speed; as in the case of Abraham's going in to Hagar. God is the first mover, who sets all the wheels in motion for evening the crook, which without him will remain immovable. Hos. ii. 21, 22.
Object. 1. " But it is needless, for I see, that though the crook in my lot may mend, yet it never will mend. In its own nature it is capable of being removed, but it is plain it is not to be removed, it is hopeless."
Ans. That is the language of unbelieving haste, which faith and patience should correct. Psal. cxvi. 11, 12. Abraham had as much to say for the hop'fe- lessness of his crook, but yet he applies to God in faith for the mending of it. Rom. iv. 19, 20. Sarah had made such a conclusion, for which she was re- buked. Gen. xviii. 13, 14. Nothing can make it needless in such a case to apply to God.
Object. 2. "But I have applied to him again and again for it,. yet it is never mended."
Ans. Delays are not denials of suits at the court of heaven, but trials of the faith and patience of the petitioners. And whoso will persevere will certainly
bb HOW TO GET THE CROOK REMOVED.
speed at length, Luke xviii. 7, 8. *' And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them ? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily." Sometimes indeed folks grow pettish, in the case of the crook in the lot, and let it drop out in their prayers, in a course of despondency, while yet it continues uneasy to them ; but, if God mind to even it in mercy, he will oblige them to take it in again, Ezek. xxxvi. 37. " I will yet, for this, be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them," &c. If the removal come, while it is dropt, there will be little comfort in it: though it were never to be removed while we live, that should not cut off our applying to God for the removal; for there are many prayers not to be an- swered till we come to the other world, Rom. vii. 24, and there all will be answered at once.
Directions for rightly managing the application for removing the crook in the lot.
1. Pray for it, Ezek. xxxvi. 37. and pray in faith, believing that, for the sake of Jesus, you shall cer- tainly obtain at length, and in this life too, if it is good for you ; but without peradventure in the life to come. Matt. xxi. 22. They will not be disappointed that get the song of Moses and of the Lamb. Rev. XV. 3. And, in some cases of that nature, extraor- dinary prayer, with fasting, is very expedient. Matt, xvii. 21.
2. Humble yourselves under it, as the yoke which the sovereign hand has laid on you, Micah, vii. 9. *' I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him," <fec. Justify God, con- demn yourselves, kiss the rod, and go quietly under it ; this is the most feasible way to get rid of it, the
HOW TO OBTAIN RELIEF UNDER IT. 67
end being obtained. James iv. 10. *' Thou wilt prepare their liearts, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear." Psal. x. 17.
3. Wait on patiently till the hand that made it mend it, Psal. xxvii. 14. Do not give up the matter as hopeless, because you are not so soon relieved as you would wish ; " But let patience have her per- fect work, that ye may be .perfect and entire, want- ing nothing." James i. 4. — Leave the timing of the deliverance to the Lord ; his time will at length, to conviction, appear the best, and it will not go be- yond it. Isa. Ix. 22. " I, the Lord, will hasten it in his time ;" waiting on him, ye will not be disap- pointed, " For they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. Isa. xlix. 23.
Exhortation 2. What crook there is, which, in the settled order of things, cannot be removed or evened in this world, let us apply to God for suit- able relief under it. For instance, the common crook in the lot of saints, viz. hi-dwelling sin ; as God has made that crook not to be removed here he can certainly balance it, and aftbrd relief under it. The same is to be said of any crook, while it remains unremoved. In such cases apply yourself to God, for making up your losses another way. And there are five things I would have you to keep in view, and aim at here.
1. To take God in Christ for, and instead of that thing, the withholding or taking away of which from you makes the crook in your lot. Psal. cxlii. 4, 5. There is never a crook which God makes in our lot, but it is in effect heaven's offer of a blessed exchange to us ; such as Mark x. 21. " Sell whatsoever thou hast, — and thou shalt have treasure in heaven." In managing of which exchange, God first puts out his hand, and takes away some earthly thing from us, 8
(38 HOW TO OBTAIN RELIEF UNDER IT.
and it is expected we put out our hand next, and take some heavenly thing from him in the stead of it, and particularly his Christ. Wherefore has God emptied your left hand of such and such an earthly comfort? Stretch out your right-hand to God in Christ, take him in the room of it, and welcome. Therefore the soul's closing with Christ is called buying, wherein parting with one thing, we get another in its stead, Matt. xiii. 45, 46. " The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchantman seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had and bought it." Do this, and you will be more than even hands with the crook in your lot.
2. Look for the stream running as full from him as ever it did or could run, when the crook of the lot has dried it. This is the work of faith, confidently to depend on God for that which is denied us from the creature. " When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up." Psal. xxvii. 10. This is a most rational expectation: for it is certain there is no good in the creature but what is from God; therefore there is no good to be found in the creature, the stream, but what may be got imme- dietely from God, the fountain. And it is a welcome plea, to come to God and say. Now, Lord, thou hast taken away from me such a creature-comfort, I must have as good from thyself.
3. Seek for the spiritual fruits of the crook in the lot. Heb. xii. H. We see the way in the world is, when one trade fails, to fall on, and drive another trade ; so should we, when there is a crook in the lot, making our earthly comforts low, set ourselves the more for spiritual attainments. If our trade with the world sinks, let us see to drive a trade with heaven more vigorously; see, if by means of the
HOW TO BEAR IT WELL. 69
crook, we can obtain more faith, love, hcavenly- mindedness, contempt of the world, humility, self- denial, &LC. 2 Cor. vi. 10. So while we lose at one hand, we shall gain at another.
4. Grace to bear us up under the crook, 2 Cor. xii. 8, 9. " For this thing I besought the Lord thrice ;" and he said, " My grace is sufficient for thee." Whether a man be faint, and have a light burden, or be refreshed, and strengthened, and have a heavy one, it is all the same; the latter can go as easy under his burden as the former under his. Grace proportioned to the trial is what we should aim at; getting that, though the crook be not evened, we are even hands with it.
5. The keeping in our eye the eternal rest and weight of glory in the other Avorld, 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18. *' For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen." This will balance tlje crook in your lot, be it what it will; while they who have no well-grounded hope of sal- vation, will find the crook in their lot in this world such a weight, as they have nothing to counter- balance it; but the hope of eternal rest may bear up under all the toil and trouble met with here.
Exhortation 3. Let us then set ourselves rightly to bear the crook in our lot, while God sees meet to continue it. What we cannot mend, let us bear chrisiianly, and not fight against God, and so kick against the pricks. So let us bear it,
1. Patiently, without fuming and fretting, or mur- muring, James v. 7. Psal. xxxvii. 7. Though we lose our comfort in the creature, through the crook in our lot, let us not lose the possession of ourselves. Luke xxi. 19. The crook in our lot makes us like
70 EXHORTATION TO THIS EFFECT.
one who has but a scanty fire to warm at : but im- patience under it scatters it, so as to set the house on fire about us, and expose us to danger. Prov. xxv. 28. " He that hath no rule over his own spirit, is like a city that is broken down, and without walls."
2. With Christian fortitude, without sinking under discouragement — " nor faint when thou art rebuked of him." Heb. xii. 5. Satan's work is by the crook, either to bend or break people's spirits, and often- times by bending to break them : our work is to carry evenly under it, steering a middle course, ' guarding against splitting on the rocks on either hand. Our happiness lies not in any earthly comfort, nor will the want of any of them render us miserable. Hab. iii. 17, 18. So that we are resolutely to hold on our way with a holy contempt, and regardless- ness of hardships. Job xvii. 9. " The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger."
Quest. " When may any one be reckoned to fall under sinking discouragement from the crook in his lot?"
Ans. When it prevails so far as to unfit for the duties, either of our particular or Christian calling. We may be sure it has carried us beyond the bounds of moderate grief, when it unfits us for the common affairs of life, which the Lord calls us to manage. 1 Cor. vii. 24. Or for the duties of religion, hin- dering them altogether. 1 Pet. iii. 7. " That your prayers be not hindered," (Greek, cut off, or cut up, like a tree from the roots,) or making one quite hopeless in them. Mai. ii. 13.
3. Let us bear it profitably, so as we may gain some advantage thereby. Psal. cxix. 71. '*It is good for me that I have been afflicted ; that I might learn
MOTIVES TO PRESS THIS EXHORTATION. 71
thy statutes." There is an advantage to be made thereby, Rom. v. 3 — 5. And it is certainly an ill- managed crook in our lot, when we get not some spiritual good of it. Heb. xii. 11. The crook is a kind of spiritual medicine ; and as it is lost physic that purges away no ill humours, in vain are its un- pleasantness to the taste and its gripings endured; so it is a lost crook, and ill is the bitterness of it borne if we are not bettered by it. Isa. xxvii. 9. " By this, therefore, shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit, to take away his sin."
Motives to press this exhortation.
Motive 1. There will be no evening of it while God sees meet to continue it. Let us behave under it as we will, and make what sallies we please in the case, it will continue immovable, as fixed with bands of iron and brass. Job xxiii. 13, 14. "But he is of one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doth. For he per- formeth the thing that is appointed for me; and many such things are with him." Is it not wisdom then to make the best we may of what we cannot mend? Make a virtue then of necessity. What is not to be cured must be endured, and should with a Christian resignation.
Motive 2. An awkward carriage under it notably increases the pain of it. AVhat makes the yoke gall our necks, but that we struggle so much against it, and cannot let it sit at ease on us. Jer. xxxi. 18. How often are we, in that case, like men dashing their heads against a rock to remove it ! The rock stands unmoved, but they are wounded, and lose exceedingly by their struggle. Impatience under the crook lays an over-weight on the burden, and makes it heavier, while withal it weakens us, and makes us less able to bear it.
8*
72 QUESTION ANSWERED.
Motive 3. The crook in thy lot is the special trial God has chosen for thee to take thy measure by. 1 Pet. i. 6, 7. It is God's fire, whereby he tries what metal men are of; heaven's touchstone for dis- covering true and counterfeit Christians. They may bear, and go through several trials, whom the crook in the lot will discover to be naught, because, by no means they can bear that. Mark x. 21, 22. Think then with thyself under it; now, here the trial of my state turns ; I must, by this, be proved either sincere, or a hypocrite ; for, can any be a cordial subject of Christ, without being able to submit his lot to him? Do not all who sincerely come to Christ, put a blank in his hand ? Acts ix. 6. Psal. xlvii. 4. And does he not tell us, that without that disposition we are not his disciples ? Luke xiv. 26. " If any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." Perhaps you find you can submit to any thing but that ; but will not that but mar all ; Mark x. 21, 22. Did ever any hear of a sincere closing with Christ with a reserve or exception of one thing, wherein they behoved to be their own lords ?
Quest. " Is that disposition then a qualification necessarily pre-required to our believing : and if so, where must we have it? Can we work it out of our natural powers ?"
Ans. No, it is not so ; but it necessarily accom- panies and goes along with believing, flowing from the same saving illumination in the knowledge of Christ, whereby the soul is brought to believe on him. Hereby the soul sees him an able Saviour, and so trusts on him for salvation ; the rightful Lord and infinitely wise Ruler, and so submits the lot to him.
DIFFICULTY SOLVED. 73
Matt. xiii. 45, 46. The soul taking him for a Sa- viour, takes him also for a head and ruler. It is Christ's giving himself to us, and our receiving him, that causes us to quit other things to and for him, as it is the light that dispels the darkness.
Case. " Alas ! 1 cannot get my heart freely to submit my lot to him in that point."
Ans. 1. That submission will not be carried on in any without a struggle ; the old man will never sub- mit to it, and when the new man of grace is sub- mitting to it, the old man will still be rebelling. Gal. V. 17. " For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary, the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would ;" but are ye sincerely desirous and habitually aiming to submit to it? From the un- gracious struggle against the crook, turn away to the struggle with your own heart to bring it to sub- mit, believing the promise, and using the means for it, being grieved from the heart with yourself, that you cannot submit to it. This is submitting of your lot, in the favourable construction of the gos- pel. Rom. vii. 17 — 20; 2 Cor. viii. 12. If you had your choice, would you rather have your heart brought to submit to the crook, than the crook evened to your heart's desire? Rom. vii. 22, 23. And do you not sincerely endeavour to submit, not- withstanding the reluctancy of the flesh? Gal. v. 17.
Ans. 2. Where is the Christian self-denial, and taking up the cross, without submitting to the crook? This is the first lesson Christ puts in the hands of his disciples, Matt. xvi. 24. ^' If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Self-denial would procure a recon- ^ciliation with the crook, and an admittance of the
74 ADDITIONAL MOTIVES URGED.
cross : but while we cannot bear our corrupt self to be denied any of its cravings, and particularly that which God sees meet especially to be denied, we cannot bear the crook in our lot, but fight against it in favour of self.
Ans. 3. Where is our conformity to Christ, while we cannot submit to the crook? We cannot evi- dence ourselves Christians, without conformity to Christ. " He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." 1 John ii. 6. There was a continued crook in Christ's lot, but he submitted to it, Phil. ii. 8. " And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Rom. xv. 3. For even Christ pleased not himself, &lc. And so must we, if we will prove ourselves Christians indeed. Matt. xi. 29.; 2 Tim. ii. 11, 12.
Ans. 4. How shall we prove ourselves the genuine kindly children of God, if still warring with the crook ? We cannot pray. Our Father — Thy will be done on earth, as, &c. Matt. vi. Nay, the language of that practice is, We must have our own will, and God's will cannot satisfy us.
Motive 4. The trial by the crook here will not last long. 1 Cor. vii. 29 — 31. What though the work be sore, it may be the better comported with, that it will not be longsome ; a few days or years at farthest, will put an end to it, and take you off your trials. Do not say, I shall never be eased of it; for if not eased before, you will be eased of it at death, come after it what will. A serious view of death and eternity might make us set ourselves to behave rightly under our crook while it lasts.
Motive 5. If you would, in a Christian manner, set yourselves to bear the crook, you would find it
ADDITIONAL MOTIVES URGED. 75
easier than you imagine, Matt. xi. 29, 30. " Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, and ye shall find rest to your souls ; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Satan has no readier way to gain his purpose, than to persuade men it is impossible, that ever their minds should ply with the crook ; that it is a burden to them, altogether insupport- able ; as long as you believe that, be sure you will never be able to bear it. But the Lord makes no crook in the lot of any, but what may be borne of them acceptably, though not sinlessly and perfectly. Matt. xi. 30. For there is strength for that eiSect secured in the covenant, 2 Cor. iii. 5; Phil. iv. 13, and being by faith fetched, it will certainly come, Psal. xxviii. 7.
Motive 6. If you behave Christianly under your crook here, you will not lose your labour, but get a full reward of grace in the other world, through Christ. 2 Tim. ii. 12 ; 1 Cor. xv. 58. There is a blessing pronounced on him that endureth on this very ground, James i. 12. " Blessed is the man that endureth temptation ; for, when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." Heaven is the place into which the approved, upon the trial of the crook are received. Rev. vii. 14. " These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." When you come there, no vestiges of it will be remaining in your lot, nor will you have the least uneasy remembrance of it; but it will accent your praises, and increase your joy.
Motive 7. If you do not behave Christianly under it, you will lose your souls in the other world, Jude 15, 16. Those who are at war with God in their lot here, God will have war with them for ever. If
76 THE CROOK, THE WORK OF GOD.
they will not submit to tiis yoke here, and go quietly under it, he will wreathe his yoke about their neck for ever, with everlasting bonds that shall never be loosed. Job ix. 4. Therefore set yourselves to be- have rightly under the crook in your lot.
If you ask what way one may reach that; for direction we propose,
Prop. III. The considering the crook in the lot, as the ivork of God, is a proper means to bring one to behave rightly under it.
I. What it is to consider the crook as the work of God. We take it up in these five things:
First, An inquiry into the spring whence it rises. Gen. XXV. 22. Reason and religion both teach us, not only to notice the crook, which we cannot avoid, but to consider and inquire into the spring of it. Surely, it is not our choice, nor do we designedly make it for ourselves : and to ascribe it to fortune is to ascribe it to nothing: it is not sprung of itself, but sown by one hand or another for us. Job v. 6. And we are to notice the hand from whence it comes.
Secondly, A perceiving of the hand of God in it. Whatever hand any creatures have therein, we ought not to terminate our view in them, but look above and beyond them to the supreme manager's agency. Job i. 21. Without this we shall make a God of the creature that is instrumental of the crook, look- ing on it as if it were the first cause, which is pecu- liar to God, Rom. xi. 36, and bring ourselves under that doom. Psalm xxviii, 5. " Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up."
Thirdly, A representing it to ourselves as a work
ACCORDING TO THE COUNSEL OF HIS WILL. 77
of God, which he hath wrought against us for holy and wise ends, becoming the divine perfections. This is to take it by the right handle, to represent it to ourselves, under a right notion, from whence a right management under it may spring. It can never be safe to overlook God in it, but very safe to overlook the creature; ascribing it unto God, as if no other hand were in it, his being always the principal therein. *' It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good." 1 Sam. iii. 18. Thus David overlooked Shimei, and looked to God in the matter of his cursing, as one fixing his eyes, not on the axe, but on him that wielded it. Here two things are to come into our consideration.
1st. The decree of God, purposing that crook for us from eternity ; " for he worketh all things after the counsel of his own will," Eph. i. 11, the sealed book, in which are written all the black lines that make the crook. Whatever valleys of darkness, grief, and sorrow, we are carried through, we are to look on them as made by the mountains of brass, the immovable divine purposes. Zech. vi. 1. This Gan be no presumption in that case, if we carry it no further than the event goes in our sight and feeling : for so far the book is opened for us to look into.
2dly. The providence of God bringing to pass that crook for us in time. Amos iii. 6. There is nothing can befall us without him in whom we live. Whatever kind of agency of the creatures may be in the making of our crook, whatever they have done or not done towards it, he is the spring that sets all the created wheels in motion, which ceasing, they would all stop : though he is still infinitely pure in his agency, however impure they be in theirs. Job considerd both these, eh. xxiii. 14.
Fourthly. A continuing in the thought of it as
78 USE OF THIS CONSIDERATION.
such. It is not a simple glance of the eye, but a con- templating and leisurely viewing of it as his work, that is the proper mean. We are to be,
1st. Habitually impressed with this consideration: as the crook is some lasting grievance, so the con- sideration of this as the remedy should be habitually kept up. There are other considerations besides this that we must entertain, so that we cannot always have it expressly in our mind: but we must lay it down for a rooted principle, according to which we are to manage the crook, and keep the heart in a disposition, whereby it may expressly slip into our minds, as occasion calls.
2dly. We are to be occasionally exercised in it. AVhenever we begin to feel the smart of the crook, we should fetch in this remedy; when the yoke be- gins to gall the neck, there should be an application of this spiritual ointment. And however often the former comes in on us, it will be our wisdom to fetch in the latter as the proper remedy; the oftener it is used, it will more easily come to hand, and also be the more effectual.
Fifthly. A considering it for the end for which it is proposed to us, namely, to bring us to a dutiful carriage under it. Men's corruptions will cause them to enter on the consideration of it: but as the prin- ciple is, so the end and effect of it will be corrupt. 2 Kings vi. 33. But we must enter on, and use it for a good end, if we would have good of it, taking it as a practical consideration for regulating our con- duct under the crook.
II. How it is to be understood to be a proper means to bring one to behave rightly under the crook.
Not as if it were sufficient of itself, and as it stands alone, to produce that effect. But as it is used in
INDISPENSABLE NECESSITY OF FAITH. 79
faith, in the faith of the gospel ; that is to say, A sinner's bare considering the crook in his lot as the work of God, without any saving relation to him, will never be a way to behave himself righdy under it: but having believed in Jesus Christ, and so taking God for his God, the considering of the crook as the work of God, his God, is the proper means to bring him to that desirable temper and be- haviour. Many hearers mistake here. When they hear such and such lawful considerations proposed for bringing them to duty, they presently imagine, that by the mere force of them, they may gain the point. And many preachers too, who, forgetting Christ and the gospel, pretend by the force of reason to make men Christians ; the eyes of both being held, that they do not see the corruption of men's nature, which is such as sets the true cure above the force of reason : all that they are sensible of, being some ill habits, which they think may be shaken off by a vigorous application of their rational facul- ties. To clear this matter, consider,
First. Is it rational to think to set fallen man, with his corrupted nature, to work the same way with innocent Adam? that is to set beggars on a level with the rich, lame men to a journey with those that have limbs. Innocent Adam had a stock of gracious abilities, whereby he might, by the force of moral considerations, have brought himself to perform duty aright. But where is that with us ? 2 Cor. iii. 5. Whatever force be in them to a soul endowed with spiritual life, what power have they to raise the dead, such as we are ? Eph. ii. 1.
Secondly. The scripture is very plain on this
head, showing the indispensable necessity of faith ;
Heb. xi. and that, such as unites to Christ, John
XV. 5. " Without me," that is, separate from me,
9
80 INDISPENSABLE NECESSITY OF FAITH.
" ye can do nothing ;" no, not with all the moral considerations ye can use. How were the ten com- mandments given on mount Sinai ? not as bare exac- tions of duty, but fronted with the gospel, to be be- lieved in the first place ; " I am the Lord thy God." &c. And so Solomon, whom many regard rather as a moral philosopher, than an inspired writer leading to Christ, fronts his writings, in the begin- ning of the Proverbs, with most express gospel. And must we have it expressly repeated in our Bibles with every moral precept, or else shut our eyes and take these precepts without it? that is the effect of our natural enmity to Christ. If we loved> him more, we should see him more in every page, and in every command, receiving the law at his mouth. Thirdly. Do but consider what it is to believe rightly under the crook in the lot; what humilia- tion of soul, self-denial, and absolute resignation to the will of God must be in it: what love to God it must proceed from ; how regard to his glory must influence it as the chief end thereof; and try, and see if it is not impossible for you to reach it without that faith aforementioned. I know a Christian may reach it without full assurance: but still, according to the measure of their persuasion that God is their God, so will their attainments in it be ; these keep equal pace. O what kind of hearts do they imagine themselves to have, that think they can for a mo- ment empty them of the creature, farther than they can fill them with a God, as their God, in its room and stead ! No doubt men may, from the force of moral considerations, work themselves to a beha- viour under the crook, externally right, such as many pagans had ; but a Christian disposition of spirit under it will never be reached, without that faith in God.
IMPORTANCE OF DUE CONSIDERATION. 81
Object. " Then it is saints only that are capable of the improvement of that consideration."
Ans. Yea, indeed it is so, as to that and all other moral considerations, for true Christian ends : and that amounts to no more, than that directions for walking rightly are only for the living, that have the use of their limbs : and, therefore, that ye may improve it, set yourselves to believe in the first place.
III. I shall confirm that it is a proper mean to bring one to behave rightly under it. This will ap- pear, if we consider these four things.
1. It is of great use to divert from the considering and dwelling on those things about the crook, which serve to irritate our corruption. Such are the balk- ing of our will and wishes, the satisfaction we should have in the matter's going according to our mind, the instruments of the crook, how injurious they are to us, how unreasonable, how obstinate, &;c. The dwelling on these considerations is but the blowing of the fire within ; but to turn our eyes to it as the work of God, would be a cure by way of diversion, 2 Sam. vi. 9, 10 ; and such diversion of the thoughts is not only lawful, but expedient and necessary.
2. It has a moral aptitude for producing this good effect. Though our cure is not compassed by the mere force of reason ; yet it is carried on, not by a brutal movement, but in a rational way. Eph. v. 14. This consideration has a moral efficacy on our reason, it is fit to awe us into a submission, and mi- nisters a deal of argument for behaving christianly under our crook.
3. It has a divine appointment for that end, which is to be believed. Prov. iii. 6. So the text. The creature in itself is an inefficacious and moveless thing, a mere vanity. Acts xvii. 28. That which makes any thing a means fit for the end, is a word
82 IMPROVEMENT OF THE SUBJECT.
of divine appointment. Matt. iv. 4. To use any thing then for an end, without the faith of this, is to make a god of the creature ; therefore it is to be used in a dependence on God, according to that word of appointment. 1 Tim. iv. 4, 5. And every thing is fit for the end for which C4od has appointed it. This consideration is appointed for that end ; and therefore is a fit means for it.
4. The Spirit may be expected to work by it, and does work by it, in them that believe, and look to him for it, for as much as it is a mean of his own ap- pointment. Papists, legalists, and all superstitious persons, devised various means of sanctification, seeming to have, or really having, a moral fitness for the same; but they are quite ineffectual, because, like Abana and Pharpar, they want a word of divine appointment for curing us of our leprosy; there- fore the Spirit works not by them, since they are not his instruments, but devised of their own hearts. And since even the means of divine appointment are ineffectual without the Spirit, these can never be eflfectual. But this consideration having a divine appointment, the Spirit works by it.
Use. Then take this direction for your behaving rightly under the crook in your lot. Inure your- selves to consider it as the work of God. And fot helping you to improve it, so as it may be eflfectual, I offer these advices :
1. Consider it as the work of your God in Christ. This is the way to sprinkle it with gospel-grace, and so to make it tolerable. Psal. xxii. 1. The discern- ing of a Father's hand in the crook will take out much of the bitterness of it, and sugar the pill to you. For this cause it will be necessary, (1) So- lemnly to take God for your God, under your crook, Psal. cxlii. 4. 5. (2) In all your encounters with it,
ADVANTAGE OF HUMILITY 83
resolutely to believe, and claim your interest in him, 1 Sam. XXX. 6.
2. Enlarge the consideration with a view of the divine relations to you, and the divine attributes, Consider it, being the work of your God, the work of your Father, elder Brother, Head, Husband, &;c., who therefore, surely consults your good. Consider his holiness and justice, showing he wrongs you not; his mercy and goodness, that it is not worse ; his sovereignty, that may silence you ; his infinite wis- dom and love, that may satisfy you in it.
3. Consider what a work of his it is, how it is a convincing work, for bringing sin to remem- brance ; a correcting work, to chastise you for your follies ; a preventing work, to hedge you up from courses of sin you would otherwise be apt to run into ; a trying work, to discover your state, your graces, and corruptions ; a weaning work, to wean you from the world and fit you for heaven.
4. In all your considerations of it in this manner, look upward for his Spirit, to render them effectual, 1 Cor. iii. G. — Thus may ye behave christianly under it, till God make it even either here or in heaven.
Prov. xvi. 19.
Better it is to le of cm humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.
Could men once be brought to believe, that it is better to have their minds bend to the crook in their lot, than to force the crook to their mind* they would be in a fair way to bring their matters to a good ac- count. Hear then the divine decision in that case : *' Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the
84 THE LOWLY AND THE PROUD CONTRASTED.
lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud." In which words,
First. There is a comparison instituted, and that between two parties, and two points wherein they vastly differ.
1st. The parties are the lowly and the proud, who differ like heaven and earth : the proud are climbing up and soaring aloft ; the lowly are content to creep on the ground, if that is the will of God. Let us view them more particularly as the text re- presents them.
On the one hand is the lowly. Here there is a line-reading and a marginal, both from the Holy Spirit, and they differ only in a letter. The former is the afflicted or poor, that are low in their condi- tion ; those that have a notable crook in their lot through affliction laid on them, whereby their condi- tion is lowered in the World. The other is the lowly or meek humble ones, who are low in their spirit, as ^vell as their condition, and so have their minds brought down to their lot. Both together making the character of this lowly party.
On the other hand is the proud ; the gay and high minded ones. It is supposed here that they are crossed too, and have crooks in their lot; for, di- vinding the spoil is the consequent of a victory, and a victory presupposes a battle.
2nd. The points wherein these parties are sup- posed to differ, viz : being of a humble spirit, and dividing the spoil.
Afflicted and lowly ones may sometimes get their condition changed, may be raised up on high, and divide the spoil, as Hannah, Job, <fec. The proud may sometimes be thrown down and crushed, as Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, <fec. But that is not the question, Whether it is better to be raised up with
THE PREFERENCE GIVEN TO THE LOWLY. 85
the lowly, or thrown down with the proud ? There would be no difficulty in determining that. But the question is, Whether it is better to be of a low and humble spirit, in low circumstances, with afflicted humble ones; or to divide the spoil, and get one's will, with the proud ? If men would speak the na- tive sentiments of their hearts, that question would be determined in a contradiction to the text. The points then here compared and set one against another, are these :
On the one hand, to be of a humble spirit with afflicted lowly ones. (Heb.) To be low of spirit; for the word primarily denotes lowness in situation or state : so the point here proposed is to be with, or in the state of, afflicted lowly ones, having the spirit brought down to that low lot; the lowness of the spirit balancing the lowness of one's condi- tion.
On the other hand to divide the spoil with the proud. The point here proposed is, to be with or in the state of the proud, having their lot by main force brought to their mind; as those who, taking •themselves to be injured, fight it out with the enemy, overcome and divide the spoil according to their will.
Secondly. The decision made, wherein the former is preferred to the latter; " Better is it to be of an humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud." If these two parties were set before us, it were better to take our lot with those of a low condition, who have their spirits brought as low as their lot, than with those, who, being of a proud and high spirit, have their lot brought up to their mind. A humble spirit is better than a height- ened condition.
86 THE LOWLY RARELY TO BE FOUND
DocT. There is a generation of loivly afflicted ones, having their spirit lowered and brought dow7i to their lot ; tvhose case, in that respect, is better than that of the proud getting their will, and carrying all to their mind.
I. We shall consider the generation of the lowly afflicted ones, having their spirit brought down to their lot. And we shall,
First. Lay down some general considerations about them.
1. There is such a generation in the world, bad as the world is. The text expressly mentions them, and the scripture elsewhere speaks of them ; as Psal. ix. 12. and x. 12. Mattli. v. 3. with Luke vi. 20. Where shall we seek them 1 Not in heaven, there are no afflicted ones there ; nor in hell, there are no lowly or humble ones there, whose spirit is brought to their lot. Li this world they must then be, where the state of trial is.
2. If it were not so, Christ, as he was in the world, would have no followers in it. He was the head of that generation whom they all copy after; "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart." Matt, xi. 29. And for his honour, and the honour of his cross, they wUl never be wanting while the world stands, Rom. viii. 29. " Whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son," His image lies in these two, suffering and holiness, whereof lowliness is a chief part.
3. Nevertheless, they are certainly very rare in the world. Agur observes, that there is another gene- ration, (Prov. xxx. 13. " Their eyes are lofty, and their eye-lids lifted up,") quite opposite to them, and this makes the greatest company by far. The low and afflicted lot is not so very rare, but the lowly
SOME MORE LOWLY THAN OTHERS. 87
disposition of spirit is rarely yoked with it. Many a high spirit keeps up in spite of lowering circum- stances.
4. They can be no more in number than the truly godly ; for nothing less than the power of divine grace can bring down men's minds from their native height, and make their will pliant to the will of God. 2 Cor. X. 4, 5. Men may put on a face of submis- sion to a low and a crossed lot, because they cannot help it, and they see it is in vain to strive : but to bring the spirit truly to it, must be the effect of humbling grace.
5. Though all the godly are of that generation, yet there are some of them to whom that character more especially belongs. The way to heaven lies through tribulation to all, Acts xiv. 22; and all Christ's followers are reconciled to it notwithstand- ing, Luke xvi. 26 ; yet there are some of them more remarkably disciplined than others, whose spirit is hereby humbled and brought down to their lot, Psal. cxxxi. 2. " Surely I have behaved and quieted myself as a child that is weaned of his mother ; my soul is even as a weaned child." Phil. iv. 11, 12, *' For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound : every where, and in all things I am instructed, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need."
6. A lowly disposition of soul, and habitual aim and bent of the heart that way, has a very favoura- ble construction put upon it in heaven. Should we look for a generation perfectly purged of pride and risings of heart against their adverse lot at any time, we should find none in this world ; but those who are sincerely aiming and endeavouring to reach it, and keep the way of contented submission, though
88 CHARACTER OF THE LOWLY.
sometimes blown aside, and returning to it again, God accounts to be that lowly generation. 2 Cor. vii. 10, 11. James v. 11.
Secondly. We shall enter into particulars. There are three things which together make up their cha- racter.
1st. Affliction in their lot. That lowly genera- tion, preferred to the proud and prosperous, is a generation of afflicted ones, whom God keeps under the discipline of the covenant. We may take it up in these two :
1. There is a yoke of affliction of one kind or other oftentimes upon them. Psal. Ixxiii. 14. God is frequently visiting them as a master doth his scholars, and a physician his patients ; whereas others are in a sort overlooked by him. Rev. iii. 19. They are accustomed to the yoke, and that from the time they enter into God's family. Psal. cxxix. 1 — 3. God sees it good for them. Lam. iii. 27, 28.
2. There is a particular yoke of affliction which God has chosen for them, that hangs about them, and is sehlom, if ever, taken off them. Luke ix. 23. That is their special trial, the crook in their lot, the yoke, which lies on them for their constant exercise. Their other trials may be exchanged, but that is a weight that still hangs about them, bowing them down.
2dly. Lowliness in their disposition and tenour of spirit. They are a generation of lowly humble ones, whose spirits God has, by his grace, brought down from their natural height. And thus,
1. They think soberly and meanly of themselves ; what they are, 2 Cor. xii. 9, 10 ; what they can do; 2 Cor. iii. 5; what they are worth. Gen. xxxii. 10, and what they deserve. I^am. iii. 22. Viewing them- selves in the glass of the divine law and perfection,
CHARACTER OF THE LOWLY. 89
they see themselves as a mass of imperfection and sin- fulness. Job. 5, 6.
2. They think highly and honourably of God. Psal. cxlv. 3. They are taught by the Spirit what God is ; and so entertain elevated thoughts of him. They consider him as the Sovereign of the world; his perfections as infinite ; his work as perfect. They look on him as the fountain of happiness, as a God in Christ, doing all things well ; trusting his wis- dom, goodness, and love, even where they cannot see. Heb. xi. 8.
3. They think favourably of others, as far as in justice, they may. Phil. ii. 3. Though they cannot hinder themselves from seeing their glaring faults, yet tJj^ey are ready withal to acknowledge their ex- cellencies, and esteem them so far. And, because they see more into their own mercies and advan- tages for holiness, and misimproving thereof, than they can see into others, they are apt to look on others as better than themselves, circumstances compared.
4. They are sunk down into a state of subordina- tion to God and his will. Psal. cxxxi. 1, 2. Pride sets a man up against God, lowliness brings him back to his place, and lays him down at the feet of his sovereign Lord, saying, Thy will be done on earth, &c. — They seek no more the command, but are content that God himself sit at the helm of their affairs, and manage all for them, Psal. xlvii. 4.
5. They are not bent on high things, but dis- posed to stoop to low'things. Psal. cxxxi. 1. Low- liness levels the towering imaginations, which pride mounts up against heaven ; draws a veil over all personal worth and excellences before the Lord ; and yields a man's all to the Lord, to be as stepping- stones to the throne of his glory. 2 Sam. xv. 25, 26.
90 CHARACTER OF THE LOWLY
6. They are apt to magnify mercies bestowed on them. Gen. xxxii. 10. Pride of heart overlooks and vilifies mercies one is possessed of, and fixes the eye on what is wanting in one's condition, making one like the flies, which pass over the sound places, and swarm together on the sore. On the contrary, lowliness teaches men to recount the mercies they enjoy in the lowest condition, and to set a mark on the good things they have possessed, or yet do. Job. ii. 10.
3dly. A spirit brought down to their lot. Their lot is a low and afilicted one ; but their spirit is as low, being, through grace, brought down to it. We may take it up in these five things :
1. They submit to it as just, Mic. vii. 9. *J|J will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him." There are no hardships in our condition, but we have procured them to our- selves ; and it is therefore just that we kiss the rod, and be silent under it, and so lower our spirits to our lot. If they complain, it is of themselves; their hearts rise not up against the lord, far less do they open their mouth against the heavens. They justify God, and condemn themselves, reverencing his holi- ness and spodess righteousness in his proceedings against them.
2. They go quietly under it as tolerable, Lam. iii. 26 — 29. "It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone, and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him ; he putteth his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope." While the un- subdued spirit rages under the yoke as a bullock unaccustomed to it, the spirit brought to the lot, goes softly under it. They see it is of the Lord's
CHARACTER OF THE LOWLY. 91
mercies that it is not worse ; they take up the naked cross, as God lays it down, without those over- weights upon it that turbulent passions add there- unto ; and so it becomes really more easy than they thought it could have been, like a burden fitted on the back.
3. They are satisfied in it, as drawing their com- fort from another quarter than their outward condi- tion, even as the house stands fast, when the prop is taken away that it did not lean upon. " Although the fig-tree should not blossom, neither fruit be in the vine, — yet I will rejoice in the Lord." Hab. iii. 17, 18. Thus did David in the day of his distress, " He encouraged himself in the Lord his God." 1 Sam. XXX. 6. It is an argument of a spirit not brought down to the lot, when men are damped and sunk under the hardships of it, as if their condition in the world were the point whereon their happiness turned. It is want of mortification that makes men's comforts to wax and wane, ebb and flow, accord- ing to the various appearances of their lot in the world.
4. 'jfhey have a complacency in it, as that which is fit antl good for them. Isa. xxxix. 8. 2 Cor. xii. 10. Men have a sort of complacency in the working of physic, though it gripes them sore ; they rationally think with themselves that it is good and best for them : so these lowly souls consider their afflicted lot as a spiritual medicine, necessary, fit, and good for them ; yea, best for them for the time, since it is ministered by their heavenly Father; and so they reach a holy complacency in their low afflicted lot.
The lowly spirit extracts this sweet out of the bitterness in his lot, considering how the Lord, by means of that afflicting lot, stops the provision for 10
92 CHARACTFR OF THE PROUD.
unruly lusts, tliat they may be starved: how he cuts off the by-channels, that the whole stream of the soul's love may run towards himself; how he pulls off, and holds ofi^ the man's burden and clog of earthly comforts, that he may run the more expedi- tiously in the way to heaven.
5. They rest in it, as what they desire not to come out of, till the God that brought them into it, see it meet to bring them out with his good will. Isa. xxviii. 16. Though an unsubdued spirit's time for deliverance is always ready, a humble soul will be afraid of being taken out of its afflicted lot too soon. It will not be for moving for a change, till the heaven's moving bring it about; so this hinders not prayer, and the use of appointed means, with dependence on the Lord; but requires faith, hope, patience, and resignation. 2 Sam. xv. 25, 26.
II. We shall consider the generation of the proud getting their will, and carrying all to their mind. And in their character also are three things.
First, There are crosses in their lot. They also have their trials allotted them by overruling pro- vidence, and let them be in what circumstances they will in the world, they cannot miss them altogether. For consider,
1. The confusion and vanity brought into the crea- tion by man's sin, have made it impossible to get through the world, but men must meet with what will ruffle them. Etcles. i. 14. Sin has turned the world from a paradise into a thicket, there is no getting through without being scratched. As midges in the summer will fly about those walking abroad in a goodly attire, as well as about those in sordid apparel ; so will crosses in the world meet with the high as well as the low.
2. The pride of their heart exposes them partieu-
CHARACTER OF THE PROUD. 93
larly to crosses. A proud heart will make a cross to itself, where a lowly soul would find none. Eslh. v. 13. It will make a real cross ten times the weight it would be to the humble. The generation of the proud are like nettles and thorn hedges, upon which things flying about do fix, while they pass over low and plain things; so none are more exposed to crosses than they, though none so unfit to bear them ; as appears from,
Secondly, Reigning pride in their spirit. Their spirits were never subdued by a work of thorough humiliation, they remain at the height in which the corruption of nature placed them: hence they can by no means bear the yoke God lays on them. The neck is swollen with the ill humours of pride and passion; hence, when the yoke once begins to touch it, they cannot have any more ease. We may view the case of the proud generation here in three things.
1. They have an over-value for themselves; and so will not stoop to the yoke; it is below them. What a swelling vanity is in that, Exod. v. 2. " Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice?" Hence a work of humiliation is necessary to make one take on the yoke, whether of Christ's precepts or pro- vidence. The first error is in the understanding; whence Solomon ordinarily calls a wicked man a fool; accordingly the first stroke in conversion is there too, by conviction to humble. Men are bigger in their own conceit, than they are indeed; therefore God, suiting things to what we are really, cannot please us.
2. They have an unmortified self-will, arising from that over-value for themselves, and they will not stoop. Exod. v. 2. The question betwixt Heaven and us is, whether God's will or our own must pre- vail? Our will is corrupt, God's will is holy; they
94 CHARACTER OF THE PROUD.
cannot agree in one. God says in his providence, our will must yield to his; but that it will not do, till the iron sinew in it be broken. Rom. viii. 7. Isa. xlviii. 4.
3. They have a crowd of unsubdued passions taking part with self-will; and they say, He shall not stoop, Rom. vii. 8, 9; and so the war begins, and there is a field of battle within and without the man. James iv. 1.
A holy God crosses the self-will of proud crea- tures by his providence, overruling and disposing of things contrary to their inclination; sometimes by his own immediate hand, as in the case of Cain. Gen. iv. 4, 5; sometimes by the hand of men carry- ing things against their mind, as in the case of Ahab, to whom Naboth refused his vineyard. 1 Kings xxi. 4.
The proud heart and will, unable to submit to the cross, or to bear to be controlled, rises up against it, and fights for the mastery, with its whole force of unmortified passions. The design is to remove the cross, even the crook, and bring the thing to their own mind: this is the cause of this unholy war, in which,
(1.) There is one black band of hellish passions that marches upwards, and makes an attack on hea- ven itself, namely, discontent, impatience, murmur- ing, frettings, and the hke. " The foolishness of man pervertelh his way; and his heart fretteth against the Lord." Prov. xix. 3. These fire the breast, fall the countenance. Gen. iv. 6, let off some- times a volley of indecent and passionate complaints, Jude, ver. 16, and sometimes of blasphemies, 2 Kings vi. 33.
(2.) There is another that marches forward, and makes an attack on the instrument or instruments of the cross, namely, anger, wrath, fury, revenge, bitter-
THE pftoUD IN PROSPERITY. 95
ness, (fee. Prov. xxvii. 4. These carry the man out of the possession of himself, Luke xxi. 19. fill the heart with a boiling heat, Psa. xxxix. 3. the mouth with clamour and evil-speaking, Eph. iv. 31. and threat- enings are breathed out; Acts ix. 1. and sometimes set the hands on work, a most heavy event, as in the case of Ahab against Naboth.
Thus the proud carry on the war, but oftentimes they lose the day, and the cross remains immovable for all they can do; yea, and sometimes they them- selves fall in the quarrel, it ends in their ruin. Exod. XV. 9, 10. But that is not the case in the text. For we are to consider them as,
Thirdly, Getting their will, and carrying all to their mind. This speaks,
1. Holy providence yielding to the man's unmor- tified self-will, and letting it go according to his mind. Gen. vi. 3. God sees it meet to let the struggle with him fall, for it prevails not to his good. Isa. i. 5. So the reins are laid on the proud man's neck, and he has what he would be at; " Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone." Hos. iv. 17.
2. The lust remaining in its strength and vigour, Psa. Ixxviii. 30. " They were not estranged from their lust." God, in the method of his covenant sometimes gives his people their will, and sets them where they would be; but then, in that case, the lust for the thing is mortified, and they are as weaned children. Psal. x. 17. But here the lust remains rampant: the proud seek meat for it, and get it.
3. The cross removed, the yoke taken off. Psal. Ixxviii. 29. They could not think of bringing their mind to their lot; but they thwarted with it, wrestled and fought against it, till it is brought up to their
10*
96 DOCTRINE OF THE TEXT CONFIRMED.
mind: so the day is their own, the victory is on their side.
4. The man is pleased in his having carried his point, even as one is when he is dividing the spoil. 1 Kings xxi. 18, 19.
Thus the case of the afflicted lowly generation, and the proud generation prospering, is stated. Now,
III. I am to confirm the doctrine, or the decision of the text. That the case of the former is better than that of the latter. It is better to be in a low afflicted condition, with the spirit humble and brought down to the lot, than to be of a proud and high spirit, getting the lot brought up to it, and matters go ac- cording to one's mind. This will appear from the following considerations.
1. Humility is so far preferable to pride, that in no circumstances whatsoever its preferableness can fail. Let all the afflictions in the world attend the humble spirit, and all the prosperity in the world attend pride, humility will still have the better: as gold in a dunghill is more excellent than so much lead in a cabinet, For,
(1.) Humility is a part of the image of God. Pride is the master-piece of the image of the devil. Let us view him who was the express image of the Fa- ther's person, and we shall behold him meek and lowly in heart. Matt. xi. 29. None more afflicted, yet his spirit perfectly brought down to his lot, Isa. liii. 7. *' He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth." That is a shining part of the divine image: for though God cannot be low in respect of his state and condition, yet he is of infinite condescension, Isa. Ivii. 15. None bears as he, Rom. ii. 4, nor suffers patiently so much contra- diction to his will; which is proposed to us for our encouragement in affliction, as it shone in Christ.
DOCTRINE OF THE TEXT CONFIRMED. 97
" For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds." Heb. xii. 8.
Pride, on the other hand, is the very image of the devil. 1 Tim. iii. 6. Shall we value ourselves on the height of our spirits? Satan will vie with the highest of us in that point; for though he is the most miserable, yet he is the proudest in the whole creation. There is the greatest distance between his spirit and his lot; the former is as high as the throne of God, the latter as low as hell: and as it is impossible that ever his lot should be brought up to his spirit; so his spirit will never come down to his lot: and therefore he will be eternally in a state of war with his lot. Hence, even at this time, he has no rest, but goes about, seeks rest indeed, but finds none.
Now, is it not better to be like God than like the devil; like him who is the fountain of all good, than him who is the spring and sink of all evil? Can any thing possibly cast the balance here, and turn the preference to the other side? " Then better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly," &c.
(2.) Humility and lowliness of spirit qualify us for friendly communion and intercourse with God in Christ. Pride makes God our enemy. 1 Pet. v. 5. Our happiness here and hereafter depends on our friendly intercourse with Heaven. If we have not that, nothing can make up our loss. Psal. xxx. 5. If we have that, nothing can make us miserable, Rom. viii. 31. " If God be for us, who can be against us?" Now, who are they whom God is for, but the humble and lowly? they who being in Christ are so made like him. He blesses them, and de- clares them the heirs of the crown of glory : " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
98 DOCTRINE OF THE TEXT CONFIRMED.
heaven." Matt. v. 3. He will look to them, be their condition ever so low, while he overlooks others. Isa. Ixvi. 2. He will have respect to them, how- ever they be despised: " Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect to the lowly; but the proud he knoweth afar off." Psal. cxxxviii. 6. He will dwell with them, however poorly they dwell. Isa. Ivii. 15. He will certainly exalt them in due time, however low they lie now. Isa. xl. 4.
Whom is he against? Whom does he resist? The proud. Them he curselh, Jer. xvii. 5. and that curse will dry up their arm at length. The proud man is God's rival; he makes himself his own god, and would have those about him make him theirs too; he rages, he blusters, if they will not fall down before him. But God will bring him down. Isa. xl. 4. Psal. xviii. 27.
Now, is it not better to be qualified for commu- nion with God, than to have him engaged against us, at any rate ?
(3.) Humility is a duty pleasing to God, pride a sin pleasing to the devil. Isa. Ivii. 15; 1 Tim. iii. 6. God requires us to be humble, especially under affliction, " and be clothed with humihty." I Pet. v. 5, 6. That is our becoming garment. The hum- ble publican was accepted, the proud pharisee re- jected. We may say of the generation of the proud, as 1 Thess. ii. 16. " Wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." They please neither God nor men, but only themselves and satan, whom they resemble in it. Now duty is better than sin at any rate.
2. They whose spirits are brought down to their afflicted lot, have much quiet and repose of mind, while the proud, that must have their lot brought up to their mind, have much disquiet,
DOCTRINE OF THE TEXT CONFIRMED. 99
trouble, and vexation. Consider here, that, on the one hand,
Quiet of mind, and ease within, is a great bless- ing, upon which the comfort of life depends. No- thing without this can make one's life happy. Dan. V. 6. And where this is maintained, nothing can make it miserable. John xvi. 33. This being se- cured in God, there is a defiance bid to all the trouj||les of the world. Psal. xlvi. 2, 3, like the child sailing in the midst of the rolling waves.
The spirit brought down to the lot makes and maintains this inward tranquillity. Our whole trou- ble in our lot in the world rises from the disagree- ment of our mind therewith ; let the mind be brought to the lot, and the whole tumult is instantly hushed; let it be kept in that disposition, and the man shall stand at ease, in his affliction, like a rock unmoved with waters beating on it, Col. iii. 15. "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called."
On the other hand, consider,
What disquiet of mind the proud suffer ere they can get their lot brought up to their mind. " They have taught their tongues to speak lies, and they weary themselves to commit iniquity." Jer. ix. 5. James iv. 2. " Ye lust, and have not; ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain ; ye fight and war, yet ye have not." What arrows of grief go through their heart! what torture of anxiety, fretting, and vexation, must they endure! what contrary passions fight within them ! and what sallies of passions do they make! what uneasiness vvas Haman in, before he could carry the point of revenge against Mordecai, obtaining the king's decree!
When the thing is got to their mind, it will not quit the cost. The enjoyment thereof brings not so
100 DOCTRINE OF THE TEXT CONFIRMED.
much satisfaction and pleasure, as the want of it gave pain. This was evident in Rachel's case, as to the having of children; and in that case, Psal, Ixxviii. 30, 31. There is a dead fly in the ointment that mars the savour they expected to find in it. Fruit plucked off the tree of providence, ere it is ripe, will readily set the teeth on edge. It proves like the manna kept over night. Exod. xvi. 20.
They have but an unsure hold of it; it dotl^not last with them. Either it is taken from them soon, and they are just where they were again: " I gave thee a king in my anger, and took him away in my wrath." Hos. xiii. 11. having a root of pride, it quickly withers away; or else they are taken from it, that they have no access to enjoy it. So Haman obtained the decree ; but ere the day of the execution came, he was gone.
3. They that get their spirit brought down to their afflicted lot, gain a point far more valuable than they who in their pride force up their lot to their mind. Prov. xvi. 32. " He that is slow in anger, is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city." This will appear, if you consider,
(1.) The latter makes but a better condition in out- ward things, the former makes a better man. The life is more than meat. — The man himself is more valua- ble than all external conveniences that attend him. What therefore betters the man is preferable to what betters only his condition. Who doubts but where two are sick, and the one gets himself transported from a coarse bed to a fine one, the sickness still remaining; the other lies still in the coarse bed, but the sickness is removed ; that the case of the latter is preferable ? So here, &c.
(2.) The subduing of our own passions is more
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excellent than to have the whole world subdued to our will: for then we are masters of ourselves, according to that. Luke xxi. 19. Whereas, in the other case, we are still slaves to the worst of masters. Rom. vi. 16. In the one case we are safe, blow what storm will; in the other we lie exposed to thousands of dangers, Prov. xxv. 28. " He that hath no rule over his own spirit, is like a city that is broken down, and without walls."
(3.) When both shall come to be judged, it will appear the one has multiplied the tale of their good works, in bringing their spirit to their lot; the other, the tale of their ill works, in bringing their lot to their spirit. We have to do with an omniscient God, in whose eyes every internal action is a work, good or bad, to be reckoned for. Rom. ii. 16.
An afflicted lot is painful, but, where it is well managed, it is very fruitful ; it exercises the graces of the Spirit in a Christian, which otherwise would lie dormant. But there is never an act of resignation to the will of God under the cross, nor an act of trusting in him for his help, but they will be recorded in heaven's register as good works. Mai. iii. 16. And these are occasioned by affliction.
On the other hand, there is never a rising of the proud heart against the lot, nor a faithless attempt to bring it to our mind, whether it succeed or not, but it passes for an ill work before God. How then will the tale of such be multiplied by the war in which the spoil is divided !
Use 1. Of information. Hence we may learn,
1. It is not always best for folks to get their will. Many there are who cannot be pleased with God's will about them, and they get their own will with a vengeance, Psal. Ixxxi. 11, 12. " Israel would none of me, so I gave them up to their own hearts' lust;
102 IMPROVEMENT OF THE SUBJECT.
and thev walked in their own counsels." It may be most pleasant and grateful for the time, but it is not the safest. Let not the people pride themselves in their carrying things that way then by a strong hand; let them not triumph in such victory: the after-reckoning will open their eyes.
2. The afflicted crossed party, whose lot is kept low, is so far from being a loser, that he is a gainer thereby, if his spirit is brought down to it. And if he will see things in the light of God's unerring word, he is in better case than if he had got all car- ried to his mind. In the one way the vessels of wrath are fitted for destruction. Psal. Ixxviii. 29 — 31. In the other, the vessels of mercy are fitted for glory, and so God disciplines his own. Lam. iii. 27.
3. It is better to yield to Providence than to fight it out, though we should win. Yielding to the sove- reign disposal is both our becoming duty and our greatest interest. Taking that way, we act most honourably ; for what honour can there be in the creature's disputing his ground with his Creator? and we act most wisely ; for whatever may be the success of some battles in that case, we may be sure victory will be on Heaven's side in the war, 1 Sam. ii. 9. " For, by strength shall no man prevail."
4. It is of so much greater concern for us to get our spirits brought down than our outward condition raised. But who believes this? All men strive to raise their outward condition; most men never mind the bringing down of their spirits, and few there are who apply themselves to it. And what is that but to be concerned to minister drink to the thirsty sick, but never to mind to seek a cure for them, whereby their thirst may be carried oflf.
Use 2. Of exhortation. As you meet with crosses in your lot in the world, let your desire be rather to
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have your spirit humbled and brought down, than to get the cross removed. I mean not but that you may use all lawful means for the removal of your cross, in dependence on God; but only that you be more concerned to get your spirit to bow and ply, than to get the crook in your lot evened.
Motive 1. It is far more needful for us to have our spirits humbled under the cross, than to have the cross removed. The removal of the cross is needful only for the ease of the flesh, the humbling for the profit of our souls, to purify them, and bring them into a state of health and cure.
2. The humbling of the spirit will have a mighty good effect on a crossed lot, but the removal of the cross will have none on the unhumbled spirit. The humbling will lighten the cross mightily for the time, Matt. xi. 30, and in due time carry it cleanly off, 1 Pet. V. 6. But the removal of the cross is not a means to humble the unhumbled ; though it may pre- vent irritation, yet the disease still remains.
3. Think with yourselves how dangerous and hopeless a case it is to have the cross removed ere the spirit is humbled ; that is, to have the means of cure pulled away and blocked up from us, while the power of the disease is yet unbroken ; to be taken off trials ere we have given any good proof of our- selves, and so to be given over of our physician as hopeless, Isa. i. 5. Hos. iv. 17.
Use 3. For direction. Believing the gospel, take God for your God in Christ towards your eternal salvation, and then dwell much on the thoughts of God's greatness and holiness, and of your own sin- fulness ; so will you be humbled under the mighty hand of God ; and, in due time, he will lift you up. 11
104 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
1 Peter v. 6.
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of Gody that he may exalt you in due time.
In the preceding part of this chapter, the apostle presents the duties of the church officers towards the people ; and then the duty of the people, both towards their officers, and among themselves, which he winds up in one word, submission. For which causes he recommends humility as the great means to bring all to their respective duties. This is en- forced with an argument taken from the different treatment the Lord gives to the proud and the hum- ble ; his opposing himself to the one, and showing favour to the other. Our text is an exhortation drawn from that consideration ; and in it we have,
1st. The duty we are to study : " Humble your- selves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time." And therein we may notice,
(1.) The state of those, to whom it is proposed, those under the mighty hand of God, whom his hand has humbled, or brought low in respect of their circumstances in the world. And by these, I think, are meant, not only such as are under par- ticular signal afflictions, which is the lot of some, but also those who, by the providence of God, are, in any kind of way lowered, which is the lot of all. All being in a state of submission or dependence on others, God has made this life a state of trial; and for that cause he has, by his mighty hand, subjected ,men one to another, as wives, children, servants, to husbands, parents, mastej:* ; and these again to their superiors ; among whom, again, even the highest
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 105
depend on those under them, as magistrates and mi- nisters on the people, even the supreme magistrate. This state of the world God has made for the trial of men in their several stations, and dependence on others ; and therefore, when the time of trial is over, it also comes to an end. " Then cometh the end — when he shall have put down all rule and all authority, and power," 1 Cor. xv. 24, 25. Meantime, while it lasts, it makes humility necessary to all, to prompt them to the duty they owe their superiors, to whom God's mighty hand has subjected them.
(2.) The duty itself, namely. Humiliation of our spi- rits under the humbling circumstances the Lord has placed us in. " Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time." Whether we are under particular afflic- tions, which have cast us down from the height we -N^ere sometime in, or whether we are only inferiors in one or more relations ; or whether, which is most common, both these are in our case, we must therein eye the mighty hand of God, as that which placed us there, and is over us, there to hold us down in it ; and so, with an awful regard thereto, bow down un- der it, in the temper and disposition of our spirits, suiting our spirits to our lot, and careful of perform- ing the duty of our low sphere.
(3.) A particular spring of this duty; therefore we must consider, that those who cannot quietly keep the place assigned them of God in their afflictions or relations, but still press upward against the mighty hand that is over them, that mighty hand resists them, throwing them down, and often farther down than before ; whereas, it treats them with grace and favour, that compose themselves under it, to a quiet discharge of their duty in their situation ; so, eyeing this, we must set ourselves to humble ourselves.
106 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
2dly. The infallible issue of that course ; that he may exalt you in due time. The particle that^ is not always to be understood finally, as denoting the end or design the agent proposes to himself, but sometimes eventually only, as denoting the event or issue of the action, John ix. 2, 3.; 1 John ii. 19. So here, the meaning is not, Humble yourselves, on design he may exalt you ; but, and it shall issue in his exalting you. Compare James iv. 10.
(1.) Here is a happy event, of humiliation of spirit secured, and that is exaltation or lifting up on high, by the power of God, that he may exalt you. Exalting will as surely follow on humiliation of spirit, suitable to the low lot, as the morning follows the night, or the sun riseth after the dawning. And these words ar-e fitted to obviate the objections that the world and our corrupt hearts are apt to make against bringing down the spirit to the low lot. ^
Object. 1. If we let our spirit fall, we shall lie al- ways at folli.s' feet, and they will trample on us.
Ans. No ; pride of spirit unsubdued, will bring men to lie at the feet of others for ever, Isa. Ixvi. 24. But humiliation of spirit will bring them undoubtedly out from under their feet, Mai. iv. 2, 3. They that humble themselves now will be exalted for ever; they will be brought out of their low situation and circumstances. Cast ye yourselves even down with your low lot, and assure yourselves ye shall not lie there.
Object. 2. If we do not raise ourselves, none will raise us ; and therefore we must see to ourselves, to do ourselves right.
Ans. That is wrong. Humble ye yourselves in respect of your spirits, and God will raise you up in respect of your lot, or low condition ; and they that have God engaged for raising them, have no reason
DESIGN OF GOD IN AFFLICTING. 107
to say they have none to do it for them. Bringing down of the spirit is our duty, raising us up is God's work ; let us not forfeit the privilege of God's rais- ing us up, by arrogating that work to ourselves, taking it out of his hand.
Object. 3. But sure we shall never rise high, if we let our spirits fall.
Ans. That is wrong too : God will not only raise the humble ones, but he will lift them up on high ; for so the word signifies. They shall be as high at length as ever they were low, were they ever so low ; nay, the exaltation will bear proportion to the humiliation.
(2.) Here is the date of that happy event when it will fall out. In due time, or in the season, the proper season for it. Gal. vi. 9. "In due season we shall reap, if we faint not." We are apt to weary in humbling trying circumstances, and would instantly have up our head, John vii. 6. But Solomon ob- serves, There is a time for every thing when it does best, and the wise will wait for it, Eccl. iii. 1 — 8. There is a time too for exalting them that humble themselves ; God has set it, and it is the due time for the purpose, the time when it does best, even as sowing in the spring, and reaping in the harvest. When that time comes, your exalting shall no longer be put off, and it would come too soon should it come before that time.
DocT. I. The bent of one's heart, in humbling cir- cumstances, should lie towards a suitable humbling of the spirit, asunder God^s mighty hand placing us in them. We shall consider,
I, What things are supposed in this. It supposes that
11*
106 DESIGN OF GOD IN AFFLICTING.
1. God brings men into humbling circumstances, Ezek. xvii. 24. "And all the trees of the field shall know, that I the Lord have brought down the high tree." There is a root of pride in the hearts of all men on earth, that must be mortified ere they can be meet for heaven : and therefore no man can miss, in this time of trial, some things that will give a proof whether he can stoop or no. And God brings them into humbling circumstances for that very end, Deut. viii. 2. " The Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart."
2. These circumstances prove pressing as a weight on the heart, tending to bear it down, Psal. cvii. 12. " Therefore he brought down their hearts with la- bour." They strike at the grain of the heart, and cross the natural inclination : whence a trial arises, whether, when God lays on his mighty hand, the man can yield under it or not; and consequently, whether he is meet for heaven or not.
3. The heart is naturally apt to rise up against these humbling circumstances, and consequently against the mighty hand that brings and keeps them on. The man naturally bends his force to get off the weight, that he may get up his head, seeking more to please himself than to please his God, Job XXXV. 9, 10. " They cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty : but none saith, Where is God my Maker?" This is the first gate the heart runs to in humbling circumstances ; and in this way the unsub- dued spirit holds on.
4. But what God requires is, rather to labour to bring down the heart, than to get up the head, James iv. 10. Here lies the proof of one's meetness for lieaven; and then is one in the way heaven-ward,
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when he is more concerned to get down his heart than to get up his head, to go calmly under his bur- den than to get it off, to bow under the mighty hand, than to put it off him.
5. There must be a noticing of the hand of God in humbling circumstances; "Hear ye the rod, and him who hath appointed it." Mic. vi. 9. There is an abjectness of spirit, whereby some give up them- selves to the will of others in the harshest treatment, merely to please them, without regard to the authority and command of God. This is real meanness of spirit, whereby one lies quietly to be trampled on by a fellow worm, from its imaginary weight ; and none so readily fall into it as the proud, at some times, to serve their own turn. These are men-pleasers, Eph. vi. 6, with Gal. i. 10.
II. What are those humbling circumstances the mighty hand of God brings men into. Supposing here what was before taught concerning the crook in the lot being of God's making, these are circum- stances,
1. Of imperfection. God has placed all men in such circumstances under a variety of wants and im- perfections, Phil. iii. 12. We can look no where, where we are not beset with them. There is a heap of natural and moral imperfections about us : our bo- dies and our souls, in all their faculties, are in a state of imperfection. The pride of all glory is stained ; and it is a shame for us not to be humbled under such wants as attend us ; it is like a beggar strutting in his rags.
2. Of inferiority in relations, whereby men are set in the lower place in relations and society, and made to depend on others, 1 Cor. vii. 24. God has, for a trial of men's submission to himself, subjected them to others whom he has set over them, to discover
110 AFFLICTIONS DIVERSIFIED.
what regard they will pay to his authority and com- mands at second hand. Dominion or superiority is a part of the divine image shining in them, 1 Cor. xi. 7. And therefore reverence of them, consisting in an awful regard to that ray of tiie divine image shining in them, is necessarily required, Eph. v. 23; Heb. xii. 9. The same holds in all other relations and superiorities, namely, that they are so far in the place of God to their relatives, Psal. Ixxxii. 6, and though the parties be worthless in themselves, that looses not from the debt due to them. Acts xxiii. 4, 5. Rom. xiii. 7. The reason is, because it is not their qualities, but their character, which is the ground of that debt of reverence and subjection; and the trial God takes of us in that matter turns not on the point of the former, but of the latter.
Now, God having placed us in these circumstances of inferiority, all refractoriness, in all things not con- trary to the command of God, is a rising up against his mighty hand, Rom. xiii. 2, because it is medi- ately upon us for that effect, though it is a man's hand that is immediately on us.
3. Of contradiction, tending directly to balk us of our will. This was a part of our Lord's state of humiliation, and the apostle supposes it will be apart of ours too, Heb. xii. 3. There is a perfect harmony in heaven, no one to contradict another there: for they are in their state of retribution and exaltation : but we are here in our state of trial and humiliation, and therefore cannot miss contradiction, be we placed ever so high.
Whether these contradictions be just or unjust, God tries men with them to humble them, to break them off from addictedness to their own will, and to teach them resignation and self-denial. They are in their own nature humbling, and much the same to
AFFLICTIONS DIVERSIFIED. Ill
US, as the breaking of a horse or a bullock is to them. And I believe there are many cases in which there can be no accounting for them, but by recurring to this use God has for them.
4. Of affliction, Prov. xvi. 19. Prosperity puffs up sinners with pride; for it is very hard to keep a low spirit with a high and prosperous lot. But God, by affliction, calls men down from their heights to sit in the dust, plucks away their gay feathers wherein they prided themselves, rubs the paint and varnish from off the creature, whereby it appears more in its native deformity. There are various kinds of affliction, some more, some less humbhng, but all of them are humbling.
Wherefore, not to lower the spirit under the afflic- tion, is to attempt to rise up when God is casting and holding us down ; and cannot fail, if continued in, to provoke the Lord to break us in pieces, Ezek. xxiv. 13. For the afflicting hand of God is mighty.
5. Of sin, as the punishment of sin. We may- allude to that. Job XXX. 19. All the sin in the world is a punishment of Adam's first sin. Man threw himself into the mire at first, and now he is justly left weltering in it. Men wilfully make one false step, and for that cause they are justly left to make another worse ; and sin hangs about all, even the best. And this is over-ruled of God for our humi- liation, that we may be ashamed, and never open our mouth any more. Wherefore, not to be humbled under our sinfulness, is to rise up against the mighty hand of God, and to justify all our sinful departings from him, as lost to all sense of duty, and void of shame.
III. What it is in humbling circumstances, to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.
112 WHEREIN HUMILIATION CONSISTS.
This is the great thing to be aimed at in our hum- bling circumstances. And we may take it up in these eight things.
1. Noticing God's mighty hand, as employed in bringing about every thing that concerns us, either in the way of efficacy or permission, ♦' And he said. It is the Lord ; let him do what seemeth him good.'* 1 Sam. iii. 18. " And the king said, The Lord hath said unto him. Curse David: who shall then €ay, wherefore hast thou done so ?" 2 Sam. xvi. 10. He is the fountain of all perfection, but we must trace our imperfections to his sovereign will. It is he that has posted every one in their relations by his providence; without him we could not meet with such contradictions ; for, " The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water : he turneth it whithersoever he pleaseth." Prov. xxi. 1. He sends afflictions, and justly punishes one sin with another. Isa. vi. 10.
2. A sense of our own worthlessness and nothing- ness before him. Psal. cxliv. 3. Looking to the in- finite Majesty of the mighty hand dealing with us, we should say, with Abraham, Gen. xviii. 27. " Behold, I am but dust and ashes ;" and say amen to the cry. Isa. xl. 6. All flesh is grass, &:c. The keeping up of thoughts of our own excellency, under the pressure of God's mighty hand, is the very thing that swells the heart in pride, causing it to rise up against it. *And it is the letting of all such thoughts of ourselves fall before the eyes of his glory, that is the humbling required.
3. A sense of our guilt and filthiness. Rom. iii. 10. Isa. Ixiv. 6. The mighty hand doth not press us down, but as sinners ; it is meet then that under it we see our sinfulness ; our guilt, whereby we shall appear criminals justly caused to suffer; our filthi-
WHEREIN HUMILIATION CONSISTS. 113
ness, whereupon we may be brought to loath our- selves ; and then we shall think nothing lays us lower than we well deserve. It is the overlooking our sin- fulness that suffers the proud heart to swell.
4. A silent submission under the hand of God. His sovereignty challengeth this of us, Rom. ix. 20.. " Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God ?" And nothing but unsubdued pride of spirit can allow us to answer again under his sovereign hand. A view of his sovereignty humbled and awed the Psalmist into submission, with a profound silence, Psal. xxxix. 9. " I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it." — Job. i. 21. "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord." — And xl. 4, 5. " What shall I answer thee ? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will not answer; yea, twice, but I will proceed no farther." And Eli, 1 Sam. iii. 18. " It is the Lord ; let him do what seemeth him good."
5. A magnifying of his mercies towards us in the midst of all his proceedings a'gainst us, Psal. cxliv. 3. Has he laid us low ? If we be duly humbled, we shall wonder he has laid us no lower. Ezra ix. 13. For however low the humble are laid, they will see they are not yet so low as their sins deserve. Lam. iii. 22.
6. A holy and silent admiration of the ways and counsels of God, as to us unsearchable. Rom. xi. 33. Pride of heart thinks nothing too high for the man, and so arraigns before its tribunal the divine pro- ceedings, pretends to see through them, censures freely and condemns ; but humiliation of spirit dis- poses a man to think awfully and honourably of those mysteries of Providence he is not able to see through.
114 WHEREIN HUMILIATION CONSISTS.
7. A forgetting and laying aside before the Lord all our dignity, whereby we excel others, Rev. iv. 10. Pride feeds itself on the man's real or imaginary personal excellency and dignity, and, being so inured to it before others, cannot forget it before God, Luke xviii. 11. *' God, I thank thee I am not as other men." But humiliation of spirit makes it all to vanish before him as doth the shadow before the shining sun, and it lays the man, in his own eyes, lower than any. " Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man." Prov. XXX. 2.
8. A submitting readily to the meanest offices re- quisite in, or agreeable to our circumstances. Pride at every turn finds something that is below the man to condescend or stoop to, measuring by his own mind and will, not by the circumstances God has placed him in. But humility measures by the cir- cumstances one is placed in, and readily falls in with what they require. Hereof our Saviour gave us an example to be imitated, Phil. ii. 8. " Being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death." John xiii. 14. " If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash one another's feet."
Use. Of exhortation. Let the bent of your heart then, in all your humbling circumstances, be towards the humbling of your spirit, as under the mighty hand of God. This lies in two things.
1. Carefully notice all your humbling circum- stances, and overlook none of them. Observe your imperfections ; inferiority in relations ; contradictions you meet with ; your afflictions ; uncertainty of all things about you ; and your sinfulness. — Look through them designedly, and consider the steps of
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the conduct of Providence toward you in these, that ye may know yourselves, and may not be stran- gers at home, blhid to your own real slate and case.
2. Observe what these circumstances require of you, as suitable to them ; bend your endeavours to- wards it, to bring your spirits into that temper of hu- miliation, that, as your lot is really low in all these respects, so your spirits may be low too, as under the mighty hand of God. Let this be your great aim through your whole life, and your exercise every day.
Motive 1. God is certainly at work to humble one and all of us. However high any are lifted up in this world. Providence has hung certain badges for humiliation on them, whether they will notice them or not, Isa. xl. 6. Now, it is our duty to fall in with the design of providence, that while God is humbling us, we may be humbling ourselves, and that we may not receive humbling dispensations in vain.
2, The humiliation of our spirit will not take effect without our own agency therein: while God is working on us that way, we must work together with him; for he works on us as rational agents, who being moved, move themselves, Phil. ii. 12, 13. God by his providence may force down our lot and condition without us, but the spirit must come down voluntarily and of choice, or not at all; therefore, strike in with humbling providences in humbling yourselves, as mariners spread out the sails when the wind begins to blow, that they may go away before it.
3. If ye do not, ye resist the mighty hand of God, Acts vii. 51. Ye resist in so far as ye do not yield, but stand as a rock keeping your ground against your Maker in humbling providences, Jer. v. 3. " Thou has stricken them, but they have not grieved ;
12
116 MOTIVES FOR ATTAINING IT.
thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock ; they have refused to return." Much more when ye work against him to force up your condition, which ye may see God means to hold down. And of this resistance consider,
(1.) The sinfulness ; what an evil thing it is. It is a direct fighting against God, a shaking off of sub- jection to our sovereign Lord, and a rising in rebel- lion against him. Isa. xlv. 9.
(2.) The folly of it. How unequal is the match ! How can the struggle end well ? Job ix. 4. What else can possibly be the issue of the potsherds of the earth dashing against the Rock of Ages, but that they be broken to pieces ? All men must certainly bow or break under the mighty hand of God. Job xli. 8.
4. This is the time of humiliation, even the time of this life. Every thing is beautiful in its season; and the bringing down of the spirit now is beautiful, as in the time thereof, even as the plowing and sow- ing of the ground is in the spring. Consider,
(I.) Humiliation of spirit is in the sight of God of great price, 1 Pet. iii. 4. As he has a special aver- sion to pride of heart, he has a special liking of hu- mility, chap. v. 5. The humbling of sinners and bringing them down from their heights, wherein the corruption of their nature has set them, is the great end of his word, and of his providences.
(2.) It is no easy thing to humble men's spirits ; it is not a little that will do it ; it is a work that is not soon done. There is need of a digging deep for a thorough humiliation in the work of conversion, Luke vi. 48. Many a stroke must be given at the root of the tree of the natural pride of the heart ere it fall; ofttimes it seems to be fallen, and yet, it
117
arises again. And, even when the root stroke is given in believers, the rod of pride buds again, so that there is still occasion for new humbling work.
(3.) The whole time of this life is appointed for humiliation. This was signified by the forty years the Israelites had in the wilderness, Deut. viii. 2. It was so to Christ, and therefore it must be so to men, Heb. xii. 2. And in that time they must either be formed according to his image, or else appear as reprobate silver that will not take it on by any means, Rom. viii. 29. So that whatever lifting up men may now and then get in this life, the habitual course of it will still be humbling.
(4.) There is no humbling after this, Rev. xxii. 11. If the pride of the heart be not brought down in this life, it will never be ; no kindly humiliation is to be expected in the other life. There the proud will be broken in pieces, but not softened ; their lot and condition will be brought to the lowest pass, but the unhumbleness of their spirits will still remain, whence they will be in eternal agonies through the opposition betwixt their spirits and lot, Rev. xvi. 21.
Wherefore, beware lest ye sit your time of humi- liation: humbled we must be, or we are gone for ever; and this is the time, the only time of it; there- fore, make your hay while the sun shines ; strike in with humbling providences, and fight not against them while ye have them. Acts xiii. 41. The sea- son of grace will not last ; if ye sleep in seed time, ye will beg in harvest.
5. This is the way to turn humbling circumstances to a good account ; so that instead of being losers ye would be gainers by them, Psal. cxix. 71. " It is good for me that T have been afflicted." Would ye gather grapes of these thorns and thistles, set your- selves to get your spirits humbled by them.
lis MOTIVES FOR ATTAINING IT.
Humiliation of spirit is a most valuable thing in itself, Prov. xvi. 32. It calnnot be bought too dear. Whatever one is made to suffer, if his spirit is thereby duly brought down, he has what is well worth bearing all the hardships for, 1 Pet. iii. 4.
Humility of spirit brings many advantages along with it. It is a fruitful bougii, well loaden, wher- ever it is. It contributes to one's ease under the cross. Matt. xi. 30. ; Lam. iii. 27 — 29. It is a sacrifice particularly acceptable to God, Psal. li. 17. The eye of God is particularly on such for good, Isa. Ixvi. 2. " To this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." Yea he dwells with them, Isa. Ivii. 15. And it carries a line of wisdom through one's whole conduct, Prov. xi. 2. " With the lowly is wisdom."
6. Consider it is a mighty hand that is at work with us ; the hand of the mighty God ; let us then bend our spirits towards a compliance with it, and not wrestle against it. Consider,
(1.) We must fall under it. Since the design of it is to bring us down, we cannot stand before it; for it cannot miscarry in its designs, Isa. xlvi. 10. " My counsel shall stand." So fall before it we must, either in the way of duly or judgment, Psal. xlvi. 5. " Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall under thee."
(2.) They that are so wise as to fall in humili- ation under the mighty hand, be they ever so low, the same hand will raise them up again, James iv. 10. In a word, be the proud ever so high, God will bring them down: be the humble ever so low, God will raise them up.
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Directions for reaching this humiliation.
I. General Directions.
Direct. 1. Fix it in your heart to seek some spiri- tual improvement of the conduct of Providence to- wards you, Micah vi. 9. Till once your heart get a set that way, your humiliation is not to be expected, Hosea xiv. 9. But nothing is more reasonable, if we would act either like men or Christians, than to aim at turning what is so grievous to the flesh unto the profit of the spirit ; that if we are losers on one hand, we may be gainers on another.
2. Settle the matter of your eternal salvation, in the first place, by betaking yourself to Christ, and taking God for your God in him, according to the gospel-ofl'er, Hos. ii. 19. ; Heb. viii. 10. Let your humbling circumstances move you to this, and while the creature dries up, you may go to the Fountain : for it is impossible to reach due humiliation under his mighty hand, without faith in him as your God and friend, Heb. xi. 6 ; 1 John iv. 19.
3. Use the means of soul-humbling in the faith of the promise, Psal. xxviii. 7. Moses, smiting the rock in faith of the promise, made water gush out, which otherwise would not at all have appeared. Let us do likewise in dealing with our rocky hearts. They must be laid on the soft bed of the gospel, and struck there, as Joel ii. 13. " Turn to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful :" or they will never kindly break or fall in humiliation.
II. Particular Directions.
1. Assure yourselves that there are no circum- stances that you are in so humbling, but you may get your heart acceptably brought down to them, 12*
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1 Cor. X. 13. "But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." This is truth, 2 Cor. xii. 9. "My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness." And you should be persuaded of it, with application to your- selves, if ever you would reach the end. Phil. iv. 13*. *' 1 can do all things througli* Christ which strength- eneth me." God allows you to be persuaded of it, whatever is your weakness and the difficulty of the task. " For our sakes this is written. That he that ploweth should plow in hope ; and he that thresheth in hope, should be partaker of his hope." 1 Cor. ix. 10. And the belief thereof is a piece of the life of faith, 2 Tim. ii. 1. If you have no hope of success, your endeavours, as they will be heart- less, so they will be vain. " Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down, and the feeble knees." Heb. xii. 12.
2. Whatever hand is, or is not, in your humbling circumstances, do you take God for your party, and consider yourselves therein as under his mighty hand, iMicah vi. 9. Men in their humbling circum- stances overlook God; so they find not themselves called to humility under them ; they fix their eyes on the creature instrument, and instead of humility, their hearts rise. But take him for your party that ye may remember the battle, and do no more. Job xii. 8.
3. Be much in the thoughts of God's infinite greatness; consider his holiness and majesty, to awe you into the deepest humiliation, Isa. vi. 3 — 5. Job met with many humbling providences in his case, but he was never sufficiendy humbled under them, till the Lord made a new discovery of himself unto
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him, in his infinite majesty and greatness. He kept his ground against his friends, and stood to his points, till the Lord took that method with him. It was begun with thunder, Job xxxvii. 1, 2. Then followed Goci's voice out of the whirlwind, chap,