^ 
 * 
 
 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 
 
IMPROVEMENT OF THE SUBJECT. 101 
 
 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 
 
IMPROVEMENT OF THE SUBJECT. 103 
 
 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, 
 
AFFLICTIONS DIVERSIFIED. 109 
 
 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 
 
MOTIVES FOR ATTAINING IT, 115 
 
 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. 
 
DIRECTIONS FOR THIS PURPOSE. 119 
 
 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* 
 
120 DIRECTIONS FOR THIS PURPOSE. 
 
 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 
 
DIRECTIONS FOR THIS PURPOSE. 131 
 
 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, 
 xxxviii. 1, whereon Job is brought down, chap. xl. 4. 
 5. It is renewed till he is farther humbled, chap. xlii. 
 5, 6. " Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in 
 dust and ashes." 
 
 4. Inure yourselves silently to admit mysteries in 
 the conduct of Providence towards you, which you 
 are not able to comprehend, but will adore, Rom. 
 xi. 33. " O the depth of the riches, both of the 
 wisdom and knowledge of God ! how unsearchable 
 are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" 
 That was the first word God said to Job, xxxviii. 2. 
 " Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words w^ith- 
 out knowledge ?" It went to his heart, stuck with 
 him, and he comes over it again, chap. xlii. 3, as 
 that which particularly brought him to his knees, to 
 the dust. Even in those steps of Providence, which 
 we seem to see far into, we may well allow there are 
 some mysteries beyond what we see. And in those 
 which are perplexing and puzzling, sovereignty 
 should silence us ; his infinite wisdom should satisfy 
 though we cannot see. 
 
 5. Be much in the thoughts of your own sinful- 
 ness. Job xl. 4. " Behold I am vile, what shall I 
 answer thee ? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth." 
 It is overlooking of that which gives us so much 
 ado with humbling circumstances. While the eyes 
 are held that they cannot see sin, the heart riseth 
 against them ; but when they are opened, it falls. 
 Wherefore, whenever God is dealing with you in 
 humbling dispensations, turn your eyes, upon that 
 oocasion, on the sinfulness of your nature, heart 
 
122 DIRECTIONS FOR THIS PURPOSE. 
 
 and life, and that will help forward your humili- 
 ation. 
 
 6. Settle it in your heart, that there is need of all 
 the humbling circumstances you are put in. This is 
 truth, 1 Pet. i. 6. " Though now for a season (if 
 need be) ye are in heaviness through manifold temp- 
 tations." God brings no needless trials upon us, 
 afflicts none but as their need requires. Lam. iii. 33. 
 " For he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the 
 children of men." That is an observable difference 
 betwixt our earthly and our heavenly Father's cor- 
 rection, Heb. xii. 10. " They, after their own plea- 
 sure ; but HE for our profit, that we might be par- 
 takers of his holiness." Look to the temper of your 
 own hearts and nature, how apt to be lifted up, to 
 forget God, to be carried away with the vanities of 
 the world : what foolishness is bound up in your 
 heart! Thus you will see the i>eed of humbling cir- 
 cumstances for ballast, and of the rod for the fool's 
 back ; and if at any time you cannot see that need, 
 believe it on the ground of God's infinite wisdom, 
 that does nothing in vain. 
 
 7. Believe a kind design of Providence in them 
 towards you. God calls us to this, as the key that 
 opens the heart under them. Rev. iii. 19. Satan sug- 
 gests suspicions to the contrary, as the bar which 
 may hold it shut, 2 Kings vi. 33. " This evil is of 
 the Lord, what should I wait for the Lord any 
 longer?" As long as the suspicion of an ill design 
 in them against us reigns, the creature will, like the 
 worm at the man's feet, put itself in the best posture 
 of defence it can, and harden itself in sorrow: but 
 the faith of a kind design will cause it to open out 
 itself in humility before him. 
 
 Case. " ! if I knew there were a kind design in 
 it, I would willingly bear it, although there were 
 
ADDITIONAL MOTIVES URGED. 123 
 
 more of it ; but I fear a ruining design of Providence 
 against nie therein." 
 
 Ans. Now, what word of God, or discovery from 
 Heaven, have you to ground these fears upon? 
 None at all' but from hell, 1 Cor. x. 13. What 
 think you the design towards you in the gospel is? 
 Can you believe no kind design in all the words 
 of grace there heaped up? What is that, I pray, but 
 black unbelief in its hue of hell, flying in the face of 
 the truth of God, and making him a liar, Isa. Iv. 1. 
 1 John V. 10, 11. The gospel is a breathing of love 
 and good-will to the world of mankind sinners, Tilus 
 ii. 11; iii. 3, 4 ; 1 John iv. 14; John iii. 17. But 
 ye believe it not, in that case, more than devils believe 
 it. If he can believe a kind design there, ye must be- 
 lieve it in your humbling circumstances too ; for the 
 design of Providence cannot be contrary to the design 
 of the gospel ; but contrariwise, the latter is to help 
 forward to the other. 
 
 8. Think with yourselves, that this life is the time 
 of trial for heaven, 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." And there- 
 fore there should be a welcoming of humbling cir- 
 cumstances in that view, ver. 2. " Count it all joy 
 when ye fall into divers temptations." If there is 
 an honourable office, or beneficial employment to be 
 bestowed, men strive to be taken on trial for it, in 
 hope they may be thereupon legally admitted to it. 
 Now God takes trial of men for heaven by humbling 
 circumstances, as the whole Bible teacheth ; and 
 shall men be so very loth to stoop to them? I 
 would ask you. 
 
 (1.) Is it nothinsf to you to stand a candidate for 
 glory, to be put on trial for heaven ? Is there not 
 
124 ADDITIONAL MOTIVES URGED. 
 
 an honour in it, an honour which all the saints have 
 had? James v. 10, 11. "Behold we count them 
 happy that endure," &;c. And a fair prospect in it, 
 2 Cor. iv. 17. For our light affliction, which is but 
 for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding 
 and eternal weight of glory." Do but put the case, 
 that God should overlook you in that case, as one 
 whom it is needless ever to try on that head ; that he 
 should order you your portion in this life with full 
 ease, as one that is to get no more of him ; what 
 would that be ? 
 
 (2.) What a vast disproportion is there between 
 your trials and the future glory ? Your most hum- 
 bling circumstances, how light are they in compari- 
 son of the weight of it ! The longest continuance of 
 them is but for a moment, compared with that eter- 
 nal weight. Alas ! there is much unbelief at the root 
 of all our uneasiness under our humbling circum- 
 stances. Had we a clearer view of the other world, 
 we should not make so much of either the smiles or 
 frowns of this. 
 
 (3.) What think ye of coming foul off in the trial 
 of your humbling circumstances ? Jer. vi. 29, 30. 
 "The lead is consumed of the fire; the founder 
 melteth in vain ; for the wicked are not plucked 
 away. Reprobate silver shall men call them, because 
 the Lord hath rejected them." That the issue of it 
 be only, that your heart appear of such a temper as 
 by no means to be humbled ; and that therefore you 
 must and shall be taken off them, while yet no hum- 
 bling appears. I think the awfulness of the dispen- 
 sation is such, as might set us to our knees to 
 deprecate the lifting us up from our humbling cir- 
 cumstances, ere our hearts are humbled, Isa. i. 5. 
 Ezek. xxiv. 13. 
 
 9. Think with yourselves, how, by humbling cir- 
 
ADDITIONAL MOTIVES URGED. 125 
 
 cumstances, the Lord prepares us for heaven, " Giv- 
 ing thanks unto the Father, who hath made us meet 
 to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in 
 light," Col. i. 12; 2 Cor. v. 5. The stones and 
 timber are laid down, turned over and over, and 
 hewed, ere they be set up in the building; and not 
 set up just as they come out of the quarry and wood. 
 Were they capable of a choice, such of them as 
 would refuse the iron tool would be refused a place 
 in the building. Pray, how think ye to be made 
 meet for heaven, by the warm sunshine of this 
 world's ease, and getting all your will here? Nay, 
 Sirs, that would put your mouth out of taste for the 
 joys of the other world. Vessels of dishonour are 
 fitted for destruction that way ; but vessels of honour 
 for glory by humbling circumstances. I would here 
 say, 
 
 (1.) Will nothing please you but two heavens, 
 one here, another hereafter ? God has secured one 
 heaven for the saints, one place where they shall get 
 all their will, wish, and desire ; where there shall be 
 no weight on them to hold them down ; and that is 
 in the other world. But ye must have it both here 
 and there, or ye cannot digest it. Why do you not 
 quarrel too, that there are not two summers in one 
 year ; two days in the twenty-four hours ? The order 
 of the one heaven is as firm as that of the years and 
 days, and ye cannot reverse it: therefore, choose ye 
 whether you will take your night or your day first, 
 your winter or your summer, your heaven here or 
 hereafter. 
 
 (2.) Without being humbled with humbling cir- 
 cumstances in this life, ye are not capable of heaven, 
 2 Cor. V. 5. " Now, he that hath wrought us for 
 the self-same thing is God." You may indeed lie 
 at ease here in a bed of sloth, and dream of heaven, 
 
126 ADDITIONAL MOTIVES URGED. 
 
 big with hopes of a fool's paradise, wishing to cast 
 yourselves just out of Delilah's lap into Abraham's 
 bosom ; but except ye be humbled, ye are not 
 capable. 
 
 (1.) Of the Bible-heaven, that heaven described 
 in the Old and New Testaments. Is not that heaven 
 a lifting up in due time ? But, how shall ye be 
 lifted up that are never well got down ? Where will 
 your tears be to be wiped away? What place will 
 there be for your triumph, who will not fight the good 
 fight? How can it be a rest to you, who cannot sub- 
 mit to labour? 
 
 (2.) Of the saints' heaven, Rev. vii. 14. " And 
 he said unto me. These are they which came out of 
 great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and 
 made them white in the blood of the Lamb." This 
 answers the question about Abraham, Isaac and 
 Jacob, and all ihe saints with them there : they were 
 brought down to the dust by humbling 'circum- 
 stances, and out of these they came before the throne. 
 How can ye ever think to be lifted up with them with 
 whom ye cannot think to be brought down? 
 
 (3.) Of Christ's heaven, Heb. xii. 2. " Who for 
 the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, 
 despising the shame, and is now set down at the 
 right hand of God." O ! consider how the Fore- 
 runner made his way, Luke xxiv. 26. " Ought not 
 Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter 
 into his glory?" And lay your account with it, that 
 if ye get where he is, ye must go thither as he went, 
 Luke ix. 23. " And he said. If any man will come 
 after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross 
 daily, and follow me." 
 
 10. Give up at length with your towering hopes 
 from this world, and confine them to the world to 
 come. Be as pilgrims and strangers here, looking 
 
ADDITIONAL DIRECTIONS GIVEN. 127 
 
 for your rest in heaven, and not till ye come there. 
 There is a prevailing evil, Isa. Ivii. 10. "Thou art 
 v/earied in the greatness of thy way: yet saidst thou 
 not, There is no hope." So the Babel-building is 
 still continued, though it has fallen down again and 
 again : for men say, " The bricks are fallen down, 
 but we will build with hewn stones ; the sycamores 
 are cut down, but we will change them into cedars." 
 Isa. ix. 10. This makes humbling work very long- 
 some ; we are so hard to quit hold of the creature, 
 to fall off from the breast and be weaned : but fasten 
 on the other world, and let your hold of this go ; so 
 shall ye " be humbled" indeed under " the mighty 
 hand." The faster you hold the happiness of that 
 world, the easier will it be to accommodate your- 
 selves to your humbling circumstances here. 
 
 11. Make use of Christ in all his offices, for your 
 humiliation under your humbling circumstances. 
 That only is kindly humiliation that comes in this 
 way, Zech, xii. 10. " And they shall look upon me 
 whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn," (fee. 
 This you must do by trusting on him for that effect, 
 
 (1.) As a Priest for you. You have a conscience, 
 full of guilt, and that will make one uneasy in any 
 circumstances; and far more in humbling circum- 
 stances; it will be like a thorn in the shoulder on 
 which a burden is laid. But the blood of Christ will 
 purge the conscience, draw out the thorn, give ease, 
 Isa. xxxiii. 24, and fit for service, doing or suffering, 
 Heb. ix. 14. " How much more shall the blood of 
 Christ — purge your conscience from dead works to 
 serve the living God ?" 
 
 (2.) As your Prophet to teach you. We have 
 
 need to be taught rightly to discern our humbling 
 
 circumstances; for, often we mistake them so far, 
 
 that they prove an oppressive load ; whereas, could 
 
 13 
 
128 THE HUMBLE SHALL BE LIFTED UP. 
 
 we rightly see them, just as God sets them to us, 
 they would be humbling, but not so oppressive. 
 Truly we need Christ, and the light of his word and 
 Spirit, to let us see our cross and trial as well as our 
 duty, Psal. xxv. 9, 10. 
 
 (3.) As your King. You have a stiff heart, loth 
 to bow, even in humbling circumstances : take a 
 lesson from Moses what to do in such a case, Exod. 
 xxxiv. 9. *' And he said, Let my Lord, I pray 
 thee, go amongst us, (for it is a stiff-necked people,) 
 and pardon our iniquity and our sin." Put it in his 
 hand that is strong and mighty, Psal. xxiv. 8. He 
 is able to cause it to melt, and, like wax before the 
 fire, turn to the seal. 
 
 Think on these directions, in order to put them in 
 practice, remembering: if ye know these things, 
 happy are ye if ye do them. Remember humbling 
 work is a work that will fill your hand, while you 
 live here, and that you cannot come to the end of it 
 till death ; and humbling circumstances will attend 
 you, while you are in this lower world. A change 
 of them ye may get; but a freedom from them ye 
 cannot, till ye come to heaven. So the humbling 
 circumstances of our imperfections, relations, contra- 
 dictions, afflictions, uncertainties, and sinfulness, will 
 afford matter of exercise to us while here. — What 
 remains of the purpose of this text, 1 shall com- 
 prise in, 
 
 DocT. IL There is a due time, wherein those that 
 now humble themselves under the mighty hand of 
 God will certainly be lifted up, 
 
 1. Those who shall share of this lifting up, must 
 lay their account, in the first place, with a casting 
 down, Rev. vii. 14. ; John xvi. 33. *• In the world 
 
HUMILIATION NECESSARY. 129 
 
 ye shall have tribulation." There is no coming to 
 the promised land, according to the settled method 
 of grace, but through the wilderness ; nor entering 
 into this exaltation, but through a strait gate. If we 
 cannot away with the casting down, we shall not 
 taste the sweet of the lifting up. 
 
 2. Being cast down by the mighty hand of God, 
 we must learn to lie still and quiet under it, till the 
 same hand that cast us down raise us up, if we 
 would share of this promised lifting up. Lam. iii. 
 27. It is not the being cast down into humbling 
 circumstances, by the providence of God, but the 
 coming down of our spirits under them, by the grace 
 of God, that brings us within the compass of this 
 promise. 
 
 3. Those who are never humbled in humbling cir- 
 cumstances shall never be lifted up in the way of this 
 promise. Men may keep their spirits on the high 
 bend in their humbling circumstances, and in that 
 case may get a lifting up, Prov. xvi. 19; but such 
 a lifting up, as will end in a more grievous fall. 
 '* Surely thou didst set them in slippery places, thou 
 castedst them down in a moment." Psalm Ixxiii. 18. 
 But they who will not humble themselves in hum- 
 bling circumstances, will find that their obstinacy 
 will keep their misery ever fast on them without 
 remedy. 
 
 4. Humility of spirit, in humbling circumstances, 
 ascertains a lifting up out of them some time, with 
 the good- will and favour of heaven, Luke xviii. 14. 
 " I tell you this man went down to his house justified 
 rather than the other ; for every one that exalteth 
 himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth him- 
 self shall be exalted." Solomon observes, Prov. 
 XV. 1. that " a soft answer turneth away wrath ; but 
 grievous words stir up anger." And so it is, that 
 
130 THERE MUST BE A WAITING TIME. 
 
 while the proud, through their obstinacy, do but 
 wreathe the yoke faster about their own necks, the 
 humble ones, by their yielding, make their relief 
 sure, 1 Sam. ii. 8 — 10. " He raiseth up the poor 
 out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the 
 dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make 
 them inherit the throne of glory. He will keep the 
 feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in 
 darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail. The 
 adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces." 
 So cannon will break down a stone wall, while yield- 
 ing packs of wool will take away its force. 
 
 5. There is an appointed time for the lifting up of 
 those that humble themselves in their humbling cir- 
 cumstances, Hab. ii. 3. " For the vision is yet for 
 an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and 
 not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will 
 surely come, it will not tarry." To every thing 
 there is a time, as for humbling, so for lifting up, 
 Eccles. iii. 3. We know it not, but God knows it, 
 who hath appointed it. Let not the humble one say, 
 I shall never be lifted up. There is a time fixed for 
 it, as precisely as for the rising of the sun after a long 
 and dark night, or the return of the spring after a 
 long and sharp winter. 
 
 6. It is not to be expected, that immediately upon 
 one's humbling himself, the lifting up is to follow. 
 No : one is not merely to lie down under the mighty 
 hand, but to lie still, waiting the due time; hum- 
 bling work is longsome work; the Israelites had 
 forty years of it in the wilderness. God's people 
 must be brought to put a blank in his hand, as to 
 the time ; and while they have a long night of walk- 
 ing iu darkness, must trust, Isa. I. 10. " Who is 
 among you, that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the 
 voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and 
 
THERE IS A TWO-FOLD LIFTING UP. 131 
 
 hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the 
 Lord, and stay upon his God." 
 
 7. The appointed time for the lifting up is the due 
 time, the time fittest for it, wherein it will come most 
 seasonably. " And let us not be weary in well- 
 doing; for, in due season we shall reap, if we faint 
 not," Gal. vi. 9. For that is the time God has 
 chosen for it; and be sure his choice, as the choice 
 of infinite wisdom, is the best; and therefore faith 
 sets to wait it, Isa. xxviii. 16. " He that believeth 
 shall not make haste." Much of the beauty of any 
 thing depends on the timing of it, and he has fixed 
 that in all that he does, Eccl. iii. 11. "He hath 
 made every thing beautiful in his time." 
 
 8. The lifting up of the humble will not fail to 
 come in the appointed and due time, Hab. ii. 3. 
 Time makes no halting, it is running day and night; 
 so the due time is fast coming, and when it comes, it 
 will bring the lifting up along with it. Let the hum- 
 bling circumstances be ever so low, ever so hopeless, 
 it is impossible but the lifting up from them must 
 come in the due time. 
 
 A word, in tlie general, to the lifting up, abiding 
 those that humble themselves. There is a two-fold 
 lifting up. 
 
 1. A partial lifting up, competent to the humbled 
 in time, during this life, Psal. xxx. 1. " I will extol 
 thee, O Lord, for thou hast lifted me up, and hast 
 not made my foes to rejoice over me." This is a 
 lifting up in part, and but in part, not wholly ; and 
 such liftings up the humbled may expect, while in 
 this world, but no more. — These give a breathing to 
 the weary, a change of burdens, but do not set them 
 at perfect ease. So Israel, in the wilderness, in the 
 midst of their many mourning times, had some sing- 
 ing ones, Exod. xv. 1 ; Numbers xxi. 17. 
 13* 
 
132 THE ONE PARTIAL, THE OTHER TOTAL. 
 
 2, A total lifting up, competent to them at the 
 end of lime, at death, Luke xvi. 22. " It came to 
 pass, that the beggar died, and was carried, by the 
 angels, into Abraham's bosom." Then the Lord 
 deals with them no more by parcels, but carries 
 their relief to perfection, Heb. xii. 22, 23. Then 
 he takes off all their burdens, eases them of all their 
 weights, and lays no more on forever. He then lifts 
 them up to a height they were never at before ; no, 
 not even at their higliest. He sets them quite above 
 all that is low, and therein fixes them, never to be 
 brought down more. Now, there is a due time for 
 both these. 
 
 (1.) For the partial lifting up. Every time is not 
 fit for it; we are not always fit to receive comfort 
 and ease, or a change of our burdens. God sees 
 there are times wherein it is needful for his people 
 to be " in heaviness," 1 Pet. i. 6, to have their 
 *' hearts brought down with grief," Psal. cvii. 12. 
 But then there is a time really appointed for it in 
 the divine wisdom, when he will think it as needful to 
 comfort them, as before to bring down, 2 Cor. ii. 7. 
 ** So that, contrarywise, ye ought rather to forgive, 
 and comfort him, lest perhaps such an one should be 
 swallowed up with over much sorrow." We are, in 
 that case, in the hand of God, as in the hand of our 
 physician, who appoints the time the drawing plaster 
 shall continue, and when the healing plaster shall be 
 applied, and leaves it not to the patient. 
 
 (2.) For the total lifting up. When we are sore 
 oppressed with our burdens, we are ready to think, 
 Oh ! to be away, and set beyond them all. Job vii. 
 2, 3. " As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, 
 and as an hireling lookelh for the reward of his 
 work ; so am I made to possess months of vanity, 
 and wearisome nights are appointed to me." But 
 
THE LIFTING UP OF THE HUMBLE SURE. 133 
 
 it may be fitter, for all that, that we stay awhile, and 
 struggle with our burdens, Phil. i. 24, 25. " Ne- 
 vertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for 
 you. And having this confidence, I know that I 
 shall abide and continue with you all, for your fur- 
 therance and joy of faith." A few days might have 
 taken Israel out of Egypt into Canaan ; but they 
 would have been too soon there, if they had made 
 all that speed ; so they behoved to spend forty years 
 in the wilderness, till their due time of entering Ca- 
 naan should come. And be sure the saints entering 
 heaven will be convinced, that the time of it is best 
 chosen, and there will be a beauty in that it was no 
 sooner. And thus a lifting up is secured for the 
 humble. 
 
 If one should assure you, when reduced to po- 
 verty, that the time would certainly come yet, 
 that you should be rich; when sore sick, that you 
 should not die of that disease, but certainly recover; 
 that would help you to bear your poverty and sick- 
 ness the better, and you would comfort yourselves 
 with that prospect. However, one may continue 
 poor, and never be rich, may be sick, and die of his 
 disease ; but whoever humble themselves under their 
 humbling circumstances, we can assure them from 
 the Lord's word they shall certainly, without all per- 
 adventure, be lifted up out of, and relieved from, 
 their humbling circumstances: they shall certainly 
 see the day of their ease and relief, when they shall 
 remember their burdens as waters that fail. And 
 you may be assured thereof, from the following con- 
 siderations. 
 
 The nature of God, duly considered, ensures it, 
 Psal. ciii. 8, 9. " The Lord is merciful and gracious, 
 slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will 
 not always chide ; neither will he keep his anger for 
 
134 FROM THE PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 
 
 ever." The humbled soul, looking to God in Christ, 
 may see three things, in hisnature jointly securing it. 
 
 1. Infinite power, that can do all things. No cir- 
 cumstances are so low, but he can raise them ; so 
 entangling and perplexing, but he can unravel them ; 
 so hopeless, but he can remedy them. Gen. xviii. 14. 
 " Is any thing too hard for the Lord ?" Be our case 
 what it will, it is never past reach with him to help 
 it ; but then, it is the most proper season for him to 
 take it in hand, when all others have given it over, 
 Deut. xxxii. 36. " For the Lord shall judge his 
 people, and repent himself for his servants ; when he 
 seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut 
 up, or left." 
 
 2. Infinite goodness inclining to help. He is good 
 and gracious in his nature, Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7. And 
 therefore his power is a spring of comfort to them, 
 Rom. xiv. 4. Men may be willing that are notable, 
 or able that are not willing; but infinite goodness, 
 joining infinite power in God, may ascertain the 
 humbled of a lifting up in due time. That is a word 
 of inconceivable sweetness, 1 John iv. 16. " And 
 we have known and believed the love that God hath 
 unto us. God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love, 
 dwelleth in God, and God in him." He has the 
 bowels of a father towards the humble, Psal. ciii. 13. 
 " Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord 
 pitieth them that fear him." Yea, bowels of mercy 
 more tender than a mother to her*sucking child, Isa. 
 xlix. 15. Wherefore, howbeit his wisdom may see 
 it necessary to put them in humbling circumstances, 
 and keep them there for a time, it is not possible he 
 can leave them therein altogether. 
 
 3. Infinite wisdom, that doth nothing in vain, and 
 therefore will not needlessly keep one in humbling 
 circumstances, Lam. iii. 32, 33. "But though he 
 
FROM THE REVOLUTIONS OF NATURE. 135 
 
 cause grief, yet will he have compassion according 
 to the multitude of his mercies ; for he dolh not 
 afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." 
 God sends afflictions for humbling, as the end and 
 design to be brought about by them ; when what is 
 obtained, and there is no more use for them that way, 
 we may assure ourselves they will be taken off. 
 
 The providence of God, viewed in its stated me- 
 thods of procedure with its objects, ensures it. Turn 
 your eyes which way you will on the divine provi- 
 dence, you may conclude thence, that in due time 
 the humble will be lifted up. 
 
 Observe the providence of God, in the revolutions 
 of the whole course of nature, day succeeding to the 
 longest night, a summer to the winter, a waxing to 
 a waning of the moon, a flowing to an ebbing of the 
 sea, (fee. Let not the Lord's humbled ones be idle 
 spectators of these things : they are for our learning, 
 Jer. xxxi. 35 — 37. " Thus saith the Lord, which 
 giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances 
 of the moon, and of the stars for a light by night, 
 which divideth the sea, when the waves thereof 
 roar; the Lord of hosts is his name. If those ordi- 
 nances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then 
 the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation 
 before me for ever." Will the Lord's hand keep such 
 a steady course in the earth, sea, and visible hea- 
 vens, as to bring a lifting up in them after a casting 
 down, and only forget his humbled ones? No, by 
 no means. 
 
 Observe the providence of God, in the dispensa- 
 tions thereof, about the man Christ, the most no- 
 ble and august object thereof, more valuable than 
 a thousand worlds. Col. ii. 9. Did not providence 
 keep this course with him, first humbling him, then 
 exalting him, and lifting him up ? first bringing him 
 
136 THE HUMILIATION AND EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 lo the dust of death, in a course of sufferings thirty- 
 three years, then exalting Iiim to the Father's right 
 hand in an eternity of glory ? Heb. xii. 2. " Who 
 for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, 
 despising the shame, and is now set down at the right 
 hand of the throne of God." Phil. ii. 8, 9. *' And 
 being found in fashion as a man, he humbled him- 
 self, and became obedient unto death, even the death 
 of the cross; wherefore God also hath highly ex- 
 alted him." The exaltation could not fail to follow 
 his humiliation, Luke xxiv. 26. " Ought not Christ 
 to have suffered these things, and to enter into his 
 glory ?" And he saw and believed it would follow, 
 as the springing of the seed doth the sowing it, John 
 xii. 24. There is a near concern the humbled in 
 humbling circumstances have herein. 
 
 This is the pattern Providence copies after in its 
 conduct towards you. The Father was so well 
 pleased with this method, in the case of his own Son, 
 that it was determined to be followed, and just co- 
 pied over again in the case of all the heirs of glory, 
 Rom. viii. 29. " For whom he did foreknow, he also 
 did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his 
 Son, that he " might be the first born among many 
 brethren." And who would not be pleased to walk 
 through the darkest valley treading his steps ? 
 
 This is a sure pledge of your lifting up. Christ, 
 in his state of humiliation, was considered as a pub- 
 lic person and representative, and so is he in his 
 exaltation. So Christ's exaltation ensures your 
 exaltation out of your humbling circumstances, 
 " Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead 
 body shall they arise ; awake and sing, ye that dwell 
 in the dust," Isa. xxvi. 19. " Come and let us return 
 unto the Lord : for he hath torn, and he will heal us ; 
 he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two 
 
THE DISPENSATIONS OF PROVIDENCE. 137 
 
 days he will revive us: in the third day, he will 
 raise us up, and we shall live in his sight." Hos. vi. 
 1, 2. And hath raised us up together, and made us 
 sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Eph. 
 ii. 6. Yea, he is gone into the state of glory for us 
 as our forerunner. "Whither the forerunner is for 
 lis entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever." 
 Heb. vi. 20. 
 
 His humiliation was the price of your exaltation, 
 and his exaltation a testimony of the acceptance 
 of its payment to the full. There are no humbling 
 circumstances ye are in, but ye would have perished 
 in them, had not he purchased your lifting up out of 
 them by his own humiliation, Isa. xxvi. 19. Now, 
 his humbling grace in you is an evidence of the ac- 
 ceptance of his humiliation for your lifting up. 
 
 Observe the providence of God towards the church 
 in all ages. This has been the course the Lord has 
 kept with her, Psal. cxxix. 1 — 4. Abel was slain 
 by wicked Cain, to the great grief of Adam and Eve, 
 and the rest of their pious children ; but then there 
 was another seed raised up in Abel's room. Genesis 
 iv. 25. Noah and his sons were buried alive in the 
 ark for more than a year: but then they were brought 
 out into a new world and blessed. Abraham .for 
 many years went childless ; but at length Isaac was 
 born. Israel was long in miserable bondage in 
 Egypt ; but at length seated in the promised land, &;c. 
 We must be content to go by the footsteps of the 
 flock ; and if in humiliation, we shall surely follow 
 them in exaltation too. 
 
 Observe the providence of God in the dispensa- 
 tions of his grace towards his children. The general 
 rule is, 1 Pet. v. 5. " For God resisteth the proud, 
 and giveth grace to the humble." How are they 
 brought into a state of grace ? Is it not by a sound 
 
138 THE DOCTRINES OF THE WORD. 
 
 work of humiliation going before? Luke vi. 48. And 
 ordinarily the greater the measure of grace designed 
 for any, the deeper is their humiliation before, as in 
 Paul's case. If they are to be recovered out of a 
 backsliding case, the same method is followed : so 
 that the deepest humiliation ordinarily makes way 
 for the greatest comfort, and the darkest hour goes 
 before the rising of the Sun of righteousness upon 
 them, Isa. Ixvi. 5 — 13. 
 
 Observe the providence of God at length throw- 
 ing down wicked men, however long they stand and 
 prosper, Psal. xxxvii. 25, 36. "I have seen the 
 wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a 
 green bay tree ; yet he passed away, and lo he was 
 not; yea, I sought him but he could not be found." 
 They are long green before the sun, but at length 
 they are suddenly smitten with an east wind, and 
 wither away; their lamp goes out with a stench, and 
 they are put out in obscure darkness. Now, it is 
 inconsistent with the benignity of the divine nature, 
 to forget the humble to raise them, while he minds 
 the proud to abase them. 
 
 The word of God puts it beyond all peradventure, 
 which, from the beginning to the end, is the humbled 
 saint's security for a lifting up, Psal. cxix. 49, 50. 
 "Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which 
 thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort 
 in my affliction ; for thy word hath quickened me.'* 
 His word is the great letter of his name, which he 
 will certainly cause to shine, Psal. cxxxviii. 2. " For 
 thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name ;" 
 and in all generations hast been safely relied on, 
 Psal. xii. 6. Consider 
 
 1. The doctrines of the word, which leach faith 
 and hope for the time, and the happy issue which 
 the exercise of these graces will have. The whole 
 
THE PROMISES AND EXAMPLES OF THE WORD. 139 
 
 current of Scripture, to those in humbling circum- 
 stances, is, " not to cast away their confidence, but 
 to hope to the end;" and that for this good reason, 
 that " it shall not be in vain." See Psal. xxvii. 14. 
 " Wait on the Lord ; be of good courage, and he 
 shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the 
 Lord." And compare Rom. ix. 33; Isa. xlix. 23. 
 " For they shall not be ashamed that wait for me." 
 
 2. The promises of the word, whereby hea- 
 ven is expressly engaged for a lifting up to those 
 that humble themselves in humbling circumstances, 
 *' Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and 
 he shall lift you up," James iv. 10. " And he that 
 humbleth himself shall be exalted," Matt, xxiii. 12. 
 It may take a time to prepare them for lifting up, 
 but that being done, it is secured, " Lord, thou 
 hast heard the desire of the humble; thou wilt pre- 
 pare their heart ; thon wilt cause thine ear to hear," 
 Psal. x. 17. They have his word for deliverance, 
 Psal. 1. 15. And though they may seem to be for- 
 gotten, they shall not be always so; the time of 
 their deliverance will come. " For the needy shall 
 not always be forgotten: the expectation of the poor 
 shall not perish for ever," Psal. ix. 18. " He will 
 regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise 
 their prayer," Psa. cii. 17. 
 
 3. The examples of the word sufficiently con- 
 firming|lhe truth of the doctrines and promises, Rom. 
 XV. 4. '* For whatsoever things were written afore- 
 time, were written for our learning ; that we through 
 patience and comfort of the scriptures might have 
 hope." In the doctrines and promises the lifting up 
 is proposed to our faith, to be reckoned on the 
 credit of God's word ; but, in the examples it is, in 
 the case of others, set before our eyes to be seen. 
 James v. 11. '* Behold we count them happy which 
 
 14 
 
140 THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 
 
 endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and 
 have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very- 
 pitiful, and of tender mercy." There we see it in 
 the case of Abraham, Job, David, Paul, and other 
 saints; but above all, in the case of the man Christ. 
 
 4. The intercession of Christ, joining the prayers 
 and cries of his humbled people, in their humbling 
 circumstances, ensures a lifting up for them at length. 
 Be it so, that the proud cry not when he bindeth 
 them ; yet his own humbled ones will certainly cry 
 unto him, Psal. xlii. 7, 8. " Deep calleth unto deep, 
 at the noise of thy water spouts ; all thy waves and 
 thy billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will 
 command his loving-kindness in the day-time, and 
 in the night his song shall be with me, and my 
 prayer unto the God of my life." And though un- 
 believers may soon be outwearied, and give it over 
 altogether, surely believers will not do so ; but though 
 they may, in a fit of temptation, lay it by as hope- 
 less, they will find themselves obliged to take it up 
 again, Jer. xx. 9. " Then I said, I will not make 
 mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. 
 But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire 
 shut up in my bones and I was weary with forbear- 
 ing, and I could not stay.'' They will cry, night 
 and day, unto him, Luke xviii. 7, knowing no time 
 for giving it over till they be lifted up. Lam. iii. 
 49, 50. " Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, 
 without any intermission; till the Lord look down, 
 and behold from heaven." Now, Christ's interces- 
 sion being joined with these cries, there cannot fail 
 to be a lifting up. 
 
 Christ's intercession is certainly joined with the 
 cries and prayers of the humbled in their humbling 
 circumstances. Rev. viii. 3. " And another angel 
 came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer, 
 
THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 141 
 
 and there was given unto him much incense, that 
 he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon 
 the golden altar which was before the throne." They 
 are by the Spirit helped to groan for relief, Rom. 
 viii. 26, and the prayers and groans, which are 
 through the Spirit, are certainly to be made effectual 
 by the intercession of the Son, James v. 16. And 
 ye may know they are by the Spirit, if so be ye are 
 helped to continue praying, hoping for your suit at 
 last on the ground of God's word of promise; for 
 nature's praying is a pool that will dry up in a long 
 drought. The Spirit of prayer is the lasting spring, 
 John iv. 14; Psal. cxxxviii. 3. " In the day when 
 I cried, thou answeredst me ; and strengthenedst me 
 with strength in my soul." Truly there is an inter- 
 cession in heaven, on account of the humbling cir- 
 cumstances of the humble ones. " Then the angel 
 of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of hosts, 
 how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem, 
 and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast 
 had indignation these threescore and ten years?" 
 Zech. i. 12. How then can they miss of a lifting up 
 in due time? 
 
 Christ is in deep earnest in his intercession for 
 his people in their humbling circumstances. Some 
 will sj)eak a good word in favour of the helpless, 
 that will be little concerned whether they speed or 
 not; but our Intercessor is in earnest in behalf of 
 his humbled ones : for he is touched with sympathy 
 in their case, Isa. Ixiii. 9. " In all their affliction he 
 was afflicted." A most tender sympathy, Zech. ii. 8. 
 " For he that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his 
 eye." He has their case upon his heart, where he is in 
 the holy place in the highest heavens, Exod. xxviii. 29, 
 and he keeps an exact account of the time of their 
 humbling circumstances, be it as long as it will. 
 
142 THE PARTIAL LIFTING UP CONSIDERED. 
 
 Zech. i. 12. Moreover, it is his own business; the 
 lifting up which they are to have is a thing that is 
 secured to him in the promises made to him on the 
 account of his blood shed for them, Psal. Ixxxix, 
 33 — 36. So not only are they looking on earth, 
 but the man Christ is in heaven looking for the ac- 
 complishment of these promises, Heb. x. 12, 13. 
 " But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice 
 for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God; 
 from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made 
 his footstool." How is it possible, then, that he 
 should be balked? Moreover, these humbling cir- 
 cumstances are his own sufferings still, though not in 
 his person, yet in his members, Col. i. 24. *' Who 
 now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that 
 which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my 
 flesh, for his body's sake, which is the church." 
 Wherefore there is all ground to conclude he is in 
 deep earnest. Again, 
 
 His intercession is always effectual, John xi. 42. 
 " And I know that thou hearest me always." It 
 cannot miss to be so, because he is the Father's 
 well-beloved Son; his intercession has a plea of 
 justice for the ground of it, 1 John ii. 1. *' We 
 have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the 
 righteous." Moreover, he has all power in heaven 
 and earth lodged in him. Matt, xxviii. 18. And, 
 finally, he and his Father are one, and their will 
 one. So, both Christ and his Father do will the 
 lifting up of the humble ones, but yet only in the 
 due time. 
 
 I now proceed to a more particular view of the 
 point. And, 1. We will consider the lifting up as 
 brought about in time, which is the partial lift- 
 ing up. 
 
 This lifting up does not take place in every 
 
THE PARTIAL LIFTING UP. 143 
 
 case of a child of God. One may be humbled in 
 humbling circumstances, from which he is not to get 
 a lifting up in time. We would not from the pro- 
 mise presently conclude, that we being humbled 
 under our humbling circumstances, shall certainly 
 be taken out of them, and freed from them ere we 
 get to the end of our journey. For it is certain, 
 there are some, such as our imperfections, and sin- 
 fulness, and mortality, we can by no means be rid of 
 while in this world. And there are particular hum- 
 bling circumstances the Lord may bring about one, 
 and keep about him, till he goes down to the grave, 
 while, in the mean time, he may lift up another from 
 the same. Heman was pressed down all along from 
 his youth, Psal. xxxviii. 15, others all their lifetime, 
 Heb. ii. 15. 
 
 Object. " If that be the case, what comes of the 
 promise of lifting up? Where is the lifting up, if 
 one may go to the grave under the weight?" 
 
 Ans. Were there no life after this, there would be 
 ground for that objection; but since there is another 
 life, there is none in it at all. In the other life the 
 promise will be accomplished to the humbled, as it 
 was, Luke xvi. 22. Consider that the great term 
 for accomplishing the promises is the other life, not 
 this. These all died in the faith, not having re- 
 ceived the promises, but having seen them afar off, 
 and were persuaded of them, and embraced them." 
 Heb. xi. 13. And that whatever accomplishment of 
 the promise is here, it is not of the nature of a stock, 
 but of a sample or a pledge. 
 
 Quest. «' But then, may we not give over praying 
 for the lifting up, in that case?" 
 
 Ans. We do not know when that is our case ; for 
 a case may be past all hope in our eyes, and the eyes 
 of others, in which God designs a lifting up in time, 
 14* 
 
144 THE PARTIAL LIFTING UP. 
 
 as in Job's, chap. vL 11. ♦' What is my strength that 
 I should hope ; and what is mine end that I should 
 prolong my life?" But, be it as it will, we should 
 never give over praying for the lifting up, since it 
 will certainly come to all who pray in faith for it; if 
 not here, yet hereafter. The promise is sure, and 
 that is the commandment; so much praying cannot 
 miss of a happy issue at length, Psa. 1. 15. " Call 
 upon me in the day of trouble ; I will deliver thee, 
 and thou shalt glorify me." The whole life of a 
 Christian is a praying, waiting life, to encourage 
 whereunto all temporal deliverances are given as 
 pledges, Rom. viii. 23. " And not only they, but 
 ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the 
 Spirit; even we ourselves groan within ourselves, 
 waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of 
 our body." And whoso observes that full lifting up 
 at death to be at hand, must certainly rise, if he has 
 given over his case as hopeless. 
 
 However, there are some cases wherein this lifting 
 up does take place. God gives his people some 
 notable liftings up, even in time raising them out of 
 remarkably humbling circumstances. The storm is 
 changed into a calm, and they remember it as waters 
 that fail, Psa. xl. 1—4. 
 
 Some may be in humbling circumstances very 
 long, and sore and hopeless, and yet a lifting up may 
 be abiding them, of a much longer continuance. 
 This is sometimes the case with the children of God, 
 who are set to bear the yoke in their youth, as it 
 was with Joseph and David; and of them that get 
 it laid on them in their middle age, as it was with 
 Job, who could not be less than forty years old at his 
 trouble's coming, but after it, lived one hundred and 
 fort}^ Job xlii. 16. God by such methods prepares 
 man for peculiar usefulness. 
 
THE PARTIAL LIFTING UP. 145 
 
 Others may be in humbling circumstances long 
 and sore, and quite hopeless in the ordinary course 
 of providence, yet they may get a lifting up ere they 
 come to their journey's end. The life of some of 
 God's children is like a cloudy and rainy day, 
 wherein, in the evening, the sun breaks out from 
 under the clouds, shines fair and clear a little, and 
 then sets. *' And it shall come to pass in that day, 
 that the light shall not be clear, nor dark. But it 
 shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be 
 light," Zech. xiv. 6, 7. Such was the case of Ja- 
 cob in his old age, brought in honour and comfort 
 into Egypt unto his son, and then died. 
 
 Yet, whatever liftings up they get in this life, they 
 will never want some weights hanging about them 
 for their humbling. They may have their singing 
 times, but their songs, while in this world, will be 
 mixed with groanings, 2 Cor. v. 4. " For we that 
 are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened." 
 The unmixed dispensation is reserved for the other 
 world; but this will be a wilderness unto the end, 
 where there will be bowlings, with the most joyful 
 notes. 
 
 All the liftings up which the humbled meet with 
 now are pledges, and but pledges and samples of 
 the great lifting up, abiding them on the other side; 
 and they should look on them so. Hos. ii. 15. " And 
 I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the 
 valley of Achor for a door of hope ; and she shall sing 
 there as in the days of her youth, and as in the day 
 when she came up out of the land of Egypt. Our Lord 
 is now leading his people through the wilderness, and 
 the manna and the water of the rock are earnests of 
 the milk and honey flowing in the promised land. 
 They are not yet come home to their father's house, 
 but they are travelling on the road, and Christ their 
 
146 OBJECTION ANSWERED. 
 
 elder brother with them, who bears their expenses, 
 takes them into inns by the way, as it were, and 
 refreshes them with partial liftings up; after which, 
 they must get to the road again. But that entertain- 
 ment by the way is a pledge of the full entertainment 
 he will afford them when they come home. 
 
 Object. *' But people may get a lifting up in time, 
 that yet is no pledge of a lifting up on the other side: 
 How shall I know it then to be a pledge?" 
 
 Ans. That lifting up which comes by the promises, 
 is certainly a pledge of the full lifting up in the other 
 world; for, as the other life is the proper time of 
 the accomplishing of the promises, so we may be 
 sure, that when God once begins to clear his bond, 
 he will certainly hold on till it is fully cleared. 
 " The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me," 
 Psalm cxxxviii. 8. So we may say, as Naomi to 
 Ruth, upon her receiving the six measures of barley 
 from Boaz, Ruth iii. 18, "He will not be in rest 
 until he have finished the thing this day." There 
 are liftings up that come by common providence, and 
 these indeed are single, and not pledges of more; but 
 the promise chains mercies together, so that one got 
 is a pledge of another to come, yea, of the whole 
 chain to the end, 2 Sam. v. 12. 
 
 Quest. " But how shall I know the lifting up to 
 come by the way of the promise?" 
 
 Ans. That which comes by the way of the pro- 
 mise, comes in the low way of humiliation, the 
 high way of faith, or believing the promise, and 
 the long way of waiting hope and patient continu- 
 ance, James v. 7. " Be patient therefore, brethren, 
 unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the husband- 
 man waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and 
 hath long patience for it until he receive the early 
 and latter rain. Humility prepares for the accom- 
 
BENEFITS OF THIS LIFTING UP. 147 
 
 plishment of the promise, faith sucks the breast of it, 
 and patient waiting hangs by the breast till the milk 
 come abundantly. 
 
 But no liftings up of God's children here are any 
 more than pledges of lifting up. God gives worldly 
 men their stock here, but his children get nothing 
 but a sample of theirs here, Psalm xvii. 14. Even 
 as the servant at the term gets his fee in a round 
 sum, while the young heir gets nothing but a few 
 pence for spending money. The truth is, this same 
 spending money is more valuable than the world's 
 stock. Psalm iv. 7. " Thou hast put gladness in my 
 heart, more than in the time that their corn and their 
 wine increased." But though it is better than that, 
 and their services too, and more worth than all their 
 waiting, yet it is below the honour of their God to 
 put them off with it, Heb. xi. 16. " But now they 
 desire a better country, that is, an heavenly; where- 
 fore God is not ashamed to be called their God ; for 
 he hath prepared for them a city." 
 
 We shall now consider what they will get by this 
 lifting up promised to the humbled. 
 
 They will get, 
 
 1. A removal of their humbling circumstances. 
 God having tried them awhile, and humbled them, 
 and brought down their hearts, will, at length, take 
 off their burden, remove the weight so long hung on 
 them, and so take them off that part of their trial 
 joyfully, and let them get up their back long bowed 
 down; and this one of two ways. 
 
 Either in kind, by a total removal of the bur- 
 den. Such a lifting Job got, when the Lord turned 
 back his captivity, increased again his family and 
 substance, which had both been desolated. David, 
 when Saul his persecutor fell in battle, and he was 
 brought to the kingdom after many a weary day, ex- 
 
148 BENEFITS OF THIS LIFTING UP. 
 
 pecting one day to fall by his hand. It is easy with 
 our God to make such turns in the most hurabUng 
 circumstances. 
 
 Or in equivalent, or as good, removing the weight 
 of the burden, that though it remains, it presses them 
 no more, 2 Cor. xii. 9, 10. " And he said unto me. 
 My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is 
 made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, 
 will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power 
 of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take 
 pleasure in infirmities." Though they are not got 
 to the shore, yet their head is no more under the 
 water, but lifted up. David speaks feelingly of such 
 a lifting up, Psal. xxvii. 5, 6. " For in the time of 
 trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion ; in the secret 
 of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me 
 upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted up 
 above mine enemies round about me ; therefore will 
 I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy ; I will sing, 
 yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord. Such had 
 the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace, the fire burnt, 
 but it could burn nothing of them but their bonds ; 
 they had the warmth and light of it, but nothing of 
 the scorching heat. 
 
 2. A comfortable sight of the acceptance of their 
 prayers, put up in their humbling circumstances. 
 While prayers are not answered, but trouble conti- 
 nued, they are apt to think they are not accepted or 
 regarded in heaven, because there is no alteration in 
 their case. Job ix. 16, 17. " If I had called, and 
 he had answered me, yet would I not believe that 
 he had hearkened unto my voice, for he breaketh me 
 with a tempest." But that is a mistake; they are 
 accepted immediately, though not answered, 1 John 
 V. 14. " And this is the confidence we have in him, 
 that if we ask any thing according to his will, he 
 
BENEFITS OF THIS LIFTING UP. 149 
 
 hearelh us." The Lord does with them as a father, 
 with the letters coming thick from his son abroad, 
 reads them one by one with pleasure, and care- 
 fully lays them up to be answered at his con- 
 venience. And when the answer comes, the son 
 will know how acceptable they were to his father, 
 Matt. XV. 28. 
 
 3. A heart-satisfying answer of their prayers, so 
 that they shall not only get the thing, but se^^ they 
 have it as an answer of prayer; and they will put a 
 double value on the mercy, 1 Sam. ii. 1. Accepted 
 prayers may be very long of answering, many years, 
 as in Abraham and David's case, but they cannot 
 miscarry of an answer at length, Psalm ix. 18. The 
 time will come when God will tell out to them, ac- 
 cording to the promise, that they shall change their 
 note, and say, Psalm cxvi. 1. "I love the Lord, 
 because he hath heard my voice, and my supplica- 
 tion:" looking on their lifting up as bearing the sig- 
 nature of the hand of a prayer-hearing God. 
 
 4. Full satisfaction, as to the conduct of Provi- 
 dence, in all the steps of the humbling circumstances, 
 and the delay of the lifting up, however perplexing 
 these were before, Revelation xv. 3. Standing on 
 the shore, and looking back to what they have passed 
 through, they will be made to say, " He hath done 
 all things well." Those things which are bitter to 
 Christians in the passing through, are very sweet in 
 the reflection on them; so is Samson's riddle verified 
 in their experience. 
 
 5. They get the lifting up, together with the in- 
 terest for the time they lay out of it. When God 
 pays his bonds of promises, he pays both principal 
 and interest together; the mercy is increased accord- 
 ing to the time they waited, and the expenses and 
 hardships sustained, during the dependance of the 
 
150 THE DUE TIME OF THIS LIFTING UP. 
 
 process. The fruits of common providence are 
 soon ripe, soon rotten; but the fruit of the promise 
 is often long a ripening, but then it is durable: and 
 the longer it is a ripening, it is the more valuable 
 when it comes. Abraham and Sarah waited for the 
 promise about ten years, at length they thought on 
 a way to hasten it. Gen. xvi. That soon took, in 
 the birth of Ishmael, but he was not the promised 
 son. They were coming into extreme old age ere 
 the promise brought forth, Gen. xviii. 11. But 
 when it came, they got it with an addition of the 
 renewing of their ages, Gen. xxi. 7; and xxv. 1. 
 The most valuable of all the promises was the long- 
 est in fulfilling, namely, the promise of Christ, that 
 was four thousand years. 
 
 6. The spiritual enemies, that flew thick about 
 them in the time of the darkness of the humbling 
 circumstances, will be scattered at this lifting up in 
 the promise, 1 Sam. ii. 1,5. " And Hannah prayed 
 and said. My heart rejoiceth in the Lord, my mouth 
 is enlarged over mine enemies. They that were full 
 have hired out themselves for bread, and they that 
 were hungry ceased." Formidable was Pharaoh's 
 host behind the Israelites, while they had the Red 
 Sea before them ; but when they were through the 
 sea, they saw the Egyptians dead on the shore. 
 Exod. xiv. 30. Such a sight will they that humble 
 themselves under humbling circumstances get of their 
 spiritual enemies, when the time comes for their 
 lifting up. 
 
 We come now to the due time of this lifting up. 
 That is a natural question of those who are in 
 humbling circumstances, " Watchman, what of the 
 night?" Isa. xxi. 11, 12. And we cannot answer it 
 to the humbled soul, but in the general. 
 
 The lifting up of the humbled will not be longsorac. 
 
THE DUE TIME OF LIFTING UP. 151 
 
 considering the weight of the matter ; that is to say, 
 considering the worth and value of the lifting up of 
 the humble ; when it comes it can by no means be 
 reckoned long to the time of it. When you sow 
 your corn in the fields, though it does not ripen so 
 soon as some garden-seeds, but you wait three 
 months or so, you do not think the harvest long a 
 coming, considering the value of the crop. This 
 view the apostle takes of the lifting up in humbling 
 circumstances, 2 Cor. iv. 17. " For our light afflic- 
 tion, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far 
 more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.'' So 
 that a believer, looking on the promise with an eye 
 of faith, and perceiving its accomplishment, and the 
 worth of it when accomplished, may wonder it is 
 come so shortly. Therefore, it is determined to be 
 a time that comes soon, Luke xviii. 7, 8 ; soon in 
 respect of its weight and worth. 
 
 When the time comes, it and only it will appear 
 the due time. To every thing there is a season, and 
 a great part of wisdom lies in discerning it, and 
 doing things in this season thereof. And we may 
 be sure infinite Wisdom cannot miss the season, by 
 mistaking it, Deut. xxxii. 4. *' He is a rock, his 
 work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment." 
 But whatever God doth, will abide the strictest ex- 
 amination, in that, as all other points, Eccles. iii. 
 14. " I know that whatsoever God doth, it shall 
 be for ever; nothing can be put to it, nor any thing 
 taken from it: and God doth it that men may fear 
 before him." It is true, many times appear to us 
 as the due time for lifting up, which yet really is not 
 so, because there are some circumstances hid from 
 us, which render that season unfit for the thing. — 
 Hence, John vii. 6. " My time is not yet come, but 
 your time is always ready." But when all the cir- 
 15 
 
152 THE DUE TIME OF LIFTING UP. 
 
 cumstances, always foreknown of God, shall come 
 to be opened out, and laid together before us, we 
 shall then see the lifting up is come in the lime 
 most for the honour of God and our good, and that 
 it would not have done so well sooner. 
 
 When the time comes that is really the due time, 
 the proper time for the lifting up a child of God from 
 his humbling circumstances, it will not be put off 
 one moment longer, Hab. ii. 3. " At the end it 
 shall speak, it will surely come, it will not tarry/' 
 Though it tarry, it will not linger, nor be put off 
 to another time. what rest of heart would the 
 firm faith of this afford us ! there is not a child of 
 God but would, with the utmost earnestness, protest 
 against a lifting up before the due time, as against 
 an unripe fruit cast to him by an angry father which 
 would set his teeth on edge. Since it is so then, 
 could we firmly believe this point, that it will un- 
 doubtedly come in the due time, without losing of a 
 minute, it would afford a sound rest. It must be 
 so, because God has said it; were the case ever so 
 hopeless, were mountains of difficulties lying in the 
 way of it, at the appointed time it will blow. (Hebrew) 
 Hab. ii. 3. A metaphor from the wind rising in a 
 moment after a dead calm. 
 
 The humbling circumstances are ordinarily carried 
 to the utmost point of hopelessness before the lifting 
 up. The knife was at Isaac's throat before the 
 voice was heard. 2 Cor. i. 8, 9. " For we would 
 not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which 
 came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of mea- 
 sure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even 
 of life ; but we had the sentence of death in ourselves, 
 that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God, 
 which raiseth the dead." Things soon seem to us 
 arrived at that point; such is the hastiness of our 
 
THE DUE TIME OF LIFTING UP. 153 
 
 spirits. But things may have far to go down after 
 we think they are at the foot of the hill. And we 
 are almost as little competent judges of the point of 
 hopelessness, as of the due time of lifting up. But 
 generally God carries his people's humbling circum- 
 stances downward, still downward, till they come to 
 that point. 
 
 Herein God is holding the same course which he 
 held in the case of the man Christ, the beloved pat- 
 tern copied after, in all the dispensations of Provi- 
 dence towards the church, and every particular 
 believer, Rom. viii. 29. He was all along a man of 
 sorrows ; as his time went on, the waters swelled 
 more, till he was brought to the dust of death; then 
 he was hurried, and the grave-stone sealed ; which 
 done, the world thought they were quit of him, and 
 he would trouble them no more. But they quite 
 mistook it; then, and not till then, was the due 
 time for lifting him up. And the most remarkable 
 liftings up that his people get, are fashioned after 
 this grand pattern. 
 
 Another end which Providence aims at, is to carry 
 the believer clean off his own, and all created 
 foundations, to fix his trust and hope in the Lord 
 alone, 2 Cor. i. 9. " That we should not trust in 
 ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead." 
 The life of a Christian here is designed to be a life 
 of faith ; and though faith may act more easily when 
 it has some help from sense, yet it certainly acts 
 most nobly when it acts in opposition to sense. 
 Then is it pure faith when it stands only on its own 
 native legs, the power and word of God, Rom. iv. 
 19, 20. "And being not weak in faith, he consi- 
 dered not his own body now dead — neither yet the 
 deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at 
 the promise of God through unbelief; but was 
 
154 PREPARATION OF HEART NECESSARY. 
 
 Strong in faith, giving glory to God. And thus it 
 must do, when matters are carried to the utmost point 
 of hopelessness. 
 
 Again, due preparation of the heart, for the lifting 
 up out of the humbling circumstances, goes before 
 the due time of that lifting up, according to the pro- 
 mise. It is not so in every lifting up; the liftings 
 up of common providences are not so critically 
 managed; men will have them, will wait^for them 
 no longer, and God flings them in anger, ere they 
 are prepared for them, Hos. xiii. 11. *' I gave 
 thee a king in mine anger." They can by no 
 means abide the trial, and God takes them off as 
 reprobate silver that is not able to abide it, Jer. vi. 
 29, 30. 
 
 This due preparation consists in a due humiliation, 
 Psa. X. 17. And it often takes much work to bring 
 about this, which is another point that we are very 
 incompetent judges of. We should have thought 
 Job was brought very low in his spirit, by the pro- 
 vidence of God bruising him on the one hand, and 
 his friends on the other, for a long tjme : yet, after 
 all that he had endured both ways, God saw it neces- 
 sary to speak to him himself, for his humiliation, 
 chap, xxxviii. 1. By that speech of God himself, 
 he was brought to his knees, chap. xl. 4, 5. And 
 we should have thought he was then sufficiently 
 humbled, and perhaps he thought so too. But God 
 saw a further degree of humiliation necessary, and 
 therefore begins again to speak for his humiliation, 
 which at length laid him in the dust, chap. xlii. 5, 6. 
 And when he was thus prepared for lifting up, he 
 got it. 
 
 There are six things, I conceive, belong to this 
 humiliation, preparatory to lifting up. 
 
 1. A deep sense of sinfulness and unworlhiness 
 
RESIGNATION TO THE WILL OF GOD 155 
 
 of being lifted up at all, Job xl. 4. " Behold I am 
 vile, what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine 
 hand upon my mouth." People may be long in 
 humbling circumstances, ere they be brought this 
 length ; even good men are much prejudiced in 
 their own behalf, and may so far forget themselves 
 as to think God deals his favours unequally, and is 
 mighty severe on them more than others. Elihu 
 raarketh this fault in Job, under his humbling cir- 
 cumstances. Job xxxiii. 8 — 12. And I beheve it 
 will be found, there is readily a greater keenness to 
 vindicate our own honour from the imputation the 
 humbling circumstances seem to lay upon it, than to 
 vindicate the honour of God in the justice and equity 
 of the dispensation. The blindness of an ill-natured 
 world, still ready to suspect the worst causes for 
 humbling circumstances, as if the greatest sufferers 
 were surely the greatest sinners, Luke xiii. 4, gives 
 a handle for this bias of the corrupt nature. — But 
 God is a jealous God, and when he appears suffi- 
 ciently to humble, he will cause the matter of our 
 honour to give way to the vindication of his. 
 
 2. A resignation to the divine pleasure as to the 
 time of lifting up. God gives the promise, leaving 
 the time blank as to us. Our time is always ready, 
 and we rashly fill it up at our own hand. God does 
 not keep our time, because it is not the due time. 
 Hence we are ready to think his word fails ; whereas 
 it is but our own rash conclusion from it that fails, 
 Psal. cxvi. 11. "I said in my haste. All men are 
 liars." Several of the saints have suffered much by 
 this means, and thereby learned to let alone filling 
 up that blank. The first promise was thus used by 
 believing Eve, Gen. iv. 1. Another promise was so 
 by believing Abraham, after about ten years' waiting. 
 Gen. xvi. 
 
 15* 
 
156 RESIGNATION TO THE WILL OF GOD. 
 
 If this be the case of any child of God, let them 
 not be discouraged upon it, thinking they were over- 
 rash in applying the promise to themselves : they 
 were only so in applying the time to the promise; 
 a mistake that saints in all ages have made, which 
 they repented, and saw the folly of, and let alone 
 that point for the time to come ; and then the pro- 
 mise was fulfdled in its own due time. Let them 
 in such circumstances go and do likewise, leaving 
 the time entirely to the Lord. 
 
 3. An entire resignation as to the way and man- 
 ner of bringing it about. We are ready to do, as to 
 the way of accomplishing the promise, just as with 
 the time of it, to set a particular way for the Lord's 
 working of it ; and if that be not kept, the proud 
 heart is stumbled, 2 Kings v. IL "But Naaman 
 was wroth, and he went away, and said, Behold, I 
 thought he will surely come out to me, and stand and 
 call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his 
 hand over the place." But the Lord will have his 
 people broken off from that too, that they shall pre- 
 scribe no way to him, but leave it to him entirely, as 
 in that case, ver. 14. " He went down and dipped 
 himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying 
 of the man of God, — and he was clean." The com- 
 pass of our knowledge of ways and means is very 
 narrow, as, if one is blocked up, ofltimes we cannot 
 see another; but our God knows many ways of re- 
 lief, where we know but one or none at all: and it is 
 very usual for the Lord to bring the lifting up of his 
 people inra way they had no view to, after repeated 
 disappointments from those quarters whence they 
 had great expectation. 
 
 4. Resignation as to the degree of the lifting up, 
 yea, and as to the very being of it in time. The 
 Lord will have his people weaned so, that however 
 
PATIENT WAITING ON GOD. 157 
 
 hasty they have sometimes been, that they behoved 
 to be so soon lifted up, and could no longer bear, 
 they shall be brought at length to set no time at all, 
 but submit to go to the grave under their weight, if 
 it seem good in the Lord's eyes ; and in that case 
 they will be brought to be content with any measure 
 of it in time, without prescribing how much, 2 Sam. 
 XV. 25, 26. " If I shall find favour in the eyes of the 
 Lord, he will bring me again — But if he thus say, I 
 have no delight in thee ; behold, here am I, let him 
 do as seemeth good unto him." 
 
 5. The continuing of praying and waiting on the 
 Lord in the case, Eph. vi. 18. " Praying always 
 with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and 
 watching thereunto with all perseverance." It is 
 pride of heart, and unsubduedness of spirit, that 
 makes people give over praying and waiting, be- 
 cause their humbling circumstances are lengthened 
 out time after time, 2 Kings vi. 33. But due humi- 
 lity, going before the lifting up, brings men into 
 that temper, to pray, wait, and hang on resolutely, 
 setting no time for the giving it over till the lifting 
 up come, whether in time or eternity. Lam. iii. 
 49, 50. 
 
 6. Mourning under mismanagements in the trial, 
 Job xlii. 3. " Therefore have I uttered that I un- 
 derstood not, things too wonderful for me, which I 
 knew not." The proud heart dwells and expatiates 
 on the man's sufferings in the trial, and casts out all 
 the folds of the trial, on that side, and views them 
 again and again. But when the Spij-it of God comes 
 duly to humble, in order to lifting up, he will cause 
 the man to pass, in a sort, the sutTering side of the 
 trial, and turn his eyes on his own conduct in it, 
 ransack it, judge himself impartially, and condemn 
 himself, so that his mouth will be stopt. This is 
 
158 THE FINAL LIFTING UP. 
 
 that humility that goeth before the lifting up in time 
 in the way of the promise. 
 
 We proceed to consider the lifting up as brought 
 about at the end of time in the other world, And, 
 
 1st. A word as to the nature of this lifting up. 
 Concerning it we shall say these five things : 
 
 1. There is a certainty of this lifting up, in all 
 cases of the humbled under humbling circumstannes. 
 Though one cannot, in every case, make them sure 
 of a lifting up in time, yet they may be assured, be 
 the case what it' may, they will without all perad- 
 venture, get a lifting up on the other side, 2 Cor. 
 V. I. "For we know, that if our earthly house of 
 this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of 
 God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the 
 heavens." Though God's humble children may 
 both breakfast and dine on bread of adversity, and 
 water of affliction, they will be sure to sup sweetly 
 and plentifully. And the believing expectation of 
 the latter might serve to qualify the former, and make 
 them easy under it. 
 
 2. It will be a perfect lifting up, Heb. xii. 22. 
 They will be perfectly delivered out of their parti- 
 cular trials and special furnace, be what it will, that 
 made them wear}^ many a day. Lazarus was then 
 delivered from his poverty and sores, and lying at 
 the rich man's gate, Luke xvi. 22, and fully deli- 
 vered. Yea, they will get a lifting up from all their 
 humbling circumstances together. All imperfections 
 will then be at an end, inferiority in relations, con- 
 tradictions, afflictions, uncertainty, and sin. If it 
 was long in coming, there will be a blessed moment 
 when they shall get altogether. 
 
 3. They will not only be raised out of their low 
 condition, but they will be set up on high, as Jo- 
 seph ; not only brought out of prison, but made 
 
THE FINAL LIFTING UP. 159 
 
 ruler over the land of Egypt. And they will be 
 lifted up into a high place, Luke xvi. 22. "The 
 beggar died, and was carried by the angels into 
 Abraham's bosom." Now they are at best but in a 
 low place, upon this earth ; there they will be seated 
 in the highest heavens, Phil. i. 23, with Eph. iv. 10. 
 Often in their humbling circumstances, they are 
 obliged now to embrace dunghills; then they will be 
 set with Christ on his throne. Rev. iii. 21. '♦ To him 
 that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my 
 throne." Though they now cleave to the earth, and 
 men say, Bow down, that we may pass over you, 
 they will then be settled in the heavenly mansions, 
 above the sun, moon, and stars. They will also be 
 lifted up into a high state and condition, a state of 
 perfection. Out of all their troubles and uneasiness, 
 they will be set in a state of rest ; from their mean 
 and inglorious condition, they will be advanced into 
 a state of glory ; their burdened and sorrowful life 
 will be succeeded with a fulness of joy ; and, for their 
 humbling circumstances, they will be clothed with 
 eternal glory and honour. 
 
 4. It will be a final lifting up, after which there 
 will be no more casting down for ever, Rev. vii. 16. 
 When we get a lifting up in time, we are apt to ima- 
 gine fondly we are at the end of our trials; but we 
 soon find we are too hasty in our conclusions, and 
 the cloud returns, Psal. xxx. 6,7. "In my pros- 
 perity I said, I shall never be moved. Thou didst 
 hide thy face, and I was troubled.'' But then in- 
 deed the trial is quite over, the fight is at an end, 
 and then is the time of the retribution and triumph. 
 
 5. There will not be the least remaining uneasi- 
 ness from the humbling circumstances, but, on the 
 contrary, they will have a glorious and desirable 
 effect. I make no question but the saints will have 
 
160 THE FINAL LIFTING UP. 
 
 the remembrance of the humbling circumstances 
 they were under here bek)w. Did the rich man in 
 hell remember his having five brethren on the earth, 
 how sumptuously he fared, how Lazarus sat at his 
 gate ; and can we doubt but the saints will remem- 
 ber perfectly their heavy trials ! Rev. vi. 10. But 
 then they will remember them as waters that fail ; 
 as the man recovered to health remembers his toss- 
 ings on the sick bed ; and that is a way of remem- 
 bering that sweetens the present state of health be- 
 yond what otherwise it would be. Certainly the 
 shore of the Red Sea was the place that, of all 
 places, was the fittest to help the Israelites to sing 
 in the highest key. And the humbling circumstances 
 of saints on the earth will be of the same use to them 
 in heaven. Rev. xv. 3. 
 
 2dly. A word to the due time of this lifting up. 
 — There is a particular, definite time for it in every 
 saint's case, which is the due time, but it is hid from 
 us. We can only say in general. 
 
 1. Then is the due time for it, when our work we 
 have to do in this world is over. God has appointed 
 to everyone his task, fight, trial, and work; and, 
 till that is done, we are in a sort immortal, John ix. 
 4, and xi. 9. That work is. 
 
 Doing work ; work set to us, by the great Master, 
 to be done for the honour of God and the good of 
 our fellow-creatures, Eccl. ix. 10. We must be 
 content to be doing on, even in our humbling cir- 
 cumstances till that be done out. It is not the due 
 time for that lifting up, till we are at the end of that 
 work and so have served our generation. And it is. 
 
 Suffering work. There is a certain portion of 
 suff'ering that is allotted for the mystical body ; the 
 head has divided to the several members their 
 proportions thereof; and it is not the due time for 
 
THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE WHOLE. 161 
 
 that lifting up, till we have exhausted the share 
 thereof allotted to us. Paul looked on his life as a 
 going on in that, Col. i. 24. 
 
 2. When that lifting up comes, we shall see it is 
 come exactly in the due time ; that it was well it 
 was neither sooner nor later ; for though heaven is 
 always better than earth and that it would be better 
 for us, absolutely speaking, to be in heaven than on 
 earth, yet certainly there is a time wherein it is 
 better, for the honour of God, and his service, that 
 we be on the earth than in heaven, Phil. i. 24. ** Ne- 
 vertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for 
 you." And it will be no grief of heart to them when 
 there, that they were so long in their humbling cir- 
 cumstances, and were not brought sooner. 
 
 Use 1. Let not then the humble cast away their con- 
 fidence, whatever their humbling circumstances be ; 
 let them assure themselves there will come a lifting 
 up to them at length ; if not here, yet to be sure 
 hereafter. Let them keep this in their view, and 
 comfort themselves with it, for God has said it, 
 Psal. ix. 18. "The needy shall not always be for- 
 gotten." If the night were ever so long, the morn- 
 ing will come at length. 
 
 2. Let patience have her perfect work. The 
 husbandman waits for the return of his seed, the 
 merchant for the return of his ships, the store-master 
 for what he calls year-time, when he draws in the 
 produce of his flocks. All these have long patience, 
 and why should not the Christian too have patience, 
 and patiently wait for the time appointed for his 
 lifting up ? 
 
 Ye have heard much of the Crook in the Lot ; 
 the excellency of humbleness of spirit in a low lot, 
 beyond pride of spirit, though joined with a high 
 one : — Ye have been called to humble yourselves in 
 
162 THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE WHOLE. 
 
 your humbling circumstances, and have been assured 
 in that case of a lifting up. To conclude: we may- 
 assure ourselves, God will at length break in pieces 
 the proud, be they ever so high ; and he will tri- 
 umphantly lift up the humble, be they ever so low. 
 
 THE END.