Part I: The Crook in the Lot

ECCLESIASTES vii. 13.

Consider the work of God: for who 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 represents them justly, discovering in them the work of God, and consequently designs becoming the divine perfections. These perceived by the eye of faith, and duly considered, one has a just view of afflicting incidents, fitted to quell the turbulent motions of corrupt affections 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 his birth, namely, the day of the death of one, who, having become the friend of God through faith, hath led a life 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 pronounceth 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 pronounceth 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, one wisely submits to what is really best; in the latter, p. 498 he fights against it, ver. 8. And he dehorts from being angry with our lot, because of the adversity found therein, ver. 9. cautions against making odious comparisons of former and present times, in that point insinuating undue reflections on the providence of God, ver. 10. And, against that querulous and fretful disposition, he first prescribes a general remedy, namely, holy wisdom, as that which enables one to make the best of every thing, and even giveth life in killing circumstances, ver. 11, 12. And then a particular remedy, consisting in a due application of that wisdom towards the taking a just view of the case. Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight which he hath made crooked?

In which words are proposed, (1.) The remedy itself, (2.) The suitableness thereof. First, The remedy itself is a wise eying the hand of God in all we find to bear hard upon us: Consider the work (or, See thou the doing) of God, to wit, 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 views 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 toward 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. Secondly, As for the suitableness of this remedy, that view of the crook in our lot is very suitable 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 satisfy men, and so to bring them unto a dutiful submission to their Maker and Governor, under the crook in their lot.

Now we take up the purpose of the text in these three doctrines. I. Whatsoever crook there is in one’s lot, it is of God’s making. II. What God sees meet to mar, one will not be able to mend in his lot. III. The considering of the crook in the lot, as the work of God, or of his making, is a proper means to bring one to a Christian deportment under it.

Whatsoever crook is in one’s lot, it is of God’s making.

Here two things fall to be considered, namely, the crook itself, and God’s making it.

I. As to the crook itself, the crook in the lot, for the better understanding thereof, these few things following are premised. 1. There is a certain 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 softly and agreeably gliding on; but, by and by, there is some incident which alters that course, grates us, and pains us, as when, having 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 comparisons: 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 have thought but 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 nothing, Esth. v. 13. Every one feels for himself, where he is pinched, though others perceive it not. No body’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, and ever will be true, yet it is never true in this world; for there, indeed, there is not a drop of comfort allowed, Luke xvi. 25. but here it always holds good, that it is of the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Lam. iii. 22. Lastly, 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 comprehended, as a state of comfort or prosperity is, in scripture-style, expressed by living, 1 Sam. p. 500 xxv. 6. John iv. 50, 51. Sin so bowed the hearts and minds of men, as they became crooked in respect of the holy law: and God justly so bowed their lot, as it became crooked too. And this crook in our lot inseparably 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 the general, two things, (1.) Adversity, (2.) Continuance. Accordingly it makes a day of adversity, opposed to the day of prosperity in the verse immediately 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 adversity making the crooked. The which mixture hath place, not only in the lot of saints, who are told, that in the world you 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 adversity, 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 evanish ere he is aware. But under the crook, one having leisure to find his smart, is in some concern to get the crook evened. 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, howsoever 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 all along after. “As the fishes are taken in an evil net—so are the sons of men snared in an evil time,” Eccles. 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 dispensations, whether of the same or different kinds, following hard one upon another, and leaving lasting effects behind them. Thus, in the case of Job, while one messenger of evil tidings was yet speaking, another came. Job i. 16, 17, 18. Cross events coming one upon the neck of another, deep calling unto deep, make a sore crook. In that case the p. 501 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 unknown mountainous track, after having with difficulty made his way over one mountain, is expecting to see the plain country, but instead of this 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. lxxiii. 13,—17. Solomon observes, that “there being just men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked,” Eccles. 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 affords them experience of this, surely Joseph missed not of it in his young days, nor Jacob in his middle days, nor Peter in his old days, John xxi. 18. nor our Saviour in all his days. (3.) There is a crook made by one cross dispensation, 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 evened to her mind: but then she got another in its stead, hard labour in travailing to bring forth, 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 evened, readily 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.

First, Disagreeableness. A crooked thing is wayward; 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 purpose of God. Take the most harsh and dismal dispensation in one’s lot, and lay it to the eternal decree, made in the depths of infinite wisdom, before the world began, and it will answer it exactly without 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. Wherefore the greatest crook of the lot, on earth, is straight in heaven: there is no disagreeableness in it there. But in every body’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 p. 502 means answer it, nor harmonize with it. When divine Providence lays the one to the other, there is a manifest disagreeableness: the man’s will goes one way, and the dispensation another way; the will bends upward, the cross events presseth 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 exercise and trial to us, in this our state of probation: in the which, if thou wouldst approve thyself to God, walking by faith, not by sight, thou must quiet thyself in the will and purpose of God, and not insist that it should be according to thy mind, Job xxxiv. 23.

Secondly, Unsightliness. Crooked things are unpleasant to the eye: and no crook in the lot seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, making but 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 shews a hurtful experience in 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 Ben-oni, 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 slightness in it under a very unsightly outward appearance; perceiving the suitableness thereof to the infinite goodness, love, and wisdom of God, and to the real and most valuable interest of the party; by which means one comes to take pleasure, and that a most refined pleasure in distresses, 2 Cor. xii. 10. But whatever the crook in the lot be to the eye of faith, it is not at all pleasant to the eye of sense.

Thirdly, 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 exercised 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 temptation 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 are to be pitied then who are labouring under it, 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 p. 503 observe 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 despised in the thought of him that is at ease.”

Lastly, Aptness to catch hold and entangle, as with fish hooks, Amos iv. 2. The crook in the lot doth so very readily make impression, to the ruffling and fretting of one’s spirit, irritating corruption, that Satan fails not to make diligent use of it to these dangerous purposes: the which point once gained by the tempter, the tempted, ere he is aware, finds himself intangled 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; the which not only raiseth up the mud 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. lxxiii. 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 careful about purity and holiness, whether of heart or life. Ah! is this the pious Asaph! How is he turned so quite unlike himself! But the crook in the lot is a handle, whereby the tempter 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.

And, in the general, three conclusions may be established upon this head. First, 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. Is. lxiv. 6. The main stream of sin, which the crook readily follows, runs in very different channels, 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. Secondly, It may at once fall in many parts of the lot, the Lord calling as in a solemn day, one’s terrors 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 multiplied, so that the party is made to halt on each side. While one stream, let in from one quarter, is running full against him, another is let in on him from another quarter, till in the end the waters break in on every hand. Thirdly, 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, Psal. lv. 12, 13. “It was not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it—But it was thou, a p. 504 man, mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.” If there is any one part of the lot, which, of all other, one is disposed to nestle 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 doth 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 considered as of the make allotted for them by the great God that formed all things. The parents of mankind, 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 from the original. Bodily defects, superfluities, deformities, infirmities, natural or accidental, make 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 best not exempted from them: and it is purely owing to sovereign pleasure they are not more numerous. 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 crazy frame, weakly and sickly, 1 Tim. v. 23. And there is a yet far more considerable crook in the lot of the lame, the blind, the deaf and dumb. Some are weak to a degree in their intellectuals; and it is the crook in the lot of several bright souls to be overcast with clouds, notably bemisted, and darkened from the crazy bodies 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 image 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 p. 505 through the world under a cloud, being put into an ill name, their reputation sunk. This sometimes is the native consequent of their own foolish and sinful conduct; 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 Lord minds a crook of this kind in one’s lot, innocence will not be able to ward it off in an 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, 12, 13. “They that did see me without fled from me: I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel. For I have heard the slander of many.”

Thirdly, It may fall in the vocational part. Whatever is men’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, Is. liii. 1. Jeremiah met with such a train of discouragements and ill usage in the exercise of his sacred function, that he was well-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 the fields”—and at times “God blesseth them, and suffereth not their cattle to decrease:” 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 it had long stood even. Some manage 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 diligently 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 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 saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?” Lam. iii. 37. People ply their business with skill and industry, but the wind turns in their face, providence crosseth their enterprizes, disconcerts their measures, frustrates their hopes and expectations, renders their endeavours successless, and so puts and keeps them still in straitening circumstances. “So the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise,” Eccl. ix. 11. Providence interposing, crooks the p. 506 measures which human prudence and industry had laid straight towards the respective ends; so the swift lose the race, the strong the battle, and the wise miss of bread: while, in the mean time, some one or other providential incident, supplying 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 rational part. Relations 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 run 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 children, 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 through the afflicting hand of God lying heavy on them; the which, in virtue of their relation, recoils on the party, as is feelingly expressed by that believing woman, Matth. xv. 22. “Have mercy on me, O Lord,—my daughter is grievously vexed.” Ephraim felt the smart of a course of family affliction, 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 sorrow 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, disposition, and way. 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 children, chap. ii. 25. in Jonathan’s, through the furious 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 susceptible of the crook. In the family are found masters hard and unjust, servants froward and unfaithful; in neighbourhood, men selfish and uneasy; in the church, ministers unedifying, and offensive in their walk, and people contemptuous and disorderly, a burden to the p. 507 spirits of ministers; in the state, magistrates oppressive, and discountenancers of that which is good, and subjects turbulent and seditious: all these cause crooks in the lot of their relatives.

And thus far of the crook itself.

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 considerations.

First, It cannot be questioned, but the crook in the lot, considered as the crook, is a penal evil, whatever it is for the matter thereof: that is, whether the thing in itself, its immediate cause and occasion be sinful or not, it is certainly a punishment or affliction. 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 hath 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 whithersoever he listeth, “Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in earth, in the seas and all deep places,” Psal. cxxxv. 6. There is not any thing whatsoever befals 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 over-rules the smallest and most casual things about us, such as hairs of our head falling on the ground, Matth. x. 29, 30. A lot cast into the lap, Prov. xvi. 33. Yea, the free acts of our will, whereby we choose for ourselves, 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 himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps,” Jer. x. 23. And this, whether these steps causing the crook to be deliberate and sinful ones, such as Joseph’s brethren selling him into Egypt; or whether they be undesigned, such as manslaughter purely casual, as when one hewing wood kills his neighbour with the head of the axe slipping from the helve, Deut. xix. 5. For there is a holy and wise providence that governs the sinful and the heedless actions of men, p. 508 as a rider doth a lame horse, of whose halting, not he, but the horse’s own lameness, is the true and proper cause; wherefore, in the former of these 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, immoveable 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 depths, the prosperity and adversity 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 counsel of his own will,” Eph. i. 11. So that there is never a crook in one’s lot, but may be run up to this original. Hereof Job piously sets us an example, in his own case, Job xxiii. 13, 14. “He is in one mind, and who can turn him? And what his soul desireth, even that he doth. For he performed 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: the which are mere afflictions, cleanly crosses; grievous indeed, but not defiling. Such were Lazarus’s poverty, Rachel’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, reproacheth 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. xxxix. 31. And it is he that formed the eye, Psal. xciv. 9. And the man was born blind, that the works of God should be made manifest in him, John ix. 3. Therefore he saith to Moses, 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 are.

Secondly, There are impure sinful crooks, which, in their own p. 509 nature, are sins as well as 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 afflictions 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 hearts of any, nor stirreth up to it; “He cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempeth he any man. Jam. i. 13. But they are of his making, by his holy permission of them, powerful bounding of them, and wise over-ruling of them to some good end.

First, He holily permits them, suffering men to walk in their own ways, Acts xiv. 16. Though he is not the author of these 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 with-holds his grace, which the sinner does not desire, takes off the restraint under which he is uneasy, and, since the sinner will be gone, lays the reigns on his neck, and leaves him to the swing of his lust. Hos. iv. 17. “Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.” Psal. lxxxi. 11, 12. “Israel would none of me. So I gave them up to their own hearts’ lusts.” In which unhappy situation, the sinful crook doth, from the sinner’s own proper motion, natively and infallibly follow: even as water runs down a hill, wherever there is a gap left open before it. So, in these circumstances, “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. The which view of the matter silenced David under Shimei’s cursings, 2 Sam. xvi. 10. “Let him alone, and let him curse: for the Lord hath bidden him.”

Secondly, He powerfully bounds them, Psal. lxxvi. 10. “The remainder of wrath” (namely, the creature’s wrath) “thou shalt restrain.” Did not God bound these crooks, howsoever sore they are in any one’s case, they would yet be 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 band on him, that he cannot go one step farther, in the way his impetuous lust drives, than he sees meet to permit. Hence p. 510 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 thereof, we have in the case of Job, whose lot was crooked through a peculiar agency of the devil: but, even to the 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 nothing 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 crook sorer, nothing remained, but that the bound set should be removed, and the sphere of his agency 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 his crown, ver. 7. And had it not been for this bound, securing Job’s life, he, after finding this attempt successless too, had doubtless dispatched him for good and all.

Thirdly, He wisely over-rules 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 Satan and the Sabeans and Chaldeans his instruments, Satan’s design was to cause Job 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 over-rule these crooks made in men’s lot, no good could come out of them: but he always over-rules 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 word, Prov. xvi. 4. “The Lord hath made all things for himself.” Rom. viii. 28. “All things work together for good to them that love God.” Thus Haman’s plot, for the destruction of the Jews, was turned to the contrary, Esth. ix. 1. And the p. 511 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, powerful bounding, and wise over-ruling of it, had an issue well becoming the divine wisdom and goodness: both which Joseph noticeth to them, Gen. l. 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 enquire, 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, seven-fold.

First, The trial of one’s state, Whether one is in the state of grace, or not? Whether a sincere Christian, or a hypocrite? Though every affliction is trying, yet here, I conceive, lies the main providential trial a man is brought upon 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 shew 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 bottom 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, 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 prove him a hypocrite; Satan thus making use of these good men for gaining his point. As God took trial of Israel in the wilderness, for the land of Canaan, by a train of afflicting dispensations, the 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 carcases fell in the wilderness: so he takes trial of men, for heaven, by the crook in their lot. If one can stand that test, he is manifested to be a saint, a sincere servant of God, as Job was proven to be: if not, he is but a hypocrite; he cannot stand the test of the crook in his lot, but goes away like dross in God’s furnace. A melancholy instance of which we have in that man of honour and wealth, who, with high pretences of religion, arising from a principle of moral seriousness, addressed himself to our Saviour, to know “what he should do that he might inherit eternal life,” Mark x. 17, 21. Our Saviour, to discover the man to himself, makes a p. 512 crook in his lot, where all along before it had stood even, obliging him, by a probatory command, to sell and give away all he had, and follow him, verse 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 conscience, stript of his great possessions; so that thenceforth 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,” verse 22. that is, immediately upon the hearing of it, being struck with pain, disorder, and confusion of mind, his countenance changed, became cloudy and lowring, 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, nor 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 happiness 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 wilderness, scorning to be turned, their foot hath slid in due time; and a crook being thereby made in their lot, their month hath come, wherein they have been caught, Jer. ii. 24. Thus was the prodigal brought to himself, and obliged to entertain thoughts of returning 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 uneasiness, whensoever they lay down their head, where they would fainest 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; for as much as they feel a need of the comforts of the other world, to which their mouths were out of taste, while their lot stood even to their mind. Wherefore 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 p. 513 suddenly taken ill of a lameness; his going halting the rest of his way convinceth 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. Jer. 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 natively 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 Laban’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. xxvii. 19. How could it miss of galling him occasionally 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 behoved to say, as Adonibezek in another case, Judg. i. 7. “As I have done, so God hath requited me.” In like manner, Rachel dying in child-birth, could hardly evite a melancholy reflection on her rash and passionate expression, mentioned Gen. xxx. 1. “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.” 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 displeasure for it, set on the sinner in the crook of his lot, may pain him long p. 514 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 lying: but, as a lasting mark of the divine indignation 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 hell. A man’s person may be accepted in the beloved, who yet hath a particular 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 loseth its former taking appearance: so the fuel being removed, the edge of corrupt affections 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 man;” and so, “he keepeth back his soul from the pit,” Job xxxiii. 17, 18. Every one knows what is most pleasing to him, but God alone knows what is the most profitable. As all men are liars, so all men are fools too: he is the only wise God, Jude, 25. Many are obliged to the crook in their lot, that they go not to these 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, for 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 p. 515 were, so near the surface, that they are ready on every turn to cast 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 cast up, appear a-top and run over, so the crook in the lot ariseth up from the bottom, and brings out such corruption as otherwise one would 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. Numb. 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? Psal. lxxiii. 13. But the crook in the lot, bringing out these things, shewed 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 nowise inconsistent with the divine perfections; 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.

Lastly, The exercise of grace in the children of God. Believers, through the remains of indwelling 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 to their exercise; as being exercised only upon occasions 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 a while, 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 precious than of gold that perisheth— may be found unto praise,” 1 Pet. i. 6, 7. The crook in the lot p. 516 gives rise unto many acts of faith, hope, love, self-denial, resignation, and other graces; to many heavenly breathings, pantings, longings, and groanings, which otherwise would not be brought forth. And I make no question but these things, howsoever by carnal men despised as trifling, are more precious in the sight of God, than 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 can hardly think them worth their own notice at all. We know who hath said to the gracious soul, “Let me see thy countenance—thy countenance is comely,” Cant. ii. 14. “Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes,” chap. iv. 9. 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 being so in the sight of God, whose judgment, we are sure, is according to truth. This the Psalmist teacheth, Psal. cxvii. 11, 12. “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 his 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 do excel in, they will readily get such a crook made in their lot, as will be a special trial for 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, over the belly 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 with all the strength of his faith; while he was obliged for good and all to leave his country and his kindred, and sojourn 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-offering, the more exquisite trial of his faith, that Ishmael was now expelled his family, and that it was declared, That in Isaac only his seed should be 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 conduct 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 one time or other, he will afford them use for the whole compass of it.

Now the use of this doctrine is threefold. (1.) For reproof. (2.) For consolation. And, (3.) For exhortation.

Use 1. Of reproof. And it meets with three sorts of persons as reproveable.

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 observers: and that challengeth an awful regard, the neglect of which forbodes destruction, Psal. xxviii. 5. “Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, thou shalt destroy them, and not build them up.” And herein they are deeply guilty, who poring upon second causes, and looking no farther than the unhappy instruments of the crook in their lot, overlook the first cause; as a dog snarles at the stone, but looks not to the hand that cast it. This is, in effect, to make a god of the creature; so regarding it, as if it could of itself effectuate any thing, while, in the mean time, it is but an instrument in the hand of God, the rod of his anger, Is. 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 scourges! The truth is, they are, for the most part, rather to be pitied, as having an undesirable office, which, for their gratifying their own corrupt affections, 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 employed 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 long-run, taken up between God and his people; and then their scourges will find they had but a thankless office, Zech. i. 15. “I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction,” saith God, in resentment of the Heathens 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 men from acknowledging the hand of God. Thus, what the Philistines doubted, they do most impiously determine, saying, in effect, “It is not his hand that smote us, it was a chance that happened us,” 1 Sam. vi. 9. And, finally, these also, 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 one committing his case to the Lord, and looking p. 518 to him for remedy in the first place, may lawfully call in the moderate use of the comforts of life for help in the second place. But 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 making, 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 Lord. “It is surely a very desperate method of cure, which cannot miss of issuing in something worse than the disease, however it may palliate it for a while. Is. xxii. 12—14. “In that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping 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, whose 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 reserved the blackness of darkness for ever, verse 13. saith of them, verse 16. These are murmurers, 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 complainings and murmurings are indeed against him, whatever face they put upon them. Thus, when the Israelites murmured against Moses, Numb. xiv. 2. God charges them with murmuring against himself; “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me?” verse 7. Ah! may not he, who made and fashioned us without our advice, be allowed to make our lot too without asking our mind, but we must rise up against him on account of the crook made in it! What doth this speak, but that the proud creature cannot endure God’s work, nor digest 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.

Lastly, 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 nothing 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, Mic. vi. 9. “Hear ye the rod.” And indeed, if one shut not his own eyes, but be willing to understand, he may easily perceive the general design thereof to be, to wean p. 519 him from this world, and move him to seek and take up his heart’s rest in God. And the nature and 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 concern to discover the design of providence in the crook: so he cannot fall in with it, but remains unfruitful; 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,” groaning under the pressure of the crook itself, and weight of the hand of the instrument thereof: “but none saith, Where is God my Maker?” they look not, they turn not to God for all that, Job xxxv. 9, 10.

Use II. Of consolation. It speaks comfort to the afflicted children of God. Whatever is the crook in your lot, it is of God’s making: 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 welcometh 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 by the promise of the Father to Christ’s children, Psal. lxxxix. 30, 32. “If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments—then will I visit their transgression with the rod.” Farthermore, 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 raiseth 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 woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children,” Psal. 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 so for thy good, that it should be mended, it shall be mended; for “no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly,” Psal. lxxxiv. 11.

Use last, Of exhortation. Since the crook in my lot is of God’s making, then, eyeing the hand of God in yours, be reconciled to it, and submit under it, whatever it is. I say, eyeing the hand of God in p. 520 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 an one too as I deserved no such treatment from. Answ. From what hath been already said, it appears, that although the crook in thy lot be immediately from the creature’s hand, yet it is mediately 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 himself is thy principal party, whoever be the less principal. And albeit thou hast not deserved thy crook at the hand of the instrument or instruments 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 himself, even as seems good in his sight.

Object. 2. 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 making it. Answ. If it is so, be sure God’s time is not as yet come that that crook should be evened: for if it were come, though they stand now like an impregnable 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,” Is. xlix. 23. Mean while, that state of the matter is so far from justifying one’s not eyeing the hand of God in the crook in the lot, that it makes a piece of trial, in which his hand very eminently appears; namely, that men should be signally injurious and burdensome to others, yet by no means susceptible of conviction. This was the trial of the church from her adversaries, Jer. l. 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 take with no fault in the matter. How could they ward off the conviction? Were they verily blameless in their devouring the Lord’s straying sheep? No, sure they were not. Did they look upon themselves as ministers of the divine justice 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 adversaries said, We offend not: because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of p. 521 justice.” These last are not the words of the adversaries, but the words of the prophet, shewing how it came to pass that the adversaries devoured the Lord’s sheep, as they lighted on them, and withal stood to the defence of it, when they had done, far from acknowledging any wrong: the matter lay here, the sheep had sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice, and, as a just punishment hereof from his hand, they could have no justice at the hand of their adversaries.

Wherefore, laying aside these frivolous pretences, and eyeing the hand of God, as that which hath bowed your lot in that part, and keeps it in the bow, be reconciled to, and submit under the crook, whatever 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 challengeth our submission; and it can in no case be meanness of spirit to submit unto 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 refractory carriage under it, to strive with their Maker. And his beneficence to us, ill-deserving creatures, may well stop our mouths from complaining of his making a crook in our lot, who had 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 mankind? “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 wretched sufferers can neither bear nor yet 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 furnace, but their dross not consumed, nor they purified. Even such is the case of those who now cannot submit under the crook in their lot. Lastly, Great is the loss by not submitting under it. The crook in the lot, p. 522 rightly improven, hath 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 hugely increase guilt, and aggravate thy condemnation, while it shall for ever cut thee to the heart, to think of the pains taken on thee, 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 manage it, “Lest thou mourn at the last, and say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof?” Prov. v. 10, 11, 12.

What God sees meet to mar, we will not be able to mend in our lot. What crook God makes in our lot, we will not be able to even.

We shall, 1st. Shew God’s marring and making a crook in one’s lot, as he sees meet.

2dly, We shall consider men’s attempting to mend or even that crook in their lot.

3dly, In what sense it is to be understood, that we will not be able to mend or even the crook in our lot.

4thly, Render some reasons of the point.

I. As to the first head, namely, &c.

1. God keeps the choice of every one’s crook to himself: and therein he exerts his sovereignty, Matt. 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 will and pleasure, Psal. cxxxv. 6. “Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in earth,” &c.

2. He sees and observes the bias of every one’s will and inclination how it lies, and wherein it specially bends away from himself, and consequently wherein it needs the special bow; so he did it 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 prossessions. 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.

3. By the conduct of his providence, or a touch of his hand, he gives that part of one’s lot a bow the contrary way; so that henceforth it lies quite contrary to that bias of the party’s will, Ezek. xxiv. 25. And here the trial is made, the bent of the will lying one way, and that part of one’s lot another, that it does not answer the inclination of the party, but thwarts with it.

Lastly, He wills that crook in the lot to remain while he sees meet, for longer or shorter time, just according to his own 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 me, 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 breaking 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 removed, and to have matters in that part going according 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 be not too peremptory, it is not sinful Matt. xxvi. 39. “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will,” &c. Hence so many accepted prayers of the people of God, for the removal of the crook in their lot.

Lastly, An earnest use of means for that end. This natively follows on that desire. The man, being pressed with the cross which is his crook, labours 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 either, whether he succeed in the use of them or not.

III. In what sense it is to be understood, that we will not be able to mend or even the crook in our lot?

Negatively, 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 desperate but God may right it. Gen. xviii. 14. “Is any thing too hard for the Lord?” When the crook was p. 524 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,

Positively, We will never be able to mend it by ourselves; if the Lord himself take it not in hand to remove it, it will stand before us immoveable, 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 prevail.” 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 plowing on the rock, Psal. 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 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 immoveable, as if it were kept by an invisible hand; and at another time it goes away with a touch, because God’s time is come for evening it.

IV. 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 irresistable. Is. xlvi. 10.—“My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” 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 under p. 525 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 crooked.

2. The evening of the crook in our lot, by main force of our own, is but a cheat we put on ourselves, and will not last, but, like a stick by main force made straight, it will quickly return to the bow again.

Lastly, 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 removing any crook in our lot, that in the settled order 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. However fair the means we use bid for it, they will be ineffectual if he command not a blessing, Eccl. ix. 11.

2. Such attempts will readily make it worse. Nothing 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.” Ver. 9. “Whoso removeth stones shall be hurt therewith,” &c. This is evident in the case of the murmurers in the wilderness. It natively comes to be so; because, at that rate, the will of the party bends farther away from it: and moreover, God is provoked to wreathe the yoke the 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,” &c. He can raise the oldest sit-fast, concerning which there remains no hopes with us, Rom. iv. 17.—“Who quickeneth 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 perfection, Gen. xviii. 14.

4. He loves to be employed in evening crooks, and calls us to employ him that way, Psal. l. 15.—“Call upon me in the day of trouble, 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.

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 exercised about them, or when they fret for their removal: these are sapless mercies, and short-lived, Psal. lxxviii. 30, 31. Hos. xiii. 11. Fruits thus hastily plucked off the tree of providence can hardly miss to set the teeth on edge, and will certainly be bitter to gracious souls. But, O the sweet of the evening of the crook got by a humble application to, and waiting on the Lord! It has the image and superscription 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,” &c. 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 the richest experience in the removal of them, upon their application to him. 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 so signal tokens of 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.

Lastly, 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 our fool’s haste, that is no speed; as in the case of Abraham’s going into Hagar. God is the first mover, who sets all the wheels in motion for evening the crook, the which without him will remain immoveable, Hos. ii. 21, 22.

Object. (1.) But it is needless, for I see, that though the crook in my lot may mend, yet it will never mend. In its own nature it is capable of being removed, but it is plain, it is not to be removed, it is hopeless. Answ. 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 hopelessness 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 rebuked, 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. Answ. Delays are not denials of suits at the court of heaven, but trials of the faith and patience of the petitioners. p. 527 And whoso will hang on, will certainly come speed at long-run, Luke xviii. 7, 8, 31. “And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?” Ver. 8. “I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.” Sometimes indeed folk grow pettish, in the case of the crook in the lot, and let it drop out of 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 into them, Ezek. xxxvi. 37.—“I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them,” &c. If the removal come, while it is dropt, there will be little foyson 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 answered till we come to the other world, and there all will be answered at once, Rom. vii. 24.

Directions for right 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 certainly obtain at length, and in this life too, if it is good for you; but without peradventure in the other life, Matth. 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, extraordinary prayer, with fasting, is very expedient, Matth. xvii. 21.

2. Humble yourselves under it, as the yoke which the sovereign hand has laid on you, Mic. vii. 9. “I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him,” &c. Justify God, condemn yourselves, kiss the rod, and go quietly under it: this is the most feasible way to get rid of it, James iv. 10. When the bullock is broken and tamed, as accustomed to the yoke, then it is taken off, the end being obtained, Psal. x. 17.—“Thou wilt prepare their hearts, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear.”

Lastly, 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; “but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting 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 beyond it, Isa. lx. 22.—“I the Lord will hasten it in his time;” waiting on him, you will not be disappointed,—“For they shall not be ashamed that wait for me,” Isa. xlix. 23.

Exhortation 2. What crook there is, that, in the settled order of things, cannot be got removed or evened in this world, let us apply p. 528 to God for suitable relief under it. For instance, the common crook in the lot of the saints, viz. indwelling sin; as God has made that crook not to be removed here, he can certainly balance it, and afford relief under it. The same is to be said of any crook, while it remains unremoved. In both 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 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; 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 his left hand of such and such an earthly comfort? Stretch out your right hand to a 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, Matth. xiii. 45, 46.—“The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant-man seeking goodly pearls:” ver. 46. “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’s 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 hang on for that from God 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 immediately from God, the Fountain. And O but 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. The spiritual fruits of the crook in the lot, Heb. xii. 11. 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 crook, we can reach more faith, love, heavenly-mindedness, p. 529 contempt of the world, humility, self-denial, &c. 2 Cor. vi. 10. So, while we lose at one hand, we will gain at another.

4. Grace to carry us under the crook, 2 Cor. xii. 8, 9. “For this thing I besought the Lord thrice.” Ver. 9. “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 a case, 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.

Lastly, The keeping in our eye the eternal rest and weight of glory in the other world, 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18. “For our light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work 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 the crook in your lot, be it what it will; while they, who have no well-grounded hope of salvation, will find the crook in their lot in this world such a weight, as they have nothing to counterbalance it; yet the hope of eternal rest may bear up under all the toil and labour met with here.

Exhortation 3. Let us then set ourselves rightly to bear and carry under the crook in our lot, while God sees meet to continue it. What we cannot mend, let us bear christianly, and not fight against God, and so kick against the pricks. So let us bear it,

1. Patiently, without firing and fretting, or murmuring, 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 one who has but a scanty coldrife fire to warm at; but impatience under it scatters it, so as to set the house on fire about us, that exposeth us, 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 oft-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 regardlessness of the 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 is one to 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. It is recorded to the commendation of Abraham, Gen. xxiii. 3, 4. Or for the duties of religion hindering them altogether, 1 Pet. iii. 7.—“that your prayers be not hindered,” cut off, or up, like a tree from the roots, or making one quite hopeless in them, Mal. ii. 13.

Lastly, 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 thy statutes.” There is 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, but in vain are its unpleasantness to the taste, and its gripings endured; so it is a lost crook, and ill is the bitterness of it wared, that we are not bettered by. Is. 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. Consider,

1. There will be no evening of it while God sees meet to continue it. Let us carry under it as we will, and make what sallies we please in the case, it will continue immoveable, 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.” Verse 14. “For he performeth 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 Christian resignation.

2. An awkward carriage under it notably increases the pain of it. What 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 overweight on the burden, and makes it heavier, while withal it weakens us, and makes us less able to bear.

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 touch-stone for p. 531 discovering of 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 proven either sincere or a hypocrite. For, (1.) 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 that but mar all? Mark v. 21. 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 prerequired 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 accompanies 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, so trusts on him for salvation; the rightful Lord, and infinitely wise Ruler, and so submits the lot to him, Matth. xiii. 45, 46. The soul, taking him for a Saviour, 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 dispels the darkness. Case. Alas! I cannot get my heart freely to submit my lot to him in that point. Ans. That submission will not be carried on in any without a struggle; the old man will never submit it, and when the new man of grace is submitting it, the old man will still be reclaiming. 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 it? Do ye, from the ungracious struggle against the crook, turn away to the struggle with your own heart to bring it to submit, believing the promise, and using the means for it, being grieved from the heart with yourselves that ye cannot submit? This is submitting your lot, in the favourable construction of the gospel, Rom. vii. 17—20. 2 Cor. viii. 12. If ye had your choice, would ye rather have your heart brought to submit to the crook evened to your heart’s desire? Rom. vii. 22, 23. And do ye p. 532 not sincerely endeavour to submit it in spite of the reluctancy of flesh? Gal. v. 17.

2. Where is the Christian self-denial and taking up of the cross, without submitting to the crook? This is the first lesson Christ puts in the hands of his disciples, Matth. 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 reconciliation with the crook, and an admittance of the 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 it, we cannot bear the crook in our lot, but fight against it in favour of self.

3. Where is our conformity to Christ, while we cannot submit to the crook? We cannot evidence ourselves Christians without conformity to Christ. “He that saith, he abideth in him, ought himself also to walk even as he walked,” 1 John ii. 6. There was a continued crook in Christ’s lot, but he submitted to it, Philip. 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,” &c. And so must we, if we will prove ourselves Christians indeed, Matth. xi. 29. 2 Tim. ii. 11, 12.

4. How will 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. Matth. vi. Nay the language of that practice is, We must have our own will, and God’s will not satisfy us.

Motive 4. The trial by the crook here will not last long, 1 Cor. vii. 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 will never be eased of it; for if you be not eased of it before, ye will be eased of it at death, come in the room of it after what will. A serious view of death and eternity might make us to set ourselves to carry rightly under our crook while it lasteth.

5. If ye would, in a Christian manner, set yourselves to bear the crook, ye would find it easier than ye imagine, Matth. xi. 29, 30. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me—and ye shall find rest to your souls.” Verse 30. “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 yield to the crook; that it is a burden to them altogether insupportable: as long as ye believe that, be sure ye will never be able to bear it. But the Lord makes no crook in the lot of any, but what may be p. 533 so borne of them acceptably, though not sinlessly and perfectly, Matth. xi. 30. For there is strength for that effect secured in the covenant, 2 Cor. iii. 5. Philip. iv. 13. and being by faith fetched it, it will certainly come, Psal. xxviii. 7.

6. If ye carry christianly under your crook here, ye 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, on this very ground, pronounced on him that endureth, 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 those approven, upon the trial of the crook, are received. Rev. vii. 14.— “These are they which come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” When ye come there, no vestiges of it will be remaining in your lot, nor will ye have the least uneasy remembrance of it; but it will accent your praises, and heighten your joy.

7. If ye do not carry christianly under it, ye 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 they will not submit to his 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.

Lastly, Whatever crook is in the lot of any, it is very likely there is a public crook abiding the generation, that will be more trying. This is a day of sinning beyond the days of our fathers, a day wherein God is making great crooks in the lot of the dearest to himself: but these seem to presage such a general public crook to be abiding the generation, as will make our now private ones of very little weight, 1 Pet. iv. 17, 18. Therefore set yourselves to carry rightly under the crook in your lot.

If ye ask what way one may reach that, for direction we propose,

Considering the crook in the lot, as the work of God, is a proper means to bring one to carry rightly under it.

I. What it is to consider the crook as the work of God, we take it up in these five things.

1st. An enquiry into the spring whence it riseth, Gen. xxv. 22. Reason and religion both teach us, not only to notice the crook, which we cannot avoid, but to consider and enquire 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; p. 534 it is not sprung of itself, but sown by one hand or other for us, Job v. 6. And we are to notice the hand whence it comes.

2dly, A perceiving of the hand of God in it. Whatever hand any creature hath therein, we ought not to terminate our view in them, but look above and beyond them to the supreme Manager’s agency therein, Job i. 21. Without this we make a God of the creature instrumental of the crook, looking on it as if it were the first cause, which is peculiar to God, Rom. xi. 36. and bring ourselves under that doom, 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.”

3dly, A representing it to ourselves as the work 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 would the axe, fixing his eye on him that wielded it. Here two things are to come into our consideration.

1. 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 valley of darkness, grief, and sorrow, we are carried through, we are to look on them as made by the mountains of brass, the immoveable divine purposes, Zech. vi. 1. This can be no presumption in that case, if we carry it no farther than the event goes in our sight and feeling: for so far the book is opened for us to look into.

2. The providence of God bringing to pass that crook for us in time, Amos iii. 6. There is nothing can befal 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 considered both these. Job xxiii. 14.

4thly, A continuing of the thought of it as such. It is not a simple glance of the eye, but a contemplating and leisurely viewing of it as his work, that is the proper mean. We are to be,

(1.) Habitually impressed with this consideration; as the crook p. 535 is some lasting grievance, so the consideration 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 slip into our minds, as occasion requires, expressly.

(2.) Occasionally exercised in it. Whenever we begin to feel the smart of the crook, we should fetch in this remedy: when the yoke begins 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.

Lastly, A considering it for the end for which it is proposed to us, viz. to bring to a dutiful carriage under it. Men’s corruption will cause them to enter on this consideration: and as is the principle, so will the end and effect of it 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 conduct under the crook.

II. How is it to be understood to be a proper means to bring one to carry rightly under the crook.

1. Negatively, Not as if it were sufficient of itself, and as it stands alone, to produce that effect. But, 2. Positively, As it is used in 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 carry rightly 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 behaviour. Many hearers mistake here. When they hear such and such law-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 faculties. 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 p. 536 beggars on a level with the rich, lame men on a journey with them that have limbs. Innocent Adam had a stock of gracious abilities, whereby he might have, by the force of moral considerations, brought himself to perform duty aright. But where is that with us? 2 Cor. iii. 5. Whatever force be in them to a soul endued with spiritual life, what force is in them to raise the dead, such as we are? Eph. ii. 1.

Secondly, The scripture is very plain on this head, shewing the indispensable necessity of faith, Heb. xi. and that such as unites to Christ, John xv. 5. “Without me,” i. e. separate from me, “ye can do nothing;” no not with all the moral considerations ye can use. How were the ten commandments given on mount Sinai? Not bare exactions of duty, but fronted with the gospel, to be believed in the first place; “I am the Lord thy God,” &c. And so Solomon, whom many do regard rather as a moral philosopher, than an inspired writer leading to Christ, fronts his writings, in the beginning 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? This is the effect of our natural enmity to Christ. If we loved him more, we would see him more in every page, and in every command, receiving the law at his mouth.

Thirdly, Do but consider what it is to carry rightly under the crook in the lot; what humiliation 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 moment 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 behaviour 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.

Objection. Then it is saints only that are capable of the improvement of that consideration. Answ. 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 we 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 carry rightly under it. This will appear, if ye consider these four things.

1. It is of great use to divert from the considering and dwelling on these things about the crook, which serve to irritate our corruption. Such are the frustrating of our wills and wishes; the satisfaction we would have in matters 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 the 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, is fit to awe us into submission, and ministers much argument for it, moving to carry christianly under our crook.

3. It hath 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. What makes any thing a means fit 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 God has appointed it. This consideration is appointed for that end; and therefore is a fit means for it.

Lastly, The Spirit may be expected to work by it, and does work by it in them that believe, and look to him for it, forasmuch as it is a mean of his own appointment. Papists, Legalists, and all superstitious persons, devise 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: therefore the Spirit works not by them, since they are none of his own tools, but devised of their hearts. And since the means of divine appointment are ineffectual without the Spirit, these can never be effectual. But this consideration having a divine appointment, the Spirit works by it.

Use. Then take this direction for your carrying right under the crook in your lot. Inure yourselves to consider it as the work of God. And for helping you to improve it, so as it may be effectual, 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, 2, 3. The discerning 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.) Solemnly to take God for your God under your crook, Psal. cxlii. 4, 5. (2.) In all your encounters with it, 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, shewing he wrongs you not; his mercy and goodness, that it is not worse; his sovereignty, that may silence you; his infinite wisdom 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 remembrance; a correcting work, to chastize you for your follies; a preventing work, to hedge you up from courses of sin ye 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.

Lastly, In all your considerations of it in this manner, look upward for the Spirit to render them effectual, 1 Cor. iii. 6. Thus may ye carry christianly under it till God even it either here or in heaven.