they own 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, surely, 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 justice." These last are not the words of the adversaries, but the words of the prophet showing how it came to pass that the adversaries devoured the Lord's sheep, as they lighted on them, and withal stood to the 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 challenges our submission; and it can in no case be meanness of spirit to submit to the crook which his hand hath made in our lot, and to go quietly under the yoke that he hath laid on; but it is really madness for the potsherds of the earth, by their turbulent and refractory carriage under it, to strive with their Maker. And his beneficence to us, illdeserving creatures, may well stop our mouth from complaining of his making a crook in our lot, who would have done us no wrong had he made the whole of it crooked: "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" Job ii. 10.

2. It is an unalterable statute, for the time of this life, that nobody shall want a crook in their lot; for "man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward." Job v. 7. And those who are designed for heaven, are in a special manner assured of a crook in theirs, "that in the world they shall have tribulation," John xvi. 33; for by means thereof the Lord makes them meet for heaven. And how can you imagine that you shall be exempted from the common lot of 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 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 to the crook in their lot.

4. Great is the loss by not submitting to it. The crook in the lot, rightly improved, has turned to the best account, and made the best time to some that ever they had all their life long, as the Psalmist from his own experience testifies, Psal. cxix. 67. "Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept thy word." There are many now in heaven, who are blessing God for the crook they had in their lot here. What a sad thing must it then be to lose this teeth-wind for Immanuel's land! But if the crook in thy lot do thee no good, be sure it will not miss of doing thee great damage; it will greatly increase thy guilt and aggravate thy condemnation, while it shall for ever cut thee to the heart, to think of the pains taken by means of the crook in the lot, to wean thee from the world, and bring thee to God, but all in vain. Take heed, therefore, how you manage it, "Lest-thou mourn at the last-and say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof!" Prov. v. 10-12.

PROP. II. What God sees meet to mar, we shall not be able to mend in our lot. What crook God makes in our lot, we shall not be able to even.— We shall,

1. Show God's marring and making a crook in one's lot, as he sees meet.

II. We shall consider men's attempting to mend or even that crook in their lot.

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

IV. Render some reasons of the point.

I. As to the first head, namely, to show God's marring and making a crook in one's lot, as he

sees meet.

First, God keeps the choice of every one's crook to himself; and therein he exerts his sovereignty, Math. xx. 15. It is not left to our option what that crook shall be, or what our peculiar burden; but, as the potter makes of the same clay one vessel for one use, another for another use; so God makes one crook for one, another for another, according to his own will and pleasure, Psal. cxxxv. 6. "Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he, in heaven and in earth," &c.

Secondly, He sees and observes the bias of every one's will and inclination, how it lies, and wherein it especially bends away from himself, and consequently wherein it needs the special bow; so he did in that man's case, Mark x. 21. "One thing thou lackest; go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor," &c. Observe the bent of his heart to his great possessions. He takes notice what is that idol that in every one's case is

most apt to be his rival, that so he may suit the trial to the case, making the crook there.

Thirdly, By the conduct of his providence, or a touch of his hand, he gives that part of one's lot a bow the contrary way; so that henceforth it lies quite contrary to the bias of the party's will, Ezek. xxiv. 25. And here the trial is made, the bent of 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 it.

Fourthly. He wills that crook in the lot to remain while he sees meet, for a longer or shorter time, just according to the holy ends he designs it for, 2 Sam. xii. 10. Hos. v. 15. By that will it is so fixed, that the whole creation cannot alter it, or put it out of the bow.

II. We shall consider men's attempting to mend or even that crook in their lot. This, in a word, lies in their making efforts to bring their lot in that point to their own will, that they may both go one way; so it imports three things:

First. A certain uneasiness under the crook in the lot; it is a yoke which is hard for the party to bear, till his spirit be tamed and subdued, Jer. xxxi. 18. "Thou hast chastised 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.