Chap. 38. 4nExpofition upon the Bookof J .o e. Verf,; r, 2 4 hag in the World. The reafon of this counfel follows ; For, who e an make that ffrait which be bathmadecrooked ? Solomon intends this specially of the dealings of God in the world ; not that there is any crookednefs or unrighteoufnefs, any iniquity or;injullice in the ways of God ; but he means bycrooked, that which is trou- blefom and grievous. Now if God himfeif make a thing crooked, . tillhe himfelf make it llrait, it is not in the petwer of all the men in the world to do it. The moral fenfe ofchat Text, is thevery fame with the point in hand ; if God bind, who can bofe ? There is no firiving, nocontending with the providences of God : we mull deal with, and apply to God himfelf for the altering, of them, we cannot alter them our felves ; we mual delire him to mend his work, we cannot : This Solomon plainly intimates in the next, or 14. verfe ; In the dayofprofperity bejoyful, but in the dap of adverfity confider (in a time of adverury things grow crooked and awry from what we would have anddelire, or from what is comfortable to us) for Godbathfat the one over againfl theother, to the end that man fhould flsdnotbing after him. Sometimes he makes things crooked, fometimes (trait ; fometimes he gives a day of profperity, fometimes of adve; llcy, that no man may be able to faydtreElly, what flan be next. And feeing there is no loofing the band; of Orion till God himfelf bore them ; there- fore let all who are companions in tribulation, fay one to ano- ther, as they in a like care are reprefented, (Hofea 6,t.) Come, and let us returnunto theLord, for be bath wounded, and he wig heal; he bath torn, andhe will bind us up : Or,ás this Text [peaks,, He bath bound us, andbe will leofen us. Thirdly, From both the parts of the verfe confidered toge- ther,thefenegatives upon man mull be refolved into affirmatives, as to God : He can bind thefreeetinfiuences of Pleiades ; he can loofe the bands of O, ion. 'Whence note; rodcan both flop the ordinary coterie of our comforts, and deliver so fromour troubles when hepleafeth. God can,«op thofe things from comforting us, and thofe per- form fron7 1iewrng us any favour, whofe difpofitions are as be- nigne to us, as Pleiades are to the earth and he can give us . favour in their eyes, who naturally areas chutlilh as Nab-al, and us
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=