[ 577 ] SERMON II. JOB x. 2. I will say unto God, Do not condemn me: shew me where- fore thou contendest with me. HAVING finished my meditations on the first part of the verse, I proceed immediately to the latter part of it, to give some useful inferences for our instruction and . direction, and to help forward us towards heaven. 1. The first Doctrine or Inference-then is this, That when Saints are under afflictive providences they take More notice ofGod's hand than that of the creature. " Shew, mewherefore thou contendest with me." It is worthy of our remarkand imitation that although almost all the sorrows of Job came from the hands of the creature, yet in his complaints he acknowledges only God's hand therein. The Sabeans and Chaldeans took his ,cattle; and, it is very probable, the Prince of the power of the air sent the wind that blew down the house where Job's sous were, and slew them all. It was the same wicked instrument also that inflicted his boils ;' yet I do not find that in all. the mournful complaints this servant of God makes, he complains of those rude and wicked hands, which were only instruments in the hands of God to bring him under these sorrows. Shew me, says he, wherefore THOU contendest with me; thine is the hand that I acknowledge in all my sufferings. Seve- ral reasons may be given why this becomes a saint ; why it is most natural, and also his duty so to do : For, 1. This manifests our walking with God, and living upon hirn, owning him. in all things : It is a sign we live too much upon the creature when we cannot fall under any afflictive providences but we are immediately and continually looking to them : it is a sign we fetch our comforts from them, negléctingGod who is the wise over-ruler of these affairs. It becomes a saint to live less upon the creatures, for he is born of God, nor make the things below enough to move hisjoy and sorrow, for VOL. III. P
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