[ 586 j SERMON III. }os x. 2.Shewme wherefore thou contendest with mé. THE first part of this verse we have insisted upon, " J will say unto God, do not condemn me ;" we have made an entrance also on the second part of the words ; and indeed suchdiscourses as these cannot be esteemed un- necessary and unprofitable to creatures compassed about with afflictions as we are continually. Sometimes one stroke of providence and sometimes another makes our life full of trouble, and well spoke that holy man who said, " Man is born to trouble." If God is pleased to send death into our families, or diseases upon our bodies, or if God sends troubles into our lives, the natural re- quest of a holy soul is, " Shew me wherefore thou con - tendest with me." The first observation was, ist. That in afflictive pro; vidences a child of God looks more to hls father's hand than to instruments : he takes notice of the providence of God in all the troubles he meets with, and knows it was by his father's dispensation that such an affliction befel him. DOCTRINE 2. A saint believes that God afflicts not without reason. Faith always supposes there is a reason when God stretches forth his hand to afflict one of his children, and therefore Job desires that God would dis- cover the reason to hirn. DOCTRINE S. That a hope of freedom from con- demnation makes further conviction of sin easy and desirable. When Job had hope in God's pardoning grace, he is willing to see further the reason why God corrects him in this world ; but it is a dreadful thing to have a discovery of sin without a hope of pardon. DOCTRINE 4. A child of God under his father's cor- recting hand longs to know the particular fault for which his father afflicts hirn ; and do this observation we shall proceed more largely. I-Ie knew well there was sm
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