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SERMON
I
I.
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
of
God's hand
than
that
of
the
creature.
"
Shew, me
wherefore
thou contendest
with
me."
It
is
worthy of
our remark
and 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, neglécting
God
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
his
joy and
sorrow,
for
VOL.
III.
P