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AFFLICTIONS
TEACH
O'DEA
SOVEREIGNTY.
579
Would it not
be
ridiculous
for a man to
fret at
the sword
that
has
wounded
him
?
Thus it
is
with
us
when
we
are
looking
only
at
instruments, and neglect the hand
that
manages them.
Doc
T.
,c2.
Faith
believes
that
God afflicts
not
his
crea-
tures
without
reasons
"
Shew
me
WHEREFORE
thou
contendest
with
me."
Job
knew
there
was
a
reason for
his afflictions,
and he
would
fain
know
it.
"
If
need
be
ye
are
in heaviness
through manifold temptations
:"
There
is
a
"
NEED BE"
in
all
the sorrows God brings upon
his
people,
else
they
should
not
be.
'There
are
many reasons and causes why
God
brings
afflictive
dispensations upon
theme
1.
It
is
to teach
the
creature
God's
awful
sovereignty
over
him.
When
he
overwhelmed the
earth
with a
flood,'
and brought
great destruction
upon
all
living
flesh, it
was
a notable instance of
the
Creator's
sovereignty over the
works
of
his
händs
The
brute
creation
could
not
be
charged with sin
that
they
should
be
destroyed
;
yet
God
shews his
own power,
his
infinite
authority over all
things.
This
is
a doctrine
we
have need to
learn,
and
we
can never
carry
ourselves becomingly,
as
creatures to-
wards
a Creator, without
a
particular
and
frequent
reflec=
tion on
the sovereignty
of God
over
us,
This
is
what
good
Job
had
need to
learn
more powerfully,
as
God
tells
him in
the 40th and 42d chapters
;
and therefore
when
.God
speaks
to
Job
out of
-the
whirlwind
he
only shews
his.
almighty Arm
:
His power and authority are
the
chief
subjects
of God's
discourse
with him,
hereby
he
con+
founds
him
and
brings
him to his
foot,
and
Job
then
ac<
knowledged the sovereignty
that
God preached
to him
and answered,
I
know
that
thou
canst
do
every thing;
therefore
I
uttered
what
I
understood not."
There
is
nothing teaches
this
doctrine
like
affliction.
Sore
afflic-
tions,
sharp
pains, and
of
long
continuance,
shew
us
there
is
a sovereign
God that
manages
creatures
as
he
pleases,
and
gives us no
account of
his
matters. A soul
when
it
has
cried
long,
it
may
be,
and
mourned
before
the Lord
under
its sorrows, and
God
seems
to
shut
out
his
prayer for
a season, the poor
creature
languishes
un-
der as
much
pain
as the
body
is
able
to
bear,
then
he
cannot but
fall
down
and
say,
".
Who am
I
that
I
should
quarrel
with
the
Almighty, who might inflict
a thousand
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