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selves to a full conformity with the divine will, begging of God in such measure to assist us, that we may never be brought into those lamentable and unhappy circumstances of calling to the hills to cover us, and to the mountains to fall on us: from which woful condition, God of his infinite mercy deliver us, &c.

A FRAGMENT.

GOD

ON THE DISPENSATIONS OF GOD IN

THIS LIFE.

JOB, CHAP. II.-VERSE 10.

Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?

THERE is nothing that begets more absurd and false apprehensions of divine providence in the minds of men, than the want of a due search and inquiry into its dispensations. Men are generally so overruled and guided by their senses, so ready to assent to, and so observant of all their motions and dictates, that the suggestions of the understanding, though far more reasonable, are looked on by them as very insignificant.

Hence it comes to pass that persons give judgment on the goodness or evil of things according as they either gratify or disgust some sense or other, never examining what the cause of these things is, or how far the design of them may be extended beyond what at present they are sensible of. They judge those things only, which are pleasing and satisfactory to their senses and humors, to be the gifts and dispensations of a good providence; but whatsoever thwarts or crosses, or is not altogether agreeable to their present appetites and inclinations, this they look on as proceeding from a morose, severe, and it may be, cruel providence, that either is ignorant of, or else will not provide for, the necessites of mankind. It behoves us therefore, whatever our condition be in the world, as far as we can, neither to make it better nor worse than really it is; I mean in our opinions or apprehensions of it; but to weigh and examine all its circumstances, and to seek into its regards; by which means we shall undeceive ourselves in the notion of what

things are good and desirable, what are evil and to be avoided; we shall see how horribly we have been imposed on by ourselves in our judgments; and we shall never entertain any base or unworthy apprehensions of divine providence.

Hence also we shall understand that true happiness is some-. thing higher and more generous than the barely being in a capacity of satisfying every sense and appetite; and that it is not misery or evil to be denied the gratification of them; that our murmurings and complaints are very often unjust and unreasonable; that happiness may be a stranger to riches and honors, whilst it is the familiar companion of a more contemptible and a lower condition; that it is contentedness of mind only, and that not arising out of sturdy or vain-glorious principles, but from a consideration of infinite wisdom, goodness, and power, disposing all things according to what is best to be done, which alone is able to render a man possessor of true happiness.

It was such considerations as these, which alone were of sufficient power and prevalency to uphold the spirit of Job from sinking under the heavy burden of his afflictions; who otherwise on so sudden and extraordinary a change as he underwent in his person, relatives, and fortune, must of necessity have fallen into despair. It will not be unreasonable, before we come to a more full explication of the text, to consider him a little in his two-fold condition of prosperity and adversity; whereby we shall learn how far more reasonable judges our understandings are than our senses, of whatsoever occurs in the world. In the first chapter of Job we have in him the character of a person as happy as this world can make her greatest favorites: he enjoyed so much, that the addition of more would rather have been a burden to than an augmentation of his present happiness: his substance was exceedingly vast, insomuch that he was the greatest of all the men in the east he was blest with a plentiful estate and a numerous offspring; and he seemed to be a man in whom God designed to manifest how perfect uprightnesss, which will be infal libly rewarded in the life to come, shall sometimes in this also be partaker of all temporal blessings and prosperity. Job no doubt had very good reason to praise God, and to magnify the riches of his mercy; there was no fear that he should com

plain of the hardness of his fate, or accuse providence either as niggardly or severe; it was but reasonable gratitude, he might well think, to declare and proclaim the generosity of his benefactor, who had freely and spontaneously invested him with riches and honor, causing his lot to fall in a good place. And I am so charitable as to believe that there are but few now in Job's prosperity, though they may be too great strangers to his uprightness and integrity, (which indeed were the best and most acceptable testimonies of Job's gratitude,) who will not speak well of the goodness of God, and be so just as to acknow. lege that they experience a liberal providence: though this is not so highly praiseworthy as thankfulness and submission in an adverse condition; for since these enjoyments are gratifications of our senses and appetites, and we are sensible that we are beholden and dependent for them, there is that in every man's temper which will naturally incline him, though from a principle only of self-interest, to gratitude and thankfulness in a prosperous and successful state. Let us make then a little farther enquiry into Job's affairs, and God's dealings with him; and we shall find too many, it is to be feared, and some of those too who are not wholly strangers to Joh's integrity, greatly wanting in his patience, submission, deliberate consideration, and total resignation of himself to the will and disposal of God.

If we go a little farther into the first chapter, and begin at the sixth verse, we shall find this good man's prosperity declining; when the devil, who no doubt before had used all his strength and arguments to stagger Job's integrity, finding all his assaults repulsed, and his batteries unsuccessful, now comes to solicit additional helps; to which end he slanders and calumniates him as one of a sordid, pitiful spirit, that obeyed God indeed, not out of any love which he had to him, not out of any esteem which he bore to virtue, but only that God might continue showering down his blessings on him as plentifully and munificently as he had done before.

In the ninth verse, after that God had characterised Job to Satan, (and from thence to the twelfth verse,) Satan answers the Lord and says: Doth Job serve God for nought? hast not thou made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land; but put

forth thy hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse thee to thy face.' In the next verse Satan gets leave to tempt Job, and presently puts his power in execution, heaping all his spleen and malice on him: one brings him news that the Sabæans had fallen on his oxen and asses; that they had carried them away and slain his servants: another, that the fire of God had fallen from heaven, and had burnt and consumed his flocks a third, that the Chaldæans had carried away his camels, and had slain his servants: a fourth, that an east wind coming from the wilderness had smote the four corners of the house, where his sons and daughters (his dearest pledges) were feasting and making merry together; so that they all were dead and overwhelmed in its ruins.

Job, who but just now was the greatest man in all the east, who had sheep and oxen, camels and asses, men-servants and maid-servants, sons and daughters, is now left destitute and deprived of all. What shall he think now of the providence of God, which appeared as if it had designed so great prosperity, that his ruin and misery might be the more intolerable? Might he not seem to have some reason for murmuring and complaint, that God should suffer him to be so suddenly surprised, and not at all acquaint him with his reasons or designs? In the twentyfirst verse, see how Job behaves himself: Naked,' says he, came I out of my mother's womb, and naked must I return thither; the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.'

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But, as if all hitherto had been too small a trial for Job to encounter, he in his own person must bear part of his burden, being filled with boils and sores, from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head; so that he took him a potsheard to scrape him withal, and sat him down among the ashes.'

Might he not have concluded now that God had surely forsaken him, that he would never deal so severely with any one whom he accounted not his enemy, and that his farther hopes would be all in vain? To what purpose was it, he might have said, any longer to maintain his integrity, since misery only and affliction was the reward of his uprightness, whilst those that feared not God, nor had respect to his commandments, flourished like a green bay-tree? This doubtless would have been

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