Ecclesiastes 7:13

Consider the work of God: for who can make [that] straight, which he hath made crooked?

Ver 13. Consider the work of God, &c.] q.d., Stoop, since there is no standing out. See God in that thou sufferest, and submit. God by a crooked tool many times makes straight work; he avengeth the quarrel of his covenant by the Assyrian, that rod of God's wrath, though he thinks not so. Isa 10:5-7 Job could discern God's arrows in Satan's hand, and God's hand on the arms of the Sabean robbers. He it is that "killeth and maketh alive," saith holy Hannah; "he maketh poor and maketh rich, he bringeth low and lifteth up." 1Sa 2:6-7 All is done according to the counsel of his will; who, as he may do what he pleases, so he will be sure never to overdo; his holy hand shall never be further stretched out to smite, than to save. Isa 59:1 This made David "dumb, for he knew it was God's doing." Psa 39:2 "It is the Lord," said Eli, "let him do," 1Sa 3:18 and I will suffer, lest I add passive disobedience to active. Aaron, his predecessor, had done the like before him upon the same consideration, in the untimely end of his untowardly children. Lev 10:3 Jacob, likewise, in the rape of Dinah. Gen 34:5 Agnovit haud dubie ferulam divinam, saith Pareus on that text; he considered the work of God in it, and that it was in vain for him to seek to make that straight which God had made crooked. There is no standing before a lion, no hoisting up sail in a tempest, no contending with the Almighty. "Who ever waxed fierce against God and prospered?" Job 9:4 Who ever got anything by kicking against the pricks, by biting the rod which they should rather have kissed? See Isa 14:27 Job 9:12,13; Job 34:12,18. Set God before your passions, when they are up in a hurry, and all will be hushed. Set down proud flesh when it bustles and bristles under God's fatherly chastisements, and say soberly to yourselves, Shall I not drink of the cup that my Father, who is also my physician, hath put into mine hands; stand under the cross that he hath laid on my shoulders; stoop unto the yoke that he hangeth on my neck? Drink down God's cup willingly, said Mr Bradford the martyr, and at first when it is full, lest if we linger we drink at length of the dregs with the wicked. Ferre minora volo, ne graviora feram. That was a very good saying of Demosthenes, who was ever better at praising virtue than at practising it. Good men should ever do the best, and then hope the best. But if anything happen worse than was hoped for, let that which God will have done be borne with patience.