DL1

a must read for any believer.... the modern english version is a very good translation without the challenge of "puritan-ese".... which i personally enjoy... but this version makes it kinder to all kinds of pallets :)

what comfort to be reminded of God's sovereignty in all things, especially the hard... and the encouragement to worship where ever and under whatever that loving Hand has for us... good stuff!! ( )

http://www.ccel.org/b/boston/crook/boston-crook-1.html

The Crook in the Lot, Thomas Boston (1676-1732), published 1737, from Sam Pettigrew
Living with that thorn in your side
The sovereignty and wisdom of God displayed in the afflictions of men (part of original title)
Intro by J. I. Packer, 2012, Christian Focus Publications, 2002

Ecc 7:13 Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?
Pro 16:8 Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right.
1Pe 5:6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

(1Pe 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
1Pe 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

(Psa 119:75 I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.
Psa 119:76 Let, I pray thee, thy merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to thy word unto thy servant.
Psa 119:77 Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live: for thy law is my delight.

Chapter 1. The Sovereignty and Wisdom of God in Man’s Affliction
Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?
Ecclesiastes 7:13

"Consider the work of God," namely, in the crooked, rough, and disagreeable parts of your lot, the crosses you find in it. 19

Now, we take up the purpose of the text under these three heads (propositions).
I: Whatsoever crook there is one’s lot, it is of God’s making.
II: What God sees fit to mar, no one will be able to mend in his lot.
III: The considering of the crook in the lot as the work of God, or of His making, is a proper means to bring us to a Christian deportment [response and action] under it.

Proposition I: Whatever crook there is in our lot, it is of God's making.
Here, two things are to be considered, namely, the crook itself, and God's making of it.
I. As to the crook itself, the crook in the lot, for the better understanding of it, these few things that follow are premised.

More particularly, the crook in the lot has in it four things of the nature of that which is crooked (24) [: 1) Disagreeableness (But in every person's lot there is a crook in respect of their mind and natural inclination. The adverse dispensation lies cross to that rule, and will by no means answer it, nor harmonize with it. 24), 2) Unsightliness, 3) Unfitness for motion, 4) Aptness to catch hold and entangle, like hooks, "fish-hooks" (blasphemous thoughts)].

Therefore, says the apostle, "Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way." They who are laboring under it are to be pitied, then, and not to be rigidly censured; though they are rare persons who learn this lesson, till taught by their own experience. It is long since Job made an observation in this case, which holds good to this day; He that is ready to slip with his feet, is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease. 26

Afflictions common to mankind

First, in the natural part, affecting persons considered as of the make allotted for them [how they were made physically from birth] by the great God that formed all things. The parents of mankind, Adam and Eve, were formed together sound and entire, without the least blemish, whether in soul or body; but in the formation of their posterity, there often appears a notable variation from the original. Bodily defects, superfluities, deformities, infirmities, natural or accidental, make the crook in the lot of some. They have something unsightly or grievous about them. 28 Some are weak to a degree in their intellects; and it is the crook in the lot of several bright souls to be overcast with clouds, notably bemisted and darkened, from the crazy bodies they are lodged in. 29

Secondly, it may fall in the honorary past [reputation]. There is an honor due to all men, the small as well as the great, and that upon the ground of the original constitution of human nature, as it was framed in the image of God. 29

Thirdly, it may fall in the vocational part. 30

Lastly, it may fall in the relational part. Relations are the joints of society; and there the crook in the lot may take place, one's smartest pain being often felt in these joints. 31 Since all is not only vanity, but vexation of spirit, it can hardly miss but the more of these springs of comfort are opened to a man, he must at one time or other find he has but the more sources of sorrows to gush out and spring in on him; the sorrow always proportioned to the comfort found in them, or expected from them. 32 So do men oftentimes find their greatest cross where they expected their greatest comfort. 32

God’s Sovereignty in all Affliction
II. Having seen the crook itself, we are in the next place to consider of God's making it. And here is to be shown, A. That it is of God's making. B. How it is of his making. C. Why he makes it. 32

The same providence that brought us out of the womb, brings us to, and fixes us in the condition and place allotted for us, by him who "has determined the times and the bounds of our habitation”( Acts 17:26). 33

So that there is never a crook in one's lot but may be run up to this original [caused by the Great Originator]. Of this Job piously sets us an example in his own case: “He is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desires, even that he does. For he performs the thing that is appointed for me; and many such things are with him” (Job 18:13-14). 34

God’s Wisdom in Afflicting Men
(III.) It remains to inquire why God makes a crook in one's lot? And this is to be cleared by discovering the design of that dispensation: a matter which it concerns everyone to know, and carefully to notice, in order to a Christian improvement of the crook in their lot. The design of it seems to be chiefly sevenfold. 39 [In this edition, only the first of the seven points is considered in this chapter, the remaining six in the next (“An Encouragement to Christian Duty”), which is a little confusing, until sorted through.]

The sevenfold design is 1) a test of true faith, 2) a weaning from this world, 3) conviction of sin, 4) correction (A man's person may be accepted in the Beloved, who yet has a particular badge of the Divine displeasure, with his sin hung on him in the crook of his lot. "You were a God that forgave them, though you took vengeance on their inventions” (Ps. 99:8).), 5) preventing of sin (Everyone knows what is most pleasant to him; but God alone knows what is most profitable. As all men are liars, so all men are fools too. He is the only wise God. 45), 6) discovery of latent corruption (Who would have suspected such strength of passion in the meek Moses as he discovered at the waters at strife, and for which he was kept out of Canaan? Or so much bitterness of spirit in the patient Job, as to charge God with becoming cruel to Him? So much ill-nature in the good Jeremiah, as to curse not only the day of his birth, but even the man who brought tidings of it to his father? Or such a tang of atheism is Asaph, as to pronounce religion a vain thing? But the crook in the lot, bringing out these things, showed them to have been within, how long so-ever they had lurked unobserved. 45), 7) the grace of God (consider Abraham and Job, as follows).

Abraham excelled in the grace of faith, in trusting God's bare word of promise above the dictates of sense; and God, giving him a promise that he would make of him a great nation, made withal a crook in his lot, by which he had enough ado with all the strength of his faith; while he was obliged to leave his country and kindred, and sojourn among the Canaanites; his wife continuing barren, till past the age of child-bearing; and when she had at length brought forth Isaac, and he was grown up, he was called to offer him up for a burnt-offering, the more exquisite trial of his faith, that Ishmael was now expelled his family, and that it was declared, that in Isaac only his seed should be called. "Moses was very meek above all the men which were on the face of the earth." And he was entrusted with the conduct of a most perverse and unmanageable people, the crook in his lot plainly designed for the exercise of his meekness. Job excelled in patience, and by the crook in his lot, he got as much to do with it. For God gives none of his people to excel in a gift, but some time or other he will afford them use for the whole compass of it. 48-49

Now, the use of this doctrine is threefold. (1.) For reproof. (2.) For consolation. And (3.) for exhortation. 48

I question not, but one committing his case to the Lord, and looking to Him for remedy, in the first place, may lawfully call in the moderate use of the comforts of life for help in the second place. But as for that course so frequent and usual in this case among carnal men, if the crook of the lot really is, as indeed it is, of God's making, it must needs be a most indecent, unbecoming course, to be abhorred of all good men. 'My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord." It is surely a very desperate method of cure, which cannot miss of issuing in something worse than the disease, however it may palliate it for awhile. "In that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping and to mourning, and behold joy and gladness, eating flesh and drinking wine: and it was revealed in my ears, by the Lord of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die” (Isa. 22:12-14). 50

Ah! May not He who made and fashioned us without our advice, be allowed to make our lot too, without asking our mind, but we must rise up against Him on account of the crook made in it? 50

And, indeed, if one did not shut his own eyes, but is willing to understand, he may easily perceive the general design of it to be, to wean him from this world, and move him to seek and take up his heart's rest in God. And nature and the circumstances of the crook itself being duly considered, it will not be very hard make to a more particular [specific] discovery of the design of it. But, alas! the careless sinner, sunk in spiritual sloth and stupidity, is in no concern to discover the design of Providence in the crook; so he cannot fall in with it, but remains unfruitful; and all the pains taken on him by the great Husbandman in the dispensation are lost. 'They cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty;" groaning under the pressure of the crook itself, and weight of the hand of the instrument of it: "But none said, What is God my Maker?" they look not, they turn not to God (Job 35:9-10). 51

... let them know that there is no crook in their lot but they may be made straight; for God made it, surely then He can mend it. 52 Do not say that your crook has been of so long continuance that it will never mend. Put it in the hand of God, who made it, that He may mend it, and wait on Him. 52

And how can you imagine that you shall be exempted from the common lot of mankind? "Shall the rock be removed out of his place for you?” (Job 1:4) And since God makes the crooks in men's lot according to the different exigency of their cases, you may be sure that yours is necessary for you. 55

Proposition II: What God sees suitable to mar, we shall not be able to mend in our lot. What crook God makes in our lot, we shall not be able to even.—We shall,

(“heads”) I. Show God's marring and making a crook in one's lot, as He sees fitting.

He sees and observes the bias of every one's will and inclination, how it lies, and where it especially bends away from Himself, and consequently where it needs the special bow; so He did in that man's case. "One thing you lack; go your way, sell whatever you have, and give to the
poor" (Mk. 10:21). 57

II. We shall consider men's attempting to mend or even that crook in their lot.

This is very natural, nature desiring to be freed from everything that is burdensome or cross to it; and if that desire is kept in a due subordination to the will of God, and it is not too pre-emptory, it is not sinful. "If it is possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will” (Mt. 26:39).

The man, being pressed with the cross which is in his crook, labours all he can in the use of means to be rid of it. And if the means used are lawful, and not relied on, but followed with an eye to God in them, the attempt is not sinful, whether he succeed in the use of them or not. 58

III. In what sense it is to be understood that we shall not be able to mend or even the crook in our lot.

IV. Render some reasons of the point.

…without Him can do nothing, great or small. And God will have us to find it so, to teach us our
dependence. 60
All our attempts for its removal will, without Him, be vain and fruitless (Ps. 127:1). Let us be as resolute as we will to have it evened, if God say it not, we will labor in vain (Lam. 3:37). However fair the means we use bid for it, they will be ineffectual if He does not command the blessing (Ecc. 9:11). 61
His darling ones ordinarily have the greatest crooks made in their lot (Heb. 12:6). 62

Object. 1. "But it is needless, for I see that though the crook in my lot may mend, yet it never will mend. In its own nature it is capable of being removed, but it is plain it is not to be removed, it is hopeless."

Ans. That is the language of unbelieving haste, which faith and patience should correct (Ps. 116:11-12). Abraham had as much to say for the hopelessness of his crook, and yet he applies to God in faith for the mending of it (Rom. 4:19-20). Sarah had made such a conclusion, for which she was rebuked (Gen. 18:13-14). Nothing can make it needless in such a case to apply to God.
Directions for rightly managing the application for removing the crook in the lot. 64 (Part 2 in online version)

What crook there is, which in the settled order of things cannot be removed or evened in this world, let us apply to God for suitable relief under it. For instance, the common crook in the lot of saints, namely, indwelling sin; as God has made that crook not to be removed here He can certainly balance it, and afford relief under it. The same is to be said of any crook, while it remains unremoved. In such cases apply yourself to God, for making up your losses another way. 64

If our trade with the world sinks, let us see to drive a trade with heaven more vigorously; see, if by means of the crook, we can obtain more faith, love, heavenly mindedness, contempt of the world, humility, self-denial, etc. So while we lose at one hand we shall gain another. 66

Case. "Alas! I cannot get my heart freely to submit my lot to Him in that point."

Ans. 1. That submission will not be carried on in any without a struggle; the old man will never submit to it, and when the new man of grace is submitting to it, the old man will still be rebelling. "For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary, the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would" (Gal. 5:17). 70

Proposition III: The considering the crook in the lot as the work of God is a proper means to bring one to behave rightly under it. 73/52-online version (http://grace-ebooks.com/library/Thomas%20Boston/TB_Crook%20in%20the%20Lot%20The.pdf)

I. What it is to consider the crook as the work of God. We take it up in these five things

First, An inquiry into the spring from where it rises (Gen. 25:22-if it be so why am I thus)...

Fourthly, A continuing in the thought of the crook as such [as being long term]. It is not a simple glance of the eye, but a contemplating and leisurely viewing of it as His work, that is the proper mean. We are to be,

1st. Habitually impressed with this consideration: as the crook is some lasting grievance, so the consideration of this as the remedy should be habitually kept up. There are other considerations besides this that we must entertain, so that we cannot always have it expressly in our mind: but we must lay it down for a rooted principle, according to which we are to manage the crook, and keep the heart in a disposition, by which it may expressly slip into our minds, as occasion calls.

2ndly. We are to be occasionally exercised in it [more so than at other times]. Whenever we begin to feel the smart of the crook, we should fetch in this remedy [thoughts which have helped us before]; when the yoke begins to gad the neck, there should be an application of this spiritual ointment. And however often the former comes in on us, it will be our wisdom to fetch in the latter as me proper remedy; the oftener it is used, it will more easily come to hand, and also be the more effectual. 75/54-online

II. How it is to be understood to be a proper means to bring one to behave rightly under the crook. 76/54
And many preachers too, who, forgetting Christ and the Gospel, pretend by the force of
reason to make men Christians. 76

The Scripture is very plain on this head, showing the indispensable necessity of faith (Heb. 11); and that, such as unites to Christ, "Without Me," that is, separate from Me, "you can do nothing" (Jn. 15:5); no, not with all the moral considerations you can use. How were the ten commandments given on Mount Sinai? Not as bare exactions of duty, but fronted with the Gospel, to be believed in the first place; ''I am the Lord your God, " &c. And so Solomon, whom many regard rather as a moral philosopher than an inspired writer leading to Christ, fronts his writings, in the beginning of the Proverbs, with most express gospel [1:7? 1:20?]. And must we have it expressly repeated in our Bibles with every moral precept, or else shut our eyes and take these precepts without it? That is the effect of our natural enmity to Christ. If we loved Him more, we should see Him more in every page and in every command, receiving the law at His mouth. 77
(Proverbs 16:7)

The decision made, in which the former is preferred to the latter; "Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud" (Pro. 16:7). If these two parties were set before us, it were better to take our lot with those of a low condition, who have their spirits brought as low as their lot, than with those who, being of a proud and high spirit, have their lot brought up to their mind. A humble spirit is better than a heightened condition. 83
The spiritual consequences of pride (getting their will, and carrying all to their mind) include the following: 92/69-online

1. Holy providence yielding to the man's unmortified self-will, and letting it go according to his mind.
2. The lust remaining in its strength and vigor.
3. The cross removed, the yoke taken off.
4. The man is pleased in his having carried his point, even as one is when he is dividing the spoil.
As gold in a dunghill is more excellent than so much lead in a cabinet, for, humility is a part of the image of God. Pride is the masterpiece of the devil. 93/70

Though [the devil] is the most miserable, yet he is the proudest in the whole creation. 94

Humility and lowliness of spirit qualify us for friendly communion and intercourse with God in Christ. Pride makes God our enemy. 94

They whose spirits are brought down to their afflicted lot have much quiet and repose of mind, while the proud, that must have their lot brought up to their mind, have much disquiet, trouble, and vexation. 96

What therefore betters the man is preferable to what betters only his condition. Who doubts
but where two are sick, and the one gets himself transported from a coarse bed to a fine one, the sickness still remaining; the other lies still in the coarse bed, but the sickness is removed; that the case of the latter is preferable? 97/74

It is of so much greater concern for us to get our spirits brought down than our outward condition raised. But who believes this? All men strive to raise their outward condition; most men never mind the bringing down of their spirits, and few there are who apply themselves to it. And what is that but to be concerned to minister drink to the thirsty sick, but never to mind to seek a cure for them, by which their thirst may be carried off. 99

(Good sum!) As you meet with crosses in your lot in the world, let your desire be rather to have your spirit humbled and brought down than to get the cross removed. I mean not but that you may use all lawful means for the removal of your cross, in dependence on God; but only that you be more concerned to get your spirit to bow and ply [work with], than to get the crook in your lot evened. 100

Believing the Gospel, take God for your God in Christ towards your eternal salvation, and then dwell much on the thoughts of God's greatness and holiness, and of your own sinfulness; so will you be humbled under the mighty hand of God; and in due time He will lift you up. 100
(K) Love submission to God! Love submission in Christ to circumstances (study sickness), station-status-calling, authority (boss, coach, state), and others.

The Duty of Man in Affliction (I Pet. 5:6) 103/77

"They cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty. But none says, where is God my maker?" (Job 35:9-10). 107/81

There is an abjectness of spirit, by which some give up themselves to the will of others in the harshest treatment, merely to please them, without regard to the authority and command of God. This is real meanness of spirit, by which one lies quietly to be trampled on by a fellow-worm, from its imaginary weight; and none so readily fall into it as the proud at some times to serve their own turn. These are men-pleasers (Eph. 6:6 with Gal. 1:10). 108

Our bodies and our souls, in all their faculties, are in a state of imperfection.

What it is in humbling circumstances to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. This is the great thing to be aimed at in our humbling circumstances. And we may take it up in these eight things.
1. Noticing God's mighty hand, as employed in bringing about everything that concerns us, either in the way of efficacy or permission. 110
2. A sense of our own worthlessness and nothingness before him.
3. A sense of our guilt and filthiness. 4. A silent submission under the hand of God. His sovereignty challenges this of us.
5. A magnifying of His mercies towards us in the midst of all His proceedings against us.
6. A holy and silent admiration of the ways and counsels of God, as to us unsearchable.
7. A forgetting and laying aside before the Lord all our dignity, by which we excel others.
8. A submitting readily to the meanest offices requisite in or agreeable to our circumstances.
Carefully notice all your humbling circumstances, and overlook none of them. 113

The humiliation of our spirit will not take effect without our own agency in there: while God is working on us that way, we must work together with Him; for He works on us as rational agents, who, being moved, move themselves. 113

Humiliation of spirit is in the sight of God of great price. As he has a special aversion to pride of heart, he has a special liking of humility. The humbling of sinners and bringing them down from their heights, in which the corruption of their nature has set them, is the great end of His Word and of His providences. It is no easy thing to humble men’s spirits; it is not a little that will do it; it is a work that is not soon done.

The whole time of this life is appointed for humiliation. 115

So fall before it we must, either in the way of duty or judgment. "Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, by which the people fall under You" (Ps. 46:5). 116

Directions For Reaching This Humiliation. 117

But nothing is more reasonable if we would act either like men or Christians, than to aim at turning what is so grievous to the flesh to the profit of the spirit; that if we are losers on one hand we may be gainers on another. 117

Be much in the thoughts of God's infinite greatness; consider His holiness and majesty, to awe you into the deepest humiliation. Job met with many humbling providences in his case, but he was never sufficiently humbled under them, till the Lord made a new discovery of Himself to him, in His infinite majesty and greatness. 119

Pray, how do you think to be made suitable for heaven by the warm sunshine of this world's ease, and getting all your will here? ... Will nothing please you but two heavens, one here, another hereafter? ... You may indeed lie at ease here in a bed of sloth and dream of heaven, big with hopes of a fool's paradise, wishing to cast yourselves just out of Delilah's lap into Abraham’s bosom. 123

Make use of Christ in all His offices for your humiliation under your humbling circumstances. ... As a Priest for you. You have a conscience full of guilt, and that will make one uneasy in any circumstances; it will be like a thorn in the shoulder on which a burden is laid. But the blood of Christ will purge the conscience, draw out the thorn, give ease (Isa.33:24), and fit for service, doing our suffering. "How much more shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb. 9:24). 125

Remember, humbling work is a word that will fill your hand while you live here, and that you cannot come to the end of it till death; and humbling circumstances will attend you while you are in this lower world. A change of them you may get; but a freedom from them you cannot, till you come to heaven. 126

God Uplifts His People in Affliction.

Now, His humbling grace in you is an evidence of the acceptance of His humiliation for your lifting up. 135

And you may know they are by the Spirit if it happens that you are helped to continue praying, hoping for your relief on the ground of God's word of promise. For that praying which is by nature is a pool that will dry up in a long drought. The Spirit of prayer is the lasting spring. 138

The whole life of a Christian is a praying, waiting life. 141

This is sometimes the case with the children of God who are set to bear the yoke in their youth as it was with Joseph and David; or of those that get it laid on them in their middle age, as it was with Job, who could not have been less than forty years old when his trouble came; but afterwards he lived one hundred and forty years. 142

The most valuable of all the promises was the longest in being fulfilled, namely, the promise of Christ, being about four thousand years. 147

The life of a Christian here is designed to be a life of faith; and though faith may act more easily when it has some help from sense, yet it certainly acts most nobly when it acts in opposition to sense. 150

There are six things, I conceive, belong to this humiliation, preparatory to lifting up.
1. A deep sense of sinfulness and unworthiness of being lifting up at all.
2. A resignation to the Divine pleasure as to the time of lifting up.
3. An entire resignation as to the way and manner of bringing it about. ... Often we cannot see another; but our God knows many ways of relief, where we know but one or none at all...
4. Resignation as to the degree of the lifting up, yea, and as to the very being of it in time. ... to set no time at all, but submit to go to the grave under their weight, if it seem good in the Lord's eyes. In that case they will be brought to be content with any measure of it in time, without prescribing how much. "If I shall find favor in the eyes of the Lord, He will bring me again - But if He thus say, I have no delight in you; behold, here I am, let Him do as seems good to Him." II Sam. 15:25-26).
5. The continuing of praying and waiting on me Lord in the case.
6. Mourning under mismanagements in the trial. "Therefore have I uttered that I did not understand things too wonderful for me, which I did not know" (Job 42:3). 152-154

"In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. You hid Your face, and I was troubled" (Ps. 30:6-7). 156

You have heard much of the Crook in the Lot; the excellency of humbleness of spirit in a low lot, beyond pride of spirit, though joined with a high one. You have been called to humble yourselves in your humbling circumstances, and have been assured in that case of a lifting up. To conclude: we may assure ourselves, God will at length break in pieces the proud, be they ever so high: and He will triumphantly lift up the humble, be they ever so low. 159