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vealed in the Holy Scriptures, is taught to mankind. We learn that all things are directed by God; that men are his children; and that he guides all events with a paternal hand. Thus the aspect of things is quite changed to them that obey the Gospel. That one feature in the case, that trials and afflictions are chastisements, that they spring not from the dust, that they rise not from chance, nor from the passions of men, nor from creatures, except as instruments; but that they are all previously ordered, inflicted with design, measured by wisdom, controlled by power, made subservient to holiness, this one feature alters the whole case-all wears now a new and different aspect.

Those who are conscious of being the children of God, enter upon afflictions in a very different spirit, and endure them in a very different manner from those who are left to the dim conjectures of nature. The Christian knows that all afflictions are correctives, chastisements, part of the paternal discipline which God exercises in his family, and distinct from those acts of justice by which he appears as the governor of the world, and the avenger of his enemies. They are not servile punishments inflicted for the pleasure of a master, and avenging an injury done to his authority, or merely to deter others from like offences; but acts of chastisement, for the express benefit of those who receive them, acts of domestic justice, that of a Father towards his children.

The Israelites suffered great and various afflictions; they had provoked the anger of God; and at Taberah and at Massah the wrath of the Almighty broke out against them. And yet these afflictions are called chastisements; they were designed to remedy moral evils in the people; they were correctives. Thou shalt consider in thine heart, says Moses, that as a father chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee.

Even the best and holiest servants of God have been thus chastened.

God saw that they were not in a state which superseded the necessity of this domestic discipline. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

Let none, when under affliction, think that they are under God's anger, so as to have lost his favour, and forfeited the complacency of their heavenly Father. We should indeed examine ourselves, to see if there be any reason for particular calamities, from our peculiar delinquencies in duty, or from corruptions which we have indulged; and thus we should turn unto him that smiteth us. But we should consider our trials as springing from love, as having their origin in our imperfect state of character, as made necessary by our sins. We should consider that they are sent to subdue in us the inclinations of the old man, and to form in us Jesus Christ in all his features of righteousness and true holiness. Thus the Christian regards afflictions no longer with that terror which they impress on a person not in a state of reconciliation with God, and who derives his view of events only from a general notion of the providence of God. To such persons they appear the beginning of evils, and they lead them to contemplate God more with terror and dismay than with confidence and delight. But the Christian under affliction considers that he is indeed under the rebuke of a heavenly Father; but that it is with a view to his benefit. He considers that God dealeth with him as with a son. He considers that he is indeed under the correcting hand of God; but that God is his parent, that he measures every stroke, that he sits by the furnace and assuages the flame, or increases his strength to endure it; that he superintends the whole process; and that, if patience have its perfect work, he will come out of it benefited, and, as it were, purified from dross by the furnace. Those who live in prosperity and wealth and success, and who are strangers to trials, may boast of their plea

sures and joys. But all this is a
dark mark. They are perhaps aban-
doned of God, because they have re-
jected the various calls of his pro-
vidence and Holy Spirit. A person,
however benevolent, extends not his
paternal care to strangers and fo-
reigners; but he is most peculiarly
attentive to his children; he takes
pains with them; he will not let
them contract evil habits, or follow
their corruptions, though in correct-
ing them he do it at the expense of
their present comfort. For all in
the nature of discipline crosses our
natural inclinations and wishes, and
is attended with uneasiness and an-
noyance. To endure these afflictions
and crosses in some way or other, is
an effect of necessity; but to endure
them as a Christian, is an act of
grace. The Christian, convinced of
the design of God in affliction, yields
himself into his hands. He says in
humble prayer,
Correct me, but
with judgment; not in thine anger,
lest thou bring me to nothing." He
recognizes the hand of God as afflict-
ing; he looks beyond the instruments,
the injustice or unkindness of men,
the impression of the wickedness of
the worst of mankind. He sees the
wicked as God's instruments.

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To have higher thoughts of God under his rebukes, to cherish an undiminished love of his character, to turn with penitence and resignation to the hand of him that smiteth; not to be like Israel, of whom the prophet says, "The people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of Hosts," is the genuine mark of filial grace. The child, when chastened by a parent, especially a maternal parent, clings only the closer to that parent. Thus the Christian cleaves and clings closer, as it were, to his Heavenly Parent under chastisement. He does not run away to the paths of disobedience, and flee to a distance off from God; but he approaches nearer to him, and inquires the more earnestly how to please him. This is to endure chastisement like a child, to vindicate the character of God, to

understand the motives of his conduct, to advance in all things the designs of his grace.

There are some persons who would explain away all this doctrine of resignation to God under his chastisements. I once heard a sermon, which went to prove that there never was such a grace as patience in our sense of the word, but merely in the sense of bearing, from dire necessity, what God inflicts. But voluntary submission of heart to God is surely a duty, and not only a duty, but a leading duty of a Christian.

It bears the same pro

portion to the whole Christian cha-
racter, as afflictions bear to all the
other events of life. All must suffer;
there are valleys of humiliation as
well as summits of joy; shady paths
and gloomy paths, as well as sunny
To be without
and bright ones.
patience is to be without a material
The
part of our defensive armour.
Apostle John, when he describes a
scene of trials about to come upon
the church, calls on Christians to
prepare for it in these striking words,
"Here is the patience of the saints."
This grace enters into the very na-
ture of Christianity, which is de-
scribed as the kingdom and patience
of Jesus Christ. And our Lord says,
Keep the
defining his doctrines,
word of my patience." We are
called, not only to follow the steps
of a conquering Saviour, but to fol-
low the steps also of one who died
for our sins, of one who fought and
wrestled with our enemies; we are
called to follow a Saviour who went
through the deepest gloom of dark-
ness, who descended to the lowest
parts of the earth, who endured the
contradiction of sinners against him;
we are called to follow One who en-
dured the cross, despising the shame,
before he sat down on the right hand
of the Majesty on high. Patience
therefore is the very badge of our
Christian vocation.

But let us consider,

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II. The great argument by which this proper endurance of afflictions is enforced, from the relation in which

we stand to God, as the Father of our spirits.

This argument is drawn from the analogy of human affairs, from the course of nature. "We have had fathers of our flesh, that corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?" This instructs us in the necessity of chastisement as Christians, who are children of a heavenly Father. In natural things, no parent ever had a child so happily moulded, as to supercede the necessity of restraint and discipline. Some persons may doubt whether corporeal punishments be expedient, though God has certainly sanctioned the use of them in such a manner as to leave no doubt generally that they are preferable to modern refined ideas of punishment, -but none can question whether restraint, coercion, chastisement in some way or other, be necessary to qualify their children for the functions of future life. In the minds of the young there is a waywardness, a perverseness, a self-will, which can be worked out of them only by discipline. Now we are, as Christians, the spiritual offspring of God. We may be sure, therefore, if God is a Father, we need a correspondent kind of discipline, free only from imperfections, and enlarged into all the designs which his character would lead us to expect.

The appeal in the passage from which the text is selected, is to the common sense of mankind. "What son is he whom the Father chasteneth not; " unless he mean to ensure his ruin, unless he would leave him to profligacy and vice? If we have had fathers of our flesh who have thus chastened us, we have admired and loved, on reflection and when we were capable of judging aright, their motives and conduct: how much more then should we be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? If they did this, it was only for a few days; how shall we not then much more submit to the chastisement of our heavenly Father, we

who are destined for eternity; we whose inferiority to our Father can never be lessened; we between whom and our heavenly Father the distance is permanent, inconceivable, essential? And if we consider the glory with which this eternity is connected, and for which our heavenly Father is training us, how great, how pure, how infinite, surely we must allow that discipline must be necessary, surely we cannot expect to arrive at such felicity, except by long and severe preparatory restraint and chastisements.

The argument here divides itself into two parts:

1. The superior relation in which we stand to God above our earthly parent; 2. The infinite superiority of the character of God as the Father of spirits.

1. The superior relation is, that the one is the father of our flesh, the other the Father of spirits. Our parents were the instruments, under God, of our earthly existence, but this only so far as our flesh is concerned, only as we are corporeal creatures; but as to our spirits, God is the Father of them. For we have, besides our bodies, an inward, immaterial, thinking, immortal, never-dying substance. We have a part of our nature which bears a peculiar relation to God, which is in close affinity with Him, which contemplates truth, rejoices in goodness, looks back on the past, looks forward to the future; which penetrates by sagacity or experience the depths and mysteries of things around us, which derives its purest pleasures and deepest pains, more from the expectation of what we shall be, or the remembrance of what we have been, than from the present enjoyments or sufferings before us. While the inferior creatures derive all their happiness, so far as we can judge, from the immediate pleasures of time present, we live on the future and the past, we expatiate over a boundless scene, we stretch into eternity.

God is the father of such a spirit

as this; he breathed into us this breath of life. It is a part, as it were, of the Divine nature. And though it be not a portion of the Divinity, as the Pagan philosophers taught, yet it places us, as spiritual beings, in a more intimate relation with the Father of spirits, than with our earthly parents who are the fathers of our flesh. We are related by a part of our nature, by what is spiritual, to the Father of the universe; we are connected with Deity; we have hold on immortality. God is the Father of the spirits of all flesh, says Moses. The wise man, dividing the two parts of human nature, and apportioning each to its destined place, says, The dust returns to the dust as it was, and the spirit returns to God that gave it." The earthly tabernacle falls into dust and mingles with the elements of kindred clay; but God gave the spirit he is the pattern, model, cause of all spirits; and to Him the spirits of the departed return as to the source from whence they sprang.

The relation to the parents of our flesh is trivial compared with that to God. The superiority of mind over body, the eternal duration of the one and the mouldering frail tenure of the other, leave no comparison for a moment between them. God's right to us is greater, his concern more deep: he has an interest in us of a far higher nature than our earthly parent. We are also his offspring, says the Apostle, quoting the pagan sage. It would be beneath the majesty of God to bend to man, if he did not see in him a capacity for intellectual and moral happiness, a rational and spiritual nature, in comparison with which all the material world is nothing. All nature is made subservient to immortal, accountable beings. We are the end and purpose for which the universe was created, because we are spirits.

We have thus two parents, a natural and a spiritual; our natural parent is the father of our flesh, our spiritual is the Father of our spirits.

Our earthly parent commonly

looks chiefly to the interests of the body, except as Christian piety elevates and purifies his views; he looks to the temporal state of his children; he regards their flesh, their earthly prosperity, their health, their fame, their carriage among men: God looks to the soul, to their spiritual interests, to their salvation. The design of chastisements is to establish these spiritual interests; to remove those diseases which would destroy the soul; to extinguish those desires, and lusts, which, if they should prevail, would ruin us for eternity; to take away sin, which is an evil that would lead to everlasting death.

When God, then, is carrying on these his designs for purifying the spirit, shall we not kiss the rod ? Shall we not rejoice that he thinks us worthy of such care? Shall we not enter into his noble design of bringing our spirits into conformity to his own?

What a glorious process is going on in all our chastisements, if we are Christians, when the Father of spirits himself thus deigns to pay attention to such inferior spirits as we are, and so to modify and order these chastisements as to make them the occasion of our rejoicing at last for evermore. The trial of our faith is indeed much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire.

Then consider, secondly, the second part of this division of the argument, The superiority of the character of that God who is thus, as we have seen, the Father of spirits.

The fathers of our flesh are imperfect in wisdom, in goodness, in power. They are imperfect in their chastisements as to time, measure, manner. They cannot ascertain with any certainty the effects which will be produced. Thus their chastisements are often misapplied, often excessive, often lost. None can undertake to say that teaching shall teach.

None but the Father of spirits can ensure the effect of discipline.

The Christian is to remember then, in order to learn patience, that when he is in the hands of the Father of spirits, that Father cannot err in his chastisements either in time, measure, or manner. He knows the disease, he knows the fittest manner to apply the chastisement. We shall see hereafter that no portion could have been altered for the better or dispensed with. If Infinite Wisdom and Infinite Power are active in the chastisements inflicted on us, what more can we require?

Indulgent earthly parents are often capricious; and therefore the Apostle had occasion to warn fathers not to provoke their children to wrath. They sometimes chasten their children, says the Apostle in the text, for their own pleasure. But not so the Father of spirits. He is tempted by no passion, he is perturbed by no emotion, so as to lose sight of what is best for us. He never corrects willingly, nor grieves the children of men, but most reluctantly. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him; and the parent is, we know, most compassionate then when his discipline appears to the child most severe. The afflictions of our heavenly Father may sometimes seem severe; but he sees that no others would do. Who knows what is good for vain man, all the days that he liveth upon the earth? God alone knows what is good for him, what is most conducive to his real interests, and what will accomplish his object. His ways are a deep, and his paths are past finding

out.

The Apostle contrasts more particularly the end and purpose of the earthly and heavenly Parent. They chastened us for their own pleasure, but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

The earthly parent has no other view sometimes in chastening, than to gratify the irritable temper which mingles often with his real love to his children. He is sometimes displeased with one party, and

vents his displeasure upon another. Parents among the heathen were proverbially cruel to their infant offspring. Infanticide prevailed among all the heathen nations, even the most refined, the Greeks and Romans. This proves that you cannot safely put any creature, even a child, under the absolute disposal of human power.

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But God hates nothing that he has made. He delights in the works of his own hands; and those minds which are subdued with the graces of his own Spirit, and bear his image, enjoy his peculiar favour. "The Father himself loveth you," said our Lord," because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came forth from God." They share the complacency with which Christ is regarded: “Thou hast loved them," adds our Lord, addressing still his heavenly Father,

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And such is the effect of his chastisements. They wean the Christian from the world, they turn his mind back to Him that made it, they take him off from self-will, they break the perverseness which clings to the fallen heart. My soul," saith the Psalmist, "is even as a weaned child," humble within me, no longer meddling with things too high for me; quieted, calmed, composed; saying with the prophet, "What I know not, teach thou me:" If I have done iniquity, I will do so no more."

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Chastisement also quickens the spirit of prayer. The spirit of prayer is a spirit that cleaves to God under affliction. Our Lord, when he was in an agony, prayed more earnestly. If any are afflicted, the direction is, "let him pray." "Out of the depths," says the afflicted Psalmist," have I cried unto thee, O

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