SERM. with, it behoves them to bear all, not only V. with Calmnefs and Refignation, but with

Chearfulness and Joy; knowing this, that worldly Calamities are the fure Marks of God's paternal Regard,---that whom the Lord loveth be chasteneth, and fcourgeth every Son, whom he receiveth (b). He corretteth him, as a Father the Son in whom be delighteth (c). But that if any one is without Chaftifement, whereof all are Partakers, then is be a Baftard,---treated as one, and not a Son (d).

THE Reason, which the wife Man urges, why a prudent Father fhould chaften his Son betimes, holds good in Application to the oldeft of God's Children; Foolishness is bound in the Heart of every one of us, but the Rod and Reproof give Wisdom (e). We have all of us Faults to be amended, Virtues to be improved; and it is in the Furnace of Adversity, that we are refined and purified, it is in the School of Difcipline that we must be taught our Duty.

GOD afflicteth not willingly, nor grieveth his Children among Men, but for fome

(b) Heb. xii. 6. (d) Heb. xii. 8.

fubftantial

(c) Prov. iii. 12. (e) Prov. xxix. 15.

V.

fubftantial Caufe: Natural Evils are inflicted SER M. in order to produce moral Good. If then we have had Fathers of our Flesh, who corrected us, and we gave them Reverence; shall we not much rather be in Subjection to the Father of Spirits and live? For they verily for a few Days chaftened us, as feemed good unto them; but be for our Profit, that we might be Partakers of his Holiness (f)---our `natural Parents have chaftifed us according to their Humours and Paffions, and with a View, for the moft Part, to our civil Conduct, and for the Furtherance of our Welfare in this Life. Whereas our Divine Parent lays his correcting Hand on us foley for our fpiritual and eternal Benefit; that he may reftore his facred Image within us, defaced by Ungodlinefs,---may make us to resemble him in Purity, and thereby qualify us to participate with him in Bleffedness.

AND shall we, as too many do (such is their Impatience!) murmur and repine at God's fatherly Severities? Shall we fly in the Face of Providence, if every thing goes not on eafy and smooth with us? Shall we both receive Good at God's Hand unthankfully, and Evil discontentedly? Or fhall we presently

(f) Heb. xii. 9, 10.

ง.

SERM. fently be upon the Fret, and complain of injurious Treatment on meeting with a feafonable Check in our 'wild and perhaps otherwife ruinous Career?

THOUGH no Chaftening feemeth to be in the Hour of Suffering, joyous, but grievous: Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable Fruit of Righteousness unto them which are exercifed thereby (f). The Sons of God know it their Duty and their Interest to bear all Things with a pious Submission ;--they are perfuaded to think, that God's Judgments are right, and that in very Faithfulness, in pure Compaffion, he hath afflicted them (g), to wean them from the dangerous Pleasures of Senfe, with which they are too much inclined to be captivated, and to raise their Affections to heavenly Objects, which they are as prone to overlook in a Crowd of earthly Enjoyments.

As long as every Thing goes well with us, and all our Projects fucceed to the Height of our Expectations, and we feel the full Satisfaction of a moft profperous Life, we fancy it is good for us to be here, and concern ourselves but little, too little, in mak

ing

(f) Heb xii, 11.

(g) Pf. cxix. 75.

ing Provifion for a comfortable Futurity. SERM. Is this the Folly and Inconfideratenefs of V. of God's most dutiful Children? And muft he not prefume to reprove them, and fet before them their Faults and their Danger? Let us not be fo much Children in Understanding, as to lament, where we ought to rejoice. If our Almighty Father leffens our Store, or embitters our Cup, he does it, because he sees the one is fo palatable, as to tempt us to too large Draughts, the other fo plentiful, as to excite a Confidence in uncertain Riches, rather than in the living God. And if he throws Rubs in our Way, it is to divert us from the wrong Course we are running, and to recall us to himfelf.

GOD is the best Judge, what Corrections are neceffary for Man; and, as we are fure, he will load us with no Burdens, but for our Advantage, it is our Part to bear, what he puts upon us, with a ferene and cheerful Mind,---to behave under Chaftifement with that Refignation, which a Sense of our ill Desert should infpire,---to let no Sufferings abate our Love to God, which are Proofs of his Love to us,---nor to be dejected in Spirit for the Sake of any bodily

V.

SERM. Evils; but to footh our troubled Hearts with this Confideration, that when we are judged, we are chaftened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the World (b). And that in the calmeft Times and moft favourable Circumstances, it is through much Tribulation we must enter into the Kingdom of God (i).

per

PATIENCE and even Thankfulness being then the Expreffion of a right Temin God's Children under his Difcipline, Contentment and Satisfaction certainly fuits them best under his Indulgence. There is no one, who does not find fome Bleffings in Life amidst the Troubles of it, and with thefe, be they many or few, ought every Christian to be eafy; as they are not strictly his Portion, but Accommodations only on the Road to an endless Poffeffion: To fecure which is his chief Bufinefs, and fhould be his main Care.

LET them be over fond of, and intent about, worldly Enjoyments, whofe Taftes and Aims, Hopes and Expectations rife no higher. But let the Sons of God regard this Earth, as a Wildernefs to be travelled through, before they can reach the Confines of their promifed

(b) 1 Cor. xi. 32.

(i) Acts xiv. 22.