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A PROPER BEHAVIOUR UNDER AFFLICTION.

Attend, my soul, with reverend awe,
The dictates of thy God;

Silent and trembling, hear the voice
Of his appointed rod.

Now let me search and try my ways,
And humbly seek his face;
Conscious of guilt, before his throne,
In dust my soul abase.

Teach me, O God, what's yet unknown,

And all my sins forgive;

Those sins I would no more repeat,
But to thy honour live.

66 LET US SEARCH AND TRY OUR WAYS, AND TURN AGAIN TO THE LORD."

LAM. III., XXXIII.

ALL the dispensations of God, whether agreeable or painful, are beneficial or injurious according to the temper of mind in which they are received and used. Comforts,-if they promote gratitude, love, and obedience, become blessings; but if they induce pride, vain-glory, presumption, and forgetfulness of God, they become judgments. Afflictions,-if they are received with humility, penitence, and submission, are blessings; but if they excite murmuring, impatience, and

A PROPER BEHAVIOUR UNDER AFFLICTION.

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incorrigibleness, they become judgments, and the forerunners of still greater severity. Our case is truly alarming when even medicine is administered in vain. “It is bad," says

Bishop Hopkins, "to lose the lives of our friends, but it is worse to lose their death." "It is a serious thing," says Henry, "to lose a calamity." "And we ought," says Owen, "to pray for a blessing upon our daily rod, as well as upon our daily bread.” How, then, ought we to suffer? In what manner are afflictions to be improved, that we may derive from them the benefit they are intended to convey? For they operate not by miracle or charm. They are but means employed for our spiritual advantage. It would be well if persons would exercise upon this subject the same common sense which they evince in the ordinary concerns of life; they would thereby save themselves from a thousand errors. See the husbandman: he knows that God gives the increase, but he also knows how he gives it, and therefore manures and ploughs, sows and weeds; his reliance upon God teaches him that favourable seasons and influences are necessary to ripen the corn, but he is never guilty of such folly as to go forth at harvest and expect to reap where he has not sown; nevertheless, such is the folly of many with regard to their spiritual concerns. They complain that their afflictions yield them no profit: can it be otherwise, so long as they continue to neglect those means which are necessary to render them instructive and edifying? Affliction, to be profitable, must induce

Self-examination.-We are all prone in time of health and prosperity to be unmindful of this duty. We are much abroad observing others, but little at home examining ourselves. Outward objects attract us to that degree, that we pass by those within. But in a season of affliction our thoughts are called inward. Now God commands silence that he may heard, and removes intervening objects that he may be seen.

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He shuts us up in the house of mourning that we may have opportunity for reflection, and that our thoughts may be directed to the investigation of our state. How proper, therefore, when we feel the smart of the rod, whether in our person or family, or circumstances, to examine ourselves, and seek, by divine assistance, to know wherefore God contendeth with us, and what he would have us to do. Seriously enquire, then, afflicted reader, are you in Christ or not? Are you yet far from God, or have you been brought nigh by the blood of Christ? See that you be faithful and honest in the enquiry; willing to know the whole truth, however much it may militate against yourself, or tend to increase your present distress. Instead of listening to the voice of flattery, hearken to the charges of conscience, and especially to the solemn and infallible statements of God's word. Seek not to palliate your sins, or to persuade yourself that your state is safe, when it is not so; for by this deception thousands are ruined for eternity. Because they are not worse than others,-because their morality is superior to that of the openly profane, -because they perform their outward rounds of duties,because their charities abound,-they flatter themselves that they have nothing to apprehend. Such is the persuasion of multitudes who are going down to the pit with a lie in their right hand. The heart of man is deceitful above all things. Let your enquiry be conducted under a full conviction of this truth. Tremble at the thought of deception, where such important and awful consequences are involved. Be content to know the worst of your case, and thoroughly to understand the eviland danger of your condition, that you may be excited to seek after the appropriate remedy. With this view, examine the marks of Christless, unconverted persons, as contained in God's word, and judge yourself by them. Consider also the evidences of a state of grace and of salvation, and see how far they belong to you. If after enquiry, you find

that your state is bad, that you have loved the world more than God, that you have cared more for the body than the soul, that you have lived in the indulgence of sin and in the neglect of Christ and his salvation; O! then be convinced of your inability to help yourself, and of your absolute need of Christ as a Saviour. Labour to be deeply humbled before God under a sense of your sin and folly; and in order to this, enter upon a solemn review of the sins of your past life. Contemplate their nature, their number, and their deserts. One sin would have subjected you to the sentence of God's law, and exposed you to his displeasure; but you have committed sins more in number, and greater in aggravation, than you can conceive of: your whole life has been one continued sin. You have, so far as God is concerned, done nothing but sin. Your transgressions have sent up a cry to heaven for vengeance. You are actually under the curse of the Almighty, O! does not such an amount of sin call for deep repentance? Where shall you find deliverance from its guilt,-its curse,—but in the Saviour whom God hath provided? Besides, there is the sin of your nature, as well as of your conduct. The heart is the polluted source from which flow all the evils that defile the life. Many frequently attempt to palliate their guilt by pleading, that though their practice is defective, yet their hearts are good; but this is a grievous error, for every human heart is desperately wicked. Why do men refuse to seek, and serve, and love God? because the carnal mind is enmity against him. Why do sinners go on in sin? because they love it. This was not the original condition of man, for he was created holy, just, and good; but is the result of his apostacy, and the consequence of sin. It is of vast importance for you to know that you are thus totally corrupt in your very nature, and through all your faculties; for without this knowledge, you will be taken up with a mere outward reformation, to the neglect of an entire inward renovation.

Nothing short of this can be effective. Without this you are undone for ever. You need not only the pardon of actual sin, you must have "a new heart," "a right spirit," or you cannot be saved. I exhort you therefore, to humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. I entreat you, by every thing dear to you, by your eternal happiness, to escape for your life,— to fly for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before you in the gospel. Delay not in making application to Christ. Apply to him that he may teach you the will of God,-reconcile to his Father, pardon your sins,-renew you by his spirit, and save you from eternal wrath.

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But are you a subject of God's grace? Can you trace in yourself the evidence of a change of heart? Still there may be need for close examination. Perhaps there is some corruption unmortified, some evil temper indulged,-some duty neglected, some idol to which your heart clings with criminal determination. Perhaps your closet testifies against you, that you have not frequented it ;-your bible, that you have not perused it; your sanctuary, that you have not profited by its ordinances. Be assured that when God afflicts, it is not without cause; and not unfrequently the nature of the evil for which God contends with us may be traced out in the chastisements with which he visits us, so that we can see the cause in the effect-the sin in the punishment. Do you suffer in your health? Examine, then, whether you have not been vain of your strength and beauty. Are you injured in your reputation? Perhaps you have made your good name a ground of self-exaltation, or you have been too mindful of human opinion. Is it your estate which is touched? Consider whether you have not indulged in excessive attachment to earthly things, and to the gratifications of the flesh. If, upon enquiry, you find sin written upon your suffering; then speedily repent of that sin,-humble yourself in the sight of God on account of it, and let it be instantly put away. This

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