ing the chastening of the Lord," from making light of it as some do, or yet desponding under it as do others, the true Christian will" in adversity consider," and will moreover so value such correction, as to tremble at its entire absence, and to regard with suspicion a course of uninterrupted prosperity. Not that affliction is, of necessity, a proof of the divine favour, and therefore to be courted by us; or that the absence of it is a proof of wrath all that we are justified in inferring from the Apostle's language is, that God does not afflict the children of men, and still less his children in Christ, willingly, but because affliction is necessary for our own advantage, (although of the time and form in which it is necessary, he alone is the judge ;)—that his severest dispensations are intended for our good, and our worst external troubles, as has been well observed, but "blessings in disguise," the severer countenance of love.

Furthermore we have

had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and

we gave them reverence:

shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own plea

If we look even to human parents, we find them, when really attentive to the welfare of their children, using correction, yet both expecting and receiving "reverence." They are not loved or obeyed the less, nor regarded as devoid of parental affection, because they may occasionally find it necessary to adopt painful discipline. Yet from them all that we derive is the mortal body. God is the immediate Author of our higher nature, the Father of our immortal spirits. How much more then shall we submit with reverence to such correction, as he may consider necessary for our spiritual and eternal

sure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. ver. 9, 10.

"life!" For earthly parents (generally speaking) chasten their children only with a view to this short life, according to their various judgments', imperfect at the best, and often widely erroneous; but God corrects us for our everlasting profit, and that with such unerring wisdom, that, by his Spirit sanctifying our afflictions, we may become holy like himself, so as to be happy with him for ever.

It cannot, indeed, be denied that afflictive dispensations carry with them an appearance of severity, and that no chastening is found to be, at the time, a matter of joy, but of pain and grief. It is essential to its character that it should be so: it would cease to be corrective, if it were not painful. And yet the grievousness of affliction is often-per

Now no chastening

to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of right

eousness unto them which are exercised thereby. ver. 11.

haps, to the right-minded Christian, for the present seemeth it is always—much greater in apprehension than in experience; in appearance than in reality. The mist is denser to the eye, when viewed at a distance, than when we actually enter into it: add to this, the comfort which God is pleased by his Holy Spirit to shed abroad in the heart of the afflicted Christian, and the peace, which according to his promise our Lord bestows those who suffer with him, are more than sufficient to counterbalance the outward trials to which they may be exposed, and, even in the midst of trouble, to make them exult in the abundance of their consolation. Let it, however, be granted, that, still, the time of chastisement is a time also of mourning; yet look to

upon

1 See the marginal translation.

L

its results. If we sow in tears, it is that we may reap in joy. We suffer with Christ in this world, that we may reign with him in the next. And even now the

fruit of affliction is peace to those, who use it as they ought for the more effectual cultivation of righteousness. Like the exercise practised in the athletic contests of the ancients, it may strip us of much that contributes not only to ornament, but also to our comfort, and send the spirit naked, as it were, to the appointed course; but, in so doing, it calls forth the spirit's energies, increases its moral strength, and advances it in the way of righteousness far more than would be practicable in a state of ease and enjoyment.

Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that

With such consolations did the Apostle animate his Christian countrymen to a firm endurance even of the severest persecutions, with which they might be visited in the profession of the Gospel. He bids them raise again the drooping hands, and sinking knees, so as to quit themselves like men in "the race set before them :" he exhorts them at the same time to carefulness in avoiding the rough and crooked paths of a lame judaizing Christianity, and pursuing, despite of all persecution, a plain straight-forward course of Christian faith and duty; that so," the crooked ways being made straight," and "the rough places even," the lame might not be rendered still worse, but rather be healed, so as to run the way of God's commandments."

which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. ver.

12, 13.

66

Peace, indeed, was still to be maintained not only with all their fellow Christians, but even with their

without any

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby

many be defiled; lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. ver. 14-17.

persecutors, so far as it could be done sinful conformity, or any compromise of that holiness of character to which Christians are called, and without which they shall never see the Lord in his eternal glory. How diligently then did it become them to take care, lest the opposition of the world, combining with the efforts of sensual and profane teachers, should draw any of them astray either from the truth or the purity of the Gospel! and thus vice and error should spread, as poisonous weeds, casting a baneful influence all around them. Many still are the bitter roots which thus danger the Christian Church, and which Christian writers, and sometimes even Christian preachers, are but too apt to plant and cherish. In one case it is gross sensuality, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness: in another, it assumes the form of profaneness, like that of Esau, openly rejecting the promised inheritance of the Gospel, as a thing of no real "profit',' when set against the actual necessities of life. But those, who thus imitate Esau's profaneness, should think of his punishment: they should reflect, how much he afterwards regretted his folly; how gladly he would then have inherited the blessing; how earnestly he implored, even with tears, a change in his father's purpose, yet implored in vain. And

spring up to en

1 Gen. xxv. 32.

so shall it be with those profane Christians, whe in this world despise the promises of the Gospel. A day will come, when nothing will appear to them so precious. How ardently, in the Day of Judgment, will the scoffer seek a revocation of his doom! but how vainly! There will then be "no room for repentance" on the part of the Judge; no place for mercy, when the final sentence shall have gone

forth.

To enforce still more strongly upon the Hebrew Church the necessity of adhering firmly to the Gospel, of "cleaving" stedfastly" to the Lord Jesus" through any persecutions, however severe, with which it might appear to the divine wisdom requisite to purify their faith, the Apostle urges the solemn importance of the Christian dispensation, as contrasted with that of the Law,-how mild indeed to approach, but how awful

to renounce.

Great, doubtless, and extraordinary were the manifestations of the divine power and presence, which accompanied the

For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and

that burned with fire, delivery of the law: yet were they

nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreat

ed that the word should

not be spoken to them

any more: (For they

could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: And so terrible was the sight, that Mo

all of an earthly character, addressed only to the bodily senses; -a tangible mountain (although forbidden at the time to be approached), a fire burning visibly before the people, with "blackness and darkness and tempest," of which they were eye-witnesses, and "the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words," which were heard audibly. True it is, the