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lend them the weight of their uniform example and influence. But be not deceived; as the gospel came from God, so its leading object is to train you for that glorious and immortal community, of which he is the head. This end cannot be attained, unless you heartily comply, and steadily co-operate, with the Christian sysLet this serious occasion direct your views to that far more solemn period, when all the little interests of time shall be lost in the momentous scenes of eternity.

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Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy con versation and godliness!" "The Lord grant" to you and me, "that" we "may find mercy of the Lord in that day" that we may be humble monuments of his praise," when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe."

Sermon XXI.

The Benefits of Affliction.

HEBREWS xii. 9, 10.

Furthermore, 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 chastened us after their own pleasure; but he, for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

WHAT instructive and soothing words are these to

the sons and daughters of affliction! Do the very light and feelings of nature teach us to receive the corrections of the fathers of our flesh, our meaner and mortal part, with reverence, with love, with a quiet submission to their authority, wisdom, and benevolence, in this salutary discipline? And shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, the parent of our nobler and immortal part, the author of our spiritual and divine life, by which we become his children in the highest and happiest sense? Shall we not receive his paternal corrections with dutiful respect, with a hearty submission to his will and design in them? Shall we not thus be in subjection, and live? Yea, live in the noblest sense. By this submission to our Father in heaven, we shall be improved and carried forward in a holy and heavenly life, and gradually refined and matured for the life of angels

and perfected spirits in glory. For, as the apostle proceeds, "They verily for a few days chastened us;" that is, during our puerile years, or in order to our good behaviour and welfare during this short and dying life; "after their own pleasure;" according to their fallible, and frequently erroneous judgment; and sometimes according to their capricious humour, or hasty ungoverned passions; whence it happened that their chastisements were not always strictly just; either proportioned to our desert, or adapted to our real benefit: "but He for our profit;" that we may learn and practise the most beneficial lessons; which are all summed up in this, "that we may be partakers of his holiness;" of that holiness of which he is himself the author and pattern; the centre and end; and in which he supremely delights.

The words thus explained present a train of excellent ideas, which are always seasonable and useful to creatures in our situation, surrounded with so many scenes of calamity and distress; but which are peculiarly seasonable at this juncture, when the Father of our spirits has seen fit to visit us with a rapid succession of awful and grievous dispensations. For, within the space of less than fourteen days, he has stripped this society of four of its members; all of whom, except the last, were cut down in the prime, or the midst of life; and, in addition to this, he has called a considerable number of families in this place, within that compass of time, to bury an aged parent and brother, who had spent some part of his life in the bosom of this parish, and at length expired on its borders. So quick a series, and so great a crowd of bereavements, by which no less than twelve distinct families in this place are at once mourning the deaths of very near relations, has, I think, never been

*This discourse was preached Mar. 28, 1790.

exceeded, nor more than once equalled, since my connexion with the society. And can we suppose, that so many successive strokes of our heavenly Father's rod have no important meaning? Reason as well, as scripture, forbids the idea. No, my fellow mortals and fellow mourners, our dying and dead friends are kind messengers to us from our infinitely wise and good Father; or, as the poet happily expresses it,

"Are angels sent on errands full of love;
For us they languish, and for us they die;
And shall they languish, shall they die in vain ?"

Let us, therefore, in the further prosecution of this subject, attend to some of the errands on which these messengers are sent; or, in other words, consider in what respects those fatherly chastisements, which God lays upon us in the death of our friends, are designed and adapted for our profit. The text indeed speaks of divine corrections in general; and it must be granted, that all God's afflictive visitations have the same general language, the same kind and benevolent tendency and design; they are all calculated to embitter sin to us, to mortify our pride, vanity, and worldly affection; to rouse up our minds to a just, deep, enlarged, and most salutary train of thought; and, in a word, to exercise and brighten the whole circle of Christian Christian graces; particularly faith, patience, humility, submission, supreme love to God, and trust in him.

Let me further premise, that the deaths of our fellow men in general, where there is no special tie of kindred, of friendship, or even of acquaintance to unite us to them, hold up very profitable instructions to our minds; and every wise and pious observer will reap some improve ment from them. He will learn more and more of the vanity of man, even in his best estate: he will grow

more humble, and dependent on the eternal God: he will read the dreadful evil of sin on every coffin and every tombstone: he will feel himself called and roused by every death he witnesses, to prepare for his own, and to put every thing in the best readiness for his solemn entrance into the eternal world. And if every instance of human mortality is thus pregnant with rich profit to the attentive mind, much more those, which strike nearest to our hearts, which tear from us our dearest lovers, friends, and acquaintance !

Let us survey a number of particulars, in which the removal of these is calculated, and may be improved, for our benefit. And

First, It shows us the insufficiency and emptiness of the most beloved and valuable creature comforts, To render this observation more impressive, let me instance in some of those connexions, which death has lately broken asunder. Some of you have lost a son in the bud of childhood, or the flower and glory of youth. None, but the fond hearts of parents can tell, how dear, how interesting, how transporting these comforts are; how they twine about our heart-strings, and engross that affection and dependence, which are due only to the Being of beings. And none but the parental bosom can tell how it tears the very soul, when God roots up these tender plants, and withers the blossom from which we fondly expected such rich and pleasant fruit! Where is now your delight, your hope, your towering fabric of expectation, ye bereaved, mourning parents? Alas! buried in the same coffins and graves with your departed children! What a lesson is here of creature emptiness! Some of you have lost a beloved partner, a bosom friend, who was your helper and your support under the daily cares and difficulties of life; your sec

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