vengeance, and expelling him from his favour; but they are disciplinary, proceed from the divine love, and are made instrumental, in promoting his sanctifi cation. They belong to the administration of the covenant of grace and when taken in connection with the advantages which result from them, belong rather to the divine promises of the word, than to its threatenings. "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons:that ye might be partakers of his holiness."

BUT though these corrections are not properly penal, they are painful, and diminish the degree of positive happiness, and on that account are by no means desirable. "No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous." Whether the soul or the body be the subject of correction, the believer experiences the divine displeasure against his sin. It is that evil thing which interrupts his happy intercourse with God, and brings him under a suspension of the light of his countenance. "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God." Hence arises these mournful complaints, and expostulations with God, which are so frequent in the mouths of believers, and which show how much sin is embittered to them. "How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression, and my sin. Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy? Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble? For thou writest bitter things against me," &c. &c. Job xiii. 23-27. "I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself? And why dost thou not

pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniqui ty? ?" chap. vii. 20. A variety of troubles and afflic tions are also entailed upon the body, which tend to ren der the soul more averse to sin. "My life," said the Psalmist, is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed." Psalm xxxi. 10. "When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth." Psalm xxxix. 11.

THE operation of the rod produces in the believer a peculiar exercise about sin. Its malignity is better seen, and its pernicious consequences are more sensibly felt : this makes him anxious to have it destroyed, that he may be delivered from the evils which flow from it. But on the same account he will be equally solicitous to avoid the practice of it. Though the gracious fruits of the rod are desirable, yet the rod itself is not; and were it not on account of sin he would not be subjected to correction, as God does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. When he sees iniquity abounding he knows God is offended, and that correction or judgment may be feared; he, therefore, becomes watchful against the snares to which he is exposed, and instead of associating with the wicked he sighs and cries for the iniquity which abounds, and so escapes the calamities that fall upon others. When the spouse was restored to the embraces of her beloved, which she had lost through her sinful conduct, she not only watched against giving him any farther provocation herself, but strictly charged others to guard their conduct. And when David had been deprived of the consolations of intercourse with God, he not only prayed him to restore to his soul the joys of his salvation, but

also to uphold him by his free Spirit.

Without this he knew he would soon fall into new sin, and procure again these corrections which had already proved so painful to him.

6. BECAUSE it disqualifies them for that holy obedi ence which God requires.

The law-giv.

NOTHING is more expressly, or more frequently enjoined in Scripture, than holiness, or which is the same thing, obedience to the divine law. "Be ye ho. ly, for I the Lord your God am holy." er being holy, the commandment must be holy, and the obedience which it requires must also be holy. To promote this is the design of the whole scheme of grace. The gospel which brings salvation teaches men to "deny ungodliness, and worldly lusts, and tolive soberly, righteously, and godly." And sinners are created in Christ Jesus unto good works, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God.

In his natural state the sinner is wholly unfit for the practice of holiness, he has an aversion to it, he even hates it."His carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. viii. The old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, maintains an ascendency in the soul, and enslaves it to sin; so that every imagination of the thoughts of the heart is only evil continually. In this situation the sinner having no regard to holiness, will make no attempts to have sin destroyed, or to obtain fitness for performing the duties of obedience to God. He wants that love which is the fulfilling of the law, being the principle from which all obedience must proceed. Since every imagination of the heart is only and constantly evil, since there is no fear of God before his eyes, and since his fleshly mind is

enmity against him, his sole object will be to fulfil the desires of the flesh and of the mind.

THE believer, who hath his nature sanctified, and the love of God shed abroad in his heart, hath also the divine law written on his mind, and delights in it after the inward man. He is assimilated to Jesus, and, like him, he delights to do the will of his heavenly Father. But although holy obedience is his great aim, he meets with much obstruction in the pursuit of it, from the remains of the old man in his soul. "I find," said an eminent Apostle and believer," a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” To keep the law was the good which he was anxious to do; but that he found impossible, on account of another law in his members, violently opposing him, and trying to enslave him to sin. On this account his holy soul felt very uneasy, he considered himself in an unhappy situation, and anxiously wished for deliverance. "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Sin deadens the soul, contracts the heart, and renders the conscience callous, indifference and inactivity in the ways of religion then prevail. To prevent this, the believer is anxious to have corruption in his soul destroyed, to be filled with the holy Spirit, and to be kept from the power of temptation, that he may do the will of God. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, thou God of my salvation; and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. Open thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise." Psalm li. 14, 15. If then, the believer is anxious to be delivered from sin, because it unfits him for holiness, he will, for the same reason study to avoid the practice of it. Such

Psalm cxix. 101,

was the practice of the Psalmist. "I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word." He will avoid, as much as possible, association with the wicked, lest by their influence he should be seduced into sin, or have his religious frame injured. "Depart from me, ye evil doers: for I will keep the commandments of my God."

Psalm exix. 115.

7. BECAUSE it interrupts his communion with God and destroys his internal peace and tranquillity.

NOTHING but sin can do this. Owing to it our first parents were expelled from the terrestrial paradise; and all happy friendship and intercourse between God and them were entirely suspended: Owing to it the hosts of lapsed angels were hurled from their blissful abode, and from the presence of their Creator. It produces this effect, -by provoking the displeasure of God, and by disqua

lifying the soul for enjoying him. The committing of sin, even in his own people, is highly displeasing to God, and subjects them to a suspension of the sense of his love. It was this that drew from the lips of the Psalmist that emphatic prayer: "Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation," &c. Psalm li. 9, 11, 12. He felt very sensibly the smart of his sin, in a sense of the displeasure of God, who had suspended the comforting influences of his Spirit, and greatly impaired his spiritual peace. When he pardons the sins of his people, he casts them behind his back, and ceases to look upon them, or to regulate his procedure towards them in any respect on their account. This was the object of David's prayer. God seemed to look upon his sin, and on account of it to contend