Speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying-Thus saith the Lord, behold I frame evil against you." And also by Isaiah, "I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things." And to shew more particularly that every penal evil arises from the same source, we read in the Scripture of divers kinds of affliction, which the Lord reserves in his own hands, to be applied, as occasion may require, to the children of men. Thus, Ezekiel, xiv. 21, he calls the sword, the famine, and the pestilence his four sore judgments, with which he would cut off from Jerusalem both man and beast; and we also find him speaking after this manner to Pharaoh. Exodus, ix. 13, "Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews-Let my people go, that they may serve me; for I will at this time send all my plagues upon thy heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, that thou mayest know, that there is none like me in all the earth. So also, Lev. xxvi. wherein the rebellious Israelites are threatened with heavy calamities, the Lord claims to himself the right of appointing the punishment." If ye walk contrary to me and will not hearken * Isaiah, xlv. 7.

unto me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you, according to your sins. I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; few in number; and your high

ways shall be desolate. If ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary to me, then will I also walk contrary to you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins; and I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant; and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send a pestilence among you, and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy."

It clearly appears, from the foregoing passages of holy writ, to which many more of a similar kind might, if necessary, be added, that no adversity happens to chance, but only according to the will and appointment of the Lord, and therefore, as he is infinitely wise and good, and never willingly afflicts the children of men, we must needs say

Indeed,

3rd. That, whatever sufferings any undergo, they are designed for their good. we have reason to affirm, that to as many as hope for salvation, through the merits of Jesus Christ, every correction is a mark of the most tender compassion and regard. Hence we

find that comfortable exhortation in the 12th chapter of the Hebrews: " My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him, for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." What are the things, which hinder the word from taking root in our hearts, and producing fruit to the praise and glory of God? They are the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things, which entering in choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. Now, the Lord, when he sends affliction, shews us, that none of those things, which we have been anxious to procure, can give us ease, but, on the contrary, they have been occasions of our sorrow. He enables us to perceive, that our table is become a snare to us, and the things which should have been for our wealth an occasion of falling. We look on the one side, and on the other, and we find none to comfort us; and what can we do under such circumstances, but confess, as many have done before us, that all here is vanity and vexation of spirit, and that there is no rest, nor joy, nor peace to be found, but in the Lord, who is the support, and friend, and comforter of all those, who put their trust in him, and rejoice in his salvation. Matters being so, let me from hence take occasion,

4th. To exhort you to endure the chastening of the Lord, and to think yourselves happy under his correction.

Among the various troubles, by which the Faith of Christians is exercised, I shall mention a few of the most common, that so the application of this discourse may be rendered useful to some, if not to all, of my hearers. Here,

1st. Let us consider that affliction, from which very few, who live so long as twenty or thirty years in the world, are exempt; an affliction, in several cases, very grievous, and with which some, from the peculiar circumstances in which they are found, are almost overwhelmed with sorrow. The affliction I mean is the loss of relations and friends, some of which by lingering diseases, and others by a more sudden. stroke, are taken away from our sight, and their pleasant conversation, their friendly counsel, and their seasonable support, is gone with them for ever. What have you lost, my mourning fellow pilgrim? Is it a parent, whose fostering care, and tender regard have long engaged your affections, and demanded the warmest returns of love and gratitude? Did you see him or her advanced in years, and, labouring under infirmity, at last sinking into the arms of death, from whose grasp it

was not in your power to rescue them? Or have you been obliged to separate from the dear partner of your bed? From the husband, of whose kindness and affection you had the fullest proof, and from whose labour and industry you have been indebted for a comfortable subsistence; or from a wife, with whom you enjoyed much domestic happiness, and to whose care and attention you are able to ascribe many comforts of your life? Again, have you lost a child, one young and playful, in the study of whose amusements you amused yourself; or one arrived at that time of life, when he or she could lighten your labours, and contribute much to the comfort of your declining years? For these you weep, as well you may, yet by all the floods of tears you shed you cannot recal their departed spirits. It was the will of God they should be taken away, and return to you no more. Or, it may be, you have parted from some other dear relation or intimate friend. But, say now, my afflicted Brother or Sister! has not the Lord dealt graciously with you? Your heart was too much attached to the comforts of this life, and now he has taken them away, that you might seek comfort from him. But, you feel disposed to say, "Why so soon Lord? Why must I be singled out as the object of thy corrections,