venge, can ever disturb the peaceful mind of the eternal. No clouds of anger, can ever cross his radiant brow, from which beams the sunshine of endless light and love. And whether he comes in mercy, or in judgment, and pours his undisguised blessings upon our heads or smiles in the equity of justice, he is a father still; and the good of his creatures, is the end, and the object to which his ways unvarying tend. "As many as he loves he

rebukes and chastens.

He

There are various considerations, which go to show, that this view of the chastisements of the almighty, is reasonable as well as scriptural. The very nature of God is proof, that he punishes in love. The apostle says, that "God is love." is not merely lovely, but he is love itself, pure, unmingled and unadulterated love. He is, as Dr. Clarke well observes, an infinite fountain of benevolence and beneficence, and he hates no creature that he has made." He cannot hate for his nature is "love. 99 Now if the fountain is benevolence, the streams must be benevolence also, for the same fountain doth not send forth waters both bitter and sweet. To us indeed, those streams may appear in different aspects. Now they may sweetly murmur in the green and verdant valley; and anon, they may rush with impetuous power, down the rugged mountain sides, and accumulating as they roll, swell to a mighty torrent, that bears all before it.— Now those waters may drop like the rain, even the

small rain upon the tender herb; and distill like the soft dews upon the grass. And soon they may pour down in torrents, or descend as the threatening hail, but in all these forms and shapes they come from the same fountain; that fountain is love, and so are all the streams that spring from its infinite depths. God can no more punish in hatred, and for a bad purpose, than he can cease to be what he is, and ever has been; and it is as utterly impossible for him, as a being of infinite love, to do an act in the spirit of hatred, as it is for infinite wisdom, to act in the foolishness of folly.

The infinite God cannot lie, because he is a God of truth. He cannot err, because he is a God of wisdom; and by the same rule, he cannot hate, because he is a God of love. We say therefore, that the very nature of God, not only renders it reasonable to suppose, that all his chastisements are inflicted in infinite love, but it demonstrates the absolute impossibility of its being otherwise.

Look at the subject for a moment, in another light. Here is man, a feeble creature of the earth, a frail child of a day. He is deceived and beguiled, and he sins. But who does he injure by his sin? Does he injure the great God, or endanger the stability of his throne? Nay, for God is infinitely above being injured by our vices, as he is above being benefitted by our virtues. If we are righteous what give we to him? And if we are wicked, what do we to him? But when we sin we

injure ourselves. And now let us suppose that God does not love us, and what possible reason can we assign why he should punish us?

The truth is, there would be no reason left, except it were sheer vengeance, and that is a feeling, that cannot find a resting place in the bosom of infinite love. Again, then, we are driven to the conclusion, that God punishes his creatures in the spirit of a father's kindness, and sound reason will sanction the declaration of the text, which saith as many as I love I rebuke and chasten."

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Moreover, the scriptures elsewhere clearly assert the same principle, for on this point, if upon no other, God has given us "line upon line, and precept upon precept." "Whom the Lord loveth, them he also chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." "Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you, as unto children. My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, neither faint when thou art rebuked of him, for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth even as the father, the son in whom he delighteth. verily had fathers in the flesh who chastened us for their pleasure, but he for our profit, that afterwards we may be partakers of his holiness. No chastening for the present seemeth joyous, but grievous, nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness, unto them that are exercised thereby."

"We

These are among the clear and explicit testimo

nies, that abound in the sacred volume, proving beyond all fair controversey, that God punishes men in the kindness and tenderness of his own love and mercy, and that his punishments, are mercifully intended to promote the best possible good of those upon whom they are inflicted. "As many as he loves he rebukes and chastens."

Such is, and such has been the principle of the divine government, for six thousand years past, and it is worthy of your serious attention to inquire, wether it is likely, that such a principle will ever change or be subverted by another and a different principle?

For myself I judge, that the principle is eternal, immutable, and if as some think, will be the case, man shall sin in the future world, God will punish him there, not in wrath and endless vengeance, but in the same love, and with the same merciful object that characterize his chastisements on earth. God changes not, and there is no greater folly than that which concedes the beneficence of the divine chastisements in this world, but crosses the line that divides time from eternity, only to transform God into a merciless tyrant, and makes his punishments there the malignant tortures of an insatiate fiend, whose appetite for human misery will be satiated. with nothing short of the endless wretchedness of the multitude of the human race. Place such a sentiment along side of our text, and behold how low and grovelling it appears! On the one hand

you see infinite and impartial love in God, carrying out the gracious plans of his government, by such means as his wisdom sees to be best, and "from seeming evil still educing good. And better thence again and better still. In infinite progression." And on the other, you see inveterate hatred working evil and only evil, and that continually, and it is not difficult to determine which is the spirit of God. One remark more and I leave this part of my subject. If God chastens as many as he loves, then evidently he loves as many as he chastens, and you have but to inquire how many he rebukes and chastens, in order to decide how many he loves. So the apostle reasoned when he said, "if ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons, for what son is he, whom the father chasteneth not. "But if ye be without chastisement whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons." Here you perceive the apostle appeals to the chastisements of God, as an evidence of his love, and the proof of our sonship, and argues, that without these chastisements, we could not prove that God regarded us and treated us as his child

ren.

Now there is no one exempt from the chastisements of God. All men have sinned, and no man can sin and not feel the chastening rod of his fathFor this reason, all are chastised; and hence we derive a scriptural and strong argument, that he dealeth with all men as his children, and loves them

er.