God then strikes us, let us in true penitence grieve, and when he consumes us, let us not refuse to receive his fatherly and merciful correction.

We may frustrate the purpose of God by despair. When God shall strike us we ought to grieve, but not in helpless and in hopeless despair. "There is a sorrow," says the Apostle, "that worketh death." There is a sorrow which refuseth comfort, even though it be offered by the hand of God. Now this is a state of mind little better than the former, because it leads to no holier or happier purpose. God consumes us, but why? not that we should despair, but that we should receive correction. True it is, that the arrows of affliction may have pierced our soul; that all our sins and offences may then rise in fearful array before us, that we may be struck dumb with the account which is written against our souls. But have we not a Redeemer who died for us? have we not a Saviour who still invites to pardon and peace, and who through this tribulation would conduct us to the kingdom of God? Let not the Christian then disappoint the purpose of his Saviour and his God; but while he is humbled let him hope, and while he hopes, let him receive correction. Most true are the words of Elihu to the suffering Job, "Lo all

these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, and to be lightened with the light of the living."

A third mode of frustrating the purpose of the Almighty, is, by forgetting the good resolutions which we formed in the day of affliction. God strikes us, and we grieve, but when his heavy hand is removed, we too often refuse to receive correction; we turn again to our evil ways, and "the last state of our minds is worse than the first." Such was the case with the Jews, of whom the prophet in the text complains, and such is the case too often with ourselves. Ever then let us remember, in the words of the Psalmist, "the vows which we made when we were in trouble;" let us think of the misery which we then suffered, of the mercy which we then experienced; and as we fear the Almighty judgment, as we reverence the Almighty goodness, let us guard against a relapse. To return to our iniquity is to tempt God; and no man ever yet tempted God without suffering most severely for his crime. When he strikes us, therefore, let our grief appear in the amendment of our lives: and when he consumes us, let us receive a lasting correction.

We see then the reason of those afflictions with which God, both in public and in private life is pleased to visit us. Let us not by sullen

ness, by despair, or by neglect, frustrate his gracious purposes. They are the calls to repentance, to pardon, and to peace. They are the instruments of God's mercy, and the signs of his love. For like a tender father, "whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." May the Almighty sanctify these his fatherly corrections to us, that the sense of our weakness may add strength to our faith, and seriousness to our repentance; and may we all have grace so to take these his visitations, that we may lead the residue of our days in his faith, and to his glory, and that after this painful life is ended, we may dwell with him in life everlasting, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

SERMON XXIX.

GALATIANS iv. 28.

Now we brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

If we would rightly understand, and faithfully apply any particular portion of Scripture, we must always remember, first, the intention of the writer, and secondly, the circumstances under which he wrote. From the neglect of these two simple rules, has arisen more mischief and error than can be imagined. Men take a Bible into their hands, they open upon a passage of St. Paul, they know nothing of the design of the apostle, nor of the persons to whom he addresses himself: they pervert the words, and mistake his meaning; and then, upon their ignorance and misconception, they proceed to raise a system of doctrines, which stand in direct opposition to the spirit of the Gospel, and to the intention of the apostle.

The main difficulty of St. Paul's epistles,

arises, not from the obscurity of the writer, but from the ignorance of the reader. Yet so easily may this ignorance be removed, that after a few words of simple explanation, the lowest man among us may be enabled to form a just conception of the whole; and may see the meaning of the apostle in the clearest, and the truest colours.

To enable us to understand the very important passage which is selected for this day's epistle*, we must previously acquaint ourselves with the intention of St. Paul in writing the epistle, and then following the apostle, shortly, through the heads of his argument, we shall come at the true meaning of the passage before

us.

The Galatians, were the inhabitants of Galatia, a province in the lesser Asia, and had been converted by St. Paul himself to the Christian faith; considering them therefore as his children in the Lord, he uses the language of parental authority in sharp but most affectionate reproof.

We may also observe, that in this epistle, he does not lay down at any length the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel, as he does in his epistle to the Romans. The reason is obvious, having taught the Galatians himself, and having in his own person founded their church, he knew that

Fourth Sunday in Lent.