It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? Truly, it is good for me to be afflicted, that I may learn thy statutes: the trying of my faith worketh patience. Doth not the Lord chasten whom he loveth, and doth he not scourge every son whom he receiveth? Shall I then despise the chastening of the Lord and faint when I am rebuked of him? Have we not had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence? Shall I not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? Although the chastening may for the present seem not to be joyous but grievous, is it not for my profit, that I may be a partaker of his holiness; and will it not afterwards yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby? Did not my blessed Saviour suffer the keenest agonies for me? Was not He, who is the Captain of my salvation, made perfect through sufferings? Shall not I strive to follow his example, and patiently bear a little suffering for his sake? Was not his suffering entirely un

merited? Is not this which I endure, and much more than this, the due reward, nay greatly less than the merited recompense, of my sins? Yet will it not be the means, through a lively faith in his blood, of raising me to that place, whither he is gone before; and of conducting me to an abode in his Father's house; where all the sufferings of this world shall not be worthy to be compared with the glory, that shall be revealed in me?"-To him, who thus weighs the afflictions, that it pleases God to send him, in the balance of the sanctuary, "surely the bitterness of death is past:" submitting his will to the will of his heavenly Father, whilst like his Redeemer he drinks the cup of suffering; like Him too he is visited by a heavenly Comforter,"strengthening him " to drink it.

Need I, in the last place, speak of those assurances, which the holy Scriptures give the righteous, to secure him from the fear of death; by securing him from the fear of those evils, which the worldly man con

Luke xxii. 43.

templates with horror and dismay? Need I mention, how to them, who steadfastly believe in Christ, and have a holy conversation in this life, and continually cleave unto his mercies, the same scriptures, which denounce torment to the wicked, promise rest and tranquillity and peace? Such under the old law was the expectation of the holy Patriarchs, and of the faithful and righteous men, who departed before the coming of our Saviour. Beautiful to this effect is the language of the author of the Book of Wisdom: "The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die; and their departure is taken for misery, and their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace. For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality. And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them and found them worthy for himself." And again: "Then shall the

Wisdom iii. 1-5.

righteous man stand in great boldness before the face of such as have afflicted him, and made no account of his labours. When they see it, they shall be troubled with terrible fear, and shall be amazed at the strangeness of his salvation, so far beyond all that they looked for. And they repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit, shall say within themselves, This was he whom we had sometimes in derision, and a proverb of reproach. We fools accounted his life madness; and his end to be without honour. How is he numbered among the children of God, and his lot is among the saints !" And if these were the hopes of the holy fathers and righteous men before the coming of our Saviour, and before he was glorified; how much more ought death now to be contemplated by his faithful followers as the gate of refreshment and repose; since he hath now evidently completed the work of our redemption, and is ascended up into heaven, and is gone to prepare a place for them that love him, according to that

1 Wisdom v. 1–5.

plain declaration of his unerring will, that "where he is, even there also shall his servants be " Such was the prospect of death, entertained by the holy Simeon, when in delight at beholding the promised Saviour of the world, he " took him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation'." Such was the vision of the beloved John, when there was vouchsafed to him a sight of those blessed souls, who had "kept the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus: and he heard a voice from heaven saying unto him, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth; Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them "" And such had been the gracious promise of the Redeemer of the world himself, when announcing the glad tidings of punishment remitted and happiness extended to all those, who come unto God by him, "Verily, verily," he declared, "I say unto you,