408 Chap, 39, 4rsExpofitiónupon the Book, of Jo e. Verf. iç, Hence note ; It is moll' unnatural to be hardned againfi thole to whom we Rand engagedby veer relation or natural bonds. To look upon chofe as not ours, that are ours, is an extremity of hardnefs. She is ahard mother indeed, who deals with her children as if they were not her children. The Apoftie concludes univerfall y in the Negative (Eph. S, 29.) No man ever hated hu own f efh, but loved it and chertfhedit, as the L.rd doth theChurch. Now as it is an unnatural thing for a man to hate his o stn fiefh perfonal, fo his own flefh relational. Chris fpeaking ofthe world, faith (John t ç. IQ.) The world lover its own. The world cloth not love ycu, faith Chrifi to his difciples; yea, becaufe Ihave eh:- fen you out of the world, therefore the worldhates you. The world and you are not of a piece, are not of a Pedigree, nor ofthe fame extr rt tion; you are cf another world, and have had both a birth and a breeding , differing (toto coelo) heavenly wide from theirs; and therefore 'cis nogreat wonder if the world hate you, who are not of it : but the world loves its own. They have a nature moreunnatural than the world, who are hardncd againft their own relations. Jens Chriti (John t. Y t.) came to his own, and his own received him not. Now, as not-to be refpeded by our own, fonot to refpeét our own, is unnatural. It was the fin of the Tewrfh Nation, that they did not refpebt Chrifi, theybeing Chrifts own according to the flefh. Theirfin is great, and they do fhamefully, whowill not do what good they ought and can for their own. The Prophet Jeremiah in his Lamentattens(Chap. 4. 3.) fpeaking of the women of Jerufálem in that extremity of famine, faith, Even the Sea monflers draw out the breaft, they give fuck to theiryoung ones; but thedaughter ofno people is becomecruel like the °ffriches in the wildernefs. The Prophet compares that people to theOfirich, though that cruelty of theirs to their young onesproceedednot Co much from the hardnefs of their hearts, as from thehardnefs of the times, and was co be charged rather upon their necefiicy, than their nature. The famine upon them was fo great-, andpreffed them fo fore, that they were fo far from having any thing to give their children to eat, that they were forced to ear their children ; and yet this ncceflitous hard-heart- nefs of theirs cowards their own, táe Prophet upbraids them with,
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