CHASTISEMENTS INSUFFICIENT OP THEMSELVES. 614 cast me into the midst of the deep, into the middleof , " the seas ; the floods compassed me about, all thy bil- " lows and thy waves past over me, the waters compassed " me about even to the soul : the depths enclosed me " round, the weeds were wrapt about,my head, I went " clown to the bottoms of the mountains of the earth." Some there are whom Satan and their own corruptioìns get so much power over, that they go on notwithstand- ing all methods of recovery. Some, on the other hand, faint, and have no heart to worship God, they give over all as lost, they seem to be given up to everlasting back- slidings, and return not in a long time, being pressed down by despair. Sometimes, indeed, the children of God growmore hardened after afflictions ; but this looks so very like the character of rebels, that the world, nor they themselves, can be able to distinguish them. From all this I would make these two remarks : I. That while we have good reason to hope, that the grace of.God was once wrought in truth in any soul, that though weshould see them slide back strangely, we should not give them over 'for lost : the root of the matter may be in them still, there may be some spiritual life within, there may be some spark of grace still, though it seems to be buried under mountains and floods of corruption. II. I would advis:1 those that ever had any hopes of the mercy of God, tat they should not entirely despair though they have found this perverse temper of mind long prevailing : " Return, saith theLord, for I ammar- ried unto you."The last Doctrine I shall mention is this ; that neither temporal nor spiritual chastisements have power enough of them- selves to reduce a sinner to God. This is evident from the text ; for if all this coùld have restored Israel, then Israel would have been restored in that verse, and there had not been the following verses written, and the reasons for it may bd these three I. That afflictions of a temporal, or of a spiritual na- ture, do work only by wayof persuasion, and have only a moral influence on the mind, and there is no moral ar- gument whatsoever that is able to bring back a soul that is backslidden from God. Again, II. Afflictions were never ordained of God for this end, to work grace in the heart, or to ,restore decaying ßa3
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