619 / 652
CHASTISEMENTS
INSUFFICIENT
OP
THEMSELVES.
614
cast
me
into the midst
of
the deep, into the middle
of
,
"
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
grow
more 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
we
should
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
am
mar-
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
way
of
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