Meditation Nineteenth
On the merciful chastisements of God.
I. GOD, being infinite goodness, desires only our good and to communicate to us bis own happiness. When he chastises us, it is because we have obliged him to do so by our sins. Hence the prophet Isaias says, that, on such occasions, he doth a work foreign to his desires, xxviii. 21. Hence it is that it is said, that it is the property of God to have mercy and to spare, to dispense his favours and to make all happy. O God, it is this thy infinite goodness which sinners offend and despise, when they provoke thee to chastise them. Wretch that I am, how often have I offended thy infinite goodness!
II. Let us therefore understand that when God threatens us, it is not because he desires to punish us, but because he wishes to deliver us from punishment; he threatens, because he would have compassion on us. O God thou hast been angry, and hast had mercy on us. Ps. lix. 3. But how is this? he is angry with us, and treats us with mercy? Yes! He show s himself angry towards us, in order that we may amend our lives, and that thus he may be able to pardon and save us; hence, if in this life he chastise us for our sins, he does so in his mercy, for by so doing he frees us from eternal woe. How unfortunate then is the sinner who escapes punishment in this life! Since then, O God, I have so much offended thee, chastise me in this life, that thou mayest spare me in the next. I know that I have certainly deserved hell; I accept all kinds of pain, that thou mayest reinstate me in thy grace and deliver me from hell, where I should be for ever separated from thee. Enlighten and
