heaven, because of the shame and misery it would feel in a place so unsuitcd to its dispositions and desires.
Hence, then, God engages for his elect, that he will "turn his hand upon them, purely to purge away their dross, and to take away all their tin ;" so that they may be " meet for the inheritance of heaven p," and " vessels of honour, meet for their Master's use^."]
Nor are we at any loss to declare,
II. The means by which it shall be effected —
God says, " he will turn his hand upon them, to purge them from their dross :" and this he will do,
1. By the visitations of his Providence —
[Gold is put into a furnace, to purge it from its dross : and, in like manner, God has told us that he will subject his people to afflictions, " in order to purify them, that they may offer to him an offering in righteousness'^." In this way shall God's ancient people be cleansed from their corruptions, and be made holy, " when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning'*." So also shall his people, in every age, be purified. In truth, the experience of multitudes resembles that of David, when he says, " Before I was afflicted I went astray ; but now have I kept thy word'." It is by means of affliction that God brings us to consider our ways : by means of it, also, he humbles us before him, and prepares us for the manifestations of his love and mercy to our souls. Hence it is that he promises correction to those who are the objects of his love", and teaches us to regard our trials as tokens of his paternal care and tenderness''. He will, indeed, accommodate his dis- pensations to our necessities ; " sitting by us as a refiner and purifier of silver," and watching the process for our good. He has told us, that he will " debate with us in measure, staying his rough wind in the day of his east wind : and that by this shall the iniquity of his people be purged ; and this shall be the fruit to take away their sin^."]
2. By the communications of his grace —
[Affliction, of itself, would only harden ; as in the case of Pharaoh ; and of those also who gnash their teeth, and blas- pheme their God, in hell^. But when divine grace is given to accompany and to sanctify the dispensation, then its end is answered, and the afflicted sinner returns in penitential
p Col. i. 12. 1 2 Tim. ii. 21. >• Mai. iii. 3—5.
s Isai. iv. 3, 4. * Ps. cxix. 67. " Ps.lxxxix. 30 — 34.
'^ Heb. xii. 5 — 11. v Isai. xxvii. 8, 9. ■'■ Rev. xvi. 9 — 11.