Hebrews 12:8

Verse 8. But if ye be without chastisement. If you never meet with anything that is adapted to correct your faults, to subdue your temper, to chide your wanderings, it would prove that you were in the condition of illegitimate children--cast off and disregarded by their father. Whereof all are partakers. All who are the true children of God. Then are ye bastards, and not sons. The reference here is to the neglect with which such children are treated, and to the general want of care and discipline over them:-- "Lost in the world's wide range; enjoined no aim, Prescribed no duty. and assigned no name." Savage. In the English law, a bastard is termed nullius filiua,.