I will joy in the God of my falvation. And this is that fenfe of love, which the choiceft believers may lofe on the account of fin; this is one step into their depths. They fhall not retain any fuch gofpel apprehenfion of it, as that it fhould give them reft, peace, or confolation; that it should influence their fouls with delight in duty, or fupportment in trial; and the nature hereof will be afterwards more fully explained.

Secondly, Perplexed thoughtfulness about their great and wretched unkindness towards God, is another part of the depths of fin-intangled fouls. So David complains, Pfal. lxxvii. 3. I remembered God, faith he, and was troubled. How comes the remembrance of God to be unto him a matter of trouble? In other places he profeffeth, that it was all his relief and fupportment: How comes it to be an occafion of his trouble? All had not been well between God and him; and whereas formerly, in his remembrance of God, his thoughts were chiefly exercised about his love and kindefs, now they were wholly poffeft with his own fin and unkindness: This caufeth his trouble. Herein lies a fhare of the intanglements occafioned by fin. Saith fuch a foul in its felf; "Foolish creature, haft thou thus requited the Lord? "Is this the return that thou haft made unto him for all "his love, his kindness, his confolations, mercies? Is "this thy kindness for him, thy love to him? Is this "thy kindness to thy friend? Is this thy boafting of him, "that thou haft found fo much goodness and excellency "in him and his love, that though all men fhould for"fake him, thou never wouldft do fo? Are all thy promises, all thy engagements, which thou madft unto "God, in times of diftrefs, upon prevailing obligations, "and mighty impreffions of his good Spirit upon thy "foul, now come to this, that throu fhouldft fo foolishly "forget, neglect, defpife, caft him off? Well, now "he is gone, he is withdrawn from thee, and what wilt "thou do? Art thou not even afhamed to defire him to "return." They were thoughts of this nature, that out Peter to the heart upon his fall. The foul finds them cruel

cruel as death, and ftrong as the grave. It is bound in the chains of them, and cannot be comforted, Pfal. xxxviii. 3, 4, 5, 6. And herein confifts a great part of the depths enquired after. For this confideration excites, and puts an edge upon all grieving, ftraitning, perplexing affections, which are the only means whereby the foul of a man may be inwardly troubled, or trouble itfelf; fuch are forrow and fhame, with that felf-difplicency and revenge, wherewith they are attended. And as their reafon and object in this cafe do transcend all other occafions of them, fo on no other account do they caufe fuch fevere and perplexing reflections on the foul as on this.

Thirdly, A revived fenfe of juftly deferved wrath, belongs alfo to thefe depths. This is as the opening of old wounds': When men have paffed through a fenfe of wrath, and have obtained deliverance and reft thro' the blood of Chrift, to come to their old thoughts again, to be trading afresh with hell, curfe, law, and wrath, it is a depth indeed. And this often befals gracious fouls, on the account of fin, Pfal, lxxxviii. 7. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, faith Heman: It preffed and crushed him forely. There is a felf-judging as to the defert of wrath, which is confiftent with a comforting perfuafion of an intereft in Chrift. This the foul finds fweetness in, as it lies in a fubferviency to the exaltation of grace; but in this cafe, the foul is left under it without that relief. It plungeth itfelf into the curfe of the law, and flames of hell, without any cheering fupportment from the blood of Chrift. This is walking in the valley of the fhadow of death. The foul converfeth with death, and what feems to ly in a tendency thereunto. The Lord alfo, to increafe his perplexities, puts new life and fpirit into the law; gives it a fresh commiffion, as it were, to take fuch a one into its cuftody; and the law will never, in this world, be wanting unto its duty.

Fourthly, Oppreffing apprehenfions of temporal judgments, concur herein alfo; for God will judge his people; and judgment often begins at the houfe of God. Tho'

B

God,

God, faith fuch an one, fhould not caft me off for ever, though he fhould pardon my iniquities, yet he may fo take vengeance of my inventions, as to make me feed on gall and wormwood all my days, Pfal. cxix. 120. faith David, My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments. He knows not what the great God may bring upon him; and being full of a fense of the guilt of fin, which is the bottom of this whole condition, every judgment of God is full of terror unto him. Sometimes he thinks, God may lay open the filth of his heart, and make him a fcandal and a reproach in the world, Pfal. xxxix. 8. Oh, faith he, make me not a reproach to the foolish. Sometimes he trembles, left God fhould ftrike him fuddenly with fome fignal judgment, and take him out of the world, in darkness and forrow; fo faith David, Take me not away in thy wrath. Sometimes he fears left he fhall be like Jonah, and raise a ftorm in his family, in the church whereof he is à member, or in the whole nation, Let them not be ashamed for my fake. These things make his heart foft, as Job fpeaks, and to melt within him. When any affliction or public judgment of God is faftened to a quick living fenfe of fin in the confcience, it overwhelms the foul; whether it be only justly feared, or be actually inflicted, as was the cafe of Jofeph's brethren in Egypt. The foul is then rolled from one deep to another. Senfe of fin casts it on the confideration of its affliction; and affliction turns it back on a fenfe of fin. So deep calleth unto deep, and ali God's billows go over the foul; and they do each of them make the foul tender, and sharpen its fense unto the other. Affliction foftens the foul; fo that the fense of fin cuts the deeper, and makes the larger wounds; and the sense of fin weakens the foul, and makes affliction fit the heavier, and fo increaseth its burden. In this cafe, that affliction which a man in his usual state of fpiritual peace, could have embraced as a fweet pledge of love, is as goads and thorns in his fide, depriving him of all reft and quietnefs; God makes it, as thorns and briars wherewith he will teach ftubborn

born fouls their duty, as Gideon did the men of Suc

coth.

Fifthly, There may be added hereunto, prevailing fears for a feafon, of "eing utterly rejected by God, of being found a reprobate at the last day. Jonah feems to conclude fo, chap. iii. 4. Then I jaid, I am caft out of thy fight. I am loft for ever, God will own me no more. And Heman, Pfal. lxxxviii, 45. I am counted with them that go down into the pit: Free among the dead, like the flain that ly in the grave, whom thou remembereft no more, and they are cut off from thy hand. This may reach the foul, until the forrows of hell encompass it, and lay hold upon it; until it be deprived of comfort, peace, reft, until it be a terror to its felf, and be ready to choofe ftrangling rather than life. This may befal a gracious foul on the account of fin. But yet, because this fights directly against the life of faith, God doth not, unless it be in extraordinary cafes, fuffer any of his to ly long in this horrible pit, where there is no water, no refreshment: But this often falls out, that even the faints themselves, are left for a season to a fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation, as to the prevailing apprehenfion of their minds. And,

Sixthly, God fecretly fends his arrows into the foul, that wound and gall it, adding pain, trouble, and difquietnefs to its difconfolation, Pfal. xxxviii. 2. Thine arrows stick faft in me, and thy hand prefeth me fore. Ever and anon in his walking, God fhot a fharp piercing arrow, fixing it on his foul that galled, wounded, and perplexed him, filling him with pain and grievous vexation. These arrows are God's rebukes, Pfal. xxxix. 11. When thou with rebukes doft correct man for iniquity. God fpeaks in his word, and by his spirit, in the couícience, things fharp and bitter in the foul, faftning them fo as it cannot shake them out. Thefe Job fo mournfully complains of, chap vi. 4. The Lord fpeaks words with that efficacy, that they pierce the heart quite through; and what the iffue then is, David declares,

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Pfal

Pfal. xxxviii. 3: There is no There is no foundness, faith he, in my flesh, because of thine anger, nor is there any reft in my bones, becaufe of my fin. The whole perfon is brought under the power of them, and health and rest is ta ken away; and,

with

Seventhly, Unfpiritedness and difability unto duty, in doing or fuffering, attend fuch a condition, Pfal. xl. 12. Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, fo that I am not able to look up. His fpiritual ftrength was worn away by fin, fo that he was not able to addrefs himfelf unto any communion with God. The foul now cannot pray w life and power; cannot hear with joy and profit; cannot do good and communicate with chearfulness and freedom; cannot meditate with delight and heavenly mindedness; cannot act for God with zeal and liberty; cannot think of fuffering with boldness and refolution; but is fick, weak, feeble, and bowed down.

Now, 1 fay, a gracious foul, after much communion with God, may, on the account of fin, by a fenfe of the guilt of it, be brought into a ftate and condition, wherein fome, more, or all of thefe, with other the like perplexities, may be its portion. And thefe make up the depths whereof the pfalmift here complains. What are the fins, or of what forts, that ordinarily caft the fouls of believers into thefe depths, fhall be afterwards declared. I fhall now fhew both whence it is, that believers may fall into fuch a condition; as alfo whence it is that oftentimes, they actually do fo.

Whence it is that believers may be brought into depths on account of fin.----Nature of the fupplies of grace given in the covenant.----How far they extend.----Principles of the power of fin.

FIRST, The nature of the covenant wherein all believers now walk with God, and wherein all their whole provifion for obedience is enwrapped, leaves it poffible for them to fall into thefe depths that have been mentioned. Under the firft covenant there was no mercy or

forgiveness