General Scope of the Whole Psalm

THE design of the Holy Ghost in this Psalmm is to express in the Experience of the Psalmmist, and the working of his faith, the state and condition of a soul greatly in it self perplexed, relieved on the account of grace, and acting it self towards God and his saints, suitably to the discovery of that grace unto him. A great design, and full of great Instruction.

And this general Prospect gives us the parts, and scope of the whole Psalmm: for (1.) We have the state and condition of the soul therein represented, with his deportment in and under that state and condition, in verse 1, 2.Out of the depths have I cryed unto you O Lord, Lord, hear my voyce, let yours ears be attentive to the voyce of my supplications.

(2.) His inquiry after relief; and therein are two things that present themselves unto him; the one whereof, which first offers the consideration of its self to him in his distress, he deprecates, verse 3.If you Lord shouldst mark iniquity, O Lord who shall stand?

The other he closs withal, and finds relief in it, and supportment by it, verse 5.But there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared.

Upon this his discovery and fixing on relief, there is the acting of his faith, and the deportment of his whole person;

1. Towards God; verse 5, 6.I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord, more than they that watch for the morning, I say more than they that watch for the morning.

2. Towards the saints, verse 7, 8.Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his Iniquities.

All which parts, and the various concernments of them, must be opened severally.

And this also gives an account of what is my design from, and upon the words of this Psalmm; namely, to declare the perplexed intanglements which may befall a gracious soul, such a one as this Psalmmist was; with the nature and proper workings of faith in such a condition: Principally aiming at what it is, that gives a soul relief and supportment in, and afterward deliverance from, such a perplexed estate.

The Lord in mercy, dispose of these Meditations in such a way and manner, as that both he that writes, and they that read, may be made partakers of the benefit, relief, and consolation, intended for his saints in this Psalmm by the Holy Ghost.

The state and condition of the soul represented in the Psalmm. The two first verses opened.

The state and condition of the soul here represented, as the Basis on which the process of the Psalmm is built; with its deportment, or the general acting of its faith in that state, is expressed in the two first verses.Out of the depths have I cryed unto you O Lord. Lord hear my voyce; let yours ears be attentive to the voyce of my supplications.

1. The present state of the soul under consideration is included in that expression, out of the Depths.

Some of the Antients, as Chrysostom, suppose this expression to relate unto the depths of the heart of the Psalmmist; ; not from the mouth or tongue only,; but from the depth and bottom of the heart; , from the deepest recesses of the mind.

And indeed the word is used to express the depths of thehearts of Men; but utterly in another sense; Psalmm 64:6. The heart is deep.

But the obvious sense of the place, and the constant use of the word will not admit of this Interpretation: è Profund is, from profundus fuit, is in the plural number, Profunditates, or depths. It is commonly used for Vallies or any deep places whatever, but especially of Waters. Vallies and deep Places, because of their darkness and Solitariness, are accounted places of horror, helplesness and trouble, Psalmm 23:4. When I walk in the Valley of the shadow of death, that is, in the extremity of danger and trouble.

The Moral use of the word, as expressing the state and condition of the souls of men, is metaphorical. These Depths then, are difficulties, or pressures, attended with fear, horror, danger and trouble.

And they are of two sorts:

1. Providential; in respect of outward distresses, Calamities, and Afflictions, Psalmm 69:1. Save me O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul; I stick in the mire of the deep, and there is no standing, I am come,, into the depths of waters, and the flood overflows me. It is trouble and the extremity of it, that the Psalmmist complains of, and which he thus expresss. He was brought by it into a condition like unto a man ready to be drowned; being cast into the bottom of deep and miry waters; where he had no firm foundation to stand upon, nor ability to come out: as he farther explains himself, verse 15.

2. There are internal Depths. Depths of conscience upon the account of sin, Psalmm 88:6. You hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. What he intends by this expression, the Psalmmist declares in the next words, verse 7. Your wrath lyeth hard upon me. sense of Gods wrath upon his conscience upon the account of sin, was the deep he was cast into. So verse 15. speaking of the same matter; says he; I suffer your terrors, and verse 16. Your fierce wrath goeth over me. Which he calls water, waves, and deeps; according to the Metaphor before opened.

And these are the deeps that are here principally intended. Clamat sub molibus & fluctibus iniquitatum suarum, sayes Austin on the place. He cryes out under the weight and waves of his sins.

This the ensuing Psalmm makes evident. Desiring to be delivered from these depths out of which he cryed; he deals with God wholly about mercy and forgiveness; and it is sin alone, from which forgiveness is a Deliverance. The doctrine also that he preachs upon his Delivery, is that of mercy, grace and redemption, as is manifest from the close of the Psalmm. And what we have deliverance by, is most upon our hearts when we are delivered.

It is true indeed, that these deeps do oftentimes concurr: as David speaks, Deep calls upon deep, Psalmm 4:2. 7. The deeps of affliction, awaken the conscience to a deep sense of sin. But sin is the Disease; affliction only a Symptome of it; and in attending a Cure, the disease it self is principally to be heeded, the symptome will follow, or depart of its self.

Many Interpreters think that this was now Davids condition; by great trouble and distress, he was greatly minded of sin; and we must not therefore wholly pass over that intendment of the word, though we are chiefly to respect that, which he himself in this address unto God, did principally regard.

This in general is the state and condition of the soul mannaged in this Psalmm; and is as the key to the ensuing discourse, or the hinge on which it turns. As to my intendment from the Psalmm: That which ariss from hence, may be comprized in these two propositions.1. Gracious souls, after much communion with God, may be brought into inextricable depths and intanglements on the account of sin. For such the Psalmmist here expresss his own condition to have been; and such he was. 2. The inward root of outward distresses, is principally to be attended in all pressing tryals; sin, in Afflictions.

Gracious souls may be brought into depths on the account of sin. What those Depths are.

Before I proceed at all in the farther opening of the words; they having all of them respect unto the proposition first laid down, I shall explain and confirm the truth contained in it; that so it may be understood, what we say, and whereof we do affirm in the whole process of our discourse.

It is a sad truth that we have proposed unto consideration. He that hears it ought to tremble in himself, that he may rest in the day of trouble; It speaks out the apostles advice, Romansans 11:20. Be not high minded, but fear: and that also, 1 Corinthians 10:12. Let him that thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall. When Peter had learned this truth by woful experience, after all his boldness and forwardness, he gives this Councel to all saints: that they would pass the time of their sojourning here in fear, 1 Peter 1:14. Knowing how near in our greatest peace and serenity, evil and danger may lye at the door.

Some few instances of the many that are left on record, wherein this truth is exemplified may be mentioned. Genesis 6:9. Noah was a just man, perfect in his Generation, and Noah walked with God. He did so a long season, and that in an evil time, amidst all sorts of Temptations, When all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth, verse 12. This put an eminency upon his obedience; and doubtless rendred the communion which he had with God in walking before him, most sweet and precious to him. He was a gracious soul upon the redoubled testimony of God himself. But we know what befell this holy person. He that shall read the story that is recorded of him, Genesis 9:21. will easily grant, that he was brought into inextricable distress on the account of sin. His own drunkenness, verse 21. with the consequent of it, gives scandal unto, and provokes the unnatural lust of his Son, verse 22. and this leads him to the devoting of that Son, and his Posterity unto Destruction, verse 24, 25. all which, joyned with the sense of Gods just indignation, from whom he had newly received that tremendously miraculous deliverance; must needs overwhelm him with sorrow and anxiety of Spirit.

The matter is more clear in David. Under the Old testament none loved God more than he, none was loved of God more than he. The Paths of faith and love wherein he walked, are unto the most of us, like the way of an Eagle in the Air, too high and hard for us. Yet to this very day, do the cryes of this Man after Gods own heart, sound in our Ears. Sometimes he complains of broken bones, sometimes of drowning depths, sometimes of waves and water-spouts, sometimes of wounds and diseases, sometimes of wrath, and the sorrows of hell, every where of his sins, the burden and trouble of them. Some of the occasions of his, Depths, darkness, Intanglements and Distresses, we all know. As no man had more grace than he, so none is a greater instance of the power of sin, and the effects of its guilt upon the conscience than he. But instances of this kind are obvious, and occurr to the thoughts of all, so that they need not be repeated. I shall then shew,

First, What in particular is intended by the depths and intanglements on the account of sin, whereinto gracious souls after much communion with God may be cast.

Secondly, Whence it comes to pass, that so they may be, and that oftentimes so they are.

First, For the First, some or all of these things following do concurr to the Depths here complained of.

First, Loss of the wonted sense of the love of God which the soul did formerly enjoy. There is a twofold sense of the love of God, whereof believers in this world may be made partakers. There is the transient affecting of the heart by the Holy Ghost, with ravishing unspeakable joyes, in apprehension of Gods love, and our relation unto him in Christ. This, or the immediate effect of it, is called, joy unspeakable and full of glory, 1 Peter 1:8. The Holy Ghost shining into the heart, with a clear evidence of the souls interest in all gospel Mercies, causs it to leap for joy, to exult, and triumph in the Lord; as being for a season carried above all sense and thought of sin, self, temptation, or trouble. But as God gives the bread of his House unto all his Children, so these dainties, and high Cordials he reservs only for the seasons, and persons, wherein, and to whom he knows them to be needful, and useful. believers may be without this sense of love, and yet be in no depths. A man may be strong and healthy, who has wholsom food, though he never drink Spirits and Cordials.

Again, There is an abiding, dwelling sense of Gods love upon the hearts of the most of those of whom we speak, who have had long communion with God, consisting in a prevailing gospel perswasion, that they are accepted with God in Christ. Romansans 5:1. being justified by faith, we have peace with God. I call it a prevailing perswasion, denoting both the opposition that is made unto it, by Satan and unbelief, and its efficacy in the conqu thereof. This is the root from whence all that peace, and ordinary consolation which believers in this world are made partakers of, do spring and grow. This is that which quickens and enlivens them unto duty, Psalmm 116:12, 13. and is the salt that renders their Sacrifices and Performances savoury to God, and refreshing to themselves. This supports them under their tryals, gives them peace, hope and comfort in life and death. Psalmm 23:4. Though I walk in the valley of the shaddow of death, I will fear no evil, for you art with me. A sense of Gods Presence in love, is sufficient to rebuke all anxiety and fears, in the worst and most dreadful condition. And not only so, but to give in the midst of them, solid consolation and joy. So the prophet expresss it; Habakkuk 3:17, 18. Although the Fig-tree shall not blessom, neither shall fruit be in the Vines, the labor of the Olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flocks shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet I will rejoyce in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. And this is that sense of love, which the choic believers may lose on the account of sin. This is one step into their depths. They shall not retain any such gospel apprehension of it, as that it should give them rest, peace, or consolation; that it should influence their souls with delight in duty, or supportment in tryal; And the nature hereof will be afterwards more fully explained.

Secondly, Perplexed thoughtfulness about their great and wretchedunkindness towards God, are another part of the Depths of sin-intangled souls. So David complains, Psalmm 77:3. I remembred God, says he, and was troubled. How comes the Remembrance of God to be unto him a matter of trouble? in other Places he professs, that it was all his relief and supportment. How comes it to be an occasion 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 Kindness, now they were wholly poss with his own sin and unkindness. This causs his trouble. Herein lyes a share of the intanglements occasioned by sin. Says such a soul in its self; foolish creature, hast you thus requited the Lord? Is this the return that you hast made unto him for all his love, his kindness, his consolations, mercies? Is this your kindness for him, your love to him? Is this your kindness to your Friend? Is this your boasting of him, that you hadst found so much goodness and excellency in him and his love, that though all men should forsake him, you never wouldst do so? Are all your promises, all your Engagements which you mad unto God, in times of distress, upon prevailing obligations, and mighty impressions of his Good Spirit upon your soul, now come to this, that you shouldst so foolishly forget, neglect, despise, cast him off? Well! now he is gone; he is withdrawn from you, and what wilt you do? Art you not even ashamed to desire him to return? They were thoughts of this nature, that cut Peter to the heart upon his fall. The soul finds them cruel as death, and strong as the Grave. It is bound in the chains of them, and cannot be comforted, Psalmm 38:3, 4, 5, 6. And herein consists a great part of the depths enquired after. For this consideration excites, and puts an edge upon all grieving, straightning, perplexing affections, which are the only means whereby the soul of a man may be inwardly troubled, or trouble it self; such are sorrow and shame, with that self-displicency and Revenge wherewith they are attended. And as their reason and object in this case do transcend all other occasions of them, so on no other account do they cause such severe and perplexing reflections on the soul as on this.

Thirdly, A revived sense of justly deserved wrath, belongs also to these depths. This is as the opening of old wounds. When men have passed through a sense of wrath, and have obtained deliverance and rest through the blood of Christ, to come to their old thoughts again, to be trading afresh with hell, curse, law, and wrath, it is a depth indeed. And this often befalls gracious souls on the account of sin, Psalmm 88:7. Your wrath lyeth hard upon me, says Heman. It pressed and crushed him sorely. There is a self-judging as to the desert of wrath, which is consistent with a comforting perswasion of an Interest in Christ. This the soul finds sweetness in, as it lyes in a subserviency to the exaltation of grace. But in this case, the soul is left under it without that relief. It plungs it self into the curse of the law and flames of hell, without any cheering supportment from the blood of Christ. This is walking in the valley of the shadow of death. The soul converss with death, and what seems to lye in a tendency thereunto. The Lord also to increase his perplexities, puts new life and spirit into the law; gives it a fresh Commission as it were to take such a one into its Custody; and the law will never in this world be wanting unto its duty.

Fourthly, Oppressing Apprehensions of temporal Judgements, concurr herein also; for God will judge his people. And Judgement often begins at the House of God. Though God, says such a one, should not cast me off for ever, though he should pardon my iniquities, yet he may so take vengeance of my inventions, as to make me feed on gall and wormwood all my dayes Psalmm 119:120. faith David, My flesh trembls for fear of you, and I am afraid of your Judgements. He knows not what the great God may bring upon him; and being full of a sense of the guilt of sin, which is the bottom of this whole condition, every Judgement of God is full of terror unto him. Sometimes he thinks, God may lay open the filth of his heart, and make him a scandal and a reproach in the world; Psalmm 39:8. Oh, says he, make me not a reproach to the foolish. Sometimes he trembles lest God should strike him suddainly with some signal Judgement, and take him out of the world, in darkness and sorrow; so says David, take me not away in your wrath. Sometimes he fears lest he shall be like Jonah, and raise a storm in his Family, in the church whereof he is a Member, or in the whole Nation. Let them not be ashamed for my sake. These things make his heart soft as Job speaks, and to melt within him. When any Affl[•]ction or public Judgement of God, is fastned to a quick living sense of sin in the conscience, it overwhelms the soul; whether it be only justly feared, or be actually inflicted; as was the case of Joseph's Brethren in Aegypt. The soul is then rolled from one deep to another. sense of sin, casts it on the consideration of its affliction; and affliction turns it back on a sense of sin. So deep calls unto deep, and all Gods billows go over the soul. And they do each of them make the soul tender, and sharpen its sense unto the other. affliction [••••]ens the soul; so that the sense of sin cuts the deeper, and makes the larger wounds; and the sense of sin weakens the soul, and makes affliction sit the heavier, and so encreass its burden. In this case, that affliction which a man in his usual state of spiritual peace, could have embraced as a sweet pledge of love, is as goads and thorns in his side, depriving him of all rest and quietness; God makes it, as thorns and briars wherewith he will teach stubborn souls their duty, as Gideon did the Man of Succoth.

Fifthly, There may be added hereunto, prevailing fears for a season, of being utterly rejected by God, of being found a reprobate at the last day. Jonah seems to conclude so, Chap. 3:4. Then I said, I am cast out of your sight. I am lost for ever, God will own me no more. And Heman, Psalmm 88:4, 5. I am counted with them that go down into the pit: Free among the dead, like the slain that lye in the grave, whom you remembr no more, and they are cut off from your hand. This may reach the soul, until the sorrows of hell encompass it, and lay hold upon it; untill it be deprived of comfort, peace, rest, untill it be a terror to its self, and be ready to choose strangling rather than life. This may befall a gracious soul on the account of sin. But yet because this fights directly against the life of faith, God does not, unless it be in extraordinary cases, suffer any of his to lye long in this horrible pit, where there is no water, no refreshment. But this often falls out, that even the saints themselves are left for a season to a fearful expectation of judgement, andfiery indignation, as to the prevailing apprehension of their minds. And,

Sixthly, God secretly sends his Arrows into the soul that wound and gall it, adding pain, trouble, and disquietness to its disconsolation. Psalmm 38:2. Yours arrows stick fast in me, and your hand presss me sore. Ever and anon in his walking, God shot a sharp piercing arrow, fixing it on his soul that galled, wounded, and perplexed him, filling him with pain and grievous vexation. These arrows are Gods rebukes, Psalmm 39:11. When you with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity. God speaks in his word, and by his Spirit in the conscience, things sharp and bitter to the soul, fastning them so as it cannot shake them out. These Job so mournfully complains of, Chap. 6:4. The Lord speaks words, with that efficacy, that they piecce the heart quite through; and what the issue then is, David declares, Psalmm 38 3. There is no soundness, says he, in my flesh, because of yours anger, nor is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. The whole person is brought under the power of them, and all health and rest is taken away; and

Seventhly, Unspiritedness and disability unto duty, in doing or suffering, attend such a condition, Psalmm 40:12. Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up. His spiritual strength was worn away by sin, so that he was not able to address himself unto any communion with God. The soul now cannot pray with life and power; cannot hear with joy and profit; cannot do good and communicate with cheerfulness and freedom; cannot meditate with delight and heavenly mindedness; cannot act for God with zeal and liberty; cannot think of suffering with boldness and resolution; but is sick, weak, feeble and bowed down.

Now, I say, a gracious soul after much communion with God, may on the account of sin, by a sense of the guilt of it, be brought into a state and condition, wherein some, more, or all of these, with other the like perplexities, may be its portion. And these make up the Depths whereof the Pfalmist here complains. What are the sins, or of what sorts, that ordinarily cast the souls of believers into these depths shall be afterwards declared. I shall now shew both whence it is, that believers may fall into such a condition; as also whence it is that oftentimes, they actually do so.

Whence it is that believers may be brought into depths on the account of sin. nature of the supplies of grace given in the covenant. How far they extend. principles of the power of sin.

First, The nature of the covenant wherein all believers now walk with God, and wherein all their whole provision for obedience is enwrapped, leaves it possible for them to fall into these depths that have been mentioned. Under the first covenant, there was no mercy or forgiveness provided for any sin. It was necessary then that it should exhibit a sufficiency of grace to preserve from every sin, or it could have been of no use at all. This the Rigteousness of God required, and so it was. To have made a covenant wherein there was no provision at all of pardon, and not a sufficiency of grace to keep the Covenanters from need of pardon, was not answerable to the goodness and righteousness of God. But he made man upright who of his own accord sought out many inventions.

It is not so in the covenant of grace; There is in it pardon provided in the blood of Christ; It is not therefore of indispensible necessity that there should be administred in it, grace effectually preserving from every sin: Yet is it on all accounts to be preferred before the other. For besides the relief by pardon which the other knew nothing of, there is in it also much provision against sin which was not in the other.

First, There is provision made in it, against all and every sin that would disannull the covenant, and make a final separation between God and a soul that has been once taken into the bond thereof. This provision is absolute; God has taken upon himself the making of this good, and the establishing this law of the covenant, that it shall not by any sin be disannulled, Jor. 32:40. I will (says God) make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear into their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. The security hereof depends not on any thing in our selves. All that is in us is to be used as a means of the accomplishment of this promise; but the event or issue depends absolutely on the faithfulness of God. And the whole certainty and stability of the covenant depends on the efficacy of the grace administred in it, to preserve men from all such sins as would disanull it.

Secondly, There is in this covenant provision made for constant peace and consolation, notwithstanding, and against the guilt of such sins, as through their infirmities and temptations believers are daily exposed unto. Though they fall into sins every day, yet they do not fall into depths every day. In the tenour of this covenant, there is a consistency between a sense of sin unto humiliation and peace, with strong consolation. After the apostle had described the whole conflict that believers have with sin, and the frequent wounds which they receive thereby, which makes them cry out for deliverance, Romansans 7:24. He yet concludes, Chap. 8:1. that there is no condemnation unto them, which is a sufficient and stable foundation of peace. So 1 Johnn 2:1. These things have I written unto you, that you sin not; and if any man sin we have an Advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Our great business and care ought to be, that we sin not; but yet when we have done our utmost, if we say we have no sin, we deceive our selves, Chap. 1:8. What then shall poor, sinful, guilty creatures do? why let them go to the father, by their Advocate, and they shall not fail of pardon and peace. And says Paul, Hebrews 6:17, 18. God is abundantly willing that we might have strong consolation who fly for resuge to lay hold on the hope set before us. What was his condition who fled of old to the City of refuge for safety, from whence this expression is taken? He was guilty of blood, though shed at unawares; and so, as that he was to dye for it, if he escaped not to the City of Refuge. Though we may have the guilt of sins upon us, that the law pronouncs death unto, yet flying to Christ for refuge, God has provided not only safety, but strong consolation for us also. forgiveness in the blood of Christ, does not only take guilt from the soul, but trouble also from the conscience. And in this respect does the apostle at large set forth the excellency of his sacrifice, Hebrews 10. The Sacrifices of the Old law, he tells us, could not make perfect the worshippers, verse 1. which he proves, verse 2. because they did never take away, throughly and really, conscience of sin, that is, depths or distresses of conscience about sin; But now, says he, Jesus Christ in the covenant of grace has for ever perfected them that were sanctified, verse 14. providing for them such stable peace and consolation, as that they shall not need the renewing of Sacrifices every day, verse 18. This is the great mysterie of the gospel in the blood of Christ; that those who sin every day, should have peace with God all their dayes. Provided their sins fall within the compass of those infirmities, against which this consolation is provided.

Thirdly, There is provision made of grace, to prevent and preserve the soul from great and enormous sins, such as in their own nature, are apt to wound conscience, and cast the person into such depths and intanglements as wherein he shall have neither rest nor peace. Of what sort these sins are, shall be afterwards declared. There is in this covenant grace for grace, Johnn 1:16. and abundance of grace, administred from the All-fulness of Christ. grace reigns in it, Romansans 6:6. destroying and crucifying the body of sin.

But this Provision in the covenant of grace against peace-ruining, soul-perplexing sins, is not as to the administration of it, absolute. There are covenant commands and Exhortations, on the attendance whereunto, the administration of much covenant-Grace does depend. To watch, pray, improve faith, to stand on our guard continually, to mortifie sin, to fight against temptations, with stedfastness, diligence, constancy, are every where prescribed unto us; and that in order unto the ensurance of the grace mentioned. These things are on our part, the condition of the administration of that abundant grace, which is to preserve us from soul-entangling sins, So Peter informs us, 2 Ep. 1. verse 3. The divine power of God has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. We have from it an habitual furnishment and provision for obedience at all times. Also says he, verse 4. He bath given unto us great and pretious promises, that by them we might be partakers of the Divine nature; What then is in this blessed estate and condition required of us, that we may make a due improvement of the provision made for us, and enjoy the comforting influence of those promises? that he prescribes unto us, verse 5, 6, 7. Giving all diligence, add to your faith vertue, and to vertue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity; That is carefully and diligently attend to the exercise of all the Graces of the Spirit, and unto a conversation in all things becoming the gospel. What then shall be the issue, if these things are attended unto? verse 8. If these things be in you, and abound, ye shall be neither barren nor unfruitful, in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not enough that these things be in you; that you have the seed and root of them from and by the Holy Ghost; but you are to take care that they flourish and abound; without which, though the root of the matter may be in you, and so you be not wholly devoid of spiritual life, yet you will be poor, barren, sapless, withering creatures, all your days. But now suppose that these things do abound, and we be made fruitful thereby: Why then says he, verse 10. If you do these things ye shall never fall: What never fall into sin? Nay, that is not in the promise; and he that sayes, when he has done all, that he has no sin, he is a Lyar. Or is it never fall totally from God? No, the preservation of the elect, of whom he speaks, from total Apostasie, is not suspended on such conditions, especially not on any degree of them, such as their abounding imports. But it is that they shall not fall into their old sins from which they were purged, verse 9. Such conscience wasting, and defiling sins, as they lived in, in the time and state of their Unregeneracy. Thus though there be in the covenant of grace through Jesus Christ, Provision made of abundant supplies for the souls preservation from entangling sins; yet their administration has respect unto our diligent attendance unto the means of receiving them appointed for us to walk in.

And here lyes the latitude of the New covenant; here lyes the exercise of renewed Free-will. This is the field of free voluntary obedience under the administration of gospel grace. There are extreams which in respect of the event it is not concerned in. To be wholly perfect, to be free from every sin, all failings, all infirmities, that is not provided for, not promised in this covenant. It is a covenant of mercy and pardon, which supposs a continuance of sin. To fall utterly and finally from God, that is absolutely provided against. Between these two extreams of absolute perfection, and total Apostasie, lyes the large Field of believers obedience and walking with God. Many a sweet heavenly passage there is, and many a dangerous depth in this field. Some walk near to the one side, some to the other; yea, the same person may sometimes press hard after perfection, sometimes be cast to the very border of destruction. Now between these two, lye many a soul-plunging sin, against which no absolute provision is made, and which for want of giving all diligence to put the means of preservation in practice, believers are oftentimes overtaken withal.

Fourthly, There is not in the covenant of grace, Provision made of ordinary and abiding consolation, for any under the guilt of great sins, or sins greatly aggravated, which they fall into by a neglect of using and abiding in the forementioned conditions of abounding actual grace. sins there are, which either because in their own nature they wound and waste conscience, or in their effects break forth into scandal, causing the name of God and the gospel to be evil spoken of, or in some of their circumstances, are full of unkindness against God, do deprive the soul of its wonted consolation. How, by what means, on what account such sins come to terrifie conscience, to break the bones, to darken the soul, and to cast it into inextricable depths, notwithstanding the relief that is provided of pardon in the blood of Christ, I shall not now declare; that they will do so, and that consolation is not of equal extent with safety, we know. Hence God assumes it to himself as an act of mere Soveraign grace, to speak peace and refreshment unto the souls of his saints in their depths of sin entanglements, Isaiah 57:18, 19. And indeed if the Lord had not thus provided, that great provocations, should stand in need of special reliefs, it might justly be feared, that the negligence of believers, might possibly bring forth much bitter fruit.

Only this must be observed by the way, that what is spoken relates to the sense of sinners in their own souls, and not to the nature of the thing it self. There is in the gospel, consolation provided against the greatest, as well as the least sins. The difference ariss from Gods Soveraign communication of it, according to that tenor of the covenants administration, which we have laid down. Hence because under Moses's law there was an exception made of some sins, for which there was no sacrifice appointed, so that those who were guilty of them could no way be justified from them, that is carnally, as to their interest in the Judaical church and Polity; Paul tells the jews, Acts 13:38, 39. That through Jesus Christ was preached unto them the forgiveness of sins, and that by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses. There is now no exception of any particular sins, as to pardon, and peace; but what we have spoken relates unto the manner and way, wherein God is pleased to administer consolation to the souls of sinning believers.

And this is the evidence which I shall offer to prove, that the souls of believers, after much Gracious communion with God, may yet fall into inextricable depths on the account of sin; whence it is that actually they oftentimes do so, shall be farther declared.

The principles of this assertion, are known, I shall therefore only touch upon them.

First, The nature of Indwelling-sin, as it remains in the best of the saints in this life, being a little considered, will evidence unto us, from whence it is that they are sometimes surprized, and plunged into the depths mentioned. For,

First, Though the strength of every sin be weakned by grace, yet the root of no sin, is in this life wholly taken away. lust is like the stubborn Canaanites, who after the general conqu of the Land, would yet dwell in it still, judges 17:12. Indeed when Israel grew strong they brought them under tribute, but they could not utterly expell them. The kingdom and rule belongs to grace; and when it grows strong it brings sin much under; but it will not wholly be driven out. The body of death, is not utterly to be done away, but in and by the death of the body. In the flesh of the best saints there dwells nogood thing, Romansans 7:8. but the contrary is there; that is the root of all evil. The flesh lusts against the Spirit, as the Spirit lusts against the flesh. Galatians 5:17. As then there is an Universality in the actings of the Spirit in its opposing all evil, so also there is an Universality in the actings of the flesh for the furtherance of it.

Secondly, Some Lusts or branches of original corruption, do obtain in some persons such advantages, either from nature, Custom, Employment, Society, or the like Circumstances, that they become like the Canaanites that had iron Chariots; it is a very difficult thing to subdue them. Well it is, if War be maintained constantly against them, for they will almost alwayes be in actual Rebellion.

Thirdly, Indwelling-Sin though weakned, retains all its properties; the properties of a thing follow its nature. Where the nature of any thing is, there are all its natural properties. What are these properties of Indwelling sin, I should here declare, but that I have handled the whole power and efficacy, the nature and properties of it, in a treatise to that only purpose. In brief they are such, as it is no wonder, that some believers are by them cast into depths; but it is indeed, that any do escape them. But hereof the reader may see at large my discourse on this particular subject.

Secondly, Add hereunto, the power and prevalency of temptation; which because also, I have already in a special discourse to that purpose insisted on, I shall not here farther lay open.

Thirdly, The Soveraign pleasure of God in dealing with sinning saints must also be considered. Divine love and wisdom work not towards all in the same manner. God is pleased to continue peace unto some with a non-obstante, for great provocations. love shall humble them, and rebukes of kindness shall recover them from their wandrings. Others he is pleased to bring into the depths we have been speaking of. But yet I may say generally signal provocations, meet with one of these two events from God.

First, Those in whom they are, are left unto some signal barrenness, and fruitlesness in their Generations; they shall wither, grow barren, worldly, sapless, and be much cast out of the hearts of the people of God. Or Secondly, They shall be exercised in these depths, from whence their way of deliverance is laid down in this Psalmm. Thus I say, God deals with his saints in great variety: Some shall have all their bones broken, when others shall have only the gentle strokes of the rod. We are in the hand of mercy, and he may deal with us as seems good unto him; but for our parts, great sins, ought to be attended with expectations of great depths and preplexities.

And this is the state of the soul proposed in this Psalmm, and by us, unto consideration. These are the depths wherein it is entangled; these the wayes and means whereby it is brought into these depths. Its deportment in, and under this state and condition, lyes next in our way. But before I proceed thereunto, I shall annex some few things, unto what has been delivered, tending to the farther opening of the whole case before us. And they are (1.) What are, or of what sort those sins are which usually cast the souls of believers into these depths; and then (2.) Insist on some Aggravations of them.

What sins usually bring believers into great spiritual distresses. Aggravations of those sins.

First, sins in their own nature wasting conscience are of this sort. sins that rise in opposition unto all of God that is in us; that is the light of grace and nature also. Such are the sins that cast David into his depths. Such are the sins enumerated 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10. Be not deceived, says the apostle, neither Fornicators; nor Idolaters, nor Adulterers, nor Effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with Mankind. Nor Thieves, nor Covetous, nor Drunkards, nor Revilers, nor Extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. Certain it is, that believers may fall into some of the sins here mentioned. Some have done so, as is left on record. The apostle says not, those who have committed any of these sins, but such sinners shall not inherit the kingdom of God; that is, who live in these, or any of these sins, or any like unto them. There is no provision of mercy made for such sinners. These and the like are sins which in their own nature, without the consideration of aggravating circumstances, (which yet indeed really, in believers they can never be without) are able to plunge a soul into depths. These sins cut the locks of mens spiritual strength; and it is in vain for them to say, we will go, and do as at other times. Bones are not broken without pain; nor great sins brought on the conscience without trouble. But I need not insist on these. Some say that they deprive even true believers of all their interest in the love of God, but unduly; all grant that they bereave them of all comforting evidence, and well grounded assurance of it. So they did David and Peter, and herein lyes no small part of the depths we are searching into.

Secondly, There are sins which though they do not rise up in the conscience with such a bloody guilt, as those mentioned, yet by reason of some circumstances and aggravations, God takes them so unkindly, as to make them a root of disquietness and trouble to the soul all its dayes. He sayes of some sins of ungodly men, as I live this iniquity shall not be purged from you until ye dye? If you are come to this height, you shall not escape, I will not spare you. And there are Provocations in his own people, which may be so circumstantiated, as that he will not let them pass, before he have cast them into depths, and made them cry out for deliverance. Let us consider some of them.

First, Miscarriages under signal Enjoyments of love and kindness from God, are of this sort. When God has given unto any one expressive manifestations of his love, convinced him of it, made him say in the inmost parts of his heart, this is undeserved love and kindess, then for him to be negligent in his walking with God, it carris an unkindness with it, that shall not be forgotten. It is a remark upon the miscarriages of Solomon, that he fell into them after God had appeared unto him twice. And all sins under or after especial mercies, will meet at one time or other especial rebukes. Nothing does more distress the conscience of a sinner, then the remembrance in darkness of abused light; in desertions of neglected love. This God will make them sensible of. Though I have redeemed them, says God, yet they have spoken lyes against me, Hosea 7:15. So Chap. 13:4, 5, 6, 7. When God has in his providence dealt graciously with a person, it may be delivered him from straights and troubles, set him in a large place, prevented him with many fruits and effects of his goodness, blessed him in his person, relations, and Employments, dealt well with his soul, in giving him a gracious sense of his love in Christ; for such a one to fall under sinful miscarriages, it goes to the heart of God, and shall not be passed over. Undervaluations of love are great provocations. Has Nabal thus requited my kindness says David? I cannot bear it. And the clearer the convictions of any in this kind were, the more severe will their reflections be upon themselves.

Secondly, sins under, or after great Afflictions, are of this importance also. God does not afflict willingly, or chasten us merely for his pleasure. He does it to make us partakers of his holiness. To take so little notice of his hand herein, as under it, or after it, not to watch against the workings and surprizals of sin, it has unkindness in it; I smote him, says God, and he went on frowardly in the wayes of his own heart. These provocations of his Sons and Daughters, he cannot bear with. Has God brought you into the Furnace, so that you hast melted under his hand, and in pity and compassion has given you enlargement; if you hast soon forgotten his dealings with you, is it any wonder, if he mind you again, by troubles in your soul?

Thirdly, Breaking off from under strong convictions, and dawnings of love before conversion, are oftentimes remembred upon the conscience afterwards. When the Lord by his Spirit shall mightily convince the heart of sin, and make withal some discoveries of his love, and the Excellencies of Christ unto it, so that it begins to yield, and be overpowred, being almost perswaded to be a Christian; if then through the strength of lust, or unbelief, it goes back to the world, or self righteousness; its folly has unkindness with it, that sometimes shall not be passed by. God can, and often does put forth the greatness of his power, for the recovery of such a soul; but yet he will deal with him, about this contempt of his love, and the excellency of his Son, in the dawnings of them revealed unto him.

Fourthly, Suddain forgetfulness of endearing manifestations of special love. This God cautions his people against; as knowing their proneness thereunto. Psalmm 85:8. God the Lord, will speak peace to his people and his saints; but let them not turn again to solly. Let them take heed of their aptness to forget endearing manifestations of special love. When God at any time draws nigh to a soul by his Spirit, in his word, with gracious words of peace and love, giving a sense of his kindness upon the heart by the Holy Ghost, so that it is filled with joy unspeakable and glorious thereon; for this soul, upon a temptation, a diversion, or by mere carelesness and neglect, which oftentimes falls out, to suffer this sense of love to be as it were obliterated, and so to lose that influencing efficacy unto obedience which it is accompanied withal, this also is full of unkindness. An account hereof we have, Song of Solomon 5:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. In the first verse the Lord Jesus draws nigh with full provision of gospel Mercies for his Beloved; I am come unto you, says he, O my Sister; I have brought myrrh and spice, honey and Wine with me: What ever is spiritually sweet and delightful; mercy, grace, peace, consolation, joy, assurance, they are all here in a readiness for you, verse 2. The Spouse in her drowsie indisposition takes little notice of this gracious visit; she is diverted by other matters, and knows not how to attend fully and wholly to the blessed communion offered unto her; but excuss her self as otherwise engaged. But what is the issue? Christ withdraws, leaves her in the dark, in the midst of many disconsolations, and long it is before she obtain any recovery.

Fifthly, Great opportunities for service neglected, and great gifts not improved, are oftentimes the occasion of plunging the soul into great depths. Gifts are given to trade withal for God. Opportunities, are the market dayes for that trade. To napkin up the one, and to let slip the other, will end in trouble and disconsolation. Disquietments and perplexities of heart, are worms that will certainly breed in the rust of unexercised Gifts. God looss a revenue of glory and honor by such slothful souls; and he will make them sensible of it. I know some at this day, whom omissions of opportunities for service, are ready to sink into the grave.

Sixthly, sins after especial warnings, are usually thus issued. In all that variety of special warnings which God is pleased to use towards sinning saints, I shall single out one only. When a soul is wrastling with some lust or temptation, God by his providence causs some special word, in the preaching of the gospel, or the administration of some ordinance thereof, peculiarly suited to the state and condition of the soul, by the wayes of rebuke, or perswasion, to come nigh and enter the inmost parts of the heart. The soul cannot but take notice that God is nigh to him, that he is dealing with him; and caling on him to look to him for assistance. And he seldom gives such warnings to his saints, but that he is nigh them in an eminent manner to give them relief and help, if in answer unto his call, they apply themselves unto him; but if his care, and kindness herein be neglected, his following reproofs are usually more severe.

Seventhly, sins that bring scandal, seldom suffer the soul to escape depths. Even in great sins, God in chastening takes more notice oft-times of the scandal, than the sin: as 2 Samuel 12:14. Many professors take little notice of their worldliness, their pride, their passion, their lavish tongues; but the world does, and the gospel is disadvantaged by it; and no wonder if themselves find from the hand of the Lord, the bitter fruits of them in the issue.

And many other such Aggravations of sins there are which heighten provocations in their own nature, not of so dreadful an aspect as some others, into a guilt plunging a soul into depths. Those which have been named may suffice in the way of instance; which is all that we have aimed at, and therefore forbear enlargements, on the several heads of them.

The consideration of some Aggravations of the guilt of these sins, which bring the soul usually into the condition before laid down, shall close this discourse.

First, The soul is furnished with a principle of grace, which is continually operative and working for its preservation from such sins.

The new creature, is living, and active for its own growth, increase and security, according to the tenor of the covenant of grace, Galatians 5:17. it lusts against the flesh. It is naturally active for its own preservation and increase; as new born Children, have a natural inclination to the food that will keep them alive, and cause them to grow, 1 Peter 2:2. The soul then cannot fall into these entangling sins, but it must be with an high neglect, of that very principle, which is bestowed upon it, for quite contrary ends and purposes. The labourings, lustings, desires, crying of it, are neglected. Now it is from God, and of God, and is the Renovation of his Image in us; that which God owns and cars for; the wounding of its vitals, the stifling its operations, the neglect of its endeavours for the souls preservation, do alwayes attend sins of the importance spoken unto.

Secondly, Whereas this new creature, this principle of life and obedience is not able of it self to preserve the soul from such sins as will bring it into depths; there is full provision for continual supplies made for it, and all its wants in Jesus Christ. There are treasures of relief in Christ, whereunto the soul may at any time repair and find succour against the incursions of sin. He sayes to the soul as David unto Abiathar; when he fled from Doeg: Abide with me, fear not; he that seeks my life, seeks your life, but with me you shalt be in safety. sin is my Enemy no less than yours; it seeks the life of your soul, and it seeks my life; abide with me, for with me you shalt be in safety. This the apostle exhorts us unto, Hebrews 4:16. Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. If ever it be a time of need with a soul, it is so when it is under the assaults of provoking sins. At such a time there is suitable and seasonable help in Christ for succour and relief. The new creature beggs with sighs and groans, that the soul would apply it self unto him. To neglect him with all his Provision of grace, whilst he stands calling unto us, open unto me, for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night, to despise the sighing of the poor Prisoner, the new creature, by sin appointed to dye, cannot but be an high provocation. May not God complain and say; see these poor creatures; they were once intrusted with a stock of grace in themselves; this they cast away, and themselves into the utmost misery thereby. That they might not utterly perish a second time, their portion and stock is now laid up in another; a safe Treasurer; in him are their lives and comforts secured. But see their wretched negligence; they venture all, rather than they will attend to him for succour. And what think we is the heart of Christ, when he sees his Children giving way to conscience wasting sins, without that application unto him, which the life and peace of their own souls calls upon them for. These are not sins of daily infirmity which cannot be avoided; but their guilt is alwayes attended, with a neglect more or less, of the relief provided in Christ against them. The means of preservation from them is blessed, ready, nigh at hand; the concernment of Christ in our preservation great, of our souls unspeakable; to neglect and despise, means, Christ, souls, peace and life, must needs render guilt very guilty.

Thirdly, Much to the same purpose may be spoken about that signal provision that is made against such sins as these in the covenant of grace, as has been already declared. But I shall not farther carry on this discourse.

And this may suffice, as to the state and condition of the soul in this Psalmm represented. We have seen what the depths are wherein it is intangled, and by what wayes and means any one may come to be cast into them. The next thing that offers it self unto our consideration, is the deportment of a gracious soul in that state and condition; or what course it steers towards a delivery.

The duty and Actings of a believer under distresses from a sense of sin. His application unto God. To God alone. Earnestness and intention of mind therein.

The words of these two first verses declare also the deportment of the soul in the condition that we have described; that is, what it does, and what course it steers for relief. I have cryed unto you O Lord, Lord hear my voice, let yours ears be attentive to the voyce of my supplications.

There is in the words a General application made in a tendency unto relief; wherein is first to be considered, to whom the application is made; and that is JEHOVAH. I have cryed unto you Jehovah. God gave out that name to his people to confirm their faith in the stability of his promises; Exodus 3. He who is BEING himself, will assuredly give being and subsistance to his promises. being to deal with God, about the promises of grace, he makes his application to him under this name. I call upon you Jehovah.

In the application it self, may be observed,

First, The Anthropopathy of the Expression. He prayes that God would cause his ears to be attentive: after the manner of men who seriously attend to what is spoken to them, when they turn aside from that which they regard not.

Secondly, The Earnestness of the soul in the work it has in hand, which is evident both from the Reduplication of his request, Lord hear my voyce, let yours ears be attentive to my voyce, and the Emphaticalness of the words he maks use of. Let yours ears says he, be Diligently Attentive. The word signifies the most diligent heedfulness and close attention; let yours ears be very attentive; and unto what; to the voice of my supplications: deprecationum mearum generally say Interpreters; of my Deprecations; or earn prayers for the averting of evil, or punishment. But the word is from Gratiosus suit; to be gracious or merciful; so that it signifies properly supplications for grace. Be attentive, says he, O Lord, unto my supplications for grace and mercy, which according to my extream necessity, I now address my self to make unto you. And in these words does the Psalmmist set forth in general the frame and working of a gracious soul, being cast into depths and darkness by sin.

The foundation of what I shall farther thence pursue, lyes in these two propositions.

First, The only attempt of a sinful entangled soul for relief lyes in an application to God alone. To you Jehovah have I cryed, Lord hear.

Secondly, Depths of sin intanglements will put a gracious soul on intense and earn application unto God; Lord hear, Lord attend. Dying men do not use to cry out slothfully for relief.

What may be thought necessary in general for the direction of a soul in the state and condition described, shall briefly be spoken unto from these two propositions.

First, Trouble, danger, disquietment, arguing not only things evil, but a sense in the mind and soul of them, will of themselves put those in whom they are upon seeking relief. Every thing would naturally be at rest: A drowning man needs no exhortation to endeavour his own deliverance and safety. And spiritual troubles will in like manner put men on attempts for relief. To seek for no remedy, is to be senslesly obdurate or wretchedly desperate, as Cain and Judas. We may suppose then that the principal business of every soul in depths, is to endeavour deliverance. They cannot rest in that condition, wherein they have no rest. In this endeavour what course a gracious soul steers, is laid down in the first proposition, negatively and positively. He applyes himself not to any thing but God, he applyes himself unto God. An eminent instance we have of it in both parts; or both to the one side and the other, Hosea 14:3. Ashur, say those poor distressed returning sinners, shall not save us, we will not ride upon Horses, neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ye are our Gods, for in you the fatherless finds mercy. Their application unto God, is attended with a renunciation of every other way of relief.

Several things there are that sinners are apt to apply themselves unto for relief in their perplexities, which prove unto them as waters that fail. How many, things have the Romansanists invented to deceive souls withal? saints, and Angels, the Blessed Virgin, Wood of the Cross, Confissions, Rennances, Masses, Pilgrimages, Dirges, Purgatories, Papal Pardons, works of Compensation, and the like, are made entrances for innumerable souls into everlasting ruine. Did they know the terror of the Lord, the nature of sin, and of the mediation of Christ, they would be ashamed and confounded in themselves for these abominations; they would not say unto these their Idols, ye are our Gods, come and save us. How short do all their contrivances come of his, that would fain be offering Rivers of Oyl, yea, the fruit of his body for the sin of his soul, his first born for his transgression, Mich. 6:7. Who yet gains nothing, but an Aggravation of his sin and misery thereby: Yea, the Heathen went beyond them in devotion and expence. It is no new inquiry what course sin perplexed souls should take for relief. From the foundation of the world, the minds of far the greatest part of mankind, have been exercised in it. As was there light or darkness, such was the course they took; Among those who were ignorant of God, this inquiry brought forth all that Diabolical Superstition which spread it self over the face of the whole world. Gentilism being destroyed by the power and Efficacy of the gospel, the same inquiry working in the minds of darkned men in conjunction with other lusts, brought forth the Papacy. When men had lost a spiritual acquaintance with the covenant of grace, and Mysterie of the gospel, the design of eternal love, the efficacy of the blood of Christ, they betook themselves in part, or in whole for relief under their entanglements, unto the broken Cisterns mentioned. They are of two sorts: Self, and other things. For those other things, which belong unto their false worship, being abominated by all the saints of God, I shall not need to make any farther mention of them. That which relates unto self, is not confined unto Popery, but extends it self to the limits of Humane nature, and is predominate in all that are under the law; that is, to seek for relief in sin distresses by self-endeavours, self-righteousness. Hence many poor souls in straights apply themselves, to themselves. They expect their cure, from the same hand that wounded them. This was the life of Judaism, as the apostle informs us, Romansans 10:3. And all men under the law, are still animated by the same principle. They return, but not unto the Lord. Finding themselves in depths, in distresses about sin, what course do they take? This they will do, that they will do no more; this shall be their ordinary course, and that they will do in an extraordinary manner; as they have offended, whence their trouble ariss, so they will amend, and look that their peace should spring from thence, as if God and they, stood on equal terms. In this way some spend all their dayes; sinning and amending, amending and sinning, without once coming to repentance and peace. This the souls of believers watch against. They look on themselves as fatherless; in you the fatherless finds mercy; that is, helpless; without the least ground of hopes in themselves, or expectation from themselves. They know their repentance, their amendment, their supplications, their humiliations, their fastings, their mortifications; will not relieve them. Repent they will, and amend they will, and pray, and fast, and humble their souls, for they know these things to be their duty; but they know that their goodness extends not to him with whom they have to do, nor is he profited by their righteousness. They will be in the performance of all duties, but they expect not deliverance by any duty. It is God, say they, with whom we have to do: our business is to hearken what he will say unto us.

There are also other wayes whereby sinful souls destroy themselves by false reliefs. Diversions from their perplexing thoughtfulness pleass them. They will fix on something or other, that cannot cure their disease, but shall only make them forget that they are sick. As Cain under the terror of his guilt, departed from the presence of the Lord, and sought inward rest in outward labor and employment; he went and built a City, Genesis 4:6. Such courses soul fixed on; first music, then a Witch. Nothing more ordinary than for men thus to deal with their convictions. They see their sickness, feel their wound,and go to the Assyrian, Hosea 5:13. And this insensibly leads men into Atheism. Frequent Applications of creature diversions unto convictions of sin, are a notable means of bringing on final impenitency. Some Drunkards had it may be never been so, had they not been first convinced of other sins. They strive to stifle the guilt of one sin, with another. They fly from themselves, unto themselves, from their consciences unto their lusts; and seek for relief from sin by sinning. This is so far from believers, that they will not allow lawful things to be a diversion of their distress. Use lawful things they may and will, but not to divert their thoughts from their distresses. These they know must be issued between God and them. Wear off they will not, but must be taken away. These rocks, and the like whereof there are innumerable, I say, a gracious soul takes care to avoid. He knows it is God alone who is the Lord of his conscience, where his depths lye; God alone against whom he has sinned; God alone who can pardon his sin. From dealing with him he will be neither enticed, nor diverted. To you O Lord, says he, do I come; your word concerning me must stand; upon you will I wait; if you hast no delight in me I must perish. Other remedies I know are vain. I intend not to spend my strength for that which is not bread. Unto you do I cry. Here a sin-intangled soul is to fix its self. Trouble excites it to look for relief. Many things without it present themselves as a diversion; many things within it, offer themselves for a remedy. Forget your sorrow say the former; ease your self of it by us, say the latter; the soul refuss both, as Physitians of no value; and to God alone, makes its application. He has wounded, and he alone can heal. And untill any one that is sensible of the guilt of sin, will come off from all reserves to deal immediately with God, it is in vain for him to expect relief.

Secondly, Herein it is intense, earn, and urgent, which was the second thing observed. It is no time now to be sloathful. The souls All, its greatest concernments are at the stake. Dull, cold, formal, customary Applications to God will not serve the turn. Ordinary actings of says, love, servency; usual seasons, opportunities, duties, answer not this condition. To do no more than ordinary now, is to do nothing at all. He that puts forth no more strength and activity for his deliverance when he is in depths, ready to perish, than he does, or has need to do, when he is at liberty in plain and smoorths paths, is scarcely like to escape. Some (in such conditions) are careless and negligent; they think in an ordinary course, to wear off their distempers; and that although at present they are sensible of their danger; they shall yet have peace at last; in which frame there is much contempt of God. Some despond and languish away under their pressures. Spiritual sloth influencs both these sorts of persons. Let us see the frame under consideration exemplified in another. We have an instance in the Spouse, Song of Solomon 3:1, 2, 3. She had lost the presence of Christ; and so was in the very state and condition before described, verse 1. It was night with her, a time of darkness and disconsolation; and she seeks for her Beloved: By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul lovs. Christ was absent from her, and she was left unto depths and darkness upon that account. Wherefore she seeks for him; but as the most are apt to do in the like state and condition. She mends not her pace, goes not out of, or beyond her course of ordinary duties; nor the frame she was usually in at other times. But what is the issue? says she, I found him not. This is not a way to recover a sense of lost love; nor to get out of her entanglements. And this puts her on another course; she begins to think that if things continue in this estate, she shall be undone; I go on indeed with the performance of duties still, but I have not the presence of my Beloved; I meet not with Christ in them. My darkness and trouble abides still; if I take not some other course, I shall be lost. Well says she, I will rise now, verse 2. I will shake off all that ease and sloth, and customariness, that cleave to me. Some more lively, vigorous course must be fixed on. Resolutions for new, extraordinary, vigorous, constant Applications unto God, are the first general step and degree, of a sin intangled soul acting towards a recovery, I will rise now. And what does she do when she is thus resolved? I will, says she, go about the streets, and in the broad wayes, and seek him whom my soul lovs. I will leave no wayes or means unattempted, whereby I may possibly come to a fresh enjoyment of him. If a man seek for a Friend, he can look for him only in the streets and in the broad wayes; that is either in Towns, or in the Fields. So will I do says the Spouse; in what way, ordinance, or Institution soever, in or by what duty soever, public or private, of communion with others, or solitary retiredness, Christ ever was, or may be found, or peace obtained, I will seek him, and not give over until I come to an enjoyment of him. And this frame, this Resolution, a soul in depths must come unto, if ever it expect deliverance. For the most part, mens wounds stink and are corrupt because of their foolishness. As the Psalmmist complains, Psalmm 38:5. They are wounded by sin; and through spiritual sloth they neglect their cure; this weakens them, and disquiets them day by day; yet they endure all, rather than they will come out of their carnal ease to deal effectually with God in an extraordinary manner. It was otherwise with David, Psalmm 22:1, 2. Why, says he, art you so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring! O my God, I cry in the day time, and in the night season, and am not silent. What ayles the Man? Can he not be quiet night nor day? never silent, never hold his peace? And if he be somewhat disquieted, can he not contain himself, but that he must roar, and cry out? Yea, must he roar thus all the day long, as he speaks, Psalmm 32:3. and groan all the night, as Psalmm 6:6. What is the matter with all this roaring, sighing, tears, roaring all the day, all night long? Ah let him alone, his soul is bitter in him; he is fallen into depths; the Lord is withdrawn from him, trouble is hard at hand, yea, he is full of anxiety on the account of sin; there is no quietness nor soundness in him; and he must thus earnestly and restlessy apply himself for relief. Alas, what strangers for the most part are men now adayes to this frame? How little of the workings of this Spirit is found amongst us? And is not the reason of it, that we value the world more, and heaven and heavenly things less than he did? that we can live at a better rate without a sense of the love of God in Christ, than he could do? and is it not hence that we every day see so many withering Professors, that have in a manner lost all communion with God, beyond a little lip-labor, or talking; the filthy savour of whose wounds are offensive to all but themselves; and so will they go on ready to dye and perish, rather than with this holy man thus stir up themselves to meet the Lord. Heman was also like unto him, Psalmm 88 11; 13. What sense he had of his depths, he declares, verse 3. My soul, says he, is full of troubles, and my life draws nigh unto the grave. And what course does he steer in this heavy, sorrowful, and disconsolate condition? Why says he, O Lord God of my salvation, I have cryed day and night unto you, let my prayer come before you, encline yours ear unto my cry, verse 1, 2. Day and night he cryes to the God of his salvation, and that with earnestness and importunity. This was his business, this was he exercised about all his dayes.

This is that which is aimed at; if a gracious soul be brought into the depths before mentioned and described, by reason of sin, when the Lord is pleased to lead him forth towards a recovery, he causs him to be vigorous, and restless in all the duties whereby he may make application to him for deliverance. Now wherein this intensness and earnestness of the soul in its Applications unto God, does principally consist, I shall briefly declare, when I have touched a little upon some considerations and grounds that stir it up thereunto.

First, The greatness of mens concernments may well put them on this earnestness. Men do not use to deal with dull and slothful spirits about their greatest concerns. David tells us, that he was more concerned in the light of Gods countenance, than the men of the world could be in their Corn and Wine, Psalmm 4:6, 7. Suppose a man of the world, should have his house, wherein all his stock and riches are laid up, set on fire, and so the whole be in danger under his eye to be consumed; would he be calm and quiet in the consideration of it? Would he not bestir himself with all his might, and call in all the help he could obtain? and that because his portion, his all, his great concernment lyes at stake. And shall the soul be slothful, careless, dull, secure, when fire is put to its eternal concernments? when the light of Gods countenance, which is of more esteem unto him, than the greatest increase of Corn and Wine, can be to the men of the world, is removed from him? It was an argument of prodigious security in Jonah, that he was fast asleep when the Ship wherein he was, was ready to be cast away for his [••]ke. And will it be thought less in any soul, who being in a storm of wrath and displeasure from God, sent out into the deep after him, shall neglect it, and sleep, as Solomon sayes on the top of a Mast in the midst of the Sea? How did that poor creature whose heart was mad on his Idols, judges 18:24. cry out, when he was deprived of them? You have taken away my Gods, says he, and what have I more? And shall a gracious soul lose his God, through his own folly, the sense of his love, the consolation of his presence, and not with all his might follow hard after him? peace with God, joy in believing, such souls have formerly obtained; Can they live without them now, in their ordinarily walking, can they choose but cry out with Job, O that it were with us, as in former dayes, when the candle of the Lord was upon our Tabernacle, Chap. 29:2, 3, 4. and with David, O Lord restore unto me the joy of salvation, Psalmm 51:12. for Oh my God, I remember former enjoyments, and my soul is cast down within me, Psalmm 42:6. They cannot live without it. But suppose, they might make a sorry shift to pass on in their pilgrimage, whilst all is smooth about them; what will they do in the time of outward tryals and distresses; when deep calls unto deep, and one trouble excites and sharpens another: Nothing then will support them, they know, but that which is wanting to them; as Habakkuk 3:17, 18. Psalmm 23:4. So that the greatness of their concernment, provokes them to the earnestness mentioned.

Secondly, They have a deep sense of these their great concernments. All men are equally concerned in the love of God, and pardon of sin. Every one has a soul of the same immortal constitution, equally capable of bliss and wo. But yet we see most men are so stupidly sottish, that they take little notice of these things. Neither the guilt of sin, nor the wrath of God, nor death, nor hell, are thought on or esteemed by them; they are their concernments, but they are not sensible of them. But gracious souls, have a quick living sense of spiritual things. For,

First, They have a saving spiritual light whereby they are able to discern the true nature of sin, and the terror of the Lord. For though they are now supposed to have lost the comforting light of the Spirit; yet they never loose the sanctifying light of the Spirit; the light whereby they are enabled to discern spiritual things in a spiritual manner, this never utterly departs from them. By this they see sin to be exceeding sinful, Romansans 7:13. By this they know the terror of the Lord, 2 Corinthians 15:11. And that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, Hebrews 10:31. By this they discover the excellency of the love of God in Christ, which passs knowledge, the present sense whereof they have lost. By this they are enabled to look within the vail, and to take a view of the blessed consolations which the saints enjoy, whose communion with God was never interrupted. This represents to them all the sweetness, pleasure, joy, peace, which in former dayes they had whilst God was present with them in love: By this, are they taught to value all the fruits of the blood of Jesus Christ, of the enjoyment of many whereof they are at present cut short and deprived. All which, with other things of the like nature and importance make them very sensible of their concernments.

Secondly, They remember what it cost them formerly to deal with God about sin; and hence they know it is no ordinary matter they have in hand. They must again to their old work; take the old cup into their hands again. A recovery from depths is as a new conversion.

Oft-times in it, the whole work, as to the souls apprehension, is gone over afresh. This the soul knows to have been a work of dread, terror and trouble, and trembles in it self, at its new tryals. And,

Thirdly, The Holy Ghost gives unto such poor souls, a fresh sense of their deep concernments, on purpose that it may be a means to stir them up unto these earn Applications unto God. The whole work is his, and he carries it on, by means suited to the compassing of the end he aims at. And by these means is a gracious soul brought into the frame mentioned. Now there are sundry things that concur in and unto this frame.

First, There is a continual thoughtfulness about the sad condition wherein the soul is in its depths. being deeply affected with their condition they are continually ruminating upon it, and pondering it in their minds. So David declares the case to have been with him, Psalmm 38:2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Yours arrows stick fast in me, and your hand presss me sore; there is no soundness in my flesh, because of yours anger, neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sins; for mine iniquities are gone over mine head, as an heavy burthen they are too heavy for me, my wounds stink, and are corrupt, because of my foolishness; I am troubled, I am bowed down, I go mourning all the day long; I am feeble and sore broken, I have roared for the disquietness of my heart. Restlestness, deep-thoughtfulness, disquietness of heart, continual heaviness of soul, sorrow and anxiety of mind, lye at the bottom of the Applications we speak of. From these principles their prayers flow out; as David adds, verse 9. Lord all my desire is before you, and my groaning, is not hid from you. This way all his trouble wrought. He prayed out of the abundance of his meditation and grief. Thoughts of their state and condition lye down with such persons, and rise with them; and accompany them all the day long. As Reuben cryed, The child is not, and I whither shall I go? So does such a soul; the love of God is not, Christ is not, and I whither shall I cause my sorrow to go? God is provoked, death is nigh at hand, relief is far away, darkness is about me; I have lost my peace, my joy, my Song in the night; what do I think of duties? Can two walk together unless they be agreed? Can I walk with God in them, whilst I have thus made him mine enemy? What do I think of ordinances? will it do me any good to be at Jerusalem, and not see the face of the king? to live under ordinances, and not to meet in them with the king of saints? May I not justly fear, that the Lord will take his holy Spirit from me, until I be left without remedy? With such thoughts as these are sin-entangled souls exercised, and they lye rolling in their minds, in all their applications unto God.

Secondly, We see the application it self consists in, and is made by the prayer of faith; or crying unto God; now this is done with intenseness of mind; which has a twofold fruit or property; (1.) Importunity; and (2.) Constancy.

It is said of our blessed savior, that when he was in his depths, about our sins, that he offered up prayers and supplications with strong cryes and tears, Hebrews 5:7. Strong cryes and tears, express the utmost intension of Spirit. And David expresss it by roaring, as we have seen before; as also by sighing, groaning and panting. A soul in such a condition lyes down before the Lord, with sighs, groans, mourning, cryes, tears and roaring, according to the various working of his heart, and its being affected with the things that it has to do; and this producs,

First, Importunity. The power of the importunity of faith our savior has marvelously set out, Luke 11:8, 9, 10. as also, Chap. 18:1. Importunate prayer is certainly prevailing. And importunity is as it were made up of these two things: frequency of interposition, and variety of arguings. You shall have a man that is importunate come unto you, seven times a day about the same business, and after all, if any new thought come into his mind, though he had resolved to the contrary, he will come again. And there is nothing that can be imagined to relate unto the business he has in hand, but he will make use of it, and turn it to the furtherance of his plea. So is it in this case. Men will use both frequency of interposition, and variety of arguings, Psalmm 86:1. I cry unto you daily, or rather, all the day. He had but that one business, and he attended it to the purpose. By this means we give God no rest, Isaiah 62:7. which is the very character of importunity. Such souls go to God; and they are not satisfied with what they have done; and they go again; and somewhat abids still with them, and they go to him again; and the heart is not yet emptied; they'l go again to him; that he may have no rest. What variety of arguments are pleaded with God in this case, I could also manifest in the same David. But it is known to all; there is not any thing almost that he makes not a plea of; the faithfulness, righteousness, name, mercy, goodness and kindness of God in Jesus Christ; the concernment of others in him, both the friends and foes of God; his own weakness, and helplesness, yea, the greatness of sin it self: Be merciful to my sin, says he, for it is great. Sometimes he begins with some arguments of this kind; and then being a little diverted by other considerations, some new plea is suggested unto him by the Spirit, ane he returns immediately to his first employment and design, all arguing great intension of mind and spirit.

Secondly Constancy also flows from intenseness. Such a soul will not give over, untill it obtain what it aims at, and looks for: as we shall see in our process in opening this Psalmm.

And this is in general the deportment of a gracious soul in the condition here represented unto us. As poor creatures love their peace, as they love their souls, as they tender the glory of God, they are not to be wanting in this duty. What is the reason that controversies hang so long between God and your souls, that it may be you scarce see a good day all your lives? Is it not for the most part from your sloth and despondency of spirit? you will not gird up the loyns of your minds, in dealing with God, to put them to a speedy issue in the blood of Christ. You go on and off, begin and cease, try and give over; and for the most part, though your case be extraordinary, content your selves with ordinary and customary Applications unto God. This makes you wither, become useless, and pine away in and under your perplexities. David did not so; but after many and many a breach made by sin, yet through quick, vigorous, restless actings of faith, all was repaired, so that he lived peaceably and dyed triumphantly. Up then and be doing; let not your wounds corrupt because of your folly; make through work of that which lyes before you; be it long, or difficult, it is all one, it must be done, and is attended with safety; What you are like to meet withal in the first place shall nextly be declared.

The Holy Spirit's design in this Psalm is to express, through the Psalmist's experience and the working of his faith, the condition of a soul deeply entangled within itself, brought to relief on the basis of grace, and then acting toward God and His people in a manner fitting to the discovery of that grace. It is a great design, full of rich instruction.

This general overview reveals the structure and scope of the entire Psalm. First, verses 1 and 2 present the state and condition of the soul, along with how it behaves within that condition: 'Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.'

Second, verses 3 and 4 show his search for relief, and here two things present themselves to him. The first, which comes to mind immediately in his distress, he pushes away in verse 3: 'If You, Lord, should mark iniquity, O Lord, who could stand?'

The second he embraces and finds both relief and support in, in verse 4: 'But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared.'

Upon this discovery and his settling on that relief, the whole person acts in faith and conducts himself accordingly.

First, toward God, in verses 5 and 6: 'I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning — yes, more than those who watch for the morning.'

Second, toward the saints, in verses 7 and 8: 'Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plentiful redemption. And He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.'

Each of these parts, along with all they contain, must be opened one by one.

This overview also explains my purpose from these verses — namely, to describe the tangled distress that can come upon a gracious soul like the Psalmist's, along with the nature and proper workings of faith in such a condition, with the primary aim of showing what it is that gives a soul relief, support, and ultimately deliverance from that troubled state.

May the Lord in His mercy direct these reflections in such a way that both the writer and the readers may share in the benefit, relief, and comfort the Holy Spirit intended for His people in this Psalm.

The state and condition of the soul represented in the Psalm. The first two verses opened.

The state and condition of the soul represented here — as the foundation on which the Psalm builds, along with its behavior and the general working of its faith in that state — is expressed in the first two verses: 'Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.'

First, the present state of the soul under consideration is contained in the phrase 'out of the depths.'

Some of the ancient commentators, including Chrysostom, understood this expression as referring to the depths of the Psalmist's heart — not crying from the mouth or tongue only, but from the deepest recesses of the mind.

The word is indeed used to express the depths of human hearts, though in an entirely different sense, as in Psalm 64:6: 'The heart is deep.'

But the plain meaning of the text and the consistent use of the word do not support that interpretation. The Hebrew term, meaning 'depths' or 'deep places,' is commonly used for valleys or any deep place, but especially for deep waters. Valleys and deep places, because of their darkness and isolation, are associated with horror, helplessness, and trouble, as in Psalm 23:4: 'When I walk in the valley of the shadow of death' — that is, in the extreme of danger and trouble.

When this word is applied metaphorically to the condition of the human soul, it describes difficulties or pressures marked by fear, horror, danger, and trouble.

These depths are of two kinds.

First, there are providential depths — outward distresses, calamities, and afflictions, as in Psalm 69:1: 'Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my soul; I sink in deep mire where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me.' This is the extreme of trouble that the Psalmist describes. He had been reduced to the condition of a man about to drown — cast into the bottom of deep, murky water with no firm footing and no ability to escape, as he further explains in verse 15.

Second, there are internal depths — depths of conscience because of sin, as in Psalm 88:6: 'You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the darkest places, in the deep places.' What the Psalmist means by this expression he explains in the following verse, verse 7: 'Your wrath lies hard upon me.' The sense of God's wrath on his conscience because of sin was the deep he had been cast into. So again in verse 15, speaking of the same matter, he says: 'I suffer Your terrors,' and in verse 16: 'Your fierce wrath sweeps over me.' He calls these things water, waves, and deeps, following the same metaphor.

These internal depths are what is chiefly intended here. Augustine on this passage writes: 'He cries out under the weight and waves of his iniquities.' He cries out under the burden and flood of his sins.

The rest of the Psalm makes this clear. Desiring to be delivered from these depths out of which he cried, the Psalmist deals with God entirely on the basis of mercy and forgiveness — and it is sin alone from which forgiveness is a deliverance. The teaching he proclaims when he is delivered is also about mercy, grace, and redemption, as the close of the Psalm shows. And what brings us deliverance is most on our hearts when we are delivered.

It is true that these two kinds of depths often come together, as David says: 'Deep calls to deep' (Psalm 42:7). The depths of affliction stir the conscience to a deep sense of sin. But sin is the disease; affliction is only a symptom of it. In treating a cure, the disease itself must be the primary concern — the symptom will either follow in healing or depart on its own.

Many interpreters believe this was David's condition here — that great trouble and distress made him deeply aware of sin. We should not entirely pass over that meaning, even as we focus primarily on what the Psalmist himself chiefly had in mind as he addressed God.

This in general is the state and condition of the soul dealt with in this Psalm, and it serves as the key to the entire discourse — the hinge on which everything turns. As it relates to my purpose from this Psalm, what arises from it can be summed up in two propositions. First, gracious souls, even after much communion with God, may be brought into inescapable depths and entanglements because of sin — for this is exactly the condition the Psalmist describes as his own, and he was such a soul. Second, the inner root of outward distress must be the primary concern in all pressing trials: in affliction, that root is sin.

Gracious souls may be brought into depths because of sin. What those depths are.

Before I proceed further in unpacking the words — since all of them bear on the first proposition — I will explain and confirm the truth it contains, so that what is being said, and what is being affirmed throughout this discourse, may be clearly understood.

This is a sobering truth to set before us. Whoever hears it ought to tremble within himself, so that he may have rest in the day of trouble. It reflects the apostle's counsel in Romans 11:20: 'Do not be conceited, but fear,' and also in 1 Corinthians 10:12: 'Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.' When Peter had learned this truth through painful experience, after all his boldness and eagerness, he urged all the saints to pass the time of their earthly life in reverent fear (1 Peter 1:17), knowing how close evil and danger may lurk even in our greatest seasons of peace and calm.

A few examples from the many on record that illustrate this truth may be mentioned. Genesis 6:9 tells us that Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation, and that Noah walked with God. He did so for a long time, and in an evil time, surrounded by every kind of temptation — for all flesh had corrupted its way on the earth (verse 12). This gave his obedience a special distinction, and his communion with God as he walked before Him must have been deeply sweet and precious. He was a gracious soul, attested by God himself twice over. But we know what happened to this holy man. Anyone who reads the account in Genesis 9:21 will readily grant that he was brought into inescapable distress because of sin. His own drunkenness (verse 21), along with its result, became the occasion for the unnatural act of his son (verse 22), which then led him to pronounce a curse on that son and his descendants (verses 24-25). All of this, together with the awareness of God's just displeasure — coming so soon after that tremendous miraculous deliverance — must have overwhelmed him with grief and deep anguish of spirit.

The case is even clearer with David. Under the Old Testament no one loved God more than he did, and no one was loved by God more than he was. The paths of faith and love in which he walked are, for most of us, like the way of an eagle in the sky — too high and too difficult for us to follow. Yet to this day the cries of this man after God's own heart still ring in our ears. Sometimes he speaks of broken bones, sometimes of drowning depths, sometimes of waves and waterspouts, sometimes of wounds and diseases, sometimes of wrath and the sorrows of hell, and everywhere of his sins and the burden and trouble they brought. We all know something of the occasions that led to his depths, his darkness, his entanglements, and his distresses. As no one had more grace than he, so no one is a greater example of the power of sin and the effects of its guilt on the conscience than he. But examples of this kind are obvious and come readily to mind, so they need not be repeated. I will therefore show,

First, what specifically is meant by the depths and entanglements caused by sin into which gracious souls, even after much communion with God, may be cast.

Second, why it is that they may fall into such a condition, and why they often actually do.

For the first question, some or all of the following things contribute to the depths described here.

First, the loss of the familiar sense of God's love that the soul previously enjoyed. There are two kinds of awareness of God's love that believers in this life may experience. There is the passing, overwhelming work of the Holy Spirit on the heart, filling it with unspeakable, glorious joy in the apprehension of God's love and the believer's relationship to Him in Christ. This, or its immediate effect, is called 'joy inexpressible and full of glory' (1 Peter 1:8). When the Holy Spirit shines into the heart with clear evidence of the soul's participation in all Gospel mercies, it causes the soul to leap with joy, to exult and triumph in the Lord — being carried for a season above all awareness of sin, self, temptation, or trouble. But just as God provides the bread of His house for all His children, He reserves these delights and powerful restorations only for the seasons and persons in which and to whom He knows they are needed and useful. Believers may be without this kind of sense of love and yet not be in any depths at all. A man can be strong and healthy on wholesome food without ever drinking spirits and cordials.

There is also a settled, abiding sense of God's love in the hearts of most of those we are speaking of — people who have had long communion with God — consisting in a prevailing Gospel persuasion that they are accepted by God in Christ. Romans 5:1: 'Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God.' I call it a prevailing persuasion to indicate both the opposition made to it by Satan and unbelief, and its power in overcoming that opposition. This is the root from which all the peace and ordinary comfort that believers experience in this world springs and grows. It is what quickens and enlivens them for duty (Psalm 116:12-13), and it is the salt that makes their worship and service pleasing to God and refreshing to themselves. It sustains them under trials and gives them peace, hope, and comfort in life and in death. Psalm 23:4: 'Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.' A sense of God's presence in love is sufficient to rebuke all anxiety and fear in the worst and most dreadful circumstances. Not only that, but it gives solid comfort and joy even in the midst of them. So the prophet expresses it in Habakkuk 3:17-18: 'Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no food; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls — yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.' This is the sense of love that mature believers may lose because of sin. This is one step into their depths. They will no longer retain any such Gospel apprehension of God's love as gives them rest, peace, or comfort, or that influences their souls with delight in duty or support under trial. This will be more fully explained later.

Second, painful thoughts about their great and wretched unkindness toward God are another part of the depths experienced by sin-entangled souls. David describes this in Psalm 77:3: 'I remembered God,' he says, 'and was troubled.' How could the remembrance of God be a source of trouble to him? In other places he says it was his only relief and support. What made it now an occasion of trouble? Things had not been well between God and him, and whereas before, when he remembered God his thoughts were chiefly occupied with God's love and kindness, now they were entirely dominated by his own sin and unkindness. This caused his trouble. In this lies a share of the entanglement that sin brings. Such a soul says to itself: 'Foolish creature, is this how you have repaid the Lord? Is this the return you have made to Him for all His love, His kindness, His comforts, His mercies? Is this your friendship toward Him? Is this the loyalty you boasted of — that you had found such goodness and excellence in Him and His love that though all men should forsake Him, you never would? Have all your promises, all your commitments made to God in times of distress, under strong obligations and mighty impressions of His good Spirit on your soul, come to this — that you should so foolishly forget, neglect, despise, and abandon Him? Now He is gone; He has withdrawn from you. What will you do? Are you not even ashamed to ask Him to return?' Such thoughts cut Peter to the heart after his fall. The soul finds them cruel as death and strong as the grave. It is bound in their chains and cannot be comforted (Psalm 38:3-6). A great part of the depths we are examining consists in this. For this line of thinking stirs up and sharpens every grieving, constricting, distressing emotion — sorrow and shame, along with self-reproach and the desire to punish oneself that accompanies them. And because the reason and the object of these emotions in this case surpass all other occasions for them, on no other account do they produce such severe and painful self-reflection.

Third, a revived sense of justly deserved wrath also belongs to these depths. This is like the opening of old wounds. When people have passed through a sense of wrath and found rest and deliverance through the blood of Christ, to return to those old thoughts again — to be dealing afresh with hell, curse, law, and wrath — is a depth indeed. This often happens to gracious souls because of sin, as in Psalm 88:7: 'Your wrath lies hard upon me,' says Heman. It pressed and crushed him heavily. There is a kind of self-judgment about deserving wrath that can coexist with a comforting assurance of one's interest in Christ — the soul finds sweetness in this, as it serves to magnify grace. But in this case the soul is left under the weight of it without any such relief. It plunges itself into the curse of the law and the flames of hell with no encouraging support from the blood of Christ. This is walking in the valley of the shadow of death. The soul converses with death and all that seems to lead toward it. The Lord also, to increase its perplexity, breathes new life into the law — gives it a fresh commission, as it were, to take such a person into custody — and the law will never in this life fail to do its duty.

Fourth, oppressive fears of God's temporal judgments also contribute to these depths, for God does judge His people, and judgment often begins at the house of God. Such a person may say: 'Though God should not cast me off forever, though He should pardon my iniquities, yet He may take vengeance on my offenses in such a way as to make me feed on bitterness and wormwood all my days.' As David says in Psalm 119:120: 'My flesh trembles in fear of You, and I am afraid of Your judgments.' Such a person does not know what the great God may bring upon him, and being filled with a sense of the guilt of sin — which underlies this entire condition — every judgment of God fills him with dread. Sometimes he thinks God may expose the filth of his heart and make him a scandal and a reproach in the world, as in Psalm 39:8: 'Oh, make me not the reproach of the foolish.' Sometimes he trembles for fear that God will strike him suddenly with some notable judgment and take him out of the world in darkness and sorrow — so David says, 'Do not take me away in Your wrath.' Sometimes he fears he will be like Jonah, stirring up a storm in his family, in the church of which he is a member, or in the whole nation. 'Let them not be ashamed for my sake.' These things, as Job says, make his heart soft and melt within him. When any affliction or public judgment from God is fastened to a sharp and living sense of sin in the conscience, it overwhelms the soul — whether the judgment is only justly feared or has actually come, as was the case with Joseph's brothers in Egypt. The soul is then tossed from one depth to another: a sense of sin drives it to think about its affliction, and the affliction drives it back to a sense of sin. So deep calls to deep, and all God's waves go over the soul. Each makes the soul more tender and sharpens its sensitivity to the other. Affliction softens the soul, so that the sense of sin cuts deeper and makes larger wounds; and the sense of sin weakens the soul so that affliction weighs more heavily and increases its burden. In this condition, an affliction that a person in his normal state of spiritual peace could have embraced as a sweet token of God's love becomes instead like goads and thorns in his side, robbing him of all rest and quiet. God makes it, as thorns and briars, the instrument by which He teaches stubborn souls their duty, just as Gideon did to the men of Succoth.

Fifth, there may also be added to these, prevailing fears — for a season — of being utterly rejected by God and found to be a reprobate on the last day. Jonah seems to reach this conclusion in chapter 2, verse 4: 'Then I said, I am cast out of Your sight' — I am lost forever; God will own me no more. Similarly, Heman in Psalm 88:4-5: 'I am counted with those who go down to the pit; I am like a man who has no strength, set apart among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom You remember no more, and who are cut off from Your hand.' This can press the soul until the sorrows of hell surround and seize it, until it is stripped of comfort, peace, and rest, until it becomes a terror to itself and would rather die than continue living. This can happen to a gracious soul because of sin. Yet because this directly assaults the life of faith, God does not — except in extraordinary cases — allow any of His people to remain long in this horrible pit where there is no water, no refreshment. Still, it often happens that even the saints are left for a season to a fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation, as the dominant feeling of their minds. And,

Sixth, God secretly sends His arrows into the soul, wounding and distressing it, adding pain, trouble, and restlessness to its desolation. Psalm 38:2: 'Your arrows have sunk into me, and Your hand has pressed down hard on me.' Again and again in his walk, God would shoot a sharp, piercing arrow and fix it in his soul, stinging, wounding, and confusing him, filling him with pain and severe affliction. These arrows are God's rebukes, as in Psalm 39:11: 'When You discipline a man with rebukes for sin.' God speaks in His word, and by His Spirit in the conscience, words sharp and bitter to the soul, fixing them so that the soul cannot shake them loose. Job mourns this grievously in chapter 6, verse 4. God speaks with such power that His words pierce the heart straight through. What the result then is, David declares in Psalm 38:3: 'There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your anger, nor any rest in my bones because of my sin.' The whole person comes under the force of these arrows, and all health and rest are taken away. And,

Seventh, spiritual weakness and an inability to perform one's duty — whether in doing or in suffering — attend such a condition. Psalm 40:12: 'My iniquities have overtaken me, and I am not able to look up.' His spiritual strength had been worn down by sin so that he could not even approach God. Such a soul cannot pray with life and power, cannot hear with joy and profit, cannot give freely and cheerfully, cannot meditate with delight and heavenly focus, cannot act for God with zeal and freedom, cannot think of suffering with courage and resolve — but is instead sick, weak, feeble, and bowed down.

Now, I say, a gracious soul after much communion with God may — because of sin and the sense of its guilt — be brought into a state and condition where some, or more, or all of these and similar distresses become its portion. These make up the depths of which the Psalmist here complains. What specific sins, or what kinds of sins, ordinarily cast the souls of believers into these depths will be explained later. For now I will show both why believers may fall into such a condition, and also why they often actually do.

Why believers may be brought into depths because of sin. The nature of the provisions of grace given in the covenant. How far they extend. The principles of the power of sin.

First, the very nature of the covenant in which all believers now walk with God — and in which all their provision for obedience is contained — leaves open the possibility of their falling into the depths that have been described. Under the first covenant, no mercy or forgiveness was provided for any sin. It was therefore necessary that it supply sufficient grace to preserve from every sin, or it could have served no purpose at all. God's righteousness required this, and so it was. To have made a covenant that provided no pardon at all, and yet no sufficient grace to keep the covenant-makers from needing pardon, would not have been consistent with God's goodness and righteousness. But He made man upright, and man on his own accord sought out many inventions.

It is not so in the covenant of grace. In that covenant, pardon is provided through the blood of Christ. It is therefore not absolutely necessary that grace effectually preserving from every sin be administered in it. Yet the covenant of grace is on every account to be preferred over the first covenant. For beyond the relief of pardon — which the first covenant knew nothing of — it also contains much provision against sin that was not found in the other.

First, the covenant of grace provides absolutely against every sin that would cancel the covenant and bring about a final separation between God and a soul that has once been taken into it. This provision is unconditional. God has taken upon Himself the responsibility of making it good and establishing this law of the covenant — that it will not be canceled by any sin. Jeremiah 32:40: 'I will make an everlasting covenant with them,' says God, 'that I will not turn away from doing good to them, and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts, so that they will not turn away from Me.' The security of this depends on nothing in ourselves. All that is in us is to be used as a means toward the fulfillment of this promise, but the outcome depends entirely on the faithfulness of God. The whole certainty and stability of the covenant rests on the efficacy of the grace administered in it, which preserves people from all such sins as would cancel it.

Second, this covenant provides for constant peace and comfort, in spite of and against the guilt of those sins that believers, through weakness and temptation, fall into daily. Though they fall into sins every day, they do not fall into depths every day. Within the terms of this covenant, there is a consistency between a sense of sin that leads to humiliation and a peace accompanied by strong consolation. After the apostle had described the entire conflict believers have with sin, and the frequent wounds they receive from it — which makes them cry out for deliverance (Romans 7:24) — he still concludes in chapter 8, verse 1 that there is no condemnation for them, which is a sufficient and stable foundation for peace. So also 1 John 2:1: 'These things I have written to you so that you may not sin; and if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.' Our great aim and care should be not to sin, but when we have done our best, if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves (chapter 1, verse 8). What then should poor, sinful, guilty people do? Let them go to the Father through their Advocate, and they will not fail to find pardon and peace. As Paul says in Hebrews 6:17-18, God is abundantly willing that we who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us should have strong consolation. What was the condition of the one who in ancient times fled to a city of refuge for safety — from which this expression is taken? He was guilty of bloodshed, though unintentional, and would have died if he had not escaped to the city of refuge. Even though we may carry the guilt of sins that the law pronounces death for, yet by fleeing to Christ for refuge, God has provided not only safety but strong consolation as well. Forgiveness in the blood of Christ does not only remove guilt from the soul — it removes trouble from the conscience. The apostle develops this at length when setting out the excellence of Christ's sacrifice in Hebrews 10. He tells us that the sacrifices of the old law could not perfect the worshippers (verse 1), and he proves this in verse 2 because they never thoroughly and truly removed consciousness of sin — that is, the depths and distresses of conscience about sin. But now, he says, Jesus Christ in the covenant of grace has forever perfected those who are sanctified (verse 14), providing for them such stable peace and consolation that they have no need for sacrifices to be renewed every day (verse 18). This is the great mystery of the Gospel in the blood of Christ — that those who sin every day should have peace with God all their days. This holds true provided their sins fall within the category of those weaknesses against which this consolation is provided.

Third, the covenant provides grace to prevent and preserve the soul from great and serious sins — the kind that by their very nature tend to wound the conscience and cast the person into such depths and entanglements where he finds neither rest nor peace. What kinds of sins these are will be explained later. In this covenant there is grace upon grace (John 1:16), and abundant grace administered from the inexhaustible fullness of Christ. Grace reigns in it (Romans 6:6), destroying and crucifying the body of sin.

But this provision in the covenant of grace against peace-destroying, soul-entangling sins is not, in its actual administration, unconditional. There are covenant commands and exhortations, and it is on faithful attention to these that much of the grace administered in the covenant depends. We are everywhere instructed to watch, pray, exercise faith, stand on constant guard, put sin to death, and resist temptation with steadfastness, diligence, and perseverance — and all of this is directed toward securing the grace described. These things are, on our part, the condition for the administration of that abundant grace which preserves us from soul-entangling sins. Peter informs us of this in 2 Peter 1:3: the divine power of God has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness. We have from it a continual supply and provision for obedience at all times. He also says in verse 4 that He has given us great and precious promises, so that through them we might become partakers of the divine nature. What then is required of us in this blessed state, so that we may make proper use of the provision made for us and enjoy the encouraging influence of those promises? He prescribes it in verses 5-7: 'Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control perseverance, and to perseverance godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love' — that is, carefully and diligently attend to the exercise of all the graces of the Spirit and to a way of life in everything consistent with the Gospel. What will be the result if these things are attended to? Verse 8: 'If these things are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.' It is not enough that these things exist in you — that you have the seed and root of them from the Holy Spirit. You must take care that they grow and abound, for without that, though the root of the matter may be in you and you are not entirely without spiritual life, you will be poor, barren, withered, and fruitless creatures all your days. But suppose these things do abound and make you fruitful — then, says verse 10, 'if you practice these things, you will never stumble.' Never stumble into sin? No, that is not what the promise says, and one who claims, after doing everything, to have no sin is a liar. Or does it mean never completely fall away from God? No, the preservation of the elect from total apostasy is not suspended on such conditions, especially not on the degree of growth implied by 'abounding.' Rather, it means they will not fall back into their old sins from which they were cleansed (verse 9) — the conscience-wasting and defiling sins in which they lived during their unregenerate state. So while the covenant of grace through Jesus Christ does provide abundant supplies for the soul's preservation from entangling sins, the actual administration of those supplies takes into account our diligent use of the means He has appointed for us to walk in.

Here is the breadth of the new covenant. Here is where renewed free will is exercised. This is the field of willing, voluntary obedience under the administration of Gospel grace. There are two extremes that, regarding their outcome, the covenant is not concerned with. Complete sinless perfection — freedom from every sin, every failure, every weakness — is neither provided for nor promised in this covenant. It is a covenant of mercy and pardon, which presupposes the continuation of sin. Total and final falling away from God is absolutely prevented. Between these two extremes — absolute perfection and total apostasy — lies the wide field of the believer's obedience and walk with God. There are many sweet, heavenly passages in this field, and many dangerous depths. Some walk near to one extreme, some near the other. Indeed, the same person may sometimes press hard after perfection and at other times be cast very close to the edge of destruction. Between these two extremes lie many soul-plunging sins against which no absolute provision is made, and into which believers are sometimes overtaken for lack of giving all diligence to use the means of preservation.

Fourth, the covenant of grace provides no ordinary, settled consolation for those under the guilt of great sins — or sins greatly aggravated — which they fall into by neglecting the conditions of growing actual grace described above. There are sins which, either because they naturally wound and waste the conscience, or because in their effects they break out into scandal (causing the name of God and the Gospel to be spoken of with contempt), or because of circumstances that make them especially unkind toward God, deprive the soul of its accustomed comfort. I will not now explain how and on what grounds such sins terrify the conscience, break the bones, darken the soul, and cast it into inescapable depths despite the relief provided through pardon in the blood of Christ. That they do so, and that consolation is not as wide in scope as safety, we know. On this basis God presents it as an act of pure sovereign grace to speak peace and refreshment to the souls of His people in their depths of sin-entanglement (Isaiah 57:18-19). And indeed, if the Lord had not so arranged things that serious provocations require special reliefs, it might justly be feared that the carelessness of believers could produce much bitter fruit.

One thing must be noted here in passing: what has been said relates to the experience of sinners in their own souls, not to the nature of the thing itself. In the Gospel, consolation is provided for the greatest sins as well as the smallest. The difference arises from God's sovereign administration of it, according to the terms of the covenant we have described. Under Moses's law there was an exception for certain sins for which no sacrifice was appointed, so that those who were guilty of them could not be justified from them — that is, ceremonially, as to their standing in the Jewish church and nation. So Paul tells the Jews in Acts 13:38-39 that through Jesus Christ the forgiveness of sins was being proclaimed to them, and that through Him everyone who believes is justified from everything from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses. There is now no exception of any particular sins when it comes to pardon and peace. What we have said relates only to the manner and way in which God is pleased to administer consolation to the souls of sinning believers.

This is the evidence I offer to show that the souls of believers, even after much gracious communion with God, may still fall into inescapable depths because of sin. Why they actually and often do so will be explained further.

The principles underlying this are well known, so I will only briefly touch on them.

First, reflecting a little on the nature of indwelling sin as it remains in even the best of the saints in this life will show us why they are sometimes surprised and plunged into the depths described. For,

First, though the strength of every sin is weakened by grace, the root of no sin is fully removed in this life. Indwelling desires are like the stubborn Canaanites who, after the general conquest of the land, refused to leave and continued to dwell there (Judges 1:27). When Israel grew stronger they brought them under tribute, but they could not completely drive them out. Sovereignty belongs to grace, and when it grows strong it brings sin largely under control, but sin will not be entirely expelled. The body of death is not to be done away with except through and by the death of the body. In the flesh of even the best saints there dwells nothing good (Romans 7:18) — but the contrary is there, and that is the root of all evil. The flesh desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh (Galatians 5:17). Therefore, just as the Spirit's actions are universal in opposing all evil, so also the flesh's actions are universal in promoting it.

Second, certain desires or branches of original corruption gain such advantages in some people — through natural temperament, habit, occupation, social environment, or similar circumstances — that they become like Canaanites who had iron chariots: they are extremely difficult to subdue. It is a victory simply to maintain constant war against them, for they will almost always be in active rebellion.

Third, indwelling sin, though weakened, retains all its properties, since the properties of a thing follow its nature. Where the nature of something is, all its natural properties are as well. What these properties of indwelling sin are, I should explain here, but I have dealt with the whole power, efficacy, nature, and properties of indwelling sin in a treatise written for that purpose alone. In short, these properties are such that it is no wonder some believers are cast into depths by them — the wonder is rather that any escape. The reader may find my full discussion of this in that work.

Second, add to this the power and prevalence of temptation, which because I have also already addressed in a special discourse written for that purpose, I will not develop further here.

Third, the sovereign will of God in dealing with sinning saints must also be considered. Divine love and wisdom do not work toward all people in the same way. God is pleased to continue peace to some, even over and above great provocations. His love will humble them, and gentle rebukes will recover them from their wandering. Others He is pleased to bring into the depths we have been describing. But in general I may say that serious provocations meet with one of two outcomes from God.

First, those in whom such sins are found are left to a notable barrenness and fruitlessness in their lives — they wither, grow worldly, dry, and are much cast out of the affections of God's people. Or second, they are brought into these depths, and the way of their deliverance is laid out in this Psalm. So I say that God deals with His saints in great variety. Some have all their bones broken while others receive only gentle strokes of the rod. We are in the hands of mercy, and He may deal with us as seems good to Him. But for our part, great sins ought to be accompanied by an expectation of great depths and perplexities.

This is the state of the soul set forth in this Psalm and presented here for our consideration. These are the depths in which it is entangled, and these are the ways and means by which it is brought into them. How the soul conducts itself in and under this state and condition comes next in our study. But before I proceed to that, I will add a few things to what has been said, to further open the whole case before us. These are: first, what kinds of sins typically cast believers into these depths; and second, some observations on the aggravations of those sins.

What sins usually bring believers into great spiritual distress. Aggravations of those sins.

First, sins that by their very nature destroy the conscience belong to this category — sins that rise up in opposition to everything of God that is within us, including the light of both grace and nature. Such were the sins that cast David into his depths. Such are the sins listed in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: 'Do not be deceived,' says the apostle, 'neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.' It is certain that believers may fall into some of the sins named here; some have done so, as the record shows. The apostle does not say that those who have committed any of these sins will not inherit the kingdom of God, but those who live in these — or any of these — sins, or others like them. There is no provision of mercy for those who habitually live in such sins. These and similar sins are, by their very nature — even apart from aggravating circumstances (which in a believer they in reality never are without) — able to plunge a soul into depths. These sins cut the locks of people's spiritual strength, and it is futile for them to say, 'I will go out and act as I did before.' Bones cannot be broken without pain, and great sins cannot come upon the conscience without trouble. But I need not labor this point. Some say these sins deprive even true believers of all their interest in the love of God, but that goes too far. All agree that they rob them of all comforting evidence and well-grounded assurance of it. They did so to David and to Peter, and in this lies no small part of the depths we are searching into.

Second, there are sins which, though they do not rise in the conscience with such a bloody guilt as those described, yet because of certain circumstances and aggravations, God takes them so unkindly that they become a root of unrest and trouble for the soul for the rest of its days. To some sins of ungodly people He says: 'As I live, this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die — if you have come to this height, you will not escape; I will not spare you.' And there are offenses in His own people which may be so surrounded by aggravating circumstances that He will not let them pass without first casting the person into depths and making them cry out for deliverance. Let us consider some of them.

First, failures under exceptional expressions of God's love and kindness are of this kind. When God has given someone a clear and expressive manifestation of His love — convincing him of it, making him say in the innermost part of his heart, 'This is undeserved love and kindness' — and that person then becomes careless in his walk with God, there is an unkindness in it that will not be forgotten. It is noted of Solomon's failures that he fell into them after God had appeared to him twice. All sins committed under or after special mercies will sooner or later meet with special rebukes. Nothing distresses a sinner's conscience more than the memory of abused light in times of darkness, or of neglected love in times of desertion. God will make them feel this. 'Though I have redeemed them,' says God, 'yet they have spoken lies against Me' (Hosea 7:15). So also in Hosea 13:4-7. When God has dealt graciously with a person in His providence — perhaps delivered him from trouble and set him in a large place, anticipated him with many fruits and effects of His goodness, blessed him in his person, relationships, and work, and dealt well with his soul by giving him a gracious sense of His love in Christ — for such a person to fall into sinful failure goes to the heart of God and will not be passed over. Devaluing God's love is a great offense. 'Has Nabal repaid my kindness like this?' says David; 'I cannot bear it.' And the clearer one's convictions have been in this regard, the more severe their self-reproach will be.

Second, sins committed in or after great afflictions are also of this kind. God does not afflict willingly or discipline us merely for His own pleasure — He does it to make us partakers of His holiness. To take so little notice of His hand in it that, even under or after the affliction, one fails to watch against the workings and surprises of sin — this carries unkindness with it. 'I struck him,' says God, 'and he went on stubbornly in the way of his own heart.' He cannot bear these offenses from His sons and daughters. Has God brought you into the furnace, so that you melted under His hand, and in pity and compassion He gave you enlargement? If you have quickly forgotten how He dealt with you, is it any wonder if He reminds you again through trouble in your soul?

Third, pulling back from strong convictions and early stirrings of love before conversion is often remembered against the conscience afterward. When the Lord by His Spirit powerfully convicts the heart of sin and at the same time gives some glimpse of His love and the excellencies of Christ — so that the heart begins to yield and nearly surrenders, being almost persuaded to become a Christian — if through the strength of desire or unbelief it then goes back to the world or to self-righteousness, that foolishness carries an unkindness that is sometimes not passed over. God can, and often does, exercise the greatness of His power to recover such a soul. But He will deal with that person about this contempt of His love and the excellency of His Son, even as those things were revealed to him in the first stirrings.

Fourth, sudden forgetfulness of tender expressions of God's special love is another such occasion. God cautions His people against this, knowing their tendency toward it. Psalm 85:8: 'God the Lord will speak peace to His people and to His saints, but let them not turn back to folly.' Let them be on guard against their readiness to forget tender expressions of special love. When God at any time draws near to a soul by His Spirit, in His word, with gracious words of peace and love — giving a sense of His kindness upon the heart through the Holy Spirit, so that it is filled with inexpressible and glorious joy — and then that soul, through a temptation, a distraction, or simple carelessness and neglect (which often happens), allows this sense of love to be as it were erased, losing the motivating power for obedience that accompanied it — this also is full of unkindness. We have an account of this in Song of Solomon 5:1-6. In the first verse the Lord Jesus draws near with full Gospel mercies for His beloved: 'I have come to you, O my sister; I have brought myrrh and spice, honey and wine with me' — that is, whatever is spiritually sweet and delightful: mercy, grace, peace, comfort, joy, and assurance are all ready for you. In verse 2, the bride in her drowsy, indifferent state takes little notice of this gracious visit. She is diverted by other matters and cannot attend fully and wholeheartedly to the blessed communion being offered to her, and makes excuses as though otherwise engaged. But what is the result? Christ withdraws, leaves her in the dark in the midst of many consolations stripped from her, and it is a long time before she finds any recovery.

Fifth, great opportunities for service neglected, and great gifts not used, are often the occasion of plunging the soul into deep distress. Gifts are given to trade with for God. Opportunities are the market days for that trade. To hide the one away and let the other slip will end in trouble and desolation. Restlessness and perplexity of heart are worms that will surely breed in the rust of gifts that go unexercised. God loses a revenue of glory and honor through such slothful souls, and He will make them feel it. I know some today who are nearly sinking into the grave because of opportunities for service they have let pass.

Sixth, sins committed after specific warnings typically lead to this outcome. Of all the various specific warnings God uses toward sinning saints, I will single out just one. When a soul is wrestling with some desire or temptation, God in His providence causes some particular word — in the preaching of the Gospel or the administration of one of its ordinances — that is specially suited to the state and condition of that soul, whether through rebuke or persuasion, to come close and enter the innermost parts of the heart. The soul cannot help but notice that God is near, that He is dealing with it and calling it to look to Him for help. And He rarely gives such warnings to His people without being especially near to give them relief and help if they respond to His call. But if His care and kindness in this are neglected, the rebukes that follow are usually more severe.

Seventh, sins that bring scandal seldom allow the soul to escape depths. Even in cases of great sin, God in His discipline often focuses more on the scandal than on the sin itself, as in 2 Samuel 12:14. Many professing Christians take little notice of their worldliness, their pride, their anger, or their careless speech — but the world does notice, and the Gospel is damaged by it. It is no wonder if they themselves eventually experience bitter fruit from these things at the Lord's hand.

There are many other aggravating circumstances of sin which elevate offenses that are not in themselves so dreadful in nature into a guilt that plunges the soul into depths. The examples given may serve as sufficient illustrations. That is all we have aimed at, so I will not expand further on each category.

Some thoughts on the aggravations of the guilt of these sins — those that typically bring the soul into the condition described above — will bring this part of the discussion to a close.

First, the soul is furnished with a principle of grace that is continuously active and working for its preservation from such sins.

The new nature is living and active for its own growth, increase, and security, according to the terms of the covenant of grace (Galatians 5:17) — it desires against the flesh. It naturally works toward its own preservation and growth, just as newborn children have a natural inclination toward the food that will keep them alive and cause them to grow (1 Peter 2:2). A soul, therefore, cannot fall into these entangling sins without a high degree of neglect toward the very principle that was placed within it for completely opposite ends. The strivings, desires, cries, and longings of that principle are ignored. It is from God and of God, and is the renewal of His image in us — something God owns and cares for. Wounding its vitals, stifling its workings, and neglecting its efforts toward the soul's preservation always accompany sins of the kind we are describing.

Second, while this new nature — this principle of life and obedience — is not able in itself to preserve the soul from the sins that will bring it into depths, full provision for continual supplies to meet all its needs has been made in Jesus Christ. There are treasures of help in Christ to which the soul may go at any time and find relief against the attacks of sin. He says to the soul as David said to Abiathar when he fled from Doeg: 'Stay with me; do not be afraid. He who seeks my life seeks your life, but with me you will be safe.' Sin is my enemy no less than yours; it seeks the life of your soul, and it seeks my life too. Stay with me, for with me you will be safe. The apostle urges this in Hebrews 4:16: 'Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.' If there is ever a time of need for the soul, it is when it is under the assault of serious sins. At such a time there is suitable and timely help in Christ for relief and support. The new nature pleads with sighs and groans for the soul to come to Him. To ignore Him with all His provision of grace while He stands calling — 'Open to me, for my head is drenched with the dew, and my hair with the drops of the night' — to despise the sighing of the poor prisoner, the new nature which sin has sentenced to die, cannot be anything other than a serious offense. God might well complain and say: 'See these poor creatures; they were once entrusted with a supply of grace within themselves. This they threw away, and brought themselves into the greatest misery. That they might not completely perish a second time, their portion and resources are now laid up in another — a safe Keeper. In Him their lives and comforts are secured. But see their wretched negligence — they risk everything rather than look to Him for help.' And what do we think is in the heart of Christ when He sees His children giving way to conscience-destroying sins without that turning to Him which the very life and peace of their own souls demands? These are not the daily weaknesses that cannot be avoided. Their guilt always comes with a more or less serious neglect of the relief provided in Christ against them. The means of preservation from them is blessed, ready, and close at hand. Christ's stake in our preservation is great; the souls' stake is beyond description. To despise and neglect the means, Christ, our souls, our peace, and our life must make that guilt exceedingly guilty.

Third, much to the same effect might be said about the specific provision made against such sins in the covenant of grace, as has already been described. But I will not carry that discussion further.

This may be enough regarding the state and condition of the soul represented in this Psalm. We have seen what the depths are in which it is entangled and the ways and means by which anyone may come to be cast into them. The next thing to consider is the conduct of a gracious soul in that state and condition — what course it steers toward deliverance.

The duty and actions of a believer under distress from a sense of sin. His application to God. To God alone. Earnestness and intensity of mind in this.

The words of these first two verses also describe the conduct of the soul in the condition we have described — that is, what it does and what course it steers for relief. 'I have cried to You, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.'

There is in these words a general application made toward relief. First, consider to whom the application is made: to Jehovah. 'I have cried to You, Jehovah.' God disclosed that name to His people to confirm their faith in the stability of His promises (Exodus 3). He who is Being itself will assuredly give being and reality to His promises. Having to deal with God concerning His promises of grace, the Psalmist comes to Him under this name: 'I call upon You, Jehovah.'

In the application itself, observe the following.

First, the human terms of the expression. He prays that God would direct His ears to be attentive — expressing, in the manner of humans, serious attention to what is spoken, in contrast to turning aside from what one disregards.

Second, the earnestness of the soul in the work it has at hand, which is evident both in the repetition of his request — 'Lord, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to my voice' — and in the force of the words he uses. 'Let Your ears,' he says, 'be diligently attentive.' The word signifies the most careful attentiveness and close attention: 'let Your ears be very attentive' — and to what? To 'the voice of my supplications,' which most interpreters render as 'my earnest prayers for the averting of evil or punishment.' But the underlying word comes from a root meaning 'to be gracious or merciful,' so it properly denotes supplications for grace. 'Be attentive, O Lord,' he says, 'to my supplications for grace and mercy, which I now make to You according to my extreme need.' In these words the Psalmist sets forth in general the disposition and working of a gracious soul when it has been cast into depths and darkness by sin.

The foundation of what I will further draw from this passage rests on two propositions.

First, the only approach a sinful, entangled soul makes toward relief is an application to God alone: 'To You, Jehovah, I have cried; Lord, hear.'

Second, the depths of sin's entanglement will drive a gracious soul to intense and earnest application to God: 'Lord, hear; Lord, be attentive.' Dying men do not call out sluggishly for help.

What seems necessary in general for the direction of a soul in the state and condition described will be briefly drawn from these two propositions.

First, trouble, danger, and distress — pointing not only to evil things but to a real sense of them in the mind and soul — will by themselves move those who experience them to seek relief. Everything by nature seeks to be at rest. A drowning man needs no encouragement to try to save himself. Spiritual troubles will similarly move people to seek relief. To seek no remedy at all is to be senselessly hardened or wretchedly hopeless, as were Cain and Judas. We may assume, then, that the main business of every soul in depths is to seek deliverance. They cannot remain at rest in a condition where there is no rest. What course a gracious soul steers in this effort is laid down in the first proposition — both negatively and positively. He applies himself to nothing but God, and he applies himself to God. A clear illustration of both sides is found in Hosea 14:3, where those poor, distressed, returning sinners say: 'Assyria will not save us; we will not ride on horses; neither will we say anymore to the work of our hands, You are our gods, for in You the fatherless finds mercy.' Their turning to God is accompanied by a renunciation of every other way of relief.

There are various things that sinners tend to turn to for relief in their distress, which prove to be like waters that fail. How many things have the Roman Catholics invented to deceive souls? Saints and angels, the Blessed Virgin, the wood of the cross, confessions, penances, masses, pilgrimages, dirges, purgatory, papal pardons, works of compensation, and the like — these have become the pathway for countless souls into everlasting ruin. If they truly understood the terror of the Lord, the nature of sin, and the mediation of Christ, they would be ashamed and horrified at themselves for these abominations. They would not say to these idols: 'You are our gods; come and save us.' How far short do all their inventions fall even of the man who would gladly offer rivers of oil — yes, the fruit of his own body for the sin of his soul, his firstborn for his transgression (Micah 6:7) — and yet gains nothing from it but an aggravation of his sin and misery? Even the pagans surpassed them in their devotion and expense. It is not a new question — what course sin-troubled souls should take for relief. From the beginning of the world, the minds of by far the greatest part of humanity have been occupied with it. Where there was light or darkness, such was the course they took. Among those who were ignorant of God, this inquiry produced all the demonic superstition that spread across the face of the entire world. When paganism was destroyed by the power and effectiveness of the Gospel, the same inquiry — working in the minds of darkened people in conjunction with other desires — produced the papacy. When people lost a spiritual understanding of the covenant of grace, the mystery of the Gospel, the plan of eternal love, and the power of the blood of Christ, they turned — in part or in whole — for relief in their entanglements to the broken cisterns described. These are of two kinds: self, and other things. As for those other things belonging to false worship, which are abominated by all of God's people, I need say nothing more about them. What relates to self is not confined to Roman Catholicism but extends to the limits of human nature, and prevails in all who are under the law — seeking relief from the distress of sin through self-effort and self-righteousness. So many poor souls in distress turn to themselves. They expect their cure from the same hand that wounded them. This was the spirit of Judaism, as the apostle tells us in Romans 10:3. And all people under the law are still driven by the same principle. They return, but not to the Lord. Finding themselves in depths, in distress about sin, what course do they take? They resolve to do this differently and never do that again; this will be their regular practice and that they will do in an extraordinary way. As they have offended — from which their trouble arises — so they will improve, and they expect their peace to spring from there, as if God and they stood on equal terms. Some spend their entire lives this way — sinning and improving, improving and sinning, never once coming to true repentance and peace. Believers are on guard against this. They see themselves as fatherless — 'in You the fatherless finds mercy' — that is, helpless, without the least ground for hope in themselves or expectation from themselves. They know their repentance, their improvement, their prayers, their humiliations, their fasting, their mortification will not relieve them. They will repent and improve and pray and fast and humble their souls, for they know these things are their duty. But they know their goodness does not extend to Him with whom they have to deal, nor does He benefit from their righteousness. They will carry out all these duties, but they expect no deliverance through any duty. 'It is God,' they say, 'with whom we have to deal; our business is to listen for what He will say to us.'

There are also other ways in which sinful souls destroy themselves through false remedies. Distractions from their distressing thoughts appeal to them. They will fix on something — anything — that cannot cure their disease but will only make them forget they are sick. So Cain, under the terror of his guilt, departed from the presence of the Lord and sought inner rest in outward labor and activity — he went and built a city (Genesis 4:16). Such were the courses Saul fixed on: first music, then a witch. Nothing is more common than for people to handle their convictions this way. They see their sickness and feel their wound, and then go to the Assyrian (Hosea 5:13). This insensibly leads people into atheism. Repeatedly applying the distractions of earthly pleasures to convictions of sin is a powerful means of producing final impenitence. Some drunkards perhaps would never have become so, had they not first been convicted of other sins. They try to stifle the guilt of one sin with another. They flee from themselves to themselves, from their consciences to their desires, seeking relief from sin by sinning. This is far from believers. They will not allow even lawful things to be a diversion from their distress. They may and will use lawful things, but not to divert their thoughts from their troubles. They know these troubles must be resolved between God and themselves. They will not simply wear off — they must be taken away. These pitfalls, and countless others like them, a gracious soul takes care to avoid. It knows it is God alone who is Lord of its conscience, where its depths lie. It is God alone against whom it has sinned. It is God alone who can pardon its sin. Nothing will entice or divert it from dealing with Him. 'To You, O Lord,' it says, 'I come. Your word concerning me must stand. On You I will wait. If You have no delight in me, I must perish. Other remedies I know are empty. I do not intend to spend my strength on what is not bread. To You I cry.' Here a sin-entangled soul must fix itself. Trouble drives it to look for relief. Many things outside press themselves forward as distractions; many things within offer themselves as remedies. 'Forget your sorrow,' say the former. 'Ease yourself of it by us,' say the latter. The soul refuses both as physicians of no value, and makes its application to God alone. He has wounded, and He alone can heal. Until anyone who is aware of the guilt of sin will come away from every alternative and deal directly with God, it is pointless to expect relief.

Second, the soul is intense, earnest, and urgent in this — which was the second point observed. This is no time for sluggishness. The soul's everything, its greatest concerns, are at stake. Dull, cold, formal, customary applications to God will not serve here. Ordinary expressions of faith, love, and fervency — the usual seasons, opportunities, and duties — are not adequate for this condition. To do nothing more than the ordinary now is to do nothing at all. A person who exerts no more effort and energy for his deliverance when he is in depths, on the verge of perishing, than he does when he is at liberty on smooth and easy paths, will scarcely escape. Some in such conditions are careless and negligent — they think they can wear off their troubles in the usual routine, and that although they are now aware of their danger, peace will come eventually. This attitude contains much contempt of God. Others despair and waste away under their pressures. Spiritual sloth influences both these kinds of people. Let us see this disposition illustrated in another example. We have an instance in the bride in Song of Solomon 3:1-3. She had lost the presence of Christ and was therefore in the very state and condition described above (verse 1). It was night for her — a time of darkness and desolation — and she searches for her Beloved: 'On my bed night after night I sought him whom my soul loves.' Christ was absent and she was left in depths and darkness because of it. So she seeks Him — but as most people tend to do in the same state. She does not quicken her pace, does not go beyond her ordinary routine of duties, does not change the disposition she normally has at other times. But what is the result? 'I sought him,' she says, 'but did not find him.' This is not the way to recover a sense of lost love or to get out of her entanglement. This drives her to another course of action. She begins to think that if things continue like this she will be ruined. 'I am still going through the duties,' she says in effect, 'but I do not have my Beloved's presence. I am not meeting with Christ in them. My darkness and trouble remain. If I do not take some other course, I will be lost.' 'I will arise now,' she says in verse 2. 'I will shake off all the ease, sluggishness, and routine that clings to me.' A fresh, vigorous course must be pursued. Resolving on new, extraordinary, vigorous, and persistent applications to God is the first general step of a sin-entangled soul working toward recovery: 'I will arise now.' And what does she do once resolved? 'I will go about the city,' she says, 'in the streets and in the squares, and seek him whom my soul loves.' 'I will leave no means untried by which I might possibly come to a fresh enjoyment of him.' If a man is searching for a friend he can only look for him in the streets and the squares — that is, either in the town or in the open country. 'So will I,' says the bride. 'In whatever way, ordinance, or institution, by whatever duty — public or private, in community with others or in solitary withdrawal — Christ has ever been or may be found, or peace obtained, I will seek Him and not give up until I come to an enjoyment of Him.' This is the disposition, this the resolution, that a soul in depths must come to if it ever expects deliverance. For the most part, people's wounds fester and become infected because of their foolishness (Psalm 38:5). They are wounded by sin, and through spiritual sloth they neglect their cure. This weakens them and unsettles them day by day, yet they endure it all rather than come out of their worldly ease to deal seriously and urgently with God. It was not so with David (Psalm 22:1-2). 'Why,' he says, 'are You so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not answer; and at night, and am not silent.' What is wrong with the man? Can he not be quiet night or day — never silent, never at rest? And if he is somewhat troubled, can he not contain himself without groaning and crying out? Yes, he cries all day long (Psalm 32:3) and groans all night long (Psalm 6:6). What is all this groaning, sighing, tears, and crying all day and all night about? Ah, leave him alone — his soul is bitter within him. He has fallen into depths. The Lord has withdrawn from him, trouble is at hand, he is filled with anguish over sin, there is no quietness or soundness in him, and he must earnestly and relentlessly press God for relief. Alas, how strange this disposition is to most people today. How little of this spirit's working is found among us. Is not the reason that we value the world more and heaven and heavenly things less than he did? That we can get along better without a sense of God's love in Christ than he could? And is it not therefore that we daily see so many withering professors who have in effect lost all communion with God beyond a little lip-service and talk — the foul smell of whose wounds is offensive to everyone but themselves? And so they go on, ready to die and perish, rather than stir themselves like this holy man to meet the Lord. Heman was much the same (Psalm 88:11-13). What sense he had of his depths he declares in verse 3: 'My soul is full of troubles,' he says, 'and my life draws near to the grave.' And what course does he take in this heavy, sorrowful, and desolate condition? 'O Lord, God of my salvation,' he says, 'I have cried out by day and in the night before You; let my prayer come before You; incline Your ear to my cry' (verses 1-2). Day and night he cried to the God of his salvation, and with earnestness and persistence. This was his business; this was what he was occupied with all his days.

This is the point being made: if a gracious soul is brought into the depths described because of sin, when the Lord is pleased to lead it toward recovery, He causes it to be vigorous and restless in all the duties by which it may make application to Him for deliverance. Where this intensity and earnestness of the soul in its applications to God chiefly consists will now be briefly explained, after I have touched on some of the considerations and motives that stir it up to this.

First, the greatness of a person's concerns naturally drives him to this earnestness. People do not deal with dull and sluggish spirits when their greatest interests are at stake. David tells us he was more concerned with the light of God's face than the men of the world could be with their grain and wine (Psalm 4:6-7). Suppose a man of the world saw his house — where all his wealth and possessions are stored — catch fire, with everything in danger of being consumed before his eyes. Would he remain calm and quiet? Would he not exert himself with all his might and call for every help he could get? And why — because his portion, his everything, his greatest concern is at stake. Shall the soul then be sluggish, careless, dull, and complacent when fire is set to its eternal concerns? When the light of God's face — which is more precious to it than the greatest abundance of grain and wine could be to the men of the world — has been taken from it? It was a sign of astonishing recklessness in Jonah that he was fast asleep when the ship was on the verge of sinking on his account. Will it be thought any less reckless in a soul which, being in a storm of wrath and displeasure from God, sent out into the deep after it, should neglect it and sleep — as Solomon says — at the top of a mast in the middle of the sea? How that poor creature whose heart was sold to his idols cried out when they were taken from him (Judges 18:24): 'You have taken away my gods, and what do I have left?' And shall a gracious soul lose his God through his own folly — lose the sense of His love, the comfort of His presence — and not follow hard after Him with all his might? Peace with God, joy in believing — such souls have obtained these before. Can they live without them now? In their ordinary walk, can they help but cry out with Job: 'Oh that it were with me as in former months, when the lamp of God shone above my head' (Job 29:2-3); and with David: 'O Lord, restore to me the joy of Your salvation' (Psalm 51:12), for 'O my God, my soul is cast down within me' when I remember former blessings (Psalm 42:6)? They cannot live without it. And suppose they could make a poor attempt to press on in their pilgrimage while all around them is smooth — what will they do in the time of outward trials and distresses, when deep calls to deep and one trouble stirs up and sharpens another? Nothing will then support them, they know, except what is now missing from them, as in Habakkuk 3:17-18 and Psalm 23:4. So the greatness of their concerns drives them to the earnestness described.

Second, they have a deep sense of these great concerns. All people are equally interested in the love of God and the forgiveness of sin. Every person has a soul of the same immortal constitution, equally capable of blessedness and misery. Yet we see that most people are so stupidly dull that they take little notice of these things. Neither the guilt of sin, the wrath of God, death, nor hell occupy or concern them. These things are their concerns, but they have no sense of them. Gracious souls, however, have a quick and living sense of spiritual things. For,

First, they have a saving spiritual light by which they can discern the true nature of sin and the terror of the Lord. Though they are now supposed to have lost the comforting light of the Spirit, they never lose the sanctifying light of the Spirit — the light by which they are able to perceive spiritual things in a spiritual manner. This never entirely departs from them. By this light they see sin to be exceedingly sinful (Romans 7:13). By it they know the terror of the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:11), and that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31). By it they perceive the excellence of the love of God in Christ, which surpasses knowledge — the present sense of which they have lost. By it they are able to look within the veil and take in the blessed consolations enjoyed by those saints whose communion with God was never interrupted. This represents to them all the sweetness, pleasure, joy, and peace they experienced in former days when God was present with them in love. By it they are taught to value all the fruits of the blood of Jesus Christ, many of which they are now cut off from and deprived of. All this, along with other things of similar weight, makes them acutely aware of their concerns.

Second, they remember what it cost them previously to deal with God about sin, and from this they know that what they now have in hand is no ordinary matter. They must return to their old work and pick up the old cup again. Recovery from depths is like a new conversion.

Often, the whole work is gone through again fresh, as it appears to the soul. The soul knows it was a work of dread, terror, and trouble, and it trembles within itself at its fresh ordeal. And,

Third, the Holy Spirit gives such poor souls a fresh sense of their deep concerns specifically to stir them up to these earnest applications to God. The whole work is His, and He carries it on through means suited to the end He is pursuing. By these means a gracious soul is brought into the disposition described. Now there are several things that come together in and contribute to this disposition.

First, there is a continual thoughtfulness about the sad condition in which the soul finds itself in its depths. Being deeply affected by their condition, such souls are constantly pondering and turning it over in their minds. David describes what this was like for him in Psalm 38:2-8: 'Your arrows have sunk into me, and Your hand has pressed down hard on me. There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your anger; nor any rest in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head; as a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. My wounds fester and are corrupt because of my foolishness. I am bent and greatly bowed down; I go mourning all day long. I am feeble and badly crushed; I groan because of the agitation of my heart.' Restlessness, deep brooding, unquiet hearts, continual heaviness of soul, sorrow and anxiety of mind — these lie at the root of the applications we are describing. From these sources their prayers flow out, as David adds in verse 9: 'Lord, all my desire is before You, and my sighing is not hidden from You.' This is where all his trouble found its expression. He prayed out of the abundance of his meditation and grief. Thoughts of their state and condition follow such people to bed and greet them when they rise, accompanying them all day long. As Reuben cried out, 'The child is gone, and where shall I go?' — so such a soul cries out: 'The love of God is gone, Christ is gone, and where shall I take my sorrow? God is offended, death is near, relief is far away, darkness surrounds me. I have lost my peace, my joy, my song in the night. What do I make of duties? Can two walk together unless they are agreed? Can I walk with God in duty while I have made Him my enemy? What do I make of ordinances? Will it do me any good to be in Jerusalem and not see the king's face? To live under the ordinances and not meet the King of Saints in them? May I not justly fear that the Lord will take His Holy Spirit from me until I am left without remedy?' With such thoughts as these, sin-entangled souls are occupied, and they roll about in their minds throughout all their applications to God.

Second, the application itself consists in and is made through the prayer of faith — that is, crying to God. This is done with intensity of mind, which has two fruits or properties: first, importunity; and second, constancy.

It is said of our blessed Savior that when He was in His depths on account of our sins, He offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears (Hebrews 5:7). Strong crying and tears express the utmost intensity of spirit. David expresses it through groaning, as we have seen, and also through sighing, moaning, and panting. A soul in such a condition lies before the Lord with sighs, groans, mourning, cries, tears, and groaning, according to the various workings of the heart and how it is affected by what it has to deal with. This produces,

First, importunity. Our Savior has wonderfully set out the power of importunate faith in Luke 11:8-10 and chapter 18, verse 1. Importunate prayer is certainly prevailing prayer. Importunity is made up, as it were, of two things: frequent coming and varied pleading. A truly importunate man will come to you seven times a day about the same matter, and after all that, if any new thought occurs to him — even if he had resolved not to come again — he will come again. And there is nothing he can think of as relevant to his case that he will not make use of and turn to the advantage of his plea. So it is in this case. People will use both frequent coming and varied arguments. Psalm 86:1: 'I cry to You daily' — or rather, all the day. He had just this one matter of business and he attended to it thoroughly. By this means we give God no rest (Isaiah 62:7), which is the very mark of importunity. Such souls go to God and are not satisfied with what they have done; they go again. Something still remains, and they go to Him again. The heart is not yet emptied, and they go to Him once more — that He may have no rest. What variety of arguments are pleaded with God in this case I could also show from the same David. But it is well known — there is almost nothing he does not make a plea of: the faithfulness, righteousness, name, mercy, goodness, and kindness of God in Jesus Christ; the concern of others in him, both friends and enemies of God; his own weakness and helplessness; yes, even the greatness of sin itself. 'Be merciful to my sin,' he says, 'for it is great.' Sometimes he begins with arguments of one kind, then being briefly drawn to other considerations, a new plea is suggested to him by the Spirit and he returns immediately to his primary aim, all of which argues great intensity of mind and spirit.

Second, constancy also flows from intensity. Such a soul will not give up until it obtains what it is seeking and looking for, as we will see in our further study of this Psalm.

This is, in general, the conduct of a gracious soul in the condition represented to us here. As much as such people love their peace, love their souls, and care for the glory of God, they are not to be found lacking in this duty. Why do controversies drag on so long between God and your souls, so that perhaps you scarcely see a good day all your lives? Is it not for the most part because of your sloth and despair of spirit? You will not brace your minds to press matters with God to a quick resolution in the blood of Christ. You go on and off, start and stop, try and give up — and for the most part, even when your condition is extraordinary, you content yourselves with ordinary and customary approaches to God. This makes you wither, become useless, and waste away in your perplexities. David did not do so. After many and repeated failures through sin, yet through swift, vigorous, and restless exercises of faith, all was repaired, so that he lived in peace and died in triumph. So rise and act. Do not let your wounds fester through your foolishness. Do the thorough work that lies before you. Whether it is long or difficult, it does not matter — it must be done, and it is accompanied by safety. What you are likely to encounter first will be described next.