876 AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM CXXX. [Ver.3.
a thorough engagement unto the performance of these duties is the great cause why so few come clear off from their entanglement all their days. Men heal their wounds slightly ; and, therefore, after a new, painful festering, they are brought into the same condition of restlessness and trouble which they were in before.
Grounds of miscamages when persons are convinced of sin and humbled — Resting in that state — Resting on it.
The soul is not to be left in the state before described. There is other work for it to apply itself unto, if it intend to come unto rest and peace. It hath obtained an eminent advantage for the discovery of forgiveness ; but to rest in that state luherein it is, or to o-est upon it, will not bring it into its harbour. Three tilings we discovered before in the soul's first serious address unto God for deliverance, — sense of sin, acknowledgment of it, and self-condemna- tion. Two evils there are which attend men oftentimes when they are brought into that state. Some rest in it, and press no farther; some rest upon it, and suppose that it is all which is required of them. The psalmist avoids both these, and notwithstanding all his pressures reacheth out towards forgiveness, as we shall see in the next verse. I shall briefly unfold these two evils, and show the ne- cessity of their avoidance : —
First, By resting or staying in it, I mean the soul's desponding, through discouraging thoughts that deliverance is not to be obtained. Being made deeply sensible of sin, it is so overwhelmed with thoughts of its own vileness and unworthiness as to sink under the burden. Such a soul is " afflicted, and tossed with tempest, and not comfort- ed," Isa. liv. 11, until it is quite weary; — as a ship in a Storm at sea, when all means of contending are gone, men give up themselves to be driven and tossed by the winds and seas at their pleasure. This brought Israel to that state wherein he cried out, " My Avay is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God," chap, xl. 27; and Zion, " The LoRD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me," chap. xlix. 14. The soul begins secretly to think there is no hope; God regardeth it not; it shall one day perish; relief is far away, and trouble nigh at hand. These thoughts do so oppress them, that though they forsake not God utterly to their destruction, yet they draw not nigh unto him effectually to their consolation.
This is the first evil that the soul in this condition is enabled to avoid. We know how God rebukes it in Zion: "Zion said. The
Ver.3.] EVILS OF EESTING m CONVICTION, ETC. 377
Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me," chap, xhx. 14. But how foohsh is Zion, how fro ward, how unbeheving in this matter! What ground hath she for such sinful despondencies, such discouraging conclusions? "Can a woman," saith the Lord, " forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee." The like reproof he gives to Jacob upon the like complaint, chap. xl. 28-31. There is nothing that is more provoking to the Lord, nor more disadvantageous unto the soul, than such sinful de- spondency; for, —
1. It insensibly iveakens the soul, and disenables it both for pre- sent duties and future endeavours. Hence some poor creatures mourn, and even pine away in this condition, never getting one step beyond a perplexing sense of sin all their days. Some have dwelt so lonij upon it, and have so entangled themselves with a multitude of peiplexed thoughts, that at length their natural faculties have been weakened and rendered utterly useless; so that the}^ have lost both sense of sin and every thing else. Against some, Satan hath taken advantage to cast in so many entangling objections into their minds, that their whole time hath been taken up in proposing doubts and objections against themselves; with these they have gone up and down to one and another, and being never able to come unto a consistency in their own thoughts, they have spent all their days in a fruitless, sapless, withering, comfortless condition. Some, with whom things come to a better issue, are yet for a season brought to that discomposure of spirit, or are so filled wdth their own apprehensions, that when the things which are most proper to their condition are spoken to them, they take no impression in the least upon them. Thus the soul is weakened by dwelling too long on these considera- tions; until some cry with those in Ezek. xxxiii. 10, " Our sins are upon us, we pine away in them, how should we then live?"
2. This frame, if it abides by itself, will insensibly give counte- nance unto hard thoughts of God, and so to repining and weariness in waiting on him. At first the soul neither apprehends nor fears any such issue. It supposeth that it shall condemn and abhor itself and justify God, and that for ever. But when relief comes not in, this resolution begins to weaken. Secret thoughts arise in the heart that God is austere, inexorable, and not to be dealt withal. This some- times casts forth such complaints as will bring the soul unto new complaints before it comes to have an issue of its trials. Here, in humiliation antecedaneous to conversion, many a convinced person perisheth. They cannot wait God's season, and perish under their impatience. And what the saints of God themselves have been over- taken withal in their depths and trials, we have many examples and