with all that agitation of mind that is depicted in the foregoing context. In this view they express,
1 . Disquieting apprehensions in reference to him- self—
[He had thought in former times, that he was a monument of God's " mercy," and an object of his " favourable" regard : but now he seems as one cast out, and doomed to everlasting misery. It must be remembered, that interrogations, which in our language would imply a negation of the thing inquired about, have frequently in Scripture the force of affirmations' : and thus it is in the various questions tbat are before us, in which there- fore there is a very strong degree of apprehension intimated. Yet is this feeeling by no means uncommon at the present day. Many in a season of darkness are led to write bitter things against themselves, and to account all their past profession a continued scene of hypocrisy and self-delusion. They think that they have resisted the Spirit, till they have utterly quenched his sacred motions ; yea, that they have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost, and placed themselves as it were out of the reach of mercy : and such an unhappv degree of positiveiiess frequently accompanies the^e apprehensions, that thev rt'ad their doom as if it had been aheady past, and disregard all means of grace as though it were utterly in vain to use them.]
2. Desponding fears in reference to God —
[He properly referred every thing to God as the one source of all good: but instead of deriving comfort from this, he made it an occasion of increased de^pondency. And thus it is with many : " They remember God, and are troubled." Every attri- bute of the Deity is brought against them, to aggravate their guilt and insure tlieir condemnation. Even meicy and truth are regarded by them as arrayed in hostile attitude against them, and as uniting their influence on the side of offended justice. His paternal corrections are considered by them as judicial in- flictions, and as the forerunners of yet heavier judgments in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. His delays in an- swering prayer are viewed as absolute refusals, and as decisive proofs of final dereliction. Hence their fears are vented in terms similar to those in the passage before us™.]
The discovery of the true import of these ques- tions will enable us to discover,
II. Whence they proceed —
Justly did Asaph say, " This is my infirmity :" and
a grievous
' Jer. ii. 14. & xxxi, 20. ■" Lam. iii. 17, 18.