rifiest me through visions : so that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than life''." If we look to the terrifying effects of sin on the ungodly, the sad history of Judas paints them in their true colours. Let these sorrows then, in whomsoever they be found, be traced to their proper source ; and let this at least be learned from them, that " it is an evil and bitter thing to sin against the Lord.'']
2. What obligations to God do they lie under, who are favoured with any measure of peace and joy!
[This point, we apprehend, is by no means duly considered. It is thought by many to be a hard thing if there be any inter- mission of their spiritual comfort : but the wonder rather is, that there is any intermission of their sorrow. Who that considers the desert of sin, who that views the imperfection of his best ser- vices, has not reason to adore and magnify his God, for the wil- lingness he shews to revive the hearts of the contrite ? Were God extreme to mark what is done amiss, the experience in our text would be the lot of all without exception, even of those who should find grace in the eternal world. But, blessed be God ! this is far from being the case : there are many to whom God vouch- safes the light of his countenance, and the joys of his salvation. We desire, however, that such persons should appreciate aright the blessings conferred upon them : and that, instead of ever complaining of darkness or of trouble, they should improve every manifestation of God's love to the furtherance of their confidence in him, and of their zeal in his service.]
3. How astonishing was the compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ, when he undertook to redeem a ruined world 1
[He well knew, that, as the surety and substitute of sinners, he must bear all that the violated law would have inflicted upon them. And, if to us, who are by nature alienated from God, it is such a dreadful thing to endure the hidings of his face and the terrors of his wrath, what must it be to that immaculate Lamb of God, who from all eternity " lay in the bosom of his Father," and '* was daily his delight M" Yet behold, having un- dertaken for us, he suffered all that was due to us, " He the just, for us the unjust !" From his youth up was " he a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief :" and, especially at the close of his life, he drank to the very dregs the cup of bitterness that must otherwise have been put into our hands. Truly " he was made a curse for us:" and so grievously did he suffer under the united assaults of men and devils, and from a sense also of his Father's wrath, that he sweat great' drops of blood, and, in the midst of his severest agonies, had yet further to bewail the hidings of
his '• Job vii. 14, 15. ' John i. IS. & Prov. viii. 30