world : if I in a dying hour do but ask forgiveness, I also shall obtain mercy : and therefore I will not trouble myself about turning unto God, till I find, or think I find, that death is coming upon me. But let not any of us be guilty of so per- verting the mercies of our God: let us "not so despise his goodness and patience and long-suifering ; but let his goodness lead us to repentance." Let us say, David found deliverance by waiting patiently. I then will wait patiently also. But it was with strong crying and tears that David sought for mercy : and in that way I will seek it also. It was in these holy exercises too that he was so constant : and in them also will I be constant, and persevere unto the end, assured, that it is only by patient continuance in well-doing I can ever hope to obtain the desired benefits.]
2. To expect the same end — [We should never imagine ourselves to be in so low a state, but that God is able to deliver us from it. If, like Jonah, we were, as to our own apprehensions, " in the belly of hell," yet from thence we should cry to him, assured that he would hear our voice, and " bring up our souls from the pit of corrujDtion"." The state of David was as desperate as it could well be : yet from thence was he rescued, to his unutterable joy. Hezekiah also seems to have been in a similar state, and to have ex- perienced a similar deliverance : " Behold, for peace I had great bitterness : but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption ; for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back P." Thus shall it be with all who will seek God in sincerity and truth, especially when, like David, they seek him through the sacrifice and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their feet shall then be extricated from the mire, and set upon the Rock, where " their feet shall not slide," and from whence " they shall never be moved." And though their lives hitherto may have been spent in sighing and mourning, yet shall there be given to them " the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." In a word, let them only pray in faith ; and however " wide they open their mouth, it shall be filled^."]
° Jonah ii. 2, 6. P Isai. xxxviii. 17. i Ps. Ixxxi. 10.