the Deity which appear to have been more conspicuous, we would recommend that they be inspected with peculiar care, entering minutely into all the particulars of each, and viewing in each distinct particular the transcendent mercy of God. Let the psalm before us be particularly noticed in this view as a pattern*. When we take only a superficial view of things in the general, we remain unaffected by them : it is by entering into them in the detail, and dwelling on the minutest par- ticulars, that Ave get our hearts properly affected by them. This therefore we would most earnestly recommend to all who would obtain a due sense of the mercies conferred upon them. But we must not imagine that the dispensations which have been pleasing to flesh and blood have been our only mercies ; for amongst our severest trials will be found, for the most part, our richest mercies. The successive trials of Joseph were of the most painful nature : yet they were all mercies in disguise. If we descend to more trifling incidents, such as Balaam's ass proving restive, and crushing his foot against a wall, and after- wards falling with him, they, as we know, were the very means by which his life was saved f. Thus the things which grieve and irritate us at the time may be the most merciful dispensations that we could possibly have received : and we ought to receive them as expressions of God's loveg, sent to promote our good in this world'1, and to work for us an augmented weight of glory in the world to come1. Even the darkness and tempta- tions with which our souls may be oppressed, must also be numbered among the means which God in his infinite mercy makes use of for the humbling and quickening, the sanctifying and saving, of our souls k ■ — ]
2. Its everlasting duration —
[See how the mercy of God wrought in all the days of old, even from the foundation of the world ! Precisely in the same manner it still operates, and shall ever continue to operate,
towards all who fear his name ] God will not withdraw
it from those who are united unto Christ by faith™ He
may hide his face from them for a season ; but with everlasting
mercies will he gather them" The repetition of this
truth twenty-six times in as many verses is a very sufficient pledge to us that " the gifts and calling of God are without re- pentance °," and that " whom he loveth, he loveth to the endp."]
Having contemplated, though so imperfectly, the mercy of our God, we now call upon you,
« ver. 9—22. ' Numb, xxxiii. 22—33. « Heb. xii. 6.
h Rom. viii. 28. ; 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18.
k Isai. xxvii. 8, 9. and Hos. v. 15. and Ps. xxv. 10.
1 Ps. ciii. 17. m Ps. lxxxix. 28—36. n Isai. liv. 7 — 10.
0 Rom. xi. 29. p John xiii. 1.