these governors unavoidable? And to what sad alternatives have the children of God been often brought, through the enactment of unrighteous laws !
Under temptation from Satan, too, are multitudes reduced to sad extremities ! Behold the Apostle Paul, when under the bufferings of Satan ; with what repeated cries he pleads with God for deliverance d ! Even our blessed Lord himself was so harassed by this wicked adversary, that he scarcely knew what to say, or what to do : " Now is my soul troubled ; and what shall I say ? Father, save me from this hour : but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy namee." And who can tell what thousands have suffered through the devices of this great adversary, and from the fiery darts with which he has pierced their souls f?
Nor must I omit to mention the yet sorer bondage which is sometimes experienced through desertion from God. For wise and gracious reasons, God is sometimes pleased to hide his face from his people, and for a season to appear to them as an enemy and an avenger. Hear the complaint of Heman, in the 88th Psalm: " My soul is full of troubles; and my life draweth nigh unto the grave. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me ; and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Lord, why castest thou off my soul ? why hidest thou thy face from me ? I am afflicted, and ready to die from my youth up : while I suffer thy terrors, I am distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; Thy terrors have cut me offg." But hear our blessed Lord himself, from whom all that man could inflict drew no com- plaint ; yet, in the hour of dereliction from his heavenly Father, he poured forth this bitter cry: " My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken meh?" And so it is with many a pious soul, when " the arrows of the Almighty are within them, the poison whereof drinketh up their spirit ; and when the terrors of God do set themselves in array against them1."
In all these instances, then, the afflicted soul may well pour forth the petition in my text: " Bring my soul out of prison!"
Yet let me shew you,
II. What, in offering it, should be the chief object of our desire — I am far from saying that deliverance is not to be desired for its own sake: for God himself condescends to acknowledge, that, whatever be the ultimate design of his chastisements, " affliction is not at the present
d 2 Cor. xii. 7, 8. c John xii. 27, 28. f Eph. vi. 11, 16.
b Ps. Ixxxviii. 3, 6, 7, 14 — 16. >' Matt, xxvii. 46. i Job vi.4.