[If our maladies were of a bodily nature, and relief were offered us, should we not be deemed insane if we despised it ? And, if our benefactor had put himself to great expense and trouble to procure us that relief, would our contempt of him be thought a light offence 1 The application of this to our state is obvious. But let the energetic language of the text be marked : wherefore does the Psalmist no less than four times repeat the name of Christ? Is it not the more effectually to call our attention to him ? and does not this in a very pointed manner reprove the sin of neglecting him ? If then we would not greatly multiply our own sorrows, and rush on blindly to everlasting destruction, let us seek to experience his proffered mercies, and to become the objects of his unalterable love.]
2. How little reason is there for any one to enter- tain desponding fears !
[The state of those who are immured in dungeons under a sentence of condemnation, or are deprived of the faculty of vision, may be justly considered as desperate in the extreme, and as representing in very gloomy colours the condition of men's souls. But there is nothing impossible with God : our adorable Saviour is both able and willing to effect deliverance : and, if, like the woman in the Gospel, we have been bowed down under a spirit of infirmity for eighteen, or eighty, years'1 , one word of his can instantly release us. And, if once we be interested in his righteousness, and renewed in the spirit of our minds, there is not any thing which we may not expect from him : if once he love us, he will love us to the end e. Let none then say, There is no hope : but let us entertain worthy thoughts of our almighty Deliverer : for, however much our expectations of mercy may be raised, we can never be disap- pointed, if we put our trust in him.]
d Luke xiii. 11, 12. e John xiii. 1.