this way they have found that mercy which their souls desired.
Nor is this process observed only at the first con- version of men to God. The saints are sometimes permitted, through the violence of temptation, to fall into the very depths of despondency. What can be conceived more distressing than the state of Asaph's mind, as depicted in the 77th Psalm ? " Will the Lord cast off for ever ? and will he be favourable no more ? is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his pro- mise fail for evermore ? Hath God forgotten to be gra- cious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?" In this extremity God mercifully interposed, to shew him that these fears were altogether groundless : and then the desponding saint acknowledged, that " this was his own infirmity g." Multitudes of others also, in every age of the Church, are enabled to bear the same testimony ; and to say with David, " I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry : he brought me up also out of an hor- rible pit, out of the miry clay ; and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings : and he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our Godh." In truth, this is what may be well expected under all trials, whether of a temporal or spiritual nature : for, from the days of Abraham to this present hour, has that proverb been verified, " In the mount the Lord shall be seen1."
We must not, however, suppose that these dispen- sations are limited to individuals : they may be seen with equal clearness in God's dealings with the Church at large. Let us go back to those two redemptions which his people experienced from Egypt and from Babylon. In Egypt they were reduced to the lowest ebb of misery k, and had their afflictions for a time augmented by the very means used for their deliver- ance; so that they were in utter despair1: but then it was that God interposed with a mighty hand, and a stretched-out arm, to bring them out from their
s Ps. lxxvii. 7 — 10. h Ps. xl. 1 — 3. > Gen. xxii. 14. k Jude. x. 16. with Acts vii. 34. » Exod. v. 20 — 23.