those requests which he offered on other occasions, " Torment me not;" " send me not into the deep," that is, the depths of hell. Hence also that question, in the passage before us, " Art thou come to destroy us V No wonder that, under such cir- cumstances, he should be filled with terror, and ask, as the con- summation of his highest wishes, to have a respite granted him.]
That such desires were not peculiar to Satan will appear, while we,
II. Inquire whether similar requests be not offered by many amongst us —
It is certain that many hate the declarations of Christ in his Gospel —
[Men will endure to hear those sins, from which they themselves are free, exposed and condemned ; but when the light is brought to discover their besetting sins, they hate it, and wish to have it removed from them. This is found to be the case even in the public ministration of the word. But it obtains in a still higher degree in private and personal admo- nition. Let a servant of Christ come in his masters name to a man that is proud or covetous, lewd or dissipated, or under the dominion of any particular lust, and let him set before that man the enormity of his besetting sin, and the judgments denounced against it; will he find a welcome? will not the sinner wish to change the conversation ? will he not say in his heart, perhaps too with his lips, ' Let me alone ; what hast thou to do with me?' Will not he regard such a monitor as an enemy to his peace, and be ready to ask, " Art thou come to destroy" all my hope and comfort? Yes; nor is this aversion to the light peculiar to the sensual and profane : it is rather found to be more inveterate among those, whose regularity in outward things has afforded them a ground for self-admiration and self-complacency.]
Such persons accord with Satan both in sentiment and inclination —
[To hate the authority of Christ in his word is exactly the same as to hate his personal authority when he was upon earth: and to wish to have the light of his truth withheld from us, is the same as to desire the restraint of his personal interposition. Nor is this a mere fallible deduction of man's reason ; it is the express declaration of God. They, who would not hear the law of the Lord, are represented by the prophet as saying to him, " Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before usc." Job speaks yet more
c Isai. xxx. 9 — 11.