Lastly, I can tell you, O despairing souls, that God hath brought some out of the very gulf of despair, out of the very belly of hell; and therefore thou mayest hope that thy sins, that are thy present burden, shall not be thy future ruin. Doth not Asaph resemble the despairing soul to the life? My soul 1refused to be comforted, I remembered God, and was troubled, I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Thou holdest mine eyes waking, I am so troubled, that I cannot speak. Will the Lord cast off for ever, and will he be favourable no more? is his mercy clean gone for ever, and will his promise fail ⟨p. 174⟩for evermore. Hath God forgotten to be gracious, hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Now out of this gulf God delivers him, Verse 10. And I said, This is my infirmity, or, this maketh 2me sick, as it is in the Original. Here Asaph checks himself for casting the cordials, the comforts of the Spirit against the wall, and for his having such hard, sad, and black thoughts of God. And in the thirteenth Verse, he speaks like one dropped out of Heaven. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary, who is so great a God, as our God? Formerly the thoughts of God troubled him, and overwhelmed him; but now at last the thoughts of the greatness of God, and of his interest in God is matter of admiration and consolation to him. So Heman sighs it out thus, My 3soul 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 ⟨p. 175⟩wrath goeth over me, thy terrors have cut me off. And yet for all this, Heman's state was good, his soul was safe and happy; he calls God in the same Psalm, The God of his salvation. So Jonah, when he was in the belly of4 Hell, concludes, That he was cast out of the sight of God. The sense of his sin, and of Gods anger and wrath, was so eminent and transcendent upon him, that it even distracts him, and makes him speak like a despairing soul, I am cast out from the presence of the Lord, I am expulsed out of Gods sight, as Moses was expulsed out of Egypt. God hath cast me out, as one in whom he can take no pleasure, nor delight;
Lastly, I can tell you, O despairing souls, that God hath brought some out of the very gulf of despair, out of the very belly of hell; and therefore thou mayest hope that thy sins, that are thy present burden, shall not be thy future ruine. Doth not Asaph resemble the despairing soul to the life? My soul 1refused to be comforted, I remembred God, and was troubled, I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Thou holdest mine eyes waking, I am so troubled, that I cannot speak. Will the Lord cast off for ever, and will he be favorable no more? is his mercy clean gone for ever, and will his promise fail ⟨p. 174⟩for evermore. Hath God forgotten to be gracious, hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Now out of this gulf God delivers him, Verse 10. And I said, This is my infirmity, or, this maketh 2me sick, as it is in the Original. Here Asaph checks himself for casting the cordials, the comforts of the Spirit against the wall, and for his having such hard, sad, and black thoughts of God. And in the thirteenth Verse, he speaks like one dropt out of Heaven. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary, who is so great a God, as our God? Formerly the thoughts of God troubled him, and overwhelmed him; but now at last the thoughts of the greatness of God, and of his interest in God is matter of admiration and consolation to him. So Heman sighs it out thus, My 3soul 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 ⟨p. 175⟩wrath goeth over me, thy terrors have cut me off. And yet for all this, Hemans state was good, his soul was safe and happy; he calls God in the same Psalm, The God of his salvation. So Jonah, when he was in the belly of4 Hell, concludes, That he was cast out of the sight of God. The sense of his sin, and of Gods anger and wrath, was so eminent and transcendent upon him, that it even distracts him, and makes him speak like a despairing soul, I am cast out from the presence of the Lord, I am expulsed out of Gods sight, as Moses was expulsed out of Egypt. God hath cast me out, as one in whom he can take no pleasure, nor delight;
- 1Psal 77.
- 2[Greek or Hebrew]〈non-Latin alphabet〉
- 3Psal. 88. All conclude that he was very holy, and his soul very happy, even while he was in this gulf of misery.
- 4Jonah 2. [Greek or Hebrew] Garash signifies to expulse and cast out, as Adam was expulsed out of paradise. Gen 3. 24. It signifies an ignominious expulsion.Jonah 2. 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 Garash signifies to expulse and cast out, as Adam was expulsed out of paradise. Gen 3. 24. It signifies an ignominious expulsion.
