DEPTIIS OF SIPI. 19 soul finds them cruel as death, and strong as the grave. It is bound in their chains, and cannot be comforted. Psalm 38 : 3, 4, 5, 6. And herein consists a great part of the depths inquired after. For this consideration ex- cites and puts an edge upon all grieving, straitening, perplexing affections, which are the only means whereby the soul of a man may be inwardly troubled, or trouble itself : such are sorrow and shame, with that self-dis- pleasure and selfrevenge wherewith they are attended. And as their reason and object in this case transcend all other occasions of them, so on no other account do they cause such severe and perplexing reflections in the soul as on this. 3. A revived sense of justly-deserved wrath belongs also to these depths. This is as the opening of old wounds. When men have passed through a sense of wrath, and have obtained deliverance and rest through the bloodof Christ, to come to their old thoughts again, to be trading afresh with hell, curse, law, and wrath, is a depth indeed! And this often befalls gracious souls on account of sin. Psal. 88 : 7. " Thy wrath lieth hard upon me," says the Psalmist; it pressed and crushed him sorely. There is a self-judging as to the desert of wrath which is consistent with a comforting persuasion of an interest in Christ. In that the soul finds sweetness, as it lies in a subserviency to the exaltation of grace ; but in this case the soul is left under it without that relief. It plunges itself into the curse of the law and flames of hell, without any cheering support from the blood of Christ. This is walking in " the valley of the shadow of death." The soul converses with death, and what seems to lie in a tendency thereunto. The Lord also, to increase his perplexities, puts new life and spirit into the law; gives it a fresh commission, as it were, to take such a one into its custody; and the law will never, in this world, be wanting to its duty.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=