DEPTHS OF SIti. the soul, and makes affliction the heavier, and so increas- es its burden. In this case, that affliction which a man . in his usual state of spiritual peace could have embraced as a sweet pledge of love, is as goads and thorns in his side, depriving him of all rest and quietness. God makes it as thorns and briers, wherewith he will teach stubborn souls their duty, as Gideon did the men of Succoth. 5. There may be added prevailing fears, for a season, of being utterly rejected by God, of being found a re- probate at the last day. Jonah seems to conclude so, chap. 2 : 4. "Then I said, lam cast out of thy sight :" I am lost for ever, God will own me no more. And Psalm 88 : 4, 5, " I am counted with them that go down into the pit : free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more, and they are cut off from thy hand." This may reach the soul, until the sorrows of heil compass it, and lay hold upon it ; until it be deprived of comfort, peace, and rest ; until it be a terror to itself, and be ready to choose strangling rather than life. This may befall a gracious soul on account of sin. But yet, because this fights directly against the life of faith, God doth not, unless in extraordinary cases, suffer any of his to lie long in this horrible pit, where there is no water, no refreshment. But it often occurs, that even the saints themselves are left for a season to a fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation, as to the prevailing apprehension of their minds. 6. God secretly sends .his arrows into the soul, that wound it, adding pain to its disquietness. "Thine ar- rows stick fast in me, and -thy hand presseth me sore." Psalm 38 : 2. Ever and anon, in his walking, God shot a sharp piercing arrow, fixing it on his soul, that wounded and perplexed him, filling him with pain and grievous vexation. These arrows are God's rebukes.
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