66 Mifcarriage.r inperfog,r Pfal.i.3o. to avoid. We know how God rebukes it in Sion. Sionfair/ the Lord bathforJaken me, and my Lord bathforgotten me, lfaiab 49. 14. But how foolifh is Sion, how froward, how unbeliev- ing in this matter ; what ground hath the for fuch finful de fpondencics, fuch difcouraging conclulons ? Can a woman,.. faith the Lord, forget her fucking child, thatfhe flhould not have compaffion on the fin ofher womb , yea, they m :y forget, but I will not forget thee. The like reproof he gives to Jacob upon the like complaint, Chap, 40. 28, 29, 30. There is nothing that is more provoking to theLord, nor more difadvantagious unto the foul, than fuch finful dcfpondency. For,. Fitt}, It infenfibly weakens the foul, and difenables it, both for prelim duties, and future endeavours. Hence, fame poor creatures mourn, and even pine away in this condition, never getting one ftep beyond a perplexing fenfe of tin all their dayes. Some have dwelt fo long upon it, and have fo in- tangled themfclves. with a multitude of perplexed thoughts, that at length their natural faculties have been weakned, and ten dred utterly Melds ; fo that they have loft both fenfe of fin and everything elfe. Againfi fome, Satanhath taken advan, tage to cart in to many intángling objeIlions into their minds, that their whole timehath been taken up in provoking doubts and objeElions againft themfelves; with thefe they have gone up and -down, to one and another, and being never able to come unto a configency in their own thoughts, they have fpLnt all their dayes in a fruitlefs, faplefs, withering comfortlefs condition. Some with whom things come to a better iffue, . are yet for a feafon brought to that dijcompofure ofSpirit, or are fo filled with their own apprehenfions , that when the things which are moti, proper to their condition are fpoken to them, they take no imprefm in the leali upon them. Thus the foul is weakned by dwelling too longon thole confiderati- ons ; until fome cry with thofe in Ezek. 33. i o. Our fin: are upon us, we pine away in them, and bow jhould we then live ? Secondly, This frame, if it abides; by its fell, will infenfibly. . give countenançe unto bard thoughts of God , and fo to re- pini g, and vvcarinefs in waiting un him. At firti the foul neither
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