CHAP. IV.

ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE DOUBTING AND FEARFUL MIND, UNDER FEELINGS OF UNWORTHINESS.

THE eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. -For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law, but under grace.-Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you. If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received

Deut. xxxiii. 27. Isa. lix. 19. Rom. vi. 14. 1 Sam. xii. 24.

a buffering and a meat offering at our bands, neither would he have shewed us all these things.-The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich he bringeth low, and lifteth up. He will keep the feet of his saints.-Their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. My loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing Judges xiii, 23. 1Sam. ii. 6-9, Jer. xxxi.12. 34.

that is gone out of my lips.-L I, am he that hl out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.-He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath. For he remembered that they were but flesh; but made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock: and he led them on safely, so that they feared not. The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance: he shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. -O thou afflicted, tossed with tem

Ps, lxxxix. 33, 34. Isa. xliii. 25. Ps. lxxviii, 38-53, Ps. cxii, 6, 7.

pest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles; and all thy borders of pleasant stones. In righteousness shall thou be established: thou shall be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee; no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.-Who is a God like unto thee, that pardon-, eth iniquity, and passeth by the

Isa, liv. 11-17.

transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth He will turn again, he

in mercy. will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. Be ye mindful always of his covenant: the word which he commanded to a thousand generations; even of the covenant which he made with Abraham, and of his oath unto Isaac.-For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake.-Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why

Micah, vii. 18, 19.

15, 16.

Nah. i. 7. 1 Chron, xvi, 1 Sam. xii. 22.