Ye shall be hated of all men for my sake, but he that shall endure unto the end shall be saved. Matth. x. 22.

Every one that forsaketh lands, or brother, or sister, or father, or mother, for my sake, shall receive an hundred fold, and shall inherit eternal life. Matth. xix. 29.

HIS SOLILOQUY.

HE that shall weigh the gain of godliness by the scales of the world, or the pleasures of the earth by the balances of the sanctuary, shall, upon a review, find a bad market. Thinkest thou, my soul, to be made happy by the smiles of earth? or unhappy by her frowns? When she fawns upon thee, she deludes thee; when she kisses thee, she betrays thee. She brings thee butter in a lordly dish, and bears a hammer in her deadly hand. Trust not her flattery, O my soul, nor let her malice move thee: her music is thy magic; her sweetness is thy snare. She is the highway to eternal death: if thou love her, thou hast begun thy journey; if thou honour her, thou mendest thy pace; if thou obey her, thou art at thy journey's end when she distastes thee, Christ relishes in thee; when she afflicts thee, God instructs thee; when she locks her gates against thee, Heaven opens for thee; when she disdains thee, God honours thee; when she forsakes thee, he owns thee; when she persecutes thee, he crowns thee. Why art thou then disquieted, my soul? and why is thy spirit troubled within thee?-trust thou in him by faith; if thou want comfort, fly to him by prayer.

HIS PRAYER.

THOU, therefore, O most blessed and glorious Spirit, in whose eyes the saints are precious, who puttest all their tears into thy bottle, and in the midst of all their sorrows sendest comfort to thy elect-behold my sufferings and regard my sorrows; let not thine enemies triumph and make a scorn of him that fears thee: strengthen me, O God, to maintain thy cause, lest they that persecute me, think there is no God. Thou knowest my reproach and shame, and how they buffet me all the day long: arise, O God, and plead thy cause, and let them know that thou art God. Make me to hear the voice of joy and gladness, that the bones which they have broken may rejoice: let not the wicked have power over me, but graciously deliver me for the glory of thy name: remove this bitter cup of affliction from me but not my will, but thine be done. Give me patience to endure till thou art pleased to release me, and courage to bear what thy wisdom shall permit: let not the vanities of the world dece me, nor the corruptions of my flesh disturb me: let not the suggestions of Satan deter me, nor the threatening of man divert me. Preserve my footsteps in the ways of thy truth, and keep me truly constant to the end; in all my afflictions keep me from murmuring, and let thy grace be sufficient for me. Season my heart with the sense of thy love, and strengthen my faith in all my trials: give me an inward thankfulness, O God, that thou hast made me worthy to suffer for thy name. Convert my enemies, if

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they belong to thee; be merciful to them that hate me, and do good to those that persecute me; open their eyes, that they may see thy truth, and turn their hearts, that they may fear thy name. In all my tribulations be not thou far from me, and sanctify my great afflictions to me. Lord, in the multitude of thy mercies, hear me, and in the truth of thy salvation, help me; that I, confessing thee here before the children of men with undaunted resolution, may be enrolled in the kingdom of grace, by thy goodness, and hereafter reign in the kingdom of glory, in thy eternity.

THE SINNER.

HIS ACCOUNT.

How I can flatter my own destruction, and with the common stream of frail mortality run into the dead sea of everlasting death! How soundly I can sleep in the wanton lap of treacherous security, until I wake, disarmed of all my strength, and turn a prey to that false Philistine that seeks my soul! When I call to mind the course that I have run, and set to view the steps that I have trod, how easily can I excuse my failings, and set them on the score of miserable Adam; but when I seriously consider whose law I have offended, and strictly examine my actions by that law, and justly proportion my punishment to those actions, oh, then I stand and

tremble, and am swallowed up with despair! oh, then my sins appear too great for pardon, and my punishment too great for patience! Which way soever I turn, I turn to my disquiet: look where I will, I view my own discomfort: look up, I see a dreadful God: look down, I see a direful devil: look forwards, I see a roll of sins: look backwards, I see a roaring conscience: look on my right hand, I see my bold presumption : look on my left hand I see my base despair: look within me, I see nothing but corruption : look about me, I see nothing but confusion. I have sinned upon ignorance, ignorance will not excuse me: I have sinned upon weakness, weakness will not plead for me: I have sinned against my conscience, my conscience will accuse me : I have sinned against the law, the law condemns me. What canst thou say, my soul, that sentence of death should not be given against thee? Can the voice of thy sorrow outcry the language of thy sin? Can the tears of thine eye scour the stains of thy soul? Can the sighs of a finite creature satisfy for the offences against an infinite Creator? Or art thou able to endure the punishments of eternity? He that made thee without thee, will not save thee without thee; and what canst thou do towards thy own salvation?

PROSTRATE thyself, my soul; behold thy misery, and bewail thyself; renounce thyself; abhor thyself; fly to the horns of the altar, and call for the promise of mercy, in which thou mayst find comfort.

If the wicked shall turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do

that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. Ezek. xviii. 21.

Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Acts, iii. 19.

The Lord is long suffering towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Pet. iii. 9.

As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live. Turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel? Ezek. xxxiii. 11.

HIS SOLILOQUY.

AN humble confidence is the mean betwixt the two extremes, presumption and despair: that usurps God's mercy upon false grounds; this excludes it, and all means to it. The first takes away the sense of sin, the last blocks up the way to pardon. Take heed, O my dejected soul; plunge not thyself in that sad gulf, lest (wanting bottom) thou sink for ever: swim not without bladders, lest thou tire. Having fastened one eye upon the ugliness of thy sin, fix the other upon the merits of a Saviour; so when thou discoverest the disease, thy disease will discover a remedy. When the fiery serpent has stung thee, the brazen serpent must heal thee. Nothing, O my soul, makes thy sin too great for mercy, but despair; this only excludes repentance, and impenitence alone makes thee incapable of pardon. He that hath promised forgiveness at thy repent