fore me. Remember not the frailties of my youth, O God, nor the follies of my elder days: remember not how I have forgotten thee; remember not how I have forsaken thee. Close thou thine eyes at my rebellion, and open thine ears at my repentance; be merciful, O God, at my contrition: a broken heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Renew meaccording to the abundance of thy mercies, and restore me to the joy of thy salvation: establish my heart in the love of thy truth, and increase in me a spiritual thirst; make me to understand the way of thy precepts, and let thy testimonies be my whole delight. As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so my soul longeth for the well-springs of life. Lord, thou hast promised to answer those that call unto thee, to be found by those that seek- unto thee, and to satisfy those that thirst after thee-Make good thy word, O God, and hear my prayer; make good thy promise, Lord, and be not far from me. I have sought thee in thy promise, let me find thee in thy performance; I have thirsted for thy grace, oh fill me with thy goodness! open thy well-springs, that I may drink freely of the waters of life; that my soul being satisfied in the fulness of thy pleasures, my mouth may be filled with the sound of thy praises; that here magnifying thy name in the kingdom of grace, I may reign with thee hereafter in the kingdom of glory.

223

THE GOOD MAN.

HIS DISTRUST.

WHEN I consider the all-sufficiency of my God, I dare not question the performance of his promises; but when I behold the insufficiency of myself, I cannot but fear the promises of his performance. When I behold in him the goodness of a father, my heart grows confident, and I cannot fear; but when I find in myself the disobedience of a son, my soul grows conscious, and I dare not hope: when I dive into the depth of my own misery, I search further, and find a greater depth of his mercy, and am secure; but when I find the freeness of his mercy requited with the wilfulness of my rebellion, oh then my soul despairs, and thus destroys the grounds of all my comfort! He invites my laden soul to come, and offers rest: alas! I come, and yet my laden soul can find no ease. He promises eternal life to my belief, but yet he gives me not the pow er to believe he bids me in his name propound my wants, with promise of supply; and yet I sue, and sue, and still I sue in vain: he promises a Comforter to strengthen my remembrance, yet still my treacherous memory fails me: he promises to be a father to the fatherless, yet still my wants persuade me that I want a father: he promises audience in my time of trouble, and yet I call unheard, and mourn without redress: he promises forgiveness to the true repentant, but who shall give me power to repent? he promises to gather me in mercy, though a while forsaken,

yet I have long expected, with a frustrate ex-. pectation; he promises an exaltation to him that is humbled, yet my dejected heart is still supprest; he promised freedom from the seconddeath, to him that conquers; I strive to overcome, yet feel a hell: his promise was to guard his vineyard, and to dress it; yet foxes destroy it, and the wild boar supplants it: he promised comfort to all those that mourn, and yet I mourn without a comforter: he promised that the woman's seed should break the serpent's head, and yet the serpent never was more strong: he bid me seek, and I should find; and yet, alas! I seek, but can find nothing but my wants: he calls them blessed that suffer for his name; yet, who more miserable? he promises the springs of life to him that thirsts, and yet I thirst to death. My soul, what are his promises to thee, that art not able to perform those hard conditions that give thee interest to those promises?

CHEER up, my soul, and what thou canst not do, endeavour; He that accepts the will for the deed, is in his promise "yea and amen."

Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but not one tittle of my word. Mark, xiii. 31.

Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto his people, according unto all that he hath promised. There hath not failed one word of all his good promises which he hath promised. 1 Kings, viii. 56.

Know then, that there shall fall to the ground nothing of the word of the Lord. 2 Kings, x.

10.

For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in Heaven. Psal. cxix. 89.

I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return. Isaiah, xlv. 23.

For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him, amen. 2 Cor. i. 20.

HIS SOLILOQUY.

WILT thou never, O my distrustful soul, submit thy will unto His will that made thee? Must his goodness be always the circumference of thy desires, and thy pleasure still the centre? Is it not enough that Yea, and Amen, hath promised the substance of thy happiness, but must thou bind him to thy circumstances? Shall the power of an infinite Creator be confined to the pleasure of a finite creature? Stand not in thine own light, my soul; the independence of thy exorbitant desires shuts the door upon that happiness thou desirest. Art thou covetous of a blessing before thou art qualified to receive it? He that intends thee a kingdom, will first make thee capable of a kingdom: thou, that shalt be a gainer by his favour, shalt be no loser by his delay. Canst thou hope to be filled with the water of life, not first purged with the fire of affliction? How often hast thou murmured for that, which if enjoyed had been thy ruin? God hath mised, but hath delayed performance to exercise thy patience: he hath decreed, but yet forbears, to rectify thy faith. If faith be able to remove mountains, endeavour to remove thy infidelity. Endure, hope, believe; and He that comes will come, and will not tarry. O my soul, as no

U

pro

thing hinders the performance of his promise, but distrust, so nothing hastens the promise of his performance but thy prayer.

HIS PRAYER.

O GOD, that art all-sufficient in thyself, allgracious in thy Son, most absolute in thy purposes, and most faithful in thy promises-I, the miserable object of thy mercy, here humbly present myself before thee, the merciful beholder of my misery. Lord, wherein have I to trust but in thy mercies? and whereupon have I to build but on thy promises? Every sin is full of death, and every action is full of sin, insomuch that my whole life is nothing but a continued rebellion against thee. But, O my God, thy goodness is like thyself, infinite; and thy mercy is past my comprehending. Thou knowest that I am evil, and wholly evil, and that continually: thou knowest that I am but dust and ashes, and the very offspring of corruption, and thy glory is no less magnified in my confusion, than in my salvation. But, Lord, thou art a gracious God, and takest no pleasure in the death of a distressed sinner. Thy mercy is over all thy works, and thy goodness is from generation to generation. When I was in open rebellion against thee, thou reconciledst thyself to me; when I was utterly lost, thou redeemedst me with the innocent blood of thy dear Son; and being redeemed, thou hast sanctified me with the freeness of thy Spirit. Thou hast raised me by thy power, and strengthened me by thy promises. What shall I return thee, O my God, for thy innumerable mercies? or what kind of recompense