not sinned; and, if it were in their power, would give all the world to retrieve it; and would rather die, than commit that folly again they then repented of. Let those, who have not their own experience to confirm this, read over (and consider the case of David when he wrote) the penitential psalms. How many, like him, have roared and cried out, under the sense of sin, of stings and furies in their conscience, of the poisoned arrows in their souls, and his terrors surrounding them wherever they went; from the sense of his sin's malignity, the apprehensions of God's anger, and the consequent fears of his wrath! Serious repentance, after great transgressions, is another thing than most imagine it: when their aggravated sins shall beset them behind and before, be placed in order before their eyes, and set in array against them. It is always a work of difficulty, as well as importance, to crucify corrupt affections, to tear a beloved lust from the heart, with self-indignation to abhor and cast away what before you loved and delighted in. How did David's sin stare him in the face? "It is continually with me, it is ever before me," said he. It haunted him like a spectre, or, like Belshazzar's handwriting on the wall, it still appeared before him in some horrid shape.

However sin may smile in its first address, and bespeak us in flattering language, and promise pleasure, and profit, and great advantages, and satisfaction; these are but fair appearances, this is but the outside of the cup, and the colour of the liquor; it will prove gall and wormwood, and a mixture of deadly poison, if ever God set it home upon the conscience, and awaken us to a true sense of it: and the

continuance of daily repentance for sin, which all Christians are called to, is no such easy matter neither. Constant self-abasement and humiliation before God, from a sense of his majesty and holiness, and of our many sins and pollution thereby; the imperfection of our best duties continually to be bewailed; inordinate affections to be still mortified; always resisting and opposing sin in its root and branches; conflicting against the whole interest of the flesh, the world, and the devil; seeking after more holiness, to be derived unto us by the grace of Christ, to be wrought in us by his Spirit, and maintained by his power; and making daily applications to the fountain of all grace for spiritual strength to continue our warfare against sin, in all instances of outward duty, and inward actings of grace, even as long as we live; all this is included in it. Due apprehensions concerning repentance, as so comprehensive and difficult a duty, would teach us to beware of sin.

SECTION XXVII.

The necessity of Christian resolution to upright, persevering obedience; how full and extensive it ought to be, and yet humble; by what means we may be assisted to perform that which we resolve.

HAVING acknowledged my transgressions unto God, and begged forgiveness, and experimentally learned the evil of sin, by the bitterness of repent

ance, I resolve, for the future, to watch against it more narrowly, and against every thing that leads to it endeavouring to please and honour my God and Saviour, by an upright, obedient, heart and life. And, for the remission of my former contracted guilt, I trust to Jesus Christ, according to the revelation, made in the gospel, of what he is, hath done and suffered, and continues to do in heaven, for the salvation of repenting sinners, who desire to come unto God by him.

But how often, O my soul! have I mocked God, and deceived myself with formal and faint purposes of amendment ! My good resolutions have been all of them "as the morning cloud, and the early dew, which quickly passed away." One fresh assault of temptation hath swept away all my good purposes as a spider's web. I have falsified so many, and broken my word so often, that I dare not trust to any thing I now resolve, or rely on any promises I should farther make. Succour me, therefore, O Lord, by thy powerful grace, that what was defective in my former fruitless resolutions may be now rectified. Let me be more humble in the sense of my weakness, more dependent on thy grace, and more heartily seek it, from time to time. Strengthen me with strength. in my soul, with might and power in my inward man, that I may so resolve and purpose as to perform; that I may not be one day hot and the next cold; zealous in the beginning, but faint and lukewarm in the progress; fervent and serious only in resolving, but weak and impotent in the execution.

Having changed my master, my end, and my hopes, by returning unto God, from whom I had

gone astray, I firmly resolve, through the assistance of his grace, to change my course of life; that, "old things being done away, all things may become new;" that," being made free from sin," by pardoning mercy, "and become the servant of Christ, I may have my fruit unto holiness, that my end may be 'eternal life." In the interim, whether I live or die, let it be unto the Lord, resolving, both in life and death, to be absolutely his. And, to that purpose, O my soul! let me seek for continual supplies of grace from Christ my head, to enable me to yield ready obedience in the most difficult, hazardous, painful, and humbling duties. In vain do I resolve it, without the assistance of his mighty power, to strengthen my heart and hands, whenever I am called to such a trial of my sincerity. Without it I shall never recover my liberty, or break asunder those bands and cords, wherewith I have formerly been held captive, as the servant of sin and Satan. Such are the weakness and treachery of my own heart, the influence of ill examples, and the subtlety and cunning of the tempter, that otherwise I shall quickly change my mind, and return to folly as the dog to his vomit. The spirit is so weak, and the flesh so frail; the snares of the world so many, the power of remaining corruption so strong; and of myself I am so unsettled and wavering, fickle and unsteady, and prone to backsliding, that all my strongest purposes will not be sufficient, without daily strength from above. My senses are so deceitful; my passions so ungovernable; the rule and law I am to walk by, so strict, and spiritual, and extensive; criminal omissions may be so frequent, and so

easily overlooked; so many several and difficult duties are to be performed; and, by every change of my condition, or of God's providence, so many new dangers and new duties may arise; that I fear the issue of my firmest resolutions. So strict a watch must always be kept; such humility and caution are every where to be practised; such speedy repentance required after every fall; with thankfulness and contentment in every state, under all calamities, be they ever so many, or ever so pinching; and perseverance, herein absolutely necessary, though ever so many stratagems be used to discourage me from proceeding, or to entice me to go back, or turn aside to some other path; insomuch that, if God had not promised me his continued presence, and that his grace shall be sufficient for me, and that I shall not be tempted above what I am able to bear, I should utterly despair of making good what I now resolve.

But, besides these promises to encourage my resolved obedience, he hath left upon record, in his word, many glorious examples of his assisting and rewarding the courage and resolution of his servants to continue faithful; as in the case of Joseph, Daniel, and his three friends, &c. If Christ stand by and strengthen me, I know I shall be able to do all things; I shall not then be flattered or affrighted out of the way of my duty; no wind that can blow shall then turn me to another point; nothing shall then be able to prevail for my consent to a wilful and deliberate forsaking of God; no argument, no temptation; though privacy, opportunity, impunity from men, with rewards of worldly gain and honour, should all concur to enforce a temptation. But, by