thou fear? despair not; dost thou despair?
sist not.
He that is humble shall be exalted.

11.

per

Hark what the God of truth hath said:
Luke, xiv.

A man's pride shall bring him low, but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit. Prov. xxix. 23. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. 1 Pet.

v. 6.

Before honour is humility. Prov. xv. 33,

When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up, and God shall save the humble person. Job, xxii. 29.

HIS SOLILOQUY.

ALL virtues, as well theological as moral, are besieged with two vices; humility, the fundamental of all virtues, is not exempted: some, puffed up with their own lowliness, grow proud, because humble, being high-minded by an antiperistasis; this is spiritual pride. Others, taking too single a view of their own corruptions, and more sensible of the disease than of the remedy, are cast into despondency of mind; and this is called dejection. The first froths up into presumption; the second settles down into despair. How canst thou, O my soul, in such a tempest, escape this Scylla, or avoid that Charybdis? Dost thou fear the tossing waves? contract thy sails; fearest thou the quicksands? use thy compass; He that stills the waves will assist thee; He that commands the sea will advise thee. Look not only on thy loadstone, for then thou wilt not see thy danger; nor only on thy

misery, for then thou wilt not be sensible of thy deliverance. If thy humility puff thee up, thou art not fit for mercy. If dejection knock thee down, mercy is not fit for thee. Look up, O my soul, to God's mercy, so as thou mayst be sensible of thy own misery; and so look down on thine own misery, as thou mayst be capable of God's mercy.

HIS PRAYER.

ETERNAL God, who scatterest the proud in the imagination of their hearts, and givest grace to the humble and contrite spirit, bow down thy gracious ear to my vile dust and ashes, whose misery thus casts itself before thy mercy. Lord, I am ashamed of mine own corruptions, and utterly loath mine own condition. I am not an object for mine own eyes without disdain, nor a subject for mine own thoughts without contempt; yet am I bold to prostrate my vile self before thy glorious eyes, and to present my sinful prayers before thy gracious ears. Lord, if thy mercy exceeded not my misery, I could look for no compassion; and if thy grace transcended not my sin, I could expect for nothing but confusion. Oh, thou that madest me of nothing, renew me, that have made myself far less than nothing; revive those sparkles in my soul which lust hath quenched; cleanse thine image in me which my sin hath blurred; enlighten my understanding with thy truth; rectify my judgment with thy word; direct my will with thy spirit; strengthen my memory to retain good things; order my affections that I may love thee above all things increase my faith; encourage my hope; quicken

my charity; sweeten my thoughts with thy grace; season my words with thy spirit; sanctify my actions with thy wisdom; subdue the insolence of my rebellious flesh; restrain the fury of my unbridled passions; reform the frailty of my corrupted nature; incline my heart to desire what is good, and bless my endeavours that I may do what I desire. Give me a true knowledge of myself, and make me sensible of mine own infirmities; let not the sense of those mercies which I enjoy, blot out of my remembrance those miseries which I deserve that I may be truly thankful for the one, and humbly penitent for the other. In all my afflictions keep me from despair; in all my deliverances preserve me from ingratitude; that being timely quickened with the sense of thy goodness, and truly humbled by the sight of mine own weakness, I may be here exalted by the virtue of thy grace, and hereafter ad-vanced to the kingdom of thy glory.

THE SINNER.

HIS CONFLICT.

WHEN sin entered into the world, death followed. The Scripture tells me of two deaths, the first and the second, this spiritual, that natural; the first, a separation of the body and the soul, is temporal; the second, a separation of the body and the soul from the favour of God, is eternal: the first, therefore, is terrible; the second, intolerable. If the first death so terrified the Lord of life, how terrible will the second be to me, the

child of death? If every trivial grief disturbs my thoughts, if every petty sickness distempers my body, if the very thought of death dismays my soul, how horrible will death itself appear? Oh, when the silver cord shall be dissolved, the golden bowl demolished, the pitcher at the fountain broke, the cistern-wheels stopped, how will the whole universe of my afflicted body be perplexed! Yet, were I to endure for every man that hath been, is, and shall be, a death as oft repeated as the sea-shore hath sands, all this were nothing to a minute's torment of the second death.

treacherous and soul-destroying sin, how hast thou thus betrayed me to eternal death, by thy false, momentary, and deceitful pleasures? How hast thou bewitched me with flattering smiles, and with thy counterfeit delights, thus tickled me to death! Thou hast not only deprived me of a transitory life, but led me into the hideous jaws of an everlasting death. Thou hast not only divorced my miserable soul from her beloved body, but separated both soul and body from the favours of my God, and left them to the insufferable torments of eternity. O my soul, can thy life be less than miserable, which being ended, is transported to so infinite a misery? How can thy death be less than terrible, which opens the gates to such eternal torments! What wilt thou do? or whither wilt thou fly ?-thy actions cannot save thee, nor thy flight secure thee. Death is thy enemy, who taking advantage of thy lusts, hath strengthened itself through thy weakness.

REPAIR to thy colours, O my soul; the Lord of life is thy General; he hath foiled thy enemy, and disarmed him:-stand fast-he is conquer

ed, if thou strive to conquer. Hark what thy General saith:

He that overcometh, shall not be hurt of the second death. Rev. ii. 11.

To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. Rev. ii. 7.

To him that overcometh I will grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcume, and am set down with my Father in his throne. Rev. iii.

21.

To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the hidden Manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. Rev. ii. 17.

HIS SOLILOQUY.

OUR life is a warfare, and every Christian is two soldiers; the army consists of good and evil motions; these under the conduct of the flesh; those under the command of the Spirit: the two generals, God and the devil: the field, the heart: the word, on the one side, Glory; on the other side, Pleasure: the reward of both, eternity: on that side, of happiness; on this side, of torment. How is thy heart, O my soul, like Rebecca's womb? how do two nations strive within thee? Cheer up; take courage in the reward that is set before thee: so fight that thou mayest conquer; so run that thou mayest obtain: let not the policy of the enemy dismay thee, nor thy own fewness disanimate thee. Advance therefore, O my dull soul; fear not the fiery darts of Satan, nor be