the serpent's head, that I may conquer for the time to come; and give thou me a broken heart, that I may grieve for the time past; give me water from the spring of life, that it may quench the fiery darts of death; strengthen the new man in me, and let the power of the old man languish daily; that being confident in thy promise, I may be sensible of thy performance; and being freed by thy power, I may be filled with thy praise, and glorify thy name for ever and for ever.

THE SINNER.

His Poverty.

WHEREIN doth this my natural state excel a beast? In what one thing? Am I not worse? Their outward senses

less

are more perfect, my inward senses are pure. Their natural instinct desires good, and chooses it; but my perverted will sees good, and yet declines it. They eat, being satisfied with moderation; perchance I want, or surfeit. They sleep secure from fears and cares, when I am kept awake with both. They cry to Heaven, and are fed by Providence; I, trusting to myself, want through my improvidence. The worthless sparrows are lodged in their downy feathers; the silly sheep repose in their warm fleeces; but I have nothing to cover my nakedness, nothing to hide my shame! Naked I was born into the world, and have nothing in the world which I may call mine own; or if I have, it is lost with the desire of having. I look into my soul, and can find nothing there but the absence of what I had, or

the defect of what I want. I pry into my understanding, and there I find

nothing but darkness; I search into my will, and there I find nothing but perverseness; I examine I examine my affections, and there I find nothing but disorder; I view my disposition, and there I find nothing but distemper; what I had I have not, and what I want I cannot gain. If I have obtained any thing that is good, I quickly lose it for want of knowledge how to prize it; if I find any good which I had lost, I keep it not, for want of wisdom how to use it. When I call my conscience to account, mine own soul is bribed against me; and when I call my course of life to question, my frailties flatter me. If the sense of misery should force me to my forgotten prayers, I falter, and my distraction denies me utterance; or, if my hopeful. thoughts permit my formal lips to recommend my griefs to Heaven, my guilt despairs of entrance; or if a flash of zeal should wing my prayers, and dart

them up unto the Almighty's ears, my unrepented sins forbid them audience. Heaven's gates are locked against me, and the keys are lost by my neglect; my sighs want strength to shoot the lock, nor can my stronger groans enforce the portals open.

CHEER up, my soul; the keys are in a faithful hand, nor is the Keeper far; call him, and thou shalt hear him say,

Ask, and thou shalt have; seek, and thou shalt find; knock, and it shall be opened to thee. Luke, xi. 9.

Matth. vii. 11.

If you, being evil, know how to give good things unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven, give good things unto them that ask them?

Matth. xxi. 22.

All things whatsoever ye shall ask by prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

John, xi. 22.

But I know that even now whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it unto thee.

James, i. 5.

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask it of God that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.

His Soliloquy.

CANST thou, O my soul, wonder at thy wants, when thou wantest Him that is the only supplier of all wants? The beast performs his duty, and (made for thy service) serves thee; and wanting food, in his own language craves it, and obtains it. The fowls of the air, being pinched with hunger, carol forth their sweet Hosannas, and are filled, and then return musical Hallelujahs. Canst thou, my soul, expect supplies like them, and use less means than they? Come,