that this world is vanity, and that heaven alone, where thou art seen, and perfectly loved and praised, is the only felicity of souls; and should be sought before all transitóry things. I am convinced that thou art the first and last, of whom, and through whom, and to whom, both I and all things are. And I am convinced that my forsaking thee and turning to my carnal self, and this deceitful world, and all my sins, deserve thy wrath and my destruction; and that I have no hope but in penitent sincere conversion to thee, by faith in Christ the only Reconciler.

But alas, the hardness of my heart, the power of unbelief and fleshly lusts, prevaileth against all this conviction! I fear lest all my knowledge will but condemn me to be beaten with many stripes! When I know that I should do good, evil is present with me; and the will of the flesh prevaileth against thy holy will. The custom of sinning hath increased my sinful inclination; and I have not a will which hateth my pleasant and grateful sins; I forbear them often through fear, while I love them, and wish that thou didst not forbid them. Long have I been wishing and purposing to repent, and come to thee; but alas, how many purposes have I changed, and how many promises have I broken, and how many wishes have come to nothing? My corrupted will, enslaved by my sense, will not change itself, nor forsake the pleasant vanities which it loveth.

O that I had a heart, a will, to love thee as much above all the world, as I know I should love thee! And to delight in thee, and in thy holy ways, in thy grace, and in the hopes of glory, as much as I know thou art more delectable than all the plea sures of the world and sin! O that I had a heart that would enlargedly run the way of thy commandments, and did delight to do thy will, O God; and did still obey thee from the power of love! O that the new nature did more strongly incline mne to thee, and to thy service, than my corrupted nature inclineth me to the interest of carnal self and sense! O that I had a heart to believe in Christ, as strongly as I know I should believe in him, and to hate sin as much as I am convinced that I should hate it; and to live by faith, and not by sight!

And though these desires may be but from the power of selflove, and the fears of hell, O that I had more spiritual and sincere desires!

I have corrupted this heart, O Lord, but I cannot renew it. I have defiled it, but I cannot cleanse it. I have kindled in it

the fire of sinful lusts, but I cannot quench it. I have undone myself, and rejected that Saviour, and resisted that Holy Spirit, which should have sanctified and saved me. And I have not a thought, nor a desire, a will, nor an endeavour for my own recovery, but of thy gift. Nor shall I so much as forbear my own sin and destruction, unless thy mercy turn me or restrain me. I have none to fly to now, or in the hour of my last extremity, but that God whom I have so heinously offended! I have none to trust in but the Saviour whom I have so unthankfully neglected! I have none to regenerate and make clean my soul but the same Spirit whom I have so long resisted!

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to the greatness of thy mercy. I have sinned like a frail and foolish man; but do thou have mercy on me, as a gracious God. As my sin hath abounded, let thy grace much more abound. When I hear of the wonderful design of thy love in saving lost sinners by Jesus Christ, and at what a rate he hath redeemed souls, it reviveth my hope, and fainting heart! When I think, that it is not the way of thy providence to bring men by innocency to heaven, but by healing and recovering grace; and that all men's souls, save Christ's, that are now in heaven, were once sinners on earth, as I now am; and that thou hast glorified none, but such as were first condemned by thy law, and had deserved everlasting death; it emboldeneth me to hope for mercy and salvation. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. I am dead in sin, and almost past feeling! O when wilt thou quicken me, and cure my stupidity! I have a heart as hard as stone itself; it feeleth not sin: it feareth not thy judgments as it ought: it relisheth not aright thy mercy: it trembleth not to think of death, and hell, though I have no assurance to be thence one day. O when wilt thou turn this stone into a new and tender heart! I have a presumptuous and self-flattering heart, that will hardly fear what it would not feel. I have a careless, sottish heart, which little regardeth the things of everlasting consequence; as if it cared not where I dwell for ever. O when wilt thou give me a necessary care of my own salvation! The spirit of slumber hath seized on me! I see my sins, and cannot forbear them! I see my duty, and have not a heart to do it! I see my danger, and yet run upon it! I foresee the dreadful awakening day of death and judgment, when the most senseless sinners shall feel and fear: and yet I have not a heart to stir, and cry for grace, and strive

as for the life of a miserable soul, nor fly to Christ, and improve the day of my visitation. I know that this is the accepted time, and this is the day of salvation! And that all that ever must be done for heaven, must be quickly done! I know that I must now be saved from sin, or else I shall never be saved from hell! And yet, alas, my slumbering, senseless soul awaketh not! I see time is swiftly posting away, my glass is almost run out : the frailties of my decaying, corruptible flesh are daily warning me to prepare! But I cannot; I cannot, alas ! Lord, I cannot ! There is not a heart in me to believe and feel, and to set on duty, and to do my part. My time is going! O precious time! It is going, Lord, and almost gone! Many that have gone to the grave before me have been my warnings! I have but a few breaths more to breathe, and I am gone from hence for ever; and yet, alas! my work is undone ! my soul is unready! If I die this night, O where shall I awake, and where must I take up my endless dwelling! It is thy wonderful mercy which hath kept me alive, and from hell so long! The time that is past will never return! It is in vain to call it back. When I am once gone hence, there is no returning to live better or die better, and make a better preparation for eternity. It must be now or never and yet my senseless, sluggish soul scarce feeleth or stirreth at all this. O thou that art the living God, and raisedst Jesus Christ from the dead, revive and raise this stupid soul. Lord Jesus, raise me by thy quickening Spirit, which hath raised millions that were dead in sin. O speak effectually that word of life, Awake thou that sleepest, and stand up from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. Awake me by thy grace, lest the thunder of thy wrath and the fire of hell too late awake me!

And, Lord, I have a dark, an ignorant, a prejudiced, and an unbelieving heart. It staggereth at thy word; it questioneth the Scriptures: it looketh strangely upon Christ himself: it looketh doubtingly and amazedly towards the world to come. I am so captivated in flesh, and used to live by sight and sense, that I can scarce believe or apprehend the things unseen, though thou hast revealed them with certain evidence. O for one beam of thy heavenly illumination! Pity a dark and unbelieving soul! Alas, if unbelief prevail, Christ will be as no Christ to me, and the promise as no promise, and heaven as no heaven. O, heal this evil heart of unbelief, which hath neglected Christ, his sacrifice, merits, doctrine, example, his covenant, and his in

tercession, and hath departed from the living God. A promise is left us of entering into rest; O let me not fall short by unbelief! Let me be taught, by the inward light of thy Spirit, to understand the light of thy holy word, and leave me not in the power of the prince of darkness.

And, Lord, my will is as sinful as my mind. It is biassed by sense, and followeth the rage of lust and appetite. O how little is it inclined to thee, and to heaven, and to any holy work; I can love my flesh, I can love my food, and ease, and wealth, I can love my friend; yea, wretch that I am, I can love my sin, my brutish God-provoking sin. But O that I could say, I love my Saviour, and love my God, and love the place of glorious perfection above all these! O touch this heart with the loadstone of thy love! O kindle in it this heavenly fire! Nothing will do it but the holy Spirit of love, working with the revelation of thy wonderful love in Jesus Christ. Hold the eye of my soul upon my Saviour; upon my humbled, crucified Saviour; upon my ascended, glorified, interceding Saviour! And let me never cease gazing on this glass of love, and hearing this heavenly messenger of thy love, till thy blessed co-operating Spirit of love have turned my heart into love itself; even into that love which is the living image of thy love. And then, in Christ, I shall be lovely to thee.

As ever thou hadst mercy on a miserable sinner, have mercy on me, and renew this soul! Of all mercies in the world, O give me thy Holy Spirit, through the mediation of my dear Redeemer! even the Spirit of life, and light, and love. And let this be Christ's advocate and witness in me, and the witness, earnest, and pledge of my salvation. Of all plagues, O save me from the plague of a heart forsaken by thy Spirit, and left in death, and darkness, and disaffection! Is it not thy will that I should pray for grace? Hast thou not said, that thou wilt give thy Holy Spirit to them that ask it? I hope it is not without thy Spirit that I beg thy Spirit, though I know not whether it be his common or special grace. Had I asked for riches, and honours, and the pleasures of sin, no wonder if my prayer had been denied, or granted with a curse. But wilt thou deny me the grace which thou hast bid me ask? the holiness which thou lovest? without which I cannot love or serve thee, but shall serve thine enemy to my own destruction? O thou that hast sworn that thou hast not pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that he turn and live, have mercy upon me; sanctify

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this sinful, miserable soul, that I may live in the fruitful and delightful exercise of thy grace unto thy glory here, and may live in the delights of thy glorious love for evermore, through the merits and intercession of my blessed Saviour, who hath encouraged me with the publican to hang down this ashamed face, and smite upon this guilty breast, and in hope through his name to cry unto thee, "God be merciful to me a sinner!" Amen, Amen.

VII. A Confession and Prayer for a penitent Sinner.

O MOST great, most wise, and gracious God, though thou hatest all the workers in iniquity, and canst not be reconciled unto sin; yet, through the mediation of thy blessed Son, with pity behold this miserable sinner, who casteth himself down at the footstool of thy grace. Had I lived to those high and holy ends for which I was created and redeemed, I might now have come to thee with the boldness and confidence of a child, in assurance of thy love and favour. But I have played the fool and the rebel against thee. I have wilfully forgotten the God that made me, and the Saviour that redeemed me, and the endless glory which thou didst set before me. I forgot the business which I was sent for into the world, and have lived as if I had been made for nothing but to pass a few days in fleshly pleasure and pamper a carcass for the worms. I wilfully forgot what it is to be a man, who hath reason given him to rule his flesh, and to know his God, and to foresee his death, and the state of immortality. And I made my reason a servant to my senses, and lived too like the beasts that perish. O the precious time which I have lost, which all the world cannot call back! O the calls of grace which I have neglected; and the teachings of God which I have resisted; the wonderful love which I unthankfully rejected, and the manifold mercies which I have abused, and turned into wantonness and sin! How deep is the guilt which I have contracted, and how great are the comforts which I have lost: I might have lived all this while in the love of thee, my gracious God, and in the delights of thy holy word and ways; in the daily sweet foresight of heaven, and in the joy of the Holy Ghost, if I would have been ruled by thy righteous laws. But I have hearkened to the flesh and to this wicked and deceitful world; and have preferred a short and sinful life before thy love and endless glory.

Alas! what have I been doing since I came into the world?