His Prayer.

O GOD, without the sunshine of whose gracious eye, the creature sits in darkness, and in the shadow of death; whose presence is the very life and true delight of those that love thee; cast down thine eyes of pity upon a lost sheep of Israel, which has wandered from thy fold into the desert of his own lusts. What dangers can I choose but meet, that have run myself out of thy protection? what sanctuary can secure me, that have left the covert of thy wings? what comfort can I expect, O God, that have forsaken thee, the God of comfort and consolation? Return thee, O great Shepherd of my soul, and with thy crook reduce me to thy fold; thou art my way, conduct me; thou art my light, direct. me; thou art my life, quicken me. Disperse these clouds of

sins that stand betwixt thy angry face and my benighted soul; remove that cursed bar which my rebellion hath set betwixt thy deafened ear and my confused prayers; and let thy comfortable beams reflect upon me. Leave me not, O God, unto myself; O Lord, forsake me not too long; for in me dwells nothing but despair, and the terrors of hell have taken hold of me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy spirit from me. Remove this heart of stone, and give me, O good God, a heart of flesh, that it may be capable of thy mercies, and sensible of thy judgments; plant in my heart a fear of thy name, and deliver my soul from carnal security; order my affections according to thy will, that I may love what thou lovest, and hate what thou hatest; kindle my zeal with a coal from thine altar, and increase my faith by the assurance of thy love. O holy

fire, that always burnest and never goest out, kindle me! O sacred light, that always shinest and art never dark, illuminate me! O sweet Jesus, pierce the marrow of my soul with the shafts of thy love, that it may burn and melt, and languish with the only desire of thee! Let my soul always desire thee, and seek thee, and find thee, and sweetly rest in thee; be thou in all my thoughts, in all my words, in all my actions; that both my thoughts, my words, and being sanctified by thee here, glorified by thee hereafter.

my actions

I

may be

THE HUMBLE MAN.

His Depressions.

How more than happy are those sons of men, that measure no further ground

than from the sacred font unto their peaceful grave! How blessed are those infants which never lived to taste those dear-bought pennyworths of deceitful earth! Alas! there is nothing here but bitter pills of pleasure-gilded grief; here is nothing but substantial sorrows, clothed in the shades of false delight: look where I list, there is nothing can appear before mine eye but sorrow, the lamentable object of my misery. Contemplate where I list, here is nothing can present before my thoughts but misery, the object of my mourning. My soul is a sparkle of divine fire, but quenched with lust; an image of my glorious Creator, but blurred with sin; a parcel of mortal immortality, reserved for death. My understanding is darkened with error; my judgment is perverted with partiality; my will is diverted with sensuality; my mentory like a sieve, retains the bran, and lets the

flower pass; my affections are aguish to good, and feverish to evil; my faith wavers; my hope tires; my charity freezes; my thoughts are vain, my words are idle, my actions sinful; my body is a tabernacle of grief, an hospital of diseases, a tenement of death, a sepulchre of a sinful soul. O my soul, how canst thou own thyself without dejection, that canst not view thyself without corruption? How art thou inclosed in walls of dust tempered with a few tears; a lump of earth, quickened with a span of life! Thy life is short and evil, truly miserable, because evil; only happy, because short: when thou endeavourest good, thy heart faints; when thou strugglest with evil, thy strength fails. For this my soul is humbled, and my spirits are depressed; for this I loath myself, and view my misery with indignation.