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God's commandments. Wo unto me, for my debts are infinite, and my sins are increased; they are wrongs to an infinite Majesty and if he that committeth treason against a silken mortal, is worthy to be racked, drawn and quartered; what have I deserved, that have so often lifted up my hands against heaven, and have struck at the crown and dignity of the Almighty!

Omy sins! my sins! behold a troop cometh! multitudes, multitudes! there is no number of their armies. Innumerable evils have com passed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me; they have set themselves in array against me. Oh! it were better to have all the regiments of hell come against me, than to have my sins fall upon me, to the spoiling of my soul. Lord, how am I surrounded? How many are they that rise up against me? They have beset me behind and before they swarm within me, and without me: they have possessed all my powers, and have fortified mine unhappy soul, as a garrison, which this brood of hell doth man, and maintain against the God that made me.

And they are as mighty, as they are many. The sands are many, but they are not great the mountains are great, but they are not many but wo is me! my sins are as many as the sands, and as mighty as the mountains; their weight is greater than their number. It were better that the rocks and the mountains should fall upon me, than the crushing and insupportable load of my own sins. Lord, I am heavy laden; let mercy

help, or I am gone. Unload me of this heavy guilt, this sinking load; or I am crushed without hope, and must be pressed down to hell. If my grief were thoroughly weighed, and my sins laid in the balances together, they would be heavier than the sands of the sea; therefore my words are swallowed up: they would weigh down all the rocks, and the hills, and turn the balance against all the isles of the earth. O Lord, thou knowest my manifold transgressions, and my mighty. sins.

Ah my soul! alas, my glory! whither art thou humbled? Once the glory of the crea tion, and the image of God? Now a lump of filthiness, a coffin of rottenness, replenished with stench and loathsomeness. Ob, what work hath sin made with thee!

Thou shalt be termed forsaken, and all the rooms of thy faculties desolate; and the name that thou shalt be called by is Ichabod, or where is the glory? How art thou come down mightily? My beauty is turned into deformity, and my glory into shame. Lord, what a loathsome leper am I? The ulcerous bodies of Job or Lazarus were not more offensive to the eyes and nostrils of men, than I must needs be to the most holy God, whose eyes cannot behold iniquity.

And what misery have my sins brought upon me? Lord, what a case am I in? Sold under sin, cast out of God's favour, accursed from the Lord, cursed in my body, cursed in my soul, cursed in my name, in my estate, my relations, and all that I have.

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My sins are unpardoned, and my soul within a step of death. Alas! what shall I do? Whither shall I go? Which way shall I look? God is frowning on me from above; hell gaping for me beneath; conscience smiting me within; temptations and dangers surrounding me without. Oh! whither shall I fly? What place can hide me from omnisciency? What power can secure me from omnipotency?

What meanest thou, O my soul, to go on thus? Art thou in league with hell? Hast thou made a covenant with death? Art thou in love with this misery? Is it good for thee to be here? Alas! what shall I do ? Shall

I

go on in my sinful ways? Why, then cer

tain damnation will be mine end: and shall I be so besotted and bemadded, as to go and sell my soul to the flames for a little ale, and a little ease; for a little pleasure, or gain, or content to my flesh? Shall I linger any longer in this wretched estate? No, if I tarry here, I shall die. What then? Is there no help, no hope? None, except I turn. Why, but is there any remedy for such woful misery? Any mercy after such provoking iniquity? Yes, as sure as God's oath is true, I shall have pardon and mercy yet, if presently, unfeignedly, and unreservedly I turn by

Christ to him.

Why then, I thank thee upon the bended knees of my soul, O most merciful Jehovah, that thy patience hath waited upon me hitherto; for hadst thou took me away in this estate, I had perished forever. And now I adore

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thy grace, and accept the offer of thy mercy; I renounce all my sins, and resolve by thy grace, to set myself against them, and to follow thee in holiness and righteousness, all the days of my life.

Who am I, Lord, that I should make any claim unto thee, or have any part or portion in thee, who am not worthy to lick up the dust of thy feet? Yet since thou holdest forth the golden sceptre, I am bold to come and touch it. To despair, would be to disparage thy mercy; and, to stand off when thou biddest me come, would be at once to undo myself, and rebel against thee, under the pretence of humility. Therefore I bow my soul to thee, and with all possible thankfulness, accept thee as mine, and give up myself to thee as thine. Thou shalt be Sovereign over me, my King, and my God: thou shalt be in the throne, and all my powers shall bow to thee, they shall come and worship before thy feet thou shalt be my portion, O Lord, and I will rest in thee.

Thou callest for my heart: Oh that it were any way fit for thine acceptance! I am unworthy, O Lord, everlastingly unworthy to be thine but since thou wilt have it so, I freely give up my heart to thee; take it, it is thine: Oh that it were better! But, Lord, I put it in thine hand, who alone canst mend it: mould it after thine own heart; make it as thou wouldst have it, holy, humble, heav enly, soft, tender, flexible; and write thy law upon it,

Come, Lord Jesus; come quickly; enter in triumphantly: take me up to thee for ever. I give up to thee, I come to thee, as the only way to the Father, as the only Mediator, the means ordained to bring me to God. I have destroyed myself, but in thee is my help :Save, Lord, or else I perish: I come to thes with the rope about my neck; I am worthy to die, and to be damned. Never was the hire more due to the servant, never was the penny more due to the labourer, than death and hell, my just wages, is due to me for my sins: But I fly to thy merits, I trust alone to the value and virtue of thy sacrifice, and prevalency of thy intercession: I submit to thy teaching, I make choice of thy government. Stand open, ye everlasting doors, that the King of glory may come in.

O thou Spirit of the most High, the Comforter and Sanctifier of thy chosen; come in with all thy glorious train, all thy courtly attendants, thy fruits and graces: let me be thine habitation. I can give thee but what is thine own already; but here, with the poor widow, I cast my two mites, my soul, and my body, into thy treasury; fully resigning them up to thee, to be sanctifed by thec, to be servants to thee they shall be thy patients, cure thou their malady; they shall be thy agents, govern thou their motions. Too long have I served the world, too long have I hearkened to satan; but now I renounce them all, and will be ruled by thy dietates and directions, and guided by thy counsel.

O blessed Trinity! O glorious Unity! I