his brethren, "as sorrowful, yet always re joicing," he will see nothing absurd or con. tradictory in our author's views. Whatever belongs to the dark side of the subject, such as the guilt and misery of our fallen state, the pride and hypocrisy that lurks within us, and the bitter and deadly workings of our carnal mind, will chiefly be found in the chapter of human depravity. On the other hand, that which relates to the bright side of the subject, viz. the comfortable doctrine of justification, the blessed hope of eternal life, and the rich consolation which the gospel affords, will principally be met with under the following titles-Jesus Christfaith-heaven. The chapter on resignation will include the author's thoughts on the benefit of afflictions, and the use of the pains, diseases, and crosses that attend this mortal life. The connexion between the titles of the other chapters, and the sentiments they contain, will, perhaps, be found sufficiently obvious. In order to avoid the inconvenience of an endless multiplication of heads, it was thought expedient to reduce them to their present number, and to admit many of the observations into the chapters where they stand, with a considerable latitude of interpetration.

PRIVATE THOUGHTS, &c.`

CHAP. I.

CONFESSIONS.

LORD, I yield myself to the clear radiance and full discovery of thy word, to be convinced by it of sin. I know, with infallible certainty, that I have sinned ever since I could discern between good and evil; in thought, word, and deed; in every period, condition, and relation of life; every day against every commandment.

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Thy dread majesty I have not reverenced; thy sovereign authority and absolute right over me I have not kept in mind; I have set no value upon communion with thee; my heart has been alienated from thee, my will bent against thee, and I have lived inordinately to myself, seeking only my own ease in worldly things, and neglecting my portion in thee.

I have not made a conscience of improving the talents thou gavest me for the benefit of others and the good of my own soul, but most shamefully and wickedly wasted

my time in impertinent visiting, idle amusements, riot and excess, and all manner of sensual indulgence.

I have been proud and envious: wrathful, uncharitable, and censorious; morose, illnatured, and imperious where I was obliged to show the greatest kindness; and ungrateful to my best benefactors. I shall never be better till I know how bad I am, and pray with more feeling.

I am in danger of losing two of the most precious things in the world, God's favour and my own soul, and yet at ease. It is the desperateness of my destemper that I am at

ease.

I am lying under the curse of a disobedient, passionate will. What pleases God does not please me; but often vexes, frets, hurts me, harrows up my soul.

Oh! when shall I feel the plague of sin, and long for a deliverance from it, as I would from a sore disease of my body.

Sin is still here, deep in the centre of my heart, and twisted about every fibre of it. Does my deliverance consist chiefly in the removal of it from my heart, or in the remission which is in Christ?

Is sin such a plague and burden to me, that I should think myself undone if there was no God to hear and answer my prayers for deliverance from it?

Who was it that said, "I will not sin against my God?" Who can say less? Why do not I say it?

All I have been doing in religion; the opinions I have taken up; the appearance of it I have put on; my seeming zeal for it has too often been nothing but a contrivance to keep the Spirit's fire out of my heart, and give some kind of ease to my mind and conscience without coming to the true point, viz. pure conformity to the will of God, with a total denial of self.

My great controversy is with myself, and I am resolved to have none with others till I have put things upon a better footing at home.

What will the next hour do for me that this cannot ?

Past sin I see and lament; but not present sin though struggling against it; or not in all its guilt, and as I shall see it hereafter.

Go, sin, (and, O Lord, do thou speak it this day with my heart) go for ever thou rebel to God; thou crucifier of Christ: thou griever of the Spirit; thou curse of the earth; thou poison in my blood; thou plague of my soul, and bane of all my happiness.

I content myself with telling God that I want his graces, and yet can bear, well enough to be without them.

Devoted to ease and sloth, never easy but in doing nothing, and always contriving to have nothing to do.

If I love God, I must love him for his holiness, and how then can I love sin? Ne

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