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with fin, and my heart with sorrow; when the vanity of this life is ready to forfake me, and there is nothing left but misery and shame to seize upon me; I have not yet resolved seriously to come unto thee..

Lord, leave me not unto the weakness of mine own infirmities, expose me not unto the raging billows of thefe ftrong temptations, suffer me not to fink into this depth of fin, to be destroyed by this dreadful storm of fatan, and mine own accufing confcience; rebuke these winds and waves, and caufe a bleffed calm within me; reach out thy hand of mercy, and fupport me; ftrengthen my drooping foul, that I may joyfully, and faithfully lay hold upon thee: give me a fixed heart, that I may feriously return unto thee, and may this hour be graciously accepted of thee.

Lord wean me from the false embraces of this evil world, turn all these finful joys to bitterness unto me, make me to see their foulnefs and deformity, their emptiness and vanity, their fhortness. and uncertainty, their fafhood and flattery, their weariness and mifery.

O let my heart be filled, let my foul be ravifhed with those transcendent joys of thine which are for ever; give me a joyful foul to reft fecurely in them, a ready heart devoutly thankful for them.

Lord, moderate my defires to outward enjoyments; let me relish no fweetness but in thy love, no goodness but in thy grace, no comfort but in the full affurance of thy glory.

Forgive those wretched hours which have been ftolen from thy fervice: O Lord, my God, I heartily bewail them, and willingly refolve to spend my days in forrow for them.

Make me more watchful over my corrupt heart, more careful of my precious time, more ferious in the weighty work of my falvation; more forrowful for fin, more mindful of the hour of death and day of judgment: that so I may affect the pleasures of this life foberly, enjoy them fparingly, and leave them chearfully.AMEN.

CHAP. XX.

UPON THE GREAT DANGER OF DEFERRING THE

HOUR OF REPENTANCE.

CONSIDER, O my foul, of the great danger of delaying thy repentance; of judging that so easy, which will prove fo difficult; of thinking that almost finished, which is fcarce yet begun; believeft thou it will fuffice thee to have fome transitory thoughts of thine amendment, to have perhaps fome pinching fighs, fome ftings of conscience, some fhews of forrow for thy fins; to hang down thy head like a bulrush for a day, and yet afterwards to return with the dog to thy filthy vomit, and with the fow to the wallowing in the nafty mire of fin, while thou continueft in this course, thy hopes of amendment are extremely doubtful, of reconciliation dangerous, of repentance desperate.

If ever thou hopest to inherit heaven, let not fatan thus delude thee; look well into thine evil and corrupt heart, and thou fhalt there find, that this is not the cure, but the disease of fin; that thou grieveft not for thine offence, but for thy punishment; that thou mayft yet go much farther. in this supposed path of thy repentance, and ftill

be far fhort of that fmcerity of heart which God requireth of thee, and yet have no part nor fellowfhip in Chrift: thou maift with Saul exprefs thy forrow with thy tears; with thofe believers in the gofpel, receive the word with joy; with Demas, fhew thine inward grace by thine outward obedience, and in fome fort be made partaker of the holy ghoft, and have a tafte of the good things of the world to come, and yet for all this, come far fhort of this unfeigned work of true repentance. Alas, what can it profit thee to bewail that fin which thou wilt not forego? what reward canft thou expect for that obedience which fo foon fainteth? what comfort in that joy which is but temporary.

Remember how great a work thou haft in hand, how many millions of loft fouls complain eternally in hell of this neglect; O look into the foulness of thy fin, and then into the trueness of thy forrow: if thou art Gods child, thou wilt be grieved for offending fo good a Father; thou wilt abhor that fin that hath fo much provoked his difpleasure, thou wilt moft folemnly proteft against it, and seriously refolve for ever to avoid it; thy fin will be ever before thee, to humble thee here, to exalt thee hereafter.

Thy degrees of fin will have thy degrees of forrow; thy measure of pollution will require thy

measure of fanctification: as thou haft given up thy members to be fervants of fin, fo thou must now yield them up to be weapons of righteousness; as thou hast been drowned in pleasure, so thou must be drencht in tears; yea those tears will be thy daily food, to nourish thee in grace, to enrich thee in glory.

O how truly blessed is that foul, which hath unfeignedly refolved on this good, this great, this necessary work? that can chearfully and joyfully express itself with holy David, and say, Lord, I am bowed down greatly, I go mourning all the day long, I have roared out for very anguifh and unquietness of heart. If thou haft David's forrow (O my foul) thou fhalt as affuredly have David's joy, thou shalt say with him also, Lord, I am thy child, and the son of thine handmaid, thou hast broken my bonds in funder. Pfal. 16. 16. Satan may now tempt thee, and through thy frailty and infirmity prevail against thee; but to become a customer to evil, the powers of he cannot entice thee; a thousand worlds are not now of that value with thee, as the joyful remembrance of thy passed dangers, thy prefent comfort, thy future fafety.

Thou haft now feen (O my foul) how absolutely neceffary this great work is; think now how happy will be the performance, how full of danger

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