trifles, which of themselves will very shortly bid adieu to me.

Retire therefore, O my soul! from the busy world, and employ thyself about that for which thou wert created, viz., the contemplation of thy God. I will hasten to my closet, or yonder solitary walk, and there, sequestered from the vexatious world, I will not suffer a single thought of it to approach me, unless by way of pity and contempt. The world and I are fallen out, and parted; and methinks this solitary place becomes a banished man, whose company is in no wise suitable to the greatest part of mankind, and such whose humour and gaiety agree not with the depth of meditation, and the melancholy prospect of another world.

How delightful is it, O my soul! for thee to enjoy this sweet communion with thy God, and thus to dwell upon divine objects! I am here safe and at rest in this dear place of quiet, and earnestly pity all the men of business and hurry, whose heads are full of perplexing contrivances, to procure a little happiness in a world where there is no such thing.

O ye kings and emperors! did ye but conceive the spiritual sweetness of this devout privacy, and the ravishing delights of these serene hours of contemplation, you would quickly lay aside your troublesome greatness, and exchange your grandeur for the calm delights of this retired silence; and instead of an ambitious pursuit after glory here, and the enlargement

of your crowns, you would choose to meditate on the greatness of a heavenly kingdom, and the glories of an immortal crown.

How pleasant, O God! is this retirement, where thou vouchsafest thy presence to crown the delight, and reward my banishment from the world! Farewell, then, ye nauseous and deceitful pleasures; farewell, ye riches, and all your alluring trifles, ye shall no longer hold me, for I will break the chains of my slavery, and fly to my Redeemer, whose invitations I can no longer resist, and whose embracing arms are spread wide open to receive me. O blessed freedom! O charming solitude! I will grasp you, I will hold you fast, the delights of silence and retreat! I

will no more leave this my Canaan for the flesh-pots of Egypt: I am now happily escaped from three cruel task-masters, the world, the devil, and the flesh; and shall I return and be a slave again? Didst thou ever, O my soul! find that calmness in the midst of business and hurry; that freedom in quarrels and vexation ; that complacency in disputes and wranglings; that peace in passions and disturbances; and, in a word, that quiet and senerity in the noisy world, which, in this close retreat, and in these ravishing contemplations, do now entertain my delighted thoughts! Here I can unburthen my soul, and pour it out before my God. Here I can wrestle with the powers of heaven, and not let them

go till I have obtained a blessing. Here I can confess my sins, and with hopes of comfort, lay open my troubled breast before the merciful Hearer

sume me.

of my prayers. Here I can with the deepest humility implore his pity, with my cries call down his mercy, and with my penitent tears disarm him, and dispel the storms of that anger, which would otherwise conHere I can clearly perceive the poverty of the rich and honourable, who are busy in exchanging their salvation for a trifle. I can here divest myself of the errors and false lights that lead the worlding into wrong conceptions of a life of piety and humiliations, and can easily now perceive the real happiness of the despised followers of the suf