ception, is of kin to a brighter world. And O how reviving the thought! I am not only of kin to angels and heavenly spirits by the very nature of my soul; but I am doubly related to them and to my God, by being born again and renewed after his blessed image or likeness,. through Jesus Christ.

I am made by this, a child and an heir of an everlasting inheritance. All that death, then, can do to me is, to tell me that I am of age, and to lead me forth from these chambers of darkness to celebrate my birth-day in the palace of glory. There is in this view (what hath often been tasted) a kind of luxury in dying. In such a blessed, such an animating sense of death, I ought to say, that he deserves quite another name; or, rather, to exult with the prophet and apostle, "O death, where is thy sting? grave, where is thy victory?"

O

Whence then, at times, is the shuddering reluctance I feel at the prospect of dying? Surely it is because my faith and hope are not so lively as they are privileged to be; it is because I do not so steadily trust in the truth of those things, which my mind apprehends, and which I profess to be waiting for. Earth is too real, and heaven to unreal; or I could not thus hesitate, or tremblingly stand on the bank of the brook which keeps me from the fruition of my God. The struggle of my heart would not be for longer and longer continuance here, if my spirit were as firmly persuaded, as it should be, of my inheritance and mansion in glory.

Thou blessed Saviour of poor sinners like me, on thee, and on thee alone, my eyes are fixed!

In

the solemn last hour of my pilgrimage below, O let

my eyes of faith be yet more steadily and more ardently fixed upon thee! And do thou, in the tender compassion of thy heart, which can sympathize with all thy people's woes, look down in my departing moments upon me. Sooth the pangs of death with thy rich consolation and care. Let me then see thee by precious faith, who to carnal sense art invisible; ready, willing, glad to receive my soul; and let me pour it forth, in an ecstacy of praise and desire, as into the bosom of everlasting love!-O my God, thus to die, would not be dying; but only departing to live and to be happy for ever!

So true are thy gracious words, O my Jesus, that "whosoever liveth and believeth in thee, shall never die:" no," he shall never perish, but is passed from death unto life, and shall live for evermore." Glory be to thee for this rich, this invaluable promise!

Lord, I believe; O help mine unbelief!

CHAPTER XLVI.

The Recollection of this Second Part in Prayer to God.

ENABLE me, O Lord my God! to examine myself, the state of my soul, and the reality and growth of my experience, seriously, deeply, and constantly. I am still clothed with a corrupt nature, and there

fore am always inclined to favour myself; and nothing but thy grace can give me a faithful distrust of my own condition and attainments, or a holy watchfulness over all that passeth within me.

As I have received Christ Jesus my Lord, so I know it is my interest, privilege, happiness, and duty to walk, to live, to grow, and to press forward in him. O keep me from spiritual sloth, or, as it may better be called, from carnal security, that I may run, with the loins of my mind always girt and disentangled, and with increasing faith and patience, the blessed race which thou hast set before me. Give zeal for every duty, wisdom and strength rightly to perform it, and a humble holy resignation of heart to leave all the success to thee.

Make me wise to discern the motions within my soul, and to trace out from whence they proceed. O let me not be deceived by the will or the cunning artifice of the flesh, whenever it would mingle in holy things; but let my spirit be thine own sacred temple, where I may find thee indeed, working in me, enlightening and enlivening me for all thy service and glory, and drawing me, with a single eye, and a simple heart, to seek not myself, not my own pride, profit, or pleasure, but all I want, and all I can rightly have, in thee, and in thee alone. Draw me nearer and nearer to this just and perfect rule of action, to this sweet and blessed spiritual life; so that I may be able indeed to say, and with the increasing confidence of truth, "I no longer live, but Christ liveth in me; and the life that I live in the flesh, is not after the flesh, but

by the faith of the Son of God, gave himself freely for me."

who loved me, and O let this be my

humble and secret path of life, which none can know but whom thou teachest, and which, for its narrowness, none can walk in but whom thou supportest by thy hand.

Thou knowest, O my God, that I am in the world, surrounded by temptations, opposed by men, attacked by devils, weakened by infirmities, and exposed by a corrupt nature to all manner of evils. Without are fightings; within are fears. How shall I get safely on to the end; or, rather, how shall I get on at all, unless thou art with me? I plead then thine own promise of truth, that thou wilt guide me by thy counsel, and at last receive me to glory.

Keep me, while I am in the world, from the envious, proud, hateful, dangerous, and unhappy spirit, which aboundeth in it. Let me have constant proof that indeed I am thine, by having thy life manifest in my mortal body, controlling and subduing it in all things to thy righteous will. So shall even the world own, that I have been with Jesus; and if it hate me, upon that account, as it hated him, O welcome be it, and let me account it as one of my brightest evidences and greatest honours.

In all the circumstances and conditions of my outward life, O help me to look for thy special blessing, without which nothing can succeed in itself, without which every thing may lead me astray. Help me to bear losses and crosses as thy dispen

sations intended only for my good; and give me wisdom and grace to see thine intention, and to get the good thou meanest by them. If one of thine hands be laid hard upon me, let the other support and bear me up with the more firmness and stability. Restrain all the murmuring and rebellion of my carnal nature against thy holy will, and lead my spirit, by all visitations, to nearer fellowship and sweeter communion with thee. So shall my earthly sorrows be turned into spiritual joys, and all the calamities which can befal me here, shall become urging and successful remembrancers to prepare me for that decaying mansion, "where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest."

And when sickness and death shall come, as come they must in a very little while at the longest, O stand by me, my dear and only Lord, in my drooping and needful moments. Make all my bed

in

my sickness, and overcome the sorrows of nature by the lively joys of thy grace. Receive my spirit, which I commit unto thee, as thine only; for truly I am thine entirely, thine by purchase, thine by grace, thine by promise, thine by the immutable oath of all thine holy attributes. Carry, O carry me to the regions of peace, to the church and general assembly of the first-born, to the blissful city of God, and to thine own habitation, O Jesus, my Lord, my Life, my only Redeemer ! Whom have I in heaven itself but thee; and what can I desire, throughout all the universe of thy works, in comparison of thee? My heart and my flesh may fail,