within me, and the good things of thy Spirit are still in so much weakness and imperfection, that I have just cause for fear: yea, the sorrows of my heart are enlarged, and my soul is disquieted within me. Alas! what cause have I to question, whether my spots are the spots of thy children; and whether I have known the grace of God in truth; or whether I do not deceive myself with vain hopes and expectations.

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Mine eyes are unto thee, O Lord my God. Leave not my soul destitute. From the ends of the earth will I cry unto thee: when my heart is overwhelmed within me, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy sore displeasure. Forsake me not, O my God; be not far from me. haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation. Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low: hear me speedily; my spirit fails. Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul: I sink in the deep mire, where is no standing. Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name.

O show me the true state of my soul: and make me to know the things that are freely given me of God. Deliver me, gracious Lord, from all those evils, which provoke thee to hide thy face from me, and which make me so much a stranger to peace and comfort. O grant me clear and satisfactory evidences of my calling and election; and seal a comfortable assurance of thy blessed love in Christ Jesus upon my soul. O thou that didst say to the wind and waves, Be still, and they obeyed thee; compose my soul which is so disquieted within me: and bring me to see the light of thy countenance, and the joy of thy salvation. O thou that art of power

to establish us, be pleased to establish my heart with grace; and let me be rooted and grounded in the faith, that I may not stagger through unbelief; but hold the beginning of my confidence steadfast to the end. Rejoice the soul of thy servant; for to thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. And let the joy of the Lord be my strength: that I may be victorious over my sins, and abound in thy work; and never be so much pleased with any thing, as with doing the things which are pleasing to my God, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

A PRAYER UNDER STRONG TEMPTATIONS.

HOLY God! I desire to humble myself here before thee, for that continual proneness which is in me, to sin against thee. After all the great things thou hast done for me, alas! how ready am I still to destroy myself! The malicious tempter is laying snares for me every where: and the world is distracting my attention both with its cares and pleasures. And O how prone is my sinful flesh to take part with my enemy against my own soul! Innumerable evils have compassed me about; my iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head, therefore my heart faileth me. O the sin that still dwelleth in me, that is so nigh to me, that does so easily beset me, and is so apt to prevail against me; drawing me away from the path of duty, and leading me to things destructive to my soul! O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Now that the custom of sinning has so increased my sinful inclinations, that the leopard

soul: and grant me such abundant supplies out of thine own fulness, that I may find in thee infinitely more than in all earthly friends and comforts. They were but instruments and means of conveyance; thou, who art the eternal spring and fountain of all good, art still the same; and amidst all these changes, changest not. O let me find, though bereft of the creature, I am not forsaken of my God; and that, though I have nothing, I am really possessed of all things.

O my heavenly Father, take my eyes off from such poor dying comforts, to fix them upon the only satisfying good; in the enjoyment of which consists all my true life and peace and happiness. And let the frequent disappointments that I find in all the enjoyments of the world, teach me more wisdom than to place my affections upon them. Help me to disengage and loosen my heart from them: and raise up my desires and hopes to those glorious objects, which are so infinitely to be preferred before them. O let me be more crucified to the world, where is nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit: and may I have my conversation more in heaven; where my blessed Lord is, and all his happy followers, of whom the world was not worthy; and where there is every thing that the soul of man can want or wish. O God of the spirits of all flesh, and especially of the just made perfect, help me so to follow thy servants, who are departed in the Lord, that I with them, may be counted worthy to live in thy presence, and to spend an eternity in the love and praises, the fellowship and enjoyment, of thee my God, who art blessed for evermore. Amen.

A PRAYER UPON THE REMEMBRANCE OF FORMER SINS.

O WHO can understand his errors? who can call to mind the innumerable offences of his past life? Since the time that I began to act, what alas! have I ever done that was free from sin? And, O the heinous offences, the presumptuous sins, the great transgressions, whereof I have been guilty; which stare me in the face, and alarm my conscience, and cast down my soul within me! When I consider the circumstances under which I have committed them, that they have been done against such light and love, such calls and warnings, such convictions and encouragements as I have experienced from the Lord, I am covered with confusion, O my God, and filled with bitter remorse, and terrible apprehensions. O if they should rise up in judgement against me, they could not but utterly sink me into perdition. But, O Lord my God, help me so to remember them, that thou mayest blot them out of the book of thy remembrance; and so to humble myself for them, that thou mayest never lay them to my charge. For thine own mercy's sake hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities, especially those, which have taken such hold upon me, that I am not able to look up. And though thou hast kept me from my deserved shame in this world, O let not thy indulgence embolden me to repeat my sins; but let this thy goodness, O my God, work in me a more deep and serious repentance.

And thou, Lord Almighty, who alone canst bring good out of evil, be thou pleased to make my past falls an occasion of my surer standing for the future. O embitter the pleasures of sin to me, and hedge up

may as soon change his spots, and the Ethiopian his skin, as I, who am accustomed to evil, can (of myself) cease from it; how shall I escape, if thou, O my God, do not stretch forth thine arm for my deliverance?

But with thee, the Almighty God, all things are possible : yea, thou canst as easily make me holy, as command me to be so. To thee all the powers of hell are weakness: nor can any thing in the world resist thy will. O pity thy poor tempted creature, and give me not up to a reprobate sense, and to vile affections, nor to such blindness of mind, and hardness of heart, as will render me past feeling. Punish not my former sins, by giving me over to their sway and power; but let it be thy gracious pleasure, O Lord, that all my prevailing iniquities may flee and perish at thy presence. 0 speak powerfully to my filthy corruptions; say, Hitherto shall ye go, and no further. Stop and heal the diseases of my soul, that they may no more break out, as they have done, to the dishonour of thy name, the wounding of my conscience, and the hindering of my own and others' peace. Yea, so sanctify my nature, O Lord, and renew me in the spirit of my mind, that my heart may rise against these baneful evils; and that I may hate all iniquity, and every false way. Enable me, so to resist the devil, that he may flee from me. Give me power from on high, to set me above all my sins: and give me grace sufficient for me; that I may not be false in thy covenant, nor regardless of my own best interests: but may manfully fight thy battles, and approve myself thy faithful soldier and servant, to my life's end. Make me faithful unto death, that thou mayest give me a crown of life and take me in