life, are like the infants unborn, who, if they could reflect and speak, might bewail an expulsion from the womb at the approaching time of their birth; foolishly considering it, not as the means, but as the end of being. So men, in their natural state, may indeed deplore their removal from this world, for which only they desire to live; but the renewed christian is privileged to have a more glorious hope of a life everlastingly pure like God's, and of an habitation wide and beautiful as the temple of heaven.

Lord, when I shall quit this clay, I know not; nor do I desire to know. It is quite sufficient for me, if thou sustain me by thy grace now; and if I am divinely assured, that I shall be for ever with thee in the world to come. O that this invincible joy of the Lord may indeed be my strength, when I lie down upon the bed of languishing and death, waiting from moment to moment for Christ, and for my dismission to be with him..

Whene'er my head must take its last repose,

O keep thy presence nigh, my God, my friend; And tenderly my weary eye-lids close,

While to thy Spirit's care I mine commend!

Soon this body shall turn to the dust, from whence it was framed; but nothing can extinguish the life of my spirit, which

hath no relation to earth, which cannot subsist by matter and form, and which, in its faculties of will, understanding, love, and perception, is of kin to a brighter world. And, O how reviving is 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 Christ Jesus. I am made by this act his own child and the 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 might well bear another name; or, rather, I might exult with the prophet and apostle, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

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 too 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 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. Soothe the pangs of death with thy rich consolation and care. Let me then see thee indeed by precious faith, who to carnal sense art invisible; ready, willing, glad, to receive my soul; and let me pour it forth, in an ecstasy of praise and desire, as into the bosom of everlasting love!--O my God, thus to die, would not be dying; but only beginning 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 richì, this invaluable promise! Lord, I beLeve; O help mine uabeller!

CHAP. 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 therefore am always inclined to favour myself; and nothing but thy grace can give me a faithful distrust of my own condition and attainments, or an 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 spíritual 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 unto thee.

Make me wise to discern the motions within my soul, and to trace out from whence they proceed. Olet me not be deceived by

the mind's struggles to gain and secure it, the world and the flesh must be brought down and kept down, having nothing about them, separately from the mercy and providence of God, but miserable chains and fetters, wherewith to bind and imprison the soul.

CHAP. XLIV.

UPON SICKNESS.

ALL sickness and sorrow arise from sin. If we were not unholy creatures, we could not be unhappy creatures. Because of the ill habit, occasioned by transgression, every element fights against our health by changes and inclemencies; and the very food we eat, while it nourishes for a time, lays the foundation of disease in our bodies, already prepared by their own weakness and ill temperament to receive and increase it.

Sickness is a dismal scourge to the ungodly, and a painful spur to the gracious. To the one, when the Law flashes its lightnings upon the guilty conscience, and thunders all its terrors upon the startled soul, then disease comes forward as the horrible harbinger of miseries everlasting; but, to