his devotions unhappy! to hinder another man's goodness. If I myself build not, shall I snatch the ax and hammer from him that doth? Yet I could willingly have wished, that rather than he should then have cut off the cable of his prayers, I had twisted my cord to it, and had joined withhim in his devotions: however, to make him the best amends I may, I now request of thee for him, whatsoever he would have requested for himself. Thus he shall be no loser, if thou be pleased to hear my prayer for him, and to hearken to our Saviour's intercession for us both.

IV.

LORD,

SINCE these woeful wars began, one, formerly mine intimate acquaintance, is now turned a stranger, yea, an enemy. Teach me how to behave myself towards him. Must the new foe quite jostle out the old friend? May I not with him continue some commerce of kindness? Though the amity be broken on his side, may not I preserve my counterpart entire? Yet how can I be kind to him, without being cruel to myself, and to thy cause? O guide my shaking hand, to draw so small a line B 3

strait ;

strait; or rather because I know not how to carry myself towards him in this controversy, even be pleased to take away the subject of the question, and speedily to reconcile these unnatural differences.

LORD,

V.

MY voice by nature is harsh and untunable, and it is vain to lavish any art to better it. Can my singing of psalms be pleasing to thy ears, which is unpleasant to my own? yet though I cannot chaunt with the nightingale, or chirp with the blackbird, I had rather chatter with the swallow, yea, rather croak with the raven, than be altogether silent. Hadst thou given me a better voice, I would have praised thee with a better voice. Now what my music wants in sweetness, let it have in sense, tsinging praises with understanding. Yea, Lord, Create in me a new heart, therein to make

melody, and I will be contented with my old voice, until, in thy due time, being admitted into the quire of heaven, I have another, more harmonious, bestowed upon

pie.

* Isai. xxxviii. 14. Ephes. v. 19.

Psalm lvii. 7.

VI.

LORD,

WITHIN a little time I have heard the same precept in sundry places, and by several preachers, pressed upon me. The doctrine seemeth to haunt my soul; whithersoever I turn it meets me. Surely this is from thy Providence, and should be for my profit. It is because I am an ill proficient in this point, that I must not turn over a new leaf, but am still kept to my old lesson. Peter was grieved, because our Saviour said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? But I will not be offended at thy often inculcating the same precept; but rather conclude, that I am much concerned therein, and that it is thy pleasure, that the nail should be soundly fastened in me, which thou hast knocked in with so many hammers.

LORD,

VII.

BEFORE I Commit a sin, it seems to me so shallow, that I may wade through it dry-shod from any guiltiness; but when I have com

John xxi. 17.

mitted it, it often seems so deep, that I cannot escape without drowning. Thus I am always in the extremities: either my sins are so small that they need not any repentance, or so great, that they cannot obtain thy pardon. Lend me, O Lord, a reed out of thy sanctuary, truly to measure the dimension of my offences. But oh! as thou revealest to me more of my misery, reveal also more of thy mercy: lest if my wounds, in my apprehension, gape wider than thy tents, my soul run out at them, If my badness seem bigger than thy goodness, but one hair's breadth, but one moment, that is room and time enough for me to run to eternal despair.

LORD.

VIII.

I Do discover a fallacy, whereby I have long deceived myself. Which is this: I have desired to begin my amendment from my birth-day, or from the first day of the year, or from some eminent festival, that so Hy repentance might bear some remarkable date. But when those days were come, I have adjourned my amendment to some other time. Thus, whilst I could not agree with myself when to start, I have almost

lost

lost the running of the race. I am resolved thus to befool myself no longer. I see no day to-day, the instant time is always the fittest time. In * Nebuchadnezzar's image, the lower the members, the coarser the metal; the further off the time, the more unfit. To-day is the golden opportunity, to-morrow I will be the silver season, next day but the brazen one, and so long, till at last I shall come to the toes of clay, and be turned to dust. Grant therefore that † to day I may hear thy voice. And if this day be obscure in the calendar, and remarkable in itself for nothing else, give me to make it memorable in my soul; thereupon, by thy assistance, beginning the reformation of my life.

LORD,

IX.

I Saw one, whom I knew to be notori ously bad, in great extremity. It was hard to say, whether his former wickedness or present want were the greater; if I could have made the distinction, I could willingly have fed his person, and starved his profaneThis being impossible, I adventured to relieve him. For I know that amongst

ness.

Dan. ii. 33.

+ Psalm xcv. 7.

many