thee of an infinite mercy and what are numbers and magnitudes to the Infinite? To an illimited power, what difference is there betwixt a mountain and an ant-heap, betwixt one and a million? were my sins a thousand times more and worse than they are, there is worth abundantly enough in every drop of that precious blood which was shed for my redemption, to expiate them.

Know, O Tempter, that I have to do with a mercy which can dye my scarlet sins, white as snow; and make my crimson, as wool; Is. i. 18 whose grace it so boundiess, that if thou thyself hadst, upon thy fail, been capable of repentance, thou hadst not everlastingly perished: The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy: The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works; Ps. cxlv. 8, 9. And, if there be a sin of man unpardonable, it is not for the insufficiency of grace to forgive it; but for the incapacity of the subject, that should receive

remission.

Thou feelest, to thy pain and loss, wherefore it was, that the Eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ, came into the world; even to save sinners! 1 Tim. i. 15: and, if my own heart shall conspire with thee to accuse me as the chief of those sinners, my repentance gives me so much the more claim and interest in his blessed redemption. Let me be the most laden with the chains of my captivity, so I may have the greatest share in that all-sufficient ransom.

And if thou, who art the true fiery serpent in this miserable wilderness, hast by sin stung my soul to death; let me, as I do, with penitent and faithful eyes, but look up to that Brazen Serpent, which is lift up far above all heavens, thy poison cannot kill, cannot hurt me,

It is the word of eternal truth, which cannot fail us, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness; 1 John i. 9. Lo here, not mercy only, but justice on my side. The Spirit of God saith not only, if we confess our sins, he is merciful to forgive our sins; as he elsewhere speaks, by the pen of Solomon; Prov xxviii. 13: but more; he is faithful and just to forgive our sins. Our weakness, and ignorance, is wont to fly from the justice of our God, unto his mercy: what can we fear, when his very justice yields remission? That justice relates to his gracious promise of pardon to the penitent: while I do truly repent therefore, his very justice necessarily infers mercy, and that mercy forgiveness. Think not, therefore, O thou Malicious Spirit, to affright me with the mention of Divine Justice. Woe were me, if God were not as just, as merciful; yea if he were not therefore merciful, because he is just: merciful, in giving me repentance; just, in vouchsafing me the promised mercy and forgiveness, upon the repentance which he hath given me.

After all thy heinous exaggerations of my guilt, it is not the quality of the sin, but the disposition of the sinner, that damns the soul. If we compare the offensive acts of a David and a Saul, it is not easy to judge whether were more foul. Thou, which stirredst them up both to those odious sins, madest account of an equal ad

vantage against both; but thine aim failed thee: the humble and true penitence of the one saved him out of thy hands; the obduredness and false-heartedness of the other gave him up, as a prey to thy malice.

It is enough for me, that though I had not the grace to avoid my sins, yet I have the grace to hate and bewail them. That Good Spirit, which thought not good to restrain me from sinning, hath been graciously pleased to humble me for sinning.

Yea, such is the infinite goodness of my God to my poor soul, that those sins, which thou hast drawn me into, with an intent of my utmost prejudice and damnation, are happily turned, through his grace, unto my greatest advantage: for, had it not been for these my sinful miscarriages, had I ever attained to so clear a sight of my own frailty and wretchedness? so deep a contrition of soul? so real experience of temptation? so hearty a detestation of sin? such tenderness of heart? such awe of offending? so fervent zeal of obedience? so sweet a sense of mercy? so thankful a recognition of deliverance?

What hast thou now gained, O thou Wicked Spirit, by thy prevalent temptations? What trophies hast thou cause to erect for thy victory and my foil? Couldst thou have won me to a trade of sinsing, to a resolution in evil, to a pleasure as in the commission so in the memory of my sin, to a glorying in wickedness, and then mightst have taken the advantage of snatching me away in a state of unrepentance, thou mightst have had just cause to triumph in thy prey; but now, that it hath pleased my God to shew me so much inercy, as to check me in my evil way, to work in me an abhorring of my sin and of myself for it, and to pull me out of thy clutches by a true and seasonable repentance, thou hast lost a soul, and I have found a Saviour. Thou mayest upbraid me with the foulness of my sins; I shall bless God for their improvement.

IID. TEMPTATION:

"Alas, poor man, how willing thou art to make thyself believe that thou hast truly repented: whereas, this is nothing but some dump of melancholy; or some relenting of nature, after too much expense of spirits; or some irksome discontentment, after a satiety and weariness of pleasure; or some slavish shrinking in, upon the expectation of a lash: true penitence is a spiritual business; an effect of that grace, which was never incident into thy bosom :" Repelled.

MALICIOUS Tempter, it is my no small happiness, that thou art not admitted to keep the key of my heart; or to look into my breast, to see what is in my bosom: and therefore thou canst not, out of knowledge, pass any censure of my inward dispositions; only wilt be sure to suggest the worst; which the falser it is, the better doth

it become the Father of Lies. But that Good Spirit, which hath wrought true repentance in my heart, witnesseth, together with my heart, the truth of my repentance.

Canst thou hope to persuade me, that I do belie or mis-know my own grief? Do not I feel this heart of mine bleed with a true inward remorse for my sins? Have I not poured out many hearty sighs and tears for mine offences? Do I not ever look back upon them, with a vehement loathing and detestation? Have I not, with much anguish of soul, confessed them before the face of that God, whom I have provoked?

Think not now to choke me with a Cain, or Saul, or Judas, which did more, and repented not; and to fasten upon me a worldly sorrow, that worketh death: no; Wicked One, after all thy depravations, this grief of mine looks with a far other face than theirs; and is no other, than a godly sorrow, working repentance to salvation, not to be repented of; 2 Cor. vii. 10. Theirs was out of the horror of punishment; mine, out of the sense of displeasure: theirs, for the doom and execution of a severe Judge; mine, for the frowns of an offended Father: theirs, attended with a woeful despair; mine, with a weeping confidence: theirs, a preface to Hell, mine, an introduction to Salvation.

And, since thou wilt needs disparage, and mis-call this godly disposition of mine, lo, I challenge this envy of thine to call it to the test; and to examine it thoroughly, whether it agree not with those unfailing rules of the symptoms and effects of the sorrow, which is according to God; 2 Cor. vii. 11:-Hath not here been a true carefulness; as to be freed and acquitted from the present guilt of my sin, so to keep my soul unspotted for the future; both to work my peace with my God, and to continue it? Hath not my heart earnestly laboured to clear itself before God; not with shuffling excuses and flattering mitigations, but by humble and sincere confessions of my own vileness? Hath not my breast swelled up, with an angry indignation, at my sinful miscarriages? have I not seriously rated myself, for giving way to thy wicked temptations? Have I not trembled, not only at the apprehension of my own danger by sin, but at the very suggestion of the like offence? have I not been kept in awe with the jealous fears of my miserable frailties, lest I should be again ensnared in thy mischievous gins? Have I not felt in myself a fervent desire above all things to stand right in the recovered favour of my God; and to be strengthened in the inner man with a further increase of grace, for the preventing of future sins, and giving more glory to my God and Saviour? Hath not my heart within me burned with so much more zeal to the honour and service of that Majesty, which I have offended, as I have more dishonoured him by my offence? hath it not been inflamed with just displeasure at myself, and all the instruments and means of my misleading? Lastly, have I not fallen foul upon myself for so easy a seduction? have I not chastized myself with sharp reproofs ? have I not held my appetite short; and, upon these very grounds, punished it with a denial of lawful contentments? have I not thereupon

tasked myself with the harder duties of obedience? and do I not now resolve, and carefully endeavour, to walk conscionably in all the ways of God?

Malign, therefore, how thou wilt, my repentance stands firm against all thy detractions; and is not more impugned by thee on earth, than it is accepted in heaven.

IIID. TEMPTATION:

"Thou hast small reason to bear thyself upon thy repentance: it is too slight; seconded with too many relapses; too late to yield any true comfort to thy soul:"-Repelled.

NOR thus can I be discouraged by thee, Malicious Spirit.

The mercy of my God hath not set any stint to the allowed measure of repentance. Where hath he ever said, "Thus far shall thy penitence come; else it shall not be accepted?" it is truth, that he calls for, not measure. That happy thief, whom my dying Saviour rescued out of thy hands, gave no other proof of his repentance, but, We are justly here, and receive the due reward of our deeds; Luke xxiii. 41: yet was admitted to attend his Redeemer, from his Cross to his Paradise. Neither do we hear any words from penitent David after his foul crimes, but I have sinned. Not that any true penitent can be afraid of too much compunction of heart, and is ready to dry up his tears too soon; rather pleasing himself with the continuance and pain of his own smart: but that our Indulgent Father, who takes no pleasure in our misery, is apt to wipe away the tears from our eyes; contenting himself only with the sincereness, not the extremity of our contrition. Thy malice is altogether for extremes; either a wild security, or an utter desperation: that Holy and Merciful Spirit, who is a professed lover of mankind, is ever for the mean; so hating our carelessness, that he will not suffer us to want the exercises of a due humiliation; so abhorring despair, that he abides not to have us driven to the brink of that fearful precipice. As for my repentance therefore, it is enough for me, that it is sound and serious for the substance; yet, withal, thanks be to that Good Spirit that wrought it, it is graciously approvable even for the measure: I have heartily mourned for my sins, though I pined not away with sorrow: I have broken my sleep for them, though I have not watered my couch with my tears; and, next to thyself, I have hated them most: I have beaten my breast, though I have not rent my heart; and what would I not have done or given, that I had not sinned? Tell not me, that some worldly crosses have gone nearer to my heart than my sins, and that I have spent more tears upon the loss of a son than the displeasure of my Heavenly Father: the Father of Mercies will not measure our re pentance by these crooked lines of thine: he knows the flesh and blood we are made of; and therefore expects not we should have

so quick a sense of our spiritual, as of our bodily affliction: it con tents him, that we set a valuation of his favour above all earthly things, and esteem his offence the greatest of all evils that can befal us and of this judgment and affection, it is not in thy power to bereave my soul.

As for my relapses, I confess them with sorrow and shame. I know their danger; and, had I not to do with an infinite mercy, their deadliness. Yet, after all my confusion of face and thine enforcement of justice, my soul is safe: for, upon those perilous recidivations, my hearty repentance hath made my peace. The longsuffering God, whom I have offended, hath set no limits to his remission. After ten miraculous signs in Egypt, his Israel tempted him no less than ten times in the wilderness; Num. xiv. 22: yet his mercy forbore them; not rewarding their reiterated sin with deserved vengeance. Hath not that gracious Saviour of Mankind charged us to forgive our offending brother, no less than seventy times seven times? Matt. xviii. 22. and what proportion is there, between our mercy and his? Couldst thou charge me with encouraging myself to continue my sin upon this presumption of pardon, thou hadst cause to boast of the advantage: but, now that my remorse hath been sincere and my falls weak, my God will not withhold mercy from his penitent, that hath not only confessed, but forsaken his sin; Prov. xxviii. 13.

As for the late season of my repentance, I confess I have highly wronged and hazarded my soul, in the delay of so-often-required and so-often-purposed a work; and given thee fair advantages against myself, by so dangerous a neglect: but, blessed be my God, that he suffered not these advantages to be taken. I had been utterly lost, if thou hadst surprised me in my impenitence; but now I can look back upon my peril well passed, and defy thy malice. No time can be prejudicial to the King of Heaven: no season can be any bar, either to our conversion, or his merciful acceptance. It is true, that lateness gives shrewd suspicions of the truth of repentance; but where our repentance is true, it cannot come too late. Object this to some formal souls, that, having lavished out the whole course of their lives in wilful sensuality and profaneness, think to make an abundant amends for all, on their death-beds, with a fashionable Lord, have mercy. These, whom thou hast mocked and drawn on with a stupid security all their days, may well be upbraided by thee, with the irrecoverable delay of what they have not grace to seek; but that soul, which is truly touched with the sense of his sin, and in an humble contrition makes his address to God, and interposes Christ betwixt God and itself, is in vain scared with delay, and finds that his God makes no difference of hours. Do I not see the Prodigal in the Gospel, after he had run himself quite of breath and means; yet, at the last cast, returning, and accepted? Luke xv. 14, 15, &c. I do not hear his father austerely say, "Nay, unthrift, hadst thou come while thou hadst some bags left, I should have welcomed thy return, as an argument of some grace and love: but, now that thou hast spent all; and ne