perienced from my cradle, and shall do to the tomb, The world is a stranger to the mystery of providence, and to the communion thy people have with thee therein. They know nothing of the prayer of faith, nor of the return of prayer. When the soul is helped to take firm hold of God in the promise, and to look to him alone, and nothing else, and none besides, it is a prelude of approaching mercy. Now, if my conscious soul can blush, let me be ashamed out of my unbelief for ever. Blessed be thy name that thou hast not dealt with me as I have sinned, given me mine own measure into my bosom, and repaid my low thoughts of God with scanty outlettings of thy kindness. Now, O Lord! hold me in the hollow of thy hand, and under thy wings let me reside; while any way thou shalt dispose of me, shall every way delight me, till I am brought at last beyond the line of time, where changes and mutations shall never more take place.

MEDITATION XXIV.

ALL PLENITUDE IN CHRIST, TO ANSWER ALL THE WANTS OF HIS PEOPLE.

May 24, 1757.

IN Christ dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, that out of his fulness I may receive, and grace for grace.-Have I destroyed myself by sin? On him who is mighty to save from sin and wrath has God laid help for me.-Is my foolish mind darkened, and am I a guilty, polluted, and ruined wretch? Of God he is made to me wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.-Am I of yesterday,

and pass away as a shadow? He is the Ancient of days, and endureth for evermore. Am I of few years, and full of trouble? He is my life, the length of my days, and the joy of my heart.-Am I exposed to contempt?. He shall be to me for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty.-Am I travelling through the wilderness? He is my staff, and on him I lean all the way. Am I on my last journey to my long horae? He is my leader, and my re-reward.—Am I a sheep? He is my pasture, and my green pasture too. -Am I hungry and thirsty? He is my heavenly manna, and gives me to drink of the water of life.-Am I weary? He is my rest and refreshing.-Am I weak? He is strength to them that turn the battle to the gate. Am I oppressed and wronged? He is my judge, and my avenger.-Am I reproached? He will bring forth my judgment as the noon-day, and the reproach of his people he will wipe away.-Am I a stranger? He is my shield.-Am I a soldier? He is my Captain, and complete armour.-Must I fight in the field of battle? He is my covering in the day of war. Do I sit in darkness? He is my light.-In doubts? He is my counsellor.-Am I ignorant? He is made of God wisdom to me.-Am I guilty? He is my justification.-Filthy? He is my sanctification.Am I dead? He is my life, and quickens those that are dead in trespasses and sins.-Am I poor? He is the pearl of great price, and can fill all my treasures. -Am I blind? He, and none but he, can open the eyes of one born blind.-Am I naked? He has white raiment to cover the shame of my nakedness.-Am I in the very utmost necessity? He is a very present help in time of trouble.-Am I exposed to the hurricanes of adversity? He is a refuge from the

storm, a covert from the blast, as rivers of waters in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Am I afraid of being left alone? He will never leave me, nor forsake me.- -Do I wait the performance of the promise? He is the yea and amen of all the promises of God.-Do friends and brethren prove false? He is the friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Am I in danger, as to my outward man, from diseases and death; as to my inward man, from sin and satan? My life is hid with Christ in God; and when he shall appear, I shall appear with him, in my body immortal, and glorious in my soul.

-Is my cause tabled in the court of heaven? There he is my Advocate.-Do I offend the Father? With him he is my intercessor.-Do I suffer in my body, and am grieved in my mind? He bare my infirmities, and carried my griefs.-Is my mind disquieted, and my soul debarred from peace? He is my feeling High Priest, and, in that he was tempted, knows to succour them that are tempted.-Am I injured in my estate, and reduced in my circumstances? He, the heir of all things, though he was rich, yet for my sake he became poor, that I through his poverty might be made rich.-Do I suffer in my character? He was numbered with transgressors, called a Samaritan, a glutton, a wine-bibber, and a devil.-Do I suffer in the death of friends, the nearest and dearest? Well, he in the fatal night was left alone; all the disciples forsook him and fled; and he, my only friend, can never die.-Must I undergo death, and be laid in the grave? He has taken away the sting of death, and spoiled the grave of its victory.-Must I rot? He shall be my resurrection, and raise me to immortality and bliss.-Would I go to

God and to glory? He is my way, and must admit me into the palace of the great King, where I shall abide for ever.

In fine, he is my kinsman, my physician, my prophet, priest, and king, my father, head, and busband; and hereafter, when I shall dwell in the land of bliss, in the city of God, he will be the light thereof; and since I am to worship there for ever, he will be the temple of the general assembly and church of the first-born. My wants are many, but his fulness is infinitely more. The morning-dews and fructifying showers water the fields, and refresh the parched furrows; but what are they to the exhaustless ocean? So what is all that I enjoy below (and yet with thy goodness I am satisfied) to the exuberant fulness of the heavenly bliss? O! then, how shall my soul be replenished when possessed of this infinite all, through eternity itself!

MEDITATION XXV.

PRAYER AND PRAISE.

May 29, 1757.

PRAYER and praise is the employment of the two

families of earth and heaven, the church militant and the church-triumphant. Prayer is the native breathings of the heaven-born soul, the lispings of the child of grace, who, when grown to the stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus, and taken home to his higher house, breaks forth into melodious strains of praise. Prayer suits the state below, and praise the

state above. Here I am vexed with sin and temptation, with wants and infirmities, therefore I pray ; but there I shall be blessed with the removal of sin and temptation, of wants and infirmities; therefore I shall praise. Here God gives all, but for his gifts he will be inquired of by the house of Israel, that he may bestow them ;-hence prayer is now my duty: But there he has given all things, and for his gifts he will be acknowledged by all the heavenly host;hence praise then is my debt. Prayer is the soul pouring out itself to God in a state of trial; and praise is the soul's pouring out itself to God in a state of triumph. Now, as our life is a life of trouble, a complication of calamities, and a scene of affliction, prayer is more properly our continual exercise; for, "if any man is afflicted, let him pray :" But on high, as all is peace, perfection, purity, and joy, praise is most properly their exercise; hence the hosts before the throne are said "not to rest day nor night" in praising him that sits thereon for ever. Yet as judgment is mixed with mercy, and our condition, however calamitous, has something in it comfortable; therefore praise also waits in Zion on the Hearer of prayer. The foundation of prayer is God's all-sufficiency and promise, and my insufficiency; for if I needed nothing, I should ask nothing, even at the hand of God; like those of old who said, We are lords, we will come no more unto thee; and as I must believe that God is, if I come unto him, so I must believe that God has to give, and will give according to his promise, if I ask of him.

O divine exercise below! for while I present my supplication, and narrate my grievances, I am sometimes transported from these glooms of anguish to a