"Is not this the first morning of a new year? is "it not my birth-day ?" Alas! how many years. have I already lived!Ah! not lived, but loft them!-O dreadful! irrecoverable! though unheeded, lofs of precious time! Doth my entrance on this new year, prefage my speedy exit into the eternal ftate? let me then be ferious to-day.My confcience, I pofe thee, as before God: Have I brought an old heart with me, from the old year, or not? Did I outlive the finished period, in reigning enmity against God, or not? Did ever my foul fee a new birth-day, or not?-Many years am I nearer to eternity, than at my birth: but whether have I approached to heaven, or to hell?-Alas! have not I much more work of preparation for a future ftate on hand? and yet much lefs time for it?-Was I born to eat, drink and fin? Was I in baptism, fworn to lodge and cheerish indwelling lufts to forget God, to hate my Maker, and to live in conftant rebellion against him? Lord, how could thy vengeance fuffer fuch an ungrateful, perjured wretch to live!-O now, now forgive my crimes, and give me a new beart and a new Spirit, that I may begin the year with a new form of life: I tremble at the thought of living another year, month, or day, at the former rate. "ALAS! fevere pains of gout, gravel, and cholic, "have seized me; how can I bear this torment!" Be ftill my foul, Wherefore should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his fins? I am indeed a living hofpital; am tormented: but bleffed be God, it is not in eternal flames : I have yet drops of water to cool the tip of my tongue, which is infinitely more than I deferve. The calls of his word being defpifed, he takes his rod to drive folly far from my heart; may it accomplish his end: may it, like Aaron's, bud. with bleffings to my foul :-if the froward wretch muft must be whipt with fcorpians, let me though too late, be driven to Jefus the phyfician:-though: I come too late to him, he cannot come too late to me.-O the wretched cafe of my heart! it is pricked with deep convictions; and yet rageth with enmity against a Saviour. Lord, I dare not cry, Remove thy ftroke from me: but ftrike, wound, drive, and draw me to thyfelf. “ "My pains are abated." God forbid, they should be removed in wrath: Affliction is light enough, and fhort enough, if it purge away fin.-O let me never come forth from thy refining furnace, with more drofs than I entered.-.. O fudden, fovereign-healer of my body, heal my foul for thy name's fake.What doth it avail a fick foul, that the lodgeth in a found carcafe? or a condemned foul, that her prifon-walls are repaired? what befide a time to be born, and a time to die, is appointed for man? how probable then may my next ailment end my days?-- O were I dead to the law, and dead to my lufts; how pleasant could I look for the death of my body, and at last the death of my death! "THE cock crows again." When he who denied Jefus heard the fecond crowing, he went out and wept bitterly.My foul, how often have I denied the Saviour! denied him room in my heart! denied him an honourable confeffion in my life! He that is not with him, is against him.-Rife therefore, from thy lazy couch; go out and weep bitterly: how can I fleep! how lie at eafe under the awful weight of fo much fin unrepented of!---of fo much unpardoned guilt! Arife O fleeper, call on thy God; it may be he will think on me, that I perish not: Lord Jefus, art not thou a Prince exalted to give repentance, and remiffion of fins? Why then deny me these bleffings? my fole hope hope is, that there are with degrees of mercy, beyond what ever men made ufe of.---Carest thou not that thy near kinsman perish, "THE morning flar is rifen." Alas! have I once more seen him, without receiving Jefus, the bright and morning-ftar, into my heart? without having the day ftar of grace rifen in my foul?---Lord I cannot; I will not, want thee any longer : If thine enemy hunger, feed him with thy flesh; if he thrift, give him thy blood to drink; fo fhalt thou heap heart-melting coals of fire on his head.---Hafst thou not said, that 66 to us men, a child is born, to us a son is given; and his name fhall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlafting Father, and the Prince of peace?---I believe, Lord, help thou mine unbelief."--Let heaven and earth bear witness, that I defire to accept of thee, as, in the gofpel, made of God to me wisdom, righteousness, fanctification and redemption. "In this family I need expect no privte worship: "the world feems their principal deity; and to her "they must pay their early devotion." Let me double my diligence in fecret worship.---If others will ftarve their immortal fouls: it is not fit that I fhould do it for the fake of company.---Doubltlefs the curfe of the Lord is in this habitation of the wicked; let me speed away from it: better dwell with a raging plague, than with a wasting curfe.---O what fools! what mad men are thofe, who thru themselves, or their feed, into wicked, worshiplefs families, for the fake of a few pence more gain! "SCARCE can I find a place for fecret prayer my: "bed fellow is a profane mocker at every thing fe“ rious ;-- "rious ;---and no clofet is to be had." Complain not, my foul; the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof: let my heart truly incline prayer; God will find me a place for it.---At Gethsemane, and elfewhere, the Son of God had but the open air, and cold ground, for his clofet; what a mercy that I, who deferve to be roaring in hell, may have as good! "I "have now retired from my profane companion." But cannot, ah! cannot retire from that more profane companion, my wicked heart: fhe follows, attends, and goes before me to the mount of duty; where ever I lodge, the lodgeth...O that death may separate between her and me !--." Now I am at fe"cret prayer." Be carneft, my foul; plead the promifes which fuit thy cafe; refuse to give over, till the Lord bless thee with a confirmation of thy marriage to his Son. "IT is but coarfe and ill-readied provision which "I am to have for breakfast." Earth is now my ftepmother; why fhould I expect delicacies from her hand? it is rather aftonifling, that I am fo well ferved: perhaps fome precious faints just now starve for want; why then do I, "who am lefs than the leaft of all faints, lefs than the leaft of God's mercies." complain-Let me have Jefus, and I have enough. ---Why fhould I be anxious to nourish a dunghill with delicacies? houid I not rather admire the mercy, the power and wisdom of God, in preparing this for me? It is but modified duft: laft year, perhaps, it lay in the dunghill; carried out, it grew up into that which I now eat and incorporate with my body. What is this bufk of my foul, but modified grafs, dust, and dung? Duft I am, and unto dust shall I return: Corruption, thou art my mother; ye worms, that wallow amidit unfufferable flench and vileness, are my fifters and brethren.Lord, fall a fyftem of duft and fin dare to be proud? fhall he forbear aftonifhment, that the Son of God loved me, and gave bimfelf for me?" Scarce have I got food to fatisfy "my craving appetite." Let me eke out the fpare meal with a plentiful feast on the manna which cometh down from heaven: let me live, not by bread alone, but by faith on the the words that proceed out of the mouth of God: live on meat which the world knows not of. "I HAVE got my staff in my hand; but my hard "couch hath wearied and unfitted me for my jour-, "ney." Murmur not, my foul, what a furprising mercy is a hard bed to one, who richly deferved to lie in hell? Had mine been foft, perhaps I had now wallowed in wantonnefs, or been drowned in floth. O happy hardness, that rouzed me to an early prayer, in which I have found that which, I hope, eternity fhall not make me forget! But, ah! how hath my lying on a bed of fin unfitted me for a heavenly journey! Lord I am fit for nothing; good for nothing; neither to live nor die; neither to teach nor learn; neither to think nor speak; neither to do nor fuffer: How I have improven my time, I am afhamed to speak; amazed to think. Go through all that I am, within or without, and all that I have done ; what am I but vilenefs and abomination? I have run through all the means of knowledge, and yet fee no truth in her glory; through all afflictions, and yet I am not humbled nor ferious; through all mercies, and yet I am not thankful; through all means of good, and yet I am evil, only evil, tran. fcendantly evil, in the highest degree, to this day. Lord, did ever fuch a deformed finner exift? did ever fuch a criminal apply to thee for mercy? was ever fuch a work done to a poor wretch fince the creation, as the faving of my foul must be? But O how that |