for me: provoke in my soul a thirst after righteousness, that I may take and drink the cup of thy saivation. Teach me to ask according to thy pleasure, and grant my requests according to thy promise. Strengthen my faith in all my supplications, and give me patience to expect thy leisure. What I possess, O God, let me enjoy in thee, and thee in it; relieve my necessities according to thy will, and let thy pleasure limit my desires; in my prosperity let me not forget thee, and in my adversity let me not forsake thee: with Jacob's wealth, Lord, give me Jacob's blessing; with Lazarus's want, oh give me Lazarus's reward: both in want and wealth give me a contented mind; both in prosperity and adversity give me a thankful heart. Lord, hear my prayer for thy mercy sake, for my miseries sake, for thy promise sake, for my Jesus' sake, to whom be glory and praise for ever and ever. 199 THE FORGETFUL MAN, His Complaint. We are God's husbandry, our hearts are the soil; whereof some is more fruitful, some more barren, and both unprofitable. His holy word is the seed, which sometimes falls upon a lean ground, sometimes upon a stony, sometimes upon a good ground: the cares of the world are like thorns that spring up and choke it persecutions, like a sultry summer, scorch it; the lusts of the flesh, like the fowls of the air, which wait upon the plough, and licensed by the prince of the air, devour it, How many disadvantages, O God, attend upon thy husbandry! how many losses lessen thy increase! how many accidents make thy soil unfruitful, and thy harvest easy and unprofitable! To what purpose do I till my land? To what advantage do I stir my fallows? I have no sooner sowed my willing ground, but the seed is stolen away. I bring into the sanctuary a prepared heart; I hear glad tidings with a cheerful ear and then repose them in a joyful breast; but when I look into my hopeful magazine, behold there is nothing there but emptiness and vanity. The joys of what I gained were swallowed with the grief of what I lost. No sooner had I set my portals open to let in the King of Glory, but, lo! the slightness of my entertainment turned him out again. I hid my Saviour in the sepulchre of my soul, and they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. My beloved withdrew himself, and is gone, and I sought him, but I could not find him. O treacherous memory, how hast thou betrayed my rest how hast thou lost the balsam of my soul! how art thou heedless in preserving what my poor soul was so earnest in pursuing? How canst thou choose but feel the stroke of death, having thus lost the word of life? What shall now comfort thee in thy affliction? Oh, what shall strengthen thee in thy temptation? or what shall wind up the plummets of thy soul in desperation? CHEER up, my soul; the pearl which thou hast lost, is hidden in thy field, and time shall bring it forth; when sharp afflictions shall plough up the fallows of thy heart, this pearl shall then appear and comfort thee. Turn and read what the Spirit saith: The holy Spirit shall bring to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. John, xiv. 26. John, xv. 26. When the Comforter shall come, whom I will send from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me, Matth. x. 19. Take no thought, how, or what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you at the same hour what ye shall speak. 1 John, ii. 27. ye need not The anointing which ye have received of him abides in you, and that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him, His Soliloquy. THE strongest city (when force without, and treachery within, assail it) must yield; and canst thou expect, O my soul, to be impregnable? Hast thou the devil and the world without thee, and so many regiments of lusts within |