Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

how I have forsaken thee. Close thou thine eyes at my rebellion, and open thine ears at my repentance; be merciful, O God, at my contrition: a broken heart, O God,. thou wilt not despise. Renew me according to the abundance of thy mercies, and restore me to the joy of thy salvation: establish my heart in the love of thy truth, and increase in me a spiritual thirst; make me to understand the way of thy precepts, and let thy testimonies be my whole delight. As the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, so my soul longeth for the wellsprings of life. Lord, thou hast promised to answer those that call unto thee, to be found by those that seek unto thee, and to satisfy those that thirst after thee

-Make good thy word, O God, and hear my prayer; make good thy promise, Lord, and be not far from me. I have sought thee in thy promise, let me find thee in thy performance; I have thirsted

for thy grace, oh fill me with thy goodness! open thy well-springs, that I may drink freely of the waters of life; that my soul being satisfied in the fulness of thy pleasures, my mouth may be filled with the sound of thy praises; that here magnifying thy name in the kingdom of grace, I may reign with thee hereafter in the kingdom of glory.

THE GOOD MAN.

His Distrust.

WHEN I consider the all-sufficiency of my God, I dare not question the performance of his promises; but when I behold the insufficiency of myself, I cannot but fear the promises. of his performance. When I behold in him the

goodness of a father, my heart grows confident, and I cannot fear; but when I find in myself the disobedience of a son, my soul grows conscious, and I dare not hope when I dive into the depth of my own misery, I search further, and find a greater depth of his mercy, and am secure; but when I find the freeness of his mercy requited with the wilfulness of my rebellion, oh then my soul despairs, and thus destroys the grounds of all my comfort! He invites my laden soul to come, and offers rest: alas! I come, and yet my laden soul can find no ease. He promises eternal life to my belief, but yet he gives me not the power to believe: he bids me in his name propound my wants, with promise of supply; and yet I sue, and sue, and still I sue in vain he promises a Comforter to strengthen my remembrance, yet still my treacherous memory fails me: he promises to be a father to the fatherless,

4

}

yet still my wants persuade me that I want a father: he promises audience in

.

my time of trouble, and yet I call unheard, and mourn without redress: he promises forgiveness to the true repentant, but who shall give me power to repent? he promises to gather me in mercy, though a while forsaken, yet I have long expected, with a frustrate expectation: he promises an exaltation to him that is humbled, yet my dejected heart is still supprest: he promised freedom from the second death, to him that conquers; I strive to overcome, yet feel a hell: his promise was to guard his vineyard, and to dress it; yet foxes destroy it, and the wild boar supplants it: he promised comfort to all those that mourn, and yet I mourn without a comforter : he promised that the woman's seed should break the serpent's head, and yet the serpent never was more strong: he bid me seek, and I should find; and yet,

alas! I seek, but can find nothing but my wants; he calls them blessed that suffer for his name; yet, who more miserable? he promises the springs of life to him that thirsts, and yet I thirst to death. My soul, what are his promises to thee, that art not able to perform those hard conditions that give thee interest to those promises?

CHEER up, my soul, and what thou canst not do, endeavour; He that accepts the will for the deed, is in his promise "yea and amen."

Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one tittle of my word. Mark, xiii. 31. 1 Kings, viii. 56.

Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto his people, according unto all that he hath promised. There hath not failed one word of all his good promises which he hath promised.

« ElőzőTovább »