ty; fear and distrust are inconsistent with my thoughts of the beneficence of thy nature.

Every name and attribute by which thou hast revealed thyself to man, confirms my faith. Thy life, thy being is engaged: I may as well question thy existence, as thy faithfulness; as sure as thou art, thou art just and true. The protestations of the most faithful friend I have, cannot give me half the consolation that thy promises give me. I hear vain man with diffidence, I bid my soul beware of trusting false mortality; but I hear thy voice with joy and full assurance.

Thy words are not writ in sand, nor scattered by the fleeting winds; but shall stand in force when heaven and earth shall be no more. Eternal ages shall not diminish their efficacy, nor alter what the mouth of the Lord hath spoken. I believe, I believe with the most perfect assent: I know that "thou art, and that thou art rewarder of them' "that diligently seek thee;" I feel the evidence, for thou hast not left thyself without witness in my heart.

III. Longing after the enjoyment of God.

Mr God, to thee my sighs ascend; every complaint I make, ends with thy name: I pause, I dwell on the sound, I speak it over again, and find

to behold the supreme beauty, I pant for the fair original of all that is lovely, for beauty that is yet unknown, and for intellectual pleasures yet untasted.

My heart aspires, my wishes fly beyond the bounds of creation, and despise all that mortality can present me with. I was formed for celestial joys, and find myself capable of the entertainments of angels. Why may I not begin my heaven below, and taste at least of the springs of pleasure that flow from thy right hand for ever?

Should I drink my fill, those fountains are still exbaustless; millions of happy souls quench their infinite desires there: millions of happy orders of beings gaze on thy beauty, and are made partakers of thy blessedness; but thou art still undiminished. No liberality can waste the store of thy perfection; it has flowed from eternity, and runs for ever fresh, and why must I perish for want?

My thirsty soul pines for the waters of life; Oh! who will refresh me with the pleasurable draught? how long shall I wander in this desert land, where every prospect is waste and barren! I look round me in vain, and sigh still unsatisfied: Oh! who will lead me to the still waters, and make me repose in green pastures, where the weary are for ever at rest? how tedious are the hours of expectation?

Come, Lord, my head doth burn, my heart is sick,

While thou dost ever, ever stay;

Thy long deferring wounds me to the quick,

My spirit gaspeth night and day:

O shew thyself to me,

Or take me up to thee.

Dispatch thy commissions; give me my work and activity to perform it, and let me as a hireling fulfil my day. Lord, it is enough: "What am "I better than my fathers?" They are dead, and I am mortal.

I'm but a stranger and a pilgrim here

In these wild regions; wand'ring and forlorn;
Restless and sighing for my native home,
Longing to reach my weary space of life,
And to fulfil my task, Oh! haste the hour
Of joy and sweet repose. Transporting hope!

Lord, here am I waiting for thy commands, attending thy pleasure; O speak and incline mine ear to hear; give me my work, let me finish it, and gain my dismission from this body of sin and death; this hated clog of error and guilt, of corruption and vanity. Oh! let me drop this load, and bid these scenes of guilt a final adieu.

"I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord;" when wilt thou let me into thy holy habitation? how long shall I pine at this distance from thee? what can I speak to shew thee my pain, to utter my anguish, when I fear the loss of my God?

Transporting moment! when wilt thou appear,
To crown my hopes, and banish all my fear?

Again, O my Father, and my eternal Friend, I breathe out my requests to thee in this land of fatigue and folly: what is this life but a sorry tiresome round, a circle of repeated vanities? happiness has been never seen in it since sin and folly entered all is empty appearance, or vain labour, or painful vexation.

Suffic'd with life, my languid spirits faint,

And fain would be at rest. Oh! let me enter
Those sacred seats, and, after all the toil

Of life, begin an everlasting Sabbath.

Yet again, O Lord, I ask leave to tell thee, I have waited for thy salvation, and hourly languished after the habitations of my God. My heart grows sick, and I almost expire under these delays what have I here to keep me from thee? what to relieve the tedious hours of absence? I have pronounced all below the sun, vanity and vexation; all insipid and burdensome. Amidst health and plenty, friends and reputation, thou art my only joy, my highest wish, and my supreme delight. On thee my soul fixes all her hopes; there I rest in a celestial calm! Oh! let it not be broken with earthly objects; let me live unmolested with the cares or delights of sense.

Oh let me flee

From all the world, and live alone to thee.

IV. God my supreme, my only hope.

WHY do I address thee, my God, with no more confidence? why do I indulge these remains of unbelief, and harbour these returns of infidelity and distrust? Can I survey the earth, can I gaze on the structure of the heavens, and ask if thou art able to deliver? can I call in question thy a bility to succour me, when I consider the general and particular instances of thy goodness and power? One age to another, in long succession, hath conveyed the records of thy glory; "In all genera "tions thou hast been our dwelling-place; my fa"thers trusted in thee, and were delivered." They have encouraged me, my own experience has encouraged me to trust in thee for ever.

The sun may fail to rise, and men in vain expect its light but thy truth, thy faithfulness cannot fail; the course of nature may be reversed, and all be chaos again; but thou art immutable, and canst not, by any change, deceive the hopes of them that trust in thee. I adore thy power, and subscribe to thy goodness and fidelity, and what further objection would my unbelief raise? Is any thing too hard for God to accomplish? can the united force of earth and hell resist his will?

Great God, how wide thy glories shine?
How broad thy kingdom, how divine?