the light of God's countenance, he may say, farewel fweet light, I fhall behold thee no more. To Satan he may fay, O mine enemy, thou haft at laft prevailed against me, thou art stronger than I, and haft overcome. To duties and ordinances he may fay, Where is the sweetness I once found in you? You were once sweeter to me than the honey-comb; but now as takelefs as the white of an ogg. O fad relapfe! deplored. change! quantum mutatus ab illo ? But will God leave his poor creatures helpless, in such a cafe as this? Shall their leaf fall, their branches wither, their joy, their life, their heart depart? Will he fee their graces faint, ing, their hopes gafping, the new creature panting, the things that are in them ready to die, and will he not regard it? Yes, yes, "there is hope of a tree if it be cut down, and the root "thereof wax old in the earth, yet by the scent of water it will “bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant," Job xiv. 8, 9. This poor declined foul, as fad as it fits at the gates of hell, may rouze up itself at last, and say to Satan, that stands triumphing over him, "Rejoice not over me, O mine enemy, for "though I fall, yet I fhall arife; though I fit in darkness, the "Lord fhall be a light unto me," Micah vii. 8. He may raise up himself upon his bed of languishing for all this, and say to God, "Though thou hast chaftned me fore, yet haft thou not "given me over unto death." He may turn about to the faints that have mourned for him, and with a lightsome, cour tenance fay, "I fhall not die, but live, and declare the works " of the Lord." He may fay to the promises, You are the true and faithful fayings of God. My unbelief did:bely you; I faid in my hafte you were liars, but I eat my words, I am a fhamed of my folly. Surely, O foul, there is yet hope in thine end, thou mayeft be restored, Pfal. xxiii. 3. thou mayeft yet recover thy verdure, and thy dew be as the dew of herbs. For, 1. Is he not thy father, and a father full of compaffions, and bowels? And can a father, stand by his dying child, fee his fainting fits, hear his melting groans, and pity begging looks, and not help him, especially having restoratives by him, that can do it? Surely, "As.a father pities his own children, fo "will thy God pity thee," Pfal. cii. 12, 13. "He will spare "thee as a Father fpareth his own fon that serves him," Mark iii. 17. Hark, how his bowels yern! "I have furely heard "Ephraim bemoaning himself. Is not Ephraim my dear fon? "Is he not a pleasant child? For fince I fpake against him, I do "earneftly remember him ftill, I will furely have mercy on " him," Jer, xxxi. 20. 2. Doth he not know thy life would be altogether useless to him, if he should not reflore thee? What service art thou fit to perform to him, in fuch a condition? "Thy days will con"fume like fmoke, whilft thy heart is fmitten and withered "like grafs," Pfal. cii. 3, 4. Thy months will be inonths of vanity, they will fly away, and fee no good, Job vii. 3. If he will but quicken thee again, then thou mayeft call upon his name, Pfal. lxxx. 18. but in a dead, and languifhing condition, thou art no more fit for any work of God, than a fick man is for manual labours; and furely he hath not put those precious and excellent graces of his fpirit within thee for nothing; they were planted there for fruit and service, and therefore, doubtless, he will revive thee again. 3. Yea, dost thou not think he fees thine inability to bear fuch a condition long? He knows thy fpirit would fail be"fore him, and the foul which he hath made;" Ifa. Ivii. 16. David told him as much, in the like condition, Pfalm cxliii. 7, 8. "Hear me fpeedily, O Lord, for my fpirit faileth; hide << not thy face from me, leftl be like unto thofe that go down "into the pit:" q. d. Lord, make hafte, and recover my languishing foul; otherwife, whereas thou haft now a fick child, thou wilt shortly have a dead child. And in like manner Job expoftulated with him, Job vi. 1, 2, 3, 11, 12. "My grief is heavier than the fand of the fea, my "words are fwallowed up, for the arrows of the almighty are "within me; and the poifon thereof drinks up my fpirits: "The terrors of God do fet themfelves in array against me. "What is my strength that I should hope? Is my ftrength the "ftrength of ftones? or are my bones of brafs?" So chap. vii. 12. "Am I a fea, or a whale?" &c. Other troubles a man may, but this he cannot bear, Prov. xviii. 14. and therefore, doubtlefs, feasonable and gracious revivings will come, "He "will not ftir up all his wrath, for he remembers thou art but "flesh, a wind that paffeth away, and cometh not again," Pfal. Ixxviii. 38, 39. He hath ways enough to do it; if he do but unveil his blefed face, and make it thine again upon thee, thou art faved, Pfal. Ixxx. 3. The manifeftations of his love, will be to thy foul, as fhowers to the parched grafs; thy foul, that now droops, and hangs the wing, fhall then revive, and leap for joy, Ifa. Ixi. 1. a new face fhall come upon thy graces, they fhall bud again, and bloffom as a rofe. If he do but fend a fpring of * auxiliary grace into thy foul, to actuate the dull * Grace needs more grace to put in exercife, habits of inherent grace, the work is done; then fhalt thou return to thy first works again, Rev. ii. 4, 5. and fing, as in the days of thy youth. REFLECTION S. For, A convictive reflection. and impatient O this is my very case, faith many a poor Chriftian; thus my foul languishes and droops from day to day. It is good news, indeed, that God both can, and will reftore my foul; but fad that I fhould fall into fuch a ftate; how unlike am I to what I once was! Surely, as the old men wept, when they faw how short the fecond temple came of the glory of the first; so may I fit down and weep bitterly, to confider how much my first love, and first duties, excelled the prefent. I. Is my heart fo much in heaven now, as it was wont to be? Say, O my foul! doft thou not remember, when, like the beloved difciple, thou layeft in Jesus's bofom, how didst thou fweeten communion with him? How reftlefs waft thou in his abfence! divine withdrawments were to thee as the hell of hell; what a burden was the world to me in those days! Had it not been for confcience of my duty, I could have been willing to let all lie, that communion with Chrift might fuffer no interruption. When I awaked in the night, how was the darkness enlightened by the heavenly glimpfes of the countenance of my God upon me? How did his company shorten those hours, and beguile the tedioufuefs of the night? O my foul, fpeak thy experience, is it now as it was then? No, no, thofe days are paft and gone, and thou become much a ftranger to that heavenly life. Art thou able, with truth, to deny this charge? When occafionally I pass by those places, which were once to me as Jacob's Bethel to him; I figh at the remembrance of former paffages betwixt me and heaven there; and fay, with Job, chap. xxix. "O that it were with me as in "months paft, as in the days when God preferved me, when ❝his candle fhined upon my head, when by his light I walked "through darkness, when the Almighty was yet with me, "when I put on righteousness, and it cloathed me, when my "glory was fresh in me! When I remember these things my "foul is poured out within me." 2. Is thy obedience to the commands of Chrift, and motions to duty, as free and chearful as they were wont to be? Call to mind, my foul, the times when thou waft borne down the ftream of love to every duty. If the Spirit did but whisper to thee, faying, Seek my face, how did my fpirit echo to his calls? "faying, Thy face Lord will I feek," Pfal. xxvii. 8. If God had any work to be done, how readily did I offer my fervice? Here am 1, Lord, fend me. My foul made me like the chariots of Aminadab; love oiled the wheels of my affections, and his commandments were not grievous," John v. 3Non tardat unita rota. There were no fuch quarrellings with the command, no fuch excufes, and delays, as there are now. No, fuch was my love to Chrift, and delight to do his will, that I could no more keep back myself from duty, than a man that is carried away in a crowd. Or, laftly, tell me, O my foul, doft thou bemoan thyfelf, or grieve fo tenderly for fin, and for grieving the holy Spirit of God, as thou waft wont to do? When formerly I had fallen by the hand of a temptation, how was I wont to lie in tears at the Lord's feet, bemoaning myself? How did I hasten to my closet, and there cry, like Ezra, chap. ix. 6. "O my God, I am "afhamed, and blush to look up unto thee." How did I figh and weep before him, and, like Ephraim, fmite upon my thigh, faying, "What have I done?" Ah my foul! how didít thou work, ftrive, and caft about how to recover thyself again? Haft thou forgotten how thou wouldst fometimes look up and figh bitterly? Ah! what a God have I provoked? what love and goodness have I abused? Sometimes look in, and weep, Ah! what motions did I withftand? what a good spirit have I grieved? Ah! my foul, thou wouldst have abhorred thyself, thou couldft-never have borne it, had thine heart been as ftupid, "and as relentless then as now; if ever a poor foul had reafon to diffolve icfelf into tears for its fad relapfes, I have. 2. But yet mourn not, O my foul, as one withA fupporting out hope. Remember, "There is hope in Ifrael reflection. "concerning this thing." As low as thy condition is, it is not defperate, it is not a disease that scorns a remedy; many a man, that hath been stretched out for dead, hath revived again, and lived many a comfortable day in the world; many a tree that hath cast both leaf and fruit, by the skill of a prudent husbandman, hath recovered again, and been made both flourifhing and fruitful. Is it not eafier, thinkeft thou, to recover a languifhing man to health, than a dead man to life? And yet this God did for me, Eph. ii. 1. Is any thing too hard for the Lord? "Though my foul draw nigh to the pit, and my life to the de"ftroyers, yet he can send me a messenger, one among a thou"fand, that shall declare to me my uprightness; then fhall he de"liver me from going down into the pit, my fiefh fhall be fresher than a child's, and I fhall return to the days of my youth," Job Xxxiii. 22. Though I flourish, and much of my fruit too be gone, and I am a withering tree; yet as long as the root of the matter is in me, there is more hope of fuch a poor, decayed, withered tree, than of the hypocrite that wants fuch a root, in all his glory and bravery, His fun shall set, and never rise again; but I live in expectation of a sweet morning, after this dark night. Rouze up, therefore, O my foul, fet thy faith a work on Chrift for quickening grace, for he hath life in himself, and quickens whomsoever he will, John vii. 38. Stir up that little which remains, Rev. iii. 2. haft thou not feen lively flames proceed from glimmering, and dying fparks, when carefully collected, and blown up? Get amongst the most lively and quickening Christians; "as iron fharpens iron, fo will these "fet an edge upon thy dull affections," Prov. xxvii. 17. Acts xviii. 15. But, above all, cry mightily to the Lord for quickening, he will not defpife thy cry. The moans of a diftreffed child, work upon the bowels of a tender father. And be fure to keep within thy view the great things of eternity, which are ready to be revealed; live in the believing and serious contemplations of them, and be dead if thou canft. It is true, thou haft reafon enough from thy condition, to be for ever humbled, but no reafon at all from thy God, to be in the least discou raged. THOU The POE M. HOU art the husbandman, and I Whom fpecial love did, ne'ertheless, |