will give no respite to my cries and my grief. Thou delightest, O father of mercies, in the importunities of thy creatures; I will not then fear wearying thy patience. My tears, my prayers, my silent grief, my fears, my hopes, shall be so many voices ascending incessantly to thy throne.

VERSE 7. Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.

IN those moments when all the horror of my sins shall present itself to me, and when the thought of thy holy and just indignation shall throw me into the deepest trouble and despondency;-in those terrible moments when my eye cannot sustain the severity of thy judgments;-in those moments when the enemies of my salvation, who are attempting to increase my dejection and despondency, shall believe that they are about to prevail against me, and to persuade me to believe that there is no help for me, even then, great God, I will hope against hope; and the more terrible thou shalt appear to me as a just judge, the more I will confess that thy justice demands my eternal destruction, and that I have nothing to hope but from thine infinite mercy and grace.

VERSES 8, 9. Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping. The LORD hath heard my supplication; the LORD will receive my prayer.

I ALREADY find, O God, that from this disposition I experience, in anticipation, confidence and peace. I find in myself more courage and more strength; I begin to perceive that we may indulge some hope, when we feel even faint desires for repentance; and that we affront thy glory no less when we despair of thy mercy, or even distrust it, while shedding tears of repentance, than when we presume upon it, while persevering in sin without remorse. It is thou, O

gracious God, who hast infused into my soul these consoling thoughts, in the midst of the troubles and terrors with which I was agitated.

It is done, O God! From this moment I will bid an eternal adieu to the world; I will break those ties by which my passions unite me to it; I will separate myself from all those objects, from all those connections, which daily threw new dangers in my way. I will henceforth have none for my friends but the friends of God; I will no longer be connected with the world by any ties but those of that charity which abideth for ever; I will love nothing but what I ought always to love.

VERSE 10. Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly.

ALL that remains for me to ask of thee, O my God, is that the accomplices of my sins, whom the change that has taken place in me will turn into so many censors and enemies, may be made to imitate me in my new life;-that they may be affected by the wonders which thy grace has wrought in me ;--that my example may cover them with shame and confusion, and recall them to themselves, or rather, to thee, O Lord, who hast so many just claims upon them, and from whom man cannot depart without precipitating himself into an abyss of miserý ;-that having seen me who have been the most obstinate in sin, the most devoted to iniquity, thus changed, they may not despair of obtaining that mercy which I had less right to expect than they ;--and that they may not think thy service hard and insupportable, since a sinner, sunk the deepest in sensuality, the most enslaved to the lusts of the flesh, as I have been, now finds in that service so much joy and so many new pleasures.

PSALM VII.

Meditations and prayers suitable for a pious person, when calumniated by enemies.

VERSE 1. O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust; save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver

me :

A

LMIGHTY God! Delivered up to the calumny and baseness of my persecutors, covered with reproach before men, who are easily persuaded to believe any thing dishonorable of thy servants, to whom can I appeal but to thee, from whom nothing can be concealed, and who alone seest us as we really are? Thou only canst make manifest the malice and deceit of those who accuse me; thou only canst confound their wicked designs, and secure me from the poisoned arrows which they aim against me incessantly. It concerns thy glory, O God, not to suffer thy holy name to be blasphemed, and the cause of religion to be injured, by the reproaches which men of the world cast upon its public professors.

VERSE 2. Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.

Ir my interests alone were concerned, I would be silent; for thou, Lord, hast taught me to go cour ageously forward in the way of salvation, through evit report and good report. I would console myself with the consideration that I was thought worthy to participate in the reproaches cast upon thy Son, and upon thy saints. But it is thou thyself, it is religion which is attacked and insulted. Do not then permit my enemies to tear me, as a hungry lion teareth his prey; and do not suffer those who hate thee, and calumniate me, to believe, that the righteous hath no more share in thy favor and protection in this life than the wicked.

VERSE 3. O LORD my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands;

It would be in vain for me to plead perfect innocence, and to attempt to justify myself before thee, O most holy God! In thy book of remembrance there are many transgressions charged against me, which I cannot deny, and which I ought continually to lament with penitential tears. But as for those sins of which my unjust persecutors accuse me, thou knowest that I am innocent of them, and that my hands have never been stained with the crimes which they lay to my charge. True my heart is sufficiently depraved to be capable of them, but thy grace has preserved me from them; and by boldly protesting my innocence, I do but proclaim thy mercy towards me.

VERSES 4, 5. If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy :) Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honor in the dust.

IF I have rendered to my calumniators injury for injury;-if I have pried into the most secret history of their lives, that I might publish their faults to their shame;-if I have sought to discredit their slander, by proclaiming to the world that their vices rendered. what they say unworthy of belief;-if I have loaded them with invectives, to justify myself before men, and thus been guilty of hatred and revenge in thy sight, O thou God of justice! then I justly deserve to be given up of thee to their fury, and to fall a prey to their slander. I could not complain if lying and calumny were to prevail against me; I could not look up to thee for help, if I found myself oppressed, without support, and without resource, in the midst of numerous enemies, with their hands raised to complete my destruction. The humiliation which I

sentment.

should then suffer would be a just punishment upon me, for the indulgence of such pride and angry reO holy God, if thou ever seest in me those sinful dispositions, towards my persecutors and slanderers, let them redouble their hatred and fury against me ;-let them add calumnies still more black and dishonorable to those with which they now load me;-let them tread me as dirt under their feet, and make me an outcast from thy people; and if there still remains any thing reputable in my character, which they have not yet dared to attack, let them ravish from me that honor,-let them reduce it to nothing, let their envenomed breath dissipate it like dust; and for my portion, let me have nothing but that universal contempt and reproach with which they endeavor to cover me.

VERSE 6. Arise, O LORD, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies :

BUT since, notwithstanding the malicious railings of my persecutors, my heart, through divine grace, has preserved that charity for them, which we ought ever to possess for those who injure us ;—since my daily prayers for their conversion are the only recompense which I render to them,-arise, O Lord, and come to my help. Inflict upon them visible and salutary chastisements which may recall them to truth and righteousness. Manifest thy greatness and thy power to those who persuade themselves that strength or artifice governs every thing here below; and that nothing which passes upon earth interests thy providence and thine eternal wisdom. Make those enemies of thy glory feel that thou art the God of this world, as well as the God of eternity; that if thou sometimes sufferest the wicked to prevail against a righteous man, for a season, to prove his faith and increase his holiness, thou wilt sooner or later, rectify such seeming disorders; and that, after having made