of every past abomination, but "that thou mayest reinember thy ways, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy shame, even when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast doue, saith the Lord." (Ezek. xvi. 63.)

And now, upon the whole, if you desire to attain such a temper, and to return by such steps as these, then immediately fall down before God, and pour out your hear in his presence, in language like this.

A PRAYER for one who has fallen into gross Sin, after religious Resolutions and Engagements.

"O MOST Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God! When I seriously reflect on thy spotless purity, and on the strict and impartial methods of thy steady administration, together with that almighty power of thine which is able to carry every thought of thine heart into immediate and full execution, I may justly appear before thee this day with shame and terror, in confusion and consternation of spirit. This day, O my God, this dark mournful day, would I take occasion to look back to that sad source of our guilt and our misery, the apostacy of our common parents, and say, with thine offending servant David, "Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." (Psalm li. 5.) This day would I lament all the fatal consequences of such a descent, with regard to myself. And O how many have they been! The rememorance of the sins of my unconverted state, and the failings and infirmities of my after life, may justly confound me now much more such a scene, as now lies before my conscience, and before thine all-seeing eye. For thou, Ŏ Lord, "knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from thee." (Psalm lxix. 5.) Thou tellest all my wanderings from thy statutes. (Psalm lvi. 8.) Thou seest, and thou recordest, every instance of my disobedience to thee, and of my rebellion against thee. Thou seest it in every aggravated circumstance which I can discern, and in many more which I have never observed or reflected upon. How then shall I appear in thy presence, or lift up my face to the! (Ezra ix. 6.) "I am full of con

fusion," (Job x. 15.) and feel a secret regret in the thought of applying to thee: but, "O Lord, to whom shall I go but unto thee?" (John vi. 68.) Unto thee, on whom depends my life or my death; unto thee, who alone canst take away the burden of guilt, which now presses me down to the dust; who alone canst restore to my soul that rest and peace which I have lost, and which I deserve for ever to lose.

I

"Behold me, O Lord God, falling down at thy feet Behold me pleading guilty in thy presence, and surren dering myself to that justice which I cannot escape. have not one word to offer in my own vindication, in my own excuse. Words, far from being able to clear up my innocence, can never sufficiently describe the enormity and demerit of my sin. Thou, O Lord, and thou only, knowest to the full, how heinous and how aggravated it is. Thine infinite understanding alone can fathom the infinite depth of its malignity. I am, on many accounts, most unable to do it. I cannot conceive the glory of thy sacred Majesty, whose authority I have despised; nor the number and variety of those mercies, which I have sinned against. I cannot conceive the value of the blood of thy dear Son, which I have ungratefully trampled under my feet; nor the dignity of that blessed Spirit of thine, whose agency I have, as far as I could, been endeavouring to oppose, and whose work I have been, as with all my might, labouring to undo, and to tear up (as it were) that plantation of his grace, which I should rather have been willing to have guarded with my life, and watered with my blood. O the baseness and madness of my conduct! That I should thus, as it were, rend open the wounds of my soul, of which I had died long ere this, had not thine own hand applied a remedy, had not thine only Son bled to prepare it!. That I should violate the covenant I have made with thee by sacrifice, (Psalm 1. 5.) by the memorials of such a sacrifice too, even of Jesus, my Lord, whereby I am become guilty of his body and blood! (1 Cor. xi. 27.) That I should bring such dishonour

upon religion too, by so unsuitable a walk, and perhaps open the mouths of its greatest enemies to insult it upon

my account, and prejudice some against it to their everlasting destruction!

"I wonder, O Lord God, that I am here to own all this. I wonder, that thou hast not long ago appeared 66 as a swift witness against me;" Mal. iii. 5. that thou hast not discharged the thunderbolts of thy flaming wrath against me, and crushed me into hell; making me there a terror to all about me, as well as to myself, by a vengeance and ruin, to be distinguished even there, where all are miserable, and all hopeless.

"O God, thy patience is marvellous! But how much more marvellous is thy grace, which after all this invites me to thee! While I am here giving judgment against inyself, that I deserve to die, to die for ever, thou art sending me the words of everlasting life, and "calling me, as a backsliding child, to return unto thee." (Jer. iii. 22.) Behold therefore, O Lord, invited by thy word, and encouraged by thy grace, I come; and great as my transgressions are, I humbly beseech thee, freely to pardon them because I know, that though "my sins have reached unto heaven," (Rev. xviii. 5.) and are "lifted up even unto the skies," (Jer. li. 9.) thy mercy, O Lord, " is above the heavens." (Psalm cviii. 4.) Extend that mercy to me, O heavenly Father; and display, in this illustrious instance, the riches of thy grace, and the prevalency of thy Son's blood. For surely, if such crimson sins as mine, may be made "white as snow, and as wool,” (Isa. i. 18.) and if such a revolter as I am be brought to eternal glory, earth must, so far as it is known, be filled with wonder, and heaven with praise; and the greatest sinner may cheerfully apply for pardon, if I, the chief of sinners, find it. And O that, when I have lain mourning, and as it were bleeding at thy feet, as long as thou thinkest proper, thou wouldst at length heal this soul of mine which has sinned against thee; (Psalm xli. 4.) and "give me beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." (Isa. lxi. 3.) O that thou wouldst at length restore unto me the joy o thy salvation, and make me to hear songs of gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. (Psal.

li. 8, 12.) Then, when a sense of thy forgiving love is shed abroad in my heart, and it is cheered with the voice of pardon, I will proclaim thy grace to others; “ I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee." (Psalm li. 13.) Those that have been backsliding from thee, shall be encouraged to seek thee by my happy experience, which I will gladly proclain for thy glory, though it be to my own shame and confusion of face. And may this "joy of my Lord be my strength;" (Neh. viii. 10.) so that in it I may serve thee henceforward with a vigour and zeal far beyond what I have hitherto known.

"This I would ask with all humble submission to thy will; for I presume not to insist upon it. If thou shouldst see fit to make me a warning to others, by appointing that I should walk all my days in darkness and at last die under a cloud, thy will be done! But, O God, extend mercy for thy Son's sake, to this sinful soul at last; and give me some place, though it were a the feet of all thine other servants, in the regions of lory. O bring me at length, though it should be through the gloomiest valley that any have ever passed, into that blessed world, where I shall depart from God no more, where I shall wound my own conscience, and dishonour thy holy name, no more. Then shall my tongue be loosed, how long soever it might here be bound under the confusion of guilt; and immortal praises shall be paid to that victorious blood, which has redeemed such an infamous slave of sin, as I must acknowledge myself to be, and brought me, from returns into bondage and repeated pollution, to share the dignity and holiness of those, who are "kings and priests unto God." (Rev. i. 6.) Amen."

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE CASE OF THE CHRISTIAN UNDER THE HIDINGS OF

THERE is a case

life, which they who

GOD'S FACE.

which often occurs in the Christian accustom themselves much to the

exercise of devotion, have been used to call "the hiding of God's face." It is a phrase borrowed from the word of God, which I hope may shelter it from contempt at the first hearing. It will be my business in this chapter to state it as plainly as I can, and then to give some advice as to your own conduct when you fall into it, as it is very probable you may before you have finished your journey through this wilderness.

The meaning of it may partly be understood by the opposite phrase of God's causing his face to shine upon a person, or lifting up upon him the light of his countenance. This seems to carry in it an allusion to the pleasant and delightful appearance which the face of a friend has, and especially if in a superior relation of life, when he converses with those whom he loves and delights in. Thus Job, when speaking of the regard paid him by his attendants, says, "If I smiled upon them, they believed it not, and the light of my countenance they cast not down;" (Job xxix. 24.) that is, they were careful, in such an agreeable circumstance, to do nothing to displease me, or (as we speak) to cloud my brow. And David, when expressing his desire of, the manifestation of God's favour to him, says, "Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me; and, as the effect of it, declares, "Thou hast put gladness into my heart more than if corn and wine increased." (Psalm iv. 6, 7.) Nor is it impossible, that in this phrase, as used by David, there may be some allusion to the bright shining forth of the Shechinah, that is, the lustre which dwelt in the cloud as the visible sign of the divine presence with Israel, which God was pleased peculiarly to manifest upon some public occasions, as a token of his favour and acceptance. On the other pand, therefore, for God to hide his face, must imply the withholding the tokens of his favour, and must be esteemed a mark of his displeasure. Thus Isaiah uses it; "Your iniquities have separated between you and your Gon, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." (Isaiah lix. 2.) And again, Thou hast hid thy face from us, as not regarding the calamities we sfer, and hast consumed us because of our iniquities.