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niences, their life would be but very little better than beasts. If now to all the advantages of speech I should add those other entertainments of this sense, which result from the choirs of birds abroad, or from the melody of human voices, or from those improvements and imitations of natural music by art and instruments; it must be allowed me, that the several kinds of harmony are of infinite variety; of so great indeed they are, that the wit of man cannot conceive all the particular kinds, nor words explain and describe them distinctly. And yet all these are contrived for the service and delight of the ear. So nobly is this single sense provided for. A great deal might be said to the same purpose, concerning the objects pleasurable to the taste and the touch.

And, as our senses, and a right disposition of the organs which serve them, is a very valuable blessing, so is it likewise, that our limbs have all their due place and figure; that no part of our body is so distorted, or defective, as to be painful to ourselves, or to make our deformity a subject, either of melancholy to our friends or relations, or of jest and scorn to strangers. But, which is yet of higher importance, within this body so commodiously ordered, I have a glorious inhabitant; an understanding spirit; capable of discerning and receiving the truth; of distinguishing between right and wrong, good and evil; nay, which tends more to its happiness and perfection, qualified to seek and find its Creator, to desire and gasp after him, to praise and cleave, and be united to him, by the cement of a most ardent and inviolable love. Another great instance of God's goodness to me, I acknowledge it, that I was reserved for the glorious times of the gospel; born in a country, where his

holy truth is professed; and among such friends as took effectual care to instruct and establish me in the faith, and devote me to God in his appointed ordinance. This is a mercy which vast numbers of people have not enjoyed, and therefore I have still the greater reason to be thankful for it; since their condition and mine are in other respects the same: nor can I boast of any qualification that should give me the preference, or recommend me to so singular a favour, which hath not been in like manner extended to them. The sum and sole account of so distinguishing a providence is this, that God was just in leaving them, but exceeding gracious in calling me. Nor ought I upon this occasion to forget to thank God, that he was pleased to spare my parents' lives, till the great business of my education was finished; that the care of me was not turned over to them who could not have the same tenderness and natural affection for me; that I escaped the many dreadful disasters, which some others did, and I was equally liable to suffer by: that the fire hath never burnt nor disfigured me, nor the water swallowed me up; that evil spirits were never permitted to torment me; that God hath shut the mouths of the beasts of prey, guarded me from their violence, kept me back from many a dangerous precipice, and preserved me from falls, and pits, losses or maimings of limbs, to which the giddiness of childhood, and the heat and folly of youth are perpetually exposed: and, lastly, that I was bred up, all along in the truth, faith, and obedience of him, and his will, till I have arrived at years of discretion, and now make that service of God my act and choice, to which I have been guided by his blessing upon the kind exertions of others.

MEDITATION XLI.

God's long-suffering.

So great, o numerous, O Lord my God, are the proofs which thou hast given me of thy marvellous love! But, though I praise and adore thy Majesty for all thy wondrous works, yet art thou more justly to be admired for none, than for those acts of goodness and tender pity, which plainly speak the most enlarged bowels of our heavenly Father's paternal affection, to his unworthy and rebellious children. These are so unbounded, as to reach all without distinction. For thou despisest no man, castest off no man, abhorrest no man, except such only as by their own incorrigible folly, have given thee provocation, by first forsaking and contemning thee. And therefore I, O Lord, in particular, must own, that I have many mercies, and much indulgence of this kind to love and thank thee for. For thou hast frequently rescued me from dangers which had hemmed me in on every side, and left me no power to escape, by any strength or prudence of my own. When I was engaged in sinful actions, thou didst not leave me to perish in them; when I forgot thee, thou didst refresh my memory; when I was falling off from thee, thou didst recall and bring me home again; when I returned in obedience to that call, thou didst receive and meet me with open arms; and when my soul was wounded with grief for my former transgressions, thou didst comfort my sorrows, pardon my offences, accept my repentance,

and speak peace to my troubled mind. Nay, I should detract from the greatness of thy mercy, in acknowledging the benefit of so gracious a pardon, for my past actual transgressions only: since it is of the same mercy alone, that not only the crimes really committed by me, but all those too, which I should have committed, had not thy grace and good providence restrained and protected me, are not suffered to inflame my reckoning, at the last terrible day of account. For as I do with shame and deep remorse confess, that the sins I have fallen into are many and grievous; so I am sadly sensible of my own weakness and frailty, and that my faults would have far exceeded what they now have done, had not thy watchful care and goodness preserved me.

Now there are three ways, which I plainly perceive thou hast made use of to this purpose; and each hath greatly contributed to my safety. These are, the removal of the occasion, the power of resistance, and the sincerity thou hast granted to my will and affections: for without all dispute, I had been very frequently ensnared in sin, had temptations and opportunities offered themselves thicker to me; but the good providence of God so ordered the matter, that many times I had no evil suggestions prompting me to wickedness, nor any opportunity given the tempter for an assault. Again, I have frequently found myself attacked with great violence; but thou, O Lord, hast come to my succour, and poured in fresh recruits of grace and strength, whereby I was enabled to get the mastery over my appetites, and obstinately to hold out the siege, against the treachery of my own corrupt lusts, which would have betrayed and undermined me,

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and all the fury of the tempter, who laboured to storm the fort of my soul. But some sins again there have been, which thy mercy, O Lord, hath kept me at so great a distance from, that I fectly abhorred the very thoughts of them; and never found myself so much as molested with any temptation to contract so black and detestable a guilt.

O that this had been the case with me in all things, that offend the God of purer eyes than to behold iniquity! But where it was not, I have not wanted plentiful experience of thy goodness and compassion. For, alas! my God, my conscience reproaches me with having too often and too heinously displeased thy Divine majesty. Wretch that I am, I have behaved myself unseemly in thy presence, I have done amiss and dealt wickedly, provoked thy anger, and deserved the hottest of thy vengeance. I have transgressed, and thou hast borne with it. I have sinned long and perversely, and still thou sufferest me to live. If I repent thou sparest me, if I return thou receivest me gladly. Nay, even while I dally and am so dilatory in this, my most important concern, thou inspirest me with better and more serious thoughts. When I wander, thou bringest me back; when I resist thy gracious methods, thou winnest me over and inclinest my will. When I am slothful, thou quickenest and spurrest me on; when I flee to thee for mercy, thou readily extendest it: Thou instructest my ignorance, thou driest up my tears, supportest my drooping spirits, raisest me up again when I fall, repairest my breaches and inward decays, grantest when I ask, art found when I seek thee, openest when I knock, showest me the good way, and

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