First, For the sins thou hast committed. The great business of a faat lies in the practice of repentance, and this cannot be done without a narrow scrutiny of the heart: ' Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord,' Lam. iii. 40. The thief must be found before he can be tried, and tried before he is condemned and executed. Some sins may be apprehended with little pains ; but if thou art true to God and thy own soul, thou wouldst not willingly let any escape. How canst thou expect pardon for any, that desirest not justice on all ? And how canst thou say, thovi desirest justice on those sins, which thou endeavourest not to apprehend ? I do not say, thou wilt be able to find all ; it is enough, if by thy diligence thou givest proof of thy sincerity, that thou wouldst not conceal any. Set thyself, therefore, in good earnest to the work : beset thy heart and life round, as men would do a wood where mur- derers are concealed ; hunt back to the several stages of thy life ; bid memory bring in its old records, and read over what passages are there written ; call conscience in to depose what it knows concerning thee^ and encourage it to speak freely ; and take heed thou dost not check this witness, as some corrupt judges do, when they would favour a bad cause, or give it secret instructions, as David did Joab, to deal gently with thee. Be willing to have thy condition opened fully, and all thy covei'ings turned up ; for many times foul designs are hid under fair pretences. Now when thou hast gone as far as thou canst, begging Heaven's help in the thing to search and try thee, whether there be any fiuther wickedness that thou hast not found out, then judge thyself for them with brokenness of heart, justifying God in the sentence denounced against thee. God will have thee lay thy neck on tlie block, though he means not to give the stroke. In a word, labour in thy meditations to give every sin its due weight, and suffer thy thoughts to dwell on them, till thou findest the fire of thy indignation kindle in thy heart against them, yea, flame forth into such a holy zeal, as makes thee put thyself under an oath to endeavour their utter ruin and destruction. Then thou art fit to beg thy own life, when thou hast vowed the death of thy sins. Secondly, Mercy received. Thou hast these, at least the most signal instances of them, upon the file, iniless thou art a very bad husbandman for thy soul. If God thinks fit to bottle his saints' tears, they surely should not forget to book his mercies. Now, there are some special seasons, wherein the saint should take down this chronicle of God's mercies, to read ; and this is one, when he is to engage in this extraordinary duty, First, As the most effectual means to melt his heart for sin. Mercy gives the greatest aggra- vation to sin, and, therefore, it must needs be the most powerful instrument to break the heart for sin : with this God reproached sinning Israel : ' Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise ?' Deut. xxxii. 6. They could not have been so evil, if God had not been so good to them. When God would break the sore of his people's sin, he compounds a poultice with his choicest mercies, and lays this warm to their hearts. David had sat many months under the lectures of the law, unhumbled for his complicated sin ; but Nathan is sent to preach a rehearsal sermon to him of the many mercies that God had graced him with, and while these coals are pouring on his head, his heart dis- solves presently, 2 Sam. xii. 13. The frost is seldom quite oixt of the earth, till the sun hath gotten some power in the spring to dissolve its bands : neither will hardness of heart be removed until the soul be thoroughly wamied with the sense of God's mercies. 'There shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled, and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight,' Ezek. xx. 43. A pardon from the prince hath made some weep, whom the sight of the block could not move. Sight of wrath inflames the conscience ; but sense of mercy kindly melts the heart, and overcomes the will. Secondly, As a necessary ingredient in all our prayers : ' Let your re- quests be made known with thanksgiving,' Phil. iv. 6. This spice must be in all our offei'ings. He that jjrays for a mercy he wants, and is not thankful for mercies received, may seem mindful of himself, but is forgetful of God, aiul so takes tlie right course to shut his prayers out of doors. God will not put liis nicrcies into a rent purse ; and such is an unthankful lieart. Thirdly, Thy
WITH ALL PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION. 713