to employ it in his praise : " O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever." Blessed resolution ! O that every one of us would instantly adopt it ! O that God would inspire us with grace sufficient to carry it into execution ! It is in order to bring all to this, that we have been so particular in the foregoing statement. It is with a view to this that we so earnestly recom- mend humiliation before God under seasons of darkness, rather than an attention to abstract points which tend only to foster a delusion. Humility, and contrition, and a believing application of the blood of Christ to our souls, can never deceive us ; but, on the contrary, must infallibly lead to songs of praise and thanksgiving: " if we sow in tears, we must reap in jcy." Only observe the process, and see how connected are all the links of the chain : in prosperity, we have relapsed into carnal confidence, and provoked God to leave us in a state of spiritual dereliction: alarmed and humbled by his frowns, we betake ourselves to fer- vent prayer, imploring mercy in the name of our Lord Jesus' Christ ; and through the unbounded grace of God we experience a speedy recovery ; and from thenceforth have our mouths filled with grateful acknowledgments to the God of our salvation. We only add to this, that the deeper is our humiliation on ac- count of sin committed, the more speedy and exalted will be our joys on account of deliverance vouchsafed.]
Address,
1 . To those who are walking with God —
[What shall we say ? Even if you were as eminent as ever David was, we should think it right to guard you against the conceit, that you were in no danger of being " moved." In re- lation to all that you possess of temporal things, we would incul- cate this salutary lesson, " Let those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who weep be as though they wept not, 'and those that rejoice as though they rejoiced not, and those who buy as though they possessed not, and those that use this world, as not abusing it." Every thing must be held as from God, and for God, to be disposed of according to his sovereign will and pleasure. And in reference to every thing of a spiritual nature, we would recommend a constant sense of our entire dependence upon God, saying " Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe." Some will confound this with unbelief : but it differs from un- belief as much as humility from pride : in truth, it is the very root of faith ; for it is only in proportion as we feel our liability to fall, that we shall look truly and constantly to Christ for strength. Be weak as new-born infants in yourselves, and God will keep beneath you his everlasting arms, and perfect " his own strength in your weakness."]
2. To