[Footnote 57] Ephesians iv, 30.
[Footnote 58] Isaiah xliii, 24.
[Footnote 59] Luke xv, 20-23.
[Footnote 60] Zephaniah iii, 17.
§ 15. Alas! my fearful heart scarce dares proceed. Methinks I hear the Almighty's voice saying to me, _Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge_?[61] But pardon thy Servant, O Lord. I have not pried into unrevealed things. I bewail that my apprehensions are so dull, my thoughts so mean, my affections so stupid, and my expressions so low, and unbeseeming such a glory. _I have_ only _heard by the hearing of the ear_: oh, let thy servant _see thee_ and possess these joys; and then shall I have more suitable conceptions, and shall give thee fuller glory; I shall _abhor my_ present self, and disclaim and renounce all these imperfections, _I have uttered that I understood not, things too wonderful for me, which I knew not_.[62] Yet _I believed, and therefore have I spoken_.[63] What, Lord, canst thou expect from dust but levity? or from corruption, but defilement? Though the weakness and irreverence be the fruit of my own corruption, yet the fire is from thine altar, and the work of thy commanding. I looked not into thy ark, nor put forth my hand unto it, without thee. _Wash_ away these stains also _in the blood of the Lamb_. Imperfect, or none, must be thy service here. O take thy Son's excuse, _the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak_.[64]
[Footnote 61] Job xxxviii, 2.
[Footnote 62] Job xlii, 3, 5, 6.
[Footnote 63] 2 Corinthians iv, 13.
[Footnote 64] Matthew xxvi, 41.