all the wit of man cannot imitate. In their comba and cells, there is fomewhat as fweet to the contemplative foul, as the honey itself can be to the body's tafte for here appears plain an over-ruling wisdom and counfel, that directs and acts the poor weak inftruments, to accomplifh fuch wonderful performances, as are far above their own conduct; and not like any the random works of blind chance; but fure to be fome of his manifold works, who in wisdom hath made them all.

Q my foul, thus employ and gratify thy inquifitive, prying humour, to criticife upon the mighty effects of nature, and therein discover, and admire, and adore the glorious author. Fetch in fuch materials at the gates of thy fenfes, as may make the thoughts of God familiar to thy mind. When the works of the Lord are fo great, and fought out of all that have pleasure therein. O let it be thy noble pleasure, to make fuch diligent fearch; and thus devour the creatures, with a holy epicurism, to make thy meditation of God fweet, that thou mayeft be glad in the Lord. O think how amiableis that original caufe of all the beauty, fweetness, and lovelinefs in the world! How immenfe that power, which reared the ftupendous pile of heaven and earth! How bottomless that wisdom, which has fo marfhalled out his innumerable hofts; that though they be contraries and enemies, there is never the least disturbance, but exact order, and perpetual harmony among them! How redundant and overflowing that goodness, which ftill nourishes and cherishes the whole creation; gives the variety of appetites, and prepares food to the guft of every creatures and spreads a table, to feast all the family in heaven and earth! O come, worship, and bow down, and kneel before the Lord thy Maker: that brought thee out of nothing, and so foon can dafh the creature to pieces, as a potter's veffel. Admire his pa

tience,

tience, in fparing thee: when what thou counteft the bafeft things, have not carried it fo bafely towards him; nor brought him fuch difhonour, in breaking their ranks, as thou haft done. And bless his name, for the pre-eminence he has given thee, my foul, above the reft; in creating thee after his own image; as the hidden fpring and principal agent, in every bufinefs: though (like him) thou art ftill out of fight. O know from whence thou cameft; and to whom thou oweft thyfelf. Let him that made thee, have the use of thee. And as he has formed thee for himself, to him devote thyfelf: yea, delight to do his pleasure, in the enjoy ment of every comfortable creature. And bless him that has furnished out the vaft, and even infinite ftores of heaven and earth, for the fake and service of man. But here I muft end, where there is no end. O observe and acknowledge him; fear and love him: admire and praise him in all. For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things, to whom be all glory for ever.

Lo

THE

Amen.

PRAYER.

ORD, thou haft not left thyfelf without witness amongst us; nor art thou far from every one of us: but we may fee the marks of "thy presence, and thy power, and wisdom, and goodness in all the creatures on every fide us. O give me the facred fkill, and spiritual understanding, to discern, and admire, and love, and bless my God, in every thing that I behold: that I may not live without thee in the world; but 60 may fee all full of God. And do thou, Lord, "make me glad, through thy work; and let me "triumph in the works of thy hands; not only in "the fabric of nature; but efpecially in thy new "creating of me in Jefus Chrift. Amen."

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it is, who upholds them, by the word of his power: that powerful word, which fpake them into being at first, when he faid, let them be, and they were, does till keep them in being: and when he fignifies his pleasure for their prefervation; they continue, and hold their ftation. Though indivi duals drop off; yet he keeps up all the feveral kinds : fo that notwithstanding the fucceffion of new water, the fame river ftill runs on in its courfe. And this mighty fuftentation bears up the pillars of the world, till the end of time, when he will flacken the cordage of nature, and (withholding his hand) fuffer it to fink under its own weight. And O! what power have the creatures to keep themselves, any more than they had to make themselves! For, indeed, prefervation is a fort of continued creation; an efflux of the fame omnipotent energy, to fupport them from falling into nothing, as to extract them out of it. And fo the great Father of the universe works even hitherto: and upon him, (the only independent being, and firm bafis of the world,) hang all the ranks of creatures in it, for life, and breath, and all things. He that firft breathed into my noftrils the breath of life, ftill holds thee, my foul, in life. "And man lives not by bread alone, but every "word proceeding out of the mouth of God." Though he raises up a new fupply for us every year, on the face of the earth; yet all would not do, if his bleffing did not make our bread the staff to bear us up. Himself, indeed, is our life, and the length of our days: and while he holds us up, we are

fafe,

fafe, and ftrong in the Lord, and in the power of his might; but when he suspends his influence, we wear off, and waste away, and return to our dust.

GOD is the LORD JEHOVAH, whofe fole prerogative it is, to be of himself, as the only central, selfexiftent being, that has all within himself, and borrows not at all from any elfe. He alone can evermore fay, I am (femper idem) the eternal fource and fountain of all life and effence, unchangeable and immoveable, without any flux, or fhadow of turning; giving to all, and receiving from none. But the creature is a precarious being, that has no fufficiency at home; nothing in itself, but what it receives; to have, and to hold, from above. Its very Nature is to be dependent on its Maker, as well as to be derived from him: And hangs as much upon his will and bounty, even as the funbeams do on that mighty luminary. It has, and is nothing, but (durante beneplacito,) at pure courtefy; and there is only the divine power and pleafure between it and mere nothing.

O my foul, how is all this forgotten by fuch as can fet up for themselves, as if they were no creatures, at another's finding; but complete deities, at their own difpofing, that could ftand upon their own foundation; and grow upon their own root; and carry all before them, by their own ability, wifdom, conduct, and goodness: ftill to command their own fafety; to fet death and trouble at defiance; and live on, and flourish, during their own pleasure? O that poor little drops and crumbs of derivative being fhould fo proudly take upon them, as if they had all in their own hands: and by thus arrogating to themselves, but deftroy themselves, and fwell into bubbles till they burft! My foul, be not thou like them, to forget God that made thee, and grow unmindful of the rock that begat thee. But remember who keeps thee, and feeds the lamp

of

of thy life every moment: the God in whofe hands my breath is, to whom I owe myself and all my great preferver, that has drawn out the weak thread of my life to fuch a length, and in many imminent dangers, has interpofed to fave it, when I thought it just going. O how often have I found him nigh to me, in fuch perilous cafes, to command deliverances for me? and bid me live, even when I had the sentence of death in myself! and without his perpetual concurrence and affiftance, I could not stir a foot, nor heave up a hand, nor fetch a breath, nor fubfift another moment.

And the fame ever-living, and all-fuftaining God, my foul, is the preferver of my fpiritual, as well as of my natural life. That better life of grace, as it is a plant of my heavenly Father's planting; fo of his dreffing and cherishing. And O! how worthy is it of God, to keep the exotic tender offspring alive and verdant in fuch a cold and ill-conditioned foil; and when brushed with fuch rough blasts of temptations, and environed with fuch malignant neighbours on every fide! O my foul, to him that has quickened thee in Chrift Jefus, and made thee alive unto God, still look, and beg for fresh fupplies of the new and holy life, that he may never forfake this work of his own hands, but infpect and keep it night and day: And not only fecure thee from foul falling, but carry thee on in a lively growing, to ripen thee for glory: And, (with that beft of all preservations) preferve thee to his heavenly kingdom.

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TH

THE PRAYER.

HOU, Lord, art he that tookest me out of my mother's womb, and by thee, I have "been holden up ever fince I was born. In thee "I ever live, and move, and am: and as thou haft

"made