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THE DESERTED MAN.

His Misery.

WHEN I consider but the goodness of my God, in offering his gracious favours to me, and my own vileness in refusing of such gracious offers-I cannot choose but wonder at his mercy, in that I live, and am not snatched away from the possibility of repentance. But, ah! what comfort is a life that is branded with the mark of death? and what happiness is this possibility of repentance, which hath no strength to actuate it, but thy own? My soul, in what a case art thou? into what a miserable state art thou reduced! Thou hast forsaken thy God, and I fear thy God has forsaken thee. Methinks I want the glory of that sun that once revived me; methinks I lack the com

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fort of those beams that once refreshed me; methinks I fear, where no fear is; and where I most should fear, I find myself no whit afraid. Those heavenly raptures which heretofore surprised my ravished soul, have now no relish in my drowsy ear; those heart-confounding judgments, whose very whispers in former times would split my soul asunder, now move not if they thunder. Those sinful thoughts that pressed my soul like mill-stones, can now be acted and reacted without a sigh. Those heavenly prophets, whose presence filled me with delight, now trouble not my patience with their absence. My heart is a lump of dead flesh, my soul is stricken with a dead palsy, my affections with a lethargy. My zeal is frozen, my faith is bed-rid, my charity is dead, and my greatest grief is, that I cannot grieve. The mark of Cain is upon me, and I fear that every beast that meets me will

devour me. O my soul, what comfort can remain with thee when the God of comfort has forsaken thee? What safety canst thou find when thou hast lost the God of peace? What would I not forego that I might re-obtain my God! what pleasure would I not abjure, that I might regain his gracious pleasure!

CHEER up, my soul; who gives thee a heart to desire, will likewise give thee thy heart's desire. Let not his seeming absence dismay thee; the sense of his absence is the symptom of his presence; let his word be an antidote for thy despair, which saith,

For a small moment have I forsaken, but with great mercies will I gather thee. Isaiah, liv. 7.

Deut. iv. 31.

The Lord thy God is a merciful God; he will not forsake thee, neither destroy

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thee, nor forget the covenant of thy
fathers, which he sware unto them.
2 Cor. iv. 9.

We are persecuted, but not forsaken."
Joshua, i. 5.

I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.
Nehemiah, ix. 31.

For thy great name sake thou didst not utterly consume them nor forsake them, for thou art a gracious and a merciful God.

His Soliloquy.

IF thy breath, O my soul, fail thee but a minute, thou diest; if thy health forsake thee awhile, thou languishest; if thy sleep leave thee, thou art distempered; no wonder, if thy God withdraws, that thou art troubled. Deject not, O my soul, nor let thy thoughts despair; stay thee with his promises, and comfort thee with his mercies. Dost

thou mourn for him? thou shalt be comforted in him: dost thou thirst after him? thou shalt be filled with him. He that suffers not a cup of cold water for his sake to go unrewarded, will not permit a tear for his love to be unregarded. He withdraws to sharpen thy desire; he seems lost, to inflame the seeker; he forsakes thee awhile, that he may be thine for ever. Thou wantest him, because thou desirest him; thou desirest him, because thou lovest him. Thou couldst not love him, had he not first loved thee; and whom he loves, he loves to the end. If thy neglect has sent him from thee, let thy diligence draw him to thee; if thou hast lost him by thy sins, seek him by true repentance; and if thou find him by thy prayer, entertain him with thy thanksgiving.

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