shaken with the smallest wind; thou hast bestowed on me courage, uprightness, and every good thought I have; thou hast given me a new heart, which desires thy righteousness, and is converted by thy eternal truth; in giving it to me, thou hast likewise taken away the earthly corrupt heart of the old man, which is jealous, vain, ambitious, restless, unjust and eager after pleasures. To what misery have I been devoted, could I ever have believed and hoped thus to turn to thee, and shake off the yoke of my tyrannic passions! But here is the great wonder, which effaces all the rest; what other hand but thine could tear me from myself? It is not I that

have done this work, for self can never come out of self, there must then be a foreign support on which I may rest, when banished from myself to condemn the misery of my own heart. This help must be foreign, since I cannot find it in myself, which is what it ought to fight with, but it must also be within me, to tear this self from the most inward folds of my heart. It is thou, my God, who, by causing thy light to penetrate even to the bottom of my soul which nothing else could reach, hast shewn me my own deformity; I well know that in seeing it, I have not changed it, and that I am still deformed in thy eyes; I well know that what belongs to me could not discover it, but I see it in part, and wish to discover the whole; I seem horrible to myself, but the hope which I have in thee quiets my mind, for I would neither flatter my vices, nor suffer them to discourage me, I see it then and bear it, without letting this shame disquiet me. 0 my God, I am for thee, against myself; thou alone couldst thus cause me to be at strife with myself; this is thy internal operation which thou continuest daily, to tear from me all that remains of evil, and the old Adam, and to complete the formation of the new man;

this is that second creation of the new man, which is day by day renewed. O my God, I leave myself in thy hands, do what thou pleasest with this clay, give it a form, break it afterwards, it is thine, and has nothing to object, content if it serves to accomplish thy designs, and that nothing in me resists thy good pleasure, for which I was created. Require, command, forbid, as it shall please thee, whatever thou wouldst have me to do, or not to do, exalted or abased, comforted or suffering, diligent in thy works or unprofitable in all things, I will always equally adore thee, by sacrificing all selfwill to thine; my part in all things is only to say with Mary "Be it unto me according to thy word." But while by thee, all is thus effected inwardly, thou art not less active outwardly. I discover in all, even in the smallest atom, that great hand which supports the heaven and the earth, and to which the direction of the universe seems but as a sport. The only thing which embarrasses me, is to comprehend why thou sufferest so much evil to be mixed with the good, thou canst not be the author of evil, all thou doest is good; whence comes it then, that the whole world is filled with guilt and misery? nay it seems as if the evil prevailed over the good; thou hast made the world only for thy glory, and yet we are tempted to believe it turns to thy dishonour; the number of the wicked surpasses that of the good, even within thy church; almost all flesh have corrupted their ways; the good are only so in part, and we have almost equal reason to lament over them as the bad; all suffer, and all are in a state of disorder, our misery equals our corruption. Why delayest thou, O Lord, to separate the evil from the good? haste, O Lord, to glorify thy name, and teach those who blaspheme it, how great it is. Why dost thou not call all things to

order? Methinks I hear the wicked say, "The Lord seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth." Arise, O Lord, arise, and tread thine enemies under thy feet. But, O my God, thy judgments are far above, out of our sight, thy "ways are more above our ways, than the heavens are above the earth," We are impatient, because our whole life is but as a moment; on the contrary, thy forbearance is owing to thy eternity, in respect to which "a thousand years are but as one day.” All times and seasons are in thy power, and men are ignorant of them; they are therefore offended and impatient, and they regard thee as sunk under the weight of so much iniquity, but thou laughest at their blindness and erroneous zeal. Thou hast given me understanding to perceive that there are two kinds of evil; the one, is the violation of thy law, which proceeds from men acting without thee, and abusing their liberty; the other is caused by thee, and is in fact a blessing, when considered as that punishment and correction, which thou hast destined for the wicked. Sin is the evil which proceeds from man: death, diseases, shame, pain, and all other miseries, are the evils which, by thy providence, are converted into good, making them serve to the reparation of sin. As to sin, it is suffered by thee, that, as the scripture expresses it, man may remain free "in the hand of his counsel." But without being the author of sin, how miraculously dost thou make even it subservient to thy glory. Thou sometimes makest use of the wicked, to correct and perfect the good, by humbling them: at other times thou makest use of them against themselves, and punishest them by each other; but that which is most affecting and amiable, is, that thou causest the injustice and persecution of some, to convert others. How many people are there, who, living in the contempt

of thy law, and forgetfulness of thy favours, thou hast brought back to thyself, in detaching them from the world, by the injuries they have suffered in it. But, O my God! I perceive another wonder, which is, that thou sufferest a mixture of good and evil, even in those hearts that are devoted to thee; the imperfections which remain in such pious souls, serve to detach them from themselves, and make them apply eagerly to thee for succour, and make them comprehend that prayer is the source of all true virtue. O what abundance of good

Thou

dost thou draw from the evil thou permittest! thou sufferest the evil to educe from thence the highest good, and to make thy almighty love shine forth, by the art with which thou makest use of those evils. dost not cause the injustice of man, but though incapable of producing it, thou employest it so as to make it the instrument of thy justice or mercy. Human reason, that would enter into judgment with the Almighty, and penetrate into the eternal secrets of providence, replies, "God had no occasion to draw the good out of evil, he need only at once not have permitted the evil, by making all men good; it was in his power, and he need only have done for all men what he has done for some, whom he has raised out of themselves by the charms of his grace: Why has he not done this?

O my God, I know by thy holy word that "thou "hatest nothing that thou hast made; thou wouldst not "that any should perish; thou art the saviour of all men." When thou shalt judge the earth, thou shalt be victorious in thy judgments: the condemned creature shall see the justice of his sentence, thou shalt shew him clearly that thou hast done all that was possible for the culture of thy vine, it is not thou that hast failed, but it that

has undone itself.

At present man sees not this, because he knows not his own heart, nor discerns the grace that has been offered him. At the day of judgment all will be unfolded to his sight, he will see what thou hast done for him, and what he has done against himself; he will be horribly afraid to see it, yet will not be able to avoid viewing it in everlasting despair. This is what man understands not in this life, but from the time that he knows thee, he ought to believe this truth without comprehending it; he cannot doubt of thy existence; thou, by whom all things were made; nor can he doubt but thou art the sovereign good, therefore he may conclude, in spite of all the darkness that surrounds him, that, being gracious to some, thou art just to all: and still further, that thou dost bestow grace on those who will eternally feel thy justice, and such grace as will render them inexcusable when thou shalt judge them, or rather when they shall judge themselves, and that the truth engraven on their hearts, shall pronounce their condemnation. If they have been wicked, it is not that they wanted ability from thee to be good, but they willed it not, and thou didst not deprive them of their liberty; who can complain that he did not receive from thee superabundance of grace? The master who gives to all his servants the just recompence of their work, has he not a right to be peculiarly liberal to some? What he gives to those above their wages, does it give the others the smallest foundation of complaint? this, O Lord, thou shewest, as says the scripture, that all thy ways are verity and judgment; thou art good towards us all, but good in different degrees, and the mercies which thou scatterest with such an extraordinary profusion on some, are no rule for thy acting always in the same manner.

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