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Breathings of the devout soul, and Meditations and vows
Breathings of the devout soul and Meditations and vows Author:Joseph Hall Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: natural being, I live and move in thee; so, let me not live and move spiritually but with thee and to thee! Whither now, oh! whither do ye rove, O my thoughts... more »? Can ye hope to find rest in any of these sublunary contentments? Alas! how can they yield any stay to you, that have no settlement in themselves? Is there not enough in the Infinite Good to take you up; but that ye will be wandering after earthly vanities? O my Lord, how justly mightest thou cast me off with scorn, for casting any affective glances upon so base a rival! Truly, Lord, I am ashamed of this my hateful inconstancy: but it is thou only that must remedy it. O thou that art the Father of Mercies, pity my wildness and weak distractions. Take thou my heart to thee: it is thine own: keep it with thee: tie it close to thee by the cords of love; that it may not so much as cast down an eye upon this wretched and perishing world. Lord, I confess, to my shame, thou art a great loser by me: for, besides my not improving of my favours, I have not kept even-reckonings with thee : I have not justly tallied up' by thy inestimable benefits. Thy very Privative Mercies are both without and beyond my account; for every evil that I am free from is a new blessing from thee : that I am out of bondage, that I am out of pain and misery, that I am out of the dominion of sin, out of the tyranny of Satan, out of the agonies of an afflicted soul, out of the torments of hell; Lord, chapter{Section 4how unspeakable mercies are these ! yet, when did I bless thee for any of them ? Thy Positive Bounties I can feel; but with a benumbed and imperfect sense. Lord, do thou enlarge and intenerate my heart: make me truly sensible, as of my good received, so of my escaped evils; and take thou to thyself the glory of them both. Ah, my Lord G...« less