BUT who am I, poor, proud, sinful dust and ashes, that I should expect — RESOLUTION I.

to live so holy, so heavenly, as is here supposed! Can grapes be gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles?' Can the fruit be sweet, when the root is bitter? Or the streams healthful, when the fountain is poisoned? No, I must either get me a new and better heart, or else it will be impossible for me ever to lead a new and better life. But how must 1 come by this pearl of inestimable value, a new heart? Can I purchase it with my own riches? or find it in my own field? Can I raise it from sin to holiness? from earth or heaven; or from myself to God? Alas! I have endeavoured it, but I find by woeful experience, I cannot attain to it: I have been lifting and heaving again and again, to raise it out of the mire and clay of sin and corruption; but, alas! it will not stir: I have rubbed and chafed it with one threatening after another, and all to get heat and life into it; but still it is as cold and dead as ever: I have brought it to the promises, and set it under the dropping of the sanctuary; I have shown it the beauty of Christ, and the deformity of sin; but yet it is a hard and sinful, an earthly and sensual heart still. What, therefore, shall I do with it? O my God, I bring it unto thee! thou that madest it a heart at first, can only make it a new heart now! O do thou purify and refine it, and renew a right spirit within me!' Do thou take it into thy hands, and out of thine infinite goodness, new mould it up, by thine own grace, into an exact conformity to thy own will! Do thou but give me a new heart, and I shall promise thee, by thy grace to lead a new life, and become a new creature! Do thou but clear the fountain, and I shall endeavour to look to the streams that flow from it; which that I may be able to do with the better success,

I am resolved, by the grace of God, to watch as much over the inward motions of my heart, as the outward actions of my life.

FOR, my heart, I perceive is the womb, in which all sin is first conceived, and from which, my Saviour tells me, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.'
[162] So that, as ever I would prevent the commission of these sins in my life, I must endeavour to hinder their conception in my heart, following the wise man's counsel, to keep my heart with all diligence, because out of it are the issues of life.' [163] Neither is this the only reason, why I should set so strict a watch over my heart, because sinful thoughts lead to sinful acts; but because the thoughts themselves are sinful, yea, the very first-born of iniquity; which though men cannot pry into or discover, yet the all-seeing God knows and observes, and remembers them, as well as the greatest actions of all my life. And oh! what wicked and profane thoughts have I formerly entertained, not only against God, but against Christ, by questioning the justice of his laws, and doubting of the truth of his revelation, so as to make both his life and death of none effect to me! which that they may never be laid to my charge hereafter, I humbly beseech God to pardon and absolve me from them, and to give me grace for the remainder of my life, to be as careful of thinking, as of doing well, and as fearful of offending him, in my heart, as of transgressing his laws in my life and conversation. To this end,