BAXTER'S DYING THOUGHTS. 165 49. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquity, O Lord, who should stand ? But there' is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. I wait for. the Lord ; my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope: I will hope in the Lord, for with him there is mercy and plenteous redemption; Psalm cxxx. 3,5. 7. For he taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy ; Psalm cxlvii. 11. Though flesh and heart fail, the Lord is the rock of my heart he is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good to them that wait for him ; to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that I shouldboth hope, and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for me that I have borne the yoke in my youth, and that I keep silence, and put my mouth in the dust, as if so be there may be hope ; psalm lxxiii. 26. Lam. iii. 24-27. 29. Godneed not flatter such worms as we, nor promise us that which he never meaneth to perform. He bath laid the rudiments of our hope, in a nature capable pf desiring, seeking, and thinking of an- other life: he bath called me by grace to actual desires and en- deavors ; and some foretaste he bath vouchsafed. I look for no heaven, but the perfectionof divine life, light, and love, in endless glory with Christ and his holy ones. And this he bath begun in me already ; and shall I not boldly hope, when I have thecapacity, the promise, and the earnest and foretaste? Is it not God himself that has caused me to hope ? Was not nature, promise, and grace from him ? And can a soul miscarry, and be deceived, that de- parteth hence in a hope of God's own causing, and encouraging? Lord, I have lived in hope, I have prayed in hope, I have labored, suffered, and waited in hope; and, by thy grace, I will die inhope. And is not this according to thy word . and will ? And wilt thou cast away a soul that hopeth in thee, by thine own command and operation ? Had wealth and honor, or continuance on earth, or the favor of man, been my reward and hope, my hope and I had died together. Were this our best, how vain were man ! But the Lord liveth, and my Redeemer is glorified, and intercedeth for me ; and the same Spirit is in heaven, who is in my heart, (as the same sun is in the firmament which is in my house,) and the prom- ise is sure to all Christ's seed. And millions are now in heaven, that once did live and die in hope ; they were sinnersonce, as now I am; they had no other Savior, no other Sanctifier, no other promise than I now have; confessing that theywere strangers here, they looked for a better country, and for a city that had founda- tions, even a heavenly, where now they, are: and shall I not fol- low them in hope that have sped so well? Hope, then, O my soul, unto the end; 1 Pet. i. 13. From henceforth, and forever, hope in the Lord; Psalm cxxxi. 13. I will hope continually, and
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