THE TRUE PENITENT. 507 cording to the day ? Dost thou fear that my zeal, my strength, and, the sounding of my bowels towards thee, are restrained ? Am not I Jesus still ? Is my love waxed cold that it cannot pity ? Is my hand shorten- ed at all that it cannot save? Is mine ear heavy that -it cannot hear? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I clothe the heavens with blackness ; and if in the greatest storm I say to the raging billows, Be still ! there is á great calm : fear not then : the zeal of the' Lord of hosts my zeal, will do this and more for thy soul ; yea, I will do for thee exceeding 'abundantly above all that thou canst ask or think. "I see what passes in thy heart, O thou unwise and slow of heart to believe all that I and my prophets have spoken; I read thy new excuses. Thòt' sagest thou dost not suspect me, my faithfulness, and my power; but thyself, thy helplessness, and the treachery of thy own desperately wicked heart. - -What, shall this sore evil hinder thee from coming to me, who alone can remedy it? Wilt thou pray to be excused from believing, on such an account as this? O drop this last, this most absurd plea ; and walk in the steps of the faith of thy father Abraham, Romans iv. 16. Consider not the deadness and hardness of thy heart, but the reviving softening love of mine; not thy want of power; but my omnipotence; not the suggestion of Satan, but the declarations of my gospel. "Wrestle not only against flesh and blood, but against the powers of internal darkness, and the spiritual wicked- ness of an unbelieving thought. Strive to enter in at the strait gate of faith. Against hope believe in hope, that I quicken the dead, and call the things which are not as though they were. Stagger no more at my promises through unbelief; but be strong in faith, and 'give glory to God, by being fully per- suaded that what I promise, I am able and willing to perform. "In me thou mayest find the richest and readiest supply of all thy wants : I am both the Resurrection
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