Anonymous

“ O Lord, continue in thy love in keeping me in thy way, that I may have reason to set up my Ebednezzar, and to say, Hitherto the Lord hath helped me. O thou that hast begun this good work, perfect it, that I may praise thy holy name tho' time and all eternity. And now, O Lord, out of the sense of all these thy loving kindness towards thy poor handmaid, I desire in thy strength to renew former engagements, and solemnly anew to enter is to covenant with thee. O honour. Praise be to thee, whose care of me was such that it was ministers who were valiant for Christ that he sent in my way ”

“ O Lord, I here desire to enter solemnly into covenant with thee, taking thee for my Lord and Master, accepting thee on thy own terms, taking thee for my King, Priest, and Prophet; and in my station, thro' thy grace, to stand by truth, and cheerfully to take on thy yoke and follow thee. Lord, thou knowest my weakness: I desire to believe that thou wilt be a present help, in the day of need, to me, according to thy promise ”

“ Let Zion's walls be built again, so that she may Be beautiful as Tirza, comely as Jerusalem, fair as the Moon, clear as the Sun, and terrible as an Army with banners: so that her enemies may tremble; and her children, who for a long time have been mourning over her rubbish, may rejoice in her comely order, and be compassed about with songs. I invite thee to the poor betrayed scattered societies in Scotland, that thou art now justly contending with. The marks of thy displeasure are evidently to be seen in every meeting; an absent God in every piece of duty, love and tenderness much gone ”

“ Lord, appear thou for their help, and shorten these days for the elect's sake, lest they faint under the burden, and put forth their hands to iniquity.—I desire this day to covenant with thee, in opposition to all the power civil, and ecclesiastic, that has eaten out the life of Christianity, and stands in opposition to thee and thy precious truths,—and engage never to own them, till they be for thee. ”

“ O Lord, take them off my hand, that they may be marked in thy love in that day when thou goest thro' the land with the devouring sword; let them get their souls for a prey, and be found within the bonds of the everlasting covenant. ”

“ And when thou didst (for the trial of my faith and patience) throw me in very hot flames of affliction, having all discouragements from the world that a poor thing could be trysted with; and that which was sorest to me, not having that measure of sense of thy presence as sometimes before: but O! that condescendence! O that fatherly love, that did not suffer me to sink in this storm which was lightly looked on by the most part; few to sympathize with me, but many thinking it their duty to add to my affliction. ”

“ O Lord, I cannot think upon this; let not our iniquities put a stop in thy way: come over the mountains of opposition, and put us to duty, and keep us at duty and dwell with us. I invite thee to come to my poor babes; let them be of the little children that thou suffers to come unto thee. Salvation to him that appears to be near his close: let him have mercy in, and thro’, a compleat Mediator Christ; let thy sympathy and free love be extended towards him—he being one of thy suffers wanting the adminisration of thy Sacrament of Baptism, because of the unfaithfulness of ministers. ”

“ I desire in weakness to adhere to it, altho' burnt by the hand of the hangman, and now buried by those that better things were expected oh O Lord, I desire to close all, by giving myself up to thee, and all mine. Accept Lord Jesus Christ, and help to perform, and own me as thy covenanted child protesting humbly, and failing on my part (against which I resolve as thou knowest) shall not make void this covenant. I have accepted of thy offer upon thy own terms, and will henceforth wait for what is good, that when thou comest I may rejoice in thee crying, This is my God, I have waited for him. ”

“ Is not all this come upon us, because our God is not amongst usǃ O that thou, O Lord, wouldest return and make known for what thou are contending, and remove their spiritual plagues, and let thy Spirit be poured out among the sinners in Zion, and let them again behold the King's face in peace.—I desire to invite thee to every afflicted and wearied soul that is lost and like to faint on the dark mountains passing thro' dark steps, and none to speak comfortably unto them, but every one adoing grief to grief. ”

“ It was not I, but thou who magnified thy power, in carrying a poor weak thing thro’ such-depths, and suffered great ones to stagger and fall in the way — Thy word was made out in making use of the foolish things of the world to confound the wise—Thou hast made thy infinite love to carry thro' a poor finite creature.
How often have I been made to stand and wonder and admire free love ”

“ I desire this day, to adhere to all thy covenanted truths, founded on thy holy word.—I desire to mourn over any thing that is in me, or mine, that is offensive in thy sight. O Lord, let us be wholly for thee, acting for thee with a perfect heart I desire no longer to have a posterity than they are for thee. ”

“ May not I sit and admire his free love, first in inclining my heart to love him and his people, and in casting my lot amongst the godly, and in bestowing a godly and kind husband upon me when left destitute of father or mother and that he did so care for me, as not to suffer me to enjoy the desires of my heart, but was at pains to hedge in my way with thorns ”

“ O! wrath is gone out against us! Plague upon plague is the portion for professors of this generation! O Lord, I fear I, and many others, have been building upon a sandy foundation; suffering more out of an expectation of a temporal delivery, than out of love to Christ and his causeǃ the event of the sufferings of Scotland speaks out the truth of this,—the fight whereof has made my heart to trouble. Therefore, O Lord I desire that you wouldest uncover the deceit of my heart in this with a true sense of it upon my spirit ”

“ Is this all we have rendered to him—to run as so many sheep out of a fold, every one to what he could win at, without ever looking and considering what was their duty to do in such a time for Christ and his cause! O! wrath is gone out against us! ”

“ How many lessons of Christianity are to be learned under thy rodǃ So much comfort and consolation is to be found quitely and calmly acquiescing to his will, that I may say, I shall never have such contentedness, were I to be inheritor of the whole world, as I had under the sweet cross of Christ. ”

“ O come and give thy consent to this covenant and bargain this day: let thy presence shew thy satissaction in it, that I may win to the faith—that not only I have covenanted with thee, but that thou hast condesended in thy. people that had jeoparded their lives in the high places of the fields taking chearfully the spoiling of their goods;—these are they that have buried the work of the Lord sadened the hearts of their poor affliction brethren buried the Covenant and the Reformaation work, which was the glory of our land. ”

“ The work of God betrayed, not by enemies, nor by that party only that had sitten at their ease, but by those ministers and the greatitude we have shewn him for all his loving kindness to us in the wildernessǃ Is this for his feeding, cloathing and preserving in despight of enemies! ”