being, which continually stands in fulness of faith, in purity of love, in absolute resignation, to do, and be, what and how his beloved pleaseth. This is the last state of the spirit of prayer, and is its highest union with God in this life. Each of these states has its time, its variety of workings, its trials, temptations, and purifications, which can only be known by experience in the passage through them. The _one infallible_ way to go safely through all the difficulties, trials, temptations, or opposition, of our own evil tempers is this: to expect nothing from ourselves, to trust to nothing in ourselves, but in every thing expect, and depend upon God. Keep fast hold of this thread, and then let your way be what it will, darkness, temptation, or the rebellion of nature, you will be led through all, to an union with God: for nothing hurts us in any state, but an expectation of something in it, and from it, which we should only expect from God. We are looking for our own virtue, our _own_ piety, our _own_ goodness, and so live on and on in our _own_ poverty and weakness; to-day pleased and comforted with the seeming strength and firmness of our own pious tempers; to-morrow, fallen into our own mire, we are dejected, but not humbled; we grieve, but it is only the grief of pride, at seeing our perfection not to be such as we vainly imagined. And thus it will be, till the _whole turn_ of our minds is so changed, that we as fully see and know our inability to have any goodness of our own, as to have a life of our own. *When we are brought to this conviction, then we have done with all thought of being our own builders; the whole spirit of our mind is become a mere _faith_, and _hope_, and _trust_ in the sole operation of God’s Spirit, looking no more to any other power, to become new creatures, than we look to any other power for the resurrection of our bodies at the last day. Hence may be seen, that the trials of every state are its greatest blessings; they do that for us, which we most of all want to have done, they force us to know our own _nothingness_, and the _all_ of God. *The soul is always safe in every state, if it makes every thing an occasion either of rising up, or falling down into the hands of God, and exercising faith, and trust, and resignation to him. And therefore the pious soul that eyes only God, that means nothing but being his alone, can have no stop put to its progress; joy and heaviness equally assist him; in the joy he looks up to God; in the heaviness he lays hold on God, and so they both do him the same good.