There is none under heaven that can comfort me, but thou my Lord God, the heavenly physician of souls, that strikest and healest, bringest down to hell, and bringest back again. Let thy correction be upon me, and let thy rod instruct me. 5. Behold, dear Father, I am in thy hands, I bow myself under the rod of thy correction: Strike my back and my neck, that my perverseness may be conformed to thy will. Make me an holy and humble disciple of thine (as thou art wont to do) that I may be ready at every beck of thy pleasure. I commend myself and all that is mine unto thee to be corrected. It is better to be corrected here than hereafter. Thou knowest every thing, and there is nothing in the conscience of man hidden from thee. Before things are done, thou knowest that they will come to pass, and hast no need that any should teach thee, or admonish thee of those things which are done on earth. Thou knowest what is expedient for my profiting, and how fit tribulation is to scour off the rust of my sins. Do with me according to thy good pleasure, and disdain me not for my sinful life; better and more clearly known to none than to thee alone. 6. Grant me, O Lord, to know that which ought to be known, to love that which ought to be loved; To praise that which pleaseth thee most, to esteem that which is precious unto thee, to despise that which is contemptible in thy sight. Suffer me not to judge according to the sight of the outward eyes, nor to give sentence according to the hearing of the ears of ignorant men. But to discern invisible and spiritual things with a true judgment, and, above all things, ever to search after thy good will and pleasure. CHAPTER XXXVI. _That a man ought to esteem himself not worthy of any comfort._ _Christian._ LORD, I am not worthy of any comfort nor of any spiritual visitation. And therefore thou dealest justly with me; when thou leavest me poor and desolate. For though I could shed a sea of tears, yet I were not worthy of thy comfort. For, alas, I deserve nothing but to be punished, in that I have grievously offended thee in many things. But thou, O merciful God, who willest not that any should perish, to shew the riches of thy goodness, vouchsafest to comfort thy servant above the manner of men: For thy comforts are not like the words of men. 2. What have I done, O Lord that thou shouldest bestow any heavenly comforts upon me? I remember not that I have done any good, but have been always prone to sin and slow to amendment. This is true, and I cannot deny it: if I should say otherwise, thou wouldst stand against me, and there would be none to defend me. What have I deserved but hell and everlasting fire? I confess in very truth, that I am worthy of all scorn and contempt, and it is not fit that I should be numbered among thy saints. 3. What shall I say, guilty as I am, and full of all confusion?