. Nay, the preparation is thine too; this
melting, this wounding, this breaking, this contrition, which I have
now, is thy way to thy end; and those discomforts are, for all that,
_the earnest of thy Spirit in my heart_;[163] and where thou givest
earnest, thou wilt perform the bargain. Nabal was confident upon his
wine, but _in the morning his heart died within him_.[164] Thou, O Lord,
hast given me wormwood, and I have had some diffidence upon that; and
thou hast cleared a morning to me again, and my heart is alive. David's
heart smote him when he cut off the skirt from Saul;[165] and his heart
smote him when he had numbered his people:[166] my heart hath struck me
when I come to number my sins; but that blow is not to death, because
those sins are not to death, but my heart lives in thee. But yet as long
as I remain in this great hospital, this sick, this diseaseful world, as
long as I remain in this leprous house, this flesh of mine, this heart,
though thus prepared for thee, prepared by thee, will still be subject
to the invasion of malign and pestilent vapours. But I have my cordials
in thy promise; _when I shall know the plague of my heart, and pray unto
thee in thy house_,[167] thou wilt preserve that heart from all mortal
force of that infection; _and the peace of God, which passeth all
understandings shall keep my heart and mind through Christ Jesus_.[168]

XI. PRAYER.

O eternal and most gracious God, who in thy upper house, the heavens,
though there be many mansions, yet art alike and equally in every
mansion; but here in thy lower house, though thou fillest all, yet art
otherwise in some rooms thereof than in others; otherwise in thy church
than in my chamber, and otherwise in thy sacraments than in my prayers;
so though thou be always present and always working in every room of
this thy house, my body, yet I humbly beseech thee to manifest always a
more effectual presence in my heart than in the other offices. Into the
house of thine anointed, disloyal persons, traitors, will come; into thy
house, the church, hypocrites and idolators will come; into some rooms
of this thy house, my body, temptations will come, infections will come;
but be my heart thy bedchamber, O my God, and thither let them not
enter. Job made a covenant with his eyes, but not his making of that
covenant, but thy dwelling in his heart, enabled him to keep that
covenant. Thy Son himself had a sadness in his soul to death, and he had
a