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Cross; let us by the Eye of Faith and Friday Reason look nearer upon him: O what a Man of Sorrows, what a doleful Spectacle do we behold! How pale, how wan, and extenuated, how mournful and doleful is his Face! His Eyes are funk, his Temples are furrowed with the Thorns. O the Gashes, and deep Wounds of his Shoulders and Back, opened all with Stripes! O the wide Rendings of his Hands and Feet! His empty Veins, his ftretched-out Sinews, his rankled Flesh, how flaggy with Stripes, how begored with Blood! His Hair clotted, and his whole Body out of Order; and all this for Sinners, for his Enemies, for loft ungrateful Man, even for us, O my Soul!

II. Come, O my Soul, and compare thy Love for Jejus with that he has fhewn for thee, and all Mankind. O! Confefs thy Remiffness and thy Sin. Say; O bleffed Jefu! I adore thy Love, and acknowledge my Tranfgreffions: For Love brought thee down from Heaven to us; but how few of us

doth

Friday doth it carry up thither unto thee? Love made thee die the moft fhameful Death; but it doth not make us live the most glorious Life. Love made thee endure the forest Pains; but, alas! it doth not make Mankind take the Pleasure of following thy Steps to the greateft Happiness. Love made thee think perpetually on fuch poor Wretches as we are; but we seldom think upon thee. Love perfuaded thee to come to us when there was nothing to call thee, except only our great Miseries; but it doth not bring us all to thee, tho' we are moved by the Merits, and precious Promises of fo immenfe aLove.

III. Let not thy Devotion reft in bare Acknowledgments, do not only praise his Goodness, but dread his Majefty; and let us fhew our Love by our Deeds; to him let us reverently go, and offer our devout Hearts at his Foot-ftool; let us remember every Paffage of his Love with unfeigned Thanks. For, the Lord is fold, that the Slave may be free: The Innocent is condemned, that the Guilty may be faved;

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faved; the Phyfician is fick, that the Friday Patient may be cured; and God him-~ felf becomes Man to die, that Man may live.

IV. Tell me, my Soul, when first thou haft well confidered and looked about among all we know; tell me who ever wifhed us fo much Good? Who ever loved us with fo much Tenderness? our nearest Friends, what have they done for us; or even our Parents, in Comparison of his Charity? No lefs than the Son of God came down to redeem us; no less than his own dear Life was the Price he paid for us: What can the Favour of the whole World promise us, compared to this miraculous Bounty? No less than the Joys of Angels are become our Hope, no less than the Kingdom of Heaven is made our Inheritance.

V. This is the Compaffion of my God! Thus far his Charity prevail'd; who thought it was not enough to become Man for us, but expofed himself to all our Miseries! Was it not enough,

O fefu!

Friday O fefu! to labour all thy Life, but Evon. thou must suffer for us even the Pains

of Death? No, gracious Lord, thy Mercy still obferved many Wants in our Nature as yet unfupplied; thou faweft our too much Fondness of Life needed thy parting with it, to reconcile us to Death; thou faweft our Fear of Sufferings could no way be abated, but by freely undergoing them in thine own Perfon: Thou faweft our Souls fo deeply stained with Guilt, that without fhedding thy Blood we could have no Remiffion.

VI. Can we thus remember the Labours of our Redeemer for us, and not be convinced of our Duty to him? Can my cold Heart recount his Sufferings, and not be enflamed with the Love of him that suffered for me? Can I believe my Salvation coft him fo dear, and live as if to be faved were not worth my Pains? Ungrateful Man, how doth he flight the Goodness of our God! How carelefly comply with his gracious Designs! For all his Gifts he requires no other Return, than that

we

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we hope ftill more, and defire ftill Friday greater Bleffings, and improve them all to our own Happiness: For all his Favours he seeks no other Praise, than our following his steps till we mount up to his Glory.

VII. O my adored Redeemer, behold, to thee I bow, and humbly proftrare my felf in Honour of thy Death: Behold thus low I bow to implore thy Bleffing, and the Affiftance of thy fpecial Grace, that I may wean my Affections from all vain Defires, and cleanse my Thoughts from all impertinent Fancies: That my Life may be intirely dedicated to thee, and all the Faculties of my Soul to thy holy Service: That my Mind may continually ftudy the Knowledge of thee, and my Will grow every Day ftronger in thy Love, and my Memory faithfully recount thy Mercies, and both Tongue and Heart be continually difpofed and habitually employed to praife thee; to praife thy incomparable Love, which has done and fuffered fo much for loft Mankind.