Imatges de pàgina
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God: fave me, therefore, by his cross and paffion, blefs, govern, and keep me this day, and for ever. Amen.

I laid me down and flept, and rose up again, forthe Lord hath futained me. Amen.

When you are ready, look on your soul as still undressed, till you have said your prayers.

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Bleffed Lord! who haft invited and commanded us to pray unto thee, let thy fpirit help mine infirmities; and do thou fo difpofe my mind, and influence my heart in my preparation for a worthy receiving of thy moft holy facrament, that my prayers and praises may be acceptable in thy fight, thro' the mediation, and for the fake of Jefus Chrift our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

O killall vices in me; and fo ftrengthen

Almighty Lord God, mortify and

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me with thy grace, that by the innocency of my life, and the conftancy of my faith, I may always glorify thy great and holy Grant me the true circumcifion of the Spirit; that, my heart and all my members being mortified from all worldly and carnal lufts, I may in all things obey thy bleffed will. Enable me to love my enemies, and to do good to those that hate me, and to pray for them that defpitefully ufe me, and perfecute me, in obedience to the command, and in imi

tation of the example of my great Lord and Master, Chrift Jefus. Amen

Here may be added (if time will permit) the Morning Prayer, on page 135 of this FIRST PART.

Give us

OUR Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trefpaffes, as we forgive them that trefpafs against us. And lead us not into temptation: but deliver us from evil. Amen.

So far may be used every Morning before the meditations

The Meditation for Monday Morning. Upon our Saviour's loving invitation to the communion of his body and blood.

I.

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My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John ii. 14 NOME now, O my foul, and let us retire from the purfuits of this vain deceitful world; and let us well confider the gracious and condefcending invitations wherewith our bleffed Lord and only Saviour has called us, in his holy' Gofpel, to be partakers of his holy Table. Why then this wavering or coldaefs, O my foul! give ear to the eternal truth, who will remove all thy doubts and fears by the following invitation.

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Come

COME unto me all ye that labour and are beavy laden, and I will refresh you. The bread that I will give, is my flesh; which I will give for the life of the world. Take, eat, this is my body, which is given for you; this do in remembrance of me. He that eateth my Alefh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and 1 in him. The words which I fpake unto you, they are fpirit, and they are life. Matt. xi. 28. John vi. 51. 1 Cor. xi. 24. John vi. 56, 63.

2. Rife, then, my foul, and take thy fwifteft wings, fly to this great mystery. There we fhall fee the Prince of Peace facrifice himself to reconcile us with the Father there we fhall fee, O ftupendous mercy! the Son of God with heavenly food entertaining the fons of men. Can we, O dear Redeemer! believe the wonders of this myftery, and not be ravifhed with admiration of thy great goodness? can we acknowledge thy perfect veracity, and not believe this wonder of thy love? let us not then refufe to believe our God, becaufe his mercies tranfcend our capacities. None but infinite wildom could ever have invented fo ftrange, and high, and prodigious a myftery. None but an inconceivable infinite goodness would ever have imparted fo dear, and tender, and rich a bleffing.

3. When

3. When the impiety of men was at the height, and their treacherous heads plotting to betray thee, then did thy wildom mercifully confult to overcome our malice with thy bounty. Immediately thou contriveft an admirable way to invite all the world to a feast of wonders: a feaft! where thy facred body fhould be our food, and thy precious blood our drink. A feall! in which are continually wrought new miracles of love for us. Thus, as if it had not been love enough to have given thy-.. felf on the crofs for us, thou haft found out a way to give thyfelf to us in the holy facrament: to unite us with thy felf by the most intimate union that is poffible for us to conceive, and which we can better feel than exprefs; to become the life, the ftrength, the fupport, and comfort of our beings: nay, to become even one with me, and be unto me the very foul of my foul. O Lord my God! this is fo inconceivable a bleffing, this is for divine an union, that the very angels,. with awful admiration, contemplate thy wonderful condefcenfion in it.

4. Lord, who are we, unworthy funers, that thou thus regardeft our wretched duft? what is all the world compared to thee, that thus thou feemeft to difregard thyfelf! it was for our fakes, and to draw

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us up to thy love, that thou haft commanded us to commemorate and reprefent thy paffion, and prefent the merits of it before thy Father, on earth, as thou doft prefent them to him in heaven. It was for our fakes, and to help the infirmities of our nature, that thou didst appoint a commemorative facrifice, of that one oblation of thyself once offered upon the crofs; and bread and wine fo offered and bleffed as fymbols of thy body and 'blood. What great bleffings are thefe, O fefu! that demand my praises!

5. Yet more bleffed is the heart that delires thy coming, and longs to fee thee. in thy glorious felf. O my adored Redeemer when will that happy day appear, when mine eye may behold thee without a veil? when will the clouds and fhadows pafs away, that thy beams may thine on me in their full brightnefs? object not againft me, deareft Lord, that none can fee thy face and live. Those fears thy love has changed, and my fixed hope is now to live by feeing thee. Say not, O thou mild and gracious Majefty, if I approach thy prefence I must die. Rather inftruct me to to die, that I may live for ever in thy prefence.

Here if thou desirest to know the reason why Christ ardained this Sacrament, consult the NEW WHOLE DUTY OF MAN, Sunday 6. Section 1.

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