2. Look up, O my foul and fee the facred humanity of thy dear Redeemer; that bleffed Jefus that died for us upon the cross; and now invites us to partake of his holy facrament. See and rejoice in those eternal honours, which heaven and earth pay to their king.

3. What is a name of honour, or a momentary pleasure, compared to the blifs of an eternal paradife? what is a bag of money, or a fair eftate, if counterbalanced with the treasures of heaven? how narrow there do our greatest kingdoms feem! how small a circle the whole globe of the earth cities and towns fhow like little mole-hills, and the bufy world but as a fwarm of ants, running up and down, and jostling one another; and all this stir for a few grains or husks.

4. O heaven, let me again lift up mine eyes to thee, and take a fuller view of that glorious profpect! There let me ftand and fix my fteady fight, till I am fully convinced, that all the most profperous fortune we can here poffefs, is all an idle dream compared to thy real joys; an abfolute nothing compared to thy folid felicity.

Here observe the directions given on page 8, and more particularly endeavour to improve your soul by reading a lesson out of the NEW WHOLE DUTY OF MAN, Sunday 5. Section V.

The

The prayer on Wednesday Evening, for the attainment of everlasting happiness.

Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. John vi. 54.

O

Moft great, moft mighty, and mot glorious Lord God! look down from the habitation of thy holiness, upon me thy unworthy creature, who am come into thy prefence to adore thy incomprehenfible majefty, and to prefent before thee the evening facrifice of my unfeigned praises for thy many and undeferved favours beftowed upon me: I acknowledge thy eternal honour, glory, praise, and adoration, for thou art the fovereign Lord of heaven and earth, by whom all things were made, and by infinite power and goodness they are preferved and kept in being. And,

Bleffed be thy unfpeakable goodness, that has advanced me to fuch a degree of being, that I am in fome meafúre capable to know thee, to love thee, to serve thee, and obey thee. And for ever bleffed be thy name, O Lord, that I was born of Chriftian parents, and early dedicated to thee by baptifm; and that by thy grace and goodnefs I have been preferved to this moment, and have, in any

G

degree

degree, efcaped the pollutions of this wicked world.

Bleffed be thou, O God, who by thy grace, and by the voice of thy church, haft called me to repentance: difcover to me, O thou fearcher of hearts, the vaft charge that is against me, that I may know and confefs, and forfake the many fins I have fallen into. Give me that true repentance to which thou haft promifed mercy and pardon, that I may amend what I have done amifs, and that iniquity may not be my ruin. And, O bleffed advocate, who ever liveft to make interceffion for me, I put my caufe into thy hands; let thy blood and merits plead for me, and by thy mighty interceffion procure for me the pardon of my past offences, that thou mayft fay unto me, as thou didst unto the penitent in the gofpel-Thy fins are forgiven-fo that I may go with a quiet confcience to thy holy table, and at laft be received into the glorious prefence for evermore. Amen.

See the concluding prayer and blessing on pages 38 and 39.

The

The Meditation for Thursday Morning*. Upon our sanctification, whereby we are made worthy to come to the holy sucrament.

Except a man be born of water, and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born. of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the spirit, is spirit. John iii 5, 6.

1.

Confider, O my foul, the mercies

thy

;

the wonders he has wrought for the children of men. The eternal Father created us out of nothing, and fet us in the way to everlafting happiness. The eternal Son came down from Heaven to feek us when we had loft ourselves. The eternal Spirit brings us grace to fanctify us, and gives ús ftrength to walk in that holy way. Thus every perfon of the facred Trinity has freely contributed his peculiar blefsing; and altogether, as one co-infinite. goodnefs, have graciously agreed to com-. plete our happiness.

2. Come, then, let us humbly implore, the Divine Grace to make us worthy to address our Sanctifier; who from the Father and the Son eternally proceeds, and with the Father and the Son muit be equally worshiped and glorified. He infufes into man the breath of life, and brings him forth in the fecond birth; a birth

* Here you may observe the directions given on page 3,

birth that makes men heirs of heaven, and gives us a title to everlafting happiness.

3. Arife, therefore, O my foul, and intercede for pity upon the unhappy flate of fallen mankind, which neither nature nor law could bring to perfection. For though they under the law were trained up in a fet form of difcipline, which grew and spread into a public religion, and was uniformly profeffed by a whole nation; yet they had but weak conceits of the kingdom of heaven, and imperfect means to bring them thither: and as to those high and fupernatural myfteries, that fo glorioufly exalt the Chriftian faith, they all were blind or in the dark, and dangeroufly expofed to the effects of their own ignorance, wanting thofe clear and powerful motives to love their God; God having provided fome better thing for us, that they without us fhould not be made perfect, Heb. xi. 40. Nevertheless, this prepared them for the times of grace; fo that if any riper fouls came forward to the birth, there wanted fpirit to bring them forth; but fend out thy Spirit, O Lord, and they fhall be created, and from the death of fin, be railed to the life of holinefs: fend out thy Spirit, and renew the face of the earth; and our weeds and thorns fhall be turned into a paradife,through Jefus Chrift.