of his fhoulders and back, opened all with ftripes! O the wide rendings of his hands and feet! his empty veins, his ftretchedout finews, his rankled flesh, how flaggy with ftripes, how begored with blood! his hair clotted, and his whole body out of order! and all this for finners, for his enemies, for loft ungrateful man; even for us, O my foul!

2. Come, O my foul, and compare thy love for Jefus with that he has shown for thee, and all mankind. O! confess they remiffness and thy fin. Say, O blessed Jefu! I adore thy love, and acknowledge my tranfgreffions: for love brought thee down from heaven to us: but how few of us 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 pleafure of following thy fteps to the greateft happiness, Love made thee think perpetually on fuch poor wretches as we are; but we feldom think upon thee. Love perfuaded thee to come to us when there was nothing to call thee, except only our great miferies; but it doth not bring us all to thee, though we are moved by the merits and precious promises of fo immenfe a love."

3. Let

3. Let not our devotion reft in bare acknowledgements; do not only praise his goodnefs, but dread his majefty, and let us fhow our love by our deeds; to him let us reverently go, and offer our devout hearts at his footftool; let us remember every paffage of his love with unfeigned thanks. For, the Lord is fold, that the flave may be free; the innocent is condemned, that the guilty may be faved; the phyfician is fick, that the patient may be cured; and God himself becomes man to die, that man may live.

4. Tell me, my foul, 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 this charity? no lefs than the Son of God came down to redem us; no lefs than his own dear life was the price he paid for us! What can the favour of the whole world promife us, compared to this miraculous bounty? no less than the joys of angels are become our hope; no lefs than the kingdom of heaven is made our inherit

ance.

5. This is the compaffion of my God! thus far his charity prevailed; who thought it was not enough to become man.

for

for us, but expofed himself to all our miferies! was it not enough, O Jefu! to labour all thy life, but thou muft fuffer for us even the pains of death? no, gracious Lord, thy mercy ftill obferveth 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 fufferings could no way be abated but by freely undergoing them in thine own per fon: thou faweft our fouls fo deeply ftained with guilt, that without fhedding thy blood we could have no remiffion.

6. 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 fufferings, and not be inflamed with the love of him that fuffered for me? can I believe my falvation 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 carelessly comply with his gracious defigns! for all his gifts he requires no other return, than that we hope ftill more, and defire ftill greater bleffings, and improve them all to our own happinefs: for all his favours he feeks no other praife, than our following his fteps till we mount up to his glory.

7. O my

7. O my adored Redeemer, behold to thee 1 bow, and humbly poftrate myself 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 cleanfe my thoughts from all impertinent fancies: that my life may be entirely dedicated to thee, and all the faculties of my foul to thy holy fervice: 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 praise thee; to praise thy incomparable love, which has done and fuffered fo much for loft mankind.

Here also 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 4, Section 1, &c.

A prayer on Friday evening for faith and repentance, and a due preparation to the holy sacrament.

Repent and believe the gospel. Mark i. 5.

Gracious God, and most kind and merciful Father, who, of thy tender love to mankind, didft give thine only Son Jefus Chrift to fuffer death upon the crofs for our redemption; who made there, by his own oblation of himself once

offered,

包

offered, a full, perfect, and fufficient facrifice, oblation, and fatisfaction for the fins of the whole world; grant that the effects of this redemption may be as univerfal as the defign of it, that it may be to the falvation of all: O let no perfon by impenitence and wilful fin forfeit his part in it, but by the power of thy grace bring all, even the moft obftinate finners, to repentance.

More efpecially, I beseech thee, to give me, thy finful creature, a right underftanding of the urgent need I have of a Saviour, and of all thofe things which thy Son hath done and fuffered, and is ftill doing at thy right-hand, in order to the cleanfing of my guilty and polluted nature, and the reftoring me to thy grace and favour and let not all this be in vain, and ufelefs to me, left I become eternally miferable, and loft to all hopes and poffibilities of comfort; give me grace to accept of, and embrace the tenders of thy love, and to comply with thofe gracious terms of falvation, which thy Son hath procured for, and proposed to me in the gofpel.

Tacknowledge, O Lord, that I have too much neglected this great falvation, but thou with infinite patience doft ftill wait to fee if I will accept of mercy! O that thy forbearance and long-fuffering may

foften