that we are but duft and afhes, vouchfafe, of thy great goodness, to pity the weakreffes of me thy poor creature; and continue to me the affiftance of thy grace and Holy Spirit, that I may not be tempted above what I am able to bear. And whereas, this very day, O Lord, thou haft given me an opportunity of ferving thee in thy houfe; grant that I may not be accufed of coldness or indevotion, nor of hearing thy word only; but that I may approve myself a doer of the fame in my faith and practice. Wherefore,

O moft gracious God! let me never faint or tire in my duty, nor for the fake of any thing this world can offer me, be unmindful of the great and important concern of my falvation. Give me fuch a zeal for thy fervice, that the doing thy will may be my greateft joy and fatisfaction and imprint on my mind such a lively fenfe of thy love, as may inflame my heart with the moft devout and ardent affections: that, being every day more and more weaned from this world, I may look upon all its honours, pleafures, and profits, with that coldness and indifference, which becomes the fervant of the bleffed Jefus; who, being God, defcended from the heavens, and took upon him the form of a fervant, that he

might

might leave us an examples of his great humility: grant this, O Father, for Jefus Chrift's fake, our only Mediator, and Advocate. Amen. Our Father, &.c...

ཝཱ ཝཱ

A concluding prayer.

THE

HE grace of our Lord Jefus Chrift, and the love of God, and the fel lowship of the Holy Ghoft, be with us all evermore. Amen.

N. B. This prayer may properly be ufed every morn ing and evening to conclude your devotions.

70

If time fhall now permit, you may proceed to examine yourself, and the ftate of your confcience, by the particular directions printed on pages 43 and 44 of

this Second Part.

When

you

lie down in your bed.

I and

my reft, for it is thou, Lord, only, that makeft me to dwell in fafety; and into thy hands I recommend my spirit, my foul, and my body, for thou haft redeemed me, O Lord, thou God of truth. Amen.

When you go out of your chamber.

THE

HE bleffing of God defcend upon me, and all belonging to me; and may he dwell in my heart for evermore, and blefs my going out and my coming in, now, and for ever. Amen.

The

-The Meditation for Monday Morning. U pon the inftitution of the holy facrament of the Lord's fupper.

-The bread that I will give, is my flesh.-My flefh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. It is the fpirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I fpeak unto you, they are fpirit and they are life. John vi. 53, 55, 63.

1.

dangers of this night, and are continued together under a deep fenfe of our duty, which we yesterday acknowledged and confirmed in the receiving of that holy facrament, which in its outward part is only bread and wine which the Lord bath commanded to be received; that is, to be eaten and drank by all fuch as come to his table, in remembrance of the body and blood of Chrift, which are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper. A facrament, which at once, by the bread broken, fignifies the body of Chrift, broken on the cross; and, by the wine poured out, fignifies the blood of Christ, shed at his crucifixion. But guard against that doctrine, which teaches, that we eat the natural body, and drink the natural blood of Chrift; for the natural body and blood of Chrift are in heaven, and not here; it being against the truth of Christ's natural body to be

at

Onfider, Omy foul! how by Divine we have

the

at one time in more places than one*, and therefore we cannot eat and drink Christ's natural body and blood in the facrament.

2. We are well affured by Christ himfelf, as well as by his apoftle, that the Lord's fupper was exprefsly defigned for the remembrance of Chrift, after he should be taken away: therefore Chrift, who is to be remembered, cannot be corporally prefent at the time of fuch remembrance. And as the bread and wine were ordained for memorials of his body broken, and blood fhed for us; his natural body and blood must be abfent, in order to be remembered by means of fuch memorials. They themfelves cannot be the memorials of themfelves, in this rite; for nothing can be eaten or drank in remembrance of itself. They who argue for the contrary doctrine run into the greatest abfurdities. For,

3. The doing any act in remembranu of a perfon, implies his bodily abfence; and we are never faid, nor can we be faid, to perform that action in order if he be corporally prefent to remember him. And, therefore, the end of this inftitution being the remembrance of Chrift; it must follow from hence, that to eat and drink, in the Lord's fupper, muft be, to eat and drink, in a fenfe confiftent with the notion of this

remem

* See the Rubrick in the communion fervice.

remembrance: and confequently that to suppose, or teach, that Chriftians eat his real natural body in remembrance of his real natural body, and drink his real blood in remembrance of his real blood, is to teach that they are to do fomething, in order to remember him, which at the fame time fuppofes him corporally prefent; and deftroys the very notion of that remembrance; and fo directly contradicts the most important words of the inftitution itself. Therefore,

4. It cannot be the natural body and blood of Chrift, which is eaten and drank in the Lord's fupper, but fomething elfe [viz. bread and wine] in remembrance of them. All this is founded upon the plain notion of the word remembrance, and this remembrance is exprefsly mentioned, in the original inftitution, as a part thereof, and confequently it is this remembrance which conftitutes the very nature of this boly facrament. So that,

5. The real prefence, maintained by Proteftants, is not the prefence of Chrift's natural body, but the real prefence of Christ's invifible power and grace, fo in and with the elements of bread and wine, as to convey fpiritual and real effects to the fouls of fuch as duly receive them: for God did not only give his Son Jefus Chrift to die for us, but also to be our Spiritual food and fuftenance Part II. - D