tempting again and again, till I have gained my point. I am fully convinced that there is nothing else to do, and that it is abfolutely neceffary I fhould refolve again and again, until my resolutions have taken effect, that I may reap good fruit unto falvation.

The Hymn on Thursday Morning.
The penitent's refolution to amend his future life.

LORD, grant thy ftatutes ev'ry hour
May dwell upon my mind;
Thence I derive a quick'ning power,
And daily peace I find.

To meditate thy precepts, Lord,
Shall be my feet employ;
My foul fhall ne'er forget. thy word,
Thy word is all my joy.
How would I run in thy commands,
If thou my heart discharge
From fin and Satan's hateful chains,
And fet my feet at large!

My lips with courage shall declare
Thy ftatutes and thy name;
I'll fpeak thy word, tho' kings fhould hear,
Nor yield to finful shame.

Let bands of perfecutors rife,
To rob me of my right;
Let pride and malice forge their lies,
Thy law is my delight.

Depart

Depart from me ye wicked race,
Whofe hands and hearts are ill;
I love my God, I love his ways,
And must obey his will.

The Prayer on Thurfday Morning.
For God's bleffing on the amendment of our lives.

Lord, who haft made, and dost govern and preserve all things, I proftrate myself before thee in a humble adoration of thy incomprehenfible majesty, and acknowledge that I depend entirely on thee, and render unto thee my most hearty thanks for all the favours and benefits which thou haft fo freely and undefervedly conferred upon me.

All thy works praife thee, O Lord, and we, the children of men, who have received fingular marks and tokens of thy favour, ought more particularly to praife and glorify thy holy name, being made after thy own image, and endued with reasonable and immortal fpirits, that we may reflect on thee, the author of our being, and imitate thy wifdom, holinefs, goodnefs, and truth. But above all,

I defire to remember that great demonftration of thy love, in giving thy dear Son to live among us, to die for us, and thereby to give us, upon the condition

of faith and fincere obedience, an affured hope of immortal life, which I fo lately commemorated in the facrament of the Lord's fupper; in which I fealed my love to thee, and renewed the oblation which I have often made of my foul and body to thee.

I wait upon thee ftill for what thou feeft good for them both; which I hope in thy everlasting mercy to obtain; humbly befeeching thee to pardon all my forgetfulness of, and ungratefulness to thee; and I moft earnestly implore the grace of thy Holy Spirit, to preferve in my mind and body a powerful fenfe of thee, an ardent love to thee, a holy care to pleafe and obey thee in all things; and to this end I befeech thee give me the fame mind and fpirit which was in Chrift Jefus our Lord; the fpirit of wisdom and understanding, and the fear of thee, the fpirit of meeknefs, humility, purity, and charity. And,

Grant that I may do thy will with the like cheerfulness, zeal, conftancy, patience, and perfeverance as he did; that fo I may for ever blefs thy name, O Lord! for all the helps and affiftances of thy good fpirit, which thou haft already bleffed me with.

I acknowledge thee in all my ways; do thou direct my paths, and teach me to manage all my affairs with prudence and difcretion; for thou art my hope and confidence, my fatisfaction and my peace, my glory and my joy. O be thou pleafed to conduct me by thy good fpirit, through all the bufinefs and employments, through all the temptations and troubles of this mortal life, to that blessed place where our Lord Jefus Chrift is gone before, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the fame fpirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Meditation for Thursday Evening. Upon a lively faith in God's mercy through Chrift, and aquiet confcience.

Examine yourfelves whether ye be in the faith-For the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, faith, without which it is impoffible to pleafe God. 2 Cor. xiii. 5. Gal, v. 22. Heb. xi. 6.

I.

Remember, O my foul! that the

church exhorts us, and tells us in exprefs words, that it is requifite that no man fball come to the holy communion, but with a full trust in God's mercy, and with a quiet confcience; whence we learn, that the benefits of our Saviour's death and paffion in this facrament, are indeed freel I 3

offer

offered unto ALL, but only effectually to BELIEVERS, as we read in St. John, as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the fons of God, even to them that believe in his name.

2. All that Chrift hath done and fuffered for us men and our falvation can never profit us, unlefs we have faith to believe it that which muft render the benefits and bleffings of the gospel effectual to our falvation, is our faith in Christ, who himself declares, that whoever heareth his words, and believeth on him that fent him, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is paffed from death unto life. And the ancient churches accounted thofe only faithful that had received the Lord's fupper. And our church ftill continues that primitive imitation. Draw near with faith, and take this holy facrament to your comfort. But if thou, O my foul! askest what that faith is; remember it is that faith which for its object hath God's mercy, through Chrift, as the fountain and foundation of all, thofe infinite bleffings and comforts which we gain by his manifeftation in the flefh.

Y

3. Now, my foul, I pray thy advice; tell me what is here intended by a quiet confcience? for I can never apply God's

mercy.