glorious fruits which Chrift hath given me in this food of life.

6. O bleffed Jefus, what madness then is it. to fet my affections upon the perishable things of this world, who may attain the joys even of eternal life by knowing thee! the hour is come O Jefus, wean me from the world, and fecure me wholly unto thyself, and give me this life eternal to know and glorify thee. Make me fenfible that it is my intereft as well as duty to walk always before thee, and be always mindful of thy prefence with me. Let it be my meat and drink to do thy holy will, and my only joy to glorify thy name."

Here obferve the directions given on page 8, and more particu Larly endeavour to improve your foul by reading a leffon out of the New WHOLE DUTY OF MAN, Sundery 6.

A prayer on Thursday evening to implore God's mercy and affistance, towards a worthy receiving of the moft boly facrament.

Let us draw near with a true heart, in full affurance of faith, having our hearts fprinkled from an evil confcience, and our bodies wafhed with pure water. Heb. x. 22.

Rant, almighty and moft merciful Lord

God, that I may never draw down thy juft indignation upon myself, either by turning my back upon this ordinance, or by going to it without thought and unworthily. May

thy

thy mercy pardon what is past, and give me grace for the time to come, to confecrate my life to thee, and to embrace every occafion of remembering my redeemer's love, and thereby fecuring thy favour, and my own falvation; and if it be thy will, grant that I may always find fuch comfort and benefit in this ordinance, as may encourage me to obferve it with joy unto my life's end.

b Bleffed be thy name, holy father, for the opportunity thou haft this day vouchfafed me of humbling myfelf before thee. Pardon, I moft humbly befeech thee, all my failings and defects at this time. The wanderings of my prayers, the coldness of my affections, and the difproportion of my repentance to the heinoufnefs of thofe fins which I have committed. O let thy mercy and goodnefs fupply what is wanting in me, and be thou graciously pleafed to pity my weakneffes, and forgive my infirmities, through the merits, and for the fake of thy beloved fon, and my bleffed Saviour, Jefus Chrift the righteous; to whom with thee, and the holy ghoft, be afcribed all honour and glory now and for evermore. Amen.

4

See the concluding prayer and bleffing on page 36 and 37.

* The Meditation for Friday Morning.

On the paffion of our blessed Saviour, commemordted in the most holy facrament of the Lord's fupper.

Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Phil. ii. 8.

I. Propose now unto thee, O my foul, that thou may'st give me comfort by a devout meditation on the fufferings of our wounded Jefus, which were the wonder and aftonishment of heaven and earth! and thence learn of thy Saviour to be meek and lowly in heart; who being the great Lord of the world, condefcended with the profoundest humility to undergo the punishment of flaves.

2. Behold with what patience this inno cent lamb yields to have his body plowed and furrowed by mercilefs murderers! behold him naked, helpless, and unpitied, whilft the furious executioners tear his fkin and tender flesh with cruel fcourges, to fatisfy the cruelty of a barbarous multitude!

3. Behold this fame bleffed Jefus extended, tortured, and nailed, and rudely hoifted up

upon

Here you may obferve the directions given on Page 3.

upon the cross between two thieves, where he hung for the space of three long hours, [reviled by the Jews, and railed at by the very thieves} in pain, dolour, in grief, and thame; all his bones disjointed, and his wounds ftretched and rent the wider by the weight of his body hanging on the nails; and all this for man, even for thee, my foul, a miferable finner!

4. Behold those powerful hands, which fo lately had cured the blind and deaf, cleanfed the lepers, and loosed them that were bound by fatan, extended in mifery! behold those adorable feet pierced with nails, which had gone about doing good continually!

5. Behold that facred body hanging upon the crofs, hungry and thirsty, naked and cold, wounded and rent, weeping and bleeding, racked and tortured, languifhing, praying, and facrificing itself, and exposed to all manner of fhame and torment for thee, in which all the treasures of wisdom and power were hid! and let that vinegar and gall given unto him, quench all immoderate appetites in thee, and imbitter all fenfual delights. Behold that face, more beautiful than the fons of men, which comforted the afflicted, and the light of whose countenance the fathers and pro

phets

phets had fo much defired to behold, changed into the paleness and horror of death; crying to his father, My God, my God, why haft thou forfaken me! and then giving up the ghoft.vi

6. Oh! how great in mercy, how abundant in compaffion was the fon of God thus to die for thee; how great in majesty, how terrible in power! for now did the heavens wax dark, the veil of the temple rent afunder; the very stones cleave, and the dead arofe. How great was his power in his death, to produce fuch wonders by it, in it, and after it? how far did his merits and power extend! even to the fun in the hea vens, to the veil in the temple, to the holy of holies, the dead in the graves to the center of the earth, to hell beneath; yea, to the very hearts of the impenitent. For the centurion was now convinced of his error and converted.

7. Oh! I will flee to the cross of my faviour, and there with the pious, devout, and afflicted women, and his beloved difciple St. John, I will open the flood-gate of mine eyes, I will water my couch with tears, I will bring my body into fubjection, and rend my heart; left I by my evil deeds approve, and become partaker of their fins. The infatiable malice of the chief priests and elders, who perfuaded

the