Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so I may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

Another Collect.

O ALMIGHTY God, who alone. canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men; Grant unto me, thy humble servant, that I may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise; that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, . my heart may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Another Collect.

GRANT, O Lord, that, in all my sufferings here upon earth for the testimony of thy truth, I may stedfastly look up to Heaven, and by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed; and, being filled with the Holy Ghost, may learn to love and bless thy holy name; ever looking to thee, O blessed Jesus, who standest at the right hand of God to succour all those that love thee, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.

EE

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CHAPTER IV.

THE EXAMINATION.

HE that communicates on every Sunday and Holy-Day, will have brought his religion, by the Spirit of God, to such an uniform and equable tone, that, under ordinary circumstances, he will scarcely need the general review of spiritual life and character, which the preceding meditations have set forth; at any rate, he will not need that it should be repeated before every communion. Times of sin and temptation, even to the best and most guarded, times of falling away may occur in a greater or less degree even to the most frequent communicant. At such times, repentance, contrition, self-examination, confession,

and reiterated prayer, must be the resort; and the penitent must seek after God, as though he were beginning his life anew,always hoping, always fighting the good fight, but never on any occasion forsaking God out of despair, because God will never forsake him. These, however, will be extraordinary circumstances. Generally speaking, by the grace and help from God imparted by the sacrament, the frequent communicant will not fall, and therefore he will not need a specific preparation for one communion more than another. His whole life will be a preparation -at every hour he will be ready. Whatever business of the world, or whatever allowable cares of the world, may have occupied him in the preceding week, he will not have suffered them to interfere with that which stands first in his sphere of duty, and dearest in his affections. The communion of one week will be in itself the preparation for the communion of the next; and every time he approaches the Lord God, to record the sacrifice of his dear

son Jesus Christ, he will draw the cords closer and closer which bind him to true religion, and set the stakes firmer and firmer that mark out the boundary of his faith and of his love. To such an one, therefore, any one or two of the Meditations in the preceding chapter, or any occasional prayer touching upon such points as may seem to him most suitable to his character, joined to his daily study of the word of God, and the daily devotions which have been his previous habit,-is all that need be attended to.

But the weekly communicants are not many. They that never turn their back upon the prepared table of their Lord are not many. Some indeed are monthly communicants, which is an approach to it; and probably many of these are confined to a mere monthly communion, from neglect of the church in which they worship to provide it more frequently; and some from mistaken notions about reverence, and some from unavoidable avocations. But if they press, as often as they can, to the com