thy Holy Spirit, I beseech thee to make them clearer, stronger, and more effectual; that I may have the fame thoughts, paffions, inclinations, and purposes now, which Ifhall be apt to have when I come to die. For which end, help me often to place my felf before thy judgment feat, and to consider that I must give an account for all that I have received; for thy holy gofpel, for thy divine infpirations, for the counfels and exhortations of thy minifters, for all the means and helps of growing better, and for all the incouragements I have, even from the good things of this life, which thy bounty bestows upon me: That by a careful preparation for fuch a reckoning, I may be kept close and stedfaft to my duty, in hope of that exceeding glorious reward, which our Lord will bestow upon all his faithful fervants, at the day of his appearing. Amen.

A

A Prayer in cafe of dangerous Temp

tation.

Almighty God, who art every where, and more especially present to those fouls, that look up unto thee, with an high esteem of thy favour and grace, and with hearty defires to continue in thy love, by patient continuance in well doing. In this humble faith in thy divine goodness, and with a due fear and reverence of thy glorious Majefty, I proftrate my foul and body before thee; to put my self into thy moft gracious protection, and to beg the powerful affistance of thy Holy Spirit, to preferve me wherefoever I am, in a dutiful obfervance of all thy holy commands.

I am fenfible, O Lord, that we live in a world of temptations, and that our nature is weak, ready to yield to them, and that our affections are apt to wander after vanity, that fudden paffions oftentimes transport us from our duty. But I know withal, that a sense of thy all-feeing eye, and of the life to come, and of the rewards, and punishments which thou wilt render according to our works, will cer

tainly over-awe all finful motions in me, and break the force of the strongest temptations, that assault me. And therefore the greater the danger is, the more earnestly I fue unto thee, to be poffeffed with a piercing fenfe, and lively remembrance of these things, which may abide with me alway; and especially this day, in every place and company into which I fhall come. O that I may not be fo forgetful of thee, and of my own good, as, for the small and momentary pleasures of this world, to ha zard the lofs of thofe great and eternal joys, which we expect in the other life: But enable me, O moft gracious God, so to behave my felf, that when I have passed through all the imployments and occafions of this day, I may bring my felf back a gain into thy prefence, fo pure and unde filed, that I may begin thofe joys, which are to come, in chearful praises of thee; and in a comfortable sense that thou dwelleft in me, and art leading me by thy holy Spirit to immortal happiness, through JeChrift Jefus. Amen.

A

I

A Prayer after a Relapse.

Caft down my self before thee, O most

holy Lord of heaven and earth, with an humble, forrowful, and penitent heart, adoring thy infinite grace, which fuffers fuch a vile and miferable finner to approach thy prefence. I am thine indeed, dedicated long ago to thy fervice, which I have fince chofen, as the most perfect freedom; But fo much the greater reason I have to be abashed before thee, and to be astonished at thy forbearing mercy, which prolongs the life of fuch an one as I am, who have been fo false to thee, and to my own refolutions. I remember, in the bitterness of my foul, how many obligations thou haft laid upon me to obfèrve and obey thee; how often I have acknowledged the juftice and goodness of thy precepts; and how frequently I have promifed and vowed to conform my felf unto them; and what great and precious promises thou haft made to me of invaluable bleffings; and yet, wretch that I am, I have been drawn afide from thy ways by eafy and flight temptations; and for a small and momen

tary

tary pleasure or gain [Here mention the particular fin] have ventured the lofs of thy favour, which is better than life itself.

O God, that thou shouldst have patience with fo perfidious, fo ungrateful, fo fenfeless a creature as I am! That thou shouldest permit me to see the light of the fun, and hast not condemned me to utter darkness, in weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth! But that thou givest me leave to look towards heaven, and that I have an heart to speak unto thee, and still may call thee, Father, faying, Father, I have finned against thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy fon. O the riches! O the unfearchable riches of thy grace! I can never sufficiently abhor and loath myself for my foul revolt from thee, who art fo kind and gracious; especially if I fhould ftill continue to abuse fuch tender mercy and compaffion towards me. Tribulation and anguish, indignation and wrath, I acknowledge, is the due portion of thofe, that do evil: and if thou fhouldst abandon me, and caft me out of thy fight, I must confess that thou art righteous, and that I reap but the fruit of my own ways, and fuffer the deferved punishment of my late iniquity. Hhh

YOL. III.

But