my foul. It is my earneft longing to receive thee with a becoming reverence and devotion; I find my spirits begin to languish and fink, for if I faft too long, I perish for want of feasonable recruits from this heavenly fuftenance. I am fadly fenfible of my infirmities, and frequent relapfes into fin, and how urgent my occafions are for these repeated refreshments: I quickly cool after my warmest refolutions; my purposes of goodness ficken and languish apace; and thefe decays must end in fpiritual death, did not this divine fuftenance cleanse and renew my affections; confirm my purposes of doing well, and excite and inflame my zeal and love for God and good works. O bleffed Redeemer, pity me; and tho' my life be not fo. perfect, that I am always in

fit difpofition to communicate, yet accept me into the number of thofe that are weary and heavy-laden with the burthen of their fins, that I may receive fome refreshment. O give me this foveraign balm of wounded confciences; this great prefervative of decaying fouls: fo fhall I approach nearer to thee indeed, and each facrament prove a fresh advance toward heaven: So fhall my foul be filled with the treasures of

thy

thy mercy, and the ravishing foretaste of that blifs, which fhall be always growing, till it be confummated at last, in that eternal feast above, the marriage-fupper of the Lamb in thy kingdom. And to this purpose I conclude this prayer in the words of his own appointing.

Our Father, &c.

A Prayer for Friday Morning.

merciful Jefus, Redeemer of the world, whofe facred head was crown'd with thorns, whofe hands and feet were extended on the crofs, and cruelly bored through with nails, whofe fide was pierced with a fpear, and whose whole body was ignominiously crucified crucified between two

Thieves !

What tongue can exprefs thofe acute pains which thou didft fuffer? or what mind, confin'd in flesh, can expand it felf to conceive the reproach and ignominy, which were put upon thee? What hadft thou done, O dear Redeemer, to bring thee, as a criminal, before thy enemies bar? Or how hadft thou deferved to be treated with Fff 3

fuch

fuch rude and infolent, fuch unrelenting and triumphant barbarity? What paffage of thy whole life could they fix an accufation upon? What crime alledge to countenance fo rigorous a sentence? If none (as none they could) how cameft thou to be condemned after fuch a barbarous manner? 'Twas I, wretched creature that I am, that gave thee all those pains; 'twas I deserved the death that thou enduredft; and my of fences were the cause of thy intolerable grief; thus low, O Son of God, did thy humility stoop! thus fervent was thy love! thus boundless thy compaffion!

And now, my God and Saviour, What reward fhall I give, what return can I make, for all the benefits thou hast done unto me? Surely it is not in the power of man to find out any requital answerable to fuch bounty: for how should the narrownefs of a finite mind extend to any thing that may be compared to infinite compaffion? How fhould a poor creature be capable of any recompence fuitable to the mercy of an almighty Creator? And yet, my deareft Saviour, fo wonderfully is this matter ordered, that even man, even I, a poor miferable creature, may find fomething

which thou art pleafed to accept in return, if, by thy grace, my foul be broken and humbled, and my flesh crucified with its affections and lufts. This, bleffed Jefus, is the utmoft my condition will admit, and this, tho' but little in it felf, yet, when proceeding from the principle of holy love, thou art graciously pleased to accept, as the utmoft poor mortals can do in acknowledgment of their great Maker. This is the cure of finful fouls; this the foveraign antidote thy mercy hath provided for us.

I beseech thee therefore, by thy tender mercies, which have been ever of old; pour thy grace into my heart, that I may be restored to spiritual health and foundnefs. Let me drink of thy heavenly sweetnefs, and be fo ravished with the taste, as ever after to difrelish the fenfual delights of the world, to defpife its pleasures, and chearfully encounter the afflictions of this present life; and fo to fix my heart upon true and noble joys, as always to disdain the empty and tranfitory fhadows, which flesh and blood is fo foolishly fond of, and fo fearful of parting with.

Let me not, I befeech thee, esteem or delight in any thing, but thee; let all that Fff 4

this

this whole world can give without thee, be counted no better than drofs or dung. Let me hate most irreconcileably whatever difpleases thee; and what thou loveft, let me moft eagerly defire, and inceffantly pursue. Let me feel no fatisfaction in any joys without thee; nor any reluctancy in the greateft fufferings for thee. Let the mention of thy name be always a refreshment, and the remembrance of thy goodness an inexhauftible spring of comfort to my foul; and, let the law of thy mouth be dearer unto me, than thousands of gold and filver. Let me aim at nothing so much as to do thee fervice; nor deteft and avoid any thing in comparison of finning against thee: And, for what I have unhappily done of that kind already, I entreat thee, my only refuge and hope, to pardon for thine own mercies fake. Let my ears be ever open to the voice of thy law, and fuffer not my heart, this day, or ever, to incline to any evil thing; that I never comply with them that practise wickedness, nor take shelter in trifling pretences to excufe or indulge myself in doing what I ought not. And once more I beg thee, by thine own unparallell'd humility, that the foot of pride

may