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thou art called to celebrate his love, and to invoke his mercy and power, in the holy sacrament of his supper, be it thy care to form the most lively and affecting views of thy fallen and lost estate. Ah! who will cherish with the most fervent gratitude, the precious emblems of the Saviour's love? who will invoke with the most sincere and sacred solicitude, the divine manifestations of grace and glory which this holy ordinance was designed to dispense? who will experience in their most exquisite fervors, the pleasures of that holy communion with God, which sometimes lift the soul on the wings of ardent hope, to the celestial streams of bliss which flow in the city of the living God?-The humble christian, who, cherishing a deep sense of his weakness, his unworthiness, his need of mercy and grace, stays his soul, with supreme and ardent faith, on that all-sufficient and glorious Saviour, who gave himself to be the life of the world.

THE PRAYER.

O GOD, who art infinitely pure and perfect, and in whofe fight dwelleth nothing that is unholy or unclean; with deep humility, I confefs the numerous fins which have defiled my confcience, and which call for the condemning fentence of thy juftice. I acknowlege, O Lord, that thy laws are infinitely holy, juft, and good; calculated to advance the perfection and glory of my nature, my present peace, and everlafting welfare. But,

for

though thou haft mercifully endued me with that heavenly grace, by which, I was enabled to work out my falvation, and, through the merits of my bleffed Redeemer, to obtain thy favour, I have bafely neglected the powerful fuccours of thy Holy Spirit; I have wilfully contemned the means provided by thy grace my redemption; and I have eagerly cherished and purfued the unhallowed dictates of my depraved nature. O Lord, with deep humility I confess, that I have difregarded the invitations of thy mercy, I have contemned the fuccours of thy grace, I have defied, by wilful and deliberate tranfgreffion, the avenging terrors of thy juftice. Enlightened, by the beams of thy truth to difcern the exalted excellence and joys of thy righteous laws, and endued with celeftial ftrength to refift the temptations which would feduce me from thy fervice, "I have yet done the things that I ought not to have done, and I have left undone the things, that I ought to have done; and there is no health in me." Alas! O Lord, by the numerous and great deficiences of duty which have marked my life, by my numerous and repeated violations of thy laws, I have juftly incurred thy displeasure ;-I ftand condemned at thy tribunal; my confcience confirms the justice of that sentence which would banish me, from thy prefence, beyond the reach of hope. Bleffed be that mercy, which is thy moft refplendent attribute, thou haft fpared me, O God of my falvation. In the exercise of unalterable compaffion and love, thou haft laid on Jefus, thy eternal Son, the heavy burden of my fins. O thou precious lamb of God who waft wounded for my tranfgresfions and bruised for my iniquities; whofe agonizing fufferings, and all fufficient merits are difplayed to the eye of faith, in the lively memorials, and commemorative facrifice of the altar, hear the earneft fupplications, which my foul, bowed down by its guilt and unworthi

nefs, lifts to thee, for pardon and falvation. Grant, Omy Saviour, that while the facrifice of the altar, difplaying the lively emblemsof thy sufferings and death, forcibly carries to my heart the fenfe of my guilt, it may allo be the feal and pledge of the mercy, the grace, and favour of my offended God. Holy Spirit! the fource of quickening grace, whofe facred office it is to convince of fin; light up in my foul, the lively and habitual conviction of my weakness, depravity, and unworthinefs. Bleffed Guide and Comforter! lead my convicted and contrite spirit to repose its full and ardent truft in the interceffion and merits of my Saviour's blood. Almighty Father! whofe holy and juft indignation I have incurred, caft me not off forever ;liften to the interceding calls of thy mercy, liften to the powerful pleadings of my Saviour's blood, and turn from my guilty foul, the feverity of thy wrath. O grant, that, penetrated with the lively conviction of my demerits, and my utter infufficiency to anfwer the claims of thy holiness and juftice, I may flee with ardent and ftedfast defire and faith, to the plenteous fountain of mercy opened in my Saviour's blood, to the renovating streams of grace which flow from his crucified body. From the altar, where under lively emblems, my Saviour is fet forth crucified for my fins, may his cleanfing blood flow into my foul-may his almighty grace difpenfe, through my depraved nature, its purifying and renovating ftreams. Thus, O eternal God, recovered by thy mercy from the awful depths of guilt and mifery, and reftored by thy grace to health, purity, and peace, be all the glory of my redemption afcribed unto thee, Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, forever and ever.-AMEN.

[Then add your usual Epening Devotions.]

Wednesday Morning.

MEDITATION.

REPENTANCE.

O MY SOUL! if the conviction of thy fallen and condemned state thus irresistibly forced upon thee, by the unerring declaration of God himself, by the view of the world around thee, by the history of human nature, by the faithful testimony of thine own conscience,-if this conviction of thy fallen and condemned state, has been sincere and lively, thou wilt perceive the necessity of deep and effectual repentance.

How shalt thou express thy sensibility to thy demerit, thy deep sorrow for the sins which have roused against thee the wrath of heaven, but by humble, earnest and reiterated confession. How shalt thou awaken the mercy of that God whom thy sins have provoked, but by those unfeigned sighs and tears of lively sorrow by which the true penitent always seeks to express his sense of his aggravated guilt. How wilt thou subdue the unhallowed passions which destroy thy purity and peace,

and continually plunge thee in transgression and guilt,but by the holy mortification and self-denial which are the principal constituents of genuine repentance. Thy Saviour hath declared that he came to "seek and to save that which was lost."-thy Almighty Judge hath declared that he dispenses mercy only to those "who turn from their wickedness and do that which is lawful and right." Seek to excite then, O my soul, by deep abasement and humiliation, the infinite compassion of thy Saviour by the vows of obedience which always characterise the true penitent, prove that thou art stedfastly resolved to serve thy God, and thus lay thy humble claim to the displays of his mercy.

Thou art preparing to participate in that holy supper, where thou wilt be admitted to intimate and sacred communion with thy heavenly Father-where thou wilt engage, in the closest and most endearing intercourse of love and duty, with thy blessed Redeemer.O consider, how lively should be thy emotions of contrition, how profound thy abasement, how deep and universal thy renunciation of sin, how ardent and firm thy resolutions of obedience, how sincere and unfeigned thy repentance, when by the most solemn and affecting symbols, thou dost devote thyself to thy Redeemer and implore the mercy and grace of the God of thy salvation. Art thou then desirous, O my soul, to be rescued from that guilt and condemnation into which sin has

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