Wedn. they'll answer with a sprightly Voice: Even. "We readily obey'd our great Crea « tor; and he fixed us here to fhine "for ever." Ask the bleft Saints, what brought them to Felicity; and immediately they'll tell your in the fame glad Tone: "We faithfully lov'd our "dear Redeemer; and that Love has placed us here." II. Look up, my Soul! and fee the facred Humanity of thy dear Redeemer; That bleffed Jefus, that died for us upon the Crofs; and now invites us to partake of his Holy Sacrament. See and rejoice in those eternal Honours, which Heaven and Earth pay to their King. III. What is a Name of Honour, or a momentary Pleasure, compared to the Blifs of an eternal Paradife? What is a Bag of Money, or a fair Estate, if counter-balanced with the Treafures of Heaven? How narrow there do our greatest Kingdoms feems! How finall a Circle the whole Globe of the Earth! Cities, and Towns fhew like little Mole Even. Mole-Hills, and the busy World, but Wedn as a Swarm of Ants, running up and down, and jostling one another; and all this Stir for a few Grains or Husks. IV. O Heaven! let me again lift up mine Eyes to thee; and take a fuller View of that glorious Profpect. There let me stand and fix my fteady Sight, till I am fully convinced, that all the moft profperous Fortune we can here poffefs, is all an idle Dream compared to thy real Joys; an abfolute Nothing compared thy folid Felicity. Here obferve the Directions given in Page 10. And more particularly endeavour to improve your Soul by read ing a Leffion out of the ep WHOLE DUTY OF MAN Sunday 5. Section V. The Prayer on Wednesday Evening, for the Whofo eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raife him up at the last day. John vi. 54. Moft great, moft mighty, and moft glorious Lord God! Look down from the Habitation of thy Holinefs upon me thy unworthy Creature, who am come into thy Prefence to Wedn. Even. to adore thy incomprehenfible Majefty, and to prefent before thee the Evening Sacrifice of my unfeigned Praifes for thy many and undeserved Favours beftowed upon me. I acknowledge, thy eternal Honour, Glory, Praise, and Adoration; for thou art the fovereign Lord of Heaven and Earth, by whom all Things were made, and by whofe infinite Power and Goodness they are preserved and kept in Being. And Bleffed be thy unspeakable Goodnefs, that has advanced me to fuch a Degree of Being, that I am in fome measure capable to know thee, to love thee, to ferve thee, and obey thee. And for ever bleffed be thy Name, O Lord, that I was born of Chriftian Parents, and early dedicated to thee by Baptifm; and that by thy Grace and Goodness I have been preferved to this Moment, and have in any Degree escaped the Pollutions of this wicked World. Bleffed be thou, O God, who by thy Grace, and by the Voice of thy Church, 2 Even. Church, haft call'd me to Repentance: Wedn Discover to me, O thou Searcher of Hearts, the vaft Charge that is against me, that I may know and confefs, and forfake the many Sins I have fallen into. Give me that true Repentance, to which thou haft promised Mercy and Pardon, that I may amend what I have done amiss, and that Iniquity may not be my Ruin. And, O bleffed Advocute, who ever livest to make Interceffion for me, I put my Caufe into thy Hands; let thy Blood and Merits plead for me, and by thy mighty Interceffion procure for me the Pardon of my paft Offences. That thou mayft fay unto me, as thou didft unto the Penitent in the Gospel-Thy Sins are forgiven -fo that I may go with a quiet Confcience to thy holy Table, and at last be received into thy glorious Prefence for evermore. Amen. 1 See the concluding Prayer and Bleffing, in Page 41, and 42. The Thurf. The Meditation for Thursday Morning. Upon our Sanctification, whereby we are made worthy to come to the Holy Sacra ment. Except a man be born of water, and of the fpirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the fpirit, is fpirit. John iii. 5, 6. 1. Confider, O my Soul, the Mercies of thy God; confider the Wonders he has wrought for the Children of Men. The eternal Father created us out of nothing and fet us in the Way to everlafting Happiness. The eternal Son came down from Heaven to feek us when we had loft ourselves. The eternal Spirit brings his Grace to fanctify us, and give us Strength to walk in that holy Way. Thus every Perfon of the facred Trinity has freely contributed his peculiar Bleffing; and all together, as one co-infinite Goodnefs, have graciously agreed to compleat our Felicity. II. Come *Here you may obferve the Directions given on Page 3. |