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GOD certainly is not afraid that His honor will be diminished in the honorable mentioning of such men as have benefited the world by their good works.

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God is honored in due honor given to His saints, and is glorified in the commemoration of those good men whose light hath so shined out before men that they have seen their good works. But then He is glorified more in their imitation than in their commemoration.

DONNE

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FOR A RIGHT OBSERVATION OF HOLYDAYS.

(Which may be used on the preceding Evenings.) ALMIGHTY God, who hast established in thy Church pastors, and teachers, and governors, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, make me careful to observe all those institutions which are enjoined by them for these admirable ends; and always to esteem days set apart for thy worship, and dedicated to thy service, as a great relief to the infirmity of our nature, which is not capable of an uninterrupted contemplation of thee. Let not the affairs of this life, nor my eagerness after the

good things of it, so far engross my thoughts, as to make me neglect those happy opportunities of working out my own salvation; nor the love of pleasure prevail on me, to consume them in sensual enjoyments; but grant that my rejoicing may be accompanied with temperance and moderation; and dispose my mind, by all the refreshments of my body, to serve thee with greater diligence and cheerfulness all my days. Make me constant, at these holy seasons, in attending thy public worship; and let me enter thy house with recollected thoughts and composed behavior, and with a thankful and devout temper of mind. Let me hear thy word with serious attention, and with a particular application of it to the state of my own soul. Let me approach thy altar with fervent and heavenly affectious, and with firm resolutions of better obedience. Let me commemorate the mysteries of our redemption with profound humility, with exalted thoughts of thy wonderful goodness, and with thankful acknowledgments of thy great love, demonstrated to the sons of men. Let the mortified lives of thy saints raise me above the pleasures of sense; and let the pattern of their piety and devotion, their humility and charity, their meekness and patient sufferings, be always so lively imprinted

upon my mind, that I may transcribe their examples in my life and conversation; that thus observing these days of rest here below, I may celebrate an eternal rest with thee hereafter in thy heavenly kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

NELSON.

Advent.

O GOD, by whose providence thy Church has appointed the solemn time of Advent to forerun the commemoration of our Saviour's nativity, and prepare its way in our hearts; grant us, we beseech thee, so devoutly to employ this holy season, in meditating upon the prophecies, and gracious preparations of the world for the coming of the Messias; and on the infinitely greater mercies he brought along with him, and has left behind him; that our spirits may be raised to celebrate the great feast of his nativity with due joy and exultation, and thereby better disposed to expect his second coming, who with thee and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth, one God, world without end. Amen.

HICKES.

Christmas.

O GOD, who every year givest a fresh occasion to the devotions of thy Church, by the welcome festivity of our Saviour's birth; grant us, we beseech thee, with such devout affec tions to entertain this first humble rising of the Sun of Righteousness to us as may better dispose and more strongly engage us to follow him through the whole painful course of his life, which, like a giant, he rejoiced to run, enlightening the world with thy truth, and inflaming it with thy love; till in the end we arrive at his eternal rest, through the same our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son, who, with thee and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

HICKES.

Easter.

GLORY be to thee, O victorious Redeemer, who hast triumphed over the power of sin and darkness, and conquered hell and the grave. Glory be to thee, by whom death is swallowed up in victory, who, by thy glorious resurrection, hast made known the power of thy divinity, and proved thyself to be the true Messias,

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