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art thou to receive, bleffing and honor, and adoration, and praise, from all in heaven, and all in earth. For thou haft made all things; for thy good pleasure they are, and were created; and from thee, the everlafting fountain of perfection, flow, the glory and excellence of all the works of thy hands. Worthy art thou, O God of eternal mercies, to receive the fupreme homage and fervice of the children of men. For, thou haft washed away their fins, in the blood of thy Son; thou haft opened to them, through the merits of a Redeemer, the glorious profpect of immortal bleffednefs and felicity beyond the grave. Penetrated with a profound fense of thy majesty and glory, with a lively view of thine infinite compaffion and love, I acknowledge thy fupreme claims to my homage and obedience.-I acknowledge that all the powers of my foul, with ardent affection and gratitude, fhould ever have adored thy power, and celebrated thy praife-I acknowledge that the fincere, vigorous, and conftant fervice of my life should have proclaimed my fupreme devotion to thee, the profound and lively fenfe of obligation to thy bounty and love. Author of my being! God of my falvation! I bow myself, in the duft before thee, under the conviction of the prefumption and infenfibility, which have, fo long, openly difclaimed thy authority, and ungratefully refifted the affecting difplays of thy mercy. Awakened to a lively fenfe of the ingratitude and bafeness of my finful courfe, of the deplorable folly and guilt of that career of tranfgreffion by which I have rebelled against thee, I now defire to return unto thee, O my God, to caft myself at the foot of thy throne, imploring thy forgivnefs-I now defire to relinquish those corrupting and disappointed pleafures, for which, I have contemned thy authority and laws, and forfeited the joys of thy favour-I defire to be rescued from the dominion of my finful paflions which

are offenfive to thee, most holy God, and whofe bitter fruit is fhame, remorfe, and mifery-fervently do I defire, to devote myself to thy fervice, to obtain the fatisfying joys of thy mercy and loving-kindness. O moft compaffionate Father! hear, and accept, the humble, but fincere vows of duty, which, thy difobedient, but penitent child offers, at thy throne. Thee, O God, I defire to chufe, as my eternal and fatisfying refuge and portion-to thy glory and praife, I defire to devote all the powers of my foul-for that divine and celestial purity which will conform me to thine image, ardently pant-refolutely, do I engage, to fulfil all thy commands-cheerfully, will I sustain all the facrifices which thy fervice may require me to make-vigorously, will I oppose the alluring temptations, and threatening difficulties, that would feduce or intimidate my allegiance to thee-to thy difpofal, I refign myfelf; patiently will I fubmit, to all the chaftenings of thy hand. Thou knoweft the humble fincerity of my heart-thou knowest, also, O God, its weaknefs and depravity.-O fave me from a prefumptuous dependence on my own ftrength. Teach me, evermore to rely, on thy omnipotent arm-to implore fupernatural and celeftial fuccours. Excite me, dili

gently to use all the means of divine illumination and grace. By the holy exercises of meditation and prayer, may I feek to fortify myself, for the arduous and hazardous conflict with fin and temptation. O God! on thy Almighty grace, is my fole dependence --evermore refresh my foul, by its fuccours and confolations. O grant, that, by humble and earnest prayer and fupplication, and by a diligent attendance on the ordinances of thy church, I may obtain the regenerating, fanctifying, and invigorating prefence of thy Holy Spirit. By his Almighty energies, may my difordered and corrupt nature be quickened, renovated, and re

deemed. Encouraged by thy gracious invitations, and humbly relying on thy mercy, I go to the facred fupper, where, thou haft provided, for thy people, heavenly and immortal food. O, when, at his holy table, over the facred fymbols of his body and blood, I celebrate the love of my Saviour, and renew the ardent vows of duty and obedience,-Spirit of Godimpart to my foul thy holy unction-shed thy invigorating and confoling graces-feal me to the day of redemption-that, finally advanced, by thy power, to the courts of the celeftial temple of the Living God, I may celebrate, the love of my Saviour, in unceasing and eternal ftrains-and join in the exulting jubilee of adoration and praife to God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft, forever and ever.-AMEN.

[Then add your usual Evening Devotions.]

Thursday Morning.

MEDITATION.

FAITH IN CHRIST.

BOTH as a creature, and a sinner, man is entirely dependent on the will of his sovereign Maker and Judge. Whatever God prescribes or commands, that, immediately, becomes his duty and happiness. God, in infinite wisdom

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and goodness, has provided a plan of salvation for fallen man. By the inscrutable determination of the Almighty Father, the eternal Son, in the person of man, sustains the penalties of a violated law; and his obedience, sufferings, and death, are accepted, as an allsufficient atonement to offended justice. All the blessings of salvation are conveyed to us, in virtue of the meritorious atonement of Christ; and faith in him is made the indispensible condition of our enjoying these blessings. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."

Even then, if faith were not an exalted grace which involves the exercise of the noblest powers of the understanding, and the most amiable virtues of the heart; if it were not the powerful principle which purifics and renews the soul, and inspires every act of holy obedience-still, as the command of our Almighty Lawgiver and Judge, as the prescribed condition of our salvation, it must appear a binding and necessary duty; and it would evidence the most criminal presumption, as well as the greatest folly, to contemn or disregard it. The holy sacrament of the supper presents the Saviour, offered up an Almighty victim for sin. His sufferings and death are represented, as the meritorious cause of our redemption. The only fountain of pardoning mercy and redeeming grace is opened, in his body and blood. While, therefore, we are

ignorant of these truths, or insensible to them, we cannot be prepared for approaching that holy ordinance which derives, from them, all its efficacy and force. Until we cordially believe that the eternal Son of God, in our nature, shed his blood, to purchase our redemption; until we believe, that, through his merits alone, we can have access unto the throne of our offended Judge, and that, by his grace, we must be sanctified and restored to the favor of God; the holy sacrament of his supper, where he is set forth as crucified for our redemption, will appear an unmeaning and useless rite. Our participation of it would only be a wilful mockery of God and the Saviour, and tend to the condemnation of our souls. Pardon, salvation, and grace, the inestimable blessings of this sacred ordinance, are conveyed, only, to the true believer. The penitent, who is awakened to a sense of his guilt and his subjection to sin, will never experience rest or peace, until his soul heartily embraces the exalted truths, that the blood of the Saviour is all-sufficient to cleanse from sin, and his grace all-powerful to redeem from its dominion.

Let then thy most earnest solicitude, O my soul, be directed, to the examination, whether thou dost possess, that lively faith in God's mercy through Christ, which will convey to thee holiness and peace, and make thee, an accceptable guest, at the table of the Lord.

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