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refresh our bodies, so when they are duly administered and received in this holy sacrament, they have by the special benediction of God an immediate tendency to strengthen and refresh our souls? to strengthen them by invigorating us with new degrees of power and ability for the discharge of our duty; and to refresh them by the reviving hope and assurance of our being reconciled to God, through the precious blood of His Beloved Son?

Do I consider also, that the body and blood of Christ, which are thus verily and indeed received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper, are the proper nourishment of our souls; and as necessary and efficacious to the sustenance of our spiritual life, and to our growth in grace, as eating and drinking are to the support of our animal life, and the strength and health of our bodies?

Has the consideration of these important and most comfortable truths produced in me an earnest desire and longing to go to the table of the Lord: a hunger and thirst after that spiritual food, that bread which nourishes the soul, and that wine which makes glad the heart of sinners; that heavenly bread, and that blessed wine, the eating and drinking of which will enable us to vanquish and overcome all the enemies of our salvation, will support and strengthen us in the hour of death, and preserve both our souls and bodies to everlasting life? Do I feel in myself that awful regard to these

holy mysteries, and those pious and heavenly dispositions of mind, that are necessary to qualify me for the worthy receiving of this blessed sacrament, and to entitle me to the benefits which God has promised to those who receive it in a manner becoming so sacred and solemn an action?

Am I sincerely penitent for my past offences, and stedfastly purposed to live better for the future?

Is my sorrow for my sins a godly sorrow; a sorrow for having offended God, and transgressed His holy laws; a sorrow for my having incurred the displeasure of a holy God, Who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and a good God, Who has loved me so tenderly, and bestowed so many benefits and favours upon me?

Is it a sorrow arising from a true principle of filial love to God, and accompanied with earnest desires and resolutions to devote myself henceforward to His honour and service, and to live answerably to the engagements of that holy covenant, which I was admitted into at my baptism, and am now going to renew at the Lord's table?

Do I firmly believe that our Saviour's death upon the cross was a true propitiatory sacrifice, offered up by Christ for the atonement of our sins, and accepted by the Father as a full satisfaction in behalf of all those who shall perform the conditions of the new covenant in His blood?

Am I firmly persuaded that if I come duly prepared

to this holy sacrament, the blessed memorial of that meritorious sacrifice, I shall be assuredly entitled to all the inestimable benefits which Christ has thereby purchased for us; so as that all the general promises which God has made to penitent sinners through Christ, will undoubtedly and effectually be applied and made good to me in particular?

Do I feel my heart affected with becoming sentiments of love, and joy, and gratitude at the remembrance of the infinite goodness of God the Father, in giving His Only-begotten Son to die for us, and of the incomprehensible love and condescension of God the Son, in humbling Himself even to the cruel and ignominious death of the cross for our sakes?

Am I sufficiently sensible of, and thankful for the unspeakable advantages and blessings which the death of Christ hath merited and procured for mankind? That whereas we must have been miserable to all eternity if He had not died, He, by being made a curse for us and dying in our stead, has not only delivered us from the curse of the law and the terrors of death, from the tyranny of sin and Satan, and from torments eternal; but has also purchased for us pardon and grace, consolation and acceptance, and the everlasting joys and glories of the kingdom of heaven?

Am I unfeignedly thankful for the exceeding

great love of our Master and only Saviour Jesus Christ, in instituting this holy sacrament to be a standing memorial of His death, and a means of our having the new covenant in His blood renewed and confirmed to us in a visible manner; and all the blessed effects of His passion, verily and indeed communicated to us, upon our worthily receiving these sacred pledges of His love?

Do I consider lastly, that this holy feast, wherein the love of Christ is so wonderfully exemplified, and all are invited to eat of one bread and drink of one cup, was designed by our Blessed Saviour to be a solemn rite, whereby all His disciples should testify their mutual love of one another, and be reminded of the inviolable obligations they lie under to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace?

And do I therefore, in pursuance of these beneficent ends, resolve to make myself appear to be Christ's disciple indeed, by loving all men with a sincere and cordial affection, and by taking all proper occasions of expressing my christian love and charity; in being always ready to forgive those who may happen to provoke or injure me, and to do every good office in my power to all men, as well enemies as friends, whether in order to promote their spiritual or temporal advantage?

PRAYER

for all the holy dispositions that are necessary to make us worthy receivers of His holy Supper.

ALMIGHTY God and Heavenly Father, Who of Thy tender mercy didst give Thine Only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption, out of the same tender mercy assist me with Thy grace, that I may worthily partake of that holy feast, which was instituted by Christ Himself in order to perpetuate the memory of His death and passion, and to exhibit and apply to every penitent sinner the invaluable benefits He has thereby purchased for us.

Give me right notions, and a clear conception as of the nature, end, and dignity, so of the divine virtue and efficacy of that blessed sacrament. And dispose me to receive it with such a pious and heavenly temper of mind, that in eating of that bread, and drinking of that cup may be strengthened with might by Thy Spirit in the inner man, and refreshed with those inward delights of Thy grace, which truly devout persons feel at the table of their Lord.

Grant me, I humbly pray Thee, such a sense of my sins, and of the sufferings of my Blessed Saviour

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