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Directions for Prayer.

sinful soul. Strengthen my confidence in thy love, when I partake of the instituted pledges thou hast left me. Oh comfort me with the assurance that thou art mine. Teach these eyes, with tears of penitence and joy, to look upon thy broken body; give me thus that repentance unto salvation never to be repented of. O my Lord, conquered by thy dying love, may every lust be offered up a willing sacrifice at thy cross! Take them, Lord, slay them before thee; consume the dross of base affections, purify my soul, and with this sacred fire refine it like thine own.

Anointed Jesus, save me from every sin; set up within my soul thy kingdom of righteousness, and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost; reign over a willing subject, and let thy service be ever the happy freedom of my soul. Oh what bondage, Lord, like the bondage of corruption? what liberty so sweet as that which they enjoy; who take up thy light burden, thy easy yoke? Thou askest nothing from me which it is not my happiness to renounce; thou commandest nothing wherein it is not my happiness to obey thee. Oh then let me count nothing grievous which thou dost enjoin: anew I would make my surrender unto thee; again would I solemnly seal my soul for thine own: enable me to approve myself more faithful to the vows which are upon me, and live more devoted to thee who hast died for me.

Thou knowest, Lord, my simpleness, and my faults are not hid from thee; thou knowest it is the desire of my soul to love and please thee. Oh when

Directions for Prayer.

shall I have done with sin? when shall I grieve no more thy Spirit in me? O Lord, when shall it yet be? Continue to be gracious; draw me nearer to thy blessed self, that I may run more eagerly after thee; shew me more of thy beauty, that sin may grow more hateful in my eyes; lay thy hand upon me, and fashion me; oh fashion me, dear Redeemer, in thy own blessed image, and make me wholly such as thou wouldest have me to be. Make thyself known unto me in the breaking of bread; reveal thyself to my poor soul as thou dost not to the world; make me to taste the comforts of thy regard, that I may be enabled for all thy services; and open my eyes to heavenly things. When I remember thee on the cross, may I look to thee also on the throne, and feel the weight of thy expected appearance continually influential over me! O Saviour, that I may then be found of thee in peace, and meet thee on thy throne of judgment with kind acceptance and regard. Thou wilt come, I know thou wilt, and wilt not tarry. O Lord Jesus, may I be ever looking for, and haste unto the day of thine appearing, and be found watching, when thou shalt stand at the door, and knock.

Receive my thanks, dear suffering Saviour, thou compassionate High-priest, who canst be touched with the feelings of thy people's infirmities; blessing and praise be ever thine. Help me daily to be telling of thy salvation, till thou shalt give me. a place with those blessed spirits of the just made perfect, whose happy labour is everlasting songs of thanksgiving to thee, who wast slain, and hast

Directions for Prayer.

redeemed us to God by thy blood, and made us kings and priests, that we might reign with thee in thy kingdom for ever. Amen.

It is supposed that every communicant walks in a continual course of self-examination. The temper described in Chapter III. will afford the most interesting points of enquiry. As we shall ever find how short we come of that blessed disposition there described, we shall have continual need for new confessions of sin and unfaithfulness, with renewed purposes of heart of cleaving to the Lord. If any thing particularly humbling hath befallen us, or any new temptation beset us, we must spread it before the Redeemer, and pour out our griefs into his compassionate bosom. He is a kind Saviour; we know but little of the depths of his bowels and mercies, else we should never dishonour him as we do with our distrusts, and should be more deeply melted down under the sense of his amazing patience and love. One view of Christ in his transcendently gracious character, as the dear Redeemer of lost souls, hath more power and efficacy to break the bonds of sin, and urge us to obedience, than all the vows, promises, and resolutions wherewith we can bind our souls.

Meditations..

CHAPTER VII.

ON MEDITATION.

AT the Lord's Table, and before we go to it, a most profitable exercise is divine meditation; nothing serves more to spiritualize and enliven the soul, than the consideration of some of the great and precious promises that in Jesus Christ are made to us; or of those blessed portions of Scripture that more immediately speak of him whom our soul loveth, declare his offices, describe his sufferings, or point us to the glory which followed: they are too numerous to be collected. I will select a few as heads of meditation, which I shall endeavour to enlarge upon, and refer you to many others, which will afford like profitable improve

ment.

The interval which we spend during the celebration of the Lord's Supper, should be usually most employed in this way. By this means our devotion at the ordinance itself is kept from languishing, and we accustom ourselves more habitually to that communion with God, which should be our daily walk.

Meditations.

MEDITATION I.

GENESIS iii. 15.

I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

How wondrous the compassions of God to fallen man! he left him not to despair; he slew him not in his sin; he pitied, he pardoned. See in this first promise, O my soul, how unwilling the Lord is that we should perish. A beam of light and hope breaks through the darkness, and revives the guilty soul of man; he saw, and believed; and shall I be now faithless? The true light hath shined, the Sun of Righteousness is arisen with healing in his wings; I see him not through a glass darkly, but as it were face to face, beholding the promise fulfilled by his appearing in the fulness of time. What confidence then, my soul, should inspire thee, when here before thine eyes thou seest the serpent's head bruised by the sacrifice of the woman's seed! O Saviour, let me adore thy grace, and rest satisfied in the glorious victory thou hast obtained. Thou wast manifested to destroy the works of the devil; oh fulfil in me this great design of thy coming, bring near thy cross to my heart, and bruise at thy feet whatever is serpentine and diabolical in this fallen nature; make me to know, by experience of the effectual working of thy mighty power, that thou art this promised

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