But thou haft told the troubled mind, Who does her fins lament, The timely tribute of her tears Shall endless woes prevent. Then fee the forrows of my heart, And hear my Saviour's dying groans, Fer never fhall my foul defpair The Prayer on Tuesday Morning. For the obtaining God's grace and protection. Lmighty God, the creator and preserver of all mankind; I thy creature, whom thou haft made, and to this moment haft preferved, do now, as I promised in the holy facrament, prefent myfelf before thee, to offer up the morning facrifice of my unfeigned praises and thanksgivings: for, as thy mercies are renewed to me every morning, and thy goodness follows me all the day long; as thou vifiteft me in the night season, and every moment of my life is a new instance of thy mercy: fo, It is my abfolute duty to lay hold of every opportunity to magnify thy glorious name, evermore praifing thee and faying: It is by thy goodness, O Lord, that I have this night flept fecure, and am now raifed up in health and fafety. Praised therefore be thy name, O God; for of thee only cometh my falvation. Thou art the God of my health, my faviour, and mighty deliverer; as long as I live I will magnify thee, O Lord; for a joyful and pleafant thing it is to be thankful.* Oh! give me a heart always turned to thy praises, which is my happiness as well as my duty. Imprint on my mind fuch a deep fenfe of thy merits, that I may never provoke thee to withdraw thy favours from me. Let not the bleffings thou beftoweft on me make me in love with this world: let neither covetoufnels nor ambition, neither pride nor vanity, neither a contempt of others nor a fond conceit of myself be the refult of thy lovingkindness towards me: but, Endue-me with fuch an humble and contented mind, fuch a meek and refigned fpirit, fuch a quiet and peaceable temper and behaviour, as becomes a creature and a finner. Oh! infpire my foul with pure and pious difpofitions, and instead of thofe filthy rags of my righteousness, cloathe me with the righteouf nefs of the faints. Let the confideration of my unworthiness fupprefs in me all proud and afpiring thoughts, and all covetous and ambirious defires; that being meek and lowly in mine own eyes, my heart may be a clean receptacle for my Saviour, and that I may find reft unto my foul, and be filled with that grace, which thou hast promised to an humble and contrite heart: fo I fhall, as I ought, be fitted and prepared for every condition, and especially for my great and last change. Strengthen my faith in the time of ficknefs and trial, and forfake me not when my ftrength faileth me. Let thy merciful ears, O Lord, be then open to my prayers: O! let not the cruel enemy of fouls affright me with his terrors, but give thy holy angels charge over me; and let the confolation of thy holy Spirit fortify my mind, and diffipate my fears, and be a reviving cordial to my foul, at that laft and momentous period of my life, when I fhall ftand in fo much need of thee. Give me an unfeigned repentance of all my fins, great love to thee, and charity to my neighbour, an entire fubmiffion to thy bleffed will, and (if thou feeft fitting) fome foretaste and affurance of my falvation. But if thou, in thy great wisdom, shalt not fee futing to vouchsafe me me fo great a mercy, yet, O gracious father, let me not fail, in the great day of judgment, to hear that bleffed fentence pronounced unto me, Well done thou good and faithful fervant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. * Grant this, O moft gracious God, for thy mercy's fake in Jefus Chriftour Lord; in the full extent of whofe words, I defire to be heard for myfelf, and all mankind, when I call upon thee, faying, Our Father, &c. The first Meditation for Tuefday Evening. Of the great advantages of frequent communion. temporal A N intimate intercourse with tem things, and familiarity with the delights and fatisfactions of fenfe, are but two apt to take off our minds from serious thoughts, and to impair that vigour and refolution which ought to be employed about the one thing needful. On the contrary, frequent communion keeps a lively sense of religion upon our minds, and invigorates them with fresh ftrength and power to perform our duty to God, our neighbour, and ourselves; without this, O my foul! we can no more maintain a fpiritual life, than we can our temporal, with Matt. xxv. 21, 23. out out eating and drinking; for it is the proper nourishment of the foul.. 2. The frail and finful body can never hope to be free from the perpetual affaults which the world, the flesh, and the devil, conftant enemies to our true happiness, are ever making upon our virtue and innocence. On the contrary, frequent communion, by mortifying our paffions, by fpiritualizing our affections, is the fovereign remedy against all their temptations; how then, my foul! can we yield to any finful fatisfactions that crucified the Lord of glory, or fix our hearts upon perishing objects, when God only deferves the whole man, and we in this facrament commemorate the price by which we are purchased from fin and flavery. 3. The great advantage of our chriftianity confifts in being made members of Chrift's myftical body, by reafon of thofe happy influences we derive from our head; and our happinefs depends upon our enjoying this bleffed privilege. This fpiritual union inviolable between Chrift and all faithful chriftians is ferved by frequent communion; by a mutual intercourfe of goodness and compaffion, in pardoning our fins, in ftrengthening our fee pre ble |