8

we must then draw near without fear, and take that holy Sacrament to our comfort; 9 firmly believing the Almighty God, for the fake of our bleffed Redeemer, and in regard to the merits of his death, will mercifully pardon and graciously receive us as worthy communicants. Befides this, it is farther required of us to behave with all possible reverence and devotion, when we present ourselves amongst our brethren, who come to partake of that most heavenly food; 4 and above all things, we are to give moft humble and hearty thanks to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft, as for all the blessings vouchfafed unto us, fo efpecially for the redemp tion of the world, by the death and paflion of our Saviour Chrift, both God and man; 7 to whom we should at all times, but more efpecially at these opportunities (of commemorating this ineftimable love of the Son of God, dying for us wretched finners) be most thankful, and filled with continual praifes to Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, who created, redeemed, and fanctifieth us, and all the world, thro' Jefus Chrift our Lord.

2.Tim. i. Mat. v. 4.

9 Heb. x.

20.

4 PL

8 Mat. xiv. 27. Mat. viii. 26. Luke xiii. 32. 7. John iv. 18. 9 Mat. x. 49. Luke viii. 48. Matt. xiii. 20. Luke iv. 17, 21. Ifa. xl. 1, 2. 19, 23. Heb. vii. 25. [ I Pet. i. 4. Luke xv. Ixxxix. 7. P. xciii. 5. Heb. xii. 28 Matt. xxi 37. AЯs xx 19 s Pf. xxvi. 5, 7. Pf.xxxiv. 3. Pflvii. 7. Pf. cviii. 1. P. cxi. 1. Pf. cxvi. 12. 13. 17. PT. ci 1, 5. PL cxlvii. 1. Eph. v. 20. I Theff. v. 18. Lake ii, 14. 1 Cor. xv. 57. 2 Cor. i. 3.

7 Rev. 12, 13m Col. iii. 17.

OF THE

New WEEK'S PREPARATION, &c.

BL

A Preparatory Prayer.

LESSED Lord, who haft commanded and invited us to pray unto thee, fo let thy fpirit help my infirmities; and do thou fo difpofe my mind, and prepare my heart,, that my prayers and praifes may be acceptable in thy fight, through the mediation, and for the fake, of Jefus Chrift, thy Son, our Lord. Amen.

N. B. This Prayer may properly be used every Morning and Evening to begin your devotions.

The Meditation for Sunday Evening after receiving the Lord's Supper.

Upon the fallen fate of man, and the great and gracious work of man's Redemption through Jefus Chrift.

For all have finned and come fort of the glory of God; being juftified freely by his grace thro' the Redemption that is in Chrift Jefus. Rom. iii. 23, 24

AVING now, O my feel! received the

H holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper,

it

it is neceffary that we should carefully confider, and seriously renew our reflections upon, the nature and end of this facred institution; what is meant by this holy action; to what purpose it was ordained; and what benefits and advantages are to be expected from it. For, we know, if any one goes to the holy communion without confidering the reafons of that ordinance, and the very great concern he has in it; or without underftanding the neceffity and advantage of a Redeemer, he will certainly go with indifference, and of courfe return without that benefit, which he might otherwise hope for and expect. Therefore,

II. That this, O my Soul! may not be our cafe, let us as well confider, what account the holy Scriptures have given us of the condition we are in, not only with refpect to this life, but to that which is to come. We are there affured that we are finners by nature; that as fuch, God cannot take pleasure in us; and that, should we happen to die before we are reftored to his favour, we fhall be feparated from him, and be unalterably miferable to all eternity. This confideration neceffarily leads us to enquire, how the nature of man came to be thus difordered, and prone to evil: for, we must not imagine that the infinitely good

God

God ever created man in fuch a state of corruption as we now perceive him to be in; but that he muft have fallen into this deplorable condition fince he came out of the hands. of his Creator, the juft and great God; of which we have the following account.

III. Our first parents* Adam and Eve, from whom sprang all mankind, were created in the image of God, that is, holy and innocent, having a perfect knowledge of their duty, a command over their will and affections, and; a power inherent, through God's appointment, to do what they faw fitting to be done. in this their happy condition: they were placed in paradife, as in a state of trial, with a promife of happiness and immortal life, if. they would continue to love, fear, honour, and obey their Creator: and they had also an exprefs warning of the dreadful confequences, of any future difobedience, and departing from their duty.

IV. Yet for all this warning, through the temptation of the Devil, (as St. Paul de-. fcribed the fallen ftate of man, and we have found by fatal experience) there was a law intheir members warring against the law of their mind; that the good which they would, they did not, but the evil that they would not, that they did. + i. e. They tranfgreffed PART II.

B

the

the commands of God; and by fo doing, they did not only forfeit their right to the promife of eternal life and happinefs, but alfo contracted fuch a blindnefs of the underftanding, fuch a diforder in their will and affections, that all their pofterity feel it to their forrow, being made thereby fubject to fin, the punishment whereof is death, and mifery eternal.

V. Nevertheless, the greatnefs of this punishment, inflicted upon our first parents, and their posterity, enables us to judge of the nature and aggravation of their fins; for God, being infinitely just and holy, could not inflict any punishment greater than their fin deferved: nay, after all this, God, of his great goodness, provided fuch a remedy, as that neither they nor any of their pofterity, fhould. on account of their fall be eternally miserable, except it was their own fault, and wholly owing to themselves.

VI. God, therefore, in confidering of a redeemer, (one of the feed of the woman,* who fhould make full fatisfaction to the divine justice for their tranfgreffion, and who fhould bruife the head, or break the power, of the ferpent (the Devil,) who tempted them to fin) entered into a new covenant with them by way of remedy for what was past, and could: not be undone; which covenant was this, that upon condition of their hearty repentance and

fincere