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Thou hast prepar'd this dying lamb,
Haft fet his blood before our face,
To teach the terrors of thy name,
And fhew the wonders of thy grace.
He is our light; our morning star
Shall fhine on nations yet unknown,
The glory of thy Ifrael here,
And joy of fpirits near the throne.

The Prayer on Sunday Evening.

For Strength and Grace in our fallen State.

Ε ETERNAL

TERNAL God, thou alone art he, in whom we live and move and have our being; and from whom are derived all the comforts and conveniencies of this life, and all the hopes and expectations of a better. Thou art the author and finifher of every good work; without thee nothing is ftrong, nothing is holy; without thy affifting and preventing grace, we are easily driven away by every flight temptation, as the dust before the wind is carried to and fro.

With what humility, reverence, and dread, then ought I thy fervant, (dedicated to thee long ago by moft folemn vows and engagements in my holy baptifm, which I have fince [often] (efpecially this day) renewed at thy holy table, where I received the Sacrament of Chrift's body and blood)to appear before thee, when I confider the greatnefs of thy majefty,

and

and the purity of thy divine nature, whofe service is perfect freedom? and without thy favour and love, O Jefu, I must have been, and fhall be, the most miferable of all thy creatures. So that,

O Lord, if thou hadst not invited me, I acknowledge, that I was not worthy to come into thy prefence, nor to lift up mine eyes towards the throne of thy mercy-feat: for the corruption of my heart, and the sinfulness of my thoughts is that abomination which thou abhorreft. Hence,

- O my God, I am fully perfuaded, that it is my happiness and privilege, as well as my duty, to love, adore, and ferve thee. I am fe riously convinced, there is no pleasure like that of a good confcience; and that the greatest satisfactions in this world are not worthy to be compared with that fulness of joy, which is in thy prefence for evermore, but alas! I know by fad experience that I am prone to offend thee, and too apt to forget the vows and refolutions, which I have made to ferve and obey thee, at the times thy holy fpirit hath raised me from the death of fin, to a new life of righteoufnefs. Therefore,

O moft merciful Father, who knowest that we are but duft and ashes, vouchsafe of thy great goodness to pity the weaknesses of me, thy poor creature; and continue to me the affiftance

Pfalm xvi. 11.

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affiftance of thy grace and holy Spirit, that I may not be tempted above what I am able to bear. And whereas this very day, O Lord, thou haft given me an opportunity of ferving thee in thy houfe; grant that I may not be accused of coldnefs or indevotion, nor of hearing thy word only; but that I may approve myfelf a doer of the fame in my faith and practice. Wherefore,

O moft gracious God! let me never faint or tire in my duty, nor, for the fake of any thing this world can offer me, be unmindful of the great and important concern of my falvation. Give me fuch a zeal for thy fervice, that the doing thy will may be my greatest joy and fatisfaction and imprint on my mind fuch a lively fenfe of thy love, as may inflame my heart with the most devout and ardent affections that, being every day more and more weaned from this world, I may look upon all its honours, pleafures, and profits, with that coldness and indifference, which become the fervant of the bleffed Jefus, who, being God, defcended from the heavens, and took upon him the form of a fervant, that he might leave us an example of his great humi lity. Grant this, O Father, for Jefus Christ's fake, our only mediator and advocate. Amen. A concluding Prayer.

THE

HE grace of our Lord Jefus Chrift, and the love of God, and the fellowship

of

of the Holy Ghoft, be with me now and ever.

Amen.

N. B. This Prayer may properly be used every Morna ing and Evening to conclude your devetions.

If time shall now permit, you may proceed to examine yourself, and the fate of your confcience, by the particular directions printed in page 233.

When you lie down in bed.

will lay me down in peace, and take my reft; for it is thou, Lord, only that mak eft me to dwell in fafety; and into thy hands I recommend my fpirit, my foul, and my body, for thou haft redeemed me, O Lord, thou God of :ruth. Amen.

THE

In the morning when you go out of your chamber. THE HE bleffing of God defcend upon mes and all belonging to me, and dwell in my heart for evermore, and bless my goings out and my coming in, now and for ever. Amen.

The Meditation for Monday Morning. Upon the inflitution of the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

-The Bread that I will give, is my flesh-my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed-It is the fpilt that quickeneth, the flesh profileth no thing, the words that I fpeak unto you, they are fpirit, and they are life. John vi. 53, 55, 63.

I;

YONSIDER, O my foul! how, by divine providence, we have escaped the danger

*

danger of this night, and are continued to gether in a deep fenfe of our duty, which we yesterday acknowledged and confirmed in the receiving of that holy facrament, which, in its outward part, is only Bread and Wine, which the Lord hath commanded to be received; that is, to be eaten and drunk by all who come to his table, in remembrance of the body and blood of Chrift, which are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper.† A facrament which at once, by the bread broken, fignifies the body of Chrift broken on the cross; and by the wine poured out, fignifies the blood of Chrift, fhed at his crucifixion. But guard against that doctrine, which teaches that we eat the natural body, and drink the natural blood of Chrift; for, the natural body and blood of Christ are in heaven, and not here; it being against the truth of Chrift's natural body to be at one time in more places than one,+ and therefore we cannot eat and drink Christ's natural body and blood in the facra

ment..

II. We are well affured by Christ himself, as well as by his apostle, that the Lord's Supper' was exprefsly defigned for the remembrance of Christ,

*See the Church Catechism, on the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

See the Rubric to the Communion Service in the common Prayer Book.

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