dust and ashes, and laden too with the bur. then of our sins, how shall we hope to as cend those higher regions; or claim a portion in that holy land? Fear not, ask the bright Angels, what made them happy, and straight they'll answer with a voice of gladness, "readily obeyed our great Creator, and he

❝ we

fixed us here to shine for ever." Ask the blest Saints, what brought them to felicity, and immediately they will tell you in the same glad tone," we faithfully loved our dear Redeemer; and that love has placed us "here."

II. Look up and see the sacred humanity of thy Redeemer; that blessed Jesus, who died for us upon the Cross; and now invites us to partake of his Holy Sacrament. See and rejoice in those eternal honours, which Heaven and earth pay to their King..

How

III. What are honours, or wordly pleasures, compared to the bliss of an eternal paradise? What are riches or a large estate, if counterbalanced with the treasures of Heaven? narrow there do our greatest kingdoms seem? How small a circle the whole terrestrial globe! Cities and Towns shew like little mole-hills, and their busy inhabitants but as swarms of

ants.

IV. O Heaven! Let me again lift up my eyes to thee; and take a fuller view of that

glorious

glorious prospect. There let me fix my steady sight, till I am fully convinced, that the most prosperous fortune we can here possess, is all idle an dream compared to thy real joy; an absolute nothing to thy solid feli city.

Here observe the Directions given in page 8. The prayer on Wednesday Evening for the attainment of everlasting happiness.

Whoso eateth my Flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. John vi, 54,

Most great, most mighty, and most glo

rious Lord God! look down from the habitation of thy holiness upon thy unworthy creature, who am come into thy presence to adore thy incomprehensible majesty, and to present before thee the evening sacrifice of my unfeigned praises for thy many and undeserved favours bestowed upon me. I acknowledge thy eternal Honour, Glory, Praise, and Adoration; for thou art the sovereign Lord of Heaven and Earth, by whom all things were made, and by whose infinite power and goodness, they are preserved and kept in being. And

Blessed be thy unspeakable goodness, that hath advanced me to such a degree of being, that I am in some measure capable to know thee, to love thee, to serve thee and obey

D3

thee,

thee.

And for ever blessed be thy name, Ọ Lord, that I was born of Christian Parents, and early dedicated to thee by Baptism and that by thy grace and goodness I have been preserved to this moment, and have in any degree escaped the dangerous temptations of this wicked world.

Blessed be thou, O God, who by thy grace, and by the voice of thy Church, hast called me to repentance'; discover to me, O thou searcher of hearts, the vast charge that is against me, that I may know and confess, and forsake the many sins I have fallen into. Give me that true repentance, to which thou hast promised mercy and pardon, that I may amend what I have done amiss, and that iniquity may not be my ruin. And, O blessed advocate, who ever livest to make intercession for me, I put my cause into thy hands :-let thy merits plead for me, and by thy mighty intercession procure the pardon of my past offences. That thou mayest say unto me, as thou didst unto the penitent in the Gospel-thy sins are forgiven so that I may go with a quiet conscience to thy Holy Table, and at last be received into thy glorious presence for evermore, Amen.

See the concluding Prayer, and Blessing, page 40

* The

* THE MEDITATION FOR THURSDAY MORNING,

Upon our Sanctification, whereby we are made worthy to come to the Holy Sacrament.

Except a Man be born of Water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God, That which is born of the Flesh, is Flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit, John iii, 5. 6.

CONS

ONSIDER, O my Soul, the mercies of thy God; consider the wonders he has wrought for the children of men. The eter nal Father created us out of nothing, and set us in the way to everlasting happiness.-The eternal Son came down from Heaven to seek us bewildered in the paths of Sin. The eternal Spirit brings his Grace to sanctify us, and give us strength to walk in that holy way. Thus every Person of the sacred Trinity has freely contributed his peculiar hlessing; and all together, as one co-infinite goodness, have graciously agreed to compleat our happiness.

II. Come then, let us humbly implore the Divine Grace to make us worthy to address our Sanctifier; who from the Father and the Son eternally proceeds, and with the Father and the Son must be equally worshipped and

* Here you may observe the Directions given, in page 3.

and glorified. He infuses into man the breath af life, and brings him forth in the second birth; a birth that makes men heirs of Heaven, and gives us a title to everlasting happiness.

III. Arise, therefore, Holy Ghost the comforter, intercede for pity upon the unhappy state of fallen mankind, which neither Nature nor Law could bring to perfection. For though they who lived under the Law were trained up in a set form of discipline, which grew and spread into a public Religion, and was uniformly professed by a whole nation; yet they had but weak conceits of the Kingdom of Heaven, and imperfect means to bring them thither: And as to those high and supernatural mysteries, which so gloriously exalt the Christian Faith; they all were blind in the dark, and dangerously exposed to the effects of their own ignorance, wanting those clear and powerful motives to love their God. God having prorided some better things for us, that they without us should not be made perfect, Heb. xi. 40. Nevertheless, this prepared them for the times of grace; so that if any riper Souls came forward to the birth, there wanted Spirit to bring them forth; but send out thy Spirit, O Lord, and they shall be created; and from the death of sin, be raised to the life of holiness