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Here observe the Directions given on Page 10, and more particularly endeavour to improve your soul by reading a lesson out of the NEW WHOLE DUTY OF MAN, Sunday 5. Sect I.

Meditation for Thursday Evening. On receiving the most Holy Sacrament.

I am the living bread, which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. John vi. 51.

1. I WILL ascend with the blessed Jesus up to Jerusalem, to eat the paschal lamb with his disciples, which they made ready in a large upper room ready furnished and prepared: I will entreat him to purge my soul, and to enable me also to prepare a large upper room, wherein to entertain him, elevated from this filthy world, above the poor and empty satisfactions of it.

2. O blessed Jesus! inspire me with faith, fill me with the love of thee, illuminate me with knowledge, cleanse me by repentance in thy blood, that I may receive thee in the sacrament, the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, to the joy of my soul, to the establishment of it in all good, and for a protection against all evil.

3. Let us admire, O my soul, the constancy and obedience of the blessed Jesus, who with great desire did desire to eat his passover; though he knew that after this feast his passion was then nigh at hand, would nevertheless go up to Jerusalem to the same, as a faithful son to his

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father's house, as a priest to the sanctuary, and a sacrifice to the altar.

4. Let us endeavour to practise according to his pattern, who, after supper was ended, did shew a miracle of humility, washing the feet of his disciples with his own sacred hands, to give us the most perfect example of humility, and to extinguish our pride: For,

5. By this means I shall partake of his graces, and be filled with his abundant love: I shall be washed from error and idle imaginations, my hands from all impure actions, my heart from all vain affections, my senses from all sinful delights and desires: so that thou, my soul, being purged by true repentance, I shall, both body and soul be cleansed in his blood, and be made partaker of all those glorious fruits which Christ hath given me in this food of life.

6. O blessed Jesus, what madness then is it to set my affections upon the perishable things of this world, who may attain the joys even of eternal life by knowing thee! the hour is come, O Jesus! wean me from the world, and secure me wholly unto thyself, and give me this life eternal to know and glorify thee. Make me sensible that it is my interest as well as duty to walk always before thee, and be always mindful of thy presence with me. Let it be my meat and drink to do thy holy will, and my only joy to glorify thy name.

Here observe the Directions given on Page 10, and more particularly endeavour to improve your soul by reading a lesson out of the NEW WHOLE DUTY OF MAN, Sunday 6.

A Prayer on Thursday Evening to implore God's Mercy and Assistance towards a worthy Receiving of the most Holy Sacrament.

Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Heb. x. 22.

GRANT, Almighty and most merciful Lord God, that I may never draw down thy just indignation upon myself, either by turning my back upon this ordinance, or by going to it without thought and unworthily. May thy mercy pardon what is past, and give me grace for the time to come, to consecrate my life to thee, and to embrace every occasion of remembering my Redeemer's love, and thereby securing thy favor, and my own salvation; and if it be thy will, grant that I may always find such comfort and benefit in this ordinance, as may encourage mė to observe it with joy unto my life's end.

Blessed be thy name, holy Father, for the opportunity thou hast this day vouchsafed me of humbling myself before thee. Pardon, I most humbly beseech thee, all my failings and defects at this time. The wanderings of my prayers, the coldness of my affections, and the disproportion of my repentance to the heinousness of those sins which I have committed.

O let thy mercy and goodness supply what is wanting in me, and be thou graciously pleased to pity my weaknesses, and forgive my infirmities, through the merits, and for the sake of thy beloved son, and my blessed Saviour, Jesus Christ the righteous; to whom with thee, and the Holy

Ghost, be ascribed all honour and glory, now and for evermore. Amen.

See the concluding Prayer and Blessing on Page 33 and 34.

Meditation for Friday Morning.

On the Passion of our blessed Saviour, commemorated in the most Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Phil. ii, 8.

1. I PROPOSE now unto thee, O my soul, that thou mayest give me comfort by a devout meditation on the sufferings of our wounded Jesus, which were the wonder and astonishment of heaven and earth! and thence learn of thy Saviour to be meek and lowly in heart; who being the great Lord of the world, condescended with the profoundest humility to undergo the punishment of slaves.

2. Behold with what patience this innocent Lamb yields to have his body ploughed and furrowed by merciless murderers! Behold him naked, helpless, and unpitied, whilst the furious executioners tear his skin and tender flesh with cruel scourges, to satisfy the cruelty of a barbarous multitude!

3. Behold this same blessed Jesus extended, tortured, and nailed, and rudely hoisted up upon the cross between two thieves, where he hung for

*Here you may observe the Directions given on Page 3,

the space of three long hours, [reviled by the Jews, and railed at by the very thieves] in pain, dolour, grief, and shame; all his bones disjointed, and his wounds stretched and rent the wider by the weight of his body hanging on the nails; and all this for man, even for thee, my soul, a miserable sinner!

4. Behold those powerful hands, which so lately had cured the blind and deaf, cleansed the lepers, and loosed them that were bound by Satan, extended in misery! Behold those adoreable feet pierced with nails, which had gone about doing good continually!

5. Behold that sacred body hanging upon the cross, hungry and thirsty, naked and cold, wounded and rent, weeping and bleeding, racked, and tortured, languishing, praying, and sacrificing itself, and exposed to all manner of shamę and torment for thee, in which all the treasures of wisdom and power were hid! and let that vinegar and gall given unto him, quench all immoderate appetites in thee, and imbitter all sensual delights. Behold that face,, more beautiful than the sons of men, which comforted the afflicted, and the light of whose countenance the fathers and prophets had so much desired to behold, changed into the paleness and horror of death; crying to his father, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me! and then giving up the ghost.

6. Oh! how great in mercy, how abundant in compassion was the Son of God thus to die for thee; how great in majesty, how terrible in power!

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