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Lord, my God, with all my | vine grace to do what Thou heart, and will praise Thy name for evermore.

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commandest, and then command whatsoever pleaseth Thee.

My heart is ready both to serve Thee in all the duties of holy religion, and to serve my neighbour also, in the duties of beneficence; and to watch over myself against all irrational desires: "that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, I may now, for the future, live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.

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Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearance of the great God, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ P."

MEDITATIONS OF FASTING AND ALMS-GIVING,

TO BE PRACTISED WITH

HOLY PRAYER AND MEDITATION.

That my Prayers and Meditations may ascend into Heaven, and be there treasured up to my comfort in the day of my account, it is necessary that the Christian duties of Fasting and Almsgiving be frequently intermixed; for these are the two wings whereupon holy

m Psalm lxxxvi. 11-13.
P Tit. ii. 12, 13.

prayer is mounted into Heaven, and graciously accepted in the presence of God.

These three are those "spiritual sacrifices acceptable unto God by Jesus Christ," whereby every sincerely devout Christian, as a member of the holy mystical priesthood, sacrificeth all that he

" Psalm cviii. 1.

• Rom. ii. 4. a 1 Pet. ii. 5.

is, and all that he has unto God, from Whom he hath received all. His soul is poured forth by Prayer'; his body is sacrificed by Fastings; and his goods are offered by Alms-giving'.

We have no more to give: and not in some considerable proportion to give each of these unto God, is to rob Him of that tribute which is due unto Him, as an acknowledgment that all we are, and all we do possess, is held from Him in capite, as the chief Lord of all."

To pretend that all these Christian duties are implied, and may be supplied through the fulness of faith in Christ, is a false and mistaken notion of the holy and true Christian Faith, which both commends and commands, not the airy empty notions, but the real performance of all these religious duties.

Our blessed Lord, in His heavenly sermon on the mount, joins these together; and we may not without danger to our souls presume to part them, or vainly conceive that any one without

Heb. xiii. 15, 16. u Mat. vi. 1. 5. 16.

the other will be accepted of God: but being all sincerely practised as our Lord directs", we shall then, as He commands, "lay up for ourselves treasure in Heaven, where are neither moth nor rust "."

Thus devout Cornelius sent up such a plentiful treasure into Heaven, as brought down thence one of those celestial spirits for his guidance and direction in the ways of life.

Holy Prayer is that whip which drives the devil and all his temptations out of the temple of the heart, leaving it to the possession of the Holy Jesus; and Fasting is as that scope or besom which sweeps and keeps clean this spiritual temple of the Lordy: by both conjoined, the strongest devil is mastered and ejected. Prayer is as the chain which ties up Satan; and by Fasting, the chain is strengthened, and made to hold.

But a threefold cord is not easily broken, if with your Prayers and Fastings you conjoin the Christian

Rom. xii. 1. ▾ Mat. vi. 20.

Phil. iv. 18.

Acts x 2. 3. 30. Dedit Centurio hic terram, accepit cœlum; dedit pecuniam, accepit gratiam: partitus est cum egenis bona sua, et recepit magnifica Spiritus Sancti dona: pauperes domi recepit, et Angelos videre meruit.-Gran.

I Mark ix. 29.

acts of holy Charity also: a chain of these several links composed, will not only tie up the devil, that his temptations shall not reach to hurt your soul, but also secretly bind the hands of the Almighty, that they be not stretched out for the punishment of your by-past transgressions: for "Charity shall cover a multitude of sins"."

Let not the lust of the flesh, or the lust of thine eyes so bewitch thee, O my soul, as to rob thy God of what is due unto Him, both from thy body and estate.

Whilst thou courtest thy

God with prayers alone, thou servest Him with what doth cost thee nothing; nothing but the labour of thy lips. It is myself, my whole self the Lord requires with my prayers; my soul in its devoutest affections; my body in the mortification of all its exorbitant lusts; my goods in the relief of my wanting brethren: otherwise my prayers will flag and grovel here below, when they want these spiritual wings whereupon to mount to the Throne of Grace "to find mercy, and to obtain grace in the time of need."

1 Pet. iv. 8.

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PARAPHRASED, UPON THE FOUR LAST THINGS;

1. DEATH, II. JUDGMENT, III. HELL, IV. HEAVEN.

The Fifth Edition enlarged.

DEUT. xxxii. 29.

O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they
would consider their latter end.

LONDON,

PRINTED FOR LUKE MEREDITH, 1698.

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