tally obtained, to the relief of my neceffities, and to the fetting forth of thy glory, through Jefus Chrift our Lord. Amen.

THE

The bleffing.

HE peace of God, which paffeth all understanding, keep my heart and mind in the knowledge and love of God, and of his fon Jefus Chrift our Lord; and the bleffing of God Almighty, the father, the fon, and the holy ghoft, be with me, now, and at the hour of my death. Amen.

On Monday night (and the rest of the week) at going to bed, say,

Will lay me down in peace and take my reft, for it is thou, O Lord, only that makeft me to dwell in fafety.

Into thy hands I commend my fpirit, for thou haft redeemed me, O Lord, thou God of truth.

Have mercy upon me, O Lord, now, and at the hour of death. Amen, Amen, Amen.

*The

*The Meditation for Tuesday Morning.

Upon God's mercy and Chrift's incarnation, to prepare us for a worthy receiving of the holy facra

ment.

For God fo loved the world, that he gave his only begotten fon, that whofoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John iii. 16.

I. Raw near all ye that fear our Lord; and I will tell you what he has done for my foul; hear, and I will tell you what he hath done for yours, and the wonders of his bounty towards all the world. When we lay asleep in the fhades of nothing, his almighty hand awakened us into being; not to that of ftones, or plants, or beafts, over which he has made us abfolute lords; but to a body wonderfully made, and an immortal foul, little inferior to his glorious angels; he printed on our fouls his own fimilitude, and promised to our obedience a fhare in his own felicity; he endued us with appetites to live well and happy, and furnifh'd us with means to fatisfy thofe petites; creating a whole world to ferve us here, and providing a heaven to glorify us hereafter. 2. Thefe

Here you may obferve the directions given on Page 3.

ap

2. These are the favours of God's infinite goodnefs: but what return have we made to him! blush, Omy foul, for fhame, at foftrange a weakness, and weep for grief at fo extreme an ingratitude. We childishly preferred a trivial apple before the law of our God, and the fafety of our fouls: we fondly embraced a little needlefs fatisfaction, before the pleasures of paradife, and the eternity of heaven.

3. Behold the unhappy fource of all our miferies, which ftill increased its streams as they went farther on, till they exacted at last a deluge of justice, to drown their deluge of iniquity; and here, alas! had been an end of man, a fad and fatal end of the whole world, had not our wife creator forefeen the danger, and in mercy prevented the extremity of the ruin, referving for himself a few choice plants to replenish the earth with more hopeful fruit : yet they grew quickly wild, and brought forth four grapes, and their childrens teeth were fet on edge; quickly they afpired to an intolerable pride of fortifying their wickednes against the power of heaven, by building the Tower of Babel.

4. This rebellion provok'd justice to a second deluge, and to bring again a cloud over the earth; but mercy difcovered a bow in the C

cloud,

cloud, and our faithful God remembered his promife, allaying their punishment with a milderfentence, and only fcattered them from the place of their confpiracy; which yet his providence turned into a bleffing, by making it an occafion of peopling the world.

Still

their rebellious nature difobeyed again, and neither feared his judgments, nor valued his mercies; but with a graceless emulation propagated fin, as far as his goodness propagated mankind. Then he felected a private family, and increased and governed them with a particular tenderness, giving them a law by the hands of angels, and engaged their obedience by a thousand favours; but they likewife neglected their God and heaven, and fell in love with the ways of death.

5. When thou hadft thus, O, merciful Lord ufed many remedies, and our difeafe was beyond their power to cure; when the light of nature proved too weak a guide, and the general flood too mild a correction; when the miracles of Mofes could not foften their hearts, nor the law of angels bring any to perfection; when the whole was reduced to this defperate ftate, and no imaginable hope left to recover us; behold! thy eternal wifdom finds an a

mazing expedient, the laft and the highest inftance of almighty love; he refolves to clothe himself with our flefh and come down amongst us, and die to redeem us, and has left us the bleffed facrament of his body and blood for a perpetual remembrance of the fame.

6. Wonder, O my foul, at the mercies of the Lord! how infinitely do they tranfcend even our utmost wifhes? wonder at the admirable providence of his counfels, that are exactly fitted to their great defign! had our Saviour been lefs than God, we could never have believed the fublime myfteries of his heavenly doctrine: had he been other than man, we must needs have wanted the powerful motive of his holy example. Had he been only God, he could never have fuffered the leaft of thofe afflictions, he fo glorioufly overcame : had he been merely man, he could never have overcome thofe infinite afflictions he fo patiently endured. In thee, O bleffed Saviour, the two natures of God and man were fo myfteriouíly united, without either change or confufion, that they made in thee but one person, one mediator, one Lord.