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or the extent of the divine mercy! The mercy of God is not lefs confpicuous in the covenant itself, and the manner of establishing it, than his faithfulnefs is out of queftion in fulfilling it; only feek mercy in the way which the gofpel hath marked out to thee, and doubt not but thou fhalt find it. The death of Christ, and now his life, is thy fecurity. Let the mercy of God encourage thy hopes, and his faithfulness and truth in keeping covenant, be a pattern to thine.

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Lord, I am not my own; I never was, never can, never defire to be fo, and hope and promise never to act as if I was! Truly I am thy fervant, thou haft loofed my bonds. Thine I am by creation, thine by purchase, thine by covenant. I confefs, and triumph in the relation, and acknowledge all the duties refulting from it. I have fworn, and cannot repent, that I will keep thy righteous ftatutes; and I now joyfully repeat the folemn engagement. Here I am; Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Deal with me and mine as feemeth good in thy fight; thy will, and not mine, fhall be the rule of my defires. and actions, and thy glory my fupreme end. It is thine to command and dispose, mine to obey and fubmit. Thou haft bought me with a price, even with the precious blood of thine own Son, of which this facramental, wine is a mcmorial.

memorial. I therefore, as in gratitude bound, prefent my whole felf, body and foul, to thee, a living facrifice, holy and acceptable, which is my reasonable service, with a full purpose of heart to glorify thee with both. I confider this facramental eating and drinking, not only as expreffive of a very high privilege enjoyed by the worthy communicant, who is here treated with the condefcending freedom of a domestic fervant, a gueft, a friend of God, and of Jefus; but as an obligation upon me to behave at all times as thy devoted covenant-servant in Chrift. O Lord, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of my heart, and prepare my heart unto thee!

When retired after receiving.

H

SECT. I.

Aft thou not, O my foul, this day had thy dear Lord evidently fet forth as crucified before thy eyes; and, by commemorating his death in the holy fupper, declared thyfelf a difciple of this crucified Jefus ? And what is to be the temper of my mind, and my future behaviour, that it may agree with the character of one who profeffes himfelf a disciple of such a Master? Ought I not

to

to be crucified with Chrift to the world, the pomps and vanities, the riches and pleasures of it? Yes, certainly. A difciple of Chrift is not to be taken up with these things. Did the Mafter embrace a life of meannefs and poverty, and voluntarily fubmit to a most painful and ignominious death? was he not more despised by the men of the world, than he defpifed the things of it, and fhewed himself fuperior to its spirit, its wifdom, its maxims, and temptations? and fhall the difciple eagerly covet these things, admire them, value himself upon them, and place his happiness in them? In all this would he fhew himself mindful of his profeffion? or rather would he not shamefully forget it? Though I am not obliged to renounce the poffeffion, or the moderate ufe of any worldly advantages that Providence hath put into my hand; yet I am all fuch love of them as would weaken and counteract the diviner affections, and much more that which is inconfiftent with the prevalency of fuch affections. I am to be of fuc a temper with regard to these earthly thing as to be able readily to forego them; to en joy without abufing them, and being elated and corrupted by them; and to do all the good I can with them. Can I have fuch an object often in my view, as the Son of God covered with a cloud of affliction; a cross, and this Lord of glory nailed to it, and expiring upon it: and yet not have my affections at all deadened to the world? have the fame high thoughts of it, and the fame fond

attachment

attachment to it as ever? O my foul, it is impoffible the contemplation of a crucified Jefus must have other effects! It muft, and I truft it hath. I look unto Jefus, and fuddenly the glory of the world disappears; its charms fade, and all its treasures lofe their imaginary value. Let those doat on the world, who never meditate on a crucified Saviour, never remember him at his table: this I have done, and found the happy influence of that example which my Redeemer hath fet before me fo ftrong, that I no longer follow the world, as a captive in chains, the triumphal chariot of his conqueror. This, alas, I did as the other flaves of the world in the days of my vanity; but, thanks to my Saviour, am now a conqueror in my turn! His example fets me free; his death hath convinced me of my folly, and taught me other and founder notions of things. Henceforth not thofe things which render me lefs like my Saviour, while he was in the world, fhall be the matter of my glorying; but thofe by which I become conformed to him; among others, my being victorious over the lufts of the flesh, the lufts of the eye, and the pride of life; all which are not of the Father, but of the world, which passeth away, and the lufts thereof.

SECT.

I

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Will not think of pleading with my Savi

our, as what must render me dear to him, -Have I not eaten and drank in thy prefence, and honoured thy memory?-being fenfible that I have no other anfwer to expect, if I am found among the workers of iniquity, than that terrible one, Depart from me, I know you not. He will not know me, because I knew him no better; will not think his name honoured by being taken up by such polluted lips; will be ashamed to own me for his, because fo utterly unworthy of his approbation. The greater, my foul, thy honour in the near access thou art allowed to thy Redeemer, and the oftener thou profeffeft thy fubjection to him, by partaking of the memorials of his body and blood, the greater is thy obligation to obey him, and the greater will be thy guilt if thou doft not! All the reft of my life is to correfpond with this particular action, and to make good what I have virtually promised in it, though I fhould not have exprefsly promised it, as I have done, and intend to do again, if God give opportunity.

SE C T. III.

BEware, O my foul, how thou framest a decifive judgment of thy ftate and character, merely or chiefly from the manner in which the sensitive part of thy nature hath

been

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