been affected at the holy table! Perhaps thy paffions have been strongly moved, thou haft felt an unusual liveliness and flow of fpirits; or, on the contrary, haft had a kind of dead weight upon thee, which hath bowed thee down to the earth; a more than ordinary. confinement in thy thoughts, and languor in thy affections. Now, O my foul, in cafe the warmth of thy affections be followed with an answerable tenderness of conscience afterwards, happy art thou, and haft abundant reafon to be eafy and thankful: not fo, if it be only a fudden gust of passion, which leaves thee as much under the power of fenfual and worldly affections as ever; thy religion is vain, and thou art yet to learn what are the first principles of practical Christianity! On the other hand, the reflection on the little fervour of the duties thou haft performed, if it hath been owing to thy own neglect, and too great indulgence to the animal life, much more if it hath proceeded, from a habit of indevotion, ought to humble thee, and fill thee with an uneafy concern about thy prefent temper. But fuppofing it not to be chargeable on any fuch criminal caufes, (as thou haft ground to believe it is not, when thou art unfeignedly defirous of doing better, and findeft thy choice of that which is good, and the determination of thy will to it, more firm and entire, fo as to be proof against the temptations that affault thee in thy Chriftian courfe), be not too fevere in thy cenfure of

thyfelf;

thyfelf; inafiuch as God, who knoweth thy frame, will make gracious allowances for the weakness of it. The thing thou art principally to attend to, is thy habitual difpofition, and ordinary conduct. Am I exact and regular in my common deportment, watchful over my thoughts, and careful that the general frame and posture of my spirit be agreeable to my Chriftian profeffion? Am I more circumfpect to avoid temptation, and more refolved and fuccefsful in my conflict with it? Is my converfation in heaven, and my great folicitude how I fhall keep myself in the love of God? This being fuppofed, I am juftified to conclude, that the great design of the Lord's fupper, and every other gofpelinftitution, hath been anfwered; that I have communicated with profit, if I have not done it with fo much life and pleafure as I could have wished; and may therefore go on my way rejoicing that God hath accepted me.

HAft thou not, O my foul, this day, while commemorating the love of thy Saviour, and exciting thy own by the remembrance of his, refolved to lead a more exemplary, devout, and useful life than thou haft hitherto done? Such refolutions are perfectly just, and peculiarly agreeable to the ordinance of the fupper, and I will fuppofe thine to have been fincere; yet, ftop a moment, and conN fider

fider thofe words of thy Saviour to his disciples, The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Even those who want not integrity of heart, are too often more forward to purpose and promise, than afterwards they are punctual in fulfilling their engagements. Their readiness to promife, fhews the willingnefs of the fpirit; that they have a spirit within them which hath ftrong convictions of duty, and laudable difpofitions to the practice of it; while their failure, in part, though not entirely, in the performance, is a melancholy proof of the weakness of the flesh. The Apostles of Chrift are a most memorable example of this, who bravely refolved to stand by their Master at all hazards; protesting, that though they fhould die with him, yet would they not deny him. Glorious refolution! But how poorly kept to? for when it came to the trial, (to fay nothing of the traitor Judas), all but one forfook him, and fled; and he for his part did worse than forfake him, he denied him; and this foon after they had been celebrating the fupper with their Mafter, and though they were zealously affected to him; as they had reafon to be, having received a thousand marks of the most tender friendship from him, and three of them being more highly honoured than the reft with the fight of his transfiguration. And is this the end of all? From this I learn the kind and provident care of our divine Mafter in the counsel he gave his difciples, and the neceffity of following it,

to

to watch and pray, that they enter not into temptation. I am not to truft to the duty I have lately performed, nor to the devotion, though real, I have exercised in it; nay, nor to the grace which I may have reason to think hath been bestowed on me, as the reward of my unfeigned defire and endeavour to please God, unless I further add my own continued prayers and vigilance. As the mere outward. action in the facrament does not convey grace, but the Spirit of God by it; nor is a qualification for receiving it, but the temper of mind, and right intention and probity of foul with which I communicate: fo the influence which this facrament hath, in the after course of my life, to prepare me for the more ready dif charge of other duties, and to preserve me in the hour of temptation, does not immediately and neceffarily flow from the facrament itfelf, but depends on my doing my part after the folemnity is over, as well as in the act of receiving; otherwife I fhall have no cause to wonder, if I am worsted by temptations, and quickly lofe my relifh for the pleafures of devotion. Be fure then, O my foul, to fix this deep in thy remembrance, that neither the love of Chrift to thee, nor thine to him, nor thy converfing with him at his table, however encouraging and delightful, will abfolutely fecure thee from temptation, (God, for wife reafons, permitting temptations of divers kinds to befal us for the trial of our virtue and fidelity), or in it, without watchfulness and prayer! In prudence, then, take care, thar N 2 both

both thefe accompany and follow all thy good purpofes and difpofitions, whether at the table of the Lord, or at any other time when thy affections are more than ufually enlarged and ftirred within thee; that fo whatever temptations occur to draw thee off from thy duty, or to make thee lefs vigorous in it, being mindful of the vows of God that are upon thee, thou mayft be more than conqueror o ver them all.

THE HE cloud which hath guided thy medita. tions hitherto, has a bright as well as a dark fide; it is a cloud of glory. For the prefent then change the fcene, O my foul, from the humiliation of the Son of God, which thou haft been called to remember in his fupper; turn thine eyes to his exalted state; from a dying to a rifen Saviour; from his first coming in the form of a fervant, to his fecond appearance in the form of God; when, being fat down on the throne of his glory, and all nations gathered before him, he fhall feparate them one from the other, as a fhepherd divideth the sheep from the goats, and absolve or condemn, reward or punish them, according as their works have been! Yet a little while, O my foul, and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry; and when he fhall appear, they alfo that have waited for him, fhall appear with him in glory, having