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FRIDAY EVENING.

O THOU greatest and best of all beings! I offer thee the indispensable tribute of the sincerest praises and thanksgivings, due to the glories of thy nature and to thy goodness to thy creatures. I know, O God, that thy perfections are far exalted above all that can be conceived or expressed by us; that thy mercies are above all our thanks; and that thy unalterable attributes stand not in need of any homage we can pay. But it becomes us to acknowledge and to celebrate them.

As it becomes us to celebrate the lovely perfections of thy nature, as it is in itself, so are we indispensably obliged to pay thee our most grateful acknowledgments, for the display of those perfections in all thy dispensations towards thy creatures, and for every instance of thy tender regard to us. Accept, therefore, O gracious Lord and merciful Father, the poor tribute of my unfeigned thanks for the manifold experiences which I have had of thy. loving kindness. To thee I owe my existence; and, together with it, all the faculties and

powers that distinguish our nature from that of the lower, animal world.

I must remember, likewise, with the highest gratitude, before thee, that, in order to secure and carry forward this gracious end of our creation the more effectually, it hath pleased thy goodness to send thy beloved Son into the world, to teach, and live, and die, in order to save us from our sins, and to conduct us effectually to our true and everlasting happiness. I thank thee for the divine instructions he hath given his followers, concerning the certain method of obtaining eternal life; for the blameless and perfect example of holiness and patience he hath set before us; for his humbling himself, even to the death upon the cross, and shedding his blood for the remission of our sins; and for his plain declarations of thy gracious acceptance of all such as sincerely receive him for their master, and heartily endeavour to know, and comply with, his terms. I thank thee for the mighty evidences he gave that he was truly sent by thee on so gracious an errand, by the purity of his doctrine; the integrity of his life; the nature and number of his miracles;, and the glory of his resur

rection, after an ignominious death; that he was appointed by thee to establish our minds in faith and hope.

I thank thee, that the joyful sound of thy gospel hath arrived to this part of the world; that it hath here, by the peculiar favour of thy good providence, been reformed from many gross abuses, under which it long laboured; and now lies open to the view and study of all men; that, by thy merciful appointment, I have been called to the knowledge of it, as it is in itself; and so am the better assured of the true way to happiness; the more forcibly engaged to follow after it; and the more likely to obtain great degrees of it, if I be not wanting to myself; for all which instances of thy undeserved and inestimable goodness, no words can sufficiently express the grateful sentiments. which ought to fill and possess my soul.

Accept, likewise, O God, my unfeigned thanks for the constant regards of thy good providence towards me, to which I am indebted for many singular and peculiar happinesses. To thee I owe, that I was born in a country where christianity is securely professed; that I

have been instructed in the principles of true religion and virtue; and my mind led to the knowledge of the most useful and important truths; and particularly, that I have been secured, by thy goodness, from many of those great and hazardous trials, which have so often proved fatal to others. To thee I owe whatever opportunities I have enjoyed of improving myself in what is truly praise-worthy; whatever peculiar advantages there are in that con dition, in which it hath pleased thee to place me with respect to this world, towards the attaining the greatest good and happiness of a reasonable creature. To thee, the great Creator and Governor of the world, I owe all these blessings; and to thee I offer up my sin cerest acknowledgments for them.

I bless thee for that daily care of thy go vernment over this world, by which I have been preserved, ever since I was born, from innumerable dangers; many more than I can number, and many more than I know of. A mercy, which I ought thankfully to acknow ledge, not merely with respect to this life, but to a better; as by this means I have still greater opportunities of advancing yet further. in

the paths of virtue, and adding an increase to my happiness in the world to come.

What can I render unto thee, O Lord, worthy of all the numberless instances of thy favour, which I have experienced? I praise and extol thy great and glorious name; and acknowledge myself under the strictest and most indispensable obligations to live, and act, in all respects, as becomes one that hath tasted so largely of thy loving kindness. I profess, O Lord, my hearty resolution of endeavouring to do so; and offer up my sincere desires, that, by the consideration of what I have now re membered before thee, I may be led to make returns in some degree suitable to so many, and so great, instances of thy goodness.

Let the consideration of thy gracious design in affording me so many temporal good things, and so many comforts, in this imperfect state, influence me to use them all to thy glory, as perishing, uncertain goods; and to be employed for the use and support of others, as well as my own. And let the serious remembrance of all thy great and undeserved goodness to me, open and enlarge my heart towards others;

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