from our circumscribed and scanty faculties. I desire therefore, with the deepest humility, to worship before the throne of thy infinity; being fully convinced that I can then only entertain worthy and respectful sentiments, though still infinitely disproportioned to the subject, when I raise thy Divine Omniscience, as far as is possible, above the utmost efforts of all created understandings; and suppose it, in the height, and depth, and glorious extent in which thou possessest it, to be incommunicable, not to us only, but to all finite natures.

Thy knowledge, O God, is unclouded and universal light, in which thou sittest enthroned; though with respect to us clouds and darkness are round about thee. Let the angels of light praise thee, to whom thou hast been pleased to communicate more extensive capacities, for discovering the wonders of thy omniscience. And let all mankind cheerfully join, to those of the bright celestial hosts that are round about thy throne, their fainter and more imperfect praises; esteeming it their honour, and the most worthy employment and exaltation of their faculties, to bear a part in this glorious harmony. Let earth unite with heaven, in rendering the homage that is due to thee,

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whose judgments are unsearchable, and thy ways past finding out.

Nature, in its most hidden recesses, lies all unveiled and open to thy view; for she is thy creature. All things are, and the present actual scene of things must for ever be, entirely subject to thy clear and infallible discernment for thou, O God, art in every place; thou lookest to the ends of the earth, and seest under the whole heaven. Equally known likewise, to thy infinite understanding, are all past events: all thy own works, and all the designs and actions of thy creatures, from the beginning of the world.

But, O God, when I carry my devout contemplations beyond all this, and adore thy stupendous omniscience, not only as reaching to all the present and the past, even to the utmost limits of the universe; but perceiving, as distinctly as if they were present, remote and dark futurities, and giving a kind of determinate being, in thy vast unbounded mind, to all possible events:when, O eternal fountain of intellectual light and truth! I celebrate with humble piety this matchless and ineffable glory of thy nature, my faculties are swallowed

up, and in a manner lost, in so deep and immense a subject.

May these thoughts never be erased from my mind; but impress upon me a more serious and awful veneration of thee, the great original, and everlasting support, of universal life and being. May I be animated with a spirit of holy admiration and praise. May I be struck with a just sense of my own meanness, and of my being, if compared with thee, less than nothing and vanity. May my spirit be reduced to that proper order, so modest, calm, and teachable, and open to instruction, that I may maintain a constant, uninterrupted intercourse with thee, with whom is no darkness at all. And that I, to whom thou, O God, hast been pleased to communicate the faculty of reason, may attain to a greater resemblance of thee, let me, according to my several powers, advantages, and .station in life, steadily pursue, and endeavour to excel in, all important and useful knowledge. Deliver me more completely from the infatuations of indolence and pride; from the blind and enslaving power of prejudice and vice. Let me prefer the pleasures of understanding, which ennoble my frame, and gratify my most refined desires, infinitely beyond the

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unworthy, unsatisfying, fleeting satisfactions of sensuality and a brutal life. And do thou influence and direct all my inquiries in such a manner, as that I may be preserved from every dangerous and fatal error, and led to discern all those truths, which are either necessary or of great importance to my happiness.

But, above all, I pray that the increasing light of my mind may have such a blessed effect upon me, as to produce suitable degrees of inward refinement, strength, and dignity; and to render all my virtues more resplendent and amiable. Let me consider the corruption of my principles of conduct, through wilful ignorance, as its greatest infelicity. These, my humble petitions, I am encouraged to offer up unto thee, in comfortable hope of thy gracious acceptance and condescending favour, O my heavenly Father, who knowest the hearts of all men, and hast access to, and canst guide and influence them in various ways, that are consistent with thy wise government of the moral world, and with the free exercise of their natural powers. Amen.

ON THE SAME SUBJECT.

I DESIRE to continue my acts of devotion, and my earnest supplications to thee for fur ther help, O God! who knowest my downsitting and my up-rising, and understandest my thoughts afar off. Thou compassest my path, and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways; and there is not a word in my tongue, but lo! O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Let these considerations deeply affect my heart, and raise, and preserve in me an habitual regard to thee, and fear to offend thee. Let me never be such a stupid and daring sinner, as to allow myself, under thy intimate view and inspection, in the indulgence of impure and extravagant passions; or in any practices which my reason and thy holy and immutable law condemn, as a stain and ble

mish to my nature. In so awful and majestië a presence let me be ashamed of all baseness and dishonesty. Let me look upon thy approbation and esteem, as the highest glory I can attain to; and to secure it, may I disregard the applauses of my fellow-creatures, and all worldly honours. Naked and open as my thoughts, designs, and actions, are to thee, and subject to thy righteous judgment, let purit