membrances of thy loving-kindness be ever acceptable in thy fight: For I laud and magnify thy glorious name, O Father of mercies, Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, for all the goodness and tender compaffions, with which thou haft been pleased to remember and relieve my mifery. For the preservation of me the day past, and the many benefits thou haft bestowed upon me according to the greatness of thy mercy. This, O my God, is a fubject boundless as thy goodness; that goodness, which exerted it felf in commanding me out of nothing, and, when that being, which thou gaveft, was rendered liable to eternal misery, a fresh, and yet more valuable inftance of thy mercy was that of bestowing on me a new and better life, when I was worse than nothing.

O thou overflowing fpring of endless love! How fhall I worthily magnify thee, or at least, how can I forget thy incompre henfible, thine unparallel'd benefits; when thou didst take upon thee the form of a servant, and wert made a man of unfpeakable forrow, and all this for poor mortal creatures? O the riches of the goodness of thee, my God! O that it were in my power Ggg 2

to

to make a suitable return for love, which paffes not my thanks only, but even my knowledge! O! that my ways were made fo direct, that my whole life might be one continued act of gratitude and obedience ! I know, bleffed Lord, moft merciful Father, that thou art worthy to receive all duty, and honour, and praise for ever: I am fenfible that thou art my rightful Lord, and I thy poor fervant; that the utmost I can do is thy juft due, and that I ought to take unspeakable delight in thanking and obeying thee; that nothing elfe but this fhould give me any fatisfaction, and that, when I have laid my felf out intirely upon it, I ftill have done too little. This is the real perswasion, this is the earnest desire of my foul; and where my power falls fhort of my inclination, there do thou, I beseech thee, ftrengthen and supply what is wanting by thy grace, that my deeds and deportment may bear teftimony and proportion to my pious difpofition.

Thy mercy, O my God, is exceeding great, which hath-hitherto affifted me, and therefore from the Experiences I have hitherto had, I will this night (through thy divine affiftance) lay me down in peace, and take my reft, for I am very

well

well affured, that 'tis thou, O Lord, only that makeft me to dwell in fafety. Defend me from the terrors of the night, and from all evil thoughts, or impure dreams. O never let the remembrance of thy manifold mercies towards me depart from my mind, but let it kindle in me fuch a grateful fenfe, as may more and more incite me to love and obey thee; that awaking in the morning with a heart fo inflamed with the remembrance of thy goodness, and fo endeared to the practice of virtue, I may joyfully celebrate thy praise, and perform the duties of thy day as thou commandeft. And this I humbly beg for Jefus Chrift's fake, in whose name and words I farther pray.

Our Father, &c,

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OCCASIONAL DEVOTIONS.

1

A Prayer for Growth in Grace.

God, who art the most excellent nature, the perfection of all beauty, and the fountain of all graces; who doft infallibly un

derstand what is best to be chofen, and invariably chufe by the beft and pureft reafon: Look down, I beseech thee, upon me, thy poor defective creature, who am afham'd of my self to fee how unlike thee I am; how I am laden with imperfections, and how, after all my religious endeavours, my nature is ftill vitiated with unreafonable lufts and affections; how much vanity and impertinence there yet remains in my mind, how much perverseness in my will, how much fpiritual and carnal iniquity in my affections and appetites. Lord, I have been long contending with this corrupt na

ture,

ture, and yet upon all occafions I find my self too too prone to be--- [Here name the particular infirmities, that flick clofeft to your nature.] Woe is me! even my fairest graces have their spots and blemishes, my pureft difpofitions their finful intermixtures, and my beft works their flaws and imperfections. O my God! have pity on me, who here lie fighing at thy feet, under a miferable difeafed nature; and as thou haft begun the blessed cure in me, fo, for Chrift his fake, I beseech thee, to compleat it; that, being entirely recovered, and raised up unto newness of life, I may, in the perfect health and vigour of my foul, ferve and glorify thee for ever. For which end, I beseech thee, confirm me more and more in the belief of those immortal pleafures beyond the grave, which thou haft treafur'd up for those that love and obey thee; that by the strength of a lively faith, and vigorous hope, my foul may be rais'd above this world, and learn to despise and trample upon all its gilded vanities, whenfoever they prefent themfelves, either to allure or to terrify me from pursuing the heavenly enjoyments. Excite in me fuch a vehement thirft after those rivers of pleafures

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