body out of order; and all this for finners, for his enemies, for loft ungrateful man, even for us, O my foul!

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2. Come, O my foul, and compare thy love for Jefus with that he has fhewn for thee, and all mankind. O! confefs thy remiffness and thy fin. Say; O bleffed Jefu! I adore thy love, and acknowledge my tranfgreffions: for love brought thee down from heaven to us; but how few of us doth it carry up thither unto thee? love made thee die the most shameful death; but it doth not make us live the moft glorious life. Love made thee endure the foreft pains; but, alas! it doth not make mankind take the pleasure of following thy fteps to the greatest happiness. Love made thee think perpetually on fuch poor wretches as we are; but we feldom think upon thee. Love perfuaded thee to come to us when there was nothing to call thee, except only our great miferies; but it doth not bring us all to thee; tho' we are moved by the merits, and precious promifes of fo immenfe a love.

3% Let not our devotion reft in bare acknowledgments, do not only praise his goodnefs, but dread his majefty; and let us fhew our love by our deeds; to him let us reverent

ly

ly go, and offer our devout hearts at his footftool; let us remember every paffage of his love with unfeigned thanks. For, the lord is fold, that the flave may be free: the innocent is condemned, that the guilty may be faved; the phyfician is fick, that the patient may be cured; and God himfelf becomes man to die, that man may live.

4. Tell me, my foul, when firft thou haft well confidered and looked about among all we know; tell me who ever wifhed us fo much good? who ever loved us with fo much tenderness? our nearest friends, what have they done for us; or even our parents, in comparison of this charity? no less than the fon of God came down to redeem us; no lefs than his own dear life was the price he paid for us: what can the favour of the whole world promife us, compared to this miracu lous bounty? no less than the joys of angels are become our hope, no lefs than the kingdom of heaven is made our inheritance.

5. This is the compaffion of my God! thus far his charity prevailed; who thought it was not enough to become man for us, but expofed himself to all our miseries! was it not enough, O fefu! to labour all thy life, but thou

muft

-must suffer for us even the pains of death? no, gracious Lord, thy mercy ftill obferveth many wants in our nature as yet unfupplied, thou faweft our too much fondness of life needed thy parting with it, to reconcile us to death} thou faweft our fear of fufferings could no way be abated but by freely undergoing them in thine own perfon: thou faweft our fouls fo deeply ftained with guilt, that without fhedding thy blood we could have no remiffion

6. Can we thus remember the labours of our redeemer for us, and not be convinced of our duty to him? can my cold heart recount his fufferings, and not be inflamed with the love of him that fuffered for me? can I believe my falvation coft him fo dear, and live as if to be faved were not worth my pains? ungrateful man, how doth he flight the goodness of our God! how carelefly comply with his gracious defigns! for all his gifts he requires no other return, than that we hope ftill more, and defire still greater bleffings, and improve them all to our own happiness: for all his favours he feeks no other praife, than our following his steps till we mount up to his glory.

my

adored redeemer, behold to thee I bow, and humbly proftrate myself in ho

nour

nour of thy death: behold thus low I bow to implore thy bleffing, and the affiftance of thy fpecial grace, that I may wean my affections from all vain defires, and cleanfe my thoughts from all impertinent fancies: that my life may be entirely dedicated to thee, and all the faculties of my foul to thy holy fervice: that' my mind may continually study the knowledge of thee, and my will grow every day ftronger in thy love, and my memory faithfully recount thy mercies, and both tongue and heart be continually difpofed and habitually employed to praise thee; to praise thy incomparable love, which has done and fuffered fo much for lost mankind.

Here obferve the directions given on page 8, and more particu larly endeavour to improve your foul by reading a lefon out of the WHOLE DUTY OF MAN, Sunday 4. Section I, &c. A prayer on Friday evening for faith and repentance, and a due preparation to the holy facrament! Repent and believe the gospel. Mark i. 15.

Gracious God, and most kind and merciful father, who of thy tender love to mankind, didst give thine only fon Jefus Chrift to fuffer death upon the cross for our redemption, who made there by his one ob-' fation of himself once offered, a full, perfect, and fufficient facrifice, oblation and fatisfac

tion for the fins of the whole world; grant that the effects of this redemption may be as univerfal as the defign of it, that it may be to the falvation of all: O let no perfon by im penitence and wilful fin forfeit his part in it, but by the power of thy grace bring all, even the most obftinate finners to repentance.

More especially, I beseech thee, to give me, thy finful creature, a right understanding of the urgent need I have of a faviour, and of all those things which thy fon hath done and fuffered, and is still doing at thy right-hand, in order to the cleanfing of my guilty and polluted nature, and the reftoring me to thy grace and favour: and let not all this be in vain and useless to me, left I become eternally miferable, and loft to all hopes and poffibilities of comfort; give me grace to accept of, and embrace the tenders of thy love, and to comply with thofe gracious terms of falvation, which thy fon hath procured for, and propofed to me in the gofpel.

I acknowledge, O Lord, that I have too much neglected this great falvation, but thou with infinite patience doft still wait to see if I will accept of mercy; O that thy forbearance and long fuffering may foften my heart, and melt me into shame and tears of penitential