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us, and to fecure the highest happiness to us. Elfewhere I may please my flefh, and promote my worldly ends; but with my Lord is the foul-faving good; that which will do me the most and greatest good, even world without end. Elfewhere I fhall be but deceived and abused, mischiefed and spoiled; but with him, I fhall be fatisfied and fecured; moft highly pleasured, and for ever bleffed. O then, may I never entertain the foolish, wicked thought, of flipping the yoke, and out-running the service; and falfifying all my holy, folemn engagements! but wifely confult my best and dearest interest, and confcientiously regard the honour and pleasure of my Lord, in cleaving still faithfully to him, however I may be tempted and feduced to turn away from

him.

And when I go from the religious offices, to my worldly occafions; O may I have a heavenly mind, even in the earthly bufinefs! and when I leave the folemn attendance upon my God, may I not turn my back upon him, nor grow forgetful of him, but in heart and mind be with him, and still incline to him, and delight in him. The Lord knows how prone I am to revolt, and turn afide from his ways; yea, to run into rebellion against his will. O may he take care of me, and watch over me continually, and preferve me by his heavenly grace, and keep me in his holy fear, and keep me in his bleffed love. That after he has fpoken peace to me, I may not turn again to folly; but be faithful in the covenant of my God, and true to all my obligations to the Lord.

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THE PRAYER.

Gracious LORD! how haft thou obliged us? and how doft thou ftill abound in mercy to us? fuch mercy, as elsewhere we may "feek,

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"feek, but out of thee, can never find. For to ap, "ply and ftoop to the enemies that have wronged 66 us; and whom we can eafily mafter, and quell "down before us; this is not after the manner of "men; yet, thou that art God, and not man, "takeft this way to deal by us. And even when

"enemies, to reconcile us to thyfelf, by the death "of thy Son. O! what manner of love is it! and "how has the God of love exceeded in riches of

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grace, to engage us with fuch unthought-of mer"cies! yea, to find out fuch an expedient, as car2 "ries in it all the greatest dearnefs, together with "all the strongeft fecurity, to fend life and peace to "us, through the mediation of thy Beloved, be ❝ coming as one of us, and fuffering and dying for us; and yet further giving his own flesh and "blood to us (taken and applied by our faith) to

feed and refresh us. Such mercy, O Lord, I have "this day received at thy hands, which I defire to " acknowledge with the most thankful heart. And 66 (to crown this mercy in me) I beseech thee now, ' my God, to bless thy ordinance to me fo, that I "that I may find the heavenly virtue of it, in the "fpiritual ftrength and refreshment, that I have re"ceived by it, to make me able for my duty, and "full of joy to live in thy love, looking for thy "glory. Amen."

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DOXOLOGY.

ND to thee, O bleffed GOD, my Saviour, who haft given thyfelf for me and to me "(for that greatest of all gifts, and for these happy "opportunities to communicate with thee, and to "receive the fpiritual good, and heavenly fupplies "from thee; be all glory, honour, thanks, and "praise, afcribed and paid by me, and by the whole "company of thy redeemed throughout the world, now and for ever. Amen."

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MEDITATION XCVII.

Of the forgivenness of fin.

My foul! what fo grievous in this world can befal me, as to have all my fins in their full force lie upon me! and what fo reviving, as when the great God, whom I have heinously offended, becomes fo gracious as to take off the load, and cover the filth, and not impute to me the guilt of my fins! when I have fo finned, as to render myself obnoxious to the eternal penalty; and to make fatisfaction but for any one of my fins, I have in me no fufficiency, my debt amounting to millions of millions, and my niquity being greater than I can bear, and greater than the holy God can endure : he will not put it up, unless upon fome righteous and honourable terms, nor fhew mercy to the wrong of his juftice; but an expiation must be made: and O who can make it but the Son of his love that is equal with himself! it is only in Chrift that God reconciles the world to himself; nor is he only kind but just in justifying the believers on Jefus. O to him then let me look, and from him let me seek the pardon that I need; and here, be in fuch mighty concern, that nothing elfe may content me, till God, for Chrift's fake, has forgiven me; for, without pardon, whatever I enjoy, or however I divert myself in the world, ftill I am a wretched man, and have even one foot in hell. The heavens then blacken over me, and a horrible tempeft will break out, and fall upon me. Nor will a reprieve and forbearance here fet me right, to make the conclufion good, that all the bitterness is paft; for fcores

that

that are not cancelled, do ftill lie on the file against me. And though I am senseless or forgetful, that will not at all mend the matter, but make the after-clap fo much the heavier. To fall asleep, cannot make me fafe, but will only betray me into a dreadful furprife. And it is not my speaking peace to my foul, that will make me fure, and give me reft? yea, though I know my tranfgreffion, and the extreme need that I have of God's remiffion, and (in order to that) the need of Chrift's propitiation: and that I can do nothing to merit the pardon, but all is of the Lord's free donation yet fomething does he require at my hands: to put me in a capacity of his pardoning mercy, and I muft receive his gift in the way that himself is pleased to direct. I muft repent therefore, and be converted, "that my fins may be blotted "out," Acts iii. 19. For without my humiliation, I fhould be prefumptuous, to expect his abfolution. And as long as I perfift in rebellion, O what likeli hood of a reconciliation? yea, it is not only to confefs, but forfake my fin; if I would have mercy, Proy. xxviii. 13. And yet ftill fhall I find fo much defective in my very repentance; that I must be fain to go out of myself, to take refuge in my crucified Saviour, and feek my pardon through faith in his blood; whofe office and dignity alone it is, "to make "reconcliation for the fins of the people," Heb. ii. 17. "And through his name, whofoever be"lieves in him, fhall receive remiffion of fins," Acts *. 43. What he has done and endured for finners, I must apply it to myself, that upon his account I may be abfolved from my fins. For when I know myself to be fo exceeding unworthy, I cannot conceive how God fhall deal with me thus kindly: but for the fake of one that has deferved much better than myself. Therefore will I open the hand of my faith, to receive what has been purchased by his Chrift. And yet after all, I muft receive the pardon

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on my knees,and knock at the door of mercy; if I would have it opened, and pray the Lord, to hide his face from my fins, and blot out my iniquities, and forgive me my trefpaffes. For though he blots out tranfgreffions for his own fake, yet will he be put in remembrance, and be intreated, to do it for us: and he commands us to afk that we may receive; and loves to have his petitioners plead, and ftrive with him, in their prayers: arguing, from his mercy, his grace, and glory, from his power, and promises, and his own dear Son's merits; like thofe that are in earnest with their addreffes, and know how to prize his forgiveness. And when I ftand praying, I must forgive, if I have ought against any," that my Fa"ther alfo in heaven may forgive me my trefpaffes,” Mark xi. 25.

O my foul! though I have the virtual pardon of all my fins, upon my firft being in Chrift; yet even his own members he has taught to beg for daily par don. And where there is not a new juftification, yet there may be (to the foul) a new evidence and ratification. Yea, the particular application will be fufpended, till I do what (on my part) is required. And as the continual renewing of my fins, makes me need the continual renewing alfo of God's pardon, fo to need the continual renewing of my prayers, for that pardon. And after I have been purged from my old fins, O how do I contract new guilt ftill; from the workings of corruption within me, and all the temptations of this world about me? from which I must therefore ftill be praying for fresh applications of the blood of Chrift, to cleanfe me. And O the rich mercy from above, and bleffed for ever be the name of my gracious Lord! that fuch a finner may go and afk in hope! when I have to do with the God, with whom it is fo easy to forgive; yea, who delights in fuch mercy, and has promised even to the wicked returning, abundantly to pardon:

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