PREFACE. HIS little work is not offered to the public under the idea that it contains any thing new or more excellent than many others upon the same subject, which are already well known. Many most incomparable books of meditation and prayer have been in the hands of all devout persons for the last two centuries, and expositions of the holy communion are in every library : but they are, in general, treatises of con-· siderable length, the devotional parts of which are mixed with much extraneous matter and the more portable books of preparation for the sacrament have been objected to as too enthusiastic, or not sufficiently comprehensive. None of these, therefore, are in all respects adapted to the use of young persons : but it was thought that, out of them might be compiled a little manual which would excite devotion without tiring the attention. Much, therefore, of this volume may be found in works already well known, particularly those of Bishops Taylor and Beveridge; from which have also been extracted most of |