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the banquet of that moft heavenly food; and above all things, our principal bufinefs at the altar is to give most humble and hearty thanks to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft, as for all the bleffings vouchfafed unto us, fo especially for the redemption of the world, by the death and paffion of our Saviour Chrift, both God and man, to whom we fhould at all times, (but more especially at these opportunities of commemorating this ineftimable love of the Son of God, dying for us wretched finners,) be most thankful, and filled with continual praises to Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, who created, redeemed, and fanctifieth us, and all the world, through Jefus Christ our Lord.

The

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PART II.

A preparatory prayer:

Leffed Lord! who haft commanded Leffe and invited us to pray unto thee: 0 let thy fpirit help my infirmities; and do thou fo difpofe my mind, and prepare my heart, that my prayers and praises may be acceptable in thy fight, thro' the mediation, and for the fake of Jefus Christ, thy Son our Lord. Amen.

This prayer may properly be used every morning and evening to begin your devotions.

The Meditation for Sunday Evening, after receiving the Lord's Supper.

Upon the fallen ftate of man, and the great and gracious work of man's redemption through Jefus Chrift.

For all have finned and come fhort of the glory of God; being juftified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Chrift Jefus. Rom. iii. 23, 24.

I.

1. Having now, O my foul! received

the holy facrament of the Lord's fupper, it is neceffary (fince we have not yet profeffedly done it) that we should inform ourselves carefully of the nature and end of this facred inftitution what is meant by this holy action; to what purpofe

pofe it was ordained; and what benefits and advantages are to be expected from it. Now if any one goes to the holy communion without confidering the reasons of that ordinance, and the very great concern he has in it; or without understanding the neceffity and advantage of a Redeemer, he will certainly go with indifference, and of courfe return without that benefit, which he might otherwise hope for and expect. Therefore,

2. That this, O my foul! may not be our own cafe, it is neceffary that we should well confider what account the holy fcriptures have given us of the condition we are in, not only with refpect to this life, but alfo to that which is to come. We are there affured, that we are finners by nature, and that, as fuch, God cannot take pleasure in us; and that, fhould we happen to die before we are restored to his favour, we thall be feparated from him, and be unalterably miferable to all eternity. This confideration neceffarily leads us to inquire, how the nature of man came to be thus difordered, and prone to evil. For we must not imagine that the infinitely good God ever created man in fuch a ftate of corruption as we now fee and perceive him to be in; but that he must have fallen into this deplorable condition fince

he

he came out of the hands of his Creator, the juft and great God; of which we have the following account.

3. Our firft parents Adam and Eve, from whom fprang all mankind, were created in the image of God, that is holy and innocent, having a perfect knowledge of their duty, a command over their will and affections, a power, inherent through God's appointment, to do what they faw fitting to be done in this their happy condition they were placed, in paradife, as in a state of trial, with a promife of happiness and immortal life, if they would continue to love, fear, honour, and obey their Creator and they had alfo an exprefs warning of the dreadful confequences of any future difobedience, and departing from their duty.

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4. Yet for all this warning, thro' the temptation of the devil, (as St. Paul defcribed the fallen ftate of man, and we have found by fatal experience,) there was a law in their members, warring against the law of their mind; that the good, which they would, they did not; but the evil, that they would not, that they did at this, they tranf greffed the commands of God; and, by fo doing, they did not only forfeit their right to the promife of eternal life and happiness, but they alfo contracted fuch a

blind

blindness of the understanding, fuch a diforder in their will and affections, that all their pofterity feel it to their forrow, being made thereby fubject to fin, the punishment whereof is death and mifery eternal.

5. Nevertheless the greatness of this punishment, inflicted upon our firft parents, and their pofterity, enables us to judge of the nature and aggravation of their fins; for God, being infinitely juft and holy, could not inflict any punishment greater than their fins deferved: nay, after all this, God, of his great goodnefs, provided such a remedy, as that neither they, nor any of their pofterity, hould, on account of their fall, be eternally miferable, except it was their own fault, and wholly owing to themselves..

6. God, therefore, in confidering of a Redeemer, one of the feed of the woman, who fhould make full fatisfaction to the divine justice for their tranfgreffion, and who fhould bruise the head, or break the power of the ferpent (the devil) who tempted them to fin; in confidering (I fay) of this promifed feed, God entered into a new covenant with them, by way of remedy for what was paft and could not be undone; which covenant was this, that upon condition of their hearty repentC

Part II.

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