Reform'd devotions, in meditations, hymns, and petitions, for every day in the week, and every holiday in the year divided into parts.

MEDITATION III.

PRaise our Lord, O you children of Men! Praise him as the Anthor of all your hopes. Praise our Lord, O you blessed of Heaven! Praise him as the Fi∣nisher of all your Joyes. Sing, O you reverend Patriarchs and holy Prophets! Sing Hymns of Glory to the great Messi∣as. Sing and Rejoyce all you ancient Saints, who have so long enjoy'd the happy repose of Abraham's bosom: Bring forth your best and purest Incense, and humbly offer it at the Throne of the Lamb: The Lamb that was slain from the beginning of the World; by the sprinkling of whose Blood you all were saved. O still sing on the Praises of the King of Peace, and bless for ever his victorious Mercy: It was he dis∣solv'd the power of darkness, and broke asunder the strong bars of Death. He has conquer'd Death, and him that had

the power of it, even the Devil, that his faithful Followers might triumph over both. How did your glad eyes sparkle with Joy, to see the Ascension of your humbled Redeemer! How were your Spirits transported with delight, to behold the splendours of his glori∣ous Exaltation! to have his Presence among you, his blissful Presence, that can turn even the saddest night into a chearful day; that can change a Dun∣geon into a house of Mirth; and make every place a joyful Paradice! O glo∣rious Presence! when shall our Souls be fill'd with strong and constant de∣sires of enjoying Thee? O sluggish Soul! how canst thou contentedly hover about this Earth, when the loving Jesus is As∣cended above the Skies? with longing hopes look up thither, and say, When, dearest Jesu! shall my desires be fill'd with the everlasting fruition of thy bless∣ed self? Henceforth for thee, and for thy Sacred Love, O thou great and on∣ly Comfort of our Souls! shall all Affli∣ctions be welcome to me, as wholsome Physick to correct my Follies; shall the Pleasures of the World be very cauti∣ously used, as dangerous Fruit that may

fill me with Diseases: Will I, by thy example, neither fear to Dye, nor re∣fuse the labours of this present Life: But while I live, I will obey thy Grace, that when I dye, I may enjoy thy Glory.

PETITIONS.

O Blessed Jesu, our only hope, our all-sufficient strength, and the li∣beral Rewarder of all thy Servants: As thou hast freely prepared for us ready wages, so Lord, let thy Grace inable us to work: Let thy Grace excite to diligence in our work, and make us steady and persevering in the way thou lovest: Make us direct our whole Life to thee, O Fullness of Bliss! and un∣dervalue all things compar'd with thy Love. O Seal up our Eyes to the Illu∣sions of this World, and open them upwards to thy solid Joyes; there let them fix their pleased sight, and look 'till we be transformed into thy glori∣ous likeness: That when our present earthly Tabernacle shall be dissolved, and this House of Clay shall fall down into the dust, we may ascend to thee,

and dwell above in that Building not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens. O Jesu! thou didst expire on the Cross, and descend into the Grave, to destroy the life of Sin in us, and the fears of Death: Grant then, I beseech thee, that these may never revive in me, to tempt or affright me from the wayes of Holiness. Fix in me, O Lord, the firm belief of this very sure and im∣portant Truth, That the greatest mis∣chiefs which our Salvation can cost us here, are but momentary, and shall work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory: Through thy abundant Merits, O dear Redeemer.