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COme my Soul, let us make our peace betimes with our God, before the evening of our Life approach too near. Let us endeavour to find favour with our Judge, before we shall be brought to his awful Tribunal. Confess the fol∣lies and sins thou findest in thy Life, and charge them all entirely on thy self.
Confess them with a penitent and contrite heart; for a broken and a contrite heart our gracious God will not despise. Thy Repentance, my Soul, will come too late to meet with mercy, if thou deferr it till this life is at an end. Seek the fa∣vour of God in the Name of his be∣loved Son; he is pleased that we should make mention of him: For his sake he will readily bestow a pardon to them that humbly seek it; for he desires not the death of a Sinner. Moreover, my Soul, all the good that thou hast done to thy self or others, thou must ascribe to his free Grace, as the only principle of it. Such humility will be very ac∣ceptable to him, and dispose thee to receive larger Benefits from his bounty. Say then to him, if thou hast found any good in thy course: Little, O Lord, thou knowest, is the good we do, and eve∣ry grain of it derived from thee. We could not have sav'd our selves from any dangerous temptation, unless our God had powerfully sustain'd us. We could not have carried on any pious pur∣pose, unless thy hand had blest our en∣deavours. No, to thy self, O Lord, take all the praise, if thy Creatures have
perform'd the least good work: Take to thy self all the glory, O Lord, if they have not committed the worst of sins: Thy hand alone directs us to do well, and the same blest hand restrains us from ill. 'Tis not in us to esteem thy unseen Joyes, nor to despise the charming Flatteries of this deceitful World: 'Tis not the work of corrupt∣ed Nature to mortifie our Senses, and patiently bear the Crosses we meet. Of our selves we are inclin'd to none of these, but the Grace of God inables us for all: Grace gives us strength to overcome our Passions, to make the World and the Flesh subjects to us: Grace gives us Faith to fortifie our reason, and helps us to take Heaven by violence. O how glorious, Dear Lord, are the effects of thy Grace! How shame∣ful the instances of our folly and weak∣ness!
OBlessed Jesu! who art a Prince and Saviour, whose kindness it is to give repentance and remission of sin! Bestow, I beseech thee, on me, such a
hearty Contrition for all the wandring steps that I have made from my Duty, as to fit me to receive thy Pardon: And then Pardon, O Meek Redeemer, what my passions have done, and what my weakness has omitted: Let a sence that thou my God art reconcil'd to me, give me this night a sweet repose as in the arms of thy tender Mercy: Make me too hereafter, O Lord, if I shall live after this night, more carefully watch my self, that my few dayes do not slide unprofitably away, and especially that they be not spent in sin: Make me every day retire to study thee and my self: My self, that I may know and correct my many Infirmities; and Thee, that I may adore thy infinite Perfections. And to thy Perfections, O Lord, and the strength from them communicated unto me, make me ascribe all the good that I am able to do: Let me alwayes say, as I ought, This is not I, but Christ that liveth in me: Make me also the more attentively obsequious to the stea∣dy guidance of thy Grace, and grant I may never want it, while the time of my warfare and pilgrimage continues: Instruct me, I beseech thee, O thou who
art the best of Teachers, in these great and wise truths; that the things of this world are of very little import, since its joys and griefs will last but a very little while; and that the future state does infinitely concern me, where the Life and Death are for ever. Fix my heart, O Sovereign Goodness, I pray thee, on thy self alone: Let me not be good only by halves, since there is a glorious Heaven prepared, that is worth all our labours: Prevent by the power and prevalence of thy grace in me, my mingling so much as formerly thy pure Grace with my corrupted Na∣ture. Deliver me, O Lord, from the Temptations of this world, and merci∣fully save me from the wrath to come; that dreadful wrath which we so just∣ly fear, and which many condemned wretches do already irrecoverably feel.