repentance and reinission of sins. In him thou hast given pardon and justification, reconciliation and adoption, by a covenant of grace, to every penitent believer. Of enemies and the heirs of death, thou hast made us sons and heirs of life.

We are the brands whom thou hast plucked out of the fire; we are the captives of Satan, whom thou hast pardoned! We praise thee, we glorify thee, our merciful God and gracious Redeemer! Our souls have now refuge from thy revenging wrath. Thy promise is sure; Satan, and the world, and death, are overcome; our Lord is risen; he is risen, and we shall rise through him. O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory? Our Saviour is ascended to his Father and our Father, to his God and our God, and we shall ascend! To his hands we may commit our departing souls! Our head is glorified, and it is his will and promise that we shall be with him where he is, to see his glory. He hath sealed us thereunto by his Holy Spirit. We were dead in sins, and he hath quickened us. We were dark in ignorance and unbelief, and he hath enlightened us. We were unholy and carnal, sold under sin, and he hath sanctified our wills, and killed our concupiscence. We praise and glorify this Spirit of life, with the Father and the Son, from whom he is sent, to be life, and light, and love to our dead, and dark, and disaffected souls. We are created, redeemed, and sanctified, for thy holy love, and praise, and service: O let these be the very nature of our souls, and the employment and pleasure of all our lives! O perfect thy weak and languid graces in us, that our love and praise may be more perfect! We thank thee for thy word and sacred ordinances; for the comfort of the holy assemblies, and communion of the saints, and for the mercy of these thy holy days. But let not thy praise be here confined, but be our daily life, and breath, and work.

Fain we would praise thee with more holy and more joyful souls! But how can we do it with so weak a faith, and so great darkness and strangeness to thee; with so little assurance of thy favour and our salvation? Can we rightly thank thee for the grace which we are still in doubt of? Fain we would be liker to those blessed souls who praise thee without our fears and dulBut how can it be, while we love thee so little, and have so little taste and feeling of thy love; and whilst this load of sin doth press us down, and we are imprisoned in the remnant of our carnal affections? O kill this pride and selfishness, these

ness.

Justs and passions! Destroy this unbelief and darkness, and all our sins, which are the enemies of us, and of thy praise. Make us more holy and more heavenly; and O bring us nearer thee in faith and love, that we may be more suitable to the heavenly employment of thy praise!

Vouchsafe more of thy Spirit to all thy churches and servants in the world; that as their darkness, and selfishness, and imperfections, have defiled, and divided, and weakened them, and made them a scandal and hardening to individuals, so their knowledge, self-denial, and impartial love, may truly reform, unite, and strengthen them; that the glory of their holiness may win the unbelieving world to Christ. O let not Satan keep up still so large a kingdom of tyranny, ignorance, and wickedness in the earth, and make this world as the suburbs of hell. But let the earth be more conformable to heaven in the glorifying of thy holy name, the advancing of thy kingdom, and the doing of thy just and holy will. Let thy way be known upon earth, and thy saving health among all nations. Let the people praise thee, O God, let all the people praise thee! Yea, give thy Son the heathen for his inheritance, and let his Gospel enlighten the dark, forsaken nations of the earth. Let every knee bow to him, and every tongue confess that he is Christ, to their salvation and thy glory. Provide and send forth the messengers of thy grace through all the earth. Deliver all the churches from sin, division, and oppression. Let thy holy word and worship continue in these kingdoms, whilst this world endureth. Bless the king, and all in authority, with all that wisdom, justice, and holiness, which are needful to his own and his subjects' safety, peace, and welfare. Let every congregation among us have burning and shining lights, that the ignorant and ungodly perish not for want of teaching and exhortation. And open men's hearts to receive thy word, and cause them to know the day of their visitation. Be merciful to the afflicted in sickness, dangers, wants, or sorrows, according to thy goodness and their necessities. Let all the prayers and praises of the faithful throughout the world, sent up this day in the name of our common Mediator, by him be presented acceptable unto thee, notwithstanding the imperfections and blemishes that are on them, and the censures, divisions, and injuries, which in their frowardness they are guilty of against each other! Let them centre as one in Christ, our Head, who are too sadly and stiffly distant among themselves. Prepare us

all for that world of peace where the harmony of universal love and praise shall never be interrupted by sins, or griefs, or fears, of discord, but shall be everlastingly perfect, to our joy and to thy glory, through our glorified Mediator, who taught us when we pray to say, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever. Amen.

IX. A form of Prayer for the Sick, who are unready to die.

MERCIFUL God, reject not this sad, unworthy sinner, who in pain and sorrow fleeth to thyself in Jesus Christ! Though I have trifled away too much of the day of my salvation, and sinfully neglected thy Son and his saving grace, O say not that it is now too late, for thy promise through Christ is large and free, forgiving all without exception, who in the time of this life are penitent believers. O that I had better found out my sin, before it found me out; and that it had been more my grief before it was so much my pain; and that I had better known the evil of it by thy word and grace, before my flesh and bones had felt it! But pity my misery, and forgive my sin, through the propitiation which thy mercy hath provided and accepted. Remember not the iniquities of my youth, nor the sins which I have since committed against thy great and manifold mercies, the motions of thy Spirit, and the reproofs of my own conscience. I have sinned foolishly as a man, but do thou forgive me mercifully as a gracious God. If the sufferings of my flesh do seem so grievous, how should I bear thy burning wrath for ever on my soul. O give me true repentance unto life! Let not pain and fear only make me purpose to amend, but let thy Spirit of grace renew my soul, by the powerful sense of thy love in Christ. Let this be the fruit of my affliction, through his grace, to purge and take away my sin, and to make me partaker of thy holiness. And have mercy on this weak and pained flesh. O spare a little, and give me space to make a better preparation for my change, before I go hence, and am seen no more! O let not my fearful soul appear before thee, the holy, dreadful God, in an unpardoned or unrenewed state! Renew

my time, and renew my soul, that I may live to thee, before I die. I have abused thy long-suffering: I have forfeited both health, and life, and hope: I have foolishly and sinfully lost many an hour of precious time, which never can be called back! I foresaw this day, and was oft forewarned of it by thy servants and by my conscience, but I took not warning, and now, alas! how unready is my soul to appear before thee! My sins affright me; thy justice and holiness affright me; eternity, eternity, doth amaze my soul. I have no assurance to escape thy wrath and everlasting misery! I have not so set my heart on heaven, nor lived in a heavenly conversation, as to desire to depart that I may be with Christ, and to come with boldness and comfortable hope before the Judge of all the world; forgive my sin through the sacrifice and intercession of my Redeemer. O try me once more with opportunities and means of grace! Return, O Lord, deliver my soul! O save me for thy mercies' sake. Kill me not till my sin be killed. End not this life till thou hast prepared me for a better. Though it be a life of vanity and vexation, it is all the space that ever I shall have to prepare for the endless life which followeth. Cut not off my time till I am ready for eternity. Let me not die in my sins, nor fall into the hands of thy revenging justice. I condemn myself; do not thou condemn me. If thou wilt renew my days, it is the resolution of my soul to hearken to thy Spirit, to obey my Saviour, to study thy wondrous love in Christ, to seek the things that are above with him, and to forsake my sin, and live to thee: but because I know that without thy grace I cannot do it, O give me yet both time and grace! Or, if thou wilt try me no longer here on earth, now, Lord, before my soul departeth, sanctify it by thy Spirit, and wash it in the blood of Jesus Christ, and shed abroad thy love upon it, and give me such a sight of the heavenly glory, that in the lively exercise of faith, hope, and love, my soul may willingly forsake this world, and come to thee. Though I have departed from thee, and delighted not to know thee, refuse not to know me, and bid me not depart with workers of iniquity. And if this be all the time that-ever I shall have, to beg thy saving grace and mercy, though it be short, let it be an accepted time. Have mercy, mercy, mercy Lord, upon a sinful, undone soul, and let me not be the firebrand of thy hot displeasure. Now glorify thy grace in Jesus Christ, who is an all-sufficient Saviour, to whom I fly, and on whom I cast my miserable soul. Merciful Saviour, receive it as thine own!

Refuse it not as unworthy, but for thy worthiness justify it, and let thy Spirit now renew it, and let thy grace abound where my sin aboundeth. It is thy promise, that him that cometh unto thee thou wilt in no wise cast out. Let this enemy by thee be reconciled to the Father, and adopted as a son and heir of life, and present me spotless and acceptable to God. Whether I live or die, I desire to be thine: and though I have broken my covenant with thee, I here again renew it. I give up myself to thee, my reconciled God and Father, my Saviour and my Sanctifier. Accept me, and assure me of the blessings of thy covenant. And then, though I deserve to dwell with devils, I shall see thy glory, and be filled with thy love, and with saints and angels shall joyfully praise my Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier for ever. Amen, Amen.

X. A Prayer for the Faithful before Death, is the end of the ninth day's Conference.

A short Prayer for Children and Servants.

EVER-LIVING and most glorious God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Infinite is thy power, thy wisdom, and thy goodness. Thou art the Maker of all the world, the Redeemer of lost and sinful man, and the Sanctifier of the elect. Thou hast made me a living reasonable soul, placed a while in this flesh and world to know, and love, and serve thee my Creator, with all my heart, and mind, and strength; that I might obtain the reward of the heavenly glory. This should have been the greatest care, and business, and pleasure of all my life. I was bound to it by thy law I was invited by thy mercy: and, in my baptism, I was devoted to this holy life, by a solemn covenant and vow. But, alas! I have proved too unfaithful to that covenant; I have forgotten and neglected the God, the Saviour, and the Sanctifier, to whom I was engaged, and have too much served the devil, the world, and the flesh, which I renounced: I was born in sin, and sinfully I have lived: I have been too careless of my immortal soul, and of the great work for which I was created and redeemed: I have spent much of my precious time in vanity, in minding and pleasing this corruptible flesh. And I have hardened my heart against those instructions, by which thy Spirit, and my teachers, and my own conscience, did call upon me to repent and turn to thee,