those that trust in thee? Oh remember thy word unto thy servant, wherein thou hast caused me to hope, when I ventured my salvation on thy promise, and trusted to thy gracious word for eternal life. Thy love hath already overcome the greatest impediments of my salvation. It is as easy now to receive me as to love me. Thou hast prepared glory for thy redeemed ones, and hast bid me believingly to follow thee, and wait for thy salvation. Thou hast begotten me to a lively hope, by the incorruptible seed of the word: let me not now be deprived of the inheritance. Can that love, that

pitied me in my blood, and fetched me from the gates of hell, now suffer me to fall into it? O crown thy grace, and perfect thy preparatory mercy, with everlasting mercy.

By voluntary consent and choice, thou art my God, and thy presence in heaven my ultimate felicity; I have trusted to thy gracious promise to prepare me for it, and bring me to it; "O fulfil thy word unto thy servant, wherein thou hast caused me to hope;" and mercifully receive my departing soul, that seeks thee, that loves thee, that breathes after thee, and desires nothing but to know thee better, and love thee more, and be more entirely conformed to thine image, and live always in thy blessed presence. Thou hast called me out of the world, placed thine image upon me, enabled me to make it my business, though with many imperfections, to serve, and please, and honour thee; O receive me to the fulness of thy love and grace, and present me faultless before the presence of thy glory, with exceeding joy: Amen. Holy Father, be it unto me according

to thy word, through the merits and intercession of my all-sufficient Saviour, Jesus Christ, the faithful and true witness, in whom all thy promises are yea and amen.

SECTION XXX.

Thanksgiving to God for his innumerable benefits and mercies, particularly in the year past; with some direction and advice concerning it.

How precious and delightful are the thoughts of thy benefits! "O Lord, how great is the sum of them !" Should I count them, they are more in number than the stars. Shall I not observe and consider them, maintain a grateful sense of them, and publicly acknowledge them on all occasions? that I may "bless the Lord at all times, and his praise be continually in my mouth." More especially should I conclude and begin this year with solemn praises to my great benefactor and preserver. I ought to begin and close every day with it, thereby" to make the outgoings of the morning and the evening to rejoice in God." Every year, every day, every hour, every moment, offers me an occasion to praise him; because he is every minute gracious, and hath been so ever since he gave me my being.

Almost one half of my time hath been spent in sleep, when I remember not God nor myself; yet doth he, who never slumbers nor sleeps, remember me in mercy, and watch over me for good; yea,

though in the other half, by day, I have forgotten him in a worse sense, by casting off his fear, and not remembering that his holy eye is upon me, yet hath he not forgotten to be gracious. Therefore, "I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving, and never forget his benefits. With which sacrifice he is better pleased, than with an ox, or bullock, that hath horns and hoofs."

He hath prolonged my life this last year, when so many others of his more useful servants have been removed by death, and given me farther time and space to repent, when multitudes have been surprised in their impenitence. Yea, it was he who formed me in the womb, and brought me safely into the world, by whose providence I have hitherto been supported: "In him I live, and move, and continually exist;" to this undeserved goodness I am beholden for all the good of any kind which I ever enjoyed; to his bounty I am indebted for all that I now have; and must depend upon it for whatever I can hereafter expect.

Through infancy and childhood he was pleased to preserve me; favouring me with many advantages in my birth and education; providing for me a competent livelihood; disposing the circumstances of my condition, relations, places of abode, &c. more advantageously than he hath done for thousands; affording me many helps for the improvement of my mind, and the increase of knowledge; and preventing my necessities, and even my desires, with numberless blessings, which I never so much as asked for. He hath caused several of my relations to

yield me comfort, when they might have been sore afflictions. He hath raised up strangers to befriend me, and show me kindness.

How many favours have I received from God, by the instrumentality of other men, to whom God gave the will and the power, the opportunity and the inclination!

How often hath he "delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling," by seasonable preservations, so that I do yet "walk before him in the land of the living !" He hath rescued me from the brink of many a precipice, which, through ignorance or inadvertency, I did not apprehend nor fear. When I knew not which way to turn, he hath made my path plain. Under sinking disappointments he hath commanded succour, and been a "present help in the time of trouble." In great perplexities his eye hath been my guide, and his arm hath brought salvation; it may be by the ministry of his holy angels, obeying his order, and giving unusual intimations of very great, and otherwise unsuspected, dangers, or sending relief and deliverance by such small, unlikely, and unexpected means, as carried the name of God visibly engraven on them. Innumerable calamities he saves me from, which others groan under; and as many blessings am I favoured with, whereof they are destiHe spreads my table, and fills my cup, and gives me all things richly to enjoy," when many excellent persons, of whom the world is not worthy, are fed with "the bread of affliction and the water of affliction." Others have only necessaries, or but few conveniences, in comparison with the plentiful provisions God hath made for my cheerful obedience

tute.

to him. And shall I not praise him for "the precious things of heaven, the blessings of the earth, the dew, and the deep?" and more especially for the goodness of him who dwelt in the bush, to sanctify and sweeten all? whereby common mercies become the pledge and forerunner of better things; as the fruit of his special kindness, the witness of his truth, and the seed of peace, and joy, and righteousness, and praise; by reason of his blessing on all that I possess, which otherwise would prove a snare, and a temptation, and be intermixed with a curse.

And, besides the ordinary and continued bounty of every day, in the midst of how many difficulties and dangers have I felt the dear obligations of his preserving mercy, abroad and at home; in foreign countries as well as my own; in the midst of enemies, and among friends; in all places, and at all times!

He hath prolonged my health, or made my bed in sickness. He hath often granted the desires of my heart, whenever it was for his glory; and contradicted my wishes, and disappointed my endeavours, in other instances, when it was more to my advantage. From how many mischiefs hath he saved me, by such things as I deprecated, and would have hindered! How many evils hath he turned for good! "He hath heard my cry in the day of adversity, and set my feet in a large place." He hath chastened me for my profit; his rod and his staff have comforted me; he hath spoken comfortably to me in the wilderness. Affliction hath been useful and necessary physic, made an instrument of virtue, and so a token of his love. Therefore "I will sing