DEVOTIONS ON THE APOSTLES' CREED ENTITLED "THE MOTIVES OF LOVE*."

BY BISHOP KENN.

66 I BELIEVE."

My Lord and my God, help me with a full, free, and firm assent, to believe all the articles of my creed, because thou hast revealed them: I know thou art infallible truth, and canst not (Deut xxxii. 4; Heb. vi. 18), thou art infinite love (Ps. xxv. 8), and wilt not, deceive me: glory be to thee.

With all my heart, O my God, would I love and praise thee, who art so infinitely amiable in thyself, and so full of love to us, that all I can know or believe of thee excites me to love thee.

Lord, daily increase my faith: make it active and fruitful (James ii. 20), that I may believe and love thee as entirely as becomes one entirely devoted to thee.

tion.

I believe, O my God, that in the unity of thy Godhead there is a trinity of Persons (Matt. iii. 17; John i. 1, xv. 26). I believe in thee, O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in whose name I was baptized (Matt. xxviii. 19), to whose service I am religiously devoted: all glory be to thee.

I believe, I admire, I love, I praise, I adore thee, O most blessed and glorious Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, for being the joint Author of our salvation: all glory be to thee.

O sacred, and dreadful, and mysterious Trinity, though I cannot conceive thee, yet let me daily experience thy goodness: let thy grace, Lord Jesus; let thy love, O God the Father (2

* From "A Manual of Prayers for the Young." By the rev. E Bickersteth. London: Seeleys. 1848. We have before favourably noticed this volume.-ED.

Cor. xiii. 14); let thy communications, O Holy Spirit, be ever with nie. "THE FATHER."

I believe, and love, and praise thee, O my God, the first Person in the most adorable Trinity; the Fountain of the Godhead; the eternal Father of thy co-eternal Son (John i. 18, v. 18), Jesus my Saviour.

Glory be to thee, O God the Father, for so loving the world (John iii. 16) as to give thy only-begotten Son to redeem us.

Glory be to thee, O heavenly Father, for first loving us, and giving the dearest thing thou hadst for us. O help me to love again, and to think nothing too dear for thee. 66 ALMIGHTY."

I believe, O my God, that thou art a Spirit (John iv. 23, 24), most pure and holy (1 Pet. i. 16), and infinite in all perfections (Ps. cxlv. 3), in power (Ps. cxv. 3), and knowledge (Isa. xl. 28), and goodness (Matt. xix. 17); that thou art eternal (Ps. xc. 2), immutable (James i. 17), and omnipresent (Ps. cxxxix. 1, &c.): all love, all glory be to thee.

I believe, O Lord, that thou art most wise (Ps. cxlvii. 5) and just (Rom. ii. 6), most happy (Ps. xvii. 11) and glorious (1 Tim. vi. 16) and allsufficient (2 Cor. xii. 9), most gracious and merciful and tender and benign and liberal and beneficent (Tit. iii. 4; Eph. ii. 4; Ps. li. 1): all love, all glory be to thee.

I believe thy divine nature, O my God, to be in all respects amiable; to be amiableness itself; to be love (Cant. v. 16; 1 John iv. 8, 16) itself; and therefore I love, I admire, I praise and fear and adore thee.

Thou, Lord, art my hope, my trust, my life, my joy, my glory, my God, my all, my love.

66 MAKER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH." I believe that thou, O Father Almighty, didst create heaven and earth, the whole world, and all things in it, visible and invisible, out of nothing, Ps. xxxiii. 6). All glory be to thee. and by thy word only (Gen, i. 1; Heb. xi. 3;

love made thee communicate being to thy creaI believe, O thou great Creator, that thy divine tures; that thou lovest all things, and hatest nothing thou hast made: glory be to thee.

and Proprietor of all things thou hast made I believe, O God, that thou art the sole Lord (Deut. x. 14; Ps. lxxxix. 11); that all things do we live, and move, and have our being (Acts necessarily depend on thee; that it is in thee only xvii. 28). All love, all glory be to thee.

that thou dost preserve, and sustain, and protect, I believe, O thou communicative Goodness, and bless all things thou hast made, suitably to All love, all glory be to thee. the natures thou hast given them (read Ps. cxlv).

most sweetly order, and govern, and dispose all I believe, O mighty Wisdom, that thou dost things (Ps. civ. 24), even the most minute (Matt. (Gen. i. 20), to conspire in thy glory. O do thou vi. 26-28, x. 30), even the very sins of inen soul, towards the great end of our creation—to conduct my whole life, steer every motion of my love and glorify thee.

I believe, O Lord, that thy love was more illustrious in the creation of man than in all the rest of the visible world. Thou wast pleased to

make him (Gen. i. 26) in thine own image, and after thine own divine likeness: all love, all glory be to thee.

Thou, Lord, didst make man for thyself, and all things visible for man. Thou designedst all creatures for his use (Ps. viii.), and didst subject them to his dominion. The very angels thou didst charge (Ps. xci. 11) to keep him in all his ways: all love, all glory be to thee.

Thy works, O Lord, are wonderful and amiable (Ps. cxi. 2-4). I love, and admire, and praise thy universal providence over the whole world, the perpetual flow of thy goodness on every creature: all glory be to thee.

I love and praise thee, O my God, for all the particular vouchsafements of thy love to me (Ps. Ixviii. 19); for all thy deliverances and blessings, either to my body or to my soul, known or unknown (read Ps. ciii.); for all that I do not remember, or did not consider: all love and glory be to thee.

The longer I live, O my God, the more reason I have to love thee, because every day supplies me with fresh experiments and new motives of thy manifold love to me; and therefore all love, all glory be to thee.

"AND IN JESUS."

I believe in thee, O Jesus; and I rejoice in that dear name which is so full and expressive of thy love.

Thou art Jesus, our Saviour, because thou camest into the world on purpose to save us from our sins (Matt. i. 21): all love, all glory be to thee.

O be thou ever Jesus to me! O let me feel the kind force of that sweet name, in which I and all sinners do read our danger and our deliverance, our guilt and our salvation.

O most benign Jesus! he well deserves to be accursed that does not love thee (1 Cor. xvi. 22). Who, Lord, can ever hope to share in thy salvation, who does not love thee, his Saviour? Grace be with all them that love thee in sincerity (Eph. vi. 24).

"CHRIST."

iv. 25; Acts vii. 37; Luke iv. 18), who didst teach, and reveal, and interpret thy Father's will and all-saving truth to the world.

Glory be to thee, O Christ our King (Luke i. 33, 69, 71), who dost give laws to thy people, dost govern and protect us, and hast subdued all our ghostly enemies.

Glory be to thee, O Christ, our Priest, who dost bless us (Acts iii. 26), who dost offer thyself a sacrifice (Isa. liii. 10; Eph. v. 2; Heb. ix. 14), and dost still make intercession for us (Rom. viii. 34; Heb. vii. 25).

Our redemption, our illumination, our support is wholly from thy love, O thou anointed of God: all love, all glory be to thee. 66 HIS ONLY SON."

I believe that thou, O most adorable Jesus, art the Son of God by ineffable generation (Heb. i. 5; Isa. liii. 8; John i. 1): thou didst from eternity derive thy Godhead from the Father: thou art the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person (Heb. i. 3): all love, all glory be to thee.

Thou, O blessed Jesu, art the only Son of God, the only-begotten Son, full of grace and truth (John i. 14, xviii. 5, 18; Rom. viii. 32; Matt. iii. 17): thou art the only-beloved Son, in whom the Father is well pleased: it is only in thee and for thee that sinners have hope; and therefore all love, all glory be to thee.

Thou art equal (Phil. ii. 6) to thy Father, O Jesu, in amiableness and love to us, and art equally to be loved by us; and therefore all love and praise be to the Father, that eternally begat (1 John v. 1), and to the Son eternally begotten. "OUR LORD."

I believe, O thou eternal Son of the Father, that thou art the great (Tit. ii, 13) and true God (1 John v. 20), Jehovah our righteousness (Jer. xxiii. 6), God above all, blessed for ever (Rom. ix. 5), and mighty to save (Isa. lxiii. 1). All glory be to thee

I believe, O Lord Jesus, that thou didst make (John i. 3) and dost sustain all things by thy power (Heb. i. 3, 10), and that thou art to be honoured by men and by angels, as thy Father is honoured (Heb. i. 6; Phil. ii. 10; John v. 23): all love, all glory be to thee.

I believe that thou, O Jesus, wast anointed with the Holy Spirit (Acts x. 38; Heb. i. 9); that all his gifts and graces were poured out, and diffused like a sweet ointment on thy soul, without measure (John iii. 34). Thou art altogether lovely, O Christ; and of thy fulness we all receive (John i. 16): all love, all glory be to thee.

I believe, O thou anointed of God, that, as kings (1 Sam. xv. 1) and priests ( Lev. iv. 3, v. 16) and prophets (1 Kings xix. 16) were heretofore anointed with material oil, so by thy heavenly anointing (Matt. iii. 16) thou wast consecrated to be our Prophet, our King, and our Priest, and in all those three offices to manifest thy love to us; and therefore all love, all glory be to thee. Glory be to thee, O Christ, our Prophet (John

"WHO WAS CONCEIVED BY THE HOLY
GHOST."

I believe, O most condescending Majesty, that, when thou didst stoop so low as to assume our frail nature, the Holy Ghost came on thy sacred mother, and that the power of the Highest did overshadow her (Luke i. 31, 34, 35, 42), and that she did conceive and lodge thee in her womb, where thou, who fillest heaven and earth, wast about nine months for our sakes imprisoned; and therefore all love, all glory be to thee.

66

BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY." I believe, O most adorable Humility, that thou

wast at last born into the world (Luke ii. 6, 7); that thou having only God for thy Father, and Mary, a pure virgin, for thy mother, whom all generations do call blessed (Luke i. 48), both thy conception and birth were perfectly immaculate, that being without sin thyself (1 John ii. 1, 2) thou mightest be a fit sacrifice to atone for us sinners, who, being born of unclean parents, were all by nature unclean (John xiv. 4); and therefore all love, all glory be to thee, O immaculate Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world (John i. 29).

I believe, O blessed Saviour, that the two natures of God and of man were in thee so mysteriously united, without either change or confusion, that they made in thee but one Person, but one Mediator (1 Tim. ii. 5), one Lord (Eph. iv. 5). Thou, () Eternal Word, didst become flesh, and didst dwell among us (John i. 14), on purpose to save us; and therefore all love, all glory be to thee.

"SUFFERED."

I believe, O adorable Love, that thy whole life was made up of suffering, and that for sinful men, and in particular for me. O let me never cease to adore and love thee.

It was for us sinners, O tenderest Love, that in thy very infancy thou wast circumcised (Luke ii. 21), and designed by Herod for slaughter, and forced to fly into Egypt (Matt. ii. 13, 16); and therefore I praise and love thee.

It was for us sinners that thou, O afflicted Love, wast all thy life long a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isa. liii. 3); that thou wast persecuted and reviled, despised and rejected, and hadst not where to lay thy head (Matt. viii. 20), and therefore I am bound to praise and to love thee.

It was for us sinners that thou, O compassionate Love, when thou tookest on thee our nature, wast touched with a feeling of our infirmities, and wast in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin (Heb. iv. 15), that thou mightest the more affectionately pity the weak, and succour the tempted; and therefore I praise and love thee.

It was for us sinners that thou, O beneficent Love, didst go about doing good (Acts x. 38), preaching repentance, publishing the glad tidings of salvation (Matt. iv. 17; Luke iv. 18), sending thy disciples (Matt. x. 1, 5), confirming thy hea venly doctrine by many glorious miracles (Matt. xi. 5), and illustrating it by a god-like example. All thy life is full of attractives, of sweetest love and pity to us sinners, which (2 Cor. v. 14) kindly and forcibly constrain us to praise and love thee.

O most exuberant Love, how amiable are all thy graces! O fill my heart with thy love, and transform me into thy likeness (Rom. viii. 29; Phil. ii. 5), that I may all my life long imitate thy perfect obedience unspotted holiness, unchangeable resolution, universal charity, uninterrupted devotion, contempt of the world, heavenly-mindedness, gracious condescension, ardent zeal for thy Father's glory, and unbounded love, and that for the sake of that dearest love which inclined thee to become incarnate for me.

sufferings were under the Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate. I believe all those mighty sufferings, but am as little able to express the greatness of them as I am the greatness of thy love which moved thee to suffer: all I can do is to love and to praise thee.

How great were thy sufferings, O Saviour of the world, when the very apprehension of them made thy soul very heavy, exceeding sorrowful even to death; made thee offer up prayers, with strong crying and tears, that if it were thy Father's will the cup might pass from thee; threw thee into an agony and bloody sweat (Heb. v. 7; Matt. xxvi. 38; Luke xxii. 43, 44), insomuch that there was an angel sent from heaven on purpose to strengthen thee! O thou agonizing Love, impress on my heart so tender a sense of thy sufferings for me, that I may agonize with thee, that I may feel all thy sorrows; that, though I cannot sweat blood like thee, I may dissolve into tears for thee, that I may love and suffer with thee throughout every part of thy passion.

O suffering Jesus, when my meditations follow thee from the garden to Mount Calvary, I grieve and I love all the way.

I grieve and I love when I see thee, O incarnate God, who couldest command more than twelve legions of angels for thy rescue, out of love to sinners, and in particular to me, one of the vilest of all that number, humbling thyself to be apprehended, and bound by the rude soldiers as a malefactor (Matt. xxvi. 47, 53, 57; John xviii. 4).

I grieve and I love when I see thee, O gracious Lord, for, my sake, betrayed by the treacherous kiss of Judas (Matt. xxvi. 49, 56, 70), denied by Peter, and forsaken of all thy disciples.

I grieve and I love when I see thee, O spotless innocence, out of love to me, dragged to Annas (John xviii. 12), and Caiaphas (Matt. xxvi. 57, 59; Luke xxii. 66) the high-priest; when I see thee accused by false witnesses, arraigned, and condemned.

I grieve and I love when I see thee, O divine Majesty, out of love to me, spit upon, and blindfolded, and buffeted, and mocked; sent to Pilate (Matt. xxvi. 67; Luke xxii. 63), an infidel judge (Matt. xxvii. 2); then to wicked Herod (Luke xxiii. 6, xi. 12), who with his men of war set thee at nought, arrayed thee in a white robe of mockery, and sent thee again to Pilate.

I grieve and I love, O injured Goodness, when I see thee, though declared innocent by the very traitor Judas, who out of horror for his crime, went and hanged himself--though declared innocent by Pilate himself, the judge to whom thine enemies appealed-yet worried to death by the clamours of the rabble that cried out, Crucify, crucify; when I see Barabbas, a traitor and a murderer, preferred before thee (Luke xxiii. 14, 18, 19, 21; Matt. xxvii. 3-5).

Í grieve and I love when I see thee, O lover of souls, for my sake most unjustly given up into the hands of infidel soldiers, to be stript naked, and tied to a pillar, and scourged (John xix. 1; Ps. exxix. 3); to see the ploughers ploughing on thy back, and making long furrows.

I grieve and I love, O King of heaven, when I see thee, out of love to me, humbling thyself to be arrayed in purple, with a reed in thy hand (Matt.

xxvii. 28, 29); when I see thee crowned with thorns, to multiply thy torments; when I see thee mocked by barbarous wretches, with their bended knee, and with "Hail, King of the Jews!"

I grieve and I love when I see thee, O Lord God, whom the angels worship, spit upon again and again, and buffeted (Mark xv. 19), and for my sake made the extreme scorn and contempt and sport of thy insolent and insulting enemies, and, though still declared innocent by Pilate (Matt. xxvii. 24-26), yet surrendered to the unrelenting cruelty of the multitude, to be crucified. My Lord, my God, my Saviour, with all my heart I love and adore thy infinite love and benignity to sinners: with all my heart I lament and detest the hatred and outrage of sinners to thee.

"WAS CRUCIFIED."

I grieve and I love, O sorrowful Jesus, when I see thee for my sake oppressed with the weight of thy own cross (John xix. 17) till thy tender body, quite spent with sufferings, sank under it (Matt. xxvii. 32).

I grieve and I love, O thou great Martyr of love, when for my sake I see thy virgin body stript naked, thy hands and thy feet nailed to the cross; when I see thee crucified between two thieves (Matt. xxvii. 38), and numbered with the transgressors; when I see gall given thee to eat, and vinegar to drink (Ps. Ixix. 21).

I grieve and I love when I see thee, O incarnate Deity, hanging on the cross, and for my sake, by thy own people, in the height of thy anguish, derided, reproached, and blasphemed, with wagging of their heads, mocked by the soldiers, and by the impenitent thief (Matt. xxvii. 39; Luke xxiii. 39).

I grieve and I love when I see thee, O God blessed for evermore, O fountain of all blessing, hang bleeding on the cross, and made a curse for me (Gal. iii. 13). How does my indignation swell against the injustice, and ingratitude, and inhumanity of the Jews, who could thus cruelly treat so irreproachable an innocence, so amiable a charity, so compassionate a Saviour!

Alas, alas! it was the sinner, O love incarnate, rather than the Jew, that betrayed, and derided, and blasphemed, and tortured, and crucified thee: the sins of lapsed mankind (Isa. liii. 6), and particularly my sins, they were thy tormentors; and therefore from my heart I bewail, detest, and abjure them.

My Lord and my God, instil penitential love into my soul; that I may grieve for my sins, which grieved thee; that I may love thee for suffering for us sinners, who occasioned all thy griefs: O may I always love thee, O may I never grieve thee more.

"DEAD."

I grieve and I love, O bleeding Love, when I see thee on the cross, quite spent with pain and anguish, when I see thee in thy dying pangs commending thy spirit into the hands of thy heavenly Father (Luke xxiii. 46), bowing thy head (John xix. 30), and giving up the ghost. Thou, O Lord of life, didst for us sinners humble thyself to death, even to the death of the cross, a death of utmost shame and ignominy, and of torment insupportable all love, all glory be to thee.

Was ever any sorrow, O crucified Lord, like that sorrow my sins created thee? Was ever any love, O outraged mercy, like that love thou didst show in dying for sinners? All the frame of nature, O dying Saviour, fell into convulsions at the crucifixion of their great Creator: the sun was darkened (Matt. xxvii. 51), the veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom, the earth quaked, the rocks clave asunder, the bodies of dead saints rose out of their graves, insomuch that the centurion and infidel soldiers acknowledged thee to be the Son of God: thou wast lovely, and glorious, and adorable in thy lowest humiliation: all love, all praise be to thee.

Thy bodily sufferings, O Almighty Love, were intolerable, but yet thy inward were far greater. I grieve, I love, I melt all over, when I hear thee on the cross crying out : 66 My God, my God! why hast thou forsaken me ?" (Matt. xxvii. 46). Ah, sinful wretch that I am! how infinite and inconceivable were the inward pains and agonies thou didst undergo for us sinners, when thou didst tread the winepress of thy Father's wrath alone (Isa. lxiii. 3), when it pleased thy own most beloved Father to bruise thee, and to put thee to grief; when the iniquities of the whole world were laid on thee (Isa. liii. 6, 10), and my numerous sins increased thy load and heightened thy torment; when thy own Deity withdrew all consolation from thee; when God, offended by our sins, did afflict thee in the day of his fierce anger (Lam. i. 12)! No sufferings, no love, was ever like unto thine for me: no grief, no love but thy own should exceed mine for thee.

For whom, O unutterable Goodness, didst thou suffer the extreme bitterness of sorrow, but for the vilest of all thy creatures, sinful man, and for me, one of the worst of sinners? and therefore I praise and I love thee.

For what end didst thou suffer, O most ardent Charity, but to save sinners from all things that were destructive-the curse of the law (Gal. iii. 13), the terrors of death (Heb. ii. 14, 15), the tyranny of sin (Rom. vi. 14), the powers of darkness and torments eternal (1 Thess. i. 10); to purchase for us all things conducible to our happiness (Eph i. 7; Heb. ix. 12, 15)—pardon and grace, consolation and acceptance, and the everlasting joys and glories of the kingdom of heaven? And therefore I praise and love thee.

Out of what motive didst thou suffer, 0 boundless Benignity, but out of thy own preventing love (1 John iv. 19), free mercy, and pure compassion? and therefore I praise and love thee.

When no other sacrifice could atone thy Father's anger, O thou beloved Son of God, and reconcile divine justice and mercy together, but the sacrifice of God incarnate, who as a man was to die (Heb. ix. 28), and to suffer in our stead, as God was to merit and make satisfaction for our sins, it was then that thou, O God the Son, didst become man, the very meanest of men, didst take upon thee the form of a servant (Phil. ii. 7), and didst on the cross shew us the mystery and the miracle of love-God crucified for sinners, and sinners redeemed by the blood of God (Acts xx. 28).

O thou propitious Wonder, God incarnate on

in triumph to heaven (Luke xxiv. 51; Acts i. 9, 10), that thou mightest prepare mansions for us (John xiv. 2), and from thence, as conqueror, bestow the gifts of thy conquest on us (Eph. iv. 8), and, above all, the gift of thy Holy Spirit (John xvi. 7), that thou mightest enter into the holy of holies as our great High Priest (Heb. vi. 19, 20; x. 20, 21), to present to thy Father the sweet-smelling sacrifice of his crucified Son, the sole propitiation for sinners; and therefore all love, all glory be to thee.

How illustrious and amiable were thy graces amidst all thy sufferings, O thou afflicted Jesus! I admire and I love thy profound humility, unwearied patience, lamb-like meekness, immaculate innocence, invincible courage, absolute resignation, compassionate love of souls, and perfect charity to thy enemies. O my love, I cannot love thee, but I must desire above all things to be like my beloved. O give me grace to tread in thy steps (1 Peter ii. 21), and conform me to thy divine image, that the more I grow like thee the more I may love thee, and the more I may be loved by thee.

66 AND BURIED, HE DESCENDED INTO HELL. I believe, O crucified Lord, that thou wast really dead, and that there was a separation of thy body and soul; that thy side was mortally wounded and pierced with a spear on the cross (John xix. 34), and thy sacred body was buried (Matt. xxvii. 57, 60), to assure us of thy death: all love, all glory be to thee.

I believe, O pierced, O wounded Love, that thy soul, in the state of separation, did descend into hell (Eph. iv. 9), to vanquish death and all the spirits of darkness in their own dominions; and therefore I adore and love thee.

Glory be to thee, O thou great Champion of love, who didst for our sakes singly encounter all our ghostly enemies; who didst thyself taste of death (Heb. ii. 9), that thou mightest take away the sting of death (1 Cor. xv. 55-57); who didst wrestle with principalities and powers (Col. ii. 15), and all the force of hell, that we might share in thy victory; for which wonderful salvation I will always praise and love thee.

"THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN FROM
THE DEAD."

I believe, O Almighty Love, that, according to the types and prophecies which went before of thee (Luke xxiv. 26, 27; Matt. xii. 40), and according to thy own infallible predictions, thou didst by thy own power (John ii. 19) rise from the dead the third day: all love, all glory be to thee.

Glory be to thee, who didst lie so long in the grave to undergo the full condition of the dead, and to convince all the world that thou wast dead; and didst rise so soon that thou mightest not see corruption (Acts ii. 31), or retard our joy (John xvi. 22): all love, all glory be to thee.

"HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN."

I believe, O victorious Love, that thon, after thy conquest over death and hell, didst ascend

years to despise this world when we are best able to enjoy it, and to reserve our full vigour for heaven and for thy love.

O thou whom my soul loveth, since thou hast left the world, what was there ever in it worthy of our love? O let all my affections ascend after thee, and never return to the earth more; for "whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee" (Psa. lxxiii. 25).

66

AND SITTETH AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD
THE FATHER ALMIGHTY."

I believe, O triumphant Lord, that thou now sittest in full and peaceful possession of bliss (1 Pet. iii. 22), and at the right hand of God; that thy human nature is exalted to the most honourable place in heaven, where thou sittest on thy throne of glory, adored by angels (Rev. v. 8, 9, 12), and interceding for sinners (Rom. viii. 34); and therefore all love, all glory be to thee.

Glory be to thee, O Love enthroned; thy resurrection, ascension, and cession, are all signal instances of thy love, and earnests of our future felicity, the entire purchase of thy love: all our hopes of heaven, our resurrection, ascension, and glorification, depend on and are derived from thine, and are all the trophies of thy love to us; and therefore I will ever praise and love thee.

"FROM THENCE HE SHALL COME TO JUDGE

THE QUICK AND THE DEAD.

I believe, O glorified Love, that from thy throne at God's right hand, where thou now sittest, thou wilt come again (Acts i. 11; Phil. iii. 20), to judge the world, attended with thy holy angels (2 Thess. i. 7): all glory be to thee.

I believe, O thou adorable Judge, that all mankind shall be summoned before thy awful tribunal. All the dead, who shall be waked out of their graves when the angel shall blow the last trump (1 Cor. xv. 52), and all that are then quick and alive, shall then appear before thee: all glory be to thee.

I believe, Lord, that I and all the world shall give a strict account of all our thoughts, and words, and actions; that the books will then be opened; that out of those dreadful registers we shall be judged (Rom. xiv. 10; Matt. xii. 36; Rev. xx. 12); that Satan and our own consciences will be our accusers. O let the last trump be ever sounding in my ears, that I may ever be mindful of my great account (Eccles. xii. 13, 14), and that I may neither speak, nor do, nor think anything that may wound my own conscience, or provoke thy anger, or make me tremble at the awful day.

I know, O thou adorable Judge, that love only