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WEDNESDAY

MEDITATIONS.

Covetoufnefs. Fafting. Difficulties.
Self-Denial.

Matth. iv. 9. 10. All these things will I give thee.-Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only fhalt thou ferve.

GR

REAT and glorious GoD, who alone art worthy of our love and service, cure me of, and preferve me from, the fin and vanity of admiring this world.

Give me grace to renounce all covetous defires, all love of riches and pleasures;-to defire only what is neceffary, and to be content with what Thou, O Lord, thinkeft fo:

Not to be troubled at the lofs or want of any thing befides thy favour: That no business, no pleasures, may divert me from the thoughts of the world to come : That

That I may cheerfully part with all these things, when Thou requirest it of me :

And that I may be ever prepared to do fo, difpofe me to a temperance in all things, and to lay up my treasure in heaven, for Jefus Chrift's fake. Amen.

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Luke vi. 24. Woe unto you rich, for ye have received your confo

lation.

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A man must have but little faith, who can read thefe words, and yet love riches, and the pleasures they afford.

Lord grant that I may refift every temptation to the love of creatures; left they steal my heart from Thee, my God, whom I defire to love with all my foul.

I know that I muft in a great meafure renounce all other objects of my affection, in order to love Thee with all my heart. Lord, give me grace and ftrength to put this in practice.

1 John ii. 15. Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world: if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Grant, O God, that I may never hope to reconcile two things fo inconfiftent as the love of Thee and the world.

in

Matth. v. 3. Blessed are the poor Spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of

heaven.

To be poor in fpirit-is to be difengaged from wealth, to look upon it as a burthen, or as a trust.

1 Tim. vi. 8. Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content.

And yet even the Chriftian world is not content without fuperfluities and excefs. Thefe diforders are not lefs criminal, because fo common.

Give me, O God, the eyes of faith, that I may fee the world juft as it is; -the vanity of its promifes, the folly of its pleafures, the unprofitableness

of

of its rewards, the multitude of its fnares, and the dangers of its temptations.

Fafting.

Jefus Chrift fpared not his innocent flesh, but fafted; the finner cherisheth his continually, refufing it nothing.

Fafting is in fome fenfe a punishment and expiation for paft fins, a remedy for prefent temptations, and a prefervative against future.

Pfa. cii. 4. My heart is fmitten, and withered like grafs; fo that I forget bread:

to eat my

The humble and afflicted foul is not much concerned to please the appetite.

Luke vi. 25. Woe unto you that are full, for ye shall hunger; that is, Ye whofe daily meals are feafts, who make profeffion of a life of fenfuality, who know not what it is to faft: woe to fuch Chriftians!

If we judge ourselves with feverity, we fhall be judged with mercy.

In

In Time of Trouble.

Pfa. xxxix. 11. When thou with rebukes doft correct man for iniquity, thou makeft his beauty to confume away like a moth.

O merciful God, who in thy wife providence doft fo order even natural events, that they ferve both for the good of the univerfe, and for the conviction of particular finners, fo that men fhall have reafon to acknowledge thy glorious attributes;-I do with great forrow of heart, but with all fubmiffion to thy good pleafure, confefs thy mercy as well as juftice to me in the judgments; afflictions, forrows, of this day.

I acknowledge thy voice, O merciful God, I acknowledge my own tranfgreffions, which have provoked Thee to speak to me after this manner, and at this very time.

O Lord, give me true repentance for all the errors of my life, and par

ticularly

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