wings of prayer. And it is best to choose that day for your fast which is used generally by all Christians, as Friday and Saturday.

29. From observation of all the days of your life, gather out the four extraordinary traits.

First, All the great and shameful sins you have committed.

Second, All the excellent or greater acts of piety which by God's grace you have performed.

Third, All the great blessings you have received. Fourth, All the dangers and great sicknesses you have escaped and upon all the days of your extraordinary devotions, let them be brought forth, and produce their acts of virtue, i. e.

1st. Repentance and prayers for pardon. 2d. Resolutions to proceed and increase in good works. 3d. Thanksgiving to God. 4th. Fear and watchfulness, lest we fall into worse, as a punishment for our sin.

30. Keep a little catalogue of these, and at the foot of them set down what promises and vows you have made, and kept or broken, and do according as you are obliged.

31. Receive the blessed sacrament as often as you can, endeavour to have it once a month at least, besides the solemn and great festivals of the year.

32. Confess your sins often; hear the word of God; make religion the business of your life, your study, and chiefest care; and be sure that in all

necessary things a spiritual guide take you by the

hand.

Thou shalt always rejoice in the evening, if thou dost spend the day virtuously.

FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS FOR A HOLY LIFE.

As soon as thou awakest in the morning, lift up thy heart to God in this or the like short prayer:

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Lord, as thou hast awaked my body from sleep, so by thy grace awaken my soul from sin, and make me so to walk before thee this day and all the rest of my life; that when the last trumpet shall awake me out of my grave, I may rise to life immortal, through Jesus Christ." When thou hast thus begun, suffer not any worldly thoughts to fill thy mind till thou hast also paid thy more solemn devotions to Almighty God, and therefore during the time thou art dressing thyself exercise thy mind in some spiritual thoughts; as for example, consider to what temptations thy business or company that day are most like to lay thee open, and arm thyself with resolutions against them; or again, consider what occasions of doing service to God, or good to thy neighbor, are that day most likely to present themselves, and resolve to embrace them; and also contrive how thou mayest improve them to the

uttermost. But especially it will be fit for thee to examine whether there have any sin escaped thee since thy last night's examination. If after these considerations any further leisure remain, thou mayest profitably employ it in meditating on the general resurrection, whereof our rising from our beds is a representation, and of that dreadful judgment which shall follow it, and then think with thyself in what preparation thou art for it, and resolve to husband carefully every minute of thy time towards the fitting thee for that great account. As soon as thou art ready, retire to some private place, and there offer up to God thy morning sacrifice of praise and prayer.

Prayers for the Morning.

O HOLY, blessed, and glorious Trinity, three persons and one God, have mercy upon me, a miserable sinner. Lord, I know not what to pray for as I ought, O let thy Spirit help my infirmities, and enable me to offer up a spiritual sacrifice acceptable to thee by Jesus Christ.

O gracious Lord, whose mercies endure for ever, I, thy unworthy servant, who have abundantly enjoyed them, desire to render thee the tribute of my humblest praises for them. In thee, O Lord, I live, and move, and have my being: thou first madest me to be, and then that I might not be miserable but happy, thou sentest thy Son

out of thy bosom to redeem me from the power of my sins by his grace, and from the punishment of them by his blood, and by both to bring me to his glory. Thou hast by thy mercy caused me to be born within thine own fold, the Christian Church, where I was early consecrated to thee in baptism, and have been partaker of all those spiritual helps which might aid me to perform that vow I there made to thee; and when by my own wilfulness or negligence I have failed to do it, yet thou in thy manifold mercies hast not forsaken me, but hast graciously invited me to repentance, afforded me all means for it, both outward and inward, and with much patience hast waited for me, and not cut me off, as I have most justly deserved, in the acts of those many damning sins I have committed. It is, O Lord, thy restraining grace alone by which I have been kept back from any the greatest sins; and it is thy inciting and assisting grace alone by which I have been enabled to do the least good; therefore not unto me, not unto me, but unto thy name be the praise. For these and all other thy spiritual blessings, my soul doth magnify the Lord, and all that is within me praise his holy name. likewise praise thee for those many outward blessings I enjoy, as health, friends, food, and raiment, the comforts as well as the necessaries of this life, for those continual protections of thy hand, by which I and mine are kept from dangers, and those gracious deliverances thou hast often afforded out

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of such as have befallen me; for that mercy of thine whereby thou hast sweetened and allayed troubles which thou hast not seen fit wholly to remove; for thy particular preservation of me this night, and for all thy other acts of goodness towards me. Lord, grant that I may render thee not only the fruit of my lips, but the obedience of my life, that so these blessings may be an earnest of those richer blessings thou hast prepared for them that love thee; and that for his sake, whom thou hast made the author of eternal salvation to all that obey him, even Jesus Christ.

O righteous Lord, who hatest iniquity, I thy sinful creature cast myself at thy feet, acknowledging that I justly deserve to be utterly abhorred and forsaken by thee; for I have drunk iniquity like water, gone on in a continued course of sin and rebellion against thee, daily committing those things thou forbiddest, and leaving undone those things thou commandest: mine heart, which should be an habitation for thy blessed Spirit, is become a cage of unclean birds, of foul and disorderly affections; and out of this abundance of the heart my mouth speaketh, my hands act, so that in thought, word, and deed, I continually transgress against thee. (Here mention the greatest of thy sins.) Nay, O Lord, I have despised that goodness of thine which should lead me to repentance, hardening my heart against all those means thou hast used for my amendment. And now, Lord, what can I expect from thee, but