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therefore for the sake of such inestimable spiritual blessings, we proceed to invoke that Almighty power, by whom only so great and difficult a work as the conversion of souls can be completed. We humbly beseech him, that since he hath in so marvellous a manner declared and defended his glorious gospel of liberty, he will by the same mighty superintendence, even now make the same effectual, by pouring down upon the ministers thereof, through whom the people are to receive the spiritual food, the saving spirit of grace to fit and dispose them for their important office. [We also pray for] his blessing, that their labours may be successful in bringing the several congregations committed to their charge, to a zealous walking in all piety and godliness, so that the honour of our advocate and mediator Jesus Christ may shew forth itself in the lives of all professing themselves his disciples among us. So having before recommended our brethren to God, by praying for all temporal blessings upon them in the person of the King, we are here helped to plead with him in their behalf, for spiritual blessings in the persons of the ministers of his word.

We are now discharged from our confined applications to God for others, and love is now at liberty to give itself full scope to commiserate the various miseries of our fellow creatures, and to recommend them all in one unlimited intercession to the divine mercy. There is something incomparably noble in the charity we are here called upon to exercise: to look round upon the wretchedness of the whole human race, and to feel so unbounded a distress, carries

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a majesty and dignity of heart with it, which I shall by no means take on me to describe. How greatly does it express itself in a most affecting appeal to God; how strongly, yet how humbly doth it plead for the wants of miserable man! It hath taken now upon it to speak unto the Lord: O let not the Lord be angry! Lord, thy goodness hath made, and thou dost preserve all these thy miserable creatures, wilt thou not also bless them with all spiritual blessings, shall not the Lord stretch out his healing wing over all nations, and make his gracious ways known unto them, which we find so unspeakably comfortable? Here, if ever, the genuine spirit of intercession is expressed in all the humility of reverential fear, all the importunity of brotherly love, all the confidence of lively faith. And let us take care that our hearts be formed to such an universal feeling of human infirmities, as this devout prayer proceeds upon. Let us see how the world stands in need of God, and let this engage us to offer up our petitions for all conditions of men, without and within the church, however afflicted and distressed, that God of his compassionate goodness will graciously deliver them.

Thus petition, as arising from a sense of our wants, and grounded on God's power and willingness to relieve us, hath been exemplified in this part of the church service, which I am confident hath appeared not only fit to express such our wants, but also to raise them upon our minds, and to [lead us to] rest ourselves upon God for a discharge from them; and this not only in our own particular cases, but also in those of others, who either labour under one common bond of

necessity with us, or want those rich blessings we enjoy.

I now go on to the last part of prayer, and also of our daily service, viz. thanksgiving, which was said to be the expression of a grateful heart, upon reflection on the great blessings, both temporal and spiritual, which it had experienced at God's hand; the use of which, besides the returning to God the thanks so justly due to him, and the increasing our love and reverence, was observed to confirm upon our hearts a faith and hope, and confident resignation with regard to God's future dealings with us. Look back now on the supply which God has given you of your various wants; consider yourselves as brought into the world a helpless infant, more helpless than the meanest creature, and look what you now are in the ornaments of body and mind. Remember that through an uninterrupted course of watchful providence, you are become what you are; but reflect more attentively on your hopeless state as an eternal being. You were a miserable, sinful, lost creature, of whom it might be said, it were ten thousand times better you had never been; but now an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven, a present possessor of great and precious spiritual blessings which you could have no prospect of. Tell it then to every faculty of your soul-this hath God done, all this is his gracious work; proclaim it aloud within you, till every desire and affection

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your heart be on fire, to return to God with the warmest thankfulness. Then you shall find that a joyful and pleasant thing it is to be thankful; then shall you enter into the spirit of that excellent form

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of thanksgiving, which the church service calls on you daily to make before God. This form of thanksgiving suggests the highest arguments to thankfulness, whilst it helps us also to express our grateful sentiments with an honest sincerity. Here we are put in mind to look upon Almighty God' as the 'Father of all mercies,' and to increase our obligations to ourselves as 'his unworthy servants,' altogether unworthy of any favours at his hand, and therefore more forcibly obliged to offer to God the humble and hearty thanks,' which are due unto him. Here we are instructed to bless him for the temporal mercies he hath shewed us-'creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life,' but above all' other mercies, for the redemption of the world' from utter vengeance by our Lord Jesus Christ,' for his word and sacraments and other 'means' of conveying 'grace' at present, and for the hope of glory' and immortality at the last. Here, in short, we are informed that the highest return of gratitude is a debt upon us for such amazing blessings, even an 'unfeigned' thankfulness in heart, a joyful expression of it with 'our lips,' and a 'giving up ourselves' entirely to God's 'service,' so as to walk before him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life.'

Judge now, whether any thing could be so well contrived to stir up a sense of gratitude, as this general thanksgiving, every word of which presents to us a new, and still more incomparable instance of divine goodness! But doubtless many among you have experienced the fitness of this prayer of thanksgiving, to express the overflowing of their hearts towards

the Father of mercies, beyond what I can describe. To such as are insensible to the blessings God hath bestowed upon them, nor are warmed with sentiments of gratitude, I can recommend nothing so properly as the constant and attentive use of this form, in order to awaken in them a becoming return to the divine love. After all, let us set ourselves to bless God for his abundant kindness towards us, and let us endeavour that our hearts may prompt the lively expressions which our lips utter, so shall we find thanksgiving to be not only a most useful, but also a most comfortable exercise-inspiring us with a lively faith in God's promises, an assured hope of his favour, and a resigned submission to his will, who hath already directed all things so graciously for us.

We have now seen the several parts of prayer presented to us in a very natural order, and with such a propriety of sentiment and expression, as cannot but engage us highly to esteem the church service, and most carefully to make use of it. The sum of the whole is in the last words of the concluding prayer of St. Chrysostom. We must so enlarge the notions we have of God, and so represent them before him, that God may mercifully accept the 'desires' and longings of our souls after him, and fulfil our petitions' for the things we stand in need of, so that the knowledge of God and his truth may be growing upon us, and we may thereby become daily more fit for, and draw yet nearer and nearer to the life everlasting.

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If this whole service hath been gone through with becoming attention and devotion, if we have been in earnest in what we have been about, and really laid

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