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SACRA PRIVATA.

DEVOTION.

TRUE DEVOTION consists in having our hearts always de- [i. 2.] voted to God, as the sole Fountain of all happiness; and who is ready to hear and help His otherwise helpless, miserable creatures.

It is to be attained,

First, By earnest Prayer; "He that hungers after righteousness, will certainly be filled."

Secondly, By possessing our hearts with a deep sense of our own misery, our wants, and danger :-This is the grace of humility.

[Thirdly], By considering God's goodness, power, and readiness to help us :-This is called faith in God.

Lastly, By convincing our hearts of the vanity of every thing else to afford us any real help or comfort:-This is to be effected by self-denial.

Dying persons are generally more devout than others, because they then see their own misery, that nothing in this world can help them, and that God is their only refuge.

We must change our lives, if we desire to change our hearts. God will have no regard to the prayers of those who have none to His commands.

The Spirit of God will not dwell in a divided heart. We cannot feel the pleasures of devotion, while the world is our delight.

Not that all pleasures are criminal: but the closer union we have with the world, the less is our union with God. A Christian, therefore, who strives after devotion, should taste sensual pleasures very sparingly,—should make necessity, not bodily delight, his rule.

In order to dispose our hearts to devotion, the active life to be preferred to the contemplative.

To be doing good to mankind, disposes the soul most powerfully to devotion.

B

DEVOTION

[i. 3.]

And indeed, we are surrounded with motives to piety and devotion, if we would but mind them.

The poor are designed to excite our liberality; the miserable, our pity; the sick, our assistance; the ignorant, our instruction; those that are fallen, our helping hand. In those that are vain, we see the vanity of this world. In those that are wicked, our own frailty. When we see good men rewarded, it confirms our hope; and when evil men are punished, it excites us to fear.

He that would be devout, must beware of indulging a habit of wandering in prayer. It is a crime that will grow upon us, and will deprive us of the blessings we pray for.

Avoid, as much as may be, multiplicity of business. Neither the innocency nor the goodness of the employment will excuse us, if it possess our hearts when we are praying to God.

When our Lord bids us to take no thought for the morrow, He intended to hinder those cares and fears which are apt to distract our devotions,-which are the more unreasonable, because they never can change the state of things.

Never be curious to know what passes in the world, any further than duty obliges you. It will only distract the mind when it should be better employed.

Never intermit devotion, if you can help it. You will return to your duty, like Samson when his locks were cut, weak and indifferent as other people of the world.

The oftener we renew our intercourse with God, the greater will be our devotion.

Frequent prayer, as it is an exercise of holy thoughts, is a most natural remedy against the power of sin.

Importunity makes no change in God, but it creates in us such dispositions as God thinks fit to reward.

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Make it a law to yourself to meditate before you pray: as also to make certain pauses, to see whether your along with your lips.

They whose hearts desire nothing, pray for nothing.

Give me, O God, the spirit of true devotion, such as may give life to all my prayers, so that they may find acceptance in Thy sight, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.

SACRA PRIVATA.

[i. 1; ii.
2; iii. 1.]

TORY.

Matthew vi. 6. Thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy PREPARAcloset, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

How good is God! who will not only give us what we [i. 1.] pray for, but will reward us for going to Him, and laying our wants before Him.

John xvi. 23. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever [iii. 1.] ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you.

The lukewarmness of our prayers the source of all our infidelities.

1 John v. 14.

Him, that if we heareth us.

And this is the confidence that we have in [ii. 2.] ask any thing according to His will, He

May I always present myself before God with a firm faith [i.1; iii. 5.] and hope in His promises and mercy; with great reverence to His infinite Majesty; with the humility of an offender; and with a full purpose of keeping all God's commands.

May the thoughts of eternity quicken my devotions; my wants make me earnest; my backslidings make me persevere; and may I never wilfully give way to any distracting thoughts.

"May I wait with patience, and leave it to Thee my God and Father, how and when to grant my petitions".

iii. "let me not."

biii. "let me."

iii. om. this clause.

diii. adds "me."

In iii. 5. this prayer stands as follows:

"That my prayers may be acceptable in Thy sight, grant, O God, that I may always present myself before Thee-with great reverence to Thine

infinite Majesty:- with a firm faith
and hope in Thy promises and tender
mercy: with the shame and humility
of an offender:-and with a full purpose
of forsaking every evil way, because
Thou hearest not sinners. When I
grow indifferent, let the thought of
eternity quicken my prayers. Let my
sins make me humble, my wants," &c.
[as in the text.]

PREPARA

TORY.

[iii. 5.]

[i. 1.]

[i. 4.]

Discover, O Lord, whatever is amiss in me, whether in life or principle.

He that has learned to pray as he ought, has got the secret of an holy life.

It is of greater advantage to us than we imagine, that God does not grant our petitions immediately. We learn by that, that whereunto we have already attained, it was the gift of God.

The best way to prevent wandering in prayer is not to let the mind wander too much at other times; but to have God always in our minds, in the whole course of our lives.

The end of prayer is not to inform God, but to give man a sight of his own misery; to raise his soul towards Heaven, and to put him in mind that there is his Father and his inheritance.

Matthew vii. 7. Ask, and it shall be given you.

Grant me, Lord, a faith which shall make me know my wants, that I may ask them with earnestness and humility, and depend upon Thy gracious promise.

That man leads a sincere Christian life,

§ 1. Who endeavours to serve and obey God to the best of his understanding and power:

§ 2. Who strives to please his neighbour to edification. Rom. xv. 2:

§ 3. Who endeavours to do his duty in that state of life unto which it has pleased God to call him.

Whoever would continue in the practice of these things unto his life's end, it is necessary that he should call himself often to an account, whether he does [so] or not;-constantly pray for grace to know, and to do his duty;-preserve himself in such a teachable temper, as to be always ready to receive the truth, when it is fairly proposed to him.

THE DUTIES OF A BISHOP,

(The state of life unto which it has pleased God to call me,) by the laws of God and the Church, are, To instruct the people committed to his charge, out of the Holy Scriptures;

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