meditate on the dignity and glory of his person as God, and the humiliation and abasement of his character as made man; see him in his agony in the garden, bearing the wrath of God for our sins; follow him to the court of Caiaphas, and the tribunal of Pilate, and mark the indignities inflicted on the innocent Saviour; go with him to the Mount of Calvary; and view him hanging on the accursed tree, between two malefactors. He thirsts, he bleeds, he bears the reproaches of men, he endures the desertion of his Heavenly Father; the spear transfixes his side, the thorny crown pierces his head, the rugged nails rend his hands and his feet. See, nature is shrouded in darkness, the vail of the temple is rent in twain, the rocks are convulsed, when Jesus the Lamb of God expires for the sins of the world. There, in that affecting view, learn the way of pardon, the source of reconciliation, the ground of righteousness, the medium of justification, the only meritorious cause of acceptance before God.

Fourthly. Endeavour to understand the Covenant of Grace, as revealed in the blessed Saviour. We find this described, Heb. viii. 10-12, which is a citation from the prophet Jeremiah: For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their

mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every man his neighbour and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. The sum of which is, first, a most gracious promise made to us by God, to send the Holy Spirit to sanctify our hearts; secondly, a condescending engagement to take us into the nearest union with himself; thirdly, a promise of bestowing on us spiritual illumination and knowledge; and, fourthly, all these flowing from the great original mercy of pardon and justification, through the merits of the divine Mediator of this New Covenant, the eternal Son of God. So that, on your truly believing on the name of Jesus Christ, you will become interested in these inestimable blessings; you may expect, in the use of appointed means and the diligent discharge of every duty, the constant influences of the Holy Spirit, to form you more and more for holiness of disposition and conduct here, and for eternal glory hereafter; you may trust that God will become your God, and you his people; and that thus, sincere obedience to God's commands will be inseparably and delightfully connected with the free pardon

and salvation of your souls in Christ Jesus. This covenant then, ordered in all things and sure, must be a main point of your regard in your preparation for being confirmed. It must be all your salvation, and all your desire.

Fifthly, Call to mind, with devout thankfulness, the privileges to which you have already been admitted in your baptism. You are not like others, who stand in no special relation to God. You have been solemnly dedicated to him by your parents. Your godfathers and godmothers have undertaken to the Church, in your name, that you should devote yourselves to the service of Christ; you have been made partakers of the blessings of this everlasting covenant, so far as you were then capable of them; the sign and seal of God's grace have been administered to you; you have a more direct interest in the promises of the gospel, and in the prayers of the whole Church of Christ; you have been baptized in the name of God the Father, as your creator and gracious benefactor, of the Eternal Son as your merciful Saviour, and of the Holy Ghost as your sanctifier and comforter; you have thus already been made partakers of what may be properly termed Regeneration, in a baptismal and covenant sense. It will therefore be no small part of your present concern to weigh deeply the unspeakable mercy of God, in thus having received you to

his holy Baptism; to meditate with seriousness on the whole of the service of our Church used on that occasion; and to pray fervently, now that you come to be confirmed, that you may be truly and inwardly regenerate, renewed in the spirit of your minds, born of God, and endued with the tempers and dispositions of his children.

Sixthly. You must commit to memory the short Catechism of the Church; and especially that holy vow, which was made for you in your Baptism, and which you are to take upon yourselves when you are confirmed. You must earnestly pray for grace, to renounce the Devil and all his works, such as blasphemy, pride, witchcraft, idolatry, falsehood, envy, malice, discontent, opposition to the will of God, hatred of his holy perfections, unbelief, rejection of his gospel, delight in wickedness, and the allurement of others to sin. You must resolve to renounce the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, such as the inordinate pursuit of riches, honours, and greatness; excess in eating and drinking; all vain and foolish mis-employments of time; stage-plays, operas, and other seducing amusements; the pleasures, maxims, and example of the ungodly part of mankind, with all the gaudy follies and pernicious vanities of a world which lieth in wickedness. You

must renounce also all the sinful lusts of the

flesh, the corrupt inclinations and desires of the heart after sinful objects, and especially all the impure and defiling passions of our fallen nature, that you may keep your bodies in purity, temperance, and chastity, that your members may be members of Christ, and your whole bodies an habitation of God through the Spirit. Your vow also binds you to believe all the articles of the Christian faith, especially those relating to the fall of man, the evil of sin, the curse of the law, the person and glory of Christ, the atonement of the cross, the grace of the Holy Ghost, the love of God, the necessity of a new creation, the Christian privileges, walk, and obedience. The sum of all which is comprehended in receiving Jesus Christ from your heart in his peculiar offices as your prophet, to teach you; as your priest, to atone for your sins; and as your king, to rule and reign in your whole souls. This capital point you must believe, not with a cold, notional, dead faith, but with a living, spiritual, and cordial acquiescence of the mind, reposing on Christ as your friend, your portion, your rock, your refuge, your comfort, master, and only Saviour. You are, lastly, to resolve to keep God's holy will and commandments, and to walk in the same all the days of your life. It must be your firm purpose to enter on the paths of holy obedience, keeping God's commandments