What improvement have I made of my days for doing or getting good? It is certain I have lost time: have I yet begun to redeem it, or to repair those losses? How many hours have I spent that might have been spent much better? There is a duty which every day requires, but how little of it has been done in its day?

(6.) How have Imanaged my worldly calling? Have I therein abode with God, or have I not, in many instances of it, wandered from him? Have I been just and fair in all my dealings, and spoken the truth from my heart, or have I not sometimes dealt deceitfully in bargaining, and said that which bordered upon a lie? Hath not fleshly wisdom governed me more than that simplicity and godly sincerity which becomes an Israelite indeed? Have I no wealth got by vanity...no unjust gain...no blot of that kind cleaving to my hand? (7.) How have I received my daily food? Have I never transgressed the law of temperance in meat and drink, and so made my table my snare? Have not God's good gifts been abused to luxury and sensuality, and the body, which by the sober use of them should have been fitted, by the excessive use of them, disfitted to serve the soul in the service of God? Have I not eaten to myself, and drank to myself, (Zech. vii. 6.) when I should have eaten and drank to the glory of God?

(8.) How have I done the duty of my particular relations? The word of God hath expressly taught me my duty as a husband, a wife, a parent, a child, a master, a servant; but have I not in many things failed of my duty? Have not I carried myself disrespectfully to my superiors....disdainfully to ny inferiors, and disingenuously to my equals? Have I given to each that which is just and right, and rendered to all their dues? Have I been a comfort to my relations, or, have I not caused grief?

(9.) How have Iperformed my secret worship? Have I been constant to it, morning and evening, or have I

not sometimes omitted it, and put it by with some frivolous excuse? Have I been conscientious in it, and done it with an eye to God, or have I not kept it up merely as a custom, and suffered it to degenerate into a formality? Have I been lively and serious in secret prayer and reading, or have I not rested in the outside of the performance, without any close appli cation and intention of mind in it ?

(10.) How have I laid out what God has given me in the world? I am but a steward: have I been faithful? Have I honored the Lord with my substance, and done good with it; or have I wasted and misapplied my Lord's goods? Hath God had his dues....my family and the poor their dues out of my estate? What should have been consecrated to piety and charity, hath it not been either sinfully spared, or sinfully spent ?

(11.) How have I improved the Lord's day, and other the helps I have had for my soul? I enjoy great plenty of the means of grace; have I grown in grace in the use of those means, or, have I not received the grace of God therein in vain? Have I called the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, and honorable; or, have I not snuffed at it, and said, When will the Sabbath be gone? How have I profited by sermons and sacraments, and other the advantages of solemn assemblies? Have I received and retained the good impressions of holy ordinances, or, have I not lost them and let them slip?

(12.) How have I borne my afflictions? When providence had crossed me, and frowned upon me, what frame have I been in, repining or repenting? Have I submitted to the will of God in my afflictions, and patiently accepted the punishment of my iniquity; or, have not I striven with my Maker, and quarrelled with his disposals: when my own foolishness hath perverted my way, hath not my heart fretted against the Lord? What good have I gotten to my soul by my afflictions-what inward gain by outward losses?

Hath my heart been more humbled and weaned from the world, or, have I not been hardened under the rod, and trespassed yet more against the Lord?

Many more such queries might be instanced, but these may suffice for a specimen. Yet it will not suffice to put these questions to ourselves; but we must diligently observe what return conscience, upon an impartial search, makes to them: we must not do as Pi late did, when he asked our Saviour What is truth? but would not stay for an answer.... John xviii. 38.No, we must take pains to find out what hath been amiss, and herein must accomplish a diligent search. And, (1) as far as we find ourselves not guilty, we must own our obligations to the grace of God, and return thanks for that grace; and let the testimony of conscience, for us, be our rejoicing: If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God.

(2) As far as we find ourselves guilty, we must be humbled before God for it...mourn, and be in bitterness at the remembrance of it...cry earnestly to God for the pardon of it, and be particular in our resolu tions, by God's grace, to sin no more. Pray as Job is taught, That which I see not, teach thou me; and promise as it follows there, Wherein I have done iniquity I will do no more....Job. xxxiv. 32.

Thirdly, Enquire, What am I doing? When we have considered what our way hath been, it is time to consider what it is. Ponder the path of thy feet....Prov.

iv. 26.

1. What am I doing in the general course of my conversation? Am I doing any thing for God...for my soul...for eternity-any thing for the service of my generation, or, am I not standing all the day idle? It is the law of God's house, as well as of ours-he that will not labor, let him not eat....1 Thes. iii. 10. If I find that, according as my capacity and opportunity is through the grace of Christ, I am going on in the way of God's commandments, this ordinance will be comforting and quickening to me; but if I give way to

spiritual sloth and slumber, and do not mind my busi ness, let this shame be out of it, and humble me for it. How unworthy am I to eat my Master's bread, while I take no care to do my Master's work?

2. What am I doing in this approach to the ordi nance of the Lord's Supper? I know what is to be done; but am I doing it? Do I apply myself to it in sincerity, and with a single eye, in a right manner, and for right ends? Am I, by repentance, undoing that which I have done amiss ? And am I, by renewing my covenants with God, doing that better which I have formerly done well? Am I joining myself un to the Lord with purpose of heart to cleave to him unto the end? It is the preparation for the passover; am I doing the work of that day in its day? Am I purging out the old leaven...buying such things as I have need of against the feast, without money and without price? Am I engaging my heart to approach unto God, or am I thinking of something else? Am I slothful in this business, or do I make a business of it ?

Here it is good to examine, whether, beside the common and general intentions of this ordinance, there be not something particular, which I should especially have in my eye in my preparation for it? Do I find my heart at this time more than usually broken for sin, and humbled at the remembrance of it? Let me then set in vigorously with those impres sions, and drive that nail: or, is my heart in a special manner affected with the love of Christ, and enlarged in holy wonder, joy and praise? Let its out-goings that way be quickened, and those thoughts imprinted deep, and improved; so of the like.

Fourthly, Enquire, What ground do I get? If, upon examination, there appear some evidences of the truth of grace, I must then examine my growth in grace; for grace, if it be true, will be growing; that well of water will be springing up; and he that hath clean hands will be stronger and stronger.' There is

a spiritual death, or at least some prevailing spiritual disease, where there is not some improvement and progress towards perfection.

By what measures, then, may I try my growth in grace?

(1.) Do I find my practical judgment more set tled and confirmed in its choice of holiness and heav en?" If so, it is a sign I am getting forward. We cannot judge of ourselves by the pangs of affection: those may be more sensible and vehement at first, and their being less so afterwards, ought not to discourage us: The fire may not blaze so high as it did, and yet may burn better and stronger. But, do I see more and more reason for my religion? Am I more strongly convinced of its certainty and excellency, so as to be able, better than at first, to give a reason of the hope that is in me?' My first love was able to call religion a comfortable service; was my afterlight better able to call it a reasonable service? I was extremely surprized when, at first, I saw men as trees walking: but, am I now better satisfied, when I be gin to see all things more clearly?...Mark viii. 24, 25. Am I, through God's grace, better rooted? or, am I, through my own folly, still as a reed shaken with the wind??

(2.) Do I find my corrupt appetites and passions more manageable, or are they still as violent and headstrong as ever? Doth the house of Saul grow weaker and weaker, and its struggles for the dominion less frequent, and more feeble ? If so, it is a good sign the house of David grows stronger and stronger.Though these Canaanites are in the land, yet they do not make head as they have done, but are under tribute; then the interests of Israel are getting ground. Do I find that my desires towards those things that are pleasing to sense, are not so eager as they have been, but the body is kept under more, and brought into subjection to grace and wisdom; and is it not so hard a thing to me as it hath been sometimes, to deny