Page:Last and great sermon, of the Rev Dr William Dodd.pdf/14

( 14 ) deceitful reserve, that so we may clear our consciences before we close our eyes.

"And now that thou hast brought us within the view of our long home, and made us sensible, that the time of our dissolution drawth near, endue we humbly pray thee, O gracious Father, with such Christian fortitude that neither the terrors of they present dispensations, no the rememberance of our former sins, may have power to sink our spirits into a despondency of thy everlasting mercies in the adorable Son of thy one.

"Wean our thought and affections, good Lord, from all the vain and delusive enjoyments of this transitory world, that we may not only with patient resignation submit to the appointed stroke of death, but that our faith and hope may be so elevated that we may conceive a longing desire to be dissolved from these our earthly tabernacles, and to be with Christ, which is far better than all the happiness we can wish for besides!

“And in a due sense of our extraordinary want of forgiveness at thy hands, and of our utter unworthiness of the very least of all thy favoursof the meanest crumbs which fall from thy table. Oh! blessed Lord Jesus! make us so truly and universally charitab!e, that in an undissembling compliance W!th thy own awful command, and most endearing example, we may both freely forgive and cordially pray for our most inveterate enemies, persecutors, and slandcrers! Forgive them, O Lord, we beseech thee; turn their hearts, and fill them with thy love.

“Thus, may we humbly trust, our sorrowful prayers and tears will be acceptable in thy sight. Thus shall we be qualified, through Christ, to exchange this dismal bodily confinement, (and these uneasy fetters) far the glorious liberty of the sons of God. And thus shall our legal doom upon earth be changed into a comfortable declaration of mercy in the highest heavens; and all through thy most precious