the purity of the gofpel, and fubftitute human inventions in the place of revealed religion; profper the pious labours of those who teach mankind to worship one, eternal and omnipresent being; in whose understanding, there is the perfection of wisdom; in whose will, there is the perfection of goodness; in whose actions, there is the perfection of power; a God without caufe, the great creator, benefactor, and faviour of men:- And that the duty of man is to obey, in thought, word, and deed, the precepts of godliness and righteousness, without regard to pleafure, gain, or honour; to pain, lofs, or difgrace; diligently imitating the life of the holy Jefus, and ftedfaftly confiding in his mediation.

In the last place, O Lord God Almighty, we beseech thee to continue us under thy protection, guidance, and bleffing this day, as the followers and difciples of thy Christ, through whom we recommend our fouls and our bodies into thy hands, and according to the doctrine of his religion, fay, Our Father, &c.

In this manner, did these pious Ivonites begin their every day; and when the sun was fet, and they had finished their fupper, they worshipped God again in these words.

A

A Prayer for Night.

We

MOST bleffed, glorious, and holy Lord God Almighty, who art from everlafting to everlasting, God over all, magnified and adored for ever! we, thy unworthy creatures, humble our fouls in thy prefence, and confefs ourfelves miferable finners. acknowledge our miscarriages and faults, and condemn ourselves for having done amifs. We deprecate thy juft offence and displeasure. We cry thee mercy. We afk thee pardon: and as we are quite fenfible of our weakness and inability, and know thou loveft the fouls of men, when they turn and repent, we befeech thee to give us true repentance, and endue us with the grace of thy fanctifying fpirit, that we may be delivered from the bondage and flavery of iniquity, and have the law of the fpirit of life which is in Christ Jefus. Upon thee our God, we call for that help which is never wanting, and befeech thee to give us thy heavenly affiftance, that we may recover our reasonable nature, refine our spirits by goodness, and purify ourfelves even as the Lord Jefus is pure. O thou Father of Lights, and the God of all comforts, inform our understandings with truth, and give us one ray of that divine wifdom which fitteth on the right hand of thy throne. O let us be always under thy comF munication

munication and influence, and enable us, through the recommendation of thy Son, our mediator and redeemer, to lay afide all paffion, prejudice, and vice, to receive thy truth in the love of it, and to ferve thee with ingenuity of mind, and freedom of fpirit: that we may pass through a religious life to a bleffed immortality, and come to that eternal rest, where we shall behold thy face in righteoufnefs, and adore and blefs thee to eternity, for our falvation through him who hath redeemed us by his blood.

We praise and magnify thy goodness, O Lord God Almighty, for our maintenance and prefervation, by thy conftant providence over us, and we beseech thee to take us into thy fpecial care and protection this night. Defend us from all the powers of darkness, and from evil men and evil things, and raise us in health and fafety. Do thou, most great and good God, protect us and blefs us this night, and when we awake in the morning, let our hearts be with thee, and thy hand with us. And the fame mercies we beg for all mankind; that thy goodness and power may preferve them, and thy direction and influence fecure their eternal falvation, through Jefus Chrift our Lord, by whom thou haft taught us to call upon thee as our Father, &c.

S. 5. By

vation on

reclufes.

§. 5. By the way, I cannot help ob- An obferferving, that thefe difciples of Ivon are much the prayers reformed in refpect of what his cloystered fol- of the Ivon lowers were in his time. It appears from Ivon's books, that he was as great a vifionary and tritheift as his master Labadie, or any of our modern mystics now are. But these Regulars I found among the Fells, tho' on Ivon's plan, are as rational Chriftians as ever adorned the religion of our Mafter by a purity of faith. You fee by their prayers, that their devotions are quite reasonable and calm. There is no rant, nor words without meaning: no feeling instead of seeing the truth; nor expectation of covenant mercy on the belief of a point repugnant not only to the reason and nature of things, but to the plain repeated declarations of God in the Christian religion. Their prayer is a calm address to the great Maker, Governor, and Benefactor of the univerfe; and honour and obedience to Chrift as Mediator, according to the will and appointment of God the Father.

tion I afk

thefe I-von

§. 6. Upon my asking one of thefe gen- An anfwer tlemen, how they came to differ fo much to a queffrom Ivon, their founder, and cease to be the ed one of patrons of vifion, and an implicit incompre-ites. henfible faith? He told me, they had read all the books on both fides of the question, that had been written of late of late years, and F 2 could

could not refift the force of the evidence in favour of reafon and the divine unity. They faw it go against mechanical impulse, and ftrong perfuafion without grounds, and therefore, they difmiffed on's notions of believing without ideas, as they became sensible it was the fame thing as feeing without light or objects. Without dealing any longer in a mist of words, or thewing themselves orthodox, by empty, intignificant founds, they resolved, that the object of their worship, for the time to come, thould be, that one fupreme self-existent being, of abfolute, infinite perfection, who is the firft caufe of all things, and whofe numerical identity and infinite perfections are demonftrable from certain principles of reason, antecedent to any peculiar revelation; and confeffed that the bleffing, with which Jefus Christ was fent by God to blefs the world, confifts in turning men from their iniquities. They now perceived what the creed-makers, and Ivon, their founder, could not fee, to wit, that it is against the sacred texts, to ascribe to Each Perfon of Three the nature and all effential attributes and properties of the One only true God, and yet make the Three the One true God only, when confidered conjunctly; for if Each has all poffible perfections and attributes, then Each muft be the fame true God as if and when conjoined; and of confequence,