[2.] Chide the heart for your vain excursions. Christians might have more command over their hearts if they would but hold the reins a little straiter, and check their souls ; they are not so sadly sensible of the idle roving of the brain, which do not so directly carry them after the evil, though they make them to neglect the good. Take up your- selves, as David doth about his lumpishness : Ps. xlii. 5, ' Why art thou cast down, 0 my soul ? and why art thou disquieted in me ? ' Did I come hither to think of anything but Christ and heaven ? Did I come to think of news, vanity, business, and lust ? My work is to discern the Lord's body, not to think of worldly toys. Is this to remem- ber and fruitfully to insist upon his death ? Look, as Christ did chide his disciples. Mat. xxvi. 40, ' What ! could ye not watch with me one hour ? ' so chide your heart. Cannot I keep my heart free for God a little while ? In heaven duty will be my constant work, and if my heart wander now, how shall I be able to hold it for ever ? In the supper God ties my soul by outward rites ; lest my eyes should carry away my heart, God would exercise my eyes. Certainly if you would chide your souls the heart would not steal so many glances. But usually our hearts do not steal away ; we dismiss them, and let them go. God gave reason a command of your thoughts at first, and we might exercise it more than we do.
3. Stupidness. Many times the soul is surprised with deadness and amazement ; it neither actually thinks of evil nor of good, but is at a dead pause and stay. For this I shall urge a double help.
[1.] By earnest ejaculations call in the help of the Spirit: Cant. iv. 16, ' Awake, 0 north-wind, and come, thou south ; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.' Desire God to breathe
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upon the soul with a fresh gale and excitement ; that he would take a coal from his own altar, that the perfume might burn bright. Censers must not be kindled with strange fire. Oh ! raise and quicken this dead soul ! Kemember * the first Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit,' 1 Cor, xv. 45.
[2] Call upon your own hearts. It is a mistake of christians to think they are only to call upon God ; you are also to call upon your- selves, and to deal with your own souls by way of quickening : Ps. Ivii. 8, ' Awake up, my glory ; awake, psaltery and harp : I myself will awake early.' Charge your souls, awake to the consideration of heavenly mysteries. Speak to your own hearts, as David lays a charge upon himself : Ps. ciii. 1, ' Bless the Lord, 0 my soul ; and all that is with- in me bless his holy name.' The children of God are brought in speaking to themselves, Oh ! my drowsy, blockish heart ! how coldly dost thou think of Christ ! This dead heart will not become the ser- vice of the living God.
4. A lazy formality. Either we cannot get the soul to this worship, or we perform it slightly. We content ourselves with a few careless glances, and lazy barren thoughts. To remedy this, consider, in so sweet a duty God doth not only require affection, but height of affec- tion, an holy ardour, earnestness and raisedness of spirit : Cant. iv. 6, ' Until the day break and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense ; ' an allusion to the censers used in the Levitical worship. God requires such thoughts as will comfort, revive, and quicken our souls. Such thoughts as end in affection. Leave not off till you can say as the spouse, Cant. ii. 5, ' Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love.' Do not leave meditating of Christ till you can bring your souls to a holy ravishment, and your hearts are wounded with impatient desires after communion with Christ. No thoughts will work but those that are serious.
Secondly, I will propound some cases, which shall not only concern the duty of the Lord's supper, but some of them the duty of meditation in general.
Case 1. How can we do, because of variety of matter that is to be meditated upon, that plenty makes us barren ? And in such straits of time, how can we run through all ? I shall answer to this in three propositions.
1. The mind of man is ivepyr}<;, working, and much may be done by thoughts in a short time. The mind's motion is not so slow as that of the body, which is burdened with a mass and clod of flesh, and there- fore must have time for its action, but the soul is quick. There are two sorts of meditations in the supper, as indeed in all other matters — pregnant apprehensions and enforcing reasons. (1.) Pregnant apprehensions, suitable to each circumstance of the duty. Now these are absolutely necessary ; as in blessing the elements, and setting them aside for this use, think of the eternal decrees of God, by which Christ was separated to the office of mediator. In breaking the bread, your thoughts must act afresh on the sorrows of Christ's cross, and those bruises wherewith he was broken for our iniquities. Thus it is good to follow every part of the duty with some devout and religious