{1st.) In colloquies with God, either by way of complaint: Lord, I am poor, and needy, and worldly. Lord, my heart is naked, and void of grace. Or else by way of request ; as the infant will show the apple or jewel, or whatever it hath received, to the parent or nurse, so the soul representeth to God whatever it hath gotten by meditation, and taketh occasion further to converse with God, and beg grace of him.
{2d.) In soliloquies with your own souls, and these are either byway of urging the heart or charging it. (1.) By way of urging the heart. As suppose you have been meditating on the glorious salvation that was purchased by Jesus Christ, let this be the close of all, ' How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation ? ' Heb. ii. 3. So if you have been meditating on the sinfulness of sin, fall upon your own hearts : Bom. vi. 21, ' What fruit shall we have in those things whereof ye are now ashamed, for the end of those things is death ? ' Or if you have been meditating of hell and the wrath of God, speak to your heart : Ezek. xxii. 14, ' Can thy heart endure, or can thine hand be strong in the day that I shall deal with thee ? ' Art thou stronger than God, that thou canst wrestle with him ? Or if you have been meditating on your sinfulness, or the course of your own wicked lives, you may return upon your heart : Micah vi. 8, ' He hath showed, 0 man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee ; ' and ver. 6, ' Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God ? ' How shall I get a ransom to redeem my soul from the guilt of sin ? (2.) By way of charge and command. Suppose you have been medi- tating of the benefit of God's service, and the danger of going a- whoring from him ; Hosea ii. 7, ' She shall say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now.' Or if you have been meditating of the benefits of God to your souls, you may return upon your hearts by way of charge : Ps. cxvi. 7, ' Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with me.' God hath
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opened his good treasure to thee, this hath been thy portion, therefore * Return unto tliy rest.' Well, then, thus do, and then be watchful that you do not lose what you have wrought. Isaac digged wells and the Philistines dammed them up ; so when the soul hath digged a well of salvation, Satan will seek to dam it up ; therefore be watchful.
SERMON VI=
And Isaac went out to meditate in tlie field at the even-tide. — Gen. xxiv. 63.
Secondly, I come now to the particular objects of meditation —
First, I begin with that which is the chief end of man, a necessary work that you may come to yourselves : Luke xv. 17, eh kavrov he eXdcov, ' When he came to himself, he said. How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger ! ' That is, when he began to consider of his condition, it put better thoughts into him. Therefore, that we may come to ourselves, it is good to consider the end why we were created, and the errand upon which God sent us into the world, to reason thus with ourselves : Why was I sent into the world ? Why do I live here ? to get an estate, or to get into Christ ? to wallow in pleasures, or to exercise myself in com- munion with God ? to heap up perishing things together, or to make my everlasting state more sure ? When the end is rightly stated, men know their work, and so live up to the purposes of their creation. But alas ! many know other things, but are ignorant of themselves, and so pass on carelessly to their own ruin ; like him that gazed on the stars, and fell into a deep pit, their eyes are upon the ends of the earth, but they do not consider their souls. Others, for want of considering the end of their lives, are so far from living as christians, that they scarce live as men, but either as beasts or as devils. Delight in the pleasures of the world transformeth a man into a beast ; it is their happiness to enjoy pleasures without remorse, and to gratify the body ; and delight in sin transformeth a man into a devil. Worldly pleasures are not bread, and sinful pleasures are poison. You that are allured by the pleasures of the world, which are lawful in themselves, you lay out your money for that wliich is not bread ; and you to whom it is meat to do evil, you feed upon that which is rank poison ; the world cannot satisfy, and sin will surely destroy. Thus men beguile themselves, and do not consider of the end of their lives, till their lives be ended, and then they make their moan. Usually when men lie a-dying, then they cry out on this world how it hath deceived them, and how little they have fulfilled the end of their creation. Partly because then conscience is awake, and puts off all disguises ; and partly because present things are apt to work upon us, and when the everlasting estate is at hand, the soul is troubled that it did no more think of it. Oh ! consider, it is better to be prepared than to be surprised. Think not only of your