1. As it is a Prefervative against Evil; and, 2. An Incitement to all Manner of Good.

II. It is a fevere Reflection upon human Nature, that, which the Prophet delivers from the Mouth of God, the Ox knoweth his Owner, and the Afs his Mafter's Crib, but Ifrael does not know me; does not take Notice of God, does not obferve his Laws, does not obey his Precepts: All his boasted Knowledge and Prerogative of Reafon does him no Good; does not make him fo obfervant of his heavenly Master, as the Ox or the Ass are of their Feeders; and the Reason of all follows, my People will not confider: For it is the Want of Confideration, more than Want of Knowledge, that is the great Spring of Men's Disorders. Few are fo ignorant, as not to know, that Excefs and Drunkenness are great and enormous Crimes, and yet they customarily run into thefe, because they will not entertain any deliberate Thoughts about the Matter. The common Swearer cannot but have heard, that God will not hold that Perfon guiltless, who taketh his Name in vain ; and yet what he has heard proves of no Ufe, for Want of a serious Confideration. The unclean Perfon has frequently been told, that Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge; and yet he continues in his Lewdness, because he gives himself no Time to ponder his Actions: Whereas, did but these feveral Sinners confider seriously, that, at the Revelation of the righteous Judgment of God, be will pour out Indignation and Wrath, Tribulation and Anguish, upon every Soul of Man, that doth Evil; they durft no more stop a Thunderbolt, as it comes roaring from the Clouds, than run into thefe Perpetrations deliberately, and in cold Blood.

The Reasons of Sin are not fo ftrong, as to carry us to the Commiffion of it, with a free and voluntary Confent; but the Temptations to it are ufually fo fudden, that they hurry away our Paffions, be

fore

fore Understanding can bethink herself to lay hold on her Reins, and interpofe her Authority. Now Meditation compofes the Paffions, and keeps the Mind fteady, while fhe debates the Nature of the Action that is before her, and, accordingly, as the perceives its Quality is, takes the Refolution either of purfuing, or declining it.

But, befides the Precipitancy of our Paffions, the Devil, we are told, is a great Inftrument in prompting us to Wickedness: He is represented in the Parable, as the Enemy, that fows Tares, the Seeds of Evil in our Minds; but then his SeedTime, we may obferve, is, while Men fleep, i. e. while they neglect the Cultivation of their Souls, and are thoughtless: For, let Men once enter into fober Thoughts, and take the Shield of Faith, which is no more than the Contemplation of God's Threats and Promifes, in Hand, and then they have wherewithal to quench the fiery Darts of the Devil. He that thinks ill, prevents the Tempter; he that thinks nothing, tempts him; but he that thinks religiously, defeats the Tempter, and is proof and secure against all his Affaults.

The Eagerness of Paffion, heightened by the Inftigations of Satan, (as we find in the Cafe of David) will fometimes betray a Man, that, in general, lives under this Guard, into the Commission of very heinous Offences; but then, his After-Reflections, and looking back seriously on what he has done, with the Help of divine Grace, will as certainly recover him: For to this the Royal Penitent imputes his Reftoration; I thought on my Ways, I turned my Feet unto thy Teftimonies; I confidered well what I had done, and how I had behaved I made a ftrict Enquiry into my paft Life, and then I began to chide myself for my Folly, and to bewail my Forgetfulness of God and Heaven; and thus I immediately abandoned my for

mer

mer Sins, and, as fast as I could, betook myself to an holy and religious Life; I made Hafte, and delayed not to keep thy Commandments. And indeed, confidering that Religion has Pleasantness in its Ways, as well as Glory in its End, whereas the Paths of the Wicked, befet with Briars and Thorns as they are, lead certainly at laft to the Pit of Deftruction: It can hardly be presumed, that Men of any competent Understanding should fly from the one, and purfue the other with the Vehemence we find they do, would they but now and then ftop a little in their Career, breathe a while, and take Time to reflect on their Conduct, and what will be the End thereof.

As therefore we defire to ftop up the Sources and Fountains of Sin, to restrain our immoderate Paffions, and defeat the Temptations of our Enemy; to prevent the Acceffion and Allurements or Vice, or to recover ourselves to a State of Godlinefs, after we have unhappily fallen from it; we must learn the great Act of communing with ourfelves; and, retiring from the Hurry and Business of the World, be every now and then putting fuch Questions as thefe to our Souls, Dic anima, quo tendis, & in quod dirigis arcum ? "Tell me, Soul, "what art thou doing? At what Rate livest "thou? And whither tends the Level of thy Ac"tions? Haft thou the Glory of God, and thy "own Salvation in Profpect? Or elfe fhooteft "thou at Rovers, and only beateft the Air? Life "and Death are set before thee, which then of "the two defigneft thou to chufe? Wilt thou "pursue thy Sins any longer, or wilt thou betake

thyfelf to a Courfe of Religion? On the Side of Religion there are Troubles indeed, that must "be undergone; every complectional Sin, as dear as a Right-Hand or a Right-Eye, muft be "parted with, and fome Rules of uneafy Pre

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fcription fubmitted to: But then, in Balance of "these, there is the Favour of God, the Joy of "the Holy Ghoft, Peace of Confcience, Satif"faction of Mind here, and an exceeding great "Reward in Heaven, for all thy Labour. On "the Side of Vice, there are Pleafures indeed, that "the World much admires, and runs into ; but "then they are attended with the Anger of God, "the Senfe of Guilt, Uneafiness of Conscience "bere, and terminate at last in a Punishment, not "to be thought on without Horror. Here is the "Option that is fet before thee; and therefore, "if thou haft any Reflection left, any Defire of Happiness, think on thy Ways, and turn thy Feet "unto God's Teftimonies."

2. The other Commendation of religious Meditation is, its great Tendency to the Promotion of good Actions, fuch as relate to the Practice of Virtue, as well as the Offices of Devotion. Virtue, we are fure, wants not its Beauty and Attractions, but then its Amiablenefs is not Matter of Senfe : Its chief Benefits are distant and future, and the Advantages, whereby it endeavours to engage us, are fuch, as exift only in Contemplation. If therefore we neglect to bring Things diftant home to us by Thinking; if we neglect to confirm our Minds by the frequent Profpect of Eternity, and to sweeten the Uneafinefs of prefent Things with the Expectation of those that are to fucceed; it is impoffible but that Virtue fhould lofe its Power and Attraction over us, and our Souls run loose to the Entertainment of any Pleafures, that more nearly befet us: It is impoffible but that either Defign, or Glory, or Unwillingness, or Uneafinefs, or Regret fhould creep in, and fully the very Offices of our Devotion. Offices of this Kind, we know, are not acceptable to God for the outward Work, but only for the Spirit and Affection, with

which they are performed; for that warm Love and ardent Defire, whereof the Fire, that was never to go out upon the Altar of Burnt-Sacrifice, in the Jewish Temple, was a very fignificant Emblem. But now, where fhall we get this Fire, or from whence fhall we maintain it? There is furely no fuch Principle to be found in our natural Temper, and it is Folly to expect it from mere Infusion : The freeft Irradiations of Divine Grace will never kindle it in us, without the Ufe of proper Means, and thefe Means confift in entertaining good Thoughts and holy Meditations. While I was

mufing, fays the Pfalmift, the Fire kindled; for it is Mufing, Thinking, Meditation, that, like a Burning-Glafs, will gather together, and amass the scattered Beams of Divine Bounty, which are always round about us, and, darting them into our Soul, will warm our Affections, and kindle the Fire there; which Beams, fo long as they only lie fcattered about us, as they always do to the Unthinking, lofe their Influence, and can never adminifter so much Heat, as will make our Altar burn, or our Sacrifice fend forth a Savour of Acceptance.

The Use and Design of what has been faid on this Subject, is to recommend the Duty of holy Contemplation, and to engage us to allow ftated Seasons to meditate on facred and religious Matters; to enter into ferious Confiderations concerning our future State, and the great and momentous Events of Eternity; often to afk ourselves, whether we are in the right Way to Heaven, or pursuing the Paths that lead to Perdition; often to demand of ourselves, to what Purpose we live in the World, what we were defigned for, why we were made; and then fee whether we have answered these Ends in our Lives, whether we have behaved according to the excellent Rules of the Gospel, and the holy Pattern, which the Author

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