fo he himself gives the reason of the name: And thou fhalt lay them up, fays God to Mofes, fpeaking of the rods of the tribes, † in the Tabernacle of the Congregation, before the teftimony; where I will meet with you. And there I will meet with thee, and commune with thee. And what elfe can be the true and unftrained meaning of that paffage of our Saviour in the gofpel, where he promises, That where two or three are gathered together in his Name, he is there in the midst of them? For whatever may be particularly affirmed of the temple, a greater than Solomon is here: + Even God wonderful in his holy places: Sure thefe are no other than the houses of God, thefe are the gates of heaven.

AND therefore we would do well to take care how we make iniquity, even the folemn meeting, by affronting God with our lip-fervices, and that fo immediately to his face: For can any man in his wits but think, that the great God, to whom the profoundest homage of the foul is due, is much more affronted than he is honoured, by the dull fpiritless muttering a few pater nofters, or any other prayers; by the bare telling over, as the manner of fome is, and ftringing up their

their petitions? We durft not thus mock. our Prince to his face, we would hardly do it to our equals: And whence then is it, but through want of preparing our hearts with due conceptions of his awful and majestick prefence in his own houfe, that we make thus bold with our Maker?

b

d

a

3. IT might be a proper preparatory reflection, to confider the fruits and confequences of approaching God in fo carelefs and fo inconfiderate a manner. I' fhall not go about to fhew at large, how fevere God has formerly been upon all diforders and irregularities committed about holy things and duties; as in the case of Aaron's fons ; of Uzzah; of the Bethfhemites; and of the church of Corinth; nor how he threatened that for this very thing, because his people drew near to him with their lips, but had removed their heart far from him, he would therefore proceed to do a marvellous work among them, even a marvellous work and a wonder: which was no less than to confound the wisdom of the wife, and the understanding of the prudent men amongst them: I fhall not, I fay, infift on these confiderations now; because it has feemed

a Lev. 10. 2. b 2 Sam. 6. 6. c 1 Sam. 6. 19. d 1 Cor. 11.30. e Ifa. 29. 13, 14,

feemed good to the Infinite Wisdom, to alter the nature of his inflictions, and for neglects of this kind especially to change them from temporal into fpiritual; which, tho' they do not fo immediately affect the body as the others did, yet endanger the foul, and take away the fpiritual life of a Christian. For tho' he does not now fmite men with death, for their unsanctified approaches to him, yet he fmites them with deadness, with coldnefs and indifferency in the cause of religion, fuffers them to grow inattentive, lifelefs and formal in their devotions, and probably, to lapse into open atheifm and prophanenefs. For we certainly lofe ground by every fpiritlefs prayer we advance, grow from bad to worse, and from worfe to paft feeling. For every such formal performance grieves the fpirit, clogs the confcience, hardens the heart, and gives the Devil an occafion to draw us off from our neutrality, and to make us at laft declare for his party: Whence it is not improbable, that, when we have once contracted fuch a vicious habit of foul in devotion; he himfelf many times fends us to our prayers, that he may add to our disease, and turn the beft antitode we have against him into so much stronger poifon to ourselves. And therefore

therefore we would do well to feafon and prepare our hearts before-hand, with these, and the like confiderations, that by a just reflection upon the importance of the duty, the Supreme Majefty to whom we pay it, and the fatal confequences of a perfunctory performance of it, we may attend upon the Lord without distraction.

III. ANOTHER proper means, to fix our Thoughts in the fervice of God, is to love him with all our hearts, with all the powers and capacities of our fouls: Did we delight to have our converfation. with him, our hearts would keep our minds close to their work, and not to fuffer them to loiter or to ramble; for our affections have an immediate influence upon our Thoughts, and our hearts generally fet our mind the theme of its contemplations.Love, particularly, is a commanding and imperial paffion, that bids us go, and we go; come, and we come; do this, and we do it; a paffion that ingroffes all our powers, binds us faft to, and runs our Thoughts fo deep into its object, that we have neither leisure, nor patience, hardly power, to attend to any others. O how I love thy law! fays holy David, and then it fol

lows,

*

lows, both in him, and in the nature of the thing, it is my meditation all the day: And the first part of his character of a good man is, that his delight is in the law of the Lord; and the second is the natural refult of the firft, that in his law doth he meditate day and night. For a man cannot but pore and mufe on the thing he delights in: And therefore were our hearts ravished with the love of God, from just and retired reflections upon the benefits of creation, prefervation, redemption, and the glory that hereafter fhall be revealed; did we but kindle this holy flame in us, by frequent confiderations of his patience, forgiveness, forbearance, the abyfs of his love, and the great depths of his infinite beneficence; things that muft needs render the Deity amiable and lovely to us in our conceptions of him: All our motions would tend Heaven-wards, when once invigorated with impreffions from that celeftial fire. We should not be at leifure to admit any rival of God in our Thoughts, and to attend to those little idle toys and fancies, that have the impudence to ftep into our clofets, and distract us.

IV.

MEDITATION

*Pfal. 119. 97.

§ Pfal. 1, 2.