ever see yourself lost without Christ? Conviction is the first step to conversion, John vii. 16. 2. Hath God ever made you willing to take Christ upon his own terms, Zach. vi. 13. He shall be a priest upon his throne. Are you as willing that Christ should be upon the throne of your heart to rule, as a priest at the altar to intercede. Are you willing to renounce those sins to which the bias of your heart doth naturally incline? Can you set those sins as Uriah in the forefront of the battle to be slain? Are you willing to take Christ for better for worse; to take him with his cross, and to avouch Christ in the worst of times. 3. Have you the indwelling-presence of the Spirit? If you have, what hath God's Spirit done in you? Hath it made you of another spirit? meek, merciful, humble? It it a transforming Spirit? Hath it left the impress of its own holiness upon you? These are good evidences for Heaven. By these, as by a spiritual touch-stone, you may know whether you have grace or no. Beware of false evidences. None are further from having the true pearl, than they that content themselves with the counterfeit.

4. Meditate upon the uncertainty of all sublunary comforts. Creature-delights have their flux, and reflux. How oft doth the sun of worldly pomp and grandeur go down at noon. Xerxes was forced to fly away in a sinall vessel, who but a little before wanted

sea-room for his navy. We say every thing is mutable; but who meditates upon it? The world is resembled to a sea of glass mingled with fire, Rev. xv. 2. Glass is slippery, it hath no sure footing and glass mingled with fire is subject to consume. All creatures are

fluid and uncertain, and cannot be made to fix. What is become of the glory of Athens, the pomp of Troy? 1 John ii. 17. The world passeth away: It slides away as a ship in full sail. How quickly doth the scene alter? and a low ebb succeed an high tide? There's no trusting to any thing. Health may be turned to sickness; friends may die riches may take wings. We are ever upon the tropics. The serious meditation of this, would, 1. Keep us from being so deceived by the world. We are ready to set up our rest here, Psalm xlix. 11. Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever. We are apt to think that our mountain stands strong. We dream of an earthly eternity. Alas, did we meditate how casual and uncertain these things are we should not be so often deluded. Have not we seen great disappointments, and where we have thought to suck honey, there we have drank wormwood?

2. The meditation of the uncertainty of all things under the sun, would much moderate our affections to them. Why should we so eagerly pursue an uncertainty? Many take care to get a great estate; it is uncertain

whether they shall keep it. The fire may break in where the thief cannot: or if they do keep it, it is a question whether they shall have the comfort of it. They lay up for a child, that child may die; or if he live, he may prove a burden. This seriously meditated on, would cure the dropsy of covetousness; and make us fit loose to that which hangs so loose, and is ready to drop off from us.

3. The meditation of this uncertainty would make us look after a certainty; that is, the getting of grace. This holy anointing abides, I John ii. 27. Grace is a flower of eternity.

Non fertur ad umbras inclyta virtus. Death doth not destroy grace, but transplant it and make it grow in a better soil. He that hath true holiness, can no more lose it than the angels can which are fixed stars in glory.

5. Meditate of God's severity against sin Every arrow in God's quiver is shot against it. Sin burned Sodom, drowned the old world. Sin kindles hell. If when a spark of God's wrath flies into a man's conscience, it is so terrible, what is it then when God stirs up all his wrath? Psalm lxxviii. 39. The meditation of this would fright us out of our sins. There cannot be so much sweetness in sin, as there is sting. How dreadful is God's anger! Psalm xc. 11. Who knoweth the power of his wrath? All fire compared with the fire of

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that every time we meddle with sin, we would think with ourselves we choose the bramble, and fire will come out of this bramble to de

vour us.

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6. Meditate on eternal life, 1 John ii. 25. This is his promise, even eternal life. Life is sweet, and this word eternal makes it sweeter. This lies in the immediate vision and fruition of God. 1. This is a spiritual life: it is opposite to that animal life which we live now. Here we hunger and thirst; but there we shall hunger no more, Rev. vii. 16. is the marriage-supper of the Lamb, which will not only satisfy hunger, but prevent it. That blessed life to come doth not consist in sensual delights, meat and drink, and music; nor in the comfort of relations; but the soul will be wholly swallowed up in God, and acquiesce in him with infinite complacency. As when the sun appears, the stars vanish: So when God shall appear in his glory, and fill the soul, then all earthly sensitive delights shall vanish. 2. It is a glorious life. The bodies of the saints shall be enameld with glory: they shall be made like Christ's glorious body, Phil. iii. 21. And if the cabinet be of such curious needle-work, how rich shall the jewel be that is put into it! how bespangled with glory shall the soul be! Every saint shall wear his white robe, and have his throne to sit upon. Then God will put some of his

own glory upon the saints. Glory shall not only be revealed to them, but in them, Rom. viii. 18. And this life of glory shall be crowned with eternity; what angel can express it! O let us often meditate on this.

1. The meditation of eternal life would make us labour for a spiritual life. The child must be born before it is crowned.. We must be born of the spirit, before we are crowned with glory.

2. The meditation of eternal life would comfort us in regard of the shortness of natural life. Our life we live now, flies away as a shadow: It is called a flower, Psalm ciii. 15. a vapour, James iv. 14. Job sets forth fragile life -very elegantly in three of the elements, land, water, air, Job ix. 25. 26. Go to the land, and there man's life is like a swift post. Go to the water, there man's life is like a ship under sail. Lock to the air, and there man's life is like a flying eagle. We are hastning to the grave. When our years do encrease, our life doth decrease. Death creeps upon us by degrees. When our sight grows dim, there death creeps in at the eye. When our hear ing is bad, there death creeps in at the ear.When our legs tremble under us, there is death pulling down the main pillars of the house; but eternal life comforts us against the shortness of natural life. That life to come is subject to no infirmities; it knows no period. We shall be as the angels of God, capable of