objects, and are no longer hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

For this let me once more observe, that retirement is the proper scene. The world is an enemy that is not to be subdued but by frequent retreats; we must contend with it as the Parthians of old did with their adversaries, and fly, while we maintain the fight, But in all our religious meditations, there is one circumstance which we ought never to forget, and that is the deceitfulness of the heart. However closely or impartially we examine it, we shall hardly bring it to an open or an ingenuous confession. It has still some evasion, some apology, some palliating circumstance for every charge that is brought against it. If we place its deformities before it, it has the art of shifting the scene, and of displaying its supposed perfections in their stead. If we charge it with some particular vice or foible, it derives encouragement from comparison, and instead of acknowledging and amending its own faults, it sets itself at ease by considering the imperfections of others.

For this evil there is no better remedy than that which the Psalmist has recourse to, when he implores the assistance of that Being, who is properly called the Searcher of hearts. The righteous God, says he, proveth the heart;

his eyelids try the children of men.

Examine me, O Lord, and prove me: try my reins and heart. Who can tell how oft he offendeth? O cleanse thou me from my secret faults.

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The author of these petitions was, exclusive of his inspired knowledge, by no means a stranger to the human heart. He had experienced its treachery: he knew its propensity to error, to folly, and to vice. He knew that an enemy concealed under the mask of friendship was of all others the most dangerous, and he considered his own heart as such. He was sensible that in this respect too he was liable to be betrayed by his own familiar friend, with whom he had likewise

taken sweet counsel.

It is from the strongest convictions, therefore, that he applies to a superior power, and prays for deliverance from an enemy so insidious, and so near. Such, under the same circumstances, should be the conduct of every Christian. If our hearts condemn us not, yet let us pray for a more perfect knowledge of and command over them to that Being, who is greater than our hearts, and knoweth all things.

This will not only be the most effectual, but the safest method of self-examination; for when, with all becoming humility, we

implore the assistance of God in that duty, we have nothing further to fear from the event of it, because we have done whatever was in our own power towards it.

These are reflections which naturally arose upon the subject of religious meditation. Let us now turn our eyes a moment on the contemplative Patriarch. He went out, we are told, to meditate in the field at the eventide. This was at the most critical juncture of his life; for he was now in expectation that the divine promise would soon be fulfilled in a circumstance of no less consequence than that of giving him a wife, in whose offspring all the generations of the earth were to be blessed.

With such glorious and exalted views, it was natural for him to retire, and indulge his thoughts in private. Great joys, like great sorrows, love to be alone, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with them. It is, therefore, with the greatest propriety that the historian represents Isaac upon this occasion as retiring into the field for meditation.

The probable subject of his reflections was nothing less than the accomplishment of the divine promise; a subject in every respect the noblest, and the most delightful that the human mind is capable of contemplating. To the Patriarch it must have

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been particularly so upon this occasion; for while he was yet meditating on those promises, he beheld them accomplished.

He lift up his eyes and saw, and, behold, the

camels were coming.

And Rebekah lift up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel.

For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master.

As it will not be a far-fetched, so I hope it will not altogether be an useless exhortation, if I recommend it to you, while you walk through the field of this life, like the Patriarch, to make the promises of God the subject of your meditation. meditation. You have, you will say, no personal or particular promises, such as the son of Abraham was favoured with. That may be true; but how much greater, how much more glorious are your expectations than his? His were confined merely to the long succession of an earthly posterity; but you look up to an inheritance of immortality, to an house not made with hands, incorruptible in the heavens. These magnificent promises you have from the same gracious power, in whom the Patriarch trusted, and was not deceived; whose hand is not shortened that it cannot save, and part of whose

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glorious character it is, that he keepeth his promise for ever.

Through every period of this uncertain life let us constantly meditate on the eternal promises. The eventide will soon come, when, like Isaac, we shall see them accomplished; when we shall meet that everlasting love which first brought us into this state of being, and shall finally remove us from it. Let this be our strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us; which hope we have as an anchor of our souls, stedfast and immovable. This hope it was that supported our fellow-christians in all the painful conflicts of their spiritual warfare: and it is this that must afford us the only reasonable consolation under every distressful or discouraging event.

Why art thou so full of heaviness, O my soul! and why art thou so disquieted within me! Trust in God. Repose on his infallible word, his immutable promises; and in every various situation of life the Eternal Providence shall never fail thee nor forsake thee. Whether thou art in the city, or whether thou art in the field; blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.