nothing else but what you have been or are thinking on, and to make your own thoughts the only or principal matter of your thoughts, he will confound you, and make you indisposed to all good, and unable to govern your thoughts at all. But if you principally study the excellencies of God and godliness, and take the course which tends to make religion pleasant to you, and withal keep up an awful obedience to God, this complacential obedience will best prevail.

Direct. xvI. Therefore deliver up your hearts to Christ in love and duty, and consecrate your thoughts entirely to his service, and keep them still exercised on him, or in his work and this will most effectually cure them of vanity and sin".' If you have a friend that you love entirely, you will not feed swine in the room that must entertain him: you will not leave it nasty and unclean: you will not leave it common to every dirty, unsuitable companion, to intrude at pleasure and disturb your friend. So love and pleasure will be readily and composedly careful, to keep clean the heart, and shut out vain and filthy thoughts, and say,' This room is for a better guest; nothing shall come here which my Lord abhorreth: is he willing so wonderfully to condescend, as to take up so mean a habitation, and shall I straiten him, or offend him, by letting in his noisome enemies? Will he dwell in my heart, and shall I suffer thoughts of pride, or lust, or malice, to dwell with him, or to enter in? Are these fit companions for the Spirit of Grace? Do I delight to grieve him? I know as soon as ever they come in, he will either resist them till he drive them out again, or he will go out himself. And shall I drive away so dear a friend, for the love of a filthy, pernicious enemy? Or do I delight in war? Would I have a continual combat in my heart? Shall I put the Spirit of Christ to fight for his habitation, against such an ignominious foe? Indeed there is no true cure for sinful, vain, unprofitable thoughts, but by the contrary by calling up the thoughts unto their proper work, and finding them more profitable employment: and this is by consecrating the heart and them entirely to the love and service of him, that hath by the wonders of his love, and by

m Sicut ignis in aqua durare non potest, ita neque turpis cogitatio in Dei amante : quoniam omnis qui Dei amator est, etiam laboris amans est: cæterum labor voluntarius, naturaliter voluptati inimicus existit. Marcus Erem.

the strange design of his purchase and merits, so well deserved them. Let Christ come in, and deliver him the key, and pray him to keep thy heart as his own, and he will cast out buyers and sellers from his temple, and will not suffer his house of prayer to be a den of thieves. But if you receive Christ with reserves, and keep up designs for the world and flesh, marvel not if Christ will be no partners with them, but leave all to those guests, which you would not leave for him.

Tit. 2. Directions to furnish the Mind with Good Thoughts".

To have the mind well furnished with matter for holy and profitable thoughts, is necessary to all that have the use of reason, though not to all alike. But I shall here present you only with such materials as are necessary to a holy life, and to be used in our daily walk with God; and not meddle with such as are proper to pastors, magistrates, or other special callings, though I may give some general Directions also for students in the end of this.

Direct. 1. Understand well your own interest and great concernments, and be well resolved what you live for, and what is your true felicity and end: and then this will command your thoughts to serve it.' The end is it that the means are all chosen for, and used for. A man's estimation directeth his intention and designs: and his intention and designs command his thoughts. These will certainly have the first and chiefest, the most serious, and practical, and effectual thoughts; though some by-thoughts may run out another way: as the miller will be sure to keep so much water as is necessary to grind his grist, though he may let that run by, which he thinks he hath no need of: as you gather in all your corn and fruit for yourselves at harvest, though perhaps you will leave some scatterings which you do not value much, for any that will to gather: so whatever a man taketh for his ultimate end and true felicity, will have the store and stream of his cogitations, though he may scatter some few upon other things, when he thinks he may do it, without any detriment to his main design. As a traveller's face is ordinarily towards his journey's end, though so

"See the Directions for Prayer, Hearing, Reading, and the Sacrament. Part 2.

far as he thinks it doth not stop him, he may look behind him, or on each side: so our main end will in the main carry on our thoughts. And therefore unholy souls, that know not practically any higher end than the prosperity and pleasure of the flesh, and the plenty and honour of the world, cannot possibly exercise any holy government over their thoughts; but their minds and consciences are defiled, and their thoughts made carnal as is their end. Nor is there any possibility of curing their vicious, wicked thoughts, and of ordering them acceptably to God, but by curing their worldly, carnal minds, and causing them to change their designs and ends. And this must be by understanding what is their interest. Know well but what it is that is most necessary for you, and best for you, and it will change your hearts, and save your souls. Know this, and your thoughts will never want matter to be employed on: nor will they be suffered to wander much abroad. Therefore it is that the expectation of death, and the thought of coming presently to judgment, do use more effectually to supply the mind with the wisest and most useful thoughts, than the most learned book or ordinary means can. That which tells a man best, what he hath to do, doth best tell him what he hath to think on. But the approach of death, and the appearance of eternity, doth best tell a dull and fleshly sinner, what he hath to do this tells, and tells him roundly, that he must presently search his heart and life, and judge himself as one that is going to the final judgment; and that it is high time for him to look out for the remedy of his sin and misery, &c.: and therefore it will command his thoughts this way. Ask any lawyer, physician, or tradesman, what commands his thoughts; and you will find that his interest, and his ends, and work command them. Know what it is to have an immortal soul, that must live in joy or woe for ever, and what it is to be always so near to the irreversible, determining sentence, and what it is to have this short uncertain time and no more, to make our preparation in, and then it is easy to foretel which way your thoughts will go. A man that knoweth his house is on fire, will be thinking how to quench it: a man that knoweth he is entering into a mortal sickness, will be thinking how to cure it. There is

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no better way to have your thoughts both furnished and acted aright, than to know your interest, and right end.

Direct. 11. Know God aright, and behold him by the eye of an effectual faith, and you shall never want matter for holy thoughts.' His greatness and continual presence with you may command your thoughts, and awe them, and keep them from masterless vagaries. His wisdom will find them continual employment, upon the various, excellent, and delectable subjects, of his natural and supernatural revelation; but no where so much as upon himself. In God thou mayst find matter for thy cogitations and affections, most high and excellent, delighting the mind with a continual suavity, affording still fresh delights, though thou meditate on him a thousand years, or to all eternity. Thou mayst better say, that the ocean hath not water enough for thee to swim in, or that the earth hath not room enough for thee to tread upon, than that there is not matter enough in God, for thy longest meditations, and most delighting, satisfying thoughts. The blessed angels and saints in heaven, will find enough in God alone to employ their minds to all eternity. O horrid darkness and atheism that yet remaineth on our hearts! that we should want matter for our thoughts, to keep them from feeding upon air and filth! or want matter for our delight, to keep our minds from begging it at the creature's door, or hungering for the husks that feed the swine! when we have the infinite God, omnipotent, omniscient, most good and bountiful, our life, and hope, and happiness to think on with delight.

Direct. 111. If you have but an eye of faith, to see the things of the unseen world, as revealed in the sacred Word, you cannot want matter to employ your thoughts.' Scripture is the glass in which you may see the other world. There you may see the Ancient of Days, the Eternal Majesty shining in his glory, for the felicitating of holy, glorified spirits. There you may see the human nature advanced above angels, and enjoying the highest glory next to the uncreated Majesty; and Christ reigning as the king of all the world, and all the angels of God obeying, honouring, and worshipping him. You may see him sending his angels on his gracious messages, to the lowest members of his body, the little ones of his flock on earth: you may see him inter

ceding for all his saints, and procuring their peace and entertainment with the Father; and preparing for their reception when they pass into those mansions, and welcoming them one by one as they pass hence. There you may see the glorious, celestial society attending, admiring, extolling, worshipping, the Great Creator, the Gracious Redeemer, and the Eternal Spirit, with incessant, glorious, and harmonious praise: you may see them burning in the delicious flames of holy love, drawn out by the vision of the face of God, and by the streams of love which he continually poureth out upon them: you may see the magnetic attraction of the uncreated love, and felicitating closure of the attracted love of holy spirits, thus united unto God by Christ, and feasting everlastingly upon him: you may see the ravishments of joy, and the unspeakable pleasures, which all these blessed spirits have in this transporting sight, and love, and praise. You may see the ecstacies of joy which possess the souls of those that are newly passed from the body, and escaped the sins and miseries of this world, and find there such sudden ravishing entertainment, unspeakable beyond their former expectations, conceivings, or belief. You may see there with what wonder, what pity, what loathing and detestation, those holy, glorified souls look down upon earth, on the negligence, contempt, sensuality, and profaneness of the dreaming and distracted world! You may see there what you shall be for ever, if you be the holy ones of Christ, and where you must dwell, and what you must do, and what you shall enjoy. All this you may so know by sound believing, as to be carried to it as sincerely as if your eyes had seen it. And yet can your thoughts be idle, or carnal, or worldly and sinful for want of work? Are your meditations dry and barren for want of matter to employ them? Doth the fire of love or other holy affections go out for want of fuel to feed it? Are not heaven and eternity spacious enough for your minds to expatiate in? Is not such a world as that sufficient for you to study, with fresh and delectable variety of discoveries from day to day? or that which is more delightful than variety? Would you have more matter, or higher and more excellent matter, or sweeter and more pleasant matter, or matter which doth more nearly concern yourselves? Get

• Heb. xi. 1. 2 Cor. v. 7.