"And yet you can forget thefe Day after Day." Give not God Caufe thus to expoftulate with us. Rather let our Souls get up to God, and vifit Him every Morning, and our Hearts be towards Him every Moment.

§ 16. (11) Should not our Intereft in Heaven, and our Relation to it, continually keep our Hearts upon it? There our Father keeps his Court. We call him, our Father which art in Heaven. Unworthy Children! that can be to taken up in their Play, as to be mindlefs of fuch a Father. There alfo is Chrift our Head, our Husband, our Life; and fhall we not look towards him, and fend to him, as oft as we can, till we come to fee him Face to Face? Since the Heavens must receive him, until the Times of Reftitution of all Things; let them alfo receive our Hearts with him. There alfo is new ferufalem, which is the Mother of us all (g). And there are Multitudes of our elder Brethren. There are our Friends and old Acquaintance, whofe Society in the Flesh we fo much delighted in, and whofe Departure hence we fo much lamented; and is this no Attractive to thy Thoughts? If they were within thy Reach on Earth, thou wouldit go and vifit them, and why not oftner vifit them in Spirit, and rejoice before Hand to think of meeting them there? "Socrates rejoiced that he "fhould die, because he believed he fhould fee Homer, "Hefiod, and other eminent Perfons. How much "more do I rejoice, faid a pious old Minifter, who

am fure to see Chrift my Saviour, the eternal Son "of God, in his affumed Flesh; befides fo many. "wife, holy and renowned Patriarchs, Prophets, "Apoftles, &c." A Believer fhould look to Heaven, and contemplate the bleffed State of the Saints, and think with himfelf," Though I am not yet fo

(g) Gal, iv. 26.

"happy

"happy as to be with you, yet this is my daily Com"fort, you are my Brethren and Fellow-Members "in Chrift, and therefore your Joys are my Joys, "and your Glory by this near Relation is my Glory; "efpecially while I believe in the fame Chrift, and "hold faft the fame Faith and Obedience, by which « you were thus dignified, and rejoice in Spirit with cc you, and congratulate your Happiness in my daily "Meditations."

$17. MOREOVER, our House and Home is above. For we know, that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were diffolved, we have a Building of God, an Houfe not made with Hands, eternal in the Heavens. Why do we then look no oftener towards it, and groan earnestly, defiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven (h)? If our Home were far meaner, fure we fhould remember it, because it is our Home. If you were but banished into a strange Land, how frequently would your Thoughts be at Home. And why is it not thus with us in Respect of Heaven? Is not that more truly and properly our Home, where we must take up our everlasting Abode, than this, which we are every Hour expecting to be feparated from, and to fee no more? We are Strangers, and that is our Country. We are Heirs, and that is our Inheritance; even an Inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, re ferved in Heaven for us (i). We are here in continual Diftrefs, and Want, and there lies our Subftance; even a better and an enduring Substance (k). Yea, the very Hope of our Souls is there; all our Hope of Relief from our Diftreffes; all our Hope of Happiness, when here we are miferable; all this Hope is laid up for us in Heaven (1). Why, beloved Chrifti

ans, have we fo much Intereft, and fo few Thoughts there? So near Relation, and fo little Affection? Doth it become us to be delighted in the Company of Strangers, fo as to forget our Father, and our Lord? Or to be fo well pleased with those that hate and grieve us, as to forget our best and deareft Friends? Or to be fo fond of borrowed Trifles, as to forget our own Poffeffion and Treasure? Or to be fo much impreffed with Tears and Wants, as to forget our eternal Joy and Reft? God ufually pleads his Propriety in us; and thence concludes He will do us Good, even because we are his own People, whom He hath chofen out of all the World: Why then do we not plead our Interest in Him, and fo raise our Hearts above; even becaufe He is our own God, and because the Place is our own Poffeffion? Men commonly over-love and over-value their own Things, and mind them too much. O that we could mind our own Inheritance, and value it half as much as it deserves!

$18. (12) Once more confider, there is nothing, but Heaven, worth fetting our Hearts upon. If God have them not, who fhall? If thou mind not thy Reft, what wilt thou mind? Haft thou found out fome other God? Or fomething that will ferve thee inftead of Reft? Haft thou found on Earth an eternal Happinefs? Where is it? What is it made of? Who was the Man that found it out? Who was he that last enjoyed it? Where dwelt he? What was his Name? Or art thou the fire that ever discovered Heaven on Earth? Ah Wretch! truft not to thy Difcoveries, boaft not of thy Gain, till Experience bid thee boaft. Difquiet not thyself, in looking for that which is not on Earth; left thou learn thy Experience with the Lofs of thy Soul, which thou mightest have learned on eafier Terms; even by the Warnings of God in his Word, and the Lofs of thousands of Souls before thee.

If

If Satan fhould take thee up to the Mountain of Temptation, and fhew thee all the Kingdoms of the World, and the Glory of them; he could fhew thee nothing that is worthy thy Thoughts, much lefs to be preferred before thy Reft. Indeed, fo far as Duty and Neceffity require it, we must be content to mind the Things below; but who is he that contains himself within the Compafs of thofe Limits? And yet if we ever fo diligently contract our Cares and Thoughts, we fhall find the leaft to be bitter and burthenfome. Chriftian, fee the Emptiness of all thefe Things, and the Preciousness of the Things above. If thy Thoughts hould, like the laborious Bee, go over the World from Flower to Flower, from Creature to Creature, they would bring no Honey or Sweetness home, fave what they gathered from their Relations to Eternity. Though every Truth of God is precious, and ought to be defended; yet even all'our Study of Truth should be still in Reference to our Reft: For the Obfervation is too true, that the Lovers of Controverfies in Religion, have never been warmed with one Spark of the Love of God. And as for minding the Affairs of Church and State; fo far as they illuftrate the Providence of God, and tend to the fettling of the Gospel, and the Government of Chrift, and confequently to the faving our own Souls, and those of our Pofterity, they are well worth our diligent Obfervation; but these are only their Relations to Eternity. Even all our Dealings in the World, our Buying and Selling, our Eating and Drinking, our Building and Marrying, our Peace and War, fo far as they relate not to the Life to come, but tend only to the pleafing of the Flesh, are not worthy the frequent Thoughts of a Chriftian. And now doth not thy Confcience fay, that there is nothing but Heaven, and the Way to it, that is worth thy minding?

$19.

19. Now, Reader, are thefe Confiderations weighty, or not? Have I proved it thy Duty to keep thy Heart on Things above, or have I not? If thou fay, not; I am confident thou contradicteft thy own Confcience. If thou acknowledge thyfelf convinced of the Duty; that very Tongue of thine fhall condemn thee, and that Confeffion be pleaded against thee, if thou wilfully neglecteft fuch a confeffed Duty. Be thoroughly willing, and the Work is more than half done. I have now a few plain Directions to give you for your Help in this great Work; but, alas! it is in vain to mention them, except you be willing to put them in Practice. However, I will propofe them to thee, and may the Lord perfuade thy Heart to the Work!