them all, and are there arrived. Efpecially you that are poor, and cannot take Time in the Week as you defire, fee that you well improve this Day; as your Bodies reft from their Labours, let your Spirits feek after Reft from God.

14. BESIDES the conftant Seasonableness of every Day, and particularly every Lord's Day, there are alfo more peculiar Seafons for heavenly Contemplation. for Inftance,

As

$15. When God hath more abundantly warmed thy Spirit with Fire from above. Then thou mayft foar with greater Freedom. A little Labour will fet thy Heart a going at fuch a Time as this; whereas at another Time thou mayst take Pains to little Purpose: Obferve the Gales of the Spirit, and how the Spirit of Chrift doth move thy Spirit. Without Chrift we can do nothing; and therefore let us be doing, while He is doing; and be fure not to be out of the Way, nor afleep, when He comes. When the Spirit finds thy Heart, like Peter, in Prifon, and in Irons, and fmites thee, and fays, Arife up quickly, and follow me; be fure thou then arife, and follow, and thou shalt find thy Chains fall off, and all Doors will open, and thou wilt be at Heaven before thou art aware.

§ 16.-Another peculiar Seafon for this Duty is, when thou art in a fuffering, diftreffed, or tempted State: When should we take our Cordials, but in Times of fainting? When is it more seasonable to walk to Heaven, than when we know not in what Corner of Earth to live with Comfort? Or when should our Thoughts converfe more above, than when they have nothing but Grief below? Where fhould Noah's Dove be but in the Ark, when the Waters cover all the Earth, and the cannot find Reft for the Sole of her Foot? What fhould we think on, but our Father's Houfe, when we have not even the Hufks of the World

World to feed upon? Surely God fends thy Afflictions to this very Purpose. Happy art thou, poor Man, if thou make this Ufe of thy Poverty! and thou that art fick, if thou so improve thy Sickness! It is feasonable to go to the promised Land, when our Burthens are increased in Egypt, and our Straits in the Wildernefs. Reader, if thou knewest what a Cordial to thy Griefs the ferious Views of Glory are, thou wouldft lefs fear thefe harmless Troubles, and more ufe that preferving reviving Remedy. In the Multitude of my troubled Thoughts within me, faith David, thy Comforts delight my Soul (f). I reckon, faith Paul, that the Sufferings of this prefent Time, are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us (g). For which Caufe we faint not, but though our outward Man perish, yet the inward Man is renewed Day by Day. For ur light Affliction, which is but for a Moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory; while we look not at the Things which are feen, but at the Things which are not feen; for the Things which are feen, are temporal; but the Things which are not feen, are eternal (h):

$17. And another Seafon peculiarly fit for this heavenly Duty, is, when the Meffengers of God fummon us to die. When should we most frequently sweeten our Souls, with the believing Thoughts of another Life, than when we find that this is almost ended? No Men have greater Need of fupporting Joys, than dying Men; and those Joys must be fetched from our eternal Joy. As heavenly Delights are sweetest, when nothing earthly is joined with them; fo the Delights of dying Chriftians are oftentimes the. fweetest they ever had. What a prophetical Bleffing had dying Isaac, and Jacob, for their Sons? With what a heavenly Song, and divine Benediction,

(f) Pfalm xciv. 19. (g) Rom. viii. 18. (h) 2 Cor. iv. 16--18.

279 tion, did Mofes conclude his Life? What heavenly Advice and Prayer had the Difciples from their Lord, when He was about to leave them? When Paul was ready to be offered up, what heavenly Exhortation and Advice did he give the Philippians, Timothy, and the Elders of Ephefus? How near to Heaven was John in Patmos, but a little before his Tranflation thither? It is the general Temper of the Saints, to be then moft heavenly, when they are nearest to Heaven. If it be thy Cafe, Reader, to perceive thy dying Time draw on, O where fhould thy Heart now be, but with Chrift! Methinks thou fhouldft even behold Him ftanding by thee, and fhould it befpeak Him as thy Father, thy Husband, thy Phyfician, thy Friend. Methinks thou fhouldft, as it were, fee the Angels about thee, waiting to perform their laft Office to thy Soul; even thofe Angels, which disdained not to carry into Abraham's Bofom the Soul of Lazarus, nor will think much to conduct thee thither. Look upon thy Pain and Sieknefs, as Jacob did on Jofeph's Chariots, and let thy Spirit revive within thee, and fay, "It is enough, Chrift is yet alive; because He lives, I "Shall live alfo (i)." Doft thou need the choiceft Cordials? Here are choicer than the World can afford; here are all the Joys of Heaven, even the Vifion of God, and Chrift, and whatsoever the Bleffed there poffefs; thefe Dainties are offered thee by the Hand of Chrift; He hath written the Receipt in the Promises of the Gofpel; He hath prepared the Ingredients in Heaven; only put forth the Hand of Faith, and feed upon them, and rejoice, and live. The Lord faith to thee, as to Elijah, Arife and eat, because the Journey is too great for thee. Though it be not long, yet the Way is miry; therefore obey his Voice, arife and eat, and in the Strength of that Meat

(i) John xiv. 19.

thou

thou mayft go to the Mount of God; and, like Mofes, die in the Mount whither thou goeft up; and fay, as Simeon, Lord, now letteft thou thy Servant depart in Peace; for my Eye of Faith hath feen thy Salvation (k).

§ 18. (III) Concerning the fittest Place for heavenly Contemplation, it is fufficient to fay, that the most convenient is fome private Retirement. Our Spirits need every Help, and to be freed from every Hinderance in the Work. If in private Prayer, Chrift directs us to enter into our Clofet, and fout the Door, that our Father may fee us in fecret (1), fo fhould we do in this Meditation. How often did Chrift himfelf retire to fome Mountain, or Wilderness, or other folitary Place? I give not this Advice for occafional Meditation, but for that which is fet and folemn. Therefore withdraw thyself from all Society, even the Society of godly Men, that thou mayft a while enjoy the Society of thy Lord. If a Student cannot ftudy in a Croud, who exercifeth only his Invention and Memory; much lefs fhouldft thou be in a Croud, who art to exercise all the Powers of thy Soul, and upon an Object so far above Nature. We are fled fo far from fuperftitious Solitude, that we have even caft off the Solitude of contemplative Devotion. We feldom read of God's appearing by Himfelf, or by his Angels, to any of his Prophets or Saints in a Croud; but frequently when they were alone.But obferve for thyfelf, what Place beft agrees with thy Spirit; whether within Doors, or without. Ifaac's Example, in going out to meditate in the Field, will, I believe, best fuit with most. Our Lord fo much ufed a folitary Garden, that even Judas, when he came to betray Him, knew where to find Him: And though He took his Difciples thither with Him, yet He was withdrawn (1) Matt, vi. 6.

(k) Luke ii. 29, 30.

from

from them for more fecret Devotions (m): And tho' his Meditation be not directly named, but only his praying, yet it is very clearly implied, for His Soul is firft made forrowful with the bitter Meditations on His Sufferings and Death, and then He poureth it out in Prayer (n). So that Chrift had his accuftomed Place, and confequently accuftomed Duty, and fo muft we; He hath a Place that is folitary, whither He retireth Himself, even from His own Difciples, and fo must we; His Meditations go further than His Thoughts, they affect and pierce His Heart and Soul, and fo muft ours. Only there is a wide Difference in the Object; Chrift meditates on the Sufferings that our Sins had deferved, fo that the Wrath of His Father paffed through all His Soul: But we are to meditate on the Glory He hath purchafed, that the Love of the Father, and the Joy of the Spirit, may enter at our Thoughts, and revive our Affections, and overflow our Souls.

$19. (IV) I am next to advise thee concerning the Preparations of thy Heart for this heavenly Contemplation. The Succefs of the Work much depends on the Frame of thy Heart. When Man's Heart had nothing in it to grieve the Spirit, it was then the delightful Habitation of his Maker. God did not quit his Refidence there, till Man expell'd Him by unworthy Provocations. There was no Shyness or Referve, till the Heart grew finful, and too loathsome a Dungeon for God to delight in. And was this Soul reduced to its former Innocency, God would quickly return to His former Habitation; yea, fo far as it is renewed and repaired by the Spirit, and purged from its Lufts, and beautified with His Image, the Lord will yet acknowledge it His own; Chrift will manifelt himself unto it, and the Spirit will take it for His Temple and Refidence. So far as the Heart is qua

(m) John xviii. 1, 2.

lified

Luke xxii. 41. (n) Mark xiv. 34, 35.