19. (8) Ever keep thy soul possessed with believing thoughts of the infinite love of God. Love is the attractive of love. Few so vile, but will love those that love them. No doubt it is the death of our heavenly life, to have hard thoughts of God, to conceive of him as one that would rather damn, than save us. This is to put the blessed God into the similitude of Satan. When our ignorance and unbelief have drawn the most deformed picture of God in our imaginations, then we complain that we cannot love him, nor delight in him. This is the case of many thousand Christians. Alas, that we should thus blaspheme God, and blast our own joys! Scripture assures us, that God is love ;* that fury is not in him ;‡ that he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Much more hath he testified his love to his chosen, and his full resolution effecutally to save them. O that we could always think of God, as we do of a friend; as of one that unfeignedly loves us, even more than we do ourselves; whose very heart is set upon us to do us good, and hath therefore provided for us an everlasting dwelling with himself; it would not then be so hard to have our hearts ever with him! Where we love most heartily, we shall think most sweetly, and most freely. I fear most Christians think higher of the love of a hearty friend, than of the love of God; and what wonder then if they love their friends better than God, and trust them more confidently than God, and had rather live with them than with God? § 20. (9) Carefully observe and cherish the motions of the Spirit of God. If ever thy soul get ‡ Ezek. xxxiii. 11 * 1 John iv. 16. + Isa. xxvii. 4. above this earth, and get acquainted with this heavenly life, the Spirit of God must be to thee, as the chariot to Elijah; yea, the very living principle by which thou must move and ascend. O then, grieve not thy guide, quench not thy life, knock not off thy chariot wheels! You little think how much the life of all your graces, and the happiness of your souls, depend upon your ready and cordial obedience to the Spirit. When the Spirit urges thee to secret prayer; or forbids thee thy known transgressions; or points out to thee the way in which thou shouldest go: and thou wilt not regard, no wonder if heaven and thy soul be strange. If thou wilt not follow the Spirit, while it would draw thee to Christ and thy duty; how should it lead thee to heaven, and bring thy heart into the presence of God? What supernatural help, what bold access, shall the soul find in its approaches to the Almighty, that constantly obeys the Spirit? And how backward, how dull, how ashamed, will he be in these addresses, who hath often broke away from the Spirit that would have guided him? Christian reader, dost thou not feel sometimes a strong impression to retire from the world, and draw near to God? Do not disobey, but take the offer, and hoist up thy sails while this blessed gale may be had. The more of this Spirit we resist, the deeper will it wound; and the more we obey, speedier will be our pace. § 21. (10) I advise thee as a farther help to this heavenly life, not to neglect the due care of thy bodily health. Thy body is an useful servant, if thou give it its due, and no more than its due; but it is a most devouring tyrant, if thou suffer it to have what it unreasonably desires; and it is as a blunted knife, if thou unjustly deny it what is necessary to its support. When we consider, how frequently men offend on both extremes, and how few use their bodies aright, we cannot wonder if they be much hindered in their converse with heaven. Most men are slaves to their appetite, and can scarce deny any thing to the flesh, and are therefore willingly carried by it to their sports, or profits, or vain companions, when they should raise their minds to God and heaven. As you love your souls, make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof; but remember, to be carnally minded, is death; because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. There are a few, who much hinder their heavenly joy, by denying the body its necessaries, and so making it unable to serve them: If such wronged their flesh only, it would be no great matter; but they wrong their souls also; as he that spoils the house, injures the inhabitants. When the body is sick, and the spirits languish, how heavily do we move in the thoughts and joys of heaven! *Rom. xiii. 1. +Rom. viii. 6—8, 12, 13. CHAPTER XIII. THE NATURE OF HEAVENLY CONTEMPLATION; WITH THE TIME, PLACE, AND TEMPEK, FITTEST FOR IT. § 1. The duty of heavenly contemplation is recommended to the reader, § 2. And defined: § 3-6. (I.) The definition is illustrated; § 7. (II.) The time fittest for it is represented, as § 8. (1) Stated; § 9-12. (2) Frequent ; §13. and (3) Seasonable, every day, and particularly every Lord's day; 14-17. But more especially, when our hearts are warmest with a sense of divine things; or when we are afflicted or tempted; or when we are near death: § 18. (III.) The fittest place for it, is the most retired; § 19. (IV.) And the fittest temper for it, is, § 20. (1) When our minds are most clear of the world, § 21. (2) And most solemn and serious. § 1. ONCE more I entreat thee, reader, as thou makest conscience of a revealed duty, and darest not wilfully resist the Spirit; as thou valuest the high delights of a saint, and the soul-ravishing exercise of heavenly contemplation; that thou diligently study, and speedily and faithfully practise, the following directions. If, by this means, thou dost not find an increase of all thy graces, and dost not grow beyond the stature of common Christians, and art not made more serviceable in thy place, and more precious in the eyes of all discerning persons, if thy soul enjoy not more communion with God, and thy life be not fuller of comfort, and hast it not readier by thee at a dying hour; then cast away these directions, and exclaim against me forever as a deceiver. § 2. The duty which I press upon thee so earnestly, and in the practice of which I am now to direct thee, is, "The set and solemn acting of all the powers of my soul in meditation upon thy ev erlasting rest." More fully to explain the nature of this duty, I will here, illustrate a little the description itself; then point out the fittest time, place, and temper of mind for it. 3. (I.) It is not improper to illustrate a little the manner in which we have described this duty of meditation, or the considering and contemplating of spiritual things. It is confessed to be a duty by all, but practically denied by most. Many that make conscience of other duties, easily neglect this; they are troubled if they omit a sermon, a fast or a prayer in public or private; yet were never troubled that they have omitted meditation perhaps all their life time to this very day; though it be that duty, by which all other duties are improved, and by which the soul digesteth truths for its nourishment and comfort. It was God's command to Joshua, This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein.* As digestion turns food into chyle and blood, for vigorous health; so meditation turns the truths received and remembered into warm affection, firm resolution, and holy conversation. § 4. This meditation is, the acting of all the powers of the soul. It is the work of the living, and not of the dead. It is a work of all others the most spiritual and sublime, and therefore not to be well performed by a heart that is merely carnal and earthly. They must necessarily have some rela. tion to heaven, before they can familiarly converse there. I suppose them to be such as have a title to rest, when I persuade them to rejoice in the meditations of rest. And supposing thee to be a Christian, I am now exhorting thee to be an active Christian. And it is the work of the soul I am setting thee to, for bodily exercise doth here profit but little. And it must have all the powers of thy * Josh, i. 8. |