parations of thy heart. The success of the work doth much depend on the frame of thy heart. When man's heart had nothing in it that might grieve the Spirit, then was it the delightful habitation of his Maker. God did not quit his residence there, till man did repel him by unworthy provocations. There grew no strangeness, till the heart grew sinful, and too loathsome a dungeon for God to delight in. And were this soul reduced to its former innocency, God would quickly return to his former habitation: yea, so far as it is renewed and repaired by the Spirit, and purged of its lusts, and beautified with his image, the Lord will yet acknowledge it his own, and Christ will manifest himself unto it, and the Spirit will take it for his temple and residence. So far as the soul is qualified for conversing with God, so far it doth actually, for the most part, enjoy him. Therefore, with all diligence keep thy heart, for from thence are the issues of life. (Prov. iv. 23.)

More particularly, when thou settest on this duty; First, Get thy heart as clear from the world as thou canst; wholly lay by the thoughts of thy business, of thy troubles, of thy enjoyments, and of every thing that may take up any room in thy soul. Get thy soul as empty as possibly thou canst, and so it may be the more capable of being filled with God. It is a work, as I have said, that will require all the powers of thy soul, if they were a thousand times more capacious and active than they are, and therefore you have need to lay by all other thoughts and affections, while you are busied here. If thou couldst well perform some outward duty with a piece of thy heart, while the other is absent, yet this above all I am sure thou canst not. Surely, if thou once address thyself to the business indeed, thou wilt be as the covetous man at the heap of gold, that when he might take as much as he could carry away, lamented that he was able to bear no more. So when thou shalt get into the mount of contemplation, thou wilt find there as much of God and glory, as thy narrow heart is able to contain; and almost nothing to hinder thy full possession, but only the uncapableness of thy own spirit. O then (wilt thou think) that this understanding were larger, that I might conceive more! that these affections were wider to contain more! it is more my own unfitness than any thing else, which is the cause that even this place is not my heaven! God is in this place, and I know it not. This mount is full of the angels of God, but mine eyes are shut, and cannot see them. O the words of love that Christ

hath to speak! O the wonders of love that he hath to show! But, alas! I cannot bear them yet: heaven is here ready at hand for me, but my uncapable heart is unready for heaven! Thus wouldst thou lament, that the deadness of thy heart doth hinder thy joys; even as a sick man is sorry that he wants a stomach when he sees a feast before him.

Therefore, reader, seeing it is much in the capacity and frame of thy heart, how much thou shalt enjoy of God in this contemplation, be sure that all the room thou hast be empty; and, if ever, seek him here with all thy soul: thrust not Christ into the stable and the manger, as if thou hadst better guests for the chiefest rooms. Say to all thy worldly business and thoughts, as Christ to his disciples, "Sit you here, while I go and pray yonder." (Matt. xxvi. 36.) Or, as Abraham, when he went to sacrifice Isaac, left his servant and ass below the mount, saying, “Stay you here, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you :" so say thou to all thy worldly thoughts, "Abide you below, while I go up to Christ, and then I will return to you again." Yea, as God did terrify the people with his threats of death, if any one should dare to come to the mount, when Moses was to receive the law from God; so do thou terrify thy own heart, and use violence against thy intruding thoughts, if they offer to accompany thee to the mount of contemplation. Even as the priests thrust Uzziah the king out of the temple, where he presumed to burn incense, when they saw the leprosy to arise upon him; so do thou thrust these thoughts from the temple of thy heart, which have the badge of God's prohibition upon them. As you will beat back your dogs, yea, and leave your servants behind you, when yourselves are admitted into the prince's presence, so also do by these. Yourselves may be welcome, but such followers may not.

Sect. X. 2. Be sure thou set upon this work with the greatest seriousness that possibly thou canst. Customariness here is a killing sin. There is no trifling in holy things: God will be sanctified of all that draw near him. These spiritual, excellent, soul-raising duties are the most dangerous, if we miscarry in them, of all. The more they advance the soul, being well used, the more they destroy it, being used unfaithfully as the best meats corrupted, are the worst. To help thee therefore to be serious when thou settest on this work; First, Labour to have the deepest apprehensions of the presence of God, and the in

comprehensible greatness of the majesty which thou approachest. If Rebecca veil her face at her approach to Isaac; if Esther must not draw near till the king hold forth the sceptre ; if dust and worms'-meat must have such respect, think, then, with what reverence thou shouldst approach thy Maker; think thou art addressing thyself to Him that made the worlds with the word of his mouth; that upholds the earth as in the palm of his hand; that keeps the sun, and moon, and heaven, in their courses; that bounds the raging sea with the sands, (Jer. v. 22,) and saith, "Hitherto go, and no further :" thou art going about to converse with Him, before whom the earth will quake, and devils tremble; before whose bar thou must shortly stand, and all the world with thee, to receive their doom. O think, I shall then have lively apprehensions of his majesty; my drowsy spirits will then be awakened; and my stupid irreverence be laid aside: why should I not now be roused with a sense of his greatness, and the dread of his name possess my soul?

Secondly, Labour to apprehend the greatness of the work which thou attemptest, and to be deeply sensible both of its weight and height, of its concernment and excellency. If thou wert pleading for thy life at the bar of a judge, thou wouldst be serious; and yet that were but a trifle to this: if thou wert engaged in such a work as David was against Goliah, whereon the kingdom's deliverance did depend, in itself considered, it were nothing to this. Suppose thou wert going to such a wrestling as Jacob's; suppose thou wert going to see the sight which the three disciples saw in the mount; how seriously, how reverently wouldst thou both approach and behold! If the sun do suffer any notable eclipse, how seriously do all run out to see it! If some angel of heaven should but appoint to meet thee, at the same time and place of thy contemplations, how dreadfully, how apprehensively, wouldst thou go to meet him! Why, consider then with what a spirit thou shouldst meet the Lord, and with what seriousness and dread thou shouldst daily converse with him: when Manoah had seen but an angel, he cries out, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God." (Judg. xiii. 22.)

Consider also the blessed issue of the work; if it do succeed, it will be an admission of thee into the presence of God; a beginning of thy eternal glory on earth; a means to make thee live above the rate of other men, and admit thee into the next room to the angels themselves; a means to make thee

both live and die both joyfully and blessedly: so that the prize being so great, thy preparation should be answerable. There is none on earth that live such a life of joy and blessedness as those that are acquainted with this heavenly conversation. The joys of all other men are but like a child's play, a fool's laughter; as a dream of health to the sick, or as a fresh pasture to a hungry beast. It is he that trades at heaven that is the only gainer, and he that neglecteth it that is the only loser; and, therefore, how seriously should this work be done!

CHAP. VIII.

Of Consideration, the Instrument of this Work; and what Force it hath to move the Soul.

SECT. I. Having showed thee how thou must set upon this work, I come now to direct thee in the work itself, and to show thee the way which thou must take to perform it. All this has been but to set the instrument (thy heart) in tune, and now we are come to the music itself; all this hath been but to get thee an appetite; it follows now that thou approach unto the feast; that thou sit down and take what is offered, and delight thy soul as with marrow and fatness. Whoever you are that are children of the kingdom, I have this message to you from the Lord: "Behold, the dinner is prepared; the oxen and fatlings are killed: come, for all things are now ready." (Matt. xxii. 4 ; Luke xiv. 17.) Heaven is before you; Christ is before you; the exceeding, eternal weight of glory is before you: come, therefore, and feed upon it. Do not make light of this invitation, (Matt. xxii. 5,) nor put off your own mercies with excuses, (Luke xiv. 18,) whatever thou art, rich or poor, though in alms-houses or hospitals, though in highways or hedges, my commission is, if possible, to compel you to come in: "And blessed is he that eateth bread in the kingdom of God." (Luke xiv. 15.) The manna lieth about your tents; walk forth into the wilderness, gather it up, take it home, and feed upon it. So that the remaining work is only to direct you how to use your understandings for the warming of your affections, and to fire your hearts by the help of your heads; and herein it will be necessary that I observe this method: First, To show you what

instrument it is that you must work by. Secondly, Why, and how this way of working is like to succeed, and attain its end. Thirdly, What powers of the soul should here be acted, and what are the particular affections to be excited, and what objective considerations are necessary thereto, and in what order you should proceed. Fourthly, By what acts you must advance to the height of the work. Fifthly, What advantages you must take, and what helps you must use for the facilitating your success. Sixthly, In what particulars you must look narrowly to your hearts through the whole; and I will be the briefer in all, lest you should lose my meaning in a crowd of words, or your thoughts be carried from the work itself, by an over-long and tedious explication of it.

Sect. II. 1. The great instrument that this work is done by, is ratiocination, reasoning the case with yourselves, discourse of mind, cogitation, or thinking; or, if you will, call it consideration. I here suppose you to know the things to be considered, and therefore shall wholly pass over that meditation of students which tends only to speculation, or knowing. They are known truths that I persuade you to consider, for the grossly ignorant that know not the doctrine of everlasting life, are for the present incapable of this duty.

Man's soul, as it receives and retains the ideas or shapes of things, so hath it a power to choose out any of these deposited ideas, and draw them forth, and act upon them again and again; even as a sheep can fetch up his meat for rumination; or otherwise nothing would affect us but while the sense is receiving it, and so we should be somewhat below the brutes. This is the power that here you must use; to this choice of ideas or subjects for your cogitations, there must necessarily concur the act of the will, which indeed must go along in the whole work; for this must be a voluntary, not a forced cogitation: some men do consider whether they will or not, and are not able to turn away their own thoughts; so will God make the wicked consider of their sins, when he shall set them all in order before them. (Psal. 1. 21, 22.) And so shall the damned consider of heaven, and of the excellency of Christ whom they once despised, and of the eternal joys which they have foolishly lost. But this forced consideration is not that I mean, but that which

f For (as Aquinas and others) the will is the beginner of our actions, quoad exercitium actus, though the understanding be the beginner, quoad actus spe cificationem. However that stand, yet they must concur here.