will that glorious change be! It will be beyond expression, beyond conception. How oft, when I have thought of this change in my regeneration, have I cried out, O blessed day, and blessed be the Lord that I ever saw it! How then should I cry out in heaven, O blessed eternity, and blessed be the Lord that brought me to it! Was the mercy of my conversion so exceeding great that the angels of God did rejoice to see it? Surely then the mercy of my salvation will be so great, that the angels will congratulate my felicity.

Lastly, compare the joy which thou shalt have in heaven, with that which the saints of God have found in the way to it, and in the foretaste of it. When thou seest a heavenly man rejoice, think what it is that so affects him. When did God ever reveal the least of himself to any of his saints, but the joy of their hearts was correspondent to the revelation? Paul was so lifted up with what he saw, that he was in danger of being exalted above measure, and must have a thorn in the flesh to keep him humble. When Peter saw Christ in his transfiguration, which was but a glimpse of his glory, what a rapture and ecstacy is he cast into! "Master," says he, "it is good for us to be here; let us here build three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias:" as if he had said, “O let us not return to our mean and suffering state. Is it not better that we stay here? Are there not here better company, and sweeter pleasures ?" Yet how short does Paul's vision come of the saints' vision above with God! How small a part of the glory which we shall see, was that which so transported Peter on the mount! I confess these were all extraordinary foretastes, but little to the full beatifical vision. How oft have we read and heard of dying saints, who when they had scarcely strength and life enough to express themselves, have been as full of joy as their hearts could hold; and when their bodies have been under the extremities of sickness, yea, ready to feel the pangs of death, have yet had so much of heaven in their spirits, that their joy has far surpassed

their sorrows! Now, if a spark of this fire be so glorious, and that in the midst of the sea of adversity, what shall that sun of glory be! O the joy which the martyrs of Christ have felt, in the midst of the scorching flames! Surely they had life and sense as well as we, and were flesh and blood as well as we. It must needs, therefore, be some excellent thing which so rejoices their souls, while their bodies are burning.

But hast not thou thyself had some foretaste of these heavenly joys? Judge then of the ocean of joy by those drops which thou hast tasted. Thou hast here enjoyed some refreshing comforts, and by this little. thou mayst conjecture the quality of the whole. Has not God sometimes revealed himself extraordinarily to thy soul, and let a beam of glory fall upon it? Hast thou not been ready to say, O that it might be thus with my soul continually, that I might always feel what I now feel! Didst thou never cry out with the martyr, "He is come, he is come?" Didst thou never, under a lively sermon of heaven, or in thy retired contemplations on that blessed state, perceive thy drooping spirits revive, and the light of heaven break forth on thy soul, as the morning star, or as the dawning of the day? Now think with thyself, "What is the earnest to the full inheritance? All this light that so amazes and rejoices me, is but a candle lighted from heaven, to lead me thither through this world of darkness! the light of a star in the night, or the little glimmering at the break of day be such; what will be the light of the sun at noontide? If some godly men have been so overwhelmed with joy, that they have cried out,— Hold, Lord, stay thy hand; I can bear no more !' O what will be my joys in heaven, when as the object of my joy will be the most glorious God, so my soul will be made capable of seeing and enjoying him; and though the light be ten thousand times greater than the sun's, yet shall my eyes be able to behold it for ever."

If

CHAPTER VIII.

OF THE MANAGEMENT OF THE HEART IN HEAVENLY CONTEMPLATION.

LASTLY, I proceed to guide you in managing your hearts through this work, and to show you wherein you have need to be exceedingly watchful. I have shown before, what must be done with your hearts in your preparation for the work, and in your setting about it; I shall now show what is to be done with your hearts in the performance of the duty. Our chief work will here be, to discover to you the danger, and that will direct you to the fittest remedy. Let me, therefore, here tell you, that whenever you set about this heavenly employment, you will find your own hearts your greatest hinderance, and they will prove false to you in one or all of these four degrees: first, they will be so backward, that you will hardly get them to engage in the work; or, secondly,— they will betray you by their idleness in the work, pretending to do it when they do it not; or, thirdly,they will interrupt the work by their frequent excursions, and turning aside to every object which presents itself; or, fourthly, they will spoil the work by cutting it short, and be gone before you have done any good in it. I, therefore, forewarn you, as you value the inestimable comfort of this work, that you faithfully resist these four dangerous evils, or else all I have said hitherto will be in vain.

I. Guard against the backwardness of thy heart to this work. Thou wilt find it as backward to this, I think, as to any duty in the world. O what excuses it will make! what evasions it will find out! it will question, whether it be a duty or not; be so to others, yet whether it be so to thee.

Either

or if it It will

take up any thing like reason to plead against it; it will tell thee, that this is a work for ministers that have nothing else to study; or for persons that have more leisure than thou hast. If thou be a minister, it will tell thee, this is the duty of the people; that thou hast this company to wait upon, or that business must be done. It may be, it will set thee upon some other duty, and so make one duty jostle out another; for it had rather go to any duty than to this. Perhaps it will tell thee that other duties are greater, and therefore this must give place to them, because thou hast not time for both. Public business is of more concernment; to study and to preach for the saving of souls must be preferred before these private contemplations; as if thou hadst no time to see to the saving of thy own soul, for looking after the souls of others! Or if thy heart has nothing to say against the work, then it will trifle away the time in delays, and promise this day and the next, and still keep off from doing the business. Or, lastly, if thou wilt not be so baffled with excuses and delays, thy heart will give thee an express denial, and draw back with all the strength it has.

Well, then, what is to be done in this case? Wilt thou do it if I tell thee? Why, what wouldst thou do with a servant that was thus backward to his work; or to thy beast that should draw back, when thou wouldst have him go forward? Wouldst thou not first persuade, and then chide, and then spur him, and then force him on, and take no denial, nor let him alone, till thou hadst got him closely to fall to his work? Deal thus faithfully with thy heart; persuade it to the work; take no denial; chide it for its backwardness; use violence with it; bring it to the service, willing, or not willing. Art thou the master of thy flesh, or art thou a servant to it? Take up the authority again which God has given thee; command thy heart. If it rebel, use violence with it. If thou be too weak, call in the Spirit of Christ to thy assistance. He is never backward to so good a work, nor will deny thee his help in so just a cause. God will

be ready to help thee, if thou be not unwilling to help thyself.

II. Guard against the idleness of thy heart, lest it trifle when it should be effectually meditating. Certainly, thy heart is as likely to betray thee in this, as in any one particular about the duty. When thou hast perhaps but an hour for meditation, the time will be spent before thy heart will be serious. This doing of duty as if we did it not, undoes as many as the positive omission of it. To spend the hour in a lazy thinking of heaven, is but to lose that hour, and delude thyself. Well, what is to be done in this case? Keep thine eye always upon thy heart; look not so much to the time thou spendest in the duty, as to the quantity and quality of the work that is done.

I would not have thee of the judgment of those who think that while they are so backward to the duty, it is better to let it alone; and if mere love will not bring them to it, but there must be all this violence used to compel it, that then the service is worse than the omission. These men understand not, that this argument would cashier all spiritual obedience, because the hearts of the best being but partly sanctified, will ever be resisting so far as they are carnal. Neither do they understand well the corruption of their own natures; nor, that their sinful indisposedness will not baffle or suspend the commands of God; nor one sin excuse another. Love, I know, is a most precious grace, and should have the chief interest in all our duties: but there are means appointed by God to procure this love and shall I not use those means, till I can use them from love? That were to neglect the means till I have the end. Must I not seek to procure love, till I have it already? There are means also for the increasing of love where it is begun; and means for the exciting of it where it is cold and dull. And must I not use these means, till it is increased and excited? Why, this duty which I am recommending is the most powerful means both to stir up thy love, and to increase it; and therefore, stay not from the duty, till thou feel thy love constrain