governed; thee by whose infinite kindness mankind was redeemed. What a joy will it be to me to see thee, who didst conduct me in my way; direct me at every turn; support me in every step; assist me in all the various passages of my life; secure me from innumerable temptations; preserve me from as many dangers; and at last broughtest me safe to see thee, and rejoice with thee for ever!

CHAP. XVI.

Of the mighty power and pleasure of love when it is settled

in the heart.

AND thus I am come to the end of this other part of my discourse: wherein the reasons of placing our best affections on the appearing of Christ have been so plainly deduced, that, as they cannot but be understood, so they cannot but move those hearts which do not quite turn away their minds from all consideration of them: and that it should be hard to do, one would think, if we have the least acquaintance with the Christian religion. Which hereby most strongly recommends itself unto us, that it gives us such great and glorious hopes, and entertains our tiresome pilgrimage with such delightful contemplations of the joys and pleasures we shall have in another world; especially when we come to rest with our Lord for

ever.

No man that is in his wits would be without the comfort of this expectation. It far exceeds all our present enjoyments; and is in itself so desirable, that we may truly say, Faith doth not beg to be admitted by us, but rather commands us to open our hearts and let it in, if we would have any constant pleasure and settled peace and satisfaction there, which nothing but the Christian belief can establish in us. And this is the misery of all those who do not faithfully receive the gospel; that as they shall miss of the greatest blessings hereafter, so they want the highest comfort in the world at present: which is, to wait with assured hope for those good things which our Lord will give us at his appearing. By the expectance of which we are not only a little pleased while we employ our

minds in such meditations as these; but they put us into a state of pleasure and constant satisfaction, by drawing our hearts to heaven, and placing us out of the power, though not out of the reach, of all worldly accidents.

For such is the condition of man, as the disciples of Plato's school have well expressed it, that there are two effusions and ecstacies, as we may call them, of his soul; two sorts of inebriation (as some of them love to speak) whereby he is dispossessed of himself. By the one (which is a divine rapture) we are carried out and placed above ourselves; by the other, (which is the witchery of sense,) we are hurried away, and thrust down into a condition below ourselves. Their meaning is, that man being of a middle nature, between angels and beasts, by his intellectual part partaking of the nature of those heavenly beings, and by his sensitive of the nature of the brutes, he may so apply himself either to the one or to the other, that he come, in great measure, out of his middle condition, and go either upward to the former or downward to the latter.

And this strange feat is wrought by nothing else but by the power of love; which evidently entrances our souls, and transports us out of ourselves: either to the celestial natures, if it be divine, or to the brutish, if it be founded only in the flesh. By exercising our minds in the actions of spiritual life, and placing our affections on things above, we may deliver and enfranchise ourselves from a servile base condition, and approach nearer to the degree of angels than of ordinary men: as, on the contrary, by applying our minds and hearts wholly to corporeal actions, and addressing all our services to the things of this world, we may so enthral ourselves, and bring our souls into such bondage, that we shall sink down into a vile estate, and become more like beasts than men.

O strange power of love, which makes such transformations! turning men either into angels or into the most sordid creatures. How careful should we be to observe its motions! What diligence should we use to watch whither it goes, and to see that this mighty passion be directed to the most excellent good! And if we do but open our eyes to receive the light of the glorious gospel, and all the beauties that it presents unto us, we cannot easily be deceived. There are a world of noble

enjoyments to which our Saviour invites us, if we will vouchsafe to look upon them, and not be so sottish as to fasten our eyes only on a few objects here before us. He hath opened to us the kingdom of heaven; and tells us he will show us all the glory of his Father's house, if we will but wait a while, till he be ready to come and fetch us thither. Why should we not believe him, and daily look up unto him, with hearts full of joy that we are beloved of the Lord of life, and have a good hope to live together with him? What a change would this work in us! and how happy should we be to think of the far more glorious change which the sight of him will make, when, by seeing him, we shall become what he is!

O the joy that begins to spring up in my heart! O what ravishing words are those, We shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is! How sweetly they enter into mine ears! How deliciously they spread and diffuse themselves all over my mind, and strongly penetrate to my very heart! I am changed already. I am not what I was, but quite another man: all light and joy, all spirit and life while I think of these things. And can I ever so forget them as to be allured and drawn away from myself and my Saviour, from my enjoyments and my hopes, by any earthly pleasures?

What comparison is there between those two states I now described, that I should be in danger of such temptations? Is there any need to ask which is most to be chosen? to suffer my heart to be touched with such a sense of divine pleasures as to be ravished out of myself, and become more than man; or to expose it so to the solicitations of sensible delights, as to be enticed by them another way out of myself, and transformed into the nature of the beasts that perish?

We are all desirous and forward enough to climb higher; and our ambition tempts us to mount to as noble a station as it is possible to reach and therefore let us ascend, O my soul, to the Lord Jesus; let us lift up our thoughts still towards the holy place where he reigns, and look for the time of his appearing to make us reign with him for ever. This is the most pleasant object we can behold, or rather is a collection of innumerable pleasures, which all here meet together; and therefore cannot but be of mighty power to ravish our spirits and

ennoble our natures by making them divine. Hither let us vigorously and cheerfully bend our thoughts; let our hearts send many and many a wish this way, and then it will be as impossible for any thing to hinder us from being made heavenly, as it is to keep the stone from its centre, or the tenderest heart from becoming like to that which it dearly loves.

Here we see what God the Father Almighty will do for his Son Jesus, and what our Lord Jesus will do for us who depend upon his love. We behold ourselves here ranked among the heavenly host; changed into spirits; made perfect in love; crowned with immortality; beautified with the light of divine knowledge and with unspotted purity of heart; brought into the presence of our Lord, and unto the sight of God. On which incomparable happiness while we fix our eyes, it must needs snatch us quite from all other things, and make us live out of ourselves; but it will be only to place us above ourselves, and, by a most desirable departure from what we are, to put us into so blessed a condition, that we shall never wish to return to ourselves any more.

And indeed the more or less our souls are drawn forth of themselves either way, so much the harder or easier it is to go back into themselves again. For if we be much ravished with these heavenly things; if we love the appearing of Christ exceedingly, and attentively fix our minds in expectation of it; we shall have little mind to turn our hearts towards corporeal enjoyments, during the sense and lively relish of those divine pleasures which have withdrawn us from them. And when the inclinations and necessities of our earthly nature call us back again unto them, it will be with a remembrance of those celestial joys still remaining, which will preserve our souls from immersing themselves in things below them. Just as when a man's heart is engaged in the strictest bonds of love, which have tied him fast to a very agreeable person, whatsoever company he comes into, he will secretly steal out of it, to cast a glance upon that beloved object; so will our mind be apt to look up towards heaven (even when we are in the charming society of that person), if the Lord and the glory of his appearing be our chiefest love and highest delight. As, on the contrary, if we have but a slight touch and taste of these heavenly truths, we shall be the easier diverted from them, and per

suaded to yield up ourselves to seek our satisfaction in the cold enjoyment of these earthly delights.

And thus it is, in like manner, when men follow brutal pleasures; the more strongly they are ravished with them, and addict themselves to them, the more they lose the use of their reason and understanding, and the more uncapable they grow, being so attentive to these delights, to receive any gust of nobler enjoyments: whereas, if our taste of these things be more superficial, and we do not apply our minds with all their force unto them, nor dwell upon them, we shall be the easier called off from them, and stand in need of fewer importunities to quit their company for better entertainments.

Which demonstrates how necessary it is that we should endeavour to be well acquainted with the coming of our Lord; to believe it with an unshaken faith; to persuade ourselves of it as if we saw it; to set our hearts upon it, and place our comforts in it; that so it may have the greater authority over us, and command us irresistibly from all things beneath us, and force us to give ourselves entirely to our Lord Jesus.

CHAP. XVII.

Of the means whereby this love may be settled in our hearts; and the benefit thereof.

AND, for the better effecting this which so nearly concerns us, we ought, as to think frequently and seriously of it, so to use all the means that are in our power to represent our blessed Lord and his glorious appearing in the most lively manner unto our hearts. Among which, I believe, you will find none more effectual than to frequent his society in the communion of his body and of his blood; where we not only meet with a fair occasion both to imprint upon our hearts a sense of his love, and to express all the love we have to him, but have a most powerful instrument also put into our hands, to enkindle and stir up the most hearty, vehement, and burning affection towards him.

For there he is set before our eyes in such a posture of love as cannot but wound any heart that hath the grace to consider what it sees. There we behold him hanging for our sake upon