hell lodges within you, and you know it not; but anon, when the conscience is awakened, you shall know it, to your dreadful experience. As the fields are most pleasant, fertile, and beautiful, which lie near Heaven is the proper place where all excellency dwells, should we not then est the perpendicular rays of the sun; dwell mentally so the more nearly we approach the there? "Sun of righteousness," the more vigorous and lively shall our condition be: how shall we bloom and flourish "like a tree planted by the rivers of water!" Psa. i. 3. Oh, how beautiful shall we become, in the eyes of God, angels, and saints! Worldlings, you live in a cold climate; can any thing befall you, except withering and decay? Come hither, this is the sunny side of the world: were you here, you could not but cry out, "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage," Psa. xvi. 6. We are allowed to have our minds no where else but in heaven, that free from the contagion To have the mind in heaven is safe; to let it fall down to earth is most dangerous; mostly from this do Sa- only being tan, the world, and our vile hearts of sin." get such advantage against us; this is the place where Satan domineers; to dwell here, implies a submission to the sceptre of his government. No wonder so many mischiefs befall earth-worms. Heaven is the saint's proper soil: if you be wise, O citizens of the NewJerusalem, range not without the borders of your kingdom, lest some evil befall you. Who are most accomplished for the greatest actions and sufferings for Christ? Who, but these who are most above? If the study of human sciences renders a man in some According to the excellency of our knowledge, so is the tivity; and consefor doing great Lord's glory. sphere of our ac quently our fitness things for our measure excellent, what will the study of this superior science do? All other sciences are subordinate to this; it being a practical science, directing and illuminating our minds, in the right and solid doing of all things. Know much of God; and know much of all things. What we know are; if earth, are earthly; if heaven, we heavenly. are The difference betwixt saints, and and affect, that we all worldlings, lies much here;_as the man is, so are his thoughts. Do the faculties of thy soul run most out on heaven and glory? Does heaven more affect thee than earth? Is it the ordinary frame of thy spirit? Oh, the blessedness of thy condition! Little canst thou conceive what thou art coming to. But does thy mind run most upon earth? Is it the most delightsome object? and is heaven a dreaded and strange subject to meditate upon? Is that the ordinary harmony of thy spirit? Oh, thy dreadful condition! who can conceive it? But thou shalt know it ere long. And how sweetly and cordially are we invited to come up from this base earth, and partake of noble fellowship with the Father and the Son! The gates of glory are cast wide open to all; the wells of salvation are not sealed: if you be eternally thrust out, blame yourselves. He complains, exhorts,uses arguments: "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life-Why will ye die? -Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely," John v. 40; Ezek. xviii. 31; Rev. xxii. 17. Ah, fools! what are you doing? doubt you whether to come up or not? what have you there but broken cisterns? Here, O here, are the fountains, the rivers, the oceans of living waters. Beware, sirs, 13 this become not your eternal complaint: "Heaven was wide open, and I would not come in; and now, woe, woe, woe for evermore! the gates are for ever shut against me." It is dangerous are to search, and die searching; has so strange a pow- O heirs of this never-fading glory, need we speak of the things you have a view of, far above all our expressions? See you not what is inexpressible? Are you not enraptured with the goodness of your lot? Have composed of earth. you not been often upon the top of mount Pisgah, viewing the higher and lower world, the vast difference betwixt the children's inheritance, and Have you not received a that of the bastards? taste of the delicious fruits that grow on the tree of life? Have you not received in your souls some sparkles of that heavenly joy and love? Have you not experimentally seen the nothingness and vanity of all created enjoyments? How is it, then, that so many of you are so base and carnal in your deportment, that it is difficult to discern betwixt your walk and that of the sons of the earth? What! back to the earth again, after you have received so high an elevation! somewhat resemble the fallen angels. Sirs, (if it be so, that you are fallen indeed,) it is a hundred to one, if ever you approach so near heaven, on this side of time: apostasy, in the smallest degree, that you cannot totally is very dreadful. Be it and finally become earth again: yet, is it not sad never to come near to the first attainments? as it mostly falls out in fallen saints: even David's last ways were below his first. But, however, can you endure so to disgrace your Lord's glory, before so, с You the eyes of vile worldlings, who esteem heaven a well-invented chimera? Can you feed their atheism? and dare you shake the faith of weak ones; and be the sad occasion of many going back? Either walk in a heavenly manner, or profess no religion at all: if your converse be like that of dunghill wretches, wherein do you glorify God more than they? Yea, you do dishonour him more a thousand stages. Christians, can you forget your sweet country, in this melancholy wilderness? Is not death at hand? Our time is short for making ready for eternity; ere we get a sight of the vain world, death will assault us. What is time, but a preparation for eternity? Were there not connexion betwixt these two, verily time were of no consideration. Have we lost the real use of our senses? do not all we see, or hear, invite us to go up, and leave this despicable world? Every earthly enjoyment has vanity written upon it; every thing here has a frowning countenance : are we not "looking for a city whose builder and maker is God?" Heb. xi. 10. Let us be persuaded of the truth of such great things; let us embrace the promises, and confess we are strangers and pilgrims on the earth," that the natives of this world may perceive we "seek a country," Heb. xi. 13, 14. Cry out, sirs, Adieu, ye gilded enjoyments, abstracted from the life of all enjoyments; ah glistering nothings! what are you all to me? what to one who has found the enduring substance? Welcome, a thousand times welcome, eternal joys, substantial pleasures, enduring comforts! welcome enjoyment of God, in any measure, 66 though through a glass. Mount up, O my soul, on the seraphic wings of heavenly meditation: Though thou hast lien among the pots, yet shalt thou be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold," Psa. lxviii. 13. Let not a low sight content thee; never rest, until thou be over the borders of time, where thou shalt be at rest, and free from trouble : here is nothing but " vanity and vexation of spirit," Eccl. i. 14. Scripture gives of things beyond us time. a discovery By a spiritual view of the Scriptures, in their own genuine sense, we might attain unto the sublime know ledge of excellent things: they are wisest, who are best studied in them; faith is an instrument, whereby the soul takes up aright the things contained therein. And does not every page smell of heaven and glory? The glory of God, and intellectual creatures, and everlasting enjoyment of Him, is the subject and scope of all. Nay, this great volume of this visible All, demonstrates somewhat invisible, of a far higher nature: "The heavens declare the glory of God-The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made," Psa. xix. 1; Rom. i. 20. How many draughts and emblems of glory may we behold in the glorious fabric of heaven and earth! How does the Spirit set before our eyes that inconceivable glory to come, in types and borrowed terms, drawn from the glories of this lower region! Verily, they have the advantage of others, who have spirit and opportunity for searching into the admirable works of God's creation; for |