the want of the full enjoyment of God; being fo well pleased with an easy, earthly life, either in reality, or in imagination, as thou art faying to thyfelf, It is good to be here? Art thou thus, ånd yet a faint, a pilgrim, who is travelling heavenward, a creature whofe heart and love is in another country, and not here? This is a repugnancy; never think it, man; think thyself the thing thou art, an home born slave; and then thou art a step in the way to true liberty. 16thly, Art thou longing to be in the immediate embraces of the Chief of ten thousand, to behold him face to face, and be fatiate with his immediate fellowship? Is it oft the cry of thy longing heart, When fball I fee him as he is, and that white and beautiful company following him whitherfoever he goes? When fhall I fee the Bridegroom and the bride kifs and embrace one another? When fhall he fet his majestic head through these visible heavens, and appear in his royal marriage-robes, before the whole creation? Ah, the envious heavens, that hide him from my longing eyes! ah the longfome days, that lie betwixt me and him! When fall we be eternally in others immediate embraces? But, on the contrary, canft thou live contentedly, in the midst of earthly abundance, with fmail or no defires of his immediate fellowfhip? Is this the ordinary frame of thy fpirit, and yet a faint? It cannot be. Can the chaste spouse not long for her abfent bridegroom? Can the true lover live patiently, without beholding the beloved's face? Ah! Sirs, you have not been really efpoufed to him. Have you not received his lovetokens, nor been ravished with the fmell of his fragrant ointments? and what wonder you are as you are? Y 3 17thly, 17thly, Are you depending on God in every thing? Acknowledge you him in all your ways, and in every exigency that befals you? Caft you all your cares upon him, and trust in him for all things in time and eternity? So that you find your minch greatly eased, as having one to your Father who is both able and willing to carry you through all difficulties and afflictions? Are you endeavour. ing to do his commandments, and commit the event of all abfolutely unto him, who, you know, brings all to a good iffue? Have you renounced the difpofing of yourselves, and resigned that, with all your concerns, even unto him? and dare not do any thing without his approbation? Or, on the contrary, do you rely on this thing, and that thing? If there be money in the purfe, or calvės in the ftall, then you hope you fhall not want; you trust in human probabilities: but if thofe fail you, you are defpondent; thou haft not the confidence in God, that may hold up thy heart, in as cheerful a condition, as when corn and wine aa bounded unto worldlings; thou cannot lay as much weight on the large promifes, in the book of God, as worldlings on their charters, in earthly poffef fions; and therefore thou art ever anxious about the event, and commits not the difpofing of thyfelf to him: thou walkest by the compass of riches, eafe, reputation, e.; and whether it be the will of Chrift, is thy laft confideration; whether it be a course that will most glorify him, and make thy progrefs fwifter to glory, doth not fo much trouble thee, as whether it be a courfe will render thee profperous, full of ease, wealth, and efteem in a world. Doth thine heart dictate unto thee, fuch an occupation, fuch a marriage, and fuch an Later. prife will bring in great wealth, much worldly joy, a multitude of friends, greater worldly honour, &c. therefore it is to be followed. Ah! deluded wretch, walkeft thou by earthly, carnal rules ; and yet fuch a noble creature as a faint? Never entertain fuch fancies: the faints walk as Chrift walked, he is their Forerunner, and Captain. The difference between a faint and a worldling, may, in fome manner, be apprehended from what we have fpoken. Afk feriously at yourselves fuch queftions; reflect upon your way of walking; fee what is the conftant frame of your heart, and what your heart affects moft; what you have been, and what you are aiming at, and fecking moft; what you rejoice moft in; what the thoughts and intentions of your heart run out most upon, O Sirs, be not beguiled in fo weighty a concernment: if you err here, you are eternally undone it is Satan's great endeavour to hinder you from confidering yourself, or your condition; he delights to fee you pafs away your time in confidering your natural abilities, your corporal endowments, your eftate in the world, &c. But he is afraid you confider your fpiritual eftate, how it ftands betwixt God and you; whether you be in friendly terms with him, or not: if not, how you may attain unto a near fellowship; and how you may keep yourself in his love and favour, and grow more and more familiar with him; he loves, and endeavours to divert your mind off eternal concernments to temporal. But, Sirs, ought you not to give eternity the first place, the firft, and flower, and choice, and might of all your endeavours? make fure work in fo great, great a matter: thy eternal well, or woe, is upon the wheels, man; what shall be your lot throughout endless ages, is a concernment above all you can conceive, or endeavour deavour. Knowest thou not how the matter ftands? Is not the time fhort thou haft to prepare thyself into? It not thy life most uncertain? Is not the work of falvation a great, a long, a difficult work? Is it not most ordinary, that men die as they live; and most certain, that their eternal condition is as they die? Knoweft thou not, that it is written, To-day, if ye will hear my voice, harden not your hearts? Thou knoweft not what a day may bring forth. Come, O come, and embrace fo friendly, a call. Have you any excufe? Are you about any bufinefs of fuch concernment? Is any fucceeding hour better than now? Doth not thine heart draw on a new fcruff of hardness? Why then, fall to work in good earnest, as for life and death: 'make fure work, build not upon fand, but on the rock: never reft till you have Christ indeed, and not fome fancy in his place; be fure you get an intereft in him: : never think yourself right, until you have a familiar and lively fellowship with the Father and the Son; until there be mutual communications of love betwixt Chrift and you; until you have heartìly, and for ever, given yourself wholly over to him, and taken him wholly over to you, to be your King, Priest, and Prophet, to be your all and only One; until you be enamoured with his matchleis beauty, overcome with his paffing sweetness; until earth, in its beft condition, be an empty nothing, and vanity in your eyes; until heaven become your native country, where heart, and love, and all do lie; fo that it fhall be as natural for you to be hea venly-minded as for earth-worms to be earthly. O then! we fhall greet you, by the excellent and princely name of faints. O then, you shall be no more beafts, but creatures of an high and feraphic mature, the fons and minions of the high and lofty One; One; the princes and heirs of heaven, and earth, and all things for then all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things prefent, or things to come : all are yours, and ye ae Chrift's, and Chrift is God's: A foliloquy to God, prayer-ways. Dispatch, O.Wellbeloved, and haften the day of our eternal marriage; put time and days out of the way: great things halt thou to do, before thou defcend vifibly to this lower world: thou haft been making great difpatch fince thour afcended; and still the nearer thy fecond coming, thou ftill hafteneft thy work the more: thefe few years immediately preceding, how haft thou put many and great things through thy hand? and now thy kingdom is upon the advancing hand, though it feem almost all tottering and decaying. That great and glorious work thou promifedft of old, is juft new in the birth, and near the breaking forth: thy grand enemies have begun to fall before thee, and have ftill loft ground; and though now they feem to have the advantage, it is but in appearance: thouart but making thyfelf to flee before them, that thou mayft draw them all out after thee; but ere. ever they fhall be aware, thou wilt make thine ambufcado's to affault them on the rere, and in a trice thou wilt environ them on every fide, give them an irreparable rout. Thou art, O mighty Captain, as it were, retiring thyfelf, that thou may eft come back on thine enemies with the greater. force thou art at the crying out, Ah! I will eafe me of mine adverfaries, and avenge me if mine enemies for behold, thou makeft the earth empty, : |