one that lookest strange at the godly poor, and art almost ashamed to be their companion? Canst thou not serve God in a low place, as well as a high? Are thy boastings restrained more by prudence or artifice than humility? Dost thou desire to have all men's eyes upon thee, and to hear them say, "This is he?" Art thou unacquainted with the deceitfulness and wickedness of thy heart? Art thou more ready to defend thy innocence, than accuse thyself or confess thy fault? Canst thou hardly bear a close reproof, or digest plain dealing? If these symptoms be undeniably in thy heart, thou art a proud person. There is too much of hell abiding in thee, to have any acquaintance with heaven; thy soul is too like the devil to have any familiarity with God. A proud man makes himself his God, and sets up himself as his idol; how then can his affections be set on God? How can he possibly have his heart in heaven? Invention and memory may possibly furnish his tongue with humble and heavenly expressions, but in his spirit there is no more heaven than there is humility. I speak the more of it, because it is the most common and dangerous sin in morality, and most promotes the great sin of infidelity. O Christian! if thou wouldest live continually in the presence of thy Lord, lie in the dust, and he will thence take thee up. Learn of him to be meek and lowly, and thou shalt find rest unto thy soul * Otherwise thy soul will be like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt;† and instead of these sweet delights in God, thy pride will fill thee with perpetual disquiet. As he that humbleth himself as a little child, shall hereafter be greatest in the kingdom of heaven;‡ so shall he now be greatest

* Matt. xi. 29.

+ Isa. lvii. 20.

Matt, xviii. 4.

in the foretastes of that kingdom. God dwells with a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite * Therefore humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. And when others are cast down, then thou shalt say, there is lifting up, and he shall save the humble person.‡

ones.

7. (6) A slothful spirit is another impediment to this heavenly life. And I verily think, there is nothing hinders it more than this in men of a good understanding. If it were only the exercise of the body, the moving of the lips, the bending of the knee; men would as commonly step to heaven, as they go to visit a friend. But to separate our thoughts and affections from the world, to draw forth all our graces, and increase each in its proper object, and hold them to it till the work prospers in our hands; this, this is the difficulty. Reader, heaven is above thee, and dost thou think to travel this steep ascent without labour and resoloution? Canst thou get that earthly heart to heaven, and bring that backward mind to God, while thou liest still, and takest thine ease? If lying down at the foot of a hill, and looking toward the top, and wishing we were there, would serve the turn, then we should have daily travellers for heaven. But the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.§ I here must be violence used to get these first fruits, as well as to get the full possession. Dost thou not feel it so, though I should not tell thee? Will thy heart get upwards, except thou drive it? Thou knowest that heaven is all thy hopes, that nothing below can yield thee rest, that a heart seldom thinking of heaven, can Job. xxii. 29.

Isa. lvii. 15. + James iv. 10.

Matt. xi. 12.

fetch but little comfort thence; and yet dost thou not lose thy opportunities, and lie below, when thou shouldst walk above, and live with God? Dost thou not commend the sweetness of a heavenly life, and judge those the best Christians that use it, and yet never try it thyself? As the sluggard that stretches himself on his bed, and cries, Q that this were working! So dost thou talk, and trifle, and live at thy ease, and say, O that I could get my heart to heaven! How many read books, and hear sermons, expecting to hear of some easi er way, or to meet with a shorter course to comfort, than they are ever like to find in scripture? Or they ask for directions for a heavenly life, and if the hearing them will serve, they will be heavenly Christians; but if we shew them their work, and tell them, they cannot have these delights on easier terms, then they leave us, as the young man left Christ, sorrowful. If thou art convinced, reader, that this work is necessary to thy comfort, set upon it resolutely: If thy heart draw back, force it on with the command of reason: If thy reason begin to dispute, produce the command of God, and urge thy own necessity, with the other considerations suggested in the former chapter. Let not such an incomparable treasure lie before thee, with thy hand in thy bosom; nor thy life be a continual vexation, when it might be a continual feast, only because thou wilt not exert thyself. Sit not still with a disconsolate spirit, while comforts grow before thine eyes, like a man in the midst of a garden of flowers, that will not rise to get them, and partake of their sweetness. This I know, Christ is the fountain; but the well is deep, and thou must get forth this water before thou canst be re

freshed with it. I know, so far as you are spiritual, you need not all this striving and violence; but in part you are carnal, and as long as it is so, there is need of labour. It was a custom of the Parthians, not to give their children any meat in the morning, before they saw the sweat on their faces with some labour. And you shall find this to be God's usual course, not to give his children the taste of his delight, till they begin to sweat in seeking after them. Judge therefore whether a heavenly life, or thy carnal ease, be better; and as a wise man, make thy choice accordingly. Yet let me add for thy encouragement, Thou needest not employ thy thoughts more than thou dost; it is only to fix them upon better and more pleasant objects. Employ but as many serious thoughts every day upon the excellent glory of the life to come, as thou now dost on worldly affairs, yea, on vanities and impertinences, and thy heart will soon be at heaven. On the whole, it is the field of the slothful, that is all grown over with thorns and nettles; and the desire of the slothful killeth his joys, for his hands refuse to labour; and it is the slothful man saith, there is a lion in the way, a lion is in the streets. As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed. The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom, it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth,* though it be to feed himself with the food of life. What is this but throwing away our own consolations, and consequently the precious blood that bought them? For he that is slothful in his work, is brother to him that is a great waster.† Apply this to thy spiritual work, and study well the meaning of it.

*Prov, xxiv. 30, 31. xxi. 25. xxvi. 13—15.

+ Prov. xviii. 35-39

8. (7) Contentment with the mere preparatives to this heavenly life, while we are utter strangers to the life itself, is also a dangerous and secret hinderance. When we take up with the mere study of heavenly things, and the notions of them, or the talking with one another about them; as if this were enough to make us heavenly. None are in more danger of this snare, than those that are employed in leading the devotions of others, especially preachers of the gospel. O how easily may such be deceived! While they do nothing so much as read and study of heaven; preach, and pray, and talk of heaven; is not this the heavenly life? Alas! all this is but mere preparation : This is but collecting the materials, not erecting the building itself: It is but gathering the manna for others, and not eating and digesting ourselves. As he that sits at home may draw exact maps of countries, and yet never see them, nor travel toward them; so may you describe to others the joys of heaven, and yet never come near it in your own hearts. A blind man, by learning may dispute of light and colours; so may you set forth to others that heavenly light, which never enlightened your own souls, and bring that fire for the hearts of your people, which never warmed your own hearts. What heavenly passages had Balaam in his prophecies, yet how little of it in his spirit? Nay, we are under a more subtle temptation, than any other men, to draw us from this heavenly life. Studying and preaching of heaven more resembles a heavenly life, than thinking and talking of the world does; and the resemblance is apt to deceive us.

This is to die the most miserable death, even to famish ourselves, because we have bread on our tables;