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slowly; looking upon every hour as an age, in his absence; and death as of a sweet and lovely countenance, since it opens us a passage to the full enjoyment of him; and all creature excellency, as a mass of deformity, if it should eclipse, for a moment, the sweet enjoyment of his allsufficient Self?

Students of glory

culties and vexations of time.

Sweet, sweet is the way to my overlook the diffi- blessed home! can the way be thought tedious that leads to such boundless joy? Oh, the goodly country I behold lying at the end of my race! What though sadness assault me! yonder are oceans of joys at the end of my journey; though weariness! yonder are green pastures, with an eternal May; though death! yonder are floods, the rivers of life, of which I shall drink, and drink again, for evermore. Do poverty and contempt intervene? lo, the rich inheritance, the golden and pearly city, the splendid mansions! Oh, the rich inhabitants! how do mine eyes affect mine heart! O blessed

Christ, I have seen thee in thy beauty; and oh, how is my soul in an uninterrupted motion to be at thee! The affairs of time move not as such. Oh, what allurements! who can see, and not run? Oh thy violent, sweet, attractive virtue! how strongly and quickly dost thou draw thy members up to heaven after thee! See I not thee, O Wellbeloved, standing with the massy crown of glory in thy hand, crying, Run, and have it? And shall I not run, even run with patience, and cheerfully unto the death? How cheerfully did my Lord go up to Jerusalem, to purchase the crown for me! a crown to be purchased through

a world of sorrows and difficulties! doing? why stand I thus? all is already, and the word is to me,

possess.

What am I purchased Enter and

The

study of

ing, that the more we study, the more we love to study

it.

Had we a discovery of the only excellent things, how difficult would glory is so allurit prove to get our thoughts plucked off them! Most lovely things, seen in their loveliness, captivate the affections most, and consequently determine the thoughts: do we not think most upon what we love most? Worldlings, I appeal to your consciences, if your thoughts run not out most upon earthly things: why? you know them only, and esteem them most but, had you a view of the real world, the outgoings of your soul would run in a higher orb. Had we the impressions of glory on our spirits, lower objects should not easily draw down our thoughts, or turn them aside; yea, our higher powers would be so strongly affected, as that the lower powers would be regulated even in sleep; our imaginations would be composing and dividing the ideas of the life to come, which they received, according to their natures, from the higher faculties. How often should we be, in our dreams, walking up and down the streets of the golden city, the beds of lilies and roses, in the higher paradise of glory, the banks of that "river of water of life?" Rev. xxii. 1.

The

day's thoughts have influence upon the night's dreams; the disposition of the fancy follows that of the mind. Ah! ye sons of men, what wonder your fancy runs out after so foolish a manner ! the strength of your sublime powers is wasted

on dunghill concerns; your thoughts are full of carth, and all your lower powers are full of it also.

Creatures are only

more or less excel

Creatures are excellent according to be esteemed to their knowledge. Let beasts imalent, according to gine, that the scenical garbs of riches, their knowledge. and titular honours, add any thing real to men; it is only knowledge that differenceth without it a man is but a beast; and with it, in its elevated pitch, he is a glorified and immortal creature: "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent," John xvii. 3. And is not the knowledge more noble, according to the excellency of the objects, they being taken up congruously? Oh, then! are they not seraphic creatures, whose minds are set upon the only excellent things? Had we a sight of that surpassing glory, how would our minds be elevated wonderfully above this base dunghill! How should we look down upon the greatest things of earth, as inconsiderable trifles, far below our sublime spirits! How should we trample on crowns and sceptres, yea, many worlds, though existent, when elevated on our high places, clothed with the sun, and having the moon under our feet! Rev. xii. 1. How should we laugh at silly earth-worms, crawling over one another with great trouble and vexation! Ah, childish spirits! are you contending and wasting your inch of time on trifles and shining nothings? what is the gain, when all your projects are accomplished? Heirs of glory; no wonder you are termed by truth itself, the excellent ones of the earth, Psa.

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xvi. 3; none of excellent and generous spirits but you. The opinion of blind worldlings concerning you is of no value. The excellency and baseness of mankind, is not yet laid open; mortality, and its black retinue, obscure all; a little patience, and the Almighty shall unmask the whole race of mankind.

A clear view of such great rewards

encourages to all

The clear sight of the great recompense of reward, makes the creature cheerful in duty. Am I so slow in duties. my race, and the matchless inheritance at the stake? Cries not my Lord unto me, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life," Rev. ii. 10. Is there such a necessary connexion betwixt a momentary fight, and an everlasting triumph? Oh, the disproportion! Who would not fight? who would not wrestle? Oh let me run to the death.

Is not grace young glory, and the forethoughts of heaven, a preparation

The better we are versed in the

the more we are

study of heaven, for heaven; even as black nature is fitted for it. a preparation for hell, the height and perfection of wickedness? a suitableness is congruous betwixt the creature and its condition. High spirits are not for base, low things; as creeping spirits are not for high. What things in heaven can delight a carnal soul? Earth, earth, and only earth, is its known object: give him earth, and he desires no more. There is congruity and discongruity betwixt the capacity and object: beasts have no regard to intellectual things; neither carnal men (termed beasts in Scripture) to the things of God. Oh sweet! how do the saints smell of glory, before they enter in! May they

not say, Whither I go, I know, and the way I know, John xiv. 4. Were I ignorant of the world I remove for ever into, could I be thus in so joyful a frame? My soul is going to the place where my heart is already: "I know whom I have believed," 2 Tim. i. 12; and what is His reward. Oh "joy unspeakable, and full of glory!" 1 Pet. i. 8.

Noble conceptions of glory,

possessors of heaven and glory.

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Serious meditating on heaven, ren

and

make us in part ders us, in some manner, possessors thereof. "Our conversation is in heaven," says the apostle, Phil. iii. 20: again, "Ye are come" (not to the mount visible) unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God," Heb. xii. 22. Converse and presence is only by benefit of the mind: were we dwelling in heaven by faith, we might be said to be in heaven before we were there; or rather heaven would come down unto our souls; Christ and all his glorious train would be intimate with us. Oh then! we might say, My company is sweet, my fellowship glorious: He, whose presence enlightens, enlivens, and beautifies heaven, is ever present with me: "I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved," Psa. xvi. 8. Oh, surpassing joys and sweetness! the source of all joys and sweetness doth possess my heart. Blind worldlings, you see but the outward garb of sense: saw you what were within, you could not but admire their happiness: "The King's daughter is all glorious within," Psa. xlv. 13. Saw you your own selves in your own genuine colours, you would run from yourselves if it were possible:

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