serpent can unteach it you, or ever be able to separate you from that love. You may read in these sacred records of your heart, how the Angel of the Covenant hath hitherto conducted you, through this wilderness towards the land of promise; how he hath been a cloud to you in the day, and a pillar of fire by night; how the Lord did number you with the people that are his flock, his portion, and the lot of his inheritance; and led you about in a desert land, instructed you, and kept you as the apple of his eye. (Deut. xxxii. 9, 10.) His manna hath compassed your tent; his doctrine hath dropped as the rain, and his words distilled as the dew; as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass. As his beloved you have dwelt in safety by him, and the Lord hath covered you all the day long, when storms have risen, he hath been your refuge; and when dangers compassed you on every side, he hath hid you as in his pavilion, and his angels have pitched their tents about you, and borne you up: You have been fortified in troubles, and have been enabled comfortably to undergo them: in war and in peace; in your native country and in foreign lands; among your friends and among your enemies; in court and country; in prosperity and adversity, you have found that there is none like the God of Israel, who rideth upon the heaven in your help, and his excellency on the sky: the eternal God hath been your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." (Deut. xxxiv. 26, 27.) You may remember the mercies of your younger years, of your married state, and of your widowhood: your comforts in your truly noble lord, though troubled and interrupted by his death, yet increased by the consideration of his felicity with Christ; your comfort in your hopeful issue, though abated by the injury of Romish theft, which stole one of the roses of your garden, that they might boast of the sweetness when they called it their own: (I may well say, stole it, when all the cheat was performed by unknown persons in the dark; and no importunity by you or me, could procure me one dispute or conference in her hearing, with any of the seducers, before her person was stolen away. Though comforts conveyed by creatures must have their pricks, yet your experience hath partly taught you (and more will do) that by all the mixtures of sour and bitter ingredients, your Father doth temper you the most wholesome composition; he chasteneth you for

your profit, that you may be partaker of his holiness, (Heb. xii. 10,) and the least degree of holiness cannot be purchased at too dear a rate. His rod and staff have comforted you: and whatever are the beginnings, the end will be the quiet fruit of righteousness, when you have been exercised therein: and though man be mutable, and friends, and flesh, and heart have failed you, yet God is still the strength of your heart, and your portion for ever. (Psalm lxxiii. 26.) O the variety of learning that is contained in the secret writings of a sanctified heart! The variety of subjects for the most fruitful and delightful thoughts, which you may find recorded in the inwards of your soul! How pleasant is it there to find the characters of the special love of God, the lineaments of his image, the transcript of his law, the harmony of his gifts and graces, the witness, the seal and the earnest of his Spirit, and the foretastes and beginnings of eternal life! As thankfulness abhors oblivion, and is a recording grace, and keepeth histories and catalogues of mercies; so is it a reward unto itself; and by these records it furnisheth the soul with matter for the sweetest employments and delights: Is it not pleasant to you there to read how God hath confuted the objections of distrust? How oft he hath condescended to your weakness, and pardoned you when you could not easily forgive yourself? How oft he hath entertained you in secret with his love? and visited you with his consolations? How near him sometimes you have got in fervent prayer, and serious meditation? And when for a season he hath hid his face, how soon and seasonably he returned? How oft he hath found you weeping, and hath wiped away your tears, and calmed and quieted your troubled soul? How he hath resolved your doubts, and expelled your fears; and heard your prayers? How comfortably he hath called you his child; and given you leave, and commanded you to call him Father; when Christ hath brought you with boldness into his presence! How sweet should it be to your remembrance, to think how the love of Christ hath sometimes exalted you above these sublunary things! How the Spirit hath taken you up to heaven, and shewed to your faith the glory of the New Jerusalem, the blessed company of those holy spirits that attend the throne of the majesty of God, and the shining face of your glorified Head! By what seasonable and happy messengers he hath sent you the cluster of grapes as

the firstfruits of the land of promise! and commanded you oft to take and eat the bread of life? How oft he hath reached to your thirsty soul the fruit of the vine, and turned it sacramentally into his blood, and bid you drink it in remembrance of him, till he come and feast you with his fullest love, and satisfy you with the pleasure and presence of his glory.

But the volumes of mercy written in your heart, are too great to be by me transcribed. I can easily appeal to you that are acquainted with it, whether such heart-employment be not more pleasant and more profitable than any of the entertainments that flashy wit, or gaudy gallantry, or merriments, luxury, or preferments can afford. Is it not better converse with Christ at home than with such as are described, Psalm xii. abroad? To dwell with all that blessed retinue, (Gal. v. 22, 23,) than with pride, vainglory, envy, dissimulation, hypocrisy, falsehood, time-wasting, soul-destroying pleasures; to say nothing of the filthiness which Christian ears abhor the mention of, and which God himself in time will judge, (Eph. v. 3-6; Heb. xiii. 4,) and the rest recited, Gal. v. 19-21. If ungodly persons do find it more unpleasant to converse at home, no wonder, when there is nothing but darkness and defilement; and when they have put God from them, and entertained Satan, so that their hearts are like to haunted houses, where terrible cries and apparitions do make it a place of fear to the inhabitants. But if their souls had such blessed inhabitants as yours, could they meet there with a reconciled God, a Father, a Saviour and a Sanctifier; had they souls that kept a correspondence with heaven, it would not seem so sad and terrible a life to dwell at home, and withdraw from that noise of vanity abroad, which are but the drums and trumpets of the devil, to encourage his deluded followers, and drown the cries of miserable souls. Your dearest friends and chiefest treasure, are not abroad in court or country, but above you, and within you; where then should your delightful converse be, but where your friends and treasure are? (Matt. vi. 21; Phil. iii. 20; Col. iii. 1-4.) When there is almost nothing to be found in the conversation of the world, but discord and distraction, and confusion, and clamours, and malice, and treachery, is it not better to retire into such a heart, where notwithstanding infirmities, and some doubts and fears, there

is order, and concord, and harmony, and such peace as the world can neither give nor take away? O blessed be the hand of love, that blotted out the names of honour, and riches, and pleasures, and carnal interest, and accommodations, from your heart; and inscribed his own in characters never to be obliterated! That turned out usurpers, and so prepared and furnished your heart, as to make and judge it such, as no one is worthy of it but himself. O what a court have you chosen for your abode! How high and glorious! how pure and holy! unchangeable and safe! How ambitiously do you avoid ambition! How great are you in the lowliness of your mind! How high in your humility! Will no lower a place than heaven content you to converse in ? (For heart-converse and heaven-converse are as much one, as beholding both the glass and face :) Will no lower correspondents satisfy you than the host of heaven? Cannot the company of imperfect mortals serve your turn? Nay, can. you be satisfied with none below the Lord himself? Well, Madam, if you will needs have it so, it shall be so: What you judge BEST FOR YOU, shall be yours: what you had rather be, you are: and where you had rather dwell, you shall: and seeing you have understood that "one thing is necessary, and have chosen the good part, it shall not be taken from you." (Luke x. 41, 42. Having first sought the kingdom of God and his righteousness, you shall have such additionals as will do you good. (Matt. vi. 33; Rom. viii. 28; Psalm lxxxiv. 11.) You have learned to know while God is yours, how little of the creature you need, and how little addition it maketh to your happiness (you are wise enough if you live to God; and honourable enough if you are a member of Christ; and rich enough if you are an heir of heaven; and beautiful enough if you have the image of God: and yet having made your choice of these, how liberally hath God cast in as overplus the inferior kind, which you find in losing them! As if he had said to you, as to Solomon, (2 Chron. i. 11,)" Because this was in thine heart, and thou hast not asked riches, wealth or honour, nor the life of thine enemies, neither yet hast asked long life; but hast asked wisdom. and knowledge for thyself-wisdom and knowledge is: granted to thee; and I will give thee riches, and wealth, and honour--;" as if God would convince even flesh itself that none are like the servants of the Lord: And when

the envious one hath said, that you serve not God for nought, though he hath been permitted to put forth his hand, and touch you in your dearest friends and relations; your peace, your habitation and estate, yet hath he so restrained him, and supported you, as may easily convince you that the worst of Christ is better than the best of the world, or sin.

I have purposely been long in opening the felicity of the heart-converse, as a matter of your own experience, both for the exciting of you to a life of thankfulness to God, and that this undigested treatise which you have drawn out into the light, may come to your hands with some supply, in that part of the application which doth most concern you: And because your name may draw the eyes of many others to read this preface, I shall add here a few directions to those that would be well acquainted with themselves, and would comfortably converse at home.

Direct. 1. Let him not overvalue or mind the deceitful world, that would have fruitful converse with God and with himself: Trust not such a cheater, as hath robbed so many thousands before us, especially when God and common experience do call out to us to take heed: The study of riches, and rising, and reputation, and pleasures, agreeth not with this study of God, and of our hearts: and though the world will not take acquaintance with us, if we come not in their fashion, nor see us, if we stand not on the higher ground; yet it is much better to be unknown to others, than to ourselves: though they that live upon the trade, do think there is no fishing like the sea, yet those that take it but on the by, will rather choose the smaller waters, where, though the fish be less, yet few are drowned, and made a prey to the fish that they would have catched. A retirement therefore must be made, from the inordinate pursuit of worldly things, and the charms of honours, riches, and delights and if some present loss do seem to follow, it is indeed no loss, which tendeth unto gain. He will catch no fish that will not lose his fly. Methinks they that sincerely pray, “ Lead us not into temptation," should not desire to have bolts and bars between God and them, and to dwell where salvation is most hardly attained! Desire not to be planted in any such place, though it seem a paradise, where God is most unknown, and used as a stranger, and where saints are wonders, and examples of serious piety are most rare, and where a