Balaam cry out, "O that I might die the death of the righteous, and that my last end might be like his."Yet let the same men recover, and lose their apprehensions of the life to come, and how quickly do they lose their understandings with it? Tell a dying sinner of the riches, honors or pleasures of the world, and would he not answer, "What is all this to me, who must presently appear before God, and give an account of all my life?" "Christian, if the apprehended nearness of eternity will work such strange effects upon the ungodly, and make them so much wiser than before; O what rare effects would it produce in thee, if thou couldst always dwell in the views of God, and in lively thoughts of thy everlasting state! Surely a believer, if he improves his faith, may ordinarily have more quickening apprehensions of the life to come, in the time of his health, than an unbeliever hath at the hour of his death.

§8. A heavenly mind is also fortified against temptations, because the affections are thoroughly prepossessed with the high delights of another world. He that loves most, and not he that only knows most, will most easily resist the motions of sin. The will doth as sweetly relish goodness, as the understanding doth truth. When thou hast had a fresh delightful taste of heaven, thou wilt not be so easily persuaded from it. You cannot persuade a child to part with his sweatmeats, while he hath the taste in his mouth. O that you would be much in feeding on the hidden manna, and be frequently tasting the delights of heaven! How would this confirm thy resolutions, and make thee de spise the fooleries of the world, and scorn to be cheated with such childish toys? If the devil had set upon Peter in the mount of transfiguration, when he saw Moses and Elias talking with Christ, would he so easily have been drawn to deny his Lord? What, with all that glory in his eye? No. So if he should set upon a believing soul, when he is taken up in the mount with Christ, what would such a soul say? "Get thee behind me, Satan; wouldst thou persuade me hence with trifling pleasures, and steal my heart from this my rest? Wouldst thou have me sell these joys for no. thing? Is there any honor or delight like this? or can that be profit, for which I must lose this?" But Satan.

stays till we are come down, and the taste of heaven is out of our mouths, and the glory we saw is even forgotten, and then he easily deceives our hearts. Though the Israelites below, eat, and drink, and rise up to play before their idol, Moses in the mount will not do so. O if we could keep the taste of our souls continually delighted with the sweetness above, with what disdain should we spit out the baits of sin!

§ 9. Besides, whilst the heart is set on heaven, a man is under God's protection. If Satan then assault us, God is more engaged for our defence, and will doubtless stand by us, and say, "My grace is sufficient for thee." When a man is in the way of God's blessing, he is in the less danger of sin's enticing. Amidst thy temptations, Christian reader, use much this powerful remedy; keep close with God by a heavenly mind; follow your business above with Christ, and you will find this a surer help than any other. "The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath." Remember that "Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generation;" for he "walked with God:" And that God said to Abraham, "Walk before me, and be thou perfect."

§ 10. (5.) The diligent keeping your hearts in heaven, will maintain the vigour of all your graces, and put life into all your duties. The heavenly Christian is the lively Christian. It is our strangeness to heaven that makes us so dull. How will the soldier hazard his life, and the mariner pass through storms and waves, and no difficulty keep them back, when they think of an uncertain perishing treasure! What life then would it put into a Christian's endeavors, if he would frequently think of his everlasting treasure! We run so slowly, and strive so lazily, because we so little mind the prize. Observe but the man who is much in heaven, and you shall see he is not like other Christians; there is something of what he hath seen above, appeareth in all his duty and conversation. If a preacher, how heavenly are his sermons! If a private Christian, what heavenly converse, prayers, and deportment! Set upon this employment, and others will see the face of your conversation shine, and say, surely he hath been with God in the mount. But if you lie complaining of deadness and dullness, that you cannot

Chap. 11. love Christ, nor rejoice in his love, that you have no life in prayer, nor any other duty; and yet neglect this quickening employment; you are the cause of your own complaints. Is not thy "life hid with Christ in God?" Where must they go, but to Christ for it? And where is that, but to heaven, where Christ is? Thou wilt not come to Christ, that thou mayest have life. If thou wouldst have light and heat, why art thou no more in the sun-shine? For want of this recourse to heaven, thy soul is as a lamp that is not lighted, and thy duties as a sacrifice which hath no fire. Fetch one coal daily from this altar, and see if thy offering will not burn. Light thy lamp at this flame, and feed it daily with oil from hence, and see if it will not gloriously shine. Keep close to this reviving fire, and see if thy affec tions will not be warm. In thy want of love to God, lift up thy eye of faith to Heaven, behold his beauty, contemplate his excellencies, and see whether his amiableness and perfect goodness will not ravish thy heart. As exercise maintaineth appetite, strength, and vigor to the body, so these heavenly exercises will quickly cause the increase of grace and spiritual life. Besides, it is not false or strange fire, which you fetch from heaven for your sacrifice. The zeal which is kindled by your meditations on heaven, is most likely to be a heavenly zeal. Some men's fervency is only drawn from their books, and some from the sharpness of affliction, and some from the mouth of a moving minister, and some from the attention of an auditory; but he that knows this way to heaven, and derives it daily from the true fountain, shall have his soul revived with the water of life, and enjoy that quickening which is peculiar to the saints. By this faith thou mayest offer Abel's sacrifice, more excellent than that of common men, and by it obtain witness, that thou art righteous, God testifying of thy gifts, that they are sincere.When others are ready, like Baal's priests, to cut themselves, because their sacrifice will not burn; thou mayest breathe the spirit of Elijah, and in the chariot of contemplation soar aloft, till thy soul and sacrifice gloriously flame, though the flesh and the world should cast upon them all the water of their opposing enmity Say not, how can mortals ascend to heaven? Faith hath wings, and meditation is its chariot. Faith is as a burn

ing glass to thy sacrifice, and meditation sets it to the face of the sun; only take it not away too soon, but hold it there a while, and thy soul will feel the happy effect. Reader, art thou not thinking, when thou seest a lively Christian, and hearest his lively fervent prayers, and edifying discourse, "O how happy a man is this! O that my soul were in this blessed condition!" Why, I here advise thee from God, set thy soul conscientiously to this work, wash thee frequently in this Jordan, and thy leprous dead soul will revive, and thou shalt know that there is a God in Israel, and that thou mayest live a vigorous and joyful life, if thou dost not wilfully neglect thy own mercies.

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§ 11. (6.) The frequent believing views of glory are the most precious cordials in all afflictions. These cordials, by cheering our spirits, render our sufferings far more easy; enable us to bear them with patience and joy; and so strengthen our resolutions, that we forsake not Christ for fear of trouble. If the way be ever so rough, can it be tedious, if it lead to heaven? O sweet sickness, reproaches, imprisonments, or death, accompanied with these tastes of our future rest! This keeps the suffering from the soul, so that it can only touch the flesh. Had it not been for that little (alas, too little) taste which I had of rest, my sufferings would have been grievous, and death more terrible. I may say, "I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.' Unless this promised rest had been my delight, I should then have perished in mine affliction. "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion; in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me: He shall set me upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me. Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord." All sufferings are nothing to us, so far as we have these supporting joys.When persecution and fear hath shut the doors, Christ can come in, and stand in the midst, and say to his disciples, Peace be unto you. Paul and Silas can be in

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heaven, even when they are thrust into the inner pri son, their bodies scourged with many stripes, and their feet fast in the stocks. The martyrs find more rest in their flames, than their persecutors in their pomp and tyranny; because they foresee the flames they escape, and the rest which their fiery chariot is conveying them to. If the Son of God will walk with us, we are safe in the midst of those flames, which shall devour them that cast us in. Abraham went out of his country, "not knowing whether he went," because "he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and Maker is God." Moses "esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt," because "he had respect unto the recompense of reward." "He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king;" because he endured as seeing him who is invisible." "Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.' Even "Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." This is the noble advantage of faith, it can look on the means and end together. This is the great reason of our impatience, and censuring of God, because we gaze on the evil itself, but fix not our thoughts on what is beyond it. They that saw Christ only on the cross, or in the grave, do shake their heads, and think him lost; but God saw him dying, buried, rising, glorified, and all this at one view, Faith will in this imitate God, so far as it hath the glass of a promise to help it. We see God burying us under ground, but we foresee not the spring, when we shall all revive. Could we but clearly see heaven, as the end of all God's dealings with us, surely none of his dealings could be so griev ous. If God would once raise us to this life, we should find, that though heaven and sin are at a great distance; yet heaven and a prison, or banishment, heaven and the belly of a whale or a den of lions, heaven and consuming sickness, or invading death, are at no such distance. But as Abraham saw Christ's day and rejoiced, so we, in our most forlorn state, might see that day when Christ shall give us rest, and therein rejoice. I beseech thee, Christian, for the honor of the