through Christ, for which we are made priests to God?' I refuse not, Lord, to lie in tears and groans when thou requirest it, nor do thou reject those tears and groans; but O give me better, that I may have better of thine own to offer thee, and so prepare me for the far better which I shall find with Christ!"

XVIII. Probably God makes glorified spirits the agents of his beneficence to inferior creatures. Where he bestows on any the noblest endowments, we see he makes most use of such for the benefit of others. Christ tells us we shall be like, or equal to the angels, who are evidently the ministers of God for the good of his people in this world. The apostle says, "the saints shall judge the world and angels;" intimating, that devils and damned spirits shall be subjected to the saints. But if there were no more for us to do in heaven, but with perfect knowledge, love, and joy, to hold communion with God, and all the heavenly society, it is enough to excite, in a considerate soul, the most fervent desires to be at home with God.

CHAPTER V.

THE AUTHOR BREATHES AFTER WILLINGNESS TO DEPART AND TO BE WITH CHRIST.

I. Lamenting the inefficacy of his convictions, he begs Divine teaching; II. III. argues against his doubts and fears; IV. desires a heavenly temper; then, V. VI. 1. excites his faith, VII. viewing its support from reason, VIII. from experience, and, IX. pleading the promises. X. 2. He next excites his hope; XI. views its preparations; and, XII. pleads it in prayer. XIII. 3. He also excites his love; XIV. considers its excellencies; XV. prays for its increase; XVI. contemplates the perfection of heavenly love; XVII. is jealous of his own love; XVIII. XIX. enumerates the evidences of God's love; and, XX. prays for its full discovery.

I. I AM convinced, that it is far better to depart and to be with Christ, than to be here. But this conviction alone will not excite such desires in my soul. They are opposed by a natural aversion to death, which sin has greatly increased; by the remains of unbelief, which avails itself of our darkness in the flesh, and our too great familiarity with this visible world; and also by the want of our more lively foretastes of heaven. What must be done to overcome this opposition? Is there no remedy? Yes, there is a Divine teaching, by which we must learn " so to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." When

we have read and heard, spoken and written the soundest truth, and strongest arguments, we still know as if we knew not, and believe as if we believed not, unless God powerfully impresses the same things on our minds, and awakens our souls to feel what we know. Since we fell from God, the communion between our senses and understanding, and also between our understanding and our will and affections, is violated, and we are divided in ourselves by this schism in our faculties. All men may easily know that there is an almighty, omniscient, omnipresent, eternal, and perfectly holy and good God, the Maker, Preserver, and Governor of all, who deserves our whole trust, love, and obedience; but how little of this knowledge is to be perceived in men's hearts or lives! All men know that the world is vanity, that man must die, that riches cannot then profit, that time is precious, and that we have but little time to prepare for eternity; but how little do men seem to have of the real knowledge of these plain truths! Indeed, when God comes in with his powerful, awakening light and love, then those things appear as different, as if we were beginning to know them. All my best reasons for our immortality, are but as the new-formed body of Adam, before"God breathed into him the breath of life;" and he only can make them living reasons. To the Father of lights I must therefore still look up, and for his light and love I must still wait. I must learn both as a

student and a beggar. "When I have thought and thought a thousand times, I must beg thy blessing, Lord, upon my thoughts. The eye of my understanding will be useless or vexatious to me, without thy illuminating beams. 0 shine the soul of thy servant into a clearer knowledge of thyself and kingdom, and love him into more divine and heavenly love, and he will then willingly come to thee!"

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II. Why should I, by the fears of death, strive against the common course of nature, and against my only hopes of happiness? Is it not appointed unto all men once to die?" Would I have God make sinful man immortal upon earth? When we are sinless, we shall be immortal. The love of life was given to teach me to preserve it with care, and use it well, and not to torment myself with the continual foresight of death. If it be the misery after death that is feared, O what have I to do, but to receive the free, reconciling grace, which is offered me from heaven, to save me from such misery; and to devote myself totally to him, who has promised, "Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out ?" Had I studied my duty, and remembered that I am not my own, and that my times are in God's hands, I had been quiet from these fruitless fears. Had my resignation and devotedness to God been more absolute, my trust in him would have been more easy. 66 'But, Lord, thou knowest, that I would fain be thine, and wholly thine, and that to thee I desire to live: therefore

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let me quietly die to thee, and wholly trust thee with my soul."

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III. Why should I have any remaining doubt of the future state of pious separate spirits? My Saviour has entered into the holiest, and has assured me that "there are many mansions in his Father's house," and that when we are absent from the body," we shall be present with the Lord." Who can think that all holy souls, that have gone hence from the beginning of the world, have been deceived in their faith and hope? And that all those, whose hope was only in this life, have been in the right? Shall I not abhor every suggestion that contains such absurdities? Wonderful, that Satan can keep up so much unbelief in the world, while he must make men fools, in order to make them unbelievers and ungodly!

IV. That my soul has no more lively foretastes of heaven, arises from those many wilful sins, by which I have quenched the Spirit, and from the soul's imprisonment in the flesh. This, O this, is the misery and burden of my soul! Though I can say, I love God's truth and graces, his work and servants; yet that I have no more ardent and delightful love of heaven, where his loveliness will be more fully opened to my soul, is my sin, calamity, and shame. If I did not see that it is so with other of the servants of Christ, as well as myself, I should doubt whether affections so disproportionate to my profession did not imply an unsound faith. It is