be such from the doctrine in hand, which is commonly called a use of instruction, as also the reprehension of the contrary vices.

3. Then proceed to question, and try thyself, how thou hast valued this glory of the saints; how thou hast loved it; and how thou hast laid out thyself to obtain it. This is called a use of examination. Here thou mayest also make use of discovering signs, drawn from the nature, properties, effects, adjuncts, &c.

4. So far as this trial hath discovered thy neglect, and other sins against this rest, proceed to the reprehension and censuring of thyself; chide thy heart for its omissions and commissions, and do it sharply till it feel the smart; as Peter preached reproof to his hearers, till they were pricked to the heart and cried out and as a father or master will chide the child till it begin to cry and be sensible of the fault; so do thou in chiding thy own heart this is called a use of reproof. Here also it will be very necessary that thou bring forth all the aggravating circumstances of the sin, that thy heart may feel it in its weight and bitterness; and if thy heart do evade or deny the sin, convince it by producing the several discoveries.

5. So far as thou discoverest that thou hast been faithful in the duty, turn it to encouragement to thyself, and to thanks to God; where thou mayest consider of the several aggravations of the mercy of the Spirit's enabling thee thereto.

6. So, as it respects thy duty for the future, consider how thou mayest improve this comfortable doctrine, which must be by strong and effectual persuasion with thy heart. First, By way of dehortation from the fore-mentioned sins. Secondly, By way of exhortation to the several duties. And these are either, first, internal, or secondly, external. First, therefore, admonish thy heart of its own inward neglects and contempts; Secondly, And then of the neglects and trespasses in thy practice against this blessed state of rest. Set home these several admonitions to the quick; take thy heart as to the brink of the bottomless pit; force it to look in, threaten thyself with the threatenings of the word; tell it of the torments that it draweth upon itself; tell it what joys it is madly rejecting; force it to promise thee to do so no more, and that not with a cold and heartless promise, but earnestly with most solemn asseverations and engagements. Secondly, The next and last is, to drive on thy soul to those positive duties, which are required of thee in relation to

this rest: as First, To the inward duties of thy heart, and there First, To be diligent in making sure of this rest: Secondly, To rejoice in the expectation of it: this is called a use of consolation. It is to be furthered by first laying open the excelleney of the state; and secondly, the certainty of it in itself; and thirdly, our own interest in it; by clearing and proving all these, and confuting all saddening objections that may be brought against them: Thirdly, so also for the provoking of love, of hope, and all other the affections in the way before more largely opened.

And, Secondly, Press on thy heart also to all outward duties that are to be performed in thy way to rest, whether in worship or in civil conversation, whether public or private, ordinary or extraordinary: this is commonly called a use of exhortation. Here bring in all quickening considerations, either those that may drive thee, or those that may draw; which work by fear, or which work by desire; these are commonly called motives; but above all, be sure that thou follow them home; ask thy heart what it can say against the duty; Is there weight in them, or is there not? And then, what it can say against the duty, Is it necessary; is it comfortable; or is it not? When thou hast silenced thy heart, and brought it to a stand, then drive it further, and urge it to a promise, as suppose it were to the duty of meditation, which we are speaking of; force thyself beyond these lazy purposes; resolve on the duty before thou stir; enter into a solemn covenant to be faithful; let not thy heart go, till it have, without all halting and reservations, flatly promised thee, that it will fall to the work; write down this promise, show it to thy heart the next time it loiters; then study also the helps and means, the hinderances and directions, that concern thy duty. And this is in brief the exercise of this soliloquy, or the preaching of heaven to thy heart.

Sect. III. Object. But perhaps thou wilt say, Every man cannot understand this method; this is for ministers and learned men; every man is not able to play the preacher. I answer thee, First, There is not that ability required to this, as is to the work of public preaching: here thy thoughts may serve the turn, but there must be also the decent ornaments of language › here is needful but an honest, understanding heart, but there must be a good pronunciation, and a voluble tongue : here if thou miss of the method, thou mayest make up that in one piece of application which thou hast neglected in another: but there thy

failings are injurious to many, and a scandal and disgrace to the work of God. Thou knowest what will fit thy own heart, and what arguments take best with thy own affections; but thou art not so well acquainted with the dispositions of others. Secondly, I answer further, Every man is bound to be skilful in the Scriptures as well as ministers: kings, and magistrates; (Deut. xvii. 18-20; Josh. i. 8;) and the people also. (Deut. vi. 6—8.) Do you think, if you did as is there commanded, write it upon thy heart, lay them up in thy soul, bind them upon thy hand, and between thine eyes, meditate on them day and night I say, if you did thus, would you not quickly understand as much as this? (See Psal. i. 3; Deut. xi. 18, and vi. 6-8.) Doth not God command thee to teach them diligently to thy children; and to talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up? And if thou must be skilled to teach thy children, much more to teach thyself; and if thou canst talk of them to others, why not also to thine own heart? Certainly, our unskilfulness and disability, both in a methodical and lively teaching of our families, and of ourselves, is for the most part merely through our own negligence, and a sin for which we have no excuse : you that learn the skill of your trades and sciences, might learn this also, if you were but willing and painful.

And so I have done with this particular of soliloquy.

Sect. IV. 2. Another step to arise by in our contemplation, is, from this speaking to ourselves, to speak to God: prayer is not such a stranger to this duty, but that ejaculatory requests may be intermixed or added, and that as a very part of the duty itself. How oft doth David intermix these in his psalms, sometime pleading with his soul, and sometime with God, and that in the same psalm, and in the next verses? The apostle bids us speak to ourselves in psalms and hymns; and no doubt we may also speak to God in them; this keeps the soul in mind of the divine presence, it tends also exceedingly to quicken and raise it so that as God is the highest object of our thoughts, so our viewing of him, and our speaking to him, and pleading with him, doth more elevate the soul, and actuate the affections, than any other part of meditation can do. Men that are careless of their carriage and speeches among children and idiots, will be sober and serious with princes or grave men; so, though while we do but plead the case with ourselves, we are careless and unaffected, yet when we turn our speech to God, it may

strike us with awfulness; and the holiness and majesty of him whom we speak to, may cause both the matter and words to pierce the deeper. Isaac went forth to pray, the former translation saith; to meditate, saith the latter; the Hebrew verb, saith Paræus in loc., signifieth both ad orandum et meditandum. The men of God, both former and latter, who have left their meditations on record for our view, have thus intermixed soliloquy and prayer; sometime speaking to their own hearts, and sometime turning their speech to God: and though this may seem an in-` different thing, yet I conceive it very suitable and necessary, and that it is the highest step that we can advance to in the work.

Object. But why then is it not as good to take up with prayer alone, and to save all this tedious work that you prescribe us?

Answ. 1. They are several duties, and therefore must be performed both. Secondly, We have need of one as well as the other, and therefore shall wrong ourselves in the neglecting of either. Thirdly, The mixture, as in music, doth more affect; the one helps on, and puts life into the other. Fourthly, It is not the right order to begin at the top, therefore meditation and speaking to ourselves, should go before prayer, or speaking to God; want of this, makes prayer with most to have little more than the name of prayer, and men to speak as lightly and as stupidly to the dreadful God, as if it were to one of their companions, and with far less reverence and affection than they would speak to an angel, if he should appear to them, yea, or to a judge or prince, if they were speaking for their lives: and consequently their success and answers are often like their prayers. Oh! speaking to the God of heaven in prayer, is a weightier duty than most are aware of.

Sect. V. The ancients had a custom, by apostrophes and prosopopoeias, to speak, as it were, to angels and saints departed, which, as it was used by them, I take to be lawful; but what they spoke in rhetorical figures, was interpreted by the succeeding ages to be spoken in strict propriety; and doctrinal conclusions for praying to saints and angels were raised from their speeches; therefore I will omit that course, which is so little necessary, and so subject to scandalize the less judicious readers.

And so much for the fourth part of the direction, by what

* LXX legunt adoλeoxîtai, ad ludendum, se exercendum, sed aliene inquit Paræus.

steps or acts we must advance to the height of this work: I should clear all this by some examples, but that I intend shall follow in the end.

CHAP. XI.

Some Advantages and Helps, for raising and affecting the Soul by this Meditation.

SECT. I. Fifthly: The fifth part of this directory is, to show you what advantages you should take, and what helps you should use, to make your meditations of heaven more quickening, and to make you taste the sweetness that is therein. For that is the main work that I drive at through all; that you may not stick in a bare thinking, but may have the lively sense of all upon your hearts; and this you will find to be the most difficult part of the work and that it is easier barely to think of heaven a whole day, than to be lively and affectionate in those thoughts one quarter of an hour. Therefore let us yet a little further consider what may be done, to make your thoughts of heaven to be piercing, affecting, raising thoughts.

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Here, therefore, you must understand, that the mere pure work of faith hath many disadvantages with us, in comparison of the work of sense. Faith is imperfect, for we are renewed but in part; but sense hath its strength, according to the strength of the flesh faith goes against a world of resistance, but sense doth not. Faith is supernatural, and therefore prone to declining, and to languish both in the habit and exercise, further than it is still renewed and excited; but sense is natural, and therefore continueth while nature continueth. The object of faith is far off; we must go as far as heaven for our joys; but the object of sense is close at hand. It is no easy matter to rejoice at that which we never saw, nor ever knew the man that did see it and this upon a mere promise which is written in the Bible and that when we have nothing else to rejoice in,

• De coloribus cæcus loquelam habet, sensum autem non habet, teste Aristot. Non secus circa illa quæ divina et æterna sunt, se habet humanus intellectus, infirmus et cæcutiens, ut vere quantum fas est, prædestinationis æternæ, et libertatis nostræ compossibilitatem teneamus, &c.—Arriba Concil. de Grat. lib. i. cap. 30. p. 188.