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THE

AUTHOR'S SUPPLICATORY DEDICATION.

To thee, only, O my God, who hast put these holy thoughts into my soul, do I most humbly desire to dedicate both myself and them: earnestly beseeching thee graciously to accept of both; and that thou wouldest be pleased to accompany and follow these my weak practical Devotions, with a sensible blessing in every reader. Let these good Meditations not rest in the eye, but descend into the bosom of the perusers; and effectually work in their hearts, that warmth of pious affections, which I have here presumed to exemplify in mine: To the glory of thy great Name, and our mutual comfort, in the day of the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus. Amen.

SELF-CONFERENCES.

SOLILOQUY I.

THE BEST PROSPECT.

O MY God, I shall not be worthy of my eyes, if I think I can employ them better, than in looking up to thy heaven and I shall not be worthy to look up to heaven, if I suffer my eyes to rest there, and not look through heaven at thee, the Almighty Maker and Ruler of it; who dwellest there in all glory and majesty; and if seeing thee I do not always adore thee, and find my soul taken up with awful and admiring thoughts concerning thee. I see many eyes have looked curiously upon that glorious frame, else they could not have made so punctual observation of the fire and motion of those goodly globes of light, which thou hast placed there, as to foretell all their conjunctions and oppositions, for many hundred years before: but, while they look at the motions, let me look at the mover; wondering, not without ravishment of spirit, at that infinite power and wisdom, which keeps up those numberless and immense bodies in so perfect a regularity, that they all keep their just stations and times, without the least varying from the course which thou settedst them in their first creation; so while their observation makes them the wiser, mine shall make me the holier. Much variety of objects hast thou given us, here below, which do commonly take up our eyes: but it shall be my fault, if all those do not rather lead my thoughts to thee, than withdraw them from thee; since thy power and majesty is clearly conspicuous in them all. O God, while I have eyes, let me never but see thee in all things, let me never but enjoy thee: let me see thee as thou mayest be seen, by the eye of faith, till I may see, as I am seen, hereafter, in glory let me see thee as through a glass darkly here on earth, till I may come to see thee face to face in heaven; 1 Cor.

xiii. 12.

II.

THE HAPPY PARTING.

I HAVE lived divers years longer than holy David did; yet I can truly say with him, if that psalm were his which hath the

title of Moses, We have brought our years to an end, as it were a tale that is told"; Psalm xc. 9. Methinks, O my soul, it is but yesterday since we met; and now we are upon parting: neither shall we, I hope, be unwilling to take leave; for what advantage can it be to us to hold out longer together? One piece of me cannot but grow more infirm with use and time; and thereupon must follow a decay of all faculties and operations. Where the tools are grown bad and dull, what work can be exquisite? Thou seest it then necessary, and inevitable, that we must yield to age, and grow worse with continuance. And what privilege can mere time give us in our duration? We see the basest of stones last longer, than the durablest plants; and we see trees hold out longer, than any sensitive creatures; and divers of those sensitive creatures outlast man, the lord of them all. Neither are any of these held more excellent, because they wear out more hours. We know Enoch was more happy, that was fetched away at three hundred sixty-five years, than Methuselah, at nine hundred sixty and nine; Gen. v. 23, 24, 27. Difference of age doth nothing but pull down a side, where there are not supplies of increasing abilities. Should we continue our partnership many years longer, could we hope for more health and strength of body, more vigour of understanding and judgment, more heat of good affections? And can we doubt, that it will be elsewhere better with us? Do we not know what abides for us above? Are we not assured, that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens? 2 Cor. v. 1. Why, therefore, oh, why should ye be loth, to part upon fair terms? thou, O my soul, to the possession of that happy mansion, which thy Dear Saviour hath from eternity prepared for thee in his Father's house; and thou, O my body, to that quiet repository of thy grave, till ye both shall happily meet in the blessed resurrection of the just, never, never to be severed.

III.

HEAVENLY CONVERSATION.

IT matters not a little, with whom we hold our familiar conversation; for, commonly, we are transformed into the dispositions and manners of those, whose company we frequent: we daily see those, who, by haunting the society of drunkards and debauched persons, have, from civil and orderly men, grown into extremity of lewdness; and, on the contrary, those, who have consorted themselves with the holy and virtuous,

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have attained to a gracious participation of their sanctity. Why shouldest thou not then, O my soul, by a continual conversation with God and his angels, improve to a heavenly disposition? Thou canst not, while thou art here, but have somewhat to do with the world: that will necessarily intrude into thy presence, and force upon thee businesses unavoidable; and thy secular friends may well look to have some share in thy sociable entertainments. But these are but goers and comers, easily and willingly dismissed, after some kind interlocutions: the company, that must stick by thee, is spiritual; which shall never leave thee, if thou have the grace to apply thyself to them upon all occasions. Thou mayest hold fair correspondence with all other, not offensive companions; but thy entireness must be only with these. Let those other be never so faithful, yet they are uncertain; be their will never so good, yet their power is limited: these are never but at hand; never but able and willing to make and keep thee happy. O my God, thou seest how subject I am to distractions: oh, hold me close to thee: let me enter into the same company here in my pilgrimage, which I shall for ever enjoy hereafter in my

home.

IV.

LOVE-UNCHANGEABLE.

OUR younger years are wont to be delighted with variety; and to be much affected to a change, although to the worse: the child is better pleased with his new coat, though the old be far handsomer: whereas age and experience fixeth our desires; and teacheth us to set the greatest value upon those good things, wherewith we have been longest acquainted. Yea, it is the general disposition of nature, to be cloyed with continued blessings; and, upon long fruition, to complain of that good, which we first commended for pleasing and beneficial. What could relish better with the Israelites, the first morning, than the angels' food, which fell down from heaven every day about their camp? the taste whereof was like to wafers made with honey; Exod. xvi. 13. Deut. viii. 3. Exod. xvi. 31. If we stay but a while, we shall, ere many years, hear them calling for the onions and garlick of Egypt; and crying out, Now our soul is dried away; there is nothing but this Manna before our eyes; Num. xi. 6. Our wanton appetite is apt to be weary of the best blessings, both of earth and heaven, and to nauseate with store: neither is any thing more tedious to us, than the enjoined repetition of a daily-tasked devotion. But, contrarily, grace endears all blessings to us, by their continuance; and heightens our affections, where they are rightly placed, by the length of the time of their enjoying. O God,

it is thy mercy, that thou hast vouchsafed to allow me an early interest in thee, even from my tender years: the more and longer I have known thee, the more cause have I still found to love thee, and adore thee. Thou art ever one and unchangeable: oh, make thou my heart so. Devote thou me wholly unto thee; and, by how much cooler my old age is in all other affections, inflame it so much the more in my love to thee.

V.

THE HAPPIEST OBJECT.

If we could attain to settle in our thoughts a right apprehension of the Majesty of God, it would put us into the comfortable exercise of all the affections that belong to the soul. For, surely, if we could conceive aright of his omnipotent power, and transcending glory, and incomprehensible infiniteness; we could not but tremble before him, and be always taken up with an adoring fear of him: and, if we could apprehend his infinite goodness both in himself and to mankind; we could not but be ravished with a fervent love to him, and should think ourselves happy that we might be allowed to love such a God: and, if we could conceive of that absolute beauty of his holiness and blissful presence; we could not but be enflamed with a longing desire to enjoy such a God: and, if we could apprehend all these; we could not be but both transported with an unspeakable joy, that we have a sure interest in a God so holy, so good, so almighty, so glorious; and stricken with an unexpressible grief, that we should either offend him, or suffer ourselves to want but for a moment the feeling presence of that all-sufficient and all-comprehending Majesty. On the contrary, those men begin at the wrong end, who go about to draw their affections to God, first; and then, after, seek to have their minds enlightened with right conceits of his essence and attributes: who, meeting with those occurrent temptations, which mainly cross them in their desires and affections, are straight set off from prosecuting their good motions; and are as new to seek of a God, as if they had never bent their thoughts towards heaven. O God, let it be the main care of my life, to know thee; and, whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ, thy Son, my Saviour. I cannot, through thy mercy, fail of a heavenly disposition of soul, while I am here; and of a life of eternal glory, with thee, hereafter.

VI.

UNCHANGEABLE DURATION.

In the first minute wherein we live, we enter upon an eternity of being and, though at the first, through the want of the

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