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defective in this duty, partly for want of light into them, partly for want of delight in them ; they think little of an eternal country. Wherever men are, they do not use to neg- lect thoughts of that country wherein their inheritance lies. If they are absent from it for a season, yet will they labour to acquaint themselves with the principal concernments of it. But this heavenly country, wherein lies our eternal in- heritance, is not regarded. Men do not as they ought exer- cise themselves unto thoughts of things eternal and invisible- It were impossible if they did so, that their minds should be so earthly, and their affections cleave so as they do unto present things. He that looks steadily on the sun, although he cannot bear the lustre of its beams fully, yet his sight is so affected with it, that when he calls off his eyes from it, he can see nothing as it were of the things about him, they are all dark unto him. And he who looks steadily in his contemplations on things above, eternal things, though he cannot comprehend their glory, yet a veil will be cast by it on all the desirable beauties of earthly things, and take off his affections from them.
Men live and act under the power of a conviction, that there is a state of immortality and glory to come. With a persuasion hereof they much relieve themselves in their sorrows, sufferings, and temptations. Yet with many it is only a reserve when they can be here no more ; but as unto daily contemplation of the nature and causes of it, or as unto any entrance into it by faith and hope, the most are strangers thereunto. If we are spiritually minded, nothino- will be more natural unto us, than to have many thouohts of eternal things, as those wherein all ourown principal con- cerns do lie, as well as those which are excellent and glo- rious in themselves. The direction thereon is, that we would make heavenly things, the things of the future state of bless- edness and glory, a principal object of our thoughts ; that we would think much about them, that we would meditate much upon them. Many are discouraged herein, by their ignorance and darkness, by their want of due conceptions and steady apprehensions of invisible things. Hence one of these two things do befall them, when they would meditate on things above. 1. The glory of them, the glory of God in them, being essentially infinite and incomprehensible,
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doth immediately overwhelm them, and, as it were in a mo- ment, put them unto an utter loss, that they cannot frame one thought in their minds about them. Or, 2. They want skill and ability to conceive aright of invisible things, and to dispose of them in such order in their minds, as that they may sedately exercise their thoughts about them. Both these shall be afterward spoken unto. At present I shall only say, that.
Whosoever shall sincerely engage in this duty according unto what he hath, and shall abide constant therein, he will make such a refreshing progress in his apprehension of hea- venly things, as he will be greatly satisfied withal. We are kept in darkness, ignorance, and unsteadiness of meditations about them, not from the nature of the things themselves, but from our own sloth, negligence, and readiness to be turned aside by apprehensions of difficulties, of the lion iu the way. Wherefore, I shall consider two things: 1. What are the principal motives unto this duty of fixing our thoughts on the things that are above, and the advantages which we receive thereby. 2. Give some directions how and on what in particular we may exercise our thoughts on those things above.
1. Faith will be increased and strengthened by it. In- visible things are the proper objects of faith. It is the evi- dence of things not seen;' Heb. xi. 1. Wherefore in our thoughts of them, faith is in its proper exercise, which is the principal means of its growth and increase. And hereon two things will ensue.
1. The soul will come unto a more satisfactory abiding sense of the reality of them. Things of imagination which maintain a value of themselves by darkness, will not bear a diligent search into them. They lose of their reputation on every serious inquiry. If rational men would but give them- selves the liberty of free indagation by their own thoughts, it would quickly cashier the fool's paradise of Mahomet, the purgatory of the Papists, and all such creatures of ima- gination and superstition. But where things are real and substantial, the more they are inquired into, the more they evidence their being and subsistence. It is not therefore every profession of a faith of a future state of blessedness, that will realize it in our minds. And therefore, for the most
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part, it is rather a notion that men have of heavenly things which they do not contradict, than any solid satisfaction in, or spiritual sense of, their reality. For these are things that 'eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor will enter into the heart of man to conceive ;' whose existence, nature, and real state are not easily comprehended. But through the continual exercise of holy thoughts about them, the soul obtains an entrance into the midst of them, finding in them both du- rable substance and riches. There is no way therefore to strengthen faith unto any degree, but by a daily contempla- tion on the things themselves. They who do not think of them frequently shall never believe them sincerely. They admit not of any collateral evidence, where they do not evidence themselves unto our souls. Faith, as we said, thus exercised, will give them a subsistence, not in themselves, which they have antecedent thereunto ; but in us, in our hearts, in the minds of them that do believe. Imagination creates its own object; faith finds it prepared beforehand. It will not leave a bare notion of them in the understanding, but give them a spiritual subsistence in the heart ; as Christ himself dwells in our hearts by faith. And there are two things that will discover this subsistence of them in us: 1. When we find them in a continual readiness to rise up in our minds, on all occasions wherein the thoughts and remembrance of them are needful and useful unto us. There are many sea- sons, some whereof shall be immediately spoken unto, and many duties wherein and whereunto the faith and thoughts of things invisible and eternal are needful unto us, so as that we cannot fill up those seasons, nor perform those duties in a due manner without them. If on all such occasions they do from the inward frame of our minds present themselves unto us, or through our acquaintance and familiarity with them, we recur in our thoughts unto them, they seem to have a real subsistence given unto them in our souls. But if on such occasions wherein alone they will yield us help and re- lief, we accustom ourselves to other thoughts, if those con- cerning them are as it were out of the way, and arise not in our minds of their own accord, we are yet strangers unto this effect of faith. 2. They are realized unto us, they have a subsistence in us, when the soul continually longeth to be in them. When they have given such a relish unto our