We must endeavour to form internal acts of devotion, charity, &c.
16. Moreover, let us be often lifting up our hearts to God; and if we do not say that we love him above all things, let us at least acknowledge that it is our duty, and would be our happiness so to do. Let us lament the dishonour done him by sinful men, and applaud the praises that are given him by that glorious company above. Let us yield ourselves up to him a thousand times, to be governed by his laws, and disposed of at his pleasure: and though our stubborn heart start back, yet let us tell him we are convinced that his will is always just and good; and therefore desire him to do with us whatsoever he pleaseth, whether we will or not.
Thus should we exercise ourselves unto godliness: and when we are employing the powers that we have, the Spirit of God is wont to strike in, and elevate these acts of our soul beyond the pitch of nature, and give them a divine impression.
Consideration a great instrument of religion.
17. I shall mention but two other helps; and the first is, deep and serious consideration. *The assent which is ordinarily given to divine truths, is very faint and languid. Men are unwilling to quarrel with the religion of their country; but are seldom at the pains to consider what they profess to believe; and thence it is, that they have so little influence on their practice. Those spiritless and paralytic thoughts (as one rightly terms them) are not able to move the will, and direct the hand. We must therefore labour for a full persuasion of divine truths, a sense and feeling of spiritual things. Let us urge forward our spirits, and make them approach the invisible world, and fix our mind upon immaterial things, till we clearly perceive that these are no dreams; nay, that all things are dreams and shadows besides them. When we look about us, and behold the beauty and magnificence of this goodly frame, the order and harmony of the whole creation, let our thoughts from thence take their flight toward that omnipotent wisdom and goodness which did at first produce, and doth still uphold the same. When we reflect upon ourselves, let us consider that we are not a mere piece of organized matter, a curious and well contrived engine; that there is more in us than flesh, and blood, and bones, even a divine spark, capable to know, and love, and enjoy our Maker. And though it be now exceedingly clogged with its dull and lumpish companion; yet ere long it shall be delivered, and can subsist without the body, as well as that can do without the cloaths, which we throw off at our pleasure. Let us often withdraw our thoughts from this earth, this scene of misery, and folly, and sin, and raise them towards that glorious world; whose innocent and blessed inhabitants solace themselves eternally in the divine presence, and know no other passion, but an unmixed joy, and an unbounded love: and then consider how the blessed Son of God came down to this lower world to live among us, and die for us, that he might bring us to a portion of the same felicity; and think how he hath overcome the sharpness of death, and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers, and is now set down on the right-hand of the Majesty on high[¹]; and yet is not the less mindful of us, but receiveth our prayers, and presenteth them unto his Father, and is daily visiting his church with the influences of his Spirit, as the sun reacheth us with his beams.
[¹] Hebrews i. 3.
We should consider the excellency of the divine nature.
18. Let me further suggest some particular subjects of meditation. And first, if we would love God, let us consider the excellency of his nature, and his love and kindness towards us. It is little we know of the divine perfections; and yet that little may fill our souls with admiration and love. If it be the understanding that directs the affections, certainly the excellencies of the divine nature (the traces whereof we cannot but discover in every thing we behold) should not fail to engage our hearts. Shall we not be infinitely more transported with that almighty wisdom and goodness, which fills the universe, and displays itself in all the parts of the creation, which establisheth the frame of nature, and turneth the mighty wheels of providence, and keepeth the world from disorder and ruin, than with the faint rays of the same perfections which we meet with in our fellow creatures? Shall we doat on the scattered pieces of a rude and imperfect picture, and never be affected with the original beauty? This were an unaccountable stupidity and blindness. Whatever we find lovely in a friend, or in a saint, ought not to engross, but to elevate our affection: we should conclude with ourselves, that if there be so much sweetness in a drop, there must be infinitely more in the fountain. If there be so much splendor in a ray, what must the sun be in its glory?
19. Nor can we pretend the remoteness of the object, as if God were at too great a distance for our converse or love: he is not far from every one of us; for in him we live, and move, and have our being.[¹] We cannot open our eyes, but we must behold some footsteps of his glory; and we cannot turn them toward him, but we shall be sure to find his intent upon us, waiting as it were to catch a look, ready to entertain the most intimate communion with us. Let us therefore endeavour to raise our minds to the clearest conceptions of the divine nature. Let us consider all that his works declare, or his word discovers of him unto us; and let us especially contemplate that visible representation of him which was made in our own nature by his Son, who was the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,[²] and who appeared in the world to discover at once what God is, and what we ought to be. Let us represent him unto our minds as we find him described in the gospel, and there we shall behold the perfections of the divine nature, tho’ covered with the veil of human infirmities. And while we contemplate a Being, infinite in power, in wisdom, and goodness, the author and fountain of all perfections, let us pray that our eyes may affect our heart,[³] and while we are musing the fire may burn.[⁴]
[¹] Acts xvii. 27.