methods of giving thee true praise day and night. O let my spirit wax hot within me, and in my musings let the holy fire burst out. And in regard thy own Son hath declared, that no man cometh unto him except he be drawn of the Father; and again, that no man cometh to the Father but by him; draw me, I most humbly pray thee, continually to him, that he at last may bring me to thee, even to those happy mansions, where he now sits at thy right hand, where there is life and bliss everlasting, where joyful love abounds, and fear is done away, where there is eternal day, and perfect agreement of souls, certain security, and secure quiet, pleasure and exquisite happiness, happy eternity, and eternal blessedness, even the ravishing sight, and the never-ceasing praise of thee the great and glorious God: where thou, with that blessed Son, as does that blessed Son with thee, livest and reignest in the unity of the same Divine Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

MEDITATION XIV.

Address to the Saviour.

My hope, my God, and Saviour, thou light and way, thou life and health, thou glory and grace of all that love and serve thee! Look down from the throne of thy majesty, and in the midst of bliss remember the injuries and sufferings, the scourges, and the cross, the wounds and death which thou enduredst—and think with favour on thy suppliant, for whose sake thou wast pleased to endure and do so much.

Thou art the living and true God, my gentle and kind master, my great king, my good shepherd, my only teacher, my most ready and effectual helper, my true and living bread, my everlasting high priest, my guide to my own country, my reconciliation and peace, my sure defence, my most desirable portion, my unblemished sacrifice, my perfect redemption, my assured hope, my resurrection from the dead, my everlasting life. Of thee I beg, that I may walk by thee, come to thee, rest in thee, O thou way, thou truth, thou life, without which no man cometh to the Father. Thou, even thou, art the blessing my soul wants, and most earnestly desires, my only Lord.

O brightness of thy Father's glory, who from thy throne far above the cherubim seest all the secrets of the great deep! Thou true, enlivening, unexhausted light, with which angels long to be illuminated, and spend glad ages in beholding! spring forth in my soul, and scatter the thick darkness

there, that the brightness of thy love may shine and shed itself through every corner of my benighted heart. Give me thyself, O God, give me thy love in return, for that I love thee thou knowest; and while I confess it is too little, I desire to love thee more ardently. I cannot make such exact reckoning of my love, as to know how much I fall short of that affection which I ought to have, that so my every action and desire might carry me to thy embraces, fly to thy arms, and never cease the pursuit of my Lord, till I be hid in the secret place of thy presence. But though I cannot take a precise measure of my defects, and how much better I ought to be, yet this I know, and from my own experience can declare, that all without, nay, all besides thee, avails me nothing; all about, all within is desolation and misery; whatever the foolish world calls plenty, is nothing; and all but my God is poverty, and the very extremity of

want.

For thou alone art that good, which cannot admit of either diminution or increase; to thee to live and to be happy is the same thing, who art happiness itself. But thy creature, with whom these things may be separated, and who may either not live or live and be unhappy, ought to ascribe the whole benefit of both life and happiness to thy sole gift and favour. Hence it is that we stand in continual need of thee, but thou hast none of us: for, if we had no being at all, that would not lessen in any degree that happiness, which is inseparable from thy being! nay, is indeed thy very being. It is therefore absolutely necessary for us to cleave steadfastly to the Lord our God, that by thy continual assistance we may be enabled to live soberly,

righteously, and godly, in this present world. For this load of flesh and frailty cumbers and drags us down, but the gifts of thy Spirit are a happy counterpoise to this heavy clog. By these we feel the slugglish mass warmed and put into motion; we rise and mount upwards in heart and mind; we sing songs of degrees, and, inflamed with thy Divine fire, burn with holy zeal and soar aloft successfully.

But whither is it that these flights would carry us? Even to the Peace of Jerusalem: According to that of the Psalmist, I was glad when they said unto me, We will go into the house of the Lord. There, hath his goodness prepared a place for us, that the sum of all our wishes and desires should be to set up our rest there for ever. For, because we are absent from the Lord, during the time of our sojourning in this tabernacle of the body, we have no continuing city here, but are seeking one to come; we lodge in a moveable tent, and are travellers and strangers in a foreign land; but we are free denizens of heaven, and our home and all our privileges and properties are there. I will therefore move under the conduct of thy grace. I will retire into the closet of my heart, and entertain my soul with songs of love to thee, my King and my God; with tender sighs and groanings which cannot be uttered; in the house of my pilgrimage, which the contemplation of thy righteousness shall soften, while it is made the subject of my joy and praise.

And can I think upon Jerusalem without stretching forward all the desires of my soul to that region of bliss? Jerusalem, the country, the common mother of us all; and thee, my God, that reignest

there in glory; the light of that holy city, the father and defender, the governor and the shepherd; the pure, but exquisite delights that abound there; the substantial joy, and all the unspeakable felicities united in thee, who art the true, the supreme, the only felicity of thy people. O let me not, I beseech thee, turn back, or go out of the way, but proceed continually in my affections, till thou at last bring my whole spirit, and soul, and body, into. the peaceful mansions, where my heart is already fixed. The first fruits of the Spirit I already taste. Impart to me the whole lump, and fill my soul with the joys which I now anticipate. Collect my scattered thoughts, and take off the blemishes and deformities of my present frailties, till thou hast wrought me up to a resemblance of thy beauty, and established me for ever in the glories of thy blessed presence, O God of my salvation.