234 DIRECTIONS HOW TO LEAD A selves with a heavenly nature. It is pity Christian should ever meet together, without some talk of their meeting in heaven, or of the way to it, before they part. It is pity so much time is spent in vain conver- sation, and useless disputes, and not a serious word of heaven among them. Methinks we should meet to- gether on purpose to warm our spirits with discoursing of our rest. To hear a Christian 'set forth that blessed glorious state, with life and power, from the promises of the gospel, methinks should make us say, " Did not our hearts burn within us, while he opened to us the scripture ? "(l) If a Felix will tremble, when he hears his judgment powerfully represented, why should not the believer be revived, when he hears the eternal rest described? Wicked men can be delighted in talking together of their wickedness ; and should not Christians then be delighted in talking of Christ ; and the heirs of heaven, in talking of their inheritance? This may make our hearts revive, as it did Jacob's to hear the message that called him to Goshen, and to see the cha- riots that should bring him to Joseph. O that we were furnished with skill and resolution, to turn the stream of men's common discourse to these more sublime and precious things ! and, when men begin to talk of things unprofitable, that we could tell how to put in a word for heaven, and say, as Peter of his bodily food, Not so, for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean ! O the good that we might both do and re- ceive by this course ! Had it not been to deter us from unprofitable conversation, Christ would not have talked of our giving an account of every idle word in the day of judgment.(va) Say then as the, Psalmist when you are in company, " Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if, I prefer not Jerusalem, above my chief' joy." (a) Then you shall find it true, that a wholesome tongue is a tree of'lifé.(o) 15. (5) Endeavour in every duty to raise thy affec- tions nearer to heaven. God's end in the institution of his ordinances,' was, that they should be as so many (l) Luke xxiv. (m) Matt. xii. 36. (n) Psalm cxxxvii. 6. (o) Prov. xv. 4.
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