274 HEAVENLY; CO\TEIVII'LA'r101` for raising us to God, which are so often the means of drawing us from him. shy hath God given us either our senses or their common objects, if they might not be serviceable to his praise? Why doth the Holy Spirit describe the glory of the New Je- rusalem in expressions that are even grateful to the flesh ? Is it that we might think heaven to be made of gold and pearl ?, or that saints and angels eat and drink? No, but to help us to conceive of them as we are able, and to use these borrowed phrases as a glass, m which we must see the things themselves im- perfectly represented, till we come to an immediate and perfect sight. And besides showing how heaven- ly contemplation may be assisted by sensible objects, this chapter will also show how it may be preserved from a wandering heart. § 2. (1) In order that heavenly contemplation may be assisted by sensible objects, let me only advise ---to draw strong suppositions from sense, and to compare the objects of sense with the objects of faith. § 3. (I) For the helping of thy affections in heavenly contemplation, draw as strong suppositions as possible from thy senses. Think on the joys above, as boldly as scripture bath expressed them. Bring down thy con- ceptions to the reach of sense. Both love and joy are promoted by familiar acquaintance. When we attempt to think of God and glory without the scripture manner of representing them, we are lost and have nothing to fix our thoughts upon ; we set them so far from us that our thoughts are strange, and we are ready to say, what is above us, is nothing to us. To conceive of God and glory, only as above our conception, will beget but lit- tle love ; or as above our love, will produce little joy. Therefore put Christ no farther from you than he hath put himself, lest the divine nature be again inaccessible. Think of Christ as in our own glorified nature. Think Of glorified saints as men made perfect. Suppose thy- self a companion with John, in his survey of the New Jerusalem, and viewing the thrones, the majesty, the heavenly hosts, the shining splendour which he saw.
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