Chap. 13.] HEAVENLY CONTEMPLATION. 215 with all thy soul. Trust not Christ into the stable and the manger, as if thou hadst better guests for the chief rooms. Say to all thy worldly business and thoughts, as Christ to his disciples, " Sit ye here, while I go and prayyonder ;" or, as Abraham to his servants, when he went to offer Isaac, " Abide ye here, and I will go yonder and worship, and come again to you." Even as " the priests thrust king Uzziah out of the temple," where he presumed to burn in- cense, when they saw the leprosyupon him ; so do thou thrust those thoughts from the temple of thy heart, which have the badge of God's prohibition upon them. 2. Be sure to set upon thiswork with the greatest sotemnity ofheart andmind. There is no trifling in holy things.. "God will be sanctified in them that come nigh him." . These spi- ritual, excellent, soul-raising duties, are, if well used, most profitable ; but, when used unfaithfully, most dangerous. Labor, therefore, to have the deepest apprehensions of the presence of God, and his incomprehensible greatness. If queen Esther must not draw near " till the king hold out the sceptre," think, then, with what reverence thou shouldst approach him, who made the worlds with the word of his mouth, who upholds the earth as in the palm of his hand, who keeps the sun, moon, and stars in their courses, and who, sets bounds to the raging sea ! Thou art going to con- verse with him, before whom the earth will quake and devils do tremble, and at whose bar thou and all the world must shortly stand, and be finally judged. O think ! I shall then have lively apprehensions of his majesty. My drowsy spirits will then be awakened, and my irreverence be laid aside ; and why should I not now be roused with the sense of his greatness, and the dread of his name possess my soul 1" Labor also to apprehend the greatness of the work which thou attemptest, and to be deeply sensible both of its im- portance and excellency. If thou wast pleading for thy life at the bar of an earthly judge, thouwouldst be serious, and yet that would be a trifle to this. If thou west engaged in such a work as David against Goliath, on which the welfare of a kingdom depended ; in itself considered, it were no- thing to this. Suppose thou wast going to such a wrestling asJacob's, or to see the sight which the three disciples saw in the mount, how seriously, how reverently, wouldst thou both approach and behold ! If but an angel from heaven
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