Chap. 15.} BY SENSIBLE OBJECTS. First. In order that heavenly contemplation may be as- sisted 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. 1. For the helping of thy affections in heavenly contem- plation, draw as strong suppositions as possible from thy senses. Think on the joys above, as boldly as Scripture hath expressed them. Bring down thy conceptions to the reach of sense. Both love and joy are promoted by familiar ac- quaintance. When we attempt to think of God and glory, without the Scripture's manlier 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 little love ; or, 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 thyself a companion withJohn, in his survey of the New Jerusalem, and viewing the thrones, the majesty, the heavenly hosts, the shining splendor, which he saw. Suppose thyself his fellow-traveller into the celestial kingdom, and that thou hadst seen all the saints in their white robes, with " palms in their hands ;" and that thou hadst heard those " songs of Moses and of the Lamb." If thou hadst really seen and heard these things, in what a rapture wouldst thou have been ! And the more seriously thou puttest this supposition to thyself, the more will thy meditation elevate thy heart. Do not, like the Papists, draw them in pictures ! but get the liveliest picture of them in thy mind that thou possibly canst, by contem- plating the Scripture account of them, till thou canst say, " Methinks I see a glimpse of glory ! Methinks I hear the shouts of joy and praise, and even stand by Abraham and David, Peter and Paul, and other triumphant souls ! Me- thinks I even see the Son of God appearing in the clouds, and the world standing at his bar to receive their doom ; and hear him say, ' Come, ye blessed of my Father ;' and see them go rejoicing into the joy of their Lord! My very dreams of these things have sometimes greatly affected me; andshould not these just suppositions much more affect me'?
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