The divine life in three treatises

Well! for all this, though a Wilderness is not Heaven, it shall be sweet and welcome for the sake of Heaven, if thence I may but have a clearer prospect of it: and if by retiring from the crowd and noise of folly I may but be more composed and better disposed to converse above, and to use my faith (alas, my too weak languid faith) until the beatifical vision and fruition come. If there may be but more of God, or readier access to him, or more heart-quickening flames of Love, or more heart-comforting intimations of his favour, in a wilderness then in a City, in a prison then in a Palace, let that wilderness be my City, and let that prison be my Palace, while I must abide on earth. If in solitude I may have Henochs walk with God, I shall in due season have such a translation as shall bring me to the same felicity which he enjoyeth: and in the mean time as well as after, it is no incommodity, if by mortal eyes I be seen no more. If the Chariot of contemplation will in solitude raise me to more believing affectionate converse with heaven, than I could expect in tumults and temptations, it shall reconcile me unto solitude, and make it my Paradise on earth, till Angels instead of the Chariot of Elijah, shall convey me to the presence of my glorified Head, in the Celestial Paradise.

Well! for all this, though a Wilderness is not Heaven, it shall be sweet and wellcome for the sake of Heaven, if thence I may but have a clearer prospect of it: and if by retiring from the crowd and noise of folly I may but be more composed and better disposed to converse above, and to use my faith (alas, my too weak languid faith) untill the beatifical vision and fruition come. If there may be but more of God, or readier access to him, or more heart-quickening flames of Love, or more heart-comforting intimations of his favour, in a wilderness then in a City, in a prison then in a Palace, let that wilderness be my City, and let that prison be my Palace, while I must abide on earth. If in solitude I may have Henochs walk with God, I shall in due season have such a translation as shall bring me to the same felicity which he enjoyeth: and in the mean time as well as after, it is no incommodity, if by mortal eyes I be seen no more. If the Chariot of contemplation will in solitude raise me to more believing affectionate converse with heaven, than I could expect in tumults and temptations, it shall reconcile me unto solitude, and make it my Paradise on earth, till Angels instead of the Chariot of Elias, shall convey me to the presence of my glorified Head, in the Celestial Paradise.