Heaven upon earth, or, The best friend in the worst of times. Delivered in…

to rejoice in their company, and they in his; and ⟨p. 133⟩how could this be, except there was a suitableness in them one to another. Their wills are suited; what God wills they will; and what God loves, they love; and so what they love, as his Friends, God loves; one doth not thwart and contradict the other. O how sweet then must the company, the communion of such Friends be! O were our hearts as they should be! were we more like God, we should quickly experience the unspeakable joy of our Souls, how suitable a Friend he is to a soul: we should soon find, that as clay and stones are as unsuitable food for the body, so the world is unsuitable food for the soul to feed on, and that it is God alone that can fill and satisfy the vast desires of it. O, I say again, were we but as we came out of our Makers hands, or rather were we trimmed up in our eldest brothers Robes, and brought into the immediate presence of this great King, where we set before that glorious Throne, where the infinite brightness of his Majesty shines so that the Angels themselves do veil their faces before him; yet for all that we should not long stand silent, as if the place and company were unsuitable to us, it would not be long before we should carry it as those that were nearly related, and had intimate acquaintance with him that sits upon the throne. O the unspeakable sweetness that will be the enjoyment of his company! no tediousness, no irksomeness at all upon our Spirits. We shall quickly understand our work, our privilege. O infinite goodness! O boundless love! O let me be always solacing my soul in the contemplation of these things! O let the very thoughts of them be a Heaven upon earth to my soul! but ⟨p. 134⟩here, O here's the grief while we are here in a strange Country, there is something (in all the poor fallen children of Adam, nay, in those of them that are recovered, and by grace brought into a re-union with God) there is, I say, something in God unsuitable to them, and in them unsuitable to God; and this, O this makes our lives so uncomfortable: but convers with God will wear off a great deal of that. When thou comest to lay off thy rages, and to put off thy old suit, and to put on that new one that is making for thee, I mean after death, when thou comest to glory, thou wilt find the case strangely altered with thee.

to rejoyce in their company, and they in his; and ⟨p. 133⟩