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

why, speak then for the Lords sake, and for the sake of precious souls, and keep not such a thing as this is in; let your unexperienced Neighbours know what a Soul-ravishing, and Soul-raising Duty Meditation is. Let me ask thee which readest these Lines, did you ever try what there was in this Duty of Meditation? I suppose, if you converse much with such Books as speak of Communion with God, you can't but desire something of it, and I am persuaded you have sometimes wept since you began to read this Book, to think how little you experience; I believe you would be glad with all your Soul, to know what it is to be acquainted with God, and to have such a Friend as I have been speaking of. Why let me ask you again, did you ever try ⟨p. 308⟩what Meditation is? (You may read much of the excellency of this Duty, and Directions about it in Mr. Baxters Saints Everlasting Rest) did you ever get out of the world, and intensely fix your heart and thoughts upon any of the glorious Attributes of God? Did you ever set before your eyes his love in Christ? If not, O try and fall to this work seriously and speedily, and you shall soon find the sweetness of it; you will soon say that you lost many a good meeting, many a dainty bit for want of going for it. A carnal worldly heart I must confess may possibly spoil this Duty, as all others, and grow formal in it, and be weary of it, and cast it off (though, let me put in this, I believe its marvellous rare for a Hypocrite to have any thing to do in such a secret duty as this is) but if they were true to the interest of their own souls in the management of this work, I am confident they would be every day more and more in love with this duty: For I am persuaded that when the soul is in good earnest, nay, I can speak it positively, there is no duty doth so much raise and warm the soul; there is no duty wherein the people of God enjoy his sweet company more than in this. This opens the treasures of Gods kindness; this takes his Love tokens and presents them to the view of the soul; this unlocks the Cabinets, and fetches out those precious Jewels; by this the soul doth, as it were talk with its Beloved; and in this Christ doth, as it were, take the soul by the hand, and lead it into his Palace, and shows it all those glorious things, which it shall shortly have in her possession for ever.

why, speak then for the Lords sake, and for the sake of precious souls, and keep not such a thing as this is in; let your unexperienced Neighbours know what a Soul-ravishing, and Soularaising Duty Meditation is. Let me ask thee which readest these Lines, did you ever try what there was in this Duty of Meditation? I suppose, if you converse much with such Books as speak of Communion with God, you can't but desire something of it, and I am perswaded you have sometimes wept since you began to read this Book, to think how little you experience; I believe you would be glad with all your Soul, to know what it is to be acquainted with God, and to have such a Friend as I have been speaking of. Why let me ask you again, did you ever try