thou dost willingly and purposely choose; but though the will be here requisite, yet still consideration is the instrument of the work.

Sect. III. 2. Next, let us see what force consideration hath for the moving the affections, and for the powerful imprinting of things in the heart.

Why, First, Consideration doth, as it were, open the door between the head and the heart; the understanding having received truths, lays them up in the memory; now, consideration is the conveyer of them from thence to the affections: there are few men of so weak understanding or memory, but they know and can remember that which would strangely work upon them, and make great alterations in their spirits, if they were not locked up in their brain, and if they could but convey them down to their hearts: now, this is the great work of consideration. O what rare men would they be, who have strong heads, and much learning, and knowledge, if the obstructions between the head and the heart were but opened, and their affections did but correspond to their understanding! Why, if they would but bestow as much time and pains in studying the goodness and the evil of things, as they bestow in studying the truth and falsehood of enunciations, it were the readiest way to obtain this: he is usually the best scholar, who hath the most quick, clear, and tenacious apprehension. He is the best scholar who hath the readiest passage from the ear to the brain ; but he is the best Christian who hath the readiest passage from the brain to the heart; now, consideration is that on our parts that must open the passage, though the Spirit open as the principal cause: inconsiderate men are stupid and senseless.

Sect. IV. 2. Matters of great weight, which do nearly concern us, are aptest to work most effectually upon the heart; now, meditation draweth forth these working objects, and presents them to the affections in their worth and weight; the most delectable object doth not please him that sees it not; nor doth the joyfullest news affect him that never hears it now, consideration presents before us those objects that were as absent, and brings them to the eye and the ear of the soul. Are not Christ, and glory, think you, affecting objects? Would not they

Paucis opus est ad bonam mentem literis, sed nos ut cætera in supervacuum diffundimus, ita philosophiam ipsam ; quem admodum omnium, sic literarum quoque intemperantia laboramus. Non vitæ sed scholæ discimus, inquit Seneca.

work wonders upon the soul, if they were but clearly discovered; and strangely transport us, if our apprehensions were any whit answerable to their worth? Why, by consideration it is that they are presented to us: this is the prospective glass of the Christian, by which he can see from earth to heaven.

Sect. V. 3. As consideration draweth forth the weightiest objects, so it presenteth them in the most affecting way, and presseth them home with enforcing arguments. Man is a rational creature, and apt to be moved in a reasoning way; especially when reasons are evident and strong: now, consideration is a reasoning the case with a man's own heart, and what a multitude of reasons, both clear and weighty; are always at hand for to work upon the heart! When a believer would reason his heart to this heavenly work, how many arguments do offer themselves! From God, from the Redeemer, from every one of the divine attributes, from our former estate, from our present estate, from promises, from seals, from earnest, from the evil we now suffer, from the good we partake of, from hell, from heaven: every thing doth offer itself to promote our joy. Now, meditation is the hand to draw forth all these e; as when you are weighing a thing in the balance, you lay on a little more, and a little more, till it weigh down; so if your affections do hang in a dull indifferency, why, due meditation will add reason after reason, till the scales do turn; or, as when you are buying any thing of necessity for your use, you bid a little more, and a little more, till at last you come to the seller's price; so when meditation is persuading you to joy, it will first bring one reason, and then another, till it have silenced all your distrust and sorrows, and your cause to rejoice lies plain before you. If another man's reasons will work so powerfully with us, though we are uncertain whether his heart do concur with his speeches, and whether his intention be to inform us, or deceive us; how much more should our own reasons work with us, when we are acquainted with the right intentions of our own hearts! Nay, how much more rather should God's reasons work with us, which we are sure are neither fallacious in his intent, nor in themselves, seeing, he did never yet deceive, nor was ever deceived! Why, now, meditation is but the reading over and repeating God's reasons to our hearts, and so disputing with ourselves in his arguments and terms. And is not this then likely to be a prevailing way? What reasons doth the prodigal plead with himself, why he should return to his Father's house! And as many and

strong have we to plead with our affections, to persuade them to our Father's everlasting habitations. And by consideration it is that they must all be set a-work.

Sect. VI. 4. Meditation puts reason in its authority and preeminence. It helpeth to deliver it from its captivity to the senses, and setteth it again upon the throne of the soul. When reason is silent, it is usually subject; for when it is asleep the senses domineer. Now, consideration awakeneth our reason from its sleep, till it rouse up itself, as Sampson, and break the bonds of sensuality wherewith it is fettered; and then, as a giant refreshed with wine, it bears down the delusions of the flesh before it. What strength can the lion put forth when he is asleep? What is the king more than another man, when he is once deposed from his throne and authority? When men have no better judge than the flesh, or when the joys of heaven go no further than their fantasies, no wonder if they work but as common things. Sweet things to the eye, and beautiful things to the ear, will work no more than bitter and deformed; every thing worketh in its own place, and every sense hath its proper object. Now, it is spiritual reason, excited by meditation, and not the fantasy or fleshly sense, which must savour and judge of these superior joys. Consideration exalteth the objects of faith, and disgraceth comparatively the objects of sense. The most inconsiderate men are the most sensual men. It is too easy and ordinary to sin against knowledge; but against sober, strong, continued consideration, men do more seldom offend.1

Sect. VII. 5. Meditation also putteth reason into his strength. Reason is at the strongest, when it is most in action. Now, meditation produceth reason into act. Before, it was a standing water, which can move nothing else when itself moveth not, but now it is as the speedy stream which violently bears down all before it. Before, it was as the still and silent air, but now it is as

h Voluntatis bifariam moveri et flecti potest: aut ab interno principio et agente, vel ab externo. Interius principium est tum naturalis inclinatio in suum objectum, tum Deus ipse talis naturalis inclinationis author. Idcirco nemo potest voluntatem ut interius agens movere nisi Deus, et ipse cujus est voluntas. Externum movens duplex, unum ipsum voluntatis objectum, bonum; viz. ab intellectu apprehensum, et voluntati efficaciter oblatum. Alterum sunt ipsæ passiones, concupiscentia, aliique affectus, qui in appetitu degunt sensitivo. Ab iis enim sæpe voluntas ad aliquid volendum seducitur atque efficitur. Nam efficiunt hæ passiones ut multa quæ mala sunt, videantur voluntati bona; ita ut ea in hæc inclinet. Ita dæmones possunt affectus turbare, commovere, afficere: et per hos voluntatem.-Zanchius de Pot. Dam. cap. 11. p. 169. Nothing more common than for a drunkard to take a forbid

the powerful motion of the wind, and overthrows the opposition of the flesh and the devil. Before, it was as the stones which lie still in the brook; but now, when meditation doth set it to work, it is as the stone out of David's sling, which smites the Goliah of our unbelief in the forehead. As wicked men continue wicked, not because they have not reason in the principle, but because they bring it not into act and use; so godly men are uncomfortable and sad, not because they have no causes to rejoice, nor because they have not reason to discern those causes, but because they let their reason and faith lie asleep, and do not labour to set them a-going, nor stir them up to action by this work of meditation. You know that our very dreams will deeply affect. What fears, what sorrows, what joy, will they stir up! How much more, then, would serious meditation affect us!

Sect. VIII. 6. Meditation can discontinue this discursive employment. That may be accomplished by a weaker motion continued, which will not by a stronger at the first attempt. A plaster that is never so effectual to cure, must yet have time to do its work, and not be taken off as soon as it is on. Now, meditation doth hold the plaster to the sore: it holdeth reason and faith to their works, and bloweth the fire till it thoroughly burn. To run a few steps will not get a man heat, but walking an hour together may. So, though a sudden occasional thought of heaven will not raise our affections to any spiritual heat, yet meditation can continue our thoughts, and lengthen our walk till our hearts grow warm.

And thus you see what force meditation or consideration hath for the effecting of this great elevation of the soul, whereto I have told you it must be the instrument.

den cup, or a fornicator his whore, while his conscience tells him that it is a sin, and that hic et nunc, it is better to forbear; the good of honesty being to be preferred before the pleasure. For when sense is violent, it is not a bare kuowing, or concluding against sin, that will restrain, except it be also strong, and serious, and constant, in acting of our judgment, as is sufficient to bear down the violence of passion. And this is the work of deep consideration. I conclude, therefore, that the saving or losing of men's souls lies most in the well or ill-managing of this work of consideration. This the great business that God calls men to for their salvation, and which he so blesseth, that I think we may say, that every well-considering man is a godly man, that useth it on true grounds, seriously and constantly; and every wicked man is an inconsiderate man.

CHAP. IX.

What Affections must be acted, and by what Considerations and Objects, and in what Order.

SECT. I. Thirdly, To draw the heart yet nearer to the work. The third thing to be discovered to you is, what powers of the soul must here be acted; what affections excited; what considerations of their objects are necessary thereto, and in what order we must proceed. I join all these together, because, though in themselves they are distinct things, yet, in the practice they all concur to the same action.

The matters of God which we have to think on, have their various qualifications, and are presented to the soul of man in divers relative and modal considerations. According to the several considerations of the objects, the soul itself is distinguished into its several faculties, powers, and capacities; that as God hath given man five senses to partake of the five distinct excellences of the objects of sense, so he hath diversified the soul of man, either into faculties, powers, or ways of acting, answerable to the various qualifications and considerations of himself and the inferior objects of this soul. And, as if there be more sensible excellences in the creatures, yet they are unknown to us who have but these five senses to discern them by; so whatever other excellences are in God and our happiness, more than these faculties or powers of the soul can apprehend, must needs remain wholly unknown to us, till our souls have senses, as it were, suitable to those objects, even as it is known to a tree or a stone, what sound, and light, and sweetness are, or that there are any such things in the world at all.

Now, these matters of God are primarily diversified to our consideration, under the distinction of true and good: accordingly, the primary distinction concerning the soul, is into the faculties of understanding and will: the former having truth for its object, and the latter goodness. This truth is sometimes known by evident demonstration, and so it is the object of that we call knowledge, which also admits of divers distinctions, according to several ways of demonstration, which I am loth here to puzzle you with. Sometimes it is received from the testimony of others, which receiving we call belief. When any thing else would obscure it, or stands up in