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are set on things above, where Christ sitteth, and my life is hid. I walk by<br />
faith, and not by sight; willing rather to be absent from the body, and present<br />
with the Lord.'<br />
"What interest hath this empty world in me; and what is there in it that<br />
may seem so lovely as to entice my desires from my God, or make me loth to<br />
soar away? Methinks, when I look upon it with a deliberate eye, it is a<br />
howling wilderness, and too many of its inhabitants are untamed monsters. I<br />
can view all its beauty as deformity, and drown all its pleasures in a few<br />
penitent tears; or the wind of a sigh will scatter them away. O let not this<br />
flesh so seduce my soul as to make it prefer this weary life before the joys<br />
that are about thy throne! And though death itself be unwelcome to nature,<br />
yet thy grace make thy glory appear to me so desirable that the king of<br />
terrors may be the messenger of my joy. Let not my soul be ejected by<br />
violence, and dispossessed of its habitation against its will; but draw it to<br />
thyself by the secret power of thy love, as the sunshine in the spring draws<br />
forth the creatures from their winter cells; meet it half-way, and entice it to<br />
thee as the loadstone doth the iron, and as the greater flame attracts the less!<br />
Dispel, therefore, the clouds that hide thy love from me, or remove the scales<br />
that hinder mine eyes from beholding thee; for the beams that stream from<br />
thy face, and the foretastes of thy great salvation, and nothing else, can make<br />
a soul unfeignedly say, ‘Now let thy servant depart in peace!' But it is not thy<br />
ordinary discoveries that will here suffice; as the work is greater, so must thy<br />
help be. O turn these fears into strong desires; and this lothness to die into<br />
longings after thee! While I must be absent from thee, let my soul as heartily<br />
groan as my body doth under its want of health! If I have any more time to<br />
spend on earth, let me live as without the world in thee, as I have sometimes<br />
lived as without thee in the world! While I have a thought to think, let me not<br />
forget thee; or a tongue to move, let me mention thee with delight; or breath<br />
to breathe, let it be after thee, and for thee; or a knee to bend, let it daily bow<br />
at thy footstool; and when by sickness thou confinest me, do thou ‘make my<br />
bed, number my pains, and put all my tears into thy bottle!'<br />
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