When the thoughts are with God, the soul is with God; when the thoughts are in the earth and mud, the soul is all bemired.
The soul goes forth, to view, to taste, and to choose for itself; the thoughts take a view, the affections and senses taste and take the relish, and then accordingly the will chooses: the will should follow the understanding, and choose only what the unbiased judgment tells it is good; but it does too ordinarily follow the affections and senses; these blind the reason, and so engage the will; we choose what we love, and what pleases, rather than what, upon an impartial deliberation, we judge to be good.
Keep your thoughts in by the Lord, and you’ll keep your souls in; your thoughts will be in exercise; will be walking daily and hourly, some where or other; there’s no keeping them in, they will abroad, either to heaven or earth: Oh send them to heaven daily, and hold them there, let them have no leisure in the earth.
Brethren, think yourselves up to heaven; as we may pray ourselves up, and believe ourselves up to heaven, so we may think ourselves thither: worldly men think themselves into pride, or think themselves into covetousness, or think themselves into wantonness, are so long thinking, and thinking in fuel for lust, till they have set all in a flame: as worldly men think themselves into wickedness, so let Christians think themselves into holiness, think themselves into humility, sobriety, contentment, and heavenliness of mind; call off your thoughts from this earth, and you will cease to be earthly, call them back from vanity, and you will cease to be vain; call them up to heaven, and you call them off from what’s below.
Think on God more, Christians, and the everlasting kingdom; think on the way that leads to it, on the dangers that lie in the way, on the dread of perishing in the way, on the beauty, pleasure, and comfort of being upright in the way, of the goal and prize at the end of the way.
Take up such thoughts as these; is not God better than the world? that is, are not all things better than nothing? is not grace better than sin? that is, is not fair better than foul? is not peace better than wrath; peace with God, than friendship with the world? are not the filings of gold better than heaps of earth?
Is a little grace so good, and is not more desirable? can there be much grace, where the desire is so divided betwixt it and vanity? Is gold in the ore so precious as gold out of the fire? Is the twilight pleasant, O what is the daylight? Is a mixture of flesh and spirit, of heaven and earth, as desirable as all spirit, all heaven? If grace be so good, if peace with God be so precious, why do I not seek it? If I have a little grace, if I have a little peace, why do I not press for more? when shall I increase and grow rich towards God, if I do not decrease towards this earth?
Be thinking thus on heaven and heavenly things; and if you will be thinking of earth too, think of the dark places of the earth, and the dark side of its brightness; think of the precipices, the marshes, the quagmires, the barren mountains, and desolate wildernesses, the briars and thorns, and wild beasts of the earth; my meaning is, if you will study the world, study its vanity and vexations, the danger you are in of being lost, or torn in pieces, or swallowed up of them.
How uncertain are these riches? how vanishing is this mirth? how inconstant are these friends? what a blast are these honours? what a flash are these pleasures? what a bubble are these buildings; how long will they last? what will be left of them a few years hence? But O the thorns, and the briars, the vexations, the cares and fears, the disappointments, the crosses, the sweat, and the sorrows, that are mingled with these pleasures and possessions. But yet farther, O the darts, and the arrows, and the stings that come after! O the stabs, and the wounds that they gave to the soul, the darkness, and death, and damnation, that they are dragging it into.
If you will be thinking on the world, let it be with such thoughts as these, and then see if it would be so hard to make an exchange of earth for heaven.
Richard Alleine. The World Conquered.
