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for he walked with God: And that God faid to Abraham, walk before me, and be thou perfect.

§ 10. (5) The diligent keeping your Hearts in Heaven, will maintain the Vigour of all your Graces, and put Life into all your Duties. The heavenly Chriftian is the lively Chriftian. 'Tis our Strangeness to Heaven that makes us fo dull. How will the Soldier hazard his Life, and the Mariner pafs through Storms and Waves, and no Difficulty keep them back, when they think of an uncertain perifning Treasure? What Life then would it put into a Chriftian's Endeavours, if he would frequently think of his everlafting Treafure? We run fo flowly, and strive fo lazily, because we fo little mind the Prize. Obferve but the Man who is much in Heaven, and you fhall fee he is not like other Chriftians; there is fomething of what he hath feen above, appeareth in all his Duty and Converfation. If a Preacher, how heavenly are his Sermons! If a private Chriftian, what heavenly Converfe, Prayers, and Deportment! Set upon this Employment, and others will fee the Face of your Converfation fine, and fay, furely he hath been with God in the Mount. But if you lie complaining of Deadnefs and Dulnefs, that you cannot love Chrifl, nor rejoice in his Love, that you have no Life in Prayer, nor any other Duty; and yet neglect this quickening Employment; you are the Caufe of your own Complaints. Is not thy Life hid with Christ in God? Where must thou go, but to Chrift for it? And where is that, but to Heaven, where Chrift is? Thou wilt not come to Chrift, that thou mayft have Life. If thou wouldst have Light and Heat, why art thou no more in the Sun-fhine? For Want of this Recourfe to Heaven, thy Soul is a Lamp that is not lighted, and thy Duties as a Sacrifice which hath no Fire. Fetch one Coal daily from this Altar, and fee

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if thy Offering will not burn. Light thy Lamp at this Flame, and feed it daily with Oil from hence, and fee if it will not glorioufly fhine. Keep close to this reviving Fire, and fee if thy Affections will not be warm. In thy Want of Love to God, lift up thy Eye of Faith to Heaven, behold his Beauty, con template his Excellencies, and fee whether his Amiableness and perfect Goodness will not ravish thy Heart. As Exercise maintaineth Appetite, Strength, and Vigour to the Body; fo thefe heavenly Exercises will quickly caufe the Increase of Grace and fpiritual Life. Befides, it is not falfe or ftrange Fire, which you fetch from Heaven for your Sacrifices. The Zeal which is kindled by your Meditations on Heaven, is moft likely to be a heavenly Zeal. Some Men's Fervency is only drawn from their Books, and fome from the Sharpnefs of Affliction, and fome from the Mouth of a moving Minister, and fome from the Attention of an Auditory; but he that knows this Way to Heaven, and derives it daily from the true Fountain, fhall have his Soul revived with the Water of Life, and enjoy that Quickening which is peculiar to the Saints. By this Faith thou mayft offer Abel's Sacrifice, more excellent than that of common Men, and by it obtain Witness, that thou art righteous, God teftifying of thy Gifts, that they are fincere. When ' others are ready, like Baal's Priests, to cut themselves, because their Sacrifice will not burn; thou mayft breath the Spirit of Elijah, and in the Chariot of Contemplation foar aloft, till thy Soul and Sacrifice gloriously flame, tho' the Flefh and the World fhould caft upon them all the Water of their oppofing Enmity. Say not, how can Mortals afcend to Heaven? Faith hath Wings, and Meditation is its Chariot. Faith is as a Burning Glafs to thy Sacrifice, and Meditation fets it to the Face of the Sun; only take it not

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away too foon, but hold it there a while, and thy Soul will feel the happy Effect. Reader, art thou not thinking, when thou feeft a lively Chriftian, and heareft his lively fervent Prayers, and edifying Difcourfe," how happy a Man is this! O that my "Soul were in this bleffed Condition!" Why, I here advise thee from God, fet thy Soul confcientiously to this Work, wash thee frequently in this Jordan, and thy leprous dead Soul will revive, and thou shalt know that there is a God in Ifrael, and that thou mayft live a vigorous and joyful Life, if thou dost not wilfully neglect thy own Mercies.

11. (6) The frequent believing Views of Glory are the most precious Cordials in all Afflictions. Thele Cordials, by chearing our Spirits, render our Sufferings far more eafy; enable us to bear them with Patience and Joy; and fo ftrengthen our Refolutions, that we forfake not Chrift for Fear of Trouble. If the Way be ever fo rough, can it be tedious, if it lead to Heaven? O fweet Sickness, Reproaches, Imprisonments, or Death, accompanied with thefe Taftes of our future Reft! This keeps the Suffering from the Soul, fo that it can only touch the Fleih. Had it not been for that little (alas, too little) Tafte which I had of Reft, my Sufferings would have been grievous, and Death more terrible. I may fay, I had fainted, unless I had believed to fee the Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living. Unless this promifed Reft had been my Delight, I should then have perished in mine Affliction. One Thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I feek after, that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the Days of my Life, to behold the Beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his Temple. For in the Time of Trouble He hall hide me in his Pavilion; in the Secret of his Tabernacle fall He hide me; He fhall fet me up upon a Rock. And now fhall mine Head be lifted

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up above mine Enemies round about me. Therefore will I offer in his Tabernacle Sacrifices of Joy, I will fing, yea, I will fing Praifes unto the Lord (c). All Sufferings are nothing to us, fo far as we have these fupporting Joys. When Perfecution and Fear hath fout the Doors, Chrift can come in, and ftand in the Midft, and fay to his Difciples, Peace be unto you. Paul and Silas can be in Heaven, even when they are thruft into the inner Prifon, their Bodies fcourged with many Stripes, and their Feet fast in the Stocks. The Martyrs find more Reft in their Flames, than their Perfecutors in their Pomp and Tyranny; because they foresee the Flames they efcape, and the Reft which their fiery Chariot is conveying them to. If the Son of God will walk with us, we are fafe in the Midft of thofe Flames, which fhall devour them that caft us in. Abraham went out of his Country, not knowing whither he went; becaufe he looked for a City which bath Foundations, whofe Builder and Maker is God. Mofes esteemed the Reproach of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures in Egypt; because he had Refpet unto the Recompence of Reward. He forfook Egypt, not fearing the Wrath of the King; becaufe he endured as feeing Him who is invifible. Others were tortured, not accepting Deliverance, that they might obtain a better Refurrection. Even Jefus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith, for the foy that was fet before him, endured the Cross, defpifing the Shame, and is fet down at the right Hand of the Throne of God. This is the noble Advantage of Faith, it can look on the Means and End together. This is the great Reafon of our Impatience, and cenfuring of God, becaufe we gaze on the Evil itfelf, but fix not our Thoughts on what's beyond it. They that faw Chrift only on the Crofs, or in the Grave, do fake their Heads, and

(c) Pfalm xxvii. 13. cxix. 92. xxvii. 4--6.

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think him loft; but God faw him dying, buried, rifing, glorified, and all this at one View. Faith will in this imitate God, fo far as it hath the Glass of a Promife to help it. We fee God burying us under Ground, but we forefee not the Spring, when we fhall all revive. Could we but clearly fee Heaven, as the End of all God's Dealings with us, furely none of his Dealings could be fo grievous. If God would once raise us to this Life, we should find, that tho' Heaven and Sin are at a great Distance; yet Heaven and a Prison, or Banifhment, Heaven and the Belly of a Whale, or a Den of Lions, Heaven and confuming Sickness, or invading Death, are at no fuch Diftance. But as Abraham faw Chrift's Day, and rejoiced; so we, in our most forlorn State, might fee that Day when Chrift fhall give us Reft and therein rejoice. I beseech thee, Chriftian, for the Honour of the Gofpel, and for thy Soul's Comfort, be not to learn this heavenly Art, when in thy greatest Extremity thou haft most need to ufe it. He that, with Stephen, fees the Glory of God, and Jefus ftanding on the right Hand of God, will comfortably bear the Shower of Stones. The Joy of the Lord is our Strength, and that Joy must be fetch'd from the Place of our Joy; and if we walk without our Strength, how long are we like to endure?

$12. (7) He that bath his Converfation in Heaven, is the profitable Christian to all about him. When a Man is in a ftrange Country, how glad is he of the Company of one of his own Nation? How delightful is it to talk of their own Country, their Acquaintance, and Affairs at home? With what Pleafure did fofeph talk with his Brethren, and enquire after his Father, and his Brother Benjamin? Is it not fo to a Chriftian, to talk with his Brethren that have been above, and Enquire after his Father, and Chrift his Lord?

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