20$ IIPfïTANCE oF' LErYDINU' A that thou mayest have life. if thou wouldst have light and heat, why art thou no more in the sun - shine? For want of this recourse to heaven, thy soul is as a lamp not lighted, and thy duties as a sacrifice without. fire. Fetch one coal daily from this altar, and see if thy offering will not burn. Light thy lamp at this flame, and feed it daily with oil from hence, and see if it will not gloriously shine. Keep close to this re- viving fire, and see 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, contemplate his excel - lencies, and see if his amiableness and perfect goodness will not ravish thy heart. As exercise gives appetite, strength and vigour, to the body ; so these heavenly exercises will quickly cause the increase of grace and spiritual life. Besides, it is not false or strange fire which you fetch from heaven for your sacrifices. The zeal which is kindled by your meditations on heaven, is most likely to be a heavenly zeal. Some men's fer- vency is only drawn from their books, some from the sharpness of affliction, some from the mouth of a moving minister, and some from the attention of an auditory ; but he that knows this way to heaven, and derives it daily from the true fountain, shall have his soul revived with the water of life, and enjoy that quick- ening which is peculiar to the saints. By this faith thou mayest offer Abel's sacrifice, more excellent then that of common men, and by it obtain witness that thou art righteous, God testifying of thy gifts that they are sincere. When others are ready like Baal's priests, to cut themselves, because their sacrifice will not burn, thou mayest breathe the spirit of Elijah, and in the chariot of contemplation soar aloft, till thy soul and sacrifice gloriously flame, though the flesh and the world should cast upon them all the water of their op- posing enmity. Say not, how can mortals ascend to heaven ? Faith hath wings, and meditation is its cha- riot. Faith is a burning glass to thy sacrifice, and me- ditation sets it to the face of the sun ; only take it not away too soon, but hold it there awhile, and thy soul
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