Chap. 12.1 LIFE UPON EARTH. 193 and affections from the world, to draw forth all our graces, and increase each in its proper object, and hold them to it till the work prospers in our hands; this, this is the diffi- culty. Reader, heaven is above thee, and dost thou think to travel this steep ascent without labor and resolution ? Canst thou get that earthly heart to heaven, and bring that backward mind to God, while thou liest still, and takest thine ease ? If lying down at the foot of thehill, and look- ing toward the top, and wishing we were there, would serve the turn, then we should have daily travellers for heaven. But " the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." There must be violence used to get these first-fruits, as well as to get the full pos- session. Dost thou not feel it so, though I should not tell thee? Will thy heart get upward, except thou drive it ? Thou knowest that heaven is all thy hope ; that nothing below can yield thee rest; that a heart, seldom thinking of heaven, can fetch but little comfort thence; and yet dost thou not lose thy opportunities, and lie beh w, when thou shouldst walk above, and live with God ? Post thou not commend the sweetness of a heavenly life, and judge those the best Christians that use it, and yet never try it thyself ? As the sluggard that stretches himself on his bed, and cries, O that this were working ! so dost thou talk, and trifle, and live at thy ease, and say, O that I could get my heart toheaven ! Howmany read books and hear sermons, expecting to hear of some easier way, or to meet with a shorter course to comfort, than they are ever like to find in Scripture ! Or they ask for directions for a heavenly life, and if the hearing themwill serve, they will be hea- venly Christians; but if we show them their work, and tell them they cannot have these delights on easier terms, then they leave us, as the young man left Christ,,sorro:v- ful. If thou art convinced, reader, that this work is ne- cessary to thy comfort, set upon it resolutely : if thy heart draw back, force it on with the command of reason ; if thy reason begin to dispute, produce the command of God, and urge thy own necessity, with the other considerations sug- gested in the former chapter. Let not such an incompa- rable treasure lie before thee, with thy hand in thy bosom ; nor thy life be a continual vexation, when it might be a continual feast, only because thou wilt not exert thyself. 9 fi
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