248 HEAVENLY CONTEMPLATION `Chap. 16. CHAPTER XVI. HEAVENLY CONTEMPLATION EXEMPLIFIED, AND THE WHOLE wens CONCLUDED. The reader's attention excited to the following example of meditation 1. The excellencies of heavenly rest; 2. its nearness ; 3. dreadful to sinners ; 4. and joyful to saints ; 5. its dear purchase ; 6. its difer ence from earth. 7. The heart pleaded with ; 8. unbelief banished; 9. acareless world pitied. 10. Heavenly rest the object of love ; 11. andboy. 12. The heart's backwardness to heavenlyjoy lamented. 13. Heavenly rest theobject of desire. AND now, reader, according to the above directions, make conscience of daily exercising thy graces in meditation, as well as prayer. Retire into some secret place, at a time the most convenient to thyself, and, laying aside all worldly thoughts, with all possible seriousness and reverence, look up toward heaven ; remember there isthine everlasting rest,study its excellency and reality; and rise from sense to faith, by comparing heavenlywithearthly joys. Thenmixejaculations with thy soliloquies ; till, having pleaded the case reverently with God, and seriously with thyown heart, thou hast pleaded thyself from a clod to a flame ; from a forgetful sinner, and a lover of the world, to an ardent lover of God ; from a fearful coward to a resolved Christian ; from an unfruitful sadness to a joyful life ; in a word, till thou hast pleaded thy heart from earth to heaven ; from conversing nekw, to walking with God ; and till thou canst lay thy heart to rest, as in the bosom of Christ, by some such meditation of thy everlasting rest as is here added for thy assistance. 1. " Rest ! How sweet the sound ! It is melody to my ears! It lies as a reviving cordial at my heart, and from thence sends forth lively spirits, which beat through all the pulses of my soul ! Rest !not as the stone that rests on the earth, nor as this flesh shall rest in the grave, nor such a rest as the carnal world desires. O blessed rest ! when we rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty !' when we shall rest from sin, but not from wor- ship ; from suffering and sorrow, but not from joy ! O blesed day ! when I shall rest with God ! when I shall rest in the bosom of my Lord ! when I shall rest in knowing, loving, rejoicing, and praising ! when my perfect soul and body shall together perfectly enjoy the most perfect God ! when
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