It is true, a heavenly nature goes before this heavenly employment; but yet the work will make it more heavenly: there must be life, before we can feed; but our life is continued and increased by feeding. Therefore, let me inform thee, if thou lie complaining of deadness and dullness, that thou canst not love Christ, nor rejoice in his love; that thou hast no life in prayer, nor any other duty, and yet never triedst this quickening course, or at least art careless and inconstant in it; thou art the cause of thy own complaints; ⟨p. 290⟩thou dullest thine own heart; thou deniest thyself that life which thou talkest of. Is not thy life hid with Christ in God? Whither must thou go but to Christ for it? And whither is that, but to heaven, where he is? Thou wilt not come to Christ that thou mayst have life. If thou wouldst have light and heat, why art thou then no more in the sunshine? If thou wouldst have more of that grace which flows from Christ, why art thou no more with Christ for it? Thy strength is in heaven, and thy life in heaven, and there thou must daily fetch it, if thou wilt have it. For want of this recourse to heaven, thy soul is as a candle that is not lighted, and thy duties as a sacrifice which hath no fire. Fetch one coal daily from this altar, and see if thy offering will not burn. Light thy candle at this flame, and feed it daily with oil from hence, and see if it will not gloriously shine: keep close to this reviving fire, and see if thy affections will not be warm. Thou bewailest thy want of love to GOD (and well thou mayst, for it is a heinous crime, a killing sin) why, lift up thy eye of faith to heaven, behold his beauty, contemplate his excellencies, and see whether his amiableness will not fire thy affections, and his goodness ravish thy heart. As the eye doth incense the sensual affections, by gazing on alluring objects; so doth the eye of faith in meditation inflame our affections towards our LORD, by gazing on that highest beauty. Whoever thou art, that art a stranger to this employment, be thy parts and profession ever so great, let me tell thee, thou spendest thy life but in trifling or idleness; thou seemest to live, but thou art dead: I may say of thee, as Seneca of idle Vacia. Sci latere, vivere nescis; thou knowest how to lurk in idleness, but how to live thou knowest not.
It is true, a heavenly nature goes before this heavenly employment; but yet the work will make it more heavenly: there must be life, before we can feed; but our life is continued and increased by feeding. Therefore, let me inform thee, if thou lie complaining of deadness and dulness, that thou canst not love Christ, nor rejoice in his love; that thou hast no life in prayer, nor any other duty, and yet never triedst this quickening course, or at least art careless and inconstant in it; thou art the cause of thy own complaints; ⟨p. 290⟩thou dullest thine own heart; thou deniest thyself that life which thou talkest of. Is not thy life hid with Christ in God? Whither must thou go but to Christ for it? And whither is that, but to heaven, where he is? Thou wilt not come to Christ that thou mayst have life. If thou wouldst have light and heat, why art thou then no more in the sunshine? If thou wouldst have more of that grace which flows from Christ, why art thou no more with Christ for it? Thy strength is in heaven, and thy life in heaven, and there thou must daily fetch it, if thou wilt have it. For want of this recourse to heaven, thy soul is as a candle that is not lighted, and thy duties as a sacrifice which hath no fire. Fetch one coal daily from this altar, and see if thy offering will not burn. Light thy candle at this flame, and feed it daily with oil from hence, and see if it will not gloriously shine: keep close to this reviving fire, and see if thy affections will not be warm. Thou bewailest thy want of love to GOD (and well thou mayst, for it is a heinous crime, a killing sin) why, lift up thy eye of faith to heaven, behold his beauty, contemplate his excellencies, and see whether his amiableness will not fire thy affections, and his goodness ravish thy heart. As the eye doth incense the sensual affections, by gazing on alluring objects; so doth the eye of faith in meditation inflame our affections towards our LORD, by gazing on that highest beauty. Whoever thou art, that art a stranger to this employment, be thy parts and profession ever so great, let me tell thee, thou spendest thy life but in trisling or idleness; thou seemest to live, but thou art dead: I may say of thee, as Seneca of idle Vacia. Sci latere, vivere nescis; thou knowest how to lurk in idleness, but how to live thou knowest not.
