The saints everlasting rest

The zeal which is kindled by your meditations on heaven, is most like to prove an heavenly zeal; and the liveliness of the spirit which you fetch from the face of GOD, must needs be the divinest life. Some men's fervency is drawn only from their books, and some from stinging affliction, and some from the mouth of a moving minister, and some from the encouragement of an attentive auditory: but he that knows ⟨p. 292⟩this way to heaven, and derives it daily from the pure fountain, shall have his soul revived with the water of life, and enjoy that quickening which is the saint's peculiar: by this faith thou mayst offer Abel's sacrifice, more excellent than that of common men, and by it obtain witness that thou art righteous, GOD testifying of thy gifts, Heb. xi. 4. When others are ready, as Baal's priests, to beat themselves, and cut their flesh, because their sacrifices will not burn: then if thou canst get but the spirit of Elijah, and in the chariot of contemplation soar aloft, till thou approachest near to the quickening spirit, thy soul and sacrifice will gloriously flame, though the flesh and the world should cast upon them the water of all their enmity. Say not now, how shall we get so high? Or how can mortals ascend to heaven? For faith hath wings, and meditation is its chariot; its office is to make absent things as present. Do you not see how a little piece of glass, if it do but rightly face the sun, will so contract its beams and heat, as to set on fire that which is behind it, which without it would have received but little warmth? Why thy faith is as the burning glass to thy sacrifice, and meditation sets it to face the sun; only take it not away too soon, but hold it there a while, and thy soul will feel the happy effect.

The zeal which is kindled by your meditations on heaven, is most like to prove an heavenly zeal; and the liveliness of the spirit which you setch from the face of GOD, must needs be the divinest life. Some men's fervency is drawn only from their books, and some from stinging affliction, and some from the mouth of a moving minister, and some from the encouragement of an attentive auditory: but he that knows ⟨p. 292⟩this way to heaven, and derives it daily from the pure fountain, shall have his soul revived with the water of life, and enjoy that quickening which is the saint's peculiar: by this faith thou mayst offer Abel's sacrifice, more excellent than that of common men, and by it obtain witness that thou art righteous, GOD testifying of thy gifts,