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hopes are there, and who have forsaken all to enjoy this glory; and shall I be<br />
discouraged from persuading such to be heavenly-minded? Fellow-<br />
Christians, if you will not hear and obey, who will? Well may we be<br />
discouraged to exhort the blind, ungodly world, and may say, as Moses did,<br />
"Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall<br />
Pharaoh hear me?" I require thee, reader, as ever thou hopest for a part in this<br />
glory, that thou presently take thy heart to task, chide it for its wilful<br />
strangeness to God, turn thy thoughts from the pursuit of vanity, bend thy<br />
soul to study eternity, busy it about the life to come, habituate thyself to such<br />
contemplations, and let not those thoughts be seldom and cursory, but bathe<br />
thy soul in heaven's delights; and if thy backward soul begin to flag and thy<br />
thoughts to scatter, call them back, hold them to their work, bear not with<br />
their laziness, nor connive at one neglect. And when thou hast, in obedience<br />
to God, tried this work, got acquainted with it, and kept a guard on thy<br />
thoughts till they are accustomed to obey, thou wilt then find thyself in the<br />
suburbs of heaven, and that there is indeed a sweetness in the work and way<br />
of God, and that the life of Christianity is a life of joy. Thou wilt meet with<br />
those abundant consolations which thou hast prayed, panted, and groaned<br />
after, and which so few Christians do ever here obtain, because they know<br />
not this way to them, or else make not conscience of walking in it.<br />
Say not, "We are unable to set our own hearts on heaven; this must be<br />
the work of God only." Though God be the chief disposer of your hearts, yet,<br />
next under him, you have the greatest command of them yourselves. Though<br />
without Christ you can do nothing, yet under him you may do much, and<br />
must, or else it will be undone, and yourselves undone through your neglect.<br />
Christians, if your souls were healthful and vigorous, they would perceive<br />
incomparably more delight and sweetness in the believing, joyful thoughts of<br />
your future blessedness, than the soundest stomach finds in its food, or the<br />
strongest senses in the enjoyment of their objects; so little painful would this<br />
work be to you. But because I know, while we have flesh about us and any<br />
remains of that "carnal mind which is enmity against God" and this noble<br />
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