To a believer that walks with God, God lets fall now and then some handfuls of that harvest, some drops of that vintage, which is ripening for him above: what are those beams of divine light, that sense of divine love, those intimations of divine acceptance, those communications of the divine image, in the increase of holiness and righteousness, that joy of faith, and peace in believing; what are these but a specimen of heaven, the first fruits of glory?
Sinners need not go down to the deep to search for hell, there is an hell within them: the filth and stench of hell in their vile affections; the smoke and flames of hell in their reeking and burning lusts; the darkness of hell in their darkened and blinded minds; and sometimes the torments of hell in the anguish of their guilty and self-revenging consciences. And as sinners may find an hell, so believers an heaven in the heart; an heaven of light, an heaven of love, and joy, and praise: thus it is with some, and thus it might be with all, were we stronger in faith.
Oh what do we lose by living thus by sense, when we might live by faith ! how have our carnal hearts, by consuming and spinning out our days in sloth and idleness, sticking at the labour of duty, whining under difficulties, shrinking from sufferings, indulging in our ease, and our pleasure, and liberties; how have our carnal hearts robbed us of the life of God, the pleasures of angels, the joys of the upper region, and left us little more of Christianity, than its wounds and bruises, its mournings and complanings, its sighs and sorrows! Oh foolish hearts, that consult so unwisely for ourselves; that choose rather to live in brakes, among these bryars and thorns, than among the beds of spices; that will rather laze it in a wilderness, than get us up to the garden of the Lord.
The life of faith is an heavenly life, the life of God, Eph. iv. 18, though faith shall never come into heaven itself, yet thither it translates our hearts. It came down from heaven, it “is the gift of God;” and though it must not return thither (’tis love, not faith, that shall dwell before the throne of God) yet thither it raises those hearts in which it lives. Though it may not dwell there hereafter (faith shall then be lost in sight) yet now it is travelling thither, going and returning every day and hour.
Phil. iii. 20, “Our conversation is in heaven;” there is all our business: where should a Christian be? where does he live, but where his business lies? A believer that had heretofore so many things to do, dividing his heart and time, hath now cast all his business into one, hath brought all his business near his home; he hath nothing to do abroad in the tents of wickedness, in the camps of the uncircumcised; he hath done with serving flesh and lusts, and times and tables, and carcasses; here his whole work did lie, but no more of these now, they must be all laid aside, or at least made to come and serve with him in his higher business: God and glory, the loving, and praising, and serving, and securing God to his soul, is all he hath to do. “This one thing I do, forgetting that which is behind, and reaching forth to that which is before; I press to the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus our Lord,” Phil. iii. 13. These lower things, his outward privileges, hopes and advantages, were once the things before him; but he has now got beyond, and hath left them all behind him; not only his Jewish privilege, whereof he had boasted, but much more all earthly things; he hath cast off these weights, and is now flying upon the wing of faith, ascending in flames of love, winding up his soul by constant labour, above this dross and darkness, to the regions of light and glory: this is his business. And hence is his blessedness; heaven is his work and his meat, his labour and his hire; he will know nothing for a blessing, or a comfort, but what his faith brings him down from above.
This is the life of faith; a conversation in heaven: thus we should, and thus we might live, more than we do; but I doubt I have been herein telling you a mystery, whereof the most of us have but little experimental understanding. Christians, what acquaintance have you with this life of God? Is this your business, heavenly work? Are these your comforts, heavenly supports? We are yet carnal, and walk as men ; Oh this earth, earth, how doth it hang on our spirits! We live as if there was a middle region betwixt heaven and earth; a middle state betwixt faith and unbelief: some little we have attained of this heavenly life, and blessed be the Lord for any thing, but oh how little is it!
Friends, wonder not that you see no more of the divine glory, conclude not that there is no more to be seen; put it to the proof, live more with God, more purely, more closely, more constantly with him; live in the daily exercise of faith, and you will get the sight of other manner of glorious things than can be told you.
Richard Alleine. The World Conquered.
Now, lean upon that Divine power which worketh in us both to will and to do. Live in the Spirit; walk in the Spirit; pray in the Spirit; strive in the Spirit. Open your heart to his gracious influence, and let it be a feeling, as well as a conviction, that your spiritual life has no existence separate from his indwelling and in working within you.
Read your Bible, and plain practical books, rather than controversial ones; be much in prayer, and silent meditation; preserve a tranquil and unruffled mind, for it is in the stillness of devotional feeling, and the peace of holy reconciliation, and the quiet of untroubled thoughts, that the true light shines into the soul, and the small still voice of the Spirit of peace is heard.
John Angell James. The Anxious Inquirer.
