taken Poffeffion. For what Agreement, as the Apostle argues, bath the Temple of God with Idols ? Now ye are the Temple of the living God, as God bath faid, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my People. Suppofing we were to receive fome mighty Prince, or Perfon of great Quality into our House, would we not make all Things neat and clean, and take Care that nothing be wanting, that may give him Content and Satisfaction; that every Apartment be fet out, and garnished, and adorned, as far as our Ability reaches? But now what is the greatest Man, the greatest Potentate upon Earth, compared to the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords; to a God purer than Angels, dwelling in Light inacceffible, and by whose Will and Command the whole Creation ftands or falls? Since then this Sovereign Majefty is willing to dwell in our Souls, the Confideration cannot but ftrike us, how holy, how pious, how chafte, how pure our Thoughts and Affections ought to be, in order to give fo magnificent a Gueft a fuitable Entertainment.

2. Another Means to implant in our Minds the Grace of Purity, will be frequently to contemplate the Joys and Felicities of the beatific Vifion, which God hath appointed for its Reward. For if we are pleased with the Sight and Converfation of an intimate Friend, efpecially after a long and tedious Abfence, and think it a joyful Thing to behold the Face of a reconciled Enemy; let us then confider, what it will be for us to be admitted into the Prefence of that Countenance, which alone can speak Peace and folid Comfort to us. Nay, let us bear in Mind the Honour and great Privilege of being called up to serve the King of Glory, in his own Court, and near his Perfon; where we may for ever contemplate his infinite Majefty, Power, Wifdom, and Goodness. Did we fix this great Object

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ject in our Minds, and confider (as far as Words can convey the Idea) what it is to fee and to converse with God, the Reflection would naturally arife, that we ought to purify ourselves, even as he is pure. To which Purpose it will be neceffary,

3. To be earnest and importunate in our Prayers, that he would not lead us into Temptation, but keep us from fuch Objects, as are apt to kindle evil Thoughts, and would restrain the great Enemy of Souls from fuggesting any: Above all, that he would fend his Bleffed Spirit to our Aid and Affiftance; to enlighten our Understandings, to purify our Affections, and to fix it indelibly upon our Minds, that to be carnally minded is Death, but to be fpiritually minded is Life and Peace.

T

7. Of Heavenly-Mindedness.

HERE are two Senfes, wherein the Word Heaven may be taken, either for the State of another Life in general, or for the particular Glory and Happiness of that State. In the former of thefe Senfes, Heavenly-Mindedness implies our perpetual Remembrance of our Mortality; our having a conftant Profpect into the other World, which must be our final Home, and ftedfaftly looking beyond the Limits of Time, to the Vaftness of Eternity; our dwelling, in fhort, on the Meditation of the four laft Things, Heaven, Hell, Death, and Judgment; how great they are in their Confequence, how certain in their Event, and how near in their Approach; and, in Confideration of this, always waiting, and preparing ourselves for this great and important Change.

In the latter Sense of the Word, Heavenly-Mindedness implies our Contemplation of the infinite Perfection of the Divine Effence, and the incon

ceivable

ceivable Happiness of thofe, who shall enjoy the Communications of his Bleffednefs. It is to meditate upon, and have always in View, that Weight of Glory, that incorruptible Crown, with which the Sufferings of this prefent Time are not worthy to be compared, no, not to be mentioned: To meditate Day and Night upon that happy Time, when we shall be Partakers of Mofes's Wish, and admitted to the intimate Vifion of that mysterious and incomprehenfible Excellence, which is too great for our mortal Faculties, and which none can see and live: To meditate upon the blessed Society of Saints and Angels; upon that Harmony of Divine Love, and intellectual Sympathy; upon the elevated and raised Perfections of a glorified Soul, the Enlargement of its Understanding, the Sublimation of its Will and Affections, and upon the Angelical Temper of our Spiritual Body; in fhort, upon all those glorious Things, which are Spoken of the City of God, and upon the infinite Confolations of that joyful Sentence, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you: And, laftly, it is to contemplate all this, not in a cold and indifferent Manner, as if it were a distant and precarious Reversion, but as a State that will fhortly and certainly be, and therefore to be embraced with that Faith and Affurance, which is the Subftance of Things hoped for, and the Evidence of Things not leen.

All this the Word may be faid to import; and therefore, putting both of these Senfes together, we fhall, 1. Obferve the Reasonablenefs of the Duty; and, 2. Some of the chief Benefits that arife from it.

I. The Wife among the Heathens (i. e. Thofe who believed the Immortality of the Soul) entertained high and worthy Notions of a future State, and have most agreeably and delightfully reprefented

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fented the Place, the Society, the Entertainments prepared for their Reception after Death. Upon

these Confiderations the Account we have of their Philofophers is, that they chose to live abftractly, and dwelt much upon the Contemplation of what they were to be hereafter. The Epicureans, indeed, who had no Thoughts of a future Existence, made this their standing Maxim, Let us eat and drink, for To-morrow we die: And in this they acted confistently enough; for, how vain and contemptible foever the World in itfelf may be, yet, upon their Hypothefis, it was their greatest Prudence to make as much of it as they could, because it was their All: But thofe, who had better Conceptions of their rational Part, and of its furviving the Funeral of the Body, had another Way of Reasoning. They perceived, that their Soul, in this State, was, as it were, out of its Element, confined to a Prison of Flesh, and thence hindered from acting with that Freedom and Vivacity, which, upon fome certain Sallies, they found was congenial to it. They perceived, that our present State of Life, both by Reason of its Shortnefs, and the other Vanities and Vexations that attend it, was not confiderable enough to justify the Wisdom and Goodnefs of God in creating the World. They perceived, that Man, endued with fuch large Capacities, and impatient Defires of Happiness, which nothing on Earth could fatisfy, was a very poor and contemptible Creature indeed, and the more fo for being fo highly exalted at present, if this was the only Scene he was to act, and finally perished, when he died. And, from thefe Obfervations, they inferred, that this Life was but a Paffage to the next, a fhort Voyage to an Harbour of Reft; that Heaven, in short, was their Home, and their native Region, and, in Confequence of this Perfuafion, what was their End and fovereign Happi

nefs,

ness, that they made the Subject of their Thoughts, and Defires, and daily Contemplations.

2. This was the Reasoning of the honeft Hea thens, but the Christian Religion has furnished us with Arguments of a peculiar Nature. St Paul, writing to the Philippians, propounds his own Practice, as a Pattern for their Imitation; Beloved, be Followers together of me, and mark them which walk fo, as ye bave us for an Enfample; for our Converfation is in Heaven, from whence alfo we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jefus Chrift: The Word, which we render Converfation, fignifies Citizenship, and alludes to a Practice frequent among the Romans in particular, whereby not only private Perfons, but whole Cities and Provinces, were admitted to certain Rights and Immunities peculiar to that Commonwealth and Conftitution, though they were neither Natives, nor Inhabitants of the City of Rome. These were fometimes bestowed freely, as a Mark of Friendship and Favour; fometimes purchased at a confiderable Price; fometimes inherited by Defcent: But, which Way foever conveyed, the Poffeffion of them was efteemed a very valuable Advantage: And, in Allufion to this, the Apostle intimates, that Chriftians are Denizens of Heaven, and, though living now at fome Distance from thence, are nevertheless incorporated there; ruled by the fame Laws, and admitted to the fame Privileges, and therefore ought to live in the fame Manner with the bleffed Inhabitants of that City which is above.

We cannot, indeed, in all Points, come up to their Perfection, till we come to live in the fame Place where they do; but we are bound to aspire at as great a Resemblance of them, as our present Condition will admit; as therefore they are happy, beyond all Imagination, in the Vifion and Fruition of Almighty God, fo fhould we, by devout Prayers

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