Prayers and pious Meditations, approach and draw near unto him; contemplate the Glory of his Majefty, the Beauties of his Works, the Wifdom of his Providence, the Wonders of his Mercy and Goodness, and that amazing Inftance and Illuftration of it, the Redemption of loft Mankind by the Death of his dear Son. As they are fet above the Vanities and Changes of this World, by the present Enjoyment of Bliss unchangeable and eternal; fo fhould the Profpect of that Bliss raise our Hearts above the prefent World, infpire a generous Difdain of all the infincere Pleasures and fhort uncertain Advantages here below; lighten our Afflictions, moderate our Paffions, and reconcile us to the Apprehenfions and Approaches of that Diffolution, which, in Death, lays the Seeds of an endless Immortality. As they are freed from Sin, and shine in uninterrupted Holiness; fo fhould we confider ourfelves, as Perfons no longer under the Power of a carnal Principle, but animated by a Divine Spirit to a rational Life, a Life of Temperance and Chastity, of severe Virtue and exemplary Piety, of Activity and unwearied Industry in doing Good, and of fuch habitual Mortification of those Affections, which move us to Evil, that, as with the Bleffed above they are not, fo with us they may be, as though they were not.

3. Another Argument, peculiarly Chriftian, to engage our Endeavours and Afpirings after Heaven, is what St Paul makes ufe of to the Coloffians; if ye then be rifen with Chrift, feek thofe Things which are above, where Chrift fitteth on the Right-Hand of God: Set your Affections on Things above, and not on Things on the Earth; for ye are dead, dead to Sin, and to the World, and your Life is hid with Christ in God; the Force of which Reasonings is plainly this, That it becometh the Disciples to imitate their Master, and the Members to conform to

the

the Head, to conform in a figurative, though they cannot in a literal Senfe. Though, therefore, with Christ we cannot as yet loofen the Bands of Death, and break through the Prifon of the Grave; yet we can now rife with him from the Death of Sin to Newness of Life, and by his Refurrection are not only enabled, but also admonished so to do: And although, in his bodily Afcenfion, we cannot, as he told St Peter, follow him now; yet we can, in fome Sense, afcend with him by a proper Elevation of our Thoughts and Affections, and from the Contemplation of his Afcenfion are mystically invited fo to do. The Afcenfion of our Saviour, in fhort, as it is the Pledge and Pattern of ours, adds new Supplements of Support to our Hopes of arriving at that bleffed Place whither he is gone before, and muft needs, therefore, at the fame Time, fan the Flame of our Affections, and make them tend upward: For with good Reason therefore may the pious and devout Soul now bear up herself upon the Wings of Contemplation, Love, and Defire, and follow her afcending Lord, where the Eyes of the wondering Apoftles were forced to leave him, and, in the Words of Elifba to his departing Mafter, fay, As the Lord liveth, and as my Soul liveth, I will not leave thee; bleffed and holy is be, that has Part in this firft Afcenfion; for on him the fecond Death fhall have no Power. Which leads us,

II. To obferve fome of the chief Benefits, that arise from our being poffeffed of this Virtue; as it is the best Expedient to beget and confirm in us a Contempt of the World; to mitigate and affwage the Evils of Life; to give Pleasure and Satisfaction to the Mind here; and to fit and prepare the Soul for Happiness hereafter.

1. We, who live on the Face of the Earth, may think it a Body of confiderable Magnitude, but, if

we

us.

we were to take a View of it from one of the higher Orbs, it would appear no greater than a Point. Now, though this might be demonftrated upón mathematical Principles, yet, as every one is not capable of doing that, fuch an high and elevated Profpect would certainly fave us the Trouble. The Matter is the fame in the Cafe before This World, confidered alone, may carry perhaps with it a fpecious and good Appearance; and he that confiders it in this Light, will need Reafon and Argument to convince him of its Vanity; but now it is but converfing a little in the other World, and taking a View of it from thence, and we shall find, that, without any more ado, it will shrink away almost into nothing. From fuch an elevated Profpect, all the Pride and Gaiety of this Earth would be but like the Flutter of fo many Butterflies, and the Bufinefs and Hurry of Life, like the Toils of fo many Ants about a little Mole-hill.

2. And as the Contemplation and Defire of Hea ven leffens the Good, fo it leffens the Evil of the prefent Life, and is an effectual Means both to wean us from the one, and fupport us under the other. That Wants and Afflictions, Difeafes and Languifhings, Sorrow and Decay, are Incumbrances upon Mortality, from which the brighteft Virtue and most heavenly Difpofitions are not exempted, is verified by daily Experience; but then we miftake the Matter much, if we fuppofe the fame Calamities equally grievous to all. The Senfe of thefe is unquestionably more or lefs afflicting, as they find a Man's Mind more or lefs armed to encounter them; and every Impreffion is proportionably tender, as it wounds us in the Part moft fenfible, and threatens the Deftruction of that, wherein we esteem our Happiness to confift: From whence it follows, that to mind earthly Things, in

St

St Paul's Meaning, is to multiply Sorrows to ourfelves, by giving Afflictions a Power of making us miferable ; but that to have our Converfation in Heaven, is the Way to confult our present Eafe, as well as our future Happiness. For, while we look upon Heaven as our Home and Place of Reft, the Inconveniencies upon our Journey are easily dispensed with, and we learn to be content in our Travels, with the Want of thofe Accommodations, of which we have Plenty and Abundance to welcome our Arrival at our fixed Habitation where, the more Troubles we have passed through, the kinder Ufage we fhall find, and fo either totally forget them, or remember them with Pleafure; when our light Affliction, which was but for a Moment, bath wrought for us a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory.

3. And as the Defire and Contemplation of Heaven and heavenly Things mitigates the Afflictions of Life; fo, at one and the fame Time, it both furnishes the Soul with the greatest Pleasure bere, and prepares it for the highest Enjoyments. bereafter. That intellectual Pleasures are greater than fenfual, the Senfualifts themselves will hardly deny: But now, of all intellectual Pleasures, to contemplate the infinite Perfection of God, and the Happiness of those bleffed Spirits that enjoy him; the Order of Angels, and that noble and bleffed Company of Saints; to contemplate the laft and richest Scene of Providence, and the Dif covery of all the reft that went before, when the Reafon of all difficult and perplexing Appearances fhall be made plain, and the manifold Wisdom of God fet in a clear Light; to have our Minds employed about the greatest and best Things; to walk with God, and keep a conftant Communion with him, muft needs be the fweeteft, as well as the nobleft Entertainment on this Side Heaven.

But,

But, befides the Entertainment it gives to our Minds, it presents to our Thoughts the Nature and Quality of the Happiness we are to enjoy above, viz. that it is a clear Vifion, and ardent Love of God, who cannot be seen by him that lives, much lefs by him that lives ill. And this cannot fail of putting us upon thinking, that an Holy and Divine Frame of Spirit is abfolutely requifite, not only as a Condition to our Admiffion into Heaven, but fuch a Condition likewife to our Enjoyment of it, that, without this Difpofition, there is no being happy, even though we were in it. And, from this Confideration, a Man naturally paffes, to fit himself for the Enjoyment of his Maker, to purify bimfelf, as he is pure, and to purge and spiritualise his Nature, that fo he may be qualified for the refined Joys above.

With what Pleasure then should we think of thefe great and glorious Things, which God hath prepared for them that love him; of that Inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, which fadeth not away, referved for us in the Heavens! How fhould we welcome the Thoughts of that happy Hour, when we shall be removed from all the Troubles and Temptations of a wicked and ill-natured World; when we shall be past all Storms, and fafely landed in the Regions of Bliss and Immortality! O bleffed Time! (may the good Chriftians fay) when Mortality fhall be fwallowed up of Life, and we shall enter upon the Poffeffion of that Happiness and Glory, which God hath promised, and our Faith hath believed, and our Hopes have raised us to the Expectation of; when we fhall be eafed of all our Pains, and refolved of all our Doubts, and purged from all our Sins, and freed from all our Fears; made happy beyond our Hopes, and have all that Happinefs fecured to us, beyond the Power of Time or Chance: When we fhall know God, and love him

without