V.

SERM. vancement in Honour and Dignity, becoming the Relation they stand in to their infinite Saviour, who condescends to call them Brethren ;-this is a State fo blissful and excellent, that nothing can be defired beyond it. For what can exceed Perfection ?---This is Life indeed to live for ever ;---this is truly Happiness, which is abfolute in Kind and endless in Duration, what is fuperior to the Views of the most Ambitious, beyond the Deferts of the most Pious, and altogether worthy of the Almighty Donor of it.

BUT fince our Apoftle informs us, that it doth not yet appear what we shall be, let us not debase, by attempting to describe, the Glories, which we can now have no adequate Idea of. The Blifs of Heaven is as far removed from our Conception, as from our Poffeffion in this State of Darkness and Misery; and we may fafely leave the Nature and the Degrees of it with God, being humbly content with knowing the Certainty of it. We are affured of all the Bleffedness which an immensely good Being can beftow ;---we shall be like him in Happiness, if we ftudy to be like him in Holiness;---we shall fee him as he is, and what we fee, we fhall enjoy of him ;---we fhall be admitted to the most intimate Vision

of

V.

of him, which our refined Faculties will be SERM. able to bear ;--and be advanc'd to contemplate, serve, and adore the Father of Spirits in his immediate Prefence, where is Fulness of Joy, and at whofe Right Hand are Pleafures for evermore (q).

AND what can we defire further? Will not the most exalted, the most compleat, the most durable Felicity fatisfy us? Too many, it is plain, take up with infinitely less; those, I mean, who place their fupream Delight in temporal Enjoyments. But we are the Children, not of this World, but of God, fettled here for a Time, as it were, in order to our Education; that we may be trained up through Virtue to Glory. It is our Part, therefore to make the neceffary Improvements, that when we are ordered home to our Father's House, we may not appear in all Respects unworthy of our Birth or our Inheritance; and in the mean while, to learn the right Ufe of our Apostle's Doctrine from his own Words in the Verfe following the Text, And every Man, that bath this Hope in him, purifieth himself, even as he is pure : Which may our heavenly Father enable us all to do by the Aid of his Holy Spirit through Jefus Christ our Lord.

(9) Pf. xvi. 11.

SERMON

SERMON VI.

St. Matth. vi. 33.

But feek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness, and all thefe Things fhall be added

unto you.

T

VI.

HESE Words may be fuppofed SERM.
to concern either only Chrift's
firft and immediate Followers,
or else his Difciples at large.

If the Precept be confined to the former, the Promife, fubjoined to encourage them in difcharging it, may well be underftood in the most extenfive Senfe, as authorizing the Apostles and Planters of the Gofpel to depend abfolutely on their divine Mafter's Care to provide them with all bodily Neceffaries, either through a miraculous Power exerted vifibly by himself, O

or

SERM. or by a gracious Interpofition, operating feVI. cretly on the Affections of their Hearers

to fupport them: That they might not be of doubtful Mind about their Subfiftence in the World, nor fpend their Days in labouring for the Meat that perifheth, but attend without Distraction conftantly upon his Perfon, and wholly dedicate their Thoughts and their Time to that Work of the Ministry, unto which he had called them. The Precept taken in this Light cannot be looked on as a general Rule for all Chriftians to obferve, but calculated only for the firft. Believers, and to have ceafed long fince to be obligatory.

BUT if the Direction in the Text be extended, as it fairly may, to the whole Body of the Faithful, then in Proportion as we enlarge this, we must contract the Encouragement, by which it is enforced, and limit it to the Ufe of our own Endeavours under the Influence of God's providential Government. To whom, after doing our Part, we must entriely leave the Iffue of our Affairs, and strictly avoid all Anxiety and Hurry of Thought, which too many are apt to be poffeffed with on Account of the good Things of this Life to the Prejudice of thofe of a better.

Therefore,