souls will run according to the prevailing bias which they carry thither with them; but it is impossible they should run towards God with life and freedom, unless they are constantly drawn and inclined to him by a devout veneration of his majesty, and admiration of his glory and perfection. And hence it is that the gospel doth so strictly oblige us to adore and worship God, Rev. xxii. 9. to worship him in spirit and in truth, John iv. 24. to pray without ceasing, 1 Thess. v. 17. and pray always with all prayer and supplication, that is, earnestly to supplicate God upon every fit opportunity and time of need, Ephes. vi. 18. in a word, to offer to God the sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name, Heb. xiii. 15. and to thank God without ceasing, 1 Thess. ii. 13. The meaning of all which is, that out of a deep and quick sense of the infinite majesty and power, allsufficiency and beneficence of God, we should be frequently bowing ourselves before him, and offering up our prayers and praises and thanksgivings to him. And in the constant practice of these, we shall be growing up by degrees to that blissful state of heaven. For all these acts of divine worship being immediate addresses of our minds to God, do so unite us to him, that in every hearty prayer, praise, or thanksgiving, we do in a manner touch and feel him. For so while we humbly adore his majesty, we are sensibly struck with the rays of it; while we earnestly invocate his goodness and mercy, we are touched with a strong attractive virtue from him, whereby we plainly feel ourselves drawn up to him, and wrapt into a real enjoyment of him: in a word, while we are offering our hearty praises and thanks

givings to him, we are under a captivating sense of his infinite glory and beneficence, and with a sensible touch of this his heavenly fire our hearts are kindled and inflamed; insomuch, that while we are upon our knees in a warmth and fervour of devotion, our minds have many times as quick a perception, as strong and lively a relish of God, as ever our bodily palate had of the most gustful meats or liquors. So that by frequently repeating these our devotions, we frequently repeat these our sensations of God; which being often renewed, will grow more vigorous and constant, and so at last improve into an active, permanent, and habitual sense of him. And having thus acquired, by our frequent and devout worship, a lively, constant feeling and perception of the majesty and glory, of the bounty and benignity of God, whenever we go into eternity, this, like a vital spring, will give a perpetual motion to our faculties, and vigorously exert and employ them upon God for ever. The quick and lively sense we shall have of his infinite majesty and power will for ever awe our understandings and wills into a strict attention and submission to him; and have such a commanding power over us, as will even constrain us to regard him with the profoundest reverence and veneration. For there we shall have far greater and clearer apprehensions of his majesty, than ever we had in this imperfect state; which will improve our pre-acquired sense of it to such a degree of respect and veneration, as will for ever overrule our faculties, and keep our understandings, wills, and affections, in close and strict attendance to him. And as our sense of his majesty will sweetly command, so our sense of his infinite beauty and beneficence will invincibly allure

us to exert and exercise our faculties upon him: for he that hath an affectionate sense of the beauty, and goodness, and bounty of God, hath a heart ready tuned for the music of heaven, ready set and composed for everlasting praises and hallelujahs. So that when he goes away from hence into the other world, and is there admitted to a more intimate view of the perfections, and a more abundant participation of the blessings of God than ever, his predisposed mind will immediately be seized with such a strong pathetic sense of both, as that he will not be able to withhold expressing and venting it in the most rapturous strains of admiration and praise and thanksgiving. And this will be his business and employment for ever, to admire and extol the perfections of God, of which he will every moment make new and glorious discoveries; and to celebrate with grateful acknowledgments the infinite riches of his bounty, of which he will every moment have fresh and sweet experiences. So that whilst by continual acts of praise and thanksgiving we endeavour to affect our minds with a due sense of the goodness and bounty of God, we are practising beforehand the music of heaven, and taking out the songs of Zion; that so when we go from hence, we may be qualified and prepared to bear a part in the celestial choir. So that true devotion, you see, which consists in a quick and lively sense of the infinite majesty, beauty, and benignity of God, doth most effectually dispose the mind to all those divine and heavenly exercises wherein the state of heaven consists.

III. As we are rational creatures related to God, we are obliged to an unfeigned love of and compla

cency in him and that both upon the account of what he is in himself, as he is the most lovely and amiable of beings, in whom there is an harmonious concurrence of all imaginable beauties and perfections, of wisdom and goodness, of justice and mercy, and every other amiable thing that can claim or attract a reasonable affection; all which, in infinite degrees, are contempered together in his nature; and also upon the account of his infinite kindness and beneficence to us. For besides that he hath compassed us round, like so many fortunate islands, with a vast ocean of external blessings, in which there is all that is either necessary, convenient, or pleasant for our bodily use and enjoyment; besides that he hath inspired us with immortal minds, and stamped them with those fair impresses of his own divinity, the knowledge of truth and the love of goodness, which are both of them very forward capacities of the highest perfection and most exalted happiness; in a word, besides that, to supply and gratify these our noble capacities, he hath prepared for us an immortal heaven, and furnished it with all the pleasures and delights that a heaven-born mind can desire or enjoy; besides all this, I say, he hath sent his own Son from heaven to reveal to us the way thither, and to encourage us to return into it, by dying for our sins, and thereby obtaining for us a public grant and charter of mercy and pardon, upon condition of our return: yea, and as if all this were too little, he hath sent his Spirit to us, in the room of his Son, to abide amongst us, and as his vicegerent to drive on this vast design of his love to us, to excite and persuade us to return into that sure way to heaven which he hath described to us, and to assist

us all along in our travel thither: so wondrous careful hath he been not to be defeated of this his kind intention to make us everlastingly happy. And now what heart can be so hard and impenetrable as to resist such powerful charms and endearments! Methinks, if we had but the common sense and ingenuity of men in us, it would be impossible for us to reflect upon such miracles of beauty and love, without being intimately touched and affected with them. But till we are so, it will be impossible for us to enjoy heaven. For how can we freely exert our faculties upon an object that we do not love; and if we cannot, how can we, without loving God, enjoy heaven; which consists in the free and cheerful outgoings of all our faculties upon him? For if when we go into eternity we love him not, either he will be indifferent or hateful to us: if the former, we shall altogether neglect and take no notice of him; if the latter, we shall either fly away from him, and banish ourselves from his presence, or be forced to abide and endure it with extreme regret and torment. For whilst our minds are averse and repugnant to him, whatsoever we see in him will but the more enrage and canker our malice against him; and even the sight of those his glorious perfections, which so enravish the hearts of the blessed inhabitants of heaven, will only provoke and boil up our dislike of him to a higher degree of hatred and aversation for so we find by expérience in this life, that while our minds are unreconciled to God, it is a penance to us to come near him, to admit any thoughts of or conversation with him. And this is the reason why we take so much pains as we do to misrepresent him to ourselves, to draw such pictures