Standing hath naturally as ftrong an Appetite to Truth, as our Stomach hath to Food, and as grateful a relifh of it, when it hath once difcovered it, as an Hungry-man hath of a pleasant morfel. And though in this life its Appetite is many times pall'd and deadned, partly through the difficulty of knowing, occafioned either by the natural indifpofitions of its Organs, or the inveterate prejudices of a bad Education; and partly by being continually employed in fecular cares and pursuits, which do perpetually divert, and fo by degrees mean it from its natural inclination to Truth: Yet when we go from this World, and leave thefe caufes behind us, which give fuch a check to its Appetite, doubtlefs its hunger after Knowledge will immediately revive, and there will be no poffibility of ever fatisfying it without it:

Suppose we then the future World to be inhabited with a company of Intellectual Beings, that do all noft vehemently gap after the knowledge of Truth; What can there be imagined more grateful to them, than to be admitted to the very Fountain of all Truth and Reality, there to quench their Thirst,and fatisfie their infinite Defires, with the free and eafie, but still fresh discoveries of his infinite Glories and Perfections? Where will they be able to fix their greedy Eyes with comparably that Pleasure and Delight, as upon the Myfterious Trin-un-Divinity, which is the eternal Author of all Being, the Root of all Good, and the Rule and Source of all Perfection? But then fuppofing, what is the cafe of thefe Bleffed. Contemplators, that their Minds are fo raifed, and their Apprehenfions are rendred fo unpeakably quick and fa gacious,

gacions, as that they can All know whatsoever they have a mind to, without the difficulty of Study, and prefently difcern the Dependence and Connexion of Things without any puzling Dif course, or laborious Deduction with what incomparable fatisfaction must they needs perufe that infinite Volume of the Divine Being and Perfections.

Now that in that Bleffed State they have unfpeakably clearer and more perfpicuous apprehenfions of Things, than ever they had here, that noble paffage of S. Paul affures us, 1 Cor. xiii. 12. For now we fee through a glass darkly, "but then face to face, now I know in part, but then I shall know, even alfo as I am known: that is, now our Knowledge of Divine things is very obfcure andimperfect, they being fhewn us as it were through a glafs, on purpose to give us but a glimpse of them; but when we come to Heaven, we shall look close upon them, and have a far clearer, and more diftinct Apprehenfion of them. Then we fhall know God as truly as He knows us, and have as real and cer tain Apprehenfions of his All-glorious Being, as He hath of Ours. So that in Heaven, you fee, the Eyes of thofe Bleffed Minds, that inhabit it, are fo invigorated, that they can gaze upon the Sun without dazling; contemplate the pure and immaculate Glories of the Deity, without being confounded with their brightneß; and their Understanding being thus exalted they muft needs apprehend more at one fingle view, than we can do in volumes of Difcourfe, and tedious long trains of Deduction.

And then enjoying as they do, a most perfect repofe both from within and without them, they

C 4

are

12

Of the Chriftian Life.

are never disturbed in their eager contemplations which having fuch a vaft Horizon of Truth and Glory round about them, are still discovering farther, and farther, and fo continually entertain'd with fresh Wonders and Delights. What an infinite deal of Pleasure then must that All-glorious Object afford to fuch raifed and elevated Minds, which like transparent Windows, let in without any Labour or Difficulty all that Divine and Hea quenly light which freely offers it felf unto, and fhines for ever round about them; and which by every new Difcovery of God, and of thefe bottomleß fecrets and myfteries of his Nature, are till enlarged to difcover more, and still have new Discoveries offering themfelves, as fast as they are enlarged to receive them. This of it felf is fo great a part of Heaven, that S. John himself feems to be at a lofs how to imagine any Heaven beyond it. 1 John iii. 2. Beloved, now we are the Sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we fhall be; but we know that when He shall appear, we fhall be like him, that is, in Glory and Happiness, for we fhall fee him as he is. But then

II. The Heaven or Happineß of a Man confifts alfo in a free and undistracted choice of God; that is in chufing him for the Rule and Pattern of our Natures, and for the object of our Love, Adoration and Dependence; all which, (as I fhall fhew hereafter) are Beatifical Acts, and do abundantly contribute to the Happiness of Reasonable Creatures. For Happineß, (as hath been premifed) confifts not in Reft, but in Motion, and there is no Motion can contribute to the Happines of any Being, but what is fuitable to its own

Nature.

Nature. Now what motion can be more fuitable to the nature of a Reasonable Creature, than to Love and Adore the Author of its Being and WellBeing; to bow to the Will of the Almighty Sove reign, and to imitate the Perfections of the Supreme Standard and Pattern of all Reafonable Beings; to rely and depend on his infinite Power, that is always conducted by his infinite Wifdom and Goodne? All which are founded upon fo many strong, evident and undeniable reafons, that the very naming of them is fufficient to justifie them to our Faculties, and demonftrate them to be infinitely agreeable to the most fundamental Principles of our Reasonable Nature. And being fo, it is impoffible but that of themselves they should be exceeding joyous and blißful; for as the fenfitive nature is most gratified with thofe Acts that have most of Senfe in them, fo is the Rational with those that have most of Reafon in them. And certainly thofe have moft Reafon in them which are terminated upon Objects which most deferve them; and what Object can fo well deserve to be acted upon by Reasonable Beings as God? or what Acts can they fo reafonably exert upon him, as thofe of Love and Adoration, Homage, and Imitation, Truft and Dependence? But as no Alts of Senfe can be very grateful to our Senfitive Nature fo long as we exert them either with repugnance, or indifferency, fo neither can any Acts of Reason be to our Rational; the Pleasure of all Ads, whether Senfitive or Rational, confifting (as I fhew'd before) in the Sprightfulness and Vigour of them. And this is the caufe why men now find fo little Felicity in these most Rational Acts of Godliness,

because

because by their own bad cuftoms they have rendered themselves aver fe, or at least very cold and indifferent to them, which neceffarily renders us dead and liftles in the exercife of them, and confequently caufes them to go off with little guft, if not with an ungrateful relish. But even in this imperfect state we find by experience, that the more our corrupted nature discharges and difburdens it felf of thofe vicious indifpofitions, which do fo cramp and arreft it in thefe its Heavenly operations, the more it is pleafed ftill and delighted in them; Yea, and that when it is fo far inured to a Godly Life as to be able to practise the several vertues of it, but with the fame degree of activity and vigour as 'twas wont to do its most beloved Lufts, it is unfpeakably more pleafed and fatisfied, and finds more Sweetneß by a thoufand degrees, in its Love and Adoration, Obedience and Imitation of God, than ever it did in the highest relifnes of Epicurifm and Senfuality; that the more per→ fectly we Love and Adore,&c, the more of Heaven we taste in thefe Bleffed Acts, and that, when by a long and conftant practice of them we have once rendered them natural to us, we enjoy fuch an Heaven upon Earth in the eafie, free and vigorous exercise of them, as we would not exchange for all the Pleasures and Felicities which the World can afford us. And yet, God knows, the most perfect state of Godlineß which we attain to here, hath fo many degrees of imperfection in it, and in this we are so disturbed and interrupted by bodily Indifpofitions, and the troubles and neceffities of this prefent Life, that from the Foy and Pleafure which refults from it here, we can hardly

guess