inexpressible honour as this, have as powerful effects upon us, and much more powerful?

Shall the love of a fading skin-beauty, the love of a little red and white, the love of withering roses, lilies, and violets, with which fond lovers paint the cheeks, hands, and veins of their mistresses, besides I know not how many more such gay embellishments of their foolish fancies, shall this impotent kind of love so potently command poor mortals? and shall not the love of God do much more? the love of Him who is beauty itself, avrÓNαhov, the original beauty;' the first fair, as well as #garo, άyador, the first good; Him whom angels, the flower and top of the creation, admire and adore with the greatest complacency and ardour of affection? Shall not love fixed upon such an object as this, inflame us with a holy resolution to undertake, or undergo, any thing, for the fulfilling and satisfying of his will? We considering withal, that his commands are, as hath been shown, in themselves most reasonable, most fit to be approved and observed by us, agreeable to the dignity of our souls, in their own nature most lovely, excellent, and worthy; and have moreover a mighty recompense of reward: which cannot be said of the commands of lust, and sensual, impure love; but quite the contrary: they being most vain and foolish, unreasonable and cruel; and obedience to them, of most pernicious and sad consequence. Nor is there any thing that God would have us part with, but what it is better for us to be without, better for our ease, peace, and pleasure; and more for our liberty, to be freed and disentangled from, as hath been

already proved. And so I pass on to that other branch of this direction, viz.

2. That we should labour to be affected with a strong and ardent love (as of God, so) of divine things; of virtue and holiness, the impressions of the divine image upon the soul; and all those spiritual excellences which fit and prepare the soul for heavenly glories, and the most blissful enjoyments in the other world.

Had we a worthy resentment of spiritual excellences, and a due sense of the beauty of holiness; they would even ravish our hearts, and mirabiles amores excitare, 'excite in us strange and wonderful affections to them,' as Tully speaks of virtue, and consequently secure us from the allurements and attractions of any earthly vanity whatsoever. But, till a man comes to admire and be enamoured with the divine graces and virtues, every thing which gratifieth sensuality, will be ready to get his heart, and to carry him away captive. By one unacquainted with the loveliness of holiness the least twinkling of this world's glory will be admired: and there can be no better way to put by and frustrate the attempts and temptations of the things below, than to be well acquainted and greatly affected with the things above; the things that are holy, heavenly, and divine. That of Plutarch was a most true and excellent observation ; Οὐ μὲν οἷον παῦσασθαι ζηλοῦν Tas, &c. It is impossible for men not to have a great affection, and ambition for the things which the world admires and pursues, except there be a principle within them to admire virtue; whose beauty

P

and lustre alone would darken, and put out, all other glories and gaieties whatsoever.'

Be fully possessed then, with the importance of this truth; that the most sovereign way for a man to take off his mind and heart from the admired vanities of the world, and consequently to deny himself, is plainly this; to turn his mind and affections to better objects, to admire the uncreated and original Beauty, and to have a high esteem of the participations and impressions thereof in holy souls.

There is such a way approved by physicians for the stopping of blood, viz. When it issueth out one way, to open a vein elsewhere; and so to stay it by revulsion, and diverting the course.

Nor is that fable of the poets unfit to be applied here, which containing an excellent moral, tells us the means of defeating the Sirens, the most dangerous temptations of the world. Ulysses and his companions, as they sailed by them, stopped their ears with wax, that they might not hear them; and so avoided the danger. But Orpheus, by singing divine hymns, by celebrating the praises of God, and recounting his excellences and favours, is said to have overcome them; which was the more noble way of conquest.

In short; the affections will not be violently stopped or pent in, so as to hold long; something they will pursue : let them therefore run out upon better things; let them stream forth to the noblest objects.

But to prevent all mistake and scruple, I must add; that what is here said, doth not imply, that a Christian is to dam and stop up his affections from

issuing out to any thing in this world: but thus we are to consider; there are undue and forbidden, and there are due and allowed, objects of the affections.

As for undue objects, the pleasures of any kind of sin, the things which God expressly forbids in the holy Scriptures; we are to have no affection at all for them, but the greatest antipathy against them there must not be the least tasting of the forbidden tree; though its fruit be never so fair and tempting.

As for due objects of the affections, and such as God allows; our care must be, that they be carried forth towards them in a due order, and in a due degree and measure.

1. In a due order. Our love must first be placed upon God and Christ, "the kingdom of God, and his righteousness ;" and thence descend to inférior good things: things divine must have the precedency and priority in our care and endeavours, according to this rule of our Saviour.

2. In a due degree and measure. God, and the things above, must be most desired, loved, and delighted in. "Whom," saith the Psalmist, "have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee.' God alloweth us to give a lesser love to the lesser goodness; but the highest affection is to be given to the highest and original goodness.

I will conclude this direction with the agreeing advice of Taulerus, in his eighth Epistle; Omnem diem inter amissos deputate, in quo, Dei amore, propriam non fregistis voluntatem. • Account that day

as mispent and lost, wherein ye have not subdued your own will by the love of God.' Which advice imports two things;

First. That a Christian is to make this great duty of self-resignation his daily business: that it is a lesson which he is to be every day learning; and an exercise in which he is to make continual progress.

Secondly. That the love of God is of most sovereign force, and virtue, to break and subdue a man's own will.

CHAP. VII.

That humility is a powerful means for the attaining of self-resignation; both as it implies obedience to God's commands, and as it implies patient submission to his disposals.

SEVENTHLY. Endeavour after the deepest humility, and sink thyself into the greatest self-nothingness; if thou wouldest be truly resigned to the will of God. Humility is a most powerful and excellent means for the attaining of self-resignation, both as it implies obedience to God's commands, and submission to his disposals.

First. As it implies obedience to the commands of God. The humble Christian cannot think much of doing any thing God requires of him, or forbearing any thing he forbids him: for,

(1.) He considers, that there is an inconceivable, infinite distance between God, (who is Ovoía iπegovσios, the super-essential essence,' (as