lovely, religion so attractive, the rewards of it so immense, and the difficulties of it so inconsiderable, and thereby inspire us with so much life and courage, as that none of all those spiritual enemies we war and contend against will be able to withstand our resolution.

X. To our course and progress in this our spiritual warfare, it is also necessary that we maintain in our minds a constant sense and expectation of heaven; that since things of the other world are future and invisible, and consequently less apt to touch and affect us than these worldly things which are continually pressing upon our senses, we should, as oft as we have opportunity, withdraw our thoughts from these sensible objects, and retire into the immaterial world, and there entertain ourselves with the close view and contemplation of the joys and glories it abounds with. For we are a sort of beings, that being compounded of flesh and spirit, are by these opposite principles of our nature allied to two opposite worlds, and placed in the middle between heaven and earth, as the common centre wherein those distant regions meet. By our spiritual nature we hold communion with the spiritual world, and by our corporeal with this earthly and sensible one; whose objects being always present with us, and striking as they do immediately upon our senses, we lie much more bare and open to them, than to those of the spiritual world. So that unless we now and then withdraw ourselves from these sensible things, which hang like the cloud between, we can never have a free prospect into that clear heaven above them. And hence it becomes necessary that we should now and then make a solemn retirement of VOL. I.

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our thoughts from earthly objects and enjoyments, that so we may approach near enough to heaven to touch and feel the joys and pleasures of it, which, while we transiently behold in this crowd of worldly objects, is placed at such a distance from us, that it looks like a thin, blue landscape, next to nothing ; and hath not apparent reality enough in it to raise our desires and expectations.

And hence we are commanded to set our affections upon, or as it is in the original, to mind those things that are above, Coloss. iii. 2. and that by these things above, he means the enjoyments of heaven, it is plain from verse 1. where he expressly tells us, that by the above, in which these things are, he means heaven, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. So that the sense of the precept is this, that we should fix in our minds such lively representations of the glory and reality of the celestial state, as may raise in our hearts a longing desire and earnest expectation of being made partakers of it. Which hope and expectation he elsewhere enjoins us to put on for an helmet, i. e. for a necessary piece of defensive armour, against the difficulties and discouragements of our Christian warfare, 1 Thess. v. 8. And Heb. vi. 19. this hope which enters into that within the veil, i. e. into heaven, is said to be the anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast, i. e. it is that which stays and secures the soul in the midst of those many storms of temptation it meets withal in its voyage to heaven; and it being so, we are bid to look to and imitate our blessed Lord, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of God, Heb. xii. 2. The meaning of all which

is, that we should earnestly endeavour to fix in our minds a vigorous sense and expectation of that immortal happiness with which God hath promised to crown all that come off conquerors from this spiritual warfare; that all along as we march we should keep heaven in our eye, and encourage ourselves with the hope of it to charge through all those difficulties and temptations that oppose us in the way: in a word, that we should frequently awaken in our minds the glorious thoughts of a blessed immortality, and possess ourselves with a lively expectation of enjoying it, if we hold out to the end.

Which is a duty of a vast consequence to us in the course of our spiritual warfare. For heaven being the end and reward of our warfare must needs be the grand encouragement thereunto; and consequently, if once we lose sight of heaven, and suffer earthly things to interpose and eclipse the glory and reality of it, our courage will never be able to bear up against those manifold temptations that do continually assault us. But whilst we continue under a lively sense of that blessed recompense of reward, that will so spirit and invigorate our resolution, that nothing will be able to withstand it; and all the terrors and allurements that sin can propose will be forced to fly before it, and to retreat like so many impotent waves, that dash against a rock of adamant. For while we are under a lively sense and expectance of the happiness above, we live as it were in the midway between heaven and earth, where we have an open prospect of the glories of both, and do plainly see how faint and dim these below are in comparison with those above; how they are forced to sneak and disappear in the presence of those eter

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nal splendours, and to shroud their vanquished beauties, as the stars do when the sun appears. whilst we interchangeably turn our eyes from one to the other, how fruitlessly do the pleasures, profits, and honours below, importune us to abandon the joys and glories above, and with what indignation do we listen to the proposals of such a senseless and ridiculous exchange! And could we but always keep ourselves at this stand, we should be so fortified with the sight of those happy regions above, that no temptation from below would ever be able to approach us; and the sense that we are going on to that blessed state would carry us through all the weary stages of our duty with an indefatigable vigour. For what may a man not do with heaven in his eye, with that potent, I had almost said omnipotent, encouragement before him? To pull out a right eye, to cut off a right hand, to tear a darling lust from his heart, even when it is wrapped about it and twisted with its strings, what an easy achievement is it to a man that hath a heaven of immortal glories in his view! The hope of which is enough to recommend even racks and torments, and turn the flames of martyrdom into a bed of roses. For it was this blessed prospect that enabled the good old martyrs to triumph so gloriously as they did in the midst of their sufferings: they knew that a few moments would put an end to their miseries, and that when once they had weathered those short storms, they should arrive at a most blessed harbour, and be crowned at their landing; and that from thence they should look back with infinite joy and delight upon the dangerous sea they had escaped, and for ever bless those storms and winds that drove them to

that happy port; for as the author to the Hebrews tells us, they sought a heavenly country, Heb. xi. 14, 16.

XI. And lastly, to the successful progress of our Christian warfare, it is also necessary that we should live in the frequent use of the public ordinances and institutions of our religion; namely, in the religious observation of the Lord's day, and in frequent communion with one another in the holy sacrament, both which are of great use to us in the course and progress of our spiritual warfare. For as for the Lord's day, it is instituted, and ever since the apostle's time hath been observed in the Christian church, as a day of public worship and weekly thanksgiving for our Saviour's resurrection, in which the great work of our redemption was consummated. And certainly it must needs be of vast advantage to be one day in seven sequestered from the world, and employed in divine offices, in solemn prayers, praises, and thanksgivings, and to be obliged to assist and edify one another by the mutual example and union of our devotions; to hear the duties of our religion explained, the sins against it reprehended, and the doctrines of it unfolded and reduced to plain and easy principles of practice. What a mighty advantage might we reap from all these blessed ministries, if we would but attend to them with that concern and seriousness which the matter of them requires and deserves! especially, if when the public offices are over, we would not let loose ourselves all the rest of the day, as we too frequently do, to our secular cares and diversions, and thereby choke those good instructions we have heard, and stifle those devout and pious affections which have