ISHALL begin with explaining the Words. The firft Word in the original Text contains the whole Act of our Duty: We tranflate it, fet your Affections; but more is implied in it. We cannot love any Thing without judging of its Worth; or can we judge of the Worth of any Thing, without taking it into our Thoughts; aud the Word fignifies each of these Acts, to think, to † judge, and to love. Thus the whole Signification of the Word not only teaches us the whole Act of our Duty, but likewife the Method neceffary for the Practice of it; think, judge, and then love.

*

THE next Words are Things above: Shewing the Object of our Duty. Now Things above, in the Style of Scripture, fignifies the Things of Grace, and the Things of Glory. The Things of Grace, are Holiness, Juftice, Temperance, Charity, and all other Chriftian Virtues. Prov. xv. 24. The Way of Life is above to the Wife, that he may depart from Hell beneath; that is, every wife Man. will be religious; for this is the Way above, that upper, exalted Way that leads to Life: But Sin is the low, and ignominious Way; fo low, that there is nothing beneath it but Hell, to which it leads.

SECONDLY, by Things above, are meant the Things of Glory; as the beatifick Vifion of God, the Prefence of Chrift, the Conversation of Angels, the Fellowship of Saints; Bodies glorified, Souls ennobled, Faculties enlarged, and entertained with transporting Objects, and replenished with unmixed Joys! All thefe Things are meant by Things above; And one would imagine that an Injunction could not be ungrateful, to fet our Affections on Things like these.

AND

* Rom. xii.

Rom. xiv. 6,

In the Text.

AND yet it is ungrateful to most of us; and that for this Reafon, because there are Things on the Earth too, Things contrary in their Nature, and inconfiftent in their Choice, with the Things now mentioned: Pleafant Things, and fuch whofe Pleasures are prefent, and palpable, and always at hand: Pleafures of Appetite and Senfe, those winning Masters, under whofe Dominion we spend the first of our Years for want of Reason, and (too often) the reft, in spite of it: Pleasures, that thro' their Number, and Opportunity, and Prepoffeffion, and Custom, get fuch a fatal Afcendant, that unlefs we are always on our Guard against them, our Love of Things above will either never fpring, or (what is all one) never come to Maturity. And this is the Reason of that Caution fuperadded in the laft Words of the Text, not on Things on the Earth.

HAVING thus explained the Words, I proceed to fhew the particular Method of practising the Duty contained in them; which confifts (as I have already intimated) in thofe three Acts; First, Thinking of; Secondly, Judging; Thirdly, Loving the Things above.

TO think of them is the beginning of our Duty. Nothing can Act on the Soul but by the Mediation of Thought; that which we think not of, moves us no more than that which is not: And therefore it is not fo much the Beauty, or Excellency, or Gratefulness, or Fitnefs of an Object, as Thought that makes us love. The Object brings in the Matter, but Thought gives the Form to the Paffion, and if we think not of a Thing, it is impoffible we should love it, be it never fo lovely.

IF

IF therefore we would work ourselves to a proper Zeal for Things above, it is neceffary that we fhould allow ourselves ftated Seafons of thinking on them: We must call them into our Mind, and make them the Matter of our ferious Contemplation, and then the most desirable Things will certainly move in us a fuitable Defire.

NOR is it ftrange that Thought should be neceffary to give us an Affection for Things Spiritual and remote, when it is neceffary to give us a Perception of Things fenfible, and at band. The Eye may be open on an Object which it does not fee; and the Ear ftruck with Sounds which it does not hear, if Thought is intenfely engaged another Way. But fmall Attention, indeed, is neceffary to give Things fenfible, and prefent their full Force on us. And this is the Reafon of that Advantage which earthly Things have on our Choice, above heavenly They are immediate; their Prefence is their Power. But religious Thought, and that only, can rob them of this fatal Advantage; which is a ftrong Argument for the Practice of this Duty: Thought can make abfent Things prefent, take away the Distance between Earth and Heaven, and make an eternal Good, though future, a better Entertainment, and fuller Satisfaction to the Mind, than all the Pleasures of Sin, tho' at hand.

"

ICONFESS, indeed, fince Heaven forces it felf on our Thoughts, from a thousand Occafions, whether we will, or no; that many think of Heaven, and yet do not defire it as much as they ought; but this I affirm, that every Man defires it in Proportion to his Thinking: For no Man but wishes for Heaven, while Heaven is on his Mind; and if every tranfient Glance of Thought can pro

cure

cure a Wih, it is a good Argument, that a fixed, and frequent Contemplation would produce no lefs than an effectual Will. If therefore we affect not Heaven enough, it is because we contemplate it too little.

INDEED there is one ftrange Confideration which offers it felf on this Subject: Since our common Notion of Things above represents them as infinitely preferable to all other, how is it poffible that they should not ever engage our Thoughts? How is it poffible, that Mankind which abhors nothing fo much as Pain, fhould not be for ever meditating on that Place, which we confess to be the Seat of perfect Exemption from it? How is it poffible, that Mankind which toils out a weary Life in eager Pursuits of every Appearance of Good, fhould forget That which we confefs the Supreme? For it is too manifeft, that as the Thoughts of Heaven, and heavenly Things enter moft rarely into our Minds, fo they hang the most loosely there, and are fooneft diflodged from their flender Hold on us. Every new Object, tho' never so trifling, foreign, or abfurd, is fufficient to divert us from the Importance of them.

THE Holy Scripture is frequent in afferting, that the Devil is actually, and perpetually converfant among us. His End and Bufinefs being to feduce, deceive, and deftroy. Nor can there be a greater human Demonftration of this Truth, than this Inftance of our Thoughts, with regard to the Contemplation of eternal Happiness; wherein their Slackness, Avocations, Startings, Wanderings, and Interruptions, are fo unaccountable, fo contrary to their Nature and Manner of Attention, when applied to worldly Objects, that they cannot feem to receive their Conduct from any Principle, either

Volun

Voluntary, or Mechanical, that is purely within our felves, but from the extrinfick Influence, and Injection of that evil Spirit, And accordingly we find him charged, Mat, xiii. 19. with this very Fact of fnatching away Good Thoughts from the Heart of Man.

AND, indeed, if Men but grant that there is fuch a Power, and that he can tempt us, (which, if we deny, we must cease to be Chriftians,) the Other follows of it felf; For the Region of the Soul, in which the Devil forges his Wiles to deceive us, is the Imagination; and his Manner of working is by forming Images, or exciting Motions there, which become the immediate Matter of our Thought; and his Time of working is then particularly, when he perceives our Minds are religiously difpofed; for then he is most afraid of loofing his Hold on us. And thence comes to pass (what I fear all of us have perceived) that at the Seafons of Devotion a Languor, and Inattention often comes over us, which we feel, neither before, nor after: For then efpecially, he attempts our Imagination, and throngs it with foreign Matter. As therefore my Text requires the Setting our Thoughts on Things above, in order to create fuch a Relifh, and kindle fuch a Defire as is due to them; fo, in order to fetting our Thoughts on them, it is neceffary to fuperadd this Rule; That in the Seafons affigned for fuch Contemplation, we fhould always guard our Thoughts with that Petition in the Lord's Prayer, Deliver us from Evil, that Evil-one (as it may be rendered) who is ever hovering round us to fnatch away good Thoughts from our Hearts.

BUT a Perfuafive to ferious Contemplation (and nothing less than serious Contemplation is fufficient) must seem strange to fo gay an Age, which has diftinguished