COLOSS. iii. 2.

Set your Affections on Things above, and not on Things on the Earth.

W

E by no Means queftion, but that the Birth, and Life, and Death, and Refurrection of our Lord, were Acts of infinite Merit; Merit fufficient to fatisfy God's Juftice, and bring Sinners to the Terms of Reconcilement, and Salvation: But we must not imagine that they wrought any Change, or Confufion in the Nature of Things. God is as pure as ever, and Iniquity is as much his Averfion: Though he can be reconciled to Sinners, he cannot be reconciled to Sin; and tho' the Sinner may be faved, he cannot be faved unless he, first, be changed; for Heaven has no more Admittance for Corruption, than it had before. And therefore the unchangeable Holinefs of God requires, that, notwithstanding all our Lord has done to fave us, we fhould ftill work out our own Salvation, by a Conformity to his Example, as well as a Dependance on his Merit: nor, moft impiously, make his Merit an Encouragement of Sin.

FOR

FOR this Reason, the Christjan is called on to be born, to live, to die, and to rife again, in a Moral Senfe; for in the Natural, all these Acts are Acts of Neceffity. Thefe Expreffions import fo many feveral Stages in the Chriftian Course.

BY Nature we are born of Flesh and Blood, which gives us a Conftitution fond of what is prefent, and careless of what is future: And therefore to fecure the future, we are told, that the Spirit of God is a new Principle of Life, which, when received into the Soul, will imprefs on it new Thoughts, new Aims, and new Defires; and to receive this Principle, and thefe Impreffions, is the Chriftian Birth.

BY Nature we live a Life of Senfe and Selfwill, which is deftructive of our eternal Intereft; and therefore we are enjoined to take the Will of Chrift for our Rule, and his Practice for our Example; and this is the Chriftian Life.

BY Nature we die thro' a Separation of Soul and Body; but this Separation makes it well with none, with whom it was not well before; and therefore we are enjoined to die to Sin; and this is the Chriftian Death.

"

By Nature (or by God's Appointment in Nature) we are to rife again, whether we will, or no; but nothing that is of pure Force can produce an Effect to any one's fpiritual Advantage; and therefore are we to rife by Choice; that is, by fetting our Affections on Things above; and this is the Chriftian Refurrection, the Perfection of the Chriftian State, and that which the Text particularly calls for.

I SHALL begin with explaining the Words, The firft Word in the original Text contains the

whole

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; and 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 Aft 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, fignifie the Things of Grace, and the Things of Glory. The Things of Grace, are Holinefs, Juftice, Temperance, Charity, and all other Christian 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 Vision of God, the Prefence of Chrift, the Converfation of Angels, the Fellowship of Saints; Bodies glorified, Souls ennobled, Faculties enlarged, and entertained with transporting Objects, and replenished with une mixed 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 thefe.

* Rom. xii, + Rom. xiv. 6.

In the Text.

AND

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 inconsistent in their Choice, with the Things now mentioned: Pleafant Things, and fuch whose Pleafures are prefent, and palpable, and always at hand: Pleafures of Appetite and Senfe, those winning Masters, under whofe Dominion we spend the firft 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 Cuftom, get fuch a fatal Afcendant, that unless 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 practifing the Duty contained in them; which confifts (as I have already intimated) in thofe three Acts; Firft, 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 Fitness 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 ourfelves to a proper Zeal for Things above, it is neceffary that we fhould allow ourfelves ftated Seafons of thinking on them: We muft call them into our Mind, and make them the Matter of our ferious Contemplation, and then the most defirable Things will certainly move in us a fuitable Defire.

NOR is it ftrange that Thought fhould 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 hand. 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 strong 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 Pleafures of Sin, though at hand.

I CONFESS, indeed, fince Heaven forces itself on our Thoughts, from a thoufand Occa-. fions, 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-.

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