1. (1) Hinderances to a heavenly Life must be avoided; fuch as, $2. (1) living in any known Sin; § 3. (2) an earthly Mind; §4. (3) ungodly Companions; $5. (4) a notional Religion; $6. (5) a haughty Spirit; $7. (6) a flothful Spirit; § 8. and (7) refting in Preparatives for a heavenly Life, without the Thing itfelf§ 9. (II) The Duties which will promote a heavenly Life are thefe; § 10. (1) Be convinced that Heaven is the only Treafure and Happiness; $11, 12. (2) labour to know your Interest in it; § 13. (3) and how near it is; § 14. (4) frequently and Jeriously talk of it; § 15. (5) endeavour in every Duty to raife your Affections nearer to it; $ 16. (6) to the fame Purpose improve every Object and Event; $17, 18. (7) be much in the argelical Work of Praife; § 19. (8) poffefs your Souls with believing Thoughts of the infinite Love of God; § 20. (9) carefully obferve and cherish the Motions of the Spirit of God; § 21. (10) nor even neglect the due Care of your bodily Health.

$1. S thou valueft the Comforts of a heavenly

A Converfation, I muft bere charge thee from

God,to avoid carefully fome dangerous Hinderances; and then-faithfully and diligently to practice fuch Duties as will especially affift thee in attaining to a bea

venly Life. And (I) the Hinderances to be avoided with all poffible Care, are, -living in any known Sin, an earthly Mind, the Company of the Ungodly,a notional Religion,a proud and lofty Spirit,a Mothful Spirit,and refiing in mere Preparations for this heavenly Life, without any Acquaintance with the Thing itself.

§2. (1) Living in any known Sin, is a grand Impediment to a heavenly Converfation. What Havock will this make in thy Soul! O the Joys that this hath deftroyed! The Ruin it hath made amongft Men's Graces! The Soul-ftrengthening Duties it hath hindered! Chriftian Reader, art thou one that haft used Violence with thy Confcience? Art thou a wilful Neglecter of known Duties, either publick, private, or fecret? Art thou a Slave to thine Appetite, or to any other commanding Senfe? Art thou a proud Seeker of thine own Efteem? Art thou a peevish and paffionate Perfon, ready to take Fire at every Word, or Look, or fuppofed Slight? Art thou a Deceiver of others in thy Dealings, or one that will be rich, right or wrong? If this be thy Cafe, I dare fay, Heaven and thy Soul are very great Strangers. Thefe Beams in thine Eyes will not fuffer thee to look to Heaven; they will be a Cloud between thee and thy God. When thou doft but attempt to study Eternity, and gather Comforts from the Life to come, thy Sin will prefently look thee in the Face, and fay, "Thefe Things be"long not to thee. How shouldft thou take Comfort " from Heaven, who takest so much Pleasure in the "Lufts of the Flefh?" How will this damp thy Joys, and make the Thoughts of that Day, and State, become thy Trouble, and not thy Delight! Every wilful Sin will be to thy Comforts, as Water to the Fire; when thou thinkeft to quicken them, this will quench them. It will utterly indifpofe and M 2 difable

difable thee, that thou canft no moré afcend in divine Meditation, than a Bird can fly when its Wings are clip'd. Sin cuts the very Sinews of this heavenly Life. O Man! what a Life doft thou lofe? What daily Delights doft thou fell for a vile Luft? If Hea ven and Hell can meet together, and God become a Lover of Sin, then mayft thou live in thy Sin, and in the Taftes of Glory; and have a Converfation in Heaven, though thou cherish thy Corruption. And take heed, left it banish thee from Heaven, as it does thy Heart. And though thou be not guilty, and knoweft no reigning Sin in thy Soul, think what a fad Thing it would be, if ever this fhould prove thy Cafe. Watch therefore; efpecially refolve to keep from the Occafions of Sin, and out of the Way of Temptations. What need have we daily to pray, Lead us not into Temptation, but deliver us from Evil?

$3. (2) An earthly Mind is another Hinderance to be carefully avoided. God and Mammon, Earth and Heaven, cannot both have the Delight of thy Heart. When the heavenly Believer is bleffing himself in his God, and rejoicing in Hope of the Glory to come; perhaps thou art bleffing thyfelf in thy worldly Profperity, and rejoicing in Hope of thy thriving here. When he is comforting his Soul in the Views of Chrift, of Angels and Saints, whom he fhall live with for ever; then thou art comforting thyfelf with thy Wealth, in looking over thy Bills and Bonds, thy Goods, thy Cattle, or thy Buildings, and in thinking of the Favour of the Great, of the Peafure of a plentiful, Eflate, of larger Provifion for thy Children after thee, of the Advancement of thy Family, or the Increase of thy Dependents. If Chrift pronounced him a Fool, that faid, Soul, take thy Eafe, thou haft enough laid up for many Years; how much more fo at thou, who knowingly fpeakeft in thy Heart the fame

Words?

Words? Tell me, what Difference between this Fool's Expreffions, and thy Affections? Remember, thou haft to do with the Searcher of Hearts. Certainly, fo much as thou delightest, and takest up thy. Reft, on Earth, fo much of thy Delight in God is abated. Thine earthly Mind may confift with thy outward Profeffion and common Duties; but it can not confift with this heavenly Duty. Thou thyself knoweft how feldom and cold, how curfory and referved, thy Thoughts have been of the Joys above, ever fince thou didit trade fo eagerly for the World.. O the curfed Madness of many that feem to be religious! They thrust themselves into a Multitude of Employments, till they are loaded with Labours, and clogged with Cares, that their Souls are as unfit to converfe with God, as a Man to walk with a Mountain on his Back; and as unapt to foar in Meditation, as their Bodies to leap above the Sun! And when they have loft that Heaven upon Earth, which they might have had, they take up with a few rotten Arguments to prove it lawful; though indeed they cannot. I advise thee, Chriftian, who hat tafted the Pleasures of a heavenly Life, as ever thou wouldít tafte of them any more, avoid this devouring Gulph of an earthly Mind. If once thou come to this, that thou wilt be rich, thou falleft into Temptation, and a Snare, and into many foolisk and hurtful Lufts (a). Keep. thefe Things loose about thee, like thy upper Garments, that thou mayft lay them by whenever there is need; but let God and Glory be next thy Heart. Ever remember, that the Friendship of the World is Enmity with God. Whefoever therefore will be a Friend of the World, is the Enemy of God (b). Love not the World, neither the Things that are in the World. If any Man love the World, the Love of the Father is not M 3 (b) James iv. 4.

(a) 1 Tim. vi. 9.

in

in him (c). This is plain Dealing, and happy he that faithfully receives it!

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$4. (3) Beware of the Company of the Ungodly Not that I would diffuade thee from neceffary Converfe, or from doing them any Office of Love; efpecially, not from endeavouring the Good of their Souls, as long as thou haft any Opportunity or Hope: Nor would I have thee conclude them to be Dogs and Swine, in order to evade the Duty of Reproof: Nor even to judge them fuch at all, as long as there is any Hope for the better: Much lefs can I approve of their Practice, who conclude Men Dogs or Swine, before ever they faithfully and lovingly admonish them, or perhaps before they have known them, or spoke with them. But it is the unneceffary Society of ungodly Men, and too much Familiarity with unprofitable Companions, that I diffuade you from. Not only the open Prophane, the Swearer, the Drunkard, and the Enemies of Godliness, will prove hurtful Companions to us, though these indeed are chiefly to be avoided; but too frequent Society with Perfons merely civil and moral, whofe Converfation is empty and unedifying, may much divert our Thoughts from Heaven. Our Backwardness is fuch, that we need the most conftant and powerful Helps. A Stone, or a Clod, is as fit to arife and fly in the Air, as our Hearts are naturally to move toward Heaven. You need not hinder the Rocks from flying up to the Sky; it is fufficient that you do not help them. And furely if our Spirits have not great Affiftance, they may eafily be kept from foaring upward, though they never fhould meet with the leaft Impediment. O think of this in the Choice of your Company! When your Spirits are fo difpofed for Heaven, that you need no Help to lift them up, but, as Flames, you are always

(c) John ii. 15.

mount