of the Soul; whereas a fpiritual Commerce with God, which creates a fure Confidence in him, is a fteady Enjoyment, which no Accident can impair, which, in the Multitude of Sorrows, will refresh us with Comforts, and, as holy fob expreffes it, give us Songs in the Night, i. e. give us Confolation in the Night of Affliction, and in the Gloominess of human Despair. Complain therefore we may of the Vanity and Emptiness of all worldly Joys; but, at the fame Time, we ought to remember what the Prophet tells us, viz. that it is from the Lord that they are fo, viz. that he has purpofely defigned, that the good Things of this Life fhould not be fatisfying, nor able to answer that earnest Defire of Happiness, which he hath made con-natural to the Soul of Man, with an Intent to teach us, that he intended to fill up the Measure of our Defires, and to be himself the Delight, we so much long for.

2. Moral Delight is that, which springs from the Confcience of Well-doing, of which, though the Wicked are not utterly infenfible, (because it is often felt to arife from any fingle and cafual Act of Virtue) yet are its Refreshments, in a peculiar Manner, the Portion of the Regenerate. When the Principles of Goodness come once to be fixed in a Man, and his Virtue is grown conftant and uniform, it is then, that this never fails to fupply him with a stable Serenity and Satisfaction of Mind, not to be equalled by all the Joys of Senfuality. Now, if Confcience may be thus delighted in, there is abundant Reason why God, who is the great Rewarder of Confcience, fhould have a much larger Share of our Joy and Complacency; efpecially confidering, that the Delight, which arifes from a Confcience of Well-doing, is nothing elfe, but a foreboding Inftinct, that there will be a future Reward.:

A Mef

A Meffenger, for Inftance, is fent to acquaint a Subject, that for his Loyalty, and other good Services done the Government, his Prince is refolved to promote him to Honour, to make him Governor of fuch a Province, or Ruler of fuch a City : The Meffenger, in fuch a Cafe, may be received with Expreffions of Joy and kind Entertainment; but certainly the Subject forgets his Duty, if he transfers all his Acknowledgments upon the Meffenger, and overlooks the Beneficence of his Prince. Juft fo stands the Cafe between God and our Confciences. Our Confciences are our Remembrancers of a future Reward, which, upon the Discharge of any Duty faithfully, pleasantly whisper within, thus, and thus fhall God reward thee for it; and with this welcome Meffage we may well be allowed to folace and delight ourselves; but certainly we forget our Duty, if we fuffer our Minds to be fo wholly taken up with it, as not to look up to the Fountain from whence it comes. In a Word, he that attends to the Operations of his own Mind, may eafily perceive, that there is fo neceffary a Relation between God and our Confciences, that, whenever we conceive any Pleasure from the Remembrance of any good Action, that pleasurable Movement of our Confcience is a natural Call to us to delight in God, who is the fole Foundation, and Hope, and Rewarder of it.

3. The fame Leffon we may likewife learn from the laft Kind of delectable Things, I mean, those of Heaven; which though it be a State fo pleasant and transcendently happy, that the Apostle tells us, the very Expectation of it is fufficient to work in us a Rejoicing with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory; yet we are to remember, that the Root and Foundation of all the eternal Beatitudes, that are there, is God: That it is not, in fhort, the Place Heaven, but rather the God of Heaven, that is the ReC

ward

ward of his Saints, procuring them endless Felicity from the Light of his Countenance upon them, and the Influence and Emanations of his Bounty towards them. And hence it is, that the Royal Pfalmift declares to God, thou art my Hope and my Portion, in the Land of the Living. By the Land of the Living he means Heaven, (for Earth is no more than the Land of the Dying) and yet he does not look upon that Land, but merely upon God in that Land, as his Hope, and his Portion: To which Purpose we find the Apostle St Paul, in speaking of the State of God's eternal Kingdom, clearing and determining the Matter in two Words, when he tells us, that, in that State, God fhall be all in all, every Thing to every Saint; for all that they can wifh, all that they can conceive, he will be to every one of them; will anfwer all their Defires, provide for all their Wants, and fill up the immenfe Capacities of Enjoyment, which he hath feated in every one's Soul. Since God then, of all the Kinds of delectable Things, that we can experience, either here or hereafter, is the only proper Object of our Joy, there is no Doubt to be made, but that, in Point of Duty and Intereft both, we ought to place the chief of our Comfort and Com-. placency in him; confidering withal, that this will. be a Means to make us truly religious here, and eternally happy hereafter.

It is, without all Controverfy, true, that there is no Principle in human Nature, that will fo powerfully engage us in the Service of God, and fo effectually recommend our Performances to him, as that of Love, which tunes our Wills into an Harmony with his, and makes our Refpect to his Commandments become univerfal. Now, between Love and Delight there is fo great an Affinity, that we can hardly diftinguish them: What we love, we always delight in; and what we delight in, we always love;

and, if we diftinguish them as nicely as we can, the Difference is only this :- Love is the Defire of our Object, and Delight is the Complacency, that accompanies Defire; fo that Delight prefuppofes and implies in it Love. Upon which it follows, that, if we delight in our Mafter, we must neceffarily love him; and, if we love him, we fhall certainly keep his Commandments. The Man that addicts himself to his Lufts, makes them his Mafter; and though their Service be hard, and their Wages mean, yet nevertheless he ftiles them Pleasures, and swallows them greedily down under that gilded Name. He watches and labours, he waits and follicits, he begs, and bears, and denies himself, and all with Content. Now, would we but transfer our Affections to God, and learn to love and delight in him thus fincerely, the very fame Thing would happen to us; his Service we should account our Pleasure and the most rigid Duties of it willingly fubmit to, as happy Occasions, not only to fignalize our Love here; but,

To fecure our Title to the Glories and Felicities of our celestial Inheritance hereafter. The chief Enjoyments of Heaven, as we faid before, confift not fo much in the Pleafures of the Place, as in our partaking of the Divine Perfections, and feeing God Face to Face. And, therefore, if we do not accustom ourselves to delight in God, while we abide in this World, we can never be capable of enjoying Heaven, which, in Effect, is nothing else but God himself. For, be the Place never fo beautiful and ravishing, yet that it can afford no fuch Satisfaction, without the Enjoyment of God, 'tis plain from that Paffage of Job, where Satan is faid to have prefented himself among the Sons of God, i. e. to have been in Heaven, and mixed himself with the Bleffed there; and yet, it is certain, he was never the happier for all this; but, being deprived C 2

of

of the Light of God's Countenance, and taking no Pleasure in the beatific Vifion, he, even in Heaven, carried his Hell about him: So impoffible it is to enjoy Heaven, without fome Complacency in God. But now, when, by long Custom and Ufage, we have brought our Minds to this happy Temper, to be habitually well pleafed and delighted with God, so as to rejoice in his Happiness; and acquiefce in his Will, and meditate on his Beauty and Goodness, with unfeigned Complacency of Soul, we are then in the fame State (i. e. in Kind, tho' not in Degree) with the bleffed Saints above, and, when we are called home to their Habitations, fhall carry along with us Minds ready fitted and dispofed for their Enjoyments.

If ever, therefore, we defire to partake of the Beatitudes of Heaven, and to live eternally in the View of that moft lovely and moft happy Object, which is the conftant Feaft and Entertainment of glorified Souls; this we must fet ourselves to do: -We must contemplate him with the Eyes of our Faith, approach him in our Prayers, tafte him in his Ordinances, and feel him in the Comforts of Well-doing. We must fettle in our Minds a strict Conformity to his Laws, a generous Difdain of earthly Things, a noble Confidence in Divine Providence, and a stedfaft and affured Hope of an eternal and never-fading Crown of Glory; for these are the proper Means to poffefs our Souls with a steady Delight and Complacency in God, our only Principle of living well, and of living for ever. We cannot, however, but take Notice, that, fince God, in his own Nature, is fo amiable, in his Perfec-. tions fo tranfcendent, in his Laws fo equitable, and in his Difpenfations fo gracious, there must be fome intervening Hindrances, or, otherwife, no Man, of any tolerable Senfe and Ingenuity, could forbear delighting in him. What, therefore, we