the Confequence is, that all material Objects, tho' never so precious, and all the Pleasures of this World, tho' never fo noble and refined, are but faint Shadows of the Bleffings that constitute the essential Beatitude of the Life to come.

After these Reflections it will not be furprifing, that the Saints had no other Concern in this Life, than how to fecure Heaven to themselves; that they had it always in their View, bore it continually in their Hearts, made it the Object of all their Affections, the Center of all their Defires, and the End of all their Actions. For they were directed by the Light of Faith, and their Faith taught them, that God had created them for eternal and incomprehenfible Joys, to which the Enjoyments of this Life bore no Proportion. This was Inducement enough to make them defpife the one, and continually thirst after the other. This gave them a Difgust of all earthly Pleasures, and made the Riches and Honours of this World appear as contemptible to their Thoughts, as they are in themselves. This, finally, made them fet fo high a Value upon Heaven, as to purchase it, even with the most painful Sufferings. And this ought likewife to have at leaft fo far an Influence upon us, as both to render us faithful in the Difcharge of all the Duties of a Chriftian

Life, and make us fubmit chearfully to all the Croffes and Afflictions, Almighty God is pleased to send us.

The XVIIIth ENTERTAINMENT.

Of the beatifick Vifion.

Now we fee through a Glafs darkly, but then Face to Face. Now I know in Part, but then fball I know even as also I am known, 1. Cor. xiii, 12.

T

O fee God Face to Face, and know him as he is in himself, is that perfect and confummate Happiness of Man's Soul, of which I am now going to speak and I am very fenfible of the Difficulty of the Tafk I have undertaken. For we are fo unacquainted with what pafles in the other World, that to treat of this Subject is like walking in a dark and unknown Path, where we may very eafily either ftumble upon fome Error, or mistake groundlefs Fancies for folid Truths. I fhall therefore endeavour to proceed with fo much Caution, as not to advance one fingle Step, without taking either the holy Scriptures, or at leaft fome of

the

the Fathers or approved Divines, for my Guide. I have already faid fomething concerning the Glory of the Body, and fhall at prefent only speak of that Part of heavenly Beatitude which regards the Soul, and which St. Auftin has epitomiz'd in these three Words; videbimus, amabimus, laudabimus; we fhall fee, we fhall love, we fhall praise. The firft Word expreffes the whole Subftance of the beatifick Vifion, as Divines call it, that is, the Sight of God, which makes the Soul happy. The two other Words exprefs the immediate and infeparable Effects of it; viz. the Love, Joy, and Delight, which refult from this bleffed Vision in the Soul; of which I shall treat in my next Difcourfe, intending to make the beatifick Vifion alone the Subject of this Entertainment.

'Tis certain, that Man's Soul being a fpiritual Subftance cannot be happy but in the Poffeffion of fome fpiritual Good, nor perfectly happy, but in the Poffeffion of the most perfect fpiritual Good: And therefore when the Scripture feems to promife certain fenfible and material Goods, as Crowns and Kingdoms, Youth without Decay, Wealth, Power, and magnificent Palaces; when it tells us, that the Saints fhall eat and drink in the Kingdom of God; finally, when it fets forth the celef

tial Jerufalem as a City abounding in all fuch Things as are most valued in this World, as built with precious Stones, paved with the purest Gold, beautified with stately Towers, and fo forth, we muft, as I have already obferved, take care not to imagine as if the Enjoyment of Things of this Nature were to be the effential Reward of the Life to come. For this would be to fet up a kind of Mahometan Beatitude inftead of the (hriftian one, and translate the World itself into Heaven. And what can be the Confequence hereof, but our making the World, inftead of Almighty: God, our laft End, and the principal. Object of our Love, Hope, and Defire?

St. Austen himself, in his Comment upon the 86th Pfalm, has taken care to precaution us against this Error. Let us beware (fays he) not to propose to curselves any Pleafures like thofe we relifo here on Earth. For otherwife all our Temperance, which makes us now abstain from worldly PleaJures, will be the Fruit of Self-love. There are thofe that faft, only to eat afterwards with a better Relish: If therefore you believe that the Pleasures of Heaven will be like thofe of this World, and you refrain from them now upon no other Motive than to enjoy them more fully hereafter, you imitate thofe that faft only to prepare them

felves for a Feast, and in their very Practice. of Temperance are guilty of a greater Intemperance.

Thus St. Auftin; who is very large upon this Subject, to prevent our falling into an Error which would utterly destroy the Love of God, and fet up Self-love in it's Place. 'Tis therefore an undoubted Truth, that the effential Felicity of the Soul confifts not in the Enjoyment of any of those fenfible Objects or Pleafures, to which Self-love inclines us in this Life; and that whatever Expreffions in Scripture seem to favour this fort of Beatitude, are not to be understood literally, but in a figurative or fpiritual Senfe, as will appear beyond all Queftion, from other Paffages of holy Writ, which I shall have Occasion to quote hereafter.

First, then, the Scripture tells us, that the bleffed Souls in Heaven fhall fee God Face to Face, that they fhall fee him clearly, and as he is in himfelf: For the better Understanding whereof we nuft obferve, that to fee and know God, are fynonimous Terms, and fignify the felf-fame Thing. For Almighty God being a pure Spirit cannot be seen with corporeal Eyes; and the Soul being alfo a fpiritual Subftance has, properly speaking, noEyes but what are fpiri

tual.

Now the Eye of the Soul is her Un

der