upon God, even whilft you live in the body. To this I may add another particular or two.

not

3. Converfe with God, and live upon him in all his ordinances. Let communion with God be your drift in every duty, and the very life, and foul, and fweetness of every ordinance. You never read of a foul more thirfty after ordinances than David, as might appear abundantly; yet if you look well into the expreffions, you will find that it was not fo much after them, as after God in them after the dead letter, but after the living God, Pfalm xlii. 2. My foul thirfteth for God, for the living God; and Pfalm lxxxiv. 2. My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Let the word, preached or read, be as a voice from heaven talking with you; let your conference be a comment upon that word; let meditation be as a kind of bringing down God into your fouls; and prayer, as a raifing up of your fouls unto God; nothing but faith and love put into phrases; and fo of all the reft.

4. Converfe with God in all his providences, profperity, adverfity, plenty, penury, health, fickness, peace, and perplexity. This is a large theme; but as to profperity, I have spoken fomething already, under that head of converfing with God in creature-enjoyments. As for adverfity, I have faid much more in a large difcourfe, to defcribe and commend the art of converfing with God in afflictions. Briefly, at this time, converfe not with loffes, wants, affictions, but with God in them; and that not only with the juftice, righte oufness, severity, and fovereignty of God in them, but with the goodness and mercy of God in them: they are dark providences, we had not need to

dwell

dwell on the dark fide of them. If all the ways of the Lord towards his people be mercy and truth, Pfalm xxv. 10. then his roughest and most uncouth ways are fo too. If God be wholly love, I John iv. 8. then his very corrections proceed not from hatred. If it is his name to be good, and to do good, Pfalm cxix. 68. where have we learnt then to call his afflicting providence evils, and to divide evil, which is but one, even as God is one, into culpa and pœnæ, fin and affliction? Surely we speak as men; and if God calls them fo, he speaks after the manner of men, as he often doth. If the governing will of God be pure, perfect, and infinitely good and righteous, ought we not to converfe with it in a free and chearful manner, yea, and to love it too? In a word, pore not upon creature-changes, nor the uncertain wheels of motion, that are turning up and down, we know not how, nor how oft; but fix yourselves upon that all-feeing eye, that unbounded under. standing, that unsearchable and infinite goodness, that derives itself through the whole univerfe, and fits in all the wheels of motion, governing all the ftrange motions of the creatures in a wonderful and powerful manner, and carrying them all in their feveral orbs to one last and blessed end!

Thus imitate the angelical life, even whilst you are in the body; converse with God in felf-excellencies, in creature-excellencies, ordinances, providences: and yet labour to be more like him still, to abftract your mind from all these, and all material and fenfible things, and to converse with God without the help of any creature, I mean in the fpirit, and by a fecret feeling of his Almighty Goodness, and the energy of grace, and the comenergy

munications

you are

munications of a divine life in your fouls. In a word, if you would taste of heaven whilft upon earth, labour above all things for a true conjunction of your hearts with God, in a fecret feeling of his goodness, and a reciprocation of love to him; and to find the holy and bleffed God exercifing his grace and power upon all the faculties of your fouls, and rendering them like unto himself; and all these powers of the foul mutually fpending themselves upon him freely and entirely, as upon the chief good, which is their proper and full object. Seeing the faints in glory fhall be like unto the angels of God, in their way of living in and upon God alone, receive, I pray, this exhortation, which I have fo largely profecuted, and labour to begin that life as far as you can, upon earth. Is there not reafon for fuch an inference? Doth it not now flow naturally from the doctrine? If you think it does not, I will add two or three particulars to ftrengthen this inference, or, at leaft, to clear it.

1. It is highly reasonable that we begin to be that which we expect to be for ever, to learn that way of living in which we hope to live to all eternity; fo that I infer upon as ftrong ground as the apoftle, 1 John iii. 3. He that hath this hope purifieth himself, &c.

2. If this be the life of angels, then it is the highest and nobleft life that any created being is capable of. As by the bread of angels and the tongue of angels, the moft excellent food and the moft excellent language is understood in Scripture; fo muft we understand this life of angels. Now it is very fuitable to the reasonable foul, that imnortal, noble being, to aim at the highest and

nobleft

nobleft life. See Matt. xvi. 26. What shall a man give in exchange for his foul?

3. This fhall not only be our life in heaven,, but itself is something of heaven, a beginning of heaven. This life is not a thing really distinct from life eternal, John xvii. 3. This is life eternal, &c. 1 John v. 13. Ye have eternal life. Therefore we read of eternal life abiding in men, and not abiding in them, I John iii. 15. So alfo John vi. 54. Whofo eateth my flesh hath eternal life, A holy foul thus deified, thus living in and upon God, is as truly glorified upon earth, in fome degree, as the world is enlightened by the morning fun; which is as truly, though not fo gloriously, as by the fun in its greateft height. Oh! low and ignoble fpirits, that can be fatisfied with a happinefs which fhall only be in the world to come ! Certainly it is a true and proper fpeech to say, that a participation of God is an anticipation of heaven; and to be like unto him, is to be with him. You fee what reason I have to make fuch an inference, and to form it into fuch an earnest exhortation. Oh! therefore, I beseech you, before God and his holy angels, to endeavour to be like him, and live like them! Object. Say not, How can men on earth live like angels! Anfw. 1. But fall on and imitate them, though it be--baud paffibus æquis; labour to be righteous, if you cannot be altogether righteous. 2. We are bidden to live the life of God, Matt. v. ult. Be perfect, &c. So. Pet. i. 15. Be ye holy, &c. If I fpeak high, how high fpeak thefe texts? Obj. Say not, But how can this animal life permit this? Anfw. 1. For 1. Thus men have lived in the body. Thus Enoch, Gen. v. 22. Thus lived Paul, Phil. i. 21. Thus

O 2

lived

lived David, that man after God's own heart, the greatest and most divine character that can be given of a mortal man, Pfalm lxxiii. 25. There is none upon earth that I defire befides thee.

2. Cannot we live in the body, except we live to the body? You fee faints upon earth live above other men upon earth, and yet a little more pains, take the other flight, and you may live above yourfelves too, higher than you do. I will only add a motive or two to this duty of living upon God.

1. The last enemy to be overcome is creature-love. This is the last enemy that keeps the field, by which alone the greatest fort of men do perish everlaftingly. Beat down this, and you win the day, and fhall wear the crown; nay, the very conqueft of it is a crown, as I faid before.

2. To live upon God in the creature, is to enjoy the creature in the beft fenfe. You will lofe nothing of the creature by this means, but shall enjoy it more fully than ever you did. For the creature is ten thousand times fweeter in God, than it is in itself. Yea, in a word, this is the way to enjoy all the world, and to enjoy the accomplishments of all men; and all things as much as if they were your own,

3. It is the way never to lofe any thing. He that lives upon God, spends upon a stock that cannot be wafted, drinks at a fountain that cannot be exhausted. So much as we enjoy of God in the creature, we do not lofe with it; and that which we do not fo enjoy, we deserve to lose. This then

is the fecure and honourable life; in comparison of which the life of a prince is but a wallowing in the mire. Lord, give us evermore this bread, and hearts to feed upon it. Amen.