thing that should deprive you of fuch unfpeakable and endless Happiness, or expofe you to the fuffering fuch infupportable and everlafting Torments; altho' by the doing thereof you fhould for a few Days or Years get the Poffeffion of all the Empires and Dominions, and all the Glory and Treasure the whole Earth contains, together with all the Delights that any Things or Perfons in the World can minifter to you? In this Cafe and in these Circumstances to prefer the short Pleafures of Sin before thofe Rivers of Pleafures which are at God's Right Hand for evermore, or to chyfe the avoiding fome Temporal Inconvenience before the fecuring your felves against the fuffering the Vengeance of that Fire which fhall never be quench'd, would be as impoffible for you as 'tis for any rational, Man to think and judge that a few Drops are more than an immenfe Ocean, or that the Duration of a few Days or Years is longer than all Eternity. Now fuch a true Faith in God, and fuch a firm Belief of what he hath reveal d concerning the great Things of the other World, as the Apoftle defcribes, when he reprefents it to be the Subftance of Things hop'd for, the Evidence of Things not feen; fuch a Faith, I fay, tho' it give you not the fame fort of affecting Apprehenfi on of these Things which Sight and Senfe would do, yet it will give you an infallible Affurance concerning them, for God can no more deceive us than even our own Sight and Experience can.

If you infallibly believe the great and eternal Things of the other World, and frequently revolve them in your Thoughts, the clear Forefight and certain Expectation of fuch wonderful and inexpreffible Things will fo mightily affect and tranfport you, that all the Powers of your Souls will be fet on work, for the obtaining the endless Happiness on the one fide, which will be the Reward of fincere Piety, and efcaping the everlasting Mifery on the other fide, which will be the Punishment of a wicked Life; fuch a Faith,

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if daily exercis'd, will have an efficacious Influence upon the whole Government of your Lives and Actions, when by a kind of Anticipation it makes the immenfe future State, how remote foever, become actually prefent, and renders all the Felicity of this World, tho' near and in view, but a poor and languid thing, just as the Light which comes from the Sun, at fo vaft a distance from us, caufes the Light of a Candle to be hardly difcernable, even when it is plac'd clofe by us; according to the Evidence you have in your Minds of future eternal Things, and according to the Degrees of your Affent to them, fuch will be the victorious Power of Faith in your Souls; all Fire has Heat, but not ftrong enough to melt down Gold and Silver, neither has every Degree of Faith a fuffi cient Power and Efficacy to encounter thofe ftrong Temptations to which the Great and Wealthy are fometimes expos'd; but by a radicated firm Belief of the Riches that may for ever be enjoy'd in the World to come, you will be wean'd from the Love of this prefent World, even in its moft fplendid Drefs, and not fuffer your Affections to be captivated by any of its fumptuous and inviting Entertainments; you will not place your Happiness in any earthly Treasures, or fecular Pomp and Grandeur, or fenfual Delights; you will not much value the biggest and most swelling Heaps of white or yellow fhining Clay, or any of the loudeft Acclamations and Applaufes of Creatures as vain and mortal as your felves, or any of thofe grofs corporeal Pleafures, which wither and die in the Fruition.

When Satan, the God of this World, by the glittering and pleafing Representations thereof fhall entice the Heart, a ferious Belief of the future Reward, fo glorious and eternal, to be conferr'd on those that overcome the World, will difgrace all its gilded Temptations, and make them ineffectual; if you be tempted to forbidden Amours and impure Embraces

by the greatest Beauty upon Earth, Faith will offer to your Contemplation the diabolical and debafing Character of the unclean Spirit, together with the angelical Luftre of the Saints above, and the glorious Appearance of the Lamb of God, which will foon break the Power and diffipate the Force of fuch a Temptation; if fecular Honour be propos'd to draw you to a finful Compliance, it will be rejected with a generous Difdain by that Faith, which evidently reprefents the Glory to be receiv'd at the Univerfal Judgment by the honeft and inviolable Prefervers of their Confcience and Integrity, together with the black and difmal Confufion that will then cover the most honourable Sinners; and it is no lefs powerful to enervate all the Temptations of Temporal Profit. It was by Faith that Mofes esteemed the Reproach of Chrift greater Riches than the Treasures of Egypt: for he had respect unto the Recompence of the Reward, Heb. 11. 26. By fuch a true and effectual Faith you may be more than Conquerors over the World; by fuch a fteddy View of Eternal Glory you may easily despise and trample upon all thofe Temporal Enjoyments that fhall at any time come in Competition with it; fuch a lively Profpect of the immenfe future Felicity will eclipfe, extinguish and annihilate all that Men call great and confiderable in the prefent State.

In fhort, a clear and firm Belief of the unfpeakable and fo vaftly important Things in the other Life, would make the moft enticing Objects this World can prefent to be but like dead Things to you, which have no Charms or Virtue in them, and you your felves would become like dead Perfons, as to any very active Purfuit of or ftrong Complacency in them, according to that Profeffion of St. Paul, Gal. 6. 4. God forbid that I should glory, fave in the Cross of our Lord Jefus Chrift, by whom the World is crucify'd unto me, and I unto the World. How ftrong and potent was the Efficacy of that Faith which made this great Apo

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ftle thus triumph, not in the Pomps and Pleasures of the World, but in the Sufferings and the Crofs of Christ, and the bleffed Fruits thereof, particularly that the tempting Power and Force of all Earthly Enjoyments was hereby destroy'd, and his Affections fubdu'd, mortify'd, and even crucify'd towards them, fo far as any of them were put in Competition with God, and Chrift, and Heaven? Which may fuggest to you another very proper Method for the overcoming the World, with all its moft fpecious Allurements, and that is in the third place,

III. By humble and affectionate Contemplation Adoration, and Imitation of your moft meek, and lowly, felf-denying, and crucify'd Saviour; by Looking unto Jefus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith, who for the Foy that was fet before him endur'd the Cross, defpifing the Shame, and is fet down at the Right Hand of the Throne of God. If you have any Regard to that noble Pattern of Humility and Mortification, Heavenly-mindednéfs, and Contempt of the World, which Christ hath given, or if you be in any measure influenc'd by the Power and Efficacy of his Cross, you will not entertain any mighty Affection for fecular Dignities, earthly Poffeffions, or fenfual Pleafures. Confider, I beseech you, how the Son of God, your Lord and Saviour, is fet before you in the Gospel, chufing a Life of Poverty and Difgrace, Reproach and Perfecution, and at laft furrendring up himself to be nail'd to a Crofs.

God has fhewn by various Inftances the Vanity, Emptiness and Unfatisfactoriness of all Temporal and Worldly Things, and how they are every way to be defpis'd in Comparison of Things Spiritual and Eternal; but he has given the moft eminent and fignal Indications thereof in the Birth, Life and Actions of Christ, and more especially in his Death and Sufferings. What can be feen or found in this World wor

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thy of any high Esteem, or paffionate Defire, and Love, after the Son of God has fo much neglected every thing in it that is commonly accounted great and valuable? The Obfcurity of his Birth, not in a Royal Palace, but a Stable, the whole Courfe of his Life, which was in a mean and low Condition, without either Wealth or Honour, and the Ignominy of his Death, that accurfed Death of the Cross, were all of them visible Demonftrations what a small Value he had for Earthly Grandeur; if the Riches of this World were requifite and neceflary to make one happy, certainly he had enjoy'd, if not Crowns and Empires, which were all in his Power, yet fuch Goods and Poffeffions as Men of fober Reasonings do look upon as a desirable Competency; but Things were quite otherwife order'd, he pass'd the greatest part of his Life, as far as appears, with his reputed Father Jofeph, and labour'd with him in the Work of his Trade, infomuch that the Jews ftil'd him, not only the Carpenter's Son, but the Carpenter; and when he enter'd upon his publick Employment, as he was the Meffias, he took no State upon him, he had no fettled Habitation, or certain Maintenance, he told one who offer'd to follow him, That the Foxes had Holes, and the Birds of the Air had Nefts, but the Son of Man had not where to lay his Head; he enjoy'd no more than the bare Supplies of Meat and Drink, and fuch neceflary Supports of Life, which he receiv'd from the Stores of Providence, and the Charity of his Friends; for fo we read of certain Women who were wont to minifter unto him of their Subftance, Luke 8.3.

Nor was this his Poverty and Meannefs rather his Fate than Choice, for never did there any one appear with greater Advantages to have rais'd his Fortunes; he that could draw fuch a prodigious Number of Fishes into his Difciple's Net, and at another time feed fo many Thoufands with fo small a Num