CHAP. X.] Seeking after Heaven. [HEAVEN. them. But whom God loves, he loves to the end. The apostle prays for the Thessalonians, that God would preserve them blameless until the coming of Christ, by this consideration; faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.' He speaks of the internal call that opens the heart, and overpowers all resistance; as when the angel came with a light shining in the prison to Peter, and struck him on the side, bid him arise quickly, loosed his chaius, and led him through the guards, opened the doors, and restored him to liberty. The effectual calling of a sinner is the visible and infallible effect of electing mercy; and God is unchangeable in his own purpose, and faithful to his promises of bringing all such by sanctification to glory. The same apostle tells the saints at Corinth, that the Redeemer would confirm them to the end. God is faithful, by whom ye are called.' Grace that was at first inspired is continually actuated by the Spirit, who is styled the earnest of the saints' inheritance. So that while the angels that excel in strength, kept not their first state of purity and glory, but are sunk into corruption and misery; yet true humble believers, though weak and encompassed with many difficulties, shall be preserved from destructive evil, and raised to an unchangeable state of perfection. This is as truly admirable as if the stars should fall from heaven, and clods of earth ascend and shine in the firmament. The apostle who acknowledged HEAVEN.] Seeking after Heaven. {CHAP. X. his insufficiency of himself to think a good thought, yet triumphantly declares, I can do all things' within the compass of his duty, through Christ that strengthens me.' The love, fidelity, and power of God are a sure fountain of assistance to every christian, who sincerely resolves and endeavours to prosecute his last and blessed end. CHAP. XI. Directions to fix the choice aright-Carnal affections are the worst counsellors, incapabie of apprehending spiritual things—General example corrupting, and it is foolish to be directed by the multitude in an affair of eternal moment-The universal jndgment of worldly men in their last serious hours deserves consideration. I SHALL now come to the directions how to fix our choice aright. This is a matter of everlasting consequence; it therefore becomes us with the most intense application of mind to consider it, and according to the advice of wisdom, to keep the heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. The choice would not be difficult between lying vanities and substantial blessedness, if uncorrupted reason had the superior sway. But in this lapsed state of nature, the understanding and will are so depraved, that present things pleasing to sense ravish the heart into a compliance. Men are deceived, not compelled into ruin; the subtle seducer prevails by fair temptations. This will be evident by reflecting upon the frame and composition of man, as he consists of spirit, soul and body, and the manner of his acting. The spirit is the intellectual discerning HEAVEN.] The dangers of sense. CHAP. XI. faculty, the seat of reason, able to compare and judge of the qualities of things and foresee their issues. The body includes the lower faculties, the senses and passions, that are conversant about present things. The soul is the will, the principle of election, in the midst of the other, as the centre to which all their addresses flow. Upon the proposal of spiritual and carnal good in order to choice, the will is to be directed by the mind, and by its own authority to rule the passions. But alas, the mind has lost its primitive integrity; it neglects its duty, and from ignorance, error and carnal prejudices, often pleads for the flesh: and the will, the rational appetite, is voluntarily subordinate and enslaved by the sensitive. Hence it is that in the competition, heaven with all its glory is despised, and the present world embraced. To open this more particularly, observe, that the senses can only taste and enjoy the grosser pleasures; and the imagination which depends upon them in its operations, and is guided by their report, conceives of felicity only under the notion of sensitive delight. We may illustrate this by the price of a painter, recorded with infamy, who being often employed to paint the goddesses to be set in the pagan temples, always drew their pictures by the faces and complexions of his harlots, that the objects of his impure love might have veneration, and a divinity be attributed to them, under the titles the goddesses adored by the heathens. This impiety in an idolater is re CHAP. XI.] The dangers of sense. [HEAVEN. sembled by men who fancy happiness, (that is a spiritual divine perfection enjoyed in the glorious vision of God) to be a carnal fruition, and who have with sensible colours and lineaments represented it agreeably to their brutish faculties; and having then placed it in their hearts, they sacrifice all their thoughts, affections, and service to it. The imagination is very powerful in men, because the understanding naturally receives the notions of things from the objects that are still mixing in its contemplations. While the soul is confined to a tabernacle of flesh, it apprehends no object without a preceding excitement of the senses. Hence it is impossible that a person absolutely deprived of sight, from his birth, should have an idea of light or colours; or that one who is born deaf should conceive what sound is, the sense never having imparted an account of it to them. And the image of the object is not immediately transmitted from the sense to the mind, but first to the imagination, that prepares it for its view. From hence the sensual fancy is so predominate in swaying the judgment, and inclining the will; like those counsellors of state who have the ear of the prince, and are continually with him, and who by specious informations and disguising of truth, influence him to approve or reject persons and things according to the various aspects given by them The same object proposed in a dark confused manner, weakly moves us; but varnished and beautified with lively and pleasant colours by the |