The four last things viz. death, judgment, heaven, hell, practically considered and applied in…

3. The sincerity of our Heavenly Choice declares it self, in the temper and frame of our Hearts, with respect to all temporal Things in this World. For our main and happy End being established, that it consists not in secular Riches, and Honours, and the Pleasures of Sense, but in the clear Vision of God, the blessedness of the Spirit; it follows that all present things are in our use so far Good or Evil, and to be desired or not, as they are profitable or prejudicial to our obtaining ⟨p. 386⟩Salvation, as they conduct or divert us from Heaven. A wise Christian looks on temporal things not through the Glass of disordered Passions, that are impetuous and impatient for what is grateful to them, but with reference to his future Happiness. He considers the train of Temptations that attend an exalted Condition, and desires such a portion of these things, as may redound to the Glory of the Giver, and be improved for his own Salvation. This Purity of Affections our Saviour teaches us: For in his Divine Form of Prayer, the true Directory of our Desires, are set down in an admirable order all things we are to pray for. And they respect the End, or the Means. The End is the primary Object of our Desires, accordingly the two first Petitions concern our blessed End, as it respects God and our selves. We pray, Hallowed be thy Name, that is, by the reverence and adoration of all his Subjects: and, Thy Kingdom come, that is, for the manifestation of his Eternal Glory in the next World, that we may reign with him. The Means in order to this End are of two sorts. Some conduct to it by themselves, those ⟨p. 387⟩are the good things desired in the third and fourth Petitions; and some lead to it by accident, and those are the freedom from Evils expressed in the last Petition. The good things desired, either have a direct influence upon our obtaining Happiness; and they are summed up in our universal Obedience to God's Will, expressed in the third Petition, Let thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven; or they are such as by way of subserviency promote our Happiness, and those we pray for in the fourth Petition, Give us this day our daily Bread. And 'tis observable there is but one Petition for Temporal Blessings, and 'tis the last in the order of those that concern good things.

3. The sincerity of our Heavenly Choice declares it self, in the temper and frame of our Hearts, with respect to all temporal Things in this World. For our main and happy End being established, that it consists not in secular Riches, and Honours, and the Pleasures of Sense, but in the clear Vision of God, the blessedness of the Spirit; it follows that all present things are in our use so far Good or Evil, and to be desired or not, as they are profitable or prejudicial to our obtaining