The sovereign and final happiness of man with the effectual means to obtain itThe soveraign and final happiness of man with the effectual means to obtain it

CHAP. XIII.

The last Direction. Earnest Prayer to God, to enlighten our Minds to believe the Eternal World, and effectually turn our Wills, to desire and prosecute the Blessedness to come.

The last Direction. Earnest Prayer to God, to inlighten our Minds to believe the Eternal World, and effectually turn our Wills, to desire and prosecute the Blessedness to come.

Having a discovery so clear and certain in the Holy Scriptures of the everlasting recompenses in the next World, of the Kingdom of Heaven, (prepared by God to show his excellent Glory to his faithful Servants) where Love and Peace and Joy dwell for ever, and of the infernal Prison, where despair and Rage and Sorrow, and whatever is signified under the terrible allusions of Fire and Brimstone, are ordained by Divine Justice for the Wicked, it might be justly hoped, that all Men would by a holy violence take Heaven, and by the swiftest Motion flee from the Wrath to come. The instinct of Nature and the light of Reason excite them to secure their most precious Interest. Can there be an Expectation, Desire or Capacity in Man of enjoying a Blessedness beyond what is Infinite and Eternal? And can there be ⟨p. 265⟩any Evil so formidable as Everlasting Misery? Now both these Objects are set before Men, and propounded to their Choice. And we are infallibly assured from God himself, that all who are sincere and constant in their Choice and Pursuit, shall obtain Heaven, and that none shall be cast into Hell, but those who choose it, and therefore most worthily suffer it. But, O astonishment! if with a serious Eye we regard the course of Mens Actions, 'tis visible that incomparably the greatest number of Christians in Profession love Death, and hate Eternal Life. Not that 'tis possible for the reasonable Creature to do this directly, with an explicit aim, but virtually and by interpretation. They intend Happiness, but choose Misery. For he that voluntarily breaks the Law of God, chooses the known Penalty of its Violation. He that prefers this perishing World before Heaven, rejects it in the most contumelious manner. And such is the depravation of Man since his Fall, the Mind being diverted by vain Thoughts, and the Heart prepossessed with sensual Desires, that till the Spirit of his Mind be renewed, and his original Affections to the Supreme