A Body of Practical Divinity

Secondly, Man's chief End is to Enjoy God for ever, Psal. 73.25. Whom have I in heaven but thee? Quasi, What is there in Heaven I desire to enjoy but thee? Ibi Angeli musculus, There is a twofold Fruition, or enjoying of God; the one is in this Life, the other in the Life to come:

1st, An enjoying of God here in this Life: The enjoying of God's Presence; it is a great matter to enjoy God's Ordinances, (a Mercy that some do envy us) but to enjoy God's Presence in the Ordinances, is that which a gracious Heart aspires after, Psal. 63.2. To see thy glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. This sweet enjoying of God is, when we feel his Spirit co-operating with the Ordinance, and distilling Grace upon our Hearts: 1. When in word the Spirit doth quicken and raise the Affections, Luke 24.32. Did not our hearts burn within us? 2. When the Spirit doth transform the Heart, leaving an impress of Holiness upon it, 2 Cor. 3.8. We are changed into the same Image, from glory to glory. 3. When the Spirit doth receive the Heart with Comfort, it comes not only with its Anointing, but its Seal, it sheds ⟨p. 10⟩God's Love abroad in the Heart, Rom. 5.5. this is to enjoy God in an Ordinance. 1 Joh. 1.3. Our fellowship is with the Father and his son Jesus. In the Word we hear God's Voice, and in the Sacrament we have his Kiss; this is enjoying of God: And what infinite Content doth a gracious Soul find in this? The Heart being warmed and inflamed in a Duty, this is God's answering by Fire. When a Christian hath the sweet Illapses of God's Spirit, these are the first Fruits of Glory, when God comes down to the Soul in an Ordinance: Now Christ hath pulled off his Veil, and showed his smiling Face, now he hath led a Believer into the Banqueting-house, and given him of the spiced Wine of his Love to drink; he hath put in his Finger at the hole of the Door, he hath touched the Heart, and made it leap for Joy: Oh how sweet is it thus to enjoy God! The Godly have in the use of the Ordinances, had such Divine Raptures of Joy and Soul-transfigurations, that they have been carried above the World, and despised all things here below.