christians; these are not such general blessings of the covenant of grace, of which every christian is made partaker;" but they are special favours now and then bestowed on some particular persons by the special will of God.-1. Such as are more eminent in faith, and boline, and prayer than others are, such as have made great advancements in every part of religion, in mortification to the world, in spiritual-mindedness, in humility, and in much converse with God, &c. Or,-2. Sometimes these first-fruits may be given unto such as are weak both in reason and in faith, and may be babes in Christ, and are not able by their reasoning powers to search out their evidences for heaven, especially under some present temptation or darkness. Or,3. Sometimes to those who are called by providence to go through huge and uncommon trials and sufferings, in order to support their spirits, and bear up their courage, their faith and patience.

It is true, the more general and common way whereby God prepares his people for heaven, is by leading them through several steps of advancing holiness, sincere repentance, mortification of sin, weanedness from the world, likeness to God, heavenly-minedness, &c. These are indeed the usual preparatives for glory, and the surest evidence of a state of grace.Therefore let not any person imagine he is not a true christian, because he hath not enjoyed these special favours and signal manifestations.

II." If there be any who have been favoured with these peculiar blessings, they must not expect them to be constant and perpetual, nor always to be given in the same manner or same measure," they are rare blessings and special reviving cordials; they are not the common food of christians, nor the daily nourishment of the saints. The word of God, and the grace of Christ in the promises is our daily support, and the constant nourishment of our souls. Cordials are not given for our daily nourishment in the life of grace.

III. "However great and rapturous these foretastes may be, let us not so depend on them as to neglect the more substantial and solid evidences for heaven, and those steps of preparation," which I have elsewhere mentioned. Let not those who have enjoyed them give a loose to their souls, and let go their watchfulness, or neglect their daily mortification and diligence in every duty. Some of these divine raptures have sometimes been so nearly counterfeited by raptures of fancy, by warni selflove, or perhaps by the deceit of evil angels, that they are not so safe a foundation for our dependence and assured hope, as the soul's experience of a sincere repentance, and general turn of heart to God, and mortification of win, and delight in every prac tice of holiness. The devil sometimes has transformed himself

into an angel of light; 2 Cor. xi. 14. And there have been some who at first hearing of the gospel have had wondrous raptures. Heb. vi. 4, "It is said, they have tasted of the powers of the world to come; who have yet fallen away again, and having lost all their sense and savour of divine things, have become vile apostates.

IV." If you seem to enjoy any of these affectionate and rapturous foretastes of heaven, be jealous of the truth of them, if they have not a proportionable sanctifying influence upon your souls and your actions."

If you find they incline you to negligence in duty, to coldness in the common practices of religion and godliness, if they make you fancy that common ordinances are a low and needless dispensation, if they seem to excuse you from diligence in the common duties of life towards man, or religion towards God, there is great reason then to suspect them: There is danger lest they should be mere suggestions and deceitful workings either of your own natural passions, or the crafty snares of the artful and busy adversary of souls, on purpose to make you neglect solid religion, and make you part with what is substantial for a bright and flashy glimpse of heavenly things.

But on the other hand, if you find that these special favours and enjoyments raise your hearts to a greater nearness to God, and more constant converse with him; if they keep you deep in humility, and in everlasting dependence on the grace of Christ in the gospel, and warm and zealous attendance on the ordinances of worship; if they teach and incline you to fulfil every duty of love to your neighbour, and particularly to your fellow-christians, then they appear to be the fruits of the Spirit; and as they fit you for every duty and providence here upon earth, there is very good reason to hope they are real visits from heaven, and are sent from the God of all grace to make you more ineet for the heavenly glory.

SECT. II.-These are the four cautions. I proceed now to describe some of these foretastes of the heavenly blessedness, and shew how nearly they resemble the blessedness and enjoyments of the heavenly world.

First, "In heaven there is a near view of God in his glories, with such a fixed contemplation of his several perfections, as draws out the heart into all correspondent exercises, in an uncommon, transcendent, and supreme degree." It is described as one of the felicities of heaven, that we shall see God Mat. v. 8. That we shall behold him face to face; and not in shadows and glasses; 1 Cor. xiii. 12. Let us exhibit some parti-, culars of this kind, and dwell a little upon them in the most easy and natural method.

1. In heaven the blessed inhabitants behold the majesty.

and greatness of God in such a light as fixes their thoughts in glorious wonder and the humblest adoration, and exalts them to the highest pleasure and praise. Have you never fallen into such a devout and fixed contemplation of the Majesty of God, as to be even astonished at his glory and greatness, and to have your souls so swallowed up in this sight, that all the sorrows and the joys of this life, all the businesses and necessities of it have been forgotten for a season, all things below and beneath God have seemned as nothing in your eyes. All the grandeurs and splendours of mortality have been buried in darkness and oblivion, and creatures have, as it were, vanished from the thoughts, and been lost, as the stars die and vanish at the rising sun, and are BO more seen! Have you never seen the face of God in his sublime grandeur, excellence and majesty, so as to shrink into the dust before him, and lie low at his foot with humblest adoration? And you have been transported into a feeling acknowledgment of your own nothingness in the presence of God. Such a sight the prophet Isaiah seems to have enjoyed; Is. xl. 12, 15, 17. Behold the nations before him are as the drop of the bucket, and as the small dust of the balance, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. All nations before him are as nothing, they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity." When the lips are not only directed to speak this sublime language, but the soul, as it were, beholds God in these heights of transcendent majesty, it is overwhelmed with blessed wonder and surprising delight, even while it adores in most profound, lowliness and self-abasement. This is the emblem of the worship of the heavenly world; see Rev. iv. 10. where the elders, saints and prophets, martyrs, angels and dominions, and principalities of the highest, cast down their crowns at the foot of him that made them, and exalt God in his supremacy over all.”

2. "In heaven there are such blessed and extensive surveys of the infinite knowledge of God, and his amazing wisdom discovered in his works, as makes even all their own heavenly improvements in knowledge and understanding to appear as mere ignorance, darkness, and folly before him. In such an hour as this is, the holy angels may charge themselves with folly in his sight, as he beholds them the imperfection of their understanding. Now have you never been carried away in your meditations of the all-comprehensive knowledge of God to such a degree, as to lose and abandon all your former pride and appearances of knowledge and wisdom in all the native and acquired riches of it, and count them all as nothing in his sight? Have you never looked upward to the midnight skies, and with amazement sent your thoughts upward to him who calls all the stars by their names, and brings them forth in all their sparkling glories, who marshals them in their nightly ranks and orders, and then stood overwhelmed with sacred astonishment at the wisdom which made

and ranged them all in their proper situations, and there appointed them to fulfil ten thousand useful purposes, and that not only towards this little ball of earth, but to a multitude of upper planetary worlds? Have you never enquired into the wonders of his wisdom in framing the bodies, the limbs, and the sensés of millions of animals, birds, and beasts, fishes, and insects, as well as men all around this globe, and who hath framed all their organs and powers of nature with exquisite skill, to see and hear, to run and fly, and swim, to produce their young in all their proper forms and sizes, furnished with their various powers, and to feed and nourish them in their innumerable shapes and colours, admirable for strength and beauty? And have you not felt your souls filled with devout adoration at the unspeakable and infinite contrivances of a God?

"And not only his works of creation, but of his providence too have afforded some pious souls such devout amazement.What astonishing wisdom must that be which has created mankind on earth near six thousand years ago, and by his divine word in every age continues to create them or give them being, with all the same natural powers and parts, beauties and excelJencies! That he hath wisely governed so many millions of animals with living souls or spirits in them, so many millions of intelligent creatures, endued with a free will of their own to chuse or refuse what they will or will not do, and hath managed this innumerable company of beings in all ages, notwithstanding all their different and clashing opinions and customs, their crossing humours, wills and passions in endless variety, and yet hath made them all subservient to his own comprehensive designs and purposes through all ages of the world, and all nations on earth! What inconceivable wisdom is that which hath effectually appointed them all to centre in the accomplishment of his own eternal counsels! And with what overwhelming amazement will this scene appear, when he shall shut up the theatre of this earth, and fold up the heavens as a curtain, and this visible structure of things shall be laid in ashes? What an astonishing view must this be of the all-surveying knowledge, all-comprehending wisdom of a God, and with what holy and humble pleasure must the pious soul be filled who takes in and enjoys this scene of infinite varieties and wonders? How near doth such an hour approach to the bliss of heaven and the raptures of contemplation, which belong to the blessed inhabitants of it?"

to 13 might add something of the almighty power of God in his government of the world, in his kingdoms of nature and providence." Did not the angels rejoice at the birth day of this universe, and those morning stars shout for joy at the first appearance of this creation; Job. xxxviii. 7. And what the inhahbitants of heaven make their song, may not a holy soul be enter

tained with it, even to extasy and rapture?" I behold, says he, in divine meditation, I behold this huge structure of the universe rising out of nothing at the voice of his command; I behold the several planets in their various orders set a moving by the same word of power. With what delightful surprize do I hear him pronouncing the words, Let there be light, and lo, the light appears; Gen. i. 3. Let there be earth and seas; let there be clouds and heavens; let there be sun, moon and stars, and lo the heavens, and the dry land, and the waters appear, the clouds and the stars in their various order and situation, and all the parts of the creation arise, all replenished with proper ornaments and animals according to his word. At his command nature exists in all its regions with all its furniture; the beasts, and birds, and fishes in all their forms arise, and at once they obey the several almighty orders he gave, and by the unknown and inconceivable 'force of such a word they leap out into existence in ten thousand forms.

Again, what divine pleasure is it to hear a God beginning the work of his providence, and speaking those wonderous words of power to every plant and animal, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth; Gen. i. 22. and lo in a long succession of near six thousand years the earth has been covered all over with herbs and plants, with shrubs and tall trees in all their beauty and dimensions. The air hath been filled with birds and insects, the seas and rivers with fish, and the dry land with beasts and men even to this present day. When all this philosophy is changed into devotion, it must also be transformed into divine and unutterable joy.

"Nor are these things too low and mean for the contemptation of heavenly beings For God is seen in all of them: There is not a spire of grass but the power and wisdom of a God are visible therein. And it is certain the heavenly beings must be sometimes employed in the contemplation of many of these lower wonders. The plants and beasts in desolate regions where no man inhabits, and in distant and foreign oceans and rivers, where the fishy shoals in all their variety and numbers, in all their successions and generations for near six thousand years were never seen nor known by any of the sons of men; these seem to have been created in vain, if no heavenly beings are acquainted with them, nor raise a revenue of glory to him that made them.

"This almighty power therefore which made this huge universe, which sustains the frame of it every moment, and secures it from dissolving, this power which brings forth the stars, in their order, and worms and creeping things in their innumerable millions, and governs all the motions of them to the purposes of divine glory, must needs affect a contemplative soul with raptures of pleasing meditation; and in these sublime meditations, by the