hearty approbation, esteem, and good-liking thereof will ensue; finding by experience, that indeed the ways of wisdom, virtue, and piety are pleasantness, and all her paths are peace; that the fruits of conscientious practice are health to our body and to our soul, security to our estate and to our reputation, rest in our mind, and comfort in our conscience: goodness will become precious in our eyes, and he who commends it to us, being himself essential goodness, will appear most venerable and most amiable, we shall then become disposed to render him, what we perceive he best deserves, intire reverence and affection.

5. But I commend farther, as a most necessary mean of attaining this disposition, assiduous earnest prayer unto God, that he would in mercy bestow it on us, and by his grace work it in us: which practice is indeed doubly conducible to this purpose; both in way of impetration, and by real efficacy: it will not fail to obtain it as a gift from God; it will help to produce it as an instrument of God's grace.

On the first account it is absolutely necessary; for it is from God's free representation of himself as lovely to our minds, and drawing our hearts unto him, (although ordinarily in the use of the means already mentioned, or some like to them,) that this affection is kindled; our bare consideration is too. cold, our rational discourse too faint: we cannot sufficiently recollect our wandering thoughts, we cannot strongly enough impress those proper incentives of love on our hearts, (our hearts so damped with sensual desires, so clogged and pestered with earthly inclinations,) so as to kindle in our souls this holy flame; it can only be effected by a light shining from God, by a fire coming from heaven: as all others, so more especially this queen of graces must proceed from the Father of lights, and Giver of all good gifts: he alone, who is love, can be the parent of so goodly an offspring, can beget this lively image of himself within us: it is the principal 'fruit of God's Holy Spirit,' nor can it grow from any other root than from it; it is called the love of the Spirit,' as its most signal and peculiar effect in fine, the love of God,' as St. Paul expressly teaches us, 'is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given unto us;' given, but that not without asking, without

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seeking; a grace so excellent, God, we may be assured, will not dispense, a gift so precious he will not bestow on them, who do not care to look after it, who will not vouchsafe to beg it if we are not willing to acknowlege our want thereof; if we refuse to express our desire of it; if we will not show that we regard and value it; if, when God freely offers it, and invites us to receive it, (he doth so by offering his Holy Spirit, the fountain thereof, unto us,) we will not decently apply ourselves to him for it, how can we expect to obtain it? God hath propounded this condition, (and it is surely no hard, no grievous condition,) if we ask we shall receive;' he hath expressly promised that he will give his Spirit (his Spirit of love) to them who ask it' we may be therefore sure, performing the condition duly, to obtain it; and as sure, neglecting that, we deserve to go without.

Prayer then is on this account a needful means; and it is a very profitable one on the score of its own immediate energy or virtue for as by familiar converse (together with the delights and advantages attending thereon) other friendships are begot and nourished, so even by that acquaintance, as it were, with God, which devotion begets, by experience therein how sweet and good he is, this affection is produced and strengthened. As want of intercourse weakens and dissolves friendship; so if we seldom come at God, or little converse with him, it is not only a sign, but will be a cause of estrangement and disaffection toward him: according to the nature of the thing, prayer hath peculiar advantages above other acts of piety, to this effect: therein not only as in contemplation the eye of our mind (our intellectual part) is directed toward God; but our affections also (the hand of our soul by which we embrace good, the feet thereof by which we pursue it) are drawn out and fixed on him; we not only therein behold his excellences, but in a manner feel them and enjoy them; our hearts also being thereby softened and warmed by desire become more susceptive of love. We do in the performance of this duty approach nearer to God, and consequently God draws nearer to us, (as St. James assures: Draw near,' saith he, 'unto God, and he will draw near to you,') and thereby we partake more fully and strongly of his gracious influences; therein indeed

he most freely communicates his grace, therein he makes us most sensible of his love to us, and thereby disposeth us to love him again. I add, that true (fervent and hearty) prayer doth include and suppose some acts of love, or some near tendencies thereto; whence, as every habit is corroborated by acts of its kind, so by this practice divine love will be confirmed and increased. These are the means, which my meditation did suggest as conducing to the production and growth of this most excellent grace in our souls.

III. I should lastly propound some inducements apt to stir us up to the endeavor of procuring it, and to the exercise thereof, by representing to your consideration the blessed fruits and benefits (both by way of natural causality and of reward) accruing from it; as also the woful consequences and mischiefs springing from the want thereof. How being endued with it perfects and advances our nature, rendering it in a manner and degree divine, by resemblance to God, (who is full thereof, so full that he is called love,) by approximation, adherence, and union, in a sort, unto him: how it ennobles us with the most glorious alliance possible, rendering us the friends and favorites of the sovereign King and Lord of all, brethren of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven; enriches us with a right and title to the most inestimable treasures, (those which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man to conceive, which God hath prepared for them that love him,') a sure possession of the supreme good, of all that God is able to bestow, all whose wisdom and power, whose counsel and care it eternally engageth for our benefit; how all security and welfare, all rest and peace, all joy and happiness attend on it; for that the Lord preserveth all them that love him,' (preserveth them in the enjoyment of all good, in safety from all danger and mischief,) and that to those who love God all things co-operate for their good:' how incomparable a sweetness and delight accompany the practice thereof, far surpassing all other pleasures; perfectly able to content our minds, to sustain and comfort us even in the want of all other satisfactions, yea under the pressure of whatever most grievous afflictions can befal us. How contrariwise the want thereof will depress us into a state of greatest imperfection and baseness,

setting us at the greatest distance from God in all respects, both in similitude of nature, and as to all favorable regard or beneficial communication from him; casting us into a wretched and disgraceful consortship with the most degenerate creatures, the accursed fiends, who, for disaffection and enmity toward God, are banished from all happiness; how it extremely impoverisheth and beggareth us, divesting us of all right to any good thing, rendering us incapable of any portion, but that of utter darkness; how it excludeth us from any safety, any rest, any true comfort or joy, and exposeth us to all mischief and misery imaginable; all that being deprived of the divine protection, presence, and favor, being made objects of the divine anger, hatred, and severe justice, being abandoned to the malice of hell, being driven into utter darkness and eternal fire doth import or can produce. I should also have commended this love to you by comparing it with other loves, and showing how far in its nature, in its causes, in its properties, in its effects it excelleth them even so far as the object thereof in excellency doth transcend all other objects of our affection; how this is grounded on the highest and surest reason; others on accounts very low and mean, commonly on fond humor and mistake; this produceth real, certain, immutable goods; others at best terminate only in goods apparent, unstable, and transitory; this is most worthy of us, employing all our faculties in their noblest manner of operation on the best object; others misbeseem us, so that in pursuing them we disgrace our understanding, misapply our desires, distemper our affections, mispend our endeavors. I should have enlarged on these considerations, and should have adjoined some particular advantages of this grace; as, for instance, that the procuring thereof is the most sure, the most easy, the most compendious way of attaining all others; of sweetening and ingratiating all obedience to us; of making the hardest yoke easy, and the heaviest burden light unto us. In fine, I should have wished you to consider that its practice is not only a mean and way to happiness, but our very formal happiness itself; the real enjoyment of the best good we are capable of; that in which alone heaven itself (the felicity of saints and angels) doth consist; which more than comprehends in itself all the benefits of

highest dignity, richest plenty, and sweetest pleasure. But I shall forbear entering on so ample and fruitful subjects of meditation, and conclude with that good Collect of our church :

O Lord, who hast prepared for them that love thee such good things as pass man's understanding; pour into our hearts such love toward thee, that we, loving thee above all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.'