my mind, and to the frame and temper of my foul. For it is not worthy the name of religion, that hath not the freedom of the judgment, and the consent of the mind and will. And therefore we read, my fon, give me thy heart, Prov. xxiii. 26. And, thou fhalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and foul, and ftrength, Matth. xxii. 37. And this hath God enabled us to bring to him; it is but the ufe of his own talent; for he hath given us this great priviledge; and 'tis by the direction of one faculty, and by the ufe of another, that we determine ourselves finally to God, that we do attain the utmost iffue and improvement. But to prevent a mistake; though it hold a proportion, yet not of merit, or desert. But then,

2. Again, when I fay, the state of man in the world to come, holds a proportion to his affairs in this world; you must not understand it means worldly circumstances of wealth, honour, or pleasure; ftrength, or worldly priviledges. For these are not confiderable in that state, nor will these be existent in the future ftate, nor will they be to measure by; for all these things pass away, and vanish in time ; neither are those in conjunction with virtue and goodness; nor are they acquifitions for which we are commendable. I remember, there is an excellent discourse of Ariftotle's, Arift. Rhet. 1. 1. c. 9. to fhew upon what account men are commendable, and he refolves, not for any thing that is not of a man's own acquifition; nor for their excellent make, power, and faculties; not for the fagacity of their understandings; but for the improvement

of

This, you

of their feveral powers and faculties. know, is fulfome and naufeous, for any one to be heard to commend himself, especially for those things that are not his own acquifition. A man may fay, I thank God, I have a healthy body, and a good eftate, and the like; but these things do not make us valuable but we are commendable only from those things which we do acquire. And if a man is not praise-worthy for these things, they cannot be the ground of his future welfare, which are not the foundation of his prefent commendation, Therefore in the affirmative.

Two things there are belonging to men in this state, which are the measures of our happiness in the future ftate. (1.) The internal difpofition, and mental temper. And (2.) The elicit acts, which follow the temper, and are connatural to it; these are our acquifitions, through the grace and affiftance of God; which always is to be understood as principal to all good, though it be not always expreffed; for all good is of God: therefore the meafure of proportion, is the internal difpofition and temper, and the elicit acts that follow thereupon, and are connatural thereunto : therefore from what kind of temper and spirit a man is of here, and from what he doth, a man may guess how it shall be with him hereafter. If we are partakers of the grace of God, we fhall be reconciled to the nature, mind, and will of God; and hereby we pafs into another fpirit, that is, we have the same sense and judgment of things that God hath, and the fame motion and tendency: men do fhew their spirits, by their words,

and

1

and by their actions; by their carriage and behaviour; for we use to fay, when men misbehave themselves, that they fhew their spirits. And the like may be faid of men when they do well. So that I lay the measure of proportion, in the frame and temper of mens minds, and in the elicit acts of their fouls; and these cannot be hindred by the devil, or by the world; for against Satan and all the world, I have the immediate acts of my mind, that which is my internal act, that which I affect, that which I choose and refuse. I confess the imperate acts may be fubject to divers impediments; a man may be disturbed fometimes, so that these may be quite contrary to the elicit acts: I mean, that which doth immcdiately proceed from a man's judgment and choice. To these, I fay, the state of men in the world to come is proportionable. And if men be now partakers of the divine nature, and led by an effectual entertainment of the gospel, into a parti cipation of the divine nature, and do act conformably thereunto; then in the future ftate they shall adjoin themselves with the angels of glory and the faints departed, to employ themselves to eternity, in acts of acknowledgment of God, in adoration and admiration of him, in loving him, and taking pleasure in him and for this I will give you an account that it must be so.

1. From the nature of the thing: for goodness and happiness are the fame thing materially in nature they are the fame; as malignity and mifery are the fame, in nature too. A man that is wicked, is neither wife nor happy, nor can be fo. It is faid, Rev.

xxii. 14. Bleffed are they which do his commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life.

Mark

the phrafe, they have a right to the tree of life, by being in this state, by being in this temper, reconciled to the divine law.

2. From the judgment of God, and thofe declarations which he hath made of himself in the fcriptures; which every where declare, that he will render to every one according to right. Rom. ii. 6, 7, 8. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing, feek for glory and immortality, eternal life. But to them which do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousnefs, indignation and wrath. So that in this cafe God doth not ufe an arbitrary power, or do that which is not suitable and agreeable to the reason othings; but that which is fit in itself, and doth naturally follow, every way fuitable and correfpondent to the reason of things and the right of the cafe. It is but juft and fit that those who live in an evil fpirit, and exercise themselves in ways of wickednefs, that these should be miferable. So far are they mistaken, who think that men in a way of evil and fin, might be happy, if God pleased: for this cannot be; there is a repugnancy in the cafe ; wickedness cannot but end in mifery. And on the other fide, it is natural for goodness to bring men to happiness. An evil-doer, unless he repent, comes not within a capacity of becoming happy; but by repentance, his state is recoverable: but, faving in this way, it is neceffary that he should perifh. I fhall now make an inference or two.

1. Then

I. Then let men look well to their mental difpofitions, and to their moral actions : this is of a mighty use in religion, to understand the true notion of moral actions. All thofe are moral actions which ought to be governed by the reafon of the mind and understanding; fo that you exclude acts of non-attendancy, as if a man, when he is earnest in difcourfe, fhould take up a ftraw, without any confideration this were the action of a man, but not an human action: for he doth not attend to this, nor ought to do it. But that which he doth attend unto, and is an action of reason and judgment, this is a moral action; and every such action either is an action of virtue or fin : for if it be voluntarily committed, contrary to the right of the case, it is downright finful. Or if a man be careless and negligent in what he doth, it may be finful, because it did not proceed from the judgment and understanding, directing and governing a man's will and choice. And this we may take for granted, in divinity from all the moralifts, as well heathens, as others; in this explication we have the confent of all the world. For though there may be things in their kind, of an indifferent nature, yet, when they come to be in particular, they are either good or evil, as they proceed from the judgment and understanding, and liberty of the will. Only we do exclude actions that are merely natural, and of non-attendance as concoction, distribution, and the like: thefe are not fubject to the government of mind and underftanding and therefore there is no morality, or immorality in these actions. Men in walking toge

ther