Now I know not any Subjects more proper for our Meditation on this and all occasions, than our own Nature, the Nature of Material Beings, and the Nature of GOD; because it is thro the mistake of some of these that our Inclinations take a wrong bias, and consequently that we transgress against GOD, our Neighbour and our selves. For did we consider what we Are, that Humane Nature conflicts in the Union of a Rational Soul with a Mortal Body, that the Body very often Clogs the Mind in its noblest Operations, especially when indulg’d. That we stand not singly on our own Bottom, but are united in some measure to all who bear a Human Form, especially to the Community amongst whom we live, and yet more particularly to those several Relations we may have in it. Did we go on to consider what are the proper Duties and Enjoyments of such a nature as ours, that is, what performances do naturally result from those Capacities we find our selves endow’d with, which may therefore be reasonably expected from us, and what sort of Pleasures we are made to relish. Again, were we so far at least Philosophers, as to be able to pass a due estimate on Material Beings, did we know ’em so well as not to prize them above their real value. Did we in the last place contemplate the Author of our Being, _from_ whom we Derive and _to_ whom we owe our _All_; and insted of prying saucily into his Essence, (an insufferable presumption in Creatures who are ignorant of their own) or pretending to know more of him than he has thought fit to communicate in his Word, and in that Idea of Infinite Perfection which he has giv’n us, Frequently, Seriously and Humbly Meditate on what he has been pleas’d to unveil. Did we but employ so much of our Time and Thoughts on these things as we do on our Sins and Vanities, we shou’d not be long in discerning the good effects.