If another had _ears_ that received sounds from the world in the _moon_, but could hear nothing that was said or done upon earth, we should look upon him to be as _bad_ as _deaf_. In like manner, if a man has a _memory_ that can retain a great many things, if he has a _wit_ that is _sharp_ and _acute_ in arts and sciences, but has a _dull, poor_ apprehension of his _duty_ and _relation_ to God, of the _value_ of piety, or the _worth_ of moral virtue, he may very justly be reckoned to have a _bad understanding_. He is but like the man that can only _see_ and _hear_ such things as are of no benefit to him. 7. To proceed: We know how our blessed Lord acted in an human body; it was _his meat and drink to do the will of his Father which is in heaven_. And if any number of heavenly spirits were to leave their habitations in the light of God, and be for awhile united to human bodies, they would certainly tend towards God in all their actions, and be as heavenly as they could, in a state of flesh and blood. They would certainly act in this manner, because they would know that God was the _only good_ of all spirits; and that whether they were _in_ the body, or _out_ of the body, in _heaven_ or on _earth_, they must have every degree of their greatness and happiness from God alone. All human spirits therefore, the _more exalted_ they are, the more they _know_ their divine original, the _nearer_ they come to heavenly spirits, the more will they live to God in all their actions, making their whole life a _state of devotion_. Devotion therefore is the greatest sign of a great and noble _genius_; it supposes a soul in its _highest state_ of knowledge; and none but _little_ and _blinded_ minds, that are sunk into _ignorance_ and _vanity_, are destitute of it. 8. If a human spirit should imagine some _mighty prince_ to be greater than God, we should take it for a poor ignorant creature; all people would acknowledge such an imagination to be the height of stupidity. But if this same _human spirit_ should think it better to be devoted to some mighty _prince_, than to be devoted to God, would not this still be a greater proof of a poor, ignorant, and blinded nature? Yet this is what all people do, who think any thing _better_, _greater_, or _wiser_ than a devout life. So that which way soever we consider this matter, it plainly appears, that devotion is an instance of _great judgment_, of an _elevated nature_; and the want of _devotion_ is a certain proof of the want of _understanding_. The greatest spirits of the Heathen world, such as _Pythagoras_, _Socrates_, _Plato_, _Epictetus_, _Marcus Antoninus_, owed all their greatness to the spirit of devotion. They were full of God; their wisdom and deep contemplations tended only to deliver men from the vanity of the world, the slavery of bodily passions, that they might act as _spirits_ that came from God, and were soon to return to him.