*15. The other great qualification for the enjoyment of God is purity; that part of it especially which relates to the pleasures of sense. Now the reason why this is such a qualification for our final happiness is this: God, the object of it is a spiritual being, and the happiness of heaven which consists in the fruition of him, is all over of a rational and intellectual nature: being indeed no other than this, the pleasure of the understanding contemplating the supreme truth, and of the will transported with the love of the sovereign good. And therefore a love of sensual pleasure must indispose us for the love of a good so purely spiritual. And if ever it rises so high as to become the prevailing and governing affection of the soul (the case and character of those who are _lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God_) it must utterly unqualify us for it. For what can a sensualized soul find in heaven, that will suit with his distempered taste? A _Mahometan_ paradise would suit with such affections well; but in heaven they would meet with nothing but disappointment; and therefore St. _Peter_, with a pressing earnestness, cautions us against them: _Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly desires that war against the soul_. They war against the soul, not only by betraying us into sin, either by consenting to them in unlawful circumstances, or by indulging them in an immoderate degree, but chiefly by indisposing us for the enjoyment of a far nobler happiness. And accordingly St. _John_, among all virtuous dispositions, singles out purity as a preparation for heaven. _Every man_, says he, _that hath this hope, purifieth himself as he is pure_. And our Saviour applies this purity to the heart, to shew how that ought to be disposed for happiness. _Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see_ God. O infinite purity, what heart will be fit to see thee, if thou dost not purge and cleanse it? O purify us by thy grace, and so fit us for thy glory!