future Account; muft make to ourselves Friends of the Mammon of Unrighteousness, that when we fail, they may receive us into everlafting Habitations. What concerns a better Life, muft take up most of our Thoughts and Care; and whatever endangers our future Happiness, must be rejected with all its Charms. It would not be worth the while to live fome few Years here, were we not to live for ever; and therefore it becomes a wife Man, who remembers that he must fhortly leave this World, to make his prefent Life wholly fubfervient to his future Happiness.

SECT. II.

The Second Notion of Death, that it is our putting off thefe Bodies.

II. LET us now confider Death as it is our putting off thefe Bodies; for this is the proper Notion of Death, the Separation of Soul and Body, that the Body returns to Duft, the Sou! or Spirit unto God who gave it. When we die, we do not ceafe to be, nor ceafe to live, but only cease to live in thefe earthly Bodies; the vital Union between Soul and Body is diffolved, we are no longer encloystered in a Tabernacle of Flefh, we no longer feel the Impreffions of it, neither the Pains nor Pleasures of the Body can affect us, it can charm, it can tempt, no longer. This needs no Proof, but very well deferves our most serious Meditations.

For, 1. This teaches us the Difference and Diltinction between Soul and Body, which Men who are funk into Flesh and Senfe, are apt to forget; nay, to lofe the the very Notion and Belief of it:

All their Delights are flefhly, they know no other Pleafures but what their five Senfes furnish them with; they cannot raise their Thoughts about this Body, nor entertain any noble Designs, and therefore they imagine, that they are nothing but Flesh and Blood, a little organized and animated Clay; and it is no great Wonder, that Men who feel the Workings and Motions of no higher Principle of Life in them, but Fleshland Senfe, fhould imagine that they are nothing but Flesh themselves. Though methinks, when we see the fenflefs and putrifying Remains of a brave Man before us, it is hard to conceive that this is all of him; that this is the Thing which fome few Hours ago could reafon and difcourfe, was fit to govern a Kingdom, or to inftru&t Mankind, could defpife Flesh and Sense, and govern all his bodily Appetites and Inclinations, and was adorned with all divine Graces and Virtues, was the Glory and Pride of the Age: And is this dead Carcafe, which we now fee, the Whole of him? Or was there a more divine Inhabitant, which animated this earthly Machine, which gave Life, and Beauty, and Motion to it, but is now removed?

To be fure, those who believe that Death does not put an End to their Being, but only removes them out of this Body, which rots in the Grave, while their Souls furvive, live, and act, and may be happy in a separate State, fhould carefully confider this Diftinction between Soul and Body, which would teach them a most divine and heavenly Wifdom.

For when we confider, That we confift of Soul and Body, which are the two diftinct Parts of Man, this will teach us to take care of both. For can any Man, who believes he has a Soul, be concerned only for his Body? A compound Creature can

not

not be happy, unless both Parts of him enjoy their proper Pleasures. He who enjoys only the Pleafures of the Body, is never the happier for having a human and reasonable Soul: The Soul of a Beaft would have done as well, and it may be better; for brute Creatures relish bodily Pleasures as much, and it may be more, than Men do; and Reason is very troublesome to thofe Men who refolve to to live like Brutes; for it makes them afhamed and afraid, which in many Cafes hinders, or at least allays, their Pleafures. And why should not a Man defire the full and entire Happiness of a Man? Why fhould he defpife any Part of himself, and that, as you fhall hear prefently, the beft Part too? And therefore, at leaft, we ought to take as much Care of our Souls as of our Bodies. Do we adorn our Bodies, that we may be fit to be seen, and to converfe with Men, and may receive thofe Refpects which are due to our Quality and Fortune; and fhail we not adorn our Souls too with those Chriftian Graces, which make us lovely in the Sight of God and Men? The Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit, which is in the Sight of God of great Price; which St. Peter especially recommends to Christian Women, as a more valuable Ornament than the outward adorning of plaiting the Hair, or wearing Gold, or putting on Apparel, 1. Pet. iii. 3, 4. The Ornaments of Wisdom and Prudence, of wellgovern'd Paflions, of Goodness and Charity, which give a Grace and Beauty to all our Actions, and fuch a pleafing and charming Air to our very Countenance, as the most natural Beauty, or artificial Washes and Paints can never imitate.

Are we careful to preserve our Bodies from any Hurt, from Pains and Sickness, from burning Fevers, or the racking Gout or Stone; and fhall we

not

not be as careful of the Eafe of the Mind too? To quiet and calm those Paffions, which when they grow outragious, are more intolerable than all natural or artificial Tortures? To moderate those Defires, which rage like Hunger and Thirft; thofe Fears which convulse the Mind with Trembling and Paralytick Motions; thofe furious Tempefts of Anger, Revenge, and Envy, which ruffle our Minds, and fill us with Vexation, Reftleffnefs and Confufion of Thoughts; efpecially thofe guilty Reflections upon ourselves, that Worm in the Confcience which gnaws the Soul, and torments us with Shame and Remorfe, and dreadful Expectations of an Avenger. These are the Sickneffes and Diftempers of the Soul: Thefe are Pains indeed, more sharp and puugent, and killing Pains than our Bodies are capable of: The Spirit of a Man can bear his Infirmity; natural Courage, or the Powers of Reason, or the Comforts of Religion, can fupport us under all other Sufferings; but a wounded Spirit who can bear? and therefore a Man who loves Eafe fhould in the firft Place take care of the Eafe of his Mind, for that will make all other 'Sufferings eafy; but nothing can fupport a Man, whofe Mind is wounded.

Are we fond of bodily Pleasures? Are we ready to purchase them at any Rate? And if we be Men, why should we defpife the Pleasures of the Mind? If we have Souls, why fhould we not reap the Benefit and the Pleasures of them? Do you think there are no Pleasures proper to the Soul? Have we Souls that are good for nothing? Or of no Ufe to us, but only to relifh the Pleasures of the Body? Afk those who have tried, what the Pleasures of Wisdom and Knowledge are, which do as much excel the Pleasures of feeing, as Truth is more beautiful and glorious than the Sun: Afk them what

a Pleasure it is to know God, the greatest and best Being, and the brightest Object of our Minds; to contemplate his Wisdom, and Goodnefs, and Power in the Works of Creation and Providence; to be fwallowed up in that ftupendous Mystery of Love, the Redemption of Sinners, by the Incarnation and Sufferings of the Son of God? Afk them what the Pleafures of Innocence and Virtue are; what the Feaft of a good Confcience means; which is the greateft Happinefs, to give or to receive; what the Joys even of Sufferings and Perfecutions, of Want and Poverty, and Reproach are, for the Sake of Chrift? Afk a devout Soul, What Tranfports and Ravishment of Spirit he feels, when he is upon his Knees, when with St. Paul, he is even fnatched up into the Third Heavens, filled with God, overflowing with Praifes and Divine Joys? And does it not then become a Man, who has a reasonable Soul, to feek after these rational, thefe manly, thefe divine Pleasures, the Pleafures of the Mind and Spirit, which are proper and peculiar to a reasonable Creature? Let him do this, and then let him enjoy the Pleasures of the Body as much as he can, which will be very infipid and taftelefs, when his Soul is ravished with more noble Delights.

In a word, if we are fo careful to preserve the Life of our Bodies, which we know must die, and rot and putrify in the Grave, methinks we should not be lefs careful to preserve the Life of our Souls, which is the only immortal Part of us. For though our Souls cannot die, as our Bodies do, yet they may be miferable, and that is called Eternal Death, where the Worm never dieth, and the Fire never goeth out. For to be always miferable, is infinitely worse than not to be at all; and therefore is the most formidable Death. And if we are fo unwil