ftrain their Inclinations, deny their Appetites, and even cut off their RightHand, and pluck out their Right-Eye, if they become the Occasions of Sin, and cast them from us: It being infinitely better for us, to enter into Life maim'd and blind, than having two Hands or two Eyes to be caft into Hell-fire.

2. Since the Holy Scriptures affure us, That there will be a Reftitution of our loft Parts, a Renovation of our corrupted and putrify'd Bodies: That they fhall not lie for ever under the Power of Death, but be restor'd to the Saints all fair, and beautiful, and glorious: Why should we be unwilling to part with them for a while? Nay, why to escape a temporary Imprisonment or Death, fhould we venture them upon the Precipice of Everlasting Ruin? Our Great Mafter gracioufly vouchsafes us much wifer Directions;, and I humbly beseech the moft Bleffed and glorious Author of them, that we may all, from the Highest to the Loweft, be obedient, and hearken to them. My Friends, fays Luk. 12.4, he, be not afraid of them that kill the Bo- s. & Mar. dy, and after that have no more that they 10.28. can do. But I will forewarn you whom

you

ye,

you,

you shall fear: Fear him, who after he hath killed, can deftroy both Soul and Body in Hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him. Nay, if we fuffer Indignities, and Reproaches, Perfecutions and Death for His fake, He pronounceth us happy, and bids us greatly to rejoyce. (7) Mat. 5. Blessed, (r) fays he, are they, which are 10,11,12 perfecuted for Righteoufnefs fake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are when Men fhall revile and perfe cute you, and fall fay all manner of evil against you fally for my fake: Rejoyce, and be exceeding glad, for great is your Reward in Heaven. Why then, (I say again) confidering these moft glorious and everlasting Advantages, fhould any Christian fear a Temporary Imprifonment or Death? Why should he be afraid of a Man that fhall dye? or of the Son of Man, who, however great and powerful now, will, e're long be as Grafs; and by a fhameless Proftitution of his Confcience to his fecular Emoluments, renounce his standing and Eternal Intereft in his Maker, and Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob? Alas! there is nothing this World can lay upon us, that we need be very careful to avoid: For what, in_plain

Terms,

Terms, is the lofs of your Estates, though never so great and plenteous ? If you keep them as long as you can, Death will shortly take them from you; and though your Pofterity (which is the utmost you can with) fhould poffefs them throughout all Generations, even to the Worlds End; yet then will they be confum'd in the Univerfal Conflagration. What are the closest and most nauseous Prisons of this World, if compar'd to those Dungeons of Torment and Defpair, that except prevaricating, hypocritical, trimming, pufillanimous, apoftatizing Spirits in the next? What, laftly, is Death, even in its most pompous and magnificent Terrours? The facred Oracles affure us, That to a good Man; one, who thro' the Grace of God has refin'd and purify'd his Soul from the Fæculencies and Stains of the Animal Nature, and is throughly awaken'd into the Divine Life and Likeness, 'tis but a Sleep. When St. Stephen was fton'd to Death by the Jews, inoμenen, (i) fays St. Luke, (i) A&. he fell asleep; and our (k) Lord him- (k) John felf of his Dead Friend Lazarus, ii. ii. Λάζαρα, ὁ φίλο ἡμῶν κεκοίμηται, Our Friend Lazarus fleepeth. Nay, the very

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7.50.

Heathens will tell you as much. πQ is Dávar Siduudoves; and, Est Confanguineus Lethi Sopor: Sleep and Death, (fay they) are Confin Germans, Brethren and Twins. But what harm (I pray) is there in all this? When a good Man has finish'd his Days Work, and is happily arriv❜d at the end of the fore Labour and Travel of his Life, the manifold Toils and Drudgeries of a most vexatious and troublefome World, can it be any Inconvenience, any Disadvantage to him to lay himself down, and to fall afleep? In a word; when a good Man dies, either by a violent or natural Death, he doth not suffer any Lofs or Detriment, but only makes a Change; and that a most Bleffed, most Wonderful, and most Glorious Change. A Change, that we fhall then only truly understand, when we fhall have the Notices of Spirits, the Intellects of Angels, and the unconceivable Enlargements of Immortal Beings. He changeth Dross for Silver, Brafs for Gold, Earth for Heaven; yea, this dirty Planet (as fome call it) for the Stars of God, those immenfe and ftupendous Orbs of Glory; which fhine in the uppermost Firmament of Heaven. He changeth a Complication

of

of Sorrows and Afflictions for a Constellation of Joys and Pleasures; a load of Sin and Mifery for a Weight of Glory; the Company of Vile Worms for the Society of Saints and Angels, and (which is more than all) for the Intuition of his Makers Beauty, which he shall enjoy till the Reftitution of all things, when his Body fhall shake off the Dishonours of the Grave, and be rais'd to the fame state of Immortality and Glory. Then will his Soul joyfully fly down from its blissful Manfions to the Sides of the Grave, and gently wake its fleeping Confort with a Rife up, my Love, my Fair one, and come away. The Body will immediately perceive these ravishing Whispers, and smilingly open its Eyes, and rife, and take Wing, and fly away to the Companies of the Saints, who in the Air fhall ftand in White Robes at the Right-Hand of their Saviour, and melodiously fing Hofannas to the King of Glory. Then will they be abundantly recompens'd for all the Contradictions they have endur'd from Sinners: For the Calumnies and Reproaches, the Injuries and Affronts, the Calamities and Disasters, which they underwent in this World. They will no longer be despis'd and rejected of Men; E

but