<< thrown it away.
negligent Life, and then complain that
"Death takes us unawares.-
Our Days

We lead a loose and S ER M.

perhaps are too few to grow rich; or to "fatisfie the Ambition of a haughty Spirit "But to be taught the Love of God, and "the meek and humble Life of Jefus, re

quires not fo much a Number of Years, "as the faithful Endeavours of a pious Mind. "Would we bestow on the Improvements "of our Souls, the Time we vainly trifle

away; our Days would be fhort enough, "not to feem tedious, yet long enough to "finish our appointed Task."

But neither, I fay, if the former good Ufe be made of the Uncertainty of Life in general, fhall we complain of our Ignorance of the particular Time and Manner of our own particular Deaths, as when and how it is we are to die. We shall rather, (provided we are duly prepared for it) rest satisfied and content with the Thoughts, that come it when, or howfoever it will, it will moft affuredly prove our Gain. For [to fpeak a little more in the lof

ty
Strains of the fame pious Soul,] "If it be-
"fall us in our Age it will be a Haven of
Repofe, and ought to be welcome after fo
long a Voyage. If in our Youth, it will

XVI.

prevent

SERM."
XVI.

..

"

prevent a thousand Miscarriages, a thousand Dangers of ruining our Souls. If by an ordinary Sickness, it is the Courfe of Nature; if by an outward Violence it is not without the Permiffion of Heaven. No Matter how late the Fruit be gathered, if ftill it go on in growing better; no Matter how foon it fall from the Tree, if not blown down before it is ripe. Therefore, O moft just but fecret Providence, who governest all things by the Counsel of thy Will; whofe powerful Hand can wound and heal, lead down to the Grave and bring back again! Behold to thee we bow our Heads, and freely fubmit our dearest Concerns. Strike, as thou pleasest, our Health, our Lives; we cannot be fafer than at thy Difpofal. Only these few Requests we humbly make, which O may thy Clemency vouchsafe to hear: Cut us

not off in the midft of our Folly, nor suf"fer us to expire with our Sins unpardoned: "But make us, Lord, firft ready for thyself, then take us to thyself in thine own "fit Time.

་

SER

SERMON XVII.

That the Soul lives in a State of Sepaparation.

ECCLES. xii. 7.

Then fhall the Duft return to the Earth as it was, and the Spirit fhall return to God who gave it.

IN

383

XVII.

N the Verfes preceding this of my Text, SER M. Solomon describes the Infirmities of old Age and the Approaches of Death in all its Degrees, with a great deal of Pomp, and in many beautiful and lofty Figures; and having fhewn its several Steps, and the Wastes it gradually makes on our Body, he intimates at last in the Words I have read to you what will be the Confequence when it totally prevails: Then shall the Duft return to God who gave it.

The Truth of the first Part of this Affertion, or the Fall of the Duft into Duft again, we have already feen and examined at large: We have traced the Subject

of

XVII.

SERM. of our Diffolution or Death both in its Cause and Effect, from the first Threat and Denunciation of it against Adam in Paradife, to the Execution of it upon him and his whole Pofterity to the Grave. But this left us in too melancholy a State for 'Man to acquiefce in, without carrying his Thoughts beyond it. Death, as gloomy a Profpect as it is now, would ftill be a much more melancholy View, if it put an End to the whole Man at once. For there is nothing we have so much an Averfion to, as a total Annihilation: Nothing our Nature defires more than to continue and exift. It may therefore be an agreeable Profecution and Relief of the Subject I have begun, if after having contemplated that what is vifible of us must soon have an End, I go on to prove that there is fomething invifible belonging to us which fhall ftill remain.

For though we firmly believe that hereafter we shall live in our Bodies again; and that they shall not for ever remain in the Grave; yet fince we know they must be Prifoners of the Grave for a certain Time; that during that Time they must rot into Duft, and lie there as infenfible as Duft can be; it must be fome Confolation to think that

the

XVII.

the Soul, the mean while, is alive, and though SER M.
ftripped of its Cafe, can yet live and act
without it. And therefore before I come to
fpeak of that perfect Triumph over Death
and the Grave, which the whole Man ex-
pects to obtain, hereafter; when his Body and
Soul fhall be united again, and to which the
Order of thefe Difcourfes will lead me; I
think it expedient and necessary too, to fhew
first that during this intermediate Space it is
but a partial Conqueft and Victory. that Death
gains over us: He cannot render it total and
compleat; but whilst he feizes and lays hold of
our Duft, is forced to leave our Soul untouch-
ed and ftill furviving. And this is so much
the more neceffary to be done, because not
only Atheists who deny any future State at all,
but even Men who call themselves Chriftians,
and profess to believe a Resurrection and the
World to come, are yet ready to dispute the
Soul's Existence or Being in a feparate State.
The Socinians, a Class of Men, whose Name
and Opinions have been known too much and
too well of late, have fo far united and jump-
ed in their Sentiments with Atheists them-
felves, as to affert-the Soul to be a material
Spirit, generated, growing and falling with
the Body; though they ftill indeed have fo
VOL. II.
Cc

much