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SERM. he may; the invifible Part of him is of an infinitely higher Defcent ftill, and that which gives him his greatest Dignity. By no Means therefore value yourselves upon the one, whilft ye neglect the other. But be as induftrious to exalt and improve the Soul, as ye are to cherish and maintain the Body. Be as watchful to keep the Mind from the Rufflings of Paffions, or the Twinges of Remorse, as you would be to preserve your Bodies from Sicknefs or your Limbs from Pain. Nor reft ye contented with fenfual Pleafures and Delights alone; without tafting those far more fuperior ones which the Soul affords. For how fond foever we are of bodily Delights; a Man that has experienced the Pleafures of Contemplation, the Tranfports of Devotion, and the Ravishments of Divine Love, affuredly knows that the highest Pleasures that refult from the Body, are quite infipid and taftlefs, when his Soul is wraped up in fuch tranfcendent Delights. The Pleasures of the Mind are infinitely the greatest Pleasures of the Man. And therefore he who would be happy, even in this present Life, must seek for it not in bodily Entertainments, but in the Exercise and Improvements of Reason and Religion.

XVII.

This is an Inference which closely flows SER M. from the first Head of my Difcourfe, which only fhewed that the Soul is a fpiritual, im material Substance, diftinct from the Body. From my fecond Head, which proved that the Soul fhall continue to live, when the Bo dy dies, we may go further ftill;. For this fhould teach us not to grow too fond of our Bodies in the prefent State: Not to place our Happiness in them; nor to live as if we were never defigned to live without them. For

fince bodily Pleafures can laft no longer than the Body does: If we would live happily without them hereafter, we muft begin to wean ourselves here, betimes, to bring our Appetites and Paffions in Subjection to Reason, to grow indifferent to the Pleasures of Sense, to use them indeed as far as our Nature requires, but not to be fond of them for their own fakes, never to indulge ourselves in unlawful Pleafures, and to be temperate always in the Use of lawful: For fhould we ever become fo fenfualized, as not to relish any Pleasures but what arife from the Flesh; In the next World, when we must leave our Flesh behind us, even that would be Punishment more than we could bear, even fuppofing there were no other: For if it is fo great

Dd 4

an

SERM.

XVII.

an Uneafiness now to have our Defires difappointed or delayed, what must it be in a feparate State, where probably there must be a continual Longing without Power of Enjoyment. Let our spiritual Part therefore have always our chief and principal Care : Since it is this muft endure, when the Body is gone, and in this only we must live and fubfift, till the Refurrection fhall restore us our Bodies again.

Thus far my present Text conducts me : The pofitive State which we shall hereafter be in, with the Rewards and Punishments that fhall be affigned us at laft, fhall be the Subject of another Discourse.

SERMON XVIII.

No perfect Rewards or Punishments before the Day of Judgment.

409

HE BR. xi. 39, 40.

Thefe all having obtained a good Report through Faith, received not the Promise : God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

XVIII.

HAT the Soul exifts in a feparate S ER M. State, whilft parted from the Body, and whilft the Body lies in a State of Infenfibility, mouldering, and rotting, and diffolving in the Grave; was the Subject intended, and, I hope, alfo proved, in my last Discourse. And that the same Part of us, whilst thus separate, lives and thinks, and remembers and reflects, follows of Course from the fame Arguments that prove it to exist; it being of

the

XVIII.

SER M. the Effence of Spirits, fo long as they exist, to perform fuch Operations.

But now to what Degree this Life is extended; what Sort of Happiness or Mifery it is, that Souls divested of their Bodies, are in; or lastly where they are kept or remain, till they shall be reunited to their Bodies again; are Questions that have not been spoken to yet, but to which the Order of the Subject I am upon, now properly leads me.

And here (if you are content to be determined by the Doctors of the Church of Rome) all these Questions fhall be peremptorily anfwered and determined for you foon. For fay but where the Righteous fhall be receiv ed, or the Wicked fhall be fent after the Judgment of the laft great Day; and there they will tell you their Souls are beforehand, and there fhall continue till that Day comes. Say again what Happiness and Felicity fhall then be for ever affigned to the one, and what Miferies and Torments the other shall then be eternally doomed to; and the very fame they will tell you again they enjoy or fuffer in the Time intervening. In fhort the Account which the Romanifts give, is that the Souls of the good are already in Heaven, and that the Souls of the wicked are already in Hell.