wearing Gold, or putting on Apparel, 1 Pet.iii. 3, 4. The Ornaments of Wisdom and Prudence, of well-governed Paffions, 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 shall we not be as careful of the Ease of the Mind too? To quiet and calm thofe Paffions, which when they grow outragious, are more intolerable than all natural or artificial Tortures? To moderate thofe Defires, which rage like Hunger and Thirft; thofe Fears which convulfe the Mind with Trembling and Paralytick Motions; thofe furious Tempefts of Anger, Revenge and Envy, which ruffle our Minds, and fill us with Vexation, Restlessnefs 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 Remorse, and dreadful Expectations of an Avenger. Thefe are the Sickneffes and Diftempers of the Soul: These are Pains indeed, more sharp and pungent, 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,

Religion, can fupport us under all other Sufferings; but a wounded Spirit who can bear? And therefore a Man who loves Ease, should in the first place take care of the Ease of his Mind, for that will make all other Sufferings eafy; but nothing can fupport a Man, whose 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 despise the Pleafures of the Mind? If we have Souls, Why fhould we not reap the Benefit and the Pleafures 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 relish the Pleasures of the Body? Ask 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 Goodness, and Power in the Works of Creation and Providence; to be fwallowed up in that ftupendious Mystery of Love, the Redemption of Sinners, by the Incarnation and Sufferings of the Son of God? Ask them, What the Pleafures of Innocence and Virtue are; what the Feaft of a good Confcience means; which is the greatest Happiness, to give or to receive;

D

what

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 Transports and Ravishment of Spirit he feels, when he is upon his Knees, when with St. Paul he is even snatched up into the Third Heavens, filled with God, overflowing with Praises and Divine Joys? And does it not then become a Man, who has a reasonable Soul, to feek after these rational, these manly, these 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 tasteless, when his Soul is ravifhed 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 preferve 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 unwilling to part with these mortal Bodies, we ought in Rea

fon

fon to be much more afraid to lofe our Souls.

II. That Death is our putting off these Bodies, teaches us, that the Soul is the only Principle of Life and Senfation. The Body cannot live without the Soul, but as foon as it is parted from it, it lofes all Senfe and Motion, and returns to its original Dust; but the Soul can and does live without the Body, and therefore there is the Principle of Life. This may be thought a very common and obvious Obfervation; and indeed fo it is; but the Confequences of this are not fo commonly obferved, and yet are of great Use, and Mo

ment.

For, 1. This fhows us, That the Soul is the best Part of us, that the Soul, indeed, is the Man, because it is the only Seat of Life and Knowledge, and all Senfations: For a Man is a living, reasonable, and understanding Being; and therefore a living, reasonable Soul (not an earthly Body, which has no Life or Senfe, but what it derives from the Soul) must be the Man. Hence in Scripture Soul fo frequently fignifies the Man: Thus we read of the Souls that were born to Jacob, and the Souls that came with him into Egypt, Gen. xlvi. that is, his Sons. And Soul fignifies ourselves; a Friend which is as thy own Soul; that is, as dear to us as ourselves, Deut. xiii. 6. And Jonathan loved David as D 2

bis

;

bis own Soul; that is, as himself, 1. Sam. xviii. 3. For, in Propriety of Speech, the Body has no Senfe at all, but the Soul lives in the Body, and feels all the Motions and Impreffions of it; fo that it is the Soul only that is capable of Happinefs or Mifery, of Pain or Pleasure; and therefore it is the only Concernment of a wife Man to take care of his Soul as our Saviour tells us, What shall it profit a man, tho' he gain the whole world, and lofe his own foul; or what shall a man give in exchange for his foul? Matth. xvi. 26. The Reason of which is eafily apprehended, when we remember, that the Soul only is capable of Happinefs or Mifery; that it is the Soul which must enjoy every thing elfe: And what can the whole World then fignify to him who has no Soul to enjoy it, whofe Soul is condemned to endless and eternal Miferies? Such a miferable Soul is as uncapable of enjoying the World, or any thing in it, as if it had loft its Being.

2aly, Hence we learn the true Notion of bodily Pleasures, that they are fuch Pleasures as the Soul feels by its Union to the Body; for it is not the Body that feels the Pleasures, but the Soul, though the Body be the Inftrument of them. And therefore, how fond foever we are of them, we may certainly conclude, that bodily Pleasures are the meanest Pleasures of human Nature; because the Union to these earthly Bodies is the meanest

and