for nothing else, but how to gratify their appetites and lusts, which is to invert the order of nature, to fall in love with our slaves, and change fortunes and shackles with them. That our Savior might well say, He that committeth sin, is the servant of sin : for this is a vile and unnatural subjection to serve the body, which was made to serve the soul; such men shall receive the reward of slaves, to be turned out of God's family, and not to inherit with sons and freemen, as our Savior adds, The servant abideth not in the house forever, but the son abideth forever ; if the son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed, John viii. 31, 32.

III. That death, which is our leaving this world, is nothing else but our putting off these bodies, teaches us, that it is only our union to these bodies, which intercepts the sight of the other world: the other world is not at such a distance from us, as we may imagine; the throne of God indeed is at a great remove from this earth, above the third heavens, where he displays his glory to those blessed spirits which encompass his throne; but as soon as we step out of these bodies, we step into the other world, which is not so properly another world, (for there is the same heaven and earth still) as a new state of life. To live in these bodies is to live in this world, to live out of them, is to remove into the next: for while our souls are confined to these bodies, ar can look only through these material casements, no

thing but what is material can affect us, nay, nothing but what is so gross, that it can reflect light, and convey the shapes and colors of things with it to the eye so that though within this visible world, there be a more glorious scene of things, than what appears to us, we perceive nothing at all of it for this veil of flesh parts the visible and invisible world: but when we put off these bodies, there are new and surprising wonders present themselves to our view; when these material spectacles are taken off, the soul with its own naked eyes, sees what was invisible before and then we are in the other world, when we can see it, and converse with it. Thus St. Paul tells us, that when we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord; but when we are absent from the body, we are present with the Lord. 2 Cor. 6, 8. And methinks this is enough to cure us of our fondness for these bodies, unless we think it more desirable to be confined to a prison, and to look through a grate all our lives, which gives us but a very narrow prospect, and that none of the best neither, than to be set at liberty to view all the glories of the world: what would we give now for the least glimpse of that invisible world, which the first step we take out of these bodies, will present us with? There are such things as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive. Death opens our eyes, enlarges our prospect, presents us with a new and more glorious world, which

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we can never see, while we are shut up in flesh, which should make us as willing to part with this veil, as to take the film off our eyes, which hinders our sight.

IV. If we must put off our bodies, methinks we should not much glory nor pride ourselves in them, nor spend too much of our time about them: for why should that be our pride, why should that be our business, which we must shortly part with? And yet as for pride, these mortal corruptible bodies, and what relates to them, administer most of the occasions of it.

Some men glory in their birth, and in their descent from noble ancestors, and ancient families; which, besides the vanity of it, for if we trace our pedigrees to their original, it is certain that all our families are equally ancient, and equally noble, for we descend all from Adam; and in such a long descent as this, no man can tell, whether there have not been beggars and princes in those which are the noblest and meanest families now: yet, I say, what is all this, but to pride ourselves in our bodies, and our bodily descent, unless men think that their souls are derived from their parents too. Indeed our birth is so very ignoble, whatever our ancesters are, or however it may be dissembled with some pompous circumstances, that no man has any reason to glory in it; for the greatest prince is born like the wild ass' colt. Others glory in their external beau

ty; which how great and charming soever it be, is but the beauty of the body, which if it be spared by sickness and old age, must perish in the grave: death will spoil those features and colors which are now admired, and after a short time, there will be no distinction between this beautiful body, and common dust. Others are guilty of greater vanity than this, and what nature has denied, they supply by art; they adorn their bodies with rich attire, and many times such bodies as will not be adorned, and then they glory in their borrowed feathers: but what a sorry beauty is that, which they cannot carry into the other world? And if they must leave their bodies in the grave, I think there will be no great occasion in the other world for their rich and splendid apparel, which will not fit a soul.

Thus what do riches signify, but to minister to the wants and conveniences and pleasures of the body? And therefore to pride ourselves in riches, is to glory in the body too; to think ourselves more considerable than other men, because we can provide better for our bodies than they can. And what a mean and contemptible vice is pride, whose subject and occasion is So mean and contemptible? To pride ourselves in these bodies which have so ignoble an extraction, are of so short a continuance, will have so ignoble an end, and must lie down in the grave, and be food for worms.

As for the care of our bodies; that must unavoidably take up a great part of our time, to supply the necessities of nature, and to provide the conveniences of life; but this may be for the good of our souls too, as honest labor and industry, and ingenious arts are; but for men to spend their whole time in sloth and luxury, in eating and drinking and sleeping, in dressing and adorning their bodies, or gratifying their lusts, this is to be vile slaves and servants to the body, to bodies which neither need nor deserve this from us after all our care, they will tumble into dust, and commonly much the sooner for our indulgence of them.

V. If death be our putting off these bodies, then it is certain that we must live without these bodies, till the resurrection; nay, that we must always live without such bodies as these are: for though our bodies shall rise again yet they shall be changed and transformed into a spiritual nature; as St. Paul expressly tells us, 1 Cor. xv. 42, 43, .44. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body: For as he adds, 50 v. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither can corruption inherit incorruption. Which is true of a fleshly soul, but here is understood of a body of flesh and blood, which is of a corruptible nature: as our reason may satisfy us, that