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of dying: Our Bodies muft die as a Punishment of Sin, and putrify in the Grave; but yet they are not loft for ever: For if the fpirit of him that raised up Jefus from the dead, dwell in you; be that raifed up Chrift from the dead, fhall quicken your mortal bodies by his fpirit which dwelleth in you; that is, if your Bodies be cleansed and fanctified, be the Temples of the Holy Spirit, he will raise them, up again into a new Life: Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh; for if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds. of the body, ye shall live: If ye fubdue the fleshly Principle, if ye bring the Flesh into Subjection to the Spirit, not only your Souls fhall live, but your Bodies fhall be raised again to immortal Life. And this is a mighty Obligation to us, if we love our Bodies and would have them glorious and immortal, not to pamper the Flesh, and gratify it's Appetites and Lufts; not to yield your members fervants to uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity; but to yield your members fervants to righteoufness unto holiness; that being made free from fin, and becoming the fervants of God, you may have your fruit unto boliness, and the end everlasting life, as the fame Apostle fpeaks, Rom. vii. 19, 22. It is our Relation to Chrift, that our very Bodies are his Members; it is our Relation to the Holy Spirit that our Bodies are his Temples, which entitles our

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Bodies

Bodies to a glorious Refurrection: But will Chrit own fuch Bodies for his Members, as are Members of a Harlot? Will the Holy Spirit dwell in fuch a Temple, as is defiled with impure Lufts? And therefore fuch polluted Bodies will rife as they lay down, in Ɖishonour; will rife not to immortal Life but to eterna! Death.

For can we think thofe Bodies well prepared for a glorious Refurrection, to be refined into fpiritual Bodies, which are become ten times more Flesh than God made them, which are the Inftruments of the Tempters to all Impurity? Is there any Reason to expect that such a Body should rise again spiritual and glorious, which expires in the Flames of Luft, which falls a Sacrifice in the Quarrel of a Strumpet, which finks under the Load of its own Exceffes, and eats and drinks itself into the Grave; which scorns to die by Adam's Sin, but will die by its own, without expecting till the Laws of Mortality, according to the ordinary Course of Nature, must take Place?

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Holiness is the only Principle of Immortality both to Soul and Body: Those love their Bodies beft, thofe honour them most, who make them Inftruments of Virtue; who endeavour to refine and spiritualize them, and leave nothing of fleshly Appetites and Inclinations in them: Thofe are kindeft to their Bodies who confecrate them for Immortality,

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tality, who take care they fhall rife again into the Partnership of eternal Joys: All the Severities of Mortification, Abftinence from bodily Pleasures, Watchings, Faftings, hard Lodging, when they are Inftruments of a real Virtue, not the Arts of Superftition, when they are intended to fubdue our Lufts, not to purchase a Liberty of finning, are the moft real Expreffions of Honour and Refpect to these Bodies. It fhews how unwilling we are to part with them, or to have them miferable, how defirous we are of their Advancement into eternal Glories: For the lefs of Flesh they carry to the Grave with them, the more glorious will they rife again. This is offering up our Bodies a living Sacrifice, when we entirely devote them to the Service of God; and fuch living Sacrifices fhall live for ever; for if God receives them a living Sacrifice, he will preferve them to immortal Life.bo

But the highest Honour we can do these Bodies, and nobleft Ufe we can put them to, is to offer them up in å proper Senfe, a Sacrifice to God, that is, willingly and chearfully to die for God when he calls us to Suffering First to offer up our Souls to God in the pure Flames of Love and Devotion, and. then freely to give up our Bodies to the Stake or to the Gibbet, to wild Beafts, or more favage Men. This vindicates our Bodies from the natural Shame and Reproach of

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Death;

Death; what we call a natural Death is very inglorious, it is a Mark of Dishonour, becaufe it is a Punishment Sin: Such Bodies at beft are fown in Difhonour and Corruption, as St Paul fpeaks; but to die a Martyr, to fall a Sacrifice to God, this is a glorious Death; this is not to yield to the Laws of Mortality, to Neceffity, and Fate, but to give back our Bodies to God, who gave them us; and he will keep that which we have committed to his Truft, to a glorious Refurrection; and it will be a furprifing and aftonishing Glory with which fuch Bodies fhall rife again, as have fuffered for their Lord for if we fuffer with him we shall also be glorified together: Which feems to imply, that those shall nearest resemble the Glory of Christ himself who fuffer as he did.

This is the Way to make our Bodies immortal and glorious. We cannot keep them long here, they are corruptible Bodies, and will tumble into Duft; we must part with them for a while, and if ever we expect and defire a happy Meeting again, we must use them with Modefty and Reverence now. We dishonour our Bodies in this World, when we make them Inftruments of Wickedness and Luft, lay an eternal Foundation of Shame and Infamy for them in the next World; it is a mortal and killing Love, to cherish the fleshly Principle, to make Provifion for the Flesh to fulfil the Lufts thereof; But if you

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love your Bodies, make them immortal, that though they die, they may rife again out of their Graves with a youthful Vigour and Beauty; that they may live for ever without Pain and Sickness, without the Decays of Age, or the Interruptions of Sleep, or the Fatigue or Wearinefs of Labour; without wanting either Food or Raiment, without the leaft Remains of Corruption, without knowing what it is to tempt, or to be tempted, without the leaft uneafy Thought, the leaft Difappointment, the leaft Care, in the full and blissful Enjoyment of the Eternal and Sovereign Good.

SECT. III.

Death confider'd as our Entrance upon a new and unknown State of Life.

III.

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ET us now confider Death as it as an Entrance upon a new and unknown State of Life; for it is a new Thing to us to live without these Bodies, it is what we have never tried yet, and we cannot guess how we fhall feel ourselves, when we are ftript of Flesh and Blood; what Entertainments we shall find in that Place, where there is neither eating nor drinking, neither marrying, nor giving in Marriage; what kind of Bufinefs and Employment we shall have there, where we fhall have no Occafion for any of

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