SER M. all Likelihood, when the good Apostle, writ

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ing to Timothy, throws up an Ejaculation

The Lord grant unto him, that he may find Mercy of the Lord in that Day, 2 Tim. i. 16. And by fuch Petitions they at once teftified their Love for the Dead, declared their Belief in the Communion of Saints, and kept up in themselves a lively Senfe of the Soul's Immortality. And with this Intent a Petition for the Deceased was continued by our Reformers in the Prayer for the whole State of Christ's Church, in the firft Common Prayer Book of King Edward the VI. in which they commended unto the Mercy of God all his Servants which are departed from us with the Sign of Faith, and now do reft in the Sleep of Peace; befeeching him to grant unto them bis Mercy and Peace everlasting, and praying that at the Day of the general Refurrection, we and all they which be of the mystical Body of his Son may all together be fet on his Right Hand, and hear that his moft joyful Voice, Come unto me, Oye that be blessed of my Father, and poffefs the Kingdom which is prepared for you from the Beginning of the World. Thus prayed our own Church at its firft Reformation; thus fhe prayed confiftently with the Doctrine and Practice both, of the beft Chriftians and

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in the pureft Ages: And yet our Reformers, SER M. though good and wife Men, were influenced fo far by the Opinions of others, as to reject these and the like Petitions from our Liturgy. But fo far were they from giving Countenance to the Doctrine of Purgatory, that all their Prayers were entirely inconfiftent with it.

Thus far our Discourse serves for the Confutation of Error: As to the Practical Improvements we have already feen that the bare Confideration that our Souls fhall continue to live and act, whilst our Bodies lie mouldering or diffolved in their Graves, is a fufficient Motive not to be overfond or indul gent to our Bodies whilft we have them but to wean ourselves from them as much as is poffible, and to live now in them, as they who one Day must live without them. But the Account I have given of the feparate State in this Difcourfe, will be further inftructive; by teaching us the Manner our Souls must live in, when our Bodies are afleep, and by exciting us to make fuch Provifion for them here, as will be of Use to them when that new Kind of Life shall be gin. As to the Manner of the Soul's living in its separate State; It is plain it will confift chiefly in reflecting on its own paft Accounts.

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SER M. and Thoughts, and in converfing with other difembodied Spirits, of like Difpofition and Temper with itself. For when it leaves the Body, it will no longer have any Communication with this World, nor, in all Probability, any Knowledge of any thing that paffes in it. As foon as difpoffeffed of our bodily Organs, which are the Seats of the five Senfes, by which we fee or hear, or tafte or smell, or feel such material Objects as furround us and are of Use to us here; the external World will no longer affect us; we shall have no Senfation of any thing that requires a Palate or Noftrils, or a Hand, or an Eye or an Ear to perceive it. The whole World, as great as it appears to us now, all the vifible Bodies we behold upon Earth, and the glorious Luminaries we admire above, will vanish at once when our Eyes shall be closed, our Ears stopped, and our Senses truly dead in Sleep. At the Refurrection indeed, when our Bodies shall be restored to us fpiritual and incorruptible, in Glory and Power; the material Worlds will again become vifible, and we infinitely more able to view and understand their Motions and Laws, than at present we can be. But before the Refurrection it is natural to fuppofe that we shall know no

more

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more of them than difimbodied Souls can S ER M. difcover. For it is our outward Senfes which help us to the Perception of the material World; and is that which at the fame Time hides the World of Spirits from us. Our Eyes, which are as Cafements through which we look out at Things that are vifible, are as Shutters which intercept our feeing or be holding the things invifible: And there fore the fame Moment they ceafe to be of any Use to us with relation to this World, they ceafe alfo to be Barrs and Blinds against the other.

As foon therefore as the Soul shall be loofed from the Body, wherever it goes, or whereever it shall be, we may fafely conclude a World of Spirits will be opened to it's View. But what Sort of Spirits it fhall find itself amongft, depends wholly on the Temper and Disposition with which it leaves this present World. This is what I have afferted already, and therefore need not repeat it again: I have now only to exhort you, to fit your Souls, whilft Opportunity remains, for the Converfation of Angels and Saints; fince otherwise, be affured, your Allotment will fall amongst Reprobates and Devils,

SER M.

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And the Way to do this, is to affociate and join yourfelves to Saints whilft you are here: To converfe, chiefly with the Pious and the Good For they will beft form and affimulate your Minds to the devout and happy Souls above. Conversation and Reading is the fame to the Soul, as Food is to the Body: viz. it's Nourishment and Support: And as the Body is in a found or fickly State according to the Kind of Food it lives on; fo is the Soul in a good Habit or a bad one, according as the Notions are which it receives.

If you have no Ideas but what you take in from Affemblies and Balls, from Games and Sports, I doubt you will find yourselves, when the Time comes, but ill provided for another World. Thefe are but poor things to fupport your own Thoughts, and a fad Fund of Difcourfe, when you have only Souls to whom to relate them. Publick Diverfions of many Kinds will contribute I doubt but little to the Nurture of any. Chriftians to the Meafure of the Stature of the Fullness of Chrift Relaxations, it is true, are fometimes to be used as a Relief to the Mind; as well as Exercife in its turn as a Refreshment to the Body. But as bodily Exercife, fo mental Amujements, profit but little, whilft Godliness,