ts of
unrighteousness, all the creatures that were servants to man's lusts. A
new form and fashion shall be put on all, that the body being restored,
may be a fit dwelling place for the purified soul, and the world renewed,
may be a fit house for righteous men. Thus you see, that death to a
Christian is not real death, for it is not the death of a Christian, but
the death of sin his greatest enemy, it is not a punishment, but the
enlargement of the soul.

Now, the next comfort is, that which is but partial, it is but the
dissolution of the lowest part in man, his body, so far from prejudging
the immortal life of his spirit it is rather the accomplishment of that.
Though the body must die, yet eternal life is begun already within the
soul, for the Spirit of Christ hath brought in life, the righteousness of
Christ hath purchased it, and the Spirit hath performed it, and applied it
to us. Not only there is an immortal being in a Christian that must
survive the dust (for that is common to all men), but there is a new life
begun in him, an immortal well being in joy and happiness, which only
deserves the name of life, that cometh never to its full perfection till
the bodily and earthly houses be taken down. If you consider seriously
what a new life a Christian is translated unto, by the operation of the
Holy Ghost, and the ministration of the word, it is then most active and
lively, when the soul is most retired from the body in meditation. The
new life of a Christian is most perfect in this life when it carrieth him
the furthest distance from his bodily senses, and is most abstracted from
all sensible engagements, as you heard, for indeed it restores the spirit
of a man to its native rule and dominion over the body, so that it is then
most perfect when it is most gathered within itself, and disengaged from
all external entanglements.

Now, certain it is, since the perfection of the soul in this life consists
in such a retirement from the body, that when it is wholly separated from
it then it is in the most absolute state of perfection, and its life acts
most purely and perfectly when it hath no body to communicate with, and to
entangle it either with its lusts or necessities. The Spirit is life, it
hath a life now which is then best when furthest from the body, and
therefore it cannot but be surpassing better when it is out of the body,
and all this is purchased by Christ's righteousness. As man's
disobedience made an