ty of the soul was
infinite misery, because it is that which eternizes their misery, but when
this overplus is added, the incorruptibility of the body, and so the whole
man made an inconsumable subject for that fire to feed upon perpetually,
what heart can conceive it without horror! And yet we hear it often
without any such affection. It is a strange life that death is the only
refreshment of it, and yet this may not be had, "they shall seek death,
and it shall fly from them." Now, my beloved, I would desire this
discourse might open way for the hearty and cordial entertainment of the
gospel, and that you might be persuaded to awake unto righteousness, and
sin no more, 1 Cor. xv. 34. Be not deceived, my brethren, "flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God." Certainly, if you have no other image
than what you came into the world withal, you cannot have this hope, to be
conformed one day to the glorious body of Christ. What will become of you
in that day, who declare now by the continued vent of your hearts that
this Holy Spirit dwells not in you? And, alas! how many are such? Oh! pity
yourselves, your souls and bodies both. If for love to your bodies you
will follow its present lusts, and care only for the things of the body,
you act the greatest enmity and hostility against your own bodies.
Consider, I beseech you, the eternal state of both, and your care and
study will run in another channel. And for you who have any working of the
Spirit in you, whether convincing you of sin and misery, and of
righteousness in Christ, or sometimes comforting you by the word applied
to your heart, or teaching you another way than the world walks into, I
recommend unto you that of the apostle's, 1 Cor. xv. 58. "Wherefore, my
brethren be steadfast, &c. always abounding in the work of the Lord,
knowing your labour is not in vain."

Sermon XXXII.

Verse 12.--"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh,
to live after the flesh," &c.

All things in Christianity have a near and strait conjunction. It is so
entire and absolute a piece, that if one link be loosed all the chain
falls to the ground, and if one be well fastened upon the heart it brings
all alongst with it. Some speak of all truths, even in nature, that they
are knit so together that any truth may be concluded out of every truth,
at least by a long circuit of deduction and reasoning. But whatsoever be
of that, certainly religion is a more ent