Vsi- 1. It should enforce this excellent duty, that considering we have no long continuance hero, therefore, while wo are here, to do that ivherefore xie come into the irorld. As a factor, that is sent into a place to provide such goods heforehand, let us consider that here we arc sent to get into a state of salvation, to get out of the state of nature into the state of grace, to furnish our souls with grace, to lit us for our dissolution to come. Let us not forget the main end of our living here. Considering we cannot he here long, let us do the work that God hath put into our hands quickly and faithfully, with all our might.
I'se 2. And let it enforce modenttlon to (dl earthhj thitif/s. ' The time is short, therefore let those that use the world bo as if they used it not,' &c., 1 Cor. vii. 29. Those friends that have been joined together will part. Therefore let us use our bodies and so'ils so, that we may present them both comfortably to God. Let us beg of God to make a right use of this fading condition. But I hasten.
The second point is this, that,
Ohs. 2. The estate of the sotd continues after death.
For here he wisheth to die the death of the righteous, not for any excel- lency in death, but in regard of the subsistence and continuance of the soul after death.
Scripture and reason and nature enforccth this, that the soul hath a subsistence of itself, distinct from the life it communicates to the body. There is a double life, a Hfe proper to the soul, and the life it communicates to the body. Now when the life it communicates to the body is gone to dissolution, itself hath a life in heaven. And indeed it is in a manner the whole man ; for Abraham was Abraham when he was dead, when his soul was in heaven, and his body in the grave. It is the whole man.
Reas. 1. And it discovers, indeed, that it hath a distinct life and excel- lency in itself, by reason that it thicarts tfie desires of the body ivhen it is in the body. Reason, if there be no grace in the soul, that crosseth the inclination of the body, grace much more.
Ixeas. 2. And we see ofttimes, tchen the outuard man is weak, as in sick- ness, dc, then the understanding, uill, and affections, the innard man, is most sublime, and rapt unto heaven, and is most n-ise. Take a man that hath been besotted all his lifetime, that hath been drunk with the pleasures of a carnal life, that hath been a covetous wretch, an earth-worm, that enjoys not heaven, but lives as his wealth and lusts cam' him in slavery, yet at the hour of death, when he considers that he hath scraped together, and considers the way that his lusts have led him, and that all must leave him, now he begins to bo wise, and speaks more discreetlj*. He can speak of the vanity of these things, and how little good they can do. Indeed many, nay, the most men, are not wise until that time. Therefore the soul of itself hath a distinct being, because, when the body is lowest, it is most refined and strong in its operations.
lieas. 3. Likewise it appears by the projects that it hath of the time to come. The soul, especially of men that are of more elevated and refined
BALAAM S WISH. O
spirits, it projects for the time to come what shall become of the church and commonwealth, what shall become of posterity and of reputation and credit in the world. Certainly, unless there were a subsistence of itself, it would never look so much beforehand, and lay the grounds of the pros- perity of the church and commonwealth for the time to come. I will not stand further on it, but rather make some use of it.
Use. Let us know which is our best part, namely, the soul, that hath a being after death, that we do not employ it to base uses, for which it was not made nor given us. Do we think that these souls of ours were made and given us to scrape wealth ? to travel in our affections to base things worse than our souls ? Ai'e they not capable of supernatural and excellent things ? Are they not capable of grace and glory, of communion with God, of the blessed stamp of the image of God ? Let us use them, therefore, to the end that God gave them. And let us not deserve so ill of our souls as to betray them, to cast them in the dirt, to lay our crown in the dust. This is our excellency. What can keep our bodies from being a deformed, loath- some thing, if the soul be taken away ? Yet so we abase this excellent part ! Ofttimes we abase it to serve the base lusts of the body, which is condemned to rottenness. What is the life of most men but a purveying and prowling for the body ? The lusts of the body set the wit and afiec- tions on work to prowl for itself. What a base thing is this ! Were our souls given us for this end ? And espetially considering this, that our souls are immortal, that they shall never die, but be for ever. Let us not altogether spend this precious time that is given us to save our souls, and to get the image of God stamped upon them, I say let us not spend this precious time in things that will leave us when our souls shall live still ; let us not carry the matter so, that our souls shall outlive our happiness. All worldhngs and base creatures, they outlive their happiness. For where do they plant it? In the base things of this life. All their life long they are prowling for those things that they must leave when they die, whereas their souls shall not die, but everlastingly subsist.