A discourse relating to the much-lamented death and solemn funeral of our incomparable and…

The perfect Cure of all the Distempers of our Spirits, and a confirmed most perfectly happy Temper, is of most absolute Necessity to the Blessedness of the heavenly State; and without it any imagined external Glory will signify no more to our Satisfaction, than rich and gorgeous Apparel can give the desired Content and Ease to an ulcerous diseased Body; or (as the Moralist speaks) ¹a Diadem to an a king Head, a gay Slipper to a pained Foot, or a Gold Ring to a sore Finger.

1. 1Plutar.

Let a Soul be supposed actually adjoined to that glorious Assembly, and Church above, that is yet unacquainted with God, strange, and disaffected to him, alienated from the divine Life, still carnally minded, loving most, and looking back with a lingering Eye towards this present World and State of things; full of Pride, Haughtiness, and self-magnifying Thoughts; of Envy, Wrath, Hatred, Contentiousness; of Deceit, Guilefulness and Dissimulation, filled with ravenous Lusts, and inordinate, insatiable Desires after impossible Things: Such a Soul will only seem to have mistaken its Way, Place, State and Company, and can only be a sit Associate for Devils and infernal Spirits. Its Condition would be equally uneasy to it self, and all about it; the Outrage of its own Lusts and Passions would create to it an Hell in the midst of Heaven, and be to it as a thousand Devils, both for Wickedness and for Torment.

Let a Soul be supposed actually adjoined to that glorious Assembly, and Church above, that is yet unacquainted with God, strange, and disaffected to him, alienated from the divine Life, still carnally minded, loving most, and looking back with a lingring Eye towards this present World and State of things; full of Pride, Haughtiness, and self-magnifying Thoughts; of Envy, Wrath, Hatred, Contentiousness; of Deceit, Guilefulness and Dissimulation, fill'd with ravenous Lusts, and inordinate, insatiable Desires after impossible Things: Such a Soul will only seem to have mistaken its Way, Place, State and Company, and can only be a sit Associate for Devils and infernal Spirits. Its Condition would be equally uneasy to it self, and all about it; the Outrage of its own Lusts and Passions would create to it an Hell in the midst of Heaven, and be to it as a thousand Devils, both for Wickedness and for Torment.