By the crofs ofChrìJE. 7o9' God in them, are but the very corpfeor carkaile'of a bltfling The Life of them is wanting 1 A nd without the Life , they will but trouble you t Fnr you have the burden without the ufe. Your h&rfe will carry you, while he hath life and health ; but take away his life once, and you muff carry him if you will have him any further. Verily it is no wifer a trick to make a fir in the world, and feek the profits and pleafures of ir, without God, or any otherwife then as they are animated byGod,then it is to ride a dead horfe , where you may fpur long enough before yon are one mile further onyour way. While your friend is living you maydelightfully converfe with him : but when he is dead you will have little pleafure in his company : the corpfe of the moil learned man will aelively teach' you nomote then ablock. Were it the wife of your bofom who through prudence and beauty were never fo lovely ro you, when her carkaife is left with - out a foul you will hafen ro bury it out of your fight, and would be loath fo much as to keep it in your houle, much lefs in your bed and bofocr, as heretofore. He that knowcth not that God is the Life and Soul of all our Bleffings, doth neither knowwhat God is nor what a Bleffing is. They are but the emptycasks andfhells, and not the Bleflings themfelves without him. You have the Burden, and not the Benefit : You muff carry them , but they cando nothing to the Purporting of you. Its the ab- fence of God that denorninateth themVanity and Vexation: and it ishe only that can make them frengthening and confolatory. That muff have tome life in it, that mull be pzbulum vitae, and muff fufain our lives. Souls cannot feed uponmeer terrene cor- poreal things, any more then the body upon meer fpirituals. As we have both a foul and a body to be fuUained , fo have we a fu_ Penance fuitablc- to them both ; even the creature animated by God, or God in and by the creature. How great then is your fin, that defiroyyour bleffings byde. priving them of their Life ? and that in a fort defiroy the world toyour felves, by feparating it from its foul ? and fo moR hai- noufly injure God, and rob. your felves of the comfort of all , and turnyour blefiìngs into burdens, and your helps into biinde- rances and fnares to your fouls. Have you lived fo long in the School of thewor tl, yea and of the Church too , where you have not only the libraryof Nature,but fupernatural Revelati- P3 cuai
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