xxxiv.

10.

proaching his holy Table; and had rather be Door- Pfal. keepers in the Houfe of God, than to dwell in the Tents of Wickedness. When we can look upon Death as a Paffage to a blessed Immortality, and welcome its Approach,not only without Fear, but with Comfort and Satisfaction. Knowing that when this earthly Ta- Cor.v.1, bernacle fhall be diffolved, we shall have a House not made with Hands, eternal in the Heavens.

Almighty God, who through thy only-begotten for the

Effects of

tion.

Son Jefus Chrift, haft overcome Death, and bleffed opened unto us the Gate of everlasting Life; I Chrift's humbly beseech thee, that as by thy fpecial Grace Refurrec preventing me, thou doft put into my Mind good Defires, fo by thy continual Help I may bring the fame to good Effect, through Jefus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, World without End. Amen.

II.

Almighty Father, who haft given thine only Son For Con

verfion

to die for our Sins, and to rife again for our from Sin. Juftification; grant me fo to put away the Leaven of Malice and Wickednefs, that I may always serve thee in Pureness of Living and Truth, thro' the Merits of the fame thy Son Jefus Chrift. Amen.

III.

T is very meet, right, and my bounden Duty, Thankf for

Chrift's

give Thanks unto thee, O Lord, Holy Father, Relurrec Almighty everlasting God: But chiefly am I bound tion. to praife thee, for the glorious Refurrection of thy Son Jefus Christ our Lord; for he is the very Paf

chal

For the
Effect of
Chrift's

tion.

chal Lamb which was offered for us, and hath taken away the Sin of the World; who by his Death hath deftroyed Death, and by his rifing to Life again, hath reftored us to everlasting Life: Therefore with Angels and Archangels, and with all the Company of Heaven, I laud and magnify thy glorious Name, evermore praifing thee, and faying, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Hofts, Heaven and Earth are full of thy Glory! Glory be to thee, O Lord moft High. Amen.

IV.

Leffed Jefus, who haft triumphed over the Powers of Darkness, and conquered Hell and Returrec- the Grave, who by thy glorious Refurrection haft made known the Power of thy Divinity, and proved thyfelf to be the true Meffias; keep me ftedfaft in this Faith, and grant that all the Actions of my Life may testify the Reality and Sincerity of my Belief. Make me to rife from the Death of Sin to the Life of Righteousness; that as I am buried with thee by Baptifm, I may mortify all my corrupt Lufts and Affections, and no longer efteem the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World; and by being conformed to the Likeness of thy Resurrection, may put on the new Man, which after God is created in Righteoufnefs and true Holiness. That I may place my Affections entirely on Things above, and spend the remaining Part of my Life to fecure, that Happiness thou haft purchased for me; that by thy Strength I may fight against all my ghostly Enemies, and by thy Power overcome them. Suffer not the Thoughts of Death to be any longer uneafy to me, fince thou haft taken out the Sting, and divested it of any Power to hurt: But teach me to look upon it as a Deliverance from Sin and Sorrow, and as a Paffage to a happy Eternity; that when I fhall depart this Life, I may rest in thee,

and

and at the general Refurrection at the last Day be found acceptable in thy Sight, O Lord, my Savi, our and Redeemer. Amen.

CHA P. XVI.

Easter Monday.

Q. WHAT fheweth the great Solemnity of the

Eafter Festival?

A. The particular Care the Church hath taken to fet apart the two following Days after the Sunday, for the Exercife of Religious Duties, to the End that we might have Leisure to confirm our Faith in the grand Article of ourSaviour's Refurrection, and to exert our devout Affections in all those happy Confequences that are deducible from it.

Q. What are the Confequences deducible from our Saviour's Refurrection?

A. That though through the Fall of Adam we are all made fubject to Death, yet that our Souls, when separated from our Bodies, fhall live in another State; and that even our Bodies, though committed to the Grave, and turned to Duft, fhall, at the last Day, rife again, and be united to our Souls; and being thus united and purified, the whole Man, Body and Soul, fhall be made capable of Happinefs to all Eternity. By our Saviour's rifing from the Dead, he is become the First-fruits of them that fleep; and he who hath promised to raise us up, did raife himself from the Dead; which is a Security for us that he will make his Word good. Q. What do ye mean by the Soul?

A. An immaterial Principle in Man, distinct from the Body, which is the Cause of those several Operations, which by inward Senfe and Experience we

z Tim i.

10.

are confcious to ourfelves of. It is that whereby we think and remember, whereby we reafon and debate about any Thing, and do freely chufe and refufe fuch Things as are prefented to us.

Q. What do ye mean by the Immortality of the Soul?

A. That this immaterial Principle in Man, called the Soul, is fo created by the divine Wisdom and Goodness, as not to have in itself any. Compofition or Principles of Corruption; but that it will naturally, or of itself, continue for ever, and will not, by any natural Decay or Power of Nature, be diffolved or destroyed. That when the Body falls into the Ground, this Principle will still remain and live feparate from it, and continue to perform all fuch Operations towards which the Organs of the Body are not neceffary, and not only continue, but live in this separate State, so as to be fenfible of Happinefs and Mifery. But yet nevertheless it depends continually upon God, who hath Power to destroy and annihilate it, as he can all other Creatures, if he fhould fo think fit.

Q: What Proof have we of the Soul's Immortality?

A. That there is an immaterial Principle in Man diftinct from the Body, which fhall continue' for ever, capable of Happiness and Misery, hath great Probability from the Evidence of Reason, and natural Arguments incline us to believe it. But that which giveth us the great Affurance of it, is the Revelation of the Gofpel, whereby Life and Immortality is brought to Light. This is the only fure Foundation of our Hopes, and an Anchor for our Faith; because the Authority of God is above all Reafon and Philofophy; other Arguments may be difputed, but this leaves no Place for Doubt, having in à Manner made it vifible to us by our Saviour's rifing from the Dead.

Q. What

Q. What are the Arguments from Reafon, in their own Nature, apt to perfuade us that the Soul is Immortal?

A. The Arguments from Reafon may be taken from the Nature of the Soul itfelf, and those several Operations, which we are confcious to ourselves of, and which cannot, without great Violence to Reason, be ascribed to Matter. From the univerfal Confent of Mankind, which sheweth it to be a natural Notion and Dictate of the Mind. From those natural Notions we have of God, and of the effential Difference of Good and Evil: And from the natural Hopes and Fears of Men. Thefe are fuch Arguments as in Reason the Nature of the Thing will bear; for an Immortal Nature is neither capable of the Evidence of Senfe, nor of Mathematical Demonftration; and therefore we should content ourselves with these Arguments in this Matter, fo far as to fuffer ourselves to be perfuaded, that it is highly probable; the thorough Belief of it can only be fixed upon Revelation.

Q. How does it appear that the Soul is Immortal from the Nature of the Soul itself?

A. Because those feveral Actions and Operations which we are conscious to ourselves of, fuch as Liberty, or a Power of chufing or refufing, and the feveral Acts of Reafon and Understanding, cannot without great Violence be afcribed to Matter, or be refolved into any bodily Principle, and therefore we must attribute them to another Principle different from Matter, and confequently immortal and inca-. pable in its own Nature of Corruption. It is by this Principle in us, that we abstract, compare, infer, and methɓdize, and by which we conceive many Things, which no material Phantafms can reprefent to us, as Relations, Proportions, and Proportionality, as the Geometricians call the Relation of one Proportion to another. In like Manner the Notion