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SIR,

THE HE Indifpofition which has long hung upon me, is at last grown to fuch a head, that it must quickly make an end of me, or of it felf. You may imagine, that whilft I am in this bad ftate of Health, there are none of your Works which I read with greater Pleasure than your Saturday's Papers. I fhould be very glad if I could furnish you with any Hints for that Day's Entertainment. Were I able to drefs up feveral Thoughts of a ferious nature, which have made great Impreffions on my Mind during a long Fit of Sicknefs, they might not be an improper Entertainment for that 'Occafion.

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AMONG all the Reflections which ufually rife in the mind of a 'fick Man, who has Time and Inclination to confider his approaching End, there is none more natural than that of his going to appear naked and unbodied before Him who made him. When a Man confiders, that as soon as the vital Union is diffolved, he fhall fee that Supreme Being, whom he now contemplates at a distance, and

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only in his Works; or, to fpeak more philofophically, when by fome Faculty in the Soul he fhall apprehend the Divine Being, and be more fenfible ' of his Prefence, than we are now of 'the Prefence of any Object which the

Eye beholds, a Man must be lost in • Careleffness and Stupidity, who is not 'alarmed at such a Thought. Dr. Sherlock, in his excellent Treatife upon 'Death, has reprefented, in very strong and lively Colours, the State of the 'Soul in its first Separation from the Body, with regard to that invifible World which every where furrounds C us, though we are not able to difcover it through this groffer World of C Matter, which is accommodated to our Senfes in this Life. His words are as follow.

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THAT Death, which is our leaving this World, is nothing else but our putting off thefe Bodies, teaches us, that it is only our Union to thefe Bodies which intercepts the fight of the other World: The other World is not at fuch a distance from us, as we may imagine; the Throne of God indeed is at a great remove from this • Earth, above the third Heavens, where A 3

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be difplays his Glory to those bleffed Spirits which encompass his Throne; but as foon as we step out of thefe Bodies, we Step into the other World, which is not So properly another World, (for there is the fame Heaven and Earth ftill) as a new state of Life. To live in thefe Bodies is to live in this World; to live out “ of them is to remove into the next: For " while our Souls are confined to thefe Bo• dies, and can look only through these ma'terial Cafements, nothing but what is • material can affect us; nay, nothing but what is fo grofs, that it can reflect Light, and convey the Shapes and Colours of Things with it to the Eye: So that though within this vifible World, there be a more glorious Scene of Things than • what appears to us, we perceive nothing at all of it; for this Veil of Flesh parts the vifible and invifible World: But when we put off thefe Bodies, there are new and furprizing Wonders prefent themselves to our View; when these material SpeEtacles are taken off, the Soul with its own naked Eyes fees what was invifi• ble before: And then we are in the other • World, when we can fee it, and converfe with it: Thus St. Paul tells us, That when we are at home in the Body,

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we are abfent from the Lord; but when we are abfent from the Body, we are present with the Lord, 2 Cōr. 5.6, 8. And methinks this is enough to cure us of our Fondnefs for thefe Bodies, unless we think it more defirable to be confined to a Prifon, and to look through a Grate all our Lives, which gives us but a very narrow profpect, and that none of the best neither, than to be fet at liberty to view all the Glories of the World. What would we give now for the leaft Glimpse of that invisible World, which the first fep we take out of thefe Bodies will prefent us with? There are fuck things as Eye hath not feen, nor Ear heard, neither hath it entered into the Heart of Man to conceive: Death opens our Eyes, enlarges our Prospect, Prefents us with a new and more glorious World, which we can never fee while C we are but up in Flesh; which should • make us as willing to part with this Veil, as to take the Film off of our Eyes which • hinders our Sight.

AS a thinking Man cannot but be C very much affected with the Idea of his appearing in the prefence of that Being whom none can fee and live, he A 4

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'must be much more affected when he

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confiders that this Being whom he C appears before, will examine all the Actions of his paft Life, and reward or punish him accordingly. I must confefs that I think there is no Scheme of Religion, befides that of Chriftianity, which can poffibly support the moft virtuous Perfon under this • Thought. Let a Man's Innocence be what it will, let his Virtues rife to the highest Pitch of Perfection attainable in this Life, there will be ftill in him fo many fecret Sins, fo many human Frailties, fo many Offences of Ignorance, Paffion and Prejudice, fo many unguarded Words and Thoughts, and in fhort, fo many Defects in his beft Actions, that, without the Advantages of fuch an Expiation and Atonement as Chriftianity has revealed to us, it is impoffible that he should be cleared before his Sovereign Judge, or that he fhould be able to ftand • in his Sight. Our Holy Religion fuggefts to us the only Means whereby our Guilt may be taken away, and our imperfect Obedience <cepted.

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