A will, given up to earthly goods, is at grass with _Nebuchadnezzar_, and has one life with the beasts of the field: for earthly desires keep up the _same life_ in a man and an ox. When therefore a man wholly turneth his will to earthly desires, he dies to the excellency of his natural state, and may be said only to live, and move, and have his being in the life of this world, as the beasts have. Earthy food, only desired and used for the support of the earthly body, is suitable to a man’s present condition, and the order of nature: but when the desire of the soul is set upon earthly things, then the humanity is degraded, is fallen from God; and the life of the soul is made as _earthly_ and _bestial_, as the life of the body. *And this is to be noted well, that death can make no alteration in this state of the will; it only takes off the outward covering of flesh and blood, and forces the soul to see, and feel, and know, what a life, what a state, _food_, _body_, and _habitation_, its own will has brought forth for it. Oh _Academicus_, stop awhile, and let your hearing be turned into feeling. Tell me, is there any thing in life that deserves a thought, but how to keep our will in a right state, and to get that _purity_ of heart, which alone can see, and know, and find, and possess God? Is there any thing so frightful as this worldly spirit, which turns the soul from God, makes it an house of darkness, and feeds it with the food of time, at the expence of all the riches of eternity. On the other hand, what can be so desirable a good as the _spirit of prayer_, which empties the soul of all its evil; separates death and darkness from it; leaves _time_ and the _world_; and becomes one life, one light, one Spirit with Christ and God? Think, my friends, of these things, with something more than thoughts; let your hungry souls eat of the nourishment of them; and desire only to live, that with the _whole spirit_ of your minds, you may live and die united to God; and thus let this conversation end, till God gives us another meeting. * * * * * _The Third Dialogue._