natural causes because they were done at all For that is to suppose it impossible there should be miracles which is to say it is impossible there should be a God which is an attempt somewhat beyond what the most impudent Atheists pretended But in this case nothing can be reasonably urged but common experience to the contrary if these were things which were usually done by other causes there would be no reason to pretend a miraculous power but we say it is impossible that such things should be produced by meer natural causes and in this case there can be no confutation but by contrary experience As we see the opinion of the Ancients concerning the uninhabitableness of the torrid Zone and that there were no Antipodes are disproved by the maniâ—est experience to the contrary of all modern discoverers Let such plain experience be produced and we shall then yield the possibility of the things by some natural causes although not by such an exact temperament of body which is only an instance of the strong power of imagination in those who think so whatever that may have on others Such a temperament of body as these persons imagine considering the great inequality of the mixture of the earthly and aerial parts in us being it may be as great a miracle it self as any they would disprove by it 2. But supposing such a temperament of body to be possible how comes it to be so beneficial to others as to propâ—gate its vertue to the cure of diseaseâ— persons We may as well think that a great beauty may change a Black by often viewing him or a skilful Musician make another so by sitting near him as one man heal another because he is healthful himself Unless we can suppose it in the power of a man to send forth the best spirits of his own body and transfuse them into the body of another but by this means that which must cure another must destroy himself Besides the healthfulness of a person lies much in the freedom of perspiration of all the noxious vapours to the body by which it will appear incredible that a man should preserve his own health by sending out the worst vapors and at the same time cure another by sending out the best 3. Supposing we should grant that a vigorous heat and a strong arm may by a violent friction discuss some tumor of a distempered body yet what would all this signifie to the mighty cures which were wrought so easily and with a word speaking and at such great distance as were by Christ and his Apostles Supposing our Saviour had the most exact natural temper that ever any person in the world had yet what could this do to the cure of a person above twenty miles distance for so our Saviour cured the Son of a Nobleman who lay sick at Capernaum when himself was at Cana in Galilee So at Capernaum he cured the Centurion's servant at his own house without going thither Thus we find the Apostles curing though they did not touch them and that not one or two but multitudes of diseased persons And nothing can be more absurd than to imagine that so many men should at the same time work so many miraculous cures by vertue of a temperament peculiar to themselves for how come they only to happen to have this temperament and none of the Jews who had all equal advantages with them for it Why did none of the enemies of Christ do as strange things as they did How come they never to do it before they were Christians nor in such an extraordinary manner till after the day of Pentecost Did the being Christians alter their natural temper and infuse a â—anative vertue into them which they never had before Or rather was not their Christianity like to have spoyled it if ever they had it before by their frequent watchings fastings hunger and thirst cold and nakedness stripes and imprisonments racks and torments Are these the improvers of an excellent constitution if they be I doubt not but those who magnifie it in them would rather want the vertue of it than be at the pains to obtain it 2. But what a natural temper cannot do they think the power of imagination may and therefore in order to the enervating the power of miracles they mightily advance that of imagination which is the Idol of those who are as little Friends to reason in it as they are to Religion Any thing shall be able to effect that which they will not allow God to do nay the most extravagant thing which belongs to humane nature shall have a greater power than the most holy and divine spirit But do not we see say they strange effects of the power of imagination upon mankind I grant we do and in nothing more than when men set it up against the power of God yet surely we see far greater effects of that in the world than we do of the other The power of imagination can never be supposed to give a being to the things we see in the world but we have the greatest reason to attribute that to a divine and infinite power and is it not far more rational that that which gave a Being to the course of nature should alter it when it pleaseth than that which had nothing to do in the making of it So that in general there can be no competition between the power of God and the strength of imagination as to any extraordinary effects which happen in the world But this is not all for there is a repugnancy in the very nature of the thing that the power of imagination should do all those miracles which were wrought by Christ or his Apostles For either they must be wrought by the imagination of the Agent or of the Patient if of the Agent then there can be no more necessary to do the same things than to have the same strength oâ— imagination which they had What is the reason then that never since or before that time were so many signs and wonders wrought as there were then by the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord If Peter and Iohn cured the lame man by the strength of imagination why have no persons ever since cured those whose welfare they have as heartily desired as ever they could do his Certainly if imagination could kill mens enemies there would never need Duels to destroy them nor Authority to punish such as do it and if it could cure Friends there would need no Physicians to heal and recover them and death would have nothing to do but with persons that were wholly Friendless If they say that persons are not sufficiently perswaded of their own power and therefore they do see little good let any of those who contend the most for it attempt the cure when they please of any the most common infirmity of mankind and if they cannot do that let them then perswade us they can do miracles by that which
are infinitely beyond the racks and torments of the body It hath sometimes happened that the horrour of despair hath seized upon mens minds for some notorious crimes in this life which hath given no rest either to body or mind but the violence of the inward pains have forced them to put an end to this miserable life as in the case of Iudas But if the expectation of future misery be so dreadful what must the enduring of it be Of all the ways of dying we can hardly imagine any more painful or full of horrour than that of sacrificing their Children to Molock was among the Canaanites and Children of Amon where the Children were put into the body of a Brass Image and a fire made under it which by degrees with lamentable shrieks and cryings roasted them to death yet this above all others in the New Testament is chosen as the fittest representation of the miseries of another world and thence the very name of Gehenna is taken But as the joys of heaven will far surpass all the pleasure which the mind of a good man hath in this life so will the torments of Hell as much exceed the greatest miseries of this world But in the most exquisite pains of the body there is that satisfaction still left that death will at last put an end to them but that is a farther discovery of the unspeakable folly of losing the soul for the sake of this world that 3. The happiness of this world can last but for a little time but the misery of the soul will have no end Suppose a man had all the world at his command and enjoyed as much satisfaction in it as it was possible for humane nature to have yet the very thoughts of dying and leaving all in a short time must needs make his happiness seem much less considerable to him And every wise man would provide most for that State wherein he is sure to continue longest The shortness of life makes the pleasures of it less desireable and the miseries less dreadful but an endless State makes every thing of moment which belongs to it Where there is variety and liberty of change there is no necessity of any long deliberation before-hand but for that which is to continue always the same the greatest consideration is needful because the very continuance of some things is apt to bring weariness and satiety with it If a man were bound for his whole life-time to converse only with one person without so much as seeing any other he would desire time and use his best judgment in the choice of him If one were bound to lie in the same posture without any motion but for a month together how would he imploy his wits before-hand to make it as easie and tolerable as might be Thus solicitous and careful would men be for any thing that was to continue the same although but for a short time here But what are those things to the endless duration of a soul in a misery that is a perpetual destruction and everlasting death always intolerable and yet must always be endured A misery that must last when time it self shall be no more and the utmost periods we can imagine fall infinitely short of the continuance of it O the unfathomable Abyss of Eternity how are our imaginations lost in the conceptions of it But what will it then be to be swallowed up in an Abyss of misery and eternity together And I do not know how such an eternal State of misery could have been represented in Scripture in words more Emphatical than it is not only by everlasting fire and everlasting destruction but by a worm that never dies and a fire that never goes out and the very same expressions are used concerning the eternal State of the blessed and the damned so that if there were any reason to question the one there would be the same to question the other also 4. The loss of this world may be abundantly recompenced but the loss of the Soul can never be For what shall a man give in exchange for his soul If a man runs the hazard of losing all that is valuable or desirable in this world for the sake of his Soul heaven and eternal happiness will make him infinite amends for it He will have no cause to repent of his bargain that parts with his share in this evil world for the joys and glories that are above They who have done this in the resolution of their minds have before-hand had so great satisfaction in it that they have gloried in tribulations and rejoyced in hopes of the glory of God they have upon casting up their accounts found that the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed because the afflictions they meet with here are but light and momentany but that which they expected in recompence for them was an exceeding and an eternal weight of Glory O blessed change what life can be so desirable as the parting with it is on such terms as these It was the hopes of this glorious recompence which inspired so many Martyrs to adventure for Heaven with so much courage patience and constancy in the primitive times of the Christian Church How do they look down from Heaven and despise all the vanities of this World in comparison with what they enjoy And if they are sensible of what is done on earth with what pity do they behold us miserable creatures that for the sake of the honours pleasures or riches of this World venture the loss of all which they enjoy and thereby of their Souls too Which is a loss so great that no recompence can ever be made for it no price of redemption can ever be accepted for the delivery of it For even the Son of God himself who laid down his life for the redemption of Souls shall then come from heaven with flaming fire to take vengeance on all those who so much despise the blood he hath shed for them the warnings he hath given to them the Spirit he hath promised them the reward he is ready to bestow upon them as in spight of all to cast away those precious and immortal Souls which he hath so dearly bought with his own blood Methinks the consideration of these things might serve to awaken our security to cure our stupidity to check our immoderate love of this world and inflame our desires of a better Wherein can we shew our selves men more than by having the greatest regard to that which makes us men which is our souls Wherein can we shew our selves Christians better than by abstaining from all those hurtful lusts which war against our souls and doing those things which tend to make them happy We are all walking upon the shore of eternity and for all that we know the next tide may sweep us away shall we only sport and play or gather cockle-shells and lay them in
him and they saâ—â— him hanging upon the Cross and readâ— to yield up his last breath he imploys thâ— remainder of it in begging pardon foâ— them in those pathetical words Father forgive them for they know not what they do By all which we see that what punishments soever the Jewish Nation underwent afterwards for the great sin of crucifying the Lord of life were no effect of meer revenge from him upon them but the just judgment of God which they had drawn upon themselves by their own obstinacy and wilful blindness And that they might not think themselves surprized when the dreadful effects of God's anger should seize upon them our Saviour as he drew nearer to the time of his sufferings gives them more frequent and serious warnings of the sad consequence of their incorrgibleness under all the means of cure which had been used among them For they were so far from being amended by them that they not only despised the remedy but the Physicians too as though that were a small thing they beat they wound they kill those who came to cure them but as if it had not been enough to have done these things to servants to let the world see how dangerous it is to attempt the cure of incorrigible sinners when God sent his own Son to them expecting they should reverence him they find a peculiar reason for taking him out of the way for then the inheritance would be their own But so miserably do sinners miscarry in their designs for their advantage that those things which they build their hopes the most upon prove the most fatal and pernicious to them When these persons thought themselves sure of the inheritance by killing the Son that very sin of theirs not only put them out of possession but out of the hopes of recovering what interest they had in it before For upon this it is that our Saviour here saith in the words of the Text Therefore say I unto you that the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof Which words are the application which our Saviour makes of the foregoing parable concerning the vineyard which it seems the Chief Priests and Pharisees did not apprehend themselves to be concerned in till he brought the application of it so close to them so that then they find they had condemned themselves when they so readily passed so severe a sentence upon those husbandmen who had so ill requited the Lord of the Vineyard for all the care he had taken about it that instead of sending him the fruits of it they abuse his messengers and at last murther his Son When therefore Christ asks them When the Lord therefore of the Vineyard cometh what will he do unto those husbandmen They thought the case so plain that they never take time to consider or go forth â—o advise upon it but bring in a present answer upon the evidence of the fact They say unto him he will miserably destroy those wicked men and will let out his Vineyard to other husbandmen which shall render him the fruits in their seasons Little did they think what a dreadful sentence they passed upon themselves and their own nation in these words little did they think that hereby they condemned their Temple to be burned their City to be destroyed their Counâ—ry to be ruined their Nation to be Vagabonds over the face of the earth little did they think that herein they justified God in all the miseries which they suffered afterwards for in these words they vindicate God and condemn themselves they acknowledge God's Justice in the severest punishments he should inflict upon such obstinate wretches Our Saviour having gained this confession from them and so made it impossible for them to start back in charging God with injustice in punishing them he now applies it to themselves in these words which I suppose ought immediately to follow the 41. verse Therefore say I unto you the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you c. Wherein we have 1. The greatest judgment which can ever befal a people which is the taking away the Kingdom of God from them 2. The greatest mercy can ever be vouchsafed to a nation which is God's giving his Kingdom to it And give it to a nation c. In the Judgment we consider the cause of it therefore say I unto you c. which is either more general as referring to all going before and so it makes the taking away the Kingdom of God to be the just punishment of an incorrigible people or more particular as referring to the sin of the Jews in crucifying Christ and so it makes the guilt of that sin to be the cause of all the miseries which that nation hath undergone since that time In the latter part we may consider the terms upon which God either gives or continues his Kingdom to a Nation and that is bringing forth the fruits thereof We consider the former with a particular respect to the state of the Jewish Nation And therein 1. The greatness of their judgment implyed in those words the Kingdom of God c. 2. The particular reason of that judgment which was crucifying the Son of God 1. The greatness of the judgment which beâ—el the Jewish Nation after imbruing their hands in the blood of Christ. And that will appear if we take the Kingdom of God in that double notion in which it was taken at that time 1. It was taken by the Jews themselves for some peculiar and temporal blessings which those who enjoyed it had above all other people 2. It was taken by our Saviour for a clearer manifestation of the will of God to the world and the consequence of that in the hearts of good men and all the spiritual blessings which do attend it So that the taking away the Kingdom of God from them must needs be the heaviest judgment which could befal a people since it implies in it the taking away all the greatest temporal and spiritual blessings 1. We take it in the notion the Jews themselves had of it and in this sense we shall make it evident that the Kingdom of God hath been taken from that people in accomplishment of this prediction of our Saviour For they imagined the Kingdom of God among them to consist in these things especially Deliverance from their enemies a flourishing state the upholding their Religion in Honour chiefly in the pompous worship of the Temple Now if instead of these things they were exposed to the fury of their enemies so as never any nation besides them were if their whole Poliâ—y was destroyed so as the very face of Government hath ever since been taken from them if their Religion hath been so far from being upheld that the practice of it hath been rendred impossible by the destruction of the Temple and the consequences of it then the Jews themselves cannot but say that in their own
soul to be of such a nature that it was not capable of dying with the body and some of them such as none of their Adversaries were ever able to answer For the most common acts of sense are unaccountable in a meer Mechanical way and after all the attempts of the most witty and industrious men I despair of ever seeing the powers of meer matter raised to a capacity of performing the lowest acts of perception and much more of those nobler faculties of memory understanding and will But although the arguments from hence are sufficient to justifie the belief of the souls immortality to all considering men yet the far greatest part of mankind was never so and a matter of so great consequence as this is ought to be proposed in the most plain most certain and most effectual manner While these disputes were managed among the Philosophers of old though those who asserted the immortality of the soul had the better reason of their side yet their Adversaries spake with greater confidence and that always bears the greatest sway among injudicious people And some men are always fond of a reputation for wit by opposing common opinions though never so true and useful especially when they serve a bad end in it and do thereby plead for their own impieties But it cannot be denied that those who were in the right did likewise give too great advantage to their enemies partly by their own diffidence and distrust of what they had contended for partly from the too great niceness and subtilty of their arguments partly from the ridiculous fopperies which they maintained together with that of the souls immortality as the transmigration of them into the bodies of Brutes and such like But the main disadvantage of all to the world was that the immortality of the soul was rather insisted on as a Principle of Philosophy than of Religion Some of the best of their arguments were such as made the souls of Brutes immortal as well as those of men and those could not be imagined to have any great force on the lives of men which would equally hold for such creatures which were not capable of rewards and punishments in another life But therein lies the great excellency of the doctrine of the souls immortality as it is discovered in the Gospel not only that it comes from him who best understands the nature of souls but is delivered in such a manner as is most effectual for the reformation of mankind For the fullest account herein given of it is by the rewards and punishments of another life and those not Poetically described by Fictions and Romances but delivered with the plainness of truth the gravity of a Law the severity of a Judge the authority of a Law-giver the Majesty of a Prince and the wisdom of a Deity Wherein the happiness described is such as the most excellent minds think it most desirable and the misery so great as all that consider it must think it most intolerable And both these are set forth with so close a respect to the actions of this life that every one must expect in another world according to what he doth in this How is it then possible that the doctrine of the souls being in another state could be recommended with greater advantage to mankind than it is in the Gospel and what is there can be imagined to take off the force of this but the proving an absolute incapacity in the soul of subsisting after death It is true indeed in the state of this intimate union and conjunction between the soul and body they do suffer mutually from each other But if the souls suffering on the account of the body as in diseases of the brain be sufficient to prove there is no soul why may not the bodies suffering on the account of the soul as in violent passions of the mind as well prove that there is no body It is not enough then to prove that the soul doth in some things suffer from the body for so doth the Child in the Mothers womb from the distempers of its Mother yet very capable of living when separated from her but it must be shewed that the soul is not distinct from the body to prove it uncapable of being without it But on the other side I shall now shew that there is nothing unreasonable in what the Scripture delivers concerning the immortal state of the Souls of men as to future rewards and punishments because there are those things now in them considered as distinct from their bodies which make them capable of either of them And those are 1. That they are capable of pleasure and pain distinct from the body 2. That they have power of determining their own actions 1. That the souls of men are capable of pleasure and pain distinct from the pleasure and pain of the body Where-ever pleasure and pain may be there must be a capacity of rewards and punishments for a reward is nothing but the heightning of pleasure and punishment an increase of pain And if there be both these in men of which no account can be given from their bodies there must be a nobler principle within which we call the Soul which is both the cause and the subject of them We may as easily imagine that a Fox should leave his prey to find out a demonâ—tration in Euclid or a Serpent attempt the squaring of the circle in the dust or all the Fables of Aesop to become real Hisâ—ories and the Birds and Beasts turn Wits and Polititians as be able to give an account of those we call pleasures of the mind from the affections of the body The transport of joy which Archimedes was in at the finding out his desired Problem was a more certain evidence of the real pleasures of the mind than the finding it was of the greatness of his wit Could we ever think that men who understood themselves would spend so much time in lines and numbers and figures and examining Problems and Demonstrations which depend upon them if they found not a great delight and satisfaction in the doing of it But whence doth this pleasure arise not from seeing the figures or meer drawing the lines or calculating the numbers but by deducing the just and necessary consequences of one thing from another which would afford no more pleasure to a man without his soul than a Book of Geometry would give to a Herd of Swine It is the Soul alone which takes pleasure in the search and finding out such Truths which can have no kind of respect to the Body it is that which can put the Body out of order with its own pleasures by spending so much time in contemplation as may exhaust the Spirits abate the vigour of the Body and hasten its decay And while that droops and sinks under the burden the Soul may be as vigorous and active in such a consumptive state of the Body as ever it was before the understanding as