of the dead Bodies when their lives had been exemplary Plin. by this ceremony the Heathens did express a Reward that was due to a vertuous life and the Honour which a righteous Soul hath purchased to himself What they performed to the Body Christ promiseth to do unto both Soul and Body I will give thee c. You have seen the Picture of this Crown with many Jewels of the greater bulk an infinite number of the lesser sort of Pearls and Flowers we shall never know but by experience And so I proceed to a brief consideration of the Assurance that my Text gives of this Estate unto the faithful I will give thee c. It is no wonder to see Julian the Apostate a professed enemy of Christ a promoter of Gentilism upbraid Christians with the easiness of their belief and scoff at this perswasion That there is a Crown of Glory to reward the Righteous It is no marvel if amongst the Heathens men nursed up with prejudices against the Truth ignorant of the power and goodness of our God should call in question the Articles of the Resurrection of the dead and of the happiness of another life but that in the bosom of Christianity under the most visible expressions of Gods Omnipotency Justice and Mercy there should be some of that dull apprehension as not to understand and of those strange principles as to oppose these sacred and beneficial Truths it may seem at first very strange But see what manner of men are capable of this folly amongst us and you will cease from admiring they are the Disciples of Diagoras and Epicurus rather than of Christ men that are degenerated into beasts by their condescention to bruitish pleasures whose souls are sunk into their senses and have lost both the use and knowledge of the noblest functions they are those that defie Heaven by their crimes whose lives are a scandal and their persons a reproach to the society And do you wonder wherefore they are enemies to these truths that are no friends to the peaceable enjoyment of their lusts that lay before their eyes the punishments that are reserved for them do you wonder if these graceless wits cannot comprehend an estate so far above their capacities and contrary to the present let their natural abilities be never so great such know no other life but that of the senses no other felicity but the carnal nor other delights but of the body 1 Cor. 2.14 and how is it possible that such should have the least apprehension of that supernatural condition that shall raise man and all his faculties to the highest perfection of activity It is a mystery but onely to them whose minds are inlightned by the Spirit of God they also have no clear insight into this estate Therefore Christ in my Text pities the weakness of our capacities and adds to his promise of heavens glories sufficient reasons to convince us of the reality of these Rewards They are contained in these Particulars 1. In the Qualities of the person that promiseth and his engagement 2. In the nature of the Recompence or in that excellent relation between the estate of the faithful on earth and that in Heaven other reasons shall be added drawn from the rules observed in the disposition of the Creatures The person that promiseth this Crown of Life is described in the 8th verse of this Chapter The first and the last which was dead and is alive By which words is intimated his sufficiency for the performance for thereby are signified his Divinity and Humanity his death by which he purchased this celestial Diadem for us his Almighty Power and his Truth that are engaged to see us in the possession of it 1. Christs Death hath given us an unquestionable Right to this Crown and to all its dependencies Before in the estate of Innocency we had a natural claim to Heaven In coelumque redire animas coelumque venire Manil. lib. 4. by reason of our soul that is an immaterial substance conformable to the celestial Beings so that by this law of Nature established in the Creation which assignes unto every thing a final residence where first it had its derivation if man had continued in his integrity he had always continued in that glorious Right and might have called for an entrance into that Seat of Glory and happiness But this natural Priviledge hath been forfeited by Rebellion The soul by sin hath lost together the Title to demand and the Power to deserve an admission and hath seen it self banished out of Heaven by the procurement of its two great adversaries Guilt and Corruption But Christ by his death hath overcome them and all impediments by his Blood he hath satisfied an offended Justice Heb. 9.12 14 and obtained for us an eternal redemption Therefore he is said to be a propitiation for us and our peace Rom. 3.25 Eph. 2. by whom we have an access to the Father And in 10 Heb. 19 20. St. Paul teacheth We have boldness to enter in to the Holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh But the Infinite merits of our Redeemer have not onely re-established us in our former Right but purchased for us a degree of Perfection and Honour Aug. lib. 12. de Civit. far above that unto which we might have ascended by the strength of Nature in the estate of Innocency according to the judgement of the Fathers and of St. Paul who in Rom. 5. therefore mentions many advantages which we have received by Christ for one lost by Adam and tells us that the blood of the former is far more effectual and beneficial unto us than the transgression of the latter hath been hurtful So that by this means Gods eternal Justice is engaged to bring us to this estate which hath been lawfully purchased for us Heb. 9.24 In order thereunto Christ hath transported our nature and introduced it into the highest heavens that it might take possession in our names of Immortality and Bliss Eph. 2.6 2. But the goodness of our Title to Heaven into which Christ is entred had not been sufficient to secure us the fruition unless he had been enabled with a power sutable to so great an undertaking therefore we are informed That all power is given to him in heaven and in earth That God hath put all things under his feet That he sits at the right hand of God with the Scepter of an Almighty power in his hand This is signified in the former description by being alive from the dead Rom. 1.4 an infallible testimony of the Divinity of our Saviour As many difficulties I confess will strive to hinder our entrance into Heaven as there were nations that did oppose the Israelites passage into the promised Land our selves and Affections are not the least But what cannot he overcome by whom all things
sublimest felicity of Christ and of his Saints signifies as well the plenty as the eternity of their advantages He encompassed about Psal 21.3 We may hereby understand that this Crown of life shall intitle them to innumerable and immortal satisfactions it shall therefore be a true life How wrongfully do we abuse this pleasant Title in bestowing it upon the present unworthy subsistency of the soul and body O miserable estate how vainly do we flatter our beings with this gratefull conceit Can that ever be a life that drags us continually to our Grave that causeth us to die as soon as we begin to breathe and that is joyned unto death by the inward Principles of our existence Can that be a life that carries death in its bosome that makes us sensible of a thousand deaths before we breathe forth the last gasp and that is interrupted by sleep idleness and sickness as by so many deaths which deprive us of the benefits of life by which it is to be esteemed rather than by the continuance of the soul with the body at least in the judgement of a wise Moralist who hearing of a wicked man that was lately expired in a very old age Diu fuit said he sed non diu vixit At this rate how unworthy is our present subsistence of the pleasing and glorious title of life This therefore is promised in my text in opposition to that which we now lead to express the excellency and reality of that Heavenly Life free from those miseries which now do attend us Tolerantia transitoria Corona aeterna pugna modica merces immensa poena levis gloria inestimabilis dabo tibi post morzem pro morte vitae aeternitatem Aug. de civit Dei As if our Saviour should thus compare them together for the encouragement of the faithful What if my interest doth expose you to your enemies cruelty what if you are forced to lay down your lives in the maintenance of my cause what reason have you to prize so inconsiderable a loss when the Exchange brings unto you Returns of a more unspeakable value Grudg not to part with this shadow of life Grieve not to surrender it Refuse it not when I shall require it I have another life in reserve for you whose advantages do as highly excel those of this present being as the Crown doth the other enjoyments of the body a life both glorious and pleasant Erit status omnium bonorum aggregatione perfectus Boetius de consol where nothing shall be wanting to increase your satisfactions but cares trouble and pain which now do cause us to relish the sweetness of our earthly pleasures I will give thee c. This expression presents us with the greatest variety of Excellencies That they may better appear unto you take a view of them and of that supernatural estate of Heaven in these following propositions 1. It shall be an unseparable union of the soul and body for all eternity We shall live no more upon condition to die The fear of death that doth usually torment us more than the sense shall then cease with the cause Men shall never be disquieted with those importune Apprehensions that disturb us as they did Belshazzar in the midst of his carousing Cups and that cause us to be weary of life as that Roman was who being pursued by the cruelty of the Triumvirat offered himself freely to his Enemies pleasure to be delivered by death of the daily fear of dying But then we shall be secure both from the sense and apprehension of death and of all approaching evils and we shall rest in that blessed Tranquility that shall never have cause to dread an alteration there shall be no more divorce made between the soul and body it shall not be possible to separate that most loving couple Gods Wisdom and Power shall joyn them together in such a manner that neither Time nor any Accident shall be able to cause a separation For God upon whose pleasure all his Creatures do depend shall remove all deadly principles and grant us an eternal continuance which shall proceed not onely from his immutable Decree and immediate influence but also from the nature and manner of the union of the two parties that shall no longer be entertained by the assistance of the Creatures and a supply from the Elements but onely by a greater correspondency by more spiritual and more sutable Embraces At present although the soul hath a natural tendency to enliven to move and inform the body between them there is a vast difference that can never consent unto any conjunction without the mediation of the vital spirits extracted from the more subtil and purer substance of the meats refined by their successive concoctions But then our Bodies shall depose and cast off that gross and earthly matter and become more convenient companions of the soul by a nearer assimilation to that Celestial being For this mortal must put on immortality and this corruptible must put on incorruption as St. Paul teaches at large in the 1 Cor. 15 Chap. where he further declares the Mystery of the Resurrection and of the estate of our bodies in the 42 43 44. Verses The body is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption it is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory it is sown in weakness it is raised in power it is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body From hence we may discover the future substance of our Bodies which shall be almost as subtil as those earthly Spirits raised by the ordinary systole and diastole Mercat lib. 1. par 4. clas 4. quast 120. the two motions of the heart which Spirits have the nearest access to the soul of man and by which it is tied to its present residence for this blessed life and its eternity is established upon a resemblance and nearer relation between the soul and body whose beings must be rendred more conformable before they can be secured from a dissolution or from the sense of violence because that onely this conformity is able to render the communion unseparable and to free it by that means from the insults and affronts of all enemies It is therefore most certain that it shall not be in the power of any beings to put us to the sufferance of pain for as the pain which proceeds from the body is derived from an apprehension or a possibility of separation from that being upon which it depends or from that which tends unto it As the pain of the soul doth from a seeming or a real separation from God the fountain of all good or from that which stands us in some manner instead of God It cannot be imagined how they shall be able to suffer who are adorned with the qualities of immortality whose beings are free from alteration and not subject to the least weakness and whose senses shall never receive any contrary impressions nor convey unto the appetite
are pleasures for evermore 5. This life shall be a life of Holiness and Righteousness a life of Piety and Justice and of sobriety a life of integrity for then we shall be arrived to the supreme degree of perfection as well as of happines we shall come to that perfect stature of regeneration which is in Christ Jesus our Lord The works of the Devil shall then be utterly destroyed and that great disorder which his Apostacy hath caused shall then be reformed In Heaven no impure thing shall enter Rev. 21. Heb. 12.14 For without holiness none shall see God The glorified shall never be able to offend their God for the inward motions of the soul being rightly disposed according to his Will and our affections perfectly reformed the outward actions of the body must needs be conformable When there should be another Serpent to tempt us and another Eve to assist him they could never prevail upon us because we shall be no more in a possibility of sinning for our understandings shall be no more capable of mistakes nor our wills corrupted with importune desires nor our actions forced from us against our election And besides this blessed disposition from whence shall proceed a constant practice of the Commandments of God he will also by his continual influence to strengthen our resolutions and determine our wills that they shall abhor whatever might displease him the sight of his holiness shall convey the same disposition into our minds as St. John tells us and his infinite power shall be engaged 〈◊〉 â—â—eserve them whom his love hath espoused and for whom he hath been at so vast an expence to raise them to that estate Therefore God we shall for ever adore with all the powers of the soul and body his service we shall attend with delight our brethren we shall love without dissimulation How pleasant will this life be when there shall be a continual Emulation between God and his creatures and between themselves who shall exceed in love and affection when all the glorified in Heaven shall interchange daily expressions of kindness when there shall be a perfect agreement a living correspondency a sweet fellowship a delightful conversation without envy or malice without care or tediousness This is sufficient to render us most happy when all other things should be wanting for happiness consists rather in a perfect disposition of the mind than in a plentiful enjoyment of outward advantages But besides our bodies shall be adorned with heavenly qualities the present shall see a most happy change with the visible substance Conveniens est us sicut damnati habent extremas tenebras ita beati habeant extremam lucem Basil lib. Hexa Caro sine moln pondera sine deformitate ita ut sit animae ornamentum non tormentum Aug. Serm. 139. de tempor c. 3. and other qualities shall be added with which we are not at present acquainted It is therefore needless to question whether we shall know one another seeing we shall scarce know our selves the change will be so great It is certain that we shall move without trouble we shall ascend without help our strength shall be encreased our deformities removed our infirmities deposed our appearance shall be full of majesty and glory as Daniel informs us They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever In which words you may further observe a difference in the glories of Heaven sutable to their inclinations and employments on earth for the one shall shine as the Firmament the other as the Stars a sensible distinction shall be both in the nature and the greatness of their Rewards for according to the several dispositions of men and their several capacities God will accordingly bestow upon them his riches and his glory Therefore a Father adviseth us to enlarge our perfections and the faculties of the soul by a continual exercise in humane sciences that they may be then more capable to receive and contain the mysteries of Gods Wisdom and better able to bring forth glorious actions for this eternal Sabbath is an estate where all our abilities shall be in the highest perfection where we shall act and move without the least inconveniency Occasions we may have to exercise our Vertues not such as will cause us to suffer but such as without that strength of nature we should find a default in our happiness It is therefore our wisdom now to accustom our selves to that which shall be our employment for ever and upon which shall depend our satisfaction and glory which shall be revealed in us as St. Rom. 18.18 Paul informs us In our souls by a perfect enjoyment of supernatural excellencies in our bodies that shall be free from all weakness and beautified with glorious qualities Therefore this estate is called a Crown of Life for as the Crown is of a round and a perfect figure it is most proper to express the infiniteness and perfection of those heavenly delights that shall accompany that life besides the Crown is the sacred emblem of joy and honour this expression therefore presents us with the notion of the most pleasant and the most honourable estate together for there is nothing more acceptable than life nor more glorious than a Crown and that we may better understand wherefore Christ promiseth Heaven under this notion we must take notice that chiefly four sorts of persons were dignified with a Crown amongst the Ancients Kings to express their Authority and supream Command A new married couple at the nuptial Feasts therefore by the Greeks they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Priest in the solemn Sacrifices to render the offering more acceptable and the devotion more glorious or rather to shew what qualification was anciently required in one that presented to the Divinity the Homages of the people Another sort were crowned they who had given open testimony of their valour and cunning either in private Disputes and Plays allowed by authority or in a publick War in the maintenance of the general interest To these several sorts of Crowns were given which were in value and esteem according to the nature of the vertuous action Now the faithful in Heaven shall be Kings enjoying a supream command over the infernal Spirits and damned Souls They shall be Priests Rev. 2.26 sending up unto God the perfume of their praises They shall be married unto Christ in love and affection In these several respects this Crown may become them But our Saviour in this promise hath more especially an eye to the Crowns that were the rewards of a generous Perseverance that had obtained the Victory for he mentions the difficulties that were to be overcome A death to be endured and adds this encouragement I will give thee O faithful soul a Crown of Life It was the ancient custom to crown the Temples
would never be at such vast expence and care as to provide us with such divine qualities onely for this transitory Being were our souls to be smother'd in our graves that this blessed change that appears in our souls and bodies and that raises us to a capacity of being happy and to a resemblance with God tends to prepare us for a more worthy communion with him and that otherwise he would never have honoured us with such special tokens of his Love nor given us by them an expectation of greater advantages This proceeding were not consistent with the Wisdom Power Goodness Veracity and Immutability of God to receive us into his intimate acquaintance to bestow upon us the unspeakable mercies that are suitable to it to make us expect future happiness and the eternal fruition of his presence in Glory and then to suffer us to be cut off by death without hopes of life so that besides that the condition of the Elect on Earth and their present sanctification have a necessary tendency to glorification God would never have undertaken to render us happy did he not really resolve to make us so But set aside these considerations and look upon a true Christian as he appears to the eyes of the world You shall find his description given by a Heathen Philosopher to a Roman Emperour to this purpose He despises the World and all its enjoyments he sticks close to his Profession maugre all his enemies he rejoyces in Wants and Persecutions and sings merrily in the flames his soul is full of hopes and they strengthen him against all present evils What is therefore able to disturb the happiness of such a soul that is ravished with its own enjoyments and that contemns now all things else Justi afflictionem requiem putant Lact. lib. 8. mor. what hinders the same power that hath freed the faithfull from the slavery of sin and the world and made us able to contemn the miseries of our present condition to free also the body from all subjection to the Elements When therefore I see a Christian so far advanced in the Race of Perfection as to leave in a little time the rest of the world at such a vast distance behind I must needs conclude that he will make a considerable progress if he continues his course Or when I behold a Painter chalk out to the life a fair face I do easily judge that his pencil will be able to add many graces and compleat it Thus when I see the first Essayes of a Christian to be so glorious in this life I am forced to conclude that the end of his work will be far more in the other If Paul and Silas in their Chains can sing for joy St. Peter sleep secure with pleasure at the Eve of the day intended for his Execution and all the holy men meet with happiness and content in the most sensible Penury and the sharpest Afflictions How much more happy and content shall they be in that Life that shall not be subject to want to disgrace and inconveniency in that Life where all things shall be as perfect and glorious as themselves when therefore Christ should never have promised this estate unto the faithful he that is sensible of their present condition and of the honour and perfection unto which they have been advanced he may justly conceive that they will arrive to an estate suitable to these promising beginnings In the next place if we cast an eye upon the natural order which is observed in the disposition of the Creatures we shall find sufficient Reasons to be perswaded of this Truth All the Beings in the world do generally attain unto those Ends unto which their Creation did design them And shall man only be excepted Shall not he arrive to his glorious end to happiness for which he was created as may appear by his endeavours and desires to obtain it and by the constitution of his Being Shall not he attain unto this estate when the union of the soul and body seems to promise it to him in case he renders not himself incapable of it Shall not he come to the fruition of God in whom onely his happiness dwells Is it possible that the power and wisdom that appears so wonderfull in his composition and that declares a particular esteem of him by an over-ruling Providence should onely design him for a world of misery and then tumble him in the dust without any further care of this Master-piece of the Creation Or is it possible that God should suffer such a considerable species of Creatures to be cast away for ever and to miss of their blessed End and none of them to attain unto felicity unto which it appears that he intended them at their Creation by granting unto them noble faculties capable of Bliss We see that all visible things were made with an intent to turn to the benefit of some Beings more Perfect And for whom was Man created The more he excels the rest in Perfections the more honourable conceit we may justly have for him for whose Glory he came into the world And from the nature of man and the place of honour that he maintains amongst the Creatures we may conclude that this Prince of the lower World was created onely for the enjoyment of the Prince of the superiour and that he unto whom all visible things do render Homage owes his Respects and Being only unto the Creator Our nature therefore designs us for the immediate fruition of God and those inward suggestions that perswade us to make our frequent addresses unto him especially at the sight of imminent dangers do proceed from this design and do tend as well to prepare us for a more immediate correspondency as to supply our present necessities And how is it possible to be advanced to that honour without a disposition and without inward and outward qualities sutable to that estate From hence we may confirm the promise of this Crown of Life and shew how every part is consistent with the condition of a glorified Creature and absolutely required for the accomplishment of our happiness Examine also I beseech you wherefore Man onely of all creatures enjoyes a being between the spiritual and the sensitive wherefore doth he participate of both Not that he might fall down to a greater conformity with Beasts for that is against the order of Nature that teaches all things to aspire to perfection but rather that he might endeavour to ascend to a higher degree for no other intent man was made with a possibility of elevation with capacious faculties and with noble and aspiring affections but that they might raise him above that rank in which he was first placed and nearer his Creator Beatitudo in excelso est sed volenti penotrabilis Sen. Epist 65. Therefore mankind was intended for a glorious and a happy End whoever employs all his endeavours to attain unto it can never miss of his purpose and if so many
do never come to that perfect Estate they may thank their unworthy behaviour and vicious disposition But Christ that promiseth this Crown unto the faithful removes the grand impediments of Salvation Guilt and Corruption and brings them to that estate So that besides the helps of nature they only have an Almighty Power and an Infinite goodness for their assistants We may therefore conclude from the former reasons That there is such an Estate as happiness That man was designed for it that it is possible for him to arrive unto it that whoever is faithful to Christ and labours to follow the rules prescribed by him must needs according to the natural course of things become happy which cannot be in a perfect manner but by an union and communion with his God That this happiness is not attainable in this life I need not spend my labours in vain to prove therefore it must be in another Now this Crown is called a Gift I will give thee c. It is freely bestowed notwithstanding our undeservings it is recovered for us by the blood of Christ and enriched with more precious Jewels because of his Infinite merits and the means by which we are raised to this Estate is procured unto us by our Saviours sufferings and Ascension So that what Nature had intended and was not able to perform because of our Apostacy and revolt from a dependency upon God grace doth fully accomplish in the faithful In the last place I might bring to confirm this truth the common Reasons upon which the Heathens did build the hopes of a future happiness and of another life Of the Justice of God that will render unto every one according to his deeds Of the Goodness of God that cannot be forgetfull of those that mind the advance of his Glory on Earth and of the Power of God able to reward them that lead a just and a religious life From hence Zoroastes that learned Genius and great Prince taught his Disciples That the chief care of man should be so to behave himself now that he might come to happiness hereafter Many other reasons may be brought to confirm this important truth but I cannot include them all in so narrow a compass as a Sermon Some I know stumble at the difficulties of the Resurrection of our bodies when it is proved to them by their experience that it is possible Si ergo potent est Deus facere quod non fuit nonne potest reparare quod fuit Aug. lib. de catech Serm. 1. Secret dont oncomprent que quoy que le corps meure Les formes font pourtant aux cendres leur demeure Consider I beseech you if a lesser power be not required to restore what was than to create or to make what was not Where was this world before its Creation and if that be doubed where was this age 200 years ago not so much as in appearance yet now it subsists Why shall not therefore that same intelligent Being who created the World and who onely is able to have formed us in the womb with all our members so well proportioned be able to restore us to our subsistance again seeing there is as great a disposition in the essential parts of the body reduced to ashes to return to their former shapes as there is in the original substance to dilate it self and form the several members of a man I might here alledge the natural experiments which some have tried with success That have given occasion to believe that the forms of things do remain in their ashes The herb called by the Greeks * It signifies not onely a Palm but another herb mentioned by Dioscor lib. 4. cap. 151. and by Coel. Rodigin Resurrectio non est contra naturam Aug. in Sent. suis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth rise again out of the dust when it hath been consumed to ashes This causes the Fable of the Phaenix I could also bring Nature and Providence to attest this truth both are full of sacred emblems of the Resurrection they are as incredible did they not daily appear before our eyes The faithful therefore may brave this and all other difficulties in the language of St. Paul I am perswaded that neither death nor life c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day I will give thee a crown c. Cast your eyes Cristians once more upon this Crown of Life View the Blessedness the Riches the Glory and Honour of this Estate and tell me whether this deserves not our obedience and a perseverance in Duty It shall be free from all weakness pain fear and inconveniency it shall be accompanied with unspeakble joyes and pleasures with the fruition of all good with the Vision of God and with an eternal communion and union with him It shall be adorned with all perfections holiness and content O rich and glorious Crown O Immortal Reward How long shall we be at such a distance from thee Earthly Crowns are troublesome and the more glorious they are the more heavy insomuch that Dioclesian having exchanged one for a Spade and the Empire for a Garden when some were sent to perswade him to return to his former State he told them they would never have undertaken that message unto him if they had but seen the Ranks of Trees and the Musk-melons that he had planted with the pleasure that he did feel in that retired condition But this Crown is of another nature the glories and honours are sweetned with unspeakable delights and there is no such wait as should make us weary of the carriage Let therefore this consideration encourage us to encounter Death without fear seeing it is a passage into this immortal Bliss and to prepare our selves for its enjoyment by a behaviour worthy of a Crown Be faithful unto the interest of Christ and his Religion maintain his honour in the management of your several employes follow his sacred footsteps shake off all vicious inclinations and customs make it your business to reform your lives and affections labour to relish the true pleasures of the soul and wean your selves from all worldly enjoyments that they may not hinder your entrance into this estate Into which God of his mercy receive us for the sake of his dear Son and our Saviour Christ Jesus Amen FINIS