unseen state which above all things it concerns us to take care about and wisely to provide for This Life is a continu'd round and circle of bodily Actions and Business but in death these cease and have an end that let 's down the Curtain and the Drama of Life is over and whatever parts we Acted on this Stage we lay them all aside and what we enjoy'd in this Body and this World is to be no more and as if it had never been and we only had dream'd of it for a while He taketh away their breath they die and turn again to their dust That said he is my present Case and in that very day all their Thoughts perish i. e. all their apprehensions of Worldly Happiness and Enjoyments with all their mighty projects and designs they had here how reasonable then is it for us frequently to meditate upon dying and how properly was it plac'd of old among the first rules and principles of Wisdom And upon my saying to him that as he seemed to be got almost to the end of the race of Life his Friends were running hard after him and would in a short space overtake him he replied True but prithee remember that I have got the start of thee Here he took occasion to discourse of the Christian Revelation which has discovered the most amazing but the most important and momentous Truths for Man to know 'T is this said he that gives me the greatest ease and satisfaction in my present Circumstances and fills my mind with the most serene hopes when I can find pleasure in nothing else and without it all my thoughts when I stretch them as far as ever they will go are either dark or troublesome That God should send his only begotten Son into the World in our likeness to redeem and save Mankind that he should propose by him the advancing us who are very inconsiderable yea sinfull Creatures to such a height of Glory as to be equal to Angels to see God as he is and to have eternally communicated to us of his own Excellencies and Perfections cannot but affect every one who believes and exercises his thoughts about these matters with Wonder and Admiration with all possible Love and Gratitude and a most sollicitous study and endeavour to obey God universally in hopes of that eternal Life which God who cannot lie as the Apostle speaks has promised He added That the design of Christianity and the Terms of Life therein propos'd did appear to him so very plain that it was just matter of amazement how any Men who had look'd into those records and consider'd their own nature and had any notion of the happiness of reasonable Creatures could miss of understanding them aright The Antinomian Scheme he look'd upon as directly Antichristian and the very worst that the most malicious Enemies of the Christian name could possibly have invented and he gave me a very sad instance of a Person who liv'd many years in the habit of a very gross sin and yet had a quiet Conscience and thought himself very safe upon those principles 'till being startled by a publick Discourse of his God made him an Instrument of setting the poor Man right in his Notions and engaging him to reform his Life for which his new Convert was very thankfull and assur'd him That he would not for all the World have liv'd so long in the habit of that sin if he had believed as he thoroughly did now that it would have hazarded his Salvation Here he took occasion to say that he was much confirm'd in his notion of the nullity of a Death-bed Repentance by considering his present Circumstances What could I do said he Were I now to begin to Repent of a long Wicked life I profess I could not have the least hopes of my Salvation but blessed be God this is not my own Case I am sensible of a vast number of Weaknesses and Imperfections but they are such as I am well assur'd the Covenant of Grace will make an allowance for I can say I have been Sincere in the main designs of my Life and I thank God I make no question of being happy when I can once get loose from this Prison of an Earthly infirm body and shall be set above those Imperfections which cannot be wholly remedied in this state and to be freed from which is the reward of the next He gave me his thoughts at large about the Doctrine of the ever blessed Trinity which are not needfull to be here set down especially since I have already taken some notice of that Matter All that I shall add is That he never intended any Controversie with those who believed this Doctrine his business was to defend it against those who opposed it and he was fully satisfied that what he had Preach'd and Wrote on this subject was agreeable to the Scriptures and the sense of the Church and he was fully confirmed in his Thoughts by the judgment of the most Learned and unexceptionable Divines of our Church The Right Reverend Bishop Pearson explains the Divine Vnity as he has done and asserts the necessity of it for avoiding that old and so often urg'd objection Tritheism It is most necessary says he To assert that there is but one Person who is from none for if there were more than one which were from none it could not be deny'd but that there were more Gods than one This Origination of the Divine Paternity hath anciently been look'd upon as the assertion of the Unity and therefore the Son and the Holy Ghost are but one God with the Father because both from the Father who is one and so the Union of them He perfectly concurred with this excellent Person who without any question is allow'd to speak the sense of the Catholick Church and with the Fathers of the Nicene Council as their sense is exprest in their Creed which is a part of our Liturgy He believed the Father Son and Holy Ghost were one God and yet three real distinct Persons as evidently distinguish'd in their Persons as united in their Nature The Father is not the Son nor the Holy Ghost the Son is not the Father nor the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost is neither the Father nor the Son the true and living God can be but one the Father is originally the one God the Son is the same God but not originally of himself but has his Divine Essence by Communication from the Father the Holy Spirit is the same God not originally subsisting of himself but having the same Divine Nature and Essence common both to the Father and the Son communicated by them both to him So that Father Son and Holy Ghost are one God The Father originally that one Essence of infinite Wisdom Power and Majesty The one Person originally of himself subsisting in that infinite Being The Son is God of God by being of the Father the Holy Ghost is God of God by being of the
therefore those who have sowed plenteously shall reap plenteously and that nothing but actual Holiness and Obedience can fit us to see God and enter into Heaven and make us meet and qualify us for the inheritance of the Saints in light These are such plain and undeniable principles both from Reason and Scripture that no Doctrine which orposes them and is inconsistent with them can be true and therefore a late and dying Repentance that brings forth no fruits of Obedience cannot be sufficient for Salvation as not coming up to those conditions which are absolutely requir'd by the Gospel to make us capable of Heaven since none but good Men who either always were so or at least who become such after they were otherwise can go to Heaven and the more good and the more obedient and vertuous any Man hath been in his life the greater and higher rewards he shall have in another World for as one Star differeth from another Star in Glory so also shall it be at the Resurrection of the dead as the Apostle speaks where some shall shine in a higher Orb and with greater Lustre and have Crowns of greater weight and brightness who have either done or suffer'd more for Christ and God and Religion than others and therefore they who have been more constantly and more highly Vertuous all their lives shall be more highly rewarded by a Just and Righteous God in that Heavenly Kingdom where Christ tells us are many Mansions and where no doubt are several degrees of Happiness according to Mens several Actions and Vertues Tho' the Penitent and the Prodigal shall upon their return be received into their Father's house and be kindly embraced and entertain'd by him yet their Portion shall not be equal to the Son that was always Dutifull and always Obedient Son thou art always with me and all that I have is thine God grant that all good Men may so persevere in Holiness and Obedience and all Sinners may so timely Repent and be brought off from their Sins that we may all in due time be received into those Mansions of Joy where all Sin shall be done away and there shall be no more Repentance and all Virtue and Obedience Crowned with Glory and Immortality thro' Jesus Christ The Sixth Sermon ACTS XVI v. 30. latter part Sirs what must I do to be saved THis great question is ask'd by one in great trouble and concern when he was affrighted in the night by a sudden Earth-quake which shook the Foundations of the House or Prison where he was v. 27. and so he was awakened into a sense of present danger and this brought him to consider what was future and greater God does often rowse up Men's sleepy and senseless and Lethargic Minds by some present Terror Judgment or Affliction which brings them to consider the concerns of their Souls and an another World when nothing else will This shakes off their thoughtless security and alarms their stupid and unthinking Minds to look about them and see what a dangerous condition they are in and fear is a very proper principle for beginning Religion it 's one of the greatest passions that belong to our Nature and then there is a good ground for it and it only opens our Eyes to let us see a real danger that so we may avoid it and keep out of it It is very usefull and a great branch of that self-preservation which is a principle that lies at the root of our very beings had we no sense of an Evil coming upon us we should run into it blindfold and leap down the precipice we did not see which would be never the less hurtfull to us when fear indeed makes a danger where there is none or represents it greater than it is when it frights the mind with fancied Spectres and imaginary Mormo's or makes it afraid of its own shadow it 's then a weak a mean an unmanly Passion but when the danger is real and great and likely it 's stupid blindness not to see it and rash madness for that reason to run upon it The concerns of another World are both certain and important and he whose Mind has no reasonable fear or just dread and apprehension of them is like Damocles with a naked and pointed Sword hanging over his head by a single hair but he sits securely and does not see it The evils and dangers of a future state are very terrible and may be as far as we know very near us and they are never the less near nor never the less real for our not believing or not having a sense of them It 's very happy therefore if our fear awakens us to consider of them whilst we have means and opportunity to take care to prevent them that before we feel them we think of them and do not like Dives then lift up our Eyes when we are in the midst of Torments it 's then too late to have a sense of them when we cannot get out of them A wise man would therefore so consider them before-hand either out of a just fear or dread of them or from a wise care and concern for his own Happiness that whether any extraordinary providence startl'd his Mind or it were more freely left to its own thoughts yet it should frequently and seriously ask it self this question what shall I do to be saved To be saved is strictly to be delivered from a great danger we were likely to fall into to be snatch'd like a fire-brand out of the fire and like one that was sinking to be catch'd hold on and preserved but it also includes in it a positive Salvation as well as a negative and so comprehends that Happiness which is contrary to the misery we are secured from he who is saved from death gains life by that means and he who is saved from Hell gains Heaven and so both are meant and included in the word Salvation I shall consider at present the great importance of this question What shall I do to be saved and secondly the true answer and resolution to it First of the importance of it and it is certainly the greatest question to us in the World how we may be delivered from the dangers and evils of the next World and how we may escape as the Scripture speaks the Wrath to come and so secure to our selves that eternal Good and Happiness which we call Heaven We can none of us expect to live always here there must be a time and we know not how soon but we are sure it 's not very long when we must take leave of this World and all that is in it and it concerns us to think what shall become of us when that fatal minute shall come as it certainly will that shall make this body of ours a cold lump and put an end to all our present Enjoyments When darkness and the shadow of death shall let down the Curtain and put an end to all these lower Scenes
and to all the Actions of this life we cannot think there is then an end of our being hardly any of mankind ever thought so our own thoughts tell us otherwise and Revelation assures us to the contrary and we have as much Evidence as we can have till we come thither as is consistent with Faith and comes not up to Sense We cannot then but be very sollicitous what shall become of our naked Souls when they are stript of these fleshly Bodies and what condition they shall be in in the other world We know in general how different the state is there there are Joys unspeakable on the one hand and Torments intolerable on the other and according as we believe the greatness and reality of both those so must we be concerned about this question How we shall be saved That is how we shall obtain the one and avoid the other We are very carefull here to make a short life that we know will quickly be at an end as Comfortable and Happy as we can We toil and drudge and contrive all we can to acquire the few good things that belong to it and to keep off those evils that are uneasie to us and yet when we have done all we can never hope to be perfectly Happy here and our utmost attainment can be only this that we be but less miserable we rise early and go to bed late and eat the bread of carefullness rather than suffer want and poverty and we are at infinite pains and trouble to gain an Estate that we must quickly leave and whilst we have it we are not more happy perhaps less content than we were before we are very carefull to keep up our crazy Bodies in good repair tho' we know they must quickly decay and fall into the dust A Disease alarms us and we are concerned at the warning of death and are willing to endure almost any thing to prevent it that its a Suffering a greater Martyrdom for this life than ever Christian did for another but how much greater reason have we to be concerned for our future state that life is never to have any end and so we shou'd be more carefull about it it 's to continue to Eternity and what it once is it 's to be ever the same if it be happy it 's so unalterably without danger of changing and if it be miserable it 's irreversibly so without any hopes of relief Oh wonderfull state how is this life a shadow a dream a vapour a bubble a vanishing Nothing in respect of the other it deserves not a thought nor is it worth a thousandth part of that care the other is how foolish are we then to labour so much for a moment of our being and not be more concerned for an endless duration of it But the greatness of the thing is as considerable as the continuance the things we are saved from are the greatest and terriblest evils we can possibly suffer the utmost torments of Mind and Body despair and horror and a dreadfull sense of Divine Anger and Vengeance and all the terrible apprehensions that guilt within and punishment without can bring upon a Soul that can have nothing else to fly to and that must suffer greater torment day and night without intermission than we can have now any conception of Fire and Brimstone and Chains of darkness and a never dying worm are but lesser representations of the unspeakable misery in the other World and who is it that dreads a nights pain under a tormenting despair that knows the torments of a troubled mind or has but tasted the gall and bitterness of a Melancholick humour who would not be infinitely concern'd how he may be sav'd from what we mean by Hell and Damnation and what would not the hopes of Heaven when they are joyned with those fears make us farther do when the one is to fright us from the greatest evil and the most perfect misery and the other at the same time holds out and invites us to the greatest Happiness to endless Pleasures and Joy unspeakable Who that does not either secretly dis-believe or never consider of this would not think it the greatest Question in the World what shall I do to be saved And who would not do all he can and use all means that are in his power to this purpose Who would refuse any pains or labour to accomplish this great End Who would stick at any difficulty that he was able to overcome and surmount to gain this point this greatest point of his own Eternal Salvation Had God required us to have toiled all our lives in the most wearisom drudgery and to have spent all our days in the hardest slavery had he made Religion the greatest burden and uneasiness in the World in order to the attaining of this yet what Wise man would not have thought it worth his while to have endured it and gone through it Had he commanded us to deny every Appetite to have offered violence to every inclination to have stifl'd every natural desires and renounced all the Gratifications and Enjoyments of the Animal life had he obliged us to quit all the comforts of this World and to have retir'd into a barren Wilderness or a Melancholick Cloister and there have worn out our lives in the severest Exercises of Fasting and Mortification or to have made them one continued station one constant course of Penance and Devotion all this would have been much more tolerable than to have endured the far greater Evils and Miseries of another World tho but for a little time and for much less than half so long as this life and therefore a thousand times more so than to suffer a miserable Eternity What shall we think then of God's requiring no such hard things at our hands nothing but what is far less than any of those nothing that is extreamly hard or mighty difficult or very burdensome and uneasie to us nothing but what is truly comfortable and delightfull if we rightly understood it and what tends to our present Good Ease and Comfort Interest and Advantage even in this life as well as another God puts no such hard conditions upon us as those I mention'd but we may be saved hereafter and yet enjoy at present all the comforts and good things of this World that a Wise Man would desire Religion debars us of none of them so far as they are Innocent and Lawfull that is so far as they are not Evil and Mischievous to us and plainly Destructive both of our own good and the good of the World There is no natural good forbidden to us nor any inclination to be denied any farther than it is foolish and unreasonable and exceeds the bounds of Wisdom and Virtue nor has God restrained us from any thing but what like the forbidden fruit is poysonous as well as pleasant and it 's not the pleasantness but the poyson is the true reason why it is forbidden so that our
perfections which are the bounds also which the Divine power can never violate is so plain that it rather seems to follow and be fairly inferred from them for what more agreeable to Gods goodness than as that he gave us our Souls at first and put those Souls into curious and well framed bodies which are the other part of Humane Nature which makes us to be Men and Beings of such a rank and order in the Creation so that he should continue the same entire nature to us as long as he is pleased to continue us in being It wou'd be a charge methinks upon the Wisdom of God that he should give Man so curious a body above any other Creatures and yet suffer that to continue and last a much shorter time than the bodies of many other not only Animals but Plants and Trees do if he did not design that this noble fabrick should be rebuilt and repaired again after death and that the Soul should have a longer term of aboad in it afterwards and in reversion than it enjoys in this present life It would seem strange if these two Friends should be so closely and intimately united here but for a few days if they were not to meet again and dwell together for ever and that God should make us of such a compound nature in this life and of a quite other nature in the next this would not be to keep that wise order and regular course of thing that he does in the whole System of the Creation As to the Divine Justice that seems to be more exactly answered by raising the same bodies without which we are hardly the same persons that every one may receive in his body according to that he has done whether it be good or bad as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 5.10 that not only the same Souls but the same Bodies which have either glorified God by Suffering or any other Vertue or have been the Instrument of any sin should be glorified or tormented in another World and that the whole of Humane Nature and not only a part of it which the Soul is should be made capable of the everlasting rewards and punishments that are proper to it The Resurrection then is every way consistent with the perfections of the Divine Nature and is no way contrary to any natural principle of truth nor implys any contradiction in it and therefore is a proper object of God's Almighty Power and by the help of that may be easily effected and accounted for 4. And without this power of God nothing else can be effected in nature we must take in this not only to give an account of the Resurrection but of every thing else we see done before us and of every effect and appearance in the visible World how we were made at first and how our bodies were formed is as perfectly unaccountable without taking in the Divine Power and Wisdom as how we shall rise again and so is every other Mystery of nature if we well consider it and follow and trace it thro' all second causes it will necessarily bring us to the first and we must resolve all at last into the Power and Wisdom of that How we move our bodies by the thought of our minds we know no more than how God shall raise them what directs the spirits into such Tracts and Muscles and by what pullies they draw up the heavy parts is so admirable a Mechanism that it requires the same Divine Wisdom as to raise the dead how we live how we think and how we speak is to a Philosopher as curious and as secret as how we shall rise every thing indeed is so in the Volume of Nature which has the plainest Characters of Divine Power and Wisdom every where writ upon it as being to teach every one that there is a God To look upward we see the Sun shines but can we tell what light is or how it streams from the Sun to our Eye how such a mass of sire should so long hold together without being quenched or lessened do we know how the Stars are sixt to their Orbs how those glistering gemms are set and fastned to the fluid firmament can we imagine what Pillars there are upon which the Earth is founded and what it is supports the heavy Globe and keeps it from sinking what it is that poizes and makes it swim in the liquid Aether and keeps it at so just and exact a distance from the heavenly Bodies so as to be neither frozen nor burnt up and can we be able to know what it is makes their motions so regular and harmonious so usefull and serviceable to the World what guides their mighty bodies in such even Tracts what draws the crooked Zodiac for the Sun or Earth to move in and keeps the violent and rapid matter from going on in an infinite streight line or some other way sallying and running out of order Can any man who justly considers these things give any account of them without a wise God and Almighty Intelligence not only a Sparrow cannot fall to the ground without our Heavenly Father as our Saviour speaks Matth. 10.29 but not a stone can sall thither nor a spark fly upwards however necessary and natural that be without such a frame and such laws of matter and motion as nothing but a wise Being can establish or cause to be observed Why matter is thus figured and disposed and why such effects come from it we cannot tell as why grass is green blood red and not the quite contrary as we cannot of our selves make one hair white or black as our Saviour saith so neither can we tell why it is so but every Phaenomenon must at last be resolved into the Will and Wisdom of the first cause and thither all true Philosophy must bring us and the same Divine Power is requir'd in every the most common effect of Nature as in the Resurrection But 5. Our not fully knowing the uses and designs our bodies shall serve for after they are rais'd should not make the Resurrection incredible to us What use some say will there be of the body in another World when the Soul alone is capable of the rewards of it I answer who can tell but the body may be of extraordinary use to us in another World perhaps it is a necessary part of Humane Nature and we are not our whole selves without it perhaps the Soul is never to be quite naked and wholly stript of all matter and bodily indowment and that it is cloathed with a thinner Vehicle when it puts off the thicker and grosser flesh perhaps no Beings in the World but God himself are to be pure spirits which was a very ancient opinion of some wise Men perhaps the Angels themselves have material vestures of a slaming fire and a resplendent brightness as they used always to appear and if the Human Souls are not to be uncloathed but cloathed upon with our house which is
in relation to our selves as well as to the World that is the prime and general cause of Mens being deceived into sin and the first part of its deceitfulness is by the immoderate and salse Opinion of those little Goods or present Enjoyments we may obtain by them Thus when our Fancies and vain Imaginations represent Riches and a great Estate as the greatest Good as the greatest Security Credit and Comfort and what will afford and bring in all other good things of this World this makes a Man make Riches his God and put his trust in 'em and Sacrifice every thing to Mammon and use any means to attain 'em because he thinks nothing so evil as to be without them and nothing else so good as having abundance of them So another fancies no happiness like that of being Great and above others of having the knee and the head and the outward marks and acknowledgments of superiority given him or to appear in State and Grandeur with a rich Train and splendid Equipage always attending him and he despises poor and contemptible Vertue in respect of all this and thinks as meanly of the greatest Wisdom without those as that does of him and therefore rather than part with those he will part with his Conscience and change his Religion rather than his place and will stick at nothing either to keep or gain his ambitious Ends and Designs Another who is a Voluptuary and thinks Pleasure the summum bonum the chiefest good he can taste or feel he hunts after it thro' all the Scents and Paths of Sensuality Luxury Lewdness and Debauchery and either Bacchus or Venus is the Deity he worships and the greatest Good and Enjoyment he fancies and imagines and has an Idea of is the Wine sparkling in the Glass or the Charms of Beauty or the other objects of sensual Pleasure and by heating his thoughts and inflaming his fancy his desires of those things grow impatient excessive and ungovernable Now if a man had used himself to consider seriously how little there is in all those things how very little in respect of the greater pleasures of a wise and easie Mind a good Conscience and the hopes of Religion and that all the true Pleasures of Life that are desirable to a Wise Man may be otherwise enjoyed within the bounds of Vertue and that the going beyond those is an unavoidable mischief to himself and to the World and that all those little sensual and temporary goods he is so fond of are at best but short and transitory empty and unsatisfying things but poor trisling satisfactions and mere gilded decaying Vanities that will all quickly perish and pass away so that our proper happiness cannot lie in them This would give us such true Opinions and right Apprehensions of all carnal and Worldly things in which the whole strength and temptations of sin are placed as would disarm and weaken it of all its power strip it of all its fine dress and false attire wash off all its paint spoil all its beauty and shining lustre whereby it imposes upon our vain fancies and weak imaginations and deceives us with a false Opinion of those small Goods Profits or Pleasures it can afford us 2. We do not at the same time compare with those the great evil that is in them and so do not judge rightly and impartially on both sides but determine hastily on one and so are deceived whereas to make a true Judgment and Estimate we should set the evil against the good and so weigh the matter and set the balance right between them but Alass Men are in too much haste to do this when they are so hotly and eagerly pursuing their Lusts when having the fancied good Pleasure and Enjoyment of their sins only in their Eye they never think or consider or take into their accounts the much greater and more numerous and more certain evils that belong to them and are inseparably annext to the commission of them if they did no Man would swallow the thin bait when he saw the satal hook under it None would eat the forbidden fruit tho' never so fair and pleasant to the Eye if he knew and certainly believed that Death was its bittter sauce and in the day he eat thereof he should die No Man would drink the sweetest draught or take down the most delicious morsel if he thought it would kill him Nature without any great deliberation refuses immediately and abhors what it apprehends to be evil as it is extreamly fond and desirous of what appears good and agreeable to it and the fear of the one is perhaps more strong and affecting than the love of the other as the sense of pain is greater and quicker than that of pleasure and therefore did it spy the Snake in the Grass the Serpent hid under the Bed of Roses and Violets it would not be invited by all their beauty and sweetness to lie down upon them and it would be quickly frighted and run from the tempter tho' he appear'd as an Angel of light if it saw his Cloven Foot Vice therefore always uses art to conceal its worst side hides its deformity and rottenness under a false paint and counterfeit colour and varnishes over its real evil with the fucus of some seeming good so the unwary sinner is drawn into its deadly embraces with its meritricious Looks and false Charms The venomous sting lies covered under the sweet hony and the sinner perceives not the Dagger of the Treacherous Assassin till he is stabb'd with it to the heart But a little Wisdom and Observation and looking about us would plainly discern the innumerable evils that sin carries in its bowels and is big and productive of which grow out of it as fruit from its proper root and are inseparably annexed to it as effects to their causes that can no more be divorced or rescinded from it than light clipt from the Sun and are unalterably setled upon it by the nature and constitution of things and the will and appointment of the first cause and Author of them How do many not only shipwrack their Consciences but their Fortunes too by their Vices in this world where we see abundance of those broken Vessels who have split themselves upon Laziness or Luxury Lewdness or Prodigality or some other wickedness by which they have ruined themselves here as well as hereafter How have others wasted their Bodies by the same courses as they have done their Estates And have sinn'd particularly against those as the Scripture speaks as well as against their Souls and been a kind of Martyrs in the service of the Devil and their own Lusts and endured more pains in their bodies to go to Hell than other Martyrs have done to go to Heaven How do they whose hopes and designs are only in this Life and who fear nothing so much as Death and think nothing so happy as to live long yet shorten their lives by their Vices and by
living as they call it too fast that is running on in the full Career of wickedness and galloping as hard as they can to Hell How do they I say Not live out half their days and they are sometimes so hasty to die that their bodies are often rotted before they come into their Graves and their sins in some measure prevent death How have others stigmatized their names with their Vices and brought a lasting reproach and real infamy upon themselves and families where yet nothing has been so dear to them as titular Reputation and the false Image and Idol of Honour How have they madly Sacrificed their Souls and their Lives to redeem that which yet they have basely thrown away by a scandalous Life which has made them base and contemptible to all wise Men Thus how plain is it that sin besides the vast and amazing miseries of another World brings most of the evils of this upon us A blot and reproach to our credit and good names sickness and diseases to our bodies and often beggery to our selves and families and above all spoils and corrupts the Mind takes away the Peace and Improvement of it fills it with inward discomposure and uneasiness and often so impairs a Mans reason and understanding as to leave the old and wretched sinner only the shape of a Man with the nature and qualities of a Beast Now all these a blinded sinner either sees not or considers not either quite forgets or does not at all mind in the hot pursuit of his Lusts and the hurry and tumult of his unruly Appetites he feels not the Wounds that are given him in his hot blood tho' when he grows cool a little he will be very sensible of them his thoughts are wholly taken up with the sancied good and pleasure and he looks to nothing but that nor considers the much greater evils and mischiefs of them so he pursues his Game and follows the Chase and sees not the pit or the precipice just before him 'till he is faln into it he leaps into certain danger without looking into it and without any fear or foresight runs upon Death and Destruction as the horse rushes into the battle as Scripture represents it Jer. 8.6 An inward heat and ardor spurs him on and he is wholly driven by other principles than those of his reasonable nature and the serious thoughts and considerations of things or observing the consequences of his own Actions And thus sin deceives him in the next place 3. By taking off his Mind from considering and examining things or reflecting upon his own Actions or using his own Thoughts it makes him live only by the suggestions of sense and the propensities of his animal nature and lower inclinations without the Exercise or Government of his thoughts or reason Like brute beasts that have no understanding as the Scripture compares sinners Ps 32.9 His Passions and Lusts and irregular Appetites grow masterless and unruly and get an intire Power and Dominion over him and his reason has no check or controul over them his Vices keep him always warm and heated and never suffer him to cool or grow sober they ply him close with what shall more intoxicate and besot him and keep him from ever coming to himself so his mind is always dozed and he lives under a perpetual kind of drunkenness and loss of his reason his thoughts are always drowned in Hurry Business or Company Drink Noise or Diversion or scattered and dispersed in mad freaks and pranks of extravagance and with a sort of practical incoherent nonsense or else amused with Phantastick Whimsies and Romantick Conceits and imaginary Representations of things as they are drawn by Plays and Poets contrary to all sober thinking and the right knowledge of the nature of things as God has constituted them in the World Thus it is with our either dull or witty unthinking Debauchees who live a rambling careless thoughtless Life without any true principles or any serious consideration or reflection and examining of things who care as little as can be to think at all and therefore avoid themselves as much as may be and never love to be alone for nothing is so troublesome and uneasie to them as themselves and their own thoughts and therefore they keep from them all they can and would be quite without them if they could And upon this account we find them often declaiming against reason and thinking and extolling the condition of Beasts above Men which is only another way of commending themselves for at the same time they are endeavouring to be as equal and like to them as may be 4. To show the deceitfulness of sin we cannot but observe that Vertue is much the likelier way to attain most of the present goods of this World which sin aims at but generally loses and destroys Thus Sobriety Chastity and Temperance pick up that bodily pleasure which is lost and dropt by Vice and Debauchery when they are so hastily running after it the ambitious and covetous miss often their aims whilst others unexpectedly meet with what they are in vain seeking and generally most of the good things of this World are by Nature and Providence settled upon Vertue and lost by Vice the one is a Tree of Life as the Wiseman speaks Prov. 3.18 and even literally Health to our Navel and Marrow to the Bones while the other is a Disease and trouble to the Flesh and rottenness to the bones The one is a Crown of honour that circles the head of the Wise and Vertuous while the other is a foul stain and blemish to a mans Credit and good Name the one is Peace and Joy and Gladness to the mind the other is a worm to the Conscience a tormentor to the Soul and an inward Hell in a Man 's own breast Wisdom has in her right hand length of days and in her left hand riches and honour her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace as the Wiseman long ago observed Prov. 3.17 whereas most of the temptations to sin are Vain and Phantastick Cheating and Delusive and have only appearances but no real good in them like Zeuxis's Grapes they are only painted artificially but have no real sweetness they deceive the eye and the fancy at a distance but there is nothing of true pleasure and delight to be tasted in them but often a real bitterness instead of it like the vines of Sodom and Gomorrah Deut. 32.32 their grapes are grapes of gall their clusters are bitter their wine is the poyson of dragons and the cruel venom of Asps Men always find themselves deceived and disappointed in their vain expectations of what their sins will afford 'em and therefore always come off with repentance shame and remorse and can never answer it to themselves afterwards nor find any good account in the reckoning when they come to cast it up and ask themselves seriously the Apostle's question What fruit had ye in
DISCOURSES Upon several Practical Subjects By the late Reverend WILLIAM PAYNE D. D. WITH A PREFACE Giving some Account of his Life Writings and Death LONDON Printed by J. O. for R. Wilkin at the Kings-Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCVIII THE PREFACE THE Limits of a Preface will not allow the writing the Life of the Author of the following Discourses neither have I materials by me for such a work My first acquaintance with him was sometime after his settlement in London I was the more inclined to a Correspondence with him because he had his Education in Cambridge under and was much esteemed by Dr. H. P. a person never to be nam'd by me without paying a very particular honour and respect to his memory Antoninus begins his admirable Instructions of life with an account of his several Benefactors from whom he had learnt this and that piece of usefull and practical knowledge instead of many I am obliged to instance in this excellent Man alone to whom I am more indebted than to all the Teachers I ever had and I take this opportunity to give publick Thanks to God for the happy opportunities I enjoy'd of his wise Instructions and Counsels from him I learnt rightly to understand Religion the Idea's of which had been so confounded by false Teachings and the notion of it set forth in so frightfull a manner that there is reason to conclude that it was the superstition of the former which has laid the Foundation of the too visible Scepticism and Infidelity of the present Age. From him I learnt that the Laws of Religion were intrinsically good and infinitely for the benesit and advantage of reasonable Creatures which is the only true notion of it which can secure the Faith and keep up the practice of it among Men who must and ever will be sway'd by what they are once thoroughly perswaded is their chief Interest and highest Benefit He was a Man of clear thoughts which he always freely communicated and of so universal a Benevolence and took such delight in doing good that he obtain'd the name of Pamphilus among his Friends My acquaintance was never large and I have staid a little of the longest in the World to outlive most of those few Friends I once had but so far as my small experience has reacht I cannot but say I never knew a better Man a wiser Christian or a truer Friend The Reader if he be good natur'd will pardon me for stepping a little out of my way to pay a debt of Gratitude To return to our Author of whom I have undertaken to give some account from the time of my first acquaintance with him He had not been long in Town before he was taken notice of by some of the best Judges of Learning who soon discerned his Abilities and how fit he was for those undertakings in which the Service of the Church afterwards required him to engage I mean in those perillous times when both our Religion and our Civil Rights were so visibly endanger'd that many despair'd and gave them up for lost The Members of the Church of England stood in this breach which they maintain'd with that Courage that the Enemy gave back and a space was gain'd for our deliverance The behaviour of the Divines of this Church will be remember'd by Posterity and a Collection of their writings at a time when others were so silent and complying will remain a standing Armory against Popery whenever it shall renew its attempts upon us Then it was that he show'd both his Courage and his Skill in defending our established Religion The former in contemning those numerous threatning Letters some sent him by the Penny-Post and others thrown over his Garden-Wall and one night a Divine of about his bulk and a Friend of his coming late thorough Harrow-Alley into Goodman's fields which was his usual walk home two Men with drawn Swords came up to him and staring him in the face said the one to the other 't is not he and so went off which had no other effect upon him but to give him a caution not to stay out in the Evenings His abilities I need not say any thing of they are sufficiently seen in those Learned Treatises published by him on this occasion The Adoration of the Host the Sacrifice of the Mass and that extraordinary discourse in answer to the Bishop of Meaux's Book of Communion in one kind not to mention his lesser pieces of the sixth Note of the Church and his Examination of the Texts of Scripture produced by the Papists for the Celibacy of Priests whoever carefully reads over those Treatises will find the subject exhausted and that he needs not to search any further into those Arguments and by those concessions so Ingeniously made to his Adversaries which show'd that he sought Truth only and not Victory the possibility of a reply seems to me to be prevented and the Learned French Prelate who has show'd himself to have dexterity enough for most undertakings would yet I believe be loth to be put upon the uneasie task of defending his Book against that answer to it When the fear of Popery was over it was the general expectation that our little disputes and controversies would be thrown up and to prevent any future danger we should be at perfect Peace and Vnion among our selves The behaviour of the Clergy in circumstances when they expected nothing but ruin to themselves and their Families it was hop'd had removed all the Jealousies of our Dissenting Brethren and disposed them to such a temper that there seemed nothing wanting to gain the wisest and best part of them to our Communion but to let them be assured that we would receive them kindly nothing could so effectually secure us from the like dangers from Popery for the future nor keep up the practice of Religion and good Morals as putting a final end to the Schism and uniting us in one Communion Some were of Opinion that this was not possible to be done but by a Comprehension they said that an opportunity for this had been slipt within their memories and that now they had another very fair one which it would be unpardonable to let pass besides they saw that without it a general Toleration would pass in Parliament the ill consequences of which were easily foreseen Others apprehended that no Condescention would unite us that our Dissenting Brethren would not be satisfyed unless they could carry all before them and that were they takn into our Communion they would make no other use of the Privilege than to over-turn our Constitution as soon as they had an opportunity for it and therefore they thought it was better we should continue as we were till we could have assurance that we should not be ridiculed for making alterations unrequested and without any likelihood of answering the end thereby propos'd This was wholly a matter of Prudence and who was in the right could not presently be determined
receiv'd by his constant Preaching both in helping them rightly to understand and engaging them in a serious practice of Religion and by his Writings they are more generally known The visiting a whole Parish from House to House I cannot say to be a necessary part of the Pastoral care I rather lay it in faithfully and constantly discharging the publick Offices It would be a sad thing to be accountable for the neglect of what in great Parishes is confess'd to be impracticable this therefore can only be an occasional duty in which a Minister must be left to his own prudence who is best able to judge what good is likely to be done in this way and when I have heard our Friend say more than once that if he could see the necessity of it or those wonderfull ends it would serve he would throw up all his own concerns and apply himself wholly to it however he supply'd the want of that in the best manner he could and by ways he thought much more usefull to such as were dispos'd to mind the concerns of their Souls For the use of his Parishioners he first compos'd and afterwards by Printing it offer'd to their closer consideration his admirable Practical Discourse of Repentance wherein he has rectify'd many mistakes and loose notions about this Doctrine such as have had a very fatal influence upon the lives of many who all the while looked upon themselves in a safe state they are chiefly owing as I apprehend to their not distinguishing betwixt baptismal Repentance and the Repentance for willful sins many and long continued in after Men have covenanted with God for a constant course of obedience Two days before he died he thank'd God that he had lived to publish that Discourse Not said he That it is Wrote with that care and exactness it might have been for it was compos'd in parts and at several distant times but I think it may be serviceable which is the only end I proposed in it to teach the right knowledge and practice of that duty I am sensible that some have taken exceptions at what he affirmed of the invalidity of a Death-bed Repentance but 't is no more than is said by many others and as far as I see must be own'd by all who throughly examine that subject The Question is not what God may do or sometimes does by an extraordinary act of Grace but what he has covenanted for or what are the plain and indispensible conditions of Salvation required by the Gospel A Malefactor upon whom the Law has pronounc'd death may be pardoned by special favour and if a sinner who never repents till he comes to die be sav'd this is showing him more mercy than is covenanted for in the Gospel-Law of Life and in what instances God will abate of those Terms no Man can tell and 't is the highest folly and madness to trust to it without a particular Revelation That God will make allowance for Mens Circumstances in this World and judge their several cases with the greatest equity and proportion their rewards and punishments accordingly come within the Terms of covenanted Grace and Mercy but the Question is whethe a Minister of the Gospel who visits an habitually wicked Man in his last sickness can assure him he shall be saved on such a Repentance if it comes up to the Terms of the Gospel he may give him this assurance and then this Doctrine may be Preach'd yea and ought to be for all the Gospel-condititions of life and Salvation are to be published to all Such Preaching would be very comfortable to those who would be glad to save their Souls and yet are very loth to forego their sins and are not like to be perswaded to this as long as they have any hopes of securing them by repenting when they come to die These seem to be very plain consequences of allowing the sufficiency of a death-bed Repentance by the terms of the Gospel For his Parishioners he likewise drew up a Manual of Devotion to be used daily in their families and put a great number of them into the hands of the Collecter of his Tythes to be distributed among them he apprehended the decay of Piety and coruption of manners to be in great measure owing to the neglect of family Religion which be therefore took the opportunity after this to recommend in a Sermon preach'd before the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen whose example was like to give the best Encouragement to it which they so well approv'd of as to desire him to publish it His thoughts were that the true cause of the general neglect of Family Devotion is the wrong notion Men have entertained of Forms of Prayer which is a thing so past all dispute that it must lie upon the Consciences of those who have denied 'em if now that the effects of that error are found so evidently ruinous to Piety and good Morals they do not in some publick way retract it and advise to the use of Forms without which the use of constant Family Prayer can never be retriev'd He was so intent upon doing good among his people that he was often proposing to himself and asking his Friends to think of something wherein he might be most usefull to them he endeavour'd to free the minds of other Men as he has done his own from false and loose principles in Religion the effects of which will in a short time appear in the Life and Practice His Religion did not lie in shows and meer forms of Godliness which we need not an Apostles Testimony to assure us may be separated from the power of it I take him to have been in that state described by St. John when he says he that is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God He would not I dare say for all the World have committed a known willfull and deliberate sin and I am sure would have been horribly afraid of himself if he had fallen into one such sin I could here give in evidence for what I say if it were necessary a signal instance of a vigorous sence of Religion and a resolved and confirm'd vertue such an one as is not very common I herein say no more of him than what in Justice is due and what by long experience and many proofs I know to be true of him he did not indeed discover those signs of Grace which some Men expect to find in the face he had not that affected gravity and down-look and dull humour which a Pharisee would perhaps have sought for as a visible mark of it He was always cheerfull and gay himself and would suffer none to be otherwise where-ever he came This I confess if any thing was an excess in him because it must be own'd that he would be sometimes merry at other Mens cost who could not bear up against the sharpness of his wit which I
therefore place among his imperfections But though he gave way possibly too much to that facetiousness and pleasant air of Conversation which was very natural to him and as he thought in mixt Company most agreeable yet in a closer Conversation or when at any time the Argument requir'd it he knew how to be serious and was pleas'd when any subject was started that required grave talk and strict reasoning besides he oft took the opportunity of conveying right notions of things and reproving some Vices in a jocular way when he knew not how to do this in any other way this design he often had of doing good and found it successfull where it was least perceived His Character as a Friend concerns only particular Persons who have drawn it at large on their own minds it signifies not much to say any of this to others but if any be curious to know it I refer them to Plutarch's rules to distinguish a Flatterer from a Friend His Friendship being grounded upon principles of vertue his passion for his Friend was not Connterfeit nor his Conversation with him forc'd but natural and easie and all of a piece he always used freedom and would neither fall in with nor decline taking notice of what he thought was amiss in his Friend he was ready to assist him to the uttermost of his power and would embark with him in whatever was fair and honest and nothing else and would always defend him in his absence I have now brought him to the last Stage of his life and you are to see him die Now is the truest Judgment to be made of the Wisdom and Steadiness of a Man's principles and the sincerity and regularity of his actions Now all meer forms of Godliness are discovered and the Masks of Hypocrisie fall off and 't is no longer a time to dissemble with God or Man I am very well aware that some very pious Persons who have no reason for it are under great fears at the approach of death Natural temper or an habitual melancholy heightned by the present indisposition of body with a sinall tincture of superstition which is incident to very sincere Persons may cause their hearts to misgive them and put them into frights they know not why and when there is no ground for them on the other side some Enthusiasts there are who have no manner of claim to happiness by the terms of the Gospel but have the highest reason to be afraid of that Just Judgment that shall render to every Man according to his works who yet meet death in a sort of Triumph and Extasie and talk in the wildest manner of the certainty of their Salvation this is the effect of the vilest of all principles for such are those which cancell the obligations of the Gospel and supersede the necessity of a holy life to salvation But whatever wrong Judgment Men make of themselves God will Judge righteous Judgment and neither the causeless fears of good Men not the vain presumptions of bad Men shall have any influence on their future state So soon as the vital union betwixt Soul and Body is dissolv'd the one shall find themselves safe notwithstanding their fears and the other miserably disappointed under all their bold and groundless considence But generally speaking to depart not in Raptures but in Peace to die with an undisturb'd yet thoughtfull mind with a sense of our own unworthiness and yet with a full trust in God's promises 'till the bodily distemper rises so high as to take away the free use of our faculties after which all that any Man says or does stands for nothing I take to be the present and natural reward of a vertuous Life He who has liv'd constantly under a vigorous sense of God and of another World who has often had his thoughts in that invisible state and in all his Actions has manifested his firm belief of and earnest desire to reach the happiness propos'd should one would think not find it any great dissiculty to leave this World to enter upon one far better Vnder this happy and most desirable composure of mind was this admirable Man and sincere Christian at the approach of Death which he had seen advancing towards him for some time and sensibly felt it drawing nearer him by degrees The 7th of February 1696 was the last time of his appearing in the Pulpit he then found himself very ill and that the Sentence of Death was upon him for that reason he chose to venture abroad to take his final leave of his people in the solemnest manner and to close up his Ministery by Administring to them and partaking with them of the Blessed Sacrament of our Saviour's Body and Blood which he ever look'd upon as design'd to be a part of publick Christian worship and in the first Ages not administred to dying Persons on their sick beds unless they were in a state of Penance and were hereby to be restored to the Peace and Communion of the Church The notion of a Viaticum he look'd upon as brought in with superstition and that it tended to uphold it upon which principle many who neglect this duty all their life long are very earnest for it at their deaths upon the like reason that the Clinici deferr'd the other Sacrament till the last hour His Discourse was upon these words Luke 12.40 Be ye therefore ready for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not He designed this as his own Funeral Sermon as he told the Reverend Mr. M. the worthy Lecturer of that Parish as he came out of the Church and his good Friend Mr. S. with whom he din'd that day He was so far spent in preaching that he was forc'd to desire his assiststance to consecrate the Elements and only gave the Cup himself On the 17th I providentially came to him and had the happiness to attend him to his last moments He had been that day riding abroad to try if he could find any relief from the air and coming home soon after I was got to his Lodgings which were then at Islington his first Salutation was after this manner My Friend I have been in expectation of seeing thee these two days and glad I am that thou art now come for 't is to see me die and assist me in dying which is a very kind and friendly Office Great part of that day we were shut up together and he entertain'd me with such admirable Discourses on the most important Subjects and talk'd so clearly and with so lively a sense of them that I forgot I was conversing with a dying Friend and thought it one of the pleasantest days of my whole Life He began with a Discourse of the empty projects and designs of this Life and the intolerable folly of being entirely taken up with the Pleasures and Enjoyments with the cares and thoughts and business of this World when we are every day liable to enter upon a new and
and Duties of it Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me and ye shall find rest to your Souls I shall premise a few cautions to prevent any mistake in this matter and the better to state and explain it Then show how we may by the help and means of Religion attain to this Rest Peace and Tranquility of Mind 1. First then I do not pretend that Religion and Virtue will set Men free from all the evils of this World and be a protection against any manner of outward Troubles or Calamities ever falling upon us This cannot be For Man is born to Trouble as the Sparks fly upwards Job 5.7 They are a great many of them natural and necessary and unavoidable and God must alter the nature of Things and the nature of the World and work perpetual Miracles to free us always from them to have our Bodies subject to no Diseases and Indispositions our Estates subject to no Losses and Casualities or Children or Friends not subject to Death or to be taken away from us this is impossible and what no good Man must expect that the Rain or Drought should not sometimes spoil his Corn the Sea shipwrack his Goods or Vessel the Fire burn his House as well as anothers these common misfortunes which happen alike to all and a great many Losses from the fraud and injustice of others as well as abundance of natural evils arising from the Mechanism of our selves and the World these the most Virtuous cannot expect to be exempted from but like Travellers through this World they must all pass thro' the common Road with others and sometimes meet with bad and unpleasant way and now and then with a shower that may fall upon 'em but the Religious Man is however much better provided against those against the common and unavoidable evils of life than another who is but equally subject to them his Mind is Armed against all the darts of Fortune and they shall not enter so deep nor smart so grievously as to the wicked he has something within to support him under all the Calamities and Afflictions of this World a good God a good Conscience and a good Prospect and Hopes of Heaven when a wicked Man has none of those to keep him up but must wholly sink and fall under them The one will have the Peace of his Mind and a Comfort within that shall pour Oyl and Balsam into all the Wounds of Fortune and make Afflictions more easie and tolerable but the other will increase the smart of them by his wickedness that will then lie heavier upon him when his Spirit is oppressed with other troubles the load of those and of his sins both will be insupportable to him and when his mind is sore by its inward guilt every hard thing from without will more pinch and gall him A good Man may keep this Peace of Mind under any Worldly afflictions but a bad Man cannot 2. Neither will Religion make all things equal as to the outward Happiness of this life arising from Mens different States and Conditions and unequal Circumstances in this World It may be allowed that there is a proper and real good in the Plenty Riches and Conveniences of life and that a good Man is not quite so happy that wants them as if he had 'em but they might be an accession a small Addition to his more true and greater Happiness of Vertue tho' that be infinitely more Great and Valuable and Desirable yet I do not know that Religion takes away or disallows the other we may therefore both Lawfully Desire and Endeavour to make our outward Circumstances in this World as good and easie and comfortable as we can within the bounds of Vertue and 't is both Natural and Lawful to do it and it borders I doubt upon Hypocrisie or Superstition to pretend the contrary and is always confuted by a contrary Desire and Practice in those who have talked otherwise But still a good Man can be contented and easie in a very mean and strait Condition if Providence allots this to him and he will not Disquiet or Disturb himself for what he sees others enjoy if God sees not sit for him to have them and tho he can allow a lesser good and a proper use and conveniency and some small Happiness perhaps as to this life to belong to those outward things in respect of the Wants and Necessities and the State we are in here which made Aristotle and the Peripateticks put the Externa Bona into the Ingredients of compleat Happiness yet he can be very Happy with a few of those as knowing that Man's Life consisteth not in abundance as Christ says Luk. 12.15 and that a few things will suffice nature and having Food and Raiment which is the Apostles as well as Natures competency he can be content and make up a Happiness to himself out of the better and more essential Parts and Ingredients of it to wit Vertue and Wisdom and a good Mind without those Appendages and Ornaments Trimmings and Garnishings of it which we call outward Happiness and Prosperity I am not for maintaining that Stoical Paradox That a virtuous Man was thereby Rich and a King and every thing that 's Great They might as well have said also he is always Strong and Healthfull tho 't is plain he may be both Sickly and Poor and his greatest Virtues may take away neither of those evils and their contraries may be allowed to be both goods in a lower Sence and so Desir'd by us but he will be Happier a Thousand times without those than without his Vertue they can never make him truly Happy without that but he may be Happy without those by the Peace and Comfort the Firmness and Goodness of his own Mind altho' if he had them too they might add something to his present Happiness and Good Condition this I will not Cynically deny Nor yet 3. That Religion will quite alter his bodily Temper any more than his Worldly Circumstances but a good Man may labour under an unhappy Temper and ill Crasis and Disposition of Blood and Humours His Wise and Vertuous Soul may male habitare be lodged not only in a Deformed but a Sickly and Unhealthfull or otherwise ill-framed Body A natural Sulphur and Choler may lodge in his Blood that may be too apt to Fire and heat him or too much dull and heavy Phlegm may clog his Spirits and make them Listless and Unactive and not rise to Warmth and fervor in his Religious Duties the Salts that keep the Humours from putrefying may make them too Sharp or Sowre and apt to make a Temper too Fretfull and Peevish or a black melancholy Humour may be thus produced and become Predominant that will disorder the Spirits and fill the Head and other Parts with dark Vapours and irregular Ferments and draw a Cloud of Darkness and Disconsolateness over the Brain and even the Soul it self Now Religion will not nor cannot
of Religion to mortify these bodily Passions and lower Inclinations to Crucify the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts to put away all Wrath and Clamour and Bitterness and to take off the Corruptions and Weaknesses of Humane Nature by the rules of Religion and the assistances of the Holy Spirit and to Guard us where sin doth so easily beset us by the Considerations of Heaven and Eternity and another World which are only Arguments strong enough to make men conquer and deny those passions and Inclinations which are in great part natural to them Religion has a Power in it if duly applied and attended to to make the most passionate Man Calm and Gentle the most Lustfull Man Chast to Sweeten the most Sowre and ill-natured Temper and Tame the most Outrageous and Violent This Christianity did of old as Lactantius and other Fathers assure us and boast of its Vertue and Efficacy and this it no doubt will and must do in order to our Eternal Happiness if we come under the full Sense and perfect Government of it for no Man can go to Heaven with those irregular and unmortified Passions about him any more than come to Peace and Tranquility of Mind here what is required and is necessary to the one is necessary to the other also and what promotes the one does at the same time promote the other for the more approaches we make towards Heaven hereafter the more we make at present to this Peace and Tranquillity of Mind and whatever tends to acquire the one tends also to acquire the other Religion by the same way leads to both and the more we grow in one the more we shall grow in the other 't is one of the greatest Perfections Religion is to bring us to not to Destroy or Extirpate but Govern and Master our natural Inclinations and bodily Passions and make them always easie to our selves and subject to Reason Wisdom and Vertue and when they are so then we shall be in this most Pleasant and Happy State which we call Rest and Tranquility and Calmness of Mind 6. Religion and especially Christianity removes all Guilt and all Reason of inward Trouble of Mind and Disquiet of Conscience nothing is so contrary to this Peace and Rest and Tranquility of Soul as an inward Consciousness of a Man 's own Guilt and a dread of what he Deserves upon it this will always disturb and make him uneasie in whatever outward Condition he be it will be a Wound at his very Heart and like a Dart struck thro' his Liver he will feel it like a Prick upon a Nerve a Pain in the Tenderest and most Sensible part of his Mind for such is a Sense of Guilt and the Fears and Horrors that go along with it Now what shall Cure this if a Man has faln into it and what shall best preserve him from it but Religion Christianity has provided a Remedy for the greatest Guilt which is the Blood of Christ and thereby pours in Oyl and Balsam into the most wounded Conscience and by the Privilege of Repentance and New Obedience restores it to Peace and Comfort and a good State and frees it from its Dreadfull Fears and Apprehensions it gives a Man firm Grounds of Hope and Comfort upon his return to his Duty tho' he has not always observed it and assures him that he shall be well treated by God upon it This is a great thing which is owing to the Grace of God in and thorough Christ and is the great Grace of the Gospel and what natural Religion could not Discover or Ensure to us Christ alone giveth this Rest to those who are weary and heavy Laden with the Burthen of their Sins and Guilt is a Load and Burthen too heavy for us to bear but what he has done takes it off from us upon our Repentance and Amendment and becoming good Men tho' after we have been otherwise Religion will best Guard and Preserve us against all Sin and keep us from doing any thing rashly and inconsiderately that should afterwards trouble and vex us when we reflect upon it and will therefore prevent as well as cure the painfull Disorders and Disturbances of a Guilty Conscience and Uneasie Mind and keep it always in the most Virtuous and therefore most Comfortable state for nothing is such a ground of Peace and inward Comfort as to live always in a Habit of Virtue and Religion in the practice of one and by the principles of the other and never to act contrary to them or oppose them in any thing we do this will make a good Man always pleased and satisfied from himself as the Scripture speaks Prov. 14.14 and give him the closest and the truest Happiness which is the Peace of his own Mind What a Comfort a good Conscience is it is like Health or Pleasure better felt than described 't is a continual Feast in all Conditions a perpetual spring of Joy and Comfort rising up in a Man 's own Mind and overflowing his Heart with unspeakable Pleasure and Delight What will make a Man bear any Circumstances Endure any evil Suffer any Affliction Go through any Cross or Reproach and be tho' not without Sense yet without any great Trouble When his Innocent Mind speaks Cheerfully to him and Refreshes him from within A Man can never have true Peace and Tranquility of Mind without Virtue and Religion for none but a good Man conscious to himself of his own Integrity and Sincerity can have a good Conscience and nothing is so contrary to this Ease and Rest this Tranquility of Soul as an evil Conscience which like the troubled Sea is always Stormy and Boisterous and casteth up Mire and Dirt as the Prophet speaks Isa 57.20 the filth that is at the bottom of it and is therefore the most directly opposite to the Calm and Serene State and Temper of Mind that we are seeking after An evil Conscience is always full of Fears and Horrors of Dread and Disquietude 't is a Worm gnawing on a Mans Vitals a Vultur preying on his Liver a Snake stinging him to the Heart a Fury Whipping him a Devil tormenting him a Hell kindled in his own Breast Nothing can be too great and terrible to represent it by and hardly any thing can come up to the misery of it when it is in a high degree Religion by delivering us from that delivers us from the greatest trouble and uneasiness of Mind and whoever is not stupid and senseless will fall into that some time or other unless he live Vertuously and Religiously 7. Religion gives us Cheerfull Hopes as to another World and so takes off the immoderate fear of Death which must otherwise all our life make us Subject to Bondage as the Apostle speaks Heb. 2.15 and fill us with wretched and servile Fear whenever we think of dying and we cannot but think of it sometimes when we see the common Fate of Mortality in all others and have some Warnings and
Monitors of it in our own Bodies then what a melancholy thing must it be for a Man to think of going down into the place of darkness and forgetfulness to become a cold heavy lump a stiff dead Corps to have all his brisk and vigorous Spirits put out and extinguish'd and an end put to all his Pleasures and Enjoyments if he have not some Hopes of an after Immortality and of a better Life after this No Man could enjoy himself or be easie in his thoughts if he thinks at all who knows he must die in a little time if he has not the fears of Death took off and moderated by the Hopes and Expectations of Religion He that considers says Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the nature of his Soul and that Death Translates us into a better State or at least one that is not at all evil has made an excellent provision both for the Happiness of life and against the fear of death and he make this one of the great means of procuring this Tranquility of Mind thus to overcome the fears of Death for otherwise that will embitter all our present Enjoyments and spoil all our Mirth and Jollity and draw a dark Cloud over all our Cheerfullness and Gaity to have the thoughts of Death steal in now and then upon us as they unavoidably will if we have nothing to make them less terrible and frightfull than they will be to a wicked Man he must be sadly scared and amazed at any such thing and cannot think much less look on Death without sad Misgivings and Horrors of Mind and therefore can never have any setled Peace and Tranquility in himself but it will be all broke by one thought of Mortality by the hearing a Knell or seeing a Coffin for let him seem to put on never so much false Courage and to laugh at these things in the midst of his Company and his Vices yet he trembles at them when he is alone and a cold and clammy sweat feizes upon him whenever he thinks of dying in earnest nothing can prevent this Despondency and dying of Mind and arm even against the natural fear of bodily Death which will often come upon us and scatter all our other Comfortable thoughts but Religion which takes out the sting of Death which lessens and abates its terror and fortifies us against it by the Christian Hopes of being free from all Guilt and Punishment hereafter and of having a better Life and being in another World when we are to part with this here Death must be very terrible to the thoughts either of an Atheist by Depriving him of all Being and of all Enjoyment or of a wicked Christian by consigning him to Judgment and Punishment and Translating him to Eternal Death and Misery only Religion can take off its Terror and sweeten the bitter Cup with the Supports and Comforts the Aids and Assistances the Hopes and Expectations it affords to a good Man in his last Agonies and Extremities and at all other Times when he thinks of dying Lastly Religion infuses inward and unspeakable Comforts into our Minds from its present Privileges and future Hopes from God and his Spirit and their secret Communications Operations and Influences upon our Souls which are the highest improvement and the highest degrees of Peace and Tranquility of Mind Nature and Philosophy knew nothing of this but Revelation and especially the Christian give us the Knowledge and Assurance of it and many a Pious and good Christian has felt the Effects and Comforts of it in his Soul when he has had a Cheerfull and well grounded Sense that his sins are pardoned in and through Christ upon his true Repentance and that he is justified by the Grace of the Gospel upon the Terms and Conditions of it and that he has a Title to Heaven by God's promise upon his own sincerity and has reason to Hope that he shall partake of all the great and glorious things that belong to the Christian Salvation these will raise and inspire him as it did the Apostles and first Christians with a more than ordinary Comfort Peace and Cheerfullness of Soul and make him very Happy tho' in the greatest Sufferings and outward Afflictions 'T was this which made the Christians Rejoyce always in the Lord Rejoyce in Tribulations Sing and be Cheerfull in Prisons and be more than Conquerors over all their Troubles when they had these inward Comforts to support and raise and invigorate their Minds when tho' their Enemies were implacable and irreconcileable yet God they knew was reconciled to them and tho' the World hated thom yet he loved them tho' they had Tribulation from without yet they had Peace in themselves and Peace in Christ as he promised them Mat. 16.32 and tho' all things were very dark and dismal about them yet they had a clear prospect of Heaven and like St. Stephen could see that opened thro a shower of Stones and Christ sitting at the right hand of God One such view of Christ and Heaven tho' but by the Eye of Faith would give a Man a Pleasure and Courage of Mind above not only the Pains and Torments he endured but all other Pleasures he ever felt in his Life A great but ill Man could say That the Pleasures and Comforts of Religion even when they are Mistaken and Enthusiastick are greater than all the Pleasures of Sense and Carnality What are they then when they are true and well grounded how do they not only give Peace to a Mans Mind but even Rapture not only Calm and Quiet it but Transport it not only give it Rest and Tranquility but Extasie and Joy This is called in Scripture the Joy of the Holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 and the Peace of God which passeth all Vnderstanding Philip. 4.7 for we do not know how God who is a Spirit can Communicate inward Joy and Peace to our Spirits and convey a secret Sense of his Favour and Relish of his Kindness and make us taste and see how Gracious he is as the Psalmist speaks Psa 34.8 and lift up the light of his Countenance upon us There is more in all this not only in the extraordinary supports promised in particular Cases and Circumstances but in the ordinary Hopes and Comforts of Religion to a good Man than all the Pleasures of this World all the Charms and Enjoyments of Flesh and Blood can ever amount to and as we plainly feel Peace and Ease of Mind to be a greater good than any bodily Pleasure and know this from Sense and Experience as well as Religion so when this is heighten'd by those unspeakable Joys and that inconceiveable Peace which is derived from God and Religion and his Holy Spirit these give such an improvement to this Peace and Tranquility of Mind as nothing can equal but the Enjoyment of Heaven and which the wife Heathens and Philosophers knew nothing of in their Discourses on this Subject Religion and Christianity therefore out-doe
going in this narrow way these deceive Millions of Souls who tho they believe Religion yet do not live up to it but corrupt and pervert it so as to take off its Force and Influence upon their Lives and make them never the better by it The other reserve which is a most desperate one is that of Atheism and Infidelity or an utter dis-believing all Religion or at least a comfortable Doubt and Suspicion that it may not be true and this I am afraid lies in too many Minds but then all Mankind have been out of their Wits in believing it for there have been very few either in the most Wise or most Barbarous Parts and Ages of the World but what have done so unless then we have been all Cheated with Books of Revelation and Histories of Miracles done by the Prophets of Old and by Christ and his Apostles afterwards which are better attested than any Actions or any Books besides that ever were in the World 1600 Years ago so that we may as well call in Question all the Greek and the Roman story as the Jewish and the Christian and when we have run into such a Frenzy of Scepticism as to do that and without having any positive proof against Religion and the Being of God and another World for it is impossible to have that and the greatest Atheist will not pretend to have any Evidence Certainty and Demonstration but that they may be true notwithstanding all his doubts after all this the whole Frame of Nature and the Wise contrivance of the World of the Heavens above and the Earth and Animals below is a standing Evidence as great as can be given of the truth of Religion in general and a Man's Reason must be wretchedly blinded with his Vices who doth not see it or who winks so hard that he will not discern it these wretched Reserves being therefore taken away I shall proceed to press the duty of entering in at the strait Gate and narrow way and propose the motives to engage us to this notwithstanding all the Difficulties I mentioned 1. Religion is a business of such importance that whatever straits and hardships there be in it we must not stick at those but resolve however to go through with it for our Life our Happiness our All our Eternal state lies at stake and depends upon it Our Saviour only tells us strait is the Gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto Life and wide is the Gate and broad is the way which leadeth to Destruction And this is sufficient if Life and Death be set before us whatever be the way to them we should look at the great Ends Issues and Consequences of things which are the mark a Wise Man always aims at and whatever means are in our Power to attain the one and avoid the other we should make use of without any long Counsel or Deliberation for no Man demurrs and considers whether he shall choose happiness and escape Misery Nature and Instinct prevent our Reason here and we are made with an inward spring which runs of it self to the one and flies from the other whenever we truly apprehend them and therefore did we consider what that Life is that Eternal Life of Happiness which Vertue leads to which is to live in the perfect Enjoyment of the greatest good and the purest Pleasures free from all Alloys and all Approach of the least Evil and Trouble to live for ever with God and Angels in rapturous Bliss and Heavenly Delights and Joy unspeakable to be Possest of a Crown a Kingdom of substantial Glory and all such Good and Desirable things that this World affords but a faint Shadow and imperfect Resemblance of we should find this is a Life worth being fond of and seeking after compared to which this our present short life mixt with so much real Care and Trouble and so little imaginary Pleasure is but a sort of Death but walking in a vain Shadow and Dreaming of Happiness and hardly worth a Wise Man's choosing were it not for a better Life which is only worth the name of Living where we are born into another World and Vertue shall give us a Glorious Immortality this is a Reward that will sufficiently Recompense our short Labours here and were Religion never so Difficult yet the worth and greatness of that were our Hopes and Desires of it proportionable to it would inspire us with new Vigour and Resolution and convey Strength and Power enough to carry us through them all for what will not a great reward make Men do whither will they not Travel where will they not fight what danger will they Flinch from what Labour will they Refuse when a certain and great reward is offered to ' em And had we but as good thoughts of Heaven as the Soldier has of Honour and Victory the Merchant of Gold and Gain and the Husbandman of a good Harvest we should never think much of all the Pains and Difficulties that are in Religion were they a great many more than they are as on the other side if Men had but a due sense of that Destruction to which the wide Gate and the broad way of wickedness leads 'em and the Sad and Dreadfull Condition their Vices will bring 'em to in another World did they consider what exquisite and amazing Misery both of Soul and Body is wrapt up in those Words of Hell and Damnation no Vice tho' never so Charming would make 'em endure it for one day no Pleasure of Sin for a Season would make 'em bear it for so long a time as this Life is and nothing would ever tempt 'em not only not to suffer it for ever but to run the hazard and venture of it were there not a thousand times the reason to fear it that we have by Religion and were it but meerly probable or but just possible which Atheism it self can never deny yet no Wise man would expose himself to such a Dreadfull and Irretrievable danger for the Poor and Pitifull Temptations that are in the greatest Sin But 2. Besides the Consideration of another World Religion with all its straitness and hardship does not abridge us of any Comfortable Enjoyments of this World nor Deprive us of any of the true Pleasures and good things here which a Wise Man would Desire or which our Nature was made for for they may be all enjoyed within the compass of Vertue and allowances of Religion and that with more Convenience and Advantage than in a Course of Vice and Wickedness Religion does not Deprive us of any good proper to our State and Nature nor tye us up from any of the Comforts or Pleasures of Life with a peevish severity and moroseness with a touch not tast not handle not but only restrains us from what would be Evil and Pernicious to us if it were allowed us keeps us from the forbidden Fruit and from those excesses and extravagancies that are Destructive to
and Irreligion so that here is the extream folly of Wickedness that whilst its dosigns are confined to this World and 〈◊〉 aims at the present pleasure 〈…〉 and good things of this life it loses even those and misses of that present Comfort and Happiness which is a thousand times more likely to be met with in the ways of Virtue and Religion than in a life of Vice and Wickedness for as the one deprives us of no real pleasure or proper enjoyment fit for a wise Man but rather sweetens them and enhances their relish by keeping them Pure and Innocent and free from the filth and bitterness that Vice mixes with them so wickedness brings a great many evils and mischiefs upon it self here and most Mens Vices make them miserable in this life as well as in another Godliness says Saint Paul is profitable unto all things having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 and it was the wise Mans observation long before that the most desirable blessings of this life belong to Wisdom and Religion Length of days is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour Prov. 3.16 whereas nothing does more generally shorten Men's days than Vice and Debauchery and though those Men value nothing so much as life yet they prodigally squander it away and spend it too fast and consume it upon their Lust and their Lewdness and these make shipwrack of their Estates as well as of their Consciences and bring Poverty and Beggery very often along with them so that the ruined Fortunes of most Men are owing to their vitious and ill Courses and they are undone by their Vices here as well as hereafter an indelible Character of shame and reproach is hereby fixed to their Name and Memory which stains and blemishes their Repute and Credit among Men and their mind reproaches and smites them from within and they feel most of the outward and inward evils which are the most grievous and uneasie to us in this life So that besides the misery in Reversion which is due to them and unavoidable there is a present one which they seldom escape but generally befalls them so foolish are they whose fondness to their Sins makes them hug and embrace them though they at the same time Wound and Poyson them so infatuated are they and almost fascinated by them that they stick to them though to their manifest ruin and against their plainest interest and make themselves such Martyrs and Confessors to their Vices that as they wear their scars always about them so they will endure any thing for their sakes and make their way to Hell through the greatest sufferings and evils that their sins bring upon them here 4. Roligion is the truest Wisdom as it best provides against all the Accidents and Contingencies of this uncertain world and against all the infirmities of our present state and nature A good man may not be secure here that he shall not come into the same misfortune and be plagued like other Men either with some Affliction or Sickness or other common Calamity which the greatest Vertue and Religion may be no protection against but the same chance may happen both to the Sinner and to the Righteous and without respect either to their Vice or to their Virtue a Disease or a Misfortune a Loss or a Trouble may come upon either of them which nothing can keep off or prevent in this uncertain state but here Religion gives us the best relief and stands us in the greatest stead and is the most usefull to us it takes care as we may say of the main chance and makes the best provision for whatever may or can befall us it supports and revives our drooping Spirits under any afflictions of this world with the cheering thoughts of a Heaven above us and a Providence over us and the gladsom reflections of a good Conscience within us and a Comfortable trust in a good God without us whereas when any of the troubles and misfortunes of life fall on a wicked Man he has nothing to keep up his mind under them but they sink and crush him into the utmost despair and disconsolateness and he has no whither to fly for ease and comfort sad and miserable must be his case who when his body is sick and uneasie has his mind so too and feels as much anguish and anxiety in the one as he does pain in the other when his body is under the strugglings and agonies of death has his Mind and Conscience under greater and when he sees death come up behind him sees Hell open before him as ready to devour and swallow him up Tho' nothing can secure us against one of these yet Religion does against the other which is ten times the greatest and so in all other the unavoidable accidents and misfortunes of this worldly state Religion does wisely prepare and provide against them and make the best defence and security for us against all the dangers that may in this hazardous world come upon us and without this a man lies always open to every uncertain accident and shall be miserable at every turn of Fortune and shall have no Happiness but what shall be at the will and pleasure of outward Contingencies and shall have no soundation or root of Happiness within himself which nothing but Religion and Vertue can ever give him 5. Religion makes us wise for our selves and for things of the greatest importance and concern to us makes us wise unto Salvation which is the only true Wisdom that deserves so to be called or accounted for 't is a Wisdom salsely so called and no other than great folly to be wise about all other things wise in our Notions and Apprehensions and Judgments of things wise in the Managery and Conduct of all our outward Affairs wise in searching the policies and fathoming the most cunning Intrigues wise in the greatest Mysteries of Knowledge and researches of Learning so that both our selves and others applaud us for our great Wisdom and yet be a Fool in what is more valuable and more concerning to us a thousand times which is the everlasting Salvation of our immortal Souls He that is not so wise as to take care of that is with all his other Wisdom the worst of Fools and Mad Men and more void of common Prudence and Discretion than he that while he pretends to understand the great secret of being Rich and turning all into Gold yet is Poor and a Beggar or like him in a Frenzy who thought himself an Emperor and to have the greatest Territories and Dominions when he had only a Chain and a little Straw or him who while he was viewing the Stars and observing the Heavens above him did not mind his way but fell into a Pit 6. I shall show the Wisdom of Religion from the two causes of sin and wickedness which are only two sorts of folly and
from Heaven 2 Cor. 5.2 What more fit than that the materials of this house should be taken out of its former body tho' greatly improved and advanced as I shall show immediately who can tell what proper pleasures God shall fit for our bodies and make them such noble Organs for the Soul as shall be mighty useful to it and who knows whether that can enjoy all that alone without the body as with it and that there is not some new faculty or satisfaction resulting from its animating and being united to a body the Scripture representing the happiness of the other state not to be compleat till the general Resurrection God alone can tell what faculties and powers are fit for his Creatures in any state and while we are in this we can know no more what is proper for us in the other than an Embryo not yet born can conceive what it shall need when it comes into the world were it not absolutely necessary yet it seems very agreeable to Justice to have both the body and soul that were partners in Sin or Vertue to be sharers in the rewards of it And if Christ the Captain of our Salvation is to be perfect Man as well as perfect God in Heaven and his glorious body is probably to be the visible Shechinah of Heaven it self the bodies of all good Christians ought to rise and attend him and be partakers with him of the same Glory that so human Nature even in its weakest and frailest part may eternally triumph over death and the grave and over him who had the power of both 5. And Lastly To take off the incredibility of the Resurrectionn let us consider how far the body that is raised is to be the same with that which is buried and corrupted We must not be too rigorous and exact in insisting upon the same body if we be we cannot be said to have the same body two days together Our bodies are always in flow and several parts of them are always going off by insensible Transpiration and others come in the place of them like a River we call it the same tho' its Water be always running and passing away and scarce any drop of it be exactly the same the next Tide or as we call that the same flame of a Candle all the while it is burning which yet is wasted every moment and supplied with other new parts of oyl so we have the same body in our old Age that we had in our Youth And this very body of ours that was some time animated by our Souls that this shall rise again the Scripture is too plain to have it denied as it is by the Socinians the very word Resurrection supposes it to be in some sense the same body and they which rise again are said to be the same that were asleep and lay in their graves so that if we had quite another new body given us at the day of Judgment this might be said to be new made or created but not to rise again But yet it is not necessary that every part of matter which made up this Body of ours at our Death and was buried in the same Grave should go to the making up of our raised bodies It is sufficient if this Earthly body of ours which we had in this World be the seed or seminal body as it were of the Resurrection body out of some part of which it is as truly raised as the new Corn or Fruit is out of the Corn or Kernell which was set or sowed so the Apostle gives us an account of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.36 37 38. in answer to that question How are the dead raised up or with what bodies do they come i. e. how are those whose parts have been so variously mixt with other bodies and turned into the substance perhaps of other men whose very bodies are again to be raised how shall every part of these men be raised up when perhaps several men might have parts of the same body and therefore in the Resurrection whose body shall it be since many had some of it to be their body and with what body shall every one come if it must be exactly the same and yet that is so very hard if not some time impossible To this the Apostle answers Thou Fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die and that which thou sowest thou sowest not that body which shall be but bare Grain it may chance of Wheat or some other Grain But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him and to every seed his own body God does give every Man his own body but not so exactly the same as not to be at all altered but as a building is the same which is repaired tho' with a great many other materials and as an ear of Corn is the same with its seed tho' it has taken in a good quantity of the moisture of the Earth and turned it into its own body Those who have curiously examined the Anatomy of Plants and Seeds tell us that in the little Gemm or Eye of the Seed is contained the whole draught and the perfect Stamina of the Plant with its bark and leaves and fruit and all the lines of it exactly drawn in little which are after to be fill'd up and extended by the heat of the Sun and moisture of the Earth And if so little a seed or kernel can contain all the parts of a large stalk or great tree who knows how much of our present bodies may be sufficient to raise the same bodies out of again and how small a part of this corruptible matter may be the Embryo as it were of our Heavenly bodies It is certain these our bodies shall be so much altered that that which is sown in corruption shall be raised in incorruption and that which is now a natural body shall be then a spiritual not that it shall be turned into a spirit and lose its corporeal nature but that it shall be refined and made pliable to the Soul and Spirit and to all its motions and stand in no need of those things that belong to the animal life And yet it may still be the same body for all those new modes and qualities as a Jewel is the same substance of the Earth which was once a common fluid and is now turned into an Orient Pearl and the most clear Crystal Glass is the same matter that was before Sand and Ashes The best Philosophy tells us there is no specifick difference in matter but it is the same in substance tho' its outward figure colour and other accidents be altered which are but several modifications of the same matter and I can conceive God as easily to change these our mortal corruptible bodies into immortal and incorruptible ones as he turns the substance that every Animal eats into blood and spirits and the moisture and filth of the Earth that nourishes every flower and fruit into the
most beauteous colour and most delicate tast Cannot he give the Soul a shining and a glorious body even out of this corruptible one as well as he made the Sun and Stars and all those luminous bodies out of the dark and gloomy Chaos Cannot he make our bodies to shine as the Stars of glory as well as the Stars themselves which tho' Heavenly bodies yet are of the same substance with Earthly matter Cannot he make our bodies which are now a clog and burden to the Soul to be but like so many fiery Chariots to carry us up to Heaven or like so many Wings to move us nimbly where-ever we please and fleet us thro' all the Heavenly Regions that are above Cannot he do this as well as he has given Wings to the flame and made that which arises out of smoak and foot to cast forth rays and lustre and mount upwards The glorified bodies of Men or Angels are generally in Scripture compared to flame and light their countenance is then like lightning and their raiment white as snow as the Angel is described Mat. 28.3 and as our Saviour when his body was transfigured his face did shine as the Sun and his raiment was white as the light Mat. 17.2 and so shall the bodies of good Men after the Resurrection be turned into such pure and glorious bodies that they shall raise splendour and beauty all about them which tho' it be a great transmutation yet by many the like instances I have given is neither impossible nor incredible to conceive The bodies indeed of wicked Men will be very much altered and lose their animal and mortal nature but they will be gross and heavy and sink their Souls into the regions of Hell and Darkness they will be like so many dismal and filthy Dungeons to keep the Soul in chains of everlasting Darkness or like so many poisoned shirts like that of Hercules that will scorch and inflame and torture them beyond expression and sticking close to them burn them with poisonous flames and fill them with the perpetual stench of sire and brimstone How the bodies of wicked men may be made the Instruments of torment to their Souls is easie to imagine from the exquisite pains they often give them here from whence we may conceive how they may be contrived to be the dreadfull racks of eternal death where the miserable wretches may be always suffering the pains of death without dying and on which they may be made to lie for ever raging and gnawing their Tongues for pain and blaspheming the God of Heaven because of their pains and their sores to wit of their bodies as they are described Revel 16.10 And here I could stop and offer one thought to those who are so fond and tender of their bodies here who are for indulging them in every Lust and every Pleasure and think Happiness lieth in the mere delights of the body what they will think of having these pretious parts these dear bodies thus eternally and exquisitely tormented for the sake of a few paulcry sins which are but for a moment but having defended and consirmed this article of our Christian Faith the Resurrection of our bodies I must name but one general use of it and that is Let us all of us so live as if we heartily believed it without making any the least doubt in our minds about it let no mists of Infidelity overcast this Faith of ours which as it is certain by Revelation so is far you see from being incredible by reason which was the point I was to consider and make out It is a great satisfaction to ease our thoughts from some difficulties about it and have the understanding as the eye see things clearly without a film over it But these articles of faith are not only for Contemplation and the Entertainment of our reason but like Principles and Theorems in other Sciences they are to be made use of in practice and to be drawn out and improved into use and action no truth in Religion no Article of Faith is worth making out or proving or satisfying our selves about if it be not some way or other usefull to the practice of Religion and be not influential to the making us good and vertuous in our lives but the Resurrection has such a direct and immediate tendency to do this as it carries in it the assurance of a future state both of Soul and Body that if we fully believe it and are undoubtedly perswaded of it it will do its own work and will necessarily promote Vertue and Religion and be effectual upon all our lives did not a secret Scepticism and Insidelity which is the Vice of our Age hinder and defeat the power of it Let the belief of it therefore be firm and unshaken upon our minds and let the efficacy of it be powerfull upon our Lives and Conversations there is nothing more incredible in the thing that our bodies should rise hereafter than that they were once formed and born there may be difficulties perhaps equal in the account of both but as no Man doubts the one so he that well considers will have no reason to dis-believe the other or to think it incredible that God should raise the dead Let it raise us to thoughts and to things above whither Christ is raised and where he sits with his glorious body at God's right hand Let us often ascend thither in our minds now whither we hope to ascend hereafter with our bodies as well as our Souls Let us consider that these Bodies of ours as well as our Souls were made for higher designs and better enjoyments then any here of this World and that they ought to be the subjects of Purity and Vertue now as they are to be of Happiness hereafter The Resurrection will raise our minds to a great many noble thoughts if we throughly consider it and really believe it and I hope we may be satisfied by what has been said The Twelfth Sermon HEB. III. 13. latter part Lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin THE Author of this Epistle advises in this Chapter those Jewish Christians he wrote to to take care that they fell not into that sad state and temper of mind their forefathers were in in the time of Moses Not to harden their heart now as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness v. 8. when tho' they saw the mighty works of God forty years and had daily Miracles before their Eyes and were fed and maintained by them and lived under a constant dispensation of them yet still a spirit of Insidelity and Obstinacy was amongst them and their hearts were hardned and they would not hearken unto God nor obey his voice but were kept out of the good Land by reason of their monstrous and unreasonable belief so it was also in the times of our Saviour when notwithstanding all his many Miracles done before their Eyes they were yet