to come up fully to it yet pressed towards it But alas we have no such aim not a thought that way we press not towards Christ our Captain-General nor towards this Great Captain St. Paul nor any thing like it we had far rather be Pioneers to dig and moyl in the Earth to cast up Banks and raise Bulwarks of earthly Riches that we may skulk under them and avoid all Gun-shot or be Wagon-Drivers to attend on the Carriages of Provision Like the base Israelites that drew back and would not follow their Noble Captain Moses but still hanker'd after the Flesh-pots of Egypt the Belly-comforts as most of us do Our Ambition reaches no higher than to arrive to a full measure of those lustful sordid delights which the meanest and foulest Beasts enjoy as fully as any man can do What wretched thoughts are these for Men of Honour The steam of these Flesh-pots have so blinded our eyes so stupified and besotted our brain that like men bereft of common sense we can't discern betwixt Light and Darkness Vertue and Vice Honour and Shame but all is turn'd into a Chaos of Confusion For shame let us rouse up our selves out of this deadly Lethargie let us shew we have some sparks of Honour and true Nobility in us Nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus Vertue is the only true Nobility a Heathen said it Consider then the high price of our Calling far above Heathens We are called Christians Sons of the Ever-living God Fellow-heirs with Christ Heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven Let us walk worthy of this Vocation wherewith we are called not in Rioting and Drunkenness not in Chambering and Wantonness not in Strife and Envy worse then Heathens But in Sobriety Chastity Charity as good Christians If we can't walk with St. Paul Passibus aequis and keep up close with him yet let us Corde fervido hasten after and press towards him We serve a gracious God who will accept of desires for deeds A bruised Reed shall he not break and the smoaking Flax shall he not quench but rather enflame it Take a Candle newly put out and yet smoaking bring it near a flaming Candle the flame of that will descend by the smoak of the other and set it on fire So would we but with hearts like smoaking Flax draw near unto God his Holy Spirit would descend and set them a flaming Oh then let us earnestly desire at least and endeavour with St. Paul to live to Christ and the infinite mercy of God will accept us and enable us to live to Christ and then doubtless our death will like St. Pauls be gain unto us whereof I am now to treat To die is gain Many in times of Paganism considering the small and momentary pleasures men enjoy in this life the grievous and durable miseries men suffer all which death delivers them from did thereupon conclude death to be a great advantage and a wonderful gain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Plato in Apo. Socr. And Cicero de Fin. who in all things followed Plato called death Portum malorum perfugium aerumnosae vitae A Haven and Shelter from a tempestuous miserable life But Zeno the Stoick-master shall make answer to this affirming That there is no misery in this life but as we make it so and that a wise Philosopher is always happy in all conditions And a Disciple of his Seneca discourses the same at large shewing how the riches of the mind are much improved by noble Sufferings and these being of a far greater value than any earthly riches the noble Sufferer is happy by enlarging these though his Body or Estate suffer detriment And then the Conclusion must be That death can be no gain First because it deprives a man of life which is a good thing of its self and secondly it robs us of the opportunity to encrease the riches of the Soul which true Philosophers improve by Sufferings I doubt Plato and Cicero and such Academicks would be foully pusled to answer from Natural Reason these Arguments of Zeno and Seneca and the rest of the Stoicks But I will leave them to canvas and justle one another in the dark for truly I can't approve the Opinions of either party or their Principles For life being a natural pleasing thing I can't think it any gain to quit it without the assurance of a better life which Philosophers had not Nor can I think there 's any happiness merely in Sufferings though ever so gallant 'T is true a man should bear them like a man but this makes not a happy man if no recompence follow And though the Stoick Anaxarchus pun'd in a large Morter affirm'd he was there happy and defied the Tyrant Nicocrean saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bruise the Case of Anaxarchus thou canst not bruise nor touch the hidden Jewel therein my Soul Yet I believe could he have leap'd out of the Morter and escaped the Tyrant he would not hastily have leapt into it again to renew that happiness These are brave flourishes of the Pen whilst men sit at ease in their study or a good face put on the matter when a man is so fettered in an evil as he sees no possibility to escape then 't is better to brave it gallantly like a Lyon than to dye sneakingly like a Cur. But let us now see St. Pauls Philosophy we shall find it much better Thus far he agrees with the Stoicks that there is no such misery in this life but that men may receive benefit by it All things work together for good Rom. 8.28 But to whom To all men No But to them that love God who for God's sake bear it patiently and by God shall be rewarded liberally and thus all things work together for good to them that love God But not to them who know not God much less love him For if there were no gracious God to recompence our Sufferings no other life after this to receive the reward then saith St. Paul were we Sufferers of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 5.19 Sure very miserable to be made the filth of the World the off-scouring of all things 4.13 And though St. Paul agrees likewise with Plato That death is a wonderful gain Yet not in it self as in putting off this house of Clay for any house is better than no house but as death is a passage to a better house A house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens 1 Cor. 5.1 And he desires to depart not so much to be rid of the present Misery as to be with Christ the only true Felicity And though life here be good yet To be with Christ is far better Phil. 1.23 Thus you see how much wiser and better Christianity is than Heathen Philosophy which at best is but Gallant Folly But we have some Christian Philosophers who endeavour to lessen much our gain by death telling us a fond Dream of their own Brain viz. The Souls sleeping at death till
the day of Judgment and then to rise again with the Body to receive the reward of good or evil They were as good tell us in plain terms the Soul dies with the Body for this sleep is so like death as I know not how to distinguish it from Death How a pure Spirit as the Soul divided from the Body is can fetch a sleep of one or two thousand years I cannot understand and I believe they as little Let them shew us what kind of sleep this is and some warrant in Scripture for it and then I shall willingly hearken to them and submit my Soul to sleep with theirs not otherwise For I shall not easily quit the comfort St. Paul gives us at death That we shall depart hence and be with Christ for which he desired to be dissolved not to enter into so dead a sleep as would make his condition no better than of a dead block He tells us also he was in a streight betwixt two Whether to stay and preach the Gospel to others or to depart and be with Christ which was far better for himself Surely he that had so passionate a zeal to gain Souls unto Christ would never have thought it far better to sleep a thousand years than to gain a thousand Souls Thus to dye was a dull stupid gain much disagreeing with his Active Soul and as much disagreeing with the clear current of Scripture What can be clearer than those words of our Saviour unto the Thief on the Cross This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Which must needs be understood of his Souls living after the death of his Body on the Cross For sure our Saviour took not the Thiefs Soul into Paradise to sleep with him but to rejoyce with him there Had Christ intended sleep he would rather have said This night thou shalt be with me in Paradise I suppose the main cause that moves them to this sleepy Imagination is Their Wisdom thinks it not reasonable that the Souls of men should at death receive the Recompence of Good or Evil in Heaven or Hell and thence come out again to the General Judgment having before past their Particular Judgment I wish these over-wise men would leave these matters to the Wisdom of God to determine for my part I shall determine no more than the Scripture plainly declares viz. That the Souls of good men after death have some happy being where with St. Paul they enjoy Christ frequently at least if not always The Souls of wicked men some miserable Being at a vast distance from the godly divided by an unpassable Gulf as Dives was from Lazarus but whether these places be the Heaven of heavens and the Hell of hells I will not now dispute but shall in a short time certainly know In the interim I rest satisfied with S. Paul's Assurance That death will be a gain and convey me to some place where I shall enjoy Christ my Blessed Redeemer We have yet another Generation of men who call themselves Christians and would be called Wits but I can call them neither they having no belief in the Promise of Christ for a future life but make a mock of this as an idle Dream 'T is strange that men who have so high a conceit of themselves should make use of their wit thus to debase themselves Certainly this is great folly God hath made Man but a little lower than the Angels by giving him an eternal Soul but they by denying the Eternity of the Soul make themselves as low as Beasts their Soul dying with their Body without hope of future life If you ask them a reason for their Opinion their Sense is their Reason they see no other life therefore they believe no other Really I could never yet hear any thing else objected Thus they believe according to Sense and live according to Sense very Beasts in all but stupendious Wits 'T is true when a Man dies and a Beast dies we see no more of man remaining than of the Beast But shall we be such Beasts as to make no use at all of our Reason Doth not our Reason evidently shew us that there is a vast difference betwixt our Soul and the Soul of Beasts by the many wonderful Arts and Sciences which man arrives unto of which Beasts are not capable in the least degree And we may farther urge the Metaphysical Speculations and Spiritual Contemplations of the Soul wholly independant of the Body which strongly proves the subsistency of the Soul independant of the Body as the Learned well understand For an Action presupposes the being of the Actor But this is an Argument too Scholastick for this Assembly therefore I shall not here enlarge upon it Though methinks these men who would be thought Masters of Wit and Reason should be ashamed of their Ignorance in this the Master-part of Reason But Beasts they would be and so let them be unfit to consort with knowing wise men who in all Ages all the World over had this belief of a future life which being so universal must needs proceed from the instinct of Nature which is nothing else but an inner light infused into the Soul of Man by God the Creator together with a feeling and pleasing expectation of future Felicity Thus far Heathens went But we Christians have a farther and much clearer light from our Saviour Christ who plainly taught this and evidently confirmed it by innumerable Miracles which he did in his life and chiefly by his rising again after death so fully attested Do not the Laws of God and Man in all Nations receive for truth whatever is witnessed by two or three But if twenty persons affirm upon Oath what they themselves have seen all twenty being men of unsuspected credit who then doubts the truth thereof Had any one of these perverse faithless Wretches an Estate to recover witnessed for them by twenty or ten or two sufficient Witnesses and should be deprived of it would they not make great out-crys of Injustice Have not we then most just cause to cry out against these unjust Judges that would deprive us of our heavenly Inheritance attested for us by twenty a hundred five hundred most credible persons who all at once were eye-witnesses of our Saviours being risen from the dead most whereof testified the same not with Oaths but with their Deaths and joyfully died in full assurance of this heavenly Inheritance And what these men were eye-witnesses of they declared unto others and so from hand to hand conveyed it for many hundred years together and in every year downwards from the Apostles hundreds and thousands continually attested the same by suffering many grievous Torments and cruel Deaths Was there ever any thing so attested in the whole World or was there ever any thing so perversly so madly denied Are not these men as St. Austin saith Miracles of Unbelief For really it seems impossible in nature that men should so unnaturally deny a thing attested by
thousands of reasonable and credible men so that to reject their evidence is to reject the Evidence of Mankind And that which makes these Infidels most notoriously ridiculous is that they undoubtedly believe many things which have not the tenth part of this Evidence or scarce any at all But as it is 2 Thess 2.11 God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lye and not believe the truth Should I ask these men what farther Evidence they would have for a future life Doubtless they would require a sight of some half a score to come from the dead and assure them of it Our Saviour said it and therefore I believe it That if they will not hear Moses and the Prophets the Apostles and Martyrs neither will they hear though one or ten rose from the dead But put the case some should come from the dead to assure them of another life and these men having many children of their own should tell them what they saw and heard and their children should answer They would not believe unless they themselves also saw and heard the very same Would they not have great indignation at their childrens unbelief No doubt on 't And yet their children have the same reason for themselves to deny it And so by their Rule some must be daily coming from the dead into all parts of the World to satisfie men or else no belief Is not this a most extravagant thing We have had great patience to talk with these so unreasonable men so long I shall now make a short Reflexion on what I have said in this matter If we have not brought absolutely convincing proofs for a future Life yet sure they are very probable proofs So that considering our Assertion and Proofs and their Denial and no Proofs the Judgment stands fair for us But the more to confute them I will yield that we are upon equal terms nay what if I yield 't is two to one on their side and yet shew these great Wit-pretenders are Witless in their ways I propose to them a Parable A certain man brings them a Bottle of curious Wine to drink there come in presently three more wereof one crys out Sirs take heed what you do this man comes to poyson you I saw him put most deadly poyson into the Bottle The other two laugh at it as a Fable affirming both stood by when the Wine was drawn and they saw no poyson put in Some of my brave Youths say Come the Wine looks very clear tastes very pleasant away with these foolish fears Let us drink and be merry Others answer Hold my Masters let us not be so mad as to venture our lives for a glass of Wine though there be two Witnesses to one that there 's no poyson in it yet this is but a Negative proof poyson might be put in and they not see it and then the loss of our lives is an hundred to one more than the gain will be in drinking it the pleasure is but for the twinkling of an eye the loss great and for ever I beseech you tell me which of these talk Reason which Madness Is it not then far greater Madness for the small and momentary pleasures of this life to venture the loss of an eternal Life of unspeakable Felicity And not only so but to plunge themselves headlong into eternal misery and all this not having two to one for them but an hundred to one against them If this be not desperate Madness I beseech you tell me what is Who can chuse but sadly lament the dangerous condition of these men My only comfort is That the mighty power of the Divine Grace is able from stones to raise up children to Abraham And therefore I will never cease to pray and hope that God of his infinite Goodness and Mercy will in his good time give a sensible Touch to their Faithless stony hearts And now for a Conclusion I will in few words address my self to all you who have faith in the promise of Christ for a future life and hope that death may be unto you gain The day is at hand when we are to celebrate the Resurrection of our Blessed Saviour which is the ground of this our hope and raises up in us fervent desires to live with St. Paul unto Christ that we may die in Christ rise again and reign with Christ And for the encouragement and encrease of your desires I beseech you remember that St. Paul was by nature of the same flesh and blood with us of the same infirmities and weakness and of himself could do nothing no more then we but by Grace could do all things and so may we I beseech you also remember the faithful Promise of Christ That if we ask seek and knock this Grace will be given unto us And never more seasonable than now to seek it for you know Lent is the holy time appointed by the Church for Fasting and Praying and this ensuing Week is the Holy of Holies and more especially requires it How you have spent the former part God and your own hearts best know but if amiss I with St. Peter beseech you That the time past may suffice to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in Lasciviousness Lusts excess of Wine Revellings Banquettings and such like 1 Pet. 4.3 Very unfit for Christians at any time much more in the holy time of Lent We must therefore according to St. Paul's Directions Ephes 5.15 earnestly endeavour to redeem the time past by great Humiliation and fervent Devotion this Week yet to come that so we may be meet partakers of the holy Mysteries at the approaching Feast and thereby partakers also of that powerful Grace which transform'd Saul into Paul and will likewise transform us Sinners into Saints if we receive those holy Mysteries worthily But if unworthily it will transform us great Sinners into great Devils eating and drinking our own Damnation which God forbid I have heard of some that have made a Covenant with the Devil and signed it with their own blood Who doth not abhor the Fact Surely then much more abhor to make a Covenant with the Devil to continue in sin and sign it with the precious blood of Christ The very thought of it is dreadful Wherefore I most humbly and earnestly beseech you all with fear and trembling to consider the King of Glory the Judge of quick and dead we are to receive into our breasts and that you would with repenting tears so wash and make it clean with chastising Mortification so rub and polish with fervent Love and zealous Devotion so deck and adorn it that it may become a fit Tabernacle to receive the King of Glory our Saviour Christ and invite him to come in and sup with us and we with him as it is Revel 3.20 That our Souls may be so refreshed and strengthened by this heavenly Food that henceforth we may live in Christ and Christ in us and then we shall be sure to die in Christ and that death will be unto us an unspeakable gain conveying us from a World of Misery to a Kingdom of everlasting Glory which Christ hath faithfully promised us and God of his infinite Mercy will give us And therefore unto him be ascribed as is most due all Honour Praise and Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS