For the clearing this we are to consider that Sin Satan and Death are Enemies in combination against Man in his mortal State and the destructive Power of Satan and Death is from Sin When Man renounced his Creator and natural Lord he was judicially given up to Satan as the Executioner of Vengeance and to the Power of Death Such is the Order rather the Confusion in the World by Sin The Empire of Satan and Death is built on the Ruins of our Innocence Now the Son of God came from his Throne in Heaven to deliver us And whereas there are two ways of obtaining freedom from Captivity either by Ransom or by Power and Rescue in both respects our deliverance from Bondage to these Capital Enemies is ascribed to the Death of Christ. 'T is called our Ransom and that in its strict Notion has a respect to Captivity There is one God and one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransom for all His Life was the full price of our Liberty and Salvation God does not pardon Sin and release from Punishment by a pure absolute Act of his Will and Authority as a Creditor forgives a Debtor but in such a way as to preserve the Rights of Justice inviolate Therefore when Man was devoted to Death our Redeemer exchang'd Conditions with him and offer'd up his precious Blood as our Ransom to God in the quality of the King and Judg of all Such was the Dignity of his Person that the entire World the Heavens and the Earth with all their Inhabitants are of less value to him than the basest Dross to refined Gold Such was the greatness of his Sufferings in which the highest degree of Obedience and the lowest degree of Humility were conspicuous as to be a valuable Compensation to obtain eternal Redemptâ—â—â— for us Now when God the supreme Judâ—â— satisfied Satan forfeits the right he 〈◊〉 to torment us and is divested of hâ—â— Dominion over our Wills which thâ— justly permitted was an usurpation upon God's Right in Man that can neveâ— be extinguish'd 'T is said by the Apostle that our Saviour blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross He abolish'd the use of the Ceremonial Law that was an Evidence and Enditement of their Guilt who performed it and the Curse of the Moral Law It follows and having spoiled Principalities and Powers he made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it Our Saviour died victoriously the Tree of Infamy on which he suffered was the Trophy of his Conquest His Death disarm'd Satan of his Weapons whereby he subdued Us Sin the Law and Death for though his actual Triumph was in his Resurrection and Ascension to Glory yet it is justly ascribed to his Death for that meritoriously open'd the Grave at his Resurrection and Heaven at his Ascension And here by the way 't is most worthy of observation that our Deliverance from our spiritual and most deadly Enemies is equally righteous as admirable and glorious for our suffering Saviour appeas'd the Wrath of God and broke the Powers of Darkness The Wisdom and Love of God had their Designs in his Death as well as the Malice and Rage of Satan as Lines that are opposite in the Circumference meet in the Centre And as from the Tyranny of Satan so the Death of our Redeemer is our redemption from Death as to the Curse and final Dominion of it nay has made it a blessed Advantage to us 1. The Curse is removed Death considered as the Wages of Sin is all sting and poison the consequent of the spiritual Death and the introduction to eternal Death The sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law Death hath its wounding Power from Sin and Sin from the Law that forbids it that discovers its Nature and enhanses the measure of its Guilt and denounces condemnation for it Now our Saviour having in our stead subjected himself to Death the penalty of the Law for Sin There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us Death inflicted on the Saints has not that relation to the guilt of Sin as to be properly satisfaction to revenging Justice There are no petty payments to be made by our Sufferings after his compleat Satisfaction to God The Lord laid on him the Iniquities of us all 'T is indeed still a declaration of God's holy Displeasure against Sin for that originally open'd the way of its coming into the World and sometimes by the immaturity or manner of it 't is a chastisement upon good Men for Sin that is to make them renew their Repentance and mortify their carnal Affections that fasten them to the World For though after the last act of Expiration there is no place for Repentance yet in the approaches of Death the Soul is strongly excited by the Call of God to review its State and make solemn preparation to be found of him in Peace But 't is not in a strict sense the malediction and vengeance of the Law executed upon them The Serpent is turn'd into a Rod of Correction in the hands of our Heavenly Father for their good As the Apostle speaking of some that for their profaning the Lord's Table were fallen asleep adds that when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the World A Believer shall not be hurt of the second Death From hence it is that in the Book of Life the Scriptures the Death of the Saints is called a Sleep Saint Paul argues If we believed that Jesus died and rose again even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him 'T is observable how the Apostle varies the expression Jesus died and the Saints sleep in him for he sustained Death with all its Terrors that it might be a calm Sleep to his People They enjoy as perfect a Rest in the Beds of Dust as ever in the softest Down Stephen in the midst of a shower of Stones fell asleep Believers die in Peace The Righteous is taken from the Evil to come he enters into Peace Being reconciled to God through the Blood of Christ they are not terrified at his Call but with sweet tranquillity resign their Souls unto him Lord now let thy Servant depart in Peace for mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation There is a vast difference in God's account between the Death of the Righteous and the Wicked As the Tabernacle in the Wilderness was taken down with care upon their change of station and delivered to the Levites charge in order to the raising of it again with honour but the House incurably infected with the Leprosy was pluck'd down with violence and thrown into an unclean
most solemnly publish'd to the World 'T is therefore said the God of Peace raised him from the Dead the Act is most congruously ascribed unto God invested with that Title because his Power was exerted in that glorious Work after he was reconciled by the Blood of the Covenant Briefly Our Saviour's Victory over Death was obtained by dying his Triumph by rising again He foil'd our common Enemy in his own Territories the Grave His Death was a Counter-poison to Death it self as a bruised Scorpion is a noble Antidote against its Venom Indeed his Death is incomparably a greater Wonder than his Resurrection For 't is apparently more difficult that the Son of God who originally possesses Immortality should die than that the humane Body united to him should be raised to a glorious Life It is more conceivable that God should communicate to the humane Nature some of his Divine Perfections Impassibility and Immortality than that he should submit to our lowest Infirmities Sufferings and Death Now the Resurrection of Christ is the argument and claim of our happy Resurrection For God chose and appointed him to be the Example and Principle from whom all Divine Blessings should be derived to us Accordingly he tells his Disciples in a fore-cited Scripture Because I live ye shall live also Our Nature was rais'd in his Person and in our Nature all Believers Therefore he is called the first-fruits of them that sleep because as the first Fruits were a pledg and assurance of the following Harvest and as from the condition of the first Fruits being offered to God the whole Harvest was entitled to a Consecration so our Saviour's Resurrection to the Life of Glory is the earnest and assurance of ours He is called the first-born among the Dead and owns the Race of departed Believers as his Brethren who shall be restored to Life according to his Pattern He is the Head Believers are his Members and therefore shall have Communion with him in his Life The effect is so infallible that now they are said to be raised up together and made to sit in heavenly Places in Christ Jesus If his Victory over our Enemies had been imperfect and he had saved himself with difficulty and hazard as it were by Fire in the Apostle's expression our Redemption had not been accomplish'd But his Passion was triumphant and is it conceivable that he should leave the Saints his own by so many dear titles under the power of Death If Moses the Deliverer of Israel from the Tyranny of Pharaoh would not suffer any thing of theirs not an hoof to remain in the House of Bondage Will our great Redeemer be less perfect in his Work Shall our last Enemy always detain his Spoils our Bodies in the Grave This would reflect upon his Love and Power 'T is recorded to confirm our Hopes how early his Power was displayed in forcing the Grave to release its chained Captives And many Bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the Graves after his Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared unto many What better Earnest can we have that the strength of Death is broken From what he has done to what he is able to do the Consequence is clear The Apostle tells us He will raise our vile Bodies and change them like unto his glorious Body by that Power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Our Redemption will then be compleat and all the bitterness of Death past The Redemption of the Soul is accomplish'd from Sin and Misery immediately after Death but the Redemption of the Body is the last in order and reserved to crown our Felicity at the Great Day Then Death shall be swallowed up in Victory abolish'd for ever And O the joyful reunion of those dear Relatives after such a Divorce when the Body that was so long detained in the loathsome Grave shall be reformed with all glorious Perfections and be a fit Instrument for the Soul and partaker with it in consummate Blessedness and Immortality 'T is said that those that wear rich Clothing are in Kings Houses but what are all the Robes of costly Folly wherein earthly Courtiers appear to the Brightness and Beauty of the Spiritual Body wherewith the Saints shall be clothed to qualify them for the Presence of the King of Kings and to be in his House for ever But O the miserable Condition of the Wicked in that Day Death now breaks their Bodies and Souls into an irreconcileable Enmity and how sad will their Conjunction be The Soul will accuse the Body to have been Sin 's Solicitor continually tempting to Sensualities and the Body will upbraid more than ever it allured the Soul for its wicked Compliance Then the Sinner shall be an entire Sacrifice burning but never consumed Now from the assurance of a blessed Resurrection by Christ the forementioned Fear of Death is conquered in Believers If the Doctrine of the Transmigration of Souls into Bodies the invention of Pythagoras inspired his Disciples with that fiery vigour as to encounter the most present and apparent Dangers being fearless to part with the Life that should be restored how much more should a Christian with a holy Confidence receive Death knowing that the Life of his Body shall not be finally lost but renewed in a blessed Eternity The fourth General to be considered is the Persons that have an Interest in this blessed Priviledg This Inquiry is of infinite moment both for the awakning of the Secure who vainly presume upon their Interest in the Salvation of the Gospel and for the confirming and encouraging the Saints And we have an infallible rule of trial declared by St. John He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life All the excellent and comfortable Benefits procur'd by our Saviour are communicated only to those who are united to him Particularly with respect to the present Subject Justification that great Blessing of the Gospel the compleat Pardon of Sins that disarms Death of its Sting is not common to all that are Christians in title but is a Priviledg with a limitation There is no Condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus vitally as their Head from whom are derived spiritual Influences and judicially as their Advocate in Judgment and such are described by this infallible Character who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit The Blessedness after Death that is assured by a Voice from Heaven is with this precise restriction exclusive of all others Blessed are the Dead that die in the Lord they rest from their Labours and their Works follow them The glorious Resurrection at the last Day when the Bodies of the Saints that now rest in Hope shall be incorruptible and immortal is the consequence of Union with him Thus the Apostle declares As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made
God causes the Hatred of Sin and therefore 't is against all Sin not only to prevent the Exercise of it but to eradicate it out of the Soul All the fearful consequences of Sin do not render it so odious to a gracious Spirit as its own proper Idea and intrinsick Evil as 't is contrary to the holy Nature and Law of God Love unites the Soul to God and turns the Thoughts continually to him and the lively sense of his Majesty and Presence who is so pure that he cannot behold Iniquity causes an aversion from all that is displeasing to his Divine Eyes And from hence it is that a zealous Lover of God is frequent and strict in reviewing his Heart and Ways and upon the discovery of sinful failings renews his Repentance which is the exercise of Grief and Love and renews his purposes of more care and circumspection for the future Love aspires to be like God in all possible degrees of Purity for it inflames our Desires after his Favour as that which is better than Life and all the sweetest enjoyments of it and Holiness is the powerful attractive of God's delightful Love to us Love is the Principle of free ingenuous and joyful Obedience 'T was our Saviour's Meat and Drink to do the Will of his Father For Love is the fountain of Pleasure it moves the Soul with Election and Liberty and makes every thing grateful that proceeds from it Therefore the Apostle declares that the Law is not made for a righteous Man that is as it is enforc'd by terrible penalties to constrain rebellious Sinners to Obedience for Love is an internal living Law in the Heart and has an Imperial Power over his Actions And this also distinguishes the renovation of one sanctified by the Spirit from the imperfect Change that is made in the Unregenerate They may stop the eruption of corrupt Nature but are Swine that being wash'd have an inclination to wallow in the Mire they may by strong impressions of Fear be urged to do many good things but in this they are like a Bowl that is thrown with such violence as controuls the drawing of the Bias and makes it run contrary to it But Love enclines the Soul to obey the holy Motions of the Spirit with facility as the Wheels in Ezekiel's Vision turned every way with readiness as the Spirit moved them And with holy Love there is a spiritual Power communicated that both the natural averseness and impotence to what is good may be healed By the virtue of the sanctifying Spirit the Soul that was dead absolutely unable to perform spiritual and supernatural Acts is revived to a kind of Omnipotence it can do all things required by the Evangelical Covenant by the new Law that is in the hands of our merciful Mediator for Salvation 'T is true there are relicks of Sin in the best and the Flesh and Spirit are repugnant Principles warring against one another but the holy Spirit will make no capitulation or composition with Sin but is so predominant that Sin is gradually subdued and does not so freely and frequently break forth as it does from the unrenewed By the accession of his Strength we are enabled to mortify the Deeds of the Body to crucify the Flesh with the Affections and Lust thereof And to perform holy Duties with freedom alacrity and zeal in such a manner as is acceptable to God In short saving Grace is distinguish'd from that which is common to the Unregenerate by its prevalency and constancy There may be a declination in the Saints tending to a downfal but the Seed of God that supernatural Grace that remains in them will by the Power of the holy Spirit recover the Supremacy Others may be enlightned and feel some good Motions and transient Touches as Saul had his rapture among the Prophets but they are not truly entirely and perseveringly converted to God they are not proof against the allurements or Terrors of the World They make a fair Profession till they are tried by Temptations Congealed drops of Water appear like solid Chrystal till the warm beams of the Sun dissolve them and discover the hypocrisy of the Chrystal False Jewels may seem to have the lustre of Diamonds till they are broke by a fall and discovered to be Glass Thus the Riches the Honours and Pleasures of the Flesh melt some and temporal Evils break the Resolutions of others and make it evident they were not sincere Converts But where the holy Spirit savingly works he is said to dwell he is not like a Passenger or a Tenant at will that neglects the House and suffers it to fall into ruine but as the Proprietary and Owner he keeps perpetual residence in true Christians and by his continual Influence preserves them from final Apostacy Now from hence we may judg whether we have an Interest in Christ and his Benefits For the Apostle clearly tells us That if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his By this sacred Signature we are appropriated to Christ and visibly distinguished from the World For though the secret and pure Influences of the Spirit in the Soul are only known to the Person that feels them yet his active Inspirations are declarative of his Presence and Power in the outward Conversation As the Wind that is of so thin and subtil a nature that 't is invisible in it self but we certainly know from what Point it blows by the course and way that the Ship makes thus the Spirit of God who is compared to the Wind is discovered by an infallible Indication his Fruits and Effects in a holy Life And those who have communion with Christ by his Spirit have a share in his Victories and may with confidence meet the last Enemy Death For we are assured If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal Bodies by the Spirit that dwelleth in us A preparative conformity to Christ in Grace will be followed with a consummate in Glory But those who never felt the sanctifying efficacy of the Spirit in their Hearts and Lives though they are Christians in profession yet they have no other Union with Christ than a dead Branch with a Tree that receives no sap and virtue from it or an artificial Member joined to the Body that may have the outward clothing and ornaments proper to that part but derives no Life and Sense from it Whoever is in Christ is a new Creature And only those who partake in the first Resurrection from Sin shall be exempted from the Power of the second Death and upon just grounds are freed from the Terrors of the first To apply this Point let us 1. Consider our dear Obligations to our blessed Saviour who to free us from the sting and enslaving fear of Death submitted to it with all its Terrors from God and wicked Men. He felt a
Sadness to an Agony in his Soul and suffered the equal extremities of Ignominy and Torment in his Body The Favour of God was intercepted from him that it may shine upon us in that gloomy hour And all his terrible Sufferings though foreknown by his enlightned Mind could not weaken his determined Will to undergo them for us But when Peter regarded with a more tender eye his Life than our Salvation he was repell'd with indignation Unparallel'd Love no less than Divine transcending all the Instances of humane Affection The highest kind and excess of Love amongst Men is to die for another and the highest degree in that kind is to die to save an Enemy and of this our Saviour is the singular Example Love incomprehensible it passes knowledg and all understanding but his who express'd it His Love was equal to the heighth of his Glory from whence he descended and the depth of his Sufferings that he sustained in our stead By washing us from our Sins in his Blood he makes us Kings dignifies us with spiritual Soveraignty over not only defiling but disturbing Passions The freest and most confident Sinner in the World that rebels against the Divine Laws without restraint is a Slave not only under the Chains of his imperious Lusts but in that he is liable to the scourgings of Conscience when ever awaken'd and to the servile fear of Death every day But the sincere Christian has a clear and sweet Peace a blessed Tranquillity from the tormenting apprehensions and fears of Death that are the just consequents of Guilt One of the ancient Romans highly celebrates the Astronomers who discover'd the true Causes of the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon and freed the World from the double darkness of Ignorance and Fear for before that Discovery Men believed the obscuring of those great Lights were the fainting fits of Nature and mortal Symptoms threatning an universal Calamity But what Praise and Blessing is due to our Saviour who hath given us infallible assurance that the Death of the Righteous is not as the Heathen World imagin'd an irreparable loss of Life but a short eclipsing of this low and mean Light that is common to sensitive Creatures to be restored more excellent and permanent in Heaven where those Stars shine in the Divine Presence for ever Thanks be to God which gives us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. This should render him infinitely precious to us and inflame our Hearts with Desires equal to our Obligations to serve him 2. Let us make it the main Business of our Lives to remove from our Souls the just Fears of Death 'T is one of the solemn Follies of the World to fear where there is no cause As if a Sentinel should mistake Gloworms in the Night for lighted Matches and give a false Alarm but 't is a worse Folly though pleasing not to fear when there is the greatest Reason to excite it And 't is so in the present Case for the most are without the Fear of Death that should make them serious in preparing for it nay to maintain their Security are as unwilling to hear Conscience declare the Wretchedness of their Condition with respect to Eternity as Ahab was the Prophet Micaiah who always foretold evil things to him 'T was the chief Design of the Philosophers by Principles of Reason to fortify themselves against all frightful Accidents and with a masculine Mind with an Heart ardent and with generous Spirits to encounter this inevitable Evil. When one of them was threatned by the Emperor Antigonus with present Death he boldly replied Threaten this to your dissolute Courtiers that are softned and melted by sensual Pleasures and easily receptive of terrible Impressions not to a Philosopher to whom Death is contemptible in any Appearance This was a piece of affected Bravery for Pagan Philosophy could never furnish them with Armor of Proof against the Dart of our last Enemy But the Gospel assuring us that Death is an Entrance into Immortality makes that to be the Reality of a Christian that was a vain boast of the Philosophers Now that we may be establish'd in that blessed Tranquillity that Death cannot discompose the following Directions are infinitely useful 1. We must give all Diligence to be in a State of Reconciliation with God The things requisit to that are as the Apostle declares Repentance towards God and Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance includes a Godly Sorrow for Sins past with a Detestation and forsaking them sincerely without Hypocrisy and entirely without Partiality in the Heart and Conversation 'T is call'd Repentance from dead Works the proper Name of our Sins that deserve Eternal Death By Repentance we return to Obedience that is due to God our Maker and Lawgiver Faith respects the Redeemer who by his Blood shed on the Cross and pleaded in Heaven reconciles God to penitent Sinners The Belief of his merciful and powerful Mediation for our Acceptance and Pardon Works by Love and constrains us to dedicate our selves in a devoted Propriety to his Glory and Service and to live according to that Dedication These two are absolutely necessary to the vital and salvifical State of a Christian. And as soon as a Person sincerely repents and believes he is justified before God and if he dies will certainly obtain eternal Glory This should be the early and most speedy Work of our Lives for the Delay of Repentance and Neglect of securing the Favour of God arms Death with more Stings and Terrors The infinite Danger of this I will unfold to awaken the Careless and Secure The Devil is a Sophister in Perfection and his ordinary and successful Artifice to elude the force of present Conviction and wrap Men in Sin and Damnation is to induce them to delay the great Work of the Soul till afterward He is not so foolish to tell them as he did our first Parents Ye shall not die for the Temptation is so palpable that it could deceive none Though the Evidence and Certainty of supernatural Truths that disturb the Security of Sinners is sometimes obscur'd by affected Doubts yet there is no Artifice that can resist the full and strong Conviction in Men that Death is inevitable Though Nature recoils from it with Abhorrence yet this sad Truth is so visible that it forces an Assent from all Those who are titular Gods the greatest Princes are not so vain as to pretend to an Exemption by Priviledg from that fatal Necessity they cannot fancy to be imbalm'd alive and that Nature may be made incorruptible by Art The Palace is as near the Grave as the Cottage therefore the Devil cherishes in Men fond hopes of a long Life As some optick Glasses deceive the Sight and make a superficial Representation in Colours on a Wall but two or three Steps distant appear a long deep Gallery Thus the Tempter by a dangerous Deceit presents to the Imagination the fatal term at a
the glorious Creatour As if one from the Region of the Stars should look down upon the Earth the Mountains and Hills with the Vallies would appear one flat Surface an equal Plain the height and the lowness of the several parts being indiscernible at that immense distance Now in Heaven the Divine Majesty is most visible and most awful and adorable The sublimest Spirits cover their Faces before his glorious Brightness The Prophet Isaiah had a representation of Heaven I saw the Lord sitting upon a Throne high and lifted up and his Train filled the Temple Above it stood the Seraphims each one had six Wings With twain he cover'd his Face with twain he cover'd his Feet with twain he did fly And one cried to another and said Holy holy holy Lord of Hosts the whole Earth is full of his Glory They highly honour him by the reflection of his separate and peerless Excellencies his Almighty Power his Infinite Supremacy and Eternal Empire in their consert of Praises This is the principal Duty of Angels and Men to the blessed Creator for his admirable Perfections and his excellent Benefits The Evidence of it is so entire that the reasonable Mind cannot suspend its Assent for Goodness and Beauty the Fruit and the Flower of amiable Things do so recommend them to the Understanding and Will that they powerfully allure and engage the Affections Now these are in God in unspeakable degrees of Eminence The Prophet breaks out in a rapture How great is his Goodness how great is his Beauty 'T was a Precept of the Ceremonial Law that the Firstlings of the Flock and the first and best Fruits of the Earth should be offer'd to God not as if the first that open'd the Belly was more valuable in his Account than the last or the most early Fruits in the Spring more pleasing to him than the later in the Autumn but 't was instructive that our Love the first born of the Soul and the beginning of its strength should be consecrated to God 2. In Heaven the Saints as perfectly love God as they know him The Love of God is the Essential Character of a Saint that distinguishes him from the Unregenerate Indeed it is strange that God who is infinitely lovely and infinitely liberal and benificent should not prevail on the Hearts of all Men but if we consider the degeneracy of Mankind how their Minds are depraved and deceived and their Affections are vitiated the Wonder will cease Carnal Men have not due Conceptions of God and will not attentively observe his amiable Perfections St. John tells us He that loveth not doth not know God Knowledg is the leading Principle in the Operations of the Soul There must be a heavenly Eye to discover the heavenly Beauty before there can be love of it Now Men are in ignorant darkness and are defiled in Flesh and Spirit and therefore cannot love God who is glorious in Holiness Without resemblance there can be no affectionate Union which is the Essence of Love The contrariety of Dispositions infers a contrariety of Affections The Scripture expresses this in dreadful Colours The carnal Mind is enmity against God the Friendship of the World is enmity with God that is Pride and Covetousness and Sensuality which are the Lusts of the Carnal Mind and are terminated upon worldly Things are inconsistent with the Love of God The Justice of God is terrible to the Consciences and his Holiness odious to the Affections of the Unrenewed 'Till by Divine Grace the Understanding is enlightned and purified to have right apprehensions of God till the Will and Affections are cleansed and changed till there be a resemblance of God's holy Nature and a conformity to his holy Laws they are not capable of delightful adhering to him which is the internal essential Property of Love But those who are partakers of the Divine Nature the holy and heavenly taste and see how good the Lord is and according to the Illustrations of the Mind such are the Impressions upon the Heart the Love of God in their Breasts here is like smoaking Flax but in Heaven 't is a triumphant Flame God is the first Fair the Original of all amiable Excellencies in whom they shine in their unstained Lustre and Perfection when he fully reveals himself and displays the richest Beams of his Love and Glory how transporting and endearing is that Sight Our Affections that are now scatter'd on many things wherein some faint Reflections of his Goodness appear shall then be united in one full Current to him who is all in all In Heaven the immense Treasures of his Grace are reveal'd That when Man for his rebellious Sin was justly expell'd from Paradise and under the Sentence of Eternal Death God should not only pardon but prefer us to the dignity of his Children and prepare such a Glory for us and us for such a Glory This will inspire the Saints with such ardent Affections that will make them equal to the Angels those pure and everlasting Flames of Love to God In Heaven we shall be with Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant who is seated at the right Hand of God And how admirable will he appear to the Sense and Soul of every glorified Saint for we shall see the King in his Beauty When our Saviour was upon the Holy Mount and one vanishing Beam of Glory appear'd in his Transfiguration Peter was so transported at the sight that he forgot the World and himself How ravishing then will the sight of him in his Triumphant Majesty be when we shall be transfigur'd our selves Now while Believers are in the shadows of the earthly State they love their unseen Saviour with such intense degrees of affection as deface all the washy Colours all the vain loves of things in this World but when they are admitted into his shining Presence and see him in the day of Celestial Glory with what an extasy of Affection will they be transported We shall then feel the endearing Obligations our Saviour has laid upon us who ransom'd us with so rich a Price and purchas'd for us such an unvaluable Inheritance For in proportion as we shall understand his Greatness in himself we shall his Goodness to us The Eternal Son of God descended from the Heaven of Heavens to our lowly Earth and which is more from the Majesty wherein he there reign'd and was visible to the Angels he became Man that he might die to redeem us from the most woful Captivity from Death and the sting of Death Sin and the strength of Sin the Law and obtain a blessed Life and Immortality for us O unexampled Love Greater Love hath no Man than this to lay down his Life for his Friend And what is the Life of a sinful Man a vanishing Vapour a Life mix'd with Troubles and Vexation and to lay down this for a Friend deservedly dear is the highest expression of humane Love But for the Son of God to lay down his Life
THE Four Last Things Viz. DEATH JUDGMENT HEAVEN HELL Practically considered and applied In Several DISCOURSES By William Bates D. D. Recommended as proper to be given at Funerals LONDON Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1691. To the Right Honourable RACHEL Lady RVSSEL MADAM OF all Affairs for the compassing whereof Men are so diligent and sollicitous there is none of that absolute necessity and high importance as the Preparation for Death and Judgment and the immediate Consequences of them Heaven and Hell to obtain the one and escape the other This requires the whole Man in his best vigour and should be the Work of the Day but 't is usually delayed till the melancholy Evening of Age or the twilight of Death The Trifles of this World divert them from that main business to which all other things should be subordinate It equally deserves Wonder and Compassion that Death which is so constantly in Mens view should be so seldom the matter of their application when all are of the same Glass made of the same frail natural Principles and no Argument is more frequently pathetically urged upon them 'T is not strange that deep Truths that by the strength and exercise of the mind are drawn like Gold out of the Mines have no efficacy upon those that are not capable of understanding them but the Doctrines of Death and Judgment Heaven and Hell are plain Truths by Na-Natural Moral and Divine Evidence known to all yet no more affect Men than a Paradox of incredible Novelty If the Doctrine of Eternal Judgment were but a probable Opinion controverted with equal Arguments yet 't is a matter of such vast concernment that Reason requires all our possible diligence to avoid an eternal evil that may be the loss of Celestial Glory and the Torments of Hell But since 't is an infallible Truth as certain as the Word of God 't is a Miracle to astonish Heaven and Earth that Men live as carelesly as if they should never die and die as securely as if they should not live in the next state to receive the just punishment of their Sins They are fearless whilst Death is far off in their thoughts and when Age has snowed upon their heads that no Marks of decaying Nature should appear make their own Winter to flourish with anothers Spring But 't is in vain for Death knows them under their disguise and will not stay beyond the appointed time And in that decisive hour Infidelity or Presumption hardens Men to pass as quietly and boldly in appearance into another world as unfeigned Faith and a regular lively Hope in the Promises of the Gospel But as deceitful Physick stops the Fit for the present that will return more violently and fatally afterwards So a counterfeit short Peace transmits them to everlasting Sorrows The design of the following DISCOURSE is to awaken Men that they may be wise and consider their latter end to secure an interest in our Redeemer who has disarmed Death of its Sting and made that Enemy our Friend and to practise dying every day by withdrawing their hearts from the vanities of this transient World that have such a pernicious influence to excite the carnal Appetites and stupify the Conscience which are the true causes of their sin and Misery And what can be more powerful to render them temperate and sober in the use of present things vigilant and serious in their preparations for their great and final Change than the remembrance that Death is immediately attended with Judgment and Judgment with Blessedness or Misery for ever I know this Argument is naturally displeasing but the usefulness should recommend it to our most solemn and composed thoughts before all the vain entertainments of the Fancy and sensual Affections As Herbs of Medicinal virtue that are not pleasing to the sight or smell yet are valued by the Skilful as treasures of Health and preferr'd before the fairest Flowers that are perfum'd and painted by Nature so as to excel the richest lustre of Solomon's Glory The Body is in a continual Consumption and no Art can long preserve it but whilst the outward Man is irrecoverably declining and wasting if the Inward Man be ascending and renewing to perfection the advantage is incomparable O how comfortable is it to a holy Believer in the parting hour to commit his Spirit into the hands of his Heavenly Father for thus he is authorized and encouraged by our Saviour's Example and lay down the Flesh to rest in Hope for Christ is the Guardian of the Grave has the Keys of Death and will revive the Bodies of his Saints incorruptible and immortal the Copies of his own glorious Body The immediate Recompences of Eternal Judgment Heaven and Hell are worthy of our most attentive and applicative Thoughts that we obtain the one and escape the other Heaven is the true Happiness of the reasonable Creature and is the first and last in the order of things desireable the first for its attractive Excellence the last in its consummate Fruition This may be certainly and perpetually enjoyed by all who sincerely and diligently seek it If in the very different States of Life here there were any uncapable of Eternal Life or that have another Object for their last End there might be some reason why they should be coldly affected towards Celestial Happiness and to justify their sole pretentions to the Things of Time wherein their Interests are confin'd but the offer of Heaven regards all that upon God's Terms will accept of it The most sensible inequality that Riches Dignity or any temporal Accident makes between Men here is so true a Nothing in comparison of Eternal Glory that it makes no difference of one from another as to the obtaining it For this Reason it most nearly concerns every Person First to seek the Kingdom of Heaven and the Righteousness thereof as the only way to ascend to it The serious consideration of the everlasting Hell prepared for unreformed Sinners is most necessary and useful tho carnal Men are extreamly averse from thinking on that terrible Object For this is the first Motive that turns Men from Sin to Holiness The Joys of Heaven being Spiritual and Divine have no attractive influence upon the carnal Affections would never convert and reform any but the Torment of Fire being most evident and vehement to Sense is strongly represented by the Imagination and moves the Affections How many by solemn and believing Thoughts of the unquenchable Fire have felt the Miracle upon the three Children in the Furnace renewed in themselves their strong Cords the obstinate Habits of Sin burnt asunder and their Powers restor'd to the freedom of Duty the blessed Liberty of Obedience In this respect the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom that directs us in the Way to Blessedness Madam I shall not attempt the celebrating your Ladiship 's Vertues that render you a bright Ornament of
Right to redeem them by his Alliance and Propinquity for he that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are all one and that he might undergo Sufferings even to death for the price of their Redemption and the remedy of their Infirmities Forasmuch as the Children are partakers of Flesh and Blood he also likewise took part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil And deliver them who through fear of Death were all their Lives subject to Bondage The Devil is said to have the Power of Death 1. Because he induces Men to commit Sin that meritoriously renders them liable to Death He tempted the first Man cum effectu and was a Murderer from the beginning 2. In that he inspires them with furious Thoughts and inflames their Passions from whence proceed Strifes and Wars that efficiently cause Death He is supream in all the Arts of Mischief and always intent upon Evil. 'T is by his Instigation that Men become like raging Beasts animated and bent on mutual Slaughter 3. Because he is many times the Executioner of God's Wrath and inflicts Death upon rebellious and incorrigible Sinners 'T is recorded by the Psalmist That God cast upon the Egyptians the fierceness of his Anger Wrath Indignation and Trouble by sending evil Angels Those Princes of the Air the Instruments of the Thunder and fiery Storm of Hail that destroyed them 4. Because he makes Death more formidable to Sinners by heightning their guilty Fears of God's Tribunal The false Spirit tempts Men to sin by many Blandishments but afterward he is a severe Accuser of them to God and to themselves Lastly This Title may signify his tormenting Sinners with unrelenting Cruelty in Hell which is the second Death Now these Evils being the penal Consequence of Sin our Saviour by his Death appeas'd the injur'd Justice of God and thereby destroyed the cruel Tyranny of the Devil As the Lamb of God in the notion of a Sacrifice he overcomes our spiritual Enemies Sin Satan and Death lie vanquish'd at the foot of his Cross. Besides our Saviour having felt such Sorrows and Infirmities as are usual to his People by that correspondence and resemblance between them is compassionately inclin'd to relieve them I shall now insist upon the blessed Priviledg of Believers set down in the Text viz. That Jesus Christ by his Death frees his People from the servile tormenting fear of Death In prosecuting the Point I shall 1. Consider the Account the Scripture gives of Death's entrance into the World 2. Shew what the fear of Death includes and the Bondage consequent to it 3. How the Death of Christ frees us from the thraldom of that Fear 4. Who are partakers of this blessed Priviledg And then apply it I. The Scripture gives an account of Death's entrance into the World in a threefold Respect 1. As the Desert of Sin 2. As the Effect of the divine Decree 3. As the Sentence of the Law 1. As the Desert of Sin The first Design of the Creator was his own Glory in conjunction with the Happiness of Man He was made accordingly holy in Perfection placed in Paradise and his State contained all the Ingredients of Felicity proper to his Nature He was capable of dying as sad Experience proves yet no Accident from without no Distemper from within had impair'd his Vigour and made him actually subject to Death without Sin Whilst innocent he was immortal not from everlasting Principles of Nature but by Divine Preservation of which the Tree of Life was the ordained Means and sacramental Pledg For God unchangeably loves his own Image and though by his Sovereignty and absolute Power he may resume the Being he gives yet his Goodness and Covenant were a sacred assurance that Mans happy Life should run parallel with his perseverance in his Duty This Immortality was not the singular Priviledg of Adam's Person but had been the Inheritance of all his Progeny But he soon revolting from his just Obedience of Immortal became Mortal and according to the original Establishment of Propagation transmitted his Nature with the guilt and poison of Sin to all his Posterity Thus by one Man Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned As his Obedience had been rewarded so his Rebellion is punish'd in all that naturally descend from him From hence it is that so numerous a part of Mankind are cut off before the commission of actual Sin Death enters into the Forge of Life and destroys the Conception that newly began to live And what is more righteous than that Man when he disobeyed the Author of Life should forfeit his Life and Blessedness The Soul voluntarily lost the spiritual Life by forsaking God therefore unwillingly loses the natural Life by expulsion from the Body The Apostle says the Wages of Sin is Death not only that of the Body but the Death of the Soul which is a dreadful Concomitant of it And from hence we may discover the false Philosophy of the wisest Heathens in their Opinion of Death They judged it to be the primary necessity and condition of Nature fix'd by irresistible Fate and not understanding the true and just reason of its coming into the World they could not apply a sufficient Remedy against its Evil. 2. As the Effect of the divine Decree respecting Sin This is discovered by Revelation in the Word of God and by the real execution of it It is appointed to Men once to die This Decree is universal and unrepealable One Generation passeth away and another Generation cometh like the ebbing and flowing of the Sea in its stated Periods Nothing can interrupt or frustrate this Appointment There are divers Conditions of Men and various ways of living in the World some are high in Dignity others are level with the Earth some walk in a Carpet-way smooth and easy others in a thorny and troublesom some walk on the golden Sands others on the Mire but the same uncontroulable necessity of dying involves all And whatever the way be whether pleasant or doleful yet every one passes in it with equal Steps measured by the same invariable spaces of Hours and Days and arrive at the same common End of Life Those who are regarded as visible Deities amongst Men that can by their Breath raise the Low and depress the Lofty that have the Lives of Millions in their Power yet when the ordained Time is come as they cannot bribe the accusing Conscience for a minute's Silence so neither delay Death I have said ye are Gods but ye shall die like Men. 3. Death is to be considered as the Sentence of the Law The reasonable Creature was made under a Law the Rule of his Actions The moral Law directed him how to continue in his holy and blessed State To which was annex'd the Precept of not eating of the
place with execration Thus the death of the Saints is precious in the sight of the Lord their Bodies are kept in the bosom of the Earth to be raised in Glory and the death of the Wicked is accurs'd In short as the Wood that Moses cast into the Waters of Marah by a miraculous virtue sweetned them so the Cross of Christ has taken away the malignity and bitterness of Death 2. Death is a blessed Advantage and enriching Gain to a Believer it brings him to the possession of that Good that incomparably exceeds the Evil that remains in it For the Death of a Saint is not total but as in the Ceremony of Purification from Leprosy one Bird was killed and the other let fly in the open Air the mysterious shadow of the Lepers being restored to a state of Liberty Thus when the Body dies and returns to the Earth the Spirit returns to God the Father of Spirits and Fountain of Life Our Saviour told the Jews I am the living Bread that came down from Heaven if any Man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever and the Bread that I will give is my Flesh that I will give for the Life of the World The Heavenly Divine Life that is communicated by the Spirit of Christ to Believers remains entire when the sensitive Life is lost The natural Order is There is a time to be born and a time to die the supernatural is there is a time to die and a time to be born The Death of a Saint is a new Birth the pains of the dying Body are as Throws whereby the ripen'd Soul is delivered into the Land of the Living The happiness of a Saint after Death more particularly will appear by considering 1. The freedom he obtains from all afflicting Evils that are numberless here and from Sin the worst in its nature and the cause of all the rest The present World is a Labyrinth of Thorns in every state we meet with something to vex us You may as well count the Waves of the Sea when inraged by a Tempest as the Troubles to which in this mortal open state we are expos'd Man that is born of a Woman is of few days and full of Trouble A short Life and many Miseries O our unhappy Capacity the Body is liable to as many Diseases as there are Members and the Soul to as many Perplexities as Passions How often are the Scenes and Habits chang'd in the time of one Man He that lives in Pleasures must act the Mourner's part Our sweetest Comforts have hidden Stings and whatever is most pleasing may occasion bitter grief And usually holy Men have a greater portion of Afflictions here sometimes by the malignity and violence of the Wicked as under the Law the Lamb and the Dove were Sacrifices the Emblems of Innocence and Purity and Meekness whilst the Vulture and the Lion the greedy Devourers escaped This the Apostle declares of the Elect They are predestinated to be conformed to the Image of God's Son who trac'd out the Way to Heaven in his own Blood and by the Cross ascended to the Throne Sometimes more immediately Divine Providence afflicts them to preserve their Spirits from the tainted Pleasures of the World and for other holy Ends but there is a Rest for the People of God in Heaven Besides there are Relicks of Sin in the best of the Saints here Indeed Sin is depos'd from Sovereignty and Rule the imperious Lusts are crucified but not quite expir'd As those that were nail'd to the Cross in their Hands and Feet the parts least vital and most sensible died a painful lingring Death Still the Flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh. As there is a complexion of Humours in humane Bodies always jarring when they are in the soundest Health and where there is not this active contrariety either the Body is without a Soul a meer Carcass or a glorified Body in Heaven So where there is not this internal Combat between Grace and Sin either the Man is wholly carnal dead in Sins and Trespasses or wholly spiritual reigning in Heaven And there is nothing more works on the tender Affections of a Saint than to find in himself what is displeasing to God that still he is under a sad necessity of sinning What is said concerning an old Man wasted and decayed in his drooping Years that the Grashopper is a burden to him is true of the new Man in a Christian the Sins that are counted light in the valuation of the World are a heavy weight to him Vain Thoughts idle Words irregular Passions unprofitable Actions are motives of heart-breaking Sorrow Now Death is to a Believer an universal Remedy against all the Evils of this Life it frees him from all Injuries and Sufferings and from Sin in all its degrees from all inclinations and temptations to it He that is dead ceaseth from Sin Death is the Passage from this Wilderness to the true Canaan the Rest above that flows with better Milk and Hony with Innocence and Happiness for ever There nothing can disturb the Peace or corrupt the Purity of the Blessed 3. Besides the privative advantage the freedom from all the Effects of God's Displeasure and the resentments of it there is the highest positive Good obtained by Death The Spirits of just Men are made perfect in Heaven The Soul is the Glory of Man and Grace is the Glory of the Soul and both are then in their Exaltation All the Faculties of the Soul are rais'd to the highest degrees of Natural and Divine Perfection In this Life Grace renews the Faculties but does not elevate them to their highest pitch it does not make a mean Understanding pregnant nor a frail Memory strong nor a slow Tongue eloquent but sanctifies them as they are But when the Soul is releas'd from this dark Body of Earth the Understanding is clear and quick the Memory firm the Will and Affections ardent and vigorous And they are enrich'd with Divine Light and Love and Power that makes them fit for the most noble and heavenly Operations The Lineaments of God's Image on the Soul are first drawn here but then it receives his last Hand All the Celestial Colours are added to give the utmost life and lustre to it Here we are advancing but by Death we arrive at Perfection We shall in Heaven be join'd to the Assembly of Saints and Angels our best Friends Love is the Law of that Kingdom and perfectly obeyed there Now how charming is the Conversation of one that is wise and holy especially if the sweetness of Affability be in his Temper How pleasantly does Time slide away in the company of our beloved Friends We are not sensible of its flight But what dear satisfaction is it to be united to that chosen consecrated Society Above who love one another as themselves Though the Angels and Saints have different degrees of Glory yet every one is
perfectly happy and pleased As the strings of an Instrument differ in the size and sound some are sharp and high some grave and deep others a mean and from that variety results the Harmony and Musick so that if every string had Judgment and Election it would chuse to be what it is so from the different degrees of Glory in Heaven the most amiable and equal Order of the Divine Wisdom appears that satisfies every one We shall be in the glorious Presence of God and Christ where is fulness of Joy and infinite Pleasures for ever 'T is said of Abraham he rejoic'd to see the Day of Christ two thousand Years before his coming When by Faith he saw the Incarnation of the Son of God in order to the redemption of Men it put him into an exstasy Yet then our Saviour was born to Sorrows and Miseries But how ravishing is the sight of our Redeemer set down on the right Hand of the Majesty on high having purged our Sins by himself and accomplish'd our Salvation Now we are absent from God yet in believing his infallible Promises we rejoice with a Joy unspeakable and glorious But how much more joyful is the fruition of them Here the Divine Goodness is derived to us through secondary means that weaken its efficacy but in Heaven the Consolations of the Creator are most purely dispensed and his immediate Excellencies are made known This Blessedness exceeds all our Thoughts and explicite Desires and requires the eloquence and experience of an Angel to set it forth The bright Sum of it is this We shall see God in his Glory face to face in the most perfect manner the sight of his Glory shall transform us into his Likeness we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is This shall produce in us the most pure and ardent Love and Love shall be attended with inexpressible joy and that with the highest Praises of the blessed God whose influxive Presence is the Heaven of Heaven And that which crowns all is that the Life above is Eternal This satisfies all our Desires and excludes all our Fears for Unchangeableness is an inseparable Attribute of perfect Felicity The Blessed are in full Communion with God the Fountain of Life and Christ the Prince of Life Because I live saith our Saviour ye shall live also What can interrupt much less put an end to the Happiness of the Saints The Love of God is immutably fix'd upon them and their Love upon him Here their Love is subject to decays and gradual alienations as the Needle in the Compass though it always has a tendency to the North-Pole yet sometimes it declines and has its variations But in Heaven the Love of the Saints is directly and constantly set upon God The Light of his Countenance governs all their Affections 'T is as impossible to divert their Desires from him as to cause one that is inflam'd with Thirst to leave a clear flowing Spring for a noisom Puddle In short Heaven is filled with eternal Hallelujahs for there is no appearance of Sin no shadow of Death there all Miseries are vanish'd and all that is desirable is possess'd by the Saints the Circle of their Employment is to enjoy and praise the Divine Goodness for ever Now is not the blessed Exchange a Christian makes of the present Life for that which is infinitely better sufficient to make Death not fearful nay desirable to him The regular well-grounded hope of this will compose the Thoughts in the nearest Approach and Apprehension of Death No other Principles or Resolutions are able to vanquish the Terrors of our last Enemy And this Happiness was purchas'd for us by the everlasting Treasure of our Saviour's Blood The Satisfaction of his Sufferings was meritorious as the Merits of his active Obedience was satisfying Before I proceed to the third Head I shall resolve a Question How it comes to pass since Believers are freed from the Sting of Death that they die and remain in the State of Death for a time For this there are several Reasons 1. By this means all the sinful Frailties that cleave to the Sains in this Life are abolish'd The Body is dead because of Sin And what is more becoming the wise and Holy Providence of God than that as by Sin Man was at first made subject to Death so by Death Sin dies entirely for ever Thus as in Sampson's Riddle Out of the Devourer comes Meat and our worst Enemy is conquer'd by his own Weapons 2. Death is continued to the Saints for the more eminent Exercise and Illustration of their Graces for the Glory of God and in order to their future Reward Faith and Love and Patience are declared in their most powerful Operations in our Encounter with Death If every Saint were visibly and entirely translated to Heaven after a short course of Holy Obedience if the Wicked did visibly drop down quick into Hell Faith would be resigned to Sight here This would confound the Militant State of the Church with the Triumphant Therefore now Death happens to the Good as well as to the Wicked In the next State they shall be separated by a vast Gulph and an amazing Difference Now Faith whatever the kind of Death be that a Christian suffers sees through the thickest Clouds of Disgrace and Misery the glorious Issue As the illustrious Confessor who was crucified with our Saviour proclaim'd his Eternal Kingdom in the midst of insulting Infidels And our Love to God then appears in its Radiancy and Vigour when we are ready for the Testimony of his Truth and advancing his Glory to suffer a violent Death or when it comes in a gentler manner for 't is even then terrible to Nature we are willingly subject to Dissolution that we may be united to God in Heaven And our Patience has never its perfect Work and is truly victorious till this last Enemy be subdued Death is the Seal of our Constancy and Perseverance Now the righteous Rewarder will crown none but those that strive lawfully and are compleat Conquerors And how wise and sweet is the Oeconomy of the Divine Providence in this that the Frailty of our Nature should afford us a means of glorifying God and of entitling our selves by his most gracious Promises to a blessed Reward 3. Our Saviour by his unvaluable Obedience and Sufferings has procur'd for Believers a Celestial Divine Life of which the natural Body is not capable The Apostle saith Flesh and Blood cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The exigencies and decays of the sensitive Nature require a continual Relief by Food and Sleep and other material Supplies but the Life above is wholly spiritual and equal to that of the Angels Therefore till this earthly Animal Body be reformed and purified 't is not capable of the Glory reserv'd in Heaven This is so absolutely requisite that those Believers who are sound alive at the last Day shall in the
that seals up the Damnation of Sinners is Impenitence Now he that delays the returning to his Duty shall have more cause to repent hereafter but less Will and Power for Sin repeated makes him more uncapable of Repentance and that which is Indisposition will become Averseness and Obstinacy The Heart with Difficulty changes its last End Actions may be suddenly chang'd when there is a Disability to perform them but the inward Inclinations to Sin without supernatural renewing Grace remain 'T is therefore the Subtilty of the old Serpent to make the Entrance of Sin easy for he knows that Custom is a second Nature and has a mighty Power in us Can an Ethiopian change his Skin or the Leopard change his Spots then may you who are accustomed to do Evil do good If Sin in its Infancy can make such Resistance that the Spirit of Grace is foil'd in his Motions to rescue the Soul from its Bondage how much more when 't is grown into a confirm'd Habit Therefore the Apostle urges so zealously To Day if you will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts lest any be hardned through the Deceitfulness of Sin 3. How uncertain is it whether God will accept the Addresses of such at last We are commanded Seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near The Limitation implies if the Season be neglected he will hide his Face for ever Now in cases of great Moment and Hazard what Diligence what Caution should be used 1 st Consider how derogatory it is to his Majesty to offer to him the Dregs of our Age the Reliques of a licentious careless Life spent in the Works of Vanity Is this to give Glory to God Contempt provokes Superiours as much as actual Injuries How vilifying is it of his excellent Greatness that Men lavishly waste the best of their Time and Strength upon their Lusts and when through Weakness of Age or the Violence of a Disease they can no more do the Acts of Sin nor relish the Pleasures of Sin to presume that God will upon their Prayers forgive their Sins so long indulg'd and of such violent Provocations and receive them into his Kingdom as if he could not be happy without them and it were his Interest to receive them God has laid his Exceptions against such Addresses He may justly stand upon his Greatness and Honour If ye offer the Blind for a Sacrifice is it not evil And if ye offer the Lame and Sick is it not evil Offer it now to thy Governour will he be pleased with it to accept thy Person saith the Lord of Hosts As the Lord upbraids the Jews for their black Ingratitude in barginning for thirty pieces of Silver to have him betrayed to their Malice a goodly Price that I was prized at of them So when there is an universal Prostration of all the Powers and Faculties when the Spirits are damp'd the vital Heat is check'd and the function of the senses is obstructed then to seek to God for Mercy and to make fair Promises of Obedience he may justly reproach the Presumer a goodly time you have alotted for me Your Youth and Strength the Golden Age of Life has been wasted on your Lusts and in the Business of the World and the wretched remains you think worthy of my Acceptance 2 dly Consider what Sincerity or moral Value is in Religion that meerly proceeds from bitter Constraint 'T is a Rule in Law Falsum est eam peperisse cui mortuae filius extractus est 'T is not a natural Birth when the Child is extracted from the dead Mother 'T is not genuine Piety that is extorted by the rack whilst the Heart full of Reluctancy does not truly consent Pure Religion flows uncompell'd from Love to God 't is the Dregs that come forth with pressing 'T is observ'd of the Israelites that when God slew them they sought him and returned and enquired early after God But 't is added Nevertheless they did flatter him with their Mouths and they lied to him with their Tongues for their Hearts were not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant How often does Experience convince us of the Inefficacy of a Sickbed-Repentance How many that were very devout and mournful with one Foot as it were in the Grave and another in Hell and were as a Brand pluck'd out of the Fire yet when the Fear of Death is removed all the Terrors of Conscience the religious Affections that were felt and express'd by them vanish as the Morning-Dew Now converting Grace is distinguish'd by its radication and efficacy not only from the mere Pretences of those who know their own Insincerity but from the real Workings of Conscience and the imperfect Dispositions to Good that are in the Unrenewed And those Persons who with the return of Health have returned to their Sins if they had died with their religious Resolutions would have presum'd that their Repentance was unto Life and of their Interest in the Divine Mercy The Heart is deceitful above all things and above all things deceitful to it self Besides when Sinners are plunged in deep Distress when the shadow of Death sits upon their Eye-lids they may with plentiful effusions of Tears desire God to receive them to Heaven not to see and praise his adorable Excellencies not to please and glorify him for ever but as a Sanctuary from revenging Justice a Refuge from Hell And will such Prayers prevail What swells the Confidence of Sinners but unworthy Notions of God as if a forc'd and formal Confession of their Sins could deceive his all-discerning Eye and Desires merely terminated on themselves were sufficient to reconcile his offended Majesty 3. There is nothing renders Men more unworthy of Mercy than continuance in Sin upon presumption of an easy Pardon at last This is the most provoking Abuse of his Goodness and Long-suffering that should lead them unto Repentance He can in the twinkling of an eye in the beating of a Pulse cut off the Sinner 't is as easy to his Power as to will it And there is no Consideration should be so melting and moving as his Clemency We read of David that he had more than once in his power Saul his unjust and cruel Enemy yet spared him the effect of it was that Saul was softened and under such compunction of Spirit that he wept confess'd his Guilt and persecuted him no more overcome by that unexampled Love If a Man find his Enemy will he let him go Yet Men take advantage from the Goodness of God securely to despise his Laws The habitual Sinner thinks that God is so gracious such a Lover of Souls so easy to be intreated that upon his dying Prayer Lord remember me in thy Kingdom the Answer will be To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise This is the deceitful Principle upon which Men usually build their Hopes as their Actions that bear the Image of their
is an happy means to render Death comfortable to us Sins of Ignorance and Infirmity of sudden Surreption and Surprize the best Men are not freed from in the present State and being the daily motive of our Grief and serious circumspection to prevent them are consistent with the regular Peace of Conscience and the Friendship and Favour of God But great Sins in their matter being so contrary to natural Conscience and supernatural Grace or Sins presumptuous in the manner of their commission such as proceed from the choice of the perverse Will against the inlightned Mind whatever the matter or kind of them be are direct Rebellion against God a despising of his Command and provoke his pure Eyes and make the aspect of Death fearful The Spirit seals our Pardon and Title to Heaven as the holy Spirit his Testimony that we are the Children of God and Heirs of Glory is concurrent with the renewed Conscience and distinguish'd from the ignorant Presumptions blind Conjectures and carnal Security of the Unholy As the sanctifying Spirit he distinguishes true Christians from the lost World appropriates them to God confirms their present Interest in the Promises of the Gospel and their future Hopes Briefly Grace is the most sensible effect and sign of God's special Favour the fruit of Election and the earnest of Glory and the Truth of Grace is most clearly and certainly made evident by the continual Efficacy of it in the Conversation The observation of our Hearts to suppress unholy Affections and of our Senses to prevent them a constant course of Holiness in our Lives though many Frailties will cleave to the best is usually rewarded with great Peace here God has establish'd a connexion between our Obedience and his Comforts Those that keep themselves pure from the Defilements of the World have the white Stone promised the bright Jewel of assurance of God's pardoning and rewarding Mercy We read of Enoch that he walk'd with God was a Star shining in a corrupt Age the tenour of his Life was holy and he was translated to Heaven without seeing Death Though this was an extraordinary Dispensation yet there is a peculiar Reward analogical to it for those who walk circumspectly they shall not see Death with its Terrors but usually have a holy Chearfulness a peaceful Joy in their passage through the dark Valley to Heaven But presumptuous Sins against external and internal Restraints the convincing Law of God and the Directions of Conscience to which even the Saints of God are liable here as appears by David's earnest Prayer to be preserved from them such Sins grieve the holy Spirit and wound our Spirits and if continued sequester us from the comfortable Priviledges of the Gospel and render us unfit for the Kingdom of Heaven And when they are retracted by Repentance yet there often remains a bitter Remembrance of them as deep Wounds though cur'd yet are felt in change of Weather And sometimes a Spring-tide of Doubts and Fears breaks into humble penitent Souls in the last Hours though Death brings them safely yet not comfortably to Heaven 3. The zealous Discharge of the Duties of our Place and Calling the Conjunction of our Resolutions and Endeavours to glorify God and do good according to our Abilities and Opportunities of Service sweetens the Thoughts of Death to us For the true End and Perfection of Life is the Glory of God and when with Fidelity it is employed in order to it Death brings us to the blessed Rest from our Labours Our Saviour when he was to leave the World address'd himself to his Father I have glorified thee on Earth I have finish'd the Work thou gavest me to do And now Father glorify me with thy self with the Glory which I had with thee before the World was A Christian that imitates and honours Christ and with Diligence perseveres in well-doing may with an humble Confidence in the Divine Mercy expect the promised Reward The Reflection upon a well-spent Life is joyn'd with a joyful Prospect of God's Favour and Acceptance above But to the careless and remiss to those who are wilfully negligent of their Duty how fearful is Death that summons them to give an account of their Talents to the Righteous Lord 4. A holy Indifference of Affection to present things makes it easy to part with them and Death less fearful to us David though a King declares he was a Stranger on Earth not only with respect to his transient Condition but his inward Disposition and that he was as a weaned Child from the admired Vanities of the World Chrysostom in a Letter to Ciriacus who was tenderly sensible of his Banishment wrote to him You now begin to lament my Banishment but I have done so for a long time for since I knew that Heaven was my Country I have esteemed the whole Earth a place of Exilement Constantinople from whence I am expell'd is as distant from Paradise as the Desert to which they send me But when our Affections are set upon external things and we are irregular in our Aims intemperate in our Use and immoderate in our Delights how sensible and cutting is the Division from them How bitter is Death that deprives a carnal Wretch of all the Materials of his frail Felicity What a Storm of Passions is raised to lose all his good things at once for 't is a Rule in Nature What is possess'd with transporting Joy is lost with excessive Sorrow As the Ivy that twines so closely about the Tree and is intimately fastned by so many Roots as there are Branches cannot be pluck'd away without rending the Bark with it so when the World that was as it were incarnated with the Heart is taken away the Heart it self is grievously rent by the violent Separation And the Infelicity of carnal and worldly Persons is heavily aggravated in that the Guilt in procuring or abusing those Treasures and Delights that they leave here with so great Sorrow will cleave to them and give Testimony against them before their Judg. But when the Affections are loose to the World and set upon Heaven our leaving the Earth is no Loss but Gain and our Separation from the Body of Flesh is with that Alacrity as the putting off a vile Garment to be clothed with a Royal Robe 'T was the wise Counsel of Tertullian to the Women of the first Ages of the Church not to value and love the Jewels and Ornaments of Gold that they might be more ready and resolved to obtain by Death Martyrdom and by Martyrdom Eternal Glory And that we may disentangle our Souls from those voluntary Bands that fasten us to present things we must have a sincere uncorrupted Judgment of their Meanness The Apostle exhorts Christians to Moderation in their Temper and Conversation with respect to the Business and Enjoyments here that they who have Wives be as though they had none that those that rejoice be as though they rejoiced not and they
of darkness for ever to signify the sadness and despair of the Damned and because in that centre of Misery a perpetual Night and invincible Darkness increases the horror of lost Souls Heaven for stability is called a City that has Foundations whose Builder and Maker is God The present World is like a Tent or Tabernacle set up for a time whilst the Church is passing through the Wilderness but Heaven is the City of the Living God the Place of his happy Residence the Seat of his eternal Empire The visible World with all its perishing Idols shall shortly fall this Beautiful Scene shall be abolish'd but the supreme Heaven is above this Sphere of mutability wherein all Bodies compounded of the jarring Elements are continually changing and dissolving 't is truly call'd a Kingdom that cannot be shaken Briefly the wise Maker has fram'd it correspondently to the end for which it was designed 't is the Seat of his Majesty his Sacred Temple wherein he diffuses the richest Beams of his Goodness and Glory and his chosen Servants see and praise his adorable Excellencies for ever Secondly I will endeavour to shew that the enjoyment of the Divine Presence in Heaven is the supreme Felicity of the Saints To make this supernatural Blessedness more easy and intelligible to us the Scripture describes it by sensible Representations For while the Soul is clothed with Flesh Fancy has such a dominion that we conceive of nothing but by Comparisons and Images taken from material things 'T is therefore set forth by a Marriage-Feast to signify the Joy and Glory of the Saints above But to prevent all gross Conceits we are instructed that the Bodies of the Saints shall be spiritual not capable of Hunger or Thirst nor consequently of any Refreshment that is caused by the satisfaction of those Appetites The Objects of the most noble Senses Seeing and Hearing the pleasure of which is mixed with Reason and not common to the Brutes are more frequently made use of to reconcile the blessed and Heavenly State to the proportion of our Minds Thus sometimes the Saints above are represented on Thrones and with Crowns on their Heads Sometimes clothed in White with Palms in their Hands sometimes singing Songs of Triumph to him that sits on the Throne But the real Felicity of the Saints infinitely exceeds all those faint Metaphors The Apostle to whom the admirable Revelation was exhibited of the Sufferings of the Church and the victorious issue out of them in the successive Ages of the World tells us it does not appear what the Saints shall be in Heaven The things that God has prepared for those that love him are far more above the highest ascent of our Thoughts than the Marriage-Feast of a King exceeds in splendor and Magnificence the Imagination of one that has always lived in an obscure Village and never saw any Ornaments of State nor tasted Wine in his Life We can think of those things but according to the Poverty of our Understandings But so much we know as is able to sweeten all the Bitterness and render insipid all the Sweetness of this World This will appear by considering whatever is requisite to constitute the compleat Blessedness of Man is fully enjoyed in the Divine Presence 1. An exemption from all Evils is the first condition of perfect Blessedness The Sentence of the wise Solon is true Dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet No Man can be call'd happy whilst in this Valley of Tears There are so many natural Calamities so many casual which no humane Mind can foresee or prevent that one may be less miserable than another but none perfectly happy here But upon the entrance into Heaven all those Evils that by their number variety or weight disquiet and oppress us here are at an end Sin of all Evils the worst and most hateful shall be abolish'd and all Temptations that surround us and endanger our Innocence shall cease Here the best Men lament the Weakness of the Flesh and sometimes the violent Assaults of Spiritual Enemies St. Paul himself breaks forth into a mournful Complaint O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of Death And when harrass'd by the buffets of Satan renews his most earnest Addresses to God to be freed from them Here our Purity is not absolute we must be always cleansing our selves from the Reliques of that deep Defilement that cleaves to our Nature Here our Peace is preserv'd with the Sword in our Hand by a continual warfare against Satan and the World But in Heaven no Ignorance darkens the Mind no Passions rebel against the sanctified Will no Inherent Pollution remains The Church is without Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing And all Temptations shall then cease The Temper was cast out of Heaven and none of his poison'd Arrows can reach that purified Company Glorious Liberty here ardently desir'd but fully enjoyed by the Saints above And as Sin so all the penal Consequences of it are quite taken away The present Life is a continual disease and sometimes attended with that sharp sense that Death is desir'd as a remedy and accepted as a Benefit And though the Saints have reviving Cordials yet their Joys are mix'd with Sorrows nay caused 〈◊〉 Sorrows The tears of Repentance are their sweetest refreshment Here the living Stones are cut and wounded and made fit by sufferings for a Temple unto God in the new Jerusalem But as in building of Solomon's Temple the noise of a Hammer was not heard for all the parts were fram'd before with that exact design and correspondence that they firmly combin'd together They were hewen in another place and nothing remain'd but the putting them one upon another and then as Sacred they became inviolable So God the wise Architect having prepar'd the Saints here by many cutting Afflictions places them in the eternal Building where no Voice of Sorrow is heard Of the innumerable Assembly above is there any Eye that weeps any Breast that sighs any Tongue that complains or any appearance of Grief The Heavenly State is called Life as only worthy of that Title There is no infirmity of Body no Poverty no Disgrace no Treachery of Friends no persecution of Enemies There is no more Death nor Sorrow nor shall there be any more Pain for former things are past away God will wipe away all Tears from the Eyes of his People There Salvation is compleat in all degrees Pure Joy is the Priviledge of Heaven unmixed Sorrows the Punishment of Hell 2. A concurrence of all positive Excellencies is requisite to Blessedness And these are to be considered with respect to the entire Man 1. The Body shall be awak'd out of its dead Sleep and quicken'd into a glorious immortal Life The Soul and Body are the essential parts of Man and though the inequality be great in their holy Operations yet their concourse is necessary Good Actions are design'd by the
partaker of the Divine Nature and elevates him above himself This holy Change is wrought by Divine Power Our Saviour tells Nicodemus Except a Man be born of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God The Analogy of a new Birth signifies that 't is entirely the Work of the sanctifying Spirit that conveys a Principle of Life in order to the Functions of it 'T is the living Impression of God the sole Efficient and Exemplar of it the Fruit and Image of the Divine Vertues 'T is exprest by the new Creature The production of it is attributed to God's Power displaying it self in a peculiar excellent way even in that precise manner as in making the World For as in the first Creation all things were made originally of nothing so in the second the Habit of Grace is infused into the Soul that was utterly void of it and in which there was as little preparation for true Holiness as of Nothing to produce this great and regular World And altho there is not only an absolute privation of Grace but a fierce resistance against it yet creating invincible Power does as infallibly and certainly produce its Effect in forming the new Creature as in making the World From hence it appears that preventing renewing Grace is so intirely the Work of God as his forming the humane Body from the Dust of Earth at first But with this difference the first Creation was done without any sense in the Subject of the efficiency of the Divine Power in producing it but in the new Creation Man feels the vital Influence of the Spirit applying it self to all his Faculties reforming and enabling them to act according to the quality of their Nature And by the way we may observe the admirable Grace shewed to Man in the renovation of his corrupted Nature In the composition of his Being are united a Spirit like the Angels and a Body like terrestrial Animals by which he partakes of the spiritual and natural Life but he has peculiar Favours conferred upon him For whereas his Soul sinn'd with the Angels and his Body dies with the Beasts yet God is pleased to restore them by his glorious Power An Angel after Sin never repents and is therefore incapable of Pardon and irrecoverably disinherited of Heaven a Beast after Death never revives but though Man sins and dies yet his Soul may be renewed by Divine Grace and his Body shall be raised in an incorruptible Glory Now the indispensable necessity of this holy Change is evident from the Words of our Saviour for he speaks universally Except a Man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God He does not simply declare that an unregenerate Man shall not but with the greatest Emphasis cannot to signify an absolute impossibility of it The Jews highly presumed of the priviledg of their carnal Birth they sprang from the pure and noble Blood of Abraham God's Friend they had the Seal of the Holy Covenant mark'd in their Flesh and hence it was proverbial amongst them that every Israelite should have a part in the World to come But our Saviour overthrows this vain conceit and tells them that the supernatural Birth entitles to the supernatural Inheritance Circumcision then and Baptism now without real Grace is an ineffectual sign of no avail to Salvation In the quality of Sons we are Heirs of God's Kingdom And that honourable Relation we have upon a double account by Adoption and Regeneration Divine Adoption is not a meer change of our state a naked Declaration that one shall be dignified with the Title of God's Son but a holy Nature is always infused into the Person whereby he is made like to God in his Excellencies In this it differs from humane Adoption that gives the Name and Arms the Honour and Estate of the Adopter to a Person without conveying any of his intellectual or moral Endowments Whom God adopts he begets to a Divine Life Besides our Saviour purchased this high Priviledg for us God sent his Son made of a Woman under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons By Union with him we receive the investiture of this Dignity Now whoever is in Christ is a new Creature For the quickning Spirit that is to the Soul what the Soul is to the Body the principle of Life and Strength of Beauty and Motion and an active purifying Faith that is influential upon all other Graces are the Band of that vital Union So that as all in Adam are universally corrupt by the first Birth all that are in Christ are made holy by a new Birth But of this I shall speak in the next Chapter more fully under a distinct Head Briefly the Spirit of Grace that sanctifies is the Spirit of Adoption that seals our Right to that Kingdom Now the Reasons why this Change must be in order to our obtaining of Heaven are these 1. There is an exquisite Wisdom shines in all God's Works in disposing them for the ends to which they are appointed and is it not monstrously absurd to imagin he will admit into his Presence and Kingdom those that are absolutely unqualified for its Blessedness and opposite to its Purity 2. His invariable Justice excludes for ever all unholy Persons from Heaven For in the last Judgment God will be glorified as a Governour in the distribution of Rewards with respect to the Obedience and Disobedience of Men. 'T is worthy of observation that the Actions of God on the reasonable Creatures are of two sorts Some proceed from his soveraign good Pleasure of which there is no motive or reason in the Subjects on which they are terminated Thus by a free and insuperable Decree when all Mankind laps'd and miserable was in his view he chose some to be Vessels of Mercy and by priviledg separated them from the rest that finally perish Now what induc'd him to place a singular Love on the Elect There was nothing in them to incline his Compassion being equally guilty and depraved with the rest of the Progeny of Adam This difference therefore is to be resolved into his unaccountable and adorable Will as the sole cause of it Thus God declares it to be his glorious Prerogative I will have Mercy on whom I will have Mercy and I will have Compassion on whom I will have Compassion And this is no unjust acceptance of Persons For as a Benefactor he may dispense his own Favours as he pleases A Gift from meer and arbitrary Bounty may be bestowed on some and not on others without injustice But there are other Actions of God for which there is an evident reason in Men on whom they are terminated Thus as the supreme Judg without respect of Persons he will judg and reward every Man according to his Works The Evangelical Law as was toucht on before is the rule of eternal Judgment and gives a right from the gracious
your Sex and more truly Honourable than your Noble Descent and Alliance but direct my best Desires to God that your Family may be a singular and eminent Example of the Divine Favour that the fading Gloss of this World may not deceive you but your Heart may be above where your Treasure is that you may live to God and your Soul for Heaven and Eternity I am Madam Your Honour 's very humble and faithful Servant WILLIAM BATES The Bookseller's Advertisement THE Four Last Things Death and Judgment Heaven and Hell are Subjects of that great Importance and so nearly concerns all Persons that serious Discourses publish'd upon them deserve the Reader 's best Attention and Application And that they may be of more diffusive and general Benefit it will be a proper Means that according to the Examples of some pious Persons Books treating of those solemn Arguments BE GIVEN AT FUNERALS AS A FUNERAL-LEGACY When according to the observation of the wise Preacher The Living lay to Heart their own Frailty and are more receptive of Holy Counsels to prepare for their great Change from Time to Eternity and would affect their Minds with the present Instance of Mortality much better than Wine Sweatmeats Gloves or Rings or unprofitable Talk as is too usual at such Solemnities All serious practical Books are proper for this Design which may be of any Price or Bigness And if Bound in Black with a Cypher of Mortality will be very decent And some Memorables of the Life of the Deceased if desired may be printed on a Leaf or more and bound with it Several Books so bound may be seen at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil B. A. OF DEATH HEB. 2.15 And deliver them who through fear of Death were all their Life-time subject to Bondage IN the first Chapter of this Epistle the Proofs of the Eternal Deity of Christ are produced with that evidence of Scripture-Light that only a vailed Heart obstinate Infidelity can resist The Medium which the inspired Pen-man makes use of is the comparing him with the Angels the most noble Flower of the Creation and shewing that he is infinitely dignified above them This he does by a strong connexion of Arguments First By his Title that is divinely high and peculiar to himself He is declared by the Testimony of the eternal Father to be his Son in the most proper and sublime sense begotten of him and therefore having the same essential Perfections of the Godhead in their uncreated Glory But the Angels are not dignified with this Name in any Places of Scripture where the Excellency of the Angels is in the fullest Terms expressed And that this Name is taken from his Nature is clearly proved because Adoration is due to him upon this account even from the Angels of the highest Order When he bringeth in the first-begotten into the World he saith And let all the Angels of God worship him Divine Worship is a Prerogative inseparably annex'd to the Deity both upon the account of the supream Excellencies of the Nature of God and his Relation to Angels and Men as Creator and Preserver the Fountain of their Being and Happiness This without the most open defiance of his Authority cannot be given to a meer Creature and by the Command of God himself is to be performed as a Respect due to the filial Godhead The Argument proceeds from the Name to the Offices Of the Angels he saith Who maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers a flame of Fire They are the prime Instruments of his Providence most zealous and active to accomplish his Pleasure But the Son is God not by Analogy and Deputation as Princes are nor with a limitation and diminution as Moses was made a God to Pharaoh but absolutely and really as subsisting in the Divine Nature And consequently he is the Supreme King and to him the Ensigns of Majesty divinely Royal are ascribed But unto the Son he saith Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever a Scepter of Righteousness is the Scepter of thy Kingdom Whereas the Scepters of Earthly Kings are often unrighteously manag'd and their Thrones ruinously fall There is a further Confirmation from his Works that are divinely great and glorious wherein no Creature has any share of Efficiency The making of the World is ascribed to him Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundation of the Earth and the Heavens are the Works of thy Hands The Divine Attributes the peculiar Character of the Deity belong to him Eternity and Immutability The most solid parts of the visible Creation shall perish and be changed but thou remainest and art the same His Life is an intire uniform unchangeable Perfection His Glory and Felicity are in the same invariable Tenor for ever possess'd by him Lastly the Son sits in that quality at the right Hand of the Father in the Society of Empire as equal to him in Power and Honour commanding all in the visible and invisible World most easily and irresistibly tho gradually subduing his Enemies to a consummate Victory But the Angels so numerous and powerful are ministring Spirits employed for the defence and benefit of the Church From this summary account we may understand how firmly the Divinity of Christ is establish'd in the Scripture For those Passages of the Prophets that speak of the God of Israel as Creator and the sole Object of Adoration are directly referr'd to Jesus Christ. And the Name Jehovah the Majesty of which consists in its being incommunicable is attributed to him This is the Foundation upon which the whole Fabrick of the Gospel is built The Office of Mediator in the Prophetical Priestly and Regal Administration is necessarily join'd with the Divinity of his Person And the revelation of it from Heaven is as clear as the Sun is visible in the Firmament All the Difficulties in our conceiving this great Mystery of Godliness are but like the Shadows that attend the Light And all the heretical Subtilties to pervert the Sense of such plain and positive Texts are as impertinent as impious This being establish'd the Apostle proceeds to give an account of the Son of God's assuming the Humane Nature and submitting to Sufferings and Death This is a Divine Secret so miraculously strange that the Contrivance was without the Compass of the Angelical Minds and the discovery of it is only by supernatural Revelation but when revealed the account of it is so open and consentaneous to Reason as being the most congruous Means for the illustration of God's Glory in the saving lost Men that the humane Mind if not deeply corrupted with the tincture of Prejudice must consent to it as worthy of all Acceptation The substance of his reasoning is this That it was the product of the most wise merciful and righteous Counsel of God that the Saviour of Men should have Communion with them in their Nature that he might have a
2. Death considered in the strictest propriety as destructive of the natural Being that is our first and most valuable Good in the order of Nature is the just object of Fear The Union between Soul and Body is very intimate and dear and like David and Jonathan they part unwillingly Nature has a share in the best Men and works as Nature St. Paul declares we would not be unclothed not finally put off the Body but have it glorified in conjunction with the Soul Our blessed Saviour without the least impeachment of the Rectitude and Perfection of his Nature express'd an averseness from Death and with submission to the divine Will desired a freedom from it His Affections were holy and humane and moved according to the quality of their Objects 3. The natural Consequents of Death render it fearful Life is the foundation of all natural Enjoyments and the Loss of it induces the loss of all for ever 'T is from hence that such Evils that are consistent with Life and deprive us only of some particular Content and Pleasure are willingly chosen rather than Death The forfeiture of Estate the degrading from Honour the confinement to a perpetual Prison the banishing from our native Country are less Penalties than Death There is a natural love of Society in Man and Death removes from all The Grave is a frightful Solitude There is no Conversation in the Territories of Darkness This also Hezekiah in his apprehensions of Death speaks of with Tears I shall see Man no more in the Land of the Living As in the Night the World is an universal Grave all Things are in a dead Silence Palaces Courts of Justice Temples Theaters Schools and all Places of publick Conversation are shut up the Noise and Rumour that keeps Men in continual Observation and Action ceases Thus when the Sun of this present Life is set all the Affairs and Business all the vain Joys of Company Feasting Dancing Musick Gaming ceases Every one among the Dead is confined to his sealed obscure Cell and is alone an entertainment for the Worms The Psalmist saith of Princes Their Breath goeth forth they return to the Earth in that very day their Thoughts their glorious compassing Thoughts perish This the Historian observes was verified in Julius Cesar After his assuming the Imperial Dignity he thought to reduce the numerous Laws of the Romans into a few Volumes comprising the Substance and Reason of all to enrich and adorn the City of Rome as was becoming the Regent of the World to epitomise the Works of the most learned Grecians and Romans for the publick Benefit And whilst he was designing and pursuing these and other vast and noble Things Death surprised him and broke off all his Enterprises At the terrible Gate that opens into Eternity Men are stripp'd of all their Honours and Treasures and as naked as they come into the World go out of it Be not thou afraid when one is made rich when the Glory of his House is increased For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away his Glory shall not descend after him Death equally vilifies makes loathsom and ghastly the Bodies of Men and reduces them to sordid Dust. In the Grave the Dust is as precious and powerful of one as of another Civil Distinctions are limited to the present time The prodigious Statue in Nebuhadnezzar's Vision Dan. 2.32 33 34 35. while it was upright the Parts were really and visibly distinct The Head was of fine Gold the Breast and Arms of Silver the Belly and Thighs of Brass the Legs of Iron the Feet part of Iron and part of Clay but when the Stone cut out without hands smote the Image upon the Feet then was the Iron the Clay the Brass the Silver and the Gold broken to pieces together and became like the Chaff the Wind carries away Who can distinguish between Royal Dust taken out of magnificent Tombs and Plebean Dust from common Graves Who can know who were rich and who were poor who had Power and Command who were Vassals who were remarkable by Fame who by Infamy They shall not say this is Jezebel not know this was the Daughter and Wife of a King The King of Babylon stiled Lucifer the bright Star of the Morning that possess'd the first Empire in the World was degraded by Death humbled to the Grave and exchanged all his glorious State for Worms and Putrefaction The Worm is spread under thee and the Worms cover thee In short Death separates Men from all their admired charming Vanities Now considering Man merely in the Order of Nature what Reflection is more fearful and tormenting than the necessity that cannot be over-ruled of parting for ever with all the Delights of Life Those who have ascended to the Throne that are arrived at the height of Temporal Happiness what a melancholy Prospect is before them of Death and the dark Grave When all things conspire to make Men happy here the sensitive Faculties and their Fruitions are ebbing and declining till then sink into Death the Whirlpool that will shortly swallow them up for ever This renders the Thoughts of Mortality so frightful and checks the freest enjoyments of carnal Pleasures 2. Death is fearful in the apprehension of Conscience as 't is the most sensible mark of God's Wrath that is heavier than Death and a Summons to give an account of all Things done in this Life to the righteous Judg of the World 'T is appointed to all Men once to die and afterward the Judgment The Penal Fear is more wounding to the Spirit than the Natural When the awakened Sinner presently expects the Citation to appear before the Tribunal above where no Excuses no Supplications no Priviledges avail where the Cause of eternal Life or Death must be decided and the awards of Justice be immediately executed O the Convulsions and Agonies of Conscience in that hour when the diseased Body cannot live and the disconsolate Soul dare not die what Anxieties surround it This redoubles the Terrors of Death that the first transmits to the second that was figured by it O the dismal aspect of Death riding on a pale Horse with Hell the black Attendant following This Fear surprized the Sinners in Sion Who among us can dwell with devouring Fire who among us can remain with everlasting burnings This made a Heathen the Governor of a Province to tremble before a poor Prisoner While Paul discoursed of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come Felix trembled 'T is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the living God who lives for ever and can punish for ever None is so powerful as God nothing so fearful as the guilty Conscience 3. The Degrees of this Fear are express'd by Bondage This Passion when regular in its Object and Degree is excellently useful 't is a wise Counsellor and faithful Guardian that plucks off the Mask from our Enemies and keeps Reason vigilant
and active to prevent a threatning Evil or to sustain it in the best manner 'T is observable in the brute Creatures that the Weak and Fearful are most subtile and ingenious to secure themselves and supply the want of Strength with Artifice But when Fear is inordinate 't is a tyrannous Master that vexes the weary Soul and hinders its free and noble Operations Cesar chose rather to be expos'd to sudden death than to be continually harrass'd with fears how to avoid it The Greek word implies the binding of the Spirit that causes an inward Slavery And in the Apostle's Writings the Spirit of Fear and the Spirit of Bondage are equivalent Ishbosheth when Abner provok'd by the Charge about Saul's Concubine imperiously threatned to translate the Kingdom to David was struck with such a fear that he could not answer Abner a word 2 Sam. 3.10 11. The sudden Passion stifled his Reply and reduc'd him to a defenceless Silence Now the fear of Death as 't is remiss or vehement such are the degrees of Bondage from it 1. It embitters the enjoyments of the present Life and makes the most prosperous in the World even in the fulness of their sufficiency to be in straits Though the Senses are pleased with the quick sweetness of Change from one Object to another yet the Soul cannot have a delightful undisturbed Fruition foreseeing that the stream of Pleasure will issue into the dead Sea Truly Light is sweet and 't is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun But how short is this Life with all its Pleasures in comparison of the Days of Darkness that follow Now though 't is our best Wisdom and truest Liberty to rejoice in this World as if we rejoiced not and frequently to meditate on the cooling Doctrines of Death and Judgment to repress the transports of the voluptuous Appetite yet since the Comforts of this Life are liberally indulged to us by the Love of God to be the Motives of our grateful and affectionate Obedience to sweeten our passage to Heaven we may with tranquillity of Spirit make a pure and chearful use of them in his Service and 't is an oppressing bondage when the disquieting anxious Fears of Death hinder our temperate enjoyment of his Favours and Blessings 2. The fear of Death oppresses the Souls of Men under a miserable Bondage to the Devil for his Dominion is maintain'd by the Allurements and Terrors of the World Though Men do not explicitly acknowledg his Soveraignty yet by voluntary yielding to his pleasing Temptations they are really his Slaves And the apprehension of temporal Evils especially of Death dress'd up in a frightful representation with its bloody Pomp is the strongest snare to the Soul The Faint-hearted prove false-hearted in the time of trial For the timerous Spirit being wholly intent how to avoid the incursion of a present Evil forgets or neglects what is indispensably to be done and thinks to find an excuse in the pretended necessity How many have been terrified from their clearest Duty and resolved Constancy To escape Death they have been guilty of the most insufferable Impieties by renouncing God their Maker and Saviour and worshipping the Devils for Deities Every Age presents sad Spectacles of many that choose Iniquity rather than Affliction that relinquish their Duty and by wicked Compliances save their Lives and lose their Souls Carnal Desires and carnal Fears are the Chains of Hell that retain Men Satan's Captives But what folly what madness is it for the avoiding the impotent fury of the Creature to venture on the powerful Wrath of God that exceeds all the Terrors that can be conceived by Fear This renders them more brutish than the Horse that starting at his Shadow springs over a desperate Precipice The Fearful are excluded from Heaven and cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone for ever 3. The extream fear of Death and Judgment dejects and discourages the Soul from the use of means to prevent eternal Misery and induces a most woful Bondage Fear anticipates and exasperates future Evils for as Knowledg excites Fear so Fear encreases Knowledg by the uncessant working of the Thoughts upon terrible Objects The fearful Mind aggravates the foreseen Evil and distils the Poison from all the Circumstances and Consequences of it And when the Evil is apprehended as insuperable and indeclinable all endeavours to escape are cut off What a Philosopher observes of an Earthquake compared with other destructive Evils is true in this case There may be a safe retreat from Fire from Inundations from Storms from War from Pestilence but an Earthquake astonishes with so violent a perturbation that stops our flight from the imminent Danger So the vehement impressions of Fear from the approaches of Death and the severe executions upon the Sinner after it distracts the Mind and disables from flying from the Wrath to come These Fears are more heavy by the suggestions of Satan who represents God so terrible in his Majesty inexorable in his Justice and unchangeable in his Threatnings that all Hopes of obtaining his Favour are lost As the Egyptian Darkness was not meerly from the absence of the Sun but from feculent Vapours condensing the Air that it might be felt So these dark and fearful expectations of the Divine Wrath are not only from the withdrawing the Light of God's Countenance but from the Prince of Darkness that foul Spirit And as we read of the Egyptians that no Man arose from his place for three days as if they had been buried in that Darkness and deprived of all active Power and Motion so the despairing Soul sits down mourning at the Gates of Death totally disabled from prosecuting the Things that belong to its Peace 'T is Hope inspires and warms us with alacrity encourages our Endeavours Despair blunts our edg and industry The Soul suffers the hardest Bondage and the Condition is unexpressibly sad under the tyranny of this Fear O how enthralled how desolately miserable Despair does meritoriously and effectually ruin the Soul For whereas there is no Attribute more Divine no clearer Notion of the Deity than Love and Mercy this Passion disparages his Mercy as if Sin were more omnipotent than his Power to pardon and all the Tears that flow from it are so far from expiating that they encrease Guilt and whereas the believing view of Christ would as compleatly and presently recover the Soul-wounded Sinner as the Israelites were by looking to the ordained visible Sign of their Salvation Despair turns away the Eye from our Deliverer and fixes it upon Misery as remediless and final 4. How comes it to pass that Men are not always under the actual fear of Death but subject to the revolutions of it all their Lives The Seeds of this Fear are hid in the guilty Breasts of Men and at times especially in their Calamities break forth and kindle upon them In their Leisure and Retirement intercurrent thoughts of
Death and Judgment sting them by fits and make them uneasy The flashes of Conscience like moments of Lightning startle them but they relapse into their habitual stupidity And the account of it will be clear by considering the following Particulars 1. Men are apt to flatter themselves with the hopes of long Life and look upon Death at a great distance Tho there be a dying disposition in the youngest and strongest Persons though we live in a World of Casualties and Death lie in ambush to surprize us every day yet we are secure because Evils affect us according to their apprehended nearness A petty Constable that is troublesom and vexatious is more fear'd by his Neighbours than the Grand Signior with all his Executioners As remote Objects though of vast bigness are lessen'd to our sight so through the supposed interval of many years Death is look'd on with a diminution of its Terror But when Death presents it self before Men ready to dispatch them how formidable is its appearance Saul though renowned for his Valour yet when he understood by Revelation that to morrow he and his Sons should be in the state of the Dead there was no strength in him but he fell straitway all along on the Earth struck through with fear before he was wounded by the Arrows of the Philistines Belshazzar in the midst of his luxury and jolity attended with a thousand Lords and his Herd of Concubines inflam'd with Wine and therefore less capable of fear yet upon the sight of the fatal Hand writing on the Wall a few unknown Characters which his guilty Conscience before the Prophet Daniel came interpreted to be the Sentence of present Death how fearfully was his Countenance changed pale as a Carcass How suddenly did his Blood congeal and his warmest quickest Spirits die in his Heart His whole Body was seized by such a vehement trembling that his Joints were loosed and his knees smote one against another This is a representation of those who bid defiance to Death at a distance but when the fatal Hour is come and they hear the Sentence decreed against them God has numbred thy days and finish'd them thou art weighed in the ballance all thy Words and Actions thy Thoughts and Affections and art found wanting and thy Soul shall be divided from thy Body the one sent to Hell to suffer the undying Worm of Conscience the other to the Grave to be a Prey to the Worms of Corruption how are they overcome with horror 2. The continual succession of the Pleasures and Business of the World divert the Mind from the attentive strong contemplation of Death and the Consequences of it Pensive Thoughts are unwelcome and we studiously endeavour to cancel the memory of such things as afflict us 'T is said of the Wicked that God is not in all their Thoughts The consideration of the holy Inspector and Judg of their Actions is tormenting therefore they fill their Minds with earthly Imaginations to exclude the Divine Presence We read of those who to put far away the evil Day chaunted to the sound of the Viol and drank Wine in Bowls They are rock'd asleep with the motion of phantastick Vanities And Sleep takes away Fear but gives no safety 'T is recorded of Marius that after his Overthrow by Sylla he was always in consternation as if he heard the sound of the Trumpets and the noise of the victorious Army pursuing him And his Fears were no longer quiet than whilst charm'd with Wine and Sleep he therefore was continually drunk that he might forget himself his Enemy and his Danger Thus Men make a pitiful shift to forget their latter End and whilst they are following either secular Affairs or sensual Pleasures are unconcerned for what is to be hereafter But this Diversion will shortly be at an end for in their languishing hours when the wasted Body fails the carnal Mind and sensual Desires fail the Man then Conscience that spoke with a low Voice before is loud and terrible and like the rigid Exactor in the Parable that took his Debtor by the throat requires them to pay what they owe. 3. Some are so hardned in Infidelity that the Powers of the World to come make no Impression on their Hearts They mind but little and are less affected with invisible things They fortify themselves with gross Thoughts that the Spirit of Man vanishes with his Breath that Death is the end of this Life and not the beginning of another and feed without Fear Place one in the midst of destructive Evils but unseen or not believed and he is as fearless as a blind Person walking on the brink of a deep Pit Indeed there are none less disturbed with the Terrors of Death than the eminently Good or the extremely Bad for the one sort have a blessed Hope that Death will be to them an entrance into Life and live like the Angels with a Joy unspeakable and glorious The others are as sensual and secure as the Beasts that perish having extinguish'd the fear of eternal future Evils which is the proper passion of Reason The Apostle declares That knowing the Terror of the Lord we perswade Men to be reconcil'd to him before the Season of Mercy be expired But those who have suppress'd the natural Notions of Eternal Judgment as they think it beneath their Wisdom to be perswaded by the Promises of Heaven so beneath their Courage to be terrified with the Threatnings of Hell and triumph over the Ruines of Conscience But though wicked Infidels slight the Threatnings they shall not escape the Vengeance of God We read of Noah That being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear he prepared an Ark for the saving of his House His Fear was the native issue of his Faith But the profane World in whom Sense was predominant that despised the Oracle and trembled at no Judgments but what were acting on the visible Stage they ate and drank married and were given in marriage till swept away by the unfeared Inundation We read that Lot being certified by an embassy of Angels that a Deluge of Fire would in a few hours pour down from Heaven upon Sodom he most earnestly sollicited his Sons-in-Law Arise depart out of this Place for the Lord will destroy this City but they entertained his compassionate Advice with derision he seemed to them as one that mocked and were surprised by those fearful Flames that dispatch'd them from a Temporal Hell to that which is Eternal Thus 't was prophesied That in the last days there shall come Scoffers walking after their own Lusts and saying Where is the Promise of his coming But let them blaspheme and scorn the most sacred and terrible Truths let them perpetuate their excess of Riot and wild Mirth while they live Death will come and Judgment as sure as Death III. I now come to shew how the Death of Christ frees us from the tormenting fear of Death
twinkling of an Eye be changed that they may be qualified for it Now herein the Wisdom of God is wonderful that Death which by the Covenant of Works was the deserved Penalty of Sin by the Covenant of Grace should be the Instrument of Immortality That as Joseph by a surprising Circuit was brought from the Prison to the Principality so a Believer by the Grave ascends to Heaven This the Apostle in his Divine Disputation against Infidels proves in a most convincing manner Thou Fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die As the rotting of the Corn in the Earth is necessary to the reviving and springing of it up so we must die and the Image of the Earthly Adam be abolish'd that we may be transformed into the Image of the Heavenly One And to the other part of the Question Why the Saints remain in the state of Death for a time there is a clear Answer The Resurrection of the Saints is delayed till Christ's coming to Judgment partly for the Glory of his Appearance For what an admirable Sight will it be that the Saints of all Ages shall at once arise glorified and immortalized to attend upon our Saviour in the last Act of his Regal Office and then to make a triumphant Entry with him into Heaven And partly that the establish'd order of Providence may not be disturbed for the changing of our Nature into Glory in a suddain and inexplicable manner cannot be without miraculous Power and if every Believer presently after Death were in his glorified Body translated to Heaven the World would be always filled with Miracles which were to cease after the sufficient Confirmation of the Gospel by them But how long soever the Interval be to the Resurrection it shall be with them that sleep in Jesus as 't is with those that awake out of a quiet natural Sleep to whom the longest Night seems but as a Moment so when the Saints first awake from Death in the great Morning of the World a thousand Years will seem no more to them than to God himself but as one day I now come to prove the third thing That our Saviour will abolish the Dominion of Death over the Saints Whilst the Bodies of the Saints remain in the Grave they seem to be absolutely under the Power of Death The World is a Golgotha fill'd with the Monuments of its Victories And it may be said to this our last Enemy in the Words of the Prophet to the bloody King Hast thou killed and taken Possession But we are assur'd by an infallible Word that the Power of Death shall be abolish'd and the Bodies of the Saints be reviv'd incorruptible and immortal The Resurrection is a Terra incognita to the wisest Heathens a Doctrine peculiar to the Gospel some Glimmerings they had of the Soul's Immortality without which all Vertue had been extinguish'd in the World but no conjecture of the reviving of the Body But Reason assists Faith in this point both as to the Will of God and his Power for the performing it I will glance upon the natural Reasons that induce the considering Mind to receive this Doctrine and more largely shew how the Resurrection of the Just is assured by our Redeemer 1. The Divine Laws are the Rule of Duty to the entire Man and not to the Soul only and they are obeyed or violated by the Soul and Body in Conjunction Therefore there must be a Resurrection of the Body that the entire Person may be capable of Recompences in Judgment The Soul designs the Body executes the Senses are the open Ports to admit Temptations Carnal Affections deprave the Soul corrupt the Mind and mislead it The Love of Sin is founded in bono jucundo in sensible Pleasures and the Members are the Servants of Iniquity The Heart is the Fountain of Prophaneness and the Tongue expresses it And the Body is obsequious to the Holy Soul in doing or suffering for God and denies its sensual Appetites and Satisfactions in Compliance with Reason and Grace The Members are the Instruments of Righteousness It follows then there will be an universal Resurrection that the rewarding Goodness of God may appear in making the Bodies of his Servants gloriously happy with their Souls and their Souls compleatly happy in Union with their Bodies to which they have a natural Inclination and his revenging Justice be manifest in punishing the Bodies of the Wicked with eternal Torments answerable to their Guilt And of the Possibility of the Resurrection the circular and continual Production of things in the World is a clear Demonstration of the Power of God for that effect There is a pregnant Instance that our Saviour and the Apostle made use of as an Image of the Resurrection A Grain of Corn sowed in the Earth corrupts and dies and after springs up entire its Death is a disposition to Life The Essays of God's Power in the Works of returning Nature Flowers and Fruits in their season instruct us how easily he can make those that are in the Dust to awake to Life If the Art of Man whose Power and Skill are very narrow and limited can refine Gold and Silver to such a Luster as if their matter were not Earth digged out of the Mines If from black Cinders it can form Chrystal Glasses so clear and shining how much more can Omnipotency recompact our Dust and reanimate it with a glorious Life Death that dissolves our vital Frame does not abolish the matter of our Bodies and though 't is corrupted and changed by a thousand accidents yet 't is unperishing and under whatsoever Colours and Figures it appears God perfectly discerns and will separate it for its proper use More particularly I will shew how the Resurrection of Christ is an assurance of the Resurrection of Believers to Glory As our Surety he was under the arrest of Death it becoming the holy Majesty of God and conducing to the ends of his Government not to derogate from the dignity of his Law but to lay the penalty upon his Son who interposed for us Now having finish'd the Work of our Redemption by his Sufferings his Resurrection was the just consequent of his Passion And 't is observable that his Resurrection tho one entire Act is ascribed as to himself so to his Father by whose consent and concurrence he rose again Therefore 't is said Whom God raised up having loosed the Pains of Death since it was impossible he should be holden by it 'T was naturally impossible upon the account of the Divine Power inherent in his Person and legally impossible because Divine Justice required that he should be raised to Life partly to vindicate his Innocence for he was reputed and suffered as a Malefactor and principally because he had fully satisfied God Accordingly the Apostle declares he died for our Sins and rose again for our Justification Having paid our Debt he was releas'd from the Grave and the Discharge was
alive As all that were naturally in and from Adam the corrupt Fountain of Mankind are under the sentence of Death so all that are in Christ the Head of the Regenerate shall partake of his blessed Life Others shall be raised by his Power as their Judg but not as their Head rais'd to be more miserable than Death can make them not be transform'd into his glorious Resemblance made capable of suffering an ever-dying Death not revived to eternal Life Now the Bond of our Union to Christ is the Holy Spirit derived from him as the Head of the Church and is the inward powerful and lasting Principle of Holiness and new Obedience in Believers He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit that is by the Spirit of Holiness has a real Participation of his Life is both quickned and united to him When the Prophet Elisha by the outward applying the parts of his Body to the dead Child inspir'd Life into him there was no real Union between them but Christ is by his Spirit so intimately united to Believers that he lives in them and they in him The sanctifying Spirit renews the directing and commanding Faculties the Fountains of moral Actions enlightens the Understanding with saving Knowledg rectifies the Obliquity of the Will purifies the Affections and reforms the Life so that the same Mind is in Christians as was in Christ and as his Conversation was such is theirs in the World This Divine Change is not wrought by natural Reason though assisted by the most powerful Arguments The Breath of a Man may as easily dispel a Mist or thaw a Frost as humane Directions and Motives to Vertue can renew the Mind and Heart and produce a Holy frame of Soul towards God Renewed Christians are said to be in the Spirit illuminated inclin'd and enabled by the Spirit to do God's Will and the Spirit of God to dwell in them by his peculiar and eminent Operations They live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit An Angel may assume a Body and act by it but the humane Soul enlivens it and performs sensible Operations by it And such a Principle is the Holy Spirit to the Soul gives it spiritual Life Activity and Power for good Works By what Application of the Spirit 's Power this is produc'd is mysterious and inexplicable but as the Apostle speaks of his Rapture into the third Heavens that he knew it was real and heard unutterable things though how it was performed whether in the Body or out of the Body he could not tell thus when a natural Man the current of whose Thoughts and Affections was to the things of this World becomes spiritual when the carnal Appetite is subdued and sanctified Reason has the Throne when he feels such strong and sweet Impulsives to Holiness as engage the Will when the Stream of his Desires ascend to the things above and his Life becomes Holy and Heavenly he feels and knows this wonderful Change though the manner how it was wrought he cannot tell I will shew more fully this sanctifying Work of the Spirit that we may the better understand our State The Spirit of God is denominated by various Titles the Spirit of Truth the Spirit of Holiness the Comforter and represented by various Types by an Ointment that clarifies the Eye to see things aright by cleansing refreshing Water by purifying refining Fire correspondent to his sacred Operations in the Soul As the Spirit of Truth he illuminates the Understanding to see the Reality and Excellency of supernatural and Heavenly things of the great Mysteries of Godliness of Eternal Glory so that a Christian in his most deliberate solemn and composed Thoughts in his exactest Valuation infinitely prefers them before the gaudy Vanities of this transient World When the Eyes of the Mind are truly enlightned present things appear or rather disappear as Shadows As the Spirit of Holiness he renews the Will and Affections inspires the Soul with Divine and unutterable Desires after the Favour and Grace of God and communicates spiritual Power for the Prosecution and obtaining those Desires The Holy Spirit raises such a Love to God that habitually and strongly inclines the Soul to obey his Commands This is the most clear and essential Character of a Christian the special and most excellent Property of a Saint upon which all other Holy Qualifications depend As Reason is the first and chief Excellence of Man from whence his other Perfections are derived that distinguish him from the Brutes and give him a natural and regular Preeminence and Dominion over them so that a Man is most properly defined a reasonable Creature Thus the Love of God is the most Divine Grace the true Form of Holiness the Root from whence all other Vertues spring and flourish and most peculiarly distinguish a Saint from unregenerate Men however adorn'd and accomplish'd so that a Saint is most properly defined to be a Lover of God This is the Principle of true Holiness inherent in the Soul and shining in the Conversation that distinguishes the Sincerity of a Saint from the Art of Hypocrisy an affected Appearance of Religion for carnal sordid respects and from civil Vertue that restrains from what is ignominious and disgraceful to our Reputation and makes obnoxious to Penalties of the Laws and excites to praise-worthy Actions upon worldly Motives and from Philosophical Morality that forbids Vice as contrary to Reason and commends Vertue as the chief Ornament and Perfection of humane Nature without a Regard to please and glorify God And Divine Love is the Principle of universal Holiness Love is called the fulfilling of the Law as 't is a comprehensive Grace and as it draws forth all the active Powers of the Soul to do God's Will in an exact manner Universal Obedience is the Exercise of Love in various Instances As the Spouse in the Song of Solomon is transform'd in divers Representations sometimes as a Sister sometimes as a Warriour sometimes as the Keeper of a Vineyard but she always acted as a Lover and her chief business was to please her Beloved This Allegorical Description of the Church signifies that when the Soul is inflamed with the Love of God that Affection will be active and discover it self in all it does or suffers in the Service of God This will make a Christian very desirous and diligent to please God in all things and careful not to displease him in any thing for that is the inseparable Effect of Love The Felicity of the natural temper and the force of Education may cause a loathing of some Evils and dispose to some good Works but with a reserved delight in other Sins and a secret Exception against other Duties Servile Fear is a partial Principle and causes an unequal respect to the Divine Precepts it restrains from Sins of greater Guilt at which Conscience takes fire it urges to some Duties the neglect of which causes Disquiet but the Love of
great Distance and since he cannot lessen the Certainty of Death in Mens Belief he removes the Image of it out of their Memories to weaken the Impression that it is capable to make on their Affections they dare not venture to die as they live careless of Salvation and unprepared for their Accounts with God therefore they suspend the Workings of Conscience by a seeming Compliance they resolve at random to convert and reform hereafter but will not determine at present to forsake their Sins The Tempter insinuates there will be a long Interval between the present time and the last hour that shall decide their State for ever that it will be a convenient season to prepare for the other World when they have done with this as if Repentance were best at last when there are no Temptations and therefore no Danger of retracting it And the Heart of Man is a great Flatterer very subtile to deceive and ruin him with vain Resolutions of a devout Retirement and becoming seriously religious hereafter and thus by an easy Permission he gratifies the present Desires of the Flesh and goes in a Circuit from one Vanity to another till Death surprize the Presumer 'T is very applicable to this purpose what is related of Alcaeus the Poet who from every season of the Year took Arguments to give a new Title to his Intemperance The Spring he said required liberal drinking in Sign of Joy for the Renovation of Nature the Summer to temper our Heat and refresh our Thirst 't was due to Autumn that is dedicated to the Vintage and Winter required it to expel the cold that would congeal the Blood and Spirits Thus he pleaded for the Allowance of his Excess And so Men in the several Ages of Life that are correspondent to the Seasons of the Year frame some Excuses to delay Repentance and give some colour to their Rebellion against God who commands us to hear his Voice to Day obediently and immediately upon no less Penalty than being excluded from his blessed Rest for ever Yet the self-deceiving Sinner preaches another Gospel to himself and thinks the Vanities of Childhood the Pleasures of Youth the Business of Middle-Age and the Infirmity of Old Age are plausible Pretences to put off the serious Work of Repentance O that such would duly consider the desperate Uncertainty upon which Men build their Hopes of a future Repentance and Divine Acceptance 1. Men delay Repentance upon the Presumption of a long Life But what is more uncertain 'T is the Wisdom and Goodness of God to conceal in his impenetrable Counsels the time of our Sojourning here For if Men though liable to Death every hour and therefore should be under just Fear lest it surprize them unprepar'd yet against so strong a Curb run with that exorbitant vehemence after the present World how much more licentious would they be if secured from sudden Death But none can promise to himself one Day Death comes not according to the order of Nature but the Decree of God How many in the Flower of their Youth and Strength thought themselves at as great a Distance from Death as the East is from the West when there was not the space of an Hour between them and Death between them and Hell The Lamp suddenly expires by a Blast of Wind when there is plenty of Oil to feed it The rich Man pleased himself with Designs of sensual Enjoyments for many years yet did not see the dawning of the next Morning Thou Fool this Night shall thy Soul be required of thee This Sentence is pronounced in Heaven against thousands that are now alive conversant in the Vanities and Business of the World Eating and Drinking Playing and Trading and all unconcerned as to dying yet shall breath their last before to Morrow and their unwilling Souls be rent from the Embraces of their Bodies In various manners Men die from inward and outward causes an Apoplexy an Imposthume a Flux of Rhume stopping Respiration kills the Body without any presaging Signs of Death As if the Roof and all the Chambers should fall within the House while the Walls are standing entire And how many unforeseen Accidens and therefore inevitable put a sudden Period to Life Is it not our truest Wisdom by an early Repentance to prepare for Death when the Season is certainly short and but uncertainly continued and the Omission is irreparable 2. Suppose Life be continued yet Sinners that delay Repentance can have no rational hopes that they shall sincerely repent in time to come For 1 st Saving Repentance is the Gift of God and is it likely that those who have been insensible of the loud and earnest Calls of the Word inflexible to the gracious Methods of his Providence leading them to Repentance should at last obtain Converting Grace The Gales of the Spirit are very transient and blow where he pleases and can it be expected that those who have wilfully and often resisted him should by an exuberant Favour receive afterwards more powerful Grace to over-rule their stubborn Wills and make them obedient To expect Divine Grace and the powerful Workings of the Spirit after long resisting his Holy Excitations is both unreasonable and unrevealed 'T is written as with a Sun-beam that God will graciously pardon repenting Sinners that reform their Lives but 't is no-where promised that he will give Saving-Repentance to those who securely continue in Sin upon a corrupt Confidence they will repent at last Our Saviour threatens to him that neglects the improving the Grace that is offer'd That which he hath shall be taken away Yet Men unwilling at present to forsake their Sins of Pleasure and Profit vainly hope they shall obtain Grace hereafter without any Promise from God and against the Tenor of his Threatnings God has threatned that his Spirit shall not always strive with rebellious Sinners and then their State is remediless This may be the case of many in this Life who are insensible of their Misery As consumptive Persons decline by degrees lose their Appetite Colour and Strength till at last they are hopeless So the Withdrawings of the Spirit are gradual his Motions are not so strong nor frequent and upon the continued Provocations of the Disobedient finally leaves them under that most fearful doom He that is filthy let him be filthy still He that is unrighteous let him be unrighteous still and thus punishes them on this side Hell as he does the Damned by giving them over to Sin 'T is a bloody Adventure for Men to indulge their carnal Appetites as if they had infallible Assurance that they should not die in an impenitent State The Delayer does not regularly trust but tempt God 2 dly Suppose the Holy Spirit be not totally withdrawn yet by every Day 's Continuance in Sin the Heart is more hardned against the Impressions of Grace more averse from returning to God and Repentance more difficult and hazardous The last guilty Disposition
Minds clearly manifest Now this presumptuous Indulgence gives the deepest grain to their Sins and makes them more uncapable of Pardon Chrysostom observes that Judas was encouraged to betray his Master presuming on his Lenity Goodness Benignity which Considerations intolerably aggravated his Treason and confounded his Hopes There is a dreadful threatning against those who reject the Invitations of Grace in their Prosperity and when the righteous Judg comes to Sentence and Execution are earnest Suppliants for Mercy Because I have called and ye have refused I have stretch'd out my Hands and no Man regarded But ye have set at naught all my Counsel and would none of my Reproof I will also laugh at your Calamity and mock when your Fear comes When your Fear comes as a Desolation and your Destruction as a Whirlwind when Distress and Anguish come upon you then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but shall not find me For they hated Knowledg and did not choose the Fear of the Lord. A doleful Case beyond all possible expression when the sinful Creature forsaken of all Comforts below addresses to Heaven for Relief and meets with Derision and Fury Scorn and Indignation The foolish Virgins careless to prepare for the Bridegroom 's Coming in vain at last discover'd their want of Oil in vain sollicited the wise Virgins for Supply in vain knock'd at the door crying Lord Lord open to us the Answer was severe and peremptory I know you not and they were for ever excluded from the Joys of Heaven 4. How incongruous is it to delay the solemn Work of Reconciliation with God till the time of Sickness This is an Affair wherein our transcendent Interest is concerned and should be performed in our most calm and sensible Condition when we are most capable of reflecting upon our Ways and making an exact trial of our selves in order to our returning to God by a holy Change of our Lives Now that the Time of Sickness is not a convenient Season for this Work is sadly evident for some Diseases are stupifying and all the Powers of the Soul are benumm'd in a dull Captivity so that the sick Man only perceives with his animal Faculties Some Diseases are tormenting and cause a great Disorder in the Soul and distract the Thoughts from considering his spiritual State When the Storm is at the highest and the Pilot so sick that he can give no Directions the Ship is left to the fury of the Winds and escapes by Miracle When there is a Tempest in the Humours of the Body and the Soul by Sympathy is so discompos'd that it cannot apply it self to prepare for its appearance before the Divine Tribunal what danger of being lost and passing from a short Agony to everlasting Torment Besides Suppose the Sickness more tolerable yet how unfit is a Person weak and languishing when Sense and Conscience are both afflicted to encounter with the cruel Enemy of Souls All that sincerely seek Peace with God must expect fierce Anger and War from Satan therefore 't is a point of necessary Wisdom whilst our Bodies and Minds are in the best order to be preparing against his Assaults 5. Consider how uncomfortable it is to delay Repentance till Age and Sickness when the Fruits of it are not so evident nor acceptable In evil days and the Approaches of Death 't is very hard to discover the Sincerity of the Heart whether Repentance proceeds from Holy Principles whether the Sorrow then express'd be Godly for Sin or meerly natural for Punishment whether the good Resolutions be the Effects of permanent Fidelity or of violent Fear that will vanish the cause being removed When the Invitations to Sin cease there may remain a secret undiscerned Love to it in the Heart which is the Centre of Corruption and Root of Apostacy The Snake that seem'd dead in the Frost revived by the Fire The inordinate Affections that seemed mortified when the sensitive Faculties were disabled to carnal Enjoyments may have inward Life and will soon be active and vigorous in the Presence of Temptations And that a Deathbed-Repentance is usually deceitful appears from hence that not one of a thousand that recover from dangerous Diseases are faithful in performing their most sacred and solemn Vows How many having the Sentence of Death in themselves and under the Terrors of the Lord have expressed the greatest Detestation of their Sins and resolved as they thought sincerely if God would spare them to reform their ways to become new Creatures exemplary in all Holy Conversation yet the Danger being over their Heats of Devotion expire as they revive and their Lusts recover Strength with their Bodies and being suppress'd only by Fear are more fierce in their Return Their Hearts were as Marble that in rainy Weather seems dissolved into Water but 't is only from the Moisture of the Air and remains as hard as ever When the Fear of Death is removed all their Promises of Reformation are ineffective as violent and void all their religious Affections vanish as the Morning-Dew Now if these Persons had died before this visible Trial and Discovery they had past into the other World with the Reputation of true Penitents deceiving others with their Prayers and Tears and liberal Promises the outward Signs of Repentance and deceived themselves by the inward Workings of an alarmed Conscience Therefore Ministers should be very circumspect in applying the Promises of Mercy to Persons in such a State for an Error in that kind has fearful Consequences A little opiate Divinity may quiet the Mind for a time but the Virtue of it will be soon spent and the Presumer perishes for ever But suppose a dying Person with true Tears and unfeigned persevering Affections returns to God Can he have a comfortable Assurance of his Sincerity Indeed the Searcher and Judg of Hearts will accept him but how doubtful and wavering are his Hopes what anxious Fears are in his Breast lest he builds upon a sandy Foundation And how dreadful is it to appear before the Tribunal of God and expect an uncertain Sentence But Sinners still please themselves in this that God has effectually called some at the last Hour and they may find the same Favour with others To this I answer 1. 'T is true we have some rare admirable Instances of God's Mercy and Grace the dying Thief and some others which shew'd 't is possible with God to abolish the most confirmed Habits in a short time and by a swift Conversion to prepare a Sinner for Heaven But these miraculous Examples are not to be drawn into Consequence for the Encouragement of any in their Sins A Prince will not endure that his free Favours should be made a Law to him and the special Privilege of some be extended to all As Thales said An old Mariner that has escap'd the various Dangers by Rocks and Storms at Sea was a new Miracle So that one
stinging Reproach of his perfidious Villany Thus it appears how dangerous it is to delay Repentance and Reconciliation with God till Sickness and a Death-bed when the remembrance or forgetfulness of Sin the sense or security of Conscience may be equally destructive The Sum of what has been amplified in this Part is this A vain hope of living long and being reconcil'd to God when Men please is the fatal Foundation of their Sins and Misery They apply the Word of God against the Mind of God and securely provoke him as if they could take Heaven by Violence in contradiction to the Gospel But they usually dispose of that time they shall never enjoy and presume upon that Mercy and Grace they shall never obtain We are commanded to seek the Lord while he may be found a sad Intimation that 't is not in our power to find him to our Comfort when we please He spares long but abused Patience will deliver Sinners to revenging Justice Sampson was three times in the Chamber of his Lust expos'd to Treachery and escap'd but the fourth time he said I will arise but was surprized by his Enemies and lost his Strength and Sight and Liberty How justly will the wilful neglect of Salvation so long and so compassionately offer'd to Sinners render the Divine Mercy inexorable to their Prayers and Tears at last When a Roman Gentleman that was wont to revel in the night and sleep in the day had wasted a great Estate by Luxury he petitioned the Emperor Tiberius to relieve his Poverty and was dismiss'd with this upbraiding Answer Serò experrectus es you are risen too late He never open'd his Eyes to see his Condition till it was past Remedy This is the sad Case of many that waste the Seasons of Grace and are careless of their Duty till upon the point of perishing and then address themselves to God for his Favour and Pardon but are justly rejected with the reproaches of their obstinate neglect of Salvation in the time of their Lives I doubt not that some are wonderfully converted and saved at last but these special Mercies are like our Saviour's miraculous healing the two blind Persons as he was passing in the way when great numbers of the Blind remain'd uncur'd We read a prodigious Story in the Book of Kings that a Captain and his fifty Men commanded Elias to come to the King and immediately a Tempest of Lightning destroyed them Now who would think that another Captain with his fifty should be so desperate that having the Ashes and Relicks of those miserable Carcasses before their Eyes as to make the same Citation to the Prophet yet they did and provok'd the Justice of Heaven to consume them And this Madness is exemplified in thousands every day for notwithstanding they see Sinners like themselves cut off in their evil Ways they continue unreformed as if they were fearless of Hell as if resolved to secure their own Damnation I would not from what has been represented in this Matter so universally useful discourage any that have lived in a course of Sin from earnest seeking to God in their last Hours For even then they are not utterly destitute of Hope The Gospel sets forth the Mercy of God to returning Sinners in various Representations and Expressions of admirable Tenderness When the lost Sheep was recovered there was Joy as if a Treasure had been found The Prodigal had wasted his Estate in Lasciviousness and Luxury and by a harsh reduction came to himself reflected with shame upon his Folly and Rebellion and the sense of his Misery not a more ingenuous or noble Principle at first compell'd him to go to his Father to try what his Affection would do And it was not a vain presumption for he found the effects of fatherly and compassionate Love When he was a great way off his Father saw him and had Compassion and ran and fell on his Neck and kissed him And the Son said Father I have sinned against Heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy Son But the Father said to his Servants Bring out the best Robes and put a Ring on his Finger and Shoes on his Feet and bring hither the fatted Calf and kill it let us eat and be merry for this my Son was dead and is alive again was lost and is found The Design of Christ was to represent his Heavenly Father in that Parable and to wounded Spirits that feel the intolerable weight of Sin the Mercy and Mildness of the Gospel is to be exhibited God is rich in Mercy to all that call upon him in Truth But to tell Sinners who securely proceed in their sinful Ways that they may be saved at last and notwithstanding their presumptuous Repulses of God's Calls to his Service yet think they may come into the Vineyard at the eleventh hour and be rewarded is to give countenance and protection to Sin and to harden them to Destruction Poison is not cured by giving Food but Antidotes that put Nature into a Passion till it be expelled The Terrors of the Lord can only prove medicinal to such depraved Souls To conclude this Argument let us seriously consider the Revelation God has afforded of himself in the Gospel He is a Father and a Judg Justice and Holiness as well as Mercy are essential to his Nature that our Affections may be accordingly moved towards him If ye call on the Father who without respect of Persons judgeth according to every Man's Work pass the time of your sojourning here in fear Presumption and Despair are very dishonourable to God and pernicious to the Soul the one destroys the Fear the other the Love of God But Hope contemper'd with Fear has an excellent Influence in the Christian Life As the Ballast and the Wind are both necessary that the Ship may sail safely without the Wind the Ship can make no way and without Ballast 't is in danger of oversetting by every Gust Thus Hope and Fear are necessary to bring us safely to Heaven Fear without Hope chills and stupifies the Vigour and Alacrity of the Soul that it cannot come to God and Hope without Fear makes it vain and careless of its Duty and liable to be overthrown by every pleasing Temptation Briefly let us rightly understand the Tenor of the Evangelical Promises of Pardon and Grace they are conditional and applicable only to penitent Believers And unfeigned Faith purifies the Heart works by Love and is the living Principle of universal Obedience And Repentance unto Life is productive of all good Fruits in their Season Without Faith and Repentance we can neither be justified in this World nor glorified in the next Be not deceived God is not mocked as a Man sows so shall he reap He that sows to the Flesh shall of the Flesh reap Corruption he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap Life everlasting 2. The careful preserving our selves from wilful presumptuous Sins
that buy as though they possessed not and they that use the World as not abusing it for the fashion of the World passeth away To a wise and pondering Observer what comparison is there between Shadows and Dreams and substantial everlasting Blessedness If Men had the same opinion of this World whilst they live as they will have when they are to die they would not inordinately seek it They who have magnified temporal Honours and Riches and lived in Pleasures without Remorse yet in their dying Hours when Men speak with most Feeling and least Affectation how have they vilified those empty Appearances of Happiness with what moving Expressions declared the Vanity and Brevity of worldly things As when the Israelites were to go through the River Jordan that opened it self to make a free and dry Passage for them the lower part of its Waters ran into the Dead Sea and utterly fail'd but the Waters that came from above rose up and appear'd like a Mountain Thus when Men come to the universal Passage from this to the next Life inferiour things absolutely fail and are lost in the dead Sea but the things above that are eternal then appear in their true Greatness exceeding all humane Comprehension from hence is the change of Mind and Language concerning the one and other 5. Solemn affectionate and frequent Converse with God in religious Duties will render Death not fearful to us The whole Life of a Christian as such is a continual Communion with the Father and with Jesus Christ. For he performs all good Works by Divine Grace communicated from above and refers all to the Divine Honour As in a pair of Compasses one Foot is fix'd in the Center while the other moves in the Circumference so the Heart of a Christian is in Heaven his aims are for God whilst he is active here in the World His Natural and Civil Actions are heightened to a supernatural End And thus his Conversation is in Heaven But this was spoken of before and that which is now specified is the more immediate Service of God in Holy Meditation Prayer and the Ordinances of the Gospel which is the noblest part of the spiritual Life Our blessed Saviour who was a Comprehensor upon Earth always saw the Face of God and invariably sought his Glory in all things yet had his special times of Prayer and Heavenly Communion with God and the most glorious Testimonies of his Favour in those times Our Communion with God here is as true as in Heaven but the Influence and Fruition is different according to our Capacity When the Soul feels the vigorous Exercise of the Thoughts and Affections upon God and the raised Operations of Grace in Holy Duties 't is as certain a Sign of God's Favour and Acceptance as when Fire descended from Heaven to consume the Sacrifice And often our affectionate Duties are rewarded with sensible Consolations and holy Souls are dismiss'd from the Throne of Grace as they shall be received at the Throne of Glory with the reviving Testimonies of God's Approbation Now the Assurance of God's Love conquers the Fear of Death This Communion must be frequent As Love and Respects between Friends are maintained by constant Visits and Letters and mutual Confidence arises from Acquaintance so by the interchange of holy Duties and divine Favours we preserve a lively Sense of God's Love and an humble Familiarity with his Majesty that his Presence is not a Terror to us A Christian that walks with God here when he leaves the World to use the Words of a dying Saint changes his Room but not his Company God was always with him on Earth and he shall be ever with God in Heaven But cold and seldom Converse begets Strangeness and that makes us shy of God When religious Duties are performed as a complemental Visit without zealous Affections or used only in times of Affliction and Exigency as Cordial Waters in swooning Fits the Divine Presence is uncomfortable to us They who prefer carnal Sweets before Acquaintance with God cannot with Peace and Joy think of appearing before him O how unwelcome is Death to such for then the Spirit returns to God that gave it 6. Let us strengthen our Belief of the blessed State after Death Divine Truths lose their Influence and Efficacy when they are not stedfastly believed Faith is the substance of things not seen and the Evidence or Conviction of things hoped for The Spirit confirms our Faith not by a pure Physical Act but by convincing Reasons of the Truth of the Gospel The Life of Christ so glorious in Holiness his Doctrine so becoming the Wisdom and other excellent Attributes of the Deity his Miracles so great numerous open and beneficial not meerly to surprize the Spectators with Astonishment but to touch their Hearts his Death foretold by the Prophets and exactly agreeing in all the Circumstances of the Predictions his Resurrection the most noble Operation of the Divine Power are the strongest Proofs that what he has reveal'd as the Counsel of God for our Redemption and the Preparations of Glory for the Saints in Heaven are divine Truths And the Efficacy of the Spirit of Christ in sanctifying his Disciples in all Ages is a continual and as satisfying an Argument that the Gospel is derived from God the Fountain of Truth as extraordinary Miracles For Holiness is as inseparable a property of the Divine Nature as Omnipotence and the Sanctification of the Soul as divine an Effect as the Resurrection of the Body Now in the Gospel God enters into Covenant with obedient Believers to be their God a Title and Relation that supposing them the most happy here all the Enjoyments of this World cannot fulfil This Covenant is not dissolv'd by Death for he uses this Stile after the Death of his faithful Servants and from hence it follows they are Partakers of his Glory and Joys in the next Life For the Honour of his Veracity is most dear to him The Psalmist declares that he has magnified his Word above all his Name No Perfections of his Nature are more sacred and inviolable than his Truth The Foundations of Nature shall be overturn'd and the most solid parts of the Creation destroyed but his Promises shall be compleatly accomplish'd We are assured by his infallible Authority that there remains a Rest for the People of God And he that receives this Testimony sets to his Seal that God is true honours the Truth of God's Word and binds himself more firmly to his Service and is encouraged to leave this sensible World for that which is infinitely better Our Confidence and Patience in well-doing and in suffering the utmost Evil to Nature is from the pregnant Apprehensions of the Reality of eternal things We know saith the Apostle if our earthly Tabernacle be dissolved we have a Building not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens This fortified him against the Terrors of Death When Stephen saw the Heavens open
and the Son of God ready to receive him with what Courage and Constancy did he encounter the bloody Rage of his Murderers Faith supplies the want of Vision it pierces the Clouds opens a Window in Heaven sees the Crowns of Righteousness prepared for the Saints and sweetens the bitterest Passage to it But if our Faith be weak and wavering our Courage will decline in the needful Hour 'T is with Christians in their last Passage from Earth to Heaven as with Saint Peter walking upon the Waters to Christ whilst his Faith was firm in Christ he went upon the Waves as on the firm Land but upon the rising of a Storm his Faith sunk into Fear and he sunk in the Waters till our Saviour upon his earnest Prayer Lord save me took hold of him and rais'd him with that compassionate Reproof O thou of little Faith wherefore didst thou doubt The last Use is to excite the Saints to die with that Courage and Chearfulness as becomes the Gospel of Christ. The Encouragement of Joshua to the Israelites against the Giants that terrified them from entring into the Land of Canaan the Type of Heaven Be not afraid of them they are Bread for us we shall obtain an easy Conquest over them is applicable to this purpose Do not fear Death the Enemy that interposes between us and the true Canaan for our Conflict shall be the means of our Victory and triumphant Possession of the holy and blessed Land above This is very honourable to our Redeemer and recommends Godliness to the Judgment Affections and Practice of others St. Basil tells of a Custom to annoint the tops of Doves Wings with some fragrant Liquor that mixing in company with other Doves they might by the Sent allure them to follow to the Dove-houses Thus when holy Persons live and die with peaceful Joy those that converse with them are drawn by that Fragrance of Paradise to apply themselves to serious Religion 'T is the Apostle's consolatory Advice to Believers Not to be sorrowful for those that sleep in JESVS as those that are without hope When Jacob saw his beloved Son's Coat rent and stain'd with Blood he abandoned himself to desperate Sorrow and continued mourning for his Death when Joseph was advanc'd in Authority and Dignity next to Pharaoh in the Kingdom of Egypt Thus when we see the Garment of Mortality rent by Diseases we mourn for departed Saints as if Death had absolutely destroyed them when their Souls are reigning in Glory This immoderate Sorrow is an Heathenish Passion suitable to their ignorance of the future happy State but very unbecoming the plenary Assurance the Gospel affords us of it Indeed for the Wicked to die with fears and palpitations of heart to be surrounded with impendent horrours when such a precipice and depth of Misery is before them is very just and reasonable but for the Saints to die uncomfortably under inordinate Fears is a disparagement to the Blessed Hope establish'd upon the Revelation of Life and Immortality by the Gospel Now in three things I shall propound the Duty of dying Christians 1. To submit to the Divine Pleasure with resigned Spirits as to the Means the Manner and Time of Death God has a Sovereign Right and Dominion over us The present Life is his most free Favour and he may justly resume it when he pleases His Will should be the first and last Rule of ours Whether he gently untwines the Band of Life or violently breaks it we must placidly without reluctation yield up our selves By what Means soever Death comes all second Causes are moved by an impression from above in what Age of Life soever all our Times are appointed by the divine Counsel and a Saint ought with that readiness and meek submission receive it as if he heard an express Voice from Heaven calling him to God and say in his heart with Samuel Here I am thou didst call me This is the last act of our Obedience and very pleasing to God We read of the marvellous Consent of Abraham and his Son Isaac the Father to offer up his Son and the Son his Life that were both the Gifts of God in compliance with the divine Command and from Heaven he declared his high approbation of it This is to make a Vertue of Necessity and turn Nature into Grace But discontent and reluctancy as if our Lives were our own and taken from us unjustly or unseasonably is Rebellious Unthankfulness unbecoming a Creature much more a true Christian who exchanges a perishing Life for that which is eternal 2. To receive Death not only with Patience but earnest desires to be with Christ. I know Death is naturally unwelcome Our Saviour tells St. Peter When thou art old another shall bind thee and lead thee where thou wouldest not signifying his Martyrdom The Circumstance when thou art old is remarkable and intimates the natural unwillingness to die when there was little time to live But his rational sanctified Will was superiour and prevalent The universal desire of the Saints is to be happy in the Presence of God for the divine Nature communicated to them is intelligent and inclining towards its chief Good and if the obtaining it were not by being unclothed but clothed upon by an immediate Translation to Heaven how willingly would they leave this World But there is a bitterness in Death that makes it unpleasant and many holy Souls that desire the Glorious Liberty in Heaven yet are loth to leave their Prison Now there are so many Arguments to make the Saints desirous of dying that methinks since Life is chiefly valued and dear to them as it is the way to Heaven when they are come to that blessed end it should not be longer desirable What is this lower World that chains us so fast 'T is the Devil's Circuit wherein he ranges seeking whom he may devour 'T is the Theater of Contentions The Low aspire to rise the Exalted fear to fall The Poor envy the Rich and the Rich despise the Poor 'T is a foreign Country to the Saints and as Pilgrims and Strangers they are liable to Reproaches Injuries and hard Dealings from the Wicked the Natives of the Earth What is the present momentany Life that so enamours us 'T is surrounded with Temptations oppress'd with Fears ardent with irregular Desires and continually spent in Vanity or Vexation In Adversity 't is depress'd and melancholy in Prosperity foolish and proud 'T is a real Infelicity under the deceitful appearance of Felicity But above all other Motives the evil of Sin from which we cannot be clearly exempted here should render Death desirable The best suffer internal Divisions between the Law of the Flesh and the Law of the Mind as Rebecca felt the Twins Esau and Jacob repugnant in her Womb. How hard is it to be continually watching the Heart that Corruptions do not break out and the Senses that Temptations do not break in How difficult to order
the Affections to raise what is drooping and suppress what is rebellious For they are like the People of whom the Historian speaks qui nec totam servitutem pati possunt nec totam libertatem How many Enemies of our Salvation are lodg'd in our own bosoms The Falls of the Saints give sad evidence of this If the Body were unspotted from the World as in the Creation of Man there might be a just Plea of our unwillingness to part with it but since it is the incentive and instrument of Sin we should desire to be dissolved that we might be perfectly holy Death is the final Remedy of all the temporal and spiritual Evils to which we are liable here And the Love of Christ should make us willing to part with all the Endearments of this Life nay desirous to enter into the Celestial Paradise though we must pass under the Angels Sword the stroke of Death to come into his Presence He infinitely deserves our Love for we owe our Salvation and Eternal Glory to the merit of his Humiliation and the power of his Exaltation With what earnest affections did St. Paul desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Love gave Wings of Fire to his Soul ardent desires mounting to Heaven How valiant were the Martyrs in expressing acts of Love to Christ How boldly did they encounter Death that interpos'd between them and the sight of his Glory Their Love was hotter than the Flames that consumed them They as willingly left their Bodies as Elias let fall his Mantle to ascend to Heaven And how does it upbraid the coldness of our Love that we are so contented to be here absent from our Saviour That the Moles of the Earth who never saw the Light of the Sun and feed on bitter Roots are pleas'd in their dark Receptacles is no wonder but if Birds that are refresh'd with his chearful Beams and feed on sweet Fruits should willingly be consin'd in Caverns of the Earth it were unnaturally strange Thus for Pagans and those who are so in Heart though different in Profession that are so short-sighted and depraved that they only perceive and affect present sensible things for them to be unwilling to die is no wonder for then all that is valuable and delightful to them is lost for ever but for those who are inlightned by the Revelation of God so clearly concerning the state of Glory and have tasted the Goodness of the Lord and know the incomparable difference between the mean and frail Felicity here and the inestimable immutable Felicity hereafter for them to be unwilling to leave this World for that which is infinitely better is astonishing Such was the Love of our Saviour that his personal Glory in Heaven did not fully content him without the Saints partaking of it with him Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory If our Hearts do not answer his 't is a sad indication that we have not an Interest in him for the application of his Merits is always join'd with the imitation of his Vertues and the reflection of his Love The Lovers of Christ will join with the inflamed Spouse Draw us and we will run after thee O loosen our Affections from this World that we may readily ascend to thee they will renew the Sighs of holy David in his Banishment O when shall we come and appear before God! Lastly To die with Thanksgiving and Joy 'T is usual to compare this Life to a Voyage The Scripture is the Chart that describes the Coasts we must pass and the Rocks we must avoid Faith is the Compass that directs the Course we must steer Love is the Rudder that governs the Motion of the Ship Hope fills the Sails Now what Passenger does not rejoice at the discovery of his Country where his Estate and Heart is and more at the near approach to the Port where he is to land Is not Heaven the Country of the Saints Is not their Birth from above and their tendency to their Original And is not the blessed Bosom of Christ their Port O what joyful Thanksgivings are due to God when by his Spirit and Providence they have happily finish'd their Voyage through such dangerous Seas and are coming into the Land of the Living How joyful was to Noah the coming of the Dove with an Olive-Branch to shew him the Deluge was asswaged and the Time was come of his freedom from the troublesom company of Animals and from the straitness and darkness of the Ark to go forth and possess the World How joyful should Death be to a Saint that comes like the Dove in the evening to assure him the Deluge of Misery is ceas'd and the time is come of his enlargement from the Body his deliverance from the wretched sinful Society here and his possessing the Divine World Holy Souls are immediately transported by the Angels to Christ and by him presented to his Father without spot or wrinkle compleat in Holiness and prepared for Communion with him in Glory How joyfully are they received into Heaven by our Saviour and the blessed Spirits they are the reward of his Sufferings the precious and dear purchase of his Blood The Angels that rejoice at the Conversion of a Sinner do much more at the Glorification of a Saint and the Church of the First-born who have before us enter'd into Glory have a new accession of Joy when their younger Brethren arrive to the undefiled immortal Inheritance And is it not very becoming Believers joyfully to ascend to the Seat of Blessedness to the happy Society that inspires mutual Joys for ever For our encouragement there are numerous Instances of Believers that have with Peace and Joy though in various degrees past through the dark Valley to the Inheritance of Light Some have died with more Joy than they lived and triumph'd over the last Enemy with the vocal Praises of God others with silent Affections have quietly commended their Spirits into his Hand Some have inward Refreshings and Support others exuberant Joys and Ravishments as if the Light of Glory shined into them or the Vail of Flesh were drawn and their Spirits were present with the invisible World Some of the Martyrs in their cruellest Sufferings felt such impressions of Confidence and Alacrity that as in the House of Lamech there was accorded at the same time two discordant Callings by the two Brothers Jubal the Inventer of the Harp and Organ and Tubal-Cain the first Artificer in Brass and Iron the one practised on Instruments of Musick breathing harmonious Sounds and Melodies the other used Hammers and Anvils making noise and tumult So in some Persons whilst the heaviest Strokes fell on their Bodies their Souls were ravish'd with the sweetest Joy and Exultation Indeed 't is not thus always with the Saints for though Sin be pardoned yet the apprehensions of Guilt may remain When a
Stream is disturbed it does not truly represent the Object When the Affections are disordered the Mind does not judg aright of a Christian's State A Serpent may hiss when it has lost its Sting Death may terrify when it cannot hurt us I doubt not but some excellent Saints have been in anxieties to the last till their Fears were dispell'd by the actual fruition of Blessedness As the Sun sometimes sets in dark Clouds and rises in a glorious Horizon We read our Evidences for Heaven by the Light of God's Countenance his Image is made visible in our Souls by the illustration of his Spirit and he exercises Prerogative in the dispensation of his Comforts 'T is his pleasure to bestow extraordinary Favours on some and deny them to others that are as holy But every penitent Believer has just cause of Joy in Death for Jesus Christ has reconciled God destroyed Satan and conquered Death and the last Day of his Life is the first of his Glory FINIS OF ETERNAL JUDGMENT BY WILLIAM BATES D.D. LONDON Printed by J. D. for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1691. OF Eternal Judgment Acts 17.31 Because he hath appointed a Day in the which he will judg the World in Righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given Assurance unto all Men in that he raised him from the dead SAint Paul had this Title of Honour eminently conferred upon him the Apostle of the Gentiles This Office he performed with persevering Diligence diffusing the Light of Life to those that sate in Darkness and in the Shadow of Death In this Chapter we have recorded the Substance of his Sermon to the Athenians wherein his admirable Zeal and Prudence are remarkable in the matter and order of his Discourse to convince and perswade them to recive the saving Truth of the Gospel He first lays down the Principles of natural Religion to prepare them for the more easy Belief of supernatural revealed Religion The Depravation of the Minds of Men was in no Instance more prodigious than in their vilifying Conceits of the Deity They attributed his Name and Honour to various Idols and ascribed to him their own Figure and which was infinitely more unworthy and dishonourable their own Passions and Vices They adored their own vain Imaginations The Idols of their Hearts were erected on their Altars Venus was a Goddess because impure Love reigned in their Brests Bacchus had religious Rites because sensual Pleasures as sweet as Wine intoxicated their Spirits These Errors as gross as impious were universal the Philosophers themselves were not exempted from the Contagion The Apostle therefore makes use of the clearest Arguments to give Authority to the plain conspiring Voice of Nature that had so long in vain recall'd them from Idolatry to the Worship of the only true God He therefore declares that the Divine Maker of all things the Father of Spirits could not be represented by corporeal and corruptible things but was to be acknowledg'd and ador'd in a manner becoming his spiritual and infinite Perfections That he made all Nations of one Blood though distinguish'd in their Habitations and Times that they might seek and serve the one universal Creator And though the Pagan World for many Ages had lived in an unnatural Oblivion of God and he seem'd unconcerned for their Violation of his Laws yet it was not from the defect of Justice but the Direction of his Wisdom that his Patience was so long extended to them And this he proves by the new and most express Declaration of his Will But now he commanded all Men every where to repent because he hath appointed a Day in which he will judg the World in Righteousness by the Man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given Assurance to all Men in that he raised him from the Dead In the Words the Eternal Counsels of God are revealed in two great things 1. The determining a time wherein he will righteously judg the World He hath appointed a Day 2. The Designation of the Person by whom he will perform that eminent part of Soveraignty by Jesus Christ whom he hath raised from the dead In order to the handling of the main Point it is requisite to premise briefly some Propositions 1. That God is the Universal Monarch of the World and has supreme Authority to govern reasonable Creatures antecedent to their Election and Consent The Psalmist calls to the Heathens Know ye that the Lord is God that is the most glorious Being and absolute Sovereign for it is he that made us and not we our selves He formed all things by his Almighty Goodness and is King by Creation 2. The two principal and necessary parts of his Soveraignty are to give Laws for the ruling of his Subjects and to pass final Judgment upon them for their Obedience or Disconformity to his Precepts Mere natural Agents are regulated by a wise Establishment that is the Law of their Creation The Sun and Stars are moved according to the just Points of their Compass The Angels are under a Law in Heaven and obey his Commandments The Humane Nature of Christ though advanced to the highest capacity of a Creature yet received a Law And his whole Work upon Earth for our Salvation was an Act of Obedience to the Will of God If a Prince out of affection to his Friend will leave his own Dominions and live privately with him in a foreign Country he must be subject to the Laws of that Place Indeed it is not conceivable that a Creature should be without a Law for this is to make it supreme and independent Supreme in not being liable to a superior Power to confine and order it Independent as to its Being and Operations for Dependance necessarily infers Subjection There is a visible connexion between those Titles The Lord is our Judg the Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King And sometimes in Scripture his Soveraignty is intimated in the Title of Judg thus in that humble Expostulation of Abraham for Sodom Shall not the Judg of all the World do right He addresses his Request to God under that Title to soften his Power and incline his Clemency to save the Wicked for their sakes who were comparatively Righteous that is innocent of their crying Sins 3. As his right to govern and judg the World is natural so are his Attributes his Wisdom Holiness Justice and Power that qualify and render him most worthy to exercise this Government These are finite separable Qualities in Angels or Men but essential Perfections to the Deity 'T is more rational to conceive that things may be congeal'd by the heat of Fire or turn'd black by whiteness than that the least act of Injustice can be done by the righteous Lord. The Apostle rejects with extreme detestation the blasphemous Charge of Unrighteousness in God's Proceedings Is God unrighteyus that taketh Vengeance God forbid For then how
justly deprived of it and cast into a Dungeon of Horror the Emblem of Hell The Sentence of the Law has its full force upon impenitent Sinners with intolerable aggravations for neglecting the Salvation of the Gospel Concerning the Heathens the Scripture declares 1 st That although the Law publish'd by Moses was not communicated to them yet there was a silent though less perfect Impression of it in their Hearts The Law of Nature in the fundamental Precepts of Religion and Society and Temperance was better known than obeyed by them Therefore the Apostle endites them for atrocious Crimes such as natural Conscience consenting with the Law of God severely forbids upon the pain of Damnation Thus 't is said of the Heathens Who knowing the Judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of Death not only commit the same but have pleasure in them that do them And at the last Day As many as have sinned without the Law as delivered to the Jews shall be judged and perish not according to that Law of Moses but the Law of Nature that obliged them to do Good and restrain themselves from Evil of which the counterpart was not totally deleted in their Hearts 2 dly Although the Revelation of Christ in his Person Office and Benefits is not by the preaching of the Gospel that is necessary for the begetting of Faith extended to all Nations yet the Grace of the Redeemer is so far universal that upon his account the indulgent Providence of God invited the Heathens to Repentance His renewed Benefits that sweetned their Lives and his powerful Patience in forbearing so long to cut them off when their Impurities and Impieties were so provoking was a Testimony of his inclination to Clemency upon their Reformation And for their abusing his Favours and resisting the methods of his Goodness they will be inexcusable to themselves and their Condemnation righteous to their own Consciences We are next to consider the Sanction of the Law that enforces Obedience and it will appear that God is not extream but wisely and justly ordained Eternal Death to be the punishment of Sin This will appear by considering 1. The end of the Sanction is to preserve the Authority of the Law in its full vigour to render it most solemn and awful and consequently 't is the wisdom of the Law-giver to ordain a Punishment so heavy as to overpoise all Temptations that might otherwise induce the Subjects to transgress its Precepts Therefore to Adam the first and second Death was threatned upon his Disobedience and Fear as a Sentinel was planted in his Breast that no guilty Thought no irregular Desire no deceitful Suggestion should enter to break the Tables of the Law deposited therein Now since notwithstanding the threatning Man was so easily seduced by the insinuations of the Tempter to break the Law and disorder the Government of God in the World 't is evident that such a Restraint was not over-rigorous to secure his Obedience I shall not insist on what is sadly visible since the first Apostacy that there is in Mankind such a prodigious propensity to sensual things that without the fear of Hell no Arguments are strong enough to prevent the bold violation of the Divine Law 2. 'T is consented to by common Reason that there ought to be a proportion between the quality of the Offence and the degrees of the Punishment Justice takes the Scales into its hand before it takes the Sword Now Sin against God is of such an immense Guilt that an eternal Punishment is but equivalent to it This will appear by considering 1. The Perfections of the Law-giver who is infinitely above us One Act of Sin is Rebellion against God and includes in it the contempt of his Majesty before whom the highest Angels cover their Faces with Reverence and Adoration as unworthy to behold his Glory and cover their Feet as unworthy that he should behold them the contradiction of his Holiness that is his peculiar Glory the denial of his Omniscience and Omnipresence as if he were confin'd to the superior World and busy in regulating the harmonious Order of the Stars and did not discern and observe what is done below the defiance of his Eternal Power and provoking him to Jealousy as if we were stronger than he 2. If we consider the Obligations of the reasonable Creatures to obey his Commands the guilt of Sin rises prodigiously They were made by his Power with this special character of Excellency according to his Image they were happy in his Love they were endowed with intellectual Faculties capable to understand and consider their Obligations to their bountiful Lord. From hence it appears that Sin is the most unnatural Rebellion against God and in it there is a concurrence of Impiety Ingratitude Perfidiousness and whatever may inhance a Crime to an excess of Wickedness 3. The meanness of the Motives that induce Men to prefer the pleasing their depraved Appetites before Obedience to his sacred Will extreamly aggravates the Offence Of this we have a convincing Instance in the first Sin committed upon Earth Deceitful Curiosity flattering Pride a secret pleasure of acting according to his Will join'd with the low attractives of Sense blinded and transported Adam to eat the Mortal Fruit against the express Command of God And ever since the vanishing shadows of Honour or Gain or Pleasure are the only perswasives to Sin And what can be more provoking than for a Trifle to transgress the Law of God and equally despise his Favour and Displeasure Can any Punishment less than Eternal expiate such Impieties The Rules of Humane Justice may discover to us the Equity of the Divine Justice 'T is ordained by the wisest States that many Crimes which may be done in a few minutes shall be punish'd with Death and the Offender be deprived of his natural Life for ever And is it not most just that Treason against the Great and Immortal King should be revenged with Everlasting Death 4. That which farther clears the Divine Justice in punishing Sin with Hell is this That God by his infallible Promise assures us that all who sincerely and uniformly obey him shall be rewarded with Heaven for ever a Blessedness most worthy the Greatness and Love of the Eternal God to bestow upon his Servants a Blessedness that surpasses our most comprehensive Thoughts Now if Everlasting Glory be despised what remains but endless Misery to be the Sinner's Portion The Consequence is remediless If Sin with an eternal Hell in its Retinue be chosen and embrac'd is it not equal that the rational Creature should inherit his own choice How just is it that those who are the Slaves of the Devil and maintain his Party here should have their Recompence with him for ever That those who now say to the Almighty Depart from us we desire not the knowledg of thy Ways should hear the dreadful Depart from me into everlasting Fire
omnipresent and that what-ever Sin is done though in the deepest and darkest recess is manifest to him have no need of Lucian's Lamp to make our Judg to be feared by us 3. The Impartiality of the Sentence will make the Justice of God conspicuous before the whole World This consists in two things 1. There will be no distinction of Persons 2. There will be a distinction of Causes in that Judgment and according to their Nature the Sentence will pass upon all 1. There will be no distinction of Persons In humane Courts the Judges sometimes extend and amplify sometimes contract or smother the Evidence and are more rigorous or favourable in their Sentence as they are biass'd towards the Persons before them But the Righteous Judg of the World is uncapable of being inclin'd to Favour or Severity upon such base Motives This is frequently declared in Scripture to possess us with his Fear If ye call upon the Father who without respect of Persons judges according to every Man's Work pass the time of your sojourning here in fear No spiritual Priviledges upon which Men are so apt to presume viz. that they are Members of the Reformed Church that they are enrich'd with excellent Gifts that they enjoy the Ordinances in their purest Administration will avail them without real Holiness in their Hearts and Lives The being united to Societies of the most glorious Profession of strictest Purity and sublime Devotion does no more prove one to be a real Saint than the being of an eminent Company of Merchants proves one to be a rich Citizen Those that bow the Knee and not the Heart in faithful Reverence that give the empty Title of Lord to Christ without the tribute of Obedience will be rejected by him Many shall say at the Day of Judgment Lord Lord we have prophesied in thy Name and done many wondrous Works Then will the Judg say I know you not Depart from me ye Workers of Iniquity No degrees of Civil Greatness will be of any moment and advantage in that day Saint John testifies I saw the Dead small and great stand before God in an equal Line to receive their Trial. Kings shall then be devested of their Imperial Titles of their Crowns and Scepters and their Robes of State and only be accompanied with their Works Of this we have an undoubted Proof in that they are no more exempted from the common Law of dying than the meanest Slave Death that rugged Officer arrests them without Ceremony and summons them to appear before that Tribunal The Royal Purple could not protect Herod from being devoured by Worms The Apostle speaks indefinitely in the fore-cited Place He that does wrong shall receive for the wrong he has done and there is no respect of Persons No circumstantial Accidents can derive true worth or truly debase Persons but inherent Qualities and the Actions that flow from them and accordingly the High and Holy God will accept or disapprove them What St. Paul observes of the saving Grace of the Gospel being indifferently offer'd to all is applicable in this case He tells us There is neither Greek nor Jew Barbarian nor Scythian Bond nor Free that are preferr'd or excluded upon a Carnal account but that all may equally partake of spiritual Blessings Thus the difference of Nations will be no Priviledg or Prejudice to any in the Day of Judgment The most rude and contemptible shall have as fair and equal a Trial as the most polite and civiliz'd The ignorant Barbarians as the Learned Grecians that so much boasted of their vain Excellencies above them The Negroes in Africa as the People of Europe for they have the same Relation to God their Maker and as truly bear the impression of God stamped upon the Humane Nature in the Creation and therefore common to the whole species of Mankind An Image may be fashion'd in Ebony as well as in Ivory Briefly all Men are equally subject to his Laws and shall be equally accountable for their Actions The Rich and the Poor shall then meet together without distinction before God the Maker and Judg of them all 2. There shall be a distinction of Causes and every Man be judged according to his Works the tenour of good Works and the desert of bad The Apostle assures us That whatsoever a Man sows that shall he reap He that soweth to the Flesh shall of the Flesh reap Corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap Life everlasting The Harvest shall be according to the Seed both in kind and measure 1. Those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality shall obtain eternal Life Indeed eternal Life is the Gift of infinite Bounty nay of pure Mercy and Mercy excludes Merit 'T is said of the blessed Martyrs who contended for the Truth and Purity of the Gospel to the Death that their Robes were wash'd white in the Blood of the Lamb not in their own Blood Their Right to Heaven was from the application of his Merits to them But the Reward is dispens'd from God according to the Evangelical Law not only as a magnificent Prince but as a Righteous Judg. All those to whom the Gospel promises eternal Life shall infallibly obtain it and none that the Gospel excludes Those who were sensible of their Sins and cordially forsaking them did humbly and entirely depend upon the Grace of God through the blessed Reconciler and Saviour shall be justified and glorified Then the Judg will discern between unfeigned Faith and vain Presumption and will justify the Faith of the Saints by the genuine Fruits of it the Godliness Righteousness and Sobriety of their Lives and a victorious perseverance in their Duty notwithstanding all the pleasing Temptations or Tortures to withdraw them from it Thus the Apostle expresses his humble Confidence I have fought the good Fight I have finish'd my Course henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which God the Righteous Judg will give me at that day and not only to me but to all that love his Appearance We read in the Description of the Last Judgment That the Book of Life was opened the Names of all that were written in Heaven shall then be declared that it may appear they are saved by Grace For it was his most free pleasure to select some from the common Mass of Perdition who were naturally as guilty and corrupted as others and to predestinate them to Eternal Glory and effectual persevering Grace to prepare them for it The Saints are created in Christ Jesus unto good Works which God hath before ordained that they should walk in them And the New Creation is as undeserved and entire an Effect of God's Love as the first was But 't is said That every Man was judged according to his Works For Eternal Election does not entitle a Person immediately to Heaven but according to the
with ten thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all Solomon under the Law repeats this Doctrine that every secret thing shall be brought into Judgment whether good or evil And God himself speaks in the sublimest stile of Majesty and swears by himself for our firmer belief As I live saith the Lord very Knee shall bow to me and every Tongue confess to God the glory of his Justice From whence the Apostle infers So then every one of us shall give an account to God for himself In the Gospel we have distinctly described the Person of the Judg the glorious Attendants of his Coming and the manner of his proceedings in that Day Now the many Predictions in Scripture so visibly accomplish'd in the Person of Jesus Christ and by him give infallible assurance that all his Promises and Threatnings are equally certain and shall be fulfilled As sure as our Saviour is come in his humble state and has accomplish'd the Prophecies of his Sufferings he will come in his Glory to judg the World Secondly That the belief of eternal Judgment may be powerful in our hearts and lives it must be actuated by frequent and serious thoughts Faith gives life and efficacy to our notions of eternal things and Consideration makes our Faith effectual As the natural Life is preserved by the activity of the vital Principles the Circulation of the Blood the drawing of the Breath the motion of the Pulse so the spiritual Life is maintained by the exercise of Grace The carnal Affections dare not appear before Reason and Conscience when awakened by the serious believing Consideration of eternal Judgment The Evangelists relate that when our Saviour was asleep in the Ship a sudden Tempest arose that was likely to over-set it in the Sea but awakened by the cry of his Disciples Lord save us we perish he presently rebuked the Wind and a Calm ensued Thus whilst the habit of Faith is asleep in the Soul there will be great danger from the concurrent violence of Temptations and Corruptions but when 't is awakened by lively and powerful thoughts it does Miracles in subduing the strongest Lusts. 'T is monstrous and beyond all belief did not sensible Experience make it evident that notwithstanding the minds of Men are convinc'd of the certainty of the Divine Judgment and the Recompences that immediatly follow yet their Wills remain unconverted and their Affections cold and unactive in their preparations for it That such numbers who have so much Christianity as to believe that an irrevocable Doom will pass upon the Wicked and so little Christianity that they cannot justly hope to escape from it yet are so careless of their Duty nay joyful in their sinful courses as if Judgment were a dreadless thing What is the cause of this prodigious security 'T is the neglect of considering that we must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ to receive according to the things done in the body whether good or evil The next Cause of this stupidity is that they put the Evil Day at a remote distance as the Scorners said the Vision is for many Days They study to be secure and delay their preparations presuming to have time enough before them Their Senses and Faculties are so imployed abroad in the World they have neither leisure nor desire to think seriously of it Their Hearts are so ravish'd with Dreams of Sensuality and engaged in terrene Affairs that they are very averse from exercising their minds upon such displeasing Objects Vain Men how willingly do they deceive themselves The Judg himself declares Behold I come quickly His Throne is like a fiery Flame and his Wheels as burning Fire an Emblem of his swift coming to judgment Can they be assur'd of Life one Hour The Day of Death is equivalent to the Day of Judgment for immediately after there is a final decision of Mens states for ever I have read of an excellent Preacher that in a Sermon described the last Judgment in all its Terrors with such ardent Expressions and those animated with such an affecting Voice such an inflamed Countenance and Action that his Hearers broke forth into passionate Cries as if the Judg himself had been present to pass the final Sentence upon them In the heighth of their Commotion the Preacher bid them stop their Tears and Passions for he had one thing more to add the most afflicting and astonishing Consideration of all the rest That within less than a quarter of an hour the Memory and regard of that which so transported them would vanish and their Affections return to carnal Objects in their usual manner The neglect of Consideration makes even the Doctrine of Judgment to come to be without efficacy 'T is necessary therefore that the belief of this be so firmly seated in the Heart as its Throne that it may command the thoughts to be very attentive to it and may have Regal Power over our Wills and Affections that our Lives may be ordered according to its Rules 2. The Consideration of Eternal Judgment will vindicate the Proceedings of Divine Providence and the honour of God's governing this World from the imputations of Unrighteousness God is provoked every day yet spares the Wicked and heaps an abundance of Favours on them His Patience and Goodness they prophanely abuse and become more obdurate and inflexible They are apt to blaspheme the Excellency of his Nature in their Hearts thinking that he is ignorant or careless impotent or unjust They implicitly deny his Providence and Judgment that he does not observe their Sins and will not require an account for them Or else they interpret his Permission to be an Approbation of their Sins These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest I was such an one as thy self Thus the Heathens transplanted the Vices of Earth to Heaven and represented their Gods to be sensual jealous furious as Men and accordingly expected an easy Absolution for their Sins Or else the distance of Judgment to come so hardens them that they hear God's Thunder with less fear than Boys do their Squibs and Crackers Because Sentence against an evil Work is not speedily executed therefore the hearts of the Sons of Men are fully set in them to do evil But how desperate is the madness of Sinners God now seems to wink at their Sins but hath appointed a day of Accounts He suffers them to live in prosperity but they are reserved to the day of Judgment to be punish'd and possibly sooner for sometimes they are cut off by visible Vengeance to convince the World that the supream Judg does not bear the Sword in vain But though 't is delayed for a time yet he declares that their Sins are laid up in store with him and sealed up among his Treasures To him belongs Vengeance and Recompence He is a mild Judge now and his Clemency suspends their Punishment but Justice will not
denied How will it confound those abject Wretches to be a spectacle of Abhorrence and Scorn before that Universal Glorious Confluence They would chuse rather to be covered under the Ruins of the World If we value and desire the Approbation of the King of Angels if we fear a final rejection from him to obtain the one and avoid the other we must entirely adhere to his Interest without any respect to the eyes and esteem of the perverse deceived World Sixthly A cordial beneficent Love to the Saints is a requisite Qualification of our Acceptance in the Day of Judgment Then shall the King say to them on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World For I was an hungry and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in naked and ye clothed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in Prison and ye came unto me The Union and Endearments betwixt Christ and his People are mutual and reflexive as they are extreamly tender of his Glory so he is concern'd in all that is done to them And though the Perfection of Love consists more in the Affection of the Heart than in outward Offices yet our Saviour most congruously produces in Judgment the conspicuous Effects of Love to them the supplying their Wants allaying their Sorrows owning them when obscured and deprest by Afflictions and injuriously treated by others This love of Service that is directed and exercised towards the Saints for the Image of God shining in them because they are the Children of God and Members of Christ and therefore extended to all in whom the reason of that Love appears shall be gloriously rewarded for he interprets what is done upon his Account to those who are his own by so many dear Titles as done to himself And what is more becoming his excellent Goodness than to reward the Works of Mercy with saving Mercy But those who when Christ presents himself to them in his poor distressed Members and sollicits their assistance to protect them from Injuries to refresh their Sorrows to support them in their Exigencies those that have Ability but want Affection to do them good and incompassionately neglect the suffering Saints shall be sentenc'd to be tormented with the Apostate Angels for ever What Indignity is it to the Son of God that those for whom he shed his most precious Blood should be in less value and regard with many than the Dogs and Horses maintained for their pleasure And if those on the left hand shall be condemned to eternal Fire for the coldness of their Love how terrible will the Judgment be of those that from the heat of their Enmity outragiously persecute the Servants of Christ for his sake in their Persons Estates Reputations that with a worse than barbarous inhumanity seek their ruin Is there any Sin of a more mortal Guilt The infernal Furnace is seven-fold heated for the punishing such Wickedness To conclude this Argument let us observe the Command of our Saviour To watch and pray always that we may be counted worthy to stand before the Son of Man These are Duties of universal Influence into our Lives the one prevents Carelesness the other vain Confidence in our selves and the consideration of Judgment to come is the greatest Motive to them and the first Principle of Holiness This should work more powerful in us considering the Day of Death is equivalent to the Day of Judgment to every Person for then a particular Sentence decisive and irrevocable passes that shall be publish'd at the last Day Methinks the Terrors of the Lord should engage our Souls and Senses to a continual preparation for his Coming 'T is represented so as to affect the Eye and keep it vigilant Behold the Lord comes with ten thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all Behold he comes in the Clouds and every Eye shall see him And to call the Ear and make it attentive The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with the Voice of the Arch-Angel and with the Trump of God How circumspect should we be in all our Ways since every Action shall be reviewed by our Judg St. Peter strongly infers from the dissolution of the World as a most cogent Argument that we should be exactly and universally Holy Seeing then all these things shall be dissolved what manner of Persons ought we to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness But the consideration of the eternal Judgment immediately succeeding the destruction of the World O how powerful should it be upon Conscience and the Affections to regulate the whole course of our Lives with a final respect to God's Tribunal In short That which we read of the success of the Apostle's preaching to the Athenians upon the present Subject the Immortality of the Soul comprised in the Resurrection of the Body and the future Judgment is the same in all times and places And when they heard of the Resurrection of the Dead some mocked and others said We will hear thee again of this matter and others believed There are three Differences of the Hearers of this Doctrine of so great importance some deride it as an extravagant Fancy some believe it and yield up themselves entirely in obedience to it others do not absolutely reject it as the first nor accept it as the second but have a Conjecture or slight superficial Opinion of it or a speculative Assent as to a history of things that do not concern them and defer the serious consideration and applying of it to themselves And of this third sort O Grief are the most of those who are Christians in Name They delay till Death the solemn reflecting upon the final Judgment and the inevitable Consequence of it a blessed or miserable Estate for ever And whereas the Apostle who had infallible assurance of God's Love did with an holy severity and self-denial abstain from all carnal Complacencies that might hazard the never-fading Crown I keep under my Body and bring it into subjection lest by any means when I have preached to others I should be a Cast-away Yet the most live and die in a secure state without preparation to appear before the Presence of his Glory FINIS OF HEAVEN BY WILLIAM BATES D.D. LONDON Printed by J. D. for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1691. OF HEAVEN Psalm 16.11 Thou wilt shew me the Path of Life in thy Presence is fulness of Joy at thy right Hand there are Pleasures for evermore THE Divine Wisdom and Goodness was pleased before and during the legal Dispensation by various Predictions and Types to delineate the Person of our Redeemer and the Work of Redemption to prepare the Minds of Men for his Reception at his coming into the World All the Evangelical Prophecies recorded in the Old Testament as
dispersed Rays are conspicuously united in him the Sun of Righteousness and as in a curious Piece of Mosaick Work each Stone according to its natural Vein and Colour is so exactly disposed and with that proportion join'd to another that the lively Figure of the Humane Body results from the Composure so by variety of Types the intire Image of our Saviour's Life is represented from his first appearing on Earth to his ascending to Heaven Now the due comparing and observing the harmonious Agreement between the Prophesies and Types of the Old Testament and the History of the New is a powerful means to produce and establish a true lively Faith in the blessed Jesus as the promised Messiah For it is an infallible Argument of the Divine Providence in disposing Times and Things so as the Oracle should be verified in the Event and the mysterious Figures substantially exhibited in the manifestation of the Son of God 'T is true his Miracles raised Admiration and argued the concurrence of Power truly Divine For the exercise of an absolute Dominion over the Order of Nature is a Royalty reserved to God but that his miraculous Operations were foretold added more Authority to his Person and Efficacy to his Doctrine Therefore our Saviour himself in answer to the publick Question sent from John the Baptist whether he were the expected Saviour of the World commanded the Messengers to tell him what they heard and said The Blind receive their Sight and the Lame walk the Lepers are cleansed the Deaf hear and the Dead are raised up Which healing Miracles were foretold by the Prophet Esay as the clear and distinguishing Characters of the Messiah from all Seducers when he should come The fulfilling God's Word by the Works of Christ of which there was sensible evidence was an irrefutable testimony that his Miracles were true and performed for the confirmation of the Truth Now of all the chosen Saints that foretold the coming of Christ the new Law of Grace and the new Kingdom of Glory that he should reveal and establish Of all that represented him in various Particularities concerning his Person and Offices there was not a more illustrious Type than David that by prophetical Words and by prophetical Actions did so clearly describe him In this Psalm composed by him there is a mixture of History and Prophecy Some things in the literal and immediate sense referring to David I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Our being at God's right Hand implies the highest Honour his being at our right Hand implies present and sure protection and defence And of this David had the infallible Promise of God to secure his Hope notwithstanding all his unrighteous and implacable Enemies But the following Verses are applicable to David but in a lower sense and by a remote Metaphor and have their literal and principal Accomplishment in our Saviour Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell that is in the State of the Dead nor suffer thy holy One to see Corruption that is the Body of our Saviour should be exempted from the corrupting Power of the Grave and restored the third Day to Life In this propriety and perfection of sense the Prophecy is applyed by St. Peter to our Saviour's alone for David died and saw Corruption and his Body still remains under the Dominion of Death And this last Verse Thou wilt shew me the Path of Life in thy Presente is fulness of Joy at thy right Hand are Pleasures for evermore is applied by the Apostle to Christ his Resurrection Ascension to Heaven and sitting at the right Hand of the Majesty on high Thou wilt shew me the Path of Life that is introduce him into the Kingdom of Glory and by experimental Fruition make him partaker of it In thy Presence is fulness of Joy at thy right Hand are Pleasures for evermore In these words the Causes and Excellencies of the Heavenly Life are express'd The Causes are the glorious Presence of God and the intimate application of his Presence and discovery of his peculiar Love to the Saints This our blessed Saviour had respect to as the compleat Reward of his Sufferings Thou shalt make me full of Joy with thy Countenance And his right Hand implies his Bounty that dispenses and his Power that secures our Happiness The Excellencies of it are fulness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore From the words I shall observe one Proposition The enjoyment of the Divine Presence in Heaven is the supream and everlasting Felicity of the Saints In the discoursing of this Point I will consider First The Place wherein the Divine Presence is gloriously reveal'd Secondly Shew that the enjoyment of the Divine Presence is the supream Felicity of the Saints Thirdly Prove that the Felicity shall be Everlasting First The Place wherein the Divine Presence is revealed 'T is consistent with the Divine Immensity to be differently present in some places The essential Presence of God is the same every where the influxive declarative Presence of God is special and wise in one place than another He is more excellently present in the living Temples his Saints on Earth by the gracious and eminent Operations of his Spirit than he is in the rest of the World He is most excellently present in Heaven by the clearest Manifestation and the express Characters and Effects of the Divine Perfections This inferior World is fram'd with exquisite Order The Earth is full of the Glory of the Lord yet 't is but the Sediment of the Creation the Habitation of Birds and Beasts nay of rebellious Sinners And by this we may raise our Thoughts to conceive something of the glorious Sanctuary of Life and Blessedness above 'T is called the Heaven of Heavens which is the highest Comparison to instruct and astonish us with the Amplitude and Glory of the Place 'T is a Place becoming the Majesty of God the Image of his Immensity Our Saviour assures us In his Father's House are many Mansions to receive the innumerable company of glorified Saints 'T is called the Excellent Glory 2 Pet. 1.17 The shining Firmament with all the Luminaries that adorn it are but the Frontispiece to the highest Heaven All the Lustre of Diamonds the Fire of Carbuncles and Rubies the Brightness of Pearls are dead in comparison of its Glory 'T is the Throne of the God of Glory wherein his Majesty is reveal'd in the most illustrious manner For Pleasantness 't is call'd Paradise in allusion to the delightful Garden planted by the Hands of God himself for Adam his Favourite whilst innocent There is the Tree of Life There are Rivers of Pleasure springing from the Divine Presence 'T is call'd the Inheritance of the Saints in Light to signify the Glory and Joy of the Place for Light has splendour and conciliates chearfulness and is a fit Emblem of both As on the contrary Hell is described by the blackness
rejoice and triumph in the Happiness of one another With what an unimaginable tenderness do they embrace What Reciprocations of Endearments are between them O their ravishing Conversation and sweet Entercourse for their Presence together in Heaven is not a silent Show In the Transfiguration Moses and Elias talk'd with Christ We may understand a little of it by the sensible complacence that is among sincere Friends here In pure Amity there is a threefold Union a Union of Resemblance that is the principle of it likeness causes Love a Union of Affection that is its Essence 't is said of Jonathan that incomparable Friend his Soul was knit with the Soul of David and he loved him as his own Soul the Union of Conversation that is requisite to the satisfaction of Love What an entertainment of Love and Joy is there in the presence and discourses of dear Friends their mutual Aspects like a Chain compos'd of Spirits luminous and active draw and fasten their Souls to one another The Felicity of Love consists in their Conversation Now in Heaven whatever is pleasant in Friendship is in Perfection and whatever is distastful by Mens Folly and Weakness is abolish'd With what excellent Discourses do they entertain one another If David felt such inward Pleasure from the sense of God's Favours that he could not restrain the expression of it but invites the Saints Come and hear all ye that fear the Lord and I will tell you what he has done for my Soul Certainly in Heaven the Blessed with overflowing Affections recount the Divine Benefits the admirable Methods whereby the Life of Grace was begun preserv'd and carried on in the midst of Temptations the continual Succession of Mercies in the time of their Hopes and the Consummation of all in the time of their enjoyment How joyfully do they concur in their Thanksgivings to God for the Goodness of Creation in making them reasonable Creatures capable to know love and enjoy him when they might have been of the lowest Order in the whole Sphere of Beings for his compassionate Care and Providence over them in this World but especially for his sovereign and singular Mercy in electing them to be Vessels of Honour for his powerful Grace in rescuing them from the cruel and ignominious Bondage of Sin for his most free Love that justified them from all their Guilt by the Death of his only Son and glorified them with himself They are never weary in this delightful Exercise but continually bless him for his Mercy that endures for ever We may judg by the Saints here when they are in a fit disposition to praise God what Fervors they feel in their united Praises of him in Heaven The Psalmist in an Extasy calls to all the parts of the World to join with him The Lord reigns let the Heavens rejoice and the Earth be glad let the Sea roar let the Fields be joyful and all that dwell therein He desires that Nature should be elevated above it self that the dead parts be inspired with Life the insensible feel motions of Joy and those that want a Voice break forth in Praises to adorn the Divine Triumph With what Life and Alacrity will the Saints in their blessed Communion celebrate the Object of their Love and Praises The Seraphims about the Throne cried to one another to express their Zeal and Joy in celebrating his Eternal Purity and Power and the Glory of his Goodness O the unspeakable Pleasure of this Concert when every Soul is harmonious and contributes his part to the full Musick of Heaven O could we hear but some Eccho of those Songs wherewith the Heaven of Heavens resounds some remains of those Voices wherewith the Saints above triumph in the Praises in the solemn Adoration of the King of Spirits how would it inflame our Desires to be join'd with them Blessed are those that are in thy House they always praise thee 3. The fulness of Joy in Heaven is everlasting without defect and without end 1. 'T is undecaying the productive Causes are conservative of it being always equal Those are the beatifick Object and the continual fruition of it Whilst we are here below the Sun of Righteousness as to our perception and sense has Ascensions and Declinations Accesses and Recesses And our Earth is not so purified but some Vapours arise that intercept his chearful refreshing Light From hence there are alternate successions of Spiritual Comforts and Sorrows of Doubts and filial Confidence in the Saints 'T is a rare Favour of Heaven when an humble Believer in his whole course is so circumspect as not to provoke God to appear displeased against him When a Christian as those tutelar Angels spoken of in the Gospel always beholds the Face of his Heavenly Father and converses with him with an holy Liberty And what a torment the hiding of God's Face is to a deserted Soul only they know who feel it External troubles are many times attended with more Consolations to the Spirit than Afflictions to Sense but to love God with a transcendent Affection and to fear he is our Enemy no Punishment exceeds or is equal to it As his Loving-kindness in their esteem is better than Life so his Displeasure is worse than Death How do they wrestle with God by Prayers and Tears and offer as it were a holy Violence to the King of Heaven to recover their first serenity of Mind the lost Peace of Heart How passionately do they cry out with Job in the Book of his Patience O that I were as in months past as in the days when God preserved me when his Candle shin'd upon my head and when by his Light I walk'd through darkness As I was in the days of my youth when the Secret of God was upon my Tabernacle And sometimes God delays the revealing himself even to his dearest Children not that he does not see their Necessities and hears their Prayers or is so hard that till their Extremities he is not moved with Compassion but for wise and holy Reasons Either that they may not return to folly if by any presumptuous Sin they forfeited their Peace or if they have been careful to please him yet he may deprive them of Spiritual Comforts for a time to keep them humble and that with an obedient resignation to his Sovereign Pleasure they may wait for his reviving Presence And then Joy returns greater than before For thus God usually renders with interest what he suspended only for trial But the Saints above are for ever enlightned with the vital splendor and dear regards of his Countenance always enjoy his beamy smiles A continual effusion of Glory illustrates Heaven and all its blessed Inhabitants And their Contemplation of God is fixed If the Object though extraordinary glorious were transient or the Eye so weak that it could only see it but by glances the height of Joy would not be perpetual But the mind is prepar'd with supernatural vigour to see the brightness
laspes have justly deserved that God should withdraw his grieved Spirit are new Obligations to Thankfulness and the more Grace the less Merit 3. The best Works of Men are imperfect allayed with the mixtures of Infirmities and not of full weight in the Divine Ballance If God should strictly examin our Righteousness 't will be found neither pure nor perfect in his Eyes and without Favour and Indulgence would be rejected And that which wants Pardon cannot deserve Praise and Glory He shews Mercy to thousands that love him and keep his Commandments If Obedience were meritorious it were strict justice to reward them The Apostle prays for Onesiphorus who had exposed himself to great danger for his love to the Gospel The Lord grant he may find Mercy in that day The Divine Mercy gives the Crown of Life to the Faithful in the day of eternal Recompences II. The meritorious Cause of our obtaining Heaven is the Obedience of Jesus Christ comprehending all that he did and suffered to reconcile God to us From him as the eternal Word we have all benefits in the order of Nature for all things were made by him and for him as the incarnate Word all good things in the order of Grace What we enjoy in Time and expect in Eternity is by him To shew what influence his Mediation has to make us happy we must consider 1. Man by his Rebellion justly forfeited his Happiness and the Law exacts precisely the Forfeiture Pure Justice requires the Crime should be punish'd according to its Quality much less will it suffer the guilty to enjoy the favour of God For Sin is not to be considered as an Offence and Injury to a private Person but the violation of a Law and a disturbance in the order of Government so that to preserve the honour of governing Justice an equivalent reparation was appointed Till Sin was expiated by a proper Sacrifice the Divine Goodness was a sealed Spring and its blessed effects restrain'd from the guilty Creature Now the Son of God in our assumed Nature offered up himself a Sacrifice in our stead to satisfy Divine Justice and removed the Bar that Mercy might be glorified in our Salvation The Apostle gives this account of it We have boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Christ by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the Vail that is to say his Flesh. 2. Such were the most precious Merits of his Obedience that it was not only sufficient to free the guilty contaminated Race of Mankind from Hell but to purchase for them the Kingdom of Heaven If we consider his Humane Nature all Graces were born with him as Rays with the Sun and shin'd in the whole course of his Life in the excellence of Perfection And the dignity of his Divine Person derived an immense Value to all he perform'd as Mediator One Act of his Obedience was more honourable to God than all the Lives of the Saints the Deaths of the Martyrs and the Service of the Angels God was more pleased in the Obedience of his Beloved Son than he was provok'd by the rebellion of his Servants Therefore as the just Recompence of it he constituted him to be Universal Head of the Church supream Judg of the World invested him with Divine Glory and with Power to communicate it to his faithful Servants He is the Prince of Life In short it is as much upon the account of Christ's Sufferings that we are glorified as that we are forgiven The Wounds he received in his Body the Characters of Ignominy and Footsteps of Death are the Fountains of our Glory His Abasement is the cause of our Exaltation If it be said This seems to lessen the freeness of this Gift The answer is clear This was due to Christ but undeserved by us Besides the appointing his Son to be our Mediator in the way of our Ransom was the most glorious Work of his Goodness 2. The Means of our obtaining Heaven are to be considered Though the Divine Goodness be free in its Acts and there can be nothing in the Creature of Merit or Inducement to prevail upon God in the nature of a Cause yet he requires Qualifications in all those who shall enjoy that blessed unchangeable Kingdom The Apostle expresly declares 'T is not of him that wills nor of him that runs but of God that sheweth Mercy But we must distinguish the Effects of this Mercy which are dispensed in that order the Gospel lays down The first Mercy is the powerful calling the Sinner from his corrupt and wretched State a second Mercy is the pardoning his Sins the last and most eminent is the glorifying him in Heaven Now 't is clear that in this place the shewing of Mercy signifies the preventing Grace of God in Conversion for in the 18 th Verse 't is said God shews Mercy to whom he will and whom he will he hardens Where 't is evident that shewing Mercy is oppos'd not to condemning but to hardning and consequently the intent of the words is this That Divine Grace overcomes the Rebellious Will softens the stiff and stubborn Heart and makes it pliant to Obedience This flows from his pure good Will and Pleasure without the least Motive from the Inclinations or Endeavours of sinful Men. But the other Effects of God's Mercy require Conditions in the Subjects that receive them for he pardons only penitent Believers and glorifies none but persevering Saints To make this clear 't is worthy of Observation The Gospel has several Denominations 'T is called a Law a Covenant and a Testament 'T is called the Law of Faith and the Law of the Spiritual Life As a Law it signifies a new Right that God has most freely establish'd in favour of lost Man that commands certain Duties and sets before them Eternal Life as the Reward of Obedience and Eternal Death the Punishment of Disobedience According to this the trial and decision of Mens everlasting States shall be which is the Character of a true Law This Law of Grace is very different from the Law of Nature that requir'd intire Innocence and for the least omission or accusing Act past an irrevocable Doom upon the Offenders for that strictness and severity is mollified by the Gospel which accepts of sincere persevering Obedience tho imperfect accordingly 't is called the Law of Liberty But the Law of Faith is unalterable and admits of no Dispensation from the Duties required in order to our being everlastingly happy 2. The Gospel is stiled a Covenant and that imports a reciprocal Engagement between Parties for the performance of the Matter contained in it The Covenant of Grace includes the Promise of pardoning and rewarding Mercy on God's part and the Conditions on Man's with respect to which 't is to be perform'd There is an inviolable dependence between them He will be our God to make us happy but we must be his People to yield
Promise of God to all penitent Believers in the Kingdom of Heaven and excludes all impenitent Infidels Divine Justice will illustriously appear then in distinguishing Believers from Unbelievers by their Works the proper Fruits either of Faith or Infidelity All the thick Clouds of Disgraces Calumnies Persecutions that often oppress the most sincere Christians here shall not then darken their Holiness and all the specious appearances of Piety which the most artificial Hypocrites make use of to deceive others shall not conceal their Wickedness And accordingly the one shall be absolved and glorified the others condemned and punish'd for ever In short without violation of his own righteous establishment in the Gospel God cannot receive the unholy into his Glory 3. Besides the Legal Bar that excludes unsanctified Persons from the beatifick vision of God there is a moral incapacity Suppose that Justice should allow Omnipotence to translate such a Sinner to Heaven would the Place make him happy Can two incongruous Natures delight in one another The happiness of Sense is by an impression of Pleasure from a suitable Object The happiness of intellectual Beings arises from an entire conformity of dispositions So that unless God recede from his Holiness which is absolutely impossible or Man be purified and changed into his likeness there can be no sweet Communion between them Our Saviour assigns this Reason of the necessity of Regeneration in order to our admission into Heaven That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit According to the quality of the Principle such is what proceeds from it The Flesh is a corrupt Principle and accordingly the Natural Man is wholly carnal in his propensions operations and end The Disease is turn'd into his Constitution He is dead to the Spiritual Life to the actions and enjoyments that are proper to it Nay there is in him a surviving Principle of Enmity to that Life not only a mortal coldness to God but a stiff aversation from him a perpetual resistance and impatience of the Divine Presence that would disturb his voluptuous enjoyments The Exercises of Heaven would be as the Torments of Hell to him while in the midst of those pure Joys his inward inclinations vehemently run into the lowest Lees of Sensuality And therefore till this Contrariety so deep and predominant in an unholy Person be removed 't is utterly impossible he should enjoy God with satisfaction As it was necessary that God should become like Man on Earth to purchase that Felicity for him so Man must be like God in Heaven before he can possess it Holiness alone prepares Men for Celestial Happiness that is against the corruption and above the perfection of meer Nature I shall now proceed to consider more particularly what is requisite in order to our obtaining of Heaven 1. Faith in the Redeemer is absolutely required of all that will partake of the Salvation purchased by him God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have Eternal Life This is the Spirit and Substance of the Gospel therefore I will briefly unfold it The Son of God having assumed the human Nature and performed what was necessary for the expiation of Sin the Father was so pleased with his Obedience that from his lowest State he rais'd him to Divine Glory and gave him supream Authority and all-sufficient Power to communicate that Glory to others Thus our Saviour declares Thou hast given him i. e. the Son power over all Flesh that he should give Eternal Life to as many as thou hast given him And he exhorts the People Labour for that Meat that endures unto Eternal Life which the Son of Man shall give unto you for him hath God the Father sealed Now this glorious Life is not given to all but only to those who are united to him As Adam the principle of the carnal corrupt Nature derives Guilt and Death to all his Progeny so Jesus Christ who is opposed to him the Head and Prince of the renewed State communicates Life and Glory to his People The Apostle expresses it As in Adam all dye his natural Descendants are involv'd in his Condemnation even so in Christ shall all be made alive that is all that are spiritually united to him shall partake of his glorious Resurrection And St. John tells us He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life The having the Son upon which our right to Eternal Life depends is believing in him Faith has a principal Efficiency in receiving Christ therefore 't is exprest by that Act But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God and consequently Heirs of Glory so as many as believed on his Name And Christ is said to dwell in our Hearts by Faith This is not a meer assent to the Doctrines of the Gospel concerning the Dignity of his Person that he is in so high and glorious a Relation of being the Eternal Son of God and the infinite value of his Merits whereby he is able to save all that come unto God by him and his merciful compassionate Nature to embrace returning Sinners and the excellency of the benefits purchased by him but such a Belief as sways the Will and Affections to receive him upon God's terms for our Salvation Faith is seated in the whole Soul in the Mind and Heart and accepts of Christ intirely as Prophet Priest and King The parts of the Mediator's Office are inseparably connected and all the Effects of them are communicated to the same Persons Jesus Christ is made of God to Believers Wisdom to cure their Ignorance and Folly Righteousness to abolish their Guilt Sanctification to renew their Natures and Redemption to free them at last from the Grave and bring them to Glory From hence 't is clear that the Faith which is justifying and saving includes in its Nature as dependance and trust in Christ as a powerful and merciful Mediator that is able and willing to reconcile us to God and make us for ever happy in his Favour so a sincere resolution of Obedience and Subjection to all his holy Commands even to the plucking out of the right Eye and the cutting off the right hand the parting with the most pleasing or profitable Sins For the Promises of God that are the Rule of Faith make an offer of Christ upon these Conditions to us Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of Sins And only the Justified shall be glorified Those therefore who desire a partial interest in him as a Saviour out of absolute necessity to escape Hell and will not out of Love submit to him as their Prince have not that Faith that is unfeigned and gives a title to Eternal
neglect their Duty and defer their Happiness They think it too soon to live for Heaven before the evil Days come wherein they shall have no pleasure when they cannot sin and vainly presume they can repent The danger of this I have consider'd in the Discourse of Death and shall therefore proceed to the next Head Thirdly Our Choice of Heaven must be constant and lasting The two principal Rules of the Spiritual Life are to begin and end well to fix and establish the main Design for everlasting Happiness and from a determinate Resolution and ratified Purpose of Heart to pursue it with firmness and constancy to live for Heaven and with readiness and courage to die for it if the Glory of God so require Perseverance is indispensably necessary in all that will obtain the Eternal Reward For the clearing this most important Point I will First Represent from Scripture the Idea of Perseverance that is attended with Salvation Secondly Consider why 't is so strictly required First Saving Perseverance includes the permanent residence of Grace in the Soul 'T is composed of the whole Chain of Graces the union of holy Habits that are at first infused into a Christian by the sanctifying Spirit When Eternal Life is promised to Faith or Love or Hope 't is upon supposal that those Graces being planted in the Heart shall finally prosper He that is faithful to the Death shall inherit the Crown of Life 'T is Love that never fails that shall enter into Heaven 'T is Hope firm unto the End that shall be accomplished in a glorious Fruition If Grace be disseised by a usurping Lust Apostacy will follow and the forfeiture of our right in the Kingdom of Heaven 2. Grace must be continually drawn forth into exercise according to our several states and duties and the various occasions that happen in our course through the World Those who are light in the Lord are commanded to walk as Children of the Light to signify the excellency and purity of the Christian Life Those who live in the Spirit must walk in the Spirit that is by a conspicuous course of Holiness declare the vigour and efficacy of the divine Principle that is communicated to them Paulum septultae distat inertiae celata virtus Vertue that breaks not forth into visible Actions is not worthy of the Name The meer abstaining from evil is not sufficient but all the positive acts of the holy Life are to be constantly done In discharging both these parts of our Duty compleat Religion is exprest and the power of Grace consists 3. Perseverance includes not only continuance in well-doing but fervour and progress towards Perfection There are two fix'd States the one in Heaven the other in Hell The blessed Spirits above are arrived to the height of Holiness The Devil and damned Spirits are sunk to the lowest extremity of Sin But in the middle state here Grace in the Saints is a rising growing Light and Sin in the Wicked improves every day like Poison in a Serpent that becomes more deadly by his Age. We are injoined not to remain in our first Imperfections but to follow Holiness to the utmost issue of our Lives to its intire consummation For this end all the dispensations of Providence must be improved whether prosperous or afflicting And the Ordinances of the Gospel were appointed that in the use of them we may be changed into the divine Image from Glory to Glory 4. Preseverance is required notwithstanding all Temptations that may allure or terrify us from our Duties what ever affects us one way or other while we are clothed with frail Flesh. 'T is the fundamental Principle of Christianity declared by our Saviour If any Man will come after me that is be my Disciple and Servant let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me even to be crucified with him rather than wilfully forfeit his Integrity and Loyalty to Christ. He must by a sacred sixt resolution devest himself of all things even the most valued and desirable in the present World and actually forsake them nay entertain what is most distasteful and resist unto Blood rather than desert his Duty 1. He must with unfainting Patience continue in doing his Duty notwithstanding all Miseries and Calamities Losses Disgraces Torments or Death it self which wicked Men and greater Enemies the Powers of Darkness can inflict upon him To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory Honour and Immortality Eternal Life is promised He that endures to the End notwithstanding the most terrible Sufferings to which he is exposed for Christ's sake shall be saved In this a Christian must be the express image of his Saviour who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despised the shame and is set down at the right hand of God Disgrace and Pain are Evils that humane Nature has a most tender sense of yet the Son of God with a divine generosity and constancy endured them in the highest degrees He was scorn'd as a feigned King and a false Prophet He suffered a bloody Death and by the Cross ascended to Glory And we must follow him if we desire to be where he is 2. But this is not the only trial of a Christian. Prosperity is a more dangerous Enemy to the Soul though Adversity be more rigorous Saevior armis Incumbit luxuria For the Spirit is excited by Perils and Difficulties to seek to God for Strength and with vigilant resolute Thoughts unites all its Powers to oppose them but 't is made weak and careless by what is grateful to the sensual Inclinations It keeps close the Spiritual Armour in the open encounter of Dangers that threaten its ruin but is inticed to put it off by the caresses and blandishments of the World It does not see its Enemies under the disguise of a pleasant Temptation Thus Sin insinuates its self and by stealing steps gets into the Throne without observation A Man is wounded with a pleasant Temptation as with the Plague that flies in the dark and Grace is insensibly weaken'd From hence it is that Adversity often reforms the Vicious and Prosperity corrupts the Vertuous Now Perseverance must be of proof against Fire and Water against what ever may terrify or allure us from our duty 5. Saving Perseverance excludes not all Sins but total Apostacy and final impenitency which are fatal and deadly under the New Covenant If the Righteous turneth away from his righteousness and committeth Iniquity and doth according to all the Abominations that the wicked Man doth shall he live all his Righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his Trespass that he has trespassed and in his Sin that he hath sinned he shall die If any Man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him saith the Lord. These Threatnings imply there is a possibility of the Saints falling away considered in themselves but not that
they are ever totally deserted by the Holy Spirit and left under the reigning Power of Sin The Threatnings are intended to awaken their Care and are Preservatives of them from Ruin and have a singular Influence on their Perseverance A vigilant and cautious Fear establishes the certainty of their Hope Indeed from the Reliques of weakness and corruption in the Saints they sometimes actually fall into presumptuous Sins and by rebellious relapses wound Conscience and let out much of the vital Spirits their Graces and Comforts But though the divine Nature in them is miserably wasted by such Sins yet 't is not abolish'd As after the Creation of Light there was never pure and total Darkness in the World Grace does not consist in a Point but is capable of Degrees The new Creature may decline in Beauty and Strength yet Life remain Between a lively and a dead Faith there may be a fainting Faith as in St. Peter for certainly our Saviour was heard in his Prayer for him that his Faith should not fail in his dreadful Temptation The Saints do not by a particular fall extinguish the first living Principles of Obedience Faith and Love nor change their last end by an entire turning from God to the World In short a single act of Wickedness does not reduce them into a state of Unregeneracy for 't is not the matter of the Sin singly considered but the disposition of the Sinner that denominates him If Grace in the Saints should utterly perish as some boldly assert their recovery would be impossible For the Apostle tells us that if those who were enlightned and had tasted of the Heavenly Gift that had been under some common Workings and lower Operations of the Spirit if such fall away universally and live in a course of Sin opposite to their former illuminations and resolutions it is impossible to renew them by Repentance how much more then if those who were truly sanctified by the holy Spirit should intirely lose all those gracious habits planted in them in their Regeneration But David though guilty of Adultery and Murder Sins of so foul a Nature as would dishonour Paganism it self and made the Enemies of God to blaspheme was restored by Repentance The Gospel propounds a remedy not only for Sins committed before Conversion but after it If any Man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous God does not revoke the Adoption nor reverse the Justification of a Believer but upon scandalous disorders the effects of Justification are suspended with respect to the new contracted guilt till there be sincere and actual Repentance He is not disinherited but his right to the Kingdom of Heaven is eclipsed as to the comfortable sense of it nay suspended till by renovation he is qualified and made fit for the enjoyment of that pure Inheritance For those Sins which are a just cause of excommunicating an Offender from the Church on Earth would exclude him from the Kingdom of Heaven without Repentance Our Saviour tells us what is bound on Earth is ratified in Heaven And the Apostle expresly declares of those kinds of Sin for which Professors must be removed from the Communion of Saints here that they are an exclusive bar from the Kingdom of Heaven But I have written to you not to keep Company if any that is called a Brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such a one no not to eat And know ye not that the Vnrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God If one that is truly a Child of God fall into any of these Sins till by an extraordinary Repentance he is prepared for Pardon he cannot obtain it nor have a comfortable hope of entring into Heaven For only those who are justified are glorified Indeed it is not imaginable where the Seed of God remains the vital Principle of Grace as it does in all that are born of God but that notorious Sins that cannot be concealed from the view of Conscience will cause stings and sorrows proportionable to their malignity and consequently a hatred and forsaking of them Now Perseverance principally respects the End of our Course There may be Interruptions in the way for a time but if with renewed Zeal and Diligence we prosecute our blessed End we shall not fall short of it Secondly I come now to consider the second thing propounded The Reason why Perseverance is requisite in all that will obtain Eternal Life and 't is this That their Sincerity may be discovered by constancy in Obedience under all Trials Blessed is the Man that endures Temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him The Law required unsinning Obedience as the Condition of Life the Gospel accepts of Sincerity but if that be wanting there is no Promise that gives right to the Reward Now Sincerity implies such an entire Love of God as makes a Person submit to all Duties commanded in his Law and all Trials appointed by his Providence A high Example we have of this in Abraham when he was commanded to offer up his only Son Isaac and by his own Hands for a Burnt-Offering This was to kill a double Sacrifice at one Blow for the Life of Abraham was bound up in Isaac he lived in him more dearly than in himself all his Joy all his Posterity by Sarah had died in Isaac What resentments what resistance of Nature did he suffer yet presently he address'd himself to perform his Duty Whoever saw a more glorious Victory over all the tender and powerful Passions of humane Nature O unexampled Obedience being an Original without any Precedent to imitate and without a Copy to succeed it After this clear infallible Testimony of his Sincerity the Angel declar'd from Heaven Now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not withheld thy Son thine only Son from me And 't is said concerning the followers of the Lamb that they loved not their Lives unto the Death The Love of Christ that animated them in all their Sufferings was sweeter than Life and stronger than Death Indeed there was a wonderful difference in the behaviour of the Martyrs under Sufferings but in all the same Persevering Grace was evident though working variously Some in the most beautiful Flower of their Age encounter'd Fire and Sword Tormentors and Torments with that sensible Joy with those Songs of Praise to Christ as if they saw the Heavens open with St. Stephen and their Saviour ready to receive and crown them But many others as Chrysostom testifies went to the Tribunals to the Theatres to Death with many appearances of Fear Upon hearing the wild Beasts roar they were struck with horror at the sight of
all those who preserve their Conscience and Integrity inviolable shall receive at the universal Judgment in the presence of God and the holy Angels as our Saviour has promis'd He that serves me him will my Father honour and the confusion wherein the most honourable Sinners shall then be cover'd that with a generous disdain all secular honours will be despised And it is as powerful to enervate the Temptation of temporal Profit We read of Moses that by Faith when he was come to Years and therefore more capable to understand and enjoy what Felicity the brightest Honours and greatest Riches could afford refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh 's Daughter chusing rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God than to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of Egypt for he had respect to the recompence of Reward And all the Evils which a wicked World inspir'd with rage from Satan can threaten to fright us from our Duty Poverty Disgrace Banishment nay Torments and Death those terribles visu formae so heightned by the carnal Fancy are easily overcome by a sincere and strong Believer Thus some who were urged by such motives to renounce their Religion told the Persecutors that Life was not sweet to them if they might not live Christians nor Death bitter if they must die for Christ. A lively firm perswasion of the excellence and eternity of the Reward what miraculous effects would it produce Nothing would be impossible within the compass of our Duty either to do or suffer in order to a glorious Immortality Faith has a celestial Power a magnetick Virtue to draw up the Heart from the Earth and fastens it to things above It is not imaginable that a clear-sighted Soul that sees a Good infinitely great should reject it for mean things to please the lower Desires We may as probably imagine that a skilful Jeweller would part with the richest Oriental Pearls for Cherry Stones to play with Children From hence we may discover the true cause of the neglect of the great Salvation offered in the Gospel the Word preached does not profit not being mixt with Faith in them that hear it It is astonishing to consider that Earth should contend with Heaven for our Affections and prevail against it that Vanity should turn the Scale against the exceeding and eternal weight of Glory that Men should pursue fleeting Shadows and neglect the most excellent Realities as if they could be happy here and continue for ever and hereafter there were neither Happiness nor Eternity But this releases the wonder that all Men have not Faith Eternal Things are not of conspicuous moment in the carnal Ballance Some are Infidels in Profession openly declaring themselves to be without Religion without God and have the same credit of the Heaven and Hell discovered in the Gospel as of the Elysian Fields and Stygian Lake the Fables of the Poets These live as if they should never die and die as if they should never live in the other World as if Death caused so deep a sleep that the Voice of the Son of God could not awaken them at the last day Their Unbelief is not from Reason but vicious opposite Affections for the truth of the Eternal State is so clearly revealed and strongly establish'd in the Gospel that the sincere Mind must readily assent to it But the Wicked cannot delight in the discovery of that for which they are unprepared and therefore try all ways to elude the Force of the most satisfying Arguments Their Infidelity is obstinate and incurable An instance whereof we have in the Pharisees who rejected our Saviour Tho all the Characters of the Messiah were conspicuous in his Person tho his Doctrines were confirmed by Miracles yet they would not yield up themselves to that omnipotent conviction so strong were their carnal Prejudices against his humble State and holy Doctrines That Reproach is more justly due to Infidels under the Gospel than to Israel in the Prophet Who is blind as my Servant The Heathens who are blind from their Birth and have only some glimmering apprehensions that Eternity succeeds Time are less culpable than those who have infinitely more reason to believe it and yet believe it less The Plea for them will be a terrible Accusation against such Unbelievers If a blind Person falls it moves Compassion but if one voluntarily shuts his Eyes against the Sun and refuses the Direction of the Light and falls from a Precipice his Ruin is the just Consequence of his Folly Simple Ignorance excuses as to the degrees of the Fault but affected wilful Ignorance now Reason and Revelation with united Beams give so clear a prospect into the Eternal World aggravates the Guilt and Sentence of such Unbelievers Besides the most who are Believers in Title are Infidels in Heart Our Saviour tells the Jews who pretended the highest Veneration to the Writings of Moses That if they had believed Moses they would have believed him for Moses wrote of him If Men did seriously believe such an excellent Reward as the Gospel propounds would it be a cold unperswasive Motive to them The depravation of the Will argues a correspondent defect in the Mind though not absolute total Infidelity yet such a weakness and wavering in the Assent that when Temptations are present and urgent and it comes to actual Choice Sense prevails over Faith This will be clear by Universal Experience in temporal Things The probable hope of Gain will make those who are greedy of Gold prodigal of their Lives and venture through tempestuous Seas to accomplish their Desires And if the belief were equal would not Men do or suffer as much for obtaining what is infinitely more valuable A firm Assent would produce adherence and Faith in the Promises Fidelity in obeying the Commands of Christ. Tertullian propounds it as a powerful incentive to the Martyrs Quis ergo non libentissimè tantum pro vero habeat erogare quantum alii pro falso Who would not joyfully sacrifice Life and all its Indearments to obtain true Blessedness which others do for the vain Appearance of it Men may be as truly Subjects without subjection as Believers without a Heavenly Conversation which is inseparable from the Reality of Faith Many in the Bosom of the Church are as truly though not so notoriously Infidels as Turks and Heathens Indeed even in true Believers the apprehension of eternal Things has such great allays that temporal Things are over-valued and over-feared A strong Faith in the Truth and Power of God would make the glorious World so sure and near in our Thoughts that with indifferent Affections we should receive good or evil Things here Rejoice as if we rejoiced not and mourn as if we mourned not Our Lives would be so regular and pure as if the Judg were to come the next Hour as if the Sun did now begin to be darkned and the
Trumpet of the Arch-Angel were sounding and the noise of the dissolving World were universally heard Infidelity deads the Impression and suppresses the reigning Power of Eternal Things in our Hearts In short Men are heavenly or earthly in their Choice and Conversation as they are directed by the sincere Light of Faith or misled by the false Beams of Sense Secondly The second Thing requisite in order to a wise Choice is Consideration For as by Faith the Vertue of the Reward is diffused through all the Faculties and the Powers of the World to come are felt in the Soul so by consideration Faith is exercised and becomes effectual This unites and reinforces the Beams of Eternal Truth and inflames the Affections As the Psalmist expresses himself My Heart was hot within me while I was musing the Fire burned Heaven is a Felicity so glorious and attractive that if duly considered no Man can possibly refuse it and Hell is a Misery so extream and fearful that if seriously laid to Heart none can possibly chuse it The last End is to be conceived under the Notion of an infinite Good without the least mixture of Evil to which the humane Will swayed by the invincible Impression of Nature has a tendency The Liberty of Indifference is with respect to some particular good Things which may be variously represented so as to cause Inclination or Aversion Those Men who believe Eternal Life is the Reward of Holiness yet with a careless Inadvertency pass over their Duty and that Eternal Death is the Wages of Sin yet securely continue in it is more wonderful than to see Martyrs sing in the Flames and the great Cause of it is the neglect of Consideration This is assigned to be the Cause of that unnatural and astonishing Rebellion of Israel against God their Father and Sovereign Hear O Heavens and give Ear O Earth for the Lord hath spoken I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me The Ox knows his Owner and the Ass his Master's Crib but Israel doth not know my People doth not consider This Duty as it is of admirable Advantage so 't is universally necessary for all are equally concern'd and it is within the Power of all to perform Though Men cannot convert themselves yet they may consider what is preparatory to Conversion For the Will may turn the Thoughts of the Mind to any sort of Objects I will briefly shew the Nature of this Duty and how to manage it for spiritual Profit and those Objects from whence our Thoughts derive vigour for the swaying of the Will and the Conduct of the Life 1. The Nature of Consideration is discovered by its End which is this That the Mind being satisfied in the just Reasons upon which the Choice of Heaven is to be made the Will and Affections may be engaged in an earnest joyful and constant pursuit of it And in this respect it differs from simple Knowledg and naked Speculation that informs the Mind without Influence and Efficacy upon the Heart Like a Garland of Flowers that adorns the Head without any benefit and refreshing to him that wears it And practical Meditation differs from the study of Divine Things in order to the instructing of others That is like a Merchant's buying of Wine for Sale this like providing it for our own use 2. That the Consideration of Eternal Things may be effectual it must be 1. Serious and deliberate For the Affair is great in reality above all possible Conception or Comparison All other things how considerable soever in themselves yet respectively and in parallel with this are of no account Our Saviour told Martha One thing is necessary Mary hath chosen the better part that shall not be taken from her What Instance can be of equal moment with that of entertaining the Son of God Yet a serious attention to the Words of Eternal Life dropping from his Lips was more necessary than making provision for him The greatest and most weighty Affairs in the World are but a vain Employment but Irregularity and Impertinence in compare with Eternal Salvation And the greatest solemnity of Thoughts is requisite to undeceive the Mind and ingage the Will for Heaven 'T is very observable that Errors in Judgment and Choice spring from the same Causes the not sincere and due weighing of Things In the decisions of Questions Truth is discovered by comparing with an equal staid Attention the Reasons of the one and the other part But when some vicious Affection contradicts the Truth it fills the Mind with Prejudices that it cannot impartially search into Things and is deceived with specious Fallacies with the Image of Truth For according to the present application of the Mind 't is determined and Passion strongly applies it to consider that which is for the Carnal Interest and consequently Inclination not Reason is the Principle of the Perswasion And this is more evident in Mens foolish Choice As the Eye cannot see but what is visible nor the Understanding conceive what is not Intelligible the Will cannot love and chuse what is not amiable at least in shew If the Devil did appear without a Disguise he would have no Power to perswade but in all his Temptations there is the mixture of a Lie to make it pleasant He presents a false Perspective to make what is but superficial appear solid and substantial And the carnal Heart turns the Thoughts to what is grateful without seriously considering what is infinitely better and accordingly chuses by the Eye of Sense the happiness of this World Therefore till Eternal Things are open'd in the view of Conscience and the Mind calmly considers by the Light of Faith their Reality and Greatness no right valuation nor wise choice can be made Besides the most clear and rational enforcements by the actings of the Thoughts are necessary to make a strong impression on the Affections and rescue them from the captivity of the Flesh. In other things as soon as the Mind is inlightned the Will resolves and the inferior Faculties obey but such is the resistance of the carnal Heart that altho 't is evident from infallible Principles there is an everlasting Glory infinitely to be preferr'd above the little appearances of Beauty and Pleasure here yet the most piercing Reasons enter heavily without earnest inculcation Slight or sudden Thoughts may produce vanishing Affections of complacence or distaste and fickle Resolutions that like sick Feathers drop away and leave the Soul naked to the next Temptation but solemn and fixed Thoughts are powerful on the Heart in making a thorow and lasting Change When the Clouds dissolve in a gentle Shower the Earth drinks in all and is made Fruitful but a few sprinkling Drops or a short storm of Rain that wets only the Surface without sinking to the Root is little beneficial In short there may be some excitations to Good and retractions from Evil some imperfect faint essays towards Heaven from an impulse
and as destructive to set our chief Love and Joy that is only due to God upon the Creature And what follows in the Prophet is justly applicable to such Persons He feedeth on Ashes that not only afford no nourishment but is very hurtful to the Body a deceived Heart has turn'd him aside that he cannot deliver his Soul nor say Is there not a Lie in my right Hand Thus Carnal Men are so blinded with their Affections to these short-liv'd Pleasures that they cannot take the true liberty of judging and reflecting that they are deceived and delighted with empty Shadows that will suddenly end in disappointment and sorrow Briefly these glittering Fictions and false Joys cannot please without an Error in the Mind that shall last but a little while And if you saw a distracted Person sing and dance with a conceit that he is a Prince would you be willing to lose sober Reason for his phantastick Pleasure especially if you knew that his chearful Fit should suddenly change into a mournful or raging Madness for ever But the Blessedness above is unchangeable as God the Author and Object of it Eternal as the Soul that enjoys it And shall the World that passes away with the Lusts thereof turn our Affections from the undefiled immortal Inheritance Shall the vanishing appearance the fleeting Figure of Happiness be preferred before what is substantial and durable If a spark of true Reason of sincere Love to our Souls be left we shall count all things but dross and dung that we may gain the Kingdom of Glory Thus Eternity inlightens thus it counsels us To encourage us to seek the Kingdom of Heaven I shall propound other Motives to Consideration 1. God is very willing that Men should be saved and partake of his Glory For this end he has brought Life and Immortality to light in the Gospel The Lord Jesus the Sun of Righteousness has dispel'd the darkness of the Gentiles and the shadows of the Jews and rendred the blessed and eternal State so clear and so visible that every Eye may see it Our assurance of it is upon infallible Principles And though the excellent Glory of it is inexpressible yet 't is represented under variety of fair and lovely Types to invite our Affections Besides God makes an earnest offer of Life to us in his Word he Commands Counsels Excites Urges nay Intreats and Beseeches with infinite Tenderness that Men will accept of it Thus the Apostle declares Now then wa are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God Is it not evident then beyond the most jealous suspicion God is desirous of our Happiness Can we imagine any design any insincerity in his Words Why should Heaven court a Worm 'T is his love to Souls that expresses it self in that condescending compassionate manner to melt and overcome the perverse and hardned in Sin And as his Words so his Works are a convincing Argument of his Will His most gracious sustaining and supporting of sinful Men his innumerable Benefits conferr'd upon them in the provision of Good and preservation from Evil are for this End that by the conduct of his merciful Providence they may be led to Repentance and received into his Favour And the temporal Judgments inflicted on Sinners are medicinal in their Nature and in his design to bring them to a sight and abhorrence of Sin to prevent their final ruin if they prove mortal to any 't is from their obstinate Corruption The time allowed to those who are obnoxious to his Justice every hour is not a meer reprieve from Torment but a space of Repentance to sue out a Pardon They are spared in order to Salvation The Lord is long-suffering to usward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance But above all his other Works the giving of his Son to be a Sacrifice for Sin is an incomparable demonstration how much he delights in the Salvation of Men. Since God has been at such cost to put them into a capacity of obtaining the Kingdom of unchangeable Glory far transcending the earthly Paradise that was forfeited by Sin we have the strongest assurance that he desires their Felicity And how guilty and miserable will those Sinners be that when Christ has opened Heaven to us by his Blood refuse to enter into it When Brutus the most noble Roman propounded to a Philosopher his design to restore Rome to Liberty he replied That the action would be glorious indeed but that so many servile Spirits that tamely stoopt under Tyranny were not worthy that a Man of Vertue and Courage should hazard himself to recover that for them which they did so lightly esteem The Redemption of Mankind is without controversy the Master-piece of God's works wherein his principal Attributes appear in their excellent Glory But how astonishing is the unworthiness of Men who wretchedly neglect Salvation which the Son of God purchased by a Life full of Sorrows and a Death of infinite Sufferings Blessed Redeemer may it be spoken with the humble affectionate and thankful sense of thy dying Love why didst thou give thy self a ransom for those who are charm'd with their Misery and with the most foul Ingratitude disvalue so precious a Redemption How justly shall they be for ever deprived of it Behold ye despisers and wonder and perish 2. Consider this glorious Blessedness shall be the Portion of all that unfeignedly choose it and earnestly seek it This motive was inclosed in the first but deserves a separate Consideration And of this we have infallible assurance from the Word of God who cannot lie Godliness has the Promise of the Life to come This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation The hope of a Christian is so certain that 't is compar'd to an Anchor fastned in Heaven And besides the Fidelity of his Word God has given us Security of the Reward the Life of his Son This methinks should turn the Current of our Desires and Endeavours to Heaven For notwithstanding all our toil and sweat the labour of the Day and the watchings of the Night for the obtaining earthly things yet we many times fall short of our aims and hopes 'T was the observation of the wisest Man I returned and saw under the Sun that the Race is not to the Swift nor the Battel to the Strong neither yet Bread to the Wise nor yet Riches to Men of Vnderstanding nor yet Favour to Men of Skill but Time and Chance happeneth to all Indeed such is the order of Divine Providence in the World there must be different conditions of Men here some Rich others Poor some Noble others Mean some in Command others in Subjection And from hence it is also evident that neither Dignity nor Riches nor Pleasures are the Happiness of Man For 't is not becoming the Wisdom and Goodness of God to make that the last end of the
Reply to all the pittiful Shifts that are made use of to elude the plain meaning of the eternal Judgment that will pass upon the Wicked Shall mortal Man be more just than God shall a Man be more pure than his Maker The Reprobates have now some bold Advocates that plead those things for favour to them which they will not dare to plead for themselves at the last Day The Holy Judg will then cut off all their Excuses and reduce them to a defenceless silence before he cuts them off God will be justified in his Sentence and overcome when he is judgeth The Righteousness of the Proceedings at the last Day in determining the Wicked to a state of everlasting Torments has been consider'd in the Discourse of Judgment and will farther appear by the following Considerations 1. The Wisdom of God requires that the Punishment threatned in his Law as it must be so firmly decreed that all obstinate Rebels shall of necessity undergo it so it must incomparably exceed all temporal Evils to which Men may be exposed for their Obedience to the Divine Commands otherwise the Threatning would not be an effectual restraint from Sin For the propinquity of an Evil makes a strong impression upon the Mind and a present Fear makes a Person sollicitous to avoid the incursion of what is ready to seize on him without forecasting to prevent an Evil look'd on at a distance Therefore that the Sanction of the Divine Law may preserve the Precepts Inviolable that there may be a continual reverence of it and a fixed resolution in the Hearts of Men not to transgress the Penalty threatned must be in its own Nature so terrible that the fear of it may conquer the apprehension of all present Evils that can be inflicted to constrain us to sin Therefore our Saviour warns his Disciples Fear not them that can kill the Body make that part die that is mortal but fear him that after he has killed has power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him Now if the threatning of an everlasting Hell through Infidelity and Inconsideration be not effectual in the Minds of Men to restrain them from Sin if temporary Torments in the next State were only threatned which are infinitely more easy and tolerable carnal Sinners would follow the swinge of their corrupt Appetites and commit Iniquity with greediness this would seem to reflect upon the Wisdom of the Lawgiver as if he were defective in not binding his Subjects firmly to their Duty and the Ends of Government would not be obtain'd 2. God as the Sovereign Ruler of the World has establish'd an inseparable Connexion between the Choice and Actions of Men here and their future Condition for ever The promised Reward of Obedience is so excellent and eternal that all the Allurements of the World vanish in comparison with it and there is such an infallible Assurance of this Reward in the Word of God that all and only those who sincerely obey his Commands shall enjoy it in the future State that a serious Believer who ponders things cannot be diverted from his Duty by present Temptations Besides by a Chain of Consequences sinful Pleasures are linked with eternal punishment threatned in the Divine Law and he that will enjoy forbidden Pleasures binds himself to suffer all the Pains annexed to them Now when God has from his excellent Goodness and undeserved Mercy assured Men of the Glory and Joys of Heaven that are unspeakable and eternal upon the gracious Terms of the Gospel and upon their despising it threatned Eternal Misery if Men obstinately neglect so great Salvation how reasonable is it they should inherit their own Choice There is no middle State in the next World no tolerable mediocrity but two contrary States yet alike in this that the Happiness and Misery are equally Eternal and 't is just that all who neglect eternal Life should suffer eternal Death for 't is the natural and necessary Consequence of their Option Therefore Sinners are charged with extream madness to wrong their own Souls and to love Death 3. It will appear how unqualified the Damned are for the least favour if we consider their continual hatred and Blasphemies of God The Seeds of this are in wicked obstinate Sinners here who are stiled haters of God but in the Damned this enmity is direct and explicit the Fever is heightned into a Frenzy the blessed God is the Object of their Curses and eternal Aversation Our Saviour tells us that in Hell there is weeping and gnashing of Teeth extream Sorrow and extream Fury Despair and Rage are the proper Passions of lost Souls For when the guilty Sufferers are so weak that they cannot by Patience endure their Torments nor by Strength resist the Power that inflicts them and are wicked and stubborn they are irritated by their Misery and foam out Blasphemies against the righteous Judg. If their Rage could extend to him and their Power were equal to their Desires they would dethrone the most High Hatred takes pleasure in Revenge either real or imaginary and although God is infinitely above the transports of their Fury and all their rancorous Imprecations are reflexively pernicious to themselves like Arrows shot against the Sun that fall down upon their Heads that shot them yet they are always venting their Malice against the just Power that torments them 'T is said of the Worshippers of the Beast that they gnawed their Tongues for Pain and blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their Pains The Torment and Blasphemies of those impenitent Idolaters are a true representation of the state of the Damned From hence it appears they are the proper Objects of revenging Justice How can we reasonably conceive that God in favour to the Reprobates should cross the established order of Creation For two Ranks of Beings were made the Material of perishing Principles the Spiritual of an immortal Duration And will God withdraw his Conservative Power of the guilty Soul in its Immortality and to put an end to its deserved Misery and self-tormenting Reflections annihilate it If a Criminal were justly condemn'd to a severe Punishment and should contumeliously and fiercely reproach the Prince by whose Authority he was condemn'd could it be expected there should be a mitigation of the Sentence And is it a Thought consistent with the reasonable Mind that the righteous Judg of the World will reverse or mitigate the Sentence against the Damned who blaspheme his Majesty and Justice and if they were as omnipotent to effect as they are malicious to desire would destroy his Being 'T is true the Divine Threatning does not bind God to a rigorous execution of it upon Sinners he has declar'd if Sinners will turn from their evil ways he will repent of the Evil he purpos'd to do unto them but when Threatnings are part of the Laws whereby Men are govern'd it is congruous to the Wisdom and Justice of the Law-giver to execute them
the Soul to Eternal Vengeance for the Pleasures of Sin that are but for a Season 3. Let us stedfastly believe and frequently consider that Eternal Death is the Wages of Sin that we may renounce it with the deepest Abhorrence and forsake it for ever We are assured from the Wisdom and Compassion of our Saviour that 't is a powerful Means to mortify the Inclination to sin and to induce us to prevent and resist all Temptations The subtile Tempter cannot present any Motives that to a rectified Mind will make Sin eligible Let the Scales be even and put into one all the Delights of the Senses all the Pleasures and Honours of the World that are the Elements of Carnal Felicity how light are they against the Heavenly Glory Will the Gain of the World compensate the Loss of the Soul and Salvation for ever If there were any possible comparison between deluding transient Vanities and the Happiness that is substantial and satisfying for ever the Choice would be more difficult and the Mistake less culpable but they vanish into nothing in the Comparison According to the Judgment of Sense would any one chuse the enjoyment of the most exquisite Pleasures for a Year and afterwards be content to burn in a Furnace for a Day much less to enjoy them for a Day and to burn for a Year What stupid Brutes are they who for momentany Delights incur the fiery Indignation of God for ever Try but the Finger with the Flame of a Candle you will soon discover your weakness Will the remembrance of sensual Delights allay the Torments of the Damned When Carnal Lusts are most inflamed and Objects are present Pain will extinguish all the Pleasure of the Senses And if actual Enjoyment cannot afford Delight when the Body is under a Disease will the Reflections upon past Pleasures in the Fancy and Memory refresh the Damned in their extream Torments No the remembrance will infinitely increase their Anguish that for such seeming and short Pleasures they brought upon themselves Misery intolerable without Ease or End O that Men would strip Sin of its disguises and wash off its flattering Colours and look into its odious Nature and to the consequential Evils of it in the next World O that they would consider they hang by slender Strings a little Breath that expires every Minute over the bottomless Pit and that within a little while nothing will remain of the Pleasures of Sin but the undying Worm and the ever-living Flames This would be a means to raise and preserve in them an invincible Resolution and Reluctancy against all temptations to sin and provoke God But how hardly are Men induced to exercise their Minds on this terrible Object They think least of Hell who have most reason to consider it To this I must add that the meer fear of Hell and the judicial impression upon Conscience from it is not sufficient to convert Men to God For that servile Affection though it may stop a Temptation and hinder the eruption of a Lust into the gross Act yet does not renew the Nature and make Men Holy and Heavenly There may be a respective dislike of Sin with a direct Affection to it Besides that Religion that is the meer Effect of Fear will be according to the Nature of its Principle with resistance and trouble wavering and inconstant for tormenting Fear is repugnant to the humane Nature and will be expelled if possible In short the fear of Hell may be only a natural Affection that recoils from what is painful to Sense Therefore 't is the great Design of the Gospel by the fear of Hell as a powerful Preparative to make way for the Love of God who offers Pardon and Indempnity to all returning Sinners and for the Hope of Heaven the blessed Reward promised to them No Offers of Mercy will prevail to make Sinners to yield themselves till they are storm'd by the Terrors of the Lord. But when the fear of Hell has made a Breach Divine Grace enters and takes possession As the Virtue of the Loadstone when encompass'd and arm'd with Iron is increas'd and draws a far greater weight than when 't is naked and single thus the Attractives of Heaven are more powerful to move the Hearts of Men when enforced from the Terrors of Hell Now the Love of God and the Hope of Heaven are spiritual Affections and the Obedience that flows from them is voluntary from the intire consent of the Soul and persevering Lastly From the consideration of the Punishment determin'd for Sin we may understand how dear our Engagements are to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Rector and Judg of the World would not release the Guilty without a Ransom nor the Surety without Satisfaction and the Son of God most willingly and compassionately gave his precious Blood the Price of our Redemption He obtain'd the Spirit of Holiness to illuminate our Minds to incline our Wills to sanctify our Affections without whose Omnipotent Grace neither the Hopes or Fears of things Spiritual and Future would ever have cleansed and changed our Hearts and Lives We are naturally as senseless as the Dead as to what concerns our everlasting Peace blind and brutish and without fear should plunge our selves into Destruction if the Spirit of Power and of a sound Mind did not quicken us and direct us in the way to everlasting Life O that we might feel our dear Obligations to him who has delivered us from the Wrath to come and purchast for us a Felicity perfect and without end I would not lessen and disparage one Divine Work to advance and extol another but 't is a Truth that shines with its own Light and is declar'd by our Saviour that our Redemption from Hell to Heaven is a more excellent Benefit than our Creation in as much as our Well-being is better than our Being and eternal Misery is infinitely worse than mere not being Our Saviour speaks of Judas It had been better for him if he had never been born How engaging is the Love of Christ who rais'd us from the Bottom of Hell to the Bosom of God the Seat of Happiness If his Perfections were not most amiable and attractive yet that he died for us should make him the Object of our most ardent Affections To those who believe he is precious to those who have felt their undone Condition and that by his Merits and Mediation are restor'd to the Favour of God that are freed from tormenting Fears and revived with the sweetest Hopes he is and will be eminently and eternally precious Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power be to Him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever FINIS Books writ by William Bates D. D. and sold by B. Aylmer THE Harmony of the Divine Attributes in the Contrivance and Accomplishment of Man's Redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ Or Discourses wherein is shewed how the Wisdom Mercy Justice Holiness Power and Truth of God
are glorified in that great and blessed Work In Octavo Considerations of the Existence of God and of the Immortality of the Soul with the Recompences of the Future State To which is now added The Divinity of the Christian Religion proved by the Evidence of Reason and Divine Revelation for the Cure of Infidelity the Hectick Evil of the Times In Octavo The Soveraign and Final Happiness of Man with the effectual Means to obtain it Also the Joys of Heaven and Torments of Hell are discoursed of In Octavo Several Sermons upon Death and Eternal Judgment In Octavo The Four Last Things Death and Judgment Heaven and Hell practically considered and applied in several Discourses In Octavo The Danger of Prosperity discovered in several Sermons upon Prov. 1.17 In Octavo The great Duty of Resignation in Times of Affliction c. In Octavo A Funeral Sermon preached upon the Death of the Reverend and Excellent Divine Dr. Thomas Manton who deceased October 18 1677. To which is now added the last publick Sermon Dr. Manton preached In Octavo The Sure Trial of Uprightness opened in several Sermons upon Psal. 18. v. 23. In Octavo A Description of the Blessed Place and State of the Saints above in a Discourse on John 14.2 Preached at the Funeral of Mr. Clarkson The Way to the highest Honour on John 12.26 Preached at the Funeral of Dr. Jacomb The speedy Coming of Christ to Judgment on Rev. 22.12 Preached at the Funeral of Mr. Benj. Ashurst ADVERTISEMENT NEwly printed The Holy Bible containing the Old Testament and the New With Annotations and Parallel Scriptures To which is annex'd The Harmony of the Gospels As also The Reduction of the Jewish Weights Coins and Measures to our English Standards And a Table of the Promises in Scripture By Samuel Clark Minister of the Gospel Printed in Folio of a very fair Letter the like never before in one Volume Printed for Brabazon Aylmer in Cornhill Ver. 4 5. Ver. 6. Deut. 6.13 10.20 Ver. 7. Ver. 8. Ver. 10. Ver. 13. Ver. 14. Psal. 97.9 Chap. 2.11 Psal. 78.49 Rom. 5.12 Anima volens perdidit vivere nolens ergo perdat vivificare Rom. 6.23 Hac lege intraverant ut exiirent Senec. Heb. 9.27 Eccles. 1.4 Gen. 2.17 1 Sam. 26.10 Psal. 89.4 Eccles. 8.8 Isa. 38. Isa. 38.11 Dies moritur in noctem tenebrisusquequaque sepelitur funestatur mundi honor omnis substantia denigratur sordent silent stupent cuncta ubique justitium est Tertul. de Resurrec Car. Talia agentem atque meditantem mors praevenit Sueton. Psal. 49.16 17. * As our Divine Poet expresses it The brags of Life are but a nine days wonder And after Death the Fumes that spring From private Bodies make as big a Thunder As those that rise from a huge King Herbert 2 Kings 9.37 Isa. 14.11 Heb. 9.27 Acts 24.25 Heb. 10.31 Praestat semel mori quam semper timere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 1.7 Eccles. 11.7 Prov. 29. Job 36.21 Rev. 21. Nullum malum sine effugio Senec. Timor fugam perdidit 1 Sam. 28. Dan. 5.1 2 3 4. Amos 6.3 4. Aelian 2 Cor. 5.11 Heb. 11. 1 Tim. 2.6 1 Pet. 1. 〈…〉 〈…〉 1 Cor. 15. Gal. 3. Isa. 53. Heb. 12. 1 Cor. 10.33 Rev. 2. 1 Thess. 4.14 Annon longe gloriosius fuit quandoquidem totum pro nobis agebatur ut non modo passio corporis sed etiam cordis affectio pro nobis faceret Et quos vivificabat mors nihilominus trepidatio robustos moestitia laetos taedium alacres turbatio quietos facecet desolatio consolatos Bern. Serm. 1. de S. Andr. Isa. 57.1 2. Luke 2. John 6.48 †Dies iste quem tu tanquam supremum reformidas aeterni natalis est Senec. Job 14.1 Tempus angustatur ad vitam dilatatur ad miseriam * Omnes homines aut sunt penitus caro nihil habent spiritus ii sunt infideles sine regeneratione Aut sunt tantum spiritus sine carne Ii sunt sancti qui jam in Coelo aeterna fruuntur pace sine pugna Aut sunt partim spiritus partim caro Ii sunt omnes renati per Spiritum Sanctum in Christo. Aug. cont Jul. 1 Cor. 13. 1 John 3. Rom. 8. ‖ Poterat autem Christus etiam hoc donare credentibus ut nec istius experiâ—entur corporis mortem sed si hoc fecisset carni quaedam foelicitas adderetur minueretur fidei fortitudo Quid enim magnum erat vivendo eos non mâ—â—i qui crederent se non morituros Quanto est majus quanto fortius quanto laudabilius ita credere ut se speret moriturus sine fine victurum Aug. de pecc Mort. Lib. 2. Exercitia nobis sunt non funera dant animo fortitudinis gloriam Contemptu mortis praeparant ad coronam Cypr. de Mortal * Nomen terrae in igni reliquit Tertul. Rom. 1.11 Acts 2.24 Rom. 4. Heb. 13. * Qui sibi ipse pulcherrimum medicamentum Celsus Ephes. 2.6 Exod. 10.26 Mat. 27.52 53. Phil. 3.1 Rom. 8.23 1 Cor. 15. 1 Cor. 15. Mark 9. †Foelices errore suo quos ille timorum Maximus haud urget leti metus inde ruendi In ferrrum mens prona viris animaeque capaces Mortis ignavum rediturae parcere vitae Lucan 1 John 5.12 Rom. 8.1 Revel 1 Cor. 15.22 1 Cor. 6.17 John 6.36 2 Kings 4.34 Gal. 2.20 John 15.26 Rom. 1.4 Rom. 8.9 Rom. 8.11 2 Cor. 5.17 Revel 1. Macti ingenio este Coeli interpretes rerumque naturae capaces Argumenti repertores quo Deos hominesque vinxistis Plin. lib. 2. * Foelix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas Atque metus mortis inexorabile fatum Subjecit pedibus Virgil. Acts 20.21 Heb. 6.1 2 Cor. 5.14 Athen. Heb 2.7 8. Quis enim satis explicet verbis quantum mali sit non obedire tanto potestatis imperio tanto tenenti supplicio Nemo ergo sibi promittat quod evangelium non promittit Aug. Jer. 13.16 Psal 78.34 36. Rom. 2. 1 Sam. 26.21 Prov. 1. Matth. 25. Male cum his agitur quibus necessitas incumbit belli morbi Vâ—g ‖ Quod alicui gratiosè conceditur trahi non debet ab aliis in exemplum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys. Vix dici potest quantos haec inanis spei umbra deceperit Aug. †Tull. Tully ‖ Miserrimum morbi genus in quo aeger siti aquae metu cruciatur quorum spes in angusto est Cels. John 17. Haec enim est infoelicitas hominum propter quae peccant Morientes hic dimittunt ipsa peccata secum portant Aug. Stemus expeditae ad omnem vim nihil habentes quod relinquere timeamus Retinacula ista sunt spei nostrae De cult Foem Josh. 3.16 Ad instar montis intumescentis apparebant procul 1 John 1.3 Heb. 11.1 2 Cor. 5.1 Epist.
a folly infinitely more prodigious when Death is near are not so much affected with the loss of the Crown of Glory and the Kingdom of Heaven as with their present leaving this World and its Vanities This makes Death intolerably bitter Till the Love of God purifies the Heart the fruition of his Presence is not esteemed or desir'd A Seraphim sent from the presence of God with a flaming Coal from the Altar toucht the Lips of the Holy Prophet and his Heart was presently melted into a compliance with the Divine Will But if a rebel Angel that burns with another fire than of Divine Love were dispatch'd from Hell with a Coal from that Altar where so many Victims are offer'd to Divine Justice as there are damned Souls and touch'd obdurate Sinners that they might have a lively sense what it is to burn for ever it were the most congrous and effectual means to reclaim them like stubborn Metals they are only made pliant by the Fire From what has been said we may observe the heavenly Harmony between Mercy and Justice in God he is the Father of Mercy 't is his natural Off-spring his primary Inclination to the Creature and the threatning of Vengeance against Sinners is a gracious design to constrain them with humility and repenting Affections to seek his Favour Briefly his severity and flaming displeasure never destroys Sinners but to revenge the abuse of his neglected Benignity and Clemency 2. This shews the woful depravation of the Minds and Wills of Men that chuse Sin when thinly painted over with Pleasure notwithstanding the most dreadful and durable Torments the certain Consequences of it Desperate folly either they believe or do not the eternal Torment of Hell If they do not how prodigious is their impiety If they do 't is more prodigious they dare indulge their vicious Affections A wicked Believer is more monstrous and guilty than a wicked Infidel In some there is Atheism full of Folly or Folly full of Atheism that they will not believe the prepared Plagues for the wicked in the next State because they have no sensible proof of them Reason assisted by Divine Revelation affords so clear an evidence of the future State and the Rewards and Punishments in it that if any sincerely apply themselves to consider things he will receive the most affective conviction of them 'T is true there is not sensible evidence for God will try our Faith before he satisfies our Sight partly that we may honour his Veracity by yielding a firm assent to his Word before the actual accomplishment of what is promised or threatn'd and partly that our Obedience may be voluntary and unconstrain'd that his Goodness may take its rise to reward us But these presumptuous Infidels live as if they had no Spirit nothing of understanding in them they are wholly under the Dominion of sense as if they were free and lawless independant and unaccountable as if the most high Governour of the World were an inferiour Being without Power and Justice to vindicate the Honour of his despised Deity They do not fear Hell but are afraid they should be fearful of it This is such a piece of folly but infinitely more woful as that of the West-Indians who at their first invasion by the Spaniards were so terrified by their glittering Swords that they presently fled and very considerately resolved to hide themselves in the Day and assault their Enemies in the Night They were fearful to see their Danger and rash to encounter it and fighting in the dark were kill'd in the dark The threatnings of eternal Death are the brandishing of God's glittering Sword before he strikes and sensual Infidels are afraid lest the belief of those terrible Truths should pierce into their Breasts therefore are utterly averse from due considering their Danger and will not foresee what they shall certainly suffer 'T is in vain to offer Arguments to convince them for they are as deaf as Adders to the wisest Instructions till Sense extort an Acknowledgment from them They have hardned their Hearts and Faces against all Reproofs and by an open contempt of Scripture-Threatnings are past reclaiming They are now fearless of that Judgment the thoughts whereof make the Devils tremble but the time will shortly come when the Word of the righteous God which now they despise shall irresistibly and immediately like Lightning shot from Heaven destroy them There are many degrees of Sin many steps in the descent to Hell but the lowest and nearest the Gate of that infernal Prison is the scornful derision of God's dreadful Preparations for the wicked Others in the Christian Church who profess and presume they are true Believers yet by living indulgently in their pleasant or profitable Sins discover their Faith is counterfeit or such a superficial assent to the Truth of God's Word that is without efficacy and will not avail them at the last Unfeigned Faith of the Divine Threatnings produces such a fear as would make Men circumspect over their Hearts and Ways The fear of a present destructive Evil controuls the most eager Appetites 'T is recorded that when the Army of Israel was in pursuit of the Philistines Saul to compleat his Victory forbad upon pain of Death that any should taste Food till the Sun was down In the chace of their Enemies they pass through a Wood dropping with Honey yet notwithstanding their Hunger and Faintness and the easy provisions before them no Man so much as tasted it for the People feared the King's Oath And did Men truly believe and fear the Law of God threatning Hell for Sin would they dare to commit it though invited by pleasant Temptations Nay not only a strong Fear but the mere suspicion of great Danger will restrain the most vehement desires of Nature What Person though inflam'd with thirst would drink a Glass of cool Liquor if he suspected that deadly Poison were mix'd with it And if Men were perswaded that Sin is attended with eternal Death would they drink in Iniquity like Water The Devils themselves are not able to conquer the fear of Judgment to come they believe and tremble Therefore when it is not active upon the Conscience it is either because Men do not believe it or they fancy that retaining their beloved Lusts they may obtain an easy Absolution and escape the Damnation of Hell which the Eternal Judg has declar'd shall be the punishment of all that will not cut off the right Hand and pluck out the right Eye separate their dearest Corruptions from them Astonishing Perverseness How many will not discern nor censure that Folly in themselves which they will condemn in others for extream Madness If one riotously lavishes away his Estate and for the short Pleasure of a few Years be reduc'd with the Prodigal to extream Poverty and to loathsom Imprisonment all his Life after would he not be esteem'd to have been besides himself Yet this is a very tolerable Case in comparison of exposing